Disclaimers: I do not own PLL or the characters. This includes the Lily and Grace. I do own Jonathan Dilaurentis-Fields and all other children.
Spoilers: None
Rating: M. Some scenes not meant for children under the age of 13.

Notes: This chapter is lighter than the others. Alison is home. She gets to see Jon and the twins. They go to the park, out to eat, just some good olé Dilaurentis–Fields family fluff.

Hope you enjoy! :)

Monday, October 1st, 2001
Los Angeles, California

*Dilaurentis-Fields Residence*

Finally, after being away from her family for nearly 4 weeks, Alison is home. In her own bed. Next to her wife. And down the hall from her son and daughters.

It is 2 in the morning of September twenty–fourth when she is woken up by not her screams, but Jonathan's.

She bolts upright in bed and notices Emily is already up and moving out of bed.

"Em?" Alison is just a little freaked out. Why is Emily acting as if Jonathan waking up like this is not new? "What's going on? What's wrong with Jonathan?"

Emily sighs as she comes around to Alison's side of the bed. She sits down next to her wife and says, "He's been doing this for the last couple of weeks. Having nightmares. He has dreams of you on the plane or all of us on the plane, and he wakes up either crying or screaming or both."

Alison opens and closes her mouth a couple of times. She never even thought of this. How could she not think of this? Of course, she would not be the only one affected by what happened. Of course, Jon, her son, would have dreams about this, about her not getting off the plane, of her dying.

"I'm coming with you." She says getting out of bed and following Emily down the hallway to their son's bedroom.

"Hey, Jonny," Emily whispers as she immediately goes to her son's aide. "It's ok, baby. You're all right. It was just a dream." Emily whispers these things soothingly.

"Please, Mama, I wanna talk to mommy," Jon says once he has calmed down a little bit. He's still visible upset, shaken and with tears on his face.

"Well, baby," Emily says. "Mommy's home now. She's right over there." Emily points to the doorway where Alison is still standing.

Alison comes over and sweeps Jon into her arms. She whispers to him how much she loves him, how she missed him, how the dreams weren't true. She tells him she was ok, and that nothing happened to her.

Jon begs to sleep in their bed tonight. Something he hasn't done since he was four and moved to a "big boy" bed for the first time. Alison just nods and moves the blankets while Emily gets Jon's stuffed bunny.

The three go to Em and Ali's bedroom. Emily gets Jon settled while Alison checks on Lily and Grace. Seeing the two girls sound sleep, Alison gently runs her fingertips over each of their cheeks.

She watches as their chests rise and fall with each breath, thinking how close she came to not being able to come home to her family, like so many people on that day.

*Next morning*

The next morning, Jon, once again, does not go to school. He hasn't been since what happened on the eleventh. He had panic attacks at school for three days after everything happened and then began begging Emily not to make him go.

He wanted to stay home and wait on Alison to get there. He wanted to call Ali, in the mornings, at lunch, in the afternoon, at night. He was so anxious about what could have happened that he was just simply unable to function in school.

"What time is Wesley supposed to be here?" Alison asks as she and Emily are downstairs with Jon, making breakfast and coffee. Jon is showing Alison the first couple of worksheets that he has done with his now homeschool teacher, Wesley "Wes" Johnson.

Homeschool was something that both Aria and Ezra suggested after learning of Jon not being to go to school. Since Emily was unsure of when Alison would come home, it could have been weeks or even months, she said yes.

Now, Wes comes to the house around 9:30 a.m. He does a few lessons with Jon, math and reading, in the mornings. They have lunch and go to the park from 12-1:15 in the afternoon before coming home and doing some social studies and science.

This has been going on since last Wednesday, so about half a week.

"I told him about you being home and he said he would give us a few days off." Emily answers. Jon goes to put up his science worksheet and then comes back, immediately sitting on the bar stool right next to Alison.

"Mommy, do you wanna go to the park today? We can play soccer." Jon suggests. And if Alison is surprised at this, Jon suggesting that they play soccer, something that he normally does not enjoy, she does not say anything.

Instead, Alison just smiles. "Sure, baby. I would love to play soccer with you." The three sit down for breakfast, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and sausage.

Emily goes to get Lily and Grace when they begin to wake up and fuss. Alison holds her daughters close, hugging them and talking to them and telling them how much she loves them.

She and Emily give them a bottle and then get them dressed for the park. Jon gets diapers, wipes, burp clothes, pacifiers, extra outfits, and some toys, and puts them in the twins' diaper bags.

"Mommy!" Jon calls out as he comes running into the room. "Mommy, I have the bags packed, I did them all by myself." Alison glances at the bags and notices that he was able to get everything into the bags in a more organized way than she or Emily have ever been able to.

"Nice job, baby. Thank you. You're a very good helper." Jon asks if she would make a bottle for the twins. Ali, at first, goes to say that she is looking for a good pair of shoes to play soccer in and for him to go ask Emily.

But then she stops. She looks at him. She sees what either Emily does not see, or just has not commented on yet.

That look. The one that a person or child would get when spending time with a loved one, a parent, or best friend, whom they almost lost.

Then, it clicks.

Jon begging to sleep in their bed last night – something he has not done since he was four, not even when he went through the "scared of the dark" phase at age 6 (he slept in a sleeping bag in their floor for that).

Then this morning. Instead of sitting next to Emily for breakfast, like he usually does, he sat next to her. He insisted on her helping him pick out some sweats and a tank top, even though he has not requested or needed help in two years.

And now, asking her to make the bottles instead of going to Emily like he would usually do.

This is more than Jon just being scared because his mom was supposed to be on a plane that crashed.

So, indulging him a little bit, Ali says, "Tell ya'what, J-bug. If you can find me my tennis shoes, then I will go and fix a couple of bottles. How's that?" Seeing that he is still hesitant, Alison kisses his forehead and says, "It'll only be a minute, and then I will be back, ok?"

Jon just nods and goes to look in Alison's side of the closet to look for her tennis shoes.

:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/

Later in the morning, Emily and Alison finally get out of the house. They walk to the park since it is such a nice day. Grace and Lily are in their double stroller and Jon is riding his bike ahead of them.

They get to the park and Emily sits out a blanket for her to play with Lily and Grace on while Alison and Jon start kicking around their soccer ball.

"Look at mommy and bubba playing soccer," Emily tells Gracie, holding her up and pointing them out, "Little Lily, do you want to read a book?" Emily sits the girls against their donut pillows and picks out a book that Jon put in one of the diaper bags.

Later on, about an hour after being at the park, Jon stops kicking the ball and runs over to someone. Alison watches him go and sees her parents, Jessica and Kenneth Dilaurentis, walking in the gates.

"Nana! Papa!" Kenneth sweeps Jon into his arms and twirls him around. He then puts the young boy down and lets him pull him over to Emily and the twins.

Kenneth and Jessica both pull Alison into their arms. Jessica is crying and Kenneth is savoring the feel of his daughter in his arms. He came way too close to losing her just a few short weeks ago.

"Mom, I'm ok. I'm all right," Alison tells her when she begins crying. To distract them, she says, "Dad, do you want to join our game of soccer?"

"Yeah, please, Papa, come play! Mama, you can come, too. Nana can watch Lil and Gracie, that way the teams will both have two people."

"Well, I don't see why I can't," Kenneth says and he races Jon back over to their soccer ball. They split up, Jon and Emily, and Alison and Kenneth. Jessica reads to Lily and Grace, feeding them when they start to fuss and then laying them in their stroller for nap.

They play for a good hour and half. By now, they have been at the park for nearly three hours. Jon begs them to go town for lunch so Ken and Jess offer to watch the twins while Jon has a "Mama, Mommy, & Me" lunch date.

(Note: it wasn't until I got the next part that I realized they are not in Rosewood. So let's pretend that Jessica and Kenneth moved to California for their retirement, to be closer to their grandkids and Em and Ali)

:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/

Emily and Alison run home so Jon and Ali can shower and change. Then they head out for lunch. They go to Chili's and immediately get a table. Jon sits by Alison and they all get the chips, salsa, and Quesadilla for the appetizer.

"What are you going to get, Mommy?" Jon asks after their drinks and the appetizers arrive.

"Hmmm…I'm not sure. I kinda feel like having a steak."

"And what about you, Mama?" Jon turns to Emily next. She scans the menu for a moment before answering.

"I think I am going to get a burger with a side salad. What about you, bud?"

Jon has a kid's menu and is coloring in a picture of a pepper. He already knows what he wants as he gets the same thing each time.

"I want to get mac and cheese with corn on the cob and French fries. So I can eat healthy like you, Mama."

Their waitress comes back and they put in their orders. While they wait for the food, they eat the chips, salsa, and Quesadilla dip, and play tic–tac–toe with Jon.

They get their food and eat it before getting a brownie and ice cream for dessert.

"Woah!" Jon's eyes widen. "That looks delicious!" Alison chuckles her son's "big word" use and watches as he digs in. She and Emily take a few bites but let Jon finish the rest even after he is a gentlemen and asks three times if they are sure they don't want anymore.

Once they leave, they decide to expand the trip into a few more hours. It's just after noon and so they decide to go to the toy store. They look around. They let Jon try out a new bike, and Emily watches as Alison and him get into a sword fight over in the dress up isle.

Standing in the center of one of the isle's entrances, Jon holds up his sword towards Alison. "Halt! Who dares try to enter my castle? Announce yourself at once, Ye Lady."

Alison bows and holds her own sword in front of her. "Greetings, Sir Jonathan. It is I, Queen Alison, your Mother. Dear Son, may I please enter your castle?"

"Oh, Dear Mother, how I have missed you," Jon steps the side and holds his arm out. "Yes, my Queen. You may enter my castle."

"Thank you, Sir Jonathan." Alison enters the "castle" and she and Jon go from Sir and Queen, to singing "We are off to See the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz" as they skip down the aisle, arm in arm.

Emily stands by the shopping cart and watches them. She wishes she had her little handheld camcorder to record this for when the kids are older.

It is also times like these, times where Alison is just as giant of a goofball as her nine–year–old son is, that Emily remembers why she loves the blonde. And it is times like these that she falls even deeper and thanks God every day that this is her life. And that she didn't lose it on that day.

Like so many other people did.

Well, this was a bunch of fluffiness. I actually had fun writing this. I know I said previously that I was taking a break for the Holidays, but it has been about a month since I last update this story, so I decided to go ahead an do that! Please review and let me know what you thought! :)

Next Up: Chapter 8 – time skip of about 2 months. Ali and Em take Jon to the doctor after becoming more concerned for him. And Caleb and Hanna get a call from the adoption agency, just in time for the holidays.