A/N: As I was proof reading this I thought I should mention. Emily is 24 right now. Maya died when she was 18. So Paige and Emily were together for two and a half years. I hope that makes sense. Also Alison came back from being on the run around the time Paige and Emily were together, if it doesn't make sense please do let me know so I can try to explain it a bit better.

Also to the two people who left comments on the last chapter, I really appreciate it! I'll be sending flowers to the both of you.

Okay enjoy this one.


"Paige?"

"Hey, Emmy" she replied, while pulling Emily in for a hug.

She was speechless for a couple of seconds, feeling Tito's cold wet nose rubbing against her leg was what snapped her back to reality.

"What are you doing here?" she said, crossing her hand, almost defensively.

Paige was never liked by anyone and it took Emily some years to see what everyone saw.

It was about four years ago. All the girls went over to Spencer's for a girls day. It has been in the making for weeks. Spencer, Aria and Alison were on the couch, having a heated discussion about whether or not Ron and Hermione should have ended up together. While Emily and Hanna were making them some not-so-virgin piña colada.

Emily kept glancing at her phone and Hanna noticed.

"Paige?" Hanna asked.

"Yup"

"I don't understand why you're still with her, Em"

"Don't start Hanna" Emily warned her but Hanna didn't care.

"Just hear me out okay. We're all worried for you, Em"

"I know what I'm doing Hanna" She was getting a little annoyed with the blonde.

"Are you sure? You call me crying every week because she hurt you"

Paige is much more muscular then Emily. All the girls suspected she was using something but could never prove it.

"I'll stop calling then"

As Hanna was about to answer they heard the girls telling them to hurry up. Emily walked over and handed Alison and Aria their drinks while Hanna had hers and Spencer's. Emily took a seat next to Alison.

As the night went by, Alison also started to notice that Emily wasn't her usual self. She wasn't participating in the conversation as much and kept looking at her phone.

"You okay, Em?" She asked

That's all it took for Emily to tear up. As soon as Alison noticed she looked at the girls.

"I gotta use the bathroom. Em, come with me" Everyone was tipsy already so no one thought much of it.

She dragged Emily to the bathroom and locked the door. She made Emily sit on the toilet seat while she grabbed some tissues and handed it to Emily.

"Is it McCullers again? Emily, I swear if she touches you, I will kill her"

That made her chuckle, she could actually see the 5'2 blonde dragging Paige's body into a hole "Partially to do with her but also…"

Alison wiped a single tear that escaped the brunette's eyes and by that she knew what Emily was gonna say, because she knew Emily wasn't someone who cries. So she just waited for Emily to confirm.

"My dad"

"When is he leaving?" Alison asked.

"In two weeks"

She pushed the hair in front of Emily's face behind her ear and could see she was about to cry again, so she put both of her hands around her neck and brought her in for a hug.

After a few minutes she felt her phone buzzing. Emily mumbled under her breath.

"McCullers?"

"Yea, she's being a pain in my ass"

None of the girls liked Paige. They all saw how she was manipulating Emily. Except for Emily. The brunette always tried to see the good in people. Always giving people a second chance, even the ones who didn't deserve it.

Alison especially had a special hatred towards the girl. Ever since she learned that Paige actually tried to drown Emily.

"When isn't she?" she rolled her eyes and immediately regretted saying it out loud. "I'm sorry, I know I promised to try and play nice… What is she saying?"

"It doesn't matter, let's go back out there"

Before they left, Alison pulled Emily back. "Promise me something, Em"

"What's that?"

"If she ever lays a hand on you, you will call me okay? I don't give a fuck what time it is, you call me. I will make her disappear, I know people" she said jokingly trying to lighten up the mood, which worked because it made Emily laugh.

"She won't, but i promise I will"

After that Emily was feeling less shitty and actually participated in the conversation. She wasn't by any means happy because her dad was still leaving but she did feel better after talking with her favorite blonde.

After Wayne left, Alison had been feeling antsy. Her anxiety level was over the charts for weeks and she suspected why, It was later that night at 2am that she received the call that confirmed her anxieties.

She didn't even bother with the pleasantries because she already knew. "Where are you and where is she?"

"In my bathroom and she's in the bedroom" Emily's voice was trembling, Alison could hear the fear in her voice.

"I'll be there in five minutes… Does she have a weapon?" She sprinted to her car.

"I..-I don't..- I think I saw she had a knife" Alison could hear the door banging in the background.

"Hey, stay on the phone with me, okay? Where is your mom?"

"New York for work"

Damnit, she's alone with that psycho.

She drove through at least three red lights but at that moment she didn't care about any traffic laws. When she arrived, she got out of the car, went to her trunk and grabbed a lug wrench. She was praying to whichever god out there that she didn't bring a lug wrench to a gun fight.

She slowly made her way inside. She could hear Paige upstairs, she was screaming so loud she didn't hear Alison approaching her from behind. Alison drew the wrench back and hit her at full force behind her knee. Making Paige drop on her knees.

"You fucking cunt! I'll kill you!" Paige screamed at Alison, she got up and launched towards Alison. Both of them landed on the bed. Paige had Alison by the throat, she started gasping for air.

Emily could hear the commotion in the bedroom. She could hear Alison struggling and that's when her adrenaline kicked in. She quickly looked around for any kind of weapon. Conveniently there was a pair of scissors laying on the counter. She quickly grabbed it and unlocked the door. She saw the blonde's usual cherry colored lips turning blue. In a matter of milliseconds she had the scissors on Paige's neck.

"Get the fuck off of her" Emily angrily shouted at Paige.

Paige quickly threw her hands up, while Emily still had the scissors on her neck.

As soon as Paige got off of Alison, she got up, picked up the wrench and looked back at Paige.

"Leave before we call the cops" It was a risk because most people on the police force were useless and probably wouldn't have done anything but Alison just wanted to scare her, which worked.

Paige looked between Emily and Alison, and decided to leave, given she had no option. They walked behind her to make sure she left. After closing the door and locking it, Alison saw Paige getting in her car and watched her leave.

"I think we're safe" She turned around and saw Emily on the stairs with a blank expression.

She quickly dropped the wrench and rushed to Emily "Emily?"

No response.

"Em, look at me" She cupped Emily's cheeks making her look up "Are you hurt?"

Emily just looked down at her wrist "I think she twisted my wrist"

Alison looked down at her shaking hands. She went into the kitchen, grabbed an ice pack, water and ibuprofen. She went back and placed the ice pack on her wrist.

"Take these"

Emily took the water and downed the ibuprofen.

"How did I not see this, Ali?" she was on the verge of crying.

"Hey, it's okay. You're safe now"

Alison ended up staying the night. The blonde stayed up for most of the night, for one, making sure Paige didn't return and she wanted to make sure Emily slept.

The next day Alison took Emily to a shelter and she ended up adopting a five month old puppy.

"What are you doing here Paige?"

"Can't I check on my girl anymore?"

"I am not your girl Paige and and stop calling me Emmy" she tried to hide her shaky voice.

"Don't be like that baby" Trying to get into Emily's apartment but backed away when Tito started growling at her. He was usually a calm dog but because he could sense how scared Emily was, he went into scare mode and was ready for attack mode.

"Don't call me that, you lost that right the day you raised your hands at me"

"Omy god, Emily how many times do I have to say, I'm sorry" She said rolling her eyes.

"It doesn't matter, just leave Paige" she said, trying her best to hide her shaky voice.

Before Emily could close the door in Paige's face, Paige planted her hand on the door and said "One day you will come back to me. No one will ever love you the way I can, not even that bitch DiLaurentis "

"Goodbye Paige" she closed the door and slid against the wall next to the door. Tito started licking the tears away from Emily's cheeks.

"Good boy" she hugged the dog.

Her breathing became shallow and she started sweating. She tried getting her breathing under control but nothing was working. Her vision was getting blurry.

Five minutes after Paige left, Alison got back to the apartment. She opened the door and saw the brunette on the floor, hyperventilating. She dropped everything and sat down in front of Emily.

"Em? What's wrong? What happened?"

No response. Alison could see Emily's usual tan skin was white.

"Hey, you have to slow down your breathing" Emily wasn't listening. "Emily, listen to me. You're having a panic attack, you have to slow down your breathing for me, come on" She said while touching the brunette's arms. Nothing was working, she wasn't listening.

Alison cupped Emily's cheeks and leaned in to kiss her. It lasted a good few seconds. She pulled away when she felt Emily calming down.

They both looked at each other shyly smiling.

"Wh…-what was that for?" Emily asked, finally catching her breath.

Alison sat next to her, back against the door. "Uhm, I read somewhere that holding your breath can stop a panic attack so when I kissed you, you held your breath"

"That's smart" Emily said, finally getting her breathing under control. There was a moment of silence before she spoke up again.

"Was the tongue necessary though?"

"What?!..- there was..- I-I..-" Alison's eyes widened.

"I'm kidding" Emily chuckled.

"Oh you asshole…come on" she got up and carefully helped Emily up.

Alison guided Emily back on to the couch and went to make some tea. She put on the kettle and looked back at the brunette trying to calm Tito down.

Emily started petting him on his head "It's okay big guy" After hearing that, he rushed to his toy box, got a carrot toy and sprinted back towards Emily, handing her the toy.

"Thank you?" Emily said confused by the carrot toy.

Minutes later Alison walked in with their cup of tea and saw Emily holding the carrot.

"I see he got you his carrot" Alison said, placing both tea's on the table.

"Why am I holding this carrot?"

"It's his favorite toy"

It was his security blanket. After Emily and the girls were taken, Tito latched on to that toy for dear life. He took that toy everywhere.

Tito came back with another toy in his mouth and plopped in front of the girls.

"You wanna tell me what happened?" taking a sip of her tea.

Emily hated lying to Alison but she knew that the blonde would lose her shit if she knew it was Paige.

"It's nothing, I just ..-I'm fine" She said, avoiding eye contact.

"Em…" Alison said, bringing both her feet on the couch while looking at the clearly lying brunette next to her "How many years have we known each other?" She asked, taking a sip.

The question caught Emily by surprise. She actually had to do the math. "Uhh…since we were 13?"

"Exactly, we've known each other for 10 years. I know when you're lying"

Damn I need to step up my poker face. She looked at the blonde who clearly wasn't gonna back down and she sighs.

"Paige, dropped by"

"Paige was here?" even though her voice was calm, Emily could see Alison's cheeks reddening from the anger "Emily, you should have called me"

"Then what?" she said, looking at the blonde.

"We would have had a pleasant conversation" she responded, sarcastically.

"Hey, it handled it"

"Oh I don't doubt you handled it. I just wanted to introduce my left fist to her jaw" She lifted her left fist in the air.

"And that is why I didn't call you"

"Are you sure you're okay?" Alison asked.

"I am"

Alison helped Emily get up and they got started on dinner. They had spaghetti, they were both pretty quiet at dinner.

Emily dealing with seeing her abusive ex girlfriend and Alison getting the rage under control.

Tito kept walking in between Alison and Emily, sensing their anxiety levels were high.

Emily broke the silence "we should probably get our emotions under control before this poor dog gets an aneurysm"

Alison was too into her own thoughts to hear Emily. She was already making plans to kill Paige. I could drown her, payback is a bitch… although that would draw too much attention, maybe I could find a way to make it look like an accident… no she deserves to suffer

Emily reached out and placed her hand on Alison's "Stop planning her murder, it's not worth it, she's not worth it"

"How did you know I was thinking that" A little annoyed that Emily could read her that well.

"Because I know you, Alison DiLaurentis"

"Could we at least poison her?"

"No"

"Push her off a cliff?"

"No"

"Make it look like an accident?"

"You are relentless"

"It's one of my best qualities"

While Alison was cleaning up the kitchen, Emily was preparing the bed in the living room. She pulled out the sofa bed, brought two blankets and multiple pillows and insisted on Alison staying the night, not that the blonde had any problem with it.

They put on some Golden Girls and pass out a few episodes in. Sometime during the night, Emily ended up spooning the blonde. One hand on her abdomen and one under her head.

It's been a week since they were released from the hospital. Alison kept going in between her house and Emily's. She was basically only sleeping and showering at her house. She tried to give the brunette as much space as possible but Emily never complained when she was around.

Truth be told, if it was up to Emily she would have asked Alison to move in since day one.

Even though all the girls would text each other, making sure everyone is okay, no one visited or saw one another. Alison could see it was bothering Emily. She didn't have to say anything, Alison just knew. So she decided to talk to one person who could get everyone to get together. Spencer.

After dropping Emily off at her weekly therapy session, she went over to Spencer.

She knocked on the door and after a few seconds, Spencer opened it. Her hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in days, her cheeks were red, her clothes were all over the place.

Alison smirked widely "Sooo, whatchu you been up too?" she asked teasingly, knowing damn well what was happening.

"Shut up" Spencer opened the door to let Alison in "You want some coffee?"

"Yes, but I would like to get some sleep tonight, so double it down " they walked to the counter as Toby was putting a shirt on. "Hey Cavanaugh"

"Hey Ali, how's Emily?"

She couldn't help but smile when talking about the brunette "Stubborn like always"

"And you?" Toby asked.

"I'm good. Did you do the thing I told you to do?" She said, while looking at Spencer.

"Worked like a charm, thanks for that by the way"

"Anytime Cavanaugh"

"See around you, DiLaurentis" He placed a kiss on Spencer's cheeks and left.

Spencer was surprised by how friendly that interaction was. Last she remembered Toby and Alison weren't exactly friends. She looked at her cousin confused.

"What was that?" she asked curiously.

"Turns out, Toby and I have more in common than we thought" she smiled softly and looked at Spencer "He's one of the few decent men this town has left"

"Okay who the hell are you and what have you done with Alison" They both chuckled.

Alison remembered back to when Toby and her became close.

It was a couple of weeks after the girls had been kidnapped. Alison just finished raising hell with the Rosewood PD. The only two cops on the force that were actually good at what they did were Toby and Lorenzo. Which wasn't very helpful, cause both hated her guts. With good reason.

Lorenzo was because Alison basically used him to get information and Toby was a list of things.

Blaming him for blinding Jenna, bullied him because his mom was mentally ill. Accusing him of being a peeping tom. The list was endless.

Usually she would go to Emily whenever she's feeling like this, but now that Emily wasn't here, she went the other way. A bar. Alison was usually not a big drinker, especially at a bar but she just wanted for her brain to stop thinking the worse even if it was just for a minute.

She walked into the bar, to her surprise, it was a pretty clean bar. She liked it. It was giving off an Italian vibe. The big Italian flag was a dead give away.

This elderly woman spoke "Aren't you a little young to be in here honey?" The woman had a very thick Italian accent.

Alison smiled to herself, it never gets old when someone doesn't guess her age correctly.

"I'm older than you think" She said, pulling out her ID and handed it over to the bartender.

"Oh bless your genes" The elderly woman said handing the ID back "What can i get you bella?"

"whisky, pulito" (Whiskey, neat) She hated whiskey, it burned, but anything is better than this aching feeling in her chest.

"Ah, tu parli Italiano?" (Oh, you speak Italian?) The woman seemed impressed.

"Solo un po' " (Only a little) Alison replied.

"Rough day, huh?" She said pouring it into a glass.

If she only knew. "Something like that…leave the bottle"

The woman looked at her with concern in her eyes "You may be old enough, but are you sure? Did you drive here?"

Alison could see the concern look "How about this, when you see i've had enough, you can call me a cab"

That put the bartender more at ease.

As the night went on, Alison got to know the elderly. Her name is Gabriella Agri. She is a very free spirited woman. Her father owned the bar and when he died she took over it. She's 76 years old, but doesn't look a day over 50. She's been married three times and divorced twice.

Alison was in awe of this woman, the way she talked about her wife, was something out of this world.

"... even after being married for 30 years to her, she still gives me butterflies. It's like we're teenagers in love" she smiled while cleaning a glass "What about you tesoro? You got someone who makes you feel like mush every time they look at you"

She was already into her fourth cup of whiskey, so she was unfiltered. She smiled ear to ear.

"Ahaa, you do, don't you. Don't be shy, tell me about them" she said leaning up against the bar.

"Her name is Emily" She could feel her cheeks burning. Not sure if it was from the whiskey or blushing "She's, ugh. She's so annoying and so stubborn" She took a sip and continued.

"She has these most amazing brown eyes, I become a complete sucker when she looks at me with those eyes" She played with the glass with her finger tips " don't even get me started on her smile…that smile is out of this world…whenever i'm having a bad day, all I gotta do is look at her smile and it all goes away" she was definitely blushing "She has this annoying ability to calm my anxiety by just placing her hands on me"

"Oef, you have it hard" the Italian responded.

After a couple more glasses, Gabriella called one of her workers to drop off a very drunken Alison home, before leaving, Alison pulled down the window "Gabriella! when i ask her to marry me, I want you and Stefania to b…- wedding. You'll b… there.. Right?"

"We wouldn't miss it for a world bella" She assured her.

They were ten minutes from her house when she made the driver drop her off somewhere else.

"You sure you'll be safe here darling?" the driver asked.

"There's no place safer" She thanked the driver and walked to the front porch.

There was a dark figure sitting in the corner. At first she thought it was the booze but as she got closer she could see those blue eyes.

"Alison?"

"Toby!" Alison shouted happily "Toby, I am here to tell Emily how much I love her smile!"

"How drunk are you?"

"I don't know… Hey Toby, I didn't know you had a twin" Alison said, confused.

"Yup, you are so drunk, come on let's get some coffee and food in you" Toby said, guiding her to his car.

"But.. her smile?"

He drove to the one place that was always open late The Brew.

After two cups of coffee, she was feeling a little sober and very aware that she probably made a fool out of herself in front of Toby, but definitely not sober enough to control what comes out of her mouth.

"I miss them Toby. I know I'm not the friend of the year, but god I miss them" She took a sip of her coffee before continuing.

"I miss my cousin. I miss annoying her, I miss making bad decisions and having to call her to bail me out. I miss Hanna getting me in trouble. I miss Aria having to help Spencer get Hanna and I out of trouble" She almost had tears in her eyes.

"Toby, I miss her. I miss Emily. I love her, what if I never get to tell her that"

Toby didn't have to say anything. He was in the same shoes, he missed Spencer and his best friend. He couldn't promise the blonde in front of her that they would find them. The truth is, they didn't know.

Emily was the only person who believed Toby was innocent. He had a bit of a crush on her but when she told him she was gay, he supported her and defended her against anyone who dared looking at her the wrong way.

He always knew Emily was in love with Alison, he and everyone else around them suspected Alison felt the same but to actually hear her say those words were different.

"I know I hurt a lot of people including you…"

"Alison…" He said uncomfortably.

"No, please Toby, hear me out" She said, waiting for Toby to give her to go ahead.

He nodded.

"I know I hurt you, I know that. I know I said some horrible thing about your mom" she saw him shifting in his seat uncomfortably "I also know no amount of apology would make up for it, I know that. You're one of the few decent men left in this town" She looked at her coffee, after a few moments of silence, she spoke up again.

"I don't know where I was going with that" She sighed.

Toby smiled "I think I get it… So you're in love with Emily"

She felt her cheeks burning up "I'm so in love with her, how could I not be"

After that night, Toby had a different opinion on Alison. The first time ever, he saw the side of Alison that Emily always talked about. Since that night, they became friends.

Alison was already coming over to Pam's for dinner almost every night so after that night with Toby, Pam invited Toby as well. They would talk about everything some nights and other nights they would just sit in comfortable silence just enjoying each other's company.

Toby and Alison got comfortable enough with each other to even talk about girls. Alison also got to see a side of Toby only a hand few of people knew about. Whenever he talked about Spencer, his eyes would light up.

They gave each other some sense of safety.

Alison even went as far as telling Toby how much Spencer loves when he was in his uniform. She also made him promise to not tell Spencer she said anything because she knew her cousin would actually kill her.

"So I was thinking… why don't you and the girls come over for a movie night or something. We miss you guys. Emily misses you guys"

"I don't know, Ali. I do miss you guys too, of course I do, but it's just…" Spencer swallowed hard "I'm just not ready yet to see them"

Alison wanted to push her cousin but decided not to "I understand"

"How are you? Actually?" Alison asked.

"I may or may not be using sex as a coping mechanism" Spencer answered as honestly as she could "What about you?"

"I'm just glad you guys are back and safe"

After saying their goodbye, Alison headed to The Brew to get some lunch for her and Emily and went to pick up Emily from her therapy session.

As Emily was leaving her therapist's building, she ran into Sarah. The other girl who were also in the bunker with them. The woman had her head down.

"Hey, you're Sarah, right?" Emily asked.

Sarah looked up at Emily, she was taken back by the brunette "uh yea, you're Fields?"

"Emily" she extended her hand, Sarah took it in seconds.

Wow, her skin is so soft, Sarah thought to herself.

There was an awkward silence.

"How are you doing?" Sarah asked.

"They say therapy is supposed to help. I'm not sure what good it does revesting that hellhole" Emily tried to ease the tension. It made Sarah smile. Something about her smile was oddly familiar "I'm sorry but have we met before that place? Did you go to Rosewood High?"

"For a year, my family moved away when I got to second grade"

"Hmm must be that" Emily saw dark red Mercedes Benz coming around the corner and turned back to Sarah "Sorry to cut this short, that's my ride"

"Nice talking to you"

"You too" Emily said.

"Wait, before you go…Who's Alison?"

Emily looked at the smaller blonde a little confused "uh, my friend…why?"

"I just been hearing her name a lot, so I got curious" Sarah replied "...this might be too forward but could we get coffee sometime?"

The question threw Emily off, she took a few seconds before answering "Yea sure, what time and where?"

"Next Friday, 5pm? I saw this place called the brew, do you know it?" Sarah asked.

"I do, I'll see you there" She waved to the blonde and walked towards another blonde waiting in her car.

Emily was always quiet after talking with her therapist and Alison understood that.

The entire ride back to the apartment was pretty much silent except for Tito in the backseat of the car barking at every car that moved.

As they were arriving back at the apartment, they saw three people waiting at the entrance. Spencer, Hanna and Aria.

After an awkward silence, Hanna spoke up.

"We brought wine!" Hanna shouted. Which made everyone chuckle.


A/N: Not as bad of an ending as last chapter right? I hope you could tell when I'm talking about the past, I just noticed the ~*~ wasn't showing up, please let me know about that.

Emily and Sarah sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S... sorry

Let me know what you guys think! Do we trust Sarah?

If you wanna know as soon as I post a chapter, or if you wanna yell at me some more, I suggest following me on twitter fan_of_tv_shows