To See You Again: A Raura Fanfic

Twenty-Two

Read my new story: The Definition of Love (Raura)
Twenty-Two

Laura pulls down her hood as she steps into the hotel, entering the lobby. When she looks up, she finds Rydel, Rocky, Riker, and Ellington rush over to her.

"Laura, oh my god! Where were you?" Rydel asks. "You've been gone all morning!"

"Yeah, you could have told us you were going out!" Rocky says.

"Or at least answered your phone!" Ellington exclaims.

Before Riker can voice his opinion on this, Laura speaks up. "Listen, guys..." She starts, nervously. "I went to go see Ross... And I went to the police station... I-I have to tell you something..."

Riker seems like he doesn't want to hear it. "Why didn't you answer your phone? We've been calling all morning."

Laura glances over to him. "It's a long story. There's this girl, who I had to throw it at because she attacked me." She says, quickly to move on to what she was trying to get to. "So, Ross-."

Rydel cuts her off. "Wait, you've been attacked by someone and you go out alone without a phone!? Laura!"

"Okay, that doesn't matter right now. Let me just explain to you about Ross-."

Rydel intervenes again. "Here, take Ross's phone at the moment. We need to communicate with you somehow."

She takes it to make all of them quit speaking. "Guys!" Laura exclaims suddenly. "Seriously! I have to tell you something!"

They all shut up and stand silently to hear what she had to say. Laura continues, taking a deep breath before spitting out the horrible news. "Ross... He-he isn't going to make it. A nurse told me he'll be gone by ten pm. I'm so sorry. I went to the police station and tried to get them to start on the search earlier, but they wouldn't! I-I... I'm sorry."

R5 didn't look so confident Ross was going to make it. In fact, they were like how Laura was now. Distraught and destroyed.

Rydel makes a sad sound and covers her mouth with her hand, walking away from the rest of the group, probably to go up to her room. Ratliff goes after her.

"I'm sorry." Laura repeats.

Riker steps up to her, his eyes watery and glassy. "You don't have to be sorry, Laura. We know it's not your fault."

For some reason, describing the situation again caused her to cry... again. Would she ever stop? "I feel guilty... Like it was my fault."

"It's not your fault. You didn't know what food was poisoned. You couldn't have stopped this from happening in anyway." Riker tells her.

She couldn't make herself believe him. She glances at Rocky, who was staring into the distance, lost in thought. His expression was blank, completely unreadable. He was probably in shock. Was shock better than crying every five minutes?

She looks back to Riker, holding out Ross's phone. "Here, take this back. I won't accept his phone. He'd always been protective of it and didn't want me to see anything. I can't do this to him..."

"No. Laura, he wanted you to look through it when they knew he wasn't going to make it. He wanted to tell you something..." Riker says.

"He is going to make it!" Laura shouts, so loud that Ms. Anderson looks up from her desk. She forgot about her.

Riker is silent for a second. He looks deep into her eyes, speaking lowly. "You know damn well he isn't coming back. We all do. You need to let go of him. He's not going to want you to remember him. He wants you to live a good life. Even if it's going to be without him."