New A/N: Sorry about the weird bit that was tacked onto the end of this! We have a weird computer arrangement in my house and my cousin is writing a Harry Potter fic – some of her planning got mixed up with this. All fixed now!

He's driving down Deep Creek Road in the first vehicle he's ever owned, and the streets he hated no longer seem so ugly. Rows of near-identical houses so square and crisply cornered they could have been folded from paper crowd him in like always, trees filling the creases between each one like grout in a brick wall: a barricade that defies its inhabitants to even imagine any kind of outside world. Windows that seem to watch him even when no-one is inside; and every person, every jogger and dog-walker and driver has always been a reminder to him that he is not welcome. They look at him with loathing and disgust (and worst of all, fear), and every time he met their eyes they seemed to say Just because we hate you doesn't mean you're free to leave. There is only one consequence of being hated in Rosewood, and that's to be trapped there forever to be judged.

Those people hadn't counted on Spencer.

She's sitting next to him, practically quivering with triumph in that way he usually associates with too much caffeine (which in Spencer's case is any caffeine at all). She gets it – how different it feels to drive down these streets in something you own; something you can, hypothetically, take with you. Something which, even as a way to get from home to work, is giving him hope for the future and a life away from here.

He loves that she's so happy – just because he is. She's the kind of person who wants to fix things for the people she cares about and he knows it's been killing her that he was so hard up for work he had to take a job at Jason DiLaurentis' place. But it was killing her more that he felt stuck. He loves that she's a girl who doesn't just sit around and sympathize. She is crazy and incredible and makes things better even if she has to be a little bit insane in the process. He's not thrilled about the idea of her shelling out a small fortune to do him a favour but she would never forgive him for making this about money (when he knows she'd never have asked for him to pay her back if he hadn't mentioned it).

Sitting in this truck, with Spencer and a future that's expanding like the universe from dust, the streets of Rosewood cease to be a trap and instead form a streamlined tunnel. He could just keep driving; and this time it wouldn't be running away. It would be running towards something. He won't, because Spencer's life is here for now and he won't leave her. But he could. He could, he could, he could…

He literally can't stop smiling; he can clamp his lips shut and try, but in a couple of seconds he's grinning again and he's pretty much accepted it's a futile effort – also, Spencer is snickering at him in her incredible raspy sexy Spencer way and he has no reason to hide his happiness from her. So he gives up and grins stupidly as he drives, feeling her watching him, until she starts laughing again because he probably looks ridiculous.

'Shut up,' he commands her, trying to sound serious and failing.

'Sorry,' she giggles. 'You look high.'

'Well then stop watching me!' he says, feeling his face go red.

'No way, it's fun! I like seeing you happy.' Her voice goes soft in that way that he'd never even known about before he started dating her and always makes his heart beat faster.

'Trust me, I am.'

The fact that she bought him a truck is still unbelievable to him. He's accepted the reality of the statement – 'It's yours' – but every few minutes the truth of what she has done for him and what it means hits him like a wave and he's stunned all over again.

'I have a truck,' he says happily. Like a mantra; a freaking miracle.

'You have a truck!' she shouts. Pauses, and then beams because she likes the sound of it. 'You have a truck!'

'I have a truck!'

'You have a truck!'

'You,' he says, wonder in his voice, 'bought me a truck.' He pulls his eyes off the road and looks at her for a moment. He told he loved her today and she said in so many words that she loved him back. But it's not like they didn't look at each other all the time and just know.

He looks at her now and keeps his hand steady on the wheel because the road is straight in front of them, and he tries to tell her again, bigger and better. He thinks she gets it because the infallible Spencer goes pink.

'Yeah…' she replies, giving him a shaky smile. They're both kind of shaky with it. 'Well, I am expecting a helicopter for my birthday…'

'Ha,' he snorts. 'Don't get your hopes up.'

'You mean you're not one of those billionaire carpenters?' she asks, all mock disappointment.

He knows she's kidding, but he wishes he could fast forward to the time when the truck and the job and how hard he's going to work all pay off and he's – probably not a billionaire, but well off. Successful. He wants to give her her truck, whatever it may be. Something that'll make her happy. He reaches out and takes her hand.

'I'll make you something,' he says quietly. 'Seriously, something beautiful. And maybe one day I'll learn how to build a helicopter out of wood.'

She smiles at him and threads her fingers through his. 'I believe you.'

And she does. That's what's so great about her. She can believe a thousand impossible things before breakfast. About him, at least. Including the fact that one day, he just may build her a helicopter. For now he'll settle for furniture. He'll start with a rocking chair and stop when he's furnished her an entire house.

They stare out the windows with their hands knotted together like a couple of mushy fools, which is exactly what Toby is and what Spencer is on certain awesome days, in between being fierce and unstoppable. Everything outside of the truck seems smaller, like they're looking out from a castle instead of a second hand fixer upper.

He takes a really long route from Jason's house to his – including a detour around the park and a couple of laps around the high school, because neither of them really want to arrive at the Cavanaugh house and just driving is a bit of a thrill at the moment. But when they left – Jason gave him the afternoon off because he was so stupid with glee about the truck – they agreed he should probably get changed before they go out for dinner (well, he insisted. Spencer basically begged him to just leave his sweaty shirt in the backseat). When it starts to get dark, Spencer looks at him from the corner of her eye and he can tell she's thinking Let's just get it over with so we can leave and go back to being disgustingly happy about the truck your hot girlfriend bought you.

He's paraphrasing.

They pull into his driveway and immediately, Spencer tenses. Jenna's sitting on the front porch, fiddling with the strap on her flute case. She's packing up – but she's definitely heard wheels on the concrete and brakes creaking, so there won't be any escaping her.

'I'll just go in and get changed,' says Toby, touching Spencer on the shoulder, but she raises her eyebrows.

'You're going to have to tell her about the truck you just arrived in, right? She's going to want to know whose car it is when it doesn't pull away like a cab.'

'I guess.'

'Well, I definitely want to hear what she has to say about it,' Spencer says, voice hinting at mischief (and the usual ominous something that is present whenever they talk about Jenna), and she reaches for the door handle.

'Spencer…' he says hesitantly. It's not that he doesn't think Jenna's going to be characteristically snotty about it, or that Spencer isn't totally entitled to want to hear whatever she says. He just doesn't want to give his stepsister any ammunition to make their parents see a really amazing gesture as… whatever Jenna decides it is. And if Spencer gets out of the car, ammunition will be exchanged.

He doesn't want Jenna to ruin what has been one of the best days of his life.

Maybe Spencer sense that, because her expression is serious when she says 'I promise I won't get into it with her. I just want to know what she says.'

'Yeah… okay,' he says, and pulls their still entwined hands up so he can kiss hers. 'That's fair.' He may not like it, but it is fair.

They get out of the car and he can practically see Jenna's ears prick up when two doors slam shut instead of one. She will have been expecting him to get home from work around now.

'Toby?' she asks, and as usual the weird sweetness in her voice when she says his name sends shivers down his spine. He glances at Spencer, who is staring at Jenna like she's the anti-Christ, and sighs. Despite her promise, and the fact that he knows she really meant it, it's highly unlikely they'll get to leave without some form of snark being exchanged. Jenna's too nasty… and Spencer is not one to take anything lying down.

'Yeah, it's me.'

'And…'

'Spencer.'

Jenna's nose wrinkles like she smells something terrible and he sees Spencer roll her eyes. 'Oh.'

'Yeah, she uh… she bought me a truck, so I'm taking her out to dinner to say thanks. And to celebrate my new job.'

Jenna is clearly incredulous. 'She bought you a truck?'

'Yeah, I did,' Spencer says coolly.

'And she – wait, what new job?'

Toby's surprised to hear a bit of hurt in Jenna's voice, behind all the anger and control-freak panic. She's a frighteningly clever girl but she's got a mental block when it comes to the question of why he doesn't want to share every single little detail of his life with her, or even, you know, stand in the same room with her if he can help it. He doesn't feel bad about it.

'It's a construction job in Yardley, Jenna.'

'And why do you need a job so far away?' Her tone is that of a parent of all things and the idea that she so obviously believes she knows what's best for him makes him inexplicably angry.

'Because it'll be a great way to learn, and it pays really well, and the more money I make the faster I can get away from you,' he says coldly.

The false politeness in her face disappears and she purses her lips, offended as she always is at the insinuation that anyone can actually escape from her clutches if she doesn't want them to.

'Hey, way to go,' Spencer stage whispers, giving him a grin and a thumbs up. And because Jenna has super creepy hearing powers, she hears her loud and clear and as with everything Spencer says, she overreacts and puffs up with rage.

'Careful, Spencer,' she hisses. 'Keep buying Toby presents and people might get the idea you're in this for the long haul. Everyone knows the people in your life end up with regrets.'

He narrows his eyes at Jenna, disgusted with her. She has every reason to hate Alison, but he'll never be okay with her taunting Spencer about the murder of her friend, even if Spencer is usually pretty calm about it – she has to be, considering how many enemies Alison had. He glances sideways at her and is surprised to see that she's gone completely white. She looks furious. But there's also fear in her eyes and that's what he doesn't understand – Jenna has always been afraid of Spencer, not the other way around.

'Careful, Jenna,' says Spencer, her voice shaking with barely suppressed anger. 'I know you're used to people bowing down whenever you threaten them, but I don't do that anymore. And if you give Toby a hard time about the truck or his job, you'll regret it.'

Despite the fact that Jenna can't see, there's a staring thing going on and Toby gets the impression he's… missing something.

'Toby, go get changed. I'm gonna sit in the truck,' Spencer says, struggling to bring her voice down to a more serene pitch. She looks at him, the vestiges of anger on her face, but mouths I'm sorry. He nods I know. He knows she never means to get into it with Jenna. But when Jenna wants to start a fight, a fight gets started.

He goes inside and gets changed in about twenty seconds flat, practically running back outside because he half expects to find Jenna and Spencer slinging mud at each other in his front yard. But Jenna's sitting huffily in her chair on the porch while Spencer waits for him, seeming considerably less enraged than before. He ignores his stepsister and goes straight to the truck, knowing that when he comes home later she'll have a whole speech prepared about how wrong Spencer is for him and why he shouldn't distance himself from his family and how she's the only one who understands him. She'll probably have gotten to his dad by then, who'll stiffly lecture Toby about the inadvisability of dating a girl who is 'always getting into trouble', while his stepmother nods along and weepily bemoans the fact he won't listen to Jenna, who 'could really help you, Toby, if you'd only let her show you how much she cares.'

But getting into the truck and shutting the door behind him makes him dread those inevitabilities a little less – he has a getaway car now.

'You okay?' he asks Spencer gently.

'I'm fine. I just see Jenna and get the overwhelming urge to deserve police interest for once,' she says darkly.

'I get that,' he says.

'But hey,' she says, and she slides towards him, placing a hand on his cheek and grinning. 'We have a getaway car.'

'Yeah we do!'

It really doesn't matter that for Spencer, graduation is ages away and that really, there are a lot of things keeping them here beyond their control. It doesn't matter that when it comes down to it, they're both determined that when they leave, they'll have no loose ends and nothing holding them back, and right now that day seems really far off. They have The Truck and everything else will come with time.

A/N: I meant for the last chapter to be a stand-alone, but now ideas about the truck keep popping into my head and I think it's going to be a series! Some will be related, some will not. This one, obviously, is meant to explore the immediate post 2x03 and Jenna's reaction to the truck. I hope you like it, and would appreciate any and all reviews!