Ok so I had more than a few people ask for me to continue this and even though I'm super busy with my Masters program right now and my other stories I think I'm going to cave under the peer pressure and continue it for a bit. Also someone corrected my story of Emily being an only child and my understanding is that she had siblings in the book series but not the show. I could be wrong I have only made it through about 8 of the books, but either way it's just part of this story so if that makes it slightly AU-ish then so be it.

Later that night Paige was still with Emily and Pam was pacing outside trying to make phone calls and field media outlets who were by now breathing down her neck. While she did that Ella stayed outside Emily's room and Ashley stayed in Caleb's where Hanna had settled. Spencer and Aria had stayed permanently planted at the foot of Emily's bed and both girls were still half asleep leaning against each other for the sake of comfort. The hospital chatter and noise was cut through by the distinct sound of heels hitting the tiles. Ella looked up to see Veronica Hastings looking far too put together for 11 o'clock at night walking toward her.

"How are they doing?" Veronica stood next to Ella and looked into the room.

"If you ask me, Emily is getting far too used to being almost killed. Otherwise, they'll both be physically fine in a few days."

"I hate that Emily had to go through this, but what she did freed an innocent man." Ella rolled her eyes and turned to Veronica. "Ok let's get one thing perfectly clear, when you go in there to get Spencer do me the solid favor of not saying what you just said to me to Emily because she had to kill a man Veronica. Did you hear me, she had to kill him because he held a knife to her throat and to Paige's throat. He was trying to stab her and she had to stab him just to survive. She didn't do what she did for fucking Garrett Reynolds who by the way is anything but innocent. He might not have killed Maya, but he sure as hell made our daughters lives difficult. My advice to you is go in there, offer your support to a teenager who has been through too much hell and trauma for a million lifetimes and then grab your child and go home, but if you breathe one word about Garrett I'll make sure Pam hears about it and she's already out for blood."

Veronica nodded and silently walked inside the room. Emily shifted in the bed which caused Paige to open her eyes and see Spencer's mom standing there looking at them.

"I thought that Spencer might want to come home." For the first time in her life Veronica wasn't sure what to do or say so she just stood there looking at the floor. Paige was about to saw something, but Emily beat her too it. "Uncertainty doesn't look good on you Mrs. Hastings." The girl opened her eyes and looked at Spencer's mother and Veronica forced a smile. "How are you feeling Emily?"

"Better, I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to feel."

"Emily I'm.."

"If sorry is the next word out of your mouth save it. I'm tired of people telling me that they are sorry."

"I understand. Would it be alright if I took Spencer home?"

"You'll have to wake her up first." Emily cracked a small smile before leaning back against the pillow. Veronica touched Spencer's shoulder and the teenager flinched forward, in the process waking Aria up as well. "Spencer relax it's just me."

"What time is it?"

"After 11; come on I'll take you home." Spencer stood up and looked over at Emily and Paige. "Will you be ok here with her?"

Paige nodded her head, "I'm not going anywhere. She should be released tomorrow night or the next morning."

"I'll be back tomorrow to check on her." Spencer grabbed her bag and walked over to the bed and kissed Emily's forehead before turning away. She stopped before she walked out the door and turned to Paige, "Paige. I know it may not mean much to you and it doesn't fix anything, but thank you for staying with her, makes me feel better knowing she isn't alone tonight."

"You're welcome." Paige offered a small smile as Spencer left the room with Veronica trailing behind her. When they got outside the door Pam was just returning, cell phone still attached to her ear and she was fuming mad. "No, listen to me very very carefully, if I see news vans, reporters, somebody with a camera phone anywhere near my daughter or her girlfriend I will break the camera and whoever is holding it into pieces. If you should feel the need to call me again, stop yourself and call my attorney instead." Pam hung up and looked up to see Veronica, Ella and Spencer all looking at her.

"Reporters are vultures. Veronica I didn't expect to see you here, thought you'd be dealing with your client." The bite in her voice was still there and no one could really blame her, Pam had every right to be angry. "I wanted to see how Caleb's surgery went and to see how Emily was and I thought Spencer might want to come home. And Pam you know as well as I do that I don't get to pick my clients."

"No, but you could have refused him when he asked for you. I know he didn't kill Maya, but that punkass son of a bitch has been haunting our daughters for months and you defended him. You know what I don't have time to care about this right now. I need to go check on my daughter and make sure Paige calls her parents. Spencer, when you come back tomorrow could you grab a few things for Emily from the house?"

"Of course just let me know what she needs and I'll grab it." Spencer gave Pam a hug before following her mother down the long hallway to the elevators. Pam let go of the breath she had been holding and turned back to Ella. "You can take Aria home if you want, it's getting late, I'm sure you are both tired."

"Are you going to be ok here by yourself?"

"Paige doesn't appear to be going anywhere so we can keep each other company." Pam walked into the room with Ella behind her. Pam touched Paige's shoulder and the teenager sat up to look at her.

"You should call your parents Paige, I'm sure they are worried sick and they deserve to know what happened." The color drained from Paige's face, "I don't want to talk about it anymore right now."

"Honey, I know it's scary, but you need to tell them what happened so they can be there for you, get you some help."

"I don't need any help, I have Emmy."

Pam was a little shocked; no one other than her dad was allowed to call Emily Emmy. "Honey, you both almost died, you say a crazy person hold a knife to her throat and then to your own. It would be a good idea to see a therapist or even just talk to you folks. Keeping that pent up won't help you at all. Now come on, we'll go call them together and see about getting that IV out." Pam held out her hand and Paige wanted to take it but she kept looking between Pam and Emily, like she had to make a choice. Ella jumped in, "We'll stay here until you get back Paige. Emily won't be alone I promise." Paige nodded and stood up from the bed. She leaned over and kissed Emily softly, careful not to wake her up. She followed Pam out of the room and before the door closed Ashley walked in and took a seat next to Ella and Aria.

"How's Caleb?"

"Much better. They'll keep him a few days to watch for infection, but he can go home next week. Hanna is going to stay with him tonight, so I thought I'd come check on Emily. Where's Paige and Pam?"

"Calling Paige's parents."

Ashley scoffed and laughed slightly, "Bet Pam is really looking to dealing with Nick on top of all of this."

"You think she still has issues with him?"

"If someone showed up at my kid's high school and in front of her said terrible things about her merits as a student athlete based only on her sexual orientation I'd have skinned him alive, so yeah I think that she might still be a little pissed. But they'll have to play nice in light of what happened."

"Is Paige even out to her parents?"

"She told them a few months ago." Aria threw in her two cents. "She said if she ever stood a chance with Em, she couldn't treat her like a dirty secret again. She did it for her." Emily seemed to tense in the bed and it looked like she was having a bad dream. Ashley stood up and went over to the side of the bed and gently tried o take her up.

"Emily, Em, come on sweetie you need to wake up for me. You're safe, no one is hurting you honey." Emily sat up right in the bed and was breathing heavy and when she realized where she ways she held her head in her hands and let out a frustrated sigh. "I hate this, I hate this so god damn much. I'm so tired of being afraid." Ashley let Emily wrap her arms around her and she stayed there, letting her be upset and when she seemed to calm down she pulled away Emily looked around and realized who was missing.

"Where's Paige? Is she ok? I have to make sure she didn't do anything again." Emily moved to get out the bed and Ashley pushed her back and forced her to lie back down. "She is with your mom calling her parents. She's fine I promise you."

Emily looked unsure and Ashley felt terrible for not being able to make her feel better. "Emily, have I ever lied to you?"

"Not that I am aware of no."

"So trust me now, Paige is fine and is safe with your mom. She'll be right back ok."

Aria stood up, "Em I can go find her if you need her." Emily waved Aria over to her and had the girl lean in while she whispered something to her. Aria straightened up and after looking slightly confused she nodded, "ok Em, I'll be right back ok." Aria was about to open the door when her mother stopped her and whispered in her ear. "What did she say to you?"

"She said to find Paige and bring her back because she needed to make sure she wasn't sad and to make sure she didn't want to disappear again. I don't know what that means, but I assume it's the meds so I'm just gonna go find Paige and I'll be right back." Aria left the room and Ella went over to the chair next to Emily's bed. She and Ashley looked at the teenager and figured that she had fallen back asleep.

"What did she mean by make sure she doesn't want to disappear again?" Ella was confused and Ashley didn't have a good explanation either, "I don't know, maybe that's something to ask her when she is lucid." Aria returned and Paige was walking behind her, no longer with an IV and was wearing hospital scrubs because her clothes were still covered in blood and dirt. Pam told them that the McCullers were on their way and would be there in about 20 minutes. She left the room to grab her bag from the car and when the door shut Paige moved to sit back down next to Emily, but Ella called her over. Paige crossed to the other side of the room and sat down between the two mothers and Aria sat down next to her mom.

"When Aria left to go find you Emily said to make sure you didn't want to disappear again. Any idea why she would be worried about that?" Paige winced and looked back at Ella and sighed, "do you really want to know, cuz it's not a pretty story?" All three women nodded.

"Ok, but." Paige looked directly at Aria. "You can't breathe a word of this to Spencer or to Hanna, ok, it's mine to tell them and I get you are best friends, but I need you to pretend for ten minutes that you are my friend as well and keep this a secret." Aria nodded, "you have my word, I won't tell the others."

"When Spencer was sure that I was going to hurt Emily she heard that I had a past with Alison, and it was not a pleasant past either. She told Emily and when Emily asked me I denied ever knowing Alison. That was a lie. Later that night I went over to Emily's house and I explained to her that I did in fact know Alison and that we had a volatile relationship. Calling her a bully is being far too kind, she absolutely was hell bent on destroying me. I know she put you guys through the ringer too, but you had each other to support you and get you through it. I had no one because of how I acted in sports and at school. I was handling Ali and everything she threw at me alone, I had no one. She found out I liked girls, found out I liked Emily and that was the last straw, she became relentless and threatened to out me and I couldn't handle it anymore. Soon after that it didn't matter what Alison was doing to me, because I was willing to do so much worse to myself. But I didn't disappear because I didn't want her to win. I switched schools for a while and when my dad got a job back in Rosewood we came back, but by then Alison was dead and buried. Alison made me want to disappear and Emily just wanted to make sure that what happened tonight didn't make me think about it again." When Paige finished talking Aria's already large eyes were in a permanent state of shock and Ella and Ashley both seemed to be stunned silent.

Ella was the first one to break the quiet, "so when she was worried about you disappearing she was scared that you were thinking about suicide again."

"With all due respect Ms. Montgomery, I did a lot more than think about it." Paige turned her arms over so that the underside of her forearm was exposed and even though the scars were faded, they were there on her wrists and forearm and they were plainly visible. "Before you freak out too much, my parents know and they got me help and all that so you don't have to worry about telling them." Before the rest of them could process what they had just been told Emily started to stir and was calling out for Paige. Paige stood up and before she took a step Aria stood in front of her, preventing her from moving.

"Listen to me carefully, because I will only say this once to you. I'm sorry for what Ali did to you, I'm sorry for what we accused you of and I'm sorry you suffered like that alone and thought that death was the answer. But she can't handle another funeral for someone she loves, ok, she won't survive another dead girlfriend. So please, if you ever, EVER feel like you want to do something like that again, tell one of us, tell our parents if you don't want to tell your own, hell tell Pam for all I care, but please please do not make me hold her in my arms again when her heart is breaking."

Paige was a little shocked but she nodded her head, "I would never, ever leave her, no matter what happened. I'd rather cut my heart out then ever cause her any more pain. You have my word, she's safe with me."

"Good, now second thing. Come here." Aria surprised Paige by opening her arms and hugging the swimmer. Paige let her and when they broke apart Paige went over and rejoined Emily leaving Aria to sit back down with her mother and Ashley. Aria turned to her mother, "I think I'd like to go home now, I'm beat and that just made me feel really guilty."

"We should leave anyway, it's late." Ella stood up and grabbed her purse, after Aria said good bye to Emily, Ella leaned over and kissed her forehead. Emily caught her hand before she walked away, "she didn't disappear." Emily sounded like a kid that just got their Christmas wish and Ella smiled, "no honey, she didn't, I don't think she's going anywhere for a long time."

So yeah, I'm not sure how long I'm going to make this, but here is an update so hope you all liked it. I threw in the conversation on the porch because they once again explained nothing about what Paige revealed to Emily so I threw it in here.