Haddonfield General is twenty minutes away from the Brackett/Strode residence, but Mya pulls up at the Emergency entrance ten minutes after peeling out of the driveway. After ten minutes of listening to Annie call out for Laurie in between sobs and moans, she wishes she would've made it there in five.
"Okay, Ms. Brackett. You're finally cleared to pack up and go home," Doctor Meeker looks up as his eyes finish scanning the chart. "But I guess you're already set to go?"
"It's a possibility," Annie sits perched on the end of the bed, a full bag zipped up beside her. "But doc, can I ask you something before I hit the road?"
"Annie – baby – wait," Laurie manages to gasp out between the kisses the girl beneath her is hurriedly pressing to her mouth. "Are you sure? We haven't, y'know, done anything since -"
"Two months before Halloween, I know. That's why I need this, Laurie. We almost died and now we're getting a second chance; I can't let us fuck that up again."
"But what about your side?" Laurie counters, her hand unconsciously hovering over the wound, serving as a protective measure against the exactly zero threats nearby.
"I already checked with the doctor before I left the hospital," she reassures Laurie, her hand coming up to lightly rest against the other girl's cheek. "And we can just take it really slow."
"So you're telling me you were planning for this?" Laurie murmurs, turning her face to kiss the hand cradling her cheek.
"Mm, maybe." Annie smirks, her free hand slipping beneath Laurie's waistband. That shuts her up.
Once they were physically healed enough, the topic of therapy was approached. After much resistance on Laurie's part, they finally decided to have joint sessions with Dr. Collier, this time without any prescriptions. Once the decision and the appointment were both made, Annie figured that was it, but then the day of the actual session arrived.
After just about dragging Laurie out of bed (she just took away the blankets), swearing to never sleep with her again (a completely empty threat), and buying her a sticky bun for breakfast ("five hundred calories of sugar and shit, Laurie! That's how much I love you!"), Annie finally had Laurie sitting on the sofa in Barbara's office, albeit next to a pissed off girlfriend.
"Since this is the first session, I don't want to get into the more serious topics just yet. Instead, how about you both tell me about your relationship? How you met, how long you've been together, etcetera."
Laurie opens her mouth to respond, but Annie cuts her off. "Wouldn't you know all that already from your sessions with Laurie?"
"Well, I know a few scarce details, yes, but Laurie and I mostly focused on your relationship in terms of how it was affecting her emotions. Besides, I'd like to hear some of it from your point of view, Annie."
And so Annie, not wanting to be too difficult on the first day, launches into a brief synopsis, with occasional input from Laurie, of how she and Laurie were best friends before the first attacks, but afterwards started to comfort each other in ways they hadn't anticipated. It evolved into something resembling a relationship for close to two years before it all started to disintegrate. Now that they've survived this last Halloween, they're trying to move forward together rather than fall apart all over again.
"Now, the session is almost up, but there's something else I'd like to touch upon quickly," Barbara explains, leafing through the pile of papers on her lap. "Annie, from what I understand from these notes, you saw a therapist briefly in 2007. You were diagnosed with agoraphobia, but ultimately decided not to pursue treatment. I don't want to get into the 'why's' of that today, but I would like to ask if you'd be open to treatment this time around."
Annie grips onto Laurie's hand, the only sign she shows that this question has made her nervous, and answers. "I think I would be," she makes brief eye contact with the girl next to her. "As long as it doesn't involve any medication."
Dr. Collier scribbles this down. "I'll see what I can arrange," she replies before smiling at the two girls in front of her. "I know this is going to involve a lot of work for you two, but I'm glad you made it here."
Laurie looks at Annie's side profile as she responds. "Me too."
Although the bathroom was completely cleaned up and repainted following the attack, thanks to the Sheriff's Department, Annie can't be alone in it for more than five minutes without feeling like a crushing weight has been placed on her chest. Within the first few weeks of being home, Laurie notices Annie's showers (not baths, anymore. Never baths.) getting shorter and shorter. She would only shower in the morning, with the door to their (formerly Laurie's) room wide open, and the shower itself would be no more than five minutes. In those five minutes, Laurie would hear the shower curtain being opened just about every thirty seconds.
Five weeks after their return home, Laurie is sprawled across their bed on her stomach, reading a book. Annie walks in on her way into the bathroom, lightly touching Laurie's shoulder as she passes her. The door is left open, her robe comes off, and the shower starts.
Laurie tries to focus on the words on the page in front of her, but then the curtain slides open for the first time. By the second time, her book is forgotten and she's pushing herself off of the bed. The curtain is halfway open for the third time when Laurie enters the bathroom and calls out, "Annie, I'm coming in with you, okay?"
Annie's "okay" comes as Laurie's t-shirt is pulled over her head.
Laurie slips into the shower behind Annie, just as the brunette turns around to look at her.
"Hi" Annie says quietly, a smile quirking at the edge of her lips
"Hi, baby."
The shower goes on quietly, with the two girls taking turns under the water and handing each other body wash and shampoo bottles as if this is a regular occurrence. When Annie starts to reach for the curtain to check the bathroom, Laurie holds her hand and presses kisses between her shoulder blades.
She doesn't reach for the curtain again.
"Oh hey, guys," Mya says as she comes up from behind the counter. "I thought you'd be out of here for the rest of the weekend, not forcing your poor girlfriend to hang out in this shit hole."
A faint "It's a Java Hole!" is heard from somewhere in the backroom.
"Well, Haddonfield doesn't have a whole lot to offer for date locations, plus we have some news for you." Laurie responds, slipping behind the counter to grab her own cup of coffee.
"Oh? What's up?" Mya pulls off her apron and leans against the counter.
Laurie's smiling too hard to actually tell her, so she just leaves it up to Annie to raise her left hand.
"Holy shit, you guys, I'm so happy for you!" Mya squeals as she wraps them both up in a hug.
Despite how much their lives have turned around, they still have the occasional blow-out fight. Annie picking Laurie up from work leads to a completely silent drive home, but as soon as they're inside their house, Annie makes it known what has her so upset.
"Quick question! Are you blind or stupid? Did I marry someone with poor vision or an idiot?"
Laurie is too shocked to bring up the fact that she wears glasses so, technically, she does have poor vision. "What the fuck are you talking about, Annie?"
"Deputy Logan, Laurie! I started walking towards your office to pick you up and you know what she said to me? 'Sorry, ma'am, you're not authorized back there'" Annie spits out in a mocking tone. "As if I'm not the Sheriff's fucking daughter and your fucking wife."
"Okay, so, she tried to stop you from coming into my office," Laurie says evenly, trying to tread carefully. "Why are you taking that out on me?"
"She was trying to patronize me!" Annie shouts, her hand coming up to pull through her hair. "And then the way she looked at you, baby, she wants you. And you just smiled and went along with it, totally fucking oblivious."
"She was being polite!"
"Yeah, sure, and you'll probably keep saying that even when she's trying to fuck you in your authorized zone of an office."
"Annie! Can you please calm down and talk to me? What's this really about? Because I know you, baby, and this isn't you. If anyone else had hit on me, you would've made some snarky comment and probably kissed me in front of them. Not this."
Annie snorts but doesn't reply. A full minute passes without an answer, but Laurie waits. When it finally comes, Annie's tone is softer, and she's staring at the wall instead of Laurie.
"When she was telling me about your office, she wouldn't look me in the eyes. She just stared at my scars."
"Oh, Annie."
"And it made me realize that you see them everyday. What if one day they make you mad again? What if they still do but you're keeping it from me?"
"I'm not that damaged teenager anymore, baby. I don't care about your scars," Laurie retorts softly, stepping towards her wife. "All I care about is you."
Annie swipes quickly at her eyes before replying. "I'm still going to kick that deputy's ass."
"Go right ahead, baby."
Laurie still has nightmares where Michael gets her. They're not so easily separated and categorized such as "hospital ones" and "Halloween night ones"; over the years they've all just blended together. But now when she wakes up with a gasp, covered in a cold sweat, she feels Annie curled up next to her and hears the sounds of their daughter snoring softly in the baby monitor, and she falls back to sleep without any issues.
Annie is already exhausted by the time they reach Sheriff Brackett's for Thanksgiving dinner. Lyn put up a fight for twenty minutes about having to wear shoes that weren't rain boots, Laurie forgot the sweet potato casserole on the counter and had to turn around, and Mason has been teething for the last two days.
Her headache is just starting to fade when her dad drops a fork and, without thinking, curses over it. Within two seconds, Lynda is repeating the word. Laurie scoops her daughter up and carries her to a corner in the living room; a faint "Lynda Cynthia Brackett!" is heard. Annie just sighs and puts her head in her hands. Brackett kisses the crown of her head, "Sorry, sweetheart".
She was exhausted when they first got here, and she's exhausted now, but with her dad flicking through the channels, her wife's head on her shoulder, and two sleeping kids on their laps, she thinks she's pretty lucky anyways.
Annie is three weeks away from her due date when her water breaks during an afternoon visit at Mya's house. The contractions come on quick, there's blood, and then it all goes dark.
Sheriff Brackett takes over for Laurie with Lyn and Mason as she goes to the hospital. She keeps it together in front of her kids and on the drive to Haddonfield General, but once she gets into the emergency room they both almost died in (twice) and sees a pale, crying Mya, she loses it.
The nurses all know who she is and try to keep her as comfortable as possible, but it's still the longest wait of her life.
Finally, the doctor comes out and tells her what she was praying for: Annie and the baby are okay. She's exhausted, but okay. The baby, a boy, is a little on the small side, and in need some precautionary tests, but he's expected to be just fine too.
When Laurie walks into Annie's hospital room and sees her lying in the bed, hooked up to tubes and wires, it feels like Halloween night all over and she starts to cry again.
Annie scowls as best as she can and rasps out, "Laurie, I'm okay"
Laurie just nods as she drags a chair as close to the bed as she can get it, sits, and promptly slumps over so she's lying with her head next to Annie's chest. Annie runs her fingers through her wife's hair until she's ready to talk.
"Don't scare me like that ever again, baby. Three times is enough."
"Yeah, I thought it might be getting kind of old by now."