Always Loved, Never Forgotten - Alternate Version

On My Way Home

Thank you to those who are voting! Apparently airports opened back up the 13 of  September. However, at the time I had wrote this chapter, and finished this story, I did not know that, so for the sake of this story, it will be two weeks. 

Update Note: as of January 2024, I have been informed that I mistakenly quoted one of the hijackers. They did not actually say what I had previously typed out to be their dialogue. I have removed it from the flashback.

Enjoy! :)

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*September 25th, 2001 – Boston, Massachusetts – 2 weeks later*

It is not until two full weeks later that the airports open back up.

On September 12, the day after what is now being called 9/11, Emily had wanted to jump in her car and drive straight to Boston to get Alison.

It took Spencer, Toby, Aria, and Alison herself to talk Emily out of that. They may be well-off, but they certainly do not have enough money to make the roundtrip of what would probably be 4+ days, especially when you add in stops for gas, food, and other things.

Finally, Emily relented.

She has spoken to Alison each day in the weeks that followed the terrorists attacks. She made sure that Josiah and his husband were taking care of Ali, and she let Alison speak to the kids over the phone.

Alison called her parents, her grandparents, her aunts and uncles, Jason, Emily's parents, everyone one-by-one, and let them know that she was ok.

Now here it is, 2 weeks later. 14 days have passed since everyone's lives were turned upside down.

People are still over at the crash site of what was once the Twin Towers. They have moved from a Search and Rescue, to a Search and Recovery.

They are unearthing nothing as of right now. No bodies can be found among the wreckage. Those that do find a body, well, it is nothing more than a hand or leg that once belonged to someone.

There are so many Missing Persons posters listing names of people or their loved ones, firefighters, paramedics, and other first-responders who were in the Towers when the planes hit. People who were killed, lost in the wreckage, or simply seemed to have vanished.

Today is the first day that the airports are opening back up, and Josiah and David immediately buy Alison a ticket on the first flight back to Los Angeles.

Alison thanks them profusely for their hospitality and putting up with her during the nights, when she had dreams about being on the planes, about dying, about having to call Emily and tell her, her plane had been hijacked.

"Alison," David says to her in his soothing voice. "Please, it was our pleasure. You needed a place to stay and we had more than enough room. It was no bother all, Hun."

"You've done more than open up your home to me," Alison explains. "You comforted me, you let me come into your home and disrupt your life, you made sure I had clothes to wear, food to eat, you've spent so much money, I don't think I could ever fully thank you for that."

Josiah and David drive Alison to the airport after dropping Rachel off at school. They follow her as far as they can before giving her a hug and a 'good luck' as they watch her head towards the gate to her plane.

Alison, once again, gets in line. She hands the person her ticket, walks down the tunnel, and gets to the plane and all the way to her seat.

It is only when she is buckled in, that what she is doing catches up with her.