A/N: Well, I'm a few hours late, but here's chapter 6. It's a tad short, but I'm planning to post chapter 7 sometime before or on Wednesday, hopefully. So I hope you forgive me :)

Monday morning, Alex was sitting in the passenger seat of the Toyota Highlander, her booted feet propped casually on the dashboard. Her twin was behind the wheel, but they were parked now, and Spencer was busy with watching the apartment building across the street… through binoculars. She didn't seem to think being discreet was a priority, apparently.

It wasn't really. Even though it was broad daylight, it was early Monday morning and there was almost nobody around to spot them. Most of all, Fitz was busy teaching, so they'd have plenty of time to go through his apartment. Spencer, for probably the first time in her life, called in sick so they could go all super spy, but Alex was getting fed up with all this waiting and watching.

"Can't we go in now?" asked Alex, boredly. "My boots are getting restless."

Spencer lowered her binoculars long enough to shoot Alex a confused look. "Your boots?"

"Yeah. My boots are ready to kick in the door."

"Al, you're not kicking in any doors," said Spencer, raising her binoculars again. "I have a lockpick set ready to go."

"Where the hell did you get a lockpick set? Aren't those like illegal or something?"

Spencer raised a nonchalant shoulder. "It's called the internet. Get with the times, Alex."

"I'm with the times. You're the one that reads the dictionary for fun." Alex slugged her sister on the arm.

Spencer rolled her eyes and rolled out her shoulder. "Well that just goes to show that I'm the brains and you're the brawn."

Trying not to take too much offense from that statement, Alex nodded. "Exactly. And when your puny lockpicks fail, I'll be there to kick in the door."

"They won't fail. This is a professional kit."

"Well let's go find out."

Before Spencer could stop her, Alex got out of the car and strode across the street. She slowed a little to let Spencer catch up, then they were at the panel of call buttons at the front doors. Spencer went to try the door in case it was unlocked, while Alex pressed down the line of buttons until someone answered.

"Yes?" came the voice of a woman, probably middle-aged and stuffy. Alex knew just the thing.

"Look, doll, I've got a special delivery for uh… a Ms. Philips?"

"Oh. What kind of delivery? A package?"

Alex put on her best smile, even though she was talking through an intercom. "Let's just say I've got fuzzy handcuffs and a–"

A hand clamped over her mouth, and Spencer shot her an incredulous look.

"A bouquet of flowers," her twin finished.

There was silence on the other end.

"Hmm. Well I'm game. Come on up."

The door clicked open.

Alex pulled Spencer's hand from her mouth. "Great. We're in."

"Why did that work?" Spencer threw up her hands, shaking her head in wonderment.

"Sex sells, Spence. Or hadn't you heard?" quipped Alex, slipping through the door. She poked her head back out to look at a befuddled Spencer and smirked. "Get with the times."

Spencer rolled her eyes and followed, letting out a sarcastic laugh. "Ha, ha."

As they climbed the stairs, Alex called up to Spencer, who had passed her with her superior calf muscles. "What apartment was it?"

"3B."

"You're sure?" she huffed. "We're not about to bust into some innocent stranger's apartment, are we?"

Spencer blew out a breath as they reached the third floor. "Yes, I'm sure. His mailing address was listed on the school's site."

They reached a hallway and found 3B, and Alex stood watch as Spencer went to work with her lockpicks. It took her a few minutes, but then there was a satisfying click and they were able to slip inside.

"Wow," said Alex, looking around the room. "Stately, organized, flooded with signs of intelligence. Reminds me of your room, Spence. I hate it."

Spencer didn't comment, instead going over to look at the desk. She tapped at a typewriter, opened a drawer. Alex occupied herself with looking at the obscure art on the blue walls, the overflow of books. Aria might love this guy if he wasn't such a creep.

Alex opened the fridge, thought about helping herself to a soda, decided against it. Then she went through the cabinets. Most were jammed with your basics, except for a single cabinet, which only had one thing in it. Alex wrinkled her nose. "Gross. Chickpeas."

"Kitchen is free of anything suspicious," she called across the room to Spencer. "I'll check the bathroom for… um… bottles of rohypnol, I guess. Chloroform."

There wasn't any of that in the medicine cabinets, nor was there anything blatantly strange. Some antacids, pain killers, allergy medicine, prescription bottles for antibiotics and adderall. No dead bodies in the bathtub or torture tools on the towel rack. But when she lifted the lid to the toilet tank, she struck gold.

Submerged in plastic bags were a handgun, a few passports, and a thick stack of hundred dollar bills. Alex pulled out her phone, then lifted the objects out and took pictures of everything. Then she went back to Spencer, who was poring over something.

"Find anything?"

"Oh, nothing. Guy has an infection and ADHD, apparently, but that's about it," Alex shrugged. "Also there was a pistol, about $25,000 in cash, and a few fake passports in his toilet tank. But that's not suspicious in the slightest, right?"

Spencer's head whipped around. "Really?"

"Yeah, wonder what kind of infection it was."

"Be serious for a minute, Alex. Twenty-five thousand in cash? Did you count it?"

Alex shrugged. "I didn't have to. That was a stack of hundreds. Guy's loaded."

Spencer got a puzzled look on her face. "Why would he put all that in the toilet tank? You found it pretty easily."

"I'd like to think I'm an evil genius, thanks."

Spencer scoffed, turning back to the document on the desk before her. "Evil, maybe. Genius is questionable."

"I thought you said we were being serious."

"I was."

"You're such a bitch," quipped Alex, leaning over to look, too. "What'd you find?"

Spencer ran a finger down the page. Alex saw numbers, names, dates. "A check register. It was in a locked drawer, but I got in pretty easily."

"Take pictures yet?"

"Tons." Spencer showed her phone as evidence, then tapped a spot in the paper. "Look. He paid a few thousand dollars as a "donation" to Rosewood PD. And take a look at the date."

It was the day Alex was arrested. "Oh, shit. Is that why they didn't give a rat's ass when I told them the truth? This dick bribed a police station?!"

"Apparently. So don't trust the cops in this town, I guess."

"Yeah, no shit!"

They looked back to the register, eyes scanning until–

"M. Vanderwaal? Computer job?"

Spencer glanced over at her. "Mona?"

"I knew that bitch was shady. No wonder she had enough to pay for all that useless shit the other day—she's working for him!"

"Hold on, Al," said Spencer, putting a calming hand on her shoulder. "It just says 'computer job'. Maybe she just fixed something for him. Don't jump to any conclusions."

Alex rolled her eyes, scowling, but didn't make an effort to destroy anything. "Mona doesn't seem like the computer type. But 'don't judge a book', I guess."

"Not yet, at least." Spencer pointed again. "Here. Radley, too. A while back."

"A donation?"

They exchanged a look, then Spencer lifted a brow.

"You've got that meeting to go to today, right?"

Alex straightened up, grimacing at the thought of mandatory anger management. "Yeah."

"If you get a chance, look around. Try to find something, anything at all."

"Like what?"

"Like a reason Fitz would be donating to a sanitarium. Maybe there's someone he knows there? Family maybe?"

"Okay, I'll try. Can't make any promises I'll find anything. Maybe it's as simple as he does actually have a charitable bone in his body."

Spencer shrugged. "I doubt that."

Alex sat in a hard plastic chair in a semicircle of other people who sat in equally hard and plastic chairs. They were in a former recreation room in Radley's basement, and the place was practically empty, save for a table with refreshments and the seven or so angry people around her. Everybody looked fairly normal, though, except for the guy facing them all. He looked like the textbook definition of a counselor. Or a hipster. Beard, suspenders, pants rolled up a bit at the ankles. He was pretty cute, but Alex had a girlfriend now and wouldn't pay any attention to anything below his neck.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Kevin, your group leader," began the guy, Kevin, standing up. "We have a couple new faces here today. Timothy–", a balding man of about forty waved as Kevin pointed to him. "And Alex."

Alex nodded.

"Nobody is obligated to share," continued Kevin, "but please try to listen to what I and everyone else is saying. It might turn out to be useful for you in day to day life."

Having heard enough already, Alex tuned him out.

An hour later, the class was dismissed, and Alex slipped out of the line of people shuffling toward the exits. She picked a random hall to go down, acting casual until she was out of sight. Radley's basement was a dreary place, but there were at least a few fluorescent lights flickering overhead. Otherwise, she may have had to come back with a flashlight.

Her eyes caught on a plaque beside a door labeled Storage, but a hand dropped on her shoulder before she could make a move toward it. It was Kevin.

"Hey. Alex, right? Exit is this way."

Damn it, Kevin.

Later that evening, Alex scarfed down the last of her dinner as her mother and Spencer talked. Occasionally, they all sat at the table to have dinner together, and tonight was one of those nights. Her mother's eyes swung toward her next, curious and unreadable.

"Alex, how was the meeting?"

Swallowing her food, Alex took a moment to consider her answer. Boring. Soul-sucking. A bust espionage-wise. But finally, she settled on, "fine. Learned breathing exercises."

"Interesting. I hope you decide to put those to good use. Anything else new?"

"Alex has got a girlfriend…" muttered Spencer, smirking.

Alex chucked a piece of sautéed broccoli at her.

Her mother's brow lifted as she dabbed primly at her mouth with a napkin. She was smiling like she'd been let in on a secret.

Aria and Alex weren't exactly being secretive, but they hadn't really hung out together at the Drake household yet. Of course, if Spencer knew, so did the rest of their group, but parents were another thing entirely. Alex was getting to it... eventually. It was hard, kind of. And Spencer was an asshole.

"Oh, really? You don't have to tell me anything, Alex. I remember how it is to be young and in love. Just be careful who you let in."

"You have three daughters with a missing father," snapped Alex, annoyance turning quickly to anger. Maybe she actually did need those breathing techniques. "I take it you're an example of what happens if I don't?"

Mary sighed, setting down her silverware with a chilling clank. "There are some things that you haven't the experience to understand, Alexandra. There are certain situations–"

"Yeah, yeah. 'Certain situations that can never turn out perfect.' I get it. " She stood up and went to the kitchen to drop her plate in the sink, listening as Spencer made up an excuse about her stomach. Alex bounded up the stairs to her bedroom, not waiting for her twin, and threw herself on her bed.

A minute later, Spencer stepped in.

"Mom is right, you know," she said, folding her arms and leaning against the door frame. "Whatever happened with our dad, it's in the past."

"You can't say it doesn't bother you, though. At least a little."

Spencer shrugged. "Well yeah, I guess it does. I have questions. But it's not like our mother is an open book. And Charlotte doesn't know anything either. Better not to think about it."

"That's my strategy, but it's not exactly working." Alex sighed, dragging her hands down her face. "But whatever. Not to change the subject, but I'm changing the subject. About snooping around Radley: I didn't find anything. I got caught before I even started."

"Keep trying. We might be onto something important."

All of a sudden, a series of knocks came from downstairs. Spencer went to investigate, and Alex followed, thinking it might be Aria or something. It was pretty late after all. They paused on the landing as their mother answered the door, and Alex yanked Spencer into a crouch when they saw who the unexpected guest was.

"What is it?"

"It's Peter Hastings, that's what!" hissed Alex. "I caught him sharing spit with our aunt Jessica at that dinner party."

Spencer's eyeballs almost fell out of her skull. "Seriously? What the hell is he doing here?"

"Nothing good, probably."

Downstairs, Peter looked furious. "Here," he spat, shoving a white envelope at their mother. "I added extra this time and I expect you to keep that little brat out of my business."

"What are you talking about, Peter?" questioned their mother, an edge to her voice that Alex had never heard before. It was downright scary.

"Your daughter happened across a meeting I was having with Jessica. I hope she has enough sense to keep her mouth shut about it."

"Did you come here just to threaten a child, Peter? Or is this aimed at me?"

The man pointed at her, and from where she and Spencer were crouched, Alex could see a purple vein bulge in his forehead. "I'll be happy to keep your secret, if your daughter can keep mine."

"I can't control everything she does." Their mother's voice lowered to a whisper, and Alex had to strain to hear it. "And she's yours, too, Peter. Maybe if you extended a hand—to both of them—she'd be more willing to keep your dirty secrets."

Wait.

Alex shook her head, suddenly feeling like she was underwater. Spencer grabbed her wrist, squeezed it, like she was steadying herself as well. They shared a confused look.

Peter Hastings was their father?

A/N: So there we go. I hope the Peter Dadstings reveal was pretty obvious. I hinted a little bit, but maybe you just assumed already. I've got more sneaky and nefarious reveals lined up anyway. And sorry there was no Aria this chapter, but she'll certainly make an appearance next time and definitely a lot more before this thing's over. Coming up, we'll see things start to heat up (I guess in more ways than one... heh...).

Please favorite, follow, and leave a review! (Seriously, though, tell me what you think :D I need the feedback to keep me motivated)