A/N: I AM SO SO SO SORRY FOR NEGLECTING THIS FOR SO LONG. After a series of unfortunate events interspersed between final exams and the holidays, I'm finally finding the time to update my stories. You can expect much more rapid updates to come. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO KEPT UP AND ASKED ABOUT UPDATES DURING MY UNINTENTIONAL HIATUS. I love you all. Enjoy!
Spencer spent the night with Toby, trying to let him know everything would be okay if they stuck together. Only Spencer Hastings had this kind of resilience that put her in the position to comfort him after all she had been through. She drew strength from his weak spots. It was almost too picturesque, how they could balance each other kept walking away from chaos, hand in hand. Like a movie ending.
When Spencer walked into her house the next morning, she did nothing but slam doors and cabinets shut. She was in the kitchen packing up her vitamins and pills from the cabinet, shoving them into a duffel bag stuffed with books and clothes when her father walked in grinning.
"Good morning, sunshine. Easy on those cabinets, would ya? Those are worth more than your car." He turned on the coffee machine and re-opened the cabinet to take out a mug.
Spencer just glared at her father. "Oh, you're not still mad about that little incident yesterday, are you? Grow up, Spencer. What do you say you stop…whatever it is you're doing, and I'll volley with you on the tennis courts? We can have lunch at the club afterwards…Even get that cheesecake you like."
Spencer scoffed. "INCIDENT? You got somebody arrested for a fight you initiated. He was just protecting himself, and me… and you cheated the system." She slammed shut a drawer. "And Melissa likes the cheesecake, not me." She growled.
Peter rolled his eyes. "I did not cheat, I just played the right cards. You're a Hastings, you'll learn the difference."
"He lost his job because of you," she continued. "He was trying to save up to go to school, to get his own apartment… but you ruined that. His whole future for your ego." She started to storm out of the room, slamming shut the back door while making direct eye contact with her father, as though she was just trying to spite him. She turned to go to her car.
Peter chased her out around the house to the driveway. "Where are you going young lady? You cannot talk to your father like that and then storm out."
"I'm going out." She slammed her car door.
Sure, Peter was acting angry, but he was smiling. Because he was a Hastings, and his plan was already unfolding three steps ahead of Toby.
And more unusually, ahead of Spencer, too.
xx
Spencer spent days at Toby's, only leaving to go to school. She brought him food, baked for him, and even bought him a new deluxe Scrabble board, which she was saving to surprise him with over dinner.
Toby was distraught. He was depressed and barely spoke to her about anything substantial. He hated being locked in the house. Besides that, he was silently trying to plan ahead. Where would he work? Where could he go? He had envisioned a future where he followed Spencer to college, but that plan seemed to have faded away overnight. Truth was, he was barely sleeping, between his now routine nightmares and now this stress. But Spencer there was helping a bit.
Spencer and Toby had just showered together, and Spencer was dressed before him since she'd stolen his t-shirt to wear as a dress. Her bare feet squished in the carpet and she felt more at home than she ever did at the Hastings house.
Spencer pulled away from Toby, who was only in his boxers, his chest still wet. "You're dripping everywhere," she laughed. "Go change, and I'll find a movie. I bought ice cream after school."
Toby sighed. "Spence, you don't need to bribe me with ice cream like I'm some sort of kid."
She smirked. "If I was bribing you like a kid, I wouldn't have done that in the shower with you."
He smirked too, and he went to attack her with kisses again when there was a knock at the door.
"Go get dressed," she shooed him away. "I'll get it."
"But I just want to stay like this and watch movies with you all day and make a fort and maybe talk you into playing video games, you know, if I have to be here all day… every day…" he whined, grabbing her again from behind.
The knocking returned, louder this time.
"Toby, go." she said playfully slapping his butt.
"Fine, but I'm picking the movie." He said from the bathroom.
She was still talking to him about which movie to rent when she opened the door, only to be completely silenced by who she found standing before her.
"Dad?!" Spencer took a step back, crossing her arms over her chest. "What are you doing? How did you know this is where I would be?"
"I, uh, didn't." Peter furrowed his eyebrows. "I came for Toby." Peter's eyes darted around the place, trying to reconfigure himself in a setting so different than his default, and then placing his daughter in this very context.
"You are going to leave him alone. You've done enough." Spencer got in his face, slightly elevating her voice with each syllable.
Toby heard the commotion and came out, still only half dressed. At least he had pants and a belt on this time.
"Spencer, what's going o—" he stopped mid-sentence when he saw who was at the door. "Mr. Hastings… Spencer is here because she felt safe here, not because I've said or done anything… but please don't punish her."
"I'm not here for Spencer," he said brushing his way past his daughter and into the house. Spencer stumbled back a little. "I didn't even know she wasn't home." He admitted grouchily. "But now that you mention it, Spencer, get in the car. You're coming home with me." The sight of his daughter in Toby's shirt and Toby half undressed made him severely uncomfortable, only confirming what he already suspected, that his little girl was fucking the town leper. She deserved all the punishment she'd gotten, she was out of control.
Toby got hold of Spencer as she stumbled back, always three steps ahead when it came to protecting her.
"Anything you need to say to me, you can say in front of her… and she isn't leaving unless she wants to. She's practically 18, you can't force her." Toby bellowed loudly.
"Cut the crap, Cavanaugh. Enough with the hero stuff, alright?" He took a card from his jacket pocket. "Call me when you're ready to act like a grown up and get your act together." Peter said, storming out.
"Come on, Spencer." He said, stopping halfway down the walkway.
"No." Spencer crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm staying here."
Peter looked around, trying to figure out what to do. But he realized it wasn't worth it. It would all be over soon enough.
Toby closed the door as Spencer walked away from him, curling up in a little ball on the couch.
"My family is staying with Jenna's family for a while, while Jenna gets her eye surgery. The doctors are in New York near her uncle's… so… you're not going anywhere." Toby said sheepishly, still thumbing the edges of the business card, sickeningly curious about what Mr. Hastings so desperately wanted to talk to him about.
Spencer seemed to be nodding, but she didn't look up. She was shaking a bit.
Toby went over to sit next to her, extending his arm to reach out to her, but she flinched backward, wiping her face with the sleeves of his shirt quickly. "I'm fine, I'm fine." She said, looking up at him, her cheeks red and the rest of her face without color. He could tell she had been crying just by her breathing, never mind the color of her face or the dampness on her sleeves. "What about that movie?" She said, forcing out a laugh.
"Spencer… he can't hurt you anymore."
"That's not why I'm upset. Just leave it alone, Toby. I want to watch a movie. I don't care what. Just pick something."
"Spence… I'm here to protect you." He said, rubbing little circles on her knee with his thumb.
"I SAID I'M FINE." She said, standing up, pulling her sleeves over her hands. She was quite jumpy.
Toby exhaled loudly. "All you've done is worry about me and take care of me while I've been a mopey asshole sitting around in my underwear and now I'm finally trying to do the same for you and —" he was cut off by her sarcastic laughter.
"FINALLY?!" She laughed again, unable to wipe the sassy smirk off of her face. "Toby, you wouldn't even be on house arrest if you weren't for MY father…if you weren't trying to do something for me! You're such a freakin idiot sometimes, GOD. I can't believe you. Stop worrying about me. You don't need to fix me. I just need to fix all of this…" she was quieting down now, her hands shaking as she squeezed them tightly together between her knees as she slowly settled on the edge of the sofa. "We were supposed to make each other better…make everything better…we've better than this." She said softly.
He sat next to her, taking her hand. "I don't know why you're so mad, but I'm not trying to make things hard for you. What's going on? I thought you were happy to be out of the house, to be here with me. Is it school?"
Spencer met him with a laugh again, this time making direct eye contact. "You don't get it." She said, leaning forward so her forehead pressed against his as she looked down, taking a moment before looking at him again. "I stopped worrying about me a long time ago. I'm not a victim. I never will be." She said in a declarative manner. It was so very Hastings of her, the way she spoke in that moment. He couldn't help but laugh a little, because this was the Spencer he remembered from before all of this started. She could never really change all that much. "I can handle everything, I don't need you making a fool out of yourself and getting yourself into trouble trying to save me. I don't need it. I need you to stay out of trouble and do the right things for yourself. That's all I need from you."
"You're ridiculous." He said raising his eyebrows. "You may not need me to save you, Spencer." He said, leaning forward towards her so their faces were mere inches apart. Maybe even centimeters, millimeters. His breath got stuck between the two of them, trapped between their closeness. "But that doesn't mean I want to stop saving you. Has it occurred to you maybe I like saving you? Let me tell you a little secret," he said, licking his lips, his tongue almost close enough to sweep against her lips. Almost. She was watching him very carefully. "I stopped worrying about me a long time ago, too. And I don't need you saving me. But I won't stop you. Because I know I can't. Because you're rotten and stubborn and I love you to death for that. Some days, despite that, but many days for it." He said, laughing. "Accept it. You've got yourself your own hero. We're like a crime-fighting duo or something… always push and pull, saving each other. It's kind of romantic, if you think about it." He said, raising an eyebrow.
He pulled back away from her and settled a few feet away on the couch, taking up all the space he could as far as he could, to tease her of course. He nonchalantly flipped through the channel guide to find a movie.
"Have you seen that movie with Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler? It looked funny, but I can't remember the name of it."
"Are you serious?" She said, crawling across the couch towards him.
"What?" He smirked.
"They Came Together," she sighed. "That's the movie. I didn't see it. But that's besides the point. Ugh, you make it so hard to be a modern post-feminist when you get so…alpha male."
He laughed. "So you really want me to stop all that? Stop being myself? Stop loving you? Cause I think we're gonna have to agree to disagree here, Spence."
"No…I didn't say that," she said finding the perfect space to envelope herself between the couch and his side, squishing herself in the tight space and pressing up against him. "But I still get to go all wolf-mother over you, too." She said, sitting up sharply.
He just laughed. "As if I could stop you."
She settled in as he flipped the channels, and they enjoyed a few moments of silence that grew into hand holding, caressing, and general snuggling.
"Just please don't call my dad." She said, finally siting up a little and breaking the silence. "I really don't trust him right now."
"Spencer…"
"Promise?" She interjected assertively.
"I promise." He sighed.
xx
"Toby, come with me," Spencer said, running through his backyard. "I want to show you something," she laughed.
Toby haphazardly followed, trying to keep up but she was fast, and all of a sudden everything seemed dark and out of place. He felt like he was stumbling over something. Tree roots and stumps. He always hated how all the backyards in Rosewood seemed to lead to dead ends in the forest. He spent half his childhood lost in the woods, sure he'd never get home.
"Spencer?!" Toby said, feeling around the brush. He couldn't see Spencer anymore, but he heard her. She seemed to be coming from all different directions. He slowly spun to see which seemed most accurate.
When he turned all the way around he finally saw her, sitting on the ground, petting her sister's hair.
"Melissa? What is your sister doing in the woods?" Toby said, looking at Spencer confused. She hated her sister, and Melissa had moved anyway. She really didn't seem like the nature type, either.
"Spencer?! SPENCER WHY WON'T YOU ANSWER ME?" Toby shouted, nervous about the darkness of the woods. "Let's get out of here, come on." He said, reaching out his hand.
She ignored him, continuing to talk to her sister, the both of them seemingly fixed on something he couldn't quite see on the other side of there spot on the ground.
"What are we doing here?!" Toby shouted once more. "It's TOO DARK HERE. IT'S LATE. SPENCER, LET'S GO."
"They were here for me," a voice seemed to come from the darkness on the other side of the Hastings sisters. Toby looked for who the voice might belong to. "Wren?" He crinkled his nose.
"Guess again," the voice said sarcastically. "You did this," the voice hissed, darting towards them. As the figure came into the light, Toby saw who it was: Ian. He was looking quite gray, brown and rust colored blood stains all over his head, neck, and clothes. He was quick for someone who looked like their legs were broken inward. As if he glided across the forest floors.
Ian came at Toby, and Toby immediately put up his fists in self-defense. As he swung, his hand went right through Ian's head.
"Wha…" Toby looked in shock at his hands, trying to comprehend what had just happened. As he did, he felt himself fly backward as Ian pushed him. Ian then floated over to the girls, where he kissed Melissa's head and then proceeded to fly towards Spencer.
"LEAVE HER ALONE," Toby shouted.
"This never concerned you," Melissa said calmly, looking over at Toby emotionlessly.
She KNEW? SHE WAS PART OF THIS?! Toby started to internally freak out. When he finally pulled himself out of his thoughts via a sharp noise, he realized it was Spencer's screaming and wailing that pulled him back into reality. Ian had lifted her up and had her by her neck against a large oak tree. He pushed her against the large oak harder, and now she could barely get any noise out.
Toby tried desperately to knock Ian off of his girlfriend, looking over completely shocked at how calm Melissa was watching all of this. "AREN'T YOU GOING TO HELP ME?!" He yelled, his arms flailing as he persistently punched through Ian as if he could suddenly grasp his ghostly form to pull off of Spencer.
"You did this, you're murderer." Ian said, laughing. Toby had been trying so hard to fight Ian,who he could not physically touch, that he hadn't realized that in his attempts to hit Ian, he was actually hurting Spencer, who he could physically touch - and hurt - and was right under Ian.
She was bleeding, bruised, and gasping for air. And she suddenly fell limp. Ian just laughed, singing over and over again. "Murderer, murderer, you did this, you did this,"
xx
Toby jumped up, gasping for air himself. He felt around and realized he was only in the darkness of his living room. Spencer moved and re-settled in her sleep, not stirred enough to wake up from his episode.
He slipped out from underneath her and went to the bathroom, splashing cold water on his face. This had become routine. The same rotating set of a few different nightmares, all ending the same way.
He sighed and looked at the clock. It was only 10:00. They had fallen asleep watching TV relatively early. He sighed. He would probably end up having another nightmare, it was early enough for many more hours of torturous sleep.
He took a deep breath and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. When he did, Peter's business card fell onto the pink tiled floor of the bathroom.
He bent and picked it up, thumbing at the torn edges once more.
xx
"Hello?" Peter said, sitting back down in his office chair. He was just about to call it a night.
"I'm listening." Toby gulped, unaware of what he was to get himself into.