~*THREE DAYS LATER - NY BAR, 9 PM*~
Hanna stared glumly at the wine glass in her hands.
"Can you believe we're already celebrating another new year?"
Emily's question brought Hanna back down to Earth. To be perfectly honest, the thought had never even crossed her mind.
Hanna chuckled.
"Guess I never really gave much thought to it." She shrugged. "Not like I give a damn about any of that anyway...Not since Aria's funeral."
"You didn't watch the news a week ago? Or hear your neighbors celebrating?"
Hanna took a long gulp from her glass and set it down on the bar.
"Like I said, Em. I really really did not give a damn," she said with a hint of bitterness in her voice.
Emily looked her up and down before speaking again.
"Look, we've all been on edge ever since Aria's murder. But you can't just break down. We still have targets on our backs," she reminded her calmly.
Hanna sighed and pushed the glass away from her.
"I know we do."
"Have you gotten another chance to ask Rollins about who he was talking about?"
Hanna shook her head.
"No. They won't let me visit him again until next month."
"And did you tell the others? Alison? Spencer?"
"Ali went on full freak-out mode, and I could practically hear Spencer's brain sending off little alarm bells."
"Yeah, I kinda freaked out too when you told me."
"They know we're meeting up tomorrow right?"
"Yeah, they do."
"Good. And you know what else?"
Emily looked at her, confused.
"No, what?"
"I think it's high time I got out of this joint."
Hanna let herself off the stool and almost tripped.
"Ugh."
Emily stepped down from her stool and attempted to help Hanna stand upright.
"I'm gonna go ahead and drive you home, because you don't look like you're in any condition to drive," Emily told her with concern.
"Yeah, that's probably best," Hanna replied sourly.
~*GABE AND HANNA'S NY APARTMENT, 9:30 PM*~
Gabe opened the door to find a groggy looking Hanna being held up by Emily.
"Hey," he said to Emily.
He looked at Hanna worriedly and then looked back over at Emily.
"Thanks, Emily. I'll take it from here."
Emily gently handed her over to him, which ultimately resulted in Hanna collapsing into his arms.
"Good night," Emily told him as she opened the door.
Gabe waved.
"Good night."
Emily smiled and closed the door behind her.
Using all the strength that he had, Gabe picked Hanna up and carried her to their room and to their bed.
He set her down gently.
"Hanna," he whispered softly.
She groaned slightly and turned onto her side.
"Ugh...My head is throbbing right now."
"Yeah, I know that feeling all too well. I'm sorry."
Hanna took a pillow and hugged it. Her back was still turned to him, but she spoke anyway.
"I love how much you care about me," she said with a smile.
Gabe laughed and sat down on the bed next to her.
"And I love the way you care about others."
He tucked a loose hair behind her hair and smiled. Afterwards, he began to hear the faint noise of her sleeping.
Tomorrow would be another day.
~*THE NEXT DAY - 8:33 AM*~
Hanna awoke to find that she still had a headache, but not as intensely as the night before.
She looked over at the clock on the bedside table.
She groaned.
~*FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER*~
Hanna raced over to the table and drank the lone cup of coffee sitting on it in one huge gulp.
"Sure, help yourself," Gabe's voice called out from behind her.
Alarmed, she turned around.
"Oh, right. I'm so sorry-"
He put up his hand.
"It's okay. I know you've had...quite a long night."
Hanna set the cup down on the table.
"Yeah. I didn't exactly have the greatest morning."
"Well, I have something that's gonna make it all better."
He held up a small paper bag.
"Please tell me that there's something with an egg inside there."
"Yeah, along with tomatoes, cheese, hash browns-"
Hanna snatched the bag from his hands.
She grinned and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you," she said softly.
"I would do anything for you, Hanna. Anything," he said so quietly it was almost like a whisper.
Her eyes beamed up at him.
"I know. I would do the same," she said with the same level of softness.
She blushed and sat down at the table ready to enjoy her breakfast, while Gabe walked over to the refrigerator.
He took out a carton of milk and set it down on the kitchen counter nearby.
Noticing this, Hanna took out the carefully wrapped breakfast burrito and stared at it.
~*TWO MINUTES LATER*~
Gabe held open the pantry trying to decide if he wanted to use the milk for pancakes or cereal, when he felt Hanna's arms wrap around his waist.
He smiled.
"Yes?"
He felt her lean against his back and sigh.
Worried, he quickly turned around.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. It's nothing."
She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked up at him.
"I just feel like... My whole life, I've always taken people for granted. Caleb, Travis, Jordan. Hell, even Lucas. And I don't want to do that to you."
Gabe put his arms around her waist and pulled her closer.
"Hanna...It's just a burrito. I don't mind."
"I know, it's just that...ever since Aria's death I've been feeling like I owe it to her and to myself to not take anyone for granted. I mean, I know we joke all the time about each other's food, but...the least I can do is share some of it with you."
"Well, that's not entirely true. You did give me a sample of that soup you had before I told you about Spencer's 'A' messages? Remember?"
Hanna looked down, recalling that night.
"Yeah, that's true."
"Look, don't even worry about it. I can use this milk for cereal, or pancakes, or whatever else pops into my head. Okay?"
"Okay. But are you absolutely sure you don't want half?"
Her deep blue eyes seemed to hypnotize him before he finally gave in.
"Fine. I'll take half."
Hanna released her hold on him and walked over to the table where she had left it.
She took the now unwrapped burrito and tore it into two (somewhat) even pieces with her hands.
She held out one of the pieces for him to grab.
He took it and smiled.
"Thank you," he said gratefully.
~*NY CAFE-THREE HOURS LATER*~
The sunlight beamed down on Alison, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer as they ate their food.
"Has Detective Sanderson bothered any of you guys?" Spencer asked them while munching on some chips.
"Not really. Guess she doesn't really think that we would murder our best friend," Hanna replied.
"And given our history with cops, that makes it all the more strange," Emily said quietly.
"So," Alison took a biscotti from the table and dipped it into a small bowl of chocolate. "What did Rollins mean exactly when you visited him?" She took a bite from it and looked at Hanna expectantly with raised eyebrows.
"I have no idea. But it sounded like he knew that the killer was closer to us than we had originally thought."
Alison scoffed at this and took a sip of coffee.
"That leaves just about everyone that we know," Spencer said calmly as she looked at the others.
"Who do you think killed Aria?" Emily asked Alison.
"Honestly? I think it was Ezra."
There was no reaction to that. Only silence.
"What, no objections? No 'but he loved Aria!' cries?" Alison asked them.
Emily reached over and grabbed a chip from the middle of the table and took a bite from it.
"Those days are long gone," She said mid-crunch.
"Yeah, ever since your 'ex-husband'," Spencer used air quotes, "tried to ruin your life."
Hanna nodded her head in agreement.
"And you know, Gabe is always telling me that most murders are committed by someone the victim knew personally."
They all sat quietly for a moment before Spencer spoke again.
"If...Ezra really did kill Aria...Why haven't the police caught him yet?"
"Where is he anyway?" Emily asked her.
"No one knows. After the funeral he just sort of disappeared."
"And the police actually let him leave?"
"I heard a rumor that he gave a DNA sample and that it didn't lead to anything suspicious," Alison told them.
"DNA samples have always been such a bust for me. I mean one lock of hair on the dead body is supposed to prove who the killer is? It's ridiculous," Hanna said skeptically with a roll of her eyes.
"DNA has other uses besides that, Hanna," Spencer told her.
"Yeah, don't remind me. I still get flashbacks of that bin from high school."
Spencer shook her head and drank a little bit of coffee before speaking again.
"Look, the point is...This new 'A' could be anyone. It could be Ezra, it might not be. But we have to be careful from now on."
She knew that they were scared, but she was just as scared as they were.
"All of us," she finished with firm finality.
The others murmured their agreement.
Hanna was about to dig into a piece of her apple pie when a shadow appeared and blocked her sunlight.
"Hello, Hanna," a voice called out.
She turned around and looked up to find a short brunette looking down at her.
It was Mona.
A/N: I don't even know if such a breakfast burrito exists with egg, tomatoes, AND hash brown in it. Sounds like it would be something though. Although I do have a favorite breakfast burrito that's frozen…505 Southwestern Mexiwraps. :P Sorry if it feels like the story is moving a little slow. A part of me wants to finish it, and the other part of me doesn't want to. And then there's the third part of me that has no inspiration at all and has no idea how to get from point A to point B. I know who my 'A' is and what I want Gabe and Hanna's future to be…I'm just having a hard time getting there. And I've had so much fun writing a full length Gabe and Hanna story because it was like the version of them that we never got the chance to see in show!canon, so I'm going to be sad to see them go. And once the story itself is finished, I will post a bonus chapter highlighting the timeline of events that took place during the overall story.