Kenzi wrung the ice water out of the washrag she'd dipped into the bowl on Lauren's nightstand and anxiously wiped away the sweat from the doctor's face. Dyson had left abruptly after a short phone call from Bo without explaining anything to her, so whatever had happened; she didn't imagine it being a good thing. She pressed a firm hand on Lauren's shoulders as the blonde half lifted from the bed, mumbling something about polymerase chain reactions. Kenzi wasn't really sure if she should be more worried, or less worried. When she and Dyson had gotten back from the Dal to pick up the abath horn powder and lock Rona up in the basement, she'd been pretty optimistic. After all, that powder had helped her and she'd been on death's doorstep. But her optimism quickly fell away when she'd seen the state Lauren was in. She wasn't just on the doorstep; she was having tea in the living room.
Trick hadn't been exactly sure if the horn's powder was enough to cure Lauren, but it seemed to have some effect. The blonde had gone from mostly unconscious and paralytic to spasmodic, sudden movements and being perpetually in the space between awake and asleep. Kenzi wanted to believe that was an improvement because the only other thought was too scary to entertain even for a moment. Lauren's eyes fluttered open and she stopped struggling against the other human's hand, her head hitting the pillow hard. Her gaze was glassy and full of confusion; Kenzi was positive that even though the doctor was looking at her, she wasn't seeing her.
"They're trying to make my macromolecules water soluble." Lauren stated, immediately frowning like the words coming out of her mouth were just as puzzling to her as they were to Kenzi. Her voice sounded small, almost childlike in its confusion. She closed her eyes and jerked her head to one side though the dark haired human wasn't sure if it was a voluntary motion or not. "Kenzi," she whimpered pitifully. "I don't feel good."
The Russian nodded though Lauren's eyes were still closed and dabbed the damp washrag over the blonde's forehead again before the sweat could get in her eyes. "I know, Hotpants." She said softly, trying to keep her worry out of her voice. "Bo and Tamsin are working on making sure you feel better, okay?"
Lauren's head lolled back and forth and her brow furrowed. Kenzi frowned, not certain on whether or not the blonde had heard her and dipped the washrag back into the bowl of ice water. It was extremely unnerving to see the normally composed doctor half undone by fever and queasiness. She dropped the cloth in the bowl and used both hands to grip Lauren's shoulders as she let out a long disquieting whine and arched off the bed. Kenzi was in the midst of wishing someone would come back and make everything better when she heard the front door slam as if in response to her thoughts. When Lauren's body relaxed and her features untwisted and smoothed into calmness, Kenzi swiftly made her way to the living room, feeling hopeful.
The feeling half left her about halfway down the stairs when she registered a hoarse voice groaning, sounding full of pain. The feeling fled altogether when she saw Dyson standing near the couch, his mouth set in a grim line. Kenzi's heart stopped when she eyed Bo who was standing on the other side of the couch, her hands and shirt bloody. She practically flew the distance between them; her mouth already fixed to let out a string of anxious questions when she was finally at an angle to see Tamsin.
The valkyrie was laying on her side in a manner that suggested she had been placed that way. Her teal leather jacket was bunched up and placed under her head, her face fixed into a look that suggested anguished suffering, the muscles in her jaw showing how hard her teeth were clamped together and Kenzi could see why. Her shirt looked like it had been cut with scissors up the side and instead of exposing skin; there were thick gauze pads that were red with the blood seeping through them.
"Govno." She swore loudly, pushing the thought in the back of her mind away that Tamsin was going to ruin the upholstery on the couch. "What the hell happened?"
Bo's gaze jumped from the valkyrie to her best friend, clearly reluctant to tear her gaze away from the Dark Fae. "We ran into some problems." She started.
"Miller is dead." Dyson provided when Bo trailed off. "Tamsin killed him but not before he caught her in the side with a dragon spear." He continued when Kenzi moved her hands to indicate she needed him to explain. "Dwarven made spears. The blade is made of serrated dragon teeth. If that wasn't bad enough, they're almost always enchanted to cause long term pain in the event the target isn't killed."
Kenzi blew air through her lips loudly. "Is she going to be okay?" even though she didn't need to, she motioned to the valkyrie whose face was red with the effort put behind clenching her teeth and scrunching her face against the pain.
"At the lab they said her intestines weren't punctured and she's not going to bleed out, that she was lucky." Bo said, not adding that she didn't think Tamsin looked lucky at all. "But she's still torn up pretty bad and the pain'll last anywhere from twelve hours to a week, they weren't sure. They said she could still die from the shock, or even…" Bo trailed off, but Kenzi was able to fill in the blanks. The pain was great enough that if the valkyrie could get a hold of her basic motor functions not related to the response to pain, she might try to end the pain the only way she knew how. "Someone needs to keep an eye on her, to make sure she doesn't... to make sure she's okay."
"We've got Trick trying to get a full list of everything sold at the auction out of Rona now to give to the Ash and the Morrigan, but we've already got a list of things we need to help Lauren. We've got to get them and some of the stuff isn't easy to get; it's going to take some time…"
"How is Lauren?" Bo asked before Kenzi could say anything.
"She's moving around more, but…" she forced what she hoped was a calming smile and changed the subject before anyone lost their composure. "Guess Nurse Kenzi got another patient?"
Bo nodded. She looked incredibly tired. "We'll hurry." She promised, moving with Dyson to haul the blonde Fae upstairs and into the spare room. Tamsin allowed herself to be unfolded and half carried to their destination. She seemed to be only responsive to the pain she was in and her breath came out in loud bursts through her nose. Kenzi followed them with trepidation, hoping that when Dyson said it was going to take 'some time' he was overestimating.
ooo
Dyson grunted with the efforts of keeping the jaws of the large brown beast open while the wiry coated creature was doing its damnedest to snap its mouth around Bo's head, the succubus having been pinned underneath its weight. "Any time, Bo." The shifter urged tightly, digging his feet into the ground.
"You think this is fun for me?" the brunette shot back rhetorically, one hand pushing against the coarse hairs of the monster's neck and the other tightly gripping a plastic ampoule and shoved inside the beast's mouth. She grimaced as wet glops of drool cascaded from the creature's mouth, landing in her intended target of the vial but also getting flung all over her face and neck with every angry growl and flapping of its tongue. "Got it!" she shouted triumphantly, pulling her hand away from the curved teeth too close to her skin.
Dyson pulled the beast off of her with great effort and threw it to the ground behind him with a snarl that could have been for show or could have been from the effort. The stocky animal floundered on its side for a few seconds before righting itself and darting deeper into the woods with surprising speed, melding into the deep shadows in seconds. Neither of them moved as they listened to it crash noisily through the woods and Dyson finally turned around to offer her a hand up as the bumbling path it took quieted down. He shook the wetness off his hand once Bo stood up and wiped the secondhand drool on the side of his jeans. "Did you get enough?" he asked, watching the brunette hold the clear vial up to her face to see inside.
She smiled in the low light and wiped a hand across her forehead to clear it of spittle, leaving a dirt streak for her troubles. "One tube of spit from a…" she screwed up her face in thought, trying to wrap her mouth around the bizarre name printed on the paper in Dyson's pocket. "ROUS." She said finally, looking over at the wolf and waiting for him to at least smile. She sighed at her wasted joke when he just looked at her confusedly. "Rodent Of Unusual Size." She clarified. "You know, from the Princess Bride?"
He shrugged apologetically and they started to pick their way out of the woods and to the nature trail that would take them back to Dyson's car.
"Let me see that list." Bo asked, shoving the plastic vial into her pocket next to the small rock that looked like a bloodstone but was constantly cool to the touch they'd procured earlier. She squinted at the scrawled letters on the paper handed to her, trying to decipher them without being able to properly see them and stopping in her tracks as if that would help her see better.
"Root from a lotus tree." Dyson offered, having turned around to look at the paper. "And fruit from an umdhlebi."
"That doesn't sound so bad." Bo said, sounding relieved as they continued their journey. "It's not bad, is it?"
"Well the umdhlebi fruit shouldn't be too hard. I know a guy who lives midtown who collects rare plants and he's got one. He owes me a favor too. The lotophagi who keep the lotus trees are pretty bad-tempered, though." He paused and pushed a thick branch out of the way, holding it back to let Bo pass him. "They're pretty lazy during the day and more reasonable, so it'd probably be best to go to them once the sun rises."
The succubus nodded. It was nearly six thirty in the morning as it was, once they got back to the car, got a hold of Dyson's friend and made it to midtown to get the fruit, the sun would have risen by the time they set out to find the lotophagi. Bo's mind went to Lauren. After they'd put Tamsin in the crisp sheeted, unused daybed, she'd slipped into the doctor's room while Dyson gave Kenzi a rundown of the short and mostly futile list of things to do to make the valkyrie more comfortable.
Lauren wasn't as pallid as she'd been when they left her, but Bo didn't think that was necessarily a good thing since her skin was flushed and burning with fever. Her shirt was dark with sweat and clung in wrinkled patches to her skin and she had opened her bruised eyes to look at her, but her expression barely flickered with any kind of recognition. Bo had taken up the washrag in a bowl on the nightstand and wiped the perspiration from Lauren's face and neck carefully, absently agreeing with the confused tumble of words that didn't go together when they sounded like questions.
"They're going to make it." Bo said quietly. She'd meant it to come out as a firm declaration, but it sounded like a scared question.
Dyson didn't respond, but she could hear him let out a loud breath behind her. She stuffed one hand into her pocket to reassure herself that the two items they'd already procured were still there. Slimy plastic tube, cold rock. Check and check, she had to stay positive, stay focused, keep her mind off the two blonde's dire conditions. She tried to think of something pleasant. Bo ducked under a branch and frowned at the unbidden thought that crept into her head. Without her permission, her brain started planning a date with Lauren to celebrate the doctor's recovery when she got better.
But no, she couldn't do that anymore. She tried not to feel bitter about it but the hard acrid lump in her throat just seemed to solidify instead of disappear. She was being callow; she knew this. She'd been perfectly content to leave things alone between her and the doctor, feeling like Lauren would always be there when she was ready, but when Lauren started to move on, she panicked. Of course she wanted Lauren to be happy, but she would prefer she be happy with her.
"What's Lauren's type?" Bo asked, giving voice to her earlier rumination.
"I'm not sure." Dyson admitted, swiftly gripping the succubus' arm to keep her from falling when she tripped over a half-buried root. "We never talked about it." Bo was about to ask him why his voice sounded remorseful, but he spoke again before she had the chance. "I was…I am really hard on her."
Bo threw a glance behind her to catch the shifter's eyes, but he wasn't looking at her. She had always figured that Dyson's attitude towards the doctor had been influenced because of her; they had been rivals for her affections, after all, but his tone implied that he was including the time before she'd ever been in the picture. "They really have feelings for each other." She stated without elaboration as they climbed up a slope and onto the hiking trail. Her whole body ached and her feet were killing her. She was going to soak in a hot tub for a week after this.
Dyson sighed. "I tried to talk to them. They both know better."
Bo huffed at the tense disapproval coming from him and found herself defending the two blonde's before she could stop herself. "You can't help who you have feelings for, Dyson." She stuck a hand in her pocket again; to make sure the two objects were still there. Slimy and cold. "And it's Lauren." She added as if that explained everything and to her, it did.
"Tamsin's Dark and Lauren is owned by the Light, Bo. It's complicated." He replied as if she weren't aware.
"Lauren isn't owned by anyone." Bo responded immediately. Her voice was insistent, but they both knew that wasn't the case. "Neither of them is stupid. If I know what they're getting into and they've been part of this world longer than me, longer than I've been alive in one case, then they have to know too."
"Why are you defending this?" Dyson's question was serious, but he sounded amused. "I thought you'd be against it on principal."
"I am!" she blurted automatically before frowning. "I mean…I don't know. I love Lauren," she didn't notice Dyson clench his jaw slightly and so kept going. "And Tamsin's…she's my friend and I just want…" she sighed exasperatedly. "I don't know what I want. That's the problem." She shrugged and left the thought that people shouldn't have to wait around on her to figure herself out unsaid.
Bo recognized, with no small amount of chagrin, that she would defend the two blondes, whatever it was they decided. She didn't think anything had been officially stated, but she wasn't a succubus for nothing, she'd been noting their doe-eyed expressions and intensifying auras for a while. The brunette arrived at bewildered comprehension when she observed the valkyrie watching Lauren with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She had still been burning a bright blue, though given the situation, it was understandably toned down from what Bo had seen before but there were also threads of a shade of blue the succubus didn't have the adequate vocabulary for but would call teal if asked. Those little tendrils could be trouble; they indicated affection that was deep into amorous territory rather than sexual, the more there were, the surer of the feeling a person was and Tamsin's aura had looked marbled. She put a hand in her pocket. Slimy, cold. Check and check.
ooo
Kenzi cautiously slipped into the guest room, which was dimmer than Lauren's room as the blue-eyed human felt like lower levels of light would help with the pain somehow. Tamsin had stopped the almost constant low wailing and replaced it with short but anguished vocalizations along with the intermittent sucking in of a long breath through her teeth loudly. It could have been that the Dark Fae was getting used to the level of pain, or it could have been the two-thirds bottle of absinthe she'd poured down Tamsin's throat over the last several hours.
Dyson had said it might help. Something about the herbs used, natural painkillers, and valkyries' relationship with alcohol; she hadn't really been paying attention because she hadn't thought Lauren would have any and Tamsin's pained keening was distracting. She picked up the mostly empty bottle from the unused office desk situated against one wall and approached the valkyrie who was curled into herself, her eyes shut and face creased in agony. She yanked the cork out of the bottle with a quiet popping noise and waved it back and forth under the blonde's nose.
"Gotta check your bandages again, Tam." Kenzi informed her gently.
A noise slipped from between Tamsin's lips, but she'd long since howled her throat raw and it came out as a cracked, dry and desperate sound. Kenzi nodded her understanding though the blonde's eyes had been closed since she'd gotten there, though it was comforting that this time, Tamsin tilted her own head slightly off the throw pillow it was resting on. The Russian carefully poured the undiluted green liquid into Tamsin's mouth, stopping occasionally to allow the blonde to swallow. Kenzi put the bottle back on the desk when the valkyrie dropped her head back to the pillow with a whimper and returned to the daybed to push aside the cut split in her shirt, which was caked with dried blood to look at the aforementioned bandages.
She peeled at the medical tape she'd found in the medicine cabinet in the upstairs bathroom and lifted the terrycloth towel she'd found in that same bathroom off of its position over the thick gauze the valkyrie had shown up with. The back of the towel was covered in blood, but it hadn't soaked through, which was a good thing and it didn't seem like the wound was still bleeding as the bandages strapped to her side weren't wet. Kenzi was tempted to undo the bandages altogether to get a look at how bad the actual wound was, but she had vaguely recalled Lauren chiding her for that same impulse a few years ago when she'd been cut on her arm. Pulling back the bandages unnecessarily could aggravate the wound and cause it to start bleeding all over again. Satisfied that at least the wound wasn't bleeding anymore, she replaced the towel and smoothed down the tape.
"How are you feeling?" Kenzi asked, squatting slightly to be more level with the valkyrie's face. She wasn't expecting a complex answer, or even a positive one but talking to Tamsin and asking her questions helped to engage her brain in something other than pain which could cause her to slip into shock. At first, Tamsin had ignored her altogether, but since she'd been pouring alcohol into her, the valkyrie managed nods of acknowledgement and even a few words.
Kenzi hummed when the Dark Fae shook her head slightly against the pillow. "It's going to be okay." The human assured though she wasn't sure if it would be. "We're gonna get Lauren better and she'll get you better, okay?" she put a gentle hand on Tamsin's shoulder and ran it up and down her upper arm a few times, an action she'd probably never attempt under any other circumstances but she felt like the valkyrie needed reassuring.
The lines in Tamsin's face deepened impossibly further as her grimace deepened, another hoarse sob stuttering out of her. Kenzi sighed and gave the blonde's shoulder a squeeze. "I'll be right back," she promised, waiting to see the small movement from Tamsin's head as an indicator that she'd heard her before she stood up. "I'm just gonna go check on Hotpants and I'll be right back."
Kenzi eyed the blonde for a moment to make sure she'd be okay in the interim time. Tamsin's hand unclenched and shot forward just as Kenzi tore her gaze away, startling her. The grip the valkyrie had just above her wrist was tight and painful but it was Tamsin's face that made her suck in a sharp breath. Her eyes were opened, watery and rimmed in red, pleading under furrowed brows; her mouth parted and lower lip trembling. It looked like it was taking everything within her to keep her eyes open and the expression intensified when she spoke.
"Make it…" she whined pitifully, sounding like she was in the midst of laryngitis. "Make it stop. Please."
Kenzi knew exactly what the valkyrie meant the moment the 'please' came out. Even if she hadn't known, the desperate, unabashed begging tone made it pretty clear what Tamsin was asking of her. The human shook her head violently and Tamsin closed her eyes and dropped her head back to the pillow in despair and defeat but she didn't release her grip.
"No way," Kenzi said, confirming her initial reaction and unable to keep the octave of panic out of her voice. She moved down as far as she could to be level with the valkyrie's face without the blonde having to let go of her. "No way, Tamsin. You can't…I won't…" she searched for the right words.
The other woman squeezed the fingers around her arm though Kenzi wasn't sure if it was a gesture of understanding or if she was asking her again.
"Lauren'd have a fit if you're not around to yell at about bleeding all over her apartment." The human continued. "She's not much in a fight, but she's pretty scary sometimes. You don't wanna do that to me, right?" the Valkyrie blew air forcefully out of her nose as her forehead creased. "And if Lauren's mad, Bo's mad and you can't leave me here with that, okay?" another squeeze and the tight grip on her arm loosened a little. She squeezed the valkyrie's shoulder with her free hand. "They'll be back soon." She promised even though the last text message she'd gotten from Bo said they'd be in the woods and were going out of range more than two hours ago. "Hang in there, Tamsin. Please."
Another squeeze and the blonde pulled her hand away with a groan, her hand already balled into a fist so tight her knuckles were white by the time it returned to its place resting against her chin.
Kenzi backed up several steps before turning around to make the short trip across the hall to where Lauren was deliriously mumbling about blood-brain barriers and psychotropic drugs. The dark-haired human gritted her teeth and added 'nurse' to her List-Of-Jobs-That-Will-Stress-Me-Into-An-Early-Grave.