***Chapter 23***

**Aria's POV**

"So when will you be back?" my dad asked, looking at me from the doorway to his office.

"Probably around 11, it's a bit of a drive out to Philly." I replied, pulling a leather jacket on.

"I can call you when we are about to leave the gallery, if that will make you feel better." Jason offered.

He was taking me to the gallery tonight, since our plans had fallen through the other night. The exhibit was thankfully still going on, but only for a few more days, so we were going to go tonight and look at the photographs. He had texted while my dad was making dinner, and so once we had cleared it with him had decided to continue our plans. I was slightly anxious about the fact that we were going out, even only as friends. Still, I felt comfortable around Jason, and having some time out of Rosewood would be nice. Plus, I kind of wanted to know what they had found at Carol's place. It probably wasn't much, considering I hadn't gotten a call from either Hanna or Spencer, but still I wanted to know.

"That's alright, Jason. Just drive safe." He conceded.

I gave my dad a reassuring smile before following Jason out of the house. It was really nice how much he trusted Jason, that I didn't have to have him drive me around if I was with Jason. I headed over to the cop car, causing Jason to give me a strange look.

"We're going to a gallery in Philadelphia. We'll be back in a few hours." I told the cop in the car.

"Miss Montgomery, you shouldn't be leaving the city. If you want to do something in town we can have a patrol car in the area for you, but going to Philadelphia is going to be too far without a police escort." The officer informed me.

I frowned at his response. "So what? You're saying that I can't leave the town at all?" My voice pitched higher as I kind of freaked out at the restriction.

"Aria, what's wrong?" Jason asked, coming up from behind me to find out what was wrong.

"They said I can't leave Rosewood without a police escort." I stuttered over the words, turning away from the cop to look up at Jason.

"Don't worry, they can't make you stay in the city." He reassured me, putting his hand on my shoulder before turning to the cop. "You can tell your boss that we're going to be in Philly for a few hours."

I looked at Jason in shock, surprised that he was so decisive about this. It reminded me of how he was when he first came back to Rosewood and was willing to stand up to the police and make them work on the investigation. He gave me a reassuring smile before taking my hand and leading me over towards his car. He opened the passenger door to his car for me, before walking around to the driver's side.

"So why did you need to go check in with them in the first place?" he questioned after we had been on the road for a few minutes.

"The detectives asked us to let them know so that they could increase a police presence where we are. And so that if we aren't back in a certain amount of time or don't show up where we were going to in a few hours, then they can send someone looking for us sooner." I said, fidgeting with my hands in my lap.

Jason reached over, taking my hand in his and rubbing his thumb over the back of my hand. The action comforted me, bringing some warmth into my cold skin. I looked over at him, but he was focused on driving.

"That doesn't mean that you need to ask permission from them to go anywhere." He told me.

"I know, that's actually the first time that they've ever told me that I can't go somewhere. Then again, I haven't really left Rosewood since I've been back."

We lapsed into silence for a few moments, he pulled onto the highway and I let out a breath as we officially left Rosewood. "So what happened at your Aunt Carol's house?" I questioned, breaking the silence.

"We found a headstone. Apparently my mom lied, she had Charlie buried there." He spoke tensely, sounding annoyed at the fact that his family kept lying to him.

"I'm sorry." I placated, knowing that it wouldn't really help much.

He shrugged his shoulders, dismissing it even though I could tell it upset him. "You'd think that I'd have gotten used to it now. That everyone in my family lies about everything."

"It still sucks." I responded, shifting in my seat so that I held his hand between both of mine.

The rest of the car ride, Jason asked me about what I did today while I was at Hollis. I told him that I'd been developing prints but that there wasn't much more to it than that. We got to the gallery after a few more minutes. There weren't any parking spots right in front of the gallery, but that really couldn't be expected in downtown Philly. Jason managed to find a spot only a few blocks away, which was pretty lucky. It was chilly outside, even though it was May, and I shivered after stepping out of the car. Jason pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders. I smiled up at him as I shoved my arms through the sleeves. Once more Jason's scent engulfed me and made me feel a little better. He took my hand again and led us to the gallery.

The exhibit was beautiful; there were a few artists who had each presented work for the exhibit. They actually had an original O'Keefe included in the exhibit as well, which was really lucky considering just how small the gallery was. There weren't very many people in the exhibit, since it had opened a few nights earlier.

"You ready to go back?" Jason asked after we had walked throughout the entirety of the gallery.

"Is it bad if I say no?" I replied.

"Not bad at all. It means I'm doing a good job of distracting you." He responded with a laugh.

"I appreciate it."

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and began leading us to the door of the gallery. I hadn't given him back his jacket even though the inside of the gallery was warmer than out on the street, thankfully they didn't have very strong air conditioning. I leaned into him as we walked out onto the street, since I was so cold and he was so warm.

"How about we get some frozen yogurt?" he suggested, as we began walking down the street.

"Sounds great."

There was a little shop a few blocks away, but since I was shivering we headed back to the car to eat it. He didn't say anything about me freezing in the warm weather and turned on the heat when we got into the car.

"Maybe frozen yogurt wasn't the best plan." He commented with a smile, before reaching into the back seat and pulling up a blanket.

"You keep a blanket in your car?"

"Yep, perfect for warming up beautiful girls." He teased.

I laughed but it died in my throat as I looked at him. He looked at me so seriously and there was such affection in his eyes that it made me nervous. I could feel my chest tighten in panic as he looked at me. I could feel my eyes beginning to fill with tears and my pulse pounding in my head.

"Aria, are you okay?" he asked, looking confused at my reaction.

"I'm fine, I just need some air." I nodded before pushing the door open and stepping out of the car.

The air was cool and far less stifling outside than it was in the car. I wrapped my arms around my stomach and tried to control my trembling, while I stood against the hood of the car. Jason was moving around behind me, getting out of the car and coming around to see what was wrong.

"Aria, what's wrong? What just happened?" he sounded concerned but I couldn't look at him. My eyes were closed and tears were leaking down my face. He reached out to touch my face and I couldn't control the flinch away from him.

I didn't see his reaction because I kept my eyes closed but I could feel that he pulled back from me. I tried to focus on breathing, counting slowly and stopping the panic attack that was ripping through me. The scent of Jason's cologne was coming up off his jacket and it helped to stop the memories of being in the darkness with Charles.

"Just breathe, Aria. It'll be okay." He soothed from in front of me. "Count with me alright?"

He started slowly counting and I listened to the drone of his voice and used it to ground myself. By the time he reached 15 my breathing had slowed down and I was able to open my eyes. My tears were dried on my face and I brushed at the tracks, trying to get rid of the remnants.

"You alright?" Jason asked after I managed to calm down.

"Yeah, I'm alright." I responded, rubbing my hands at my covered arms.

"Let me know when you're ready to go."

I was glad that he wasn't pressing the issue, but I didn't know if this would hold much longer. This was the first time that I had really freaked out on Jason and I knew that even though he wasn't asking right now, he undoubtedly wanted to know what was going on. I took another minute, to make sure that I could handle the ride back to Rosewood. It was so tempting to stay here, away from Rosewood, away from A. But I knew that it wouldn't matter. No matter where I ran to, sooner or later I would get dragged back.

"I'm ready to go." I told him, meeting his concerned gaze.

He nodded and waited for me to get back into the car before going around to the driver's side. I picked my frozen yogurt up from the dashboard and cradled it between my hands as he put the car in gear and began the drive back home. Neither of us actually ate our frozen yogurt, his sat untouched on the dash and I moved my spoon around in my cup.

"What happened?" he finally asked after a few minutes.

I opened my mouth to explain, but I couldn't make the words come out of my mouth. I didn't know how to explain that the way he looked at me made me feel like I needed to respond and all I could think of was how incredibly broken I felt. Like I wanted to curl up in a ball and hide from the world because he was still out there. I wanted to be happy and when I looked at Jason I felt like I might have had a chance at that, but I couldn't because I was so damaged.

"Aria?" he questioned, drawing me from my thoughts.

"I just had a little freak out." I responded, not wanting to get into it.

"What caused it?" he pressed.

"I really don't want to talk about it."

He went quiet for a few more minutes, not pressing any further and I really appreciated that. Even in the silence though, I couldn't handle the thought of having to talk to him about how I had freaked out. I could feel tears sliding down my cheeks in the darkness and didn't want to draw attention to it by wiping at my cheeks.

"I'm sorry I asked, I just want to help." He broke the silence once more and I immediately shook my head.

"No, Jason. I shouldn't be freaking out on you like that. I just had a moment."

We made it the rest of the way back to Rosewood in the following silence. He pulled up in front of my house and came around to open my door. I climbed out and he walked me up to the door. We waved at the officer waiting on the other side of the street before heading up.

"I should give you your jacket back." I said, moving to take it off.

"Why don't you keep it this time? It might keep you warmer." He responded with a smile, before he turned serious. "If you want to talk about anything, you know I'm here right?"

I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around him, feeling his arms come up around me. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head and I felt my eyes fill with tears again. I blinked them back though as I took a step back.

"Thank you, Jason."

He just smiled at me as I unlocked the front door and headed inside. I was glad to have his scent still clinging to me even after he had left. But internally, I was shaking at my reliance on Jason, that I wanted to see him so much and hated the thought of him leaving.

***End Chapter***