A/N: TRIGGER WARNING. Mentions of cutting/suicidal ideation. Speaking of which, I did not go into detail in the writing on how to break a sharp, simply because I don't like the idea of telling someone how to do that, even though I do actually know how. Even so, should you choose to read this, I hope you enjoy it. After the drama does come a bit of fluff. This was something I started months ago, and I'm proud of how it turned out. Also, it was only ever intended to be a oneshot, and turned into a two-shot because I wanted to wrap things up a bit more.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nada. Zilch. Except for maybe the baby, but even then. The only thing I get out of writing this is getting the idea out of my head.

Unspoken

There was an emptiness in the silence as Aria stared up at the ceiling, just listening to the beating of her own heart. Words swirled in her head like a stew in a pot, but try as she might, she couldn't drown them out. She knew for sure because she'd put ear plugs in hours ago, and the words still wouldn't stop.

Tears ran in slow streams down the sides of her face onto her bed. It was irritating really. They never fell in the same simplistic way, down from the corners of her eyes to blankets below her. No, instead there always had to be one rogue salty drop that insisted it drift at a different angle because of the way she exhaled a breath or just slightly tilted her head a degree to the left or right. One degree's difference, and the teardrop was drifting down over the top of her ear instead of just off her face. But she didn't deign to wipe it away. She was too pissed off.

Her phone was ringing. She didn't know that because she could hear it-her earplugs made it so that all she could hear was her own breathing, and that incessant dull ringing that one heard when everything else was quiet-or because she could see it. No, it was the continued staccato vibrations she felt next to her right foot, demanding to be picked up. She didn't bother.

It wasn't the first call she'd ignored today. It wasn't even among her priorities to think of grabbing the phone. As it was, Ella barely called more than once or twice a week because of the international charges, and when she did it was usually at a designated time on the house landline. Byron wouldn't be calling either, because he was gone to yet another conference in some other city in another state, and he never called during the day. He only ever called twice a day-once after curfew to make sure they were where they said they'd be and tell them not to murder each other, and then the following morning to ensure they were in fact still alive.

Her phone finally stopped buzzing, so she rose from the bed and leaned over it. Her stomach churned, and she gulped, trying to quell the feeling. After a moment, it passed and she moved off the bed completely, crossing her room to the door. As she reached it, she glanced back towards her bed, and her phone lit up from its place on her blankets once more. She turned and exited the room.

Aria walked down the hall to the bathroom and then turned and closed the door behind her. She leaned against it for a moment, staring up at the ceiling. She reached her hands up and wiped the tears from her face, exhaling a deep breath.

She turned to face the sink a few moments later, and reached up to pull the plugs from her ears. As the noisiness that created silence filled her ears, she breathed another heavy breath. She tossed the ear plugs into the trash and then reached up and opened the cabinet over the sink. She moved a few things around and then grabbed a razor and pulled it down, glancing at the metal confined in the plastic.

She removed the plastic cover from the top of it and then worked to break the plastic apart. It took her several minutes-and several slices to her fingers-but she managed to get the blade free.

Once she had, she tossed the plastic into the trash and then stared at the metal as she held it in her fingers. It was ridiculously small and thin, and flimsy enough to bend with very little pressure, but she knew if she used it right, it would get the job done.

She turned the blade in her fingers until she had it in her fingertips and then turned her hand over, pressing the blade into her skin until it bit down. Like a tiger sinking its fangs, the blade separated her skin. As she drug it across, there was a moment that came with the first rush of pain-the pain that would drive someone else to stop-that also brought a heavy sigh of relief. The rush of endorphins sated her, at least for the briefest moment.

As she finished dragging the blade through her skin, everything felt weightless. The internal rush brought relief. And if that was what she was seeking, it would've been enough. But she didn't want something temporary. She wanted something permanent.

She began to apply pressure again, replacing the blade back in its original spot. She was crying as waves of stabbing pain rushed around where the skin relucantly broke under her pressure. She continued until she couldnt stand to feel the pain any longer, and then lifted the blade. Her hands were shaking, but she replaced the blade in the same place and repeated the process, applying as much pressure as she could take. It hurt, and it took all she had in her not to scream, biting down on the insides of her lips as tears ran down her face. She could see the blood pooling more, and felt continuing in the midst of the pain. A comfort in it all. She removed the blade and set to move it back again when suddenly a hand much stronger than her own was pulling her left hand away from her right wrist. She looked up into the blue eyes she only knew too well and rage filled her.

She hadn't heard the footsteps ascending the stairs. Hadn't even heard the door open. But here he was, standing in front of her with a demanding expression and confused eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to the punch.

"Aria, why would you do this?"

His voice was low, unwavering. There was a layer of rage so thick wrapped around his words, like a snake tightening itself around its prey. And such an appropriate comparison too because that's how he made her feel now.

"Let me go," she growled at him, tugging at her arm in his grasp. She was hyper aware of the dark red blood running down her arm in fat lines, running over his white-tipped fingers. It stained the end of his white button-down dress shirt's sleeve. That would never wash out.

Ezra ignored her though, and he reached up to grab a hand towel instead from the small linen closet across from her. Aria screamed at him to let her go again, but he just continued his movements, never letting go of her arm.

She dropped the razor into the trash-actually having to shake her fingers a bit because of the drying blood causing it to stick to her fingers-and turned to face him, curling her free hand into a tight fist. Ezra just ignored her movements as he wrapped the still partially folded towel and wrapped it around her wrist with his free hand before he moved the hand he had wrapped around her forearm up to her wrist and held the towel there, applying pressure.

Aria continued to yank futilely on his grip on her wrist, screaming at him as she punched him repeatedly in the chest. She yelled curse words at him, told him how much she hated him. She told him he was a worthless human being and that she wished she'd never met him. She said he was cruel, and evil, and not worth the breath she used to breathe for him. But still he ignored her as his only focus was on her arm.

Beyond furious, she suddenly stopped pounding her hand against his chest. She stared at him with anger built up within herself, and she clenched her fists once more. His blue eyes met her hazel ones, and that's when she broke.

If she could shatter into a million pieces, it was probably the way something blew up when a bomb went off-flying in a thousand different directions all at once. She emitted the loudest, most ear-shatteringly painful scream she could manage as she wrapped her tiny fingers around his throat. She screamed and squeezed as tightly as she could, shoving him backwards with all the weight she could manage.

She hated herself though, because it wasn't enough. Ezra barely stumbled half a step. He didn't even flinch at her grasp on his throat, and too easily pulled her other arm from around the front of his throat. As she continued to scream at him, he screamed back at her, telling her to calm down. Their tones increased until finally his over took her own, screaming at her to 'sit down and shut the fuck up'.

Aria hated Ezra. She hated him more than anything in the world. She hated him more than Mona hated her and all of her friends. She hated him more than Jenna hated Spencer. She hated him. But she stopped fighting.

Her will dropped away as she dropped to the ground, and somehow he ended up under her, holding her. She was crying again, and she wanted to kill him, but he still had his hand on her wrist, holding the towel to it. And she hated herself as much as she hated him.

It was quiet for a long time, and the only noise filling the room was the sound of her crying and sniffling. She wanted to get away from him, but she knew there was no feasible way to do it in that moment, so she stayed.

Some time later-probably ten or so minutes-when her energy had faded and her sobs turned to silent whimpers, he finally spoke. His voice was soft and low once again, though less angry.

"Why would you try to do this to yourself?" He asked.

Aria glanced at her wrist where he was holding it away from her. Some blood had seeped through the layers, but he'd stopped her in enough time that it seemed to have stopped.

"You'd never understand," she told him. Her voice was soft and raspy, ragged from all her screaming.

"I could try," he responded.

Aria shook her head, feeling sick in the pit of her stomach once more. "You could never grasp the understanding of why I would do this. I could never do what you've done."

"Aria-"

She shook her head, moving off his lap. She tried to stand, but his grip remained tight on her wrist, refusing to let her go. She tightened her jaw as she resigned to not being able to get away from him, and she moved to the toilet.

Ezra stood and reached into the medicine cabinet, pulling out the first aid kit. He settled it on the counter and then opened it before moving his hand back down her forearm. With his free hand, he removed the towel from her wrist and inspected the damage.

The wound was deep enough to warrant stitches, but it was doubtful Aria would be willing to go to the hospital. Fortunately, she hadn't cut herself deep enough to reach any of her veins, and the bleeding seemed to have stopped.

He turned on the faucet and lifted the towel to under the stream of water and let a clean part of it get we before he brought it back to her arm and began to wipe away the blood.

"You might as well talk," he told her. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I'll just leave when you're done," she told him. Ezra looked up at her, his eyes daring her to fight him.

"Try and stop me," was all she said in response.

They were both quiet again, but she watched as he wiped away the blood on her arm. He was gentle, which she didn't understand at all. Even the grip he held on her arm wasn't rough. He held just tight enough to keep her in place without using excessive force.

"You think you know why I've done the things I've done," he commented as he settled the towel up on the counter and then reached into the first aid kit for antibiotic ointment. "But you haven't got the slightest clue."

"I don't need to have a clue to think that it's wrong that you've been stalking and tormenting me and my friends for months!" Aria growled at him. "It's cruel, Ezra!"

He said nothing as he spread the ointment over the wound and then recapped it. Afterwards, he grabbed two packets of gauze and lifted them to his mouth, using his teeth as a way to hold the end of them as he tore the packets open. After he had them open, he threw the garbage away and then placed both pads over Aria's wrist.

"Hold those," he told her. Aria stared him down for a few moments, but eventually she just sighed and laid her palm over her wrist while he reached back into the first aid kit.

"You think you know everything," He told her as he pulled bandage wrap from a fresh container. "But you don't have a clue. You're protecting Alison; maybe I'm protecting someone too."

Aria rolled her eyes. "Yeah right. Like who?"

The question was rhetorical. She didn't actually expect an answer.

"Tell me why you did this, and I'll tell you who I'm protecting," he countered. Their gaze locked for a pregnant moment, and neither of them moved.

Aria opened her mouth. "You first."

When Ezra looked up at her again, she continued.

"You give me one morsel of a detail, and if I think it's worth an answer, then I'll tell you the truth." She told him.

He nodded, looking back down at her wrist. "Move your fingers," he said as he placed the edge of the wrap against her arm. Once he had it down, she held down the bandaging once more as he began to wrap it around her wrist. "My brother."

"Who-"

"Answer my question first," Ezra told her as he kept his focus on bandaging her wrist. It wasn't an offer-he was insistent.

Aria inhaled and exhaled a deep breath. She wasn't even entirely sure he deserved to know. But she wanted answers. She could always lie about it later. Or run. Plenty of people would help her do that.

"I'm pregnant," she spoke quietly.

Ezra stopped all movement for several seconds, and his eyes seemed to be on her stomach. "You and Jake-"

"Never happened," Aria said before he could speak.

"And the last time we-"

She cut him off again. "Was three months ago. Now tell me the truth. Wes-"

"Is not my only sibling," Ezra told her. "He was three when my parents split up. He barely knew what was going on." He finished bandaging her arm and sealed the wrap with two clips before standing up to clean the mess he'd made. Aria wasn't running anywhere now.

"So then who?" Aria asked from her place on the toilet.

"Board Shorts," Ezra told her as he placed the first aid kit back in the medicine cabinet. "My parents...Wes wasn't planned. There were already two of us, and my parents didn't want to risk ending up with multiples again."

"Multiples..." Aria's brow furrowed. "You're a twin?"

"Fraternal," Ezra said with a curt nod. "And we grew up separately. When my parents split, he went with my father, and then bounced around boarding schools while Wes and I attended Dillards and lived at home."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Aria questioned.

"He grew up in England," Ezra told her. He turned the faucet on again and grabbed a fresh towel before wetting it and wiping down the counter. "Went to medical school."

Aria's eyes widened. "Your brother-...Wren Kingston is your brother?" She rose from the toilet.

Ezra glanced at her from the corner of his eyes and then back down at the counter as he scrubbed away a dot of blood.

"He was angry when he came back to the states," Ezra explained. "Blamed my mom for letting him go with my dad. He hated us."

"But what does any of that have to do with us or Ali?" Aria questioned.

Ezra sighed. He stopped wiping the counter and looked up at her. "He tried to kill her, Aria. When she thought she was pregnant, he freaked out and said she was going to ruin everything. He wanted her gone, along with every bit of evidence that he'd been in her life."

"What does any of that have to do with you?" She asked. "Why did he make you seek me out?"

"He didn't-..." Ezra paused, shaking his head. "I didn't seek you out. At least not the way you think I did. I'd seen you once or twice when Alison first went missing; he wanted to know who she hung around with, and I was already in Rosewood. But it wasn't until the weekend we met, when he'd heard about people claiming they'd seen her, that he came back here. I wanted nothing to do with any of it, but he said I owed him."

"So you hit on me in the bar?" Aria asked.

"He told me to sniff around; see if I could find anything out." Ezra explained. "I never expected to end up in the bathroom with you. You and I were never even supposed to be a part of the equation." He exhaled heavily.

"As it was, I didn't find anything, and the police said they found the body. Wren thought he was in the clear, and he let it go."

"Then what?"

Ezra walked out of the room, and she followed after him as he walked down the hall to her bedroom. He walked inside and looked around the room while she stood in the doorway, holding her injured wrist to her chest.

"Ezra."

He turned back to face her. "Then Mona went to Radley, and CeCee Drake came back, and Wren remembered her from that summer. He said that there was no way CeCee would come back to Rosewood without a reason, and when she put down roots..." He shook his head, staring down at the floor.

"What!?" Aria stomped her foot against the ground. Everything he was saying made sense. The pieces fit...

Granted, there was a part of her deep down that wanted-needed-the pieces to fit, for her own sanity. She wanted him to be able to explain it all away in a way that could mean they could still be together in the end.

"He was back here then," Ezra told her. "He started sniffing around, and he said that he was sure Alison was still alive; said he'd seen her. So he told me to start looking in to things again."

"And you just did it?" She inquired.

Ezra rolled his eyes, shaking his head. His gaze fell on Winesburg, Ohio, and he walked over to her window. He picked up the book and stared at it for several moments before putting it down and looking back up at her.

"I told him we'd just gotten back to a place where things were starting to feel okay. I mean yeah, things were a little weird with Wes bringing up Maggie, but things were alright." He paused for a moment, looking back at the book again. "He was quiet for a bit after that, and we were doing alright.

"The next thing I knew, I got a message to meet up in Philadelphia to talk. When I got there, he had all of this information about you and your friends, and he told me that if I didn't start looking in to things, he'd kill you. I told him he was an idiot, and he said that if I didn't believe him, that I should go find your train, because he'd already set up a surprise for me."

Aria gulped. "He's the one who-"

"He paid Wilden to put you in that box. I'm not sure whether Wilden actually knew that, though."

"So what next?" She asked.

Ezra looked back up at her. He walked over to her and stood in front of her, but didn't move to touch her. "I got to the train, and Melissa told me everything."

"Wait, how do you know Melissa?" Aria asked.

Ezra chuckled, shaking his head at her. "Melissa was a part of it all along. I met her at the end of that summer at Snookers. She sought me out because Wren had mentioned me. She was actually the reason Jackie broke up with me. Jackie thought we were too close."

Ezra paused again, reaching a hand out and curling it under her chin to make her look up at him. "I was never anything more than friends with Melissa. But I knew that she liked him, and she had to know she wasn't safe."

"So you told her what he...thought he did?" Aria asked.

Ezra nodded. "When Wren found out you were coming back to the states, he reconnected with Melissa. Melissa knew all along that Spencer was in danger, and that's why she took the barn loft. She didn't want Spencer somewhere she wasn't protected.

"Anyway, that wasn't my point. I started hunting for information about Alison after the party. The whole thing with Maggie was just so I could keep you safe. I wanted you distant enough that you wouldn't come around asking questions. After that, Melissa got me in touch with CeCee, and she started helping me build a timeline. We were putting everything together so that we could bring Alison home and she could go to the cops with the truth.

"Everything we were doing-everything we've been doing-...it's all been to protect you and your friends, and to bring Alison home. Everything I've done to get information from you girls has all been so that we can fix this." He explained.

"Does Alison know?" Aria asked.

Ezra shrugged, shaking his head. "CeCee told her a while ago, but I don't think Alison trusts me. We met that weekend in Ravenswood. After you girls found the lair."

Aria nodded slowly. "She wanted us to figure it out so she could be safe to come home."

Ezra shook his head at her. "You girls can't know about Wren. He'll kill you, and he'll make sure you're dead." Ezra paused, exhaling a worried breath as he scrubbed his hand down his face. For the first time, Aria could see the weariness in his eyes. All of this had taken such a tole on him.

"So what now?" Aria asked.

"I think you should go to Vienna," he told her. "By your mom. I know it's only for a few months, but I think you'd be better off there. You...and the baby...would be safe. Hopefully by then, CeCee and I can convince Alison that what we've got is enough to bring her back home."

"What about Wren?" Aria asked. "He'll think you've told me."

Ezra shook his head at her. "No. When I leave here, you'll have hit me in the face. He already knows you found out about me being 'A', so I'll tell him I tried to make you believe we could still be together, and you hit me. And when I leave, you'll leave."

"Where?" Aria asked. "And Spencer. Hanna, Em-"

"Melissa will take care of Spencer," Ezra told her. "And Hanna's got her mom back now, and Wilden's out of the picture. I'll do what I can to protect Emily, but honestly, I'm mostly worried about you," he told her. He reached into his left side pocket and pulled out his wallet. He opened it and pulled out several bills.

"I want you to go stay in a hotel for a few days, preferably in Philadelphia. You'll be harder to find. Ditch your phone. Leave your dad a note and tell him...actually I don't care what you tell him. Just don't tell him where you're going." Ezra paused, taking a deep breath. "Get a burner phone; something cheap that's less likely to have a GPS. I know you have your schedule with your mom, but break it. Call her in a frenzy and tell her things are bad here. Do whatever you have to do to convince her to let you come there.

"Once she says yes-and even if she doesn't-call CeCee. She'll get you a plane ticket with a different name. You might end up with a few stop-overs, but that's fine. At least then if Wren does figure out the truth, he won't know if you're actually in Vienna."

Aria shook her head. "Ezra I can't leave you guys."

"You can, and you will," he insisted as he pressed the money into her hand. "And I'll make it safe for you to come home. I'll make it safe for all of us again. I promise."