No Escape

Irony

"Ms. Fields is there a problem?"

Hanna had to place her hand over Emily's to stop the impatient tapping she was doing. Impatient and irritating for everyone near her. She didn't even notice she was doing until Hanna had to stop her. Hanna gave her a pointed look, and when Hanna started giving you looks in class, that meant you were really doing a bad job at pretending to be mentally there.

Emily only shook her head at the teacher, mumbling an apology as she forced herself to let go of the abused pen. She was thankful that the teacher didn't insist on asking anything in front of everybody. Emily didn't think she could have stayed for that, even though she wasn't going to say anything. She was worried enough as it is. She wasn't convinced that the walls of the hospital was enough to keep -A away from Alison. She didn't want to be in school. She would have felt better if she was standing guard.

It was an excruciating 12 minutes before class ended and Emily was the first one out of the classroom. Hanna and Spencer only had time to exchange where's-the-fire looks before they scrambled after her, knowing exactly where she was going. They incidentally bumped into Aria before they caught up with her, and it was only Spencer who wasn't having a hard time keeping up with Emily's long legs.

"Slow down, Emily!" Aria was jogging to keep up. She and Hanna were the less athletic of the group and they were quite sure all this exertion was unnecessary.

Emily was not to be thwarted. "The last time we were away from her for a certain amount of time she was kidnapped and we all thought she was going to be safe in her own house." Emily gave them a dark look, which they understood wasn't exactly directed at them. They separeted at the parking lot to go to each other's cars. They didn't even notice the brunette girl clad in a Sharks jacket who had tried to catch up with them from the end of the hallway now looking forlornly at the departing girls.

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Emily was the first one to arrive and she was already brisk walking towards Ali's room. She was already half-expecting Alison not to be there, and her heart rate was already elevated, her breathing now a little short, and when she arrived at the room, she almost forced her way open.

Only to find Alison, sitting calmly in her bed, a book in her lap, her bottom lip between her teeth. It popped out when she looked up at Emily, and her welcoming smile made Emily think that the rush over was worth it.

"You're a mess," Ali teased, voice still hoarse, but not really caring anymore. She hid her worry behind an equally teasing smile, reaching over to her bedside to place the book. And she winced.

Emily was at her side in seconds, hovering over her but not sure where to check really. The girls still din't know how bad Emily's injuries were, because it wasn't exactly protocol for Ali to list down what the doctor's found. As far as Emily and the three others knew, Ali only had that one event in the theater.

"Ali, are you ok? You shouldn't be moving. You should stay in bed. Why didn't they assign a nurse to you? I'm sure they understand you're supposed to be on bed rest. I'll go get someone-" She was already turning, and Alison had to reach out again, gasping out now because of the force it took to get Emily to come back to her side.

"I'm fine," Alison reassured with a grimace. Emily didn't even have it in her to be sarcastic about the stiuation.

"Ali-"

"If you walk out that door, I'm following you, and I'm going to get hurt more than I should. You know I'll do it."

It was a short battle of wills that Ali won and Emily had no other choice but to stay. Emily opened her mouth to speak, probably still trying to reason with Alison about her needing someone to watch over her 24/7, but Ali didn't want to talk about her. She was all everyone wanted to talk about lately, and ever since she got back to that small town, she'd hated all the attention.