Home For Fall // Emison and PLL

Got A Secret

Hanna sat behind her desk and flipped through a couple of letters she had that she had piled together.

"Marlene! What did I tell you about putting so many goddamn letters on my desk without sorting them?" she called out.

Marlene, the intern, stuck her head in the room. "I'm sorry, but, you never told me that."

"Yes I did," Hanna said defensively.

"No, you didn't," Marlene said again.

"Whatever. Just let me sulk in private. Close my door behind you," Hanna muttered.

She continued rummaging through the letters until she stumbled upon familiar handwriting etched into an envelope.

She recognized Emily's sloppy scribble immediately. Hanna used to always make fun of her for the way she wrote her A's. But as of late, the letter A wasn't something to joke about.

She noticed there was no return address in the corner of the envelope and decided to tear it open anyways. Why was she sending a letter? Why not text? Maybe she had found out Hanna was in Milan and didn't want to spend the money for international texting. Either way, Hanna was clueless.

She read through the letter once. Then she read through it again. And again. And again. The words within it made her want to puke.

Emily joined the Army? She was in Afghanistan? "What the fuck?" Hanna said louder than intended.

How could Emily have not told anybody about this? And what took the letter so long to get there? Hanna realized it had to first leave from Afghanistan and get to the states. Then somebody in the office who was sorting things had to reroute Hanna's mail to Milan.

For all she knew, Emily could be in a VA hospital. Or worse. Dead.

Hanna jumped at the sound of her cell phone blaring some old Justin Bieber song from when she was fourteen. She still hadn't changed it. She never saw the need to. Nobody usually called her on her cell phone unless it was her mother, one of her friends, or occasionally Caleb. Except he was back in the states and didn't like talking over the phone much. She usually Skyped him instead.

She held it to her ear, the content from the letter still overwhelming her. "Hello?" her voice cracked.

"Hanna? It's Alison," she heard the other blonde say over the speaker.

"Oh... Hey. I was just thinking about you. What's up?" Hanna asked as she tossed Emily's letter aside and wiped the tears from her eyes. She tried her best not to smear her mascara.

"This is going to sound really weird, but Aria actually sent me. She said you were the last one to speak to Em," Alison said.

Hanna went silent and stared at the letter on her desk which explicitly told her not to tell the other girls. She knew this especially meant Alison.

"I mean, I spoke to her a while ago. But I've been in Milan for the past month and a half. Why? Do you need to speak with her?" Hanna asked.

"Well, we haven't spoken in five years. I doubt she wants to speak to me now. She's probably too busy enjoying the white hot sandy beaches of Malibu to care though," Alison said bitterly.

Hanna grimaced. "Yeah... It's definitely hot and sandy where she is."

The other blonde didn't seem to pick up on Hanna's subtlety. "Just... How is she, Han? When was the last time you spoke to her?" Alison asked.

Hanna racked her brain. She didn't want to lie to Alison, but she couldn't tell her the truth. If Alison knew Emily was in Afghanistan, it wouldn't end well. Alison would then tell the others, and eventually it would lead back to Pam. The last thing that poor woman needed was a heart attack on top of the cancer.