Hey there, friends. Thanks for all your kind words on the last chapter! Kids have that annoying quality about them where they always want to watch the same movie over and over again, so I hope that felt authentic! Trust me, I've been working with kids for a loooong time and I've experienced it many times firsthand haha. Anyway! On to the next chapter. Only ten left... Start the countdown now!

The chapter title comes from "Sunday Morning" by Maroon 5. The only band I love as much as Fun. is Maroon 5. Another fun fact about my life. ;)

sunday morning rain is falling, steal some covers, share some skin

Paris in autumn is not quite as exaggerated foliage-wise as the northeast United States, but it possesses a quaint, unparalleled charm in its own. The air is crisp and the leaves are golden and almost everyone that the young family passes is clothed in a stylish pea coat, wrapped like a pretty package in a scarf. It's October; Grace begins to get excited for Halloween and her parents have still not found a way to tell her that the holiday is not nearly as big in France as it is in America. The day previous, Toby, Spencer and Grace had taken a trip to the Seine River and had scrawled their names in Sharpie on a golden lock, clasping it to the bridge and sealing their legacy forever. Grace had delighted in tossing the key over the side and the three watched their lock glisten in the autumnal afternoon sunlight.

Sunlight apparently is a thing of the past. Toby's eyes flutter open this morning to the soft pitter-pattering of rain caressing their bedroom window. It's just as dark in here as it was when they'd gone to bed hours earlier; there's a faint hope of light trying to pour through the blinds, but it's the dark and dreary kind, not the one of hope and promise. It's Sunday morning and, as Toby's oceanic eyes fall upon the clock at his bedside, it's only a bit after seven. It's far too early to be awake for a Sunday; Toby burrows further beneath the comforter and snuggles closer to Spencer, who murmurs something in her sleep about mutually exclusive social behaviors. Toby smirks; of course that's where her unconscious mind is, because she doesn't take a break even when she's asleep. She's been a sleep-talker for as long as he can remember, but she's also the lightest sleeper he's ever encountered, and so when he presses a kiss to her cheek, he isn't surprised when only moments later, she awakens.

She rubs a hand across her eyes and asks drowsily, "Was I bothering you?"

"What?" He questions in confusion. "No."

"Then why did you bother me?" Spencer counters, shooting him that signature look of hers. "I was sleeping."

He smirks. "Yeah, and now you're not."

"Look, just because you're awake at-" She pauses to glance over his shoulder and her eyes become saucers at the sight of the clock. "7:13 on a Sunday, doesn't mean we all want that. 7:13, Toby? Really?"

"You're up much earlier than this on the regular," He defends. "Don't pretend this is a travesty."

"It is a travesty," Spencer sighs. "It's Sunday."

"Yes, you've made that abundantly clear."

"Clear enough that you'll let me go back to sleep?" She yawns. "Your daughter has the energy level of the Road Runner on steroids and if I'm going to compete with that, I'm going to need my coveted rest."

"I love how she becomes mine only when she's acting out," Toby comments, slinging an arm across her stomach and pulling her closer. "And the reason she has so much energy is because she's your kid. That's not blood running through her veins; it's pure caffeine."

"Not even possible. I didn't have a drop of caffeine while I was pregnant," Spencer counters. "And you and I both know how awful I was to deal with without it. That's how I'm going to be today if you won't let me go back to sleep."

"But you can drink coffee again."

"Yeah, and I'm going to need it today. Might as well stick a straw in the coffee pot."

"I'm honestly not sure what's worse," Toby considers. "Over-caffeinated Spencer or caffeine-deprived Spencer."

She frowns. "You never make me sound good when you say things like that."

"Oh come on, you know I love you anyway," He tells her sincerely, punctuating his statement with a kiss to her temple. "Your intensity is part of your charm."

"Oh yeah?" Spencer replies, intrigued. "You like my intensity? You don't think it's scary?"

"Scary?" Toby chuckles. "No. Why?"

"Everyone always thought I was scary," Spencer informs him and Toby shakes his head.

"Nah, not me. To be honest, I never really knew much about you," Toby tells her. "You know, before. There was Alison and everyone knew Alison and you four were just… her minions. I always just assumed you guys were just as bad as her… Which I guess makes me just as bad as her; assuming the worst about people I don't actually know."

Spencer wonders, "So that day on your porch… What did you think I was there for?"

"To solicit information; get me to tell the truth, which I already was," He answers easily. "And I was kind of right about that, wasn't I? I mean, would you have signed up to tutor some random kid if he wasn't the lead suspect in the murder of your best friend?"

"Maybe," She defends. "Community service looks good on college applications."

He rolls his eyes. "Of course. Did your college applications even have enough room for everything you had to put on there?"

"Yes, although for some it didn't matter, anyway."

"Are you still mad about UPenn?" Toby implores and her silence answers his question. "Spencer, you told me you didn't want to go there anyway!"

"No, I didn't!" She insists. "But that's not the point. It's one thing not to want something but it's entirely different to be told you can't have it."

"Alright, I get that, but honestly?" He looks her dead in the eye. "It's their unimaginable loss. Seriously. Columbia and Yale got lucky when they landed you. Just like I did."

Spencer grins and rolls over her side to kiss him, saying, "I love you."

He nuzzles their noses and mocks, "I wanted to say that first."

She laughs a bit, probing, "Did you plan on saying it then? After I gave you the truck?"

"No, and when I said it, I was afraid that maybe it was too soon," Toby admits. "But, I'd known it for awhile; I'd felt it even longer. So it just sort of… slipped out."

"So that just slipped out," Spencer notes. "But when it comes to knowing when you wanted to marry me-"

"Oh that had to be planned," He says. "I'd been planning it for a while; long before we even made plans for our anniversary that weekend. I wasn't even sure I was going to do it that weekend, but I just couldn't wait any longer."

A smile forms on her face, warm and slow. "When did you know?"

"When did I know? Easy," He answers fluidly. "I told you a long time ago that if you ever felt like you needed to run away to come to me first and when you did, that night you had that awful fight with your dad, I felt like… I don't know. I felt accomplished. I felt like you finally felt comfortable enough to share your problems with me and I felt like we could finally get over our communication issues."

"But it wasn't even then," Toby goes on before she can comment. "It was after that. It was the next morning, when I woke up, shivering in my own bed, because not only do you steal my clothes, but my blankets, too."

She laughs. "Sorry."

He shakes his head in a way that tells her it isn't really an issue. "The first thing I saw was your suitcase and I remembered what had happened the night before. But you were still sound asleep and when I looked at you… You looked so peaceful. It was the most at peace I had ever seen you, up until that point at least, and it made me incredibly happy. And I realized I could get used to that; to waking up to you. I realized that's what I wanted; to wake up to you everyday. To see you that peaceful all the time. That's when I knew I wanted to marry you."

Spencer curls her hand into his hair and brings his lips to hers. It's hard not to when he says things like that. He cups her face, pulling back to ask, "Satisfying answer?"

"Only the best," She answers before kissing him again, pushing the sheets that surround them away in order to bring his body even closer to hers.

Toby's hands graze her thighs and move to push the t-shirt of his off of her body. They separate slightly so he can do this and he uses the opportunity to accuse, "I'm beginning to think you only like me for my clothing. By the end of this marriage, I'll be walking around completely naked."

"You're only just beginning to notice this?" Spencer teases right back. "Oh Tobes, you're so far behind. That was my plan all along."

She reconnects their lips before he can issue a retort. Somehow, they both discard their underwear and neither of them are quite sure how since they don't break apart again and they're far too busy kissing and caressing to pay attention to anything else. Toby rolls them over, on top of her just a bit, and pushes the hair off her face so he can see her better. Her eyes flutter open and there's a look in her auburn eyes that gets him every time; a look he absolutely lives for. He'd seen it their first time and every time since. There's lust there, longing, a hint of nerves and a dash of heated desire. But most of all, there's an overwhelming sense of love and it absolutely fills and consumes him. To this day, Toby still cannot stop counting his blessings, thanking every last star that she had come to him when she had. He's honestly not sure where he'd be if she hadn't. He wants to go back to that misfit, tortured teenager, that innocent soul in juvie, that crying boy in the alley and tell him that everything's going to be okay; that one day, he's going to be rewarded with the best thing that will ever happen to him and it will far outweigh all of the bad.

Toby kisses her when they're through, when their breathing is still labored, when they can still hear their heartbeats pounding as one. Spencer looks at him and gets this feeling in her chest, the one she'd been feeling ever since she left high school and A behind, the one she gets every time she's with him. It had taken her longer than she'd care to admit to realize what it is; happiness. She's tremendously happy and after years of stress and tears and drama, she truly hadn't expected to ever quite feel this way again. But the night everything had come to an end, when she had finally been released from police custody and had pushed past the press and her sister and her parents to fall shakily into his arms instead, Toby had kissed her and had promised that everything was going to be okay. It wasn't something she'd put her faith in, ever the eternal pessimist, after all. But he'd made good on his promise; here she is, years later, with the man who makes her happiest in the world and a beautiful daughter she loves just as much. She's just happy; it isn't any more complicated than that and she's glad it isn't. She's had far too many complications in her short span of a lifetime.

He pushes the hair away from her neck and begins to press kisses there instead. "You still want to go back to sleep?"

It's after eight now and she knows he's baiting her. "No, thank you. I'll just have my signature eighteen cups of coffee and I'll be good."

Toby laughs and just a moment later, they can hear a door open on the far side of the apartment. He groans a little, saying, "So much for a quiet and lazy Sunday morning in bed."

"Yeah, we've got forty-five seconds until Hurricane Grace hits," Spencer says, sitting up and searching the floor for her discarded clothing. "So we're either dressing in that time or we're going to have to give her a very, very early sex talk."

From there, it's a flurry of movement and clothing as the two rush to make themselves presentable. Spencer runs a hand through her hair and Toby's just yanked a shirt in place when Grace opens their bedroom door and bounds across the floor. She hops up on the bed and greets them as though she's already poured sugar straight into her veins. "Bonjour!"

Spencer laughs and kisses her cheek. "Good morning, beautiful!"

"How'd you sleep, monkey?" Toby asks, ruffling her hair.

"Good," She answers. "Can we make pancakes? I want go to the movies today. Did you know there's a bird's nest on the tree outside my window with new babies in it? They're so tiny!"

At least a dozen other excitable sentences pour from her mouth and Toby and Spencer share an amused grin. A lazy Sunday it would not be, but as long as the three of them are together, they don't really mind.