AN: I'm apologizing in advance for any spelling or grammatical errors as well as typos, so other than that, I hope you enjoy!
Also, this chapter is one of many flashbacks that are all sequential; I hope no one gets confused. Each section is a different flashback that gives small hints at what Ali knows.
Chapter 10 – Bits and Pieces
"Now we start carrying out the plan." Alison had said with great confidence and finality in her voice. She chucked her bag on the table and took everything she had out.
"I think I know who –A is."
I heavy ball was dropped in the middle of the court and none of the guys were quite ready to pick it up. None initially eager enough to say anything.
"How long? How long have you known?"
"Just recently, with the lavender thing and knowing it was CeCe and with my parents connection to Radley and everything that happened with Jason…it's a long shot, but I think I know who is actually behind all this."
"Well," Ezra started, sitting and placing his hands on the table, "let's hear it, we've got all night."
"It's a long shot, but when I was a kid I found this picture, it was a family photo except there was a one plus to my family of four."
Caleb exchanged looks between Toby and Ezra and squinted his eyes.
"Ali," he paused, treading careful waters, "are you saying…"
"Yeah," Ali confirmed, "I am."
"But-"
"It all started to come together after Jason was found innocent, I didn't want to believe it at first, and for the first time in a long time I actually wished I could talk to my mother about my family."
"Alright, so tell us."
x-x-x-x
"Dad I swear it was Jason, why else would I say he was –A?"
"Alison you don't understand what you just did."
Ali paced back in forth in her room, her dad standing near the doorway, red in the face and angry.
"Then make me understand! If that wasn't Jason that I seen then who was it? It's not like he has a twin!"
Ken looked up and scoffed, "yeah sure, a twin."
Alison rolled her eyes, angry more than scared now, "then what is it, I know what I saw and he looked a hell of a lot like Jason."
"But it wasn't! Was it? And now your brother had spent weeks in jail for you and your stupid friends."
"But he's out now, so what's the problem, I apologized to him before he left, and the police know it wasn't him, that he's innocent-"
"Now they do, but that's still on his record, he's tainted now because of you."
"No dad, I think this family is tainted because of you." Ali grabbed her bag, her keys and pushed passed her father.
"And where to do you think you're going?"
"What does it matter to you? Go check on Jason and make sure he's okay."
Ali grabbed her keys and drove to the house where the only person she could handle seeing right now lived, she drove to Emily's.
x-x-x-x
"What are we going to do?"
Spencer looked between the girls, "I don't know, but whoever this psychopath is, needs to be found and stopped."
"How are we supposed to do that? Alison hasn't been at home in weeks since Jason was released and now that Jason is innocent, that opens up the list of suspects again." Aria cut in.
Spencer shrugged, "I know, but we need to do something."
Hanna looked between the two girls and sighed, "when is Em coming?"
Spencer shrugged, "her and Ali might've had to sneak back into Ali's house for more clothes."
The blonde shook her head, "I can't believe Mr. D cut her off and is acting like that, it's not like Jason was an angel before all of this happened anyway."
Aria nodded, "not to mention he had the means and motive to be –A."
Spencer nodded, "I'm just surprised Mrs. Fields is okay with all of this."
"Yeah well, we might've escaped that dollhouse but I'm not sure Em has all her strings cut from that woman." Hanna laughed nervously.
Aria shook her head, "yeah but that's just how they are with her, we know that."
"Yeah," Hanna agreed.
"Oh, I hear knocking, that's probably them." Spencer stood from her bed and went downstairs to let Em and Ali in and fill them in on everything they had accomplished which was nothing. Again, -A was already ahead of them and had them sitting back at square one.
'Heys' were exchanged between the five friends before Ali and Em sat very seriously in front of Aria, Hanna and Spencer.
"Guys," Ali started, "I have an idea."
x-x-x-x
"Ali, we just lied to them about the whole plan to catch -A."
"Well, this was the only way to keep them safe, what other choice did we have, do you honestly think they would let me go if we had told them the truth?"
Em shook her head, "no," she whispered.
"Exactly, look Em the less people that know the whole truth, the better."
"Do I know the whole truth?"
Ali stopped walking towards Em's bed and paused. The hesitation was all the answer Emily needed.
"Dammit, Ali, how am I supposed to lie to the girls when I myself am being lied to!"
Ali bit her lower lip before answering, "you just have to trust me."
"How? Ali you said no more secrets, I want to be with you, I don't care about –A or our parents, but you're making it hard for me to stand here and go along with everything you say when I have to keep asking myself what to believe and what not to."
Ali walked closer to Em, so close that her breath could be felt on Em's cheek. She leaned forward and brushed her lips across Em's so lightly it could barely be felt, "believe this then: I love you."
"But-"
"But what?"
'That's not enough,' Em wanted to say but didn't, "nothing, I love you too."
x-x-x-x
"So wait, how did you just figure all this because of the lavender-CeCe thing?"
Ali took a deep breath, "CeCe was in Radley too, before Mona and after I met her and we got close she always looked at Jason weirdly. She would ask, 'do you wonder what it would be like to have a twin?' I never thought anything of it, I thought maybe she was talking about us, since we were so close and kind of resembled each other, but now I know for sure she was talking about Jason. Whoever this brother of mine is, CeCe knew him. And if Radley just got shut down, and he's been there since we were kids, there's a big chance that he was the one who 'stole the game' from Mona and he escaped a while ago with CeCe's help to get back at me."
"But why now, and why not your parents, you and Jason still had nothing to do with where he got sent."
"Think Caleb, we were just put into a dollhouse, whatever fucked up kind of person this is is obviously pissed that his childhood was stolen."
Caleb shook his head, "and Hanna? Aria, Spencer, Emily? They got punished, they weren't the one who stole his life! I didn't see Jason in that dollhouse."
"I don't know Caleb! I don't, hurting them was another way of hurting me, and if I could take it back I would, I don't know how else to fix this okay? I don't know! And this is the only thing I know, and I also know I can't do it alone. I miss them too, I love them too, but this is all I can do right now to try and get answers."
Ali was in tears and Caleb's face was streaked with a matching wetness.
Toby and Ezra sat back absorbing it all.
"Ali," Ezra said, "we're with you, we're going to catch this sonofabitch and Em is going to get better."
Caleb reluctantly agreed and Toby nodded, together agreeing that the reign of –A, whoever he may be would soon be coming to an end, the ultimate end.
Ali sighed, relieved to have finally told the whole truth to someone, to three someone's whom she trusted, her only regret being not telling the girls or Emily. But she was here now, she told the guys all the pieces she put together in her head to figure out one thing she was certain of: she had another brother, Jason had a twin, that brother, that twin was –A.
A few days later…
"So we're really going to do this? How do you expect us to find her?" Caleb was talking with his hands in nervousness and slight anxiety, addressing Alison and her plan.
"She hasn't left Rosewood, that's a given, she was just there before I left and I know she's caught wind of what happened to all of us, but I don't think she'd just leave."
Caleb was shaking his head, "so you think it's a good idea to just go back to Rosewood and hope she's there?"
Alison realized how ridiculous that sounded but she could only nod, "it's worth a shot."
Caleb looked around the RV at Ezra and Toby who had little to say in the matter.
"Guys seriously? This is crazy isn't it?"
It was silent for a few seconds.
"I mean Ali has a point, we have to try Caleb, and we need answers." Toby was the first to speak up.
"God," Caleb's hands went in the air by his head, "this is crazy. Okay so what, we go to Rosewood and if, if she's there, did you think about how she'll give us the answers we need? We're not exactly on her list of friends."
Ali nodded, "I know that, and that's why I need you to come with me Caleb."
Caleb looked up, clearly confused, "what do you mean?"
"If she won't help us, maybe she'll help Hanna, they were friends and I don't believe she'd throw that away that easily just because of me, do you?"
Caleb shook his head. He knew he was defeated, he knew he was going to go and follow Ali's plan.
"Okay then, let's go talk to Mona."
Caleb nodded, and turned to Ezra and Toby before he took off in the cab, "hey you two."
"Yeah?"
"Em is my friend too, and she was Hanna's best friend, so you better take of her."
Ezra nodded, "we will."
"Hey, you're forgetting we went to the dance together, she was my friend before any of you were, I'd take a bullet for her."
"Well let's hope you won't have to, Tobes."
"See ya Caleb, get some answers so we kick ass."
"You got it officer." He hugged Toby for good measure and punched him playfully in the chest before turning to Ali, "Ali you ready?"
"Alright, yeah, I- I just have to talk to Em one more time before we go."
Caleb nodded, "tell her the truth, even if she's sleeping or if she won't remember of be able to say anything, tell her. At least that you love her, she deserves to hear it one way or another."
"I don't have time to just sit and relive our whole-"
"We have 4 hours to board that plane, it takes 30 minutes to drive there, I'll take this cab and you take another-"
"I'll meet you at the airport then." Ali cut him off and exchanged glances.
"I'll meet you at the airport then," he repeated.
x-x-x-x
Ten minutes later Ali was sitting in Em's hospital room, the brunette facing away from Ali, her chest falling steadily.
"Em, I have something to tell you, it might take a while, but I only have a few hours."
And Ali covered as much as she could in three and a half hours, revealing everything to a sleeping Emily….
Or so Ali thought she was asleep the whole time.
Dun dun dun…was Em really sleeping? Will she remember anything? Think it was dream? Hmmm, we'll see…
Again, I hope this chapter wasn't too confusing, in my head this plays out like a movie and I just hope I can somehow capture a shred of that in words and put it front of you…anyways please comment and leave your reviews.
I made a 'big reveal' and if some of you saw this coming I can assure you I have some more twists up my sleeves.
If I took you by surprise, aha, gotcha!
Love, Lina
(PS follow me on Wattpad LinaDanielle13)