Title: Take Care

Rating: K+

Prompt: Ali is sick and Emily takes care of her (with a little help from Mrs Fields).

The ringing of her phone is what wakes her up, and she groans because it's so loud and she feels like shit and with each second that ticks by with the incessant ringing it feels like she's having a sledgehammer smashed into her skull and where the hell is the damn thing?

When she finds it she doesn't bother checking the caller ID, just burrows her head back under her pillow because the light coming from her window hurts her eyes, and presses the phone to her and makes a non-committal noise so that whoever's on the other end knows that she's actually answered.

"Ali?" Emily's voice echoes down the line, and despite the fact that Alison's head feels like it's going to explode and her stomach is in knots, the sound of Emily's voice still makes her smile. "Are you okay? Why weren't you in school today?"

"I'm sick," she mumbles back, and she wonders what time it is. She'd woken up that morning feeling like she did now and had promptly rolled back over and gone back to sleep because there was no way in hell that she could leave the house like this.

"You're sick? Is your dad there?"

"No," she replies with a bitter laugh, because he's never there. "That would mean that he'd have to actually look me in the eye for more than two seconds. I'm on my own."

"Then I'm coming over."

"Em, no you don't have to - " But the brunette has already hung up, and Alison can't bring herself to ring her back and tell her not to come, because she's not sure she can make it out of bed without help and she could really use some of those extra-strong painkillers that are hiding in one of the kitchen cupboards.

She drops her phone back onto the bed and curls onto her side in an attempt to alleviate the pain in her stomach, but to no avail. She doesn't know how long it is before she hears the front door creak open, and then there's the soft sound of footsteps on the stairs before there's a soft knock on her bedroom door.

"Come in," she calls without moving, and she hears the door open and close and then her bed dips as the weight of another person settles at Alison's back. "I really hope that's you, Em."

"Of course it's me." Alison didn't even realize she'd been holding her breath until she hears the sound of the brunette's voice and she instantly relaxes – if it had been A she's pretty sure she wouldn't be up for putting up much of a fight. "Are you going to emerge from your cave anytime soon?"

"Trust me, it's better for both of us if I stay under here." Alison tugs the covers tighter around her body as Emily tries to pry them away. "I look awful."

"Not possible," Emily says softly, and it warms Alison's heart that, even after all this time, even after all the things that she's done, that the brunette is still so sweet to her. "Come on, Ali."

With a groan the blonde relaxes her hold, allows Emily to pull the covers away, and she's not wearing much beneath – she'd had hot and cold flushes all night, had eventually stripped down to just her underwear and a thin tank top, and then when she started to shiver she could bury herself under her sheets – and she hears Emily's sharp intake of breath (quickly disguised as a cough), as she realizes Alison's state of undress.

"Can I get you anything?" When Alison pushes the pillow off her head and rolls to finally face the brunette, she has to hide a smirk when she sees Emily hastily averting her eyes. "Water? Aspirin?" A hand comes to rest across the blonde's forehead. "You have a fever."

"I'm fine," she replies, even though she feels awful, wants to just curl up and maybe die if that'll make the pain go away. "I could use some painkillers, though."

"Okay. Where are they?"

"Kitchen cupboard, same as always." As the brunette heads back downstairs she wonders if it's as weird for Emily as it is for her, to come back to a house where nothing had really changed, despite the amount of time that's passed. It's even stranger to think that other people have lived there, in-between – she wonders if that's weird for Emily, too considering her relationship with Maya, but decides not to ask about it.

She doesn't want to know.

When she hears the sound of voices from downstairs she frowns, propping herself up on one elbow and trying to listen to what's going on, and quickly recognises the sound of Emily's Mom's voice mixing with the brunette's own and hastily tugs her sheets back over her body as footsteps approach her room once more.

"I'm sorry," Emily starts off with as she walks backwards through the door, a glass of water held in one hand and the box of painkillers in the other. "I made the mistake of telling my Mom why I was coming over here and she insisted on making sure you were okay."

"Like mother, like daughter," Alison says with a wry smile as she swallows the two pills Emily hands her, and the brunette perches on the bed beside the blonde, and Alison can't help but curl into her side and she has to hide a smile when one of Emily's hands slides over her shoulders, drawing errant shapes over the blonde's skin. "Did I miss anything at school today?"

"Not really, just Aria and Hanna still refusing to talk to each other." Alison closes her eyes as she listens to Emily talk, soothed by the hand on her back and just by the fact that she's there, and she already feels a little better. "Hanna was drinking again, I'm really worried about her."

"I am, too," Alison murmurs, because she is, and she knows she used to be a shitty friend and just an all-round shitty person but she's trying to better, for all of them (but mainly just for Emily because Emily is her everything). "She needs an intervention or something."

"But it'd need all of us and Aria can barely even look her in the eye and I don't know why," Emily sighs, and Alison's reminded by how much she cares, about everything and everyone in her life, and it's such a stark contrast to everything that Alison's ever known that it blows her away.

"They'll work it out, Em," the blonde reassures her, "the four of you always do – just look at everything you've been through, and you're all still stronger than ever." It hurts, to think that she's not a part of that group anymore, not really, when she'd used to be the glue at the centre that held it all together, but she supposes she deserves it.

That and a hell of a lot worse.

"I know, it's just hard." The brunette falls silent then, and Alison feels her eyes grow heavy as she listens to the sound of Emily's even breathing, her head titling to rest on her shoulder and she feels safe within the circle of Emily's arms, she feels loved, and it's… just really, really nice.

"Don't let me fall asleep," she murmurs drowsily, even as she can already feel herself drifting off.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to wake up to find you gone."

"I'm not going anywhere, Ali, I promise." Emily's arms tighten around her, and she brushes a soft kiss against Alison's forehead, and Alison hasn't been sleeping well, not since A almost strangled her to death, but with Emily there it's easy to drift off, because she knows that the brunette won't let anything happen to her on her watch.

x-x-x

"I'm just saying, sweetheart, that you don't have to hide your relationship from me, I'm not - "

"For the last time, Mom, I'm not in a relationship - "

"So do you let all of your friends fall asleep in your arms like that?" Alison's woken up by the sound of soft bickering, but she doesn't open her eyes – she's too comfortable, wrapped around Emily (one of her legs is tangled up with the brunette's own, and she's got an arm thrown over Emily's waist), and besides, she's kind of curious where this conversation's going. "Come on, Emily, I'm not blind."

"Mom, I'm not… we're not… there's nothing going on."

"Well it certainly looks like there is." Alison feels Emily's heavy sigh of exasperation, has to fight a smile. "Do you want there to be something? Or are you still 'working on it'?"

"I… don't know, okay? But can we please talk about something else?" Emily's voice turns pleading, and Alison decides to help her out, shifting slightly and stretching her arms a little before cracking her eyes open – Mrs Fields is sat right on the end of the bed, and she's watching Alison and her daughter with curious eyes, and Alison wonders how much she knows.

"Hi Mrs Fields," she manages a little blearily, rolling away from Emily a little and immediately missing the feeling of the brunette's body pressed against her. "You didn't have to come out here."

"Nonsense, sweetheart, I wanted to check that you were alright. Do you need anything? Some water, perhaps?"

"Uh, yeah, okay."

"Emily?" Mrs Fields smiles sweetly at her daughter, but Alison can tell that she's plotting something. "Why don't you go get that?" The brunette and her mother stay locked in a staring contest for several long seconds before Emily relents with a sigh and a shake of her head and disentangles herself from Alison, grabbing the glass off of the bedside table and moving towards the door – she turns to look back at them when she reaches the doorway, but Mrs Fields just waves her away and with an apologetic look at Alison she disappears into the hall.

"Is this the part where you tell me not to break her heart?" Alison asks as soon as Emily's out of the door, because she figures she may as well just cut right to the chase – Pam doesn't say anything at first, just watches her with dark, unreadable eyes.

"I think you already did, the day you disappeared."

"We both know that I couldn't control that."

"Hmm. I suppose." Alison meets the elder woman's gaze head on, unflinching, because she knows that she doesn't believe that Alison was kidnapped but she's not going to change her story now. "Regardless I just… I don't want to see her hurting like that again. I don't want to see you… lead her on."

"And I have no intention of doing that." And she doesn't because Emily is… Emily is everything to her and she hates to see her hurting, can't bear it, has no intention of doing that to her ever again, because she just might… love her and that terrifies Alison because she's never been in love before, had thought she never would be, ever, but Emily makes her believe in it again, Emily looks at Alison like she's worthy of it when she'd always thought that she never would be. "I… I care about her. A lot."

"The same way that she cares about you?"

"I hope so," she replies softly, and she has to look away because she's wearing her heart on her sleeve and she hates it, but the thought that… the thought that she'd left it too late, lost her chance because she was a coward, that just… breaks her and that's the reason why she hasn't been able to bear to bring up the kisses she and Emily had traded the other night in this very bed, because she doesn't want to know if Emily regretted it, can't stand the thought that the brunette might regret what had become the best night of Alison's life so far. "I really, really hope so."

"Well maybe you should tell her that," Pam replies gently, and when Alison dares to look back at her there's a soft smile on her face. "Because I think she'd like very much to hear it."