Light filtered in the hospital room through the blinds and Alison woke up when she heard shuffling inside the room. After being on the run for two years, she learned to be a light sleeper, and she was no closer to finding out A's involvement in Emily's coma. Her eyes peeked open to find an older version of Emily standing over the bed with a hand clasped to her mouth.
"Hi Mrs. Fields," she said breaking the woman out of her trance.
"Hi Alison, thank you for staying with Emily," she said coming over towards the chair.
"I'd do anything for her," Alison said.
"I know you would. I have to go look for the doctor to see if he will come explain everything," she said working herself into a fit.
"Mrs. Fields, it's only 5 am, he will be making rounds around 8 am. In the meantime, why don't you sit in this chair? Is there anything I can get for you," Alison said trying to calm her down.
"Sorry for being so manic," Mrs. Fields apologized.
"No need to apologize, its Emily, and these are no ordinary circumstances. I reacted the same way yesterday if not worse," Alison replied, setting the woman up in the chair. "Do you want coffee, a sandwich, anything?"
"No I'm fine. Why don't you go get yourself something to eat, or you could go home and sleep in your bed. Don't you have school today?" she asked.
"No, Spencer and the girls are dropping some things by for me. I don't want to leave her side. I have to talk to the principal about taking online classes," Alison replies.
"I promise I will call you if anything changes, go home get some rest, you've been here for two days already," Mrs. Fields said in a final tone.
"I don't have a car," Alison said.
"Take Emily's," she suggested.
"Okay," Alison replied and hugged her goodbye and kissed Emily on the cheek promising to be back later. On the elevator she sent a text to the girls that she'd be home for a little while and that Mrs. Fields is at the hospital. Once she was home, she went upstairs to take a shower. It felt rejuvenating at first, and then the events of the past few days started to hit her. She crumpled in the corner of the shower and cried for as long as her body would allow. She imagined Emily picking her up from the shower, dressing her and cuddling with her until she fell asleep. She woke up in the early afternoon with her appetite non-existent. She quickly dressed and made her way to Rosewood High to meet with the principal.
"Hello Miss DiLaurentis," Principal Hackett said.
"Hello Principal Hackett," she replied with a nod.
"What can I do for you today?"
"I would like to take online courses for now," she said.
"May I ask why," he asked in a tone that said he expected an answer.
"Well my girlfriend is in a coma and I really don't want to come back to a school where everyone hates me at the moment," she said sharply.
"I see. I'll allow it, but you'll need to be present in school for standardized testing as well as coming in once a month for a report," he said.
"That's fine with me," she replied.
"Okay, exit this door and go towards the guidance area. Ms. Ryan will give you all the information about the online courses. She will also be your liaison for any troubles you're having," he said and got up to shake her hand. She exited the door and soon found herself in the guidance area. The process with Ms. Ryan took an hour and pretty soon she heard the bell for lunch. She text the girls that she was at the school and that she'd meet them at their lunch table.
"Hey Ali, what are you doing here?" Aria asked.
"I came here to get everything in order and get cleared to take online courses," she replied.
"Oh, you don't want to come back to school?" Spencer asked.
"Not yet. I want to get adjusted to being alive and watch over Emily. Once she's back to health, we'll return together," Alison said and they all nodded.
"How's she doing?" Hanna asked.
"The same as yesterday. I should probably get going back to the hospital; I'll see you guys there later. Be sure to bring flowers for Mrs. Fields," she said before she got up to leave. Fifteen minutes later she found herself at her house packing a bag with her books, clothes and magazines. She then went to Emily's house to get a change of clothes for her for when she left. Around 3, she was making her way back to Emily's room and saw Mrs. Fields nursing a cup of coffee.
"Do you want to go home and rest and change? I know you came here right off your flight," Alison asked.
"No, I'm fine, thanks," she said quietly.
"Did the doctor explain everything?" Alison asked.
"Yes and he mentioned about the anesthesiologist," she replied with a hint of anger in her voice.
"Oh," was all Alison could reply before the girls were entering the room with flowers and grim smiles.
"Hi Mrs. Fields, we bought these for you and Emily," Aria said in a sweet voice.
"Thank you girls, I know Emily would be happy you're all here," she said. "Do you guys want me to give you privacy with her?"
"Not at all," Spencer said. They were all interrupted when a nurse came in the room to give personal items to Alison.
"Here, these are your fiancé's personal items that she came in with," she said sweetly before exiting the room.
"Once they touched Alison's hands she whimpered as if she were a military wife being handed over a flag. But she couldn't let her thoughts turn dark; she had to be positive for once, for Emily, for their future together. She noticed the necklace that Danny had given her and thought to call him.
"Mrs. Fields, do you have the number for her friend Danny?" she asked.
"Yes I do, why? Do you think he'd want to see her?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" Alison asked confused.
"Last I heard, they'd had a falling out. We haven't seen him or his family in years," she replied shocking all the girls in the room.
"Oh I didn't know, she mentioned him before surgery and I thought he'd like to be here, but I don't want to go through her phone," Alison tried to explain.
"Of course, I'll call him and let him know what's going on. If this won't bring them together I don't know what will," she said before exiting the room.
"That's weird," Spencer said while her eyebrows met at the center forming a frown. Their thoughts were interrupted with a beeping sound coming from one of the machines and three nurses entered soon after with the doctor following closely behind.
"Patient's oxygen levels are crashing, need immediate intubation," he said loudly.
"What's going on?" Alison asked with tears in her eyes.
"Get them out of here!" he yelled and a nurse escorted them out.
"Girls, what's going on?" Mrs. Fields asked out of breath from running down the hall.
"I don't know one minute we were sitting around, then we heard a beeping noise from the machine and they doctor and nurses came rushing in talking about oxygen levels," Alison cried and Mrs. Fields wrapped her in her arms. After a few minutes of Alison's sobs, the doctor exited taking off his gloves and throwing them in the trash.
"Doctor, what's going on with my daughter?" Mrs. Fields asked.
"Her oxygen levels were too low. She's not able to breath on her own, so we had to hook her up to a ventilator, I'm really sorry," he said apologetically.
"So what does that mean?" Alison asked.
"Her brain wasn't getting enough oxygen. She's not breathing on her on, the machine is doing it for her. The only good news is that her brain activity is the same. For now, the best thing for her is to maintain that same activity level or have it increase. It's just a waiting game. Again I'm so sorry," he said before taking his leave. The girls stood there in shock while Mrs. Fields almost dropped to her knees. Spencer with her quick reflexes caught her and ushered her into Emily's room, which was now filled with three nurses collecting data from the machines. Emily looked smaller than she did a half hour ago, with the ventilator adding to the hundreds of machines she was attached to. The sight made the girls cry harder. There was a tube separating her lips and appeared to lead down her throat. Her body rising as the machine let off oxygen. She'd grown paler, her hair looked flat, and her eyes, and well no one could see those beautiful brown eyes that'd given them joy on a daily basis. The nurses left the room and Mrs. Fields went to Emily and started brushing her hair and whispering.
"Please baby, just wake up. Please don't leave me. You have so much to live for," she cried over and over. The scene was heartbreaking and seemed to be taking a toll on Mrs. Fields.
"Let me give you a ride home. You need rest. You won't do Emily any good if you end up here. She would never forgive us if we didn't take care of her mom," Spencer pleaded and Pam agreed, her body couldn't take much more fighting.
"I'll be here Mrs. Fields and I will call you if anything changes, I promise," Alison said strongly.
"Okay," she said kissing Emily on the head and walking over to Alison and wrapping her in a hug. The girls said goodbye and left with Mrs. Fields. Alison took her original position in the chair and watch Emily's chest rise and fall.
"Baby, you have to come back to me. No matter what, I'm not giving up on you, I'm not giving up on us," Alison said wiping the tears from her eyes. She saw movement at the door and looked up to see a familiar face, Danny.
"Hey, sorry to interrupt," he said choking back tears. "I got a call from Mrs. Fields telling me Emily was in the hospital, I didn't know it was so bad".
"It's okay, I told her to call you. They just put her on the ventilator because she can't breath on her own," Alison replied.
"Thank you for that," he said and went to grab Emily's hand.
"Emmy, you have to wake up. You have Amelia to think about. You can't leave her behind, no matter how much you want to throw the towel in. You have to fight," he said encouragingly until the tears escaped his eyes cascading onto the bed sheets.
"She looks so fragile you know, I've never seen her like this," he says to Alison.
"I know, it's hard for me to see her this way, but I refuse to leave her side," Alison replies.
"Do you love her?" he asks catching Alison off guard.
"I…uh…I-I, yes I love her," Alison stuttered.
"Good," he says and goes to kiss Emily's head. "I'll be back, next time I see you, and I want to see those beautiful eyes of yours". He leaves after that leaving Alison in shock at his sudden departure.
"Em, I promise I'm going to make this up to you when you wake up. We're going to have the life we were suppose to. You and me in sweet Paris. You know I always imagined what our life would be like. I could always see you as an Olympic swimmer or a doctor, and of course I'm a businesswoman. We'd have 3.5 kids; of course I'm carrying them. I think you'd be the soccer mom with a minivan and I would own a nice sports car and a back up truck. We'd live somewhere far from Rosewood, maybe even Paris. Our house is going to be big, just in case we decide to pop out more children. And don't forget about Amelia. She's going to love me because I'm going to spoil her rotten, you heard me, and you're going to be the bad cop. I want a golden retriever or Alaskan huskie. I want to have stupid fights about the bills and then have mind-blowing sex. I want to see you ground our children while I sneak them out for ice cream. I want to have that awkward sex talk with our children. I want to see you at the end of the isle. I want to break your hand while I'm in labor," Alison cried and laughed at all the ridiculous things she'd just said out loud, but the thought of knowing Emily could hear every word, made it worth it. "You deserve that happy ending, and I don't want it with anyone but you because I love you against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. We're going to make it through this, just you and me Killer". With that, Alison felt her hand being squeezed lightly and she looked towards Emily. "Emily? Can you hear me?" Emily lay motionless. "If you can hear me, squeeze my hand again". No reaction and Alison cried herself to sleep, but she knew Emily heard her and squeezed her hand. She had to hold on to the hope or else the guilt and anger and frustration would consume her. She had hope for their happy ending, because it's the only that could save her.