A/N: This is an AWESOMR collab story I wrote with Lafilleaushort. She writes amazing stories and she wrote the first chapter here. Go check out her page!

Chapter 1

Ezra was now back in good shape three month after getting shot. Sure he almost died but he wouldn't change a thing if he was back in the same situation, he would gladly take another bullet if it meant saving Aria's life one more time. After hearing his story or at least the unofficial version, the one where Ezra told that he was mugged, the dean of Hollis took pity on him and offered him a job as a creative writing professor, or maybe he offered him this job to make up for coldly firing him a year ago. But Ezra didn't care the reason why, he was back in his lecture hall doing what he loved. So here he was back into in Hollis office planning his first lecture for his first lesson that would happen on the next morning. He was so wrapped up in his planner that he didn't notice someone coming into his office.

"Hum… Mr. Fitz?" a woman voice said tearing him away from his papers. He lifted up his head and he was surprised to see a 5.5 foot tall blond young woman. He must admit that she was pretty but he quickly gathered his thoughts back together.
"Yes, what can I do for you Miss?" he said
"Miss Walters, Rebecca Walters. Nice to meet you, I am your new assistant." She answered slightly blushing as her eyes met his.
"Right… I think the dean told me something about this. Well Rebecca if I may, welcome to Hollis and you can call me Ezra. I was in the middle of planning tomorrow's lecture but we can go through it from the beginning together so you can see where my lesson will be heading to. What do you say?"
"That would be perfect"
During the next two hours they went through Ezra's lesson. Rebecca was determinate to know more about Ezra and she was trying to get him to see the potential girlfriend in her rather than just her assistant so she was using all of her charms and she wasn't ashamed about it. But unfortunately for her, Ezra was being totally oblivious to what she was trying to achieve.

Meanwhile Aria had been sitting in her car for the last hour trying to get herself out of going into the red bricks ancient building that was facing her car. She knew this building all too well, it was Hollis English department. She had been there to visit her father but she also sneak in countless time to spend some time with Ezra before all of this went down. She knew today was Ezra's first day back at Hollis, he had told her last night when she called him on yet another sleepless night. She knows she shouldn't have called him. She wasn't ready to forgive him just yet, she didn't know if she was going to be able to try again with him one day for all she knew. Their all relationship had been based on a lie and he shattered her hearts into a million little pieces. But even now with her shattered heart she couldn't, she didn't know how not to love him and it was hurting.
Sitting in her car with the coffee she had purchase, as an excuse to come and see him, were now cold and undrinkable. She took her courage in her own hands and stepped out of her car only to see Ezra and a gorgeous tall blond girl making their way to the parking lot. She seemed to be laughing, at what Ezra what telling her, with all her body. She was trying hard, way to hard if you asked Aria, to impress and try to flirt with him. She noticed how Ezra was smiling, it had been a long time since she saw him smiling that way. She knew it because the last time was because she was beside him. Aria quickly ran back into her car trying not to be seen by Ezra.

How could she have been so stupid to think that he wouldn't end up moving on from her. After all she did told him that she couldn't forgive him and that their slip was indeed a mistake, that she had been caught in the heat of the moment. Sure she couldn't be happier that he was once again safe and sound but still, she was still hurting more that she would actually care to admit. Tears were now rolling down her cheeks and frankly she didn't really knew why. Was it the sight of Ezra with another woman? Or maybe the thought of him moving on. Aria went home and curled up in her bed once again crying herself to sleep.

Ezra swore that he had seen Aria's car driving off Hollis parking lot earlier this evening. But lately he seemed to be seeing her everywhere so this was probably his mind playing him a trick one more time. He got back to his apartment hoping that Aria would come over. He got home and waited one, two, three, four hours. It was now 10 PM and there was still no sign of Aria coming. He felt like the weight of the world had been dropped on his shoulder. Maybe she had really meant what she said, maybe she really thought that all of this had been a mistake since the beginning, maybe she really didn't want to try again with him. After all she did told him that their slip had been a huge mistake, that it didn't meant anything to her, but it sure had meant a lot to him. And with those sad, angry and quite desperate thoughts Ezra fell asleep on the couch waiting hopelessly for the love of his life to come. She never did.

Aria was more confused than ever when she woke up the next morning, she didn't know where her heart was standing regarding her feeling towards Ezra. A part of her wants to run into his warm embrace and never leave but the other half of her wants to punch him right in the jaw every time she was facing him. She couldn't get the blond girl out of her mind either. She knew she was probably seeing too much in the girl interested for Ezra but she was still lost between what her heart wanted and what her heads was telling her to do.

After a week of not seeing Ezra, dogging his calls and barely replying to his text messages, Aria decided that she was being childish and that even though she wouldn't care to admit it, she was starting to miss him. She was standing outside Ezra's door ready to knock when she heard a feminine voice coming from inside the apartment. She decided to knock either way hoping that it was just one of the girls asking Ezra for some help in the all A's affair. Thirty seconds later the door flew wide open taking her away from her thoughts. Ezra was surprised to see her at this time of the day.
"Aria? What are you doing here" he asked wondering why she was there after being almost MIA for an entire week. Not that he wasn't glad to see her, he was actually more than glad to see that she was finally back at his place, but still he was surprised.
"I know I should have called before, but I wanted to say that I w sorry for avoiding you for the past week. So yeah, I am sorry Ezra"
"Aria you know that you are more than welcome here whenever you want. And what did I told you, that I never…"
"That you never wanted to hear me say that I was sorry again" she cuts him before it could finish earning a smile from Ezra.
"Well then, come in." he said while moving away from the door so she could enter his apartment.
And then Aria saw to whom the feminine voices was belonging and the answered wasn't the one she had hoped for.

"Aria I want you to meet Rebecca my new assistant" Ezra politely introduced her to the blond
"Ezra – the blond began – I think you can actually introduce me as your friend rather than your assistant, we do spent the majority of the day together don't we." Rebecca stepped in giving Aria a proud and protective look
"Well I am Aria nice t meet you Rebecca – Aria said trying not to show her high level of annoyance – I am going to leave you two I guess, I didn't mean to interrupt" she finishes with all the self control she had left in her body.
Ezra was visibly disappointed to see Aria leaving so quickly so he tried to step in trying to hold her back.
"Aria we were actually done here, Rebecca was just about to leave, please stay" he told her with his boyish smile and his baby blue eyes locked on her perfect hazel eyes.
But Rebecca wasn't going to let Aria win without a fight. She could see that Ezra was trying to get Aria back and she would do anything to be sure that he failed and to be sure that he would end up in her arms.
"Oh Ezra, I thought you said that you would buy me dinner after today's lesson planning, don't you remember?" she was going to take Aria down. She wanted Ezra and she would get him.
"Oh really, I told you that? Man I am so sorry it's been a really long day I must have forgotten. Do you mind if we reschedule since Aria is here?" But as he was finishing his sentence, he heard his front door being shut. He turned around only to see that Aria was gone.

Aria ran as fast as she could to her car and when she finally got in, she turned on the engine and drive towards the only place she knew she could get some comfort. Ten minutes later she rang Spencer's door with tears in her eyes.
Aria was ready to fall into Spencer's arms but as much to her regrets, she wasn't greeted by Spencer but by Toby in a cop uniform. She took a step back not recognizing him at first but as soon as Toby spotted the tears in her eyes he immediately let her in calling out Spencer's name.
"Toby I thought you said that you were paying for the pizza, do you not have enough…" Spencer stopped in the middle of her sentence when she saw Aria in the middle of her kitchen looking lost and on the verge of crying.
"Aria, are you ok? What happen honey?" she then turned around to face Toby "Hum Toby would you mind a rain check on our date night?" she asked him
"No, don't worry Spence, Aria look like she needs you more than I do so I will leave you two alone to talk. I love you"
"I love you too. I'll call you" Spencer said before kissing him goodbye for the night.

With Toby gone, Spencer could now focused on her sobbing and looking lost best friend still standing in the middle of her kitchen.
"Aria, tell me what happen, is it A? Did you get another text?" Spencer asked leading Aria towards the couch.
"No, it's not about A. I don't know what to feel or do anymore Spence, I am so confused and lost" Aria explained trying to hold back her tears
"You don't know what to do about what anymore? Do you still feel guilty about what happen to Shanna? I am here to talk about it if you want to. But Aria this wasn't your fault, it was only self defense and you know it." Spencer tried to comfort her.
Aria let her tears roll down her cheeks while she started at the floor whispering "Ezra… it's about Ezra" like she was ashamed of still being confused about how she felt for him.
"What happened? Did he do something? Gosh if he forced you into anything or if he betrayed you again I am going to kill him with my bare hands" Spencer was quite shocked herself with the statement she had just made, which made Aria smiled a bit
"No Spence, calm down. He didn't do anything or at least not intentionally. I am not even sure he realized what he did"
"Ok I am going to need more here because I am quite lost."
"Well, he has a new assistant at Hollis and she is being really obvious to what her feelings are towards Ezra and she made it quite clear that she wasn't afraid to take me down in order to get him." And that's when her tears came back. She wasn't only sobbing now, Aria was crying.
"Oh Aria, I am really sorry. What did Ezra said about all of this?"
"He didn't say anything because when it comes to women flirting with him he is worst than a blind man. And plus I didn't talk to him about it, I came straight from his house. Why is it so hard?"
"What happened at his apartment? Was she there? Is she the reason why you left?"
"I went over there because I needed to see him and then she was there making sure I felt like I wasn't belonging there. Ezra asked me to stay but then she said that he was supposed to take out to dinner"
"And what did Ezra told you?"
"Well I left before he could lie to me one more time"
"So are you mad at him? I don't really follow you there Aria, I thought that you didn't want to go back to being in a relationship with him."
"I know that this is what I have been telling you since Ezra came back and I was actually starting to believe my own statement but the truth is that I don't want to lose him. Sure I am not sure that I will ever be able to forgive him but I am also not ready to see him move on"
"So you don't want to be with him but you don't want him to move on?"
"No I don't want him to move on because the truth is that I love him, I never stopped and I am not sure that I will ever stop."
"There it is then, I am going to help you get rid of this assistant of him and you will get him back. But before we do that I need to be sure that this is what you want, because remember that he did broke your heart".
"I am sure Spence, he may have lied about the all thing but I am starting to believe him when he said that he never lied about loving me. I am not ready to lose him."
"Well then team Sparia is ready to get your man back."