Alison woke up the next morning feeling rather sore, but that wasn't what was bothering her. Neither was it the sun peeking through the curtains and landing directly in her eyes causing her to squint. No the thing that was bothering her was the angry sounds coming from downstairs along with the faint smell of burning.

The blonde quickly threw herself out of bed and grabbed some random clothes before heading down the stairs to see what the hell was happening. What she saw when she walked into the kitchen instantly made her burst into laughter, much to the displeasure of Emily who had been saying every swear word under the sun until Alison had made her presence known.

"It's not funny Alison." Emily muttered as she glared at the blonde.

"It kinda is..." Alison began to reply until she caught sight of Emilys now pouting face. No one was immune to Emily Fields puppy dog eyes, especially not Alison. She instantly felt sorry for the brunette who obviously had been trying to surprise her with a cooked breakfast in bed that morning. It definitely had not gone to plan though.

"How bad is the damage?" Alison queried as she glanced quickly around the kitchen, surveying the scene before her and then made her way over to where the brunette stood holding a rather black tea towel.

"I'll replace your frying pan... and your washing up bowl" Emily replied rather sheepishly, she hoped the blonde wasn't too mad at her for the destructive path she had left throughout the kitchen.

Alison raised an eyebrow at that statement before changing her direction and heading over to the sink instead. There lay what she presumed to be her washing up bowl, it was now a heap of melted plastic and on top of it was a very burned frying pan. Alison whipped back around to look at Emily in complete disbelief.

"How?" Alison questioned, not really understanding how one person could cause that much chaos whilst just attempting to make breakfast.

"I left the pan on the hob for too long with the pancake mix in... I then became slightly preoccupied. When I saw the flames I panicked and threw it in to the sink but the washing up bowl was empty and so that set on fire as well" Emily answered, she sounded completely disappointed in herself and slightly pained.

It was then Alison noticed Emily was wincing slightly whilst trying to hide her obvious discomfort from the blonde. Alison looked the tanned girl up and down as she stood in front of her before her eyes landed on the brunettes hands, one was still holding the scorched tea towel out in front of her, unsure of what to do with they destroyed item but the other was hidden behind her back in a slightly awkward way.

"What did you do to your hand?" Alison directly asked, never one to skirt around the point.

Emily avoided eye contact, her head hung low as Alison questioned her. She was embarrassed enough with the fact she had destroyed the kitchen trying to do such a menial task but injuring herself in the process just took the piss. She was a highly decorated special ops agent and she couldn't even make the girl of her dreams breakfast in bed.

"Nothings wrong with my hand Ali" Emily said but her voice had a hint of the pain she felt leaking through.

"Don't lie to me Emily." Alison put emphasis on the brunettes name as she spoke, the lack of a nickname proving she was now getting annoyed.

Two strides was all it took the blonde to close the gap between them and as she reached for Emilys hand the brunette tried to take a hesitant step backwards.

"Don't." Alison growled as she grabbed Emilys arm and pulled it out into view. "Are you fucking serious?! Why would you not tell me you had done this straight away?"

"It's not that bad Ali" Emily tried to deflate the situation but it was to no use, Alison was beyond angry now that she had seen the injury.

"Your entire hand is seriously burned, how is that not bad?! We need to go to the hospital... now!" Alison had already started heading towards the front door and although it was now a rather tense atmosphere Emily couldn't help but giggle.

Alison turned back to face Emily, her face still showing her anger but also a perplexed look, she couldn't work out why Emily was laughing when she had such a bad injury to her hand.

"Shouldn't you get dressed first?" Emily asked with a chuckle and Alison looked down at herself and realised she had grabbed a rather short pair of shorts and still hadn't attempted to brush her hair that was rather wild and messy.

Reluctantly the blonde headed up the stairs and into her bedroom to get dressed properly so that they could leave but not before telling Emily to let the others know where they were heading and that the meeting to discuss A would have to be pushed back once more. Emily had told the girls that her and Alison were otherwise engaged and would meet them later that day.

Before leaving Alison quickly googled if she could do anything to help alleviate Emilys pain or treat the burn herself. She gave the brunette two painkillers before wrapping her hand carefully in cling film. Emily had already ran her hand under the tap with cool water for a couple of minutes before the blonde had entered the kitchen and found her panicking about the mess she had created.

As they headed towards the hospital with Alison driving them, Emily had to resist reaching over and holding Alison's hand. Not because the blonde seemed annoyed with her but because it was her injured hand that was closest to Alison. She knew the blonde would not appreciate the gesture when it would cause her quite a bit of pain.

They arrived at the hospital in record time thanks to Alison's disregard to the laws of the road. After quickly parking the car they walked the short distance to the entrance together, hand in hand. Alison had apologised for snapping at the tanned girl earlier, she had just been worried because of the severity of the injury and like always Emily was quick to accept, with a small kiss to seal the deal.

By now Emilys hand was in agony but she did her best to hide the amount of pain she felt from the concerned blonde beside her, the painkillers weren't doing much to mask the pain. Once it was their turn they spoke to the receptionist and filled out all the necessary paperwork before being told to take a seat and wait until Emilys name was called. There were several other people sitting around them with injuries of all types, some major and others not actually visible. More people entered and queued as the time slowly passed before the also spoke to the receptionist and took a seat in the waiting room.

A young boy took a seat besides Alison and smiled happily up at her despite the blood pouring from his nose. Alison smiled back at the boy and his mother joined him once she had filled out his paperwork. She explained to Alison that he had broken his nose fighting with his slightly older brother, they had attempted to recreate a wrestling match and he had missed timed his jump and ended up with a nose to the face.

The young boy happily told Alison how the match had started and went on to explain who his favourite wrestlers were. Alison was rather amazed by how much of a brave face the little boy was putting on, his nose considerably swollen already and it was obviously causing him pain. Children always seemed to just brush off their injuries and be ready to go back to what they were doing quickly.

Emily looked over at Alison and it warmed her heart to see the blonde interacting with the child. Alison was definitely a natural when it came to children which had come as a surprise considering how she herself had acted when she was younger. She would definitely make a good mother one day.

Emilys phone went off as they sat in the waiting area and she struggled to retrieve it from her pocket because she was having to use her left hand to go into the right pocket. She hadn't used her phone all morning, having put it in her pocket before even starting the task of cooking pancakes. She wasn't surprised at all when she saw the message was from an unknown number.

"Play with fire and you're going to get burned. Next time follow my instructions properly." Emily read out and she looked up from her phone to gauge Alison's reaction.

The blonde surprisingly did not look mad but instead she looked incredibly guilty and put herself entirely at blame. Had she not insisted on them spending one more night in France then they would have been back in America well before the deadline was up as Emily had wanted. As the case was they had missed the deadline slightly but not really thought much about it until now. A was proving once again that they were to be taken seriously and all of them really needed to start listening.

"Ali don't do that, don't blame yourself. If I was that concerned about A's threat then I would have dragged or carried you straight to the airport. We are both at fault here for taking this too lightly and I had more reason than you did to know A would respond harshly" Emily said as she read the blondes thoughts, she knew that Alison would put this all on her own shoulders.

The blonde considered Emilys words, she was right of course but Alison was still slightly in denial. She thought it was her fault and was trying to think about how she could make it up to the brunette but then another question popped into her head.

"How did A get in? Did you leave the kitchen?" Alison then asked, confused as to how A could have possibly sabotaged Emilys attempt at cooking pancakes.

"Yeah... I... uhh..." Emily stuttered, annoyed that she had allowed A the opportunity to enter Alison's house and she had been completely unaware of it.

"Spit it out Emily" Alison snapped, she didn't want to take her anger out on the brunette but she was having a hard time controlling her emotions. A was really starting to get to her, especially as they got to Emily so easily and it was meant to be her own turn next.

"I saw a bird struggling to fly on your lawn and then this ginger cat appeared so I ran out to save the little guy. There was a nest in one of the trees so I climbed up a couple of branches and placed him in it before shooing off the cat and returning to the kitchen" Emilys head hung low as she spoke but her heartwarming story culled some of Alison's anger.

The blonde tilted Emilys head up by putting her fingers under her chin before leaning in a giving her a chaste kiss. She was beginning to see more of the sweet Emily that the brunette had been before disappearing. Emily smiled before pulling the blonde back into the kiss, the throbbing in her hand and the threat of A momentarily forgotten and she lost herself in the taste of Alison.

A nurse entered the waiting room and interrupted the intimate moment between the two women as she called Emilys name out and they followed her down the hospital hallway and into a private room where her injury would be assessed and then treated.

"You're an idiot" Hanna stated after the other three girls had been filled in on the mornings activities involving Emily and Alison.

They were sat in the Brew having decided that they could discuss A without being overheard if they sat in their usual seats that resided in the corner of the coffee shop. Also Spencer had been lacking in caffeine and was in serious need of a top up before she could contribute to any type of conversation, her body deprived of her usual fix.

"A set me up" Emily countered to Hanna's criticism.

"A didn't make you pick up a burning pan with your bare hands. Therefore you are an idiot." Hanna replied sassily, not one to miss an opportunity to wind up her friends.

"She does have a point" Spencer said whilst Alison and Aria nodded.

Hanna looked towards Spencer with the biggest grin on her face, it wasn't often the brighter one of the group agreed with anything the blonde said. Emily however groaned in defeat before giving puppy dog eyes to Alison who had not stuck up for her yet.

"I didn't have bare hands... I had the tea towel in one of them" Emily stated.

"Which also set on fire and was not in the hand you were holding the handle with." Hanna smarted back.

"You are a bit stupid for that..." Alison added as she caught Emilys eye.

"Ali..." Emily whined in response but the blonde just chuckled back at her.

"Let's get back to this plan" Spencer suggested as a way to get the focus off of Emily, she could tell her friend was rather embarrassed by her injury and the fact A managed to get one up on her with the help of a little bird.

Aria, Hanna and Spencer had been rather surprised by how brazen the other two had been in their defiance of A's request. Alison had explained that she had convinced Emily to prolong their stay in Paris and that they both hadn't really been thinking straight - literally - whilst they had been away. It had been nice to escape for a few days but now they were back and reality had hit them fast and hard.

Emily felt at a disadvantage without the use of her hand, the nurse had applied burn cream and wrapped it up securely. There was nothing more that could be done apart from rest it, but with the bandage on Emily couldn't use it even if she had wanted to. It was a serious burn but luckily would heal by itself without the need of any major medical procedures. She just hoped she wouldn't come face to face with A before it had fully healed.

"Have you heard from Mona?" Spencer asked Emily before taking a long sip from her very strong coffee.

"Not yet, she was trying to stay off of the grid so that A couldn't target her but I'm sure she's doing all she can to figure out who our stalker is" Emily replied confidently, Hanna had always been the one to trust Mona more so than the other girls but now Emily could also rely on the intelligent woman.

"It must be someone you know Emily. Probably someone that we all know but they're mainly focused on you. That task they set you was personal" Aria stated before adding "who would hate you that much?"

Emily sat and thought about Aria's question for several long seconds but as she ran through a quick list of anyone she may have upset she couldn't think of someone that would actually hate her.

"I'm not sure I've done anything to make someone hate me, not that I'm saying I haven't upset people but hate is such a strong emotion" Emily responded as she tried her hardest to think of someone.

"Almost as strong as love" Alison chuckled.

Emily smiled at Alison's comment, emotions really were amazing with how they made people act. They could completely change a persons personality and attitude; exhibit A being Alison. She used to be such a hard person, bitchy and mean but with the influence of Emilys love she had become a better person by far.

Between the group they tried to think of anyone Emily could have upset over four years ago but came up blank. There was no point trying to think of someone who would want to imitate A because once CeCe had been revealed as the stalker it had become national news therefore anyone could have decided to start up the game once more. Their main lead was definitely how personal A's attack on Emily had been but they had no idea what the motive could be.

After an hour of brainstorming and still coming up blank the group felt slightly deflated and decided to split up for the day and head to their respective homes and partners. They were heavily relying on Mona and her resources to come up with any idea as to who A could be or for A themselves to slip up but that was highly unlikely.

As Emily and Alison left the Brew a voice called out Emilys name, the brunette almost had to do a double take when she saw who had spoke. Alison excused herself rather quickly, not trusting herself to behave and told Emily to call her if she needed a lift back to the blondes later on. She knew Emily would want some time to catch up not realising that it hadn't actually been that long since the brunette had seen the girl before them.

Emily said goodbye to Alison, not surprised in the least that she didn't want to be involved in this upcoming conversation. The two girls definitely had bad blood between them and it was all down to their affection towards the brunette. Neither had been able to be civil to each other during high school and there was a slim chance adulthood had changed that.

With their relationship status still unconfirmed Emily was unsure of how to bid the blonde farewell but she decided to take the initiative and leaned in to kiss Alison quickly on the lips before turning her focus back to the girl wanting to talk to her.

"Paige, how are you?" The tanned girl asked as she headed towards her ex girlfriend.

Paige was slightly distracted by Emilys interaction with Alison but managed to quickly compose herself and respond to Emilys question.

"I'm good thanks, how about you?" Paige asked as they walked over to a nearby wooden bench that sat on the side of the pavement and took a seat.

"Yeah as good as I can be" Emily replied, she had left enough space between so as to not give the wrong idea. Emily knew full well how Paige felt about her but those feelings were no longe reciprocated.

"I'd heard rumours you were back in town, you've finally shown yourself to the girls I see" Paige commented as she shuffled closer to Emily without the brunette noticing.

"A got a little too close to home so I had no choice but to come back here" Emily said with a sigh.

Paige had gone to California to study as well and so the girls had remained close whilst Emily had been there. They would have lunch together or spend an afternoon studying seeing as they were both doing sports electives. They had never reignited their romance however but that didn't mean Paige hadn't tried. The girl was obviously still very much interested in the tanned woman.

Several times over the past 5 years they had met up, Paige always seeming to turn up in the most unlikely of places whilst Emily was keeping herself hidden from the girls. And several times over those encounters there had been lingering touches or suggestive words that Emily had ignored to the best of her ability.

She had realised pretty soon after leaving for university that Alison was the only one who held a place in her heart and therefore she didn't want to initiate anything with Paige if she wasn't one hundred percent invested. Sure she had one night stands over the years, plenty of them at that but she would never do that to Paige. They had a history between them and she didn't think it was fair to lead the girl on.

"So you and Alison?" Paige said with a suggestive tone, she needed clarification as to their relationship status.

"I'm not sure what we are but we're... close again" Emily said with lack of a better word. "A is making it hard for me to feel safe committing to her"

"It's been over four years and you still haven't figured it out? Why don't you just invoice the police or at least your unit?" Paige questioned with a hint of concern, she was confused as to why Emily was letting the situation drag on for so long.

"It's complicated, I've ran out of leads but we have someone on the inside that A doesn't know about and they're trying to figure it out. Plus you know I don't trust the authorities to help after everything that has happened previously." Emily reasoned.

Paige put her hand on Emilys as a form of consolidation as she agreed, she had been around the whole time A had been terrorising Emily and the other girls and she had seen how useless the police had been when it came to the investigation. The girls had been on there own more often than not especially when they had ended up in the dollhouse.

"How was Paris?" Paige asked as she changed the subject, A always brought back bad memories for Emily and Paige was concerned about her well being now that history seemed to be repeating itself.

Emilys head snapped towards Paige when she heard the question. Nobody had known she was out of the country let alone in Paris and she instantly went on the defence. Could Paige be A? Emily tried to keep her cool but her automatic reaction had given her thoughts away, her eyes had gone wide the instant the words left Paige's mouth.

"Hanna told me when I saw her the other day, I told her I couldn't get hold of you and she mentioned that you were on holiday with Alison. I asked if you'd finally got to visit Paris with her and the look she gave me confirmed it" Paige explained as fast as she could, her hands raised in defence as she quickly realised where Emilys mind had gone.

Emily had told Paige about Paris one drunken night about two years ago, she had been ranting about the blonde whilst heavily under the influence of alcohol and that memory had been one she had recounted aloud. Paige had been kind enough to just listen to Emily talk without giving any of her opinions even though she had wanted to slag off the blonde more and more as Emily complained.

Hanna hadn't mentioned telling Paige but Emily knew it probably didn't even register with the blonde. She knew about Emily and Paige's random encounters throughout the years and she also knew that Emily trusted her ex and so she did too.

"Paris was good" Emily kept her answer short and simple, she wasn't the type of girl to rub her relationship with Alison in Paige's face. She knew that Paige was just being polite and probably didn't actually care in the slightest.

"Well I better get going, I'm in town to visit my parents for a couple of weeks so I might see you around" Paige said as she stood up from the bench. "I hope you figure everything out and let me know if you ever need my help"

Emily stood as well and bid goodbye to her ex before heading in the direction of Alison's. She knew that the blonde had offered her a lift but she honestly didn't mind the walk. A clear night was the perfect opportunity to have a peaceful walk and try and figure out if she had missed anything in her search for A so far. She racked through her mind and came up blank as she had done every time before however she couldn't shake the feeling that A was a lot closer to home than she would prefer. The seemingly personal touch with her task had made everyone focus on it being someone she herself had upset and she felt like they were on the right track with that feeling.

The walk back to Alison's took over an hour with Emily taking the very scenic route, she enjoyed being outside and definitely wasn't a stranger to exercise. She would have jogged back however she was not in the right clothing and jogging in jeans was never a comfortable idea.

It was as she entered the living room that she realised something was wrong. Alison was sat with her shoulders slumped and her head in her hands. She looked liked she'd been crying but with her face hidden Emily couldn't know for sure.

"Ali?" Emily said quietly as she made her way towards the blonde and knelt in front of her. She gently pried Alisons hands away from her face so she could look her in the eye. The girl in front of her looked broken. "What is it? What's wrong?"

But Alison couldn't talk, she had convinced herself of something that deep down she knew wasn't true but she just couldn't control her emotions. The fear of A coming after her had put her on edge but now confronted with an actual message from the stalker it hurt a lot more than she thought it would. There was no reason for her not to trust Emily but she couldn't talk sense into herself and was overreacting.

Alison pushed her phone towards Emily, not once blinking as she stared into Emilys eyes. She waited whilst Emily looked at the message on her phone and gauged the brunettes reaction. It wasn't the reaction she had expected at all.

Emily laughed quietly as she read the message before putting the phone down and focusing her attention on the blonde once more. With Alison's hands still in her own the brunette began to speak.

"Come on Ali, you don't really think anything is going on do you?" Emily asked as she tried not to smile, she felt that this was a really pathetic attempt by A to come between them.

"I don't know Emily." Alison snapped her tone instantly making Emily realise that Alison was in fact questioning her actions.

"But it's just a photo of Paige with her hand on top of mine, she was just being friendly. It meant nothing." Emily tried to reason with the blonde but it was to no avail, A had truly gotten under her skin.

"I don't know what to think Emily, you disappeared for five years and I'm not sure if I know you anymore." Alison held her voice strong but inside she was breaking.

They had gotten into whatever this was between them so fast after reacquainting and they still hadn't discussed any of the past apart from Emilys explanation of why she had disappeared. Alison didn't know where the tanned girl had been or what she had been doing other than watching them all from afar and hunting down A.

"This isn't about the photo is it?" Emily needed to clarify that these worries were stemming from a deeper place. A place that she had in fact created when she walked out of the blondes life without so much as a goodbye.

"You left me... I thought you were dead." Alison stated coldly, tears beginning to run down her face. All of her emotions had built up and now they couldn't be contained.

"Sucks doesn't it." Emily replied but she regretted her words immediately. "Wait... I didn't mean that" she tried to take the words back but it was too late.

"Get. Out." Alison screamed.

"Ali, I'm sorry! I didn't mean that!" Emily pleaded.

Alison didn't listen, instead she walked to the front door and held it open. She expected Emily to put up a fight but instead the brunette defeatedly walked out of the house. Emily turned back around once and looked at Alison, she had a completely dejected look on her face and hated that they were arguing but decided that she should leave the blonde to cool down.

Emily walked through the streets as she headed to her destination. She didn't want to intrude on Hanna anymore than she already had and so she decided to go to the one person she should have seen a lot more of recently. Upon arriving at the all too familiar house she walked up the path and took a deep breath, unsure of what type of reception she would receive.

"Can I stay here tonight?" Emily asked quietly.

"Of course but do you really want to leave things unresolved?" Pam said, ever the insightful one.

"It will just make things worse, I'll wait until the morning and hopefully she will have calmed down" Emily replied as she stepped past her mother and into the living room.

"Calmed down or worked herself up even more?" Pam pushed, she knew her daughter needed to fight for this girl. It had always been Alison.

"Ughh... fine, you're right. I'll go back and talk to her but only after I've had some hot chocolate and one of your famous cookies?" Emily said as she smiled shyly.

Pam nodded and returned the smile before heading into the kitchen, leaving Emily to sink into the couch and try and prepare something to say to Alison to prove she was in this one hundred percent.

A/N

Managed to smash this chapter out rather quickly for you all.

Who else can imagine Emily getting into serious trouble just because she decided to help an innocent bird?

Thought we all needed to see a bit of Pam Fields and I may incorporate her a bit more in future chapters.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Any ideas or suggestions for where to take this I'm happy to hear.

Until next time :)