Ok, so I'm all for cliffhangers in final episodes, but I know for a fact that I'm not the only one who wanted to see just a little more of the scene between Ella and Ezra at the police station. I mean, come on, we didn't even get a proper Ezria scene; the least they could do is give us a bit more of the only Ezria-related scene there was! So here's my take on it. The first bit is retelling what we saw in the episode.
"Veronica's in with them now," Peter Hastings explained. "She'll see that they're protected…but they're gonna need a criminal attorney."
The other parents nodded slowly, still in disbelief that this could be happening to their daughters. Ella stared blankly ahead, but Byron's eye was caught by a familiar figure who had just entered the station, and was now talking to an officer, clearly asking for something.
"What's Ezra doing here?" Byron asked Ella in surprise. Ella's mouth hardened.
"Uuh, why don't you hear Peter out." It was more of a statement than a request. "I'll be right back."
Byron glanced over at Ezra, confused, but then turned his attention back to what Peter was saying. Aria was his biggest concern right now.
Ella walked over to meet Ezra, who was approaching her with a strange confidence, as though he had every right to be here, and met his eyes coldly, her hands held up against her chest in an instinctive unfriendly gesture.
"Ella," Ezra said, simply. No excuses or explanations as to why he was here, Ella realized. He knows he has to come clean about his relationship with Spencer now, and he's willing to do it. She could see the determined look in his eyes. Well. In that case…
"I know why you're here," she said, bluntly. Ezra barely nodded. He didn't seem surprised at all. Of course, Ella realized, Aria had probably run straight to Spencer after their talk, and told her everything she suspected.
"You need to understand that, that I-" Ezra began, but Ella cut him off. Much as she despised what he was doing, he had been her friend up till this point, and she felt she owed it to him to try and save him before the Hastings' realized what was going on.
"Stop. This is a very small town. People see things, and they talk." Ella paused, but Ezra said nothing; he just stood there with a look of firm resignation. Ella sighed, and continued, "I actually thought you were an outstanding teacher."
She raised her eyes to meet his at that point, with a look of coldness he'd never seen in them, and Ezra opened his mouth to reply, knowing what he had to say.
"I'm in love with her," he said, simply. Not pleading, not begging her to understand, just as a statement of fact.
Ella inhaled sharply. In love with her? A teacher, in love with his sixteen-year-old student. Not that she hadn't already known something was going on between them, but to hear the confirmation from Ezra's own lips was still shocking. And the admission that he loved her? Was that supposed to make everything okay? No; somehow, it actually made it worse. This whole thing was horrible. It was disgusting. And this man had been her friend. Ella had been right when she'd told Aria she would feel betrayed, but she hadn't realized how much, until she heard those words come from Ezra's lips.
Ella met Ezra's blue eyes as she mustered up the strength to speak calmly, while deep inside she wanted to attack him, her once friend and colleague, and scream and shout and cry and demand an explanation for how he could do this to her, to Spencer, to everyone who had trusted him.
But this was not the place. So she spoke as calmly as she could without breaking down. Exhaling, she said, "I'm going to give you one chance to walk away from this. Not because you deserve it, but because this is the last thing we need to deal with right now. And when you go, you need to keep going, because if Spencer's parents find out about this, they will ruin you."
Ezra's brow creased into a furrow of confusion. Spencer's parents? What did they have to do with anything?
"Spencer's parents?" he repeated, glancing past Ella at Peter Hastings, who was still talking to Byron and the Marins. "I don't – what are-"
Ella cut him off. "You're not going to try and deny it now, are you? It's all fine and good when it's just me, your friend," she emphasized viciously, "but when the hot shot lawyers get involved, suddenly you change your story?"
Ezra shook his head in confusion. "I just don't understand why…" he trailed off as he suddenly realized exactly why. They weren't talking about Aria. They – or at least Ella – were talking about Spencer. Ella thought the student he was dating was Spencer Hastings. "Oh, crap," he murmured under his breath.
"Exactly," Ella said, dryly. "So I'll say it one more time. You need to leave. Get out of town-"
"Ella, wait, you've completely got it wrong, I'm not dating Spencer!" Ezra interrupted. A little too loudly, as it turned out, for hushed though the whole conversation had been till that point, Ezra's last words had reached the ears of the group of parents standing a few yards away. Including Spencer's father.
With two strides he reached them. "WHAT did I just hear you say?" he demanded. Ezra swallowed, hard. Peter Hastings, enraged, was probably the parent he'd least want to meet in this situation, ever. Not that Byron Montgomery would be a piece of cake, but this was a man who could intimidate lawyers, witnesses and probably judges without even trying. And did, every day.
"Peter, calm down," Ella said, without any real hope that he would. Ezra was entirely in the wrong, of course, but that still didn't mean she wanted to see him attacked by his underage girlfriend's father.
Ezra pulled himself together. "You heard me saying I'm NOT dating Spencer," he said quietly and calmly. "Ella here seems to be under the impression that I am."
"And why the hell would you think that?" Peter snapped at Ella.
"But I saw you together in your car!" she protested, confused. Hadn't he just admitted everything to her?
Ezra's eyes widened as the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. Of course! Ella had heard the rumours about him being involved with a student, so when she'd seen him in the car with Spencer, she'd jumped to the wrong conclusion.
"What the hell was my daughter doing in your car?" Peter growled.
"She needed my help," Ezra replied. "She was worried about someone, and she needed someone to talk to…someone not in school. That's all it was, I swear. Ella," he turned to her, "if you saw us in the car, you know that we were just talking. Spencer got in, then she got out, and I drove away. Nothing more."
"Well?" Peter turned to Ella.
"That is all I saw," Ella admitted. "But it was the way you were talking," she said accusingly to Ezra. "It looked far too intimate to be a conversation between a student and her teacher."
This is where I lie through my teeth, Ezra thought. If I can just get rid of Peter Hastings and the Marins and just explain to Aria's parents, alone…
"I've always encouraged my students to come to me with problems," he said nonchalantly. "I like to feel that we're friends, and maybe even more so, now that I'm no longer actually teaching at Rosewood. And you know Spencer. She's very…forceful about things, when she talks."
Peter Hastings rubbed his hand across his brow. "So this was all just some stupid misunderstanding?" he asked, uncertainly.
"Exactly. You can ask Spencer when she comes out," Ezra replied.
"Well, then. Maybe you should be focusing on your daughter, instead of seeing things that aren't there and throwing around wild accusations about my daughter," Peter said scathingly to Ella. "I hope you haven't mentioned this little fairytale to anyone else. Spencer's a good girl, and she would never do something as stupid and reckless and WRONG as getting involved with a teacher. Something like that could really hurt her future."
Ella shook her head. What the hell was going on here? Ezra had just admitted he was in LOVE with Spencer, for crying out loud, and now he was suddenly managing to cover it up and lie straight to Peter Hastings' face? As Peter walked away, followed by the Marins, Ezra sank down onto one of the chairs that lined the corridor, and put his face in his hands. Byron remained too, concerned for his wife, who seemed to be freaking out about nothing.
"Great job, Mr Fitz," Ella said sarcastically. "No wonder you were such a good director. Really good at the acting there, weren't you?"
Ezra looked up at her, tired. He just wanted to confess everything, right here and now. He'd been hiding his relationship with Aria for so long that he didn't realize until now what a strain it was putting on him. But seeing Peter Hastings' reaction, as well as the shocked and disgusted looks on Byron's and Ashley and Tom Marin's faces, when they thought he was seeing Spencer, didn't exactly make him inclined to admit anything right now. Still, he could tell the truth about something.
"I was telling the truth, Ella," he said. "I'm not involved with Spencer, and never have been."
"But you admitted it to me, right before Peter overheard you!" Ella said incredulously. "Are you actually going to try and pretend that conversation didn't happen?"
"Ella," Ezra sighed, trying to find a way out of doing this at this particular moment, and coming up empty, "I didn't say I was involved with Spencer."
"You said you were in love with her!" Ella spat.
"No I didn't-"
"Yes, you did!"
"Ella, calm down," Byron said, putting his arm around her.
"No, I didn't," Ezra insisted. Then, as Ella opened her mouth to rebut him again, he held up his hand to silence her. "You were talking about Spencer. I wasn't."
"Wait, what?" Ella said, confused.
"You never mentioned Spencer's name. I thought you were -"
"Mr and Mrs Montgomery? We need you to sign some forms. They're going to release the girls in a few minutes." The policewoman Ezra had spoken to when he arrived, had come up to them unnoticed in the heat of the conversation.
"Do you need both of us?" Ella asked, her eyes not leaving Ezra's face. There was something very worrying going on here, and she needed to find out what.
"Yes, ma'am, both of you," the policewoman said. Byron took Ella's arm.
"Come on, honey. We need to think about Aria now. You can sort this out later."
"Oh – oh, yes, you're right."
Ella let her husband lead her away to the far side of the room, where the other parents already were, and Ezra let his head sink back into his hands. What a mess. He'd really fucked this one up. He'd admitted his biggest secret to Ella, and she hadn't known he was talking about her daughter, and not one of her daughter's friends. And she'd been angrier than he could ever have imagined. When she found out the truth…
Ezra sighed and got up to go in search of a water cooler. He needed something cold and wet to stop him from feeling so light-headed and…he couldn't even find a word for what he was. Angry? Confused? Upset? Terrified? All of the above?
He ventured down the corridor as he spotted the water cooler at the far end, where it met another long corridor in a T-junction. Thank God. The only thing keeping him from leaving here right now and dealing with this another time was that he'd promised Aria he'd come. She needed him. He'd never heard her so upset before, not even when she'd told him about what had happened to Jenna. And she'd said that was the worst thing she'd ever done.
Ezra took a long sip of cold water, and then glanced up as he heard a door open down the corridor lined with doors. Veronica Hastings stepped out, and Ezra watched eagerly, realizing that must be where Aria and the others were. Veronica walked straight past him, either not seeing or not recognizing him, and then the door opened again, and Spencer came out. Ezra stepped forward and merely looked at her questioningly, and Spencer gave a tiny nod and leaned back into the room, pulling Aria out with her.
Ezra stared at her for a moment. She was filthy, covered in dirt from head to toe, her short, pretty dress absolutely ruined. Streaks of less dirty skin down her cheeks showed where she had been crying, and she looked so incredibly tiny and helpless that Ezra felt tears springing up in his own eyes. He took another step forward, holding out his arms, and Aria flung herself into them.
"You came," she choked out, holding him more tightly than she ever had before, beginning to cry into his chest. Ezra looked over at Emily and Hanna, who had emerged from the room as well, and saw that they didn't look in the least surprised to see Aria in the arms of her ex-English teacher. Well, if Spencer had known, then clearly they had, too. Apparently Aria wasn't the only one who could keep a secret.
"I'm so sorry, Ezra," Aria sobbed. What she was sorry for, Ezra had no idea, but he couldn't worry about that now. Aria needed to know that he was here for her, no matter what she'd done. And it had to be pretty bad, if she and the others had been arrested.
"Sssh, it's okay," he kissed the top of her head. "I'm so glad you're all right. I'm here, it's gonna be okay."
Meanwhile, Ella had finished signing the papers, and had ventured back to look for Ezra and demand an explanation for what he'd said. Glancing down the corridor where the water-cooler was, she saw him just around the corner, but all she could see was his back, and the fact that he was clearly holding someone close – someone hidden from her view, but who was definitely a girl, for she could see her hands, wrapped tightly around Ezra's back. Then, as the couple shifted position slightly, she caught sight of a lock of long dark hair tumbling over the arm of Ezra's jacket. She sucked in her breath. So he HAD been lying to Peter Hastings; he was involved with Spencer, just like he'd admitted at first. Ella leaned back against the wall, unable to watch anymore, and breathed in deeply. She still couldn't believe it.
"Spencer honey, are you okay?" she heard Peter say, and she jerked upright in shock. He hadn't seen them together, had he? But – wait, there was Spencer, walking across the room to her parents, having walked right past Ella without either of them seeing the other. How had she got there so fast? Ella glanced round the corner again, where Ezra was still holding the dark-haired girl she couldn't see properly.
It wasn't Spencer.