when an old friend of penelope garcia gets in trouble with her ex and she ends up at the door of the fbi with her daughter and the two women end up reconnecting in all the chaos
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HER BLOOD STAINED THE WHITE GAUGE, her wound perfectly wrapped as she felt pain rip through her body as the doctor, Savannah, handed her two pain pills and a glass of water. "Think I'll make it, Doc?" She lifted up her right thigh, still feeling as the bullet ripped through it only hours ago.
"Well, you can't die now; you have two visitors." Savannah reached for the door as Layla shifted in her hospital bed, a smile breaking her frown as she made eye contact with Penelope Garcia for the first time in years and in her arm is a sleeping Lainey. Layla's heart grew in her chest, she felt lucky to have a doctor nearby because the sight of the two made her heart stop.
"My baby." She held her arms open, and Penelope grew close as Savannah left the room. "She's so sweet." The blonde placed the sleeping child in her mother's arms, Lainey barely moved as Layla covered her with the blanket. Her sweet daughter, her angel, her world. She didn't see the reason behind staying alive until she had her daughter, Lainey has been her world since she gave birth to the small child almost five years ago, sweat was dripping down her face as the midwife placed the infant on her chest for the first time.
"She's perfect, missing front teeth and all." Layla swept the girl's dark hair out of her face as Penelope sat down beside her, the situation was far from prefect but at least she got to see her friend again. She hadn't even known about Lainey until Layla showed up to the BAU with the girl on her hip as she bled out from her thigh.
"How didn't I know about this? Hate to sound weird but I've been keeping up with you and I didn't know you had a child, and I can find out anything about anyone." Penelope hadn't even realized that she was holding her old friend's hand until Layla started tracing small circles on the back of her hand.
"It was a very secretive birth; I gave birth in a bathtub. It was the most painful thing I've ever felt, somehow worse than getting shot." They didn't give her anything to help with the pain, it almost broke her. It took fifteen hours of pushing and screaming and a lot of sweat and tears, but it was all worth it. Every day she is reminded of that fact.
"But I love my sweet girl." She looked up at the blonde beside her, her high school best friend, "My Lainey Grace." She saw a smile creep its way onto Penelope's face. "Grace?" Layla nodded, squeezing the girl's hand in her own. "After My Penelope Grace, I'm sorry I never gave you a chance to be Aunt Penny." Her voice cracked and splintered; she couldn't tear her eyes away from Penelope's face. She didn't know it would feel so good to see her best friend after all these years.
"I'm here now, Lay, and I just wanna know, what happened?"
"Why did we stop talking or why I called you after getting shot?" Penelope nodded and moved closer to hold Layla's hand, for a moment they were in high school again. Having sleepovers, painting each other's nails, watching movies all night and falling asleep in each other's arms. Layla had to admit, her days with Penelope were the best ones out of her entire childhood.
"Both, I need to know why this is the first time I see you in ten years and you're in a hospital bed?" Penelope's voice broke, she had always been a sensitive soul which was why Layla never wanted to involve her in the shitshow that was her life. "Things just got really bad with Valentine, you were right. I was so wrong to trust him." Penelope warned her against him, but they were high school sweethearts and years spent watching Boy Meets World made her think that actually meant something.
"I didn't want to be right, I just wanted you to be safe." Penelope looked from Layla to Lainey, wondering what the two must have endured with Valentine. She thinks back on the last time she saw Layla, the day of graduation, she was younger back then, but still just as beautiful, black hair half hidden under a graduation cap as she helped Penelope do her, back when Penelope was a strawberry blonde, before she settled with blonde.
The two girls were sitting in a bathroom stall together, Layla told her that she worried they would outgrow one another, Penelope was too stubborn to even think that, but Layla seemed pretty damn sure. It hurt Penelope to think that her friend would even consider something like that but then Layla made her pinky swear that they would never forget each other. But she said that a pinky swears, the highest form of a promise when you're eighteen, wasn't enough so they sealed the promise with a kiss and that was Penelope knew that she liked girls.
She knew Layla must not have felt the same way, she had a boyfriend after all, one she seemed to love so that night when Layla dragged her to a grad party, she got so drunk that she nearly forgot her name. Later when they were walking home, drunk in the streets, she wanted to confess her feelings, but Layla told her she was going to leave in a week. That she and Valentine got into his dream school, and she wanted to go wherever he went, and Penelope knew it was for the better to swallow her feelings whole. Maybe it was for the better anyway because she wouldn't have been able to handle a rejection on that night, she didn't know it then when she was drunk in the middle of the street, but another heartache would be waiting for her at home.
"Can we talk about it tomorrow; I just need to sleep for a while." Penelope nodded and swallowed her tears, she turned to head for the door when Layla called her back. She saw her friend in tears as she moved closer to the bed, "Can you stay until I fall asleep?" She shook her head and pulled a chair next to Layla's bed, "I'll be here when you wake up." Penelope felt Layla grab her hand, squeezing it tightly as the woman mumbled a soft thank you. After a while she fell asleep and when she woke up, Penelope kept her promise, she stayed.
