Chapter 4 Cat's Cradle

SPENCER's POV:

When she got home from school she had been feeling violated, all day after Mona exposed her "little bundle of joy" to the whole school, everyone had been whispering about her in the halls. For Spencer, the stares had been the worst. Ms. Montgomery, Aria's mom, had treated her like she was a piece of glass, ready to shatter, and everyone in the decathalon team had practically ignored her! She new this was a neccessary part of the plan to make her look like a victim, but she didnt know it would be this hard!

As she dropped her bag on the floor she heard someone knocking on the front door. When she answered it, she was surprise to see that it was none other than Andrew, who had a hopeful look on his face.

"Look, Andrew, I didnt mean to give you the wrong impression last time when we played our little game but Im not interested." Spencer rubbed her forhead. Andrew was sweet, but the last thing she wanted or needed was a boyfriend, or even a guy friend.

Andrew chuckled, "I kind of figured that when you ignored me the next few days. Anyways I came here to talk to you and see if you were alright." He smiled politely and she could sense only kindness.

She collapsed into the armchair and motioned for him to sit. 'I have to handle this the right way, i need him to go because I will be getting my next A-Team assignment soon'.So she just started talking, about random things, like how she hated how people were looking at her now and how she missed Toby and was afraid ofuncomfortable she felt. The whole time he waited patiently and interjected supportive comments like "dont worry" or "your not a bad person for feeling that way!"

"And I know I brought this on myself by being pregnant, but people dont understand I didnt randomly sleep around, I have one boyfriend that I have been with for 3 years and I love him!" Spencer was on the verge of tears now. She had started talking just to get rid of him, but now after realizing he wasnt judging her, she just spilled her feelings.

"Spencer, no one thinks that your a slut, and those who do dont matter! Give everyone some time to let this sink in and it will be fine. I would be lying now if I said I didnt have feelings for you, but i understand that you dont feel the same way, so if you ever need someone to talk to I'm here as a friend. But if you want my advice I think that you should talk to Toby, even though you broke up, I would want to talk about it if i was him." Andrew patted her on the back and grabbed his jacket before walking out the door.

She stared at the door for a while after Andrew left, thinking about what he had said when her phone started rining.

"Hello?"

"SPENCER?! Its your mother, me and your dad are coming home right now! WE NEED TO TALK" Then they abruptly hung up.

"Oh great! This is just great!" SHe stomped her foot realizing Mona must have told her parents as well. This was the last thing she needed tonight! They would ground her forever and she wouldnt be able to make the mission.

About five minutes later she heard her parents cars pull into the driveway and stomping footsteps run up the driveway.

She cringed as the door opened, expecting yelling, followed by silent dissapointment, more yelling, and then glares. Instead, there was just silence.

"Honey, is it true are you... pregnant?" Veronica asked softly. Her mother looked hesitant and her father looked scared.

"Yes." Spencer couldnt have said anything else if she tried, and she cowered in fear.

"Is that Cava- I mean, is Toby the father?" Peter Hastings asked slowly as if Spencer was a five year old.

"Yes."

"Oh Spencer..." Her mother rushed over and hugged her. Her father looked a little more uncertain but he too joined the hug.

"Spencer, its ok, we will get through this. We are Hastings!"

"Mom, Im telling you right now that Im not getting an abortion. I dont care what you say, and maybe Im not a Hastings because Im certainly not perfect, and I really dont want to be."

"Spencer!" Her parents looked at each other surprised.

"Spence, when we told you to be a Hastings we meant that we wanted you to be strong, not perfect, we realized when you were in Radley that we have pushed you too hard over the years, but from now on we dont want you to be perfect, we want you to be you!" Her dad stated this as if it were perfectly natural, and should have been obvious.

"Spencer does Toby know?" Her mother asked with a concerned look on her face,

"No" She lied "I havent talked to him yet"

"You should" Her father said. "As much as it pains me to admit this, I do like Toby, her is certainly better than Wren, and he makes you happier than Alex."

They spent the next 30 minutes or so talking before her parents realized they had to board a flight for Washington and left her to go pack, promising that when they got back the next week they would all sit down and have dinner with Toby.

2 Hours Later

Checking her phone again, Spencer saw 19 missed calls from the girls and at least 50 texts from Hanna alone. She responded and told them she want to be alone, because in fact the only text she was looking for would be coming in on her new secret "A" Phone. It was a sleek IPhone 5 with a black case and password that was nearly 30 characters long. From what she could tell redcoat could see everything done from their phones and even control the phone itself. Tonight phase three of redcoats new plan was being put into action, and Spencer was told to be on the lookout for further instructions.

'BING' Her phone released a loud chirp that made her jump.

"Shit!" she had spilled coffee in her lap and grabbed randomly around her for something to mop up the mess.

"Spencer, get into gear and go to 38495 Euclid Lane and meet up with your partner. Await further details. – A"

She sighed and sent a text to her mom saying she would sleep over at Aria's. It was going to be another long night…

TOBY's POV:

I had just gotten another text from A when I was staring at my phone. I had been contemplating whether or not I should call Spencer. Would she even pick up? Why couldn't she understand and just listen? Then again, her determination and willpower had been some of the things I always loved about her.

"Toby, get into gear and go to 38495 Euclid Lane and meet up with your partner. Await further details. – A"

Who was my partner? As far as I knew everyone had one. Noel and Ezra, Shauna and Jenna, Melissa and Wren, and as always Mona and Red Coat each worked alone. Toby had worked with Lucas for a while when Lucas had been on the A- Team. In fact I had almost grown to like the nerd, he was kind of annoying yet hilarious. I wouldn't call us friends but I guess we were, why else would I help him escape? Whatever, none of it mattered anymore. Actually, I don't thing anything would ever matter to me again if I didn't get Spencer back.

I'm going to do everything I can to protect her. Toby repeated this in his head as he forced himself out of bed and slipped on sneakers and a hoodie.

SPENCER's POV

She admired how silently her feet hit the pavement. It had been easy to disable the alarm system and slip out the window.

"I have go to stop thinking like this, I AM NOT GOING TO BE ONE OF THEM!"

Spencer shook her head. Now and then she would get thoughts like this and she realized why Mona chose her out of all of the girls to be on the A- Team, Spencer was smart and even she had to admit it.

She turned on to Euclid Lane and spotted a person in a black hoodie shifting into the shadows. Deciding to have a little fun with whomever it was she snuck up behind the person. They were crouched behind a bush and not paying any attention to her, so she snuck up and grabbed their neck.

"WHAT THE F- oh" The person spun around and suddenly Spencer was standing face to face with Toby.

"Spencer what the hell!" Toby ran a hand through his hair and chuckled, "If I had decided to punch before I looked you would be on the floor now!"

Spencer smirked, "Please give me some credit, I scared the fudge out of you and you know it, you couldn't have swatted a fly away." Against her better judgement she swept her hair out of her face and looked him in the eye.

They shared a genuine smile and for a second she could have imagined that they were anywhere else but here, they could have been at the beach walking in the soft sand fingers entwined, in Toby's loft playing scrabble, or at the Brew sipping coffee – black of course – and splitting a croissant. Except they weren't in any of those places, they were standing in the shadows of a house donning the black hoodies that used to terrify her by day and haunt her in her sleep.

"So, what are we doing here?" No sooner had the words escaped her lips than both of their phones lit up.

"Go inside, the back door should be open, take a left turn into the living room and go under couch. There is a picture album there, on the 5th page in-between two photos one is hidden, don't look at it, find it and bring it back to Mona. This is your chance to prove yourselves. – A"

"Wow, this is the first time I have gotten a non threatening text from "A"", Spencer tried to muster a smile as her heart pounded.

Toby went in the house first and Spencer tailed close behind. Spencer felt something familiar about the feel of the house. She sniffed the air and it was full of fruity Kate Spade perfume. A Hermes scarf was thrown across a stylish armchair, and she noticed blond hair caught in the teeth of the black comb on the onyx coffee table.

Toby held up his phone to illuminate a photo frame on the desk.

"Cece?" Spencer said flabbergasted. The photo portrayed the sassy blond standing next to Melissa, Ian, Wilden, Jason, and Garret. They were all smiling as if they didn't have a care in the world and they had graduation gowns in their arms. She flipped the photo over and saw that it was taken on June 7th in 2009.

"Hey Toby, come check this out, it was taken a week before Ali went missing, and all of them were in Rosewood, not on the class trip to Spain." She frowned and something tingled in the back of her mind. Looking at the photo she realized something was off. In the background there was a flash of blond hair flowing from behind a tree of to the couldn't put her finger on it but something was wrong. So she slipped out her regular phone and snapped a picture of the picture.

Meanwhile, Toby had been feeling under the couch and had found the said album. Finding the page in question, he had been about to take the photo out when his phone buzzed.

"Almost forgot, don't look at the photo when you take it, if you see it I might have to kill you! Not kidding. – A"

Huffing, Toby carefully extracted the photo from the plastic and found one stuck to the back of it. He put the hidden photo in his pocket, but not before snapping a picture of it as well. The two of them carefully backed out of the house and not 5 minutes later, ran down the street and into the safety of the shadows.

The sun had almost risen and a crimson glow set over the odd pair as they walked through the forest around Spencer's property.

Suddenly Spencer stopped. Kneeling down she clenched her jaw and put her head in her hands.

"SPENCER!" Toby cried out at her sudden collapse. "You okay?"

"Yah its just… morning sickness. I get really nauseous around now."

"It's okay Spence." He pulled her close and they rocked back and forth on the crunchy forest floor. "It will all be okay."

They sat like that for a while, on the damp ground while the world around them remained silent. Eventually he pressed his lips to her forehead and cuddled her.

"Toby, I- I'm sorry" Spencer stuttered, breaking the peace. She tried to convey more that one meaning in the sentence and filled her eyes with the emotions and words she couldn't bring herself to say.

"Spencer, I know who you are and you never have to apologize to me. I love you."

So, good or bad chapter…? Does this mean spoby is back on or what? The girls come back in tomorrow as well as Jason. JARIA! SPARIA!