Five hours later, Aria found herself pulling up to a beautiful beach home subdivision. The trip so far had gone smoothly enough. Emma had bombarded her father with questions about his family, and Ezra in turn filled the trip with silly stories about all of his cousins growing up. It felt good to see him smile so much. Aria mostly just kept quiet, more of a spectator than a participant. She really didn't mind. Seeing both of them happy was close enough for her.
Emma was crashed in the backseat, as Ezra drove through the almost majestic neighborhoods. "I know you don't think the most of me and my family." Ezra said as he turned to face her. "Most of that is pretty legitimate" he admitted. "But these people, they're amazing. My father's side of the family has always been a lot more human than my mother's. If me and Wes have become tainted over the years, that's no fault of the Fitzgerald's."
"So what did you tell them?" Aria suddenly asked. He stiffened up for a moment and then shrugged his shoudlers. "Not much, that I have a daughter. I told them I would explain in person."
Aria sat there for a moment, thinking over his response. "It's just, we never even talked about this ourselves and now were going to explain it a house full of people."
"What's to talk about, you thought I murdered Alison, and kept Emma away from me." Ezra said matter of factly. "Is that what you're going to tell your family? You want them to know I was scared of you?" Aria asked confused. "Well it's the truth" Ezra answered simply. "Is that what we are going to tell our daughter?" Aria questioned again.
Ezra's face changed. Clearly not comfortable with the reality that the truth could change how his daughter looks at him. "It's hard being the bad guy" Aria warned him.
"Well what do you suggest, you've always been pretty good with lying." Ezra replied.
Anger shot threw Aria. "As I remember, you're not so bad yourself. I mean our entire relationship was one big lie. So you tell me Mr. Writer, what you're going to come up with. I'm sure everyone just as dumb as I was will eat it up!" Aria almost shouted.
Ezra instantly felt shamed. He waited for a moment "Our relationship was not a big lie. I waited for years to get the chance to explain that to you. You were never interested."
"I just want to know what story you are throwing out there, so I can prepare myself. For all they know, I probably didn't know who the father of my child was. This is your family, there is now way, they are going to hold you responsible." Aria said frustrated.
"We'll tell them the truth, I don't do lies anymore" Ezra answered calmly. I'll talk to everyone while you get Emma settled in. In time, when we think she can handle it. Well both set her down and tell her the complete truth."
"No, I want to be there when you tell them. You hate my guts, there is no way, you could ever properly defend me." Aria argued. "What about Emma?" Ezra questioned. "She'll be asleep for a while. Let's just get this over with" Aria told him as they pulled in to the driveway.
It was a beautiful home, a two story white frame house on the beach. The view was amazing, and if she hadn't needed Emma to be asleep for a while longer, she would have woken her up just to see it.
Carrying two bags on one shoulder, Ezra reached in and picked up a still sleeping Emma and carried her with his free arm. She instantly curled up to him. Aria grabbed the last bag left in the truck and followed him up to the front door.
Ezra didn't bother knocking on the door. He simply opened the door and held it for Aria to follow. The inside of the house was just as lovely as the outside. Not in a museum kind of way that she would imagine Diane would live, but more like right out of a Target catalog. As soon as they entered the home, they could hear talking and laughter. "Ezra!" A few voices chimed in as they noticed the three coming inside.
As expected there was an awkward silence as the family waited for Ezra to introduce the child in his arms, and the visibly frightened woman standing next to him. "This is Emma" Ezra whispered in grin. "And this is Aria" he added as he turned to face her. "We're going to go lay Emma down, and then well come back down" Nobody said anything, they were just nodding, and looking over Aria and Emma.
"What room are we in?" Ezra asked. "Oh, you got the palm tree room this year" A very beautiful older blonde answered him. "It has the two beds", she added with a polite smile. "Thanks Aunt Lily" Ezra smiled. "No problem baby" she smiled back. Aria couldn't be sure, but it was almost as if Ezra's Aunt was smiling at her directly.
Not feeling comfortable enough yet to be alone with Ezra's family she just turned to follow him up the stairs and in to the bedroom down the hall. It became pretty obvious why this room was dubbed the palm tree room. Framed pictures of palm trees were hung up on the walls, and two fill size beds laid against each side of the room, with a palm tree on each bedspread.
Ezra gently laid the little girl down and tucked her in. "You ready?" He asked her. "As I'll ever be I guess" Aria answered nervously.
As they made their way down the stairs they found that the family was now all huddled in the living room and kitchen all patiently waiting on whatever explanation was coming. Looking over the faces in the room, Aria wasn't surprised that they were all beautiful people. A few of the men resembled Ezra. She tried to pick out his father, but some of them looked so similar.
Another man, clearly related to Ezra walked over and hugged him. He looked to be in his late thirties, but he very much had that Fitzgerald boyish grin. Aria could have sworn he was Matthew Fox. "This should be interesting", he whispered into Ezra's ear, and then took his seat, next to his wife she presumed.
Taking a seat in only couch not taken Aria noticed a familiar face. Wesley seemed to be almost hiding in a corner. She nodded to him politely, he quickly looked away, and towards his brother sadly.
"I know you all have questions, so we decided just to get it all out while everyone is together. I'm not asking for your approval, just giving you the full story. Emma is already very important to me, and I want…need everyone to welcome her."
"You know you don't have to ask us, we are already dying to meet the newest Fitzgerald!" Ezra's aunt assured him. "I know, I just haven't really told this whole story to anyone, must less my entire family at once."
"Spit it out, I've got ribs in the smoker" Ezra's cousin laughed.
"Remember that murder I helped with police with, of that girl in Rosewood?"
"Yes" and "Of courses" answered his question.
"To make a really long story short, Aria and I were dating for a few years. What she didn't know was when I met her I actually trying to write a story about the murder of one of her best friends." Everyone looked stunned at his admission. "I didn't even mean to start a relationship with her, but once I had met her, it was pretty much unstoppable." Ezra admitted.
Aria couldn't help but blush. "And if I'm telling the whole truth, on the first day of teaching my first year, I realized that Aria was my student." Ezra added. The entire room was now in complete silence. "He did try to end it at that point, but walking away was almost impossible." Aria added sweetly.
"Almost the entire time we were together, everyone was looking in to the murder. The girls, Aria and her friends, had been piecing together most of what happened to their friend. They had come to the conclusion that she was seeing some mysterious older man, and he played some role in her death." Ezra went on.
"And then we found out the older guy was Ezra, and he had this secret relationship with her, and our meeting, our everything, was a lie" Aria interjected. "It looked like he was hiding it protect himself, I panicked. Once he realized that I knew he went running after me. I took off. It was a few days after that I found out I was pregnant. I couldn't take any changes with my baby, so I left town."
Ezra looked around the room at his family. Still no one else was talking. He knew they were disappointed. "Well explain yourself boy" an older man, either an uncle or his father spoke up. "I never hurt anyone. I was seeing Alison, until I found out how young she was, and then I broke it off. I never intented to hurt Aria, I was going to interview her for a novel I was writing about the murder. It all sort of snowballed into one bigger and bigger lie. I ran after her, because I knew what she was thinking about me, I wanted to explain."
"So how did you find out about the baby? His aunt asked confused. "Emma found me. She had her cousin ask me to help him on an essay he was working on. She came with him, and we ended up hitting it off" Ezra smiled at the memory. "A friend of mine confronted me about hiding my daughter from them, and then I realized that she was my daughter."
"He went to my mother, and she confirmed it" Aria clarified.
Again a silence consumed the room. "So all this time you thought Ezra was a murderer?" A younger brunette asked.
"When I found out he was the one Ali had been seeing, and he had been lying to me all that time, I…. I had a mental breakdown. I realized that I didn't even know him, and I can't put my baby in that situation. It was years later that the story came out that Ezra helped find the actual killer. At that point I just needed to make sure Emma was ready for the truth." Aria explained.
"So now you trust him again?" The younger brunette pressed. Aria was taken aback, she was not prepared for the question. "I trust him to be a good father" she answered finally.
"Well then, I guess it's time for all of us to we get back to our relaxing weekend. I'm sure Jack will have dinner ready before we know it." Ezra's Aunt Lily smiled.
As the Fitzgerald's started to disperse Ezra went outside with Jack, and his Aunt walked up to Aria and linked arms with her. "Aria, I want you feel as comfortable as possible here. You might be a new face, but family is family" she smiled sweetly.
"Thank you" Aria said relieved. "Come now, join us on the patio for a glass of wine with the girls" Lily offered.
"I'd love too, but I need to go check on Emma, I don't want her to wake up alone." Aria explained. "Well leave that to Ezra, he can hold the fort down, while we women pick up our feet" Lily smirked. As they stepped outside Lily called out to the men "Ezra dear, do you mind keeping an eye out for little Emma to wake up, I invited Aria to join us for a glass of wine."
"Of course" Ezra simply nodded. "Well then pretty girl, I'll introduce you. I know it's a lot of names all at once. We are an Irish family, we tend to get pretty big" she giggled.
"I am Lily, Ezra's aunt. My husband and Ezra's father are brothers. That handsome man over there with the grandbabies, that is my love Matthew." Sitting down with four other woman, Lily went on. "Aria, this is my sister in law Shelly, she's married to Ezra's uncle Thomas. This one here is my daughter in law Lyndsey she is married to my son Jack, and finally my own baby girl Kaitlyn. She are Ezra have always been very close, hence the grilling earlier." Lily laughed.
"It's nice to meet all of you" Aria greeted them nervously. "It's good to finally have a face to go with the name." Lyndsey smiled warmly. Aria smiled back, but was surprised that she had known her name. "You are very beautiful, I can see why Ezra was so heartbroken to lose you" Lyndsey added.
Aria shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Lily handed her glass of white wine. "So why did you pick the name Emma?" Kaitlyn asked. Aria had to remind herself to relax, this was the situation she signed up for. "Before everything happen with Ezra, we had talked about what we would name our future babies. Ezra said he wanted to name a girl after his grandmother. When she was born she looked so much like him, I sort of took it as a sign and gave her the name he wanted."
The answer seemed to go over well as the women smiled at her. "So tell us about her" Lily asked. Aria finally did relax, talking about Emma was one of her favorite things to do in world, and for the most part these people seemed to have a genuine interest.
"So, what's up with you two?" Jack asked. "Nothing" Ezra quickly responded.
"So the woman you've been pinning over for years, now the mother of your child is taking a family vacation with you, and that equates to nothing?" Jack pressed.
"Well I guess that what we are now, a family….by default." Ezra conceded.
"So after all this time, you're saying there's nothing there" Jack smirked.
"I'm saying that I forced myself out of love with that woman years ago, and that was before I knew she was keeping my daughter from me. I can think of several for letter words, but none of them are love." Ezra said annoyed.
"Ok, Ez. I get it" Jack laughed. "But seriously, I can't imagine being in your position. Missing those first few years with my girls, it's unimaginable." Jack said sadly.
"Daddy! Daddy! Look what I made!" Ezra and Jack both turned to the two year old Sara, proudly showing off her scribbled drawling. "Can I keep it?" Jack asked excitedly. The little girl giggled and answered "yes" sweetly.
Ezra sat back, and watched them. He ached inside from never having that for him and Emma. Eight years was an eternity. Jack looking over at him instantly knew what was on Ezra's mind. He send Sara back with her sister and cousins, and walked back over to him.
"No one can change the past Ezra, all you can do, is enjoy the time you do have left". Jack said softly.
"Yeah, it's just the anger tends to take over." Ezra admitted. "No matter what she thought, I didn't deserve this"
"I know man. I know." Jack told him put his hand on Ezra's shoulders. "Come on let's go wake her up, she has cousins to meet" Jack smiled.
Hours later Emma was exhausted after playing with her cousins. Ezra and most of his cousins had spent hours on the beach singing and playing guitars, and the ladies bonded over parenting stories. Aria laid Emma down in one of the beds.
Ezra was going through his bag, getting his things for the shower. "I had fun today, we both have" she smiled to him.
"I knew she would love it here, she's a Fitzgerald" he dryly answered. Aria didn't respond, she just nodded.
"I've already filed to have Emma's name changed, it matters to me. You can say what you want about my family, but the name Montgomery is no shinning beacon of armor either. My child won't walk around bearing your father's name." Ezra said firmly.
"I won't try to stop you." Aria said softly. "I know Emma would love that." She smiled at him. "Believe it or not, I'm thrilled you two have bonded so fast. I love being able to witness it." She said sincerely.
"Well I've already missed everything" Ezra said harshly. "I'm trying to catch up, and it will never happen. I'll get to be her Dad, but I never got to be Daddy...from what I hear, that's a pretty amazing thing" Ezra voice was beginning to crack.
Aria couldn't speak. There was nothing she could say. She instinctively reached out for his hand. Ezra immediately recoiled from her, and left to take his shower.
Soooo…. I know a lot of people are getting impatient with Ezra, but losing that time with your only child is a crushing blow, and he felt hurt by Aria as soon as she left town. Have patience my loves, there is an end in sight, try to enjoy the rideJ. Let me know what you think! I kind of get discouraged easily.
P.S Tonight starts season five! Finally us Ezrians will stop being tortured and starting loving every second of each Ezria moment! EEKKKKKK!
