Hello everyone out there! Thank you so much for your support. I love to read your comments and your messages.
Here's chapter 3, I hope you like it
Still... long dialogues in Italics are flashbacks
Btw: I made a couple changes (very small) on ch. 2 for those who already read it. I had some issues calculating the time between the show and this fic. I said the story starts 5 years after the finale but I forgot that Paige left like 'a year' before the show ended so I had to chage some details in the previous chapter. No big deal.
Ok, that's it. Enjoy
-Paily Love-
The alarm next to her bed went on and Emily extended her arm to turn the thing off. The night was long enough to on top of that have to deal with the annoying noise. Her encounter with Paige left her with a bittersweet sensation; if she had to be honest seeing her ex after all those years left a great impact on her. Paige was happy but she wasn't sure if she was as happy for the other woman as she confessed to her friends the day before, after their first encounter she thought she would have some time to adapt; first, to the idea of Paige being in Rosewood again and second, to the fact that Paige was married and has her own family, but she didn't. She had to deal with all the information right away and now she didn't know how or what she was feeling.
In Emily's head the memory of the last time she saw her ex was still fresh; once again Paige's face was full of hope and happiness, her smile was in full display waiting for Emily to keep her promise of a new life together, and once again Emily found a way to destroy the woman's dreams. For her it was still hard to believe that she was capable of loving Paige as much as she was capable of hurting her and when the other woman walked away that day, she convinced herself it was for the best, that she couldn't keep hurting her like that, so whatever happened to Paige from that day forward was not her concern anymore. Though one last thought cross her mind; if she wasn't able to make Paige happy anymore at least she was hoping someone else could, but one thing was thinking about it and a whole different thing was to be a witness of it.
These thoughts were the reason of her lack of sleep for most part of the night and she was thankful Alison wasn't there to…
"Good Morning" Emily heard her wife's voice from behind her.
When she woke up the first thing that crossed her mind was Paige (which under the current circumstances was really bad) and how the other woman took her sleep away (for the wrong reasons). She rolled over her spot slowly to catch up with Alison's presence
"Morning" Emily answered surprised to see her wife lying next to her "when did you get here?" she asked now facing her
"At dawn" Alison let her know "I think it was like four in the morning or something"
"Wow. You didn't have to do that, everything was under control over here" Emily assumed Alison's change of plans had to do with the twins
"Yeah. I know… if there's someone our daughters can't live without, that's you" Alison smiled at her placing her hand over Emily's "but I actually wanted to be here first thing in the morning because there's something I need to take care of"
"Oh, yeah and what's that?" Emily asked intrigue
"Well now that the girls are on their summer break I have enough time to focus on the family business"
"Really…?" Emily hide her disappointment behind a very convincing excitement; a faced she learnt how to build long time ago. It's not that she wasn't excited for Alison's plans but if she had to be honest, she wishes she and the twins were the reason for her wife's efforts.
But Emily wasn't surprised anymore about Alison putting different reasons to keep her mind 'occupied'. Things started very slowly, at first Emily couldn't notice the difference between Alison's responsibilities and Alison's obsession to keep herself busy all the time, to the point of putting their marriage aside to focus on things that in her wife's words; would 'beneficiate' their family.
It was gradually; the first time Emily noticed a big change was when Alison forgot their anniversary three years ago (one thing was to let romanticism asides and a whole different thing was to forget the important things in their relationship). For all the six years she and Alison have been together, Emily could consider the first two as successful, the other four were definitely not what she expected; she wouldn't say things were a disaster but she was starting to think, and sometimes to feel, that the twins were now the only reason for them to be together.
But Emily couldn't be unfair either, the first two years of relationship (one as girlfriends and the first one of marriage) were a dream come true; it was not a secret that they got together when they found out about Alison's pregnancy but after a couple of weeks going around each other, they started to reconnect and Emily was delight to be there for the mother of her children, to experience the whole pregnancy stage next to the woman that at some point became in just an utopia for her. Nine months later the girls were born and everything became a bless, they were sharing things that neither of them thought would be able to enjoy after such traumatic past, and to make everything even more perfect; three months after Grace and Lily were born Alison took the big step and surprised her with a 'particular' marriage proposal.
The ceremony was intimate; both Alison's and Emily's families were there and of course their closest friends and some of their co-workers, who were the same on both sides given that both were working on the same school. It was planned in less than a month because the school year was about to get to an end and they wanted to take advantage of the summer break to travel for their honeymoon.
When they got back, things didn't get too different from the way they were before; the girls were their number one priority and they were focus on enjoy as much time as parenthood allowed them. Alison on her part was a thoughtful and a very detail- oriented wife; she was constantly having significant details with Emily, at least to the most part of their first year of marriage, then the details became small and sporadically, maybe that's why it was harder for Emily to noticed the changes and when they stop coming it didn't make any difference, not to mention that being a parent was taken a significant amount of time for them so there wasn't too much time available to notice.
What it was a fact though; was that the romantic camps on the kissing rock, the long nights making love, the improvised dates, everything was left way behind them. Alison was definitely not the same selfish, manipulative and abusive person she used to be in high school and Emily was grateful and proud of her wife for that, but after being this caring and loving person through their first years of relationship her personality was changing to a distant, uncommunicative and neglecting kind of person. Long meetings, extra hours, seminars and the list went on and on when it comes to her career and that became a problem for their life as a couple.
"Yeah…" Alison's fingers were trailing patterns in Emily's arm, which the other woman was following with her eyes like she was under some kind of spell "actually, I was about to call Heather…" until Alison trailed off
Emily's gaze went immediately to her wife's face "Heather, as in…" Emily didn't dare to finish her own statement
"As in Paige's wife, yes" Alison added and Emily winced at her words. She definitely needed to train her brain about Heather "I want for her to make an appointment to meet her father that means I'm probably going to spend the afternoon in their house"
"Why?" Emily sounded as the idea was ridiculous and unnecessary
"I talk to Jason about Mr. Allen and he thinks it's a good idea to approach the guy, if we get his support then we can start working on a business plan"
"Alison, I don't think that's a good idea…" but Emily's statement got cut off
"Why? Because she is your ex's wife?" Alison's voice didn't carry any kind of accusation, in fact it sounded that she was joking a bit but Emily didn't took her that way, she was too tired from her lack of sleep to deal with something like that
"What!? Are you serious right now? This has nothing to do with Paige" something in Emily's voice was telling Alison that wasn't entirely true
"Oh, really?"
"Really!" Emily was starting to rise her voice "I was just thinking that now that our daughters are on their break we could spend more time together but I guess I was wrong. Again!"
"Hey… it's ok" Alison tried to reach Emily's face with her hand but Emily pushed her away
"No! It's not ok" Emily sounded frustrated "don't you see…?"
"I see… and I can tell something is bothering you, what is it?" Emily just looked away "talk to me, Emily"
"I just…" Emily looked at her directly in the eyes, she wanted to give a clear message "if you start this new project you're going to invest all your time there and what's going to happen with us? We need you too, you know"
"I know and I'm sorry for being kind of MIA lately" –lately? - Emily thought to herself –more like the last four years- "but once we get everything fix things are going to be the way they were before, I promise" those words sounded familiar
"I just wish we could have more time for us" Emily has repeated those words so many times that they were losing their meaning already
"Well, in that case…" Alison leaned over Emily, kissing her lips slowly "we can take a few minutes before the girls…"
"Mommy, mommy!" the twins run into the room throwing themselves in their mothers' bed
"We don't have school today" Grace said cuddling into Emily's arm
"What are we going to do?" Lily asked looking at Alison
"Mommy has to be someplace else but mommy Em is going to spend the morning with you guys" Emily glared at Alison, who was already getting out of bed. She couldn't believe Alison was leaving her with the responsibility again
"Where are we going mommy?" Lily asked excited, waiting Emily for an answer
"Well… what about if we take breakfast first and then we'll see" Emily offered
"Yes!" Both girls bumped their fists in the air
"Are you taking breakfast with us too, mommy?" Grace asked looking at Alison
"Of course, I'm just going to make a call and I'll catch you on the kitchen, ok?"
"Ok" The twins run out of the room, walking into theirs again
Emily's gaze went back to Alison
"What?" Alison asked when she saw the death glared Emily was giving her
"Really?" Emily said shaking her head in a disapproval sign
"What did I do?" Alison looked truly lost at Emily's behavior
"Nothing…" Emily got out of the bed too, walking to the door "that's the problem…" she walked out of the room and headed to the kitchen to start with breakfast
Emily wishes she could be stronger. When did her life become into this? It was a stupid question, of course she knew when, the problem was that she didn't know how to fix it.
Looking at her girls now sitting on the table in front of her, all she could think about was how to make them happy, all they were asking for was a morning with their mothers; a freaking breakfast, but Alison was still on the phone with no sign of hanging up soon.
But she didn't want to give up, it would be too easy to just walk away from everything. She took a decision six years ago (Paige being the main loss of that decision) and make a commitment to spend the rest of her life with the woman she loves a year after that and she couldn't throw that away just like that, that's not the example her parents gave her. Aside from their mistakes and misunderstandings Pam and Wayne were great parents; caring, protective (sometimes too much), lovable, especially her dad and that was exactly what she wanted for her daughters.
Emily was always trying to convince herself that these were only difficult times, that at some point everything will get back to normal, that Alison would realize how important her family is for her and get back to be the same woman Emily got married to, she just had to be patient and wait. The real question was; for how long?
"Well, I hope we won't have to wait for too long" Paige said cuddling into Emily's arms.
Even when it was another warm day in California, the girls were getting trouble to get out of bed and the activities from their previous night were not making things easier
"Paige, we're just in our sophomore year, don't you think it's too soon to talk about kids?" Emily asked her. She was trying to look as serious as possible but if she had to be honest the idea also crossed her mind on more than one occasion
"To have them, yes. To talk about them, I don't think so… I just love to daydream with our future children. Don't you?" Paige looked at her expectantly
"Well…" Emily blushed a little "yeah… sometimes…"
"I knew it!" Paige bumped her fist in the air making Emily roll her eyes at her "and what's the image you picture on your head?"
"Three kids at least" Emily smiled at her "two girls and a boy"
"Three, huh? Don't you think it's too much?" Paige grinned
"As long as we do it together, I think we can handle it" Emily was convinced that with Paige by her side everything could be possible
"You and me and the three, four, five… I don't care how many children we have. I'll never leave your side" Paige sealed the conversation with a passionate kiss that Emily responded with eagerness
The moment couldn't be more perfect and they took advantage of that. They were in love, with a new chance of happiness in her hands, away from their tormented past, away from the town that brought for them so much pain and nothing would be able to destroy that.
It happened again. In dark moments like these she found herself thinking about Paige and how the other woman would behave under the current circumstances. She was sure Paige wouldn't 'abandon' her family in the first place. No, Emily knew it was unfair to compare one relationship with the other, Paige and Alison were complete different people but sometimes she couldn't help herself, it was in an unconscious kind of way; one minute she was thinking on a way to make things better with Alison and the next one her past relationship with Paige was coming to her mind
"Mommy?" Lily called at her
"Are you ok?" Grace looked as worried as her sister
Without even noticed it; Emily at some point had stood up and was now leaning into the sink, focus on a point outside the window her mind far away from home, action that apparently called her kids attention. She turned around addressing her daughters again
"Yes, everything all right" Emily smiled at them "how about you? Are we ready for our play date?" Emily was making her best to change her mood, she knew it wasn't fair for the girls to be in the middle of their problems
"Yes!" both girls yelled excited
"Ok, go brush your teeth while I clean this up"
The girls did as their mother told them and waited for her to head out
"Two days on a roll. Am I a lucky woman or what?"
"Paige…" Emily smiled when she saw the woman standing next to her little boy
"Hi, Em" talking about memories; Paige's voice pronouncing her name was another thing she was missing "how are you?"
"Everything all right, just taking a walk with the girls" Emily looked at both sides pointing at her daughters with her head
"Oh my God! Are these Grace and Lily? They are so beautiful" Paige said and the twins grinned at her wildly
"Yeah. This is Grace…" Emily pointed to her right "and this is Lily" then pointed to her left
"Hi, girls" Paige bent over to remain the same height from the twins "My name is Paige McCullers, it's so nice to finally meet you. Your mother talks about you all the time" of course Paige was just being polite given that they have seen each other for just two days
"Nice to meet you too Mrs. McCullers" The twins said at the same time. Emily wasn't kidding, the girls were very coordinated
"You can call me Paige, I'm a friend of your mom after all" Emily just smiled at the comment, not wanting to overthink about it "I'm guessing you came here to play"
"Yes"
"Do you mind if I introduce you to a new friend?" Paige asked tentatively
"Not at all" Grace answered excited
"The more the merrier" Lily added as excited as her sister
Paige laughed at the twins' antics. She turned to look for Daniel, who was behind her clutching at her arm.
"This is my son, Daniel. Daniel, do you remember Mrs. Fields from the other day?" Paige saw her son nodding in confirmation "well, these are her daughters; Grace and Lily. Go say hi to them"
Daniel walked a few steps in front of her mother "Hi" he raised her little hand greeting at the three of them
"Hi, Daniel" Emily bent over as well so she could look at him in the eyes. Daniel's shyness reminded her to a very special person to her "So glad to see you again" Emily left one of her daughter's hand to caress the top of his head making Daniel smile softly
"Mommy, is it ok if we show Daniel our toys?" Lily asked her mother
"Of course sweetie"
"Come Daniel, we have superheroes too" the girls showed Daniel some superheroes' dolls
Daniel looked at her mom asking for permission, Paige smiled at him and nodded. When she saw his little boy playing with the twins, she smiled proudly at him before taking her attention to Emily
"He is just a bit shy but once he gets to know you, you'll need tape to shut him up" Paige said making Emily laugh
"Just like someone I used to know" she looked at Paige intently in the eyes. Emily couldn't help the comment; Daniel reminded her too much to Paige, or at least the shy version of her. Paige dipped her head and Emily smiled at the reaction her words had on the other woman "So…" Emily continued, afraid of the silence "I see I'm not the only one who was trying to keep my kids busy"
"Well, we promised Daniel we'll come to the park today but Alison called and Heather invited her to her parents' house, they got into that meeting full of numbers and boring stuff, so my buddy and I run away from there, right buddy?" Emily saw little Daniel nodding at her mother
"I'm so sorry Paige, I'm sure Alison didn't mean to…"
"Oh, no Em, I didn't say it to make you feel guilty. I know Heather and when she gives her word she makes everything that's in her hands to keep her promise. She agreed to help Alison so that's what she is doing" Paige smiled
"Yeah. She and Jason are trying to bring back their business. They still can't accept what happened with Mary Drake and…" Emily stopped when she saw Paige rising her finger
"Wait a second" Paige whispered to Emily before directing her attention to Emily's daughters "Girls, do you think you can take this little guy to the swings?" but Daniel looked at her mother not sure about the idea
"Don't worry big guy" This time was Emily's turn to talk. She wasn't sure about Paige's plans but if the kids weren't part of them the least she could do was help "you can go play with the twins" she assured to Daniel before directing her attention to the twins "you're going to take care of Daniel, right girls?"
"Of course, mommy" they answered at the same time
"Ok, have fun then…" Paige smiled at the three of them
Grace and Lily took each of Daniel's hands and guided the little boy to the swings, which fortunately were free for them to play. Paige pointed to the bench behind them so they could take a seat
"Sorry. I don't want for Daniel to get involve in whatever you're about to tell me, which I think it has to do with A or A.D or whatever you call that baster"
Emily looked at Paige and realized that the woman in front of her was completely changed. While they were dating Paige was a constantly ball of nerves; half of the time fearing for Emily's safety and the other half fearing for her own but now; now she has this strong, decided and full of courage woman in front of her and automatically remembered how even when she was that afraid girl, Emily felt always safe under her wings.
"Yeah, it has. You know Mary Drake took all the money from them, even when Jason warned Alison about her hidden intentions she needed desperately to believe in her good will, it was her aunt after all, but it didn't work out that way and now they are trying to put the company on work again, to have the family business running"
"Well, you won't have to worry about that, Heather will help and believe me when I say she is really good at what she does" Paige put her hand over Emily's for reassurance. The old feeling of protection coming back to Emily
"Thank you, but is not me the one you need to convince, it's actually a project only Alison is focus on"
"Yeah, but if Alison is ok then you and the girls will be ok too, right?" Paige pulled her hand away, Emily missing the contact immediately
"Of course" Emily smiled at Paige's good intentions more than the statement itself
"Now, please don't get me wrong…" Paige leaned a bit, her face staying close to Emily's "but the day is too beautiful to be talking about A and her dark soul, don't you think? why don't you and I go over there" Paige pointed to where the kids were playing "and join our children on their playdate"
Emily's mind was racing, her concentration got lost when she saw Paige's face getting close to hers and her heart started to beat like crazy in her chest. If this was the kind of 'normalcy' Paige was offering yesterday then it was going to be harder than she thought.
"I… uh, sure" Emily blinked repeatedly gaining some composure back, though it took her a bit longer to notice that Paige was already up and ready to catch up with the kids
"Come on Fields, it's a great day to play" Paige started to walk to the children's direction "what do you say kids, you think you have space for two more"
"Yes!" the three of them yelled excited to see their mothers coming to play. Emily smiled wildly at Paige's enthusiasm.
I don't care how many children we have. I'll never leave your side-
Ok, let me know what you think. See ya...