You Saved Me (Emison Fanfic)

Ch. 19 - Today We Do

Alison's POV

So it was set, we were all in my car on our way to Ravenswood. And as much as I hated the damn place, the plan was to find Wren, get him to confess and make him bring us to my- to Charles' hideout to find wherever the hell he was keeping the people we loved.

One thing I've learned these past years: blood doesn't make you family.

My parents stopped existing, stop being my parents, the very moment they started to teach me to be like them. My brother...brothers were no longer my brothers: Jason hated me and so did Charles...now Jason, I can understand, but Charles, I don't even remember him, I was a baby the last time we were in contact, and the moment he started hurting my friends, he was already doomed to meet me and pay the price.

So no, I didn't have much of a biological family, but what I had was a girlfriend, and her parents who accepted me and welcomed me into their home when mine didn't, I had friends who have been at my side since I could remember, who have worked restlessly on protecting me, being there all the time.

They were my family and as much as I knew I could rely on them, I had to prove to them the reverse was just as true.

Plus, now I have the help of the people who love them as much as me. Ezra, Toby, Caleb has been especially helpful through all of this and even whatever it is with Mona that we have going on, I owe them just as much.

Thinking of the sacrifices we've all been through, I looked in the backseat, Toby and Caleb on either side of Emily, Mona riding shotgun up front with me. The drive wasn't too far, but it was long enough that Em had fallen asleep on Caleb's shoulder.

"Is she alright Caleb?" I asked, glancing in the rear-view mirror to steal a look.

Caleb smiled at me and held Emily's head closer to his chest so it wouldn't bounce around so much on this crap road, "your precious cargo is fine," he chuckled and leaned from behind me to squeeze my shoulder, reassuring me, "she's tough," and after awhile he added, "she's fine."

But the last few weeks flashed before me, the running, the lies, the hospital, the clues, more lies about my family, her health, god her health. One little thought like that and it was train barreling through and derailing any other trains of thought I had, she wasn't fine, not by a long shot.

Caleb told me to stop blaming myself, but how could I not? If we never met, she would be fine. Deep down I know I wouldn't, that even if I didn't know she existed, I would always feel like I was missing something. I cant't accept that this was fate, I can't and I won't. I was a tree and she was a moving car, I had her wrapped around me, I kept her in Rosewood, I stop her from going and moving on to better things. This wasn't her fate.

"Ali," Mona said softly, "do you want me to drive?"

"What? No, don't be crazy, it's only like another 45 minutes." I shrugged but I never met her eyes, looking in the rear-view to find Toby's head against the window, his hands nervously playing with the scrabble 'T' piece around his neck that Spencer had given him and Caleb's head was on Em's, his thumbs twiddling over his phone.

"Are you sure?" Mona was persistent, I'll give her that.

"No, why do you keep asking? Not like I'm swerving or speeding."

Mona nodded, "you're right but-,"

"But what?"

Mona knitted her brows at me when I finally looked at her questioningly, and reached over to pull my visor down, snapping open the mirror, "but that."

I looked up into the mirror, cautious that there was nothing ahead of me and looked at myself, and I actually looked, not the barely glances like when I used the restroom. But I stared and I was surprised at the wetness falling from my eyes that I hadn't even felt, a silent sob broke through my chest and I could see that I looked like shit, absolute shit.