A/N - Thank you to everyone for continuing to read and offer feedback. It's very much appreciated. A few people have asked how many chapters we are looking at. There should be 9-10 more depending on how I split them up. I haven't written an epilogue yet, but that could also be in the cards. We're definitely getting into the fun part of the story that you all have been waiting for. Enjoy!
—
"Maybe it's time for you to fight too."
Aria's words stuck with Alison for the duration of her trip. When she stepped off the plane at the end of July, she was ready to do just that.
She'd thought a lot about what kind of future she wanted for herself and how she could find her happiness. She knew who and what made her happy. She'd never meant for things between her and Emily to get so bad that they needed to separate, let alone get divorced. Even at the time that she signed the divorce papers, it wasn't what she really wanted. She'd left so that she could have an opportunity to sort out her demons and find herself. She hated that she had to be alone for that to happen. She didn't want to be alone anymore.
She'd spent the last year playing it safe. Trying to make sure that she didn't do anything to potentially rock the boat in Rosewood. She tried to find some kind of romantic happiness outside of Emily, but it didn't make her feelings for the other girl go away. Deciding to step back and try to give Emily a chance at moving on had been hard for her- especially when she knew that she still felt the way that she did about the girl. She decided that she couldn't sit back anymore and let other people dictate her future. She had to see if she could win back her chance at happiness. If it didn't work out, she'd have to accept that, but she had to at least try.
During one of their last phone calls, Emily had offered to meet her meet her at the airport, telling her how excited the twins were to see her. She walked towards the baggage claim, keeping her eyes peeled for Emily and the two small girls.
"Mommy!" Alison heard the distinctive little voices and immediately snapped her head in their direction. She bent down immediately as two little three and a half foot tall figures came barreling towards her.
"I missed you girls," she smiled into their brown hair as she hugged them. After a few moments, she stood back up. Emily had followed behind the girls and was standing there, with a little smile playing on her face.
"Welcome back!" Emily moved in for a hug of her own. It wasn't as animated and uninhibited as the hug from the twins had been, but was warm and comfortable, something that she had been missing in her time away. It felt like home.
Alison pulled away and smiled back at the brunette, dimples diving into her cheeks. "Hey! Thank you for coming."
"Of course," Emily nodded. She took a minute to fully take in the woman in front of her. She'd missed her the past few weeks. She couldn't help but notice how beautiful the blonde looked in all of her sun kissed glory. "I think that this is the tannest you've been in your entire life."
Alison laughed and pushed against Emily's shoulder, "Shut up." She wasn't known for taking to the sun very well. Whenever they went anywhere, she was always lathering up on sunscreen so that she didn't burn badly. Her first week and a half of the trip she'd gotten lobster red, but eventually her skin adjusted to the being in the sun all day and had turned to a healthy tan.
Emily laughed and rubbed at her shoulder. "I'm serious," she looked at the blonde again, "You look good."
Alison squinted her eyes at the brunette and her smile grew. "You do too." She noted, though she always thought that.
"Mommy, what did you bring me?" Lily interrupted, tapping at Alison's hip. Grace was looking up at her too, curious as to what Alison had brought back for them. Jason always brought the twins back little gifts from his travels and since the girls knew that Alison was with their Uncle, they assumed that she had brought something for them too. Which she had, but it was tucked away in her suitcase.
"Yeah," Emily crossed her arms jokingly, "What did you bring me?"
"Shut up," Alison repeated, feeling amused at the exchange. Seeing all three of them in such high spirits had an effect on her own mood. She felt happy. It was good to be back.
The four of them stood together and waited for Alison's bags to come around on the carousel. Lily and Grace kept their mouths moving, asking question after question about the trip, airplanes, baggage carousels, anything under the sun. Emily's eyes occasionally floated over to the blonde in between answers, and she found herself smiling, just happy to have her back and be in her presence.
By the time that they had collected the bags, departed the airport, and made it back to Alison's house in Rosemont, it was past the girls' bedtime. They had fallen asleep in the backseat, tired out from all of the excitement of their first trip to an airport.
"Do you need help?" Emily asked. "I can…" She wanted to help Alison get her backs from the car to the apartment, but wasn't sure how to make herself useful with two sleeping children in the backseat.
Alison smiled at the thought, "Don't worry, I can handle it." She only had a suitcase, a carry on bag, and her purse. She'd made it through the airport and to her taxi with it just fine when she'd arrived.
"Okay," Emily nodded from the driver's seat. "Talk to you tomorrow?"
"Yep," Alison nodded in confirmation.
Emily watched her carry her bags from the car and into her lobby, taking a moment to appreciate the sight. She knew that she missed the blonde, but she had't realized how deep it went. There was something inside of her that sparked the second that she and the twins spotted Alison in the airport. She couldn't help the way that her heart reacted. She suspected her feelings were growing again, but it was confirmed now that Alison was back.
She got the twins to bed that evening and went to lay down as well. It had been a busy few weeks. Between swimming being in full swing, entertaining two five-year-olds, and trying to figure out what she wanted to do about Casey, she'd been pretty exhausted. Luckily, Alison had said that she was ready to get right back on schedule and take the girls that weekend.
She pulled out her phone. Casey had texted her earlier while she was driving back, casually asking how her night went. She knew that Emily was picking up Alison and Emily had been dragging her feet on responding. Her phone buzzed with a new text, this one from Alison.
Finally all settled! Did you all get back home okay. Emily smiled, it was cute of her to check.
We did. Grace wouldn't walk in. She made me carry her up the stairs to bed. She added the little emoji with the hand covering its face. The girls were getting heavier now that they were older. It wasn't as easy to carry them as it had been when they were toddlers.
Alison sent a laughing emoji and followed it up with another text. Thanks again for picking me up tonight. It was really sweet of you to bring the girls.
Of course. We missed you. Emily responded.
Back in Rosemont, Alison was laying in her own bed. She smiled at Emily's text. It had been so good to see the three of them when she got off of the plane. The trip had been wonderful, but by the end she had looked forward to getting home. She wanted to see her daughters. She wanted to see Emily. She wanted to be with her family.
I missed you too. She texted back. She put the phone on her nightstand and closed her eyes. She wanted it to be the weekend already.
When the time came, Emily drove the twins back out to Rosemont. She listened to their chatter in the backseat. It seemed like they were anxious to get back into their routine too. They sprinted through the front door when they got there, leaving Emily and Alison to chuckle together in the doorway.
"Any plans this weekend?" Alison asked.
Emily did actually. She was planning to go to Casey's and spend the night. It would be the first time that they had seen each other in over a week. Casey was another person looking forward to getting back into a routine. She had been treading lightly the last few weeks. Emily had made it clear that she was pissed off, and her girlfriend had been working hard to get things back to how they'd been before the Fourth of July meltdown. She had a swim meet the next day, so they likely wouldn't see each other, but they had tentative lunch plans on Sunday. Emily wasn't sure how the weekend would go. She'd been feeling distant from her girlfriend that last few weeks, but thought that maybe things would change once they were seeing each other regularly again. She didn't really want to detail her plans to Alison so she just gave her a smile and a nod.
Alison wondered what the deal was with Casey. Emily hadn't brought it up a single time while Alison had been away, but she assumed that if Emily had went ahead and introduced her to Lily and Grace that she would have mentioned it. But maybe not? Maybe she was just sparing Alison that conversation. Then again, Emily had been so upset at the revelation that Casey had gone behind her back. Maybe they weren't even together anymore?
Alison toon note of the brunette standing in place by the door. "You heading out?" She asked.
Emily looked around. She didn't really have a reason to stay, though she found the she wasn't in a huge hurry to leave either. She didn't want to awkwardly linger though so she nodded and smiled, "I'll talk you guys tonight. Have fun!" She walked out of the apartment feeling conflicted. She felt like she was standing in the middle of two worlds.
Alison had a casual evening with her daughters. She gave the girls all of the little gifts that she had brought back for them from her trip. She had bought them little woven bracelets, dolls, and baskets to carry their goodies in. She loved how excited they got over the new items. They asked cute little questions about where she'd visited, and Alison tried to answer them in a way that was easy for them to understand.
They took it easy on Saturday too. They had a big breakfast and hung around the house. The girls spent hours playing with their new little dolls. She found that she was thankful to have a relaxing day with them, but knew that the cabin fever would probably get the best of the twins soon. She had an idea for what she wanted to do on Sunday and ran it by Emily on the phone that evening after the girls were asleep.
"I was thinking about taking them to the Philadelphia Zoo tomorrow. Do you think they'd like that?" She asked the brunette.
"They would love that! They haven't been in a couple years now," Emily told her enthusiastically.
"Good." She was glad to get the positive feedback. She was planning to surprise them, but she didn't want it to be a bust.
"They're going to love it," Emily smiled through the phone. "They'll get to see so many animals from their show that they watch."
"That's what I was thinking..."
Emily felt a little bit sad, not that she wasn't enjoying having a weekend to herself, but she missed her daughters. She wanted to see their little faces light up as they walked through the exhibits and saw the animals. "I'm so jealous. They're going to have so much fun. Will you send pictures?" She asked.
"Or you could just come...?" Alison offered. It had been her plan all along to see if Emily wanted to join, but it helped that the conversation had gone in that direction.
Emily technically had lunch plans with Casey. She knew that she was supposed to be working on repairing that relationship, but she would much rather spend the day with Ali and the twins. It didn't take her long to think about it.
"Really? You don't mind?" She asked.
"Of course not. Plus you seem more excited than I even expected them to be," Alison teased.
"What time do you think you'll go?"
"We'll probably have some breakfast here and then head that way around ten. Would that work for you?"
"Yeah, I can do that."
After they hung up. She opened her text box. She hesitated, a part of her felt bad, but she really wanted to go and spend the day with her family. She didn't think that she could be faulted for that. She texted her girlfriend. Rain check on lunch tomorrow. Something came up with Lily and Grace. She went to bed feeling content with her choice. She was excited for the next day.
—
Emily was outside of Alison's apartment door at 9:50 the next morning. Alison laughed when she opened the door.
"You're very prompt this morning."
Emily just shrugged and walked in. She had actually been up hours ago, excited for the day, but she tried to play it off. She noted that the girls were still in their pajamas, though Alison was fully dressed. "I'm guessing that's not the case here?"
"No, they've been all over the place. I should have just told them what we're doing today... maybe that would have kicked them into gear," she rolled her eyes.
"Hi girls!" Emily called. The twins stopped what they were doing and ran into the living room.
"Are you taking us home?" Grace scrunched her nose in confusion.
Emily shook her head, "No, I'm here to hang out with you guys for the day. You should hurry up and get dressed."
"Oh!" Lily jumped up. For a second Emily thought that she had done the trick and they were going to start getting ready, but the little girl continued, telling her sister, "She needs one too!" Grace nodded and Lily ran back into the room that they had come from.
"One what...?" Emily wondered.
Lily returned with one of the bracelets that Alison had brought back from South America and looped it around her mother's wrist. Emily noticed then that both twins had bracelets on too. She looked over at Alison. The blonde chuckled and held her own hand up to show hers.
"We all match now," Lily told her excitedly.
"Thank you. Why don't you girls go get dressed now."
"Do you want to see our baskets?" Grace asked.
"...Because we're going to be late for the zoo." Emily finally conceded. Alison was right, these kids couldn't focus on anything this morning. They needed some motivation.
They both looked at Emily with wide eyes and took off in the direction of their bedroom.
"Sorry for ruining the surprise," Emily apologized.
Alison walked over towards her. "If you didn't say it, I was going to," she laughed.
Emily reached out for the blonde's wrist and inspected her bracelet. She held her position for an extra second as she felt the smooth skin underneath her fingers. "These were a fun idea. They seem to like them."
Alison flicked her eyebrows up and smirked, "We'll be family forever." She said with a knowing tone. She didn't wait for the brunette's reaction, and simply turned back towards the bedroom to check on the twins.
It gave Emily moment to think and her mind went back to another time, almost fifteen years ago with another set of woven bracelets.
"We'll be friends forever," Alison had said.
She ran her fingers over the new woven bracelet on her wrist. She liked family forever better, she thought, with a smile.
Eventually, the four of them made it out the door and headed to the zoo. It was hot and crowded, and Alison was instantly thankful for Emily's presence when they were there. Doing activities like this with the girls was so much less stressful when there were a 1:1 parent to child ratio. Not that she couldn't have handled it on her own, but it was certainly easier this way.
Ease aside, Alison had other motivations for inviting Emily. She'd wanted to be in her presence for months and despite wondering if she was single or not, Alison decided that she didn't care anymore. What Emily chose to do was her decision, but Alison wasn't going to step back. She wanted the brunette to know that she was here, and she was an option.
Lily and Grace got excited by every exhibit they passed. Alison and Emily took them through Bear Country, Bird Valley, the African Plains, and went all the way through Penguin Point, and Raptors Ridge. As expected, the girls got a real kick out of seeing animals that they recognized from their favorite show, Amazonas. Grace held Alison's hand and excitedly pulled her towards "Jenny the Jaguar". The blonde happily complied, feeling warm at seeing her daughter so happy. Though Alison did pull back a little when Grace raced towards the glass to see "Annie the Anaconda".
Emily was having a great day too. She thought that it was really nice of Alison to offer to include her, especially given that she hadn't had a weekend to bond with the girls in nearly a month. When the blonde had invited her, it didn't even feel like a question of whether or not she would go. She had been wanting to spend more time with Alison for weeks now and the opporuntity to spend a day together as a family was a no brainer.
In the Spring months, she found that she had really missed the close relationship that she and Alison had formed since the blonde came back. She wrote it off as comfort at the time. She thought maybe she was just comfortable, and she could find that same feeling in her new relationship. The revelation of Casey going behind her back was one thing, but she had started to notice other things about her girlfriend since that she didn't like. She could see hints of a controlling personality, and Emily didn't like that. It was little things that Emily had missed over the months, like Casey trying to control where Emily went to graduate school or making her feel bad that she wasn't spending enough time with her when she knew that Emily had her daughters. The idea that she'd tried to rush meeting the twins had irked Emily. She knew that Casey wanted to meet them so that she could spend more time with her and Emily knew that wasn't the right reason to introduce them. It could have caused a lot of major problems for her family and the brunette was happy that she hadn't given in.
In the weeks that Alison had been away, Emily found herself thinking of the blonde often, more than she was thinking of Casey. She wasn't sure what exactly that meant, but when she found herself with the opportunity to spend time with Alison and the twins or with Casey, the decision was easy.
Emily smiled as she watched Grace pull Alison through the monkey exhibits at lightening speed, each species seemingly more exciting to the little girl than the last. It was amusing to watch Ali try to keep up with the energetic little girl. The blonde looked like her head was spinning. Emily could relate, she'd seen Grace like this plenty of times. Her daughter wore her heart on her sleeve and it was easy to tell what she was feeling whether it was excited, unsure, bored, happy, or annoyed.
She felt a little hand pat at her side and looked down at Lily. Her other daughter seemed to be having just as much fun as Grace, but she expressed herself differently. She took time to appreciate each animal and chatted with Emily about the differences from one species to another.
"What is it sweetie?" She bent down and asked Lily.
The little girl smiled and pointed to the far corner of the exhibit. Emily squinted her eyes and she could just barely make out what she was pointing to. The gorilla in the corner was curled around something.
"Aw," she smiled back at Lily, "Do you see her baby?"
Lily nodded enthusiastically. She loved watching her little girls learn and discover things. It was one of her favorite parts about raising them.
"She's protecting her, just like your Mom and I do with you," she tapped the little girl on the nose, causing her to giggle. After a few minutes, Lily was content with the gorillas and they went in search of Alison and Grace.
They stayed at the zoo until close to five. As expected, the girls put up a fight when it was time to leave. Grace wanted to go see the monkeys again and Lily begged didn't want to leave her kangaroo 'friend'. It had been a long day, but they left with more good memories than they could count. Alison felt lucky that she'd gotten to spend such a nice day with her daughters, but she was even happier that Emily had joined.
It hadn't been totally unplanned. Alison had made a conscious decision that she was going to start putting herself out there. That she was ready to fight for her happiness. That happiness came in the form of what she'd known all along. Being near Emily. Her family.
In her adult life, she rarely went after what she wanted if she wasn't sure that she was going to get it. The few times that she had put herself out there, good things happened, though. She'd gotten Emily the first time around by finally overcoming her fear of admitting her feelings. She'd asked Emily to marry her and it had led to the best year of her life. It wasn't easy for her to get over the hump and do things that made her uncomfortable, but she was doing her best to try.
Since getting back from her trip, she had begun to take small steps to try and steer her life in the direction that she wanted it to go. She'd made sure that she told the brunette that she was thankful for her picking her up from the airport. She continued their conversations on the phone after the girls went to sleep and texted Emily sometimes when it wasn't completely necessary. She smiled and complimented her more. She purposely mentioned the zoo ahead of time, hoping that the brunette would want to join.
She'd made the conscious decision to open herself up again. Being with Emily confirmed what she'd known for months- That she was still in love with her. Despite their rocky past and the fact that they'd gotten married and divorced, she still considered the brunette to be her best friend. She felt a certain level of comfort with the other girl that she'd never had with anyone else. That easy comfort was punctuated by little moments where Alison's heart did unpredictable things in her chest. It happened when Emily smiled at her, or when she touched her arm. It happened when she watched Emily interact with their daughters, or when Alison allowed herself to stop and appreciate her long, tan legs in the shorts that she was wearing. She'd opened her heart again and remembered this strange, addictive feeling. She didn't want it to go away.
And she still wondered if Emily was single.
Alison drove the four of them back in the direction of Rosemont after the zoo. She was sad that the day was over and hated that they would all have to say goodbye.
"What are you guys doing for dinner?" She wondered, turning to the brunette when they were stopped at a stoplight.
Emily constricted her brows in thought. She hadn't put a whole lot of planning into the rest of the night. She'd been too busy enjoying the day. "I'm not sure.. there's not going to be a ton of time when we get back before they have to go to bed."
"I could order a pizza," Alison offered. "That way we could eat at my place and they can go right to bed when you get home." It actually made a lot of sense, but selfishly Alison just wanted to spend more time with the three of them. Truthfully she didn't even like pizza that much, but she knew that the twins did. They'd gotten that from Emily.
Emily nodded with a smile and pulled out her phone, "That sounds great actually. Pepperoni?"
"And cheese!" Grace called from the back.
Alison smiles to herself. She hit the gas when the light turned green and headed in the direction of the pizza shoppe near where she lived.
They got back to Alison's apartment and, as expected, the twins basically inhaled their pizza. They excused themselves and went to the living room to play until It was time to go home. Both Emily and Alison were still on their first slices and got a laugh out of their daughters. Either they really loved pizza or they really wanted to play. Maybe both. It left the two women with a chance to talk alone for the first time all day. Alison had originally planned to keep the rest of the night light, but before she could stop herself, she veered towards a question that she'd had in her mind all day.
She picked at the crust of her slice. "So... you never mentioned anything about your... you know," she looked up at Emily. She didn't want to say the word girlfriend. She had trouble using that word since day one. "Did you wind up introducing her to Grace and Lily?"
"Oh.." The question threw Emily for a loop a little. It was true, she hadn't brought up Casey even once to Alison while she was away- or since she'd been back for that matter. She felt guilty all of the sudden. She was technically still dating her even if she heart didn't really feel into it anymore. "I didn't go through with it. I know you wanted me to do it while you were away, but... It just didn't feel like the right time," she shrugged.
Alison nodded, taking the information in. "I didn't want you to do it. I just wanted you to do it then if you were going to."
Emily stared down at the table, inspecting the pizza in front of her. She couldn't make eye contact with Alison right now.
It frustrated the blonde. It wasn't like she wanted to talk about any of this, but she felt like she needed some information. "So you two are still together?" She finally asked.
Emily looked back up at her face, though she still wasn't able to meet Alison's eyes. She pushed her lips together and nodded. She didn't want to lie, but it also sucked to admit that she was still in a relationship.
Alison didn't say anything in return, she wasn't sure what else she should say. At least Emily hadn't introduced their daughters to Casey, but she was secretly hoping that Emily would reveal that they weren't together anymore.
Emily could see the wheels turning, so she decided to answer any questions that Ali might be trying to answer inside her head. "Look, I'm not sure where I'm going to take it. I'm still upset with her for what she did. We talked about it and she regrets it."
"Of course she does," Alison huffed, "She has to have known that you wouldn't have been cool with it."
"Right... and I'm not. I just didn't know what to do..."
"So you gave her another chance?" Alison asked, feeling heart sinking down.
"Something like that," Emily pushed her lips together again. She didn't feel like she was giving Casey another chance per se. In a way, her girlfriend had kind of blown her chance, but Emily had officially cut the strong yet.
Alison nodded, "Gotcha." She pushed her food away and stood up to start cleaning up. She felt annoyed and frustrated. She hadn't thought they were still together, but since they were she would need to consider how she acted moving forward.
Emily stared back down at her half eaten slice. She didn't want to feel this way and she didn't want Alison to feel whatever way she was feeling. She had felt the air shift in the room and she wished that they could just go back to before they had this talk. Back to smiles and memories with their little girls.
She made a pretty quick exit after that. She loaded the girls up in the car, drove home, and got them into bed. It had been a long day and she found herself gravitating towards her own bedroom and collapsing on the bed. She didn't like the way that she felt right now. She'd spent the whole day happy and carefree. She realized that given the choice between seeing Casey and doing just about anything with her family what her choice would be. She would choose Alison, Lily, and Grace every single time.
And she knew then what she had to do.
—
A/N - This chapter is a kind of a complement to the last chapter. I think I said in another author note that I considered the first 7 chapters as "part one". Think of this chapter as the end of "part two". Now on to the real fun. The stage is set and ready to go. Let's see where this takes them!
Stay safe please, and thanks again!