"Take me on a date." Lauren looked to the woman beside her with pleading eyes. "Please."
This stunned everyone in the waiting room, their eyes littered with curiosity on how Camila would combat this new challenge with Lauren.
Because everyone knew Lauren couldn't leave the hospital, not when her little girl currently had a team of doctors rooting through her head trying to resect a tumor that had doubled in size since it's first discovery. Lauren couldn't leave because if she did and something happened, everyone knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself.
"Babe, we're not exactly out to the public yet and the very last thing you want is to be bombarded by the media." Camila took her love's hand and gave it a soft squeeze. "You need to be here."
"And do what?" The green-eyed woman looked around the room and met the gazes of Ashley, her mother, Sinu...and none of them held answers in them. "They said the surgery would take hours and we're sitting here waiting for them to update us but what are they gonna tell us? That she's still in there? We know that. I want to get out of here, I don't want to sit here and simmer in my nerves. Take me on a date, Camila. Take me somewhere where I'm not picturing my baby bleeding out on a surgical table."
The brunette looked to Lucy, because if anyone was going to give her a right answer in this situation, it would be the older girl. She'd always just known what to do when Lauren wasn't okay. And Camila never really needed to know because Lauren was always the one taking care of her.
Lucy looked to her best friend and clenched her jaw for a moment, watching the desperation swimming in those emerald orbs, praying for a miracle where there was none. So Lucy nodded to Camila, because if neither of them could offer a miracle, the very least Camila could offer was solace.
"Okay," The brown-eyed woman stood from her seat and offered her hand to the woman beside her. "But we're gonna try to limit exposure, okay? It's gonna be...just us."
And though it wasn't exactly what Lauren had asked for, she nodded. She couldn't just think of herself in that moment, she needed to think about how her exposing her relationship with Camila would impact her family. How Ashley would be exposed in the process along with Natalia.
The pair left the waiting room, each with different concerns spotlighted in their minds. Lauren clung to Camila's hand as if it were her very lifeline and Camila let her because she couldn't think of a single other way of offering her love peace.
The clouds outside seemed to sense the mood of the day and Camila found herself hatching the perfect plan for Lauren. She knew exactly what she could give the woman she loved to offer her even a sliver of relief for her concerns.
She opened the door for Lauren before making sure to shoot through a message to her PR team about her possibly being spotted with the green-eyed woman. She knew she'd be swarmed by their responses so she silenced her phone and left that headache for later, slipping into the driver's seat and peeling out of the parking lot with a silent Lauren in the passenger.
"You know," She spoke up after a few minutes of silence. "A date is usually about getting to know your partner a little better."
"You know me." Lauren looked to the brunette, her tone soft...timid.
"I know teenage Lauren," Camila reminded her girlfriend. "This Lauren...I'm getting to know her daily." She brought their locked hands to her lips and kissed the older woman's knuckles. "I love everything I learn."
"Are you upset that she's all dark and gloomy lately?"
"Are you upset that I'm all dark and gloomy lately?" The singer arched a brow. "Because I have too, you know? I haven't been bright and happy either. I hate everything about this too."
