A/N: Yes, I will finish my other story. I'm just not feeling it at the moment. Three guesses why. *rolls eyes back into brain* But let's skip the part where we talk about the cowardice of the PLL writers. The story that I'm about to present to you now has a 0.00000000001% chance of happening in the actual show...Which is exactly why I had to write it. Everything in this story is current in-universe. Only difference? I'm putting my own spin on it (naturally). Basically, I'm using the synopsis of 7x08 and 7x09 to tell this story, as well as footage from that pathetic excuse for a promo that was 7x08. I personally think that the bleh footage of H&C is actually from 7x09/7x10 (based on Bts snaps) which is why I went "UGH" when I saw it. But fortunately, the story doesn't go that far into the future. Enjoy!

Hanna dumped all of her clothes into a bag and struggled to get everything inside.

They told her that Caleb would be fine, but she just couldn't stop thinking about him.

She just couldn't get the image of Noel Kahn running over him with his car.

It burned in the back of her mind.

She put the last of her clothes in the bag, zipped it up, and threw it over her shoulder.

Any minute now one of the girls would be there at Lucas's apartment to either A) give her news about Caleb's condition or B) console her on the entire matter.

Hanna didn't want to stick around for that.

She wanted Noel to pay for what he did.

No matter what it took.

As she looked around the apartment, she took out her cellphone and began typing a text message for all the girls to see.

GOING TO NEW YORK TO FIND EVIDENCE AGAINST NOEL.

DON'T FOLLOW ME.

DON'T TRY AND TALK ME OUT OF IT.

With one push of a button, her message was sent.

Now all she had to do was get to the 8:05 train in time.

~*NEW YORK, NEW YORK - 1:43 PM*~

Hanna kept walking down the quiet, but still busy, street.

"Is this the one?" Hanna thought to herself as she eyed the building.

"No, that's not it," she thought with disappointment.

She'd been searching for the place for only ten minutes, and she was already starting to lose patience.

She kept walking along.

And then she found it.

She opened the door and walked through a small building. There was nothing particularly special about it. It looked like a plain business building with the familiar atmosphere of people talking and walking around.

One man looked up from his desk and gave her a friendly smile.

"Hello? May I help you today?" He asked her as she shuffled a few papers on his desk.

Flustered, Hanna looked around nervously.

"Uh...Yeah, actually. Do you know where the P.I's office is?"

"Oh, of course! Yeah, his office is in the floor right above our building. Gotta love New York right?"

Hanna smiled at his joke and made her way over to the elevator in the corner.

With deep slow breaths, she braced herself for what would happen in the next five minutes.

~*ONE MINUTE LATER*~

Hanna approached the door and saw the name written on it.

She almost couldn't believe that she was actually doing this.

But she had to do it.

For Caleb.

She took a deep breath and swiftly knocked on the closed door in front of her. The young man inside had yelled "Yeah, just a second!" and she could hear him talking on the phone with somebody. Finally, she heard him thank whoever the caller was and hang up.

The grunting of the chair as it moved away from the desk.

The squeak of the chair as he got up from his seat.

The slow and steady sound of his footsteps as he made his way to the door.

It was like a ticking time bomb to her.

Hanna's heartbeat only grew faster as she heard the click of the doorknob being turned.

The door seemed to take forever to open, but then finally...It swung open to reveal him.

Him being, Gabe Holbrook.

The smile that he had obviously prepared for his next possible client had dropped faster than ever at the sight of her face.

"Ha...Hanna?" He said weakly.

Hanna nodded her head.

"What is this? What are you doing here?" He asked her softly and with a confused look on his face.

Hanna sighed.

This was going to take some getting used to.

~*TEN MINUTES LATER*~

Hanna sat across from him at his desk after she had just finished telling him why she was there.

"So let me see if I have this right. You want me to help you find evidence that this...Noel Kahn guy is trying to kill you and your friends in Rosewood because he almost killed Caleb and you're desperate to do whatever it takes? Does that sound right to you?"

Hanna nodded.

"Caleb could have died last night. I'm not just going to sit here and do nothing about it."

Gabe eyed her nervously, but remained professional.

"Okay then. Well I'm not doing anything today, so sure. Why not?"

Gabe was about to get up from his chair, but he stopped himself.

"Just out of curiosity...Is there anything else you want to talk to me about? Anything at all?"

Hanna swallowed.

She already had too much on her plate to talk about the last time they interacted with one another.

So she glared at him coldly.

"I'm only tolerating you for my friends and Caleb. Nothing more."

Gabe clapped his hands together.

"Fair enough."

They both got up from their chairs at the same time and he walked to the front of his desk where she was.

Hanna reached into her bag to take out a twenty, but upon seeing the bill, Gabe pushed her hand away.

They both felt the shock of the touch and immediately backed away from each other.

Gabe cleared his throat.

"Uh, no. Keep it. This one's on me."

He brushed past her and grabbed his jacket from a nearby coat hanger. He put it on and held the door open for her.

"Well? Shall we?"

She walked past him nervously.

~*ONE HOUR LATER*~

For the last forty minutes they had been chasing leads that Hanna had written down while on the train. They had already gotten through four, and there were still four more to go…Unfortunately, they all seemed to lead nowhere.

"So, what's so special about this place?" Gabe asked Hanna as he stopped at a red light.

"I overheard him saying that he used to live there for a while."

"And why exactly do you think he's after you and your friends?"

"Does it matter? He nearly got Caleb killed! I'm not gonna let him slip through the cracks when I'm so close to catching him."

Green light.

"Hanna, I understand you're upset, but one thing you have to realize is that if Noel really is dangerous, you could end up in a lot of trouble."

Gabe pulled into the neighborhood and parked his car in an empty space.

"I appreciate the concern, Gabe," Hanna said dryly as she began to take off her seatbelt.

~*FIVE MINUTES LATER*~

"Another dead end! What a surprise!" Hanna said sarcastically as they walked out the main entrance of the apartment complex.

"Well, what did you expect?"

"Um, I expected that man to let us in. Now we can't even prove that he's the one after us!"

Gabe stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to face Hanna. He chuckled.

"Hanna…" He put his hand on her shoulder gently and looked at her seriously.

"What?"

"Please, please, please, don't tell me that you were planning on breaking into Noel's room."

She yanked his hand off of her shoulder.

"So what if I was? You gonna lecture me on the importance of 'following the rules' like a good citizen?"

"No, but I do know that breaking into his apartment probably isn't a good idea."

She crossed her arms defiantly.

"Look, when you really care about someone…You do whatever it takes…But there are times where you have to start thinking logically, and patiently. I learned that when I used to be a cop."

Hanna tensed at the last word. Rather than let that elephant roar too soon, Gabe took out the list that she had given to him from his jacket pocket.

"Look, there's this movie theater just a few minutes from here. Let's go check it out."

Hanna looked at him. His expression appeared to be genuine…

She uncrossed her arms in defeat.

"Okay. Let's go."

~*TWENTY MINUTES LATER*~

They sat in the plush chairs of the lobby as moviegoers flowed through the ushers every now and again.

Gabe leaned over before he started talking, which startled Hanna.

"So what about this lead?" He asked her with a kind smile on his face.

She turned her head having already gotten used to his close proximity. With a gentle brush of a hair behind one ear, she answered.

"I…Just know that he enjoyed coming here sometimes."

Gabe looked as if he was trying so hard not to laugh, but he was clearly struggling to keep it in.

"How do you know these things?"

She titled her head toward him.

"Don't ask me why, okay? Just know that this is a lead."

"Okay…"

He took out the list again and looked over it carefully.

"Well, after this we have a few more stops, and the last one on the list is a…bar. Hmm. I know that place."

She was about to giggle for no apparent reason when she noticed the sight of someone very familiar…

She started tapping his shoulder with her hand.

"Gabe!" She whispered urgently.

"What? Is he here?"

She nodded and used her eyes to communicate with him that he was right behind him.

"See that guy in the corner? Blue shirt and black jacket? That's him."

"Oh, I see. That's the guy Aria used to date right?"

He turned to her with a curiously raised eyebrow.

"And how do you know that, I wonder?" She said sternly.

"It's like I said years ago…" He turned away from her to keep looking.

"I read all your files."

Hanna snatched the list from his hands.

"Well that's not creepy or anything, "she said with a small slap on his back as she got up.

~*FIVE MINUTES LATER*~

"Are we not going to talk about how easy it was for us to get past those ushers or what?" Gabe asked her as they walked down one of the hallways.

Cardboard cut-outs and polished movie posters graced the walls as they moved past them.

"Ignore it. It's probably just this theater anyway," Hanna said with a shrug.

"Well either way, I overheard the usher telling him to enjoy this movie. So I think we're gonna find him in here."

Hanna took out her phone.

"And according to their site, the movie doesn't start showing previews for another five minutes."

"Well we better hope he doesn't like the previews."

~*ONE MINUTE LATER*~

They quietly walked up the ramp that led into the big silver-screen filled room. The lights had been turned on so that employees could clean up leftover junk from the previous audience.

Up in one of the middle rows, Hanna spotted him doing something on his phone. She grabbed Gabe's arm to stop him from going any further.

"There he is," she said nervously. She turned around to face him.

"Gabe…What do we do?"

"He's not going to try anything in front of all these people."

Hanna counted ten other moviegoers and four employees with her right hand.

"Oh yeah, this looks like a super protective bunch. Why should that stop a man who ran over someone without stopping?" She said with slight sarcasm.

"It's gonna be fine, Hanna." He put his hand on her shoulder again to comfort her.

But she wasn't a hundred percent convinced.

"I promise," he said with a smile.

She nodded her head and he nodded back.

"Come on. But we have to move quietly and slowly."

They began the journey up the ramp, and eventually they found their way up the stairs. By chance, the moment they finally made it to his row, Noel looked up from his phone.

Before she could even open her mouth, Noel leaped out of his seat and ran past them.

~*THREE MINUTES LATER*~

"Look, there he is! You go this way, and I'll go that way! We can cut him off!" Gabe yelled as they opened the doors to the outside world.

Hanna nodded her understanding and began to run.

"I picked a really good time to wear sneakers," she thought as she ran toward Noel, who was pushing past the dozens of citizens in the city.

Hanna tried to excuse herself as much as she could, but her main focus was on catching up to Noel Kahn.

She almost caught up when she saw him stop and put his hand up for a taxi, and afterwards, one had promptly pulled up next to him.

But Hanna was not gonna let him get away so easily.

So she did the only thing she could think of.

She jumped in front of the taxi's path, hoping it would stop.

And it did.

The taxi driver leaned his head out the window.

"What are you crazy? Get out of my way!" He said with a thick accent. Hanna wasted no time and ran around to the side of the car and opened the door.

Noel was furious.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Marin?"

"Making you pay for what you did to Caleb," she said angrily.

Noel laughed at her.

"Right. You and what army?"

The sound of the door closing next to Noel had surprised both of them.

Gabe was sitting next to Noel with a grin on his face.

"Um, I think we both make a pretty good team actually," Gabe said as he pointed to himself and Hanna.

Hanna smiled at him.

"Okay. Fine." Noel got up from his seat to exit the car, and Gabe did the same. The taxi driver wasted no time driving away as soon as they were on the sidewalk.

Noel put his hands in his pockets.

"So let me guess. You want revenge for your tiresome boyfriend? Is that it?"

Hanna crossed her arms tightly against her chest.

"That, and I want you to admit that you nearly got me and my friends blown up a few days ago."

"Sorry, that wasn't me."

Noel shrugged and tried to walk past her, but she stopped him.

"Yes it was! You were in Rosewood that day, I know."

"Yes, I was there, but I didn't try to blow up anything."

"Just admit it! You want Charlotte's killer brought to justice and that's why you've been targeting us!"

"I could care less about Alison's long lost sister turned stalker."

"Then why did you run over Caleb?!"

"He was in my way," he said dryly.

Upon realizing how terrible his "joke" was, Noel rolled his eyes and started to look serious.

"Look, I wasn't the one who tried to kill you and your stupid friends that night. If you really want to find out who did that to you, I suggest you look somewhere else."

He put up his arm for another taxi, and after a couple drove by, one finally pulled up.

He opened the door and got into the backseat, but before he closed the door, he gave Hanna one final message.

"If I see you, or any of your friends following me one more time…You will all regret it."

He shut the door.

As they watched the taxi speed away, Hanna felt the sensation of rage hovering over her.

"Hanna, it's okay. You'll find the person who's doing this to you and your friends."

But Hanna wasn't paying attention to Gabe's kind words. Instead, she raised out one of her arms, and whistled.

A taxi stopped almost immediately, and before he could stop her, Hanna got in and shut the door.

It drove away so fast, he could hardly believe what had just happened.

~*FOUR HOURS LATER*~

"I really hope she's here," Gabe thought to himself as he opened the doors to the bar.

As luck would have it, he spotted Hanna sitting at the main bar stool with a drink in her hands, and a far-away look in her eyes.

He rushed over to her.

"Hanna! Thank god, I've been looking for you everywhere."

"Well you found me," she said without emotion.

He looked at the drink in her hands with worry.

"How many drinks have you had since you got here?"

She put her cup down.

"Just one...maybe four."

"Okay, we need to get you some rest. My place isn't that far from here, come on."

Hanna took one last long sip from her glass, and put it down once more.

"Aye aye, sir!" she said with a sloppy salute as she tried to get down from the stool.

~*TWO HOURS LATER*~

Hanna lay over the edge of the bed as Gabe looked into the files on his computer. There was nothing he could do for her now except look after her until the morning came.

This entire ordeal with Caleb was making Hanna over-emotional, and as a result, she wasn't thinking very clearly.

He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice when Hanna started slurring something on the bed.

"Why didn't come back?" she said quietly.

Gabe looked away from his computer.

"Sorry? What was that?"

"Why didn't youuuu come back?" She tried to say clearly.

Gabe smiled and turned his chair toward the bed.

"I did come back. And I'm really glad I found you because I was starting to get worried. And tomorrow, when you're feeling better, I'll take you to this bakery that has the best cookies in this city."

Hanna reached her arm over the bed to try and touch him, but she was too far away.

"No!" She slurred. She crossed her arms and put them under her chest.

"Why didn't you come back for me?"

He suddenly realized what she was referring to. He'd been avoiding the topic all day, but the time had finally come for them to talk about it.

"You mean the day I was suspended don't you?"

Hanna laughed.

"Yeeep."

She propped herself up slowly and sat crossed-legged on the bed.

"Did you know...That I looked in the rear-view mirror to see if you were coming back?"

His heart fell into his stomach.

"You did?"

Hanna nodded.

"Sure did. I looked and looked until IIIIIII couldn't anymorrrrre."

Her words were starting to slur again. She threw her legs over the bed and walked over to him.

She collapsed into his lap drunkenly.

"Hanna!"

"I was so angry at youuuuu. I..."

Gabe tried to get her off him gently, but she had already put her arms around his neck.

"Look, I think you should just get some rest okay? We can talk about this in the morning."

"No no no! It's okay." She told him urgently. She started playing around with the buttons on his collared shirt.

"See? All beeeetterrr." She said with a giggle.

She had fixed the button on his shirt which both impressed and terrified him at the same time.

"Hanna? I think you really need to get off of me. Like now. Please."

She put her arms up in mock defeat, and got off of him.

And then she collapsed onto the bed.

"Hanna?"

He walked around over to the side of the bed. She hadn't crashed yet, but she was still awake. He leveled himself with her on the bed by crouching down.

Only this time he was surprised to see that she was crying. The tears were silent as they flowed out of her blue eyes.

She looked up at him sadly.

"Why didn't you come back for me? You could...could have at least said you were sorry..."

Gabe looked at her in surprise. He stood up and began to look around the room.

He took a deep breath.

"Hanna, look. I..."

He stopped.

She had finally crashed.

He looked at her silently and nodded his head glumly.

Gently, he pulled her back so that she was resting on pillows and not hanging over the side of the bed.

He would be sleeping on the couch tonight.

~*THE NEXT MORNING-9:30 AM*~

Gabe walked through the door to find a semi-sober Hanna sitting on the couch with the list in her hands.

"Hey!" she said excitedly.

"Hey..."

He closed the door behind him.

"Thought you could use one of these."

He shook a cup of coffee that was in his hands, and Hanna raced over to grab it from him.

"Oh, thank you."

She took one long sip from the cup.

"By the way...I wouldn't go into your bathroom anytime soon."

"Do I even want to know?"

"Well...let's just say...It's a good thing I didn't miss the toilet."

Gabe put the small paper bag that was in his hands down on the table.

"Congratulations. Now you get all the cookies."

Hanna laughed as she took another sip of her coffee.

"Hey, Hanna?"

She put the cup away from her mouth and looked at him expectantly.

"Hmm?"

"Do you remember what happened last night?"

Hanna started to look serious.

"Yes. No...Just bits and pieces. I remember you finding me at the bar. I remember you bringing me home to your place. And I think I stumbled into your lap at one point."

Gabe nodded carefully.

"Why, did I...say anything...Strange?"

"Well...You did tell me that on the night of my suspension, you checked in your rear-view mirror to see if I was coming back for you."

"I...I did?"

She began to look worried.

"Yeah, you did."

Hanna walked back over to the couch and collapsed into it.

"I can't believe I told you that," she said quietly with a little embarrassment.

Gabe sat down next to her.

"Yeah, well. You were drunk. It's okay."

"Actually, it's not okay. Because..."

She sighed and looked at him nervously.

"Because it's true. I did check if you were coming back."

He put his head down for a moment, but then he brought it back up again to look at her.

"Hanna...I am so sorry about that night. I never should have followed you that night, it was completely wrong of me. If I could take it back, I would," he said softly.

Hanna shook her head and tucked one leg under her.

"What the hell was going on with you back then, Gabe? I mean damn, it's like you changed personalities as soon as Alison came back."

He turned away from her.

"Look, Hanna...It's kind of a long story."

She sighed angrily. He turned his head toward her.

"But I will explain it all to you someday…I promise."

~*THREE HOURS LATER*~

Hanna tightened her hold on her bag.

"Guess you didn't really need all of the clothes in there, huh?" Gabe asked her.

"Yeah, guess not."

Hanna looked at the large train in front of her as people walked through the doors.

"Listen...Thank you for this."

"It was no problem."

"No, I don't just mean giving me a ride to the train station I mean..."

She pulled him aside.

"I mean, helping me out. It means more to me than you know."

"You're welcome. Happy to do it. And happy to do it again."

He smiled at her.

"And you know...There's a small chance I might need your help in the future, so I figured you know...Just in case," she said coyly.

He understood what she meant. He reached into his jacket pocket and took out one of his business cards to hand out to her. She took the card and smiled.

"Thank you."

"LAST CALL! LAST CALL FOR THIS TRAIN!" The announcement roared over their heads.

"Oh, I better go!" Hanna exclaimed.

She hurried to the platform of the train and got inside as quickly as she could. Once she was finally inside, she went up the stairs to the second row to one of the window seats.

As she sat down, she spotted Gabe from the window and took out her hand to wave at him.

He waved back and smiled.

Afterwards, Hanna finally put her bag down on the seat next to her.

She put her hands in her lap.

She stayed like that for a few more moments, and it wasn't until the train started moving that she took out the business card that he had given her just moments ago.

GABE HOLBROOK

PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

555-4215

As she looked over the card details, she suddenly remembered that the lives of her and her friends were still in danger and that their last suspect had been a dead end.

But in that moment...

She was smiling.

A/N: Yeah, kind of sad. And a little bit angsty. Also, Hanna literally has that list because of "reasons" and I'm not even kidding about that. Okay? Ha ha, don't even ask how she got it. She just does. Also, I never explained what he was doing five years ago because I've already explained that in three of my stories - "Second Times the Charm?," "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word," and "Against All Odds" - and I didn't feel like going through all of that again. But like I said before, I just needed to write this.