Disclaimer: Nothing you recognise is mine
Pairing: Bo/Lauren; minor Kenzi/Hale
Rating: M
A/N: This is my first foray into fanfiction in years and it's unbeta-ed so I apologise for any mistakes or typos. Constructive criticism is welcome, I'd love to hear what you guys think. If you enjoy it, reviews are greatly appreciated.
Lauren drifted into consciousness to the muffled sounds of stomping feet and hushed whispering getting slowly closer until the door of the bedroom was ripped open and she was forced to open her eyes and face whomever it was that had disturbed her surprisingly peaceful slumber. She hadn't slept that well in a long time but as wakefulness slowly caught up with her she realised why, she was wrapped in Bo's warm arms resting her head on her chest and her hand still clutching possessively at the succubus' pyjama t-shirt.
Bo too had obviously been roused by the intrusion and they both shifted positions slightly to observe the intruder. Bo's hand released her grip on the knife under her pillow when she realised who it was.
"Rise and shine, ladies!" exclaimed Kenzi coming to sit at the foot of the bed "There's much to be done and we can't have the newlyweds lying in bed all day, now can we? That's not very Wisteria lane of you."
Bo grumbled slightly and retorted "Actually, I think that's exactly what and couple of newlyweds would do on a Saturday morning. Oh, and good morning by the way," she added.
Dyson, who had until now been standing at the door, entered the room.
"Look, we're sorry for the rude awakening but we do have a lot to do today. We need to get our plans straight and prepared and we need to actually organise this party you're supposed to be hosting," said gruffly but not unkindly.
It was then that Lauren began to recall where she actually was; this wasn't the Clubhouse nor was it her apartment in the Dark Compound. No, this was her temporary home in the suburbs while she and Bo went undercover. There had been some unusual deaths and disappearances in the area of the past few weeks and they had concluded that it was of Fae origin.
The victims seemed mainly to be newlywed couples who had just moved into the neighbourhood and were still utterly in love. They deaths were usually murder-suicides or mysterious seeming joint suicides and Dyson had discovered a strange talisman hidden in each of their homes.
Naturally, this meant that the only logical conclusion Dyson had come up with was that someone needed to go undercover to lure the killer out. He had immediately gone to Bo and the rest of them with the case and explained his plan, he of course had intended for himself and Bo to be the newlyweds in question but Trick had pointed out that the residents of the area already knew him as a detective and would not talk to him. Before Dyson had a chance to amend his plan Bo had decided that Lauren would go undercover with her instead.
They soon had a backstory and a house in Maple Crescent. The plan was simple, in theory. They were to move in and integrate themselves into the neighbourhood, mingle with the soccermoms and couch potato dads and attempt to find the killer. This was their second day in their new home and they had organised a party and invited the entire neighbourhood as a getting-to-know-you type of thing but Dyson, Hale and Kenzi were to be in attendance as both protection and so that Dyson could attempt to sniff out any Fae in the vicinity.
"Alright, we're getting up," Lauren appeased the two intruders "But can we please discuss this downstairs, I'm in desperate need of some caffeine."
"Ooh, only if you make us some of your famous pancakes, Doc," bargained Kenzi excitedly.
Lauren nodded amiably in response and chuckled as Kenzi leapt from the bed and did a fist pump.
"I've really missed your cooking around the clubhouse, Bobo's idea of cooking is boiling water for pot noodles," she informed the doctor.
"Hey, that's not entirely true," said an affronted Bo "I make a mean grilled cheese!"
The other's chuckled lightly in response and Lauren patted Bo's hand that still rested on her stomach comfortingly as she reluctantly began to extricate herself from the succubus' inviting embrace. She got out of bed and reached for her robe that hung on the back of the bedroom door, she tossed Bo's red floral kimono to her as she too rose from the bed.
Dyson eyed Lauren's stripy boxers and Yale t-shirt and smirked "Nice jammies, Doc."
She rolled her eyes at him and gave him a light thump on the chest as she passed him "Shut up Wolfy."
The pair of once bitter rivals had come to be quite good friends recently, as the years had passed they had become civil toward each other and now they were quite playful. This development worried Bo immensely. They rivalry was still very much present but they had developed a grudging truce as they realised that the other was the only other person who understood their predicament and frankly they began to understand that if Bo was drawn to the other they couldn't have been that bad.
"The domestic jammies look is definitely working for you, Lauren, ignore the jealous wolfman," said Bo as she followed Lauren out of their bedroom on the second floor and down the stairs to their large open plan living area leaving the other pair to trail after them.
The house was extremely luxurious and Bo found herself on more than one occasion getting caught up in the picket fence fantasy of herself and Lauren in the suburbs. The living area was divided up into a kitchen area which was bracketed off by a curved island with barstools on one side, a dining space with a large oak table and a sitting room area with beautiful worn tan leather couches and arm chairs in a U-shape around the television which was held on a large wooden shelving unit that was stacked with books and DVDs including many of Lauren's medical textbooks and her prized Star Trek boxset collection as well as Bo's favourite books and some of her guilty pleasure rom-coms.
They had done a surprisingly good job decorating the place to look as though Bo and Lauren actually lived there which really only proved to complicate the fantasy in both women's heads. Parts of them secretly longed for a life like this together but their relationship was complicated to say the least and they were both unsure of where they stood as it had only been a few weeks since their passionate reunion in the Morrigan's mansion but since then they had been in a state of flux, sharing a few heated kisses but nothing more and now they had to be convincing as a newlywed couple. That was not a difficult challenge for them, as they had proven for the first few months of their relationship last year; they were more than capable of being the insufferably lovey-dovey couple but with all the unspoken issues between them it had become difficult to see where the line between acting and real life was.
"So," began Bo as she settled on one of the bar stools, "What exactly is the plan?"
Dyson and Kenzi sat themselves on stools next to Bo as Lauren began to gather ingredients and turn on the coffee machine.
"Well, you two lovely ladies will be playing the hostesses with the mostesses and schmoozing with the Stepford Wives while we will be posing as your adoring family and WolfJunk here will try to sniff out the Fae-zy killer, capiche?" said Kenzi.
Dyson shook his head affectionately as the youngest woman before clarifying.
"We need you guys to blend in here, gain their trust because one of them is either the killer or working for the killer. Trick has been examining the symbol we found on each talisman and he suspects that it's related to an ancient sect of fae that worshipped Styx-"
"The Greek goddess of hate?" interrupted Lauren as she mixed the pancake batter.
"Yeah, well she was actually just a powerful fae that the humans worshipped, like all the Greek gods but there was a whole underground fae movement in the 18th century where certain fae began to worship her post mortem and perform all kinds of heinous crimes against people in love," explained Dyson.
"Like an anti-cupid," commented Bo.
"Pretty much and you guys are going to have to be the bait so you'll need to act the part," Dyson grimaced to himself even as he said it.
Lauren smirked as she handed him a cup of coffee.
"Oh shut up," he sighed at her with a playful glint in his eye.
Bo eyed the two and shook her head at their bizarre relationship although she was glad she no longer needed to mediate because she was beginning to feel a bit like a WWE referee when it came to the two of them, now she learned that they actually hung out with out her on occasion.
"I think we can pull it off, don't you?" the succubus grinned at Lauren coming to stand beside her at the stove putting her arm around the doctor's robe clad waist. Lauren looked up from the pancakes in the pan to look at Bo but her breath hitched slightly as she realised how close Bo's face was to her own. A small smile appeared on Bo's face having noticed Lauren's response.
"Oh barf!" said Kenzi teasingly "ETA on the pancakes Doc?"
Lauren shook herself out of her daze and examined the pastries, she had a few done already which she placed on a plate to appease the seeming bottomless pit that was the small girl.
Kenzi groaned through a huge mouthful of pancake "Forget what I said Hotpants. You know I love ya really."
The other three chuckled.
"So other than making nice with the Desperate Housewives, what can we do?" asked Bo "What should we be on the lookout for with these Styx worshippers?"
"There's not much you can do at this point. They might have the symbol somewhere on their person so keep an eye out for that and follow your instincts obviously if someone's acting strange but we need to just play it by ear for the moment," said the wolf.
"Wait," said Lauren, whirling around with the frying pan in her hand, pointing it accusingly at Kenzi "Earlier, did you say that you guys were going to pose as our family?"
"Oh yeah about that, we needed an excuse to be here so I am going to be Bobalicious' favourite little sister and Hale is going to be my boyfriend, duh, and D over here is going to be playing the role of your loving brother, Doc," Kenzi explained with a devilish grin. Bo and Lauren simultaneously snorted at the idea of Lauren and Dyson as siblings but it seemed that was in fact the plan.
Before they could comment however the doorbell rang and Lauren went to see who it was.
"Saved by the bell, dude," said Kenzi slapping Dyson on the back with a smirk.
"Yo, Little Mama," greeted Hale as he entered the kitchen behind Lauren with an armful if books. He went straight over to give Kenzi a lingering kiss before dropping the books on the island. He greeted the others before explaining why he was late, "Trick asked me to see him at the Dal because he had found some books that talked about these Styx worshippers apparently they used to be called the "Fuath"," He checked his watch "Shouldn't you guys be getting ready for the party? It starts in a few hours and we don't even have any food ready. Go on you guys go get dressed," he said two Lauren and Bo "I'll start the cooking."
Hale was the only one of the group other than herself that Lauren trusted with food preparations, she had tried his risotto, it was excellent.
"Come on then Mrs McCorrigan-Lewis," grinned Bo "Let's go get ready for the party."
A/N 2: Thanks for reading. Let me know what you thought.