A/N: italic = flashback
Rosewood, November 2011
"I can't believe we're really doing this" Emily said to her two best friends.
"Guys, I don't believe for one second that Spencer's on the A-team. If she's really working with Mona there has to be more to the story"
"Em, I know how you feel okay? I know damn well what you're feeling right now. I'm supposed to be her girlfriend, remember?!" Hanna lashed out.
Anger, pain, tension, stress; all the pent up emotions accumulated in the last seven days started to wear her out.
She couldn't bring herself to believe it either, that's exactly why she, Emily and Aria were currently following Spencer's car. To ask questions the brunette managed to avoid for too long. To look Spencer in the eyes when she finally offered what the blonde hoped would be a valid explanation about the whole ordeal she put them through.
"Need I to remember you we literally just saw her wandering around in a freakin' black hoodie!" Aria exclaimed bewildered. She felt as much betrayed as Hanna, if possible.
"Besides, I don't know about you guys, but I'm dying to see how she's going to excuse herself"
Emily cringed at her tone. Hanna too, a little. They both knew how much Aria and Spencer loved each other – Hanna would have been insanely jealous hadn't she known that it was a sisterly love and nothing more.
Doesn't matter too much, though, the kind of love existing between two people. Betrayal is horrible, and it hurts like hell no matter what. Add to the equation that Spencer kidnapped her boyfriend's son and that Aria and Ezra broke up because of that and you have to understand why the petite brunette was so mad to her very best friend.
Imagine just how shitty Hanna was feeling over the whole thing.
[ The day before ]
A week ago Spencer suddenly went missing for three days, and for three days the blonde didn't know what in the name of the Lord happened to her girlfriend. If –A had taken her, if she was hurt or… or worse. She could have been killed for all they knew. She would have liked to ask the Hastings about their daughter, but surprise, surprise, they weren't home.
And then, as if nothing occurred, there at school was Spencer, sitting at her desk ready to take notes for her English class. She didn't even spare a glance her way.
Hanna was beyond pissed, but when she confronted Spencer the brunette came up with this incredible pitiful story about her dear aunt passing away, and how she had to go out of town without notice, and how she broke her phone, thus her inability to contact her for so long.
A few words and big, puppy dog eyes and Hanna was putty in her hands. Back to normal.
Or is what she thought. Because a few days after she met Veronica Hastings at The Brew, by chance, and she found it was only right on her part to go and offer the woman her condolences for the poor aunt dead. Only, she found out that there was no old aunt recently passed away in the family that the lawyer was aware of. Meaning, Spencer lied to her.
She was on her way to the brunette's house to demand explanations – and possibly to beat her up – when her phone buzzed with an incoming text. She remembered breaking down in tears looking at a photo of Spencer and Mona in full talk; they both were clad in black hoodies and leather gloves. Spencer's gaze was fierce. Resolute. Hanna loved that expression of hers.
Now, now she hated it. Because from the picture it seemed that her love's resolution was to hurt her, deeply. Mercilessly.
She didn't know when or how, but at some point she must have changed her mind because now she was knocking on Emily's door, brokenhearted and sobbing.
That was yesterday.
They followed Spencer through a secluded wooded area and saw her parking her car and heading inside a lodge. She appeared to be alone, so they decided it was finally show-time.
They exited Emily's car and walked towards the cabin. Hanna slammed the door open, her two friends right behind her, and they got in. At first all they saw was a relatively large salon, complete with furniture and a fireplace. Then, they heard noises from upstairs; when they looked upstairs they saw Spencer fumble with something in her hands. The brunette didn't notice their presence until Hanna, ever the straightforward one, spoke.
"Busted" she breathed.
"Hello Spencer. Mind tell me just WHAT THE HELL YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" she swore to herself minutes ago that she was going to give her girlfriend the benefit of the doubt, that she was going to be calm and reasonable. Obviously, she had lied to herself.
Spencer froze. Both because she didn't expect her friends there and because of the blonde's angry tone.
"Shit" she muttered; "What are you doin' here? You can't stay, it's too dangerous. What if Mona, or worse -A, saw you?"
"What?" Hanna and Emily exchanged a glance.
"Oh no Spencer, you don't get off that easy. You've got some serious explaining to do" Aria stated.
"Just tell me why? How… how could you do something like this to me? To Hanna? To all of us!" the pain in her eyes – in all their eyes – was too much for Spencer to bear.
She averted her gaze in shame and leaned against the wall, slowly crawling down to the floor. She put her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. With her head resting on her knees, she started to recount her encounter with Mona and what lead her to this moment.
[ A week ago ]
"I bet you're surprised to see me" Mona smiled knowingly at her interlocutor.
"You're taking a big risk coming here. Talking to me" Spencer replied, her anger starting to boil in her veins. The petite brunette was the last person she expected to find on the other side of the door when she opened it.
"Want a cookie?" Mona asked sweetly, letting herself in and sitting on a stool in the Hastings' kitchen.
Spencer found herself marveling at how her girlfriend's best friend – well, ex best friend - could fake so easily, so effortlessly. She thought she could make an Oscar-worthy actress if she wasn't so insanely crazy.
"No, thanks". She took a deep breath before speaking again: "Mona, I won't ask you again: what are you doing here?"
"Straight to the point. Right. That's one thing that I always liked about you" she praised with that damn smug grin still plastered on her face. Then, her mood darkened: "I respect you, really. But look at all that's happened since you turned me down on our little drive up the mountain, Spencer. And what is yet to come; all the pain, the disappointment, the loss, because you're stubborn. But I believe in second chances. I'm a generous person"
"Yeah, right" Spencer snorted. "So much so, that you're threatening me right now. You need something from me, Mona, and whatever it is the answer is no"
Spencer got up and motioned to the other girl to do the same. She was done with this conversation. Besides, there was no way in hell she was going to listen to Mona and accept whatever part in the plan their former stalker was offering her.
Mona had already her foot out of the house when she said something that made Spencer freeze.
"Life is made of choices." Mona shrugged. "But for every action, there's always a reaction. I wonder who will suffer the consequences this time"
"Let me make something clear to you, this is not a game to me. At all" Spencer's low, husky voice resembled something like a wolf's feral growl. It was frightening, really. But it merely left an impression on the smaller girl.
"Listen to me, Mona, I'm not playing around. Do not hurt my friends, okay? If you so much as touch one hair on their head I will make you very sorry. Am I clear?"
Now, a lesser person would have peed their pants. Mona smirked.
"Looks like someone's been skipping their anger management class. I think I'll be going, now" Mona said, turning to leave. She stopped just a minute longer to deliver her last blow: "Oh, before I go… maybe you wanted to know that Wilden is dead. Are you really willing to throw your girlfriend's mother in jail?"
It took a second to Spencer to understand what she was implying. They stood there for what felt a long time, facing each other off.
"What do you want from me, Mona?"
"I already told you"
The petite brunette handed over the plastic bag she had with her to the younger Hastings.
"Okay" Spencer sighed, taking a peek at its contents and unfolding a black hoodie. "I'm in. But I have conditions"
"So I came up with this plan. I had to do this! Mona is working for Red Coat, I think she's the only person to know who she is. And then she came to me and threatened to hurt you, to put Hanna's mom in jail for a crime she didn't commit. Please, tell me that you understand" she begged. "I'm not asking for forgiveness, I know I don't deserve it. But you have to know that I never would have done any of this if I had another choice"
They were all crying tears of relief, Spencer because she had finally gotten ridden of a huge burden on her conscience; and the girls because now they had the confirm that Spencer was never their enemy. She was on their side, and she was trying her best to protect all of them and keep them safe, even if she had to lie to her girlfriend and best friends and do some despicable things.
"I understand, Spence" Emily smiled timidly but sincerely. "Come on, Ar, let's leave them alone. They need to talk"
"Yeah" Aria nodded; "Spence, I… I'm just glad you're still with us"
"I was never with them, Aria. Not really. I hope one day you can forgive me" Spencer dropped her eyes to the ground.
And the short brunette immediately went to hug her. Tightly.
"I forgive you. But no more secrets"
"No more secrets" Spencer hugged back just as tightly.
They let go the embrace and Aria and Emily walked out of the door.
"Han…" Spencer ventured.
"No, don't. Have you any idea what you put me through? How much it hurt thinking that you'd turned your back on me? Just tell me, when were you going to clue us in on your double agent status? Should I call you Nikita from now on?"
"I-I told Toby to sent you that picture of me and Mona"
"Toby? Your ex-boyfriend Toby? Is he a part of this, too?"
"Yes, I… look, I needed someone I could trust and as much as I didn't want any other people getting involved, I asked him to do this for me"
"So you trusted Toby but you couldn't trust me?" Hanna looked even more hurt by this new revelation.
"No, no Han, it's not what you think! I just asked him to take that picture and sent it to you, that's all. And I did all of this to protect you, of course I had to keep it a secret from you"
"Do you hear what you're saying? There should be no secrets between us, Spence!" Hanna yelled.
"I know, Han. I never wanted to hurt you, but I did. And I'm sorry, I'm so very sorry" Spencer choked out.
"I just… I couldn't let them harm you. I couldn't let them take your mother away from you. I couldn't let that happen and have your father take you away from me, because if the police arrest your mom you'd be devastated and your father would come back and take you with him and I can't -"
She was cut off by a soft pair of lips pressing gently but firmly to hers.
"I know baby, I understand. It's okay" Hanna soothed her desperate girlfriend. "I understand. It's okay" she kissed her again and again, until they both calmed down.
Then something snapped inside of them: they both were assaulted by this strong need to reaffirm and express the love they had for each other; to reinforce a trust that the recent events threatened to disintegrate. They felt the need to feel the warmth of their bodies, the softness of their kisses, the care in their caresses. They felt the need to reconnect.
"Spence, please" Hanna breathed on the brunette's neck.
"What? Tell me" Spencer heard the urgency in the blonde's voice.
"I need you" Hanna admitted shyly; "But first take off that hideous hoodie and, please, burn it"
They smiled at each other and Spencer threw the offensive garment off of her and directly in the fireplace in front of the couch they were stretched on, limbs tangled together.
"Good" Hanna smirked. "Now kiss me, you idiot"
The next day, the girls decided to go on with Spencer's original plan, much to Hanna's discomfort.
The tall brunette, in fact, on the pretext of a meeting with members of the A-team, was offering herself as bait to lure Red Coat, the one they thought was in charge of the A game, inside the Thornhill Lodge, where she had previously hidden cameras and a recorder, so that they could collect some proof to hand over the police even if their infamous stalker wasn't going to drop the mask.
She should have taken into account that their enemy was not so naïve as to fall into such a simple trap.
All the things that could have gone wrong that night, they happened.
Mona was the only one to show up; apparently she knew what Spencer was trying to do and wanted to take a part in it. She confessed that she didn't know the identity of Red Coat either. So she offered to stay behind while Spencer went to inspect the landing strip.
Shana and Jenna appeared seemingly out of nowhere and set the Lodge on fire.
Spencer missed Red Coat's landing, but saw someone that looked an awful lot like Alison running through the woods. Astonished, she turned on her heels and back to the Lodge when the strong, acrid smell of smoke hit her nose. That couldn't be good, she knew it.
Toby, whom insisted to help Spencer out with her plan, was knocked out unconscious on the ground.
The girls showed up late because of a flat tire, just in time to assist to the cabin being engulfed by the flames and Spencer running inside to save Mona.
Hanna screamed after her and started to move, only to have two pair of arms wrapping around her, holding her back.
They were the longest three minutes of her life. Finally she saw two figures emerging from the fire, the taller one carrying the smaller on her back. She ran towards them.
"Why did you do it? Why you saved me?" Mona asked Spencer, bewildered.
"Because it was the right thing to do. And because Hanna still care a great deal about you"
"It doesn't change anything. I won't say thank you, let's go grab a coffee, you know"
"I would never have a coffee with you, don't sweat it. You didn't hurt my feelings" Spencer smirked.
They were interrupted by a fury blonde, irked by the carelessness of her girlfriend and worried to death about her conditions.
"Spencer, what the hell did you think you were doing? You could have died!" Hanna threw herself at the brunette, checking all over her body for possible injuries.
Spencer huffed but wrapped an arm around the blonde's shoulders.
A sad, distant smile appeared on Mona's lips at the scene. She distanced herself to let the couple some privacy. However:
"Hey Mona" Hanna held her back; "I'm glad you're okay" she smiled softly.
"Yeah" the petite brunette brushed it off; "Like I was going to bite the dust in such a pathetic way"
But Hanna had already engulfed her in a friendly hug, and Mona was happy to oblige.
"Alright, that being said… you owe us! Spence here has already had her fifth degree"
"Third degree" four voices corrected her in chorus. Even Mona.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now it's your turn" Hanna went on unfazed. "Don't think you can escape it"
"I wouldn't dream of it"
And so, the five girls made their way to Emily's car, leaving behind their backs flames and ashes of yet another failed attempt to bring down their new, dangerous tormentor.
They didn't know, at the time, what A had in store for them.
They didn't know that Spencer's efforts to keep Ashley Marin safe and sound had been all in vain.
And they couldn't know that it was going to be Mona to pull the woman out of troubles. Anything for a friend, right?
A/N: So… the girls went through a rough patch, uh? I always wanted to write something about Spencer's undercover job :D I wonder how things will go from now on. I think I'm a bit in a mood, don't mind me. Hopefully it won't last long. Anyway, thank you again for reading and for posting your thoughts, your kind words have a huge impact on my self-esteem :D