"Where's Bo?" Dyson asked, striding in through the front door. He looked left and right, expecting her to be lying injured or moments from death. With Bo, you just never knew what you'd be walking into and while he always preached being at the ready, Bo seemed to provoke extra caution.
"Put these on." Lauren handed surgical masks to Hale and Dyson. She seemed set up on the coffee table, Dyson recognized the kit.
Hale was quick to follow the direction, but Dyson looked at the mask in his hand. "What's going on?"
"Bo's sick," Lauren started and Dyson made a beeline for the stairs before she could elaborate. "Dyson, wait. I think she might be contagious."
He stopped at the doorway to the stairs and looked back at her. "Then why aren't you wearing one of these?" He held the mask in the front of him.
Lauren thought about her answer. "It doesn't appear to affect humans."
"Of course." His disdain was palpable.
"Dyson, this is serious, right now she has all the symptoms of the fae plague. I need to get her back to the lab and I need your help to-"
"Let me see her," Dyson interrupted.
Lauren sighed. "She's in bed, Dyson." He was halfway up the stairs when she called after him: "Wear the mask!"
At the top of the stairs, Dyson dropped his mask onto the floor. He never seen her so pale before, even when she was bruised and broken. Now she looked sick, weak, she smelled… different. "Bo."
She looked up from the book in her lap and rolled her eyes. "Hey, great, more people to see me at my worst."
Dyson walked quickly to her side. "Bo, feed off of me," he said, sitting on the edge of the bed. He was quick to offer. There were so many things he couldn't seem to give her, but this was the one thing he never failed at. "I can make you better."
"I'm afraid that won't work." Lauren stood in the bedroom doorway behind him. She played with the discarded mask between her fingers. "If you're through disregarding my requests, can we get her to the lab?"
The doors of the Light Fae Labs broke open. Lauren pushed her way through, tossing the med-kit under a desk and continuing to the nearest bed. Her fingers danced over the machines, switching on oxygen, heart monitors and IV. She pulled the covers back, took her leather jacket off and draped it on the chair next to the bed.
Dyson followed through the doors, a weakened Bo lay in his arms. Kenzi was glued to her best friend, never more than a step away from her. She marveled at the gadgetry.
"It's like a friggin' Lite-Brite."
"Put her on the bed." Lauren rolled each sleeve of her shirt three times. No more, no less.
Bo curled up on her side, her eyes closed in an intense meditation. Dyson reached over her and pulled the covers to her chin. "What can I do?" he asked, his fists pushing into the side of the bed.
"Unfortunately, not much," she replied, checking Bo's pulse. "I'm afraid you exposed yourself to a potential plague." She took her own pulse, comparing the results and jotting them down on the fresh paperwork on her clipboard. "You're grounded, Maverick."
Dyson rolled his eyes. "I feel fine."
"You're not leaving this lab," Lauren stated matter-of-factly. She scribbled a few lines on the paperwork in her hand. "You could be infected."
He paced, frustrated by the sudden leash. "You can't do this to me, Lauren."
"Wrong again, Dyson." She smirked and shook her head at the irony. "You're in my world now."
"You're enjoying this."
Lauren finally stopped and looked up at him for a brief, intense moment before grabbing his open jacket and pulling him a few steps away from Bo. He pushed her hand away. "A very good friend of mine is lying mere moments away from lapsing into a coma and you think I'm enjoying this?" She glanced at Bo and back up at Dyson, her eyes unwavering. "Whatever unfinished business you may think we have, don't mistake the fact that the decisions I make in this lab are decisions I make as a doctor. So put your petty bullshit aside and get your wolf into that bed. The more time I waste getting you to behave is less time I'm spending on helping Bo."
Dyson seemed unaffected by the speech, but his demeanor softened, if only slightly. "I can't help her from the lab."
"Twenty-four hour quarantine," she said, returning to her clipboard. She walked back to Bo's side. "After that you're free to go."
Dyson growled. "Anymore rules?"
"Just one." She pointed across the room. "Get in bed."
The creak of the curtain on the chrome railing over her bed made her head scream. Her brow furrowed, willing the pain away. What the hell was wrong with her? She'd never been this sick in her life. Even after Mary Dennis' seafood surprise casserole.
"Bo?" Lauren's voice was quiet.
Only able to muster a groan in return, Bo tried to open her eyes. The laboratory lighting pierced into the back of her skull. "Light," she grunted. A moment passed and she heard a few clicks. The pain's intensity lessened dramatically and she opened her eyes onto Lauren, who was fiddling with the various dials and switches on the machines next to her.
Lauren looked down at her and smiled. "Hey," she said. "How do you feel?"
"Like shit," Bo replied. "What the hell's wrong with me?" She watched Lauren look to Kenzi in the chair next to the bed. She hadn't even realized she was there.
"Can you give us a second?" Lauren asked. Kenzi didn't say a word, patting Bo's arm before disappearing around the curtain. Lauren's lips tightened and she sighed. "I'm working on it," she smiled. "Can you sit up?"
With a lot of effort and a hand from the doctor, Bo managed to sit herself upright. Her head swam in large circles and she braced herself with her right arm. "It feels like the fae flu."
Lauren pushed the leather jacket from Bo's shoulders. "That's the direction I'm heading." She pulled the jacket from her arms and folded it over her arm. "I just wish I knew for sure." Dropping the jacket on the chair next to the bed, Lauren turned back and watched Bo sway with the tides that were swirling in her head. She reached for the hem on Bo's shirt and Bo placed a hand on hers.
"You'll figure it out, though, right?" Bo couldn't hide the fear she was beginning to feel. If Lauren couldn't figure it out, her chances of pulling out of this dwindled.
Lauren smiled then. "Of course," she said. But Bo wasn't fooled. Lauren's eyes always told so much more of the story and Bo wasn't liking where this was going. "Arms up."
Bo followed the direction and Lauren pulled Bo's shirt over her head. The action didn't help the queasiness. "I'm so tired," she groaned. "That troll kicked the shit out of me."
Lauren unfolded a hospital gown and pulled it over Bo's arms. "One second," she said, tying the gown together behind Bo's back. Bo's chin dropped to her shoulder and Lauren had to start the last knot again. Bo mumbled into her shoulder as her fingers tied the knot loosely and helped Bo to lie back against the pillows.
By the time Lauren added Bo's jeans to the growing pile of clothes, Bo had begun to drift off. "I hope you figure it out soon," she dragged the sentence out in her exhaustion.
Lauren pulled the blankets over Bo and touched the back of her cool fingers to her forehead. "I hope so, too."