a sound she hadn't heard before

fifty-five.

A few days after their lovely night out in London, Taylor wakes up with a feeling of dread. She has two different things on her schedule for the day that she certainly isn't looking forward to. She has to take Ayla to a pediatrician to try to get some suggestions on how to handle the rising anxiety in the little girl, and she has to meet with a lawyer here in London. That was Tree's recommendation- she wanted the singer to have somebody representing her who could be reached in-person, as with every passing day, they are getting closer to the day which will inevitably come, where Taylor has to go to court and defend herself against Adam.

Tree found the lawyer for Taylor, apparently a friend of a friend who has proven to be very trustworthy in other high-profile cases. Still, Taylor isn't looking forward to bringing yet another person into the situation, having to recount all of the events of that day again, to go back through the trauma and open herself up.

She can only hope that she will find success in both of her day's endeavors. That she isn't going to have to hop between lawyers, telling her story, something that speaking about is just torture for her, at the feet of half of London. She hopes that she will be able to find somebody to help her daughter. Who she can feel confident in trusting with anything that may come out of Ayla's mouth.

That's a large part of why she has always been hesitant to go to therapy herself. She has such a hard time seeing herself being able to trust a complete stranger. There have been times in her life when she has trusted people who she thought she knew very well and would give her life for, and it has come back to bite her in the back.

She knows, though, that some things are more important than her own trust issues. She has to make sure that her daughter is okay.

So as she climbs out of bed, she takes a deep breath and gets herself into the mindset for the day.

First up is the doctor's appointment. Taylor wakes Ayla up and gets her dressed. She prepared her daughter for this last night, so the little girl isn't completely shaken up by being told what is coming. She isn't exactly looking forward to it, but luckily, she's cooperating.

After the general checkup that is given to every new patient at the doctor's office, the doctor looks to Taylor. "So Mom, you were having some concerns about her mental health?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, so we are going to do an anxiety screening with her to see if there's an anxiety disorder, and if so, whether that is generalized or something a bit more specific."

"Mommy, what does that mean?" Ayla asks, fear growing on her face. "What are they going to do to me?" She starts to breathe faster as she feels tears well up in her eyes.

"Ayla, sweetie, shhh," Taylor says, instantly standing up and walking over to her daughter. "I'm pretty sure that it's just talking. All they're going to do is ask us some questions, right?"

"That's correct," the doctor nods. "It's not scary at all, Ayla. I promise. I just need you to answer the questions honestly, okay?"

"Okay," Ayla nods, rubbing the tears out of her eyes.

"Take a deep breath, sweetie," Taylor whispers to her daughter.

"It is protocol to ask Mom to step out of the room when we do this screening," the doctor continues. "So Mom, I'm going to give you this clipboard with a questionnaire on it and have you fill it out in the hallway."

Taylor winces. "Is there somewhere more private that I could possibly do it? I don't want it to be on the headlines of every tabloid tomorrow that I was at the pediatrician's office."

The doctor bites her lip, thinking for a moment. "I'm not sure. I don't know if we have any spare exam rooms open that we could put you in..."

"I'm assuming we can't make an exception to protocol, just this once?" Taylor asks. "I hate to ask that, but I do have an exceptional circumstance."