The air outside was cold and the howling wind didn't exactly improve that. Camila was shivering by the time they were seated in the car.
"If you want to I can turn on the seat heating." Lauren offered.
"What's a seat heating?" Camila asked, shivering.
"It erm... well it makes the car seat get warm, it's really nice. I'll put it on for both of us, just tell me if you don't like it and I'll turn it off, okay?" She flicked two switches on the control panel and pulled out of the driveway.
Half a minute later Camila gasped in surprise and leaned forward, looking at her seat in disbelief.
"Do you like it?" Lauren asked.
Camila smiled in excitement, leaning back against her seat again. "It's nice." She said with an excited tone in her voice. "It feels nice on the bruises on my back." She added with a tone of surprise after a while.
"That's good." Lauren said smiling, but focused on the road.
They arrived at the doctor's office 15 minutes early, but there was no secretary at the reception desk when they entered, the entrance hall was only dimly lit. Lauren wondered if the secretary even knew the doctor was seeing patients after hours.
Camila kept close to Lauren as they walked, her eyes firmly fixed on the ground, and for a moment Lauren was tempted to wrap an arm around the other girl's shoulders, but after what had just happened in the entrance hall at home she knew it would be a terrible idea.
"Are you alright?" Lauren asked as they made their way towards the waiting room. Camila looked up at her startled, but nodded.
Lauren opened the waiting room's door.
The room was brightly lit in contrast to the front room, so it took her eyes a second to adjust properly, when they did Lauren was surprised to see they weren't the only occupants of the waiting area. Two girls were sitting in chairs next to each other on the opposite side of the room. Lauren guessed they were about the same age as herself and Camila.
They were looking at the new arrivals.
"Hi." Lauren gave an awkward wave and received two equally awkward waves in return. Camila was still standing next to her, looking at the ground. Lauren helped her out of her coat and hug both of their coats onto a coatrack next to the door.
"Here, sit down with me." Lauren said, closing the waiting room door behind them and directing Camila to a chair while taking up the adjoining one herself. Camila sat stiffly, eyes on the floor. Lauren knew it had to be due to some sort of 'proper slave behaviour in public places' training, but she didn't have the heart to tell Camila she should stop. She could tell Camila was nervous enough without Lauren criticizing her behaviour.
Lauren's focus was pulled from Camila by the sound of quiet whispers from across the room. She looked up in time to see the girls on the other side of the room look away.
Not quite knowing what to do with herself she picked up a magazine from the chair next to her and opened it at a random page. The whispering across the room resumed as soon as she looked away.
The unsettling feeling of being watched was making her shift nervously in her seat. She looked up again and was met with the sight of the girls frantically whispering to each other again.
Belatedly she wondered if she should have been more careful with how she treated Camila, but all she had done since they entered the room was tell her to sit. Should she have made Camila sit on the floor? But if they were judging her for treating her slave too nicely, why were they at the doctor's office at this hour anyway? Then again, neither of them looked like a slave, so maybe they were emergency patients or something.
She looked at them again. One of them was tall, thin looking even in his coat, with blonde hair that reminded him of Niall's, the other one was shorter and , with dark hair and currently with a pleading look on her face. Frowning, she looked back down into her magazine.
Lauren stiffened when, after another minute of whispering, the girls abandoned their seats and made their way across the room.
She tossed the magazine back onto the table and stood up as well, shielding Camila from the gaze of the approaching girls. Lauren wasn't sure what they wanted, but she was pretty sure she could take them both in a fight if necessary.
The dark-haired girl came to a halt in front of Lauren, while the blonde haired girl remained a step behind.
"Hi" the dark haired girl said, squaring her shoulders "I'm Selena. I was hoping that maybe you'd allow our slaves to interact." She pointed towards the girl behind her and now that Lauren saw her up close she could see a brand peeking out over the girl's scarf. The girl really was a slave. What the hell was going on?
"What do you mean 'interact'?" Lauren asked warily, crossing her arms before her chest. Selena swallowed and looked back at the girl behind her. Lauren felt excluded from whatever sort of telepathic conversation the two of them had within the mere seconds their glance lasted.
Lauren frowned, Selena wasn't really treating the blonde girl like a slave. In fact, Lauren hadn't thought either of them was a slave when she had looked at them earlier. Selena interrupted her thought process.
"I would really appreciate it if you'd allow your slave to talk to mine. You see" Selena seemed to be thinking hard "Taylor here, doesn't get much chance to talk to another slave because we live ...erm... far, far away from... erm..." Lauren didn't know why, but the girl was failing miserably at coming up with a lie for her.
"Camila, do you know either of these ladies?" She asked, turning around to face Camila and stepping out of the way slightly, so as not to block Camila's view of the girls.
Camila looked up for the first time since they entered the room; she looked at Selena in confusion, but then her eyes flared in recognition as they landed on the other slave.
"Tay!" She gasped, a bright smile instantly appearing on her face. Lauren sighed in relief; she had been really worried they were in trouble for a second.
"You know her." She stated the obvious. "You wanna catch up?"
Camila looked at her uncertainly for a moment but then nodded enthusiastically. Lauren smiled and stepped out of the way.
"Careful with her back." She warned in the last possible second as Taylor breezed past her and pulled Camila into her arms, just in time to stop Taylor from patting Camila's back. Camila hugged Taylor back with equal force, burying her face in the taller girl's shoulder.
Lauren tore her eyes away for a second to look at Selena who was smiling brightly at the scene in front of her. "So I take it they know each other?" Lauren asked.
Selena nodded. "Yeah, oh I really thought we were in trouble there for a second." She bumped Lauren's shoulder amicably.
Lauren gave a breathy laugh. "Yeah, me too. So how do you two know each other?"
"We had the same owner for a few months." Taylor explained, still holding Camila close. "We shared a bunk bed." She pulled Camila away from herself and looked at her at arms' length, her happy grin turning into a frown and she looked at Lauren nervously and then shot a pleading look at Selena.
"You didn't... you didn't do this to her-"
"NO!" Camila interrupted before Selena could finish her question, seemingly startled at her own volume she lowered her voice. "No, she didn't", she promised, looking from Selena to Taylor. "Lauren saved me from the market. She's been nothing but good to me." Camila's looked at Lauren and in a whisper added "I wouldn't be here, if it wasn't for her."
Taylor seemed convinced and pulled Camila in for another hug, when the waiting room's door opened and Dr. Holland walked in on the scene.
"Oh", she said surprised at the scene that greeted her, but smiling softly. "Hello Camila, Lauren. I'm glad you could make it. I see you met some friends?" Selena nodded, bumping Lauren's shoulder again.
Camila and Taylor reluctantly untangled themselves and turned to face the doctor.
"I'm ready to see you now, Taylor." She said, gesturing towards the door.
"Here, give me your number." Lauren said, holding out her phone to Selena. "And I'll ring you right now, so you have mine. We can meet some other time if Camila and Taylor want." Both girls nodded eagerly and watched their owners exchange phone numbers, before Selena and Taylor followed the doctor out of the room.
Camila was looking after them with a bright smile and teary eyes for a minute, before abruptly turning to Lauren. "I can see her again?" She asked as though Selena's and Lauren's conversation had only just registered in her mind.
"You can." Lauren assured her, smiling at Camila's expression.
"Thank you, Lauren."
The silence that followed was slightly uncomfortable, at least to Lauren; Camila didn't seem to notice. "So... you and Taylor used to live together?" Lauren asked tentatively, on the one hand not wanting to burst Camila's happy bubble, but on the other hand wanting to satisfy her own curiosity about Camila's past owner, at least one of them.
"Yes, Lauren. We had the same master." Camila answered and allowed Lauren to guide her back into her abandoned seat.
"What was it like there?" Lauren pressed on.
"It was great!" She said, much to Lauren's surprise. "We got beds there and food three times a day."
"That's good." Lauren agreed. "Was this with your first master?"
Camila stiffened instantly and shook her head vigorously. "No, Lauren. He was my third master, but they didn't tell him that at the market, they put me in with the 50% off."
Lauren nodded in understanding. Paperwork on slaves was as good as non-existent, so it was common practice to try and sell slaves for higher prices if they could be passed off as 'newer'.
"Would you tell me about him?" Lauren asked, watching Camila closely.
"He was nice. There were twelve of us slaves at all times, he called us his "Warblers" and got us matching clothes." Camila bit her lips. "But he got bored fast and when he got bored he sold one of us and bought a new Warbler instead. But he kept me for three whole months."
She exclaimed the last part as though it was a big accomplishment and to Camila it was.
Camila's expression had saddened and Lauren felt like hitting herself for causing Camila to stop smiling like she had 5 minutes ago.
"I'm keeping you, you know." Lauren said firmly. "As long as you want to stay with me, you can."
Camila looked at her, her face contorting as though she was in pain. "Please." She pleaded.
"What? What is it?" Lauren asked, startled by the pain in Camila's eyes as the girl blinked rapidly to keep the wetness in her eyes at bay.
"I know I have no right to ask for anything, but please, Lauren, please don't tell me things like that." She swallowed hard.
"Things like what?" Lauren asked, confused.
"Beautiful ideas like that."
Lauren felt paralyzed for a moment, not knowing what to do or say. The hitch in Camila's breath brought her back.
"I'm not lying to you." She said, her voice shaky "I won't sell you or give you away. I'm keeping you. You're staying with me. For as long as you can stand me."
"What if I don't want to leave ever?" Camila asked so quietly that Lauren almost didn't hear her. She lowered her head but Lauren caught her chin softly and forced her to look back up at her.
"Then I'm never saying goodbye to you." Lauren answered with as steady a voice as she could muster, looking straight into Camila's eyes.
It was like she felt something give. She could almost see it in CAMILA eyes, but she felt it in her chest more than anything and before she knew what she was doing she was opening her arms for the other girl and was rewarded with an armful of Camila.
Camila who tentatively wrapped her arms around Lauren's chest and allowed her to enclose her tiny body in a hug; her body felt fragile in Lauren's arms and more than ever Lauren knew that she had to be infinitely careful with Camila if she didn't want her to break.
"You're safe." Lauren whispered into Camila's hair where she had pressed her face. She carefully ran her hand over Camila's left shoulder where she knew Camila wasn't hurt and dragged the fingers of her other hand gently through the curls in the nape of Camila's neck.
Camila was shaking against her, so hard it almost felt as though she was vibrating. But she didn't let go, so Lauren continued to let her muffle her sobs in her shoulder. After a few minutes she caught herself whispering comforting nonsense in Camila's ear over and over. "You're safe. I'm keeping you. I won't let anyone hurt you."
Eventually the shaking stopped and she felt Camila draw in a deep calming breath. When Camila loosened her grip Lauren did the same, allowing Camila to retreat.
"You're okay." Lauren assured her when Camila looked as though she might try and apologize. "You're fine."
Lauren's head was swimming with relief; she could tell she gotten something right, something really important, even though she didn't know what it was.
Camila took the tissue Lauren offered her and dried her tears, careful with her black eye before blowing her nose.
Minutes passed in companionable silence during which Camila's breathing evened out and her eyes were starting to look less puffy.