A/N: caesaraugusta, ¡gracias! :) All your comments will be of use next time, thanks! chocolatefrogs11: cheesy and smutty was what I was trying to avoid, so that's good! IxHeartxGlee: I'll try to give a sense of extended or suspended time next time? That'll be hard without actually getting smuttier. Probably it'll have to get smuttier anyway. We'll see. Sora Yogami: I see Emily as a very physical character, so yeah, definitely there'll be different sides to that kind of "aggresive" behaviour!
I was gonna cut this chapter in two, but I'm finally posting it as one. The A drama starts to unfold...
"Does anyone know if he's there?"
Spencer and Aria were sitting in the front seats of Spencer's car, while Hanna was in the backseat. They were all lurking around Jason's DiLaurentis' house, parked a few yards from it, trying to follow their back-to-point-zero plan against A. It'd been two days since Spencer had come back to Rosewood from Texas, and they'd finally decided to go there together. Aria had sneaked out of her house thanks to Spencer's always convincing presence, and Hanna had decided she'd not wear heels during this adventure. She did have sneakers and anyway it'd been all her idea to push Spencer back in the game, so she'd better be there. And Emily would kill her if something ever happened to Spencer.
Aria shrugged her shoulders, unable to provide the information demanded by Spencer. "How could I know? I can't get out of my house that often, Spencer."
Spencer looked at Hanna's reflected image in the rear-view mirror. "I don't know either! I haven't seen him around."
"So we're all spying on someone who may or may not be there?", Spencer said, with a tone that wanted to underline the annoying quality of the situation. "How can we break in if we don't even know if there's someone inside or if he's out for a drink? He used to drink a lot."
"He doesn't drink anymore", Aria defended him. Then she observed the house thoughtfully. "The lights are out. He's probably not there." And his car wasn't parked there either.
"Probably is not something I wanna hear when I'm about to break in someone's house, Aria."
"You guys think too much", Hanna said. "We wait. We see. We go."
"Are you trying to sound as an action movie character? Because it doesn't work like that." Spencer looked back at Hanna this time. "Remind me of the reason why I can't leave this town for two days. It was your idea to do something but you don't even know if Jason's here."
"Can you stop freaking out at us? You live in front of him. You're the one who should know if he's here or not", Hanna defended herself, and she had a point. Spencer had been in Rosewood for almost two days already, so she could've looked out of her window. "And you were out for four days. By the way, how did that go?"
"Yeah, how did it go? You haven't told us. Did you shine or did you glitter?"
Spencer looked quizzically at Aria's particular use of metaphorical language. "I thought you guys got the Jason thing covered", she said, returning the Jason ball to Hanna's and Aria's court. She should've paid attention to the Di Laurentis' house during those two days, though. She was becoming sloppy in her detective work. "And, yes, it went well. Very well, actually. Mr. Fields is the best. He's a lot like Emily, in a way."
She'd actually fallen in love with the man during her stay. Well, not fallen in love for real. She was already in love with his daughter. But she'd totally loved how sweet and noble and sort of subtly funny he was. She saw a lot of Emily in him. Or the other way around, maybe.
"I told you you'd glitter, Spence", Aria confirmed. "There was no reason to panic for you."
"Trust me, glitter is something I don't ever wanna do", Spencer corrected Aria's use of the verb. Every time she heard that word she imagined either tacky metallic powders or Mariah Carey singing in that awful movie Hanna and Ali had insisted on seeing a long, long time ago. "But yeah, it was really good."
She still didn't completely understand how she'd managed to keep it together the evening after The Texas Restroom Experience happened. But, somehow, she had. She'd looked composed and graceful, and had forced Emily to do most of the talking on that movie they hadn't seen and that Emily had no idea about. Fortunately, sexual experiences (they'd agreed on not calling it sex yet) seemed to get the best out of her, because she'd actually talked a lot about Julius Caesar and about loyalty in politics and about things Emily never really used to talk about, except when she was trying to follow Spencer's conversation. She was so funny. Spencer couldn't help thinking about all that flush and fluster after the restroom thing with fondness and sweetness and a lot of other things she'd better not think about right now. Not when they were supposed to be spying on invisible Jason.
"Well, she hasn't said anything about Mrs. Fields, and she's the one who really scares her", Hanna finally cut in, leaning across from her place in the backseat. "So how did things go with her? Did she give you bad looks?"
"No, she was really nice too", Spencer said. "Really kind and attentive."
"But she still scares the shit outta you", Hanna ended the sentence.
Spencer seemed to take a moment to think about it. "No, she's really nice", she said. "But, yeah, I'm still a little afraid of her."
There was a silence in the car when Hanna and Aria actually looked at each other with a gesture of surprise. It wasn't that often that Spencer admitted to being afraid of someone who wasn't A or a possible murderer.
Spencer continued talking, unaware of the silent communication between Hanna and Aria. "I mean, she's Emily's mom, and as nice as she is, she's still kind of, you know, she's so righteous and rigid sometimes…"
"I don't know anyone like that", Hanna intently replied, thinking about all the times Spencer had been ready to pass a quick judgment on other people who weren't them.
Spencer picked up the comment and turned around a little from her place on the driver's seat to look at Hanna. "I'm not like that. I'm pretty open-minded and understanding and sympathetic with other people."
"Open-minded, yes", Aria intervened. "Understanding and sympathetic, not so much."
"What? Why?", Spencer gave them a truly offended look. "I am a very understanding and sympathetic person. I sincerely try to get people's motives even if they're acting as complete and total idiots."
"Yeah, yeah", Hanna dismissed. "Sure."
"You do try to understand", Aria conceded. "Motives, yeah. But you're not so willing to give chances. Although I must say you're pretty honest when you're wrong about someone."
"Of couse I am", Spencer said. "But bastards and idiots are not my problem. They don't deserve either a chance or my time."
And that was why she wasn't probably considered an understanding, sympathetic person by her own friends. Even though she pretty much was a person who tried to understand the reason of things and actions. But she didn't care about it. She didn't really regret being like that. She had no tolerance for idiots and bastards in the world. They existed, they did and said things, but that didn't mean she had to actually listen to them, right?
"So what about the kissing?" Hanna changed the topic to the next logical question she had in mind. "Did Em get you to surrender your chastity belt?"
Spencer's heart skipped an idiotic, flustered beat.
"Everything went as expected", she lied. "I was perfectly well-behaved."
"You didn't kiss her even once?", Aria asked, surprised. "Emily must be going crazy down there."
"Down there?"
"I did not just say that", Aria said, puzzled. "Okay, I did not just say that."
"You said that, but you didn't want to", Spencer confirmed. "So what about me anyway? I'm going crazy too."
She was going crazy. Basically because she couldn't really stop thinking about The Texas Restroom Experience. She went to sleep and she dreamt about it. She opened her eyes in the morning and she thought about it. She talked to Emily on the phone and she kept getting ideas and images in her head.
They needed a bed.
She couldn't put away the image of Emily looking at her while she was coming. Just the thought of it gave her goosebumps and sent waves to her stomach. Jesus. Christ. Holy. Crap. All sorts of different blasphemies came to her mind when she recalled that moment. She was observing her like she wanted to record the image and set it in stone. Her eyes had been so intensely dark – they were always dark already, really dark brown – that they almost resembled black-night dark eyes, almost as she imagined a black hole taking over all the light, all material things in the universe. Not even the black night. The night was never so dark. The night was more blue than black. But a black hole couldn't be seen. It was so black it couldn't even be seen. But it got you, it trapped you inside. That was how she felt in that moment, when she fought to open her eyes to let Emily see her, but also to sort of admit to being trapped into it. Jesus. A shiver came down to her knees. She absolutely wanted to be trapped into it again, to be swept away again like that. How could such a beautiful, dreamy face like Emily's, with those long eyelashes and those high, healthy cheekbones, be possessed by such a commanding, driving streak like the one that showed in her eyes during that rushed, crazy moment?
Enough. She couldn't think about this now. How was she supposed to know if Jason was there or if A was around or whatever other thing could happen tonight if she kept thinking about this? Emily had to leave her mind for a single second. Emily, just go, leave. Or at least let that image go. She could think about it later, safe at home. But not now.
She moved uncomfortably in the driver's seat.
"I don't believe you, Spencer", Hanna said, leaning across from behind to try to look at her. "I bet you did kiss at least once."
"Just twice", Spencer half-heartedly admitted, and it was the truth. The official truth. "Really quick ones."
"Really? Nothing else?"
Had Emily said something to her?
No, that was utterly impossible. Emily was the most reserved person ever. Even with Hanna.
"Nothing else", and she could tell the rush of blood finally coming to her face. It was late at night and they were hovered in the car and Hanna was behind her, so she actually hoped she wouldn't notice it.
"Then why are your ears getting red?"
It was Hanna after all. She got every detail. And, come on, her ears? Her ears? She shouldn't have tied her hair into a ponytail tonight. But it was really the most convenient way to wear her hair when she was involved in her sleuthing activities.
"Something else did happen", Hanna continued, noticing the way Spencer ignored her comment. Her blond waves appeared between Aria's and Spencer's bodies in the car when she leaned closer in the seat.
"She doesn't have to tell us, Han", Aria sympathetically said, observing the reddish, pinkish shades that were indeed covering Spencer's ears and face.
"Exactly, I don't have to tell you. And I won't".
She hoped this would finish it.
But it was Hanna, and Hanna finished things when and how she wanted.
"You were a lot more talkative when you were going out with Toby, you know."
Spencer turned a little to talk to the blond waves and the blue eyes behind them. "That's probably because he wasn't your friend and you really didn't know him."
"So what?"
"I'm not gonna talk about Emily in that way to you guys."
"You have to talk about things, Spencer. We don't want the dirty details, just some information."
"Ask her if you want to know."
"You're a lot easier than her."
Okay, was there some sort of world conspiracy against her? First Emily and now Hanna were calling her easy. She'd been called a lot of things. Brainy, nerdy, dorky, sporty, competitive, bossy. Annoying. Scary. And now she was easy.
What did that mean? What had changed?
"I'm not easy. And I'm not talking."
She couldn't help another rush of blood to her face, though.
"Aren't we supposed to be here so we can break in Jason's house?", Aria asked, and Spencer was thankful for that.
"We still have time", Hanna answered, leaning to catch every detail from Spencer's face. "We can chat about things while we wait for him to show up. Or to not show up."
"Things", Spencer replied, looking away from Hanna to observe the Di Laurentis' house. "Not me."
"Things. You and Emily included", Hanna fought back. "So there was more than kissing."
"No."
"Your ears are talking to me. You don't really need to open your mouth."
"Then you and my ears can have a nice conversation while I don't respond to anything you say."
"Come on, guys", Aria cut in. "Stop it. There's no need to know if they already had sex", she said, talking to Hanna.
The mention of the sex word sent another wave of blood to Spencer's face. And ears.
"You say it as if it's a bad thing. But it's not a bad thing". Hanna was starting to give up after Aria's intervention. "I'm just curious to know."
"I know it's not a bad thing", Spencer suddenly said. "It's just a thing you don't need to be informed of."
And Emily would kill her if she spilled something.
Anyway they didn't have sex. Well, she wasn't sure about it. She still had to get that bed and do more things to actually have a clear idea of what had gone on in that restroom.
Jesus. Not again. Not that image again.
"So there is a thing, right?", Hanna attacked again, and Aria rolled her eyes in exhaustion. "Did you bang her? Or did she bang you? We still need to figure that one out."
Spencer was starting to get really nervous about the interrogation, so she turned around again. "Why are you so anxious to know? No, we didn't have sex. But if we did, we'd bang each other."
Or that was what she hoped would happen if she actually found a way to play difficult, learn Emily's tricks, and stop her from gaining all the control and the power when they were in such a situation. The next time they were in such a situation. In a bed. Not in a restroom. Actually, she didn't mind repeating the restroom experience, as gross as it may sound, and even though she would never admit to such a thing, because the memory of it kind of totally made her dizzy and high, and there was that blush on Emily's face that told her that maybe she did like to try that stuff in such a weird, awful place, but if it was to be repeated it had to be after the bed and after a lot of more things that still had to happen.
Once again, no. No, no, no. She had to stop thinking about these things.
"Are you happy now?", she asked Hanna, trying to pretend she was not thinking about what she was really thinking.
She tried to focus on Jason. On the house in front of her eyes. On Jenna. On A.
"I'm happier now because at least you're communicating with me, yes", Hanna joked. "So it wasn't sex. But it was something dirty or you wouldn't get so nervous about it."
"Hanna…", Aria tried again.
"I'm not nervous."
"But you're not denying it."
"If at least you'd use these skills you've got on something useful, Hanna", Spencer complained, her usually husky voice an octave higher. "I don't question you on your activities with Caleb. I listen to you if you wanna talk, but I don't interrogate you to know whatever stuff you're doing with him in my lake house." She couldn't avoid the reproach, since she'd recently learned that Hanna and Caleb had used the Hastings' vacation house for their sexual activities.
Hanna completely disregarded her comment. "So it wasn't sex, but it was hardcore stuff. Porny stuff."
"Last time I heard, Hanna, porn was all about sex."
"Okay, not porny then. But definitely big, sexy stuff". Hanna tried to think about sexual activities that you could get on with a woman, but she wasn't very learned in the matter and a lot of different things came to her mind. "Oral sex?"
"For god's sake, Hanna, why do you have to sound so gross?", Spencer finally yelled. "And, for your information, oral sex has the sex tag on it."
Thinking about oral sex was everything she needed now to try to concentrate on Jason. Yes, Hanna, yes. That was the way to catch up to A.
"Oral sex is not gross", Hanna argued heatedly too. "It's just sex, so stop acting like it's grossing you out, because it obviously isn't. And, besides, if you weren't so red and mysterious, I wouldn't be trying to find out, you know. You just kill me with your weird silences and your red ears."
"Whatever", Spencer said, staring intently at the Di Laurentis' house.
"I'm getting bored of you two", Aria cut in again, slouching down in her seat. "Can you at least give her a detail, even if it's a lie, so she will just shut up?"
"No."
"Okay, I will. Hanna, they touched each other's boobs. Can we start spying now?"
Both Hanna and Spencer looked at Aria as if she was crazy.
"Sorry to disappoint on this one, Aria, but that's been happening since basically the day after we started dating", Spencer said, and yes, she was easy, because she shouldn't even say these things, but she couldn't help herself every time she needed to close someone's mouth, even if it was Aria's. She turned to look at Hanna, who had a look a profound amusement. "Now you got to know something, Hanna. Leave me alone."
"I'm not Aria. I knew you were already doing that."
"I swear I'm gonna kill you two". It wasn't that often that Aria lost her nerve. "I don't care what you're doing. I only care about you loving each other. And whatever you do to prove it, you know, just do it and stop talking about it! So, Hanna, just shut up and live with it. Spencer, stop getting red. Let's get out of the car and do this thing already!"
"Easy there, tiger", Hanna said. "I know all that Ezra-loving abstinence is ruining your life, but there's no reason to get crazy about this. I do think Spencer needs to express herself about the things she's going through. Poor girl needs to say why she's getting so red."
Spencer finally decided to resort to Aria's last option: an obvious, sarcastic lie. "I accidentally saw her naked in the shower. Like that time you got to see Caleb's ass, you remember?"
"It wasn't only his ass", Hanna replied, her eyes and her smile sending little flashy lights. "And I don't really care, actually. I agree with Aria, the most important thing is that you love each other and stuff. I'm just not gonna be all corny about it and say it."
"You just said it."
Hanna rolled her eyes.
"Okay, I'm getting out of the car". Aria opened the door and stepped out. "Spencer, come on. You don't think I'm doing this alone, right?"
Spencer opened her own door, but didn't quite come out yet. "If I let you alone you'd probably end up pregnant with Jason's baby".
Aria gave her an offended, dirty look, and Spencer laughed before actually realizing that they were going to break in Alison and Jason Di Laurentis' house. And in Maya's house, come to think of it. It had been Maya's house for a while. This place seemed to be romantically linked to Emily. Maybe she should move in here. As some sort of statement of purpose.
All of a sudden she saw Hanna's and Aria's faces expectantly waiting for her to make a move. She really did need to stop thinking about Emily for a while.
Emily, go. Go away for a little while if you're not here to help. Your image is going to get us killed. Or imprisoned.
"Okay, Han, you stay here", she started to explain the plan to Hanna. "Whatever you see, and I don't care what, but whatever person you see, you call us on the phone so we can get out. Understood?"
"Okay, if I see a hooded person I call you."
"A hooded person or a Jason person or any other sort of human-looking thing coming close to the house."
Hanna nodded, looking serious for a change. They started to walk towards the Di Laurentis' house, praying that Jason wasn't actually there. But his car wasn't parked in the front yard. The lights were out. He probably was out drinking, no matter what Aria said.
They arrived to the front and checked that all windows were closed, as was the main door. Obviously, people were not leaving their doors opened so they could easily come inside to execute their search for clues and hints. Aria turned around to look at Spencer.
"What now?", she whispered.
"Now we break in", Spencer whispered back as if it was the most obvious thing and the reason why they were actually there.
"But how do we do it? Do you have some sort of magical power of transformation that allows you to go through the walls?"
"Jesus, Aria, you should go back to the car and write a song about this. You're obviously not made to break in other people's houses like your brother."
Aria sent her another dirty look. "You're being so nice tonight."
"Sorry", Spencer apologized, while she took a long hairpin from her leather bag. "I'm just, you know, kinda moody."
"You miss Em."
"Yeah." Was it that obvious?
"She sent me a text before I came here to meet you guys". Aria observed Spencer's hairpin with a puzzled expression. It was a very long hairpin. "What are you gonna do with that?"
"Wait and see", Spencer winked, but she didn't do anything yet. "What did Em say? In the text?"
"You know, the usual things: keep her safe, don't leave her alone. I think she's freaking out over there."
Spencer sighed. If Emily knew about the powers of distraction she held over her, she'd be freaking out even more. Luckily, she had no idea.
"She loves you. You know that, right?"
Spencer smiled. Although this was probably not the moment for this kind of talk, Aria's way of making sure she already knew that was funny. And very Aria-like.
"I do", she replied, and then she turned around and started to manipulate the hairpin into the lock, as a sort of key. She turned it to the left, she turned it to the right, and she worked it around in circles with a serious, concentrated expression.
"Spencer, that's for your hair, not for cracking doors open."
"Just let me do it", Spencer shushed, so completely focused on her task now that she couldn't hear or see anything. Not even Emily's image in her head.
Suddenly, the door broke open with the sound of a bolt, and Spencer turned around with one of her winning, brilliant smiles. Exceeding grades, kickass personality and classy delinquent traits. No wonder Emily loved her.
"When did you stop being a weirdo to become this really scary person?", Aria whispered, her eyes wide open while she tried to steal a glance at the dark inside of Jason's hall and living room.
Spencer smiled even more brilliantly now, although she'd been called a weirdo. That was a new one. But she was so happy to hear the scary thing again. "I study a lot."
"I thought you studied useless things like history and advanced chemistry. Not this."
Spencer pushed the front door till it completely opened. "We're in a war, Aria." And with that cryptic comment, she stepped inside the darkness of the house, and Aria followed.
The living room was completely deserted. They hadn't brought a lantern so they wouldn't be discovered, but the streetlights provided enough light to actually realize that, no matter how hard they tried to look for anything, there was really nothing there. Not even furniture.
So Jason had left Rosewood. When? Either that or he was living in the house without anything.
"When did Jason leave?"
Aria looked at her with questioning eyes that reflected the small, tiny drops of light that came from the street. Her eyes were so big they could work as a lantern. "I had no idea he left", she murmured in the lowest possible voice, as if someone could anyway be living inside the house.
They silently walked to the kitchen, where Spencer opened the fridge to check the actual amount of time that no one had been living there. People could live without furniture, but not without food. There was nothing inside. There was nothing anywhere. Only a box of butter cookies left on the counter. She checked the expiration date, but it wasn't like that could offer a lot of information, because it said they could last until 2014. That was a long time. She'd never wait so long to eat something. She was a little picky about what she ate. But Jason had probably eaten the cookies already, because she could see a half-eaten cookie abandoned in the trash bin. Jason had thrown it in there without care. There wasn't even a trash bag in the bin. She hated it when people got so filthy and careless about hygiene. But still, there was nothing. Nothing that could tell them a clue on where Jason was now or had been. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd seen him during the past weeks. She'd gotten really, really sloppy regarding her detective work. And she was aware that had to change again, but she couldn't figure out how. It wasn't as if she could just decide on it and forget about the other things that were crawling around in her mind.
No, not again. Not here.
She shut down the thought and she decidedly walked upstairs to the bedrooms. She directed Aria to go check on the master bedroom, while she headed towards what had been Jason's and Ali's bedrooms. Jason's had been completely devoid of anything too. She was expecting to find the same thing in Ali's room, but there she saw a mattress laying on the floor. No sheets, no covers, no blankets. Just a mattress. She froze in fear. Someone had been here (Jason? In Ali's room?) or someone wanted to make them believe that.
Which meant someone knew or guessed they were going to break in the house.
She held her breath while a thousand possible scenarios combined themselves inside her head. One after the other, they rushed, providing different outcomes that she tried to calculate as fast as she could.
She turned around and left the room to grab Aria, who was already in the hallway. She got a grip of her and dragged her to the room without a word, although their eyes were talking to each other, because Aria immediately followed Spencer's grip and darkened, intent stare.
"What's this?", Aria said when she saw the mattress. Her features acquired a pale, ghastly colour.
"Someone's been here."
Yeah, like that was a difficult one to guess.
Spencer grabbed Aria again and drove her to the only room they hadn't checked yet. The upstairs bathroom. It was the only place left.
"We should leave, Spencer", Aria murmured, her voice tremulous with fear. She suddenly felt afraid of that bathroom. She'd never liked being there. It was old, and the pipes made strange noises at night when she stayed to sleep over or when she just sought for refuge at Ali's. Refuge. That was ironic right now. It had been ironic all the way. But she knew that now. She didn't know it before. They didn't know.
Spencer didn't listen. They were already here, they had to check every place.
It was there and they saw it as soon as Spencer opened the door. A message written in glossy, lipsticky red on the bathroom's mirror.
"The game starts again, bitches. – A".
Classic A. Spencer knew there was going to be a message. She knew the moment they found the mattress.
The mattress. Spencer grabbed Aria again and quickly forced her to leave the bathroom when Aria was already checking the shower and the cabinet. Maybe A had left something there. But an idea had made its way down to light up Spencer's brainy, weird, cable-circuited head. They returned to Ali's room and Spencer bent down on the mattress, wanting to make sure if it was warm. No, it was cold. Whoever had slept there could have done it weeks, days, hours ago. That was if really someone had actually slept there at all.
They looked at each other.
"We're missing something", Spencer muttered out of the corner of her mouth.
But there was nothing.
There was nothing.
Except that box of cookies. On the kitchen counter.
She rapidly moved, almost ran, taking Aria's hand in hers on their way down the stairs.
The box was still there. She approached it breathily and opened it. She wondered why she hadn't opened it before. Probably because she thought it was just a box of cookies that Jason had left there.
Inside there seemed to be some pictures. Her fingers moved so fast that she was rather clumsy when she confirmed they were pictures of Emily. One of the pictures fell to the floor and Aria picked it up, her face still ghastly and puzzled.
"Em and Ali."
An old picture of the two of them. Emily looked definitely younger then, her features both smooth and lively like they were now, but somehow sweeter, more innocent. The same secret in her eyes and in her smile, though. Ali smiled secretively too, blonde and confident and a little wicked. Spencer hated the picture instantly.
She checked the other two pictures. Emily and Maya. The one A had sent both to Hanna and to Emily's mom to out her.
Spencer tried to forget about the knot that was forming in her stomach, which was not of fear. She'd seen both pictures before. Ali's one, years ago. Maya's one, months ago. No one meant anything to her. Not anymore.
But A had a sense of humour.
If this was directed to inspire her jealousy, it was already too late. Ali was dead. Maya was out of the game. The game was hers.
A had a sense of humour, but Spencer had a brain and a heart that was beating solidly, albeit now too fast.
Unless this meant something else.
Something against Emily.
She quickly lowered her head to take a look at the third picture. A picture of herself. Two years ago, approximately. She also looked a lot younger, and kind of weird too, now that she thought about it. She was playing a hockey game and had a fierce expression while she stroke the ball. Did she really look that ugly when she played? Someone should've told her about this so she could try fixing it.
A phone beeped and they both jumped. It was Aria's, whose face turned now paler.
"Is it Hanna?", Spencer stupidly asked. Of course it wasn't Hanna. Hanna would call, not text.
"You should take better care of your dumbest friend", Aria read aloud, her eyes wide in terror. "Who's…?"
They ran in a panic after that. Both of them.
Coming out of the house, they saw Spencer's car across the street. The window to the driver's seat had been broken, but at least they caught a glimpse of Hanna's blondness while they desperately ran to the car. Running, screaming Hanna's name, thinking in a rush what A could've done to harm Hanna again, Spencer had the weirdest idea that A was really stupid if he/she/it really considered Hanna to be the dumbest one of them.
Hanna got out of the car, looking dumbfounded and shocked. Her designer jeans were covered by fragments of glass that had blown from the window when it'd been hit.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL?", Aria yelled, immediately reaching out to her in order to confirm Hanna had not suffered any damage. Only a single drop of blood stained her index finger, but she'd probably cut herself when she was trying to wipe the glasses away.
"DID YOU SEE ANYONE?" Spencer frenzied, terrier-like bark sounded more as a threat, while she checked if any other window had been broken. "Anything? DID YOU SEE A?"
Hanna looked still dumbfounded, but after seeing them she could at least recover her voice. "WHY DID YOU TAKE SO LONG? I've been sitting here for ages!"
"WAS IT A?"
What a question. Of course it was A. The real question was: did you see anything that could help us determine the identity of A? But she knew already the answer was no. She could see it in Hanna's face. The same way she couldn't say anything about A when she was attacked by Ian in the bell tower and A appeared out of the blue to save her life and kill Ian.
She hadn't been able to say anything about A either.
She'd been terrified.
"I don't know! I didn't see anything! I don't even know what hit me!"
"We told you to call us!", Aria screamed.
"I didn't see anything, Aria! Just a shadow and then the window broke all over me!", Hanna screamed back. "And I'm fine, thanks for asking!"
They looked at each other and tried to calm down.
"Are you hurt?", Spencer made an effort to drop her stressed tone. It didn't quite work, but at least she didn't yell now. She took Hanna's hand in her hand and inspected her finger, although Aria had already done that. "Did A say something to you?"
"No! I was just scared to death after the window broke."
Aria leaned against the car in both relief and terror.
"Goddammit!", Spencer yelled again in frustration. "Why does this always happen to us?"
"Well, did you find something in there?", Hanna asked, another yell in her throat. "At least I'd be hurt and scared for a reason!"
"You're not hurt, Han", Aria assured, the first to recover calmness. "It's okay."
They breathed, inhaling the air of their evil town.
"We found this", Spencer now waved the pictures in her hands. They were wrinkled after suffering from the panicked run. "And a message."
"The party starts again, bitches", Aria recited it to Hanna, who took the pictures in her hands.
"What are these?" She inspected every picture. "Emily. Is Emily in danger?"
"I don't know!", Spencer couldn't really calm down yet. They'd been so close. A must have been there the whole time. A and his/her/its shadow. "We're all in danger! We got a text about you and we were scared to death something happened to you!"
"I'm fine", Hanna said, finally finding her normal tone of voice, and she leaned to touch Spencer's arm. "And you here? What does this mean?"
"I don't know."
"A joke about Emily's love life?", Hanna offered. Yes, she was herself again.
"Guys, there's something here", Aria said, taking the last picture from Hanna's hand. The one with Spencer playing hockey. "Another message."
"Give it to me."
Aria handed the picture to Spencer. On the back there was, indeed, another message. This one was written in normal, printed characters.
"What does it say?", Hanna asked, her voice shaking again.
"Got your hockey stick, Spencer. And guess whose blood's in it. You're going to jail. – A".
Spencer went pale this time, all signs of previous pink and red colours gone for the night.
Her hockey stick.
She looked closer at the picture.
She used a different hockey stick now. The one in the picture was the one Toby had found buried and that her father had burned, probably because he also suspected she was Alison's or someone else's murderer. Or because of some other reason. But this hockey stick A was talking about? Which one? It had to be the one she was using now.
But she kept it safe at home.
Although she hadn't played in a while. And then she'd been out of Rosewood.
Could that be the one that A had stolen?
"Spencer, what hockey stick?", Hanna asked again, freaking out. "Is that Dr. Sullivan's blood A's talking about?"
"We don't know if Dr. Sullivan's dead."
That was the only thing she could say right now. Her voice sounded grave, low already. But it didn't sound normal. It sounded exhausted, mournful and a little scared. The blow had come. But it might be a bluff again. And what did those pictures of Emily mean?
She had to think. She had to force herself to think.
There was definitely some kind of joke about Emily's love life. And then about her and her hockey stick, and the blood. Guess whose blood. Alison's blood? Maya's blood? Even A wasn't as crazy as to kill Maya just to incriminate her. Dr. Sullivan's blood? That was the one she was being persecuted by the police for.
"We need to get out of here", Aria said, and approached the car, but stopped when she realized no one should sit on the driver's seat, which was still covered by glass.
There was a thick silence.
"Call Em", Hanna ordered Spencer. "I'm gonna go to your house to get a vacuum thingy to clean up this mess."
"A vacuum cleaner won't do", Spencer said, now looking dumbfounded herself. "You'll have to bring the broom in the garden."
"Then I'll bring that. Call Emily."
"Now?" She didn't know what to tell her. How to tell her. She was going to freak out too. And she was far away, in Texas.
"Yes, now. She's waiting to know if we're okay. Especially you. So call her now."
Spencer nodded as Hanna started to walk away. Aria offered her phone, but Spencer refused to spend her money and took her own out of the leather bag where she carried her detective instruments. Yes, she had to tell her. She was probably dying to know something, waiting by her phone all the time during the night, unable to call so she wouldn't disturb them during their always dangerous and not-so-fun sleuthing, spying activities.
Spencer knew what Emily was going to say. She was going to say that they both knew the blow was coming.
A/N2: Title inspired by a line in "Daniel", song by Bat For Lashes.