Sweet Dreams--Spanna
It was only a few short hours after Mary Drake had dropped Hanna off at Spencer’s, and the couple was having the same conversation that they’d had since Hanna had insisted that someone had visited her while she was in the cabin. She’d refused to give Spencer any other details about what happened, beyond that someone who looked an awful lot like Spencer had come in and told her that she could escape. Spencer had been patiently trying to tell her that it had been a dream since then.
"Someone was there, Spencer. I swear, it wasn't just a dream," Hanna insisted for millionth time. She was curled up on Spencer's couch, her head on Spencer's lap. It was the exact same position she'd been in earlier. Only this time, it really was Spencer running her fingers through Hanna's damp hair. She was tired, but she refused to go to sleep until she knew her girlfriend believed her.
"Sweetie, you were scared, and exhausted. It was just your mind playing tricks on you," Spencer soothed. Hanna clutched at Spencer's thigh, shivering despite the blanket wrapped around her body. She felt certain she’d never be warm again.
"No, it was real!" Hanna insisted, tears springing to her eyes. She knew that her experience was unbelievable, but she’d hoped that her girlfriend at the very least would believe her. Spencer sighed and rubbed Hanna's arm, trying to calm her down. The last thing they needed was for her to start hyperventilating again, which had happened when she’d returned home and found a room full of people, and again when she’d taken a shower.
"I wasn't there, sweetie. Trust me. I wish I had, I wish I could have been there. I would have done anything to get you out of there. I never would have left you there. You don't think I would have left you there, do you?" she asked, fear seeping into her voice at the idea. Hanna shook her head quickly.
"No, of course not. I know you’d never leave me there if you had a choice. I'm not saying you were there, I'm just saying someone was there. I don't know if someone was pretending to be you or if I just wanted it to be you, but someone was there. How else would I have known about AD? None of us got any texts signed that until after I'd been taken," she pointed out, raising a good point.
Spencer considered her girlfriend's words. It all seemed so random and unlikely, but the last twenty four hours had proved to her that anything was possible. And Hanna was right; the first text from AD had been the one thanking them for handing over Hanna. Yet Hanna had returned knowing about AD. If there had been someone there, Hanna easily could have imagined it being someone she knew, someone she trusted. Or...
"You said the person was trying to get information out of you?" she asked. Hanna nodded, relieved that Spencer finally seemed to be taking her seriously.
"Yeah. They--you--wanted to know if I'd told them everything. I said I had, and that if I had known anything I would tell them," she said, cuddling closer to her girlfriend. She hated herself for even admitting it, but she would have handed over anyone (with the exception of Spencer) to end her torture.
"And that's when they told you that you could escape?" Spencer questioned, her mind churning. Hanna nodded again.
"You said that if there was a way in, there was a way out," she repeated. The words had been her mantra until she’d been back in Spencer’s arm. Spencer considered the words.
"What are you thinking?" Hanna asked curiously.
"I'm thinking that it sounds an awful lot like someone was trying to see if you were telling the truth by presenting a face you wouldn't lie to. When they realized that you really didn’t kill Charlotte, and you didn’t know who did, they decided to help you escape," she said. Hanna stiffened.
"So you think they were actually pretending to be you?" she asked fearfully. Somehow the idea of someone actively trying to trick her was worse than the idea of her mind transforming someone into the person she trusted most. Not to mention, she was embarrassed to have been fooled by someone’s cheap imitation of her girlfriend. But the person had even smelled like Spencer. She swore they were wearing the perfume Spencer had worn in high school. Which all added up to someone pretending to be the other woman.
"Yeah, I do. I didn't want to tell you this, at least not yet..." she trailed off. Hanna frowned, sitting up to look at her girlfriend. She was sick of people trying to hide things from her. When she’d asked where Alison was, it had taken them several minutes of questioning before they’d admitted Alison checked herself into a mental institution.
"Tell me what?" she asked. Spencer sighed. She’d been hoping this piece of information wouldn’t come up. Maybe it was wrong to want to hide it from Hanna, but it hadn’t been her cross to bear. It had been theirs.
"AD led us to a doll that appeared to be you. It had a really realistic mask," she explained, leaving out as many details as possible. Hanna nodded, feeling better that she wasn’t the only one who had been tricked into believing a mask.
"I told you I wasn't dreaming," she said triumphantly. Spencer laughed and kissed Hanna's nose. It was the first time all night Hanna had sounded like herself.
"I believe you, babe. I never doubted you,” she said. Hanna rolled her eyes, then yawned.
“Do you want to go to bed?" she asked. Hanna nodded and followed Spencer to the bedroom. Once in bed, she laid her head on Spencer's chest, relishing in the feeling of Spencer's arm around her. She could feel her girlfriend’s heart beating underneath her cheek, and it made her feel safe.
"Sweet dreams," Spencer said softly. Hanna nuzzled Spencer's neck.
"You too, Spence."