***Chapter 45***

**Jason's POV**

My head was killing me. I had been separated from Aria at the hospital, given pain meds and a bruise ointment to apply. Then been instructed to not be alone tonight. Like that was gonna happen. Everyone I lived with was out of town, not due to come back until my dad deemed the coast was clear, and it wasn't like I could call Spencer or any of her friends. They were all giving their statements to the police and would likely be too tired to play nurse all night. Maybe Aria would be able to keep her promise to come over and explain things. Though, I wasn't really holding too much hope there. She had been shaking when a nurse had escorted her to her own exam room. They'd probably be keeping her through the night. Which meant that my concussion would just have to deal. God, I needed more friends.

I rubbed at my eyes, tired but not wanting to fall asleep now. I had given my statement to the police at the hospital before the doctors released me and had headed home intending to sit back on the couch and try and stay awake. Maybe it wasn't the best plan considering I had barely slept the night before and I was beyond exhausted. There was a comedy show on tv, so I turned that on before going into the kitchen and making myself a cup of coffee.

The front door opened and closed, making me pause in my movements, though it was probably the cops. They had been collecting what evidence they could of my brother's brief presence here. Mainly that had consisted of dusting for prints on the porch where the balloon had been tied. But they had also come inside and taken everything Charlie had left for me, along with the box that Aria had brought with her. That I still didn't know what was inside.

'You don't want to know.' I told myself, trying to force my thoughts away from whatever Charlie did to Aria.

Her words were echoing in my head again, saying that she was pregnant. I pushed it down, ignoring what was burning at me. She had just said that to get him to let go of her, thinking it would shock him into letting her go.

'But why would he believe that she was pregnant if he hadn't raped her?' that voice in my head that normally told me to reach for the bottle of jack sounded.

It was just to shock him, I reassured myself. It had worked. Nothing had happened. Charles had let go. Aria was safe. I ignored all other thoughts as I grabbed my cup of coffee and headed back into the living room. I'd tell the cop to get the hell out of my house before I settled down on the couch.

"What took you so long?" A voice sounded from the couch, causing me to look up.

Sitting there with her legs casually crossed as though it was just your average day was my sister. Ali had dropped her purse on the table next to the couch and obviously had settled down to tell me something. Either that or my concussion was worse than the doctors thought it was and I was just full blown hallucinating.

"Aren't you supposed to be at a hotel with dad?" I asked, needing to verify that she was seriously sitting here.

"Supposed to be, yes. But seeing as I'm here that's clearly not the case." She took that tone, like I was an absolute moron. Which didn't counter the hallucination theory.

"Where's dad?"
"Probably still at the hotel."

I accepted that Ali was probably here. We lapsed into silence for a moment. I took a seat in the chair across from her, ignoring the sounds of the tv in the background. She must have been waiting for me to say something else, since I took a long drink of my coffee before breaking the silence.

"What happened?"

"I told the police about Charles."

The mug slipped in my hands a little, sloshing the liquid around so a little spilled out the side and onto my jeans. It was hot but not searing, enough to drag a 'shit' from my mouth though. The heat pulled me from the shock that filled me at her statement.

"What do you mean you told them about Charles?"

She gave me that look again, clearly annoyed that I wasn't getting it. "I mean, I called Tanner and told her that the person who kidnapped the girls was our brother Charles DiLaurentis and that you were going to try and meet him if he reached out to you today."

I took a moment to process that, thoughts churning slowly rather than immediately translating.

"That explains why the cops showed up when they did."

She quirked her eyebrow. Apparently they hadn't given her the whole story either. We probably all needed to sit down and find out what had really happened tonight. There seemed to be a lot of information that was being withheld from the group. Or they had just left me out. I pushed that thought away, knowing it would only make my headache worse.

"What exactly happened tonight?"

***End Chapter***

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