Infatuation (PLL Emison AU)

Battle Scars

A/N: There is some triggering material in this one. Read with caution. I think there are only like 5 people reading here. I post for you all. Thanks for the support, but if you're impatient you can hop on to Fanfic or Archive of Our Own because the story is many chapters ahead there.

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Chapter 34:

Battle Scars

Ten days went by without a peep from the copycat. It made Emily and Alison uneasy. Silence was never a good thing, especially now that the copycat knew the truth about Emily's involvement and the fact that she was covering up for her wife.

Emily had been doing a lot of mental gymnastics in order to justify everything she was doing. It gave her insight into what Alison felt like when she took matters into her own hands.

Emily had been given strict orders not to work on the Scarlet Letter Killer case or any other ongoing cases, but Chief Furey hadn't said she couldn't work on unofficial – off the books – cases. Technically he couldn't forbid her from working on a case he didn't know about. So she took the opportunity to exploit the loophole to investigate the copycat case independently.

It hadn't been easy to research and gather testimony and evidence with all of her friends and her mother dropping in all the time to check on her. Alison had also been looking over her shoulder and doting on her.

The detective was still not comfortable with her wife hunting someone, because she knew it was like drugs to her. Alison was trying to stay clean, which is why Emily had come to the decision to get rid of the killer on her own. She'd grossly underestimated the copycat, as evidenced by her healing injuries. But now that she knew what kind of monster she was dealing with she knew how to counter-attack.

She'd finally gotten a list of names of residents together for the neighborhood where some of the texts to Alison had originated from. She had already ruled out several people by gender and race, given that the trace print they had was confirmed to be a small stature white male or a female.

She did her due diligence and whittled her way down the list of names, crossing off any non-potential suspects, leaving her with only a dozen of people to work with. She planned on talking to people she ran into so she could see if anyone had noticed anything odd. She also had to look at two vacant houses that were owned by the bank.

Alison was finally returning to work, so Emily had made plans to go out to her mother's neighborhood to see her. Afterwards she was going to walk to the neighboring community she'd been staking out before the hit and run. She was going to take Duke for extra protection.

She looked down at the German Shepherd snoozing at her feet. His head suddenly popped up and he sniffed at the air as soft footsteps approached.

"Your coffee, my love." Alison walked into the living room with a steaming hot cup of coffee.

The blonde had been like a prison warden when it came to Emily's medical treatment at home. She wouldn't let Emily lift a finger. It was aggravating, because Emily was used to her independence, but it was also very sweet. She appreciated Alison's dedication.

Emily had thought a lot about what it would have done to Alison if she'd died. Alison had made it perfectly clear that their love was the only thing that bound her to reality. She had already lost so much. It would destroy her if she lost someone else she loved.

Emily knew how it felt to know that deep of a loss. She'd felt abandoned by her mother. Her father was overseas. Then she'd lost Maya. It sent her into a complete tailspin.