Work Text
They tell you to dream big. From day one they tell you that you can be anything. Whether its a firefighter or a superhero, a doctor or an actress, the president or a pilot. Anything we could dream up in our little heads could be a reality with a little hard work, and for some, it became one. But they don’t tell you that your dreams could fade into nightmares. That your biggest desire could set you on fire and swallow you whole before the burn ever sets in. That it could send you reeling until one day you wake up a ghost standing on the ledge.Her eyes were closed, long brown curls danced in the wind around her pale cheeks as dozens of cars passed below her. The city was alive now as the girl crumbled inside just inches from slipping away into the current of headlights. Slowly her eyes fluttered open revealing hazy brown eyes looking over the LA skyline. She took a shaky breath and closed them once more small tears escaping the corners. “Camila?” A questioning voice sent a jolt through the small girl's entire frame, opening the window back to reality.“Hey, Hey look at me, Camila.” The strange voice was calm amidst the storm in her head. But she refused to look back in fear of falling completely into the reality she so desperately was trying to escape. “Camila!” Her mother's shrill voice made her clench her jaw and further puncture the palm of her hands with the acrylics plaguing her fingertips. She could hear the stranger take a couple of soft steps forward sending her heart racing.“Camila please look at me.” Before she could stop herself curiosity got the best of her. She looked back slightly over her shoulder to see a woman around her age with long black hair pulled into a ponytail. A few rouge strands fell around her piercing emerald eyes. “Hey there.” She spoke softly, just loud enough for Camila to hear her but not too much as to scare the girl who looked as if the wind might take her away at any moment, “My name is Lauren. I’m here to help you.”Camila took a moment to take in the girl's appearance but never dared to look her in the eye. Her white shirt exposing her collar bones was tucked tightly into thick yellow pants meant to protect her from ferocious fires, but Camila knew they were no match for the flames pushing her closer and closer to the ledge. Lauren was beautiful and part of Camila was comforted that there was such a beautiful light at the end of all of this. “Camila!” Lauren screamed emerald eyes blazing with fear and adrenaline that sent her half over the edge after Camila. The girl's eyes were closed tight waiting for the last hit she would have to take before she was free, only to feel the tight grip of the firefighter's hands around her arm. She squeezed her eyes harder praying to slip from the girls grasp as tears began to stream freely down her cheeks.“Camila look at me!” The dark haired girl shouted desperately the dead weight beginning to strain her muscles.“Please!” She shouted again light tears begging to fall down her own rosy cheeks, “I see you!”Camila’s heart almost stopped right there and something deep inside her began to burn sending an unfamiliar warmth through her bones. A part of her she thought had died long ago.“I see you.” The green-eyed girl whispered as a tear fell on to Camila’s arm. Camila opened her eyes and for the first time, they connected with the shimmering green ones trying desperately to save her from her demons.“I see you.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The red and blue lights that bounced off the windows and splashed the concrete of the street below had long gone, but three main characters of the mornings soon to be biggest headline were still lingering in the apartment. Camila's mother, who had not unstuck herself from the phone since before Camila was even safely back over the railing. Camila her self, who had not uttered a word in what seemed like a lifetime. And Fire Fighter L. Jauregui, who sat across from a pale girl that seemed to be shrinking by the hour. Soft steam rose between them from untouched cups of tea a disheveled looking assistant had placed in ritualistic fashion. One of the many phone calls had been a wake-up call for the young girl who now frantically paced around the kitchen trying to get things in order. But in all the chaos, one thing that didn’t seem to phase her was Camila's catatonic state. There was a cadence to the assistants fluttering like she had rehearsed this dance a thousand times and tonight was the big performance. It was easy to guess for who. Certainly not Lauren. “Ugh this is such a mess,” Mrs. Cabello’s heels ceased to click in front of the table, “This is a media circus. I’ve been trying to get your stunt under wraps Camila but honestly what were you thinking? Standing on the ledge is one thing, but JUMPING!” Camila didn’t flinch as her mother slammed a hand onto the wooden table sending ripples through her untouched tea, “I had to tell them it was an Ambien episode! Luckily there are worst things Ambien has been blamed for so I think we are off the hook.”She shakes her head and starts walking towards the door, absorbed in the small screen once more, “Felicity, make sure Camila is at sound check an hour early tomorrow already showered and in some athletic wear with a smoothie in her hand, I don’t care what kind just make it green for gods sake. Our top priority is painting her as the perfect picture of mental health, understand?”“Yes Mrs. Cabello,” Felicity chirps and immediately starts typing away on her device, making arrangements and excuses for why she wouldn’t be home and why there needed to be a multivitamin IV ready for hook up on Camila's doorstep at 7 am sharp. The door closed without another word, the only sound in the apartment are the soft taps of the assistant's fingers. The silence was unnerving and Lauren starts to fidget with her mug under its heavy weight. Is this what Camila heard all the time? People barking directions for her life followed by the clicking of instructions being played out, plans being made, futures being paved without a word from the girl that had to follow it. It seemed as if the entire room had forgotten the firefighter was still there and if she were being honest it was unclear to her why she hadn’t left with the rest of her squad, but something kept her firmly seated. Felicity’s sigh pushes the silence aside as she walks to the table to stand an arm's length away from the pop star, “Okay Camila, I’m going to stay tonight and-““No.” Whatever Felicity was going to say next died in mid-air.“Go home, Felicity,” Camila's voice was barely a whisper that made the firefighter shutter as it rattled out of her chest.“But-““I can stay.” Felicity spins around so fast her glasses almost fly from the bridge of her nose, but the firefighter doesn’t seem to notice. For the first time since she was framed by a blur of speeding cars, Camila was looking right at her. A hint of surprise sparked somewhere deep within her dull dark eyes and she thought it must have just been a trick of the light. “What was your name again?” Felicity’s eyes were drawn in accusatory slits that made her face impossibly pinched.“Oh, Uh, Lauren. Lauren Jauregui. I- uh, I’m a first responder so if she needs any medical attention I’m the most logical choice.”Camila held her gaze for a few more moments before staring back into her cup and running a thumb along its rim, “Okay.”“But Camila-““Go home, Felicity,” Camila doesn’t look up but the corners of her mouth twitch slightly in a feeble smile, “Your boyfriend isn’t in town for long before he gets shipped out again. Go home.” Surprise flashed across the assistants face, clearly shocked the vacant pop star had remembered something about her personal life, “Uh um right. Thank you, Camila.”She reaches out her hand slightly as if to touch the young girl's shoulder before thinking better of it and turning to Lauren, “Okay if you are going to stay you’re going to have to do more than just watch her sleep.”“Wait, watch her slee-“ She is quickly cut off when Felicity rushes back over to the table after retrieving her bag from the counter and begins placing various bottles and small boxes in front of her with quick instructions. “These are her morning vitamins,” A large bottle with various horse sized pills. “Her antidepressants, Xanax, Topamax,” bottles started filling the table one after the other in rapid succession, “all of these need to be taken before she has her multivitamin iv drip that is being delivered at seven o’clock sharp.”“Wait she needs to take all of these by 7 am? That's in four hours! She needs sleep and,” she picks up one of the bottles in each hand looking them over, “and is she even supposed to mix some of these?”Felicity sighed and pushed her thick-rimmed glasses roughly up her slender nose, “Listen, Wonder Woman, do you want to watch her or not?” Laurens mouth hung open slightly before clenching shut once more, “Yes.”“Good, then I will see you both at eight,” with a heavy sigh and one last un reciprocated goodbye thrown Camila's way the door clicked shut once more.
The silence returned to the large apartment but it didn’t feel quite as heavy as before, like all of the tension had rushed out the door with the ragged assistant and left nothing but exhaustion in its wake. Lauren looked at one of the pill bottles in her hand and then back up to Camila. She almost dropped the small bottle when her eyes met the deep brown ones immediately. They seemed to be searching for something but Lauren was unsure of what. “You don’t have to stay here, you can go,” The words seem almost like a test and Camilas eyes were already calculating the answer.A soft laugh followed by a small smile comes from Lauren as she slowly shakes her head, “Oh no, you can’t get rid of me that easy.”She picked up another bottle and studied the label, “Do you really take these every day?”Camila shrugs, her sweater slips down her shoulder exposing the sunken skin there that clung tightly to her collar, “Sometimes those, sometimes others, sometimes more.”“Do they help?”Her eyes glazed over again and the small fire in them seemed to extinguish, “I don’t know. With the noise I guess. Everything is always so loud sometimes I feel like I can't hear anything at all.”Laurens brows knit together as she picked up another small bottle with little white pills, “So they help you focus?”Its Camilas turn to laugh this time but it comes out more of a bitter scoff, “No, they help drown it out.”Their eyes meet again across the table and Lauren sets down the bottle, “Is that what you want?” Her chocolate eyes start to sting but she doesn’t look away from the one person that has actually bothered to look at her, really look at her, since she first took the stage in third grade, “I just want it to stop, I just want to sleep.”Lauren nods and stands up slowly, reaching her hand out to Camila. Her fingers are thin and frail compared to Laurens but their hands fit perfectly. The warmth from Lauren's palm spreads through Camila, not like a fire but a spark of light in a long abandon home. The firefighter sits patiently on the edge of the bed while Camila changes in the closet, the door is open slightly so she adverts her gaze until the young girl emerges with a bundle of clothes in her hands. “Here,” She holds them out hesitantly, “Those big yellow pants look heavy.”Laurens eyebrows knit together as she looked up at Camila, “Are you calling me fat?”Camilas eyes widen and her jaw started to work before a wide smile broke out across Lauren's cheeks, “I’m just kidding, thank you.”She quickly changes and walks back into the room to Camila's small frame already tucked under the large comforter. With a small smile, she settles into a small sofa in the corner of the room, “Sweet dreams, Camila.”Soon the soft sounds of Lauren's steady breathing fill the room, rolling over Camila like small waves on the edge of the sand. Lauren was like a breath of fresh air, the strongest tree in the middle of a hurricane that refused to blow over. And for a brief moment, Camila wondered if the firefighter was strong enough to survive her winds, to weather the storm and still come out of it tall as ever, before she finally slipped away into the steady current.