Later that night, Spencer was sitting in the living room watching the last period of the Flyers game with her father.
"You two are still watching hockey?" Veronica said, pouring herself a cup of tea.
"Of course." Peter said. "Baseball season's over, what else are we supposed to watch?...Do you have your bags all packed?"
"Just about." Veronica said.
"You're going somewhere?" Spencer asked, looking up at her mother.
"Pittsburgh." Veronica said. "I have a meeting with a client...I'm going upstairs. Goodnight."
"Night, mom."
"Don't stay up too late." Veronica patted her husband's shoulder as she walked by.
"I guess we're gonna have to fend for ourselves with both your mother and sister gone, huh sport?" Peter laughed, placing his arm around his daughter.
"I guess so." Spencer laughed.
"I should probably be heading upstairs." Spencer said, standing up from the couch, when the hockey game ended. "I think I'll read a little bit before bed."
"All right. Goodnight, Spence." Peter said.
"Night, dad."
Spencer then disappeared up the stairs and to her room.
Peter was about five minutes into the local nightly news broadcast when he heard a cell phone chime. He pulled his own phone out of his pocket, but there didn't seem to be any new notifications. A moment later he noticed Spencer's phone sitting on the coffee table, face down. Peter stood up and picked up the phone to take it upstairs to his daughter. The phone then chimed a second time in Peter's hand. He glanced down at the screen to see that Spencer had two new text messages. The messages were from Emily, who Spencer had listed in her contacts simply as 'Emily,' with two pink heart icons on either side of the name. Peter stared at Spencer's lock screen behind the text notification at the phone's wallpaper. It was a photo collage. He immediately recognized Emily Fields in two of the photos with his daughter. One photo was of Spencer with her arms wrapped around Emily as they posed in front of the fountain in Love Park. The other was of Spencer and Emily kissing in front of the very same fountain. Peter stared at the screen, not blinking for a few long moments, he couldn't even believe what he was seeing.
"Hey, dad, have you seen my phone?" Spencer asked, walking back downstairs.
Peter didn't immediately speak, but only turned around with the phone in his right hand. Spencer noticed a look of anger in her father's eyes.
"You have a hell of a lot of explaining to do." Peter pressed the power button on the phone, bringing up the lock screen again, as he handed the phone to his daughter.
"Dad...I..." Spencer was a at a complete loss for words.
"What exactly is going on, Spencer?" Peter said, sternly. "I want the truth and I want it right now."
Spencer closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.
"Emily and I have been seeing each other...okay? You weren't supposed to find out like this..."
"The whole time she's been working here, you two have been screwing around and lying to your mother and I." Peter said, angrily, his eyes never leaving his daughter.
"Not the whole time..."
"Veronica!" Peter's voice rang out through the house.
"Mom already knows and so does Melissa."
"You're not to see Emily again." Peter snapped. "She's done here. As of tomorrow morning, she's fired."
"You can't do that." Spencer spat back.
"I'll do what ever I damn well please in my house…I can't believe this. She's too old for you..."
A moment later, Veronica appeared on the staircase.
"What is all the yelling about?" Veronica asked, tightening the belt of her robe around her waist as she walked down the stairs.
"You knew Spencer was having a relationship with our architect and you didn't tell me?" Peter yelled, unable to control the volume of his voice.
"First of all, you need to calm down." Veronica said.
"How am I supposed to calm down?" Peter snapped. "Emily was hired here to do a job, which I paid her good money to do. I'm not paying her to hit on my daughter. This is totally unprofessional and inappropriate. I'm not allowing it."
"Don't blame Emily." Spencer said, a few tears welling up in her eyes. "If you're going to blame someone, blame me. I'm the one who went after her. She didn't do anything wrong."
"I don't even care who started it. Either way, she's old enough to know better. Acting on any advance you made was the wrong thing to do."
"Spencer, honey, go up to your room. Let your father and I talk about this." Veronica said, calmly.
Spencer wiped a tear from her eye and walked up the stairs, stopping when she was out of sight, but still in ear shot of her parents, on the top landing of the staircase.
"Peter. Why are you so upset? What's really bothering you about all of this?" Veronica asked. "Is it because Emily's a woman? Are you upset because Spencer is gay?"
"Emily's lucky she's a woman. If it had been a twenty three year old man screwing around with my eighteen year old daughter, he'd be dead right now. How long has this been going on?"
"Probably close to two months, now. But, I only found out about two weeks ago."
"Part of the reason I hired a female architect was so that I wouldn't have to worry about any men trying anything with my daughters. Besides that, Emily is entirely too old for Spencer and I don't want them seeing each other."
"I'm not exactly thrilled that Emily's five years older either, but she's a sweet kid, who treats our daughter with love and respect..."
"She lied to us, Veronica. Both of them did."
"Can you blame them? Spencer was afraid to tell you the truth. She was only trying to protect Emily. She thought you'd overreact and fire her."
"I'm not overreacting, but she's damn right Emily's getting fired. I thought she was a professional, but obviously I misjudged her. We can't trust her. When Emily walks through that door tomorrow morning, I'm firing her and that's final."
"You can't fire her." Veronica said. "I already paid her for the rest of the job."
"Why would you do that? That gives a person absolutely no incentive to finish a job on time or to do it right."
"Despite what you think, I trust Emily and I know she'll take care of everything."
"Fine. Then, I'm going to be here every day for the rest of the week, until the job is done so that I can keep an eye on Emily, I don't want her and Spencer alone together."
"Peter, you're being ridiculous, not to mention completely unreasonable."
"No, I'm not. What kind of father would I be if I let my high school daughter date a construction worker?"
"She's an architect and a perfectly respectable person, who you liked just fine until a few minutes ago. You've been raving about her to everyone since she started working here."
"That was before I knew she was messing around with my daughter. You know how construction workers are, who knows what goes through their filthy little minds. They think about one thing and one thing only. I don't want Spencer to be the object of that."
"Don't stereotype Emily. She's not like that at all. The girl goes to church every Sunday and she even calls you 'sir.' You're worrying for no reason, they aren't having sex."
"How the hell would you know?" Peter snapped.
Veronica narrowed her eyes, slightly taken aback by her husband's tone.
"Spencer and I had an open, honest discussion. I asked if she and Emily were sexually active, she told me they aren't."
"And you believe that? Do you really think she'd tell you if they were?"
"As a matter of fact, I do. Spencer feels like she can be honest with me because I've treated this situation with sensitivity and understanding. She could have used a little of both of those things from her father tonight. You could try being supportive. Your youngest daughter just came out to you and you respond by losing your temper, yelling at her and telling her she's not allowed to see her girlfriend. Kids get emotionally scarred over things like that, Peter."
"I don't know how you can be so accepting. If Spencer's gay, that's fine, but I will not allow this relationship to continue. Not in my house."
"You can't force them to break up. You realize that's only going to make Spencer hate you and drive her closer to Emily. You can't help who you fall for. At least Spencer is with someone who respects her and treats her well. Those relationships aren't as easy to come by nowadays. We've always taught our girls to be passionate and confident and to go after what they want. We don't have any right to be angry at Spencer for doing just that."
"Clearly we aren't going to see eye to eye on this matter." Peter said, indifferently.
"Why don't you sleep on it. Maybe things will look differently in the morning."
"How can you tell me to sleep? I'm too angry to sleep." Peter said, pacing about the room.
"Fine. Stay up and be angry. I'm going to go upstairs and try to comfort our daughter, who's probably up in her room crying her eyes out right now. Feel free to come up and apologize to her, but if you decide not to, don't bother coming to bed."
Veronica then walked out of the room and headed upstairs.
Upon hearing Veronica's footsteps on the stairs, Spencer turned and headed into her room. She sat down on her bed and wiped away a few tears as they slipped down her cheek.
"Don't worry, honey. Everything's going to be fine." Veronica sat down next to her daughter and brushed a stray stand of hair away from her face.
"It's not fair, mom." Spencer sobbed. "Emily's been nothing but sweet to me the entire time I've known her and now dad hates her. This is all my fault."
"It's nobody's fault, Spencer. I think your father's just going to need some time to adjust to the idea of you and Emily as a couple...what made you decide to tell him, tonight?"
"I didn't. I left my phone downstairs by accident and he found it. He saw a picture of Emily and I on it. Mom...you can't fly to Pittsburgh tomorrow. Please don't go. You can't leave me alone with dad."
"I have to go, I can't get out of this meeting, but I won't be gone for long. I promise you, everything will be okay." Veronica hugged her daughter and gently began stroking her hair.
"Emily's gonna be so mad at me." Spencer said as she clung tightly to her mother.
"This isn't your fault and it's not Emily's fault either. Your father will come around. I don't think Emily's going anywhere."
"I need to call her...I can't let her blindly walk in here tomorrow morning, thinking everything's fine."
"I think that's a good idea. Tell her not to worry, I'm not letting your father fire her."
"Thank you for being so supportive of us. It means a lot to me." Spencer leaned forward and hugged her mother again. "I love you."
"I love you too. I'll give you some privacy so you can call Emily. I'll probably be gone before you wake up tomorrow, but I'll be back as soon as I can. We'll get everything straightened out with your father. Don't stress yourself out about it."
"Thanks, mom."
Veronica smiled at her daughter and placed her thumb over the indentation in Spencer's chin, before leaning forward and kissing her daughter on the forehead. Veronica then stood up and walked out of the room.
Spencer picked up her phone and quickly called Emily's number. After waiting three rings, Emily picked up.
"Hey, Spence. What's up?" Emily said.
"Em…we need to talk."
"Is everything okay?" Emily asked, concerned that Spencer's voice sounded weak and frail.
"Please don't get upset, but my dad accidentally found out about us…"
"Oh God." Emily panicked. "How'd he take it?"
"Not very well. He wanted to fire you, but my mom wouldn't let him. He doesn't want us to see each other. He said he's gonna be home for the rest of the week so he can keep an eye on you, because he doesn't want us to be alone together. Em…I'm so sorry…"
Spencer's sentences ran together and Emily could tell that she was crying.
"Spence, calm down. Don't cry, you don't have anything to be sorry for. Your dad was bound to find out sooner or later. Things will definitely be awkward tomorrow, but I'll get through it. I love you and I'll make sure your dad knows that. Nothing is going to keep me away from you. I promise."
Emily's voice was calm, but her heart was racing a mile a minute in her chest.
"You mean it?"
"Of course I do. There's nothing your dad can do to me that would change the way I feel about you, so don't you dare worry your pretty little head about it. Not even for a minute."
"I love you so much, Em."
"I love you too. Why don't you try to get some sleep? You do still have school tomorrow, you know."
"I'll try, but I don't know how much sleep I'll actually get."
"You have to sleep. How else are you supposed to dream about me?" Emily laughed.
Spencer let out a slight chuckle on the other end of the line.
"Sweet dreams, Spence…goodnight."
"Night, Em."
Once Emily had ended the call, she tossed her phone on to her bed and sat down. Emily rested her elbows on her knees and placed her chin in her hands. She stared straight ahead at the wall in front of her.
"God, I'm so screwed." Emily sighed.
Just wanted to add in a quick author's note, unrelated to this story. If you guys are into PLL AU stories or just looking for an interesting read, check out the story "Control" by HugzForFree. It's an AU Spemily story. Spencer's an English teacher, Emily's a student. It's only got three chapters so far, but it's shaping up to be a good read so far. Check it out. :)
-Fender18