It didn't take him long to get the information needed. If he admitted it, he was a little disappointed in Lauren for making it so easy. Dyson caught Kenzi's scent in the air before she'd even opened the door to the Dal. She breezed over to him in the corner where he sat nursing a beer and slid into the chair next to him. She didn't say anything at first, drumming her hands on the table.
"So did you find her?"
"I found a list of buyers of formaldehyde in the last three months," Dyson began, pulling out the report. "Fifty altogether, ten from the county, five from here and two from the university town two hours away." He handed her the paper.
"Oh, D, you are awesome." Kenzi studied the sheet.
"One of the two," Dyson started. "Is a Professor Llewellyn. It's the only residential address on the list. I think that's your girl."
"Oh my god!" Kenzi leaned over and hugged him. "I owe you huge."
Dyson smiled. "You have until tomorrow at midnight."
Kenzi's celebration was cut short and she looked at him. "What?"
"Kenzi you know we can't keep this from Bo. So you have until midnight tomorrow to find out whatever you need to find out and tell her. Or else I will."
Kenzi rolled her eyes and gathered her bag, taking a swig of Dyson's beer on her way to her feet. "You wolves are so damn noble," she muttered as she stomped off.
It had been four months since she made the decision to walk away from Lauren. When Tamsin had asked after her, Bo had hardened her heart and left Lauren. She couldn't say why she had done it beyond the fact that Lauren had been incredibly cruel to her in Taft's office. That feeling in her stomach, that fire, it began that day, kept her doggedly following Lauren's trail to its many dead ends. That fire also kept Lauren on her mind and tonight she was at the forefront. Tonight, all she could think was the longer Lauren was gone the higher the chance that the Morrigan had gotten their hands on her and there was no telling what she'd do to Lauren. She would find her first.
Bo wrenched open a carton of Haagen Dazs ice cream and stood, poised with spoon, to dig in.
"Why the long succy-face?" Kenzi wrapped an arm around Bo's shoulders and gave her a bit of a shake.
"It's Lauren."
"Say no more, say no more." Kenzi held up her hands and hopped onto the countertop.
Bo paced. "Hale, the Morrigan and the new Ash have all asked me to find her. I've been looking for months and I've come up with bupkis. Lauren is a smart lady and I'm getting the impression that she does not want to be found."
"Would you? She's public enemy number one. And I mean human public enemy number one, which is much, much worse."
"I have to find her, Kenz." Bo looked at her spoonful of ice cream with a remorse she was sure to feel tomorrow. "This new Ash is a piece of work. I mean, there's no telling what she'll do to Lauren if she finds her first."
"As if you didn't have enough motivation before the threats from on high. Never fear, Wondersnatch, we are going to find her." Kenzi jumped down, whisking the carton of Haagen Dazs out of Bo's hand as she twirled toward the couch. "And we are going to find her first because we're awesome at our jobs. Am I right? This is what we do!" Flinging her body onto the couch, Kenzi considered the spoon still in Bo's hand and then regarded ice cream in her own.
"You're the best cheerleader, Kenzi."
"Never call me a cheerleader again. Now sit down with me, there's Golden Girls marathon on."
Bo ambled to the couch and plopped down next to Kenzi.
"Now, first things first," Kenzi said. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to use your spoon." Kenzi took a swipe at the spoon, but Bo yanked it away before she could grab it.
"Nice try," Bo replied. "I'm afraid I'm going to be needing my ice cream. Hand it over." Bo sunk the spoon into the carton and smiled.
"That's it for today, don't forget your papers on Genetic Engineering and Microeveolution are due at the end of the week. No extensions." Professor Lewellyn closed her book with authority and began packing her briefcase as the students poured out of her lecture hall.
The slow clicking of someone's heels was heard throughout the hall but the Professor paid no attention until there was someone standing beside her. Still looking down, she swore she recognized those boots and striped leggings. She looked up slowly. "Kenzi?"
"That is my name, Doc. What's up with yours?"
Lauren smiled at her and scanned the lecture hall quickly. "If I told you it was a long story, would you believe me?"
"You can buy me a coffee."
At the campus Starbucks, Kenzi and Lauren carried their drinks to the back corner of the café and settled in. They spoke in hushed tones, aware that the campus had ears, too.
"Seriously, what's with the Witness Protection Program jazz? Bo's been looking for you for months."
"Is she here?" Lauren looked over Kenzi's shoulder.
"Cool your Bunsen burner, Doc. She doesn't know I'm here."
"I don't understand, then."
"I'm on sort of a reconnaissance mission." Kenzi took a bite of her biscotti. "I'm here because I have to know if your break is, in fact, a break up. Because if that is the case then I will not let Bo find you."
"Kenzi, I left because it was the only option I had. The Light wanted me dead, the Dark wanted me alive and Bo," she hung her head, "she didn't want me."
"If there's one thing I won't believe it's that. I've seen her get over Dyson and I've watched her try to get over you. And, Dude, there's no comparison."
Lauren lifted the mug to her lips and sipped the steaming coffee. "I had to protect her. If Taft knew her powers, he would have made me do terrible things to her. And I guess the things I said were convincing enough because she left me there, so I ran. I ran from the Fae, ran from the government, ran from everything I told myself that I was for the past five years."
"I know a thing or two about running, Doc, and you do, too. I can see it on your face. Well take everything you think you know and know this: it's time to come home.
"I'm living on borrowed time, Kenzi." Lauren's life hung in the balance and she took it all gravely.
"Hello, Dr. Doom! Then don't live it like this. Don't wait around for someone to off you, do something! Let Bo help you, she's the only one who can and you know it."
Lauren waffled then. She had tried so hard to resist Kenzi's sales pitch but now she saw that any sales pitch that included Bo was doubly hard to withstand. She nodded. "Let her find me."
"Hola chica," Kenzi announced her entrance, striding in with a pizza box aloft. "I feel like some pepperoni and extra cheese, you in?"
Bo tore herself away from the stack of files and books in front of her and smiled. "I am totally in." Kenzi cheered quietly and detoured to the kitchen. "Hey, Kenz, can you bring Lauren's file? I left it on the table."
Kenzi stopped and looked over at the file and back to Bo who had already buried her nose in another folder. Bo hadn't been quite the same since their visit to the hospital after Dyson's accident, or maybe she was more the same than she used to be? To say she was obsessing over finding Lauren would have been a colossal understatement.
"Oh, yeah no probs," Kenzi called back as she moved over to the desk. Her eyes never left Bo's, even when she lifted the file onto the pizza box and took it back to the kitchen. On the table, Kenzi flipped the file open and dug around in her pocket. She pulled out the paperwork from Dyson's credit check and closed them into the file, snagging a bottle of wine from the counter. "So what the hell is up with Bruce, right?"
Bo's attention was stolen. "Who is that guy anyway?" She smiled at Kenzi and took the file from the box. It lay in her lap in favor of the gooey mozzarella. "Since when do you hang out with dudes you've punched in the junk?" She flipped open the file after a few bites were consumed.
"Obviously, you've never met my exes."
Kenzi didn't elaborate on Bruce. Instead, she watched Bo's eyes move through the contents of the file, noticing the new addition. She could see Bo swallow and feel the intensity build as she understood the information she was reading.
"We've got her." She snapped the file shut.
A science lab didn't do much for the resale value of her house, but it was as necessary to Lauren as a swimming pool was to some. She adjusted her goggles and peered into the fume hood. Another failed experiment. Back to square one, she sighed. Ever since she saw Kenzi, she had been waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Bo had left her to rot in Taft's compound and Lauren held onto that anger for weeks. The despair of being abandoned sunk into her bones and for a time she was paralyzed by it. If Bo didn't want her what point was there in making it through the daily grind of life as a slave? In fact, it was the final push for her to put Lauren Lewis to bed and move on as Professor Llewellyn. To buy a home with her nest egg at last and live a life unlived.
The only problem about that was that she hated it. For some reason her solitude, besides feeling punishing, also felt final. That this was it. This was as good as it was going to get. She thought back to a time more complicated and appreciated what she had then. Even as a slave she lived a rich life. She had friends and a lover that cared for her, experiments that kept her interested and the world of Fae at her fingertips. But piece by piece it fell apart. She had abandoned the Light Fae, Bo had all but left her, Dyson was critical of her involvement with Taft and now every day she made it from dusk till dawn felt like an empty victory. Her time was hurtling toward her and there was no telling when it'd be up. So for now she did what she would have done back at her loft. She snapped on a pair of latex gloves, a set of goggles and let the science soothe her.
Twenty minutes. Lauren locked her office door. In twenty minutes she and that bottle of sauvignon blanc in her fridge were going to have dinner together and forget about the hour long phone conversation she just had with a student's father.
She sighed as she dragged herself up the steps to the door that lead to the parking lot. The fall air was brisk and cleaned her lungs as she inhaled. It was a beautiful evening. When she pulled the keys from her bag, Lauren stopped in her tracks as if frozen by some unseen force. Her legs seized, her ears deafened at the sight of Bo perched on the hood of Lauren's silver Volkswagen.
"This is your car, right?" Bo patted the hood next to her.
Lauren swore that she was daydreaming, except usually Bo was on the hood of the Camaro. She looked around at the students walking past them. Come on, Lauren, say something. "Yeah," she breathed, shaking herself from her stunned silence.
Bo smiled and Lauren was stymied again. "I thought so." She touched the car, watching her fingers move. It was impossible not to stare. "Das sensible." The terrible German accent coaxed a smile from Lauren and she looked at her feet. Bo jumped off the hood and walked over to Lauren.
"Hi," she smiled enigmatically.
Lauren couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. "Hello," she nodded. A warm rush spread through her, of attraction and elation. An awkward silence hung between them as the surprise of seeing Bo set in.
"I thought we could go for a walk, you can show me around." Lauren motioned with a hand and Bo followed her up a cobblestone path. "You are very good at hide and go seek, doctor." Bo swung her arms as she walked beside Lauren.
"Sort of a necessity, wouldn't you agree?"
"It's true every Fae and his dog and even a few humans are looking for you."
"And you." Lauren bowed her head, cautioning a glance behind a veil of blonde hair.
"And me." Bo came to rest on a well-used park bench. Lauren paused momentarily before sitting beside her.
Lauren exhaled. There were so many words she needed to speak, so many things that needed explaining, but right now, Bo was giving her grade A succubus eye sex and it was hard to tell if she even wanted to hear her excuses. "I can't believe you found me."
"Formaldehyde."
"What?"
"That's how I found you."
Lauren smiled. "How did you remember that?"
When Bo turned toward her on the bench, her body warmed. "I remember everything," she said seriously. And Lauren believed her. Every kiss, every time they had sex, every thing they confessed to each other, wrapped in bed sheets all filled her mind so suddenly, she started to feel lightheaded. "And I'm here, ready to love you."
"Bo…"
"I know, I know," Bo held up a hand. "We're on a break." She sighed. "God, I feel like we're Ross and Rachel."
Lauren smirked. "I don't mean this as a punishment, Bo, I just needed some time to figure myself out. Again."
"I just want you to know that I'm here. And I'm waiting for you for whenever you're ready."
Lauren smiled and nodded. Bo's nobility was charming and for what felt like the hundredth time that day, Lauren wondered how she ended up with her. Was it completely and utterly random or was it luck? "And for the record, Ross really did love Rachel, he just had a hard time communicating it."
Bo nudged Lauren off her step. "You scientists all stick together."
"Knock, knock." Bo pushed through the motel room door.
Kenzi was on her stomach, lying on the bed surrounded by junk food wrappers. "Gotta go," she whispered into her phone as the television blared. She held up the chunky remote and frantically pushed the volume button. "Dude, I thought you were gonna be glazing Lauren's donut all night?"
"That's why we're here," Bo said with a smile.
Kenzi looked up to see Lauren standing beside Bo. "Would you look at that, I'm out of candy." Kenzi stood and rushed for the door.
Bo held out a five dollar bill. "Get me a Kit Kat," she said, enjoying her friend's embarrassment.
"Bye Doc," Kenzi said sweetly as she passed her in the doorway.
"It's not much, but it gives the old crack shack a run for its money. Kenzi even hacked the pay-per-view."
Lauren smiled and nodded. "It's good." A minute of dead air hung between them. She had only followed Bo to her motel room because she'd insisted Lauren see Kenzi before they left. And if Kenzi hadn't left a cloud of dust in her wake, she might almost be convinced that Kenzi actually wanted to see her again. Lauren turned to Bo and spoke: "Bo, why am I here?"
"Because I didn't know the way to your house." Bo smiled wickedly.
"Bo…" Lauren's voice was quiet.
"I thought we had something, Lauren. After the Dawning, I thought we finally had a shot at making this work. And then-"
"I should go." Lauren turned to leave. She couldn't bear where the conversation was going.
Bo stood in front of the door. "I'm here to save your ass. The least you could do is give me five minutes."
"Okay." Lauren sat on the bed opposite to Bo and folded her hands.
"Seriously? We're doing this?" Bo waited for an answer. When none came she threw her hands up and began to pace. "Okay, okay, how about leaving without a phone call, without a text, without so much as a goodbye."
Lauren watched Bo pace, her vision blurring behind the tears welling in her eyes. "I had to."
"Why?"
"I couldn't." Lauren looked down, tears falling into her lap. "I have plotted, saved, healed, and harmed. But I couldn't say goodbye to you."
"Don't do that." She pointed at Lauren. "You don't get to do that."
"Bo-"
"Do you know how many people want you dead right now?" Bo wiped her eyes.
"I have an estimation."
"Then get mad," Bo said to the ceiling, exasperated. "Be bold, do something, Lauren. Don't just wait for this to go down because it will end badly."
"Isn't that why you're here?"
"This is politics, Lauren. The closest I get to politics is flipping past the current events section in the newspaper to get to the comics." Bo sat beside her on the bed, She put a hand on her knee. "Do something because I can't lose you again."
"You're the only one that can keep me safe."
"So why run away?"
"Because maybe it's my time."
"Time for what?"
Lauren shrugged exasperated. "Time to run, time to start again, time to… I don't know."
Bo shook her head. "Where's the fire?" Bo asked, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't get it. You'll fight for anyone. Anyone. Except yourself."
"Bo," Lauren held up a hand. "You don't understand. There were promises made to me."
"Yeah," Bo stood and slipped into her leather jacket. "There were promises made to me, too." She opened the motel room door and looked back at Lauren before slamming it shut.
Kenzi was approaching the motel room with a giant Slurpee and a foot long stick of beef jerky hanging from her mouth when the door flew open and Bo stormed out. She was inside the Camaro by the time Lauren came to the doorway. The tires spun as she backed out of the parking space in front of the room, sending gravel flying everywhere before the Camaro finally sped off. When Bo was gone, Lauren leaned into the door jamb. Kenzi watched the emotions play out on Lauren's face before breaking the tension.
"Shit dude. Shouldn't you guys be having sex right now?"