The first time Ezra's phone rang and the unknown phone number flashed across his screen, he didn't answer.

The second time it rang, he thought about answering, but let it go to voicemail.

When it rang a third time, in rapid succession, he excused himself from the queue at the coffee shop. Reaching out for Nicole's arm with an apologetic look on his face, he handed her his wallet, then ducked into a quieter space down the hall. It was extremely early in the morning, and though it seemed like the airport terminal should have been deserted, there were plenty of people walking around. The phone was still buzzing in his hand, and as he lifted it to his ear, sliding his thumb across the lock screen, he kept an eye on Nicole through the glass storefront.

"Hello?" he said, his voice rough, detached, and a little bit irritated. He was sure that whoever was calling had to have the wrong number.

"Ezra?"

From the other side of the glass, Ezra watched Nicole turn in search for him; she was almost to the counter, but it didn't look like she wanted to continue to stand in line alone. He raised a hand to her and she nodded back, still hesitant.

"Yes," Ezra said, his attitude changing just slightly. The voice was familiar, but paired with the unknown number, he was having trouble placing it. "Who is this?"

"It's Byron Montgomery."

Ezra tore his gaze away from Nicole and turned his back on the window. "I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't recognize the number. Is everything all right?" His heart started to beat a little faster.

"I'm calling from a coffee shop because service is spotty; Ella and I are in Vancouver for the weekend. Listen, Ezra, Veronica Hastings called about ten minutes ago and left a message. Spencer was admitted to Rosewood Community Hospital late last night…"

Ezra's heart stopped cold. He was listening, but he wasn't hearing a word of what was being said.

Slowly, he began to sink down the glass window, his back dragging the whole way until his knees were at his chest, one hand covering his mouth.

"We've been trying Aria's phone for the past hour but we haven't heard from her...we were hoping she was with you, or that you had heard from her recently, or…" Byron's voice grew quiet on the other end of the phone and Ezra shut his eyes, bracing himself. Byron cleared his throat and Ezra knew he was having trouble keeping the concern out of his voice. "Is it possible that she listed you as her emergency contact? Have you heard from her? We haven't talked to her in the past few days, and she said she was staying with you... we're just worried."

There was a pause that should have been filled with Ezra speaking, but instead was filled with a woman's voice from the intercom overhead, calling for the passengers of a departing flight.

"Are you home?"

Ezra's brain was telling him to respond, but nothing was coming out. His throat was dry and his lips suddenly felt like sandpaper. All the blood that had been rushing through his veins was now getting blocked in his brow, between his eyes. He could feel the weight there, and he could feel his heart slowly breaking.

"I'm not," he said quietly. "I'm at the airport in Philadelphia. Do you know…is everything okay?"

A pair of feet appeared before him and he looked up to find Nicole staring down, a confused expression on her face. He hadn't noticed that there were tears brimming in his eyes until he was having to look through them.

"What's wrong?" she mouthed.

Ezra didn't respond and instead looked away, trying to focus on something else.

"Oh," Byron said.

If Ezra's heart wasn't shattered at the thought of Aria being hurt or in trouble, the tone of her father's voice at hearing that his daughter's soon-to-be husband was miles away when the state of her well-being was in jeopardy certainly did it.

"I'm sorry; I didn't know you were headed out of town. I'll try to reach Veronica or Peter to see if they have an update. No one seems to want to answer their phone this morning. We'll let you know if we hear anything. Can I trust that you'll do the same for us?"

"Of course," Ezra stammered. "I-"

"Thank you."

"Byron, wait," Ezra said, trying to keep the other man on the phone long enough to tell him that he wasn't on his way out...he was just getting back.

He was met with a soft silence and two little beeps that signaled the call had ended. Ezra let the phone fall from his ear and his arm fell slack at his side. He was now completely seated on the ground, his back pressed firmly against the window, one knee still bent in front of him, the other leg sticking out into the traffic of passersby.

He wanted to call Byron back and ask if they'd heard from the other girls, if Spencer was okay, if there had been any suspicious activity in town lately...but if they were in Vancouver, they probably didn't know much more than he did.

He also couldn't stop his mind from racing long enough to tell his fingers to redial, and though all other points were true, this was perhaps the biggest reason he didn't call Byron back.

"What's wrong?" Nicole asked again, crouching down so that she was at eye level.

"Aria might be in the hospital," he said. His eyes were trained on the wall across from him. He was trying to process what this meant. He let his eyes fall to Nicole and tried to read her face. She was either being very understanding or didn't realize the weight Aria's name carried as it fell from his lips.

He held up his phone, as if that said enough.

"That was her dad, and…he thinks her best friend was taken to the hospital last night, but no one can reach her. I've been so distant and distracted lately that I've hardly even tried to check in or keep up with what's been going on at home..."

"Ezra, stop," Nicole said, easing herself down next to him. "I'm sure she's just fine, and I'm sure her parents will get a hold of her soon and if something is wrong, they'll be there." She reached a hand out and gave his upper arm a squeeze. "I'm sure she's fine. You don't need to worry about it."

There is an awkward, palpable silence between them as they both tried to wrap their minds around the situation, both of them under a slightly different understanding. Ezra felt sick to his stomach, for multiple reasons.

The irony of the situation was almost painful.

"Her parents aren't home," he said, only halfway paying attention to the woman in front of him and the words that were coming out of his mouth.

Nicole gave him a funny look, this time realizing that there was something else he wasn't saying. She tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together, but was coming up short.

"What was I thinking?" he said to himself. He rest his head in his hands, both his palms cupping his forehead. "I shouldn't have left the country."

What he thought, but didn't say out loud was this: What had he been thinking leaving Aria at home, alone, with a murderer wandering about. What had he been thinking, not mentioning to Nicole, first thing, the fact that he'd moved on? That he was engaged… How had he expected things to play out?

His palms started to grow clammy as he thought of all the countless things that could be keeping Aria from answering her phone - all the things "A" could be doing to her at this very minute.

He reminded himself that this most likely wasn't like the last time. Best case scenario, she was at the hospital too.

Best case scenario.

The only thing that gave him an ounce of comfort was knowing that neither Byron or Ella had received a call from the hospital. Or the Rosewood Police Department for that matter.

With that in mind, he quickly flipped through his phone until he found his missed calls. They were all from the same number - the one that had ended up being Byron.

Nicole reached a hand out and let it sit on his shoulder. It wasn't there for five seconds before he was pushing himself up, forcing himself to move from the ground.

"I need to make a call," he said.

Stepping a few feet away from Nicole, he started to dial Aria's number. As he lifted his phone to his ear, listening to the ring back, a million thoughts started to tumble around inside his head.

He had been a witness to the tragedies that followed Aria and her friends for years. Not even a week ago, she had confided in him the fact that someone was stalking them again, that a man had died...at her hands no less, in one way or another. For Christ's sake, the whole reason she'd come back to Rosewood in the first place was to testify that no, she did not feel safe, not even after all the years that had passed.

He had been selfish in pushing her away and in the wake of that selfishness, the woman he was engaged to marry may have been left in harm's way.

After no answer, his call finally clicked over to voicemail.

"Hi, you've reached Aria Montgomery. Leave your name and number after the beep and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

Ezra's heart dropped to the pit of his stomach once more. Immediately, he ended the call, pulled the phone away from his ear and dialed her number again.

"Pick up, pick up, come on, Aria," he mumbled into the receiver as he listened to the ring back once more. Her voicemail clicked over again. "Fuck," he said. He brought his hand up to his mouth again and waited through her greeting before finally hearing the beep and gathering himself enough to speak. "Aria, it's me. If you get this, please call me back. I'm leaving the airport now and I should be home in an hour. Just…call me back."

He brought the phone down and ended the call, closing his eyes and trying to force all the possible reasons she wasn't picking up out of his head. He hardly remembered Nicole was standing behind him until he turned around and was face to face with her. Concern and confusion were written from her brow to her lip, and the truth hit Ezra in the gut – there was still so much he hadn't told her.

"Ezra, what's going on?" she asked. The lilt that came through her accent made her sound so naive that Ezra thought, just for a moment, maybe it was possible to avoid the confrontation all together.

But no.

He knew better than to think she wasn't putting things together on her own. And he knew better than to think that it was fair to keep in the dark after all that she'd been through.

She knew who Aria was, she wasn't stupid. Aria's shadow had always been hovering in the background of their relationship, and in her heart, Nicole had to know that some part of Ezra was always going to compare the two - regardless of whether or not he meant to.

It came as no surprise when she let her eyes blink slowly and looked away, past Ezra. Then slowly, she said, "you still love her, don't you," and it wasn't a question.

"Nicole—"

"Don't," she said, stopping him. "Don't tell me what you think I want to hear, or what you think I need to hear. Just tell me the truth."

"I'm not going to lie to you," he said, a bit offended. His tone was harsher than he meant it to be as fear took the shape of anger. "I am so glad that you're alive, and safe, and so thankful that I was able to be here for you..."

"Then why do I get the feeling you're not being honest?"

Her words caught him off guard, but he'd also been thankful that she hadn't been oblivious to his hesitance.

"There are a lot of ways I could say this," he started, his brow furrowing, highlighting the age lines that had carved their mark since she last saw him. "None of them are easy…and I'm afraid that any way I put it, it's going to sting." He paused before continuing, but only enough to make sure that what he was saying next was clear. "I never stopped loving Aria, and that wasn't clear to me until I was searching for you…" he could tell that the way this was starting to spill out was wrong. The words he'd been about to say were true, but they weren't kind or considerate of Nicole's feelings and she...she deserved more than that. She did.

He took a deep breath, planning to start again, but she cut him off. Her voice was gentle and there was nothing but love in her eyes, albeit a shred of sadness lurked behind them.

"You don't have to go on. In fact, I'd prefer if you didn't. I can't compete with her, Ezra," she said, shrugging her shoulders in defeat before stuffing her hands in her back pockets. "It's nothing new," she added, as if this was somehow supposed to help. "This was our problem from the start."

"Don't," he said, "don't do this. I feel awful, okay?"

"I'm not trying to make you feel bad," she said simply. "I'm trying to set you free. You've done more than enough. Go on, be happy. Live a life without the guilt of leaving me behind, and for heaven's sake, don't send her off this time."

In the time they'd been standing outside the coffee shop, a flight had unloaded and the hall had grown more crowded. Men and women were weaving around them, giving them curious looks as they entered the coffee shop, every so often attempting to catch a bit of what they were saying.

Ezra looked around them. "I can't leave you like this," he said, even though only half of his heart was in it.

"But you can. I'll be fine, I promise. My parents are anxious to see me anyway," she started to laugh, and seeing a smile on her face gave Ezra the assurance he needed to know that she would be okay. "When I told them last night that I wasn't coming straight home, they were politely put out. They'll be very happy to know that plans have changed."

"I'm sorry," Ezra offered.

"Don't be," she said, shaking her head. She watched him for a moment and in the ten seconds of silence that sat between them, she saw him check his phone, as if a call could have somehow come in unnoticed. "I'm going to go out on a limb here," she said, trying to break the tension, but also trying her hardest to do him a favor. "You're not getting any younger – those grey hairs don't do you any favors. Skip all the boring stuff, go find her, make sure she's safe, and dear god, ask her to marry you already."

Ezra's breath caught in his chest.

"I'll let you buy me a ticket to New York if you don't mind…I'm kind of broke at the moment," she added.

"I," he closed his mouth then opened it again, trying to think of something to say.

Telling her that he and Aria were already engaged wouldn't do any good now. Then and Now would be out soon enough and he was sure Nicole would see it - and even if she chose not to read it, which he wouldn't blame her for in the slightest - he knew that she was smart enough to put two and two together. He could say something, but he didn't need to. And so he didn't.

"I can do that," he said.

It wasn't more than two hours before he was pulling into a spot outside Rosewood Community Hospital, throwing the car in park and whipping his seat belt off at the same time. He was going as fast as he could, but it didn't seem fast enough. He had tried Aria's phone every ten minutes for the entire drive home, calling Emily every so often as well, and wishing that he'd thought at some point during the past seven years to ask for Hanna or Ali's number.

As he pushed through the door it occurred to him that he was literally at an emergency room at the crack of dawn, desperately in search of his fiancée because he hadn't talked to her in days and no one else had been able to get a hold of her. He felt sick to his stomach as he remembered the way he'd treated her right before he left for Colombia. He remembered the fact that she exchanged their tickets to Tuscany for his flight…and what made him more sick was that he remembered how he had hardly spared a single thought for her since that flight took off.

How had he fallen so far so quickly?

The scent of the hospital was strong on his nose and it was enough to make him feel weak in the knees. He scanned the room for Aria's face – or anyone's face, honestly. He would have been happy to see Alison at this point. As long as someone could tell him that everything was fine. Everything was alright.

As he approached the front desk, he tried to gain a handle on his nerves.

"Hi," he said to the woman at the counter. "I'm looking for Aria Montgomery; has anyone by that name been admitted tonight? Small brunette...short hair, uh, hazel eyes..." His voice was shaking, his hands were shaking, his knees felt like they might buckle under the weight of his own body.

It only took the woman a few seconds to look over her records and say, "no, I'm sorry, there's no one by that name listed here. Is everything alright?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Ezra said, feeling defeated. "What about a Spencer Hastings?"

He knew for a fact that Spencer was there. That would be a better start than he had at this point.

The woman gave him a quizzical look before nodding her head to her records again, this time coming up with a bit more than an apology.

"It looks like Ms. Hastings has been admitted; she's down the hall in room C117."

"Am I able to go back there? Do you know if anyone's with her?"

"I'm not sure if she has anyone with her at the moment; you're welcome to go back and see."

Ezra nodded his head and thanked the woman before heading down the hall in the direction she had pointed. His feet moved quickly, and he was thankful that his panic was starting to fade – not entirely, but just enough to give him a sense of ease. A hope that if she hadn't been admitted along with Spencer, maybe she was okay.

He reached the end of the hallway and went to follow the numbers around the corner, but before he could even focus on the room numbers, he heard Emily's voice.

"When are we going to be able to see her?"

"She's just been brought back from intensive surgery, honey, she's resting. You're welcome to wait, but she doesn't need to be woken up right now."

"Thank you," someone else said.

Ezra turned the corner, his face a mess with the worry of a day that had barely started – or perhaps a day that had yet to end. There, on the floor, with her head between her knees, shaking and rocking back and forth was a small woman – a woman he would recognize anywhere.

"Oh, thank god," he said, relief rushing out of him like water bursting forth from a dam.

Aria's head snapped up; her face was covered in dried tears, her makeup a mess, her hair sticking out at odd angles. It was clear that she had been through something and Ezra hated that he had no idea what it was. He was sure that if he were to look around at the other girls, they wouldn't look any better.

"Ezra?" she said. She didn't move right away – she couldn't believe that he was actually standing in front of her. "Oh, god, Ezra," she said, desperate. She leaned forward and pushed herself up and off the floor.

They fell together and everything around them seemed to fall away.

"I've been trying to reach you all morning. Your dad called me...are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said into his shoulder.

He smelled so strongly that she couldn't stop the tears as they pooled over onto her cheeks, making new trails.

"I'm so sorry I left," he said into her hair.

She took in a deep breath and leaned back. "I don't care anymore," she said, shaking her head. "I'm just glad you're here. I'm so glad you're here. All I keep thinking is that she could have died. I can't - I can't live like this," she said, a sob caught somewhere in her throat.

She let her forehead fall forward into his chest and it was then that he pulled her in with the intent of never letting go. It was then that things were finally put into perspective. As he breathed in the heat coming off her body and memorized rise and fall of her chest as she cried, he resolved that she was always who he had intended to spend the rest of his life with.

It was always her, and he should have known that.

AN: So for some reason I am not crazy about this. I sat on it for over a month trying to work with it to make something that I felt comfortable posting, and even now, I'm reluctant to let you all read it Lol It was a request/suggestion from Tumblr and I thought it would be neat to explore Ezra's perspective of this situation...but I don't know that I really like it. Either way, here it is. I considered only posting to Tumblr, but I know some people who follow me here don't follow me there, so I'm sharing... maybe one of you will find something in it that you like.