The taps from Levi's walking stick striking the marble tile echoed loudly around the waiting room. The secretary shot her a dirty look with the phone pressed against her ear, so the Norn grabbed at the piece of wood firmly, stilling it's repetitive bouncing movements. The tapping stopped instantly, and Levi gave her a guilty look. The woman was a bundle of nerves leading up to the imminent meeting with her niece.
"If you act like a helpless puppy, you'll be treated like one," the Norn said. "Are you not the most ancient and powerful Fae in all the underworld?"
Levi nodded nervously. "I am."
"Well then start bloody well acting like it." She released the other woman's walking stick, which to her delight stayed in place this time around.
Levi startled when the frosted glass double doors opened in front of them barely a minute later, bolting upright and standing quickly at attention. The Norn rolled her eyes and followed suit, albeit at an unhurried pace. One of her glassy-eyed understudies emerged a moment later — no doubt one of her playthings she kept around for feeding. He had that distinct look of a Leanan sídhe's victim: The lights were on, but nobody was home.
"The Morrigan will see you now," he said. His baritone voice was lifeless and unfeeling, and his face betrayed no emotion as he led the two ancients into Evony's office.
As they approached, Levi made several attempts to sneak in behind the Norn, but each time the Norn thwarted her efforts. They stood side by side waiting for the Morrigan to acknowledge them. She had her back turned to her visitors with her stilettos propped lazily on one of the statues by the huge windows, admiring the view of the city below. She knew they were there, of course, but making her guests wait on her was a power move. The Norn was well aware of it and cleared her throat loudly to show her annoyance.
"You know, when I took an appointment to see my aunt, I wasn't expecting two visitors." She kept her back turned to them and admired her freshly manicured nails in the bright sunlight. "As you know, I don't take social calls here. What's your business?" She turned around and fixed them both with a hard glare. Levi cowered under the look, so the Norn spoke up for her.
"We have a proposition for you," she said.
Evony glanced quickly back and forth between the two women. Their attire was different — and she couldn't help but realize how her aunt looked like an insect with those ridiculous sunglasses — but their postures were mirror images of one another. Both were leaning heavily on their walking sticks, standing with their shoulders nearly touching.
"I see," Evony nodded. "So when is the wedding?"
The Norn's eyes widened in horror. "That's not… We're not…" She glanced to Levi for help, but she was equally dumbfounded by the accusation.
"Relax, I was just joking. No need to get defensive about it… Unless there really is something going on between you…" Evony eyed them both, and Levi and the Norn shook their heads vehemently. "Since I haven't seen either of you since the before the Reformation, I assume you have something important you want to say, so out with it."
There was a long, uncomfortable silence. The Norn waited for Levi to explain and nodded at her encouragingly.
Levi took a deep breath and said: "We need your assistance making Bo Dennis as miserable as humanly possible."
"The doctor?" Evony raised one of her perfectly groomed eyebrows at her. "Isn't being a slave to the blood dufus a miserable enough existence?"
"It's not quite what you think…"
Levi explained the switch to the Morrigan, how Bo Dennis was not truly the human doctor she appeared to be in this world and how Lauren Lewis was not the famous unaligned succubus. Evony found the entire situation hilarious, and by the end of Levi's story, she was laughing so hard that tears were spilling from her eyes. She wiped at them quickly to avoid ruining her mascara.
"You two are batshit crazy," Evony gasped through peals of laughter. "Diabolical, even."
"Thank you," the Norn said, finally speaking up.
Evony ignored her. "But what makes you think I need to — or even want to — get involved with whatever plan you've got going on? Other than a good laugh, what's in it for me?"
"You could stop being her lapdog, for starters."
All hints of humor vanished from Evony's expression. "Excuse me?"
"You were more than happy to send her whoever she fancied, whenever she asked. You were wrapped around Bo Dennis's little finger as much as anyone else."
Evony stood up with a thunderous look on her face. Her high heels put her at a notable height advantage, so she raised her head up slightly to glare at her two visitors down the length of her nose.
"I've only done what the elder council required of me!" the Morrigan hissed. "I've worked too hard to get to this position only to be overthrown for not playing nice in this game of junior high politics. They favor the unaligned succubus — I don't have a choice!"
"Afraid to stand up to your council of elders," The Norn chuckled. "Some leader you are. You sound more like a coward to me."
Evony grinned maliciously, and her voice was cloyingly sweet as she said: "I think we all know who the biggest coward in the room is, don't we, Aunt L?" She turned her gaze to Levi, who began to tremble under her scrutiny.
The Norn watched the icy exchange with equal parts fascination and annoyance. Levi would no longer be sticking up for herself, she was certain, so she pressed on, hoping to make Evony concede their point.
"You can still make up for lost time," the Norn pointed out. "Nobody knows about the switch, not even the elders. If you wanted to go after Bo now, you could. None of them would stop you."
Evony rolled her eyes. "You seem to be forgetting about the Ash. If you've switched them, Bo is under his protection now. It would be even harder to get to her than it was when the Dark Fae council was breathing down my neck."
"I think we have a solution for that," the Norn smirked, "that is, if you're interested."
Bo just barely survived the long day at the compound. Most of her patients probably suspected something was wrong with her. Nobody said as much, but every single time Bo excused herself during the middle of an appointment to "check on something" — which really meant she ran to ask Lauren what to do — they all gave her a confused and slightly annoyed look. There was no doubt it was an inferior experience than they were used to. Her clinic ran three hours too late due to her inexperience, but she saw everyone, having to skip both breakfast and lunch to do so.
As Lauren requested, Bo used her badge to let her work in the private lab in the back of medical facility. Nobody would disrupt her there, and after the switch, any work Lauren did had to be without the Light Fae's knowledge. When Bo arrived for the twentieth time today, Lauren had barely moved; she was still hunched over the steel lab table examining the partially liquefied Light Fae corpse that was brought in a couple of days ago.
"I thought you were going to work on your other projects," Bo said, though it sounded more like a question. She vividly remembered the huge pile of papers that she helped Lauren carry in early this morning before anyone else arrived.
Lauren didn't even bother looking up from her work. "I finished it a couple of hours ago," she mumbled. A moment later, she frowned deeply, causing the tiny wrinkles on her forehead to become evident.
Sure enough, the messy stack of papers Bo noticed earlier today was rearranged into a neat series of piles. The brunette leafed through a few of the pages to read Lauren's detailed analysis. She still didn't understand a word of it, but the amount of work she'd done in just a few hours amazed her. Bo knew Lauren was intelligent, but even she didn't expect it all to be done so quickly. Her proficiency was impressive to the point of being unnatural.
"Didn't you take a break at all today?" Bo asked her incredulously.
Lauren didn't respond immediately. Her mind was otherwise occupied, and she wouldn't break her concentration until she found whatever answer she was looking for. It was as if she didn't even hear Bo's question.
"I can't see any signs of administration anywhere on the body," Lauren sighed. "It obviously follows a parenteral route, but there are no recent puncture marks on the skin indicating that it was injected anywhere." Her frustration was evident, and she finally looked up with another frown. "What on earth happened to you?"
Bo glanced down to her white coat, which was marred by dark, angry scorch marks in several places. "It was Will," she explained, recalling the Will-o'-the-Wisp she'd seen this morning. She'd run by to ask for Lauren's advice on medications, but Bo neglected to mention the fire he'd ignited at her feet. "He had breakfast burritos before his appointment."
"Ah, say no more."
"Yeah… the fire extinguisher was a lifesaver."
Lauren ducked her head down, hiding her face. "I'm just glad you didn't get burned too badly."
Bo was about to thank her for her concerned thoughts, but before she did Lauren's shoulders started shaking in a motion that was distinctly laughter. The brunette threw her hands on her hips and did her best to look reprimanding.
"Are you laughing at me?" Bo asked incredulously.
"No," Lauren lied.
"Uh huh… Well laugh it up, funny girl. I survived today, and nobody died. That's good enough for me. Now if you could wrap up here, that'd be great. Everyone's already left, and I'm so hungry I could eat an entire horse."
Lauren stood up and looked around to the empty walls. There were no windows and no clocks in sight. "What time is it?" she asked.
"Just after eight." That must have been the wrong answer because Lauren's light brown eyes shot wide open.
"Shit!"
In an impressive show of speed, Lauren whisked around the small room, putting every bit of equipment in its rightful place. To Bo, it looked like a tornado, but instead of everything being torn apart as Lauren flew by, the lab was left more orderly. The blonde kept up her tirade of shits and dammits as she went, leaving Bo standing by confused and helpless.
As Lauren slammed the last drawer shut, leaving the room impeccably spotless once again, Bo spoke up: "Uh, Lauren?"
"Yes?" she answered, finally halting her cleaning frenzy.
"Is something wrong?"
"I just…" Lauren looked away guiltily, and the volume of her voice dropped. "Kenzi asked me to meet her at the Dal an hour ago for dinner."
Bo's face fell. "Oh."
The news shouldn't have surprised her, but the reminder hurt Bo more than she anticipated — and in different ways than she was used to. Everything in Bo's life now was done in solitude, from eating and sleeping to relaxing in the brief moments she escaped from Light Fae work. Lauren would get the company of her best friend, and Bo would get nothing. The past few days had been among the loneliest in Bo's life (at least since her days as a runaway). In an ironic twist, Bo actually found herself looking forward to the brief moments when she saw Lauren for the first time in a long while. She was the only one that didn't look at Bo like she was gum stuck on the bottom of her shoe. Lauren was perceptive as ever and noticed the change in Bo's tone.
"How are you holding up?" Lauren's voice was full of understanding, and that almost made it worse.
"I'm doing fine," Bo fibbed.
"You don't have to lie to me, Bo. It's my life, remember?" Bo didn't answer right away, but Lauren patiently waited, despite being rushed to make an appearance with Kenzi.
"I don't know how you do all this, Lauren," Bo finally said with a hint of resignation.
It was a simple statement, but Bo meant more than just the number of hours Lauren regularly worked at the lab. The suffocating isolation was the worst of Bo's situation, and she didn't think she could last long before she cracked under the pressure of it. Bo thrived on interpersonal connections; she wasn't designed to endure this kind of life. Nobody was.
Anytime something significant happened in her life, Bo loved to have someone to share the moment with. Before the switch, she would have turned to Kenzi, but now, that outlet was lost to her. She'd tried to make polite conversation with Rita earlier today, but if looks could kill, the Boston Harpy would have rendered Bo dead on the spot using nothing but her eyes.
"You get used to it," Lauren shrugged. "Some days it's worse than others." She opened her mouth to continue but hesitated, closing it again quickly.
"I always assumed that all of you were friends here in the lab."
Lauren's posture stiffened and her lips turned into a thin line, so Bo knew she understood her meaning. I didn't realize you were so alone. Her face, which had previously been so warm, transformed into a stoic mask.
Lauren said: "We're as good of friends as can be expected, all things considered. They're Fae, and I'm human… was human."
Bo stared at her for a long while; what could she say to that, really? Things had always been different between her and Kenzi. Bo had always considered her an equal and never payed much attention to what went on outside her circle.
"Oh," Bo said lamely, though the acknowledgment seemed woefully inadequate. "I didn't… I'm…"
She was fumbling with her words, and didn't know what to say. Bo almost uttered an apology but realized that she wasn't entirely sure what she'd be apologizing for in that instance. The Fae being bigoted jerks was just something that was understood and assumed, kind of like gravity. It seemed like ages since she really railed against their behavior. She'd unknowingly let herself grow accustomed to it after a while.
"It's the way the world works with the Fae, Bo. That particular bit isn't really your fault."
"Still… It sucks," Bo sighed. "I didn't even think about it before."
Lauren nodded curtly, and she collected the belongings she'd brought inside with her this morning, this time moving at a less hurried pace. Bo still couldn't get used to the fact that Lauren was wearing her clothes and carrying her bag over her shoulder. Then Lauren grabbed the keys to Bo's old car, and she felt even more lost than before. After a day like today, Bo would have killed to enjoy a drink and a burger with her bestie, but she wouldn't get that lucky. Her disappointment must have been broadcasted all over her face because Lauren paused once she was ready to leave.
"You know, you can come with me if you want," Lauren offered. "I know you miss Kenzi. It might be good for you to see her."
"Really?!" Bo tried not to sound too excited, but she failed spectacularly.
"Really. I've had more time to get used to being alone, but I know that for you, this is all relatively new. It won't be what you're used to, of course, but some good old fashioned human interaction would probably make you feel better."
Succubus abilities aside, Bo had always been a social creature. In addition to chi and food, she relied on interactions with her friends and family for sustenance. All of it was necessary to keep Bo strong, sane, and in good spirits. Lauren must have known that, prompting the offer. It was a considerate gesture, and Bo filed away the information, hoping to repay her for the small act of kindness later.
"Thank you," Bo said. "Seriously, you didn't have to do that."
Lauren said: "I wouldn't thank me just yet. We're an hour late. Kenzi may have cleaned out the Dal's kitchen already." Her resulting grin was genuine, and Bo found herself returning it.
Bo followed Lauren out of the empty lab. The place looked strikingly different after everyone went home. The equipment was powered down, and the normally bright lab was dim owing to a lack of sunlight and most of the fluorescent overhead lights being shut off. Bo could barely find her way around, but Lauren navigated it expertly, leading them both to the old yellow Camaro. For the first time in a long time, Bo climbed into the passenger's seat.
There wasn't much conversation during the drive. Lauren was completely unreadable, and Bo wished she could figure out what she was thinking. Whenever she wasn't staring out the window, she stole glances at the woman across from her, hoping to figure out what was on her mind. She had a faraway look in her eye, like her big brain was silently working out some difficult problem.
"A penny for your thoughts?" Bo said. Lauren blinked as she emerged from her intense concentration, but the car didn't budge an inch from its course on the road.
"I was just thinking…"
"About?"
"This," she said, as if it were obvious. When Bo gave her a perplexed look, she clarified: "How we ended up trading places."
"Got any ideas?" Bo asked hopefully.
"None that would also explain the resultant memory changes in everyone around us. Gorgon blood can induce a body swap, but if that had been the case, I would physically be in your body and you in mine. What's happened to us is like we're transplanted — kind of like how the world might be if we were born in each other's shoes. Everyone has false memories of us which were planted at the time of the switch. I don't know who did this, but it would take a terribly powerful Fae to do what they did."
Bo groaned. "What in the hell did I do to deserve this?"
Lauren tore her eyes from the road to look at Bo for a brief second, her expression alight with realization. "That might not be a bad place to start," she mused.
Lauren obviously made some sort of jump in logic, but Bo was still confused as to how she'd gotten there and what she was implying. She was clearly intrigued, however, and if Lauren thought she was on to something, Bo wanted to know what. Of the two of them, Lauren was the brains of the operation and the only one that feasibly stood a chance at solving this predicament.
"Did I miss something?" Bo asked. "Where's a good place to start what?"
"This was a massive undertaking, even by Fae standards, and you have to think of this from a Fae's perspective. Making you human is sending a message, and having you isolated from all of your friends is an even clearer one," Lauren explained. "Someone thinks you deserve to be taught a lesson, Bo. Whoever it is, they're doing this to get back at you."
"Who would do this to get back at me?" Bo genuinely looked hurt at the information, which was equal parts endearing and frustrating.
"Well, who have you pissed off recently?"
"Nobody!"
"Are you sure about that?" Lauren narrowed her eyes at her.
Bo hesitated at the severe look. Other than the Garuda and the Wanderer, the only true enemies she'd ever had were Vex and Evony. Since she'd been so heavily favored with the Dark Fae elders, both of them had since stopped squabbling with her years ago, but she understood that it was not by choice. Evony in particular would have had access to any number of powerful Fae that could have done her bidding for her.
"I need you to make a list," Lauren said, "with all the names of everyone that might have even the slightest grudge against you. Whoever is responsible for this is probably familiar with me as well, which could include any number of Light Fae here, or even a few Dark Fae. Once you give me a list, I can see who I recognize, and cross-reference their species to see if they could have possibly orchestrated this."
Bo grudgingly agreed, and the more time she spent brainstorming, the more names she came up with. Some were former clients, others were former feeds… As the list in her head grew longer, Bo was surprised by her list of potential enemies. Since she'd ascended the Fae's social ladder, she never had to interact with many of them much. She would like to say that none would have been capable of doing such a heinous act, but she couldn't know with any degree of certainty. She only hoped Lauren could recognize some of the names.
Lauren pulled the car smoothly into Bo's reserved parking space outside the Dal and cut off the engine. Judging by the number of cars, the place was even busier than usual, and they both had to squeeze through the noisy crowd just to get to the tables. Initially, there didn't seem to be any open. That was before Kenzi came along from out of nowhere.
"Lo, where the hell were you all day?" Kenzi scolded, though there was no real anger behind her tone. She sounded more annoyed that she had to postpone her long-awaited dinner. "I called you like five times and left you twenty text messages."
The girl grabbed a hold of Lauren's arm and led her through the crowded bar to a table in an alcove in the back. She paid no attention to Bo and apparently hadn't even seen her arrive behind them. Bo wordlessly followed behind them to the table, where Hale was waiting as well. His appearance wasn't that surprising; he was finished with his shift, Bo knew, and he and Kenzi had been nearly inseparable over the past couple of weeks. The siren greeted Lauren as she slid into the booth across from him, and he draped his right arm over the back of the seat to usher in Kenzi by his side. His eyes grew large when he saw Bo standing awkwardly at the end of the table, staring at her own feet because she felt so out of place.
Of course, Hale would be a gentleman about it. He didn't have a malicious bone in his body.
"Hi, Bo," he said, breaking the ice. "Long time, no see. Didn't expect to see you out tonight."
Kenzi's head shot up in alarm at the mention of the unexpected guest, and she glared at Bo angrily.
"I invited her." Lauren said before anyone had a chance to make an angry retort. "She was working on the case all day, and she hasn't eaten anything yet."
Bo cast an uneasy glance at Lauren. She hadn't eaten, which was accurate, but she'd gotten no work done on the murder case. That was all Lauren's doing, and the blonde was giving her undue credit for it.
Kenzi grumbled: "Well isn't that thoughtful." She rolled her eyes as Bo scooted in next to Lauren and pressed herself closer up against Hale in response.
For the most part, nobody paid Bo any attention. Kenzi, Hale, and Lauren formed a literal triangle of conversation at the booth, and all of their topics managed to exclude Bo completely. Bo listened for most of it, but the longer it went on, the more painful it was. While Bo knew this wouldn't have been one of her normal outings with Kenzi, her goal of having a little interaction with her best friend backfired. The talks taking place around her made her feel more alone than she did earlier — perhaps it was just her awareness of it was heightened. If she'd been busy talking, she probably wouldn't have noticed the strange looks she was getting from elsewhere in the bar. The other patrons were appalled, surprised, annoyed — a few of them might have been closer to outrage — but Bo couldn't tell if she was simply imagining the negative response or not. After all, she felt more conspicuous and out of place here than she had in at least fifteen years.
When the food arrived, Bo inhaled it greedily, mostly to distract herself from the conversation taking place around her.
"Hey, Dr. Mengele… Hungry much?" Kenzi said, bringing Bo out of her silent reverie.
Bo had finished her entire burger (and the side of fries) before anyone else was even halfway finished. Since she'd been largely ignored for the past half hour, she dug right in and was now sitting patiently with her hands in her lap. She glanced at Lauren, whose jaw was clenched firmly after Kenzi's statement. Bo didn't know why she was upset, but figured it must have been serious for her to react as visibly like she did. Lauren was normally nonreactive to people pushing her buttons.
"Yeah, I was pretty hungry," Bo conceded. She turned to address Hale: "The kitchen has gotten so much better recently."
"Thanks, doc," Hale grinned. "I just had a new grills and ovens installed a couple of weeks ago. You should really give our breakfast a shot. Order the pancakes — top notch stuff, that's all I'm sayin'."
"Why bother? Doesn't the Ash feed his own pets anymore?" Kenzi said, giving Bo a dirty look.
Bo flinched at the hateful comment thrown her way, and Hale glanced away with an embarrassed expression. Kenzi didn't relent at all, causing Bo to cower in her seat as she endured her best friend's rage.
"Don't the well behaved humans eat the best though? That's a thing, right doc? Maybe I should ask Trick what kind of treats his pets get when they obey —"
"Kenzi, that's enough!" Lauren interrupted her loudly. The girl shut up instantly, though she didn't seem at all apologetic for what she'd said. Hale looked like he wanted to crawl in a hole underneath the table and disappear. "I was the one that invited Bo here, so if you have a problem with that, you need to take it up with me. She's done nothing to upset you —"
"But she made you —"
"That's not your business," Lauren said firmly, knowing very well what topic Kenzi was about to rehash. "My point is that it never involved you. I appreciate the fact that you care for me, but you need to leave this alone."
Kenzi's anger deflated in an instant, and she unwillingly conceded Lauren's point. "Fine. Just let me know if I need to take care of anything." She cast another suspicious look at Bo but eventually dropped the issue. For now, at least.
"That's fine, Kenzi. Thank you."
Kenzi grumbled something unintelligible, causing the entire table to descend into an awkward silence yet again. Lauren stared at Kenzi, who glared at Bo, who looked like she would rather be raked over a bed of red hot charcoals than endure another second of this dinner. Hale was visibly uncomfortable with everything that had transpired over the last couple of minutes.
"So, uhh… How's the case going, you two?" Hale asked Bo and Lauren uneasily. "You both have been hard at work from what I understand. Anything new on the body?"
Bo and Lauren shared a cautious glance with one another. Lauren was the one that had been doing the lab work, unbeknownst to both Kenzi and Hale. They'd both been so busy with their respective tasks that she hadn't even briefed Bo on her findings yet.
"Bo was telling me that she didn't find any sign of entry for the toxin," Lauren explained, saving Bo from having to make up some far-fetched lie to cover herself. "There are no lacerations or abrasions, no ligature marks, no puncture wounds, and no bruising. The toxin wasn't ingested, but it's impossible to see how it was administered."
"Huh," Hale frowned. "That's gotta be pretty weird, right doc?"
Bo nodded fervently. She had no idea if her assessment on the issue was scientifically accurate or not, but if Lauren thought it was strange, she was inclined to agree wholeheartedly. The woman's level of expertise spoke for itself.
Kenzi's ringtone started blaring moments later, drawing the groups attention. Bo recognized the hip hop tune well, and remembered wistfully when her best friend changed her own ringtone to another song by the same artist. She answered quickly, and after a few short "yeps", "uh-huhs", and "got its", she hung up with a focused, business-like demeanor.
"That was Dyson," she announced. "It looks like there's been another murder."
Dinner hadn't been the affair that either Bo or Lauren expected. Had either of them known the outcome, Lauren wouldn't have suggested Bo tag along, and Bo wouldn't have agreed to come with her. The icy exchange with her best friend had bothered Bo greatly; Lauren could tell from the way her shoulders slumped afterward and the sad look she'd been sporting ever since the group dispersed.
They'd been silent since then, neither of them knowing what to say to the other. Because of it, Lauren didn't realize that Bo wasn't following her to the car until she'd reached the Camaro's door. The brunette was loitering in a dark patch along the brick wall at the far side of the Dal's entrance. Lauren approached her slowly. Bo probably wasn't in the mood to say much, but she didn't want the woman to have to walk home — or even worse, ask a stranger for a ride. For a human, that was inadvisable at a Fae bar like the Dal, despite it being neutral territory.
"Hey," Lauren said gently as she got closer.
Bo's head lifted subtly, but her voice was barely audible. "Hey."
"That was pretty rough. How are you doing?" Lauren stepped a little closer, and once she left the ray of light from the lamp overhead, she could see Bo more clearly.
Bo merely shrugged in response.
"I didn't mean for that to happen, Bo. If I'd known Kenzi would react like that, I wouldn't have even proposed the idea. I'm sorry."
There were any number of reactions Lauren was expecting after her statement, but she definitely didn't expect Bo to start laughing. It was a forced, unnatural sound unlike anything Lauren ever heard from her.
"I don't know why you're apologizing to me," Bo said. "Hell, it's my fault she even said those things in the first place."
Lauren didn't argue that point, as it was technically true. Even though Bo inadvertently brought it on herself, the more compassionate part of Lauren didn't want to see the woman suffer needlessly, even after all that had transpired between them.
"Fair enough," Lauren conceded. "It hurts doesn't it?"
"What, Kenzi?" Bo gave her a confused look.
"That… among other things."
Bo looked absolutely miserable leaning up against the brick wall outside. Her usual confident stance was replaced with a defeated slouch. She was a mere shadow of the confident woman she'd been a few days ago.
"Yes, it hurts. It hurts a lot," Bo finally confessed. "The weird part is, I don't even know why you're talking to me, Lauren. It's not like I went out of my way to have a conversation with you before now. I'm honestly surprised you haven't told me to go screw myself yet."
Lauren looked pensive for a moment. "That's true. But would telling you to go screw yourself solve anything?"
"Probably not."
"Right," Lauren nodded. "It would spiteful and hurtful, and while it probably would make me feel better for a brief moment, it wouldn't help in the long run. I would just end up bitter. Who knows? Maybe years later, I would still be desperately hanging on to those baseless assumptions and imagined slights that made me say those things in the first place. That would be a truly awful existence."
Lauren's voice was calm and matter-of-fact, which made her statement resonate more than if she'd shouted it. Bo looked away guiltily.
"Okay, I get it. I'm a terrible person," Bo mumbled, still not able to muster up the courage to look Lauren in the eye.
"That's the thing, Bo. You're not a terrible person. I still know that, even now." She took another step closer and paused until Bo finally looked into her eyes. "I'm not saying that the way you acted was right — I know I wasn't completely right either — but if you're willing to put this behind us, I still think we may have a shot at being friends if we worked on it. What do you think?"
Lauren didn't know what answer to expect from Bo. She meant what she'd said about still believing Bo was a good person at heart, though to anyone else that would probably seem insane after their sordid history. Four years was a long time to be at odds with one another, but their contention had only been drawn out because they avoided everything they needed to discuss. Bo avoided Lauren, and on the few occasions they did interact without a proxy, neither of them talked about anything other than the case they happened to both be working on. How were any damages between them supposed to be remedied that way?
Bo thought hard on Lauren's question, making Lauren believe several times that her offer would be rejected. When she finally answered, Lauren couldn't believe her ears.
"I'd like that, if you're okay with it," Bo said softly. "God knows I could use a friend right about now." Her voice was still sad, but Lauren thought she heard a little hope that hadn't been present before.
"Oh, I don't know — I think Rita really likes you," Lauren said with a sly grin.
Bo was horrified before she realized Lauren was just joking. Then she grinned as well. "Yeah, yeah, yeah… Everyone eep on laughing at Bo. Personally, I think the fact that she hasn't killed me with her laser beam eyes means I'm doing pretty well."
"Hmm… That's what true friendships are made of." A group of Fae left the Dal at that moment, their laughter and conversation breaking the perfect silence. It also reminded Lauren of where she was supposed to be — and where Kenzi and Dyson were undoubtedly already waiting for her. "You ready to go?" she asked. "I'll give you a ride back if you want."
Bo nodded.
The ride to Lauren's old apartment was quiet, but comfortable. Lauren still longed for the chance to explain herself, to make Bo see the reasons behind her actions years ago that caused their rift, but she knew that Bo still wasn't ready for it yet. Right now she felt alone and vulnerable, and that wasn't how Lauren wanted to broach the subject with her. It wouldn't be fair. With the unexpected shift in Bo's life, Lauren understood what she was feeling better than anyone else could. Bo would need time to acclimate, and then they could finally have that talk — as equals this time, and if they were exceedingly lucky, perhaps as friends too.
It didn't take long for Lauren to assess the body being held at the human crime lab. Whoever had committed the first murder had clearly been responsible for this one as well. She had no idea why Dyson didn't have the body transferred to the Fae medical labs earlier. Even if the victim was human, there was obviously a Fae player involved. It was a huge security liability; any human could have stumbled across this body, and the nature of the killing would have sparked interest from local media outlets. If discovered, the Fae would have a containment disaster on their hands in a matter of hours.
"This body shouldn't be at a human crime lab, and you know it,Dyson. It should have been sent to the Light Fae labs immediately," Lauren said sternly. "This is a total breach of protocol."
Dyson smirked. "You're really going to give me a lecture on protocol? You've single-handedly broken half our laws in just the last couple of years." His tone was full of amusement, as if he couldn't believe Lauren's suggestion.
"Do you not realize how serious this is?"
Kenzi chimed in. "Uh, Lo… You might want to take a look at this…" She handed over a photograph from the folder she'd been perusing.
It was a picture of the body when it first arrived at the lab. It was from three days ago, and what was even more bizarre — the corpse had been undeniably solid then. From the report, the official cause of death had been ruled internal injuries from a motor vehicle collision. Sometime after that, he'd turned into a human water mattress like the other victim she'd been examining all day.
"How in the world…?" Lauren trailed off.
"I came in to check on him today, and he was like this," Dyson explained. "All human toxicology screens were negative, as you might imagine, and I checked the logs to see if our friend here has had any visitors over the past couple of days."
"Has he?" Lauren asked hopefully.
"Not a soul."
Lauren sighed. This was worse than a mess. Not only was she still clueless as to how this mystery toxin was even administered, there were new victims cropping up among the already dead ones. Any number of human bodies from this very lab could unknowingly be affected.
"Well, what did he do for a living?" Lauren asked.
"Lawyer. Mostly personal injury claims. Witnesses said that he looked pretty ill in the hours leading up to his death. Apparently he stumbled onto the sidewalk and lost consciousness, falling into oncoming traffic."
"An ironic ending for a lifetime ambulance chaser," Kenzi quipped. "Dude was probably hoping to land himself a nice settlement after all this before he got himself turned into jello."
"Is he getting transported to the Light Fae labs?" Lauren asked.
"I have a team coming to pick him up in fifteen minutes. The paperwork's done — they just had to arrange for transport."
"Good. Thanks, Dyson."
"I'll see you tomorrow?" He looked hopeful, but his aura was less bright this time, like a dull haze. Lauren was grateful for that small mercy. She would rather not see him any more than was absolutely necessary, but some interactions with him couldn't be helped given the circumstances.
"We'll see," Lauren said.
That was apparently a good enough answer for the wolf. He re-zipped the corpse back in its vinyl bag and bid both Lauren and Kenzi goodnight without any fuss. It had been a terribly long day for everyone, so nobody was in the mood for socializing any longer than necessary… At least nobody except for Kenzi.
"Lo, can I talk to you for a minute?" Kenzi asked before Lauren had a chance to slip away.
Lauren took a deep breath. After the awkwardness at dinner, she was almost certain what Kenzi wanted to talk about, though she wasn't particularly looking forward to the discussion. "Sure. What's up?" she asked, as if the answer wasn't obvious.
"Why are you suddenly getting all buddy-buddy with the doc?" Her light blue eyes were studying Lauren's reaction closely, but years of tightly controlling her emotions allowed Lauren to keep her expression neutral.
"We're working together on this case. I wouldn't call that being 'buddy-buddy' with her."
Kenzi rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you two haven't spoken more than five words to each other in like… forever. And now you're inviting her to dinner?"
"Is that a problem?" Lauren raised an eyebrow at her.
"No, not at all," Kenzi said sarcastically. "But as your best friend, I'm just wondering if you got lobotomized and forgot that she's the one that totally screwed you over… literally."
"It wasn't like that."
"Then please, by all means, elaborate. Because from what I've heard — which mind you included all the gory details that I'd rather not think about ever again — it sounded kind of like a spy-bang to me."
Lauren flushed bright red, a combination of her embarrassment and growing irritation. "It wasn't like she was the only one that messed up that night, Kenzi. We both spent a long time avoiding each other after that — way past the point of it being stupid. I'm putting it behind me now. If I can manage that, I think you should try to do the same."
"So you're okay with what she did?" Kenzi asked incredulously.
Lauren thought of all the times she'd seen Bo since that night — mostly her indifference to Lauren, and how isolated she felt after being excluded from Bo's inner circle. Those memories still hurt even now, but now that the tables had turned, the feeling wasn't so all-consuming. She could forgive Bo's petty (and at time malicious) behavior, but she would never condone her actions after their fallout. Whether forgiving Bo would turn out to be a foolish decision or not remained to be seen, yet Lauren was convinced that she wasn't an irredeemably bad person. As she'd told Kenzi, they'd both made mistakes that night.
"I didn't say I was okay with it," Lauren answered.
Kenzi pouted. "Well… You know I still don't trust her."
"I never asked you to."
"Okay fine. You do you, and I can do me. I get it. If you want to keep sticking your hand on a hot stove and running around the house with scissors, I can't stop you," she said entirely unconvincingly. "But just know that if she hurts you again, I will chop her up into little bitty pieces and put her in one of my babushka's homemade casseroles. Right before I feed it to a horde of ravenous trolls."
Kenzi's loyalty to Bo was a continuous source of amazement to Lauren. The young girl was incredibly misguided at times, taking the words of people like Dyson as gospel truth and letting her own prejudices get the best of her. But even though she and Lauren never saw eye to eye, there was no mistaking how much she cared for Bo. It must be nice to have a friend like that, Lauren thought wistfully. It had been too long since she had someone like that in her life, someone that would stand up for her unconditionally like Kenzi did for her best friend.
Lauren nodded, and a tiny grin pulled at the edge of her mouth at the mental image of Kenzi hunting Bo down with a meat cleaver and threatening to chop her to bits. "I'll be sure to let her know. Oh — and Kenzi?"
"Moi?"
"Thanks for being understanding about this."
Kenzi looked like she was going to argue, but she hesitated, apparently giving up the fight for the time being. "Yeah, I know… I'm the best. Just don't make me regret it succu-butt."
Author's note: I'd like to extend a special thanks to DinahWas, who has agreed to beta this story. (*round of applause*)
