Chapter 14

It's One Way To Afford A Horizon

Aria scowled as she drug her feet lazily into the kitchen the next morning. Her scowl deepened as she bumped into her father.

"Coffee," she growled.

Byron chuckled and stepped aside. He was chatting on his cell phone to someone, but Aria ignored him as she grabbed two mugs from the counter and filled them. She added cream and sugar to both before stirring them with a spoon and then grabbing the mugs and walking back to the bedroom.

She settled one mug on the table next to Ezra and then shook his shoulder gently. He groaned and looked up at her. She offered him the mug she was still holding. Ezra sat up and took it from her. Aria picked up the other mug and took a long drink from it.

"Last day," he murmured after taking a drink from his own cup. He let out a soft moan of approval at its taste.

Aria chuckled, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Yeah, and then all I have to worry about is finding a new therapist, going through a trial, and figuring out whether I'm staying at Rosewood Day."

Ezra gave her a sympathetic smile before taking another drink from his coffee. He reached over and grabbed his watch off the table, checking the time. "We should get up. Its almost seven."

Aria pouted. "I'm sleeping 'til noon tomorrow."

Ezra chuckled. "I'll hold you to that."

They both moved off the bed, and Aria grabbed a pair of clean clothes from her duffel bag before walking out of the room and into the bathroom. She turned the shower on and let the water run for a few moments as she stripped out of her pajamas, and then stepped under the stream.

She pulled the glass door shut behind her and let the water wet her hair. After she was thoroughly wet, she washed her hair and then washed her body. Once she rinsed off she got out of the shower and quickly dried off and then dressed. She pulled on dark grey denim shorts that fell mid-way to her thigh, and a long black tank top. She adjusted it on her shoulders before walking across the hallway back to the bedroom. Ezra had dressed in a pair of blue jean shorts and a sea foam green shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

Aria tossed her dirty clothes into a basket resting on the floor and then opened her duffel bag again and pulled out a hairbrush. She ran it through her hair before pulling her hair up into a high ponytail.

"You look nice," Ezra teased as he pulled a sneaker on one of his feet. Aria smiled at him.

"Likewise."

Before either of them could say anything else, Ella popped her head around the doorframe.

"We need to get going," she said.

Aria nodded. She picked up her bag from the floor and then leaned over and pecked Ezra on the lips. She smiled at him before walking out of the room.

"Bye, honey. I love you," he called teasingly after her. Aria popped her head back around the doorframe and stuck her tongue out at him.

She took on the highest pitch sing-songy voice she could. "Bye, baby. Olive juice too."

Laughter crossed the house at their antics, and Aria giggled as well as she walked into the sitting room. She grabbed her sandals from the floor and pulled them on her feet. Afterwards, she followed her mother out of the house and toward their cars.

-
Listen, listen, I would take a whisper
If that's all you had to give
-

The morning passed easily for Aria. She buckled down and managed to do pretty well on her finals, before heading back to her locker and clearing it out. It took her a bit, but most of the students were gone at that point, except for a few who'd had their lockers plastered with photos and pin-ups.

She headed down the hallway, tossing a crumpled ball of paper into the trash as she came around a corner. She was happy that the school year was finally over. It meant that she wouldn't have to see Grady on a daily basis anymore, and that her world was wide open. Granted, there were the things she'd talked to Ezra about that morning, but those things wouldn't monopolize her entire summer.

She stumbled as she was suddenly yanked to the side, and winced as her back slammed into the wall. Her eyes opened a moment later as she was shoved through a door. Before she could manage to gather her bearings, she was pinned up against a wall.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right here."

His voice was loud, and his breath smelled terribly. Aria grimaced as she opened her eyes to look at him. His hand was resting at the base of her neck, and his body was pressed up against hers. He wasn't squeezing her throat, but she knew if he wanted to, he could hurt her.

"What?" She murmured.

"Casey Walker dumped me because of you. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't snap your little twig of a neck right now and leave you here." He seethed.

Aria looked up into his steely green eyes, clenching her jaw as she swallowed hard. "At least she knows the truth about you. She deserves better." He squeezed his hand around her throat and Aria squirmed. He let up his hold a moment later and laughed as she struggled to take a breath, but his body was still pressed up against hers, keeping her pinned against the wall.

"You're a whore and you know it." His words dripped with malice. "You earned everything that happened to you. What kind of sixteen year old in their right mind sleeps with a twenty-three year old. Fitz sees you for the whore you are. I just capitalized on it." She'd be lying if she denied that his words stung her, even if they weren't true. But she couldn't dwell long, as his hands roamed over her body and moved under her shirt, pulling at the button on her shorts.

Aria suddenly whipped her body away from him, only to have him press her up against the wall, face first. He shoved his hand into her panties, and she cried out as his nails dug into her skin from the roughness of his movements. He let up on her a few moments later to remove unbutton his own jeans, and she chose that moment to strike.

With the small amount of room, there was very little she could do to move, but she managed to elbow him in the side of the head. He fell into the wall next to them, and Aria turned around and charged for the door, just two feet away.

Grady grabbed her arm and slammed her back against the wall. His hand slapped across her face, knocking her to the floor. He came down on top of her and attempted to pin her arms above her head, hitting her several times in the face in the process. Aria screamed and squirmed below him, and said a silent prayer at her years in gymnastics as a kid when she managed to get a leg tucked up to her chest.

With all the force she could muster, she kicked him squarely in the chest, knocking him off of her again, and onto the floor. She pushed herself up from the floor quickly and then ran for the door once more.

She got it pulled halfway open when he yanked on her ponytail, but she let out a shrill scream. He gripped her face in his other hand so tightly that his nails dug into her skin, and began spewing out a stream of curses at her.

The door behind him opened a few moments later, and he was yanked off of her by the principal and two teachers. They tried to tend to Aria, but she quickly pushed past them and walked out of the room. She left her dropped bag on the floor and walked through the halls until she came to stand in front of her mother's classroom.

"Mom?" Her voice trembled as Ella looked up at her.

Ella gaped at the sight of her daughter and quickly dashed over to her. Aria jumped when her mother actually touched her. Her shorts were still unbuttoned, and the collar of her shirt was ripped.

"Aria, what happened?" Ella cried.

Aria shook her head. Her hand shook as she reached down and struggled to button her shorts. She could see that she had scrapes on her hands and arms, and her wrists and throat hurt where he'd grabbed her.

"I don't know exactly," she murmured. Her mouth felt incredibly dry. "I was leaving, and he grabbed me, and pulled me in the bathroom. I j-just kept screaming."

Ella shook her head, grabbing her bottle of water and a box of tissues from the front desk. She took the cap off the water and poured a small amount onto a tissue and as she helped Aria to settle on the top of one of the desks. She wiped gently at the smeared make up, but her main concern was a bleeding cut next to Aria's left eye.

"He won't get away with this," Ella said firmly. "Did…Did he-"

"No," Aria said quickly. "I kept fighting him, and screaming. The principal, a-and Mrs. Welsh, and some other teacher must've heard me." Ella nodded, frowning. She walked over to her desk and opened it. She pulled out a first aid kit and opened it up, and then placed two thin strips over the cut on Aria's face. She had a few other scrapes, but none of them were bleeding as badly as the one next to her eye, and they didn't warrant bandages.

"My bag," she said softly. "I dropped it when he grabbed me. I have another shirt in it."

"I've got it." Ella and Aria looked up toward the door as the principal stepped into the room carrying Aria's bag. He walked over to them and handed over the bag. Aria took it from him nervously. She dug through it with twitchy fingers until she found the t-shirt. She pulled it out and then moved off the desk.

"Use the teacher's bathroom," Ella said. "It's just a few doors down." Aria nodded. She walked out of the room and into the teacher's bathroom. Once inside, she locked the door behind her and then changed numbly into the clean shirt. It was a very light pink with dinosaurs on it. After she changed, she looked up at herself in the mirror. Bruises were trying to start to come through on her neck. She frowned at her reflection, and several tears ran down her face.

She turned the faucet on at the sink and washed her hands quickly before grabbing her ripped shirt and walking out of the room. She walked quickly back to her mother's classroom. Ella was stuffing things into her briefcase.

"Ready to go?" She asked Aria.

Aria nodded.

Ella walked over to the door and flipped the light switch off. There was nothing that needed be done so urgently that day that couldn't be put off until the next. Once they were out of the room, Ella wrapped a loose arm around Aria, rubbing her hand comfortingly up and down Aria's arm.

-
Meet me in the shadows
Won't you tell me what you've found
-

Ezra looked over at Ethan as he dropped a book into a box and pulled the flaps down. He could tell that Ethan was bored. And even though he should've been grading papers, all he wanted to do was get the office packed up. The less time he had to spend in it, the better.

"Why don't you just go," he asked. "I'm sure Byron has something really interesting going on in his office." Ethan chuckled. "There's a reason I'm here." Ezra rolled his eyes. "Yes, a reason that hasn't made itself very present. He's obviously not going to show up today. I'm just waiting for the paperwork on the new coffee table, and then I'm leaving, and I'm not coming back until some time tomorrow afternoon to finish cleaning things up in here."

Ethan shook his head at Ezra. Ezra returned to packing boxes, and things were silent for a few minutes, before Ethan's phone began to ring. Ezra looked up at him for a brief moment before turning his attention back to the boxes.

"You did what!"

Ezra looked back up at his father again, eyes wide. That was a tone he knew well, and he was pretty sure that Ethan had probably done something stupid. He shook his head, though he couldn't help but laugh a little. It was nice to see his brother get a little bit of parenting after the past week being focused all on him.

"Damn it, Eli. I'll see what I can do. I'll call them back in a bit. Hang tight, alright?" Ethan said. He hung up his phone a moment later.

Ezra raised an eyebrow. "What'd he do?" "Joined a protest against some study that's supposed to happen in the science department. Apparently it's cruelty to animals, and he joined a couple of friends. Some of the kids got rowdy about it though, and a bunch of them got arrested. They're saying they won't release him because he doesn't have the money for a bond." Ethan explained.

Ezra cackled softly as he shook his head. "Just go. He needs you more right now than I do."

Ethan stared Ezra down. "I won't leave you vulnerable to this psycho, EJ. I just won't."

"Byron is just a few hallways away," Ezra insisted. "And I'm leaving here in just a bit. I swear I'm just waiting on that paperwork. Half-hour, tops, and I'll be out of here. Now go. Your other son needs you right now."Ethan clearly wasn't sold on the option, but he didn't fight it any further anyway. He tucked his phone into his pocket and then looked back up at Ezra. "Anything happens, and you call me first thing, alright?"Ezra nodded. He waved as Ethan headed out of the room. He spent the next few minutes continuing to pack things up into boxes. He already had the finals that he needed to grade packed up into his bag to take home and grade.

"Ezra Fitz?"

Ezra looked up from his desk, holding a book in his hands. A man was standing in the doorway with a clipboard in his hands. A silent rush of mirth rushed through him. He'd be able to get out of there quicker than he planned.

"Can I help you?" He asked.

The man nodded. "Got some papers for you to sign for a new table ordered?" The name on his shirt said Adam.

Ezra nodded, looking over at the one still sitting in the room. It looked desperately pathetic compared to all the other furniture in his office. It was easily obvious that it was old, and not in a good way. He walked over to the man and took the clipboard from him.

"Just need your account number and a few signatures," Adam said as Ezra looked over the sheet. He looked around the room. "You seem to have a nice setup here."

Ezra looked up at him and then back down at the papers he was signing. "Thanks."

"Certainly have come a long way in a year."

Ezra furrowed his brow and looked up at the guy. "Excuse me?"

"Don't recognize me?" Adam asked.

Ezra looked at him suspiciously. "Excuse me?"

Before he realized what had happened, he was on the ground, blood dripping from his lower lip. He brought his good hand up to his lip "What the hell?" His eyes grew wide as he watched Adam pull the door shut. Suddenly he couldn't scramble fast enough to get to his feet as dozens of new flashbacks ran through his mind like a racing movie reel. "Get the hell out of here, now!"

"You drove me out of town," Adam growled as he advanced towards Ezra. He punched him again, and then kneed him in the gut. "Had a pretty nice setup before you went to the paper."

He shoved Ezra to the ground and dropped next to him, holding him by the collar of his shirt as he returned to punching him.

"You were raping students," Ezra argued as he tried to deflect the man's fists. He screamed as Adam brought his knee down on his healing wrist.

"I should've killed you that day in your dorm," he growled s he picked up Ezra by the collar and slammed his head back into the floor. He moved to his feet and began kicking Ezra in the torso.

Ezra struggled to get onto his elbows and knees, trying to get in a breath. "Why come back now," he gasped in several short breaths.

"Because you're the unfinished piece of the puzzle," Adam growled. The memory rang in Ezra's mind of his father saying that. Adam stomped on Ezra's cast-covered arm several times, causing the plaster to fracture and weaken as he did so. He pushed himself up onto his hands with less restraint from the cast, and Adam kicked him, knocking him into the coffee table. It finally gave way, and one of the legs snapped off.

"You'll never get away with his," Ezra groaned, spewing blood from his split lip. "Someone will catch you eventually."

Adam kicked him in the side of the head, effectively knocking him unconscious. The last relevant thought running through his head was that this was the same man he'd spotted chatting up his girlfriend a few days earlier in a coffee shop.

-
No I've never seen the sky
As vanilla as tonight
-

Byron walked through the halls towards Ezra's office. He'd just gotten a call from Ethan asking for him to check in on Ezra, when a phone call had gone unanswered. Normally, he would've drummed the missed call up to kids being kids, but after the call he'd gotten just minutes before that from Ella telling him that Aria had been attacked at school, he wasn't leaving anything to chance.

He pulled the office door open, and the sight before him made him want to vomit. By the look on the man's face in front of him, he very clearly wasn't supposed to have stumbled upon the current situation, but from what he could tell, his daughter's boyfriend wasn't exactly conscious to consent to it.

Blind rage filled him, and he dove after Adam before he could even pull any sort of weapon. He sent the younger man flying into the remnants of the coffee table nearby, crushing it to the ground as two more of the table legs snapped off. Byron's fists drilled into the man's head, and though Adam tried to fight, Byron's rage allowed him to dominate the situation.

"Hey- hey! Don't kill him!"

The voice broke through Byron's reverie and he looked up to see Jackie kneeling over next to Ezra. There was so much blood running down his face that he was nearly unrecognizable.

"If you kill him, Ezra is going to kill you," Jackie said. "Just keep him there."

Byron looked back down at the man pinned beneath him. He was breathing raggedly, and was bleeding from his nose and upper lip, barely conscious. "Don't worry. He's not going anywhere."

Jackie nodded, dialing a number on her cell phone. Byron could tell by the words exchanged that she was talking to an emergency dispatcher. He couldn't help but chuckle at her choice in words, even though it wasn't funny.

"You need to send an ambulance and the police to the Hollis English Department. Your campus rapist just tried to attack again."

The next few minutes were passed quietly, as Byron kept his grip tightly on the man pinned beneath him, and Jackie tried to coax Ezra back to consciousness. From what Byron could see, he had a few cuts on his head, and a nosebleed that had stopped, but there didn't appear to be anything life-threatening.

"Do you know how far he got," Jackie asked tentatively, looking up at Byron.

Byron shook his head. He reached a hand back and gently squeezed Ezra's fingers. Ezra attempted to squeeze his in return. "He's coming around."

"I took it all the way," Adam said spitefully. Byron pulled his hand free from Ezra's and punched Adam as hard as he could. The younger man groaned.

Jackie took off her jacket and began to wipe away the blood covering his face. Ezra groaned and winced under her touch.

"I swear to God, I'll drive the spike of my heel right into your throat if you don't shut the hell up," she growled at Adam. "I'll leave it there, too. You can't really wash scum off of two hundred dollar shoes."

"S'not worth it," Ezra groaned, leaning his back up off the floor as he coughed.

Jackie leaned down towards him, turning his head to her line of vision. "What hurts?"

Ezra winced. "The table leg digging in my back."

"Don't move him."

Jackie looked up towards the sound that the strict order had come from. An EMT was coming towards them. He was quickly flanked by police officers and more EMTs, who had a stretcher with them.

"Sir, you can't-"

"That's my son in there!"

Jackie and Byron whipped their heads around at the police officer trying to bar Byron from getting into the room.

Ezra strained to see through the blood that had run into his eyes. "S'my dad," he rasped.

"Let him in," Jackie told the cop at the door. "I want out of here."

"We need your statement," another piped in as he shoved Adam to his feet.

"So follow me to my office," she argued with the officer. "I didn't touch anything in here besides him, anyway."

Ethan walked over to Ezra and brushed his hair away from his face as he knelt down next to him on the floor.

"Broke my cast," Ezra said. His voice was cracked and raw from choking and coughing. "Ow, damn it!" He growled at one of the EMTs as he moved Ezra's arm. "You DO realize the kind of force it takes to break plaster, don't you?"

"Sorry, Mr. Fitz.""Mr. Fitz is my father," he murmured wearily a moment later.

They finally shifted him, rolling him off the table leg that had snapped off the coffee table so that they could put the body board under him to put him on the stretcher.

"I'm gonna follow you up to the hospital," Byron insisted as he lifted his phone to his ear. He pushed up from the floor and walked out of the room.

Ethan was pushed back as the EMTs worked to get Ezra settled onto the stretcher and then pulled him out of the room. An officer pulled him aside and asked a few questions about Ezra before he was ushered out of the room so that they could start taking photos and sketches of the crime scene.

-
No it don't feel like sleep
When I miss a lot, its true
-

Aria paced the waiting room of the hospital as they waited on Ezra's doctors. As far as they knew, he wasn't so severely injured that he needed surgery, but none of them had been allowed back into his room yet, either.

Her hand was covered in a black brace, which was issued when her mother insisted she get checked out after they'd shown up at the hospital. Her bruises were coming in more and more as time passed, and she had one on her hip from being thrown into the wall that hurt pretty bad, but her left wrist had been sprained from Grady throwing her around.

"Aria, sit down and breathe," Ella said softly.

Aria shook her head, continuing to pace in a straight line in the waiting room. "Not until I know something."

Byron walked into the room carrying a tray of coffees. Aria's eyes quickly fell to his knuckles as he pulled one of the coffees out and offered it to her. They were bruised and bandaged from going after Adam. She took it tentatively, but then resumed pacing.

Ethan walked into the room a moment later and looked from Aria to her parents, and then to Dr. Sullivan. He walked over to a free chair between Dr. Sullivan and Byron and sat down.

"Did you find anything out," Dr. Sullivan asked.

Ethan shook his head, taking a coffee from Byron. "Not much. The police don't want to say much. I know that they're getting in touch with other precincts that have victims. This case just went federal. The FBI wants to come in and hang him."

"Good." Aria stopped pacing, and each of the adults looked up at her, slightly surprised in her reaction. She looked to Ethan. "That's good, right?"

Ethan nodded. "To a degree, yes, but its going to be a tight ship from here on out. They're going to want him on the stand, though. I know that for sure. He's got too much a stake in this case to not be up there."

"Alright," Dr. Sullivan said. "Just remember that you're his father, and that's what he needs you to be. He doesn't need another cop around him right now."

"Anne Sullivan?" Aria spun in her place at the sound of what she assumed was a doctors voice. Ethan and Dr. Sullivan stood from their seats and walked over to the doctor. Aria stood nearby, but she didn't attempt to barge into the conversation. Even so, the doctor spoke in an even tone loud enough that she could hear him clearly.

"We're just getting Ezra ready to discharge right now. He's got a nasty concussion, and the attack aggravated his broken wrist. I'd like to keep him in a temporary cast for a few days until the swelling goes down, and then take another x-ray. With any luck we won't have to do surgery. He came through pretty well otherwise. He's got a myriad of bruises and cuts. He did warrant stitches in his bottom lip and forehead, which will need to be removed in a few weeks. He's also got some major bruising on his ribs, but with rest and no major physical activity, he should be alright in a few weeks." The doctor paused for a moment, making sure they heard what he was saying before he continued. "Now, I've explained all of this to your son, but we gave him something for the pain, so he's going to be out of it for a while. I also wrote him a prescription for the next few days for the pain. We'll reevaluate an extended script when he comes in for more x-rays next week."

"Can we see him?" Dr. Sullivan asked finally.

The doctor nodded. "He kept asking for someone named Aria?"

Dr. Sullivan extended an arm to Aria. Aria walked over to her, and welcomed the arm that wrapped around her shoulders. They followed quietly behind the doctor as he led them through the doors that blocked the waiting room from the trauma rooms. After a few minutes, they entered the room together.

Dr. Sullivan quickly dashed to Ezra's side as he swayed on his feet, struggling to button his shorts. He looked up at her, and his eyes grew wide for a moment as she helped him to sit back down on the bed.

"Ezra, what're you doing? You could've hurt yourself!"

"Just wanna get out of here," he murmured, keeping his eyes shut for a moment. "My head is spinning."

"That tends to happen when you get kicked in the skull," Dr. Sullivan said. "Did the police question you?"

He nodded slowly. "Couldn't tell them much. I don't even know what he did."

Aria stood in the doorway with her arms crossed tightly, watching as Ezra interacted with his mother. He had a black eye from being kicked and punched repeatedly, and bruising along his jaw. They had only done so much to clean him up, so she could still see blood near his nose from being punched there.

Ezra finally looked up at her, and his mouth dropped as he saw her face and neck. "What the hell happened?"

It broke Aria's heart that even in his current state, he could ask her what had happened to her. She shook her head as she walked over to him and grabbed his hand, squeezing it lightly. "It doesn't matter. I'm okay. Let's just get you home."

-
Its so hard to give you up
But so easy to pretend
-

Ezra winced as he settled back against the pillows on the bed in his room. They had stopped at the pharmacy long enough to fill his prescriptions, which consisted of pain medications, topical ointments for his cuts, and preventative antibiotics. Aria had gone back to her house with her parents long enough to retrieve some fresh clothing before returning to Dr. Sullivan's house. Even though Adam had been arrested, they had no clue as to whether he would be released on bail, and Aria was insistent that she wanted to be with Ezra. There was nothing her parents could do or say to change her mind.

She walked over to the bed and at down in the space next to him. She handed him a glass of water. Ezra took it from her and took a drink before settling it on the nightstand nearby. They both shifted down on the bed and Aria wrapped her arms around Ezra as he rested his head on her chest. She brushed her fingers gently through his hair.

"Are you okay?" She asked softly.

"Bad, bad headache," he murmured softly. He closed his eyes, only to open them moments later. Every time he closed his eyes, he kept seeing Adam's face just before he'd lost consciousness. He didn't know much beyond what technical jargon he'd heard the doctors and police saying. When he'd come to in his office, the last thing he remembered was getting kicked in the head, but all they were saying was 'possible penetration'. The unanswered question running through his mind was plaguing him.

Aria pulled her hand gently from his hair.

"Don't stop," Ezra said softly. "That feels good."

She resumed the movements with her fingers as they laid there, taking comfort in the fact that he seemed to relax as they laid there. After a while, though, she worried whether he was okay mentally. She was sure he was wondering the same things she was.

"Are you alright? In your head I mean," she asked.

"I just want to know what he did when I was out," Ezra said wearily. "How far did he get?"

Aria tilted her head down and kissed the top of his head. She moved her free hand under his shirt and rubbed circles on his back. Ezra moaned softly in approval. She could tell that he wasn't going to be able to cling to consciousness for much longer, no matter how hard he tried.

"Sleep," she commanded softly. "I'll still be here when you wake up."