Good morning friends! Alright, well... It's been real haha. Thanks for putting up with me and all my nonsensical scenarios. Honestly I'm not sure when I'll be back because I've had absolutely zero ideas lately, but I doubt this is the end of me. I'll be around. Thank you all for your continued support. Thank you for reading, thank you to those of you who took the time out of your busy lives to review, and thank you for not hating me when I tortured your favorite characters. Seriously, it means a lot.

The final chapter title comes from "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," but I imagine you knew that already. The AU we find ourselves in today is end of the world. Had to start with a bang, had to go out with a bang. ;) Thank you so much for reading and I hope you all enjoy the last chapter. My exit music, please!

there's a better home awaiting in the sky

It doesn't happen immediately. It doesn't happen instantly. It happens in bits and pieces. It's made up of multiple parts.

They're on a date in early June when they first hear of it. Date nights are hard to come by, because rarely, if ever, do their schedules match up and allow for such a pleasure. Usually, she'll work long into the nights, come home, and find him fighting to stay awake just to get a glimpse of her, and when he awakens early in the morning for his job, she's still passed out, hours from seeing the sun with her own eyes. Since it's such a rare occurrence, they decide to go all out; dinner at the new restaurant on Broadway and tickets to see a show, a critically acclaimed one they hadn't seen yet. It's while they're seated at dinner, laughing over bowls of spaghetti, that they overhear the conversation. It's two men, poring over charts and unintentionally ignoring their meals, but one is frantic and the other is disbelieving.

"Franklin," The frantic one pushes. "It's right here. It's all right here."

"That's preposterous," The other, Franklin, decides. "How do I know there wasn't an error in the machinery? Or perhaps a user error? You easily could have thrown the numbers; I know you want Kellerman's position, Jennings, and I know you'll do anything to get it."

"But not this," Jennings shakes his head. "This is serious. This is life or death. This isn't something to mess around with."

"And yet, here you are."

"Will you just look?" Jennings tries, thrusting the chart at his colleague again. "Several buoys in the North Atlantic are showing a massive drop in the ocean temperatures. That's not normal, Franklin. I've concluded, along with the rest of my team, that the melting polar ice caps have begun to disrupt the North Atlantic current, and if that happens-"

"No," Franklin shakes his head. "No. The world didn't end on Y2K, it didn't end on 6/6/06, and it didn't end in 2012! It's not going to end now!"

"Maybe not end, sir," Jennings says. "But you do know that meteorological climate change is what caused the first Ice Age."

"Check," Franklin demands of the first waitress he sees. "We need the check."

Spencer and Toby watch in surprise. The men are still arguing as they pay, stand and exit the restaurant. For a moment, they're both speechless. Then, Spencer shakes her head and says, "Guess the world is ending again."

Toby wonders, "You don't believe him?"

"I don't know," Spencer shrugs. "I find it hard to believe, considering they've been preaching the end of the world for years and years and nothing's ever happened."

"But there's legitimate proof this time," Toby points out. "The polar ice caps, the climate change…"

"Yeah, and there was proof last time," Spencer says. "The greenhouse effect, even more climate change… It's probably all hot air."

He nods. "And if it's not?"

"I will be the first one to admit I was wrong," Spencer promises. "And you can totally play the 'I told you so' card."

Toby chuckles. "I don't know if I believe it, either. Meteorologists don't have the greatest track record."

"Exactly."

"But…" He trails off. "I don't know. If the world is going to end, there are things I'd like to do first."

Spencer asks curiously, "Like what?"

He shrugs. "Patch things up with my Dad. Maybe Jenna, too. Visit my Mom's grave one last time. Travel abroad. Do all the touristy things in New York that we haven't taken advantage of since we moved here; you know, the Empire State Building, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty… That kind of stuff."

"Toby," She grins. "It sounds like you're making a bucket list."

"Yeah, I guess it kind of is," Toby nods his agreement as they too prepare to leave the restaurant. "What would you want to do?"

"I don't know," She thinks a moment as they head towards the theater, hand in hand. "I've never really though about it. I guess… Reach out to my sister. Go to France. Tell Aria how we all really feel about Ezra."

Toby snorts. "I still can't believe she married him."

"None of us can," Spencer shakes her head. "She could do so much better."

"That's it, though?" He asks. "That's a pretty short list."

"I guess it's because I'm happy," Spencer admits. "For the first time in my life… I have everything I need. I'm not running and fighting for my life anymore. I have a job I love, I still keep in touch with the girls, I have you… It's all I need."

He smiles. "Keeping it simple?"

"Exactly," She beams back. "Keep it simple. The world can end, now. I'm happy."

"Okay, don't encourage it," Toby teases as they reach their show and head inside. "We don't actively want the world to end."

"No," Spencer agrees. "It's probably all speculation, anyway. Isn't it always?"

Famous last words.

Within a week, violent weather worldwide begins to terrorize the human population. It starts off with a ferocious blizzard in the middle of central Florida, bathing its residents in a thick layer of fluffy white snow and harsh ice that most Floridians had likely never seen before. A category four hurricane hits Kansas a day later, ripping off roofs, destroying homes, cutting off roads and yanking trees straight out of the ground. A devastating, catastrophic tornado hits Washington state a couple days later, killing many and ruining everything in its path, from homes to schools, from animals to vegetation. Toby and Spencer watch this unfold like a horror movie on the news and decide that this time, it's real; they better get going on that bucket list. They book a flight to Paris, pack their belongings and head to the airport, but it's a madhouse; it's chaos. Everyone is trying to leave the country and when they fight their way to the front of the angry mob, they learn that no one will be traveling anywhere.

"… due to the severe turbulence," A flight representative drones. "We will be offering full refunds for everyone at the customer service desks around the airport."

"My flight's for business! Are you going to talk to my boss?"

"My wife's in labor! I need to get home!"

"How dare you! This is illegal! This is outrageous!"

"What is going on?" Spencer asks and Toby shakes his head. He's as out of the loop as she is.

"By order of the president of the United States," The flight representative repeats. "The FAA has suspended all air traffic until further notice due to severe turbulence. We're sorry for the inconvenience and we thank you for your cooperation. There is nothing more we can do for you at this time."

Spencer nods slowly. "I guess we're not going to France."

"This is serious," Toby states. "I didn't think it was going to go this far."

"Should we get a refund?" Spencer asks. "Go somewhere else? Locally, I mean. They suspended air traffic, but they didn't say anything about trains or buses or anything."

"Yeah," Toby agrees. "We could go to Boston or Philly. We could go home for a little while."

Spencer nods. "We could. We could visit our parents' and your Mom and-"

She's cut off, distracted, by the news on the television above them. A giant, tsunami-like super storm is hovering over the Atlantic Ocean and moving quickly inward, straight for the northeastern part of the United States. Spencer's eyes widen and she says, "Oh my god. Look at that."

"I think we should stay here," Toby decides a moment later. "That doesn't look like something we should mess with."

They watch the news a bit longer, paralyzed in place, and minutes later, the reporting meteorologist in the helicopter begins to panic. In horror, Spencer and Toby watch as the helicopter he's riding in stalls, freezes and plummets to the ground. There's static on the screen as they hastily try to cover up what's just been shown, but it's too late, now. Spencer's shaking her head, averting her eyes and Toby's as pale as snow. "Oh my god."

"That's why they suspended flights," Spencer mutters, her voice low. "Planes are… are falling out of the sky."

"It just froze," Toby shakes his head. "It just froze and stopped working and-"

"Let's go home," Spencer says. "Let's go home because I think this is real and I don't think we're ready."

On the cab ride back to their apartment, Toby glances over at Spencer and notes her eyes are closed and her head is bowed. He places a gentle hand on her knee and asks, "Are you okay?"

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can," Spencer whispers. "And the wisdom to know the difference."

Toby smiles softly and squeezes her knee. And so it begins.

The first week of July, Emily, Hanna and Aria arrive for what might be their very last girls' weekend in the city. Caleb comes too, if only to spend time with Toby while their girlfriends are off spending time away. It's been raining in New York for two weeks straight and sometimes it gets lighter, sometimes it gets heavier, but it never lets up. At first, they don't seem concerned; they trudge through the puddles as they stroll down the streets of New York, ignoring the warnings that this is really the beginning of a massive, hurricane-like super storm and any second now it was going to take them down. Instead, they visit the Museum of Natural History and have lunch at a café before taking brief refuge inside a department store at the end of the street. It's Hanna's heaven and she's like a child again as the other three just follow like puppies, and she's comparing two different leather jackets when the lights go out.

Thunder is crashing in the skies outside and the rain is unbelievably hard against the windows and ceiling and people are beginning to panic. Aria asks, "It's a department store! Don't they have a backup generator?"

"You would think," Spencer says, illuminating the flashlight on her phone. "Let's try to get out of here. Head home."

"Okay, but don't let me forget that I want this one," Hanna says, lifting the more expensive of the two jackets. "It's absolutely gorgeous."

"Only you, Hanna," Emily teases as they make it to the front of the store.

It's clear they won't be exiting. The winds are so high, they're tearing cars straight off the road. They shriek and duck away as the wind sends a taxi careening through one of the display windows. It's pouring so hard, it's making dents and cracks in the pavement outside and lightning strikes the street signs, the lamp posts and the poor people just frenetically trying to escape the weather's wrath. The thunder is absolutely deafening and it shakes the ground and there are stop signs and birch trees flying through the air outside. It's absolutely horrifying and there's no way they'll be exiting; screams of fright and screams of pain warn them not to move a muscle. Hanna yanks out her phone a moment later, as they're scrambling backwards to get away from the carnage.

"I'm calling Caleb," She announces and her phone beeps its denial. "Oh my god, I don't have a signal!"

"Shit, neither do I," Aria agrees, holding it as high as she can reach.

Spencer's phone is pressed to her ear and she's silently begging Toby to pick up. Come on. Answer. Please. Tell me you're all right. "I've got nothing."

"Oh my god!" Emily shouts and across the street, a hotel has crumbled to the ground, the entire building collapsed. "What is going on?"

Spencer sighs. "Jennings was right."

The other three stare at her in confusion. "What?"

"He's a scientist; he predicted the end of the world," Spencer explains hastily. "And he was right."

"No, no, no, the world can't end," Hanna disagrees. "There's so much I haven't done yet!"

"The world waits for no one, Hanna," Aria says sadly. "I can't believe I came down here without Ezra. What do you think Rosewood is like, right now?"

"It's probably in ruins," Emily shrugs. "I seriously cannot believe this is happening."

Spencer tries and fails one more time to get ahold of Toby and, when her phone does nothing but stare blankly back at her, she chucks it across the room. "There's no electricity. There's no cell service. We have nothing."

The storm continues to rage outside and Hanna asks, "What do we do now?"

"We're spending the night in the department store," Spencer sighs. "And we'll go from there, if we make it through the night."

Spencer awakens to a kind of cold she's never felt in her life. The night before, they'd gone upstairs, to the home goods section of the store, and found beds to sleep in for the night, huddling together for comfort and for warmth. There aren't enough blankets in the world to keep her warm, now. Spencer sits, shivers violently and checks her watch. It's a little after eight a.m. and there's silence in the department store, a sure sign that she and her three best friends are alone. Glancing beside her, she notes Aria's still fast asleep; her lips are blue and there are icicles on her eyelashes. Spencer imagines she must look identical to her petite friend's frozen form. She reaches down, lays a hand on the crispy, cool sheets, and shakes her friend awake.

"Aria," She hisses softly. "Aria!"

Aria jumps awake as if she's been shocked and sits, shaking. "What? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Spencer insists, her teeth chattering. "I had to make sure you didn't freeze to death."

"Give me twenty minutes," Aria says. "Why is it so cold?"

"I don't know," Spencer shakes her head and, across the aisle, notes that Hanna and Emily are unmoving. "Hand me your pillow."

Aria does as she's asked and Spencer tosses it away from her. It sails through the air and beans Emily right in the face. She startles, shoves the pillow aside, and her fidgeting awakens Hanna as well. "What's going on? What time is it?"

"Why is it like fucking Antarctica in here?" Hanna wonders, rubbing her arms viciously. "It's so cold!"

Spencer climbs out of bed, heading for the escalator that hasn't worked for hours now, the others following suit. When they make it downstairs, their eyes widen. All the rain that had fallen had completely frozen over and the thermostat is broken; if she had to guess, Spencer would say the temperature is easily in the double negatives. She takes a moment, glances at the frozen wonderland outside and snaps into action. "We're going to freeze to death if we don't get warmer clothing."

Emily's as pale as ice. "Yeah. Like them?"

The others turn in her direction and are instantly startled. There's a huddle of people in the middle of the shoe section, limbs frozen together, death in their open eyes. Aria grimaces and says, "I wondered where all the people were. We weren't here alone."

"Oh my god," Hanna panics. "We need to get out of here. We need to go."

"Clothes first," Spencer warns. "Then we'll go."

"Back to your place?" Emily asks as they begin to raid the store for coats, hats, boots and gloves.

"Sure," Spencer says quietly. "If it's still standing."

"It's got to be," Hanna insists. "Caleb's there. Toby, too. And they're okay."

"Yeah," Spencer nods uneasily. "Yeah, they're fine."

The snow is eight to ten feet deep and covered in a thick layer of ice; needless to say, walking across it is like trekking through a minefield. One false move and it's all over. They move slowly and carefully down the abandoned streets of New York City, tugging scarves up to their eyes and trying to do anything they could to ignore the bitter cold. Spencer's doing her best to focus on the task at hand, but her hair is crispy and could easily break off and her skin feels like it's on fire, icy and raw, and all she can think about is Toby, because if the world is going to end, if today is her last day, then she wants to be with him. It takes them all day just to travel three blocks and the sky grows dark and the wind picks up, signaling it's time to call it a night. They've reached the front steps of the New York Public Library and have decided to take refuge in it for the night; they've got nowhere else to go.

The door splinters open and icicles fall downward, smashing themselves against the stone. Spencer's wearing two sweaters and a thick jacket and she can't stop shivering. Emily asks, "I wonder if there's any food in here."

"In the library?" Aria asks incredulously, pointing to a sign above her. "Where it says no food or drink?"

"Rules were made to be broken, Aria," Emily rolls her eyes. "There's got to be something."

"Maybe upstairs," Hanna suggests and Emily nods.

"I'm going to go check it out," She calls back as she heads for the grand staircase.

Aria scrambles up to follow her. "Wait for me! You don't get to put yourself in danger alone."

This leaves Hanna and Spencer and neither has to ask to know how the other is feeling. Hanna implores, "You think they're okay, right?"

"I don't know," Spencer shakes her head. "You saw how that building just collapsed… I mean, Caleb and Toby are tough but… You can't survive that."

"But what if your building didn't collapse?" Hanna suggests. "What if the building's fine and… they just froze to death?"

Spencer squeezes her eyes shut as unwanted images flood her brain. "Hanna…"

"I'm sorry," Hanna says. "It's the last thing I want, believe me. But… I have to think about these things. I have to because… Because I need an explanation. I'm scared, Spence. I'm really scared."

Spencer frowns and admits quietly, "Me too."

There's a banging sound outside that startles both of them and grabs their attention. They're staring in the direction of the front door of the library just as Aria and Emily come back downstairs. "There's no food. There's nothing up there."

"Seriously. Not even a vending machine in this…" Emily trails off just as she notices the other two staring. "What's wrong?"

A second bang sounds and the girls scramble to their feet as the front door splinters open. Spencer's heart is in her throat as two snowy, frost-ridden figures appear and struggle to shut the door behind them. It isn't until they're all standing there, in the middle of the floor, that Spencer recognizes the coat on the right. "Oh my god. Oh my god."

He begins to strip off his many layers but Spencer cannot contain herself. She attaches herself to him immediately and he chuckles a little, rubbing her back, as Hanna does the same to the man on the left. "Hi, Spence."

"Where the hell did you come from?" She asks, her arms still fully around him. "How did you know we were here?"

"It's the New York Public Library, Spencer," Toby says, kissing her cheek. "Where else would you take refuge?"

Spencer can only stare at him in disbelief because even now, it shocks her how well he knows her. She brings his lips to hers a moment later and he kisses her back in earnest. In between kisses, she vows, "I love you. You scared the hell out of me. And you're never leaving me again."

"You left me," Toby corrects her and when she shoots him a look, he says, "I love you, too. And I won't leave your side again for the rest of our lives."

"The rest of our days," Emily sighs. "However many we have left."

Aria agrees, "It's probably not very many."

Spencer doesn't care. She's still trembling, but she has Toby again, and her life could go on for years and years or it could end tomorrow, and she would be perfectly okay with that.

The night grows colder and colder as it wanes on and Toby's watching Spencer shiver violently and it physically aches that he can't do anything about it. They're sitting in a semi-circle with the rest of their friends and Aria and Hanna have already fallen asleep and Spencer has yet to let go of his hand. He hardly minds. Every now and then, Emily, paranoid and frantic, makes sure Aria and Hanna are still breathing, that they haven't frozen to death, and Caleb, through blue lips, tells her they're fine. It's killing him to watch his friends and girlfriend suffer like this, but he doesn't know what to do to provide warmth. At least, not at first. And then, when it hits him, he feels stupid for not thinking of it sooner.

"The books," Toby says after a beat. "We have to burn the books."

"Are you kidding?" Spencer asks. "We can't do that. Destroying public property-"

"Spencer, there is no public anymore," Toby says. "Everyone's gone."

"Okay, but…" She trails off, searching for another excuse. "They're classics."

"They're not; not all of them," He tells her. "We don't have a choice. It's getting colder by the second. We'll die if we don't."

Spencer bites her lip and hesitantly agrees. "Oh alright."

They and Emily grab a cart and stack it high with the thickest books they can find. They arrange them in the perfect formation and Caleb finds a match in an abandoned purse in one of the aisles. Soon, they have a roaring, raging fire and there's no ventilation in the building and this probably violates about a hundred codes, but they are truly out of options, here. Soon, Caleb and Emily have joined Hanna and Aria in a restless sleep and it's just Spencer and Toby, now, watching the flames dip and wave languorously. She's draped across his lap and just when he thinks she's fallen asleep, she says, "I prayed. I prayed every second that you'd come back to me."

Toby smiles. "That's funny. Because I prayed every second that I'd find you again."

She then asks, "What do you think ever happened to Jennings?"

"Well," Toby sighs. "I think he'd make millions off of this. But he's probably frozen, somewhere, holed up, just like we are."

"If we believed him," She considers. "If we all believed him and took precaution, do you think we would've made it?"

"Hey," He scolds lightly. "Who says we're not making it?"

"I'm just asking," Spencer shrugs. "Do you think so?"

"I don't know," Toby replies. "I don't think any amount of preparation can save you from nature. You can't control it. You can't mess with it."

"I think you're right," Spencer agrees. "We only have the power to change the things we've created, not anything else. And sometimes, not even then."

"Yeah," Toby says. "Sometimes not even then."

"Do you think it's going to hurt?" She then asks. "The end?"

"I don't know, Spence," He repeats. "Maybe."

Spencer snuggles closer, requesting, "Don't leave me, okay?"

Toby holds her tighter, still, promising, "Never."

They're sweating bullets when they awaken and the fire's burned out and their sweaters aren't necessary anymore. It isn't fifty degrees below zero and the ice and snow have melted into rivers outside and the sun is shining so hot and so bright, it looks like any other day. They're starving, they're ravenous, and so they step outside, in search of something to eat. It's absolutely stifling outside; they're unable to breathe, gasping for breath, and there's a sickening feeling in Spencer's stomach that tells her the end is near. This is it. It seems as though the sun is going to fall out of the sky, as though it's going to come careening down towards them, through their atmosphere and burst into flames on impact. They're trudging through the water, watching as it begins to dry almost instantly, when Aria points it out.

There, in the sky above, is a small, dark spot and it's growing bigger and bigger and coming rapidly towards them. She asks, "What is that?"

"I don't know," Emily shakes her head, squinting into the sunlight. "It looks like-"

"An asteroid," Spencer says. "It looks like a giant asteroid."

"Oh my god," Hanna panics immediately. "This is the end!"

"Yeah," Caleb agrees, slipping an arm around her. "I think so."

"Oh my god," Spencer gasps, turning to Toby. "Oh my god."

"It's okay," Toby assures her, taking her hand in his. "We knew this all along."

"But I…" She starts but can't seem to get the words out. "I…"

"I know," He understands, nodding. "I know."

The others are freaking out, losing their shit, crying. Aria is on the ground, Emily is racing about, Caleb and Hanna are kissing. But suddenly, a strange calm washes over Spencer and she realizes if the world is going to end, if they're all going to die, then it might as well be like this. Together. She smiles at Toby and he smiles back. Inhaling what would likely be her last breath, Spencer says, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…"

"The courage to change the things I can," Toby fills in.

Spencer concludes, "And the wisdom to know the difference."

Toby squeezes her hand. Nothing more is said.

There's an Earth-shattering crash, resounding shockwaves and a brilliant bright light.

And so it ends.