Note: Wow, I was... not expecting the response I got to this fic. Thank you, everyone. It's always a pleasure to hear from readers. Or, in this case, reiders. *coughs* Okay, terrible joke... Please don't kill me.
Anyways, may I now present... chapter two!
"Spencer?" Lila is careful to keep her voice even, despite the trembling in her limbs. She clutches the two vials tightly in her hand.
Spencer is sitting on the couch. He's been flipping through the pages of a book manically for the past ten minutes. He hadn't responded to any of her inquiries, lost in the pages of his own world.
She stops about four feet in front of him.
He doesn't look up. He doesn't even seem to notice her.
She takes a deep breath, praying that he would prove her wrong. That these aren't what she thinks they are.
"Spencer, what are these?"
Slowly, he turns his eyes up to her. She sees the panic that flares in his eyes when he notes the vials in her hand and the last of her hope spirals down the drain.
"Where did you get those?" he asks breathlessly. He half rises off the couch and his eyes never leave the vials.
"It doesn't matter," Lila says because it doesn't. Not with Spencer's life on the line. "What are these? Spencer, tell me they're not what I think they are."
Spencer is off the couch, stumbling towards her before she thinks he even has a chance to process what his actions are.
"Give them to me!" he demands, holding his hand out.
Lila takes a step back. She knows Spencer won't hurt her, but… it scares her to see him like this.
She has no idea what he's going to do.
"No," she chokes out, surprised by how difficult it is to get the words out all of a sudden.
"Lila, please." Spencer takes a few staggering steps knee knocks into the corner of the coffee table, but he doesn't seem to notice. His voice sounds choked and Lila realizes that he's on his last thread.
That knowledge has the last of her defenses crumbling and before she knows it the tears are running down her own face.
She hates seeing him like this. She hates it.
"Please," Spencer begs. "I need them. Lila, you don't… I need them."
"You don't, Spencer," Lila says. She tries to keep her voice firm and steady and surprises herself when she mostly succeeds. She's seen too many people head down this road. Too many lives destroyed.
She won't let Spencer, her Spencer, her amazing, intelligent and brave Spencer, be one of those casualties.
Not if she can help it.
Lila's clutching the vials so tightly she thinks they might break. Maybe they would- if they were eggs- but of course they don't.
If only they would.
"You don't need them, Spencer," she says, dropping her tone to a loud whisper. "That's the…" Addiction. That's the word she's looking for. The word she should us. But she can't. Not when it's referring.
"That's not you speaking," she finishes.
"How would you know?" Spencer spits out.
Lila is shocked by the amount of venom present in his voice.
Spencer doesn't sound like Spencer. But then of course he wouldn't.
He catches her off guard, lunging for her.
Lila stumbles back, holding the vials out of reach.
"No!" she shouts, surprising them both with some vehemence of her own. She's shaking from the force of her own emotions, but, whatever happens, she won't let him have them.
She's crying harder now, nearly blinded by her own tears.
Spencer's own tears have been replaced by a rage fueled by desperation. He wants what's in those vials.
It has a vice grip on his soul. One she's determined she's going to break.
His eyes won't focus on her. They won't leave the vials in her hand.
She takes another step back, just in case, in another burst of speed, he should lunge for the two little vials in her hand and this time be successful in his efforts to take them back.
"You're not going to hurt me, Spencer," she says carefully, trying to ignore the way her voice wobbles, the way her lips tremble, as she speaks.
Her palms are sweating. The vials feel slick in her hand. She's afraid she's going to drop them, that they'll slip from her hand and that in the race to dive for them, Spencer will beat her to them.
She tightens her grip on them again, feeling the glass grind together.
"And you'll have to hurt me to get to them."
Maybe it isn't fair, using his love for her against him like that. But it's his soul she's fighting for here.
And she wants his love to win out against this addiction.
The Spencer she knows would choose her. Every time.
Her words seem to break something inside Spencer. He crumbles in on himself. He doesn't even make it back to the couch. He just drops to his knees, bending over himself and curling his arms over his head.
Lila can't hear his sobs, but with the way his shoulders are shaking, she doesn't need to.
She backs away, then spins around and sprints to the kitchen, unscrewing the lids as best she can as she goes.
She makes it to the sink, pouring every last drop of the vile liquid down the drain, before disposing of the bottles.
Lila makes it back to Spencer, falling to her knees beside him and wrapping him in her arms.
He doesn't resist, doesn't try to pull away or snap at her.
Lila takes it as a good sign.
"I'm sorry," he chokes. His words are almost indiscernible. "I'm so sorry."
Lila shushes him, running her hands through his hair.
It's several minutes before Spencer speaks again.
"He drugged me." The words are even softer than his apology. She has to strain her ears to understand, but once their meaning sinks in, a chill spreads through Lila's body. It starts at her heart, spreading out to each of her limbs and ending with a tingle in her digits. "I didn't… I begged him not to and… I'm so sorry."
With each word, the horror Lila is feeling grows. She thinks of Spencer, her Spencer, suffering in the hands of that… that madman and she realizes she is shaking.
"It's okay." She murmurs soothing words into his ear, holding him a little tighter to her. "We're gonna get you help." She sucks in a breath, sniffling as she does so. She's crying. Has been for a long time. "You're the strongest person I know. You're going to beat this. And I'm never going to give up on you."
Tobias Hankel is dead.
And Lila Archer will see him burn in hell.
Note: I debated for a while on this last line. Eventually decided on it because it seems like it's the natural response someone would have towards the individual who put their loved one through hell on earth.