Lauren sits in the waiting room of the hospital for hours as she waits for news on her wife. She is still covered in her wife's blood and she has a Coke in her right hand and a bandage on her left arm. Seconds after they took Camila back, they came out asking Lauren if any of Camila's family were a match to donate blood to the girl. Fortunately, Lauren knows she and Camila are the same blood type so she quickly informed them of that and they took lots of her blood so they could give it to her wife. Lauren was just so very thankful that she could do something to help.
Normani, Dinah, and Ally are all sitting next to her at the moment. They look almost as broken as she does. None of them have spoken a word, they are all just staring blankly at the wall before them.
Lauren called them as soon as she got to the hospital and she just kept saying "Austin" and "Camila" and "so much blood" over and over again and the girls understood what was going on. Dinah always knew she'd receive that call, but nothing prepared her for the day she actually did. When the girls arrived, they all just enveloped Lauren in a hug and let her cry.
The green-eyed girl is broken from her trance when the hospital doors slide open and she hears a familiar voice fill the quiet ER waiting room.
"Lolo." A small voice calls to her and Lauren's head shoots in the direction of the voice. She sees the youngest of the Cabello clan standing in the doorway, Sinu and Alejandro beside her. When she sees tears streaming down her tan cheeks, Lauren immediately stands up and makes her way to the young girl. Sofi meets her halfway and throws her arms around the older Latina's neck. Lauren feels wet tears hit her neck and she swiftly walks over and sits back down in her seat with Sofi in her lap. The younger girl pulls back from the hug and looks at Lauren with big brown eyes filled with tears. Her eyes are so similar to Camila's and tears form in Lauren's eyes when she realizes that she may never get to look into her favorite pair of brown eyes again.
"Lolo, is Kaki going to be okay?" Sofi's bottom lip quivers and Lauren brings her hands up to wipe the tears away from the young girl's face.
"Your sister is the strongest person I've ever met and I know that she will fight so hard to come back to us." Lauren answers with a sad smile on her face. She doesn't want to lie to Sofi and get her hopes up. Truth is, she doesn't know if her wife will be okay, but she does know that Camila is a fighter and so she finds comfort in that. Maybe Sofi will too.
The young girl just nods her head before leaning forward and laying her head on Lauren's chest. The green-eyed girl just wraps her arms around the small girl and runs her fingers through her dark locks. Lauren keeps her eyes trained on the wall, not bothering to look at Alejandro or Sinu who are thankfully sitting a good distance away.
Exactly 4 hours later, Lauren jolts up when a man in a white lab coat walks through the double doors and announces Camila's name. Sofi is asleep in her lap and so she carefully places her into Ally's waiting arms while her and Dinah walk up to the man.
"How is she?" Lauren asks while chewing nervously on her bottom lip.
"She's stable." The man answers. "Miss Cabello lost a lot of blood and if she had gotten to the hospital even minutes later, she probably wouldn't have made it."
Lauren covers her mouth with her hand and chokes back a sob.
"When can we see her?" Dinah asks the question on the tip of both of their tongues.
"I can take one of you back now. I just wanted to let you know that Miss Cabello also has two broken ribs, a broken nose, a fractured wrist, and a concussion." He informs them. "I know she has suffered brain damage in the past and so she may not wake up for a couple of more days."
"What about her memory?" Lauren asks hesitantly.
"It could go either way. We will just have to wait and see when she wakes up." He answers. "If she did happen to wake up without any memory, it could even come back to her within a couple of days or weeks."
Both girls nod and the man opens the door. Lauren turns to Dinah and the Polynesian nods her head in the direction of the door.
"We will be out here waiting. Go take care of our girl." Dinah wipes at the tears on Lauren's cheeks and plants a quick kiss to her pale cheek. Lauren just squeezes Dinah's hand and then follows the man down the ER hallway.
The sound of her own heart beating fills her ears as she follows the doctor to Camila's room. When she sees him stop in front of room with the number 727 on the door, her stomach drops because she's not sure if she can handle seeing her wife in such a fragile state.
"I'll have a nurse come by to check on her every hour." The doctor smiles sadly at the brunette before patting her on the shoulder and walking away. Lauren takes deep breath and then slowly opens the door. Tears immediately well up in her eyes again when she steps closer to the hospital bed where Camila is lying. Lauren pulls a chair up close to the bed and takes Camila's cast covered hand in hers. She places a kiss on each of the girl's fingers before allowing her eyes to study the tattered girl. There is a white bandage wrapped around the girl's head and there are lacerations littered all over her face with stitches holding them together. There are black bruises under her eyes and a few on other parts of her face as well. A white bandage lays across the bridge of her nose and her arms are covered with bruises and scrapes. There's blood under her fingernails that Lauren guesses is from scratching Austin in a desperate attempt for him to stop hurting her.
"I'm sorry, baby." Lauren chokes out. "I should've answered the call. This is my fault." She places kiss after kiss on Camila's red cast. She only turns her attention from Camila when she hears a knock at the door. Seconds later, two police officers enter.
"Are you Lauren Cabello-Jauregui?" One of them asks her.
"Yes." Lauren nods in confirmation.
"We just want to let you know that we have Austin Mahone in custody. We just need your statement about what happened tonight and your statement on his past with your wife." The older man pulls out a notepad and Lauren shares everything she knows with him. She tells him about the emotional and physical abuse he has inflicted on Camila. She tells them in detail about every altercation she's had with him, including the one tonight. She also informs them about the threats and phone calls Camila has received from him. Once she finishes, they leave and Lauren returns to Camila's side.
The hospital bed is fairly big so Lauren slowly climbs in and settles next to the girl. She lays on her side and props up on her elbow so that she can stare down at the girl who holds her heart.
"I love you so fucking much." Lauren releases a shaky breath. "God I wish it was me lying here instead of you." The artist admits as she traces Camila's features with her fingers, careful not to touch any of the cuts or bruises. She leans down and softly attaches her lips to Camila's chapped ones, thankful that they are pink again and not blue like they were when she kissed her in the bathroom. She allows her lips to linger on her wife's for a few moments before breaking the kiss and carefully draping her arm over the girl's petite waist. Lauren snuggles closer to her until her forehead is leaning against the side of Camila's bandaged head.
"Please wake up, Camz. I need to see those brown eyes again so I can look into them and tell you how much I love you and need you." Lauren pleads as her eyes start to get heavy. She flutters them closed moments later and falls into a deep slumber.
Lauren knows that she cannot see her favorite pair of chocolate eyes in real life, but maybe, just maybe, she can see them in her dreams.