It was another triumphant win against another dramatically evil big bad in Toronto. Dyson had gotten a rough beating as he unnecessarily jumped into the damage circle, effectively throwing off the rogue of the group - Kenzi. Apparently, she had a knack for archery and convinced the new Ash, Hale, to have a thousand year old woodland elf at her beck and call for lessons.
Tamsin had rolled her eyes at Dyson's dramatics and used the blades in her hands to slay the trolls that were beating on him. She winced and yelped when one of Kenzi's arrows accidentally grazed her shoulder (it did, however, land directly at her intended target).
Kenzi managed the most kill counts at twelve. Bo was second with seven kills, and Dyson grumbled when his count only amounted to four. Lauren had managed to kill four as well; she may have given Dyson a smug smile.
The group was now in the lab, tallying up the wounds in addition to their victories.
"And I went zoof right in his eye! Ain't nobody got anything on these babies." Kenzi held out her hands and sighed.
Dyson chuckled. "That still doesn't answer the Doc's question, Kenzi."
"Oh," Kenzi replied, wide eyed. "What was the question again?"
"Injuries. Do you have any more?" Lauren said as she lifted to amused eyebrows.
One by one, Lauren categorized the injuries and performed a full body scan. Something about being thorough and not wanting another "Kenzi episode" and no "hiding of strange rashes."
Meaning no injuries went unaccounted for. Now every scratch was documented after a huge scuffle.
Dyson huffed and walked up to Lauren while she took an extra amount of time in her calculations while he shifted his weight from foot to foot in his wait.
"What is it you want, Dyson?" She asked after a few minutes. There was a hint of amusement and a dash of annoyance in her voice. Still, she had her eyes on the clipboard in her hand.
"There's something wrong with Tamsin," Dyson said wearily. He stood a little taller when Lauren finally locked eyes with him, searching for humor and jest. Finding none, which really wasn't a surprise there, she cleared her throat and scrunched her eyebrows together. "Pardon? I thought I just heard you say something is wrong with Tamsin."
"Yes. I think there's something wrong with her."
Lauren looked back a few pages on her clipboard notes and scanned the desired page for a good minute before facing him. "All her wounds were categorized, sterilized, bandaged, and photographed in the fight. There is no indication there would be anything that would cause-"
"No, Lauren. There's been something off the past weeks with her. I thought maybe I was getting a fae flu and that my sense were completely off. But, it was loud and clear today. She smells different."
"She doesn't smell like her self, then?" Lauren asked.
"Yes. No. It's like there's the smell of her and then a vacuum just sucks it back. Leaving a hint of her smell. Her almost smell," Dyson whispered, his voice low and serious.
Lauren nodded and offered a soothing, patronizing voice, "Dyson, we were out there for twenty straight hours with no food and water. We're all feeling a little off. Why don't you get some sleep and let me know if she still…smells..off."
She stepped hesitantly toward him and settled two very awkward pats to his shoulder.
When she walked away and told him her intern was going to lock up, Dyson only growled in confusion and frustration.
He shook his head, and his inner wolf whined at the notion of being patronized and pushed into confusing haze.
…
The light of day was giving way by the time Lauren exited the Light Fae medical lab.
A few injuries had taken its toll on Lauren. However, it wasn't just her own but the rest of the group's as well. Dyson almost died -again- but was saved by Kenzi and her deadly precision with her arrows. Bo thoughtlessly, and without permission, sucked the group's individual chi all at once and breathed life back into Dyson.
The feeling was exhilarating and pleasurable, but, emotionally, it was damaging and violating. It was incredibly intrusive of one's soul.
Feeding Bo with her aura was something she had always dreamed about, something she had desperately wanted to give Bo.
Being used in this way hurt. It would have hurt worse had she and Bo agreed to be exclusive with each other.
Upon entering her loft, she noticed two things.
First, a soft light of yellow bounced off the walls and snuck into corners with a soft crawl, indicating that the fireplace was on. Second, she noticed the smell of something burning.
Lauren walked in a slow pace toward the smell and registered the muffled grunts and a curse of "this shouldn't be this fucking difficult."
She smiled and drank in the sight of Tamsin crouched in front of the refrigerator.
"Reaching for something?" Lauren asked through a smile.
Tamsin yelped and jumped at being startled, hitting her head on the refrigerator frame in the process.
"Ow! Jesus, I think your house is trying to kill me, Doc," Tamsin hissed. She stood up and rubbed the spot she injured.
Lauren raked her eyes without shame, letting her gaze to linger, appreciating the curves and contours along a lithe, fit body. When she reached Tamsin's eyes (that now carried a playful glint), she blushed slightly and cleared her throat.
"Wanna share what you're thinking, Doc? Do I need another thorough check up? Oh, nice kinky addition with those cameras, by the way" Tamsin said with her eyebrow raised and smug firmly in place.
Lauren laughed and gave her one last look-over, noting the wet hair Tamsin failed at completely drying. "How did you have enough time to take a shower? I was only ten minutes behind. And why does it smell like you burnt something?"
Tamsin shrugged.
"Had to get that shit off of me. Then I got hungry. So, sue me, Doc. Or…operate, whatever." There was no malice in her tone.
"Ah," Lauren muttered. "Dyson is finally catching on to your cover scent. We should find another method."
"To cover up your scent, Doc?" Tamsin asked in genuine interest.
Lauren nodded.
"Well, I'm not really a fan. It makes me feel like perfume tester but with horrible fumes," Tamsin sneered.
"Like I said, we'll find another way," Lauren offered. "If you want."
Tamsin only sighed heavily, and Lauren chose to focus her eyes on something else. Like the stove.
There were burnt pieces of vegetables on a now-covered-with-charcoal frying pan. Lauren just shot Tamsin an inquisitive look who responded with an eye-roll, but she didn't look Lauren directly in the eye.
"I.. I got hungry, and, well, I figured you'd need food, too, since Bo made a big snack out of us," Tamsin tried to say this without any emotion, but Lauren noticed. "I kinda burnt the shit out of it. I'm not good with all that homemaking shit."
Lauren felt a rise of appreciation, and something about the domesticity of it all made her heart ache in a way she hadn't felt in a long time.
"I appreciate the gesture, Tamsin." She smiled.
"Yeah, well. How about I gesture some more with delivery. Pizza?"
Lauren nodded and couldn't help the wide grin she directed toward Tamsin. "Get over here already," she ordered softly.
Tamsin walked toward Lauren and cupped her cheek, lightly grazing her thumb over a large scratch.
"I'm sorry you got hurt," Tamsin whispered. Her eyes widened a little as she looked over Lauren's face, and she felt a pain in her chest because the human was pulled into danger tonight. Her thumb travelled from a bruised and cut cheek to a cut lip.
"No one is supposed to hurt you," she continued and took a deep inhale.
Lauren closed her eyes shut at the amount of emotion filling the air. This was new.
Then she felt the barest of kisses on her injured mouth. The delicate whisper of a touch was almost too much to process.
They shared a long, slow, and torturously soft kiss. It was almost..it felt a lot like love.
"Tamsin?" Lauren searched her eyes for an answer she didn't know how to question, but Tamsin saw it there.
So, she answered with another kiss that was everything opposite of what they had been sharing. Their lips glided against each other in languid motion, feeling no rush.
It wasn't until Tamsin hissed in pain when Lauren squeezed her in a desperate embrace.
"Oh, god. I'm so sorry. Let me look again."
"Relax. It's just a flesh wound. Plus, this totally hot doctor bandaged me up," Tamsin teased, earning a half hum and half laugh from the woman standing before her. Even with various cuts and bruises, Lauren was breathtakingly beautiful.
An air of wonder surrounded her thoughts as she questioned how in the world Bo would give this up, how having someone other than Lauren would even be an option. She wasn't about to complain, though. Lauren deserved better; she just knew there could never be anyone who could measure up to that, to Lauren's worth.
"Seriously, Doc," she began. "I was just surprised. I've seen thousands of battles and walked in battlefields of five million arrows and hundreds of canons. I think I can survive a troll bludgeoning."
"Well.. I don't think it's necessary when I've got the medicine to make it go away for a while."
Tamsin shook her head.
"Why not?" Lauren asked, her hand moving to check for any more damages. It was highly unlikely she had missed something, but caution is always to be taken.
The worried lines and furrowed brows did not go unnoticed by Tamsin; in fact, she adored seeing this side of Lauren: the part where she settles into this world of medicine, a world in which she is in charge and free within her mind, where she can forget the chains that bind her. Chains that Tamsin would lay her life down to break.
The Fae and Human dynamics were complicated and taboo enough. Add in the fact that they were not only shucking, they were opposite sides of the political line. And the human was property.
Tamsin scowled at the thought of Lauren being property and being treated like she didn't hold something as precious as a brilliant soul, a brilliant mind, and an ability to still hold onto her values, no matter how stifled it will be, within a dangerous world of supernatural beings.
She remembered the night Lauren put her own life on the line as she kept Tamsin alive with her skilled hands and quick mind. It was a night she wasn't authorized to be in Light Fae territory, but Lauren helped her despite the consequences.
...
"Tamsin, what are.. oh my god! Don't move. Don't talk, and for all things Fae, do not fall asleep." Lauren tore off her belt and fastened to where it hurt on Tamsin's arm.
"They pulled out a lot of hair," Tamsin mumbled.
"What?" Lauren asked, confused.
"Red caps. Hair. I'sleepy."
"Listen to me, Tamsin. I am not going to let you die out here in the cold. I need you to do something for me," Lauren's voice was calm and steady. She was every bit professional in the midst of so much blood.
"You know me, Doc. I don't do shit for free," Tamsin winced. Maybe she shouldn't have talked.
Lauren let a small smile form. "Alright, what would you charge?" She asked as she made sure the make-shift tourniquet was firm. She didn't stop her care, and Tamsin didn't seem to notice.
"For starters, I need you to take me out to dinner. Then, I need a kiss before I turn into a fucking pumpkin in the sea."
"Pumpkin in the...shit," Lauren breathed out. "Okay, yes. I'll do all that. Just don't fall asleep."
Years of training in Afghanistan made carrying Tamsin the two blocks to her loft easier than it looked. The nonsense spewing from Tamsin's mouth was worrying.
It took little time and Fae medicine to stabilize her.
"Shit, Doc. What the hell was that? If you really did turn me into a pumpkin, I swear on Valha-"
"That was all you." Lauren offered. Then, she tried to explain, with punctuated hand movements along side, "Well.. that was partially you... and partially the poison they laced on the knife..although it was playing on your own subconscious.. The drug, they don't just create things out of the blue; they just enhance and alter... the..Are you even listening to me?"
"Nope."
...
"I don't need medicine. It makes me feel out of it, and I can't... when I.. I just can't..." Tamsin whispered, suddenly feeling vulnerable tenfold.
They were skirting on the edge of something monumental, something they both carefully and tactfully avoided any recognition of their dangerous dance of pull-and-tug of chemistry.
"Can't what?" Lauren questioned.
"When I finally get it now. After today. After almost losing you," Tamsin whispered, her voice barely audible as she struggled to swallow the lump in her throat.
Lauren's breath hitched. She wasn't dense by any means. She had a strong sense that Tamsin felt for her more with the growing frequency of their secret coupling. However, having emotions being splayed out in front of her like a projector streaming patterns on a wall made it all too real. Too emotionally charged.
The only thing Lauren felt she needed to do was to reconnect their lips in an irrevocable gesture of admiration, need, want, and... love. Everything felt settled and jumbled at the same time.
And Tamsin? Well, she felt undeniably helpless in her reaction and in her ache to entwine something...anything to tether herself to the wonderful woman she came to know over such a short period of time.
And, God, the things Lauren was doing to her mind. It was the complete opposite of what she encountered in centuries. While many men and women took to her mouth with rough vigor, she felt the delicate compilation of desire, need, want, appreciation, and love. It was almost too much to bare that she didn't register the lack of oxygen until Lauren pulled away panting.
While Lauren was catching her breath, Tamsin (speaking through staggered, breathy sentences herself) clarified with, " I mean, I can't lose you when I finally get it now, and damn that fucking scent disguise. I'm not ashamed of you, Lauren. I finally understand what life means beyond birth, copulation, and death."
Instead of lust-filled fucking, they made love for the first time that night. It was slow, sweet, and soul-wrenchingly beautiful.
They peeled clothing off of each other with desperate tugs of cotton and leather.
Lauren painted her tongue along the sculpted arches in Tamsin's back to the dip of the dimples in her lower back. Though Tamsin's abs were taunt from observation, her skin was deceptively soft. She took her time in remapping the trails of lust she had always followed in their previous encounters with eager and passion; only this time, she licked new roads with a journey of endless want and endless love.
And when Lauren felt the silkiest and most loving place she'd ever felt, she knew she'd found home in the woman she knew she'd spent the rest of her forever.
And when, Tamsin returned the favor, her fingers surrounded by nearly impossible tightness and heat, with each rhythmic thrust and curl with her deft fingers, she knew she'd found the meaning of life and love.
The soft whimpers, muttered curses, and relentless moans of pleasure had never before played such a beautiful melody.