Silver ||Joel Miller||

insane enough to make this work

LAURA

"Are you okay?" Katarina asked as Laura began chopping up the vegetables for dinner.

"I'm fine," Laura answered as she cut through the potatoes with far too much ease.

"You had a night visit last night, I thought you might be in a good mood today. Was it bad?" Was it bad? It definitely wasn't bad in the way that Katarina likely thought it was.

"Yeah, it was bad," Laura replied. For a moment she had to put down the knife. Even though she'd finally realised he'd never fucking cared about her, she'd still slept like a fucking baby next to him. Damn him and his slow breaths that lulled her to sleep.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Laura shook her head and picked the knife back up to continue working. Of all the things she wanted to talk about, last night was not on the fucking list. Joel had never cared about her, he'd been the one to manipulate her into leaving and he'd never said a damned fucking word. She might have killed him if she didn't need him.

"I'm more interested in talking about Haven, and picking up where we left off yesterday," Laura replied, a smile plastered on her face she looked over her shoulder to Katarina.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Great, she had to earn the cook's trust again. Easily done.

"Look, Joel and I..." Laura trailed off. Was she about to actually say this shit? Did she actually trust the cook or not?

"There's been talk, that you two aren't who you say you are. Sean suspects that you're saying things simply to stay alive..." Katarina trailed off. Fuck. Their time really was limited then. "He thinks you night not even be pregnant, especially when your night visit wasn't even..."

"How the fuck would he know?" Laura asked, and Katarina shook her head.

"There's always evidence, but there was none this morning. Are you lying about who you are?" The grip Laura had on her knife tightened at the question. Even though her gut told her she wasn't in danger, it was hard to think the conversation was anything other than an interrogation. What Katarina was trying to work out, however, would impact how Laura moved forward.

"Yes," Laura replied. "Joel and I... we're working together to get across the country, but it's nothing more than that. We're not married, and I'm definitely not pregnant." Laura put the knife down and turned to face Katarina who had her blue eyes completely focused on Laura.

"Last night was about planning our way out, which we're going to do tonight because I have a kid hidden in the forest that I need to get back to. He actually wanted to leave last night while we weren't being watched but I didn't want to go, because I want to help you and the kids break free. We're at your disposal if you want us to fuck anything up on our way out, all we ask for in return is help leaving." Well, that was everything Laura had put onto the table. Either she'd chosen the right person to talk to about this or she was about to die. There was no middle ground.

"You'd help us?" Katarina asked. "Without knowing exactly what goes on here? Without knowing anyone here?"

"Yes," Laura answered simply. Katarina nodded and put down her own knife, her hands propped on the kitchen bench with her head tilted down.

"I told you that the women disappeared after giving birth without a trace..." Katarina trailed off.

"Yes, I remember that very distinctly."

"I lied. We all know exactly what happened to them." Katarina looked to the door of the kitchen before closing the distance between them. "Out west from here, there's the farm sector where we grow our crops and raise some animals for food. There's also one other building where anyone giving birth goes..." Laura didn't enjoy the sinking feeling she felt in her stomach.