Disclaimers: All original property is owned by Showcase, and we do not infer that any characters, creations or the concept of 'Lost Girl' are our property and the following fan fiction has been written purely for entertainment purposes only.
Pairings: Bo/Lauren Set directly after our story "Faeral", the third story in an AU plot line.
Rating: M (Contains scenes of violence, sexuality and nudity)
Faery Tale: Chapter Fourteen
By: The Rainbowwriters
Trick's 'few questions' had turned into quite a lot of questions, and once Bo had done her best to answer all of them, the two of them had looked over some of the candidates that he had earmarked. Discussions had lasted long enough to bring them into the lunch hour, and as the barkeep had moved upstairs to help his staff with the lunch rush, Bo joined him.
The older fae had offered Bo a 'free' lunch, which she had pointed out wasn't a rare event, but she'd accepted none the less. Soon Bo was tucked into a large chicken club sandwich with a side of fries and a bottle of beer, while Trick also enjoyed a meat pastry of some kind as the usual servers kept the bar under control.
Suddenly Trick's hand stopped with his fork half way to his mouth, his dark eyes turned to the Dal doorway. Everything about his features froze, locked in an obvious attempt to control his reaction to whatever it was he had just seen.
"Trick, what's wrong?" Bo saw him freeze and then followed his eye line, turning on her stool to see exactly what he had seen and she instantly tensed.
Walking towards them very slowly, Dyson let his eyes drop to watch the floor as he finished his approach. Instantly Bo felt her whole body tingle with confusion and panic, after all the last time the two of them had been in the Dal, she'd had to almost crack his head open like a melon on the floor in order to prove a point.
"What are you doing here?" She hissed at him standing up when he reached only a few feet away from the bar.
"Bo." Dyson turned to look at her, keeping his voice soft, in order to show his purposed calmness. "I didn't expect you to be here, I'm sorry." He apologized immediately and looked down again. "I wouldn't have come here if I known you would be here." He stressed glancing at Trick also in apology. Just from the way the wolf was carrying himself it was obvious that he was still in some amount of pain, and with the just minimal stitching remaining on his face he looked far less like he was broken. "I'm here to help." He explained his presence.
"Help?" Bo scoffed at the word for a moment, not taking her eyes off of him. "Did the Ash let you out or did you escape again?" She tested him, not able to hide the anger in her voice.
"I have Hale's permission to be out of my room, to be here at the Dal to speak with Trick." Dyson looked briefly at the succubus and then at the floor. "I'm not going anywhere near the club house or Lauren's apartment without your instruction to do so." He outlined the strict provisions Hale had put on his release. "And I am to return to the compound immediately if either of you feel that I need too." He shifted slightly in his place before his eyes came up to meet Bo's again. "Hale was calling Lauren's to warn you both, I'm surprised she hasn't called you by now." He admitted the fact that he had thought would have kept this awkward meeting from occurring.
"She's busy doing work-ups on Kenzi to try and figure out how to fix her." Bo underlined that the blonde was busy enough that news of Dyson wouldn't register that high, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. "So what, I'm just supposed to forget everything and tell you to get in the car because I need your nose at the clubhouse to track this thing? I've needed your nose since yesterday but it's attached to you, and you..." She made a slight huff. "Have barely finished unpacking from your trip to crazy land."
"Bo." It was Trick that spoke the succubus' name with a slight edge of disappointment and when she turned to look at him, the older fae was frowning at her.
"I know, I know, Kenzi is in danger, I have to get over myself." Bo filled in the words she could already imagine him saying. "I need to get with the fae way of doing things, which means get over it but..." She couldn't even begin to admit how she was feeling, how much she felt as if merely by talking too him right now she was betraying Lauren's trust.
Bo may have been about to say something when the phone in her jacket pocket began ringing. She put up her hand at both of them, taking the call but walking a distance a way to let Dyson approach Trick at the bar to talk to the older man directly.
"Lauren." Bo answered seeing her name on the display. "Let me guess, Hale called you?" She tapped her boot against the floor to relieve her anxious energy.
"Yes." The blonde sounded agitated, in fact possibly close to tears on the other end of the phone.
"I'm sorry, I had nothing to do with this and I didn't even know..." Bo began to try to explain but was cut off.
"So you know?" Lauren's voice sounded confused.
"Only because a half minute ago Dyson just walked into the Dal." Bo summed up the reality of what was going on. "I was enjoying a sandwich and then suddenly, there he is." The growl could be heard in her voice as she turned to look at him.
"I had an idea he would head to the Dal, I just hoped you were at the clubhouse." Lauren was honest.
"Trick and I were discussing underfae suspects, and he bought a trap for me to set at the house. I was going to phone and tell you the plan once I had my lunch. I hoped that since you hadn't called nothing had gone wrong with Kenz." Bo admitted the entire extent of the plan she'd had before Dyson walked in and derailed everything. "Trick is hopeful that if I spend some time at the house with the trap set, it might have better luck drawing whatever this thing is out."
"With Dyson?" Panic flooded Lauren's voice as the question slipped out of her lips before she could stop herself.
"No!" Bo shot back immediately. "Dyson didn't have anything to do with it. Dyson only showed up a second ago. I haven't even got past the shock of him being out yet let alone made a plan that included him."
"No, of course, sorry." The blonde retracted, clearly trying to order her feelings on the other side of the phone.
"Lauren..." Bo's voice softened. "I know we haven't talked about it but I do know how scary the idea of Dyson out of lock down must be for you. I know that what he put you through can't just be swept away because he wasn't in control, and please know that I don't expect you to forgive him, ever." She took a soft breath. "The last thing I want you to think is that I'm making secret plans with Dyson."
"I'm sorry." Lauren apologized again for the assumptions she had almost made. "I was just..." She hesitated. "Surprised when the Ash phoned to tell me he was free and when I realized Hale hadn't discussed it with you, I wanted to warn you in advance if I could."
"I was surprised when he walked in too." Bo acknowledged, touched by the fact that Lauren had been still trying to protect her. "I don't know what Hale was thinking."
"Bo..." Lauren began to say something and then seemed to rethink what she was saying. "Hale was thinking that he could help Kenzi." She said simply, though her voice showed how fragile her emotions were. "Dyson has skills that can help us track and catch this underfae quicker, the Ash just wants the quickest and best results."
"The issue isn't about whether Dyson can help or not, it is about whether he should be trusted out of confinement." Bo tried to keep a hold of her anger, knowing it was directed at Hale's choices not her lover.
"But I have to think about the best for my patient." Lauren replied her voice more even. "Dyson's nose will be able to trace anything in the club house that isn't familiar. We need to get any of the pieces to this puzzle that we can."
Where she was standing, Bo sidestepped and braced her hand against a pillar, her mind and heart warring with each other non-stop over the dilemma that had walked in with the wolf.
"Are you sure this is how you want to focus on this? Because we can find answers on our own Lauren." Bo tried to stress that fundamentally she could easily plod on without the wolf's assistance.
"We could... but it would be slower and less effective." Lauren replied not able to fight logic, despite her emotional reluctance. "Even if he can't find it, he will be able to give us a clearer idea of where it is and what broad spectrum of creature we're dealing with. Answers mean progress Bo and progress means helping Kenzi."
"I just want you to be clear, the only reason his help is being accepted then is to help Kenzi. Not because he's not still on my hit list." Bo tried to make the way she felt clear, wanting Lauren to know she was choosing the blonde's side in all of this. "And when we're done the recon, I'm sending him back to the compound."
"I know this is complicated for everyone." Lauren confirmed that nothing about any of this was optimal, and then fell silent for a long moment. "In an effort to make you smile." The blonde's voice returned to the phone, this time softer and more 'Lauren'.
"Make me smile?" Bo's anger managed to be easily derailed in the face of the blonde's tenderness.
"Kenzi has stabilized enough to be out on the veranda, getting a little fresh air and shade." Lauren filled in knowing it would make her lover relax a little. "I finally managed to convince her that mid-day television is not helping me focusing on my research."
"That does make me smile." Bo made the soft comment indeed feeling the expression of relief pull at the corners of her mouth. "Just remember, I'm worried about both you and Kenzi."
"Well missy, if you're worried about me then next time you bring me home a very dead, mangled raccoon in a sports bag, do you want to remember to tell me you did, so I can put it in the refrigerator and not have to follow my nose to find it in the hall closet?" She chuckled softly.
On the other end of the phone Bo had to laugh at her own 'stupidity'. When Trick had revealed to her about Kenzi's encounter with the Norn and she'd rushed home, Bo had at first forgot the sports bag in her car. It was only when she'd gone back out to get Mr. Kickers that she'd remembered it and brought it up into the apartment. Of course, again she'd been distracted and the offending item had ended up in the closet.
"Sorry." Bo apologized as she thought of how disgusting Lauren's job was sometimes. "There really isn't much left of him."
"Believe me the fact that it is minus entrails is a very good thing." Lauren commended the succubus on that small point. "It's chilling out as we speak, to minimize the smell a bit before I try to work on it." She confirmed her plan of attack on the decomposing corpse. "Kenzi made a joke about a Davey Crocket hat that isn't worth sharing."
Bo laughed again, thankful that her best friend was feeling well enough to be wise cracking and made her goodbyes to her lover. Finally she turned to find Trick and Dyson huddled at the bar, clearly discussing quietly what to do about 'her'. Confidently, Bo walked back to where they were, thankful that the blonde was so 'mature' about what needed to be done right now to help Kenzi. She still wasn't sure she was capable of the same benchmark.
"You're lucky Lauren is the woman she is." Bo bent down and picked up the trap that had been near her bar stool. "We're going to the clubhouse, I know it's early to set this thing but you can see what you can smell while things are still sorta fresh." She had looked first at Trick and then at Dyson as she spoke.
Neither man questioned her as Dyson just nodded his consent and waited for Bo to lead. Trick smiled a little tightly, almost as if this was the response he had been expecting from Lauren but that the response of his granddaughter had been the unknown factor.
-x-
The veranda of Lauren's apartment wasn't overly large, but it was large enough for an overhanging umbrella and a pair of patio recliner. Kenzi was perched on one, playing on Lauren's tablet in the shade, a plump pillow behind her head as she relaxed.
"Kenzi, you're going to want to stay out here for a little while, I'm going to be looking at our little friend and he smells pretty horrific as we discovered, is there anything I can get you before I go into full doctor mode?" Lauren asked as she stepped out and stood leaning lightly against the trellis work near the recliner that Kenzi was laid out on.
"Nope, I don't think so." Kenzi turned and looked at Lauren shaking her head, taking a moment to look her up and down chuckling as the blonde was now in over sized white scrubs that looked more like a the fae version of a decontamination suit. "Love the outfit, do you think it had rabies?"
"No." Lauren laughed softly. "But I don't have a lab coat here or any of my usual things and I didn't think to include them on the list I sent with Bo to the compound yesterday. In an effort to not smell like my specimen at the end..." She looked down at her strange outfit.
"You may be a doctor but sometimes your brain fails you." Kenzi pointed out with a grin. "I mean you didn't put lab coat on the list?"
"Thank you." Lauren stepped back towards the house to face off with her chilled specimen and its intense smell.
-x-
The atmosphere in the Camaro was tense to say the least. Silence had reigned since Bo and the wolf had entered it and began their journey back to the clubhouse. The brunette hadn't even tried to put the radio on to offer some sort of distraction, right now, even if she didn't realize it, she wanted Dyson to feel uncomfortable. After all, that was just the start of the feelings he'd made them experience.
"I'm sorry, I know how awkward this must feel." Dyson kept his eyes on the road.
"Actually I think that is part of the problem, you don't have a clue how awkward this is." Bo breathed out, she had both hands on the wheel which was unusual for her. "The things you did Dyson, the things you said to me..." She gave a soft shiver. "Awkward is just a start."
"That wasn't me." The wolf shook his head. "The wolf that did and said those things to you was not a wolf that I could ever be." He breathed out slowly, his voice soft and low. "It was a creature of anger made by the Garuda, brought to life by something mystical, no one could have foreseen." He summed up. "I would never hurt you like that Bo." He stated gently.
"But when we boil it all down that's my biggest problem Dyson, you would never hurt me like that because I'm a fae, I'm more important... but would you ever do it to Lauren? Because I know that deep down what that wolf was feeding from was your own feelings and insecurities. You think you're better than Lauren because you're fae and she's human, you don't think she's worthy to be with me regardless of what I want. Not everything you said and did while you were checked out was crazy, some of it was just you without the sense to keep your thoughts to yourself."
"What do you want me to say Bo?" Dyson glanced sideways at her. "Do you want me to lie to you? Or better yet tell you gruesome tales of my wild years when I ate humans and ravaged the lands?" He shook his head at her. "I am nine hundred years old Bo. Can I say to you that humans mean to me what they mean to you? No, no I can't."
"For starters I want you to get off your high horse and stop acting like 900 years makes you some sort of guru of how the world should work now." Bo glanced at him truly not having a lot to come back with against his blunt statement, which to be honest she already knew. "Now is now, it's not then, and no matter what the world was like then, it's not like it now. Now... in my world... humans mean something, in my world you treat them with respect they deserve. It's because of a human you got what you lost back from the Norn and because of a human that you're not peeing on a tree in the great forest." She glanced at him again with a sneer. "Remember when you came back from the Norn and told me how it had to be, no more us, no more feelings, you'd made a choice and we both had to move on. Well I'm giving you the same choice right now, if you want to live in my world then you need to start recognizing that humans aren't just food or an enemy to stay hidden from. They are creatures just like fae that deserve life, happiness and respect. Some of them even deserve to be treated as equals, no they don't have super powers but Kenzi didn't need superpowers to prove she loved you did she?"
"Kenzi is why I am here." Dyson pointed out his voice even.
"You say that but do you even want to admit to yourself what that means? You value a human Dyson? A human? You fought with Hale to get out of lock down, even though you're in pain..." She threw her hand in his direction pointing out what he was obviously trying to hide. "Even though it means having to face all this with me, because you care for Kenzi, because you value her and watching her die because she pissed off the Norn is not something you want to live the next 900 years with. Maybe you've never had that kind of relationship with a human but you have one now, recognize it for what it is, you're not her benevolent overlord, you're her friend."
Dyson looked back out of the windshield, breathing a little heavier.
"I am doing this because she cannot help herself." He outlined trying to clarify his position. "Whether you like it or not that makes me superior. I didn't make it that way, it just is." He locked his jaw slightly. "I am doing this because I care for Kenzi, care what happens to her, and because I am responsible for what has already happened." The muscle in his jaw line twitched slightly.
"I know you care for Kenzi." Bo tried to breathe through some of her emotions. "But you need to admit to yourself that you're not doing this because you feel 'responsible' for her, you're doing it because you couldn't sit in that little box at the compound reading magazines while your friend was in jeopardy. The same thing she felt when she took her inferior self to the Norn and faced off with her, you were in pain and she needed to stop it because she couldn't bare to see you suffer." As she pulled the car in to park next to the clubhouse, she turned it off and turned to look at him fully. "You don't remember this but even at your most crazy, even after she shot you in the leg with a crossbow bolt, do you know what you said about Kenzi?" She let him make the obvious shake of his head that he didn't. "You called her a pup, you said pups don't know the right thing to do sometimes so you didn't blame her for shooting you. Crazy you, insane homicidal you, laughed it off because it was Kenzi."
Dyson said nothing, letting her stare at the side of his face for a long time before she huffed and got out of the car. For not the first time he wished he remembered what he had said and done in order to have a better idea of what to expect from Bo in particular. The idea that even in his elevated aggressive state he hadn't viewed Kenzi as an enemy, despite her attacking him, was something he was going to have to figure out.
-x-
With a hard frown Lauren pulled the angled magnified glass back and then scanned over the area of the raccoon corpse she was focused on. She shook her head as she poked more at the spot with the tweezers she had in her hand. Separating the layers of tissue carefully, she examined the tearing of the muscle and flesh first with the magnifier in place, and then pushing it up with the back of her hand, without it there.
The examination of the long dead animal wasn't going as Lauren as expected at all and had so far brought up more questions than answers. Laying down the fine tweezers on the small tray of equipment by the side of the table Lauren looked up and turned to walk to get her clipboard and a tray of slides when she walked straight into Kenzi.
"Hey Doc." The younger woman said brightly causing Lauren to step back literally and look up, her attention having been miles away on the job at hand. "That looks ooey-gooey messy fun." There was a slightly odd uneven smile on Kenzi's face as erratic blue eyes flicked from looking at the dead raccoon, to Lauren's slightly bloody gloved hands and back again quickly.
"Kenzi, I thought I warned you about coming inside." Lauren lifted the thin mask she was wearing over her nose and mouth down as she frowned harder at the younger woman.
"I know but I got hungry." Kenzi shrugged drawing her tongue over her lips briefly.
"I can't really get you anything right now." Lauren looked briefly at her own messy hands and then off towards the kitchen.
"Can you really eat road kill?" The brunette wandered towards the table with the pinned out raccoon on it, leaning to stare down at it.
"Kenzi that's not road kill, and please..." She grabbed a mask from behind her on the side reaching out to put it close to the younger woman's face. "Don't touch it, and put this on." She encouraged her. "You're sick enough." She tried a soft smile. "I bet you were fun in science class." She shook her head at Kenzi still smiling, though something about the other woman's demeanour was unsettling the blonde just a little.
"Oh come on there looks to be lots left on that." Kenzi gave a shrug as she picked up one of Lauren's instruments and poked at the corpse.
"Kenzi please, put that down." The blonde was happy when the younger woman put the slim flexible mirror back on the tray. "I'll make you a sandwich." She pulled off her gloves and deposited them on the table near the tray of instruments heading off towards the kitchen. "Just... just go back out on the veranda." She urged as she did.
"Cool beans." Kenzi watched her go with an odd smile, reaching out to pick up the bloody gloves as soon as the doctors back was turned and hiding them behind her back headed outside.
-x-
Bo walked behind Dyson down into the basement, giving him a wide berth when they emerged into the main room. He sniffed at the almost stale air around then began to veer off into one direction then another, peering into the dark corners and poking into holes in the walls and foundation. The pair had been silent since entering the clubhouse, which had been a good thing, because if he had been honest Dyson had not been ready for the onslaught to his senses.
The almost overpowering combination of Bo and Lauren's scents that filled the clubhouse had initially made it hard for Dyson to breath evenly or regularly. An initial reaction coming from deep inside him, a place that he knew he wasn't all that familiar with. Thankfully after a few shallower breaths he had focused on the other scents; Kenzi, stale take out, even the smell of the three leather jackets hung up near the door had helped his refocus and regain perspective.
Entering the basement had really helped, considering obviously things had died here recently, quite a few things he realized as he began to categorize the smells assaulting him.
"Just how big a rat problem do you guys have?" Dyson stopped his walk around the basement, turning to Bo as he asked the question.
"We don't have a rat problem, we have a mouse problem, a house mouse problem, and it's not a problem, it's controlled." She replied defensively but Dyson sniffed the air again and shook his head.
"No, these are rats I'm smelling, dead ones." He confirmed, his eyes yellowing out and he took another long breath and began walking towards her purposefully.
Bo wished she could say she didn't freak out immediately, his demeanour reminding her a little too much of recent times, and it made her take a step back, one hand coming up almost like she was ready to fight.
"Sorry." The colour flooded back into his eyes. "Could you?" He motioned for Bo to move to the side.
"We found a headless rat in the kitchen, right after the Garuda, that was the first rat we'd seen. Lauren thought we might have something bigger like a raccoon that attacked it, so I chicken wired all the outside openings. Since then we've had two more dead ones, and we've had two incidents with Kenzi down here in the basement. The first time there was just blood and her in a panic, the second we found the dead raccoon and her unconscious on the island." She tried to actually be helpful as she moved to the side letting him do his sweep, as she realized now that was what he had been doing.
"Unfortunately that could have wired it in." Dyson pointed out logically as he moved over to a stack of old boxes. He took the top one off the pile and opened the lid, automatically wincing and looking away when he did.
"What did you find?" Bo couldn't help coming over and looking inside immediately. Of course, the smell was the first thing that hit her and then the sight of an oozing decomposing mass of at least a dozen partial rat corpses made her step back and try to keep the vomit that rose in the back of her throat down. "Now its keeping leftovers?"
"Well it helps us narrow things down. We're not talking pack any more, nothing small or too animalistic, this thing is killing and storing kills." Dyson closed the box and put it on the floor.
"You mean some almost fae, underfae has been living in my basement eating my rats?" Bo's face showed her displeasure. "I left Kenzi alone in here with it for days, who knows what it has done to screw up her blood." A sense of panic hit her again. "It is either in here or there has to be a way its getting in and out." She began to move other boxes looking for some sort of secret entrance.
"You didn't know." The wolf said softly, moving towards her to put his hand on her arm comfortingly.
Bo didn't step away but she looked at his hand almost in shock for a minute where it was sitting on her arm. She then looked up into his face, frowning when she saw the shadows of the cuts and bruises she'd inflicted on him. But even as she felt bad about that, she felt nothing but cold indifference to his touch. He looked back at her for a moment before he slowly pulled his hand back.
"We need to find it and kill it." Bo re-centred herself, finally stepping away from him without making any comment on his attempt at reassurance. She pushed over another stack of boxes, hoping more rat bodies didn't spill out.
-x-
Lauren had managed to quickly put together a sandwich for Kenzi, and then had returned to her specimen wanting to finish up her examination as soon as possible. She checked back over what she had already written down, remembering again what had struck her as odd as she re-read the point notation on her clipboard. Putting on a new pair of gloves, Lauren pulled the magnifying glass back into place and checked over the main zone of 'initial' contact, as she had determined it.
Picking up her tweezers again, Lauren began separating tissue layers, slowly noting the high level of necrosis in the flesh. It was as she was pulling back one of the inner layers that the blonde paused, poking the tweezers into the torn flesh she latched onto what had caught her eye, though as she pulled it back her whole world rather ground to a stop.
Caught in between the fine end of the tweezers tip was a broken off sparkly black polished fingernail. Lauren moved her discovery under the large magnifier and held it there, turning it over and over, noting the tear mark along the bottom where it had obviously come off from the nail bed.
With an impossibly loud slam the sliding door to the patio door closed making Lauren jump, her grip on the tweezers slipped sending them clattering onto the tray.
"Find something in-ter-esting." Kenzi's voice had an eerie deep quality as she stood in front of now closed door.
"Nothing conclusive." Lauren looked over to her, moving round to the front of the table. "Finish your sandwich?" She asked trying not to let her growing fear overwhelm her.
"Yes." Kenzi watched the move the doctor made. "But..." She took a step towards her and then another, almost looking as if she was concentrating hard on the disjointed movements. "I'm still hungry."
"I have fruit." Lauren replied pulling off her gloves and mask again slowly. "Why don't you go back outside, lie down I'll get you some." She offered her voice soft.
"I think I've had enough of the outside." Kenzi shook her head, licking her lips as she stepped over the arm of the chair and stood on the cushion for a long moment before she actually literally seemed to drop down to sit on her bent up legs. "And it smells better in here." She licked her lips again, her skin seeming to go paler and paler right before Lauren's eyes.
"Kenzi, you know that you're not well." The blonde kept her voice even and soft. "And you know how worried we all are about that, I really think you've been pushing yourself too much today. You really should lie down."
"I do seem to tire easily." She admitted actually seeming to agree with Lauren for a moment before letting her head lull backwards at an almost impossible angle before it suddenly snapped back to upright, the noticeable difference being the younger woman's usually blue eyes were just dead white orbs. "But you see... I'm soooo hungry."
-x-