She has just completed the 9 hour journey to Rosewood and was so happy to finally be off the train she had been on since 7am. The train station was quiet, so she was glad that there were no obnoxious, noisy people to pass through on her way out to call for her taxi. Sweeping her long hair into a bun, she patiently waited, sitting on her suitcase for the taxi driver to come and pick her up. As she waited she pulled out her phone, sending a text to her parents to tell her she was in Rosewood and safe before pulling out her book which she had been reading on the train throughout the morning and early afternoon. Twenty minutes later, the taxi pulled up infront of her. The driver apologised profusely and explained there had been a lot of traffic that he had to get through that afternoon. She told him not to worry before letting him put her suitcase into the boot. Sliding into the backseat, she handed him a little slip with the address of her first port of call. Ten minutes later, she arrived at her destination Walking down the pathway and up the stairs to the porch pulling along her suitcase, she took deep breaths to try and prepare herself for who was behind the door she was about to knock on. Tapping her knuckles against the door, she took a step back and looked to the floor waiting for the door to open. Eventually the door was opened, she looked up and smiled. "Hey!" she said as she bit on her lip.
"Emily?! Oh my God!" Aria ran forward and embraced her long lost best friend. "I can't believe you're here!" she said emotionally as she pulled away, briefly looking at the taller girl before wrapping her arms around her for a second hug. "I've missed you so so much!" Aria told her as she took Emily's hand and lead her into the house. "How have you been?" Aria asked as she closed the door.
Just before Emily was about to reply, Scarlett came through to the foyer. "Mommy?"
Emily's breath caught in her mouth. She looked at Aria and smiled. Her eyes threatening to spill tears. "You're a mother.." Emily whispered with a soft tone to her voice. "She looks like Ali.." she commented.
"Who's your friend Mama?" Scarlett asked as she hid behind Aria's leg.
Aria turned around to pick her up. "This is Emily." Aria told her struggling to keep the smile off her face.
"That's a pretty name." Scarlett commented.
"Thank you. What's your name?" Emily asked as she continued to admire the blonde girl in Aria's arms.
"Scarlett.."
"That is a beautiful name. It's nice to meet you Scarlett." Emily said before looking quickly back to Aria. Emily shook her head in amazement.
"Hey, how about you go and play with your brother for a little bit." Aria told Scarlett while putting her back down.
"Okay." Scarlett rushed off into the living room.
"You have kids? I can't believe it. She's so gorgeous." Emily told Aria as she wrapped one of her arms around her.
"She is isn't she?" Aria smiled up at Emily who still had her arm wrapped around Aria's shoulder. "I have two. Scarlett and Colton. They're twins."
"I can't wait to meet Colton, where is he?"
"I think he's upstairs or in the living room." Aria told her as they walked into the kitchen. "He may take a while to warm up to you, he can be pretty shy."
"Ah, so does he take after Jason?" Emily asked as she sat down at the kitchen table while Aria went to fill up the kettle.
"Hmm.. more so in his personality. He looks like me and Mike. Dark brown hair, hazel eyes.."
"I bet he's gorgeous too."
"He is. They get more and more beautiful as each day passes." Aria smiled as she stood next to the kettle waiting for it to boil.
"I'm home!" Emily turned as she heard Jason's voice. "Hello?" he called out.
"Daddy!" Scarlett screamed excitedly.
"One sec.." Aria told Emily quietly as she rushed out of the kitchen. "Hey." she said as she rushed towards Jason who had Scarlett in his arms.
"Mommy's friend is here." Scarlett told him.
"Yeah, you'll never guess who's here." Aria smiled.
"Who?"
"Emily."
"Are you serious?" Jason smiled. "I'm so happy for you. You're finally all going to be back together again."
"I know, it's exciting!" Aria lead Jason into the kitchen.
"Hey Emily." Jason greeted her as she walked into the kitchen.
"Hi, how are you?" Emily smiled as she got up to give Jason a quick hug.
"How have you been?" he asked as Emily sat back down.
"Good. Would much rather be back here, but the situation is complicated.." Emily told him, not wanting to go into the issues she'd faced here in Rosewood.
"So you're not back for good?" he asked as he went to get Scarlett a snack from the cupboard at the other side of the kitchen.
"Unfortunately not.."
"That's a shame."
"Yeah, I'm here for three days. I couldn't bear the thought of having to stay longer and then going back to LA.."
"I understand." Jason smiled as Scarlett popped a marshmallow into his mouth.
"Mommy, where's Daddy?" Emily turned to see Colton walking through into the kitchen holding Aria's iPad, while playing on one of the apps.
"I'm here." Jason told him. "Say hello to Emily before you walk past.." he told Colton who hadn't looked up once.
Colton looked at Emily and smiled before running to Aria. Aria bent down as he whispered something in her ear.
"Sorry about that." Jason told Emily.
"No it's fine. Aria told me he was shy." Emily smiled as Aria placed her mug of coffee in front of her on the table. "Thanks."
Jason took the twins out to play in the garden, leaving Aria and Emily to catch up in the living room. "Have you been to see Spence or Hanna yet?"
"No, you were the first person I came to see. I'll go and see Spencer in about an hour and then go to Hanna's."
"What are your plans for these next days?"
"I'm hoping we can all meet on sunday. Just spend the day at my parent's house. No one's renting it at the moment. Then on monday, I'm meeting Paige before I have to get back to LA."
"I'm sure we'll all be free on sunday. None of us work on that day so.."
"Yeah, I hope so too." Emily smiled.
"Do you want anything to eat?"
"Uh yeah, sure. What do you have?"
"Well, we're going to do our grocery shop later but we have loads of snacks. We've got ice cream, doritos.."
"Doritos sound good to me." Emily smiled as Aria got off the couch.
"I'll be back." Aria told her as she left the living room.
Emily left thirty minutes later, leaving the DiLaurentis family with plenty of time to do their grocery shopping. "I can take the kids to my mom's if you and the girls wanted to spend the day with each other tomorrow at ours.." Jason offered as he pushed the shopping trolley through the aisles.
"Hmm.. well Emily's parents still own the house next to Toby and Jenna's so we're just going to be there I think, but that doesn't mean you can't take them to see your mom. They haven't seen her for a few weeks now, I'm sure they miss her.."
"I'll call her now."
"You might get to see your Grandma Jessica tomorrow guys. How about we make her some cupcakes when we go home?" Aria asked the kids quietly as Jason spoke to his mom.
"Yeah! Grandma Jessica loves cupcakes!" Scarlett exclaimed.
"Does she?" Aria asked as she picked up a couple of cans of soup.
"Daddy, does Grandma like cupcakes?" Scarlett asked as Jason was on the phone. He nodded as he continued to talk on the phone.
"Told you mama."
"You did.." Aria said as she took the trolley from Jason's hands who was still on the phone to his mom. Strolling down the rest of the aisle she listened to Colton and Scarlett talking about what they wanted to do tomorrow.
Jason caught up with Aria and the twins. "That's all sorted." he told her as she placed a hand on her waist. "We're going to see your Grandma tomorrow okay." he told the twins.
"Do you think Grandma will take us to the aquarium?" Colton asked Jason as they walked side by side.
"Do you want to go to the aquarium?" Jason asked as he gently rested his hand on Colton's head.
"Yeah, or the zoo.."
"We'll call her in the morning and then you can ask her then but I don't see why not.."
"I don't want to go to the zoo."
"Baby, you can't always do what you want okay.." Jason told Scarlett. "When you get older you need to start thinking of what other people want to do. If you keep thinking about yourself, people will think you're a horrible person. And we don't want people thinking that do we?" he told her, trying his very best to sound nice and not patronising.
"I'm not horrible.." Scarlett whimpered.
"No baby, Daddy's not saying you're horrible. But some people might think you are if you always think what you want to do is more important than everything else." Aria told her softly as Scarlett hugged her leg.
-()-
The next day, Aria woke up early and unable to fall back to sleep, she decided to wake Jason up. Kissing along his prominent jaw until he started to stir.
"Aria.." he moaned.
"Wake up." she whispered as she bit lightly on his earlobe.
"Let me sleep baby.." he told her with his eyes still closed.
"I can't go back to sleep.." Aria moaned as she rested her chin on Jason's chest.
Jason sighed and ran his fingers through Aria's hair. "What time is it?" he asked, eyes still closed.
Aria leaned over Jason's body and to his bedside table where his phone was placed. "Nearly 6am." she told him as she rested her chin back on his chest.
"It's too early for a sunday morning.." he told her as he rolled onto his right, bring Aria around with him as he did so. She cuddled into his chest, breathing in his scent before looking up at Jason. She smiled as he lay there looking as flawless as ever. She gave up on the idea of having him stay up with her and just lay there admiring him as he fell back to sleep peacefully.
He woke an hour later when Colton came knocking on their bedroom door. "Daddy?" they heard from the other side of the door. "Mommy?" Colton called out.
Jason sat up and stretched his arms and shoulders. "Come in kid." he said as Aria got out of bed to open the door for him. Before she got there Colton had managed to open it.
"Good morning mommy." he smiled as Aria picked him up.
"Did you sleep well?" Aria asked as she kissed the side of his head.
"Yeah. I had a really fun dream." Colton told them excitedly.
"What happened in it?" Aria asked as she got into bed and put Colton in between her and Jason who was lying back down.
"I was a wizard like in Harry Potter and I got to use spells and everything and I beat all of the bad guys. Iron Man was there too. And the Hulk and Captain America."
"Wow! That's a lot of superheroes in one dream isn't it?"
"Daddy, you were in it too.."
"I was?" Jason chuckled.
"Yeah, you were like Dumbledore."
"Wow! He's a great wizard right? Was I good?"
"The best!" Colton told him. "Can we watch tv?" he asked Jason as he moved to lie on top of him.
Jason reached out to get the remote and turned on the tv. "What are we going to watch?"
"How about basketball?"
"Basketball matches aren't on at the time of the day kid." Jason told him as he pulled the duvet up. "Look.." Jason said as he flicked through the channels. "..Thomas the Tank Engine is on. You can watch that?"
"Yeah okay." Colton got off from Jason and sat up. "Hold on, what do you want to watch mommy?" Colton asked sweetly before placing a kiss to Aria's forehead as she lay down.
"You're so sweet baby." Aria smiled as she pullled him down gently to cuddle with him. "I'll watch anything that you and Daddy want to watch." she told him as she kissed his bed head hair.
The three of them stayed in bed for a good hour before Scarlett came to join them. Before she could get too comfortable, Aria got out of bed and told them they needed to shower and get ready so they could go to see their Grandma.
Two hours later, Jason, Colton and Scarlett left to drive to Jessica's house. Leaving Aria with time and space to clean the entire house before getting ready to go over to Emily's parent's house.
-()-
All of the girls were at Emily's parent's house, sprawled out on masses of blankets on the living room floor, snacking on popcorn and chocolate as they watched their favourite girly movies and gossiped.
"You can't leave us Em." Hanna moaned as she cuddled close to her.
"I'm sorry. I don't want to but I have responsibilities in LA. I need to go back tomorrow after I see Paige."
"You better come back though." Spencer told her as she licked the melted chocolate off her fingers.
"Hell yeah! Of course!" Emily smiled.
The girls stayed cooped up in the house for six hours before Aria got a call from the twins asking her to come back home. "I'm going to have to go home ladies."
"Aww, why?" Emily asked as she stood up when Aria came into the living room from the kitchen.
"The twins want me home. Jason probably didn't let them eat their ice cream before their dinner or something silly like that." Aria told Emily as she put her jacket on.
"Ha, that's cute.." Emily smiled.
"I'll see you later." Aria told Spencer and Hanna as she walked out of the living room. "And I'll see you soon.." Aria hugged Emily who had followed her to the front door. "Hopefully." she added before giving Emily a kiss on her cheek.
"I love you." Emily told her pulling Aria into a final hug.
"Love you too." Aria replied as she opened the door. "Have fun!" she smiled before closing the door behind her.
Ten minutes later, Aria returned home. "Colton?! Scarlett?!" she called out as she walked through the foyer.
"Mommy! Daddy said we couldn't have our ice cream!" Scarlett moaned as she ran to Aria from the living room. Aria rolled her eyes internally. 'Of course.' she thought to herself.
"I said you couldn't have it until you finished your dinner." they heard Jason shout from the kitchen.
"You know they're the rules Scar." Aria told her as she picked her up. "Did you finish your dinner?" Aria asked as she carried Scarlett into the kitchen.
"No.."
"Are you trying to get me in trouble with your mommy Scarlett?" Jason asked as he made himself a coffee.
"Yeah.."
"Yeah?! That's not nice.." Jason pouted and furrowed his brows, trying to imitate Scarlett's classic unhappy face.
Scarlett squirmed out of Aria's hold and ran off out of the kitchen.
"It's unreal how much she reminds me of Ali. Literally, it's uncanny." Jason told Aria as she walked towards him.
"Is that a good thing or bad thing?"
"Hmmm.."
"I'm hoping her attitude will change soon. She can't be a drama queen all her life."
"I know. I'm hoping she'll settle down before her next birthday. I don't want people to think we've raised a brat. People thought Ali was a brat and they didn't warm to her at all. I want Scarlett to be loved by everyone."
"She will be." Aria smiled as she got onto her tiptoes to give Jason a kiss. "Will you make me a coffee please?" Aria asked before placing another kiss to his lips.
Jason turned around to get a mug out of the cupboard. "What coffee do you want?"
"Mocha please. I'll be back in a minute.." Aria told Jason as she left the kitchen.
-()-
They went to bed a few hours later but Aria woke up with a horrible feeling in her throat. It was dry and she couldn't swallow her saliva without it being a painful process. Quietly leaving their bedroom she went downstairs to make herself a hot chocolate. Bringing it back upstairs she took a couple of sips of it before she felt something quickly coming up her throat and threatening to expel from her mouth. Placing the mug on her dressing table, she ran into the ensuite and vomited in the toilet. Jason woke to the sounds of Aria wretching. "Baby?" he called out quietly. A few seconds later after no response from Aria, he got out of bed and walked into the ensuite and found her sitting next to the toilet resting her forehead in her hands. "Was it something you ate?" Jason asked as he knelled down next to her and ran her fingers through her hair.
"I don't know.." Aria replied with a croaky voice.
"Come back to bed. You need to lie down." Jason told her as he pulled her up off the floor. "I'll watch over you and make sure you're not sick in your sleep."
"I'm so tired." she told him.
"I know baby, that's why you should get back into bed." Jason replied, taking her hand, he lead her out of the ensuite and back into bed. Both climbed back into bed and cuddled close. "Do you think you're going to be sick again?" Jason asked. Aria shrugged and wrapped an arm around Jason's abs, resting her head on his chest. Jason watched Aria's chest rise and fall before letting himself fall asleep too.
