***Chapter 42***

**Jason's POV**

My head hurt, my body ached, and my heart felt like it had been gut punched. I held as still as possible, providing Aria with as much protection as I could while the baseballs continued to fire in our direction. She was shaking beneath me, her fingers grasping my shirt and pulling me closer. What the hell had just happened?

I heard Spencer shriek for Toby, while another of the girls, Hanna I think, called for Lorenzo. There was still the cacophony of the arcade games and behind all the other shouting, there was the sound of sirens approaching from the distance. "Aria?" I hesitated to ask, afraid to have the confirmation that it was her underneath me.

Maybe this was all just a bad dream, I would wake up and Aria would be curled up next to me in my bed and Ali would be sleeping down the hall. My head pounded in the back of my skull, I think that a ball had hit me as I tackled her to the ground.

"Jason?" Aria questioned, her voice quivering as she looked up at me with big, tearful eyes. "Don't say anything… Please."

What little remained of my hopes that this was a mistake disappeared as my heart sunk into my stomach. Maybe she had just said that to get him to let her go. The baseballs had stopped firing into me thankfully, as the cops had shown up and chased Charlie from the place. I shifted back so that my weight wasn't so heavy on top of her, brushing her hair back behind her ear so that her face wasn't hidden. There were tear tracks down her face, but she looked less afraid now than she had before. "Tonight?"

She gave a little nod, and that's all that I could get from her before footsteps came towards us. "DiLaurentis, you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I responded, still looking at Aria before shifting over to my side so that she was visible to the officer.

He reached down to help Aria up, but she flinched back into me away from the officer. I felt the beginnings of a smile creep up onto my face that she felt safe enough around me to move towards me. Today hadn't ruined the trust we had built. She wasn't afraid of me. The smile dropped away quickly as reality sunk back in. The officer backed away from us and I shifted so that I could stand up, while Aria moved closer to me as though I was abandoning her. Pain radiated from my back and flashed my vision black for a moment, but still I reached down, gently picking her up and cradling her against me. As soon as she was in my arms, she nestled closer, burying her face against my neck. She was so small, so delicate. My gaze dropped to her stomach, where her arm rested protectively while the other reached up to hold around the back of my neck. She couldn't be, he wouldn't have done that.

"Do you want to come with me? We have an ambulance waiting out front, just in case."

I gave a nod and slowly walked out into the parking lot. The other girls moved closer to us, but I tightened my grip around Aria and pushed through so that we could get out of here. I never should have let her come, I should have made her stay at the house. How could this have fallen apart so fast? I just wanted to talk to him. To convince him to come with me to the police and turn himself in. The EMT tried to get me to set Aria down, saying that he needed to check us out but I glared at him, not letting him near my girl. She had come to enough harm already, I wasn't going to let anyone else touch her.

"An officer will meet you at the hospital to take your statement." Officer Martin said, at least that's what his nametag announced him to be.

"What no Tanner?" I asked, almost angry that she wasn't going to make Aria her priority.

What could possibly be happening in this town that was more important than Aria's safety right now? They were all about the girls safety when it came to keeping a monitor on my house, despite me asking for them to go away. Or butting in when I wanted to take Aria to a gallery, and causing her to shake in terror at the confinement. There was nothing keeping them from watching all their houses and calling over the radios about their movements. But after something had happened, after they had busted in on my botched reunion with my brother, Tanner couldn't even bother to come and get a statement?

"No, she's meeting with your sister down at the station."

That took the wind out of my sails. I glanced down at Aria, knowing that there were at least still people looking out for her. She was talking to Spencer, before my half sister slipped away back into the crowd. Her head turned back into me, face pressing into my neck. The cop moved away and the EMT moved back into his place. He was eyeing Aria nervously, clearly concerned that she was so despondent.

I glanced back once at everyone before climbing into the back of the ambulance. Police were crawling all over the place, helping Toby and Lorenzo into another ambulance, while escorting the girls into the back of a couple squad cars to take back into were probably being taken to the police station, undoubtedly where we would be heading if they weren't worried about injuries.

I looked down at Aria, who had shifted her hand so that she was gripping my shirt. I leaned down pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She wasn't pregnant.

***End Chapter***

So Jason is in a fair bit of denial here, but to be fair he did get a head injury. Hope y'all enjoy this one.