Next chapter! Expect angst.

"Can I get a black coffee to go, please?" Paige asked softly, her eyes fixed to Emily's back. She had been standing there for a few seconds, trying to muster up the courage to even speak to Emily.

Emily turned around at the sound of Paige's voice. "Paige. Uh...hey." She stared at her for a long moment before she shook her head to break herself out of her stupor. "Coffee. Sure."

"Thanks." Paige said quietly. Instead of watching Emily, she busied herself with digging through her pockets for the money she had distractedly shoved in there on the way out of the house.

"How have you been?" Emily asked softly, turning away to pour Paige's coffee into the cup. "It seems like the only time I see you now is when you need caffeine."

Paige looked up with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I've just been kind of busy with swimming and thinking about college. You know how it is."

Emily nodded pensively and pressed the lid onto Paige's cup of coffee.

Paige handed over the money and was about to make a hasty retreat when she noticed movement to the left. She'd been too distracted by Emily to notice anyone else when she had walked into the coffee shop. She frowned when she spotted Hanna standing a short distance away with a guy Paige didn't recognize. "Who's that?"

Emily followed Paige's confused gaze and felt her heart drop when she noticed that Paige was looking at Hanna. "Oh, that's just Zack."

"Zack?" Paige took a small step toward Hanna and the man, leaving her coffee behind on the counter. She faltered for a moment, torn between rushing to Hanna's rescue and staying away so that Emily didn't get the wrong idea.

"Paige?" Emily called in confusion. "Your coffee?"

"Right." Paige muttered faintly, trying to force herself to turn away from what was happening. She had barely turned an inch however when she spotted Zack put his hand on Hanna's arm. Forgetting about her coffee, she moved quickly across the coffee shop and slid between the two of them, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Are you okay, Hanna?" She asked softly, vaguely aware of Hanna's close proximity.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Hanna mumbled though she didn't look it at all. She mindlessly slipped her hand into Paige's, thankfully out of view of Emily. "Zack was just leaving."

Paige raised an eyebrow at Zack but when he didn't move she started to get impatient. "Okay, what the hell is your problem? She told you to back off so back off and leave her alone."

Emily moved out from behind the counter, glancing between the three in concern. As far as she knew, Paige didn't even know Zack. "What's going on?"

"I know what you're doing." Paige spoke in a dangerously low tone of voice as she glared at Zack. "She said no. If you put your hands on her again you're going to regret it. Now get out."

Zack tried to look past Paige. "Hanna, I just want to…"

Paige pulled her hand from Hanna's and shoved Zack harshly, causing him to stumble back.

"Paige!" Emily stepped closer to Paige and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down. What's going on?"

Paige didn't say anything for a long moment, merely watching as Zack walked out of the coffee shop. She finally relaxed and turned back to Emily. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make a scene. I'll just get my coffee and leave." She discreetly brushed her hand aganst Hanna's before she hurried off to the counter and grabbed her coffee.

Emily watched Paige leave before turning to Hanna with a confused look on her face. "What was that about?"

"Nothing." Hanna answered, looking away.

"Did he do something to you?" Emily asked, recalling Paige telling Zack not to put his hands on Hanna again. Irritation crept into her tone. "Did he try something?"

"Em, just drop it." Hanna said pleadingly. She really didn't want to get into the conversation when Aria was still mad at her. The fact that Emily jumped to that conclusion rather than the one Aria had jumped to made her feel slightly better though.

"Okay." Emily conceded, holding her hands up. Her friendship with Hanna was already on rocky ground, she didn't want to do anything to make it worse. "Is that a new jacket?"

"Yeah, I um...I bought it a couple of days ago." Hanna answered awkwardly, pulling the jacket tighter around herself.

"It looks familiar." Emily said thoughtfully as she regarded the jacket. She was sure she had seen it before, though she wasn't sure where.

"Well it's not, what's with the third degree?" Hanna asked defensively. "I have to go, I told Spencer I would meet her. I'll see you later, Emily."

"Okay." Emily stared after Hanna in confusion as she rushed away. She stood there for a moment, wondering what was going on with everyone before she finally forced herself to go back to work.

XXX

"You came."

Paige flinched at the voice that sounded from behind her and she turned around quickly. She relaxed when she found Hanna walking toward her and offered her a small smile. "Of course I came, you asked me to."

Hanna glanced over at the swings but decided against sitting on one in favour of stepping closer to Paige. "I wanted to thank you for what you did this morning. You didn't have to step in like that, especially with Emily there."

Paige frowned. "Yes, I did. I would never stand by and watch you get hurt, Hanna."

Hanna looked down at the ground, briefly nibbling on her bottom lip before she looked back up at Paige. "I made up with Aria. She apologized for not believing me."

"Good. I knew she would come around." Paige spoke softly, her eyes lingering on Hanna.

"Anyway, I came to give you your jacket back too." Hanna said, touching the zip of the jacket she was wearing. "I thought you might want it back."

"I'm wearing a different jacket, you can keep that one for a while. If you want." Paige bit shifted uncomfortably as she watched Hanna. "I want you to have it."

Hanna frowned and looked up in confusion. "Why?"

"Because I don't want you to get cold?" Paige attempted to joke. She quickly turned serious when Hanna merely stared at her. "I-I don't know. You can give it back if you want."

"No, I want it. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" Hanna trailed off and sighed softly. "This is just weird. I've never felt awkward around you."

"And now you do. Because of me." Paige said despondently. She swallowed heavily and looked down at the leaf covered ground. She hated that she had ruined what they had together. It wasn't until Hanna's shoes came into her line of sight that she finally looked up. She took a shuddering breath when she noticed how close Hanna was.

"I meant what I said yesterday." Hanna spoke softly, clenching the sleeves of the jacket in her fists to keep herself from reaching out to touch Paige. "I miss you."

"I miss you t-"

"Not in that way." Hanna cut in, not wanting to hear the words come from Paige's mouth again. "You don't mean it like I do."

"Yes, I do."

"Oh." Hanna's eyes dipped to Paige's lips for a moment before she forced herself to take a step back. "It doesn't matter. You didn't choose me. We're not doing this again, we're not going to argue and end up kissing again. We always do that and it doesn't change anything. You still didn't choose me."

"Hanna, I couldn't." Paige said defeatedly, her shoulders slumping. "This whole thing was ruining your friendship with Emily. When we started dating, I didn't know Emily would suddenly want me back. I didn't know any of this would happen, but I couldn't do anything else to risk your friendship with her. If I'd chosen between you that's what would have happened. I didn't want to hurt either of you."

Hanna scoffed and looked away, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Well you hurt me. Emily, not so much. She seems happy screwing Alison. She didn't want you back, she just didn't want you to be with me."

Hanna sighed and rubbed her temples. "Fuck." She moved over to the nearby tree and sunk down onto the ground against it. She leaned her head back against the bark and closed her eyes. "I didn't mean that. Emily is my best friend, I don't know why I said that."

Paige hesitated for a moment before she walked over to Hanna and sat down next to her.

"Emily is hurting too, I don't want you to think she's not." Hanna spoke softly, her gaze fixed straight ahead of her. She couldn't bring herself to look in Paige's direction. "I was just trying to...I don't know, I was mad at her. But we're fixing things now. We're trying to fix it."

"I'm sorry." Paige whispered regretfully.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up. It's in the past." Hanna felt her eyes beginning to water and she leaned into Paige's side, resting her head on her shoulder. "I just really miss you."

Paige sighed and wrapped her arm around Hanna's shoulders. She kissed the top of the blonde's head and they fell into silence for a few minutes until Paige spoke up again. "Why did you ask me to meet you in the park? It's kind of out of the way."

"I don't know, there's less chance of Emily seeing us here." Hanna said distractedly, her mind still on her thoughts from earlier. "This is such a mess."

Paige couldn't bring herself to argue with that so she merely gave a nod in response. They sat there in silence for a few minutes until Hanna finally found the strength to move. She turned her head and cupped Paige's face in her hand, leaning in to give her a lingering kiss.

Paige was surprised but leaned into the kiss, her eyes fluttering shut. She felt Hanna pull away and opened her eyes to see her stand up.

"I'm tired of fighting, Paige." Hanna said morosely. "I never wanted to give you up but I want you to be happy. I want Emily to be happy. I've seen you guys together, you're meant to be or something." She hesitated for a moment before she stripped off Paige's jacket and offered it to her. "If you want to be with her, don't worry about me. I'll get over it. I should get over it, I have to move on."

"Hanna…" Paige took the jacket numbly.

Hanna opened her mouth to say something but promptly closed it again. Without another word she turned and walked away. She vaguely heard Paige scramble up from her position on the ground, calling out her name but she ignored her.

"Hanna!" Paige yelled after Hanna, clenching her fist around the jacket. She took a few steps toward her but stopped helplessly.

XXX

"So I told her that she should be with Emily." Hanna concluded, somewhat breathlessly as she stared back at a confused looking Aria. "I told her that they were meant to be together, I gave her jacket back and I left."

Aria opened and closed her mouth a few times, still a little confused as to what was going on. Hanna had shown up at her door, announced that she was staying the night and proceeded to fill her in on her seemingly eventful night. "So Paige is going to be with Emily?"

Hanna shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I gave her permission. I don't see why she wouldn't."

Aria eyed Hanna in concern. "You seem okay with that."

Hanna laughed at the observation and shook her head. "I couldn't be less okay with it, I just...I think I might be in shock. Emotional shock of whatever. I actually told her to go for it with Emily, I wanted to tell her something completely different but I didn't."

"What did you want to tell her?" Aria asked softly, watching Hanna closely in search of any indication of what she was feeling.

"I was going to tell her that I love her and that I want her to choose me. But I didn't." Hanna's bottom lip trembled and she felt a painful lump form in her throat. She lay down on her back, staring up at the ceiling. A few seconds later she felt Aria join her. She turned her head to look at her. "I did the right thing, didn't I? Emily and Paige were in love long before I came along. It would be selfish of me to ask Paige to choose me."

"I don't know, Hanna." Aria whispered honestly.

Hanna took a shuddering breath and turned back to the ceiling, her eyes prickling with tears.

TBC.