Author's Notes: Short little chapter for LovesLoveandAngst, because it's true I've been slacking. The words are just not flowing easily this week.
"How you doing Mikey?" The entire house is walking up ahead of them on the beach, but Briggs falls back to walk with Mike who is slowly lagging behind the group, lost in his own thoughts.
"I still can't believe it man. Today was just crazy. I'm shaking." Mike takes a deep breath. He's been nothing but an open nerve all day, his adrenaline is still pumping through his veins even though the hearing is over and the group is on their way to the bar.
"Believe it my friend." Briggs takes a deep breath, staring out at the ocean like the zenned out hippie that he is.
"That prosecutor wasn't wrong… I crossed a line. It was pure luck. If one thing had gone wrong..." Mike's mind is still racing.
"That's how this job is. You did good Mike. You kept your job and live to fight another day. You can't keep asking these 'what if' questions. The only question you can ask yourself now is, was it worth it?"
Mike looks ahead at Paige who is walking in front of them with the rest of the house. The beach breeze is whipping her hair all around her face and she is laughing loudly along with the others.
"It was worth it." Mike murmurs, distracted momentarily by how beautiful she is when she is this happy. Turning back to Briggs he asks, "What do you think, though? Do you think my judgment was clouded? By her, I mean."
"It doesn't matter what I think. Your court record came out clean. Besides, do you really think I'm the one to ask about this?"
"I think you're exactly the person to ask about this. I never quite understood before, the whole Jangles thing, but now..." Mike's voice trails off as he watches Paige running playfully away from Johnny, hiding herself behind Jakes who looks thoroughly annoyed with them both.
"I think Paige is alive because of you… and that means, you're in for a lot of trouble tonight."
"What do you mean?" Mike's tears his eyes from the laughing blonde and back to Briggs, worried about what he's implying. Was Briggs really suggesting that Paige and Mike would sleep together for the first time tonight? Mike had been wondering it himself, if tonight's bar crawl might lead to more between them, but he didn't know the whole house was betting on it.
"Tonight is a night for celebration my friend. Don't let her kill you." Briggs says simply, with an amused twinkle in his eye.
"I… We're just friends… I'm..." Mike blushes, suddenly flustered.
"You've clearly never celebrated with Paige before. After my birthday last year, I woke up in a chicken coop in La Paz. I was naked except for a pink feather boa." Briggs shudders at the memory.
Mike laughs at what has to be Briggs's exaggerated tale. Briggs was simply talking about Paige's prankster ways and her party girl persona, rather than making any suggestions about Mike's sex life.
"Jakes once caught a smuggler who was using a very unconventional way of smuggling hummingbirds into the country." Briggs continues to share stories of Paige's past encounters. "Paige took him out to celebrate. I've never seen it, but rumor has it, somewhere on his body, Jakes now has a hummingbird tattoo to commemorate it."
"So I won't let her get me anywhere near birds tonight. I got it." Mike shrugs. "I think I can handle her."
"Charlie once called me to come pick her up because she went out with Paige to celebrate, something, I don't even know what. Somehow, they ended up in Denver on a KISS coverband tour bus. They had the makeup on and everything."
"And Johnny?" Mike asks, starting to actually worry about where the night might lead him. It doesn't sound like Briggs is making these stories up.
"I don't know man. All I know is we went out to celebrate Cinco De Mayo. I let him and Paige out of my sight for a second, and three days later he showed back up at the house, sunburned with a broken arm and mononucleosis."
"Moral of the story; if Paige is out to get you, and tonight she definitely will be, good luck." Briggs grins, slapping Mike encouragingly on the back. Just at that moment Paige glances over her shoulder, her eyes connect with Mike's and she flashes him a mischievous grin, before turning back to continue taunting Johnny. Mike feels his heart flutter in his chest.