'Oh Bobo, thank...' Kenzi stops, eyes cast momentarily skyward in what passes for intense thought this far into a bar lock-in before rolling back to land on her bestie. 'I'm not sure "God" is entirely appropriate so I'm gonna go with the old faithful – tequila...' A perfectly timed shot glass slides along the bar and moves seamlessly from palm to grateful, slightly numb, lips. 'Thank tequila you're here. So, so much, I, I mean...I just can't even.'

'Oh right, now you just can't even,' Vex mimics, downing his own shot and immediately pouring another. 'Thank you Bobo indeed, for finally showing up to provide sanctuary within so-called sanctuary from the infernal yapping of this bloody bi...it of sunshine. Blinding me with her luminous self she was.'

Kenzi gives him the infamous stink-eye and reaches across from her perch on the bar-top to snatch up his refilled glass. 'Nice save, douchebag.'

Bo is watching them both with a quizzical look, arms folded loosely across her chest which causes an uplift that Vex can't help but be distracted by. Kenzi however has never been one for the girls.

'What you thinking, boobycakes? Why you looking at us like that?' She holds the back of her right hand against her left cheek and leans forward to whisper conspiratorially, and pointlessly, 'Don't worry, I've been keeping track of Monsieur Malt-Liquor's tab.'

'I'm trying to figure out what this...' Bo waggles a finger between bartender and bar-regular-attendee. '...is. You two have the most ambiguous flow I've ever seen. I can't figure out if it's off the charts sexual or separated at birth sibling.'

'Firstly, eww. To both. And secondly...' Kenzi hops off the bar, landing impressively steadily on her platform heels. 'On the topic of family - '

The main entrance to The Dal opens and Aoife appears in the doorway, followed closely by a smiling Lauren who nods her head in agreement at whatever the older woman had been saying.

'What the Faedge?...' Kenzi watches the newcomers long enough to confirm they're actually there and not just a figment of her heavily intoxicated imagination before continuing. 'That was supposed to be a cross between Fae and fudge, didn't anticipate the vag sounds-like; I kind of sucked at charades. But speaking of weird, potentially dangerous family parties...'

'Did the Blood King squander all his riches along with his power, or is he just too cheap to hire a cleaning crew?' Evony appears from the ladies bathroom at the opposite end of the bar, long tight sleeve pulled over her hands to avoid touching anything. 'Seriously, this outfit now needs incinerating.'

'Tada!' Kenzi swirls both her forearms dramatically, jazz hands gesturing towards the distracted Morrigan for the grand finale. Bo is unimpressed.

'What the hell is she doing here?' she asks no one in particular, eyes never leaving Evony's now focused and bemused face. 'Oh and that outfit already needed burning. I'd be happy to help you with that.'

'Oooh!' Vex claps his hands together, rubbing them in excitement. 'This is going to be fun. I do love a good family feud; makes me wish mine weren't all dead. We used to - '

'Vex!' Bo snaps.

'What?'

'Shut the hell up.'

'Well that's just charming that. I come riding in like the original knight in latex armour to help save your arses from the latest crisis, and this is the gratitude I get? Don't take your family troubles out on me, Mardypantless.'

'You brought the cause of the "latest crisis" right to our door, you idiot. And why do you keep dropping the f-bomb?' Bo turns to Kenzi, being sure to keep her other senses trailed on The Morrigan. 'Kenz, what did you tell him?'

'It's not what I told him that you need to worry about, Bobo, it's what he told me.'

'Which is?'

Kenzi pulls her 'I borrowed your favourite something, spilt hot sauce on it, snapped off a vital part and fed it to a pack of mutant rats, please don't hate me' face.

'Jeez Kenz, you of all people should know I'm not one for the slow dance.'

'Oh we've all heard those rumours,' Vex smirks. 'But here's a new one for you; Miss Marquise, the luscious, often lascivious – oh looky, I see the resemblance - seldom lovely, leader of the dark, is your cousin.'

'Hell no she isn't.' Bo and Aoife are in perfect horrified harmony while the other occupants of The Dal split their attentions equally between the familial triangle in question.

'I think I was feeling the love in this room more when I was hog-tied on the floor.' Evony walks into the centre of The Dal so she finally has all eyes on her. 'Aoife.' She nods her head in greeting as Bo edges warily around to stand between her and her family.

'Evony,' Aoife replies.

'What is going on? You know each other?' Bo is exasperated with the curve-balls; this is getting ridiculous even by their usual standards.

Kenzi steps up beside her, whispering from the corner of her mouth. 'They were BF's back in the day but without the second F because The Mo ditched your Ma when she went cray.'

'She knows we can hear her, right?' Aoife asks Lauren, who stifles a quiet laugh behind pressed lips.

Bo's frustration does that annoying thing where it converts into choking tears in the back of her throat. She suddenly longs for one of them to hold her – her mother or her lover – though she's not sure who or why, and knows it's completely ridiculous either way. It's a yearning akin to what she'd felt when they'd shown up at Lauren's apartment; an undeniable connection, a need to be...close. She's jealous, covets their apparent ease, and for a few seconds it feels as though the Succubus is going to take over, lay claim to her desires. They're all watching her, all expecting something, and Bo is fleetingly bitter that this is her life, her fragile attempt at family; that the picket fence dream and all it entails is so laughably unavailable to her; that the sight of her mom and the woman she loves getting along is so out of the realms of her reality that it only creates confusion, that it makes her needy and vulnerable. What the hell is happening to her? Screw this.

'Vex, why did you tell Kenzi this bitch is my cousin?'

'Because,' Vex sounds bored by the lack of violent progression. 'Your dear old Da is her uncle.'

'How do you know who my father is? How do either of you know anything?' Bo looks between the Mesmer and The Morrigan as though playing a deadly game of eeny meeny miny moe. 'I only found out a few hours ago.'

'They know nothing.' She appears from Trick's storeroom, minus the bubblegum streaks in her hair but blowing and popping a face-sized bubble with the actual gum in her mouth. 'None of you do. Story of my frickin' life.'

'Cassie?' All eyes trail her warily – the Morrigan's somewhat threateningly - but it's Bo that speaks. 'What are you doing in there?'

'Well I wasn't about to walk through the front door if that's what you mean. Being associated with 'Help the Humans' is not high on my list of priorities. Oracles kinda need their heads.'

'I meant why are you here?'

'Same reason as you by the sounds of it. Family. Sucks don't it?' She glances around, making no effort whatsoever to disguise her thinking. 'Although, by the looks of things, you don't need me to tell you that.'

'So your uncle sent you?' Bo intervenes before Kenzi can get her indignant snark on; the very idea of the two of them going at it elicits new levels of exhaustion.

'Duh. Like I'd be here otherwise...' Cassie's chewing slows to an almost stop, her perpetually wide eyes narrowing as she studies Bo's face. 'Maybe he's right though. You're...different; something's changed. Like that massive gaping hole you had has been overfilled somehow.'

'Ha, well we all know that's not Dog-boy's doing; he's average sized at best.' Vex ignores the glares and general bad vibes directed his way and celebrates his own quick wit with yet another drink.

'Why would your uncle send you to help me now? He kept his blood oath, he paid his debt to me already.'

'Not to mention, he's dark,' Kenzi mutters loudly enough for the whole bar – and the next bar over – to hear.

'Err, so are your new entourage, which is probably the only reason you've managed to escape the pet cemetery. So far.'

'I am not - ' Kenzi steps towards her but is body-blocked by Bo who moves directly into Cassie's line of vision, effectively ending the sniping she has neither the time or the patience for.

'Why did he send you to me?'

'Because this isn't just about you, Bo. Something is coming, something that's going to change things for all Fae.' The young oracle's features are captured in a rare moment of sobriety, her mouth curling down slightly on one side as she chews on that instead of gum in careful contemplation. 'I had a vision, uncalled, which isn't totally unheard of but it's like a full solar eclipse, you know? The whole world stands still for something that you can't look at directly without it hard-boiling your eyeballs.'

'Someone add eggs to the list of foodstuffs ruined by Fae,' Kenzi grumbles beneath her breath, but this time she's ignored.

'The old and the new are converging,' Cassie continues, focusing solely on Bo as though reading the words from her eyes. 'Walls are falling, powers rising, and you're smack bang in the middle of it. Whatever you do has the potential to create or destroy the final, true peace.'

Bo shakes her head slowly from one side to the other, trying to refuse the words entry. 'No, I...'

'I don't write the lines, I just speak them. And this particular script was written way before my time...like, way way before, but it's pretty clear.' Cassie's eyelids flutter closed and when they reopen only the flickering whites are visible. 'The inconceivable conceived, a life suspended to bear death. The foundling returns to the powers of the parents and all fealty shall be claimed. The end will be born with her. The end will be born from her. The end - '

Bo strides forward, grabbing Cassie by the upper arms and shaking her out of her monotone trance. 'Stop it! Stop! What are you talking about?'

'Bo.' Lauren's voice drifts across the room behind her and dances softly along her hands until they're calmed into relinquishing their hold. 'It's going to be okay. We're going to go downstairs and look through Trick's books, and it's all going to be okay.'

How does she do that? How does she always know how to soothe her, even when she doesn't have the answers Bo seeks?

'Cassie, thank you for coming. You can go now.' Lauren is respectful and genuine, which only makes Kenzi's derisive snort more obtrusive. 'Kenz, go give Hale a call; Bo said he's worried about you. And see how Dyson's doing. Vex, take The Morrigan and see if you can't get her to undo some of the damage she's done and buy us some breathing space. Use whatever means necessary.'

'Er, I'm right here, and last time I checked, still leader of the Dark, which makes me the most senior in the room.'

'Nobody's disputing you're most senior, Grams,' Kenzi remarks as she stomps by, phone already lit up in her hand.

'And it's this sort of attitude from you humans that got you into this mess in the first place. I won't be told wh-hurr...mmmrr...vxxx!' Evony swings around, arms spread wide and legs bobbing up and down like a Thunderbird walking.

'Oh give it a rest, would you,' Vex sighs, following his puppet towards the door. 'Bloody women giving me a headache. Mighty-mouth will do her bit for world peace, don't you worry, Doc.'

'Thank you. Oh and Vex...'

'What?'

'Thank you for looking out for Kenzi.' Lauren looks pointedly over at Bo as Aoife leads her to sit down, away from the slightly drained looking oracle. 'It means a lot.'

'Yeah well, Trick might not know it until his next stock-take but he pays excellent rates.' He gives Evony one final, unnecessarily physical, shove and they're both gone.

'Look,' Cassie takes Lauren by the elbow and turns her away from the room. 'I don't really get this, I mean, I don't get you, or her thing with you, but you don't have to be tapped into the fates to see that you're something.'

'Err...' Lauren draws her eyebrows together, a little baffled. 'Thanks?'

'No, my condolences. Because all that means is that this shit is on you too. She has the potential to royally fuck us all and she's already spacing, so you have to make sure that when the time comes, she makes the right choices. If she doesn't...laterz world...' She pulls tighter on the crook of Lauren's arm, bringing their faces fractionally closer together. 'What is...'

Lauren feels weird. She has the sudden urge to turn away, to shield herself, and it's not just the increased proximity or the probing scrutiny of Cassie's wide eyes. She casts a glance over her shoulder at Bo and instantly the Succubus turns her gaze to meet her, mouth relaxing into an easy Sunday morning kind of smile.

'Whoa...' Cassie's extended syllable of bona fide awe pulls her attention reluctantly back. 'Shit a brick and please don't head-fuck me with it because I am officially done! How is it even possible?'

'What?'

'Actually, I don't even wanna know. I'm out of here. Try not to destroy the world, k?'


The bar clearing out has already calmed Bo substantially; Lauren can sense it as she approaches the table where she sits across from her mother. Or perhaps the deluge of new disclosure and the accompanying whirlwinds of emotion have just plain tired her out. She takes a seat beside her, resists the urge to take her hand because, though she's one hundred percent sure of where they should be, and where she wants to be now, after Taft and Tamsin – and everything else they're yet to tell each other – she has no idea where they actually are. Aoife and Bo both look to her as though seeking some kind of direction but as she opens her mouth the words get lost in the medley of things she needs to say.

Aoife clears her throat and stands up. 'I'm going to go find that book we talked about; if I know my father he still uses the same bolt-holes and booby-traps he always did. He never was good at change.' She visibly reigns herself in before the bitter undertone becomes overt tone. 'You two should talk. I get the feeling Lauren can explain some of my story better than I could anyway.'

They watch her head down into Trick's living quarters, both women momentarily grimacing at the thought of Kenzi and the older Succubus being left alone together.

'Do you think she'll be okay down there?' Lauren asks without turning back to face her.

'Which one?'

'I don't actually know.'

Bo smiles, a little rush of air escaping her nose as though she'd been holding her breath inside. She finds herself captivated once more by the gentle rise and fall of Lauren's shoulders, by the natural sounds of her body's function. If she focuses enough she can hear everything; the blood racing, mind ticking, gases exchanging, stomach churning with uncertainty.

'Lauren...look at me. Please.'

'I don't think that I can.'

'Why not?'

'There's just too much, Bo. Too much that needs to be said and I know that the moment I turn around I'm going to drown in it all and probably take you down with me.' The confession spills out like word-vomit into her own lap but she can sense Bo's reassuring smile behind her.

'I'm a pretty strong swimmer. And I think it's time we stopped pushing against the tide...The break...' Bo tentatively tests the waters, all senses trailed on Lauren's internal reactions. 'Taft...Dyson...Karen.' Bingo.

Lauren stiffens. 'We should be talking about you. Aoife didn't get chance to tell you everything and there's so - '

'How many times are you going to run from life?' Bo demands softly, excluding any option of avoidance.

'Does it count as more than once if you never really stopped after the first time?'

'You stopped. For a while, with me, you stopped.'

'How can you be so sure? You didn't know me before.'

'No, but I know running. I know it's not always about running away; sometimes, it's running to.'

'To?'

'To a place where you can just be still.'

Lauren's breath hitches in her chest as she finally turns to face Bo.

'The rest doesn't matter. The whole world can spin around us, that tidal wave can come crashing down whenever the hell it wants...' Bo reaches up to curl a lock of blonde hair away from Lauren's cheek. 'Because we will be still.'

Lauren closes the gap between them in nanoseconds, pressing her lips to Bo's and crushing their bodies together as closely as the laws of physics will allow. She's made so many mistakes, so many bad choices and wrong turns. She'd almost allowed herself to be consumed by her own doubts so many times in the past, but this – her and Bo – just is. It might defy explanation or reason to many, even themselves at times, but it just is.

'Bo...' Her attempts to pull back are met with physical protest but she can't allow them to be swept away just yet. 'You're the wave,' she whispers against the shudder evoked by Bo's mouth behind her ear.

'Mmm, you're the...what?' Bo's halts on her pathway down Lauren's neck, leaning back enough to look her in the eye but leaving her hands tangled in silky blonde hair. 'Is that supposed to be some kind of romantic metaphor that I'm just not getting?'

'Actually I was carrying on with what you said about the...' Lauren recognises the flash in Bo's gaze and knows she needs to speed up shutting this down before she loses her. 'The prophecy that Cassie told you about – it's real and ancient and it's about you, Bo. I don't know all the details yet, but from what Aoife told me, and from what Cassie saw, you are a vital component in what's coming. Even more vital than any of us thought.'

'There's offence to be taken there somewhere, I'm sure.' Bo grouses, her hands reluctantly dropping from Lauren's hair to interlace their fingers in her lap. 'Let's start with the ancient part – if this thing is so old, how can it have anything to do with me? How can I be so instrumental in the future of all Fae when I didn't even know I was Fae until a few years ago? It doesn't make sense; I'm just a baby by Fae standards, most humans have been alive longer than me.' She pulls Lauren's hands into her own lap, hence pulling their faces closer together once more. 'You've been alive longer than me,' she teases.

'You haven't told her?' Aoife appears in the doorway at the top of the stairs, a small leather-bound book open in her hands.

'Other things came up.'

'I see that.' Aoife raises an eyebrow but says no more. She walks over to them and reclaims her seat opposite, sliding the book over to Lauren. 'Trick's notes on Teron and the seer...' She looks pale, her eyes darting to Bo's face and then back down at the table. 'He err...he didn't know...not the full story anyway. At least, not at the time.'

Lauren's eyes widen, staring at Aoife for a second before turning downwards to devour the information she proffered.

Bo was lost. Again. 'What do you mean? What full story? What time?'

Aoife sighs heavily then pushes through her elbows on the table to sit up a little straighter. 'I thought he knew; all this time I thought he knew exactly what he was taking from us, where he was leaving us...I've spent thousands of years hating him for the wrong reasons. Thousands of years cursing him for what he did to us, what he allowed to happen to us, and he didn't even know...'

'You're not making any sense.' Bo can feel the beginnings of panic kindling in the pit of her stomach. She looks from Lauren to Aoife and back again for answers until finally Lauren looks up from her reading.

'She's right,' Lauren gasps. 'Trick didn't know about the real prophecy; he didn't know about the pregnancy or your birth. Trick was, well, tricked.' She looks over at Aoife, eyes still wide and voice cracking a little. 'He didn't leave you both there; he didn't forsake his grandchild. He didn't know. He has spent the last two thousand years not knowing.'

'There's a lot of not knowing going on! Will one of you please start making sense? What happened two thousand years ago that Trick doesn't know about?'

'You, sweetheart,' Aoife smiles, wistful and sort of proud. 'You happened. You were born.'