adorablepancreas I'm glad that you're enjoying the story. :) And that the pacing of it is working. I was worried that I was jumping the gun, on getting them together, so it's nice to hear that things are moving forward at a good pace. I hope that I'll continue to be able to update frequently. Sometimes life (and writer's block) get in the way but so far I haven't had any trouble with this story. Thank you, for reading and for taking the time to comment. :)

Guest Thank you. I'm glad that you're enjoying the story. I'm not really sure if I'll be able to work gymnastics into the story, but I'm sure there will be a few she's hot and Emily wants to kiss her but can't moments.

saii79 I'm glad that I could start your morning off right. :) And that I could provide you with some Paily feels. I've been using writing this story and reading other fics to get my Paily fix. Yeah, it definitely won't be easy for them. But, I'm sure watching them manage will be fun. ;) Thank you for reading, and for commenting.

Guest I've gotten a chance to work on this story more lately than I'm normally able to, so I'll keep the updates coming as frequently as I'm able for as long as I'm able. Thank you, for reading the story and for your comments.

jhas: A fully capitalized "whoa" to start of the comments. I'm honored. :) I'm glad that you liked the chapter. I can't say that I have much experience kissing guys, or girls, but I imagine that while there might be a difference, texturally, if you're kissing someone you really like, experience doesn't matter as much as emotion. I'd say that they're defintely more than friends at this point. And yeah, it'll be tough for them at school, especially knowing what it can be like. I'm glad you liked the chapter. Thank you. :)

Guest Things are going well. They'll hit some bumps for sure, but forward motion, always. Thank you for your comments. I'm glad that you're enjoying the story.

Guest Yeah. Rambling Paige is adorable. Thanks for reading and for commenting.

CarmellaD'Winter I'm glad you liked the chapter. :) Paige's mom makes a small appearance in this one. There will be more to come of the McCullers as the story progresses though.

Shananigan Thank you. It's been fun writing the various elements of their dynamic.

squidge86 I'm glad that you're enjoying the story. Thank you, for both reading and for taking the time to comment. It means a lot.

mine29 Well, this chapter answers that question. I hope that you enjoy.

portoftheartistasayoungc Well, thank you for deciding to take a chance on a new story. It means a lot, as does the fact that you took the time to leave a comment. I'm glad that you're enjoying it so far, and I hope that you continue to enjoy it as it plays out.

ren-mccullers Thank you. I hope you're not expecting anything too dramatic. I have no intention of breaking anybody's heart. The relationship will not be smooth sailing, but I'm not very good at writing angst.

Chapter 15

Emily wasn't sure what she was expecting of Paige's bedroom, not that she really got much of a look at it. As soon as the door swung shut behind them, Paige was pushing her up against it, her lips descending upon Emily's. She got a brief glance around, eyes skimming over a bed,a dresser, a desk, just enough to confirm that yep, it was in fact a bedroom before Paige's hands were gripping her hips and running up and down her sides and tangling in her hair and her body was pressing Emily's back into the door, and her lips were hungry and insistant upon her own.

The very last thing on her mind was what Paige's room looked like as she laughed lgihtly into the kiss, feeling Paige grin against her lips before nipping at her playfully.

"I think I've created a monser," Emily teased as she wound her arms around Paige's neck and combed her fingers through the other girls soft locks. It was like their first kiss had opened the floodgates of Paige's desire. She had been able to keep her lips, her hands, her gaze off Emily since then.

She supposed that it wasn't all that surprising that Paige approached this the same way she approached everything, with full-on, unbridled enthusiasm and intensity.

"Is Dr. Frankenstein experiencing some regret?" Paige pulled back to look at Emily, a smirk playing across her features.

Emily could never regret anything that led to this right here. Because, she felt exactly the same. She loved the feeling of Paige's lips against hers, of her hands on the other girl's body, or in her hair. She got a quiet thrill every time their eyes met and Paige's face lit up in a smile. She felt giddy, like a kid with their first crush. And it felt nice to feel like that. Especially without all the confusion and fear accompanied with discovering herself and coming out. She only hoped that Paige's own doubt and confusion allowed her to feel even a fraction of what Emily was experiencing. And, from the way Paige looked at her, touched her, kissed her, she believed that she did. It was a feeling she hoped she'd never get used to.

"Uh-uh." She shook her head with a smile and tipped her head forward, brushing a kiss to the corner of Paige's mouth, evading the other girl's lips with a laugh when she turned her head and tried to draw her into a deeper kiss.

Rather than continue to try and chase Emily's lips, Paige settled for peppering her face and neck with feathery kisses that had Emily squirming with laughter at the light, tickly touch.

"Okay. Okay. I give. Uncle. Uncle!" Emily tried to push Paige's face away, but Paige grabbed the hand as it pressed against her cheek, holding it there as she turned into the touch, kissing her palm instead before stepping back.

"If you're done playing around, we should probably get to work," she said, giving Emily a haughty, arched-eyebrowed stare. She even managed to hold it for a moment before the corners of her lips twitched and she spun around, dipping her head as she pciked their backpacks up off the floor and, Ignoring the disgrunted glare being aimed her way, made her way across the room to her bed.

Emily took a moment to catch her breath. And calm her racing hormones. Having Paige pressed up against her like that had gotten her all riled up. Of course, watching Paige settle cross legged at the head of her bed, hair all mussed up from Emily running her fingers through it and clothes rumpled from lying on top of her all evening did little to calm ber back down.

Pushing herself off the door, Emily propelled herself on somewhat shaky legs across the room where she climbed up onto the bed and straddled Paige's lap.

Paige let out a grunt of surprise and turned her face up to Emily, eyes wide, jaw slack. Emily flipped her hair to one side and leaned down so she was hovering over Paige, heard the other girl let out an audible gulp just before their lips crashed together and Emily kissed her for all she was worth.

It was a rough kiss, all teeth and tongue. All enthusiasm, no form. But it had both of them moaning and straining towards each other, Paige's hands on her ass, kneading gently, Emily's hands tangling in Paige's hair, tugging a little roughly.

She kissed Paige until she ran out of breath, then leaned in and kissed her again. Until sparks flared across her vision and she started to feel light headed. Heart racing, chest aching from the lack of oxygen, Emily swung herself off Paige's lap and flopped down against the pillows beside her.

"So, civics huh?" She asked, pulling Paige's unzippered but still packed bag across the bed towards her.

"What?" Paige stared dumbly at her for a moment before shaking her head and huffing a laugh. "Well played, Fields. Well played."

They actually did get a surprising amount of work done after that. Paige read through the material for her civics test and made notes for Emily to quiz her on while Emily read a couple chapters for her English class and completed her math assignment.

She was in the middle of asking Paige a series of pratice questions when there was a faint knock on Paige's bedroom door. A moment later it swung open and Mrs. McCuller's head poked into the room.

Emily froze in place, torn between fleeing and hiding. Beside her, she felt Paige tense, heard her breath catch in her throat before releasing in a shuddery exhale. To her credit however, Paige didn't flinch or pull away.

Her gaze flicked absently over Emily, accompanied by a faint smile that seemed a little stiff.

"Hey, honey. Just wanted to let you know that I'm back," she said as she stepped fully around the door. "I didn't realize you had company." Though her voice was light, Emily could hear the underlying tension in her words. She wondered if she could tell, just by looking at them, what the two of them had been up to. Her own mom always seemed to be able to tell wen Emily was up to something. Especially if it was something that she wouldn't approve of.

"Yeah. Mom this is Emily. She's on the swim team with me."

"I've seen you at a few meets," Mrs McCullers said with a nod. "You're very good."

Emily had to clear her throat before speaking. "Thank you, Mrs McCullers," she managed to get out, though her words came out hoarse and timid.

"It's Fields, right?" Mrs. McCuller's asked. "I know your mother."

Considering how Mrs McCullers knew her mother, the sort of people associated with the church committe, she was probably wondering where Pam had gone wrong. What she possibly could have done to end up with a daughter "like that." Emily had heard the whispers, seen the glares. Maybe not from Mrs. McCullers herself, but from others like her.

Emily nodded. "She mentioned that she'd done some work at the church with you."

"Yes, that's right. You'll tell her I said hello?"

"Yes, of course."

"Have you two had anything to eat?" This question was directed towards her daughter.

Emily let out a sigh of relief and sagged back against the pillows now that the attention had turned away from her.

"Yeah, Mom. We picked up something to eat from The Grill."

Mrs McCuller's rolled her eyes lightly. "I can just imagine what that something was," she teased, a smile playing her lips. Though the levity in her words seemed forced. Or maybe Emily was just reading too much into things, projecting her own mother's behaviour onto Paige's mom. "Dd you at least get a side salad?"

"Don't worry Mom, I made sure to eat my veggies."

"Ketchup hardly counts as a veggie, hon."

"Hey, there was lettuce. And onions. And at least a piece of a tomato."

"Oh, well in that case..." Mrs McCullers held her hands up in the universal sign for defeat. "I'll let you two get back to your homework. But, it's getting late. Maybe you should think about calling it a night?"

Paige nodded. "Just another half hour maybe. Then I have to drive Emily home."

"All right. I'll be in the den if you need me. Nice meeting you, Emily."

"Yeah. You too."

Mrs Mcullers backed out of the room. Emily noticed that she left the door open as she went. The room was quiet for a long moment in her wake.

Emily turned towards Paige, watching in disbelief as the other girl reached for her notebook and jotted something down, her attention apparently completley on the work in front of her, unable to comprehend how she could be acting so calm right now. They had maybe, kind of just gotten caught. Emily herself was freaking out a little. How was it possible that Paige was not?

"How are you so calm right now? Aren't you worried that your Mom has figured us out?"

Paige shook her head. "No. I don't know if she even knows that you're gay."

She knew. The way gossip in a small town worked, there was no way she didn't know. She was just to polite to say anything about it outright.

"But even if she does, my parents are firm in their beliefs. They know they raised me right. There's no way that I could ever turn out to be something as siniful and wicked as a homosexual."

Emily winced at the brittless in the other girl's words and reached out, laying a hand on her arm and squeezing gently. She knew how much it sucked to be in the situation that Paige was in right now and there wasn't a whole lot she could say that would make Paige feel any better.

"Look, can we just not talk about this right now?"

"Of course, whatever you need." Emily leaned into Paige's side, resting her head on her shoulder as she gently tugged the notebook from her hands. "C'mon. Let's go over this stuff one more time."

Forty-five minutes later found Paige pulling her car up to the curb in front of Emily's house and shutting off the engine with a flick of her wrist, though she kept the radio in, letting it play softly in the background as she turned and leaned her head against the seat back, her eyes shimmering in the darkness, the smile visible on her face even shrouded in shadows.

"I had a really great time tonight," Paige said, reaching out and tucking a few stray strands of hair behind Emily's ear. The faint brush of fingertips along the shell of her ear made Emily shiver as butterflies erupted in her stomach.

"Me too. I'm really glad that we talked." It was such a relief to have everything out in the open. Emily felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders now that she was no longer wondering what Paige's behaviour towards her meant, now that she knew why the other girl had treated her so poorly before and that her attraction was not one sided.

"Really? Of everything tonight, the talking was what made an impression?"

The words were teasing, but Emily could hear the hint of uncertainty in Paige's voice. The other girl had expressed concern about her lack of experience and Emily thought she had dissauaded of her of that notion. Apparently, not as effecitvely as she'd hoped. She reached out and cupped Paige's cheek, guiding the other girl forward for a soft, sweet kiss.

"The whole night has made an impression. You made an impression." She ducked her head, forcing Paige to meet her gaze and waited as the words impacted. She knew the moment they had when Paige's lips turned up a little.. "I know this isn't going to be easy, but I want to be with you." Emily realized that while Paige had said it, she hadn't expressed anything similar. At least, not in so many words. And maybe Paige needed to hear it just as much as she had. She saw that her conclusion was correct when a grin lit up Paige's face.

A passing car broke up the tender moment, the glare it's headlights filling the interior of the car, momentarily blinding both of them. And reminding Emily that they weren't as isolated as the shroud of darkness led her to believe. Blinking and rubbing at her eyes to get rid of the spots of color that filled her field of vision Emily sat back in her seat with a groan.

"I should probably get inside." She was pushing curfew and probably her mother's patience. Her mom had been surprisngly lenient with letting Emily spend the evening, unsupervised, at Paige's house. She knew that had taken a lot of trust, and a little bit of swallowing her pride and she didn't want to do anything to make her mom think she didn't understand and appreciate it.

Paige nodded. "Okay. Wait here."

Emily watched in amusement as Paige pushed open her door and slid out of the car. She tracked the other girl's figure as she made her way around the front and stopped at the passenger side door. She pulled it open and extended her hand to Emily.

Biting back a laugh, Emily took Paige's hand and allowed herself to guided gently out of her seat. Once her feet were firmly on the ground Emily pressed a kiss to Paige's cheek. "You're adorable, do you know that?" There was just something so earnest and sweet about her.

Paige shrugged and ducked her head, though the motion, nor the darkness, hid the smile that crossed her lips, or the way she reached up and gently pressed her palm to the cheek that Emily had just kissed. The fact that such a small gesture, after all the kisses they had shared that night, could make her dazed and grin like that,charmed Emily to no end. After a moment Paige dropped her arm and took Emily's hand, lacing their fingers together easily. Butterflies stirred in her stomach at the touch and she couldn't keep the grin off her own face as they made their way up the walkway and mounted the porch steps in silence. At Emily's door they turned to face each other, their linked hands swinging gently between them.

"I want to take you out," Paige said softly, haltingly. "A proper date. But I've never...I don't..."

"It's okay," Emily soothed, giving the hand in her own a gentle squeeze. "Let me do it? Let me take you out?"

Even though Emily had been in two relationships, she hadn't been out on that many dates. Ben's idea of taking Emily out had been a fast food restaurant for dinner and then hitting a party. She and Maya had spent most of their time together hanging out at one of their houses, watching movies or doing homework. The few times they had gone out, to dinner, the movies, a concert, it had been so special. Almost magical.

She wanted Paige to experience that. She wanted her to know that warm, pleasant feeling that came from having someone else take complete and utter care of you for a night, from picking you up and bringing you flowers to taking you somewhere different and special and complimenting you all night and devoting all of their energy to making sure that you had a good time.

Much to Emily's delight, Paige nodded her agreement. "I'd like that."

Leaning forward, Emily pressed her lips against Paige's, the kiss chaste in comparison to many of the others they had shared that night. But it still sent Emily's heart racing and caught her breathless.

"I should get going," Paige whispered, pulling back. Emily nodded, even thought she didn't want Paige to go. She knew that they couldn't stand out here on her front porch forever though.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow," she said, reminding both of them that their parting was only temporary. Even though they both knew that it wouldn't be the same tomorrow in broad daylight, amongst their peers. "Are you free tomorrow afternoon, after practice? We could study again?" She put emphasis on the word study, which made Paige nod emphatically.

"Yes, I like studying with you." She put her own emphasis on the word, accompanied by a leering grin and a wiggle of her eyebrows.

Emily shook her head, laughing. "I'm going inside now." She had her hand on the door, was just pushing it open when a gentle tug on the hand still linked with Paige's had her spinning around.

Paige's lips pressed softly against her own. "Goodnight, Em," she whispered against her lips. "Sweet Dreams." And then she was gone, loping down the walkway to her car without a backwards glance.

Emily watched until the tailights of her car disapeared into the darkness before she turned and entered the house.