Spoby: Through Her Pain

36. Family Time

Spencer's POV

"Come on Hope, can you say mumma?" I sigh as I lay Hope back down on the bed again.

She's crawling, babbling, sitting up on her own, rolling over. The baby book says she should be talking by now.

"Relax Spence, she'll talk when she's ready to." Toby reassures me with a kiss on the head.

Since Jason is mostly away on business trips, Toby comes straight over after work to see me and Hope. He makes dinner for us sometimes as well which I don't mind.

"Yeah but she's nearly 7 months Toby, she needs to be at least on the verge of speaking. Do you think there's something wrong with her? Should I take her to the doctors?"

"Calm down Spence, don't pressure her." Toby says, massaging my shoulders. "I can't handle 2 stress-acholics in the house."

I nudge him playfully in the ribs as Toby dodges. Hope starts to crawl over and hauls herself up onto my lap. She grabs a handful of my hair and tugs on it.

"Hey goofball." Toby lunges onto Hope, pinning her beneath him as she giggles and squirms.

He starts tickling her just below the neck as she squeals and tries to wriggle away from him. Toby places her on the bed as she continues to laugh at his hilarious antics.

"M-Mu-Mumma." Hope stutters out, in her fits of laughter.

"Oh my god Hope, you spoke!" I pick her up and spin her round the room as Toby applauds her.

Hope copies him, repeating her new-found word over and over again.

"Mumma. Mumma." She squeals.

"That's right Hope, you can talk! You're a big girl now!" I coo.

"Well done goofball." Toby says, collapsing next to Hope as she clambers all over him. "That means she needs to get a job now."

"No!" I squirm. "She's not old enough to get a job. She's my baby and I need to baby her more still!"

-:-

-1 month later-

"Come on Hope, walk to mumma." I encourage Hope, my arms outstretched to catch Hope in case she falls.

Hope wobbled on her feet, clutching on to the edge of the sofa for dear life, scared to let go. She whimpered at me, her bottom lip wobbling. She reached out a chubby hand for me to take, whimpering again.

"Come on baby, you have to walk to mummy." I say, shaking my head with my arms still outstretched for Hope, to let her know she had to walk to get to me.

Hope takes a shaky step forward before falling down. Toby quickly approaches her and picks her up back onto her feet, grabbing her small hands.

"Come on Hope, one foot in front of the other." Toby says, shuffling forward as Hope mimics him.

Hope laughs and pounds her feet on the ground before bouncing up and down. She pounds her feet forward, wanting to get closer to my outstretched arms. Toby lets go of Hope's hands and takes a position behind her, arms outstretched to catch her in case she falls. Hope takes another few shaky steps before she collapses into my arms, giggling at her new achievement.

"Good girl baby!" I say to her, kissing her over and over before blowing a raspberry onto her stomach for good measure.

Hope giggles and squirms before turning around and scanning the room. Her mini mocha eyes fall on Toby as she reaches her arms out to him. I carefully places her on her feet as she stumbles towards Toby. He reaches his arms out and scoops her up, spinning her around like he did when she first spoke. The phone rings distracting me from this sweet little moment. I reluctantly heave myself up and answer the phone.

"Hello?" My voice is filled with tiredness and annoyance.

"Spencer? Is that you?" My brother's husky voice asks.

"Jason!" I immediately perk up. "How's Washington?"

"Good, good." He says briskly. "But Spence, I'm not in Washington anymore."

"What? Then where are you?" I ask.

"I'm on the outskirts of Philadelphia." He replies.

"Why are you there?"

"A few weeks ago, someone snuck into my office and left a file on my desk. In the file was a list of petty crimes that a man named Pete Davidson. He'd committed several thefts, got into fights and was taken to hospital as well for a liver transplant for his failing liver from excessive drinking."

"How is this relevant to why you were in Philly?" I sigh, massaging my temple.

"Because Spencer." His voice laced slightly with annoyance. "I ran a little background information on the guy and something very interesting came up."

"What?" I ask eagerly, desperately wanting to leave this conversation.

"This guy lost his family, wife died, son ran away and daughters went missing. Sound familiar?"

"I-I-"

"It's our father Spencer. He's here and I'm going to find him."

Hey, I'm not dead! Sorry I've been so inactive but school works really piled up. But I'll try to be as active as possible.  ~Laura