Despite being completely exhausted, Lauren had a hard time sleeping. Her mind was racing with memories of Bo and running through dozens of scientific explanations of could be happening to her. Giving up after four hours, she sat up in bed and grabbed her phone, checking to see if Karyn had responded to her text. Seeing that she had, she unlocked the phone and read it. Hey Lo, miss u and hope all okay, I have some vacation, want company? I can stay out of your way, promise. J

Smiling at her girlfriend trying to be cute, but knowing that having Karyn here was a very bad idea, she texted back. Miss u 2, but u don't have to come, u know me when focused on something, this one is kicking my ass.

Lauren rubbed her eyes with her hands, thinking about the last 48 hours of her life. She had finally gotten to a good place out west. She still loved her job, she had a faithful and attentive girlfriend, and the pain over losing Bo had subsided to a level that she could live with. Sure, she thought about her every day and every night before she fell asleep, but the thoughts didn't overwhelm her like they used to. The guilt she felt thinking about Bo when she had Karyn helped speed the process along too, though she wasn't sure it was the healthiest way to get over an ex. But that was before Hale's call came. All of a sudden it was like she had never left, all the bottled up and tamped down emotions came surging forward, leaving her overwhelmed and riding an emotional rollercoaster.

If by some miracle Bo woke up and wanted to be with her, would she take her back after everything? Or would she remember the heartbreak she had just lived through and go back to her new life?

Shaking her head, she willed herself to stop. She was getting way ahead of herself. Bo was still barely hanging on and they were no closer to figuring out how to save her. That needed to be her focus. Not the past she couldn't change or the future she couldn't predict.

Tossing the phone back in her bag and grabbed some clean clothes from her bag. Hopefully a hot shower would calm her mind like the sleep couldn't.

XXX

The hot shower did wonders for Lauren's tired limbs, but nothing to stop her already in overdrive brain. The more she thought about it, the more she was leaning towards Bo having been cursed by someone. After her experience with Nadia's curse and it being the whole reason she came to be enslaved to the light, she was a little sensitive to the subject. The thing holding her back from fully embracing the theory was the 'why' though. It didn't make sense to curse Bo only so she could die. There were so many easier and quicker ways to kill a fae, she didn't know why someone would go to the trouble of a curse as they usually cost a great deal of money and were very complicated and hard to secure. Since there had been no ransom or bribery requests, it seemed like murder was the only motive. And while starving a succubus was a long and drawn out way to get the desired result, it wasn't particularly painful since they were unconscious for most of it, which ruled out a lot of twisted bastards. Lauren knew Bo had a lot of enemies, both because she was the unaligned succubus and because of her line of work, so there would probably be no shortage of suspects. But again, why not just shoot her in an alley or set some underfae on her? It would be quicker and cheaper. Though with Bo, nothing was ever easy.

Finally dry and dressed from her shower, she headed back out the living room to talk to Kenzi and then spend some more time with Bo. She found Kenzi in her usual spot on the couch, playing her zombie hookers video game. "Hey Doc, did you sleep any?"

"Not really, but the shower was helpful. Can I ask you a question….did Bo have any new enemies lately, ones that would want her dead, but not want to do it quick and easy?"

"Aw Doc, Bo had a ton of enemies, but very few new ones. When you left, the 'new' Bo tried to be more reasonable in her approach to cases, she wasn't as suck chi first, ask questions later as she used to be."

"Well, it was worth a shot," Lauren said as she shook her head at the latest dead end. "I am just at a loss on this, and that is very frustrating for me, as you might imagine."

Kenzi nodded her understanding. "Trick called a few minutes ago and said he is on his way. Maybe your combined encyclopedic brains can come up with something."

"That would be nice. I am going to go back upstairs and spend some more time with Bo. Holler when he arrives and I will come down."

"Will do hot pants."

Lauren smiled at the silly nickname Kenzi had given her many years ago. When she first heard it, she was annoyed by it, but it slowly grew on her and now she felt it was a term of affection. Even though her relationship with Kenzi was sometimes rocky, she held nothing but fond feelings for the tiny Russian woman.

Grabbing her medical bag, she once again made the climb up to Bo's room. Her mind could not help but quickly flicker to the memories of when she used to make this journey for much different, much happier reasons. Succeeding in hardening her resolve, Lauren once again pushed in to Bo's room to try and solve the mystery of the Bo's sickness.

XXX

Bo was lying just as she had left her a few hours earlier. Not really having a plan, Lauren ran through the full exam again, hoping to catch some key thing she may have missed the first time. Again having no luck, she flopped down in the chair next to the bed, her hand going to rub the bridge of her nose to alleviate some of the tension she felt. "Damn it Bo, what the hell is wrong with you?" she asked aloud to no one in particular. Not having any luck reducing her stress, she leaned forward on her knees and stared at Bo, hoping inspiration would miraculously strike.

Despite the fact the she was pale and thin, Lauren could still see her natural beauty radiating from her. She sighed, as she knew that she would never find a woman as beautiful as Bo. Sure Karyn was attractive, but she didn't ooze the sex appeal like Bo. Maybe that is a good thing, Lauren thought ruefully. What was that lyric from the old song her parents used to listen to? If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife. Lauren chuckled at the memory. Clearly whoever wrote that song had never met Bo.

Without really thinking, Lauren slipped out of the chair and sat in the bed near Bo's waist, taking her limp hand in hers and bringing it up to her cheek. Holding it gently, she brought it down to her lips and placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles. Watching her ex for any sign of movement, she gently set her hand down as she leaned over and whispered in her ear, "I miss you so much Bo, please fight this and wake up." And then as if it was the most natural thing ever, she leaned over and placed a light kiss on her lips, whispering, "there are so many people who love you and need you to get well."

Just as she was about to sit back up, Bo's hand shot out from her side and wrapped itself around Lauren's head, pulling her back down to her lips. Her eyes opened and were the brightest blue Lauren had ever seen. "Lauren….." came out of her, half as a moan and half as a whisper as she opened her mouth and kissed Lauren hard. Lauren was too shocked to do anything, even react, which didn't seem to matter as the kiss was over in two seconds as Bo pulled her head away and opened her mouth to feed. And unlike all her previous attempts in the past two months, she started pulling chi from Lauren in large draughts, moaning as the life saving elixir filled her body. But after about five seconds the flow stopped as Bo went limp and her body flopped back on to the bed.

Lauren remained motionless for a few seconds, her brain struggling to process what had happened to her in the last ten seconds. Bo had fed from her. She hadn't even had a second to process the kiss, when all of her brain cells shifted and focused on that one key fact. Bo had fed from her. And holy shit if it wasn't the most amazing feeling she had ever experienced. She would need to process that later though, as she needed to get Bo to feed more. Though it seemed like she took a lot, she knew it wasn't nearly enough to make a dent in the healing process, especially since she was human and Bo had been starved for close to two months.

Leaning down, she pressed her lips to Bo's, hoping to get a reaction from her. Cupping her cheek, she tried to coax her ex to take some more chi. "Come on baby, wake up and take some more. You need to feed so you can wake up. Please Bo."

After a few minutes with no luck, she got off the bed and went to the door, hollering for Kenzi. The little goth sprinted up the stairs and burst in to the room. "What's going on Doc? Everything ok? She's not….." she blurted out in a panic, not stopping between questions for Lauren to actually answer any of them.

"Relax Kenzi, she is okay. She uh…she fed from me." Lauren stammered.

"What? Just now? As in, woke up and sucked your chi, fed from you?"

Lauren nodded. "She was exactly the same as before, and I was leaning over her. All of a sudden her eyes opened and she pulled me down, said my name, kissed me and then started to feed. It was just a little bit, a few seconds really, and then she fell unconscious again. It wasn't much, but it was something."

"Oh, Doc, that is huge. Do you think we can get her to wake up and take some more?"

Lauren shook her head. "I have been trying to for the past little while before I called you, but nothing. Besides…" she said as she drifted off, her eyes becoming sad.

"Besides what Lauren?"

Sighing, "I am just human Kenzi, I don't have enough chi to heal Bo from this. Even if I gave her everything I had, it still wouldn't be enough."

Kenzi sympathized with Lauren. She knew that if Bo needed it, she would give her life to save her. She suddenly felt a little guilty for all the crap she used to give Bo about Lauren. "Lauren, the fact that Bo took chi from you at all is incredible. You know how many people we tried to get her to feed from. If you can give her just enough to wake her up, maybe she can take it from there. I know it is hard, but you also know Bo wouldn't be able to live with herself if she hurt you, so please be careful."

Lauren nodded, her eyes welling with tears. It was just another reminder as to why it was better that she and Bo were no longer together. Bo deserved someone who could heal more than a few superficial scratches.

"I am going to check her vitals again, see if anything changed," she said to Kenzi, trying to get her brain onto a more productive track. Kenzi smiled, "okay. I think I heard Trick get here too, so I will go downstairs and let him know about the new development."

Kenzi looked down at Bo and up again at Lauren, before moving out of the room to head downstairs. She shook her head - the two of them really were clueless about how much they loved each other. Maybe if Bo miraculously wakes up, she thought, they could get their shit together and finally be happy.