A/N: First, I want to thank anyone who's read, followed, favourited, reblogged chapter links on Tumblr and reviewed my story-especially those of you who reviewed or sent me PMs (and especially to ponderhouse for reviewing every chapter-if you haven't read Flux, you really need to fix that right now). I've never written something like this and didn't know if anyone would even read it, let alone comment, so I've been blown away. But it's been a pleasure to write for Paige and Emily.

Secondly, I've received a lot of questions as to whether I'm writing anything else. The only answer I can give is that I hope I do. I just need the right idea. And time to write, of course. But it may be a while yet. Just know that Paige McCullers is embedded into my soul and I'm not ready to let her go just yet, despite the fact that the PLL writers, JD excepted perhaps, don't seem to want her around right now (and don't get me started about how they handled her "needing space" last night).

Thanks again for reading. I hope you enjoy this final installment.

Emily had only two choices: make a lame excuse and leave, like she had done almost exactly three years ago, or boldly walk back to the couch and take up the space Tessa vacated right next to Paige. She knew what she wanted to do, and she knew what she had to do; now she just needed to figure out how to do it. Instead, she picked a third option and excused herself to the bathroom, which was, she knew, a cowardly move, but she really did have to pee and she wouldn't be able to follow through with her next move without relieving her bladder first. But to leave Paige with a little hint of her intentions, she dragged her fingers across Paige's shoulders as she walked by and turned to her, mouthing, "I'll be right back," and finishing it with a wink. Paige rewarded the gesture with a half-smile of her own.

She really did have to pee, but as soon as she closed the door she called Sam.

"Why are you calling me?" Sam asked instead of offering the traditionally accepted "hello." "You never call me."

"I kissed her, Sam," she said, ignoring all phone protocols herself.

"Paige? You kissed Paige?" Sam asked, her voice having lost its neutral tone.

"Of course I mean Paige," Emily hissed into the phone, trying to keep her voice down. "Who else would I have kissed?"

"Are you peeing?" Sam asked, disgusted.

"I needed a moment to figure out my next step, and I really had to pee," she said in her defense.

"Okay, I'm willing to overlook how gross it is that you're talking to me while you're peeing, but I'm not going to forget it happened."

"Sam, concentrate!" Emily implored. "I kissed Paige, and now I'm kind of freaking out."

Sam sighed. "Why are you freaking out?"

"Are you even listening to me?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, you kissed Paige. It was sort of inevitable, don't you think? She's hot and available and you two were best friends with a history."

"I didn't… I didn't know Paige was gay until a few weeks ago," Emily admitted quietly. "Not for sure."

"But you said in high school—"

"Yeah, I know. But Paige was never out in high school," Emily explained.

"But you guys... You said something happened back then."

"Sam," Emily said. "I tried to bait her into telling me she was gay because, God, Sam, I had the biggest crush on her. Back then, I mean. And when she didn't confirm it, I kissed her and she kissed me back. And it was the easily the most amazing moment of my life, even now. But I freaked out and I left, and she was tearing up and begging me to stay, and I left. And I ignored her calls and dodged her at school and, unless it was absolutely necessary for swimming, I didn't speak to her again until after her accident. And I've regretted it every day since."

Emily let out an audible breath when she finished. It was the first time she had ever spoken about that moment. Even when people at school wondered what happened between the two girls, Emily evaded answering. And she knew that what happened in Paige's bedroom their senior year of high school was the single reason she hadn't maintained a relationship since she finally admitted to herself that she liked girls—that she liked girls in the way she knew she wasn't supposed to like girls and did anyway. It felt good to get it out.

"Fuck," Sam said, exhaling. "And you just kissed her again?" she asked, abandoning her usual snarky tone.

"I wasn't planning on it. It just sort of happened," Emily said in her defense. "Her ex showed up, and Spencer wanted her gone, and it looked like Paige did too, so I just kissed her, acting like I had the right to."

She heard Sam laugh. "You're a fucking mess, Fields."

Emily laughed, but it wasn't really more than a sigh. "What am I going to do, Sam? She's sitting in the other room waiting for me to return from the world's longest bathroom break, and I can't get this wrong."

"Then don't," Sam said simply. "You know what you have to do."

"Yeah," she breathed. "I do."

"In that case, good luck, have fun, be safe, and I'll see you tomorrow some time," she said, hanging up before Emily could respond to what Sam just implied or say goodbye.

Emily washed her hands and opened the door, still unsure of her exact plan but knowing she had couldn't stall any longer. But when she opened the door, she saw Spencer waiting for her, and before she could say anything, Spencer had grabbed her arm and pulled her inside Paige's room.

"Spencer, what the fuck!"

"I wanted to show you something," the other girl said, walking towards the bed.

"You didn't have to physically drag me," Emily reasoned. "I would have followed if you'd asked."

Spencer ignored her, opting instead to open a drawer of the small nightstand beside Paige's bed.

"Should you be doing that?" Emily asked. This wasn't Spencer's room after all.

"Probably not, but I need to show you something," Spencer answered, pulling a picture frame from the drawer. "Besides, this isn't usually in the drawer," she said, handing the frame to Emily, who looked at the photograph inside. "It's usually on the shelf," she explained, pointing to the wall behind Emily's head, which contained a tall, but narrow, bookcase.

It was a picture of Emily and Paige in matching navy-blue Rosewood hoodies, taken just after state championships their junior year when their relay team, the one Emily led off and Paige anchored, broke the state record for the second time in two years. Emily remembered Paige's dad asking for them to smile for the camera. She also remembered that he had to take the photo three or four times because they weren't cooperating in looking at the camera and saying "cheese." The photo in the frame wasn't the one that finally satisfied Mr. McCullers. This was one in which neither Paige nor Emily were looking directly at the camera. Emily's head was slightly cocked to the side, smiling up at Paige and she was clutching at the medal that hung from her neck. In the picture Paige's left arm is wrapped around Emily's shoulders in anticipation of their picture pose, but her right hand is also holding onto Emily's medal, their hands touching slightly, while Paige smiled, looking into Emily's eyes. It was an odd photo to have framed, but Emily understood why she'd chosen it. With everything else going on around them—parents congratulating or consoling their competing children, coaches giving out instructions for trips home or post-meet obligations, swimmers gathering their belongings—nothing mattered to Emily or Paige besides Emily and Paige. It was a moment uncorrupted by anything else.

"Why are you showing me this?" Emily finally asked.

"I wanted you to know that she's had this photo on display since our freshman year. Well, at least until you came over that first day," Spencer explained, without actually explaining anything. It must have been obvious to Spencer that Emily still didn't understand, so she continued. "Whatever happened in high school between you two—the good, the bad? She holds onto this version of you and keeps it close."

Emily looked from the photo to Spencer and then back to the photo again. "What are you trying to tell me?" Emily asked, still confused.

"I'm going to head out and go to Toby's for the night," Spencer said. "I like you, Emily, despite the fact that you swim for Cal." Emily rolled her eyes but smiled at Spencer just the same. She knew her teasing was all in good fun. "I think you two would be really good together. But I also need you to know that if you hurt her again," she said menacingly, "I will end you."

Emily looked up to Spencer to see if she was joking in some way, all the while knowing she wasn't. And nothing in Spencer's eyes contradicted her words as they stared silently at each other. Finally Emily nodded in understanding.

"Okay," Spencer said, exhaling loudly as if to lighten the mood a bit now that her best friend duties had been performed. "I've got a boyfriend I want to see, so I'm going to go grab my stuff." She took the photo from Emily and placed it back in the drawer before turning to exit the room. "You're free to use my bed tonight, but I really hope you don't," she said with a smirk before walking down the small hall to her room.

Emily finally released a breath of her own and walked out of Paige's room towards the living room. Paige was fiddling with the remote control when Emily entered, but immediately stopped when she saw Emily.

"That took a long time. Is everything okay?" she asked cautiously.

Emily could see the fear and doubt in her eyes, but what struck her was how courageous she knew Paige was being in spite of everything that had happened in the last ten minutes. Emily smiled recalling that Paige really was a Gryffindor. She was still, after all these years, the bravest person she knew.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Emily replied, taking the seat closest to Paige, the one Tessa sat in minutes before, as Spencer slipped past them after saying a quick goodbye. Emily smiled at Paige and then bowed her head as she tucked a stand on her hair behind her ear.

"It's okay," Paige said, her mouth turning on one side into a half-smile. "I thought you'd gotten lost or had a toilet malfunction or something." She was teasing Emily, which Emily supposed was a good sign.

"Tessa seemed nice," Emily ventured. "It's too bad she had to leave so soon. I was looking forward to meeting her."

Paige giggled. "Yeah, she said she forgot she had to meet a friend somewhere or something," she said. "I don't think she liked you very much though."

Paige was smirking at Emily with one eyebrow raised, which made Emily chuckle and say, "No? Did she say anything about me?"

"Her exact words were: 'Who the hell is that skank?' She didn't say it in a nice way," she said, giggling even louder at her own joke, which, in turn, made Emily laugh too.

"And what did you tell her?" Emily asked, dying to know how Paige explained what had happened.

Paige's smile faltered for a moment. She dropped her head and took a breath before saying, "I told her you were my high school girlfriend and that we'd sort of started dating again after the accident."

Emily stared at those brown eyes she loved so much. She still didn't know what to say, and she knew she only had this one chance to get it right.

"You know, I sort of really love her," Emily began, not commenting on what Paige just told her.

"Tessa?" Paige asked, confused.

"Yeah," Emily affirmed. "First, she dumps you the day your mom calls me and begs me to go see you, a favour she didn't need to ask once the words 'Paige has been in an accident' came out of her mouth, and then I find her dangling all over you tonight, and, I don't know, I was so jealous of her—that she felt she had the right to be that close to you or the fact that she ever had that right in the first place." She forced herself to look at Paige, who was hanging on every one of Emily's words. "And even though Spencer begged me to find a way to get rid of her, I don't know. When I saw her and saw how excited you were to see me, I forgot about everything, including Spencer's request, and I just had to kiss you. I had to claim you," she admitted as she heard the slightest gasp from Paige's mouth. "And I know I had no right to do that, but I'm not sorry I did. I've wanted to kiss you since I first saw you weeks ago."

Paige didn't say anything. She wasn't looking at Emily anymore, but she wasn't looking away either. She just sat there, eyes watering. Emily could see how hard she breathed, trying for what, Emily didn't know.

But before Paige had a chance to respond to anything she'd just heard, Emily raised the ante. "If I'm being completely honest, I want to kiss you again." This got Paige's attention, her eyes now boring into Emily's. "I want to kiss you like I kissed you in your room three years ago," she continued as Paige looked away and wiped a stray tear from her cheek. "Only this time, I'd skip that part where I made the biggest mistake of my life by freaking out and bailing on you."

She saw Paige swallow and release another audible breath before turning and fixing her gaze upon Emily again. A couple of tears fell freely down her cheek and Emily noticed a ghost of a smile on her face, despite the tears that continued to fall. Finally, after what seemed to Emily like an agonizing amount of time, Paige asked, "What's stopping you?"

It was a good question, and it caught Emily completely off guard. But she recovered quickly, turning her body to the left to face Paige fully. She brought her right hand to Paige's cheek, wiping a tear away with her thumb. She just stared at the girl before her, not quite believing that what was happening was real and not one of the many fantasies she'd been concocting in her head since she was fourteen. She also saw all the fear and uncertainty in Paige's eyes—the same eyes that were also begging Emily to kiss her again, to kiss her like she on her childhood bed.

Emily leaned in closer to Paige's face, careful not to cause pain to her already damaged collarbone and leg, keeping her eyes on Paige's the entire time. When she was still a couple of inches from her waiting lips she said, quietly, "I think I've been in love with you since I was fourteen years old, and—"

She wasn't able to finish her thought because Paige closed the distance and kissed her first, and Emily obliged and kissed her back. It heated up quickly and in the position Emily was in, perpendicular to Paige, she couldn't get the angle she really wanted, so without thinking too much about it, she pulled away from the kiss. Noticing the slightest bit of panic in Paige's eyes, Emily leaned back in for a quick peck before pulling away again to bring her right leg over Paige's lap, so that she was straddling her. It was the only way she could think that would give her better access and not trigger any unnecessary pain for Paige, whose left arm was still trapped in a sling and leg still protected in a cast. The panic in Paige's eyes had now been erased with the unmistakable sign of arousal. Grabbing her face on both sides again, Emily leaned forward and kissed her again, slow and gentle and languid. She didn't want to rush this. She opened her mouth, and Paige followed her lead, opening hers too. When the tips of their tongues met again, she wasn't sure which one of moaned or if they'd somehow reacted in tandem. All she knew was that she was kissing Paige, and it felt right. She tried leaning in closer, trying to get more of her, if possible, since Paige's left forearm blocked her from pressing her body against hers. Paige helped as much as she could by sitting up from where she had been leaning against the sofa, making her taller, easier for Emily to reach her mouth while also allowing Emily to wrap her legs around her waist. Paige brought her right arm around Emily's back to steady her as they continued kissing. Emily savoured it all. She kissed her like she'd wanted to throughout high school. She kissed her like she should have kept kissing her that fateful night in Paige's bedroom. She kissed her like she knew she'd never kissed anyone before and would never be able to kiss anyone again. She kissed her like it was the only thing she ever wanted to do again. When they finally broke apart, breathless, neither girl said anything. They just stared at each other, taking in the reality that they were finally getting everything right.

Emily broke their mutual gaze first to push a stray strand of hair that had fallen out of Paige's ponytail behind her ear.

"We should probably stop," Emily said, leaning forward a few inches to give Paige another tiny kiss on her lips, "because if we don't, I'm not going to be able to, and you're in no condition to do anything else," she finished, laughing when Paige huffed in frustration.

"As it is," Emily continued, "your left arm keeps rubbing and bumping against my chest, and it feels way too good."

Paige looked down to her sling and smiled, before she looked back to Emily and wiggled her eyebrows, making Emily laugh. Emily couldn't help herself from going back in for another kiss, intending it to be quick but unsurprised when it rapidly escalated into something more.

When they pulled apart again, Paige was smirking at Emily. "I thought we were supposed to be stopping," she said, obviously proud of herself.

"We are," Emily agreed. "But when you're kissing the hottest girl you've ever known, the girl you've been in love with forever, the girl who you thought you'd never even speak to again, you'd know how much I don't want to stop right now."

"Emily," Paige said, stroking the side of Emily's ribcage over her shirt. "I've been in love with you from the moment you stood up to Alison for me that first week of high school, and I haven't stopped being in love with you since. So believe me when I say I understand."

"Really?" Emily asked, unable to really believe what Paige just revealed.

"Yes, really," Paige said with the smallest laugh. "Why do you find that hard to believe? Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror?" she asked only half-joking.

"I love you, Paige," Emily said seriously, giving Paige a short but lingering kiss.

Paige smiled. "I love you, too."

Finally and reluctantly, Emily moved off of Paige and returned to the seat just next to her, where she had been sitting before straddling her. She grabbed Paige's right hand and laced their fingers together. "If I recall," she said, "we never finished the seventh Harry Potter film."

Paige laughed. "You know, I think you're right."

Later that night as they lay together in Paige's bed, unable to actually do anything with Paige's injuries but enjoying the closeness just the same, Emily idly ran her fingers through Paige's hair as Paige fought to keep her eyes open.

"I am sorry, you know," Emily said quietly, even if they were the only ones in the apartment, referring, of course, to fleeing after the kiss and for shunning her the rest of their last year of high school.

"I know you are," Paige said quietly, opening her eyes for a brief moment to look at Emily. "But you're going to have to stop apologizing. You're here now—in my bed, in fact—and it's everything I've wanted."

"Everything?" Emily asked, raising an eyebrow.

Paige chuckled. "Okay, maybe not everything, but I'm sure I'll get that eventually, too," she said, pulling Emily down for another kiss that left them both breathless again.

It took another month, but Paige finally did get that everything she and Emily had discussed. Swim practice had officially begun at the beginning of November, which gave Emily fewer opportunities to spend in Palo Alto, especially now that Paige's bones had healed and she was cleared to begin working out again. But once Paige called her to tell her the doctor removed the cast from her leg, Emily drove to Palo Alto at her first opportunity.

They lay in Paige's bed again—fully naked this time—and Emily was trying to catch her breath as Paige settled her head on Emily's chest.

"Holy shit," Emily said, not for the first time in the last thirty seconds. She could feel Paige's smile as she stroked her arm with her fingernails, causing Emily to shiver. "That was so much better than all those nights I spent alone imagining what it might be like with you."

Paige raised her head up and looked at Emily, her brow furrowed together. "This wasn't your first time, was it?"

"What?" Emily asked, laughing. "Of course not. But, it may as well have been because it's never felt like that before."

"Naturally," Paige replied cockily.

Emily swatted her on the back.

"It was pretty great for me too," Paige said.

"Only 'pretty great'?" Emily asked. She wasn't mad, but she hoped Paige was simply being coy.

"Emily," Paige said, having moved up Emily's body, so that their mouths were only a few inches apart. "I've never felt like this with anyone, and I hope that I won't share this with anyone but you again," she said before kissing Emily and getting them started again.

The following morning, as Emily sat on a stool by the counter, sipping a cup of coffee while watching Paige make her an egg-white omelet, but before Spencer emerged from her bedroom to get after them for keeping her awake all night, she asked her girlfriend a question that had been on her mind since she found she found out about Tessa. "So, how do your parents deal with the fact that their only child is a giant homo?"

Paige looked at her over her shoulder and laughed. "They're actually okay with it. My mom keeps congratulating herself on getting us together, actually."

"Really?" Emily asked. She could understand Mrs. McCullers being accepting, but she'd sat in church while her dad preached against the evils of sexual immorality, which, for him, homosexuality was a major offence—maybe the only unforgivable one at that.

"Really," Paige said, tending to the toast that had just popped up.

"Your dad too?"

"Yeah, but it took him a while," she admitted. "He didn't talk to me for an entire year after he found out, but when my first season at Stanford started, he said he was sorry and that he loved me and that he wanted to continue being a part of my life. He said he spent a lot of time in prayer and doing research, but ultimately he just couldn't stand the chance of losing me."

"Wow," Emily said, exhaling loudly.

"I know."

"But wait," Emily said, recalling something Paige said. "You said he didn't talk to your for a year."

"He didn't."

"But you said he started talking to you during your freshman season," Emily repeated.

Paige turned to look at Emily, confused.

"But, if that's the case, that means you came out to them in high school," Emily deduced.

Emily could see that something finally registered with Paige.

"Yeah," Paige said, grabbing the back of her neck. "When you left my house that night, my mom came up to my room to see if something was wrong," she explained uncomfortably. "And when she found me, I was sobbing uncontrollably on my bed and she wanted to know what happened to make me so upset, so I sort of told her everything. And neither of us knew that when I was telling her my dad was standing in the door frame and heard it all.

"She was great about it—right away. But my dad looked so angry. And just as he was about to say something, my mom turned to him and said, 'Don't you dare say anything to her that none of us will ever be able to forget,' so he just turned and walked away."

Emily was truly in awe of the girl before her. "You really are such a Gryffindor," she said, smiling at her girlfriend. "I'm so lucky to have you."

"I think we're both lucky," Paige said, setting the omelet and toast in front of Emily.

And they were.