A/N: The following chapter contains mature whump content. Please be warned.
"Any change?" Emily asked hopefully as she entered the room.
"No." Ali stoically replied, still seemingly in a daze from the revelation of her new-found cousin.
"How's Toby?" Aria asked.
Emily's brow furrowed, "Just about the same as Spencer," she said sadly as she looked at the shell of her friend who laid before her.
Spencer's face was paler than ever, especially under the harsh hospital fluorescents. Her gaunt frame was dwarfed even more by all the wires and tubes hooked up to her. The deafening mechanical hum of the ventilator filled the room's silence, making its overwhelming presence known.
It was clear that all the girls had been crying, their eyes puffy and makeup smudged. One of their own was teetering on the brink of death, and there was nothing they could do – no clue to follow, no text to decipher, no plan to execute. But that was because they were lost without her, without the steadfast Spencer Hastings who always had a plan and always knew what to say in the most impossible of situations they seemed to find themselves in time after time. But this was different. This time, all they could do was wait.
Emily sat down next to Hanna who held on tightly to Spencer's hand – the one that wasn't nestled in a sling.
"We're all here. We're right here, Spence, please wake up. Spencer…pl-ease." Hanna pleaded as Emily leaned her weary head on Hanna's shoulder.
…Spence…please…wake up…"
Her head felt heavy as she roused, stirred by a familiar voice. She squinted as the blinding white fluorescents above greeted her with harsh rays. Everything felt cloudy.
Where am I?
"You're awake! You'll feel a little groggy. Don't worry you'll get used to it," Charlotte said nonchalantly.
Spencer tried to sit up but felt a suffocating grip around her body. She lifted her head as high as she could only to peer down the bridge of her nose to see bulky tan fabric encasing her body.
"Let me out of this!" Her breath quickened as she realized her movement was constrained with her arms wrapped tightly against her own body.
"We can't do that. We had to restrain you, you know, for your own protection and the protection of those around you. Because you see, Spencer, wherever you go, people get hurt."
"Shut up!" Spencer yelled back defiantly.
"Oh, I hit a nerve, didn't I? Oh, no big deal. It's only a matter of time before we numb that out too and you won't feel a thing at all."
"You're sick."
"No, Spencer, you're sick, and we have to get you the proper treatment."
Spencer felt something wet being applied to her temples and a paralyzing fear gripped her even more firmly than the straitjacket had.
"No, n-no, Charlotte. Please don't. Why are you doing this?" She pleaded, "Charlotte, pl-"
"Shhh," Charlotte interrupted by roughly shoving something into Spencer's mouth. "It'll be over soon."
Spencer heard the squeak of a charged frequency before she saw white — hot and blinding.
Yvonne was just about to re-enter Toby's room when she saw Emily there. She stepped back to give them some privacy but not before overhearing Emily's plea, "Toby, Spencer's in trouble. It's really bad, and I'm…scared. If not for me, or even Yvonne, please wake up for Spencer. She needs you. Wake up, Toby."
The words stung. A little part of her always suspected that Toby never got over his first love. But at this instant, she didn't even care. If that's what it would take to bring him back. She could live with that.
Emily suddenly noticed Yvonne in the doorway and started packing up her things to leave. "Yvonne….I…what I said."
"It's okay…"
Yvonne broke the uncomfortable silence with a question, "What were you listening to just now?" she noted as Emily removed the headphone she had been sharing with Toby.
"Oh, it's this band we used to talk about all the time — Circa Survive…I know it's dumb. He can't really hear, I just thought…"
"No, it's not dumb, Emily. It's really thoughtful of you. Mind if we just play it on speaker for a bit?"
"Not at all."
Emily turned on her phone's speaker and there they sat - Yvonne on one side holding Toby's hand and Emily on the other, both willing him to come back to them.
The first jolt was unlike anything Spencer had ever felt. The pain burned through her with such calculated ease, hitting what felt like every single nerve in her body at full force.
She clenched her teeth as closely as she could, the object in her mouth stifling her screams.
Was she screaming? Could she even? She couldn't tell.
It seemed to go on for ages. The pain…it rattled against the inside of her head like a heavy, blunt object rocking her side to side. Yet somehow there was also a cruel fluidly with how it emanated to the rest of her body.
It stopped.
Her body relaxed with a thud onto the table, as sound and sight slowly came back to her. But before she could even begin to register any feeling beyond pain, Charlotte charged up the machine again unrelenting.
"AGAIN!"
"AGAIN!"
"AGAIN!"
Each time seemingly longer than the last.
Blistering pain down to her bones. She tried to catch her breath between zaps. It was heavy…in and out…it was always so hard to just breathe. She had lost control of her body as every muscle clenched and relaxed instinctively from the trauma she was enduring. She felt her limbs go numb as if they would fall to her side and flail…if they could.
Spencer let out a guttural whimper. It was too much.
"C'mon, Spencer. Don't tell me that's all you got — all that electricity jumping around in that big brain of yours. I will say we did start off a little high. But you know, for an overachiever like yourself, that's just par for the course," Charlotte taunted as she wiped a falling tear from the corner of Spencer's eye, the strain of the experience pushing her body to its brink.
"What do you have to say for yourself?"
But Spencer could only protest in panicked grunts as she fought the daze of pain.
Charlotte finally removed the mouthpiece.
Spencer heaved to catch her breath, a thick sheen of sweat covered her face from the strain of it all. She mustered a whisper, "Please…no more."
"Sorry, that's not your call to make…light it up!" Charlotte demanded unmoved not even bothering to reinsert the mouthpiece.
"HE-LP, NOOO! AHHHHHHH."
And then Spencer began to lose control of her thoughts.
This time the heat engulfed her from the outside in. She thought she spotted something, no someone, but it didn't make sense. Is this an out of body experience?
No, she was still on the bed and looking up, but she could've sworn she saw herself staring back at her.
An identical voice started to speak, but the pain had already began to burn away her senses.
Toby felt a gentle caress along his forehead, tucking a soft curl behind his ear.
"Toby, honey, I need you to wake up right now. She needs you."
Toby couldn't quite put a name to the voice. It was warm and comforting, though faint in his memory. Then suddenly it clicked.
"MOM?" he choked out in disbelief as he opened his eyes. Toby tried to lunge up but found himself tied to a bed, unable to move his hands and feet. His mom was nowhere in sight. He was alone.
But who needed him?
That's when he heard a shriek of despair that rattled him to his very core. And he remembered.
"SPENCER!" He called out in vain.
He heard her scream in the next room.
Spencer's in trouble!
He roughly tugged against his restraints, but they were so tight.
Another agonizing howl.
Rage, sadness, desperation — he felt all of it…in her, in him…and began thrashing so violently in the bed that the restraints started cutting into his skin drawing tiny slits of blood.
"Please no! Stop it. SPENCER!"
He hated hearing her in such despair and feeling so powerless to protect her.
He was drenched from his tireless yet futile efforts, sweat mixed freely with his own tears.
Her screams were persistent and showed no signs of abating…until they did.
And he feared the worst. The stillness was mortifying.
"No…Spence?"
Is this it? He wept.
SPENCER!"
He thrashed in the bed over and over, until the force finally flipped the bed over with clumsy clanging. He had banged up his body pretty badly but the adrenaline didn't even let him register it. The momentum had been enough to snap his restraints, and he quickly freed his other hand and feet.
He took off running down the hallway. He could hear the next charge coming. They were still hurting her.
Spencer, please be okay! You have to be.
He barged into the lab but feared that he was too late. Charlotte was mercilessly cranking up the controls of the machine over and over again without regard to the motionless form that lay before her.
BEEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
Hanna stirred.
BEEP BEEEP BEEP BEEP
The machines were sounding off all over the place.
"Spence?"
She was horrified by the sight before her.
"Oh my God, Spence?" she exclaimed seeing her friend seizing in distress.
"Huh, what's happening" a groggy Emily asked as she awoke.
"Get a doctor, now!"
Emily ran out the room.
"Spencer! Spencer, please hold on. Help is on the way," Hanna tried to reassure as she pressed the call button repeatedly with urgency.
"Spencer…st-stay with me," her voice shuddered in fear.
"HELP! I NEED HELP IN HERE!" Hanna shouted as the seizures intensified.
Aria and Allison were just on their way back from a coffee run when they heard frantic footsteps of nurses and doctors running towards Spencer's room. They chased after them fearing the worst.
The girls rushed into the room and saw their friend struggling against her own body, violently shaking. Her hands slowly opening and closing desperately gripping for something to hold onto. Spencer's eyes were open but what they saw terrified them, for it was a look of pure fear. The tenacious Spencer Hastings they knew was nowhere to be seen. Instead they saw an unrecognizable girl with a petrified expression in her eyes – and that haunted them even more.
"Spencer!"
"We need you to step back and let us work," a nurse ushered a distraught Hanna and Emily towards the other girls who hugged them. They stood there all literally holding each other up as they held a collective breath for their friend who was desperately trying to find her own.
"She ripped her stitches."
"Temperature's spiking. She's crashing! Starting chest compressions…"
"Charging…CLEAR!"
Spencer's body lifted up with a strange gentle ease before falling back down to the gurney.
Ali broke down.
Nothing.
Pump. Pump. Pump.
"Again! Charging….CLEAR!"
Please please please, come back.
Pump. Pump. Pump.
Her body was jerking upwards like she was being sucked up by an invisible face contorted with pain. Her eyes remained open yet distant.
And just then her body suddenly relaxed.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEP
Their hearts dropped, the deafening persistence of the machine mocked them.
"NO!"
"Charging….CLEAR!"
"Nothing."
Pump. Pump. Pump.
"Charging….CLEAR!"
BEEEEEEEEEEEEP
Pump. Pum-p…The doctors looked at each other.
No!
"Pleeeease, you can't stop. Please keep trying. You have to keep trying."
"I'm sorry. We did everything we could," the doctor said, "Time of death 2:14."
One by one, the medical team left solemnly, the harsh snaps of the medical gloves being taken off definitively indicating the finality of it all, the termination of hope. There was nothing more that could be done.
In grief, Hanna collapsed onto the floor sobbing.
"No, no, no. This can't be happening. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Spence. It's my fault. It's all my fault. I'm so-so-sorrrryy," Hanna choked out.
Emily crumpled in tears and kneeled down next to Hanna with an embrace.
Aria had collapsed into a chair, audibly sobbing into Ali's shoulder whose own silent tears fell into Aria's hair.
There they sat in silence, unmoving from their spots surrounding their once best friend — fearing that any movement, any words that filled the air would be an acknowledgment of time moving forward…without her, an admission of her absence.
Silently they cried as the reality of losing Spencer set in.
Spencer Hastings was dead. What were they going to do now?