Author's Notes: So obviously did not reach goal of having story finished before last night's episode aired, which is a shame, because last night my record breaking streak of staying in canon ended. So last night the episode veered off my plotted court, which is fine, because I liked last night's episode. Loving all the Paige Mike scenes. It's almost exactly how I envisioned it.

Only issue was I thought it was a little weak of an Abby exit, and I like the thought of Mike actively choosing Paige/Graceland over Abby/DC/Baltimore rather than wanting Abby/DC/Baltimore and not being able to get it so he settles with the other choice, but I digress.

Sorry it took me so long, the scenes are written, just need some heavy handed editing that I've lacked time to do.

Thanks: Thanks everyone for the reviews!

Skinny Double Dirty Chai

Chapter 11

Paige braces herself.

She is unafraid of facing whatever storm may be brewing under Mike's controlled exterior. Fighting is familiar. She's not afraid of him, and he's not afraid of her. Maybe after one good screaming match, they can work out their issues. Their issues obviously being his issue. An issue named Abby.

She watches the muscles in his back contract under his T-shirt as he takes a deep breath. He slowly straightens himself up to his full height. A height that towers over hers. She waits, watching as he very slowly turns. By the time he's facing her, he's regained his composure.

"You made me spill my beer." He says simply, taking a long controlled swig from the bottle. His eyes remain locked with hers the whole time, flashing dangerously.

The man is infuriating.

Paige rips the beer bottle from his smug mouth, and throws it across the room. The glass shatters somewhere, but both sets of eyes remain locked with the others. The tension is building, Paige can feel it crackling between them, until Mike breaks it. Smiling an infuriating smirk he shrugs, "Fine by me, it's Briggs's turn to clean the living room anyway."

"So your answer is she lets you fuck her? That's why you're making yourself miserable?" She demands.

How dumb is he? He can't be that hard up for sex. He's fucking gorgeous.

"Look at yourself Mike. You could get laid anywhere!"

"Oh, but-" He opens his mouth to reply, but she preemptively cuts him off.

"And don't even tell me the sex with her is special, because I refuse to believe that your little Miss Ivy League Princess is THAT good in bed." She pauses to give him a pointed look, daring him to contradict her.

"…Unless you have a fetish for cardigan sweaters and enjoy your lights-out, five minutes of vanilla missionary sex before the obvious highlight, the *spooning*." She emphasizes the last word with dripping sarcasm, once again pausing to let her words sink in and giving him a chance to react. When he doesn't she continues, "...Before slipping into the bathroom once she falls asleep to finish yourself off in the toilet."

It does not escape her notice that he hasn't rushed to defend his little girlfriend's honor, which surprises her.

"If that's it Mike, you could jerk off here, and quite frankly, I suspect the toilets here at Graceland have better porn." She leans in close, placing one hand on his shoulder. The other hand cups around her lips, which she presses close to his ear, to whisper her last taunt like a well-guarded secret, "I've looked. Johnny's a connoisseur."

She pulls away smugly, expecting to at last have brought a rise out of his composed fasquade. Instead he just stands there, still and blank. He is no longer even making eye contact. Just staring straight ahead, like a statue.

She almost slaps him.

Almost.

Instead she just lets out a growl of frustration and turns away, punching the couch. Because if she stares at his stupid face for a second longer she will smack him. Just to see if he'd feel it.

"Look, you're going to get yourself killed. She's making you moody and distracted. End it." Her voice falls to a serious quiet tone.

"Paige," His voice cracks and he clears his throat. Running his hand down his face, he shakes his head. He averts his eyes to the floor.

"Out here, I feel like I'm always screwing up. Like I can't trust anyone. I've done things I never thought I'd do, and sometimes I just hate myself. I just need someone who loves me. She does that." He mumbles lamely.

"Bullshit." Paige doesn't believe that shit for a second. "She doesn't know who you are! Maybe you like being with her because she reminds you of the guy you used to be back at the academy, but you're not that guy any more, Mike."

"Well I can't tell her who I am, now can I, Paige? I can't tell anyone."

"That's the job! You can't break your cover, and you can't get too close."

"I'm not you Paige! I can't just flirt with whoever happens to be closest and not care."

"Well you're gonna have to learn! Because at Graceland, the only things you can afford to care about are the job and the house."

"Fuck! I don't even know what I'm doing here. I didn't sign up for this. All I wanted was to be in DC!"

"So what? It's a little hard, so you're going to just give up? You shouldn't give up on Graceland. Sure, it can get hard, but the house has to come first. Always. If you want to run off to Baltimore-"

"I never knew you were an option!" He suddenly screams at the top of his lungs, and her voice dies in her throat.

His words hang in the air between them.

He broke the rule.

The one simple rule that kept their friendship intact; that they never say out loud the thing that was between them. The undefinable thing. The tension that filled the air every time they were in the same room.

She knew he cared about her. She wasn't blind. She saw the looks. She felt the heat as he sat a little too close and let his touch linger a little too long. But it was fine, because they never spoke it out loud. Other people may, but she could always laugh it off like she didn't believe them. Now it was out there and she could no longer pretend not to know.

They stand there, in frozen time. Staring at each other. Not a sound in the room other than their rough breathing.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean..." Mike starts to apologize, to backtrack and rephrase.

Yes, she wants him to take it back. Pretend like it never happened. She can pretend not to have heard him and he can pretend he was so drunk he didn't know what he was saying.

She sees the change as he decides to own up to it. He's really doing this.

He takes a deep breath and stalks towards her. He stops when he is standing just mere inches away from her. He's looking at her intensely. She fears he might kiss her.

"I didn't know." He repeats. "I mean, I hoped, but you're so hard to read, and then there was the Abby thing and I just assumed..."

Mike trails off looking at her as if she's supposed to say something. What does he want her to say? He broke the rule.

"I'll make this simple for you. I may complain, but I'm not going anywhere. I've been given an assignment and I'm prepared to see it through. And I'm going to keep dating Abby, unless you give me one damn good reason not to."

"I've already told you-" Paige stammers.

"Don't play dumb, Paige. It doesn't suit you." Mike says sharply.

What does he want her to say? That she wants him? Fine. She does. She's only human, but this can't become anything real so why does he have to mess up what they have together? Why did he have to talk about it? She doesn't want to lose him, and if they were to get together it was an inevitability. If they could just remain friends though, then he could stay in her life forever.

"Give. Me. A. Reason." He growls.

She knows what he's asking. He's broken the rule and now he's asking her to break it too. She stands there silently glaring up at him. Just because he couldn't control himself didn't mean she had to join him in his weakness. She could be strong. Sure there was a temptation there, but they didn't have to act on it. She just needed a minute to figure out how to fix this. She couldn't think with him so close.

"Ten seconds, Paige. I'll give you ten seconds, and then I'm going to bed. Ten. . . Nine. . ."

"Fine. Marry the bitch for all I care. Get yourself killed, but don't you dare take the house down with you. And for god's sake stop whining about it all the time. It's pathetic."

She doesn't mean it. She doesn't know what she means, but it certainly wasn't that.

"You know what Paige?!" Mike yells back at her, and then stops himself. "Fuck it! I'm done! Have a nice night. I'm going to Abby's." He yells as he storms towards the door.

"To accomplish what? It's two in the morning and she thinks you have food poisoning!"

How like Mike. Retreat to his little girlfriend, right when things gets difficult. She's glad she's not dating a coward like him.

"Oh yeah? Well, suddenly I'm miraculously cured! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have some vanilla cardigan sex!" He throws her words back at her. The image of Mike making pale preppy love to Abby flashes through Paige's brain like an unwelcome peep show. She grabs the closest thing she can to throw at him.

"Well then make sure you take this! You'll need it for later!" She yells, reaching down to the coffee table, grabbing a magazine and chucking it at his head. The magazine unfortunately falls short.

"This is a Guns & Ammo magazine!" He yells back at her, after inspecting the failed projectile.

Of all the times Charlie has told Johnny not to leave porn lying around the public area and NOW he listens?!

"Yeah? Well, it's still sexier than your girlfriend!"

Mike stares at her for a moment, looking like he might say something, but then gives up with a frustrated growl. He storms out the door slamming it behind him.

Paige stands there in the empty living room, staring at the door. She tells herself that any second now he'll come back. She'll apologize. Then they can both calm down, and they'll probably laugh about it later.

Any second now he'll come back...