This takes place during and a little after Season 4 Episode 17 "Close Encounters". It is written from Emily's point of view.
"Ali wants to meet you... but you have to come alone."
Shauna's words echoed in Emily's head and the more she thought about it the more she began to regret her decision of telling Spencer that Alison wanted to meet with her and only her. It wasn't that she though Spencer would betray her, or that Spencer was thinking of anything but her wellbeing, but Emily just had a bad feeling about it.
She stood in her room looking at the photo collage she had on her wall beside her mirror. A few pictures from swim meets. The photos of the five girls from before Alison's disappearance, and most importantly, the large photo of Alison in the right-hand corner of the frame larger than all the others with the news-paper clipping from Alison's "death." Her brown eyes looked at the picture for several moments before shifting back to her mirror as she looked at her outfit.
Suddenly she was nervous. She was meeting with Alison for the first time, by herself, since the barn. Alison's words echoed in her head, not in Shauna's voice, but in that beautiful, angelic tone that Emily had missed so much.
"You were always my favorite... No one loved me as much as you did."
As the words echoed in her mind's ear, her lips tingled longing to feel Alison's bow shaped lips to touch hers one more time. She found herself licking her lips wishing that she could feel that kiss forever. It was the kiss that told her Alison was alive. She had been the first to feel it and with it hope returned to her heart.
Dissatisfied with the choice of jacket Emily took it off and opted for a grey one. She stood in front of her mirror once again toying with her hair nervously as she kept trying to imagine what a reunion with her love would be like. Her heart felt like it would pound out of her chest as she thought about Alison's blonde hair, her soft voice, her bow shape lips, her blue eyes. Every perfect detail about her, every beautiful part of her personality was what Emily missed. She was going to be reunited with the other half of her soul. Emily would once again be complete.
Finally Emily reached into her bag and pulled out a stick of lipstick. She hardly ever wore it, but with the prospect of seeing Alison again made Emily want to get fancy. She fixed her hair one more time and headed out of the house laughing at herself. It wasn't a date, it was a meeting in an abandon warehouse, but it was with the most important person in her life.
The closer Shauna's mustang drove to the place where she was meeting Alison, the harder Emily's heart thumped in her chest. She tried to calm herself, tried to think of Alison's voice, her soothing words, all of it, but it only made it worse. Her stomach had more butterflies in it than a science museum. There had been a couple times she thought she'd be sick. But for all her nerves and anxiety, Emily was excited. She would get to be whole again and maybe this time she would make the right decision and go with Alison. She'd had her chance outside the barn when Alison had saved her, just like the guardian angel Emily had always pictured her as. The problem was Emily was so confused and her head was still swimmy from the toxic fumes she'd been breathing in, that she wasn't sure if this was real or a hallucination. It hadn't been until she'd woken up with her friends around her, and with the taste of Alison's lip gloss on her lips that she realized that it had been true. Alison had been there, and she had saved her.
Almost immediately Emily had regretted not taking Alison's offer. She loved her friends, and her family, but she loved Alison more. Alison was the other half of her being. That's what people didn't understand. Sure they knew she loved her as more than a friend, but not one of them fully understood just how much Alison meant to her, and how much her disappearance and fake death has done to her.
Earlier that day she and Spencer had gotten in an argument over it because Spencer was trying to convince Emily not to go see Alison because she thought it was an -A trick, but the major flaw in Spencer's argument was that she was asking Emily to choose between her friends, and Alison and that argument never worked. Emily would choose Alison every time. After all, how could she deny her soul mate?
The car finally rolled to a stop and Emily took a breath before getting ready to unbuckle her seatbelt. She noticed that Shauna wasn't moving and suddenly got more nervous. Had Spencer been right? Was -A playing on Emily's love for Alison to get her alone?
"You're not coming in?" Emily asked, with a tone of surprise rather than fear.
Shauna just responded by shaking her head. Emily finished unbuckling her seatbelt, her strength coming through and her love for Alison driving her to act.
She got out of the car and looked around. It looked like a warehouse that was still being used. There were delivery signs and all sorts of garbage laying around. The lights cast a greenish/yellow light down onto the loading area that Emily was standing in. She took a few steps and turned as Shauna's car drove away. Suddenly her nerves returned as she slowly walked over to the only door she could see and hoped it was open.
Emily's hand reached forward and touched the cold metal of the door handle and pushed it down, and the door came open. She walked into the dark warehouse, lit only by a light next to the door she'd just walked in ad a light coming from an industrial elevator at the end of the warehouse bay. Metal shelving littered the place, and on them was placed random parts that Emily didn't take a moment to look at, her heart was beating so fast that it could have powered a small town, she was nervous that this was a trap, she was anxious that Alison wasn't there, that -A's message to them in the hotel had been true and Alison was a prisoner, or worse. She pushed the thoughts out of her head as something dropped from behind her. Emily spun to see if anyone was following her.
That was when the small figure with long, wavy blonde hair stepped out from between two of the shelves behind Emily and it wasn't until Emily turned around that she saw it was Alison. The fear was washed away and relief came over her, "It's really you?" Her voice quivered. Her heart aching to be held in those arms again to have Alison's body pressed to hers in a tight embrace and to never let go again!
Alison stood before her, her breath shaky as she looked like she was going to cry, "Yeah... I've missed you so much." Alison's voice began to break. The truth was, Alison had missed Emily more than any of the others. She had been horrible to Emily before, playing her emotions and using them as a way to control the brunette, but being gone for so long, missing her, it made Alison realize that she hadn't been lying to Emily as much as she'd been lying to herself. She loved Emily, desperately. That was why she'd saved her from the barn, why she'd offered to take Emily with her, and why she had reached out to her now.
Emily couldn't take it anymore, she reached out and wrapped her arms around her soul mate and everything seemed to wash away. -A, Swimming, the argument she had with Spencer, everything just disappeared because Alison was there. Emily was whole for the first time in almost three years. She felt complete. She had her heart and soul back. She never wanted to let Alison go again.
"You have no idea how hard it's been to stay away." Alison's voice was breaking as she realized that she felt more complete in Emily's arms than she ever had, except for the times that they had shared in what seemed like a whole different world. Alison hadn't realized it then, but now she did. Now she knew what those moments really meant.
"Then don't anymore." The desperation in Emily's voice couldn't have been clearer. The need and the desire all made its way into her voice as her arms stayed wrapped around the one girl she loved more than anything. She pulled away but kept her hands on Alison's arms, "Let me help you!" She was almost pleading at this point, she was so desperate to keep Alison in her life, "We can go to the Police, or your parents."
"I wish I could," Alison said, "But I don't know who I can trust." Alison's voice was concerned, she didn't want it to have to be this way but she couldn't be sure what was going on. There was still someone out there who tried to kill her.
"You can trust me. Spencer, Aria..." Emily said trying to convince her to come back.
"I know I can trust you Em, I'm just not sure about them." It hurt Alison to have to say that, but she was scared. She had someone who wanted to kill her, and that wasn't something she could just get over.
"Why?" Emily asked.
Alison's face relaxed and her expression changed from one of fear and suspicion to one of love and sadness, "You never stopped caring about me did you?" The look on Emily's face was enough to tell Alison all she needed to know. She was right, Emily had never stopped caring about her, never stopped missing her, never stopped loving her. "Even after everything I put you through." Alison felt horrible and there was no time like the present to try and make amends for it. She tried to keep herself from doing it, from the moment Emily had turned around Alison had fought this but it came anyway, the tears as her voice broke, "You don't know how much I regret hurting you." She took a minute to try and keep herself from falling apart, from falling to Emily's feet and telling her how much she loved her, and begging her to forgive her for all the horrible things she'd done. "If I could do it all over again, things would be so different." She wanted to keep going with that, she wanted to tell her that she would have actually dated her. They would have been different; she would have consciously cherished every one of those moments they shared together.
Emily had stood there, listening to Alison's apology and her heart was breaking. Not in a bad way, but in a way that told her that Alison was being sincere. She wasn't lying, this was real. Which meant... Alison loved her too. The thought made the butterflies go crazy in her stomach and all she could do was gaze at her soul mate as Alison poured her heart out to her. It made her love for Alison even stronger to hear her say this. She had grown so much and Emily had missed it all but now there was a chance that they could fix this and that Alison could come home and Emily and she could be together, "Who's doing this to you? Tell me who you're hiding from?" The desperation came back as Emily tried to figure this out so she could protect her love from whoever this was. So that Alison could come home and the two of them could be complete like they were supposed to be.
"I thought I knew, but I was wrong." Alison replied, "That's why I need you, Em. Help me find "A" so I can come home."
"So that's who you think tried to kill you?" Emily said, trying her best to channel her inner Spencer and figure this mystery out so that she could take Alison home with her, right then.
Before Alison could respond something clanked from behind Emily. Alison's face changed to one of fear as her breathing increased. Emily, too, got nervous. She had come alone, she knew she did. Was it Shauna? Was this a trick to get both of them?
"What was that?" Alison asked as Emily and she tried to see through the dark to identify any threats. "Who's out there!" Alison took a step backwards as she began to get even more scared. She looked at Emily, "Did you tell anyone about this?"
Emily wished she could have said no and in that moment was angry at herself, furious at herself for telling Spencer. How could she have been so stupid. -A could have been listening which means Emily handed Alison to them on a plate. She hated herself for this and all she could do was look at Alison with eyes full of sadness and pleading her not to go.
Another clatter behind them caused Emily to turn around and Alison to take off running in the other direction. Around the corner came... Spencer. Emily stared at her in complete disbelief that Spencer would follow her. How dare she. She only told Spencer because she didn't want to lie to her, but that apparently had been a huge mistake.
Alison had reached the industrial elevator at the end of the warehouse by the time Emily turned around. She pressed the button for the doors to shut and stood there, the tears running down her face, confused and scared. Had Emily betrayed her? There was a part of her that refused to accept that. She knew better. Emily loved her too much, but either way it was too dangerous for her to stay.
"Ali wait!" Emily cried as she rushed towards the elevator but the metal gate was already closed and the solid doors were closing too. The doors slammed shut just as Emily reached them. She pounded on them, her heart breaking. She'd felt this before when they had buried Alison, her heart and soul being ripped out again, "Ali! Please! Open up!" She begged. She felt herself breaking, she couldn't endure this again. She was frantic, bordering on hysterical as she pressed the "Door open" button and continued to pound on the doors, begging Alison to open them. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She begged crying into the door frantically. This was all her fault. She should have never said anything to anyone. She should have never told Spencer. "Please Ali, I just wanna talk!"
Finally the doors opened and Emily's worst fears came true... she'd lost her again. She'd lost her soul mate for a second time. That emptiness came flooding back, and the pain that she'd spent three years trying to control and hide came back to consume her. She had Alison and for a moment she thought that Alison was going to tell her the three words she'd always longed to hear, but just like that, she was gone again and Emily didn't know if she'd ever see her again.
Suddenly, as the doors opened to an empty elevator, Emily turned, her face full of something that she didn't feel very often. Rage. Her hands balled up into fists as she looked as Spencer who stood ways from her. Emily turned and started walking towards her wanting more than anything to slap her. She'd never been this angry with Spencer before but this was unforgivable! Emily had a chance to bring Alison back into all their lives, and more importantly had a chance to bring Alison back into her life, to complete herself, and Spencer had just taken that way. The last time Emily lost her heart and soul when they were buried in Rosewood Cemetery in a casket to a blonde angel, she'd had no one to blame it on. It had just happened, but this time, it was all Spencer's fault. All that pain, and emptiness and the gut-wrenching feeling of having her heart and soul ripped out, was all Spencer's fault! 'Fucking bitch!' Emily thought as she walked towards the girl who was supposed to be one of her closest friends.
Instead Emily walked by her and started to look. She had to find her, desperation was winning over anger at this point and she was trying so hard to find her, but after ten minutes of both of them searching the building, there was no trace of Emily's golden angel.
"I don't get it how could she just disappear like that?" Spencer said as the two rendezvoused back in the main floor of the warehouse where Emily had met Alison.
"She didn't disappear, you scared her away!" Emily snapped, the anger starting to take back over and the venom in her voice couldn't have been more clear, "I can't believe you followed me here!"
"I thought you were putting yourself in danger!" Spencer replied trying to show Emily she'd done this because she cared about her, but even a piece of Spencer knew there was nothing she could do to fix this. She had just shattered Emily's one chance at happiness.
"Yeah well you thought wrong!" Emily snapped back at her.
Spencer took a moment to breathe, "I know... I'm sorry." She said in the most sincere way she could.
"You're gonna have to work harder than that." Emily said bitterly, "I betrayed Alison. She's never going to reach out to me again." That was said more to herself. A vocalization of her own internal monologue chastising herself for even saying a word to Spencer in the first place.
"She's still playing games with us." Spencer said, as the gears in her head started to turn.
"What are you talking about?" Emily asked, disgusted that Spencer could even suggest that after what Alison had said to her. The way she'd opened up to her and apologized for everything she'd done to Emily in the past.
"Ali sucked you back in." Spencer answered as she started to put the pieces together as they fit best in her mind, "She knew you were pulling away and that's why she picked you. She wanted to make you feel special so you wouldn't give up on her."
The urge to slap Spencer came back but instead Emily just glared at her, "That's sick!" How dare she say that Emily was pulling away and was going to give up on her. She was the first to even suggest that Alison was alive. She was the one who had loved her to the grave and back. She had loved her even when they were positive Alison was dead. She was the one who spent every Friday at Alison's grave sobbing about how much she missed her. She would NEVER give up on her.
"No it's brilliant!" Spencer said almost excited that she'd figured it out and that she'd managed to stay one step ahead of Alison's game.
"It wasn't like that, ok? She was different tonight. She was sincere!" Emily shouted back at her.
"She can trust you but she isn't sure about the rest of us?" Spencer said as if to ask, if Emily really believed what Alison had told her. "Don't you get it she's trying to divide us!"
"She wouldn't do that!" Emily replied. She always saw the best in Alison, she never saw the bad that Spencer always seemed to be finding. Maybe love had blinded her to it, but she had to believe that Alison was sincere in what she said. She'd seen her face, she'd heard her voice, she'd seen her body language. There was no way Alison was lying to her. Not this time.
"Wouldn't she?" Spencer asked reminding Emily that it wouldn't be the first time.
Emily realized something in that moment and the anger came flooding back, "Wait. You were listening? This whole time?!" The 'How Dare She' feeling came back. That was a private, intimate moment between her and Alison, a moment when Alison did something she never did, she bared her heart to Emily and Spencer had eavesdropped on the whole thing.
"We can't let her come between us." Spencer warned.
"I'd say you're doing a great job of that all on your own!" Emily shot back. She was angry, and heartbroken, and was in more pain than any of them could possibly imagine. Even Toby being on the -A team and Spencer being admitted to Radley couldn't equal the pain that Spencer had just thrown back in Emily's face. Yeah she thought that Toby had been killed, but they'd already proven that was a lie. Hell it was what put Spencer in Radley to start with. Maybe she did understand but if she did she wasn't being very considerate of it.
"I'm sorry." Spencer said stepping forward and trying to comfort her friend.
"DON'T!" Emily screamed back at her batting her hands away. She couldn't bear to be around Spencer another moment. She was sure she'd hit her if she was and so she walked past her and out the door. How was she going to get home? She didn't know and right at that moment she didn't care. She'd lost the one person in her life she loved more than anything and it was just as much her own fault for telling Spencer as it was Spencer's for following her. All Emily heard as she turned the corner for the door was Spencer kicking a shelf out of frustration.
Days went by and Emily couldn't even think of Spencer without being infuriated. She laid on her bed for hours crying. She was reliving the days after Alison's funeral all over again. Sure she knew Alison was alive, but what good was that if she couldn't find her. What made it worse was that Alison now thought that Emily had betrayed her and that hurt perhaps more than anything else. Spencer had called and left several voicemails but Emily couldn't even think about calling her back. Once again she was a zombie. Existing as an empty shell of a person with no enthusiasm at all. All she think about was the look on Alison's face as the doors closed on the elevator and the look of heartbreak. All Emily ever wanted was to be the reason Alison smiled that beautiful smile that Emily had fallen in love with, and instead she'd been the reason Alison was crying. It was the worst torture she could imagine, almost worse than Alison being dead.
Finally Emily started going out, but she avoided Spencer. Just the mention of Spencer was enough to infuriate her. Her movie date with Aria came to an abrupt end as Aria mentioned something about Spencer pegging a guy in front of them with jellybeans. Emily just got quiet and kept walking. That was how it went for days. She just couldn't let this go. Spencer had robbed her of her one chance at happiness, at becoming whole. It was unforgivable! She'd told Spencer in confidence as a friend, and Spencer had betrayed her trust and as a result cost her the most valuable thing she ever had.
It had gotten so bad that Emily wasn't even talking to Hanna, only because Hanna wasn't angry at Spencer. In her mind Spencer had committed the worst crime anyone could have ever committed. She'd betrayed her trust and that was something that was just unforgivable in her mind. She couldn't even look at her, much less talk to her. It was driving Aria and Hanna crazy, she knew it but she couldn't let it go. It was just too far.
It took a week, and an attack by -A and her father having a heart attack for Emily to finally realize that the anger and stress just wasn't worth it, at least not if she wanted any chance of finding Alison again. Still when Aria told her that she'd texted Spencer, Emily had another flash of anger.
"Please don't send me away." Spencer said in a voice that sounded almost as pleading as Emily's had been when she'd begged Alison to come home.
Emily looked at her and didn't say anything. Spencer looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. She couldn't figure out what she was up to but Emily guessed it was probably digging up more clues. It was all she ever did. Before Emily could even think of words to say, and overcome with how scared she was for her dad, Spencer had her arms wrapped around her and Emily's wrapped around Spencer. The first kind gesture Emily had shared with Spencer in over a week.
And like that, the anger was gone. The heartbreak was still there, the feelings of betrayal were still there, but the feelings of fear trumped all of that. Her father was in the hospital, Hanna had been operated on by -A and Alison was... well she didn't know and that was the problem! She knew in that moment that if she was ever going to find Alison again she'd need the other three girls and that this division was going to do them no good.