Author's Note: Alright, I sincerely apologize for this update taking so long, but I had how it would end all set up in my head and storyboarded out with certain Chapters written and it was like 15 more chapters, and I knew I wouldn't be able to put in the time, so I had to somehow remap it in my head, which is hard when I already have a plan in mind on where the story is going.

So I had to keep trying to ignore that path and find a new ending, most of which just ended up in me finding inspiration to write short other stories. I finally cannibalized my previous work enough to patch together this quick chapter, and I'm trying to write a quick epilogue.

I'm still not sure I like this ending. There were parts of my original plan I really loved and miss, but at least we can all experience some closure (though I do think it needs an epilogue).

Thank you for your patience!

-J

Paige sits alone in the small box of a room the FBI had set up, with her recording equipment. She might as well get comfortable, because Briggs is undercover with one of Bobby Moi's less impressive prodigy's today. They were just sitting down and there was about six hours of legitimate business plans and small talk to discuss before drugs would even be mentioned. Paige would be surprised if so much as a joint was passed before they breaked for dinner. The meet was very uneventful in the world of undercover drugs, in fact Briggs probably could have done this on his own with no backup, but on the off chance it could turn into a lead, Paige wanted to be involved. Overall it was looking to be a very long day.

Still, she was reviewing the notes in front of her intensely. She put her ipod headphones on one ear, so she could still be alert if Briggs called for help and flipped casually through the file as she hummed along to her music. She always loved her job, but these past few weeks she'd been throwing herself into her work at a fanatic pace. So long as she was working she didn't have time to think about anything else.

She hadn't talked to Mike since they'd slept together. The first couple days, Mike had attempted to talk to her several times, but she always avoided him. Eventually he'd given up, and a mutual cold war of unspoken silence had fallen between the two. The other roommates noticed the tension, but no one had been brave enough to ask Paige what happened.

Paige had taken on every new case she could find, which luckily served as a legitimate reason for why she was never at the house. She began doing her work at headquarters in a small spare office rather than Graceland. She'd work so late, that several nights she slept there. The past few days she'd only gone home to change clothes and shower.

When she'd asked Briggs to tag along, he said he wasn't expecting anything to go down, but he graciously said he could use an extra ear. Paige figured today's stakeout should buy her at least a full day away from the house. The only downside was being in such a small box with nothing to do might give her too much time alone with her thoughts, but she just wasn't ready to face Mike yet.

Things were broken between her and Mike and she didn't know how to fix them. She still couldn't believe she'd reacted like that. Paige hardly ever cried, and he had seen her have a complete mental breakdown crying for no reason in front of him. He must think she's insane. Paige felt insane recently. She can't understand why she doesn't feel like herself anymore. It's been over six months since the abduction. Things should be back to normal by now.

It had been almost a month since her and Mike had slept together. Paige wanted them both to move past that as well, but every time she saw him her stomach jumped into her throat and she felt the immediate need to run away. She was depressed and embarrassed and just wanted to focus on the one thing she could do right anymore, her job.

She's just finishing up her second review of Brigg's notes when the door opens. Paige turns around casually in her seat, reaching for her gun just in case. She was pretty sure that the tech guys who had set her up in here were done for the day, but maybe one of them forgot something. If so, Paige hopes she can sweet talk him into bringing her a coffee. She's exhausted. The beds at the station aren't as comfortable as her bed at Graceland, and the long hours are getting to her.

Suddenly all thoughts of coffee are immediately forgotten. Paige is wide awake, because she'd recognize the figure in the doorway anywhere. The small room all of a sudden seems even smaller, and Paige can't breathe. Mike is standing there, and to his credit, he looks just as shocked to see her.

"What are you doing here?" She hisses angrily at him once she finds her breathe. She's not sure why she's whispering. They're in a crate in an empty warehouse across the street from where Briggs is. She could scream and no one would hear her. She's so freaked out at unexpectedly having Mike being here, that she probably will scream soon.

"I'm not really sure…" Mike looks genuinely confused. "Briggs said he needed an extra set of ears. I didn't know you'd be here."

"It's Jason Wong! He was Bobby Moi's second in command, and there's a truck load worth of cocaine involved. You expect me to believe that you didn't know DEA was involved?" Paige is doubtful of Mike's claimed innocence, and she's pissed he would lie to her. He had to have planned this. He was Mike. He was smart and stubborn. This had to be his plan to force her to talk to him.

"Look, Briggs just asked me for a favor. I know nothing about this case!" Mike insists, looking just as uncomfortable as Paige feels. The meeting was about to start and the new potential drug lord had positioned his guards right outside the warehouse her and Mike are in. They're stuck here for the moment.

"Well get yourself acquainted because it's going to be a long fucking day." Paige grumbles throwing the file over at him. She puts her headphones on both ears and crosses her arms, staring angrily at the screen set up in front of her at the cameras they have on Briggs.

Mike sits in the seat next to her, looking miserable, but at least he's being quiet. He sets his coffee cup down on the table between them and picks up the file, beginning to read. Even with her headphones on, Paige feels like she can hear his breathing. The room is really not large enough for two people. She's feeling claustrophobic and panicky but is trying to calm herself down. She picks up the coffee he set down and takes a sip, trying to fake the confidence she used to feel so naturally.

"You know your story would be a lot more believable if you didn't bring me coffee." she mutters pulling one headphone off her ear so she can hear him. She's still annoyed he would lie to her about setting this whole thing up, but the coffee is ebbing her anger a little as she starts to accept that they're stuck together in here for at least the next eight hours.

"I didn't." Mike says in a clipped tone, staring down at the pages in front of him. "That's mine."

"Since when do you take it with flavored creamer?" She challenges. Mike drinks his coffee black. This cup is prepared the way Paige takes her coffee, overly sweet and creamy.

"Since the hospital." Mike says simply, his eyes still not leaving the file as he flips through the pages. "You never stayed awake long enough to finish a cup, so I started drinking your cold coffee so you could have a fresh cup when you were awake."

The words seem to stab in Paige's side. She didn't know he did that for her. Looking over at him Paige realizes how much she missed Mike. He is fiercely concentrating on the file in front of him, but his eyes seem to dart over the same lines again and again as if he's not absorbing the information. He looks tired and tense. Paige starts to feel guilty for being mad at him.

"You really didn't know I'd be here?" Paige asks softly.

"Nope." Mike says stubbornly, as he turns the page.

Paige expects him to say more, but he lets silence fall again. Paige starts to let her guard down a little more now that she realizes Mike didn't come here to trap her and force her to talk.

"Sorry. Here's your coffee back." Paige apologizes, placing the coffee back on the table for him. It's a pathetically small apology. Based on his clipped tone, he doesn't accept it.

"Keep it. Something tells me you're not getting much sleep these nights." Mike says passive aggressively.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Paige's grip tightens around the coffee cup, and she considers throwing it in his face.

"Nothing. Just, you haven't slept in your bed for weeks." Mike says tapping his fingers on the desk and not looking at her. Paige feels the hostility hiding behind Mike's otherwise innocent words, so she isn't the least bit surprised when after a beat he asks with acid dripping from his voice, "How is Phil?"

"I've been working late, you asshole. I haven't seen Phil since before..." Paige trails off.

"Before what, Paige? Before you slept with me?" Mike challenges her as she sits with her arms crossed staring straight ahead. When it becomes clear she's not going to respond, he goads, "You can't even say it."

"Look. We are working. Can we just not talk about this right now?"

"Well then when? You're never around. It's been a month. We're going to talk about it."

"I don't have to put up with this." Paige stands up and grabs her coat, starting to storm towards the exit but Mike jumps out of his chair and grabs her by the arm before she can make it to the door.

"Seriously?" He scolds her, keeping a firm grip on her to keep her from leaving. "You'd rather get shot than deal with this? Just fucking talk to me about what happened! You owe me that Paige!"

"You want me to say it? Fine. We had sex! There. I said it. Can we just drop it and move on with our lives? I fucking said it Mike, and I don't owe you anything just because you fucked me."

"I did not fuck you!" Mike startles her with how harshly the words come out. "I made love to you. I made love to you, and then you just left."

Paige stares at Mike in shock. She really hadn't thought Mike had seen it like that. She'd been such an emotional wreck, that she just wanted to get away from him so she could deal with it. She didn't even think that he might take that as her abandoning him. She knew he was pissed she left, but she didn't think she'd hurt him.

Her mind wanders back to that night. It's still so fresh in her memory. She can still feel the gentle way he touched her. She can smell him. Taste him. The memory that hits her is so fresh, that she has to catch her breath. She can feel her pulse racing with the memory. Paige has rarely allowed herself to think back to that night since it happened, though she'd still wake up drenched from dreams of him.

"Mike, it wasn't like that. It wasn't you. I just needed to get out of there." Paige tries to gently explain. She didn't for a second think that he would think that he had done something wrong to make her leave. She had been a mess. He had to have seen that. He had to have realized she was acting psychotic and why she'd need space. He should be grateful she wasn't subjecting him to anymore humiliating meltdowns.

"I get it." Mike says gruffly, trying to recover from his own emotional outburst.

"No, I don't think you do… I was just embarrassed about how I reacted. I don't even know where that came from. It wasn't a reflection on you or anything. I've never done anything like that. I mean I just started crying and panicking and I must have freaked you out."

"Well if you had stayed and talked to me rather than fleeing, you would have known that I loved seeing you cry."

"You what?"

"No. Not like that. Not like I want you to cry, it's just…" Mike tries to put it into words that don't make him seem like a monster, "Look, I know what happened to you was horrible. I can't even imagine, and I hate that you're in so much pain. You hide it away though. You keep acting like everything's ok and I know it's not. And that night, it was like you were finally letting me in. I mean, I knew the pain was there and you finally showed it to me."

"I don't need your pity." Paige hates the way he's talking about her. She doesn't want Mike to see that side of her. She doesn't want anyone to see it. She hates that she's so weak and she hates that he feels the need to always take care of her now.

"Pity?! You think that night was about pity to me?" Mike asks in disbelief.

"Yes! I needed sex so you just…" Paige is burning with humiliation even as she remembers that night. The way she threw herself at him. The patient way he handled her until the lunatic finally fell asleep. "...you didn't even finish!"

"That's not pity. That's-" Mike catches himself midsentence and angrily turns away from her. He's trying to calm himself back down, and he can't even look at her anymore. He can't believe she would think so little of him. That she could think so little of herself to think that.

"What?" They're in this argument now, and as much as Paige didn't want to start it, she's going to finish it.

"Forget it." Mike grumbles in defeat, shaking his head. Not having to look at her allows him to pull together some of his focus again, and he states in a cool voice, "You're right. We can just drop it. I'll ask for a transfer to DC and leave you alone."

"I don't want you to leave Mike." Paige says firmly.

Paige is hurt by his sudden forfeit. Quite honestly Paige was surprised he had stuck around so long. When her and Mike had first met, she'd understood. She'd been top of her game, and now he was the rising star and she was this pathetic shell who couldn't find her way back to that confident happy free spirited girl she'd been.

"Well then what do you want?" Mike turns around to her exasperated. There is no pleasing this woman. "What? I can't read your mind! What do you want from me Paige?"

"I want you to stop treating me like I'm always going to break." Paige says the one thing she's certain of. She doesn't want his pity. She can't handle it.

"Well I can't!" Mike screams. Of course she would ask for the one thing he couldn't give her.

"Why not?" Paige screams back.

"Because you almost died! Twice! Do you know how that feels Paige? I can't. I just can't lose you. So if I'm holding onto you too tight it's because I am terrified. I am terrified something is going to happen to you, and it's going to be all my fault. I can't protect you!"

"You don't need to protect me! Who put you in charge of me anyways? None of the other roommates are doing this. Why are you doing this Mike?"

"BECAUSE I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU!" Mike's scream echoes through the small box of a room. Paige looks legitimately stunned into silence as the two stare at each other terrified.

"C'mon it can't be that big of a shock. You know me Paige. Don't you know how I feel about you?"

"You're not…"

"I am." Mike says firmly, cutting her off.

Paige stares at him defiantly for a full minute. Mike stands there patiently, watching her process his confession. A part of Mike, doesn't want this moment to end, because in this moment there's still hope. He doesn't want to hear the crushing words that she doesn't love him too. He can't take the words back though, and he's so tired of fighting he doesn't want to. He did not plan on the first time he told her he loved her to be like this. With him screaming at her in the middle of a fight. Still, he didn't expect it to be that big of a shock to her. She seems completely at a loss for words.

Finally, Paige closes her eyes, and shakes her head, gathering her courage. She takes a deep breath and suddenly takes three giant steps forward. With one hand she pushes Mike back against the sound table, her own body pressing close against his, her hand sliding up to his hair to pull him in for a kiss.

"No. Don't." Mike's voice shocks both of them. His hands are on her hips, and he's holding her in place away from him, his face just inches from hers.

Wide eyed, inches apart, the two sets of startled eyes stare into the others.

Mike's body slumps a little, and he whispers shakily, "Not if you're just going to leave again. Not if you don't love me too."

He can see her hesitating and it breaks his heart. This is the hardest thing he's ever had to do, but he knows he can't let this happen if she's not going to be with him after. He can't lose her again. It will kill him. He prepares himself for the worst, but nothing can prepare him for the way her words stab at his heart in a way he didn't even know possible.

"Mike…" She sighs, shaking her head, "I don't even love myself right now."

Mike seems to crumble underneath her. She doesn't need to say anymore. He knows where this is leading, but she keeps talking.

"...But you…" Mike looks up to see her staring at him in a way he's never seen before, "Mike, after all you've done for me. All that we've been through. All that you are… How could I not love you?"

Mike looks up at her with surprised eyes. He doesn't know why, but in the million situations he had imagined, he had never once expected that she could love him too. Still it wasn't the answer he was expecting, it was too good to be true, and Mike had to double check.

Mike puts one hand on Paige's neck and firmly presses his lips to her temple, closing his eyes as he does so. He crushes his lips to her forehead feeling like he just came through a war and out the other side. This is a victory. One he didn't know he'd been fighting for since he landed in California, but it doesn't seem like it fixes everything.

"I'll love you enough for both of us if you just let me," Mike whispers, his eyes closed, his forehead pressed tightly to hers. "You've got to stop pushing me away."

"I know. I'm trying. I just don't know how." Paige blinks back tears. "I'm so messed up."

"So what do we do now?"

"I don't know."