***Chapter 51***

**Jason's POV**

Silence settled in the room, Aria's words were heavy in the air. Through the whole conversation, I had heard her try to avoid it. The box. The fight. The rape. She had talked around it, saying just enough for the others to accept. But Ali wouldn't let it go at that. She had kept pushing. I knew now what Aria had been so afraid of last night. That they wouldn't let her share at her own pace. Maybe it was Charles' fault that they couldn't keep anything private. But as I watched Ali, I knew that even before she had gone missing she would have done exactly the same thing. Pressed on Aria or any of the other girls until they had spilled whatever they were keeping from her. I could feel my jaw setting firmly, as I watched Ali. She hadn't changed while she had been gone for two years. Her time in jail had seemed to have broken her mean streak, but she was fully back to her old self at least for a few moments. My gaze turned to looking at Spencer, her expression so different from Ali's. Spencer was usually like a pitbull, clamping down on whatever information was eluding her and not letting go until she was satisfied. But right now, there was so much reassurance and support in her open expression. Hanna, Emily, and Ali had all pushed in varying degrees. Spencer had only said Aria's name, her tone a gentle invitation.

Maybe it was because Spencer understood some of the desire not to share everything that had happened in the dollhouse. Or maybe she had already figured out what Aria wasn't saying. Watched the clues that Aria had dropped accidentally since she had been back. Either way, it stirred some pride in my chest that she was treating Aria with so much more kindness than Ali was.

"Is that where the semen sample came from?" Hanna asked, breaking the silence in the room.

I didn't know that there had been a semen sample, but apparently the rest of the girls were aware as Aria nodded her head. I could see the realization and acceptance in their faces. Each settling a little in their seats, letting the reality of this settle in the air.

"Yeah, the doctors took it from my body when we got to the hospital." Aria spoke with a trembling voice. Her body was shaking against my hand, despite the fact that the room was warm. Her fear was so thick I could almost smell it in the air.

"Aria," Emily's voice was hesitant as she began. "We don't have to talk about this now if you're not ready."

I could feel my breath stream out as Emily said that, my shoulders sagging with relief that this didn't have to happen now, hoping that the others would accept that and let Aria have the space that she so obviously needs. Aria's back tensed again, before she forcefully lowered her shoulders and sat up straighter. It was like armor as she resolved to face this. I was shocked again at her strength, how good she was at putting up a strong front. Last night she had trembled in panic at the idea that the others would find out. Now instead of taking the opportunity to get some space and perspective, to get to a place that she was ready to deal with this conversation, she had buried it all down and if I wasn't touching her I wouldn't have even noticed the shivers in her tensed muscles. Honestly, it was terrifying.

"No, let's get questions over with." her voice had gained some strength and she stared at the girls one at a time. "Ask away."

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Ali asked, tone cool and distant.

"Because it was easier to pretend that it didn't happen if I never said it out loud." she explained quickly, the words coming out in a rush of shaky breath as though she was just trying to get this over with.

"What did you tell the cops?" Hanna voiced the next question, filling the empty space after Aria's response so Ali couldn't ask another question. "About the dollhouse, I mean. Not just yesterday."

"Not much." Aria began, feeling like an attempt to avoid answering the question. "Mostly just that he came into my room while I was asleep and answered their questions when they asked what he had done to me."

"Like the bruises on your throat." Emily prompted, receiving a nod in affirmation.

My gaze slid over to Ali, her lips were pursed and there was a crease between her brows. It wasn't the challenging look of determination that she had perfected, but she was clearly thinking through what else to ask Aria about, looking over the other girls, like she was trying to figure out what they would accept her asking.

"Other than the doll house and the box that sent you to Jason to meet him, is there anything else that's happened that you haven't told us before?" Spencer broke in.

Aria shifted on the couch, head turning down to her lap and she twisted her coffee cup between her hands. I could feel my brows furrowing, what had she been keeping from the others? For a moment, I thought she was going to mention that she had stayed over with me last night. But that hardly felt like enough to cause the weight that suddenly seemed to be pressing down on her.

"He was in my room." she finally said, voice small.

"Yeah, in the doll house." Emily filled in tentatively after a moment, but I watched as Aria shook her head back and forth.

"No, in my real room." Aria corrected. "In my house."

How could that have happened? There was no way that anyone should have been able to get into her room, not with a squad car parked outside all our houses around the clock. I could feel my anger burning, that they were restricting her and it wasn't even doing any good. I took a moment to breathe, letting the anger settle a little. When I thought about it, didn't I already know how useless the protection was? The squad car sitting across the street from my house hadn't kept Charlie from leaving the balloon and note for me the other day, and that part of the patio had more visibility from the street than Aria's bedroom window did. None of the girls were safe here, no matter what the cops said.

"How do you know?" Ali asked, her tone was detached like she didn't actually have anything at stake even with the knowledge that if he had gone into Aria's room there was nothing keeping him from breaking into any of the other homes.

Aria shifted again in her seat, so obviously uncomfortable with this topic, and her left hand travelled up to her hair, fingers wrapping within her short curls and pulling down. It tilted her head slightly away from me, letting me see the hints of the marks where her make up didn't completely cover the discoloration. The deep indentations that were left over from the nail marks that had scabbed, visible despite the attempt to cover it. I moved my hand up to her left shoulder, giving her a soft squeeze of support. Her hand released her hair, falling down to rest on mine, skin cool against mine.

"I found a notebook this morning, in my bedside table. It was a copy of one I'd written in while we were in the bunker." Aria explained.

"What makes you sure that he was in your room?" Spencer asked, leaning forward with a look of determination on her face. "Was it the same notebook?"

"No, it was one that I had kept there before. And the handwriting on the page it was open to wasn't mine."

"He could have planted that ages ago." Ali dismissed. "Or even while you were gone."

Aria shook her head again, breath shaking. "In the bunker, I kept a list in a notebook." she looked between the girls, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer, but didn't glance over at Ali or up at me. She was looking for their understanding, something tied to what had happened in the bunker, where Ali and I weren't a part of it.

"A list of what?" Emily questioned.

"I didn't trust that I would remember them, and wanted to keep it even." I wasn't sure what exactly she was talking about, but I saw it click in Spencer's face as I looked up at her, looking for understanding. "I thought that they were real. So I wrote it down."

My heart dropped into my stomach, realizing that she was talking about thinking that she had hurt the other girls. That Charles had broken into her room and copied that piece of her nightmare and left it for her there. Her hand left mine as she moved to wipe away her tears, but she leaned back into me.

"Maybe we can use this." Spencer broke in after a long moment of Aria silently crying. "The cops have been watching your house since they released Andrew, they must have seen whoever went into your house."

"We can't ask the cops who's been in Aria's house. Not without telling them why we're asking." Hanna shot it down.

"So we tell them. Get an actual suspect. And maybe be done with this." I watched the hope glint in Spencer's eyes, mixed with a little desperation. I lingered for a moment on the deep dark circles under her eyes, they had been growing over the last few days.

"No way. Didn't we just agree not to share anything with the cops?" Emily was obviously pissed that we were back to having the same conversation again.

"But maybe we could finally get this over with. This is an actual lead."

"We thought that with the trackers." Emily got up from her seat, grabbing her purse and looking back at Spencer. "And where did that get us? Nowhere."

"Emily, we can't just give up." Hanna tried to interrupt.

"I'm not. But we can't do that to Sarah." Emily started heading for the door, she paused rubbing her hand against her forehead as she turned back. "Let's just hold off for a little while."

Then she walked out of the room. It was like a veil had been lifted for me. I had seen the girls fight before, but never quite like this. Never to the point that they had walked out during an argument. They had always tried to put up a unified front, and I while I knew that wasn't actually always the case they had been so convincing for so long. Aria had expressed enough concerns around them and Spencer had kept our relationship secret for a while because she knew the others wouldn't approve. It still surprised me to see them so openly fighting in front of me. I glanced down at Aria, who was still leaning back into me, face tilted over into my side so that her hair covered her face.

"Aria?" Hanna probed, gently trying to get her attention. "Are you alright?"

There was a funny little sound that came from Aria, a mix of a sob and a laugh. Like she was halfway through one when the other came out. Then she nodded her head, and when she tilted upwards there was a quirk to her mouth. I couldn't exactly call it a smile, but there was something amusing there. It was so clear that she wasn't okay, but she nodded anyway.

"Yeah, Han. I'm alright." her voice was a little unsteady, pitch faltering as she spoke.

Hanna moved from behind the other couch to come near Aria, she crouched and gently put her hand on Aria's that held her coffee cup. "You know we're here for you, right? If you ever need to talk."

Hanna offered it quietly and Aria grabbed onto Hanna with her other hand, responding with a small thank you. This was more what I expected from the group. Having each other's back and being there through everything. Maybe it was different from what I had previously thought, but the support here made so much sense that it was paired with the hard questioning and expectations from each other.

Suddenly a phone chirped, causing everyone in the room to freeze. My muscles locked in my back, holding me completely stil. Waiting for the other shoe to drop. After a half second, I realized that it wasn't my phone. And Ali pulled her phone from her pocket, looking over the text quickly.

"Lorenzo is outside." she explained, already standing up from her seat. "I'll be right back."

Ali walked from the room and I couldn't understand the strange feeling that I had. Maybe it was that Spencer was acting so differently, but Ali seemed so disconnected. Like she had tuned out as soon as Aria had shared what had happened.

"We better get going, no telling when Mr. D will get back from the police station." Hanna stood back up, letting go of Aria's hand.

Aria and Spencer both nodded, rising from their seats. Then Spencer moved closer to Aria and slowly moved to wrap her arms around the shorter girl. For a moment, I watched Aria hesitate, but then she relaxed and grabbed Spencer back.

"Stay at my place tonight?" Spencer asked Aria quietly enough that I knew it wasn't really meant for me.

I got up from the arm of the couch, wanting to give them a little space and headed to the kitchen. As much as I wanted to support and comfort Aria right now, I wasn't the one that she needed. Hanna moved to join the others as I left the room, heading into the kitchen. I ran a hand across my face as I reached for a new mug for some coffee. As if I could wipe the stress of the previous conversation away that easily. But instead, I poured my coffee and added just a touch of cream. I wanted to give them all the time that they needed to deal with this. And my being there would only be a distraction, despite this being my house.

So I was leaning against the counter, reading through my emails, which had piled up given my utter lack of interest in the real estate office the last two days. There didn't seem to be anything too urgent in there, when I heard footsteps coming into the kitchen.

"I'm gonna get headed out." Aria explained, drawing my attention up to her. "But I wanted to thank you for being here to support me today."

She hesitated at the doorway for a moment, until I moved from behind the counter. Then she moved easily into me for a hug. She was warm against me, and firmly here. Rather than my fear that she would slip away and be gone again. After a moment, she pulled away but I kept my hands on her shoulders looking into her face.

"Are you okay? I know today wasn't easy."

I watched her face twitch, the controlled mask that she had put into place when the girls had asked her questions faltered for a moment, pain shining in her eyes as they watered for a moment, before it shut down again. The twitches that had been around her mouth, threatening to let her lip quiver, stopped and her face was completely blank.

"I can't talk about it right now."

I nodded, seeing the work that she was putting in to keep it together. It hurt that she was burying that, and I was terrified to see her shut down like she had last night again. But I couldn't push her. "Alright. I'm here if you ever wanna talk."

Relief filled her face, the tension releasing. Then she reached up and kissed me on the cheek, with a whispered thanks.

***End Chapter***

Sorry for the delay in posting this one, I struggled with how and where to wrap this one up in a way that felt authentic. Hope you enjoyed. Let me know what you think.