A/N: So I've seen a few new reviewers and I just wanted to say…s'up? I see you. And I'm sorry. Also, I've seen that some people are reading this all in one take, and honestly…I gotta give you kudos for that. Because I'm ridiculously exhausted just editing a chapter at a time. Two quick things before we get on with it: I am so happy you like the tiny humans. I've had a lot of fun writing the baby liars. And two, I'm loving your guesses about whether or not Zane is the mysterious other driver. The possibilities are just endless in PLL.

Chapter 10:

Beneath the Surface

The hollow burned out SUV was found by two teenagers roaming the woods two days after Grace's funeral. They'd poked at it for a day before they decided to tell someone about it. The vehicle had been stripped down to its bare essentials and the fire had gutted the remains. It wasn't in Rosewood's jurisdiction, but because Toby had a friend on the neighboring town's force, they were contacted when it was found. The local PD there knew that Rosewood was trying to find a vehicle that was involved in a hit and run.

Toby had a hunch about it, so he and Lorenzo rode out to take a look at it. Despite the vehicle being nothing but bare bones, they could tell that it had recently been in an accident. Toby looked at it and got a twisted feeling in his stomach. He knew it was the SUV they'd been looking for. He'd stared at the wreckage of Emily's car long enough to get a picture in his head of the size and build of the vehicle that had hit her. With the permission of the state police, they took the car back to Rosewood to comb it for evidence related to the hit and run. He didn't say anything to Ali and Emily. He didn't want to tell them anything until they knew something for sure. They had their hands full.

Lily was not handling the death of her sister well. When she wasn't with her friends, Pam, or Jason she was in her room. At night she'd crawl out of her bed and go sleep in Ali's bed, or she'd wake up and call for Ali to come to her room. She didn't say anything once she was next to her mother. She just curled up and went to sleep. Like Emily and Ali, she had bad dreams. They weren't as twisted as Ali's or as aggressive as Emily's, but she would thrash around just enough to wake Ali. When she woke up and saw that her mom was there she was fine. She didn't talk about her dreams. She didn't talk much at all.

Every time Lily went to see Emily she just hugged her and sat with her, rarely ever saying anything. Emily tried to get her to talk, but Lily just answered in short quiet responses, something she'd done since she was little when she internalized something. Emily could see the pain written all over her face. Heartbreak didn't even begin to cover it. Devastated didn't touch the feelings she knew Lily was facing. And knowing that she was a part of why her daughter was in so much pain burrowed into a part of Emily's heart that couldn't be soothed in any way. After one soberingly quiet visit Ali faced Emily after Pam took Lily to get something to eat. Ali was completely at a loss.

"What are we going to do?" She took Emily's hand. "Should we be forcing her to go to grief counseling?"

"She doesn't want to go." Emily sighed. "It's only been six days. She's not going to talk to anyone at this point, much less someone she doesn't know."

She knew her child, and she knew that Lily had inherited her stubborn nature. When Lily made up her mind about something there was no talking her out of it.

"I'm worried she's going to backslide when the kids go back to school tomorrow. She's had them around for support every day since they found out."

None of the kids had been back to school yet. Emily and Ali had decided to keep Lily home for a while, knowing she needed to process in her own way. She would be overwhelmed if every single student in the hallway kept looking at her like she was a wounded puppy. Both girls remembered how it felt to be the center of attention in high school when they were just trying to move forward with their lives. Emily had hated it. Ali was more uncomfortable than she let on, but she had been able to deal with the stares and whispers with the fierceness of a prideful lioness. They didn't want Lily having to deal with the student body again until she was ready.

Their friends' kids had also missed a couple of days of school to deal with their own grief, as well as be there for Lily. The kids had all come to that decision on their own, and it was a decision that their parents quickly got behind. Spencer had been wary about it at first, but Hanna had convinced her with the classic argument,

"They'll all just sneak out and skip anyway."

Aria had quickly interjected,

"They're not going to be able to focus in class, Spence, and you know it."

Spencer knew they were right. She knew the kids were going to need some time to work through their emotions. Her only concern was that without structure and normalcy Harper would spiral into an anxiety-induced depression. Eli quickly picked up on that concern and he promised to look out for her. Iris made the same promise to her parents about her little brother, because Levi was having a really hard time coping. Both Levi and Harper had a tendency to self-destruct when their emotions reached an all-time high. Both of them were incredibly smart, but they were also several years younger than their friends and siblings. Fortunately, they had those very siblings and friends to lean on, which they both readily did.

Levi clung to Kai, because he really looked up to him. Harper just wanted to be with the girls. And every single one of them wanted to be with Lily, to be there for her, to let her know that they loved her and that it was okay if she needed to cry, because they'd loved Grace, too, and they missed her, too. They'd hung out with one another while all of the other kids in town were at school. Lily would talk to her friends, but not about her sister. She would talk to them about anything but Grace. She was fine when they wanted to talk about her and their favorite memories of her. But she didn't ever say anything. She just listened.

She smiled when Iris talked about the time she and Grace had been busted sneaking into a movie theater and got chased by an overweight security guard. They'd hidden in the projection room while the clueless guard had wandered the theater breaking apart scores of teenagers making out and getting his shoes stuck to the gooey floor. At one point Grace had tossed a few kernels of popcorn on him and giggled when he looked around in confusion.

Lily nodded with a grin when Kai talked about how Grace had kicked all of their asses in Mortal Kombat and did a victory lap around the game room with a vintage knight's helmet on her head yelling about how she was the queen and that the peasants needed to bow to her. It was only after she'd anointed herself queen and made them kneel before her greatness that they'd learned she'd used a cheat code to win. But by that time, none of them could give her a hard time about it, because in the end…she had still beat all of their asses, just in her own Grace way.

Lily actually snorted in laughter when Levi brought up the time a few months ago when Grace had dared him to climb into the giant claw-machine at the arcade to get a large stuffed puppy she wanted. He'd immediately taken on the challenge, partly because he really admired Grace and he wanted to impress her, and partly because he never turned down a dare. He'd gotten stuck and when Grace realized it, instead of going for help she'd laughed and taken a picture…which he'd happily posed for. Then she crawled in after him to get him out, only to get stuck herself.

The only thing their siblings and friends had been able to do was shake their heads at the stupidity of the situation, because only Grace DiLaurentis-Fields could have turned a simple day at the arcade into complete chaos. Iris had done a literal facepalm when she saw her brother and Grace trapped in the machine.

"You two are the reason we have warning labels on everything." Iris had rolled her eyes. Levi had just grinned and stuck his tongue out at her. "God, Levi, you're such an idiot."

"Him?" Lily had laughed, pointing at her sister, "What about her? She saw him get stuck and she still crawled in after him."

"Hey, this is a dangerous rescue operation and I will not have you undermining my authority." Grace had thrown a small stuffed animal at the glass wall, though Lily knew it was directed at her.

"Shut up, Grace. Our moms are going to kill you."

"They can't kill what they can't catch." Grace had smacked the giant life-sized claw above her and Levi.

Levi and Grace had spent the entire time grinning like morons. And the entire time they had been stuck Harper was reprimanding them. She yelled at them so much that when Grace and Levi got out, none of the adults in the arcade said a single mean word, and in fact two of the staff members were laughing hysterically at Spencer's tiny child telling Grace and Levi that she was going to walk them straight to the police station and have her dad arrest them for deviant misconduct. Eli had made some offhand comment about throwing Harper in the machine and leaving her there for some poor child who would be sorely disappointed to get her as a prize. Harper had socked him in the shoulder so hard it left a bruise, but Eli had just laughed.

Sharing their memories helped most of the kids. Just being together helped. They spent four schools days reminiscing before their parents told them it was time to go back to class. None of the kids argued. All of them had reached a point where they realized that they couldn't hide from their emotions. Their feelings were going to follow them no matter where they were.

Knowing that Lily's friends were going back to school when she wasn't was a stressing strain on her mothers. They weren't going to make her go back just yet, because they knew she wasn't emotionally ready. Though, that was an oxymoron, because how would she ever be emotionally ready to go back to a normal life? How could she go back to a life without having her sister by her side? It was something Emily and Ali were struggling with, too. Because they weren't entirely sure they were doing everything they could for their daughter.

It wasn't school they were concerned about. They knew she wouldn't fall behind. In fact, Lily had asked Ali to get her homework for her so she could keep up with it at home. The fact that she even had the mindset to do homework was astonishing to Ali. But Emily wasn't surprised, because she knew Lily was just doing it because it was something to take her mind off of Grace. Still, knowing that Lily wasn't going to be with her friends at school was troubling for Emily to think about. She had gone through some really rough times in high school, and she never would have made it through had it not been for Aria, Hanna, and Spencer.

Emily blinked, considering Ali's words about her concerns about their daughter. She knew Ali had a point. Without her friends around it was likely that Lily might regress. Of course, she wouldn't stay home forever, and she'd still see them after school, but it was the time between sunrise and late afternoon that was most concerning to Emily.

"She's going to hate us if we try to make her talk to a shrink. But I don't know what else to do," Ali said, bringing Emily out of her deep train of thought.

"She's still spending time with my mom and Jason, right?"

"Yeah."

"And she talks to them?"

"Not about the things she really needs to talk about."

"It's going to take time," Emily said. "Right now let's just make sure she's with my mom or your brother for the next few days. We'll make sure she's not alone."

"That might work for a short period of time, but she needs help, Em."

"That's what she has us for," Emily said. "She'll talk when she's ready, Alison."

Something about her tone of voice unnerved Ali. She got the feeling that Emily wasn't just talking about Lily when she said that. Because not only was Ali dealing with a daughter who wouldn't talk to her. She was dealing with a very stubborn woman who was painting a picture of her strength on the outside, but who was falling apart on the inside. Emily hadn't been talking much either. She'd buried herself in a million other things, and Ali could see that she was exhausted. She looked beyond a little peaked.

"And what about you?" Ali slid her palm up against the side of Emily's neck.

"What about me?"

"I can tell you haven't been sleeping."

"Have you?" Emily asked.

"Not really." That was a fair point. The house felt empty without Grace. And the bed was so lonely without Emily in it. She missed her. She needed her back at home. "But we're not talking about me. Stop deflecting." Ali pressed her lips together in a tight frown. "I know you, Emily. After all these years of us being together, you really think I haven't figured out when you're suffering…when you're holding everything in because you think it might hurt someone other than yourself?"

Ali squeezed her fingers with one hand and slid her other hand to the side of Emily's head, her fingers slipping into her hair. Emily swallowed hard, fighting back her emotions.

"I'm working through it," Emily said, barely believing it herself. She knew Ali wouldn't buy it.

"You can't lie to me. Not anymore. I know you're being buried alive. I know you can't breathe, honey. I can feel it every time I look at you. I can see that you're slipping away," Ali said sadly.

She'd made very little headway with her since Emily talked to her about being stuck in the car. In fact, something had changed in Emily since that day. She'd been acting increasingly strange since the day of Grace's funeral.

"I'm not. I'm right here." Emily argued.

"No, you're not. I mean, physically you are. But…you are hiding in yourself, and it's not good for you. You are barely holding on…"

"Ali, it's not like that. I've just…I've had a few rough nights. I'm doing the best I can here. But it's not like…I mean…it's getting better. I'm not…" She struggled to find the words she wanted to say, "…we're okay, you and I. We're…I'm…I'm okay."

"Please stop lying to me, Em. I've at least earned that much." Ali sighed. "You have to let me in. You have to let me in before you get so lost that even I can't find you. There is nothing that could make me love you any less, so whatever it is that you think you can't talk to me about, whatever you're holding back, I am here for you. Whatever it is that happened…whatever you saw that night…I don't want you facing it alone."

This wasn't a revelation to Emily. She knew how much Ali loved her. The fact that she wasn't talking to her was more about protecting Ali than it was protecting herself. But it was also hard for her to think about what had happened that night. It was hard, because it was constantly on repeat in her mind. She couldn't escape it. And the last thing she wanted to do was paint that exact same picture for Ali to torture herself with.

"You've been there for me my whole life. Why is it so hard for you to let me do the same for you?" Ali questioned.

Emily blinked, tears lining her eyes. All she could think about was the look on Grace's face. That pleading look in her eyes. Looking back, it was a look that told Emily that Grace knew she was going to die. And in her last moments she'd begged for her mother's help, and Emily hadn't been able to do a damn thing to help her. That looming last look was something she knew she couldn't subject Ali to. She would tell Ali anything else she wanted to know, but not that. Not Grace's death.

"Emily…"

"Ali," Emily said, her voice a quiet whisper, "please don't make me talk about this…" Not to you. She added silently to herself. She couldn't do that to her.

All at once, Ali could see a silent panic in Emily's eyes. It was a devastating fear that she'd never seen in her before. In fact, she'd only seen that look once in her life. It was the same expression her mother had on her face the night she'd watched Alison get attacked in their yard. The tone of voice Emily had was the same desperate distress she'd heard that night when her mother thought she was dead.

Ali could see Emily visibly shaking. She could hear the hospital bed rattling underneath her. And she realized that she was asking too much of her…pushing her too hard.

"Hey, I'm not…I'm not saying you have to talk about it." Not until she was ready to face it. "I'm just saying that if you need to, don't be afraid to talk to me." She felt her voice quiver. "She was my daughter, too. You're not alone here, Em."

Emily nodded and then glanced across the room. She was starting to feel sick to her stomach and she couldn't tell if it was from her emotions or if she was going to throw up because of the medications she was on. After a few seconds, she quickly realized which one it was. She grabbed the plastic basin on the tray next to her bed. She lurched forward and threw up. She felt Ali's hand rubbing up and down against her upper spine. She sat still for a moment, trying to let the pain and tightness in her abdomen dissipate. Once the nausea had passed Emily sat the tub down and looked at Ali.

"Sorry." She knew that puke made Ali queasy. She wiped her mouth. "The anti-nausea meds aren't really helping much anymore."

She was pretty much sick to her stomach all the time now. It was something she'd been warned about. She was basically on the strongest antibiotics that existed because the doctors were being extra cautious about her internal injuries. She'd had a low-grade fever a few days ago, but it passed when they put her on another antibiotic. She'd been told it wouldn't be uncommon for her to suffer occasional nausea on the antibiotics. The antiemetics helped to an extent, but the nausea coupled with the dull ache in her stomach got to her sometimes.

"Hey, you got me through nine months of morning sickness. The least I can do is get you through this." Ali didn't bat an eye, which impressed Emily, because she knew how easily Ali got woozy when it came to vomit.

Emily couldn't help but push her buttons.

"How about a kiss?" Emily teased her. "Fresh hospital breath and all."

"This is a marriage, Emily, not a charity." Ali rolled her eyes with a smile, because that's what Emily did…she made her smile, even in the most dire circumstances, her wife knew how to make her smile. Ali leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "There, I've donated to your cause. Now stop giving me such a hard time."

"Smartass." Emily murmured with a smirk.

She shifted in her bed and grimaced when she accidentally pulled a muscle in her stomach. The pain had gotten significantly better, but it was still there. She felt another wave of nausea. She took in a breath through her nose and closed her eyes. She felt Ali's hands on her sweaty cheeks.

"Do you need me to get someone? Are you going to be sick again?"

Emily slowly opened her eyes and shook her head.

"No." She turned her head, her eyes landing on that suspicious teddy bear bouquet. "I'm good now."

Out of all the things in the entire room she had to distract her, why did it always come back to that damn corny bear? She thought about the note that had come with it.

I'm sorry.

Shortly after she'd discovered it she'd contacted the florist on the card, asking who had made the purchase. She'd played the role of a thankful customer who just wanted to send her gratitude to the person who had sent her well-wishes. The florist said that it had been bought anonymously by someone online who had used an untraceable money-exchange account. Emily had thanked the florist and then slammed the phone down in frustration and fought back tears of anger.

"I just want a fucking break. Can't I just have one fucking break?" She'd grumbled, eyes towards the ceiling. Then she'd stared at the bear for nearly an hour.

That day had only been the beginning of her search for answers. While she was limited on what she could do physically, that didn't stop her from digging online. She was careful about when she did her research, because someone was usually with her. But she found a way to do it without involving her family and friends. She was determined to keep them out of it.

Her gaze was still on the bear, her eyes narrowed in thought.

"Did that bear do something to offend you?" Ali asked, noticing that Emily's eyes were fixed on it.

"Huh?" Emily looked at Ali in confusion. Her mind was no longer on the bear, but on finding out who sent it.

"The bear." Ali glanced at it. She'd caught Emily staring at it more than once. "You know you pay more attention to that thing than you do me. I'm starting to get jealous." She teased. "Who's it from anyway? You got a secret girlfriend or something?"

Emily chuckled lightly.

"I mean, it's okay if you do, because Aria and I have our own thing going on on the side. I had to make it perfectly clear the other day to the receptionist at the desk that Aria is my territory and that she needed to keep her eyes off of her."

"Jesus, what else happens when I'm unconscious?" Emily shook her head. "Are Spencer and Hanna secret Crime Lords now?"

"That would be the most efficiently organized and well-dressed mob to ever exist." Ali thought about it. She mindlessly ran her fingers across the rim of a vase with a bouquet of flowers in it. "You know, I never realized how many friends we have in Rosewood."

"Yeah, I can't keep up with who sends what." Emily agreed. She looked around the room. "Well, except for Hanna, because her shit is always the brightest and most outlandish stuff."

They heard footsteps approaching, and a few seconds later Pam was walking into the room, sans Lily.

"Hey, girls, sorry to interrupt…"

"Is Lily okay?" Ali was worried about her absence.

"Yeah, she's fine. She's in the cafeteria with Hanna and Iris."

"Huh, her ears must have been burning." Ali glanced at Emily with a smirk. Hanna did always have a knack for showing up when people were talking about her. It's like she knew she was the topic of conversation and she had to make some sort of grand entrance.

"The kids are going to the movies. Some superhero flick," Pam explained. "Lily wants to go. But I wanted to check with you first."

"Yeah." Emily and Ali agreed at the same time.

Today was the last day that Lily had to be with her friends during the day since they were going back to school tomorrow. If Lily wanted to be with them, they weren't going to stop her.

"Let me just grab some cash for the tickets and snacks." Ali walked towards her purse.

"Hanna said she'd take care of it," Pam said.

"That's not necessar…"

"Alison Lauren DiLaurentis-Fields!" They heard Hanna's voice.

Ali stopped dead in her tracks. Emily looked at her mother. Pam held up her phone.

"She had me put her on speaker." Pam mouthed a silent "sorry" at them.

"Don't you undermine my generous gift!"

They could hear the girls giggling on the other end. Hearing Lily laugh made Emily and Ali smile.

"Just say 'thank you' and let me buy your daughter the biggest damn tub of popcorn she wants."

"Thank you, Hanna." Emily laughed. "Have fun, Lil!"

"Thanks, mom. Feel better."

Pam pressed a button to end the call.

"I can't believe you let her talk you in to that." Emily stared at her mom.

"It's Hanna." Ali offered the simplest explanation.

"Bright and outlandish." Emily nodded in agreement.

"You two do realize that I can still hear you, right?" Hanna's voice startled them all again.

Pam glanced at her phone in confusion.

"Oh, dear." She hadn't ended the call like she thought she had. She started pushing all the buttons on her phone to try and actually end the call this time.

On the other end of the phone Hanna, Iris, and Lily heard Emily telling her mother which button she needed to push and Pam muttering something about it being a new phone and to give her old mom some credit because she was still keeping up with technology instead of becoming a shut in old grandma who baked all day and tended to eighteen cats.

Hanna and the girls thought it was hilarious. Lily liked seeing the adults act like children. There was something wickedly adorable about it. Like the older someone got, the more they acted like big goofy kids. It made growing older seem less scary.

Hanna took Iris and Grace to the theater just down the road from the hospital. They met up with Fiona, Eli, and Harper, who were waiting for them at the ticket counter. Caleb was already inside with Levi and Kai. Eli went to help Kai get the snacks. Caleb walked by the kids and over to Hanna, who was lingering by the door, playing with her phone. When Levi saw Lily walk in he ran over to her, unable to contain his excitement.

"You came." He smiled, wrapping his arms around her.

He'd been overly-affectionate following Grace's death. It was just his way of showing that he cared. Lily didn't mind. It was mutual support. They both needed it.

"Of course she came." Iris shrugged. Her gaze drifted towards the large display showcasing the blockbuster they were getting ready to see. She sized up the predominately male cast. "Who could miss this beef fest?"

Her parents hadn't missed her comment.

"I worry about our child sometimes." Caleb shook his head. She was entering the dating age and he hated it. He was ready to fend off all the boys who dared to even look at his little girl.

"Eh." Hanna shrugged nonchalantly. "We both turned out alright. They'll be fine."

"I'm glad you decided to come hang out with us." Fiona smiled.

"I wasn't about to miss this movie." Lily smiled back timidly. It felt weird to be here without Grace. She still wasn't used to not having her around. She knew it was a feeling she'd never get used to.

"Well, I wasn't about to miss this ABS-olutely perfect masterpiece." Iris's fingers lingered over a particularly well-built cardboard cutout superhero.

"And they say that romance is dead." Eli quipped as he walked towards them.

He had several snacks in his hands. Kai had a cupholder with all of their drinks. Lily and Fiona quickly went to help them. They walked towards the theater together.

"So, the movie is a little over two hours." Caleb glanced at his watch. "Gives me enough time to run to the office and grab that portfolio for my meeting tomorrow. You sure you can handle this circus alone?"

"Oh, please." Hanna scoffed. "Aria's kids are practically tiny little adults and Harper will keep Eli in line, like we have to worry about him anyway." She glanced at Spencer's son, who was holding the door open for the girls with his free hand. "Lily is a good kid. The only two we have to worry about are our own."

"Yeah, that's a good point." Caleb leaned in for a quick kiss. "Keep Levi out of the popcorn machine and don't let Iris anywhere near the projection room."

Hanna joined the kids in the theater. She sat away from them, so they could do their own thing. She was actually planning on trying to nap during the movie, because she really had no interest in it. And she hadn't slept well since Grace died. She kept a mindful eye on Lily. The girl seemed insanely composed. Hanna could see Lily holding herself with the same posture that Emily carried when she was hurting. She'd always been able to call Emily on her bullshit. It was the same for Lily's friends. Fiona and Eli were especially observant. Iris was good at seeing through Lily's walls, too. But they also knew her well enough to know when to press her and when to leave her alone.

Lily sat in her seat, completely aware of the fact that Hanna was watching her from across the theater. Everyone was watching her these days. They were all afraid she was a glass doll that was going to break at any minute. Maybe part of it was because she hadn't cried since before Grace's funeral. She thought about her sister a lot. She felt around the outside of her pocket and her fingers ran over the outline of Grace's pocketknife. She carried it with her at all times now. It made her feel closer to her. She wasn't sure why she'd picked the pocketknife to hold on to at first. But then she realized it was because it meant something to Grace.

Grace had joked about the weapon being her good luck charm after she used it to valiantly save herself after getting tangled in a volleyball net in the midst of trying to set up a prank in the neighborhood recreational center. When Lily called her a superstitious weirdo Grace had frowned and shook her head,

"Are you telling me you don't believe in the magic of my tiny heroic sword?"

"I believe in science and facts."

"Well, it's a scientific fact that people who believe in good luck charms are statistically happier than those who don't." Grace had wiggled free from the net.

"You just made that up. That's not a fact."

"Your face isn't a fact!"

She was starting to wonder if Grace had been on to something about good luck charms that day. Ever since the wreck she'd wondered if maybe there was something to it. She didn't tell her moms, but she wondered if Grace had her pocketknife that night if maybe she would have lived. Or maybe they wouldn't have been in a wreck at all. If it truly was a good luck charm, had it kept her safe that night instead of Grace? Would it have made a difference if Grace had it?

She felt someone tapping her knee. She looked up and saw Levi facing her from the row in front of her. The girls had settled in the row behind the boys.

"You want my sour patch kids, Lily?" he asked. "I know they're your favorite."

"You're willingly giving away sugar?" Kai snorted. "Are you sick?"

Levi rolled his eyes.

"No thanks, Levi." Lily wasn't really that hungry. Lately she'd mostly just been playing with her food, rather than eating it.

"Okay. Let me know if you change your mind." He shrugged and turned back around.

Seconds later the movie started. Lily tried to pay attention, but all she could think about was what Grace would be thinking and what ridiculous side-commentary she'd have throughout the movie. She'd never realized how quiet the theater was without her in it.

When the movie was over, Hanna was the first one out of the theater because she'd had two cups of coffee before the movie and an iced tea during the movie and her bladder was pissed at her. She went to let the kids know, because she knew they wanted to stay through the credits. She told them to meet her outside.

By the time the credits were over Caleb had made it back to the theater. He and Hanna had driven separate cars so they could haul all the kids back to their place. Harper and Eli were the only ones who couldn't stay. Harper had soccer practice, so Eli walked her home. Soccer was the one thing Harper had been consistent about since Grace's death. The energy she burned on the field helped her work out some of her aggression.

The other kids decided to take a walk around the block. Some of their schoolmates were getting off the bus and others were driving home.

"You want to head back to the house, Lil?" Iris asked, knowing that crowds made her anxious.

"No, it's okay." She shook her head. "I'm going to have to get used to people gawking."

"Hey, if someone bothers you, just let us know," Kai said. "We'll take care of it."

"I'm fine, guys. The only person I was worried about was Zane, but he drove by me the other day when I was walking Jett and he just waved and kept going. Guess he finally decided to leave me alone."

"Yeah, Eli saw to that," Levi muttered under his breath.

"Dude." Kai smacked Levi in the back of the head and stared at him.

"What do you mean?" Lily's brow crinkled in confusion.

"What? Was she not supposed to know?" Levi asked.

"Know what?" Lily asked.

"You didn't say it was a secret." Levi continued.

"Stop talking now." Kai warned him.

"Uh, no, keep talking." Iris ordered.

"What did you guys do?" Fiona asked suspiciously.

"Nothing." Levi and Kai responded in the most innocent tone they could muster. It might have flown if it was just Kai trying to sell it, but they knew good and well that Levi was the opposite of innocent.

Lily refused to let up, so Kai told them about Zane showing up at the funeral, and then he told them about Eli kicking him out. Lily was surprised, but not totally shocked to find out that Eli had gone to bat for her. He had inherited Toby's protective streak. It was in Eli's nature to look out for her the same way it was in Toby's nature to protect Ali and Emily. Toby had always taught his kids to look out for their loved ones.

Toby, unfortunately, at that very moment felt like he was failing his friends in the search to find out who killed their daughter. While Lily was silently thanking Eli for speaking out for her, Toby was trying not to lose his wits over the fact that they'd hit yet another dead end in the investigation.

After they'd done some digging on the scorched vehicle they were able to confirm it was in fact the vehicle they were looking for because of a single piece of glass debris from the headlight that was intact at the hit and run scene. They'd quickly determined it was a souped up old Bronco that belonged to a retired veteran who had reported it missing three days before the accident. It was one of many vintage cars the man had restored and owned. He'd slowly been selling his vehicle collection off to support his ailing wife. He hadn't even known it was missing for almost a week, because he was out of town visiting a specialist for his wife.

And just like that, the police were right back where they started from. There was no traffic footage of the Bronco anywhere on CCTV and no witnesses had stepped forward. Toby threw his desk lamp into the wall in his office and cursed so loudly that his voice carried outside to where Lorenzo was grabbing a file from his cruiser.

But as hard as it had been for Toby to hear, it was even harder telling Ali about it twenty-four hours later. She sat across the desk from Toby's boss, who explained the situation to her. Toby stood silently beside her, waiting for her to go off on him, because he knew she would. He only regretted that he didn't have popcorn to watch the scene unfold.

"It was stolen?" Ali repeated what the Chief had just told her.

"Grand theft auto," he replied with a nod. "Explains why the other driver ran."

"And you're sure it's the car that hit them?"

"We're still waiting on positive confirmation, but yeah, we're pretty sure."

"Pretty sure isn't exactly instilling confidence in my trust in your department." Ali scowled at him.

"It's the car that hit them, Ali," Toby said.

For some reason, hearing it from Toby, she suddenly believed it. She silently wondered to herself why Toby wasn't in charge. He was the smartest cop on the force by far. He deserved a position higher than his Chief.

"Unfortunately, it's an older model, so it doesn't have an anti-theft system or any electronics that can track any time or coordinates. But we were able to match a piece of debris that we found at the scene. It was from a busted headlight. Not to mention, the damage to the frame is consistent with the point of impact that Emily described. The bumper was stripped, but the frame was bent. They're looking for paint residue and other identifying aspects, but this is it. It's a match, at least as far as I'm concerned."

"What's being done to find the driver?" Ali tried to remain calm, but her fists were shaking. She wanted to flip the desk in front of her and scream.

The Chief looked at Toby. The room was silent for a few seconds.

"The damage caused by the fire was extremely extensive. It is highly unlikely that there is any evidence linking the Bronco to the driver."

"Well, it didn't drive itself out there. Someone had to see something. Or…like…footprints, what about footprints?"

"We've been communicating with the department that found it, but it was dumped in a remote area. Add that to the fact that there is heavy wildlife traffic combined with the fact that the two youths who found it trampled around the site…there's nothing for us to go on there. But I assure you, we are doing everything we can…"

"Except for actually solving the crime." Ali glared angrily.

She'd read better procedural cop dramas with more efficient fictional cops written by teenagers in her class. She was very quickly beginning to tire of the ineptitude of the law enforcement in this town.

"I am aware that this is a very difficult time for you, ma'am…"

"Don't ma'am me, you condescending piece of male machismo."

Toby's eyes widened in surprise, because she was really going for it. And he sure as hell wasn't about to stop her. She had been on a total warpath lately, hiding her grief beneath her anger. He didn't feel like getting bitten today.

"I'm going to get you some erectile dysfunction meds since you clearly can't rise to this challenge," Ali snarled.

Toby snorted out an inappropriate laugh, because goddamn, that was sharp and ruthless and very much an Ali thing to say. His boss glared at him, but he didn't care, because Ali was right. The leadership on this investigation was a total shit-show.

"I understand your frustration, and I know you must be feeling very upset that the investigation is taking so much time…"

Now he was using psychology as a way to try and curb her anger and push her into submission. Ali was totally not there for that.

"Would you like a buttplug for all that shit coming out of your ass, too?" Ali added with a heated gaze as she stormed towards the door.

Seconds after she was out of the room the Chief sighed and shook his head.

"This investigation is hard enough as it is without that woman bullying us at every turn."

"That woman has a name." Toby finally snapped. "Alison DiLaurentis-Fields. And she lost her daughter, so how about you stop thinking about your pension plan and start actually showing some goddamn compassion?"

"I get that this is rough for you, too, Cavanaugh. I know you were close to the kid, too…"

"Those girls are family to me." Toby corrected him angrily. "They're family, and you won't even let me take the lead on the case."

"You're lucky you're on the case at all considering how close you are to this. I pulled some strings to keep you on it. Don't blow it. You need to keep a cool head about this. Don't let your emotions cloud your judgment. You know as well as I do that without solid evidence and witnesses we're basically just fiddling with our dicks at this point."

"I became a cop to actually solve crimes. Not file them away in a storage locker somewhere and forget about them."

"I'm not saying that," he held up his hand in an effort to try and keep Toby calm. "I'm just simply stating the facts. There's only so much we can do. I know it. You know it. She knows it, too. But she needs to understand it. You're going to have to keep a tighter leash on her."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen." Toby scoffed. He walked towards the door.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to check on her before she turns this place on its head," he said simply as he walked out of the office.

He found her on the phone talking to the car insurance company. After a few minutes she hung up and frowned.

"I need to see the cars."

"Why?" he questioned in confusion.

"The insurance company needs photos of them."

"I can do that for you. You don't have to…"

"Toby, I can handle it," she said in irritation.

He wanted to tell her that she probably couldn't handle it, because he could barely handle it. But after that tongue lashing she'd just given his boss he knew there was basically no arguing with her. So he took her to the police impound lot.

"How's Emily?" Toby asked as they walked towards the lot.

"She's been sick to her stomach for the past few days. She says it's the antibiotics, but I think part of it is the pain." Ali grimaced. She hated that Emily was trying to just power through the pain.

"She's still refusing the pain meds?"

"I can't force her to take them. I've tried everything short of crushing them up and hiding them in orange juice." Ali frowned. A sudden memory occurred to her and her frown slowly turned upwards in a smile, "I used to have to do that with pills and vitamins when Grace and Lily were little. Lily always tasted it and spit it all over me. Grace would swallow it down and ask for more and was never the wiser."

"How is Lily?"

"Quiet." Ali sighed. "Too quiet." Lily hadn't been able to pull herself out of bed without her friends around this morning. "She's got something building inside. I can see it. But she won't let me in. She's talking a little more since Jason is here, and she asks to see her mom and grandma all the time. But she won't talk about Grace at all." She sucked on the inner part of her lower lip. "How are Eli and Harper?"

"It's worse at night. Harper spends a lot of time moping in her room. The other day something happened and she needed advice and she had this revelation that Grace wasn't there for her to bounce her ideas off of anymore and she just…she lost it." He cringed. "And Eli…I don't know. I can't get a feel for him. Usually, he talks to me or Spencer. We let both our kids know when they were little that we have an open door policy. Anything they need to talk about, we'll listen. He has always been a pretty open kid, but he's been really reserved about this. I asked Ezra if he knew if the boys were talking to one another and he said Kai and Levi are, but Eli just kind of sits back and listens. I'm worried he's bottling everything up."

He scratched his brow, suddenly feeling guilty about telling Ali about this considering the loss of her daughter was still looming over her.

"So both of our kids have developed our fantastic coping mechanisms," Ali said sarcastically.

Toby couldn't help but laugh. He typed in the code for the impound lot door and then turned to face Ali.

"Hey, are you sure about this?" Toby paused at the door.

"Yeah." Ali nodded, her eyes distant.

Deep down, something inside of her needed to see it, though she really didn't want to. It was a strange pull, that same desire that pushed people to turn and look at car crashes on the side of the road. It was a need to try to understand what had happened…how it had happened.

A few minutes later Ali was looking at the wrecked vehicles. She saw an ironic sort of symbolism in the fact that one car had been destroyed by land and water and the other had been destroyed by air and fire. Even looking at totaled cars she couldn't get her teacher brain to shut up. It was kind of annoying to her.

She took several pictures of the SUV that had caused the wreck first, stopping to look to see if there was any piece of evidence that could be considered a clue that maybe the cops had missed. But when she saw the charred black remains she now understood why Toby's boss was basically telling her they were screwed.

Ali moved to Emily's car next. When she saw the shape that it was in she almost threw up. She never would have recognized it if she didn't know for a fact that the police had pulled it from the river. It was all but falling apart. The top portion of the metal was so damaged that it looked like a sheet had been ripped off, exposing the extremely damaged underbelly. There was a mess of metal and twisted plastic and steel and fractured and broken glass everywhere. The inside of the car had been stripped of all loose items. Toby would never tell her about finding one of Grace's shoes or about the shred of Emily's bloody clothing they had found clinging to a piece of metal on the driver's side.

There was still some blood against the steering column that the water hadn't washed away, the dark crimson stain was practically screaming at Ali. She looked in the driver's side window. She'd leaned in the very same window hundreds of times to kiss her wife. Now the window was nothing more than a hole in an unrecognizable cluster of junk and scrap metal. She looked down and saw the crushed steering column. There were several jagged pieces of metal sticking out. How Emily had survived was beyond her. She looked down where the gas pedal and brakes were supposed to be, but all she could see was a shadow of darkness surrounding the small opening where Emily's legs were during the crash.

"I was pinned," she'd told Ali. "I was pinned. And she knew it."

She stared at the passenger seat, the seat where her daughter had spent her last moments. She had to have been terrified. She could picture Emily telling Grace to crawl through the broken window to save herself, and she pictured Grace defiantly telling her that she wasn't leaving her. She shuddered. She felt Toby's hand on her shoulder.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine." She shook his hand away. She put her phone up. She'd seen enough. "What happens now?"

"We keep digging," Toby said.

"In other words, your coworkers are basically going to keep chasing their tails?"

"I won't give up. I promise."

Ali knew he was as good as his word, but she also knew that there was a grain of truth to what his boss had said to her. She knew the reality of the situation. It pissed her off, but she knew it. Ali spent the rest of the afternoon with Jason, ranting about the police. She always tried to keep her emotions in check when her daughter was around, but Lily had taken Jett to meet her friends at the bus stop, so Ali was free to scream, cry, and curse all she wanted.

For the first time since the accident, Ali purposefully avoided talking to Emily, because she wasn't sure what she wanted to tell her yet. She wasn't sure if she should tell her about the other car being burned to a crisp. She knew that even though Emily said she was coping, she wasn't. She'd been distant and a bit hazy. And the way that she'd stared at that "Get Well" teddy bear in her room, as if it held the secrets to the universe or something, it's like she was completely out of her head.

She would have chalked everything up to Emily being high on medications, but since she was only on antibiotics and anti-nausea meds, Ali knew that wasn't the case. But every time she tried to ask Emily about it, Emily just brushed it off, telling her she didn't really have much to do in the hospital aside from screwing around on the internet and staring at her gifts. She'd even quipped about which bears were going to be dog toys for Jett when she got home. She assured Ali everything was fine, but her eyes kept wandering to the teddy bear with the sling on its arm and the cast on its leg.

Ali didn't know about the strange message that came with the bear. It was something that Emily had been obsessively thinking about since the day of Grace's funeral. She was convinced it had been sent by the other driver, or by someone who knew the truth about what had happened that night. And though she'd hit a snag in her search for who sent it, she was far from giving up.

When her mother and Ali weren't hovering over her, she spent her time following up on news stories. She'd read the comments scouring for clues. Some of the stories made her blood boil, especially the ones in which reporters had gone after her daughter and the rest of the kids to try and get a quote or a picture. It made her irate to think about her child trying to deal with her grief and being hounded about it by the media. But she knew that Ali and her friends had handled that situation, with all the grace of a group of drunk chimpanzees. But the important thing was they'd handled it.

Instead of focusing on what the news was doing wrong, she tried to focus on what she could pick up from the stories. She searched through other similar hit and run cases to see how those cases were solved. She felt a pit in the bottom of her stomach when she read about how many went unsolved. Her research served as a distraction from her grief. She became so hyper-focused on her research that she completely missed the shift in her pain sensations. She'd gotten so used to the burning feeling in her stomach that it was just second nature to brush it off. She didn't realize that her body temperature was slowly starting to rise. By that night she was exhausted. She knew she'd over-exerted herself. Ali knew it, too. She could hear it in her voice over the phone.

"You sound kind of out of it," Ali said. "Wait, did you finally take the pain meds?"

"No, I'm beyond them at this point. The worst is over. As soon as I can eat something solid and keep it down they'll let me go home."

"Did you throw up again?" Ali asked in concern.

"No, not since yesterday. They just don't want me taking on too much too fast."

Ali snorted.

"Have they met you?"

"Thanks, I love you, too, babe," Emily replied sarcastically.

"Just make sure you're listening to your doctors, okay? You need to let them take care of you. You really do sound drained."

"I'm just tired, Ali." There was a pause in the conversation, and Ali sighed. "Don't worry. I'll be home soon."

"I know."

Ali left it at that. She wasn't particularly in a chatty mood because she still hadn't told Emily about the other car yet. She knew it would upset her. What she didn't realize was that Emily already knew about the other car. A tabloid site Emily had been keeping an eye on had broken with the story. Someone had managed to get a very grainy picture of the police taking it to the impound lot. And even though the picture quality wasn't great, Emily knew it was the car that had hit them that night. Like Toby, she felt it instantly.

While Emily was researching what she could about the car, Ali was at home checking in on Lily. Lily was in bed pretending to be asleep, because she didn't feel like talking. Ali knew she was faking, but she left her alone. She knew that in a couple of hours Lily would be crawling into bed with her. Ali picked up a few of Jett's stray dog toys in the living room. She found one of his tennis balls wedged between the closet door and the floor. She could see where he'd scratched at the floor's surface to try and get it out.

"How did he even get that in there?"

She pried the door open, freeing the tennis ball. She leaned down to pick it up and came face to face with a small box wrapped in pink and white wrapping paper. She immediately recognized it. It was the present the girls had gotten them for their anniversary. They'd never had the opportunity to open it. Ali picked up the box, staring at it, trying to decide if she should dare peek inside. After several minutes of internally debating herself, she gently sat the box down on the table in the living room. She sank into the couch and reached out with shaky hands, delicately pulling the tape from the paper. When she got the top layer of tape off she pulled the top open and looked inside.

"Oh, girls," she gasped to herself, tears in her eyes.

Inside the box there was a handmade scrapbook. There was a beautiful woven cloth cover surrounding an open square with a pastel pink and yellow border. Inside the square was a picture of the four of them on the beach. It had been taken just a few months ago. They'd all been lying out on the beach, Ali and Emily in beach chairs with the girls in between them lounging on towels. Lily and Grace were both on their stomachs, propped up on their elbows staring at the ocean.

Pam had told them they needed to get a picture, so Ali and Emily had propped themselves up and leaned over Grace and Lily until their faces were touching. Just as Pam had snapped the picture Grace had turned and grabbed Lily's face and planted a kiss on her cheek, making all four of them laugh.

Ali ran her hands over the cover of the book, unable to open it. She couldn't…not without Emily. Instead, she just stared at the picture of the four of them. She desperately wanted to go back to that day. She sighed, thinking to herself that things couldn't possibly get any worse.

Eight hours later, fate basically gave Ali a middle finger. Early the next morning she'd gotten a call she'd been dreading might happen. When her phone rang at 5 AM she knew something was wrong. When she answered she'd found Pam on the other end, a calm, yet urgent tone in her voice. Emily had spiked a fever of nearly 105 in the middle of the night. It had started out mild, but she was getting worse. The doctors were starting to get concerned that she wouldn't pull through. There was a localized infection in her abdomen, something the doctors had been concerned about since day one. Ali wanted to kick herself, because she had seen how worn down Emily was. The weakness, the nausea, and the weariness had been more than just her normal recovery.

She tried to keep it together. She quickly threw on some clothes and stopped long enough only to rouse her brother where he'd fallen asleep on the couch. She put her palm against his shoulder and shook him.

"Jason!" Her voice was quiet, but sharp. "Hey, Jason…"

"Hmm?" He sleepily opened his eyes. "What's wrong, Ali?"

"Can you watch Lily for me today?"

"Yeah, of course." He sat up, rubbing his palm through his hair. "What's up?"

"It's Emily."

"Is she okay?" His eyes widened.

"No." Ali grabbed her purse. "I have to go. I'll call you when I know more."

"Hey, drive safe." He called after her.

Ali did the opposite. She sped, she ran every red light she hit, she flew through town and practically slid into the parking lot at full speed. By the time Ali got there Emily was unconscious and unresponsive. They had given her antibiotics to combat the infection, but she wasn't fighting back. They were worried her body was going to shut down and that she'd go into multiple organ failure. Ali sat with her all day, and there was no change. It was only later in the evening that Emily stirred in her bed. But she still wasn't awake. She squirmed around uncomfortably, the fever making her delusional.

"Em, can you hear me?" Ali asked, taking her hand. It was sticky with sweat.

"Ali?" Emily muttered. "Ali, where are my keys? Have you seen my keys?"

"You're in the hospital, honey. You…"

"She's going to be late." Emily's brow twitched, but her eyes remained closed. "She fell asleep on the couch. We need to wake her up or she's going to be late for swim practice."

Ali's hand automatically tightened around Emily's, her mind suddenly flashing back to a time years ago when she'd been in a mental institution and had been out of her mind, but she remembered Emily's calm voice comforting her, playing along when her mind needed it. She remembered Emily taking her hand and assuring her that everything was okay. She remembered Emily being there for her. She remembered every word she'd said. And she knew Emily could hear her.

"Let…let her rest, sweetie."

"She's such an angel when she's sleeping, isn't she?"

"Yeah. Yeah, she is." Ali choked back tears. She ran her palm over Emily's forehead and her soft fingertips brushed through her dark damp hair.

Minutes later Emily mumbled,

"Ali, I think I might have the flu. I'm really hot," she whined. "I think I have a fever. I should go sleep on the couch. I don't want you to catch what I have."

"No, you're okay. I'll stay with you." It was an automatic response. It was a reaction that was ingrained in her soul, because her natural inclination was to be near Emily no matter what. She traced her fingers against Emily's cheek, which was sweltering. "I'll stay with you as long as you need."

Emily didn't reply, which made Ali's stomach turn. She felt like she was losing her. But how could she be losing her when just yesterday Emily was teasing her and giving her a hard time for being over-protective?

"I can't…" Emily muttered.

"You can't what, Em?"

"I can't…do it. I thought…I thought I could figure it out before…" She grunted, "I…I'm sorry. It said…I'm sorry. I tried. I can't…" She stopped talking again.

Ali knew what she was doing. She wasn't fighting back because she didn't think she deserved to live. She rubbed Emily's face tenderly.

"Em, I know you're hurting," she said, her throat clogged with fear and desperation, because she couldn't lose Emily, too. She couldn't get through the loss of Grace without the woman she loved by her side. She couldn't lose her wife, too. "And I know you're exhausted and you're struggling. But the antibiotics alone can't beat this. You have to fight, sweetie. I can't…I can't do this without you. You have to push back. If anyone can come back from this, it's you. You've made it this far. The infection is bad, but don't let this beat you. Don't give up, okay?"

Emily sighed quietly, but then simply responded,

"Okay." She paused, but then sighed again, "I love you, Alison."

"I love you, too, Emily."

There was another break in the conversation. Emily turned her head and scrunched her face up.

"Don't let Grace sleep much longer or she'll be up all night watching that ridiculous show…"

"I'll wake her in a little bit." Ali fought back her sobs, suddenly realizing that Grace was never going to get to finish the show she'd been watching. She'd never know the end. It was a strange thing to be upset about, but she was upset nonetheless.

That night tested Ali's resolve in ways she didn't even realize were possible. She was terrified she was going to watch Emily die. But twenty-four hours later Emily was awake and alert again. She'd survived the infection and was starting to bounce back.

After that, things started to look up for Emily, at least from a medical standpoint. Six days after she regained consciousness the doctors were discharging her. They were confident that she would make a full recovery. Ali was relieved that Emily was through the worst of it. What she didn't realize is that Emily had more on her mind than just surviving the storm. Emily was ready to become the storm.

A/N: So, Emily has busted out of the hospital and is free to get some vengeance. This should be interesting.