Rosewood Memorial Hospital
8:15 pm
It was happening again, it was like being dragged into a nightmare that you think you already wake up, but in reality, it's just beginning again and Emily was already physically exhausted.
"I can't believe this is happening again" Hanna was sit in one of the chairs of the waiting room, zoomed, gone.
"It's not happening again, I'm not going to take it" Spencer was pissed, adamant in not accept something like that again.
"Too late Spence, we're in again, it's not going to stop" Hanna barked against the lawyer, but her eyes were watery, the nightmares were still hunting her.
"I agree with Spencer, I'm not going to fall again in this crap, that's why I need to tell you something about that night"
Emily was pacing around the room, her fists wielded hard making her knuckles white, her jaw jammed and all her muscle tensed up.
"What about Aria?" She asks suddenly, almost yelling, she didn't want to send the girl to the wall, but they needed to know.
"What about her?" Spencer turn back from her spot immediately, used to protect Aria from the world, the young Hastings wasn't planning on stopping now.
Her chest was tight, it was costing her to breathe, to stay focus on what was important, her mind keeps exploring dark corners because she was aware of the consequences of that message. "She left the hotel before I did. I don't know where she went, but there's something, I'm sure, is off, and if the detective Furey knows this, she would be in trouble."
"You left the hotel early this morning Em, just like I did and sure Aria too" She looks up bewildered.
"No Spence, she left almost an hour before Charlotte's dead." Hannah stands rising her voice, emphasize in every word sending deadly glares at Emily. "You lie to me when I ask you about where you went and now are you telling me that you hide this from me too" she growls at Emily who steps up proud at the admonishment.
"I didn't lie to you, I told you that it was about work and it was true, and about Aria, I dismiss the part because you had the prudence of a tomahawk and as subtle as hand grenade"
Spencer was in the side still clueless, but still feeling the tension between them; the Emily they used to meet would answer maybe mumble or snap and then apologize, not come head to toe with Hanna as in the current situation.
"Ok, you two, time up. Could you please explain, what in the actual hell it's going on?"
"What it's happening it's that this is not our best friend, lying, sneaking out, keeping secrets: we're supposed to be forward with each other, we promise it, and in a moment like this one we should be together, not keeping information, and definitely not telling lies." Hanna rambles in frustration.
Emily was stressing more and more, her head was throbbing, she could hear her heart beating faster and faster in her chest; the message spinning in a loop, Hanna's words, Arias images sneaking out of the Radley; there has been a lot of time since she has felt so overwhelmed by a stressful situation, she has been trained to handle dangerous, — for not to say mortal,— cases, and, as always, Rosewood was bringing her back to her old insecure and uncontrolled self.
"I'm not your puppy Hanna! I'm not the scare girl that will run away to cry on your lap when something go wrong, that girl is dead!" She was panting in anger. "right now I don't have time to your hysterias, we need to figure out if Ali's poison it's related to the message, what it means, if Elliot has something to do with these and keep Aria away from the sight of Furey in the meantime we reach for an explanation"
"Good, I agree with you…" Spencer interfere almost like a frightened kitty, surprised, sad and concern by Emily's statements. Hanna wiped away a tear running down her cheek. "Mmm, right, so… The message is clear, about what it means."
"Presumably" Emily interject with half of the voice she had before, still strong but with a hint of regret. "We don't know if it's true yet."
"It's more than clear Emily, Charlotte it's definitely not dead; the Dilaurentis' are half bitches, half cats." Hanna interjected. "We need to find out if it's not our friendly neighbor, Big A, wanting to go all jigsaw on us all over again."
"It's an option, but I want to keep an eye on Rollins" Spencer ask intercalating her gaze between the two girls. "Ali told him things, I don't know what, but, maybe he knows things and he could have Charlotte."
"Do you really think she's alive? I mean, Toby saw her, and we pretty sure did see the coffin."
"I'm not distrusting Toby, but I'm not definitely trusting Rosewood Police department either, we already know how dead are some of the people they found" Hanna, nodded in agreement with Spencer, still with her eyes fixed on her feet, Spencer gave Emily a pointing look, she sighed loudly.
"Go see Ali, wait for her to be right, ask her all she told Rollins, everything you can get, don't let anything behind about what we think, well, except for the Charlotte suspects, all of them, we don't want her to have a cardiac arrest or something." She took her jacket from the chair where she was sitting and put it on.
"Where are you going?" Spencer asks instead of Hanna, who didn't dare to, not anymore.
"I'm gonna look for other leads. Keep me posted"
She let the place like if her ass was on fire, she would have time later for apologies to Hanna for being a bitch, in the meantime, she has to dig around Rollins as much as she can, and she's going to need help, official and not so official. She went through her phone already in her way to her house, it just takes two dials for him to answer.
"Em, I heard what happened, I heard about Ali, how is she?" Toby's voice was concerned, even if the didn't have a good relationship in the past, she saw it, they have learned to handle each other.
"We don't know yet, my mother and the girls are in the hospital waiting for news, but I think she was poisoned." The breathing on the other line hitch, she gave a turn down the main street to Bridgewater Terrace, looking for her house.
"Do you want me to talk with detective Furey and Lorenzo, they could…" She pulls outside the DiLaurentis household before she interrupted the officer. "Look Toby, no offense intended, but, I don't trust the law enforcement in Rosewood, I'm recurring to you because you're like a brother to me and, frankly, you had more rodeos with the A stuff, so, keep this under the wrap for now."
"A, rodeo's, Em what you're talking about, please don't tell me—"
She cursed internally, of course, it will end like this. "Yes, it is happening again, but we want to be sure that this is not a joke from our resident ex-fiancé."
"Ok, what you want me to do?"
"Good, I want you to look everything you had on Rolling, from criminal records to professional and personal data, I want to know about everything you could find" She was already walking down the backyard to the back door, which has been fixed, or kind of.
"Ok, good, keep you posted Em, and please, be careful."
She wanted to tell him that careful was her middle name, but he knew it was Catherine so, she didn't see the point. Breaking in to the place was rather easily, seeing the crime scene again not so much, everything was neat and clean, but the bleach essence was too much, and for some reason, she still could smell Alison's blood and desperation all over the place; the flashes of a bloody and nearly dead Alison, keep hunting her, awake, or asleep; even if later on was struggling on figure it out if she really was awake, or sleeping back in her loft on Westwood, waiting eagerly for a new tour or assignment that could lead to a new place. She start to trace back the steps of that night, she has heard Alison's statement, narrating every step; how she made to her house, put the wedding dress in the garbage bin, — Hanna scoff at that, she wasn't very happy about that, — walk back to the living and went upstairs, straight to the master room, her bedroom, it was odd, because that one used to be her parent's, now was Alison's; she took a long shower, put on some comfy clothes, and went to bed, four hours later, Elliott Rollins made into the DiLaurentis' house, presumably, with Alison's spare key, bargain into the room, struggling with Alison, and then, hit her, Emily remembered how Alison has struggle marks, also, she has skin under her nails. She squat down, searching, Toby has mentioned about how didn't went to the room, since all the evidence was down, and she saw it, it was a phone, and, definitely, not Alison's. She went straight to one of her jacket inner`s pocket, she always was bearing handkerchiefs, they were just for versatility purposes, it was less creepy that hanging around with leather gloves.
Wasting any time, she involves the cellphone in the fabric and put back on her pocket and walk away from the house, she took her phone again, but this time dialed a different number.
"Alvarez consultancy, how can I help you?"
A mocking tone receives her in the other end, as always.
"Elliott Rollins, write it down very good, I want everything, you can get me; where he's from, who are his parents, where he lives, what he eats, how he sleeps, his favorite shows, what kind of porn does he like, every piece of information you can get me will be useful."
"Roger that Cap, how do you want it and where?"
"I want it for print, not digital trace, and want it for yesterday. Can you make your way into a CCTV from there?"
The way they keep the information in their unit was changing, and it changed fast, they couldn't slow down, not even a bit, it could mean dead people and catastrophe; so she was used to working in full capacity, giving fluctuating orders.
"If it publics sure, easy peasy, but if it private, maybe, in the better of the cases, if it's not, I will need a trojan horse." She could hear her hands working fast on the keyboard of a very kick-ass computer, build up by the kid with her first salary.
"Try in the Radley Hotel, they had Danvers Security, but it was built by a friend of mine, Caleb Rivers" a silently hums, followed by typing, and then a very particularly long hum of realization.
"He looks, you know, ok, but, not ok enough, give me some time, a couple of hours, I will have the footage, the intel on this Rollings guy will be for tomorrow afternoon in you closer FedEx"
"Good, heads up at any casualty Legacy, we don't want surprises."
Starting the engine, Emily began her trip back to the 45 of Serenity Lane, with a -A probably hanging around doing -A stuff, she didn't want to be caught with her pants down. She speeds upstairs immediately, makes her way into the house, straight to her room, going through her suitcase, taking out her holster and gun, putting it inside the waistband of her jeans, hide behind her pullover and jacket. And before she could speed back out of the room, Sher mother opened the door, hitting her in the face.
"Oh my god! Emy, are you Ok?" Emily was still inclined back when her mother tries to reach for her.
"Yeah, don't worry about." She has to say, hitting by a door was not nice. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be with Alison back at the Hospital" she asked while rubbing at her harmed forehead.
"Well about that, you're not going to believe it; they're sending Ali to Welby." Yeah, after that, she could handle another knock from the door, (ja).
"Wait, what in the actual…!" She didn't end the curse, her mother, in between her concern, was still a mom. "I left like 45 minutes, how much can someone been through in 45 minutes." And she suddenly realized, bad choice of words. "Well scratch that, mom, please, enlighten me, I'm not understanding anything."
"She has a violent nervous breakdown, her hallucinations with Jessica and this cop, Darren Wilden makes her aggressive and dangerous" In any other person case's, people would say, 'what, no, she's not an aggressive person', but this was Alison DiLaurentis who they were talking, maybe she wasn't a full bitch anymore, but a bitch after all.
"What Spencer and Hanna said, they were there, right?"
"Yeah, well, Hanna was, Spencer has an emergency with her mother's campaign, but she expressed her disagreement before she left," Pam explained while sight, and that let her know that Spencer went all Hastings in her opinion against it.
"And Hanna, well," another resignation sigh. "She called the Chief of Psychiatry an 'incompetent airhead'."
"That totally sounds like her. Either way, I'm in my way out, this thing it's going from worse to worser every minute."
"It looks like… Em…" she looked doubtful, almost afraid.
"Hey, was wrong?" Her eyes softened, and her body language change drastically.
"I know it's not the time, but, have you considered and gave Dad a visit? I just keep wondering, you haven't seen him since the funeral."
Emily bites her lower lip, her mother was right, it wasn't the moment, and about the other stuff too.
"Mom, I don't really need to see the grave to really be with him, or remember him, I prefer to remember him as the man she was and not like a cold stone."
"Yeah, but, maybe it will be good for closure, her sudden death was traumatic...you weren't right." It was a pure concern out of her mother's heart, she knew it, but it was really not the time.
"But I'm alright now, just, let it go. Now, I really have to go, need to see what's happening with Ali." She let a kiss in her mother's cheek and run out of the place.
When she made it to Radley, Hanna and Jason were talking quietly in the side with a doctor; she came closer to them and notice it was the man who attended Alison the first time she was there.
"I don't know what happened in there Mr. DiLaurentis, the only thing I know it that a nurse got an injury and a couple of machines where trashed." Hanna tilts her head while Jason rubs his face, like trying to take away everything.
"Hanna, Jason; my mother told what's going on." She looks at the man and with a nod she greeted. "Doctor."
"Ah, you're the girlfriend, right?" She tried to deny immediately but Jason jump first.
"Yes, Emily is my sister's girlfriend."
"Right, so, like I was saying here to Miss. Marin and Mr. Dilaurentis; Miss. DiLaurentis breakdown was so sudden, she was very weak by the fluid lost, but she managed to hurt a nurse and damage some equipment, Dr. Boyd recommended and immediately admission to Welby" He deadpanned emphatic.
"And what do you think?" Jason asked concerned.
"I'm not a psychiatrist Mr. DiLaurentis, but as a Doctor, I like you to ask for another opinion, this is not a normal case, Miss DiLaurentis has been through a lot lately, so maybe, a second opinion would do better."
"I agree with the Doctor, Jason, we can just put her in there for the sake of it." She looked wary about it, the situation was so 2010.
"Yeah, but, he's the best psychiatrist in the county Emily, we can just shake his opinion like that."
Jason seemed convinced about what Doctor Boyd said to them, Emily didn't, but legally, was up to Jason to decide if Alison was going to Welby or just go ahead with the second evaluation. Hanna wasn't convinced either, she has seen how -A has sent nuts two people before, for her, Mona counts too, -A and Mona weren't the same people for her.
"I don't know Jason, she was as fine as she could be with the Charlotte ordeal."
"Yes Hanna, but Charlotte DiLaurentis has a keen for drive people crazy, you two should know that by now." He snapped at Hanna who didn't step back, just got more frustrated by the moment.
"Look, Jason, you think you're know was best for her, but really, you're just an outsider," Hanna answer just as snappy and heat up like him.
He snorted loudly and roll his eyes remembering her so much to Spencer and Alison. "Yeah, because all of you are better than me, moving on with your life's, letting Ali alone with that psycho as a boyfriend."
"Please, could you stop thinking on yourself one minute!" Emily finally breaks at their antics. "This is not about you, pair of dumbass, this is about Alison and her wellbeing, so, take your head out of your own asses and hear the doctor out."
"I don't need to hear anything else, Alison is going to Welby, period."
"You're making a big mistake Jason." They all didn't notice how the doctor has just left, uncomfortable by the suddenly bantering of the two blondes and the brunette. "You're too biased to make this call."
"And you don't? Jesus, Emily, you love having her in your house, your opinion is just as biases than anyone else's." Emily has lately a short temper by everything that was happening, and the tantrum that Jason was throwing on them wasn't helpful to her chakra.
"Jesus Christ, Jason shut the hell up and listen for a minute." Hanna had already lost her temper, Emily couldn't afford that luxury, it would become a war zone in the case.
"There's nothing you can say to change my mind unless you don't want to see Ali anymore." His tone was menacing, Hanna's expression went from pissed to surprise and then to violent in a second.
"Don't you dare to threaten me Jason DiLaurentis, I could bury you with a phone call." The teeth gritted menace got out from the gut, poisoned with venom and hatred.
"You two are unbelievable, are you done playing with Alis' future or you need a break to reevaluate your game?" Emily comes between them challenging, begin taller than Hanna and not much shorter than Jason, she looked imposing to the two blondes. "I'm done with your bullshit, or you shut the hell up by your free will or gladly do the job for both of you, what do you say?"
"What it's going on here?" Spencer was with hands intertwined with Caleb, Hanna almost flinch at the sigh, it was new and strange.
"Your darling brother seems like to be the worthy brother of -A, this burnout want to send Ali to Welby."
"Hanna!" Spencer scold immediately scandalized, Jason roll his eyes and fold his arms in his chest in a signal of relentless stubbornness.
"I'm just telling the truth, this nincompoop seems to be deaf, or maybe to much weed ruin his capability of thinking."
"Well, maybe too much smog let you stupider than ever Hanna, or maybe it's to much dye."
A frustrated scream and the next thing they were doing was trying to take Hanna out of Jason's back, Caleb was pulling Hanna by the hip, and when finally they made it, the technician was attempting to keep her still, but a loud groan make him lose his grip and Hanna just fly towards Jason again, Spencer intercept her middle way.
"Caleb what the hell!" She claimed in a struggle to keep Hanna still.
"She bite me!" He exclaims nursing his swollen arm. "What do you want me to do!?"
"To man up!"
"Hey!" The yell brings them back from their fight, Veronica Hastings was fuming watching the panorama of destruction. "Have you lost your mind? This is a hospital, not a ring." They all notice Melissa in the back with a shit-eating grin on her face.
"Kids, long time no see" She greeted.
"Someone care to explain what this all about?" She interpellates looking at the former teenager's lineup like ants.
"This airhead that is supposed to look up to Alison's best interest want to send her to a nut job house." Emily has sat in one of the chairs, she was already texting Hailee, who has come up with the security's tapes, and as direct order, she has tampered and deleted all trace of Aria of they, she wouldn't want to risk the girl, and supposedly, she was working also on deleting her trail.
"I'm sorry to try to protect my sister so tell me Doctor Hanna, what am I supposed to do?"
Veronica huff, and Spencer sigh, they weren't helping like at all.
"Don't waste your time Mrs. Hastings, I've tried for the past 30 minutes, they're not gonna stop until neither of them is dead if you want, I'm willin' to kill em' both" Emily mutters waiting for an answer.
"Thanks Emily, I maybe take your word on that, now, Jason, could you please behave like the grown man you are and go and grab a coffee?" They women suggestion to her stepson sounds more like an order that was followed by the aforesaid, who let a dirty look at the youngest Marin.
"Sit down and chill your tits Hanna." Spencer scold, Caleb was still lurking about the bite in his hand. "Em, a word?" Spencer asks her look was severe. Not a good signal.
"Why I had the suspicion that you didn't let because of an emergency for your mother's campaign?" Emily was already fearing the worst with a new -A running around.
"Because I wasn't, Caleb called me, he manages to get the location of the cell phone where the message comes from, It was almost a dead end road, she left a hoodie, the burnout phone and this." She takes from her coat a manila envelope, it has written in red angry letters:
I Don't Lurk in the Shadows, I hide at plain sight.
"You opened?" Emily inquires, almost felling what was in the envelope.
"No, I think we should wait for Aria, she's coming back tomorrow night, that message scare her, and this is just going to maximize that fear, this is officially what we were begging for not to be. A is back."
Emily went out of the waiting room looking for a vending machine, some sugar maybe could make the moment lees bitter, or at least that was she had put her fate on, sweet candy to make her bitter life, less crappy and more bearable; she found one in some hallway, she take a toffee and peanut bar and three four-fingered kit kat, she was going and get some coffee, when a doctor approach to her.
"Emily Fields?" She tilts her head sidewards and swallows the chunk of the toffee bar.
"Yes?"
"Hi, I'm Randolph Chase, head of surgery, I recognize you from the photo of your file, Dr. Ororo send it a couple of days ago." she shakes his hand with a polite smile, the forty-ish-year-old man look rather charming and juvenile.
"Yeah, Mina mention you, she told me that I could never be in best hands; I'm wailing to get over this though." She said shrugging at the situation.
"Mina mention that too, so, the surgery begin three days from today, maybe you can pas tomorrow, I want to make some test and see how you're doing, you know, just in case." He looked genuine and simple, and she liked that.
"Well, that would be perfect for me."
"Well, with nothing left to say, it has been a pleasure, Emily, see you tomorrow."
"See you by then." She starts to walk down the hallway until she has to stop because she collides with another body that was static in the middle of the alley. It was Hanna.
"Emily, are you dying?" Emily was taken aback by the question, Hanna's eyes were big, like a deer caught up in the highlights, full of tears.
"Han, what are you talking about? No, I'm not dying." Emily looked in distress, trying to calm Hanna who was about to cry. "I'm ok, I'm fine, not dying, see?" She has Hanna in a one arm hug.
"I heard you and the doctor talking Em, what was all that about?"
Emily stop on the way, she couldn't come out with a good excuse, except for the truth about her and about how she has been leaving all the last seven years, Hanna was her best friend and she was worried, and lately, the hell if she didn't know about the poor kind of friend she has been for the girls not only in the late days but in the past seven years.
"Hanna, I need you to promise me, you're going to let me finish, and after that, you're going to keep the secret, or at least until I feel ready to tell everyone."
"I'm a tomb, anything you say would be hearing from me." Hanna looked adamant to keep the secret, but she knew the lecture that she, subconsciously was preparing.
"I'm a fraud" Hanna tilted her head and frown, she was about to talk, but she restrained herself, listen first then talk, she remembered. "I don't work in the Salk Institute like you think I do." Emilly looks confused, struggling to finally reveal herself, "in my last semester, the same year my father dies I was confused, lost, hurt and didn't know what I was going to do with my life." Emily bowed her head in shame, she has lain so much to her family that she couldn't face it. "I did receive the invitation, but I never accept it."
Hanna was hearing, paying attention to every word, and she couldn't believe it, every second that Emily keeps talking, it's every moment in which Hanna was understanding more and more. "I don't understand, if you're not working, what are you doing, because you look fairly good for begin an unemployed person."
"Instead... I enroll in the Officers Candidate School of the army." Ipso facto, Hanna's countenance change to surprised, taken aback demeanor. "I accomplish four years a couple of months ago, and promoted to Captain two weeks after."
"You're a Captain of the Army… that's what you've been hiding all this time, were you planning to tell us something before or after you got yourself killed?!" Exclaimed scandalized
"See, that's what I wanted to avoid, reproach. All of you are doing what you love, teaching, writing, designing, coding, and whatever the hell Spencer do; and I, I'm doing just that Hanna, doing what I love." Hanna sighs trying to soothe herself from producing another fight.
"What exactly a Captain do, because I can't exactly see you carrying a Tommy gun shooting people going all Hasta la vista baby in Afghanistan." Emily shook her head trying to suppress a slight chuckle.
"First of all, it's a rifle, infantry use rifles, not submachine guns, and, second of all, that's not how actually works Hanna. I'm a let's say logistics agent that sometimes have to get dirty for the sake of the country for the lack of a better word. I'm a special agent in charge of a special company on the 75th Ranger Regiment, that's all I can say to you but there you had."
Hanna's eyes went ajar, looking confused and doubtful. "So you're like a spy or something?" She rolled her eyes, people always asked that like if a special agent was synonymous of James Bond.
"No Hanna, I'm not a spy."
"Ok then, if you're not a spy, why can you tell me what you really do?" Emily sighs and turn her back on Hanna and start to walk away. "See, spy!"
Emily ended up in the waiting room again, with Veronica Hastings chatting quietly with who seem doctor Boyd, Jason sulking on Spencer in a corner and Melissa delighted, watching the world burns.
"Are you entertained or do you need some popcorn?" Emily asks sitting by her side.
"No, I'm fine, but thanks for the offer Captain." Emily glance at her a brief confused look, it was just that sign of disorientation. "Ah, I'm sorry, that was supposed to be a secret?" Before she could answer her, it wasn't going to be kind, her, it was Toby.
'Furey and Lorenzo got the footage of last night, his at the hospital after you'
She stands up immediately, to be intercepted by the detectives on the waiting room door, two officers surrounded her and she threw her head back amused by the situation, Lorenzo came closer with a big smile on your face, that shit-eating grin that she was oh so wailing to punch away.
"Miss Fields, you have to come with us." First started calling everyone attention.
"Nice welcome committee, under what charges if I may ask?" She asked arching her eyebrows, Lorenzo was almost bouncing, he wanted for her to opposite the call.
"There are no charges, it's just a friendly talk about the night of Charlotte DiLaurentis' dead."
"I'm too busy for going around doing friendly talk, if you don't know, Alison has been poisoned, under your watch if I may add detective, so no, I'm not going anywhere." She was waiting for Lorenzo to touch her, she wanted to go to jail with a fair motive, like attacking a police officer.
"Don't make us arrest you, Emily, come with us in peace, it's gonna be quick." He tried, she gave her that, but she didn't believe his shit so…
"If you're not going to charge her with anything you can't make her Detective Furey." Veronica jumped and Spencer just nodded at her mother.
"Okay, good then. Emily Fields you're under arrest for begin suspect on the murderer of Charlotte DiLaurentis, You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you by the court. With these rights in mind, are you still willing to talk with me about the charges against you?" Lorenzo was handcuffing her and Spencer and Hanna was begin helping back by two officers.
"Screw you."
