Please, Fix Us

CHAPTER 2: Come a Little Closer


Come a little closer, then you'll see
Come on, come on, come on
Things aren't always what they seem to be
Come on, come on, come on
Do you understand the things that you would see here
Come on, come on, come on
Do you understand the things that you've been dreaming
Come a little closer, then you'll see

COME A LITTLE CLOSER BY CAGE THE ELEPHANT


Spencer was staring at her wall, thinking. It had been over 12 hours since the fight, and she was still thinking about it. She was wondering if he was thinking about it, too. He tried to leave as if he was the good guy, but she knew they were both at fault for what happened. She swallowed hard. There was a knock at the door, and her heart started beating fast, but not in the good way that used to happen when they kissed so hard. It was the heart racing of fear that whatever they had was broken, and whatever he was going to say would make it worse.

She believed it was him. She wanted it to be him, even though she was afraid of what he was going to say. She didn't want to fight anymore, or be told what to do, or especially hear him break up with her. Not after all this time.

She wiped the tears from her eyes, and made her way downstairs to open the door. When she opened it, she was started to see her mother, followed by the guy she met at Ezra's remake of the Brew celebration. She raised her eyebrows, a big bit disappointed that it wasn't Toby, but she was also a bit relieved that she wouldn't have to hear his yelling and scolding right now. She sighed.

"Hey, mom..." she greeted quietly. "I can't believe you're actually here... at home."

"Hello, Spencer. I just wanted to run by and let you meet this young man. He'll be moving into the barn. We're renting it out to him," Veronica explained, and let the guy walk inside of the house.

"Oh, hey, you!" he exclaimed. "We met at Ezra's last night. You were the girl in a rush."

"So, you two have already met?" Veronica asked. "I hope my daughter didn't scare you-"

"No, she didn't. Well, she was scary, but she's not driving me away," he laughed. "Thank you for bringing me here, Veronica."

"Any time. Make yourself at home in the barn. I should probably get back to work. Spencer, if he needs anything, please help him find it," Veronica told her.

"Okay. I will, mom," Spencer nodded.

She shut the door when Veronica left, and turned to the new guy.

"If you've already forgotten since you were in such a rush, I'm Jonny Raymond. I work for Ezra. I'm into creative stuff, mostly a painter," he explained. "You're obviously Veronica's daughter Spencer. Where's the older one, Melissa?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know where your own sister is?" Jonny laughed. "Is she some crazy party girl that's always out?"

"Something like that," she lied, but he didn't even know the half of it.

"Why were you in such a rush last night?" Jonny asked.

"I was trying to find my boyfriend," she explained. "We needed to talk."

"Rough. Was it a break up?" Jonny asked.

"No... just a fight. We didn't break up," she said. "Why are you asking all these questions?"

"I'm trying to make some conversation, but it honestly feels like I'm trying way harder than you are," Jonny told her, laughing. "I'm sorry for any uncomfortable questions about your personal life. I'm usually not one to pry on details, but I wanted to become friendly with you. I now know that what I said wasn't really the way to go." He paused for a moment, but then looked up at her, and she was wiping a tear from her eyes. "Hey... are you okay? I didn't mean to make you cry."

"It has nothing to do with what you said, I'm sorry," she told him.

She just walked away, leaving Jonny there.


"Is Mona sending these texts?"

"No. I don't think dead corpses send texts, Caleb."

"Spencer, we have to do something about this."

"I don't want to get into deeper turmoil with Toby already... we're still rocky from the knife."

"You can't just not investigate this because your boyfriend doesn't want you to."

"He's not just some boyfriend. I don't want things to end, and I know he's getting frustrated with me."

"We can't give up just yet. Not so soon. He's not trying as hard as we thought he would to try and solve everything. We have to do something about it. We have to take matters into our own hands and solve this damn thing."

"He can't be some double agent to the Rosewood PD. He could get in so much trouble for that. He snoops for us when he can, but he owes a certain loyalty for his job. We have to understand where he's coming from. He can't break the rules just like that."

"I know. So, we don't have to tell him."

"Keeping secrets is exactly what has caused us to fight every time we've ever fought."

"Keep it now, tell him later when we find information. He can't be mad at you for getting answers that end the game."

"You're right. We need to end this game. Does Hanna know that we're doing this?"

"Yeah, and I'm going to tell her every detail I can. She doesn't stop me from finding answers like Toby is doing. He's the closest friend I have, but he's bitching right now. I think he needs to stop."

"I'm not here to bash Toby. He's still my boyfriend."

"Alright, whatever. I'll meet you in an hour, Spencer."

"Later, Caleb. Be ready."

"I will."


Spencer sighed. She knew Toby would never approve if he knew where she was, and what she was doing. But she had to do it. She was outside of Caleb's apartment. Knocking on the door, she checked to see if Toby called, but he didn't. She knew he was too busy to spend time with her, anyways. The only time he had to talk was for conversation about his police work, or to yell at her.

"Hey," Caleb greeted, letting her inside. "I've been working on decrypting the text, and its location, all morning. I think I finally have got some information. We have a lead."

"A lead is the perfect start," Spencer said with a smile. "Is Hanna here?"

"I'm here," Hanna said, walking from the kitchen. "I have a dinner with my mom and Ted soon, so I can't come for your hunting time, but I'm here for now. I'll head off when you guys are ready to go do your detective work. Text me if you find anything."

"Of course. And when should we clue the other girls in?" Spencer asked.

"Soon. And Toby?" Caleb asked.

"I'd rather not worry about him until we get something real," she responded. "I don't want to escalate our fight anymore. He can't know about this until I have something to prove to him that the searching was worth it, and got us something good enough to truly help."

"That's totally fine. So, all three of us have to keep our mouths shut about this when we're near Toby," Caleb said.

"Look, I rarely spend one-on-one time with Toby, so you don't even need to worry about me," Hanna said, shrugging her shoulders. "You're his girlfriend, and you're his best friend. I'm just his girlfriend's friend."

"Hanna, it doesn't matter what relation you have to him. If you run into him somewhere, or even when you're with him as a group, just don't mention a thing about this, and don't crack," Caleb explained.

"We don't have time to discuss this right now. What's your lead on the text? Where do we start?" Spencer asked.

"There's an address. We just have to drive down to the address I printed out, and scan out the place, see what we can find," Caleb told her.

"Then let's get to it," Spencer said, picking up her bag.

"I'll call you," Caleb said, and kissed Hanna's lips before walking out the door with Spencer. "Lock up when you're ready to go."


When they got there, it was some sort of storage room. But Mona's laptop was there, and they both thought it could lead to her body. That's why they brought gloves and everything... to make sure no fingerprints were left anywhere.

"And what if this is a trap?" Spencer asked.

"Well, we'll just have to take a risk and see," Caleb replied, and got out of the car.

Putting their gloves on, they started to look through all the junk.

"I think I found Mona's laptop!" Caleb exclaimed, picking up the computer from the floor. "We can head back and decrypt this."

"Do you think her body could be in here?" Spencer asked.

"I think it could. But we don't have to keep looking," Caleb told her. "The police would never believe that we just happened to run into Mona Vanderwaal's dead corpse in a random storage room, far away from our homes. It wouldn't add up to them, and we'd end up looking guiltier than we already do."

"We have gloves. Just... maybe we could just look around for one more second," Spencer said.

"Spencer, are you sure?" Caleb asked. "Are you sure you want to see her dead body, if it's in here?"

"Trust me, it won't be the worst thing I've ever seen," Spencer quietly said.

"Get down!" Caleb whisper-yelled, grabbing her arm, and yanking her downwards.

"What the hell?" Spencer asked.

"There's somebody else in here," Caleb said, pointing to the hooded shadow in the reflection of the door.

"We should have known that this was a trap. -A knew we were going to be here," Spencer whispered.

"I thought Alison was supposed to be -A," Caleb reminded.

"Somebody's working with her. It's obvious. She can't do all of this on her own. We've always thought that -A wasn't alone... and that there was some kind of team. And that has to be the case. It just has to be," Spencer said.

"We need to be quiet. -A can't know we're here," Caleb said.

"Caleb, I'm damn sure -A already knows exactly where we are, and what we're doing," Spencer told him.

"Spencer... don't," he tried, but she got up.

She got up from ducking down on the floor, and picked up a golf club that was laying down, just in case she needed it. With -A, she couldn't imagine why she wouldn't need it. She slowly twisted the doorknob. Caleb watched with worry on his face. He wanted to stop her, but what could he say? -A already knew that they were in the storage room. If -A wanted to hurt them, he or she was going to do it.

"Spencer, don't!" he repeated.

"I'm doing this," she said, and pulled the door open.

Before she could swing the golf club to hit -A, the figure took the glass shard in their hand, and swung it right at her arm, scratching her. Spencer dropped the golf club. Caleb grabbed whatever he could, and started sprinting up to -A, but before he could do anything, -A had grabbed the laptop and ran away. They lost everything they came for, and Spencer got hurt. It was useless.

"Spencer!" Caleb cried, trying to help her up.

"I'm okay. It's just a small scratch," she breathed.

"It's a huge scratch!" Caleb yelled. "We need to get out of here, and bandage that up. If you're going to spend time with Toby, just... wear a long-sleeved shirt. He can't know that you got hurt. He'll be so pissed off if we tell him about this. Plus, -A took the laptop. We lost everything."

"We'll come back again," Spencer told him.

"I'll tell Hanna to pick up some gauze and bandages, and then come back to my place. Let's go," Caleb said, and helped her into the car outside.


"What happened?" Hanna asked, as she and Caleb started to bandage up Spencer's giant wound, created by the glass shard.

"We went there, we found Mona's laptop, and then the -A figure was there. I tried to make us hide, but I'm sure that -A knew we were already in there. It was probably a set-up," Caleb explained. "Spencer want to attack the figure with a golf club, but as usual, -A won. He swung with his glass shard, cut Spencer, took Mona's laptop, and then ran away."

"Damn it..." Hanna muttered. "How is she going to explain this to Toby?"

"I'm not," Spencer said. "He doesn't need to know about it. We're not having any sexy time right now. He's working all the time, so it's not like I'm going to be stripping my shirt off for him any time soon."

"Alright, so just keep it hidden with long sweaters and jackets," Hanna said, nodding her head. "Hiding it from him shouldn't be all bad. The only problem is, Mona's laptop is in -A's possession."

"That trip feels useless now," Caleb muttered.

"It's not your fault. No one ever wins against -A, anyways," Hanna coaxed.

"Shouldn't you be going to meet with Ted and your mom by now?" Spencer asked.

"You're right," Hanna nodded. "Spencer, I don't think you should drive with that arm. Let me drive you back."

"Thanks, Han," Spencer said, nodding her head. "And thank you for coming with me today, Caleb."

"Of course," Caleb said, smiling. "I'm just glad you're okay, Spencer."

"We should go now," Hanna said.

"Alright. Drive safe. I love you," Caleb told her, and pecked her lips.

"Love you, too," Hanna said with a smile.


Spencer and Hanna headed to Spencer's house before Hanna's dinner.

"Let me walk you back inside," Hanna told her, and then got out of the car. The two girls headed into Spencer's large home. "I'll make you a coffee before I go. Take some rest, and don't stress your arm out too much, okay?"

"I'll try," Spencer said.

"Spencer?"

Jonny came walking inside with a smile and said, "Hey! Who's your pretty friend?"

"Um... this is Hanna," Spencer introduced. "Hanna, this is Jonny Raymond. My mom's renting the barn out to him right now."

"Hi... Jonny," Hanna mumbled.

"What have you been up to? And what's with the giant bandage?" Jonny asked.

"Nothing. What are you doing in here? I thought you lived in the barn, not my home," Spencer told him, rolling her eyes.

"Your mother said that I could come in here and get food when I need it, so I came for some food," Jonny explained.

"Well, take it, and go back," Spencer said. "I'm going to run upstairs and grab a jacket."

Jonny shrugged his shoulders, took a pre-wrapped sandwich, and headed back to the barn. Spencer came downstairs with a jacket on, and came to see Hanna opening the door to Toby. She seemed shocked.

"Toby..." Hanna mumbled.

"Oh. Hi, Hanna. Is Spencer home?" Toby asked.

"I'm here," Spencer said, walking downstairs.

She walked to the door. He didn't look super happy, but he didn't look as furious as he did the day before. That look was unforgettable, and scared her to death. He didn't look like that anymore. It wasn't some warm and welcoming look, but it was better than what she saw the night they fought.

"I heard from Emily about the texts from Mona's," Toby began. "Why did I hear about it from her instead of you, Spencer?"

"You told me there are things you can't know. I thought this was something that you can't know," Spencer mocked, folding her arms.

"Spencer," he said sternly. "Don't."

"Don't what!? So what if we tried to research about the text. I'm doing what I can to protect myself. I know you say I've got you, but it really doesn't feel that way right now," Spencer snapped, looking away, trying her hardest not to cry again.

"I want this to stop!" Toby yelled. "You need to stop trying to distort evidence and mess with things! When has lying ever helped any of us?" Toby demanded.

"Whatever you say, officer," she said in a sad tone, looking away.

"Spencer," he said calmer than before.

"What do you want me to say to you?" Spencer asked. "Are you my boyfriend or a strict authority figure?"

"You know I have to be both, it's my job," Toby responded.

"Then why does it only feel like you're one of those things?" Spencer said, shaking her head.

He stared at the floor and asked her, "The knife was the last thing you tried to distort, right?"

"Are you serious?" Spencer asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I'm trying to understand what's happening here. You didn't go after the text, right?" Toby asked.

"No," she lied, and got a look from Hanna, but kept looking straight at Toby.

He stepped forward and hugged Spencer before saying, "I'm so sorry... for the way I acted last night. I shouldn't have been so harsh on you. We've both made mistakes, and last night wasn't all your fault. It was mine, too. We both disobeyed each other, and I blamed you. And I was stupid. I'm not just a police officer. I'm on your side, and I should have been showing it."

Her heart melted for a moment, and she hugged him back, even though she felt like a bitch for lying to him again.

"Let me make it up to you for being absent all this time," Toby told her, stroking her brown hair, pulling it against his nose, and smelling the sweet scent of it. He had missed hugging her so close against his body. It felt like it had been forever since they hugged like this. "I'll tell them I need to take a personal day today, because I do. I need to be with you right now. Just you. I should have made time for you a long time ago."

Hanna was warmed by the words he was saying to Spencer, but she still couldn't wrap her head around why Spencer lied to him again. She sighed, getting ready to walk away.

"I should leave for my dinner with Pastor Ted and my mom," Hanna announced. "I hope you guys have a good day."

Spencer waved at Hanna as the blonde left, and then turned back to her boyfriend.

"So, this personal day, huh?" Spencer smiled.

"That's right," Toby nodded. "I would want to go out, but I don't want to be near anybody else right now. I just want to be near you."

"Do you have anything particular in mind?" Spencer asked.

He grinned, took her hand, and led her up to her bedroom.


To play Scrabble, of course!

"Are you actually winning!?" Spencer cried. "It's been over a year, and you're still beating me?"

"You don't have to graduate high school to be this smart," Toby joked, setting down another word on the board, getting him another large mass of points to add to his score. "Top that."

"But I'm here with the hottest guy in Rosewood, so who's the real winner?" Spencer flirted, leaning her face towards him so that they were inches apart.

"I didn't know I was the hottest guy in Rosewood," he laughed. "Is this some kind of strategy to distract me?"

"Nope, no strategy," she told him, straddling him and then kissing his lips. It was the first time they had kissed since he started working as a cop. It felt good. She missed his lips. "What would the strategy be in this?"

"To be all sexy like that and make me lose my focus," he whispered into her ear, his hand running down her back. She started kissing his neck, and he really was losing his focus in the Scrabble game. "Okay, now I know you're trying to distract me."

"There's no reason for distractions," she said, turned around, and pushed the game board to the floor, letting all the pieces fall off, too. "Oops! Guess we'll never know who won that game, huh!? Such a shame..."

"Funny," he said, shaking his head with a grin. "We all know I was going to win that, for sure."

"Who would ever know?" Spencer asked. "We didn't finish the game! Accidents happen."

"Alright. I'll reset it. We can have a rematch," he said, about to get up to pick the game board up.

"Hey!" she laughed, pulling him back to her. "Come on, I didn't do that just because I didn't want you to win. That was certainly a part of it, but I wanted to end the game. I never said I want to restart it right now. I thought we could spend the night in a better way."

He smiled, cupping her cheeks, before saying, "You don't know how happy I am to be here with you. I should have appreciated you more. I forgot how much you mean to me for a second. But now I see it again. You're worth too much to me to let a silly knife get in the way. It was a one time thing."

"Yeah," Spencer nervously agreed. She tried to end the topic by kissing him passionately, and unbuttoning the first button of his shirt.

He kissed her neck, and started to reach his hands to the hem of his shirt. He began to pull her sweater over her head, his eyes closed. His lips moved down from her neck, and started to kiss lower and lower. His hands moved to the clasp of her bra, and he was about to unhook it. He pushed her over on the bed, hovering on top of her as he kept kissing. Suddenly, she winced in pain.

"Whoa. Did I do something wrong?" Toby asked. "Are you okay?"

Spencer realized how badly she screwed up. Toby scanned her body for a moment, and noticed the bandage.

"Spencer. What's this?" he asked.

"There's a new guy... Jonny... and I was making food for him for lunch. I was cutting vegetables, we were talking, and I wasn't paying attention. I just accidentally cut myself. Just... just watch my arm when we do this," Spencer lied. She knew he was in disbelief, but she kissed him again, hopefully making him forget about it, and not overthink it.

They were in the middle of a passionate session of making out on her bed, and Spencer kept unbuttoning more buttons on his shirt. Just then, Toby's phone buzzed. He sighed, and started to turn back to get his phone.

"Mmm, can't it wait?" Spencer begged.

"If it's the police station, I need to make sure I'm not missing an emergency," Toby explained. He reached over to the counter and grabbed his phone. He stared there, in shock.

"What happened? Do you have to leave early?" Spencer asked.

"No. I got a text from A..." Toby muttered. "I thought the texts would stop with Alison in prison, but this just won't end!"

"What does it say?" Spencer asked.

Your girlfriend's a pretty little liar. Come a little closer and see what she's been doing behind your back. Once a liar, always a liar!
Kisses, -A

There was an image attached to the text. He was scared to open it, but he did, anyways. When he opened it, there was a large image of Caleb and Spencer in a storage room, ducking down on the floor, Mona's laptop clearly in hand. He gritted his teeth, and started to button his shirt again.

"What?" Spencer asked. "Toby!"

"I can't believe you lied to me again," Toby snapped. "I asked you one simple question, and you told me that you didn't investigate Mona's text! You lied to me, just like you did yesterday."

"I didn't want you to be mad at me!" Spencer cried.

"Well, look where we are now. I'm even more pissed off. I wouldn't have been this angry if you just told me you already investigated it, but you'll stop going behind my back from then on. But you lied to me, and that hurts," Toby angrily said.

"Toby..." she muttered.

"What did you and Caleb find?" Toby demanded.

"We found the laptop, but -A stole it," Spencer explained.

"And the wound on your hand isn't from cutting vegetables for this Jonny guy, is it?" Toby asked, raising his eyebrows.

"No, but he's a real person, I didn't make that up," she justified.

"That doesn't matter to me. I don't care if Jonny is a real person," he told her. "You told me another lie."

"Where are you going?" Spencer asked, when he started to get his stuff.

"I'm not in the mood for this damn romantic night anymore," he said, gritting his teeth. "I'm damn mad. So damn mad. At both of you. More you, because Caleb didn't tell me any lies this time. But you did."

"I knew what you would say if I told you about it!" Spencer cried. "I need to find answers for myself. This is ruining my life, and I want to put a stop to it."

"You did nothing. This accomplished nothing. But you lied to me, and you got hurt in the process!" Toby yelled.

She swallowed hard. She knew there was nothing she could say to cool him off. When he got mad, it was always crazy mad. Nobody could calm him down when he was determined about something. He finished getting the rest of his belongings, and left the room, and the house, without another word to her. She sat on her bed, sniffling. There was a quiet knock at her door, and a part of her thought that maybe Toby came back, but she knew he was too pissed to be that calm. And it was no surprise when Jonny was there instead of Toby.

"Was that your boyfriend?" Jonny asked.

She nodded her head.

"I heard you guys fighting when I went downstairs to get myself dinner," Jonny said, scratching his head. "Are you okay?"

"No!" she cried. "I don't know how to fix this with him."

"Sometimes, when things aren't working out, you just have to let things go," Jonny explained.

"Well, I can't give up with him. I love him," she said, sniffling.

"Then don't let him go. But don't try so hard to fix things. If it's meant to happen, it'll play out a certain way. The world knows the way everything is gonna work out, and if your fight is gonna work out, it'll happen by itself," Jonny said wisely.

She raised her eyebrows and asked, "Why are you here?"

"I was trying to be a decent guy, hopefully I didn't fail," Jonny laughed.

"You didn't," Spencer said with a smile. "I don't know you all that well, but you sure are decent, at the least."

"Well, maybe we're friendly enough for me to say, you don't have to spend the night moping about your fight with him. I wouldn't want that, for you, or myself," Jonny told her. "So, I've been working on some paintings. In the barn, of course. But maybe you'd wanna come down there and check it out. You could give me your thoughts. It could be fun, if you would give it a chance."

"Anything would beat sitting here alone, so yeah, I would love to," Spencer agreed, with a smile.

She got up, and followed Jonny down to the barn.