Lauren bent over the microscope. "Prob 57-63-01, no reaction to the naga venum."

"Lauren Lewis, still the hottest shirt in the camp!" she heard a voice behind her. Lauren turned around just to look into a smiling face, with red lips and blue eyes, covered by shockheaded hair.

"Pardon me?" It took her a moment until all the little pieces fell together before she finally grinned all over her face in realisation.

" .God." Lauren said and shook her head. "Oh, my fucking god...if that's not the German Shepherd."

"Dr. Lewis! Language please!" the woman said and embraced the human hearty. A bit too hearty for Bo's opinion. From both sides. She saw Lauren returned the embrace with full heart and it hurt her to see that other woman holding Lauren. So close. With strong arms. And she totally liked Lauren.

"I missed you!" the blonde doctor said with a shaky voice to the visitors neck.

"Not as much as I missed you. Believe me!" Bo frowned. She didn't like the woman, that now grabbed Laurens hands and lifted them to have a closer look at the doc in the lab coat. "Look AT you. So beautiful."

"Oh stop it!" Lauren said still smiling. Bo also noticed, that Lauren liked the compliment. Not just that... she obviously liked the woman in front of her too. A lot actually.

"What are you doing here?" The human asked excited after the short haired woman let her finally go.

"Just, you know, was around and...thought I stop by to say hello..." Again they smiled at each other. Communicated just with their eyes and their smiles.

"How long has it been." Lauren finally managed to asked. "The last time I saw you... " Lauren tried to figure out that last time...

"Was in Afghanistan...yes." Even though Dan smiled warmly, she recognize the sadness in her eyes. This sad cloudy grey-blue eyes.

"You know each other?" It was a question from far beyond, out of this world from someone who didn't belong to them. "Yes, we know each other." Lauren answered abended and looked into Dan's eyes like she did the one day they met. One day in Afghanistan.

"I really think it's too dangerous for ya, doc." the officer told her.

"I really can take care of my self, thanks." Lauren answered coolly.

"Exact the same words." A soldier mentioned next to her. She turned her head and saw a girl kneeling beside her, with a gun in her hand and a bulletproof vest, chewing a gum, the face and lips covered by a layer of dust and sand.

"What?" she nearly had to shout because of the sound of the nearby shooting.

"Exact the same words the other doc used before he died." The soldier grinned at her, with white teeth and the bluest eyes she ever saw. Blue like the sky above them.

Explosions in the distance. Lauren covered her head.

The name badge told 'Sorrow' "Okay sunshine - I am your german shepherd.." the girl told her as she moved closer.

"You're what?"

"Your GERMAN SHEPHERD…." she repeated this time louder but turned away as the wave of another explosion hit them and forced them on the ground.

Lauren was wiped from her feet and felt disorientated as she felt the strong hand grabbed her on the collar of her vest and pulled her over behind a wall.

"I am fine .. I am fine …" Lauren coughed.

"Good, because I am not letting you ruin my statistics …" the girl smiled and handed her a chewing gum. "Your statistics?" Lauren reached for the gum and looked at her confused. "Yeah … Dan Sorrow, I gonna watch ya back, darlin'... I am your shield."

And she was. Lauren learned it the hard way, what that meant. The soldier was always around, whenever Lauren was needed to be in the field, Dan was with her. She never asked, she never complained. She just was there. Took the fire, saved her ass more than once. A German Shepherd was a one man army trained to protect the doctors in the fields. They were the shields and the weapons of a medicus.

Dan was the reason Lauren survived the first three month there. And she became the reason why she stood up every morning and face the war the last three month. Lauren learned that the war was not just the sound of fire and explosion, or the smell of blood and the pictures of dead bodies, first of all war was the realisation of losing people who became friends, comrades, brothers and sisters in arms…

War was dealing with fear and pain. With emptiness and loneliness. With the cold and dullness growing inside her whenever she saw life fading. Whenever she lost the fight… and whenever this happened, Dan was there, reminding her constantly how important her work was, that soldiers like her needed doctors like Lauren. This gave her confidence and a reason to go on. This made her to want to survive.

She became so used of her presence, that the day before leaving … she nearly felt incomplete because of the absence of her German shepherd...

And then… she never got the possibility to say thanks or bid goodbye properly.

All she remembered, was the last time she saw Dan, standing in her white shirt, her camouflage desert army pants and her army boots on the entrance of her tent, arms crossed and deepened in a conversation with another guard. She didn't look up as the helicopter took off and Lauren felt miserable as she realized that this was probably the last time she would see the blue sparkling…

Fortunately she was wrong.

"But now, you are here…" Bo said and forced Dan's attention to her.

"I am…" she stated and scanned the succubus.

"Oh… this is Bo … Bo, say hello to Dan... Dan.." Lauren paused not exactly sure how to introduce the soldier. "...she is an old friend."Lauren introduced Bo, now remembering her surroundings. The soldier turned her head and greeted the dark haired with a nod.

"Hi…I am Bo, Lauren's girlfriend..."

Bo answered. It caused a smile."So, you're the succubus …" both women became speechless.

"You know….?"

"There are rumors out there …about… a succubus …" and addressed to Bo. "... about you!" Lauren scanned the face of her friend. "Never expected you being a fae …" she confessed.

"Never expected you ending up with… that…" Dan pointed to Bo and smiled sheepish. "Hey…" They heard the succubus complaining.

"Sorry no offence … but there is darkness inside you …and I am kind of … allergic .." she smiled a wicked smile.

"What kind of fae are you?" Bo demanded to know now.

"I am a shield of light.." Lauren smiled what Bo actually noticed but said nothing.

It totally fitted.

"That means … you can glow in the night?" the succubus asked. Feisty little creature, but Dan just frowned and thought about that. "Hm… never tried that before … but I certainly can burn the dark, so, you better don't come too close to me!" she winked and looked back to the doctor. "It was so good to see you again, Lauren." Dan smiled. "I have to go.."

"Wait, you are leaving already? Can we have Dinner? I am cooking. Please..."

"Don't think this is a good idea."

"I owe you my life and I never said goodbye properly, so please let me at least this time."

Dan's eyes wandered from the dear doctor to the succubus, that watched her girlfriend curiously. "Oh, I'm good with that, go, have great night... I check in tomorrow, 'kay?" She pecked Lauren on her lips and waved Dan goodbye. "My ... Pleasure." Bo lied.

"At least this time..." The soldier answered and smiled a strange smile.