A/N: To the reviewer who asked about where the title of the story came from: excellent question. Like the heart serves multiple functions, the title actually has multiple meanings. It is all about her heart and the many ways it affects her life. Her love for Ali. Her actual heart problems. The fact that, in essence, she is the center for her friends. All of it, and more. The heart is such a complex organ. It's complex, but at the same time it's also really simple. Our hearts have this amazing ability to be able to love despite any and all the abuse it endures. The title, much like the human heart, is multifaceted.

Also, FYI, I apologize in advance if I can't respond to reviews/PMs/questions in a timely manner the next few days. We got hit with some crazy winter weather and my power/internet is at the mercy of all the swaying powerlines/falling trees. I pulled a Caleb Rivers and hacked a hotspot so I can update for you guys cuz I love you (and this was one of my favorite chapters to do by far), but I'll probably only be able to pop in intermittently after this update.

Chapter 21:

Internal Affairs

Emily knew something was wrong when she woke up. Her body was achy and she felt groggy. She could hear voices, but they were distant. She felt like the ground was moving beneath her. She wanted to sit up, but she felt a force on top of her body that was keeping her down. It's like she was riding a rollercoaster and it was going so fast that the weight of the wind was pushing her against the seat, rendering her paralyzed.

"Hold on, Emily. Just hold on," she heard a familiar voice. But it wasn't the voice she wanted to hear.

When she looked over she saw Elliott sitting next to her. His presence confused her.

"What's…wha…"

"Em?" It was Alison's voice this time. Emily looked over to her other side and saw Alison staring at her with tears in her eyes.

"Ali, what's going on?" She thought she'd said the words out loud, but she didn't hear anything come out of her mouth.

She tried to remember something…anything that would explain what was happening. She thought she recalled being with Ali and Elliott somewhere. Dinner, maybe?

No, that wasn't right. Why would Elliott have been with them at dinner? Maybe they had run into him. Or maybe they had met him. Emily had been having trouble sleeping. Had Ali convinced her to seek help?

Her head was throbbing. Her brain hurt trying to figure it out. Eventually, she just let go. She heard a loud noise that shattered her eardrums and then her vision went black.

"Emily…" Ali's voice was the last thing she heard before the deafening silence.

The darkness was overpowering. The silence was staggering. She felt like she was fading out of existence. She fought it for a while. But there was only so much she could take. A warm sensation flooded her body.

When she opened her eyes she was blinded by a fluorescent light above her head. She could hear the incessant buzzing noise from the bulbs. She looked around. She didn't recognize where she was, but she felt the strangest sensation that she had been there before. The room looked an awful lot like a medical facility.

She was at the hospital? Why? What had happened? Emily immediately started touching her body, feeling for bruises or new incisions. After the panic dissipated she looked down and saw that she didn't have an ID bracelet on. And she was in her normal clothes.

Where the hell was she?

"Ali?" Emily sat up, freely, in bed.

She knew there was no way Ali would have left her alone if something had happened. But there was no answer. She looked around. She wasn't hooked up to any machines. She was just sitting in the desolate room, alone. No doctors, no nurses, not even anyone from the janitorial staff. Something felt off. She stood up, though her legs felt weak. The floor was freezing beneath her bare feet.

The room was big. The hospital bed was up against the back wall. A blood pressure cuff hung loosely on a shelf above the bed. A medical waste bucket was fixed to the wall next to it. There were two matching end tables on either side of the bed and a chair sitting in the corner of the room. There was a set of drawn curtains on one side of the room and two identical doors on the other side. Emily assumed one was the bathroom and one led out into the hallway.

She walked over to the first door. It was locked. When she reached for the second door she felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. When her hand touched the doorknob she realized that she wasn't in the hospital. The room was too pristine. It's like someone had set the stage for something. All at once, the room flooded her memories. She had been here before. But instead of the hospital bed, there had been a table. That table. The steel cold table where she'd woken up next to her friends after Charlotte drugged them after they'd nearly escaped from the dollhouse. Emily yanked on the door, but it didn't budge. She paced across the room, ripping the curtains aside. The windows were sealed with cement on the outside. Emily whipped around, spinning on her heels.

She heard a whirring noise and when she turned towards it she saw that the wall was sliding open to reveal a large video screen. The screen was divided into four sections. The first three were cut vertically with each section showing close up images of live video feeds of Hanna, Aria, and Spencer. They all looked terrified. The fourth section was cut at the bottom. The video showed Mona in a small dark space curled up in a ball and shivering. A message flashed across the screen.

"It's game time. You have sixty seconds to save them."

"Oh, God no. Not this." Emily started trembling.

Another slot in the wall started to open, revealing a panel with three uniquely shaped locks that only a specific key would open. It looked like a demented version of the game Perfection where you had to match shapes with a hole in an empty game board before a timer went off and sent game pieces flying everywhere. Emily had been great at the game when she was younger. After today she got the feeling she'd never want to play it again.

She heard a beep and when she looked up she saw that a clock had appeared on the bottom of the TV screen. It was counting down from 60. She looked around the room, panicked. What was she supposed to do? She looked at the locks and saw that underneath each one there were little square shaped slabs that opened. When she pulled the first one open she saw a note taped inside.

"If you sleep on the job they will be the ones going to their eternal rest."

Her brain went into overdrive as she tried to figure out what the note meant. She watched helplessly as the clock slowly ticked down. She had 54 seconds to save her friends. Suddenly, something in her brain clicked. It was a game. A riddle.

Sleep.

The bed. She quickly shuffled over to the bed and started searching for the key. She tossed the pillows, stripped the sheets and felt all around the edges. She shoved her hands underneath the mattress and felt around the base. Her fingers hit something solid and it slid out the other side, hitting the floor with a clink. She grabbed the key and put it in the corresponding lock.

She opened the second slab and found another note.

"Tick tock, bitch."

38 seconds left. She frantically looked around the room and spotted a clock on the wall above the bed. She quickly climbed up between the bed and the end table to grab it. Her foot slipped and she bashed her knee against the table, but she barely felt it. She practically ripped the clock off of the wall. She slammed it against the ground, trying to shatter it. Shards of sharp plastic went all over the place. She pulled the clock apart and found the second key. She quickly slid the key into the second lock and opened the third slab.

"Don't WASTE time."

21 seconds. Her heart felt like it might explode in her chest. She looked at the medical waste bucket on the wall. That had to be it. She had no idea what was inside, but she knew she couldn't let her friends suffer. She reached in without hesitation, expecting to be jabbed by a bunch of sharp needles. But the bucket was empty. She felt around, her fingers grazing something cold on the bottom. She had a hard time gripping the key because her fingers were dripping with sweat. She finally got it out and fell to her knees in front of the third lock. Her hands were shaking so much that she could barely get the key into the lock.

3 seconds.

She finally got the key inside the lock, but it jammed. She let out a cry of frustration.

"Come on!"

The clock hit zero. The cameras cut off. Seconds later she heard screaming coming from the other side of the door. She stumbled to her feet and grabbed the door handle. She knew it was no use, but she didn't care. She tugged and pulled anyway. The screams got louder.

"STOP!" Emily heard herself yell. "Please, stop!" Her cries became more frantic. "Don't hurt them!" She started pounding on the door. "Leave them alone! It's not their fault! I'm the one who failed at your stupid game! You want to take it out on someone, take it out on me! Do you hear me? Come in here and face me, you coward! I'm the one you want!"

She scratched and tore at the door until her fingertips were bleeding. Her palms were slick with blood from all the cuts on her hands. She drew back and started throwing herself at the door. She threw her shoulder into it and then started kicking at the doorjamb with her bare feet. Just as she was about to give up the latch broke and the door swung open. She scrambled out and into a larger room. She turned towards the screams only to see a table with set of speakers hooked up to a large audio device. It was playing recorded screams. She angrily kicked the table over and knocked the equipment to the ground.

Then there was nothing but silence. The only sound she could hear was her heavy breathing. She ground her teeth together and squeezed her throbbing fingers into the palms of her hands. Just as she was starting to regain her composure she heard a noise behind her. She spun around and saw a masked figured staring back at her. She opened her mouth to scream, but before she had a chance the person raised an arm and drove a syringe into her chest and then depressed the plunger. Her vision blurred and the room faded from her sights and she was falling through a bottomless pit of blackness.

Then suddenly, she heard Alison.

"Emily…" Her voice was soft and calming. "Em, come back to me."

Emily felt something warm on her face. When she opened her eyes she saw Alison leaning over her. She was safe in Alison's bed. Alison's warm body was pressed against Emily's side. She had one arm draped over Emily's chest, her hand cupping Emily's face. Her other arm was underneath Emily's shoulder, her hand against the nape of her neck, her fingers gently drawing circles there to help ease some of Emily's tension. She'd heard Emily muttering in her sleep and had reached for her when she'd heaved out a choked sob. Alison knew she'd be unable to wake her, so she'd just held her…gritting her teeth as she watched, knowing that Emily was suffering. She hated that she couldn't just fix it. If Emily's demons had a corporeal form she would beat the crap out of them, but since everything that haunted Emily lived inside of her…Ali couldn't do anything. And it pissed her off.

She kept her focus on Emily's eyes. Emily blinked slowly, like she was coming out of a trance. She had one fist tightly wound into the bedsheets and another clutching her night shirt. She felt dizzy. She sat completely still, waiting for her senses to come back to her. After a few seconds, the feeling passed. She unclenched her fists and breathed a sigh of relief.

Emily put her shaking hand on top of Alison's wrist to keep her hand from moving away from her face. She wanted, and needed, her touch. Alison understood exactly what she needed. She didn't move, her eyes still fixed on Emily's.

Emily felt a thin sheen of sweat coating her body. Her heart was thumping so hard she could hear her pulse pounding in her head. But it was nothing compared to a few nights prior when Alison had to talk her down from her panic attack. It was easier for her to come out of it this time. She concentrated on Alison. Her eyes. Her intoxicating aroma. The movement of her fingers on the back of her neck. Alison's touch was like a cure to everything that was wrong with her.

"You okay?" Alison seemed to sense that she was calmer now.

"Yeah. It's over." Emily's hand fell away from Alison's wrist and slid down her forearm. Alison's hand still remained on her face, Emily's cheek hot beneath her palm.

"At least you remembered to breathe this time." Alison slid her other hand out from behind Emily's neck and raked her fingers through her thick locks of hair. "Do you need anything?" she asked, her thumb stroking Emily's cheek.

"I don't think so." Emily shook her head, Alison's hand following the motion. "I'm sorry I woke you up again."

"I was already up." She glanced at a stack of papers sitting on top of the sheets. Her hand slipped down the side of Emily's neck, her fingers coming to rest behind her right ear. "I've got a different kind of nightmare keeping me awake. These kids and their run-on sentences are going to drive me insane." She picked up a paper with her free hand. "And don't even get me started on their total annihilation of the English language. I mean, this kid practically used no punctuation except to make a winky face out of a semi-colon and a parenthesis."

"Well, it's a good thing they have such a good teacher." Emily laughed. Seeing her smile relieved Ali.

"I honestly don't know how Ezra did it. Teenagers are ruthless little piranhas. Half of the kids in my class are smart-mouthed little tyrants and the other half are stoners. It's like teaching a classroom full of mini-mes and mini-Jasons." She barely stopped to take a breath as she continued her rant. "It's probably karma for all those years I pulled every adult this side of Rosewood into my warpath. I've got this one kid, Addison. She's a nightmare." She grumbled. "She's like I was, but worse. She can backtalk me while simultaneously texting at breakneck speed. At least when I was her age I looked up from my phone when I threatened adults. I'd never consider hitting a child, but…"

She paused and looked at Emily, who was watching her in amusement.

"What?" Ali asked. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You ramble when you're nervous." Emily teased her.

"Nervous? What could I possibly be nervous about?" She asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes. She huffed out a breath. "I feel like an anxiety ridden Chihuahua. I'm a total mess, aren't I?"

"Yeah, but you're my mess and I love you."

She reached up and curled her hand behind Alison's neck and pulled her down to meet her lips. The kiss was slow, sensual. It was everything Alison loved about Emily. Alison sighed softly, parting her lips, giving Emily's tongue access to her mouth. She felt Emily's tongue lightly graze a sensitive spot she had on the ridges behind her teeth. It made her whole body shudder, and she automatically responded in kind. She leaned down, her chest delicately brushing up against Emily's. Her free hand came to rest upon her right breast, making Emily moan into her mouth. Their mouths moved in synchronization.

Emily put her other arm around the back of Alison's waist, pulling her closer. Her fingers slid up the side of Alison's shirt and pressed against a ticklish spot Alison had right above her hip. She still knew every inch of Alison's body. Alison squirmed and she felt Emily's lips curl into a smile on top of hers.

"You're still ticklish." Emily chuckled.

Alison responded to her cocky attitude by biting down on Emily's bottom lip. When Emily blew out a surprised breath Alison smiled back at her triumphantly. She pressed against Emily's body, wanting to be as close to her as physically possible. She did her best not to let her full weight fall on top of Emily's tender ribs. She slowly dipped her tongue in and out of Emily's mouth, tasting the salty sweat on Emily's lips. She could feel Emily's breathing becoming more ragged, her lips quivering.

Alison loved that she could make Emily feel this way…that she could take her out of whatever dark depths that hid in the back of her mind that she wouldn't let Alison see. She wanted to make her forget her pain, even if only for a little while. She hated herself for waiting so long to give in to her love. She'd hated the five years that Emily was gone. She hated that she hadn't been able to see what she had right in front of her when they were in high school. No one had ever loved her the way Emily did, nor quite as much.

Alison was still floored by the fact that Emily cared so much about her that she was willing to put aside everything she was dealing with in order to be there for her after Charlotte died, especially given all Charlotte had done to them. She tensed up as she thought about her sister. Her relationship with her had been complicated. When everyone else saw a monster, Alison saw a person damaged by her toxic family. She didn't condone Charlotte's actions, but she understood what drove her to the point of insanity. It was the same thing that drove Alison to act out, and the same thing that drove Jason to his alcohol addiction. Their parents had practically driven all three of them to destruction.

Still, seeing the lasting effects of her sister's torture was painful for Alison. She'd never quite seen the extent of the pain Charlotte had caused until she'd found Emily nearly catatonic a few nights ago. She was watching Emily go through hell, and deep down she knew that Charlotte was responsible for that. She hated knowing that her screwed up family, like an infection that spread, had hurt so many people, especially Emily. Her Emily. The same Emily who had nearly broken her neck climbing a tree trying to return a baby bird to its nest when she was seven. The same Emily who had picked dandelions for Aria when they were eleven and Aria was sad about a fight she'd had with her brother. The same Emily who had taken a crying toddler by the hand to help him find his mom after he got lost in a store, buying him a balloon to calm him down while they looked. And the same Emily who had never given up hope that she'd one day be reunited with her lost love.

She felt Emily pull away.

"Hey, where'd you go?" Emily hadn't missed the fact that Alison was getting lost in her head. Her lips lingered just centimeters away from Alison's. Her index finger traced the outline of Alison's jaw. "What's on your mind?" She could tell something was bothering her.

"You." Constantly. Always.

The tip of Alison's nose brushed against Emily's, neither one of them moved for a few seconds. They just looked at one another, each breathing in everything about the other. Alison had never felt more connected to anyone in her entire life. She stared into Emily's eyes. Looking into her eyes, she could see everything. The love. The beauty. The pain. Emily was strong, yet vulnerable at the same time. Her eyes told Alison everything about Emily's soul. And Emily's eyes were looking back at her, burning with fervent affection.

Ali's alarm went off, startling them both. Ali felt Emily's body jerk beneath her. For a brief moment she saw a look of terror on Emily's face.

Emily's eyes darted towards the loud interruption. It reminded her all too much of being back in the dollhouse. She flashed to her nightmare. The alarms. The screaming. Waking up in that room. Being forced to play Charlotte's sick games. The only difference between her nightmare and the real thing was the needle she'd gotten in the chest, though the stabbing sensation in her dream had felt very real to her. Emily sat up and rubbed the tips of her fingers across her eyes. Ali quickly rolled over and shut the alarm off, looking back at Emily apologetically.

"I wish that thing wasn't so loud." Ali frowned.

"That's kind of their point." Emily shrugged. She ran her fingers through her hair. "I should probably take a shower. I'm sure I look like crap."

Ali pressed her lips together and glanced at her out of the corner of her eyes, her eyebrows knitted together like it was the dumbest thing Emily had ever said.

"Don't be an idiot. You're beautiful," she insisted.

Emily felt blood rush to her cheeks. She smiled at Ali bashfully. She'd had the same dopey smile since she was a kid, and Ali loved it.

"Please." Emily scoffed. "The bags under my eyes need their own airport luggage carousel."

"Well, what did your doctor say?" Ali asked.

Emily hadn't said much to Ali about her follow up visit to her cardiologist she'd had yesterday. She had barely heard anything the doctor said to her. She'd been preoccupied with A, who had sent the girls a message that their time was running out. And to make matters worse, Tanner had called them in to question them about the missing security footage. She didn't have any definitive proof that they had tampered with it, but she was grilling them pretty hard, trying to get them to crack. She'd also questioned Emily about the glove that had gone missing. Tanner kept looking at her like the cops knew something that Emily didn't. It was a tactic she'd seen cops use over the years. Emily didn't fall for it, but it still shook her up.

Emily's appointment had been right after her interview with Tanner. She'd been jittery the entire time. She'd been so worked up that she'd almost skipped it. But then she realized Ali would kill her if she did. She'd asked the doctor about her nightmares, as she promised Ali she would. He told Emily there wasn't anything he could prescribe, but that she always had the option of visiting someone in mental health services.

"They are limited on what they can give me. He said a lot of anti-anxiety meds are contraindicated for heart patients," Emily explained.

"So they're just going to let you suffer?" Ali bit back her anger.

"Ali, it's not like that," Emily replied softly.

"What about therapy?" Ali pushed. "I know you're not comfortable with Elliott, but he might have the names of some doctors who might be able to help."

"I've thought about it," Emily said. "But I've been going to shrinks on and off since high school, and it's always the same. They always ask me the same questions, tell me the same thing, and give me the same exercises. I'm already doing everything a therapist would tell me to do. I've been through this before." Though, never to the extent that she was experiencing now. "It's like an old injury. It flares up when it rains, but after a while it stops throbbing."

"I hate this." Ali grumbled, exasperated. Knowing the stress that Emily was under made her nervous. It was like they were both in purgatory. "I hate that I can't help you."

"You help more than you could possibly know." Emily put her hand on top of Ali's. Ali was the reason she was still breathing…still fighting for a future.

Ali looked down at Emily's hand on top of hers. She placed her other hand on top of Emily's and brushed her fingers over her knuckles. She saw goosebumps rise on Emily's arm. Ali looked up at Emily, a tentative look on her face. Emily noticed it right away. It was the same expression Ali had when she was about to cry. Her eyes were soft and sad. Her nose was slightly crinkled. Her mouth was parted, her tongue pressing up against the back of her teeth. She rolled her tongue over her lips and then sighed.

"The dreams are about the dollhouse, aren't they?" Ali asked.

Emily's throat bobbed as she swallowed nervously.

"That's why you won't talk to me about them," she said.

Emily peered at her, uncertain of how to answer her…or even if she wanted to answer her. When Emily didn't reply, Ali pressed her lips together and took a heavy breath. She looked brokenhearted.

"You were crying out in your sleep," she admitted. "You begged for her to leave the others alone and told her to come after you instead." She shook her head with tears in her eyes. "I mean, I knew it was bad, but…God, Em, what did she do to you in there?" She flipped her hand over in Emily's so their palms were touching and pushed her fingers through the breaks in Emily's fingers, interlocking their hands.

"It doesn't matter," Emily said quietly.

She stared straight ahead, refusing to meet Ali's gaze. She didn't see the need to bring Ali unnecessary pain. Telling her about what Charlotte had done to her wasn't going to change anything. It would just hurt her, and Emily was convinced she'd already hurt her enough with everything she'd put her through thanks to her heart.

"It matters to me." Ali's fingers brushed against her delicate skin. "If you're not talking about it because you can't, I understand. But if you're not telling me because you're trying to protect my feelings, you don't have to do that. Charlotte may have been my sister, but you are my life. I want you to know that you can tell me anything."

Emily felt Ali's hand tighten around hers. She looked down at their linked fingers in thought. She could barely process how much was going through her mind. She felt Ali's free hand gently nudge her chin and she looked up at her. Ali was begging her to say something. Emily didn't know what to do. Talking to her would hurt her. But not talking to her would hurt her more.

"At least tell me you're talking to someone," Ali said. "Hanna, Aria, Spencer, Toby…someone." She shook her head. "Because you can't live like this, Emily."

Emily didn't disagree. She could barely live, period. She turned to look at Ali, but didn't say anything. She wanted to talk to her. She just couldn't find the right words. Ali, sensing that she wasn't going to get anything out of her stubborn tight-lipped woman, sat up and kicked the covers off of her feet. She sighed and pushed the papers she was grading aside.

"I'm going to make some coffee before I get ready for school." She swung her legs out and put her feet against the floor.

Emily reached out and wrapped her left hand around Ali's arm, a gesture that made Ali immediately turn around to look at her.

"Sometimes the nightmares are memories of what happened." She could barely look Ali in the eye. It was hard enough to talk about her experiences, let alone with her. "She'd play games with us. Make us think we were responsible for hurting one another." She squirmed in discomfort. Ali took her hand again and squeezed it gently. "She drove us crazy with buzzers and loud noises." She flinched, her eyes glassy with tears. "She'd drug us, make us see things. Sometimes we'd wake up locked in boxes or shrouded in some other form of darkness." Emily felt her throat clenching up. She saw Ali's eyes widen in horror, and for a split second Emily regretted saying anything. "Most of the time it was psychological."

"Most of the time?" Ali's voice was barely a whisper. "Did she…" Ali licked her lips. They felt swollen from the heated passion they'd just shared. "She hurt you?"

"It pissed her off when we didn't listen."

Emily couldn't find it in her heart to tell Ali about the times Charlotte had electrocuted her or how she'd been restrained with ropes so tight that she'd ended up with rope burns. Sometimes Charlotte would subject her to extreme temperatures, too. Charlotte made sure never to let her get anything beyond first degree burns and she never let the frostbite do any major damage. She always left her hanging just long enough to make it hurt. Sometimes Emily could still feel the numbness she'd felt in her toes when Charlotte left her feet sitting in a bucket full of ice water for what felt like an eternity or the flames from candles licking at her fingertips burning her sensitive flesh just enough to make her hands sting.

"Wh – why wouldn't you tell me this?" Ali stared at her, dumbfounded.

None of the public police reports had anything in them about the forms of torture Charlotte had used. She hadn't realized how extreme it had been. She knew her sister had been capable of some horrible things. She'd tortured Ali, too. But nothing compared to what she had done to her friends inside that bunker.

"I couldn't," Emily said with a sigh. "None of us could talk about it, I mean, aside from telling the cops and Doctor Sullivan."

"Jesus." Ali sucked in a breath. "No wonder you can't sleep. I'm so sorry. I had no idea. I didn't…I-I don't…I'm just…I'm sorry." She was at a loss for words. Part of her wanted to cry. The other part of her wanted to hug Emily and never let her go.

"Like I said, it's just something I learned to deal with. It's been a while since I've had nightmares this bad. It's probably just me adjusting to being back here and dealing with…" She almost said A, "…well, all of it." She quickly caught herself. "I mean, nearly dying and all, it opened up something inside of me. My nightmares are darker. Even darker than the things Charlotte did to us. She's still there. The dollhouse still exists, but there's a new puppet-master. I can't explain how I know it's not her. It's just this feeling I have. I don't know if it's a repressed memory or if it's even real at all. There's just a lot of stuff my brain is mixing up with those memories and it makes me feel kind of distorted." Emily rubbed her left temple. "Ever since I woke up in the hospital I've felt split between two worlds, and even though I'm here…I feel like I've still got one foot in that other place. It's like I brought something back with me and I can't shake it loose."

"Oh, Em…" Ali didn't know what to say.

Ali couldn't believe the amount of pain she'd had to live with through the years. Emily had been so good at hiding it. Then again, Ali felt like she should have seen it sooner. After all, she did the same thing. Ali was an expert at masking her pain, too. She just reacted differently. She acted out. Emily turned inwards.

Ali was overwhelmed with emotions. Her sister had done this to the girl she loved. But she'd loved her sister and was still grieving for her. Her emotions were confusing her and it made her angry. She felt torn between them, and she felt guilty for feeling torn. Had she done the wrong thing in making a place in her heart for her sister?

"This is my fault," Ali said quietly.

"What?" Emily's head suddenly jerked up, more alert than she'd been since she'd gotten up. "No, of course it isn't!"

"You guys were tortured because of me. You came back for her hearing because of me. None of this would have happened if I had just stayed away from her." She felt like everything she did ended up in shambles.

"She was your sister. I would never blame you or judge you for wanting to know her. Besides, if you hadn't asked us to come back to Rosewood, you and I wouldn't be where we are right now," Emily touched her face with her fingertips. "Hell, I probably wouldn't be alive if it weren't for the fact that we'd come back. If I had been at home in California when my heart stopped I wouldn't have made it."

Ali still looked pained. Emily's revelation had started a flurry of activity in her head. Emily watched Ali's face twist into a grimace. She felt a pit of regret in her stomach for not sugarcoating her feelings.

"I didn't mean for you to take on my problems. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you." Emily couldn't stand to see the pain hidden behind her beautiful blue eyes.

Ali didn't miss a beat before replying,

"No. I'm glad you did." She slid her free hand up Emily's arm, bringing it to rest on the side of her neck. "Keeping things from each other has never worked out well for us."

Emily glanced away nervously. She was screaming at herself to tell Ali about A. She hated herself for keeping it from her. She was also afraid of what would happen if she didn't keep it from her.

"Yeah," was all Emily could say in response.

"I know it hasn't been easy for you. I can't even imagine what you must feel like." Ali's head was still reeling just hearing about her nightmares. "But you're not alone anymore. Over the years you taught me all about being selfless. There is not one instance in my life that you weren't there for me when I needed you. And I hope that you realize by now that I am going to do the same thing for you. I love you, and I'm here for you. If you ever feel yourself slipping I will be there to catch you. I promise you that I will always hold on to you, okay? No matter how far you think you have fallen, I will always be right here to keep you from disappearing completely."

Emily smiled warmly. She knew Ali meant every word. She didn't think it was possible to love Alison DiLaurentis more than she already did, but Ali was constantly finding new ways to make Emily fall harder and faster for her.

Ali's alarm went off again, signaling that she needed to get moving if she planned on making it to school on time. She looked at the alarm in annoyance and then glanced back at Emily. Emily's head was turned slightly towards the dresser. She was looking at the small figurine of the Eiffel Tower Ali had been holding on to since high school. She felt Ali shuffling beside her and turned back to face her. Ali looked to her phone and then looked back at Emily. Emily smiled weakly at her, certain that the bags under her eyes were making her look like a drunk raccoon.

"You know, I can stay home…" Ali reached for her phone, ready to call the school.

She hated the idea of leaving Emily alone, especially after she'd had such a rough morning. Hackett, her boss, had been very understanding about Ali's current situation. First the death of Charlotte and then almost losing Emily. He had a list of substitute teachers on call.

"No. Don't do that." Emily frowned. "Someone needs to make sure those kids know their Edgar Allan Poe from their Ed Sheeran."

"Both excellent writers in their own ways." Ali smiled. Her smile wavered. "You sure you don't want me to play hooky?"

"I'm sure." Emily nodded. She glanced at the clock. "Although, maybe you can be a little tardy…" Emily smirked suggestively as her hands trailed up Ali's shirt. She lightly traced her fingers over Ali's stomach. She walked her index and middle finger up towards her chest. Ali leaned forward to kiss her, but her phone went off, yet again. This time it was an incoming call.

"Oh my God," Ali grumbled in frustration. "I am going to run this thing over with my car." She grabbed her phone. She glanced at the caller ID. Her face fell flat.

"Is it Tanner again?" Emily asked.

Tanner had been calling Ali a lot the past few days. She was extremely invested in trying to find that missing glove, calling it "a key piece of evidence" every time she spoke to her. And even though Ali insisted that she was certain that none of her friends had anything to do with it, Tanner was still suspicious.

"It's not Tanner. It's Jason." The expression on Ali's face was unreadable.

Ali looked at her, torn. She didn't want to take the call if it meant not spending the rest of the morning with Emily. She didn't want to walk away from her so soon after Emily had come out of another nightmare.

"Take it. You haven't talked to your brother in months." Emily suggested.

Ali glanced at the phone again, continuing to let it ring.

"Ali, if you don't take it, I will." She grabbed the phone from her hand. "I don't know what we'll talk about, though. Maybe I can ask him if you are ticklish anywhere else." She rubbed her fingers over Ali's ribcage, another spot where Ali was ticklish.

"You'll do no such thing." Ali laughed and took her phone back. She answered. "Jason? Hey. What's up?" She shot Emily a warm smile as if to say are you happy now?

Emily smiled back when she saw Ali's face light up in delight at hearing her brother's voice. Ali and Jason hadn't had the best relationship when they were younger, but the two of them had gone through hell together and had come out stronger together. Ali "oohed" and "ahhhed" as Jason talked about his travels overseas. She drifted out of the room. Emily grabbed her phone and glanced at the text she'd gotten from Hanna last night asking her to call her when she got a chance. She knew Hanna was up for work, so she hit the speed dial and tapped her finger against the picture she'd set as Hanna's contact photo of the two of them goofing off at the beach a few summers back. Hanna picked up on the third ring.

"Hey…" Her voice sounded muffled.

"I didn't wake you, did I?" Maybe she'd been wrong about Hanna being up.

"No. No. I've been up since five."

"You sound weird. Is everything okay?" There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Hanna? What is it?"

"Caleb finally cracked the code to get into the TV system's server," she explained. "He got a hit on that footage you thought you saw on the TV." There were a few seconds of silence before Hanna continued, "It wasn't a dream, Em." Hanna sighed. Emily was certain she could actually hear Hanna flinching. "It happened. He found the video file."

Emily felt her body go numb. She had been telling herself that she'd imagined the whole thing because it was easier than trying to wrap her head around what had really happened. She knew she should have been prepared for this possibility, but she wasn't.

"It was real?" she squeaked.

"And there was more." Hanna added hesitantly.

"What?" Emily's voice caught in her throat.

"There was more to that video than you saw. It had another good fifteen minutes of footage."

"What was on it?" Emily tried to control her breathing so she wouldn't pass out from shock.

"We couldn't watch it," Hanna said. "After we realized what it was we turned it off. But Caleb has a copy of it if you want it."

She had no interest in seeing herself trapped in that dollhouse, but at the same time she needed to know what was on that video. Maybe there would be something on it that could get them one step closer to being free of A. The thought of reliving more of the horrors she'd experienced in the dollhouse made her nauseous.

"I don't know if I can do it alone." Emily admitted.

There was another long pause on the other end of the phone and then Hanna breathed a heavy breath into the receiver.

"I'll call Spencer and Aria. If you really want to see it, there's no way in hell we're going to make you deal with it on your own."

"Thanks, Han."

They talked for a little bit longer before they said their goodbyes. After Emily hung up she stared at the screen of her phone, lost in thought. She felt an eerie sensation shoot up her spine and her entire body shuddered. A cold feeling of dread washed over her. If the attack in the living room had been real, what else had actually happened that she'd chalked up to her nightmares? Suddenly, she was starting to see everything that had happened to her since she'd been back with a new pair of eyes, and it shook her to her core.