a/n: hey! Happy Sunday!

Once again, thank you for the reviews. You guys are so so so so wonderful. I love you all. You guys make my day, honestly. I love hearing what you think of this. Please please please keep reviewing.

And as to answer some questions (one question tbh):

OK, so truth is, I thought I would have the "past" chapters at a faster pace? But it's going pretty slow. Anyways, Aria will show up soon. I thought she would come sooner, but lol ? I don't know. Things change. I'm putting more detail and development in it than I planned. AHAH.

Italicized = Flash Backs

Also, I don't own PLL. LOL.

Chapter 7

October 22, 2013

Morning

She doesn't sleep, instead she just lies there in agony. She knew she wasn't going to anyway. It wasn't really a shock.

Around 7AM, Caleb and Hanna's daughter begins to cry for them. But neither of them wakes at the sound. They are still completely gone. They both are exhausted. She knows they would wake up eventually. Their daughter would grow louder and more desperate, and they would be going to her aid the second they opened their they have been up all night, and they deserve more rest, so instead of waiting for the parents to depart from sleep, Spencer goes to the crying infant instead.

Her name is Annalisa, although everyone tends to just call her Ann. She looks exactly like Hanna with her light, curly hair and bright, blue eyes. If you look at a picture of Hanna as an infant, they look nearly identical. Although as she grows older, Caleb's features become more prominent. The infant has the same bone structure as the man.

She picks up the crying infant, soothing her. She bounces her up and down slightly, holding onto her tiny hand. Eventually the infant calms down. Ann is a huge attention craver. She wants to be held at all times. When she isn't being held, she will throw a gigantic fit.

Spencer wants kids. She didn't always, but dreams and desires can change. She just wanted to finish her dreams first—get everything settled, and do everything she wanted to accomplish before having children. Because when you have children, they become your main purpose. For a long time, she wasn't ready for that. She wasn't ready to be that selfless, but about a year ago, she had finally been ready.

Except the universe had other plans.

Toby comes home to the smell of food cooking, which is completely bizarre because he usually gets home before Spencer, which means he usually comes home to an empty house. So who is doing this cooking? He didn't see her car in the driveway, but he supposes it could be in the garage.

"Spencer?" he calls out as he walks through their house's foyer.

"In the kitchen!"

He walks towards her voice, and finds her in a pastel, yellow apron with flowers sketched across the hem. He has never seen her wear it, but he is grateful he is able to see her in it now. She looks absolutely adorable in it.

She is smiling giddily at him, her chestnut eyes sparkling and crinkling at the sides.

"This is a nice surprise," he notes.

Her smile softens slightly, almost turning into a somewhat smirk. "I didn't think you'd be too disappointed."

He smiles widely at her before striding over to her. She goes to him at the same time, wrapping her arms around his neck, and throwing her body into him. His lips crash with hers, his hands encircling around her frame. He brings her off her feet (literally) and holds her up into the air, her feet dangling above the ground.

He sets her back down a few second later, detaching his lips from hers.

"Wow," she observes in approval. "I should come home more often."

"You should wear this more often," he glances at the apron, his hand gently tugging on the apron string.

"Oh really?" her eyes light up, "Is that what gets you going? Aprons?" she teases.

"You get me going," he murmurs huskily, his lips attaching to her neck.

She grins at this. Her eyes close in pleasure as his lips graze over her skin. She lets out a sweet, relaxing sigh that almost can pass as a beginning of a laugh, but not quite.

"Keep it up, and we'll be eating charcoal."

He chuckles at this, pulling away from her. His hands run up and down her arms affectionately. "Like you would ever actually let that happen," he smirks. She smiles timidly at him. A moment later he asks, "so tell me, what are you doing home so early, and why are you cooking?"

"Can't a wife just make a nice dinner for her husband?" she furrows her brow slightly, pouting almost.

"Not when it's you," he puts forth. "You don't do anything without a reason."

She gapes at him for a moment, pursing her lips. "Fine," she admits, sighing. "I want to talk about something," she says in a cheerier voice than usual.

He raises his eyebrows, intrigued.

She sets her hands on his shoulders, smiling timidly at him. She doesn't know why she is nervous to say it. She shouldn't be. Toby has been wanting this forever. She has been the one stopping them from taking the next step. He will probably be overjoyed to hear the news. "I've been thinking…" she leads, rubbing his shoulders a little. Her hands travel around his neck, linking together. "I've been thinking about it for a long time now, and I'm ready to start trying."

She doesn't have to elaborate any further for him to know what she means. After a moment of shock, his face twists up into absolute bliss. His smile reaches his eyes and oozes out with joy. "Really?" he asks eagerly.

She nods, a smile bursting from her lips. He grabs her in his arms and swirls her around, sweeping her off her feet once again.

Everything is good for awhile. They have unprotected sex all the time. Especially on the days where she is ovulating. They have sex so much that she starts to become sore, but it's a good kind of sore. It's like the exhaustion from a good run.

But after three months of trying, they are forced to stop.

They may be ready to have kids, emotionally and physically, but not so much finically…

So many things go wrong. They begin laying people off at Toby's work. Things keep breaking. The universe is practically yelling at them to stop. So they do. They are both upset by this, but it is for the best. They know it. They still have time.

They kept pushing it further and further back. She wishes now that they didn't. There isn't a perfect time to have a child. Things always go wrong. Curve balls are going to continue coming. There's no stopping that.

What if Toby never returns? What then? She will never be able to have his children. She'll never be able to have a mix of her and Toby's blood running around. Hell, she'll never even have kids. How could she honestly? How could she ever be stable enough to take care of a child with this tragedy on her shoulders? If Toby doesn't come back, she won't even be able to take care of herself, let alone a child.

She knows, deep inside, it's better that she isn't pregnant, or taking care of an infant of her own. Deep inside, she knows that would make the situation so much more difficult. But, the illogical part of her mind, the part of her mind that acts as a zombie, controlled by her heart, believes otherwise. At least she would have a part of him with her. Right now, she has nothing. If he doesn't come back, then he's just…gone.

She sniffles, cursing herself for crying yet again. When will it stop?

She looks down at Ann, who has been playing with Spencer's sweat shirt string. "I hope your life is a lot less hectic than mine."

The infant doesn't really react to the words, and why would she? She is six months old.

Spencer's phone begins to go off in her pocket. Her heart drops at the sound. It might be Holbrook with something new. She sets Ann back in her crib before taking the call. It is Holbrook.

"What is it?" she immediately asks.

"Have you slept at all?" he asks, almost sighing.

"Does it really matter. What is it?"

"I was just going to invite you down to the site. We can talk more there."

"I thought you didn't want me there?"

"I changed my mind," he says. "If it's too hard, we can just talk at the station."

"No. No, I want to come to the site."

"Alright," he says. "Just come on down to the station, we can drive down together."

Ann begins to cry. Spencer tries to hush her by squatting down to her level and rubbing her arm, but she refuses to stop. "Okay, I'll be down there soon."

"Is that a baby crying?"

"It's my friends," she answers. "I'll be down there in 10."

Caleb comes in a few seconds later, looking groggy and concerned.

He picks up Ann before addressing Spencer. He bounces her up and down, hoisting her against his chest. "How you doing? Any news on Toby?" he asks fearfully.

She shakes her head. "I—not really. They found his jacket, and…cell phone. Also some glass on the side of the road, which might indicate a crash…"

Caleb gulps, a look of dismay crossing his features.

"I'm going down to the site now."

"Alone?"

"I'll be fine," she says. She isn't sure it's the truth, but she knows her friends can't babysit her forever. "Just take care of Ann. Get some sleep."

"I think you need some sleep," he counters.

"I'll sleep when I've found my husband," she states firmly, swallowing. A terse moment of silence falls between them. "I'll keep you guys updated," she promises before making her way out of the room. He catches her arm.

She turns around to him.

"Spencer," he says, his lips tightening, "you don't—you don't have to act okay."

"I know," her voice is light, barely audible.

He nods, looking down. He lets her go after. "Just…be careful."

"I will," Spencer promises.

…

She meets Holbrook at the station. Together, they travel down to the site. It's all blocked off with yellow tape. There is a "Road Closed" sign too. He parks right on the sideline of the woods. They didn't really talk on the way here. Holbrook said he would explain more when they got there.

They walk into the woods. Spencer spots several people inspecting the area, and wonders how long it would take for them to cover the whole surface area of the woods. "Did they find anything else?" she finally asks. She is scared. She doesn't know if she is ready to face anything else of his that they may have found, but she needs to be strong. She needs to have the courage to help. She needs to find him.

He shakes his head. "Not exactly."

"What does that mean?"

"They have a theory," he tells her.

"What's the theory?"

"Well, we think it was an abduction. We think they might have ran him off the road—possibly knocked him out by doing so."

Spencer gulps. She feels frozen. She stops walking. She is paralyzed.

"I know it must be hard to hear," he says.

She sucks in a sharp breath, nodding. "You have no idea," she murmurs numbly.

"But something doesn't make sense with that story," he states. "If they ran him off the road, then his truck would be somewhere close. Unless they had high jacked the truck, but if that is the case, where is their car? They would have had to come back and get it, but that would require a decent time gap. It seems risky to me. It's a huge gamble to leave something like that in the open."

She blinks, swallowing hardly. She wipes a tear away from her face. "So you think…you think something else happened?"

"I think that there might be two people involved with the abduction," he states. "Toby… he's 6'1? Seems to have a good build… I mean, he's not exactly an easy target."

She exhales slowly, looking into the woods. A lot of the leaves have fallen off the trees now as they go deeper into the fall. "Right," she breathes.

A moment passes.

"Have you talked to Jenna Marshall yet?" she asks, turning to him.

"Gordo is going out there right now," he nods, glancing away for a moment. "Violence, abductions… they are almost always committed by friends, or family members—people you know."

Spencer had read this a few times. She could never imagine any of the people close to her doing such things. Even her sister, who she has always had a rivalry with, wouldn't hurt her. Would she?

"Yeah. I read that."

"People are sick," he shakes his head in disgust.

"They definitely are."

"Spencer, if you can think of anyone else who might have been a part of this… just let me know," he turns to her.

"Like I said, he didn't really have that many enemies," Spencer shrugged. She mulls over a list of people that Toby has had problems with in the past. She can't think that anyone of them would actually hurt him.

"Just if any names come up…" he states. "Are there any others that have been obsessed with him?"

"Not that I can think of."

He nods. "Okay, well," he sighs. "Just checking."

"It has to be Jenna. That's the only thing that makes sense."

There's an onset of yelling coming from the east. The voice is calling out, "over here! Come! Look at this! Someone get Holbrook!"

More yelling ensues, overlapping each other. It echoes through the woods, and into their ears.

They share a look before running towards the noise. It's about a quarter of a mile into the woods, so it seems at least. There, smashed into a tree, is Toby's truck.

Spencer covers her mouth, too stunned to even sob. She remains completely frozen, staring at the truck with terror.

"He isn't in there. The door was flung open," someone calls out.

Spencer's knees break on her, sending her into the ground. Holbrook catches her before she hits the ground, wrapping his arms around the weeping woman. She turns away from the truck, burying her head into the man's chest. She is completely past the point of caring. Just twenty four hours ago she had been completely against crying in front of people, but here she is, bawling her eyes out in front of a dozen of lurking eyes. She is freely sobbing into a man of whom she has just met. She really is completely broken.

Holbrook walks with her back to the police car, where they sit until Spencer stops crying.

"I really didn't expect that to happen, otherwise I would've…"

"Not let me see it?" she spits out hysterically. "Look, I'm a crazy woman, I know, but this—it's his truck," she breaks on the words, shaking her head. "How am I supposed to react?" she whispers brokenly.

"I don't—look, I don't think you're crazy. I think how you're acting is completely normal. I'm just saying, that was completely dropped on you, I apologize."

She shakes her head, wiping her tears away furiously. "It's fine," she says, almost wheezing. "I needed to see that."

He frowns at her. "Miss Hastings, I will promise to do my best on this case. Truly."

They go back to the police station afterward. On the way back, Spencer lets her mind wander to a different time.

"Look, I know it was your baby, but this can be your new baby…" she says. They have been sitting in Toby's new truck for thirty minutes—just sitting here, doing absolutely nothing. Toby has just been starring at the interior of the truck with a perplexed, sorrowful look on his face.

"It was just so…full of memories," he states. "I had it since I was eighteen. It was such a great truck. It lasted so long, and ran so well…"

She stares pointedly at him. "I'll never understand boy's weird obsession with cars," she puts forth bluntly.

He looks over to her, frowning.

She smirks, "sorry, I didn't mean to pour salt on any wombs."

"Come on," he tries. "You loved the old truck too."

"It was nice," she nods, thinking back to all the times where they had made the windows steam over. "But, this one… it has some more space," she notes.

"I think the other one had a good amount of space," Toby says.

"Really?" she ponders aloud.

He nods, giving her a incredulous look.

She chuckles softly at this before moving over to him. She positions herself on his lap, her legs straddled around his waist, and her back against the steering wheel. He looks at her intensely, not daring to blink. She coyly looks back at him, a trace of a smirk on her lips. She glances around innocently, her hands moving down his chest to his pelvis area. "Hmm, I don't know," she murmurs, leaning closer into his face. "If we have more room, it's easier to do this…" she lets her voice trail before their lips touch.

He kisses her back furiously, his hands running up her back and pulling at her hair. They haven't done this in awhile. Probably in over a year. Maybe it's because they are getting older now, and more mature, but right now, Spencer can't even recall why they would ever want to stop doing this.

Then a loud honking sound jolts them away from each other. They both begin to laugh. This has happened time and time again. They will be so engulfed in each other that they simply forget all about the honker on the steering wheel.

"Maybe we should just take this inside…" Toby says, smiling still. He brushes over her shoulder with his lips, pushing her shirt down.

"Mmm," she moans slightly. "Or…we could go in the back seat. You know, to test if it's bigger or not…" she smirks at him. "And also, there is no steering wheel."

"Sounds like a great plan to me."

She still can't believe this is even happening. How can he seriously be missing? How can this even be a reality? Why on earth would anyone want to take Toby? He hasn't done anything wrong. She is the one with the sins. Why not her?

Maybe she has just died, and gone to hell. Maybe this is her punishment for all the crimes she has committed in her lifetime. She is finally paying for what she has done. Sure, she has dealt with pain before, but this is a whole different level of it. It's sadistic. What kind of monster could take someone so caring and loving?

They arrive at the police station, and her tears have slowed down some now. She is still somewhat crying, but not as she was before. Not nearly the same amount.

"Do you want me to drive you somewhere? Do you think you'll be okay driving?"

She nods. "Yeah, I'll be fine…" she nods.

"All right," he allows after a moment. "Remember, if you think of anyone, call me," he says.

She nods.

"I'll keep in touch," he says.

"Me too," she offers before getting out of the car.

She begins to walk away, but evidently turns around. She didn't want to say anything. Mostly because of how irrelevant it is now. It was so long ago, and wasn't even that of big a deal, but she is desperate. She just wants her husband back, and what if this leads her to it? So she goes back.

She just opens the car and plops back down in the passenger seat. He gives her an incredulous look, one of his eyebrows narrowed slightly.

"What is it?"

"I… I thought of someone else. Someone who may have…" she lets the sentence die off.

"Oh…okay. Can I get a name?"

"Alex Santiago."

A/N:

PLOT TWIST!

;)

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