Notes: Possibly my favorite fanfic of all time is Minnow1212's brilliant 25 Occasions People have celebrated in the Jossverse. I love that story so much, and hope that imitation-in this case-will be a very sincere form of flattery. Which is all to say, I absolutely didn't invent this wheel, but hope to respectfully take it for a spin in a different fandom.
Also, huge thanks to Danielle for her thoughtful comments and on point beta read!
Disclaimer: These characters are the property of Alloy Media.
1. On Alison's wedding day, Emily hugs her and whispers, "I'm so happy for you, Ali." This is her real gift, not the fancy wooden salad bowl she ordered from the online registry. It's the perfect gift for Alison, the perfect lie.
There's a photograph of this moment, a black and white candid shot taken by Lucas Gottesman that perfectly captures Alison's half second flinch.
2. Alison turned sixteen the year she was on the run. She scraped together $60 for a one night stay at a Quality Inn a few miles outside St. Louis. The bed sagged in the middle and the bedspread was a hideous floral pattern circa 1973, but it had cable and a shower and a door that locked. She didn't let herself imagine the party she would have had if she were home. She turned on the TV, found a marathon of America's Next Top Model episodes. Every episode, she would pick out which girl was the hottest, which one she would tease Emily about if she were here.
"What would you like to do with her, if the two of you were alone in a hotel room?" she'd ask, cocking a knowing eyebrow and grinning as Emily would blush and squirm and avoid answering. She imagined herself scooting closer to Emily, who would have her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, sitting with her back straight as a ramrod against the headboard of the bed. "It's okay if you're too shy to say," Ali would whisper. "You can show me instead."
3. They're all home from college on Thanksgiving break when his twitter feed announces that Ezra Fitz is doing a book signing in Philadelphia for his best selling novel, "Gorgeous Lies."
"I have an idea," Aria says, which is how the five of them wind up strutting down Market Street in black trenchcoats and dark glasses, looking like a gang of mafia witches.
"There," Spencer says, pointing to an alley where a shiny new Jag is parked, sporting a vanity plate that reads: FITZY.
Alison distributes the two dozen eggs she's been concealing in Sak's Fifth Avenue shopping bag, and the girls gleefully pelt them at the windshield, the hood, and the doors until the bright red paint job is covered in shells and yolk.
They run back to the train station giggling like school girls.
4. They still see each other all the time. It's not like it matters, Emily tells herself, downing a shot of something blue at Hanna's bachelorette party. And then Alison is right next to her, a warm hand trailing over her shoulders as she grabs her own shot and knocks it back quickly. Emily signals for another round, mostly so she'll have something to do other than look at Alison's slinky black dress that emphasizes her exposed cleavage, drawing eyes away from the wedding ring on her left hand.
Ali does the second shot and slams the glass down on the bar to get Emily's attention. "What did you want me to do?" she asks. "I couldn't spend my whole life waiting for you to come back from California and decide you were ready!"
"It's fine, Ali," Emily says, in a tone that used to be reserved for when she wanted to sound especially tough, but seems to be creeping more and more into her default voice. "Just don't expect me to spend the rest of mine waiting for you to be single."
5. Detective Tanner takes early retirement from the State Police. There's a party at the office with stale grocery store cake, and drinks after shift at the Hollis Bar and Grill.
Gabriel Holbrook crashes the festivities, three sheets to the wind and still wearing his mall security uniform. "Hey Linda!" he shouts. "We've got a report that Alison DiLaurentis is double parked outside!"
Every single cop in the bar roars with laughter. Barry Maple uploads the video to YouTube.
6. Jenna can see now. Three operations later something finally worked. Every 4th of July, she goes to a bar and picks up the hottest guy or girl in the crowd. One year she makes a pass at a blonde who reminds her a little of Alison from behind. It turns out to be Hanna Marin. They have a good laugh, spend the rest of the night getting drunk at some rooftop party until the fireworks go off.
7. Back from Europe, Aria throws a massive New Year's Eve party. Everyone is invited, despite her cramped studio apartment. At five minutes till midnight, Emily goes to the bathroom, then climbs out the window to stand on the fire escape. Three minutes later, Alison climbs out after her. Dr. Rollins has been passed out on the couch for 40 minutes, after unwisely trying to best Spencer at tequila shots. If the other girls consider their timing suspicious, they won't say anything. And maybe they won't notice, anyway. It's freezing outside, but it warms up when Alison presses her entire body against Emily, kisses her hard at the stroke of midnight. There are noises of gunshots and fireworks and distant whoops of revelry from below.
8. Spencer Hastings stretches her leg muscles on the steps of her apartment building, watching the flag fluttering from the top of the Ukrainian Embassy across the street.
She starts her run along the Potomac, soothed by the sound of her shoes as they thwap rhythmically against the pavement.
Two miles, she thinks. The distance from her front door to the Lincoln Memorial. Twenty-eight degrees, the temperature outside, cold enough for her breath to hang in a frosty cloud as she exhales. Seven point four percent, the current rate of unemployment in Pennsylvania. Two hundred and twelve thousand, five hundred and forty-four, the number of voters who cast ballots in the last election for Rosewood's congressional district. One sixty-nine, her target heart rate for this part of her run. She glances quickly at her phone as she runs behind the Watergate building to check her time. She's on pace for a seven and a half minute mile. Not that it matters. She's not racing against anyone but herself.
Twenty-five hundred days since the last text message from A.
9. Every year on the anniversary of Shana's death, Aria finds a piano and plays "Amazing Grace."
The only year she can't get to an instrument, she gives all the money in her wallet to a kid playing violin on the subway platform.
10. Paige marries a woman she met at Stanford. An archeologist or an architect, something like that. Hanna flies out to be Emily's plus one for the wedding. She's a great escort, since Emily can still be a little shy of strangers. Especially in big crowds. Especially when everyone's go to ice breaker is, "So how do you know the bride?"
"High school," Hanna repeats, over and over again, before turning the conversation to the centerpieces, or celebrity weddings, or the cake.
11. On Emily's 26th birthday, Alison sends her a card with a red lipstick kiss above her signature. Emily stares at it for a long time, then tosses the card in the trash.
12. Each year, on the anniversary of the day she was officially released from Radley, Mona meets up with Hanna for lunch, or shopping, or a spa day. It's a tradition she adheres to no matter what - giving over major trials to her second chair for a day, rescheduling testimony at the U.N. - grateful that Hanna still answers her calls, still agrees to drop work on her new designs or put off meetings with buyers as easily as she used to agree to skip fourth period bio. They sit together, soaking their feet in adjoining mud baths.
Every now and then she still tries to apologize. Hanna always recognizes the signs, silences her with a wave of her hand, an easy smile. This is what she loves most about Hanna, how she still moves through the world like her heart is a big blank check, the grand prize in a sweepstakes of friendship and affection.
13. The night Spencer wins the election for the House Seat in the 6th Congressional district, her parents rent out the entire club for a massive victory party.
Emily sends a red, white, and blue bouquet from California. Aria calls from Prague to congratulate her. Alison and Hanna hang out by the buffet table, harvesting fancy cheeses and admiring the ice sculptures shaped like bald eagles while the last of the returns come in. Melissa is working the room, beaming at the big donors, smiling her campaign manager smile.
When her Republican opponent calls to concede just before midnight, and Spencer makes it a point to be gracious in victory. "You ran an excellent campaign," she tells Andrew Campbell.
He does not return the favor. "Don't patronize me, Spencer," he says belligerently, sounding drunk. "The voters will turn on you once they realize they're sending a stone cold bitch to Congress."
A gasp runs through the room and the members of the press start typing frantically on their phones.
"Oh," Spencer replies, sweetly. "I may have forgotten to mention you're on speaker."
Veronica and Peter clink their glasses in the background.
14. Every year on their mother's birthday, Alison and Charlotte go out to lunch. They split a greek salad and order Bloody Marys and a bottle of Chablais. Their father's birthday passes unobserved, his name never mentioned between them.
15. When Caleb holds his daughter for the first time, the nurse wiping off her tiny face and body, somewhere in the midst of the gigantic swell of love he feels is a nagging fear, like muscle memory, the idea that nothing this good can happen without something terrible right around the corner. He sets her gently in his wife's arms and looks at Hanna, whose face is ravaged and elated and more gorgeous than ever.
"She's never going to have to be afraid of anything," he promises Hanna.
"I know," she says, beaming with joy. "And neither are we."
16. When Jason marks ten years of sobriety, he looks around at the people in the politely applauding crowd. He sees a few familiar faces from other meetings, a handful of newbies still shaking from withdrawal, a grizzled old guy who might just be there for the free coffee and cookies. He tosses his bronze coin in the air and catches it one handed as he sits back down next to his sister. Spencer squeezes his arm. "I'm so proud of you," she says, her voice gravelly with emotion. He tries to remember if any of his relatives have ever said that to him before, comes up empty.
"Thanks," he grins. "It's a big day."
17. When Aria lands a big solo show at a gallery in Chelsea, they all meet up for dinner at a trendy restaurant to celebrate. Emily brings a date, a leggy redhead. A model, Spencer tells Alison. Hanna introduced them.
The model spends the entire meal charming everyone, touching Emily's arm or hand whenever she tells a story about the two of them. She's in the middle of one about skinny dipping on vacation in Greece when Emily glances over, catches Alison staring daggers at Tatiana.
Alison holds Emily's gaze, mouths the words "I hate her," over her untouched plate of spring rolls.
18. They're in New York the week before Christmas, checking out the shop windows, ice skating in Bryant Park, taking Hanna's little girls to FAO Schwarz.
"They both asked Santa for dolls this year," Hanna tells Aria over a cup of hot chocolate in Central Park.
Aria shudders a little. "Do you think we'll ever really be over it?"
Hanna shrugs, and Spencer is a few feet away barking orders at an aide on her cell phone, but Alison looks thoughtful.
As much as she travels, Aria is often surprised when she sees Alison in person nowadays. Part of her still expects to be talking to fourteen year old Ali, the girl who had it all figured out, her voice oozing with cruel certainty at all times. But it's adult Alison who answers, the high school English teacher who's just finished grading a stack of essays on Great Expectations, the grown woman closer to thirty than thirteen. Her eyes are fixed on Emily, who is wearing a Santa hat and a reindeer sweater, gleefully making snow angels with the kids.
"Maybe there are some things you never get over," she says, her voice wistful.
19. For their first anniversary, Dr. Rollins gives Alison a pair of diamond earrings. Alison gives him a pair of stylish onyx cufflinks.
For their fourth anniversary, he gives her an insanely expensive set of silk lingerie, and an exasperated look when she refuses to even try it on. "I ordered these all the way from Paris," he sighs. "Nothing makes you happy anymore." She gives him a set of handkerchiefs she picked up at Macy's.
Dr. Rollins forgets their sixth anniversary. Alison doesn't. She gives him divorce papers.
20. When Hanna's oldest daughter turns six, Ashley walks into the party bearing a bunch of balloons and a cautious look on her face. "I think I just saw Mona on her way here," she tells Hanna. "With a pony."
"A pony?" Hanna says.
"A pony with a ribbon around his neck. A pony shaped present."
By the time she's thirteen, Brianna Marin Rivers will have a room full of equestrian trophies and blue prize ribbons. At fifteen, she'll win her first national competition, where Mona will be in the stands cheering herself hoarse with Hanna and Caleb when a coach comes over to talk to them about a possible spot on the Olympic team.
21. Spencer marries Conor Kennedy over Labor Day weekend, the year before she announces her candidacy for the Senate.
It's a huge society affair, with the mass at the cathedral and the dinner and reception at the Kimmel Center.
Emily's bridesmaid dress is the single most expensive piece of clothing she's ever owned. She scans the ballroom, idly looking for Alison, who is nowhere in sight. She watches Aria dancing with a delighted looking Jason, Hanna and her baby bump swaying slowly in place with her arms around Caleb's neck and a dreamy expression on her face.
"Can I have this dance?" Alison asks, appearing behind her.
Emily doesn't say no, so Ali pulls her out of her seat. "Come on," she says, as if they're still fourteen and she's trying to talk Emily into stealing a wine cooler. "For old time's sake."
"I thought you disappeared," Emily says.
"No," Alison says firmly, tightening her arms around Emily. "Not this time."
22. Alison buys a new house, still in Rosewood but a little closer to Main Street. Walking distance to the high school. She invites everyone down for a house warming party.
"It's nice to live somewhere I didn't grow up," she tells the girls, as they sit on the porch drinking lemonade. She scoots a little closer to Emily on the porch swing, resting a hand casually on her thigh. "A place where no one's ever been buried alive in the backyard."
23. When Wayne Fields retires from the Army after being promoted to full colonel, he and Pam move back to Rosewood for good.
Emily flies in from California to help them unpack. Byron Montgomery drops by with a bottle of wine and the news that the Head Swim coach at Hollis is going to be retiring at the end of the year as well.
"My folks are getting older," she tells Hanna over the phone. "I'd rather be nearby in case they need me."
"Uh-huh," Hanna says, in a tone that's clearly not buying her story. "It's okay if you're still in love with her, Em."
"This isn't about Ali."
"It's always about Ali," Hanna tells her. "You deserve to be happy. That's all I'm saying."
24. Emily buys the old Kahn cabin. The views are amazing and she can swim in the lake every day that it's warm enough. Noel sells it to her for about a quarter of its market value.
"Did Alison tell you to lowball my offer?" Emily asks.
Noel runs a hand through his hair and shrugs. "Whatever. It's not like I need the money."
Emily thinks about how Maya and Alison both stayed here when they ran away. She's been running for years. She thinks maybe this is a place she could come home to.
"It's going to be a long drive into town in the winter," Emily hesitates. "I might need to get snow chains."
"Please," Noel grins. "Like you're going to be sleeping here during the week?"
She writes him a check on the spot.
It turns out to be kind of like buying Gatsby's mansion. Cars of people still sometimes show up looking for parties.
25. Hanna is debuting a new label at Paris Fashion Week. Aria, who's latest reviews all compare her to Leibovitz, is taking advance photos.
Senator Hastings Kennedy and her husband walk past the phalanx of international press, one of whom shouts a question about the rumors that her name is on the short list for Vice President.
"She's going to be President someday," Conor tells them. "And I'll redecorate the White House."
Emily sees Mona wearing a headset and herding models backstage. She puts her purse on the chair next to her to save a seat for Alison, who breezes in seconds before the runway show starts, stepping on the feet of at least two Kardashians with a complete lack of remorse.
The flashbulbs are popping and the new line is getting raves on social media from the moment the first outfit appears. The show is a smashing success and there's an after party at a club with a famous dj and free flowing champagne.
Ali steals a bottle and drags Emily out of a door marked "Sortie D'Urgence" which she's almost sure means Emergency Exit.
"Where are we going?" Emily asks, a little breathless.
Alison kisses her hard for what seems like a small forever, like there's a clock ticking off a minute for each year of crossed signals and missed connections and loneliness.
"It doesn't matter," Alison answers. "We're already there."