disclaimer: I don't own Pretty Little Liars that belongs to Sara Shepard, I. Marlene King, and Freeform. I do have "own" the other characters that were created in this story.

warnings/tags/notes: this is an alternative history story set after "Tick-Tok, Bitches". There will be characters that haven't been heard or mentioned in the canon or noncanon setting. This will contain Spencer and Caleb in some aspect – flashbacks, mentions, etc. [edited: June 6; I deleted the Spaleb vs Haleb 'chapter' and that counted as an update – so, sorry.]

without A trace

Chapter One

Spencer sighed as she pulled her coat tighter around her small frame. It was mid-November and the air left an unpleasant remembrance in the eerie town. The fog had vanished minutes prior but that didn't stop the townspeople from coming out and worshiping.

"Pardon me," Spencer heard someone say as they moved past her hurriedly. She had blonde hair and had a slightly largely frame than the other townspeople. More people seemed to pass her after that exchange, more often than not being polite as they bumped into her. She glanced down the street once more in hopes the car would appear.

"You should be worshiping, you know?" Spencer heard behind her and immediately tensed at the person words. She knew what they were doing given she'd been here more times in the last few weeks then elsewhere. They had Hanna back but that wasn't enough – no, this person seemed to think Spencer brought the final piece of the puzzle after all.

"Mathis, don't pressure the young girl. She will come when she's ready," Spencer heard the ever-polite Ivory say as she moved around Spencer. Ivory was the sweetest resident Spencer ever encountered while in Ravenswood but she did hear things. Mathis huffed in annoyance at the elder's words but otherwise didn't say anything – Mathis was known for being a stickler, so to speak. He passed by her with a casual bump into her shoulder and a rather annoying humming sound.

Spencer watched as he made towards the idol and felt whether sickening at the moment – she knew what happened next and didn't practically care to watch.

Linda Tanner stared at the missing flyer that was placed in the middle of the frantic writing whiteboard. She had been missing three days and the Hastings' weren't letting this get dragged on and demanded they be included in every single detail. The picture that was chosen was when she was dressed in her not so appropriate funeral wear which happened to excluded her from the rest of the girls.

Veronica Hastings watched Linda focus on her daughter's picture. It had been 72 hours since she seemingly disappeared in that creepy town that her boyfriend lived in once upon a time. Peter Hastings stood stoically against the wall as his eyes roamed over the writing that surrounded his youngest daughter's picture. He received a call from her seemingly around the time she disappeared but the reception was bad. He could only hear 'Ravenswood', 'Car' and 'Love you'; he immediately left work and make his way to the town that he hadn't dare set foot in – Veronica by his side.

"You staring at my sister's picture isn't going to do anything, Deticevete Tanner," Melissa Hastings spoke up from her side of the room. She arrived early this morning and received the news of her sister's disappearance just yesterday – apparently, no one thought till the last minute to include her, hell Jason was here.

Jason DiLaurentis ran his hand through his hair as he heard what Melissa said. She was right but they didn't know how this PD worked given the changes that took place just weeks prior. The PD were fired and hired all in one swoop; Toby, Linda, Pam, and Barry were the only ones left of the original "group".

"Melissa," Veronica scowled at Melissa as she turned her attention to her. Her oldest had been mouthy ever since she got here and she knew she was hurt but she had to turn it down.

"What? It's the truth and all she's doing is staring and walking around. Toby is walking around doing ground work, mother. Toby," Melissa stressed the last word when she finished. It was no secret between the Hastings that Melissa didn't like Toby after her sister's brief stint in Radley and that he became a cop in seemingly four days. Jason surpassed a groan when his sister's ex-boyfriend name was heard; Toby was okay but he thought she could do better – Caleb was until he heard from Aria what he did.

"Mel," Peter warned as he focused his attention on her. Melissa didn't reply when she heard that tone.

"Melissa is right, we shouldn't be standing here all day," Jason spoke as he made way to the table. It was scattered with pictures and written down words the girls found yesterday, it was very well hidden until Mona found it. They had the originals but he wouldn't put it past her that she had copies.

Linda gave a nod as she grew tired of playing connect the dots when Spencer was very clever of what she did and with who – as was Mona, "Let's go over this once more..."

It wasn't like the PD was purposely being lazy in this investigation, they had to be careful given what one of the girls revealed.

The gang was all there sans Caleb and Aria in Mona's apartment. Every piece of copied information was scattered around the room in piles: before Hanna's kidnapping, during and after. There were a lot more before and during than after. It wasn't looking good but Emily was being optimistic.

"We shouldn't have let them go," Ezra spoke up as he placed another paper in the during pile. Aria and Caleb had been given a tip that only included them since they were closer to the brunette than any of them, seemingly.

"We had too besides Toby is tailing them," Emily said as she placed down her sugary drink. Mona resisted the urge to roll her eyes and hoped he remembered how to do that from his "A" days. Hanna hadn't said anything as she glanced at the words on the page with a worry expression. Ezra didn't say anything but hoped Toby would be a success unlike Caleb and Mona the other day – leaving your headlights on while trailing someone, seriously?

Mona re-read the sentence over again as the room grew silent. She should mention to the others but Spencer was a big girl and knew what she doing. As Mona placed the paper in the before pile she kept seeing them words, How do you know Hanna's still alive?

"We'll find her," Hanna spoke up as she glanced away from the papers and around the room. They would and everything would go back the way it should be.

Emily smiled at Hanna's words and was happy Hanna showed something about this whole ordeal – she remained calm whilst Mona had the slight freak out, it was an odd sight at first but the gang grew accustomed towards it.

"We will," Mona voiced as Ezra would repeat it with Emily in last. They would but they needed to find something first and Ezra thought he did.

Aria watched as Caleb walked around the abandoned building. They were given a tip about Spencer that led them to this place but it was bare and wasn't much of anything. They knew Toby was trailing them but Aria managed to shake him as they made a detour – he'd be pissed but she really didn't care, it was supposed to be her and Caleb.

"Are we not looking hard or something?" Caleb questioned as he looked around and tried to see what the person wanted them too. But they couldn't for two reasons – nothing could be seen with the naked eye and it was dark and the flashlights that were being used weren't helping much.

"It has to be something, somewhere," Aria replied as she flashed her light around and stopped when she saw an air vent. Caleb stopped flashing his around when he saw Aria stop.

"What is it?" Caleb questioned as he looked in the direction of Aria's light vision - an air vent. He quickly made his way over and saw it was slightly off a hinge. Aria quickly followed and tried to provide enough light for whatever it could be. Caleb handed his light to Aria than began to work on the vent; luckily it didn't take much and was able to pull it off. He reached in and grasped what he felt and something was heard crumbling. He retrieved his hand and turned around; Aria held the lights in each hand and inched closer as Caleb began to uncrumple the paper. His facial expression went stoic and Aria dropped one light to grab the paper out of his hand - her facial expression went from worry to shock in 0.2 seconds.

"There's no way...she's not...A's clearly messing with us," Aria tried to speak the actual word but it wouldn't come out. She waited for Caleb to back her up but it didn't happen, "H-how long?"

Caleb crumpled the paper back up in his fist, "Four weeks, we were going to actually discuss together. She found out and told me through a voice mail. I mean who does that?"

Aria listened and knew of the two's relationship status – Ezra confided in her when they were talking about their own relationship, "We'll find her, Caleb. We'll find her and you two will have that discussion." Aria knew it wasn't the best wording but she resisted the urge to tell him off – she needed to focus her energy on her friend. She couldn't help but think that he did ignore her calls for the past couple days after Hanna's return but he was in a place of panic.

"We should tell the others because if we don't A will," Caleb spoke up as he glanced towards Aria and knew she had the annoyed expression on her face. He knew he wasn't the essence of best boyfriend especially before and after Hanna's kidnapping but he and Spencer were working on it, slowly. Aria gave a short nod before reaching down to pick up the other light. They'd find her, they have too.