**My apologies for the delayed update, I've taken these past week 2 weeks to just relax and enjoy my break, also catch up on some of the many books I'm reading. Anyways, I'm back and I hope you've all had a happy start to this New Year. Here's the next chapter of Emison, brought to you by yours truly. Read, enjoy and leave your reviews!**

Chapter 31: The Break-Up or The Make-Up

Emily's POV

Hanna called me again for the umpteenth time and again I ignored it. I knew she would keep calling and maybe eventually haul her ass here to check on me so I sent her a text instead, sure that my voice would sound like crap from crying if I called.

Han, I'm okay really. I'll call you in the morning, I'm going to try and get some sleep.

I sent that to her, even though I knew I wouldn't get much sleep tonight. I couldn't. Within a minute or two my phone went off and in the first seconds after hearing the ringer, I hoped it was Ali calling. But the hope faded as fast as it appeared when I heard the short ringtone end and seen it was just a text, and from Hanna.

Hanna – okay Em, but if you need ANYTHING, call me please

-I will, thanks Han.

No problem Em.

I thought that would be the last of our conversation but she texted me again before I could reply.

She'll come back, I know it, Em. She loves you. I love you too.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard on my screen. What was I supposed to say back? I didn't want to start this all over again. Maybe I wouldn't text back and say I fell asleep when she checked on me in the morning. No, that was too obvious. Ignore it all together?

-Love you too Han, call you in the morning.

I was disappointed and then I was relieved when the convo ended. Relieved because if it was her and not Hanna, I wouldn't know what to say. Not yet. There was so much going through my mind, a swarm of emotions that I'm sure I'd sound like an idiot if I called her or she called me. I got up to get some water, careful not to step on any of the pieces of shattered glass I didn't yet pick up. In my rage of emotions, anger included, I threw two of the frames that had mine and Ali's pictures in it. They were both nice frames, but they stood on my bedside table, staring at me while I tried to sleep, while I cried, while I held my chest and cussed up at the sky for no one but me to hear.

I stepped over the picture of us checked the time on my phone again; it was a little past midnight. I should've been tired, but my mind was working in overdrive trying to piece together what I would do and say. Whether I would yell first and then apologize or vice versa.

By the time I got back to my room, I was feeling a little lightheaded and my body was beginning to feel heavy and exhausted. I turned the TV on so I didn't fall asleep to silence and I laid down under my covers and faced away from my window. I was on the right side of my bed and I shouldn't have been. My pillow still smelled like Ali: like something warm and vanilla and something just so…her. I took a big whiff of it and let my eyelids sink shut. Her smell was the last thing I remembered before I fell asleep.

Alison's POV

Em's stairs were carpeted, so I climbed them in silence, stopping dead in my tracks when I came to her shut door. My heart beat so loud I was afraid she would hear me. It beat so loud that I couldn't really focus on any other sound. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. I still had no game plan: would I apologize for leaving and then yell at her and be angry and upset because she kept something from me? I didn't know. And I wouldn't know, not until I was in there, where she was and we faced each other.

I was careful not to push too hard against the door when I leaned in and pressed my ear to it. It was cold and hard, nothing like Em's chest which was warm and soft, where I would usually rest my head, my ear above her heart, listening to it beating, sometimes fast, sometimes slow and steady. But this time I didn't hear anything against the wood, but through it I could make out the soft voices of the TV, and I knew then that she was sleeping. I would've turned around and waited for her to wake up. Maybe sit outside her door until she found me.

But Spencer's voice played through my head, Did Em ever give up on you? No.
Even when you teased her and pushed her away? No.
When you were supposed to be dead? No.
When we all thought you were –A? No.
Exactly, she has never given up; she has always waited for you. Don't waste any more time making her wait.

One more little step forward. I placed my hand on the doorknob and turned it…

Alright Ali you can do this, you can do this…

I opened the door slowly and carefully, making sure it wouldn't make any creaking noises. My eyes shot immediately to her bed. She was wrapped under her covers on the far right side, my side I usually slept on. My heart caught in my throat and I couldn't swallow the air trying to reach my lungs. Her face looked peaceful but I looked closer and could see the puffiness around her eyes, I could see a glimmer of drying tears across her cheeks and the creases between her brows hadn't yet faded away. She looked worried and upset and I hated myself for making her feel that way. I turned my head to the right, to her mirror above her dresser and my face; pale compared to her complexion wore the same signs. My eyes were puffy, red surround the blue, wrinkles above my eyebrows were barely fading and you could see the spots on my shirt where the tears had fell and dried. There would be no more. I had to make this right. Right now.

I took a few more steps forward and stopped in my tracks when I heard the unpleasant sound of something crunching beneath my weight, like bones grinding. I looked down and lifted my foot, revealing a picture of Emily and I under many shards of glass. I looked around my feet then and seen more glass, kept looking and I seen another frame…well pieces of it. I squatted down and carefully pulled the pictures away from the glass and examined them in my hand. I recognized them as the ones on her bedside table, the one that her back would be facing right about now.

I stood from my squatting position and when I looked up from the pictures I met hers: dark brown and wide open.

No One's POV

The instant Emily and Alison's eyes locked on to one another's, a deadly silence filled the room and neither girl could move, or say a single word. To Alison, it felt like an eternity had passed before Emily finally sat up and cleared her throat.

"You came back." It wasn't a question rather than a statement, and as much as it hurt Emily to say it the way she did, it hurt Ali more to hear the angry laced in each word. Emily had sat up, with her arms crossed over her chest, the creases between and above her brow turned to wrinkles as she narrowed her eyes in the dark at Ali.

Ali stood, with the pictures in her hand, her mouth slightly hanging open, stuck and at a loss for words. The right words to say so that Emily wouldn't look at her the way that she was right now.

"Yeah, I did." Alison cursed herself for not having anything else to say, after all, she should be, she had the right to be upset too, didn't she?

Emily huffed and stared at the pictures in Ali's hand. Her gaze dropped to her feet, standing atop broken pieces of glass. Emily winced at the symbolism that Ali had caused her heart to feel that shattered before. Shattered into tiny pieces like that of the glass. Alison had in fact, torn some the best memories Emily had with her when they were younger, as she is now holding those pictures in her hand. And Emily grimaced at the memory waking up to the pain in her chest, as if Ali was standing on top of her, weighing her lungs down, making it had to breathe.

It would've been easier for Emily to fall back into that pattern of hurt. It used to be all familiar. But now, now when she looked at Alison, she seen someone just as broken as she was. Just as cut and hurt and upset. Emily hated that she was thinking the worst of Alison; especially after all she had done to prove she had changed.

Emily lifted her chin and forced herself to look at Ali's eyes. They were blue, but not clear blue. They were misty, as if she had been crying. Ali could feel Em's gaze looking through her eyes, and picking up all the imperfections the night had caused. Em could see the tear stains, the slight tremble in her hands, and the way her chest rose and fell uneven, shaking, like she was trying to remember how to breathe. Emily realized that half of this was her fault, for not just being able to talk about California with her.

Ali shifted her weight and Emily found the courage to speak again, only this time her voice was softer, quieter, pained. "Why did you? You left me, again Alison, why'd you come back this time?"

Ali heard sound coming from Em's mouth, but they registered as daggers to her chest. Em's 'why did you come back, sounded more like 'why are you here, why didn't you stay gone,' but Ali knew that's not what the brunette meant.

Alison took another step forward, cautiously and when she spoke, her voice was foreign. "I came back for you Em. I couldn't leave you." And even though she hadn't planned it she added, "Not even if you plan on leaving me." Alison swallowed the last breath after the words escaped her and didn't say anything else. She watched and waited from Emily to react, to say something, ANYTHING.

"Leaving you? Alison why are you such a stubborn ass?" Emily voice's rung clear in Ali's head, and she was shocked, because she hadn't expected those words to come from Em. She expected more anger and a confirmation that she was leaving Ali behind.

"Alison, you had no right to leave, just leave like that without talking. You get so wrapped up in who you used to be, why do you keep thinking that I don't love you? Why? Why did you up and run away instead of just talking to me!"

Emily had thrown the blankets aside and stood up, her voice growing exponentially from a small whisper to a shout.

The frustration transferred from Ali and she was hit with a fresh wave of energy so suddenly, that she soon found herself yelling back at Emily.

"Stubborn? I'm not the only one being stubborn. How many times had I asked you, almost begged you to talk about college Em? How many? I was patient, I waited, I trusted you to tell me and I trusted we would find a way to work it out. You waited too long, so yes, when I found the God damn ticket, how was I not supposed to think the worst? Why else would you have been keeping it from me for this long?" Ali threw her hands up and her purse dropped to the floor as well as the pictures, fluttering to the ground.

Emily stared hard at Ali. Letting the words sink in. She felt the mutual frustration, but she also felt the hurt and the betrayal Ali must feel.

"There's more it than you think, you would've known that if you just stayed. Running isn't always the answer; I thought you'd have known that by now. I thought you would have, especially after all the time I had begged you not to leave me again. And you did. You left me again. I didn't go anywhere. The ticket says California, but I'm here right now. Rosewood."

Ali felt the rush of guilt again realizing this was just as much of her fault as it was Em's. She sighed and crossed her arms to hold them together, rubbing the backs of them to keep them warm. It wasn't that cold but a chill had coursed its way throughout her body and holding her arms like that was simply a reaction.

Emily could see the gears in Ali's head working double time; she could practically hear the thoughts screaming her mind as they crashed into one another, trying to order them in some fashion that would make sense. Emily sighed too, and felt her shoulders slump.

"Ali," Emily's voice was soft and flat, she sound tired, not from lack of sleep, but from letting this stupid situation drive a wedge between them, "Ali," she repeated until blue eyes, met with her brown ones, "I'm not planning on leaving you. Not now, not after graduation…" she wanted to say not ever, but she still had no clue what Alison had come here to her house prepared to do, or say. "That was never the plan."

"Yeah, then what was? Tell me Em, because I'm tired of thinking and waiting for the day you're going to leave, or when I'm going to mess up and send you packing. If that's going to be June 1st, like the damn ticket says, then tell me now to get it over with."

"Dammit, did you not just hear me?! I'm. Not. Leaving. You." Emily was frustrated she was angry now that Ali kept thinking that the end of their relationship was near.

"My mom bought that ticket a while ago when my dad called. He's been stationed in California for some training thing and he won't be home anytime soon, that includes him not being here for Prom and graduation. He doesn't know, but my mom thought it would be nice to surprise him the day after."

Ali jumped in before Em could continue, "And why the hell was that so hard to say the first time?" Emily looked down and up again before speaking.

"There's more." She took a deep breath, "Then, my dad calls and says that he might be moving on up in his rankings and his commanding officer wants him to stay in California, if not permanently, then temporarily, as in years. My mom was thrilled, happy that I would be graduating soon and we could all leave Rosewood. She even threw in my face something I said to her about leaving, I once told her that not all of us dream of making it in Rosewood; she realized that when I said it, I meant me. I wanted to tell you, but when my all this happened, I didn't know how."

Alison stayed silent, waiting for the hard blow to come rolling in.

"Sooo my mom didn't even ask, but said that it was a great idea to all move to California. I didn't want to at first," but Em didn't get to go on.

"At first?" Ali repeated, "buuuut?" She knew this was it, she braced herself for the worst.

"But then, like magic, a few letters came in the mail from some schools over there, offering scholarshops and saying they're interested in me being on the swim team, even after my injury they said they were willing to work with me and maybe after the first season, using me as their anchor. My mom and dad were thrilled, they made plans to visit the schools and see which one would best suit me, that's actually where my mom is now. They just figured that it would be cheaper to go to school there and that I wouldn't say no."

Ali felt terrible for leaving when she thought it was Em's way out. Em was right, she should have stayed. But that wasn't what came out of her mouth next. "Well, what did you say? What is the plan Em?" Ali's voice was sharp, straight to the point, she couldn't bare the suspense. "What did you tell your parents?"

It wasn't easy for Em to reveal her first answer. "I said yes."

Ali didn't hear anything else after 'yes' and she felt something deep within her crack and before tears could leave her eyes, Em rushed around the glass to her, closed the distance between them, and without thinking placed her hands high on Ali's arms. "I said yes before everything between us got better, before you asked me to be your girlfriend. I said yes when I couldn't bear the thought of living so close to you, both of us living separate lives only to watch you be with someone else. I knew that I wasn't going to be strong enough for that so I said yes as a way my feelings for you behind while I tried to move one somewhere else. I didn't want you to see me still pining over you here."

Ali let the words register before any more tears were shed. And she played them in her head before responding. She knew what Em what Em was saying, she understood, but something was still wrong. Emily said yes before. Before. Before. But what about now, Ali needed to know Emily's answer right now.

As if Ali's thoughts were that loud, Emily added, "and I know you want to ask what about now, what my answer is now, and I…" but Emily didn't know, she couldn't make that decision now, and she knew that that was another she waited so long to tell Ali.

"Yes, Em. What about now. What is your answer now?" Ali asked simply, she didn't add emphasis or try to influence Em's answer. To be honest, she was thrilled that Em had been given the opportunity that she's always wanted. Ali never had the chance to actually see Em swim, and after -A was the reason for Em's shoulder injury, Em hadn't swam in a while. But the way Em looked in some of her swim photos and the way the girls had told Ali about it, she knew she knew for sure that Em was really her mermaid, in every sense of the word. Ali felt a new rush of guilt wash over her; she didn't want to be the reason Em didn't follow her dream. She wouldn't hold her back.

"I- I- that's just the thing Ali, I don't know. I just got you and I have no intention of leaving you, not for a day, a week or for a summer, however long it is, I don't want to spend it without you."

It was bittersweet to hear, but Ali knew it was selfish to ask Em to stay while she finished getting her credits from high school to get her GED. It would be something the old Ali would ask, what she would want.

"Em, I can't, no I won't be the reason you don't go. You have to do this is. You should go to California; I know you'll have the best shot there. And I, I can't let myself hold you back from your dreams."

Emily processed what Ali was saying and it was a shock from the anger and hurt she expected. It was another side of Ali that she had hardly seen, maybe never until now. It was great what she was saying. Ali wanted Em to go and do something she really loved. That was what she should have heard, but to Em, it was if Ali was pushing her away…again.

"Ali," Em started and took a deep breath. Her hands dropped slowly, hesitantly to Ali's hands and Ali marveled in the feel of them. Emily looked down and looked over each one, they were better than what she memorized in her mind. Her little scar was perfect, her fingers slender, her hands soft and warm to the touch. It had only been hours, but in that moment, Emily missed the skin to skin contact more than anything, and she allowed Ali to intertwine their fingers and gently trace her thumb over the back of her hand.

"Ali," she started again, "you're saying this as if I've decided, and I haven't, I still have time to give the colleges, all of them an answer. Swimming was all I ever thought about, it was what I cared about and pictured in my future all the time," Ali's heart sunk, but she knew this would be coming, "Ali, I imagined swimming was all I would have, if I couldn't have you. I filled myself and made everything I did about me and being in the water, I literally tried to drown any thoughts of you, but something always pulled me to the surface, a memory, a dream, just the image of your face, or remembering the way your laugh sounded and I knew that my one true dream was just to have you. And I did, I do, if you want this, then I still have you."

Alison stood there, her hands wrapped in Em's and she was speechless, she hadn't known that Em thought of her that often, she had thought in the years that she was gone, that Emily had learned to move on and lessen the heartache. "Emily, I can't keep taking these things from you I don't deserve. I won't have enough credits to graduate on time, and when college starts, I want you to be where you envisioned you would be, even if that means I stay here in Rosewood. I don't want to fight about this, I just can't let you through something this big, this important away for me."

"For you? Alison why does everyone, hell, why do you think that this has to be about you? Why?! Why can't I be doing this for me? What about what Emily wants huh? I know I loved swimming, I still do, and yeah, once upon a time I thought it would great to move out to California, soak up some sun and start over, but that doesn't mean we can't find a happy medium. There are plenty of other colleges, closer to here that have given me offers before. This doesn't mean that we, that we…" Em stopped, too afraid that if she finished, so would their conversation.

Ali sucked in a breath and gathered any courage she believed she had. "That we what Em, that we have to break up?" The words came out of her mouth and tore at her chest, clawed its way through her chest and raked at her heart. She didn't want that to be the reality of the situation, but things were too good for her life to continue as a fairy tale.

"Emily, long distance relationships are hard. As much as I love you, I will never stop feeling like I'm not enough. I can't fight what-"

"You can't fight?" Emily dropped her hands and took a step away from Alison. Her voiced cracked like Ali's did and her vision blurred when a curtain of tears welled up in them. "I'm not worth fighting for? We are not worth the fight?"

Alison might as well have dropped to her knees and begged Em to not look at her the way that she was.

"No, Em that's not…"

"Not what you mean? I fought for you Ali, all the time, I stood up for you, I believed in you and waited for you. I love you and I am willing to fight for you, but if the feeling isn't mutual, you might as well have never came back."

Alison remembered the exact feeling when she was stabbed in the leg and that same stomach wrenching feeling made its presence well-known in the depths of her heart.

"So tell me Alison, what is it going to be? You can work through this with me, right now and we can come up with a plan. Or, you can walk out of my doors again…for the final time. Tell me, right now."

Emily's voice rose to a shout again and she sounded angry. Her voice shook with rage and fear and the tears rolling down her cheeks was enough to shatter whatever held Alison together, but Ali still hadn't found her voice.

Emily brought her hands to Alison's shoulders again, only this time her grip was hard and it almost hurt. Emily walked forward and slammed Ali in the dresser behind her, shaking her shoulders slightly. "Tell me what you want Alison! Is this how it's going to be when we're together? When shit gets hard you're going to leave, you're going to run out and leave me? You won't fight back?" Emily pulled Ali close and pushed her into the dresser again, this time using her weight until Ali felt the handles dig into her back.

This side of Emily Ali had always known existed, the side that was fearless and brave and strong, Ali couldn't help but be afraid yet love her more. "Tell me Alison. Just tell me what you want." Emily's voice came in soft and low, close to Ali's face, so close that Alison could feel her breath caress her face.

In a few short breaths, Emily's grip started to loosen and before she could pull away, Ali's hand shot to her face and before their eyes could even meet, she brought their lips together and kissed Emily with a fiery passion she had never felt before. Emily's eyes widened in shock but the familiar feel of Ali's warm heart-shaped lips reeled her in deeper and she succumbed to the feel of their lips meshing and molding. In a short battle for dominance that Em soon won, their tongues danced in each other's mouths until both started to moan.

Ali had to break away for air and she kept her hands on either side of Em's face, resting her forehead to Em's breathing heavily until her lungs stopped burning. "Emily, I want you. I will always want you." Emily lifted her head and when the tears she had just tried to hold back fell, she slowly dragged her hands up to Ali's face, and made herself look into the deep blue of them. Drifting away slightly, yet not getting totally lost at sea. "Ali, I'm sorry, this is all my fault, I should have told you, I should have been honest, I"

Ali brought her hand to Em's lips and hushed her, "No Em, I know it's a lot to think about, I trust you and I should've trusted you more when I found that damn ticket and I should have been the one to wait for you, I'm sorry."

Emily smiled faintly, knowing that the worst had to be behind them, that after this, there would be no more problems, not without facing them together anyway.

"Emily, I've been a coward all along, but not anymore okay? I will fight for you, for this, for us. And I won't stop fighting for us, until I give you your happy ending."

Emily stopped Ali's rant with a kiss of her own that was rough and hard and screamed desire. Sucking the breath straight from Ali's lungs until the blonde was moaning and Em was clawing at Ali's clothes.

Breathless, Em managed to kiss her way down and up Ali's neck, "we'll figure this out Ali, but not right now, right now I just want you." Their eyes met, each matched the other's intense gaze of desire and that was all it took for them to make their way to the Em's bed.

Ali let her body relax when she realized Em was the one doing all the work. Emily had thrown Ali into the dresser so hard the frames on the wall behind it rattled and Ali and screamed out a moan that was a cross between pain and pleasure and when she jumped up to wrap her legs around the brunette's waist, Em had thrown her down atop her bed and swiftly removed her pants. Her mouth was hot and hungry, relentless. Her hands were rough and fast and unyielding, tearing off first Ali's and then her own clothes, until both girls lie naked in her bed, heaving for breath, a thin layer of sweat forming on the back of Ali's neck.

The way the clawed at one another exuded all the pent up frustration and anger and hurt, every emotion that each had felt in the past hours. Their hands were rough, leaving bite marks and scratches, for Ali, some bruises, and Em had wrapped her hands into Ali's hair and pulled hard, giving herself access to attack her neck with some not-so gentle sucking and teeth grazing. Ali's hands gripped Em's ass and held her tighter her nails, digging into the tan flesh, earning groans from the brunette. They were caught in a mess of rough love making and after the first round of orgasms, Em knew that the aggression had left her body, she used it all up throwing picture frames, crying, yelling and just now, while she had taken advantage of her strength over Alison. Emily also knew that what had just happened was only the beginning.

Emily got up on her elbows, watching the rise and fall of Alison's chest and stayed hovered over Ali's body but when she finally lowered herself, placing a leg between Alison's legs, her movements stopped being so aggressive and turned soft and sensual and so sweet Ali's mind raced back to weeks ago in at Lover's Peak and she thought it was their first time all over again. Emily's mouth was warm and wet, her lips leaving trails of fire blazing across her skin in their wake. Em's hands no longer gripped and her nails no longer dug into her flesh, instead they ghosted over Ali's breasts and tangled themselves in her blonde hair.

Her tongued traced the outline of her mouth, around her breasts and straight to her awaiting center. Hot and wet already from the moment she decided to crash her lips to Em's. Ali became lost in every touch and every feel that the past few hours erased themselves and so help her God when Em's hand trailed lower and lower down her body, Ali whimpered in anticipation, waiting anxiously to release the tension her body had held for what seemed like forever. Em's fingers found all the right places, working in tandem with the rocking of Ali's hips. Cries of passion and love and hurt and longing escaped their mouths, but never left the confines of the walls.

It didn't take long for Ali's walls to tighten over Emily's fingers, climaxing in the most intense ways she has ever done before. Ali caught her breath in time to roll them over and return the favor, this time using her thumb to rub circles into Em's swollen clit. Ali's mouth latching on to one of her nipples as her fingers thrust into Em, erasing the pain and replacing it with pleasure. Em was quivering and coming undone in the palm of Ali's hand just as fast and soon the girls lie in a heap of scratches and love marks, panting, sighing, holding one another like only they knew how.

Ali's head found its place on Em's chest, lolling off to the steady thump of her heart. Ali traced her hand in circles over Em's chest and Em did the same to Ali's back, each one knowing that separation wasn't a possibility.

"Emily."

"Yeah, Ali?"

"I'm never going to walk away from you again."

Emily wanted to reply with an 'I know,' but instead, she shifted her body and placed her lips on Ali's and let her hand push into the small of her back. When they pulled away, Em had a playful smile on her mouth, "good."

Ali quirked an eyebrow, "what is that look for?" Ali moved in nervousness, but instead of asking again, Em rolled her body on top of hers and looking down she said, "I can show you better than I can tell you," ending it with a smirk.

Ali mustered up enough energy to keep up with Em that night, finally understanding firsthand the merits of make-up sex.

***I'm the biggest Emison shipper there is (okay, fine, one of the biggest, I don't want to start a fight lol) so I hope the chapter title didn't scare too many of you? Of course #EmisonIsEndgame, but Marlene makes the whole Emison army sweat, so eh, why shouldn't I... Anyhow, I hope that satisfied some of you? So, please let me know what you thought about this chap?

The next chapter will include a shower scene from the morning after this chapter here (I'm sure you'll all enjoy that *wink wink) the plan Ali and Em make about college then we'll see more of all the liars in action and then a little time jump to PROM! I hope you are all still with me on this story? And please tell me you're guesses on what they work out?

Also I'm saying sorry here for not updating the other one-shot prompts, I was so excited about them all, I started some but failed to finish a whole one, I will be soon though, please just bare with me?

Thanks loves, Lina;*

Next Chapter: Do You PROMise? (Upload date: Jan 7)

First One-Shot to be uploaded: Prompt-Ali wants to try a new 'position' (Upload date: Jan 8)