Me Without You

"We're all here for everyone."

I was given a nifty new cast so I am finally able to do things again like write and eat an apple with my left hand

So quick updates are back!

Eight hours, that's how long they'd been waiting for updates on the youngest Cabello girl. Eight hours of Camila asking doctors far too many questions for them to keep up with.

Eight hours of Sinuhe working on controlling her wayward emotions and feeling her restraint slowly weaning.

Eight hours of Alejandro trying to get a word out of his wife and silence from his daughter.

Eight hours of Lauren watching everything go down but with absolutely no idea how to help the situation.

As the observer, Lauren's eyes caught everything. The tick in Alejandro's strong jaw, the ongoing twitch of Sinuhe's right eye. The way Camila's hands couldn't keep still even when attached to one of her own.

And the pacing. Camila's pacing was driving just about everyone insane, Sinu in the literal sense and Lauren wondered how long the mother could hold onto her control. It was no secret to the green-eyed girl that sanity was a luxury for Sinu, none of this could be good for her mental health so Lauren stayed close to her girlfriend at the off chance that the mother might just flip a switch in her brain.

Alejandro didn't see this, neither did Camila because their focuses were on answers and silent pleas to a higher entity. Lauren was the only one noticing how the family was crumbling and she knew that all she could do was be there to lift the heavy boulders when everything came crashing down.

She bit her nails a lot. The habit started after Camila left Miami for those two years and she thought she'd abandoned it but it seemed the stress had brought it about again. She didn't find it so much a bad habit as it was an annoying one. She knew bad habits. She was over them by now.

"Camz, sit down," Lauren patted the seat beside her, hoping that this time the brunette might actually register her words. "Camila."

"Mija, listen to Lauren," Alejandro sighed as he rubbed at his brow for the eighth time in the last ten minutes.

Camila heard them, she did, but her mind was racing ten miles a second and she couldn't slow it down. All she saw was Sofi's body laying at the bottom of the stairs with blood flowing from it, not through it. The air in the waiting room felt suffocating and sitting down wasn't going to distract Camila from the fact that her little sister could be dying in some hospital room.

She couldn't sit down. Sitting down meant calm waiting and Camila couldn't wait calmly. Not when all this was her fault. She'd brought Maddy into their lives, she'd put Sofi in harm's way. Sofi wouldn't be in this situation if Camila had just fessed up to her feelings for Lauren at that stupid party.

Lauren had been right there opening the door for them again and she'd slammed it shut. She should've known better.

And now here they were, waiting to be told what could be awful news. And it was her fault.

Her skin felt like ice, she knew she wasn't shivering but she was so cold. Maybe it was her link to Sofi, was she cold or was her little sister cold and she was simply channeling it? She wished the former. She didn't want Sofi to be cold. Cold meant bad news and Camila needed some good right now.

And that good came in the form of Dinah Jane.

The blonde showed up another hour later lugging her suitcase behind her, evidently showing up straight from the airport. No one had expected her so when they all caught sight of her, it was like a gust of fresh air entered the room. All felt that way, aside from Sinu. She was trying her best not to feel a damn thing.