A/N: *waves* Hey, what's up fellow PLL people? I am also a PLL people. I apologize in advance for this lengthy author's note. I swear I usually don't ramble this much in my regular author's notes (when I even post author's notes, that is). But there are a few things you're gonna need to know about this fic before reading.

First and foremost, this story is going to deal with some deep material later on. I struggled with whether or not to post it (though, if you know me from my other PLL Emison fic you know that's pretty much always the case with me). My friends who convinced me to write and share "Matters of the Heart" also convinced me to go ahead and post this one, too. But I wanted to give everyone fair warning that this story will get much angstier. It is a journey. And like most journeys, there are going to be some unexpected stops in Feel-a-delphia.

Now that you know that, I'd be honored if you decide to join me for this trip. I will be a most gracious roadtrip buddy. I'm great at looking out for the 5-0. We'll have an unforgettable time. There will be some silly antics, some real philosophical conversations, some carpool karaoke, and yeah, some speedbumps…but we'll get through them together.

If you're coming along there are a few key points that I want to touch on. First of all, this story is fairly canon to how the series ended, with a few tweaks. The first being that I played with the timeline a bit, making it so that the events that happened in the series finale happened prior to Ali giving birth instead of after (meaning the Alex Drake reveal went down before Lily and Grace were born). Because honestly, it's just easier to keep things less convoluted that way. One thing that I did keep the same is that Ali/Emily got engaged after the twins birth, and had a year long engagement.

The second tweak I made was that Mary Drake is not Spencer/Alex's mom, meaning that Spencer and Ali are in no way related, because I didn't feel like trying to chart out family histories that take more effort than a college dissertation.

Other than that, everything else is canon. All couples are canon from the last episode. All of the other events happened (with the exception of Spaleb, because that's another messy plot I didn't feel like dealing with).

And finally,

Me (in my movie voiceover tone): "This story has been rated M for mature audiences." I apologize in advance if the sexytimes aren't great. I'm certainly no Danielle Steele…or…whoever writes romance these days. That's part of my problem. I don't read romance. I'm working on the romance aspect. So, yeah, be cool in the reviews about it because I beat the shit out of myself enough when it comes to criticizing my writing. I found that the sweet reviews in my last story really boosted my mood and gave my inner-critic a good swift kick in the lady-nuts. It means a lot when I hear people are reading my writing. Even when they are threatening to beat me with a sharp stick for abusing their feelings.

Chapter 1:

All in the Family

Control. Everyone wants it. But no one truly has it. People try to fight fate all the time, but some things in life are predestined. It's only after those big events occur that people look back and deliberate on how things could have been drastically different "if only". "If only" they knew it was going to happen. "If only" something had been done before it happened. "If only" the world wasn't just a random series of events that inevitably put people in an exact place at an exact time to present them with circumstances that would alter the course of their lives.

Unpredictability is the only thing in life that is predictable, and it's the one thing that everyone in the world shares. The human spirit learns to take in every moment in life and grow from it, though how a person changes depends completely on them.

There are moments in life that change the very essence of a person's soul. Falling in love for the first time. First heartbreak. The death of a parent. Marriage. But nothing quite compares to the birth of a child, or in Alison and Emily DiLaurentis-Fields' case, children. Their two girls. Their two beautiful unexpected girls brought to them through misery and manipulation in a twisted scheme originally plotted out by a cyberbully that played out like something from a Lifetime soap opera.

But despite how it had happened, it had happened. And it had turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to them. They had both forgotten the circumstances that had led to Emily's eggs being fertilized and implanted in Alison the moment their girls were born. Emily had been in love many times in her life, but she had only felt the depth of real and powerful love twice in her life. The first time she saw Alison, and the day her daughters were born. She fell in love with her twin girls, Lily and Grace the second she met them. Alison did, too. They instantly loved them with everything they had. It was almost as if they couldn't remember life without them. Imagining a world where they didn't exist was impossible.

Grace had been born first, four minutes before Lily. She'd come out with gusto. Very much an "I'm here, world!" attitude. The kid knew how to make an entrance. Lily had been a little more reluctant to come in to the world. Lily was that kid who did not want the spotlight on her.

Emily had never been happier than the day her girls had been born. She'd never forget the sight of Alison cuddling Lily in her hospital bed, her body glistening with sweat. Emily had Grace in her arms and her attention was torn between the perfect child in her arms and the perfect woman with their other perfect daughter smiling at her, happy, yet exhausted. Emily was convinced Alison had never looked as beautiful as she did that day. Their family felt so whole. So complete.

Grace and Lily had a charm to them that made everyone fall in love with them the instant they met them. Emily's mother and their best friends were certainly under their spell the moment they held them for the first time. Getting Pam Fields to put her grandbabies down was an impossible feat. She loved kissing their tiny fingers. Their perfect little hands looked exactly like Emily's had when she'd been a baby. She nuzzled their cheeks and tickled their chins and kissed their heads. Then she went back to kissing their fingers.

"Was she this obsessed with trying to eat your fingers?" Ali asked quietly as Pam paced across the room with Lily in her arms.

"Well, I mean, I still have all of my fingers, so I think we're okay." Emily teased. "Besides, the only one in this room who enjoys having my fingers in their mouth at this point is you." She kept her voice quiet.

"Touché." Ali snorted out a laugh.

They watched in adoration as Pam doted over her granddaughters. She was the only grandparent the girls would ever have since Emily's dad and Ali's mother had passed away and Ali's dad wanted nothing to do with his son and daughter. But Pam Fields was bound to be the only grandparent the girls would ever need, because she had enough love to fill the girls' lives for more than four people.

There had been no shortage of visitors after Ali had given birth. Her brother Jason had come by to meet his little nieces. He loved them. As did their best friends Hanna, Aria, and Spencer. Spencer had made it in first. She was the only one of their friends who had been in Rosewood at the time. She had just recently moved back. She'd been in D.C. up until a month before Ali gave birth. Up until then she'd been commuting from her job in D.C. to Rosewood so she could spend all the time she could with the man she loved, Toby Cavanaugh. She'd finally decided to move from D.C. back home a month before the twins were born. There was a job opening in the Harrisburg State Senate. It was the perfect opportunity to be closer to Toby, who patrolled the town every day in one of Rosewood's finest's uniforms. It made Emily and Ali feel good to know that Toby would keep their town safe for their girls.

Aria had also relocated back to Rosewood from Boston after her boyfriend Ezra asked her to marry him. Her answer had been a resounding yes. And moving back had been a no-brainer, because her parents and brother were still in Rosewood. She'd been on the last stop of a book tour with Ezra when Ali went in to labor with the twins. They'd flown in from Florida, their flight getting in around the same time as Hanna's and her husband Caleb's flight from New York. The four of them had met Spencer and Toby at the hospital. The guys had sauntered off to grab a bite to eat. They didn't want to overwhelm the babies with too many visitors. Three was a crowd, but six most definitely would have been a fire code violation.

The girls had all piled into Ali's room. It had been just like old times, with two new additions. The girls had come bearing gifts. Spencer and Aria had gone with sensible and practical things, but of course Hanna had gone full Hanna Marin, basically bringing an entire fashion line of infant clothing for the twins. They were the most stylish baby clothes that Emily and Ali had ever seen. Hanna had been hyped up to dress them up the second she walked through the door. She'd practically pried Lily out of Emily's arms.

"Lemme see that baby." Hanna squealed as she reached out to take Lily.

"It's good to see you, too, Han." Emily rolled her eyes, gently placing the infant in Hanna's arms.

Hanna looked down at the baby and cooed.

"Uncle Caleb and I are going to make you a little baby cousin as soon as we can. Yes we are. Yes we are." She smiled at Lily.

"Well, that's appropriate," Spencer uttered with a snort.

Hanna ignored Spencer. She looked up at Emily and they smiled and shared an awkward hug, so as not to crush the baby.

"How are you feeling, Ali?" Aria asked, walking over to her bed.

"Tired." Ali smiled, gently lifting Grace up to kiss her forehead. "But a good kind of tired." She glanced up at Aria. "You want to hold her?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Aria laughed.

Ali handed Grace to Aria. She squirmed at first, but then settled down in Aria's arms. Aria reached down and traced her index finger along Grace's open palm. Grace curled her fingers and latched on to Aria's finger.

"They're so tiny." Aria smiled, marveling at the baby in her arms. She couldn't wait to have children.

"They didn't feel tiny coming out." Ali scoffed. "It was like shoving a watermelon through something the size of a grape." She grimaced. "Twice."

"I'm going to assume there was a lot of swearing." Spencer teased.

Ali glared at Spencer. Emily nodded discreetly with a suppressed grin on her face.

"Did she break your hand?" Spencer asked, motioning to Emily's battered hand.

"Almost." Emily replied with a soft laugh.

"I'm sorry, baby." Ali reached out to take Emily's hand so she could observe the bruises she'd left when she dug her fingernails into the back of Emily's hand.

"I already told you, it's fine." Emily shrugged. She sandwiched Ali's hand in between her palms, bringing it up to kiss her knuckles.

"Get a room." Hanna teased.

"We have one." Ali retorted. "You're in it."

"Your mommy is cranky." Hanna rocked Lily.

"Perpetually so." Emily snorted out a laugh.

Ali shot her a glare, but the undertone of the look was based in love.

"I bet I know what will cheer her up." Hanna drifted towards the bag she'd brought. "Baby fashion show!"

"Hanna, they're thirteen hours old." Emily furrowed her brow with a smile.

"They're never too young to learn about fashion."

"You do realize that like five minutes from now they're probably both going to cover their clothes in spit up, right?"

"Oh, please. You think I didn't think that through?" Hanna dug around in her bag with one hand. "Check it. Matching bibs."

"You didn't." Emily rolled her eyes.

"I think you know me well enough to know that I did." She looked down at Lily. "What do you think, Lily? Now, be completely honest."

Emily and Ali couldn't help but smile. Their friends made them insanely happy. They knew that their girls were going to grow up surrounded by so much love.

"You are ridiculous." Spencer shook her head at Hanna.

Lily squeaked out a noise that was verging on becoming a cry.

"Hmm, not a fan?" Hanna asked.

The next noise out of Lily's mouth was definitely a cry. She started to give her lungs a complete workout.

"You're being critiqued by an infant." Spencer teased her. "This is the best day ever."

"That's just one baby's opinion." Hanna brushed it off, not fazed at all by a crying Lily. She sauntered over next to where Aria was holding a content Grace, bouncing Lily lightly to curb her crying. "What do you think, Grace?"

Grace sucked on her lips and looked up at Hanna. After a second she yawned and then scrunched her brows like she was confused.

"Did she just roll her eyes at me?" Hanna chuckled.

"She has her mother's eyes." Aria glanced at Emily in a teasing manner.

"No, I don't think so." Spencer shook her head. "Her mother's eyes are much more cutting and totally done with our BS."

"Which one?" Aria looked from Ali to Emily, both of whom were shaking their heads at their dorky friends.

"I don't remember inviting the three stooges to this party." Emily ribbed them.

"Don't you listen to them, girls." Hanna cooed. "Just remember, I'm the fun one. Your Auntie Hanna is going to teach you so many cool things."

"And Auntie Spencer will correct everything she got wrong and teach you things the right way." Spencer teased, smiling down at Lily.

"Bite me." Hanna scowled.

"Hey, not in front of the little ears." Aria scolded Hanna.

"You bite me, too." Hanna grinned at Aria.

Emily and Ali shared a loving look, smiling as they watched their friends fawning over their girls. They visited for what seemed like hours, catching up, passing the babies around, and talking about what they all wanted for the future. After a while, Hanna made the comment about how the guys were probably drunk at the bar down the street and that they needed to go collect their adult children. They said their goodbyes. Hanna got in one last cuddle with Grace, who was the more relaxed of the two newborns.

"Ladies, shall we go pick our men up off of the bar floor and listen to them talk about whatever sports event they are eternally pissed at?" Hanna asked.

"Ezra says they're still sober." Aria replied to a text she had.

"Sober, my ass. Caleb was shitfaced on the plane."

"Hanna, language." Spencer scolded her, pointing to the baby in her arms.

"What? It's not like they're at the stage where they repeat everything we say." She shrugged, handing Grace over to Emily. "All they know at this point are boobs and burping."

"Hmm, same as the guys." Aria nodded.

"Yeah, luckily these precious peaches," Spencer rubbed Lily's cheek, "will grow out of that. Sadly, the guys will not." She added with a laugh.

"We'll see you girls tomorrow." Aria waved.

"Thank you so much for being here," Emily said.

"Are you kidding? We wouldn't be anywhere else in the world." Hanna smiled. "Congrats, you two. They're beautiful."

The girls left Emily and Ali alone to bask in new motherhood. Both babies were sound asleep, exhausted from the all of the stimulation.

"Sooo, we're never going to let Hanna babysit." Ali glanced down at Lily.

"Why not? They'll end up fashion icons." Emily laughed.

"I'm fine with the clothes." Ali actually loved the one-of-a-kind designer outfits. "But that mouth of hers…if she babysits, our children are going to be talking like they're in a Quentin Tarantino movie before they're out of diapers."

"Sweetheart, the first words Grace heard when she came out were 'I should have had a fucking epidural.'"

"I had a child's head sticking out of my vagina, Emily." Ali smarted back.

Emily laughed softly. Looks like their daughters weren't the only ones who needed a nap. She leaned over and kissed Ali's forehead. She pulled back and looked down at Grace.

"God, they're perfect." Emily played with Grace's fingers.

"Of course they're perfect. You're their mom." Ali gazed lovingly at her wife.

"We're their moms." Emily corrected her. She grinned. "Oh my God, we're moms."

"I know." Ali smiled and then scrunched her face up. "They're so screwed."

"Nah, they're gonna be just fine." Emily rocked Grace. "Isn't that right, Gracie?"

Ali smiled as she watched Emily place a delicate kiss on Grace's forehead. Emily's eyes were so pure and filled with such genuine love that it made Ali fall in love with her all over again. She was a beautiful mother.

Emily spent every second in the hospital making sure that Ali and her girls were tended to and taken care of to the highest degree. She had waited her entire life for her family. She would spend the rest of her life taking care of them.

The trip home from the hospital had been interesting. They had barely gotten out of the parking lot when a man texting on his cell phone had nearly T-boned the car Emily was driving. Emily had hesitated at a green light. She had a gut feeling telling her to keep her foot on the brake for a few seconds after the light had turned. She took her foot off of the brake and was getting ready to roll out into the intersection when she saw the truck speeding towards them. She'd hit the brakes just as the man ran a red light, his truck narrowly missing their front bumper. The sudden jolt had startled both girls and they started to whimper. Ali heard her babies crying and she went into a fit of rage. She reached over the center console and laid on the horn.

"Hey! Get off of your phone and pay attention, jackass!" Ali yelled from the passenger's seat.

Emily had to stop her from ripping open her door and chasing after the guy behind the wheel. She would have pulled him out of his truck through his window for endangering her kids if Emily had let her. Ali rolled down her window and yelled at the disappearing vehicle.

"Your stupid penis envy truck and your midlife crisis affair with your child bride is not more important than my daughters' lives!"

"God, Ali." Emily half gasped, half laughed. "How long have you been holding that rage in?" Emily rubbed her arm. "Calm down."

Ali scowled at the truck as it disappeared down the road, then she turned to check on Grace and Lily. Grace's crying had let up, but Lily's was still going strong. In an instant she went from angry road-rage Ali to mommy Ali.

"Oh, it's okay, sweetie." Ali twisted over and leaned back, trying to soothe her whimpering daughter. She glanced at Emily. "Sorry. Must be my hormones."

But Emily knew it wasn't just hormones. It was the beginning of Ali's protective motherly instincts kicking in. She knew this, because she felt the same instincts. She'd felt that same anger, but she knew that the girls only needed one overprotective mother. And there was no stopping Ali when she was in mother-bear mode. She'd seen how far Ali would go to care for her kids at school. She treated them like family, even the bratty ones. Because Ali knew from experience that sometimes the bratty ones needed the most love.

Emily always knew Ali would make a great mother. It had been convincing Ali of that that had been the tricky part. Emily could see that Ali was comfortably falling into the defensive mother mode, so she knew their children were going to need her cool nature to balance that out. She wanted to blend the perfect combination of her mother's vigilance and her father's hands-off approach. Her mother had always kept a watchful eye on her, but her father had always let her learn by doing.

The first few weeks at home had been hectic. Trying to sort out feeding schedules and sleeping schedules and learning each girl's routine had been exhausting. But Alison and Emily eventually got it down to a science.

Lily was the one who wanted her mommies, all the time. She clung to them like she was terrified of letting go. Grace was always more independent. She slept through the night when she was two weeks old, even through Lily's cries.

Alison shot up out of her deep sleep when she heard Lily crying that night. Emily was already up and out of the bed getting ready to head towards the door that connected their room to the nursery. She'd been trying to let Alison get some rest, because Alison had been running herself ragged trying to make sure their babies' needs were met to the fullest of her ability.

"I've got her," Emily said softly.

"You sure?" Alison questioned. "You got her last time."

"Go back to sleep." Emily reached over the bed and brushed Alison's face with her fingers. Emily could see how tired she was.

"She might need to nurse."

"That's not her hungry cry." Emily smiled and kissed Alison's forehead. "That's her 'pick me up or I'll wake the whole neighborhood' cry."

Alison smiled at Emily. It still astonished her that Emily had already distinguished the different cries their daughters had. Alison got their cries right most of the time, but she was so sleep deprived that she wasn't as on her game as Emily. Emily amazed her. Alison knew she was tired, too, but she still somehow managed to sense exactly what their girls needed. She'd always had a knack for that.

She fell back against her pillow and yawned as Emily walked out of their room. Emily quietly paced into the girls' room, walking softly like her footsteps might wake Grace up, too. Then she couldn't help but laugh when she realized that the child was sleeping through Lily's cries. Her footsteps were not going to wake her.

Before she picked up Lily, Emily checked on Grace, thinking she'd find her awake and staring at the ceiling like she did when she nursed. But she was sound asleep. How that child had been able to sleep through her sister's squawking was a mystery to Emily. She ran her hand over Grace's soft head and leaned into the crib and kissed her forehead, watching as her little lips twitched as she dreamed.

She looked down at Lily and found that she'd kicked her way out of her swaddle. Her arms and legs were flailing around wildly. Her chubby cheeks were red and hot and her face was scrunched up, her brow tight as loud broken cries rang out in the air. She settled down almost immediately after Emily picked her up.

She rocked Lily gently. Her daughter was quiet in her arms. Lily peered up at Emily, her tiny brow furrowed like she was deep in thought, little squeaks coming out of her mouth. She had her hand wrapped around Emily's finger, and more importantly…her heart. She eventually fell back asleep. Emily had been so exhausted that she fell asleep in the rocking chair with her. Alison had come to check on her girls shortly after that and her heart melted at the sight of her girl holding their daughter. Even in her sleep, Emily had her arms wrapped protectively around Lily, cuddling her close as if she was going to keep her safe from the entire world. And Alison knew she would. Because Emily went to the ends of the Earth for the people she loved. She knew their daughters would always be safe with her.

Alison stood in the doorway of her daughters' room that night watching her girls sleep with a tremendous amount of love in her heart. If she could have frozen that moment in time and stared at it forever she would have.

Both of them were fascinated by motherhood and they fell into their roles perfectly. And there was no lack of love when it came to the girls' family. Hanna, Aria, and Spencer were frequent visitors. The guys came, too. Ezra's favorite thing to do was quote passages from his favorite books. Both girls tended to yawn and frown when he was talking. Aria teased him about it. Ezra took it in stride.

"Your children are mocking me again," he glanced at Ali and Emily.

"That's because they have good taste in literature." Ali teased him. "They get that from their moms."

"Hey, I've been on the bestsellers list for months." Ezra laughed.

"Yeah, because you're sleeping with your public relations specialist." Ali motioned to Aria, a sly smirk on her face.

Toby and Caleb both howled in laughter. The girls snickered. It took a minute for the laughter in the room to die down.

"Dude." Caleb was still chuckling. He clapped his hand on Ezra's shoulder. "Would you like some ointment for that burn?"

"Actually, I think I'm gonna need a skin graft, because that was some intense scalding heat." Ezra chuckled.

"Hormones." Ali shrugged innocently.

"That's your go-to excuse for everything." Spencer teased her.

"Just wait until you've had a baby. I can't wait to see you crying at cat litter commercials and being melodramatic over not being able to have your gallons of caffeine every day." Ali quipped back.

"Ugh, the horror." Spencer shuddered at the thought of no caffeine.

"Did you really cry at cat litter commercials?" Hanna questioned with a laugh.

"Of course not." Ali scoffed.

Hanna looked at Emily to verify the authenticity of her statement. Emily couldn't hold back her laughter.

"She's lying through her teeth." Emily grinned. "She also lost it watching a beer ad."

"You are so sleeping on the couch tonight." Ali glared at her. But then she let up and started laughing.

"To be completely fair, the markups on certain alcohol brands makes me cry sometimes, too." Toby shrugged.

Lily started fussing and Toby reached out to tickle her cheek. She stopped her grumping immediately. The girls were too young to play favorites with literature and authors, but they certainly played favorites with people, specifically the guys. Lily really liked Toby. She always settled when she was in his arms. Grace was fondest of Caleb. She liked to grab his fingers and coo. It was hard not to love them. The girls spawned baby fever for all of their friends. Hanna and Caleb had been talking about having kids of their own for quite some time, but their time with the twins reaffirmed their plans. Spencer and Toby followed suit shortly after. Aria and Ezra had trouble conceiving, and it came to light that Aria couldn't have kids. But that hadn't fazed them. They were filling out adoption paperwork soon after they found out.

Things settled down after a little while. Then chaos started again when Ali and Emily went back to work. But they got pretty good at their daily routines. They adjusted very well. Lily and Grace were their whole world. They cherished every moment with them. From giggles to cuddles to blowing raspberries on their bellies and listening to them howl in laughter, and even to those sleepless nights where one or both of the girls decided to put on operatic musicals with their tiny lungs. They knew their cries just by the tone, and by the times of day they heard them.

Lily was the night owl. She was the one who could never relax. It's like her mind was constantly running. There was so much going on behind her eyes that it mesmerized her mothers. And Grace, their Gracie had a spark behind her eyes that told them she was going to be trouble when she got older. She was an active little bugger during the day. But she was an angel when she slept. It had taken them quite some time to get their sleeping routines down. The first night that both girls slept through the night Emily and Alison had both nearly panicked, thinking something was wrong. They'd listened intently to make sure they were breathing almost all night long. And when the girls woke up the next morning, feisty and full of energy, their mothers were dragging their asses because they were so tired.

Their daughters kept them on their toes. They loved watching them learn and grow. Despite Grace being the first born, Lily was the one who hit most of her milestones first. She said her first word a week before Grace. Emily and Ali had been feeding them and Lily was being finicky and she shoved the spoon away and uttered,

"No!" Then she'd tacked a "Mommy" on the end of it.

Grace's first words had been "More Cheese." Ali had stared in surprise while Emily had howled in laughter.

Lily was also the first to start crawling. Both girls had been pushing up on their bellies for weeks before they actually started crawling. Ali loved nothing more than watching the determined looks on their faces as they tried to hold themselves up on their chubby little arms. Lily always lasted longer than Grace. In fact, Grace liked to roll over on to her back and try to knock Lily over with her feet. One day Ali had put them down on a blanket for some tummy time and had walked across the living room to get a toy Grace had dropped earlier. Emily had walked in from the kitchen and glanced down at the blanket and saw that Grace was on her back playing with her foot, which had fascinated her since she'd discovered it. But Lily was nowhere to be seen.

"Uh, where's Lily?" Emily asked.

Ali had spun around and had almost gone into a full blown panic. Seconds later they heard something rustling behind the couch. They walked around the furniture and saw that Lily was crawling right for the stairs. After that day they weren't able to keep her in one place. She was constantly moving.

Grace wasn't far behind. Four days later she was trailing after her sister and pulling her socks off. Not long after that, Lily was walking to try and get her sister off of her tail. Not to be outdone, Grace was up on her feet just a day and a half later, chasing her and giggling.

When the two of them started walking all bets were off. Ali and Emily were constantly chasing them down. They loved going in opposite directions, too, so if it was just one of their moms by themselves they'd have to do laps to catch them both. Lily liked to run solely just to run. Grace liked to run because she thought it was funny to see her mothers running around after her.

One day, Emily was in the middle of changing Grace's diaper when Lily grabbed a marker and started toddling towards their new wallpaper in the dining room. Emily had quickly slapped Grace's diaper on and then made a beeline for Lily. She found her sitting in front of the wall, coloring on a fashion magazine.

"Well, at least you stayed away from the wallpaper." Emily leaned down and gently took the weapon of creative destruction away from her daughter. She looked at the marks Lily had made on the cover of Ali's favorite fashion magazine.

"Mommy like? I make girl pretty." Lily pointed to the reality show star fashion mogul of the week.

"Yes. Mommy loves that make-over. You made the ice queen bearable." Emily smiled at her artsy daughter.

"I color more?" Lily reached for the marker.

"Maybe not with this marker. It's more or less permanent."

Ali would freak out if she walked in to find her child covered in permanent ink. Tattoos were not something they thought they had to worry about for another sixteen years. And though a permanent marker wasn't exactly the same thing, it was still something Ali would frown upon.

They heard a crash from the kitchen and Emily felt her stomach clench. What was Grace up to now? She grabbed Lily's hand and they walked back towards the kitchen. They saw that she had peeled out of her clothes. She was in the midst of stripping out of her diaper and running towards the back door.

"Grace!" Emily called out, dropping Lily's hand so she could go after her sister. "Grace Estella DiLaurentis-Fields, you better not!"

Grace didn't acknowledge the warning tone in her mother's voice. Before Emily could reach her Grace pressed her little palms against the sliding glass door and then quickly squeezed through the small opening she'd created.

"Get back here, you little…" Emily nearly tripped over one of Grace's shoes and uttered a profanity under her breath, hoping Lily hadn't heard her.

She had.

"Ohhhh, Grace in trouble." Lily laughed, toddling after her.

Emily grabbed Lily before she could get outside, too. She quickly put Lily in her playpen and ran outside after Grace. In the midst of chasing her toddler daughter Emily realized what this must look like to the neighbors. Here she was in a flimsy bathrobe on a rainy day trying to catch a child less predictable than a natural disaster. The absurdity of trying to lecture a two year old on the ramifications of disobeying mommy while said two year old skipped around, not listening, not a care in the world, was both hilarious and frustrating. She chased a laughing squealing Grace around the yard, slipping in the mud several times, her bathrobe nearly flying open at every turn.

Please let her stay in this backyard, because if I have to chase her past the bus stop I will never hear the end of this. She thought to herself.

It was only when Grace had been distracted by a dandelion that Emily had been able to get her hands on her. Grace had stopped to lean down and poke the flower. She'd stopped so suddenly that Emily had to really dig her heels into the ground to keep from toppling over her. She'd slid in the wet grass and hit the ground right next to her. She reached out and wrapped her arm around her daughter.

"Gotcha." Emily smiled triumphantly, though really, the toddler had won this round, because they were both filthy.

Grace was laughing and squirming around. Trying to hold on to her was a feat, because she was slick with rain and mud. It was like trying to wrangle a greased pig. Toddler herding should have been an Olympic sport.

She heard laughter from behind her and then seconds later, a hose fell next to her. She looked up and saw Ali holding Lily, both of them giggling at the sight of Emily and Grace looking like a couple of dirty drowned cats.

"You might as well hose yourselves off here. You are not coming back in the house like that." Ali tried to calm her fit of laughter. "I just cleaned the floors."

"Very funny." Emily stood up, Grace in her arms.

"Oh, I'm not kidding." Ali backed up through the sliding glass door and slowly started closing it.

"Ali, don't you dare…"

"Love you." She grinned. "Say 'bye-bye, Mommy'." She made Lily wave, making her giggle. She shut the door, locking it behind her, smirking at Emily's annoyed face.

"Ali!" Emily shuffled Grace around in her arms. Grace yelled in a fit of laughter. She thought it was hilarious. Emily shook her head, unable to contain her own laughter as she looked at her smiling wife through the door. "Come on, Alison. Would you give me a hand here?"

After a few seconds of teasing, Ali opened the door. Just as they were getting ready to walk inside, Grace reached out and tugged on the tie of Emily's robe. It started to fall open, Emily catching it with one of her hands while trying to balance holding her daughter with the other.

"Imagine that. Both my girls playing naked in the rain." Ali smiled.

"God, no wonder this child is so wild." Emily shook her head as she walked inside. "You're her mother."

"Come on." Ali motioned with a laugh. "We need to get her cleaned up. Spencer is on her way over with Eli and Harper for their playdate. And Aria is bringing the twins, too."

Spencer and Toby's first born, Eli, was eleven months younger than the girls. Harper was three months old. And Aria's kids, Kai and Fiona were fraternal twins that she and Ezra had adopted. They'd only been planning on one child, but when they saw Kai and Fiona, they knew those babies were meant to be theirs. They were the same age as Lily and Grace. When the four of them got together they were like a little herd of mini-dinosaurs destroying everything in sight.

Up until four months ago Hanna and Caleb had lived in New York with their children, a little girl, Iris, who was around Eli's age and their son, Levi, who was Harper's age. They visited quite often, and Hanna dropped the bomb several months back that they were planning on moving closer to Rosewood to open a Boutique that Hanna had been dreaming of since she was basically in diapers. Hanna's mother was thrilled, because she would be closer to her grandbabies. And Ali, Emily, Spencer, and Aria were thrilled because they loved the idea of their kids growing up together.

"This house is going to be party central when our kids get older." Emily walked towards the bathroom with her muddy child.

"Sweetie, it's party central now." Ali pointed to the dirt caked in Grace's hair.

"Fair point." Emily nodded. She put Grace down and shook her index finger at her as she addressed her. "No more running today, Gracie."

Grace huffed out a laugh and then plopped down on the bathmat. Ali put her sister down next to her. Lily was fascinated by the mud in Grace's hair. She poked a clump of dirt with her finger and both of them burst into a giggling fit.

Emily knelt down next to the tub and turned the water on and played with the handles until she got the temperature right. Ali walked past her to get the baby shampoo and some towels. In hindsight, both Emily and Ali knew that it was a mistake the second they'd taken their eyes off of their children. They heard Grace laugh boisterously and then they heard Lily sneeze. When they turned around they saw Grace holding a bottle of baby powder. She'd somehow broken the cap and she'd dumped the contents all over her and her sister.

"All clean." Grace dropped the bottle.

Ali and Emily shared a look, and then they burst into laughter. There was never a dull moment in their house. They loved watching their childrens' hijinks unfold. They'd even talked about having more kids, but the timing never quite worked out.

Throughout the years the girls grew more and more into their personalities. Grace was the kind of child who could fall and smack her head on a brick fireplace and then get up and keep going like nothing had ever happened. She loved climbing trees and hanging upside down from the monkey bars on the playground. She'd gotten that from Emily. The girl was completely fearless and very resilient. She had a sharp quick wit that served as both entertainment and trouble. But like Emily, she learned very early on how to use her best traits to her advantage. Her laugh was contagious. No one could be angry at her when her face lit up and she laughed.

Lily was a shy kid. The polar opposite of her ham of a sister. She was more careful than Grace. She was introspective – an observer. She was insanely intelligent and had the most thoughtful eyes that Emily and Ali had ever seen. She liked puzzles and figuring out how things worked. While Grace was off getting in to trouble, Lily was the one figuring out how to get her out of trouble. Grace was the entertainer. Lily was the PR person in charge of damage control.

Both of their girls marched to the beat of their own drum. Their conflicting personalities sometimes put them at odds, but as much as they fought, they loved one another. Grace adored her sister. She was very protective of her. She was the first one to bristle up and put herself in front of Lily to protect her if someone was threatening her. And Lily was sensible and had kept Grace from getting hurt many times by calling attention to certain details that Grace couldn't always see. They balanced each other quite nicely. They didn't like to admit it, lest they admit vulnerabilities, but they needed one another. Grace more-so than Lily. Because despite Grace being four minutes older, Lily is the one who kept everything together. She was the glue when it came to her family.

The DiLaurentis-Fields family was full of strong women. And it was a good thing, too, because without that resiliency, they might not have been able to survive otherwise. Because thirteen years after Emily and Ali said "I do" life threw them a curveball that none of them expected. Thirteen years later reality crashed into their lives in a most unexpected way, setting things into motion that would change their lives forever.