"Look Aria, just...be careful around, Jason DiLaurentis alright?"

For some reason, Spencer's words repeated themselves in her head as Aria made her way into the newly decorated kitchen. If Spencer could see her now...god she would flip. She would say she was willingly walking into the mouth of the beast. But what Spencer took as something to hide Aria just interpreted as loneliness. Even the food he got out from the fridge indicated he rarely received guests; some coffee, a somewhat stale packet of biscuits, a couple of microwave pizzas and some other odd bits and bobs. She guessed the biscuits were only there in the first place for the builders on his property. It felt somewhat intrusive, being in there. She could sense the slight reluctance he felt about her being in there, too.

The kitchen itself was a simple, all white one; not as open as the one the DiLaurentis' had previously had, but in a similar vein. Again, there was no real showing of any personality there too; no pictures, no cheesy magnets on the fridge like her parents collected on every family holiday they went on. There was one thing she recognized though; a silver bracelet hanging on one of the cupboard doors. Ali had many like them, that she wore on a daily basis. They of course looked wonderful on her, like everything she tried on.

She'd been wearing a similar one, on the day she died.

"Will Margherita do?" Jason smiled, shaking one of the pizzas in his hand.

"Sure," Her voice still sounded slightly harsh since her brief conversation with Ezra. She was upset, of course, that he'd failed to mention this night out with her and hadn't even considered introducing her to his friends, but shouldn't she be more upset about the fact her boyfriend was hanging out with his ex-fiance? "I like what you've done...with the kitchen, I mean,"

"Thanks," He replied, punching in the numbers on the microwave. "Take a seat, it'll be a couple of minutes,"

She slid nervously onto one of the newly purchased black bar stools that sat in the kitchen. Silence settled for a few minutes, punctuated only by the frequent beeps coming from the microwave. Each of them couldn't quite look the other in the eyes; Jason, she guessed, was still slightly awkward about having her in his kitchen and Aria..., well, after that dream this morning, she didn't think she'd be able to look Jason in the face for a long, long time.

In the mean time, she studied his bruised knuckles, looking at the bruises going all the way up his arms, and probably onto his back and down his...No. Inappropriate thought territory. She'd seen the bruises on his face earlier though, and they'd made her wince. She suddenly yawned from tiredness. It had been a long day, and her head was swimming. Swimming with images of the dream, Emily's face when she told her, those drunk men leering at her, Jason's beaten up face, the strange incident with the ointment, Ezra being too drunk to care...it was as if once again, all the events crashed down on her, and tears fell down her cheeks. Before she knew it, she was crying. God, it seemed like that was all she did these days. She wondered why her eyes weren't permanently red and blood shot by now.

It was clear Jason hadn't been expecting her to burst into tears at his kitchen table, and he placed an awkward arm round her shoulders, soothing her gently. The small act of tenderness caused her to really burst into tears and her whole body wracked with sobs. Standing in Jason's lonely kitchen, with his soft bruised, arms around her, and Ali's bracelet in the corner of her eye proved too much. Now she was crying, she couldn't stop. It was as if all the events of the past few days caught up with her in one hit. Mike, Spencer, Ezra, A...speaking of A, where was that son of a bitch right now? Surely they'd have something to say about this. It was then she remembered her dead phone in her pocket and it felt like a weight lifted. Even if A contacted her, bombarded her with a million of texts, trying to make her feel guilty as hell, A couldn't touch her right now. In the morning, all that tension would come flooding back but for now, for that evening, she was free of A.

(Although deep down she knew that, with A, it was never that easy).

She must have been standing there crying with Jason's arms around her for a few minutes as, before she knew it, the microwave gave a loud beep and caused them both to jump. Aria quickly wiped her tears away and took a step back. Her face flamed with embarrassment. Jason had now seen her crying at least 3 times; to Aria, crying had always been such a deeply personal thing that she was sure Ezra had only seen her cry at most twice, and one of those times had been due to the fact that Ezra had accidentally elbowed her in the eye. She had cried in private of course, many times, but in public? Don't let anyone see your weakness, Ali had said and it was a mantra Aria stuck to.

Jason once again avoided her eyes as he slowly removed the hot pizza out of the microwave. It was now really dark outside; Aria shivered at the memory of all the times she thought A was out there, hiding in the darkness. Jason caught her shiver and immediately misinterpreted it.

"Are you cold?" Before she could respond, he went out into the hallway and emerged with a navy sweater, one she recognized from this morning. Smiling a grateful smile, she slipped the soft sweater over her head. It even smelt like him. The large sweater engulfed her tiny frame, wrapping her in warmth.

"Come on," He smiled. "Lets eat,"

/X/

The meal passed by quickly, conversation coming easier now. Jason detailed all his plans for the house, explaining quite precisely what he was planning on doing. Aria listened, throwing in the occasional 'Mm' and a nod, but really she was mesmorized by how passionate he seemed about the whole project. His dedication to it was amazing and the regret he felt about his previous stoner days seemed so sincere that in those brief moments, Aria had no idea how Spencer could suspect him. To Aria, he was open and vulnerable, not closed or guarded. Of course, there always seemed to be his hesitation to open up but she put that more down to his unwillingness to trust than something to hide.

Slowly, over time, the constant feeling of Alison on her back seemed to fade, and it became more and more about the fact that she and Jason were having simply a friendly conversation over pizza. It even lead to her opening up about Mike and her constant feeling of guilt. There was something about letting the truth go free that really made her feel a lot more content, a lot lighter. It also helped that Jason seemed to understand in a way no one else did. He wasn't there to sit and judge, or offer useless advice not knowing the full extent of the situation. She knew her friends and Ezra would never judge, but deep down, they didn't really understand, did they? As much as they tried to, they just couldn't grasp it.

Aria let out a yawn as she realized it was already pretty late. Again, an awkward tension settled between them. Neither of them was sure what to say, or what move to make. Finally, Jason relented and began to walk up the stairs.

"You can stay in the spare room, its the first one on the left. Its fully furnished and everything, and there are towels in the closet if you want a shower,"

She wanted to ask why he had a fully furnished spare room when he never appeared to have any guests but all she could surmise was a grateful 'Thanks'.

"Thanks for this, Jason. I know I've said that already but..." She looked down at her hands, following him slowly up. "Seriously, thank you,"

"Its really no problem, Aria,"

"Wait!"

"What?"

"I, uh..." She looked down again, awkwardly. "I don't have any pyjamas,"

There was another pause, before he sighed and turned into the next room. Aria thought he'd left but a moment later he came back, an oversized t-shirt in one hands and some old tracksuit pants in the other.

"I hope these are OK, they might be a little big," He smiled, tossing them to her. "Anything else?"

"Um, no," She shook her head quickly. "Goodnight Jason"

"Goodnight Aria,"

/X/

It was when she got inside the room she quickly remembered this must have been the room where Spencer saw someone at the window. It wasn't a room she remembered from previously, if she remembered correctly it had been the Dilaurentis' parents' room. Even Ali hadn't dared venture in here. The room itself was quite plain and modest, with a small white bed in the middle of the room surrounded by a few cupboards. She wandered over to one of them, looking for a towel so she could have a shower. The first one she opened appeared to be empty, until she noticed something had been pushed all the way back. Putting her hand in, she was surprised as her hands pulled out a pair of girl's sneakers. Why would Jason have girl's sneakers? They certainly weren't Ali's, they were too rough and torn up, and something Ali would definitely not have been caught dead in. Or, something like that...

They were battered and covered in dirt, as if someone had fallen over in mud. God knows where they came from, and why had someone shoved them into the back of a cupboard? Shaking slightly, she quickly shut the door and decided against having a shower, just wanting to fall asleep as quickly as possible. Aria quickly changed into the clothes Jason had given her, and slid under the covers. The bed was surprisingly comfy, and she realized just how tired she was. It had been a long day.

In a matter of minutes she fell asleep.

/X/

"Well I'm sorry sweetheart, we're not going anywhere now..."

"Hold the bitch down..."

"You're going to pay for that..."

"Aria, get in my car..."

Aria awoke with a start as she felt her heart pounding and her whole body shaking. Her dream had seemed to real...no, no, she was safe, in Jason's house. Hah, if Spencer could only hear her now.

Tossing and turning, she tried to get back to sleep with no avail. Every time she shut her eyes images of those men popped up, and images of Ezra and Jackie together, and she opened them again with a start. No, sleep was eluding her. It was no use trying. She looked at her watch: 1:30 in the morning. Brilliant. Maybe if she moved around a bit it might make her feel more tired. Slowly and tentatively she slid out of bed, trying not to wake up Jason. At the dead of night, in this house, it was like all the ghosts came alive. She even swore she heard Ali giggle, but quickly shook herself out of it.

She went out into the corridor, shutting the door softly behind her. Maybe a glass of water would help. Suddenly, something caught her eye at the end of the corridor.

The door to Ali's old room.

For a moment she seemed to stop breathing, and instinctively her feet began to move down the corridor. One look...she wondered if it was like it had been last time she visited. Or was everything one, every little trace of Ali...her hand reached out and turned the knob, not knowing what to expect.

Well, it seemed she shouldn't expect anything, as the door was locked. She wrestled furiously with the handle but to no avail. It wasn't budging. She groaned in frustration.

Suddenly there was noise in the corridor, and she was swiftly aware of a door opening and closing.

Jason.

She quickly jumped into the shadows, leaning back against the wall, praying he wouldn't spot her here. She watched from the darkness as he stepped into the moonlight, looking around. Clearly he had heard her snooping around. His eyes quickly flashed to her door, thank God she had locked it. It seemed like eternity before he finally relented and went back into his own room, having made sure there was no one lurking. She waited a moment, hoping he would have gone back to sleep, before sprinting back to her own room and quickly shutting the door behind her.

The door clicked behind her and Aria could not shake the feeling that somewhere in the house, Jason heard the door slam and knew exactly what she had been doing.

A/N: THAT EPISODE THOUGH. What did everyone think of last night's ep? Hot and steamy I'd say. I refuse to believe Jason is a creeper though, I REFUSE. I HOLD OUT HOPE. I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP. Perhaps this is an adequate moment to start singing Dido's 'White Flag'...Jason isn't a creeper until he starts staring people down with a glass of milk. For sure.

Though, since every resident Rosewood creeper, bar Ian, turns out to be a good guy (Well, Ian was a bad guy but he turned out to be not as bad as they thought. Still pretty evil though) I'm thinking Marlene King is just messing with us and soon all will be revealed.

But it was interesting to hear your shipper thoughts! I'm pleasantly surprised as I thought most people were all 'Ezria 4 lyf' so to see that there are a few Jason/Aria fans is good! I have to ask, with regards to last night's ep, isn't what Aria and Ezra did legally statuatory rape? Who knows.

Anyway, I want to thank all those who reviewed the last chapter, it really means a lot! So big hugs to: The-Essence-Of-Everything, DecemberSnowfall, ForeverTeamEdward13, J-Marie, rippez, Unhr25, AlyssaStarr, daughterofapollo18, rjt040190, MPRockstar16, -Bite Me Anyday-, Twilighter Tabitha, Queen Latifeh, halegranger, SlytherinSierra001, xoBrownEyedGirlox, AjMcGough, bookluver10145679, Maiqu and sparksfly16! You're all amazing.

So, another question of the week, who do you think would win in a fight, Ezra or Jason?