Warning: This contains some sensitive material some readers may find uncomfortable.


"I need to speak to you," Spencer said, approaching Toby's desk.

"Spencer-" Toby got up, hoping she hadn't noticed the files on it.

"Can we please speak somewhere private?"

"Are you okay?" He searched her face; Spencer almost looked like she was going to cry, and it worried him.

"I need to talk to you in private," Spencer begged him silently with her eyes.

Toby looked behind him to double check that Tanner wasn't nearby. She had a tendency to sneak up on him, and he was pretty sure it was on purpose. He was sure that Tanner was hoping to catch some juicy gossip on the truth about Mona, and he sure as hell wasn't going to allow that to happen.

"Come on," he said, leading her outside, just in front of the doors of the station. The police department was pretty busy right now, and he didn't want to run the risk of anyone overhearing their conversation.

Now that she was alone with him, she didn't know what to say. At the time, it had seemed like a good idea to tell him. But what would he think of her? Why would he still want to be with her, after someone had touched her in that way?

"I…" She felt a single tear escape from her eye, and she swallowed. No, she couldn't tell him right now. This was the last thing Toby needed. He had already put up with enough of her baggage, how could she bring this to the table, too? He was already working hard enough to try and save – not only her life – but the lives of their friends as well; Hanna, Aria, Emily, Caleb, even Ezra. She couldn't put him in that position.

"You know what? It doesn't matter, it's not that important…" Spencer made a move away from him, wiping the lone tear from her cheek.

"No, Spence." Toby could see she was having some inner battle about whether or not to tell her, but how could she not understand that she could tell him anything?

"I can tell something's wrong, what is it?" He gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and cradled her face with his hand.

"I…I can't…it's nothing. You know what? I gotta go, I have Chem last period and I still haven't-" Spencer tried to pull away, but Toby tugged on her arm.

"Tell me what it is, Spencer." His eyes bore into hers, and she could tell that he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Spencer took a deep breath, and decided to tell him. "Last night, Hanna, Aria, Emily and I went out for dinner. We needed some time for ourselves; we just needed to not think about –A for one night."

Toby nodded, indicating that she should continue.

Spencer looked down as she continued; she couldn't see his face when she said it. She couldn't . "I…I told the girls that I needed to leave early, to start on an essay for English. Except, I realised that we had all gone in Hanna's car, so I needed to walk home." Spencer's voice cracked.

Toby felt his heart sink, not liking the direction this was going in.

"Why didn't you call me? I could have picked you up; we could have gone back to my flat-"

"My house was closer than your flat; it seemed silly to call you-"

"Spencer, you know that I wouldn't have minded picking you up-"

Spencer ignored what he was saying, wanting to just tell him, just to get it over with.

"I was walking past an alley, and…and –A was…there…" Spencer was full on crying now, still refusing to look at him, not wanting to see the look on his face.

"Spence…" Spencer heard Toby's voice crack, and he reached out and pulled her to him, resting his head on hers.

"He…tou…tou…touched me," Spencer whimpered into his shirt. "He r…ra…"

"Baby, it's okay," Toby whispered as he held her "You don't have to say it out loud."

Toby hugged her tighter, not knowing what to do. "Have you told the girls?" He whispered into her hair.

"I couldn't," Spencer whispered back. "I didn't know how to, they kept calling me but I just didn't know how…and then I was on my way to school, and I passed the st…station, and I knew you'd be there, and I needed to tell someone before I'd explode…" Spencer couldn't finish her sentence, as more tears ran down her face.

"You need to go to the hospital," He murmured. "They need to make sure…that you're physically okay."

"I can't. Someone might recognise me, and find out-"

"I'll come with you. I'll be there the whole time, but please for me, Spencer. I need to know that you're okay. I know this is hard, but baby, we just have to make sure." He said, almost desperately.

"Okay," She said quietly, a minute later. "But please don't tell anyone. I don't even want to report this."

This surprised Toby the most out of everything she had told him. "Spencer, you have to tell the police, regardless of what you haven't told them about –A-"

"I can't risk it, Toby. If –A finds out, I don't want to run the risk that he does something to the others."

Toby felt both pride, and anger and what she had said. Pride, because despite what happened to her, she was still making the safety of her friends a priority - and anger, because he knew what it meant. That –A was getting away with it.

Toby felt furious. No, he didn't feel furious. Even if someone took how he was feeling, multiplied it by a billion, and then put that number to infinity, it wouldn't even come close to how he felt right now towards –A. He wanted to find –A, right now, and murder him. No – that was too nice. A quick death? He needed to be burned at stake, forced to endure that torture for as long as Toby intended. Even if he burned at stake forever, it still wouldn't make up for the unthinkable thing he did. Nothing ever would. He knew, deep down, that Spencer would never be the same either. Sure, she would maybe be able to find a way to move forward – and he was sure his friends and himself would play a huge part in that – but she would never fully recover. She could still get flashbacks about it, even twenty years in the future when they would maybe be married and have kids.

Or would they have kids? Would Spencer ever be able to trust him that way again since this?

And Toby blamed himself. Maybe, if he had called her before she left the restaurant, she might have mentioned that she was walking home, and he would have been able to pick her up. Sure, at first she'd insist that she could walk home, that she wasn't a damsel-in-distress, but he knew, in the end, he would have been able to persuade her and pick her up. And they probably would have gone back to his place – Spencer's parents were out of town for a while, and God only knew where Melissa was.

They could have watched some cheesy chick flick – one of Spencer's guilty pleasures. And he would have preferred to watch something else, but because he'd do anything to make her happy, he would have gone along with it. And then, they would go to bed together – maybe not in that way, but in the literal meaning of the word. And the next day, they would wake up, and it would have been okay.

"Just break up with me already," Spencer broke his train of thought, and this immediately got Toby's attention.

"What? Why the hell would I even think of doing something like that?"

"Face it," Spencer broke from his embrace, and used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe away the constant stream of tears. "I'm damaged goods, Toby. Why you ever wanted me in the first place is a mystery to me,"

"Spencer," He whispered. "I would never even dream of breaking up with you. I love you, don't you know that?"

"But what happened –"

"We'll work through it, baby. Whatever you need me to do to help you move on, I swear I'll be there. And in the mean time? I'm going to make sure I find that son-of-a-bitch and give him a slow, painful death." Toby said the last part fiercely.

"Thank you," She murmured into his uniform.

"You're so welcome, sweetheart." He gently pulled away from her, and took her hand, leading her towards his truck.

"We'll go to the hospital now, okay?"

"What about work?" Spencer sniffed, running her sleeve under her nose.

"I'll make up some excuse to Tanner. I'm not going to go back to work today. We'll go straight back to my place, and you can stay there for a while."

Spencer put her hand on his arm, just before they reached his truck. "I love you."

Toby kissed her forehead gently. "I love you, too."


Just something I thought of while watching PLL last night. I hope I wrote this okay, I'm quite nervous putting this up, so hopefully I've portrayed everything alright. Please review and let me know what you think! This was intended to be a one-shot, but if you want me to make this a two-shot, or even multi-chapter, it's something I would be willing to think about, depending on feedback.

Thank you so much for reading!

-Renesmee27 xo