God, her life was over. Right now Asher is probably on his way to either the prosecutor's office to tell everything he knows about Sam's murder. Laurel feels the basement floor shift beneath her feet, her mind is going a million mph and suddenly she feels like she's suffocating. She quickly takes a seat on the closest box to her, trying to stop the pending panic attack she's sure she's about to have if she doesn't control her breathing. Thankfully, she gets her breathing under control, but thoughts of her impending doom are still running rampant and...
"What's wrong?"
A voice is accompanied by the sound of footsteps descending down the basement steps interrupting her thoughts.
Frank.
As if on cue, Frank appears in front of her and suddenly she realizes that Frank is exactly who she needs to help get her mind off the fact that they're all going to prison and that this was, in fact, the end.
Laurel rubs her legs gently internally giving herself the push she needed to get off the box she was sitting on. "Nothing," she breathes offhandedly, flinging herself into his arms & kissing him with rushed enthusiasm.
Before Frank is even able to process what's happening laurel is on him and is untying his tie, ripping his vest off and undoing the buttons on his shirt all in one swift succession. They're both breathing hard and Frank manages to pull Laurel off of him so they can catch their breath.
"That was great, but I thought we were getting to know each other?" he quips, through ragged breathing. Really Laurel is in awe of his willpower and his effort to want more with her, and if this was any other day she would be right there with him, but today, at this very moment, 'getting to know each other' was the last thing she needed.
So, she explained the fact that within the next couple of hours she may or may not be going to prison and it's pretty much the last thing she wanted to think about. right now. Frank must have understood on some level because he stopped protesting as soon as her red panties hit the floor.
For the next half hour or so prison was a distant memory and was replaced with how much she'll miss this. Him.
-
Her phone rang on the nightstand next to her bed, and Laurel would swear on a stack of bibles that it hasn't stopped ringing since Annalise decided to take on the Hapstall siblings as clients. Literally it's been one thing after another, she needed a break. Even though she knew this was technically better than the alternative of spending time in prison for murder, so she can't really complain, but to say she wasn't stressed out would be a complete lie.
Laurel finally checks her phone. Great! it's not even 10 pm and she sees that she has 3 missed calls from Connor, 1 from Michaela and multiple texts threatening her in all caps from... Yup, Michaela saying 'get your ass back to the house' in various forms.
"I just needed 5 mins. Mierda!" Laurel screamed at her phone screen, tossing it on the other side of the bed, plopping face first back into her pillow
_
She made it back to Annalise's in 20 mins flat, with the radio blaring to keep her from falling asleep behind the wheel. This week's workload was starting to weigh her down more than she realized. As she stepped into the house she can hear hushed voices and papers & boxes being shuffled around. She almost makes it into the livingroom when her name being called stops her.
"Laurel." a familiar voice called her from behind, and it never ceases to amaze her how she gets goosebumps every time Frank says her name. She hates that he has this affect on her. She stops in her tracks, promptly turnIng on her heels, "I got here as fast I could." she wasn't sure why she said that, but she thought she'd throw that out there anyway.
Frank has a coffee cup in one hand and a folder in the other, he … as always, but she's noticed that he's staring at her with a worried look on his face. "What?" she says after a moment, suddenly feeling insecure under his gaze.
"Nothing. You just look like crap," he explains, holding the coffee out to her. "I thought you said you were going home to take a nap?" he questions, looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to take the coffee from him.
Laurel gapes at him, "Okay, first of all, go to hell. Second, I did take a nap for all of 5 mins before my phone started ringing like the world ended or worse, the office was raided and they found the dead bodies that's buried under the floorboards." she quipped, stomping her foot for added measure.
Frank just smirks at the remark. Knowing how much it irks her when he gestures instead of using his words. "You gotta have more faith in your boss's than that." he replies simply, "Now drink some coffee, you look like you're about to pass the hell out." He urges, handing her the coffee. The smell of the coffee hits her nostrils before she's able to comment, "Ugh, it smells," she says, pushing the coffee cup away. She watches as Frank puts his nose slightly above lid, smelling it, "No, it doesn't." he asserts, "it's a grande dark from Starbucks." he tries to clarify as if telling her what it is will make her want to drink it.
"Yeah, well, it doesn't smell like it, and besides I'm fine, just tell me what's the emergency," she protests, stepping back & folding her arms over her chest, trying to get Frank on the topic of why she's here, instead of coffee. The look of confusion is written all over his face, she doesn't know why though… it's just coffee.
Within seconds Laurel can physically see when Frank drops the coffee topic and gets right down to business, "Yeah… right. So, Sinclair has been running her mouth to Annalise about some supposed evidence she has that will win the case. We're doubling back and going over everything to make sure we didn't miss anything. Which means we need to see if they have any hidden videos on that A.S.S. app thing." he explains.
Laurel rolls her eyes but can't stop the light chuckle that escapes her, "You're terrible. It's H.A.S. and I'll give my cousin a call but it's late, so she might not get back to me right away." Laurel reminds him, as she pulls out her phone to make the call.
_
Surprisingly her cousin got to back her quicker than she'd expected and they were able to find out there was, in fact, incriminating evidence in the form of a video of the Hapstall siblings discussing what they'll inherit shortly after their parents were killed. Laurel rolls her eyes for what seems like the umpteenth time that night because really? Are they that stupid? A small nudge in the arm brings her out of her thoughts, "Do you have any aspirin?" Michaela asks, face scrunched up as if she's in pain. "These cramps are the worse," She whispers, rubbing her lower stomach.
"Yeah, of course," she says sympathetically, grabbing her purse and handing Michaela the bottle of aspirin. It helps to be prepared... since you never know when your Aunt Flo will decide to be a real bitch & show up. Speaking in which, Laurel was sure her period should've come on by now. She mentally tries to remind herself of when her last one was, but naturally all she can think about is the case they're working on & how stupid their clients are. Great, she'll have to check when she gets home. Her period couldn't be no more than a couple of days late, and with everything being so stressful at work & school, being late is typical and expected, No big deal,
Only it was a big deal.
It was almost 3 am when Laurel made it home and the first thing she did was check her calendar & the date of last menstrual cycle. She walked in the kitchen where her calendar was hanging up on the wall and saw that she was 3 weeks late. Her mouth falls open for a brief moment. That couldn't be right, right? Maybe she forgot to mark the last time she was on down and that's why the dates are all screwed up. She tries to reason with herself, internally, of course. That has to be what happened. If not, the only other explanation would be… and there's no way in hell that's even a mere possibility. They were careful. They're always careful... Right?
Her phone rings again. And Laurel let's out a frustrated sigh. She grabs her purse from off the couch where she threw it when she first arrived and saw that she had a text message from Frank. Oh god, Frank.
3:45 am
Frank: "Babe, don't forget about tomorrow. ;) "
Shit. She did forget about the plans she made with Frank. It's not that she didn't want to see him, she did, but there was the matter of whether or not she was… And of course she knew she wasn't, but there was a part of her… a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that knew she had to get the proper conformation, and so that meant she needed to take a pregnancy test.
Getting a pregnancy test from the 24 hour Walgreens by her apartment was a piece of cake, actually taking the damn test was another. Laurel went over every possibility explanation as to why her period was late. Explanations that didn't include 9 months of pure misery. After exhausting every possible explanation, twice, she finally decides to take the pregnancy test.
She places the test stick on a flat surface of her bathroom sink, setting the timer for the 2 minute wait the test requests. She's so sleepy, but she knew there was no way she'll be able to sleep until she knew the results. The timer goes off indicating that the 2 minute wait was up. Her heart is beating fast & her palms are sweaty. She picks up the white stick and... It's a faded blue color, but the plus sign was unmistakable. She was pregnant and just like that the world beneath her feet finally crumbled. Her legs buckled from the weight of today, the results and the devastating realization that things are about to change and for once in her life she had no idea what to do.
So, she cried.