A/N: I'm on a roll! 3 chapters in two days! (Don't get too used to it!)
Ok, so this chapter was completely unplanned, but everyone wanted one of them so here you. I'm planning to put another Ezra one at the very end, so there are now 2 possibly 3 more chapters to follow this one.
I ask that as you read it you just go with any liberties that have been taken, such as the police not doing what they're doing until 5 days later, but as I said this wasn't planned and it really would have made more sense to put it in a few chapters ago...
Huge thank you to everyone who reviewed, they made my day (night?)! Thanks especially to FabsirellaPrincessOfPopcornia for so many positive reviews!
Chapter: Get Rid of Everything Incriminating
"All secrets become deep. All secrets become dark. That's in the nature of secrets." - Cory Doctorow
"I grabbed everything I could from Hanna's room," Caleb said as he came into the room and set a big box down, "the stuff I knew about, and anything else I could find from A. Unfortunately the police have already long since been there so I lost their computers. However, the first day after they were taken I was able to remotely access their computers, while the police were busy trying to get through the encryptions I installed for all of them – so we have copies of their hard drives, which gives us their emails and any photos and videos they have."
"I did Emily's room then went to Aria's and convinced her brother to let me into her room. I didn't find much of anything there though, but I have no idea where she would have hidden anything," Paige said. "I was thinking though, a lot of stuff came to them at school so it's probably in their lockers."
"You're right. I went through Spencer's room and grabbed anything I thought could help. I'm glad you were able to copy her computer though, I know she kept quite a bit on there. I'm worried about how much the police will get off it though; her search history alone would be quite informative."
"Don't worry about it; while I was hacking them I got rid of any of that stuff. I didn't clear their internet history though. Unfortunately there also isn't much I can do about their phones from here," Caleb told them.
"So they'll know they've been researching Ravenswood, my mother and that phone number, at the very least," Toby said.
"At least none of that is illegal," Paige offered.
Toby nodded to show his agreement.
"It would have been a lot worse if they'd found the video of them at Walden's car the night before his body was found," Caleb said.
"Or the photos from Alison's grave after her body was stolen," Paige added.
"Are you sure the cops won't know the computers were tampered with," Toby asked.
"No. But I don't think they will, they had no idea the other time Hanna and I tampered with a computer right under their noses," Caleb replied.
"Yeah, but that was the small town cops, these ones are from the big leagues," Paige said.
"Even if I am caught, it's still better than the girls getting framed for murder," Caleb said, closing the discussion.
"What do we do now?" Paige asked.
"You go to the school, go through their lockers. I'm guessing you know Emily's combination, I can give you Hanna's, Toby do you know Spencer's?" Caleb asked.
"Yes, I'll go with you," Toby answered.
"Can't you just tell her?" Caleb asked.
"I can, but what about Aria's?" Toby questioned. "Do either of you know her combination?"
He was met with silence, which gave him his answer. Turning to Paige he asked her, "Do you know how to get into her locker without the combination?"
"No," she replied.
"Exactly," he said. "I can into it even without the code, but it may take me some time."
"Then could you go instead of Paige?" Caleb asked.
"Not a smart idea. I don't go to Rosewood High, people will think my presence is strange but being with another student will draw a bit less attention," Toby replied.
"Plus Emily has a second locker for swimming, and there is no way Toby can go into the female change rooms in the middle of the school day," Paige added.
"Aright both of you go, but be careful – you and I are both ditching and if they realise you're there it will be harder for you to leave," Caleb warned.
"Don't worry, we'll be careful," Paige said.
"What will you do in the meantime?" Toby asked Caleb.
"I'll start sorting through everything on the computers, when you get back we'll go through what we found and add them together, see what we come up with," Caleb replied.
"Oh crap," Paige said, as they approached the school in Toby's truck. There were two police cars in the lot, and she could just make out Lieutenant Tanner and Detective Holbrook accompanied by two uniformed officers heading up the stairs into the building.
"What do you think they're doing here?" Paige asked.
"Probably the same thing we are," he replied. "But if we're fast we can beat them to it."
"Yeah, if we were move at the 'speed of light' fast then maybe, or do you not realise they're inside the building already?!"
"Yeah, I know, but they're going to have to go through some red tape first," Toby said.
"Such as?"
"Such as going to the principal, hand over there warrant, the principal will check the warrant over, then they'll have to go to the main office to get the keys for their lockers. My guess is they'll do the main corridor first, then Emily's gym locker so we'll do the same."
"Let's hope your right," she said.
They parked the ute and hurried into the school. The current classes didn't end for another 7 minutes, so the corridors deserted. This was both good and bad, the first because it meant there was no one around to see Paige go to three different lockers (none of them hers), and Toby (who is not a student) hack his way into another. It was also bad though, because if anyone did come out, they would be spotted in less than a second.
"Quick, let's do this and get out of here," Toby said. "That's Aria's right?" he asked pointing to the locker he recalled was hers, back when he did go there.
"Yes," she replied.
They got two work. When Toby had got the first to numbers in the combination and Paige had done Emily's and Hanna's and was just moving to Spencer's they were interrupted by the sound of footsteps, just seconds before someone rounded the corner. Without enough time to react they both just stood frozen as Ezra Fitz stepped into the corridor.
He stopped when he spotted them and they all stood there for a few seconds, eyeing each other. Paige wondering what they could say to explain, and Toby daring him to turn them in. Ezra sized them up, still torn as to whether or not to help them.
Finally Paige couldn't take it anymore. "This isn't what it looks like," she said to him.
Ezra raised an eyebrow at her statement and his eyes moved back to Toby.
"Of course it isn't. Toby isn't breaking into Aria Montgomery's locker, and you did not just through Hanna Marrin's. That is just absurd. Toby is clearly here waiting for someone to get out of class, and you of course have a hall pass to go to the bathroom," Ezra said.
"Exactly," Toby said, meeting his eyes.
"As you were," Ezra said, resuming walking, not yet sure about helping them, but sure he wasn't going to hinder them. Just as he was about to head into his classroom, he paused and without turning spoke, "By the way, not that it affects you, but the police are at the office, obtaining the keys to the vey lockers you are not accessing. I'd say you have another two minutes or so, there was some sort of problem locating one of the keys," he told them, making his mind up, and deciding to help them. Turning around to face them he held out his arm, a locker key held between two fingers. "Aria's locker key," he told them, handing it to Toby. "You didn't get this from me."
"Wha-," Paige started to ask.
"I saw you come in in a hurry, and appeared to be on the lookout for something, with the way you kept glancing in the direction of the office, I figured that something was the four police officers. I took a guess as to why you were here, and it looks like I was right. Besides, its in my own best interests that the police don't get into her locker. Do me a favour and take the book of poetry out and, if it's there, the novel Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, will you?" he asked them.
"Sure," Toby said.
"The second book, I've got it – it was in a box of things Aria gave to Emily so the police wouldn't find. I took all that stuff out of her room," Paige told him.
Nodding his head in acknowledgement Ezra went in to his classroom, shutting the door, and the blind in the door's window, behind him.
"That was weird," Paige said. "Why would he do that? Why does he want those books hidden? Why did Aria want them hidden?"
"It's not that weird – if the police found those books they would have probably cause to arrest him for having inappropriate relations with his students," Toby said, turning to Aria's locker and opening it.
Eyebrows raised at that, she put the information aside to look into later. She then moved to Spencer's locker.
"Alright, done," Toby said, not long after.
"Me too," Paige replied just as the bell signalling the end of class rang. She grabbed one last thing before closing the door. She looked up just in time to see two things; the first, students starting to come pouring out of the classrooms all around them, and the second, the police come around the corner. She thinks for a second that maybe they hadn't been seen, but then she meets Lieutenant Tanner's eyes for a split second before the lieutenant looks over to Toby. Paige continues to stare at them, like a deer caught in headlights, even as the corridor becomes clogged with students procrastinating going to their next class. She is pulled back to her senses when Toby grabs her arm and turns her around.
"Let's go, quickly, while there path is blocked," he said, starting to run, pushing his way through the students milling around them, and pulling her in his wake.
They continued like this until they reached the pool center, then Toby stood watch outside while Paige went in.
As soon as she came back out they took off sprinting again, out the back exit before circling around the outside of the building to where they were parked.
When they were tearing out of the school lot and they still hadn't had another citing of the police, they relaxed.
Incriminating and 'A' related evidence in tow they headed back to the hotel they were using as their headquarters, and which they had used cash and a fake name to get.
The cops wouldn't find them there.
A/N: I don't know about other schools, but mine had these combination locks which had key holes at the back and the office had the keys so this is what I've done here.
Also, I'm not entirely sure who knows about Aria and Ezra, so for the sake of this Paige doesn't, but Toby does – I figure this would be so both because he's been in the picture longer than Paige, and because he was on the A-Team for a while. I ask that you go with it even if Paige does know about it on the show.
I'm also kind of wondering whether T is the right rating for this or should I make it M?
