Camila woke up to the sound of harsh knocking on the door and sat up from bed with a jolt. She took a quick glance around the unfamiliar room she was in and realized that she was not in her usual bedroom. It came to her a second later that she was in the spare room that Lauren had nicely (not really) appointed her last night. She had almost forgotten that she was now living with the cold beauty of a detective – Lauren.
“Wake up, Miss Cabello, I made breakfast. If you’re not out here in 30 seconds then you’re not getting any.” Lauren’s impatient voice warned her from beyond the door.
“Coming!” Camila called out, voice still husky from sleep. She clumsily got out of bed and began to dress as hurriedly as she could so that she did not have to keep Lauren waiting.
When she was done, she entered the kitchen to the smell of noodles; she looked to see Lauren already eating her breakfast at the table – instant ramen. Opposite the table sat an untouched cup of steaming ramen, completed with a pair of chopsticks.
Camila smiled as she sat down and picked up her chopsticks, somewhat touched that Lauren had actually made her something to eat when she was half expecting the black haired woman to allow her to starve for a week – despite it only being something simple as instant ramen.
They ate their ramen in silence. Camila pondered whether she should start a conversation with the woman, seeing that she may as well take this chance to learn something about the person whom was meant to be her ‘supervisor’ for the week.
She took a hopeful glance at Lauren and was reminded of her cold exterior. Then again, from the way that Lauren had been acting, maybe that wasn’t the best idea since the detective clearly didn’t want anything non-related to the investigation to do with her. At that thought, Camila deflated a bit.
“What’s wrong with you?” Lauren asked, glancing up from all the shuffling that Camila had done. She couldn’t concentrate on eating her food when all this noise was disrupting her. “Is there something wrong with the food?”
“No, no, the food is fine.” Camila said; she had yet to get used to the bluntness in her words that the woman often used. She averted her eyes down to her cup of noodles and poked at it.
“Stop moving and eat your food then. We have to leave in half an hour.” Lauren responded, resuming to her ramen.
Camila mumbled an apology and ate a few bites of her own food. ‘She doesn’t seem that bad. Not as cold as yesterday but still cold. After all, she did go out of her way to save me from that mugger and at least she cared enough to ask me what was wrong, even if it was out of politeness.’
“Lauren?”
Lauren glanced up and gave a slight what-do-you-want nod.
“Thank you again, for the breakfast and for allowing me to stay here with you.”
Lauren chewed in silence.
Camila’s stomach twisted when she received no reply. Had she annoyed Lauren again? Maybe she really should’ve left the woman alone to eat her breakfast. ‘Stupid Camila. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.’
“You say that way too often.” Lauren said finally, cutting off Camila’s thoughts.
Camila smiled sheepishly but inside, she was glad that Lauren had actually responded with something that wasn’t mean.
“Hurry up. We have to get to the station soon.”
“Station?” Camila frowned slightly; she had always thought that Lauren was the type to work from home. “Is there something we need to do today?”
Lauren shrugged and stood up, “Beats me. Ally needed me there today so that means you have to come along too.”
She took her now empty cup and threw it in the bin.
“Okay, just give me a second to change and get ready.” Camila hurriedly ate the rest of her ramen and watched as Lauren walked out the kitchen.
“Just be out here in 5 minutes.” Lauren stifled a yawn on the way out.
---
When they got to the station, Lauren almost immediately left Camila with Ally whilst she went off to do whatever it was that she had to do.
“I’m glad you survived your first night with Lolo, Mila.”
“Barely.”
“It’s a world record already.” Ally grinned as she guided Camila into a conference room – larger than the one they were in yesterday.
“What are we doing today, Ally?” Camila asked the younger as she seated herself at the large rectangular table.
“I thought we could take this chance to introduce you to some of our officers who could potentially be your next supervisor.”
“Are they cold and scary like Lauren too?” Camila asked worriedly, she could not deal with any more of those types of people. Living with one was enough, even if it was only for a week.
Ally laughed, “No, that’s just Lauren. Everyone else is quite the opposite.”
“Can’t I just live with you? You’re so much friendlier and you sure care a whole lot more than her.”
“I wish you could, but my apartment is tiny and cluttered – barely enough room for even one person.” Ally sighed, “I’m looking for a new one though.”
At that moment, the door opened and in stepped two tall women in uniform.
“You called for us, Ally?” The black haired woman said, sitting herself down onto one of the chairs.
“Right.” Ally stood up to greet the two, “Normani, Dinah meet Camila Cabello, our priority for the next few months or so.” She then turned to Camila.
“Hi.” Camila waved meekly, slightly intimidated by the seriousness of their faces.
“So you’re Camila.” The woman sitting down said before smiling warmly, “Nice to meet you, I’m Sergeant Normani Hamilton but you can just call me Mani."
“And I’m Sergeant Dinah Jane Hansen.” The other woman grinned, a hand reaching out to shake Camila’s.
"Nice to meet you.” Camila instantly felt relieved that the two women had smiled at her and wasn’t as serious and intimidating as she had first thought.
“Mani and Dinah are seniors in our division.” Ally explained, “They work in the field alongside Lauren but mostly supervise squads of officers on various assignments-“
“Basically, we get to boss the juniors around and get them to run around the place to follow our orders.” Dinah concluded.
“Like getting you food and coffee?” Normani snorted.
“Hey, I have power so I might as well put it to some use.” Dinah shrugged, earning a giggle from Camila.
“Having power doesn’t mean you should abuse it.”
“We had to do it when we were trainees!”
“You always managed to wiggle your way out of those tasks!”
“It’s not my fault; I’m just good with people.” Dinah grinned, “It’s why I was promoted to Sergeant before you.”
“That’s only because you sucked up to our superiors whilst I was working my butt off.”
“You two, really. I can’t believe you’re older than me.” Ally groaned at their childishness.
Camila watched in amusement as Dinah and Normani bickered back and forth, she could tell from how comfortable they were with each other that they had been friends for a long time. ‘I think I’ll like these guys.’ She thought to herself, smiling.
In the midst of the loud argument, Lauren walked in with a mug of coffee in her hand and a folder in the other.
“What are you two blockheads doing now?” Lauren eyed the two, taking a sip of her coffee as she did so
“Oh, nice of you to turn up Lauren.
“I work here.”
“Blunt as always.” Normani said, watching Lauren walk over to Ally and placing down the folder.
“I’m going to the apartment to check for any more clues and maybe question a few of the neighbours. Are the forensics team still there?” Lauren asked the superintendent, ignoring Normani’s comment and frankly, everybody else in the room except for Ally.
“Yeah so if you have any questions just ask one of the team members and they’ll make things a lot easier for you. Has Lisa given you the pictures yet?”
“Yeah, they’re right here.” Lauren pointed to the folder.
“Great. Sergeants Hamilton and Hansen will accompany you to the apartment.”
Lauren groaned.
“Don’t give me that, Lolo, you love us really.” Normani said, folding her arms and smirking at her.
“Shut up, I’m too tired to argue with you today. Meet me by my car when you’re ready.” With that, Lauren picked the folder up again and headed for the door when she was interrupted by Ally, who’d cleared her voice loudly.
“What now?” Lauren turned and met eyes with Ally.
“Aren’t you forgetting someone?” Ally asked her, eyebrows rising as she gestured at Camila.
“She has to come too?” Lauren furrowed her eyebrows.
“Well, the point of supervising her is not leaving her alone.”
“Why can’t she just stay here? It’s a freaking police station, I’m sure she’ll be alright.”
“Lolo.” Ally frowned disapprovingly.
Lauren glanced over at Camila who looked hurt by the fact that Lauren didn’t want her to be near her.
Lauren sighed at the dismal look before going over to Camila and pulling her by the arm, “Miss Cabello, come with me. Maybe you can help me interview some of your neighbours.”
“Sure.” Camila said quietly, following Lauren out the door. She did not want to disobey Lauren’s requests although she knew that Lauren didn’t want her to get in the way of her work.
“Don’t worry, Camila. Lauren’s always grumpy.” Dinah leaned over to whisper to Camila as they walked out. “Cheer up, a week is not long.” She added a wink to encourage Camila, which worked because soon, Camila was smiling again.
In Lauren’s car, Lauren was driving whilst Normani was seated in the passenger seat which meant that Dinah and Camila were the ones sitting at the back. The three of them, excluding Lauren, were getting along well and were happily chatting about some T.V show that they mutually watched which of course, Lauren hadn’t even heard about in her life.
About halfway through the journey, Dinah and Normani started singing some cutesy pop song extremely loudly and even added in a few hand gestures that annoyed Lauren to no end.
Normani invited Camila to sing along which only aggravated the detective more now that three people were singing loudly when two was worse enough. Her hands gripped tightly onto the steering wheel until she couldn’t take it anymore and exploded at the three culprits.
“Will you shut up!? I can’t drive with you all singing that stupid song!”
Immediately, they stopped singing.
“Killjoy.” Normani mumbled under her breath.
“She doesn’t like the sound of happiness.” Dinah leaned over to whisper in Camila’s ear, making her laugh and simultaneously earning a glare from Lauren in the rear view mirror due to her radar-like ears.
When they reached the apartment complex, they separated into twos to get the job done quicker – Dinah and Normani were to search the apartment and note down clues whilst Lauren and Camila were to interview a few of the neighbours. They agreed to all meet back at Lauren’s car when they were done.
“Lisa - our crime analyst has printed a list of all the residents on your floor and their backgrounds. Do you recognize any of these people?” Lauren handed Camila the list of the four residents along with their pictures whilst they were taking the elevator to the 5th floor.
“Um yeah, I do. I’ve talked to them all at least a few times except for this guy.” Camila pointed to the picture of a young man with dyed brown hair, “Shawn Mendes?”
“And why is that?”
The elevator opened and they stepped out.
“He tends to keep to himself a lot and… he’s a bit creepy.” Camila cringed a little; she had once opened her door to leave for work and found him sitting on her doormat staring at her, as if he had been waiting. He had also somehow learned her name despite never actually asking Camila for it.
“Define creepy.”
“Well, sometimes he-“
“Camila!” The door opposite Camila’s apartment opened and a man dressed in a smart casual attire appeared and tackled her into a hug. “I’ve missed you so much! Where have you been!?”
Camila laughed and returned the hug, “I’ve told you, I’m living with a police officer for security reasons now.”
“I know but I still miss my little girl.” The man buried his head into Camila’s hair. Lauren had to cough loudly to remind him of her presence when he didn’t let go of Camila for a long time.
“Oh my, I do apologize. You must be the officer-“
“Detective.” Lauren corrected, showing him her badge.
“Right,” He laughed, “I mean, Detective that Camila was talking about. I’m her uncle, Noah Cabello .” He shook Lauren’s hand somewhat one-sidedly before smiling to her, “Thank you so much for doing this, you don’t know how much I worry about her safety. She’s all the family I’ve got.”
‘So this is the uncle that has raised her up since childhood? Interesting, he doesn’t look as old as I thought he would be.’ Lauren thought to herself, having remembered reading in Camila’s profile that her parents had disappeared when she was 8, leaving her in the care of her Father’s older brother Noah Cabello.
“Don’t worry; we won’t let anything happen to her.” Lauren assured him politely.
“I really hope you find Ludo soon, this has been going on for far too long.” Noah shook his head angrily, “How dare he come after my Camila!? You’ve done nothing wrong at all! I swear when I found out who it is-”
“It’s okay, Uncle. I’m safe, remember?” Camila reassured him, he could get overprotective sometimes.
“Sorry, I can’t help but worry. You know how I get.” Noah sighed and then turned to Lauren, “So, Detective Jauregui, is there anything I can do to help you at all?”
“You wouldn’t mind if I asked you a few questions would you, Mr. Cabello?” Lauren asked him, taking out her notepad and pen.
“Of course not! Ask as many as you want Detective Jauregui and I will help you as much as I can. Although I’ll have to be at work at 4, so you’ll have to hurry.”
“That’s not a problem. Thank you.”
After questioning him and getting as much knowledge as he knew about the case as possible, Lauren thanked him and bide him goodbye as he left for work.
“One down, three to go.” Camila said as she made a light tick next to her uncle’s name on the list Lauren had given her earlier.
“I didn’t know your uncle lived opposite you.” Lauren said as they walked down the hall.
“Yeah, I needed a place to live and it just so happened that the place opposite him was vacant. I surprised him by moving in.” Camila grinned.
“You and your uncle are close, huh?”
“Yeah, he’s always been there for me.” Camila said softly, “He’s like my pillar of strength. He even saved my life once.”
Lauren raised a brow, “How so?”
“Just me being dumb-“
“That’s a first.” Lauren said sarcastically.
Camila rolled her eyes, “Do you want to know or not?”
“Go ahead.”
“When I was 10, we were taking a walk in the park near the lake. He warned me not to get too close to the edge or else I’d fall in and-“
“You did it anyway.” Lauren snorted, “Typical.”
“Will you listen!? I was an obedient child you know.” Camila pouted.
“Anyway, there was a group of kids that were playing nearby and I guess when I was looking in the lake, one of them pushed me in and I nearly drowned because I didn’t know how to swim yet but thanks to my Uncle, he came in and saved me.”
Flashback
“I turn away for one second and the next thing I know, you’re in the water.” Noah shook his head.
“Uncle Noah, I think someone pushed me!” Little Camila sobbed, still recovering from her near-death experience.
“Pushed you?” Noah knitted his eyebrows together and glared at the nearby group of kids. “I’ll have a little talk with them. Stay here, Camila, okay?”
End Flashback
“He went over to them and practically screamed at them and asked for the culprit but none of them owned up.”
Camila said, “I’ll never forget that day.” She looked up at Lauren and thought she saw a flash of something in her eyes before they were back to their normal, cold state.
The stopped in front of Shawn Mendes’s door and Lauren knocked a few times.
“So this is the guy that you said was creepy?” Lauren asked her quietly in case Shawn could hear them.
Camila nodded and they turned their attention to the door. There was no answer for a whole ten minutes, even when Lauren knocked several times.
“Guess he’s not in. We’ll have to come back tomorrow.” Lauren said, marking an ‘A’ for absent next to his name.
“Okay, so two more to go.”
“Lead the way.”
As they were walking to the next door, a woman who looked a little older than Lauren came out of Camila’s apartment.
“Oh, I’ve been talking to your colleagues Sergeant Hamilton and Sergeant Hansen. They told me that you’d be here and they were right.” The woman said, “You must be the almighty Detective Jauregui.”
“The name’s Lauren.”
“I’m in the apartment next to Camila’s.”
“That’s an unusual name.”
“Quite the joker, aren’t you, detective?” The woman huffed in annoyance.
Camila stifled a laugh whilst Lauren shrugged. She didn’t talk to this woman much but she knew for a fact that she was one of those people who was extremely attention seeking and loved to gossip.
“I’m Kendall Jenner.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Jenner. Do you mind if I conduct a small interview?”
“Not at all. After all, I went into that apartment,” She pointed at Camila’s apartment, “To find somebody to share all my useful information with.”
‘Note to self, her ‘useful’ information will probably be useless.’ Lauren thought to herself as she begun the questioning.
When she had finished, Lauren was right. Everything that Kendall Jenner told them was probably made up or unrelated to the case. Nevertheless, Lauren smiled to her politely. “Thank you.” ‘For wasting our time.’
“I’ll be sure to contact you if I have any more information.” Kendall smiled before disappearing into her apartment.
“Has she always been like that?” Lauren asked Camila, having sensed the attention-seeking side of Kendall.
Camila nodded, giggling at Lauren’s face of disbelief.
“So, that means the last person on our list is an old woman named Catherine Spencer.”
They visited Mrs. Spencer, whom was like an aunt to Camila. Mrs. Spencer was a lonely yet lovely lady who’d bring Camila dinner or breakfast on most days, afraid that the woman was tight on money and would starve despite Camila’s assurances that she was fine.
Camila also explained to Lauren that they would often have daily conversations together in the mornings which led to the close bond that they now shared.
When they finished asking questions, Lauren decided to stay a little longer so that Camila could talk to Mrs. Spencer to keep her company for longer. When watching their interactions, Spencer smiled a little to herself as Camila helped Mrs. Spencer sit down with the upmost care and made her a cup of tea. Whenever Camila would look back at Lauren though, her nonchalant face would return.
After their extended visit, it had already grown late so they decided to call it a day and go straight home after dropping Dinah and Normani back at the station. They met Dinah and Normani at Lauren’s car and the entire journey was spent in silence due to the tiring day that drained their energy, which meant no more annoying singing – much to Lauren’s satisfaction.
---
“Lauren?” Camila said her name quietly. They had just dropped Dinah and Normani off and were now heading back to the apartment in Lauren’s car.
“Hm?”
“How long do you think this investigation will take?”
The grip on the steering wheel tightened, “I’m not sure. We’ve been investigating the murders for almost two years now so it could take weeks or maybe months.”
“I see.” Camila bit her lower lip, which means she’d have to keep shifting between officers until the investigation was over.
“So what do you like to do in your free time?” Camila changed subject, she was feeling a little homesick but there was nothing to be done about it.
Lauren glanced over at Camila before averting her eyes back to the road without answering the question.
“Okay… Do you have any hobbies?”
“…”
“You know, I’d like to get to know the person whom I’m going to be staying with for a week so it would help if you actually talked to me.” Camila’s words had grown bolder, she wasn’t as scared of Lauren as she had been previously and that fear was beginning to decrease with the more time they spent together.
“…”
“Lauren.”
Lauren sighed, “With all due respect, I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
“Then can’t you just talk to me like a friend?”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Sure there is! Why don’t you tell me something about yourself? Say for example-“
“I’m here to supervise you, not to be friends with you.”
“Well can’t you at least be a bit friendlier ? It’s better than having to hear your blunt answers all the time.”
“No.” Lauren smirked, purposely giving her a blunt answer.
“Ha, Ha, very funny.”
“It’s my personality. Take it or leave it.”
“Well, I can’t exactly leave it can I? I’m supposed to stick with you 24/7.”
“Precisely.”
Camola groaned, she realized that Lauren was gaining amusement from her frustrations and that the woman was less cold than yesterday but it wasn’t enough. She still felt like she was talking to a giant ice cube most of the time. She needed something to melt the ice.
“Can I at least call you Laur? It sounds a lot friendlier.”
“No.” Lauren glared at her.
“But why?”
“Because Lauren is my name.”
“Laur is still Lauren but without the En.”
“Don’t shorten my name. I hate that.”
“But it’s cute.”
“Fine, then I’ll call you Cami then.” Lauren said, “It’s still Camila but without the La.” She added, imitating what Camila had said earlier.
“Okay!” Camila replied enthusiastically, much to Lauren’s surprise.
“No.”
“But you said-“
“Don’t shorten my name, Miss Cabello.” Lauren warned her.
“But people call you Lolo!”
Lauren sighed, knowing that she couldn’t win. She stayed silent and concentrated on the road whilst Camila pouted and crossed her arms.
Every so often, Lauren would glance at the other woman and notice that Camila was still in the same position as she had left her. When the car stopped, Camila was the first to get out and closed the door loudly before heading into the building.
Lauren could distinctively hear the phrase "Stupid Laur" leave Camila's lips are she entered the building but decided to let it slide, just this once.