Dropping off the chart and going to clock out Lauren caught a flash of someone coming into the clinic before the figure closed off the curtain around an empty bed, which wouldn't be that odd if the few nurses still working weren't standing just a few feet from her. Offering the nearby staff members a friendly good-bye Lauren headed towards the main exit, but stopped at the last curtain on her way out.
Finding the only unaligned succubus she knew of searching through the bottom trays of a cart only fueled her curiosity. It had been a week since the Dawning end. A week of Bo trying to get her alone to tell her what she already knew. A week she had spent busied with old projects that no one cared about and smiling to herself every time she looked at some forgotten file that had been cast aside.
Her shutting the curtain completely this time, to where it actually offered privacy, seemed to startle the brunette, whose brown eyes fixated on her for the briefest of moments before the succubus went back to searching through the supplies with one hand. In that moment though Lauren had caught a glimpse of something very wrong with the woman she loved.
"Bo, your head is bleeding." A wadded up group of tissues in the woman's left hand were only serving to create a mess and Lauren immediately moved in to get them away from the injury.
"It does that when the skin breaks Doctor Lewis. Don't you guys have any alcohol around here?" She could have gone home and used some of Kenzi's vodka and a band aid from the first aid kit to patch herself up, but the compound had been closer than the shack and it had been a week without seeing Lauren. Of course the worried look on Lauren's face had not been what she wanted to see, but she had intended to get the bleeding under control so there wouldn't have been any need for Lauren to look so concerned. The Light Fae though only seemed to have those wooden sticks doctors shoved down people's throats before asking them stupid questions sitting around, which weren't going to help any.
"Why don't you sit on the bed and let the medical expert treat the wound?" Nothing was ever easy with Bo and clearly that wasn't going to change as the succubus looked more like she intended to leave after getting caught than getting proper treatment.
"That cut looks pretty bad and I am not letting you walk out of here without examining it." Watching Bo stumble to get to her feet, Lauren helped her to the uncomfortable bed. Grabbing a bottle of sterile water from the top of the tray and some cotton balls from a jar Lauren focused on the wound, avoiding Bo's attempts at eye contact.
That her girlfriend had said more to her in the last two minutes than the week before provided some hope that the encounter wasn't going to remain an entirely professional one. That hope got squashed just as quickly as it surfaced when Lauren snapped on a pair of gloves. Bo had waited a week, trying to wait her out, but in the last couple days her texts had started going out in all caps and now Lauren wasn't even going to touch her? She just waited to know what was going on inside Lauren's head and yet the woman wouldn't even look at her. Though it's not as if the half a box worth of tissue she had pressed against her head had done anything to stop the bleeding and a perk of having a hot doctor girlfriend should be free medical services with all bedside manner she could handle.
There were already signs of bruising on the left side of Bo's face when Lauren got the blood washed off and the wound certainly looked like it needed stitches. "Bo you should heal."
"It's not that bad." The remark earned her the briefest of worried looks before Lauren sealed off that emotion from her as well and started poking at the cut.
"How did you this happen exactly?" Bo hadn't mentioned any plans on getting into a fight and needing stitches in the numerous texts she had received from her, but then again she had been avoiding talking to Bo about what she had been doing since the Dawning, though she had a pretty good idea of who Bo had been doing.
"Trick bought some ancient Fae text he didn't already have, but apparently black market antique dealers aren't very honorable. By the time Kenzi and I found him to ask for Trick's money back he had reinvested the payment into some Ogre bodyguards and they really didn't like it when Kenzi ran out the door with the book." Dealing with angry orges armed with clubs was apparently going to remain the highlight of her day though as Lauren didn't look even at her, showing no sign of concern that her girlfriend just got pummeled by an angry Fae.
Lauren moved to tilt Bo's head to get a better look at the cut, fearful of splinters that the blow could have left, only her hand didn't cooperate. Instead her found herself stroking Bo's cheek, leaving her lost in a place that she kept telling herself no longer existed. Bo wasn't hers to comfort though and simply accepted her help because Lauren had forced it on her. "Why didn't Trick just report it to the police?"
"I figure because the seller was Dark Fae and the Morrigan would probably have given him a reward and not a prison sentence." Bo felt the light touch, the gesture that her girlfriend still loved her and that was all she needed to reach out for Lauren's other hand, only to end up without any contact at all. "Lauren, I know what happened at the Dal wasn't exactly the celebration either of us had in mind but talk to me. Please."
"Did you see what book it was?" Lauren moved away from the woman, throwing away the bloodied cotton and preparing the items needed for stitches. Bo had made a choice and she had to respect that. Bo simply needed help and she had to focus on that. If she overstepped those boundaries again she would never get to remain as some small part of Bo's life.
"I don't know. It was old, leathery, and important enough that Kenzi had to take a cab back to the Dal. I would have read it, but apparently Dark Fae libraries have stricter penalties for stealing books than I'm used to." Nothing. Not a thoughtful mmm, or an eye roll, sure as hell no laugh. Her witty joke about books and rules had actually gotten a better response from her car when she had practiced it on the drive over. "Why does it matter?"
Lauren couldn't answer with anything except a shrug and the unsteady placement of a surgical tray readied with the thread, needles and scissors to close the wound.
Moving right along to plan b, Bo shifted enough to place her hand on Lauren's arm, wanting to feel warmth beneath her fingers but settling for stroking Lauren's arm through the lab coat. "You know stitches really aren't an attractive accessory."
Lauren could feel the quick change in the situation as Bo clearly had no interest in the tome or stitches. It was impossible not be tempted, but Bo flirting with her didn't change the situation any. "Bo, there are still nurses here."
"Kinky Doctor Lewis, but I was thinking we could go somewhere with walls and without an audience."
To Lauren there was little doubt that the newly evolved succubus picked Dyson, that much had been clear, and yet here she was flirting with her as if nothing had changed. "Sorry, but I'm still recovering from the Dal. Maybe next week."
"Lauren I'm not talking about feeding. I just want some time with you. It's not exactly been an easy week for me either with Dyson confessing he still loves me. Not to mention everything is still a little scrambled in my head." Coming out of some weird Fae version of Thunder Dome with more questions than answers and a girlfriend that won't take her calls had overshadowed any short lived joy she had felt about surviving the Dawning.
"Of course with Dyson recovered I'm sure he's been very demanding of your time." Leaving the sterilized equipment untouched, Lauren simply walked out. She had been the second place prize that got cast aside as soon as Bo found the first place trophy in the lost and found, but at she didn't have to stand around and be reminded of that status.
"Lauren." Whatever sense of privacy the curtain supposedly offered disappeared when Bo followed after the doctor and realized their voices clearly carried well enough for them to have gathered a group of lab techs, nurses and interns that had stopped working to listen to their conversation. Ignoring they were in a rather public place full of Fae, Bo cut off Lauren's escape route. "Lauren, stop, please. That came out wrong."
"Go home Bo. Maybe next week we can try this again." There was plenty of room to side step Bo, but Lauren waited for her to move, to show some sign that she still respected her enough to give her that much.
"It wasn't Dyson laying there dead on the floor of the Dal." The clearly insane, and desperate, statement earned her a raised eyebrow, but at least Lauren was listening to her though. "I know physically it was Dyson, that's not what I saw though. That moment with the Lich came into my head. Watching them put a knife to your throat and knowing I had to do something to save you."
Still nothing, but Bo took the silence as a step in the right direction. "I can't explain everything, not now. I know Dyson went in there with me, and I know how it looked at the Dal, but it was you that got me through it. You're the one who I want a life with."
Lauren listened, waiting to hear something she could pick apart, to analyze as Bo trying to bring an official end to what she had believed was a relationship. Yet all she could understand was fear. Bo was terrified and that hurt more than anything. "It's been a long day Bo."
Bo wanted to collapse. She had been waiting for the moment since she had healed with Dyson. Waited for Lauren to realize she could do better, that she could have anyone else, find someone who actually knew what the hell a petri dish was used for. The love of her life was simply going to leave her and all the preparation for the Dawning, the future she saw for them, the choice she had made at Hecuba Prison would mean nothing.
Instead of crumbling though she felt lifted up as Lauren took a hold of her hands and with a small smile lead her out of the compound.
Something written up as one of two stories that I couldn't get out of head after 3x09. Stay strong my fellow Doccubus supporters. We've been through worse and survived that. Reviews and the like will be most appreciated.