A/N 1: The italics are flashbacks.

A/N 2: We are nearing the end of the story. I have about one full chapter planned to do and then an epilogue. This, though, just depends on rather or not I can get the next chapter to work out the way that I want it to. Fingers crossed.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pretty Little Liars. It belongs to Sara Shepard.

Pretty Little Liars

Drama/Mystery

Characters: Emily/Aria/Hanna/Ali

The Pact

Emily shut the door to her car and stared at the Marin's home. She was afraid, afraid that this sleepover would end the same way as the last one they had had. Would it, though? Their bond was strong, they were closer than they had been before Spencer's death, but they were also much more skittish. They were all ready to snap if given the opportunity to. Deep down, Emily had the feeling that night was going to be the night that one of them snapped.

"Em?" a voice questioned. Emily snapped out of her daze to find Aria standing on the sidewalk a few feet away. "You coming in or are you just going to stand out here the entire time?" Emily forced a smile onto her face and adjusted her duffel bag strap on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm coming," she told her. Aria eyed her for a moment before she turned and walked up the walk to Hanna's home. Emily took a deep breath before she too walked towards the Marin home.

Hanna ushered them all into the living room, telling them that she had talked her parents into having a weekend getaway in Philly so that they would have the house to themselves. Ali had yet to arrive, but for some reason that put Emily at ease. At least they would have a little bit of time before they were picked apart and Ali shot down every idea they had.

"Do you guys want anything to eat or drink?" Hanna asked as she sat down on the couch. Emily put her things on the floor by the couch before she sat down as well. "Go ahead and get it from the kitchen if you do."

"Where's Ali at?" Aria questioned as she got a bottle of water for herself before she sat down on the floor.

"She told me she had to do something before she came here, so maybe she's just held up doing whatever it is that she was going to do," Hanna replied.

"Did you hear that we're supposed to get yet another bad storm?" Emily asked them. "It seems like every time we have a sleepover, it rains."

"Maybe it's just karma," Aria said, pulling her knees up to her chest. "I don't want to think about that, though. We're supposed to have fun, remember? We have less than a month of school left before we're finally seniors, let's enjoy it. I'm going to be gone this summer, Ali's family is taking that trip to wherever it is that they go every year, Hanna's going to her dad's, we're all going to be separated."

"Yeah, but we also have this wonderful thing called technology to keep us linked together," Hanna pointed out.

"It's not the same," Aria said. Emily looked out the window as a streak of lightening flashed in the sky.

"I wish Ali would get here soon so she isn't caught in the storm," she softly said. Aria and Hanna looked out the window as well and listened as the thunder rumbled in the distance.

"I'm putting music on," Hanna declared and disappeared upstairs to fetch her stereo. The front door slammed shut and heels sounded on the floor as someone walked to the living room. Aria and Emily both exchanged glances as Ali walked in, drenched from the rain.

"Who the hell decided to make that storm come out of nowhere?" Ali asked, throwing herself into a chair.

Hanna returned shortly with her stereo. She turned it on and cranked it up loud enough to block out the storm occurring outside of the house, but the girls found themselves stupidly dancing in the middle of the living room, forgetting about everything that had any meaning. They weren't going to worry, they weren't going to argue, they were going to have fun just like they used to, back when everything had been simpler.

Had everything been simpler, though? Emily found herself barely moving to the music when this thought entered her mind. Had everything really been all that great back then, back when Spencer was still alive? She didn't think so and she was sure that the other girls would agree with her, but none of them were going to say anything. It was just simpler to pretend that everything had been easier back then, it gave them hope that life could get better.

Emily walked into the kitchen and got a bottle of water from the fridge, watching as the other girls spun around in circles, laughing as they did so. They were acting differently, all of them were. Ali wasn't being as poise as she normally was, Hanna wasn't worrying about Ali's approval, and Aria wasn't trying as hard to be cool. Was this who they really were? Was this what they could be like if Spencer wasn't dead and they all weren't so worried about the others approving?

x.x.x

Emily sat on the floor, leaning against the couch as Ali experimented with different hairstyles on Emily's hair. Aria and Hanna were going through Hanna's collection of movies, trying to decide which one would be the best one to watch, but with each one they pulled out, someone had something to say about it and so it went into the discard pile. Emily, however, could have cared less as to what movie they watched as long as they did something to keep the night interesting. It was only nine o'clock and she could tell that the others were growing bored already.

"Em, why don't we go and see if I have any movies in my car?" Ali asked suddenly, letting go of Emily's hair.

"Um . . . alright," Emily said uncertainly, afraid of what Ali was getting up. The blonde girl, however, just hooked her arm through Emily's and steered her out of the house and onto the porch.

"I had to get out of there," Ali told Emily, leaning against the porch railing. "The lack of doing anything was making me feel suffocated." Emily wrapped her arms around her stomach.

"Yeah, I know," Emily said with a sigh. Ali looked at her, searching her eyes.

"I care about you, Em, more than I let on sometimes," Ali stated, looking away. "I care about each of you girls, but you're special, Em. I care about you in a different way. You know that, right?" Emily bit her lip and nodded. Ali gripped the railing of the porch hard. "I keep thinking about the last slumber party we had. It was storming that night, too, and we were alone. Well, the Hastings were inside, but we were alone in the bar. There's just something about that mind that I can't remember, it's just right on the tip of my mind, but it's just out of reach, I can't grasp it."

"What about that night?" Emily asked as she sat on the porch swing. Ali closed her eyes for a brief moment before opening them again.

"I don't know," she admitted. "There's something, something that I know but my mind just won't let me find out. It's like one of those instances you hear about, the kind where your mind is trying to protect you from the truth because it might not be a good thing for you, you know? It's not a good thing in this instance though, Em. I might be able to figure out who killed Spencer if my mind would stop trying so damn hard to protect me."

"Sometimes protection isn't such a bad thing," Emily pointed out, watching the other girl. Ali turned around and looked at her.

"No, sometimes it's not," Ali said, moving to sit down next to Emily. "It's just . . . it's so frustrating."

"I understand frustrating," Emily told her, looking into Ali's blue eyes. Ali looked back into Emily's hazel eyes. Slowly, Ali leaned forward and gently pressed her lips to Emily's. It was only a brief kiss, but it still took Emily's breath away.

"We should get back inside," Ali said softly. Emily watched her stand and then walk inside, and only then was she able to breathe.

x.x.x

As the storm intensified outside, the girls had finally settled on a movie and were lying on the floor, passing around a bowl of popcorn. The movie on the screen showed a perfectly happy world with a family who loved each other and got along perfectly fine, but it was all just a lie. Emily knew this and the other girls knew this as well. There was no such thing as a truly happy family or a truly perfect world because everyone fought. No one could get along just perfect because everyone was different, but television hardly ever showed this. It was just easier to show world like this, though. It was how they made so much money.

"I hope the electric doesn't go out," Hanna said as she glanced outside to see the wind intensify and the lightening flash across the sky more frequently.

"That would really put a bummer on what's supposed to be a fun night," Aria stated, rolling over onto her back and staring up at the ceiling. "Plus, last time we had a sleepover, the electric went out then, remember?"

"Yeah, we told those lame stories with a flashlight in front of our face," Ali said as she pulled a blanket around her. "Those stupid stories about what we had done in elementary school and junior high, remember?"

"Everything that we did last year was lame," Aria said with a sigh. "We were lame."

"We're not anymore, right girls?" Ali asked, smiling softly. Emily returned her smile and soon the other two had as well. "We're far from being lame."

"We've just . . . matured," Hanna said as she pretended to stick her nose up like a snob. Aria snorted while Ali threw a popcorn kernel at her.

"Get over yourself, Miss. Marin," Aria said as she laughed. Hanna smile, rolling her eyes.

"I am so above you people," she joked and reached for the TV remote to turn the sound down, but there wasn't a need to. At that instant, the power shut off and plunged the girls into darkness. No one said a word for several seconds as they listened to the ticking of the wall clock and the roar of the storm outside.

"Well, hell," Ali said finally, sending all the girls into giggles.

"I'll go find some flashlights," Hanna told them. When another flash of lightening appeared, Emily saw Hanna feeling her way down the hall.

"What are we going to do now?" Aria asked.

"Well . . . we could go to sleep or we could tell those lame stories," Ali said. Emily felt her way over to the couch and climbed up onto it, listening to the sound of Hanna returning with a flashlight in hand.

"I found some candles, too," she told them as she handed out the flashlights.

"Great, maybe we can perform some kind of ritual to raise the dead," Aria joked. She earned a few forced laughs, but the night was turning disastrous. All of the girls couldn't help but to think about what had occurred nearly a year previously.

"How about we make a pact," Emily said as she drew her knees up to her chest.

"A pact?" Alia asked, raising an eyebrow. Emily nodded.

"Let's not talk about the last sleepover or Spencer's death for the rest of the night. How are we supposed to get close if that's all we do?" she asked them. The other three girls exchanged looks before nodding.

"That sounds like a good pact," Ali said softly.