No Escape

The Bigger, the Better

Emily burst through the room, barely hanging on to the door so it wouldn't crash against the wall when she opened it. Her heart was in her throat as she stumbled forward, closer to Alison's bed, her heart slowly sinking as she noted that she wasn't seeing movement. Not again, she thought, tears starting to form in her eyes.

Her hand reached tentatively for the blonde, afraid she'd touch cold skin. When her hand settled on Alison's cheek and she shifted towards it, eyes fluttering open, Emily almost sobbed in relief. She wasn't able to control the tears that slid down. It was too dark, and Alison was too groggy to notice, but she felt Alison's hand cover her own and it broke her. Emily tried to fit herself on the small space beside Alison, trying to lie as close as possible without touching her. She let two more tears slide down the side of her face, before she took a deep inhale, sliding her hand from Alison's cheek to her neck, and she pressed her forehead to the side of Alison's head.

After a few minutes, she pulled back, hearing Ali sigh. She settled for watching Ali's chest rise and fall, a clear and distinct proof that Ali was indeed alive. She didn't know how long she'd been staring, content on just watching Alison sleep, when she heard her say, "I thought you weren't coming anymore."

Emily's eyes shifted from Alison's rising and falling chest to Ali's face, now facing the brunette. Emily inhaled deeply again, eyes closing, as the fear of seeing a stranger exit Alison's room threatened to squeeze the breath out of her again. She felt the bed shift, Ali's body moving away, but then she felt Alison's hand slide on to her waist and pull her closer. She obliged, moving forward, again orienting her body so she was as close as possible without touching. It was a subconscious self-preservation. Emily was still trying to protect herself from heartbreak. But she couldn't figure out why someone would go through all the trouble of doing what Ali was doing if it was just fake.

"I never would have left if the doctor didn't ask me to leave." Emily finally opened her eyes, and she was met with blue eyes, seemingly luminescent in the dark. She'd fallen in love with those eyes before. It had been difficult trying not to be. If she let herself, she knew she could fall again. Who was she kidding? She never stopped falling in the first place. It had been a difficult journey for her, especially with Alison keeping her at arm's length for the majority of it.

"Sleep," Ali whispered, repeating the order she gave Emily earlier that day. Emily hesitated at first, then nodded. But her eyes were still wide open and so were Ali's and for a while they just laid there, looking into each other's eyes, trying to look for something but not really sure what they were looking for. No other words were spoken. They drank up each other's presence as if it were the only thing they really needed that night, the only thing they really needed to get through whatever it was that was happening.

Sleep came in slowly, and neither was aware of it. One moment they were lying in bed content with the silence, the next they were both dreaming, temporarily forgetting whatever troubles they had.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alison woke up first, and the first thing she noticed was that her hand had somehow found Emily's during the night, and their fingers were already intertwined. The second thing she noticed was Wren standing by the door, waiting for the two of them to wake up. He raised both eyebrows at Alison and motioned for her to wake Emily up. Alison didn't even bat an eyelash. She snuggled closer towards Emily, bridging the space that Emily was so carefully trying to keep between them, and closed her eyes again going back to sleep.

The next time she woke up, Emily was already sitting beside her, the space between them was palpable again, but Alison was happy to note that their hands were still together, fingers still threaded. All night she'd been on her back because of the broken ribs, but she'd been looking towards Emily so her neck now hurt a little. That was ok. She was better rested than the past two nights she'd spent when Emily wasn't there.

"Good morning," Ali whispered. The look Emily directed at her had her moving to sit up, wincing at the pain in her side. Emily's hand slipped from her to wrap around her back instead, helping her to sit up. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Alison noticed that Wren wasn't in the room anymore, and that the drapes that had been closed the night before were now open. She inhaled sharply at what she saw on the window pane, instinctively moving towards Emily, who tightened her hold on Ali as, not for the first time, she stared at the words printed there.

You're making it too easy for me to finish what I started. -A

Everything seemed to blur but for those words on the glass window, and she only noticed that she had began to shake when Emily slid her hand on Alison's cheek, turning her head so she was looking at the brunette. "Ali." Alison could hear ringing in her ears, and she moved to pull away from Emily, but Emily slide her other hand to cup Alison's face. "Hey, hey. Look at me."

"I don't- I don't want to-" Alison shook her head spastically, wanting the space but needing Emily's touch. "I'm going to die, aren't I?"

"No. No, you're not. You're with me. You're safe." Something in Emily was breaking while she watched Alison slowly breakdown in front of her. Emily almost wished she'd shift back to her strong and independent self who had been the queen bitch around school. At least she wouldn't seem so lost and helpless.

"You don't understand-"

"I do," Emily interjected firmly. "-A has been after me, too, remember?" Alison looked like she didn't have anything in her to argue anymore, so instead she collapsed into Emily, and despite all her reservations, Emily wrapped both her arms around Alison.

It was in that position that Detective Tanner saw them a few minutes later, arriving with the three other girls. Her eyes were stony as she looked at the window pane first, then eyes panned towards the two girls in bed, one of them almost clinging to the other.

"Ali," Aria called out, and Alison pulled from Emily to transfer to Aria, the only other person who knew how much this was affecting her. She gave herself a few seconds of warmth from the smaller girl, before pulling away, and consciously pulled all the emotions she was filling inward. And they suddenly saw the straight faced Alison, the one who didn't share anything about herself to anyone.

"Detective Tanner."

"I think we can agree that you need to start telling me what has been happening."

After a few seconds of silence, the detective took out her phone which must have been on vibrate. Tanner's eyes suddenly blanked out. They never found out what she received, because after reading through the message the detective looked at Alison once and then exited the room.

Spencer's eyes furrowed, but being the one who always thinking about fixing things among the five of them, she turned on the light in the room, before walking over to close the drapes. "Out of the sight, out of mind," she explained, knowing it wasn't really going to be true. They all had -A in their heads, especially after what happened to Alison. That was the biggest 'show' he or she has pulled off, and that there was no telling what more they could do. For now they could really only wait.

A/N: I'm sorry this is a filler. :/ I'll have a plot relevant chapter up soon. I've had a busy couple of days. I'll make it up to you! :)