Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.
– Ernest Hemingway

"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" Paige asked for the hundredth time as Emily took her bags and loaded them into the trunk. "Pru and I were just planning to stay on campus."

"Paige, relax. I told you, my parents are looking forward to having you and Pru for Thanksgiving. They're dying to meet you!"

This assertion didn't relax Paige at all. She wasn't sure what the Fieldses' expectations were, but she was sure that she wouldn't be able to live up to them. She also had to worry about the potentially awkward run-in with Maya, Emily's ex, in Rosewood. Emily noticed her girlfriend's still-furrowed brow, so she squeezed her hand and gave her a quick peck on the lips. "It'll be fine, I promise."

"Easy for you to say," Paige muttered under her breath.

The foursome had hit the road early on Wednesday afternoon, in hopes of avoiding traffic. (Dr. Markham, anticipating that many of her students would want to beat the rush and leave campus on the day before Thanksgiving, had scheduled an optional review session instead of that night's seminar.) Traffic wasn't horrible, but the trip was taking longer than they expected. As the trip grew steadily longer, Paige grew steadily more anxious. Seeing Paige's leg bouncing up and down in her peripheral vision was starting to annoy Emily. It didn't help when Paige spat out, "Do you think we should try some backroads? Maybe that will be faster."

"I'm pretty sure that we're going to hit traffic no matter what way we go."

"Well, check the GPS. Maybe it can route us around the traffic."

"Paige, I've driven home dozens of times. Just trust me - I know how to get there."

"I'm only trying to help. It just seems to me that we're not making that much progress this way."

"You know what I've found?" Emily was getting a little frustrated with the traffic and the advice. "I've found that driving is an activity that works best when only one person is doing it."

Pru and Hanna had been asleep in the back seat. Their heads popped up as the conversation in the front grew more animated.

"So, what does that mean?" Paige inquired.

Emily pinched the bridge of her nose and took a moment to calm herself down. "Nothing. I'm sorry. I'm just - just let me drive, okay? It's just traffic."

"Are you saying you wish you hadn't invited me?"

"What? No, Paige - jeez, calm down - I..."

"Don't tell me to calm down! If you don't want me to meet your parents anymore, you can just take me back to campus. It's not that far from here, considering how slowly we're moving!"

"Ouch!" Pru exclaimed from the back seat.

"Waaah," Hanna yelled, "I don't like it when Mommies fight!"

"I think Mommy might be having her lady times," Pru speculated.

"I think Mommy needs to get laid," Hanna threw back.

Paige turned around in her seat and gave them a death glare. Emily put a hand on Paige's thigh to soothe her, but Paige angrily brushed it off and turned her back to her, fixing her gaze out the window.

"All right!" Emily announced. "We're pulling off at the next rest stop. We could all use a break."

"Yay! Ice cream!" Pru yelled.

"Yay! Caffeine!" Hanna added.

The girls grabbed Starbucks and a table at the next rest area. Emily was seated next to Paige, and could feel Paige's eyes looking up at her, but she kept her own eyes focused intently on the logo emblazoned on the side of her cardboard cup as she ran her finger up and down its length. The mood was so tense that Hanna and Pru didn't even dare try to lighten it. They just kept moving their eyes back and forth between the two, like spectators at Wimbledon.

Finally, Paige broke the silence with a weak, "I'm sorry!" as she lightly placed her hand on Emily's forearm, to force her attention.

"It's okay," Emily replied, still engaged in a staring contest with the mermaid on her coffee cup.

"No, it's not," Paige continued, gripping her girlfriend's arm a little. "I'm just anxious about meeting your parents. I'm sorry. Please don't be mad."

"It's okay. I'm not mad."

"Emily, can you look at me?"

Emily transferred her death glare from the coffee cup onto Paige, making Paige wish that she hadn't asked. The two spectators gasped and averted their eyes. Paige turned away from Emily's intense stare, moving her hand from Emily's forearm and underneath the table, expelling a muted sigh. This finally got Emily's attention. She put her palms over her eyes and rubbed, then rolled her neck a couple of times. She knew that she had gone over the line, but she was having a hard time calming herself down under the intensity of everyone's scrutiny. She really needed to go off by herself, but she knew that, in her current mood, there was no way that she could explain this need to Paige without making her feel rejected. She reached into Paige's lap, grabbed her hand, and said, without emotion, "I need some air. Will you come with me, please?"

Pru's eyes widened as she was about to make an innuendo, but Hanna shut her down with a subtle shake of the head. She had seen Emily in this state before. Once Emily and Paige were out of earshot, she explained to Pru, "Emily is like a 747 jet. It takes a lot to get her going, but, once she's up there, it's hard for her to stop."

"Is Paige okay?"

"I hope so. Usually, when Em gets like this, she goes off by herself till she can calm down."

"So, why did she take Paige with her?"

"I don't know. Maybe, after Maya, she learned that leaving an upset, vulnerable girlfriend by herself isn't the best thing for a relationship."

Paige and Emily walked outside into the cold, Pennsylvania afternoon. Paige didn't know what to say, so she just huddled closer to Emily for warmth. Emily still wasn't looking at her, and Paige tried not to allow herself to be hurt by that. Emily was still holding her hand, though, rubbing her thumb across the back of it. She gripped it tighter, still looking off into the horizon, as she started to speak. "Paige, I'm sorry. I really am. I want you to understand that I'm not angry with you. It's just hard for me to calm down once I lose it."

Paige sensed that Emily still had more to say, so she just nodded her head and listened.

"I would never regret inviting you home with me -"

"I know, Emily. I shouldn't have said that!" Paige was desperate for Emily to look at her.

"I know that you know, Paige. But it's okay for you to say that. I know that our hearts sometimes make us fear things that our brains know aren't true, but, unless those fears are vocalized, they just get bigger and more troublesome. You can tell me anything, Paige. And even when I'm mad - even when I can't talk to you, nothing's going to make me not love you. You know that, don't you?"

"I know that you love me. I just don't know what I'm supposed to do..."

Paige really needed to see Emily's eyes; to see that they were okay, not just hear it. She moved in front of Emily, and Emily gently latched onto her shoulders and pulled her in for a kiss to her forehead. "Just be with me, please, Paige," Emily asked, her eyes weary and desperate.

"I want to. I want to be with you, Em." Paige hugged her closer and held the embrace. When the chill became too much, they headed back inside to the table where Hanna and Pru were waiting. Paige was holding Emily's left hand in her right, and rubbing Emily's shoulder with her left.

"Mommies are all better, now?" Hanna called out.

"Shut up, Hanna," Emily said, all but laughing. "Let's just get back on the road."

"Yay - Nice Mommies are back!" Pru squealed, clapping her hands.

"I'm not ready to go another round with these two," Paige joked to Emily. But at least they were taking her mind off of her fears of Rosewood.

As they pulled out of the rest area, they noticed that traffic had lightened up significantly during their timeout. Emily called her mom to let her know where they were and give her an ETA. "Okay," Pam Fields replied, "Your father and I will be here! We can't wait to meet Paige!" The whole car was listening to the conversation over the bluetooth. Emily's face flushed. Paige's anxiety eased, a bit, when she heard the eagerness in Pam's voice. Pru and Hanna let out a simultaneous, "Awww!" from the back seat.

"Mom..." Emily whined.

"Oh, and of course, we can't wait to see the rest of you girls, too, Emily! But take it slowly! Get here in one piece!"

The streetlights were just coming on when the four pulled into Rosewood. Paige was getting her final briefing. "Now, what should I call your mom? Mrs. Fields?"

"That would definitely work, but she's not as uptight about it as she used to be. She'll probably tell you to call her 'Pam.'"

"She'll probably tell you to call her 'Mom,'" Hanna interjected.

"Not helping, Hanna!" Emily said into the rear view mirror.

"And your dad goes by Lieutenant Colonel Fields?"

"Actually, you would just say 'Colonel Fields,' but 'Mr. Fields' is fine. Or 'Wayne,' I'm sure." Emily stroked Paige's thigh to calm her. "They're going to love you, Paige. Well, they already love you!"

Before long, they were in front of the house. As Emily fished for her house key, she told Paige, "Now, I have to warn you. My Mom is going to be a little... exuberant." As if on cue, the door burst open, and Paige found herself being lifted into a hug by a shorter version of Emily who was talking a mile a minute, "Oh, PAIGE! I'm so glad to meet you! You look even more beautiful than your pictures on Facebook! Welcome to Rosewood! I'm so glad you're going to spend your Thanksgiving with us!"

Paige looked over at Emily for help. Emily gave her an "I warned you" shrug. "Hi, Mom. HANNA and PRU can't stay. They just stopped by to say hi on their way to Hanna's. And, by the way, your DAUGHTER is here, too!"

"Oh, hi, Baby! Good to see you," Pam said, releasing Paige as she grabbed her daughter's cheek and gave her a kiss. "Nice to meet you, Pru," she said with a hug. "Welcome to Rosewood! Hanna - looking fabulous!" Paige noted that the one-armed hugs were hereditary. Well, except for the full-on bear hug that she'd gotten from Mrs. Fields. "Come inside, girls! Say hi to Wayne!"

Paige didn't know why she was surprised to see Col. Fields in civilian attire. Even though Emily had told her that he was on leave from his base in Texas for the holiday, she could only picture him in uniform. He greeted the girls warmly and asked Pru a couple of "getting to know you" questions before she and Hanna left. Once she had closed the door on those two, Pam Fields announced, "Okay! I hope everybody's hungry!"

Dinner with Emily's family turned out to be pretty much what Paige expected, not what she feared. Pam and Wayne made her feel at ease as she told them all about herself, her upbringing, and her studies. The way that they listened so intently reminded her of the the way that Emily engaged in her first conversation with Pru, at Hanna's art showing. Paige was looking back and forth among the three of them. Emily had obviously gotten her mom's looks and mannerisms, but Paige saw a lot of her dad in Emily's poise and bearing. She was obviously a daddy's girl. Being an only child herself, Paige could relate.

After a while, the conversation moved on, and Emily rolled her eyes as her parents started pulling out the embarrassing stories of her childhood. Col. Fields had a big, booming laugh and a tendency to poke his audience with his elbows to get them laughing, too. The whole experience didn't necessarily seem familiar to Paige, but it seemed to fit her.

Paige helped clear the table after dinner, and Pam grabbed her by the wrist, saying, "We'll leave my husband and Emmy to clean up. Let me give you the tour of the house!"

Mrs. Fields led her by the hand from the basement "rec room" to the upstairs bedrooms, ending the tour in the guest room, which smelled like fresh laundry. There were towels on the bed, as well as a bell. Pam noticed Paige's eye hesitate on the bell and explained, "We keep the alarm system on at night. I imagine that Paige has told you about all the shenanigans that went on in Rosewood when she was in high school." Paige nodded. "If you need to get up for a glass of water or anything, just ring the bell, and Wayne or I will turn off the alarm."

Paige wondered whether this was a not-so-subtle way of saying, "Now, don't try sneaking into my daughter's bedroom after hours!" Then again, Paige had to know how to turn off the alarm, didn't she?

Pam and Paige headed back downstairs to wait for Wayne and Emily to finish in the kitchen. They had the TV on, and Pam was working on the crossword puzzle from the newspaper. When they were finished in the kitchen, Wayne settled into his recliner, and Emily deposited a kiss on Paige's cheek before joining her on the love seat. Exhausted from driving, she laid her head on Paige's shoulder. Paige put her arm around Emily's shoulder and gathered her in. Soon, Emily was asleep, and Paige caught Mrs. Fields nudging her husband to point out how cute Emily looked asleep under Paige's arm.

On Thanksgiving day, Paige helped Emily set seven places at the table. Hanna, her mother, and Pru were joining them for dinner. Usually, Pam Fields had a lot more guests around her Thanksgiving table, but Emily had begged her not to overwhelm Paige.

Before they sat down to dinner, Col. Fields had everyone hold hands around the table while he gave thanks in a big, booming voice. After they sat, before they started passing the food around, they took turns telling what they were thankful for. When it was her turn, all that Paige could think was how genuinely grateful she was to be with family on Thanksgiving.