Author's Note: And the story drags on... I swear action picks up eventually. This part is supposed to feel like you're dragging on through molasses. Thanks to all those who are still reading even though the show is on break, and this story is soooo slow...

Charlie is in Paige's room helping her get dressed for the bar like she's her own life sized Barbie Doll. Since Paige is handicapped by her injuries, specifically her broken hand, getting ready on her own takes forever. The past few days she's been making due with minimal makeup and showers. Mike has helped her a bit, but she doesn't want him to know how much effort it takes for her to get dolled up. She wants to maintain some mystery and make it seem effortless. It's hard to do when he spends almost every waking second at her side.

"So what was up with the hissy fit you threw in the kitchen earlier? Everything ok with you and Mikey?" Charlie asks, failing to sound nonchalant as she stands behind Paige fixing her hair.

"The pan slipped." Paige lied deadpan, knowing that Charlie wouldn't believe her.

"Sure. Slipped as you threw it across the room. It took him like an hour to clean up all that splattered goo." Charlie says evenly, as she brushes Paige's hair in long calming strokes.

"Yeah, I really should not be allowed in the kitchen." Paige feels a twinge of guilt at the thought of Mike having to clean all that up. "Think he'll forgive me?"

"Um, given that the boy's in love with you? Yeah. Yeah, I think he'll forgive you for a little spill." Charlie says sarcastically. "I think if you wanted to shoot him, he'd help you do it, and then forgive you."

"He's not in love with me, he's just… Mike." Paige scoffs, unable to find any other word to describe him. "He's got it in his head that the kidnapping and all of that shit was his fault, and he's convinced he can fix me."

"So you think this whole thing has nothing to do with the way he feels about you?" Charlie says in a disbelieving tone.

"Charlie, you know how Mike is." Paige sighs.

"So you're saying if it was Jakes or Briggs who got abducted instead of you, you think Mike would be spooning them every night in bed?" Charlie asks as if Paige hasn't said anything. Paige laughs at the thought.

"You know how Mike is. Don't you remember the way he treated you after the whole heroin thing?"

"Yes. He gave me a hug and said he was there for me. He did not move into my room and follow me around like a lost puppy for the next month."

"He's just feeling overprotective after everything that happened. He knows he's doing it. He even told me earlier. He said he's going to back off soon and then things will go back to normal."

"Alright, maybe the hospital magnified everything, but this behavior was going on long before that." Charlie lectures, cutting through all the bullshit in her typical way. "For months, any time we go to sit anywhere, it is an unspoken rule that you and Mike sit next to each other or across from each other."

"So? There's only six of us. We pretty much have to sit by each other."

"Even when he was dating that other girl, he would watch your every move-"

"He's observant."

"In the last few months he would seek you out, and then the two of you started spending all your time together."

"I was the only one who knew he was investigating Briggs! Of course he wanted to talk to me about it." Paige has a reasonable explanation for everything Charlie could throw at her.

"Why?"

"Why what? Why did he want to talk about it?" Paige is starting to get flustered by Charlie's inquisition.

"Why did he tell you, and no one else his secret?"

"He…" Paige had never really thought about why Mike had told her. "He was hopped up on morphine! He probably just confessed it accidentally to me because I was there. It could have been anyone who caught him at that moment."

"No, it couldn't." Charlie leans back and crosses her arms. "You didn't leave his side at the hospital when he got stabbed. You waited by his bedside after visiting hours were over, when everyone else had gone home."

"He'd been stabbed. Someone needed to be there when he woke up."

"Yeah, and that someone was you." Charlie is not beating around the bush tonight. "Just like when you woke up, that someone was Mike. You don't think that means something?"

"That you all have horrible bedside manners?" Paige rolls her eyes, annoyed that Charlie won't just let this go. It feels like she's rubbing salt in an opened wound. It's not like a part of Paige doesn't wish that her and Mike were dating, but she knows it's more complicated than that.

"Fine. Be that way, I'm just saying you both would make all of our lives easier, if you would just get it over with and fuck each other already." Charlie says, finishing up Paige's hair and throwing her a new shirt. "Because all this sexual tension and hormones in the air is giving the entire house blue balls. I'm worried poor Johnny's going to start humping the couch."

"Why does everyone care? Look, it's just not going to happen." Paige protests.

"It has happened!"

"Nothing's happened. Honestly, Charlie. If something were going to happen between me and Mike, don't you think it would have happened by now?" Paige asks, frustratedly trying to put on her shirt with her injuries.

"I give up already!" Charlie growls throwing her hands up in the air in frustration. "You're both impossible."

"Hey, ready to go?" Mike appears in the doorway just in time for Charlie to storm past him in a frustrated huff.

"She's all yours. You two deserve each other." Charlie yells over her shoulder at him.

"What's her problem?" Mike asks as he walks into the room.

"Something about blue balls." Paige says vaguely. "Zip me up?"

"Do I want to know?" Mike asks.

"I don't know, she wasn't making sense." Paige mutters, looking down so she doesn't have to meet his gaze in the mirror. "Maybe she's sleeping with Briggs again."

"Well that would be a bad idea right? I mean, with them living together and everything. It could get messy." Mike says, walking over brushing her hair aside so he can zip up the back of Paige's dress. Paige closed her eyes at the feel of his fingertips grazing up her skin.

"Speaking of messy...I'm sorry about earlier in the kitchen." Paige apologizes softly, changing the subject.

"It's ok. It's been a long day. We were both tired." Mike says, recognizing that she's not saying something, but he's not sure what. "You sure you want to go out tonight?"

"God yes. I need to get out of this house. Besides, it would be a shame to waste all this effort." She says spinning around in a circle for Mike to admire.

"Alright then. Let's go." Mike aquiests. As he looks her up and down his eyes come to rest on the expanse of bare skin exposed by her low cut shirt and he adds, "Maybe grab you a sweater or something first."

"It's California. I'll be ok." Paige laughs grabbing his hand and dragging him out the door behind her.