AN: I apologise for the sudden rush of uploading. I can't sleep so I thought I may as well get a head start on the exciting bits. Thank you all for reading! -Chloe :-)xx
Chapter 8- The Plan of All Plans.
"Toby, please can you get the kids ready for bed while I sort our tea out" Spencer shouted through the huge Victorian house that she shared with Toby and their 4 children.
"Sure honey" There was the sound of movement upstairs as Toby chased their 2 year old twins across the landing. "Luna baby; put the phone down; Daddy doesn't want any more accidental police calls. Beau please stop trying to get back into the bath."
Spencer laughed to herself as she thought of the day last week when Toby answered to door to the police who had received a phone call that traced back to this number. Luna was constantly getting her hands on the house phone and calling people on their speed dial. She must have been in her own world for about 20 minutes before she heard Toby creep into the kitchen holding the twins and their other two children in tow. Elijah was their oldest son who had just turned 5 and Darcy was 3.
The eldest two looked exactly like Spencer but had Toby's baby blue eyes whereas the twins were the double of Toby and had his messy sandy coloured hair although they had Spencer's mocha eyes. All 4 of them were the double of each other though.
Spencer had found out she was pregnant with Elijah when she was in her second year of college. After going to U Penn for her first two years she decided that she wanted to keep their baby and transferred to Hollis for her final years. 4 years later she now works at a big law firm in Philadelphia.
"Mommy we came to say good night" Darcy spoke up in her raspy voice that was nearly identical to Spencer's.
"Oh is it that time all ready?" all four children shook their heads hoping that their mother would let them stay up a bit longer.
"I think it is mommy, look at Luna; she's falling asleep" As soon as Toby said that the little sandy haired girl's head shot up and her eyes opened as wide as possible.
"They not mommy, look I wide awake" Toby and Spencer laughed at their little girl's sudden awareness.
"Nope, it's time for bed; remember we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. We're going to see Grumpa and Grammug so you need to be wide awake!"
When Elijah was first starting to talk he always struggled saying his grandparent's names; he'd never been able to say d's so it made simple things like that a whole lot harder. Their assigned names however stuck when Darcy was born. Toby had always found it ironic how Spencer's dad was given "Grumpa" because when Spencer and himself were younger he was never the happiest of people.
"Yay Grumpa" Beau shouted, he had formed a beautiful bond with his grandfather from a very young age and always looked forward to seeing him.
"Mommy, will Aunty Melissa be there?" Elijah asked. He'd always loved seeing Melissa because she spoilt him more than the rest due to him being her first nephew.
Once the kids were in bed after their usual ritual of all sitting on the huge sofa that was in the kid's playroom upstairs so that Toby and Spencer could take it in turns to be characters from The Enchanted Forest. They sat at the table that Spencer had set while Toby bathed the kids.
"Wow Spence, this is beautiful" He smiled.
"Only the best for the best boyfriend in the world" Spencer and Toby never thought about getting married after she found out she was pregnant with Elijah because it seemed so unimportant.
"So Spence, the other day I went and spoke to your dad; I thought it was about time I got his blessing." He looked at his girlfriend and saw the shock that was etched across her face. "So I have something to ask you" He got down onto the floor and knelt on one knee as he pulled a small black velvet box out of his jeans pocked. "I love you Spencer Hastings, more than anything in the world and I have wanted to do this since that night at your lake house because it all seemed so perfect then" He turned and used the remote to play the song that had been waiting on the stereo to play and the exact point
I said, "Girl can I tell you a wonderful thing?" I made you a present out of paper and string. Open with care now, I'm asking you, please. You know that I love you will you marry me?"
The music carried on playing as Toby opened the small box presenting the most beautiful ring she had ever seen.
"So Spencer Hastings; will you please do me the honour of becoming my wife?" Her eyes filled with tears as the shock turned into completely joy
"Yes!" she whispered "yes, yes, yes" Toby sprung up from the floor and kissed his fiancé letting all of the love he felt flow through their bodies.
"I love you so much"
"I love you too" Toby cried into her mouth.
Spencer was awoken at half past 6 from the best dream she'd ever had. Her alarm going off didn't seem to bother her this morning because she knew that whatever happened she had Toby there by her side and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. She switched her alarm off and hopped out of bed gleefully to check her phone on the dresser. Her happiness was soon ruined by the text that was showing on the small screen.
"Spencer, Spencer, Spencer; I would have thought that by now you knew that nothing slipped by my. I hope you enjoyed your romantic getaway because it will be the last. Have fun. –A"
Trying to forget about what she had just read she carried on with her morning rituals and was soon enough running out of the door on her way to school. She arrived with another 10 minutes before the bell just like every morning and met the other three girls in the canteen.
"Hey Spencer" Aria called from the other side of the room waving at her so she knew where they were. "What's up? You look like you've seen a ghost"
"I'd rather it was that. The day was off to a good start but once again –A came to the rescue" She muttered sarcastically.
"What happened now?" Emily asked
"You know at the weekend when I said I was going to the lake house with Toby because my mom had asked me to clean the place because Melissa was going there?"
"Yeah?" all three girls said in harmony
"Well as it happens, we didn't do much cleaning" She whispered with her head down trying to cover her burning cheeks
"Hey, the lake house is mine and Caleb's territory" Hanna laughed "you best not have gone anywhere near the sofa"
"Oh believe me we stayed well away from there; at least any evidence of mine and Toby's intimacy could have either been washed away or cleaned easily"
"Spencer are you saying that you and the carpenter had shower sex!" Hanna shouted
"Han shut up; not everyone wants to know about what Toby and I got up to!"
"Okay, I'll be quiet; but was it good? I still need to convince Caleb that we should be more adventurous; he seems to think that he will slip and kill himself"
"I'm not willing to tell you anymore than I already have because I'm pretty sure that the other two would rather know about –A"
Hanna nodded and put her finger to her smiling lips to show that she was staying quiet.
"Well this morning I woke up with a text from them and I'm actually pretty scared about this one. It's either I'm going to end up with Ali or Toby is." The girls could see in Spencer's eyes that she was terrified when she opened to text to show them it.
"Shit Spencer! Have you told Toby yet?" Aria questioned "you know he can protect you right?"
"Yeah I know he can protect me but I need him to protect himself; I'd rather something happened to me than him"
"You need to tell him Spence. But we need to do something to stop –A once and for all. This is getting ridiculous; none of us are ever allowed to be happy and it's making all of our lives worthless. We can't have another episode like Spencer's the other we-..."Emily quickly shut up.
"Another episode; what are you talking about Em?" Hanna looked confused.
"Spencer what the hell is she talking about?" Aria's eyes were filling with tears and Spencer could see that she was thinking the worst.
"Um, it all started when Toby showed me a text from –A saying that they were out to get me and that they wanted blood. I spent every day looking over my shoulder to make sure that there was no one following me but I was constantly on edge. Then the break in happened and I went to live with Toby while my parents were away; about a week in I got a text from –A which shook me up because we hadn't heard from them since the break up. It said 'Oh dear, running straight into the arms of your lover boy. You scared yet Spence, I would be'. As soon as I got home it hit me that while –A was around I could never be happy and it all got too much for me so I tried to do the only thing that I thought would make me happy. I um, I tried to end it."
"End what? Did you go after –A?" Hanna asked; all of the other girls knew she knew what Spencer meant but she wanted more than anything not to believe it.
"No Han, I tried to kill myself" It had been the first time Spencer had said it since 'it' happened. She had made Toby promise never to talk about it again to anyone. "The thing that made it worse was knowing that I was too weak to end it. Toby came in and I was sat on the floor in tears with the bottle of pills in my hand. I couldn't even do that" There were tears falling down all of the girls faces now; Spencer was the first one to let out a loud wail soon followed by all the others as they finally succumbed to their emotions.
"Spencer please promise me something" Aria whispered before Spencer nodded gently "if you ever feel like that again please call me, or any of us. We're here to help you. In fact all of you; if you ever feel like that call any of us. We need each other" All of the girls collapsed into each other as they tried to regain themselves.
"I can't stay here today, I have to go home" Spencer mumbled as she picked herself up and headed to the doors of the school. Her head was aching from all the tears.
"Wait Spence; we'll come with you. I don't feel like being here; I can't do it" Hanna shouted to her best friend dragging the other two up after her and linking arms with them, Aria proceeded to link with Spencer so they were all conjoined as they walked through the double doors.
"I think it's about time we get some plotting done" Emily broke the silence that taken over the group "is there any one in at yours Spence?"
"No; why?"
"You call Toby and get him over, Hanna you call Caleb and Aria you call Ezra and I'll call Jason. We're all in on this so we're all going to be the ones to plan the finish of it" the other three girls were punching number frantically into their phones.
About half an hour later everyone was sat around the kitchen table in Spencer's house; all of the boys looking completely bewildered.
"Aria, what's this about? Why's it so important we all had to take days off work?" Ezra finally managed to ask
"I'm pretty glad actually; any excuse to get out of English." He laughed "Sorry Fitz, but it sucks"
"Well after something got brought to my attention a few days ago by –A and now hearing the full story I came to realise that this can't go on any longer. Do you want to tell them Spence? I get that it's pretty painful but they all need to know"
"Sure" Spencer began to recount the story of the night she tried to end it all and as she came to the end of the story Toby shot up and took her into his arms holding her while she sobbed at having to drag it all back up. Before the pair knew it everyone else was wrapped around them. All of the girls were in tears again. Jason however was still sat in his place at the table in complete shock; no one had noticed this until they peeled themselves away from Spencer.
"Jason, what's wrong?" Spencer garbled.
"What's wrong? WHAT'S WRONG? Gee Spencer I wonder what that could be, it's not like my little sister just told me that because of some idiot she tried to kill herself."
"I couldn't do it though Jason; I'm still here"
"YEAH YOU ARE NOW, BUT WHAT ABOUT NEXT TIME WHEN –A TRIES TO KILL ANY ONE OF US OR GOD FORBID TOBY. IT WOULD PUSH YOU OVER THE EDGE." Everyone could see just how much he was hurting after hearing this "Spencer, I couldn't live with myself knowing that you'd done that to yourself. I've already lost one little sister; I can't bear to lose another" There were tears now falling down his cheeks too.
"Jason please, don't cry" She whispered as she watched her brother try and comprehend the whole situation, the pain that was filling his eyes. She ran around the table and took him into her arms and held him as he sobbed.
"Please Spencer, I need you. You can't do that to me"
"I won't Jason, I promise. I will always be here for you. We're going to find out who –A is and put an end to all of this".
Soon enough Spencer had calmed Jason down and they were all sat back down at the table and were trying to think of ways to find out who –A is.
"Well we know where most of the texts have been sent from recently so that's a start" Caleb supposed. "I say we all group together like tomorrow night or something and ambush the place. One –A against the 8 of us, we could take he/she down"
"That's true; but what happens if the whole team's there? You do know that –A's probably listening to us right now" Emily replied.
"Well it's a risk I'm willing to take; I want to finish this once and for all. If I have to hear anything like I have tonight about my little sister than I won't be far behind her" Jason laughed as he looked at the rest of the group "So who's in?"
"I'm in" Spencer was the first to make her decision
"If she's in then I guess I have to be; I have to protect her" Toby joked.
"Aria and I are in" Hanna answered for the two of them.
"Well then, I guess I'm in. Who else is going to look after shorty over there" Ezra nodded towards his small girlfriend.
"Right; we all meet at my apartment at like 7 tomorrow night. We can have something to eat then we're gonna take the bitch down." Toby suggested
"I like how your only concern is making sure we've all eaten" Spencer chuckled.
"Well you can't fight heartless bitches on an empty stomach"
Oh and please please please do me a favour and either give me some ideas of what you think should happen in future. I have a few ideas that I'm going to go with but I would appreciate a few more and I will give you full credit for the idea. So please either PM me or review and help me make it as good as I can get it. Thank you all so much :-)