Shattered Calm

Laura Fields had once been a statistic, a pregnant teenager lucky enough to have the support she needed to keep her daughter. The same daughter who was now seventeen and eerily like Laura herself had been at that age, a pretty and intelligent cheerleader at her high school. Two hours after Jenna Ambrose desperately left her sweet seven year old in Laura's care, the blonde still hadn't returned to bed. It had taken a long time to calm down the scared girl, since Laura knew nothing more about the situation than what Jenna had hurriedly told her: Taylor was very sick.

When Haley finally fell asleep around 7 a.m, curled up in Laura's lap, she didn't have the heart to move. Listening absently to the steadily ticking clock on the wall, she thought about the past and how Jenna Ambrose had lent her the wisdom of experience for the first year of her daughter's life. Even though Jenna only became a mother herself when Cassandra was a year old, she had been endlessly supportive of the overwhelmed teen Laura was in the beginning. Their friendship was an unlikely one, but through the early kindness and Taylor's diagnosis at the age of six, it stuck. Suddenly Laura's cell phone, lying on the coffee table in front of her, began to vibrate violently. Carefully she leaned forward and grabbed it, even as Haley stirred slightly in her sleep.

"Hello?" she answered softly.

"Laura," that was Jenna's voice, choked and broken, not good. Laura had her suspicions what the news would be but that didn't make it any less painful when her friend said; "He's gone…my baby is dead!"

"Oh God Jen," Laura said, the sobs at the other end of the line robbing her of words. "Honey, I'm so sorry!" She paused, her fingers curled tightly around the phone as she tried to compose herself. "I managed to get Haley to go back to sleep," she informed, feeling lame in the scheme of things. "It's still very early, want me to bring her down to the hospital when visiting hours start?" she offered sadly.

"Please," Jenna sighed, Laura had never heard anyone sound so drained before. "I owe you one."

"No you don't," Laura replied firmly; "She's a good kid. Just try and get some rest okay? We'll see you in a few hours, love you."

"Thank you," Jenna said softly, her short answers were conveying everything right now, pain and gratitude rolled into one. Then the line went dead and Laura hung up with a new dilemma on her hands: How on earth would she tell Cassie the bad news?

Conflicted, Laura just sat biting her lip for a moment with Haley's gentle breathing sounding in her ears. She owed it to Jenna to keep Haley calm and that meant not moving, there was only one thing to do. Frowning, she dialed her husband's cell and prayed for an answer. He was starting a new job at the fire station the next day, complete with routine long nights, so she regretted disrupting the last day of peace. Except peace, it turned out, was relative of course. It seemed like an eternity until she heard Nick's groggy voice; it was instantly calming to her frayed emotions. "Laurie, what the hell?"

"Get downstairs and you'll see," she hissed, even so Haley clenched her fists and curled closer to Laura's chest. "I'm sorry, but it's an emergency!" With that she dropped the phone again and leaned back, trembling.

In minutes she heard Nick's slippers making a racket on the carpeted staircase and looked up, relieved and worried Haley would stir at the same time. "Quietly," she warned and watched him come to an astonished halt at the foot of the stairs. Even straight out of bed, it always hit her how dashing her man was. The greeting smile unfortunately didn't last when he spotted Haley cuddled against his wife's chest. "What's going on here?"

"Pass me that cushion," Laura requested quietly by way of answer, pointing at the adjoining couch. Nick did so and she carefully slid it under Haley's head and paced towards him. "In the kitchen," she murmured and dragged him down the hall so they wouldn't disturb the little girl. She clicked the kitchen door shut and drew the increasingly confused Nick into a desperate hug.

"What happened, babe?" he prompted, rubbing her back soothingly. "What's Haley doing here?"

"Jenna dropped her off a few hours ago," she said. "Taylor got sick suddenly and she needed to go down to the hospital." She blinked up at him, the swell of tears below the surface making her throat ache. "Is…is Cassie still asleep?" she asked, the words sticking in her throat.

"Of course she is," Nick nodded, "it's Sunday after all." He hugged her a little closer to him, bless that sixth sense he always boasted about. "Is Taylor okay?"

Laura could only shake her head by this point; "Dead," she choked, Cassie's inevitable reaction was haunting her already. "Jenna just called…he's gone! How on earth are we going to break this to Cassie?"

Nick froze at the words; he didn't have an answer for that. "Holy shit," he swore and Laura sighed and pressed closer to him. There was no right way to respond to this tragedy, all anyone could do was to try and cope. Nick ran his fingers through his defiantly messy blonde hair and gave Laura a squeeze; "Poor Jenna," he said sympathetically. "Are you taking Haley down to the hospital later?"

"Yeah, least I could offer," Laura replied. "Poor baby."

He pressed a kiss to her forehead; "I fall more in love with you every day Laura Fields, you know that?"

Laura very nearly smiled as the tragedy of the day still left room for her to feel like the luckiest woman alive. Not many other teenagers who had lived through the situation she had ended up with such blessed lives. People often looked at her and Nick like an ultimate cliché but the fact remained that she adored him and literally always had. "You flatter me," she smirked. Just then there was a commotion down the hall and the kitchen door cracked open.

"Are you two done being mushy?" Cassie muttered, rolling her eyes at the pair of them. Laura felt her heart sink; her daughter had Haley right behind her. The younger girl's lip was quivering again and Cassie stared at her as she helped herself to some cereal for breakfast. "What's she doing here, Mom?"

Laura exchanged a desperate glance with her husband and he thankfully took the hint. "Want to watch some TV over breakfast, Cass? Sunday treat!" Good thing they were normally strict about that kind of thing, the prospect distracted Cassandra for the moment. Laura mouthed her thanks as Nick led their daughter out of the room and turned her attention to Haley at last.

"Are you hungry, sweetheart?" she asked gently. Haley nodded absently but grabbed Laura's hand when the woman turned to get her a cereal bowl.

"I want my Mommy," she moaned pitifully.

Laura knelt down carefully and drew the small girl into a hug. "I know Haley, I'll take you to see her soon, I promise!"

"She promised she'd come back," Haley murmured against Laura's shoulder and she could feel the girl's tiny frame suddenly trembling with sobs.

"She will," Laura stressed. "You'll see her soon, don't cry!" The seven year old girl was still light enough to pick up, so that's what Laura did. There was no need to push the distraught girl over the edge with the news that though her mother would be embracing her soon, Taylor never would again. There couldn't be much more delay of the inevitable, Haley needed Jenna. Trying not to think about Cassie in this position Laura held onto her best friend's daughter and let her cry.

A / N My OC's are inspired by Clinn so after two OTH stories I finally got the inspiration for this. Hope everyone likes them! xx