***Chapter 55***

**Aria's POV**

The thought of the pretzel at least didn't make me more nauseated, which was a good sign. It probably was just the motion of the ride, instead of the queasiness that had been occurring the last few weeks. I didn't want to call it morning sickness, not even in my head.

"You sure you wanna eat?" Mike asked, watching me closely as I moved my pretzel in front of me at the table.

My dad had stayed at the table where he had our food set up, the smell of fried food filling the air. It was cloying, but another drink of water helped to reduce the smell lingering.

"Yeah, it'll help settle my stomach from the motion." I re-assured, starting to break the pretzel into smaller pieces.

I could feel their scepticism radiating as I took a bite. After a moment, they settled in to eating their own food. Mike tore through his large plate of nachos and a corn dog before starting in on the giant cube of curly fries.

"I'm gonna go on a few more rides while you guys finish up." Mike said, around a mouthful of fries. "Then we can hit the midway."

"Stay close." my dad warned but let Mike head over to the rides alone.

I watched as he headed into the line for a ride before looking back over at my parents. Both of whom were watching me carefully. It suddenly felt like this was planned. That they had set this up to have a conversation with me and I could feel the anxiety start to pick up at the thought.

"How are you doing, really?" my mom asked, voice soft but obviously concerned and my heart plummeted into my stomach.

"I'm fine, mom. Nothing to worry about." I responded, as though it would make this conversation end.

"We're just worried. We never really got to talk about what happened the other day." my dad tried to soothe. "I know you told your mom that whoever did this, threatened us."

I sat completely still. Afraid to move. They wanted to talk about this now? I know that we didn't usually have a chance to all sit down at the same time. But today was supposed to be about fun, I thought. Addressing the elephant that we had been ignoring since I walked out of the house two nights ago in the middle of an amusement park just didn't feel safe. No matter how far away Woodie World was from Rosewood. I saw the cop move over in the corner of my eye. This wasn't safe. The reminders of reality were still lurking around the edges of the moment.

"Aria, I know that you want to protect us. And hopefully, you know that we want to protect you." my mom started, which didn't bode well.

That sounded like a bunch of restrictions about to be placed on my movements. I could feel my throat tightening and a shiver rolled down my back. I tightened my hoodie around me, as though it could ward off the freeze creeping over me and turning my skin to goosebumps.

"So we want to talk about boundaries and what we need to do to help you feel safe again." my dad continued, causing my brain to glitch out.

"Wait. What?" I sputtered, it was too much of a curveball for me to process.

"We might have been too restrictive with you. And that's not fair." my mom continued. "The police are already being overprotective. And us trying to make you check in doesn't seem to actually help keep you safe."

I was completely speechless. This felt absolutely too good to be true and talking seemed like it would ruin the moment. I had no idea what I would say anyway. I didn't know what I needed right now to feel safe. And for the last several years, it had honestly felt more like they were prioritizing what they needed to feel like I was safe, rather than what I actually needed.

"Ashley told us about Hanna redecorating her room. Is that something that would help?" my mom continued. "So you feel safe sleeping in your room again."

"I don't need to change my room." I argued.

Sure it had been something that I thought about when I first heard that Hanna was redoing her room so that it wasn't like the bunker. But over the weeks that I had been back I had grown accustomed to sleeping in my room again, and feeling safe in my bed.

"You haven't slept in your room in three days, honey." my dad countered. "And that was with Spencer sleeping over."

I could feel my face flush despite the cold that was still eating away at me. That wasn't what that was about. But I could understand why they thought that my being out the past couple of days was tied to my room. Along with the fact that I hadn't spent more than a night alone in my bed since I had been back.

"My room is fine. There were just other things going on." I tried to explain, not going into the whole story, but it should be enough.

"What's been going on? Is there something you need to tell us?" my dad not accepting what was meant to be a dismissal..

"Mrs. Hastings had a meeting in New York, so Spencer was gonna be alone in the house. She didn't feel safe. Even with the cops outside."

"And the night before? You walked out in your pajamas, looking like a total zombie."

"That was different."

I didn't know how to put into words that they would understand about the fear that he would take me. It was too close to telling them what had happened. And while telling the girls hadn't been quite as painful as I was afraid it would, I didn't want them to be involved or afraid. Not for me. And not for themselves. Even Jason was familiar with dealing with the horrors of A. But what had happened in the dollhouse had been a nightmare beyond, that only the other girls understood.

"So what do you need to feel safe at home? Do you want to stay at my place a few nights?" my mom settled back on her chosen track after a moment's breath. I could see the determination to not press the issue take over.

"Normally, I'd say yes. But I think it's safer for me to stay at the house. Or at least one of the girls houses." I wanted to reassure her that I liked her apartment just fine.

"Safer for who, Aria?"

"Safer for you. And for Mike when he stays over. I'm pretty sure it's easier for the cops to keep an eye on just the houses. And that will hopefully keep them from coming after you." I reasoned slowly.

Her hand moved across the table to grasp onto mine, squeezing gently. Her touch was soothing and I could feel her care in the movements. I watched both my parent's faces. Seeing them trying to accept what little I was sharing with them. It hurt. But I knew deep down this was what I could do to keep them safe. The promise I made in the dollhouse had remained in my mind. That I would kill Charles if he hurt them. And the feeling remained the same, that I would hunt him down without a care for myself if it kept my family from feeling a quarter of the torment that he had put us all through.

"Is there something we can do to help you feel safer?" my dad circled back to the core of the topic, since I wasn't giving up on my secrets.

"I would appreciate a little breathing room." the words were hard to get out, knowing that it would likely upset them. "I know I need to check in, and let you know where I am. But I want to feel like I can make my own decisions. Including where I do my school work."

I saw my dad's shoulders tense at that statement. Since that first time of slipping away to investigate, he had restricted homework to either at home or in his office. I knew that it was something that helped reassure him I was there, but it still stifled me. I could see the pain that my words caused him. That what he was doing was hurting me. That I wasn't able to give him what he needed to feel like he was safe. Or that I was safe. That he would have to go through the fear of not knowing where I was again.

"I think I can be a little less strict." he said after a moment of clenching his jaw. "I just don't want to lose you again."

It cut me deep to hear that from him. I didn't know how to respond. To stop that fear when it was the same fear that gnawed away at me. That made it so hard to sleep at night. That kept my eyelids open in the darkness of my room.

"Hey, you ready to do the midway?" Mike interrupted, returning slightly out of breath from his time on the rides.

He pulled us out of the moment. The heavy air that had settled over the course of our conversation lifting. It was like the sun had come out from behind a cloud and it was back to being a fairly warm spring day. I flexed my fingers, feeling them stiff from cold. The smile pulled up onto my face automatically as I turned to look at him.

"Yeah, let's do this."

We headed towards the midway, leaving our parents to deal with the trash on the table before joining us. My mom always said that the midway games were completely rigged, but still watched as my dad tried to win her a prize anyway. At least that's how it used to be. It had been so long since we had come out here to have a family day. I glanced back over my shoulder at them clearing the table.

"Did I interrupt something? It looked pretty intense?" Mike asked as we headed towards one of the ring tosses on the midway.

"Just talking about boundaries." I brushed off his concerns.

"Yeah? Yours or theirs?" he passed the attendant a couple of tickets and got a handful of rings back.

"Both."

He threw the rings, one after another. The first two sliding off to the side before the third fell around the neck of a milk bottle. Of the five, only two ended up sticking. Not enough for even one of the low level prizes. I handed the attendant my own tickets for a set of rings.

"So are they gonna let things go back to how it was before?" he asked, voice skeptical.

I tossed the first ring, sending it skating along the tops of the bottle. I changed to try and arc it more, getting the next one around a neck.

"Not quite. But they apparently realized that trying to make me stay at home all the time wasn't helping anything." I answered.

"Yeah, it's not like it kept you from going to try and meet him anyway." Mike responded casually, tone mild but the statement jarring enough that I completely missed the array of bottles.

I quickly tossed the last rings, not even paying attention to how they landed. My eyes instead were focused on the attendant, and if she was reacting to our conversation at all. While she didn't look interested, I didn't want to continue this conversation here. I offered a smile before moving away from the booth, heading down the midway.

"I didn't exactly have much of a choice." I tried to dismiss the concern that undoubtedly accompanied my walking straight back towards my abductor, evading my police protection.

"That's not what I meant." he corrected, throwing an arm over my shoulders and pulling me slightly into him.

I could feel the tension in my shoulders from what felt like an accusation start to drop away with the contact. It was comforting, the warmth that he offered a protection against the slight breeze that sent a chill across me. I leaned my head into his shoulder, the annoyance of him having grown so much taller than me in the past as I had come to accept and find the difference comforting.

"I keep seeing you try so hard to protect us, even if it puts you at risk. Or supporting me, despite your fear." he continued after a moment of silence. "You're really brave, you know that?"

"I don't feel very brave." my voice was a whisper as I leaned closer into him, seeking safety from everything around us. Even this far away from Rosewood. From the danger that Charles always presented. Fear wrapped tightly around me. "I just feel scared all the time."

He squeezed my shoulder, pressing me tighter to him for a moment, before he released me. "You still keep going."

I could feel my eyes starting to water, that what I was going through didn't seem as obviously a disaster as my entire life felt. I knew he had a point. That I was still pushing forward, despite the fact that I struggled to eat consistently, or get through a night of sleep on my own. The little things that felt like I was constantly failing. I was still pushing forward. It was like getting though my schoolwork. It was a necessity. But an accomplishment all the same. I shook my head, trying to dash the water away. Maybe I was just being too emotional, but it helped me feel better that I at least seemed put together and like I was handling this with something close to composure, if not grace.

"Let's do skeeball." I redirected, spotting the little arcade over to the side.

Instead of using the tickets for the midway games, we headed over to the little machine to get some tokens. The arcade wasn't very big, just a couple of machines really. The only ones that I was ever really interested in were skeeball and the whack-a-mole game. The games were also old school style, so they made less noise than some of the more modern ones. We played a few games of skeeball, enough that I had a decent pile of prize tickets. Then we moved over to the whack-a-mole game, and teamed up together to smack the tops each, keeping an eye on our respective holes to score better.

"Stop smacking my side." I tried to correct him with a laugh, knowing that it had no heat.

"Be faster then." he said, reaching over to my side again and smacking an emerging mole head.

It was easy and comfortable. Playing the arcade games together before splitting the tickets, unevenly since the only things he was really interested in were a few types of candy. I got a small sketchpad, perfectly sized for carrying around in a small purse.

Our parents caught up with us, helping to direct around the midway as we played through the games. Mike doing really well with the basketball games, and my mom winning at the water pistol racing. By the end, I had a couple of small toys that had been won across the various games. The sun was beginning to sink below the horizon, not quite late enough for a full sunset but enough that the shadows were longer.

"We should do the ferris wheel before we head out." My mom suggested.

"I'll run the toys out to the car and meet you there." Mike offered, holding out his hands as he stared at my full hands that would be a little tricky on the relatively calm ride.

I looped my arm with my mom's once my hands were clear. Giving a smile while Mike took off towards the parking lot. She bumped into me occasionally as we walked, a gently nudge of shoulders.

"So what was that earlier?" I asked, the way that my parents had handled the conversation earlier had completely taken me off guard. "Not that I don't appreciate the leniency. But we've never talked like that before."

"To tell you the truth, we got some advice from Dr. Sullivan." my mom finally answered after a moment.

I hesitated in my steps, not quite a stumble but definitely a pause. They had talked to Dr. Sullivan about me? I had only had the one session with her and the other girls since I had been back, it's not exactly like I had been a regular patient in the last year or so.

"Why did you talk to her?" I asked, not understanding.

My dad came up along my other side, not reaching out to make contact but there all the same. He had tucked his hands into his pockets, trying so hard to look casual but it felt forced. "Between you not staying at home for a few days and you going to meet your abductor, it felt like we needed help."

"What we were doing clearly wasn't working." my mom picked up for him.

"So what exactly did she say?" I had to admit that I was curious. Maybe about what exactly Dr. Sullivan thought had happened. Her advice had given me a gasp of freedom and hope, that my parents were letting me help to set the boundaries for my life going forward.

"That you had lost a lot of agency and control over the last few years. Especially being kidnapped. So us continuing to control your movements, would probably feel suffocating. That we should work out what we all need, so we can move forward together." she explained.

"And that we should make time to spend together as a family if possible. That you need a support network and probably would appreciate some time away from stress. So while we can't take a vacation at the moment, this felt like a good middle ground." my dad finished.

It hit me that this had been a coordinated effort with far more thought than I had anticipated. I knew that they were trying to get me alone to talk today, but this was beyond what I was expecting. Strangely, it didn't make me feel like I was being controlled or manipulated. Even though they had strategized this entire day. Instead, I felt relief. Dr. Sullivan had a good understanding of what might help me, even if she didn't have the full picture of everything that the girls and I had been through. While they had needed encouragement to take me out of the current situation and give me a fun day, it didn't change the fact that today had been a lot of what I needed. It let me take a break from worrying over everything at home. Enough of a distraction that I hadn't checked for messages from Jason or the girls in hours.

"Are you upset?" my mom asked, concerned by the silence.

"Actually no. Today was exactly what I needed." I leaned my head against her for a moment. "Thank you both."

**End Chapter**

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