Okay, so I know I say this, like, all the time, but this chapter is BY FAR my favorite. Most definitely. I worked super hard on it, so I really hope you guys like it, and be sure to review after reading it to tell me what you think!

Emily sat at her desk in English class, nervously fidgeting and tapping her pencil repetitively against her desk in no particular rhythm. She tried constantly to get herself to focus, but every time she stared down at the page in front of her, every b turned into a d and every m turned into a w. Her attention span, for whatever reason, was very low today.

She averted her eyes toward Hanna, who was sitting two seats down from her, and it looked like she wasn't paying attention either, although this was protocol for Hanna. She was chewing on her pen and she had a distant look in her eyes, as though she was looking right through the chalkboard all the way into the next room.

Almost as though she could feel Emily staring at her, Hanna looked over. But Emily quickly glanced back down toward her paper. She didn't want to worry Hanna.

I just need to get through the school day, Emily thought. If I can just do that, I'll be fine.

"So what makes Desdemona's death so tragic," Emily heard Mrs. Montgomery explain at the front of the classroom, "is that she lied to try to protect her husband. But Othello failed to recognize this, and that really emphasizes how little they knew each other. Since they were so hasty to get married, there is an absence of trust."

Yeah, well I don't need an impulsive marriage to tell me about how little I trust A, Emily thought moodily. Suddenly, the bell rang. As Mrs. Montgomery went on to remind the class of the latest homework assignment, Emily stood up from her chair and briskly walked over to Hanna, as Hanna did the same. They met somewhere in between the two desks, a panicked look on both of their faces.

"This really shouldn't be that big of a deal, but…" Emily began.

"It's been a week," Hanna finished nervously.

"Shouldn't one of them have called us by now?" Emily asked, looking up at Hanna in fear.

Hanna looked over to Mrs. Montgomery, who was answering a student's question. She then turned back to Emily. "Mrs. Montgomery already told us earlier this week that they both had the flu. That's probably why they haven't called! They're just sleeping or something."

"I doubt they've been asleep for the entire week, Hanna," Emily snapped.

"They're fine," Hanna said reassuringly, although she herself still wasn't entirely convinced.

A week ago, Ella had pulled both Emily and Hanna aside and told her that Aria had the flu, and that Spencer managed to catch it as well. She said that Spencer's parents were out of town, so Ella offered to take care of her, along with Aria. She had told Emily and Hanna that she didn't want the two of them near Aria and Spencer because she didn't want them getting sick, too, and that if they needed or wanted anything Aria and Spencer would call them, instead of Emily or Hanna calling. They both hadn't given it a second thought of the time; in fact, they were kind of jealous of the other two since they got to sit at home and avoid all of this A drama piling around. But it had been a week, and neither girl had heard from the others, and they felt like something was definitely up.

Before either could utter another word, Hanna's phone chimed. She was about to reach into her pocket to get it, but then froze in place when a ping escaped Emily's phone about a millisecond later. That could only mean one thing.

Slowly, and carefully, Hanna reached into her pocket, and Emily did the same. Hanna was about to turn it over to look at the text, but chickened out at the last second. "You look!" she said quickly.

With one meaningful glare at Hanna, Emily turned over her phone and pressed the "home" key. Her eyes danced back and forth as she read the message, and then stopped mid dance as they widened to their full extent.

"What's wrong?" Hanna whispered harshly, yet nervously. "What did they say?"

Emily gulped loudly as she tremblingly turned the phone so that Hanna could see the screen.

Wondering where the other 2 musketeers are, ladies? You really aught to keep track of where the members of the wolf pack wander to. Who knows what kind of hungry animals could be craving fresh meat?

Although, I know one of them might start with an –A

"Oh my god…" Hanna whispered.

Emily pulled her phone down and nervously started playing with the ends of her hair, a bad habit that she always got into when she was scared. "Does this mean A has Aria and Spencer? Or has done something to them?"

"Well A definitely doesn't stand for 'anteater'," Hanna whispered harshly.

"Oh god," Emily said softly as she sat down on the edge of a desk with her arms on her knees and her head in her hands. "I feel sick."

"Okay, let's calm down for a minute," Hanna said reasonably as she gently removed Emily's hands from her face. "If something had happened to them, wouldn't Mrs. Montgomery know about it? Or tell us?"

"Mrs. Montgomery was here the entire day," Emily pointed out. "A could've easily done something to them while she was away."

"Is something wrong, ladies?" Mrs. Montgomery piped in, and both Emily and Hanna jumped two feet in the air in surprise. Ella cocked her eyebrow in confusion, so Emily piped in. "We wanna see Aria and Spencer."

"Emily…" Hanna warned, afraid that she was jumping the gun slightly.

"I'm sorry girls, but you can't," Ella said calmly. "They're still recovering."

"Mrs. Montgomery, you don't understand," Emily said desperately. "Something could be wrong with them. They could be in danger."

"EMILY," Hanna said more sternly, but Emily was immune to it. She was staring intently at Mrs. Montgomery, begging her to understand how much she needed to see her friends and know that they were okay.

Ella was caught of guard. "Danger? No, they're at home. They're perfectly fine."

Emily just shook her head. "I'll only believe it when I see it," she said. "I need to see them."

Emily looked like she was going to throw up, and Hanna just calmly stroked her arm, trying to calm her down. Ella looked at the two girls suspiciously, wondering what was going on.

"Are you okay, sweetie? Is…" She took a breath for a second. "Is this about something else?"

"I…" Emily started, but in her peripheral vision she could see Hanna giving her a worried look; one that said Don't tell her. Please don't tell her. She can't know about A.

"I just miss them," Emily half-lied; she did miss them, but there was still more. After Maya was taken away from her, she promised that no one she cared about would get hurt ever again. She would make sure of that. And with Aria and Spencer missing, or at least out of her sight, and with A on the loose, it was incredibly hard to keep track of that.

Ella looked conflicted. She glanced between Hanna and Emily, two of her daughter's best friends. I can't believe the girls left them in the dark for this long, she thought. It doesn't really seem fair.

With one more look at the worry in Emily's eyes, Ella folded. "Alright. If it'll help you feel better, I'll take you to them now."

Spencer's eyes fluttered open. Her head was about to split open, and everything around her was a haze; the wooden ceiling fan above her, the light coming in through the blinds on the window, the pair of clear blue eyes in front of her.

Wait.

Spencer shot up, and Toby immediately caught her before she could lurch forward any further. "Whoa there," he said calmly. "You're okay."

Spencer started breathing faster and faster, and Toby tried rubbing her knee to calm her down. As his soft hand made contact with her skin, she felt herself start to return to normal.

"What… are… you doing here?" she asked between wheezes.

Toby looked deeply at her with his calm, caring eyes. "Well, it is my apartment," he said with a soft chuckle.

What?!

Spencer looked around quickly. "Where… where's Aria?!" she asked nervously, feeling her breathing start to quicken again.

"Spence, relax," Toby said, his voice cracking slightly with worry. "She's in the other room, okay? She wanted to give us some privacy."

Spencer could understand this, but her breathing remained at its quickened pace, and she could feel her entire body shake with fear. Toby held onto her quaking arms to try to hold her still. "Spencer. Relax."

But Spencer wouldn't relax. This was her first time being in such close contact with another boy in a week, and even if it was Toby, and even if this is what she had wanted not too long ago, she wasn't ready. She felt sick.

In fact, she could feel the alcohol swirling aggressively in her stomach, begging to let out.

Instinctively, Spencer put her hand to her mouth, and Toby's eyes widened with worry. He hastily took the wastebasket sitting next to the couch and brought it up to Spencer's mouth, and she immediately threw up into it.

Toby reached over and rubbed Spencer's back soothingly as she emptied everything she had been drinking today into the trashcan. He winced as her back muscles contracted as she continued to throw up, but continued to rub her back, trying to comfort her in whatever way he could. Once she was done, she sat up, breathing heavily as tears prickled at the front of her eyes.

"You're okay," Toby said soothingly, and Spencer let herself calm down, if only for a moment, before collapsing back onto the couch. Toby tried to put his arm around her to hug her, but she instinctively pushed him away. Toby drew back, shocked, but took this time to take a good look at Spencer.

Her light brown hair was long and knotted from not paying attention to it in days. Her warm chocolate eyes, which used to hold so much eager wisdom, now seemed to hold so many burdens. Too many burdens. And her skin was sallow and pale, her face sunken, and covered in yellowish bruises.

And yet somehow, he had still never seen anything so beautiful.

He reached up to gently caress her bruised face, but she winced at the contact. Hurt, he pulled back again.

"I'm going to kill Wren for doing this to you," he said angrily.

Spencer stiffened. "Wren?" she whispered. "How did… how did you kno-"

"Aria told me."

"WHAT?!" Spencer bellowed. "Why would she do that?!"

"Spence-"

"I'm going to KILL her!"

"Spencer, don't say that!" Toby said firmly. "I made her tell me, okay? I told her I wouldn't go anywhere with her until she told me what happened to you and why she was so upset."

Spencer paused as his words sunk into her brain. The logical part of her knew that this made sense and that she shouldn't be mad at Aria, but the emotional part of her couldn't help but feel like Aria had betrayed her.

Suddenly, a door was heard flying open, and Spencer looked up to see Aria rush in in a panicked state.

"What happened?" she shrieked. "What's wrong?"

"I told you to stay in the other room," Toby said sternly.

"I heard her screaming, so I got worried."

"Guys, I'm RIGHT HERE," Spencer snapped. God, people talking about you like you're not even in the room is the WORST, Spencer thought grumpily.

Aria pivoted toward Spencer and stared at her fiercely. "You're right, you are here, and thank god for that!" she scolded. "What were you thinking?"

"Aria-"

But Aria wasn't finished. She was completely coiled up like a windup toy, ready to go on a complete tangent, and nothing could stop her now. "Do you realize how worried I was? We've been searching for hours. I didn't know what to think! At one point I thought you had been kidnapped! Do you realize what could've happened? You could've gotten hurt. Again. How could you be so stupid?!"

"Oh, I'm the stupid one?" Spencer fought back. "How about you?"

"ME? I'm not the one who ran off in the middle of the night with absolutely nothing on my back to a lesbian bar and got myself wasted while underage and still injured!"

"No, but you are the one who told my ex-boyfriend about how my other ex-boyfriend raped me!"

Toby's eyes widened in shock, but both Spencer and Aria ignored him. Aria narrowed her eyes at Spencer. "You can't seriously be mad at me for that. I had to tell him! If I didn't, you might not be here!"

"Well maybe I wanted to tell him myself! You can't just make all of my decisions for me, Aria. Just because I got raped doesn't mean I'm no longer allowed to do what I want."

"YES IT DOES!" Aria cried, trying to keep her tone steady, which was hard when hearing Spencer say the word rape with such ease. "It wouldn't if you could think straight, but clearly you can't!"

"You're not my mother, Aria."

Aria bristled at this, but kept going after a moment. "I never said I was! But I am a friend, and I am trying to protect you."

"Well I don't need to be protected!"

"Yes you do!" Aria screamed, nearly bursting into tears in frustration. "Why can't you see it? You're really fragile right now, but you have two people right here who want to help you and care for you. Why can't you just let us do that?"

Spencer just glared at Aria before lowering her head. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me!" Aria spat.

"No, I am not going to try you," Spencer spat back, looking up at Aria in exasperation. "Can't you just leave me alone?"

Aria sighed. "Spencer, you're just... not thinking straight."

"Aria, I can think just fine."

"Stop denying it!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Toby shouted finally, and Aria and Spencer froze and turned to him. His eyes were widened in rage and confusion and, most importantly, hurt. Spencer and Aria had never seen Toby so worked up.

He turned to Aria and, with one jerk of his head, gestured toward the bedroom door. "Go. Now."

"But I was just-"

"Now," he said more firmly this time, feeling like an anxious mother who was dealing with her two bickering children.

Aria huffed as she stomped off, slamming the door behind her.

Spencer huffed, too. "Bitch."

Toby turned to Spencer in astonishment. "What happened to you two? You guys are supposed to be best friends!"

"Yeah, well, we were," Spencer said with a shrug. "Then she decided she wanted to do a total 180 and turn into an overprotective dictator who watches my every move."

At this, Toby stifled a laugh, but Spencer caught on to it. She glared at him. "What's so funny?"

"You," he admitted, turning away from her to stare at the wall. "It's like you two have switched places."

Spencer's eyes widened. "What are you talking about? I'm not like this! Not to this extent at least."

Toby turned back to Spencer with a sigh. "She's just concerned."

"Yeah, well, she has a funny way of showing it," Spencer muttered bitterly.

"Hey." He caringly took a strand of her hair and tucked it behind her ear. "You know she's trying to take care of you. When you ran off, I honestly thought she was going to pass out, she was so worried." He then cast his eyes downward. "And I was, too."

Spencer looked up at him, meeting his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry," he said compassionately. "Just… don't be mad. At either of us. We were just trying to help."

"I know," Spencer said helplessly. "I'm not mad."

"Then what are you?"

"Frustrated," she admitted. "I just feel like… no one can help."

He cocked his head to the side in confusion. "I thought you said before that you didn't want help. Are you admitting that this might not be the case?"

"I…" she began, but couldn't finish. She didn't know how to.

"Spencer, do you need someone to protect you." He didn't say it like a question; he said it like a statement. As if he didn't need to ask it because he knew the answer.

"Yes… no… I don't know!" she said finally as she turned away from him stubbornly. Toby gently touched her shoulder, coercing her back to where she was facing him. She whimpered slightly at his touch, still not used to the contact, so he pulled back. He looked her in the eyes. "Well I do know," he said finally. "I know what you need, but you yourself need to be willing to admit to it."

"What if I don't want to?" she asked in a quaking voice.

"Well, then, I'll just try to help you anyway," he said with a shrug.

"Toby, I told you, I don't think anyone can help."

"I can give it a shot," Toby suggested as he scooted closer to Spencer on the couch. He took her hands in his, and his silk-smooth hands immediately soothed her as they encompassed her dry, rough ones.

"Spencer," he said tenderly, in that very way that gave Spencer goose bumps every time. "Tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can help."

"You can't," she whispered as a tear spilled out of her eye.

The hurt in Toby's eyes came back, and he lowered his head. "I thought I was always your safe place to land."

"You were," Spencer reassured. "You are! I'm just… a little mixed up on the definition of 'safe'."

Toby placed a hand on her shoulder, and at first she flinched at the contact again, but then relaxed. It was just Toby. Toby wouldn't hurt her.

"I can remind you," he said genuinely. "I'll keep you safe. I'll always be here to protect you, Spencer."

Spencer gazed into his crystal blue orbs, wanting so much to be able to tell him everything, but she couldn't. She never could.

Suddenly, something changed in Spencer. She no longer felt sorrowful, she felt something else.

Anger. Hate.

She hated not being able to tell Aria and Toby about what happened. She hated that she was unable to word everything that was going through her head out loud. She hated that she was so alone.

She hated that she had to be so alone ever since the night that it happened.

"You weren't there to protect me when Wren attacked me that night," she growled. Toby inched backward, surprised at Spencer's sudden assertiveness.

Spencer wasn't sure where this was coming from, but she kept going. "You weren't there to save me when he first shoved me against the wall. You weren't there when I was screaming for someone, anyone, to help. No one was there! Why weren't you there, Toby? You said you'd always protect me, but you weren't there when I needed you most!"

Spencer's voice rose to the point that she was now screaming, and Toby sat still, staring at her. He wanted to say something, to move, but his mouth felt like sandpaper and his limbs felt like stone. He was paralyzed.

Spencer took his idleness as answer enough as she stood up. She took the pillow from behind her and threw it aggressively at him. "Just because we're broken up doesn't mean I don't need you, Toby!" she screamed as he dodged the pillow and stood up from the couch as well. "It doesn't mean you can just sit on your ass while I experienced what could've possibly been the worst night of my life! Where were you? Why weren't you there to h-h-help me?!" she stuttered on the last words as the back of her throat filled with tears that were begging to be set free.

"I'm sorry," he whispered inaudibly as he stared at her, her body shaking with anger and sobs. He was looking at her with as much sorrow and grief as he could muster. "I didn't know. I… I wish I had been there to help you, but I just… wasn't."

Something in Spencer broke at seeing his face like this. All of her anger suddenly vanished. "I'm… I'm sorry," she whispered. "I… I don't know what's gotten into me."

"I do," he said calmly as he walked toward her. "I can't even imagine what you're going through."

"You're right," she whispered, realizing the weight of his words. "You can't. N-no one can."

No one could. Once again, she was alone.

Spencer felt her breathing quicken again, and Toby immediately pulled her down to the couch with him and engulfed her in a hug. Once his arms wrapped around her, she broke down into tears. She cried and cried as he continued to hold her. Spencer heard the door to the other room open, and she could feel another set of arms wrap themselves around her as Aria joined Toby in trying to comfort Spencer.

Toby didn't shoo Aria away this time. Instead, he looked up at her like a lost puppy, truly scared and unsure of what to do.

Together the two of them held onto Spencer as she continued to cry into their arms. They made an odd pair; a tall, muscular, sandy-haired boy, and a short, fragile, dark-haired girl; but they both had one thing in common: they both loved Spencer with all their hearts, and they would do whatever it took to help her get better.

As Spencer went limp in the embrace of her best friend and her ex-boyfriend, she realized how nice it felt. She hadn't opened up to them fully yet, but she had gotten pretty close.

And a part of her was ready to let them help her. She might finally be ready to step back. Let someone else protect her.

Aria was right. She needed to stop denying that she needed help. She did need it. Desperately.

Spencer's breath caught in her throat, and she stopped shaking. Aria and Toby froze, and then pulled back to examine her.

She looked up at them with complete fear in her eyes, in her entire face. "I need help. Please, will you h-help me?" she said quietly as her bottom lip quivered.

Aria's face softened; all of her anger from earlier at Spencer's rash actions and all of her panic of losing Spencer had vanished. They were replaced with complete sadness; sadness, and shock that Spencer was finally ready. She wrapped her arms back around Spencer as she held her tight. "Of course we will."

Toby joined in on the hug. "You know we'd do anything for you," he said.

Spencer closed her eyes as a few tears escaped them. She was feeling a lot of things right now. Terrified, scarred, angry, and sad were just a few examples. But there was one thing that she definitely was not feeling. At least not right now, and hopefully not for a long, long time.

And that was alone. She was no longer alone.