A/N: Apologies for the wait, this chapter has taken an extremely long time to produce as Hanna was in the episode a lot more than I remembered! So, reviews would be much appreciated, as each one gives me the motivation I need for these very long chapters. Let me know what you think, ideas you have, things you would like to see, I'd love to hear each of them!

Usual triggers apply – mentions of rape are included in this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pretty Little Liars and many of the words in this chapter is taken from the show, so spoiler alerts apply for those who haven't seen the latest episodes of season seven.

"Dissociation gets you through a brutal experience, letting your basic survival skills operate unimpeded... your ability to survive is enhanced as the ability to feel is diminished... all feelings are blocked; you 'go away'. You are disconnected from the act, the perpetrator and yourself. Viewing the scene from up above or some other out-of-body perspective is common among sexual abuse survivors." - Renee Fredrickson

The five young women, and Caleb, walked down the empty, dark streets of Rosewood, Hanna hanging back with Caleb every so slightly as they all spoke so openly about everything that was going on. Perhaps that should have been the first sign for Hanna that none of it was real. "Okay, so we know that Noel Kahn stole the Mary Drake file from Toby's airsteam."

"How is Yvonne doing?"

"She's... she's okay, Toby's gonna spend some time with her." Spencer replied, with a small shrug of her shoulders and Hanna wondered, for just a moment, if she could see a subtle glimpse of jealousy behind her best friends eyes, but she pushed it back. There were more pressing matters than feelings for an ex-boyfriend. "And right after he got that file he called Dr Cochran."

"Sounds like Jenna and Noel are on the same path as we are."

"Only, they're ahead of us." Each of them took those words in for a second before the silence was broken and the subject only slightly changed, "But who burned us out of the storm cellar?"

"Somebody who didn't want us to know that Mary Drake had a second child."

"A.D?" That was when Hanna couldn't take it anymore and she stopped in her tracks, frustrated that nobody could see the obvious glaring them in the faces. She didn't want to be the only one fighting for the justice she so longingly sought after and every moment they wasted wondering whether it was Noel, or Jenna or Mary Drake, was a moment wasted and a moment further they were all in danger.

"Noel Kahn!" She exclaimed, giving them all a look that she hoped was one they could not argue with, "You guys, Noel's been in the middle of everything that has been happening to us. He clearly has more A-ness than anyone else out there." Spencer smirked, and raised her brow before they continued to walk, a little slower this time, "I wouldn't have put it that way, Hanna." The conversation quickly regained back onto one of their suspects and the past that had been hidden from them. With each word that fell from Alison's mouth, the hairs on the back of Hanna's neck went up and she believed her suspicions were confirmed. Noel was behind it, all of it and there was nothing or nobody who could convince her otherwise.

"See? No story with Noel Kahn in it has a happy ending." She mumbled, and Emily, as always, tried to be the diplomat. She tried to come up with something that would take this from their hands and into the hands of the police but Hanna knew that no matter what they did, no matter how much evidence they would be able to gather, unless they got the confession she needed to hear, it would go no further. Noel Kahn would get away with it, and he had been getting away with things for way too long. "Like he does with everything." She heard Spencer say and she stopped once again, moving her hand through her hair as she tried not to stress out about the entire thing too much. She could feel all eyes on her and it caused just a second of self-doubt before she shook her head, "Exactly why we shouldn't be arguing whether Noel is A, A.D, Uber A or whatever! God, I can't believe you guys." She didn't look behind her as she stormed away from them, going through everything that had been revealed in her head over and over, her hopelessness and frustration being the only thing that drove each step right then, forcing back the tears as she gulped away the lump in her throat and just stared ahead.

She didn't stop until Caleb's hand was on her shoulder and she flinched away, turning around and stepping away from him, "Don't." She warned him, a glare crossing her features as her arms folded and she watched behind him as her friends walked away and left the two of them completely alone. Maybe that was the second thing that should have told Hanna that it was a dream and nothing more. "When are they going to realise that Noel Kahn is the one we're after?!" She practically screamed at her ex-boyfriend, not missing the look he was giving her.

She could tell, before he even spoke, that he didn't believe her. He doubted her and the last time he had doubted her, he had walked out on her. "They just wanna be certain, okay? Mary and Jenna are still out there."

"Oh, come on! How much more proof do we need than the words 'I see you' being written on our car outside of the storm cellar? Those were the exact words written on Ezra's car at Camp Mona!" It was so obvious, why was she the only one who could see it?

He frowned, and she could see the doubt in his eyes, the doubt he was trying his best to hide as he stepped a little closer to her and scratched the back of his head, "I know, it's just-"

She cut him off before he could carry on and she shook her head, a sad smile on her face when she came to the realisation that no matter what she said and what she did, nobody would ever believe her. She was just the dumb one, if it was Spencer who told them all it was Noel Kahn, she had no doubt they would all be completely on board with it. "You don't believe me either."

"We have to be completely positive before we do anything rash."

"Well, I am." She glared, and further widened the gap between them as she raised her brow, "And by now, if you're not, I don't know what is going to change your mind." She shrugged when he said her name and she turned around, walking away from him before the sound of a revving engine and squealing brakes stopped her in her tracks. Before she could register what was going on, she felt herself being pushed to the ground, the sound of a body hitting metal and her head turned to see a smirking Noel in the drivers seat of the car that had been aimed towards her just seconds before. But then, her eyes moved to the unmoving body of her ex-boyfriend, the man she still loved and she screamed.

Once her eyes opened, Hanna had only taken a second to glance at the clock, relieved that it was six in the morning – early, but not too early. After that, everything was rushed – she threw on some clothes, she grabbed a still sleeping Henry and placed him carefully into his push chair and she text Caleb to let him know she needed to see him. She wasn't even thinking as she drove towards the Radley hotel where he was now staying, helping her mother with the security part of the hotel since Sara Harvey's death. She didn't have the time to think about what she was doing or what she was going to say to him to explain why she was there, because just seventeen minutes after she had woken from the nightmare, she was standing outside of his apartment door. He had just woken up, she could tell that much but she didn't care as she wrapped her arms tightly around him and took a deep breath, "So, you're fine?" He nodded his head in response, a small, nervous laugh falling from his lips, "Really fine?"

"I'm fine." He repeated to her, pulling back as he looked at her in an attempt to convince her that he was, indeed, alive and well. There had been no car accident, he was still breathing, the entire thing had been a horrible nightmare but somehow, it still felt real. As though it was a warning of the things that were going to come. "Really?" She whispered, wrapping her arms around him, even tighter this time as she inhaled, breathing him in. "Fine."

When she pulled back, her cheeks were a light tinge of pink and she checked on her son quickly to make sure he was still sleeping before she moved towards the little desk Caleb had in the corner of the hotel room, "So, um, how is it going over here?" She had briefly explained to him via text about why she was coming over – she had a nightmare that Noel had hurt him and she needed to check on him. He seemed to understand though, that right then, she didn't want to talk about it so he nodded his head and followed her towards the desk, "Not that great, I mean, I'm going over the material that you and Spencer took photos of from the lock box but everything except Mary's DNA is in some code that I can't crack."

She was desperate, and he could see it in her face just as she could feel it pumping through her veins. Sometimes, her desperation to catch one monster when she felt so helpless about the other monster that haunted her dreams, was the only thing that got her out of bed in the morning, "Yet, right?" She believed in him, she knew he was good at what he did, just as she knew he would be doing everything he could to help her and her friends but she needed him to understand this. She needed answers that only he could give her.

It had been two years since she had been raped and Hanna had long since given up on the belief that she would ever know who it was. It had crossed her mind more than once that maybe it wasn't an accident, that maybe it was someone she knew, someone from her past that had caught up to her but then she knew that sometimes, bad things just happened for no reason. No connection, no history... they just happened. However, this was one thing she would be able to find out if they just managed to put the clues together and make him pay for everything he had done, everything he had put them through. Still, she was struggling to come to terms with everything that it meant if Noel was the one who was behind it all because surely, that would mean he had been the one to kidnap her that night, which meant he was the one who tortured her.

Not the man she had murdered.

"I'm doing my best." Caleb frowned, breaking her from her thoughts as he sat on his chair and glanced over his computer screen with the look of desperate concentration on his face that only her and her troubles could bring to him. She felt bad, for a second, until she realised that Caleb was her biggest chance right then at proving her right. "Why DNA?" She finally asked, chewing the bottom of her lip as Henry stirred and she once again let the feeling of pure guilt wash over her. He was so out of routine at the moment and she had jut pulled him from the safety and comfort of his own bed and rushed him to the hotel without a second thought for how it would make the tired baby feel. She shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair, finally moving to sit on the edge of the bed as she gently rocked the push chair. "Your guess is as good as mine," He replied, "What has Mary been up to?"

Hanna sighed and shrugged her shoulders, "There's no sign of her at Alison's or at the Lost Woods. What about Jenna? Any tapping around we need to be worried about?" Her eyes moved towards the screen that displayed different areas of the hotel, glad that her mother had been in the right mind to give Caleb the kind of job she had. Although she knew why Ashley had done so – it was to keep Caleb in Rosewood for as long as she possibly could, to keep him as a part of the Marin's life as much as she could because no matter how many times Hanna tried to tell her otherwise, she still thought that Caleb was meant to be in her life.

He shook his own head, "She hasn't left her room." Hanna guessed that much would be true, unless there was another way to get out of that room that they had yet to discover. Another secret hole in the back of a closet that led to another secret passageway she never wanted to go back down. "I guess Noel's taken a lead whilst Jenna is practising her flute." She muttered bitterly, playing with the ends of her hair as she let out a sigh of semi-defeat. She had no proof other than the feeling that was in her gut, the feeling that was driving her on but was still not proving anything to the people around her. She needed hard evidence if she was going to make them see what was right in front of them.

"Speaking of Noel, give me your phone." He pulled out another phone and she frowned, moving to stand up as she pulled out her own. "What's that?"

"This is your new phone, it's one hundred percent bug free. I have some for the rest of you guys too. You can't be too careful with Noel and Jenna on the prowl." Maybe he did believe her after all, but she could still see that doubt in his eyes that she had seen in the dream version of him. Why would he believe her? What had she done over the past few years that gave him any reason to trust anything that fell from her lips? She gulped and looked down at her phone, "I-I have videos and photographs of Henry on here, I don't want to lose them because..."

She trailed off and Caleb took the phone from her and handed her the other one with a smile on his face, "I'll back it all up, I promise. You won't lose a single thing, I'll make sure it's all safe." She nodded her head, trusting him enough to know he would only do what was in her best interest. She looked down at the new phone in her hand and pressed the unlock button, smiling when she saw a photograph of her, Caleb and Henry saved as the home screen, one he must have taken when she was sleeping on his shoulder with Henry between them, a cheeky grin on his chocolate covered face as his blue eyes looked into the camera. They looked like a family, the family she had wanted so badly but could never have.

She had left with an awkward hug and a muttered apology as he told her she was welcome to come over at any time. It wasn't for the first time that they had come close to kissing but Hanna had pulled away before their lips could actually touch and focused on getting Henry and herself home. It was just a few hours later, when she found herself sitting on the table of Lucas' apartment, colouring in a drawing she had done previously of an outfit she was intending to design for her son, that she was caught off guard by a sudden pain in her shoulder. It had happened before, it was a phantom pain, something that crippled her with fear because it brought on the memories of those twenty-four hours.

That night, two years ago, he had branded her – cut her thigh, nothing that warranted stitches or a hospital visit but enough for her to feel the sting. Even when it had healed, she had still felt the pain every so often, a pain that would take her right back to the night. The therapy sessions mandated by social services after they had gotten involved, had taken her through what this was – phantom pain brought on usually by the loss of a body part but sometimes brought on by a loss beyond the physical means. That familiar sting always managed to take her back to that night and now, there was a pulsating pain radiating from her shoulder and her back that forced the images of her screaming 'no' to the unidentified man in front of her. He was walking towards her, the cattle prod in his hands, she could hear the sound of the electricity running through it and she screamed, sobbing.

Slowly, she moved her jumper from her shoulders and turned her head to look in the mirror, staring at the scars that Noel, or Elliott, or someone else, had left behind. "Please no, please stop..." She heard, as she closed her eyes and shook her head, gulping back the tears that so longed to fall before she was disturbed by a knock on the door. Grateful for the distraction, she shoved the material back over her shoulders and jumped up, glancing over at Henry's bedroom to make sure he wasn't disturbed before she walked to the door and opened it up.

When she saw the person who was waiting for her on the other side, a feeling washed over her that was completely indescribable, "Goodness, Hanna, you look like you've seen a ghost." Was all the old woman said, her piercing blue eyes staring at the blonde in front of her, making Hanna feel as though she was staring into her soul. She took a deep breath and looked behind her, a nervous reaction before she turned back to the woman who looked barely any different than she had the last time they had encountered each other whilst Hanna was sure she had aged at least ten years since the age of seventeen.

"Mrs Grunwald, what are you doing here?" She finally managed to get out, with a small shake of her head, as the other woman peered over her shoulder and motioned for the inside of the apartment, "Are you alone, my dear?"

Hanna bit down on her lip, "I.. no, kind of. My son is here but Emily is out..." She was cut off by the woman before she could continue her rambling, "No, I mean, are you alone?" There was an emphasis on the last word and she frowned, slowly realising what she was implying before she felt the blush creeping up on her cheeks and she folded her arms in an attempt to protect herself despite the fact she knew there was no danger.

"Caleb and I are..." She trailed off, "I don't wanna be rude but what are you doing here?" She asked, confused by the sudden appearance of someone she had almost forgotten about. Sometimes, Mrs Grunwald seemed to be more of a dream than a reality, it was as though Hanna had found some sense of security in the woman who seemed to know things beyond the reality of everything. She had pushed it back as time had passed but with her standing right there in front of her, she couldn't help but feel as though she was being pulled back to the seventeen year old version of herself who believed in a world beyond the reality she had been forced into.

"I had a dream." Came the reply, causing Hanna's frown to deepen and her eyebrows to raise before she took a deep breath, "What happened in it?" She asked, recognising the look in the woman's eyes that very much mirrored her own when she had woken up that morning. As the woman stepped inside, she just shrugged off the question with a wave of her hand, "I've never considered the content of dreams to be important. It's the impression they leave that affect me." Hanna understood, questioning what impression it had on the woman that would lead her to her door on the very same day that Hanna had dreamt the kind of dream that left her feeling unsettled for the rest of the day.

"In this case, the dream left me quite unsettled... the sense was strong enough that I felt compelled to come here." That gave Hanna just a brief explanation as to why the woman was there, but it didn't shift the discomfort she felt deep inside when she thought of what kind of dream would have brought the mysterious woman to her door on that day. Hanna didn't want to believe in anything other than cold, had reason because believing in something beyond that only served to hurt her even further. Reality was reality, and she had to live through it every single day but if there was something more, something that could have ended the pain she felt that night and when she was kidnapped most recently, then that was something she wasn't sure she could cope with.

"The sense of what?" She asked, regretting the words that fell from her lips the moment she had said them when she heard a small cry coming from the closed bedroom door of the room her son was staying in. The response sent a shiver down her spine and she stepped back, nervously looking at the room Henry was in, "A darkness... around you, Caleb and Henry... are you and Caleb alright?" Hanna left the question unanswered as she moved towards the room when the cries became more prominent, "I'm sorry, I'll be right back." She muttered, slipping into the room and trying to focus on her breathing when her own tears began to fall.

She had felt the darkness as well, only she had hoped it wouldn't extend to the little boy who was standing in his crib, with his arms outstretched to her. Quickly, she took him in her arms and gave him a small smile as she pressed her lips to his head and closed her eyes. She needed to get out of the apartment, somewhere public where the danger could be close, so she could prove to herself that she was right and everyone else was wrong.

The decision to go to the hotel had been an easy one; her mother was there to take Henry for an hour or so whilst Hanna spoke to Mrs Grunwald and she was able to have an actual conversation with the woman without wondering if Henry would be able to hear her and understand what this darkness that she had brought to him was. After putting the conversation on pause, she looked down at the glass of wine she held in her hands and started it right where she had left it off, "Caleb and I... we're definitely not alright. None of us are." She leaned forward, her voice low so no one around her would be able to hear her, "Someone's been trying to hurt us."

"Do you know who that someone is?"

She nodded her head, "I think so but the others aren't quite so sure." The grey haired woman looked around, a concerned look on her face before she took a deep, trembling breath, "By any chance does that person have a connection with this hotel?"

Somehow, that was exactly what Hanna wanted to hear, and she sat up a little straighter with a nod of her head, eager to know that somehow, there was proof she wouldn't be able to explain to anyone else. Perhaps Caleb would understand, he had seen things, things that were beyond explaining, perhaps he would believe her after this. "Yeah, yeah.. he's staying here. He attacked Alison, he kidnapped me and someone just died in this hotel."

Despite her eagerness, the elderly woman was momentarily distracted by those last few words as she shook her head and stared at the wall to the side of her, "Many people died here, Hanna, before it became a hotel. The pain radiates through these walls, their cries of anguish still echo, do you hear them?" Hanna took a moment to look around as she gulped, but instead of the cries of the many people who had suffered here when it was an institute, she could only hear her own screams for help, begging someone not to hurt her. She closed her eyes for just a second, her hands trembling, gulping back the lump that formed in her throat as the tears almost fell. She held them back though as she bit down on her lip and opened her eyes, "No."

The look in the piercing blue eyes of the other woman told Hanna that she didn't believe her but she still nodded her head, "You're lucky. It's deafening." A moment passed, and Hanna gulped back a large amount of her wine until the woman spoke again, "I apologise if my coming here disturbed you."

Hanna just shook her head and put the glass down, "You say you feel this darkness around us..." That was what she needed to know about right then, she needed to know what she had to protect her son from – even if the answer was her.

"I wanted to warn you that you are in danger but I see that you already know that."

"But from who?"

The woman only sighed before she replied, "All I know is that the source of the threat against you is close. Very close." At that, Hanna's eyes averted away from the person she was with and around the large hotel until her eyes settled on Noel Kahn, standing just a few feet from her. She had no idea why she did what she did next, as she drank the rest of her wine and then casually moved the glass over the edge of the couch she was sitting on and dropped it to the ground with a resounding crash of the glass as it shattered. It got his attention, which had been exactly what she wanted. He smirked as he headed towards them and suddenly, a hand was in hers and she stared at the woman in shock for a second as she glared at the man who had joined them, "Hello Hanna, take any country drives lately?"

His voice made her shudder and she held back the sound of her screams that resonated through her mind constantly, suddenly glad she had the mind to take her son to his grandmother before because the tension in the air was not something she wanted to expose him to, along with the sense of danger the man had brought with him. If she doubted it before, there was no doubt in her mind right then as she saw the look in those eyes that would haunt her forever. She looked away from the scene, her body trembling slightly, "No, let me out! Please let me out, please stop!"

"Freaks." He muttered, with a roll of his eyes before he walked away and Hanna's eyes met with Mrs Grunwalds for just a second as she took a deep breath and wiped the blood from her nose in shock. Hanna felt concern rising through her as she leaned forward and handed her a tissue she pulled from her purse before she shook her head. There was a darkness around them and she was one hundred percent certain right then that Noel was the cause.

Hanna's exit was rushed as she sent an emergency text to her best friends and rushed home, sending a message to her mother asking her to amuse Henry for just a little while longer whilst she sorted something out. She knew the red head would never understand what was going on with her daughter, as much as she longed to but she also knew the woman would never pass up an opportunity to spend time with her grandson. The blonde paced, wrapping her arms around herself as she waited for everyone to be seated – Aria was the last to arrive and the moment she did, Spencer broke the silence, "Okay, Hanna, we're all here, what's the emergency?"

The words came out before she could stop them because she knew if she didn't just say everything that was running through her mind, she would never be able to say it, "I had a nightmare that Caleb was run over by a car but he's okay and then Grunwald showed up and told me he's not okay and then Noel Kahn showed up and made Grunwald's head explode!" She sounded crazy, she could hear it in her own words and she could see it in their faces and she wondered if any of them would ask if she had taken her medication that day. Truthfully, she had barely taken it since she had gotten back to Rosewood but that was because no amount of anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medication would be able to ease the anxiety and depression that came with the town she loathed so much.

"To be fair, that does sound like an emergency." Aria shrugged and looked at the other women in the room, as Emily glanced at Alison and then at Spencer before Spencer leaned forward, "Okay, can you go over that again more slowly.. and what exactly are you saying?"

Hanna refused to go over the entire thing again, knowing what they thought of her. For a moment, she wondered if it was Alison, Spencer, Emily or Aria standing right where she was right then, if they would get the same looks from those who sat in front of them, if they would get the same questions or the raise of the eyebrows. She wondered what they would say behind her back, what they would whisper to each other – was she as crazy as she felt right then? "That Noel Kahn is A.D!" Was all she exclaimed as she raised her hands in a frustrated way and let them drop again, waiting for someone to say something.

But then before they could, she quickly spoke again, "You guys, I told you last night he stole Mary Drake's file, he hurt Yvonne, he called Dr Cochran..." Aria was the one to cut her off, a confused look on her face as she turned to look at their friends, "Wait, we weren't even together last night."

Now Hanna was getting annoyed, sending a glare towards her best friend, "No, we were in my dream. Catch up." She snapped, "He burned us out of the storm cellar and he wrote on the window, he probably killed Sara and we know he's bad because way back when he pushed the sorority girl down the stairs!" She could see the confusion on Alison's face, and Hanna scrunched up her own nose in equal confusion because she wasn't sure how she knew that. Perhaps she had heard it once, a long time ago, maybe deep down when she had seen the girl at the bottom of those stairs she already knew what had happened or maybe she was just guessing but she was right. She could tell by the way Alison looked at her that she was completely right.

"Hanna, what about Sara telling me we're looking for the same thing you are? I mean, she and Jenna were working with Noel..." Emily tried to make Hanna see reason as the blonde groaned in frustration, "Yeah, to find Charlotte's killer and that still leaves room for Noel Kahn to be A.D!"

"And what about the storm cellar?"

She could tell that everything she said was falling on deaf ears, it was pointless speaking to her best friends because nobody would take her feeling at face value. She knew it was him, she just knew and there they were, doubting her. "He's the only one who would write I see you."

"Maybe?" Spencer questioned, with a raise of her brow and she turned to look at Aria, just letting out a small sigh, Hanna opened her mouth to protest even further but suddenly the conversation was taken towards Caleb and what he had found. Hanna just shook her head, gripping at her hair in anger and frustration, "Not good, but what does it matter anyway? You guys are never going to realise that Noel is the one behind everything!"

Emily sat back and shrugged, "Never say never." She replied, causing Hanna to quickly snap, "Oh, thanks Pam." She exclaimed, feeling satisfied at the look of hurt that crossed her best friends face, "Hey!" Hanna ignored her and instead, turned to Spencer who she thought would be her best best – if she could convince her, then the brunette would be able to convince the others; "What else is there to look into? Nothing. We're at a dead end." When Spencer responded, Hanna was confused, and for a second, she almost insisted on going with Spencer instead of Aria but she had her own plans to make. Nobody was going to believe her until she got the proof she needed and she was never going to be able to get that proof with them breathing down her neck, telling her she was wrong every chance they got. Instead, she just nodded her head and walked away towards her bedroom, shutting the door behind her so everyone would get the hint she just needed to be alone.

It was just later that night that she found herself doing the same thing, putting down the note she was sure was left for them by Noel, another threat to their lives, another thing they had to be worried and scared about. This time though, as her friends spoke behind her, the three of them whispering to themselves about going to the police, she headed towards the front door of the apartment without a word, even when Emily called her name. Instead, she shut the door and the moment she was out, she felt a relief she would never be able to describe to another person. She had a plan, one that didn't involve people dragging her down. For the first time, Hanna was going to end it.

"The deals on, I get you the money, you give me the keys." She spoke the moment the other person answered the phone, barely given the person she had found on the internet time to speak. This was a plan she never wanted to go through with, not on her own but there she was – this was personal. This person had kidnapped her, Noel had tortured her, ruined any sense of safety she had forced herself to believe she had and now he was going to pay. And her friends were going to see that she was right, that she deserved to be listened to. She had a voice, and she decided right then that it was about time she used that voice to make someone pay for the damage he had caused her, and before he could hurt her even more. "Tonight and then you forget you ever heard from me – my name, the location, this number, all of it. Do you understand?" When the person didn't reply on the other end, she quickly repeated the words, nodding when he told her that he understood, "Good. The less you know about this, the better."

There were just two things she had to sort out before she could walk away completely, because she knew she was going down a dangerous path that she may never be able to return from. She looked down at the phone she held in her hands, and the smiling photo of her baby boy with a small smile on her face; everything she did, she did it for him and whilst he had once almost been the boy who was the son of a rapist and the woman who killed herself, at least he had a chance at knowing his mother would have done anything she could to protect him, even when she wasn't able to protect herself. She had the biggest thing to lose, she had the highest stakes in this game Noel was putting them all through and because of that, she had to play Noel at his own game. She was done being played with, she was done being scared. Maybe she couldn't protect her son from the evil in the world, but she could protect him from the evil in Rosewood.

After she sent a text to her mother, checking where she was, she headed towards the hotel and to the office she knew her mother would still be in. Henry was in the corner of the room, happily watching something on her mother's tablet as he munched on a packet of chips. He greeted his mother with a huge smile, letting her know he was watching Toy Story before he went straight back to the characters on the screen and the cheesy puffs he had all over his fingers. "Are you here to pick him up or do you need me to take him for the night?" Her mother spoke and Hanna moved towards her as she took a deep breath, her hands shaking before she slowly moved to sit down in front of the woman who had once been the only person Hanna felt truly loved her.

"I need you to take him, for a few days... maybe more." She whispered, glancing behind her at her unaware son before she wiped at the tears that found their way down her face, "I don't know when I'll be back but I need you to be the one who looks after him, okay? I need him to be with you because I know you love him, I know you'll keep him safe..." She was desperate, and it was enough to make the woman move from her computer and towards her daughter, kneeling down in front of her as she took her hands in her own and met her eyes. There were tears in her own, but she nodded her head, "I'll do anything... do you just need a break?"

Hanna shook her head, "I never need a break from him, mom... I need to do something. I can't tell you everything but there is something going on, something I need to protect him from. No one believes me, no one will help me, I need a few days to sort something out and then I will do everything I can to come back to him and to you." She sniffed, and closed her eyes, glad when her mother didn't ask any of the questions Hanna knew she would never be able to answer.

Instead, she stood up and went over to the wall, typing in a code before she grabbed some things from the hidden safe there and went back over to her daughter, "Take this..." She whispered, slipping the handgun into her daughter's handbag without meeting her eyes, "You need something to protect yourself and... here," She gave her some of the cash she had pulled out along with the gun, "Just in case." Hanna was grateful and she smiled as she tucked the money away into her bag along with the only item she had to protect herself, an item she wished she had with her on the night Henry was conceived. Only, she wouldn't have the perfect boy who was giggling to himself in the corner right then and despite the nightmares that night had brought her, despite how much it had changed her and how much it had changed for her, it broke her heart to think of a life without him.

"Mom, if I don't... if something did happen, I need you to know something. And it's going to hurt to know, but I need you to look at that little boy and remember how much you love him. I need you to remember that feeling more than anything, how you will do anything for him, die for him... protect him. I need you to hold onto that feeling." Ashley looked scared but she still moved her gaze over to the boy and smiled, tears falling down her face, and Hanna knew she had to tell her mother what really happened, she deserved to know the truth. "I never cheated on Caleb, not willingly... there was a night, I was walking home from work, I was going back early to surprise him and I was lost in my thoughts, planning my apology out because we had been fighting so much lately and suddenly, I felt something press against my back and I was yanked into an alley."

She took a deep breath, she had her mother's full attention and she could see the fear in her eyes, already knowing what had happened before Hanna could even continue with the story, "I tried to scream, I tried to fight but he was so strong, mommy... he held me so tightly, and then there was a knife against my throat and I had to decide whether I wanted to die or live and I really, really wanted to get home to Caleb so I stopped. I didn't scream, I just sobbed and begged for him to stop but he didn't care. He pressed the knife against my leg, I was wearing something short... I should have been more careful, I should have known better, I should have been more aware..." She gulped, and before her mother could open her mouth to tell her that it wasn't her fault, she shook her head, "I could feel the blood dripping before I felt the pain and after that everything kind of goes blank... I remember crying, I remember trying to push him off, I remember the knife against my neck and I can even remember the way he smelt, the way his stubble felt against my face when he tried to kiss me and then he pushed me to the ground and I knew that was it. Nothing would ever be the same again, I was never going to be the same again."

She looked down at the hands that were in hers and she let out a broken sob, "I remember the pain more than anything, and sometimes I can hear the screams but they don't seem real. Sometimes it all gets jumbled in my head, and I wonder what actually happened and what I've made up. Did I really fight as hard as I thought I did? Could I have done more? Should I have screamed louder? M-maybe I deserved it because I... m-maybe I didn't fight hard enough." She closed her eyes tightly and suddenly, Ashley's arms were wrapped around her and her lips pressed to her head before she whispered in her ear. Hanna listened to the woman speak, for just a second, as she told her she loved her, that she was strong, that she would never deserve something so awful. And then, that she was sorry... sorry for assuming she had cheated, sorry that Caleb had left her, sorry for mentioning it too much, sorry that she had taken her struggling to be normal for a young, single mother.

Hanna was the first to pull away as she wiped at the tears that fell down her mother's face, "When it was over, I got up and I stumbled to the hospital, I didn't tell them what happened, but I think they knew. When they phoned the police, I left, and I remember going to work and taking a shower there when I knew everyone else was gone and just like that, any chance I ever had of catching the man who did it to me was gone. I d-don't know why I did what I did or why I didn't tell anyone, it was kind of like I was breathing but I was just going through life numb. I thought maybe that when I left Rosewood, when Charlotte was charged, that it was over and my life would be nothing but good from then on. I thought I had been punished enough but I was so wrong and I couldn't handle it. I kept opening my mouth to tell Caleb what happened but instead we just argued more, he hated me more and more every single day, and in the end... I lost him but he lost me first. The person he fell in love with was gone and when he was gone, it hurt so much but I was relieved because I didn't have to pretend." She took a deep breath after she had rambled, trying to catch her breath through her tears as she shook her head, "I-I just thought you needed to know because I don't know what's going to happen, and I need you to look after him. I need you to protect him, to stop him from ever seeking out who his biological father is when he's older if I'm not here to do it, okay?"

She could tell her mother wanted nothing more than to break down, but she bit down on her lip and took a breath, trying to be as strong as she possibly could for her daughter. Behind closed doors when she was alone, it would be a different situation but right then, Hanna was going through something she couldn't understand and all she could do was protect the most precious thing in both of their lives. Hanna pressed her lips to her forehead and finally pulled back, moving towards the little boy who quickly stretched his arms out for the woman the moment he saw her coming. Quickly, she took him in her arms, holding him as close as she possibly could as she just breathed him in. "Remember baby boy, I love you more than anything in this world. More than the stars, more than the moon, more than every planet in the universe. I love you so much more than you could ever think possible." She pulled back slightly and put her hand on his chest, "I'll be right here, okay? When you want mommy, close your eyes and put your hand here..." She took his hand and put it where hers had been, "That's where I am, that's where I will always be."

She held back the sobs before she turned to the woman and handed him her son, pressing kisses to his face when he started to cry, "You are my entire world, my precious angel." She glanced at Ashley, "If something did happen, when he's older... make sure he knows what he saved me. That I never blamed him, that I never hated him..." It was a lie, for six months she had hated him for living but he had spent longer with her loving him than he ever had with her hating him, "Make sure he knows he's good. I need him to know that."

Hanna had no idea what was going to happen but she felt as though she was saying goodbye, and she had no idea how long she would be saying it for. Noel Kahn was dangerous, that much she did know and if he was the one who kidnapped and tortured her, then he was capable of so much. She needed to say goodbye, just in case she never got the chance to again. With one final look at her mother and her son, she smiled through her tears and waved, closing the door behind her.

The moments she spent in the elevator, to the floor her ex-boyfriend was currently staying at, were spent trying to compose herself. She wiped her tears away, she took a deep breath – Caleb would be more difficult because she wasn't giving him a reason to stay behind, she wasn't handing him her child asking him to protect Henry as she had done with her mother. With her gone, Ashley still had a piece of her, a reason to let her go. Caleb would be more difficult, which was why she had to say goodbye without him knowing she was saying goodbye.

With a deep, trembling breath, she knocked on the door and waited for him to answer, but the moment he did, she knew it was going to be so much more difficult than she thought it would be. He greeted her, and she repeated it back to him with a small smile on her face, hiding her nerves, "I-I'm just stopping by to tell you I'm going to be off the grid for a few days."

He frowned, and looked confused, "Why? What's going on?"

She had expected that question and so the words fell from her lips in an easy lie, "I'm going to New York for a few days, just to go through some things at work. I've not picked up some paper work in a while, so they need me in the office just to go through everything, bring some stuff home with me." He seemed to accept it, until he asked her the next question, another one she had been prepared for, "Do you want me to go with you?"

"No, thank you." She politely declined his offer, only for him to look around his hotel room and shake his head, "I mean it's no trouble, this room is getting kind of old, actually." He really wanted her to say yes, and she pushed him back before he could go any further with the hopeful expression on his face and the tone in his voice, "I'm fine, Caleb."

She was firm enough for his shoulders to slump, a sigh falling from his lips, "Okay, um, where are you going to stay?" She shrugged, and gave him an honest response because she knew if she gave him the name of the hotel then he would have some way to attempt to trace her, and then get worried when he found out she wasn't there. "I don't know yet, anyway, I gotta go. Henry's with my mom if you want to see him or anything, at any point."

He nodded her head, "Well, have a safe trip, I guess." She only nodded at him, taking him in for one last moment before she walked away without another word. She needed to leave before she convinced herself otherwise, before she told herself that he should be let in on the plan, that she needed his help. Truthfully, she had needed his help two years ago but right then, she didn't need him. She needed to protect him, she needed him to believe her and most of all, she needed to do this for herself, by herself. Only, her feet stopped moving when she got to the bottom of the hall, next to the elevator as she tried to tell herself that she needed to keep moving forward. Instead, before she could tell herself otherwise, she was running back to him, her arms wrapping around him as she tried as hard as she could to stop the tears falling down her face.

He knew something was wrong, she could tell in the way that he held her, in the way his face buried into her hair and the way she could feel his heart against her own chest. When she pulled back, their foreheads rested against each other's, their noses bumped and for a moment, she thought she was going to let herself kiss him but instead, she turned her cheek to the other side and started to walk away once again. She wanted to press her lips against his, so much more than she would ever be able to put into words but he deserved better, that was what she told herself, he deserved someone who wasn't as damaged or as broken as she was. And if he couldn't find that, if she got out of this alive, then he deserved someone who didn't have another stalker chasing after her and ruining the lives of her and the people around her.

When she found herself in the small apartment she had paid for, in cash, Hanna knew the reality of her situation was about to come crashing down on her. No one believed her, no one was willing to listen to her about Noel and so, she had to prove it. She had to find the evidence for herself, and when she did, she had to force a confession from him because even if the police didn't want to know, she'd be able to tell her friends that she was right. Slowly, the blonde moved to press the duct tape against the newspaper pages she had brought with her, placing them carefully across the window as she blocked out the outside world.

Maybe she couldn't catch the monster who had hurt her two years ago, but she could catch this one. And for once, she was going to prove to herself that she wasn't weak or helpless – the two things she had felt so heavily since the night she was dragged into an alley and any sense of good she had left in that world was torn from her so cruelly. Just as she had done that night when she was kidnapped by A.D, she had something to prove to herself, and now to the people who were meant to have her back no matter what. As she blocked out the last of the night sky with the last piece of paper, she took a deep breath and removed the gun from her bag. She was ready for whatever Noel Kahn threw at her, as ready as she would ever be, at least.