A/N: Well I'm a little late again, sorry about that. It's not proofread but it's finished and posted at least. So without further ado, here's chapter 7...


Laying in bed and staring at the ceiling was the most Alex could do for the majority of the next day. It was Tuesday, and that meant that Spencer was back to school after having been a total stress case about missing yesterday. Alex thought her twin's mood might have been affected by what they'd unwittingly discovered last night, but Spencer didn't seem to want to talk about it and Alex knew better than to ask, lest Spencer shut her out again. So Spencer was steamrolling through whatever she was feeling, while Alex had basically shut down to process it all.

She couldn't believe it. Peter Hastings, one of the most powerful men in Rosewood, was her father. And he had a thing with her aunt Jessica. Clearly there was something horribly fucked up going on behind the scenes.

But never mind that shitshow, Rosewood High's junior English teacher was apparently a psychotic stalker with enough money to bribe a police department. Surprise, surprise! It hadn't even been a straight week of terrible events and Alex's brain was already overloaded with information. Having to go to anger management seemed mild compared with everything else.

At about 3:45, Alex heard pounding on the door downstairs. Whoever it was had a key, apparently, because next she heard the door slam open. Who could it be? Charlotte, her mother, Spencer? Hell, Peter didn't have a key did he? She hoped he wasn't coming to keep her eternally mute on the subject of his little affair.

"Alex!"

Aria.

Before she could even register moving, Alex was pounding down the stairs in a blind fit of terror. Aria sounded panicked. Is she okay? What's happened? Who do I have to kill?

But Aria seemed fine—it was Spencer that looked shaken up. They both were sitting on the couch, Aria gripping Spencer's hand tightly, though it seemed she was trying to comfort herself as well. Spencer was staring blankly at the floor, trembling, and Alex could spot the finger-shaped bruises forming on her neck with ease.

"What the hell happened?" said Alex, kneeling down in front of her sister to examine the damage (not that she knew much first aid, but she had to do something.)

"I found her walking around school after everyone had cleared out," explained Aria, obviously frightened. "I don't know who would do this, and she's not saying much, Lex. What do we do? Go to the cops?"

Alex had a bad feeling she knew exactly who had done this, and catching Spencer's eye proved her right. The only thing missing was the why. Her sister was certainly lucid enough to speak, but Alex figured she was keeping mum because Aria wasn't filled in on the latest news. "We should tell her, Spence."

"Tell me what?" Aria's brow furrowed as she looked back and forth between them, waiting for an answer.

Spencer opened her mouth first, her voice painfully hoarse. "It was Fitz."

Aria reeled back like she had been slapped. "What? He did this?"

Alex hated telling her what they'd found if it was going to scare her, but she let the story spill from her lips—Spencer's observations of Fitz following Aria, their plan to break into his apartment to find out more about him, discovering his secret stash. Aria looked so hurt upon finding out that the RPD was in his pocket that Alex immediately regretted mentioning it. But Aria had to know that it wasn't her fault Alex had been the one punished. She couldn't have stopped it even if she tried.

By the time Alex had explained everything, Spencer had recovered enough to tell about her encounter with Fitz, and Alex sat herself on Spencer's other side to listen. "Apparently there's a hidden camera outside his apartment door. He saw us go in, Al, and he was pissed. I think he wanted to prove a point, so he wrapped a hand around my throat and spelled out very clear how much influence he has. He threatened to expose our involvement in the Jenna Thing."

Alex saw Aria blanch, and figured she herself had gone white. The Jenna Thing had happened so long ago and no one in the group talked about it. Ever. They'd accidentally blinded Jenna Marshall in a stupid prank. Toby and Spencer had already been dating by then, and he took the fall for it to get away from his stepsister Jenna. Jenna had been forcing herself on him, apparently, and while learning that had lessened the guilt a little, they'd still robbed a girl of sight. Toby only stayed in juvie for a year before coming back, and by then Jenna had already re-established herself at Rosewood High, a vengeful presence breathing down their necks.

Alex had so far managed to shove the whole situation to the back of her mind, since the prank had been Alison's idea in the first place, but if Fitz knew about it there was a real danger of karma catching up to them all.

"That bastard," said Alex, anger boiling up inside of her. But what could she do about it, really? She'd already been itching to make him pay for hurting Aria, but now she couldn't do a damn thing with this threat hanging over her head.

"This is bad," said Aria. "Really bad."

Spencer nodded her head in agreement, massaged her temples, then laid back against the couch cushions and closed her eyes. The bruises on her neck looked horrible, and Alex found her anger rising to dangerous levels. That fucker had hurt her girlfriend, now her sister? What next? And what the hell could she do to stop it? She felt like a caged animal all of a sudden. Enraged but totally helpless.

As Spencer's breaths evened out in apparent sleep, Alex stood up off the couch and started to pace, hands tightening into fists. She found herself stomping upstairs, cursing, then she was in her bedroom and hefting her heavy punching bag onto its hook. Laying into it with every ounce of rage in her body was the only thing she could think to do, and she didn't want to stop even as the mostly-healed knuckles on her right hand split open again. Then her left hand was bleeding and her knees became her weapons. And finally she was just shoving the stupid bag, yelling incoherent insults at it, exhausted but feeling no better than she had only a few minutes ago.

Her aching knees hit the floor and she flinched as a hand laid on her shoulder. The irrational state of her mind had her believing it was Fitz beside her, ready to laugh in her face, but there was no energy left in her to attack. Instead she spoke.

"What do you want?" Her voice was hostile, the taste of anger bitter on her tongue. She felt so tired but she didn't know if this ride through hell was over yet. "Why the hell are you doing this? Why us?"

"Lex, look at me."

It struck her then. Fitz had made it very clear who he was, but why he was targeting them was a mystery. A stupid mystery Alex didn't want any part of. Was it all because she'd broken the guy's nose? No, she had to remind herself that he'd been following Aria and maybe the rest of them for a while now. So what was it that he wanted?

"Alex."

Aria... that was Aria. She was here, not Fitz. Alex felt her tiny, gentle hands rest against the sides of her face, turn her head so that she was staring into hazel eyes. They were like alcohol; Alex could feel herself slowing down as she drank in the warm gaze.

"Calm down," breathed the girl. "It's okay."

Alex shook her head. "It's not, Bird. It's all fucked up. He hurt you and he hurt Spencer, and I can't do a damn thing about it."

"Well hurting yourself certainly isn't going to do any good, Lex. Just breathe. For me alright?"

Alex tried to steady her breathing, even though her knuckles stung and her heart was in her throat. Aria's presence helped, and soon she was matching her breathing to the girl's.

"Good. Now close your eyes," prompted Aria.

Alex complied, eyelids fluttering shut. Lips brushed against her own. This was much different than their first kiss, which had been unsure but quickly sparking into something heated and aggressive.

Now Aria's lips were gentle, light as a bird's wings, but they reassured Alex like nothing else could. She couldn't explain it, and it didn't help that her head was beginning to spin as more pressure was applied. Instead of riling her up, the mouth molded to her own was distracting her, pulling her away from the violent, crashing waves of her worries and floating her to shore, resting her on soft sand, a secluded beach.

She could almost sleep with how calm she became.

Of course, the irritating ringing of Alex's phone decided to ruin her bliss, and Aria broke away from her. Alex sighed as she dragged her eyes open, offered a reassuring smile and a wink to Aria, then rose from her spot on the floor. Aria followed her as she crossed the room to her nightstand and picked up the phone. It was Emily.

"Yeah, Em? What's up?"

"Alex? We've got a problem."

Alex felt her stomach drop as she automatically assumed the worst. It was probably Fitz, hurting another of her friends.

"It's Ali. She just found out that her mother is having an affair."


Alex let Aria wrap up her bloody knuckles with gauze, then they left Spencer asleep on the couch and drove to Emily's house. The swimmer's parents weren't home—thank god, because Alison was pissed. When the pair arrived, the blonde was practically pulling her hair out.

Emily was sitting on the couch beside Alison, a hand rubbing her back, and Hanna was standing nearby, arms crossed but looking concerned for her friend. Alex squeezed Aria's hand before letting go, then she approached the trio.

"What happened?"

"My mother just informed me that she's having an affair, and she had the nerve to ask me to keep it a secret." Alison was practically spitting fire, and her enraged blue eyes snapped up to Alex. They tightened almost imperceptibly, then the queen bee was brushing off Emily and getting to her feet to shove a hand against Alex's chest, forcing her backwards. "She said she wanted to tell me before you got to me. What the hell does that mean? Did you know about this?"

Alex bristled, instinctively becoming defensive at her cousin's tone. She took a step toward the blonde, ready to tell her to back off, but she felt Aria's hand slip into her own and glanced back at the tiny brunette.

"Don't look at your girlfriend, look at me, Drake. Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"We both knew, Ali," said Aria, before Alex could blurt out an excuse. "We caught your mom hooking up in a bathroom at the dinner party on Saturday. But we didn't know how to tell you."

Aria and Alex had discussed it over the phone on Sunday, but neither of them knew how to broach the subject to Alison, even though they knew they should mention it. Better to keep it to themselves, let the truth come out on it's own, they'd decided. Obviously they hadn't planned on Alison's mom breaking the news so soon.

Alison paused a moment, seeming to swallow their words, before she nodded. "You caught her. Of course. Who was it? Do I know him?"

Alex shot another glance at Aria, who returned her look with one that urged her to tell the truth. But Alex and Spencer were the only ones that knew the truth about Peter, and Alex didn't know if she should tell the others. But she had to. She trusted these girls with her life and they could only offer help.

"It was Peter Hastings," blurted Alex. She took a deep breath as the name sunk in and Alison dropped back onto the couch. Everyone looked rattled as Aria nodded in confirmation, but Alex opened her mouth again, feeling like she was about to drop another bomb in the wake of the last explosion. "And there's something else."

They all looked at her, expectant. Only Aria looked confused, and Alex tightened her grip on the girl's hand.

"Last night, Spencer and I saw Mr. Hastings at the door, talking to our mom. He said… we overheard…" She blew out a heavy breath, tried again . "It sounded like Peter Hastings is our father."

"Wait, what?" That was Hanna, shaking her head in utter horror.

Alison and Emily were staring up at her with identical expressions of disbelief, and she could feel Aria's eyes on her.

"Yeah. I'm still trying to make sense of it, too. And Spencer's not even acknowledging it."

Emily blinked rapidly, then, apparently unsure what to say, blurted out, "where is Spencer?"

Again, she shared a look with Aria. Again, she opened her mouth to explain everything about Fitz.

There was a moment of silence after she finished, then Emily let out a nervous, humorless laugh. "Sorry I asked."

Alison stared hard at Alex. "Holy shit."

Then came Hanna's voice. "Yeah, holy shit. This is bad."

"Really bad," affirmed Aria.

Alex nodded. "Really, really bad.


A/N: Alrighty, so hopefully I haven't lost anyone. I can hardly keep up with everything that's happening, but I've got a whole lot of timelines and plot points written down that I can cheat with, so I don't know how you readers are faring. Just please let me know how I'm doing in a review (hint, hint) :D

Also, I'm ready to start updating every week instead of every two weeks. I think instead of regularly posting two chapters a week, I'll do that only occasionally. Like when a chapter is a little short, I'll post a second one that week. And I'm thinking Wednesdays will be my update days.

Thanks for reading and see you next week!