Rosewood, Pennsylvania - Tuesday

[new_it_girl]

Hanna spent much of the day at a hospital near Rosewood. It wasn't because she was sick or hurt. She was there for moral support.


Spencer's boyfriend Toby was in a freak accident involving scaffolding. Hanna dropped everything to be there for her friend. Not even distractions like sex pollen or whatever was enough to prevent her from going.

Of course, it wasn't an accident at all. 'A' was involved somehow. That's what Spencer told her. Toby was lucky he only suffered a broken leg and a concussion, but Spencer was freaked out enough to want to completely breakup with him. Just to protect him. Spencer also filled her in on other 'A' things, including a video Caleb found on 'A's phone, one he was still trying to open. That made Hanna a little uneasy. She wanted to protect Caleb from 'A' just as much as Spencer wanted to protect Toby.

This was all so messed up. 'A' was totally ruining Valentine's Day. That bitch.

Hanna returned home hours later for dinner with her mom. Only her mom was stuck at work late. When Caleb showed up unexpectedly, that made up for it. At least she wouldn't be alone for a few hours.

He handed her a bag from the cupcake place in town.

"Aww, you got me..." Hanna looked in the bag. ".. a slice of pie?"

Caleb shrugged sheepishly. "It's all they had at the last minute on Valentine's Day. To be fair, I didn't know you were going to be in town."

Hanna smiled and grabbed two forks. "We'll just have to share."

"I'm all for sharing," he replied, smirking. "But I kind of want you to myself. At least right now."

Which only made her feel a little guilty about her, uh, activities over the weekend.

But it's not like she and Caleb were together or anything. She couldn't really define what they were. On-again-off-again was the best she could call it. Neither was completely ready to cut the other out of their lives. Though maybe Spencer was right. Maybe it was all they could do to protect the people they loved.

For now, Hanna was sharing pie with a boy she really cared about. It went well until she brought up the video he'd been working on.

"I've seen some of it, but it's not complete. I'm still working on it," Caleb explained, producing the flashdrive. "Everything I've been working on so far is on there. Whatever this is, it has Garrett spooked. He knows something's up. He was watching me working on it and..."

Hanna heard enough. Without even thinking it through first, she snatched the flashdrive from his hand and tossed it into the blender. When she turned it on, the flashdrive was in pieces and the blender was broken.

"Hanna, what are you doing? I've been working on that for weeks!" Caleb exclaimed.

"This is dangerous! You shouldn't even know about this," Hanna said frantically. "I'm trying to protect you."

"I can take care of myself," he retorted, standing up.

"Oh come on, you don't have to go," Hanna said, nearly pleading with him not to.

"I'm not doing this right now, Hanna," Caleb replied, his voice calm, yet still angry. "You should go back to school."

With that, he walked out the door, leaving Hanna alone with the broken blender to remind her of what she had done.

She left her mom a note letting her know she went back to Fandom earlier than planned and that she'd pay for a new blender. She couldn't stay here for much longer or she'd cry. She was too stubborn to do that right here where 'A' was probably watching.

She had a portal to catch...and sulking in her room later. Also, there was frustration because she could have gotten some tonight. Stupid 'A.'

[minor canon catch up, though tweaked a bit as usual; NFB, NFI...]