A/N: Hello Noir fans this is the start of my noir fanfic. It has no real connection to the PLL noir episode, though I may reference things from it, but not really the story line. This is a re-imagining of the whole 1st A storyline from the PLL series as a Film Noir Movie/Series. I will take the characters and that whole plot line of Mona being the 1st A and all the things that happen to the Liars and collapse it into this new form. Spencer is a private detective trying to solve Ali's murder and retelling us that story. Emily & Hannah work for her and have their own adventures, Aria is in the mix too, but much like on the real show her story line is nearly separate from the other girls. I have changed a lot of things made them much older than high school age and am trying hard to set them in a classic film noir setting.
Many minor and not so minor characters will pop up and be a part of the story and I have taken things and used them that happen to the liars in later seasons and the upcoming season that will help me to establish them in the new world/setting I created for them. You should still be able to recognize each of our main Liars as the characters from the TV show, but with an edge they may not show in the series. The time frame is a bit harder to pin down.
Chapters: I have no idea how long this will take or how many chapters I will write, but I love this story idea and plan to see it through til Mona is discovered. Being a Fanfic and a different way of telling this story I MIGHT cut some nowhere plot lines to move things along and being that I grew the characters up and changed some dymanics the drama of the mystery I hope will be central not the who's sleeping with who, though that stuff will still be there, just hopefully more in service to the murder mystery.
Time Period: My goal is to keep it as close to 1946 as possible, but there maybe things that are needed from contemporary or just slightly after 1946 time period needed to tell the story. So my hope is to create a world where modern tech still feels in place in 1946 or rather that 2015 is just exactly like 1946 but with modern tech. The timeline thing might be hard to imagine, but if you are also a Doctor Who fan think of it as a future planet where everyone is stuck in 1946, but the tech is from 2960 got it? It's all wibbly wobbly timey wimey nothing to worry about. Also I won't be using racism as a plot device or anything that is a part of this world as racism is stupid and I have no time for it. Also where I can avoid it I won't be using abuse towards women, but as the plot centers around a dead girl that might be hard. Though I promise no abuse that is just for abuse sake. As for LGBTQ concerns I will be using them as taboo, though not by all and that taboo will grow smaller just like it does on the actual PLL series. It may matter to some characters and not to others just like in life.
Shipping: I am a Paily shipper Paily equals endgame ok. No debate here no Emaya or Emison or good forbid Emara. Though both Maya and Alison of course will show up along with Samara and Nate (the bastard). Paige in this story is with Emily from the beginning and will be there at the end, even if the road gets bumpy in the middle.
Rating: My hope is to keep this pretty hard in the T rating BUT there may be some M content and I will warn you on those chapters. Ideally I'd also do some 1 offs with some MA content for those Paily fans, but we shall see.
Disclaimer: I do not own the "PLL/Pretty Little Liars" characters only the words I use to talk about them.
Please write reviews & let me know what you think.
Rosewood PA – A Pretty Little Liars Noir
Chapter 1: A Dark Beginning
It was cold, but not too bad for a November day. It had rained the night before and the crisp cool air felt good on my face. I breathed in that smell that hits you strong in the nose and reminds you of the coming winter, it made me smile at the season. The autumnal leaves blew yellow, red & brown all around me, it seemed as though I was the only one up and moving this Wednesday morning. Though in the distance I could hear school kids waiting at their bus stops and the heavy wheeze of the air escaping as the bus lowered itself to let them on. It was early, well early for me, but the extra strong coffee I carried with me would take care of that and I sipped it carefully, the heat coming from it warned my tongue against scalding, even though I burned it slightly anyway. I rounded the corner of the town square and quickened my pace as I made my way towards my offices on Scarlett Street. You could call Scarlett Street our "red light district" here in Rosewood PA, well you could say that if your idea of a "red light district" was a couple of head shops, a down and dirty strip club, a few outlet liquor stores along with a sundry of other fairly harmless locally run shops, restaurants and discount stores.
Not that anyone in this town would have talked openly about the seedier side of Rosewood. No no, this town was full of secrets, liars and those who knew better than to speak out of turn. We prided ourselves staying out of people business at least in public. But behind closed doors, or over fences was another matter. Yes gossip ruled this little village, like it does so many small towns in the US of A. All the who's who and the little folks engaged in it and everyone's secrets were either laid bare through scandal or confession. Or those secrets and lies were buried 6 feet deep and not spoken of in polite company, but rest assure they were spoken of and often. I was sort of in the middle of it all; daughter of a local politician my mother was the mayor and prominent lawyer my father and the town's only gumshoe ah that is a private dick. If folks weren't talking about me and my family, a family that seemed riddled with scandal they were spilling their guts to me in my office on Scarlett Street asking for my help at either uncovering the truth or covering it back up. I knew all the secrets in this town, well… at least if not all most of them. The one big secret I don't know was who killed Alison DiLaurentis. My friend, some could say my enemy, I felt she was my responsibility, and my one unsolved crime.
Name's Hastings, Spencer Hastings and with a name like that I had to either be a writer or a flatfoot PI. I guess I'm a bit of both, because I'm here telling you all this and I wanna make sure I get it all right and down on paper so that nothing can be missed or left out. So I guess I'm a writer as well as a Private Detective. I wanna tell my story, well really our story that is me and my friends and associates so that there is no doubt and so that we can finally be heard. And so that she can finally rest. Where the story happened to me I'm gonna tell it to you straight no artifice and no jive, where other people enter in I'm gonna try to use their own words as best as I can or have them tell it to you themselves, word from the horse's mouth sort of thing, but there maybe one or two things I don't know and may never know, so I can only speculate and make wide guesses at. Hopefully the other ladies can help show when my wild guesses are way off bases, but I'm gonna get the truth out here once and for all.
So back to that nice Autumn day. As I turned towards Scarlett Street I had a feeling things were gonna happen, maybe it was that crisp air or the strong coffee, but walking up the 3 flights of stairs to my office I could sense somethings was coming. My offices on the 3rd floor took up the whole floor, pretty big deal for a small town Shamus. It was a graduation present from law school from my rich and controllingly generous parents. They figured I'd use the space for my 1st law practice and then after a few years I could move into the more expensive, more respectable yet smaller spaces of my father's law firm down on Main Street. I had studied as a public defender against my parents' wishes and was hoping to you know "help the hopeless" when news came of Ali's disappearance. She was just gone, no trace, no nothing; though foul play was suspected by the Rosewood PD. How those jokers could even form any sort of theory about her whereabouts was beyond me. One of the reasons why I keep in such good business as a private dick was because the Rosewood PD were totally incompetent and everyone knew it. From just a few weeks into their investigation I soon realized that if anyone was gonna find her it would have to be me. So I sidestepped the legal practice game and studied for the PI examine, which I ace-ed with what was the highest score in years. Schooling had never been too hard for me and the PI stuff was easy as pie, except when it came to actually practicing.
In that first year after Ali's disappearance I found less than nothing about her whereabouts which was however more than Rosewood PD found. But I honed my skills doing the dirty work of PI basics; cheating spouses, insurance fraud & petty criminal scams aimed at taking money away from hard working people. The usual PI game plus in this town you got the occasional blackmail, extortion and once in the last year a murder. But it was a fairly easy clear cut domestic violence issue that the police had ignored far too long, so the murderess in question knocked him over the head & tried to make it look like an accident. She got life, which didn't seem fair to me as she was way more of the victim then he was, but eventually though some help from former classmates of mine we managed to get her out with time served. All and all it was enough to keep me in business as a sleuth, while also giving me time to look for Ali or the possibility of Ali's body. My legal knowledge kept me just on the right side of the law and ensured I'd always have something to do once I finally found Alison. But for now here I was on this autumn day going into my office with nothing to show for an all-night stake out, but a sore back and a tired head.
I opened the door and the smell of expensive perfume hit me hard, I knew instantly Hannah Marin was in before me. Hannah was my secretary and right hand woman. Well she was more than that we'd been friends since junior high and she was also a good friend of Ali's before she disappeared. At one time she was Ali's punching bag now, she could punch right back. Too bad Ali wasn't around to take it. Here at the office she filed, took calls, handled the scheduling and dished out the wisecracks and the water cooler gossip. She knew nearly everything there was to know about everyone of style, station and status in Rosewood and through her high society friend Mona Vanderwaal she got all the dirt on them sometime before they even knew it themselves. Hannah was indispensable albeit a bit dim when it came to office work. Yesterday I found our files on the DiLaurentis family filed under P for her parents instead of D for DiLarentis or even in our missing person's folder. She had the tendency to miss the point or pick up the wrong point in a conversation, but her loyalty to me and the rest of her friends was unwavering and occasionally her seemingly of beat remarks smacked hard of truth that no one could deny.
"Hello Hannah, doll what's the news today?" this was a joke we had, she would only read headlines because more than that she said gave her a headache and I never wanted to read the paper if it was too depressing so she'd fill me in and let me know if I should avoid it or if I needed to grin and bare it. "Slow news day today," she said "only two headlines 'Alison DiLaurentis still missing after 2 year of searching with no new leads' and 'Pie eating contest to be held this Saturday at the Rosewood Christian Church". That's Hannah cuts right through it and says it like it is, "Wow, pie eating contest huh, which one had top billing? The Pies or Ali?" "Alison did ya bum, of course." Hannah shot me a look of reproach and raised her eyebrow. "Well that's immortality darling." I said echoing something Alison uttered years before that haunted us both. She lowered her eyes and shook it off saying, "You been up all night again?" She walked to me paper in hand as I sat down slowly at my desk and put my feet up sipping my drastically cooled coffee. "Yes dear I was up nearly all night. I think I snoozed for a tiny bit after I realized the whole stake out was gonna be a bust but not much really. Hey is Emily in yet?" I asked switching gears. Hannah smiled big and shook her head no.
"I doubt she'll be in until later, Paige is back in town and they are… reconnecting I guess you'd say?" I laughed and nodded that I understood. Emily Fields was also our childhood friend and my business partner. She was really the brawn of our operation she served two tours in the army and was a decorated soldier. She was the type to run towards danger instead of way from it. Which sometimes was good but often lead us into a lot of trouble but then again she was always there to get us out of trouble so it all came out in the wash. I never knew girls that looked as stunning as Emily could be so tough, but she was. Strong and confidante, her father raised her that way. He was a two star general and taught her not only how to handle weapons, but how to handle people and I'd say out of the group, well she was the most well-liked and respected. Though she had her secrets the biggest one of which we all knew. It was Paige who was her lover and companion. They lived in one of those Lavender marriages they talk about in Boston.
Though we all knew how things really were and kept silent about it to the outside world they were career girls who had no time for men, even though both of them could have anyone they wanted. We kept her/their secret, because we knew the General her father would go bananas if he found out, but also because Emily kept our secrets too and she was the sweetest person with the kindest heart and none of us would ever betray her or for that matter each other. Her lover Paige was a big time editor in the city and needed to spend most of her week there so she'd only be in town two to three days at a time and when she was back they were inseparable unless Emily was on the job. Working in the city gave them an excuse of their slightly odd living arrangements and when Paige was asked why she didn't just live full time in the city she said, "Why would I stay there anymore than I had to when Rosewood was home." It kept the vultures at bay and to the public Paige was just a border at Emily's home. Thankfully the General was often away which meant they were mostly left in peace. Paige wasn't too keen on Emily doing PI work after the things Em had seen in combat and Paige tended to be overprotective leaving Emily in my care like she was a precious stone not the tough dame that we both knew her to be. Emily seemed to love it or a least to need it so I let it be, promising to keep my eye out for her. Something I would have done without asking anyway as it was my nature to want to protect my friends from everything after Alison went missing.
"Well, ok I guess that's alright, since last night was a bust there isn't much happening right now and I was thinking of maybe getting some shut eye before my morning appointments start." I said leaning farther back in my chair and attempting to close my no doubt bloodshot eyes. All the joy of the crisp day gone from me now that I was in my office with nothing to do until 11am. "Ok boss lady I'll come rouse you at 10am for a trip to the B26 Coffee shop before your 11am appointment. Aria and Ezra said they wanted to feed you and ask some legal advice." Hannah said gripping the door handle and switched off the overhead light. "Oh they do, do they? Well I wouldn't say no to some fries and some better coffee, this cup tastes off." I dropped the contents wholly into my trash can and looked up at Hannah. "Tell them I'll be by shortly after 10 and please hold all my calls." "Will do boss lady," and with that she closed the door and let me get on with counting sheep.
In what felt like only minutes but had actually been a solid 2 hours Hannah came bursting into the room and turned on the lights. "Hannah what the actual hell…" but she cut me off before I cursed too much. "Shut up, get up and come in here to listen to the radio, now" She started to turn around to head back out the door, "Hannah I don't wanna hear the latest tune or whatever." "NO" she said forcefully turning back to me, "It isn't that, you've got to come and you've got to come now!" She was intensely commanding and I knew she wasn't joking around. I nearly bolted over my desk and followed her to the front office space where her desk was. The radio was on and she turned it up. The announcer was speaking somberly and slowly with breaking news.
"I am on the scene with the Rosewood PD who say they have found the body of 28yr old Alison DiLaurentis the Rosewood girl who's disappearance exactly 2 years ago rocked this town to its core. We are trying to talk to the Rosewood PD or anyone who knows what exactly is happening but there is clear confirmation that the body they've found is that of Alison DiLaurentis."
My mouth hung open in shock and I had to sit down cause I was feeling light on my feet. Hannah had tears in her eyes but hadn't totally broken down yet. I think she was in shock too, I looked at her and said, "Call Emily tell her we are on the way to get her after we stop and get Aria at the coffee shop." She didn't move. "Hannah!" I yelled to awaken her, "Call her now we need to get to the crime scene. We need to see. We need to see Alison." And with the mention of her name the spell was broken and Hannah swung into action dialing Emily's number fast. I grabbed the camera off the shelf where I keep it and started for the stairs. Hannah having done her chore, hung up the phone and followed me down the stairs where she grabbed my hand and held it as we walked briskly to the B26 Coffee shop two doors down. Aria was headed our way and grabbed my other hand then we three rushed to Emily's house. When we reached her block the sirens where blaring about seven houses down and suddenly we all knew where the crime scene was at, or at least we knew it was one of two places. Either Alison's house or my family's house as they were right next to each other, right where the cops were piled up. Emily came rushing towards us, Paige hovering in their doorway. "Is it your parents' house or Ali's?" She said it matter-of-factly and I could tell she was in combat mode, but the tears on her face said she'd just been crying. "We don't know," Aria said as she reached for Emily's hand. And together the four of us walked towards the reds and blues as the November air turned colder and a few drops of autumn rain began to fall.