A/N: Umm…I mentioned on twitter that when I'm hurting really bad and can't handle my emotions and start writing, bad things happen to characters. That's all I'm saying.

Chapter 10

I Don't Miss It All That Much

Aria stared at the wall, still trembling as she watched Ezra. She gulped and tried to shake off the overbearing feeling that had stuck with her for the better half of the afternoon. Any other time she would have known better and thought to ask more questions but with the return of A and all that had gone on recently she'd simply gone with her gut and acted first, asked questions later.

She could see the trepidation in his eyes as he stared at the floor, obviously trying to contemplate something. She wasn't sure exactly what it was, which only further drove her emotions, even as her mother sat next to her, trying to calm her.

It was funny. The moment they'd found her, the first question they had asked her was whether she'd been hurt, and every minute she'd been gone, she had wondered how she would have to answer that question. She'd been so sure that the answer would end up being yes.

Aria munched on a piece of toast as she scribbled a note on the top of her calculus sheet. Ezra peered over her shoulder as he pulled a piece of bacon off her breakfast plate.

"That's wrong. The differential-"

Aria waved her hand at him, slapping her hand against his shoulder as she erased it and looked it over. A moment later, she rewrote the problem and figured the proper answer.

Dianne walked into the room and settled a carrying tray on the counter. She pulled them out and handed one each to Ezra and Aria and took another for herself.

Ezra leaned across the table, peering at the sheet Hanna had left lying out before she disappeared into the bathroom with her make-up bag.

"Three of those problems are wrong," he said with a laugh. He lifted his coffee to his lips and took a long drink from it.

"You know it's irritating when you hover like that," Aria murmured as she checked her homework over a final time.

Ezra chuckled. He kissed the side of her head and turned to walk out of the room, only to surprised by Ella walking into the room with Ashley and Darren. His jaw slackened slightly, unsure of why there would be the need to have a meeting at seven AM.

"What's going on?" Dianne asked as she removed the lid from her coffee cup and stirred it a bit with the stick that had been placed in the top of the lid to preserve the heat.

Detective Wilden was about to speak, but Ashley cut him off, curious of Hanna's whereabouts.

"She's in the bathroom," Aria explained. A few moments later, heels clacked on the floor, and Hanna walked into the room. She settled her makeup bag on the counter and took a coffee when it was offered to her.

"Now that the powwow has commenced, what's going on," Ezra asked nervously.

Darren dared a glance at Ashley, and then looked from Ezra to Dianne before he spoke. "I got a call this morning that there was some kind of fight late last night. Michael escaped."

Silence fell over the room as everyone digested what exactly that meant.

"What are we supposed to do?" Aria asked nervously after a few moments. "I mean, we can't keep missing school-"

Darren shook his head. "You're right. But you shouldn't be alone at any given moment. This man and the people he's associated himself with are police officers, among other things. They know how to corner you into a situation you can't get yourself out of. Give them an opportunity, and they'll gladly take it."

Aria gulped and turned to look at Ezra. His emotions were clear on his face.

"I mean it," Detective Wilden said firmly, bringing her attention back to him as he looked at Aria specifically. "This man has used you to his advantage before, and after how things ended for the last time he went after Ezra, I wouldn't put it past him to take more drastic measures this time. Not even the slightest step out of line. Alright?"

Aria nodded nervously exhaling a shallow breath.

"We should get going ladies," Ella said as she picked up her bag from the floor. "You don't want to be late for school."

"No," Ashley agreed. "You don't. And as Detective Wilden said, stay near each other."

If there was any inkling to ague with the adults, Aria and Hanna buried it as they followed their mothers out of the house and then got into Ella's car. The car ride to Rosewood High was quiet, save for the sound of the radio. When they arrived at the school, they walked in together, and Aria Hanna split from Ella only when she was approached by another teacher.

They headed off in the direction of Spencer's locker, and spotted Emily and Paige standing nearby, talking to her about something. They walked up as Paige turned to Emily and said something before walking away.

"Does Paige not want to be around us?" Aria asked as she adjusted her bag on her shoulder.

Emily shook her head. "She has to speak with Coach before the day starts."

"You guys have a fun sleepover?" Spencer asked teasingly.

Aria rolled her eyes. "My mother hovered by my bedroom door until we fell asleep, and then Ezra was correcting our homework like a proper teacher this morning."

Spencer and Emily chuckled, hearing the disdain in Aria's voice. It was much like that of a teenager determined to break out of the mold set around her – the things she should be complaining about.

"I'll just be glad when all of this is over," Hanna admitted. "Wilden needs to leave my family alone once and for all."

"I'm sorry, Han," Aria murmured sadly.

Hanna shook her head, looking back at Aria. "Don't be. It's not you, and I don't blame Ezra. It just seems like Wilden is using all of this to get back in my mother's good graces."

"Is that even possible?" Spencer asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hanna rolled her eyes. "Apparently. She's been quite corkial with him lately."

Spencer, Aria, and Emily laughed at her.

"The term is cordial, Hanna," Spencer chuckled.

"Whatever!" Hanna said insistently. "Can we just talk about something else?"

Silence fell amongst the four of them as they each dwelled on the current things going on in their lives. Between Hanna's issues with her mother seeing Wilden again, and Spencer's increasing issues with Toby. Emily seemed to be having things easiest, but even at that, Nate's increasing determination to get with her was frustrating her as well.

"I swear we had more to talk about when Mona was around," Hanna muttered. The comment quickly earned her a glare from her friends. "What!?"

The other three girls simply shook their heads at her as Spencer adjusted her bag on her shoulder, and Emily picked hers up from where it laid against her leg. They turned and walked to their first class together before separating to head to their own seats.

.,.
I can do so much better than this; I know, I know, I took the easy road again
And as for selling myself short, I have become notorious
.,.

She remembered how she'd spent most of the afternoon looking over her shoulder and out every window, wondering if every idle car she saw in the street was the one that would have someone inside it carrying a gun, with a bullet meant for her.

She remembered checking her phone during every passing period that came, staring silently at the empty inbox. She couldn't help but wonder if that was a good thing or bad thing. After all, she hadn't received a message from Ezra the day that Michael had made him trade his own life for her fathers. Even so, she tried to keep it in her head that Dianne would have called if something had happened. Or Wilden. Or Ashley. There were too many people around that if someone got hurt or went missing, that she'd already know.

Aria flipped her textbook shut and pulled it off the island before stuffing it into her school bag. She snatched an orange from the bowl in the middle of the table and began to peel it. The tension from the day had planted itself in her neck and between her shoulders, causing a headache so bad that she wanted to crawl in a hole and hide from all sense of light.

"Here," Dianne said as she settled a bottle of mountain dew on the island along with two Excedrin tablets. "This should help."

Aria thanked her and snatched the medication and bottle from where it rested. She quickly popped the tablets in her mouth and then gulped them down with a large swig of the soda.

"Drink it quickly," Dianne told her. "It'll kick in faster."

Aria did as she was told and then tossed out the empty soda bottle into the trash. She returned to the table and resumed peeling her orange before she tossed that away as well. Once she had, she settled back at the table and began peeling apart her orange. She gave half to Ezra and began eating what she had kept for herself.

True to Dianne's word, by the time she finished what was left of her orange, the pain reliever had started to kick in. Ezra rubbed his good hand up and down her back as he chewed the last bit of his half of the orange.

"You okay?" He asked when he'd finished chewing.

Aria nodded, rubbing her temples. "It's starting to kick in, but it still hurts." She turned and looked at him a moment later. "What's got you so serene?"

Ezra gulped, having to remind himself that there was no way that she could know about the cocaine sitting in the box in the guest room. If she did know, there was no way she wouldn't have already said something. He could feel his mother's gaze on him from where she stood across the room, which only further made him nervous.

"Vicodin hits pain pretty good," he finally replied a few moments later. "But trust me, it's not perfect by a long shot."

Aria stared at him for a long moment, considering his comment. It brought up a myriad of thoughts about the way she'd seen him act in recent weeks, but before she could actually speak, her phone went off inside her bag.

She pulled it out and tapped on her screen a few times, bringing the message up that she'd just received. Her bottom lip became planted in her lip as she stared at the message.

Bad fight with Toby.
Meet me, please.
-Spencer

Aria stared at the screen for a few long moments before typing back a quick message.

Give me a few minutes.
I'll be there.

She tucked her phone into the pocket of her jeans and moved off of her seat. "Spencer just texted. I've gotta go meet her."

Ezra looked over at his mother. "Is that safe?"

Dianne shrugged, wiping her hands off with a towel as she turned the sink off. "I don't see why not. Things have been quiet all day." She paused for a moment as she reached into her pocket and brought up her phone screen. "No new messages that anything has changed. Just take your phone with you. Make sure the GPS is on, and your wifi. If you're anywhere with public access and he does get to you, we'll be able to find you."

Aria nodded, looking down at her phone. It went off a second time, lighting up the screen once more. She tapped it and brought up the messages once more.

Wright park.
I need some air.

She quickly typed back that she'd meet her there before tucking her phone into her pocket and moving off the stool. She quickly pecked Ezra on the lips before making her way out of the house and over to her car.

The drive to the park was quick; it wasn't far from her home as it was. The sun was just beginning to set, and the little bit of heat that had covered the city over the past few days was quickly sucking out as the sun dropped towards the horizon.

When she arrived at the park, she found that Spencer hadn't yet arrived, so she walked across the street to a coffee shop and got herself a cappuccino before she headed back to the park. She turned the cup slowly in her hands to keep them warm as she walked around the perimeter of the park.

Her phone chimed again in her pocket, and she pulled it out once more.

By Alison and Ian's tree.

Aria looked off in the general direction that Spencer was referring to and then made her way over, still holding her coffee tightly in her hands.

Her brow furrowed increasingly as she reached the tree. She looked around, but found no inclination that Spencer was there. Her nerves quickly began to mount, and she turned on her heel, ready to head back to her car.

"Walk any farther away, and I promise I'll shoot you. Turn around."

Aria gulped at the cold sound of his voice. She did as she was told, turning nervously. As she did, she came face-to-face with Michael Fitzgerald. Her hands trembled as she stared at the older man. If she had ever wondered what Ezra might look like if he was completely ruthless and had no respect for human life, – she never had – then it was clearly standing right in front of her. Her skin crawled with that thought.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked. "I'll give you anything but Ezra."

Michael chuckled. The sound nauseated her.

"That's alright, darlin. He'll come to us."

Michael waved his gun off in the direction of Aria's car. "Let's take a drive."

Aria nodded nervously. She moved to turn around, only for Michael to press his gun into the base of her back.

"Hand over your keys and your phone."

Aria dropped her coffee to the ground and then pulled her keys and cell phone from her pockets before passing them behind her.

They made their way across the park, but Aria knew enough about Michael to believe that there was no way he would let the gun actually be visible to the public.

When they arrived at her car, he followed her around the car and opened her door for her before shutting it and rounding the car. He got into the driver's seat and started the car before starting it.

Tense silence was all that passed between them as they made their way through town. Aria knew where they were headed long before they reached the hotel. She stared silently at the passing scenery, trying to figure out how she could get away from Michael without her killing her, Ezra, or their families.

When they arrived at the hotel, she got out of the car as she was ordered to, and followed the older man up the steps to the second floor of rooms. Her stomach knotted when he finally told her to stop in front of one of the doors. He unlocked the door and then shoved her into the room.

Aria trembled as she looked around the room. Regardless of what the police had probably told them they would need to do to get the place cleaned up and in working order, they had obviously looked for the easiest way to get the room back to where they could rent it out.

Like how instead of replacing the carpet, it had instead been scrubbed until only faint differences in the carpet showed, where there had previously been blood stains soaked into the floor. Bargain furniture had replaced the things that had been broken and absolutely needed replacing.

What made her most nauseated however, was the spots where she could clearly see spackle had been used to cover where chains had hooked into the walls and floor.

"Take a seat," Michael ordered. "We're going to be here for a while as it is."

Aria sunk down into a chair near the table, though her gaze quickly fell to, and stayed on, his gun. She hadn't even thought to wonder previously if the gun was loaded, and that fact irritated her as she realized that she was stuck in a hotel room with a sociopath.

She stared at her phone in his hand, and brow furrowed, confused. "How did you-"

"Know how to get you out of your house?" Micheal chuckled. "Sweetie, I have my hands dipped into departments all over the eastern seaboard. You take a job in my line of work, and you've got help in all the right places."

"So you just picked a random person out of my phone book," Aria surmised.

Michael laughed again. "You know, Ms. Montgomery, it really is very easy to find out the things you want to know about people. Your family and your friends are that much easier, when you're constantly in the press. Dead best friend, other friends named as people of interest…In fact, what surprises me most is the fact that you have never been named as a person of interest."

He pointed the gun at her as he spoke the last sentence, and Aria felt a division of ice cold chills running down her spine and fury burning through her that he would suggest such a thing.

"Alison was one of my best friends! I would never-"

"It's ironic," Michael cut her off yet again. "I mean if I was on the case, I would have certainly looked at the girl whose family took off for over a year. But then, your little city can't even process basic evidence properly."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aria growled.

Michael began to type on her phone. He looked back up at her. "It means that your city's police department managed to screw up a simple blood test on a sweater and let a psycho get away."

"Toby Cavanaugh is not-"

"Who you think he is," he replied. "And neither is my son. You should really ask him about his fondness for white powder sometime. Now would you mind terribly shutting up? I have to make a phone call."

Aria shook her head, clenching her jaw so tightly that it actually began to hurt. "How can you hate something that was born for you to love?"

Michael ignored her as the phone rang. When it picked up, he smiled. He pulled it away from his ear and turned on the speaker so that Aria could hear. He lifted the gun to his lips and pursed them, signaling for her to stay quiet.

"You're so trusty," he said sickeningly.

"What do you want?" Ezra asked in return.

Michael grinned. "I'll text you the address."

He ended the call a moment later and began to type on the screen once more. When he was finished, he looked back up at her. "To answer your question, it's very quite simple. That boy has never done anything worthy of making me give a damn about him."

Aria raised her eyebrows, utterly floored by the comment. "Seriously? He spent the first twelve years of his life being abused by you, and then still managed to survive. He graduated from high school and college with honors, was a college professor until you got him fired…He's a parent's dream!"

Michael shook his head as he walked over to her. "No. He isn't worth a god-damn thing."

.,.
And I know it's long gone, and that the magic's not here anymore
And I might be okay, but I'm not fine at all
.,.

Ezra's hands trembled at his sides as he stared at Michael.

"Ezra, please-" Aria cried, staring at the gun that Michael was still pointing at her. As much as she had hoped and prayed that he wouldn't show up, he did anyway.

"Shut up," Michael growled as he turned his gun in the direction of his son. It was lost on Ezra how the older man had managed to get a new gun so soon.

Michael waved his gun at the table in the corner of the hotel room. There was thick brown rope lying on top of it. "Tie her up. She can help you."

Ezra stared at the rope for a moment, but he was all too aware of the gun and the last time he'd come in contact with one. It made his skin crawl as he moved over to where Aria was seated. He picked up the rope and then turned to the chair and began to tie her hands behind it, never entirely taking his eyes off the barrel of the gun as he did.

"Why keep her here," he asked nervously as he tried his best to hold the rope with his broken arm.

"She's got a stake in this. Maybe she'd like to watch. I watched you two enough as it was," Michael replied.

Ezra was pretty sure he wanted to vomit, but he struggled to keep it together as he stared at the older man.

Once he was finished with tying Aria's hands to the chair, he walked back around the chair. Michael waved the gun to directly in front of him, and Ezra moved to the spot.

Aria whimpered and tugged on the ropes binding her hands. She couldn't hear what Michael was saying, given that his voice was spoken extremely soft, but she could see the malice and cruelty in his eyes.

Within seconds, his gun connected with the side of Ezra's face, knocking the younger man to the floor. He went down on top of him and hit him several times before Ezra managed to somehow fight back. From the angle they were lying, Aria couldn't see much, but she watched as Michael flew off of Ezra and the gun slid across the room until it came to rest under her chair. She began to shift it, trying to move so that he couldn't get to it.

Michael was faster, though, and he soon had his hand on the gun. Just as quickly, Ezra was on his feet, and for the first time since he'd gone missing, Aria saw another emotion besides despair in his eyes. Unadulterated rage clouded his blue eyes, darkening them as his foot kicked back and then swung forward and connected with the older man's rib cage. He continued kicking until Michael caught his leg and pulled him down, falling onto his back. Ezra straddled him as he continued to hit the older man.

"Ezra!" Aria screamed as she saw Michael lift the gun from where he was holding it.

Ezra's free hand stopped swinging and wrapped around the barrel of the gun, shoving it forward with just barely enough time before it went off. Michael continued to pull the trigger, but the gun only clicked as he did, signaling that the magazine was empty.

Ezra began to laugh, and the gun was tossed to the side as Michael had no other use for it, and Ezra's grip had loosened.

The distraction of laughter, even only for a split second, was all that Michael needed to take the upper hand once more. They rolled over once more, and Michael pinned Ezra's good arm above his head as he leaned down and forced his forearm down against Ezra's throat, cutting off his air supply.

"I don't need a god-damn gun to kill you, you worthless piece of trash." Michael growled.

Even as Ezra strained to breathe, he could feel the bulge forming between Michael's legs where he was straddling him. He could hear Aria's cries as she struggled with the ropes that Michael had forced him to tie her up with.

"Please!" She begged in a loud cry. "I'll do anything, but please don't hurt him again!"

Michael looked up at Aria as Ezra squirmed under him. When his wrist started to loosen under Michael's grip, he pressed down harder on Ezra's throat.

"Darlin, you haven't got anything I want," Michael chuckled sickeningly.

Aria stomped her foot against the ground as tears ran down her face. She could see Ezra's ability to fight waning from lack of oxygen. Even so, Michael continued to apply more pressure until the younger man grew limp beneath him and he stopped fighting.

He released his grip as Ezra's eyes slipped shut, and watched as his son's chest rose and fell for only a brief few moments before he moved off of him and reached for the button of Ezra's jeans. He peeled it apart and then moved his fingers to the zipper and began to tug.

Had the cold breeze not hit Aria so roughly, she wouldn't have known the door opened until Michael dove back over Ezra, wrapping his hand around the younger man's throat once more.

She turned her head around as best she could, trying to see.

"Give it up, Michael," Detective Wilden commanded as he reached for his radio with one hand while his other had a tight grip on his gun.

"One move, and I'll snap his neck," Michael argued as Ezra groaned under him. Aria's eyes diverted to him as his eyes began to flutter.

"You know I'll put a bullet through your shoulder before I'd let that happen," Detective Wilden replied. "Now get up and step back from Ezra."

Michael only applied further pressure on Ezra's neck; not enough to kill him, but enough to cut off his air supply once more. The look in his eyes clearly said that he was calling Wilden's bluff.

The crack of the gun going off was so loud that Aria cringed, and she could see Ezra visibly wince as Michael's arm suddenly went limp, causing the older man to drop against him. He quickly shoved Michael off of him and scrambled away until his back was firmly planted against the wall near Aria.

Wilden and several other cops charged into the room, cuffing Michael and removing him from the room while Detective Wilden walked up to Aria and Ezra. He removed the ropes binding Aria's arms.

"You both should go to the hospital," he told them as Aria shot up out of the chair, rubbing her wrists.

I'm fine," she insisted. "He didn't do anything to me."

Ezra pushed up from the floor, trembling slightly as he did so. "I don't need to go to the hospital. He just knocked me around a bit, and my mother is a doctor. She'll make sure I'm taken care of."

"You should be alright," Dianne said as she secured a piece of tape on the light bandaging around her wrist. "We'll keep the bandaging fresh and I'll make sure they don't have you do anything in PE for a few days so your wrists can heal. I'll get you some ice to put on them for now."

Aria could see the distraction in her eyes and turned to look into the family room, where she was staring. Ezra was holding an ice pack to his cheek while Wilden was asking him questions about what had happened.

"I hate him," she said angrily as she looked back at Dianne.

"Who, dear?"

"Michael," Aria replied. "I mean, I hated him before, but…" Her voice trailed off as she turned to look back at Ezra and Wilden. "When I saw his total disregard for Ezra's life tonight." She turned back to look at Dianne. "I've never seen someone so hateful about another person. Not even when everything happened with my friends and me being stalked."

Dianne nodded, walking over to Aria with two small icepacks wrapped in wash cloths. She handed them to Aria and then began to pick up the things that she'd taken out of her medical bag, and placed them back inside of it.

"I've never understood how the man I married could be so cold to his own child." She paused for a moment, and a look that Aria could only understand as unadulterated pain filled her eyes for the briefest moment before she seemed to bury it. "Sometimes I wonder if maybe I made myself blind to what he was doing until I couldn't anymore."

Aria shook her head, standing on her own two feet. "I can't believe that. Even if I wanted to, I've seen you with him. Being blind doesn't seem possible coming from you."

Dianne chuckled, patting Aria's upper arm. "You're too sweet."

They both turned and looked back into the family room, only to be confused by the fact that Wilden was no longer in the room.

Aria walked into the family room, closely followed by Dianne with her bag. She sat down next to Ezra, still holding the icepacks against her wrists.

"Where did Wilden go?" Dianne asked.

"He stepped outside," Ezra said gruffly. He winced, and the bruises on his neck made it clear why. "Someone called."

Dianne nodded. She walked over to Ezra and settled the bag on the table before reaching into it and pulling out a pen light. Ezra rolled his eyes as she turned it on, but let her flash it in his eyes and check him over enough to satisfy her own worries.

Detective Wilden walked back into the house a few moments later as he was tucking his phone back into his pocket. He inhaled a deep breath as he walked up to them.

"What is it?" Dianne asked.

He seemed to contemplate whether it was right to answer her for a few moments before he spoke. "Michael was taken to the infirmary upon arrival from the hospital so that he could be held over for observation. I don't know the full story, but it seems that one of the other convicts got to him."

"Okay?" Ezra and Dianne asked simultaneously.

Wilden looked back and forth between them. "He's dead. Exsanguination seems to be the primary cause."

"Exsanguination is…" Aria's voice trailed off.

"Bleeding to death," Ezra finished for her. She watched as his gaze dropped to the floor, inhaling and exhaling in slow, deep breaths as he tried to digest the information. A moment later, he pushed up from the spot he was seated in and walked out of the room, down the hall to the guest room. He shut the door tightly behind him and then walked over to the box that held his stash of cocaine. He retrieved one of the bags, popped it open, and the poured it out onto the nightstand.

Without a second thought, he removed the rolled-up dollar bill he had taped to the side of the small bag and then placed it against the table and began to inhale as he moved it in the direction of the line of coke.