So guys, this is, at last, my sequel to Even Angels Fall, it's a future fic so it doesn't continue straight on where I left off, but, never fear, all loose ends left in the latter of the saga will be tied up in due time, as always, it's going to be dramatic and heavily Spemily- because, lets face it, they belong together.
Disclaimer: Yeah yeah, you know the drill, it's not my show.
Five Years Later
Spencer POV
Hanna Marin sat in front of me, staring at me in awe. It had been a long time since it was just the two of us, too long. Actually, looking back, it's close to three years. She'd come to visit me at Princeton during my freshman year while she took a break from her classes. We'd both come a long way since then. But we hadn't outgrown each other's company it seemed; Hanna now co-owned her own jewelry and clothing brand, designed by herself and, the now incredibly successful, Aria Montgomery. I smiled when I thought about how perfect that was- and how sweet that they'd gone into business together. On top of that, Aria had published her first bestseller, a thriller that had rocked the fiction world. Emily was training for the 2020 Olympics, now twenty one and still in perfect shape, and captain of her team.
I smiled and looked down at the beautiful baby girl in my arms- my beautiful baby girl.
Hanna looked at me as I held her and smiled back,
"It's uncanny how much she looks like her," She laughed, aware that biologically my wife was no influence over her.
"That's because we used a donor who could have been her twin," I winked, she raised her eyebrows,
"And she let you? I thought that she would say that it should be random, and she'd be happy whatever the baby looked like. Or that she wanted a mini you."
"Actually, that's almost exactly what she said." I laughed, she looked at me quizzically, "What?" I said, raising my eyebrows, "My uterus, and my rules." Hanna burst out laughing and set her gaze on my daughter,
"Can I hold her?" she asked, I smiled and nodded and passed her carefully to her godmother, "Ah!" she exclaimed, "She's so real!"
"Really?" I asked, sarcasm dripping from my voice, "I could have sworn I gave birth to a doll…" she glared at me.
"Oh come on, you know what I mean!" she squealed. It was the first chance Hanna had gotten to meet her niece properly, except from in the hospital due to her premature birth. "She's so tiny," she whispered, brushing her finger across my baby's smooth cheek,
"Well, she is only two days old." I looked at Hanna incredulously, "Seriously Han, when you speak, do you hear yourself or is it just a big roaring in your ears?" I asked her, she rolled her eyes and smiled,
"So, have you guys decided on a name? Cause I can't keep calling her Spemily or baby girl or baby Hastings..." she trailed off,
"First, do not call our daughter by our couple name. It's way too creepy. And second, yes, but we're telling you and Aria together at dinner tonight." Hanna squealed again,
"You hear that baby genius girl?" she whispered to the sleeping baby in her arms, tickling her tummy with one finger, "You're going to have a name!" I laughed at how taken Hanna was with my daughter,
"Han, she already has a name. You just don't know it yet." I corrected her, she frowned at me.
"Just tell me and I'll act surprised, I promise." I shook my head,
"Sorry, baby girl genius will have to do until tonight."
Aria POV
"Hey," I called, walking into the sports center towards Emily, she smiled at me and hugged me tight, "God, look at you, you're glowing! I swear only pregnant women are supposed to get that?" I teased; she shook her head and couldn't help but grin.
"Just women who are incredibly in love with life." She smiled,
"Yeah, you have every reason to be." I smiled back, "You're an Olympic swimmer, and you're rich as hell, happily married with a beautiful, beautiful daughter. You really do have it all don't you?" Her eyes sparkled, and looked me up and down.
"What's up with you?" she giggled suspiciously.
"Nothing, I don't know what you mean." I laughed, feigning innocence,
"Come on, tell me!" she pleaded, "Aria, all I have done for the past two days is listen to my daughter scream and my wife complain about stretch marks, even though she's already back to a size two." Emily whined. I rolled my eyes,
"Don't pretend that you're not loving every second of it." I scolded and she grinned again,
"I do, but my point is that I need gossip. I need the outside world." I laughed at how much Emily had grown in confidence since we met, college had certainly been good for her, and she was now sounding scarily like Hanna.
"Alright, alright. I was going to say this at dinner tonight, but I…" I started, Emily's eyes were wide with anticipation, "Sorry, I just can't, I can't tell you first." I got in the car and Emily slid into the passenger seat next to me. We blasted music the whole ride home, with Emily stopping every few seconds to guess my news. We laughed and talked just like we used to right up until we pulled into Emily Hastings' house. I lay back in my seat and sighed contentedly; it was good to be home.
Emily POV
"Hi honey I'm home," I called up the stairs as I entered the hall, Aria rolled her eyes at the cliché but I smiled, after all, there wasn't a lot of stereotypical stuff you could say about Spencer and I. I took off my coat and slung it on the rack next to Aria's.
"Mmh," Spencer moaned happily as I wrapped my arms around her, "I missed you." I grinned at her, meeting her gaze,
"I missed you too," I whispered, placing a quick kiss on her lips, before taking our daughter out of her arms and holding her tight,
"Hey baby," I whispered to her, stroking her tiny amount of hair. Hanna had appeared from upstairs unnoticed until now,
"Oh Aria!" she mocked, throwing herself into Aria's arms and kissing her cheek, "I missed you!" I rolled my eyes as Aria pushed her away, laughing. Somehow, even though our lives had changed so much, something between the four of us had stayed very much the same. We loved each other, supported each other and took care of each other. Because that's just what best friends do.
We'd planned to have a formal, sit down dinner, like the adults we were supposed to be, but instead, the four of us ended up sat on the bedroom floor, sharing an extra large pizza and a gigantic bowl of popcorn. Hanna had, of course, suggested tequila shots (Some things just never change), but Spencer still couldn't drink.
"Okay, truth or dare?" Hanna giggled at me, high on the atmosphere of having a sleepover again for the first time in three years, even if we were twenty one and parents, we were still young.
"Dare!" I squealed, Hanna pressed her lips together and her eyes lit up,
"Kiss Spencer." I couldn't believe what I'd just heard, neither could Aria, apparently.
"Hanna. Do you understand that we just had the opportunity to humiliate Emily into the next world and you asked her to kiss her wife?" she moaned and slumped back dramatically on the floor. I couldn't argue with that. I leant forward and captured Spencer's lips in a sweet and passionate kiss, let my lips linger there. I was suddenly hit by the strongest deja vu I had ever experienced, and apparently it was exactly what Hanna had intended.
"Do you remember that?" She asked me, smiling gently.
We'd just watched as Hanna flashed the neighbor across the street and were still all peeling with laughter.
"Okay," Hanna laughed, pulling her shirt back down and dropping onto the floor of the barn. It was a Saturday night during the summer between junior and senior year in high school. "Emily, truth or dare?" Hanna slurred her words because, as per usual, she had by far had the most to drink. Wishing to avoid any more questions such as: 'What's it like to kiss a girl?', I opted for the lesser of two evils.
"Dare." I said, knocking back another tequila shot. Drinking had gotten to be a far more frequent hobby between the four of us lately, but responsible drinking.
"Kiss Spencer." She ordered, pointing at Spencer as if to clarify who she was. I rolled my eyes at Hanna and shuffled slightly closer to Spencer, pressing my lips to hers gently. I was about to pull away when Spencer cupped the side of my face, deepening the kiss. When we finally broke apart, she caressed my cheek gently before sitting back down and announcing it was Aria's turn now. I was heartbroken at the way she'd dismissed it at first, but all through the night she'd kept sending me surreptitious glances and small smiles across the room.
"That was our first kiss." I whispered to Spencer, she smiled and squeezed my hand, letting me rest against her chest in a way that felt incredibly safe.
"You two were so sweet," Aria reminisced, a sad smile on her face,
"I must point out that the both of you conveniently left out the detail that the Hanna took a body shot off of you that night." Spencer pointed out and Aria and Hanna blushed accordingly.
"Oooooh," Hanna shrieked, "Spemily, truth or dare? Actually, I'm not asking, Spemily…truth!" I laughed but Spencer just stared Hanna down.
"Hanna, we're married, the couple name thing has to stop." She scolded in her mom voice,
"Whatever…so, what is the name of your beautiful baby?" she squealed, I looked at Spencer expectantly, but she shook her head,
"You tell them, Emily." She ushered, I smiled brightly,
"Hanna, Aria, meet your niece, Arianna Alison Hastings." Spencer grinned down at our daughter who was sleeping comfortably in my arms, Hanna's eyes widened and glistened with tears, fixing her gaze upon her niece and reaching out to hold her tiny hand,
"Alison would be so touched, you guys," Aria smiled softly, placing her hand on my shoulder,
"Yeah, she would have loved to have a niece, heck, she'd have spoiled her rotten," I laughed as Aria wiped a tear from the corner of my eye,
"Well, I'll just have to take up that responsibility," Hanna grinned, "Starting with this." she reached into her oversized purse and pulled out a white rectangular box, handing it to Spencer who took it apprehensively.
"It is suitable to open with my daughter in the room, right?" she asked tentatively, Hanna rolled her eyes and shoved Spencer playfully in the ribs,
"Spence, she's an infant, and a sleeping infant at that." She responded quickly, gesturing to Arianna and smiling as she did,
"Yes, but Han, she is Spencer's child so she's probably highly perceptive as it is." Aria quipped,
"Yeah yeah, just open it!" Hanna moaned bouncing slightly on her knees like an excited child;
"Alright alright, calm down Han..." Spencer mumbled, slowly removing the lid and rifling through the tissue paper until her fingers touched the soft fabric that was held inside, "Awh, Hanna...this is gorgeous." she said sincerely, smiling genuinely at our best friend before holding up a tiny, pale pink plaid babygrow with the inscription 'Baby Spemily' engraved on the chest,
"Hanna, it's brilliant." I smiled, lifting Arianna up and motioning her towards our blond best friend, "In fact, would you like to put it on her?" Hanna's face lit up like a child on Christmas morning,
"Really?" she asked astonished,
"Yeah, just be careful, she's not a barbie doll, she's a real person."
"So, how does it feel?" Aria asked me as she helped me carry the almost empty pizza box and the remainder of the bottles downstairs,
"How does what feel?" I asked her absent-mindedly taking the pizza box out of her hands and putting it in the fridge, before preceding to arrange the half empty alcohol bottles on the side,
"All of it, you know? Being a wife, a mother, everything...I mean, you have this whole other life in your hands to take care of and it's just..." I smiled and took a seat next to her at the breakfast bar,
"Honestly, Aria? It feels better than I ever could have dreamed, you know? I love Spencer even more than I did in high school, and you have no idea how many people have told us to be careful, and that people change and love falls apart...but honestly? After all we've been through...I don't think I could ever stop loving her. She's been my rock, my savior, my everything since we were sixteen, we went through some pretty dark times together; but we've made it, and we've come so far."
"I think you're right, I don't think you'll ever stop loving Spence, nor will she ever stop loving you. But that's not really what i was referring to..." she looked at me tentatively, fiddling with her fingers,"How are you coping, Em?" she asked quietly. I looked away and took a deep breath, trying not to bring to the surface the emotions that had stayed hidden for almost five years, "Em, I'm sorry, I shouldn't..." she started but I knew, and so did she, that I needed to talk. She reached out a hand and tilted my chin up and towards her,
"I'm scared, Aria..." I whispered almost inaudibly, "I'm so scared that I'm not going to do it right, or that...that I'll forget about her, or worse, that I won't be able to love Arianna as much as I should because I'm worried about forgetting her. I just can't handle it and I don't know what to do." I closed my eyes and let Aria embrace me tightly, and we sat there, alone in the dark, as I poured out my pain into my best friends chest.
A/N So, for anyone that this confused, especially the last part, the confusion was intended! Although some of you may have been able to work it out, you're not supposed to know who Emily is talking about...so don't worry. Hopefully my next chapter will be up as soon as possible :)
Read and review please
~LaughLoveLiveXx