I know this is incredibly short but it came to me when I was watching 3x22. Depending on how the series goes I thought I would make more Byron/Ezra scenes or maybe Bryon/Malcolm scenes. I even thought about writing a one-shot about Zach finding out that he might be a step-grandfather one day. Tell me what you think! I do not own PLL.
Byron Montgomery looked at the toy train he had nearly sat on. It was a child's toy, and it hit him. Ezra was a father. He had come to the apartment he had never sworn to go into again because of his daughter, but it was because of his daughter that he had broken that promise. He nursed his tea and listened as Ezra mumbled on about responsibilities and opportunities.
"Tell me about your son," said Byron, taking a sip of tea. Had it been that long ago that Aria and Mike had played with toys? He missed them as they had been when they were little with smiles and sticky fingers. He really had wanted to hear Ezra talk about his son. As much as he didn't like to admit it, it was something that they had in common. They were both parents.
Bryon nodded his head as Ezra talked and threw in a few anecdotes about Mike into the conversation. But it was more than parenthood that drew them both together and whether or not Byron wanted to acknowledge the fact, there was a future in this little apartment; there was a future between Ezra and Aria even if it did seem tenuous right now. Byron sighed as Ezra mentioned Maggie, the mother of his son.
Byron was afraid for his daughter. Where he had once been afraid that Ezra would hurt her, now he was afraid of her future possibilities. It seemed that every corner she turned life gave her fewer and fewer options about what she could do with it. It easy to blame Ezra. It was too easy to blame Ezra. Aria had chosen what path she would follow. Aria was not a little girl anymore. Ezra said something about Aria babysitting his son. Malcolm, was it? Byron mentioned that she used to babysit Mike when they were younger. Byron took another sip of his tea.
If Aria continued on this path then she would marry this man, and she would become stepmother to his son. But it was more than that. Ezra and Malcolm would forever be cemented into his life. His life and Ella's. They would not simply remain in the past if Aria moved on. There was too much history and too much fault.
"Byron," asked Ezra, "can I get you some more tea?"
Byron saw as Ezra's gaze narrowed in onto his empty mug. "No thank you," he answered with a polite smile. "It's time I get going." After an abundance of goodbyes and thank-yous, Byron walked through the door of apartment 3B and towards his car.
As he walked to his car, Byron thought about why he had visited. He tried to tell himself that he had done it for Aria, and in a way he knew he had done if for himself, to alleviate that guilt that he felt for ending Ezra's career. But if he were being honest with himself, as he had been doing more and more often lately, he knew there was another reason he had made this visit. It was because he pictured a little boy with Ezra's brown eyes and dark hair. If things happened the way he didn't want them to happen, then that little boy would be more than Ezra's son. There was a good chance he would be Byron's grandson too. If he had been a less than exemplary father, then he at least wanted to be a good grandfather, even if he thought himself too young to become one.