"Did you know that Paige is coming to visit Emily?"

It was an innocent statement, really. It's not like Hanna meant to drive a sword through Alison's heart.

But she did.

"Oh. Um, that's nice," Alison muttered, looking up from the stack of essays she was currently grading to look at her friend, who was absentmindedly flipping through channels on the TV. The two had grown much closer since Alison had been released from Welby, Hanna even volunteering to stay with Alison once her aunt, Mary Drake, had been unmasked as the criminal she really was and taken away to jail.

"Yeah. I wonder if they'll get back together," Hanna mused.

"I doubt it. It's not like she's moving back."

"Well, anything can happen. I mean, they were so cute. Ooh, what if Paige sweeps her off her feet and brings her back to California with her like that one movie? The Little Mermaid?" Hanna let out a tiny sigh of adoration, always the romantic.

"You did not just compare Paige and Emily to a Disney movie. I doubt that'll happen. Emily promised she wouldn't leave m- us until we figured out this whole A thing, so just drop it, okay?"

Hanna looked slightly miffed by Alison's outburst but just shrugged it off, saying, "Jeez, go put in a tampon. Hey, wanna get Chinese for dinner tonight? I'm starving."

"Alright, class is dismissed, guys. Don't forget to turn in your rewrites by midnight tonight if you want me to adjust your grades, and remember, double space or I'm not accepting it. You guys are juniors, you should know this by now."

Alison watched as her students trickled out of the classroom, some chattering amongst themselves, some texting or listening to music as they left. One girl who particularly reminded Alison of Spencer at that age had her nose buried in a book as she walked, barely looking up to apologize when she knocked into somebody.

Emily.

"Ali. Hey." The brunette offered Alison a smile, walking up to her desk, and Alison forgot how to breathe for a moment.

"Emily. Hi. I wasn't expecting you."

The last time the two of them had been alone had been when Emily visited her in the hospital. Once she had been released she had come over with the other three on occasion, but never by herself.

Alison didn't understand what she had done wrong. She knew that the girls had suspected her of killing Charlotte for a while, but once she had gotten out that had been cleared up. Unless she had threatened to kill Emily in her sleep why was Emily avoiding her?

Maybe Emily was angry that Alison had gotten herself married to a psycho. Maybe Emily thought that Alison really was incapable of returning her feelings- after all, she had married a man. Maybe Emily wanted a real relationship instead of being stuck with the woman who had never given her what she wanted.

"Did you need something?" The blonde asked, barely looking at her friend as she packed her things up, slipping her jacket on and making sure she had her keys. All she wanted to do was go home, take a bath, and then go to sleep. Teaching was taxing on her and maybe she shouldn't have been so quick to return to it after everything that had happened to her, but she had longed to return to normalcy.

"I'm sure Hanna told you that Paige is back."

Alison stopped in her motions. "Yes, she did."

"We're all going out tonight. Yvonne and Toby, Hanna, Spencer and Caleb, Ezra and Aria, and Paige and me. Why don't you come with us?"

"No, that's okay. You guys go and have fun."

"Why won't you come?"

Alison turned around, giving Emily a disappointed look. "Because I'm sure the guest of honor won't want me there." And I can't stand to see you hang all over her.

Alison went to leave but Emily grabbed her arm. "Please come." Alison closed her eyes. "Please. I want you there."

"Fine. I'll be there."

"You know, you really do look smoking in that dress," Hanna commented as she took Alison's arm, the two women heading towards the front door of the restaurant they were meeting everybody at. "If I were gay I would do you."

Alison grimaced, and Hanna took that as a sign of disgust, letting go of Alison's arm. "But you're not gay, are you?"

She knew that her friends thought she had been playing with Emily all those years. She wondered what Hanna would say if she knew that the two had slept together, many years ago.

Alison did have to admit that she looked good, though. She had borrowed a red dress from Hanna (her friend assuring her that it would flatter her curves and, lo and behold, it did) and had done her hair in an updo. It was all so different from her regular style, but she felt confident in it.

They made their way into the dining room of the restaurant, looking around until they spotted the others. Alison took Hanna's arm again, suddenly nervous. Had this really been a good idea? Paige hated her, but so did Toby, Caleb, and Ezra. What was she thinking, coming here and having dinner with them?

"Hey, guys," Hanna greeted as they reached the table, and they received a chorus of greetings in return, the two sitting down beside each other.

And on Alison's other side was none other than Paige McCullers.

"Hello, Paige," she said, trying to remain cordial. Which wasn't the easiest task upon noticing that Paige's hand was holding Emily's.

"Alison." Paige offered her a tight-lipped smile and then turned away, whispering something into Emily's ear. Emily laughed at whatever she had been told, and Alison figured that she was in for a long night.

"You seemed upset tonight."

"Hanna." Alison rolled over in bed, letting out a groan as her friend turned the light on. "Can we talk about this in the morning?"

"No."

"Why?"

"You won't want to talk about in the morning. In the morning you'll say, 'Hanna, I'm gonna be late, can we talk about it tonight?' And then that night you'll say, 'Hanna, I have so much grading to do, can we talk about it tomorrow?' And we'll never talk about it. So we're talking about it now."

Damn Hanna and her logic. "Fine. Come in."

Hanna walked in, sitting down on Alison's bed. "Why does seeing Paige and Emily together bother you so much?"

"It doesn't."

"Oh, please. I saw the look on your face when you saw them holding hands."

"I-"

"You know, because if you're just annoyed that Emily's not pining over you anymore that's really awful of you, Ali. Emily had to sit around and watch you marry some man and now you're mad that she's moving on even though you've never had feelings for her-"

"Stop!" Alison gave Hanna a fierce look, one she hadn't seen for many years. It was almost comforting to see a piece of the person Ali used to be. "Just stop. You've got it all wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not... it wasn't one-sided. It never has been."

"I thought you were straight. We all did."

"Emily was the first." Alison's voice dropped to a deadly whisper. "And the longest. But she wasn't the only one."

"What do you mean?"

"I've liked other girls. I've kissed other girls. But Emily's the only one who's been- more than that."

"You loved her."

"I love her." Hanna gave Alison a smile, reaching out and taking her hand.

"You should've told me. You should've told us."

"When? When we were both in the closet and I couldn't even admit it to myself? When I came back and you guys would've just thought I was pretending to like her to manipulate her? Or now, when Emily would never look at me like that again?"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that."

Alison's heart jumped into her throat. "Really?"

"Listen, Ali, I see things. I see the way she looks at you. She still likes you, she's just afraid of getting hurt."

"She deserves a lot better than me," Alison murmured, turning onto her side.

"Ali..."

"I just wanna sleep right now. Night, Han."

Hanna had been wrong. Emily was clearly having the time of her life with Paige, if the pictures she had been uploading to Facebook every five minutes were any indication.

Emily didn't like her anymore, and Alison wasn't about to make a fool of herself by declaring her feelings for her again.

Emily deserved to be happy, even if the thought of her with Paige made her want to cry.

But no, clearly Alison was incapable of being away from Emily for that long, for a few days after her conversation with Hanna she received a text from Spencer.

Spencer: Can't get ahold of Emily. Think -A has something to do with it. I'm tied up with something and so are Hanna and Aria, please go check on her?

Alison had never moved so fast, typing back "sure" to Spencer as she slipped her shoes on and grabbed her keys, heading out the door and to her car.

She got to Emily's house in record time and barely stopped to park the car. She grabbed the spare key from the fake plant on the Fields' front porch, unlocking the door and pushing it open.

She slowly made her way in, using her phone as a flashlight, when she heard a voice.

"What are you doing here?"

Turning around, Alison saw Paige standing there, giving her a cold look. "What are you doing here?"

"Staying here."

"I thought you were staying in a hotel."

"Change of plans." Alison noticed that Paige was wearing one of Emily's sweatshirts, and, feeling nauseated at the thought, she looked away.

Paige obviously took the look of disgust to mean something it didn't, for she bristled, harshly saying, "You haven't changed, have you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Just admit it. You're still disgusted about it. You might have told Emily that you weren't, that you had feelings for her, but I know better."

"I've never been disgusted with her. And I did have feelings for her, not that that's any of your business." Alison felt a faint feeling of hurt that Emily had told Paige about her confession but didn't show it, not wanting to give the other woman any sort of upper hand.

"You married a man."

"And what does that have to do with Emily?" She crossed her arms defensively at the mention of Elliott, eyes flashing. She hated when people brought him up. "Some people like both."

"You can't like both. Just pick one. You've chosen men, so leave Emily alone."

"I love how you like to play the victim when you're just as bad as me, Pigskin," Alison said calmly, lips curling into a cruel smile at the old nickname. "You hate me for bullying you about being gay, which I apologized for. But I was 15 and scared about my own feelings back then. You? You're an adult, an adult who's been out of the closet for years, standing here and mocking me for my own feelings."

Alison turned to walk away, but then turned around at the last minute, saying, "Oh, yeah, and Pigskin? You can sleep with Emily all you want, but know that she's thinking of me every time you do."

"Ali?" Emily was standing in the doorway, hair in a towel, and it was clear from the look on her face that the only part of the conversation she had heard had been the last part.

"Emily..."

"I thought you had changed."

"It's not what you-"

"Just leave."

Alison: Please. You misunderstood. Just let me explain.

It had been five days since her confrontation with Paige. Five days since Emily had thrown her out. Five days of Emily ignoring her texts and calls, and she was going crazy with worry.

This time, however, she received a text back.

Emily: Fine. Come over.
Alison: Is she gonna be there?
Emily: No, she flew back to California yesterday. And she has a name, Alison, which, BTW, isn't Pigskin.
Alison: I get it, okay? I'll be over in a few.

"You have ten minutes to explain, and then it would be best if you went home," Emily told Alison, barely looking at her as she lead her into the house.

"Okay." Emily took a seat at the kitchen table and Alison sat down across from her.

"I didn't mean to snap on her like that."

"Then why did you? Alison, you should know better than to call people names by now."

"I know, Em. It's just... it was an impulsive thing. I'm sure she didn't tell you what she said to me. I know that doesn't excuse what I said, but it wasn't unprovoked."

"What did she say?"

"Nothing," she murmured, blushing as she stared down at the table.

"If you're not gonna explain it to me you might as well leave now, Ali."

"She was saying that I'm disgusted by you. She brought up Elliott and... she said that I didn't have feelings for you."

Emily barely blinked at the revelation, and Alison couldn't tell whether she truly didn't have feelings for her anymore, or whether she had just had to adjust to the idea that her feelings for Ali were unrequited. All she knew was that she didn't know which reason made her sadder.

"Well, you didn't."

"Emily, I... I did. I do." Emily's eyes widened, and she stared at Alison as if she were afraid of her. Afraid of getting her heart broken again, Alison assumed.

"What?"

"I meant what I said that night. The night we..." she didn't have to finish her sentence for Emily to know which night she was talking about. It had been something that Emily had dreamed about for so long, and she had never forgotten it.

"I thought you had just been- playing. That you just told me that to get me on your side."

"It was real."

They sat in silence for a few moments. "I still... feel something for you too. But I thought you were straight, and it hurt when you married Elliott, and so I focused on Sabrina and Paige instead."

"You're not back together with Paige?"

"No. We hooked up that day you came over-" Alison winced, really having been better off not knowing that. "-but we didn't get back together. I think that's a closed chapter now."

"So what does this mean for us?"

"Are you over Elliott?" Emily asked softly. "I know that everything with him really hurt, and I don't want to rush you back into something if you're still-"

"I'm over him. I thought I loved him, but I think I was just looking for a family after losing Charlotte and being with him was easy for me. And after what he did to me he doesn't deserve for me to mourn him."

"I want to try this with you, Ali." Emily took her hand and Alison gave her a hesitant smile. "But I want to take it slow, and you have to promise me no games."

"I promise."

"Good." And then Emily leaned in, kissing Alison for the first time in five long years.