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Chapter Nine

Happy

"I don't wanna play with Sean today." The little boy complained, his small voice filled with whines.

It was a Thursday morning, an early Thursday morning. While Spencer still had classes on Thursdays, Noah did not. Noah didn't have day care on Thursdays nor Fridays, or of course the weekends. Another way of saying it was that, Noah only had day care on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Which meant he would need someone to watch him on those early Thursday mornings. Usually, Spencer would have Aria watch her son. But, do to recent discoveries, she hadn't been doing much talking with the tiny brunette.

Sean was a boy from Noah's daycare. The two boys were sort of friends, but not the best. Although, Spencer was friends with Sean's mother; Tiffany. She too was at a very young age, raising a child as a single parent. She was a little bit older, two years. Spencer didn't know the the whole story-over time Spencer had realized that there could be much more to a story-but, she knew the father was out of the little family of two's life. Tiffany got pregnant at Twenty, and gave birth at twenty one. The father was always on the go, and apparently got some job offer, he couldn't refuse. It was all very sad, really. But, no one could defeat the dysfunction that Spencer could bring to the table. She chose to keep the story, short and simple though. He was her high school boyfriend, a year older, and moved away before she had the chance to tell him. Adding that she wanted him to have a better life because of how complicated things already were between them. She tried to make herself look like the good guy, but was that a crime? She was the good guy. If she told the truth to people, they would most likely send her to a physco ward. So like the many times in her high school years, she simply just lied. Although... it was kind of true. Toby did leave town before she could tell him... and things were way to complicated to mense.

Speaking of Toby, she hadn't talked to him since his attempt at telling her the truth. It had only been a couple days, but he had called her a couple times already. Saying 'I know this is a lot to handle, and I'm sorry. But, I hope you'll give me the chance to finish.' and 'You have every right to never talk or listen to me again, but I hope you will'. It's not that Spencer wasn't planning on listening to him, she most certainly was-she craved answers, almost as much as she craved caffeine-but, she just needed some time. Some time to think, maybe? Besides, hearing him beg almost made her smile. She knew it was tad bit narcissistic of her to want him to suffer, but could you blame her? He put her through hell, worse even. The least he could do was walk on egg shells for a couple days. Although, he would be walking on egg shells a lot more longer than a couple days...

"You have to. Mommy, has school. Don't you want her to get her education, so we can have money to do fun things?" Spencer asked as she pushed a bowl of scrambled eggs towards him.

"Like what?" He asked clueless as he began to dig in to his scrambled eggs.

"Like," Spencer's voice trailed. "Going to the mummy exhibit."

"What's a eks-gibit ?" Her son once again said clueless.

"It's a place where they have all these cool things you can look at! and they are very interesting, and-"

"Wait," Her son interrupted. "Are muo-mmies those things in Scooby Doo? The one where they go into that cave place, and they find those peoples wrapped up in toliet paper?" He asked eagerly.

She nodded.

"Cool!" He stated with a smile. "When can we go?" He asked.

"Well, I promise I'll take you there next weekend. You have to buy tickets, and everything. But, first you have to go to Sean's house, and act like the polite little boy-"

"I'm a big boy!" He interceded.

"Fine,polite big boy " She smiled. "you are."

"Okay," He sighed.

"That means no saying you rather be anywhere else." She informed him. "Act like you are enjoying your self, and be nice to Sean, and Tiff." She told him sternly.

"But isn't that lying?" He tilted his head at her. "I wanna be at Aunty Aria's." He began to whine, and sounded to be close to tears. Spencer looked at him sadly. Things were so complicated, and he was so innocent. He was very close to Aria, and Spencer knew it wasn't fair. But, what was she supposed to do? Just forgive Aria that quickly? C'mon, she may have changed since high school, but her stubbornness stayed the same.

"I'm sorry hun." She soothed him, and he sniffled and looked up to her. "Maybe you'll see her next week." She said, and instantly regretted it. One of the things she hated most about her parents when she was little, was that they could make promises, they couldn't keep. They would tell her they would be at her dance recital, but she wouldn't see them. They would tell her they would take her to see the 'festival of lights' almost every year, but they didn't. It was just some stupid festival, that occurred during Christmas. You could buy these flying lanterns, and send them away by the end of the night. By the end of the night the sky would be filled with flying lanterned lights instead of stars. The whole place, which was usually a outdoor museum, would be decorated with Christmasy things. Santa Clause was there, and even reindeer. And the whole place would be decorized with thousands of colorful lights-so Spencer's heard or, read in her case. Every year she would read the brochure, practically memorizing it like she would be taking a test on it the next day, but something would always come up. Her parents would have work, or some other priory more important than her to attend to. Spencer was over it.

"That's a long time!" He pouted. "I want to go there now." He cried out.

"Noah," She warned him sternly. He pouted and then went back to his scramble eggs.

"Thanks for coming with me." Spencer sighed as she waited for her name to be called, in the waiting room.

"Yeah, of course. I wasn't going to let you do this alone." The brunette smiled dearly putting a caring hand on her knee, and squeezing it. "I'm glad you finally made an appointment. How far along are you, anyways?" she asked.

"Eleven weeks?" Spencer said with uncertainty. She had been keeping track for awhile, but now in between finding out who A was, being pregnant at seventeen, and catching up on school work, she didn't even know the day of the week. Most of her days just seemed drawn out, and never ending. When she went to sleep at night, they simply just felt like naps. "I think?"

"Really?" She bulged her hazel eyes. "You aren't even showing!" Aria exclaimed.

Spencer smiled at her friend, and then looked down at her stomach. It was hard to believe a person was growing inside her. "Miss Spencer Hastings." Someone called from the front desk. They stepped up, and walked over to the woman at the desk who directed them into the room down the hall where she would attend her first pregnancy appointment, with her best friend at her side.

Without warning, the brunette traveled to her former boyfriend's loft after class. Tiffany had texted her saying she had took the boys out for icecream, and they weren't back yet. Sure, Spencer would have to deal with a more hyped up four year old than usual due to the sweets he was taking in, but it gave her time to listen to the rest of what Toby had to tell her. Maybe, she should have texted him, but it was too late now. She was standing outside his door, knocking away. Practically pounding. After a couple of minutes, Spencer assumed he wasn't home. She should have known better than to just show up at his door. She was about to drag her feet down the stairs, but the door opened before she even turned around fully.

He looked more dressed up than last time. Well not dressed up exactly... Last time he was wearing sweats, and a shirt with some logo Spencer didn't recognize on it. Today he was wearing a dark red sweater and dark denim jeans. His hair looked wet, as if he just got out of the shower. Well, that explains why it took him so long to come to the door...

"Spencer?" He said as more of a question than a statement. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, but he opened the door more.

"Um, hi." She said hesitantly. She probably should have called. "Sorry I didn't call, I just" Her voice trailed off. "Are you going somewhere?" She asked.

"Uh, not till an hour or so." He responded. "Do you, do you want to come in?" He asked awkwardly, stepping to the side allowing her access to a pathway inside.

She mumbled a 'sure', and stepped inside. Even though, it had only been a few days, he seemed to have gotten a lot done. The walls were painted, white. It kind of looked like an insane asylum. The smell of smoke was replaced with the smell of paint, and the old ceramic tile in the kitchen looked as if he was working on taking it all out. Cans of paints were in the corner, and the ceiling fan still wasn't moving, while the ones of the ground were.

"Um, it kind of smells like paint. Sorry, I just painted. You probably shouldn't lean against any of the walls either." Toby advised glancing around the room, a nervousness in his voice.

Kind of? "It's fine." She stated plainly. By now, she didn't even have to tell him the reason she was here.

"So, I'm guessing you didn't stop by because you wanted another look at this... amazing place?" He asked looking around the dump of a loft.

"Not exactly." She said squinting her eyes at him. "Why didn't you ever tell me?" She asked bluntly, and almost out of nowhere.

"Um," He mumbled.

"Everything you've said to me." Spencer looked around the loft, simply just an excuse to avoid his deep blue eyes. "Making Jason look guilty, kidnapping Emily," She shrugged. "None of those things are worse than, that you were lying to me. The whole time," She finally looked into his eyes. "You simply just let me believe you were some one different entirely."

"Spencer," He sighed sadly meeting her gaze. "I'm not a lie. The things I said to you, the things we did, they weren't lies." he defended.

"Yeah," She scoffed. "You are a lie." She said flatly. "Look," She looked down, "Part of the reason, I...loved you so much," She said quietly "was because you were honest. You were the only person in my life that I felt like was sincere, and true. I don't know. I just I thought you were different from everyone else," She said her voice cracking.

All he did was stare blankly, a frown clearly present on his face, and his blue eyes filled with sorrow. "I'm sorry" is all he could say. A few depressing moments passed, before Spencer pulled her head up and forced her self to look at the man who broke her heart.

"Just finish," She requested meekly.

After Jenna had told the four girls that Mona still indeed had to do with the mess of A. They decided to pay her a visit. Hanna, and Aria both had already seen the former-well present-stalker since she was locked away, but Spencer and Emily hadn't. Facing Mona wasn't enjoyable. Spencer was actually terrified, although she didn't let it show. The last time she had saw the girl, she was threatening to kill her if she didn't join the morbid team. Spencer, of course, declined.

Radley Sanitorium wasn't exactly welcoming either. Hanna and Aria had told them they would have to sneak in if they wanted to really talk to Mona. So here they were, sneaking through the dark and desolate halls of Radley, chasing down their first known tormentor.

When they walked into the room, Mona was at her desk. She had a set of cards in hand and was shuffling them, in the dark. The scene sent shivers down Spencer's body, as they stepped further into the room.

Mona seemed to become aware of their presence, and turned her head towards them, keeping her body faced to the desk. She smiled a little. Hanna stayed indifferent, Aria looked disgusted, and Emily looked worried. Spencer's expression, on the other hand, was unreadable.

"Spencer," Mona acknowledged. "How are you sweetie, I heard that you and Toby broke up, and he left you with his baby. The rumors in this town, aren't they just the craziest?"

Spencer shuttered, but kept her hard glare.

"Cut the crap Mona." Hanna stepped in closer to her former best friend. "We know you're still behind this all."

Mona just stood up, and looked at each girl individually. As if she was inspecting them all or something. "Well, sit why don't you?" She asked, not to any one in particular.

"Did you not hear us?" Aria spoke up violently. "We know it's you."

"What's me?" Mona asked.

"You're A." Emily said hesitantly.

"Isn't everyone nowadays?" Mona said rolling her eyes and taking a seat back down on her chair. She turned to her desk, and began laying out her playing cards. All the girls looked at her more closely as she went on. "I mean I swear. You start something, and it just drags on and on-" Mona's voice trailed.

"Mona," Hanna warned. "Specify everyone." She demanded.

"Oh, I can't tell you that." Mona said lightly, still facing the cards. "It's a secret. I promised I wouldn't say."

"I drove Caleb's mom of the road." Toby confessed. Spencer gaped, sure he killed Ian, but Ian was the bad guy right? Caleb didn't even have to do with this. Hanna and him had broken up shortly after, and Hanna was left heartbroken.

"Wh-What" She said baffled.

"It was to scare her." He said lifting his eyes up to the ceiling. "I made sure she would be okay. I called 911 immediately after. I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." Spencer said. "How could you do that?" Spencer asked, fumbling on her words. She didn't know why this triggered her tears, and cracking voice, but it did. The lump in her throat felt like it was about to bust any second now. "I mean you of all people should understand. You tried killing his mom! Even though, you know what it feels like to have your own mother die! You're a monster!" She yelled. After saying it, she quickly regretted it though. But, the words have already left her mouth. There was nothing she could do.

He let out a trembling sigh, and Spencer wasn't completely sure, but she think she saw a traces of tears on his cheeks. "I didn't want to hurt her." He said weakly. "But, I didn't have a choice." He mumbled. "Look," He swallowed hardly, forcing himself to stare at Spencer. "I knew I was in the wrong. I even got drunk after that because I thought maybe I could forget." He said sadly. "But, that only lasts so long.." He went on. "I had to get out, and that's when I knew I had to tell you. I couldn't keep this up any longer."

"I didn't find out till months later!" She screamed, her tears now freely falling off her face. "And I didn't even find out from you!" She wailed.

"It was hard, okay?" He said defending himself. "Every time I looked at you, I just wanted to savor a few more moments." He swallowed. "I was selfish. I knew you would never forgive me, and I just needed to be with you a little longer. Every time I even thought about how I would tell you, I just couldn't handle it." He admitted. "I didn't want to lose you, but I knew I would. I knew the truth would come out, and it would have to."

"You knew that the whole time." She said dryly, shaking her head, and wiping her tears away. "You knew that you weren't the person I thought you were. You knew you were lying. You knew the whole damn time! The whole time you knew you were just making me fall for you harder, each day, but yet you continued it!" She cried.

"I'm sorry." He said again. "I'm so sorry." He kept repeating for a long time. Spencer eventually stopped crying, and wouldn't go home without the rest of his explanation.

"Look when I wanted answers from you..." His voice trailed. "I wanted to help you. I would help you the best I could, and try and lead you in the right directions. But, you didn't give me them." He said with a sigh. "When I left town, I wasn't planning on coming back. I figured you would be better off not knowing the truth, and thinking I just left you because I was a douchebag, instead of me betraying you horribly. But, then I realized, that was unfair. You deserved the truth." He said looking into her brown eyes dried out from tears. "When I came back, I started to ruin their plans, and I always had a lead on if they were planning to hurt you. I wasn't going to let it happen." He said. "When it was all over, and you didn't need protection anymore, I would tell you the truth."

A photographic memory. Whenever hearing this term, if you knew of the girl, you immediately thought of Spencer Hastings. Since preschool she had gotten straight A's. She would study the material longer than she needed to. She could probably read the chapter once, while some read it four times, and Spencer would end up getting an A, while the other person got a C. She was born a genius.

Spencer studied her laptop. Scanning her brown eyes across the screen, till she saw specks of color floating through the air due to the bright light. She tried to remember more details, about the unpleasant lair she had once set foot in. If only she knew where the lair was now... then she could discard of all the evidence of the four at the grave yard, and possibly turn A in.

Cece knew a lot about Ali that they didn't. Maybe she could help them, since Mona was of no help at all. Shockingly.

"But I realized I just had to keep doing what I was doing." he added sadly. "It was playing with fire, and I knew that, but I just wanted to see you safe, so you could move on from this mess." He said with a sigh.

"I was supposed to kill Nate." Toby said with a sigh. "It was all part of the plan to make Paige look guilty for Maya's murder, but those plans kind of got ruined. Emily killed him first, and already found out the truth." He went on.

"I owe you one..." Spencer recalled silently, "That was you?" She whispered, shuttering.

He nodded. "Anyways, I visited Mona a lot. I wanted to know more about the rest of the 'A team'. She usually just talked about weird things though. Nothing useful." He said dryly. Spencer could agree to that. They visited Mona a few times, but she never made any sense. "I guess they started to suspect, and they kind of stopped asking me to do anything big. It was nice, but I knew there had to be something up. So, when everything with Aria happened... Everything just kind of started to fall apart after that." He said.

Spencer was frozen, she couldn't even move her mouth to speak. So that was it?

"I came back because I had to see you were okay. Maybe, it would take away some guilt..." His voice trailed. "But, I wanted you to be happy. More than anything, I just want you to be okay after everything, because you deserve that." He said solidly.

"I-" She stuttered into the silence.

"I hope you are." He said. His blue eyes so sincere, and locked on her mocha ones.

"Cece, thanks for having lunch with me." Spencer said politely as she looked through the menu. Although she knew exactly what she wanted : Chili cheese fries.

"Yeah, well I had to make a few adjustments, but for you, it wasn't a problem." Cece replied, also flipping through a menu. "Hows Jason? I saw you two together the other day..." her voice trailed. "I ran into him, he's such a bore now." She rolled her eyes.

"Uh, yeah." Spencer agreed awkwardly.

"So what's up?" Cece asked, killing the awkward tension.

"Huh?" Spencer asked looking up.

"I mean we don't normally just have lunch." Cece squinted her eyes, and started to use a hushed voice. "What's going on in that little Hasting's pretty head?" She asked.

"Um," Spencer croaked. "Who else did Ali talk about asides us?"

Cece cocked her head with a smirk. "Oh the rumor mill, so delicious." She smacked her lips. "You want to hear more about pig skin?" She asked with a devious giggle.

"No," Spencer reclined. "Um, any one else?" She asked.

"Alison talked about everyone," Cece said widening her eyes to emphasis the point. "Is there any one particular?" Cece asked.

"Not really," Spencer sputtered. "Is there any one else you think she was afraid of?"

"Well," Cece said. She looked as if she was going to say something, but didn't. "Alison didn't really show fear, y'know? Fear is a sign of weakness, you can't be at the top if you're weak. Y'know?"

"Right," Spencer murmured back.

After talking to Toby, she left. She couldn't be there anymore, because she couldn't let him see her cry any longer. She couldn't let him think this affected her as much as it did. Even though this whole ordeal hurt more than child birth. The crying didn't stop for awhile. After the crying seemed to be put to rest, she redid her make up, and wiped her eyes, pretending as if nothing was wrong, and went to pick up her son.

She knocked on the door to Tiffany's small home, but was surprised at who answered.

"Um, Hi." She said knitting her forehead.

"Hello," The man greeted.

"Um," She said with a gulp. "I'm here to pick up my son, this is Tiffany's house right?" Spencer asked eyeing the house one more time to make sure. This was her house, she was sure of it.

"Yeah," He replied. "Oh, I'm sorry." He said with a smile. "I'm her brother, Larson." He said putting out a hand to greet her.

"Oh," She nodded, the resemblance between the two started to sink in. He had light hair, with a big flawless smile. His skin was sun-kissed with a few freckles. And his hazel eyes were the exact ones both Tiffany and Sean shared. "Spencer," She said. "I'm Tiffany's friend. She's watching my son."

"Oh," He nodded. "Yeah, they went to go get icecream." He informed her.

Spencer nodded, she assumed they would be back by now. Quite some time had passed.

"You can come in and wait, if you want. I'm sure she wouldn't mind." He told her.

She mumbled an 'Okay,' before walking in.

"So, Noah, he's your son?" Larson asked.

"Yeah," Spencer said as she followed him down the hall and into the small kitchen.

"Sweet kid." The man commented.

"Yeah, he's a keeper." Spencer smiled.

"Sean and him seem to get along pretty well. Sean usually jumps with joy when he sees me, but he barely even a mumbled a hi this time." He went on.

This made Spencer grateful. Her son had listened to her, and was friendly. "Oh, well kids can be kids." She said.

"Yeah," He murmured. "You want some coffee? Tiffany's coffee tastes like water, so I would never offer that, but I was in the middle of making a new pot." He said.

Spencer had to agree to this, Tiffany's coffee didn't please her much. "Yeah, she thinks I'm crazy when I tell her that." Spencer smiled. "But, yeah, I'll have some." She told him. So he went on making the coffee for the two. They made small talk about the weather, and how summer was coming to a close within a month.

Tiffany came back soon with a hyper Noah and Sean, and apologized for being late. Spencer took Noah home after bidding farewell to the three, and telling Larson she was glad to meet him. And maybe at the time she didn't fully mean that, but a little ways down the road, she would say it again, this time with all the sincerity What an eventful afternoon it was.

Um so yeah. Introduced some new characters. You'll be seeing them a few times...

So... Larson... yeah. Hmm? you'll see.

and tell me what you think please?(:

Also, did you guys see the sneak peak with spoby+Garret? I hate Toby's character development, like it doesn't make sense because in 3x07 Toby was telling Spencer that Garret could be innocent? Unless there is something we don't know. (Which I'm sure there is! )

Anyway, yeah. Please tell me what you thought of this chapter(: Did it suck? Did you love it? Tell me please! wee.