A/N: Alrighty then. Basically, a Spemily-centric chapter. Hooray!

Note : This continues directly from the last chapter.

Chapter 14 - Plaid Ties And Cream Towels

Twenty minutes and several small accidents later, Emily was coming out of the shower, wrapped up in a towel, dripping locks of jet-black hair framing her face. The sight that greeted her nearly caused her to trip and fall flat on her face. Nearly.

Leaning against the locker, fiddling with her Blackberry, was the same girl who had been haunting her thoughts.

Spencer Hastings.

God, what was she doing here?

"Jesus, Spence!"

Spencer looked up, hastily pushing her phone in the pocket of her trousers. Her hazel eyes made a slow, lingering journey up Emily's towel-clad body, and she bit her lip, her posture suddenly changing. Emily suddenly felt very very self-conscious, and her hands moved to tighten the towel around her. It was a stupid gesture, really, because her towel was already firmly in place. And it wasn't like Spencer hadn't seen her in a towel before. They'd had lockers really close to each other's back in school. She'd never felt shy in front of her before, but things had changed since then.

"What are you doing here?" Emily asked, her voice quiet and uncertain. Spencer could feel the nervousness radiating out of the tanned girl, and for some reason, it made her want to smile. So she did, her lips curving up in a hint of a smirk that made Emily blush furiously.

"I needed to talk to you."

"How did you even get in here? Only staff and students are allowed in," Emily quirked an eyebrow, edging away from Spencer's gaze. She could feel it burn into her skin, igniting sympathetic flames in the bottom of her stomach.

"I can be very persuasive," Spencer drawled, pausing before the last word, purposely drawing out the syllables, her eyes glinting. "I may have resorted to a few white lies." She shrugged, the very image of aloofness. Emily felt irritated; she was annoyed because here she was, burning up at a simple glance, and Spencer still managed to look so unruffled in her immaculately ironed shirt and plaid tie and perfectly creased trousers.

"You shouldn't have done that. How did you know I would be here?"

"Lucky guess." Spencer moved to take a seat on one of the benches, her eyes moving away from Emily for a second to survey the locker room. It looked very much like the one they'd had in Rosewood, and being here brought back memories of her field-hockey days.

"Well, can you wait till I get dressed?" Emily asked, lowering her eyelashes and looking at the ground when Spencer's eyes alighted on her again.

"What if I don't want to?"

Emily inhaled softly, looking up to meet brown eyes searing into her. God, those eyes. They made her legs turn into jelly and it wasn't fair. At all. Spencer wasn't the one standing in nothing but a damn towel.

"Well, too bad. I have to get dressed." Emily's voice was firm, and she pressed her lips together, hoping that her face mimicked Spencer's when she got all serious.

Spencer's eyes suddenly lit up with amusement, and instead of getting up to leave, she settled further in her seat. She raised her hands in a show of defeat. "By all means, go ahead. It'll be like I'm not even here." There was a subtly teasing undertone to her words, and Emily could swear that she was doing this on purpose.

Well, two could play that game.

Emily strode forward and sat down right next to Spencer, all shyness gone from her demeanour. Her eyes met Spencer's with a challenge.

"You know what? I'll wait till later. I'm sure whatever you have to say is absolutely urgent. Or you wouldn't bother me, right?"

Spencer couldn't help but let her eyes wander once again, and Emily nearly jumped with the sense of victory it made her feel. She could notice that underneath that cool exterior, Spencer was the same mess that she was.

"I..eh, yeah. You're right." Spencer's voice had dropped an octave, something that Emily was familiar with by now, and it only proved that her assumptions were right.

Emily arched an eyebrow and crossed her legs, shifting the tangled, wet mass of her hair over one shoulder, leaving the other bare. She felt another surge of victory when she noticed Spencer flinching at the movment. "So? What did you want to talk about?"

"Erm...you know, maybe you really should get dressed." Spencer's throat was moving, she was swallowing slowly and her eyes were unfocused. She usually had impeccable control over her mind, her thought, her speech. But the sight of Emily, within touching distance, dressed in nothing but a fucking towel was doing crazy things to her heart. (And other places.) She had gambled with her words, and now she was losing. She hadn't expected Emily's response, hadn't expected this sudden change over the taller girl.

"You said you didn't want to wait. And I'm okay like this. Really." This time, the teasing tone was hidden underneath Emily's voice, and Spencer had the vague feeling that she was being laughed at. This was so not okay. She was Spencer fucking Hastings!

Steeling herself, and willing her mind not to wander, Spencer finally compelled her eyes to meet Emily's gaze, hoping that she wouldn't completely melt. "I wanted to talk about..you know. This." She gestured with her hands at the space between them, as if trying to imply everything that had taken place with that simple movement. "You understand, right? I've been thinking a lot about it."

"And?" Emily's tone was hopeful, but her onyx eyes gave nothing away.

"And..." Spencer took a deep breath, as if she was about to dive headfirst into a pool. "It's wrong." The words left her in a rush, making her feel completely hollow inside and she almost scrambled after them, wanting to pull them back.

Emily's face fell like a pack of cards on a stormy night. She quickly hid her disappointment, fixing an impassive expression on her face, the one she'd been practicing in front of the mirror. Despite her attempt, the casual nothingness sat awkwardly on her countenance, leaving behind gaps through which Spencer could undermine her defenses.

"I know," was all she said, all confidence disappearing with those words, her bravado nowhere to be found. She shivered suddenly, although the day was anything but cold, but she could always blame the rapidly cooling droplets that still clung to her skin.

"I know too," Spencer whispered, the smirk faded from her face, her eyebrows coming together like conspirators. She knew this would be hard. She'd stayed up all night, replaying the chance encounter with Emily. With Toby's rhythmic breaths as a muted muzak to her musings, everything she had said, or done, to Emily made her want to crawl into some underground haven and never come out. The guilt had overwhelmed her, when she had turned, and Toby had automatically shifted with her, his arm resting around her shoulder like it belonged there. It did. The ring around her finger was proof to her guilt, to how wrong she was. She'd worked out a speech, complete with a list of pros and cons, before coming here. She'd rehearsed every word until she found herself muttering under her breath without even noticing. But now, right here, everything was coming undone and her mind had been wiped clean of her words, false and true.

"You're wasting your time then." Emily's voice was strained, and she looked away. Everything inside her was slowly getting heavy, and her veins were filling with lead.

"No." Spencer's hands automatically reached for Emily's cheeks, turning her head to look into her tortured eyes. She leaned forward, quite unwillingly, but unable to control herself anymore. "No," she repeated, and Emily felt like Spencer was peering into all her cracks, and seeing who she really was underneath.

"But what I wanted to talk about, what I had planned to talk about, isn't what I'm going to talk about, after all. See, you have this way of rewriting my plans. And I honestly have no idea how you do that." Spencer paused and she slowly licked her lips. "I—"

Her words were cut off by the sudden, abrupt press of Emily's lips against hers. Spencer froze, her words dying under the weight of Emily's passion, her train of thoughts suddenly screeching to a halt. Then she began to thaw, slowly, the fire spreading from the point at which Emily's lips touched hers and spreading throughout her body, till she could feel the warmth curl her toes and her fingertips, until she was nothing more than a figure of wax that had been left too close to the fire. Melting. Doing what she'd been trying not to do. Completely turning liquid, at the simple, chaste kiss. Before Spencer had the chance to respond, Emily pulled away, just as abruptly as she'd initiated the kiss, looking breathless.

"You talk too much."

Spencer couldn't help but blush at that, her cheeks blooming with colour because of the intensity of Emily's glittering gaze. Dark, trapped stars.

"We shouldn't be doing this," Spencer breathed out, her words as unsteady as the erratic beat of her heart.

"This?" Emily arched an eyebrow, jaw clenching. She would have laughed, were the situation not so serious, at how Spencer continued using that same word that could never convey what lay between them. Spencer, the one who was usually so eloquent, who loved putting names to things, was as confused as she was when it came to their tangled, and inexplicably linked, emotions.

"This." It wasn't a word. It was more like a faint exhalation against Emily's face. Warm breath on cool skin. And this time it was Spencer who leaned forward, capturing those full lips that were so tantalizingly close. Emily let out a little gasp of surprise, her lips parted, and Spencer took the opportunity to slip her tongue past those gates, the vanguard before the army. Emily could swear that a part of her died a beautiful death at that little act of boldness, and it was all she could do not to moan in an absolutely wanton way against Spencer's lips and let her know of how good this felt. Then, mimicking Emily's actions, Spencer pulled away, and the kiss was over before it had properly started.

"This is what we shouldn't be doing," Spencer said, once she'd caught her breath. Her hands were trembling slightly, and she didn't know how, but they had found their way to Emily's body without her guidance. Now, the shaking fingers of one hand were resting on a bare knee, while the other hand fiddled with the edge of the towel. Oh, the towel. Noticing the position of her hands made Spencer remember where she was and what the girl in front of her was wearing. Or rather, not wearing.

"Also, you really shouldn't be wearing just a towel around me. As you can see, I have no morals whatsoever," Spencer added, her lips curving up slightly with a hint of humour mixed with something that looked like fear.

Emily grinned, shifting in her seat, a move that brought her flush against Spencer. "Are you saying that you're afraid you'll take advantage of me?"

"Well, when you make it so easy..." Spencer's smile was now a smirk, and her fingers shifted from Emily's knee and rested slightly above it. "It's you who should be afraid."

"Afraid of what, exactly?"

That teasing tone. Again.

It was doing things to Spencer and she honestly wanted to kill this girl.

"You know. Me, taking advantage of you," Spencer replied slowly, hazel eyes darkening with something that Emily didn't want to put a name to, something that she was sure was reflected in her own eyes, black mixing with black. "You should be very afraid."

"I don't want to be afraid of something I want, Spencer."

The tease was over, the air had thickened, all because of the look Emily was giving Spencer. It was mixed with regret, guilt and so much desire that she wanted to burst. Everything was back to where they had started from. But Spencer didn't want to think of the thoughts she'd had before coming here. She didn't want to think, period. The way Emily said her name made Spencer feel really, really proud of her name, and she didn't know why. Emily made the name sound like a tune, like a candy that she was rolling on her tongue, enjoying the taste of it in her mouth. Spencer found herself wanting to know how her own name tasted on Emily's lips. And that's why she leaned in and kissed her best friend, again, but this time wasn't like the previous kiss. This wasn't a game. This wasn't just a way to lessen the distance between them. This was real.

This time, their lips came together like they were soldiers, going out to fight a battle, clashing angrily in the small space between them. This time, there was no restraint, no hesitation, no thoughts as barriers between them. This time, Spencer wasn't mimicking Emily at all—instead, she was kissing the girl in front of her in her own way, sans embellishments. Spencer's hands made the brief journey up Emily's sides, and came to a rest on her shoulders. Her lips were greedily devouring Emily's, and instead of sating the fiery hunger that burned inside her, their kisses fueled it, sharpened it till it came alive and became a separate being inside her, controlling her actions.
She could feel one of Emily's hands clinging to her tie, tugging it to bring their faces closer, and the other moving to twist itself in Spencer's wavy hair. Spencer deepened the kiss, her fingers digging into the hollows above Emily's clavicles, her breaths coming faster now. Emily pulled away a little, just so that they could look into each other's eyes; it was so much worse than the kiss because it made Spencer's heart ache and burn, then emerge from the ashes with a greater capacity to feel every little thing that Emily was making her feel. Emily leaned forward and slowly, very very slowly, caught Spencer's bottom lip between her teeth, tugging on it slightly before capturing it with her mouth. It made Spencer shudder, and afterwards, she could not stop shaking, even when Emily reinitiated the kiss that threatened to erase their memories, erase their identities forever. She found that through her own movements—the scrape of her teeth against Emily's lips, her tongue teasing its way into her mouth—she somehow started to make Emily shake too, till they were both trembling together like dry leaves caught up in a storm.

It seemed like eternities had passed when they finally stopped kissing (and touching and pulling and sighing into each other's mouths), when they finally looked at each other. The haze of desire, of pure want for the other person, had not yet lifted and it fell around them like a soft, sheer curtain, shielding them from the outside world.

Finally, Spencer spoke. "Maybe you shouldn't be afraid." But she wasn't talking just about Emily. She was talking about herself too.

Emily's voice, when it came, sounded so husky, yet somehow, still so innocent, that it made Spencer tremble again. "You'll have to teach me how to not be afraid, Spence."

"I would teach you if I knew how."

It was so honest, in a completely heartbreaking way, that Emily couldn't help but place a small, sweet kiss on Spencer's lips.

Spencer sighed, then moved her hands from Emily's shoulders just so she could hold Emily's hands instead. "How did this happen?" she asked, curiosity mingled with confusion in her voice. She was still struggling to understand how they had gone from being platonic to so much more in such a short span of time. And it had been so damn easy.

Emily shook her head, looking just as miserably confused as Spencer. "I don't know. I don't understand." Her fingers were absently stroking the knuckles of Spencer's delicate hands, sharp jutting angles being smoothed over by an anxious touch. "I wish I knew how it started so that I'd know how to stop it."

"What if I don't want it to stop?" There was something dangerous in Spencer's voice, something that raised goosebumps on Emily's arms. She was reminded of the fact that she wasn't really dressed, and all at once, she felt shy. She wanted to take her hands away from Spencer's firm grip, but she knew that even if she tried, she wouldn't be able to. Something was holding her in place, right next to the girl who had suddenly become magnetic to her.

"You must. We must. You said it yourself. This is wrong."

"I don't care. I was wrong."

Emily sighed, then freed her hands from Spencer's, and turned her head away. Her hair had been pushed back by Spencer's fingers, and now she put it over her shoulder again to partially hide her face. "You would never leave him, would you?" Her voice sounded weak, and there was a trace of bitterness in it.

Spencer started to deny it, started to defend herself, but stopped. She knew Emily was right. She would never leave Toby. Not now, at least. She couldn't think about leaving Toby. Being with Toby was easy. Being with Toby was right. It was something she'd planned. It was something she'd been doing for what felt like forever. She wouldn't know how to handle her life without him. But there was Emily; and she made Spencer feel the complete opposite of what Toby did. To be with Emily, Spencer would have to step out of her comfort zone. She'd have to admit to liking girls (well, at least Emily). She'd have to live constantly with this storm inside her (not that she didn't these days). Being with Emily was like standing outside in the pouring rain and watching a hurricane coming your way.

"You're right."

"You're his." Bitterness, again. Only this time, its presence was more marked, and Emily flinched at the sound of her own harsh voice, as if her own words had taken her by surprise.

That, Spencer could deny. Because, despite the ring on her finger, she hardly felt like she belonged to Toby. "I don't think you, or I, get to decide who I belong to, Em."

"But you are. You're engaged to him."

"That doesn't mean anything." The words slipped out automatically, effortlessly. It also effortlessly earned Spencer a glare through curtains of almost-dry-but-still-sort-of-wet hair from Emily, and she rolled her eyes in response.

"It means a lot, actually."

"I didn't mean it like that." Spencer sighed, feeling dejected. How had they gone from kissing like that to talking about her being engaged? But then, it sort of made sense. They needed to talk about this. "I just meant...that, I know I am engaged to him. And it's not that you make me forget that. It's terrible, actually, but although I'm always very much aware of being engaged to Toby, it still doesn't stop me from...you know." She flushed a little, again skirting around the task of naming what they were doing. Naming what they were now. If they were anything at all.

"You mean, kissing me?" Emily was always blunt when it came to stuff like this. Spencer had noticed that ever since Emily had come out and started being confident about her sexuality, it was like she'd also grown much surer of herself whenever it came to things; especially romantic things. It made Spencer feel a little ashamed; ashamed that she was brave enough to do these things but not voice them.

"Yes. But not only that." Spencer reached out a hand, albeit a bit hesitantly. Slowly, pale fingers gathered up damp locks and pushed them out of her line of vision, making a strong wave of juniper-perfumed shampoo and chlorine infused air overwhelm Spencer's senses. It was a strange mixture of scents, but Spencer found herself getting hooked to it already. "I wish it were just that." The hand that had pushed her hair back rested in the hollow of her shoulder, fingers absently tracing figure-eights on caramel skin.

"What do you mean?" Curiosity was enough to turn Emily's face, and it brought those glittering black eyes to meet glossy brown ones.

Spencer opened her mouth to speak, then paused, as if gathering her thoughts. When she finally did speak, her eyes were speaking along with her, providing a complete different kind of explanation and interpretation of her words. "It's not just wanting to...", she paused again, her eyes flicking to Emily's lips before moving quickly back to hold her gaze, "...kiss you. If it were just that, it'd be so much easier to handle."

A frown naturally began to twist Emily's eyebrows, and Spencer had to try too hard to resist the impulse to smooth the creases away with her fingers (and kisses). She hastened to explain herself further.

"Em, the thing is, I've been attracted to other people before. I mean, you know me. Slutty Spencer. It's like I can't go a day without someone hitting on me." Here, she added her trademark smirk, and was pleased to see those evil lines disappear from Emily's forehead and reappear in the form of dimples on her cheeks. She felt like an amateur magician whose first trick had worked. "It happened a lot in college. But it was nothing like this."

"What are you trying to say, Spence?" Emily was unconsciously (or perhaps consciously) drawing ever closer to Spencer (which should've been impossible), and Spencer was finding it really hard to think, so she backed away a little.

"That I don't think I'm just attracted to you. Although, I am very attracted to you." Saying it felt like a knot in Spencer's chest had dissolved into nothingness. But it still brought back the blush to her cheeks, and she looked down, unable to meet the amusement and that something else in Emily's eyes.

"I'd be very offended and also very flattered if you were simply attracted to me. Wait, I don't really know how that works," Emily replied, smiling at the sudden bashfulness in Spencer's behaviour. It was like seeing a predator shying away from its prey. A rare sight.

"You don't get to laugh at me. Especially after you nearly strangled me with my own tie." Of course, the shyness was too good to last, and the Spencer Hastings that Emily knew (and loved) was back, making her blush and forget all those serious-sounding words that she'd been storing in her head.

"I'm sorry."

The utter sincerity in Emily's voice made Spencer burst out laughing, and she ducked her head and brushed a brief kiss on the raven-haired girl's forehead. She didn't move back; instead, she just inclined her head so that their noses were touching and all they could see was each other's eyes. She let a few, long seconds tick by before she replied, "Don't be. Because I was hoping you'd do that again sometime."

And somehow, they were kissing each other again, and really, it was Spencer's fault for saying those words (at least according to Emily). It felt like they could hardly go a few minutes without wanting to feel like they were falling and flying (and they didn't know which was which), and they could only feel that way if they found their way to each other's lips. This kiss was slower, like their mouths were already old friends, and were taking the time to reacquaint themselves. Their sensations were radically different from the kiss before; if that one had been like a blazing fire, this was like the slow, torturous movement of lava. It felt like their bodies were slowly breaking, and shifting, and rearranging until they were brand-new, until they were re-cast as the mirror image of the other.

It was Emily who broke the kiss, but only to mutter, slowly, "You're not even giving me a chance to strangle you." She said it so seriously, that it made Spencer smile against her lips, till they were both smiling two different parts of the same smile, a broken smile that merged together in the spaces between them. Emily's hands slowly, carefully made their way up the front of Spencer's shirt, her fingers tracing over the seams, rubbing over the buttons till she had the collars twisted in her hands. She used it to pull Spencer even closer, till even the air between them was dying the deaths of their stuttering heartbeats. They continued kissing, only it was a broken, disjointed sort of kissing now. It had become small, shy little kisses against eyelids, and cheeks, and noses and chins, and everything else in between.

Spencer wasn't going to be left behind in all this, and her hands started a rebellion, unable to keep at their place near Emily's shoulders any longer. They mapped the smooth, taut skin over the shoulder muscles before dipping down, making a journey downwards as Emily's hands did the opposite. Fingertips danced across the skin of Emily's arms, sneakily slipping to skim over the inside of her arms, making Emily shudder. Pale fingers almost blended in the cream towel, and god, it was a damn towel. And suddenly, Spencer started thinking very dangerous thoughts. This wasn't like kissing a guy, at all. If it were, her hands would've had no restrictions. They would have been roaming freely over abdominal muscles, and over bare chests and she would've thought nothing of it. But now, her hands were bunched in the fluffy fabric of a slightly damp towel, and all she had was her imagination and the muffled, throbbing heat of skin hidden beneath layers that she could feel underneath her fingers.

"You really should've gotten dressed." The words hit the side of Emily's face, and she pulled away, looking at Spencer with a strange look that made Spencer shiver.

It was a statement. It was a warning. It was a plea.

"Yeah."

"It's getting cold. You'll catch something."

"I think I already have."

And Spencer had to smile at that. Because Emily was right. They'd both caught something, and it was making them delirious. It was like a fever. It could probably explain why their skin was burning up. It could probably explain why they felt hot and still shivered. They'd both caught something.

And it might be incurable.

"I should go. And let you...uhm, get dressed." Suddenly, Spencer was finding it really hard to look into Emily's eyes. She shifted back, then got up from the bench, pressing her lips together.

"Okay. But..wait, Spence?" Emily had her hands in her lap now, and it seemed like the same malady had struck her. Her eyes were on her hands, and she was twisting her fingers.

"Yeah?" Now that Emily was no longer looking at her, Spencer could safely chance a small glance at the girl. It was too soon, however, and she got unsteady on her feet and had to stumble back to the support of a locker.

"What about...this?" Emily's eyes looked up and caught Spencer's. She suddenly looked so lost, so much like she had at seventeen, that Spencer had to wonder if she'd been transported back to the past. It didn't even come to her attention that Emily was now using the same term that she had been resorting to, it didn't even occur to her to point that out, to show that she was not the only weak one.

"I don't know."

And it was true. Spencer had no idea what was happening between them. She'd unexpectedly stumbled, no, she had collided head-on with the fact that she liked to make out with her childhood best friend. No big deal.

Except it was.

"So will you..." Emily paused, and looked down again, as if fighting with herself. "Will you continue ignoring me?"

Spencer grinned, then laughed softly at that. "I'd have to die to ignore you."

"We are still friends, right?"

"Of course. And, you know what? I'll tell Toby that too. He asks about you. A lot." Spencer shrugged, as if it didn't matter to her whether Toby knew about their friendship or not. It was a complete contrast to the way she had behaved before, when they actually had been nothing but platonic.

"He asks about me?" Emily sounded surprised, as if she couldn't believe that she actually existed out of her chance meetings with Spencer. "You talk about me?"

"Yeah. Yeah...he misses you." There was that guilt seeping into Spencer's voice now, and it traveled across the room and tried to make a house in Emily's heart. But Emily's heart (her everything) was already too full with sensations that Spencer had created. "He wanted to fix things between us because he thought we were better off together." She laughed at the irony, but it wasn't a very happy sound at all.

"I don't think I can face him, Spence."

Emily's voice was shaky, and those creases were back between her eyebrows, and Spencer jumped towards Emily immediately, bending down to take her hands. She raised them to her lips, and slowly kissed each of her knuckles, while keeping her eyes on Emily's, until the lines on her brow had been erased, as if they'd never been there.

"You can face him. You will face him. This...Em, please, don't let this make you feel bad."

"But it doesn't. That's sort of the problem, Spence."

"It shouldn't be. It won't be, if you don't let it be." Spencer didn't know what she meant, and she had no idea what she was preaching. She was just trying to say something, anything that would ensure Emily's peace of mind. She smiled at the tanned girl, then stepped back to her place, this time edging closer to the door.

"You'll call me, right?" The guilt was still there, but it was edged with the silver-lining of hope, and Emily had a way of amplifying hope through her voice.

"Yes. You don't even need to ask." Spencer turned around, twisting the handle of the locker-room door, beginning to push it to make her way outside.

"Spencer?"

Spencer half-turned, half her body holding the door open as she twisted around to look at Emily. "Yeah?"

"Don't forget."

Spencer didn't know whether she meant the phone call. She probably did. But Spencer couldn't help but wonder whether Emily was also referring to everything that had happened. She didn't dwell on it too long. She just looked at Emily, without words, for several long seconds; she was soaking up the sight, she was letting her memory take a perfect photograph, so that she could revisit this image when she lay awake in bed at night. She just waved goodbye at Emily, and walked out of the room, feeling her heart grow heavier with every step that she took, with every step that took her further away from the thing she wanted the most.

It wasn't until Spencer had already gotten into her car and was already on her way home, when she realized that they hadn't talked about Arianna at all. It was like they'd both forgotten about her existence, it was like she had never existed at all.

Back in the locker room, Emily, who had finally gotten dressed in a pair of comfy sweats, was thinking the exact same thing.

A/N: So? Like/Dislike? Please do leave your comments/criticisms, or whatever you think will help me make this pairing even better than they are. Thanks.

go-sullivan: Yay! If you're writing Spemily, please do share it with us. There's a serious lack of Spemily on the internet, and I'll be glad to read it. I hope I don't intimidate people too much though, haha. I'd rather they read the story than run away. xD

Craycrayforshay: Thank you, thank you. Yep, I love angst, tension and all those frustrating bits about a couple! I do hope that my slow pace doesn't put off readers too, but I'm glad you're enjoying it.

SpemilyForever: Thank you, I always try to write good fillers! I just think that Toby isn't dense, per say. It's just something that he would never even think of, so he doesn't question whatever connection he sees between Spencer and Emily. Although he does sense that the connection is very deep.

LittleLiarLovesEmily: Glad you thought so. I love the fact that you got that interpretation, because that was exactly what I was trying to say through that little part. I do hope you liked the Spemily overdose in this chapter. And about Chapter 12, I totally get where you're coming off. Trust me, it frustrated me too, and I was the one writing it! It almost feels like these things write themselves, haha.

spinoza-off: Thank you very much! I feel very flattered, and I'm really pleased that my writing can give you all of that. I feel like all good writing should be just about that : transporting the reader into another place, no matter where that is.
Yes, Toby, he breaks my heart. I really do love him so much, but this is a Spemily fic, which means he will end up getting hurt. And you're right, there is trouble ahead! I kept it out of this chapter because I wanted it to be just about Spencer and Emily.

Sinclaire: Wow, thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the fic and I hope you continue to love what comes ahead.

Kxia: Wow, I've got another amazing reviewer! xD Can't believe you're re-reading my fic, it kinda makes me feel over the moon. It's because of amazing insights from my reviewers that I could make my first fic into a sort-of-decent-ish one, haha. Thank you for all your lovely comments, reading them was like time-traveling through my own story, and it was a refreshing recap from another perspective, and I really appreciate it.

LaughLoveLiveXx: You're right, as always. Toby is very perceptive and also very compassionate, so of course, as soon as he senses trouble with Spencer, he tries to fix it. Obviously, it may or may not end up with unpleasant consequences for all involved, but the boy has got good intentions!
And yes, Emily's the martyr, but again, martyrs do have feelings, and I don't think Emily's going to settle for being a saint when it comes to Spencer.

JustforKicks403: Yeah, she's that far gone! I just wanted to show the depth of her want, her absolute need for Spencer and the water seemed like a good metaphor.

Artisall: I'm glad you've gotten into Spemily because of my fic! I tell you, they're amazing. Thanks for the kind comments!

AxLax420: Thank you so much! I guess I get Spencer really well because I'm a lot like her, so it is very easy to understand and imagine what she might be thinking or feeling. I had a struggle with capturing Emily, but I'm glad you thought it was a job well done. x)