Sugar & Spice

23|after the storm

To distract herself from the trial Aria had decided to dive right back into the craziness at Hudson University, meaning the Laura Patterson situation. A lot had happened since Aria had last involved herself; Leo and Michael had found the guy in the photograph taken at Laura's apartment. After searching through Facebook Michael had come upon a profile that looked strikingly similar to the guy in the photo and eventually they had their assumptions confirmed. While on the phone with Michael he was recounting how he'd confronted the guy about the picture and apparently things had gone worse than they had first accounted for.

"The guy's name is Declan Hall and he had no idea that the photo had been taken. When I spoke to him about going to the police he looked terrified and told me that he'd pay me a healthy sum of money to get rid of the photo - I assured him that we weren't going to feature it in the article if he didn't want us to, which he said he didn't want. I feel like I made his life worse by telling him, than if he hadn't known." Michael told Aria and sounded upset.

"I'm sorry things didn't go as planned but I'm trying to see it from his side. It must be quite the shock to not know that you have been taken advantage of, he needs to come to terms with that before he thinks of anything else." 

"Did you come to terms with almost having been taken advantage of?" Michael asked her.

"A part of me is still trying to accept what almost happened to me. There are times when I'm wondering if I've made too big of a fuss about what Brody did, but then I live with those nightmares and fears every day and I get angry all over again. So I guess I'm still processing." Aria answered. 

She knew what he was thinking about, he was wondering if he feared the same purgatory as other survivors. It's an in between place where you're learning to accept what happened to you while also trying to deny it. Aria was still in that place but felt that after this trial she could have the chance to move on to a better place, one where she actually has come to terms with this. 

"Leo thinks that we should continue pressuring him to let us use his picture and give him the chance to comment about what has happened to him, but I'm not sure. What do you think?" Michael asked her.

"I'm torn, actually. Being able to use his picture might help to bring Laura to justice but I'm worried about how he'd take it. We have tried to prepare you for this circus but everyone can't handle it. Do you think he's one of the people who can handle all of this craziness?" 

Michael sighed, "I don't think so. I think we should get the article out there as soon as possible and file a police report with the evidence that we've already gathered - minus the picture." 

For a while they stayed on the phone without saying anything of importance, just casually talking for a little while. Aria could tell he was purposely not asking her about the trial despite him alluding to wanting to talk about it so eventually she decided to bring it up herself.

"I know you are skirting around the trial so I'll just tell you how things are going," Aria chuckled when she heard Michael's apologetic mumble on the other end, "I testified yesterday and I'm not sure how it went but Brody testified as well and he totally tanked it. He was confronted with the audio that I had of him and it definitely knocked the cockiness out of him." 

"So, what do you think the verdict will be? Or is that a bad question to ask, perhaps?" Michael asked.

Aria shrugged and gave it some thought. It was smug of her to think that she had this in the bag but the defeated look in Brody's eyes made her believe that the odds of winning looked pretty good. Although Rebecca and Jane still hadn't gotten their justice served yet and Aria's trial was only one out of three, considering their cases were filed separately.