The next morning Aria had arrived at school as early as possible, hoping that Ezra would be in his classroom by now and that she could talk to him about the day before. After her father had moved Elliot's bed and other furniture into the guest room down the hall, and Elliot had been put to bed, she had cried for hours in her room. After an hour or so, her thoughts drifted to Ezra, how right it had felt to kiss him, and touch him and just be with him two days ago. It took an entire night of arguing with herself the pros and cons, but when it came down to it, Aria knew she had to be with him. You don't make a connection like they had and just ignore it. And if her parents were going to take the only person she loved more than life away from her, she was going to have something else that she desperately wanted.

When she approached his classroom door, she peered at him through the glass for a few moments. He was deep in concentration, making notes and highlighting excerpts from an essay on his desk and she almost walked away. He cared so much about his work, that was obvious and this would destroy his career if they were caught. But still… Aria knew she needed to take this chance. She quietly let herself in and closed the door behind her. Ezra had to do a double-take before finally speaking.

"You told me you went to Hollis." He said with an accusatory tone in his voice.

"No." Aria corrected with a slight grin. When he didn't return it she knew it wouldn't be easy to persuade him that their relationship could work. "I said I was thinking about majoring in English, which is true!"

"Look, I think you're amazing, Aria." Finally Ezra's lips were starting to turn up into a smile. "When I first met you I thought 'who is this girl?'"

Aria caught herself smiling at this. That fire was still there in his eyes. She tentatively took a step forward, placing her hand over his and holding on tightly. It was as if electricity flowed out of him and into her and she could tell he was feeling it, too.

"I'm still that girl." She told him reassuringly. "Nothing's changed."

"Yes, yes it has." He said, glancing back at the door behind her. "I'm your teacher."

"I know it's not just me!" Aria replied quickly, sensing the regret in his voice. "You feel like this is right for us, too!"

"But it's not right." Ezra's eyes dropped slowly to where she had her hand over his before he pulled away. "We just can't."

With that he stood up and left the classroom. She stayed behind for a few minutes, not sure what else to do. Was there anything she could do? The only thing to do now was move on.

*PLL*

Aria watched from across the table as her mother tried to get Elliot to eat his green beans and failed miserably. He kept throwing them to the ground and laughing when Ella got frustrated with him. She really wanted to laugh at the scene, but that would only encourage Elliot's behavior. For the most part, he was a very well-behaved baby, but you sometimes had to just let him play with his food if he was expected to eat anything. When she'd gotten home that day, Elliot hadn't cried all day. According to Ella, she had distracted him quite well and he had a great time playing and reading and painting with his Nana. This was a comfort, but it was also heartbreaking. Already her little boy was getting used to her being gone for so long at one time.

A knock at the door drew Aria from her reverie and she watched her father rise to his feet to answer the door.

"Is Aria home?" she heard Emily's voice ask and by the time she turned around her father was leading her into the house. She stood up and walked over to the only of her old friends who was speaking to her.

"Hey, Em. What's up?" She glanced over at her family and could see the questions on Emily's face as she stared at Elliot. "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to see if maybe we could talk about some stuff?"

"Stuff…?" Aria drew the word out, wondering what "stuff" Emily could possibly want to talk about that couldn't wait until school the next day.

"Stuff." Emily said seriously, and Aria nodded. The two walked onto the porch and sat on the porch swing side by side. "What's up with the baby? He's adorable. He looks a lot like you."

"My baby brother." Aria blurted out. "My, uh, mom found out she was pregnant just after we moved to Iceland, and now we have Elliot."

"I thought your mom couldn't have anymore kids?"

"What do you mean?" Aria's heart rate immediately doubled. Had her mother had a secret hysterectomy that everyone else knew about? Had her parents not thought their story through all the way? Oh God…

"Well Mike's already, what? Fifteen?"

"Fourteen." Aria interjected.

"Well, that would mean he was twelve when your mom got pregnant. That's kind of a huge age gap; I guess just assumed it would only be you and Mike, sorry."

"Oh." Aria stared at her hands awkwardly, unsure where to take the conversation from there.

"I'm sorry for just stopping by." Emily apologized. Aria shook her head in protest. If Emily was the only friend she would reconnect with, she could stop by at three A.M. unannounced if she wanted.

"Anytime, Em." She patted her friend lightly on her leg. "You know that."

Emily turned away for a moment. Aria could see that she was uncomfortable, but knew that Emily would talk when she was ready. "Somebody left a note in my locker."

Aria felt her heart stop and her eyes grow wide. So she wasn't the only one getting messages from Alison? "Was it from 'A'?"

"You, too?" Emily responded immediately.

"Do you really think it's her? I mean, is it possible?"

"Only Alison could have known." Emily insisted, and it struck Aria that perhaps she wasn't the only of her former friends to have a shared a private secret with Ali.

"Could have known what?"

Emily took a few moments to formulate an answer and whatever it was, Aria could see that she was struggling with it. Just the way she had been struggling with her secrets for the past two years.

"It was…"

"Personal?" Aria supplied. Emily nodded, and gave a tight smile.

"I really believed she was dead."

"Yeah! Yeah, we all did."

"Could she really be back?"

"I think she's playing with us."

"But why would she do that?" Emily asked in disbelief. Aria knew she would have trouble seeing the dark side of their old friend.

"This is Alison we're talking about, here!" Aria exclaimed. 'The Queen of the Lying Game', she added in her head. "I mean, wasn't that her favorite sport?"

Emily only hesitated for a split second before answering "Should we tell someone?"

Aria thought this over for a moment. Telling someone meant her mother finding out that she had known about her father's affair and kept it from her. Which could lead to the entire town of Rosewood discovering Elliot's true identity before her parents were ready. She glanced back to window looking into the dining room before she returned her attention to Emily.

"I don't know about you, but I can't."

The two sat there in an awkward but still eerily comfortable silence for a few moments, soaking it all in. They were both being harassed by someone, and that someone knew secrets that only Alison had kept. Maybe coming back here was a terrible idea, Aria thought to herself. First she was forced to keep her beloved son a secret, then the one person she had started to feel a true connection with had turned her down, and now this? Reykjavik sounded so sweet right about now.

"I'm glad your back." Emily finally said, looking at Aria intently and she couldn't help but give her friend a small smile.

"You know it's funny," Aria considered her current situation, coupled with the lukewarm reaction she'd gotten from everyone at school besides Emily. "Even though I grew up here, I feel like a total outsider."

"Me, too." Emily replied firmly and reassuringly. The two looked at each other and Aria knew that she meant it. In that moment, she wanted so much to just tell Emily everything. Everything about what had happened while she was in Iceland and about Elliot and her dad. But, she kept her mouth shut and they sat on the swing for a few quite moments, swaying in the early September breeze.

"Aria?" The girls whipped their heads around immediately. "Hello, Emily."

"Hi, Mrs. Montgomery." Emily waved shyly.

"Aria, I could really use some help with your brother. You know how much he loves you these days." Ella said sarcastically. "Emily, would you like to come inside for a few minutes? We're going to ice cream for dessert."

"Oh, no thanks, I really need to get going." Emily stood up and brushed off her skirt. "It was really good talking to you, Aria. See you at school?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course." Aria stood up quickly and hugged Emily tight. "I'm glad you came over. Call me when you get home?"

"Yeah." Emily agreed as she waved goodbye to Ella and headed off down the front steps on the Montgomery porch.

"So what did Emily want to talk about?"

"Nothing major," Aria fibbed. "Just catching up and stuff. Don't worry, she's not that up-to-speed." She added the last bit upon seeing the look of terror on her mother's face. "What do you need help with?"

"Elliot's getting fussy again, and with me starting work and him starting daycare tomorrow I really need him to get to bed soon."

"Well…" Aria stated, thinking over what she and her mother had discussed just the afternoon before. "Since we're in Rosewood territory, and you and dad have decided that my son needs to be detached from me, maybe you should handle this one on your own, Mommy."

Ella's jaw dropped and Aria stormed past her into the house. She hated that Elliot cried for her and she was right there, but he did start daycare tomorrow. Maybe he needed to get used to others responding to him. Aria never wished more than she had in the past 24 hours that she and Elliot could just be on their own. He was always happy when it was just the two of them, especially back home in Iceland. Ever since they'd been in Rosewood all he wanted was her, and it killed her that she couldn't always be with him. Before going upstairs to her room she stopped in the kitchen and kissed Elliot on the forehead.

"Nana's gonna give you a bath and then read to you, and then you're going to go to bed, ok?"

"Ya." Elliot's fussiness had ceased as he played peek-a-boo with Mike, laughing hysterically each time his uncle revealed his face.

"Aria, what's wrong?" Byron stood from the table, uneasiness to his voice.

"Nothing." Aria replied evenly. Her eyes were burning hot from the tears threatening to spill out, but she held her composure. "Nothing at all, Daddy. Your son needs to be put to bed."

She marched up the stairs and into her bedroom, shutting the door soundly behind her. She began to pace, unsure how to cope everything that had happened in the past 48 hours. She'd returned to hole-in-the-wall Rosewood, met the love of her life, lost the love of her life, had her son moved into a room down the hall, practically given up all of her parental rights, and she'd been harassed by some mysterious 'A'.

"Aria?" Byron opened her bedroom door and Aria felt the immediate urge to throw something at him.

"Knock, much?"

"Look, I know you don't understand why your mother and I are doing what we're doing, but one day when you grow up you'll understand."

"When I grow up?" Aria mimicked. "When I grow up? I don't know if you realize this or not, Dad, but I grew up a year and six months ago when I gave birth to my son! I grew up because I had to! It was my choice to have him and to keep him, and it's been me, by myself, raising him this entire time!"

"By yourself, huh?" Byron smirked. "Who has been providing for Elliot financially, hm? Because as I recall, you didn't even start your part-time job until he was close to six months old. And as I recall, I was the only person in our home bringing in a paycheck for quite sometime before that as well. You may have given birth to him, but you have not been the only person raising that child, Aria."

"That's not fair." Was it true? Yes, but Aria had done everything that she possibly could for Elliot at the time. "That's not fair and you know it."

"You know what's not fair?" Byron's voice began to rise and Aria felt her hands clenching into fists. "The fact that our daughter that we raised came to us at thirteen and told us she was pregnant. What's not fair is that we had to up and move your younger brother so that we wouldn't have to worry about what this town would say about us and you if they ever found out. What's not fair, Aria, is that everyone in this family has suffered because of your mistake."

"My son is NOT a mistake!"

"No, he's not." Byron agreed. "But the fact that your mother and I thought we could trust you to make the right decisions in life clearly was."

"Can you please get out?" Aria's anger out weighed her pain in the moment as she shoved at her father until he was just outside of her door before slamming it shut in his face and turning the lock. Thankfully her parents had returned that privilege as well when they returned to Rosewood. She heard her phone ringing from across the room and rushed to it, thinking Emily was calling and feeling the need to vent to her.

"Hello?"

"Aria? …Is that you?"

"Spence?" Aria's face broke into a smile. She and Spencer had always been the closest of the five when they were younger, and it had made her quite sad that Spencer hadn't reached out to her during one of their classes. But then again, Spencer didn't reach out to anyone when class was in session. "Is that you?"

"Yeah." Immediately Aria knew something wasn't right in Spencer's voice. She sounded almost broken.

"What's wrong?"

Spencer's voice cracked and Aria could tell she was crying when she said, "They found Alison's body."

"I'm on my way."

*PLL*

After she had parked her car amongst those of the other spectators and reporters, she looked around frantically for Spencer, or even Emily. Finally she spotted Spencer standing alone under a street light down the road. She began to power-walk towards her, looking over her shoulder in disbelief at the scene that was unfolding. When she was right in front of her, she could see that Spencer's face was completely drained of color, like she'd seen a ghost. Aria stood beside her and they both watched as the police wheeled a body bag from the DiLaurentises backyard.

"I heard Hanna got taken to the police station today." Spencer said shakily. Aria felt her eyes grow wide as she turned to Spencer.

"You don't think she'd talk about-"

"The Jenna Thing?" Both girls turned to see that Hanna had joined them. "We made a promise."

The three stood there for what felt like hours before they finally spotted Emily, clinging to Maya St. Germaine, the girl whose family had moved into the house over the weekend.

"Emily!" Aria called out, rushing to her and not caring whether the other two followed or not.

Emily turned in her direction and bolted. Aria, Spencer and Hanna surrounded her, each of them embracing each other as they let the tears fall down.

"She's really, really gone."

*PLL*

Before any of them knew it, it was Saturday morning, the morning of Alison's funeral. Aria had gone through the past three days completely numb. She and her father had un-spokenly made up for the time being, but the only things Aria could bring herself to think about was the fact that Ali was confirmed dead, and the fact that Elliot had cried for her every night while she cried for Ali. She'd arrived sooner than the other girls and had retreated to a small landing at the top of the church stairs for some privacy. She watched as people began to file in, even saw Emily and Spencer's family offering words of comfort and sharing hugs down below. Her moment to herself didn't last very long. After a few minutes she heard footsteps ascending the stairs. Looking to her right, her heart stopped. There was Ezra (Mr. Fitz!) approaching her. He must have been watching her, no one else had seen her come up here.

"Was she a friend of yours?" He asked. Aria looked back out the window and rolled her eyes.

"Do you care?" She asked, looking back at him. Ezra looked up to the ceiling in frustration for a moment before speaking.

"I don't know what I feel worse about." Ezra looked to his feet, a sense of regret playing across his face. "Having to stay away from you, or being a jerk about it."

Aria stepped away from the glass and stood directly in front of him. Slowly she looked up and locked eyes with him, that fire in her belly rising up again. "Yeah, she was one of my best friends."

"I'm sorry."

"For Alison or for being a jerk?"

"Both."

"Thank you." Aria didn't know how else to respond to that. His eyes, those intense blue eyes, told her he was being sincere with her and it only made her feel worse about pushing him for more, knowing what the consequences would be. "I would never want to do anything that would get you into trouble."

Ezra smiled tightly, and Aria almost regretted her words. It was obvious that he still had feelings for her, just like she still had feelings for him. But this was the right thing to do, as hard as it was. Standing on her tip toes, she gently placed a kiss on his cheek before lowering herself and looking him in the eyes sadly.

"Goodbye, Ezra."

As she began to walk away, she felt him grip her arm firmly and pull her back to him. Before she could process what was going on, his lips were on hers. Just like that, the spark was re-ignited. She didn't know what this kiss meant for them, but she was desperate for it not to end. She pressed one hand to the back of his neck, pulling him as closely as possible to her as his hands caressed her hips. The kiss quickly turned from feverish to gentle as he placed hand on her cheek and brushed gently with the pad of his thumb. Their lips parted for a brief moment and she knew that they needed to stop. It was hard enough seeing him in class every day and having to pretend she didn't know what his lips and hands felt like; she couldn't let him build up her hopes by kissing her like this. She moved the curls off of his forehead before quickly pulling her hand away. She tore her eyes from his gaze and made her way downstairs to join the rest of Ali's mourners.

When she walked through the main entrance of the church, a tall blonde-haired woman she hadn't seen in two years was speaking with Pastor Rob and holding his hands tightly.

"Mrs. DiLaurentis?"

"Aria!" Mrs. DiLaurentis exclaimed, tears brimming in her eyes. "I'm so glad you came!" The woman bent down and hug Aria as tightly as possible and she couldn't help but return the hug with the same enthusiasm. "I've asked the other girls to sit up front together; it's what Alison would have wanted."

"Of course." Aria agreed with a smile. The five of them had been absolutely inseparable; of course Ali would have wanted them to sit together. She made her way to the front of church. As she stared at the beautiful black casket that contained Ali's body and the large framed photograph next to it, a hand reached out and grabbed her hand, causing her to jump. When she saw that it was Hanna, she let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. Wordlessly the three girls moved over to make room for her and Aria sat down.

"For Ali." Emily said.

"Can you believe what a scene this is?" Hanna asked with a smile.

"Alison would have loved it." Aria agreed.

"Popular in life and death." Spencer added. Hanna looked over at her and noticed the still pained look on Emily's face. She reached into her clutch and pulled out a flask, handing it to Emily. Aria's phone began to ring and she fumbled with her bag to get it out, annoyed that she'd forgotten to turn it off. Flipping it open she saw that it was just her mother, letting her know that she would be there for her when the funeral was over.

"Anyone we know?" Hanna questioned.

"No it's just my mom sending me a text." When Aria looked up and saw the looks on Hanna and Spencer's faces, she knew what they were expecting. "Emily and I aren't the only ones who got messages from 'A', are we?"

"Look!" Spencer whispered. "It's Jenna." The other three turned and saw Jenna Marshall being escorted into the church, large black sunglasses covering her eyes. They weren't the only ones that noticed; everyone in the church was whispering as the blind girl made her way down the aisle. As Jenna took her seat, the four turned to face the front of the church. "What is she doing here?"

*PLL*

As they exited the church arm-in-arm, they were stopped by a police officer. Hanna tensed up considerably, Aria noted, possibly this had been the officer that had arrested her a few days prior.

"Emily, Spencer, Aria and Hanna?"

"Do we know you?" Spencer asked

"My name is Detective Wilden, I understand you all were good friends with Alison."

"Yeah, we were." Aria said firmly. Why else had they been sitting in the front row with the rest of the DiLaurentis family in the church?

"I'm going to need to speak with each of you."

"We spoke the police when Ali went missing."

"And I intend to go over each of your statements in full." Wilden said quickly. "This is no longer a missing person's investigation: this is a murder investigation. And rest assured, I will find out what happened that summer."

The four girls watched in horror as the officer walked away. Murder? Well, obviously Ali didn't die of her own conviction, but were they suspects now? And if the police were getting involved again, could they uncover….

"Do you think he knows about the"

"No, of course not, how could he?" Hanna interrupted. At that moment, all four of the girls' cell phones began to erupt with noise. They stared at each other wide-eyed as they reached into their purses.

"Oh, my God." Aria breathed out.

"It's from"

"I got one, too." Emily cut off Hanna as they each read the haunting message they had just received.

"I'm still here, bitches." Spencer read aloud. They all spared a glance at one another before continuing in unison.

"And I know everything. A."

I am SO stoked about the response from last chapter! But, sad to say, after this chapter I'm not going to be following the show as closely as I've tried to with this chapter. As for all the questions about when people will find out about Elliot… let's just say certain people are already suspicious. And Ezra will DEFINITELY find out soon enough! But who will find out first? Ezra or the girls? *HINT HINT: The more reviews I get for this chapter, the sooner you'll find out.* Who's ready for some PLL tonight? EZRIA REUNION FTW!