Broken Silence

CHAPTER 1

When Lucy Hale pulled into her usual parking space at Warner Brother's Studios, she couldn't help but feel at home. As she stepped out of her relatively new Red Mini Cooper, she took in one large breath and let the Californian air inflate her lungs. It was definitely nice to be back to the place she knew as home for six months of the year, and she couldn't wait to see what Season 4 had to bring.

Over the course of the hiatus, Lucy had spent most of her time in Texas recording her very first album. It was always Lucy's dream to be a singer, and it was only by chance that her career had been built from acting. Not that she didn't love acting – she did, but she was enjoying working on something different for a change.

Lucy released her album mid March, and even though a whole month had passed since the release date, she was still getting texts, emails and tweets from family, friends and fans about how much they loved her music. She even got a text from her ex-boyfriend; Chris Zylka, who told her that he "always knew she'd be a singer someday" and that he was "extremely proud of her". Chris' words meant nothing to Lucy however, and she decided not to reply to him in case she gave the boy any false impressions.

Her co-stars were also extremely supportive about the album. Fans had suspected there was tension between Lucy, Ashley and Shay, but that was a total misunderstanding. Ashley and Shay could not have been more excited to buy Lucy's album, sending pictures to Lucy of each of them posing with Lucy's face on the cover of the CDs they'd bought, and they couldn't have been more proud. Troian was also super supportive, along with most of the other cast and crew members. Marlene, Oliver, Keegan, Tyler were among the countless messages she had received from her work colleagues.

There was one person however, who she hadn't heard from over the break, one person who she was surprised not to hear from. Ian Harding, someone who Lucy considered a highly valued friend, had not seen or been in contact with Lucy since they wrapped season 3. The only time Ian mentioned Lucy was that time on twitter when he confirmed that the two were still friends, and even so, that was in February, two months ago. Lucy didn't understand why he was able to confirm the pair's friendship, but not able to make contact with her for six months.

Excited to embrace a hard day's work, Lucy made her way to the trunk of her car when someone tipped her on the back. Lucy jumped, but was relieved to see it was Julian Morris and not some crazy stalker that they sometimes found foolishly wandering around the parking lot.

"Julian!" Lucy exclaimed while giving the British man a hug. "How the hell have you been?"

"I've been really good, thanks." Julian replied. "I'm just home from England." Lucy's grin widened at Julian's expression of happiness every time he talked about home. She loved how much it meant to her co-stars when they were reunited with friends and families. She loved nothing more than seeing other people happy.

"Did you enjoy your time at home?" Lucy asked as the pair started walking into the building. "Did you get much snow?"

"I had a blast!" Julian told Aria in what he thought was his best American accent. "I got to spend time with Victoria which was lovely." Victoria was Julian's girlfriend who he had been with for 3 years now. In Lucy's eyes, they were champions at long-distance relationships. Being over almost 4,750 miles away from each other for at least 6 months every year never put any strain on their relationship, and Lucy wished some day she would find love like Julian did.

"Adorable!" Lucy squealed while almost dropping her bags. She was a sucker for romance.

"I wonder if Ian will be here today." Julian changed the subject, which led to a confused Lucy.

"He will be. He's in episode 4x01" She answered. She wasn't sure why Julian was questioning Ian's presence on set today.

"Didn't you hear?" Julian asked hesitantly, clearly contemplating if he should say something or not.

"Didn't I hear what?" Lucy raised an eyebrow. She was now regretting her bitching sessions with Annie about what a terrible friend Ian was.

"Ian's brother passed away on Thursday." Julian regretfully told Lucy, putting his head down towards the ground. He wasn't sure which was more upsetting; the fact that Ian didn't tell Lucy or the fact that everyone knew but Lucy. It was now Monday, which was why Julian wasn't sure if Ian would be on set.

"Hi-His brother died?" Lucy was shocked. She suddenly felt bad for the past two months she spent moaning because Ian never congratulated her on her album. "How – What – Was he sick?" Lucy was struggling to get words out. She had met Ian's brother once, and even though he was seven years younger than Ian, the two were like best friends.

Julian took a huge gulp, trying to figure out why Ian had told Lucy nothing. He then thought that maybe Ian should tell Lucy himself, and that it wasn't his place to tell Lucy something Ian obviously preferred not to tell her.

"I think you need to let him explain it to you, Lucy." Julian felt awkward now. He was extremely shocked that Ian hadn't told Lucy anything. He knew that the two were shockingly close as friends.

"I can't believe this." Lucy admitted while shaking her head. "I have to call him."

Lucy reached into the pocket of her dark wash Abercrombie skinny jeans and took out her iPhone. As she dialled Ian's number, she couldn't help but let her eyes fill with tears knowing that Ian had to go through something awful like this without her. She knew he had Sophia, but she also knew he would've needed a friend there too, something which Ian would never call Sophia.

While Lucy waited for Ian to pick up, she could hear the faintest noise coming from across the parking lot. She turned around; realising that the noise was hearing was the sound of Ian's ringtone playing. She touched "end call" on her iPhone, before slowly walking over to what looked like a broken Ian.

When Ian got closer, she could almost feel the pain that could be seen in his eyes. He looked exhausted, and she wasn't sure how to treat the situation.

"Ian!" She cried as they met each other's path. She put her arms around him, wanting to do nothing but hold him in her arms at that moment, but Ian was fragile and you could tell he was in no mood for a pity party. He released himself from the embrace, which somewhat shocked Lucy.

"Hey Luce!" He greeted her, sniffling away the tears he was trying so very hard to hide. He was trying his damn best to put on a brave face, but the quiver in his lip showed that he wasn't good at acting under pressure. "Did you have a good hiatus?" Ian had absolutely no hint of emotion in his tone.

"Come here" Lucy ignored Ian's small talk motioned for him to give her a hug, but Ian wasn't the type to let people feel sorry for him.

"We're going to be late, table read starts in 5 minutes." Ian informed the 5"2 brunette while walking ahead. Once he had his back to her, he wiped the few tears that had fallen from his face away with his jumper, hoping that Lucy wouldn't notice that he was crying, but she did.

"You know you don't have to go through this alone?" Lucy shouted after Ian, but he kept walking, keeping his right sleeve up to his eyes, wanting to be prepared for any more tears that would probably fall from his blue eyes.

As the whole cast and crew were finally seated and ready to start the table read for 4x01, everyone was in high spirits – except for Ian. Lucy sat across from him, and she couldn't help but stare at the person who lacked emotion. Ian was breaking Lucy's heart by shutting her out.

"Welcome back, everyone!" Marlene King greeted her second family with a smile on her face while Ian shuffled in his seat. "Season 4 is going to be CRAZY. We have some huge story lines coming up, and we can expect to get some pretty huge reactions from our crazed fans on twitter."

"Do you mean crazier than that girl pllquotetumblr's reaction to the ezria kiss in 2x02?" Keegan Allen shouted across the room. The entire room filled with giggles, coming from everyone except Lucy and Ian. "She even had her mom watching it!"

"Or crazier than the girl who most likely tweeted Spanish curse words at us for making Ezra have a son?" Oliver Goldstick laughed. "What was her name, Elisa?"

"You cannot forget about HaleForeverxx's reaction to the Aria and Wes kiss!" Lucy reminded the group. "She said she was going to eat her dog's food if 'Wesria' happened" . Everyone was laughing except for Ian, he continued to stare at the table he sat at, in a deep trance.

"Not one of my finest moments as a writer!" Oliver Goldstick laughed off something he really regretted doing. The Aria/Wes kiss had created such a stir on twitter, something which was difficult for the writers to deal with. "Don't worry Lucy, Aria won't be kissing any more brothers for a while"

As Lucy giggled, she noticed Ian had come out of his trance. Oliver's comment to Lucy had unintentionally hurt Ian. He quickly stood up from his chair and left the room, and it suddenly hit Lucy that anything to do with the word brother was probably a bit much for him to deal with right now.

"Should I go after him?" Shay suggested to Marlene, but Marlene shook her head and looked straight to Lucy.

"I think Lucy should deal with this one." Marlene was right. Although Ian hadn't told Lucy about his brother's death, Marlene knew that Lucy was the one of the only ones who could get through to him.

Lucy left the room and headed in the direction Ian went in. It was time for Ian to open up to Lucy.

MY FIRST LUCIAN STORY.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

I NEED REVIEWS. REVIEWS ARE MY DRUG. Haha!

I really hoped you enjoyed it! A big thank you to Becca, Waverly and Disha for some guidance with this story and to Pllquotetumblr, Elisagiraldol and HaleForeverxx for letting me use them as crazed fans.

If you want to be a part of the story or if you have any ideas, let me know what you think. But don't read the story without reviewing – silly gooses ;)

I can't promise when my next update will be, I'm swamped with homework and I lost ALL my college notes, so it could be next week, but I promise there'll be an update. Stay with me.

Love, Becky! xo