A/N: Sorry for the long wait :)


Chapter 45 - Happy Birthday

2:00am - The Dal

Sitting at the bar, Tamsin tapped her middle finger against the counter while reading the case files.

She was so lost in her train of thoughts, that the crowd, the music and all the laughters had been reduced to a buzzing white noise in the background of her mind. Her drink was right beside her hand, but she seemed to let all the ice melt completely without taking a sip.

All of a sudden, something rang right beside her, loud and crisp. She jolted a little, reaching for her gun in reflex, only to realize that it was just Trick ringing the bell.

"Last call!" The elder Fae called out loudly, causing Tamsin to frown.

She quickly looked around, a little shocked that the bar was almost empty now. She took out her phone. It read 2am and that surprised her.

She also noticed two unread texts and one missed phone call from Bo, and she cursed while wondering how she could have left her phone muted the whole time.

She quickly texted Bo back, before she tucked some cash under her drink glass. Then she grabbed her jacket and headed to the door.

"Hey, Tamsin," the bartender stopped her from leaving. He pointed at the file folder she had left on the counter.

Tamsin sighed and went to pick it up. "Thanks," she waved the folder at Trick.

"You seem...distracted," Trick said with a concerned look on his face. "Is everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah, everything's fine," Tamsin murmured.

"How's the investigation with Bo's brother going?"

"Slow," Tamsin mumbled.

"How's the wedding planning going?" Trick pursued.

"Well, I really need to go," Tamsin quickly replied. She rushed out before the elder Fae could grill her more on that topic.

2:30am - Home

Tamsin crept into the apartment and closed the door behind her quietly. She locked it, before she placed her keys in the big bowl on the side table beside the door.

She pulled off her boots, and took off her jacket. She thought she'd go get herself a glass of water and then go to bed, but before she had reached the kitchen, the dining room light got turned on.

Bo was standing in the dining room looking at her. "Working late again?" She asked Tamsin, her voice soft.

Tamsin licked her bottom lip. "I was at the Dal reading case files and...I guess I muted my phone and forgot the time," she admitted.

"Oh, so that's why you didn't return my call or my texts," Bo accused.

"I was...hey, I mean, I figured if there was any emergency, you'd find me by calling the Dal, or Dyson," Tamsin argued, a hint of guilt in her voice.

Bo sighed and walked to the blonde. She took Tamsin's hand in hers and said, "Tamsin, this is the third time this week that you were working late and have forgotten the time."

"I know. There's just so much to read," Tamsin argued. "There's your brother's diary-"

"-which was written in some sort of encrypted code, and we've agreed to let the experts handle it right now."

"And there's the Bible John case where your uncle-"

"-was probably the killer, and we are still waiting on Dyson to set up a meeting so we can talk to the detective who has worked on that case."

"Yeah, but the case files are just right there and I thought it would be better if I-"

"Tamsin," Bo cut her off by pinching her nose. "You promised me that you'd be home early today, remember?"

Tamsin choked. It took her a few seconds to remember that she did promise Bo that, right before she left for work this morning. Though, she had completely forgotten that, and now she started to wonder why Bo would want her to be home early. "I...umm..." she stuttered.

"And I'm guessing that you don't remember what day today is either, huh?" Bo asked, playfully jabbing Tamsin's chest with her index finger.

Oh shit. Tamsin felt that her back was soaked in cold sweat now. She quickly went through Bo's birthday, their anniversary, and all other important dates for lovers in her mind, but she came up with nothing. "Of course I do. It's…ummm...Thursday...?"

There came a soft smack on her shoulder. The brunette tried to maintain her fake angry look, but eventually started to chuckle.

"Sit down," Bo commanded as she pointed at one dining chair. Tamsin sat down hesitantly as she watched the other woman closely.

Bo went to get a cake box out from the fridge. Then, she opened it in front of Tamsin, revealing a round cake with light blue and white frosting. In the middle of it, there was a female knight figurette, with a sword, a shield and a pair of wings.

Under the figurette, it wrote "Happy Birthday", and that confused Tamsin. "It's not your birthday, is it?" She asked Bo.

"No, Tamsin," Bo rolled her eyes. "It's your birthday."

"I don't have a birthday-oh...wait..." Tamsin murmured as something suddenly occurred to her.

It was a conversation she and Bo had had the day the had come back from Lab 539, a conversation about Tamsin's past. She had told Bo everything that had happened to her before she had been taken to Asgard. How she had been born to a peasant's family. How it had been impossible for her parents to raise her along with seven other children. How the plagues had nearly killed everyone in the village. How her parents had finally decided to sell her to a slave trader. How the sandstorm had buried them alive and killed most of the kids and the trader himself during the trip to the east. How Acacia had saved her and taken her to the Valkyrie squad.

After she had finished, Bo asked her about her birthday. Tamsin told her that she had never known her birthday since her birth parents had never bothered with it.

Because of that, Bo had proposed the idea that they should pick a date as Tamsin's birthday, then they had picked a random date from the calendar.

Tamsin swallowed hard guiltily. "Hey, it's not my fault to have forgotten this shit...It's a damn random date," she argued weakly.

"Really? I thought someone told me that she would never forget it, because she was just too awesome to forget anything. I guess she's not that awesome after all," Bo teased as she sat down on the Valkyrie's lap.

Tamsin snorted, letting Bo pinch her cheek. She sighed and took the brunette into her arms. Burying her face into Bo's shoulder, she inhaled her. "I'm sorry, Bo, I was just...I guess I was just too carried away."

Bo smiled and laid a gentle kiss on the Valkyrie's cheek. "It's alright," she whispered as she twirled a lock of Tamsin's hair between her fingers. The Valkyrie nuzzled the side of her neck softly and purred.

Putting her arms around Bo's waist to pull her in, Tamsin pulled back a little and grinned. "So, my birthday. What do you have for me, hmmm?"

"Well…" Bo winked at her, and got off her lap. She took a few steps back and slowly untied her robe. Then, she let the blonde have a peek of her matching set of sapphire blue lingerie.

Tamsin whistled loudly and beckoned to her. She smeared some cake frosting on Bo's toned belly, before she carried her into their bedroom bridal style.

3:35am - Bedroom

Tamsin moaned and buried herself into Bo's arms, her body still tingling from the orgasms she had just had. The brunette held her tighter and laid a light kiss on her hair.

"Tamsin," Bo called in a whisper.

"Hmmm?" The Valkyrie lazily replied, drawing small circles on her breasts with the tip of her index finger.

"You know..." Bo murmured as she combed her fingers through the other woman's hair in the most affectionate way. "I really want to catch him too. I want to see him locked up for good just as badly as you do. It's just...we can't let him ruin our lives, Tamsin."

"Exactly, that's why I'm trying to figure out a way to get him. I'm gonna catch him asap, so we don't have to wait till like ten years later to get married."

Bo chuckled. "No, I don't want to wait for ten years. We don't want to wait that long, and we don't want to wait after we catch him or anything. We gotta do things that we want to do, with or without him in jail, unless," she paused for a bit and drawled, "it was your way of saying you were too afraid of settling, so instead of doing wedding planning, you buried yourself in the old case files and-"

Tamsin shook her head and giggled. She ran her thumb along the other woman's jaw line, and gazed into those beautiful, beautiful brown eyes. "You know, I had never thought one day I would say this to anyone in any of my life times, but...I just can't wait to marry you, Bo. I can't wait to hear that I do from you."

Bo bit her lips, but couldn't stop that big smile from blooming. "Then I'd say we start planning it today."

"Today? It's almost 4am, Bo," Tamsin growled. "Don't tell me that I need to look through a million combinations of colors and pick a theme right now."

Bo laughed. "No," she told the Valkyrie. "but we can pick a date first. It doesn't have to be the exact date either."

"Okay," Tamsin said as she lay on her side and propped herself on her left elbow. "Well, first of all, do we want to do it here or somewhere else? Cuz I mean, if we are gonna do it at the Dal, I suppose we can just tell Trick like two days prior to the ceremony, but if we are gonna do it at some beautiful, popular place, we'll have to go with whatever date they are available."

"True," Bo nodded. "Where do you want to do it?"

Tamsin shrugged. "Don't really care. You?"

Bo frowned and pondered that question, before she said, "I think it would be best that if we could find a place here, since all our friends are here. Some place with a garden or something."

"Then why don't you make a list of the places with a garden tomorrow, and call them? See when they are available and then we'll go from there."

Bo nodded with a smile. She took Tamsin into her arms and gave her another kiss. The Valkyrie hummed something softly, before she slipped into her dreams.

7:00am - Dining Room

Tamsin devoured her breakfast, before she went to gather the case files she had brought home with her last night.

Bo helped her find the last folder, and asked, "so...any progress on my brother's stuff?"

"Not really," Tamsin shook her head. "I'm looking into all those unsolved murder cases. Maybe there are clues in some of them."

"Unsolved murder cases? You think some of them might be related to my brother?"

"Well, he did commit several copy cat serial murders. Maybe he had done more, but they just haven't come to our attention yet."

"Let me help you on that," Bo offered. "I don't have anything to work on this week anyway. What do you say? We sneak into the file room, read some case files together and-" she winked at Tamsin teasingly.

"You do know that there are cameras there, right?"

"Oh like that ever stopped either one of us," Bo drawled as she pulled the blonde in for a slow, deep kiss.

7:10pm - Precinct Archive Room

"And here's all the unsolved murder cases we have," Tamsin said as she threw her hand at a shelf full of old case files. Then, she pointed at an old computer in the corner of the room, "you can find more cases there, from other precincts."

"How many are there?"

"I don't know, a shit ton?" Tamsin shrugged.

"Have you identified any cases that might be related to my brother?" Bo asked as she picked up a thick folder from a box that was right next to her. She swallowed hard at the crime scene photos where a woman was brutally murdered and dismembered, she sighed and shook her head.

"Not really," Tamsin said. "There might be some, but I can't say for sure. So far, I haven't seen anything that really stands out."

"Well, as we've known so far, he has done several copy cat cases. Have you seen any of those in here?"

"No," Tamsin replied, shaking her head, "but I mean...there are just so many unsolved murders. We wouldn't know if it's a copycat case unless we find two similar cases."

"Right," Bo nodded. "Jack the Ripper and the Black Dahlia case were so damn famous. That was why we identified them instantly."

"Mhm. Anyway, let's just...keep looking for this needle in this haystack," Tamsin said as she handed Bo a stack of files.

12:45am - Precinct Archive Room

"Ahhh, yes, right there, Bo. That's it. Right there, harder, harder-" Tamsin moaned.

"Stop that, Tamsin," Bo chuckled as she pressed her thumb hard against the sore spots on the back of the Valkyrie's neck. She rubbed them along the length of her neck while sprinkling her charms into the blonde's muscles. "If you are trying to turn me on, you'll have to do better than that."

Tamsin laughed and gave her a quick kiss. Then she grabbed another folder and took a glanced at the first page. When she realized that it was an arson case, she put it to the side, but Bo stopped her.

"Hey, fire," the brunette murmured and quickly came to sit side by side with Tamsin.

"Hmmm?" Tamsin hummed, still a little distracted by Bo's charms that were dancing on her skin.

"My brother was taken away by my uncle from Lab 539. In order to cover their tracks, he had set a fire there," Bo said.

"Yeah," Tamsin nodded.

"According to that lady who used to work in Lab 539, Teresa, my brother made some progress there. I mean, when I was in Lisa's mind, I could feel that he was...it was like he knew something bad was gonna happen, and he was trying to leave me a message, like...he somehow still wanted to stop it or to fix it or something, but...that quickly changed, why?"

"Well, your uncle, Bible John, took him away and raised him. He probably pushed your brother into doing the awful things, you know…."

"Yeah," Bo murmured. "My uncle is a serial killer, I mean, was. And according to my father, he went missing after a mysterious fire that had taken a bunch of lives."

"Yeah, just like your brother's case. Someone must have set the fire, and taken him away."

"Exactly," Bo said. "Two arsons, two missing children who grew up to become serial killers. It's like history is repeating itself..."

"What is it, Bo?" Tamsin asked.

"It's just a thought. I mean, what if those weren't the only two arson cases with a missing child? What if...there are more than two of them?"

3:00am - Precinct Archive Room

The computer had finally returned some search results that met the criteria Tamsin had entered. She went through them briefly, before she said, "I've got one case here. It's from the mid 1800s," she said as she clicked on the files. "Gods the quality of these pictures are awful...anyway, orphanage got burnt down, a bunch of kids died, one kid was missing, cause of the fire unknown, no suspect...maybe it's worth looking at."

"I got one case from 1902," Bo said as she raised the case file folder in her hand. "A school was burnt down. Twenty two kids died in the fire, but only twenty one bodies were recovered, which means...one of them probably went missing...someone must have set the fire...no suspect...people believe that the school is cursed blah blah blah…."

"Interesting," Tamsin said. "Mid 1800s, 1902, and your uncle went missing like when? In the 50s maybe? Your brother went missing in the mid 90s...they are roughly 50 years apart..."

"You think they might be related?"

"Well...they do look very similar. We won't know for sure, though, unless we dig deeper and find some solid evidence that would link them together."

"Let's take a look at my uncle first," Bo suggested. "He was once abducted, and then years later, he became a serial killer, set Lab 539 on fire, and abducted a child, my brother. Why?"

"He must have wanted him for a reason," Tamsin concluded. "Your brother is born a killer. He was only ten years old when your uncle took him away. He could be made into whoever your uncle wanted him to be, and in case, a serial killer."

"Yeah, he didn't even have to push hard. All he needed to do, was to show him the true darkness and then let him walk into it himself," Bo added.

"Even if your brother tried to resist it, or to fight back, your uncle probably knew exactly how to deal with him, because he was once that child himself. He was the child who had been taken away from his family and then grown to become a serial killer himself. Maybe...someone had done exactly the same thing to him as he did to your brother."

"It's not just about the fire, or the murders. It's about making serial killers," Bo murmured, taking a deep breath as she realized how terrible this idea had sounded.

"They took those kids as their protégés," Tamsin said. "They are the protégés of serial killers who were once protégés themselves."

She paused for a bit as she stared at the files shown on the screen. "You know what we need to do in order to prove our theory, right?"

"Yeah, we need to prove that whoever took my uncle away was the child who had gone missing in one of the arson cases," Bo murmured. "Then, we need to find my brother before he finds his protégé."