Alison's POV
So it was set, we were all in my car on our way to Ravenswood. And as much as I hated the damn place, the plan was to find Wren, get him to confess and make him bring us to my- to Charles' hideout to find wherever the hell he was keeping the people we loved.
One thing I've learned these past years: blood doesn't make you family.
My parents stopped existing, stop being my parents, the very moment they started to teach me to be like them. My brother...brothers were no longer my brothers: Jason hated me and so did Charles...now Jason, I can understand, but Charles, I don't even remember him, I was a baby the last time we were in contact, and the moment he started hurting my friends, he was already doomed to meet me and pay the price.
So no, I didn't have much of a biological family, but what I had was a girlfriend, and her parents who accepted me and welcomed me into their home when mine didn't, I had friends who have been at my side since I could remember, who have worked restlessly on protecting me, being there all the time.
They were my family and as much as I knew I could rely on them, I had to prove to them the reverse was just as true.
Plus, now I have the help of the people who love them as much as me. Ezra, Toby, Caleb has been especially helpful through all of this and even whatever it is with Mona that we have going on, I owe them just as much.
Thinking of the sacrifices we've all been through, I looked in the backseat, Toby and Caleb on either side of Emily, Mona riding shotgun up front with me. The drive wasn't too far, but it was long enough that Em had fallen asleep on Caleb's shoulder.
"Is she alright Caleb?" I asked, glancing in the rear-view mirror to steal a look.
Caleb smiled at me and held Emily's head closer to his chest so it wouldn't bounce around so much on this crap road, "your precious cargo is fine," he chuckled and leaned from behind me to squeeze my shoulder, reassuring me, "she's tough," and after awhile he added, "she's fine."
But the last few weeks flashed before me, the running, the lies, the hospital, the clues, more lies about my family, her health, god her health. One little thought like that and it was train barreling through and derailing any other trains of thought I had, she wasn't fine, not by a long shot.
Caleb told me to stop blaming myself, but how could I not? If we never met, she would be fine. Deep down I know I wouldn't, that even if I didn't know she existed, I would always feel like I was missing something. I cant't accept that this was fate, I can't and I won't. I was a tree and she was a moving car, I had her wrapped around me, I kept her in Rosewood, I stop her from going and moving on to better things. This wasn't her fate.
"Ali," Mona said softly, "do you want me to drive?"
"What? No, don't be crazy, it's only like another 45 minutes." I shrugged but I never met her eyes, looking in the rear-view to find Toby's head against the window, his hands nervously playing with the scrabble 'T' piece around his neck that Spencer had given him and Caleb's head was on Em's, his thumbs twiddling over his phone.
"Are you sure?" Mona was persistent, I'll give her that.
"No, why do you keep asking? Not like I'm swerving or speeding."
Mona nodded, "you're right but-,"
"But what?"
Mona knitted her brows at me when I finally looked at her questioningly, and reached over to pull my visor down, snapping open the mirror, "but that."
I looked up into the mirror, cautious that there was nothing ahead of me and looked at myself, and I actually looked, not the barely glances like when I used the restroom. But I stared and I was surprised at the wetness falling from my eyes that I hadn't even felt, a silent sob broke through my chest and I could see that I looked like shit, absolute shit.
My eyes were puffy, red, wet, the blue looked broken, even to me. My hair was a disheveled mess around my face and I looked older, tired.
And as if she was reading my mind, "Ali, have you been sleeping lately?"
I couldn't lie, at this point I was practically transparent, "hardly, just the other night...in Em's room. But I'm fine," I quickly added, "I can drive."
"Please, pull over."
"Not again, no."
"I wasn't asking Alison." Her commanding tone didn't anger me this time and I found myself blinkering over and pulling over to the shoulder of the road.
"Fine, you win."
We switched seats without saying another word and when the tires were back on pavement, Mona started to shake her head, "no I don't, we're on the same team and we all win when we bring everyone home."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right."
Mona laughed lightly, "what did I tell you about that, I usually am. Now, close your eyes, you can afford to take a nap captain, I'll watch over our soldiers."
I found myself laughing back softly but she was right, we were soldiers...and this was now a war.
No One's POV
Sleep found Alison soon, sleep that she had been deprived of. Stolen by fear, nightmares, taken by her own dark consuming thoughts, lifted from her by worry and anger. A combination of these things left her feeling as weak as she did which now made it easy, being this close to ending things, to fall asleep, with her face pressed into the cool glass of the window, it's touch calming her nerves inexplicably.
So sleep came finally, but that didn't stop the dreams, the dreams that lately have been twisting into nightmares, taking her best memories and stealing the happiness from them, replacing them with something dark. Some things that were memorable turned scarring, she wish she could forget.
Eighteen Months Ago
Alison was late again, she promised Emily she'd be over on time before they went on out their date. It should've been something special for their anniversary but Emily insisted on carrying on with their traditions: Ali would come over with a surprise movie she picked, Emily would make a surprise dessert and they'd eat it while they watched, deciding together where to go for dinner.
It always worked that way, they finally found a way to have dessert, they saved money by not going to the theaters, plus there was the added bonus of privacy. All that plus dinner, maybe leftovers...why change things up?
Both girls were happy with it, sometimes breaking tradition with a night out walking around town or staying in all night, Netflix putting in work to keep them occupied and they could afford to do either lately now that -A was gone.
When Ali finally arrived, a whole ten minutes late, Em was already at the kitchen counter, scooping copious amounts of ice cream onto still warm chocolate fudge brownies.
"You're starting without me?" Ali huffed as soon as she squeezed her way through the doorway, dropping her bag and movie on the nearest couch.
"No," Em laughed, licking vanilla bean ice cream straight off the spoon from the bucket, "I was just setting everything up, you said you wouldn't be more than 10 minutes late so, I figured when you got here, we'd start right away." She shrugged and started to put the ice cream away.
"Well then, it was perfect timing." Ali smirked and walked toward the counter, looking at the desserts, "wow, did you put enough ice cream here?"
Emily emerged from the freezer and looked at the bowl Ali was holding, "I mean I think so, but I can always put more?"
"No geez no, this is plenty thank you."
Em smiled and walked right up to Ali, grabbing the blonde's hands in her own and holding them gently at their sides, whispering lowly, "hi."
And the bright smile that broke across Ali's face was one she couldn't believe Em was putting there. The same one she had felt on her face for a while now, the one she allowed herself to have. She had finally gotten her girl. And she couldn't be any happier.
"Hi," Ali replied, her eyes darting between the warm brown orbs that were Em's eyes and the soft pink lips that were slightly open, breathing Em's lightly vanilla scented breath in her face.
Alison smiled and when she started to pull away, Em tugged her hands back until Ali had no choice but to fall flush into Em's chest, her arms wrapped around her girlfriend's waste, Em catching Ali's face tenderly in her hands.
One more intense gaze and Emily brought their lips together passionately. Ali had shared her fair share of kisses with the brunette by now, but somehow this one was different, she couldn't explain, she could just feel it.
Emily tilted Alison's head back gently and when Em's thumb stroked Ali's cheeks and her tongue traced the outline of her lips slowly, Alison allowed her the access she was asking for. Their tongues touched and there it was again, the burning passion both girls could feel for the other, sitting in the pit of their stomachs.
Ali let a small moan escape her mouth when she was allowed a catch to steal a breath and Emily used this to her advantage, turning their bodies so Ali's back was pushed flushed against the counter, the blonde running her hands along Em's spine, one slipping into the long brown locks, the other sliding just beneath the fabric of her shirt, nails scraping ghost-like against the tan skin.
There was no fight for dominance, just the easy rhythm of their tongues dancing, their hands roamed free, exploring in places they hadn't before.
The same warmth that was burning in the pit of their stomachs started to travel throughout the rest of their bodies, tightening, coiling, making it harder to breath, so hard that Ali had to finally pull away from the embrace, laughing breathlessly when Em's lips never left her skin, simply they started to trace other smooth expanses of skin like Alison's neck, along her shoulder, back up her jaw, her cheeks, stopping when she was back in front of Ali's mouth, pecking those swollen lips and then resting her forehead against Alison's.
Both girls chests were heaving irregularly, both able to practically hear their rapid heartbeat in their ears and Em when leaned in again, Ali snaked her hand in between their bodies and placed her hand on her girlfriend's chest, "I need to breathe Em."
"So breathe." Em smirked and cupped Ali's face again, brown meeting blue until the silence, and consequently the eye contact was broken when Ali laughed nervously.
"I can't."
Em tilted her head, "why not? I'm not even kissing you right now."
"You can't look at me either."
Brown eyes narrowed and Em looked confused.
"And not to mention your parents could be coming home anytime soon, I don't think they'd approve of finding their daughter and girlfriend, who may I remind you they just started to really like, defiling their kitchen counter."
"Ali," Em said plainly, "first of all, my dad has always liked you, it was my mom who was...difficult about everything at first, and second, it's only four o'clock, my dad is out of town and my mom doesn't get home until around 11, and you know that."
Ali rolled her eyes playfully, "still, I don't know what's gotten into you."
"Nothing, I can't kiss you?"
"You can, it's just..." but she still didn't really have the words.
"Just what?"
"I don't know, different I guess."
Em smiled and shrugged a little, "we're different, aren't we?"
"Are we?"
"Ali, where is this coming from?"
"Nothing, it's just the way you kissed me."
"Was it not good?" Em actually was starting to feel self-conscious until Ali grabbed her hands, "of course it was, I only stopped you because well...because...um,"
Emily nodded and finished for Ali, "because we've never gone that far." She wasn't asking if that was true, both already knew that that was it.
Ali couldn't find her words, she just nodded and looked out the kitchen window to her right.
"Okay, fair enough, let's eat, our ice cream is melting." Em said, leaning in towards Ali to grab her bowl and walk towards the stairs, pecking Ali's cheek before she did.
This left a confused Ali in the kitchen, wondering if what she was thinking might be true...was Emily ready to...
"Ali, babe, what movie did you bring," the brunette asked from her room upstairs.
Alison emerged from the sea that was becoming her thoughts and grabbed her bowl, "I brought that Safe Haven today."
"Alright, Mr. Sparks is here to make me cry again, nice choice."
"Hey, I was actually looking forward to watching this, don't ruin my one moment of actually wanted
to be sappy."
"Alright alright, we'll cry a little tonight and you know the rules, you've got to put it in, I'll be waiting comfortably on my bed." Em laughed and Alison felt like she was purposely trying to make it seem like she didn't really care about what had just happened but Ali knew she did.
"Alright, I'm coming." Alison ascended the stairs and found Em happily digging into her dessert and waiting for Ali to come in and start one of the movies.
Alison put the movie in and moved into the bed next to Em, not paying attention at all to the credits and previews that usually took up about 10 minutes of their time.
"Em, this was really good, thank you." Ali leaned over her designated side of the bed and placed the empty bowl on the side table.
"You're welcome, it was either brownies and ice cream or cookies again."
"Well, I would've been happy with cookies, but that brownie was sinful."
Em laughed and scooted closer to Ali, "well I'm glad you liked them."
"Liked them? I'm having the rest of that tray for dinner tonight."
"Alright, whatever you want." Em kissed the crown of Ali's head and wrapped an arm around her neck, using it to bring Ali's head to her chest.
They watched the movie until it was about almost done and then Alison sat up suddenly, and broke the silence, "alright, let's do it."
"What? Now, we were supposed to do it after the first 10 minutes, I thought we were just gonna skip on this movie?"
"Em," Ali sat and laughed, "we don't break tradition, so come on, give it to me."
Emily groaned and rolled her eyes, "no, since you didn't say anything sooner, you have to go first."
Em and Ali had developed a knack for watching part of the movies they chose and then deciding which character they were most like, it was a fun way to imagine themselves as someone else, or to see themselves the way the other does. It was especially funny during comedies and action movies where both knew neither were as funny nor as heroic. -A has been gone so new hobbies were discovered, they could afford that now. There was strange comfort in finding joy in little things and ways to make them their own.
Ali looked Em square in the eye, "no questions asked, you are Josh Dumahel's character?"
Emily tilted her head and could imagine where this was going.
"Before you say anything, or object or ask me why, hear me out Em, this is something I've been wanting to tell you and I'll admit, I kind of used this movie and our little thing we do to help me get started."
"Ali, what is it?" Em sat up straighter now and turned as much of her body as she could towards her girlfriend.
"I love you." Alison said flat out, earning a small innocent laugh from Em.
"Ali, I know that, I love you too, and you also know that." Em smiled and reached a hand towards Ali's, not hesitating to interlock their fingers.
"It's more than that Em, it's more than that though and I want you to see. It's been half a year since, you know, we've been doing this, but I wake up sometimes and I wonder if you know."
"Know what Ali? You don't have to apologize anymore, we've been over it, I can see you've changed, and you've been nothing but the best to me, there's nothing left to prove."
"Yes, yes there is. I never told you why I love you."
Em looked up from their hands and gently pulled away, pulling them in her lap as Alison started to play with hers in her own lap.
"Well, is there a reason that you haven't already told me?" Emily was smiling but it wasn't returned yet.
"You saved me Emily." Alison took a deep breath and willed herself to be strong enough to look in Em's eyes and stay trained on them, repeating almost breathlessly, "you saved me."
After a time, Emily opened her mouth to say something, her brain sending a numerous amount of thoughts to her mouth which never complied.
"Don't," Ali whispered, "I can see you thinking but please don't. There's no taking back how I feel and what I know and before you, I was doomed, I was meant to go up spiteful and deceitful and full of lies just like my parents, I was meant to be mean and bitter and shut people out or marry someone equally as bad and call that love. I was meant for something and you saved me from that, all of it. Even when we were young, and I would bully you, you would accept my apologies and tell me how much you knew I didn't mean it, how much different you knew I really was.
"It wasn't until somewhat recently that I started to believe you. You changed me Em, and I don't know who I'd be without you. I didn't even know I was running from who I was becoming until I felt like you stopped me, I don't know how, or why, all I know is that I owe you everything for preventing me from becoming a monster."
The whole time Ali was talking Em spent staring at Ali's features, the way her eyes conveyed every emotion, the way her lips moved when she was talking and she realized that Alison was the only person she ever wanted to be with.
"Em, you saved me, I was hiding how much pain I was in, I was lying to you, ignoring my feelings, and you changed all of that, you still are. With you I know how to be better, I know what real love is, and I just want you to know that I'm going to be here for as long as you'll have me because god forbid that something that dramatic happens, but I will be by your side if you need to be saved too. I can do that for you, I know it, so that's it I guess, you're my own safe haven and if you need saving one day, you can count on me."
Emily was still staring in Ali's eyes, searching for coherent words to try to mumble back, adequate words to equal Ali's and nothing.
"Em, say something, anything."
Em swallowed and exhaled shakily, "anything."
This eased the tension in Ali's body and she laughed nervously. "Emily, I know this isn't how the night was supposed to go, but I cheated and watched the movie without you last night and I couldn't help but feel like-,"
Her words were the ones to be lost now when she felt lips crashing urgently into hers. It took her by surprise of course but it wasn't long before Alison was reciprocating the kiss with her own urgency and then something clicked in them both and they knew.
Ali was quick to push against Em and cause them both to fall back on the bed, the blonde moving to straddle each of Emily's legs while the brunette underneath kept a steady grip in Ali's hair and around her waist.
It was like the kiss they shared in the kitchen: raw and passionate, except now this added the new elements of urgency and hunger, walking a fine line between lust and pure innocent love.
When Ali pulled back for air, she looked down at Em and smiled, moving to roll back into her side of the bed, but was stopped when Emily reached up and held her face in her hands, "Ali, I'm ready."
Alison imagined her eyes widening comically and she was suddenly the one lost for words, looking at Em for more assurance.
"Em, are...are you sure?"
Emily smiled and nodded, whispering lowly, "I'm sure Ali, there's no one else I'd ever want to share this with."
"We're not rushing anything are we?" Alison was extremely cautious, weary that this could change things.
"Do you think we are?" Emily answered with another question.
Ali did as Em and smiled and shook her head, "no."
Em shifted slightly and ran her hands up Ali's back, running them back down to the hem of Ali's shirt where she slowly traced her fingertips against Ali's skin. Alison swallowed and in the darkness of the room, lit only by the TV she knew she was blushing, watching as Emily's eyes wandered and her hands moved up, bringing her shirt with her. Soon Ali helped Emily get the shirt off and when she was topless, she bent over and started to kiss Emily with all the passion she could summon in her movements, waiting until Emily was breathless again to start unbuttoning the shirt Em was wearing, moving her kisses along Em's body as she uncovered more and more, utterly simple declarations of love each time her lips lifted from the tan skin.
Alison had no idea that her hands were shaking until Emily grabbed her wrists and pulled her body down until she was laying on top of her girlfriend, "Ali, I want you."
It was another reassuring statement that Ali needed to hear in order to breathe again, "I love you Emily."
"I love you too."
So with less shaky hands, Alison removed the shirt from Em's body and moved gently to sit up, smiling but when she started to look down Em's body she gasped in horror.
"Ali," Em choked, coughing blood from her mouth, "you did this. It's your fault."
"What?!" Ali asked in complete gut wrenching fear, "no, no, I didn't Emily!"
"You said you'd save me!"
"I will, I am, Emily I-,"
"YOU LIED! YOU LIED!"
And laying beneath her was a beaten and bruised Emily, gun shots wounds and cuts and scrapes and injuries all in the same spot as-
Ali snapped awake from her dream turned nightmare as soon as she realized what was happening. She jumped in the passenger seat, completely startled, gasping and covered in a cold sweat, hands shaking uncontrollably. She never thought she'd be dreaming of the first time she and Em...but then have it turn into a nightmare, she had hoped that that was one thing that was safely stored in her memory.
"Mona, stop the car." Ali didn't acknowledge the looks she was getting from the short brunette and she commanded again, "Mona stop the car now."
"Ali, we're 15 minutes away, I-,"
"GOD DAMMIT MONA STOP THE FUCKING CAR!" Alison screamed erratically and Mona nodded quickly and pulled over on the shoulder of the road they were on.
Toby was startled awake from a nap he fell into and Caleb tried to calm Emily who woke up, nervous about where they were, why they were stopped and where Alison was.
"Calm down, she just needed some air," Mona explained as four sets of eyes followed the blonde who walked down the road ahead of them on the edge of road and dirt lining the side of it. They watched her walk with her arms crossed tightly across her chest, stopping to turn away from the road and scream with her hands thrown down at her sides, collapsing to her knees, body hiccuping in violent sobs that erupted in her chest.
Emily moved as to get up and she lurched forward, stopped by the men who boxed her in at her sides. Caleb placed his hand protectively on her knee and leaned in to kiss her forehead, "calm down, I'll go talk to her."
Em didn't know why, but she trusted Caleb more than herself to be around Alison right now, Emily never knowing what to do or say. But she had woken from a dream of her own, one that she hoped was a memory that gave her a piece of her past...a piece of herself.
Caleb gave everyone in the car one last look before he got out and made the somewhat hesitant journey towards their broken leader.
It would be impossible to surprise her as the small gravel crunched noisily beneath his boots as he approached, but Caleb kept his eyes locked on Ali, who was still crouched down on her knees, until he was standing right next to her.
"Go away Caleb, I just need a minute."
Caleb lifted his head and looked around placing his hands on his hips and huffing loudly, "yeah, well," he started to crouch down until he was on his knees too in front of Ali and finished as he sat on his behind, "I need a minute too. So I guess we can get a minute here, right now...together."
Em, Mona and Toby watched what transpired ahead of them, each one imagining what conversation was being held between the two.
"Why are you doing this?"
"This?" Caleb looked at Ali and waited for the blue eyes to meet his pensive brown ones.
"Yes, during all of this you've been like a-," and Ali paused to find the word.
"Like a what? An actual friend, not just someone who's dating one of yours?"
Ali smiled weakly, "I was actually going to say like a brother, I have no idea what they should be like, but in a perfect world I'd imagine them being somewhat like you."
Caleb looked away from Ali and towards the car, "well let's hope I'm nothing like your brothers," but the moment it all left his mouth, he looked towards Ali to start apologizing, stopping when Ali looked at him in shock and then...she started to laugh.
He joined her in the laughter soon after, and they shouldn't have laughed but some people laugh in awkward or difficult situations, so they laughed.
But a few quieted chuckled turned into quieter sobs and Ali was crying.
"Ali?" Caleb looked at her not noticing the transition until he seen her head bow down and her body begin to tremble with the slightest of movements.
"What if I can't do it Caleb? I was supposed to protect Emily and now...what if-,"
"Hey," Caleb stopped her with one single word and two hands on her shoulders, "stop that. There's no doubting anything, we're going to get them back, and Emily is going to be okay. Don't you dare star feeling bad for yourself because in case you haven't noticed you're not doing this on your own and no one is blaming you."
Alison looked up at Caleb and wiped at her face, "Hanna is lucky to have you Caleb, she is, and I'm sorry for everything I've done in the past, if...when we make it out of here and get them back, I'll make sure to tell her not to let you go."
Caleb smiled, "can't happen anyways, when we get her back, I'm not ever going to let her go."
They shared a small exchange of silence and Ali sighed again, "I let her down Caleb, she doesn't know it, because she can't remember but I made her promises, Em has a thing about promises since we were little kids, and I let her down."
"Look at me Ali, there is a girl in the backseat of your car worried sick about you, she has no clue about her past life but she knows who she wants to be, and right now she needs you to be strong, fuck I know it's hard, but she needs you now, this is your second chance, those don't come around often so don't waste it by giving up on it. Don't give up on her."
Ali stared blankly towards the car, not being able to make out Em's face, "but I've let her down once, look what happened, I can't afford to do it again, I'm scared I will," and then she looked back down, surprised when the hands on her shoulders started to pull her closer.
"Never thought I'd do this," Caleb said softly, "but come here."
"What?" Ali tried to pull away but Caleb was stronger he yanked her one more time until their chests were flush against one another, Caleb's hands sliding to wrap around her back, "it's going to be okay."
Ali didn't know what to do, she was tired of feeling tired, she was tired of crying, so she just sighed, her body sagging and her hands wrapping around Caleb in a hug she never knew she needed. They stayed there and Alison gently started to pull away when she felt Caleb's body shake irregularly with one sharp intake of air.
She pulled away and seen the wet eyes, "I'm scared too Ali, I'm scared that I'll fail Hanna too. I've been trying not to think about it, but I'm just one guy, I hack computers, I don't track down psychopaths."
Ali slowly reached her hand towards Caleb's, "never thought I'd do this," and she placed hers delicately over his hand, "you're right, all of us, we don't do stuff like this, not even Toby, but today...together, we do. Today we do track down psychopaths and together we get Han and Spencer and Aria back, and Em's parents."
Caleb started to get up, "alright then, today we do," he held his hand out to Ali who was still on the ground and pulled her up, hearing her repeat, "today we do."
x-x-x-x
After Alison and Caleb returned to the car, they all drove the last 15 minutes in silence. When the finally did arrive and crossed into Ravenswood territory Mona pulled over on the nearest street.
"Now what?" It was the first thing Em had said since they left her house.
"Mona pulled her phone out and started typing away, "Ezra said he'd meet us here, so I'm going to text him and see how close he is, Caleb?"
From the backseat Caleb pulled his laptop out of it's case and brought the screen back to life. So I backwards triangulated the signal from the other send of the emails, the ones we found from Mrs. D's secret computer, and I was able to pinpoint a location and IP address, it was encrypted but it wasn't anything I haven't hacked before."
"Okay so where are we going to find Wren, did it give an address?" Ali looked back and waited for some directions, the longer they sat the longer their loved ones were waiting.
"Not exactly, but I can cross reference the coordinates with a map of the area and we can get a good look at what street, from there we drive and when we're close enough, I'll know, although my guess is he'll be in an apartment."
"Why," Toby questioned.
"Because he has to be ready to run if he needs to, and I know what that feels like, so it's what I'd do."
Everyone simply nodded, "alright, well while Caleb does that, Ezra said he'll be here in a five, he stopped to get 'supplies' whatever the hell that means." Mona turned to Toby with a quirk in her eyebrow, "Toby you were the last to see him, what does that mean?"
"Um, I gave him access to some of my, assets, if you will."
"Assets like what? You're a cop, the only assets you have are...oh, I see." Mona quieted and a dead silence fell between them.
"Look," Toby said, "I have a buddy at the station I trust him, so I told him to give Ezra one of the guns issued in my name, he also took some walkies and a new police issued radio, for back up, I told Ezra to tell Andy when we turned the radio on to come for back up."
"Good idea, but with guns, you really think we'll be needing back up?"
"Yes, it's Charles, and all we know is that he's insane, violent, and highly unpredictable, I'm not taking any chances with him, I want to get everyone back in one piece, if I have to shoot him, I will. And if he gets away, my guy will be close enough to stop him."
"You'd put your partner in danger?" Emily asked wearily, she didn't want anyone to get hurt.
"He knows the risks and he knows how big it is if we catch this guy, finding -A practically became a closed case but when you two went missing, he was the first to want to open it up, he's eager to get his first real bust, his intentions may not be 100% honorable, but if he's willing to help, who am I to stop him."
"Okay, so then what? What about Wren, and Cece? How are we supposed to deal with them?" Caleb asked while he was working over his laptop.
Ali spoke up, "we lie to Wren, we tell him we'll tell Charles what he did to my mom if he doesn't take us, we show him the proof we have of him breaking the law and abandoning all morals as a doctor and say we'll turn him in if he doesn't help."
"And how do we know he'll take the deal?"
"We make copies of the street camera footage when he murdered my mom in the front of our house and of the emails, and false reports from Radley and we let him have them. We lie and make sure he believes they're our only copy and we let him have them and burn them whatever."
"Ali, that's risky he can lie about where Charles is and run."
Alison sighed, "we tie him up and put him in the trunk, I don't care, we make him take us, and if he misbehaves we leave him in that trunk and let Charles deal with him."
"Ali you know if we do that Charles will-,"
"Caleb, I don't care what Charles does to that bastard, he deserves what's coming to him."
"I agree," Mona stepped in.
Toby shrugged, "Caleb, Wren drugged our girls and Em's parents and helped Charles take them away from us, he doesn't deserve to be treated any less than what we've got planned for him right now."
Caleb sighed started to nod, "okay, okay you're right. Let's do this."
Ezra arrived not a minute later than everyone expected, yielding all the things Toby said he was, it was just in time for Caleb to pinpoint where Wren was located.
"Caleb, you're the only one who's really been here before, my stay consisted of hiding with Grundwal, so is there a lot of places in this town to hide?" Ali asked before anyone else said anything, there was a nervous hesitancy about what was going to happen.
"No, there's pretty much one small of everything here, one school, one grocery store, one coffee shop-,"
"One coffee shop?"
"Yeah, it's actually not to far from here."
"Take us."
"Why? Wren drinks coffee, and tea, if there's only one shop around here, I'm sure the people who work there no his face."
Mona started to nod, "Ali is right, one of us will go in and ask around to see if he's really here, they might be able to tell us where he works."
"So we're going to ambush him at work?" Em asked.
"No, we find out where he works to see if he's home, then if he's not, we break in and we wait. He gets home, we snag him and he brings us to Charles."
Emily shrugged, laughing at nothing in particular, "sounds simple enough."
Everyone looked around then, darting eyes and deep breaths.
Ezra was the one to finally speak, "Caleb and I should split and go to Wren's Toby, go with the girls to find out if he's home or not, and call us when you do, we'll wait for you there."
Toby nodded and looked at Mona, "you know where that coffee shop is?"
"Yup, just as Caleb said, let's go."
The group split and as soon as Caleb and Ezra started to track down the apartment, Mona, Ali, Em and Toby headed to the coffee shop on Acalade St.
"Okay, who's going in?" Toby asked from the backseat.
"I think Mona and I should, she printed a picture of Wren, we'll go in and ask around, see how much intel we can gather on him."
"Alright, we'll be here, call me if you need me." Toby looked between the two young women and smiled, "this town is creepy."
"Be careful," Em added as the duo left the car.
Once inside, Mona started to scan the small place for any sign of Wren himself, just in case, "Ali I think you should go order something, looks like they have a newspaper over there, I'll see what I can find out."
"Alright, be back here in 3."
They walked separate ways and Ali was the only one in line, waiting on the barista/cashier to take her order.
"Hi, what can I get for you?"
"Hi," Ali replied nicely, "um, just two black coffees please."
"Alright, no problem," the cashier called for someone else to get them ready and he turned his attention back to the blonde, "you're not from around here are you?"
Ali was startled that the young boy was starting the mini interrogation before her.
"Uh, no, me and my friend are from out of town, we're actually here to see my cousin about an internship, he was a doctor back in our hometown, except my purse was just stolen at the airport and I have no idea where he lives."
"Cousin you say?"
"Yeah, hmm, maybe you've seen him?" Ali smiled sweetly and pulled the picture from her purse, "there he is, his name is-,"
"Oh that's muffin man James."
"Muffin man?"
"You know, because he's English, like an-,"
"English muffin," Alison finished, no time to be amused, "funny."
"Yeah, that's Dr. Kingsley, he works in the doctor's office off on Fremont."
"Kingsley?" Alison whispered to herself out loud.
"Yeah, James Kingsley, nice guy, he moved here almost a year ago, my girlfriend's grandpa seen him for something, I dunno he deals with all our looney bins 'round here."
"That's great, you said Fremont was it, is that far from here?"
"No, it's only like 5 minutes away, but if you're looking for where he stays, I think he's in an apartment on Acalaca something like that."
"I'm sure I'll find it, thank you."
"Alright, well here you go, two pipin' hot black coffees."
Alison lifted her head, paid the guy and turned around to find Mona, not but a step away, "did you get what you wanted?"
"Yeah, my cousin," she emphasized, "works not too far from here, we should be finding him soon."
And before they could fully leave the shop, the cashier called to them, "hey, might want to try his work, he's there 6 in the morning to 8pm most days."
"Okay thank you."
The duo left and returned to an anxious Toby and Emily, "so what'd you guys find out?"
Alison gave Toby her coffee and Emily looked expectant.
"Sorry Em, black coffee is too strong for you, gives you a headache and I didn't see any specials," Ali answered without being asked.
"Oh, it's okay, thanks, I don't need a bigger headache," Em laughed at her injury but no one else shared her humor, instead Alison turned back around and huffed into her seat.
"I found out that Wren moved here almost a year ago, he changed his name, that's probably why Caleb wasn't able to find him sooner and the trails ended cold turkey. His new name is James Kingsley and he works at some small doctors office. I also found out that Caleb was right, he does live in an apartment."
Toby nodded, "is he home?"
"No, he should be working now until about 8pm."
"Well it's 6:15 so that gives us almost two hours to figure out how this is going to work, Mona, what about you?"
Mona turned in her seat to face Emily who had moved directly behind her and Toby, "well I picked up today's newspaper, apparently Wren took on a lot when he moved here, this town is small and I'm sure with all of Wren's credentials, real and fabricated, he was the likely candidate to come into practice as the leading doctor. I was reading the obituaries and he also works at the morgue, with some guy named Raymond Collins, that, and he came here because he specializes in the mentally ill, which is in abundance in this town as well as administering oneirogenic general anaesthetics."
"English Mona, what the fuck does that mean?"
"That, Alison, means Wren has had access to cadavers, sleeping gas and plenty of crazy people he can send to Radley whenever he wants."
Ali shook her head, "he's been here about a year, so do you think...,"
"Do I think he's been working with Charles for that long to plan this little kidnapping? I don't know, but it seems awful coincidental that he moved here and so easily got a job in these three specific areas that are also so different from one another."
"I don't believe in coincidences." Ali stated dryly and buckled her seat belt, "drive to his house, I'm done waiting."
Emily and Toby shared a look from the backseat and buckled there seatbelts too.
x-x-x-x
"It's 7:50, someone go over the plan so I don't th-thr-, so I don't vomit?" Ali looked worriedly at a pacing Emily who hadn't had a problem with her speech in a while.
"Em," Ali warned, "are you going to be okay?"
Emily stopped pacing for a moment to meet Ali's concerned eyes and she nodded, continuing her pacing afterwards.
"Em," Ali said more firmly, "say it."
Emily shook her head.
"Emily," it was Toby, "my partner can come now and you can stay with him if this is too much, he'll keep you safe."
Shaking her head faster, Emily threw her hands at her sides and "I-I don't want to b-be-be anywhere else."
"But Emily, I don't think you realize how dangerous this is, maybe we should've left you in Rosewood with some protection." Ali suggested although the moment for that option to be chosen had long passed.
"No!" Em shook her head, her hands starting a shake that began to move through the rest of her body.
Caleb stood from the couch and rushed to her side, guiding her over to the couch and sitting her down, holding her firmly in place to calm her down, "Em, Emily, look at me, right here," he pointed with his fingers in a 'v' towards his eyes, "look at me. Calm down Em, you're okay, I got you, but the only way it's going to stop is if you calm down okay?"
Emily's eyes were opened wide with a budding fear that an epileptic episode was going to break out and she was going to ruin the plan.
"Emily, I said calm down, we need you for this okay? Breathe, c'mon I'll tell you the plan, Wren comes home and we tie him up to a damn chair, we use what Charles taught us and blackmail him the only way we know how and we use it against him and make him take us to our friends, your family okay, but we need you for this."
Caleb was looking at a breathless Emily was trying her best to will away the tremors, everyone else's eyes fixated on her. Alison was sitting not too far but in the abruptness of things she was too afraid to get any closer. After all, just her words did that to Emily, she couldn't even imagine what her touch would do.
A minute passed before Em started to feel okay again but her chest felt heavy and her throat burned, "I'm fine," she croaked as soon as Caleb let go of her, "I'm fine."
Ali looked as Em got up slowly and she found herself whispering apologies to the brunette, "Em, I'm sorry, I didn't know-,"
"You didn't kn-know w-w-what exactly? That you were ri-right? Th-that I'm not strong enough to to do this? I can wait in the car if that's what you want?" She spat and no one in the room had ever heard that tone before, no one except who it was directed at anyways."
"Emily, I'm-,"
"Sorry, yeah I know."
Silence fell uncomfortably after that and the air started to become thick with tension, so thick some could swear it was palpable.
"Guys, it's go time," Toby said from his post at the window, "he's getting out of his car, get ready."
Caleb made sure the light in the back room they had already searched through was off to make sure Wren didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary as soon as he opened his door and Toby and Ezra both waited at each side of the door with duct tape and wire ties, compliments of one of Toby's many tool boxes from his carpenter days.
Caleb and Mona had a bug set up secretly and Ali was ready with blackmail while Emily stayed quiet on the sidelines, not getting a job as important as everyone else but being there for everything nonetheless and despite all her injuries.
The final seconds seemed to tick by incredibly slow, everyone's heart hammering in their chests. The key turned in the lock in the door knob and it seemed like everyone held their breath. Wren's silhouette could be seen from the light in the hall behind him and when he flipped the light on-
"What the-," he said clearly startled but it was pushed back into his mouth when a hard fist came at his face, landing square on his jaw and knocking him into the door.
Caleb reeled away from the contact, shaking his fist to rid it of the pain and clenching his jaw. After that, things started to move fast, Ezra coming with the tape over his mouth and Toby using his brawn to wrestle the man into a kitchen chair they set up in the living room.
"Mmm, mmm!" Wren tried and failed to yell for help.
"No one can hear you," Ali came from her previous position and stood right in front of Wren's chair, his eyes bugging out in confusion and shock, "and it's going to stay that way until you give us what we need."
Toby and Ezra finished using the wire ties around his ankles and both his wrists and continued to wrap him up around the torso with some rope.
"Now, here's what's going to happen," Ali squatted eye-level to Wren and placed her hands on each of his knees, "we've all agreed to let everyone who wants to, give you a piece of their minds, you just walked into Caleb's. Now when Ezra and Toby are done, because I'm sure they'd love to give you a piece of their...'minds,' I'll take the tape off and you're going to tell us what we need, if not, I put the tape back and we can...'talk' some more, after all, there's a lot to say."
Wren squinted his eyes and lifted his jaw, a clear indication that he wasn't going to break that easily.
"Alright," Ali said in a sing-song voice, "boys? Who'd like to go next? I think it's safe to say that Wren's a pretty good listener."
The guys all looked between each other, and nodded, looking at Em who was sitting tensely on the small couch behind Wren, they knew she was the most uncomfortable about this, so they waited until she nodded.
When she did and Ali watched Em take a deep breath, she looked back at Wren, blue eyes piercing into his and she sighed, "we planned on you cooperating, we're not violent like you and Charles, we don't hurt people, but you know what," Ali asked rhetorically, "today we do."
AN: hey all, happy early holidays, please review and leave your comments on what you thought about this chapter