I decided to go the route that makes this story a bit longer. Please don't make me regret it with four reveiws again? ANYWAYS, this sets up the last few chapters pretty well, and it isn't the most action packed, but it's CUTE.

In other news, this is the first chapter you are getting from MY NEW LAPTOP :). I finally got it replaced just in time for me to start training for my fellowship. :) :) :).

Now my grandma sent me $100 Kohls giftcard and a $20 Starbucks one. I'm going to go shopping and get white girl crazy at Starbucks. Make my day even better and let me know what you think :)

Remember Me for Centuries will PROBABLY be next, but it could be Exiles. Depends on the motivation factor!

Chapter 20

SPOV

It was dark when she finally got to bring him home. He had been through more than enough in the past 24 hours, an extended hospital stay didn't need to be part of that. Riley walked next to him, her hand in his, as a nurse pushed his chair into the parking lot.

If it were her she would have been incessantly complaining about being pushed when she was perfectly capable of walking, but Toby just stared blankly ahead. Since he had been in Rosewood he had made so much progress. He wasn't the insecure, unsure man that he had been when he came to her, but this had undoubtedly set him back. But it was okay. She would do whatever she had to do to show him who he was. He was worth that.

As she unlocked the door the nurse helped him out of the chair. "Do you need help," she asked him softly.

He just shook his head, slowly lowering himself into the front seat. She was so glad that Caleb had dropped off her car, because she really doubted that Toby was up for company right now. She turned to Riley, crouching down in front of her. "Toby is really sad right now. I need you to be on your best behavior while he is not feeling good, okay?"

She nodded eagerly. "I will. He is too nice to be sad. We will cheer him up, right?"

Spencer grinned. She definitely raised this kid right. "We will definitely figure it out."

Riley gave an emphatic nod. "I love you, mommy."

She was going to cry. She had come way too close to losing all of this. "Love you too, baby. Get in and put your seat belt on."

She walked around the side of the car and slid into the front seat, buckling her seat belt before turning to Toby. She put a hand on his thigh and waited for him to look at her. His eyes were tired and bloodshot, but he still perceptively brightened when they made eye contact "You alright?" She asked him softly.

He looked down, his eyes somewhere at her collar bones. "What happened to Wren and Lucas?"

She hesitated, glancing at Riley in the rear view mirror. She was listening because that's who her daughter was, nosy as hell. She slid her phone out of her pocket and passed it back to Riley. "Watch a movie, Ry. Your headphones are in the pocket back there."

"Can I watch- oh wait no I want to watch-"

She interrupted her with a short laugh. "Watch what you want Ry. We're going to stop at home, but then we're going to go stay at a hotel for a couple days."

"A hotel?" Riley's eyes lit up as she stuffed the earbuds in her ears. "Oh man, that's so exciting!" Riley was excited, but she saw Toby looking at her.

She kept her eyes on Riley until she was more focused on the phone than she was on the adults in the front seat then she turned to Toby. "They caught Wren. From what I understand, he had done something to his ankle when he was trying to get out. He was laughing hysterically when they caught him. Caleb was right there and he told me that he was saying something about them, I assume meaning us, thinking that it's over."

He nodded thoughtfully. "And that's why we're going to a hotel? What about Lucas?"

She bit down on her lip. She didn't want to tell him this part at all. "Lucas got away."

He sighed, slumping down in a resigned manner. "Part of me wants to send you off without me, but another part of me doesn't want to let you out of my sight."

Toby was a lot of things, and maybe his strongest character trait was his protective nature. He would want to be there to keep her and Riley safe, and honestly, if that's what it took to get him to come with them she was absolutely fine with that. Because she couldn't leave him behind any more than she could leave her own heart behind. "Oh you're coming," she said softly, taking his hand as she pulled out of the hospital parking lot.

The ride back to her house was largely silent. He was feeling guilty, and she didn't like it at all. But she didn't know how to make things better. She squeezed his hand. "You know I love you, right?"

He exhaled. "I know."

That was the most important thing. As long as he understood that they could work on the rest. "We'll figure this out together, but I don't want to leave you. You aren't going to leave me either."

He looked out the window. "My whole life I have been around people that should have cared about me but didn't. I don't know-" he looked back at her. "I don't know how to express what you mean to me, Spence, other than by telling you that you're the only person whose happiness matters more to me than my own. You and Riley. And I can't sit by and risk you getting hurt again. I just can't do it."

"What are you saying?" She almost didn't want him to answer.

"That I don't know what to do," he all but whispered. "Lucas knows me. He knows that the best way to get to me would be through you. So if I leave I leave you unprotected, but if I stay I only confirm what they all already know. There's no way to win here."

"Then maybe we should go," she said softly.

This time Toby shot her a questioning look. "What do you mean?"

"Let's go. Run. Let's pack and never come back." Her whole life was here, but for Toby she would leave it all behind.

He looked confused. "You would do that? Spence-"

She smoothly pulled into her driveway and put the car in park. "You have never seen yourself clearly," she said, gently taking his face in her good hand. She used the fingers of her broken arm to gently graze down his arm. "Yes. I would leave everything behind for you. I never thought I would find someone like you, Toby. And now that I have I'm never letting you go."

For a second she thought that he was going to cry. But instead he took her hand. "I love you too," he offered up a return on the words that she had given him earlier.

"Are you guys going to kiss or something?" Riley asked with interest from the back seat.

She blushed and craned her neck to take in her daughter. "Go back your bags, Miss Nosy. Seven outfits and some pajamas, okay? Do you need help?"

Riley shook her head emphatically. "I want to do it!"

She sighed, and as soon as Riley was out of earshot she turned to Toby. "She's going to end up in sequins and her dinosaur costume from last Halloween."

He laughed. It was a halfhearted laugh, but it was still a laugh. He wrapped an arm around her and walked inside the house. "You have a security system, right? There's no chance-"

She interrupted him with a kiss. "I have the best security system money can buy. I'd rather go without food than wake up with Darren or someone else from my past in the middle of my living room." She shuddered at her old nightmare. It was funny how quickly things changed, because she was rapidly realizing that Toby's demons were so much greater than her own.

He nodded. "I have a few things here, so I'm just going to grab that. And we need to go somewhere they aren't going to expect to find us. Philly is too close and New York... I don't want to risk going back there, but-"

She hesitated, ideas scrolling through her brain like she was reading them in a book. Having a photographic memory sucked sometimes. "We could try Washington DC. It's not too much further than New York would be."

He nodded. "Go pack. We need to be out of here in 10 minutes."

If she weren't so worried about him she would find his protective behavior to be kind of hot. She didn't need anyone to save her, but she couldn't really express what it meant that Toby was going to try anyway. She walked up the stairs, leaving him to his thoughts in the living room. She took a final look at him once she reached the top of the stairs, and her heart ached at the diligence he possessed when peering through the window. He made her feel safe, but she also felt so much anguish for everything he had gone through. If anyone deserved peace it was him.

She didn't even see what she was packing. She just through everything into a haphazard pile in her suitcase, which wasn't at all her usual style. She also tossed in what she could find of Toby's, knowing that he might like some comfort too.

When she dragged the heavy suitcase back down she was surprised to see Riley sitting next to Toby. She thought she would have to go into her room and extricate her from a pile of toys. She was showing him something on her iPad, and he seemed to be genuinely smiling. The pride she felt in her daughter at that moment was almost overwhelming. She was raising a pretty kick ass kid. "Are you two ready to hit the road?" She asked softly, fighting to keep her voice light for Riley's sake.

Riley nodded. "Me and Toby were looking at pictures of Washington DC. Is that really where we're going mommy? To the president's place? Can we go to the Lincoln memorial? I think he was my favorite president."

She was thrown for a second. "Toby and I," she corrected gently. "And why do you like President Lincoln so much?"

"He freed the slaves and he wore a really cool hat," she enthused. "And check out his beard."

She laughed. "I love you, but your criteria for what makes a good president is a bit lacking. We'll talk about it on the way. Let's go."

She reached for her suitcase, but Toby had already grabbed it. He looked outrageously adorable as he slung Riley's zebra print bag over his shoulder. He gave her a significant look. "Let me go first."

If this caveman act was going to make him feel better she'd let him have it. She stepped back and took Riley's hand, only walking through the door once Toby nodded back at her. She settled Riley into the backseat with a movie playing on her iPad before getting in the driver's seat. "Are you okay?" She asked him again, genuinely concerned.

"I'll feel better when we're out of here," he admitted. "But I'm alright."

She didn't like driving with one arm, but she didn't really have a choice. Toby wasn't ready for a city drive yet. So she cradled her broken arm against her stomach and used the other to back out of the driveway. "Well, maybe we will find what we need in Washington DC."