Well that was a mighty large amount of reviews for one chapter. I honestly did not expect that kind of response at all, so a HUGE thank you to all of you.


Ezra Fitz sat in his apartment staring at the mountain of food in front of him. Chicken satay, beef chow mein, fried wontons, sesame toast, egg fried rice, duck pancakes and egg rolls - it was enough to feed an army, and he was alone.

He'd called Rose of Sharon an hour ago, not thinking before agreeing with the girl on the phone when she asked if he wanted the usual. It wasn't until the delivery guy knocked on the door and handed him two huge bags of food that he had realised his mistake. And so he sat, on his big brown couch that now seemed entirely too big for him, staring at his and Aria's perfected Saturday night feast, with no appetite and a broken heart.

It had been five days since his and Aria's very ugly and very public breakup, and he could still hear his own words ringing in his ears. 'You'd think after all the baggage I've put up with that –' If he could take back anything in his life it would be those words. He'd never seen her look so hurt, and the fact that it was because of his own words killed him.

He hadn't meant what he said, of course he hadn't. Aria was anything but baggage to him, he was just so angry that for a moment he wanted to hurt her. She was the one who made everything okay in his life, he need only look at her and he felt better. He loved her, he loved her more than he thought it was possible to love somebody, he loved her in a way that he couldn't describe.

Yes, he'd been angry with her, and yes, he meant it when he said that he needed to be able to trust her for their relationship to work, but that didn't mean that he wanted to break up with her. Just the thought of her being with somebody else, or even for himself to be with another women, made him feel ill. After less than a week without her, he could already barely function. He didn't know how to live without her, proven by the rapidly cooling pile of cuisine on his coffee table.

He'd pushed her away at the time that he needed her most. Malcolm had come over for a visit the day before, just for a couple of house to test the waters before Maggie allowed him to come for longer visits, and the poor child had been bored out of his brain. He and Ezra had sat on the couch in silence as Ezra desperately tried to think of activities for them to do, but all he could think was that if Aria had been there then she would have known what to do and say. Aria was great with kids while Ezra knew nothing. The last time he'd been around children was when he babysat Jackie's niece, and even then he was barely able to keep her happy for the hour he had her.

He needed Aria's hand in his now more than ever, and she wouldn't return any of his calls or texts with pleas for her to talk to him. He was still upset with her, and he knew that they needed to have a long conversation about what Malcolm meant to their relationship, but he wanted her back – he needed her back.

With a sigh, Ezra leant forward and picked up his chow mein. It was stone cold, understandably as it had been sitting on the table for little under half an hour. He stood up and placed it in the microwave, the beeps from the buttons too loud in his too empty apartment. He drummed his fingers against the counter as the numbers counted down, memories of Aria sitting on the counter with him in-between her legs, their lips fused in passionate kisses, running through his mind. 'Did you really play B-26 or were you just hitting on me?'

A knock on the door pulled him from his thoughts. Mrs Rosenthal, he thought, rolling his eyes.

He jogged to the door and pulled it open with a smile, a smile which vanished off of is face the moment he saw who was standing on the other side of the door.

"Sp-Spencer," he stuttered, "What are you doing here?" The questions tumbled from his lips before he could stop them, "Is Aria okay? Have you spoken to her? Has she been getting my messages? What-" Spencer held up her hand to silence him.

"Look, Fitz-" Ezra raised his eyebrows at Spencer's use of his surname, "I'm just here to get her stuff, not to converse with you. But let it be on record that I think you're an ass for what you said to her." Spencer picked up a duffle bag from beside her feet and pushed past a frozen Ezra.

'I'm just here to get her stuff.' She was taking her stuff back? His heart suddenly felt like it weighed a hundred stone. Even when they broke up because of Jackie, she had never taken her stuff back. He slowly closed the door and turned to face Spencer who was staring at the mountain of food he'd ordered.

"Expecting company?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ezra shook his head, "I forgot that Aria wasn't coming over and ordered her food." Spencer continued to look at him for a moment before beginning to move around his apartment. Ezra wasn't entirely comfortable with his former student poking around his things but he knew better than to try and stop her. Instead, he moved to his drawers and began to extract a few bits of Aria's clothing – leaving behind a few things that he wasn't ready to part with, specifically the top she left behind after they made love for the first time.

He handed the few items to Spencer and took a seat on his armchair, watching forlornly as she picked up bits of jewellery and make-up. Spencer continued to move around the apartment, bit-by-bit extracting the Arianess of it all, whilst Ezra just sat and watched, his heart breaking more with every relic Spencer stuffed inside the big black bag.

"Spencer?" He asked, making the tall girl look back at him from where she was picking books off his shelves and stop what she was doing. "Just tell me, please, is she okay?" Spencer looked at him for a moment, and Ezra felt like she was judging his sincerity, until finally she sighed and set down the duffel bag, coming to sit on the couch opposite him.

"I'd love to say that she's better off without you, because in my opinion right now she is, but the truth is that she's terrible, Ezra, you really hurt her," she said, her eyes showing no sympathy for him. "She always said how you were the one person in her life that she could be fully herself with and you ruined that, you made her feel… used."

Ezra let the tears that had welled up in his eyes fall, not caring that he was breaking down in front of his former student.

"But I didn't mean it," he implored, meeting Spencer in the eye. "I… I was just so angry."

"That doesn't matter, the point is that you said it," Spencer declared, "I'm sorry, but I have no sympathy for you. You did this yourself. All Aria wanted to do was make sure that nothing bad was going to happen to your son if she told you before Maggie did."

Ezra nodded, swallowing in an attempt to calm himself and dragged his palms down his face, wiping the tears away before continuing to watch Spencer pick up the last of Aria's things.

After about ten minutes, Spencer turned to face him, "Is that everything?"

Ezra nodded, staring blankly ahead.

Spencer headed towards the door and just as she was about to open it, Ezra stopped her.

"Wait," he said, "There's one more thing." He jogged over to his bed and opened the cabinet beside it, pulling out a long black velvet box. He walked over and handed it to Spencer who looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "It's the necklace I got her for our anniversary. I, eh, got it fixed in the jewellers after we… well, after the argument." He watched as Spencer placed it in her handbag and turned to leave. Once more, he stopped her. "Spencer?"

"Yes?" She asked, turning to face him again. "What is it this time, an engagement ring?" She snorted at her own joke but became serious when she saw Ezra's hurt expression. "Sorry."

"Could you just… tell her I miss her, and that I'm sorry?" He watched as Spencer studied his expression, before nodding and continuing down the hall without a word. He turned and entered his apartment, shutting the door behind him, alone once more.


As I'm sure some of you are aware, I have this thing against reading over my work before I upload so apologies for spelling mistakes etc.

Please review and let me know what you think, I'll try have more up by the weekend but I have an essay and Christmas exams over the next two weeks so no promises.

Oh, and to those of you who expressed concern about the surgery, it was only keyhole and my scars are thoroughly unimpressive so don't worry :P

-Katie