A/N - Day 6 of 2015 = Chapter 6 of the story. Thanks for reading!

Paige knew that she wasn't going to be able to get any sleep that night. She lay in bed running the evening's events over and over in her head. She was grateful for Pru's advice to send Emily e-mail. That way, she was able to convey all of the words that she wanted to say to Emily without having to worry about being interrupted or losing her train of thought. And, quite frankly, she had had absolutely no idea how she was ever going to be able to come back to the room after the way that she'd left.

But it wasn't just "the room." Emily had asked her to come home. She knew that she was reading too much into that word. But she couldn't deny that feeling of home that she had come to feel around Emily. And coming home into Emily's welcoming embrace was definitely something that she could get used to. Not to mention the kiss. Paige brushed the back of her index finger over her lips. She knew that it was just a kiss, with no deeper meaning behind it. But that didn't stop her lips from tingling at the memory. She let out a long sigh. Finally, she flung the covers aside in frustration and got out of bed.

"Paige?" Emily sounded almost afraid. Paige understood why.

"I just have to go to the bathroom, Em. I'm not running away again. I promise."

Neither Paige or Emily slept very well all night. At different points in the night, each of them almost turned on the light and suggested that they might as well just go ahead and have their talk, because they both knew that they weren't going to get any sleep. Like kids on Christmas Eve, they kept waking up over and over, checking the clock only to realize that it was still too early to get up. Each knew that the other was doing it, but each was too anxious to break the cycle.

Paige found her thoughts constantly drifting back to the comfort of waking up with Emily snuggled into her side, back to the exhilaration of pressing a kiss onto Emily's temple, and back to the relief of the kiss that Emily had given her before they went to their separate beds. It all felt so different from what she'd had with Sean. With Sean, it was like playing the game of Life: Spin the wheel and move forward however many spaces, with only one direction to move except at one or two junctures. Everything was prescribed and happened just as it had been laid out in front of them. Being with Emily felt like jumping out of a plane blindfolded, careening blindly toward the future at a thousand miles an hour, trusting only that the Fates would provide a safe landing.

On the other side of the room, Emily was back to thinking how foolish she was being, falling for a straight girl. Until earlier that night, Paige had given no indication whatsoever that she even liked women. Paige was just an open-minded person who, as she told Emily, came to college to experience every side of life. It's no surprise that she would want to experiment sexually. What would it feel like to be in Emily's shoes when the experiment was over? How could she possibly recover from that? Hanna was right about one thing. The dream of turning a straight girl was just that – a dream.

When they had finally stayed in bed for what they thought was a respectable amount of time, they decided that they were going to need to get coffee before they could discuss any of this coherently. Emily wanted to talk at the coffee shop, but Paige was afraid that things could get too emotional for a public discussion. Paige ended up volunteering to go pick up coffee and muffins and bring them back to the room. The trip gave both her and Emily a final chance to overthink how they were going to approach the meeting.

"So," Paige led off, "How do we do this?"

"I can start," Emily offered. "I'm just really confused, you know? I mean, we didn't have any problems or awkwardness until that night when I came home crying and ended up falling asleep in your arms. And I get why that was over the line, so I wanted to clear the air yesterday and apologize. But then you got… emotional and you started apologizing, but I don't know why, and you said… that thing that you said, and I don't know what it means."

Paige stood up and started pacing, trying to sort things out in her head. "Okay. Okay. I'm confused, too. I don't really know what's going on, Em. With me, I mean. I just felt this... connection with you from the first time that we met. I thought that it was because we were both swimmers, both – I don't know – we have a lot in common. And, then, once the school year started, and I saw how hard things were for you with Maya and all the training and school work, I don't know, I just wanted to be there for you. Like, always. Like, be the person whom you went running to whenever something was wrong. But then, that night when you came home crying and you let me hold you all through the night, I don't know. It was as though something switched on inside of me. As if some part of my brain – or my heart – was activated for the first time. It was harder and harder for me to convince myself that I just wanted to be a good friend to you. I've never felt what I'm feeling before, for anyone."

"The feeling… what you said. That you're falling for me." Emily had repeated the words thousands of times in her head. Still, she found it almost impossible to say them out loud to her roommate.

"I'm sorry, Emily."

"You can stop saying that."

"I don't know what else to say. I took advantage of you. You needed me to be there as a friend, and I took advantage of that."

"Paige, stop. You helped me get through that night. Look, I can't deny that I have feelings for you, too. But I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I'm feeling what I'm feeling for you because you were there when I was hurting. I don't want to jerk you around. And I don't want you to be my rebound, you know? And I'm afraid of just being your experiment – I mean, I know that you wouldn't do that to me intentionally, but maybe your heart is just curious. Or maybe it's confused because of the things that we've been through together. I mean, have you ever been in love with a woman before?"

"That's just it, Emily. I don't think that I've ever been in love with anyone before. I've had bonding experiences with teammates who were there for me in tough times, and I dated Sean for over two years, for Christ's sake, but I haven't felt anything like this. And, Emily, I would never jerk you around, but I just want to let you know: I'd rather have one week of this – whatever it is that I'm feeling right now, even if it turns out that there's nothing between us – than another two years of whatever it was that I had with Sean. I'd rather be truly alive for a day than spend a lifetime just surviving."

"Whoa." Emily was dumbstruck. "Now I'm the one who doesn't know what to say." Emily thought for a second. "Wait, that you had with Sean?"

"Yeah," Paige said with no emotion, "we broke up a couple of weeks ago." Emily reached out a hand toward Paige. "It's okay. It had been coming for a long time. And he's moved on, and I'm really happy for that."

Emily could see that Paige wasn't just saying it. "Still, I wish you'd told me. You let me dump all that Maya crap on you, but you had to handle this all by yourself."

"Trust me, Em. There was nothing to handle. It was really the best thing for both of us."

Emily reached up and gave Paige's forearm a squeeze. "So, where does this all leave us, now?"

"Well, it's still complicated, but at least everything's out in the open, now. You know how I feel, and I know how you feel. We just need to take some time to process things and see where we end up. I need to talk to Pru, and you need to talk to Hanna."

"Yeah. Sure. That makes sense, Paige. But can we, please, do one thing?" Paige looked down at Emily, her expression asking what the one thing was. "Can we, please, just go back to the way that it was before that night, when I could give you a hug or accidentally touch your hand or... whatever without it feeling weird between us?"

Paige answered by pulling Emily off of the bed up to her feet and giving her a long, warm hug. "I've missed this," she said into Emily's ear.

Emily sighed in relief. "So have I," she said, sniffling a little, burying her head in Paige's neck. "So have I."

"Do you think..." Paige started, but thought better of it. Emily looked at her, curious.

"Do I think what?"

"Nothing. I... It was... Never mind."

"Paige. You can ask me anything."

Paige let out a deep sigh. She stared at her feet and asked, her voice barely above a mumble, "Well, I didn't get any sleep last night, and I know that you didn't, either. Do you think that we could just... rest here, for a while? Like, the two of us... together?" She looked up sheepishly and saw the huge smile on Emily's face.

"Now that," Emily said emphatically, "is the greatest idea I've heard all day!"

Paige stepped out of her shoes and coat and got back into bed, in her sweats. Emily hung up the robe that she had thrown on over her pajamas and found her place in Paige's arms. Paige held Emily so tight that she was afraid of hurting her, but she couldn't help it. She was just so content. And Emily didn't seem to mind. Even though things were still unresolved between them, Emily couldn't remember when she had ever felt as safe as she did within the protective wall that Paige had built around her, with the rhythmic lullaby of Paige's heartbeat easing her off to sleep.

In her dream, she was a boat, securely moored to the shore as the waves rolled in and out in time with the beating of Paige's heart. In spite of the strong pull of the waves, she remained steadfastly ashore, her strong anchor ensuring that she would never be cast adrift into the unrelenting sea.