A/N- Hey guys! Happy 2021! It's crazy to think I posted my first story almost a year ago to help with quarantine boredom. Was hoping 2021 would be a better year. Two months in and the jury is still out.

I posted the second part of my epilogue to Back Someday and planned to get started working on a few other stories that have been half written on my computer and then one day this new one came to me and I just started writing. I've been super excited to get it to a point where I could start getting it edited and shared onto this site.

Just want to note- This is the first time I've posted an AU fic. Aside from being AU, there are essentially two stories in one. The story is told in present time, but includes a heavy dose of flashback. I've noted the flashbacks in bold/italic. I also don't have anyone who reads the work or helps me edit prior to posting. I do my best with the editing, but if something is ever unclear in the story just reach out via comment or PM and I am happy to clarify. Title is from a Taylor Swift song.

I hope you guys enjoy!

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Emily was deep into dreamland when the knocking gave way and the front door swung opened. She wasn't roused when the door slammed shut. She didn't make any moves when the loud tapping sound of heels crossing the floor echoed through the house. It was eventually a sharp, unmistakable voice that finally made Emily snap her eyes opened.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

She knew who it was before she opened her eyes, but that didn't stop her from inhaling a sharp breath through her nose at the sight of the piercing blue eyes staring down at her.

"Where's Spencer?" The woman demanded before Emily could answer.

"I-" Emily pushed her body up halfway from where she was laying on the couch. She was confused. She remembered texting Toby shortly after midnight, but it was light outside now. Was she still in the living room?

"Are you drunk or something?" The woman brought her hand to her hip as she impatiently waited for Emily to offer anything coherent.

"What? No." Emily sat up fully on the couch. She ran her hand through her hair as she tried to get her bearings. "I was babysitting." She looked around the house. "They're not upstairs?"

"No." The woman answered, attitude still evident in her voice. "Spencer was supposed to meet me for brunch, but she won't answer her phone."

A million questions ran through Emily's head as she tried to get control of her thoughts. Were the kids still asleep? Why weren't their friends answering their phones? But for some reason, it was a statement that came out of her mouth instead. "I didn't even know that you and Spencer still hung out." She tilted her head at the blonde, finally allowing their eyes to meet again.

The blonde held her gaze for a moment then shook her head. She ignored the question and fired back. "Well I didn't even know that you lived on the East Coast again."

Emily's brows pushed together. "Why would you?" She asked darkly before she could stop herself. She didn't say to Alison that she wasn't aware that she was back in the country, which was much more noteworthy than the coast, because that would have been a lie. Emily knew, but it wasn't like she would have even considered reaching out to her.

Their relationship hadn't been good for years. Actually, the truth was that they hadn't gotten along for about as long as they'd known each other. There had been a brief moment of time, one that Emily thought about more than she would ever admit, when they did get along. When she'd seen the other woman in a completely different way and it had changed everything for Emily.

But that was a long time ago, and they hadn't had a civil conversation in years.

Alison opened her mouth to respond, but before she could get out another biting response, a voice sounded from the stairway, followed by the pitter patter of two little feet.

"Annn Aliiii!" Spencer and Toby's three-year-old daughter, Eleanor, came bounding towards Alison holding her arms out. The blonde had just a second to react and let go of her purse before the small child jumped up in her arms.

Alison jostled the little girl slightly, before settling her on her hip. "Hi Ellie-Bellie!" She pushed a big smile on her face, the complete opposite of her expression just a few seconds ago.

Emily watched the scene. She knew that technically Alison was related to the little girl because she was Spencer's cousin, but she still felt annoyed at the interaction. Alison had spent the last few years in France and had had only been home a handful of times that she knew of. Emily was the one who had spent time at Spencer and Toby's house over the years. She'd been to every one of Ellie's birthday parties. She was the one that Spencer and Toby called to babysit. She had been the one to get Ellie dressed in that silly cartoon character fleece pajama onesie last night.

"Where's Mommy?" The little girl asked. Despite clinging to Alison with her arms wrapped around her neck, she looked towards Emily for her answer.

It made the brunette feel valued again for a brief moment, but then she realized that she actually didn't have an answer for the little girl. "I don't know sweetie..." She started.

"Well try calling them," Alison turned to Emily and demanded.

Emily looked around for her phone, but before she could find it, a shrill cry came from the baby monitor sitting on the coffee table.

"Liam." Emily sighed and picked up the monitor. She watched as the baby boy stood up in the crib and shook the railing as he continued to cry. "Can you go get him?" She asked the other woman. She still wasn't sure where her phone was.

All that she wanted to do was talk to either Spencer and Toby and find out when she could get out of this house and away from Alison.

Alison's face contorted at the request. "I've got her," she said as if there was no possible way that she could take Eleanor upstairs with her to get Liam.

Emily resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She had spent hours juggling both of the children last night. It wasn't hard. She let out an annoyed burst of air. She shook her head and walked in the direction of the staircase.

It was bad enough that Spencer and Toby had gone rogue on their date night, but did the universe really have to add insult to injury by sticking Alison into the equation? It had been easy to keep her distance from the blonde over the years. Shortly after Alison moved to Paris, Emily had moved away too. Things had been difficult for Emily at first, but the years spent in California had helped rebalance her. She had been back in Pennsylvania for almost two years now and things were finally falling into place. Toby had let it slip that Alison had moved back a few months ago and was living in Philadelphia, but this was the first time that Emily had seen her.

It was odd. She had assumed that neither Spencer or Toby saw the blonde regularly. She hadn't run into Alison at any get togethers and no one ever mentioned her. Still though, Emily had noted the way that Ellie ran up to her. She was a sweet little girl, but she wouldn't greet someone like that if she didn't know them well. And then there was the brunch. Spencer hadn't said a word about it last night. Spencer and Toby knew that there was tension between her and Alison, but it had never occurred to Emily that they deliberately left things out.

She tried to refocus herself as she pushed opened the door to baby Liam's room. It was dark inside, due to the shades being drawn down. Liam stared at her when Emily flipped on the light. He moved his head wildly, glancing around the room, no doubt looking for his mother.

"Hey, buddy," Emily smiled warmly. Liam smiled back at her. His grin showed off a mouth of newly formed baby teeth. Emily couldn't believe that he was already almost one. She had been around for his whole life and it had been amazing to watch him grow up close. He was such a good baby, and his sandy blonde hair and blue eyes reminded her so much of Toby when they were little. She had grown up with Toby and while it was sometimes crazy to think that he was married with kids, Emily was extremely proud of her friend.

She hoisted Liam out of bed and carried him downstairs. Maybe Alison was making herself useful, though Emily doubted it. Her suspicions were confirmed when she got to the bottom of the staircase and found the blonde exactly where she'd left her, holding Ellie and looking somewhere between lost and annoyed.

"Should we, like, feed them?" She asked Emily.

This time, the brunette didn't bother to stop her eyes from rolling. "Yeah, Alison," she huffed. "They need to eat." Emily walked into the kitchen and placed Liam into his high chair. She walked over to the fridge to get some of the milk that Spencer had left for him.

Alison trailed behind her. She put Ellie down in her booster seat at the table and turned to Emily. She looked completely lost. "What do they eat?"

Emily filled the milk into the bottle and moved to cut up some strawberries and bananas. "I've got this. Can you just keep trying to call them?" She didn't need Alison half-heartedly helping her. She needed to know where their friends were. She breathed a sigh of relief when Alison walked out of the room.

As she emptied Cheerios into the bowl Emily tried not to let any negative or worrisome thoughts creep into her head. This was certainly strange. She'd babysat for Spencer and Toby before and they always came home right on time. They were good parents and the idea that they would just not come home wasn't sitting right.

Alison re-entered the kitchen holding her phone up. "Both of their cells are going to voicemail now," she said. She huffed out a breath and looked down at the phone again furiously punching at letters in a text box.

The blonde seemed more annoyed than worried. "Do you think something is wrong?" Emily asked. She tried to keep her voice low as to not alarm Ellie.

Alison looked up from her phone and and met Emily's gaze. She pushed her brows together like the question was ludicrous. "What? No," She shook her head and looked back down at her phone. "I bet they went back to the office after dinner so that they could have some alone time. They probably fell asleep and their phone batteries died."

Emily tilted her head. "What office?" She asked.

"The one that Spencer and I have in the city," Alison answered without even looking up.

But Emily had never even heard of this office. "Why would you need an office?" Emily asked with more bite than she meant to. Spencer was an established lawyer, but aside from getting a book published a couple of years back she had no idea what Alison did.

Alison looked up at her with a raised brow. "Because I work." If Emily didn't know her as well as she did, she would have felt bad about the comment, but Alison had said far worse things to her than that in the past. When she thought about it. She actually didn't know Alison that well at all. She thought that she did. Once. Before she could say anything else, Alison actually elaborated and offered more information. "It's just a studio, but it has a workspace and a bed. I like to get out of my apartment when I write and she likes to have a place to crash if she's working late in the city."

Emily nodded at the information. She assumed that Toby knew about this, but neither he or Spencer had ever mentioned it. She wondered if it was because it was both Spencer and Alison's shared space.

A beat of silence passed. Alison put her phone on the table and picked at her nails. It wasn't a comfortable silence, but Emily wasn't in a hurry to fill it. The blonde looked at the clock on the microwave, noting the time. "Seriously, where are they? It's almost eleven am." She rolled her eyes and ate a strawberry from the carton on the counter. "I guess she forgot about brunch."

Emily twisted her lips. Something was just off about this whole situation. She'd known Spencer for seven years now and if there was one thing that she could count on it was that Spencer never forgot anything. She knew the woman because she married Emily's best friend but yet somehow it was always Spencer that called her on her birthday first. She had her life together and kept Toby in line. It just didn't make sense that she'd ditch Alison for brunch and leave her kids with Emily without calling either one of them. "How did you get in here, anyway?" Emily found herself asking.

Alison's brow went up the way it did before. "My key," she answered as if to say duh.

Alison had a key to Spencer and Toby's house? Emily's apartment was fifteen minutes away and she was over here at least once a week. Alison hadn't even been back in the country for a full year and she lived almost an hour away in Philadelphia. Why did she get a key and Emily didn't. Emily wasn't actually family but she was about as close as it got.

Emily would need to talk to Toby about this. First though, she needed to find out where the hell he was. She exhaled and stood up. "I'm going to get them dressed," she told Alison. Really, she just wanted some space. It had been a long time since she'd seen Alison and the blonde's sudden appearance coupled with Spencer and Toby's disappearance was getting to be too overwhelming for her. She picked up Liam, beckoned Ellie with her free hand, and headed up the stairs.

Emily set Liam on his back on the changing table and turned to Ellie. "Do you want to get a onesie out for me?" She'd likely have to swap out whatever the three-year-old picked out, but she wanted to give her an activity. She unzipped Liam's pajamas and moved to get a fresh diaper. She didn't have any children of her own, so she still go a little grossed out by dirty diapers, but in a way she was grateful for an activity too.

Otherwise, Emily knew that she would have been thinking of the blonde downstairs. Alison's eyes were a sharp, dark shade of blue this morning when she woke Emily up. The brunette had seen that shade before- plenty of times- but she'd also seen them in a softer, lighter shade. And she didn't want to think about that. She didn't want to think of the way that she'd allowed the blonde to pull her into her orbit every time that they were in a room together. And she definitely didn't want to think about how she felt being in that orbit and seeing the softer shade of her eyes. She didn't want to think about the the things that being alone with Alison in a dimly lit room made her heart do. Because if she did, she would have to think about the fallout too. The way that Alison's eyes, both the sharp blue and the soft blue, had disappeared from her life in what felt like the blink of an eye. And she couldn't go there right now. Not when she didn't know where her friend and his wife were.

After she changed Liam's diaper, she took the long sleeved onesie that Ellie had fetched and paired it with a matching pair of soft pants. Once the baby was dressed, she put him back in his crib with a fabric toy and walked Ellie into her room to get her changed.

Emily finally heard the front door open as Ellie was putting on a pair of socks that matched her sweater. 'Thank god,' she thought. She told the toddler to stay there for a minute and headed down the stairs to finally get the answers from Toby that she'd been waiting for all morning.

But it wasn't Toby or Spencer in the doorway.

Alison was standing in the foyer with her back to the stairs talking to a dark haired woman whom Emily was almost certain was Spencer's older sister, Melissa.

Emily felt a strange feeling as she walked down the stairs to join the two of them. It wasn't the way that Melissa's brows pinched into a serious expression that told her what she needed to know, because maybe Melissa was just here to visit and had the same questions they'd been asking all morning. Instead, it was the way that Alison looked at her when she turned around. Her neck was flushed and her eyes were the softest, palest shade that Emily had ever seen them.

And she knew right then. Something was terribly wrong.

—

A/N - Short prologue to set the stage.

I'm in a pretty good place as far as being able to update regularly, so don't expect to wait very long on the next chapter. I've really been looking forward to sharing this with you guys and hope you like it so far. Thanks and take care!