"Ok here's the plan, we're going to wait for Alison and Emily and then I will go in to get the bank statements. Hanna and Aria, you should sneak past the front to check the files under Archer Dunhill while Spencer distracts the desk clerk." Toby said to everyone outside of the Rosewood bank.

"Why me?" Spencer asked.

"Because you're scary." Hanna said. "People listen to you."

"Jesus Hanna, way to be sensitive."

The four of them heard a car pull up. Alison and Emily got out.

"I'm sorry we're late." Alison said with way more excitement than some one would expect from a girl who's husband just tortured her and then got rammed by her best friend's car.

"What were you two doing?" Aria asked.

"We were just.." Alison said looking at Emily with a smile, "catching up."

"Well we should get to it." Toby said pointing, "Emily and Alison you should go with Aria and Hanna. You won't have much time and we need to get as much information as we can."

"Okay, Spence text us when it's clear." Emily said as Spencer walked into the bank.

They waited for about a minute in silence.

"So… Did you guys just kiss and make up because I'm not stupid, Emily has her 'I just touched boobs' look."

"God Han, shut up."

Beep. Beep.

"It's free to go." Aria said.

The four of them walked past the desk clerk and into the back room of the bank. All they could see was shelves of files ten feet tall.
"How are we ever going to find it? There's thousands of files under the letter A."

"Just start looking." Hanna said.

The four of them gathered around the files doing through them one by one. "A,B. A,C. A,D. Right here."

"Do you see his name?" Alison asked.

"I'm looking."

Alison stared at Emily. The two were completely distracted by each other. Alison grabbed Emily's hand in a sort of hidden way and interlocked their fingers. It seemed like a simple, thing right? To hold hands. Friends do it. It's a normal human interaction. But for some reason even the slightest touch made both of them realize how much they had missed over the years.

"Here Archer Dunhill." Hanna said to them while grabbing the file. She turned towards Alison and Emily quickly separated their hands. "Let's go."

Hanna and Aria started to walk out and Alison and Emily trailed behind them.

"What was that?" Alison asked.

"What?"

"Why didn't you want them to know we were holding hands?" Alison said clearly angry.

"I'm sorry Ali. It didn't mean anything. I was just, I don't know. It was nothing."

"No Em, it wasn't nothing. Are you ashamed to be with me or something?"

"No of course not Ali. I'm just scared. Of what they will think. You haven't always given me a reason to trust you." Emily said as she caught up with the others.

_

Emily woke up on a beautiful Friday morning just really wanting to be in the pool. It had been a while. Actually she couldn't remember the last time she let the water carry her body. It used to be the only thing that got her through in high school. Her weightlessness in the water, it took away all of her thoughts and replaced them with the rhythm of her arms, carrying her when she felt like nothing else could. It made her feel powerful, confident, in control. No wonder she hasn't gone to the pool in a while.

Emily walked out of the locker room and stuck her foot in the cool water and as her body slipped in, there she was again, 16, captain of the Sharks, ruler of the waters. She was taken right back to Alison in the crowd. Winking at her before she dived in. She thought back to one particular race.

"Ali, you can't be back here." Emily said in the locker room.

"Who says?" Alison replied. Her head was tilted. Her voice was song-like. She looked like nothing in the world could ever get to her. That was the Ali Emily first remembered.

"The coach," Emily chuckled shyly. "You're going to get in trouble."

"We won't get in trouble Em." Alison cooed, "no one could say no to that face."

"So how was my race?"

"Your times were better than last weekend. By 2 seconds. One more and your times will be good enough for Stanford." Alison said leaning against the locker, looking beautiful as always.

"Why do you come to every meet Ali?" Emily asked, "shouldn't you be out with some hot boy on a Friday night?"

"Oh sweet Emily. I could be." Alison replied honestly, "but I'd rather watch my mermaid win."

Emily smiled and looked down in her innocent Emily way.

"I had a dream last night that we all woke up and we were in a parallel universe where every single thing we thought in our heads we had to say." Emily said.

"Oh yeah?" Alison said. "What would you say right now if you had to say what you were thinking?"

"I would tell you that you look beautiful with the way the light is coming through the window and casting a shadow across your face."

Alison smiled. A real one. Sometimes Emily thought Alison might actually smile from thought that she had feelings for her.

"What would you say?"

"I would tell you that," Alison looked as if she would say something important and then suddenly her face completely changed from "real" Ali to "queen bee" Ali right before Emily's eyes. "We have to go. Noel is waiting for me and he's been waiting to get his hands on me all week."

She smirked and Emily knew she had to say something to pull her back down to earth. Back down to Emily's level.

"Ali?" Emily said.

"What."

"Noel's really lucky to have you." Emily said.

"Thanks Em." Alison said.

God she used to be so fragile, so bendable, so in love. As Emily strode through the water, she missed that youthful version of herself, that had hope that one day things would be exactly like she'd always hoped. But here Emily was with none of that. Except for Alison. All that she had to hold on to right now was that one amazing kiss with Alison. She didn't care what happened, there was no way in hell that this time, Emily was going to let Ali slip through her fingers again. She regretted pushing her hand away. It was stupid and she knew better. She had to fix it.

Emily pulled herself out of the pool, still lost in thought.

"Excuse me Emily? Emily Fields?" Said a red-headed woman that was approaching her. "You're a strong swimmer."

"Thank you." Emily replied. "It's uh, been a few years."

"Well, I got your name from coach Fulton." She said. "She told me she used to coach you way back when you were in high school."

"Yeah, yeah. Coach Fulton. She was great."

"Well my name is Lisa," She said reaching her hand out, "It's nice to meet you."

"You as well." Emily said shaking it.

"We are starting a new swimming program at the new youth recreational center down on J Street. We were wondering if you would consider a small coaching job on the weekends. It would be for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday with 3rd to 12th graders. It pays well for the small amount of time you'd be working and we would be honored if you would consider. Coach Fulton speaks so highly of you." She said.

"I would love to." Emily said, "I don't even to think about it. I'd live to teach kids what I love the most."

"She was also right about you when she said you were a nice person."
"I'm really honored that you asked me."

"Well come by the center tomorrow at noon and we'll get you all set up."
"Yeah I'll be there." Emily said smiling. "thank you."

_

Emily's first practice with the girls at the rec center was better than she could have imagined. It was a crazy switch, working yesterday at a bar serving rich people and today showing kids what it sounds like underwater. Emily felt nostalgic. Her hair was wet and she was carrying her rosewood sharks bag with her swimming stuff. A slight smile came to her face as she walked down the hall of the building. She heard a voice in the distance, reading out loud.

"I wrote this poem when I was 15. And to be honest with you I don't even remember writing it. But I dug it up in an old chest the other day and I thought, what a great thing to read for the first day. It's not well-written. It's not genius poetry. But it came from the heart I had at 15. So when you write poems today, don't worry about how they sound. Just think that one day when you're 24, you can look back and see what you were feeling. And that is what poetry really is. Okay? Don't write for anyone but yourself today." The woman said.

Emily walked closer to the sound and she peaked her head in to see Alison with 10 middle schoolers in a circle around her. They were enchanted.

"The Mermaid." Alison read, "Look at my mermaid. If only she knew how much power she had.
She could have the world at her fingertips. But she is afraid. If only she was as tough as she was beautiful."
Alison paused. Emily knew there was no more to the poem in the diary A found all those years ago but Alison seemed like she was going to keep reading.

"The funny thing is that that was all that I wrote in the diary that people could read. But, this isn't the rest of the poem" Alison said pulling out a piece of paper. "I hid it so far into the wall of my room so that no soul could find it. And I never pulled it out again until last night, when I realized that the person that this poem is about is everything to me. And when I wrote this poem, she was everything to me then too."

"Alison's in love." One of the young girls taunted and giggled.

"Well read the rest," a ginger boy clearly entranced in the poem said.

"If only she knew how beautiful she was to me. If only I wasn't scared to tell her that her lips are the only Ive ever kissed that feel right on mine. If only I told her that life without her would just be a lie. If only I was as strong as I was beautiful. She's the strong one, not me." Alison finished the poem with a slight smile.

"Why didn't you tell her you loved her?" The young girl said.

"Because I was scared. Of what people would think of me."

"Didn't you love her more than you loved the thought of being perfect in everyone's eyes?"

"Well, I didn't know at the time. Sometimes you can be in denial about who you love. I didn't know at the time but I needed her." Alison said. "Speaking of needing, you guys need to write something. Sorry I've taken up so much time. Why don't you all get some paper and write a poem about someone that you love. It doesn't have to be romantic but just write how you feel and I'll read them tonight and see where you all are." Alison said handing out pencils. "I'm just going to head over here, I'll be right back. Everyone start writing."

Alison walked over to Emily.

"How much did you hear?"

"However much you wanted me to."

Alison smiled slightly, still obviously affected by the rejection at the bank.

"I'm really sorry Ali. I messed up. I should've never pushed your hand away." Emily said grabbing Alison's hand, "This, I have been waiting years for this. I guess I just thought that it was too good to be true."

"You can trust me this time Em. I promise." Alison replied. Emily leaned in closer to Alison until her mouth was near her ear.

"I really want to kiss you right now," She whispered. Alison smirked and a chill ran down her spine. "But there's a class of middle schoolers staring at us."

"I forgot to ask you what you were doing here."

"They hired me to teach swimming on the weekends."

"I'm teaching poetry." Alison replied.

"I didn't know you wrote that other half of mermaid."

"Well, I have always loved you," Alison whispered, "mermaid."

"Meet me in a few minutes," Emily replied as she walked out the door.

"I'm just going to run to the bathroom," Alison said to the kids as she left the classroom. She walked down the hall, not knowing where Emily had gone. She ran into the bathroom and called Emily's name. No response. On her way out of the bathroom she saw a storage closet in front of her. She must be in there. Alison slowly opened the door and saw Emily standing in front of her. She looked at Emily's lips and she couldn't hold herself back any more. Alison moved fast and captured their lips in a kiss. It was passionate and urgent and everything it needed to be. A rush ran through Alison's body. She was desperate for Emily, more desperate than she had ever been in the past.

Alison shut the door behind them and the room went to pitch black. All she had was the feeling of Emily. She felt Emily's hands roam her waist and down closer to her ass. Alison moaned slightly into Emily's mouth and her hands we roaming her hair. She separated her lips for air.
"I love you so much," Alison said being vulnerable in the moment.

"I know you do." Emily replied closing the space between them once more, their lips moving in perfect harmony. In the dark. But both of them feeling so lit up inside. They hadn't felt this alive in years. And it felt good. Really really good.