Lauren walked into her favorite coffeehouse desperate for her favorite pastry, a warm decaf, and a chair that wasn't sitting in the lab. She knew going nearly 20 hours without any real food was harmful on the human body, but the last couple of hours of skipping something from the few takeout places that were open in favor of waiting for the cafe to welcome customers always proved worth the wait.

In a rare stroke of luck someone had opened a genuine French café a reasonable distance from her condo. It was not the world's shortest detour after leaving work, but it was close enough that she could rationalize it has having a quiet, yet not isolated, place to do some paperwork in exchange for getting something remarkable every once and a while. The fact that her occasional treat had been a twice a week habit for months now and she never had brought any work with her did nothing to change her rationalization.

As the line cleared away though, Lauren felt herself smile a little. In addition to the atmosphere that instantly seemed to draw people in and spend time enjoying their breakfast, there were some notable benefits that Lauren had discovered. In particular, her favorite reason for having breakfast within the café was a barista with light brown hair that held only the faintest touch of red. The woman was local, and a Korrigan, but when she shouted her order to the back in French, it did leave Lauren wondering what other words the woman knew and what it might sound like echoing off her bedroom walls.

"My mystery woman," The barista, Ami, greeted her with a smile before putting in her usual order without asking. "Here for decaf and gone before the rush. Leaving me all alone without even a way call to ask you to coffee."

Lauren just smiled back. "If only there was some way of communicating that offer without a phone." The pedant hanging from her neck typically acted as a barrier between herself and the Fae, but the other woman seemed to enjoy trying to guess little things about her life while flirting rather shamelessly with her. Both had started the first time she went to order something in the café when Ami tried to guess her order. The attractive barista had the order completely wrong, which made her feel somewhat awkward as it occurred to her that guessing orders might be something the woman did often, but no one told her she didn't do well. The awkwardness faded after Ami, apparently noting the strange situation she had caused, admitted to never doing that before but needing something to get Lauren's pretty face to look at her instead of the cell phone.

"If only." Ami just handed her a receipt for the transaction and went to helping with filling orders.

Taking a seat at her favorite table Lauren couldn't help but notice the empty seat across from her. It was a bit sad that her own issues took much so much of her life that she immediately dismissed any thought of a relationship. Sure, the woman flirted shamelessly with her every visit, so it wasn't like there a chance of being turned down, but there could never be anything between them, even if she had the occasional vivid dream where there was literally nothing between them.

Although, it was not exactly as if her fantasy life was any more interesting than her personal life. Ami was about as close to heating up either one as anyone had gotten in years. Everything was too complicated to involve someone else. That was her motto, her creed, her personal Hippocratic Oath.

Fantasies and daydreams, though, were harmless. A bit pathetic maybe, but they were easy to work into her schedule. Besides, they were never about anyone that did not seem willing, maybe even a little eager, to turn those thoughts of fiction into a reality. Be it her barista Ami, or some stranger at a bar, she was the one that kept conversations from going beyond harmless flirting.

The thought of one-night stands had crossed her mind, but inviting someone into her home for a night wasn't appealing and unless she had to travel to help a patient Lauren insisted on being alerted to any emergency calls.

"Decaf and gougère for the Doctor." The new guy that put her order on the counter was obviously a bit confused by the name and it occurred to Lauren that she herself didn't really know when she started feeling as if even something as simple as her name had to be protected. Slowly getting up to get her coffee, Ami was already putting up the next one out when she smiled at Lauren before calling for the customer.

The name gave Lauren pause for a reason she didn't understand until its recipient was standing next to her. "Bo?"

There was always a chance of running into someone she knew from the clinic on her day off, but Lauren would never have guessed her infamous new patient would be one of them.

Bo heard two different people call her name yet her head turned to the woman standing next to her. "Doctor Lewis?" She hadn't seen the woman after the whole chose a side or we kill you ceremony, but even without the white coat the woman would still stand out in a crowd.

"Hi." Lauren fidgeted, wishing she had her lab coat and a chart in her hands instead of holding her breakfast and wearing what she had changed into after leaving the lab. Not that the typical barriers had seemed to matter to the young succubus the last time they met.

"Hi." Bo smiled politely, yet found herself at a loss for what exactly she was supposed to say. It was nothing personal against the doctor, but what could she say to someone for trying to use them to escape? Even days later she still felt bad about it.

The two woman just stood there for a moment, neither one sure what to say about their situation. Someone behind them eventually cleared their throat, disrupting the awkward silence that had quickly developed between them.

Realizing that the counter of a busy café was not the best place to hold a conversation, or just to stand there staring at each other, Lauren looked to her little table with the second chair that was never used. "I've got a table near the back if you want to sit down?"

Bo considered the question for a few seconds before offering a nod of her head. Since there was no way to turn back time and her only real alternative was to run back to the shack where the nonexistent walls that were starting to close in on her, it couldn't hurt to sit down for a few minutes. "Lead on."

Moving so Bo could rescue her respective breakfasts before the customers of not enough caffeine and being awake too early grabbed whatever was sitting out in their hurry to get to the office, the two settle at Lauren's table, which sat in a space all its own. Coffee was sipped, pastries were poked at, and silence ruled supreme until the Fae finally spoke up.

"This is a nice place." A painfully obvious statement, but to Bo her only real alternative was to sit there for another ten minutes before lying about having to be somewhere else.

"Yeah, it has a very authentic feel to it and everything is made fresh." Lauren offered a slight tilt of her head to the crazy people that did seem to mistake the café for their local Starbucks. "I like getting in here before the morning rush starts; can't find a place to sit otherwise."

"Oh, do you have to go into work early?" Bo thought Lauren would be the early morning type. Maybe coming to the café after a run, or hitting the gym, but before work. The doctor looked like she worked out and Bo smiled at the images suddenly in her head of the doctor in skin tight gym attire trying to catch her breath. Or maybe she wasn't the treadmill and weights type, but rather into yoga. Yeah, that would work. The doctor had those legs and lean torso. She could definitely see that blonde hair in a messy bun as the woman bent at the waist to work her core. The image alone was certainly working for Bo's before something interrupted it.

"Bo? Are you okay?" Lauren had been explaining her schedule, or perhaps rambling would be more accurate, but Bo looked distracted by something Lauren couldn't see. In fact it appeared that she was either in a meditative trance or having a seizure.

"Huh?" Bo put the movie playing in her head, where she was an yoga instructor and the doctor was her most promising student and they were about to engage in some advanced techniques, on pause after the interruption. Of course it would be right at that time that she remembered what was happening before the movie started that there is suddenly skin on skin contact.

"Are you okay?" Lauren, without hesitation, stretched out her hand to where it lightly brushed the tops of Bo's fingers, down her palm to the woman's wrist. It seemed innocent enough as she was simply concerned with the woman's health. Right. Completely Professional. Just like the first exam. "Your pulse is elevated and you're pupils were not responsive."

"Oh, that." Bo smiled as she realized what had Lauren so concerned. She really had no reason to run her own fingers along the top of Lauren's other hand nor to place them against the woman's pule point, mirroring what the doctor had done with her, but that didn't stop her. "I get distracted by pretty lights sometimes and you doctor are a very pretty light."

Lauren for her part wasn't even sure where she was anymore. One moment she was making sure her former patient, or new patient, or whatever their relationship was, wasn't showing signs of Epilepsy and then she had ended up in Oz where her mind had the good witch across from her doing very naughty things and the temperature of the room was suddenly elevated. Regaining her sense of normalcy did seem to take longer then she would have thought, but Bo's lingering touch was proving very distracting.

"Thank you. I uh I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything from the exam." The words came out more stuttered than was normal for her usual calm and collected voice, but if her breakfast companion noticed she didn't seem to react.

"I don't think you need worry about that doctor. I seem to recall you were very thorough." Bo just smiled briefly before quickly realizing her hand was still very much in contact with Lauren's and vice versa. Withdrawing the rogue hand and returning it to the safety of the table was the smart thing to do, it would be wisely distancing herself from contact that would of course only make the urge to reach across the table and having the doctor for breakfast worse. Instead she kept it exactly where it was.

Lauren, trying to find a way to ignore the look she was receiving from the brunette seated across from her, Lauren noticed the sun was shining through the windows far more clearly than when she had first encountered the succubus, which meant she could be keeping the woman from something important. She had certainly been enjoying Bo's presence, more so than her abandoned breakfast anyways, but it wasn't right to go on without saying anything as for all she knew the woman had to do whatever it was the young succubus did during the day. "It's getting later, I don't want you to have any problems if you need to be somewhere."

The considerate, yet surprising, comment seemed to linger between them in that zone of awkward silence that had almost ended their conversation before it started and Bo shrugged at the thought of having something to do. "I'm taking a few days just to figure out more of the city. Kenzi, the girl I rescued, thinks we need become PIs and insisted I do recon. So as long as I'm back up with coffee, but not before twelve, she won't install any locks."

"Install locks?" The unexpected response piqued Lauren's interest. There was a personal detail, a rather minor one, but still something more than she knew about the succubus before the morning started. Though with that interest Lauren felt that twinge of concern returned as well. Living somewhere without locks on the door sounded risky, even for a Fae.

Bo felt a genuine smile pull on her lips as she remembered how organized, yet flustered, the doctor seemed during their time together. "I know most people move into a new place and change the locks just to be sure no one else can get in. Kenzi got us some swords instead."

Lauren found she was suddenly rather interested in this Kenzi that the woman across from her mentioned. "Kenzi is human and you're living together?" It wasn't unheard of for Fae that survive on chi to live with humans instead of other Fae, but never just a single human and certainly those humans wouldn't be allowed to make any demands of them.

"Yeah, or well she says she human, but I have never seen a human eat that much food, drink that much vodka or watch so many cartoons." The small Russian goth was certainly odd, but finding the little sister she never had, and one that wouldn't be stealing her clothes, at least not to wear them anyways, was rather awesome.

Lauren wasn't clear on the relationship between the two, but if it was platonic that would be even more unusual for a succubus, yet it made her smile that Bo would engage in such an unorthodox relationship. "Well, there are a number of Fae that have been known to disguise themselves even around other Fae. I could exam her, make sure she's not a Loki, or Djinn, but a full blood workup is the only way to be sure."

"According to Kenzi she's not interested in being examined by women, but I'll let her know that the offer stands." Bo for her part just smirked and enjoyed watching as the blonde blushed and pushed her food around as if it would somehow make a difference. Of course even if Kenzi was interested, Bo wasn't interested in sharing, but Lauren did not need to know that.

While it took a few minutes of silence before Lauren was calm enough to look at the other woman without turning a deep shade of red, if her flushed skin tone wasn't awkward enough she knew the woman could see her energy. They exchanged small smiles a few times before she could convince herself to face what she had done and proceed to make an idiot out of herself trying to explain it. "About what happened during the exam," Looking at the Cheshire cat grin Lauren swore she saw the brown eyes turn blue, which was not helping her thought process any. There was something going on behind that look and it frankly made her a bit nervous not to be able to tell what it was. "I don't usually say things like that to my patients."

"You mean the thing where you suddenly come onto them when they are sitting their naked?" The amusement factor of making Lauren uncomfortable was far better than anything Bo had felt before and she couldn't resist the opportunity.

"Yes. Though, professionally speaking, I stand by what I said." Admittedly, it sounded like a weak line even to Lauren, but having Bo's eyes fixed on her wasn't helping her situation.

"And how about personally speaking?" Bo really felt like she could keep it up for hours. She got the sense that the woman didn't enjoy all life had to offer, which was a shame and something Bo would happily remedy.

Lauren just looked back down at the very cold coffee and scattered crumbs that consisted of her breakfast, trying to get away from what the other woman was implying, from what she was about to say. "Perfect."

Perfect? Bo thought the word suited Lauren far better than it suited her and it reminded her of the recent action she had taken that harmed the perfect doctor. "I'm so sorry if I made things weird for you around the compound or with your boss. I shouldn't have tried to use you like that."

"You were scared and you wanted to get somewhere safe Bo, that's nothing to be ashamed of. Someone else might have grabbed a scalpel, or a syringe, and used it if they saw an opportunity to escape." Lauren had spent the days since analyzing the encounter. It had been a rather pleasant experience really and there were worst ways to be taken hostage. "If I had to pick between the two, your method would certainly be my preference."

"Well that is good to know. I'd hate to think I was losing my charm." Bo tried to shake the sudden image of a manic pressing a scalpel to Lauren's neck. The thought settled somewhere in the back of her mind, lingering, but she had shifted her focus back to winning Lauren's ideal hostage taker award. A bit strange, but she felt oddly pleased with the victory nonetheless.

"I don't think you need worry about that happening." Lauren understood the odds of something developing between them was a stupid bet no one would take, but she wasn't planning on anything developing. She simply wanted to help the woman. "If you're still interested in my help, I mean we would need to do a complete blood work up to start with, and you couldn't tell anyone, but I have some injections that might help with your hunger. They were for an Incubus I treated, the basic principal should be the same though. It would require some careful monitoring, and I couldn't treat you officially, but it might help."

"I'd like that. How did you even get involved with them anyways? Did they just put out a help wanted ad for insatiably curious doctors and then slam the door shut after you walked into the lab?" Somehow Bo could see Lauren needing to make sense of such a strange ad and yet falling for such an obvious trap didn't fit.

"Nothing that exciting." As Lauren ran her fingers over the pendant around her neck, but it was Bo's light touch to her arm that eased her anxiety. "There was an outbreak in the Congo region of Africa about five years ago that the locals called blood fever. It wasn't really covered by the news and most doctors that heard about it heard enough to decide that building a natural immunity was the only hope the locals had. "

Lauren shook her head as memories of the arguments she had with her colleagues about making an actual effort filled her head. "These were tribal people; they barely acknowledged the existence of the world outside their villages. The disease had a fatality of rate of almost 73% and in such an isolated area a population loss of 72.81% is an extinction event. Even if the surviving population was genetically diverse, and of an age to have children, with no leaders to look they would have been driven to seek out a new society."

"Yet you cured it." Bo felt a growing sense of hope at the impending conformation. If the doctor could stop Armageddon there had to be something she could do about stopping her from killing people.

"Yes, but it took months and containment measures failed twice. When looking at those that were immune I noticed that it was entire families, but none had any signs of genetic traits that suggested that they were descents of previous outbreak survivors. It was actually in those that were affected by the blood fever that the genetic differences showed up. Entire strains of unique traits that didn't exist in any human and I couldn't explain."

"The tribes were Fae?" Okay so she had only seen their evil headquarters for a short time, but Bo assumed she was the only Fae not living in a mansion and grabbing random people off the street just to pass the time.

"I spent days afterward just going through the same tests with all the samples, using different equipment and even investigating my own senses to make sure there weren't any errors. When I came up with the cure the treated patients recovered far too quickly and too few had reactions to the immunization."

"So you saved a bunch of Fae and in turn they locked you in a lab? Lauren…" What could she say to make it better? Sorry? Bo knew the Ash was cold, but enslaving a human for fixing their mess went beyond being an asshole.

"It's not like that Bo, but thank you." Lauren noticed their proximity, somehow they had shifted closer during the topic, and that Bo's hand hadn't left her arm. Just as she was about to cross a line and do something incredibly stupid about Bo's lips being so close some obnoxious sound burst into existence, shattering their little world.

For Bo it took a few seconds before she realized her phone was ringing. No. Correction. Her phone was blasting 'Barbie Girl' by Aqua in a relatively full, though quiet, French Café just as she was about to do something more far enjoyable than practicing self-control. She muted it after the song progressed several more bars, but was still confused by who the hell Fashionista Ninja was and what they hell they had done to her phone. "Hello?"

"Coffee."

"What?" Bo looked to Lauren, who seemed to be looking at her plate of obliterated food again.

"Coffee. Now. Coffee. And donuts."

"Kenzi?" The voice was raspy, almost like an old man that had smoked two packs a day for 60 years, but Bo was certain her newly acquired friend was the only person that would call her demanding breakfast.

"There is no Kenzi. Only Zuul and Zuul needs coffee now."

That was the last thing Bo heard before her roommate hung up on here. Noticing Lauren was looking at her completely confused, Bo could only shrug. "Apparently Kenzi's awake. At least I hope that was Kenzi. What is Zuul? Is that some sort of Fae?" Bo felt herself start to panic, hoping she hadn't invited some evil Fae to stay with her.

"No Bo, its, well it's a reference, but no, Zuul isn't a Fae, at least not as far as I know, and it sounded more like a hangover than a possession." Lauren smiled at how cute Bo looked when she clearly had no idea what she had gotten into with taking on a roommate. "Probably best you do as she says though. Don't want to make Zuul angry, you wouldn't like him was he's angry."

"I thought you said he didn't exist?" Bo had no idea what was going on any more. She couldn't figure out how Kenzi put a song as a ring tone, or why Lauren was contradicting herself, but either way she expected another call if she didn't get going with the food.

"It's nothing. Never mind." Lauren felt high school flash before her eyes of being the nerdy girl that had no business talking to the hot cheerleader, but those attempts never ended with a kiss on the cheek, which yeah, Bo had just given her.

"Thank you and I was serious, I want to try those treatments if you think they'll help." Bo pried herself away from the table, after plating a quick kiss on Lauren's cheek because she had some sense left not to go for the lips and end up completely distracted by the doctor, thus getting locked out of the club house by a tiny, angry, Russian girl with a hangover. She got a large order to go figuring that an angry Kenzi probably consumed more food than a happy Kenzi, but stopped just short of the exit when she noticed Lauren hadn't moved.

"Same time tomorrow Doc? We can discuss how you're going to be poking me without your boss finding out." Bo was certain everyone left in the café had stopped what they were doing in that moment and Bo left the good doctor to the stares with a smile.