Disclaimer: The characters are not mine, though sometimes I wish they were ;) Lauren, Harry, Marilyn, Milton, Marla, Steven, Daniel and Kevin are property of David E. Kelly and FOX network. I just borrowed them to play a little. Everybody else is mine, though :)

Rating: PG 13, just to be safe

Category: Lauren/Harry -angst, romance, friendship

Marilyn/Lauren -friendship

Summary: Lauren has left, but where did she go?

Spoiler: Story is set after Season 2. Season 3 never really happened in my world ;)

Feedback is very much appreciated: allthingsjoliemoiyahoo.de

Chapter 2

The Importance of closure

Harry felt her entire body stiffen under his touch.

"Lauren, I can't do this" he said, "I need to know! At the very least I think you owe me an explanation!"

He let his hand drop from her shoulder waiting for her to turn around and face him. When Lauren finally did turn around the look on her face made Harry shudder. She looked as if she had just seen a ghost. Was she scared? If so then what the hell was she afraid of? She couldn't possibly be afraid of him now, could she?

"Lauren?" Harry gently asked her again, "What's wrong?"

Her mouth opened, then closed again without her having said a word.

Harry wasn't easily scared by anything or anyone, he'd had his fair share of dangerous encounters ranging from assaults by students to being threatened by gangs when he himself had been a teenager living with his father. They'd never had a whole lot of money and thus lived in an area of Philadelphia which would not likely appear on a tourist map. But nobody had ever scared him as much as Lauren did right now. He wanted to hold her, protect her from whatever she was afraid of and this sudden urge to comfort her scared Harry even more. He thought he'd had successfully overcome these feelings. Besides, her lack of movement had somehow been passed on to him. They stood there in unison, neither one of them moving so much as a twitch. Harry couldn't say how long they were standing like that, for he was completely and utterly lost in Lauren's big blue eyes. He was trying to find some answers, something he could work with, but all he could see was her fear and confusion.

Finally Lauren opened her mouth again. Harry tried to mentally prepare himself for whatever she was about to tell him. He was half expecting her to scream at him, yet all he heard her say was "Let's go somewhere quiet! Somewhere we can talk" and with that she grabbed him by the arm and led him into the small bar on their right.

They sat down at a table in the back of the room. Harry was still confused about what this was all about, why Lauren acted this way was beyond his imagination. He noticed her taking the seat at the wall and the way she was watching the bar's entrance……It was extraordinarily dark inside and he had a gut feeling she had deliberately chosen this particular seating arrangement for that very reason.

"Harry," she began, "I know you expect me to apologize, but I won't. I can't. All I can do is try to explain it and I hope you'll respect my reasons. I also need you to promise you'll leave it at that. We won't be able to see each other again. I need you to respect that as well."

Harry looked at her in disbelief. He hadn't understood a word Lauren had just said. What the hell was wrong? He felt like he was trapped in some sick episode of the x files, or some other creepy show like that where a lot of times people would have to disappear for fear of being exposed to whatever they had to hide from. And Lauren just about sounded exactly like those TV characters. This had to be a dream, or rather a nightmare, it was all a little too surreal. But if it was real, what was the big secret, what was the reason for Lauren's intense fear? Harry wanted answers, he needed them, but how in the world could Lauren expect him to promise his reaction to answers that he didn't know yet. This was getting stranger by the second and feeling himself becoming more and more irritated he tried taking a deep breath before replying. Lauren didn't look like she could take one of his infamous outbursts right now and he didn't want to upset her anymore than she already was. He knew what she had to tell him would be vital for him to put at least some of his demons to rest. Though Harry was good in bottling up his feelings, ignoring them whenever they would threaten to resurface, he was well aware that he needed closure. And if Lauren was to give him at least some, then so be it. He was ready.

Two hours later Harry was still sitting at the same table, in the same dark corner, staring at the same spot. Instead of Lauren's face, though, all that was left to stare at now was the wall. The candle that had been burning during most of their talk had burned down a while ago, leaving Harry to sit quitely in the darkness.

Lauren had left about an hour ago, though Harry wouldn't be able to say for sure. He was still trying to cope with what he had learned tonight. All this time he had been thinking it had been about him, he had blamed Lauren for keeping up the distance between them and had ultimately come to the conclusion that she hadn't just quit her job, but she had also quit on him. She had abandoned him and whatever the hell it was that had still been between them.

Now he had to learn that leaving Winslow High had never been her decision in the first place. She had been forced to do it. Daniel hadn't given her a choice. Thinking about Daniel made Harry incredibly angry. He had always hated that little prick and when he had threatened Lauren, Harry had been grateful for finally having an actual reason for all that hatred. But now just the thought of Daniel made him physically sick. He clenched his fists, feeling the great need to blast the crap out of something. Preferably Daniel.

"Would you like anything else, sir?"

Harry turned his head in the direction the unfamiliar voice had come from. The waiter was standing next to him, looking at him with a mixture of worry and underlying urgency

"How long have I been sitting here?" Harry asked him.

The waiter gave him a weird look, glanced down at his watch and back up at Harry. "Sir, your friend left about 45 minutes ago."

"Oh," Harry mumbled, "I'd like the cheque then, please."

"Sir, you only had a glass of water and that's for free." The waiter really grew impatient now.

Good grief, Harry thought, pull yourself together. You can't lose your mind over this Lauren thing. "I'm sorry," he apologized, "I'm gonna leave now. Thanks for the water anyway." He gupled down the remaining liquid, grabbed his jacket and left.

Once outside, he inhaled deeply. This just wasn't his day. He wondered where Lauren had gone. Probably home, wherever that was now. Harry prayed to God that Daniel hadn't followed either of them.