I'd like to give a giant thank you to Marlene King and the writing team of Pretty Little Liars for breaking my heart and making it hard for me to write for Ezria. I don't have much to comment on this cracktastic decision except for the fact that I don't think Ezra is bad. POHH will be updated in time; my heart's still healing.

Anyhow, I've always wanted to write a full length Lucian story and I really like what I have planned for this one. If you aren't interested in them as a couple, don't read or leave a nasty comment. But if you love them, please read and leave a lovely comment! 10 or more gets an update quicker!

DISCLAIMER: I am in no way affiliated with Lucy or Ian nor do I know them personally. This story is fiction and is purely written for my enjoyment and the enjoyment of others.

New York City in early November was something of a dreamland –at least for people who loved the idea of brisk weather and warm scarves. The notion to grab a hot chocolate or coffee while walking the busy streets was never outlandish, especially with the various franchises that offered them on every corner. Central Park went from a mossy bright green to an autumn array and people cheeks were tinted rose from the wind instead of drenched with sweat from the hot summer sun.

Ian was definitely one of those people. As great as Los Angeles had treated him in the past, there was nothing like the east coast. Snow felt like home and sweaters weren't stuffy and uncomfortable to wear. In short, he loved it. He loved blending into the busy streets where people couldn't pick him out as a celebrity. Sure, the people who asked him for autographs at the stage-door of the play he was in knew who he was, but Ian felt free to be Ian. Not Ezra Fitz.

His apartment was warm and cozy, heat pumping through the spacious dwelling at full blast. Despite being bigger, it was still decorated exactly how Ian would typically decorate a space; full of photos and books. Every surface had a photo frame with some memory and every shelf, including his television rack, had some form of a library built into it. The kitchen was filled with the smell of something delicious, but it wasn't Ian who was cooking.

Currently, Ian was lying on the plush carpeted floor, blue eyes trained on the hazel ones of an infant. He smiled as the baby girl swatted at one of the hanging ornaments on her play-set and gurgled to him with a wide gummy grin.

"Is that so, Gracie?" The baby giggled and kicked at one of the lower hanging ornaments that made a rattling noise. Ian shifted, resting his chin on his folded arms. "You're really too cute. I wonder where you get it from."

"Me," chimed a feminine voice from the kitchen area. "You can also thank me for teaching you baby speak those many moons ago; even though it's terrifyingly high."

"It's not like yours is much better, Luc," Ian replied, causing the young woman to chuckle and go back to her cooking. He chuckled while tickling the soles of Gracie's kicking little feet. "Mommy's silly, isn't she? She thinks she's smarter than Daddy."

Lucy rolled her eyes and took the simmering pain of vegetarian stir fry off the stove to let it cool before serving it. There had been too many incidents before when either of them had burned the roofs of their mouths. She decided it wasn't a fire hazard to leave the kitchen and lay down on the other side of Gracie's play-set.

"Daddy's just jealous."

"Jealous of what," Ian asked, looking past his daughter to Lucy. He certainly wasn't jealous that he hadn't been the one to go through the labor and the mood swings to give birth to their baby girl. Lucy often used that against him, saying that she and Gracie had a bond he could never understand. To which he'd counter back saying a father's bond with his daughter conquered all.

Lucy pursed her lips. "That I can cook."

"Oh please, you're not the only one with culinary skills.

Gracie giggled again, raising her tiny hand to Ian's cheek. He smirked at Lucy. "I think someone's deeming a winner to this battle."

"Shut up," Lucy said, lightly stroking the top of Gracie's head. When she was born, she was graced with a full head of Ian's dark curly tufts and Lucy's big hazel eyes. Neither of them could picture a more beautiful baby. Then again, neither of them had pictured a baby transpiring between the both of them in the first place. But a drunken turned passionate night at the Pretty Little Liars series wrap party had changed their fates entirely. "Dinner's almost ready."

With a groan, he pushed up from the floor and carefully lifted Gracie up from her play-set. Cradling the baby against his chest, Ian went to place her in the incredibly cushioned baby swing his mother had handed down to him when he told his parents of Lucy's pregnancy. According to her, it was a miracle worker when babies needed to be distracted. As much as he didn't want to, Ian gently lowered Gracie into the seat and pressed the button so that it would vibrate gently and keep her in a good mood while he and Lucy ate dinner.

"I wish I had one of those for Nashville," Lucy said, bringing around two plates filled with long grained brown rice and her vegan specialty stir fry. "She gets so fussy when I try and sit down to dinner. I usually have to end up eating with her in my lap."

Ian chuckled and reached for the open bottle of wine that sat on the table. He poured himself and Lucy each a glass and then capped the expensive and sparsely used Merlot to save for a later date. "You spoil her when I can't."

"Gracie's made you a total softie," Lucy replied, digging into the steaming plate that sat before her. "Not that you weren't before."

"She has me whipped," Ian laughed, stabbing a red bell pepper with his fork. As the two tapped into their dinner, they tapped out of one another. Only the hum of Gracie's swing filled the silence, but even that wasn't enough to fill the void of conversation.

It hadn't always been like this. Once upon a time, Lucy and Ian had been the closest of friends. He'd accompanied her to an awards show she hadn't felt confident enough to go to alone to (also Gracie's namesake) and she'd helped him raise money for his Lupus Foundation team. But once Gracie came along, a line had been drawn. They couldn't just be friends anymore – they had to be parents.

"So you two really have to go tomorrow?" Ian sipped from the wine glass. Their living arrangements were a sensitive topic. Lucy resided in Nashville and Ian in New York. She had Gracie all week and he flew down most weekends to see them. Lucy coming to him was a rare occasion given Gracie only being four months old.

"Ian," Lucy said wearily, not looking up from her plate.

"I know," he said, staring dejectedly down at his. Being a parent wasn't easy, especially when you couldn't be one five days out of the week.

Gracie's carrier was covered with a light blanket to shield her from the every prying camera of the paparazzi that lurked in the corners of LaGuardia airport. Every so often either Ian or Lucy would adjust it so that there was a crack for fresh air but so that she was concealed while napping. If she was awake, one of them held her and she would charm the cameras. For being an infant, Gracie was brave; another trait she got from her mother.

Over the past four months, Ian had a growing hatred towards airports. Once they meant travelling; now they only stood for the heartache that came with not being able to hold his baby girl until the weekend. He always bought her a stuffed animal at one of the kiosks to keep her happy and comfortable over the plane ride down to Nashville. Today it was a plush white dog that resembled Lucy's dog Jack; he'd already gotten her one that looked like his two labradoodles.

"Buy her more of those and they'll be so many that there won't be room in her crib for her," Lucy laughed as he handed over his credit card to the cashier.

"Hey, it's tradition," Ian smiled, taking the bag held out to him over the counter. "Besides, if someone ever asks her where she got it one day, she can say her daddy got it for her."

"Let's hope to God she isn't that sixteen year old who packs it away into her bag every day to go to school."

He chuckled, shaking his head in amusement as they began to walk to Lucy's gate. The closer they got, the more Ian wished there had been a longer line at security. Gracie gave a small cry as they approached gate 26 and he sighed. It was almost that time.

"Hi, Baby," Ian said, kneeling down to take the blanket off the carrier. He was sure a thousand cameras were probably going off right now, but he didn't care. Gracie grabbed the brim of his worn out baseball cap and he smiled ruefully. In twenty minutes, he wouldn't see his beautiful little girl for five days –five whole days was a long time for a father. Five days without your child was grating no matter how long he was given to adjust to it.

Being without Gracie never felt right; even performing onstage for those five days couldn't shake the feeling away.

It was a void he couldn't explain. Gracie was a part of him, right down to her little nose. For those five days, it felt like a puzzle piece was missing. And a 1,000 piece puzzle was aggravating when there were only 999 pieces in the box.

Gently, he cradled Gracie to his chest while sitting down next to Lucy in the seat beside her. Ian closed his eyes and soaked in the moment. He never stopped thinking about his daughter during the week, but this was his last chance to be a father physically until his drip down south the following weekend.

Most of the time he wished Lucy and him had become an item, even if it was because they were having a baby. To say that Gracie Eve Hale had come into Ian's life unexpectedly was completely accurate. Thanks to too much to drink at the Pretty Little Liars wrap party and repressed feelings, he and Lucy found themselves in bed, devoid of clothes and laden with pounding headaches. One morning he was waking up next to her clad in nothing but a sheet and the next he was finding out that she was pregnant. Not being one to back down from responsibility, Ian stood by Lucy for the entirety of her pregnancy and took care of her like any good boyfriend or spouse would.

Except he was neither her boyfriend nor her spouse. They were friends – just friends. According to her, it would be better that they stay platonic for the baby's sake. It didn't matter how much Ian negated Lucy's conclusion in his head; he didn't make advances out of respect for her wishes. They would just be two friends who were raising their baby together. Nothing more, nothing less.

But every time he had to leave them, he wished it was the opposite. Did he have lingering feelings for Lucy? Ian hadn't given much thought to it. He'd been so consumed with his job and being a parent that his romantic life had been put on the back burner.

Lucy bit her lip, watching Ian interact with their daughter. "Don't think it doesn't break my heart to see you like this," she said softly, playing with the ring on her finger. It was her grandmother's ring; she never took it off, not even to shower.

Ian didn't reply. He was bitter over the fact that Lucy refused to move to New York or compromise about their living arrangements. She could write and produce music anywhere she wanted, but he couldn't act in Tennessee unless he was cast in a movie that filmed on location.

"Ian?"

"I know," he said softly, kissing the top of Gracie's head. "It still kills me though."

He held Gracie to his chest while Lucy stared at the clock, willing it to move faster. Whenever it came time for the airport, things turned to tension and she hated it. She understood Ian's qualms about the distance, but she wanted to raise Gracie where she grew up.

Finally, the stewardess began to call boarding. Ian closed his eyes, wishing the clock to turn back time. He didn't want the precious moment to be over. They said absence made the heart grow fonder, but it also made his heart grow sadder.

He'd been able to carry Gracie all the way to the tarmac until Lucy held her arms out for the infant. Holding her close for another minute, Ian bit back the tears that always formed when it was time to say goodbye. "I'll see you next week," he murmured and handed Gracie to Lucy. He watched with angst ridden eyes as the two made their way down the long hallway to the plane and then turned away –Ian could never bring himself to watch their plane lift off. It meant Gracie was as good as gone for five days.

They said absence made the heart grow fonder, but in all truthfulness, Ian could only attest to it making his heart grow sadder.

So, what do you think? Let me know in the comments! Next chapter will definitely go more into their relationship, not just Gracie.