Finally: - Chapter 3

It had been three days since the mysterious package arrived at Alison's door, they hadn't seen or heard anything from Paige since. Emily had stayed at Ali's ever since the package arrived, she was too scared to leave her alone for even a minute because Paige came out to be very unpredictable which neither of them expected. However, she tried to stop being so worried about her, actually she stopped showing how worried she was about her because no matter what Alison's safety would always be one of the most important things to her. Like usual they woke in each other's arms to the sound of their alarm.

"Morning." Emily said first since she had woken up before the alarm.

"Morning." Ali said back with a sleepy smile on her face.

Ali loved waking up next to her girlfriend every morning, she felt safe and like nothing could ruin her day after such a great morning but boy was she wrong.

Both got up and began getting ready for work, this morning Emily was the one who made breakfast and coffee. As Ali came down the stairs the smell of pancakes and coffee made her stomach rumble. She walked into the kitchen to find her girlfriend humming as she flipped a pancake in the air. The blonde couldn't help but smile as she leaned against the doorway. They had only been together for just over two weeks but they were already so domestic and Ali loved it. Everything was just so simple and pure.

Emily had stayed at Ali's nearly every day since they got together, she even had her own space in Ali's closet and a few drawers; they had basically moved in together without even saying a word because it just felt so natural to them. Every day after they had finished work they would drive back to Ali's and Emily would stay the night and the same would happen the next day. When Emily's swim team had practice after school Ali would go home by herself and two hours later Emily would show up and once again stay the night. Obviously, Ali didn't mind the brunettes company one bit in fact she loved it.

The blonde walked by the brunette pressing a quick kiss on her cheek and then proceeded over to the coffee maker where she poured herself a fresh cup of coffee. She noticed Emily smiling from the corner of her eye. Ali turned to face her girlfriend and just stared and smiled.

"What is it?" Emily eventually asked with a suspicious expression.

"Nothing, just love watching you cook for me." Ali said like it was something so obvious.

"Mhm." Emily said with a grin on her face.

They eat breakfast in a comfortable silence with occasional stolen glances from both of them.

"Come on, we better get to work or we'll be late." Emily said grabbing her keys and bag. Ali grabbed a stack of papers from the coffee table, her bag and followed Emily out the door.

Like usual they arrived at the school 10 minutes before the bell, they shared a quick kiss outside and went their separate ways once they got inside the building. Usual they would walk to class the together since they were walking in the same direction but Emily had a few packages to pick up from the office.

The brunette was greeted with a kind smile from the receptionist which she returned as she asked about the packages. The receptionist went away to go get them but she came back empty handed which caused a puzzled expression to appear on Emily's face.

"I'm sorry but it looks as though they have already been picked up by your assistant." She said as she looked at her clipboard which was on her desk.

"My assistant?" Emily asked in an even more confused manner.

"Yes, Paige." The receptionist said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Right, its she just not been in for a while. Thanks anyway." The receptionist smiled and Emily walked away knowing that she had to go tell Ali straight away.

She entered Ali's classroom to find her marking a paper that she remembered Ali hadn't finished last night. She shut the door behind her which made Ali's head shoot up but form a smile once she noticed who it was. However, the smile quickly faded as she noticed something was wrong.

"What's going on?" Ali asked in a concerned tone.

"Paige is back at work."

"What?!"

"I went to pick the packages with the new equipment but the receptionist told me that they had been picked up by my assistant, Paige." Alison could not believe what she was hearing.

"Please be careful, Em. I don't think she'd try anything in school but still please watch out."

"I will, I promise and the same goes for you." Emily managed to finish before the bell rang. Emily didn't want to leave the classroom, she did not want to face Paige and did not want to leave Ali alone even more. They shared one last look before the students began to come into the classroom and before Emily left.

As she got to her office she didn't see Paige anywhere, she dropped off her bag and went into the gym. Once again, she found no one (Emily had no classes in the morning and so she had plenty of time to find her new tormentor), she went to the pool to find Paige doing laps. At first Paige, didn't notice her but after two minutes she finally did and stopped.

"Well look who showed up to work again." Emily started.

"Well I realised it'd help me keep a closer eye on you and the Queen Bee."

"Whatever you're trying to accomplished isn't going to work so you might as well just stop now and save yourself some trouble." Emily said crossing her arms.

"And miss out on all the fun I'm having with this? Never." Paige laughed as she went back to swimming. In frustration Emily walked back into her office and slammed the door. Why isn't she doing this? What's the point? Emily asked herself.

For the next hour, Emily, couldn't focus, luckily Paige didn't bother her but the thought of Paige bothered her very much. She couldn't help but think that Paige would do something to hurt Alison so that she could hurt her worst enemy and Emily in the process.

After what seemed forever her classes arrived and the day seemed to go by much faster. Eventually lunch bell rang and like usual Emily headed to Ali's classroom.

"Hey." Emily said with a faint smile as she walked into the blonde's class and shut the door behind her. She walked over to Ali and gave her a quick kiss.

"Hi." Ali replayed after they pulled away with a smile on her face. They began to eat their lunch and Emily asked about Ali's morning to stay away off the topic of Paige but after Alison had finished replying curiosity took over and she couldn't help but ask.

"How's working with Paige?" the blonde asked with a concerned tone.

"Uh… it's okay we don't speak much so its fine but I did speak to her when I got to my office this morning and she said she came back to work because she realised she could keep a closer eye on me and the Queen Bee."

"She actually said that?" Emily nodded as she took a bite of her sandwich.

"Why can't she believe that I've changed?"

"Like you said she doesn't know how to be happy for me when I'm happy with someone else. I think she believes that if she still thinks of you as the young high school Ali it gives her a valid reason to be unhappy for me and apparently, a valid reason to torment you." Alison sighed, what the brunette said seemed to make sense. She thought that this was like something out of Othello by Shakespeare; Iago made himself believe something that wasn't true so that in his mind he has a valid reason to hurt and get revenge on Othello. Paige made herself believe that after nearly 6 Ali hadn't changed so that she could try get Emily back and hurt Alison in the process.

"I don't see the point in any of this." The blonde said in frustration.

"I don't either but it'll be alright. Once she sees that we're not bothered by what she's doing eventually she'll back of." Emily said as she rubbed her thumb on Ali's hand. The blonde smiled.

"I hope so."

Sadly, they were wrong. It was the end of the day and Emily had practice so Alison packed up all her stuff and left by herself. She got to her car and put the papers she had in her arm on the roof so that she could find her keys, as she found the key and slightly opened the door a hand that came from behind her slammed the door shut. The blonde and turned around quickly to find Paige.

"What do you want?" She said with the most bitter tone she could produce from her mouth but Paige just laughed.

"It's funny when you try to scare me." Paige clarified.

"I want you to do something simple for me- "She continued. "Stay away from Emily."

"That's never going to happen." Ali replied straight away without any hesitation. She'd never leave Emily no matter what.

"Are you sure about that? If she finds out what you've been calling me and how you've been acting towards me she'll leave straight away."

"Paige, what have I done to you?!"

"You've stole the person I love!"

"I didn't steal her, Paige. You left her and she decided to come to me. You need to deal with the fact that she has someone new and as someone who used to be her friend, you most of all should be happy for her or even just pretend. If you even remotely care about her you'll stop whatever this is because it's hurting her more than you can see." Ali said not even waiting for a reply as she got in her car and drove away.

Ali couldn't help but be worried that she made things worse for her and Emily because she angered Paige but she needed to stand up to her and try to stop Paige. She couldn't sit back and watch how this affected Emily, even though the brunette thought she was good at pretending not to be worried Ali saw right through it. Emily still was barley sleeping and every so often she would zone out because she was so deep in thought over what was going on.

Ali was sat on her couch deep in thought when Emily walked in, she didn't even notice her until she spoke up.

"Hey, babe" She said as she walked into the living room.

"What's wrong?" She said nearly immediately. Ali explained to Emily what happened and the brunette couldn't believe that Paige had the guts to go up Ali and say that. Emily began to once again pace and the blonde couldn't help but feel nervous.

"I can't believe her!" Emily shouted.

"How dare she!" Ali grabbed Emily's hand as she walked by and stopped her.

"Please sit down." Ali gently asked, Emily slightly calmed down and sat beside the blonde.

"That proved that she isn't going to hurt either one of us; she had the chance to hurt me and get away with it but she didn't. She going to back down, it'll be okay." Ali said still holding Emily's hand. She then pulled her in for a hug.

"Ali, I love you." Emily said into the crook of her girlfriend's neck.

"I love you too, and I always will; please remember that."