The Heart of Beacon Heights

Strategy

A/N: As I've done in my previous "Domestic Emison" stories, I have played with the timeline of the AD reveal from the OG series. To keep things a little less confusing as far as timelines go, in this story the events from the PLL series finale take place prior to Lily/Grace being born. Just easier to keep track of time jumps that way. Here we go. Buckle your seat belts and keep your arms in legs inside the ride at all times.

***

Chapter 3:

Strategy

Alison laid in bed that night thinking about every single bump in the road she and Emily had hit since they'd gotten together. No marriage was perfect. They knew that going into it. But they loved one another and were determined to make it work. After all, they had survived feats much less difficult than marriage.

When Alison had met with Emily's mom to ask for Emily's hand in marriage they had talked about what went into a marriage. Pam had shared a lot of intricate details of how she and her late husband had made it work for so long. She talked about how she just wanted her daughter to be happy. And Alison assured her of that happiness. Alison appreciated Pam's candor. She'd promised her that she was in love with her daughter. She'd never been more certain of anything in her life.

It was hard for her not to question when exactly things had gotten rocky between them. When they fought they fell back on old habits. Emily's insecurities came out by way of overreactions. Alison had a habit of running, of being anywhere but around the conflict. Because when she stayed she said and did things she regretted. But she'd worked on that very hard over the years. They had both worked on their flaws. But that meant conflict for the two of them, though a healthy amount of conflict was expected in any relationship. That's how people grew.

Before the girls had been born they'd bickered over little things like vitamins and eating habits. Emily was overprotective and a touch neurotic, and Alison was stubborn as hell during her pregnancy, because she didn't like being told what to do. They'd gotten into a pretty big blow-out when Alison had been put on bed rest when she was seven months pregnant.

She hated being confined. And she resented being pregnant. She didn't resent the babies. She would never resent their children. But she was mad at her own body, and she took it out on Emily. Still, they managed to never go to bed angry, something that Emily had learned from her mom and dad. Her dad had often told her that even if you were in the middle of being angry at someone, you should never miss a chance to tell them you love them. Because there was always the possibility that you'd wake up and they'd be gone.

Once the babies came along the bickering had settled, the little things dropped away. They were too busy with two newborns to fight. They had to get on the same page if they wanted to survive the insanity of motherhood. Things still weren't easy, but there was a sense of family that Alison had never had before. But getting there had been a struggle.

Shortly before the girls had been born Alison had been dealing with a ton of emotional baggage. She'd always been afraid that she wouldn't be capable of love. The only person in her life she'd ever truly loved was Emily. She had an internal fear that she wouldn't be able to connect with the babies, especially given the circumstances of their conception.

Alison had been a hormonal mess by the time the third trimester rolled around. Feelings of terror and inadequacy haunted her dreams every night. On top of that, they'd both had nightmares about the trauma they'd endured, not just with the conception of the twins, but everything they'd been through. All of the torture. All of the PTSD.