A/N: Thanks for the reviews, but since I am greedy, I hope this chapter gets more. I am not particularly satisfied with how this chapter turned out, but after two rewrites I am out of ideas for improvement so this will have to do. Mistakes are mine, enjoy.

"Right away sir," Lauren Lewis sighed loudly as she hung up her desk phone. She shook the tension from her shoulders and took a deep breath, bracing herself. Lauren pasted on her Dr. Lewis professional, "everything's fine," smile and departed her office. She approached Bay 3 where a solemn, deflated Kenzi sat attempting, rather poorly, to hide her fear. Lauren cleared her throat and Kenzi's head popped up, "Kenzi, I need you to come with me please."

Kenzi shook her head violently, "No! You're gonna cut off my arm." Ignoring her bruised ribs, she pulled herself into a ball, looking like a cornered rabbit as the panic set in.

Lauren steadied herself, "Kenzi, please just calm-"

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Kenzi hissed, "Don't fucking touch me!"

"I'm not going to touch you and I'm not cutting off your arm." Lauren sighed, "I only said that so you would let the tech take your blood and not destroy my lab."

"Really?"

"Yes, really, I promise," Lauren looked at Kenzi who resembled every bit a terrified child, "I'm sorry Kenzi, I shouldn't have said that to you. I know you are wary of doctors and hospitals already, and it was wrong." Lauren paused, "I need you to trust me, please come with me."

Kenzi, ever indignant, shrugged, "Fine, whatevs,"

Lauren rolled her eyes, "Great, follow me."

Kenzi grumped, but mostly willingly, followed Lauren out of the lab. They made their way through the maze of hallways leading to the Great Hall, through the large double doors into the Throne Room, offering a nod in passing to the secretary sitting at her desk, she approached the Ash's throne. Following protocol, Lauren bowed slightly, "Ash."

Hale looked down from his perch smiling, "Dr. Lewis."

Kenzi, eyes wide, gasped, "Holy crap-balls!"

Hale came down from his perch and walked up to Kenzi placing a hand gently on her uninjured shoulder, "Yup Little Mama, I'm the Ash now, before you get upset, it won't be officially announced until Friday." He glanced over at his secretary, "Can you excuse us please." The woman huffed and walked slowly out the door never taking her eyes off the trio, reminding Lauren of Boston Harpy Greta. Hale exhaled slowly as he took in the sight of a broken Kenzi, "Damn girl did you get the number of that truck, geez, how are you feeling?"

Kenzi gave Hale her best sad puppy dog eyes, "My shoulder is mostly numb, but my ribs hurt every time I move, and the vampires you have working here can't get enough of my sweetastic Kenzi blood."

Hale chuckled, "OK, OK, I know how this works, here you go," handing Kenzi a credit card from his wallet. Kenzi's hand trembled, squealing complete with a twirl, as she took the card, Lauren quirked an eyebrow at Hale, "What? Lighten up Doc, a little retail therapy never hurt anyone." Hale shook his head, "Don't go crazy Kenzi," he turned to face Lauren, "oh hey how did your dress fitting go?"

Lauren's expression soften as she fondly remembered her jealous succubus about ready to stab the poor girl who was trying to take her measurements, "Uh, it went fine."

Kenzi laughed, "Ha! Fine my ass, Bo was going to eat that girl, and not in a good way."

Lauren rolled her eyes, "Anyways, Hale we can talk about the gala later."

"Is that what the fitting was all about, is Cinderella going to a ball doc?" Kenzi snarked.

"Kenzi," Hale warned, "Dr. Lewis is going to be my escort for my coronation ball on Saturday."

"No shit, really, wait does you super-jealous girlfriend know about your sordid history?" She motioned towards them, "Wait does she even know about this at all? And what about my invite, huh? Let me guess it got lost in the mail Ash-hole."

Lauren's patience was dangerously thin, "Can we focus please?" Lauren looked directly at Kenzi, "Hale and I made out while both excessively drunk at a party three years ago, I'm sure she'll get over it. And no, I haven't talked to Bo about the coronation, we have been a little preoccupied. As to your invite, there isn't one because humans aren't invited, I am the exception because I am ward of the Ash." Lauren turned her attention to Hale, "Kenzi's blood was collected by St. Michael's hospital after her, uh, accident."

Hale shrugged, "Kenzi's human, what is the problem?"

Lauren took a deep breath, "Kenzi, I'm sorry, but I have to do this." Ignoring Kenzi's angry eyes, Lauren continued, "Kenzi has been exposed to a fae essence from the kitsune family, it has already been absorbed into her blood streem and will show up as irregularities in her blood if the hospital runs anything beyond standard blood tests."

Hale faltered, "Um, huh, how did this happen?"

Lauren put on her professional mask, "Her blood classifies as a Level 3 Breech, any leftover samples need to be retrieved and any files they have on her destroyed."

Hale breathed a sigh of relief, "That's uh, well, that's why we have protocols in place, let me, uh, call Serena, since she's still head of security and we will get this taken care of."

"There is more," Lauren motioned to Kenzi, "No arguments, show him your arm."

Kenzi tentatively held out her bandaged arm, "Lauren, the sling, can you?"

Lauren gingerly pulled back the bandage revealing a throbbing, glowing, bright orange rash that had turned the skin black oozing blood in the center of it. Hale gasped, "It looks like it's alive! What the hell is this Lauren?"

"Kitsune essence, or power, since she has been exposed her body has been rejecting it. I have never seen anything like this before, I need to run some more tests and do some research. I'm out of my depth on this one so I will need full access to the Ash's archives."

"Can you just cut it off?" Hale choked out.

"I may have to anyway if I can't get the swelling down and the infection under control, but it's already in her, at this point amputation would just leave her still infected and down an arm."

"Shit," Hale looked at Kenzi, "Whatever you need Lauren, you have the full resources of the Ash behind you." Cupping her cheek, "We're gonna figure this out Little Mama, don't you worry."

Lauren stood back, letting the would-be-together-if-they-both-weren't-such-coward s have their moment. She remained silent, lost in thought, but determined to find a solution to this and the Bo problem. Lauren laughed to herself as she watched Hale lean in like he was going to kiss Kenzi, then pulled back at the last second. "Are these two ever going to end this dance?" She thought to herself, "they are more hopeless the Bo and I."