Emily threw her suitcase in the back of her car and climbed in. She had no idea what she was going to do. Where she was going to go. She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket and dialed Spencer's number.
"Hello." Spencer said at the third ring. "Thought you would be in the water by now?"
"Spence." Emily said as her voice broke.
"What's wrong?" Spencer said with concern when she heard Emily' voice break.
"Can I come to your house?" Emily asked.
"You know you don't have to ask me that." Spencer said. Emily hung up her phone and was about to plug it in for the two hour drive when she felt her phone buzz. A text from Alison lighting up the screen.
'Where are you going to go Emily? We know you are going to come crawling back, so why ruin the rest of this trip?'
Emily didn't respond to the text and finished plugging it in before another text poped up on the screen.
'No one will EVER love you like I do.'
Emily put her car in drive and took off out of the parking lot. She had a new determination and was going to put this, put Alison behind her. This was her last year of school before she graduated with the degree she worked hard for. Two hours later Emily pulled her car in front of Spencer's house and saw the girl come running down the stairs. Spencer didn't say anything and took the suitcase from the back seat, looping her arm through Emily's and guiding her into the house. Once in the house Emily turned and threw herself into Spencer whispering, 'it's over' to give the girl some kind of answer.
"You will stay here with me. I have that extra room since Brenda transferred schools for the last semester. Hannah, Aria and I will go over there tonight and get your things. You don't have to go." Spencer said. Emily pulled back and looked at her, no tears in her eyes, just a determination that Spencer hadn't seen in Emily since she stopped swimming.
"I am going to go with you. I am tired of her hold she has on me. I am getting out. And that starts with getting all my things back." Emily said.
Later that night Emily was looking around the spare room in Spencer's apartment. The little amount of things she owned sitting in the corner. She thought back to the times that Alison would convince her to throw something of hers out, saying that she had everything that Emily would need, or that they could get a new better one. The hold Alison had over Emily was disgusting. The things that Emily had given up for the girl. That wasn't love. She deserved better. Not just from someone else, but from herself. Emily vowed that night to never give up her dreams for someone else. 9 months later Emily graduated with top grades. She opened her own rehab firm for athletes that took off. Her father retired from the military and would come up on weekends to help Emily restore and rebuild the house she purchased that was on the beach.
"Em." Spencer said behind her softly. Emily was standing on the back porch looking off into the ocean. "It's time to go."
"What? What happened?" Spencer said as she ran up the stairs behind Emily.
"Something is wrong with Paige. I think it is her heart. Paige?" Emily said the girls name as she kneeled on the bed next to her. Paige was laying on her back with her eyes closed tightly. Her face displaying that she was in pain.
"Hmmm?" The girl made no movement as she hummed a response to Emily.
"Spencer is here, we are going to get you to a hospital, ok?" Emily said as she looked to Spence. Getting no response from Paige, Spencer scooped the girl up and carried her to her Range Rover. Emily crawled in the back and Spencer layed Paige so that her head was in Emily's lap. Spencer ran back into the house to tell the other girls where they were going and that they should meet them at the hospital. Running back to the car, Spencer began the drive to the hospital.
"You know, the first time I saw you, sleeping in that hospital bed, I still thought you were the most beautiful person I had ever seen. And then you looked at me with those big brown eyes. I know it is cliche, but I melted. Then you spoke. Your voice was strong and your words were determined. You knew what you wanted, and you fought for it. But I am so glad that you gave in and came with me." Emily paused as Paige opened her eyes and looked up at Emily, a small smile on her face.
"I knew I wanted to go with you before I stopped fighting it." Paige whispered out with a smirk before closing her eyes again and listening to Emily.
"Well I am glad that you did. I have never felt attached to someone like I do with you. Not even Alison." She felt Paige flinch at the girls name. She moved her hand down so she could run a finger along a particular scar on Paige's leg. "You are beautiful. No matter what she says about you. She doesn't get to define you Paige. I worked hard to get away from her, to walk away from her. Trust me, she isn't important." Emily bent down and kissed Paige once on the lips, nose and forehead, causing the girl below her to let out a small laugh. The car stops and Paige runs into the ER bay. A few seconds later she runs back out with a nurse and doctor following her, the nurse pushing a bed their way.
The doctor pulled Paige away from Emily, leaving the girl feeling empty as she crawled out of the car and followed the group inside. Emily and Spencer stood outside of Paige's room and watched as the doctors began to work on Paige, Spencer telling Emily what they were doing to Paige as they worked.
"They will start with an EKG and start and IV to give her clot-busting medication. That is a catheter they are putting in her leg so they can evaluate her heart functions to see what else they need to do."
"Spence, what is it?" Emily asked, afraid of the answer.
"A heart attack." Spencer said. "They are trying to see how damaging it is. We don't have to stay here and watch."
"I'm not going." Emily said, never taking her eyes off of Paige's face. Two hours later the doctors and nurses stepped out of the room, taking off their dirty gowns before going to the girls standing at the window.
"How is she?" Spencer asked.
"Definitely a fighter. Most people in that kind of pain make some sort of communication that they hurt. We had an older gentleman last week that was screaming and crying." Emily didn't wait to hear the rest of the doctors story, knowing that she wouldn't understand his medical terms anyway, Spencer would fill her in. She made her way to the door of Paige's room instead of staying. She walked to the edge of Paige's bed and grabbed the hand that wasn't hooked up to any machines. She bent down and kissed the girls forehead, breathing in the scent of Paige's skin, moving her head up so she could smell her hair. She left her nose there until she felt the girl below her stir.
"I'm all sweaty." Paige mumbled out.
"You still smell good." Emily said against the girls skin before pulling back and looking at Paige. The girl had lost some color in her skin and she had dark circles under her eyes. She ran her hand down Paige's face, cupping her chin and lifting her face up so she could kiss her lips. "I never thought I would feel like this about anyone again. She broke me too. But I am hoping I just found something that will fix me."
"I am going to try." Paige said as she closed her eyes again, falling asleep thanks to the pain medication they had given her earlier.
"So their going to move her up a floor in about an hour and monitor her. She did have a serious heart attack. They have to go in and do a coronary artery bypass graft. Their going to graft a healthy artery onto the blocked one." Spencer said, still standing in the doorway to give the two some sort of privacy.
"Spencer, that sounds more serious then you are letting on." Emily said as she ran her hand through Paige's hair. She began to think back to that day on the beach before Alison interrupted them. When Paige had pretty much collapsed on the sand, breathing heavy. Was this a sign that Emily missed?
"It is serious. But she is in good hands here Em." Spencer said calmly. "I am going to go see where Hannah and Aria are and where her room will be. Then we are going to go home, get food and a shower and come back here. No protesting." Spencer turned and left before Emily could.
"You have to do what she says. I will be here when you get back." Paige said. Emily kissed her on the lips twenty minutes later before going with Spencer and heading back to the house.
"How is she?" Aria asked as she looked out the window at Emily, who was standing on the deck looking at the ocean.
"She is strong. The doctors..." Aria cut Spencer off.
"I ment Emily." She said.
"Broken. She has fallen hard for Paige. I know she loves her. Even though it has only been a few days." Spencer said.
"Paige would be a welcomed change from Alison. I already like her." Hannah said from her spot on a chair in the kitchen.
"What do we do if something happens to Paige?" Aria asked. Before Spencer could answer her cellphone rang. The screen showed that it was the hospital.
"Hello? Yes, this is her. Ok. Yes, we will be right there." Spencer hung up the phone and moved to the door. "Something has happened, I need to get Emily to the hospital." She opened the door and stepped out quietly.
"Em. It's time to go." Spencer said.
"I'm scared Spence. I don't want to lose her." Emily admitted, looking out at the ocean.
"I know babe." Spencer said as she wrapped an arm around Emily. "But something has happened, and we need to get to her now." The two ran to the car and headed back to the hospital, to Paige.
