Hi everyone! I figured I should do an Author's Note just to thank everyone for the great reviews, and for keeping on reading this story, even though it always takes me so damn long to update! I love writing it, but I struggle to write if I'm not in the right mood, so I always just wait until I'm in that mood, and only write then.

I'm kind of sad that Ezria are out in the open on the show now, so thank goodness for fanfic, or I'd never get my fix of the secret relationship I love so much!

Because I've written this story over the period of two years (yikes, I suck!), I've noticed a few inconsistencies popping up. I'm going to go back and try and fix them all when I get a chance. The biggest one is that for some reason I thought Aria was a sophomore when the show started, but now that the show has said it clearly, it does make sense that they were juniors, rather. (Even though the time in the show is really messed up!). So in the early chapters of this story I've said that Aria still had two years of school left after the baby is born, but actually she only has one, with Lily being born in the June of her Junior/11th grade year.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 37

It was Monday morning, and Ezra was sitting restlessly at his desk, waiting for his first class of the day. He'd barely slept on Saturday night after he'd got home from the hospital, and Sunday had felt like the longest day of his life, resulting in yet another sleepless night. Since Byron had been due to arrive at the hospital to meet his new granddaughter on the Sunday morning, Ezra had had to stay away, and when Aria managed to call him, it was to inform him that she expected a steady stream of visitors that day, and that as a result Ella had pretty much forbidden his presence at the hospital that day. Apparently aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends, most of whom Aria hadn't seen for years (and didn't want to), were expected to drop by at any given moment, and it just wouldn't be safe for Ezra to be anywhere around. But while he completely understood, not being able to see his firstborn for the entire day was almost unbearable. Already he was completely overwhelmed at the love he felt for the tiny baby, and he wanted to be there with her every minute. Obviously he'd always known he wouldn't be able to, but he hadn't realised just what agony that would be. All he could think of was her tiny face, and her blue eyes staring up at him as he held her for the first time. He missed Aria, too. They'd gone through something life-changing on Saturday night together, and that had altered their relationship and taken it to an entirely different plane. She wasn't just his girlfriend now; she was his family. She and Lily were his family, and he wanted to be with them every moment.

Ezra stifled a yawn as his students started filing in, talking and laughing as usual. No life-altering events for them over the weekend, of course. This was the class Aria would normally be in, and he remembered, as he spotted Hanna, Emily and Spencer taking their seats, that he wasn't supposed to know anything about Aria having had the baby over the weekend. Time to keep up pretences, then, for the safety of their secret.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you had a good weekend, and that you remembered to read the chapters I set you from The Great Gatsby," he said, smiling blandly, knowing that, of course, a good half of them had not. Which was unlucky for them, because all the preparation he had been able to muster the previous day was setting pop quizzes for today's classes. The class groaned loudly when he informed them of this fact.

"Come on, Mr Fitz, it's Monday," Noel Kahn complained. "Have a heart. We had a huge football game on Saturday."

"Which should have left you plenty of time to read those five chapters on Sunday," Ezra replied evenly. He didn't like Noel Kahn. He was one of the students who constantly goaded Aria about her pregnancy, long after it was old news with everyone else, and Ezra hated the way he looked at her like she was a slut, but with a gleam in his eye like he was hitting on her anyway.

Noel subsided into muttered grumbles, and Ezra picked up the papers from his desk, only then pretending to notice that Aria wasn't in her usual seat.

"Is Aria absent today?" he asked of the room in general, but making eye contact with Spencer, who sat in front of Aria's empty desk.

"Oh – yes," Spencer replied, playing along. "Actually, she had her baby on Saturday."

The class erupted into surprised gasps and about twenty different conversations at once. Ezra shushed them, and then turned his attention back to Spencer.

"Really? I thought she was only due in the summer vacation?" he said, trying to seem interested but noncommittal at the same time.

"She was, but the baby came early," Spencer answered.

"It's a girl, right? What has she called her?" Natalie Harris called from the other side of the room.

"Lily; and yes, we've seen her, and she's adorable," Hanna interrupted.

"Can you see who the father is?" Noel Kahn demanded.

"Shut up, Noel," Spencer and Hanna responded automatically, and Ezra hid a smirk.

"All right, that's enough of that," he said. "Exciting as a baby is, it doesn't take precedence over this quiz, I'm afraid. Everyone, books away, pens out and nothing else, please."

Feeling rather proud of his little "I'm only her teacher so I don't care" act, he handed out the quiz papers, and then settled down at his desk, watching his students as they settled down unwillingly and began to write.

When the period was over, and the students handed him their papers as the left the room, Spencer lingered behind.

"I've got the rest of the poetry club subscriptions, Mr Fitz," she said loudly, holding out an envelope. Then, as the last girl left the room, she lowered her voice and said, "you should probably only open that when it's safe. And call Aria; her mom has to work this afternoon, so you should be able to get in and see them after school, no problem."

"Thanks, Spencer," Ezra said sincerely, and Spencer knew he meant not only for the information, and for whatever was in the envelope, but for being on his and Aria's side. She smiled and left, and Ezra, who had a free period next, quickly crossed the room and closed the door behind him, and then eagerly picked up the envelope, wondering what on earth it could be. He ripped open the top, and carefully drew out the contents, which was three photographs.

Ezra's mouth drew into a huge grin as he realized what they were. On Saturday night, while Ella was out of the room organizing Aria's meal, Spencer had pulled out her camera and taken a few shots of Ezra, Aria and Lily together, and he had then returned the favour by taking some of all the girls together. He'd forgotten about it until now, but Spencer must have had them developed yesterday, and here they were. The first one was a simple portrait of Ezra snuggled up close to Aria, who was holding baby Lily up to their face height. The second was a beautiful shot of Aria gazing down at Lily in her arms, and the third, which Ezra didn't remember Spencer having taken, was of him holding Lily up to his eye level, his large hands spread behind her head to support her, and looking at her with an expression of joy and disbelief on his face. It was so exactly how he had been feeling that night, and Spencer had captured it so perfectly, that it took his breath away. He couldn't stop staring at it.

Not taking his eyes off it, he pulled out his phone and called Aria. She answered on the second ring.

"Good morning, daddy," she said, teasingly.

Ezra grinned. "Hey, beautiful. Can you talk?"

"Yeah. Lily's napping, and I'm just sitting here twiddling my thumbs. I'm so glad you called."

"How is she?"

"Amazing. Well, tiring, but amazing," Aria amended, unable to keep the pride out of her voice. "She learned how to latch on for feeding almost immediately, and she doesn't cry a lot. Well, I mean, I don't know what a lot is, but according to the nurses she's being really good. She wakes up all the time, but that's normal, so I've just got to get used to it."

"I can't wait for school to be over so I can come see you," Ezra replied. "I can come after school, right? Spencer said it should be okay."

"Yeah. My parents both have to work, and honestly, I feel like I saw everyone yesterday that I've ever met in my life. I'm looking forward to just spending some time with you and Lily this afternoon, quietly."

"Are you doing all right?" Ezra asked, concerned. "It wasn't too much for you yesterday, was it?"

"A little," Aria confessed. "But it's just because I'm so tired."

"Well, you should get some sleep, then," Ezra said, firmly. "You're supposed to sleep when the baby's sleeping, you know."

"I know! But it's so hard, with everyone walking in and out of here all the time. I'm in a new room, by the way," she added. "It's in the maternity section, not delivery. It's 26B, which is an awesome coincidence."

"B26...that is pretty great," Ezra said, smiling, remembering the song that had been playing on the jukebox on the day they'd met.

"Ezra? I'm really glad I met you that day."

"Me too. And I'm even gladder that you're the mother of my child. Now, let me go, so that you can get some sleep, and I'll be there ten minutes after school is over."

"Okay," Aria said, sleepily. "I love you."

"I love you too," Ezra said. He ended the call, and looked at the photos, which he was still holding in his hand, one last time before he opened his satchel and carefully slid the envelope in right at the back. He hadn't remembered to ask Aria if she'd seen them, but if she hadn't then he could show them to her before he took them home and put them somewhere safe.

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The second his last period was over, Ezra was out of his classroom, much to the surprise of the ninth graders he'd been teaching. One even yelled after him, "Where's the fire, Mr Fitz?" but he didn't even hear, as he walked swiftly – as swiftly as he could without actually running – down the corridor and out to his car. Less than ten minutes later he was at the hospital, making his way up to the maternity ward.

"Can I help you?" A rather severe-looking nurse at the front desk, asked.

"Oh – I'm here to see Aria Montgomery, room B26...I mean, 26B," he faltered.

"Sign in here, please," the nurse said, pushing a register over to him. Ezra pulled it towards him slowly. Clearly they had some security measures in place, which was fine by him, except that he couldn't exactly sign his real name, in case someone saw it who shouldn't. But if he put a fake name, and it was noticed, he'd look even more suspicious. He glanced over the list of previous visitors, noting that Ella and Byron had both come by that morning, probably before they went to work. And if he could see their names, they - that is, Byron - would be able to spot his. And Ezra had no idea of letting that happen.

"Something wrong?" the nurse said impatiently.

"Oh, no – just looking to see if she has any visitors at the moment, that's all," Ezra replied, quickly. Picking up the pen attached to the book, he quickly filled in the first name that came to his mind, John Hardy; John being the most common of all male names, and Hardy being the name of his best friend from college. Luckily they didn't ask for driver's license or any form of identification, and he hoped that the book was more of a formality than anything else, and that the nurse wouldn't even look at it.

It appeared he was right, as the nurse merely pulled the book back over to her side of the desk, and said, "Down there, turn left at the end, and it's just round the corner."

Ezra nodded, and walked quickly the way she had directed him, finding the room easily enough. He pushed the door open gently, not wanting to wake Lily if she was sleeping, and saw that Aria was sleeping too, her dark hair fanned out all over the white pillow, and dark circles of tiredness under her eyes. Pulled right up to her bedside was a clear, hospital-issue basinet, on which her left hand was resting as she slept, and inside which the tiny, dark-haired baby was wrapped up in a white blanket. Ezra tiptoed carefully over to the basinet, and a huge smile broke over his face as he saw that Lily was awake, her dark blue eyes staring up at him calmly. He glanced over at Aria, still sleeping, and reached in and carefully picked up his daughter from the basinet. She didn't make a sound as he settled her gently in his arms, and then, as he touched her face softly with his index finger, one of her hands emerged from the cocoon of blanket, and took hold of his finger with all of hers. Ezra couldn't help but gasp, and Aria's eyes shot open, immediately going to the empty basinet beside her, before focusing on Ezra and relaxing.

"Hey, you," she said, smiling sleepily. "When did you get here?"

"Literally a minute ago," Ezra replied. "I'm sorry I woke you – I was trying not to."

"Yeah yeah, you don't care about me now; you just came to see the baby," Aria teased.

"No – it's not that – it's just that you looked so tired," Ezra tried to explain.

"Ezra. I'm kidding," Aria grinned, sitting up. "Now come sit here by me."

Ezra sat down carefully on the bed, still holding Lily, and kissed Aria gently on the lips. "I swear she's bigger than she was on Saturday," he said, staring down at the tiny baby, who was still clutching onto his finger, but now with her eyes closed.

Aria considered. "I can't tell, I've seen her every half hour at least since she was born," she said.

"I wish I could say the same," Ezra replied, sadly.

"Oh god, I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry, Ezra," Aria apologized. "That was really insensitive of me."

"Don't be silly; you're her mother. One of us has to be there for her whenever she needs it, and it was always going to be you. Don't think I'm envious of that, because I'm not. Although," he confided, "I am a little jealous of your parents."

"I know. They'll get to spend all the time they want with her. But I promise I'll bring her around as often as I can," Aria said. "I've told them all along that having a baby doesn't mean I'm going to stay in the house for the whole of my senior year. If I want to go see my friends, I'll go – and Lily will just come too. That goes for seeing you, too – under the guise of seeing my friends, of course."

"As far as your father goes. But what about your mother? Has she said anything to you – about us, I mean?"

Aria screwed up her face. "Not really. But we were only alone once or twice yesterday, and when I tried to mention it, she just changed the subject. What happened on the way home on Saturday? Did she really give you a lift?"

"Uhuh. And she asked me all sorts of things about my intentions towards you, and if I really was in love with you, and so on."

"And what did you say?"

"The truth," he replied simply. "That as far as we're both concerned, we'll do anything to be together, and that we love each other and Lily more than anything in the world."

"And she didn't try the "they'll be better off without you" bit?" Aria demanded.

"Oh, she did. I simply told her that I couldn't imagine a scenario where any of us would be better off without the others. That includes Lily, of course."

"Ezra, you're so amazing," Aria said, tearfully. "Not many people would have the courage to stand up to my mom like that."

"I won't pretend she doesn't terrify me," Ezra admitted, "but I promised you I'd fight for you, and that's what I'm doing. Your father, on the other hand..."

"Oh god, I don't even want to think about that," Aria said, quickly. "We'll just have to make sure he never finds out."

"So you don't think your mother will tell him?"

"I don't think she will, actually. I think she sees that it would just make things worse."

"But will she let us be a family...that's the bigger question," Ezra said slowly.

"I don't know. I'm hoping, in time, she might come around. Once I'm home I'll be able to get her alone and try and explain everything, again. Until she gets it."

"And even then, it's only a year till you're out of school. I can wait till then, if we have to."

"I don't want you to," Aria replied shortly. "I want you to be part of Lily's first year as much as possible. By the time I go to college, or whatever it is I end up doing next year, she'll be walking...she'll practically be a little girl, not a baby! I don't want you to miss out on her babyhood."

"Neither do I, but – you know what? Let's stop talking about this," Ezra declared. "We can't do anything about it now, except worry. We've got a perfect baby girl here, we're alone together right now, so let's just be happy. All right?"

"Okay," Aria nodded. "Ezra – she is perfect, isn't she? I mean...this could have gone so wrong, and yet here we are, with the most beautiful baby in the world. How did we get so lucky?"

"I guess because we love each other so much," Ezra replied. "Look at that; she's still holding onto my finger. I don't ever want her to let go, either."

"Well, we've got a few hours till my Mom shows up," Aria replied, contentedly. "So let her hold on to her Daddy till then."