Ten Short Years

It's amazing how quickly time passes…how quickly life slips away from you as you go about your daily life without even thinking about it. One minute you're in High School and your biggest worry is what to wear that day, and then the next minute you're graduating college and facing real world responsibilities.

Twenty eight year old Aria knew this better than anyone.

When she finally graduated Rosewood High School she knew her only place in the world was as far away from the small town as she could get. So, when her boyfriend was offered a job in Nashville the decision to go with him didn't even require consideration.

Aria graduated from college in Nashville top of her class, she majored in fine arts but still kept up with creative writing and literature classes on the side.

Almost immediately after she graduated she was offered a top position in one of Nashville's best galleries. She had interned there one summer and they had been so impressed with her work that they offered her a position usually reserved for people twice her age who had been working in fine arts for longer than she had been alive.

Life was good, in fact like was better than good; she loved her job, she loved her apartment and she loved her amazing boyfriend. So, when she announced she was pregnant, it wasn't a surprise for anybody around her.

The pregnancy hadn't been planned but it felt right, she was twenty six and she had spent the last three years building herself an amazing career…a baby was just something else to add to the list of perfects in her life.

On September first, exactly ten years since she and her boyfriend had met in a bar, they welcomed baby Ruby into the world.

"Babe, did I leave my phone in there?" Her husband called through the solid oak bathroom door.

Ezra Fitz…seven years her senior, her ex High School English teacher and now her husband.

She couldn't believe they had been together for twelve years. At only twenty eight that amount of time seemed incomprehensible, that's was almost half of her life that she had spent with him.

They had overcome so much to be together and become what many of their friends would describe as the happiest couple in the world.

Together they had moved to Nashville to start a new life, away from Rosewood and away from the craziness that their lives had thrown at them.

Ezra had been offered a position as vice principle at a high ranking high school in nearby Clarksville, Tennessee.

The life they had was incredible; it bared no comparable similarities to the life they left behind in Pennsylvania. No one ever questioned their relationship, they had no boundaries and it felt better than amazing.

Aria and Ezra had married just two days after Aria's twenty sixth birthday. She had always dreamt of a winter wedding and that's exactly what she got. It had been a chilly mid-February day and the fact that both Aria and Ezra knew they were expecting a baby made it all the more special.

The pregnancy had been a secret they managed to keep until the middle of March a point in which it could be kept a secret no longer. Aria's mother had been thrilled, as was her brother, at the prospect of welcoming another little person into their family. Byron Montgomery wasn't really in the picture anymore; he had remarried after the divorce from Ella and now lived with his new wife in Seattle. He sent the required birthday cards and Christmas gifts but hadn't been interested in visiting and meeting his granddaughter.

Aria and Ezra lived in a large but modest four bedroom house with a huge garden that was surrounded by cedar trees, offering them ultimate privacy. Ezra had spent the whole summer building Ruby everything a little girl could desire for the garden; a big playhouse, a tree house and many other bits and pieces.

Aria searched around the bathroom looking for Ezra's cell phone and chuckled when she saw it. Ezra seemed to take him phone everywhere, a habit that had only grown more noticeable since Ruby had been born.

"Yeah it's here…doors open!" She called to Ezra, slipping back into the large shower and continuing on with washing her long hair.

Suddenly she felt a cold breeze as the glass door opened, she turned around to see her husband's face peaking through the small gap between the door and the glass wall. Even at thirty five he still had the same boyish charm he had always had. It was a trait she knew that would always stay with him, no matter how old he became.

"We're leaving now; I'll drop Ruby off at daycare on my way to work." He gently and carefully leant into the shower to place a loving kiss on Aria's lips, being careful not to get his brand new suit wet.

He loved doing as much as he could for Aria; she worked hard taking care of Ruby and deserved a break as often as he could give her one.

"You don't have to do that, you know that's all I have to do right?" Aria smiled at her husband as she stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a warm fluffy white towel.

Aria had given up work after Ruby was born to be a stay at home mom. Ezra had created an art studio in the basement so, when Ruby was at daycare, Aria spent her days creating art that she sold online and through a couple of galleries in the city.

"No it's fine. Anyway, she has a playdate this afternoon remember? Jonah's mom is going to collect them both at one thirty. You have the whole day to do whatever you want." Ezra smile at his wife again know she had probably forgotten.

Playdates were a regular occurrence among the children at Nana Apple's Daycare. It was situated in a beautiful location just close enough to the city without being surrounded by roads and noise. Aria and Ezra had looked at what felt like hundreds of daycare facilities in Nashville and Clarksville before deciding on this one…it had taken a long time but they had definitely made the right decision.

"Well that's depressing…when your two year old has a busier social calendar than you do!" Aria had never lost her quick wit and it was one of the things that Ezra loved most about her. The way she could bring light into the most serious of situations brightened his day continuously.

Ezra quickly kissed Aria one last time before going to grab Ruby and bringing her in to say goodbye before daycare.

If Aria was honest she was a little bit glad that Ezra had decided to take Ruby; separation anxiety was becoming an agonizing issue, leaving Ruby screaming and crying for her as she walked away from the daycare centre broke her heart into a thousand tiny pieces.

It had been a long time since Ezra had taken Ruby to daycare and she wondered how he would cope with what was about to unfold. He had doted on Ruby from the moment she had been born, seeing her upset had always been a struggle for him.

After having a child dangled in front of his face and then taken away from him all those years ago by his high school girlfriend; having a child that he knew was absolutely his changed something in his mind. His love for Aria had instantly tripled, for the first few months he had been extra protective of them. He would call home from his office a couple of times an hour to check they were okay and insisted on having his cell phone with him constantly just in case.

Aria loved to watch Ezra with Ruby, she was such a Daddy's girl and she could tell that Ezra loved it. He had had a taste of fatherhood all those years ago; but now he had it forever, the feeling of having his little girl close to him was amazing.

Her thoughts were broken by the loud obnoxious sound of her cell phone ringing; she assumed it was Ezra calling to ask her to come down to the daycare centre and rescue him, but the name that flashed up on the screen was not one she had been expecting.

Hastings and Cavanagh Property Law

Spencer had been the only one of the four girls she had really kept close with, they all kept in regular contact but Spencer and Aria spoke at least once a day.

On graduating with her law degree from UPenn, Spencer joined forces with her boyfriend Toby and created a very successful property law firm in Philadelphia. Together they managed several large construction projects across Pennsylvania and the rest of the United States.

Aria looked up at the clock and chuckled.

"Spencer Hastings, what the heck are you doing at the office so early?" It was only six thirty in the morning in Tennessee and a mere seven thirty in Pennsylvania. Ezra had an excuse to leave so early, he had a forty five minute commute combined with dropping Ruby off ay daycare, but Spencer was just a workaholic.

"So not important! Has your mailman been yet?" Spencer asked quickly, not even saying hello before leaping into conversation.

"Uh…why?" Aria asked confused.

"Never mind why! Can you just go and check?" Aria chuckled at Spencer's strange request; Spencer was lucky that Aria's mailman had such a huge round to make and came to their street early.

Still with no idea why Spencer was making her traipse outside, she slid on some flip-flops that were by the door and wandered down the driveway to the mailbox.

"Okay, yes he's been…what exactly am I looking for?" Aria had no idea what was going on, but when Spencer got something in her head it was tough for her to let it go and explain herself.

"Anything address to Aria Montgomery." Aria frowned, it had been a long time since she had received anything that said Montgomery; even her passport now said Fitz.

As she quickly flicked through the mail, most of it junk and bills, she spotted the offending item.

'Miss Aria Montgomery.'

Confused as to what it was and why Spencer knew about its existence, she fiercely tore open the envelope and pulled out the contents.

"Oh my god…" Aria whispered almost silently.

"Is it there? Do you have it?" Spencer questioned immediately, desperate to know whether Aria had received the letter that she thought she had.

"Yeah Spence…it's right here in my hand." Aria's hand began to shake as she grasped the letter she had never imagined would arrive.

Taking a shaky breath, she began to read it aloud.

'Dear Miss Montgomery, we are pleased to invite you to the Rosewood High School ten year reunion for your graduating class on December twentieth at six o'clock. Please RSVP as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing you.'

"I'm not sure what to say." Aria sighed as she finished the letter, she had only made a handful of trips back to Rosewood in the last ten years, was she really ready to go back to that school?

"Are you going to go?" Spencer asked, curious to know her best friends answer to her probing question.

"Are you?" was the best response that Aria could give, she hoped desperately that Spencer's response would help her to make her own decision.

"I really don't have an excuse not to, Toby and I live like twenty minutes from school." Spencer knew that she and Toby didn't have to attend, but she knew that questions would be asked by the people she saw around town everyday if she didn't.

Rosewood was a small place and rumours and gossip spread like wildfires in the desert.

"Well…Ezra and I were planning on spending Christmas with Mom so, I guess we don't either." Aria was yet to share her Christmas plans and she knew Spencer was going to be beyond excited by the news.

"You're coming home for Christmas? Really? With Ruby?" Almost forgetting the reunion completely, Spencer spilled her excitement at the thought of seeing Aria, it happened so rarely that it was always extra special.

"No, we thought we'd leave her behind…of course with Ruby." Aria joked, Spencer was the smartest person she knew, but when she was excited about something all the smarts and brain cells she had seemed to be forgotten.

"Great! Well, I guess we'll see you a few weeks then!...Are you sure that you want to go Aria?" Spencer asked, almost so unsure of her own desire to go, that she hoped Aria would change her mind so that she could too.

"We need this Spence; I'll see you in a few weeks. Go do some work!" With one last cheeky chuckle, Aria hung up the phone.

Now alone with her own thoughts, she took a deep breath and stared down at the blue and white invitation in her hands.

Her last two years at Rosewood High hadn't exactly been the best. In fact, most of it she wished she could just forget ever happened, but a little part of her really did want to see and hear what everyone was doing with their lives.

Montgomery.

God it felt weird seeing that, it had been so long since she had heard that name in reference to herself that it almost felt foreign.

"Guess we're doing it then." She spoke to herself as she threw the invite down on the coffee table, hoping to be able to continue on with her day.

~X~

"I'm never doing day care drop off ever again!" Ezra exclaimed firmly as he walked into the house with Ruby balanced gently on his hip.

Aria chuckled, she had been waiting all day for that comment and she knew that Ezra had been building up to it all day; but now that she was hearing it out loud, it was even funnier than it had been in her head.

"I'm really enjoying being the good guy today." Aria teased as she took her daughter from Ezra and placed a loving kiss amongst her thick brown ringlets.

Ezra frowned and Aria immediately felt guilty for teasing him, he took things very seriously when it came to Ruby and Aria had to keep reminding herself of that fact.

"Ezra, she will have forgotten you leaving her after a few minutes. Didn't seeing her excited to see you tonight cheer you up?" Aria knew that would work, the only remedy for her heartache of feeling like a bad mother was collecting Ruby at the end of the day and watching her run towards her with her tiny arms outstretched.

Ezra smiled and nodded, joining his girls on the couch as he brought them both into his tight embrace.

It didn't take his sharp eyesight long to spot the unknown item sitting on the coffee table.

"What's this?" He asked as he picked up the small item before reading it for himself.

Reunion? Rosewood's graduating class that year had been the most messed up group of teenagers he had ever come across, how could gathering them back into the smelly gym ten years later be a good idea?

"Reunion…I told Spencer that I would go with her." Aria took the invitation from Ezra's hands and threw it back down on the coffee table, trying to act as though the thought of attending wasn't freaking her out inside.

Ever since Rosewood's big 'A' reveal; Ezra had been distrusting of everyone around them. He hated that someone had been hurting Aria the way that they had and putting her life at risk on multiple occasions.

Upon graduation 'A' had completely disappeared from their lives. No one knew why or how but suddenly the texts, emails, pranks and everything in between had just stopped.

A terrified feeling lay at the pit of Ezra's stomach, that whoever it was that had been tormenting them for so long would have that spark relit at the reunion and the hell would begin again.

"Are you sure it's safe?" He probed, pressing a gentle kiss to Aria's forehead.

He thought back to the countless moments that he thought 'A' had taken Aria from him for good, the most frightening of all being the Halloween train. He had arrived at the station to surprise her but he'd been informed there had been an accident, someone was dead and someone was injured, that's all they had been told.

Was Aria dead? Was she hurt? The thought of Aria being gone caused him to vomit, his every emotion spilling onto the platform as he tried desperately to collect his emotions.

Frantically he had driven his car along the tracks until he spotted the lights of the ambulances and police cars. A police officer had informed him that Aria had been locked in a box and someone had tried to push it off the train…someone had tried to kill his Aria but she was alive, injured and traumatized, but alive.

He vowed in that moment that he would never let her out of his sight for a second.

Aria thought for a moment and considered her options; ten years had passed and she was more than sure that 'A', whoever they were, would not be making a reappearance.

"I'm sure." Nothing else was said, it didn't need to be.

Ezra trusted Aria's words one hundred percent but there was no way she was going alone. If something did happen, he needed to be there to make sure she was okay. He had made that mistake once before and it almost cost her life, he wasn't about to make it again.

~X~

"Are you sure this is okay?" Aria asked her mother as she stood in front of the full length mirror in her bedroom.

She and Ezra had been back in Rosewood for only a couple of hours and it already felt more than weird. Butterflies flew frantically in Aria's stomach from the moment they had entered the city limits and she knew they wouldn't stop until they left.

Tonight was the night of the reunion and none of the dresses Aria had brought with her felt right. She had been incredibly lucky in her life; within mere month of Ruby being born she was back to the petit size four figure she had always been.

"Why don't you try on something you left here when you moved?" Ella asked, watching as her daughter raised her eyebrows.

Did her mom really just suggest she wore a dress she had worn aged eighteen?

"Because most of this stuff is ten years old or more…" Aria replied as she opened up her closet and looked through the dresses that had once been prized possessions.

Suddenly her eyes fell on a short white dress she had worn only once, it had been the dress she had worn when Ezra had escorted her to the event hosted by his terrifying mother at the Osgood Museum.

Much like Byron, Diane Fitzgerald had very little to do with their family. She had always been bitter that her son had detached himself from their family by legally changing his name from Fitzgerald to Fitz. After the stunt she pulled with Maggie and her lack of support for Ezra when it was revealed that Malcolm wasn't his son, Ezra had all but removed her from their lives completely.

Ruby received a card with money inside every birthday, but she had never met her estranged grandmother.

"What about this one?" Aria asked as she pulled the dress out of the closet and turned to face her mother.

Even at twenty eight Aria didn't look a day older than she had at sixteen. Her face had hardly changed, her skin was completely free of imperfections and her eyes bright.

"It's beautiful." Ella replied, smiling at her daughter proudly.

She was still so tiny, even as a mother herself, her body had hardly changed and Ella could still see her little girl running around the house, dancing and singing happily.

With her dress finally picked Aria began to relax slightly , the butterflies in her stomach preventing her from relaxing completely. She felt as though she was in a constant state of flight, everything around her was reminding her of the traumatic hell she went through all those years ago.

She needed to calm down; everything was going to be okay, she just needed to keep telling herself that. Her mother was going to watch Ruby for the night so, she and Ezra would be free to enjoy themselves as much as possible at the reunion.

When five forty five finally rolled around, Aria descended down the Montgomery's grand wooden staircase and spied Ezra watching her from the bottom.

"Just like old times," Aria joked, pressing a kiss to Ezra's lips as she stood on the bottom step.

Quietly they snuck out of the house like teenagers, careful not to clue Ruby into their departure so as to save Ella and the neighbors from her desperate screaming.

Aria took a deep breath as shut the door quietly and looked over at Ezra as she stepped into the hire car.

This was it.

It was now or never.

No going back.

~X~

"Aria?" A smooth female voice called from behind her as she and Ezra approached Rosewood High School.

As Aria turned around she spotted two of her former best friends walking towards her. She smiled brightly as she greeted Emily and Hanna. It had been a while since she had seen them, so long in fact that they were both yet to meet Ruby.

"You look amazing! How is it possible that you had a baby?" Hanna asked, gushing about how Aria hadn't changed at all in the ten years since graduation.

So much life had happened in that ten years that it amazed Aria that her face hadn't changed; she couldn't understand how it was possible, everybody else around her seemed to have matured and yet here she was, seemingly frozen in time.

"Do we just go inside?" Emily asked as the three stood at the bottom of the steps, looking up at the entrance to the school.

Aria smiled with relief as she spotted Ezra approaching them, he had stepped back to allow her some time to reconnect with her friends but couldn't wait much longer to have her back in his arms.

"Hi Mr. Fitz" Hanna greeted coyly, enticing laughs from the other girls, she had always been a hopeless flirt.

"You know that you're allowed to call him Ezra now right?" Another voice came from behind the crowd, as the girls turned around they spotted their fourth musketeer approaching, hand in hand with her handsome boyfriend Toby.

After another flurry of greetings the girls finally decided that it was time to face their fears and step foot back inside the school of their pasts. Aria gripped tightly onto Ezra's hand, those pesky butterflies once again doing their thing as she was greeted with familiar sights and a familiar smell that sent shivers down her small spine.

As they entered they spotted a table filled with sheets of paper, marker pens, stickers and instructions. Quickly sifting through the stack of stickers, Aria finally found the one with her name on it and stuck it to her dress firmly…not that anybody would have had any trouble identifying her without it.

Grasping Ezra's hand again, they walked together into the gym. The room was already packed with faces; some of them Aria knew, some of them she had never seen before in her life and some she wished had been too busy to attend.

It felt strange walking back into Rosewood High; she vowed the day she graduated that she would never step food back in these halls, and yet here she was, doing the very thing she swore she would never do. With her hand still grasped tightly in Ezra's the feelings of strangeness intensified, for the first two years of their relationship, they had had to do everything they could to hide how they felt about each other.

"Shall I get us some drinks?" Ezra asked, kissing Aria's forehead as she nodded happily.

If Aria felt weird being back here, then Ezra felt ten times weirder being stood in the room surrounded by people he imagined he'd never see again. The two years he had spent in Rosewood had been as difficult for him as they had for Aria; as soon as the town had found out about their relationship, he immediately became the villain. No one wanted to hire him and no one trusted him…being stood surrounded by the people who had persecuted him was beyond surreal.

Meanwhile Aria stood alone, overwhelmed by the amount of people in the room; she had no idea why there was so many people here, more people than had ever attend any of the school dances she had been to.

"Aria Montgomery…here alone?" A stern male voice sounded from behind her.

Quickly she spun around on her heels and was greeted by the towering menacing form of Noel Kahn. A boy she had once been besotted with whom cruelly and suddenly turned against her.

"Noel Kahn." Aria winced, not enjoying being in his presence, even ten years on.

She wrapped her arms around herself tightly, as if protecting herself from the cruel mind that sat inside Noel Kahn's head.

"You didn't answer my question Montgomery, are you here alone?" Noel asked again, his voice becoming more aggressive as he stepped closer to Aria's tiny form. Ten years hadn't matured Noel Kahn and it was clear to Aria that he was still the same egotistical jerk he had always been.

"Actually Noel, I'm married and my husband is on his way over here." Aria lifted her left hand and flashed her golden wedding ring that was nestled safely underneath her sparkly diamond engagement ring.

She was more than relieved to see Ezra walking over, drinks in hand, to rescue her from the clutches of the evil demon named Noel Kahn.

"Everything okay over here?" Ezra asked as he handed Aria her drink and looking at the man who had been talking to his wife.

It was a face he recognized immediately, a face that had almost had him arrested and a face that nearly ended his career…not a face he would ever forget.

"Mr. Fitz? You're still with Mr. Fitz?" Noel asked as he turned to Aria, his tone suggesting that he was disgusted by the information he had just received. He couldn't believe that Aria and Mr. Fitz were still together, and married no less.

As Noel finally walked away, speechless by his last encounter, Ezra guided Aria towards the other girls.

"Why don't you go and dance with your friends?" Ezra asked, knowing that Aria had always loved to dance with the girls at parties.

Aria smiled and kissed his lips gently before rushing off and joining the girls in the floor.

"Ezra?" An elderly man asked as he approached the table that Ezra had sat himself at. Ezra smiled as he recognized the man who had supported every career decision he had ever made.

"Vice Principle Hackett, it's great to see you. How are you?" Ezra stood as he shook the man's hand and invited him to sit at the table, still keeping half an eye on Aria as she danced the night away with her friends.

"I'm well thank you, I didn't know you had been invited to this." Hackett commented, surprised that Ezra had made an effort to come to the reunion of a school he had worked at for less than a year.

Ezra chuckled to himself; he wasn't sure why he was surprised no one knew Aria was his wife, when they left for Tennessee they had all but disconnected from everyone they had previously known. No one in the town had expected them to last, in their opinion the whole relationship was based on the idea of teenage rebellion that would soon be grown out of.

"Well actually, my wife is here. You remember Aria right?" Ezra gestured towards Aria who was laughing hysterically with her friends.

Hackett was visibly shocked; he had heard the rumours of a relationship between the two but he had never imagined any of them to be true. He had never been one to partake or believe any of the gossip that travelled around Rosewood's parochial streets but to hear the relationship was more than just a phase surprised him.

"You and Miss Montgomery? Married? Well, congratulations to you both, she always was a lovely girl." Hackett smiled and shook Ezra's hand again, something Ezra never imagined they would do in this situation.

He proudly glanced over at Aria again, he couldn't believe that he had known her for twelve years. She had grown immensely in that time from a sweet loving sixteen year old, to a hard working incredible wife and mother.

Ezra suddenly remembered his wallet was in his jacket pocket; opening it, he pulled out a picture that he always kept with him and handed it to Principle Hackett.

"This is our daughter, Ruby, she's not long turned two." Ezra smiled as he handed over the photograph and watched Principle Hackett study it closely.

It had been taken by Ella on Ruby's second birthday. He and Aria were stood either side of Ruby, bending down to help her blow out the candles on her princess castle birthday cake.

"She's beautiful, you must be really proud." Hackett congratulated as he handed the precious photograph back to Ezra.

Proud didn't quite cover how Ezra felt, he was prouder than proud of the beautiful family he had and more relieved than ever that he had fought for what he wanted.

"I'm so sorry I was gone so long….oh….hi." Aria spoke nervously as she spotted Vice Principle Hackett sat at the table with Ezra.

Hackett laughed jollily, amused that Aria had reverted back to her teenage self in his presence.

"It's okay Aria, ten years ago I would have had a very different opinion, but now I am happy for you. Ezra is a wonderful man." Hackett placed a hand on Aria's shoulder as he walked away from the couple.

Suddenly something hit Aria like a tonne of bricks…when did they get so old? Ezra would soon be thirty four and the years just kept flying by.

Aria shuffled around the table to the edge of the booth that had been created for the event, snuggling as close to Ezra as possible and burying her face into the crook of his neck.

"Everything okay?" Ezra asked, confused by Aria sudden change in behaviour. She wasn't often clingy but if something was bothering her, she would cling to him for comfort and reassurance.

Aria sighed, why couldn't time just slow down? She was so incredibly happy with the life that she had and she never ever wanted it to end.

"I just love you so much." Aria whispered, struggling to hold back the tears that were forming in her eyes. She felt ridiculous crying like a child, two minutes ago she had been the happiest she had been since they arrived back in Rosewood, but all of a sudden the mood had changed.

Slowly she lifted her head and placed a soft kiss on Ezra's lips. Every kiss they had ever shared had been special; there had been millions throughout their relationship, but each one had impacted upon them greatly.

"Can you take me home?" Aria asked; she was tired, they had been there for almost three hours and she had seen everyone she wanted to see.

Now she just wanted them…her family.

Ezra didn't need to be asked twice, if Aria wanted to go home then that's where they would go.

And so hand in hand; they said goodbye to their friends and walked out of Rosewood for the final time, their heads held high.

Every single person in that gym had, at some point, said it would never work and it would never last and nothing made Aria feel more amazing than the knowledge that they had proved everybody wrong.

Ezra was hers.

She was his.

Ruby was theirs.

And she intended to spend the rest of her life making sure that everybody knew it.

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!