No One's POV

The night was over sooner than it had started and other than - who Mona revealed was very inebriated - Caleb, no one forgot what happened. Especially not Alison.

Today was a heavy day. There was nothing light about going to track down a psychotic brother that you had no idea about who's hiding in the middle of the woods and who has has lived to make your life and your friends' lives a living hell, not to mention almost get you and your girlfriend killed.

Yeah, the mood Alison was in wasn't what one would say was a good one.

She woke up last, Mona and Caleb scrambling to re-organize their bags while Toby and Ezra were discussing what to do with Wren.

"Hey," Ali called to no one in particular, her voice scratchy, "where's Emily?"

Caleb was the first to hear Alison among all the hurried rustling around, "hey, she's in the bathroom. She just wanted to freshen up. You okay?"

"Yeah, are you? I think you were a little loopy last night."

"Loopy," Mona scoffed, "no. Try sneaking out to the liquor store to guzzle down a bottle of whisky on the walk back."

"Wow, and you didn't share Caleb? I'm surprised you're not hungover."

"Hey, I know what I can handle," Caleb defended, "I wouldn't go into this drunk, we all need to be on top of our game today."

"Right," Ali nodded, "of course." She smiled and took a deep breath, finally standing up and stretching her muscles, "let's end this so I can sleep on an actual bed."

"Yeah, yeah, humor is good Ali." Mona nodded and swallowed hard.

Truth was everyone was on edge, neurons firing every known chemical signal that indicated nervousness, fear, anxiety, all of what anyone in their position could possibly imagine feeling.

"So we're doing this, it's happening finally." Alison said more to herself, forgetting that everyone was so close.

"Hey, you gonna be okay?" Caleb put his things down and approached Ali carefully.

"Yeah," but Ali's voice rose an octave and Caleb quirked a brow.

"Ali," he said knowingly, "this isn't going to be like the last time."

"What? I wasn't even thinking abo-,"

"Yes. Yes you were. You think loud. And believe it or not, but under that hard exterior you shed so long ago is the real you and I can read her face just as well as anyone else now."

Alison turned her head away but Caleb gently grabbed her shoulders and made her face him, "it's not a bad thing, it's good. It means you can't hide how you're really feeling from us anymore."

"Hide? That's what you think I was doing?"

"Yeah, Hanna used to tell me that she knew you were suffering but were good at hiding it. I don't know, I never believed her until now."

"Well," Alison took a deep breath, "make sure to tell Hanna I said thank you."

"No, you can tell her yourself later."

Alison swallowed and just nodded her head, "yeah, sure."

"Alison," Caleb said sternly, "you will."

"Okay, you're right, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Hey, listen, Toby and Ezra were talking to Wren, we don't know what to do with him."

"What do you mean, we turn him in."

"He wants to come."

"So what? Why should we let him get what he wants?"

"Because he makes some good points," Ezra appeared, handing Caleb a wire of some sort.

"Like what," Alison argued.

"Ali," Toby started, "he worked for Charles, he knows what to do to contact him."

"Yeah and so did we. We turn on our devices and back track the signal to pinpoint him. C'mon Caleb, that's what you said, right? You said it would work, tell them."

He looked uncomfortable as he took a few steps back, "actually, Wren was the one who pointed out the flaw in that."

"Which is what? You're the best at what you do Caleb, how is there any flaw?"

"Well, our plan was to turn on a signal when we were close. But if we do that Charles is essentially tracking us and if he sees that we're that close to zeroing in on him, he might run."

"Or worse," Mona added darkly, "right now, nothing we know about Charles is going to help us, if he feels threatened, we have no clue how he'll react."

"So how does Wren help us?"

"He can find a way to contact CeCe and get her to tell him that he wants to talk to Charles. If what he says is true and CeCe delivers a burner phone, we can still link onto the call and trace it."

"That's not how the terms were set. Wren said so himself that he's kept in the dark until Charles needs him. How do we know that Charles won't know that something is up?" Alison crossed her arms and looked to the bathroom, "what does Emily think about bringing him?"

"We haven't told her yet. She woke up, said hi to everyone and asked if she could have the restroom. No one has bugged her since," Toby replied to Ali, "I'm sure she's fine, but this is a big deal for all of us."

"Yeah, you don't think I know that? Of all people, I know that." Alison wished to add that this could be the day Emily gets her life back, but she kept that to herself.

"Well we'll take a vote, but I'm telling you now Alison, Wren might be our only chance, we still don't really know where in those woods Charles is hiding."

"So what, even if I say no, we're still going to bring him?"

"We'll use him as bait, hopefully Charles will agree to meet with him and we can follow there."

"That's too risky, he could make a run for it and blow our cover." Ali didn't like the idea of changing their plans at the last second.

"He won't."

"Yeah, and how you know that Caleb?"

"Alison," Mona cut in, "Charles makes CeCe deliver a burner phone and a manila folder with whatever assignment he wants carried out in person."

"So what?"

"So," Caleb looked around at everyone else nervously, "we kidnap CeCe and use her as motivation for Wren to do as we say."

"We're not going to hurt her so how does that make him our puppet? I don't like it and we all know Emily won't either. How will that make us any better than him? Huh? How does doing that make us better than the monster we learned it from? It doesn't so no. We can use Wren if it'll work to track down Charles, but we are not kidnapping someone and holding them against their will to get someone who loves them to do what we want."

Everyone else in the room sighed and looked away from one another, no one meeting eyes, too ashamed for not realizing how repulsive their plan was.

"Find another way, and find it fast," Alison declared, "that's final."

Ezra wanted to yell that Alison wasn't the boss, that no one has to listen to her, but even the darkest parts of him knew she was right.

"Fuck," Caleb threw his hands down at his sides and then lifted them back up to tug at his hair in pure frustration.

"Alison is right," Toby said, "if want to do this, we have to do it right."

"Maybe we don't need to use CeCe as collateral to get Wren to help us. It was his idea to go but not how he's going to help us. If he really believes that CeCe is good, then we can make him a deal."

"What sort of deal?" Ezra wasn't as eager to let Wren off the hook for what he's done.

"I know we all hate that son of a bitch and I know I want to see him pay for what he's done but we want to find Charles and get the girls and Em's parents back more than we want to see Wren go down so-,"

"So...what are you suggesting," Ali prompted.

"That we let him go. We promise him that if he helps us find Charles that he can take CeCe and go, we won't try to stop him."

"What," Caleb shouted, "no, then we're helping him get what he wants! Do you not remember he's the one who drugged and stuffed them into the back of a van and delivered them to Charles to do as he pleased with them? Are you kidding me? No."

"Caleb-,"

"No, don't Caleb me, I'm not letting Charles, CeCe or Wren get away with anything."

"Well we're running out of time, we need to do something, the longer we wait...we can't keep them waiting for us."

Caleb stalked off and scratched the back of his neck, "well since I don't have another idea, I guess this is the only choice we have isn't it?"

"If there was another way," Ali started, then paused, "we all know what needs to be done, even if it's not what we want or how we want it."

"Caleb," Toby approached his friend, "you know she's right, and we've waited to long, we have to go now."

Sighing, Caleb started to nod his head, "okay," he said lowly, "okay, let's do it, bring the son of a bitch, but I'm not sitting in the same car as him."

"Okay," Alison sighed in relief, "are we ready to go then?"

"I'm going to program our cars to the location, and I already called a lodge, not the one where Charles most likely checked into though. He might have tapped their cameras or whatever else they have, so we'll 'rent' a cabin down a ways and take a trip to the cabin and see what we can get from them."

"What about when we actually find the place Charles has been hiding?"

Ezra cleared his throat, "he's not getting away, I registered a gun in my name after you girls and Aria graduated."

"And I have my badge and gun with me, I'm going in as a Police Officer."

"But you won't have jurisdiction there," Mona noted.

"Then I'll fill out the paperwork and pay the price for it after, I don't care. I already called my old partner Andrew, he's going to come for back up if I tell him, he already cleared his schedule."

"You think getting someone else involved is wise?"

"Ali, this is different, we've never all came after Charles this way before and I'm not taking any chances, if he escapes somehow, Drew will be there with his gun ready. He's the straightest shot we have in the force."

"Okay, so what are we waiting for then? Let's go now, how long is the ride?"

"Almost 4 hours. I already mapped out the fastest way to get there, and with our cars, we won't need to need to stop for gas until we're halfway home."

Mona picked up a black duffel and looked around, "Caleb and I will be in one car, Ali, you and Em can sit in the back with us, Toby and Ezra agreed to take Ezra's car and bring Wren with them."

"Okay, so you're packing the car?"

"Yeah, Ezra and Toby are going to get Wren, Caleb and I are going to set up the computers and get everything ready."

"And me?" Alison was starting to feel inadequate again, wondering what it was that she had to offer the group, coming up short every time she thought about it.

"Um," Caleb looked at her with a soft expression in his eyes, "Em's been in the bathroom for a while, I think you should see if you can get her to come out, she needs to be on board with all of this too."

"Right," Ali swallowed heavily, something she couldn't describe getting caught in the back of her throat, "okay, yeah, I'll go and get her, you guys can wait for us in the car."

So everyone started moving, Caleb and Mona hoisting the two black bags over their shoulders and heading towards the door while Ezra and Toby walked back towards Wren's room.

A few minutes later, Ali was alone in the house, Emily sitting quietly in the bathroom still.

Last night was intense, it was a walk in uncharted territory, a nose dive into tumultuous water and Alison was worried about what it did to Emily. She had watched desperately as Emily fell apart in front of her and then sort through the broken pieces of herself and try to put them back together.

Alison took a deep breath and gathered herself before she approached the bathroom door. She felt stupid standing there, clenching and unclenching her hand, heart pounding like a drum in her chest her brain telling her to just knock, but her blood in her arm flowing like lead, keeping her arm stiff at her side.

Just do it she breathed out to herself. Her friends were waiting, just knock on the fucking door.

Emily's POV

I don't even know how long I was in the bathroom before I heard a knock. It was soft, just three little raps against the wood and that little sound echoed off the walls.

I woke up and I knew I couldn't walk outside alone, so I just sat up and practically ran in here. I rolled over on the couch and when I opened my eyes, the first thing I seen was...her face.

"Come in," I said, my voice low, I knew who it was. I had heard enough shuffling and not too quiet talking going on outside to get the gist of what was going on.

"Hey," Ali just barely popped her head in, "it's me."

"I know," I laughed, was she nervous? "Come in. Sorry, I just needed some privacy, I didn't know how long I was going to be in here."

"It's okay," she said finally slipping in all the way, leaning lightly against the open door, "are you okay?"

If I had a penny for every time someone asked me that...lots of pennies.

"I'm...I'm okay, I guess." I chewed on my lip and she finally looked in my eyes, and she looked in them like she was reading me, she knew I was hiding something, that there was something I wasn't saying.

And she was right. There was something that happened when I woke up and even if I stayed silent and kept my lips sealed, I couldn't forget that our eyes spoke too. And we were fluent in reading that in each other by now.

"You guess?" She pointed out what I had said and looked at me like she was...scared.

"Yeah, I don't know what to do with what happened." I was sitting on the edge of the tub with my feet pointed in at each other and my hands gripping the edge, not that hard thought, not yet.

"Are you talking about," and she trailed off but I didn't know what she was-

I made the realization out loud, "last night?"

She shifted her weight on her feet and nodded, looking over her shoulder to the mirror. I mocked her until - for a moment - our eyes met before both of us quickly turned away.

"Yeah," and there was a rough quality to her voice, like what she was trying to tell me kept getting caught in her throat.

"Well," I started, careful to look anywhere but her lips, or her eyes...not even her hands, "yes and no."

"And no? What happened?"

"Well," I started again lamely, "I do want to apologize about last night. I didn't realize it until I fell asleep, but it was unfair of me to ask you something like that and not think about what that did to you."

"Emily, it's okay."

"No, it's not. This isn't simple - what happened to us - and I don't make it any better or easier for us to get through it when I try to throw something like that at you. For that, I am sorry."

I was stupid last night, brain damage or not, that wasn't right. I shouldn't have. What was I thinking? What I thinking to ask Alison to do that when I knew that she missed me, and there was nothing more that she wanted to do than have me back to kiss me the way she would if I had been myself.

"It's okay Em, I know what you wanted and I wanted to give that to you, I did, but-,"

"Let's just stop apologizing to each other for a second, can we?" I cut her off somewhat in a rude manner, but I knew that Caleb and Mona, Toby and Ezra were waiting for us. Everyone was waiting for us.

"Okay," she nodded in agreement, but there was that look again, nerves and confusion.

"There's something I want to tell you."

"Okay, you can tell me anything, Em." She stayed by the door and suddenly I felt like we were miles apart. The separation going farther than the physical distance.

I wanted her to sit next to me, but I couldn't ask her that, I just hoped she would do that on her own. But when she didn't, I just played with my hands, digging my nails into my own palm before talking.

"I had a dream last night, but, I don't know if it was really a dream or not."

I watched, in a span of a few seconds, as at least three different expressions crossed her face.

"Okay," she said slowly, "and you want to tell me about it?"

"Yes," why was I feeling cowardly right now? Did she even want to hear it? Would it be too much again like last night?

"Well, um, only if you want to hear about it." I was talking too fast and I felt my heart skip a beat, my head telling me to calm down before it freaked out and sent me into another episode of shock.

"Anything Em, you can tell me anything."

"Okay," I breathe out, relieved, Alison has been telling me time and time again that I can trust her, tell her anything, ask anything, so why was it so difficult to just spit it out now, what I wanted to say?

"This dream," I confessed, "it felt like more than a dream."

"Oh." That was all she said and when I looked at her she realized that it was the only thing to come out her mouth, "sorry, I didn't mean it like that," she started to explain, "but remember what the doctor said: that you'd have visions and dreams and images and they'd feel real, and that some of them would be real - memories - and some of them were your brain's way of filling in the blanks."

"I know, but this was different..."

"Different? Different how?" She looked at me like she was caught, like she was...guilty?

"I didn't want to wake up."

Alison's POV

Emily had a dream she didn't want to wake up from? And so did I? What did that mean, did it mean anything?

A flash flood of what I had dreamt filled my mind before she cleared her throat.

"Alison, it was about us."

My mouth went dry and I wondered if she had the same dream as I did? No, that was crazy talk, of course she didn't.

"I-it was? Oh."

"You just gonna keep saying oh?" She laughed but there was nothing really funny about it.

"Why did you want to tell me you had a dream about us?"

"So you can tell me...if it was real...or not?"

"Oh," there it was again. Was that all I was capable of saying? Oh.

"There it is again, you know what we don't have to talk about it, we should be on the road now anyways."

"No, they can wait." I said firmly, and I stood still by the door, "you wouldn't have brought it up if you didn't want to talk about it, so we're not leaving until we talk about it."

"You sure?" Her eyes darted over my shoulder and through the crack I left in the door. I moved to block her line of sight so she would look at me instead.

"I'm positive."

At that she closed her eyes and I pictured her conjuring the images again before she spoke, recalling what she had seen in her dreams. My own imagination taking off, trying to come up with a dream she could've had that made her wake up and retreat to being locked in this small bathroom.

"I don't know when but this dream...it feels recent, when I woke up, I felt like it just barely happened."

There was a quiet in her voice - a vulnerability I dare not betray and I nodded, I wouldn't say anything unless she asked.

"In the dream - or memory, I guess - I was sleeping in bed, I don't think it was mine. But I woke up and I don't know how I knew this but it smelled like you," she trailed off and with her eyes now closed, she sucked in a deep breath, "it was like a faint hint of lavender, and vanilla and something I could only say smelled like your shampoo."

I smiled because Emily had always loved the way my hair smelled after I showered and oddly enough I remember the way my shampoo that I haven't bought since the day I left smelled too. I made sure to shower my hair before she came over, even if I didn't need to. I loved when she ran her hands through it or hugged me from behind with her nose buried in my neck.

"I like the way it smells, I pushed my head into the pillow harder, is that weird?"

"No," I told her, "you always like the way my shampoo smelled, but you never used it on yourself.

A look crossed her face and I hoped that I didn't cross a line with that.

"It's still kind of hazy but after I realized that I was awake, I smelled something else. I was alone in the bed, but I thought I heard someone with pots? Pans? I thought to myself someone was in the kitchen, so I got up and I was in these clothes. They were so big, I laughed at the way I looked."

"You always wore your Rosewood warm-ups to bed," when I wasn't, I wished to add but held back from saying it to her now.

"So this sounds familiar?" She was nervous and so was I, but half of our mornings started that way, the other half in the reverse.

"It does, but...we had a lot of mornings like that."

"Right, and all I said was I woke up in my sweats, that's not even specific yet."

"It's okay, Em. Take your time."

She nodded but this time when she looked at me, I saw in her eyes, what I had been feeling in my heart the moment she woke up from her coma: longing. She looked at me the way she accused me of looking at her, like she was waiting for me to come back to her.

"I went downstairs and you were in the kitchen."

"So we were in my house?"

"I don't know, were we?" She didn't say it to be smart with me, just a genuine question and I felt like an idiot.

"Yeah, most likely, you won't let me cook you anything in yours, so the same policy applies to my house."

Emily smiled and nodded, "good policy."

"It was your idea." And I don't know if that was a good thing to tell her, I don't reckon she remembered because her face fell and this heartbreaking frown crossed her face.

"I don't remember that." Her voice conveyed it all and my heart broke for her. Why couldn't I just take the pain away? I was tired of watching her crumble in front of me and beg the universe to let me trade places with her.

"It's okay though Ali, it'll come back to me. Other things will come to me."

"Of course they will, and I'm going to be here when they do."

"I think what happened next wasn't like half of our mornings spent together," she poked her finger through the rip in her jeans around her knee. Running her finger along the length of her thigh before dipping it into the shreds and doing it again, "you were making chocolate chip pancakes. I remembered that they're my favorite?"

"It was what you tell everyone who asked what your diet was." I laughed genuinely at that. Emily had brought me to the gym with her once - just once - and there was at least 4 different women who asked what she ate to stay so toned.

"I eat four chocolate chip pancakes and as much bacon as my girl- as my friend will cook." Emily answered for my wandering memories and I tried to ignore the clench of my heart strings when she corrected girlfriend to friend. I know why she did it, to spare my feelings, but I think it hurt more to hear that she was even altering memories to say to me without making things 'hard.'

"You remember the pancakes, and the one time you took me to the gym with you."

"That was probably a mistake wasn't it?"

"You laughed at me the whole ride home that I couldn't bench the bar."

"Sorry," she cringed and tried not to laugh.

"What for? It was...it's true, I went to support you, instead I was like a pet noodle you had to watch all the time."

"Noodle?"

"My arms, not strong."

"I see...Alison, what else happened that morning, if I'm wrong and it's not a memory, I don't know what that'll mean."

"What do you mean?" Her brows were knit, lip between perfectly white teeth and she was leaning forward with her hands on her knees.

"That morning, in my dream, or memory or whatever, I came in quietly to sneak in on you. You were facing the window above the sink and you were mixing the batter, singing this song...I don't know what it was."

It was Rascal Flatts' Bless the Broken Road. But I stayed quiet and by now she wasn't afraid to just tell me what the dream - no, the memory was...one of our memories.

"You had on this long t-shirt, it went down to your thighs and it draped off one shoulder. I think it was a band t-shirt. It's fuzzy so I don't know what the letters were."

It was a t-shirt from the first Beyonce concert she had ever gone to, she dragged me along and at the end of the night when I teased and said it was alright, she bought the last shirt they had in a stand in the parking lot...it was a 3x. She made me wear it to dinner afterwards and laughed at all the looks I got. But again, I said nothing and she wasn't looking at me to tell that it was all true.

"I snuck up behind you and let you finish singing that song. I think you had a beautiful voice, so I didn't want to interrupt. But I had my eyes closed to hear you and I didn't see you until you spun around and the batter in the bowl got all over me."

I bumped into her and almost dropped the bowl but it fell forward and by the time she caught it, it was already dripping down her shirt, barely half of it in the bowl and the look on her face-

"I wasn't even mad, I just started to-,"

Laugh. She bent over and started to laugh while I stood there with the whisk in my hand, heart still up in the air from being frightened. I remember the sound of her laugh, it was what I wanted to hear every morning.

"And you didn't even get mad at me Ali, you just snatched the bowl from my hands and-"

And I stuck my hand in the bowl and scooped up a glob of the mix and-

"I couldn't believe you threw it right at me. Most of it-"

Landed in her messy morning hair. She didn't even move until I did it again, finally realizing she was in trouble so she-

"And I ran through your kitchen I couldn't even throw anything back at you expect for what batter I had on me."

"And I cornered you in the bathroom." I finally spoke.

I didn't need to look at her to know that her eyes were wide and her mouth was pressed in a line, her eyebrows were furrowed together and the muscle along her jawline was clenched.

"You mean-,"

But I cut her off again, "you ran in and closed the door, but-"

"I didn't lock it."

"You wanted me to come in and get you. I opened the door and you still screamed like it was a surprise that I came in. You ripped open the curtain - I think you broke a few rings - but you jumped in anyways."

"I pressed my back to the wall with my hands outstretched-" Emily added, and both of our voices weren't present anymore. We were living the memory over again. I didn't even notice her stand up from the edge of the tub.

"I walked towards you slowly."

And that's exactly what Emily started to do, "you had this devilish smirk on your face."

"You knew that I was going to get you for ruining breakfast-"

She walked closer still, invading my personal space.

"And you," Em whispered now, "stepped inside the shower with me."

"We were both covered in batter and it was already starting to dry into our hair," I swallowed and finally looked at Emily in the eyes. We both knew what happened after that in the memory. I was afraid that right now she could hear my heart beating.

"And when you were this close," Emily came within inches and I could feel the heat of her body so close to mine. It was electrifying, I couldn't keep still, I felt like I was all over the place like my heart rate.

"When I was this close...," I swallowed, was she tempting me? She knew what happened after that, if she had the full memory of that day, she wouldn't torture me, right? She wouldn't do that to us...we weren't ready for anything close to that right now.

"When you were that close..." I backed up until I hit the door and it slammed shut. She was leaning in closer and it killed me, that look of pure innocence in her eyes, it was genuine.

"What happened then Ali?"

"Y-you-you pulled on the knob and started the shower."

I skipped the part where we kissed first, tasting the raw batter on each other's lips.

I couldn't breathe with her this close to me.

"That wasn't a dream was it?"

I shook my head, too afraid to speak at all.

"Everything that happened was real?"

"Yes," my voice even quivered with that one little word.

"So what does that make this? Right now, it feels the same right?"

"Yes." Why did she have this much power over me and where did it come from all of a sudden?

"So are we dreaming again Ali? Or are we going to make a new memory?"

Every nerve ending in my body was on fire and I know one touch from her, just one right now would make them explode. I felt like I was vibrating with anticipation and she could sense how badly I just wanted to give in, but it wasn't the right time.

I argued with myself that there was no such thing as the right time, that time was linear and continuous, there was no difference between the right time and right now, it was all the same, it coexisted at the same instance, always.

"If this is another dream," I husked, "then-then..."

"I don't want to wake up either," she finished my thought.

That was it. We looked at each other's eyes and then down at our lips and when our eyes met again, we knew...

She leaned in a centimeter, I leaned in just a fraction of that, holding my breath in my lungs until they started to burn.

Was kissing her now going to be for the right reason?

I couldn't finish contemplating because the glorious silkiness of her skin was upon my lips and my mind surrendered to cataloging every single detail about this kiss.

We sighed into each other's mouths and after that first few seconds of just contact I wanted to deepen the kiss, tell her in a way that my words never can just how much I loved her.

However as fast as it all happened, it ended even faster, leaving both of us craving more, my brain crying for more, my skin tingling with the need to feel her near me.

"Alison, Emily!" We pulled away like there was something that pulled us apart and I turned around to open the door to a very flustered and red faced Caleb.

"Caleb? Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, better than alright, we got something. We should go, like now."

I turned around and looked timidly at Emily who was standing there blushing, her hands shoved hard into her pockets, "okay, lets's go."

"We might have gotten a hit on Charles' lair, I'll tell you more in the car, but Toby and Ezra just left, we should go now."

"Okay," I said with my mind still trying to swim back to the surface of reality when I all I wanted was to drown in the feel of one person.

"Emily," Caleb addressed, "you ready?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, let's go." We walked off, Emily walking just a step behind me and I couldn't establish if it was my brain playing tricks on my or not but I could've sworn I heard Emily mumble, "I should've locked the door that time."

x-x-x-x

No One's POV

"Okay, so what happened?" Alison was asking while she got into her car, fumbling to put on her seat belt.

"I'm driving so I can't work on it anymore," Mona said, although it was obvious by where she was sitting, "but while we were waiting for you, Wren said something about Charles being extremely insecure. He said no matter what, he needed cameras everywhere so he could watch everyone."

"So?" Alison finished clicking in and when she did, Mona pulled out of the parking lot and headed straight for the highway.

"Wait, no matter what?" Em repeated.

"Yes," Caleb answered, "I don't know why I didn't realize it before but if that was true and he used an open circuit system - like most security systems - then I could tap into his video cameras."

"What how?" Ali was confused, computers were never her strong suit, she just didn't see how she could do anything on them besides send an email, so whatever Caleb and Mona did, always amazed her.

"Of course," everyone was surprised that it was Emily who spoke up, "and if you could do that, when we get close enough, it wouldn't be hard to find where that signal is originating from."

Alison turned to face Emily, "and how do you know that?"

"Well if they're in the woods, the signal for cell phones and what not is already going to be weak, probably to weak for Charles to run a thing like that right?" Emily was getting excited and Mona and Caleb shared a look of shock and impression.

"Yeah," Caleb answered slowly, clearly impressed too much to steal the moment from Emily, "but that's not it." A closed circuit would be near impossible to hack into unless we were close and we're too damn far to do that right now. But Wren told us that he was the one to buy the cameras in the first place, it was months ago, but he remembered the type."

"So," Mona started to add her parts, "we searched up the kind of camera it was and we found out that it needs some sort of internet connection-,"

"Or a phone line," Caleb added, matter of factly.

"Yeah, so since it needed that kind of signal boost to run the kind of cameras he has surveilling his lair, that could only mean one thing."

Caleb nodded and tapped away at the laptop in his lap, "Charles isn't as in the middle of the woods as we think."

"Well then where is he?" Alison was liking that Caleb and Mona were getting excited about what they found but none of it meant a damn thing to Alison unless she understood what it all meant.

"We ran a master search through an encrypted database of business and city activity in the area to find a place where there were cabins to rent and were near telephone towers."

"Yeah," Caleb agreed, neck still craned towards his screen, "and there were only two places like that in the whole area."

"Woodloch Inn and Bendigo Cabins both offer rooms to rent in a hotel like atmosphere and a chance to rent a cabin where you have 5 square acres to yourself."

"Okay, that just sounds like we narrowed it down, but we still have two places to look through right?" Ali wished they'd just get on with it, she got it already, they were smart, but as much as they were smart, she was just as equally getting impatient.

"Kind of. We found these two but we called the two resorts and asked about how many available cabins were for rent. Only Woodloch said that they had two rentals go out this month. One from two days ago and another that got rented out since the day after you left to find Charles the first time."

"They just gave that information away," Emily asked incredulously.

"Not exactly, we asked around but Woodloch keeps there files on computers, not a log in book like we thought we'd have to deal with, so I bypassed their firewall and looked at the names of the customers who rented the cabins."

"And what did you find? We don't need a name, we already know it would be the place rented the day after I left ."

"You're right," Mona addressed, "we're looking for cabin 5 that was registered to a Vivian Darkbloom."

A familiar chill ran down Alison's spine, "I never thought I'd be hearing that name any time soon again."

"It's the name Charles gave CeCe to give to you, I don't know why he'd abandon it that easily. We know he has deeper rooted attachments to the things he thinks he possesses," Mona reasoned dryly.

Alison shuddered and noticing it this time, Emily hesitantly placed her hand over Ali's knee and squeezed it supportively as if to say everything was going to be okay.

"Yeah, he's a freak, I get it, thanks for the update Mona."

"I wasn't trying to-,"

"it's okay, I'm sorry, I snapped, you guys are amazing, I shouldn't be so impatient."

Alison took a few deep breaths and sat back into the seat, looking down at Emily's hand where it was holding her and at the same time Caleb turned around and seen the interaction swallowing what he was going to say and instead turning his attention back to his laptop.

"Ali," Emily whispered so only the blonde could hear, "about what just happened-,"

"What about it," Ali finished a little too quickly.

Emily withdrew her hand, pretending the sensation she felt in her chest wasn't one that felt like scalding daggers being sunk in her chest, "I don't know now, w-was it a - d-did I," Em stumbled before forcing the words out solid, "- was it a mistake?"

"Mistake?" Alison suddenly realized why Emily might ask that and it dawned on her that saying yes and believing it was a real possibility.

No longer keeping it quiet, their conversation floated to the ears of Caleb and Mona and although Mona seemed like the logical person to come into play and interrupt what some might call the girl drama, it was actually Caleb who came to the rescue. Again.

"Eh hem, I think I found a way to get Charles without using our guns."

"Great, that's good."

Alison looked at Caleb through the rear-view mirror and thanked him. She didn't know how many times he'd come to her aid when she least expected it. He had been a true friend and...she would miss him when this was over.

Emily tried not to be angry with Caleb or hurt that Alison didn't just answer her. The fact that Ali hesitated told Em that she wasn't convinced fully that the kiss wasn't a mistake. The fact that Ali hesitated told Em that there was a part of the blonde that thought that the kiss shouldn't have happened.

But if it wasn't meant to be, Caleb would've come in sooner. If it wasn't in the universe's will, then Emily would've never had that memory come to her that night and either one of them wouldn't rejected the temptation then. But that's not what happened.

What happened was real...right? It was a kiss that they wanted for no other reason beside the fact that there was history between them, an undeniable love and an unquenched need that has been burning slowly for days now, waiting for some kind of accelerant to bring the flames to an untamed roar.

Emily had been waiting, just as Ali had, to be burned by this fire. To let it devour her and swallow her up. Ali had been waiting since that night in the hospital to let their love burn a hole in her lungs, she awaited the moment that Emily made it hard for her to breath.

Emily waited to be claimed. She waited for her memories to drown her so she could emerge from its waters her old self and reclaim the life that had beaten from her body.

This game they played, of cat and mouse, it was getting old. Kiss me, don't kiss me, they were sick of it. Scared and fearless were one in the same now, being reckless and rational held no real separation yet they were still stuck at an impasse.

They were tired of fighting. Emily with her mind and thoughts and all the conjured images and Alison with her feelings and what she was really thinking but not saying.

She was tired of wearing her necklace and Emily's bracelet at the same time. Together, they felt heavier than her heart - which always seemed to sit alone in the pit of her stomach.

"So did you want to hear what it was?"

"Dammit Caleb," Emily cried, "just give us a second will you?"

"Emily calm down," Alison tried to coax her down but Em simply shook her head.

"Ali, I can't. Think about why I can't just calm down. Please, please just answer me."

"Should we pull over," Mona suggested even though she didn't want to.

"No," both Ali and Emily answered but after looking at each other and coming to terms with talking about their...relationship...in front of Caleb and Mona.

So they both groaned and Ali tapped Mona's seat, "wait, yeah, actually could you just give us a few minutes?"

Mona pulled over and in silence, she patted Caleb's shoulder and they both got out of the car and shut their doors, walking a few steps away from the car.

"You think they'll be alright?"

"I'm sure they will be, I just don't know how they'll get there," Caleb stole a glance at the two in the back seat and shrugged.

"I've never seen them so strained."

"That's because they're both fighting it, if they would just both let go, you know, stop thinking and just do what they do best."

"And what's that?"

"They just need to be. Simple as that."

"Just be...what? Themselves around each other?"

"No, just be...and just be together."

x-x-x-x

"You didn't answer me," Emily said as soon as the two front doors shut, forlorn clear in her voice.

"Yeah...I know." Ali purposefully didn't look anywhere in Emily's direction.

It was too much, everything in her eyes would destroy her resolve, however little she had left of it anyway.

"So...what then? That's it? You won't give me an answer? Is it that bad?"

"Bad? No, Emily...you don't understand."

"What is there to understand?! We love each other, I understand that, it's you who seems to have a hard time muscling that. So what is it then? Tell me so I understand! Tell me, what is it?"

"I can't - I don't know how I'm supposed to-,"

"Try, just," Emily was starting to shake with anger and her head was beginning to throb, "just fucking try then!"

Ali kept her head down, not knowing that by now, tears were flooding her vision until her own feet became a blurry fuzz.

"Alison, you don't get to shut down now. What is it that I don't understand," and in her rage, a horrible thought poisoned her mind, trickling like venom to her heart so that her next words became low and broken, her voice struggling to remain firm, "what have you been thinking? That this is your second chance? That maybe I won't fall back in love with you and you won't have to deal with me anymore. What is it? Because I don't have all my memories and you don't want this broken version of the Emily you loved? Is that it, because if it is, then-,"

"How can you say that! How can you think that I think that?"

"Why are you the one yelling at me now, you won't even talk to me for God's sakes. Go ahead, stay quiet and let me think the worst, is that what you want? For me to torture myself with guesses? Because that's exactly what I'll do if you don't tell me anything."

Emily's heart was pounding a mile a minute in her chest and she wanted to punch the seat in front of her...so she did.

"This is ridiculous, why are we fighting? We're the back of your car fighting over what? What! Just answer my question...please. Answer me and I won't ask again. Clearly this is too much of a struggle for you, so just tell me if kissing you was a mistake and if it was and you're not ready for some reason, then if we manage to pull this off, then I'll have my parents back, and you," Em's voice cracked and she didn't care that the taste of salt from her tears filled her mouth, "won't have to deal with me. You can go, no strings attached, you can just-,"

"Shutup."

"What? Did you just-,"

"Don't you ever," Ali's voice was dark and it shot a chill down Emily's spine, "don't you ever," she repeated, finally lifting her icy blue eyes to piece brown ones, " suggest. Think. Or say that I should leave you. Don't you dare."

"Me? Don't dare? Alison you don't make any of this easy to-,"

"But that's who we are Emily! We've fought and you've hated me and I pretended for so long that I didn't care. Nothing about us has ever been easy. Nothing, not from the moment I meant you, not from the moment I first kissed you, not every moment between us since has been easy, and you don't get to blame that on me. So don't you dare say that I should leave you. I won't.

"We've through too much shit for you to just say that I could leave you and be okay. Don't suggest that I could ever walk away from you in one piece and still be able to function."

"Alison-,"

"Because I can't. I've tried it before. I will never do that again."

Emily was scared and paralyzed into silence, watching with wide eyes as Alison went on, her blue eyes wild with anger, pain and something that Emily couldn't find the word for.

"Listen to me now, Emily. Here's your answer. I will never regret touching you, never will I wish I hadn't kissed you, held you or been any further from you than I am now. I don't regret you kissing me. What I regret is putting us here in the first place. Every time I look at you, I'm reminded of what I've done and I can't love myself enough to show you how much I love you, not until Charles is gone for good and your family and our friends are safe.

"By denying you, I'm denying myself the chance to be happy right now. It doesn't feel right that among this nightmare - one that I feel responsible for - I can still dream with my eyes open when I look at you. It's not fair. And I'm sorry because I realize that's it's also not fair to you. But it doesn't feel right to be with you like where things left off, I want the next time I kiss you to be after a date, where you've seen how good I can be to you.

"It's not fair for you to love me when you don't have all the memories of why and I do. You should know how much I love you, know how much I'm willing to do and go through - other than this - to show you how good I can be for you, because there isn't a day that'll go by where I won't be trying to prove that I deserve you.

"One memory once in a blue moon or one miraculous day all at once, that won't stop me from trying to make you fall for me again, in every movie night, date out, lunch before work, rainy day indoors, and every morning when I you wake up.

"So now, I didn't regret kissing you back. I just regret that I didn't tell you how much that means to me. And how much more it will mean when we do this right."

Emily had tear streaked cheeks and the smile she felt eating her face wasn't enough to show how much her heart had swelled in her chest. She was falling again, she could feel it, right now, just in Ali's words, she was falling, head over heels, heels over head and all the unimaginable ways in between, she was feeling it over again, it was familiar and brand new at the same time.

"Then," Emily's voice was gravelly, "how do we do it right?"

Alison smiled back and laughed lightly while she wiped at her eyes with the backs of her hands, "we," she emphasized by grabbing Emily's hands, "will start - not from the beginning and not as just friends - from the point we are at now, minus how badly I want to kiss you. We do this right, by getting our friends back and going home. Where I will go to your house and ask your parents if it is okay that I take you out...with the realization that I need you back home before 11."

"How long until you accept that I love you and I have to kiss you?" Emily smiled and her voice was giddy with excitement, she squeezed Alison's hands harder than she intended, but Ali didn't mind.

"At least after the fifth date?"

"Five of them, that's how long I have to wait?"

Alison felt like a kid in love watching Emily's eye twinkle while they talked about the future - no, their future - together.

"Yes, five, we've known each other for so long Emily. I've played this back and forth thing with you before but when I was finally serious and you gave us a chance, well...that's how long it took for us to say we loved each other and mean it in every sense of the words. I gave myself to you that night and when you did the same, that's how I knew."

Emily's cheeks warmed and got tinted red and she chewed her bottom lip nervously, "knew what?"

Ali sighed, "in due time, you will know."

"How long for that one now?"

"As long as it takes until I prove to myself I deserve you and I'm worthy of your love."

"Oh, so not that long right?"

"I hope so."

Moments passed and a comfortable silence fell between them and Emily sighed loudly, "Ali?"

The blonde shifted and turned more of her body towards Emily, "yeah Em?"

"Can you promise me something?"

Ali's muscles and relaxed before she nodded, "sure. What is it?"

"Can you promise me that one day you'll wake up and realize that this isn't a dream? Promise me that you'll realize that you can live a life so full, even if you still think you don't deserve it, and be happy?"

"I- I- I'm not, I don't-,"

"Promise me you'll wake up and remember that I'm still going to be next to you in this. It's not going to be a dream anymore. You won't have to be afraid of 'waking up' and it being over. Promise me."

They shared a look that couldn't scream love anymore than their lungs could.

"I promise to wake up one day and realize how lucky I am that my reality is better than any dream I've ever had."

And if Alison could love Emily anymore than that moment, her heart would surely burst at all the seems and old patched up scars.

She would gladly let that happen and let that love intoxicate her, possess her, control her, swallow her whole, drown her in it.

In fact...she'd let it be the very death of her.

AN: I know some of you have been in pieces about the literal 22 chapters of angst so I hope this soothed that a little? I didn't know I was going to take this chapter in this direction, but then again, my brain does what it will and my hands are merely it's slave to the keyboard.

So I sound like a song on repeat but you all know by now I love hearing from you all, so if you feel compelled to, please leave your comments, reviews and...answer to these questions:

What did you think about the chapter?

Should I upload [to Wattpad only] my Camren (Lauren and Camila from 5H) fics? Even if I only have like a chapter done, or will that piss you off bc it'll take long for me to update? lol

And finally, the one I've been getting bugged about so much lately...*drumroll please* should I start writing Clexa fics?

Decisions, decisions, I can't wait to hear from you...well that's all for now loves, you know what to do, xo Lina