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Chapter 1: No One Sings me Lullabies

Dr. Lauren Lewis had made all her dreams come true. Her job was healing both fae and humans, as well as research and development. And that she was fae, her and Bo were able to be an exclusive couple as she had planned for so long. Or, at least, so she thought. The doubts began three days after Tamsin had returned to live at the clubhouse. Well, not returned so much as she had been dragged there by Dyson, bloody and barely clinging to life. The shifter wasn't sure exactly what had happened to her, but speculated that Hades had found her and gave her the first installment of many more promised in payback for her betrayal of him. Lauren fully subscribed to this theory, since Bo's father had threatened his former employee in their presence. But his daughter was in denial that he would carry out his intentions after she had declared the Valkyrie off limits to him. Nevertheless, Bo had insisted the Valkyrie stay with them, for her own protection, until she worked out her issues with Hades or he returned to Tartarus for good. Lauren had treated her wounds as best she could. Since there was so little written about Valkyrie, there was not much she could do other than stop the bleeding and set broken bones. Tamsin didn't regain consciousness for two days, and when she did wake – she wasn't the same. In truth, none of them were the same after Kenzi left.

As she lie awake in her slumbering lover's arms, Lauren's mind wandered unintentionally into mulling over the consequences of releasing the overlord of Tartarus. While she and Bo had once again grown closer, the rest of the family seemed to be slowly and inexorably drifting apart. Kenzi had already moved on to find happiness on her own terms. Bo was struggling with her mixed feelings about her father, but Dyson was immediately suspicious of Hades and his actions no matter how benevolent they might appear. This, and the fact that he seemed to be shifting away from his former reverent attentiveness towards Bo in favor of the human Alicia had caused a bit of friction between the wolf and the succubus. Neither one of the pair would acknowledge or discuss the growing tension between them, but Lauren saw it plainly with her ever analytical mind – and it was very troublesome to her. And then there was Tamsin.

Lauren squirmed in Bo's embrace to get more comfortable in a feeble attempt to catch the elusive sleep she had been chasing for over an hour and tried not to think about the broken woman upstairs in the attic. Her lover sensed her restlessness, even in her sleep, and pulled her closer mumbling garbled yet soothing words. Bo was deep in sleep brought on by marathon sex and overfeeding that left her groggy and fully sated. Bo was always fully satisfied after she fed from Lauren. The doctor made sure of that, but it came at a price. And the payment was her own ever increasing feelings of emptiness, of hunger that no food would satisfy. While she was human, she felt desire only for the love of her life. But lately, any attractive person or bright aura would turn her head and thoughts to feeding, in every way possible. Now knew how her lover felt when she had tried so valiantly and futilely to remain faithful to a human when they were together in the past. Lauren had no idea how she would break it to the Queen of the fae that she had made a serious miscalculation in her bid to make herself immortal.

As she slowly and gently extricated herself from her partner's embrace, the shame of her using Hades' advice came flooding back to her. She shouldn't have trusted him; she knew that both then and now. He had seemed so knowledgeable and earnest in his eagerness to help. But evil only serves its own ends, and now she needed to think about what he had hoped to gain by helping her make herself fae before she could tell Bo that they were merely exchanging energy rather than feeding each other. A perpetual motion machine was a theoretical impossibility, and sooner rather than later – they would need an outside energy source to keep going. And that would mean that one, or both of them, would have to feed off of other people to stay healthy. Lauren had tried to broach the subject once, but Bo had gushed about how awesome it was that they could be mutually exclusive to each other and how that kept her from falling prey to her father's attempts at manipulating her into using her powers to rule the fae. The daughter of Hades was adamant that she would be a force for good, and the doctor's love kept her grounded in her humanity, and her humility.

Lauren put on one of Bo's robes and made her way softly downstairs to the kitchen. Dyson and Kenzi had spoke of how Bo had wolfed down a plethora of high calorie snack foods and energy bars in her failed attempt to maintain her energy without feeding off of others. It was worth a try right now, until she could sort out what to do to resolve the situation. But the doctor's habits of healthy eating came back to bite her in the ass as she had cleared out the kitchen of empty calorie snacks and chemical ridden ready-to-eat foods when she had moved in with her lover. "Shit!" she whispered quietly to herself, as she contemplated the unlikelihood of going out at 3:00 am and successfully finding a victim to satisfy her needs. As a doctor, she felt guilty enough as it was taking small wisps of chi surreptitiously from her fae patients at the clinic. But it was never enough; Bo was insatiable, and keeping her satisfied was important if she wanted to maintain the illusion until she found a good way to tell her the truth. She needed to feed, and doing so without having sex with people was going to be a steep learning curve.

While she mulled over eating the entire box of Sugar in the Raw to keep her hunger at bay at least long enough to get a good night's sleep, a loud noise from the loft startled her. It was the Valkyrie screaming in an unknown language. She was undoubtedly experiencing another one of her night terrors, and the thought that it might wake the brunette succubus launched the doctor up the stairs as fast as her feet could take her. Once she reached the door to Kenzi's old room, however, the screaming faded into soft murmuring. Dr. Lewis slowly opened the door and peered inside to check on her patient. The Christmas lights that Kenzi had left strung around the room year-round cast a warm glow on the woman lying on the bed. Clad only in a tank top and underwear, the fading scars earned in her recent battle were clearly visible. Lauren made her way over to her and sat gingerly on the edge of the bed. It was her duty as a physician to make sure her patient was resting comfortably while she convalesced, she rationalized.

Tamsin seemed to be in the ethereal state between wakefulness and sleep as she briefly partially opened her bleary, unseeing eyes and mumbled to her uninvited guest, "Sorry, dimmmt mnnn ahh loud. Ttsss over." The Valkyrie was covered in sweat even though it was decidedly cool in the room and had kicked the sheets and blanket off of her body and into a pile at the foot of the small bed.

Noticing the ear buds of the mp3 player the sleeping woman was wearing, Lauren laughed softly at the partially incoherent apology. She gently removed them, feeling a slight pang of guilt over her contribution to the extremely vociferous lovemaking that had necessitated her wearing them to sleep in the first place. "You won't need these anymore; Bo's sleeping." She explained when the Valkyrie suddenly jolted wide awake at the unexpected touch.

Tamsin grunted in acknowledgment before closing her eyes again, turning away from the doctor to lay on her side and nestle deeper into her worn pillow.

Lauren had expected a lurid insinuation or at least a snarky off-the-cuff dismissal in reply. Dr. Lewis initially chalked up her patient's out-of-character behavior as simple exhaustion, until she considered how she had acted when she first emerged from her coma that morning. Bo had immediately and forcefully demanded her to reveal the identity of her attacker, to which the Valkyrie gave no answer. She merely stared silently at her former lover with a forlorn expression. Dyson had been more diplomatic in his inquiries, and in reward for his gentle probing received a smile and the only answer the Valkyrie would ever offer on the subject, "It doesn't matter." Bo had seethed at Tamsin's refusal to answer, but when she launched into an angry diatribe recounting the injured woman's past sins and debt to her family, Lauren gently stopped her with firm grip on her arm and knowing look. They all suspected who did this to the powerful Valkyrie – the only person that was powerful enough to have done it. And the good doctor was equally sure she knew why Tamsin refused to name him. The succubus grimaced, but dropped the subject at her girlfriend's subtle entreaty. She nodded to Lauren before leaving the room, telling her wounded guest she was welcome to stay as long as she wanted. The shifter sighed in commiseration with Tamsin, patting her hand gently. As he took his leave he promised to return with her favorite foods and liquor, pointedly telling the doctor she should allow the Valkyrie to indulge in her unhealthy treats at the expense of going against her medical expertise.

Mulling over the memories of the previous morning brought Dr. Lewis' thoughts back to her own hunger. There, on the nightstand next to the half-empty bottle of vodka was an unopened box of Lucky Charms and a substantial pile of various candy bars. Before she could decide if she should ask her roommate's permission or just grab the goodies and leave, she suddenly remembered the mp3 player in her hand, still pumping driving rhythms and ethereal sounds through the tiny speakers attached to it. The strange sounds were vaguely familiar, and in curiosity she read the song information. "Wow, this band really takes me back." she softly reminisced aloud, more to herself than the other woman. She smiled; her own roommate in college had used the same music to lull herself to sleep when Lauren's habit of late night studying had made getting any rest in the tiny room they shared nearly impossible. Her roommate had laughed at the future doctor's apologies and scoffed at Lauren's offer to study elsewhere in the wee hours of the morning. Cat, the roomie, had declared the room belonged to both of them and it was easier to work on overcoming their differences rather than highlighting them by imposing on each other. And they had been so very different, the shy studious blonde and her gregarious red-haired party-girl roommate. But they did click, and the memories were fond ones. Lauren turned off the player and set it on the nightstand before reaching over and pulling the sheets and blanket over her briefly forgotten patient. The cold sweat brought on by the Valkyrie's obvious PTSD driven night terror was drying, and the night was growing ever chillier.

"Thanks, mom." Tamisn intoned dryly, eyes still closed but with a tiniest hint of a smile.

The unexpected reply shocked Lauren into blurting out an equally sarcastic quip, "Yeah, well, you're welcome. But I'm not your mother. And if I was, I would probably take you over my knee and blister your behind for all the mischief you've caused!"

The Valkyrie still didn't move nor open her eyes, but her expression broke into a full-blown grin as she mused, "Mmmm, promises, promises, Lewis!"

Dr. Lewis laughed heartily at the fact that she had gotten her friend to come back to herself, if only for a moment. Tamsin had been uncharacteristically silent and brooding all day, giving only polite yet concise answers to questions asked of her, when she bothered to answer them at all. Knowing the Valkyrie as she did and given all that had happened recently, it certainly was understandable. But Lauren was still in the dark as to what exactly what was said between Bo and her former roommate to drive her away from her free lodging and what had happened at Zee's apartment when Tamsin was alone with the ancient fae and her husband. And there was still a slight uncertainty in her mind as to who had attacked the Valkyrie, given that Bo had adamantly refuted the claim that her father acted against her wishes. Lauren sighed, her hunger once again forcing her to focus on her own immediate problem. She gently laid a hand on the Valkyrie's arm to gain her full attention, trying desperately to resist the impulse to venture into territory that was conventionally reserved for touches that were more than just friendly in nature. She was so hungry.

"Tamsin," she began hesitantly, "I need to ask you something…"

As she paused to decide what exactly she was going to ask of the Valkyrie, Tamsin abruptly rolled over to face her, throwing the warm sheet and blanket aside. With an irritated expression she chimed in, "Dr. Lewis, I am tired! What do you want?!"

Lauren was taken aback at the unexpectedly energetic response, and turned away while closing her eyes with a smirk at her own lack of tact. Nodding, she opened her eyes again and faced the exasperated woman while giving her an honest answer, "Sorry, it's just…I'm so hungry and…" the doctor gestured with both hands at the cornucopia of snacks on the nightstand, but her eyes roved lustfully over the nearly nude woman before her. "…it all just looks sooo….appetizing…?"she concluded lamely, her voice squeaking a bit at the word 'appetizing.'

The prone woman's face flashed over a myriad of conflicting emotions as she took in not only the doctor's words, but her wandering eyes. When those lustful eyes finally met her own surprised ones, her expression settled on despair as she answered sadly, "Of course. I am indebted to both you and Bo. Take what you need, Dr. Lewis. I don't mind."

"Ahhhh,….OK…I'll just…umm…" the shorter blonde was struggling, not only with what she should do, but also what to say now that she was afraid the Valkyrie might have somehow sensed her sexual desires and her answer was a double entendre. It would be just like the snarky woman to answer in kind to a statement that clearly had a double meaning, after all. But something was still off about her – a sadness and resignation Lauren would have never thought she was even capable of before. Settling on the safest bet to the meaning of her words, the doctor smirked and collected up the sugary cereal and a handful of candy bars before rising to leave the room. As she juggled her booty to shut the door behind her, Lauren turned back and thanked her guest. "Thank you, Tamsin. Get some rest. I'll pay you back tomorrow, I promise."

Tamsin laughed silently through her nose with her lips tightly pulled into a grim smile. "There's no need, Lewis. Good night." She drew the covers back over herself and turned away from the door and her late night visitor.

The doctor guiltily made her way down the stairs, and with foresight of thought, headed straight for the bathroom to stash a few of her energy-packed snacks for future use after the inevitable morning bedroom antics with her girlfriend. As she looked around for hiding places in the dark room, she inadvertently caught a reflection of light in the bathroom mirror out of the corner of her eye. Slowly, she turned to face the mirror full-on, and quickly realized the cause of the Valkyrie's cryptic behavior towards her. Staring back at her were brightly glowing blue eyes.

Tamsin knew.

"Shit!"