Paige takes a week off. She does spend a little time in the ring at the performance center, trying to get her mind back on her job, and it has mixed results. Sometimes she's with it, sometimes she fears she's about to injure herself or her opponent. The look on Ricardo's face in the last video chat, or the feel of Memo on her lips, haunts her and keeps her from focusing.

She leaves the permance center before too long, returning to Alberto's house and sitting in the living room living room and looking around at the pictures. Of the group, of Alberto, Ricardo and Sofia together... a couple of Paige and Ricardo... She sniffs and picks one up, remembering it. Not long after Ricardo had moved back here, when things were still so new and uncertain between them. When just seeing each other across the room was enough to make their entire faces light up... before he was released from WWE, and she joined Total Divas, and everything went to hell.

She checks his twitter account, his instagram. Watches the videos, reads his tweets, imagines them in his voice. Smiles over his pride, frowns over his more subtle, confusing tweets, wondering if they're aimed at her, or someone else. If perhaps he had found out, if Memo had decided to tell him, or... if perhaps Alberto had learned and had told his best friend. She blows out a tired breath and sinks down deeper into hte cushions, burying her face in her hands.

She apparently falls asleep like that because, when she next registers what's going on around her, Sofia is sitting next to her, lightly stroking her back with one hand and wiping down her face with a towel held in the other. Paige breathes heavily and tackles Sofia in a painful, sobbing kind of hug. "I'm such a screw up," she wails, not that surprised to find she'd been crying in hersleep. "I've ruined everything and now everyone's going to hate me."

Sofia holds her, Sofia rocks her, Sofia says very little while she waits this maelstrom out. "Que? ¿Qué es, mi hija? Por favor," she beseeches, pulling away and running her fingers through PAige's hair. "Por favor..."

"I thought-" Paige finally chokes out, her eyes red and puffy from crying so hard for so long. "It was Christmas Eve and I thought... I thought I saw Ricardo and I ran forward and kissed him but... but it was Memo, I kissed Memo." She sobs harder and buries her face in Sofia's chest, feeling as she tenses up for a moment before hugging Paige. "Why do I mess everything up, Sofia? Why?"

Sofia holds her, rocks her, kisses the top of her head. "Oh my sweet girl, no no, you haven't messed anything up. It was an honest mistake." Sofia smiles sadly. "Truth be told, after senor fired Ricardo, I mistakened Memo for him as well a couple of times. I just wanted it to be Ricardo so badly. And Memo is a beautiful young man, I adore him as much as I adore any member of senor's family, but he wasn't who I needed or wanted to see at the moment." She smiles sadly down at Paige. "Ricardo will understand. I promise you."

Paige sniffs and buries her face in Sofia's shoulder once more, the real world hard to face right now. "I hope you're right," she says, staring ahead into the dark solitude that Sofia's warmth is providing her.

-x

Alicia lays in Alex's arms, staring up at the ceiling. Their marriage, though faced with some rocky times through his recovery, and some of the things he's said and done, is holding steady and she smiles, kissing his arm as he stirs under her. "Hey, A-Ri," she whispers, giggling when he traces circles in her spine.

"Hey, Foxy." He sits up and brushes her hair out of her eyes, staring at her for so long that she starts to look worried. "I've been told my return to the ring is going to be booked for a couple of weeks from now at NXT."

Her eyes widen, her lips part into a soft smile, and she launches herself into him in a tight hug. "I'm so happy for you, Alex, I know you've been waiting for this moment for so long!" He hugs her just as tight before pulling away and kissing her softly, then longer, hotter. She whimpers, digging her nails into his shoulders. She's missed this, this easy kind of intensity between them, this fire. He'd been so bitter over how things had went down with Kevin Owens, had been so angry at his injury, focusing all of his waking hours and energy on his rehab and returning to the ring sooner than later...

Her husband had been next to her in bed, holding her hand while they went on walks or telling her silly stories at the dinner table, but only just barely. Now, as his lips trace down her neck and throat, she arches against him and realizes that he's back. Now that he knows, now that he has a date and a place, his hands and mouth reintroduce themselves to her and she keens, running her fingers through his hair as he lays her down against the bed and hovers over her, eyes gleaming in the morning light. "Thank you for being so patient," he whispers to her. "Thank you for never giving up on me. On us."

She smiles and shakes her head. "I never will, I promise you." His lips feel like fireworks against her skin, his fingers explore all the right places, and she whimpers and sighs, breathing out his name every time he slows, taunting her. When they're face to face again, his eyes searching her face, and her hands cupping his jaw, she swallows and shifts, Alex's eyes darkening ever so slightly. "I love you so much."

He kisses her before she's fully finished speaking, the feel of him so close, so warm, surrounding her, inside of her, causing her eyes to flutter shut in relief and bliss. It's as though he can't find it inside of himself to move away from her, to put any sort of distance between them after the last few months, but she feels it as much as hears it when he breathes into her mouth, "I love you more."

She could argue but she doesn't have it in her, instead giggling breathlessly and digging her heels into his calves, pressing even closer to him and vowing to never let him go again, her eyes dark and fixed on his face as he wraps his arms around her and holds on just as tightly, their old familiar rhythms so easy to find once they're actually looking for them.

The sun has long risen when she stirs and looks over to find Alex fast asleep, one arm loosely wrapped around her and one hugging a pillow. She smiles fondly and leans over, kissing him on the temple. "Welcome back, A-Ri," she breathes against his hair. "I've missed you." Snuggling back into his side, she sighs softly and closes her eyes.

For the first time in a long time, sleep comes easily for her too.