Chapter 28- The Final Straw
3 months had passed since the Hastings-Cavanaugh run in with Alex Santiago. Toby had finally come to terms with the fact that Spencer would never dream of leaving him for someone that could just up and leave at the drop of a hat. Hell, she wouldn't dream of leaving him anyway. However Toby couldn't stop thinking about all that –A had said that day; about how Alex was persuasive and about there being competition.
After all Spencer Hastings was one of the four most loved girls in Rosewood; all the girls wanted to be her and all the boys wanted to bone her. Especially since they found out about her having a thing for "bad boys"; what they didn't know was that it doesn't matter her much they shouted milf or whistled at her as she passed them in the streets/ corridor it wouldn't change the way she felt about her fiancée.
"I so have not missed that place" Spencer sighed as she climbed into the tan truck she had bought for Toby when she was in her junior year. She had been going in for a few hours a day that week just to make sure that she had all the correct work and return the stuff she had done. Spencer wasn't due to go back to school full time for another month for the final month of senior year so she could sit all her exams.
"Did Spencer Hastings-soon-to-be-Cavanaugh just say that she didn't miss school?" Toby pretended to be shocked as he flung his hand up to his mouth and gasped "Wait, let me record this as I sense you're going to complain about school for a bit"
"Toby Cavanaugh, you are a comedy genius" Spencer laughed while prodding him repeatedly in the side "I shall complain later when we go pick our son up. I'm having withdrawal symptoms after not seeing him for a whole 2 hours"
"How do you think I feel? I have to leave my beautiful son and my super irresistible fiancée every morning for hours. It's a hard time." He was about to pull away from the curb outside Rosewood day when he slammed his foot on the break and looked at the brunette "I nearly forgot something!" he practically shouted, scaring the hell out of Spencer.
"What the hell could you have forgotten?"
"This..." He leaned over from his seat behind the steering wheel and kissed the perfect girl that was sat right next to him. He picked her up every Friday on his way home from work because he finished early; it always amused him that whenever he kissed his girlfriend in public they would gave all sorts of mixed reactions from their spectators. Not that what Spencer and Toby did was any of their business; but since they were both suspected murder victims the attention that they gained was inevitable.
"I missed that" Spencer laughed as she pulled her lips away from his and pressed her forehead up against his.
"Miss what?"
"Not caring what people thought every time they saw us together. We've got through so much and all people think when they see us is Alison DiLaurentis. Although now I think they see two 18 year olds with a 5 months old baby."
"I still don't care what they think; I have the two most amazing people in my life and I couldn't care less if they think we're not conventional. At the end of the day we love each other like a couple that is completely in love and we love Elijah like a normal aged couple would love their child."
"Speaking of the child we love so much we should probably go get him before Jason assumes that we're never coming back and have fled to Mexico to escape our troubled past" Within seconds they were back on the road in the direction of Jason DiLaurentis'.
"Jason, Elijah?" Spencer called as she unlocked the front door after they had spent nearly 5 minutes knocking vigorously. "Jase, are you here?"
"Jason" Toby called out from behind his girlfriend. They walked through the hallway of the apartment at looked into the kitchen and dining room before Toby came to the living room. He let out a soft chuckle as he opened the door wider to show Spencer the sight in front of him. There in the middle of the room was a Elijah sat propped up with pillows; laughing at the noises that were escaping Jason's sleeping mouth.
"Hey little man" Spencer's voice was soft and loving. Before Eli was born she would have hated the idea of someone falling asleep whilst looking after her child but she however had come to terms with the fact that it was incredibly tiring. Despite Jason not having to wake up with the baby throughout the night it still hit you once you had to juggle changing, feeding, entertaining and taking Eli out for a walk even in the shortest of time.
His podgy arms flung out in front of him and his hands opened and closed signalling that he wanted his momma. Before Spencer could get to him the amount of wriggling he was doing meant that he was losing his balance and he slumped sideways into the pillows letting out a disgruntled sigh.
"Wake up Sleeping Beauty" Toby started shaking his brother-in-law-to-be whilst trying to stifle the laughs that were trying to escape from seeing him like this "I think you're scaring your nephew"
"Just leave him, I'll leave him a note and tell him to come round to ours later with everyone else. Just take chubs so I can find some paper" She handed the chubby little boy with the big blue eyes and curly brown hair to his father. As Elijah got older it startled the couple about just how much he looked like Spencer; the only thing that made it obvious that he was Toby's son was the fact that he had such huge oceanic eyes that you would fall in love with at a glance. He however was the most beautiful baby they had ever seen; that made the cutest noises to match. Even when he was crying there was something about it that made it impossible for you to get annoyed or angry.
Hey Sleeping Beauty,
Just so you don't think your nephew got kidnapped we left you a note; he is safely with his parents and all is well. Just reminding you that everyone's coming round to ours later so we can figure out what to do about Jenna/Courtney and –A. They're all coming at around half 6-7ish and getting food.
See you then,
Love ya, Spencer.
xo
She stuck the piece of paper to his forehead with some cellotape to make sure that he wouldn't miss it and start freaking out about where a child that can't even sit up by himself yet disappeared to.
"Right, its 3 o'clock and everyone will be at ours for around half 6. We have 3 and a half hours to do whatever we please." Spencer said as she put Elijah in his car seat and fastened him into the car that she had left at Jason's earlier that afternoon. "I'll meet you back at the apartment and so we can drop the truck off and how about we go to the mall? We need to get him some new clothes because he's barely fitting everything else at the moment"
"Sounds like a plan to me my dear; I think we should get Jason something for taking on the task of looking after our child while we get our lives straight as well" Toby shouted out of the window of his truck.
"Yeah that's a good idea, I'll see you back home in ten then." Making sure that the car seat was properly fastened she shut the door and got into her own side "drive carefully, I love you"
"I will do Spence, see you in ten. I love you too"
"I swear Eli; your father's driving will be the death of me one day. He worries me sometimes." It was true; Toby was possibly the safest of drivers when he had any of his family in the car but as soon as it was just him he became the most unstable of drivers she had ever seen. He was painful to drive behind even on short distances so they could drop a car off.
4 hours later the final member of the party had arrived as Jason stepped over the threshold of the apartment with a bottle of red wine for Spencer and a crate of beer for Toby. Since they weren't legally allowed to buy their own alcohol he would do them the honour of supplying them with the goods every few weeks because parenting was a hard gig and they definitely deserved to let their hair down every so often.
"Hey Toby, I'm so sorry about the falling asleep thing earlier. I didn't get much sleep last night and he seemed pretty fussy today so it all just caught up on me"
"Its fine Jase, Spencer just laughed it off so you're in the clear. She might have been laughing at the fact that your nephew was sat there pulling on various strands of hair and laughing at the noises he got out of it.
"I swear to god that will never happen again. Mainly because I don't fancy waking up again with paper cuts all over my nose"
"She didn't want you to start freaking out before you read the note so that was the best thing she could come up with. But, you best come through everyone is in there starving."
"Finally, wonder boy returns" Hanna shouted from her place on the sofa with Caleb and a wide eyed Elijah "You know we're all starving here, about to die from malnourishment"
"Sorry Han I woke up about an hour ago and had to get ready and go to the shop to get their daily dose of alcohol"
"Let's all blame Elijah then, for being so tiring" Spencer added as she brought the huge pizza into the living room after it had been in the oven keeping warm. "Everybody dig in"
5 minutes later everyone had their slice of the massive pizza and was sat back with their significant other, apart from Mike who had a dribbling Eli sat on his knee trying to reach out and grab the food in front of him.
"Well that's me enduring a five hour session at the gym tomorrow morning then" the soon-to-be-bride remarked as she patted her flat stomach. It hadn't taken her much time at all to lose her baby weight because there wasn't much of it but now that she was getting married she wanted to look her best.
"Spence if you go to the gym anymore I swear we won't be able to see you" Aria laughed as she poked at her best friend's stomach.
"Well I'd rather not look like a whale in a wedding dress"
"Honey, you couldn't look like a whale in anything; plus you'll have me there to help you pick out the best dress this town has ever seen"
"Thanks Han but I don't think you could work with this; I'm a mess" Aria noticed Toby sat behind her playing with a piece of her long brown hair staring intently at her beautiful features.
"I think someone disagrees with you there" The tiny brunette girl whispered covering her mouth whilst looking up at Toby. His cheeks turned a bright shade of red to match Spencer's.
"She could show up at the altar wearing sweats with her hair scraped back and I would still think she was the most beautiful girl in the world"
"You have to say that, you're biased"
"Just because I'm marrying you doesn't mean that I'm biased; I'd still think it if I weren't marrying you anyway"
"Actually, while everyone's here I meant to suggest that we pick a date for the wedding. We wanted to plan the entire thing with you guys, obviously with a few personal preferences but it would mean more to us if you had some input as well" Spencer urged towards the other members of the group. She wasn't entirely sure what they would say to this suggestion after all it could prove to be a lot of hard work especially with the infamous Spencer Hastings running it all.
"Spence, you know we'd love to help you out. Besides I know Hanna has been putting together a huge wedding folder since Christmas; she's obsessed" Caleb laughed as he watched his blonde girlfriend's cheeks turn a bright shade of pink, no one knew that she had been waiting for Spencer to ask for some ideas so she could present her with her folder.
"Seriously Han? Maybe we should just leave it in your capable hands; I know this is definitely your place. Toby and I would love to see some of your ideas; wouldn't we Toby?"
"It would make sense, all we know is that we want to have it this year and obviously you three will be Spencer's bridesmaids. Other than that we have wedding block; if that even exists"
"You know I'd love to help you plan your wedding Spence; I'll bring the folder by at some point like next week or something if that's fine with you? Oh and Toby, I'd start thinking about who you want your best man to be" As soon as Hanna said that Toby could feel the four pairs of eyes staring at him relentlessly.
"You Toby, who's your best man going to be?" Ezra said slowly, like he was being sarcastic.
"Oh God. I hadn't thought about that. What's the fair way of deciding something like this? Is there a specific best man protocol?"
"We should have a best man wars, the guy that can think of the funniest times they have ever shared with Toby and the girls will be judges. Whoever gets the most laughs wins" Mike suggested
"That is absolutely genius Mike! Saves me a job too"
"And Spencer you should probably think about who your head bridesmaid is going to be" Aria added
"I know that Hanna is helping to plan the wedding and you all mean the same amount to me because I love you all so much but I think this one is once for my sister. I think it could really help me and Melissa plus she actually enjoys spending time around me lately so you never know"
"I think you made a good choice there little sister; Mel will be pleased. But where do I come in with all of this? Obviously Dad is going to walk you down the aisle which leaves me with nothing"
"Jason, you can be my moral support. The idea of spending the rest of my life with that lunatic is bound to put some strain on me" Spencer laughed in reply to her brother.
Spencer's phone vibrated loudly on the coffee table bringing everyone out of their animated conversations.
Ding Dong. It's all wedding bells and pretty dresses but it doesn't matter how white the gown is, a liar is never pure. Forever the blushing bride Spence. –A
As soon as she read the text everyone in the room noticed her perfect features drop and all of the colour run from her face. This was a tell tale sign of who had sent the text.
"Spencer, what's the matter baby?" Toby had reached out to grab the devise that had dropped from her fragile hands; reading the text aloud to the rest of the group they all watched as Spencer slowly came to the realisation that something had to be done.
"I can't do this anymore" Was all that would come out of her mouth although she wanted to shout so much more "I'm sick of being manipulated by whomever the fuck this person is. If my wedding day gets ruined because of this person- this thing then I won't be held responsible for my actions."
"Spencer honey, it's alright nothing is going to ruin your wedding day. We won't let it" Aria reassured her best friend as she watched her trying to fight back all the tears that she didn't want to fall around her friends.
"No Aria, there is a high chance that something will because this is –A we're talking about. This person doesn't know what it's like to feel compassion and love so why would they care about me getting married. I'm sick of this; I want this over and done with once and for all"
"And how do you suggest we do that?" Emily added
"We talk to Jenna."
"Spencer, are you crazy? She doesn't know that we know so it could end pretty badly especially if she is –A" Hanna gasped
"Just think about it Hanna, Jenna is the only person that would actually care about mine and Toby's wedding day. If we go to her we could have potentially found –A"
"Yeah but how do you suggest we confront her about that? 'Oh hey Jenna, we know that you're some psycho bitch for so many different reasons but by any chance do you have anything to do with –A?' because for some reason I think she'd like flip "
"Well it's a risk I'm willing to take because it I don't want to be looking over my shoulder on my wedding day Hanna, I thought you'd understand that" Spencer was stalking to get angry now, knowing full well that not everyone would be appreciate how important this was to her.
"Spence baby, calm down. We will sort this out but maybe be need to rethink how we do it" Toby stroked his fiancée's hair in his best attempt at calming her down.
"No Toby, I can't calm down. How can this not bother you? You obviously don't care about our wedding at all do you?"
"Spencer you know that I care about our wedding but I don't think you should go talking to Jenna all guns blazing because if you accuse her of something she didn't do there's more chance she'll get pissed and actually done something"
"Whatever, I'll leave it to you guys to sort out then. Maybe then something can get done within the next 10 years but I swear Toby, we are not getting married until we know who –A is so if you're serious about this then I'd buck your ideas up" Spencer pulled herself up from the couch and took her son from Mike before stalking off down the hall and locking herself in the nursery away from everyone else.
"I don't know what the hell's wrong with her" Hanna sighed as she took the situation into account
"Jesus Hanna, I think you'd be pretty pissed too if you realised that there was someone out there trying to potentially ruin your like life or something. You know how much this means to her as well Han so please just support her because she needs it right now" Aria spoke up, out of all the girls she was the one to be most on Spencer's side. She was also the most protective over Spencer because she knew that she had a far from easy life.
"Why are you suddenly sticking up for her Aria? She's being crazy. That idea of hers could potentially get us into more shit than we already are and we all know that she would be the first one to complain"
"You know what Hanna, why don't you just leave because you really aren't doing any good here. If you're not willing to help then go"
"What the hell is wrong with you two? I swear me and Em are the only sane ones here"
"Hanna just go, Aria's right" Emily whispered from her place on the floor.
"You know what, I will leave. Come on Caleb, it's obvious we're not wanted her"
"You're not welcome here while you're acting like this Hanna" Aria stood up to stared at Hanna as she pulled Caleb out the door.
"Spencer, are you alright?" Mike knocked on the nursery door cautiously, the sound of Spencer sobbing inside.
"Please just leave me alone"
"I can't do that Spence; we need to know you're alright"
"Do I sound alright to you? Please just leave me the hell alone"
"Mike, I'll take it from here" Toby patted his shoulder appreciatively before he unlocked the door and opened it wide enough to see the beautiful brunette girl sat in the rocking chair he had made for her, crying her heart out.
"Baby please don't cry"
"Go away Toby." She wiped her eyes vigorously trying to remove any trace of her emotions.
"I'm not going anywhere; you're stuck with me forever"
"Please Toby, just leave me alone"
"Spencer, just listen to me. I would wait forever to marry you and to know that we will have the most perfect day imaginable because that's what you deserve; if that means waiting a year, two years, three years or even ten years then I will wait because I want to know that both you and Eli are safe and away from harm"
"If you want to find out who –A is then why are you fighting me on this? You were just as bad as Hanna who practically committed me to a mental asylum for wanting to end this"
"It wasn't that bad Spence, she just doesn't think you're being rational and I get where she's coming from"
A deadly silence filled the air of the nursery once Toby had said that; it dawned on him that this was the calm before the storm. Within seconds Spencer was up and out of the rocking chair and rushing out of the room trying to hide her anger.
"Spencer where are you going?" Toby stood up and followed her out of the room
"Where am I going? I'm getting out of our son's room before I go well and truly ape shit"
"What? Spencer please just think about this, if you went in to talk to Jenna exactly how you are now then we would be further away from getting answers with potentially an extremely psycho bitch on our hands. Is that what you want?"
"No but I'd rather you all stopped thinking I was crazy and actually help me out a bit. I'm tired of being the one that everyone comes to when they either need something doing or need a plan to be made because you know what, it's not my responsibility. For once in my life I would like to take a back seat and just be a part of a plan instead of having to be the one to think it up and plan it and put it into action because none of you will do it. But you are always the first people to criticise me when I do say something that could be a bit crazy because you know what, that is exactly how I feel. I'm 18 years old with a baby and I'm engaged along with having some psycho bitch stalking me and threatening my child, I have a right to go crazy when it comes to my child and my wedding. If Hanna or anyone else doesn't appreciate that then they can just fuck off" The look of pure rage that was in Spencer's eyes at that particular moment in time was enough to terrify a whole group of convicts. No one should ever be on the wrong side of Spencer Hastings but unfortunately for Toby Hanna had rattled the cage and left him to feel her wrath.
"Is that seriously how you feel?"
"Toby, you try spending a day looking after a baby while trying to keep on top of work then being expected to think of something to get to the bottom of whoever the fuck –A is. Then tell me that I'm being crazy"
"I'm so sorry Spencer" A sudden wave of realisation hit Toby as he thought about just how much Spencer actually had to deal with and he wasn't doing all he could to make it easier for her. After all he had been the one to get her into this situation with Elijah and he had promised to do everything in his power to stop –A but so far all he had done was listen to what Spencer had said. "From now on I don't want you to worry about –A. We will take care of it because we all want what's best for you"
"That's not what I'm saying; I just want some of the pressure to be taken off me because as much as I am used to it, I am actually cracking here"
"I know Spence" Toby was by her side in a second, taking her into his loving arms and making all well again. That feeling of safeness that she only got with him came flooding back in the seconds that she was encased in his embrace. "I love you"
"I love you too Toby, I love you so much"
AN: Hi guys, just wanted to say sorry if this one seemed like it was ridiculously long. Please tell me if you prefer the chapters to be less often but like this long or more often and like half the size? I really appreciate your feedback. Thank you! -Chloe :-)xx
