Author's Note: Finally had some time to write! Yay! Unfortunately most of it was spent writing future scenes for this story, but I did finish up this chapter. So here it is.

An hour later and the table is still animatedly laughing and talking. Mike's relaxed a little but his eyes are on Paige the entire time. The whole table is steadily getting drunker, but Paige's words are starting to slur and her eyes are glassy. He's never seen Paige drunk before. He's watched her outdrink everyone in the bar, but she's never appeared drunk. The girl could metabolize liquor better than anyone he knew. Yet, here she was, only a couple of drinks in and her speech was slowed and slurred and not making much sense.

"Hey… you ok?" Mike leans over to her as Paige giggles beside him.

"Mike I am… awesome. Totally awesome. And you're awesome. All of you." Paige giggles, her words slurring and her eyes seemingly having trouble focusing on him. Her eyes are shaking slightly as he stares at them.

"Maybe you should slow down." Mike says, gesturing to her beer.

"Mmmm… maybe you should speed up…" She leans in and murmurs in his ear. Her hand rests on his thigh and she nips playfully at his ear lobe. He feels a shiver run down his spine straight to his groin as her tongue traces around the shell of his ear and then slips inside seductively. As much as he's turned on, Mike is shocked by her atypical forwardness. He pulls away and looks at her questioningly. It seemed a bold thing for her to do in front of the entire table, even though everyone seemed not to notice or care.

"Seriously, you ok?" He repeats quietly, surprised by her behavior. She just shrugs and then turns back to face the others, but her hand remains on his thigh.

"No that's not how it went down!" Johnny's loud voice barely penetrates Mike's ears, as the rest of the table converses around him, not noticing anything strange. Mike however is unable to concentrate, he's too distracted by Paige. "Listen, it wasn't just two of these chicks, it was six of them and they were all over me..."

"They were prostitutes Johnny, and I'm pretty sure they weren't female..." Briggs chides, and Mike tries to laugh, but it sounds forced and a beat too late because Paige's hand is still on his thigh, and she's not behaving.

As the whole house laughs and chats, underneath the table he can feel Paige rubbing his thigh. He feels her fingers inching their way upwards, until her small hand is kneading his crotch. When her fingers begin to jerk off his semi erect cock through his jeans, Mike chokes on his beer and brings one hand under the table to hold her hand, directing it away from his lap.

He glares at her, but she just casts him a mischievous glance. She lets him hold her hand under the table, her thumb coming up to brush against his wrist, and Mike wonders what the hell has gotten into her. She is so drunk. He can tell by just her posture. She's sitting in her chair with her legs spread and her skirt hiked dangerously high up her legs.

"...See the way I remember it Johnny, by the time I got there you were already half naked." Mike doesn't know how the rest of the normally observant group can be so oblivious to Paige's inappropriateness, but they keep chatting away like everything's normal.

Now that he's holding her hand, the immediate danger seems to have passed, and Mike starts replaying the evening trying to count how many drinks Paige has had. He's pretty sure she just had the three beers and the one shot. Normally that should not be enough to get her drunk, especially given the timing of the night. He wonders if her not drinking for the past month because of her pain medication could have really lowered her tolerance so quickly.

As Mike replays past times of drinking with Paige in his head, she takes advantage of his distraction to move their entwined hands over closer to her lap. She leans in to whisper in his ear and he listens politely, still not noticing the dangerous situation he's in. Suddenly she's purring in his ear, "Stop thinking, genius. Feel how wet I am for you already?"

When Paige's hand slides his fingers under her panties and against her hot flesh, Mike jerks his hand away in surprise, causing Paige's elbow to go flying and spill Jakes's beer everywhere. The whole table looks over, unaware as to what caused the sudden party fowl, and Jakes stands up, his lap soaked with beer.

"Guys, I think it's time we leave." Mike stands up, supporting Paige's body against his side. He's pretty sure if he let her go she would fall over. He reaches into his back wallet with one hand quickly, fumbling for some cash. He quickly throws more than enough on the table to cover his and Paige's share and a new drink for Jakes.

"Yeah it is!" Johnny laughs, winking at Mike and Paige who his hanging off his shoulder. Mike rolls his eyes in Johnny's direction. He would never take advantage of Paige when she was this wasted. He just needed to get her home and tucked into bed before she embarrassed herself. He has her tightly pinned to his side, and he's hoping to god her skirt is down and covering everything, because he knows the uncomfortable tightness in his pants is evident to anyone who would look.

Quickly dragging her out of the bar, Paige's drunken state makes her surprisingly clumsy. Once they get out into the fresh night air, away from the prying eyes of his roommates, he sits her down on a bench.

"Sit here for a moment. I can call a cab." Mike instructs her. He pulls out his phone but Paige is already wandering away down the beach, back towards the house. Her movements are swaying from side to side. Mike lets out a frustrated sigh, hanging up his phone and chasing after her. He's never seen her like this before.

"Paige, woah." He says, catching her before she falls. "Are you ok? Is there a chance someone put something in your drink?"

"No… No I'm fine, I just woops!" She squeals as she loses her balance and falls again in the sand dragging Mike down with her. Lying in the sand beside him she giggles uncontrollably, and Mike tries to untangle himself from her. "Feeling a bit dizzy is all."

"I can tell. Just sit here for a moment and let me grab us a cab."

"I wanna walk! It'll clear my head."

"I don't know if you can walk." Mike mutters sceptically as he helps her to her feet.

"I can! Watch me!" Paige announces like a small child, trying to stand up and taking exaggerated steps before tripping in the sand so Mike catches her again. "Maybe I should take off my shoes…"

"Maybe you should sit and let me call a cab." Mike grumbles.

"You're bossy." Paige slurs, leaning up against him as she tries to take off her shoes.

"And you're drunk." Mike retorts, finally helping her to remove the strappy sandels.

"I'm not drunk! I haven't been drunk since I was… sixteen? Seventeen. No. No, it was fifteen. When's tenth grade?"

"Well I hate to break it to you, but you're definitely drunk now. What happened? Were you sneaking shots when I turned my back?"

"You're gonna be mad…"

"Paige what did you do?" Mike asks nervously.

"You are mad!"

"I'm not mad. Just tell me what you did!"

"I took a vicodin." Paige says in a quiet voice, looking at her feet. "It's not my fault! I thought I was going to die from the pain of that guy hitting me in the side! I didn't want to ruin your party!"

"Paige that shit is dangerous! You can't mix that with alcohol." Mike yells in frustration, but it's hard to be mad at her when she looks this drunk and pathetic. He wishes she would have just let him take her to the doctor earlier. Her safety is way more important than some stupid night out at the bars.

"I knew you'd be mad." Paige says meakly.

"I'm not mad. I'm just… dammit Paige." It's true. Mike's not mad, he's worried. Worried, and a tad disappointed that what started off as such a great night was going to turn into him tucking her into bed and watching her like a hawk to make sure she didn't just suddenly stop breathing or something. For right now, she seemed ok, just wasted. Mike knows the effects could sneak up later though, and he's worried any second she's going to OD or something.

"It's not that bad. I don't feel hurt anymore. Just a little dizzy." Paige assures him. "And a little like I might puke."

"Good. You should. It'll save me from taking you to get your stomach pumped."

"No! I don't want to puke in front of you! That's not cute." Paige pouts like a small child. Mike has to fight a smirk, because right now, even as a drunken idiot she's adorable.

"I've seen you puke before. I did sit next to you in the hospital for weeks, remember?" Mike says encouragingly.

"And I didn't puke. I dry heaved. Big difference." Paige corrects him, and Mike holds his hands up in surrender.

"I'm just saying, it might make you feel better. I can stand with my back to you if it makes you feel better." Mike can't keep the smile off his face, and he wonders what the hell is wrong with him. He's clearly not getting laid tonight. He's going to end up taking care of Paige, who apparently turns into a whiny child when inebriated, and it's still one of the best nights of his life.

"No! You'll still hear me! And then you won't kiss me." She buries her face in her hands.

Mike has to bite his tongue to keep from telling her, that he's not sure even her vomiting will be able to stop him from kissing her tonight, even though he knows that he shouldn't kiss her tonight because she clearly wouldn't remember it.

"I have an idea!" She suddenly brightens up with what she's obviously convinced is a brilliant idea. She begins to unbutton her skirt, and declares, "Let's skinny dip!"

"That's a bad idea…" Mike watches lazily as Paige wrestles to get out of her shirt. Maybe the water will sober her up.

"Help me unhook my bra." She prances up to him, stumbling a bit in the sand, her hands already trying to get the constraining fabric off.

"Nope. I am not contributing to this." Mike laughs, holding up his hands and backing away.

"You're no fun." Paige pouts.

"You're too much fun tonight." Mike laughs.

"No such thing!" Paige squeals, running into the ocean in just her undergarments. Mike shakes his head and starts to pick up her discarded skirt, shirt and shoes from the beach. In his head he's fully prepared to rush into the water if she's about to drown, but otherwise he'll let her tire herself out. She deserves some fun after all this, and he'll carefully monitor her to make sure she's safe.

"Mike come in! The water's warm!" Paige beckons him from the ocean.

"I don't trust myself. Plus it's a long walk back. Come back out! We should start now."

"In a hurry to get back?" She grins slyly from the water.

"I'm in a hurry to get you into bed." Mike grins back. He knows nothing is going to happen tonight, and he genuinely just wants to get her into bed so she'll fall asleep, but he knows flirting with her a bit might speed her up. Sure enough, she gives him an impressed smile, and emerges from the water to join him on the beach. Mike tries to ignore the way the wet fabric of her undergarments clings to her, much differently than a swimsuit. The fabric is almost shear with moisture and he politely holds out her clothes to her.

She turns around so her back is to him and raises her hair. "Help me take off my bra."

His mouth is dry and his fingers dig into the cloth of her dry clothes in his hands. "You… You should leave that on."

"Wet underwear underneath dry clothes is the worst. Just help me get them off so I can put on the dry ones." Paige orders, looking back over her shoulder at him.

"Fine." Mike finally reaches out, and with expert skill unhooks her bra in a second. Before she can turn around, he already has her dry shirt over her head and is pulling it down to cover her.

"Here's your skirt." He hands it to her and politely turns his back to her so she can change. A few seconds later he feels something wet placed in his hand and looks down to see her lacey soaked undergarments. The girl's trying to kill him.

He takes her hand in his free one and begins to walk along the beach with her. They walk in silence for the first few minutes. Mike thinks about all the times he walked along these beaches hand in hand with Abby, wishing she were Paige. Somehow this is not quite what he had in mind.

After a few minutes of Paige tripping along beside him she stops. He turns to look at her quizzically and she just holds her arms out to him.

"Seriously?" He asks.

"Please?" She gives him a puppy dog face.

"No!"

"Pretty please Mikey?"

"Oh, now you're tired so you want me to carry you?" Mike asks sarcastically.

"Please? I'm wounded."

"Seriously? You're playing the injured card? Now?" Mike mocks her. The girl has been yelling at him for doing things for her for a month and now that she's almost completely healed she wants favors? "I used the I got stabbed card once, and you won't let me forget it."

"It's a good card." She grins up at him.

"You're all wet." Mike groans.

"Please? I can't walk any farther." She pouts.

"Say I was right." Mike says, already knowing he's going to carry her the whole way back. He leans down and scoops her up in his arms, trying to keep her legs together since she's now going commando.

"You're right. You're always right." She whispers into his ear. Mike's not sure if it's her breath in his ear, or the dampness seeping through his shirt, but a shiver runs down his spine. He starts to walk briskly back to the house. Having her so close is dangerous territory.

Paige, however, takes advantage of her new position to nibble on his earlobe. "Hey. None of that, or you're going to walk." He mutters.

"Why not?" Her voice is breathy so close.

"Because it's distracting…" Mike closes his eyes and sighs as her lips begin to suck on his neck right below his ear.

"Paige seriously, I don't want to drop you. Knock it off." Mike groans as she continues to use her close proximity to kiss his neck.

She's so drunk and they're on a public beach and her kisses are making him weak in the knees. He wants nothing more than to throw her down on the beach and devour her right here and now, but he can't do anything about it with her in this state. He's feeling somewhat drunk himself, and it's taking all his concentration and brain power just to carry her back to the house. He rejoices when he sees the stairs.

"Alright, think you can make it up the steps?" He sets her down before she can answer.

"I'm not completely useless you know."

"I know. Come on. Almost there." He says, taking her hand and making sure she can hold onto the railing as the climb the stairs back to the dark house.