A/N: Sequel to 'Dawning of a Valkyrie.' If you didn't like that one, probably won't like this one. If you didn't read it, might wanna as this won't make too much sense to you if you don't. But please yourself. For you, FrenChi and everyone else who reviewed and wanted more. I apologize, this chapter is mostly exposition for the jump in time between the stories. And also the long delay. But life happens.
Birth of a Princess
Chapter 1:
The soft yet repetitive tinkling of a spoon against a glass bowl woke her. She didn't even open her eyes as she rolled onto her side, hoping the new position would ease the nagging ache in her back and allow sleep to consume her once again. Instead, the tinkling continued and was joined by an annoying slurping that she had no hope of ignoring and gave away the identity of the person in the kitchen. There was only one person in the household who garnered that much attention by the sounds of eating. "STACEY! Can you please go eat somewhere else?!" Bo called out from the couch that was her bed for the past few nights.
The noise stopped immediately. Stacey regarded her for a moment, and then wiped the drop of milk slowly dribbling down her chin after she set down her now empty cereal bowl. "Sorry, Bo. But there is no way in HELL I am eating anywhere else in this apartment. There isn't enough room in the shit house for both of us." Lauren set the rules of the household. And everyone was expected to follow them - Dagny, Stacey, and even Bo herself.
The Succubus sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Dog house, Stacey, dog house. And now you owe the jar! Pay up!" She concluded by pointing at the swear jar Lauren had started, for all of them but really because two young Valkyrie in one apartment meant the amount of four letter words she had to hear increased exponentially on a daily basis.
The blonde rolled her eyes and tilted her head back as if to keep them from being stuck behind her brow ridge. In the past year since her rebirth, she had grown to adulthood in a few months, and had already just returned from her first mission with Dagny. And that is when the trouble started, in Bo's reckoning. She was right about that, although blaming the young Valkyrie wasn't really fair. She knew it as well as Stacey did. "Can't you let that one go; it was an honest mistake!" the young blonde whined.
"Oh, no. Don't ask me for any favors; you're the reason I'm sleeping on the couch! Pay it, Stacey. You know the rules." The brunette scowled at her, but there wasn't much venom in it. Her expression was more of a symptom of her current situation than an indictment of the Valkyrie.
Stacey looked her in the eyes, and dug out a solo bill from her pocket, "Fine…do you have change for a five?"
"No."
"Can you credit my account?"
"Absolutely not. Against the rules and the principle behind them." In Bo's mind paying ahead of time for future infractions meant endorsing them. At least Lauren and I agree on that.
Stacey pushed away from the counter and marched over to the jar, her eyes never leaving Bo's as she opened the large (and currently empty) pickle jar and shoved in her fiver, "In that case - I am so fucking sorry you are sleeping on the couch, I am so glad I'm fucking moving out, and I think it's fucking bullshit you are blaming me for this when you know I had no fucking idea what was going on."
Bo's eyes narrowed angrily, but the corners of her mouth twitched in betrayal of her amusement, "That was five more, Stacey. Now you owe another dollar."
"Sue me. I don't count bullshit." She shut the jar and walked over to sit next to the Succubus who was once her enemy and now a foster mother of sorts. Bo had hung her head in exhaustion and said nothing, but the Valkyrie had noticed the pallor of her skin and haggard expression on her face and showed a compassion she never really felt in her former life until the very end. Stacey pulled her now (thankfully) long blonde hair out of her field of vision when she addressed her companion again in a soft voice, "You haven't fed lately, have you?" Eyebrows raised and eyes searching she waited for a denial.
The Succubus looked up, and Stacey reassured her, "Go ahead; take a little. You won't be able to think right and make this up to her if you don't feed. I won't tell if you don't." Lauren was not keen on her wife pulling chi from the two Valkyrie they had raised. Lauren had made her opinion well known on this subject, and everyone knew it.
The Succubus gratefully leaned in quickly and inhaled a healthy amount of chi from the Valkyrie without touching lips. "Thank you, Stacey. You're right, I needed that. And it's not your fault."
It was a familiar but not routine ritual with them, and one Bo was sure was precipitated by the residual regret Tamsin's former colleague felt from her former life. Unlike Dagny, Stacey had grown up closer to Bo than she was to Lauren. It was mostly because of her innate feeling of guilt for her murderous attempt on the human and the endless experimentation and blood samples the doctor subjected her to – everyone knew that. But there was more to it, and it probably was because Dagny shared an analytical thought process and academic curiosity with Dr. Lewis where as Stacey shared the Succubus' more adventurous, fun - loving nature. Of course, sex was never offered by her or solicited by Bo. Except in jest, which the young blonde couldn't help herself from doing once in awhile when she reached her adulthood – just for the reaction. She was never disappointed.
Stacey jumped up and started for the stairs, "Anytime! Let me know if you ever want the full meal deal!" When she saw Bo reaching for the television remote she ran, and it narrowly missed her as she ducked. It hit the wall next to her and the batteries spilled out and onto the steps along with the lid had that kept them contained. Laughing, she called out from the landing, "You're welcome! And clean up after me, will ya? I gotta get ready for work. Lauren is coming home at lunchtime to get ready for Dagny's surprise party, in case ya didn't know." She winked a bright blue eye at Bo and headed to the room she shared with Dagny without waiting for an argument.
Despite the jab at her, Bo couldn't help the smile the corners of her mouth pulled without her express permission. It wasn't her foster child's fault she was sleeping on the couch. She had called her from overseas and warned her Dagny was 'acting weird,' and 'something is going on.' Bo had dismissed her concerns as personal and professional jealousy since it was a widely accepted fact that Valkyrie were competitive by nature. Besides, everything had been going well - she and her sister were getting along, the growing Stacey wasn't causing too much mischief, and Lauren's experiments had shown great success with the new information she gleaned from the development of the young Valkyrie. Vex and Mark had opened their club and hired Stacey, mostly to keep her from hounding Dyson for a job. Although she had regained most of her memories, she had seemingly no recollection of her attempted seduction of the wolf shifter and flirted with him relentlessly.
The Succubus slapped her thighs and stood up, intent on getting a cup of coffee and starting her day. Lauren was already at work, and that was a good thing. Bo needed time to rethink her approach when she revisited their disagreement and hopefully got back into Lauren's good graces. But there was no other option she could think of other than giving in to her wife's wishes – and that was out of the question. After sipping her coffee while leaning against the counter for a few minutes, she busied herself cleaning up the kitchen. She should eat something, Dr. Lewis was always harping on about how important it was to eat breakfast, but she didn't feel hungry in any sense of the word. Just tired; tired of everything. Every time it looked as though things were working out for the better, something else went wrong. The future had looked so bright just a few days ago.
Bo laughed as she put away the box of Peanut Butter Crunch cereal the reborn Stacey insisted they keep on hand. It sent her thoughts to life before Hades return and cleaning up after a different Valkyrie. Dagny didn't share the Valkyrie penchant for sugary breakfast fare and opted for the more traditional bacon and eggs and coffee, always coffee. Although it hadn't been easy forgiving the Valkyrie who tried to kill Lauren and keep Tamsin from helping them, now she was thankful for her company. Stacey was newly born and innocent once again and the main reason she and her wife could soon have a child of their own. The atmosphere in the apartment was reminiscent of the old days in the clubhouse during happy times. Until it all fell apart. Until HE showed himself in a most unexpected way.
Once she found out what was going on, Bo withdrew her approval for having a child together for the foreseeable future; Lauren didn't take it well. But Hades was back, Bo had seen him and there was no denying it. After they argued in bed, Bo had screwed up by volunteering to sleep on the couch rather than resolving their difference of opinion. That had made Lauren livid. She had casually mentioned the next morning that since Bo insisted her decision was final, she had to respect her wishes and so hinted the sofa was her new home. Damnit – this whole scenario might never have happened if Valkyrie where just a little more communicative! she thought to herself bitterly. Truly, they were not wont to freely dispense information without prompting, no matter how important or insignificant and chose instead to discuss frivolous tales, crude jokes, and exchange clever, yet horribly insulting and degrading jibes at one another.
After she finished in the kitchen and neatly folded and stored her sheets and blankets, she sat on the couch and mused that Stacey had been right about ONE thing: she had tried to warn her about odd behavior from her sister. But she had dismissed her observation and not pursued the issue. "Dagny is ALWAYS acting weird, especially when she has something on her mind she isn't ready to talk about," she had told her young charge, and moved on to what she really wanted to discuss – the surprise party for her sister. And for her part, Stacey was more than willing to drop the subject and belabor the point with her about that….
Two weeks earlier…
"Stacey! I'm glad you called! I was hoping to hear from Dagny, but anyway when are you two coming home?" Bo chirped happily. She missed her sister and was eager to share the good news that she may have a little niece soon. But this was news to be shared in person, at the surprise party they planned for her homecoming.
"Well, soon. But we aren't allowed to say. Security and all the 'hush, hush: you never know who is listening' crap." Bo could almost feel her eyes rolling when she said that on the other end of the line halfway around the world. They were attached to an Army unit off in one of the endless wars in the Middle East on a mission for Acacia. Bo suspected it was related to bringing the fallen to Valhalla as part of their training, but she knew better than to ask. Stacey continued, "Anyways, Dagny has been acting really weird lately and hasn't bothered to call you so I thought I would. Something is going on with her, she hardly even talks anymore. We'll be home soon. Expect a call from the command post – they will let you know. We gave them you and Lauren as our contacts back home."
She shrugged off her concerns, eager to make plans and share her and Lauren's plans. "That's great news! And Lauren and I have news for you guys! We are planning a surprise party for Dagny when she gets home, and you need to make sure she goes to the Dal when you get here."
"Oh…that might be a problem." Stacey explained that they might not get home the same time or even the same day or week. But she seemed eager to help with the party in any way she could.
Of course she does…a party, especially one with Dyson in attendance, is just the kind of thing Stacey would be interested in planning and attending… Bo snickered to herself.
A few days later, Bo got the call from the command post. Stacey was on her way home, but not Dagny. Lauren expressed concern that they hadn't heard from Dagny, but Bo assured her if something was wrong the military would have let them know, if not her Valkyrie sister. "Dagny is just being her usual self!" she insisted to her wife. Stacey was definitely the chatty one between the pair of them, and her sister was more apt to keep her problems and issues to herself. After her Dawning she had matured, but became much more brooding and serious. And silent.
She had picked up Dagny at the airport, and even now her duty uniform seemed incongruous on her. To her surprise, talking with the young Valkyrie was Acacia, dressed as air hostess of all things. Now she cuts a fine figure in that uniform Bo mused to herself, admiring her figure hugging skirt before shaking the thought away. I really need to feed more often if I am lusting after that bitch. But Acacia merely gave her a curt nod and exchanged a simple greeting with the succubus before she excused herself and disappeared into the throng of travelers. Bo followed her with narrowing eyes full of suspicion. When Stacey explained the mistress of Valhalla merely complimented them on their mission and gave them time off, Bo relaxed and began helping her blonde housemate with her bags.
She was roused out of her remembrances by Stacey clomping back down the stairs with all the grace of a cart horse wearing ice skates instead of horseshoes. She paused to pick up the batteries and remote, putting it back in order as she continued her journey down with even less coordination until she stood before the succubus and laid it on the coffee table in front of her. Bo stared at her unsure of what to say. Stacey broke the silence.
"Duty calls – I'm off like a prom dress!" she turned, then paused and added over her shoulder, "You should get ready, too. And try not to be such a fucking bitch to Lauren when she gets home. You don't own her you know"
Bo stared gob stopped and watched the blonde make her way to the door. Has this little weasel been listening to us argue?
As she was closing it she gave one parting shot, "YOLO bitch!"
Bo hug her head as her anger faded quickly and her thoughts turned to the row she had with her wife the night before that she could see no easy way of resolving. "No, Lauren only lives once. And for far too short a time. And you have many, many lives Stacey." She sniffed and wiped away a tear that came damn close to escaping her eye to trail down her face. They were in danger once again. Not from the scheming Morrigan, the anarchistic Unaligned, or the host of Valkyrie from Valhalla. HE was back. Lauren never fully experienced personally the horror he could visit upon a person. She had to protect her, even if it meant being the bad guy in their disagreement.
"I can't believe I let him fool me so easily!" she whispered to herself. And it was easy. She missed a detail. A minor detail. A good detective notices the details, and doesn't let her desire override her logic. Still, she got up and made her way upstairs to shower and change.
But four days ago….she got the call she was waiting for. Dagny called her and told her she was coming home, and when to meet her at the airport.
"I should have known…" the succubus said aloud as the water poured over her and she hoped against reason it would wash away all the evil she might have inherited from the thing that met her at the airport.