Designed complicity

*** Spencer's narrative (voice-over) ***

Everything you do, it's a reflection of your own character. Of who you have become. Too busy trying to get it all that we forget that the ideal is nothing more than a pose, a lie which never lasts forever. Because the smallest miscalculation can make you fall from height, very height...

"OMG! Someone just jumped from that building!"

People scream when they see someone falling from a building, a woman, a gorgeous girl named…

"Sandy Millers…"

"OMG! The top model?!"

The people recognize the body which has crashed on the street. Was it suicide? Did she jump? Hard to believe such a beautiful angel fell just like that from the sky, especially when there's a heel nailed in her chest. The possibility of this being a suicide is high, a fall from such a distance was definitely a certain death if someone had decided to end its days on Earth. But, was it an accident? Did she really decide to end everything? Or, maybe… just maybe, she got the little push from someone else. In any case, it's not up to the public to decide, but to a particular detective who's working till late in the police station.

"Hastings. Where's Mike?"

"He's visiting his sister in Santa Monica, chief. You gave him the week off, don't you remember?"

The captain sighs, it's very late and he had no intention to give this case to the newbie but there's no other detective around so…

"The paperwork can wait, Hastings. Here, new case, go, now and do not make me look bad…"

It's around 2am when Spencer parks close to the scene, she's shocked to see so many paparazzi on the crime scene at this hour.

"What the hell?"

Spencer mumbles to herself when she gets out of the car and closes the door. Why are there so many people here already? She wonders, so focused on what her eyes see that she puts no attention to her surroundings till someone approaches from behind and says...

"Exactly, what the hell, Spencer?! What took you so long?!"

The brunette detective jumps, a little scared till she recognizes the voice.

"Geez, Ali! Do not scare me like that!"

"AD, AD! How many times will I've to tell you to call me…"

"AD, I know, I know… anyway, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here for the case, what else would it be?"

"What? Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'? Remember, we're partners, so let's catch bad guys…"

Spencer sighs, she recalls their conversation before leaving Rosewood but there's no way in hell her superior will approve such a thing. But, just like in high school, it seems Alison will get what she wants, especially when Spencer doesn't address the subject and just changes the subject.

"AD, how did you know about this case? Who told you?"

"I rule this city, no one told me… other than the news on the TV"

"What?"

"She was a celebrity after all, it's obvious this is already local news…"

Spencer understands now why there's so much press around. Great, her first case on her own and it has to be one in the public eye. Taking a deep breath, the detective gets her pad and pencil ready. Old fashion you might think but, it's what inspires Spencer to do the best questions to solve a case. And, she needs to solve this case on her own after all, Mike is off for the week. 'You'll do just fine' He said. 'I trust you' He said before taking some days off. He hasn't taken a holiday in years, so the fact that he trusts Spencer enough to do that, it's a big deal. Maybe that's why Spencer doesn't stop to mumble to herself like a mantra that...

"I can solve this case on my own, I can do it, I… can't believe you're here before me!"

Spencer angrily says when she realizes that the blonde was waiting for her, with two coffees in hand.

"Alison…"

"AD, I'm AD, do not dare call me otherwise if you really want this Expresso"

The brunette rolls her eyes and just walks by, grabbing her cup of coffee from the blonde's hand. She whispers a thanks, to which Alison just nods. And, while they walk towards the crowd, Alison hesitates, a picture of her in the news is something she doesn't want, so she proposes a more discreet path.

"Here, I've got an idea…"

Spencer has no time to ask a thing, she just sees how the blonde drags her by the arm towards the empty hall which is on the other side of the building.

"Let's enter using the emergency exit…"

"What the-?! Don't push me!"

It wasn't under discussion, Alison just pushed Spencer in without asking further questions.

"Excuse me, but I need to check on the body first!"

"There's nothing to see in the street, the forensics already took the body to the morgue"

"What?! Oh, hell no! They've to wait for me to give the order, I…" (Sighs) "I can't believe no one follows my orders around here, especially you!"

"What order?"

"I asked you to stop pushing me around, and what are you doing right now?!"

The blonde looks at them, at her arms, pushing the back of Spencer to climb the stairs and she just shrugs with a big smirk on her face, amused to see how Spencer rolls her eyes. Already looking exhausted, the dear detective stops resisting and climbs the stairs in silence till the girl, who's behind her, dares to ask…

"Where is the old man?"

"Old man…? OMG! Are you talking about Mike?! My partner?!"

"I'm your partner…"

Spencer freezes right there, spinning around so fast that she almost over balances if it wasn't because Alison holds her from the upper arms, making sure she stays steady.

"Careful, you don't want to fall too, just like the girl of our case"

"Our case…?"

"Don't look so shocked, Spencer, it was you who told me to be your partner in Rosewood, don't you remember?"

"Well, yeah, but…"

"But, what?"

Looking at those blue eyes, Spencer realizes she can't take back what she said, no if she wants to dissipate the mistrust reflected in those blue eyes.

"Spencer…?"

"The old man, Mike, is taking a week off. I'm the lead detective in this case so, I'm making the questions and the decisions, okay? You just watch and stay behind me all the time"

AD doesn't like to follow, she likes to lead, but she will allow it, for now. Already in the penthouse, where the victim has supposedly jumped, they both entered, not shocked to see that all the cops on the scene show no respect for having Spencer around. Let's be honest, she's the newbie on the team and now they have to follow her orders? Hell no! And, no one better than Alison knows how annoying it can be to follow Spencer's order, but, if they don't respect her, that's an issue for her and the case, especially because…

'I'm hungry' Hears Alison inside her mind. And, she gets it, she has to feed Venom soon. With a killer would be nice, so the faster they get a lead to the killer, the sooner she will be able to calm down her inner demon. The issue is when they finally arrive at the penthouse of the victim and the blonde realizes the rest of the cops don't like Spencer.

"Really, Spencer, you just arrived here, in the city and you already made everyone hate you…"

Spencer doesn't say a word, she knows no cop likes to receive orders from the newbie and since she got into the police station all she has been trying to do is to tell people how they should do their job. That's why no one is cooperating with them. And, if the cops have no intention to respect Spencer's authority in the case, then Alison will make sure they respect her…

"Everyone out!"

"AD, what are you doing?!"

Spencer asks, not sure what Alison is trying to prove here. But, she's proving nothing more than she can rule every place, just like she did back in Rosewood.

"If you're not willing to stay and follow Spencer's orders, you better leave now or you'll have to deal with me"

Spencer wants to say something, but when she sees all the cops and the rest of the technical team leave, she's speechless because…

"I'm on my own…"

"No, you're not. I'm here too, Spencer, so, stop whining and let's catch the one who did this…"

"She might just jump…"

"She wasn't a jumper"

"How can you be so sure she just didn't jump?"

"How can you be so sure she jumped by her own will?"

Both girls stare at each other, no one looking ready to back out and at this point, they could continue this challenging gaze's battle all night but, Spencer has a case to solve so, she looks down, playing defeat for now, till she finds any proof that could label this case as a suicide but looking around, this was far to be sold like a suicide.

"And I thought my place was chaotic…"

Spencer mumbles while she walks around. The place is far from looking impeccable. Clothes all over the floor, boxes of takeaways piled everywhere and let's not talk about the mixed smell of dirty laundry and what might have been the rest of a pizza on another day. Did a top model really live here? Like this? Hard to believe, but not as hard as to find out that there was a little paper note on the floor that caught Spencer's eye.

"This is the goodbye, P."

Spencer reads the note and Alison asks if this might be her suicide note. The detective is not so sure it's a suicide note, the 'P' in the end might mean something important and that's why she keep the little piece of paper like evidence. They keep looking around and find something else.

"There's a false wall here…"

"What? How do you know, Spence?"

The detective points out the dimension of the bathroom and the distance of the wall on the other side doesn't match.

"Smart ass…"

"Shut up, AD and help me to find a way to… aha! A secret room!"

Spencer looks so happy when she finds the secret door to a hideout. The hideout of a thief of…

"Shoes…? She has a secret room filled with shoes?! A crime really happened because of this?"

"What is a crime, Spencer, it's that you've no clue of what you've in front of your eyes! All these are designer shoes and some of them cost more than your salary"

"Maybe you're right, but it's really worth killing for it?"

In another time, Alison would have definitely killed for some of these pairs. Dior, Louis V, you name it, all the big names are here. Some rare editions, and more catch Alison's eyes, but not more than what she finds when she inspects one shoe and the heel cracks.

"Damn it, AD! You broke it! This is evidence! I can't believe it, I…"

"You need to look at what is inside the heel…"

"Huh? What do you mean? What…. the hell?! Are those diamonds?!"

Nothing is what it seems. Our eyes just perceive a fraction of reality. So, we need to pay attention to every little detail. And, that's what Spencer plans to do when she overviews the autopsy report in the morgue.

"For the millionth time, detective! She died by the fall!"

"You say that, but there was a shoe nailed on her chest!"

"Yes, but that's not what killed her!"

Alison rolls her eyes, already annoyed about hearing Spencer and the forensic doctor arguing. The autopsy doesn't show anything relevant, and Spencer, pissing off the forensic team is not gonna help them to find any clue at all.

"Are you done, Spencer or do you need another hour to rant?"

"Shut up, AD! They are not cooperating with the case!"

"Oh, no, they're not cooperative with YOU! Geez, Spencer, a bit of charm would open so many doors for you. Have I taught you nothing?"

The detective rolls her eyes, she knows she has no talent to charm people to do what she wants. But thankfully, that's Alison's best skill. Less than 5 minutes of Alison chatting with the doctor, and lots of laughs later, the blonde gets what Spencer couldn't, a clue.

"Why are you taking the shoe with you? What are we supposed to do with the shoe, AD? They didn't find any fingerprints in it"

"Well, no, but the doctor noticed that the size of the shoe nailed in her chest doesn't match with the victim's foot"

"What?"

"All the shoes we found hidden in her apartment, even those in the hideout are size 6. But the one nailed on her chest, it wasn't, it's bigger…"

"So, this shoe might be the culprit's shoe?"

"It's a possibility. The culprit might have used gloves for all we know that's why we didn't find any fingerprints. Spencer, I really don't think she committed suicide…"

"Me neither"

They finally agree on something. It's a start, but how the hell will they find out the truth or the owner of the shoe? This is not a Cinderella story and Spencer has no clue where to start to look, thankfully the blonde has an idea. After all, it's fashion week in the big Apple, and if there's something Alison is good at, it's to remember all the clothes and shoes she has seen in every fashion show of the season. That's how they end walking in the studio of one of the most talented designers of shoes in the country. The one and only…

"Brandon Lewis"

"Yeah? Who's asking?"

Spencer shows her plate and starts to discuss with the designer who immediately recognizes his work.

"Oh, Sandy, I can't believe my work has been linked with her death…"

"Well, it wasn't the shoe that killed her. But, I need to ask: how well did you know her?"

"Sandy? Well, anyone in the fashion business knew Sandy. She was…"

Beautiful, gorgeous, someone would even say she was perfect. Everyone who admired would say so many nice things about her, but, the truth is that she was more than that, she was…

"A fucking bitch!"

Spencer drops her jaw open and Alison just laughs. There's nothing more juicy than gossip about those who are not there to defend themselves, and in fashion like in TV, everyone loves to get the dirty of others, so...

"The public might have given her the nickname of 'angel' but, let me assure you, she was far from being an angel. Believe me, it was a pain in the ass to work with her"

"Then why was she always present in all your shows?"

Alison asks, she's curious to know why such a bad girl was so demanded in the industry.

"Because she sells, well, she could sell anything. You could make her wear garbage and she was able to make it look like the most exquisite outfit" (sighs) "Having her as a model, it was a pain in the ass but damn, how the public loved her…"

"You keep saying that she was hard to work with, can you tell us why? It was hard to work with her because of her criminal record?"

"What?"

Spencer shows him that the little 'Angel' that all the world loved was actually a fallen angel who was a shoplifter at a young age.

"She started stealing when she was 15. She was a thief, right? That's why it was hard to work with her?"

Spencer is trying to make a case around the diamonds but that idea is not conceivable for the designer who actually admits a secret shared in confidence.

"She suffered from kleptomania, the inability to resist impulses to steal. She had it under control, I swear, that wasn't why it was hard to work with her…"

Spencer was expecting to hear the word 'Diva' or something like that. But, damn she was wrong again, because the reality was that she was..

"A fucking bitch! She literally fucked all my models! If she got killed, it was a love affair, that must be the real reason she's dead"

Again, Spencer drops her jaw open and Alison tries her best to hide her laughs while the designer complained about all the drama he had to deal with, because the angelical model fucked with everyone she wanted, without caring about the consequences.

They leave with nothing more than a list of possible people who bought that shoe in particular and to their surprise, Sandy, the dead model, is the only one who bought that shoe in that big size, less than a week ago.

"She bought the shoe in a size that wasn't hers, it doesn't make sense…"

Spencer says, feeling frustrated with this case and the lack of progress. They are at square one again, and Spencer gets out of the studio pissed because it's been almost 24h since they found the body and yet, they're nowhere to find the real culprit. And, she's not the only one pissed, after all, with the death of the dear model, the rest of the events of the fashion week have been put in stand-by till further notice.

"I can't believe they're stopping fashion week because of this!"

"Well, I'm sorry that my case is disturbing your entertainment, AD…"

"Fashion is so much more than just entertainment! It's beautiful! It's art! But, why I bother to explain it you, the girl who has zero fashion style at all"

Spencer gasps, feeling offended by the comment.

"I've fashion sense!"

"Really? Then, why are you wearing that?"

The blonde points out the detective's outfit. Nothing matched, not even her socks.

"I was in a rush, today…"

"Aha…"

Spencer rolls her eyes, she doesn't need to justify her appearance, but she makes a mental note to put more attention to it, tomorrow. And, talking about tomorrow, she promised to her captain to give him an update about the case tomorrow, at 1st hour. And, what is she supposed to say tomorrow?! She has nothing, no clue, no suspect, no…

"No, no, no! Do not take my car! I'm a cop!"

No car to ride, Spencer angrily curses when she sees the tow truck take her car away.

"I told you no to park there…"

Spencer wants to scream, Alison telling her 'I told you so' is not helping her to control her frustration on the case. And, it's when she sees no light at the end of the tunnel that a pair of headlights finally lights up their quest.

"Can I offer you a ride?"

They look confused when they recognize the girl in the car, it was the assistant of the designer.

"Shouldn't you be inside, at work?"

"I would prefer to give you a ride, right now, if that's okay for you?"

They read under the lines what it's obvious to say, the girl wants to talk and spill the beans of something big, so they jump into the car without any further question. The start of the drive is quiet till the assistant is finally ready to open up.

"Sandy didn't kill herself"

"How can you be so sure?"

"She was in love, she was ready to start a new chapter in her life, away from all this, away from…"

The assistant sighs, not ready to give up on the things she knows, gripping hard on the wheel, Alison notices the engagement ring she has on her finger. It's a big shot, but she goes for it…

"She was in love with you?"

Spencer frowns, she doesn't understand where Alison's question comes from but when she notices the tears falling from the assistant, she starts to understand the motivation of the girl to talk to them alone.

"We kept it quiet because she had a reputation and she didn't want to expose me to the paparazzi or what others might say. She really loved me, I know no one will believe me, but, we were in love, really! And, she was going to leave everything for me!"

"Why do I feel like you're not talking about her career as a model?"

Spencer asks, her instinct telling her there was something else to get out, to the light, and she wasn't wrong, because after hearing all what Sandy's fiancée had to say, they're sure about one thing: this wasn't a suicide.

*** Alison's narrative (voice-over) ***

Nothing is what it looks. We look into each other, but all we see are faces, masks we wear in our day-to-day, hiding what is really underneath, hiding what we really are, what we really want till someone brings it to the light.

"Are you sure about this, AD?"

"Can you relax a little Spencer, I've this"

Spencer has her doubts about the plan in motion, they don't have any tangible proof besides the testimony of a grieving girl. For all they know, the girl could be lying but…

"She was in love, she was ready to change for love, to be a better version of herself because she wanted to be good! Why is that so hard to believe?"

The blonde asks and Spencer gets a feeling Alison is projecting her own old history in the case. Alison is not Sandy and yet, some parts of her tragic story fit perfectly with the blonde. Everyone should be able to redeem themselves for love. No one believed Alison back then, especially Spencer. And, the young Hastings is not going to commit that mistake again.

"You're right, everyone can change because of love. So, let's do this"

A genuine smile is what Spencer gets from Alison with this vote of confidence. And, that's how they step into a private party which looked more like a very exclusive orgy.

"Tell me again how you got this address, AD?"

"You don't want to know…"

Spencer gulps hard, she feels out of place, especially when she recognizes some faces. Politicians, big criminals, standing side by side. The detective is getting sick to imagine their justice system is so corrupt. But, she should know, there's no perfect world, just perfect, false pretense.

"There are other criminals around, why do we have to stick around Spencer when you can easily chase your prey on your own and eat anyone in here?"

Alison asks to her inner demon, Venom, who just stays quiet as they keep walking around the big mansion, looking for Sandy's murderer. And, this could take hours if it wasn't because Venom sensed the aroma they were looking for.

"He's behind that door…"

"How do you know? Hey, wait, AD!"

"What?"

"I know we are not on the best terms, but if we are going to face a killer together, we need to be a team, we need to trust each other. So, I'm asking, do not do anything which might make me lose my trust on you"

"You trust me?"

"I do, I need to trust in my partner"

Spencer replies without hesitation and Alison is taken back a little by the reply. Even Venom is surprised by how sincere the detective looks by saying that.

"Do you trust me, too, AD?"

Before Spencer could hear any answer to her question, AD was already breaking the door down.

"How did you…?"

Spencer is not sure if she should ask how this blonde was strong enough to do that or maybe ask why the dear designer they just met a few hours ago is dressed like a woman, wearing a pair of exquisite high heels.

"I believe this is yours, perfect match with your size and your fetish, right?"

Alison says when she drops the high heel that they found in Sandy's body. Brandon doesn't deny it, he just gulps hard when he locks eyes with the detective. Whoever was with him, ready to get laid, runs away, leaving the three of them alone to talk.

"This is not mine…"

"Really? Because I'm pretty sure, Sandy bought the pair for you, like a goodbye's gift to her 'Partner in crime"

"What?"

Spencer shows a piece of paper, a note when she reads it, Brandon realizes he missed it behind, the night of the crime.

"This is the goodbye, P… P of Partner. This is the note she wrote for you when she gave you the high heels as a goodbye present"

The designer gulps hard, but he's still not talking and who better than AD to corner this piece of human garbage.

"It's not a crime to want to wear heels, you've got a good taste, Brandon, I don't know why you hide this side of yours, but what is wrong is that you found out about Sandy's illness, her compulsion to steal and you used it for your benefit…"

"AD…"

Spencer tries to ask Alison to keep it quiet but the blonde is not planning to just stay behind the detective and watch. She plans to push his buttons and she's on the good path because the designer is already losing it.

"You've no right to storm like that! This is a private party!"

Alison smirks and replies with sarcasm.

"Yes, it's your private party, actually. And, we came without an invitation, but, what can I say? We're so close to the breakthrough, we just connected the dots which lead us, here, to you: Brandon Lewis"

"What?"

"There's no point in denying you've connections with organized crime, all your friends out there, they are not innocent people"

The guy looks confused and Spencer decides to step in and give a hint of what they know, hoping he will confess his crimes.

"We know about the diamonds"

"I don't know what you're talking about…"

"Oh, please Brandon, do not lie to the detective and especially do not lie to me!"

AD starts to walk closer to him, if her plan is to intimidate him, it's working just fine.

"A model using real diamonds, it's the perfect publicity for any jewelry store and you saw a business in it. Requesting to get all the big brands to endorse your fashion shows with their jewelry seemed a win-win deal if it wasn't because you were creating fake diamonds with your pack of friends that's out there. I must admit, they are a perfect copy, very hard to notice, so, all you needed was the perfect partner to get your hands on the real diamonds."

Brandon gulps hard, hearing Alison talk and she's not finished.

"You designed the perfect complicity: Sandy slept with all the models to steal the diamonds that big jewelry stores lend for the fashion shows. You gave her fake diamonds, she kept them in her heels and all she had to do was to replace the real ones with your cheap copy while the other girls were asleep after a good fuck, a win-win deal…"

"I…"

"You tried to convinced us that the Sandy's death was a love affair that went wrong, but that mislead just pointed us directly to you"

Spencer says and the guy gulps hard, he's sweating now.

"You saw a perfect crime partner in Sandy, right? When she shared with you her kleptomania issue. You saw an opportunity for you and you took it. She had charm, ambition, she liked the adrenaline of getting caught and the extra money she made with it. Everything was perfect, but then, all changed when you hired a new assistant and Sandy just fell in love with the middle class girl"

"It wasn't love!"

"Really? How do you know?"

"Because people like Sandy and I, we don't fall in love! We just care about us! About money and fame!"

"Well, you miss a detail there, because she was in love and she was going to leave her life as a thief because of that. And, you couldn't lose her, so, tell us, did you just get furious because she told you she was done or you actually got mad because you found out she was stealing from you?"

"What?"

"I guess your copies are so good that even you didn't see the difference between the real diamonds and the fake copies"

Spencer says when she shows the diamonds they found in the secret hideout of Sandy, a hideout Brandon tried to find but he didn't the last time he was in the penthouse.

"That ungrateful bitch! I designed the perfect complicity for us to make money and what does she do?! She tells me she quits and that she was planning to leave with half of my diamonds, to keep her mouth shut! Well, I shut her mouth and it didn't cost me a penny!"

"No, just your freedom. Brandon Lewis, you're under arrest for the murder of Sandy Millers and the smuggling of diamonds"

Spencer says when she finally shows the handcuffs. His confession is going to put him in jail and when they get the feedback of all the jewelry stores about the fake diamonds, he will lose everything he cared about: fame and money. And, there's no doubt he will not get out of this and yet, he tries when he runs away.

"Is he really trying to run fast, wearing heels?"

Spencer asks, looking shocked by his lack of common sense, and more shocked to see him vanish between the curtains of the room.

"Where did he go?"

"This kind of places is full of secret rooms and doors"

Alison is not wrong, she cannot chase him down like AD, but Venom can.

"AD! Wait!"

AD doesn't like to leave Spencer alone in a place like this, but if she wants to feed Venom with Brandon, the killer, she must chase him down alone now that he's hiding in the dark.

"Venom!"

"I'll take it from here, Alison…"

The dark symbiote takes charge when he transforms into this dark, invincible monster. He's faster, stronger and the only one who finds the killer when he's trying to reach his car in the garage.

"What is that?!"

Brandon asks when he hears something like an animal chasing him in the dark.

"No what… but, whom?"

"Huh? Wh…. OMG!"

Brandon has no time to react when Venom pushes away the car like if it was nothing. Standing in front of this invincible being, Brandon is so scared that he fades, dropping into the cold floor in seconds.

"Pathetic…"

Says Venom who's ready to eat him. But, he stays there, looking at the killer who's lying unconscious over the floor.

'What are you waiting for? Eat him already!' Alison screams from the inside of her mind, and normally she doesn't need to give him a pep talk to eat bad guys, but Venom is hesitating to eat for the first time and Alison doesn't get why.

"You're hungry…"

"I'm…"

"Then eat the bastard!"

"But… the detective asked us to not do anything which might jeopardize her trust in us…"

"Huh? What do you mean? Why do you care what Spencer thinks?"

Venom doesn't reply to Alison's question, he just hides when he senses the detective approaching, just in time, so when Spencer finally arrives, she just finds Alison, standing in front of an unconscious killer.

"AD, you knocked him down, when did you become so strong?"

Spencer says when she gets closer and arrests an unconscious Brandon. The dear detective looks happy now that they solved the case, but for some reason, the blonde doesn't look happy, she looks upset, frustrated, even pissed off. And, Spencer doesn't know why.

"Why are you looking so upset, AD? We got the killer"

"Why does he care about what you might think?"

"Huh? What are you talking about? Hey! Do not walk away from me like this!"

Like always, Alison disappears between the shadows of the night. Leaving the scene without looking back. The blonde needs to have a conversation with her inner demon and what better place to do that than her club, her only home.

"Why didn't you eat him? Why?"

Alison mumbles to herself while she drinks in the bar of her club. The place is full, the music is loud, people are around her and yet, she feels alone, especially now that Venom doesn't dare to answer her questions.

"Why did you chicken out? Why?!"

Without any answers from her complex duality. Alison decides to drown her frustration alone, with no further company than alcohol, but her plans change when a visitor sits beside her.

"What kind of a partner leaves the scene without saying a word?"

"Back off, Spencer…"

Alison doesn't dare to look at her till Spencer dares to take the bottle of vodka away from her.

"Hey! That's mine!"

"And, I'll get it back to you when you tell me what the fuck I did to piss you off!"

Alison sighs, she doesn't know what to say. Venom not eating humans should be a good thing, but it doesn't feel like that, not when the blonde cannot stop wondering why this change of heart from the inner demon who has never shown any remorse to kill till now.

Resigned to the fact that she will not get any real answer from the blonde, Spencer gives her back the bottle of liquor and says what she really came to say.

"You did good today, AD. Thank you, it's great having someone who has your back no matter what…"

"No matter what…"

Alison mumbles those words with sadness because that kind of backup and loyalty are something she yearns for, even if she'll never admit it. And, Spencer knows they have big trust issues between them but, she really hopes this new dynamic between them can repair old, broken bridges.

"Yeah, that's what partnership means. You have my back and I have yours, AD…"

"No matter what?"

Alison asks, looking her in the eyes and Spencer holds her gaze when she replies…

"No matter what…"

Somehow that statement makes the blonde feel better, she asks for another glass and a bottle of their best whiskey for the detective. Spencer chuckles, she even blush a little when she realizes that the blonde knows she prefers whiskey over any other liquor.

"So, what will happen with Brandon, the killer? Is he going to jail?"

"I'm afraid he might end in a madhouse…"

"Really? Why?"

"Since the moment he woke up, he doesn't stop talking about this demon who almost ate him alive"

Alison spills her drink and both girls chuckle. For a brief moment, the blonde gets scared that her alter ego with Venom had been exposed, but, looking at the way Spencer talks about the matter, it seems like she has nothing to fear. At least for now…

They drink and chat about everything and nothing. They make jokes, they laugh and it might be the alcohol speaking, but for the first time in a long, very long time, Alison doesn't feel alone anymore.

"Cheers, to my partner"

"What about the old guy?"

"Mike? I'm more like her padawan…"

"You and your movie references, such a geek…"

"Shut up and just cheer with me, please? Partner?"

AD chuckles, finding it silly and yet, she raises her glass and toast for it.

"Partners…"

Next Chapter: Partners till the End