***Chapter 33***

**Aria's POV**

"Hey, sorry I lost track of time." I told Spencer when I got back over to her house. She was waiting anxiously on her porch for me, not quite fully pacing but her hands were fidgeting. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah. Let's go." She directed, heading over to the cop car stationed in front of her house. "We're heading over to Aria's, I'm staying there tonight."

I waved at the cop from next to my car door; he simply nodded back at me. Spencer walked around to the other side, throwing her overnight bag into the back seat and climbing into the passenger's side. I climbed in before turning the car on, knowing that I was going to get the third degree from her. So instead of letting her start, I decided to try and turn the tables.

"What did you need to do at 11 o'clock at night?" I asked her as I backed out of the driveway.

"I was at a meeting. What were you doing with Jason at midnight?" she returned, trying to get back on the topic of my whereabouts.

"What kind of meeting?"

"A sober support group. What were you doing over there, Aria? Why did it sound like you had just woken up when I called?" her tone had sharpened and I knew that there was no getting out of this. Though I couldn't believe that she had been having problems and didn't even mention it to me or the other girls.

"I needed someone to talk to, and Jason was there. I fell asleep and your call woke me up. That's it."

"Wait, why'd you fall asleep?" I rolled my eyes as I drove, hoping that she would just let this go.

"I had a bit of a break down and Jason comforted me. That's why I fell asleep." I admitted, ashamed to say that I had broken down like that and needed someone to support me. "Why didn't you tell me that you were having problems?"

"Why didn't you tell me you and Jason have been getting so close?" she rebutted.

"I didn't think you would care. He's just been there for me since we've been back."

"He's my brother, Aria."

"Yeah, and he's my friend."

She fell silent at that, the tension in the air rising and making me feel awkward about what I had just said. I knew that Jason was my friend, but the others didn't know exactly how much time I had been spending with him. That we'd gone out for breakfast almost every day, made plans and gone out to an art gallery. Since we had been in the dollhouse, secrets had become common between us. There was so much that we weren't telling each other. Things that felt like they were pressing down on my chest and burying me beneath the weight.

"When did this happen?" her tone had changed since the silence, instead coming across calmly and merely curious.

"I don't know. He's just been there. It's been nice, having someone there to support me without asking about what happened down there." I explained, before lapsing into silence.

It was an uncomfortable minute waiting for Spencer to say something. The feeling of vulnerability washing over me, tearing at my insides.

"I'm glad." she finally said, breaking the tension.

"What?" I asked, shocked that that was the first thing that she had said to me.

"I know that we haven't talked about what happened while we were down in the bunker. That none of us have been willing to talk. So if there is someone that you can trust with this, I'm glad it's Jason. That he's there for you."

I brushed away the tear that had slipped down my face as she spoke. I was glad that she was okay with this, that I was actually getting the reasonable Spencer rather than her freaking out on me about spending time with her half-brother.

"You know I'm here if you need someone to talk to, right?" I offered, hoping that she would open up rather than take pills.

"Same to you." She replied with a smile, as we pulled up in front of my house.

We both got out of the car, waving at the officer parked in front of the house before heading inside. My dad was already up in bed and Mike was spending the night at my mom's apartment, since he had been here every night since I had been back. I went upstairs, grabbing a couple blankets from the linen closet and my laptop before heading back downstairs. There was every possibility Spencer was as cold as I was all the time, but I wasn't sure if we were sleeping down here or up in my room. I passed the laptop to Spencer, who quickly opened it up and then began typing away while I went into the kitchen and put the kettle on. I came back with two mugs of hot chocolate, smiling when I thought back to the fact that Jason had made us both hot chocolate earlier tonight.

"What is that?" I asked, horrified at the sight on the screen.

There was a gaping hole in a mass of fur, with tweezers digging into the cut and pulling out a small metal chip. I barely managed to set the mugs of hot chocolate down before running to the bathroom. I was curled around the toilet heaving when Spencer came in.

"Are you alright?" she questioned cautiously.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I reassured, moving to the sink to rinse out my mouth. "What were you watching?"

She looked at me hesitantly before heading back over to the couch and grabbing the laptop again. I paused for a moment before following her, hoping that I would be okay to finish watching the video without getting sick again.

"It's someone taking out their dogs microchip. They have to get them out some way."

"Maybe we should leave them in." I said squeamishly, rubbing at the back of my neck gently where the microchip was implanted.

"Maybe we should." Spencer returned, sounding like she had the most brilliant idea.

"I was joking." I told her, looking surprised at her statement.

She shoved the laptop away from her, putting it on the coffee table before turning to look at me. "Aria, this is our only advantage. Charles doesn't know that we know about the microchips. We can use this against him."

"How are we going to do that?" I asked, wondering how she intended to use Charles' knowing where we were at every moment against him.

"I don't know. I think we should talk to Ali about it. She doesn't have a tracker, so maybe we could lure Charles somewhere with Ali and Jason following him to trap him."

There was the chirping and beeping of our phones, making us both freeze. I hadn't gotten any A messages in a while, but still every time I got a text I was on edge. Spencer seemed to be just as nervous, but we both slowly reached for our phones, pulling them out.

-Hanna: Mona said Leslie is on for meeting in the morning at her house. But it has to be before classes. How about 7am?-

-Spencer: 7 works. Is she sure that Leslie will show?-

-Hanna: She said Leslie would be there.-

"We should get some sleep if we're going to be over at Mona's by 7." Spencer said, taking a drink of her hot chocolate.

"You want to sleep down here or upstairs?"

"Let's go upstairs."

We gathered our things and headed for the stairs, while I worked to finish my drink, it was helping to settle my stomach, though I still really wanted to brush my teeth. We both set up spots on the bed to sleep before Spencer went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. I finished off my hot chocolate by the time that she got back, before brushing my teeth and switching into my pajamas. I wondered for half a second if she felt as uncomfortable being naked around other people as I did.

"So what happened down there?" Spencer asked as I climbed into the bed next to her.

"I don't know. I've just been really nauseous lately and that video made me sick."

"Have you been to the doctor?"

"No, but I have a follow-up appointment for tomorrow. I can talk to her then." I said before turning off the lamp.

"Why do you have a follow-up? They didn't make me go back to the hospital."

I shifted uncomfortably beneath the covers, but knew that I would have to tell her something or she wouldn't let me get any sleep tonight. "It's cause of the bruises. They're worried that there was more damage done. I guess I had a few bruised ribs."

"Aria, what happened down there? Why did you have so many bruises?" Spencer asked what I knew had been bothering her for the time that we had been back.

I closed my eyes, afraid to see her face. Or if she could look in my eyes she would see that I wasn't telling her the whole truth. "Did Charles ever hurt you?"

There was silence for a moment, I knew Spencer wouldn't be alright with the slight change in topic, but this was the only way that I could start talking about this, start explaining at least part of what happened.

"In the time that we were separated, I never saw him." Her voice cut through the silence after a moment of consideration. "He didn't let me sleep, made me think things happened when they didn't. I was sent into the game room with that stupid voice directing me. He never touched me, Aria."

I felt relief blossom in my chest, that Charles hadn't hurt the others. At least I knew he hadn't hurt Spencer. He just let her mind play tricks on her. I wondered if Charles had shocked Spencer when she answered the questions wrong. He must have, the screams had to sound from somewhere.

"He let me sleep. I'd wake up and he would have moved me around. Sometimes I was drugged, other times I fell asleep on my own. I woke up in the game room as often as I did in my room."

"How did you get the bruises? I saw the choke marks on your throat, Aria."

My hand went to my throat, covering where the bruises used to be. I couldn't answer her. I didn't want to admit what had happened. I knew that if I started though, I wouldn't be able to stop. Spencer's breath was warm on my face and I suddenly felt claustrophobic. My chest tightened in fear, this was too much like being back in the dollhouse. I turned away, turning on the lamp so that I could see it was Spencer lying next to me.

"Ow, bright. A little warning next time would be nice." Spencer shot, bringing her hands up to cover her eyes.

"Sorry, just had a moment." I tried to excuse the sudden need to turn on the light. "Can we talk about this later? Tomorrow is going to be a really long day."

"Yeah, I guess. Just turn off the light?"

I smiled at her before turning out the light and lying back down. I turned so that I was facing away from Spencer, the cool air seemed to help a lot as opposed to feeling warm breath on my face. Spencer wasn't touching me, but I could feel the warmth radiating off of her. It was both comforting and unnerving at the same time. It was strange, that I had fallen asleep so easily with Jason but now couldn't relax enough to drift off. I missed Jason's scent, almost wanting to go grab his jacket that was slung over my chair. I resisted the urge, instead focusing on getting some sleep.

***End Chapter***

Hope you enjoyed a little team Sparia time. Let me know what you think.