A/N: Thank you for taking the time to read this. This is my first stab at a PLL Fan fiction focusing around trauma. My story "Emily's Leave" touches on it with some of Emily's panic attacks, but nothing like this one will. I will say that I have personal experience with some of the things that Emily has been diagnosed with but I have never been admitted to a mental facility for it, so if there are errors in how I am describing that, please forgive me. I've done some research into things but I just don't have the experience. I am not trying to make light of it, I know how horrible it can be and I have the utmost respect and sympathy for people who may have had to suffer through that. This will be a multi-chapter story as Emily comes to terms with her trauma and realizes how much Alison still means to her. It will also be quite a journey for the Emison couple as they discover things about each other that they may not have known.
Without further ado, I give you "Broken Pieces". I hope you like it. PLEASE feel free to comment and review below. It really does help! Cheers!

An Empty room. Nothing but cold concrete walls, a metal chair, and a metal table with four switches on it each with a cable coming out the back. The wires were banded together on the floor with a zip-tie and fed through a small hole in the wall. Cameras sat in all four corners of the room along with speakers. The metal door was shut and locked and one, lone, solitary light, hung from the ceiling casting light down onto the brunette who was sitting in the chair, with wires attached to each of her wrists and her back. The air was chilled and the sound of a high pitched siren filled the room, echoing off the walls and punishing the ears of the brunette sitting in the chair covering her ears crying and begging for the sound to stop. She knew there was only one way to make it stop, one way that the sound would disappear and her ears would have a moment's peace but it was so hard to bring herself to do it. It meant that one of her three best friends would be shocked, or go without food or water for the day. It was cruel and she didn't understand why -A was doing this! She knew that -A was upset because they had managed to escape, but what was the point of making her torture her friends?

Finally Emily Fields reached her hand out and flipped the switch for Aria Montgomery. The speakers stopped the terrible siren that had been punishing her ears, but before long she was being tormented by a new sound, the sound of her friend screaming. Emily sat in her chair, sobbing as she put her hands back on the arms of the chair and just sat there, pouting slightly waiting for the next command that -A gave. Her brown eyes scanned the switches in front of her as Aria's reset. One had a picture of Aria, another had one of Spencer, the third had one of Hanna and the last one, all the way to the left had a picture of Alison. That was perhaps the most heartbreaking switch of them all. At first Emily had thought that it was a switch that was connected to Mona, since -A had caught her and was using her as a stand-in for Alison, but -A had shown her that somehow she had actually caught Alison and was holding her. Furthermore, -A told Emily that the button was indeed programed to Alison, not Mona. Emily was heartbroken, but what she didn't understand was that Alison's button was not a test of her obedience to -A, it was a test of something much deeper, but that puzzle wouldn't become clear until after they all found out who -A really was. For now it would remain another mystery in -A's game.

Six-and-a-half years later

Emily Fields walked down the hall of Welby State Psychiatric Hospital in a pair of grey sweatpants with no draw string and the word "Sharks" written in blue down the right leg. She wore laceless slip-on shoes and a blue sweatshirt over her white t-shirt and sports bra. Her hair was left down because she wasn't allowed to have anything that she could use as a weapon. It wasn't violence towards others that they were worried about, but rather they were worried about Emily hurting herself. It was self-destructive behavior, bordering on suicide that got her admitted to Welby in the first place after a mental breakdown that was caused by the amount of stress she was putting herself through, or so they thought.

As it turned out Emily had been suffering for a long time, just no one thought enough about it to really have her examined or really dig deep enough to find out what the root cause of things was. She'd spent nearly two months in Welby going through things with her therapist on a daily basis. Dr. Connell was her psychiatrist and he'd made a detailed account of Emily's past, so far as he could get out of her in the daily sessions they had and even though they were preparing to discharge her to outpatient treatment, he still planned on seeing her daily until she could get a job and then only dropping to twice a week. He knew there was a lot of baggage there that needed to be dealt with.

Emily sat down at the small round table with a tray of food. Next to her sat Nurse Francis. Emily had always had a nurse with her when she ate to make sure that she actually did it. That was one of the other reasons Emily had ended up in Welby. She'd been so stressed out and hadn't been eating because she'd been spending all of her time trying to figure out what was happening with A.D. and trying to get Alison out of Welby while Rollins was still in charge of her case. All of this, plus the regular baggage she was trying to deal with had pushed Emily over the edge of exhaustion and completely wore her down. However now she was starting to show signs of improvement, and knowing that

Emily sat in the chair staring at her food, occasionally picking at it so that Nurse Francis wouldn't bother her too much about eating but the truth was Emily was just pushing the food around her plate more than she was eating it. She still wasn't 100% but she wanted out of Welby! She wanted to be out there helping her friends catch AD, but most importantly she wanted to be out of here so she could help Alison and protect her from whatever AD was going to throw her way. Her friends had visited her several times while she was in, but none of them had mentioned what was going on with AD, though she overheard Aria and Hanna talking about how Alison had no money now, which only made Emily's stress more but she had to control herself if she ever wanted to get out of Welby, and that was what she'd done.

Another nurse walked through the double doors and over to the nurse's station before over to the table where Nurse Francis and Emily sat. Her plate was about half empty, not that it had a lot on it to start with, and Emily was sort of picking at the rest of it.

"Emily, your ride is here." The nurse said.

Emily didn't wait for Nurse Francis' approval. She stood and brought her tray to the trash, dumping it before heading down the hall for her room. This was the fastest anyone had seen her move since she'd arrived at Welby, but she knew who was coming to pick her up that day. It wasn't her mother, or any of the other girls, it was Alison. If there was one thing Emily had come to realize while she had been in Welby it was just how much Alison still meant to her. She had spent so much time trying to convince herself that she was over Alison, but anyone with a pair of eyes knew that it was a load of crap. That was why Rollins had tried so hard drive a wedge between Alison and all of her friends, but especially Emily.

Emily grabbed her two bags and headed out. She walked through the double doors and down to where the locked iron bar door was. On the other side was her golden haired angel talking with one of the nurses and being given a packet of papers about Emily's treatment, and her medication and her outpatient schedule. Since Pam was off on a "Gold Star" tour with other Army widows, Emily needed a guardian to make sure she continued her treatment. It was a condition of her release and since Alison had plenty of room in her house, she had surprisingly volunteered.

The door buzzed and was swung open by one of the orderlies as Alison turned from the nurse and smiled at Emily. She wore a simple grey sweatshirt, and a pair of blue skinny jeans. She held her car keys and the paperwork in one hand as she offered Emily her bright, signature smile. Her crystal blue eyes seemed to glow at the tanned girl who rushed through the door and into her arms. For a moment Emily tensed as she rushed into Alison's arms, but it only took a moment for her to relax. Rushing out of somewhere she didn't want to be, and into Alison's arms reminded her too much of when they had all escaped the Dollhouse. That memory still warmed Emily's heart. Through the thick smoke, and the number of other people who were there, Alison had found Emily. Emily, coughing, and almost blind from the smoke had found Alison. They had found each other. It was what soul mates did.

The two stood in the lobby hugging for what felt like several minutes but in those minutes Emily felt calm, and at peace and the world just melted away. This was what love was. She'd never felt this way hugging anyone but Alison. Even her Dad hadn't brought her this kind of peace. Only Alison could and with all the time she had been afforded to think while she was in Welby, Emily began to realize just what all of this meant and what she had to do about it, but she was still nervous.

"Hi." Alison said gently as they finally broke their hug. Alison kept her hands on Emily's forearms as they stood there looking at each other. Alison's eyes glowed at her, and Emily smiled for the first time in what seemed like forever.

"Hi." Emily said in return keeping her hands on Alison's forearms as well. She looked at the large packet of papers that Alison had in her hand. She could only imagine what those were but the truth was she didn't want to. They were the hospital's way of keeping her in their control once she was gone. She cursed the day Mona had found her in Lucas' flat, laying half on the floor and half on the coffee table with a saucer-sized bruise on her face from where she'd hit the table on the way down. Despite what everyone had said about Welby and their fears for Alison's safety, Mona still took her there before any of her other friends knew that she was even sick. 'Fucking Mona.' She thought as she went back to how she'd gotten there.

Alison gently squeezed Emily's arm pulling her back to the present, "Come on, Em. Let's get home." She smiled warmly at Emily and took her hand leading her out of the hospital and into the bright daylight of the mid-morning sun. That simple touch of Alison's hand in hers was enough to warm her heart and feel like a blanket of security had been wrapped around her.

Emily walked out into the sun, feeling the warm rays hit her tanned skin. Her dark hair lacked it's usual shine because of the crappy shampoo that they had to use while they were in there, but still feeling the natural air on her body again was enough to make her feel better. It had been true that Emily needed a break, and it still was true. Emily Fields needed a break and some time away from the problems that were plaguing her, but that time didn't need to be spent in Welby. She hadn't rested or recovered at all while she was in there, it just pissed her off even more because she felt more useless than she had before.

Emily got into Alison's car and sat there as Alison flipped through the packet of papers and pulled out two slips, "Alright first stop, Pharmacy." She said somewhat excited before putting her seatbelt on and putting the rest of the papers in the back seat, "So what did you want for dinner Em? I'll make you anything you want. Your favorite is that tortellini in the light alfredo sauce, right?"

Emily couldn't help but smile shyly and bit her lip. Alison actually remembered what her favorite dish was. "Yeah..." She said as Alison pulled out of the parking lot and onto main street, "...but at this point I'd go for anything as long as it didn't taste like cardboard."

Alison laughed, "You noticed that too, huh?" She sighed slightly but was still amused. Alison's time at Welby had been even less pleasurable than Emily's and any thought of it reminded her that her ex husband had completely screwed her over and stolen every dime she had. Thankfully Jason and her father were helping her out with money while the police tracked down Rollins, or Archer, or whatever his name was, but now wasn't the time to think about that. Now was the time to think about her dearest, most cherished friend sitting in the car next to her, released from the same prison she'd been in.

Alison dropped off the prescriptions and the two of them went grocery shopping before picking up the prescriptions and heading back to the pharmacy to pick up the drugs. Emily was on 15mg of Prazosin, 50mg of Lexapro, and 100mg of Citalopram. Each dealt with a different symptom, the Prazosin was meant to deal with her nightmares and insomnia, the Lexapro was meant for her anxiety, and the Citalopram was the anti-depressant. What surprised Emily was that they didn't put her on anything for panic attacks. That was perhaps the first symptom that had reared it's head and it started the day of Alison's funeral all those years ago, but no one had thought to ever have her treated for it. Instead Emily's mother and father had done what they could to help her, but it wasn't until Alison came home that they realized what would really work. Any time Emily had one of her panic attacks that she'd lost Alison, Pam would pick up the phone and frantically call the blonde to come help. Within ten minutes of being with Alison, Emily was fine, where as it had taken over a half an hour to calm her down before.

As Alison's car pulled into the driveway and she put it in park Emily took a breath and looked at the blonde for a long moment. Her face held a soft expression, one of caring, and deep love, but she couldn't say it, there was just too much going on and she'd just gotten out. Still it was enough to make the pink rise to Alison's cheeks and for her to turn her face, "What? Did my make-up run or something?" She asked laughing, "Come on Em, let's get you settled." She got out of the car and walked around grabbing some of the grocery bags. She put the papers and Emily's medication in one as she saw Emily grab her own bags out of the car and wait for Alison. Alison was excited to have Emily there, she knew that they both would benefit from it, but she didn't realize just how much they would benefit from it. That this experience would change both their lives for the better, something that was long... long overdue.