"This building is very, very historic. In fact, this brick was the first of many placed in the year 1912."

Aria Montgomery trudged along, eyes pleading for someone, somewhere, to put her out of her misery. Their tour guide who was given the task of leading her, Ira and about four other seemingly eager young adults through Hollis college. That would've been okay with Aria; if only the stout middle-aged woman leading the tour didn't pause and explain every single freaking brick.

She wanted to stay optimistic for Ira's sake, but it was getting harder and harder to do so. She silently thanked the builders (the very same who had put the 120 year old brick in the wall) for not placing a window on the main floor. Otherwise, she probably would've tucked and rolled by now. Aria told herself that Ira was probably having a good time, and that she should try and stay positive for his sake; but he was, in reality, as bored out of his mind as she was.

"Who is this woman and why does she have verbal diarrhea?" He whispered into his mother's ear. Aria had to really try and hold back a complete laughing fit. Ira certainly was her son.

"I think her name is Frieda. Or was it Edith?" She replied with her hand muffling her subtle giggles.

"I don't know. And I really don't care." He laughed quietly. After a moment of silence listening to their guide talk enthusiastically about the mahogany plaque on the wall, he leaned in again. "I thought her name was Joanne."

"I think you're right. And there's a break in about a minute and thirty seconds, so we can ditch and grab a coffee. I can give you a better tour than this dimwit. I used to practically live here." She muttered, checking her watch.

"Sounds amazing," Ira whispered in response. He smiled gratefully and looked down at his mother. "Thanks for trying to stay positive for me. It means a lot."

"Ira, I'm your mom. I'd do absolutely anything for you and Elle. You know that, don't you?"

"I do, Mom. And thank you. I seriously have no idea where I'd be without you."

"Well, I did bring you into existence. So..." She replied quietly as the group stopped abruptly and split up for a break. "Come one. Let's get the heck out of here before I do jump out the window."

Ira chuckled as his mother pulled him around a corner into another hallway. As they began walking towards the main exit, Aria remembered the other thing she had come to Hollis to do. She pulled out an envelope from her purse and sidetracked to a door near the middle of the hall, dragging a confused Ira with her.

As she opened the door, hoping silently with all her might that the office be empty when she entered, she heard Ira talking to her. She whipped her head around to face him, and saw a faintly familiar look in his eyes.

"Mom, what are you doing?" He asked. "That office is empty."

"That's what I was hoping." She muttered. She bent the corners of the envelope inward, gently at first but then more forcefully, out of nervousness as she waited for Ira to let up. It took her a mere moment to realize that he wasn't going to let up at all: he's her son.

"Who's Ezra Fitz?" He asked. Aria stared at him, unable to find a reasonable answer to his question, before realizing that he didn't actually know who he was talking about. He was just reading the plaque above the door handle. After exhaling in relief, she shook her head and thought of an answer.

"Ezra? Oh, he's...uh...he's just a friend. From a really long time ago. I want to invite him to lunch later today. He doesn't get in till ten, so he'll hopefully get this before noon."

She slipped past Ira and into the office, avoiding his gaze as much as possible. The room looked just as it did twenty years ago: messily neat, with a tinge of his OCD lurking in the corners of his neatly stacked graded essays. The environment was so familiar to her, yet she felt so out of place. She pondered on this thought for a moment before seeing a worn copy of Ulysses on the desk. She smiled.

"You still haven't finished that book?" She breathed into the air. She waited for his response. It never came.

"What?" Ira asked as he inspected the office.

"Oh, nothing. Lost in my thoughts...again."

She sighed and put the envelope on top of the book dolefully, almost as if she was no longer angry at him. She was, in fact, the angriest she had ever been at him. It just took her a moment, and a look back at Ira, for her to remember why she was so angry. She was standing in her former lover's empty office with her son (his son) trailing behind. That thought alone was enough to make her cringe in hatred of Ezra Fitz, the man she loved and thought had loved her back.

Aria laughed at the thought of introducing Ira as "her relative" later today. He was; but, he wasn't. He's her son. Her own. His own. "Damn it," she thought.

"I'm pullin' a Maggie," she thought.

She shook her head and yanked herself back into reality before turning to look at Ira, who had whispered something just under his breath. She didn't know what, and quite frankly, she was scared to find out. Ira was smart, way smarter than her. He'd figured something out; she just knew it. And she was right.

"What was that, hon?" She asked. As she feigned ignorance, Ira was still processing. Processing what, though?

"Were you and this Ezra Fitz really just friends?" He asked.

"Of course. Why would you ask that?"

He looked down, seemingly angry that she had lied to him, before returning his eyes to her. He nodded towards a framed picture on a small table near the door, and her stomach dropped.

The picture had to have been taken in 2012, maybe 2011. His arm was wrapped around her, and she was leaning into his shoulder with a content smile. They were so young. Tears pooled in her eyes as she was taken back to the day the picture had been taken.

She couldn't believe it. He had kept the picture.

"That," he uttered. She looked up at him as she wiped tears from her eyes, and his eyes grew wide. He snapped a picture of the picture on his cellphone and returned his gaze to his mother. "Mom, if I ask you this, please answer me honestly."

"Depends what you need to ask me," she replied nonchalantly.

"He's Winesburg, Ohio, isn't he?" Ira asked quietly. Aria's head jerked upwards, and all she could do was stare at him. He'd put the pieces together. He'd figured it out. "Is he?"

The code name "Winesburg, Ohio" was the name Aria told Ira and Eleanoire was her ex-boyfriend back in high school. She hadn't wanted to say his real name, and the twins were seven years old, so it's not like they'd know the difference. Apparently, Ira had thought about it a lot more than he let on.

"One and the same," she answered with a prolonged sigh. He still had a ways to go before the truth was in his hands, but with Ira Montgomery, it'd be a mere hop, skip and a jump until he knew everything.

"Is it him?" He asked. She looked at him with a look of defeat, waving an imaginary flag of surrender. "Mom, is Ezra Fitz my father?"

She couldn't answer him. They stood in silence for a few seconds, before Ira figured out what the silence was trying to inform him of.

"God, please say something..." He whimpered, his voice laced with hurt. She stared at him painfully, almost like his tears were stabbing a thousand knives into her chest. She hated to see him cry.

"C'mon," Aria whispered, "we're late."

About two hours later, Aria was seated at her usual table in the Rear Window Brew. She fiddled nervously with her teaspoon and clunked it in and out of her murky herbal tea, which was now cold. She wondered if he got the note. She wondered if he'd actually show up.

She wondered what he'd say, after all these years they spent apart.

Every time the door swung open and a crisp summer breeze came freely through the door with a new customer at its tail, she was the first to swing her head around to see if it was him. But, that habit began twenty minutes ago. And she was beginning to grow restless.

Aria couldn't figure out who she was more nervous to speak to: Ezra if he showed up, or Ira when she got home, who she assumed had told Eleanoire everything as well.

There was her answer. She was definitely more afraid of talking to Eleanoire than anyone else.

The door opened again, and she turned her head slowly and hopelessly towards it to see if this time was the time she would see him walking through the door. But, she grew immensely pale before she could do anything else. There, walking through the door, were her children: Eleanoire at the front and Ira trailing behind with his tail between his legs.

She had pleaded with Ira to keep himself and his sister home while she anticipated meeting Ezra Fitz, but she didn't know if her point had gotten across, or if it was per usual: in one ear, and out the other. Now she had her answer: by the look on Ira's face, her fairly convincing monologue had gotten across just fine. Eleanoire, however, was a different story. Aria stood up, obviously annoyed, and approached the duo by the door.

"What in God's name are you two doing here?!" She shouted in a hushed voice as to not disturb the coffee-sippers and regular hipsters in The Brew. "Ira, I thought I told you to tell Eleanoire to stay home!"

"He did. But, I'm an adult now. I can make my own decisions." Eleanoire replied sassily. Aria rolled her eyes derisively and laughed.

"Eleanoire, you can't even wash a sweater without turning it into a shitzu-sized peacoat." She said. "And I'm still your mother. In case you forgot during your little stroll down here, I friggin' taught you how to walk!"

"I just want to see what he looks like. Then, I'll-we'll-leave. Promise." Ira chimed in. Eleanoire looked at her brother with utter disgust, and shifted her weight to her dominant foot.

"No! Speak for yourself! I want to meet the man responsible for my existence, thank you very much. Don't you?"

"I'M responsible for your existence! And no one will be speaking to anybody on my watch. You can sit, stay, observe, get a cup of coffee, whatever. Just know that you are not to speak to him. Got it?" Aria asked before Ira had the chance to be swayed by his relatively convincing twin sister, which would be her worst nightmare at this moment: to have two against one. He nodded almost immediately after (he knew not to mess with his mother), and after getting a mean glance from Aria, Eleanoire did the same. They sat down in sync at a table, and Aria smiled. "Thank you."

She promptly returned to her own table, played with her teaspoon some more, and waited.

When the door swung open once more, she looked over her shoulder and saw him. He had shown up. He did get the letter. She smiled giddily before remembering that she was still mad as hell at him, and clunked the spoon into her cold tea some more. He bought a coffee and looked around for her for a moment before seeing her. She looked so different, yet still recognizable.

"Fifteen years'll do that to you," he thought.

Ezra looked down at his closed fist before inhaling deeply and approaching her, the woman he once loved. The truth was, he hadn't fallen out of love with her, either. And he wanted to tell her, he really did. But, he couldn't bear the thought of her telling him that she had moved on. Met someone. Started a family. Found a new dream.

He couldn't figure out what made her seem so different from the last time he saw her, but he didn't care. She was still so beautiful to him. Her thin, wavy bangs in her face; her delicate, defined cheekbones; her elegant figure. He had missed it all too much.

He stepped closer to the table silently and, before speaking, slid a ten dollar bill across the table towards her, making her head jerk up to look at him.

"I'm not just going gray," he began with a boyish smile that was all too familiar to her,"I am gray."

She had planned on staying reserved for awhile before actually opening up to him, but after that cocky statement, she felt like a teenager again. Her sass had returned, and she planned on giving her two children seated at the back of them a glimpse at what her life used to be like.

"Exactly how many AA meetings did it take before you finally shaved the depressed alcoholic beard?" She replied, gesturing at the chair opposite her. He took a seat, smiled at her, and began taking in her appearance from this new angle. The first thing he noticed? She wasn't wearing a wedding ring. She noticed him staring at her hands, and decided to speak up. "If you're looking for a ring, don't bother. I haven't found anyone. Yet."

"Sorry. It's just...it's been so long." He remarked. He shook his head subtly as he brought himself back to reality.

"Too long," she replied with a grin.

The way she smiled; her demeanor; everything about her. He just wanted to hold her in his arms and kiss her. But, that time was over a long time ago. And he just had to accept that.

If only Aria could've seen Eleanoire behind her. She was practically pulling a Hanna with her pocket mirror held just high enough so she could see who her mother was meeting over her shoulder in the reflection. Ira was just trying to put everything together in a neat little jigsaw puzzle in his mind. But, little did he know, this wasn't Yahtzee.

"He looks just like you," Eleanoire whispered across the table to Ira, who was just as distracted as usual, "like you two could be twins."

"Hmm?" He replied, obviously confused. Eleanoire rolled her eyes and stared at him with a solemn look of disapproval. "Sorry?"

"This is important, imbecile," she uttered while annoyedly snapping her pocket mirror shut in her hand. It made more noise than she had anticipated, and she blushed a bright shade of vermillion, making Ira chuckle.

"Shh, I'm trying to listen," he responded, shushing her. She scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"If you were looking at the eye candy at the counter, I already noticed. And I call dibs." She replied somewhat derisively, making Ira smirk.

"You can have him," he replied with a newfound confidence, "I already have a date."

She clanked her teacup down into its dish on the table and stared at him with wide eyes.

"What?! And why am I just hearing about this now?"

"It's new. And because if you know, Mom will find out. Then she'll start planning the wedding, and things would get awkward. Fast."

"Who is it?"

"No one."

"Dustin? Jaxon? Eddie from Calculus? I really don't see him as the gay type, but I guess anything's possible." Eleanoire continued.

"Nope. None of the above, thank you very much."

"Then who IS it?"

"Would you be quiet? I'm trying to listen in on this." He shushed. She relaxed, knowing that she now had him wrapped around her finger if she ever needed a favor.

Oh, the joys of secrets.

Author's Note:

Well, these last few months have been hell. While I tried to adjust to the ever-blazing flames of the underworld biting me in the ass, I completely forgot I had promised to update. So, I apologize.

Season 7B is so freaking GOOD, though! Holy crap, I am deceased after that Emison last night. Avat-Aria is creepy as f**k. Feel free to rant to me via PM, as I am desperate to rant to someone and I love to talk:)

So...I hope you are still able to follow this story! I know, it's been an eternity since the last update, and I am so, so sorry. Who's your favorite character thus far? Any theories? Requests? Critiques?

Thank you so much for reading!

XOXO,

Dee R. L. (ezriaandliars)