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The apartment was quiet; too quiet. It had been that way for days, and after sitting on almost every piece of furniture, after cleaning every room twice—some more than twice—Aria had to leave. She would stay with Spencer in the barn…just until she knew what was going on.

The two had done a decently good job at putting all thoughts of Ezra, Nicole, Colombia, and weddings into a distant realm of thought, hardly reachable and certainly not brought up on purpose. They were seated in Spencer's living room, a plate of brownies between them, and each of their cell phones—black screens turned face down. They could go one night without thinking about A, or anybody else for that matter. Surely it was possible. Surely it was good for them.

Just as Spencer was about to suggest they put a movie in, there was a knock on the door, and as if she wasn't on edge enough, Aria's heart immediately sank to her stomach. She looked at Spencer in a panic, her doe eyes wide.

Spencer licked her lips and got up to answer the door. "If you don't want me to let him in, I won't," she started, "but I can't not answer the door."

"What am I going to do? What am I supposed to say?"

"You don't have to talk to him if you don't want to…"

Aria could tell Spencer didn't agree with the words that were coming out of her mouth. "But?"

"But I think you owe it to him…I think you owe it to yourself. You can't avoid him forever, that's not fair."

"I'm not avoiding him. I didn't know he was home."

"Well, you know now."

Spencer didn't wait for a response before walking over to the door. She hesitated when she reached for the knob and chanced a quick glance behind her at Aria, who was still perched at the edge of the couch. The blanket she'd been curled up under was forgotten in a heap on the floor. She was so far at the edge of the couch, she looked like she might fall off. There was a coffee in her hands but the only purpose it served was being a hard object to cling to. Her hair piled and pinned on top of her head and Spencer's pajama bottoms too long on her small legs. Spencer thought Aria looked like she could be sick.

She pulled the door open before she could second-guess herself. The porch light cast a warm glow over his skin and she saw the unmistakable trace of tears under his eyes. She wasn't sure what to say.

"Hi," she said softly.

"Is she in there?"

His voice was deep. Cracked and broken.

"Ezra…" Spencer said, hesitating. She held the door slightly closed, letting her body shield Aria and the rest of the barn from view. "I don't know if this is a good idea."

"Spencer, I'd like to talk to my girlfriend," he said. He looked tired.

The words set her back. "No," she said, her lips tight. She lifted her head a bit, looking up so that she could avoid his eyes for a moment. "She's not your girlfriend. She's your fiancé." The words were hard to say, because she knew that they hit both sets of listening ears in different ways.

"Listen, I had to go. She knows that. Spencer, I know I fucked up, I didn't leave on the best of terms, I know that, but I need to talk to her. Please."

His last word was desperate. Aria could hear the tears in his voice from across the room; she didn't need to see the residue on his skin.

"Look…" Spencer hated running interference. "No one blames you for going. You did what you needed to do. Aria doesn't blame you, I don't blame you, honest. I'll let her know you came by, that you're home and—and that you're safe, you can talk in the morning…"

"Spence?" Aria cut her off.

Spencer turned to face her small friend with a heavy heart. She'd padded over to the door, completely unheard.

"I'll take it from here," Aria said.

Spencer nodded, the battle they were fighting striking close to home in a certain way. Her voice was almost inaudible as she mumbled a soft, 'okay'. Silence sat heavily between them as she willed herself to move from the doorway so that Aria and Ezra could speak. She let her body slide away from the door and as she passed Aria, she reached out and grabbed her hand. Standing there beside Aria, with her back to Ezra, she leaned down and whispered, "I'll be right here if you need anything. Okay?"

Aria squeezed her hand and gave a slight, tight-lipped smile in return.

Once Spencer had gone back into the living room, Aria was able to make out every nuance of the man before her. He was changed somehow.

"Can I please talk to you?" he asked quietly.

"Of course," Aria said. She stepped forward and walked outside, closing the door behind her so that they could have a shred of privacy. She summoned all the courage and all the love she had in her heart as she spoke her next words. "How is she?"

Ezra cleared his throat. "She's…she's good. Adjusting as well as can be expected."

"I'm sorry – that was probably a silly thing to ask, I'm sure she's been through hell. I'm just…" she stopped her rambling short and reached one arm out from where it had been tucked at her chest and held his forearm. "Ezra, I'm so glad she's alive, that they've found her, I'm just… I don't know what to say. I'm sorry."

Ezra nodded his head, though he was having a hard time looking her in the eye. They stood for at least a minute, just listening to the croaking and chirping of nature as they settled into each others presence. He took a breath, coming to a decision internally, before he spoke.

"Why aren't you home?" he asked.

Aria was taken aback by the question. "I—" she stammered, "Ella's been redoing my room, you know that." She removed her hand from his arm and tucked it back between her breast and her underarm. She swayed on the spot, picking up her bare feet and dusting the bottoms on her pant leg, unsure how to handle the awkwardness between them. "I guess I could have slept in Mike's room or on the couch, but Spencer offered—"

"No," he said. He looked at her long and hard before going on, his eyes soft, his lips slightly parted. He reached out and held her at arms length, taking every piece of her in. The air was nippy but not cold. Just crisp enough to keep him alert. "Why weren't you home? I waited for three hours before it occurred to me that you might not be coming back."

Now it was Aria's turn to leave her mouth slightly parted. She didn't know what to say. She took in the way his hair was mussed; at first she thought it was disheveled from the plane ride, but now she could tell it was from countless instances of his hand being run across his scalp, a nervous habit she adored.

"I didn't think I should be there when you got back," she said. It touched her that he was still referring to his apartment as her home as much as it was his. "I wasn't sure if she'd come home with you or not…but I wanted to make sure she was comfortable if she did. I just didn't think I should be there."

"Nicole went home to be with her family." He ran his arms up and down, from her shoulders to her elbows. "And I came home to be with mine."

Aria's eyes were welling up with tears and she was chewing on her lip without pause, as if sucking on the supple flesh would somehow qualm all the unease coursing through her.

"Aria." Her name fell from his lips in desperation. He bent slightly at the knees, his hands still holding fast to her arms. "I shouldn't have left you hanging like that," he said.

"No, Ezra, please." She was nearly choking on her words. "She needed you. You had much bigger things to worry about—I'm fine, I promise."

"No." His tone was direct, to the point. "She needed me, and I needed to be there, but you should have never stopped being my priority, and I'm sorry that I didn't put you first."

"Ezra, please don't – she had every right to be in the forefront of your mind. You are allowed to be preoccupied by this."

"That doesn't excuse the way I left you."

He gingerly brought her forward, one arm snaking around and holding the small of her back, the other coming up to cup her cheek. Her hair was falling away in some places, framing the soft curve of her face. He pushed a piece away from her eyes and ran his finger under another, unsticking it from her lips.

"Please tell me you know this didn't change anything," he breathed.

Aria's breath caught in her chest. She felt her chin begin to quiver as more tears started to form in her eyes. She took in a shaky breath, trying to keep herself from crying.

"Oh, god," he whispered. "Come here." He pulled her to him and she crashed into his shoulder with the weight of days. Days of worry, days of crying, days of not knowing what her life would be like in the coming weeks. All that she had come to know, the life she'd been about to build, the life she'd been looking forward to…it had suddenly been put on hold and she had no idea if it would be picking up where it was left off. Ezra held her close, closing her petite frame entirely in his arms. He placed his lips at her temple and took in a ragged breath, reveling in the warm vanilla of her shampoo and the soft touch of her skin.

"Forgive me," he said.

Aria leaned into him more, memorizing the feel of his body against hers. Her mind rushed back to the moment she dropped him off at the airport. The kiss they'd shared had been full, but of what she hadn't been sure. Full of "I'm sorry" or "I'll come back"? Full of "I love you"?

She knew now that it had meant all of those things. But in the days between that goodbye and this hello—if you could call either a goodbye or hello—she'd been uncertain that it had meant any of those things. She'd been uncertain that it meant anything at all.

Ezra pulled back and dipped a little so he could look her directly in the eye. He pushed all the stray hairs around her face back so that he had a clear view of her face and any expressing that passed over it.

"Forgive me," he whispered again. He leaned in and cupped her face, and Aria was quick to meet him halfway. When their lips met, it was with all the forgiveness and all the love either of them could muster. She let her hands find the nape of his neck and she buried them there. He pulled her close at the waist and deepened the kiss when she didn't immediately pull away. After a few seconds, which felt like minutes or hours even, Ezra drew back and caught her attention again, not letting her form any distance between their bodies. "Please come home with me."

Aria nodded and let her body answer for her. She brought her lips up to delicately linger on his, tracing every curve with her tongue. Her breath was hot, but then again, so was his. As she cupped the side of his face, she felt a fire renew between them.

She didn't need to go anywhere; she was already home.

A/N: It's not perfect, but it's something. Not exactly how I think it'll go in the show...but I wouldn't mind if it went this way. Let me know what you thought.