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Here's another long chapter! Enjoy!

Aria's POV

The heavy rain pounded down around us as I tried to control my tears. "Do you want to go home?" Ezra whispered to me as he held me closely against him.

I looked up at him with glassy eyes and nodded.

"Let me… Let me just say bye to Ella first." I wiped my tears away as I turned to enter the hospital again.

Ezra followed me inside and back towards Ella's room.

"I'll be right back." He said, as he spotted Byron pacing back and forth at the end of the hallway and walked towards him. I entered the room but stopped abruptly as I spotted a nurse peering over Ella. Staying near the door, I remained quiet, not wanting to disturb them.

"All done." The nurse announced as she held up two small tubes of blood. I couldn't help but cringe at the sight.

"Aria, are you okay?" Ella asked, as she saw me standing by the door.

I walked over to her and took her hand in mine. "Yeah, I just wanted to say bye. We were heading back home."

The nurse walked over to the other side of Ella and picked up the bottle of water that was sitting on the table.

"Do you want me to fill this up for you while I go get your pill?" The nurse asked.

"That would be great, thanks." Ella replied before turning back to me.

The nurse gave us a small smile before leaving the room.

"Her name's Sarah. She's a sweetheart." Ella said, talking about her nurse.

I smiled at her, glad she had nurses she liked and trusted.

"Aria," Ella looked at me questioningly. "What just happened? When you ran out of here? What were you talking about?"

I bit my lip in nervousness as I looked up to meet her eyes. "It's not my place to tell you." I whispered.

"Tell me what?" Ella asked, urgently.

I shook my head. "No, mom. I can't. I just can't."

I couldn't break her heart like that. I couldn't put her in more pain.

"Aria. I thought we didn't keep secrets from each other." Ella said, her voice growing stronger by the second.

As I was about to reply, to my advantage, a nurse walked into the room once again.

"Mrs. Montgomery, we've received the blood work from your labs…" She paused. "We have a situation."

"I have to go." I said quickly, as I rushed out of the room. I couldn't handle listening to whatever the nurse had to say. I stopped just outside the hospital doors as the rain came down harder around me.

I was so exhausted. I just could not handle any more bad news. Everything just kept getting worse and worse. When were things going to take a turn for the better for Ella? Why did all of this have to happen now?

Ezra appeared behind me seconds later.

"Do you want to just go back to my house?" I asked, turning to Ezra. "I don't think this rain is going to let up anytime soon. It's only ten minutes away and your apartment is twenty five."

"Sure," Ezra nodded. "At least until the storm begins to go away."

Ezra took my hand in his as he quickly led me to his car. In the process, the two of us had gotten completely soaked.

I knew that Byron wasn't going to tell Ella about his infidelity any time soon. Although she needed to know, now was the worst possible time to tell her. She was already hurting because of the cancer. What would happen to her if her family began hurting her too? I couldn't tell her now. I had to protect her. It did not matter what happened later, protecting her was the most important thing right now.

I turned towards Ezra, who never once took his eyes off the road. He couldn't be concentrating that hard on driving, so what was he thinking about?

Me? That kiss we shared? It had felt so amazing yet it was so wrong. What were Byron and Ella going to say when they find out? What were they going to do? Surely they would not let me stay with him anymore. But he's helped me so much since Ella was admitted to the hospital. Maybe he hasn't realized it, but he's helped me realize that Ella can get better. That this isn't the end. That there is always going to be a chance that this will all go away.

How was Mike dealing with all of this? The few times I talked to him, he never let his guard down. He is better than me at hiding when he is hurting, but this time, what if it goes too far? What if hiding all the pain he is in just hurts him more? I have Ezra to talk to, to hold me when I can't handle it all. But Mike, who does Mike have?

The car ride back to my house was mostly quiet, consisting of me being consumed by my own thoughts.

I glanced at the clock on the dashboard of the car. It was 1:45 in the morning. I leaned my head against the window as I closed my eyes. I just wanted to bury myself under the covers of my bed and fall asleep. Escape from all this drama for a few hours of peaceful bliss.

"Hey," Ezra rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb a few moments later. "We're here."

I opened my eyes to see my house. My big, dark, and empty, house.

I smiled as Ezra opened my door for me. "Thanks," I said softly. He took my hand in his and led me towards the front door.

"Here… I've got a key." I tiredly rummaged through my purse before shoving the key through the keyhole. As I pushed the front door open, the distinct smell of dust and wood flowed towards me. What was I expecting? To smell one of Ella's cakes or batches of cookies that she had cooked earlier that day?

I climbed up the stairs to my room, Ezra following closely behind me. I entered my room and saw my journal lying open on the window seat from where I had left it earlier.

I walked over to my journal and closed it, before placing it on top of my dresser. I turned around to see Ezra leaning against he doorpost to my room, watching me.

"I can grab you something of Mike's to sleep in." I told him as I slowly walked closer to him.

He nodded in approval before I left the room to grab him some clothes. I grabbed a spare toothbrush from the guest bathroom as well, before heading back to my room.

"Here." As I handed them to him, our hands brushed against each other's once again, sending those familiar sparks throughout my body.

I slowly looked up at Ezra, who I knew had felt them too.

My breath hitched in my throat as he brushed his hand across my cheek before tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear. My heartbeat sped up from his touch and in that moment, all I wanted to do was kiss him.

I turned away before he could say anything and walked over to my dresser. I pulled out a t-shirt and shorts, however, as I moved to close the drawer, a picture sitting on my dresser caught my eye. It was of Ella and I sitting in the family room of Hanna's house at a party her parents had hosted. Ella's long brown hair was cascading down her shoulders and her smile shined brightly.

The clothes in my hand slipped from my grasp and fell back into the open drawer.

"Did you see her in there? When she got up?" I whispered, without turning around to face Ezra as I spoke. I continued without waiting for his answer. "Her hair was falling out. From the chemo."

I bit my lip as I stared at the picture. She was so healthy before. So happy.

How could her life change so dramatically in such a short amount of time?

"Yeah." Ezra said softly. "I saw."

He set down the clothes I had gotten him onto the bed as he walked up behind me.

"I don't know what happened to me back there. All of a sudden, I just couldn't handle it." I hesitantly looked up to meet his eyes, not wanting to know if he thought of me as insanely weak as well.

"Aria," He began as he caressed my cheek. "You're allowed to break down. You're allowed to be hurting. I'd be concerned if you could handle this all." He said softly.

I nodded before turning away from his gaze. "I just…" I sighed. "I'm just not used to this. Usually I'm the strong one. I'm not used to feeling so damn weak and vulnerable."

"How do you think Ella feels? She's the one stuck at the hospital. Have you ever thought about how weak and vulnerable she feels?" Ezra asked.

I leaned against the wall behind me as I thought about his words. She was stuck in the same lonely room all the time. She couldn't do anything by herself anymore. She had to tell the nurses when she was in pain, so they could increase her pain meds. She had to tell the nurses when she had to go to the bathroom, so they could help her in her weak state. Byron never left her side and was constantly asking whether she was okay or not. So many people were worried about her; yet there wasn't much she could do to assure them that everything will be okay.

"You're right…" I began. "It's just…"

"Hmm?" Ezra asked softly.

I opened my mouth to speak, never breaking my gaze away from his. "I don't know." I confessed, not having the faintest idea how to explain to him how I was feeling.

He gave me a small smile before walking back towards the bed and grabbing the clothes and toothbrush. A moment later, he disappeared into the bathroom across the hall.

I slipped the t-shirt and shorts I had grabbed earlier onto my body before hanging my clothes from today back up in my closet.

I walked into my bathroom to remove my makeup and brush my teeth. My long wavy hair tumbled down shoulders, falling down my back. I made a mental note to get a haircut in a month or two.

At least you have hair to cut.

It was getting harder and harder to see Ella in so much pain. First when she was throwing up and clutching her stomach in pain, and now losing her hair? What else is going to happen to her? What else was this cancer going to do to her?

I entered my room again when I was done in the bathroom. Out of sheer curiosity, I grabbed my laptop and powered it on.

"Aren't you tired? You were falling asleep in the car." Ezra chuckled as he walked back into my room to see me sitting on my bed with my computer in front of me.

"Yeah," I smiled at him. "I just wanted to see something."

I watched Ezra as he grabbed a random book from my bookshelf and sat down on the chair next to my closet as he began to read it.

I turned back to my computer and searched 'colon cancer' online. I figured that if I was going to be hearing all these new terms about Ella's cancer and if I was going to be watching her body go through so many more changes, it would help if I knew what some of it meant. I sighed as hundreds of articles came up.

"Where do I start?" I muttered under my breathe before clicking on the first link on the page.

After finding no interesting information, I clicked on a new website. I scanned the article but stopped abruptly as something curious caught my eye.

"Wait a minute." I said. Ezra looked up from the book he was reading and waited for me to speak. "Byron said that Ella just started chemo, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, why? What did you find?" Ezra set the book down and got up from the chair. He sat down beside me on the bed and began reading the article I had pulled up on the laptop.

"A patient with stage 1 colon cancer gets surgery than chemo. Why the hell is she getting chemo first?"

Had the doctors and nurses done something wrong? Was she going to get sicker from this? Were they going to give her chemo before the surgery? What benefit would that do? Were they going to try the chemo, see if it kills the cancer cells, then if it doesn't, switch to surgery? Did her doctors know what they were doing?

I looked up at Ezra to see he was just as confused as I was.

"They're not going to make her sicker, are they?" I whispered fearfully, afraid of knowing the answer.

Ezra remained quiet, not answering my question. A moment later, he closed my laptop. "We can ask your dad in the morning about what exactly is going on." He suggested.

I nodded and tried to stifle a yawn that threatened to escape my lips.

Ezra moved the laptop to my desk as I crawled under the covers, basking in the feeling of being in my own bed once again. He leaned down and kissed my forehead before getting up from the bed and turning out the lights.

"Goodnight, Aria." He said, as he began to leave the room.

"Ni- Wait, Ezra." I sat up in the bed, barely making out his silhouette in the dark.

"Hmm?" He opened the door a bit wider, as a little bit of the light from the hallway poured into the dark room.

"Could-" I began, feeling a little bit embarrassed. I was secretly thankful that the room was dark enough that he couldn't see the dark blush that was forming on my cheeks. "Could you stay here with me?" I asked hesitantly, afraid he would say no.

He remained silent for a moment. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." I assured him, knowing I would never be able to fall asleep without him being near me. He did not move from the door, clearly debating with himself whether or not it was a good idea to sleep in the same bed as me.

"We won't do anything." I assured him. "I just don't want to be alone." I confessed.

He sighed before turning out the hallway light and closing my door. He crawled into my bed beside me.

"Ezra?" I asked softly, turning to face him.

"Hmm?"

I traced his cheek delicately with my fingertips before moving closer to him and capturing his lips in a soft kiss. His hands cupped my cheeks as he deepened the kiss for a moment; however, to my dismay he broke off the kiss a few seconds later.

"You are so damn beautiful." He whispered to me, before pushing a lock of hair away from my eyes.

I couldn't help but smile. Even in the dark, his blue eyes were so enticing. If I had my way, I'd be kissing him all night long.

He wrapped his arms around me as I cuddled into his chest. Lying in Ezra's embrace, I quickly fell into a peaceful slumber.

Ezra's POV

She was sleeping so peacefully and I only wished that I could fall asleep like that. For the past few hours, I had been lying awake in Aria's bed, holding the beautiful girl in my arms. I couldn't stop thinking about what she had found earlier on the computer.

That article had said that Ella was supposed to get surgery before chemo for her cancer. I just could not understand why Ella was getting the chemo now, before the surgery. It was all backwards. The last thing I waned to do in this moment was remove myself from Aria's embrace, but I had to know. If the doctors weren't treating Ella right, wouldn't Byron want to know? Wouldn't Ella want to know?

I carefully got up from Aria's bed, and grabbed my cell phone from her dresser.

"Mhmm, what's wrong?" I heard Aria ask softly from the other side of the room.

Crap. I really hadn't wanted to wake her up.

"Nothing, sweetie." I assured her as I quietly walked back towards her bed. "Go back to sleep."

I kissed her forehead before she turned back towards the wall. I waited until her breathing became slow and heavy once again, before leaving the room.

I grabbed my jacket before leaving the Montgomery house. I locked the front door before getting into my car and driving away.

The clock on the dashboard read 5:15am. I knew this was an ungodly time to talk to Byron, but this couldn't wait any longer. I had already waited all night and I knew that the nervousness and anxiety that were taking over me were never going to let me sleep before I talked to Byron.

I arrived at the hospital a few minutes later. Luckily, the receptionist that had snapped at Aria the previous day was absent from the front desk.

I quickly made my way to Ella's room and knocked softly on the door. The door opened a few short moments later as Byron Montgomery looked at me incredulously.

"Ezra what are you doing here? Did Aria drag you here in the middle of the night again?" Byron exclaimed. "Wait, where is Aria?" He looked around the hall but turned back to me in confusion when he couldn't find her.

"She-she's not here." I said quickly. "Byron I-" I began but Byron interrupted me.

"Ezra, why would you leave her alone? The whole reason she's staying with you is so that she isn't alone. Do you have any idea what she's going through right now? She's an emotional teenage girl who is in distress. Do you have any idea what kind of trouble she can get herself into? What she might do to herself?"

"Byron!" I exclaimed, interrupting his rant. "She's not at my apartment. She's at your house. The storm was getting really bad and my apartment is a lot further from the hospital than your house is. She's more comfortable there." I explained. "But that's not the point."

I paused for a moment, trying to figure out the most harmless way to ask my question.

"Byron... How sick is Ella?" I asked hesitantly.

"What does that mean?" Byron asked; confusion laced throughout his voice. "She has cancer and she's started chemo to kill the cancer cells."

I closed my eyes for a moment and shook my head. Trying to get the truth out of him was going to be a lot harder than I thought.

"Aria was doing some research… She found an article that said for stage 1 cancer a patient gets surgery before chemo.

Byron nervously looked down to the ground and remained silent.

"Ella doesn't have stage 1 cancer, does she? It's worse?" I asked, quietly.

I never thought I would live to see the day Byron Montgomery would cry. However, as an eerie silence commenced, each heartbreaking second added to the pain and vulnerability that were building up behind Byron's glassy eyes.

"Byron." I whispered painfully.

It was so obvious he was hurting. But since he was the father, the man of the house, he couldn't show anyone his pain. He would never let his family realize how much all of this was hurting him.

"Ella has had this cancer for three months now. She had surgery a few weeks ago." Byron began. "Aria and Mike were both spending the weekend at a friend's house, so they didn't know. They still don't. The surgery was supposed to remove the part of her colon that contained the cancer cells, but now the doctors are telling us that the surgery didn't work the way it was supposed to. Ella started chemo two weeks ago, that's why her hair is already beginning to fall out. I was afraid Aria would realize something wasn't right… That Ella's hair was already falling out and she had only been getting chemo for one day. God, did you see Aria's face when she saw the hair on the pillow? She looked as if she would faint right then and there from the sight!" Byron exclaimed in distress.

"So Aria and Mike don't know how sick Ella really is?" I asked faintly.

Byron shook his head.

"Why are you lying to them? They're going to be furious when they finds out! Especially Aria!" I exclaimed, completely missing his rationale for not telling his kids what their mother was going through.

"Because Ezra, Aria doesn't need to be put in more pain than she's already in!" Byron tried to reason with me.

I shook my head at Byron, indicating that he was wrong. "Spending all this time with Aria has made me realize what exactly it is that's hurting her the most right now. I don't think that it's the fact that Ella has cancer, although that plays a pretty big role when she breaks down. Byron, it's not the fact that you cheated either."

Byron opened his mouth to protest but I cut him off before he could even speak.

"The reason Aria's hurting so much is because of all these secrets. She's angry that Ella kept the fact that she had cancer from her for so long. Aria thinks that her parents see her as a little girl who can't handle the truth. She's angry with you for having to keep that secret from Ella for you. And now, when she finds out you've been lying to her with the information you have told her? What do you think is going to happen when she finds out?" I asked. "She's going to be more hurt that you didn't tell the moment you found out."

Byron froze. I could tell that my words really hit home. He could translate what I had said to refer to what he was keeping from Aria, or what he was keeping from Ella.

"Ezra, what do you think the right thing to do here is? What's the right answer here? I know what's going to hurt them. I know what's keeping them safe. But it doesn't matter. I can sit here, reminiscing about what I should tell Aria, what I should tell Ella, what each of them deserves to know. I can go on and on about how I wish I never hurt Ella and about how none of this should have happened. That Ella shouldn't be lying in that hospital bed, getting sicker and sicker every day. That Aria shouldn't be staying with you, that she should be with her family. That I can take care of my family and make all the pain that they're going through go away. That I can make my wife healthy again. But I can't. I still haven't found the answer to my question. If you know what the answer is, what the right thing to do here is, let me know, Ezra. I'm keeping Aria and Ella safe by not telling them things that will only hurt them more. Lying is what's keeping them from getting hurt."

In a way, he was right. He was keeping them safe, but only for a small amount of time. Because once they both figured out what he was keeping from them, they would be in more pain than they deserved.

"You know…" Byron began. "You barely know Aria, yet she's confided in you more than she's ever confided in Ella or I."

I froze at his words. Was he suspecting anything? Was it obvious that I had feelings for his daughter? And that she had feelings for me?

"Why is that?" Byron asked, looking at me curiously.

"She's going through a very hard time, and she needs someone. At the moment, I'm one of the few people who she trusts won't judge her when she lets her guard down."

"Really?" Byron asked. "What about her friends? Has she seen them lately?"

I shook my head. Aria had never mentioned any of her friends to me, nor had I seen her talk to them on the phone. Why wasn't she talking to her friends? Wouldn't a teenager lean on her friends for support when she needed it? Don't teenagers usually confide in their friends?

But Aria wasn't like every other teenager.

"Not… not that I know of. She stays with me."

Byron watched me for a moment before responding.

"Thank you, for everything you're doing for my family. I appreciate that you've been here for Aria, however, I'd hope that you know the limits of how far your relationship with her is allowed to go. She's beginning to trust you and confide in you… I hope you know how far you're allowed to take that trust."

Byron stepped closer to Ella's door. "I'll see you around, Ezra." He said, before disappearing into Ella's room.

Would you guys be interested in a chapter completely in Ella's POV? I have a few ideas for how I could make it go, and I think it would be kind of cool to see her view on everything that's going on. Of course it will still have Ezria in it… but from Ella's perspective.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, PLEASE REVIEW!