When Clara came home from work she found Lauren curled up on the couch, a cup of tea cradled to her chest, staring at the wall.
"Are you okay?" She asked, startling Lauren out of her trance.
"Fine, I'm fine." She checked her lap for spilled tea. "How was work?"
"Oh, work was fine." Lauren watched absentmindedly as her mom shed her winter clothing. "I kept thinking about Camila all day though, how is she doing? "
"She's asleep again... I found her by the door when I got home." Lauren put the cup she'd been holding on the coffee table.
"What do you mean, 'by the door'?" Clara asked, taking a seat on the couch and turning to face her.
"She was sitting by the door waiting for me. I..." Lauren paused, hugging a decorative pillow to her chest. "I don't know if I can do this." She wanted to say more, but she just didn't know where to start.
"What's wrong, honey?" Clara asked. She put a comforting hand on her shoulder and Lauren looked up to see her face. Clara was always so understanding , and Lauren couldn't help but love her for it.
"She just has all the wrong ideas and I'm not sure if I can help her." She started. "I want to, I want to help so badly, but all I do seems to be wrong and she's constantly on edge, like she's just waiting for me to beat the crap out of her and I don't know how to deal with it. I just..." a distressed noise escaped her throat "I just don't know what to do." She took a deep, shaky breath.
"Oh honey, you know you can always come to me and your dad for help right? I know dad talked to you about leaving Camila in your care, but he didn't mean that you're on your own. We're always here to help, he just meant we didn't want to overload Camila with authority figures, you know?"
Clara pulled her closer and Lauren let herself settle against her, holding on to her waist.
Lauren took a few deep breaths, letting Clara's presence calm her. "I just don't want to scare her anymore."
"Well," Clara began softly, stroking her hair, "I can just give you educated guesses at the moment, but it seems like Camila is used to a lot of rules, right?"
Lauren nodded. "Yeah, definitely."
"Well then maybe, just for the time being, it might help put her at ease if she got new rules from you, since rules are familiar, right?"
She considered that for a moment. "It's worth a try, I guess, but what do I tell her?"
"Has your dad talked to you about the exam yet?" Clara asked.
"No, but I remember when Cooper had to take it."
"I'll go get some of the practice books from the garage tomorrow afternoon, so maybe you could give her a daily workload once she feels better, I'm sure that's a rule that could make her feel better, you know, things like that?"
"That sounds good." Lauren whipped her cheeks on the back of her palm, noticing her hands came back moist, she never realized she was crying. "I'll try that, and I'll call home at lunch, so she knows she can eat."
"That sounds wonderful. I'm so proud of you, honey." She felt her mom kiss the top of her head and it made her smile and hold onto her more tightly.
"Thank you." She sighed, burying her face in her shoulder again.
Lauren allowed herself to relax with her mother for a little while until her eyes caught the digital clock on the TV caught her eye. "We should make dinner." She sighed, extracting herself from the comforting embrace.
Dinner was done by the time Chris and Mike came home. While her parents and brother had spaghetti, Lauren decided to serve herself the same as she did Camila, meaning another round of soup and toast. Camila tiptoed out of her room just as Lauren was about to go fetch her, seemingly drawn out by the smell of food.
"Oh good, you're up." Lauren greeted her with a careful smile and gestured for Camila to follow her into the kitchen. "Dinner is ready, come join us."
The dinner itself was a lot more pleasant than the one on the previous day had been. Mike and Chris were chatting enthusiastically, while Lauren and Camila ate in almost content silence. The nap seemed to have calmed Camila's nerves and Lauren was thankful for it. Camila ate slowly as she had been instructed, but with a lot more enthusiasm than Lauren had seen her do before.
"Do you want some more?" Lauren asked quietly, not wanting to interrupt the conversation flowing around them. Camila seemed to honestly contemplate the offer, but shook her head no. "Thank you, but I don't think I can, Miss."
Lauren nodded, finishing the last bite of her own toast. "There's always more later, if you want." She contemplated what to do next when it occurred to her that Camila's bandages still needed changing. She spoke up when Mike and Chris cleared away the dishes, mostly to distract Camila from trying to do it for them.
"Do you think you can handle a shower?" She asked. "If not we can draw another bath.."
"A shower is fine, Miss." Camila assured her.
Camila followed Lauren into the bathroom where Lauren quickly explained the two knobs that regulated the temperature and water pressure and left Camila with a towel and the instruction to get a new set of pajamas to change into for after they had redressed her wounds.
Camila did as she was told, while Lauren went to gather more bandages from the medicine cabinet for later. When she went to place them next to the bathroom sink she stopped short in the door. Camila had taken her shirt off and was trying to reach the bandages on her back to take them off. Her face scrunched up in pain from the contortion, but that was only a small part of what made Lauren halt abruptly in the door. With the way Camila was stretching Lauren could see the bones of her rib cage and hips protruding to an extent she hadn't been aware they could. It was shocking in a way that made Lauren want to cry. She had known, logically, how skinny Camila was. She had seen her own clothes become oversized looking on Camila, but in the harsh artificial lighting of the bathroom and in a pose like this reality hit her hard. If Normani hadn't dragged her to that stupid market, Camila would not be here. She wouldn't be anywhere, she would be dead, either from an injection, or hypothermia, or starvation and lying under a bridge near Miami.
"Let me help you." Lauren stressed, hurrying over to Camila who lowered her arms gratefully and turned her back to Lauren for better access. One of the cuts on Camila's shoulder had torn open a little because of the strain, but otherwise her back seemed to look better for all Lauren could tell. "They're looking better." She commented as she removed the last bandage. "Shower as warm as you like, okay? And call me when you're decent." Lauren added before heading out the door.
Once outside, she didn't know what to do with herself. She heard the shower turn on behind the closed door and wondered if she could really leave Camila alone. Lauren hadn't seen Camila stand for longer than a minute at a time and she got tired very quickly. What if she fell? What if...
"Girl, you okay? You look like you're gonna have an anarhythm." Lauren was startled out of worrying.
"You mean an aneurysm, Chris." She corrected her gently, trying not to sound amused.
"Yeah, that. You okay?" Chris repeated her initial question.
Lauren sighed. "I don't know, I think so. Just worried, I guess." Chris gave the bathroom door an understanding glance before patting Lauren's shoulder.
"SHe'll be fine. You always make people better, like Dad, or that one time Lucy had that nasty cold. You're a totally awesome nurse. You're like the smartest girl I know, you'll make her better in no time."
Lauren couldn't help but laugh a little at Chris's rambling. "Thanks, Chris."
"Oh and Dad sent me to tell you that he brought 'the books' back from the garage. I don't know what books he means though, he said you knew." Chris suddenly remembered. "I'm supposed to get them from the car."
With that Chris hurried outside without his shoes or jacket to retrieve a big, heavy box from the trunk of their father's car while Lauren watched her, confused as to how Chris's feet didn't instantly turn into icicles.
"Where do you want me to put them?" She asked, kicking the front door shut behind her with her foot a moment later.
"Erm... my room, please."
"You got it." Chris said, heaving the box up the stairs, Lauren trailing behind her.
She thanked Chris after she put the box down on Lauren's bedroom floor, opening the lid. It was halfway filled with various school books on different topics, all of which would be subjects on the test. The test... Lauren wasn't quite sure if Camila was ready for that conversation quite yet, maybe it would be best to wait until Camila had gotten a little more acclimated.
The sound of the shower downstairs cut out and Lauren took it as her cue to head down again to be there when Camila was ready.
"How badly do they hurt?" Lauren asked, carefully applying ointment to one of the deeper cuts, trying to touch the torn skin as little as possible.
Camila was sitting on a chair in front of her, hugging the backrest to her chest for support while Lauren was sitting on the edge of the bathtub. The ointment and bandages lined up on the edge next to her.
"Not very, Lauren." Camila assured her, not even flinching a little bit when Lauren pressed the bandage down around the cut.
When she saw Lauren frown in disbelief in the mirror she quietly added. "This really isn't so bad. I've had a lot worse, Lauren."
Lauren pressed her lips into a small line to keep herself from wincing at the thought. "I'm sorry."
Camila looked bewildered for a moment, before schooling her features into a curious but neutral expression when she remembered that Lauren could see her in the mirror as well. "May I ask why, Lauren?" She asked carefully.
"I'm sorry someone hurt you so much that this..." She let her eyes linger on Camila's torn up back "... doesn't even compare." Lauren swallowed heavily and went back to applying ointment to the cuts, one at a time. She wasn't satisfied with her own answer. Lauren felt as though she should say more, offer comfort and promise safety, but all her usual skill for heartfelt speeches seemed to have left her.
"I have a book for you... well, loads of books, but we're starting with one. I'll show it to you later. I thought it would be nice if you had something to do while we're all gone. Those books are really important. I'd like it if you could work through maybe a chapter a day during the week. They're small chapters and you can still read other books, if you want to. I promise there won't be any punishment if you don't manage a whole chapter, and if you ever get stuck you can ask for help. I'd just really like it if we could make this a thing."
"Of course, Lauren." Camila sounded anxious, even though she obviously tried very hard to sound neutral and obedient.
"This isn't a test, I swear. I'm not trying to set you up or trick you into failing. They're just important preparations for ...life", she decided to explain what exactly Camila was studying for another time "since you can't go to school or anything. You'll see, they start from scratch, you'll be able to follow them. You don't have to start right away; I know you're still really tired." Lauren trailed off. Maybe she shouldn't have sprung this on Camila like she did? She could feel herself putting pressure on Camila that she hadn't meant to put there. She was doing this to put Camila at ease. "I'll show you in a few minutes. Don't worry for now."
"Yes, Lauren." Camil had immediately picked up on Lauren's uncertainty and was trying hard to gauge what was in store for her. Lauren finished treating the cuts on Camila's back.
"I'll just check your knees, you can put your shirt on." She sat down on the floor in front of Camila's chair. "Can I roll these up?" Lauren asked, pointing at the legs of Camila's pants. Camila nodded, her fingers twitching restlessly as though she wanted to take the task off Lauren's hand.
"There's something I've been wondering..." Lauren mused as she gently prodded the skin around Camila's swollen knee "..and I'm not sure how to ask, but those men, at the market, how... why..." Lauren paused to sort out her thought process. "Why would they ..." She trailed off again, but Camila knew how to end her sentence.
"Kill me and not sell me into hard labor, Lauren?" Camila asked.
"Yeah." Kurt confirmed quietly, looking up at Blaine carefully.
"Traders don't buy diseased slaves." Camila began, avoiding Lauren's gaze. "I was...okay when my last owner sold me, but one of the traders ... took a liking to me. We get screened every time we are bought. Three weeks ago someone was going to buy me... that's when they found out." Camila's hands were clutching the back of the chair tightly, her eyes still averted. "They screened all the traders and found out what he did. It got him in a lot of trouble, I think."
Camila looked up as if to gauge Lauren's reaction. Lauren ran a hand over the still fabric covered leg in what she hoped was a reassuring gesture.
"he was so mad." Camila continued. "They kept... forgetting to feed me after that and I wasn't allowed to clean myself with the other slaves. He didn't want me to be sold. He wasn't allowed near us anymore, but his friends... if you hadn't ..." She lowered her gaze again. "There's something I've been wondering as well, Lauren, if I may?"
"What's that?" Lauren asked softly.
"If they weren't going to... if he hadn't been about to... would you have taken me with you? If I had been standing with the others?"
Lauren's hand stilled. Her breath hitched at the thought, because no, she wouldn't have. If Camila hadn't been about to be murdered she wouldn't have even glanced at her twice, just like she hadn't looked at the other miserable men and women she had passed.
Camila understood her silence and nodded.
"I'm sorry." Lauren whispered, seeking Camila's gaze to make her understand.
"No, no, don't be." Camila said earnestly. Then her face broke into an incredulous smile. "I guess I'm lucky then." She added, smiling wistfully, her smile not faltering when she caught Lauren's mystified expression.
"If he hadn't made me sick I would have been in line with all the others and you'd have walked right by me. If it hadn't been for him you wouldn't have seen me. I got lucky!"
"Lucky." Lauren repeated dumbfounded. "You really think so?" Hope bubbled up in Lauren's stomach that maybe she wasn't scaring Camila as much as she thought she was... at least not anymore.
"I really do." Camila confirmed, smile brightening when she saw a happy grin spread across Lauren's face.
Lauren finished inspecting the progress of Camila's knees, still smiling to herself. "I think the swelling has gone down, that's great!" She commented, smoothing out the legs of Camila's sweatpants. "Come on, I'll show you the first book." Lauren led the way to her room with Camila following right behind her.