An important detail to note is that for the purposes of this story, Lauren and her brother were orphaned in their teens. This is another reason why they became eco-terrorists.

1. The Wedding Dress

Bo and Lauren had been planning the wedding for months already. Their priority had been to somehow manage to keep it fun and not stressful, but they always had fun when they were doing things together. They were both a fan of classic weddings, but they wanted to make it special, unique, they wanted it to feel like them.

The flowers were going to be white roses, with accents on the tips of a few from each bouquet of electric blue and lavender purple. Their wedding rings were already picked out and were almost identical, Lauren's had a large circular sapphire stone in the center surrounded by smaller diamonds, the band was simple with a few more diamonds down the band near the setting and the inside of the band had an identical inscription on both, "Yours, Forever & Eternity." Bo's ring was the same but with an exceedingly rare purple diamond in the center. "A rare diamond to symbolize my rare diamond, it's perfect," Bo had said when they were looking at raw stones.

They also had the caterer and the venue picked out, The Dal of course. They had their wedding party and the guests picked out, the only thing they'd been dragging their feet on was getting dresses and sending out the save the date invitations, they found it hard to agree on a day or even a time of year for that matter.

"Bo, we have to go dress shopping, you can't wear black leather and I can't wear my lab coat to our wedding," Lauren was getting tired of pushing her lover to do this last thing.

Bo pouted adorably, "But you know how turned on I get when you're in your lab coat. Plus that's so us!"

Lauren rolled her eyes, trying not to smile but failing. "You're worse than a child sometimes I swear."

"Oh shut up, you love me."

"Unfortunately," Lauren shrugged and Bo reached across the couch to tickle her sides.

"Unfortunately, huh?" She asked as Lauren giggled uncontrollably, Bo knew how ticklish she was and how much she hated being tickled. She finally stopped when Lauren's eyes welled with tears from laughter.

Lauren sat up and pretended to be angry, "That's dirty pool, Dennis. You better watch yourself."

Bo shook her head, she knew even though Lauren was joking with her, that she was really getting stressed out about getting dresses.

"Okay babe, let's go look at dresses, come on," Bo stood up and held her hand out to her lover.

"Now?"

"Yeah come on, if we stay here any longer you know we'll both just end up naked."

"True, you're right. Let's go."

Lauren had tried on dress after dress and she was starting to get discouraged. Nothing seemed to suit her at all, nothing seemed 'right', nothing took her breath away. Bo had of course come in and found her perfect dress in about 20 minutes. Bo saw how stressed her lover was getting and offered to go out and get them coffee and Lauren was relieved to be left alone to sulk, not wanting Bo to have to see getting her so stressed over their wedding.

After what seemed like thirty different dresses, the saleswoman finally thought she had a better idea of what Lauren was looking for, she came back with one and Lauren felt herself get a little excited. She tried not to get her hopes up as she tried on the dress but she couldn't help it, before she even looked in the mirror something about this one just felt different. It fit her body like a glove as if it had already been tailored to her.

She turned to the mirror and felt her eyes stinging with joyous tears instantly. It was perfect, slim line and elegantly simple, it was a form fitting dress that was floor length, the material at her cleavage was gathered and swooping, adding just enough intrigue to the simple dress. It was exactly what she'd been picturing. As she felt all the pieces of their wedding and the months of planning falling into place, drawing to a close – she was suddenly hit in the chest with crippling memories that knocked the wind out of her.

There was something that just wasn't right and Lauren wondered if it would ever feel right. Maybe now wasn't the time for this wedding, maybe there never would be a right time, because if things remained as they were now, she suddenly wasn't sure if she wanted to go through with it. She felt her heart sink as she realized what this might do to Bo, she knew their relationship could survive her calling off the wedding but she also knew it would crush Bo, break her heart. Bo wasn't a 'girly-girl' but Lauren knew how much this wedding meant to her lover, Lauren had seen how excited she'd become the more they'd planned it. The blonde was racked with guilt and suddenly the last thing she wanted to be doing was standing in a change room in a wedding dress that was starting to feel like a lie.

She quickly undressed as she heard a knock on the door, "Babe? It's me, I've got your coffee whenever you're decent."

"Uh, okay hun. I'm almost ready to go."

"Yeah? Should I take that to mean you've found something or have you given up for the day?" Bo asked, her voice hopeful.

Lauren shut her eyes in pain, not wanting to have this conversation here. "Yeah, I found something, good to go," she answered, forcing her voice to sound as normal as possible.

They left the shop and got into the Camaro, heading home. Lauren had been silent since they left and was gazing out the window with a far off look in her eye. Bo decided maybe it was a good time for her to give her lover some happy news, "Look, I've been thinking and I like your idea of a summer wedding. I can let go of marrying in the fall, summer sounds nice, we can have an outdoor wedding which will be wonderful with you being Elf now and-"

Lauren knew she had to stop her before she said anything sweeter, "I've been thinking too and may-maybe now isn't the right time for this."

"For what?" Bo asked, genuinely confused as to what she meant.

Lauren's voice was small, almost scared, "For us to get married. I-I'm not saying not ever, I'm just saying, maybe not right now."

Bo cleared her throat, never having felt so confused in her life, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything is great I just – I don't know, it's been kind of stressful planning everything, even though we tried to keep it as stress free as possible and I just – I don't know I guess I want to really enjoy things when it happens," Lauren knew her bullshit stunk, even to her own nose.

Bo couldn't have been more confused, even if the planning had been a little stressful at times, why would that make a difference now, when they were basically finished with the preparations? It seemed more likely to her that Lauren was having second thoughts about marrying her and didn't want to just come out and say it. Honestly, she was too scared to question the blonde further, half of her not wanting to know the real answer.

Bo reached across the car to take Lauren's hand. "Are we okay?" Bo asked in a small, quiet voice.

Lauren nodded emphatically, "Yes baby, we're great. I hope you're not upset – I just need some time, okay?"

Bo nodded, "Of course, anything. I just want you to be happy."

Lauren smiled at her and lifted their interlaced hands to her lips to press a kiss to Bo's hand. She couldn't have felt any more grateful to have such an incredible woman. She looked out the window again, hiding her face as tears welled in her eyes.