Whispers in the Dark

- Chapter Ten – Wild World

It was a couple days later that Spencer and Cory were walking as quietly as possible through all of the trees that stood between the Hastings and DiLaurentis properties.

"This is an awful plan." Spencer sighed.

"Yeah, I don't disagree but right now it's the only plan we've got." Cory countered.

They'd came up with an idea of how to see if Jason was really hiding Ian in his house or not; Spencer was going to talk to Toby and Jason, keep the latter distracted while Cory slipped into the house and looked around to see what he was hiding.

As they neared the property they stopped between to trees and looked to see Jason picking up bags of soil from the ground and moving them into a wheelbarrow.

Her breath caught in her throat as she continued to watch Jason with his damp, sweaty shirt clinging to his skin, perfectly showcasing his muscular upper body. Clearing her throat and having a slight struggle to find the right words Cory said, "Or we could just ditch the plan and stay here… keep an eye on him."

"Ew, no." Spencer groaned nudging her as she sighed, "I'm not going to stand here and watch you spy on some creepy guy who you never should have been involved with anyways; especially when that creepy guy is hiding Ian, who tried to kill me by the way, in his creepy old house."

"Going for a record on how many times you can fit the word creepy into a sentence, Spence?"

But her friend didn't respond as she was watching her boyfriend, Toby –who was busy digging holes for the tall fence posts.

"We need to stay focused today… but if I can't get Toby to quit his job here, maybe we should keep coming back. You know, to make sure nothing happens to him… I don't trust Jason." Spencer airily breathed out as she never took her eyes off of Toby.

Cory laughed and shook her head, she was about to remind her friend of the plan until, she heard Jason talking as he asked, "Wanna take a break?"

"Nah." Toby replied, barely looking up from the hole he was digging.

"Dude, you've been working non-stop, it doesn't have to be built in a day. You got another job to go to or what?" Jason questioned, pulling the work glove's he'd had on off and starting to walk towards the teenager.

Spencer and Cory ducked down some, enough where they could see but were shielded from view.

"I'm uh, I'm guessing people around here are still giving you a hard time, huh? Look, just for the record Toby, I never believed you were guilty of anything." Jason admitted, as the teenager stopped digging and looked at him, he continued "Except maybe being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I've been there."

Cory didn't even realize she was hopelessly smiling until Spencer nudged her and demanded in a stern whisper, "Stop that!"

"Spence, did it ever occur to you that Jason isn't that bad of a guy?" She asked, thinking that was the Jason she'd known and missed. The one who'd rather form his own opinions of someone and not buy into town gossip.

"Not once." She answered with raised eyebrows before she sighed, "I don't know him as well as you, but something just isn't right."

"Which is why I'm about to sneak into his house." Cory nodded.

"Remember just see what he's hiding, if you do end up seeing Ian just get the hell out of there, do not confront him." Spencer reminded her as she shifted and a twig broke under her weight.

Both girls ducked down farther and stared at each other wide eyed.

"Who's that… Melissa?" Jason called out.

Taking a deep breath Spencer stood up and walked into sight as she said, "Uh, no… hi, it's Spencer."

"Hi." Jason responded in a slightly gruff voice.

"Why would you think I was Melissa? Has she been coming over a lot?"

"A couple times… mailman keeps giving you guys my stuff." He admitted, and Cory took them talking as her cue to get inside of the house as she slipped back through the trees before running through the yard out of sight and making her way up to the porch. Just as she started to open the door Spencer sent her a text saying to abort the mission, Jason was headed inside.

Gasping she pulled the door shut and turned to run, but she'd only made it down the steps when Jason spotted her and greeted, "Hey… what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just coming to see… Toby." She lied, then cringed as she looked down to the ground. That was the best excuse she could come up with?

"Popular guy today, Spencer's around the side of the house talking to him now." Jason explained watching her as she fidgeted with the sleeve on her shirt and nervously looked around.

"You okay?" He questioned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She offered a smile to sell the lie as she said, "I'm just going to go find Toby then…"

He nodded and watched as she walked past him, then offered, "I was going to grab something to drink… want anything?"

"No thanks, I don't really drink anymore." She answered quickly with the same thing she'd been telling people at parties ever since she got out of rehab. It wasn't that she was an alcoholic and one drink would throw her off the wagon, it was more a matter of she tended to use it as a crutch –and once she started drinking it was impossible to stop.

Looking down he held back a laugh before pointed out with raised eyebrows, "I meant like a coke… or water."

Cory looked down and laughed as she felt her cheeks darken and started to apologize, "I should have known that, I'm sorry it's just-"

"It's alright, I get it." He assured her, lingering for a moment before turning and disappearing into the house.

Blowing out the breath she'd been holding, Cory raced over to her friends and Toby gave her a friendly smile as he asked, "You come to try and talk me out of working here too?"

"No… I don't think you should quit. You need a job and Jason needs help building the fence, it works out, right?" She shrugged and Spencer scowled at her. In her mind this was the worst thing to happen –her boyfriend working for a guy she didn't trust, in the yard of the house she was sure Ian was staying in.

"He's really not bad, kind of quiet but I am too." Toby nodded.

"Ugh!" Spencer groaned, "You guys can bond over your feelings for Jason later, right now… we should probably get out of here." She said to Cory, then looked at Toby, "And you should come with us."

Jason walked back out of the house carrying a trash bag with him, pausing on the steps of the porch when he saw the trio standing close and appearing to be deep in conversation.

He wasn't sure what was going on, but he had a feeling Cory hadn't shown up to talk to Toby. But whatever she was doing there, she clearly didn't want to tell him about it.

"I'd invite you guys in, but the place is kind of crazy." Jason called out, getting their attention as he dropped the heavy bag down onto the pile of trash by the mailbox and looked up to them.

His attention was drawn back to the ground when he saw all of them staring down and he realized the bag had busted open, littering the immediate area with bloody gauze and bandages, along with several empty boxes of Chinese take-out.

With a laugh he reasoned, "Cut myself…" He knelt down and started to pick up his mess as toby shrugged and got back to work digging the next hole for a fencepost.

~()~

It was later that night, Hanna, Aria and Cory met at Spencer's to follow Melissa if she left the barn to go anywhere.

Spencer and Cory filled them in on what happened earlier when they'd gone over to see Toby and since then Spencer had found and pawned her sister's wedding ring for money to get Toby the truck he'd been looking at. She was willing to do anything to get him to stop working for Jason.

Aria was in the same class at Hollis that Jenna was taking and that day she'd messed up and talked too much and the blind teenager figured out who she was, she'd been using the name Anita to conceal her identity.

"Wait… who's Anita?" Hanna questioned, not entirely following the story.

"No one, it was me… I was, okay? I only said that was my name because I didn't want Jenna to know I was there." Aria explained for the second time.

"Yeah, but she did know." Hanna argued.

Spencer shook her head as she stood at her bedroom window and kept an eye outside to see when Melissa left.

"Well yeah, but only after I said something. I thought I was safe."

"Uh, hello? We're the reason she's blind… of course she's going to have our voices locked in her memory." Cory pointed out and spencer nodded, "Yeah Anita was safe… not Aria."

"I feel like I just made things worse. If Jenna really is A, I totally rattled her cage."

Gasping Spencer, jumped out of view from the window and said, "Guys… she's on the move."

Nodding her friends got up and they all scrambled out of the house and following behind her until she got to the raod and they could hide behind some trees and bushes.

They saw Melissa going to a car that they thought for sure Ian was driving, that was until the driver's door opened and someone else stepped out.

"Is that Wren?" Aria whispered.

"Wren?" Spencer gasped, shocked to see It really was him.

"Oh my god… was there some sort of town meeting where they voted to all help Melissa aid her murdering husband?" Cory whisper-yelled at her friends.

"I can't believe he's in on this too." Spencer admitted.

"What's he giving her?" Aria questioned seeing him getting a bag out of his trunk and handing it to Melissa.

"Probably painkillers." Spencer reasoned and Cory nodded. Hanna, however, didn't understand why as she asked, "Melissa does drugs?"

"No! They're probably for Ian." Cory answered and Spencer said, "You fall from a bell tower and you're gonna need more than an ice-pack."

Forgetting they were trying to hide and stay quiet Hanna scoffed, "Wow, only Melissa would ask the guy she dumped to help the murderer she married."

Her friends promptly shushed her and they all had to duck out of sight when Wren and Melissa looked over in their direction, moments later the car sped off and Melissa remained in the street checking over the bag she'd been given.

"She does not look happy." Hanna whispered her observance.

~(The next day)~

"Hey, did you drive to school?" Cory asked as she met Aria at her locker.

"Yeah." She answered, looking around to make sure her mom wasn't near. Since taking over Ezra's teaching spot at the high school her mom had taken it upon her self to make sure the group of friend's didn't associate at school either.

"Could you give me a ride home?" Cory asked.

"Still freaked out about the car thing?"

"You mean that someone in a dark car with blacked out windows is stalking me… yeah, terrified is more like it."

"It has to be A… but it just doesn't seem like something they'd do." Aria said, her expression full of concern about her friend's safety.

Cory nodded, those were the same thought's she'd been having since the night it happened.

"Yeah, I'll drive you home –as long as you don't mind making a stop along the way, my mom's sending me to the park to give Mike his keys he forgot this morning. He normally plays there with some of his friends after school." Aria explained and Cory nodded, "Sure, I don't mind."

When they reached the park and got out of the car, they looked around but didn't see Aria's brother anywhere.

"Is that him?" Cory asked, nodding to someone sitting on a bench with a towel around his neck, from the back he could be Aria's brother.

But when the friends got closer and he turned around, it was clear he wasn't who they were looking for.

Aria took out her phone and tried to call him again, but Cory was no longer in search of her friend's brother when she spotted Jason who saw her at the same time. He paused to give her a questioning look wondering what she was doing there and she couldn't help but stare back at him.

He was shirtless, with a pair of gray basketball shorts hanging dangerously low. His tanned skin glistened with sweat in the harsh midday lighting and it took every ounce of strength she had to look away as she asked Aria, "Did you get a hold of him?"

"No, he's not answering." She sighed, then glanced over to see Jason watching her friend as she smiled and leaned in some, "Looks like you've got an admirer."

"What? You're not going to chastise me for talking to him like everyone else is doing?" She whispered back.

Aria sighed, "No, he's not exactly my favorite person in the world… and he is sort of creepy, but I see the way he's looking at you and I've noticed the smile you get when you talk about him-"

"I do not." she cut in with a defense, but Aria laughed it away, "Oh, you do!"

"I think sometimes everyone just judges people too quickly… like before you moved back and we were all convinced that Toby was the one who killed Ali when he was completely innocent. Jason's kind of weird, but that doesn't make him a bad guy." She reasoned, causing Cory to smile as she assured her, "He's not."

Looking over Aria saw he was still watching her friend and she turned back to her as she admitted, "The way you talked about him, sounds like you really, really liked him. I don't think I said this before, but I'm really sorry you felt like you couldn't tell us about Jason before."

Cory smiled warmly at her, thankful to see one of her friends was being understanding, it meant a lot more to her than Aria knew.

"Ooh, there's Lewis… he's on the lacrosse team with my brother." Aria said when she spotted a familiar face, and rushed after him hoping he'd be able to tell her where she could find her missing younger brother.

Cory watched them, until she saw a stray basketball bounce by her and she leaned down to pick up. Turning around she looked around wondering who to toss it to until Jason walked up to her.

"Hey…" She breathed, as she held out the ball for him to take.

"Hey." He greeted, back taking the basketball as he nodded in thanks.

"Have you seen Aria's brother, Mike? We can't find him." She blurted out, not entirely sure what else to say.

"No, sorry." He apologized, looking around before he questioned, "He give you guys the slip?"

"Something like that." She nodded with a small laugh.

"I was always lying about where I was when I was his age." He reasoned with a shrug and Cory nodded, thinking she was still lying her dad about where she was, but not because of drugs or drinking –she was having to sneak around to see her best friends.

"We, uh, we really haven't had a chance to catch up since I moved back." He pointed out, and she cocked her head to the side wondering what he was getting at.

"Maybe you'd want to? We could get dinner or something."

Biting down on her bottom lip and fighting a smile she asked, "Like a date…"

He watched her, slightly squinting in the sun as he said, "We never really got to do much of that before, right? Or do I just not remember it?"

Shaking her head she replied, "Nope… the parties definitely don't count as dates and neither did sitting in your room and getting high."

"So is that a yes?" He asked, with one of his smiles that made her knees feel like all the bones had turned to mush.

Cory hesitated, they were both clean and sober now so it wasn't like spending more time together would push either of them into old habits. But she'd planned on not getting involved with anyone since she moved back, especially after A started in on her –but she also hadn't planned on Jason moving back either. And they kept bumping into each other all over town; she considered maybe it was fate… or the less romantic way of looking at it as a small town with only so many places to go. Either way, she missed him.

"Yeah." She finally agreed, after such a long pause that he was starting to think she was conjuring up a polite way to let him down. He was pretty sure the last several minutes the hot sun rays beating down on him wasn't the cause of the sweat he wiped from his forehead as he smiled at her.

He'd been surprised when he found out she'd moved back to Rosewood, but it was a good surprise. Especially when he saw she was doing a lot better too. In a lot of ways they were different people now, but he still felt the same connection with her and had missed her over the past year.

"I'll, uh… I'll give you my number?" She offered shaking him from his thoughts as he nodded and said, "I'll get my phone."

She followed him over to where his shirt was laying on a bench off to the side of the pavement court, where he'd hid his phone under it.

After exchanging numbers, she tucked her hair behind her ear and quietly asked, "Did you… uh, did you come to see me when I was in the hospital?"

Laying his phone and shirt back down on the bench he glanced at her as he admitted, "It was just a few days after I moved back… I picked up a newspaper and on the front cover was a picture of you on the ground with your friends around outside of the church. I didn't know what was going on or how badly you were hurt."

"Not really all that bad." She explained, "I was in a car accident and ended up with some bruised ribs… I collapsed outside of the church after the Ian thing from a panic attack, of all things." She shook her head at herself, slightly embarrassed with the admission then looked up as she questioned, "Why didn't you stick around, I was waking up right as you left…"

"I honestly didn't know if you'd want to see me. Part of why I snuck in there at night, figured you'd be asleep but I just wanted to make sure you were okay." He explained.

"Part of it?" She questioned with raised eyebrows, wanting the whole story from him; which he gave her when he continued to explain, "Yeah, the other part was that I knew people were already saying things about you around town, and I didn't want to make it worse by people seeing me coming to visit you. Half the town still thinks I had something to do with what happened to my sister."

She nodded in understanding. The residents of Rosewood were less than forgiving people and never seemed to let rumors die, not matter how old or painful.

"Well, you know rumors are going to start flying when we're spotted out in public together…" Cory pointed out, thinking of how much crap Spencer got in the hallways at school after people found out she was dating Toby Cavanaugh.

He nodded, tilting his head to the side and watching her closely as he asked, "Think you can handle that?"

"Well…" She breathed, smiling to herself as she remembered one of their first conversations when he'd told her something rather fitting for this moment, "This guy I used know once told me that the people in Rosewood aren't ever going to change… you either have to conform or get used to them talking about you."

Their eyes locked as he remembered the conversation she was bringing up, it was a talk they'd had moments before he'd kissed her for the first time.

"He's not here, ready to go?" Aria announced walking up to them as she offered Jason a friendly smile and looked at Cory.

"Yeah." Cory nodded, glancing back to Jason as she said, "So I guess I'll see you later?"

With a smile he picked the basketball up from the bench and said, "Yeah, I'll call you."

As they turned to leave Aria asked, "He'll call you? So this means there was an exchange of numbers?"

"That's typically what happens before a… date."

They stopped by the car and Aria faced her as she admitted, "I'm happy if you're happy… but just be careful, I may not dislike him as much as our friends… but they have a reason to feel the way they do."

"I know." Cory nodded as she got into the car with her and glanced back to the basketball court just before her friend drove away.

A/N - thanks for reading, I really hope you guys all liked the chapter!

Don't forget to follow me on Tumblr where I post a lot of fanfiction related content to go along with my stories, the link is up on my profile. ^_^

I owe a huge thank you to Momsen-xxxx, RHatch89, Cassie-D1, xxxRena, WolfsLullaby, DancingDorisDay, SmellYourScentForMiles, Guest, BloomingBlueMoon85, Lucy Greenhill, jk522, guest, Heartless-Princess33, gues, guest, EmisonLovr4life, EllieWellyBear, The truth never set me free, Nirvana14, guest and Nicole1024 for reviewing the last chapter.