The next day, the girls all went to the courthouse for Charlotte's hearing. Each girl was asked to make a statement. They all lied and said what they were supposed to, except for Aria. She was the only one with enough guts to admit she was still scared of Charlotte/A and that she wouldn't feel safe if she was released from custody. The other girls just assumed it didn't matter what they said because there is no way, given the horrible things she did, that she would ever be released. But they were wrong.

They got the text from Alison that read "good news," and instantly all of their hearts sank and minds raced. They had lived A-free for the last five years, would that change now? There was a palpable uncertainty for all of them about what this would mean. So naturally, they choose to handle it the way most 23 year-olds deal with their problems.

The girls were at least 3 martinis in when Radley's lobby bar made its last call for the evening. Nobody was in any shape to drive home and none of them really wanted to be alone either, so they all headed up to Hanna's suite to raid the mini-bar.

The girls sat on the couches, drinking vodka from small mini-bar bottles and laughing to distract themselves from the uncertainty of their new reality. Spencer and Hanna both drank often at social and work engagements, so they handled their liquor pretty well. Aria was the lightweight of the group and switched to water after they left the bar. Emily though was a different story. Before they even left the lobby, she was slurring her words and swaying. After insisting on having another drink in the room, she excused herself to the bathroom.

Hanna noticed Emily's drinking in the bar, but she chalked it up to the uncertainty of the situation that they were all feeling. When Emily excused herself to the bathroom, Hanna assumed she would be quick. So, when Emily had been gone longer than expected, and went to check on her. She found Emily passed out on the bathroom floor, after clearly having gotten sick in the bathtub.

As gently as she could, Hanna sat Emily up and cleaned her off with a damp washcloth. Emily woke briefly and looked right at Hanna, maybe even through her. It was quick, but something in Emily's eyes shook Hanna to her core. Something was wrong, that much was clear. She could see that Emily was in pain, but given everything she told them today, she couldn't see a reason why.

Before Hanna was able to analyze Emily further, Spencer came in and offered to help get Emily to the bed. They carried her to the bedroom and Spencer silently relieved Hanna of her duties. Spencer began changing Emily from her vomit stained clothes into a t-shirt of that she found in Hanna's suitcase. Hanna was thankful for the help, uncertain of how Emily would have felt if she found out that it was Hanna who undressed her. If she was being honest with herself, Hanna wasn't even sure how she would have felt.

Later that evening, after Spencer and Aria had fallen asleep on the couch, Hanna went back into the bedroom and saw that Emily was sleeping in one of her old t-shirts. It was actually an old concert shirt from a show they went to together. It had plenty of stains and even a few holes, but Hanna could never bring herself to throw it out. Seeing Emily in it now though stirred up feelings she had long since ignored.

[Flashback]

They had finally graduated from Rosewood High and as a graduation gift, the parents had all chipped in and rented the girls a house in Cape May for a week. Unbeknownst to the parents, Aria brought Ezra, Spencer brought Toby, and of course Hanna and Emily were there together.

The group spent their days playing on the beach and most of the nights alone with their significant others. One night, Emily had heard about this indie band that was growing in popularly that she wanted to go see. They had brought their fake IDs, so sneaking into the club was easy. They danced the night away and Hanna even ended up buying one of the band's shirts after some drunk guy spilled his whole beer down her shirt.

Later that evening, when they returned to the house, they headed straight up to their room. Both were worked up from dancing together all night. Before Hanna could even close the door behind her and turn around, Emily was already naked. The moonlight over the cape lit the room just enough for Hanna to see her walk across the room and slip into bed. Without any hesitation, Hanna stripped off her clothes and joined Emily.

They made love passionately until the sun came up before Hanna finally fell asleep. Emily stayed there briefly, holding her and listening to her soft breathing, before going downstairs to start breakfast. She knew if she fell asleep now, she'd sleep all day, so it would be better just to get up, have coffee, eat breakfast, and maybe catch a quick swim before the others woke.

Emily was being quiet in the kitchen, but the smell of coffee brewing woke Hanna, who suddenly realized she was alone. She dressed quickly and went down to find the others, assuming she was the last one up. When she came down the stairs, she stopped and felt her jaw drop. She and Emily had been together for almost two years and they had seen each other in all states of dress, and undress for that matter, but this was by far Hanna's favorite look of Emily's.

Emily was dressed only in Hanna's concert shirt from the night before and had her hair up in a messy bun. The shirt was fairly long but it was still revealed most of her long tan legs. Emily looked up and caught Hanna staring at her, but simply smiled before resuming cooking. Hanna finally came down the rest of the stairs and approached Emily from behind. Putting her arms around the taller girl, kissing her neck, and whispering into her ear "You are the most beautiful thing I have ever, and will ever, see."

[End flashback]

Hanna tried to shake these thoughts from her head, trying to forget the vivid memory and ignore the feelings that came with it.

It was well past 2 AM and Hanna knew she needed to get some sleep or she'd be worthless that day. There were really no good options to sleep, Spencer and Aria had both taken over the couch. The only place left to sleep was in the bed, next to Emily. She climbed into bed as carefully as she could and made sure to stay against her side of the bed. She hoped Emily would take this as a sign that Hanna respected her feelings and hopefully the situation wouldn't be any more uncomfortable in the morning than it was now. Hanna let out a sigh and turned off the light before closing her eyes.