Wait For Me To Come Home

Chapter 59

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I saw something in comments about a double update and being mean to leave you guys like that, so here it is 😊

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A bomb. That's what Sofi told her the next morning as they both sat side by side, still on the kitchen floor, wearing yesterday's clothes. It had been a bomb that had taken Camila away from Lauren. After Camila had finished talking to Lauren the day before yesterday, she'd had a quick nap before going on night patrol for reconnaissance. It was safe, Camila had told her, the safest patrol to go on, until it hadn't been. They'd come upon rebels as they were driving through the foothills, and there'd been a skirmish. Bombs had taken out the entire platoon. Fifteen deaths, but Lauren couldn't bring herself to care about the other fourteen, she only cared about one. The one that had shattered her heart to pieces and torn her world apart. Camila had been dead almost a full day before Lauren had even found out, and a part of her craved for that ignorant bliss where she had still been full of happiness at the prospect of Camila coming home.

            Lauren stared blankly at the wall as she listened to Sofi talk, her voice barely above a hoarse whisper. "Th-they found them – the b-bodies – or w-what was left of them. Not all-, some w-weren't identifiable, they'd been blown t-to pieces so not all-. H-hers was-, it-, there was n-nothing. They found h-her tags – that's a-all there was. They can't-, there's no way t-to know for sure, but-"

            Tears streamed down Lauren's face, but she couldn't make a noise – she was too exhausted. She couldn't remember sleeping last night, but she couldn't remember being awake. Everything had just been dark, until she came around to the sound of Sofi's voice. Her eyes were sore - red raw from crying – and they were glazed over and vacant as she stared at nothing. Lauren couldn't even see the wall; she could only see the horror that Sofi described painted in her mind. For months this had been one of the scenarios that had tormented Lauren's sleep, night after night.

            Maggie didn't know yet – she'd been working a case all day yesterday and last night, and hadn't been home when Sofi had received the call off Sinu. She'd find out soon enough though. She'd be coming home soon, to an empty apartment, and her first thought would be of Sofi. She'd call her, and she'd come rushing over to Lauren's, and there would be nothing she could do to comfort her fiancé or the girl who was engaged to her now dead sister-in-law. Sinu would be on her way to Miami by now too – come to grieve with her living daughter, and to make sure that she wouldn't be alone in Palm Bay. And where did Lauren fit into this? She had no one. She was alone. They would have each other, and she would be left alone to suffer with her broken heart and the suffocating grief – whether it be her choice or not, because if there was one thing Lauren was good at, it was pushing people away, and right now, the only person she wanted was Camila.

            The sound of a phone ringing broke Lauren out of her thoughts, and she turned her head stiffly, moving for the first time in hours as she turned to look at Sofi. Answering her phone, Sofi got out a couple of words before bursting into tears, and Lauren turned away, staring back at the wall in front of her as she swallowed the lump in her throat. She was too numb to cry again – too broken to even make another sound.

            Lauren wasn't sure how long she sat there before Maggie came over. She wasn't sure how long Sofi sat there crying next to her until her fiancé burst into the apartment, running down the hallway and falling to her knees in front of the two of them. Lauren was dimly aware of Maggie crying as she held Sofi close, trying to reach for Lauren too, but she couldn't move – she was like a rock, stubborn and immovable as she sat frozen, tuning out the sound of the two girls talking in between sobs.