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No Place to Run

It had been a few weeks since the dance and Aria had returned home, eventually understanding why her sister had been keeping those secrets from her. After all, A had them all twisted up and keeping secrets from the people that they cared about. Quinn was just trying to protect her.

For now though, things were still tense. Quinn was still less than enthused about Aria's relationship with Ezra but that wasn't their biggest concern right now and neither was Quinn's avoidance of Jason since the dance. Aria and her friends had gone to the police station with evidence the day before. They had come across it during a rehearsal for the school play and thought that it was the weapon Ian had used to kill Alison. When the police investigated though, it turned out that the blood wasn't even human; it looked like the girls were lying.

That afternoon, the girls were picked up and taken to the police station for questioning on the evidence and why they were so sure that Ian was the killer. Spencer's mom was there with them, though they weren't being charged with anything currently. When Aria finally came out, she saw her friends getting together with their parents as they got ready to leave. Quinn, however, wasn't among them.

"Aria," Mrs. Marin said, getting her attention as she looked around for her sister. Hanna and her mom were the only ones left now as Spencer and Emily had already been taken home. "Do you need a ride home honey?"

"Oh, no, it's ok," Aria smiled at her. "I'm sure my sister's almost here, I'll just wait for her."

Aria sat and waited for close to an hour on a bench inside the police station, though it felt like it had been five hours. Garrett kept peeking at her from his desk, though he never got up to talk to her or see how she was. Outside, Aria noticed how late it was starting to get and she began to worry. Each time she tried to call Quinn though it went straight to voice mail.

"Come on," she heard a voice saying. When she looked up, she saw that Detective Wilden was standing in front of her. "Gotta take you home kid."

Aria rolled her eyes, following Darren out to his car. He was as sketchy as ever, but she knew it was better to take the ride home from him now rather than cause even more questions over where her sister was and why she wasn't picking her up. Right now, Quinn certainly wasn't in the running for guardian of the year as she still wasn't able to be reached to pick Aria up from the police station.

"What do you want to listen to?" Wilden offered, letting Aria pick the radio station. He was being unusually pleasant, which put Aria off even more. She remembered when he used to come by their house, when he used to be friends with Quinn and the other older crowd in Rosewood; he had always called her kid back then too. She also remembered how her sister hadn't really liked him back then, though she completely despised him now.

Getting to the apartment, Aria expected for Darren to just leave her at the door but he got out with her. He claimed that he couldn't leave her alone without knowing where her guardian was, but Aria felt like that was just an excuse for him to bother Quinn in some way. As Aria was opening the door to the apartment, they both turned their heads as they heard someone coming down the hall; it was Quinn, who hurried down the hall faster as she saw who was with her sister.

"What's going on?" Quinn asked, taking over the door. She had nearly pushed Aria inside, standing between her and Darren as she kept him out in the hallway. She was tired of him popping up every where she went just to harass her. These days, Aria noticed her sister seemed extra jumpy but she didn't know why. They hadn't been receiving too many messages from A and both Jason and Garrett seemed to be leaving her alone.

"Just bringing Aria back from the station," Darren informed her, looking to Aria briefly before locking eyes with Quinn again.

"You can't question her without me," Quinn snapped at him. "She's a minor."

"You couldn't seem to be reached," Darren fired back. "Whatever you were doing was more important." Now he was just trying to burn her.

"I had my phone off, I was in the library," Quinn said, brushing a piece of hair out of her eyes before crossing her arms. Though Darren didn't pick up on the tell, Aria did. Quinn always brushed at the pieces of hair around her face when she was lying. "And that still doesn't change the fact that you-"

"Spencer's mom was there," Aria jumped in, though defending Darren earned her a bit of glare.

"Your room," Quinn said, her tone serious and her eyes narrow. Aria went off to her room, knowing that her sister wasn't kidding around right now. Sitting on her bed, Aria strained to hear what Quinn and Darren were talking about but they kept their voices low. Eventually, though, she heard things start to escalate.

"What are you really doing here?" Quinn demanded. "I know it's not because you're worried about Aria's well being."

"Actually, as an officer I am," Darren said back. "You're supposed to be responsible for her and-"

"Don't you dare!" Quinn stopped him. "She's my sister, ok, and you-"

"No one could find you today!" Darren cut her off. "For hours, you were gone and she needed you." He smirked a little. "And, considering the part you're playing in a certain investigation-"

"Get out!" Quinn shouted at him, though he was out far enough in the hall for her to slam the door before locking it. Hearing the door slam, Aria jumped. She waited a moment before tip toeing out of her room, peeking her head out the door where she saw Quinn going outside to smoke on the fire escape. Rolling her eyes again, Aria went over to sit on the window sill to talk to her sister.

"Thought you were taking up running," Aria commented as she sat down.

"Doesn't work the same," Quinn mumbled, taking a long drag before letting the smoke out. Aria hated her sister's smoking, but at least at wasn't like her drinking. "What happened today?"

"You remember that trophy I told you about yesterday?" Aria asked; Quinn nodded. "It was fake." She sighed. "Should have known that A planted it."

"Story of our lives now," Quinn muttered, continuing to smoke. Aria hesitated before asking the next question because she wasn't sure she wanted to know what the answer was.

"Where were you today?" Aria finally asked, her voice quiet. These days, secrets between them made her nervous.

"You don't need to worry about it," Quinn eventually answered, flicking her cigarette butt off the edge of the fire escape before climbing back inside.

"Quinn," Aria protested as her sister closed the window, carefully locking it. When Quinn turned around to look at her, Aria had never seen that look in her eyes before. It wasn't like she was telling her to stop, it was almost like she was pleading.

"It's not safe right now," Quinn said, her voice matter of fact. In the weeks since they had started hearing from A, their safety had been called into question more than once. It was their new normal to be concerned about where the next attack might be coming from.

"Quinn, if we're keeping secrets from each other-"

"Then it's for a good reason Aria," Quinn interrupted her.

"I was going to say it's like the old days," Aria said back, her voice cold. "With the drugs, the accident, the-"

"Just stop it," Quinn snapped at Aria, not ever wanting to talk about those things again. "All right? God, I can't take this anymore." She ran her hands through her hair anxiously. "With A and Alison. Dodging Garrett and Darren, and everything in between."

"And you think I can?" Aria argued back. Right now it felt like Quinn thought she was the only one deal with this. Quinn seemed nervous now, twisting her hands. Aria knew that she was thinking something but she didn't know how to say it. "What?"

"What if you left Rosewood?" Quinn asked. "If you could just get out of here, then-"

"What, and go back to Iceland?" Aria snapped. "Are you kidding me? All my friends are here, and Ezra! And you! How could you just ship me off to-"

"Ok, ok ok, ok," Quinn said quickly, waving her hands in front of Aria to get her attention. Clearly the prospect of going back to Europe with their parents and brother was not even on the table. "I'm sorry, ok? Just breathe."

"You want to send me away?" Aria asked her.

"I don't want to," Quinn shook her head. "I just thought...I mean...if you were out of the country A couldn't get to you. I just want you to be safe."

"Hey," Aria said, giving her a half smile. "It's you and me in this. Ok?"

"I'm the older sister Aria," Quinn reminded her. "It's my job to keep you safe."

"Just don't send me to Iceland," Aria repeated. "Promise."

"Promise," Quinn said, offering her pinky finger like they did when they were kids. Aria laughed a little, linking Quinn's pinky with hers.

"All right," Aria smiled to change the subject as she released Quinn's hand. "Do you want me to make you coffee or something?"

"For what?" Quinn asked in a bit of confusion.

"Isn't tonight your first over night shift at the hospital?" Aria asked curiously.

Quinn had forgotten about it because she had lied. Over the last few weeks, Quinn needed to get out of the house for a few hours at a time. She would tell Aria that the school was requiring her to get intern hours before she could graduate this year. That part was true, but her real internship wouldn't start until the spring semester and it would be closer to home. She lied saying that she had been placed at a hospital an hour away though, giving her an excuse to escape town for a few hours.

"Oh yeah," Quinn said, playing dumb as she rubbed her forehead. "God, that's tonight."

"Yeah, you're going to need that coffee," Aria chuckled, rubbing Quinn's arm as she walked by to the kitchen to make her coffee for that night. Quinn felt a pit beginning to form in her stomach, knowing that she was back to lying to her sister again. She was doing it not only for her sister though, but for herself. The lies were to keep Aria safe but to also give Quinn what she wanted. After all of this, she felt that she deserved a small piece of happiness.

It happened the weekend after the dance, purely by accident. She had been out shopping and ran into one of her old friends from high school, CeCe Drake. She hadn't be especially close to CeCe, she wasn't part of the main group or anything, but they were still pretty good friends. She used to date Eric, Noel Kahn's older brother. Eric and Jason were friends in that they used to do some deals together, when Jason had been heavily involved with drugs.

According to CeCe, her and Eric had started to see each other again. After running into each other, CeCe insisted that Quinn come to a party that night up at the Kahn's family cabin. Quinn knew the cabin well, having gone to plenty of parties there through high school and the first part of college. She knew it well enough to know that there was a secret room in the back, where the boys used to keep their stash in between deals.

As it turned out, Jason had been crashing at the Kahn's cabin in that old back room. There was a mattress on the floor and an old tv in the corner, that was about it; there weren't even windows. He had been staying in Ian's apartment since Ian had moved in with Melissa, but now the lease was up and the landlord was ready to rent to new tenants. With Jason recently coming into some family money, he was planning to buy back his family's old house from Maya's family. They weren't closing for a few weeks though, so for now he needed a place to stay. Quinn didn't know he was staying there until she got to the party. And it wasn't until towards the end of the party that she found herself staying the night.

This was where Quinn had been disappearing too, sneaking off to see Jason in secret. She was careful about it, hiding her car off the main road and walking the rest of the way to the cabin. Normally, she only came up for a little bit but now she had planned to stay over for the first night since the party. Since it was normally day light when she came up, it never bothered to to walk up the shaded path to the cabin. Now, as it was dark outside, she became more uneasy as she made her way up to the cabin, feeling the pocket knife she had started to keep in her jacket. Since Ian had pretty much threatened her at the dance, she rarely felt safe alone. As she climbed up onto the porch, she let herself into the cabin with the key under the mat.

Once inside, the cabin was mostly dark. Figuring Jason was probably in the back room, she felt her way along the walls towards it. When she got in, she saw that the light was on but Jason wasn't in there. Hearing footsteps out in the hall, she turned to go out to see where he was.

"Jay?" she asked, stepping back out into the hallway. All there was were more footsteps. Quinn walked down the dark hall alone, going towards where she thought the footsteps were coming from. As she got further down the hallway though, they seemed to be coming from behind her. Turning around quickly, she ran smack into the person causing her to jump and take a swing.

"Hey, whoa," Jason said, catching her hand. "It's ok babe, it's me."

"Holy hell Jay," Quinn complained, pushing against his bare chest. He must have just been getting ready for bed since he was just in his gym shorts. "Didn't you hear me calling you?"

"I was in the bathroom," he explained. Even in the dark, Quinn noticed he had his toothbrush with him. "Come on." He took her hand, taking her back through the dark to the room he had been crashing in, the tv on with low volume and a messy pile of blankets on the small mattress.

"So, I didn't know I was getting you all night too," Jason smiled as he closed the door, kissing her once; she had been up there with him that afternoon when Aria had been trying to call her. Though he wasn't too crazy about the fact that they had to sneak around so much, but he was happy to have Quinn back.

"Hey," he said, noticing her expression; she seemed shaken up. "You all right?"

"You just really got me out there," she said lightly, giving him a small smile though there were a few things on her mind right now.

"I wish you would have let me know you were coming up," Jason said, taking a seat on the mattress. He tugged on her hand to get her to sit next to him. "I could have walked up with you from your car." He ran a hand over her hair. "You shouldn't be walking alone in the dark like that."

He had always worried about Quinn, he didn't want anything to happen to her. He was always concerned about her when they were dating the first time, especially in times like when he was away at school and she would go out to parties alone. Now though, with everything that happened to his sister, in addition to their troubles with Darren and Garrett, he was worried about her being on her own even more now. He wished he could stay with her at the apartment, that he could be with her outside this cabin, but she was more on edge than he was about keeping their relationship low key.

"I couldn't have called you or anything," Quinn reminded him. She had no idea how it happened, but A knew everything, including when she talked to Jason and when she was with him. Was A watching her, or keeping some kind of tabs on her phone? In any case, as soon as she would leave to come up to the cabin, she turned off her phone and left it in the car. There was no way she was risking being tracked through it.

"Right, phone thing," he commented, like he didn't think that she needed to be that overly cautious.

"Jay," she complained. "What we're doing is working, it-"

"I know," Jason stopped her, understanding. There was a lot at stake right now, them seeing each other like this; their safety, their secrets, everything. He put an arm around her waist to pull her over into his lap. "Trust me." He kissed her once, smiling a little as he pulled away. "It's better than nothing." She gave a small smile back, one that said that she was still unhappy about something.

"Quinn, what's wrong?" Jason asked again. "Did you get a text or something?"

"No," Quinn shook her head quickly. Thankfully, it hadn't been that though it wasn't much better. "I told you about that trophy earlier?" Jason nodded, remembering the story. He hadn't been happy when she came clean about knowing about Ian and Alison, but he knew that both of them had blackmailed her so he understood.

"I guess it was fake or something," Quinn continued. "I didn't get the whole story from Aria, but it looks like they were set up."

"By A?"

"Or Ian," Quinn offered. "If he can make them look guilty, like they're trying to set him up then it sort of gets him off the hook for-"

"Can we not go there right now?" Jason asked. It was still hard to believe that his best friend since he was a kid could do something like this to his sister. "I'm worn out with all this." Earlier that afternoon when Quinn had been there, she had talked his ear off about the trophy and Ian's involvement, the things she thought might have happened. "Right now, I just want to be with my girl." He smiled a little, ready to tease her. "If that's ok with you."

"I mean, I guess," Quinn giggled, kissing him.

She didn't know how she went this long without being with Jason. And until now she had refused to acknowledge how much she had missed him but she really had. She loved him, she needed him. And, though it wasn't perfect right now, she was so glad to have him back.

Early the next morning Quinn woke Jason up to say goodbye before slipping out of the cabin and heading back to her car. Though it was against her better judgement, they agreed to meet up at the founder's festival that night. Sneaking around was sort of fun, it was like when they were in high school and had to sneak around her parents. Part of it was exciting, though mostly it was nerve racking.

"Where have you been?" Aria asked Quinn quickly as she came back into the apartment that morning. "I've been trying to call you!"

"I can't have my phone on in the ICU," Quinn lied and her sister bought it. "What's going on?"

"Mom called," Aria explained.

"Is everything ok?" Quinn asked immediately.

"Depends on what you think is ok," Aria mumbled as Quinn came over to the couch to sit with her. "She's coming home, tonight, and she's bringing Mike back with her."

"What, why?" Quinn asked in confusion. The last time she had talked to her mom she had been loving Iceland.

"Because she got an anonymous email a few days ago about dad and Meredith," Aria explained. "With pictures."

"Oh God," Quinn said, falling back against the couch with her hands over her face. Was this her fault? Had A somehow found out about her and Jason, and now she was being punished for it?

"It gets better," Aria said sarcastically, opening up the last message on her phone. "After I got off the phone with mom, I got this." Quinn read over the text message.

There's no place I can't get you - A

"It's like they knew about you thinking about sending me to Iceland," Aria continued. "And now they're trying to prove a point."

"Was someone in here last night?" Quinn asked, panic rising in her voice as she started searching the apartment though she wasn't sure what she would find.

"Quinn, relax," Aria pleaded, not wanting her sister to have a panic attack as she got up to follow her. "Listen, I think we should call Garrett. He obviously cares and he's a cop. Plus-"

"My window's unlocked," Quinn said, coming out of her room. "I always leave it locked. It's like someone broke in and then couldn't lock it from outside."

"What if we went home with mom?" Aria asked quickly, trying to calm her sister's nerves. "She's going to need us, and maybe it'll be better in a big house than here."

"Don't you get it Aria?" Quinn snapped, though she hadn't meant to. "There's no place to run to. Nothing's secret or safe!" With that, Quinn rushed out of the apartment.

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