A/N - Fair Warning: This chapter goes from happy to sad pretty quickly. Don't worry, it's not a relationship bump. (I would never do that to you. Or to Paily)

If you don't like drama, you can skip the part after the chapter's first break. Pick it up after the next break, or you'll miss out on some Paily cuteness! :)

Thanks to yulebrinner25 for a suggestion that worked for this chapter. If you're not reading her fics, do yourself a favor and start.

As Paige and Emily headed up the steps to their room, Paige asked, "Did you get Vicki's text?"

"I did not. What did it say?"

"She wants us to know whether or not we can go out with her and Bob."

"Aw, Bob! She's really hung up on him, isn't she?"

"Yeah, it's just sickeningly cute."

"Be nice, Paige! People probably say that about us."

"No, we're awesomely cute!" Emily rolled her eyes and smiled. "So, Saturday, are we free?"

"Yeah, that sounds good!"

"It'll be nice to have a couple as friends," Paige agreed. As she texted Vicki back, Emily opened the door to their room and let out a gasp.

"Paige! When did you do this?"

Paige just shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I know how much you love Christmas!"

Paige had transformed their room into a winter wonderland, with mini Christmas trees on each girl's desk, snowflakes in the window, and garland everywhere. Emily pulled her girlfriend under the mistletoe and gave her a long kiss.

"It's going to be hard to be away from you over Christmas break. I don't even remember the last time that I had to fall asleep by myself." It was true. Even after their status as a couple had become widely known on the team, and the coaches thought better of assigning them to the same room when they traveled to weekend tournaments, one of their teammates was always willing to switch rooms after hours. Their teammates understood that nothing sexual was going on between the two of them in bed, but If being together helped them sleep, it could only help the team.

"Which leads me to my next surprise." Emily looked over at her, confused. "Do you think that it would be okay with your parents if I came home with you for Christmas?"

Emily beamed with euphoria for a moment before the implications hit her fully. "No, of course they wouldn't mind. But, Paige, you have to see your dad for Christmas! He can't be by himself."

"I know. And I want to see him. We talked – if I could borrow your car, or something, I could drive out there on Christmas Eve and head back to Rosewood on the 26th."

"Are you sure about this, Paige?" Paige nodded enthusiastically. "Okay! I'll talk to my parents, but I'm sure that they'll say yes."

Emily looked happy, but Paige could also read the concern in her eyes. Emily led her over to the bed and sat down on it with her. She smoothed her hand through Paige's hair, settling her hands on top of Paige's in her lap. "Paige, we don't have to talk about anything that you don't want to." Paige dipped her head, knowing where the conversation was headed. "But if you think that it would help to talk about it, I just want you to know that I'm listening." Paige put her head on Emily's shoulder and began sobbing softly. Emily hugged her close, apologizing. "We don't have to talk about it. It's okay."

Paige shook her head into Emily's shoulder. "No," she said, composing herself, "I want to talk about it. It's just…" Paige fell silent. She sat up, breaking the hug, and slowly lowered her palms in front of her body, letting them land on her lap as she tried to control her breathing. "I have these memories – like snapshots, you know? I was so young. I don't remember the complete narrative. I remember my Dad being happy – with me. And with my Mom. I remember pictures of a normal family: making goofy faces at my Dad to get him to laugh, him hugging me when I was scared, walking between the two of them, holding their hands. I remember them arguing, and how uncomfortable that felt, but I remember them laughing together, doing things together. Sometimes, I wonder whether any of those memories are actually real, or whether it was just my childhood mind, wanting to remember things that way. But I definitely remember when everything changed. I was four. It was the summer. I woke up one day, and my Mom was just gone. And it was as if my Dad just shut down. I really needed him, Emily; I really needed him to help me understand what had happened. But he didn't. He couldn't. Looking back on it now, I can understand why. I mean, he must've been devastated, too; plus, he had to worry about how he was going to raise a daughter all by himself. So, he just became Nick McCullers: Business Dad. I tell myself that he was doing the best that he could, and I tell myself that he loves me, in his own way; - that he's not just, I don't know, fulfilling his paternal obligation."

Emily pulled Paige close again and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. "Paige, he loves you. I can tell that he loves you." Emily thought for a long time before she asked the next question. In the end, she decided that it would be best to help Paige get the whole story off her chest, rather than let it fester. "And, you never found out why your mom left?"

Paige slowly shook her head, sitting up out of the hug, again. "No, not officially. I got the story in bits and pieces through the years – snide remarks that my Dad threw out from time to time. From what I can tell, she ran off with some other guy, like, her high school sweetheart or something. I don't know. There may be more to the story, and I would really love to hear her side of the story, because maybe she's not the psycho villain that he made her out to be. But, Emily, how do you do that? How do you do that to your four-year-old daughter? How do you do that to your husband?"

Emily reached her hand to Paige's shoulder. Paige stood up abruptly. "I... I'm sorry, Emily. I just think that I need to be alone right now," she said, turning her back to her girlfriend.

Emily stood up and put her hand to Paige's back. "Is that really what you want?"

"Yes… No…" Paige turned around, a fresh wave of tears beginning to fall. "I don't know." Emily pulled her in and held her tight. She let Paige cry, deep sobs, thoroughly staining Emily's hoodie with her tears. Emily never let go, hugging as tightly as she could as she rubbed her arms up and down Paige's back. When Paige could cry no more, Emily stood back a little bit. She took off her hoodie and the jacket that Paige was wearing. She kicked off her shoes and sat Paige down on the bed, so that she could take off Paige's shoes. Finally, she laid Paige down on the bed and climbed in next to her, holding on to her from behind with her head pressed against Paige's shoulder blade. Paige was emotionally exhausted, and she just needed to sleep.

Emily woke before Paige did, about an hour or two later. She remembered what Paige had said about waking up and her mother not being there. She decided to stay put, not wanting to trigger Paige after she had just rehashed having gone through that experience with the most important woman in a four-year-old girl's life. Emily lay there, holding on firmly. Then her stomach growled, and Paige turned over, grinning. "I guess that's our new alarm clock!" she joked.

'Hey – how are you feeling, Paige?"

"I feel like a wreck, but I'm glad that you let me talk about it. I realized some things that I hadn't realized before. It was good. So, thanks." Paige put her hand behind Emily's head and pulled her in for a kiss. Emily stroked Paige's hair. It was a tender moment. Emily's stomach growled again. They both burst into laughter. "Come on, McCullers!" Emily sounded upbeat. "Buy your girlfriend some dinner!"

Paige was becoming accustomed to this ritual. They had 20 minutes till their date with Vicki and Bob. Paige was dressed and ready. Emily was tearing through the closet at a frenzied pace. Paige started giggling. "What's so funny?" Emily spat out in a rushed monotone.

"I was thinking about that night when we went to the frat parties after midterms."

"Yeah?" Emily held a sweater up to her chest for Paige's assessment. Paige cocked her head to the side and tweaked her lip to say that it was so-so.

"You were so blatantly trying to seduce me." Paige laughed at the memory.

"Yeah, well, it worked, didn't it?" Emily was all-business, still in the rushed monotone, looking in the mirror rather than at Paige. "How about this?" Paige nodded her approval.

"I can't believe how clueless I was!" Paige continued, shaking her head.

Emily cupped the side of Paige's face, allowing herself one moment of emotion at the memory. "Adorably clueless," she corrected before she turned around to grab something else from the closet. "This one?"

"It looks fine, Emily. They all look fine. You look fine."

Emily rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I love you, too. But how is this helping me?"

Paige and Emily thoroughly enjoyed their couples' date. Vicki and Bob were still in the honeymoon stage of their relationship, trying to learn each other while they were falling over each other to show their affection. Vicki kept looking over at Paige and Emily for their approval. It was a bit like watching your favorite movie with friends who hadn't seen it, constantly checking for affirmation that it really is as good as you told them that it was. Bob was a freshman, but he was taking mostly upper-level classes. He was about as different from Vicki as possible, the bookish nerd to her airheaded jock. But they were cute to watch together, and it didn't take long to see that they brought out the best in each other. It was kind of like watching one of those schmaltzy movies where the social outcast ends up dating the head cheerleader, and they both learn something about each other... and themselves.

"How did you two meet?" Emily wondered out loud.

"Physics project" Bob responded, and Paige and Emily looked at each other, astonished.

"He put an classified in the Stanford Daily," Vicki explained. "He needed a swimmer for some air versus water thing."

"Acceleration comparisons of fluid flows over the human body," Bob filled in.

"So, I called the number."

"I just assumed that I would be studying the male anatomy, but life is full of surprises. A pleasant surprise, in this case!"

"So, I met him at the pool. When I took off my warm up suit, he got so adorably flustered…"

"Yes. Adorably flustered is my superpower. If only my fellow men realized its power over women!"

"I just wanted to pick him up and give him an ice cream cone."

"Shortness is another of my superpowers. Very disarming."

"So, after he made me do dozens of laps and put me on this camera contraption where he photographed me from every different angle…"

"All in the name of science," Bob defended with a smirk.

"… he said, 'Well, after all that, the least I can do is treat you to a fine dinner.' He took me to McDonald's"

"Hey – starving college student, here!"

"I drove."

"Ah, but I navigated!"

"And we ended up sitting in the lobby till they closed. He's surprisingly easy to talk to," Vicki teased, shoving him in the shoulder.

"I noticed," Paige affirmed. She and Emily were looking forward to more evenings out with the two of them.

"They make a cute couple, don't you think?"

Emily agreed. "It's nice to have friends nearby. Plus, you know, it feels as if they're our friends, not your friends or my friends."

"Do you think that they'll last?"

"Well, they genuinely seem to care about each other. But it's early days, you know?"

Paige dropped her voice. "Do you think that we'll last?"

Emily tilted her head up to look at Paige. "Is this about your parents?"

"I mean, most couples don't last, do they?"

Emily thought for a while before she responded. She didn't want to downplay Paige's fears, but she didn't want to feed any doubts that Paige was having about their relationship.

"Well, I don't know about most couples. All I know about is the two of us. All I know about is how I feel about you, and what I can see that you feel about me. I'm not going to walk away, Paige. You may change and I may change, but I can tell you this: I'll fight for you. Because what we have doesn't come around every day."

"Promise me, Emily?"

Emily sat up next to Paige and took both of her hands. "I promise that I'll fight for you, Paige McCullers."

"I'll fight for you, too, Emily," Paige replied hugging her close.

"I like how it feels when I'm in your arms," Emily said after the hug, when she leaned back under Paige's arm. "I feel so protected."

"Yeah?" Emily nodded into Paige's chest. Paige kissed the top of her head. "I like the feeling of holding you in my arms. It feels... - never mind."

Emily moved her body back a bit so that she could look Paige in the eye. She wanted to know what sentimental, mushy thing Paige had almost let slip out. "What? What does it feel like?" she asked, smiling.

"There's - it's - however I say it, it's not going to come out good."

"Well, now you have to tell me!" Emily was still smiling.

"Okay, well, don't get mad, but - it just makes me feel that you're... mine, I don't know. Sorry."

Emily kissed Paige under the jaw and reclaimed her position under Paige's arm. "Yeah? Well, I am." Paige pulled her in tighter.

"We're going to make it," Emily assured her, and Paige nodded her head vigorously in agreement.