Chapter 39: Welcome Back My Friend

Paige's Pov-

I was in my attic with Emily cleaning away some old stuff that I could donate to the school's charity event to get more computers for the computer lab or something I wasn't really paying any attention, oh well at least they didn't ask me to donate money directly to them.

When I asked Emily to help she said "Yes" without hesitation.

"Hey Em, how much you think this will be worth?" I say and hold up an old jacket covered in dust.

"I don't think many people would buy that hippie jacket." Emily said.

"Hippie jacket?" I say confused.

"Yes." Emily says and grabs the jacket and brunches away the dust on the back. "Hippie jacket." Emily says and shows that the back of the jacket has the peace sign.

We continue to search for stuff to donate to the school. It would be so much easier to just give the school some money.

"Hey Paige, check this out." Emily says and hold up an old video tape labeled 'Family'.

"Wow that's old." I say as I take a look at the tape.

"Yes, let's see what's on it." Emily said.

"Emily that's a VCR tape I don't have anything to play that thing on." I say.

"Well, my mom still has one let's go to my place and watch it." Emily says excited about her idea.

"No Emily, I can't watch it. It will just be another horrible reminder that my parents are dead." I say as I put the tape back into the box where Emily had found it.

I look at my watch and notices that it's 2:35 pm. "Emily we have to go to the hospital to meet Hanna." I said and Emily nodded then we both left the attic.

We went to Emily's car and she drove to the hospital were we would meet the gang. The drive was awkwardly silent between us sine I had no idea off what to say and Emily seemed like she was bothered about something.

"Paige I... I'm sorry about what I said in the attic." Emily said.

"It's ok Em, you didn't know." I said and reached for her hand.

She took my hand in hers and I rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb.

We got to the hospital and Emily parked her car, we went to the entrance where we were greeted by Hanna, Spencer and Toby.

"Hi guys are you ready to see Caleb?" Toby said.

"Yeah, thanks for waiting for us." I said.

"No problem, well except for keeping Hanna calm, she's very excited to get Caleb out of the hospital." Spencer said.

"LET'S GO ALREADY!" Hanna yelled and went inside the hospital and we followed.

We got to Caleb's room and he was already up, he was wearing a blue short sleeved shirt and a pair of blue jeans.

"BABE!" Hanna yelled and jumped right into his arms and kissed him like her life depended on it.

"Guys don't forget to breath." Spencer said and Hanna broke her kiss to glare at Spencer.

"Thanks guys, it means a lot to me that you all came to visit me." Caleb said.

"We didn't only come to visit you, we came to get you home." Hanna said and grabbed Caleb's arm to lead him out of the hospital.

"Calm down Hanna you're going to rip his arm off." Toby joked.

"And probably his shoulder." Spencer joined.

"Shut up." Hanna said annoyed.

"What Hanna, were you born without a sense of humor?" I asked since usually Hanna is the one making fun of what we do.

"Guys seriously knock it off." Caleb said, standing up for his woman.

"And I'm hungry. Can we go somewhere to eat?" Caleb asked.

"Don't you get food here?" Toby asked.

"Yes, but the food here is awful." Caleb said.

"I can vouch for that." I said.

"So the grille?" Emily said and we all agreed.

We got out of the hospital and went to the grille where we ordered our food which I was paying for, not that I minded.

We all sat down white we waited for our food to arrive.

"So guys what have I missed?" Caleb asked.

"Well, Aria is evil and Mr. Fitz didn't take it very well at first, but he seems to move on now." Spencer explained.

Hanna leaned towards Caleb and had her arm wrapped around him. I think he could use some time away from being Robin tonight, I could see that he wanted to be with Hanna so I wasn't going to keep him away from her.

I grabbed my phone and hid it under the table as I sent Caleb a text saying that he got the night off, so he could be with Hanna.

It was obvious that Hanna had missed Caleb, since she couldn't keep her hands off him, she was either holding his hand, kissing his cheek or whispering something in his ear, this was a big day for the both off them.

We got our food and I could see that Caleb was enjoying it. What was he getting at the hospital painted grease?

After the food Hanna and Caleb went home to his place, or that's what Hanna said as they left.

Spencer and Toby left together and I was sitting by the table with Emily.

"So Paige do you want to go somewhere with me?" Emily asked sounding unsure.

I looked outside and saw that it started to get dark "No I can't. I'd love to be with to, I want to be with you, but I can't while there are so many reasons to protect the streets at night and to make sure that the people I love are safe." I said referring to me being Batgirl.

Now when Aria was one of her attack dogs I had to stay up every night to make sure that A didn't know anything that would end up with her gaining any advantage over me.

"It's ok. I get it." Emily said, but I could tell that she was disappointed.

"Emily, I'm doing this for you, because I love you so much." I said and look into her big eyes and gave her a small kiss on her lips.

She looked at me and her mood changed from sad and disappointed to happy and we kissed again this time deep and with passion.

We left the grill and went hand in hand to her car were we said our good byes and I went home to my mansion to change into my Batgirl suit.

I exit the bat cave like all the other times and this time I used my grapple hook to get to a rooftop where to my surprise I saw A standing right in front of me.

"Well, well, well the dark scary bat right in front of me." A said and started to walk around me in circles.

"All off my men fear you when there this close to you, but I'm as clam as when I got up here." A continued.

"And your point is?" I asked.

"I'm looking at the one thing that has all my men worrying when I mention the name Batgirl, they think that you're a monster or a demon who will take their souls." A said and kept walking around me.

"I can see why they are scared, I know that you're just a person hiding behind a mask but I still see you as a demon." A said.

"But I can't unmask you because then you'd only be a girl, my greatest enemy would just be a girl hiding behind a mask like some coward and then it wouldn't be any fun defeating you." A said.

"I'm not just a girl, I'm Batgirl." I said glaring at A.

"Well perhaps you are, but you're not leave this rooftop alive" A said and laugh as she walked away from me. I ran after her when I felt something grabbing my neck and give it a yank so I fell on my back.

"Surprise to see me?" I heard a voice, I looked up and I saw that Aria was standing next to me, walking in circles around me.

"I knew that I'd see you again, at some point." I said and got back up.

"I've waited for this... for a long time" Aria said and charged me, I jumped over her and landed behind her.

Aria threw a knife at me and I caught it by the blade and tossed it to the ground.

"You'll have to do better than that." I said and kicked away the knife.

Aria growled at me and she ran towards me, she threw a right hook at me, I blocked it with my right arm and used it to pin down her arm. She tried to hit me with an uppercut so I had to let go of her right arm and jump back to avoid her punch.

Aria threw another knife at me and I threw a bat rang that hit her knife so it missed me and got stuck to a chimney.

I charged Aria and threw a right punch that hit her jaw so she fell backwards.

I walked up to her and she grabbed my throat trying to choke me as she slowly got back to her feet.

"How does it feel bitch?" Aria said and I grabbed her wrist and thank to my superior strength I managed to pry off her hand.

As I took a breath Aria kicked me in my stomach followed by elbowing the back off my head so I feel to the ground.

I tried to get back up, but when I felt a hard kick to my ribs that made me fall back down.

"Please, don't get up." Aria said.

I saw Arias shadow as she to a step back for another kick, when she was close enough I rolled aside to her surprise and before she had time to react I kicked her right knee so she lost her balance and fell down, giving me enough time to get back up.

I walked back a bit to gain some distance in case Aria would try another dirty trick to use against me.

Aria got back up looking like she was willing to do anything to make sure that I would die.

She threw another knife at me, but I noticed it and could easily dodge it, but I didn't notice that Aria had run up to me before it was too late. She grabbed me by my legs and lifted me up as she ran over the rooftop edge and we both fell down to the hard asphalt.

I landed on my back, it hurt so much that I couldn't get back up.

I looked up and saw Aria already standing, she walked towards me holding a brick over her head.

I tried to muster the strength to get back up, but I was too weak.

Aria got closer and closer to me.

"ARIA! STOP!" Someone shouted.

Aria dropped the brick on the ground and turned around to see who was shouting.

It was Ezra Fitz. He was standing right there looking at Aria, trying to reach out to her.

Aria ran up to him and grabbed Ezra by the throat and slammed him into the brick wall behind her.
"Aria I... I know you're still in there." Ezra said as he got it harder to breath.
I struggled to get back up on my feet but the fall from the roof had made my body really sore so I struggled trying to get on my knees.

I looked up at Aria who was strangling Ezra who wasn't fighting back, like he thought he could reach out to her. Aria had a tight grip around his throat and he just looked into her Eyes like he was trying to say "Don't do it, Aria."

I kept struggling to get back up, but everything hurt so much. I did my best trying to block out all pain, but it was much harder than in the movies.

Aria was glaring at Ezra and growled "Why won't you die?" she had a fire in her Eyes that hinted that she wanted to make sure that Ezra was dead.

I got back up and took three quick steps towards Aria and I kicked her in the back off her head so she hit the wall and then she fell to the ground with her Eyes closed.

I looked up at Ezra, the strangling had turned his lips blue and he had almost no color in his face.

"Batgirl what have you done?" He said as he walked up to Aria, she was unconscious.

"Aria please Wake up." He said and went down on his knees and he held Aria's head in his hand like he was cradling her.

"Aria please Wake up." He said as the pouring rain hit them.

"Oracle call the hospital tell them to send an ambulance here now!" I shouted over the Comm link.

"ORALCE!" I shouted before I realized that Spencer had the night off so she could be with Toby.

I didn't know what to do, I fired my grapple hook to a rooftop and started to run until I was a few blocks away.

I grabbed my cellphone and called an ambulance that came and picked up Aria.

I couldn't believe that I maybe had killed one of Emily's friends.

After the ambulance was on its way to the hospital I called Emily, she deserved to know what had happened.

Emily's Pov-

I was at the hospital were Aria was in, Paige had called me and explained everything, I knew that she didn't have a choice to fight Aria, but hearing that she could have killed Aria was really shocking to hear.

"Hey! Doctor! What can you tell me about a girl named Aria Montgomery? She's about my age and has dark hair."

"She got in here last night, she was fine a bit banged up but she wasn't seriously injured, she did have something shattered in the back off her head that we had to remove." The doctor said.

"She got home a few minutes ago, her parents picked her up." The doctor said before leaving for his next patient.

I grabbed my phone and called Paige "Paige you're not going to believe it, Aria's chip got destroyed when she fought you, she's fine." I said over the phone.

"Really? That's unbelievable." Paige said over the phone.

"Yes, she's back home safe and sound." I said over the phone.

"And Paige, have you ever wondered how it would be to see someone that you've lost and remember how they were like, even if it was just for a second." I said referring to the tape we had found yesterday.

"Yes, yes I would." Paige said.

"Ok, so if you get to my place you can see the tape on my moms VHR." I said and Paige answered. "It's a deal."

I got home and Paige was sitting on my steps holding the tape in her hands.

"Ok, let's see what's on this film." I said and we entered my house and she put the tape in the VHR, it started and it's Paige as a baby with her parents at her 2 second birthday.

They seemed so happy and loving. I looked over at Paige who was crying. I put my arm around her and she turned to me and smile "Happy tears Em." She said and we continued to watch the video.

I held Paige's hand and kissed her on her head.

"Your parents love you, and I can't wait to have kids with you. You will be a great mother and I will always love you." I said as Paige leaned on my shoulder as we continued to watch the video.