A/N: Hey my amazing reader! It's Callie and I hope you're enjoying the story as much as I am. In this chapter, Toby makes a legendary return and drops a huge shock about his new girlfriend, Hanna figures the Spemily situation, and A continues to be creepy as ever. Review and favorite, of course. I have a question for next chapter: Would you rather have a half Hanna/Aria POV chapter, or half Hanna/Emily POV chapter? Tell me in your reviews
"Toby…" Spencer's mouth was nearly unhinged, her eyes were bulging out of her face. Emily had the opposite reaction, gleefully running to the door and pulling it open, Toby engulfed her in a friendly embrace. All this time, their relationship had strengthened, Toby was the one who had helped Emily navigate her way out of the closet.
"Hey Spencer," his eyes were soft, no matter what, he would always have a spot in his heart for Spencer. Toby made himself at home on the cream couch he was so familiar with, tapping his calf nervously. "So, you found something out at Radley… About my mom."
Adjusting herself at Toby's side, Emily patted his knee and nodded at Hanna and Aria knowingly. "Spencer talked to Eddie Lamb yesterday, and he told her a few things. A lot of things actually. Your mom and Eddie, they were.." She fumbled but tried to continue talking, but Hanna took the conversational lead.
"Your mom and Eddie Lamb had an affair, sorry to drop this on you now." Toby's face portrayed an amount of concealed shock, his cerulean blue eyes becoming glossy with tears. He furiously wiped at them as they fell onto his pale, shaky cheeks.
"What else did he have to say? Did he know about her condition, or why she was on the roof that night" Emily, in an almost motherly fashion, handed him a glass of water.
"He didn't have much to say, he was very scared when I figured it out. Then, I woke up this morning and turned on the news.. he was dead." For the first time that morning, Spencer seemed to be back to her old self, brainy and strong. She anxiously stood at the end of the couch, about to probe Toby. "I know this is a lot to process, but was your mom close to anyone else?"
"There was one therapist that see saw on a pretty regular basis. I think her first name was Anne, but she got divorced, so I don't know her name." Aria's eye grew large, like two pools of mahogany colored rain water, just sitting, waiting to spill over.
She muttered stunned, "You mean Sullivan, like our old therapist? The one who got caught in the A game?" Hanna and Emily shook their heads in disbelief, and Spencer just stood there in front of the room, processing it all.
"Why couldn't you have told me this before, Toby? I explicitly told you everything when I went to , and you knew this all along. What kind of person are you?" She stammered, her hands shaking violently at her sides. "Oh, I know exactly what kind of person you are. You're the type of person who joins a team of criminals to "protect" your girlfriend." Spencer, feeling the adrenaline pump through her veins, perched herself on the bottom of the fireplace, legs rolling back and forth.
"You know what Spencer? You asked me to come in here, and if it wasn't for you bribing me with news about my mom, I'd never have set foot in this place again and honestly, wouldn't of cared. Now, I regret ever coming here." Toby, his face full of stone cold fury, stormed out and violently slammed the back door. Emily shot Spencer a look that said "did you really just make someone storm out, again" and being a true Fields, followed Toby outside.
The infamous Hastings backyard, rebuilt barn and all, seemed to glow in the midsummer sun. Emily gripped Toby's goosebump covered arm. "Toby, wait. Spencer is just still dealing with what happened to Eddie, she's never that rude when she's herself."n
"Really? I took it like she still resents me for something I did, ages ago. All I wanted to do is help her and you guys, she was my first, soul crushing love." Toby kicked at the ground, heart broken and frustrated. "I tried, but I guess it didn't work. I have my eyes on someone though." Emily wiggled her eyebrows, excited that Toby had finally met someone.
"What's her name?" She stood with her neck crooked, prepared to hear a name like Bridget Wu or Sidney Driscoll, but the name that came out of his mouth left her jaw hanging on the grass.
"Melissa. Melissa Hastings. We met when I was in London, spying on her. Things just happened, and now, I'm moving there this summer. You can't tell Spencer, she would never forgive me." Irate, Emily turned away, her face a portrait of absolute disgust.
"Toby, do you not get it?! Do you understand the degree of hell she put Spencer and all of us through? She nearly murdered Aria!" Emily screamed, her hands flailing in the air, animatedly.
"The Aria situation isn't what you think it is, ok, Melissa explained it all to me. Of course, it all leads back to Spencer. You never shock me Emily Fields." He was smiling, the opposite of Emily's reaction, his arms crossed in amusement. "I'm glad she has someone like you, she needs it. If you get anything new about my mom, text me. I have to go." Toby Cavanaugh, the enigma that he was, sauntered away, without a care in the world.
As the afternoon morphed into night, Hanna and Spencer were on a tried and true stakeout, a so called hobby of theirs. They were lame ducks in 's parking lot, waiting for their former, increasingly shady doctor to come out. Hanna, the wannabe detective that she was, snapped her gum loudly. "How are you feeling, Spence? I know things must be all jumbled ever since your hot, ex-carpenter babe stopped by this morning."
Smirking, Spencer replied,"Trust me, Toby is the last of my concerns. Marion on the other hand, is all that's on my mind. That and many other things, of course." Hanna pushed her head to the back of the leather seats, her mind obviously thinking of something possibly inappropriate.
"Is Emily one of those things?" Spencer's heart pounded under her striped, red and white sweater, the insides of her palms were coated with sweat. Her friendship with Emily was so perfect, and solid, like the foundation of a house. Yet, like any house in California, that strong foundation had shifted, and became something more. Something Spencer was afraid to say aloud, because if she did, it would change everything. "Spencer, when Toby, Aria, and I were at your house, I saw something, ok. You guys were standing next to each other, and I saw the way you looked at her, the way I look at Caleb." Hanna in these moments, was smarter than Spencer, she saw things about people that others didn't.
"This isn't something I necessarily want to talk about right now. She's Em, it just can't happen. According to her and everyone else in this town, I'm straight." Flustered, Spencer began to trifle through Aria's glove compartment, when she came upon something mind blowing. A black and white photo of Cece Drake, clad in an ink colored sweatshirt. Hanna gasped loudly, which was matched by Spencer's. In the picture, Cece was staring directly into the camera, like she was taunting the girls. All they saw was her face, framed by honey blonde locks, and a black hood covering the majority of her hair. Typed in meticulous typewriter font, there was a message neatly written: This is just the prologue to the end of your story, bitches- kisses A…
"Get away from me!" A petrified Cece Drake thrashed in her hard, iron chair in an abandoned cafe in the backwoods of Rosewood. Her hands were bound tightly with cables, and high heeled feet were ziptied. She shook her head belligerently, not shedding a tear, but obviously feeling scared. Someone, with an unusual stature, walked up to the kidnapped women, wearing a dark hoodie eerily similar to the one Cece had on.
"All I needed was that picture, you know. The girls will be on your trail now, not mine of course. Like they would ever even entertain the idea of me being anything but innocent. They don't know a thing." The person gently untied the zip ties and stepped away, "you didn't even see me coming, did you? Miss Cece Drake, cop killer, Ali's best friend, oh I forgot to mention a murderer of your own sister…"