Nightmare of a Hero
Toby jolted awake covered in cold sweat. His body heaved violently as if somebody had held him down and choked him until he was an inch away from death. He reached around him for the only sense of comfort he needed but was met with emptiness. Feeling nothing caused a new form of panic. She wasn't there. She wasn't in bed with him. If she wasn't in bed with him, where was she? He needed her. The door to their bedroom was opened slightly causing a crack of light to stream in. He pushed the covers off of him and stumbled out of bed. His throat felt dry. The moisture in his eyes blurred his vision. He entered the living room of the barn and let out a breath of relief when he saw her.
There she was. Sitting alone at the kitchen table with an open bottle of wine and a half empty glass. She sat slouched over on a stole with her hand resting on the palm of her hand. She used her free hand to scroll around on her iPad, occasionally taking a sip of her wine. His heart burned for her. He walked to the kitchen to get to her. It was the creak of the floorboards that alerted her of his presence. She looked up from the screen and turned her head around.
"Hey," she said, smiling softly. When he said nothing, her smile turned sympathetic and so did her tone.
"Can't sleep?"
Toby shook his head and sat down on a stole next to her.
"Yeah," she snickered, reaching for the wine bottle to refill her glass. "Me neither."
It was then when Toby realized how late it was. It's after 2AM and here they are. This is silly. Everyone else seemed to get along just fine after all the trauma they all went through. The other girls attend therapy sessions twice a month and all seem to be doing fine. Alison still has nightmares about being buried alive and Elliot, but she manages to power through it for the sake of her kids. Aria, Emily, and even Hanna have seemed to move on from having nightmares every night. They come every now and then but it's nothing too severe. They all went through the same thing And yet, here Spencer and Toby are.
"Which dream did you have this time?" She asked, knowing all too well that that was why he was out here.
He shrugged, "I don't really remember now."
She gave him a look, "yeah you do. Look, I know that talking about it is hard but some people think talking can also help."
All of a sudden, Toby turned and collapsed into her. As if her arms had a mind of their own, she wrapped them around him. In seconds, her shirt was damp with his tears. She cradled his head and kept rubbing his back.
"I'm sorry," he whispered after he controlled himself enough to look at her.
"You don't have to apologize. Don't forget, you've dealt with a lot of my many breakdowns."
"No, that's not all I'm apologizing for," he said.
"Toby, you have nothing to be sorry for."
"If I'd just realized sooner that she was your twin…"
"Toby," Spencer said sternly. "We've been over this. You did nothing wrong okay. She took advantage of you. She could've done it to anybody but she did it to you just to hurt me."
"How could I not know it wasn't you? I know you. I love you. I should've known. I mean, I'm supposed to know you better than I know anyone."
"You have got to stop blaming yourself. The only person to blame is that crazy bitch. It just makes me sick that someone could ever do that to a person. To use someone for their own special gain. But right now, Alex is getting what she deserves. She's long gone. She can't hurt you or me or anyone anymore." Spencer ran her hand through his hair.
"She's never going to hurt you again. I promise. I'm not going to let it happen. Either of them."
Toby leaned his head against hers. When his eyes met hers, they flooded with tears again. Spencer put her hand on his face and wiped his tears away with her thumb.
"The dream I had wasn't about… Her. it was about you."
"Me?" She looked confused. "What about me?"
"Well, actually it was about you, me, and her but it was mostly you. In the dream, the girls and I were rushing to save you like we did."
"Okay," Spencer said.
He continued, "only this time, I didn't make it." The tears started to fall again. "I swear I tried so hard to save you but I wasn't fast enough. By the time I got there to save you, you were dead. I'm so sorry, Spencer. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you."
He bowed his head and she caught him, "hey, hey." She brought his head back up to meet her eyes. "You did save me. You did make it. I am here. I am alive."
She wiped his tears, " I'm alive because of you. You were the only one who was able to tell the difference between me and Alex. You helped everyone realize that I wasn't there. You saved me down there."
Toby reached out to her and touched her cheek, "you're the toughest woman I've ever met. You seem to do a pretty good job at saving yourself. I mean, you picked the lock with just a bobby pin."
Spencer tilted her head and smiled, "yeah but sometimes even the greatest heroes need to be saved. I don't mind having my own prince charming around. Especially when it's you."
"Good," he smiled for the first time that night. "I like being the one to save you."
Her hands moved up his back and her arms circled around his neck, "it's best to like something you're good at."
"I love you," he said.
"I love you too."
Toby tucked her hair behind her ear, leaned in real close, and kissed her. She responded instantly to his kiss. Her arms wrapped tighter around his neck and Toby's hands grazed through her hair, down to her back. When air became necessary, they broke apart long enough to catch their breath. Their eyes met as the intensity between them continued to rise.
"Just out of curiosity," Toby asked. "What else am I good at?"
"You're good at a lot of things like making me smile even when I've been having a bad day. You're good at making me laugh like no one else. You're good at making coffee the way I like it. And um," she tugged on the collar of his shirt and her voice got really low. "You're pretty good in the bedroom."
His lip curled up into a tight smirk and he raised an eyebrow, "really? I'm pretty good in the bedroom?"
"Well," her arms found their way back around his shoulders. "I wouldn't just say you're pretty good, I'd say you're pretty amazing. If you know what I mean."
He smiled, "oh, I know what you mean. I agree I am pretty amazing at scrabble."
Spencer laughed and playfully swatted him on the chest, "Toby."
He laughed too and stood up from his chair. He held her hand and gestured back to the bed.
"Should we try sleeping again?"
She smiled a wicked smile, "you know I don't think I'll be getting to sleep anytime soon. I'm not that tired right now. Are you?"
He shrugged, "not really."
She played with his fingers and twirled her hair flirtatiously, "do you want to go do more amazing things in the bedroom? And I don't mean scrabble."
Toby's eyes grew. If he wasn't aroused before, he is now. Instead of saying anything, Toby surprised Spencer when he scooped her up in his arms causing her to shriek with excitement. He pressed a short, but passionate kiss on her lips then they were off to the bedroom filling the whole barn with the sounds of their insane laughter and sounds of pleasure.
Hey, so I decided to try doing a series of one-shots of future Spoby. Basically, all of these will take place sometime after the PLL finale. They may not be in order but they all will be set after everything that happened after the time-jump. It's like a mini-series but not a story. Hope you liked the first shot. Let me know if I should write more. Bye!