Sugar & Spice

09|selfish

Back at Hudson a lot had apparently happened and despite the team wanting to act they had decided to wait until Monday morning and make a plan together. The urgency of Leo's group email had led Aria to wait to reveal Bobby's letters, to Jane. She had read them all yesterday night and for each one she had shivered. In the letters she had recognized the Bobby Townsend that she had known, in what felt like forever ago, and he expressed profound remorse. Aria discovered that she wasn't the only one living with nightmares almost every night and the horrors that Bobby had witnessed Brody do, had an effect on him too.  She wasn't sure what Jane and Rebecca would think of what the letters contained but she hoped they would be on her side when it came to visiting Bobby, because Aria had already accepted. 

Peyton and Leo were eagerly waiting for them all as each of them made their way into the news room. The eagerness from the two of them already revealed the monstrosity of their news, and despite being curious Aria was also a little concerned.

"Thank you all for coming, I know some of you skipped class," Peyton said and looked at Keith and Michael, "when I called the Correctional Facility they weren't very helpful about verifying Laura, something sounded a little sketchy, but I did some research and was able to find information on two people that were at the Correctional Facility when Laura was working there." 

"Really? Is that even public record?" Jane asked perplexed but intrigued. 

"Back then, no, but now the boys are eighteen years old and each of them have made headlines after their stay at the Correctional Facility, and in those articles the facility are mentioned." Peyton explained.

"Wow, thank God for their criminal ways I suppose," Keith said but choked on his laughter when he noticed the tone of the room, "have you contacted them?" 

"I have contacted them and am waiting for an answer back, hopefully one of them will bite. I explained very vaguely what it was about. But all of this has to mean that Laura must've paid someone off or threatened them enough to scare them into silence." Peyton explained.

"So, what are our next steps? We have to do something with all this information eventually." Aria asked.

"The sooner we have that video, the better. We can continue gathering evidence until the end of time but with the video in our possession she's as good as toast." Leo said and gave Aria a suggestive look.

"If Aria is going to get that video she needs to work on their relationship a little more. We need to find a reason for Laura to want to invite Aria over to her place - it has to be something concrete." 

Aria had wanted to wait to talk about the letters but with few things more concrete than those she decided to announce it to everyone. 

"I think I have something concrete to talk about," Aria said and sighed, "I was going to tell Jane this privately at first--Bobby Townsend has been sending me letters from jail that are quite detailed and upsetting." 

Jane's eyes widened to the point of popping out her pulse was nearly visible. It wasn't odd that the other's kept silent and stared down because they didn't know Bobby Townsend the way Aria and Jane did. When it came to Jane and Aria's past the rest of the team were only an audience that had seen it all play out from afar.

"Are you kidding me?! Aria, it's not okay for him to do that! When were you going to tell me this?" Jane was shaking and Aria immediately regretted not waiting to bring it up in private.

"I wanted to wait until we were alone but since we were looking for something concrete I thought I'd offer up something. I'm sorry for not telling you in private, Jane." 

"She did it for the better of the group, Jane. Stop being so selfish!" Peyton hissed.

The look in Jane's eyes went from shock to pure anger and to Aria she was well within her rights. For Peyton to insert her opinion now was inappropriate but mostly infuriating and Aria couldn't believe what she was hearing. The journey Jane had made from the night she was brutally raped had been a remarkable one and for that so be diminished to one word, selfish, had been the straw that had broken the camel's back.