So it's been a long time, I know. I am so sorry. The only excuse I really have is that life has gotten in the way. I have been working like crazy and I can't deny I have been binge watching NCIS.

I am going to be getting back into this but probably won't be able to update as often as I used to.

I also wanted to thank all of you for your reviews. I took a few things that you all said into consideration and I wanted to address one thing. A few people have said that I have made Aria more severely hurt than then others. What I wanted to say about that is one, Aria has always been my favorite so it's always been easier for me to write for her and I am always more keen to give her more interesting storylines. I have a plan for how I would want the story to go. All I want to say is that while Aria is the most physically hurt, doesn't mean all of the other girls are still okay. There are many different issues that they all are going to face after being held captive for a year.

So there is all of that, here is the next chapter focusing on Spencer.

As always, please let me know in the reviews what you are thinking and what you would like to see. I love hearing what you all think!

Thanks

Spencer

Veronica made her way back into the room after checking in on the others. Toby was sitting next to the bed, intently looking over at Spencer. Veronica could see the evidence that probably as soon as she walked out of the room he had broken down, his eyes were red and there were tear stains going down his cheeks.

Peter was sitting on the couch on the far side of the room seemingly staring at the wall until he heard his wife walk back into the room.

"How is everyone?" He moved over to one side of the couch so she could sit down next to him. He run his hand up and down her back to try and calm her down when he saw just how tense she was.

"Okay, for now. Once they wake up it's a different story." Veronica said with a huff. "Aria is …. It was rough. She has a collapsed lung and is still intubated. The wound on her side was pretty bad." She paused for a moment. "It was so hard seeing her like that. It made me appreciate how unscathed Spencer is."

"Wow. Yea, Spencer got lucky. Though, we'll see if we are saying the same thing once she wakes up." Was all Peter could really say.

"I know. That is the thing I am most scared about. We have no idea what they went through. What if after all of this, it isn't something they can come back from? The little bit of research i've done on people held captive as long as they have, hasn't given me the most hope that our lives are going to be any form of normal for quite some time, if ever again."

"All we can do is support them and be there for them and be there to be anything they need."

Peter will always feel like he will never be good enough to protect his family. Time after time A has been able to get to and torture his daughter and her friends and he was oblivious to it all. So much of this could have been avoided if any of them had really noticed. He was always so absorbed in his work and his personal life that he didn't realize what was going on in his own family.

He looked over at his wife who was bent over with her hands on the back of her neck with her head down. Through this entire situation he can't say anything had gotten better as far as their relationship went. If anything, it had gotten worse. He was spending more and more time at his law office trying to figure out what went wrong in the investigation in trying to find the girls.

He had gone into overdrive as soon as they had discovered the dollhouse.

Right under their nose, they had literally been right under their nose and so close this whole time. The area about half a mile from the site of the dollhouse had been searched around Thanksgiving around 5 months after the girls first went missing. How could they have missed it?

Something one of his associates had suggested was looking into the police department. Doing an investigation into how they could have A get away with this for so long.

When Peter brought up the suggestion to Veronica and she was immediately against it.

"They brought our daughter back to us. Do you really think the best way to repay them is to turn around the investigate them?" Veronica said to him as they had waited for the first update on Spencer.

"Don't you think we could have had her back a hell of alot sooner if things had been done differently? I mean, how can you explain the fact that they were being housed just a half a mile away from the area they searched in November?"

Veronica was quiet for a moment. She had looked around to the other parents in the room and seeing the look on their faces, scared out of their minds about their daughters, but relieved to have them back. "We can't Peter. A fooled all of us, we can't throw all the blame on them. Let's just focus now on the fact that Spencer is alive and start and try to move past this."

Veronica placed both of her hands over Peters crossed arms, trying to calm him down and make him realize that having their daughter back was enough.

"It's not fair that we were cheated out of a year of her life, a year that should have been one of the best and it was taken away from us."

"I know, and trust me, i'm not happy about it either. Right now, let's get her healthy and we will concentrate on making up for lost time."

Shortly after that they had been called to Spencer's room and all thoughts of investigating the Police department went on the back burner for the moment.

At a nearby hotel, Melissa was sitting on the balcony of their room. Sleep we nearly impossible for her since her mind wouldn't shut down. Something that didn't help, their room had a good view of the hospital. Even though the Hastings house wasn't too far, she wanted to be close in case anything happened with Spencer.

Every time Melissa tried to shut her eyes and get some form of rest, she would see images of Spencer and all of the girls in the dollhouse, she would imagine what kinds of things they had gone through over the past 12 months and it was just all too much for her.

Over the past year she had been trying to keep a distance from the investigation. It wasn't that she didn't want to help find her sister and her friends, it wasn't that at all. If she was being honest with herself, she, like many others, will never be able to fully forgive themselves for the small role they played in the girls being taken and this entire fiasco.

"Come to bed love. You haven't slept in days." Melissa heard Wren say from behind her as he made his way onto the balcony. He sat beside her at a distance, letting her decide how much physical contact she needed right now.

"I don't get it. How could anyone be so sick and so twisted" Melissa not holding back her disdain and hatred, "to keep them all for a year and then just give them up, almost killing them in the process?"

"From what you've told me about A, that sounds exactly like something they would do."

"When they first went missing, everyone thought they would find them quickly. Most of A's plans would have a quick resolve before finding a new way to torture someone else or them in a new way. Now they figured out, everything up until that point was just a distraction while they set up the dollhouse." Melissa paused as she wiped a few tears from her eyes. "How could all of us have missed it?"

Wren pulled her into his arms. "No one knew this was ever a possibility and everyone did everything they could to try and bring the girls back as fast as they could, A was just always one step ahead."
"If I ever find out who did this to them, I swear i'm gonna -"

Wren cut her off, "Anything you want to do, would make you just as bad as they are. We just have to believe that they will get what's coming to them. You losing sleep isn't going to help the situation. Now," Wren stood up, bringing her with him. "Let's go to bed. It's going to be a long day tomorrow. Most of the girls are going to be weaned off of their sedatives and everyone is going to need as much support as they can get."

The pair got to bed and were able to get a few hours of sleep before they were woken up by the high pitched squeal of Melissa's cellphone.

"Hello?" Melissa said franticly.

Wren wasn't able to make out who was on the other line, but by the smile and tears that instantly started to fall down her face gave him a pretty good idea what the news was.

"We'll be right there." Melissa said before hanging up the phone. Wren looked at her with hope in his eyes. "She's awake."

He ran over to her and picked her up, planting a quick kiss on her lips. He put her down so they could both finish getting ready and head to the hospital.

ICU Wing

As Wren and Melissa made their way down the hallways to Spencer's room, they saw the crowd formed around the window and at first it made a pit form in her stomach until she saw her mom standing right outside. She ran to her and straight into her waiting arms.

"How is she?" Melissa asked franticly.

"Okay. It was a little shaky when she first woke up. She was pretty agitated until they brought in Toby. He's in there now with Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Michelle."

Sure enough, Melissa looked in the room and propped up in bed was Spencer awake and talking. She looked exhausted besides being asleep for well over 12 hours and she had a firm grip on Toby's hand who was sitting next to her on the bed.

"Dr. Sullivan was telling us that there is a possibility since she had this reaction to Toby, that it might be awhile before we can talk to her. They want to be as careful with her as they can after everything she's gone through and that long term captive victims sometimes will gravitate towards one person in the early stages of their recovery, especially if, like Spencer, Toby was one of the first people to see her."

"Did you guys get to talk with her?"

"For a few moments when she first woke up. We weren't able to say much before she realized Toby wasn't there, he had just stepped out for a moment. One she stated to have a reaction, they moved us out here to calm her down and got Toby into the room."

Flashback

Veronica had taken residence in the chair next to Spencer's bed. Toby had momentarily left to go grab coffee for them while Peter stood at the window, looking out when a slight sound broke their silence. Both of their eyes flashed to Spencer and they were surprised when they saw her eyes staring back at them.

"Oh Spencer." Veronica cried.

Spencer stayed silent, even with two people in the room, she was overwhelmed. This was the moment she had been waiting for. She had missed her parents so much but right now she didn't really know how to process everything. The one thing she did know was she wanted Toby.

Quickly, she started to hyperventilate and her heart rate went up. Nurses rushed in as Spencer started to yell for Toby, her voice raspy and dry from the lack of water so while she felt like she was screaming when in reality it was coming out at hardly over a whisper.

Peter and Veronica were ushered out of the room as nurses and doctors helped calm Spencer down, though nothing was working since they were trying to keep her meds intake to a minimum.

Toby heard this as he was coming back down the hallway. He instantly dropped all the coffee he was carrying and ran straight into the the room, pausing at the doorway to take everything in. Spencer's head snapped to him and she instantly went silence. Her face was frozen for a moment before her face scrunched up as a new wave of tears started running down her face. Toby was at her side in an instant, gathering her in his arms and holding her tight, never wanting to let her go or ever let anything happen to her ever again. He whispered comforting things in her ear as her breath evened out to a more normal rhythm.

Present

Melissa and Wren stayed outside the room while Peter and Veronica cautiously went into the room.

"Let Spencer make the first move." Dr. Sullivan whispered to them just as they walked in the door. Spencer was sitting against Toby who was behind her on the bed with his arms wrapped protectively around her.

They walked slowly walked closer to the bed until they were at the end. The four people in the room stared at each other, all scared to make the first move as to not spook Spencer.

"I don't really know what to say. Every time I try to recall anything, it comes back in flashes or my mind just goes blank. I don't know what to tell you." Spencer said.

"You don't have to tell us anything you don't want to sweetheart." Veronica's voice broke more and more with each word. "We're just happy you're okay."

"I don't feel okay."

"That's okay right now." Dr. Sullivan said making her way more into the room. "After everything you guys went through, it's okay to say that you're not okay." She turned her attention more to the family members in room and also waved in Wren and Melissa. "Something I was telling Spencer is that she is going to have to be honest with us about what's she's feeling if there is any real hope of her getting better. You all will play a part in that by keeping her honest. If you feel like she isn't telling you the truth, ask her about it but don't push too much, at least not right now, we don't want to cause any more trauma. If it's something that you think could be detrimental to her, come to us and we will handle it. This is going to be a long process but together, we will get you and all the other girls through this. We will leave you guys alone to catch up. Please have us paged if you need us."

"Thank you." Everyone said to the pair of psychologists as they made their way out of the room.

"You guys should sit down. This is going to take awhile to try and explain."

Everyone pulled up chairs around Spencer's bed, Toby staying with Spencer on the bed, Spencer snuggling in closer to him if that was even possible. She felt very safe in his arms.

"Take your time sweetheart." Veronica softly said.

"Okay … um … it started when we were taken on our way to the courthouse. A took us to the bunker and when we all woke up we were in replicas of our rooms. We were all allowed to see each other at first. As time went on A would keep us locked in our rooms for what felt like days or weeks at a time. We tried to get out a few days after we were taken. A had us plan this weird prom and we rigged a camera to short the power out so we could try and escape. Obviously it didn't work. A had the electric fence outside on and left us outside for days without any food or water in the sun and rain." Spencer's eyes wandered out to the window where it had started to rain. "We thought they were just going to leave us out there to die."

Toby placed a soft kiss to the side of her head. "How did you guys get back into the bunker?"

"After a few days the doors just opened and the voice said to go back to our rooms. Aria made a comment about how we didn't want to go back in but we were more scared of staying outside so we went back in. After that, we only saw each other a few times until Christmas. After that we saw each other every night for three minutes when the generator turned off. During those minutes we tried to figure out how to get out. Sometimes we would all just stand in the hallway hugging each other trying to just keep ourselves grounded in reality." Spencer snapped her eyes back to her family and perked up, pulling herself slightly away from Toby. "How are the others" She asked frantically.

"Mostly okay. Emily has a broken wrist and a sprained knee, doctors say there is a chance she might need more surgery and might not be able to swim again. Hanna had her spleen removed, Mona has some broken ribs but not as much malnutrition as the rest of you guys and then there is Aria." Peter said.

"What's wrong with Aria?"

Peter and Veronica looked to Wren to help explain more of the medical information. "Aria was hurt pretty badly in the explosion. She landed on a tree branch that embedded itself into her side. She had to have emergency surgery and she ended up with a collapsed lung and an infection. She made it through the surgery. She has a chest tube and is the only one of you all still intubated but they say she is going to make a full recovery."

Spencer was in tears by the time Wren finished talking.

"We can give you a break if it's too much." Melissa said.

"No it's okay. I think this is more relief that while this is going to take awhile to get over, we all made it out okay and we will get through this. You guys found us, we were starting to think that we were never going to get out of there. I can't believe you guys found us."

"Of course we did. We were never going to stop until you brought you girls home. We only wish we could have gotten to you before the house exploded."

"We know you guys were doing all you could to try and get to us. Tell me about the investigation."

"It's been centered at our house and in the barn for about the last nine months. It's been around the clock pretty much since they day you guys were taken. Around Thanksgiving we there was actually a search of an area near where you guys were being held but they didn't find anything." Peter said.

"Everyone was helping out when they could. Toby, Ezra, Caleb and Ali I don't think have slept very much in the past year." Veroinca said giving a nod to Toby.

"You did actually get some sleep right?" Spencer asked looking over her shoulder to her boyfriend.

"Only when I would have dropped dead otherwise. The only thing that mattered to me was find you safe." Toby smiled and was surprised when Spencer returned the gaze and leaned up to give him a quick kiss.

"Everyone is going to be relieved to hear that you are awake and okay." Melissa said. She got up and moved closer to Spencer's side. "Can I talk to her alone for a minute? If that's okay?" Melissa looked to Spencer to make sure that wouldn't be too much for her.

"Yea that's okay." Toby looked to her with a concerned face. "I'll be fine, plus I know you'll be right outside. I can handle it, I promise."

"Okay." Toby detangled himself from Spencer before moving off the bed and out of the room with the rest of the family, leaving Spencer and Melissa alone.

Melissa perched herself on the side of the bed and was silent for a few moments before starting to speak, although slowly since she really didn't know where to start.

"I'm not going to lie to you. I wasn't around much during the investigation." She was looking down at her hands, scared to make eye contact with Spencer. "I think a part of me couldn't get over the part I played in all of this."

"You have nothing to do with us being kidnapped."

"I know that … but I can't ignore the fact that I didn't make things easy for you, your friends and Ali. Who knows how things would have been different if I had been nicer, or not been involved with Ian, things could have been so much different."

Spencer sat up a bit more in bed and moved her hand over to Melissa's. Melissa looked down to where their hands were joined. When she looked up they both had tears in their eyes.

"We are all safe. That's what we need to focus on. A didn't win. We still have alot to go through, getting all of us back to normal and finding A and finally ending this, but we can only do that if we put what has happened behind us and move forward."

Melissa wiped the tears away and pulled Spencer into a hug. They held on for a few moments before separating. They were just looking at each other in comfortable silence when there was a slight knock on the door. After a few seconds Toby popped his head in.

"How are we doing in here?"

"Good." Melissa said. She got up and started to walk towards the door. "I think I am going to head out and give you guys some time. We'll talk more later ….. Love you Spencer." Melissa said with a genuine smile.

"Love you too sis," she said with a smile back.

Melissa stayed for just a moment before making her way out of the room.

Toby pulled up one of the chairs as close to the bed as he could.

"How are you doing? Really?"

Spencer was silent, not sure how to answer. She took a few moments just looking at Toby. As the moments went on, Toby could see her walls come down and the tears starting to fall down her face. He was conflicted in that moment, wanting to hold her but also knowing what Dr. Sullivan had said about them needing to have the time to work through what they were feeling knowing they were there supporting them but not trying to smother.

"I don't know. I love being back and around everyone but its a lot to take in all at once. Can you just let everyone know I think I need a few hours."

"Are you sure? I don't know if you should be alone."

"I think you're company is about all I can handle right now. Can you come here?" Spencer said, making room for him on the bed to join her.

Toby sent a quick text off to Peter and Veronica, took off his shoes and joined her on the bed. He gathered her into his arms but let her decide just how close she wanted to be. He was surprised when she snuggled in very close, he took that as a clue to pull her in tight.

"I can hear your wheels turning from here. What's going on in that pretty mind of yours?"

"I think it is going to take time for the feeling of being watched to go away. While I love being back and being around all of you, I can't shake the feeling that I am still being watched. I need some time and there is no one else I could imagine spending time with than you." She looked up at him, "I missed so much. I had one picture of you that I would stare at for hours, wondering if I would ever be able to be in your arms again."

"I will be here as long as you need me. Relax, everything is going to be okay."

He looked down when she didn't respond to find that she was already fast asleep. He smiled, planted a kiss on the top of her head before settling down for a nap himself.