40 - Keep you Safe

Sunday went by without any complications. In fact, it passed quite boringly, if you asked Alison. As usual, her mother went to church with her father, after trying to convince her to come as well, an invitation that the blonde nonchalantly rejected. Like clockwork, it happened every Sunday.

On Monday morning, Alison begrudgingly rose to the sound of a vacuum being turned on. Her head shot up swiftly and turned to look at the clock. 6:05 AM. This ungodly hour was not one to be awake at. Annoyed, she jumped off of the bed, rushing down the stairs to quiet down whoever chose to "clean" at 6 in the freaking morning.

Coming down the stairs, she expected to find her mother, vacuuming in the early morning for some unknown reason, but instead, she found Jason, a vacuum in one hand and a broom in the other, looking absolutely miserable, and not to mention ridiculous.

"Jason? What are you doing?" she asked incredulously, rubbing the sleep off of her eyes.

"Vacuuming, cleaning," he answered simply.

"Why?"

"Someone special is coming over," Jason said plainly, turning off the vacuum once he was done with the living room carpet.

"Your girlfriend?" she asked in a teasing voice.

"She's not my girlfriend," he rolled his eyes, but the blonde wasn't a fool, she could see the hint of red appearing on his cheeks.

"When will I meet her?" Alison smirked.

"With that smirk, probably never," he chuckled.

"What? Come on, Jas, it's not every day that you have a girl over."

"Gee, thank you for showering me with compliments, Al," Jason said sarcastically, continuing to broom around the living room.

"I didn't mean it like that," she tsked, not backing down from the subject, "when is she coming over?"

Jason sighed as he paused in his task, understanding full and well that Alison wouldn't drop it until she met the girl. "Tonight, at seven."

"Can I bring Emily?"

"You know under any other circumstances I would say yes, but the last thing I want is for this to turn into some... double date," he said with a grimace, shaking his head vigorously.

"Yeah... no. I'm bringing Emily," she said in a decisive voice. "And ah-ha! You said it was a date!"

Jason groaned, realizing he did just admit that the person coming was his date.

"Tonight it is," Alison smiled in victory, ascending up the stairs again. "And please," she turned back halfway, "stop with the vacuuming. It's inhumane to wake up your sister like that."

Alison stalked up to her room, hearing Jason chuckling behind her at her dramatics.

XXXXX

"Ugh, I hate Mondays so much," Hanna groaned, opening her locker and barely resisting banging her head against it.

"Tell me about it, Garfield," Emily teased with a small sigh. She placed some books in her locker and took some other books out, putting them in her bag.

"Where's Ali?" Aria asked as she walked up to them with Spencer from their lockers, "it's only a minute till the bell."

Emily shrugged with a small frown as she looked around, seeing no sign of her favorite blonde. Finally, searching with her eyes, she spotted Alison walking towards them.

"Good morning," Alison greeted with a fatigued voice, opening her locker. Emily approached her, and the blonde smiled tiredly at her, leaning over to kiss her cheek. "Hey, you."

"Hi," Emily smiled back. "Where have you been?"

"Woke up a little late. Jason kept waking me up with his stupid vacuum." Alison rolled her eyes.

"Jason? Vacuuming?" Emily asked, taken aback.

"I know, right? It surprised me too. Apparently, he's finally bringing his girlfriend home," Alison explained with a small smirk. "And guess what? I signed us up to accompany them."

"Accompany?" Emily chuckled doubtfully.

"Yeah, but that's just an excuse to meet her," Alison shrugged.

"When?"

"Seven at my house," the blonde finished with her locker, closing it.

"I'm gonna be a little late. Possibly." Emily informed her as they walked back to the group.

Alison turned to her curiously.

"Swim tryouts are today," Emily explained, an excited tone to her voice.

"Right, you told me! Well, then I guess we're both going to be a little late, because I'm coming over there," Alison notified her with an encouraging grin.

Now, it was Emily's turn to be confused, and Alison giggled at her obliviousness.

"You didn't seriously think that I won't be there to cheer my girlfriend, did you?" she smirked teasingly.

"R-really?" Emily asked shyly. She knew it was silly, but having the queen bee cheer for you at tryouts was really the way to go, even though she didn't look at Ali that way.

"Of course. I gotta go to biology, but I'll see you at lunch," Alison said, adjusting the handbag on her forearm.

"Okay, bye, Ali," Emily smiled, turning to walk away.

"Uh, Em?" the blonde called out, making her girlfriend turn back around.

"Yeah?"

"You forgot something," Alison giggled. Emily frowned cutely in puzzlement. The blonde walked up to her, kissing her gently on the lips. "Love you."

"Love you, too," Emily grinned, looking straight into Alison's eyes.

"Em, come on, we're gonna be late!" Aria called out a little further down the hall.

They parted away from each other, Emily walking away with Aria, while Hanna and Spencer paced the other way with Alison, but to a different class than hers, since out of the group, only Caleb was with her in her biology class. She strolled over in the direction of her designated class, but not before looking Emily's way when she turned a corner at the end of the hall, noticing that the brunette had turned her head to look at her too. Their gazes locked for a sweet moment, and Alison sent an award-winning wink to Emily, before they were both out of sight.

XXXXX

"Emily Fields! Boy, am I glad to see you again," the swim coach, Mrs. Fulton greeted with a cheerful smile.

"It's nice to see you too, coach Fulton," Emily smiled as she took a seat next to some other girls on the bench in the locker room. She was already donning her swimsuit as well as the other girls, and she wasn't surprised to recognize a few familiar faces; Paige McCullers, Shana Fring, Sydney Driscoll, and more.

The coach had sat them all down before they all started their tryouts for this year. Emily was nervous on one hand, as could be expected, but was also feeling rather confident on the other. Sure, she was as anxious as the next girl, but her swimming had improved drastically since last year and she was excited about the new season.

After the coach was done with the introduction for the new faces, they all went to the pool area. Emily remembered that Alison had said she'd be there, and she looked towards the bleachers, looking for the blonde but not finding her. Slightly disappointed, she walked over to where the coach was standing with the rest of the girls.

They stood on the sidelines, every four girls being "tested" at the same time. The coach would write the times of the four girls who took turns swimming at each round, one in each lane, and Emily prepared herself with some stretches and breathing exercises to calm her nerves as other girls swam in the meantime.

Suddenly, in the chaos of girls swimming the best they could, the sound of a door being pushed open rung in everyone's ears. All eyes turned to see Alison DiLaurentis with her typical Queen Bee attitude marching up to the bleachers, which were currently occupied by a few people.

She sat down, catching sight of Emily. Emily looked impressive in her swimsuit, her swimmer's body curved in all the right places. Alison smiled, blowing Emily a kiss in exchange for saying "good luck". Emily grinned in return, feeling everyone's eyes on her. She knew she could count on her girlfriend to be there for her.

The rest of the girls went back to their business, and when it was Emily's turn to swim, along with Paige, Sydney and Shana, she stood at the very edge of the pool, ready to dive in at the sound of a whistle. She was lucky enough to catch sight of Alison, who had her full attention turned to her as she watched in interest, before the coach's whistle was blown and she dived in, head-first into the pool.

The coach had decided to test them all in butterfly, which was Emily's least good stroke, but she still did her best. When she came up for air, the thing that encouraged her to pick up her speed ever more was the girls' shouts and cheers of encouragement. It made her boost her speed of swimming even further. When she finished, touching the wall of the pool with her hand and coming up for air, she was surprised to find she was the first one.

Next, was Paige, then Shana and lastly, Sydney, since she was fairly new. Paige exited the pool angrily, "I was first, Emily started before the time!"

"Paige, I left at the exact same time as you," Emily defended, slightly hurt as she took off her swim cap.

Since they had been the last four to try out, the rest of the girls took the time to disperse and go to the locker rooms like the coach had asked them to earlier. Coach Fulton approached Emily, who was still in the water, now out of her swim cap, and Paige, who was toweling off next to the pool.

"Is there a problem, ladies?"

"Yeah, coach Fulton, there is. I was supposed to finish before her! She left before the whistle!" Paige argued, swinging her hands in the air in rage.

"Paige, Emily started at the exact same time as you, I saw her. She simply finished before you," the coach said sternly. She turned to Emily, "Congratulations, Fields, you have the best time in the team. How would you like to be the anchor for The Sharks this season?"

Emily's bright smile lit up the whole room, "Of course, thank you, coach."

"You're very welcome, Emily. Keep up the good work."

The coach then asked them to towel off and go meet her with the rest of the girls at the locker rooms. Shana and Sydney went off quite quickly in the direction of the locker rooms while the two girls stayed in the pool area.

"I should've been anchor," Paige muttered bitterly to herself. She marched up to Emily and kneeled on the ground next to the pool.

Next thing Emily knew, she was struggling to breathe while someone held her forcefully under the water by the top of her head. Paige.

She tried to shout but the water kept entering her mouth, producing bubbles. She wanted to reach out and drag Paige's hand away, but with no use. The girl's grip was so strong and aggressive, that Emily began to give up on even trying.

When she finally came up for air, she didn't feel Paige's hand on her anymore and she was free to move. She gasped for air at the sight in front of her - Alison was standing in front of Paige, they were both pushing each other and yelling loudly at one another, words that the brunette was too distraught to pick up on, but anyone would admit Alison looked more intimidating out of the two.

The coach came out of the locker room hastily, followed by a trail of girls. "Woah, woah, what's going on?!"

"This freak tried to drown Emily!" Alison yelled, staring Paige down. The blonde then crouched down, helping her girlfriend out the water and wrapping a towel around her protectively. "Are you ok?" she asked concernedly.

Emily nodded non-verbally, still struggling to breathe.

"You tried to drown Emily? She could've died!" Sydney gasped in dismay.

"But she didn't, didn't she?" Paige replied heatedly. "I should've been anchor," she grumbled.

"Are you insane?!" Emily's eyes were wide in alarm as she finally gathered her breath enough to shout at the girl. She stared at absolute surprise at the girl who used to be her friend, or at least friendly acquaintance. Alison wrapped an arm around her waist, shielding her and making her feel safer.

"That's it, I'm calling your father," the coach decided firmly, gesturing Paige to follow her out of sight. Paige sighed rather dramatically but followed her eventually, stomping away.

"What the hell," Emily whispered to herself as she watched them go. "I can't believe I used to be friends with her," she said to Alison.

"I know, Em," Alison said in sympathy, caressing her cheek.

With that, they walked to the locker room and Alison stayed back while Emily got dressed, still traumatized. She opened the group text as she waited.

Alison 👑: You guys won't believe what the hell just happened...

Toby 💪: What?? Are you okay?

Alison 👑: Yeah, I'm fine, but Emily was in danger!

Hanna 🍹: Emily?! What happened to her??

Alison 👑: Paige tried to drown her at tryouts.

Barely five seconds passed before a sea of messages came flooding in and strangled her phone.

Spencer 👓: WHAT?!

Hanna 🍹: She's so dead. I'm so gonna kill that girl!

Aria 📚: Yeah and I'll help!

Caleb 💻: Wait, is she okay now?

Alison 👑: Yeah, she's just changing her clothes and then we're out of here.

Ezra 📖: Do you need help getting her home?

Alison smiled despite herself at her friends' caring personalities, their best qualities shined when they were together.

Alison 👑: If you can, that'd be great. I'm going to take her to my house and make sure she's safe.

Right then, she heard Emily entering back to the area where she was sitting, nervously checking around to make sure she had everything she came with, running around anxiously.

"Woah, Em, slow down, it's okay," Alison assured and grabbed her by the shoulders. She noticed the brunette was panting heavily and drew her closer by instinct, hugging the fear out of her.

"She's still here, Ali, I wanna go," Emily pleaded.

"Okay," Alison agreed quickly. "But I'm here too, alright? I'll protect you through anything, Em, you don't need to be afraid," she promised.

Emily nodded slowly, beginning to silently cry against Alison's shoulder.

"Hey, Emily," Alison called softly, withdrawing from Emily, who only held onto her desperately. She let out a small sigh as she pulled the brunette back to her. "You're okay. I'm just glad you're okay. I'll never let her or anybody else get their hands on you ever again. Not on my watch, Em."

"I love you, Ali," Emily whispered against Alison's shoulder through her cries.

"I love you more, Em. Don't worry, I'll keep you safe."

"Emily?" the coach called out as she entered the locker room.

"Over here," Emily's small voice was heard. She parted away from Alison when the coach came into sight, but the blonde still kept a comforting hand on her back, just to let her know she was there.

"I called Paige's parents, they've come to take her home, and she was given detention for the next month. The principal was going to give her suspension but her father, well... never mind. If she ever pulls something like that again, she'll be off the team for good, just say the word," the coach informed her, and Emily nodded mutely. The coach walked closer to her with a sigh, "I hope this incident won't make you quit The Sharks, Emily... we're very lucky to have you, you're the best swimmer on the team."

Emily gaped helplessly for a moment, turning to Alison, eyes begging for help.

The blonde got the hint, shaking her head at the coach, "She won't quit because of this. She deserves to be anchor, and she's worked too hard for this to quit now."

The coach nodded thankfully at the two girls, saying her goodbyes and exiting the room.

"Thank you," Emily breathed out.

Alison only smiled in return, but the grin didn't quite reach her eyes. She was rightfully still pissed at Paige for the attempted drowning of her girlfriend.

Alison carefully took Emily outside, the brunette's bag on her shoulder since she didn't want Emily carrying anything. The swimmer quickly got a bit tired of Alison asking her if she was okay every ten seconds, but she knew the blonde only did it because she cared, and for that, she was grateful.

Ezra met up with them as he parked right in front of the entrance of the school. Aria, who not-so-surprisingly was with Ezra at the time they got the messages, came along with him. She exited his car and ran over to Emily, hugging her friend tightly and fussing over her. Once Emily assured her that she was fine, Aria helped Alison get Emily into the car, and Ezra drove the two to the brunette's house, since they agreed to have Emily shower before going to the dinner at Alison's place.

Alison helped her up to her room, and a few seconds passed before Pam entered the bedroom wide-eyed. "Emily, honey, are you alright? The coach called me," she asked nervously, inspecting her daughter for any possible wounds or hits, full-on mom mode activated.

"Yes, mom, I'm fine. Thanks to Alison," Emily smiled weakly at her girlfriend, who grabbed her hand lovingly.

"Alison, I can't thank you enough for being there," Pam sighed out in relief, giving Alison a small yet tight hug. If the mother still had doubts about the two girls' relationship, Alison was sure they were all gone now, considering she had just saved her daughter's life.

"My pleasure," Alison threw Emily a small reassuring wink, which went unnoticed by the woman.

"Do you still want to go to Alison's house, sweetie?" Pam asked her daughter tentatively.

"Yeah, I don't wanna miss it just because of what happened," Emily reassured her. "I'm better now."

"Alright, honey, just take a shower before you go. I'm going to go call your father," Pam said, kissing her daughter on the forehead.

Emily nodded giving Alison's hand a squeeze before exiting her room and walking over to the bathroom. A few seconds later, while the brunette was still in the bathroom fully-dressed, she remembered she didn't bring any underwear or clothes.

As Pam walked by the bathroom, Emily opened the door slowly, "Mom?"

"Yes, sweetie?" Pam turned to her.

"Can you bring me some underwear and clothes? I forgot to bring them myself."

"Sure, Emmy," Pam complied, heading back to her daughter's room, where Alison sat on the bed. She walked towards the closet, pulling out some fresh clothes and then opened the underwear drawer, fumbling around to find - "Oh, my God!"

Upon hearing her mother shout, Emily exited the bathroom quickly and headed to her room where she found Alison with her hand over her mouth and eyes wide in shock, and her mother, holding the black bustier lingerie she had bought for her anniversary with Ali.

"Mom! I-I..." Emily was short on words at this time. She couldn't believe this was happening. It was as if Emily had abruptly lost any shred of innocence in Pam's brain - like she was all of a sudden not a kid anymore. The woman turned to her with a threatening aura.

"Emily Catherine Fields, I am going to ask this once. Why do you have lingerie in your drawer?"

With Emily's throat dried up like the Sahara, she couldn't bring herself to explain. So, Alison, being the person that she was, found herself interfering.

"Actually, Mrs. Fields, that's not Emily's," Alison said somewhat shyly, yet still maintaining her confident attitude, letting the lie slide smoothly. "It's not mine either," she added quickly as the woman turned to her inquisitively, figuring Pam wouldn't let Emily date or even hang out with someone who owned this type of clothing.

"Well, then, who's is it?" Pam asked anxiously.

Alison was surprised at how quickly she could come up with a lie. It was the first time her "skills" ever came in handy like that. "When we first got to our hotel room in Paris, we found this in the bathroom with the tag still on it, I guess it came as some sort of benefit along with the suite because there were other items like this as well, and Emily put it in her suitcase because we were going to give it back to the hotel, but I guess we just forgot it was even there..."

Pam looked skeptical for a second, but as Alison added more details to the lie, the woman was slowly reeled in and looked more and more convinced.

"So, it's not yours?" she asked Emily cautiously.

"No, no it's not." Emily said, shaking her head. She knew lying to her mom was bad, but with a mother like Pam, her options were to either lie or tell the truth and deal with the horrible consequences, and Emily considered this lie as simply choosing life over death.

"Alright..." Pam sighed, believing her daughter, "but I am taking this away, I'll give it to... charity, or something." The woman quickly left the room with the item in her hand and a befuddled expression covering her face.

Once the door was closed, Emily rushed over to Alison. "That was so close!" the brunette whispered loudly in panic.

"I know!"

Emily looked back to make sure the door was closed once more. "Thank god you're here," she hugged Alison tightly, "I don't know what kind of twisted lie I would've told my mom if you weren't."

"Oh, and what I just said wasn't a twisted lie?" Alison chuckled.

"Trust me, mine would've been even more twisted," Emily shook her head in awe.

Alison smiled at her as the girl stared at her in relief. "It's a good thing that's over with. You should go get in the shower, though, we're gonna be late," she said, remembering why they were even there.

"How is it that the craziest things always happen to us?" Emily asked in wonder as she shook her head, moving to walk to the door.

"Because we're completely and utterly crazy, Emily Fields," Alison shrugged with a smirk.

Emily let out a small laugh, exiting the room and entering the bathroom while Alison waited for her in her room. The blonde simply sat on the bed for a while. Her phone was nearly dead so she didn't want to open it. She got up and walked over to Emily's desk. She giggled as she remembered the priceless look on the brunette's face when she had played "Crazy In Love" and started singing along to the words seductively, all while Emily sat in that very chair not too long ago.

She picked up a framed photo from Emily's desk and smiled softly. The picture showed a young Emily, maybe four or five years old, wearing sunglasses that were way too big for her face and flip flops, a large coat and a top, looking smugly into the camera with the glasses lowered on her nose.

"Ali, don't look at that..." Emily groaned, appearing at the doorway, now fully clothed with her hair wet.

"Em, were you always this cute?" Alison giggled, turning to face Emily with the frame in her hands.

"I don't like that picture," Emily let out a nervous laugh. "It's embarrassing."

"Well, too bad, because I love it. And if you don't like that picture, then why do you have it on your desk?"

"My mom put it there," the brunette explained with a small eye roll.

"Sorry to break it to you, Em, but your mom has good taste," Alison grinned, putting down the frame and walking towards Emily. "You know, you showered awfully quick, we still have some time before we need to head out," she said, lying on the bed and mischievously patting the spot next to her.

Emily chuckled, lying down next to her, and they both turned to lay on their sides and face each other.

"Hi," Alison greeted quietly.

"Hey," Emily smiled softly in return. "You know, I really need to thank you for saving my life today. Twice."

"You know you don't need to thank me. If something were to happen to you because of Paige, I... I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself." Alison said genuinely, playing with Emily's fingers as she talked.

"You say that, Ali, but you heard my mom. I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't been there to stop her," Emily said, taking her hand from the blonde's grip and shifting to cradle her cheek.

"Well, it's my job to protect you. They were both very deadly situations, especially the second one with your mom finding that lingerie," Alison joked, making Emily chuckle.

"Haha, laugh all you want, but the second one was definitely riskier," Emily giggled.

Alison smiled, beckoning Emily to come closer with her finger, kissing her sweetly for a few moments.

When they pulled away, Emily kept Alison close by wrapping an arm around the blonde's shoulders as Alison shifted to snuggle up against her, draping an arm around Emily's stomach and resting her head in the crook of her neck. Emily's hair had a faint smell of chlorine, along with the shampoo she tended to use. Everything about Emily, her comforting constant body heat, her protectiveness, her kindness, down to the way she smiled and the way she could sometimes make Alison blush - which didn't happen easily - and the way being with Emily felt like having zero cares in the world. It all felt so warm. So familiar. So Safe. So... Emily.

"Ali?"

"Yeah?" Alison replied in a distracted manner, nearly drifting to sleep.

Emily chuckled in return. "Come on, we should get to your house. Jason and his girlfriend are probably waiting."

"You're right. But, ugh, I don't wanna get up," Alison complained gently.

"You know I would love to stay like this, but you were the one who volunteered us to chaperone, so we need to be there," Emily grinned fondly.

Alison pouted. She wished more than anything that she hadn't pried on Jason's date, but what's done is done, she thought. After all, she did want to meet his mysterious girlfriend. With that thought in mind, she helped Emily up and together, they both walked to her house.

XXXXX

"What exactly are your intentions with my brother?"

"Ali, that sounds horrible, don't ask her that," Jason grimaced as he made some last-minute adjustments to the pillows on the couch. The three were in the living room, waiting for the arrival of Jason's anonymous girlfriend, and Alison, being Alison, was practicing what she was going to say to her.

"I have to agree with Jason on that one, Ali, it sounds like you're The Godfather or something," Emily uttered. Jason laughed at that.

"Fine," Alison rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

"Jason?" a feminine voice came through the hall.

"Over here," Jason called back.

As the footsteps became closer, Alison and Emily shared a curious look. Jason got up to greet his girlfriend as she entered the living room.

"Hey, you made it," he kissed her on the cheek with a small grin.

Emily and Alison rose up from the couch to greet her as well. Alison had to admit, she looked absolutely loaded. She looked like she could own a limousine as her everyday car. Her eyebrows were perfectly shaped, her skin was perfectly glowing and her hair was perfectly smooth. Plus, her style was phenomenal.

"Hey, I'm Alison, this is Emily," they all shook hands with smiles. "What's your name?"

______________________________

A/N: Ooh, the cliffhanger... Jason's mysterious girlfriend is _____?