Had a sudden burst of inspiration to write this after listening to Oasis – Songbird. It's weird how songs can make you want to write haha. Just a wee one shot about Emily visiting Alison in prison. Hopefully you will enjoy it! It'll probably be posted on my Tumblr so you will probably be able to find it on there too, my url is amusingbutconfusingg

Emily taps her fingers in a rhythmic beat on the grungy white table that she is currently sitting at. She looks around the room wearily, taking in everyone she can, every female face that passes her by, but soon they all blur into moving orange shapes and she has to admit that the view is like something out of a bad dating line up.

She waits, her ears sensitive to every noise around her, and then finally she catches a flash of blonde hair out the corner of her eye. She keeps her place at the table, pretending to be more interested in banging her fingers against the plastic but she can't resist a quick glance up.

Alison is shuffling towards her, she's behind two larger women and Emily can't quite get a good view of her yet but then the two woman split in different directions and she's left staring at Alison DiLaurentis. There is a part of her that can't quite believe that she's here and another part of her is furious that she hasn't come sooner.

Alison looks exhausted. Her eyes aren't their normal brilliant blue, they don't sparkle, and she hardly even blinks as she gets closer. Emily notices an ugly looking purple bruise on the blonde's wrist and the muscles in her stomach constrict slightly because she doesn't even want to begin to imagine how Alison got that. But she's not supposed to care because Alison is A...

The blonde's usually stunning hair looks unkempt and as she eventually reaches the visitor's table Emily thinks that Alison has forgotten how to blink. There are dark circles under her eyes and it's only up close that Emily can see how tired Alison really looks.

"I didn't think you would come," Alison murmurs as she sits down on a white plastic chair and Emily mentally scolds herself because the way Ali's jumpsuit pinches at her waist, in just the right way, highlights every good thing about her body. The blonde's voice is like a hot knife in her ear.

Emily sits back in the uncomfortable plastic chair before she folds her arms across her chest. She keeps her eyes trained on Alison, her vision blurring into the orange of her prison uniform. "Neither did I," she finally admits.

There's a harsh silence between them as Alison sits her hands on the table and Emily can't help but glance down, the bruise drawing her attention and it's only then that she notices that one of Alison's knuckles are cut and red too.

"What happened to your knuckle and wrist?" Emily asks as she nods down towards the blonde's hand.

Alison quickly covers the cut knuckle with her other hand before she glances over her shoulder at one of the women who sit at the end table in the corner. "It's nothing. Nothing."

"Why do you keep calling me?" Emily questions as she looks back down at the table where she had been drumming her fingers just moments ago.

Alison speaks softly, intimately, as if they are in a different room from everyone else. "You can't even look at me in the eye."

Alison's right, Emily thinks to herself. She's right and they have all been wrong. Emily knows deep in herself that Alison is not A and that Alison didn't kill Mona but she's not ready to say it out loud. Not ready to admit it because that means she had a huge helping hand in Alison ending up in here and she can't think about that. Can't cope with that.

Emily wonders, briefly, if any relationship they could ever have had is beyond repair before she forces herself to look up and meet Alison's gaze. Alison presses her lips together and leans back in her own chair. Seemingly glad of having a moment's peace to herself.

The brunette feels the silence build brick by brick around them and it's not because she is in control of this conversation between them but because she just doesn't know what else to say.

"I didn't kill Mona," Alison announces, her voice cracking slightly at Mona's name and Emily has to force herself not to react, not to show Alison that she knows that because she does. She knows that the woman in front of her didn't do it. "I didn't do it," Alison repeats as she looks straight at Emily.

There's a flicker of emotion that flits across Emily's face and for a second Alison thinks that she's finally getting the message through. Finally getting Emily to understand that she didn't do it because Emily is the only one that needs to know, needs to know that she is not that person. She's not that monster they all think she is.

"I don't know what you want me to say to that," Emily replies as she holds the blonde's eyes with her own before she finally blinks and looks downwards again.

Alison shrugs gently and her orange jumpsuit collar bumps against her chin, a harsh reminder of her current situation. "Believe me. Please. You need to believe me Emily."

The silence between them is different this time and when Emily dares to look back up at Alison's face, the blonde is looking downwards at her bruised wrist. Her thumb skimming gently across the purple skin before she curls her split knuckle in her good hand again.

"Paige left," Emily says calmly to deflect the conversation and Ali's blue eyes finally fall back onto her.

"Are you okay?"

Emily nods her head. "Yeah, I'm getting there. She moved to California."

They are talking like normal people now and it makes Emily realise what a gigantic mistake this has been. She doesn't tell Ali that she almost missed saying goodbye to Paige because she wanted to find evidence to implicate the blonde. That she is part of the reason why Alison is here in the first place.

She doesn't want to tell the blonde because she knows Ali will probably never forgive her and she deserves, that to a certain degree, but she also knows Alison has hurt her in the past too. Repeatedly. And it's almost like they have unknowingly started point scoring against each other. Raising the stakes from heartache to jailbreak.

Emily reluctantly tries to remind herself of who Alison really is, who her, no their best friends think Alison really is. But all she keeps coming back to is the person sitting across from her, her eyes down, her orange jumpsuit, her shoulders slouched and her hands now under the table. She had loved Alison. She still loves Alison. It's barely alive in her but it's there all the same, a spark that doesn't ever quite get extinguished.

And then Emily opens her mouth and says the words that she didn't think she'd be able say out loud to Alison. "I…I believe you."

Alison's eyes snap up towards Emily and she scrutinises the brunette's face and eyes for any sign of deceit but finds none. She knows the anxiety is cleaving at Emily's chest, clawing at the brunette's throat, she can see it every time Emily dares to look at her and she knows it's the weight of guilt.

She knows herself that Emily and their friends played a part in her ending up in here but she doesn't hate them for it. She's been relatively numb up until now but the atmosphere across the table is almost tangible, she can nearly feel it every time she inhales. Everything is Emily.

"Why do you believe me?" She finds herself asking. And she hopes Emily can give her a real answer because she needs to hear it. She needs to hear Emily say it to her face and although she'd never openly admit it she needs to hear that someone else out there cares for her enough to at least try and believe her.

Emily gazes across the table, her dark eyes are almost black and it takes Alison a moment to figure out that they are glittering with tears. "Because I know you... I think. And if I do then the person I know wouldn't do that."

"You're the only one who really knows me, Emily." Alison replies truthfully before she places her palms flat on the table. "You're the only one I knew would hear me out in here. You're the only one who would think about me rationally and not as some monster."

"Is that why I'm here? Because I'm the loyal one?" Emily retorts harshly and she almost flinches when she sees the distressed look on Ali's face but she continues like a steamroller anyway. "If that's the only reason then – "

But she's cut off when Alison sighs heavily before she talks, her voice slightly raised, and Emily's not lost to the fact that several other visitors are peering over at their table wondering what the commotion is all about.

"You've got this life, that isn't perfect, but it's not in here and – " she takes a breath to compose herself because this isn't usually what she does. Alison DiLaurentis doesn't usually cry in front of people but she can feel the tears clawing at the back of her throat. She looks away from Emily before she speaks because she literally can't let Emily see her like this. "And you're all I've got Em…Emily."

Emily wants to shake her head furiously, to tell the blonde that it's not true, but it is and she knows it. Alison knows it too. They'd all turned their back on Ali, her included, and the weight of the guilt is like a heavy presence in her chest anchoring her to the chair. She shakes her head gently, almost apologetically, in the blonde's direction.

"No?" Alison questions. "I haven't even had a phone call from Jason. My Dad… my Dad doesn't know what to say to me and the rest of you well… we all know what they think about me."

Alison blurs out of her vision and when Emily blinks she feels the hot tears roll down her face, ending in a little splash on the white table that sits idly between them. The tears are week's worth of anxiety and anguish. Ali's eyes are full of tears too and Emily can see the blonde fighting not to blink so they won't fall in the same way as hers.

"I hate this place Em," and Alison shakes her head sadly as the tears finally drop because she's past caring about how she's supposed to look, she's past caring about her strong façade because it's useless in here anyway. "I really, really hate it."

Emily shifts awkwardly in her plastic chair because this really isn't the way she imagined things would go, she imagined arguments and accusations from the both of them.

She can feel the tiny fissures sneaking across her heart, threatening to pull it apart at the seams. She pictures the contents spilling out across the table and she knows that it would take a lifetime just to work through it all. And she deserves it really because the woman in front of her is broken and she's played her own starring role in it.

"All I can think about is when I'm going to get out of here," Alison continues as she wipes an offending tear with the pad of her thumb before she throws her hand in the air slightly, "but it's not going to be better."

"It's going to be okay, Ali," Emily finds herself mumbling as she throws her hands across the table towards the blonde's, gripping the warm flesh tightly and it's only then that she realises Alison is trembling.

"Yeah," Alison replies without much conviction as the only thing she can concentrate on is Emily's thumb stroking against the back of her hand and it's enough for her to squeeze her eyes shut because it's the most human contact she's had for weeks and it hits her like a sledge hammer, more so because it's coming from Emily.

"Time!" the guard calls from the exit and Emily desperately looks around at the clock, shocked to see that their hour is nearly up.

"Come back and see me, Em. Please," Alison pleads as she looks down at their hands and Emily can feel the blonde's fingers tightening around her own like she doesn't want to let go. Her knuckles are almost white.

Emily nods more to herself than to Ali. "I'm going to find a way to get you out of here Ali, I promise."

But she knows Alison doesn't believe her. She can see the resignation of being in here for a long written across the blonde's face.

"I'll be back and we will get you out of here," Emily says as salty tears slip into her mouth and she can't help but reach out and cup Ali's cheek in her palm. "You hear me?" she asks until Alison finally looks at her, giving a small nod before tears trickle down her cheeks and Emily can feel the wetness on her palm.

Alison tilts her head into Emily's touch and it's all she needs to get her through until next visiting time, she takes strength from it because she knows Emily will try for her, whether she will be successful is a different matter but it's a start and maybe just maybe they will be able to figure things out between them.

"Em, please come back and see me."

Emily's chest aches when she hears the desperation in Ali's voice, it's like someone has taken a knife and cut an eight-inch valley through the middle of her soul and the dull ache continues when she feels Ali's face shake against her palm.

"I'll come back, Ali." Emily says strongly as she eventually pulls away, the guards voice booming across the room. "I'll come back." She adds before she leans across and grips Ali's hand quickly in her own. Their fingers threading together for a brief moment.

"Promise me?" Alison says as her voice wavers, the tears have made track marks down her already pale face, there is no make up or mask. It's all very raw and painful and for once, Emily thinks, truthful.

"I promise you, Ali." Emily replies sincerely before she unwillingly tugs her hand out of the blondes and turns towards the exit door. And as she reaches the exit door her hand covers her mouth to stop the sob that is threatening to burst out of her chest.