Emily blew her whistle and watched as all the girls approached her to end the last day of tryouts.

"Everyone did a fantastic job," she said. "I have a lot of hard decisions to make, but I will have the list posted in the locker room by Monday morning."

Tryouts had spanned over Thursday and Friday, and Emily was grateful they were over. There were quite a few of girls that had impressed her. Some of them even had the potential to make collegiate teams. Emily was aware their future was in her hands, and she wanted to help them as much as she could.

Emily looked at Paige who was sitting in the stands of the gym. She stood and paced over to Emily after the girls had left.

"Looks like Rosewood's gonna have a killer swim team this year," Paige claimed. "There's a lot of potential."

"Yeah," Emily agreed. "It's kind of intimidating."

"Hey," Paige said. "You're gonna be a great coach."

Emily blushed. "It's kind of nostalgic, isn't it?"

Paige smiled. "It is. It's like it was yesterday you and I were at swim practice."

Emily turned to head to her office as Paige fell into her stride.

"I still feel bad about what Ali pulled in that meeting," Emily confessed.

"Yeah well, some people never change," Paige answered.

"But she has changed..."

"Yeah?" Paige wondered. "How?"

"Look, I want to explain what's been going on."

Emily really wished she could explain Alison's behavior the other day at the committee meeting, but it wasn't her place.

"Emily, don't." Paige demanded. "Don't make excuses for her, it's demeaning."

"Ali did terrible things," Emily defended. "But she's been through so much. She's not the same person she was."

Of course, Emily felt a bit hypocritical during this conversation considering she hadn't really talked to Ali since that day she had given her key back. But a little time away from her had given Emily time to reflect.

Although Emily vowed not to let Alison use her, she still understood that Ali was struggling with a lot. And Emily would be there for her in moderation, until Alison decided how she wanted Emily in her life, and figured out how to treat the people Emily cared about at the same time.

"Yeah, and who is she now?" Paige asked. "The kidnapped girl who never got kidnapped? The struggling teacher with a sister in a mental hospital? The poor woman was abandoned by her con-man fiancé, along with her sister?"

Emily could see where Paige was going with this.

"You ever noticed how she's always the victim?" Paige eyed Emily. "Always the one who needs to be rescued?"

"I don't know anyone who doesn't need a little rescue," Emily said.

"Some people make a habit of getting rescued. The same way other people make a habit of jumping in after them," Paige finished.

As much as this hurt Emily to hear, she knew it was true. To an extent.

Alison hadn't known Elliot was going to play her. She didn't know Charlotte and Elliot were plotting against her. She didn't know because she was so dead-set on helping her sister and starting a family. She had had nothing but good intentions. Alison had just gotten mixed up with the wrong people.

"Emily, I've forgiven Alison for everything she's done to me," Paige admitted. "I don't live in that past. But Tuesday, Alison showed me she still does. For some reason, she still has that desire to hurt people. Especially people that get close to you."

Emily couldn't help but agree.

"I see that she still has you right where she wants you," Paige said. "And you're trying to convince yourself that she doesn't."

Emily had fooled herself for the past few days, thinking that keeping distance between her and Ali would fix this. It hadn't, and she knew that. She had never completely severed ties with Alison. Not once.

Not when Alison had hurt Emily time and time again as teenagers. Not when Alison made Emily believe her feelings were one-sided. Not when Ali disappeared and made everyone believe she was dead. And not now.

Space in between meant nothing when Emily was still holding on to that small thread of hope she had for her and Alison.

"I should go," Emily said as she moved to lock her office. "I have another job to get to."

Paige stepped back to give her space to leave.

Emily escaped without another word with Paige's words still ringing in her head.

"I see that she still has you right where she wants you... And you're trying to convince yourself that she doesn't..."

Emily could feel the pain in her heart, like a poison that was killing her from the inside. Paige was right and Emily couldn't even defend herself.

She was still under Ali's spell with no idea how to set herself free.

* * *

Emily was having a decent first day bartending at The Radley. It was a different scene from other bars she had worked at, but at least here she felt classy enough to say she was bartending at The Radley. Maybe it was the uniform.

"Emily," she heard from behind her.

Emily turned to see Sabrina, and knew she was in for a confrontation. Sabrina had been back in Rosewood for twenty-four hours and Emily had ignored every text and call since then.

"Sabrina, hey," Emily greeted.

Sabrina moved to sit at the bar. "Is there a reason you haven't called me back?"

"I'm sorry," Emily apologized. "I've just been so busy with swim tryouts..."

Emily knew Sabrina wasn't buying it.

"A simple text would've sufficed," Sabrina countered.

In all honesty, Emily knew that. She also knew that her and Sabrina wouldn't last because she would never be able to tell her about -A or anything in close range to that. Emily had too much baggage that Sabrina would never understand, which was the real reason Emily had stopped trying.

And she felt bad considering she had been the one to initiate.

"Sabrina..." Emily stopped. "Could we talk? After my shift?"

Sabrina's face told Emily she knew what was coming, but she stood straight anyway.

"Yeah," Sabrina agreed. "Just, call me when you get off."

Emily nodded and watched her walk towards the door, only to see a face of a ghost enter The Radley.

It was as if Emily's stomach had flipped inside out. Her skin grew hot with adrenaline at the sight of Ali's mom, Jessica DiLaurentis, or someone who looked awfully like her, pace through the doors.

But this couldn't be Jessica. No, because Jessica had been murdered and buried in the Hastings' backyard five years ago.

Emily wanted desperately to text her friends but her phone was in her purse, which was in her locker.

Then, to her dismay, the Jessica lookalike made her way to a table and sat to order a drink. Emily wondered if she should approach her. This whole situation seemed surreal, but in Rosewood, nothing was out of the ordinary.

"You gonna take care of her?" her coworker asked, signaling over to who Emily had been staring at.

"Uh, yeah," Emily obliged. "I'll get it."

She walked over to the table in which the woman sat and tried to hide her angst.

"Hi, can I get you something to drink?" Emily offered.

The woman looked up and Emily swore she was talking to a ghost. The only noticeable difference was the hair color. While Jessica's hair had been dirty-blond, this woman had dark brown hair.

"Oh no, I'm good. Thank you," she said. "I was just... admiring what they've done to the place."

Emily couldn't stop staring at this point.

"I'm sorry... you just look like..."

"Jessica DiLaurentis?" the woman finished. "She was my sister."

Alison had never told Emily her mother had a sister.

"My name's Mary Drake." Then she turned to fully face her. "Emily?"

Emily glanced down at her name tag and nodded. "Y-Yeah. Fields. Emily Fields."

"Since you knew my sister you must know her children, Alison and Jason?" Mary asked.

"Yeah, I do" Emily admitted.

"I understand you're in shock." Mary stood from her seat. "I'm sure you're not the only one."

"N-No it's just, I never knew Jessica had a sister, much less a twin," Emily said.

"Yeah well, Jessica and I weren't exactly ideal siblings."

Mary Drake. Why did that sound so familiar to Emily... Mary Drake. Drake. CeCe Drake. Charlotte. Suddenly Emily couldn't write this off as a coincidence.

Mary grabbed her purse. "I should let you get back to work."

"Are you staying here?" Emily blurted. "At The Radley?"

"Oh no," Mary declined. "I just bought this old dump of a resort on the outskirts of Rosewood, so that's where I'm staying."

"The Lost Woods?" Emily wondered.

"So it hasn't been a dump for long," Mary said.

Emily forced a smile.

"Well, I hope to turn it around and make something out of it." Mary nodded. "It was nice meeting you, Emily."

"Likewise," Emily dismissed.

Mary left but Emily knew she needed to tell the others as soon as possible. No way was this a coincidence. Nothing in Rosewood was a coincidence. Mary Drake, someone who had secret ties to Rosewood, was here.

And the fact that she had shown soon after the death of Charlotte, who was also known as CeCe Drake, couldn't be ignored.