Author's Note: I actually really like this one. And before you ask, no, this is not at all related to the Red trilogy (except for that it is also AU). My headcanon, though, is that Spencer and Toby would get two cats and they'd both be British Shorthairs and the striped grey boy kitten would be named Mowgli and the cream-coloured girl kitten would be named Pandora.
Day One-Hundred Sixty-Five: Missing You by Anna Ayers
Spencer walked into her flat with all of her mail. She sat in front of the window and looked out, looking at the various letters, cards, etc. she had gotten.
She smiled when she encountered a package from New York from Toby Cavanaugh. She smiled as she tore open the big envelope. There was a picture of the garden. Their garden.
She missed the garden. She could spend hours out there from April all the way to November, just reading or watching clouds or even watching the traffic below. As much as she loved gardening, there was no way it was possible for her to have a garden, considering how dark her part of London was.
He was back there, waiting for her in New York. She couldn't wait until she could go back. She had some dumb work assignment in London that required her being there for ten months. She thought it was fun and thrilling for the first six weeks or so. Afterwards, it was just tiring and she just wanted to be home again.
She needed to see familiar people again. People needed good company. She missed her mom and her friends and their two cats, but most of all, she missed him.
Similarly, a week later, he had gotten a letter from her. Their cats were running around, wreaking havoc, while there were car horns honking every five seconds outside on the street below. Still, he was in his own little world while reading her letter and looking at the pictures she had sent.
He went outside to feel the warm sunshine. The kittens ran out behind him.
The garden was his favorite place in the apartment to be and it still looked just as she left it. Sure, he could still faintly hold onto the scent of her shampoo when he lay down on their bed, but this was truly where she felt at home. The lavender plants, especially, reminded him of her; they were her favorite.
Sometimes when he was out there, he could just think of what it would be like the next year, when she was finally home. They'd talked about getting married for a while now, but they waited, especially after finding out about Spencer's pending move to London.
Stupid London. If it weren't for that stupid move to London, they would be married.
Sometimes he let his mind wander while sitting there. Like, that day in particular: he started thinking about their hypothetical wedding. She would look stunning in that white dress, no matter what it looked like.
It felt so wrong that he was so far away. He wished he could've gone with her to London, but…he had things to do there, too. He'd have no problem uprooting his life in New York for hers in London, except for the fact that all his experience in his job would be utterly useless in England. He would have to learn how to use measurements in the metric system all over again. Aside from that, she said that she preferred being in the US and in New York, anyway. One of the main reasons she said was the weather.
He wondered if it was sunny in London like it was in New York that day.
She was planning a Skype date with him later. It was one of those rare Friday nights where they were both doing nothing (namely, when he wasn't doing anything; she was used to curling up on the couch and watching TV until 1 AM with ice cream). If it weren't for Skype, Spencer wasn't sure what she would've done for those extremely long ten months. They'd experimented with it a time or twenty, and although it was no adequate substitute for the other being right beside them, it had to do. In her opinion, Skype sex was a lot better than going sexless for ten months. Sometimes, she even liked it better than phone sex.
She was getting dinner prepared. She would probably be eating some very healthy, delicious, homemade meal, while he would probably be settling for some cheap (but probably still delicious) and unhealthy New York pizza. Or maybe he had gotten actually healthy, quality New York pizza (which would probably end up being unhealthy since he could eat half a pie from this really great pizza parlor about three blocks from their apartment). Things like that made her laugh.
Tears came to her eyes when she accidentally closed the door on her finger. She cursed silently before getting ice to put on her hand. If he were there, he would've taken care of her and made sure she was fine. It was the little things like that that she missed.
She decided, after holding the ice on her hand for about five minutes, that she was giving up on it and just ordering food from the Italian restaurant downtown. Of course, it wasn't like the Italian food from New York, but nothing could really hold a candle to that (especially since a lot of them were family businesses run by Italian-Americans whose parents and grandparents immigrated to America).
A few minutes after she had ordered the food (delivery, since there was no way in hell she was missing a call from him), her computer began to sound with that beautifully familiar Skype tone. She answered a moment later, propping herself up on the kitchen counter. It was 10:37 GMT, which meant that it was 5:37 in New York.
She smiled when she finally saw him. She smiled when she watched him resort back to that old habit of playing with his own fingers when he got a little anxious.
Even though it didn't feel completely right, it was the best they could do for a few more months.
"Where are the kittens?" she asked as soon as she saw him.
"Last I saw them, Pandora was hiding under the bed while Mowgli was on a stack of your sweaters," he answered with a smile.
She laughed a little to herself. "I missed you."
"I know. I miss you, too."
They went through this exact same exchange. Even though by this point, it seemed superfluous, she felt like she needed him to know that all the time. She was always missing him. And since it was so long since she last saw him in person, this seemed only emphasized and made worse.
"Hey, where are you?" she asked a moment later as she furrowed her eyebrows. It seemed as though he was on his phone. He was in front of what looked like an empty, bare wall.
He was silent for a moment. She heard a knock on the door. "Wait a minute, that's probably my dinner," she said before leaving the computer to go and answer the door.
To her surprise, there he was, standing there with their dinner.
"Toby?!" she exclaimed in excitement.
"Did you miss me?"
She shook her head with a slight smile. "You're an idiot," she commented before grabbing the food and putting it on the counter right inside the doorway. She grabbed him for a kiss.
You know how they say your soulmate is like your other half? Well, now, they both finally felt complete. It was an indescribable euphoria. It felt like sunsets in the very end of spring, when summer was coming and the air smelled sweet and the sky would turn the most beautiful mixture of blue, purple, orange, and red. It felt like walking into a warm, salty, clear ocean. It just felt…natural and amazing.
"I missed you, too," he said before picking her up and bringing her to the couch.
It felt so good with him being there. It was finally right. For so long, the chaos and distance had been tearing them apart, but now they were together again.
"Do you want to eat?" she asked as she got up.
"I don't care what we do, so long as I can spend every waking minute with you."
She smiled at that. She was getting a long weekend off, so she was happy he'd be there. It would only be for four days, but she would take whatever she got.
"I love you."
"I love you, too."
eveningshades1107: I feel so weird whenever someone says "pedo" and then I have to remind myself they're talking about pedophiles...I am so done with this show. Or, I would be totally done with this show, except for the fact that I am a weak person so I will watch it in January. But only for Spoby. Only for Spoby and my Hanna Banana sundae. And then Haleb if they ever become all cutesy and Caleb gets out of this funk. I'm not watching for Marlene. I don't even really care about the mystery anymore. I bet we're all A. Basically, I'm watching for all the same reasons I was watching for before, but now without Mona (and I cry).
Sarah:It's a very long and complicated story. If you want to talk about it, I'm not up for talking tonight so I could talk to you about it tomorrow if that suits your fancy. Um, yeah, Sarah, that's cute. 104 degrees. And no humidity, I bet. Or maybe very little humidity. I don't know if you've ever spent a summer in New York City, but when it's like 94 degrees, IT FEELS LIKE 120 FREAKIN DEGREES LIKE I CAN FEEL MY SKIN MELTING OFF OF MY FACE. It's good. You should look for a place to go throw glass at walls.
MilaMizz: That was totally what I was thinking about. Have fun dying. You will die. I'm dead right now. I'm updating from the dead as we speak.
spobypll98:You get it. Why do they always have to mess with our ship. Like all the shit from left field gets our ship. Toby is A out of freakin' nowhere, Spencer suddenly has this "drug addiction" (which the pll writers obviously pulled out of NOWHERE) and they have to deal with that crap, and now Toby gets hit by a car out of FREAKING. NOWHERE. But yeah, I felt like that Spoby scene was just an invitation to all of the smutty fanfic writers out there. I can't wait to see what they come up with. This should be amusing.
AL3110: NO YOU ARE NOT ALONE, AUDREY. EVERYONE IN THE HISTORY OF EVER HATES THIS EPISODE BECAUSE MONA WAS THE ONLY WELL-DEVELOPED CHARACTER (sans Alison, sometimes) AND THE ONLY FREAKING PERSON IN ROSEWOOD WHO HAS ENOUGH BRAINS TO FIGURE IT OUT (well, maybe Spencer...now is your time to shine, Spencey). Let's just all hate on Aria (I'm laughing at that random comment, oh, how we bond over our dislike of Aria).
I was debating whether or not to have them meet at the end, but I decided to be nice about it :) And also, I needed a little pick-me-up after that AWFUL FINALE.
Clearly, the writers either didn't think this through or they are suicidal. Mona is such and interesting character that has SO much potential in the future! Why would you kill her off?!
Enough of my ranting. Tomorrow's one-shot will be Why, Why Not? by Marie Haddad. Please review. I need a little bit of good news and they make me smile :) -Kayson