September 22

AN: This one took a while longer too. I just had to stop and scrap and restart because it wasn't working out. What I started on when I started this chapter was taking too long.

Update 25/10: I'm not on hiatus, and I'm not quitting. But I'm going to finish writing it before I post the rest of the story because I'm not quite sure about where I'm going with it and I want to finish writing it and see if I need to rework it and the next few chapters are super interconnected so if I change one I might need to change all of them which is why I can't get started on posting them. What I can say for sure is that there's going to be 31 chapters and right now I'm working on number 28.

Spencer was in a crash. Nothing big, just a little fender bender. She was left with a broken arm and a few sore ribs. Emily desperately needed to see her and make up with her but her mom was away, the babysitter sick and Alison was at work so she'd have to bring the twins with her. Under usual circumstances she dreaded bringing them to a place where there's people that are ill but she was too busy worrying about Spencer to care.

Paige was the first to get the call. Apparently she'd been Spencer's emergency contact when they dated and she was too preoccupied to switch it back to her mom. She'd changed it in the first place because she knew that if anything happened to her, Paige would come. She was not wrong.

The moment she heard that Spencer was injured she grabbed the keys to her house, hoping they still fit, and let herself in to prepare a bag of clothes for her. She grabbed her favorite pajamas and a few pairs of warm cozy socks. She had first hand experience with cold hospital feet and wanted Spencer to be as comfortable as possible. She grabbed her favorite book of French poetry and her laptop and bag and even packed her a spare blanket. She eyed the room one more time before leaving, making sure the house was clean and neat. Everything was just as it was the last time she was here, she sighed as she left one more time.

At the hospital she waited for a normal hour to call Spencer's mom and friends. She let her go in first and talk to her daughter when she'd woken up. By that time Hanna had woken all the liars up and they were on the way and though Peter Hastings was out of town for a work conference, Melissa was already there and raring to go check on her little sister too. Paige was afraid of what she'd do so she stayed out and handed Melissa the bag on her way in.

A few hours later the whole gang was there: Caleb, Toby, Hanna, Aria, Spencer, Emily and Paige, as well as the twins. They all sat around Spencer's room cracking jokes and having fun. Aria coaxed Paige into entering and after a few awkward moments, everyone was laughing like old friends again. Emily had sat down next to Paige and shifted so that they were almost shoulder to shoulder. The girls laughed by their mother's other side. If you'd seen them you might have thought they were a family.

The call came about an hour later. Emily's second in command had to go out of town and there was an incident at the pool requiring her attention. She had to drop the kids off somewhere but there was no one around. It was just her and Paige in the parking lot on their way out. Hanna had to go back to New York with Caleb and Aria had a deadline. With Spencer in hospital that left no one but Paige and she could never ask her that. It would be too much. But she was desperate.

Paige never could say no to Emily. That's how she ended up driving her to work when her own car broke down. She would've tried to help if she knew anything about cars but she'd mostly focused on swimming and bicycling in her day and neglected to pick up any of her dad's helpful car maintenance tips. Emily told her to wait for her and that she'd be right out but that was a full ten minutes ago and the kids were getting rowdy.

This was the first time she was alone with them and she was terrified. Terrified of hating them and blaming them for Alison's deeds. Terrified of loving them and having them torn away from her like Emily was.

She spied a park across the street, near enough to see from the high school but far enough from the foot traffic of the road. It was a decent little thing and the girls were staring longingly at it from the back windows.

"What do you guys say we hit the park for a while?" she asked. The reply was a resounding 'yes'. They unbuckled their seat belts and ran out the door before Paige even managed to get her window up.

The kids were still really small. So small they answered everything honestly for the most part. They only ever lied when they wanted something like cake or cookies. So Paige had found herself taking a real shining to them very early on. Everything she'd ask they'd answer, and sometimes they'd fill her in on background info to help support their cases. That's how she came to find out that they hated their English teacher because he was a doo-doo head or that Lilly's pink power ranger had a broken arm as well and she needed to take her to the hospital with Aunty Spencer so they could both get better.

It wasn't too long before the subject was changed to their mothers.

"Do you like our mommy, Paige?" asked Lilly, in a spur of the moment.

"Which one? You have like a dozen." Paige kidded.

"Momily!" Lilly rolled her eyes.

"Ah, her. She's a bit of a doo-doo head sometimes but yeah, I love her." Paige admitted.

"You love her?"

"Shh, don't tell."

"Okay. Do you love momma Alison too?"

Paige deliberated telling them the truth but she didn't want to hurt them or break their trust so she tried to be diplomatic.

"I don't love her as much as I love Momily"

"ME neither!" cried Grace from behind. Paige turned to look at her, questioningly but before she could ask what she meant she heard Emily's voice calling out to them from across the road.

"Looks like it's time to hit the road" Paige remarked as she took both girls by the hand, carefully leading them back to the car. Emily's heart warmed to see her holding the girls so firm yet delicately. She looked up at her, blushing with a half a smile playing on her lips when she reached her and it was all Emily could do to not pull her in and kiss that bashful look off of her face.

It was nearing lunchtime so they stopped at the brew for cookies and paninis -Emily insisted on paying- and on their way home they bought ice cream and talked about their day. They all got along so well that it felt like they were a family and when Paige walked Emily to her door it felt like she was coming home. But alas, the moment was only about as long as the fantasy she had of Paige the nymph. The moment she reached the door, Alison tore it open and started laying into her for not answering her calls. Paige clenched her fists at her side and excused herself before she made another mistake. Emily watched her leave despondently.