Mike walks into Graceland and drops his bag on the couch in the living room. He doesn't have the energy to drag the bag up the stairs. He's not even sure he has the energy to make it up the stairs himself. Mike has been up for 76 hours, and is incredibly jet lagged. He didn't dare sleep on the plane with Jakes' handcuffed beside him. Then there was all the paperwork he had to fill out down at the station, and now he's finally home and it's four am.

He looks around the quiet house before he trudges up the stairs. When he reaches the top stair, he looks between his door and Paige's. His desire for his bed and his need to see her duel within him. He sees her door is cracked open and that makes up his mind for him. He walks to her room and peaks inside, telling himself he just needs to see her sleeping form before he can sleep himself. He won't wake her, he'll just see her once before he goes to his own bed.

A wave of disappointment washes over him when he sees her bed empty and unslept in. A momentary flash of panic rips through his sleepy haze as he relives the moment when he first discovered she was missing at Sylmar. He stumbles back, catching himself on the couch in the sitting area at the top of the stairwell. He sits down, unable to stand any longer and logically goes through the mental steps required to calm himself down.

He knows she wasn't working yesterday, so chances of her getting snatched on her day off were slim. Plus he'd run into Charlie at the station when his plane first landed and she would have told him if Paige was missing. She was probably ok… which just meant… she wasn't sleeping in her bed. She hadn't fallen asleep on the couch or he would have seen her, so that just meant… She had hooked up last night and was sleeping somewhere else.

Mike hates the thought, but it's the most logical solution. He'd talked to Johnny last night before the plane boarded. He said they were all heading out to the Drop to celebrate Mike catching Jakes. Paige hadn't called him since he'd confessed he loved her on the phone the other night, and Mike had been too scared to call her back. He'd blown it. He'd freaked her out and she'd gone out to hook up as a passive aggressive way to avoid dealing with it. He should have known she'd do something like this. It was a common pattern for her. The first time they'd been getting too close, she'd thrown him at Abby. Then again at Jess a second time. This had to be her way of telling him she just wasn't interested in him.

Mike punches the sofa before sinking back into it defeated. It's almost dawn. If he stays here much longer he'll have to witness her get laid parade. Mike groans as he remembers catching her at it once early in his time at Graceland. Even then he'd felt a jealous gnawing in his stomach at the sight of her sneaking back into the house, shoes in hand, her obvious sex hair and day old makeup. If he stays here, he's bound to witness it again, and this time the jealousy may kill him. He knows this and yet he remains on the couch. He's such a masochist. He finally loses the battle against exhaustion and falls asleep restlessly on the sofa, knowing when he wakes his heart will be broken.

"Mike?"

Mike wakes up blearily to see Paige standing over him, shaking him gently.

"Hey. When did you get home?" Her voice is soft and caring, and Mike wants to melt into it until remembers where he is. He fell asleep on the couch in the sitting area upstairs waiting for her to come home after sleeping with someone else. He groans in response, and she smile pityingly down at him.

"You must be exhausted. Couldn't even make it to bed? C'mon." Paige gently brushes his hair back from his face.

She lifts him up off the sofa, and he lets her guide him back to his room. He's determined not to say a word. Not now when he's so tired and so hurt. If he does, he'll just say something he regrets. He'll start another fight, and even if he can't have her as a lover he doesn't want to lose her friendship again. So he just lets her guide him to his room, biting down on his lip to keep from speaking. She helps him to the side of the bed, and then takes a step back and crosses her arms across her chest.

"I'll let you get some sleep then, but I'm glad you're back." Paige tells him. Mike just nods, still not trusting himself to say anything, worried in his exhausted state he may just start crying in front of her which would just be fucking perfect.

He is just going to get in bed when he realizes it's unmade. It was made when he left for the trip. He looks over at her for the first time and really looks at her. Her hair is mussed to the point of bedhead, but not sex-hair, and her face is clean with no makeup on it. She's not wearing clothes from a night out, she's wearing his T-shirt, with a pair of boxers. He looks back to his unmade bed and then back at her, slowly putting two and two together.

"Did you…" Mike's voice cracks and he clears his throat, "Did you sleep in my bed?"

"Um, yeah…" She looks embarrassed as she kicks her foot on the floor.

"So last night, you slept here. That's why you weren't in your bed. You were in mine." Mike groggily puts the logical pieces together much slower than normal.

"I'm sorry. I know that's weird. I just- I didn't expect you home so soon. About the bed… I can change your sheets for you if you want..."

"No, it's fine. I just... What's wrong with your bed?" Mike asks, relieved as he realizes she didn't hook up, but still confused.

"Nothing, I just-" Paige considers lying before finally breaking down and admitting. "It doesn't smell like you."

"That's probably a good thing. I haven't showered in days." Mike says, missing the sentiment she's intending completely.

"Stop it. I think you smell good." Paige says, stepping forward and wrapping him in a hug burying her head in his shoulder, "I missed you."

"I missed you too." Mike is taken off guard by the hug, but tentatively wraps his arms around her waist in response and smells her hair. He stands there for a moment holding her, not really sure what to do. He's so tired he's almost falling over and he knows any move he might make right now could be the wrong one. He wants to kiss her but there is a chance he's misreading the signs. He's so sleep deprived he's not entirely sure this whole thing's not a dream.

"So, I should probably go to sleep." Mike says after a moment of holding her too long.

"Right, you must be exhausted. I'll let you sleep." Paige says, pulling away from him and bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet nervously.

"Thanks. Goodnight… or good morning I guess." Mike yawns as he takes off his shoes and socks to prepare to fall over into his bed. He starts undoing his belt and then hesitates. He looks down at his undone belt and then back up at her, and decides he will just sleep in his jeans and gets into bed. His sheets are still warm from her body heat and he sighs with contentment. This is what he needs. His bed.

"Right. Sleep well." Paige is almost out the door, but she turns around nervously, "Listen, about what you said on the phone…"

"Yeah, we both said a lot of things." He rolls over so his back is to her. Mike doesn't want to have this conversation with her right now. He knows he'll have to talk about his unrequited love declaration with her eventually, but right now he's so exhausted he just wants to curl up in his bed and sleep for the next two days.

"Right." She says looking down again, and still not leaving. "Good night."

Mike sighs and relaxes into the bed, his eyes fluttering shut.

"I didn't say enough." Paige says from the doorway, like she's gathering all her courage. "It took me off guard, but… I think… I love you too."

Mike's eyes shoot open, but he doesn't dare move.

"Maybe I didn't know the first time we met… but I figured it out eventually, later than I should have, and I should have told you." Paige explains, because now that she's talking she can't seem to stop. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have sprung this on you. I've just been thinking about it ever since you said, what you said, and I- I needed to get it out before some other catastrophe hit... but I know it's not the time. You're tired, I should let you get some sleep."

Paige runs out of the room, leaving Mike in bed, trying to decide in his sleepy brain if that really just happened.

Back in her room Paige is pacing, not able to believe what she just did. She looks down and sees her phone buzzing on her night stand.

"Hi." She answers the phone with a smile, seeing whose number it is.

"I want to take you out on a date." Mike's groggy voice cuts right to the point.

"Ok." Paige agrees quickly.

"It's that easy?" Mike asks surprised.

"You think this was easy?" Paige smirks into the phone, because nothing in Mike and Paige's two year history has been easy.

"Good point." Mike's sleepy words begin to slur together. "Come back to bed."

"Are you sure?" Paige says, now leaning against his doorway talking into the phone.

"Come here." Mike's mouth goes dry as he sees her in the doorway.

She smiles at him, closes the door behind her and then scurries across the room to practically jump into bed beside him. He catches her, pulling her in close and kisses her. She kisses him back, feeling a giddy energy knowing they were finally on the same page.

""If this is a dream, I'm going to be so pissed." Mike groans against her lips.

"It's not a dream." Paige assures him. He kisses her again and again, their hands wandering pulling at the other, until Mike's kisses get slower and sloppy almost like he's drunk. When he stubbornly brings his hand down to tug on her shorts, she laughs at his ambition, and pulls away.

"Don't you need to sleep?" She smiles at him, because even though he's half dead with exhaustion, he's still trying to get into her pants.

"I'm awake now." Mike lies as he's kissing up her ear.

"You need to sleep." Paige laughs softly, "I'll still be here tomorrow."

"Promise?" Mike mumbles sleepily against her shoulder, but he's asleep before he hears her response.

"I promise." Paige kisses his forehead as he softly snores beside her. There's nowhere else she'd rather be.