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˖ ࣪. ࿐♡ ━━━━━━━━ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥
𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗬-𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘

▐ 𝖱𝖮𝖲𝖤𝖶𝖮𝖮𝖣 𝖢𝖧𝖴𝖱𝖢𝖧

    𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 teenage girls stand outside of Rosewood Church, surrounded by police vehicles and pedestrians who had gathered to know what was going on, each of them eyeing the girls in either disbelief, pity or as if they were straight up liars.

"He wasn't moving, okay, and he was not breathing." Aria is the first one to open her mouth after pure silence from the text they had gotten.

"Because he was dead."

"Is dead." Spencer and Sadie say together, still tightly holding on to each other.

"Not was, is."

"So, unless we're saying Ian's a zombie, someone moved the body."

"It was probably stuffed in the trunk of A's car." Hanna rolled her eyes.

"It's probably on its way to a meat grinder."

"Oh, Em, come on, you gotta quit watching those horror films."

"You guys, A's probably watching us right now." Sadie looks around at the growing crowd, along with the others, "Anyone of these people could be A."

"Half the town is here."

Garrett walks up to the group of five, his eyes lingering on Sadie for a moment too long, "The police want to see you at the station. I'm here to drive you."

"Uh, well, I saw my parents earlier." Aria tells the cop as Sadie slipped her phone out of her back-pocket to send Jason a quick message just in case and because she knew that the moment everything hit the news, he would be blowing up her phone and racing back to Rosewood just to make sure she was okay. "They're gonna wanna know where we're going."

"They'll meet us there." Garrett tells them, "C'mon, let's go."

Sadie rolls her eyes, being the first one to make a move towards Garrett's police car, "Let's go. I don't have all damn night."

"Have I ever mentioned that she scares me?" Hanna mumbled to the others as they followed the older blonde to the car, getting in. "Hey, I thought we were going to the police station."

Sadie looks up from her phone, raising an eyebrow as she takes notice of Garrett moving in the opposite direction than the car that was driving in front of him.

"Why are we stopping?"

"Garrett?"

"Let's go." Garrett tells the five girls, four of them being crammed into the backseat.

"No, I'm not going anywhere."

"Get out of the car."

The seven of them piled out of the car, all of them rounding the front.

"It's not safe to talk in the car."

"Well, it doesn't really feel safe out here either."

Garrett stands in front of them, "Look, I'm sorry if I scared you but there's some things you guys need to know before you start answering questions."

"We're listening." Spencer speaks for them, her and Sadie sharing the same look with each other.

"Alright, the police cannot know that you were blackmailing Ian and that I was helping you. It's a serious crime."

"Well, what about the messenger?" Aria questioned.

"He doesn't want any trouble."

"And the money?"

"For now, I'm hiding it."

"What about the videos?" Sadie's arms are crossed over her chest as she stares Garrett down, the male shifting uncomfortable under her eye.

"You still have them?"

"Yeah, we made a copy."

"Okay, look, I've never asked you guys how you got them and I don't wanna know." Garrett tells them, "But you guys better be prepared to tell the police how you did because that's, that's the first question they're gonna ask you.

"Officer Reynolds, what's you ETA?"

Garrett reaches up to press the button on the small radio that rested on his shoulder, "Uh, yeah, we're en-route."

"Roger that."

"I hate asking you to lie like this. But are we all clear?"

"We'll keep the videos a secret."

"For now."

"Okay, good. Let's get back."

˖ ࣪. ࿐♡

      ❝𝐔𝐆𝐇, 𝐌𝐘 brain is numb from all those cop questions.❞ Hanna spoke up as the five girls were spread out on Spencer's bedroom floor, all deciding to stick together and stay the night in one place.

"I don't think we'd be here if it wasn't for A." Spencer mumbled, hugging a pillow to her chest as Sadie laid the back of her head on her knee.

"A killed Ian to keep you both here." Aria tells them, watching as Sadie plays with the ring hanging from a silver chain around her neck.

"I'm sorry, but that is not a comforting thought."

"A gives, so she can take. We know that." Emily sits up against the metal desk chair Spencer had in her room.

"So, what's the bitch gonna ask for?" Sadie rolled her eyes, dropping the ring so it rested on her chest.

"Whatever it is, I don't think we can afford it." Spencer sighed before looking down at Sadie, "Was Ian telling the truth? About you and Jason?"

Sadie lies quiet for a few moments, let's out a deep sigh as she closes her eyes to reveal the truth about her and Jason, "Jason and I were dating back when Alison was still here. I don't know if she knew or not, but we were. He was using some blonde chick that he was in high school with as a cover-up — which was shitty of us to do. When I left with Jason....I expected everything to be too much for the two of us to keep it up."

"He spent a few months in rehab for the drug and the drinking, and when he came back, he had already made up him mind that if Alison knew about the two of us, that she would want us to be happy together in whichever way. He asked me to marry him......I love him, so I said yes and two days later we were at this little Church in Philly getting married in front of his parents and my brother."

"Why keep it a secret when you got back?" Emily asked, curiosity filling her voice.

"I was going to, but everything with A started." Sadie brings her hand up to play with the ring hanging from her necklace, "I didn't want any of you to hate me and I didn't want you guys to think that I just married Jason to be closer to Alison. I genuinely love him; he's it for me."

"We could never hate you, Sadie." Emily reaches out to touch the blonde with a warm smile.

"It will be weird to see the two of you together, though." Hanna says, "If you came back how come he didn't come with you?"

"Jason had some stuff he needed to finish before he came back." She shrugged, "And because he wanted to make sure his mom was gonna be okay without us living just a set of stairs away from here."

Aria tilts her head looking down at Sadie and Spencer, "Spence, Sadie, you didn't see anything?"

"We saw a black hoodie, black boots and gloves." Spencer named off what the person who had pushed Ian from the bell tower was wearing.

"Well, I think it's safe to say that A's not Jenna."

"Are we sure?"

"A sees everything, Hanna."

"I'm starting to think we should tell someone about her." Emily tells her friends, "Him, i--it. What's the worst that can happen?"

"A knows all of our secrets." Sadie mumbled. "They knew about me and Jason."

"Yeah, if people find out, we'll always be those girls who blinded Jenna Marshall."

"And now we're those girls who are afraid of A."

"No, Em, I mean, you're right, but...look, we have so much to lose."

Hanna sighs, "I feel like I have a hangover and I never even went to the party."

"We need caffeine." Spencer says before she and Sadie moved to stand up from the floor.

Aria stops the Hastings girl before she can actually get up though, "Oh, no offense, but can I make it?"

"Seriously?"

"I'm with Aria."

"Yeah, sorry, Spence, but your coffee gives me the shakes." Hanna joked with the girl as they followed in getting up.

"I actually like Spencer's coffee." Sadie shrugged, grabbing Spencer by the hands to tug her up from the pile of blankets on the floor.

"At least someone does." Spencer mumbled, all five of them walking down the stairs, but stopping as they came face to face with their mothers and father, in Sadie's case, Will and Jesse."

"Jesse!" Sadie raced towards her older brother, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Jesse smiles before kissing the top of her head, "Hey, kiddo."

"What's going on?" Aria questioned the adults.

"Mom?" Hanna questioned.

Ashley turns to Spencer's mom, "Uh, Veronica, since this is your idea.....,"

"The accusations you made about Ian have cast a bright spotlight on all of you." Veronica stands up from the stool she sat on, "Spencer is still a person of interest in Alison's murder investigation and now the police seem to think that you four are also involved."

"That's bullshit."

"Sadie." Jesse shakes his head as the blonde pulls away from them, watching as his little sister crossed her arms over her chest but one hand went to the rings hanging from her necklace.

Spencer walked the rest of the way down her stairs, "Ian killed Alison, okay? And last night, he tried to kill me and Sadie."

"Yeah, we were all there." Aria defended her friends and herself, "We told you exactly what we saw."

"And we heard you." Ella tells them.

"We don't need to rehash what we talked about last night." Byron spoke up next, "It's, this is about moving forward."

"And while the police sort through this, we want you girls to see a grief counselor." Veronica tells the five teenagers.

"She's a therapist who can help you deal with Alison's death."

"And what appears to the police to be an obsession with trying to pin her death on Ian."

Emily looks at them in disbelief, "You think we're lying?"

"Emily, I believe you." Her mom says, "But it's the way it looks that concerns us."

"This is a preemptive strike, and the goal is to garner both police and public sympathy."

"Well, I'm not going to a shrink." Hanna shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, that's what friends are for."

"You can't be the only one who doesn't go." Ashley tells her daughter.

"Maybe you'll get more out of it than you think."

"This is bull—,"

"Hanna!"

"No, she's right. This is bullshit." Sadie shakes her head, "And she's not the only one that's not going to see a shrink because I sure as hell are not either."

"Sadie, this could be good for all of you." Will tells his little sister with a sigh, Jesse nodding in agreement.

"No, screw that!" Sadie shakes her head, "If I knew that this is what my life would've been like when I came back, my ass would've stayed in Philadelphia where I was doing just fucking fine!"

"Do you believe us?" Spencer questioned the parents and Sadie's brothers.

What I know is that one of my daughters is in the hospital and the other one's in trouble, and it's my job to protect you both."

Spencer shakes her head, "You didn't answer the question."

"You haven't heard from Ian for a reason." Aria says, "He's dead."

"Dead men don't get up and walk away." Peter tells them, hands on his hips.

"We told you, someone moved the body." Emily fought with the group of adults who just weren't believing what they were saying.

"Who, who would do that?" Veronica asked them, "And why?"

Before any of them could answer, there was a knock on the door which gave Sadie the chance to check the millions of unread text messages from her worried husband.

"Is Spencer home?" Toby's voice filled the blonde's ears and she looks up from her phone as everyone turned towards the door.

"You shouldn't be here, Toby." Peter tells the boy.

"Is she okay?"

"No, she isn't." He tells him, "Spencer's in a lot of trouble and you're not helping her. Look, whether you've earned it or not, you have a reputation. My daughter can't afford to be seen with you."

"I would never do anything to hurt Spencer." Toby tells the man standing in front of him.

"Good. If you mean that, you'll stay away from her." Peter says to him before shutting the door on the boy's face and turning towards his daughter, "I'm sorry, Spencer."

Spencer stares at him in silence before turning around and making her way back up the stairs, the four remaining girls hot on her trails.

"Sadie."

"No." The blonde spins around to look at her brother's, handheld up in the air, "You have no legal right over me, so you don't have a say. I'm not going to a therapist, end of it."

˖ ࣪. ࿐♡

     𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 Spencer lead their small group into Ezra's classroom, the chatter from inside stopping as soon as they step into the room, every pair of eyes on the five of them.

Her jaw ticks as she clamped her teeth down, her eyes moving towards the chalkboard where a hangman was drawn on the green board in white chalk, the word 'LIARS' being almost spelled with an already drawn stick person.

The bell rings signaling the beginning of class and they all find their seats just as Ezra walks into the room, closing the door behind him.

His eyes shift between Sadie and Aria, the English teacher noticing the fire burning deep in the blonde's eyes that told him one wrong move was going to cause her to explode.

"You need some help with that, Mr. Fitz?" A new voice asked as he erased the hangman on the board, everyone turning to see Noel in the doorway of the classroom.

"You can take your seat, Mr. Kahn." Ezra tells him.

Noel sends a look towards the four girls, stopping in front of Sadie's desk on his way. His hands lay flat on the desk as he dipped his head to meet her blue eyes.

If someone in the room wasn't looking at her, they sure were now.

"You okay?" Noel asked her in a low voice, earning a stiff nod from the Beaumont girl, "And you'll let me know if you need anything?"

Once more, Sadie silently nods at him, earning a smile from the boy before he dropped a kiss on the top her head and finally taking his seat.

The four girls turn to Sadie, each with the same bewildered look on their faces as she doesn't meet their eye.

˖ ࣪. ࿐♡

      ❝𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 sure you're okay?❞ Jason asked as he moved stuff around in his old house, one that Sadie had yet to know he moved back into, the DiLaurentis boy wanting to surprise her before he said anything.

"I would be even better if nosy ass people minded their own business." Sadie cuts a harsh glare towards the group of girls that were whispering as they looked over at her, "Keep talking and whispering and I'll give you something to share with the rest of the class."

Jason chuckled, sitting down on the couch, "Want me to call Will and get him to come get you?"

"No, I need to just get the rest of the day over with and go home to soak in a nice bubble bath and pretending that the world that I'm living in doesn't exist."

"Easier said than done, baby."

She sighs, "Yeah, I know." Sadie pauses, "I miss you."

"I miss you, pretty girl." Jason smiles softly, one that the blonde could almost feel. "We'll be back with each other before you know it."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

˖ ࣪. ࿐♡

     𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐁𝐔𝐓 silence filled the small therapist office as four of the five girls sat on the white couch in the therapist office. Sadie kept her eyes focused on the threaded bracelet around her wrist as they all waited on Hanna to show up.

"Sorry, I'm late." Hanna walks into the office, arms full of shopping bags, "But have you been downtown? The sales are huge."

"You must be Hanna." Anne, the therapist smiles at the other blonde, "I'm Anne."

"So, what I'd miss?" Hanna asked.

Sadie finally looks up with a smirk on her face, "Absolutely nothing. We waited on you."

"Damn."

˖ ࣪. ࿐♡

       ❝𝐈𝐓 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐒 like you credit Alison for the friendship.❞ Anne spoke to the five girls.

"We became friends because of her." Emily tells the therapist.

"But she's gone and the five of you still seem very close."

"We weren't always." Sadie shrugged.

"We lost touch when Ali went missing." Aria breaks that silence that followed Sadie's words.

"What brought you back together?" Anne asked, watching as the five glance at each other, "You don't all have to agree. There are no right or wrong answers here."

Spencer answers this time, "Her death."

"She means when they, when they found her."

"When they found her body."

"Do you think you were looking for closure?"

"We were looking for answers."

"The answer to who murdered Alison." Anne says, her eyes dancing over each one of them. "The five of you don't have to go through this alone. This is a safe place to talk. Nothing you say here goes beyond these walls."

"Do we...do we wanna talk about that thing?" Aria asked her four friends before all of their phone began to go off together.

Anne looks between the five with a chuckle, "What? What is it?"

"Um, I think our time is up." Spencer sends her a tense smile.

˖ ࣪. ࿐♡

     ❝𝐎𝐇, 𝐆𝐎𝐃, it's not A.❞ Aria tells them as they all walk out of the therapist building, "It's just my mom."

"Yeah, same here. She wants me to come home."

Sadie looked down at her phone, "Jason."

"What really happened?" Emily questioned as the five of them watch Jenna walk out to where Toby was leaning against the car, moving towards the newspaper stand was.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Sadie groaned as she takes in the newspaper with a picture of them on the front page from the other night.

"They found Ian's car by the train station and ten thousand dollars that he took from his bank account." Spencer reads from the paper, "They think he skipped town, and we made up a story because we knew he left."

The five of their phones went off at the same time again, only this time it was actually a message from A.

"I spy a liar. A." They read off together, sharing a look with each other.

˖ ࣪. ࿐♡

      ❝𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐄, 𝐈𝐓'𝐒 for you!❞ Will calls out from downstairs.

With a groan, the blonde stands up from her bed and walked down the stairs, stopping as she locked eyes with Caleb standing in the doorway, his backpack hanging from one shoulder.

Her shoulders drop in relief since she didn't have to worry about him being on his own anymore.

"You told me that I always have a place with you if I needed a place to—,"

"You can stay here." Will cuts him off with a smile, "We're not gonna kick your ass out to sleep on the streets."

"Come on, I'll take you to the guest room."      

"Thank you."

˖ ࣪. ࿐♡

     ❝𝐀 𝐇𝐀𝐃 to have followed me to Ezra's.❞ Aria spoke up as the five sat in Emily's bedroom, "And he, she, shim, must've seen me get that key from under the doormat."

"Let me see that." Hanna grabs the phone Aria handed her, "Okay, I see books, photographs, magazines."

"What?" Aria questions as Hanna smirks at her.

"Is that a playboy?"

"What?" Spencer moves to look at the picture.

"Right there. Under the black thing on the cabinet."

"That black thing is called a typewriter." Sadie smirked at the other blonde, "Ezra isn't the type...he's too vanilla."

"Han, that' not a "playboy", that's a "playbill."

"I don't think what's missing matters." Emily tells them, "A wants us to know that she can come and go through Ezra's apartment. When's it gonna stop? Remember where we were a few months ago?"

"Visiting Sadie and I in the hospital."

"A hit Hanna, and Sadie, and kept on going."

"He didn't even hesitate before pushing Ian." Spencer said to them, "It's almost like it was no big deal."

"I don't wanna be sitting next to you guys at another funeral."

Sadie raised an eyebrow at the girl, "You think we should tell the therapist?"

Hanna nodded.

"We were really close to telling her yesterday." Aria looks over them, "It felt so good."

"Telling Anne wouldn't be like telling our parents, or Will and Jesse." Emily said, "I mean, she has to keep it a secret, right?"

"Look, okay, I know we promised Garrett that we wouldn't show the video to the cops. But, I mean, if we want Anne to believe us."

"A picture's worth a thousand words."

"You know, she was wearing a gorgeous pair of Chloes."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Saide raised her eyebrow.

"The shrink."

"And this is relevant to this conversation because...,"

"You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes."

Sadie tilts her head, "I have a pair of red bottoms. What does that say about me?"

Emily ignores both the blondes, "I really heard her when she said that we don't have to go through this alone."

"Do we all agree?" Spencer asked after a moment of silence.

˖ ࣪. ࿐♡

      ❝𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐊 𝐘𝐎𝐔 for seeing us today.❞ Aria thanks the therapist as the five take a seat back on the white couch.

"It sounded like there was something you really wanted to tell me."

"There's also something we wanted to show you." Emily tells her, pulling her laptop from her bag.

"Um, I, I, just wanna get one thing straight here." Hanna's words make the other's turn to look at her. "You're not allowed to tell anyone anything that we say in here, right?"

"Unless you tell me something that leads me to believe that you're a danger to yourself or to someone else."

"Okay. Hanna?"

"I didn't know Tory made those boots in brown." The Marin girl's attention was drawn to the pair of shoes Anne was wearing on her feet.

Spencer looks at her in disbelief, "Are you satisfied?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Go ahead, Emily."

"I — I think we should tell her first, and then....,"

"Yeah, sure."

"Aria?"

"We did drift apart after Alison went missing. And it's true that her...her death brought us back together." Aria starts to tell the woman.

Sadie looks around the room, not really wanting to show any emotion when a black frame caught her eye. Subtly hitting Spencer, the blonde barley tipped her head in the direction she was looking while thankfully Spencer noticed.

Sitting on one of the selves in the office was Ezra's certificate for Hollis College.

"This talk is premature." Spencer cuts Aria off, earning looks from everyone until they turned to look at what Sadie and Spencer were.

"Um, I'm sorry we wasted your time." Emily closes her laptop.

"Wh — what just happened here?" Anne questioned the five girls, a confused look painted across her face as the girls begin to get up, grabbing their bags.

"Um, you know, we need to figure out what we wanna say, so that we can communicate more.

Sadie walks ahead of the door, quickly snatching the framed certificate from the shelve and shoving it into Hanna's purse since it was bigger than the one she carried.

"And — and that's what we'll do." Emily says.

"So, we're gonna reschedule." Spencer tells the therapist.

"You girls called me, remember?"

"Yeah, I — I'm really sorry about this." Aria apologizes to the women as they all rush out of the office, "Well, if she didn't think we were crazy before, she does now. What was that?"

"God, you really — I'll shut up." Sadie rolls her eyes as she digs into Hanna's bag and shoved the frame into Aria's hands.

"Where did you get this?"

"On the bookshelf behind the shrink." Hanna responds as Sadie looks around them.

"This is what A took from Ezra's."

"No, really?" Sadie scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"A knows we're coming here." Spencer said.

"And that we were gonna tell."

"How is A always one step ahead of us?"

"You know, I'm starting to think that bitch has superpowers."

"We gotta tell Ezra to change his locks."

˖ ࣪. ࿐♡

     ❝𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐉𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒, we need to talk.❞ Will knocks on his little sister's door before he walked in, finding the two teenagers sprawled out around Sadie's room, a movie playing on TV.

"I'll go see if Cassie needs help with dinner." Caleb sends an awkward smile to the redhead Beaumont sibling as he walked out of the room.

"What's up?"

"So, I got a call from the therapist today, and she said that she's not going to be able to see you and the girls as a group anymore." Will sits on the corner of her bed, keeping his eyes on his little sister with worry.

"Why do I feel like there's more to the story?" Sadie sighs, pausing the movie and sitting up more in her bed.

"Anne also thinks that the five of you aren't capable of a healthy friendship at this moment in time. She recommended that you spend time apart from each other."

"So what are you saying?" Sadie can already feel the tears pooling in her eyes, her voice cracking by the end of her sentence.

˖ ࣪. ࿐♡

𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐖𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐒 her arms around herself as the five girls stand in the shed after getting an S.O.S text from Spencer.

"Anyone could've sent that, Spence."

Hanna backs Aria up, "Yeah, and it could just be some kook trying to mess with Melissa."

"Maybe, but it doesn't seem random." Spence says, "It's not safe. I can't tell you'?"

"Can't tell you what?"

"Where he is."

"Ian is dead." Sadie tells them with a dead look in her eyes, "He was pushed from the bell tower, we saw it happen."

Aria nodded, "We all saw him."

"There's only one way to know for sure." Hanna said, "Send a reply."

"How do I know this is you?" Spencer reads out the message that she sends to the unknown number in Melissa's phone.

The phone dings and she turns it around for the four to read it.

"Um, what's something that only Ian would be able to answer?"

"Ask him what they're naming the baby." Sadie suggests a shrug.

"What is the name?"

"Taylor."

Gasps ring out as the phone chimes in replay with the correct baby name.

"It's him."

"Ian's Alive."