A/N: The wait for January is far too long, especially for a show that's getting this good. Hanna is also my favourite character in the series, so let me know if you think I did her justice in this oneshot; I like the idea of seeing scenes were she wakes up to find her friends. The title is taken from an Arcade Fire song of the same name. This is mostly happy, pointless fluff.

Wake Up

Hold your mistakes up,
before they turn the summer into dust.

There was no time to think about any logical answer to the mystery that's been clouding her life of late. Hanna likes her drama in disparate doses; after all, isn't everyone trying to make their life a fairytale? She was only doing the same; blond curls were just another version of a crown and the golden boy on her arm appeared to be her only prince.

A few obstacles were inevitable, she thinks. She can still have it all, even when Ali still insists on hindering her from beyond the grave. She's learned from the best in terms of revenge, and seeing her friends from the opposite end of the parking lot is the sight that reminds her just how sweet it will taste when she takes it.

Still, there's so much more to learn.

And it isn't until a car collides with her that she realises just how fragile fairytales really are.

Hanna awakes panicky, tossing violently, thinking maybe A is holding her hostage or doing something equally as crazy, until she feels her mom's arms envelope her and she begins to breathe again. Her mom. Her strapped-for-cash, loving mom. She's grateful that she remembers that much.

"Where's dad?" She asks.

"Hanna honey he came out as soon as I told him...but it's been days, he had to get back to work."

Hanna understands, she does. It doesn't stop disappointment descending on her anyway. "How long have I been..."

"Asleep? Three days straight. God I...I'm so happy that you're here," her mom tears up and Hanna feels uncomfortable, but attempts to soothe her mom anyway, "don't you ever get hurt again!"

Her mom tells her she's off to get her something to eat and Hanna tries not to feel sorry for herself; that aside from her mom, she's woken up alone. She turns to her side and sees flowers and cards and smiles at the fact that Aria, Spencer and Emily got her separate ones and then got this huge one that they all gave to her.

She knows she'll be keeping Lucas' card though, so she can tease him mercilessly about it in the future; Hanna, hope you get well as soon as possible. Aside from the fact that missing you sucks, if you don't wake up I'm going to be pretty low on the friends count.

She forgot how much she missed them, their group and how they just worked, even in the midst of all this scandal. She hunts through her head but all she can see are gleaming lights; blinding her.

It takes a few minutes of reflection and looking at Aria's writing to remember the sight of her with Mr Fitz, and she can't helped but be shocked again when she fully recollects that little memory.

Aria's grin upon seeing her friend with her eyes open is wide; bordering on ridiculous. Hanna raises her hand in a wave when she catches sight of Aria, without Spencer and Emily in tow. Maybe it's better. (She can't really have a heart to heart if it's not a one-on-one, Hanna reasons.)

"Hey, you." Aria hugs her friend, but their respective smiles slip away. "I'm so glad you're here, Hanna. You had us so worried."

"You know you have me worried too." Hanna begins, wondering if she should really accuse her friend, one who is being here for her, but she can't let Aria go through this alone. She recalls what she said to Emily upon seeing those pictures; if there's someone in your life who cares about you, then I'm happy for you. No matter who they are.

She doesn't want to go back on that policy, but Maya isn't their English teacher.

Aria settles in the bedside chair. "You know my mom and I had a really great talk and we're good now. And apparently there is life beyond my dad. You know...she doesn't need him. Don't worry about me."

Hanna nods and blurts out "I saw you with Mister Fitz, the night I was run over. It's all I really remember clearly." She lets her eyes meet Aria's in a strained stare. "Look, Aria I don't know what's going on, but I do know he's not good for you –

"You don't know anything about him and I." Aria's nostrils are flared, but her tone is sad, rather than that of a person who has been caught.

"I know. And you get no judgment from me, ordinarily, but this isn't Noel. This is your frickin' teacher!" Hanna whispers sternly.

"Wow, thanks for clearing that up." Aria nods.

"I'm concerned." Hanna says.

"Hanna you're the one in a hospital bed." Aria says. "Don't worry about me." She repeats. "Be glad that you're here. I know I am." She smiles.

"None of that Montgomery charm is going to change the fact that he's a teacher dating a student. Creep." It sounded less harsh in her head.

She looks at Aria bite her lip, stopping herself from saying something.

"I know what it looks like from the outside. It's crazy, I know." Aria says, sounding dreamlike.

"No you don't, because you're not on the outside. Aria I don't want you getting hurt by some teacher who is abusing a position of trust. Don't you think that one day that means he'll abuse yours?" She wants to stop herself, but she doesn't think that she's the only one in need of an alarm to be awoken.

Aria breaks away from her chair to sit on the bed alongside Hanna. "I don't have an answer for that, Han." She takes her friends hand. "I'm hoping that you remember the most important one, though. You said you found out who A is."

Hanna closes her eyes for a few seconds; nothing, racking her head in attempt to remember.

She can't.

She feels Aria's disappointment in the way the brunette's looking at her.

"Oh." Aria lets it slip, grasping her friends hand tighter. "Well, listen. We've got you back and that's all that matters."

"No. No it's not. Aria I remember everything except..." she trails off, knowing that once she's out of this hospital the game isn't over. It's more than a game, now and Aria gives her a little looks that lets her know that. A attempted to kill her former friend. "We're not safe anymore, are we?"

"You know I wonder what it was that being friends with Ali ever made us feel that we were." Aria replies. "You know, it could still come to you. Something could trigger the memory."

"Yeah. Like a miracle." Hanna raises her eyebrows and sighs.

"It's a miracle that you woke up this quickly." Aria says, meaning every word of it. "We all need each other. Especially right now, you know?"

"I know. Listen, thanks for visiting. Where are Em and Spencer?"

"Lacrosse practice right now but they told me they'd visit you soon."

"Stupid sports. There are things to discuss and there they are still too busy being competitive."

"Says homecoming Queen," Aria reminds her, to which Hanna lets her eyes roll. "I guess they need some outlet."

"I'm still not accepting of your particular outlet." Hanna reminds her. "Aria, give me one reason why you and Ezra are going to work. You and Noel could really have something."

"Yeah maybe. Ezra and I already have something and I'm not ready to give up on it. He wrote a poem for me."

Hanna's eyes keep rolling. "Right. Now he's reducing you to words. You're more than that."

"I'll bring it to you. You can read it for yourself. It's not life-changing but it isn't reducing me either. It's him to me and it's..." No words. There are none.

"Okay." Hanna responds, bewildered.

"Can you keep this between us?" Aria asks.

"You know you can. Of course." Hanna replies, thinking Aria shouldn't really have had to ask that question, but not blaming her for needing the answer to be reinforced.

There isn't a lot of time to discuss Ali, affairs with teachers or much else before Aria greets Ms Marin (it still pulls a little bit – when Hanna hears her say that) and Aria departs with a hug and a see you soon.

Hanna was able to be there for Emily with her Maya thing and Spencer with her Wren thing. The uncertainty of Aria and her Mister Fitz thing almost makes Hanna wish that she didn't want to be there for Aria at all.

As she fine well knows though; if threats being thrown at them from every angle from a girl supposedly in a coffin couldn't tear them apart, then broken bones and soon-to-be-broken hearts won't either.

The next time her eyes open, Emily is on her right side and Spencer is on her left. She doesn't see her mom, which is somewhat of a relief. Emily smiles sheepishly.

"Not that you're quite ready to get out on the lacrosse field with Spencer and I..." Emily trails off, pulling out a sharpie marker to sign the cast enclosing Hanna's arm "but when are you getting out of here?" Emily asks.

"A few more days. They weren't specific. And the day I pick up a lacrosse stick is the day I finally remember who...A is. Was." Hanna looks over at Spencer, who gives her the you-have-no-idea-what-you're-saying-but-we-love-you-anyway look.

"Aria told us about that." Spencer says. "Don't worry about that. You're here."

"Yeah and so is A." Hanna replies huffily.

"We won't hear anymore of it," Spencer insists, "it's done. Besides, you are safer in the hospital." She adds, throwing Emily a look. "And you what? You clearly remember what's important."

"We stocked you up on magazines and nail polish...we had take-out until Spence and I ate the take-out." Emily says, and Hanna giggles, hitting Emily's arm playfully.

"Thanks for being here when I woke up. Where's Aria?"

"Studying as if she's Spencer," Emily quips, "but we'll all be here tomorrow."

Spencer says she's got a text from Alex, who has been distant lately, and Hanna urges her to go. Leaving half-reluctant, half-excited, she leaves Emily and Hanna to themselves.

"So, how are you and Maya?"

Emily doesn't stop being amazed by how accepting Hanna is. She doesn't stop being grateful for it either, knowing her mom's head would fall off at the mention of it.

"Em?" Hanna waves a hand in front of her. Apparently, it amazes her into silence.

"We're good," Emily replies. "I mean, I can't go telling my mom but I almost told my dad you know, that day." The day you were almost killed. The day we almost had A. An almost day that doesn't seem quite real.

"Hey," Hanna says, looking straight at Emily, "I know your mom and dad are Mr and Mrs military but they love you and they better not apply any more pressure than we're already under, here."

"It's not their fault," Emily rectifies, "they wouldn't understand."

"Make them." Hanna says, oh-so simply.

"You know, having you understand is enough. For now at least." Emily responds, all earnest, and Hanna wants more for her friend, but she can't reach it yet.

(She kind of loves the fact that Emily is the one to say it; Hanna, you're enough.)

Hanna breaks eye contact. "It's the only part of the night I can't piece together."

"You found A once. We're on her trail, you'll get her again."

There's something about how Emily says you'll that stays with Hanna, for some reason. Hanna looks at her friend, trying not to make her sympathy too obvious. She thinks about Ali (more specifically Ali when she was around Emily) and wonders what was really going on there, thinks about how Ali and Emily were the ones to become friends first; the rest of them kind of hovered around them. Aria seemed closer to Emily initially whilst Ali was the one to know Hanna and Spencer first. The one to know all of them, first. Wonders about the fact that maybe she wouldn't know Aria and Spencer had it not been for Emily and Ali.

Like rewinding through a movie, re-reading a novel to find plot twists that didn't seem so pivotal before.

"I think she loved you." Hanna says finally. "Maybe not in the way you wanted, but in her own twisted Ali way, you know? And if she's still out there," Hanna breathes in, remembering seeing her in a coffin, for Christ's sake, we all saw the girl go six feet under and now they're we're questioning it, she thinks, "she probably still loves you. You don't just stop loving someone."

Hearing it from Hanna always makes something seem so much more valid, to Emily. "You know, when you get out of here, you're gonna have to run from us three if you want to get away from us. I'm not going to stop looking out for you. We all have to protect each other. Okay?"

"Okay." Hanna repeats. "We're going to be okay. Eventually." She adds, catching that hand-stitched bracelet still on Emily's wrist.

She hates this, hiding, being reminded that Ali can still hurt her, and even missing out on the stupid school stuff.

It doesn't strike her, until he comes walking in, that she was missing something (someone) else more.

"Hi!" She doesn't care how enthusiastic, how eager she sounds. She remembers him right away.

"Oh, hey." Lucas greets, always awkward. Someone's been bringing her a new bunch of flowers everyday; her mom just shrugged when she asked about it. Lilies, tulips, orchids. "It's just – you were usually asleep every time I came around to give you..."

"These are all from you?" She beams, forgetting to think about the fact that she hasn't heard the voice of her boyfriend for what feels like the longest time.

"Yes...yes they are, all from me." He admits.

"Why didn't you ever wake me up?" She asks, almost annoyed for having had the opportunity to see him.

"Firstly I was worried you might not remember me, then I thought about the possibility of you seeing me and thinking I was some creep bombarding you with flowers and you looked peaceful, anyway."

She giggles, "I'm good." She says. "I'm great." She watches his cheeks stain pink, slightly and thinks fleetingly, God, what a frickin' girl! But there's something so endearing, captivating about him anyway. "Why are you leaving?" She demands when she watches him turn the other way.

"Well, I've given you your flowers. Get well soon, okay?"

"You came just to give me flowers?" He turns around.

"No. To see you too, of course." He replies.

Of course. It's the point when they shift, and she doesn't really see him as just her geeky friend. He's her Lucas.

She gestures for him to sit on her bed and no sooner has he sat down than her arms are enveloped around him. Hanna hopes Lucas can feel the gratitude radiating from her. It's the first place in a while where she can feel safe. "Thank you. For being here for me even if I didn't know it." It all seems so romantic yet she doesn't feel like a complete cliché.

A blond boy comes around the corner with flowers of his own. When Hanna opens her eyes, they catch Sean's, who, if he's angry at the sight of this, is hiding it well. He walks away.

And that doesn't hurt Hanna the way she thought it would.

"Are you okay? You've been embracing me for an abnormally prolonged period –

"You're embracing abnormally back." She jibes. Then, without taking time to think about it, she just kisses his cheek.

What she doesn't anticipate is Lucas kissing her back on her lips; chaste, fleeting. Because it's him though, she feels something strange race through her body, a whole different kind of crash. She finds herself grinning like a fool; now she's being the shy one. He climbs into the hospital bed right beside her.

Hanna's head falls to Lucas' shoulder.

"Oh crap." She sighs.

"That bad, huh?" He responds, half-laughing.

"I like the geek. A lot." She says, laughing herself. Apparently, she didn't have to try all that hard to feel like a fairytale, in these moments.

And now, Hanna had woken up.

Eyes wide open.

End.