A/N: I will keep this brief for you all, this is my first Lost Girl fic but not my first story. I love the show and was struck with this idea because (amongst other things) this show needs more Doccubus fanfiction. Thoughts, comments, concerns, constructive criticism is always appreciated and I will do my best to reply! Enjoy.
4:53pm
Union Station, Chicago, IL (USA)
Lauren hated waiting, she hated feeling like she was on the edge of a cliff that with one wrong step would send her spiraling down into a chasm of panic and desperation. She hated sitting on this cold, hard bench watching the people pass her by and wonder if any of them were this mysterious 'Bo' character. All this hate was fueled by the paranoia that had consumed her, she hadn't slept properly or kept down a decent meal in weeks and the stress was beginning to take its toll on her.
She looked down at her watch, 4:54, she still had six minutes of waiting ahead of her and the growing tension in her stomach was only getting worse. Lauren watched the passing pedestrians, watched the solo businessman walking to the train that would take him to his suburban house with his happy, smiling wife and perfect, academically achieving kids. She saw the packs of teenagers, just getting out of their afternoon activities head to the only train that went through Beverly.
It was getting more and more crowded as the seconds ticked by and the clock crept ever closer to five pm. There would only be more people, more chaos, more confusion as Chicago's largest train station filled to capacity. Lauren gulped, maybe this had been a mistake, a shiver cascaded down her spine and she clutched the handle of her purse tighter. Dyson wouldn't set her up, not for something this serious.
This is life and death. She'd told him My entire career is on the line here, you can't screw around. He'd gotten that, that this was not just some doctors paranoid ideas gone into overdrive, that this situation was real and concrete and terrifying. Right?
4:57.
Lauren was seconds away from getting up and heading home where she could drink some tea and try to calm down. She could call Dyson and tell him that this 'Bo' person hadn't shown, that he still owed her.
Someone sat down next to her.
Lauren didn't dare look. She felt her stomach leap up into her throat and her fight or flight instincts kicked in. She needed to get out of here. She looked towards the figure to her left; out of the corner of her eye Lauren could tell that it was a woman, an incredibly beautiful woman. She had dark hair that cascaded down her shoulders as she studied a message on her phone. Lauren looked away, just another person trying to get on with their life, nothing to get worked up about she thought, trying to convince herself that everything was alright.
The woman shifted next to her and Lauren felt her throat go dry. The grand entrance to Union Station was humming with people and energy. There was a buzz in the air that was distinct only as Friday, everyone was celebrating the end of the week, everyone was ready to get home and that made people restless and eager to get to their destinations.
4:59.
"You can bolt if you like Doc, but it'd be a waste of your time and mine." It took Lauren a moment to realize that she was in a half standing position and the person to whom that voice belonged was in fact the woman sitting next to her.
Lauren sat back down, and glanced again at the woman. Her phone was gone and she was studying Lauren with amused eyes "Nervous?" the woman asked, "I'm Bo, Dyson said you needed some help."
"You-you're Bo?" Lauren stammered, simultaneously trying to mask her surprise and get a handle on the blush creeping up her neck.
Bo laughed, "Who were you expecting?"
"I, I don't know." Lauren sighed honestly, taking a second look at Bo and trying to ignore the way her heart continued to pound.
The woman was fit, and not afraid to flatter her body. She wore dark, tight pants and a shirt that showed quite a bit of cleavage (not that Lauren was necessarily complaining). The boots she wore rose to just below her knees and in her quick glance Lauren was sure she caught sight of what had to be a knife strapped to Bo's calf.
"You like sandwiches?" Bo asked, looking at the doctor.
"What, sandwiches? Sure." Lauren said, standing as Bo did.
"Good because I know this great little dive that serves the best sandwiches in the city. We'll talk there."
"Oh-okay." Lauren said, not sure how she felt about this suddenly turning into a date No. she scolded Not a date, she's a-a colleague trying to help you. If she can. Lauren added miserably.
They stepped outside into the light and cool air of a September evening "Gotta love this city." Bo said "You from Chicago?"
"No, Seattle originally. Came to Northwestern for grad school and couldn't leave the city." Lauren explained "I'm a doctor, pediatric surgeon at Children's Memorial Hospital."
"Kids." Bo noted as they turned left and headed away from the busiest of downtown areas.
"You not a fan?" Lauren asked, this time with her own amused curiosity.
"No, it's not that I'm not a fan." Bo explained hastily " I just, surgery, that's gotta be intense and depressing to work with all those sick kids."
"It can be." Lauren agreed "But one of my friends, a peds surgeon out in Seattle put it best. We were talking and she told me what she told her interns on their first rotation, the thing about working with kids is that they believe in magic and they play pretend and there's fairy dust in their IV bags. They hope and they cross their fingers and they make wishes. And that makes them more resilient than adults. They recover faster, survive worse. Working with kids is hard, yeah, but it's worth it when the parents smile and they know their kid is going to be alright."
They turned into a storefront and Lauren just managed to catch a glimpse of the sign as they entered the tiny restaurant. It was less restaurant though and more half convenience store, half deli. There was a glass case full of meats and cheeses and a couple of dishes that Lauren didn't recognize "The Dal." Bo said "Tiny, unnoticeable and serving the best food in the city."
"Just the way I like it." A voice from behind the case said and Lauren looked over to see a man, looking over the counter at them "I'm assuming this is a business call." He said, directing the comment at Bo, who slid into one of the booths that line a portion of the back wall.
"Lauren, this is Trick. Trick this is Lauren, the doctor Dyson was talking about." Bo explained as means of introduction "Is Kenzi around?"
Trick shook his head "I've got her out running some errands, she should be back soon though. You two planning on eating?"
Bo looked over at Lauren who was at this point feeling almost out of place, but very hungry. She nodded "Sure, I could eat." She agreed, but her stomach flopped as she remembered the purpose of this entire visit.
Trick came out from behind the counter and handed Lauren a menu "I'll be in the back, just give me a shout when you're ready to order." He said and disappeared through a doorway.
Lauren set the menu down and look at Bo from across the table "Do you want to eat first or talk?" Bo asked "Mind you, you look like you're about to hurl so maybe we should talk first."
Lauren swallowed and nodded "That, that sounds good."
"So start at the beginning." Bo prompted.
"I'm a doctor." Lauren starts, feeling her mouth go dry "A surgeon, and about two months ago I started noticing we were getting a lot of patients with the same symptoms. It would present like appendicitis so they would be rushed into my OR and then we'd cut them open and the appendix would be fine. We'd poke around, just to make sure that everything else was okay and then we'd close up, leaving the kids still in great amounts of pain. Over the next couple days the pain gets worse, and none of the medications do anything, not even our strongest dosages have any effect. We give these kids CT scans, MRIs, we run every test we can think of, but nothing seemed to be wrong. Now after about a week the pain suddenly vanishes and the kids are totally fine, worse for wear and a little scared but they're okay."
Lauren pauses, watching Bo, who's looking at her with passive interest "So mystery illness is infecting kids." Bo says "Keep going."
"So I told my boss and my bosses boss what was going on. They told me that we must not be doing the right tests and to keep searching. So I did, I called some of my colleagues, other doctors, to see what they thought and one of them suggested I take blood samples from the beginning of the cycle and the end to compare."
"So you did." Bo supplied as Lauren broke off, twisting her hands together and glancing around "and what did you find?"
"Nothing." Lauren said "At least at first, by appearance the blood samples seemed the be the same. But I did some probing of individual cells and found their make-up has been altered. The main DNA of the cell is intact but there is an extra protein-peptide complex inhibiting all the cells.'
"Protein-peptide complex?" Bo asked
"Like whey, the stuff protein shakes are made of. Except these complexes are harmful, it's a venom complex sitting in the blood cells and yet it's completely dormant." Lauren explained, or tried to. She looked at Bo desperately "Does that make sense?"
"So these kids blood cells are developing into venomous, uh, things?" Bo asked
"Mutating." Lauren corrected "But this can't happen of it's own accord this needs some sort of source, some instigator. So I reported it to my boss, who was away at a conference at the time. He told me that he would be back the following day and I could explain everything to him then. The next morning all the blood samples and all my notes about any of my cases for the past three months are gone."
There it was, or almost was. Bo watched the woman across from her go rigid as she recounted the memory, she noticed the way the vein at the curve of her neck bulged and fluttered as she kept talking. Bo saw the stress wash over the doctor, but still she restrained from comforting, there was more to this story, just one last piece that's she's missing and she needed it, needed to hear it for herself. But Bo wasn't all distant emotions and cruelty "You want some water?"
Lauren nodded "Please."
The doctor watched as Bo disappeared behind the counter and let out a long breath. There was one last detail, the hardest most horrifying part to this entire tale that she was yet to talk about. And as Bo reappeared she wondered if she'd have the strength to tell it.
The water was cool against her lips and glass gave her hands something to do besides twist useless in her lap. Bo had retrieved a soda for herself and it sat, unopened on the table, as she looked at Lauren "What's the last part of the story?" she asked gently
Lauren took another long drink of water, almost draining the glass "I told my boss, the chief of surgery, that all my notes were gone and the samples and I filed the report, but nothing ever came of it. There's not even the paperwork for it anymore. And when I asked him about it, he told me that there was nothing that could be done. So I tried to recollect some samples but all my patients were pulled, anyone who showed symptoms of this mutation were whisked away to another ward, under another doctor. I tried to protest, was writing a letter to the board, but someone" she broke off closing her eyes and forcing out a breath "someone broke into my apartment and ruined all of my research that I had done, stole my laptop, shredded my notes and all the work I'd done trying to connect the patients, it's all gone."
"So they, whoever they are, know where you live and don't want you messing around with their blood mutation scheme." Bo said
"Yes, but this is an incredibly dangerous mutation, if they are injected with a vaccine or even eat something that has a triggering agent for the venom in the blood, they will die in seconds. It would be a toxic overload, but I can't do anything. I'm already on probation and if I go near it again- I don't want the same people to break into my house again." Lauren paused and looked at Bo "Something serious is going on and I, I didn't know who else to go to."
"You talked to Dyson." Bo said and Lauren nodded "What did he say?"
"He said that there wasn't enough to launch a full investigation, that if the hospital was covering its tracks and I had no solid proof, that it would be my word against theirs." She explained "But he told me that there was someone else who could help. Someone who doesn't have the confines of the law restraining them like he does."
"And he gave you my name." Bo said
"Yes, but what I don't get it how can you help? I'll take help anyway I can, but what can you do?"
"I'm going to assume that Dyson didn't tell you what I do for a living."
"No, didn't tell me anything besides your name."
"Okay, well, I'm a freelance journalist, I write bits for The Reader, The Tribune, sometimes magazines. That's what keep me alive and pays the rent, but there's a side business that I set up a couple years back, I help people in desperate, most of the time dangerous, situations. I've dealt with gangbangers who have too much confidence and not enough common sense, cabbies who blackmail their passengers, and a dozen stories crazier than those to. What you're looking for is exactly what I can provide."
"I'm looking for miracle."
"No" Bo corrected "What you're looking for is someone who isn't afraid to get their hands dirty, who won't take no for an answer and knows how to handle themselves when the times call for it." When Lauren noted, and she couldn't deny that Bo was in all aspects correct "And I can do that, all of it. But you have to answer me one question."
"Anything." Lauren nodded
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Bo asked and fixed her with a steady gaze "I need you to be one hundred percent into this because if I get started and all of a sudden you get a change of heart or can't handle the truth, I'm not dropping it. I don't work like that, never have, never will." She said simply
Lauren thought for a moment, remembered the nights the patients, her patients, her kids, would cry themselves to sleep because the pain was too much. She remembered the haunted looks of the parents, the tortured expressions on their faces as they suffered right along with their children. That was enough, that was enough to drive her because no one, no child, no parent, should ever suffer like those families did "I'm sure." She said "I want to know what's going on."
"Okay." Bo nodded "Then what I need you to do is keep going to work like nothing is wrong, like you're staying away from the patients like you're supposed to. Did you ever find out how the kids, those patients, how were they connected?"
Lauren shrugged "There wasn't a whole lot to go on, the internet could only tell me so much and the parent's weren't up for much talking. It wasn't a sports team, it wasn't school, the parents weren't friends as far as I could see. It seemed like just random chance."
"I doubt that." Bo said "If you believe that this couldn't have happened of its own accord, then there's got to be a common denominator. That's where we'll start, playing connect the dots with your patients."
The door to The Dal opened and Lauren looked over to see a black haired, dark eyed, very irritated looking woman enter, she looked to be in her early twenties, maybe nineteen years old at the youngest "Trick!" the girl shouted "Did you just conveniently forget to tell me that you owed this guy money or were you expecting me to pay that debt too?" she set two bags down behind the counter and turned her attention to Bo and Lauren.
"Bo-Bo!" she said "I wasn't expecting you here until tonight, or did you bring the client with you?"
"Lauren, this is Kenzi. Kenzi this is Lauren, our newest client." Bo said, moving over as Kenzi took a seat next to her.
"Finally!" Kenzi cheered "It's been too long since we've done some real work."
The introductions were interrupted by Lauren's phone going off "Sorry." She said, pulling it out of her bag and answering "Doctor Lewis."
Kenzi looked at Bo and mouthed "Doctor Lewis?"
Bo just rolled her eyes and focused something that wasn't Kenzi telling her to sleep with their latest client. Lauren talked for another minute or so, taking details of a patient as she did. When she hung up she turned to Bo "Well here you are." She said "I've got an emergency patient that I need to get to" she explained standing up and collecting her things "Thank you." She said "Really, thank you."
"It's our pleasure." Bo said "We'll talk tomorrow."
It wasn't that she was feeling much better about the situation, rather talking to Bo made it feel like she had someone on her side, someone who would hopefully help her figure out what the hell was going on here. Bo watched the doctor leave, making sure she was out of sight before turning to Kenzi "What do you know about nursing?"
There was a flicker of confusion across Kenzi's face before she started shaking her head "No no way Bo. Not in a million years."
"Please? It wouldn't be-"
"Have ever met a nurse?" Kenzi asked "They terrify me."
"Even pediatric nurses?"
"Especially pediatric nurses, they have to deal with crazy parents. There is no way that plan is happening. No way." Kenzi said, standing up and moving off to go find Trick "Get another plan sister, find another way."
**end chapter one**