Chapter 90*

Aria's POV*

"Thank you for picking me up." I whispered against Jason's lips as I leaned up to kiss him.

"Anytime." he answered back, one of his hands had slipped down to my hip, holding me close, while the other twisted the hair at the back of my neck.

The warmth that radiated off of him surrounded me, sinking into my skin with a comforting familiarity. And the strong scent of his cologne and skin filled my lungs. The moment drew out for the space of breath, and all the tension and exhaustion from the day faded into the background. When we pulled back apart, the light of the porch took back over and brought me back to reality.

"So Spencer's house, right?" he clarified, capturing my smaller hand in his large, slightly rough one.

"Yep, we're doing check-in in person tonight." I leaned against his back as I followed him down the porchsteps towards his car.

"I'll let the cops know." he assured, pressing a kiss to the side of my head before opening my door.

I smiled up at him, settling into the seat as he closed the door for me. The cops waiting in the car for us to go to them was kind of weird, they had been so up in our business lately that it honestly shocked me for them to make a change like this. Maybe the fact that the crime scene tech team had already been through my house this evening was getting them to relax a bit more? Either that or these particular patrol cops just didn't feel like getting out of their car. Which seemed just as likely. I didn't think that just because I was working with the profiler now that I was in less danger of getting kidnapped by Charles. If anything, as soon as Charles knew how much we were sharing, that likelihood would only increase. And that all assumed that he didn't know already. I swallowed down the fear that had just surged up through me. I had been hoping that not going down to the police station would help maybe keep things a little more discreet. But having them come back to the house with me? And having the forensics team clearly sweeping my house for any clues of Charles, that wasn't something that Charles would miss.

"Alright, ready to go?" Jason's voice interrupted my downward spiraling thoughts, and I jumped at the realization that he had made it back into the car already.

"Yep." I nodded, trying to hide the surprise that I was feeling.

His car roared to life, the sound louder than my own. And both his hands were busy for as he got the car into gear and pulled out onto the street. Driving at a reasonable pace away from my house, but it felt impossibly slow as I felt the eyes of the cops in the squad car following us as we drove away. At least we didn't have an actual escort. There were still some small wins that I could count. As we moved through the neighborhood, he reached over and twined our fingers together again.

"How was your day?" he asked, keeping his attention mostly fixed on the road.

I shifted slightly in my seat, keeping our hands together, resting on my left knee. But this way I could watch Jason instead of the road. His profile was highlighted by the streetlights and the occasional flash of headlights. He glanced over at me, noticing my movements.

"It was long. And I'm very tired." I answered, letting my head rock slightly against the headrest.

"Yeah, what happened? I thought you had finished your schoolwork."

"I did. But I had a meeting with Mrs. Hastings today." I explained, and I felt his fingers tense around mine. "And with Agent Reid."

His tongue moved against the inside of his cheek, and he gave my hand a quick squeeze before softening his grip. His thumb brushed back and forth against the back of my hand, and I sighed at the sensation.

"So this is going to be an interesting check-in then." he nodded slightly, clearly recognizing that today was going to continue to be a lot. "I'm glad you asked me to come with."

"It impacts you too." I justified, even though that was hardly the reason that I had called asking him to come with me. He gave me a quick look, eyebrow raised enough for me to catch the expression in the flashing light. "Okay, I also wanted the support."

The right side of his mouth quirked up in a smile, satisfied with the acknowledgement of the real reason that I wanted him here. I squeezed his hand back. Appreciating being known that way.

"Anything I should know before we get to Spencer's?" he asked, and there was an edge of anxiety to his voice. It wasn't something that I heard from him very often.

"He asked how long we've been dating." I informed Jason, and I watched his face for the reaction.

"That's kind of weird of him. Why did he ask that?" he sounded confused.

"I have no idea. But it was definitely weird, right?" I verified. My feelings around what was and wasn't normal in a relationship wasn't really something that I trusted. And I would love someone to explain just what was normal to me.

"Yeah, maybe he'll ask me about it and I can get an answer." he gave a slight shrug with his right shoulder, jostling our hands a little. "But it might have something to do with trying to figure out why Charles is so fixated on you."

I shifted, uncomfortable at that connection. I was hoping that wasn't it. But I could see why Jason might suggest that. The other girls hadn't had the same level of attention from Charles, and then we had started dating after the dollhouse. I could see Agent Reid or Lt. Tanner coming to a conclusion of some kind because of that.

"Don't worry about it. We can always ask him." Jason reassured me, and I felt my heart squeeze a little at the fact that he could tell I was starting to freak out even from my place in the dark car.

"Thanks. How was your day?" I redirected, hoping for a more normal conversation before we got into everything with my friends.

"Busy. I'm trying out a couple new initiatives with a housing development, and it's a lot to get them started right now." he explained.

"Yeah, what are you working on?" I didn't know what sort of initiatives you could do in housing. I thought it was more of a make sure that everything was getting paid and nothing was falling apart sort of deal.

"Do you really wanna know? It might be boring?" he clarified.

"Yep." I popped the 'p' sound and settled in to listen.

The rest of the car ride he talked about the different community building programs that he was trying to put in place at different lower income housing complexes that his family's business owned. I smiled when I realized how much of this was paired at just trying to make people's lives a little easier. It wasn't what I expected from real estate, and definitely wasn't how to make the most money. But I was glad that Jason was getting a chance to make some of these changes. Hearing him talk about it, his voice softened and deepened a little. It was undoubtedly the happiest I had ever heard him about the family business. And I didn't even need to ask about how volunteering at the school was going to get him to relax like this.

"Ready for this?" he changed topics abruptly as we pulled to a stop outside his house.

I was almost surprised that he didn't park over at Spencer's. But it was a short walk between the two houses. Even though we would have to come back here to get his car before he could take me home tonight.

"As I'll ever be." I answered, releasing a deep breath that didn't really manage to soothe my suddenly jangling nerves.

"Just let me know if you need to leave and I'll get us out of here." he promised, unbuckling his seatbelt. He leaned over the gearshift towards me, and made sure to make eye contact before giving me a soft kiss.

I felt my lips spread into a broad smile at the action before unbuckling and opening my door before Jason could come around the car to get it for me. It was sweet that he was trying to take care of me so much, but I could manage my own doors. Some of the time at least. He waited for me in front of the hood of the car, hand outstretched for me to join him, and I bumped my shoulder into his side when I reached him. He waved over to the cop at the curb, who was watching us as we headed towards the path between the houses.

"Just heading over to Spencer's." he called out to the cop that had gotten out of his car as though to come and talk to us.

So that definitely meant that the other cops were just too lazy to come and ask us about stuff. It helped to know what the expectations were with them. The evening air was still thick with the humidity of the day, and there were bugs flying in front of our faces. But it was a nice little walk across the grass towards the Hastings house. The walk between them was so familiar, that even with the low light I never so much as stumbled over a downed branch.

The lights were on in the kitchen, and from the backyard I could see that Hanna and Emily were already here. That was weird, I thought. I had figured Alison might be here already, seeing as she had literally the shortest commute. I tapped on the glass of the kitchen door, and waited for Spencer to come over.

"Hey, how did it go?" she asked, focusing in on me right away.

"It was long. And I'm apparently going to need to do another one. But he said he wanted to wait until he had a chance to talk to the rest of you first before that." I explained, pulling Jason into the kitchen after me. "Is Ali on her way over?"

I saw the way that Emily froze up, her body locking whether from anger or surprise. And I recognized the fumble for what it was. I met gazes with Spencer, who tilted her head slightly. The silent 'what're you gonna do?' clear in her expression. And I instantly got it, Ali wasn't coming over tonight. Awkward.

"Right." I nodded. "So am I starting then or does anyone else wanna go?"

"You should start. I think the rest of us are going to have a lot of questions, and we should do this while it was still fresh in your head." Emily scooted to the side of the couch so there was room for Jason and I to sit down.

I suddenly wondered at the awkwardness of inviting Jason to come over. It wasn't like he hadn't sat in on a couple of check-ins before. When he didn't Ali or I frequently mentioned what he'd been doing anyway. But without Alison here, it felt a little weird. Like maybe we were expecting Jason to be able to explain what the hell was going on in his house. Which was a big ask.

"Jason, Aria, do you want anything to drink? I've got soda, or juice. Or coffee if you're not planning to sleep tonight." Spencer offered, lingering next to the fridge.

"I'll take a coffee." Jason answered, and I glanced over at him. "Still got some work to get through tonight. Especially if I'm going to be taking another personal day this week for that interview."

"A coke would be nice." I answered, knowing that it still had a fair bit of caffeine, but I'd cross that bridge when I got to it. Right now, I felt like I was going to drop. And the plush couch that I was sitting on wasn't helping anything. "Is your mom home, Spence?"

"Nope, it's just us for now. She's apparently going to be at the office for a few more hours." she placed the drinks down on the coasters in front of us before curling into her seat on the opposite couch, crossing her legs even as she reached for her own mug of coffee.

I glanced quickly between Jason and Spencer, wondering if there wasn't something to the caffeine dependency that was genetic. But I pushed that thought away.

"What did you talk about?" Hanna prompted me. "And did you get the details of the deal?"

"Right yeah, Mrs. Hastings is gonna go over it with you as well. But basically it boiled down to so long as we're honest about everything we can reasonably remember, and we don't admit to killing anyone in Pennsylvania they're not going to press charges." I summed up, watching their expressions flicker quickly on what that meant.

I felt Jason freeze in the seat next to me, and I worried that this was asking too much of him. It was one thing to date me with the weirdness of his secret brother stalking me, but there was so much about our lives that a normal person would run screaming from. And this was getting into the deep end on things pretty quickly.

"Are you sure you want me here for this conversation?" he asked, swallowing down the mouthful of coffee he'd been drinking when I spoke.

I glanced over at the others, checking if they had concerns. But they were all looking at me for the decision. And I knew it was because they were letting me drive this. It was my decision what we were going to say about New York, and that was definitely something that I needed to cover with the girls. But at the same time, I didn't want Jason to leave. In a perfect world, he would just not hear about it. With a steadying breath, I came to a decision.

"Yeah, I want you here." I assured Jason, squeezing his hand in mine. If nothing else, I needed the comfort right now.

He watched my face for a moment, as though deciding if I knew what I was doing. But after a moment, he nodded. And when he settled further into the couch, it was so that his arm was around my shoulders and his heat sunk into my skin. The pressure of the touch grounding me to the moment and reality.

"So what did you talk about with the profiler?" Spencer asked, producing a notebook from the bag next to the couch.

I blinked at the fact that she was going to take notes. And my heart clenched a little in fear. Not that I didn't trust Spencer, but because I was terrified that somehow Charles would get his hands on it. I'd already seen that my house wasn't safe from Charles, not even with the police parked at the curb 24/7.

"Basically everything. We started with the differences between how Mona and Charles were as A. Which meant covering everything from the last couple years. And went up through all the investigating we've been doing since we've been back."

"What did you say about getting Ali back? Did they ask about her kidnappers?" Hanna questioned.

"I told them that Ali hadn't been kidnapped. But that since her mom had buried her alive in her backyard after someone else had hit her in the back of the head, that she didn't think it was safe to come home." I felt Jason tense up next to me, his arm unconsciously tightening around my shoulders. "And about how we went to New York to meet her, but that I didn't know where exactly that apartment was. That it was when Ezra got shot. And that we talked Alison into coming back to Rosewood with us."

"Did you tell them why we thought it was safe for Ali to come back?" Emily asked, edging around the biggest question.

I took a deep breath. Knowing that what I was about to say was the only lie that I had told during the entire interview today. And that if it came out that I was lying, it would be my life on the line.

"I explained that we thought we had figured out that it was Cece who was messing with us after Mona was sent to Radley. And that since Mona was the one threatening Ali before she went missing that we could come back and it would be safe."

"Why Cece? She's not even in the US anymore." Emily pushed, leaning forward in her seat in her intensity.

"Because she's gone. And I don't think she's ever coming back." I answered with a shrug. "She's wanted for killing Wilden after all."

I hated the fact that I was making my friends lie for me. When we had first come back from New York, I had thought that I could handle the repercussions of my actions. But then Ali had lied. And covered it up. And our chance to tell the truth and be believed that it was self-defense had gone out the window. It was one of those things that the cops stopped believing you about when you hid it from them. More than six months later was definitely too late. No one would believe me, and I doubted there was any evidence left on my side to prove what had really happened. And after the time in the dollhouse, I never wanted to be locked away alone again.

"Okay, that makes sense." Spencer was jotting down notes about everything that I was saying, and I wondered at how much more complete her interview was going to be with everything that we had gotten into over the years. It made me question again why Agent Reid had wanted to talk to me first, before the rest of the girls. If I was looking into Charles I would be putting my focus on Spencer.

"What did they say about the investigating and hiding things from them in the first place?" Emily asked, and the way she was chewing her bottom lip I knew just how anxious about all this she was. "Do they think we could have avoided this if we had been upfront sooner?"

"Em, we can't play that game. If we had started talking to the cops sooner, there's no telling what he would have done." Spencer reassured, reaching forward to put her hand on Emily's wrist in an attempt to comfort her.

"He didn't talk about what might have been. Just asked me what made us agree to open up about what has been going on since we've been back." I answered honestly, hoping that might soothe some of the fears that I could see on her face.

"My interview is tomorrow." Hanna informed, pulling us from the pit of feelings that we had just careened towards. "Apparently I'm going for the morning, which means I get a 9am meeting."

"I'm after lunch." Spencer added, and I wondered just how long these interviews were going to end up being. "Which is why I want to have a full timeline of everything that's happened the last couple years."

"Is that a good idea? What if the cops take that from us?" Hanna was clearly skeptical as she eyed Spencer's notebook.

"That's what the deal is for, right? We share everything and we get protection?" she reminded, and I could feel the tension leaving my chest.

"What about other people? They're not covered by our cooperation contract, right?" Hanna looked between us, her eyebrows pinching together in worry. "Do we know what's going to happen to anyone else? My mom?"

"Mrs. Hastings said we had to make a choice." I tried to keep my voice calm and steady, even though this freaked me out more than just about anything with this deal. "We can either help the police catch Charles, and hopefully get Sara back. Or we can keep trying to protect everyone else."

"That sounds like my mother." Spencer muttered, barely audible.

I nodded, recognizing the worry in their expressions. This wasn't just going to mess up our lives. This was kicking a hornet's nest that half the town would get stung by. If all the corruption with Rosewood Police came out, and the tendency for officers to date underage girls, it would impact the whole town. And ruin some careers.

"I think we need to warn Mona." I spit the words that had been brimming across my thoughts all day out. "Give her the chance to work out a deal with the cops, let her know that we're cooperating on everything."

Hanna's eyes caught on mine, and after a moment I saw them widen in recognition. "What all did you say about what Mona did as A?"

"Everything that I could think of."

"The car accident?" Emily asked, glancing over at Hanna in concern.

"I don't know that hitting Hanna with a car really counts as an accident." Spencer's tone was flat when she spoke, and I winced at the bluntness of that sentence.

"Not when she was aiming." Hanna sounded so distant from it, and I knew that the anger there was still burning. Her relationship with Mona had always been kind of weird. Especially after we found out Mona was the one torturing us. And she kept going to see her in Radley.

"Wait, Mona is the one who hit Hanna? How long have you known about this?" Jason's voice cut in, and I winced at the fact that I had almost forgotten he was here. And that he didn't know all the shit that had happened.

"Since we figured out she was A?" Emily clarified, looking between us for confirmation.

"Is Mona the one who stole Bethany's body?" he questioned, clearly catching on that all things led back to A.

"I think that was Charles, actually. But we could ask Mona, see if she was involved in that? Or if she was still too drugged out to participate." I volunteered, the timeline definitely got messy while Mona was in Radley.

"And I'm guessing this is why you told me to stay away from Mona." he looked over at Spencer.

"Basically."

Jason shook his head, apparently trying to settle with the information he'd gained. And I wondered if I should have told him more things before this. It just wasn't a habit yet. There was a moment where I remembered Ezra asking me to trust him more. Share things with him. That he should be the person I go to with everything. And it had sounded almost like it was normal. And then I found out he was stalking me for a book. And was looking for info on my friends through me.

"What else do we need to cover tonight?" Emily was fidgeting on the couch, clearly uncomfortable.

"Can you talk to Mona?" I asked Hanna, hoping she'd be willing to do it. Otherwise I weirdly might be the next closest to her. Given her renewed relationship with Mike. At least that's what I assumed given the amount of time he was spending with her again.

"Yeah, fine. Anyone else need a warning?" she glanced around, as though we'd have other names.

"Jason, you should probably tell Ali." Spencer sounded cautious to bring it up. And I wondered how much we were icing her out.

"Yeah, I can do that I guess. Any particular reason you're not speaking?" he asked, looking between the girls on the couch.

"If she wants to tell us why she really broke into the police station we can talk." Emily's tone was harder than normal about Ali. And I blinked at her resolve. I hadn't expected her to keep up this level of a grudge. Emily was normally way more forgiving than this.

"What'd she tell you?" he questioned.

"That she saw Lorenzo's access card and couldn't help herself." Spencer acknowledged with a tilt of her head.

"Well, that's more than I've gotten so far." he admitted with a sigh. "My place is currently a cold war. I'm just waiting for my dad and Ali to fight so maybe I can stop spending my evenings working."

"I'm sure things will get easier soon." I tried to reassure, putting my hand on his knee and squeezing to try and comfort him.

"They're going to catch Charles, and then we can all move on." Spencer meant to be reassuring, but the uncertain way her voice wavered left the opposite impression. And I worried that even with all the help we were giving to the police, it wouldn't be enough.

End Chapter*

Hey I'm sorry about not posting sooner. I had to put down my cat I've had for the last 20 years last week, and I just haven't been able to focus on anything enough to write since then.

Hope you've enjoyed this chapter, let me know what ya think.