Pam Fields thought that she had made plans with her daughter to have lunch, but Emily made another excuse as she quickly left their house. She was used to Emily being busy with all of her commitments, but she missed her daughter and wanted to spend time with her, while she was finally back in Rosewood.

Emily got her in car as Pam realized she had received an urgent letter from Pepperdine. Pam called after her, but Emily had already starting pulling away. The letter seemed time sensitive, so she innocently opened it and had planned to just text Emily about it.

What she read in the letter though, surprised her. Suddenly she realized that her daughter had been lying to her. If Emily had been willing to lie about something as big as this, what else was she lying about?

Emily pulled up the Hollis Medical Center and headed right towards her doctor's office. Emily was so distracted, reading a text from her mom about making sure she's home for dinner, that she wasn't paying attention and bumped right into someone.

"OMG, I'm sorry!" Emily said to the other woman as she bent down to her collect her things from the ground. When Emily looked up at the woman she had bumped into, she was shocked to see who it was. It was Paige McCullers.

"Just as distracted as always. ..I'm glad some things never change." Paige joked with Emily.

"Paige?" Emily said sounding surprised, but finding herself also oddly happy to see her, "Sorry about that! I should know better than to text and walk. You think I would have learned in high school after all."

Emily couldn't remember when the last time they had seen each other was, but she thought it must have been at least a year. They met at Rosewood, on the high school swim team, before Paige's family moved to San Francisco. They even dated for a brief time before Emily started dating Hanna. Paige eventually went on to get a full ride to USC, so they used to run into each other at swim meets and even a few times, in recent years, at gay bars around LA. It was comforting for both girls to see a friendly face being away home and they had always been on good terms.

"Don't worry about it, Em." Paige reassured her as she smiled brightly. "It's really good to see you…uh…you look great.!" She finished awkwardly.

"No…but you do…look great I mean.." Emily stammered, feeling embarrassed because Paige looked better than ever. Emily remembered that Paige had torn her rotator cuff, during her senior year at USC, and stopped swimming competitively, but she looked just as toned as ever. Emily on the other hand felt bloated from the hormones. It wasn't obvious to anyone else, but it was enough that it made Emily feel self-conscious. Emily wrapped her arms around her own waist, shifting her weight slightly, trying to ignore how awkward she was feeling.

Paige blushed at Emily's compliment, but tried not to let it show and changed the subject quickly, "Hey, so, I have an interview right now, but I'll be free in like an hour. Do you want to grab a coffee and catch up?"

That was more than enough time for Emily to finish up with her appointment, so she casually accepted the invitation to meet at The Brew that afternoon.

An hour later, Paige walked into The Brew to find Emily sitting at a couch in the corner with a cup of tea. Emily smiled warmly from across the café and Paige felt her stomach flip. The sight of the beautiful girl still gave her butterflies, even after all these years.

She walked towards Emily, who stood to greet her. Paige hoped that Emily couldn't feel the rise in her body temperature, when they hugged. Needing a second to calm her nerves, Paige excused herself to grab a cup of coffee from the counter.

Paige brought her coffee back and sat down next to Emily on the couch, trying to keep an acceptable distance without being obvious. The two fell into old habits quickly. Their friendship had started out rocky, but mostly because Paige was struggling to come to terms with who she really was. Once she had come out to herself and to her family, the two became friends, much to Paige's disappointment.

Paige enjoyed having Emily in her life in any way she could, but deep down she had always wanted more. Timing though was never on their side. By the time Paige was ready for a relationship, Emily and Hanna were already together. Once they eventually broke up, Emily was not in a place to date anyone, at least not seriously. About a year ago Paige had thought things may have finally changed, but she had been wrong.

That was a conversation she was hoping to avoid with Emily though, not wanting to make their brief reunion awkward. So instead, Paige navigated the conversation carefully. She talked of her med school interviews, after learning quickly that the corporate world was not for her. She also learned in greater detail how the last few years had actually been for Emily. She already had some idea, since she had run into Emily drunk on several occasions. She tried to always be there for Emily though, wanting to make sure she got home safely. She was happy to see that Emily was starting to turn her life around.

[Flashback]

It was graduation night and Paige was out with friends celebrating. They had all just completed their undergrad and wanted one last night of fun before they all started their first real jobs in the corporate world.

They started as a big group at a local college hang-out, but as the night went on, the group dwindled to just a few of Paige's closest friends. Her gay best friend, Sean, who ironically enough, she dated briefly in high school at Rosewood, insisted that they hit up the local gay club because they both needed some "action" (his words).

He often teased her for being 'too uptight' or too 'conservative' just because she was not one to sleep around. In fact she had only ever been with two girls, both of whom she had been in fairly serious relationships with.

After several more shots and a few too many margaritas, she finally agreed that he could be her 'wing-man'. She didn't really plan to go home with anyone, but she figured she could humor him for a while and then just sneak out when he eventually went to the bathroom to hook up, as he so often did.

Right on cue, about an hour later, Sean had found someone that caught his eye. Just as Paige was closing out her tab and getting ready to leave, she saw her. Her heart skipped a beat, as it did every time she saw Emily.

They used to see each other a lot more often, but ever since Emily stopped swimming at Pepperdine, it had been less often and rarely sober. Paige never asked Emily what happened with school, but she had heard various rumors. College wasn't for everyone and she knew Emily had taken her father's death very hard. Emily never seemed like she wanted to talk about it, so Paige never pushed the issue.

Emily spotted Paige right away and motioned for her to come over. Paige obliged and walked over towards Emily, who had taken a seat at the end of the bar, by herself. Emily got up from her stool to greet Paige and practically fell into her. Paige had to hold her up to keep her from falling, but being more than a little drunk herself, they both almost fell. As Paige regained her balance and held Emily upright, she could feel Emily wrap her arms around her waist to hold her as well. Before Paige knew what was happening, she felt Emily's lips against her own.

It was like a dream. Paige's head was spinning with all of the reasons that this was a bad idea, but her body and lips ignored her. They kissed for what felt like hours, even days, but it was probably only a few minutes.

"Take me back to your place." Emily said huskily to Paige when she finally broke away from the kiss.

Paige gulped at the proposition. She didn't know if it was the tequila or nerves, but she could only bring herself to nod her head. At Paige's silent acceptance, Emily intertwined their hands and led them out of the club.

They made out the entire cab ride back to Paige's apartment. When they arrived, Paige struggled looking for her keys in her bag as Emily assaulted her neck and exposed shoulders with her mouth, from behind.

Once in the apartment, Emily wasted no time in untying Paige's halter top and unclasping her bra. Paige broke the kiss briefly to discard the clothing. Emily took this opportunity to take off her own dress, revealing that she had not been wearing anything but lacy underwear underneath. Emily watched and smiled coyly as Paige's mouth fell open.

Emily then turned and walked straight into Paige's bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed. Paige took a deep breath and then began walking towards Emily. Thankful for the false confidence that always came when she drank tequila, she walked towards Emily and began taking off her remaining clothes, slowly and teasingly. Soon she stood naked in front of a waiting Emily.

Paige knew deep down that this was a bad idea and that it was escalating far too quickly. But she had wanted this for so long that she wanted to let herself believe it was OK.

"Are you sure?" Paige said in a cracked voice, her liquid courage betraying her briefly.

Emily looked up at her through hazy, yet vulnerable eyes, which showed no signs of hesitation. Instead of replying, Emily reached out and pulled Paige down onto her lap, so that she was straddling her. Paige ignored the voice in her head and focused on the silent approval she had been granted. She kissed Emily hungrily before pushing her back further onto the bed.

The sex was incredible, by far the best that Paige had ever had. There was an honesty and vulnerability to Emily that she hadn't expected. Emily clung to Paige as she came, making Paige felt needed and wanted for the first time in a long time, or maybe ever.

Afterwards she could see tears forming in Emily's eyes. She wasn't sure what they meant, so she simply held Emily tightly in her arms until they both fell asleep. But when Paige woke, she quickly discovered that she was alone. She texted Emily, or at least the number she had in her phone for Emily, but never heard back.

[End flashback]

Paige's memory of that night was interrupted by the sound of Emily's phone chirping.

Dinner is in the oven. Be home in 20. We need to talk. - Mom

Emily saw her mother's text and politely told Paige that she had to go, but that they should get together again while they are both still in town. They hugged and Emily was surprised that Paige was pulled away quickly and that she had been tentative with her the entire afternoon, but had too much else on her mind to wonder why.

Emily was anxious about the "We need to talk" in her mother's text, but she tried not to let it ruin the good mood she was in. She had forgotten how much she enjoyed Paige's company.

Pam is waiting for Emily at the kitchen table when she hears Emily's keys in the front door. She had been agonizing all day about how to broach the subject and decided that she just needed to be direct and calm.

"So you've just been lying, this whole time?" Pam blurted out when Emily walked in, unable to keep her composure the way she had hoped.

Her mother took her by surprise, but the conversation was inevitable. Emily was finally forced to be honest with her mother, about almost everything. She didn't tell her about the procedure, figuring it was too much for her to handle along with everything else.

But Emily still felt relieved that her mother finally knew the truth about school and swimming. She knew now though, that it was likely that her mother would insist that she stay in Rosewood, since she really didn't have to anything to go back to except a dead-end bartending job.

A few days ago that would have terrified her, but after her talk with Hanna that morning, and spending the afternoon with Paige, for the first time in a long time Emily was optimistic about what Rosewood might hold in store for her.