Title: In The Aftermath
Summary: After Spencer's arrest and Mona's death, the girls realize that the only way to end it all is to jump in headfirst and do the one thing they've been unable to for so long: tell the truth, and hope that something goes right. How hard will it be to deal with the aftermath? Spencer/spoby centric, but includes all main characters/couples.

Author's note: This is a new story that I thought of at work today. This is just a little intro so I can feel out people's reactions. While it will include all of the girls, of course, this will be a Spencer and spoby-centric story. Please let me know your thoughts!

Preface

It was cold, and the air smelled stale and damp. The light was dim, and the chair and table both were unsteady on their feet. She'd been sitting in there for almost forty five minutes, according to the loudly ticking clock on the wall. They'd processed her, taken fingerprints and mugshots and did all of the things she heard her parents talk about all the time. And then they had stuck her in this room, removed the handcuffs that had left uncomfortable marks on her wrists, and left her alone

Spencer knew that they were watching her through the one way window, she knew that they did this all the time. You out the suspect in a room alone and let them sit there, unable to be comfortable. Make them uneasy, more willing to talk. This made it easier to get people to confess to things they didn't do.

She paced. Back and forth across the five by nine feet room, over and over. Her mother would come, one of her friends had called her. Her mother would come blowing in and they'd figure this out. But in the meantime, she paces because she can't sit down.

How had it all come to this? How had one person pulled them all together and then spiraled their lives out of control? Alison was just a person. A seventeen year old high schooler just like Aria, Hanna, Emily and Spencer themselves. But she was a sociopath, something none of them had seen. It all seemed so clear now. She was the smart one, how had she failed to see the signs they'd studied in AP psychology?

Her mind is all over, thinking about the past, about her friends and how they wouldn't leave her alone in this, but also about Toby. Toby, who was pulled into this again because of her. Toby, who had watched from a wheelchair, tried to help her. She wonders where they all are now, if they're ok. She wants to be with him, longs to feel his arms around her, making her feel safe like no one else can.

But the clock on the wall ticks on for another twenty minutes, and so Spencer paces, trying to keep warm and her mind busy. Finally, the door opens and detective Holbrook steps in, standing across from her. Spencer knows the tactics her parents had told her about, and she states back until he gestures to the seat. "Sit." He says it, an order. "Can I get you anything?"

"My mother, who you can't tell me I can't see because I'm a minor and she's lawyer. I have nothing to say to you, not until she gets here," Spencer states, arms crossed over her chest.

"You know spencer, once your mother gets here, it's done. All I want is the truth, the real truth. Maybe we can make a deal," he says.

"I'm the daughter of two of the best lawyers in the state, detective," Spencer says back, looking at him through narrowed eyes. "I didn't do what I've been accused of, and I'm not going to say anything and have you twist it. I want my mother, now."

Holbrook sighs, but turns around, leaving. Left alone, once again, in the small room, Spencer crosses her arms around herself. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't scared. How could she not be? She swallows the lump in her throat, trying not to cry. She's successful for all of a minute, which is when the door opens and her mother blows in. For a moment, her face looks like a lawyer; stern and fierce. But when Veronica sees Spencer standing there, looking so small, her face softens, and she opens her arms, gathering her daughter in them.

"Mom," Spencer cries, breaking down. "Mommy, I didn't, I didn't hurt anyone. It was Ali, it was all Ali," Spencer says, finding the truth coming easier than she thought.

"Shh," Veronica says softly, leaning back. She brushes Spencer's hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. "It's ok, it's going to be ok, Spencer. Your dad is on the phone with a friend of his, a judge. He thinks he can get him to do an emergency arraignment, he owes him, and we'll post bail, get you out of here," She promises.

"But what if they don't set bail, it's a murder charge mom, you've said-" Spencer begins to panic. Jail would be too much like Radley, and she couldn't go back to that place.

"Shh," her mom says again. "Dad said we can volunteer for you to wear a monitor bracelet. We'll surrender your passport, we'll do whatever we have to do, Spencer, ok?"

The look in her mother's eyes tells her she means business, and she knows her parents. For once, she nods, trusting her. Her mom leads her to a chair, sitting her down into it. Rolling her eyes when it shifts, unsteady, she reaches in her briefcase and sticks a file under the uneven leg, and then shrugs out of her jacket, putting it around Spencer's shoulders.

"Toby?" Spencer asks her, "The girls?"

"Everyone's at our house. Toby, the girls, their parents, Caleb, and Paige," Veronica says. "You're father and I, all of us, agree that it's time for us all to sit down and have a talk. They're putting together dinner there, we'll go there after. Toby and the girls wanted to come here, but we convinced them it'd be better to wait there. Toby took more time," She says, a hand resting gently on Spencer's back. Veronica hesitates a moment, and then pulls a piece of paper from the pocket of her jeans, handing it to her.

Spencer looks at her, confused momentarily as she opens it. There's a few lines, penned by two different hands, first Aria's and then Toby's.

It's time to tell the truth. The real truth, no matter what. We're in this with you Spencer, we can't let her run the show anymore. -A/H/E

Spencer, don't say anything without talking to your mom first. It's going to be ok, they'll have you out soon. I love you. -T

Toby's note is something, something to hold on to as she sits there. But the girls' note...was it even possible for them to tell the truth anymore? Allison had dug them so far in, they had helped, and everything had spiralled.

She'd picked them so she could play with them like dolls, pulling strings and making them dance for her. She'd almost killed them all, or they'd all almost died because of her, things had gotten so messed up. Spencer didn't know what would happen, if they told the truth, but she knew when it came down to it, that was all they had left to do. She couldn't spout off anymore lies, add to the pile that was already suffocating them. Her future was dependent on the truth now, regardless of how scary that was.