Chapter 11
"I'm dying..." Kenzi whined as she tossed and turned on one of Trick's couches, holding the sides of her head as her hangover made its presence known.
"You're not dying, Kenze." Bo chuckled as she squatted to offer the small woman a cup of tea. Thinking it was her glorious coffee, she took a sip before promptly choking on the taste.
"What the hell is that?" she coughed as Bo helped to stop the fit.
"Shona told me this tea would work faster than coffee."
"It smells and tastes rank, Bo-Bo. I don't want it." Kenzi whined as she tried to hand the cup back.
"Nah-ah. Drink it all and give it a few minutes. Shona swears by it."
"Be glad I'm such a considerate person." Kenzi pouted, pinched her nose and swallowed the contents. "Oh, God, that's nasty." She scowled and shivered.
"Give it five and you'll want to marry it." Brynna chuckled as she went through one of her bags, producing a few dirks.
"I think these would fit ye better for close range attacks." Brynna handed Bo a pair of dirks.
"Great. You're sure Trick let us use his tunnels for this?"
"Positive. After a few feet it opens into a chamber where we'll have plenty room."
"So you're doing some sisterly bonding Buffy-style?" Kenzi asked as Bo bent to strap them to her boots while Brynna laughed and strapped her pair to her thighs.
"I suppose ye could say that. We both have nothing better to do. Shona and Lauren have been keeping each other company. I have to say, though, Shona's taken a liking to your doctor, Bo. I think she's one of the few people that can truly understand her. I think it's good for the both of them."
"I'm glad she has someone she can talk to who actually knows what she's talking about. I just think it's cute when she rambles about nucleic acids and stuff." Bo used one of the few science words she remembered from high school to refer to Lauren's extensive medical skills.
"Yeah, and when something's really gotten her attention she just gabs on and on about it and all ye could do is smile dumbly at her and nod." Brynna agreed, though she was referring to Shona's constant amazement with nature.
Kenzi's laughter resounded in the room and both succubi looked at her. "You two have some kind of Wonder Twin power when it comes to lurving smart chicks. By the way, tell Red she's in contention with Hale as my personal hangover-be-gone. Stuff tastes like grass but dayum does it work!"
Brynna chuckled at the small human's peculiar way of talking. "Sure thing." She turned back to Bo and smirked. "Ready to have your arse kicked?"
"You wish you could kick my arse. C' mon." Bo clapped her sister shoulder as she walked past her to the tunnels.
* LOST * GIRL *
Lorna sat stooped over the files as she sipped her port. She had been slaving over them for the last two hours and Shona was still off with Lauren. She had heard the whole conversation yesterday about the druidess' extensive herbal collection and was surprised when she let the human doctor make some of the simpler teas and poultices. Lauren hadn't groaned and reluctantly helped her; she went for it with gusto.
"Sorry I'm late. I was just showin' Lauren how to make a few teas. Ya have my complete attention for the day." Lorna peered up at the sheepish grin her sister-in-law sported.
"It's fine, Shona. Take this file and get to writing names down." She handed the Light Fae folder to Shona as the redhead took her seat across from her.
"Should I be lookin' for anything specific?" she asked.
"They have color codes on the front page when you open it. We just need the ones marked as alive."
"Alive?"
"These haven't been updated for at least forty years," Lorna gave Shona a sympathetic look, "and some of these people have died of 'natural causes' or 'fatal accidents'. I believe someone has been systematically picking them off. If we find any of the descendants they might not welcome us with open arms if they know what we are or not."
"Ya got a point there." Shona sighed. "Hopefully they might feel safer if I could talk to 'em when we find 'em." She opened the notebook Lorna handed her and began to right down names.
* LOST * GIRL *
"Okay you really kicked my ass." Bo panted as she flopped down onto a portion of the rock wall carved out to form a bench. She heard Brynna chuckle and hand her a bottle of water and a towel.
"Can't say ye didn't put up a good fight. I usually don't have this good of a workout sparring with two people." Brynna too was a little breathless as she sat by Bo.
It was clear that both women were worn out but the tension that had risen when Bo learned of their biggest secret had fizzled out for the most part. They had both been smiling and egging each other on as they sparred and Bo personally felt a bit closer to her big sister.
"Sorry about the top." Brynna pointed her water bottle at Bo's left strap where the succubus had tied it.
"Don't worry about it." Bo brushed it off before asking, "Do you think it would be safe to go back to the clubhouse soon?"
Brynna reclined back against the cold stone and thought. "Possibly. No offense to your home, but I'd imagine Aengus would've thought ye were squattin' there."
"Guess there's something to be said about living in rundown buildings." Bo chuckled lightly.
"If we go back, I could have Shona place wards where she can. That should keep most of the minor underlings they send after us at bay and some big ones, too. Moira, Blair, Keiran, and I can handle any other security issues."
"Doesn't sound like a bad idea. I'm gonna call Dyson and see if he can swing by with Hale to scout it out." Bo stood whipped her towel at Brynna.
"Hey!" Brynna laughed and rubbed her side where Bo had got her, trying to make the sting go away.
"C' mon. Let's see if Lorna and Shona made a dent in those files yet."
When they came up from the tunnels and into the bar, they weren't expecting Kenzi's gasp.
"Holy shitballs, Bo-Bo!" Kenzi had been sitting at the bar nursing a cup of coffee to get the taste of Shona's tea out of her mouth. "Did you just stand there and let her beat you?"
"It's not that bad and she apologized for it. Stop it." Bo smiled and swatted her best friend's hand away when she tried to check the bruise and minor scratches on her face.
"You can't afford to scratch up that mug. It's your meal-ticket. Literally. And what happened to your shirt?" Kenzi observed her friend's skimpy top. The brunette had apparently tied her left strap after it had been ripped.
"They're only bruises and the cuts won't even scar. We did some grappling after we disarmed each other. Tank tops kinda give easily." Brynna explained as she walked by them to where Shona sat concentrating.
"Which brings up a major concern: we need to go back to the club house for some more clothes. This is my last outfit." Kenzi pointed to the neon green and black corset with matching shirtless sleeves.
"I already have Hale and Dyson scouting it out. They should give us the all-clear soon." Bo explained as she wiped the sweat from her brow.
"Good. We've been holing up in Trick's house for days and I think he's getting tired of a bunch of women taking over his bathrooms for three hours every morning; that's not including the extra hour Keiran and Donovan take for their hair. They use about as many products as I do." Kenzi complained, and she had a point.
Bo laughed, "It would be awesome to have our space back. You think Trick knows a really good plumber?"
Her besty gave her a weird look. "I thought you had Lauren to fix your 'plumbing'?"
Bo laughed and shook her head. "No, you dork, an actual plumber. My sisters," Bo couldn't help the goofy grin that was plastered on her face, "need a place to stay and we have spare rooms."
"That are filled with broken bottles, furniture, and mattresses that smell like piss." Kenzi tacked on.
"Remember our little Brownie friend? He cleaned the whole place, I mean the whole place. I went back there because I heard a noise and thought I walked into the wrong building. He totally redecorated them." Bo smiled when she saw her friend's eyes widen.
"Remind me to send him a crate of Honey Crunch for Christmas." Kenzi said stunned. She thought he just cleaned their part of the run-down building.
"Well, let's inform Grandpa that we will be movin' back out." Kenzi clapped her hands and turned on her heels. "Yo! Good news, Trickster!"
Bo laughed and followed her friend to behind the bar.
* LOST * GIRL *
"Hey." Brynna said softly as she hugged Shona where she sat, still pouring over the last half of the files. Lorna had taken a coffee break and was spending some quality time with her Keiran.
She turned and smiled tiredly at her wife, giving her a quick peck. "Hey yourself, suge."
Brynna pulled a chair up from another table. "How goes the research? Any good leads?"
"We have three in the States that may be active and we have a few very peculiar ones." Shona looked over her writings.
"Peculiar how?" Brynna raised an eyebrow.
"These may be forty years out of date but from their records, they seemed to have moved around quite a bit. Take a look here." Brynna moved to get a better view of what her wife was pointing to. Apparently, the person had moved ten times prior to the last recorded account of his residence.
"Someone doesn't move like that without good reason. Did he serve his country?"
"No records of any time serving the military. Though," she pointed to a particularly paragraph of information, "it says here he helped troops after the Vietnam war who had mental or physical damage during the war. He was licensed and apparently highly acclaimed for his surgical and medical skills."
"Who is he?" Brynna notice when she asked the simple question that her wife became silent, even a little nervous. "Shona, who is he?" she asked again.
"His name is Roger L. Lewis." Shona said nothing more.
"Lewis? Why does that – " Brynna suddenly remembered that that was Lauren's surname. "Is she any relation to him?"
"Only thing I've figured out was that his wife was Sophia Lewis, born Sophia MacBride, the granddaughter of Irish immigrants. Roger himself was of Irish and British blood. Funny thing is, both of their families are in the records. Rogers goes back to the thirteenth century or more, while his wife's was harder to find. I could only find records back to the early eighteen hundreds."
Brynna read over the rest of the papers, her brow furrowing more and more with each line. "Why does MacBride sound familiar to me? Did we know any of them?"
"My childhood friend was a MacBride. They were close to the Fae, even their surname was taken from an elder, Brighid."
"That means someone of her clan may have survived. Are ye sure they have no records of their children?" Brynna wanted Shona to have a hope that her friend's legacy still lived on.
"I've looked but that seems to be missin'. Most of the other document have the names of the descendant's children. I'm liable to think that someone has taken Mr. and Mrs. Lewis' children's files."
"Aoife told me she hadn't opened them." Paranoia seeped into Brynna's voice.
"And she hasn't. Lorna and I never saw any fingerprints or any other disturbances in the files. Aoife was tellin' ya the truth." Shona calmed her wife.
"Do ye think we should confront Lauren about this? I mean, she might have a clue who they are."
"I have a bad feeling if we do. What if that is her mother and father? What if she never knew the Fae kept these records?"
"We could bend the truth and tell her they were in the human files?" Brynna suggested.
"You mean lie." Shona folded her arms. She hated when Brynna reverted back to her slier ways.
"Bo's mentioned to me that she was enslaved to the Ash. Why would an Ash need a human doctor?" Brynna changed the subject quickly.
"Well, there was that outbreak a few years back in Africa. All the surrounding Fae were dying off and after a while, someone had found a cure. Do ya think Lauren could've been the one to find the cure?"
"It would take extensive medical knowledge and a ton o' training, which I believe our good doctor has in aces."
"I think we should just ask her. It's better to be direct than flounce around the truth."
"Hey, I don't flounce. I swagger." Brynna gave her wife the cockiest grin she could muster, her green eyes shining mischievously.
"Whatever you say, honey." Shona smiled as she pinched at Brynna's cheeks. "I'm still asking her."
"Fine. Bo should be with her so she should be calmer when ye drop the bomb on her. Shall we get goin'?" Brynna stood and extended her hand courteously to Shona.
"No time like the present." she smiled and took her wife's hand.
