Chapter 2 – You Are Never Alone

Author's Note: Hey again everybody! I noticed that the majority of my deleted scenes for this story involve Spemily conversations, so after this I will try to add in a little more action for you all. This excerpt is from 5x2 and is from Emily's POV (I will switch POV every chapter). All mistakes are mine. Let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoy! Thanks for reading :)

Disclaimer: None of the characters or story lines from Pretty Little Liars are mine. If they were, it would be one big Spemily story.

"Spence, come on, we need to at least try to get some sleep," I huffed with more than a little exasperation as I tried to pull her away from the living room window, where she was staring determinedly at Ali's house.

We had hurried back to Spencer's after Ali dropped us her phone with the creepy text, but it seemed that my best friend's thoughts had not returned with us. I had already called Hanna to tell her about the text, and Spencer had chimed in distractedly that we shouldn't tell Aria about if just yet, but that was the last she said. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, not after everything that had happened over the past few days, but I did hope pretending I needed to might get Spence out of her own head. She was always trying to take care of the rest of us, and I was banking on that to pull her back to me and out of the recesses of her mind.

"Yea, okay," she acquiesced; still seeming far away as she slowly stepped away from the window.

It all seemed a little too easy, but I would take what I could get.

Grabbing Spencer's hand to ensure that she didn't suddenly renege her agreement, I led her upstairs to her room in silence, not really sure how to start a conversation and keep her from running away at the same time. We both changed into sleep clothes with a lethargy born more out of being emotionally overwhelmed than physically tired. Moving to different parts of the room after dressing, neither of us was quite ready to make the commitment of getting into bed, and I was definitely not ready to leave Spencer to make my way to the guest room. Her silence was worrying me, and leaving her alone seemed like a terrible plan.

"What are you thinking about, Spence?" I inquired softly, moving to stand in front of where she sat at her desk, her eyes still unfocused and her face blank.

"Do you really think Jason is involved in all this?" She questioned so quietly I almost didn't hear as she refused to look at me, her eyes suddenly sharp.

I knelt in front of her, pain blooming in my chest as I placed my hands on her knees in a sad attempt to comfort her somehow. It was obvious that considering the possibility of her half brother being involved in anything that could hurt her was proving difficult to handle, and it was easy to understand why. Jason was blood. The idea that he could have been involved in torturing us or hurting Ali was a lot to take in, not to mention incredibly scary and heart wrenching.

I had no desire to make things any more difficult for her than they already were. She had been through way too much recently, and yet she had still been there for me through everything. Spencer was always the one protecting the rest of us, taking care of us, risking herself for us. I wanted to make sure she knew I was there for her too.

"I don't know, Spence," I offered apologetically, wishing more than anything that I could give her the answers she needed. "Is it possible that Jason is involved in this? Absolutely. There are a lot of things that add up telling us that he could be responsible, and I know how hard that must be on you. But Spence, this has happened so many times. We have pointed fingers in so many of the wrong directions, and that makes me wary about sitting here and saying yes, Jason must have done this.

Does that mean I want to stop looking into where he's been and what he's been up to? No, definitely not. What it does mean, though, is that I don't want to jump to conclusions just yet, especially since that only ever seems to get us into more trouble. I really do hope that Jason has had nothing to do with all of this, if only for your sake, but I also think you need to prepare yourself, just in case."

Finally she looked at me, but there were tears in her eyes when she did, and I wanted so badly to take away her pain. She had known exactly what to say when I was freaking out over my feelings for Ali in the theatre, and every time before that. She always made me feel safe and cared for with her words, and I wanted so badly to do the same for her, but I had no idea how. So I sat dumbly, struck silent by how powerless I felt to help her.

"We really can't trust anyone, can we Em? Even the people that are supposed to take care of us, like Mrs. D was supposed to take care of Ali, even they could be responsible. There's no one out there who will protect us, is there?" She whispered, her voice cracking as tears started falling down her cheeks.

Spencer pulled her knees up to her chest, and I moved with them, not caring how awkwardly positioned we were as I hugged her with everything I had. What she said was true, the people we had always relied most on to protect us seemed to be either absent or sinister of late. My own parents were often away, what with my dad being in Texas and my mom visiting him, and Spencer's family was even worse.

Mrs. Hastings appeared to have good intentions at least most of the time, but she had done some shady things in the past that made me question her. I mean, she had been completely prepared to send Spencer away after what happened with the pills, as if her daughter being completely alone in the world was the only way to help her, as if being without her friends would decrease the anxiety causing her to swallow that poison in the first place. Then there was how she handled Radley. She was so clinical and without compassion that I cringed with disgust every time I thought about the whole situation.

Then there was Mr. Hastings, the often absentee father that often only seemed interested in Spencer's grades and extracurriculars. When we were growing up, Spencer and her dad had been inseparable, and my best friend had wanted nothing more than to make him proud. Ever since Ali's disappearance though, there was something shadowy about him, sinister almost. It was like he had become a completely different person, and I knew that Spencer mourned the man that she had looked up to for so many years.

Melissa was even worse than her father. She and Spencer had always been at each other's throats, but high school was an entirely new level, both before and after Ali disappeared. Growing up as an only child, I had always wondered what it would be like to have a sibling, but Melissa made me question if the loving relationship between siblings like Aria and Mike weren't an exception rather than the rule. We had always been suspicious about Spencer's older sister, hoping that she wasn't A but still knowing it was entirely possible. No matter how much Spencer didn't want it to be so, we all knew there was something dark in the older Hastings sibling, something that scared us.

Even with all that though, it didn't mean she was alone.

"We have each other, Spence. We can trust each other. I promise, I will do everything I possibly can to keep you safe. I promise," I stated strongly, pulling away from our hug to look her in the eye, making sure she was hearing me.

"You didn't trust me when I followed you to your meeting with Ali," my best friend all but whimpered, a new set of tears rushing their way down her cheeks as she turned her face away from me.

"Ali didn't trust you," I argued softly, grasping her chin lightly and forcing her to face me once more. "I was angry with you because you didn't trust me. Just like you didn't trust me enough to tell me about the pills. Spence, you didn't even trust me enough to tell me that you were struggling with everything that was happening…"

I wasn't admonishing her, I wasn't even angry with her anymore, I was just sad that she seemed to not have faith in me. Not with Ali, not with anything.

"Oh god, no, Em, that's not the case at all," she exclaimed, sitting up so quickly we almost knocked heads and grabbing my hands to make sure I was paying attention to what she was saying. "Emily, I trust you more than anyone else in the world. I didn't follow you to your meeting with Ali because I didn't trust you; I followed you because I am absolutely terrified of losing you. I was so worried that it was A waiting for you there instead of Alison, and I couldn't handle the thought of you getting hurt, or worse.

And the pills, Em, I was so all over the place I'm not even sure I knew what trust was while I was on them. When I started taking them you were dealing with so much, I didn't want you to have to worry about me too, especially when I thought I could handle them. Then things got really bad, and I wanted to tell you, I almost did more than once, but things just kept happening. Then Mr. Fitz outed me and shit just hit the fan.

Please don't think that I don't trust you, Em. I know it hurts you to think that I don't, and I can't stand seeing you hurt. So please. Please believe me."

Spencer started crying even harder than before and stood from her seat, dragging me to her and holding on as though afraid I might disappear completely. I hugged her back just as tightly, feeling the tightness that had occupied my chest for so long loosen just a little as I cried with relief.

"I believe you, Spence. I believe you," I assured her, my voice shaky as I pressed my face into her neck and pulled her impossibly closer to me. There was no way I was letting go, I couldn't, I was too afraid I would lose her.

We cried together for quite some time, pretty much until we were no longer physically capable of doing so, and I finally felt tired enough to maybe get some sleep by the time it was all over. I gently extracted myself from Spencer's arms, though not without significant resistance from my best friend, and wiped the tear tracks first from my own face and then from hers.

"Come on, Spence, we really should get some sleep," I stated, reiterating my statement from much earlier in the night. Squeezing her hands for a moment to reassure her, I stepped away, heading towards her bedroom door with the intent of making my way to the guest room for the night.

"Em?" She questioned softly, the plaintive note in her voice causing me to stop in my tracks and turn back. "Sleep in here tonight? I don't want to be by myself tonight…"

Spencer looked down as soon as the words escaped her mouth, obviously a little embarrassed by her own request, and I couldn't suppress the small grin that broke out over my face at how cute it was.

"Of course," I agreed, moving to get into her bed as she turned off the light and slid in beside me.

"Thanks, Em," she offered in a whisper as she moved closer to me in the dark, her hand reaching for my own even as she stayed laying on her back.

"You never have to thank me, you goof, this is what friends are for," I explained, rolling to my side and placing my head on her shoulder and an arm around her waist. I could feel her entire body relax under me, and I was gratified to know that she felt safe. "And Spence?"

"Hmmm?" She mumbled, already half asleep as she snuggled further into me.

"You're never alone, I hope you know that."