I've been working on this for a few days now, and I was going to wait until I'd finished before I published it. BUT I'm getting easily distracted at the moment, so I'm hoping if I see people are liking the story, I might find some more motivation and be able to finish it.

So. About the story. It's set towards the end of season three. Spencer's lost her mind (or has she?) and is in Radley. Toby is dead and gone (or is he?). Ezra and Aria broke up (or did they? Yes, they did) after they found out about Malcolm, and Aria has subsequently started dating Jason. Hanna and Caleb are on a break, and he's in California visiting his mother. Emily is dating Paige, but there will be eventual Hannily.

Annd, here we go...

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You were never the weakest link.

Emily drums her fingers on the steering wheel and listens to Aria's words play over and over again in her head. When they'd tried to catch –A, back before they'd known about Mona and Toby, they'd made a plan to make –A think Emily was the weakest link, that she was turning against her friends in order to save herself. It had worked because everybody knew Emily was the weak one, although nobody had the heart to tell her that to her face. And now after all she'd been through, with Maya and Nate and everything else, of course she was still weak.

But Aria had told her that she wasn't the weakest link. She never had been. It had been Spencer the whole time. Spencer who had been ready to snap, who just needed the right event to catalyse her breakdown; and that event had come in the form of her finding Toby's body in the woods. It wasn't fair of Aria to say that about Spencer. Who wouldn't break down after finding their lover's dead body?

She pulls into the parking lot, turns off the engine, and sits for a few minutes. She glances at herself in the mirror and hopes that she doesn't look as bad as she thinks she does, but applies some more mascara and touches up her lipstick just in case. Finally she works up the courage to get out of the car.

As she hurries across the parking lot she pulls the hood of her jacket over her head. It's quite chilly today, and she's starting to wish she'd brought some gloves. Just as she reaches the door it opens from the inside and somebody steps out. She almost crashes into them, but dodges at the last minute, mumbles an apology, and ducks through the door without looking at them.

Once inside she takes off her jacket, slings it over her arm, and walks over to the desk to sign in. As she's filling out the form a familiar voice catches her attention. The pen slides from her grip as that voice is followed by another familiar one. She shoots a glance at the receptionist, who's talking to a doctor on the other side of the room, and then she walks up to the door and peers through the window.

Spencer is sitting in a chair near the piano, looking worse than when Emily last saw her; she looks tired, defeated, nothing like the Spencer she knows and loves. Sitting across from her is a girl with long dark hair and an unmistakeable voice.

"Spencer -" she says pleadingly, followed by something so soft that Emily can't hear it.

"I said no, Mona," Spencer snaps, standing up. "That's the end of it. Go find someone else to torture."

Mona leans back in her chair, crossing her legs and clasping her hands. She gives Spencer a long look, and then she says, "Maybe I will."

Feeling her blood run cold, Emily hurries back to the desk and finishes signing in. The receptionist gives her a name tag, and she's just clipping that to her shirt when Mona walks through the doors. Emily freezes, but there's nothing she can do to keep from being seen.

"Emily!" Mona says brightly. "I didn't know you were coming. Are you here to see Spencer?"

"Yes," Emily says, making sure the unspoken message is clear: Hurt her, and I hurt you.

"You're a good friend, Emily." Mona tilts her head like a quizzical puppy, and Emily knows she's coming up with some sort of scheme or plot. "I bet you'd do anything for your friends, wouldn't you?"

"What do you want, Mona?"

"What I want doesn't matter." Mona hands her visitor's pass over to the receptionist, giving her a charming smile. She turns back to Emily, eyes glittering with malice. "But I know what you want."

"Yeah? And what's that?"

"You want to keep your friends safe."

Emily steps up to her. "Are you threatening my friends?"

"Oh, no, Emily," Mona says sweetly, not even flinching. "I'm not threatening anyone. I'm just trying to help."

"Why do you think they need help?" Emily asks.

Mona just smiles at her, farewells the receptionist, and heads for the door. Emily looks from the receptionist to the room where Spencer is and finally to the front door. Then she tosses her ID pass onto the counter and dashes after Mona. She catches up to her at the bottom of the steps, and spins her around to face her.

"Mona, what's going on?" Emily lets her nails dig into Mona's arm, just enough to let her know that this isn't a game. "Are my friends in trouble? Do you know something?"

Mona carefully reaches up and breaks Emily's grip. She lets her eyes travel up and down Emily, as if sizing her up. Then she says quietly, "Let's make a deal."

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Please review and let me know if you're enjoying it! Reviews make me all happy and smiley.