Intertwined

Chapter 29

Danielle's POV

Taking small bites I eat the food the cop brought for us to eat for lunch. Lloyd was right. I'm fat. People don't like to see fat people, whenever they do they only see ugliness. Looking at Lauren, she's stick thin and so beautiful. I can't bring myself to continue eating, so I stop.

"Come on, babe. Let's go clean up." Lauren's voice interrupts my thoughts. I look up to see her already standing up, extending her hand for me to take. I reach out and grab it, we walk out of the interview room and down the hall hand in hand. She's holding Lila with her other hand. Lila's just asleep again on Lauren's shoulder. She hasn't gotten much sleep these days. The reoccurring nightmares have kept her up but Lauren doesn't know that. We never woke her up when Lila couldn't sleep. Lila would just tap me on the shoulder and I would wake up and tell her a story. Since she slept on top of Lauren, she held my hand all night until she fell asleep again. I think Lila's sick, she told me a couple nights ago that her tummy hurt and that she was really cold when it was hot inside the house. I'm planning on telling Lauren soon, though.

We finally reach the bathroom and Lauren takes us into the big stall. "Go ahead and do your business, I gotta change Lila." She says quietly. I nod my head and go to the toilet. As I'm doing my business, I watch her wake Lila up and make her stand up. Lauren takes out a clean shirt out of a bag that the lady police officer had brought. It still had tags on it, so that tells me they got clothes for us. She changes Lila into a simple white shirt with polka dots on it and black leggings. She then put her sweatshirt on Lila, making it look like she was wearing a huge dress. I finished up and went over to Lauren. "Don't worry, they brought something for you too." Lauren assures me. She takes out another bag and hands it to me. "I gotta pee, go ahead and change." She says before walking over to the toilet. I take out the clothes. It's a blue t-shirt and black leggings. These people only know how to get leggings, huh?

I change quickly to avoid having Lila or Lauren look at my disgusting body. Lauren comes back and grabs another sweatshirt out of her bag, an identical one to the one Lila has. Grey. She gives it to me, smiling kindly.

Lauren changes quickly and then me and her both wash our hands since we used the bathroom just now and then we wash our faces. Lauren grabs a paper towel and wets it, she leans down and cleans up Lila's face. "Sweetie, do you need to use the bathroom?" She asks Lila. But the little girl just shakes her head and reaches her arms up, the way children do when they want to be carried. Lauren just chuckles and grabs her. Lila just resumes to put her little head on Lauren's shoulder and goes back to sleep as Lauren places the blanket over her again. 

We head out of the bathroom and back down the hall. "Lauren, I think she's sick." I blurt as we are walking. Lauren stops abruptly, "What? How do you know?"

"She told me a couple nights ago that her stomach hurts and that she's really cold. But it was actually hot. Look at her, she's still shivering and you can't really see her face right now but she has a runny nose. I think she's sick." I tell her while looking down. I look up to see that she is biting down on her bottom lip with a worried expression on her face and her eyes locked on the little bundle in her arms. "Really? Well shit." She says with a sigh. She shifts Lila's body so that Lauren can hold her with one arm. "Let's go talk to the head chief to see if we can get the health evaluation moved up. This explains why she hasn't been eating much and how all she's done is sleep today." 

We walk back down the hall to the chief's office, Lauren knocks on the door and it is immediately opened by the middle aged man. "Oh ladies, what a pleasant surprise. I was just about to head down there. How can I help you?" He says sitting back down in his swivel chair as we sit in the uncomfortable normal chairs.

"We need to move that health evaluation to today. Take us to a hospital or a doctor or just someone. We think Lila's sick and the thing is that apparently she's been like this for a couple days and it isn't normal that she still has a runny nose and a fever. She's burning up but shivering. Please, just take us to someone and get her checked and in the process they can check us too and we get that evaluation over with." Lauren explains thoroughly with a worried expression on her face as she attempts to convince him. He just sighs and sits back in his chair rubbing his face.