A/N: So, I've had this idea for a few months now, and I've been putting it off because I literally had no clue how to start it. Because of that, I just decided to dive in and see where this goes. I do want to point out that before we get started, I will very likely take a number of artistic liberties with this story. Certain events will have changed, but I'll try to keep things as canon as possible. And of course, your feedback is SUPER IMPORTANT. I honestly have no clue if anyone even wants to read this, so...yeah :)
Cracked Memories & Broken Dreams
Prologue
Snow flitted towards the ground as Aria stood in Spencer Hasting's back yard, looking around silently. There were no lights to guide her way, and she was too wary to use her cell phone to light up the dark. She'd long learned to find her way with just her senses.
Voices and footsteps emitted from some yards away and she whipped her head up, glancing towards the side of the Hastings home. She couldn't be seen. Not this way. But as the voices grew louder, panic continued to fill her. She had to get away.
"C'mon, Ali. That is never going to happen," Spencer's voice commented. Bushes moved. Trees made noise.
Aria dashed across the yard to the small gap between the side of the Hastings' home and the fence that blocked it from the neighbors view. It was a tight squeeze as hedges lined the house, but she managed it, pushing herself far enough into the space that she couldn't be seen.
"No lawyer is ever going to convict him, Spencer," Alison chided. "His sister was killed and left in a car to burn. Mike Montgomery is going to get away with everything he's done to us-"
"No, he won't." Spencer argued. "They won't just let him off. They can't. And where are Emily and Hanna?"
"Coming," Alison replied. "Emily had to stop home on her way."
A door opened. The light from inside the home brightened up the back yard. Aria cringed as she realized her red coat could be seen in the light. She pushed herself further into the darkness beside the house, cringing as a stray twig dug into her hip. She bit down into her lips to keep from screaming.
"Are you coming?" Alison asked. Her voice sounded farther away.
Aria pushed further into the space between the house and the fence, grimacing as the twig scraped her side.
"Just a minute," Spencer replied.
Aria whipped her head back towards the back yard. Spencer Hastings was a smart woman, and also Aria's biggest threat at ever being caught.
She pushed herself even further down the side of the house, feeling the side of her jacket rip as she shoved towards the front of the house. Even so, she kept moving and soon enough, she broke through the side of the house into the front. She ran towards the trees, already digging for her phone in her pocket. She already had the text message prepped and ready to send. She pulled her phone from her pocket as she ran and lit up the screen, praying that Spencer wasn't following her through the trees, and if she was, that Aria had enough of a head start to get away before she got caught.
She tapped the send button on her phone and then shoved it in the pocket of her jeans, discarding the torn jacket as she ran. She shivered in the cold February air, only clad in black jeans and a long-sleeved dark blue shirt. She switched directions as she came to a fork in the trees, and made her way into someone else's back yard. She ran through the yard to the other side and then passed around the side of the house to the street. She glanced up and down the side of it, looking for any sight of anyone who might catch her, and then she ran for the silver car at the end of the block.
"Aria!"
Her hand grasped the back seat door handle and she threw it open, diving inside.
"Drive!" She growled as she tossed herself towards the floor. She barely had the door shut as the car suddenly started and made a tight turn, heading in the opposite direction it had been parked.
Some time later, the car idled to a stop, and Aria sat up straighter, glancing around the outside of the car. All she saw was trees.
"How far out of town are we?" She asked.
The car idled to the side of the road.
"Far enough that you don't have to lay on the floor anymore."
Aria moved onto the back seat and then opened the passenger back door before stepping out of the car. She shoved the door closed and then walked to the front passenger door and opened it before getting back inside the car. She closed the door and moved to pull her seatbelt on, only to wince when she turned her side.
"Are you alright?" Ezra asked.
"I got caught in some trees," Aria replied as she pulled the seatbelt over her body. "I had to ditch the coat."
Ezra raised his eyebrows at her. "Aren't you worried about them finding you?"
"Why?" Aria asked. "There's nothing in the pockets. And who are they going to go to? Wilden is certain one of them have killed me."
Ezra shook his head, turning his attention back towards the road. He pulled the car back onto it, rubbing his forehead. Aria rolled her eyes and glanced towards the trees passing by her window. This was an argument they had often, but it always ended the same.
Ezra didn't like that she was risking getting found alive to keep tabs on her friends. It stressed him out, and she had the inkling that sometimes he wished he wouldn't have ever loved her. Then he could've walked away when everything happened, instead of still being involved in this a year and a half later.
"I needed to know that Mike was safe," she told him after a few minutes of silence. She still stared at the trees.
Ezra didn't respond, but his hand soon came to rest on hers, resting in her lap. Aria finally turned and looked at him.
"Are you mad?" She asked him.
Ezra shook his head, making a turn onto another road. It was dark out here in the middle of nowhere, and the only light came from the lights on the car.
"I hate all the running and hiding," he replied. "I hate that you're not safe at home, and I hate that we're still no closer to knowing what happened that night."
"What about Mike?" Aria questioned.
"He's better off being caught now," Ezra told her. "When this all comes out, he doesn't need to be the one who goes down for it all. And he needs the help."
Aria chewed her bottom lip as she turned and looked back at the trees once more. Tears burned in her eyes as she thought about the events that had taken place in the past few months.
"You know it's not your fault, right?" Ezra asked. His driving began to slow, and she knew they were close to the cabin. Ezra squeezed her hand.
"It is though." She told him. "This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for me."
Aria stared at Ezra's back as she watched his fingers flitted over the keyboard. Ever the one to keep information in proper order and keep people on their toes, he could give Spencer a run for her money. The funniest part of that was that Spencer had no clue that her own teacher didn't trust her.
Aria dropped onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, chewing on her bottom lip as tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. She missed her family and her friends. She wanted more than anything to just go home and tell her parents she was in fact alive instead of constantly staying in the shadows and letting everyone move on with their lives.
Her parents weren't even together anymore. She'd gotten that information from Ezra a few months ago. Granted, their marriage had been strained before everything had happened, but apparently her 'death' had been what finally driven them apart. Now, Ella lived in a two bedroom apartment near Rosewood Day while Mike was splitting his time between their old home and Ella's place.
There was no room for Aria to re-enter her old life anymore. At least that's how it felt.
It wasn't like she'd actually set out to leave her family behind. She wanted more than anything to go back home and crawl beneath her blankets. She wanted Byron to hug her and inhale the scent of his cologne. She wanted Ella to complain over the stove while she made veggie burgers because Aria refused to eat meat. She wanted her grandmother to call and refuse to talk to her father because he'd done something new to anger her, and then spend half an hour getting a lecture about the clothes she was wearing in the most recent photo her grandmother had gotten.
She wanted to hug everyone she loved. That wasn't an option anymore, though.
More than a year before, she'd been on track to finish high school early and start college courses at Hollis. Granted, she was also in the position of having to tell her parents that the guy she'd been dating all summer was now apparently going to be her teacher, but that was her biggest worry. And then somehow, she'd ended up in a crashed car, covered in cuts and bruises, and she had no clue how she'd gotten there. She'd ran from the scene, leaving blood, hair, and skin cells in her wake and sought out Ezra. He'd cleaned her up as best he could and then took her to his father in New York, where they got her properly treated and protected her.
She'd intended to return to Rosewood after a few days, when she could come up with a proper explanation as to what had happened. But that never happened because she couldn't remember how she'd ended up in that car alone, and the day she and Ezra were set to drive back, news broke of a car found on the edge of town in Rosewood. There was no explanation as to what had happened, but a body burned beyond recognition was found in the passenger seat, and determined to be Aria Montgomery.
As far as anyone in Rosewood, Pennsylvania was concerned, she was dead, having been killed in a car accident that involved a stolen car and no traceable source to who had caused it. Rosewood PD believed Aria's friends had something to do with her demise, but they couldn't prove it.
Ezra had promised her when he'd left her in New York that weekend that he'd find out what had really happened and that he would return for her, but weeks turned into months, and no leads turned up. Her friends grieved, and then moved on with their lives. Her parents started divorce proceedings. Mike was falling apart, and no one was paying attention.
Ezra was the first person to realize what Mike was doing. He noticed the boy's lack of attention in class, and knew about what was going on in the Montgomery home-at least, as much as Ella would tell him. Ezra wanted to tell her parents about his relationship with her, but Aria had told him she thought it would cause more harm than good. So they stayed a secret to everyone.
As it was, he'd caught Mike ransacking Spencer's locker in the middle of the night one evening when he'd gone back to check records in the system for his own search of the truth, and that was when he found out that Mike was stalking Spencer, Emily, Hanna, and Alison for answers. He too believed that they knew more about the night Aria 'was killed' than they were letting on, and he was determined to find answers. When Aria had found out-via e-mail, of all forms of communication-she'd insisted Ezra keep an eye on Mike and make sure that he didn't do anything that got himself or one of her friends seriously hurt or killed. And in that agreement, Ezra became what Mike liked to say 'Ultimate A'.
Granted, taking on the role had given Ezra a broader set of options when it came to seeking out information from Aria's friends, but it also put him in the line of fire to be convicted of a lot of crimes if he ever got caught. Aria worried about that constantly, but she also knew that if someone didn't tighten the reigns on Mike's angry movements as 'A', someone was going to end up seriously hurt.
The only problem in all of the hunting that had been done in the past sixteen months, very little had been turned up that could help any of them. Aria still couldn't remember anything from the day of the accident, and Ezra was running out of time to figure who had tried to kill her. So two months earlier, she made the decision to abandon her life in New York-under the new identity of Harper Buchanan. Ezra could be way too sentimental sometimes-and return to Rosewood to aid in her own investigation.
It was an odd predicament. Looking at the evidence from her own supposed murder horrified her. First it was because she'd nearly died in that car, and then it was because someone obviously did. And then, when she was standing on the side of the road where someone had clearly left her to die, it made her feel a million times worse to not be able to recall anything.
She'd been searching for answers to a past she couldn't remember for ages now, or so it felt.
The bed dipped beside her, and Aria glanced over at Ezra, quickly whipping a hand back to wipe away the tears on her face.
"Maybe you should go back to New York for a while," Ezra suggested. "Spend some time away from all of this."
Aria sighed, turning her head to see him fully. "I'm sick and tired of living in the shadows and pretending to be someone else. I want to be myself again. I want my life back, Ezra. I-I want my parents, and my brother, and my friends!"
Ezra didn't respond, but he usually didn't when Aria got upset like this. He let her vent about how much she hated her current lifestyle and desperately wanted her life back.
"Am I just stupid?" She asked after a minute of silence. "Am I dumb to believe one day we'll know what happened and I'll be able to come home? I mean honestly, Ezra. This was supposed to solve my problems, not make them worse."
Ezra leaned up on the bed, hovering over her as he brushed her hair away from her face. "No. You're not stupid. And I promise I will find a way for you to come home again some day. I don't know how or when...but I'll make it happen."
Aria stared down at the computers on the other end of the room, chewing her bottom lip as tears ran down her face. "I just want to go back to that night and never get in that car."
Ezra kissed her temple and looped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer. Aria turned into him and buried her face in his shirt, inhaling a deep breath. For all the weight and pain in her chest, there was a comfort in having him there with her. Hell, Ezra had been the only constant the past year and a half. She wasn't sure what she'd do if he ever gave up.
.,.
Aria's hands trembled as she stood in the waiting area of Radley. Ezra was totally against her making this trip, but she needed it for her own sanity. She needed to know that Mike was going to be okay and that there was still hope that she could come home one day.
"Ms. Buchanan?"
Aria looked up as one of the nurses called her name. She was at the sanitarium under the guise that she had come to do a consult on behalf of Mike's therapist-something else Aria hadn't known was going on in his life until recently.
She had to be grateful for Ezra and his father once more, though. If it weren't for them, she wouldn't be able to be getting along as easily as she was with-an albeit fake-new life without their help. Granted, she hated the idea that she was basically asking one of New York PD's finest to forge documents on her behalf, but Ethan Fitz was willing to bend over backwards to do whatever it took to help. Aria sometimes wondered if that had more to do with the fact that Dianne had hated her, and Ethan usually did the opposite as Ezra's mother. Either way, he'd helped to make her life easier in a lot of ways.
"Mr. Montgomery is ready for you," the nurse told her.
Aria nodded and followed after the woman, keeping her head down as she followed the woman down a hall. Even though she was wearing a blond wig and sunglasses that covered half her face, the last thing she needed was to draw attention to herself.
They passed down a number of hallways, and then she was let into the locked adolescents ward before she was led down another hallway. They finally came to stand in front of a room with a closed door. The nurse slid a key card through the access panel, and then the door was unlocked, and she pushed the door open.
"Thank you," Aria murmured as she stepped past the woman into the room. The woman nodded and then hovered for a second before letting the door slide shut.
Aria finally turned around when the woman was out of sight, and she turned towards the bed. Mike was seated upon it, staring at her somewhat skeptically. Aria reached up and eased the sunglasses off her face as she exhaled a deep breath. Mike's brow furrowed at the sight of her, like he was confused, trying to make his reality match what he was seeing.
"It's me, Mike," she said as she reached up and pulled the wig off her head.
Mike was quiet for a few moments, staring at her for well over a minute. Aria began to grow nervous, worrying that maybe he was too medicated to realize that what he was seeing was real.
"Mike?" She spoke softly, not wanting to scare him.
He moved slowly off the bed, and started to walk towards her. Aria gulped, staying as still as possible as he walked towards her. When they were standing toe-to-toe, he reached a hand up and then it hovered between them, fingers shaking.
Aria lifted a hand and pressed her palm against his. "I'm really here."
Mike shook his head with tears brimming his eyes. He yanked his hand down. "I'm dreaming. My sister is dead."
"No, I'm not," she told him insistently. She reached her hands out and grabbed his shoulders. "See? You can feel me. I'm here. This is real, I promise."
"No. Aria died in a car accident. You're lying," he told her.
Aria shook her head, reaching down and grabbing his hands. She lifted them to her face. "Real. Alive."
"But-"
Aria cut him off. "No buts. I'm here. Alive."
Mike's hands trailed her face as though he were looking for where a mask might be covering her, but he found nothing. "Aria?"
Aria nodded, feeling tears fill her own eyes. "It's me, Mikey. I'm here."
Mike launched himself at her, wrapping his arms tightly around her neck. Aria hugged him back just as tightly, forcing herself to breathe so she didn't start sobbing. She'd never thought this would ever happen again.
Just as quickly though, Mike released her. His hands grasped her biceps as he pushed her out her in front of him. "B-but how? Why?"
Aria shook her head, inhaling a deep breath. "I can't explain right now, but I needed you to know everything you did wasn't for nothing. That I'm gonna come home one day."
"Who did it?" Mike asked tearfully. "Who k- tried to kill you?"
Aria shook her head again, her bottom lip trembling. "I don't know. I can't remember. But Ezra-"
"He was the guy," Mike commented. "Right? The guy from that summer?"
Aria nodded. "He's not going to give up. We'll find out who did it."
"I shouldn't have let them catch me," Mike said. "I should've kept searching. I have to find out; bring you home-"
"No," Aria said. She planted her hands on his neck, forcing him to look at her. "No. You need to grieve. You need to fade silently into the background with all of this. It's the only way we can both go home one day. Mike, please."
"But Aria-"
"No!" She insisted. "I know it's hard, and I promise I'll try to come around or get in touch with you somehow. Ezra will help. But right now, you need to face this." She frowned as she gulped. "You need to accept that I'm gone, and you can't tell anyone otherwise. Let everyone think you're hurting, as you should be."
"When will I see you again?" Mike asked.
Aria shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know. I have to stay out of sight for a while, but I'll try to see you again. I don't know how or when, but I will."
Mike looked as though he might cry, but Aria hugged him again, squeezing as tight as she could. She kept an eye on the door, making sure they were safe. Radley was too far behind the times to have security cameras up, and even so, they weren't allowed in the patients rooms.
"I promise I'll come back one day," she said in conclusion when she released him a minute later. She grabbed the wig she'd been wearing from the pocket of the red coat she was wearing and eased the wig back on her head before placing the sunglasses back on as well. "Do I look right?"
Mike nodded, inhaling a deep breath as he watched her. Once Aria was finished, she walked over to the door and used slipped a card down the side of the reader, unlocking the door from the inside. After she was out, she made her way towards the emergency exit in the back.
Once she was outside, she slipped off the red coat and folded it up as neatly as she could before pulling the hood up on the black hoodie she had on under it. She walked around the side of the Sanitarium and then up to the gates. She slipped between them with no trouble and then walked halfway down the block before crossing over and walking up to a black Camri. She pulled keys from the pocket of her sweater and unlocked the car before getting inside
Once she was settled, she reached into the center console and grabbed her phone-a very plain looking iPhone-and dialed Ezra's number while she started the car. She lifted it to her ear as she pulled onto the street and headed away from Radley. After a few rings, he picked up.
"Hey, where are you?"
"Just leaving," she responded as she turned onto a more populated street. "I'm gonna go back up to Brooklyn for a few days."
"Are you sure?" He asked. "I can take a day-"
"No, no," Aria insisted. "If you leave now, they'll get suspicious."
"Maybe that's a good thing, though. Let them think Mike was behind it all for a few weeks. Maybe they'll relax. Let some things slip."
Aria sighed. "I don't think that's going to help anything. Besides, if I've learned anything in the last few days, it's that this is a lot more complicated that I thought it was."
"Then stay," Ezra replied. "I promise, we're gonna figure this out."
"I know," she replied, if not a bit sadly. "But not in the next few days or even the next week. And if I stay here, I'm gonna get caught and then actually get killed. Just...come to me this weekend."
The line was silent for a few moments, and then Ezra finally spoke.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Yeah," she murmured. "I'll see you in a few days."
"Alright," Ezra replied. "Drive safe."
"I will. I love you," she told him. "Don't get yourself arrested or killed."
"Promise to try not to," Ezra chuckled. "Love you too."
Aria ended the call a second later and dropped her phone back into the center console as she drove towards the highway. She hated living the life of Harper Buchanan, though that had more to do with the fact that she wanted her own life back. Even so, she needed to spend a few days immersed in her alter ego so that she could get herself together before she ruined everything they'd been working for these past few months.
She had to find a way to come home someday. She'd promised Mike.