Sixty seconds makes a minute. Sixty minutes make an hour. A day consists of 24 hours. Seven days in a week. Two weeks takes two lifetimes.

Two weeks ago she was sitting inside the empty clawfoot tub in here parent's bathroom reading the instructions on the home pregnancy test she bought from a drugstore the next town over. The clerk had given her a knowing, somber look. Pregnancy tests purchased after 10 pm were not bought by hopeful couples.

Cold seeped through her boxer briefs to the backs of her outstretched thighs from the porcelain, neither one of them could be moved, though, not even for their comfort.

Emily was perched on the marble countertops, her elegant spine stretching to its full length like the ridge of a mountain just before its apex. Her legs, crossed a slim ankles, tapped without rhythm on the walnut cabinets below.

In her mind, Paige counted the taps, promising herself that she would only ask for an update every 100th tap. She counted one, two, three, five, seven, skipping more numbers with each set because having to be patience was killing her.

Ten, 11, 15, 16, but then the tapping stop and only the gasp Emily had exhaled echoed in the room. She slid off the counter top in stunned grace and moved towards Paige's reaching hands, needing to close the distance between them. It had been there for too long.

And as much as Paige wanted to crumble she made herself a solid thing for Emily to lean on. She would make herself into whatever her girl needed and right now her girl needed strong, steady arms wrapped around her.

"What are we going to do," Emily whispered against the bare skin below Paige's collarbone, feeling the chill against her lips. Reaching with pointed toes, she pushed at the tub handles until hot water started to fill in around them. It helped to soothe them, the steam around rising up, neither one of them caring that their underwear was being soaked. She curled into Paige's side, somewhere finding more space to deepen herself there.

"We'll make an appointment because we need to know for sure," Paige stated simply. It was the next logical step. Her hand slide around Emily's side, fingers spreading wide over her abdomen. "And if the test is right," she hooked a finger under Emily's chin and gentle coaxed it up until worried eyes met hers, "then I am going to be right next to you, in awe of you. Even if you need to be weak and afraid, I'll still be amazed by your strength. No matter what, we'll be together."

Emily pressed up and captured Paige's bottom lip between hers. "Together sounds right," she said before resting her head back on Paige's chest.

"Hi, we have a 4:30 appointment. We took an at home pregnancy test and it was positive and now we are here." Even though Paige had told her the doctor had their own equipment, Emily set the ziplock baggie containing the stick she peed on on the receptionist desk.

The receptionist gave her a tight-lipped smiled and grabbed at the very corner of the bag, throwing it somewhere under her desk. The trashcan, Paige assumed. "You both have appointments?"

Emily paused for a second, not really understanding where the confusion was coming from. "No, we have an appointment," she gestured back and forth between her an Paige, "we're pregnant - maybe pregnant."

"Okay, so you both think you might be pregnant, but only one of you has an appointment?"

Emily just looked at Paige with wide eyes silently pleading for her to step in.

It was something that should have made her heart swell, Emily not understanding that the receptionist wouldn't just assume that Emily was pregnant because of Paige. Her heart could have been soaring, but instead it was just a glaring reminder that they were always going to have to do this. She would always have to explain that, yes, the child was biologically hers and, yes, the child was biologically Emily's. She could hear people now, "You're so lucky that you found a donor with auburn hair like yours."

"The appointment is for Emily, but we're in this together." Paige put her arm around her girlfriend and pulled her into her side. It wasn't the whole reason why Emily kept saying "we," but she hoped it would help.

Realization dawned on the receptionist's face and then a look that made Paige's stomach twist in disgust: sympathy. The story she thought she knew clicking into place, that Paige was the dutiful girlfriend that was sticking by her partner's side even though she obviously must have cheated. They were too young for a planned pregnancy and sperm donors. What other reason could there be? "Are you 18 or with a parent or guardian?"

"We're 18." Emily slide her ID across the desk for proof.

After a quick glance the receptionist went back to typing. "You're all checked in. Have a seat and fill out these forms. The doctor will be with you shortly."

She was studying the swirled pattern on the floor when Emily let out a little laugh. "This form asks if I am sexually active. Only every chance I can get it." Emily leaned over and placed a kiss on Paige's cheek leaving her lips against skin while she whispered, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Paige paused, they didn't keep things from each other, not anymore, "it's stupid."

"Which is it nothing or stupid? Please tell me now if you are spinning out because you promised me 'together' and I need you to keep your promise."

"It's not that. The receptionist, she -"

"Emily," the nurse called out from just outside the security door.

Emily slipped her hand into Paige's and stood, but Paige wouldn't budge from her seat. "Come on," Emily said with a gentle tug.

"I'm going to wait for you out here."

"Are you serious right now?" Paige could only offer her a meek nod. "Fine, but whatever is going on with you, we're unpacking it before we go to bed tonight. I'm not going to let whatever is bothering you keep eating away at you."

Then there she was waiting on Emily again. Regret started tugging at her as soon as the door closed behind Emily, putting that barrier between them. They should be discovering things together. It was their future, their maybe baby, but the thought of being trapped in the exam room with a doctor asking about a father made her eyes sting with tears she didn't want to shed in the middle of the lobby.

Only 30 minutes had passed before the security opened again and Emily stepped through it. Paige stood then, a nervous smile plastered on her face. She couldn't read Emily and when had she ever not been able to read Emily.

No words were exchanged. Emily rushed passed her, not even throwing a glance in her direction, and out the door. They were two blocks away from the Planned Parenthood building before Emily finally spoke, "Stop the car."

She didn't even wait for the car to come to a complete stop before she had her seatbelt undone and door open.

They walked across the expansive field towards the empty playground. Paige wanted to know, wanted to ask why Emily chose to stop at a playground, but she felt like Emily needed silence. She could wait until Emily was ready to share.

They each took a side of the tire swing, legs intertwining in the middle.

Her patience was up. "Hey, Em, talk to me," Paige curled her fingers around Emily's hands and gave them a little squeeze, a gentle reminder that she was there, "This is the first time I haven't been able to read you and -" she paused to push the hair out of Emily's face, "it's terrifying." Then, suddenly, Paige could read her like a warning label and Paige was terrified for another reason.

"Paige, I sincerely hope that this is the only time I will ever have to say this for the rest of our lives, but if you ever, ever leave me alone to face something that is our responsibility again, we will not be okay." Emily grabbed Paige's face, not giving her an opportunity to look away. "I was by myself finding out if I was pregnant with your child. Do you understand?"

There was no use hoping for a redo now, or apologizing. She knew Emily wanted an acknowledgment, sorry didn't matter, even though she was more than she could say. "I will never abandon you like that again." She kissed each knuckle on Emily's hand before she remembered. "Are you...pregnant with my child?" And as scared as they had been two weeks ago, Paige couldn't deny there was a hint of hope in her voice.

Emily went soft again with that question, all of the fire leaving her eyes. "The doctor -" Emily swallowed around the lump in her throat, "she said it was a false positive. I'm not pregnant."

She should have been relieved. They both should be.

A shrug was all she could manage. "At least I have a prescription for birth control now."

"You're sad because you're not pregnant." It wasn't a question. She knew they were both feeling the same way.

"I know it sounds silly and we should probably be celebrating right now, because, Jesus, we had been so careless," Emily wiped at the tears that had barely begun, "but is it so wrong that I let myself imagine nurturing this piece of you inside of me? That we could make something together that was a blend of you and me. Not because it was the right time or it's what expected, but just because we are in love. And our love, our not being able to get enough of each other, made this perfect little oops baby. So it might be silly, but for two weeks I thought was going to have one and half Paiges to love, how could I not be sad?"

Ten minutes ago, Paige didn't know it was possible to mourn the loss of something that was never real. Except, saying their baby wasn't real wasn't quite right either, because for two weeks she had her own daydreams of pressing goodnight kisses to Emily's swollen belly and of placing bandaids on the scraped knees of their spirited daughter - Paige just knew they'd be having a girl. Everything had felt so real.

"I told the doctor about you," Emily said running her fingertips up Paige's arms until they bumped again the edge of her rolled-up sleeves. It was as much for her sake - needing to be touching Paige - as it was for Paige's - trying to ease her worries over someone else knowing about her secret. "She gets it, babe, not in a fascinated or curious kind of way, just that your body is put together a little differently. You don't have to be afraid to go into the room with me again." She leaned forward and clasped her hands behind Paige's neck, making sure their eyes stayed locked. "And I am so, so sorry I didn't realize what was going on with the receptionist until I was in the exam room. To me, you are beautiful and perfect and exactly the way you're supposed to be. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is lucky enough to know someone like you. But Paige, if I had been pregnant, I would have wanted everyone to know that the baby was as much a part of you as it was me."

Paige let out a cleansing breath. "The receptionist gave me this look like she knew our story, but she couldn't have been more wrong. She looked at me like you had cheated -"

"God, Paige, I would never."

"I know," and she did know, it was a certainty, "but I was furious that she thought you were someone who would do something like that. That she would cheapen our relationship to that level. My emotions were all over the place, because I have never been more in love with you than I was watching you insist that, yeah, we are pregnant. Not realizing why someone might not understand what you were saying, but the longer she went without it sinking in the more different I felt. I couldn't go through a repeat of that with the doctor."

Emily kissed her, whispering reassurance into her mouth.

"Let's go back to my place." Paige paused before she could add that her parents weren't home. Somehow that statement didn't seem to fit them anymore, she felt like they had matured a decade since the morning.

They didn't bother with dinner or watching a movie. Both of them knowing what they needed. As soon as Paige got the front door locked, Emily pulled her by the shirt up to the bedroom.

Slowly, they undressed each other before Emily laid down and Paige starting kissing down the length of her body. Two hands on the side of face stopped her progress, "That's not what I want tonight. All I want is to feel you with every part of me."

Paige nodded and moved back up, settling her face into the space of Emily's neck.

Emily took one of the condoms out of the fistfuls that Paige taken from Planned Parenthood and as she rolled it on her she couldn't help, but express how she was really feeling, "I hope it fucking breaks," how they were both feeling.

There was no frenzied thrusting, no pounding, no springs. Paige was trapped, wrapped up in strong arms and thighs. Emily was a steel trap and she wasn't allowing even an inch of space between there bodies. This wasn't about the orgasms, Emily didn't care if Paige stayed hard and inside of her all night, it was about healing from their day. From the loss of something they both knew they shouldn't have been hoping for.

And when Paige eventually did slip her hand through the infinitesimal amount of space between their bodies to rub Emily's clit, she released inside latex from the feeling of Emily's back arching and her body tightening. The two of them not wanting to admit feeling something other than relief when they discovered the condom did its job.

AN:

Ahoy, it's your old pal UlteriorEgo, your old pal EndWorldPeas' alter ego. Yes, I do love stupid names. This week I have felt like a tug boat doing my best to get this massive Paily ship back out into the open water so it can sail again.

Please other Paily writers, let's be tug boats together, because I miss them. We can right the wrongs of the PLL writers. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Anyway, I wrote this story five years ago or whatever. Now, I don't usually read what I write (yes, Karen, that's why there are so many typos) because if I do I'll second guess it all and it will never get posted on here. Friday was the first time I truly read this story, all three chapters, and you guys, it made me blush. Why would you let me write something so dirty? :)

But because I am me I had to try to make you all sad at least once, right? I did. It's who I am. So this chapter is like when your navigation finally catches up and tells you to turn left in 200 feet, but you're three lanes to the right. Maybe I go back to dirty. Maybe I make it a story. Maybe my little tug boat engine blows up and I sink.