Since some people were kind enough to ask for it, and thanks to an inspiration provided by Pasha.D, here's the sequel to "White Tie". Set after "End of Faes" and begun before 5x09 even had an air date (it's Sept 6th, 2015, ICYMI), the story by definition leaves the confines of the show which my canon-adhering self struggled with.

A/N The River of Unmindfulness (ameles potamos), also known as Lethe, is a river that flows through the Underworld of Greek mythology. On their way to Hades, the dead had to drink its water to erase all memories of their lives.

Reuniting

That the footsteps weren't Dyson's didn't register with Lauren. She was too immersed in her work as she had been for more than three weeks now. Her inner clock told her it was time for his regular late night visit, otherwise she would have ignored the sound altogether.

Dyson would always come by the clinic at the end of the day, bringing food and news and asking, almost begging her to get at least a few hours of sleep; or what counted as sleep for Lauren these days. Usually, she would toss and turn on the cot Dyson had set up for her in an unused hospital room next to the lab, sometimes waking up, sweat-soaked, to her own screams from the nightmares that were haunting her. It was easier to stay awake, and busy, even if it felt like she was constantly rolling in broken glass.

The footsteps stopped at the door, and with the warm and ready smile the thought of Dyson brought to her face these days, Lauren looked up from the array of tissue samples surrounding her.

Gripping the solid stainless steel of the lab's counter, it took all her strength to remain upright. The air was sucked out of her lungs, blood rushed from her brain, her vision swam.

"Bo." Hoarse, a mere whisper.

"Hey Lauren." Even close to losing her senses, Lauren saw the hesitation in her crooked grin and the doubt in her dark brown eyes. She found herself praying that this was not an apparition from one of her tortured dreams.

No – there was just too much distinct Bo-ness staring back at her. The Bo who ghosted through her darkest hours was always a little out of focus. The woman in front of her was sharply outlined against the light coming in from the hallway. In her nightmares, Lauren could never quite describe what Bo was wearing. Now, the small wrinkles in the tight black pants, the decorative knots down the front of the leather bodice that highlighted every contour of her luscious shape were magnified to almost painful clarity. The tiny crunch of Bo's knee-length boots as she shifted her weight was as audible as the sound of her breathing, and the cut of the bodice left little doubt that she was breathing hard.

They both stood motionless for a small eternity, numb, trapped in a closet of hope and disbelief. Lauren found the emergency exit first:

"Apparently, I've developed a severe but probably temporary dysfunction in my motor cortex which fails to activate, among others, my quadriceps femoris and my triceps surae." She smiled faintly. "I deduce the evanescent nature of this phenomenon from the fact that my similarily affected Broca's area seems to have recuperated."

Lauren's habit of a lifetime met Bo's customary reaction.

"What?"

"I can't move," Lauren said. "But at least I can speak again."

Bo's entire face broke into a smile that deepend even further when she saw Lauren smile back. She bridged the distance between them with a few long strides and swept the doctor into an embrace that was as frantic as it was quiet.

Lauren inhaled the scent of Bo's hair, of her skin, and the fleeting suspicion she'd harboured that the woman might have been an illusion or an impostor vanished. No one could imitate the way Bo held her, no one could copy the map of this body that was more familiar to Lauren than her own. "Oh gods, you're alive..." she breathed. Wrapped up in the arms of her love, something she'd almost given up hope to ever know again, she felt her burning eyes water. "Where have you been?"

"I don't know."

Reluctantly, Lauren pulled back and looked at Bo quizically. "What do you mean?"

"Just that: I have no idea where I've been." Fear moved over Bo's face and settled there. She cast her eyes down and started playing with a strand of Lauren's hair. "I also don't know... I'm not sure if..." She drew a deep breath and soldiered on: "Tell me the truth, Lauren: what's the body count?"

Lauren was taken a little aback by the question. "Well, apart from the victims of the Ancients, I had to put Tamsin in an artificial coma. Mark is healing, slowly, but..."

"I meant my body count," Bo interrupted, her voice still low.

Lauren searched Bo's face for an explanation and realised that her words hadn't really registered with the other woman. "Your body count?"

"Maybe I'd better start at the beginning," Bo said after a brief silence. "I woke up this afternoon, alone, in my bed. I can't remember how I got there. The clubhouse was dustier than even I would allow, the contents of the fridge were growing fur and tentacles, and it looked like someone had been fighting in the living room. My phone was dead, but when I hooked it up, it told me that more than three weeks had passed since we went to that party. I have no idea where I've been, what I've done, what may have happened." She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "But I'm not hungry."

Lauren's mind automatically processed this information. "So you think..."

"I think I must have fed. At some point. And I … I feel weird. Something's changed. I have changed. It's hard to explain, but … I'm not sure I have been able to ... control myself. So I need to know if I... If I killed."

Lauren gently wiped away a tear that was beginning to roll down Bo's cheek. "It's alright, my love. There is no body count. Dyson and Vex have been pounding the pavement all day, every day since you went missing, looking for you. They found a lot of weird and gruesome things, but not a single succubus kill. And believe me, they would have noticed."

The relief that washed over Bo was almost palpable. "Thank Fae..." she whispered. "Wait a moment – Dyson and Vex? Together?" Lauren nodded. "And they're both still alive?" Another nod. "Wow. Apparently, I've missed all the fun these last three weeks."

"I guess that depends on your definition of fun," Lauren said wrily. "Most of the Fae left the city. Trick and Evony have made an uneasy truce in an attempt to hold up a semblance of order in what remains of the community. Vex and Dyson are the only two willing to fight against the Ancients. For some reason, they've gone underground but still manage to wreak enough havoc to keep us on our toes. We're understaffed at the clinic with two of ours in intensive care, and then there's the endless supply of victims of the mayhem the Ancients are causing."

"But what about you...?" Bo's gaze traced the darker patches under the doctor's weary eyes, the lines etched on her brow and in the corners of her mouth that told a tale of worry, of endless work, of too much weight on her shoulders.

Once again, Lauren doubted that Bo had even heard any of the news she'd just given – almost as if she deliberately chose to ignore everything but this moment, and despite the doctor's ingrained sense of duty, for now she allowed herself to follow suit.

"I've missed you," she said. A simple truth; yes, she'd been on her feet at least twenty hours a day, caring for her patients, performing autopsies on the bodies Vex and Dyson brought in, attending strategy meetings at the group's makeshift headquarters at the Dal, but what had occupied her mind first and foremost every waking minute and in her restless sleep was Bo.

Who still held her close and absentmindedly played with her hair. Whose soothing and exhilarating warmth radiated through every bone in Lauren's body. It suddenly occurred to her that she had called her "my love" just now. It felt right, but did Bo even remember her aborted conversation at the party? And her response to Bo's question?

"Bo?"

"Hm?"

"What's the last thing you recall?"

The smile that lit up Bo's face would have melted polar caps. "You running off with Dyson to look for Mark." A cloud passed over the sun in her eyes, and the doctor in Lauren briefly wondered what traumatic event had caused the memory loss before the lover in her resolutely pushed the thought aside. There would be time for that, later. All she wanted was to seize the moment, the hesitating glow in the chocolate-brown eyes when Bo asked: "Is … your answer … still the same?"

Lauren chuckled softly and leaned her forehead against Bo's. "More than ever."

"Does that mean -" Bo's voice was a shy swagger with a giggle threatening to escape "- that I get to kiss the girl?"

Now Lauren's laughter came into its own. "Oh, boy, yes..." she whooped before she had her breath taken away by the touch of Bo's lips on her, the taste of her tongue against hers. How did she not go insane at the mere idea of never feeling that again? The thought was erased in an avalanche of warmth that engulfed her and carried her to that place where the air was thin and rich and only the two of them existed.

When Lauren felt her lungs expand, her muscles stretch and her skin tingle, it took her a moment to pinpoint the source of the sense of rebirth that swept through her: gently but steadily, Bo was breathing a whisp of Chi into her mouth.

"Whoa," she gasped. "And wow... What...?"

"You looked like you could use a little medicine, doctor," Bo grinned, pleased beyond words that the shadows around the light brown eyes had disappeared, taking a few of the tired lines with them. But not too many – Bo adored the small signs that life and laughter had painted on her lover's face.

"Sweet Fae... I'm not sure the drugs you're selling are even remotely legal but I definitely could get used to them." She laid the tip of her finger in the little hollow between Bo's collarbones and watched it slowly wander downwards. "I like your necklace," she murmured with a twinkle in her eyes that got brighter when she heard Bo's small gasp. She picked up the intricate silver double axe between her thumb and index finger, making sure every butterfly contact increased the sparks that flew between them. Dropping the pendant, she traced the lines of the bodice's upper seam, relishing the slight tremble of smooth skin as she trailed back and forth along the generous slopes. "But something about it makes me crave -"

To Bo's disappointment, the gentle teasing stopped and Lauren frowned.

"You're still not hungry? Not even after Chi-feeding me?" she asked. Bo shook her head. "You're right, that is very unusual..." Before Bo could react, she had slipped out of the embrace and headed for the cabinets containing her medical supplies.

Bo groaned, certain of what was to come. "Tests?" she sighed. "Must we?"

"Actually, not a test as such." Lauren held up a slim black leather band with a thumbnail-sized display. "I've been working on this for quite a while now. I finished it while you were … gone." She didn't say that, irrationally, the research had become her only anchor to the hope that Bo would come back. The hope that one night, Dyson would walk into her lab and not shake his head at her first and always unspoken question. The hope that he would tell her they'd found a clue, a trace, anything that would lead to Bo. And she didn't say that every time, hope would fade a little deeper into darkness. "It's a monitor, custom-made for you. Sensors on the inside measure your skin cell regeneration. The memory chip can store up to a week of readings, and I have developed an algorhythm to extrapolate the influx of Chi on your cell behaviour from the data..." Lauren stopped herself and grinned sheepishly. "Too much geek? Hm... Well, think of it as a Succubus fitbit."

Bo emerged from her adoring haze and took the gadget from the doctor's elegant fingers. She had to admit that the device looked rather stylish. Leaning in, she lowered her voice to the seductive timbre that never failed to fluster Lauren. "So... Where does it go? And does it, hmm, vibrate?"

Lauren didn't even try to fight the brief heat wave that swept through her. She took the strap and fastened it around Bo's wrist, then pulled her close. "Well, no..." she whispered into her ear. "But if you insist on vibration, I'll start working on – let me think – a reverse chastity belt, perhaps?"

Bo softly nibbed the skin of Lauren's neck, then kissed her way along her jaw back to her mouth. "I believe that as of now, everything I need is right here, and buzzing already."

This time, they let their hunger run wild, soaring on each other's lips and the small moans they exchanged, high as kites on familiar and intoxicating taste, flying straight into outer space. They landed smoothly at the same time, inhaling deeply, marvelling how after all these years, after so many kisses, the world around them could still fade away so completely.

Even more than the Chi, the kiss and the dazzling smile Bo flashed her, a smile that spanned everything from tenderness to barely contained desire, wiped away Lauren's weeks of misery. At one point, she would have to let her mind return to that time, but only when it had safely faded from a festering wound to one faint scar among all the others she carried. For now, she lost herself in the delicate dance of Bo's fingertips on her chin and neck and the thought that she could probably sustain herself for the rest of her life on the light in Bo's eyes.

"You know, I was kind of hoping for a full body exam, Doctor Lewis..." Bo trailed her fingers down to the top button of Lauren's shirt, undoing it slowly before moving on to the next one. "All in the interest of science, of – oh hello! What's this?" She touched the thin silver chain that she'd exposed along with the smooth skin of Lauren's chest. "A locket?" Opening the round pendant, her eyes widened. "With a picture of me? Well, shucks, doc, who knew you were such a romantic..."

She could have kicked herself immediately for making fun of Lauren when the thought of being carried, if only as a photo, in the valley between her breasts was delicious no matter how she looked at it.

But Lauren only grinned mischievously as she snatched the locket from Bo's fingers. "Contain yourself, Succubus, it's not what you're thinking... Dammit, it is, but... Oh, whatever – I'll probably never hear the last of it anyway." With an exaggerated sigh, she reached for the button under the counter that sealed the lab and its adjoining rooms from the rest of the clinic. Ignoring Bo's arched eye-brow and the sassy smile, she used the tip of a pen to trigger the lock to a secret compartment behind the photo and reveal the small silver-coloured coin hidden there.

"The Glaukes!" Now Bo was truly thunderstruck. "What the Fae... Well, I guess that explains the need for privacy, but, Lauren, seriously – why didn't you just paint a bright red bullseye on your back?"

"It's the least likely and therefore the safest place, really," Lauren shrugged. "To the Ancients, I am of no significance, Bo. They've ransacked what's left of the Light Fae Compound and Evony's former residence. The Dal was stripped pretty much down to the floor boards twice, and while they did come to the clinic, too, it was more an afterthought than a real search. Trust me, the idea that the Fae would consign such a powerful tool to a mere human for safe-keeping is entirely alien to them."

There was so much quiet authority in Lauren's voice that almost against her will, Bo found herself believing in the logic of the argument. It didn't matter all that much, anyway, at least not compared to the way the woman in her arms was humming under her touch. If anyone came for Lauren, she would save her. She always had.

Then again... Someone who could seduce and de-fae the Morrigan in cold blood, who could throw an axe with deadly accuracy into the back of an invisible god or distract a homicidal Ancient long enough to pick her pockets might not actually need a saviour so much as a partner. An equal.

Suddenly, Bo felt like she was looking at one of those optical illusions where you never knew whether you saw a vase or two faces.

The small sigh from Lauren's lips as she carefully closed and replaced the locket, and the sight of her simple white bra rising and falling with every quick breath drew Bo's attention back to an entirely different kind of need. She had a very good idea where she wanted to go with the partly open shirt and the unmistakable blush of arousal on the bare skin behind it, but before she could reach for the next button, Lauren had swung her around so that the small of her back pressed into the counter.

With one swift movement, Lauren reached around and made short work of the sturdy zipper that held Bo's bodice together, sending an almost painful shiver down her exposed spine. As the leather dropped to the floor, Bo felt warm eyes caress her, getting drunk on the sight, followed by the feather-light touch of Lauren's fingertips as they began to write a new chapter of her endless love letter. With lips and tongue, she added words, in gentle brushes on her collarbones, words like forever, with bolder strokes as she travelled down towards her breasts, mine, yours, echoed in the moans she drew from Bo's speechless throat, painting meandering twirls and tiny curlicues on sensitive ball-point tips, setting pointed exclamation marks that flickered behind Bo's closed lids like neon signs. The invisible imprint spread, one sinuous sentence at a time. I missed you, in calligraphy on Bo's legs as she slowly peeled the pants off, trailing back up. There's only you, a tongue dipped into colourless ink, over and over again. I want you. Fluid movements, longhand, cursive, scrawling round vowels and burning consonants, etching need and desire deep into Bo's core.

As the letter grew and covered her in a delicate tattoo of passion, Bo's replies became inarticulate, sharp yelps and piercing cries stretching into the final, continuous curve as she screamed her lover's name.

Lauren caught her in her arms as she slid to the floor, weightless and insubstantial, and held her as she slowly emerged from the thrall. She smiled at the still incoherent sounds tumbling happily from Bo's lips before she found her voice again.

"What's that speech thing you geeked out about just now?" she eventually murmured.

"Broca's area?"

"Hm-hm... I think whatever happened to yours then just happened to mine, too..."

A tiny chuckle bubbled up in Lauren as she traced another small inscription on Bo's shoulder. "You leave me speechless quite a lot, but never so much as in that moment." She resolutely shut the sadness that had become so familiar during Bo's absence in a locker and threw away the key, but she couldn't hide the slight change of mood from the Succubus who turned her head to look at her and softly kiss her lips.

"I'm sorry I've left you alone," she whispered. "I promised myself I would never do that again." She slipped her hand under Lauren's shirt, just to feel her warm skin. "You know, for the longest time I struggled with the concept of living hundreds of years. It didn't seem real – after all, for most of my life, I thought I was human. Then somewhere along the way, I lost sight of the fact that you're human." When Lauren opened her mouth, she stopped her with another kiss. "No, let me finish. I wasted time, your – our – precious time. So here's my other promise: from now on, I will make every moment count."

Before Lauren could find any words, Bo took her speech and her breath away with a third kiss, deep and tender – a signature under a contract written on both their bodies.

###

Lauren slept soundly, freed from her nightmares, deliciously spent from acquainting herself again with every curve of Bo's body, every inch of sensitive skin and all the sometimes simple, sometimes intricate ways she could make her ascend to a state of very vocal bliss and then having the roles reversed. Nonetheless, her body was so accustomed to short nights that she woke after four hours, still tired to the bones but full of quiet energy. A faint voice in her head told her that there was work to be done and patients to see, but for once, she banished the world outside from her mind. It would crash the gates soon enough, and this night, this moment, was hers.

The early morning sun slanted its beams through the blinds covering the window of the stark hospital room that had been her dungeon for so many nights. Today, the room seemed grander than the President's suite in a five star hotel, and the narrow cot more comfortable than any bed she'd ever slept in. She remembered being carried there after almost every available surface in her lab had been re-purposed to their mutual delight. Bo was curled up with her back to Lauren who realised that in all those years, she'd rarely been up before Bo, and she'd never been the one cradling her. Careful not to disturb the sleeping beauty next to her, Lauren raised herself on one elbow, stretching against the slight protest of her muscles, and watched Bo's profile, so relaxed, so content, with a smile playing around her full lips. Even the simple act of breathing, the slow rise and fall of her chest in deep slumber was exquisit to behold.

Respiration – molecules of oxygen and carbon dioxide being exchanged by diffusion between the gaseous external environment on the one hand and erythrocytes and plasma on the other. Lauren smirked and rolled her eyes at her inner geek who had an uncanny knack for piping up in the most inopportune moments.

Still, the process was one of the body's many miracles; so complex, yet so natural, like, well, like breathing. Infinitely more fascinating was the power to take, let alone to give, someone's life force. In the early stages of her research, Lauren had discovered that, within the variants of her Fae biochemistry, the mechanisms of Bo's regeneration showed similarities to both physiological and cellular respiration in humans. Unlike breathing air, however, breathing Chi required effort and...

"Holy socks!" Lauren whispered. What if...? No... Impossible. Well, unlikely, she corrected herself. But it would explain the lack of hunger, she thought. There was only one way to find out exactly how unlikely, and it was more than worth the try.

Her hands were a little unsteady, but she managed to unfasten the buckle on Bo's newly acquired wristband without waking her. Carefully disentangling herself from the sheets that barely covered them, she almost ran to the lab next door and linked the device to her laptop. For once, she knew exactly how much Chi Bo had taken in the last twelve hours: none. On the contrary, she had given a little. The memory sent a few white-hot tingles through her veins, followed by an involuntary moan when she recalled the small waves of energy Bo had pulsed into her with an immaculate sense of timing.

Instinctively, she reached for her labcoat and the cover of professional detachment it usually provided. 'Get a grip, woman!', she admonished herself even though she could still feel her own ear-to-ear smile. From her – very thorough – physical exam, she knew there hadn't been a single scratch on her lover's creamy skin. Her perfect specimen of the succubi species had been in equally perfect health before she came… Several times, in fact... 'Sheesh, Lauren, stop acting like a teenager!' But the happy chuckle was already out there as she mentally allowed for vigorous physical activity in her calculation. Apparently, the labcoat failed to do its job, and her giddiness only increased when the data from the sensors supported her hypothesis. The conclusion wasn't final, she needed more tests to be on the safe side, but still... After checking that the lab was still sealed, and then re-checking the readings to make sure a fist-bump-and-high-five-myself dance wouldn't be premature, she unleashed her inner James Brown for a silent but rather athletic rendition of "I Feel Good".

When she finally flipped onto a revolving stool for a final spin, the sight of Bo leaning against the door jamb and sporting a more than appreciative grin stopped her dead.

"I think I should spend more time in your lab," Bo said casually. "I can't imagine what I must have missed in the past."

Lauren felt the heat rise in her cheeks. "How long...?"

Bo looked like a cat that had eaten an entire aviary, with the canary and cream for dessert. "Long enough to conclude that watching you shimmy in nothing but your lab coat, your unbuttoned lab coat, I might add, could totally make it to the top of my list of favourite views."

Lauren's blush was replaced by a twinkle and a soft chuckle that evaporated quite a bit of Bo's tongue-in-cheek cool. "And yet, compared to you, I'm positively overdressed." She gave the castors on her stool a strong push which brought her within arm's reach of the view that had made it to her own top ten list a long time ago. With a few well-placed moves, she had Bo sitting astride on her lap and the view so close that not paying hommage to it was simply not an option.

Sinking into the fiery sensation of Lauren's palms on her breasts, of her lips wandering from one tip to the other, of tongue and fingers taking turns in gently circling the peaks, Bo temporarily forgot to ask what exactly Lauren had been celebrating.

TBC

Dedicated to my Queen, because no matter how many miles there are between us now, you're always here with me; and to Laura, the best beta anyone could ever wish for.