Author's Note: I promise, I have a semi-legitimate explanation for leaving you guys hanging, but first, please read this mediocre chapter.

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Hanna, the flowers you picked out are so gorgeous. And please tell Aria that I'm sorry I couldn't make it yesterday to help her move," Spencer said as she looked over a portfolio Hanna had thrown together for her own wedding.

"Aria said not to sweat it and that she'll see you at her housewarming get-together next week," Hanna answered. "And anytime. That's just what the maid of honor does."

Spencer smiled. She wasn't sure who to choose, but with everything Hanna had done for her, from helping her get through everything to their long, long history together, Spencer just knew Hanna was fit for the job.

"Okay, bye, Han. I'll see you soon."

Spencer hung up, looking at the portfolio once more. She looked at the pictures of the venue Hanna's friend—a professional photographer—had taken. She also included other photos of his. He was the photographer for the wedding, and Spencer really loved his work. She looked over the many, many flower arrangements Hanna had suggested. She loved the white and red everywhere.

She was smiling as she viewed more pictures of the venue, thinking of how she could change it into her dream, when the phone rang.

She looked at the caller I.D and couldn't recognize the number. Puzzled, she answered.

"Hello?"

There was a pregnant pause on the other end before an eerily familiar voice spoke. "Spencer?"

Her blood turned cold. "Andrew. I haven't heard from you in a while. What do you want?" she asked coldly.

"I need to talk to you, desperately."

Spencer sighed. "What do you want from me?"

"I need a favor."

She thought about this for a moment. "Since when do I owe you any favors?"

"Since I know your secrets and I have something you want."

She glared at him from across the booth. "What are you holding hostage?" she asked, her voice as even as she could make it. Her blood was boiling in her veins.

Andrew slid a picture across the table. Spencer blanched as soon as she saw it.

"How do you have this?" she asked nervously.

He looked at the picture. It was a Hastings family heirloom. It was a bird in a cage necklace. It was on a silver plated chain, the cage was fashioned of sterling silver, with diamonds, rubies, amethysts, emeralds, and other precious gems encrusted in it. Inside was a small glass bird with glistening sapphire eyes and a shiny pinkish pearl in its beak. The whole pendant was only about an inch or inch and a half in length, she recalled.

"In your haste, you never took it out of our safety deposit box. And since I already took your name off the list of people who can open the box, it seems that you're in my debt if you want this back."

Spencer's brown eyes had a fire raging in them. She was livid. After everything, he was asking her for favors?

"Andrew, you don't give me back that necklace and I'll sue you for all you're worth," she threatened.

"I think that's more money than you'd know what to do with," he said nonchalantly.

She was both confused and a bit intimidated by his calm reaction. She knew this couldn't be anything good.

"What do you want?" she demanded.

"You know what I want."

Spencer examined him for a moment, hoping he was joking, but knew he wasn't. "If you want a child so badly, get a surrogate or adopt. I am not having your baby," she said sternly. "I am not having sex with you, either."

He sighed before taking her hand. She (surprisingly) didn't pull away at first. "Spencer, if we had a child, they'd have the perfect mix of DNA. They'd be so smart and they'd be the best at everything," he persuaded. He looked at her, confused. "Don't you want that?" he asked.

Spencer pulled her hand from his grasp. "Maybe a year ago, I wanted it. But I've changed. I don't need flawless. My definition of perfect has changed. You may be flawless, but you're not perfect. Not to me. I have a feeling that a person with both of our genetic makeup would be a dangerous child," she concluded. "We're too alike. And if I had a child with you, I'd feel like I would need to be with you. And I don't want to be with you. I don't trust you, Andrew. Do you understand that?" she asked.

"No. I can't. Why else would you think I'd keep asking you?" he questioned quietly.

Spencer looked at him. He was sick; she knew that. But she couldn't help but feel some kind of pity for him. It was clear he really wanted this. Why? She wasn't quite sure, but it was clear that he was desperate here.

"Andrew, you need help."

There was silence so loud, you could hear a pin drop. "I know."

She looked at him. For a moment, she remembered what things were like when she loved him so much.

Spencer sat in their room, staring at the blank wall opposite the bed she was sitting on. She was thinking about how to help Andrew in this situation, if she even should.

She sighed, slumping back on the headboard of the bed.

She heard the door open, but didn't move an inch. A moment later, Emily and Hanna walked into the room.

"Are you okay, Spence?" Hanna asked immediately, noting Spencer's odd behavior.

Spencer sighed. "I talked to Andrew this afternoon," she explained, biting her lip.

Emily groaned. "What did he want this time?"

She shrugged. "Same old. But this was different. He actually admitted that what he was asking me to do with him was sick, but he couldn't help but ask. I didn't know what to say anymore. I don't know what to say. I feel guilty saying 'no' so harshly all the time. Maybe I should try and help him find some alternate solution, like going to find a surrogate," she thought aloud.

"I want to know how you could even show a little bit of forgiveness for all of the mental abuse he put you through. And physical abuse, too, I guess," Emily said.

Spencer sighed. "I can't over it, but I can't just abandon him right now," she concluded.

"So what are you going to do?" Hanna asked.

Spencer thought for a minute. "Maybe I can help Andrew find a surrogate. Or a girlfriend. Maybe this is what he needs to get over his horrible habit of cheating," she added.

Hanna was surprised that Spencer seemed to talk about this so easily. She expected the topic of cheating to be touchy when it came to Spencer (and Andrew).

"You're such a good person, Spencer. I would never be able to do that," Emily said.

Spencer sighed. "I mean, I know he's hurt me, but I can't forget that I cared a lot about him at one point in time. I'd be lying if I said some part of me wasn't still grateful for the things he did for me so long ago," she explained, thinking about the rape. It struck a nerve with her. She quickly shook it off and continued. "I feel like I owe him this one thing and then we will have paid our dues."

Spencer sat on the couch, eating ice cream as she watched some romantic comedy on demand. Before long, she finished the entire carton of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream (Hanna's favorite).

She looked at it before putting it down, settling back into the comfy pillows on the couch. Before long, she drifted off into sleep.

For the first time in a while, Spencer dreamt.

Only, as it played out, it looked less and less like a dream, and more and more like her nightmare.

At first, things looked fine; Spencer was cradling a small baby who looked almost exactly like her. She had no doubt that in this dream, the father was Toby.

But then, Andrew walked through the door.

Suddenly, she realized, she was not in her own apartment, but the house she had shared with Andrew while they were engaged.

Suddenly, she also realized that she was only watching the situation unfold. She had no control in how things were about to go down.

She wanted to yell, "Spencer! What the hell are you doing here?" but realized that any attempt she made at communication would be in vain.

She began to feel very lightheaded as she watched herself kiss Andrew. She watched as Andrew didn't pay her any mind and instead began to check his phone, texting someone.

Although this (obviously) wasn't real, she couldn't help but feel some anger and pain when she watched him. He was probably texting some late-night, liquored hook-up.

But Spencer watched as she handed the baby to Andrew and his demeanor suddenly changed.

His face suddenly lit up. His behavior now reminded her of how he acted in the beginning of their relationship, when he was helping her get over her rape.

Her rape. She thought of it, remembering how much Andrew helped her back then.

She heard the door open to the apartment and she woke abruptly. She shook off the drowsiness and began to assess what she just thought of. She didn't even really notice her fiancé enter the room.

Though there was a lot of things she blamed him for, there was a lot that she was thankful for that he gave her.

She sighed. Toby caught on, sitting next to her. She finally acknowledged him.

"I met with Andrew today," she said finally.

She caught onto his uneasy look. "Is he bothering you again, Spencer?"

She shook her head. "No. I just keep thinking about what he's asking me."

"Are you thinking of doing it?"

She faced him, realizing how uncomfortable he was. She put her hand over his to reassure him. "I don't want to have a baby with him, but…I can't help but feel like he kind of deserves something like this. I think he needs it, I guess," she concluded.

"So you're going to do it?"

She sighed, biting her lip. "I think I want to help him find a surrogate," she said.

He nodded. He intertwined his fingers with hers. "I'll support you with whatever you decide to do," he said, giving her a small smile.

She put her head on her shoulder. "I love you so much," she told him. She got up, looking at him more intently. "I just want you to be sure that this isn't going to change anything; you're still mine and I'm still yours."

"I'm really proud of you for helping him," he said.

She smiled. "I do want the best for Andrew, but I don't want to have any children with him," she said while touching her engagement ring. She was about to elaborate, but decided it would be better not to, as they never had this kind of talk before.

"You know, when I talk to you about things like this, it makes me think that we'll be okay, after all."

He began playing with her fingers. "There really was never a doubt in my mind."

Onto reviewer questions!

Girlz-Rule: Thanks.

Guest:Thanks. I might do a chapter like that, but...Toby doesn't really speak to his parents. They might end up liking Spencer more than they like Toby XP

eveningshades1107:Oh, Sarah, your mind is a bit messed up. I like it. It's like the Hastings Family Dinner from Hell. And on Ezria: the age thing doesn't really bother me so much, although I do think it's inappropriate to be dating someone who's in high school when you've already graduated college. They have like a five or six year age difference, which really isn't all that weird, had they both been ADULTS. Aria, to me, isn't the most mature character (even though she seems to have that kind of façade, I think she's really immature), so I don't understand why a grown man would want to date someone who still has yet to grow up. It also annoys me because...it's not realistic in any way, shape, or form. If you're in high school and you're dating an adult, you guys probably don't have so much in common. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they like poetry and stuff like that, but Aria has like no life experience compared to Ezra (and nobody better talk about her having to deal with A. That's not life experience. It's a weird-AF-situation experience; that doesn't happen every day). The whole thing with him being A actually makes me more intrigued with their relationship. The biggest pet peeve of mine, though, (besides some of the crazy shippers) has to be that Ezra sucks up all of Aria's screen time to the point where like 65% of the time, Aria isn't even involved in the central plot. If Aria died off, I wouldn't even care, because she is literally on the show for her repetitive relationship. It's also annoying how bipolar their whole relationship is. I don't really care if they're endgame or not at this point; either they need to stay together or break up because it's annoying to keep hearing (on the show) all about how Aria and Ezra broke up. My problem with the shippers is not the sheer number of them (because I think that as of now, Spoby has surpassed them in the number of shippers), but how over the top they are and how volatile they can be, telling people to go die in a hole, and I think I even saw one tell someone else to "go commit suicide" which is a really horrible, disgusting thing to say; it really makes my blood boil. They threaten Marlene when some minor little thing happens to their ship and it's utterly appalling some of the things they say to other people from other ships. Especially to the poor Haleb shippers. Haleb shippers have to be the most mellow people ever. I just love them. I'm crying for their ship. To be honest, I'm really sick of the Ezria vs Spoby feud thing going on. Both ships just need to get over it.

AL3110:Actually, I'm Mexican, but I'll take it :)

Guest:No, we haven't really touched upon Melissa much at all before. I've been indecisive about who her husband is, so I kind of just left things at that.

mickeymack16:Wait a second, please refresh my memory. I have no idea what you're talking about, but if I said it, I probably agree, too. And maybe that's a bit of a theme here...hint, hint.

Spobyforever259:She doesn't really want to tell her parents because it was the first time she was introducing Toby to them (and they were already engaged). She also didn't want them to think they got together too quickly. I think the next chapter will provide some more insight into things. Thank you.

Guest:Thank you! I hope you continue to like it!

vondydora:Pregnancy mellowing the always anal-retentive Melissa...I love it! Ugh, that sucks. I hope you do better on the next one!

So my semi-legitimate excuse: I was having writers' block, so I finally forced myself to write like the day before Christmas Eve and on Christmas Eve. I finally finished the chapter, so I was going to upload on Christmas, but the fanfiction server was down. There goes that plan. Oops.

So I'd like 10 reviews, but I understand you guys are busy with holiday stuffs and prepping for the new year. I am busy eating all the leftover sweets from my Christmas Eve party (cheesecake, cookies, and chocolate covered pretzels-I will gain fifteen pounds over this two week break).

So that was my eh chapter. I hope the next one will be better. And it will be! Here's a spoiler (spoiler alert; you were warned): Spoby+Haleb+cake. And then Spoby+wedding stuffs. And finally Toby+helping Spencer=rewards. Rewards galore. This was for Canadian Sarah (but there are too many Sarahs to keep track), but I haven't seen her around lately...Sarah?

Okay, yeah, um...10 reviews=update? Yes? -Kayson