A/N - Awe, lots of feels for Ali after the last chapter. I think we're all glad that she came to her senses. That was a major step in her coming to terms with what she truly wants. Finding out that Emily was dating someone could have pushed her to try harder to make things more serious with Sam, but I think it was important for her to be honest with herself and let him go. I think you'll like where it takes her, but it won't be a direct route.
One aspect that I've always liked about Emily's character is her willingness to be hopeful and see the best in things, especially other people. She's trying her best to move on and shape her life. Don't be too hard on her, she hasn't forgotten about Alison. Her life will continue to get complicated for her as she continues along this path, and she'll come to some tough realizations.
Keep hanging with me! We're working towards something, but their journeys are far from over.
Someone asked about who initiated the divorce between Alison and Emily. I am relying on what we were given in PLL and TP cannon as the reasons for the divorce and then added in my own supporting details for this story. We saw sparks of Emily not trusting Alison in the finale. If she was freaking out that much over Ali having a conversation with her own MOTHER, then I can only imagine how Emily reacted any time that she read something Alison was doing as "shady". In TP, Alison mentions several times that it all came down to trust. In this story, I gave the explanation that Alison started to question her future and decided to explore her options without consulting Emily. When Emily discovered that she was looking at graduate programs, specifically programs across the country, and then found a check from Ali's Dad, I'd imagine that she would have lost her trust in Alison moving forward. Ali's inability to open up and Emily's inability to actually trust her were what led to their downfall in this story. There are some details in the earlier chapters, but in my mind, they tried to work it out, couldn't open up to each other enough to come to an understanding, decided to separate, and eventually divorce. In TP, Emily was listed as the petitioner and had already signed the papers by the time they were sent to Alison in Oregon. Feel free to correct me if any of the cannon info from the shows is wrong.
This chapter takes place over the course of April, May, and June. It was one of those "hard to split" chapters, that you all get to benefit from in form of a longer chapter. Hope you enjoy!
—
Alison had no regrets in breaking things off with Sam, especially as her work started to get busy. April tended to be one of the busiest months of the semester, and this year was no different. Her classes were all in full attendance as students tried to pack in the knowledge during the final stretch and the students were migrating to her office during office hours in droves for tutoring and pleas for extra credit. When she wasn't teaching, she was trying to do research for her own thesis paper due in a few weeks for the class that she was taking. It was a lot, and trying to balance a quasi-relationship on top of that would have been too much anyway.
A small part of her felt bad that she let Sam go, though it was more for his sake than hers, but he seemed to be doing just fine. During the middle of the month, she was sitting in her office going over notes before a lecture when she heard a light tap on her door frame. She looked up to see Sam standing there with his laptop bag in hand.
"Knock knock," He smiled.
"Hey, come in."
"I was just stopping by on my way out. I wanted to thank you for sending so many students to my lecture today. You had the most out of any professor."
She shrugged with a tentative smile, "Well, it's good information. I hope they paid attention."
He nodded, pleased with the compliment.
"So…" she felt awkward all of the sudden, "How…have you been?"
"Alison," he raised his eyebrows, "this doesn't have to be weird."
She scrunched up her nose, "Am I being weird?"
"I can see that you're trying not to be," he laughed.
She chuckled a little and looked down at her desk. She wasn't really sure how she was supposed to act. The last time things had ended with someone, she still had lingering romantic feelings. That wasn't the case here, but she still cared about him none-the-less.
"My lecture series got renewed by the department, so I'll be around next year too. I hope it's okay if I stop in every once in a while and see how you are." He didn't phrase it as a question, but the implication of asking permission was still there.
"Of course," she smiled.
He shrugged, "We're still friends, right?"
She nodded back, she could always use a friend. And when she really thought about it, that was what he had felt like to her from the very beginning. She had tried to feel more, but it just wasn't there.
He checked his watch, "I've gotta run, but it was nice seeing you."
"You too," she told him as he waved and made his exit. With all of the students in and out of her office, it was nice to have a quick visitor to break up her day. What she didn't know what that he wouldn't be her only visitor in the coming weeks, and the next visit wouldn't be quite as pleasant.
—
In Rosewood, as the Spring months rolled on, Emily felt her life moving forward with full steam.
She felt content in her decision to make her relationship with Casey serious. Telling Alison took a huge weight off of her shoulders. The blonde hadn't reacted perfectly, but there had been plenty of scenarios that had played out in Emily's mind which had been much, much worse. She hated the idea that she might have hurt her in some way, but she knew that ultimately it was what had to happen. She tried not to feel too bad. After all, it seemed like Alison had her own life in Rosemont that she wouldn't have even clued Emily in on had there not been the hospital run in. She tried not to be jealous, because she had her own relationship, but she still wondered what exactly kind of relationship that Alison had with Sam. She couldn't bring herself to ask, though, so she had no idea that Alison had ended things.
She found that Alison had been talking to her less since she shared the news about her relationship. Emily wasn't sure if it was intentional or not, but she couldn't help but notice that Alison rarely talked on the phone with her outside of general business and routines with their daughters. She found herself feeling sad about it at times, because in the months of rebuilding their relationship, Alison had become one of her biggest confidants that she went to whenever she needed to talk about something. There were nights now when she found herself typing out a message to the blonde only to decide against it. She knew that they had hit a point where they were probably getting too close. A point that she knew could lead to a slippery slope. Maybe some distance was for the best right now, especially given that she was trying to build a new relationship.
Casey filled that void for her. Emily was so happy that she had found someone that she had so many shared interests with. She could talk to the girl about swimming related things- something that Alison or any of the other people that she had tried to date knew next to nothing about. Her girlfriend made her feel proud of her accomplishments as a coach in a way that no one else around her really had before. They did things outdoors, like go on runs, hikes, and bike rides. They did silly things together like try to make homemade pizza. She was definitely in the honeymoon stage with Casey where it felt like the other girl could do no wrong.
One morning, they were in Emily's kitchen, drinking coffee and laughing together while Emily made breakfast. The brunette had her back turned while she was cooking eggs. She had asked how the other girl wanted them cooked, but didn't get a response.
"Casey?" She asked, walking away from the stove and into the next room. She saw her girlfriend looking through some papers that she had left aside on the dining table. "What are you doing?" She felt a quick pang in her chest, wondering what she was going through.
Before she could get upset, her girlfriend turned around with a smile on her face, "You didn't tell me that you were looking into physical therapy programs?" She held up one of the info packets that Emily had in the stack.
It was a side project that Emily had been working on since her conversation with Alison a few months back. She'd always been interested in the body and helping people. While she certainly didn't want to go the medical school route, she thought that physical therapy was a track that she could really commit to. She wanted to help athletes like herself get back to doing what they loved after an injury.
"Well, I'm still thinking about it," Emily told her, feeling shy all of the sudden at sharing her ambitions.
"Have you applied anywhere yet?"
"No, just still looking and making sure that I have all of the prerequisites."
Casey nodded and sifted through a few of the brochures before grabbing one from Villanova University. "I still have some contacts here… I bet I can put you in touch with someone if you want?"
"Really?" Emily smiled. She hadn't gotten very far in the process and it would really help to actually talk to someone instead of trying to find her answers on the internet like she had been doing.
"Mhm," Casey dropped the pamphlet back down and walked over to Emily, sliding her hand around her hip and kissing her cheek, "I'll set it up."
Emily nodded, she was excited at the prospect of moving further with her career and glad that Casey might be able to help. She took her girlfriend's hand and pulled her back into the kitchen so that they could finish breakfast.
She enjoyed the slow pace that they kept things, despite calling it a serious relationship. She thought constantly about the conversation that she'd had with her mother. She wanted to make sure that she wasn't rushing into things too soon, so she kept the pace slow in an effort to make sure that her head caught up to her heart. It was challenging at times, because she could see her girlfriend pushing to be a bigger part of her life, so Emily tried to slowly let her in. After introducing Casey to her mother, Emily had brought her around to Hanna's house to meet her and Caleb and they had lunch with Spencer one Saturday when she was in town. She was happy that her girlfriend had gotten the seal of approval from her friends. Alison was a different story. She knew that if she continued dating Casey long term, that the two would eventually meet, but there was no way that Emily was going to arrange for that just yet. Alison had never been particularly welcoming to any of her girlfriends over the years and she didn't expect the blonde to start now.
There only real issue remaining was the twins. Emily was protective over her daughters and despite how strong she thought her feelings were for her girlfriend, she wasn't quite ready to introduce them to Casey yet. It presented an issue, however, when it came to splitting her time. Since she had the twins Sunday night through Friday afternoon, her time for romance was fairly limited. It wasn't a detail that went unnoticed, and she was starting to feel increased pressure from her girlfriend who wanted to spend more time with her.
"What are you doing on Saturday afternoon?" Casey asked on the phone one night, "I was thinking that we could go on a hike or maybe a long bike ride?"
"I'd like to, but it's Hanna's son's birthday. I promised I'd stop by," she told her regretfully.
"Well I'd love to see Hanna again… I could join you if you want?"
"Um, I don't know if that would work," Emily grimaced slightly, "It's kind of like a party and Alison is going to bring the twins."
"So you're going with her?" Her girlfriend deducted.
"No," Emily let out quickly and shook her head, "We're not going together… she's just going to be there is all. And Lily and Grace too, obviously."
Casey was quiet on the other line, taking in the information.
"I don't have to stay long though. We could do something after?" Emily offered.
"Maybe dinner in the city to make up for it?" Casey asked.
Emily laughed, "I can definitely swing that. We'll have fun."
After a minute, Casey turned serious, "I still really want to meet them, you know."
"Lily and Grace?"
"Yeah, you talk about them all the time. Plus then maybe I could actually see you during the week."
Emily nodded along. They've had this conversation before. A few times, actually. She understood that she wasn't offering enough time to her girlfriend and she wanted to give her more, she did, but she wasn't ready to take the steps necessary yet. "I know and I want you to meet them too… eventually," she stressed.
"Maybe soon though?" Casey pressed.
"Maybe," Emily told her noncommittally and then padded it with, "I just want to make sure it's the right time."
And for Emily, the right time just didn't feel like right now. It had only been a couple of months, and she just couldn't get herself there yet. It was nothing against Casey, she just wanted to make sure that she was putting her daughters' interests first.
When it came time for Aidan's party, Emily was actually pretty excited to go because it meant that she would get to see her daughters for a few hours as well. She got there in the afternoon, with plans of ducking out early for her date. She walked into the Rivers' house and was greeted with dozens of faces that she knew. It was always nice when they could all get together. The only person missing was Aria, who was still tying up the last of her loose ends in California. She had told their friends that she was planning to move back, but hadn't given any details yet.
"Mama!" Grace ran up to her in the foyer. She was holding a soft bat and was tailed by Aidan. He threw a plush ball at her when she stopped running.
"Hi, Aunt Em!" He called when he noticed her there.
"I don't think that's how you pitch a ball, buddy," Emily laughed and ruffled his hair.
Both kids giggled and ran away, leaving the bat and ball sitting on the ground. "Happy Birthday!" She called, and bent down to pick up the toys so that no one tripped.
She entered the living room where Spencer and Alison were sitting with Lily and Ava, who was almost seven months old now. Lily was holding a book and Alison was running her finger over the words as Lily tried to sound them out to 'read' to Ava.
"Hey guys," she smiled, tossing the toys in a pile with some others that were already on the floor.
"Mama!" Lily jumped up to hug Emily.
"Hi Sweetie," she smiled. Lily noticed her sister and Aidan in the other room and ran after them, totally abandoning the others.
"Guess story time is over," Spencer laughter, picking up Ava. She walked into the kitchen, purposely leaving Alison and Emily in the room.
"How's the weekend going?" Emily smiled at her tentatively.
"Not bad," Alison put the book down. She gave Emily the once over and looked back at her with a raised brow, "You look nice." She always thought that Emily looked good- even if she was just wearing leggings and a flannel shirt. She looked really good today though. She had on tight black pants, boots, and a silk green tank top. She seemed a little over dressed for a child's birthday party.
"Oh," Emily blushed a little, "I'm going to dinner after this…"
"Hm," the blonde flicked both brows, seeming to understand the implication.
Emily felt a little uncomfortable under the blonde's gaze. She looked around the room, but there wasn't anyone else to talk to. She pushed her lips together, praying that Alison wasn't going to make this difficult. "How have you been? We haven't talked much lately," Emily tried.
No such luck. "I know. You've been busy… going to dinners," Alison rolled her eyes.
"Ali," the brunette shook her head, "don't be like this."
"Like what?" Alison challenged.
"Like…" she wanted to say a bitch, but aside from being inappropriate in the setting, she knew that would cause a fight. She decided to redirect. "I'm not asking you to be happy for me, but let's try to be cordial here."
Alison folded her arms and leaned back into the couch, "I'm cordial," she she gave a fake smile, "look how cordial I can be."
Emily wasn't amused. She considered going to another room, but thought she should give it one more try. Her relationship with Alison was important, and she couldn't fold. If Alison didn't want to meet her halfway, she'd need to suck it up and take the additional steps. You know we'll have to start planning for Grace and Lily's birthday soon. Five is a big one."
It was a good move, because Alison's fake smile disappeared. She looked down at her lap and Emily could see the dimples on her cheeks showing as her fake smile morphed into a real one at the mentioned of their daughters. She shook her head slowly, "How are they five already? That's too old."
Emily laughed, "We're too old."
"Speak for yourself," Alison fires back, "I'm not turning thirty this year."
Emily shuddered at the thought. Alison would turn twenty-nine next month, but Emily was turning thirty in just six months. "Seriously… where did all of the time go?"
"Well you know, when someone is intermittently stalking and torturing you for almost a decade, it tends to make the time go by fast," Alison deadpanned.
"True," Emily nodded and relaxed a little, "But the last five years with the girls has been the quickest of all of it." That was something that Emily had noticed about parenthood. It made time fly by… and sometimes she wished that it would just slow the hell down.
"So what are you thinking?" Alison asked, "For their birthday I mean."
Emily had a few ideas- nothing too crazy. She was glad that their daughters had a Summer birthday because that meant that they could usually get away with outdoor picnics and low key gatherings.
After they voiced their ideas, Alison looked over at her a little nervously. "So what about, like, the guest list?"
Emily was confused, she shrugged, "Same as usual?"
Alison picked at her nails, "No one else?"
"…No?" Did she want to invite her boyfriend or something, Emily wondered as her brows furrowed. The obvious didn't even cross her mind.
"So you're not inviting this new girlfriend of yours?" Alison looked back at her and asked, blue eyes blazing into her.
Emily felt her eyes widen and shook her head, "No, she hasn't met the girls yet. We said we'd discuss that before it happened, right?" Emily asked.
"Right…" Alison agreed.
"Look," Emily turned toward the blonde more, so that she could look directly at her, "I'm not quite ready for that yet either." Alison nodded back quietly as Emily added, "So you don't have anything to worry about."
Alison looked away and fixed her gaze across the room, "I'm not worried," she said almost robotically.
Emily knew her better than that. She knew that Ali wouldn't even bother to bring it up if she wasn't worried. She didn't want her to worry, though. She wanted to reach out and squeeze Alison's hand and tell her that things were going to be fine, but she knew that she couldn't... both because touching the blonde wasn't something that she she should be doing now, and also because she wasn't totally sure if things were going to be fine. Time would tell, and Emily was going to do her best, but she could feel things changing- and she didn't like the way that felt.
Alison didn't say anything else. She just got up and walked into the kitchen to join some of the other guests, leaving Emily alone in the living room. Emily sighed, she wondered if things with Ali would ever feel uncomplicated.
The rest of the day went by smoothly. Everyone wished Aidan a happy fourth birthday. He blew out his candles and Emily left shortly after. Lily and Grace ate too much cake and Alison took them back to Rosemont, hyper as can be until they crashed.
Alison knew that she needed to be nicer when it came to the two of them navigating Emily's new relationship, but she couldn't help but get snippy at times. She told herself that she wasn't jealous, but she was. After coming back from Beacon Heights, she and Emily had come a long way in repairing their relationship and she hated the idea that Emily was close to someone else. She hated the idea that this woman might meet her daughters one day. What if the twins liked Emily's girlfriend more than Alison? She knew that none of this was fair to Emily, but she couldn't help feeling ill at the idea of the brunette moving on. She did her best to keep her feelings to herself and her claws tucked away for the most part. She couldn't help getting in little comments when she could, but made it a point to reel herself in.
Two weeks after the party, she was in her office for one of the last times of the semester. Somehow, she'd survived finals week and had almost all of her students' grades in. There was just one last stack of papers that stood between her and Summer vacation. After the semester that she'd had, she was ready for a much needed break.
She was in deep concentration, red pen out making marks on a printed out paper when she heard someone shuffling around the doorway. With the semester basically over, there weren't a ton of people lingering around the halls, so the disturbance caught her attention. She looked up and saw a woman in the doorway about her age with auburn hair and a put together look.
"Can I help you?" Alison asked, putting her pen down.
The girl smiled and walked into the office. "I hope so. Are you Alison?"
The blonde tilted her head, trying to assess this person. She had never seen this woman before. It was strange to have visitors walking around the department when classes weren't in session, and most people who came into her office usually addressed her more formally. This person seemed to know who Alison was… but who was she?
"I am," she confirmed and stood up. She folded her arms, feeling defensive in the situation, "And you are?"
"I'm Casey," the woman smiled, "Emily's-"
"Right," Alison cut her off. She narrowed her eyes at the other woman and gave her a sardonic smile, "What are you doing here?"
"I was hoping we could chat."
Alison flicked her eyebrows and walked past the other woman towards the door. If she could make her disappear, she would, but that didn't seem like an option. She opted for closing the office door instead. If she had to talk to this woman she thought it was best that none of her coworkers who might be wandering the halls heared anything.
She turned back around to the woman and folded her arms again, "Does Emily know you're here?" She curiously asked.
"She doesn't," Casey confirmed, though the blonde already knew that was the answer. There was no way that Emily would have okay'd this.
Alison raised her brows and shook her head, "She won't be happy about this." She hated that the other girl was here, but she still couldn't help feeling like now she had one over on her. She didn't know any details about Emily's relationship, but she knew that this was an obvious mistake on the other girls part.
"Probably not," Casey nodded and tilted her head, "Are you going to tell her?" There was a confidence in her voice that Alison didn't like.
Alison didn't want to play any of her cards, so she held them. "Depends why you're here."
But Casey had no problem playing hers. "I don't think you'll tell her," she shook her head, "I know that trying to sabotage her relationships hasn't worked well for you in the past."
Alison narrowed her eyes and tried to concentrate on keeping her breathing even. What exactly had Emily told this girl anyway?
"So I was hoping that you and I could have a chat, just the two of us," the woman continued.
Alison huffed out a humorless laugh and shook her head, "And what is it that you want to chat about?"
"I like Emily."
"Okay," Alison rolled her eyes. A lot of people liked Emily. So what.
"She likes me."
"What's your point?" Alison raised her voice. She was trying not to blow her lid, she really was, but she had never been known for her impulse control. She felt herself close to snapping.
"You're standing in the way of something that I want," Casey folded her arms, mirroring Alison's stance. "I want to see her more, but I can't really do that when our time together is confined to just the weekends."
"Doesn't sound like my problem."
"But you hold the solution."
Alison shook her head. What was this girl even talking about? She wasn't standing in the way of Emily's relationship. Sure, she wasn't thrilled about it and hadn't taken the news particularly well. She was dealing with it in her own way, though, and trying to be halfway civil about it. That didn't mean that it didn't make her sick when she thought about it, and seeing the other girl now was really making her feel extra sour. Casey was pretty, not that Alison was surprised, of course she would be.
"I'm not really following," she told the girl.
"I want to see Emily during the week… when she has the twins. I know that can't happen until you give it the okay."
Alison chuckled a little to herself. So either Emily had lied to Alison when she told her that she wasn't ready to introduce her girlfriend to their daughters or Emily had lied to her girlfriend and told her that Alison was the hold out. She was pretty sure it was the latter. "So you came here to try and get me to agree to this?" She asked.
Casey nodded.
"You came to my office, where I work, and thought you'd ask me if you can meet my daughters because you want to see Emily during the week," Alison clarified, almost incredulously. This was somewhere between bold and just plain stupid on the other girl's part. She shook her head.
"I thought it would help if you put a face to the name. I wanted to introduce myself and let you know that I'm not going anywhere. I like Emily, I care about her, and I want things to move forward." It almost sounded sincere and harmless until she continued with a lower, more serious tone, "And I don't want you standing in my way."
Alison laughed, "I'm not standing in your way. Emily is an adult, she can do whatever she wants."
Casey shook her head, "Not when you tell her who can and can't meet her daughters."
"Well seeing as they're my daughters too, I happen to have that right."
"They look an awful lot more like Emily's daughters," she pointed out.
Alison pushed her lips together to keep from opening her mouth and saying anything that she would regret. She was close, way too close, to laying into this girl and making her wish that she'd never set foot in her office. It was taking everything in her to hold back, because she didn't like the other girl's implications. Casey had picked up on something that Alison was self-conscious about. She wondered what Emily had told her girlfriend about their daughters. If the other girl knew that they were conceived with Emily's eggs. If she knew that neither Alison or Emily had any say in the matter at the time.
"They're both of our daughters," Alison spoke slowly and seriously, "My say is just as important as Emily's. I carried them for nine months."
"And then you left them for two years, right?" Casey raised a brow.
Alison's heart thumped in her chest. This girl knew too much about her and her family. "That's none of your business," she growled.
Casey shrugged, "Maybe not."
"I don't think you know who you're dealing with here," Alison bit, her voice as cold as ice. She felt her demeanor shifting. If this girl was going to come into her office and judge her on things that she thought she knew, then Alison was ready to do the same to her.
"I do actually," Casey fired back, surprising the blonde, "I remember when you disappeared back in high school. It was the reason that my parents shipped me to boarding school. Everyone knows who you are." Alison glared at the girl. "You ran away then just like you ran away from Emily and the twins. I plan on sticking around."
Alison felt her heart rate pick up and she took several sharp breaths through her nose. "I think we're done here." Alison told her, moving back towards the door. She was going to shove her out if she had to.
Casey didn't move.
"I just want you to think about it," she told Alison, "I'm sure you care about Emily. Let her move on. Not letting her bring me around the kids is standing in the way whether you think it is or not."
What this girl clearly didn't understand was that she wasn't standing in the way if Emily wasn't even trying to get by her. But she kept that detail to herself.
"I think it's time for you to go now," Alison told her again.
Casey walked passed her and looked over her shoulder, "One of us is going to be a part of her future. Let her move on."
After she left, Alison closed the door and let out all of the air that she had been holding in. It had taken everything in her not to lash out.
Because Alison wasn't stupid.
She knew that as much as the other girl came to make a point, she was also trying to intimidate her and bait her. Judging by Casey's initial comment about Alison trying to sabotage Emily's relationships, she guessed that Emily had told her something about the issues that Alison had with Paige in the past. She knew that she couldn't antagonize this girl like she had to Paige. It would only get back to Emily and that would make a shitty situation even worse.
But now that she was gone, Alison wanted to yell. She wanted to scream. She was seeing red. She thought of a million hurtful things that she could have said to the woman. More than anything, though, she wanted to talk to Emily. She pulled out her phone and and scrolled through her contacts, hands shaking in anger. She took several unsteady breaths and realized that she couldn't call Emily. What would she say? Would Emily even believe her?
Before she could do anything else, her anger finally took over. She threw the phone against the wall, in total frustration, watching as it hit the floor and broke into several pieces. She'd kept her feelings at bay for weeks now and this was officially her tipping point.
—
In the weeks following the incident in her office, Alison slowly but eventually calmed down.
The conversation had played through her mind more times than she was willing to admit. She really wanted to talk to Emily about it, but she felt that she risked coming across like she was ratting Casey out. She didn't like that Casey had tried to intimidate her, but Alison knew that she was still in control of the situation. The other girl had tried to play on her insecurities, but it hadn't worked. Alison had been working on herself and her relationships for months now. Casey had tried to use Alison's past against her, but the blonde felt much more confident in her future than she had when she returned. She wouldn't let it get to her. She decided to just try and put her best foot forward. Emily hadn't even once brought up the topic of introducing the twin to her girlfriend, much less actually ask for Alison's permission. As far as Alison knew, it wasn't something that the brunette wanted to do yet. She kept her eye on the situation, but it seemed like this was Casey going rogue.
Now that the semester was over and she had the stresses of school and work off of her shoulders, she found herself able to find some relaxation. June was chock full of upcoming events. The twins were turning five in a few days and her own birthday was the following week. At the end of the month, she and Hanna were going to New York for Mona's bachelorette party. There was a lot to look forward to, which was helpful because she and Emily's wedding anniversary was also that month, and she usually did her best to try and avoid thinking too much about it during that day.
Alison and Emily had decided to have Grace and Lily's birthday party at the house again. They invited their friends and their families and well as the kids and their parents from school. They were excited to find out from Aria that the party coincided with when she was planning to leave California. She hadn't mentioned buying a house in Rosewood or the area, but it was assumed that she was just staying with family until it was all figured out. The party had definitely turned into a full house with lots of chaos as children ran around in every direction.
Spencer and Alison stood together in a corner off of the patio observing the crowd.
"They've been in school for one year," Spencer commented looking around, "how do they already have so many friends?"
Alison laughed, "They're the only set of twins in their class. I think they're a little bit of a novelty to the other kids."
"Sure, but now you have to deal with all of the other parents," Spencer grimaced, looking around at all of the strange faces in the yard.
"True, but I generally leave that to Emily. She's about as popular as the girls are," Alison smiled as she noted Emily standing with a group of adults. It wasn't surprising, Emily's good looks made most of the fathers want to talk to her and, once they found out that Emily wasn't interested in men, the mothers all flocked to her because she was so friendly. Alison had a few conversations with some of the parents over the course of the school year, but socializing with the Mom's Club still wasn't really her thing.
"You two good?" Spencer asked.
"Yeah, for the most part," Alison nodded. She didn't like the fact that Emily was dating someone else, but she was trying to keep her relationship with the brunette on good terms. She didn't like her girlfriend, but she wouldn't hold that against Emily.
"Soo… I ran into someone the other day when I was grabbing lunch in the city," Spencer commented, changing the subject.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, your friend Sam," Spencer told her. Alison knew that she was busted. She hadn't mentioned to anyone that she had broken things off with him because she really didn't feel like getting into it and defending her actions.
Spencer kept her voice low so that no one around them could hear what they were talking about. "You didn't tell me that you ended things…" She looked at the blonde and Alison noted that there wasn't anything accusatory in her tone. It was actually sympathetic.
She shrugged in response. She really wasn't sure what Spencer was looking for here. It was kind of annoying to begin with that Sam had even mentioned it to Spencer. How had that come up anyway?
"You okay?" Spencer asked, pushing for some information.
"I'm fine, it was my decision," Alison told her, holding back an eye roll.
"Right, but I thought things were going alright?" Spencer asked.
"They were alright. But they were't great. It wasn't going to be a thing, so I didn't see the point of wasting his time or my time anymore."
"Ali…"
"Don't do that, Spence," Alison shook her head, "I wasn't self-sabotaging. I was just being honest with myself."
Spencer nodded and asked, "And what do you think about Emily dating someone?"
Alison shrugged again, "Not much I can do about that."
"When are you going to let Casey meet the kids?" Spencer asked.
Alison turned toward the brunette as a confused look washed across her face, "Did she say something to you too?"
"Who?" Spencer asked, "Emily?"
"No," Alison answered pointedly, "Casey."
"No…?" Spencer's eyebrows furrowed at the response, "You talked to her?"
"Forget it," Alison shook her head.
"No, wait you talked to Emily's girlfriend?" Spencer asked, clearly shocked by the realization.
Alison looked around to make sure that no one could hear. "More like she talked to me. She came to my freaking office last month."
"Are you kidding?" Spencer asked. She met Casey a few times and liked her just fine up until now, but this news as enough to change her opinion.
"No,'" She shook her head, "I wish I was. She said that she wanted to talk to me so that I would let Emily introduce her to the girls but I think she was just trying to intimidate me."
"Did you tell Emily about this?" Spencer asked with her brows raised.
"I wanted to," Alison confessed, "but I just decided to move on. Emily told me herself that she wasn't ready for the girls to meet her so I'm not really worried right now."
"Yeah, but this is something that Emily should know. That was really bitchy of her to do to you."
"Yeah," Alison laughed, "Kind of sounds like something I would have done, doesn't it?"
"It does. But seriously, I think you should tell Emily."
"I'm staying out of it. Something tells me that this girl is going to crash and burn on her own," Alison predicted. It was more of a hope, but whatever.
Before Spencer could say anything else they saw Aria walk into the back yard from around the house. Both girls headed in her direction to say hi, but stopped in their tracks when they saw who she was with. Jason DiLaurentis was walking behind her, Katherine in one arm, and birthday bags for the twins in the other arm.
"What the hell is my brother doing here?" Last time Alison had checked, he was getting his next service project off the ground in South America. She hadn't talked to him much though in the last few months. He'd checked on her after her accident, but hadn't mentioned making it back to Rosewood over the Summer.
"More like what the hell is he doing with Aria?" Spencer pointed out. It was true. It sure looked like they had arrived together.
The girls walked over to greet them. Spencer hugged Aria while Alison went to her brother first.
"I didn't know you were coming!" She took the gift bags and swatted his shoulder.
"We thought it would be a nice surprise," Aria supplied next to him.
"We?" Spencer asked with her eyebrows raised.
Jason put Katherine down and Aria directed her to the other children to go play. The two made eye contact and Aria turned back to her friends.
"Yeah," she smiled and took Jason's hand, "We."
Alison swatted her brother's shoulder again, "Why am I the last one to find out about this?"
He rubbed at the spot that she had hit twice now, "Geez," he laughed, "You guys are actually the first to know."
"How long has this been going on?" Spencer asked.
Aria blushed, "December?" She scrunched up her nose in thought and looked at Jason to confirm.
"What?!" Alison hit her brother again. She'd seen him over Christmas and had countless phone calls with him since.
"We started talking in December and then I flew out to California in January," Jason confirmed.
"So wait, when I got into the accident you were in California then?" Alison asked. She thought that she had imagined that Emily had said Jason was in California because he had told her that he was starting his new project. "So was South America a lie?"
"No, that was real," Jason defended.
"Actually," Aria interjected, "We're going to be going together. Katherine and I are going to go with him this Summer."
Both Spencer and Alison's eyebrows shot up. This was serious.
"Wow! I'm happy for you guys," Spencer smiled.
"Happy about what?" Emily walked up to greet them, joining the conversation.
"These two have been together for months now and didn't tell any of us," Alison caught her up.
"What?" That shocked Emily, "That's… wow."
Every got a good laugh out of Emily's reaction. They all caught up for a few minutes. Later, Alison walked off with her brother.
"I was thinking," he asked, "What if you came down to the site for a few weeks this Summer? You've always said that you wanted to check it out."
It was true. Alison had wished that should could have visited him in Africa. Now that she was back and settled in Pennsylvania, maybe she could take a few weeks and get away for the Summer. She decided to talk to Emily about it later and see if she wouldn't mind keeping the girls some extra time.
She thought it might be nice to get away from the drama for at least a little bit. She could put the stress of Emily's new relationship to the side and take some time to herself to try to figure out how she was going to shape her own future like Emily was doing with hers. Seeing Aria and her brother together and happy made her think that it just might be possible to find her own happiness. She just had to figure out what she wanted that happiness to look like.
—
A/N - I saw a lot of people in the comments asking for Aria and Jason to be together a few chapters back. It was hard to stay quiet about it, but glad that your predictions were right!
And Casey... :nervously looks around: Did she go too far?
Next chapter we'll see some Beacon Heights material. The chapter will be a little bit different than most of these other chapters have been. It will require some editing as I'll need to do my best to make sure that I'm explaining TP cannon to anyone who hasn't watched.