"Okay, guys, you can stop that already."

Spencer, Emily and Aria simultaneously turned their heads to look at Hanna, who was sitting awkwardly under the cooling shadow of a tree, trying not to come into contact with anything organic. The summer provided hundreds of opportunities to hang out outside, and Hanna had been willingly forced again to enjoy the hot weather, the dried out, almost-yellow straws of grass and the buzzing bugs. Spencer's insistence had cashed in, since they all were ready to please her after she'd been convicted to do community service for her still mysterious implication in Dr. Sullivan's disappearance.

"Stop what?", Spencer asked.

"The longing glances."

"What longing glances?", Emily inquired this time, rolling her eyes at Hanna's new attempt to take advantage of the same old joke, even though it'd been a long time since she'd tried this one. "We're just talking."

Hanna sent a direct, cutting-diamond glance to Emily.

"You're not talking, Em. You're not even glancing. I'm trying to be nice here when I say you have to stop it now."

Emily tried to ignore her this time, but Spencer decided to join the confrontation.

"We're not even talking to each other."

They were actually talking to Aria about this new guy she was using as a beard to keep dating Mr. Ezra Fitz in the hideout.

"I know I made a lot of bad jokes about porn back when you started dating and all", Hanna explained to Spencer in an acid tone, "and I'm so, so sorry for being mean to you back then. But, trust me, what's happening now is not what used to happen then. Now it's become true."

Spencer totally disregarded Hanna and continued talking to Aria about the new guy, who seemed to be sketchy but at the same time charming (could he be A? No, he couldn't, he had been living abroad for a whole year.)

"Aria", Hanna called out.

"Yeah?"

"Speak up, Aria. I need you here."

Aria held Hanna's pleading stare for a second, and then turned to Spencer, who was standing next to her.

"She's kinda right", Aria said in an almost apologetic tone. "It does feel like we're intruding. Like we're walking in on you without knocking."

"What?", Emily's voice came from her place next to Hanna under the tree. She wasn't even that close to Spencer and Aria, and was participating sporadically in their conversation. "That's simply not true."

Spencer sent her own version of a cutting-diamond glance to Aria: it was less of a diamond and more of a hardly veiled stab-to-death stare. "I wonder how you could be walking in on us without knocking when we're in a park, in the open air and under the sun."

"We're under a tree", Hanna corrected, gaining an eyebrow-raising by Spencer. "And that's exactly what I meant. It feels like we're not invited, like we shouldn't be here."

"No, Hanna", Emily exclaimed. "What are we exactly doing that is so… weird?"

She suddenly grew too wary of the word porny now that Aria seemed to seriously agree with Hanna. There was also the fact that they might be vaguely right about this. What if she was being porny without realizing it? What if everybody could see it? What if it was plain and simple to see now that they were having sex for real?

"It's nonsense, Em", Spencer turned to look at Emily.

"Let me try to explain this", Hanna slowly started. "It feels like… like you just had sex five minutes ago, you're gonna have sex behind that bush in another five minutes and you're still having sex with your eyes in the meantime."

"For god's sake, no", Emily exclaimed again, a little scandalized at the idea.

Hanna looked again at Aria.

"Maybe that's too blunt, but in a way, yes, it does look like we're here but you're just waiting for us to leave", Aria contributed again, while Emily's eyes opened wide in surprise. "But it's all right." She tried to lessen the impact. "We get it, the deed is done. It's fine. We're happy. Let's keep talking about Holden. Or about Ezra."

"No, but we're not waiting for you to leave", Emily unsuccessfully tried.

Spencer took a deep sigh. She was keeping her cool, although she could feel again the wave of heat rushing up from her cleavage to her cheeks (damn the summer and all its summer clothes!), but she had to compensate for Emily's high pitched voice and apparent sense of moral scandal.

"That's totally impossible anyway", she cleared. "We didn't have sex five minutes ago, and we're not having sex in five minutes either because I have to get going really quick."

Hanna smiled at Spencer's cool attitude and reddened face. "So that's why you're having mind-sex now."

"We have mind-sex all the time, whatever that is", Spencer deadpanned. "Maybe you're referring to the fact that it's mind-blowing sex, but you couldn't possibly know that."

"Spencer!", Emily called to shut Spencer's mouth up. Then she took a deep breath too and lowered her voice. "You're leaving now? I didn't know that."

"I told you yesterday", Spencer said. "I'm being forced to visit Melissa and her big, big belly in Philly. She's too heavy to move her ass down here."

"Right". Spencer had indeed told her, but she seemed to have forgotten about it and was convinced the visit to Philly would happen tomorrow. "I thought it was tomorrow."

"They changed it to today", Spencer clarified. "I told you."

"I forgot", Emily said in a low tone.

They suddenly realized they'd excluded Hanna and Aria again, if not for mind-sex. Or maybe it was actually for mind-sex, since Emily did indeed have that idea in mind for the late afternoon. They'd been making the most of every moment they could find that lasted long enough to actually give it a try; it wasn't easy, but it was, after all, possible.

"When will you be back?", Emily asked anyway.

"Tonight", Spencer said. "I have to get up really early tomorrow."

Right, she had to go pick up the trash in the streets like every morning. A had released the bloody hockey stick before the hearing, but there was no sign of a corpse, which had made the girls realize Dr. Sullivan was most probably not dead. But she was still out of sight, and the judge had decided to send a moral warning signal to all the lying girls of Rosewood by convicting Spencer to pick up trash for a whole month basing on the evidence that she was surely hiding something far worse and more outrageous, even if there was no actual proof of a real crime being committed. The blood, per se, did not prove anything; so Ms. Hastings had managed to reduce the damages only to that garbage-pick-up outcome.

"Sorry, Em, no mind-blowing sex tonight."

Emily glared at Hanna and, at the same time, finally blushed.

Aria, who was idly following the conversation now that she was happier with her life again, masterly dived in and asked Spencer to give her a ride before she left for Philadelphia. She wanted to buy a tie for Mr. Fitz and needed to do it without leaving traces, so her idea was to have Spencer buy it for her. And Spencer, obviously, agreed to it. Since Spencer was already in a hurry, they decided to leave immediately.

Confronted with what was now a true longing, penetrating gaze by Emily, Spencer bent down under the tree and stared back at her, ignoring the world around them.

"I'll call you as soon as I get back."

"Do you wanna go to the pool tomorrow?", Emily offered. "I can pick you up."

She'd pick her up at the community service department at the city hall, but that part was left unsaid. Spencer nodded and they discreetly kissed. After a minute, Spencer left with Aria while Emily and Hanna longingly gazed at them.

"Another lonely day for us", Hanna dramatically said, but Emily didn't even look at her. "Hey, aren't you gonna forgive me for that?"

"It's not gonna be that easy, no", Emily harshly responded. But at the same time, she felt she needed to talk to someone. To Hanna, actually. Not about the mind-blowing sex, that was her own business, but about other things she had in mind. "Do you think she's all right?"

"Who?" Hanna stared into the hazy distance towards where Emily was looking. "Spencer?"

Emily nodded, still looking into the infinite absence of the park and the crowd populating it.

"Sure", Hanna said convincingly. "She's doing great. Even with the whole garbage thing, but I've never seen her better, Em." She took a moment to think. "I still don't get what that judge said."

Emily finally turned her head to look at Hanna. "Me either", she admitted. They didn't understand why Spencer had to do community service if there was no real evidence of a crime. "But that's what I mean. Do you think she's safe there?"

"Why? Are you worried about her?"

Emily uncomfortably moved and repositioned under the tree, to lean her back against the trunk. "A little. She's there all alone with a lot of people who're real criminals. Like, people who've actually committed crimes."

"It's Spencer, Em. She kicks ass. She probably minds her own business while she's thinking about how she'll include this little adventure in her college application."

Emily gave a tiny, knowing smile. "Yeah, but she's also good at pissing people off", she explained her worries. "She kicks ass at school or in the country club, but…"

"Have you forgotten Ian?", Hanna reminded Emily.

"Well, that's exactly my point. He almost managed to kill her."

"Em, she's being watched constantly." Hanna inspected Emily's face. "She's probably safer than we are here."

Emily gave a somber look.

"Which reminds me we should still do something about A. Especially you two."

"I know."

"He/she/it almost got you with one single text and they're gonna try again."

"I know."

Emily had already been thinking about A too. There had been very few texts ever since the hearing finally happened. A had been bluffing – partially, at least – but was probably preparing for the next round while enjoying Spencer in an orange suit.

"As for the other thing, I wouldn't worry about it", Hanna summed up. "I mean, you're the one who sees her naked all the time. Have you seen any bruises or anything?"

Emily denied with her head. "No."

"Then she's fine. She's not getting into stupid fights with psychotical girls."

"Psychotic."

"Whatever", Hanna shrugged, "and stop channeling Spencer, it's getting weird and annoying."

Emily sighed, back to the point of concern. "But she never talks about it. It's like she doesn't even mention it, like it's not there. And she's always so talkative."

"Well, you can't really blame her. She's there for a month, picking up things other people threw away, dressed in orange, and she is a Hastings. It must hurt a little."

"Do you think that's it?", Emily asked a little anxiously. "Because she usually talks to me about everything."

"Sure it is." Hanna patted her shoulder sympathetically. "And it's just two more weeks, right?"

"One and a half." Emily did offer a smile now. "I actually needed your help for another thing, but I haven't really forgiven you yet."

"Jesus, Em, Spencer used to be the one to tease, but you're getting really easy when it comes to this."

"You just don't know when you're crossing a line."

"I do know. But, hey, it needed to be crossed already. Someone had to say it aloud so we could all move on."

Emily took a deep, patient breath.

"So tell me. What did you need my help for?", Hanna excitedly asked. She always got kind of enthusiastic when her advice was needed. "Tricks you need to spice things up? Although for the way it looks they're already pretty spiced up."

Emilly rolled her eyes in exhaustion. "You'll never know where to stop."

"Nope."

"It's Spencer's birthday on Friday. And I don't have anything for her yet." Hanna gaped at Emily's confession. "I know, I am awful. But I just don't know what to get."

"You haven't got her anything yet? Emily! You've had the whole summer!"

"I know! But first it was Texas", Emily explained, "and then it was A, and the hearing, and the conviction, and I was always so worried I totally forgot about it. And then, when I realized it was about time, I just started to analyze every possibility and I never made a decision."

"But there are a lot of things you can get her."

"But I don't want to get her a thing", Emily tried to clear her mind. She'd been straining her brain so much that she needed another person to make her see clearer. "It'd be too easy to just buy something. She's always giving me these really meaningful little things, and I don't really wanna buy a thing for her, you know, because she can already buy most of the things she wants." She took a pause to complete her argument. "Like, maybe if I could buy a ticket to Paris or an apartment in New York, that'd be special enough, but…"

Hanna laughed at Emily's words. "Wow, you're really gonna have to work hard during the next years if you wanna offer that."

"That's what I'm saying", Emily continued in anguish. "It can't be something that you can just buy. It has to have a meaning."

Hanna entered into deep-in-thought mode, trying to grasp an idea of a thing which wouldn't be a thing, which would have meaning and which Spencer could not buy with money.

"Striptease for her", she blurted out, with a mischievous smile, "you know, to sexy music. No, no, to weird music. Stuff she likes. Classical music stuff. A symphony." She stopped to kind of applaud herself, an air of sunny, wicked satisfaction taking over her facial expression. "That's meaningful. And she'll appreciate it after sex."

Emily sent Hanna a dirty look. "Is this how you're gonna help me?", she scolded her. "I'm sorry to say, Han, but not everything comes down to sex."

"I'm not so sure about you two anymore", Hanna teased, "I mean, lately, whoa, it seems pretty intense in that mind-blowing department."

Emily turned her whole body towards Hanna, in flaming, killer eyes.

"You can't just judge by some looks you're saying we're giving each other."

"There's nothing wrong with it, Em", Hanna insisted, trying to look serious but sounding light-hearted. "Don't even try to make me believe you're not enjoying it. We've all gone through that stage in a relationship. You know, the stage where sex is more important than love."

"Says the person who's only been in one relationship."

"Two."

"One with sex."

Hanna actually had to agree to that one. But they were even anyway.

"Whatever. In your case, it's okay if it's like that." She decided to push it some more, to get back at Emily for referring to her sexless relationship with Sean. "I already went through that phase with Caleb. It's like you don't really love the person, just the body."

"That is not the case with us", Emily raised her voice. "Sex isn't more important than love."

Hanna finally let out a giggle. "Chill, Emily! There's nothing wrong with it."

"It is not like you're saying! I'm actually in love with her. It's not only about… her body."

God, she hated it when she blushed intensely like she was blushing now. It made her feel like she was trying to cover up the truth. But she wasn't! Spencer's body was less important than Spencer's soul. Well, maybe not less important, as of now; it was as important as her soul. Body and soul belonged to the same person, to Spencer, so they were the same thing. Spencer was both her body and her soul. Or, better said, Spencer was both her soul and her body. Soul came first, right? Maybe not biologically, though. She wasn't sure about that cell-forming evolutionary stuff. But, in any case, they both belonged to Emily now, so there was nothing wrong with it. She owned Spencer's soul and body in a very, very spiritual way, but also in a carnal sense.

"How can you even say that?", she added, unpleased with her own inner argument.

Hanna burst out in a cascading laughter. "Oh, man, it's suddenly so easy with you."

"Will you stop it already?"

"But why do you get so mad? You're worse than Spencer with the death stares."

"I don't want people thinking this is only about sex, cause it's not."

Hanna laughed softly now, but finally decided to stop the tease.

"Don't you think I know that? I'm your friend. I know you love her, for god's sake, Em. That's pretty obvious to everybody."

"Yeah, I know, I just…" Emily realized she'd gotten stupidly trapped in Hanna's tease. But with all the new experiences she was going through, she was suddenly afraid of people misinterpreting her actions and her feelings somehow. Not to mention her seemingly true porny glances. "I don't want people getting the wrong idea."

"I'm not getting any wrong idea. And anyway, what do you care about other people? You're in love, you have sex, whatever. It's no big deal." Hanna calmed Emily's mood down. But then she thought about Emily's overreaction. "Maybe you're just too afraid of this."

"Afraid of what? Of sex?"

"I don't know. Afraid of digging too deep down into it, you know? Like, of becoming too obsessed with it."

"So now you're saying I'm obsessed with sex."

Emily's eyes turned fiery again.

"No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying maybe you're afraid of getting too involved in, you know, your mind-blowing love-and-sex thing with Spencer."

Emily's face went blank while she tried to grasp the meaning of Hanna's words.

"What's that supposed to mean? I'm not afraid of anything that can happen between Spencer and me."

Hanna tilted her head a little while she thought about what she really meant. "But you've known each other for so long", she thought aloud, "sometimes it must be weird and too easy at the same time."

When Hanna actually got to think profound thoughts, she could really touch bone. That always surprised and scared Emily, especially now that it was sort of touching her bone. It was true that, sometimes, it felt both weird and too easy. It felt weird because it felt too easy to not really need time to get to know the other person, her fears, her limits, her little manias; to not be able to keep yours from them, either. That made it more intense, but on the other hand, yes, it was weird sometimes too because, in a way, they were still strangers to a whole part of their relationship that was only now beginning. Was that what Hanna meant? And why was Hanna opening up that part of her soul instead of helping her choose a gift?

"I…" Emily ran out of words. "But I'm not afraid of it. I like it."

She did like it. That was what made it special and unique. That was why she needed to find a special, unique, meaningful gift.

"Cool." Hanna shrugged her shoulders and smiled a wide, honest smile. "So what are we getting her?"

She leaned forward towards Emily, in a conspiratorial move, as if Spencer could hear them decide on her birthday present, and Emily offered her a sideways hesitant, scornful look. However, she decided to cooperate to actually sort out the birthday gift, which was, right now, the real urgency in her life. Talk about how easy it was to know the other person's interests and needs. She knew Spencer perfectly, but she had absolutely no idea about what to get her. There were only two more days left to decide, and she'd considered thousands of things, from romantic dinners to visits to museums to old, wrinkled books to midnight concerts for which they'd need special permission from parents, to summer clothes and cheap ornaments and corny letters and winter jackets and new, useless dorky glasses. Nothing satisfied her. Everything seemed lame, corny, shallow, or simply just not good enough. Not good enough.

"Something meaningful."

That was their focus. Brainstorming with Hanna was always an interesting experience, but she was hoping it'd be helpful.

"Okay, let's see", Hanna started. "Meaning."

Emily decided to offer some of her thoughts to start off.

"I thought about giving her something that's truly mine. But, you know, not a t-shirt or a necklace or…"

"Panties."

Somehow Emily managed to send the most menacing glance her dark brown eyes had ever glowed in Hanna's direction.

"Sorry, sorry", Hanna laughed, covering her mouth in choked giggles. "Uhm… Your baby blanket? Do you still keep that?"

"My baby blanket?"

"Yeah, the one you used when you were a baby. That's a pretty meaningful thing, and it's totally not sex-related", she added. "And it's yours since you started being you, right? You can't get more intimate and personal than that."

Emily knew it wasn't going to happen, because it was maybe too non-sexual, but still she was surprised by Hanna's line of thought.

"I… But it's not romantic."

"You said meaningful, not romantic. It's the place where you used to pee when you were little, so I think it means a lot."

Another menacing look followed, albeit not too powerful.

"It has to be meaningful and romantic."

Hanna started to think again, her slight frown making her fair skin wrinkle a little.

"I don't know! Just give her a nice necklace! Or sunglasses! Or a hat! One of those that..."

"I don't have anything that is so personal to me."

"Let's change the approach."

"No." Emily stared at her questioningly. "What are you thinking?"

"I don't know. Just cook for her, or study an exam." Her face suddenly lit up. "Oh, that's actually a good idea. She'd love that. Just let her take you a test where you have to prove you actually listen to her when she talks about stuff."

Emily frowned at her, but actually smiled at the idea. Spencer would find that amusing and flattering, for sure.

"It'd be way too difficult to pass that exam, Hanna."

"That's why it'd be so meaningful."

Hanna had a point. But – no, as much as she enjoyed the nerdy part of Spencer's personality, she still needed something even more meaningful. Besides, she'd never pass that exam. It covered too many subjects, from A to Ancient and Modern and Contemporary History to Political Sciences to Literature (in various languages), movies (in various languages and from different time periods), biology, chemistry, and who knows what. It was impossible. And not meaningful enough, yet.

Emily sighed, starting to feel defeated. What was she going to get? Why was it so difficult? Was Hanna right, were her expectations too high?

She just wanted a thing that would mean everything they were before and now; that would sum up everything about their souls and bodies, the past and the present and maybe the future too. All right, so maybe her expectations were too high. But she wasn't going to get a stupid book or a stupid piece of clothing or a stupid necklace or a stupid concert or a stupid dinner that might be right for another occasion, but not for this one. They'd been through really hard times lately, but at the same time they had experienced many good changes too, so she really wanted to make it special. Especially after her epic fail three weeks ago. Perhaps she'd have to go for that baby blanket which she didn't even know if her mother still kept… And there was no time to ship it to Rosewood from Texas anyway, in case her mother still had it. A baby blanket which she couldn't even remember using, but which was hers since she was herself, right? She did need something like that, something that was truly hers, that meant something for her, and it'd be so great and perfect if she could actually have a memory of it as well. Suddenly she remembered something else and her mouth opened in realization and awe. It was… How was it called? An epiphany, and she struggled not to let the image leave, to make it stay, to force it to stay and open up its secret, its inside to her.

"What?", Hanna asked excitedly, a twinkle in her eye. "The exam? The striptease? The baby blanket?"

"No."

"What then?"

"I can't tell you now." Emily smiled brightly, her eyes sparkling too, almost as if she'd drunk too much again, but out of happiness. "I have to check if I still have it here."

She stood up in a single effortless move, energized, thinking it was actually a good thing Spencer wasn't here today, so she'd have time to finally get down to this plan instead of thinking about their next sexual encounter.

Hanna looked up at her curiously from the ground.

"Where are you going?"

"To your place. I need to open some of the boxes I kept in your basement from my house."

She needed to find the secret and crack it open. Still vague and indefinite, it was slowly breaking through her mind like a stony, rocky memory gaining incandescence with every new effort she made to keep it there.

"You can't leave me here."

Emily was already setting herself in motion when she stopped to stare at Hanna.

"I thought you were meeting Mona in a while."

"I am, in two hours. What am I gonna do here for two hours?"

She approached Hanna and offered her a hand to help her stand.

"Come with me", she said, while Hanna firmly grabbed her hand. "You can help me look for it if you don't spill a thing to anyone about it."

While stretching her legs and wiping off some straws of grass and gravel from her butt, Hanna narrowed her luminous blue eyes at her.

"I won't tell."

Emily smiled like the dazzling, lazy sun of August while they walked away from the sheltering tree.

A/N 1: You didn't really believe I was going to send Spencer to jail, right? There'd be no fic without Spencer! ;)

Thanks everyone for your sweet reviews! sugarfree, in case you're around reading this and you also read the one-shot I wrote, thanks for your review there!

Maxi-Luca: Yay! Does that mean you're finally going to let us read your Spemily fic? Looking forward to it! Oh, btw, there's nothing to worry about Hanna and the way she took the fall for Emily; you know Ashley Marin never gets to be really angry at Hanna! xD

A/N 2: Title taken from "I Remember", song by Damien Rice.