Chapter Seventeen – Mile High
Lauren Lewis stared out of her window at the Atlantic Ocean thirty-five thousand feet below. Not a cloud in the sky to obstruct the view of blue saltwater that stretched as far as the eye could see. Lauren contemplated her odds of survival if both engines exploded at once at sent the plane careening into the watery depths.
Obviously, the odds were shitty.
Lauren watched as the sky dimmed from blue to purple to red to orange at the horizon, and the sun disappeared below the curvature of the earth. She leaned back in her Iberian Airlines first class recliner, placing her laptop on the empty seat next to her. She sighed, contentedly. It had been six years since she could call herself an international traveler. She'd missed it.
The attractive flight attendant with the gorgeous brown eyes grinned at her and offered her a glass of champagne and a hot towel, which Lauren gratefully accepted. She turned to watch as the flight attendant made her way down the rows toward Dyson and Ciara. The tight, red uniform skirt accentuated the perfect curves of her gluteus maximus and tensor fasciae laetae.
"Ariba ariba." Lauren grinned and took a sip of champagne.
"Hey!" Hale hissed from across the aisle. "Don't even think about it, she's mine."
"We're three hours into the flight. The statute of limitations is up on 'dibs'. She's fair game," Lauren hissed back.
"C'mon Doc! You've already got a supernaturally sexy Succubus waiting for you in coach class with her legs wide open, why you gotta be greedy?"
"First, we don't even know if she made the flight. Second…yeah, I don't have a second. Supernatural Succu-Sex is pretty great." She leaned in closer. "But just so you know, I haven't talked to Bo in five days. And that's entirely your sister's fault."
"I can't help it." Hale shrugged. "It's the only way I could get her to let us bounce for the weekend - 120 hours of non-stop work to make up for it. Val's a slave driver."
Lauren flinched at the mention of the word 'slave'. It was a reflex. She couldn't help it.
"Sorry Doc, sometimes I forget."
"Don't worry about it." She waved him off. "I mean, who wouldn't want to own a piece of this?" She snapped her fingers and jiggled in her seat. "I got the moves, baby. Geek swag."
Hale laughed. "Geek swag squared, for sure."
"Geek swag times Skewes' Number."
"The what now?"
"The Skewes Number is 10^10^10 to the 34th power. It's like this – think about a game of chess played with all the particles in the universe as pieces, where one move is the interchange of a single pair of particles, and the game ends when the same position recurs for the third time. The number of possible games in that eventuality would be about the Skewes Number."
Hale stared at her, blankly.
"It's a really freaking big ass number," Lauren simplified.
"Yeah…a'ight." He nodded, slowly. "I get it, you're smart and I'm dumb. You got swag, but I'm smooth as silk. You're bangin' a Succubus, but players gotta play. The flight attendant is mine."
Lauren looked back down the aisle and laughed. "Actually, I don't think she's either of ours."
Hale turned in time to see Dyson kiss the back of the flight attendant's hand. She blushed as red as her Iberia Airlines uniform. "Damn it!" He smacked his hand off of the arm rest.
"You should have flashed her your abs. That would have gotten her attention."
Bo looked at the approaching flight attendant with a feeling of abject terror. She'd already been chewed out for being late to the gate, and for standing up when the seatbelt sign was on. Now it was time for the dinner service, and Bo seriously thought she'd rather go hungry than face this woman's withering glare. Bo shifted, trying to get comfortable in her rock hard coach seat, while Kenzi snored lightly next to her.
They'd gotten to the airport with plenty of time to spare. But this was the first time that Bo had ever been on a plane, and there were plenty of rules she didn't know about.
For example, unless in a clear plastic bag weighing less than three ounces, toothpaste and mouthwash are not acceptable carry-on items.
Also, airlines generally frown upon brass knuckles and throwing stars on a plane.
And it's a bad idea to strap a dagger to your thigh when you have to go through a metal detector.
After an hour of police interrogations and one extended session of chi-sucking and thralling she arrived, weaponless and very late, at the gate, only to be verbally attacked by the flight attendant from the ninth circle of hell. Demon spawn, wearing a red skirt.
Deb, by her nametag.
"Chicken or fish?" Deb loomed in front of Bo – Bo's words caught in her throat, such was her fear of this woman. "CHICKENORFISH!?" Deb screamed.
"…ch-ch-chicken…" Bo shrunk back, as Deb slammed an aluminum foil tin down on Bo's seat back tray. Deb rolled the cart forward down the aisle, and Bo exhaled. She lifted the corner of the foil and sneered – dinner did not even remotely resemble chicken. Or fish. Or actual, edible food of any kind. It looked like a sponge dipped in grey rubber cement.
Bo looked over angrily at the slumbering Kenzi. Bo had wanted to fly first class with Lauren and the others. But Kenzi wasn't having any of it. 'Too expensive', apparently. Bo stared longingly at the curtain separating coach and first, and daydreamed about the luxury, beauty, and comfort on the other side.
Three Hours Later
"When I move you move…"
Lauren looked over at Hale and shook her head. His earphones were in, and he was singing in his sleep. The cabin lights were off, and as far as Lauren could tell everyone else in first class was asleep too. But there was no way she was getting any shut eye. She was too excited.
She hadn't travelled internationally since the Congo. But she hadn't been to Europe since the summer between undergrad and med school. She grinned. Thinking back to Europe made her think about her ex, Nadia.
They'd met totally by chance in a 'coffee shop' in Amsterdam. Lauren was travelling alone, writing in her journal, when she looked up to see Nadia staring at her from across the smoke-filled room. Lauren took a puff from her joint and tried to look mysterious and cool. Nadia grinned back, took a long pull, shaped her mouth into an "O", and blew out three smoke rings, one after the other.
From that moment, Lauren was putty in Nadia's hands.
They spent the rest of the evening together, hoping from coffee shop to coffee shop. They ended up at a Rastafarian bakery, tried some hash brownies, hallucinated about dancing squirrels and leaped, stark naked, into the Voorburgwal Canal.
After they were fished out by the Amsterdam Police, and after they spent the night in the Nieuwendijk Politie Station, Nadia adjusted her plans so the two of them could travel together for the next seven weeks.
Beer gardens in Berlin, lesbian bars in London, raves in Rome, clubs in Copenhagen. Lauren always managed to stay sober enough to enjoy the museums and churches and markets, although the same could not be said for Nadia. Lauren was surprised that her kidneys and liver were still functioning after they got back to Canada.
She and Nadia tried to keep things going once they got back home, but somewhere between arguments about politics, religion, music, and laundry it became clear that they weren't compatible in the real world.
Lauren couldn't help but wonder where Nadia was now, and what she was doing. Probably lying in a hospital somewhere, in an alcohol or drug induced coma.
The pretty flight attendant came by and handed Lauren a blanket and pillow. Lauren shook her head to clear out the memories. No point in living in the past. She pulled her computer onto her lap and powered it up. She scrolled through her notes on the Spanish Inquisition. The first class cabin was dark but for the glow of the screen, quiet but for the clack of her fingers on the keyboard and Hale's occasional garbled sleep-rapping.
Bo shifted in her chair. She still couldn't get comfortable. For once in her life she wished she had a fat ass, so she could have some padding. She considered waking Kenzi up, just to have someone to talk to, but thought better of it. Early morning Kenzi could give flight attendant Deb a run for her money. Bo wondered if Lauren was awake up there in first class. She hadn't seen the Doctor for five days. Bo was surprised by how much the separation had gnawed at her.
Bo flinched as Deb stalked the aisles like a hall monitor. Risking life and limb, Bo reached over her head and hit the "attendant call" button. Deb's head snapped in Bo's direction, and she stomped through a row of sleeping passengers – the shortest distance between two points, customers and their feet be damned.
"What can I get you?" Deb asked between clenched teeth, in a voice that sounded more like, "How would you like to die this evening?"
Bo motioned for her to come closer. Deb reluctantly leaned in, and Bo lightly rubbed her arm. "Can you tell me if there are any empty seats in first class?"
Deb's eyelids fluttered, as Bo's glowy red hypnotic energy worked its magic. Deb's mouth curled upward into a grin. "Yeah. A lot of them."
Bo stroked Deb's arm, mentally kicking herself for not thinking of this sooner. "I think I deserve an upgrade, don't you?"
Deb sighed happily, and nodded. "Follow me."
Other passengers looked on with envy as Bo followed Deb to the front of the plane, and Deb opened the curtain to a veritable paradise. "Thank you." Bo ran a hand along Deb's cheek, then closed the curtain behind her.
Bo could see Lauren's blonde hair poking out from the seatback. She was still working, naturally, and the only person still awake. Bo smiled – she couldn't help it. Screw it, there was no point in lying to herself. She'd missed the Doc. Bo crept quietly toward Lauren's seat, intending to surprise her. She reached out to run her fingers through Lauren's hair.
In an instant Lauren reached back and snatched Bo's wrist, twisting it into a painful angle as she stood and spun to face her 'attacker'.
"Alright, who are you and what do you…Bo! It's you!"
"Ow, ow, ow," Bo whimpered.
"Oh, sorry!" Lauren let go of her wrist. "I thought I was being attacked from behind – why would you sneak up on me like that?"
"Ow, ow, OW."
"Here, sit down!" Lauren plunked Bo down in the empty seat by the window, and turned on the overhead light to get a closer look at the damage.
"Nice to see you too, Doc." Bo grunted in pain as Lauren inspected the wrist for broken bones. "Ow!"
"It's just a sprain. You can heal this right up, can't you?" Lauren rubbed the sore spot with her thumb.
Bo winced. "Without a snack, it'll be a day or two."
Lauren brushed her hair behind her ear, and lifted Bo's hand up to her face. She placed a soft, feather-light kiss on Bo's wrist.
Bo cocked her head sideways and smiled. "What was that about?"
"I kissed it and made it better. Did it work?"
Bo flexed her wrist. "Yeah…maybe a little, actually."
"There's science behind that particular technique. I deflected your pain by presenting you with a pleasurable stimulus, and you modified your response in the parietal lobe of your brain to create a different, more desired output."
"Is that how you treat all your patients?" Bo grinned.
"No. Just the ones I find irresistibly attractive. And the ones who look 'easy'. It just so happens you fall into both categories," Lauren teased.
"Oh yeah?" Bo leaned over the armrest and kissed Lauren on the lips. Gently, at first. But as Bo increased the pressure, Lauren shuddered as she felt the most intense sensation – nothing she'd ever experienced could possibly compare, not even the feeling of an orgasm – and she was devastated when Bo pulled away. "What. Was. That?" Lauren stuttered.
"I kissed you and made me better." Bo leaned back in her chair, pleased with herself. "You just got chi-sucked, biotch. Now I'm healed." She rotated her wrist, pain free. "That's what you get for calling me easy. How does it feel to be used, Doc?"
Lauren grinned. "Actually, it feels pretty damn good. I should make a mental note to be used more often. Bend me, shape me, any way you want me."
"Any way I want?" Bo raised an eyebrow.
"Within reason, of course." Lauren packed up her laptop and slid it under the chair, pretty certain she wasn't going to need it for the rest of the night. She pulled the blanket over her waist and closed her eyes. "So, what have you been up to? What does a Succubus do on her days off?"
"Two chicks at the same time."
Lauren's eyes snapped open. "What? Seriously?"
"Oh come on, it was a joke. You've never seen 'Office Space'? Pieces of flair? O-face? Milton and the red Swingline stapler?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Lauren yawned.
Bo did a facepalm. "I don't think this is going to work. We don't have anything in common with each other."
"Not true. I can think of one thing…" Lauren reached her hand out from underneath the blanket, and stroked the inside of Bo's thigh.
Bo stood up. "I need to go to the bathroom," she declared.
"So go."
"No, you don't understand. I need to go to the bathroom." Even in the dark, Lauren could see Bo tilt her head toward the small stall at the front of the First Class cabin.
Realization dawned on Lauren. She made a face. "Do you have any idea how many germs can be found in a bathroom, not to mention a bathroom in such a confined space with such poor air circulation? Not a chance in hell Succubus, you're on your own. Let me know how everything works out." Lauren lay back and pulled the blanket up to her chin.
Bo sat back down and pouted. "You're boring."
"Not boring. Just concerned about unsanitary conditions. I am a doctor after all. Here." She raised the armrest to remove the barrier between them, and lifted the blanket, inviting Bo in. Bo grinned, appeased, and snuggled up next to Lauren. She laid her head on the Doctor's chest. Lauren wrapped the blanket around the two of them then reached up and turned off the overhead light, throwing the cabin into darkness.
"Sorry I called you boring," Bo said.
Lauren wrapped her arms around the Succubus underneath the thin airline blanket. She kissed her behind the earlobe. "You should be. I'm anything but boring."
"Oh yeah?" Bo's breath hitched in her chest, as Lauren's hands slid down her waist, unbuttoned her jeans, and pulled down her zipper.
"Yeah." She flicked Bo's earlobe with her tongue, and slid her hands further south. Bo's back arched against Lauren's chest, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out.
"Oh my god," Bo whispered.
"Can you keep quiet?" Lauren asked.
"Yes," Bo answered.
"Are you sure?"
"YES."
"Then hold that blanket in place and lay back," she whispered in Bo's ear. "You're about to find out how...stimulating a plane ride with me can be."