The courthouse clears out leaving Lauren , her mother and Camila there.
Lauren steps down from the stand still in shock that she just vomited in front of so many people.
A janitor comes up shortly after to begin cleaning everything up.
Lauren latches onto Camila to walk out of the courthouse.
They wait until they're into the car to say anything.
"What happened out there?" Camila asks.
Lauren sits up, "I don't know..." She says.
"Do you feel like you're gonna do it again?" Clara asks in concern.
"Maybe." Lauren says.
"And can you all stop talking, my head is really pounding." Lauren says in a suddenly rude and harsh tone.
Clara was going to say something else but just lets it go.
----
"Why are you back so soon?" Mike asks as Lauren is the first one to step through the door.
Lauren walks right past him as if he didn't say anything.
"What happened?" Mike asks Clara who is followed by Camila.
Clara explains it to Mike.
"Lauren?" Camila says as she lightly knocks on Lauren's bedroom door.
Camila gave up instantly.
She heads back into the living room where Mike and Clara are.
"Well I think now is a perfect time for me to try to reconcile with my parents." Camila tells Mike and Clara.
"That's a good idea." Clara says.
Camila walks out the door and gets into her car , it feels like ages since she's driven.
----
She parks her car in the driveway and gets out, she steps up to the door and puts her key in.
"Mom?" Camila calls out hesitantly as she steps further into her house.
"Mija." Sinu says as she comes from around the corner.
Camila embraces her instantly.
"I've missed you." Sinu starts with.
"I did too." Camila says.
The first few moments are filled with awkwardness.
"How was that dinner with the Jauregui's the other nigh?" Camila asks trying to break the ice.
"Great, we talked about you ... And Lauren a lot." Sinu says.
"Good or bad talk?" Camila asks.
"Good." Sinu says.
Sinu gestures her hands for Camila to sit with her on the couch.
"Look that night when you told me, it was all so much to take in." Sinu begins with.
"But Clara explained everything about how you've been such a nice addition to their household and most importantly she told me how happy you seem when you're around Lauren." Sinu says.
Camila listens.
"I wanna fully apologize for slapping you and everything else I did, your father will talk to you at some point when her gets home or something as well but mija I'm truly sorry." Sinu says with tears forming in her eyes.
Camila wipes her eye stopping herself from letting loose and hugs her mother.
------
Camila spent the rest of the day with her family, and opted to return to the Jauregui's house that evening.
"I've been worried about her all day." Camila says referring to Lauren as soon as Clara opens the door to let her in.
"She's been looking for you." Clara says.
"How did it go with your family?" Clara asks.
"We're back on good terms." Camila says happily.
"That's excellent." Clara says.
"It's all because of you, thank you so much." Camila says as she hugs Clara.
"No problem, you're like a daughter to me." Clara says.
Camila heads to Lauren's room.
She knocks on the door before entering.
"Come in." Lauren says.
Camila enters to see Lauren laying on her bed with Rey lying on her chest.
"Aww you two look so cute." Camila says.
Lauren smiles.
"You feeling better?" Camila asks, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.
"Yeah, it was just a quick stomach bug." Lauren says.
"Glad you're feeling better." Camila says.
"Me too." Lauren says.
"So back to last night you didn't hear her screaming once, it kinda worried me." Camila says.
"I guess I was really into my dream." Lauren says.
"Well no this was the second night in a row that this has happened, all of the other times we both usually get up but only one of us deal with her." Camila explains.
"Is she onto me?" Lauren thinks to herself.
"Is everything okay in your life that doesn't involve me?" Camila asks.
"What do you mean?" Lauren asks.
"Are you having problems or something with Lucy and the rest?" Camila asks.
"No not at all." Lauren simply states.
--------
Clara turns into the parking lot to go to the courthouse. It felt like dejavu just with different outfits on.
They do the same procedure as the day before.
"All rise! Court is now in session." The judge says.
They continue from where they were yesterday.
It was Camila's turn to take the stand, the judge asked a few basic questions about what type of person Lauren is.
After 4 long hours of getting everyone's account , the jury returns and gives the verdict.
"In the state of Florida we cannot terminate the parental rights of the rapist." Lauren's heart stops at those words, but the judge wasn't finish yet.
"But in the state of California and Florida rape is a crime, Noah Bernardout will be scent ended to 7 years of jail time and on behalf of the state of California and Florida, Lauren Jauregui will be awarded with $800,000 in settlement and child support." The judge finished reading off.
Lauren suddenly feels relieved.
"I now ask for Mr. Bernardout and Ms. Jauregui to step forward and sign the following forms." The judge says.
Lauren walks up with pride and signs the papers.
"Court is now adjourned ." The judge announces.
"Way to go!" Camila says hi-fiving Lauren.
"It sucks that the rights aren't terminated but at least he'll be gone for 7 years." Lauren says.
"And you get money." Camila adds.
"And I'm glad about that." Lauren says.
"See , you doubted me before but because of this you got that rapist off the streets." Clara says.
"I guess it's true , parents always know what's best." Lauren says as they leave the courthouse.
---
When they get home , they change out of their formal clothes and switch into something more comfortable.
Camila and Lauren go into Rey's nursery .
Lauren reaches into the crib and picks her up, "Did you miss me?" Lauren asks in a baby voice causing Rey to giggle.
"Here let's try something." Camila suggests.
Camila takes Rey from Lauren and places her on the carpet on her stomach.
"I wanna see if she's gonna try to roll over." Camila says excitedly.
Once again Lauren felt like she's not qualified to be a mother, every time Camila took Rey she was just so natural with her.
The two begin to coo and chant to hopefully encourage Rey to roll over.
Lauren pulls out a stuffed lion from the toy bin and places it near her to see if it will make her want to roll over.
"So how have you been?" Lauren asks Camila.
"I just feel like you've been so busy helping me out that we haven't talked like this in a long time." Lauren says.
"I'm great now , especially since my mom and I are okay now." Camila says.
"Cause quite frankly it had been bothering me all these months that we weren't talking so I'm pretty happy now." Camila says.
"That's good." Lauren says.
"Oh shit I never bathed her this morning, well the day is halfway through but she still needs to be cleaned." Lauren suddenly remembers.
"I'll run the water." Camila says as she gets up to go to the kitchen to make the bath.
Lauren follows behind with Rey in hand.
"There you go." Lauren says as she places her into the water.
Lauren starts off washing her like normal until Camila decides to squirt her with the sprayer.
"Hey what gives?" Lauren says while laughing.
"Oh I'm just having a little fun." Camila says as she sprays Lauren again.
Lauren splashes some of the water from the sink at Camila. The little water fight causes Rey to laugh at them, so they continue.
"Okay okay I surrender." Camila says to close the water fight.
"Yeah and we'll have to clean all this water up ." Lauren says.
Lauren takes Rey out of the sink and dries her off and puts clothes on her .
Meanwhile Camila is cleaning up the water they had left on the floor and counters.
Lauren's phone buzzes on the floor while she's getting Rey dressed.
It's a text message she reads it, it's from Janelle telling her that they have to get to LA for some rehearsals ahead of some upcoming appearances.
Lauren throws her head back and let's out a groan.
"Babe, it looks like we're back to work tomorrow." Lauren says as she shows the message to Camila.
Camila groans as well, "Well we did have almost 5 months off, so I guess we're just spoiled now." Camila says.
"Yeah I guess it was enough." Lauren says.
-----
"Come on my mom should be here soon." Camila says to Lauren who is having a hard time letting go of Rey.
"I'm coming, it's so hard to say goodbye." Lauren says wiping a tear from her eye .
Camila comes into the room.
"She's not dying , she will be here when you return." Camila says.
"Yeah but you know how shitty our schedules are , we literally never know anything." Lauren says.
Camila can't deny that.
Lauren squeezes Rey tightly one last time.
"Okay I'm ready." Lauren says as the two head out the door to be picked up to go to the airport by Camila's mother.
"Hello Lauren, I haven't seen you since that dinner." Sinu says.
Lauren smiles.
"Well congratulations on the baby." Sinu adds.
"Thanks ." Lauren says.
The drive to the airport is relatively fast, no traffic or anything.
Once they get there Sinu gets out the car and hugs both of them and tells them to have a safe trip.
----
They're greeted by Janelle at LAX.
But before getting out of the airport, they stop for a few fans.
Each fan had nothing but good things to say to Camila and Lauren. Some said how they're rooting for them to stay together forever, others gushing about how cute Rey is and so on.
"Okay that's all you have time for, you have to get to rehearsals." Janelle says.
They follow her and get into the SUV.
Janelle starts small talk with Lauren about Rey considering that she hadn't had the chance to see her yet.
------
When they arrive at the rehearsal studio, they're just in time for the stretches.
"Camren!" Dinah says excitedly as she gets up to hug both of them.
The others follow.
"It's been like 4 months since we've last seen each other ." Ally states.
"I think that is the longest we've ever gone without seeing each other." Camila adds.
"Okay let's get back to stretching." Sean announces.
The girls do as he says, and proceed to get on the floor.
After finishing their stretches, the real stuff begins.
Sean runs through a few moves with them for an hour and a half, then they're ready to do it with the track.
"Lauren, fix your technique it's sounding too airy." Sean calls out.
Lauren tries to fix her breathing, but has no luck.
The second time they run the song , Sean calls her out once again.
"Hey man, cut her some slack she still has that whole baby brain thing going on." Camila tries telling Sean.
"Fine all of you take 10." Sean says, letting them have a break.
Lauren goes outside the studio claiming that she wanted to call her mother to see how Rey is doing.
Once she gets outside, she goes to the far end of the building , leans against the wall and pulls out a box of cigarettes that she had been hiding in the waistband of her pants.
She lights a cigarette and puts it to her mouth.
A few minutes later Normani comes from around the corner, and sees Lauren in the act.
"Lauren!?" Normani says in an alarmed tone as she sees her fellow bandmate smoking.
"Mani?!" Lauren says sounding just as alarmed .
The two stare at each other for a moment, then Lauren realizes that the cigarette is still in her hand all this while.
She quickly discards it to the ground and steps on it.
"We're you just doing what I think I saw you doing?" Normani questions.
"What was I doing?" Lauren asks.
"You looked like a chimney to me." Normani says.
"Your eyes must be deceiving you." Lauren says.
Normani steps closer.
"Move your foot." Normani says.
"What if I don't want to?" Lauren says.
Normani pushes Lauren in an un-aggressive manner.
"That's a cigarette." Normani says.
"...it was there before..." Lauren says clearly lying.
"Look it's not my place to tell you what's right and wrong, but how long have you been doing this?" Normani asks.
"I swear this was the first and only time." Lauren says clearly lying.
Normani knows she's lying too but just drops it.
"Okay we have to get back in there, I don't feel like making an issue out of this right now." Normani says.
"It's not an issue anyways." Lauren says.
"Okay." Normani says.
"Well I was out here from the start because I'm supposed to be getting the props out of the van, come help me." Normani tells Lauren.
------
Suddenly Lauren's addictions were getting worse, if she didn't find a way to smoke something at least once an hour she would go crazy.
At this point the girls were all starting to notice a change in her behavior , similar to how she was when she realized she was pregnant.
But they all just assumed it was her missing Rey.
A/N
So this chapter closed a lot of gaps, the next chapter will be filled with drama (hopefully) 😈
How will Camila find out about Lauren's addictions?
How will the girls react?
What will happen with Lauren?
The addiction won't be permanent , I just added it in so the title of the story becomes relevant again