Pairing: Bo/Lauren, Kenzi/OC

Disclaimer: These are not my characters, well, most of them aren't. I'm borrowing them for a good time, because my imagination won't rest until I do. ShowCase owns the main ones.

Summary: It's been three years since Nadia "woke up". Things have changed for everyone. And some things never do. Four dead bodies and a mystery for our girls to solve. Some spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen the latest episodes.

Author's Note: Part VI turned out longer than I thought…Oh well. So, so, so, so, sorry this has taken so long to get out. RL has been crazy busy and my car has very nearly given up the ghost. Thank you all for your comments and words of encouragement! I just hope that these chapters work as well for you as they did for me. More comments welcome, of course!

It All Starts With…

Part VI b: A Losing Battle

Colin stopped outside the door to the cafeteria. At least Kenzi assumed it was the cafeteria, judging from the delicious smells wafting down the hallway and the general roar of a crowd inside. The young doctor looked behind them, an annoyed expression on his handsome face.

"What's wrong?" Kenzi wanted to know. After walking down three seemingly endless corridors, her stomach was rumbling just from smelling whatever was inside that room.

"Damn it, she promised." He grumbled and then turned back to Kenzi, an apologetic smile on his face. "Look, I'm sorry, but I have to go back and get Lauren. If I don't, there's a good chance she won't eat lunch and then she'll be grouchy later."

"When is she not grouchy?" Kenzi wanted to know. Lauren had rarely been anything but frosty to her – though she had to admit that she hadn't exactly been nice to the doctor, either – and she wondered what a grouchy Lauren was like.

"You don't like Lauren, do you?" He asked, frowning at her. "I don't understand that. She's a brilliant woman and she is an amazing doctor. She's also a great friend."

"It's complicated." Kenzi hedged, grimacing. "Look, we were just never as friendly as she and Bo are."

"I should hope not," Colin's frown suddenly turned into a grin, "Or I've been completely misreading you these last couple of days."

"What? Oh, no!" Kenzi blushed a little. "I didn't mean it like that. " She fumbled for words and found that she rather liked the way that Colin was looking at her, his green eyes flashing with mirth at her discomfort; it made her feel kind of warm and tingly all over. He had a really, really nice smile. Damn it.

Ignoring her stomach's complaints, Kenzi rolled her eyes and started walking back towards where they had come. Colin just kept grinning as he followed her. They didn't say anything as they walked, though Kenzi could not help glancing to the side occasionally. She fervently hoped that they didn't walk into that lobby and see Bo and Lauren getting it on. She doubted that Lauren was into that, but she had a feeling that Bo could talk the doctor into it. She wondered what kinds of things she might be able to talk Colin into…once the case was over, obviously.

When they were nearer to the lobby, Kenzi heard a loud thump. "What the hell?" She looked at Colin, who had also heard the sound and he frowned. They quickened their steps and as they approached, a roar sounded loud enough to make Kenzi freeze in her tracks. She heard another noise that reminded her of something about to explode and they both broke into a run.

Kenzi got there first and she skidded to a halt, wide eyed and staring when she saw the thing that was batting Bo around in its massive paws the way a cat will sometimes play with a mouse before it kills it. Bo was as limp as a rag-doll and she had several bleeding cuts on her face and one leg hung at a wrong angle. The thing batted her into the air with a giant paw and then swatted her from the air as she fell and Bo went flying through the air for several feet before she hit the ground in a heap and slid across the tiles into the wall.

The human girl was shocked to the core, but Colin moved fast and slammed his elbow into the glass case around a nearby fire alarm. The case broke and he quickly pulled the alarm. A loud claxon began and all three heads on the monster let out near deafening roars. The sound also caused Kenzi to startle and she suddenly screamed, "BO!"

The creature heard her scream and the three heads began to turn her way, but the snake head rose above all three and turned towards the doors. The great black wings unfurled from its sides and instead of completing its attack, instead of going for the kill, it began to back up slowly. Then suddenly it turned, took three giant steps and leapt into the air. Kenzi thought for sure that it would simply bash its head on the glass above them, but it didn't. Instead, the air around it suddenly shimmered and it vanished. It reappeared a moment later and threw itself bodily against the glass of the high ceiling, right above where Bo lay. It shattered a single pane of glass and somehow soared up into the sky before it vanished again.

With the creature gone, Kenzi chose ran across the floor, careful not to trip or to slide on the pieces of glass that were now strewn across the floor. She yelled, "Bo! Oh my god, Bo, Bo!" as she went. Bo didn't move, didn't even twitch. "Colin!"

Colin ran over to her and knelt down by Bo. His eyes tracked over Bo's body, taking in her injuries. Aside from the cuts obvious on her face, Bo also had two black and quickly swelling eyes as well as a broken nose and a lump forming on the side of her head, but there was no blood, which was a small mercy. He noted the compound fracture of her left thigh with some alarm. He had to touch Bo's neck and shoulders and though she moaned weakly, did not seem to stir. He didn't think her neck was broken, or her collar bone, which was another small mercy. Next he checked her chest and walked his fingers down her abdomen; he felt several broken ribs and a hardness starting just a bit lower than her last rib. Internal bleeding, then, and bad by the feel of it. He swore softly.

"Is it bad?" Kenzi yelled over the alarm, tears forming in her eyes as she gripped one of Bo's hands in hers and stared down at her friend. At least she was breathing, that was always a good sign, right?

"Bad enough." He yelled back. She has broken ribs and internal bleeding, though by some mercy, her ribs didn't puncture her lungs, so her breathing isn't impaired. I don't think her neck is broken, but we shouldn't move her unless it's necessary. Her leg is broken, too, badly. Um…" He looked at Kenzi and made a face she couldn't read, "I hate to ask, but I know that a succubus can heal by…um…" his thought trailed off and he suddenly looked around.

"What is it?" Kenzi wanted to know, her eyes leaving Bo for a few moments to scan the room.

"Where's Lauren?"

Kenzi swore. She looked down at Bo once more. If anything had happened to the doctor, Bo would be heartbroken…again. Kenzi sighed and then swore again. Bo would be okay, she just had to heal. She stood up and scanned the room again. One of the big comfy couches was tipped over, but aside from that, the only other damage was to the tiles of the floor. She raced over to it and peered behind it.

Lauren was lying there, unconscious, with a small cut above her right eyebrow, but she looked fine otherwise. Kenzi knelt down and gently shook her shoulder, but got no reaction. She shook her harder; nothing. Swearing, Kenzi said her name and when that got no response, she practically screamed, "LAUREN!" but the woman didn't even stir. Scared now, Kenzi looked around and fixated on the fountain and its cold water. She also saw the cup of pens on the reception desk so she dashed to it, dumped out the pens, and filled the cup from the fountain. Back at Lauren's side, Kenzi splashed the cold water directly onto Lauren's face.

The blonde gasped and sat up, a string of curses that Kenzi had been sure the good doctor didn't know came from her mouth. "What the HELL!"

"Oh good, you're okay!" Kenzi yelled over the alarm again. "What was that thing?"

As if on cue there was another shattering of glass and said creature dropped through the ceiling once more. It landed lightly for something so big, completely ignoring the rain of glass that made all of the humans duck and put their arms over their heads. All three heads let out bellows enough to be more than heard over the blaring alarm. The snake's head tail rose high above the body and focused on Bo's prone form. One massive paw reached out and took a single swipe at the downed succubus. It missed striking Colin who had taken cover from the glass, and though the blow could not be seen, Bo's body arched up off of the floor and she screamed. The creature roared once more, and then turned its back, scraped at the floor twice with its hind-hooves, then leapt and flew through the first hole in the ceiling.

Kenzi recovered faster than Lauren, though the doctor was right behind her as they ran across the room to where Bo and Colin were. The young doctor had also recovered and had moved back to his patient. Bo was bleeding now from two gouges across her abdomen and he was struggling to tear her shirt open. Abruptly, the alarms stopped blaring.

Lauren knelt down, heedless of the glass on the floor as it cut into her knees, and helped Colin with Bo's shirt. Kenzi knelt at Bo's head and watched them work, painfully aware of how much blood was leaking from the deep cuts the beast had inflicted on her friend. Without thinking, Lauren opened her blouse and tore the undershirt from her body, pressing it hard against the blood. Colin did the same, neither one speaking as they did. The material soaked through fast and Lauren swore under her breath.

"She needs to feed," Lauren stated finally. "Kenzi do you know who she…chose…today?" It hurt her to ask that, though she had once upon a time accepted what Bo needed to heal herself; Lauren also knew that Ciara had, as a host should, offered her a choice of willing people to feed from should she need it.

"I…I think so." Kenzi replied, her face had gone even whiter than her normal pale complexion. Lauren knew shock when she saw it.

"Who, Kenzi, who did Bo choose today?" Colin asked, but Kenzi wasn't listening to him just then. She was staring down at her best friend and the blood quickly soaking through the two pieces of cloth. She had seen Bo torn up plenty of times, just not like this. Not even the Garuda had done this.

Lauren fought back her own fear and despair at seeing Bo like this. She put her hand in front of Kenzi's face and snapped her fingers two times in quick succession. Kenzi blinked rapidly and looked up into the doctor's eyes. "Kenzi, I need you to tell Colin which of the staff Bo chose for her…needs."

Kenzi blinked a couple of times more before she focussed on Colin's concerned face and said, her voice stiff and uninflected, "Uh…Fritz and Ingrid…and…a redheaded security guard and a little Asian chick."

"Go. Find Fritz or Ingrid." Lauren ordered Colin. He scrambled to his feet and took off at a sprint. "Kenzi," Lauren began, keeping her voice soft and soothing, "I need some pressure bandages and sutures. I need you to go down the hallway, four doors on the right, and get the big red bag hanging on the wall just inside of the door."

Kenzi mumbled, "But, Bo…"

"I need to stay here with her. Go, Kenzi, four doors, big red bag." Lauren ordered, putting just a little steel into her voice.

Kenzi stared down at Bo for a few more seconds before getting to her feet too and then running in the same direction that Colin had gone.

Lauren looked down at her patient. Bo's complexion was starting to fade as she lost blood. Lauren wasn't sure that she would survive long enough to stitch her up. She knew what Bo needed, she just didn't know if she would be enough. Only one way to find out.

The woman took one hand away from where she was holding the blood soaked cloth to Bo's abdomen and used her hand to lightly slap at Bo's cheek, trying to rouse her. It worked just enough. The succubus' eyes opened, though they weren't focused on anything or anyone.

"Bo, it's me, it's Lauren. Bo, stay with me." That last sentence was said with a note of panic in her voice, but Lauren reigned it in and tapped Bo's face again to get her to re-open her eyes. "Bo, you're hurt, badly. I want to help you, but you need to feed." The succubus frowned at that, eye-brows furrowing. "Yes, you do. It's okay," Lauren leaned down closer to Bo's lips, "it's okay, I'm here. I know, better late than never." And she kissed Bo softly. Despite the situation, a little thrill coursed through her at the barest touch of her lips to Bo's. Lauren was half afraid that Bo would refuse, because it was her and the succubus had patently refused to feed from her before.

Nothing happened at first and Lauren was frustrated; and then, she felt it – a strange pull at her centre and spreading warmth that set every nerve ending in her body alight with a pleasure so intense it left her breathless – (or was that just the kiss) – and she could feel an orgasm building in seconds. A white light blocked out her vision. Her heart pounded faster and her libido began to match its rhythm. Her body tensed and then the pleasure began to fade; numbness crept in and Lauren was somewhat aware that this was not a good thing. The numbness grew and spread, the pleasure faded and Lauren groaned at its loss. Blackness began to destroy the brightness in her vision and a part of her realised that this, too, was not good thing, but she was beyond caring…

Kenzi got back to Lauren, lugging the large red medical bag, in time to see the blonde letting Bo chi-suck her to death. "Shit!" She dropped the bag and sprinted over to the other two women. Using all of her strength, Kenzi grabbed Lauren by the shoulders and shoved her to the side, away from Bo. Once on her side on the floor, Lauren's eyes slipped shut and a wide smile stretched across her face. Kenzi knelt next to her and felt her pulse; alive, weak but alive. Kenzi let out her breath in a whoosh and turned her attention to Bo. Why on earth had Lauren allowed Bo to feed from her? And why had Bo gone through with it when she had never shown any interest in doing so before?

It wasn't until Kenzi saw Bo, saw that the gouges in her flesh had healed to nothing more than paper-cuts that she understood. Bo had been bleeding a whole lot more than was healthy, though in her shock, Kenzi had barely registered more than Bo's prone body and the monstrous creature that had done it to her. What the hell was that thing, anyway? She had removed the bloodied shirts and put them aside when people started entering the lobby and things got a little confusing.

In the end, Ciara had appeared – after running down nine flights of stairs because the elevators had shut down when the alarm went off – and taken charge. She had ordered that Bo, Fritz, and Ingrid go into one of the private offices for Bo's healing, Colin had gotten a stretcher and he and two others had taken Lauren to the Facility's private sick bay, and as much as Kenzi wanted to stay and wait for Bo, Ciara had asked her to go be checked over as well. Then she had gone over the PA system and informed everyone that they were closing for the duration of the day and that everyone should go home until they heard from her. A mass exodus had begun, but Kenzi was swept away by the red-headed security guard and taken to the sick bay.

She had to have a couple of pieces of glass removed from her knees – she hadn't felt them until it was pointed out to her – and had the wounds disinfected and band-aids put on them. Feeling foolish, she went to stand beside the bed on which they had lain Lauren because she was the only "friendly face" in the whole room. Lauren had been hooked up to an IV of some shimmery greenish liquid and she opened her eyes when Kenzi approached. For a second, the doctor's eyes widened in alarm, but Kenzi gave her a tight smile and said, "Don't worry, Doc, she's fine. You saved her."

Lauren relaxed at that, eyes slipping shut for a few moments before opening again. She tried to speak, but her mouth wouldn't form words and Kenzi had to shush her gently. "Why did you do it? She could have killed you, Lauren." She inquired.

Lauren shook her head weakly and a smile appeared on her face like a sunbeam. Kenzi had seen that kind of smile before, and knew that Lauren was still suffering the after effects of being succubused. Lauren's face screwed up for a moment and she swallowed hard before she managed to rasp, "Trust Bo. Not let anything happen to me."

Kenzi had never met anyone like Lauren, really. Even in the beginning, Lauren had consistently risked herself to help Bo whenever she needed it. And Bo had always done what she could in return. Even when she hated Lauren or when Lauren was angry with Bo, they had had each other's backs. And now, it looked as though Lauren's trust of Bo went deep enough to trust a dying succubus not to kill her. Kenzi wasn't sure that it was true, that Lauren would be alive if she hadn't stopped the feed. She didn't say that to Lauren, though.

"She still cares about you, you know," she said. "She never stopped, really. It was pretty crappy, you just leaving like that, but she understood after a while." Lauren's brows furrowed and she tried to form more words, but couldn't and she let out a frustrated breath. "No, you should rest. I just wanted you to know, okay? Rest." Kenzi reached out and touched the hand that was attached to the IV. It was odd, but Kenzi was suddenly feeling soft towards the doctor. Lauren closed her eyes and in a moment, she had passed out again.

Bo stormed into the sick bay a few moments afterward and when she saw Kenzi and Lauren she made a bee-line for the doctor, a sick expression on her face. Behind her came Ingrid who was helping to support her husband, who looked a little grey and was having trouble keeping his feet under him. Though she didn't look that strong, Ingrid didn't seem to have any problem supporting his weight. Bo stopped at the bed and looked down at Lauren, tears beginning to fall before she could stop them.

"Is she…?" Her voice broke and she couldn't finish her thought.

"She'll be fine," Kenzi told her gently, "Colin says that solution in the bag is something that Lauren made and once it's in her system she'll be feeling much better."

Bo glanced at the shimmery green liquid and then focused back on Lauren. "What is it?"

"Liquid chi, more or less," Colin replied as he came to stand next to Lauren's bed.

"What?"

"Lauren created it to help some humans who were regular food for an Incubus. They were getting sick, but none of them wanted to stop and the Incubus couldn't stand hurting them. So Lauren created this solution," he tapped the bag, "to mimic chi."

"How?" Bo wanted to know, her expression awed as she looked back and forth between the woman in the bed and the IV bag.

"Some basic ingredients and a little magic – not on her part, she is as hopeless as any human when it comes to magic – and viola, you have liquid chi." Colin replied. He fiddled with the tubing a little. "So when I say she'll be fine, if you can't trust me, trust her. She's the most brilliant doctor I've ever known."

"Yes, she is." Bo agreed. She reached out her hand and lightly touched Lauren's cheek. Her gaze slowly turned to that of adoration. She stifled a yawn. Kenzi sighed and gestured to Colin with her chin. The two humans walked a short distance away.

"So, she will be okay?" Kenzi pressed and Colin gave her a sweet smile and nodded. "Good. Look, I am going to take Bo back to the hotel…She may be a succubus, but her injuries were really bad and after healing that much, she's going to need a nap. How long before Lauren is mobile?"

Colin tilted his head to the side quizzically. "A few hours at least. Why?"

"I need to ask a favour and you might not like it, but you need to trust me, it's in everyone's best interests." Kenzi gave him her best reassuring smile.