Lauren didn't hear the first knock at her door properly, she was too engrossed in her work. The second was more pronounced, so she rose and walked to the door to answer it. "Hello?" Lauren was slightly confused as she had never seen the girl in front of her before and nobody came to the compound without knowing exactly who they were looking for. The girl looked harmless, with mid brown wavy hair, bare looking make up and a casual dress sense she wasn't exactly threatening but Lauren had learned not to trust appearances.
"Um, hi. Are you Dr Lewis?" the girl was pulling at the hem of her skirt, it looked like the kind that rides up a lot, Lauren thought.
"Yes I am. And may I ask who you are?"
"Oh, yeah. Sorry," the girl smiled apologetically "I'm Ava, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute, I just have a few questions, see my friend's in trouble I think, like medically. And I got told you would be the person to come to, maybe?" She was talking 100 miles an hour and gesturing wildly with her hands. Lauren was unsure as to how this girl could possibly have obtained her contact details, never mind actually get into the compound.
"Okay, can I ask how you got my address?"
"Well the guy wouldn't tell me his name, and how I found the guy is a really long story. I'm uh sorry for intruding, I just really needed to find someone to help my friend."
Lauren was reluctant but also intrigued and once again her curiosity got the better of her, "Ok, I'll listen to what you have to say but I can't promise I'll be of any help. Come in." She opened the door wider and shut it behind Ava once she had walked through.
Lauren turned to see Ava waiting at the counter, "You can sit down," Lauren smiled and told the smaller girl as she approached to take her own seat at the island counter in the kitchen.
"Thanks. And thanks for letting me in, the directions for getting here were ridiculously cryptic." She paused in thought for a moment, still very tense and awkward, "So, um, my friend. She's not really sure if a normal doctor would be able to help her with this."
"Go on," Lauren prompted the girl to continue.
"Well she's in a kind of an abusive relationship with this guy and well she's ended up pregnant. And one of the reasons she doesn't want to leave is because she's scared of him, obviously. But there's something different about him, she's not sure what but he's um different somehow?" Lauren started to think she knew where this was going but was still caught up on how this girl had managed to find her. "So he doesn't know that she's pregnant and she wants to have an abortion, she's going to the clinic next week actually. But we weren't sure if that would be...enough. Because he's not, well he seems kind of..."
"How much do you know about the Fae?" Lauren cut the girl off, the girl clearly knew about them and there was no way of side stepping the subject.
The girl was trying to be careful with what she said, she was very unsure of her words.
"Oh, um well not much, that's kind of the problem." she was slightly taken aback by how blunt the doctor's question was. "I know that they're called Fae and they're supernatural? Or something. I kind of still don't believe any of it though. I mean, it's impossible, right? But here I am after two weeks of trying to track these "Fae" down."
"Ok, in regards to your friend, a standard procedure abortion should be enough to terminate. But depending on the type of Fae there may be complications. How far along is she?" Lauren always kept a level head in order to focus on the main issue at hand, she would try and find out more about the girl after wards.
"4 or 5 I think."
"Okay, that's not too bad but some Fae have an accelerated development rate," Lauren thought things over for a few moments. Although she wanted to help the girl she was forbidden to help any humans. After she had agreed to work with both the light and dark she had still agreed to work exclusively with the Fae. But she too had had a friend when she was younger who was in an abusive relationship and had heard about the horror of it first hand and this girl had nobody else to go to, "if you'd like your friend can come here next week after the procedure and I'll give her some routine checks. But you should know that my contract doesn't allow this so nobody can know that you're bringing her here."
"No, of course. Are you sure? I mean, thank you. I didn't think I'd be able to find out anything at the rate things were going. Thank you so much."
Lauren smiled and realised how relieved the girl was to have her help, she looked exhausted.
"Um also I was kind of looking around for this place for about two hours, do you mind if I use your bathroom?" Ava asked the doctor sheepishly.
"Yeah, sure. It's upstairs, third door on the right." Ava got up and headed for the stairs after thanking her. Lauren was glad she could help this girl but was also extremely conflicted about it. She definitely did not need more trouble from the Fae and didn't want to violate her contract but there was something about the girl, she seemed so desperate to help her friend and Lauren couldn't refuse her in good conscience.
"Oh my God, woah." Laurens head jerked up to the landing immediately to where the loud remark had came from. Ava appeared a few seconds later and Lauren had made her way nearer to the stairs to see better. "Sorry, I got the wrong room, it's just your Star Trek collection is ridiculously amazing." the girl laughed at herself slightly and became more composed, "So is it um.."
"The one on your right," Lauren smiled. No one had had that kind of reaction to finding out about her geeky collectables before, people had told her it was cute but she hadn't encountered anyone who was excited about it.
Ava returned downstairs a few minutes later to find Lauren reading one of her papers again. "Hey, thanks for everything and um sorry about the whole wrong room thing again."
"No, that's okay. So you're a big Star Trek fan then?" Lauren was genuinely curious, the girl didn't seem like the type.
"Yeah, I went to Comic Con last year and cosplayed as... sorry I'm totally geeking out here, I should be going." she looked somewhat embarrassed.
"Oh please, you just saw all my collectables upstairs. I don't think you have to worry about geeking out in front of me." Lauren laughed.
"Well is there anything I can do to thank you for everything? Like maybe I dunno, dinner or something?" the younger girl blushed slightly. Lauren was pleasantly surprised and thought she would like to see the girl again to find out how she got to her in the first place. But she was currently on 'lock-down' which meant she couldn't leave her apartment unattended since some dangerous Fae from the east had arrived. The Ash meant well by this and although it frustrated Lauren she had agreed to it to give Bo peace of mind. She could still go to the Dal as long as she was escorted there but she couldn't exactly bring along another human with her.
"I'd love to but I'm currently under house-arrest of sorts, some dangerous Fae are in town at the moment so I'm being kept to my work mostly," Lauren smiled regretfully.
"Well if you want I could bring some food over and we could marathon Next Generation? Just say no if I'm totally imposing though." Ava wasn't used to being nervous around people but after the day she'd had and the way the doctor was looking at her she found herself fidgeting nervously with the zipper on her leather jacket.
"Ok, I might take you up on that offer," Lauren was impressed at how bold the previously stuttering girl was being. "Here's my number, call me once your friend's been to the clinic and let me know how it goes." Lauren said whilst writing.
"Great, I will. And thanks again, honestly you have no idea how happy Leda's going to be, she was so worried we wouldn't find anyone. Wait, I'm so sorry I don't even know your first name."
"Oh it's Lauren, " the doctor explained, mentally kicking herself for not saying sooner and handed the girl the piece of paper with her number on it.
"Well, it's nice to meet you Lauren," Ava held out her hand as if they'd only just met and Lauren took it smiling.
"You too, Ava."