Everyone had so many question for Lauren but she kept all her answers very simple and vague. She wanted to stop talking about it, she didn't even want to think about it anymore.
"Dinah are you sure Stefan isn't my kid?" Lauren joked. Stefan had dark blue-green eyes which was a little rare since both his parents had brown eyes. He was 7 months old now and this was the first time Lauren was meeting him, and as soon as she noticed the beautiful green eyes she saw this as a way to joke around and change the subject.
"I'm 100% sure, look at him. He's practically my twin!" Dinah said gesturing to the small boys face. It was true he definitely looked like Dinah.
"I don't know," Lauren said with a fake thinking face. "Mani, when was the last time we hooked up?" She asked changing into a very serious face.
"What?!" Dinah and Camila both yell out. Which causes Lauren and Normani to laugh.
"She's joking guys relax." Normani assures them.
"Yeah, I would never hook up with mani, she's like a sister to me. That would be so many levels of wrong." Laure admits once she's controlled her laughter.
Ally and Will arrive shortly after that very stupid joke and catch up with Lauren. Ally brought lunch for everyone which was a great thing because they were all starving and ally can get down in a kitchen.
"So the wedding is supposed to be in a week right? Are you guys going to postpone it until your all better?" Ally asked as they all late lunch. That was a good question neither Lauren or Camila had even thought about the wedding, they were focused on more important things.
"Uhh I'm not sure, camz and I haven't really talked about it." Lauren says looking over a Camila who just shrugs not knowing either. "I wouldn't mind if we got married next Saturday, but if you want to postpone until I'm better I would be okay with that also." She said to Camila.
"Everything is already ready, it would make sense to do it now. I'm okay with it if you are." Camila said back.
"Okay then its settled, in a weeks time you will be my wife." She says holding Camila's had and bringing it up to her lips, to plant a soft kiss on it.
"Speaking of the wedding, were are the momzilla's at?" Dinah asked.
"My mom is at home taking care of some things and waiting for sofi to get out of school, before they come over. And Clara and mike went to pick up the boys from pre-school." Camila answered.
"OH SHIT!!" Dinah yelled out. Everyone looked at her with confused faces. "We need to go pick up Melanie!" She said facing Normani and freaking out.
"Baby, relax mike and Clara offered to pick her up." Normani put her hands on Dinah's shoulders to keep her from bolting out the door.
Lauren couldn't stop laughing, because of course Dinah would forget about her kid. She had to abruptly stop because her abdomen began to ache. The pain was doubled because not only did she have a few broken ribs on her left side of her body but also the pain from the where they cut her open to repair her spleen was on her upper left side.
--
Eventually everyone moved back over to the living room and Lauren laid down on the left side of the sectional couch and Camila right by her side. She really wasn't letting Lauren out of her side, but who could blame her she was practically made to believe she had lost her forever and having her back was a little surreal, she constantly needed some sort of physical confirmation that Lauren was actually there with her.
The sound of the front door opening and of three small voices taking about how much they disliked the superman vs batman movie filled the room. The boys didn't seem to notice that their house was full of people, well they did notice but it was something they had gotten used to in the last couple of days because everyone would come and keep Camila company and try and help her feel better. The boys decided to match today, both in light green polo shirts, black flat shorts and some black sneakers. Caspian had a bit of a tan due to playing baseball during the summer. Meanwhile Cameron was as pale as Lauren.
Both walked straight into their room to put their backpacks, and shoes away. Camila was definitely those types of moms that yells at you if you leave your stuff laying around so they learned pretty quickly that to avoid a lecture all they had to do was put their things away. Meanwhile Melanie ran straight to her moms, she began telling them how her day was and Stefan kept trying to get ahold of her stuffed brown dog. Normani dressed Melanie like you would expect, she looked like a baby model, while all the other preschoolers looked basic af. Today she was in a beige long sleeve dress, the top of her hair was in a bun while the rest of her long curly locks cascaded down her shoulders.
The boys came back into the living room to get in a couple game sessions on the Xbox. When they saw them, both of them. Camila had been gone a couple of days and well Lauren had been gone even longer than that so they immediately bolted to them and Lauren braced herself for impact.
"MAMA! Mommy!" Both boys yelled out. Caspian latching on to Camila and and Cameron of course to Lauren. Cameron was a very sentimental and emotional little boy, so he was in tears. Caspian was a little more reserved and didn't get as emotional as his brother but once he noticed the cast on Lauren's leg, the sling on her arm, the bruises on her face, well he was in tears as well. Nobody wants to see the people they love, and care for hurt not even these little boys.
"Mama are you okay?" Caspian asked. And that caused Cameron to finally take notice of Lauren's state which caused him to cry hysterically. See this is why it would have been a bad idea to see them at the airport. Even Camila was silently crying as she watched both of her boys cry into Lauren's shoulder.
"Chickens, don't cry." She said in pain because the boys were pressing onto her injured arm. "I'm okay, I just got in a little accident but I'm okay." She tried comforting them. Camila must have noticed the physical pain she was in because she spoke up.
"Boys, mama is a little hurt so you have to be gentle. Why don't we take turns giving her hugs?" She suggested, getting both boys to look back at her.
"I go first!" Caspian yelled.
"No! I go first!" Cameron pouted. They kept this up for a few more seconds before Lauren had enough.
"How about you sit here cas," she said gesturing to the left side of her lap. "And you cam can sit here," she said gesturing to the spot on the couch right next to her. Once they both took their assigned seats she began to try and figure out a way to explain the situation to them.
"Why are you hurt mama?" Cameron was the first to ask.
"Well, do you guys remember how I told you sometimes we ride these super big airplanes?" She began, and they both nodded. "And you guys remember how I told you that sometimes we jump off of them, with parachutes and stuff?" Again receiving nods. "Well I had to jump off the airplane and when I landed I hurt myself a little, but Im okay."
"But you jumped before why did you get hurt now?" Cameron wondered.
"It was an emergency, the other times I jumped it was only practice so it was safe but this last time it wasn't so safe." She explained it to them.
"I don't want you to jump again." Caspian said burring his face in Lauren's neck.
"I promise you I won't jump again buddy." She rubbed his back gently. "Remember what I said when I left last time?" She asked both boys. Cameron looked up at her confused and Caspian shook his head. "I said once I come home I'm never leaving again. So I don't have to go away, I don't have to jump off planes or do any of that stuff anymore. Now all I have to do is hang out with you guys all day, is that okay?"
"All day?! But mama we have school now, we can't hang out all day." Cameron concluded.
"I can stay home from school to hang out with you mama." Caspian added with a wide grin.
"Nice try buddy, but you still have to go to school. Mama will be here when you get home." Camila laughed.
--
"Dinah what are you up to tomorrow morning?" Lauren asked Dinah.
"It's Saturday so nothing right babe?" She looked over at Normani for confirmation.
"Do you mind taking me somewhere?" She asked getting a confused look from Camila.
"Sure no problem I'll pick you up around 10?" Dinah asked.
"Sounds good, see you then." She confirmed.
Everyone had now left. Camila had taken the boys a bath and gotten them into bed before she helped Lauren get into bed. You could see how tired she was, I mean who wouldn't be right? After all she'd been through. Camila was in the shower while Lauren laid in bed looking up at the ceiling. She wasn't thinking of anything, she kind of just spaced out. She had been like that for a while because Camila calling her name brought her back.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah, I'm just really tired." Lauren answered.
"Okay," she said getting into her side of the bed. "So where exactly is Dinah taking you tomorrow?" She asked.
"It's a surprise." She said sleepily while Camila cuddled carefully into her side.
"Okay, goodnight Laur." She said kissing her fiancés cheek.
"Goodnight baby." As she kissed the top of Camila's head.
--
"Okay so where are we headed?" Dinah asked as she sat down in the driver side of her car.
"We are going to a farm." She answered vaguely.
"Woah, hold up. We can't fit cows and pigs and other shits in my car, and I just had the leather upgraded." Dinah protested.
"Dinah don't worry your car is spacious enough." She joked. "I'm just joking, it's only two and they are little and clean I promise." She assured the girl to get her to start the car. Looking around the car she noticed how spacious it actually was. Dinah had a all black 2016 BMW X5.
"Hey Dinah, why do you have such a huge car if its only the four of you?" She asked, it didn't make sense to her specially because before Dinah bought this car she had a small two door Sedan, and Normani had the family car but now she had one too which made her question if Camila would make her trade in her sports car for a family car.
"Well Ralph if you must know I plan on having more children and I plan on my children playing sports which means I need the space. For equipment, car pools and other stuff." She explained Surprising Lauren.
"Who are you?" Lauren joked. "How many kids do you plan on having? jeez." She laughed.
"Honestly I would want at least 3 or 4 more but mani says she'll only give me 2 or 3 at the most." She said shaking her head.
"Why do you want 6 kids Dinah?!" Lauren asked shocked.
"I grew up with a big family and I loved it, I want my kids to experience it too. Don't you want to have more kids?" She explained herself.
"I don't know I mean I would love to have more kids but, camz and I have never talked about it. Also I feel like the boys would resent any kids we have because I'd obviously be more involved than I was with them. And right now I just want to spend my time making it up to them." She admitted, she didn't want as big as a family as Dinah did but she definitely wanted at least 1 or 2 more kids.
"Well, you can't not have more kids because you feel like the twins won't be okay with it. I think you just need to talk to them and to Camila about it. I feel like the boys will understand, it's not like you purposely missed their upbringing because you wanted to. They know you love them and would have done anything to be there for all the things you missed." Dinah advised and encouraged her.
"Thanks DJ." She said patting Dinah on her shoulder.
It didn't take long after that for them to arrive at the farm. They weren't there to pick up any actual farm animals, the owners had two specific animals that Lauren wanted, she couldn't get them 8 months ago but now that they were born and old enough to be without their moms they definitely were capable enough to go home with Lauren this time.
"You do realize that Camila is going to kill you right?" Dinah said as she loaded the crates into the back of her car.
"Yeah I figured she might be a little upset at first but she'll end up loving them." She said waiting for Dinah to help her get into the car.
--
"Honey I'm home!" Lauren yelled out into the apartment. Instead of Camila coming out to greet her it was her two boys. "Hey chickens, were is mommy at?" She asked them.
"In the room, folding laundry." Cameron answered.
"Can you guys go call her," she said as she herd Dinah approaching the door. They both nodded and ran down the hallway and disappeared into the bedroom.
"Okay well I'll just leave these here" she said setting both crates by the door. "And have Camila call me after she kills you. I have to get going the kids have a game today so I'll see you guys on the field?" She asked.
"Yeah definitely and thank you for taking me I appreciate it." She said as she hugged Dinah goodbye.
She slowly bent down and opened the doors to both crates but the small animals didn't step out of them just yet, they were sniffing their surroundings and getting used to their new home.
"Hey babe," she greeted Camila.
"Hi, Where did you go?" She asked making her way to Lauren.
"Before you come any closer, don't be mad. Okay?" She pleaded to which Camila just slowly nodded.
"PUPPIES!!" Both boys yelled out!!
"Laur, what is this?" Camila asked looking down at the puppies in the crates.
"These are our new puppies." She said putting on her innocent face. Lauren had bought a golden retriever puppy and a snow white Samoyed puppy.
"Yay! I've always wanted a puppy and now we get to have two of them!!" Caspian yelled out in cheer.
"Lauren why do we need two puppies?" She asked a little annoyed that she didn't discuss this with her first.
"Well babe when we move into the house we'll need guard dogs. I didn't want huge scary looking dogs but at the same time I didn't want them to look weak enough that people would still trespass so I went with these, they'll be huge in due time. Aren't they cute?" She said pointing at the dogs that were now out and being petted by the boys. But Camila was not having it. "Look babe, I'm sorry I should have talked to you about it first, but I wanted to surprise you and the boys." She apologized, otherwise she might find herself sleeping in the spare bedroom.
"It's fine, next please talk to me about adding family members." She caved into Lauren's apologetic pout.
"So what are their names mama?" Cameron asked.
"They don't have names yet bub, how about we name them?" She asked, getting ecstatic nods from both of them. "Okay so what are we thinking? Their both boy puppies so let's give them some tough manly names." She explained.
"What about lucky and buddy?"
"No those are very generic names." Lauren answered.
"Bandit and spike!" Cameron yelled out.
"Rufus and tank!" Caspian yelled out.
"Max and Sammy." Camila suggested.
After going through many, many name options they settled on Dax for the golden retriever and Koda for the Samoyed. They spent an hour or so playing with the puppies before they had to go and get ready for Caspian's baseball game. Before they left they made sure they left the puppies in the bathroom so they could avoid things getting torn up and poop on the carpet.
--
The game was like others, nothing super interesting happened. It was obviously a little better since the kids were older and more experienced in the game but it was still pretty boring for someone not fully invested in baseball like Camila.
Dinah yelled her face off at the umpires and even at the coach once or twice. Lauren did her best to keep calm just because she didn't want to rip open her stitches. If not she would of been just as loud as Dinah.
After the game Lauren invited everyone to the bar for drinks. She hadn't seen it and was dying to see it. What better way to celebrate a win than with drinks, well she couldn't drink because of the meds she was taking but everyone else could so why not right?
Clara and mike took home all the kids while everyone else met up at the bar.
Walking in the bar it was empty considering it was pretty early in the day and they didn't open until 5. The staff was cleaning up and preparing for when they opened later. Lauren left it up to the boys and Camila to name the bar which they chose to name it Captain's because of Lauren's status in the marines.
The bar was very industrial looking with dark colors, bricks, exposed ceiling, rustic wood. The main floor had the tables and eating area with a small stage in the back for karaoke nights or whatever and of course a bar, meanwhile the loft in the second level felt more like a club, there was another bar, booths with small center tables and a stage for a DJ, and of course they had a dance floor up there. It would of been smarter to put all the drunks in the lower level but it didn't work out that way. All in all the bar was exactly the way Lauren had hoped it would of turned out.
Camila introduced Lauren to all the staff, from chef Perrie Edwards, to the other cooks Niall, Liam, and Louis. Their servers Leigh-Anne, jesy, jade and Taylor, Selena and Gigi. The bartenders Zayn, Harry and Justin. Camila had hired a good group of people.
They took their seats at one of the tables downstairs because they planned on eating there as well as drinking. Today was a very productive day for Lauren considering she had just gotten back and was all broken and bruised. She didn't plan on jumping in and running the bar just yet, she wanted to enjoy her wedding week and afterwards just enjoy being at home and healing with her family.
Lauren and Camila agreed on getting married next Saturday as it was planned months in advance but they agreed to postpone the honeymoon until Lauren was better so they could actually enjoy and take advantage of it.
Being out an about, kept her mind busy and away from thinking about those terrible 6 days. She couldn't bear the idea of talking about them let alone thinking about them.
--//////////////////////////////--
Sorry I haven't updated, I spent a few days the E.R. Turns out I caught more than a cold but hopefully I'll be able to update sooner. I wrote this in between days so I hope it was okay. 🤕