She couldn't stop her hands from trembling. They shook and shook and she clenched them into fists, banging them against her thighs and holding them there. She shuffled from foot to foot, waiting, desperate, half-delirious from lack of sleep. The door opened and immediately, Spencer regretted her decision to show up on Emily's doorstep.

Because, fuck, Paige was standing there, concern drawing deep lines in her face. She wore only a baggy t-shirt and basketball shorts and there was a noticeable sheen of sweat still clinging to her skin. Spencer felt her insides twist. "Hey." Her voice was even more unsteady than her hands.

"Is everything okay?" Damn Paige McCullers. Always so fucking considerate.

Spencer's instinct was to shut her best friend's girlfriend out. She was used to being tight in her circle with Em and Hanna and Aria. Still, there probably wasn't much Emily hadn't let Paige in on at this point. "No. Is Emily here?"

"Yeah. She's upstairs. Come in."

"I'm…I'm sorry if I'm…interrupting something." Spencer said as she practically fell onto the couch, her eyes flitting toward the stairs, willing Emily to appear so she could get this over with.

"It's okay." Paige offered with that awful sincerity in her voice once again. "Em got your S.O.S a little while ago. Are Hanna and Aria on their way?"

"No." A tightness squeezed Spencer's chest. The reason she was here fluttered through her brain and her lungs seized. "I can't…I can't tell Aria yet. Not until I'm sure."

Paige settled into the spot beside her; it was a little too close for Spencer's liking, but it was just who Paige was. Determined to comfort and protect the people around her. "Spence." Spencer shut her eyes at the sound of the nickname, that awful tightness only worsening the longer Emily took to show up. "What's going on?"

They locked eyes and if Spencer didn't know any better, she'd say that something passed between them. Comradery, maybe. Or understanding. Whatever it was, it lifted a weight from Spencer, even if it was only for a second or two.

"Spencer." Emily's voice broke them apart and suddenly, her best friend was in front of her, making everything come flooding back. The crush of responsibility nearly broke Spencer in half.

"Em, something awful has happened and I…"

Emily kneeled in front of her, a gentle hand coming to rest over one of Spencer's. "What is it? What happened?"

Spencer swallowed hard. Her gaze shifted from Emily to Paige and back again before she finally found her courage. "Ezra is A."