35 - No One Gets to Hurt my Girl

The group tore through the airport, heading towards their designated gate where they would be entering the plane, scheduled to be closed in only thirty minutes.

Alison was speed walking with her four-wheeled suitcase trailing slightly behind, second behind Spencer, who was at the very front of them. The brainiac brunette was leading the group since she was the only one who had bothered to read a little online about the huge airport, thus, she was the only one who knew her way around the place. It was amazing how much information she could obtain from an online, five-minute, self-taught course about the Charles de Gaulle airport.

The rest of the group were behind them as well and they all had to get to the other side of the airport, so stress levels were rocketing. Alison knew their friends didn't blame them, but it was pretty much her and Emily's fault for stalling in the gift shop. Mostly hers.

As she continued to frantically run behind Spencer, she realized this reminded her a little of the scene from "Home Alone 2" where all of Kevin's family was rushing through the airport and arriving to the flight at the last minute. She just hoped nobody will get lost in their case.

Suddenly, she heard a loud thud behind her, causing her and Spencer to turn around briskly.

She saw a foreign man kneeling next to her girlfriend on the floor, both looking uneasy and out-of-place, and only Emily was covering her eye with the palm of her hand. The hand covering Hanna's mouth in shock indicated something bad has happened. Alison ran as quickly as she could, her suitcase forgotten behind, which Spencer luckily picked up. Her friends were gathered around, trying to help Emily but they split apart like the red sea when they saw Alison coming.

"Em! Em, are you hurt?" Alison asked concernedly as she gave Emily a hand to help her sit up.

"I'm so sorry, mademoiselle. I wasn't looking, are you alright?" the stranger, who was apparently a local Parisian from his distinctive accent, looked almost as scared as Alison was. He took a hold of Emily's other hand, not noticing the cold death-glare he was given by the blonde.

They helped Emily up slowly, who stumbled a bit and then picked up her head, and it was only then that Alison noticed the huge mark around Emily's soft brown globe. A slowly-building black eye. To say she was furious was an understatement. A collective groan of sympathy was sounded from the people around them as Emily finally gathered her balance and stood straight.

Blinding rage rushed through Alison's entire being at the stranger. She didn't think she'd ever been this angry in her life, and knowing herself, she realized her top was about to be blown off. She kissed Emily's cheek with momentary softness and handed her over to their friends, who received her with open arms and started fussing over the poor girl. Then Alison rounded on the guy.

"Who the hell do you think you are, idiot, giving my girlfriend a black eye?!" she hissed loudly, and around them, people looked at the two warily as they passed by. She stepped closer to him threateningly and his eyes widened a bit. "You'll live to regret this. No one gets to hurt my girl," she snarled in such a low voice, he seemed to have turned terrified in a matter of seconds.

Emily's heart subconsciously swelled with love over her girlfriend's protectiveness, but her eye still felt extremely painful even without touching it and she could barely open it. She blinked dazedly as she tried to focus on the scene.

"I apologize, miss, I didn't notice-" he was interrupted by the angry blonde.

"Yeah, no kidding, bonehead! What do you like to do on the weekends? Break old ladies' hips?" she couldn't stop the high-pitched word vomit if she tried. She probably looked like she could throttle him with her bare hands at any second, but she didn't care. Behind her, all of her friends and her girlfriend looked at her with their mouths agape, shocked by the entire situation as they asked Emily for the millionth time if she was okay. "When you're walking through a busy airport, you shouldn't be looking down at your phone, freak! Next time-" her growling was stopped by a small hand on her shoulder.

She turned to see her girlfriend, black eye and all, looking at her with those endless brown globes. At any other situation, she would've probably melted on the spot at Emily's puppy face but her rage was still flowing through her. "Ali, it's okay. Really. It doesn't hurt that much, let's just go," Emily ushered quietly, holding her hand to her damaged eye.

Alison's body felt the warmth seep through it at Emily's gentle tone and innocence. This girl was going to be the death of her. "No, it's not okay." Alison's tone was suddenly as soft as it got when she talked to her girlfriend. "He shouldn't have hit you, Em. And now you're hurt."

"But we only have-" Emily paused to squint her good eye as she observed Spencer's wristwatch, "-twenty one minutes left till they close the gates on the other side of the airport and we can't afford to miss our flight, so can we please just leave?"

The feeling of reality soon kicked back to Alison as she returned to her senses and looked past Emily's shoulder, glancing at her friends who nodded hesitantly, agreeing with the brunette. She looked at Emily's swelling eye and sighed.

"Okay," she agreed reluctantly, "but we need to get you taken care of."

"The airport paramedics are really close by from what I remember. We can go there now and still make it on time for our flight," Spencer offered helpfully from beside Emily. "Ali, it's okay, Em will get taken care of, I promise."

Alison only nodded plainly, taking Emily's soft hand - the one that wasn't holding her throbbing eye - and walked away with her friends and their luggage. She threw one more dirty glance, filled with wrath, at the helpless man who only looked down at the ground in shame.

"Ali, I'm fine. It was just a freak accident, maybe you shouldn't have yelled at him like that," Emily told her as they headed to the paramedics' station of the airport.

She resisted the urge to retort to the brunette that it really was a freak accident - an accident caused by a miserable freak.

"Sweetie, I wasn't just gonna stand there and let him get away with it," Alison explained shortly, squeezing her hand as they approached the medics. "I won't let anybody hurt you," the blonde admitted caringly, making the brunette blush and smile a small shy grin to herself, despite the pain.

Emily, though still feeling a bit bad for that man who had merely made an innocent mistake and then tried to help and fix it, couldn't help but feel a little happy that it bothered Alison enough for her to have thrown such a fit of anger.

Meaning, even though she wasn't actually mad at that French man, she was a little happy that Alison was. But just a little.

XXXXX

"Em, you're holding it wrong," Alison complained as she watched Emily holding the ice pack she had been given by the paramedics in a wrong angle.

The paramedics had informed them they had already seen many cases of black eyes before, which Emily thought was completely bizarre. Weren't there supposed to be more cases of broken arms or fractured bones in a busy airport rather than black eyes? How many eye injuries could occur in a freaking airport, anyway?

The medics had also told her that the bruise was bound to pass in a few days tops with the proper treatment, which Alison had assured her over and over again that she would be getting, by her, of course.

"It's supposed to be this way," the blonde took the pack and adjusted it correctly, making Emily hiss at the icy feeling on her bruise.

"Are you okay? Did I make it worse-" Alison's frantic babbling was cut short by Emily's light laugh.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Ali, it just hurts a little," Emily reassured her with a smile.

Alison knew that the fact that she was going all 'mama bear' on Emily was out of charater for her, but she was hardly like that with everyone. To be honest, she would only care so much about people that she actually loved. If anyone of her friends got injured, of course she would run to help them, but if it was a random person from their school, she most likely would not have cared less.

The old couple who sat in the row in front of the two girls looked at each other cautiously as they unintentionally heard the majority of their conversation, then turned to the girls through the relatively-wide space between their first-class seats.

"Oh my, honey, how did you get that black eye?" the elderly woman asked in concern, marks of genuine curiosity appearing on her face.

"Did you get in a fight?" the man asked playfully, receiving a not-so-subtle nudge from his wife.

"Frank," the woman hissed, "you're embarrassing her. Leave the poor girl alone."

"I'm just kidding, Margie, no need to get me injured too."

Emily released a small chuckle at the elderly couple despite herself, and Alison turned to look at her, a gentle grin rising on her lips at the sight. It was safe to say that Alison usually hated old people - with the exception of nana - like she hated most people in general, but these two had something in them that made them seem fine to her.

"A man accidentally bumped into me," Emily explained shortly.

"Accidentally? Darn, I can't even know what's accidental and what's on purpose these days, right, Frankie?" Margaret commented with a head shake.

"Yeah, you can never be too careful, kid. Maybe he did it on purpose, who knows," the man said, lifting his round glasses up his nose.

"It's okay, she has her own bodyguard at her service," Alison joked lightly, noticing it was cheering Emily up. She placed her hand on the brunette's knee, smiling affectionately at her. Emily gave her a shy smile back and placed her free hand on top of Alison's.

"Well, aren't you two just the cutest thing," Margaret interfered dreamily. "How long have y'all known each other?"

Emily and Alison shared a glance, and the blonde turned out to answer. "We've been best friends for a long time but we've only started dating about a month ago," she shared.

"They had their one month anniversary yesterday," Hanna uninvitedly joined the chat, popping her head through the gap between the chairs from behind the two girls, where she'd been sitting with Caleb and eavesdropping, making Emily jump, startled.

"Jeez, Hanna!" Emily shouted, this time scaring Hanna while Alison laughed at the other blonde's antics.

"Wow, first anniversary, how exciting!" Margaret commented in a rather high tone. "What did you two do for each other? Buy flowers?"

"Oh, they did way more than that. You have to understand, Margie, they're like, obsessed with each other," Hanna commented as if she was sharing some hot gossip in a one-on-one with Margret, even though she was hardly even invited to the conversation.

Emily and Alison shared a half-confused-half-offended look at the bubbly blonde's statement, traces of amusement in their eyes.

"Emily woke Alison up with breakfast and balloons and cupcakes and other things, and Alison brought a band and a choir to the middle of Disneyland Paris to serenade Emily her favorite song. Then they went to dinner and gave each other gifts, oh, and not to mention Emily's little extra kick that I'd helped her pick out. Let's just say, there's no way they went straight to bed, no pun intended-"

"Hanna!" the girl's bickering was done when Alison and Emily finally noticed what she was saying so quickly and shared a horrified look before practically screaming her name.

"What?" she asked in fake-innocence with a smirk. "I was just telling them yesterday's events."

"No, stupid, you were just shouting to pretty much everybody on this plane about mine and Emily's relationship and not to mention sex life," Alison whispered heatedly, shooting Hanna a warning glare.

Emily merely sat there wide-eyed, looking like the brightest tomato in the market.

"Oh, it's alright, sweetheart. No need to be embarrassed, what you did for each other is amazing. Frank here won't even buy me dang flowers or chocolate," she complained with a pointed look at her husband.

Frank looked properly scolded for a second, but quickly rebounded. "Well, I wanted to keep this for later when we've landed, but I guess I can just give it to you now."

Margaret looked at him curiously as he pulled out a jewelry box with one hand and opened it using the other. Inside, laid a beautiful golden necklace which looked like it had cost a hefty fortune.

Margaret was the one who looked guilty now, since she had assumed her husband didn't have anything to bring her. She also came back to her senses quickly and smiled broadly at her husband.

"Oh, Frankie! That looks marvelous," the woman gushed. Frank's smile was big and real as he unhooked the necklace and placed it around Margaret's neck.

"At least we finally found someone who talks like Spencer," Hanna snickered. Emily chuckled at that and Spencer threw a grape from her dinner plate at Hanna from her seat at the other side of the moderately spacious first-class aisle.

"I heard that," the witty brunette growled at her best friend, who only smirked in response.

Alison wasn't listening to any of them anymore. Frank and Margaret, the mysterious elderly couple in the two seats in front of them, were now taking a picture together. She was watching their interaction with awe-filled eyes. When she'd grow old, she'd want a relationship like theirs; playful scolding, spontaneous gifts and generally good energies. And the best thing was, she knew exactly whom she wanted it with.

XXXXX

Alison and Emily were now drinking the can of Coca-Cola that the flight attendant had handed them a few minutes ago. After only a few sips, the blonde had begrudgingly announced that she had to go to the bathroom and left Emily in her seat with the instructions of keeping the ice pack close by in case the brunette needed it. Emily's was thankful to be able to lower the irritating ice pack from her eye. Her bruised eye was now feeling much better as she tried to watch the movie playing on the mini pullout screen that was comfortably attached to her seat.

"Hey, Em," Aria greeted with a smile as she took a seat in Alison's empty space next to Emily. "Do you have an extra spoon? I feel bad asking the flight attendant because she's busy helping someone else."

"Yeah, I think so," Emily smiled a bit at her best friend's odd request as she gave her an unused plastic spoon she had kept from dinner.

"Thanks," Aria grinned cheerfully. Emily thought she was going to leave but the girl stayed in place for a few moments longer, not that Emily minded. "Are you feeling any better?" Aria asked worriedly as she eyed the black and purple bruise around Emily's eye.

"Yeah, it's a lot better now, Ar. You want this? There's some left in it," she extended her hand and offered the can of Coke to Aria.

"Sure," Aria took the can out of Emily's hand. She took a few seconds to look down, reminding herself of the real reason she came to sit next to Emily while Alison was temporarily away, and then turned to Emily with only seriousness in her eyes. "Em, can I ask you something?"

Emily only nodded, curious to find out what was on Aria's mind.

"How do you think your relationship with Alison is going to be when we come back to school? I mean, sure, you guys have been together this whole month, and you know how much I love you two as a couple. But I also really love you and Ali as my best friends, and I don't want this, your relationship, to end as some summer fling," Aria shared with a sympathetic frown.

"It won't, Ar," Emily quickly responded. "I love Alison and she loves me, too. After all we've been through these past two years, not to mention this past month, we're not gonna... split up just because school is starting," the swimmer explained, full of confidence. She was sure with every fiber of her body that Alison wouldn't break up with her because of school and their fellow peers. Alison had fought for their relationship just as much as she has, the brunette was certain of it.

"Okay, good. I'm just making sure. I love seeing the two of you being so happy with each other," Aria gave the taller brunette a genial grin. "Oh, one more thing I was curious about. I never got to ask you this, but before you two started dating, was she always this flirty with you? Because I'm not gonna lie, I think she's always had a soft side towards you."

Emily laughed a little, her cheeks tinting a bit red, "I don't know. I mean, I-I guess she's always been really nice and gentle with me when we were alone. That's why I never understood why she used to be so mean to everyone else."

"So all this time, when she was hitting on you behind closed doors, it was because she had a little crush on you," Aria mused out loud and then chuckled along with Emily who nudged her arm playfully.

"Who had a little crush on you?"

Emily and Aria jumped at Alison's voice. The Queen Bee stood next to her seat, her eyebrow raised expectantly as if waiting for them to talk.

"You did, Ali. Don't worry, she's all yours now," Aria said rather smugly, stifling a laugh. Emily could feel Alison's eyes on her as Aria winked playfully, and the swimmer only giggled, blushing under the blonde's undying attention.

"Good for you, Ar, such a detective," Alison sneered sarcastically and rolled her eyes in a friendly manner. "By the way, you're in my seat, you know."

"Well then, make me move," Aria crossed her arms, challenging the blonde all while giggling hysterically, not being able to contain her laughter over the 'once cold' blonde's obvious blush at Aria's comments about Emily being her crush.

After Alison's had made her grand apology the previous day, the five girls had been more comfortable than ever with one another, their teasing and joking becoming even more frequent, something which all of them enjoyed.

Alison shrugged nonchalantly, "Fine, but don't forget, you wanted the hard way." The blonde moved past Aria to Emily's seat and took a seat in the surprised brunette's lap. Emily didn't have time to blink before Alison was kissing her deeply, cupping the back of her neck, careful not to accidentally touch her black eye. Emily's arms moved instinctively to Alison's hips as she couldn't help but pour herself into the kiss, forgetting about Aria and the rest of the people in the plane and focusing on the gorgeous blonde on her lap.

"Ew, you guys, at least wait till I'm in my seat," Aria quipped playfully. Alison parted from Emily, laughing in satisfaction at making her point as Aria made her move to stand up.

"See you later," Aria waved them goodbye as she went to her seat, holding the can and the spoon she was given by Emily.

"Bye," Emily said as Alison added her "Later."

"Gossiping about me, huh?" the blonde asked as she turned to Emily, amused at the previous minute.

"Don't worry, only good gossip," Emily reassured her.

Alison rolled her eyes, shaking her head with a smile. She rose and moved back to her seat. "Where's the can?" she asked, frowning slightly.

"I gave it to Aria, you said you didn't want it," Emily responded truthfully with a shrug as she turned back to her movie, trying to slow her breathing from their short, yet passionate abrupt make-out.

"Well, now I want it. You made ne thirsty, Em." Alison said, practically panting and winked at Emily who smiled at her shyly.

The brunette shook her head in amusement as she watched Alison spring from her seat and head over to Aria's, her over-dramatic nature only making Emily adore her more.

XXXXX

"Where are they?" Mona asked, glancing at her phone to check the time. "Their plane landed half an hour ago."

Noel looked around the busy arrival terminal, "I don't know. And I can't call then because their phones are probably on airplane mode."

Mona sighed and took a seat on one of the nearby benches. "I can't believe school starts tomorrow," she said exasperatedly to her boyfriend. "Will anyone even notice if I won't come?" she joked, but Noel recognized the serious undertone to her words.

"Of course they will," Noel reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Everyone will notice. Your days as a 'nobody'," he air-quoted, "are over, Mona. That's why you're going to come." Mona still looked at him warily. "You're not gonna skip the first day of school, especially when you've got me to show off," he teased cockily.

Mona laughed shortly and rolled her eyes at him. "Fine," she agreed, "I'll come."

Noel nodded with a smile, pleased to have accomplished his goal.

"Noel? Mona?"

They recognized Hanna's voice from not too far away and picked up their heads, searching for the bubbly blonde in the sea of people. Mona noticed her instantly. With her Tory Burch handbag and Jimmy Choo heels, it was anything but hard to spot Hanna, especially for a sharp eye in design like Mona's.

They approached her with matching smiles, pulling her into a hug. "How was Paris?" Mona asked enthusiastically.

"Oh, my God, you're not gonna believe everything we did. I might even need to clear up a whole day just to tell you," Hanna exaggerated, returning Mona's smile. "Wait, what are you guys even doing here?" the blonde asked.

"We thought we'd surprise you guys and pick you up. It would suck for you to get a cab all the way from Philadelphia on the day of a huge baseball game," Noel explained. He turned to stare around for a good moment, "Where's everyone else?"

"Oh, they're coming, don't worry. I just ran really quickly because I needed to go to the bathroom."

"You ran? In these heels?" Mona asked incredulously. Hanna nodded with a pout. "Oh, honey, I'd rather pee my pants than run in Jimmy Choos."

Noel zoned out of their conversation when he felt someone tap on his shoulder. He turned around to meet a smiling Alison. "Hey, Ali!" he hugged her tightly. He noticed Emily coming to a stop behind her and beckoned her to come, opening his arms and joining the brunette into the hug.

"Ugh, it feels like I haven't seen you in ages," Alison groaned, pulling away from the hug the same time Emily did. The blonde instinctively moved her hand to Emily's hip, the brunette relaxing into her touch.

"Yeah, I know. You guys are going to have to clear up a whole day just to tell us about it, according to Hanna's words," he laughed.

"Wait, what are you and Mona doing here?" Emily asked curiously.

"More importantly, what happened to your eye?" Noel inquired uneasily.

Emily quickly recalled the accident, then Noel told her the same thing he told Hanna about the baseball game.

Both girls smiled at Mona and Noel's caring act and in return, he grinned proudly at Alison's protectiveness over Emily, giving her an impressed high five as she scandalously told him all the insults she'd slammed at the man during her rant, all while Emily stared at the two in humor.

After they'd all hugged and greeted one another, they finally drove home in Mona and Noel's cars, each heading to their own houses in purpose of getting ready for school the following day.

It was the afternoon at the DiLaurentis' when Alison tiredly entered the household with her suitcase.

"Hello?" she called out experimentally when she was greeted by no one.

"Al, hey," Jason peered out the kitchen with a smile, coming to hug Alison tightly in his arms. For the first time, her time away from home had actually made him miss her.

"Uh, Jas, you're squeezing me to death," she barely choked out before he released her, smiling rather sheepishly.

"Sorry," he apologized quickly. "How was your trip? Did you have fun?" he asked, walking back into the kitchen with Alison in tow.

"Yes, tons of fun," she reassured him, smirking when she thought back to how much fun she and Emily had almost every night. Yes, everything in Paris was breathtakingly amazing and just as good as she dreamed that it would be, but having sex with Emily was a whole new level.

Being her brother, he quickly caught up to her innuendo and pushed her shoulder playfully. "You need to take one cold, cold shower," he chuckled.

"Tell me about it."

Less than two miles away, Emily was just entering her house. The brunette's coming-home greeting was much different than Alison's; her parents weren't away on separate business trips, in fact, they were in the midst of preparing a dinner just for their daughter in celebration of her return. Once Pam heard her familiar voice, she practically flew to Emily from the kitchen, hugging her for dear life.

"Emmy! How was Paris, sweetheart? Was your flight alright? Oh, honey, I meant to ask over the phone, are all of your things for school ready? Are-" Pam's incoherent ranting was hushed by Emily's light laugh.

"Yes, yes, Paris was great and I'll tell you all about it, and all of my school stuff are ready but now I just need to shower, eat and sleep, mom," Emily promised her mother with a tired smile she somehow managed to pull off.

"Alright, honey, I'll-" Pam's audible gasp was echoed throughout the entire foyer as she observed Emily's purple bruise, her hand flying to her mouth. "What happened to you, sweetie?!" the woman asked as her maternal instincts kicked in full force.

Emily had nearly forgotten about the black eye, her mind preoccupied with thoughts about a nice, hot shower and a good night's sleep.

"Oh, right, that... I swear, mom, it's not as big of a deal as you think," Emily said nervously.

She went on to tell her mother the full story of how she'd gotten injured and how Alison had rushed to protect her. Pam smiled a little despite herself, somewhat happy that Emily was being defended by her friends and her girlfriend in various situations.

When she was done telling Pam everything, Emily heard footsteps descending down the stairs. She was so glad that her dad was home. After long years of him being away, she knew she'd like to savor every sweet moment she got to have with him.

"Dad," she called excitedly as her father came into view.

"Hello, Emmy," he hugged her with a familiar smile tugging on his lips. He pulled away only to ask questions about her eye, but Emily explained it all to him the way she told her mother, calming his nerves quickly. Pam watched their interaction with a kind smile. The mother hoped this would be Emily's most stable year in school and in general - having her father back could be a great help for Emily and Pam's life, for situations the mother couldn't handle on her own.

Soon, they were sitting around the table in the dining room, where Emily wasn't able to get a bite in her mouth from the amount of questions her parents asked her. She told her parents everything; from how their flights went to how gorgeous their hotel room was, then went on to talk about all of the places they'd gone to. She showed them pictures and videos, telling them about the time they all crashed - not really, because it was an open invite - a fancy ball, and the time she and Alison climbed the Eiffel Tower at night and got to witness it all first hand. She casually and intentionally left out details about her and Alison's numerous sexual encounters, but she had a horrifying feeling her parents, or at least her father, already knew.

When she got ready to go to bed later on, she sat in her bed with her back against the headboard, opening her friends' group chat.

Emily 🏊: Sooo jetlagged...

Aria 📖: Aww Em that's too bad! Get some rest!!

Toby 💪: Feel better, Em 😊

Alison 👑: You want me to come over, babe? We can be jetlagged together 😉

Emily 🏊: I would love to, but it's okay, Ali. I'll just go to sleep. I'll probably feel a lot better tomorrow.

Alison 👑: Call if you need anything. Love you ❤

Emily 🏊: I love you, too 💕

Caleb 💻: Feel better, Em. It'll suck if you're sick on the first day. 😪

Emily 🏊: Gee, thanks a lot, Caleb 😅😒

Spencer 👓: What are you doing still up? Tomorrow's our first day of school!

Hanna 🍹: Stop being such a mom, Spence 😂

Alison 👑: Speaking of first day, we need to make an entrance tomorrow! That includes you too - Toby, Caleb and Ezra 😈 Just because you're new to the school doesn't mean you're starting at the bottom.

Ezra: *Groans loudly* 😪

Alison 👑: Oh hush. Let's meet at the front of the school ten minutes before the first bell.

Once everyone agreed, Emily finally allowed herself to go to sleep, gathering strength for the important next day.