Disappear

There's a quiet in the house that Aria Montgomery does NOT love. Its wrapped itself around her like a too-tight blanket on a hot night, and much as she tries to drown it with music and the sounds of the TV, it just doesn't stop.

Of course, she knows why the quiet is so loud. Simply put, a house without Ezra Fitz in it is not a home to her. It's just a place for dwelling. Somewhere to pass the time. Except that time is passing so excruciatingly slow. And she misses him desperately.

She knows logically that he's not gone just to spite her. The trip he's on was a long time coming-six months to be exact. His first novel had been optioned well over a year before that after spending twelve weeks on several well-known best-seller lists. Aria had been sure even before it's release that it would be amazing, but when it actually hit the shelves, it had flown off just as fast, and the first royalty checks were just coming in when the first few producers came along with offers. Ezra had been smart about waiting for the right deal to come along, and only when he was given equal and fair control over the screenplay and people working on the project did he agree to it.

After that, sometimes it felt like time would never pass so slowly. Of course, the four weeks he spent pounding out the story to fit into a screenplay seemed to drag on for much longer. There were far too many late nights that kept him out of their bed late into the night. Even so, that period of time had eventually passed, and then there was a long period of back-and-forth with script ideas and rewrites. And still, somehow, they eventually found the right balance. But the best part of it it all was that Ezra was able to do it almost all of it from their home in the Hamptons, and what little he couldn't do there only kept him away for a day or two at a time.

Aria longs for those nights now.

Ezra's been gone for just over two weeks, and each passing day just makes her lonelier. Going into work doesn't really help either. Granted, there are people around and when she's shooting kids, they make things especially interesting, but eventually the work day ends. And then she's right back at home. In the silence.

"Aria?"

Knocking, followed quickly by the sound of her name distracts her. She looks up from the iMac to the front door just as Spencer opens it and leans her head inside.

"What're you up to?" Spencer asks. "Busy?"

Aria shakes her head, waving her best friend in. "Just editing photos from today. What's up?"

"Hanna and Caleb are driving in from Brooklyn for a cookout," Spencer says as she walks across the room. She leans against the desk next to Aria. "Hardy's going to pick up burgers and wanted to know if you wanted to eat with us. He said he'd get you tofu."

Aria chews her bottom lip for a moment. She glances down at her iPhone and pushes down on the sleep button, lighting up the screen. The photo displayed is one of her, Ezra, Hardy, and Spencer several days before he left for Los Angeles. They're all smiling. No new messages.

"Sure," she sighs.

Spencer glances down beside herself where Aria is holding up her phone. She frowns slightly. "You know that he's not ignoring you."

Aria looks back up at the taller girl and nods, setting her phone back down on the desk. "I know. I just miss him a lot. He missed our last three scheduled skype calls."

Spencer pushes Aria's seat back and then grabs her hands and pulls her up out of it. "C'mon. You're coming over by me. Melissa is taking a nap, and Maci wants to get in the pool. She'll distract you."

Aria chuckles, but she doesn't argue. Spencer gives her enough time to make sure everything gets turned off and to change into her bikini before she practically drags Aria out of the large home, down the front walk to the road, and the two begin to walk to Spencer and Hardy's place.

It's not as though they live in mansions, because they definitely don't. But the homes are decently sized-both two-stories with plenty of open space. They had never intended on living next door to each other either, but Hardy and Ezra had both been more interested in buying a home than continuing to rent when both couples had decided to settle in the Hamptons the previous year, and given that they were both from families with plenty of money, they both had the room to afford something higher priced. Aria hadn't been so sure about it at first, but she'd quickly fallen in love with the house after seeing it, and when Spencer announced she'd be next door, Aria was sold.

"Have you talked to Emily recently?" Spencer asks, breaking Aria from her reverie.

Aria nods. "We talked for two hours last night. She caught me when I got on Skype, and when Ezra said he couldn't make it, we video chatted."

"Did she tell you about-"

"Getting a surrogate?" Aria finishes for Spencer. Spencer nods.

Aria nods as well. "Yeah. She said she and Paige are really set on making it really family oriented. I guess she's already got some ideas of people they want to talk to about...donating."

Spencer chuckles. "I never thought Em would be the first of us to have a baby. I always thought it would be Hanna."

Aria giggles, looking up at Spencer. "I didn't think that until she got with Caleb. And then I think she was surprised she made it to graduation without being pregnant."

"I always wondered though...Did you and Fitz ever have any scares?" Spencer asks.

Aria glares at Spencer. "Are you kidding me? The whole Malcolm thing had us terrified to do anything beyond second base for months after it all ended. As for before, no. You and Toby?"
"You mean the two times it happened?" Spencer says with a bit of a scoff. "No. I was always smart about it. But I meant that I always imagined Em would be like...thirty, and then have triplets or something."

Aria nearly falls over laughing at the idea of Emily being so pregnant, stopping both girls in their tracks.

"Seriously?" Spencer asks, staring at Aria with her back turned to her house. "You never thought of it that way?"

Aria shakes her head, trying to breathe. "Not before just now when you suggested it."

Spencer rolls her eyes. She waits for Aria to compose herself before the two girls resume walking. They finally reach Spencer and Hardy's place, and enter through the front door into the house. They walk into the kitchen to find Hardy at the counter writing out a list and Melissa talking to him across the counter.

"Did he wake you up while I was gone?" Spencer says as she pokes Hardy in the side. He leans away from her touch, continuing to write.

Melissa shakes her head. "Maci just couldn't wait to get in the pool."

Aria and Spencer walk around the counter, and sitting on the floor struggling diligently to get her Dora the Explorer life jacket buckled. The three-and-a-half year old girl is the spitting image of her mother, save for the curls she shares with her father and aunt. She's the product of a one-night stand between Melissa and Wren shortly before Melissa returned to the states from London. Wren keeps in touch as much as he can, but it's still not much. At least that's the story that Spencer and Aria have been told over the years.

Aria kneels down in front of Maci. "You wanna go jump in the pool?"

Maci nods, grinning at Aria. "Could you buckle me first?"

Aria smiles, reaching out to grab the top buckle on the vest. She clips it shut and then clips the bottom one before pulling on the belts, making sure they are tight enough before standing up.

"I'll be outside with her," she tells Spencer and Melissa before turning to Hardy. "And yes, I would love tofu burgers if you're okay with picking them up."

He nods and circles something on his list just before Aria turns and heads outside with Maci. She stops next to a lounging chair while Maci runs straight for the pool and jumps in the shallow end. Her body disappears under the surface just for a moment before the buoyancy of her life jacket brings her back up. She's giggling as she breaks the surface.

"Was that fun?" Aria asks her as she folds her shorts and sets them on the lounge chair.

"Uh-huh," Maci replies happily before wading over to the stairs.

Spencer walks out just as Aria is stepping out of her flip-flops.

"Melissa is going with Hardy," she announces. "I guess they're getting mixers for after Maci goes to bed."

"Yum," Aria comments with a chuckle.

Spencer chuckles as well. "That's what I said." She removes her tank-top and shorts before walking over to the pool. When Aria doesn't join her, she glances back at the other girl. "What are you doing?"

"Ezra texted," Aria replies, tapping away at her phone. She sighs a moment later. "He's canceling tonight already."

Spencer is quiet, with-holding the grim expression that is surely there as she waits for Aria to join her on the edge of the pool. Once she does, Spencer wraps and arm around her smaller friend.

"I'm sure he'll find time to talk soon," she says, trying to comfort Aria.

"That's what he said on night three," Aria replies. "This is night fifteen. I feel like I barely talk to him anymore, and on the off chance that he finds time to facetime, it's only for a few minutes." She sighs. "I miss him, Spence."

Spencer chews on her lip for a moment before looking down at Aria. "How many shoots do you have next week?"

Aria shrugs, staring down at the blue water as it ripples with every movement that Maci makes a few feet away. "Two so far, on Tuesday and Wednesday. Nothing else yet."

"Then why not fly there," Spencer asks. "Leave tonight and go surprise him. I'm sure he'd like seeing your face in 3-D."

"I shouldn't-"

"You should," Spencer says in a corrective tone. "You can miss two appointments for him. How ever will you make me a nephew otherwise? Maci needs a boyfriend, Aria."

Aria chuckles, looking over at the little girl. She's busy playing with her various toys-including what Aria is pretty sure was a Barbie Dream Boat.

"Just go see him," Spencer encourages her. "And if you run into that Patrick guy, get me an autograph."

Aria giggles, glancing over at Spencer. "You'd stalk him if you could."

Spencer raises an eyebrow at Aria. "If it was a viable option, I'd marry him."

It's past midnight when Aria steps onto the large movie set where Ezra currently is. Though she didn't tell him she was coming, she texted him to find out when he was going to be finished, to which he had answered around 4 AM.

Convincing the security to let her onto the set had taken a few minutes, but as soon as they saw her drivers license-and more specifically, the Fitz on it-they had allowed her through to the set with a visitors pass. The security guard had grumbled about her needing a proper pass later on, but she had ignored him, more focused on finding Ezra.

She spent forty-five minutes wandering through the various sets that he was working on-most of which were empty-before finally hearing his voice on an empty stage set up as a hotel lobby. She leaned against the door outside as she listened.

Someone was tentatively playing the piano. A few seconds later, the playing stopped.

"Like that?"

"Yeah," Ezra replied. "It's supposed to be Michael telling Samara that...he's a typical guy, in that, there are moments when he thinks about leaving. But it's not this drawn out thing. It's more like a passing thought, where you have that one moment of panic, but then it's gone, and it's all in this attempt to tell her that if she wants to go, she can. Just as long as she knows why."

There's silence for a few moments, and then the sound of piano playing flows from the stage, followed by someone singing.

"if i disappear
you don't have to know where you're going
just where it is you want to be
you don't have to know where you're going
just where it is you want to be..."

"Yes!" Ezra says happily from the other side of the door. "I'll leave you to it."

Aria hears footsteps, and a few moments later, he steps out of the room, stopping suddenly when he's surprised by her standing there. His eyes grow wide and he smiles.

"Hi!" He greets cheerfully, scooping her up into his arms.

Aria giggles, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. "I've missed you terribly."

"I promise it's been the same for me," Ezra replies, still holding her tightly against his body. The two of them simply stand there for well over two minutes, simply holding each other and breathing in each other's scent. When they finally break apart enough to see each other's faces, they smile at each other before joining in a long, languid kiss while music wafts from the stage.

"and i know i don't know much
but i know that a man feels many things
it's a fleeting urge to run
like a bird flying by on a summer breeze
like the sound of a train if you're listening
it just fades in...then it disappears..."

Aria finally parts from Ezra reluctantly when she's so out of breath that she's practically gasping. She leans into the sound stage and smiles as the guy at the piano glances back at them.

"That's awesome," she tells him. "Just wanted to tell you that."

"Thanks," he replies, chuckling.

Aria nods before turning back to Ezra. She takes his hand. "Where to next?"

Ezra shrugs. "They're finishing up the classroom set right now if you want to go see it. I'm just waiting on that before I was going to go back to the hotel."

"Okay," Aria replies. "Let's go."

Some hours later, she drops wearily onto his sweat-covered chest, heaving in heavy breaths. Below her, Ezra chuckles. Aria looks up at him and grins.

"That was hot," she tells him.

Ezra nods, brushing Aria's hair from her face. He smiles at her, leaning up to kiss her before wrapping his arm around her and turning them so they're both on their sides.

"You know, I never realized how quiet it is when you're not home until you were gone," she tells him. "Its so fucking loud."

"I never realized how much I'd miss the hot sex," Ezra chuckles.

Aria slaps his chest.

"Ow!" He whines, laughing. After several deep breaths, he calms. "I do understand what you mean, though. I'd come back to the hotel and turn on the air and set a shut-off alarm for music so that it wasn't so quiet when I fell asleep."

"I made Spencer stay with me while Hardy was in Atlantic City for that deposition last week, just to have someone in the bed next to me," Aria admits.

"You didn't get down and dirty with your girlfriend, did you?" Ezra asks.

Aria looks up at him with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. "You'll never know."

Ezra gapes at her, but the expression only lasts for a few moments before his fingers squeeze at her sides, causing her to squeal in laughter. Ezra rolls them over so he's on top of her, pinning her and continuing to tickle her while she squirms desperately, quickly losing her breath in all the laughter.

"Alright, alright, alright!" She cries, giggling. "We didn't do anything!"

Ezra finally stops tickling her, looking up into her eyes with a smirk on his face. Aria huffs below him, and the two of them stare each other down for several moments before Aria reaches up and wraps her arms around his neck, pulling him back down to her into anothre heated kiss.