Scott and Paige, coming home

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Paige returns home early from the Guthrie Thanksgiving Extravaganza only to find Scott in the kitchen after his lovely conversation with Betsy. She tries to do the friend thing but after one too many shut downs, fails miserably and ducks out. Cue the insecurities. Set Saturday night.


Thanksgiving hadn’t been so bad. She’d ignored Sam, Jay had ignored her, her mother was cooking all the time and so ignored everyone minus a kiss here and a threat with a spoon if they touched that pot one more time there, and the kids ran around like lunatics, usually when it was time for their baths. Really, everything had worked out for the best. Paige had actually enjoyed herself, and it was nice knowing that she wouldn’t have to lie to people who asked. But that didn’t mean she wanted to stay for Sunday, either. Sunday meant dresses and gloves and shiny shoes with nylons, and, well, God. Someone she wasn’t all that fond of these days. So she’d slipped out during the evening, kissing cheeks and mumbling something about term papers and finals and other Paige-like things that would be valid excuses.

So now she was home, the other one, and slipping in the back door. It was late, and while she knew that many people would be awake anyway – who actually slept at this place anymore – the front door made a whole lot of racquet. Her duffel bag, over one shoulder, nearly knocked over the decorative bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter, and she hissed, steadying it with a hand. So much for smooth. All she needed now is to send an aluminium pan flying across the room or something.

Scott looked up from where he was sitting at the kitchen table, managing a faint smile for the sudden-appearance-of-a-Guthrie. "Hey you," he said quietly. "I wasn't expecting to see you back until tomorrow?"

Paige lit up in a smile as she turned to find her captain sitting there and came over to the table, dropping her bag all in one swoop of motion. “I decided to be naughty and sneak out early. If anyone asks I have a fifteen-page paper that needed to be done for Wednesday. Of course that’s true, I just happened to finish it on-“ Cutting herself off, Paige gave Scott a taken aback look, her smile fading instantly. “What’s wrong?”

Scott opened his mouth, then closed it, smiling at her again. "Nothing," he said lightly. "Betsy woke up today. More a question of what's right, really."

“You know, normally that trick would work. Except it’s me, and my denial skills trump your denial skills pretty much always,” Paige answered gently, reaching across the table for his hand. “Did something happen to Ms. Braddock?”

"Apart from being in a coma for a month while her mind tried to heal from a link exploding?" Scott shrugged, managing to keep the smile on. "She's... not quite herself, Paige. It's normal, though. She's still recovering."

Well, now she understood why everyone got so bothered with her when she wouldn’t tell them the truth. “Uh huh,” she said slowly, trying to keep the note of disbelief out of her voice and merely encouraging him to continue.

"I'll talk some more to Charles about it, figure out what we can do to help her get through it." He was the man with the plan, oh, yes. "It's got to be a... defensive thing, really. Closing herself off so that she doesn't get hurt anymore."

“Oh, Scott...” Paige sighed, and laced her fingers with his, noticing how cold his hands were. He’d gone through mourning mode at a lightning fast pace and had already made it to finding reason and logic in the whole situation. It was like seeing herself through someone else’s eyes.

"Hey..." He squeezed her hand gently, holding the smile on. She didn't need to be worrying about him. "This is one of those rare fixable things. Just needs time and patience and persistence." He took a deep breath. "When you think of everything she's been through in the last year and a half, all of this seems very logical."

Paige returned the smile, a sadder version. “Just because it’s logical, doesn’t mean it hurts less.”

"Yeah, well..." Scott shrugged again, the smile twisting a bit. "The more shit happens around here, Paige, the more convinced I am that I can't really afford to react emotionally, to anything." That argument with Remy over the Hellfire Club being a perfect case in point. "So I'll focus on what she needs and try and do it right this time." He was supposed to be able to learn from his mistakes, after all.

“You... you...” Paige tried, giving up and making an exasperated noise, throwing her hands up in the air. Circling around the table, she came to where he was sitting and ducked down, circling her arms around him. She was tempted to plunk herself in his lap, personal boundaries and teacher/student relationship rules be damned, but the set of his jaw kept her standing. “So there,” she said finally, unwilling to end the hug just yet.

Scott sighed and indulged himself by hugging her back. "I didn't say it was the most... heartening thing in the world, to go down there and see her like that, but it's just one more thing to get through, in the end."

Paige shook her head and gently pulled back, pressing her teeth tight against each other. “I hate it when you’re like this,” she admitted, loosening her jaw. “When you can’t separate him and you. It scares me.”

Him? It took a moment for her meaning to penetrate, and Scott smiled faintly. "I'm not actually two separate people in the same body," he told her, quietly but firmly. "This is just me prioritizing. Betsy needs help. My feelings whatever they are, don't come into the picture until... well, until she wants them to."

“Okay,” she replied, in a subdued tone, staring quite fixedly on a small scratch in the paint as she nodded. “Okay.” This is why she didn’t have things like close friends; she didn’t know how to help and even if she did no one needed her. Paige swallowed against her typical teenaged reaction, ashamed, and bent down for her bag, mindful of any other obstacles as she put it over her shoulder. “Of course. That makes perfect sense.”

"Logic, like you said," Scott said, watching her and knowing he'd hurt her feelings, but not sure what to do to make it any better. "Or just... knowing when to let go of certain things," he said more quietly.

Paige gave him a grey smile, snorting with little humour. “Something I obviously haven’t learned yet, sir. Let me know if there’s anything I can do, you know where I live,” she replied in one breath, hardly bothering to pause.

"Thank you," Scott said softly, and didn't try to add anything else. For someone who was supposed to be learning to lean on other people if he needed it, he reflected as he watched her leave the kitchen, he really wasn't doing a very good job at it.

Sighing, he swirled the water around in his glass and then drained it in a couple of swallows before he rose. Charles would still be up at this hour. He could get the whole asking-for-advice thing done, which was the first necessary step. He'd work on step two tomorrow.