The first time Tamsin saved her she was somewhat disappointed. Relieved, but still… disappointed. In all honesty, if given the choice, she would have preferred it to be Bo coming to the rescue, like so many times before. It was silly and stupid, but the hell if she cared. She really hoped it would be Bo.

She had been taken captive by a group of Fae, an almost extinct clan of skin walkers originating from Bolivia, who wanted to force her to use her medical skills to turn all members of a rival faction human. To ensure their species' survival, they said. Thing was, she would have helped them if they had just asked nicely. But nooo, they had to kidnap her, blindfold her and tie her up like a sack of potatoes. Now she wouldn't have helped them even if they begged on their knees.

She cursed herself for allowing the abductors to catch her unawares and drag her to wherever they were right now – probably in an abandoned building judging by the smell of asbestos and how sound propagated. She was still blindfolded, hands tied around her back, listening to her kidnappers arguing about the best method to use to make her cooperate. One of the voices even suggested the removal of an unimportant appendix, such as a leg, perhaps. "It's not like she's gonna need it to prepare the serum," he explained, and she could hear the others murmuring in approval.

But the murmur all of a sudden turned into shouts, followed by the muffled noise of punches landing heavily, heavy gunfire and what was unmistakably the precise sound of blades whooshing, steel clashing and glass breaking. And then there was silence.

And more silence.

"Hello?" she asked tentatively after a while. It was getting ridiculous, really. "Bo?" she added, sounding more hopeful. The silence continued, unbroken, for what felt like a century. Eventually, she heard footsteps coming closer and gasped as her wrists came in contact with a cold blade that moved swiftly upwards to cut the tight rope and set her free. She removed her blindfold immediately and turned away eagerly, ready to throw herself into her savior's arms, into Bo's arms, but…

"Oh. You."

The scoff came first, doubled by an eye roll that would have made a bowling ball blush in shame. "Who the fuck did you expect? Fucking Santa?"

"No, it's just that I didn't…"

"Well hurry the fuck up, will you? We gotta get out of here, and I ain't got all day," Tamsin replied haughtily and turned on her heels, starting to march toward the exit with the determination of Darth Vader followed by an entire legion of Stormtroopers.

Lauren bit back a jab about how it was actually late at night so technically speaking Tamsin's comment about not having the whole day made no sense. She had the rather distinct impression the other woman wouldn't really appreciate it. So she just broke into a run to catch up, keeping her eyes on the back of the Valkyrie. There were two large oblique slits on the back of her jacket, their edges still smeared in blood. Lauren knew very well what had caused those. She caught a glimpse of the skin underneath, and it was clean and smooth as if it hadn't sprouted a pair of wings just a few minutes ago. There was more blood on the Fae's clothes, and Lauren wasn't sure how much of that belonged to her captors or to the Valkyrie.

"Wait," she called when she finally caught up, and placed a hand on Tamsin's shoulder.

"What?" the Valkyrie snapped.

"Umm, thank you. I didn't mean to come off rude or anything… I'm very grateful, just so you know." She cleared her throat and gave an awkward smile. Tamsin's face had a pretty bad gash on the left cheek, and a brand new shiner around her right eye.

"Ya, don't mention it. Just, you know, get a fucking move on, we don't wanna be here when those guys' friends realize something is off and come looking, okay?"

Lauren just nodded and followed Tamsin outside. She started feeling a lot better as soon as she walked into the chilly night air. She stopped, waiting for Tamsin to lead the way to their getaway vehicle. But the Valkyrie didn't seem to be in a hurry anymore, she was just standing there in front of the derelict building – 10 points to Dr. Lewis for correctly identifying the nature of her place of imprisonment – and was looking at Lauren, eyebrow cocked and arms crossed over her chest.

"Okay, where's the car? What are we waiting for?" Lauren asked eventually.

"See, doc, I was in a hurry, it was all sort of spur of the moment, so I didn't really have time to plan."

Lauren looked flabbergasted.

"So no car," Tamsin added annoyed.

"So what are we supposed to do then, call a cab?"

Tamsin just gave her a short laugh, which sounded clear and loud, tearing through the late night silence surrounding them.

"Nah. Just hold on tight," she said, grabbing Lauren by the wrist and pulling her closer, as her facial features darkened and sunk and her wide wings shot out of her back. Lauren instinctively wrapped herself around the Valkyrie's body as they took off without a warning.

The city at night looked beautiful from above.

The second time Tamsin saved her she still felt somewhat disappointed. She had been trying to mend her relationship with Bo for the last few weeks and she really was sure she was making some headway. So when she was taken hostage in her own lab by a Harpy, and forced to work on an impossible concoction that would have given whoever drank it the possibility of absorbing other Fae powers at will – Lauren dreaded to think what would happen if a Harpy ever got her hands on something like that -, she had been pretty sure that the person to save her would be Bo.

But no. It was the Valkyrie again. She walked into the lab without a care in the world, hands in her pockets, and a shit-eating grin on her face. Lauren had no idea what Tamsin could possibly be doing there that late at night. The Valkyrie stopped as soon as she noticed the Harpy, her grin turning into a fierce, terrifying expression.

"My my, what do we have here?" she said, and her voice was so cold that the room temperature dropped by 20 degrees all of a sudden. Or at least that's what it felt like to Lauren.

"Hi, umm, Tamsin, so good to see you," she finally managed to say, aware that her voice had come out sounding more like a shriek. She was terrified.

Tamsin just smirked and rolled her eyes. "Ya, doc, sure, like you're ever happy to see me," she said and lunged herself at the Harpy. Her opponent however somehow succeeded to move faster and grab Lauren, and was now holding a very sharp knife to the doctor's neck, threatening to cut her throat open if Tamsin wouldn't just "get the fuck down on her knees."

The Valkyrie had a wide, mad grin on her face, and for a second Lauren wondered which of the two Fae women she should fear more – the enraged Harpy or the Valkyrie who seemed to be having the time of her life. Was she actually enjoying this?

"Get away from her, you bitch," Tamsin finally roared, her usual cocky grin lighting up her face. "Ha, I've always wanted to say that," she added in Lauren's direction immediately afterwards, winking conspiratorially.

"Seriously, Tamsin?"

"What? Can't a girl have some fun for once?" she asked innocently. Lauren sighed. "Now'd be a good time for you to close your eyes, doc," the Valkyrie added and Lauren didn't wait to be asked twice, knowing very well what would come next. It felt as if they had been transported into vacuum: there was no air, no sound, nothing at all except her own heart pounding in her ears, and the Harpy's faint heartbeats against her back.

"YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS." The voice was deep and mesmerizing. If someone had asked her to describe it she would only have been able to use a series of contradictory adjectives, as impossible as that seemed. Solid and fluid, sharp and blunt at the same time. Like two parallel universes moving in opposite directions and overlapping. Of course, the comparison came to mind later on that night, when she was already back in the safety of her own apartment. Because the only thing she could think of as Tamsin's Valkyrie spoke was to keep her eyes shut tight whatever it took. She could already feel the Harpy's determination wavering.

"LET THE DOCTOR GO." Thankfully, the Harpy didn't wait to be told twice to remove the knife from Lauren's throat and take a step back. Lauren was still not looking, although it was getting more and more difficult to resist the pull of that voice.

"NOW LEAVE. AND NEVER COME ANYWHERE NEAR DOCTOR LEWIS AGAIN."

Lauren heard the Harpy's footsteps moving away, followed soon after by the sound of the main door opening and closing.

"You can open your eyes now," Tamsin said a few second later in her usual, cocky voice. She waited patiently until the doctor opened her eyes, giving her time to readjust to the bright neon light. "Gotta say, doc, I'm quite impressed. You resisted a lot longer than I expected." She still had the same amused look on her face as if everything was a game to her. Lauren felt like punching her.

"Where's Bo," she asked, no longer able to contain her disappointment. She knew that objectively speaking, that was a very shitty thing to say, given that Tamsin had just saved her life. Again. But she really didn't ask to be saved by the Valkyrie.

Tamsin didn't reply, she just tilted her head to the right and gave her a strange look. There was an unusual glint in her eyes, but it disappeared before Lauren got the chance to take a proper look. It looked an awful lot like hurt and sadness, the doctor thought for a fleeting second. Whatever it was, it vanished in the blink of an eye though, as Tamsin closed her eyes and opened them again to reveal her usual steely gaze. The kind of gaze that can stop you dead in your tracks, crap your pants in fear and forget your first name. For good.

"Gee, doc, don't you know to make a girl feel welcome. Get a hold of yourself, or I'll actually start to think you like me." Then she smirked again and turned around, once again marching to the exit, but her movement was somehow more hesitant, as if she wasn't sure she should actually leave.

"Wait, Tamsin."

The Valkyrie stopped by the door and turned around to face Lauren again.

"You didn't… why did you come here tonight, was there something I could help you with?" Lauren asked, feeling strangely sorry for how she had treated Tamsin. It wasn't the Valkyrie's fault that Bo didn't seem to give a… that Bo was otherwise engaged that night.

The Fae looked at her but didn't answer. She smiled, nodded, and then walked out the door as fast as she'd come in earlier.

Lauren closed down the lab and hurried home, where she popped open a beer and then a bottle of vodka and drank more than half of it before passing out on the couch. She thought about the old truck that had followed her back home, and how that truck remained parked outside for a long while before taking off into the night.

The last thought before she fell asleep was Tamsin's green, steely gaze on her, and the sadness in the Valkyrie's eyes when she had asked about Bo. Luckily she forgot all about that when she woke up with the most horrible hangover the next morning.

The third time Tamsin saved her it was freezing. A couple of more minutes and hypothermia would have been the end of her, really. This time it was not any Fae that had taken her hostage, it was her own people. Humans. Humans who wanted her to turn them into Fae. They had taken her to a secluded cabin in the middle of the woods, where she was kept for a few days and forced to work in a makeshift lab to develop a customizable DNA-based serum to give them "powers," as they put it.

What she developed was an explosive substance that she used to get away from her captors. The only problem was that she was on foot, without any clear idea as to where she was, so she ended up running around in the woods, hoping she'd be lucky enough to get to a road. There had to be one somewhere. The freezing cold and the heavy snow weren't helping. Eventually she grew too tired to take another step and collapsed to the frozen ground, a strange sensation of warm numbness spreading through her body with every snowflake that landed on her skin.

She didn't know how long she was there before a pair a strong hands grabbed her and shook her gently at first but then more forcefully, trying to get her to sit up.

"Hey, c'mon, wake up. You gonna be fine, okay?"

"Tam… sin," she stuttered eventually, trying to open her eyes.

"Ya, doc, it's me. Not the face you wanted to see, I know, but you gonna have to suck it up…"

"What… what happened? They, um, they are probably looking…" Every word required a tremendous amount of effort, one that her body was not strong enough to sustain.

"Don't worry about them," Tamsin said quietly, taking off her own jacket and wrapping it around Lauren's shoulders. "It's been taken care of."

The doctor nodded slightly, grateful for how warm the inside of Tamsin's jacket felt against her skin. But she couldn't accept it, not when the woman in front of her was only wearing a tank top, torn and bloody, at subzero temperatures. She tried to return it, but she couldn't even begin to take it off when Tamsin grabbed her freezing hands and started rubbing them vigorously, trying to get the blood moving. The Valkyrie's hands were surprisingly warm.

She looked at her for a while, and was surprised to realize that this time, she was actually glad Tamsin had been the one to find her. The Valkyrie was efficient in a way Bo could never be – get in, get the job done and take off, without unnecessary drama or complications. She never hesitated, so Lauren was pretty sure that by "It's been taken care of," Tamsin had actually meant she had killed everyone back at the cabin. All of her captors. Strangely enough, she wasn't really bothered by the idea.

"C'mon, doc, stay with me," the Valkyrie said in a husky voice. She brought her mouth down to Lauren's hands and started blowing warm air over them, while continuing to rub life back into the numb fingers.

"Fascinating," the doctor stuttered again, trying to overcome the freezing cold.

"What is?" Tamsin asked absent-mindedly, still focused on her task of getting Lauren warmer.

"How you're not cold… Your skin has maintained its normal temperature, even if you're…"

"Almost naked," Tamsin joked.

"That's not what I meant but yes. It's incredible."

"Yeah, it's a Valkyrie thing," she replied and smiled. There was no trace of pride or arrogance in her voice, it was just like she was stating a scientific fact. Lauren knew that tone very well.

"I sense there's a story there," she prodded, not sure exactly why.

"And I promise I'll maybe tell you all about it, even if it's none of your business, if we get out of here alive," Tamsin replied, and it was only then that the doctor noticed the huge blood stain on the Valkyrie's top, definitely bigger than it had been just a couple of minutes ago.

"You're wounded."

"It's just a scratch, I'll be fine."

"You always say that."

"And I'm always right."

"Want me to take a look at it?"

Tamsin laughed wholeheartedly at the suggestion. "Like you're in any condition to do that now. Maybe later, doc." Lauren just smiled back.

Neither of them said another word after that. Luckily Bo and Dyson showed up soon enough to get them out of there. No remarks were made about the fact they had found Lauren practically cradling in Tamsin's arms, her head resting on the Valkyrie's chest.

By the time their rescue party arrived, Lauren's body temperature was almost back to normal, but she nonetheless welcomed the warmth of the soft blanket Bo handed to her.

Tamsin had lost a lot of blood and had almost passed out in the back seat, next to Lauren, as soon as they drove away. The doctor pulled the Valkyrie's head down gently to her lap and the blanket to cover her bruised body as well. The Fae did not even try to resist.

"C'mon, Tamsin, stay with me. You're gonna be fine," she whispered, still holding the Valkyrie's hand.

There was a long silence. Lauren was trying not to panic, but the fact that she couldn't hear Tamsin breathing anymore wasn't helping. She almost jumped in her seat when the Valkyrie drew a sharp breath, followed by a string of huffs and groans.

"Damn right I'm gonna be fine. And I'll want that jacket back," came the muffled reply eventually. The doctor chuckled and squeezed Tamsin's hand harder.

The fourth time Lauren needed saving she was really disappointed. She tried to contain it but failed miserably, and as she was broken out of the dark cell she had been kept in for the last 24 hours, she couldn't help but commenting drily:

"Oh. You."

"A 'thank you' would have been nice," her rescuer shot back, acting more insulted than she actually felt.

"Right, sorry. Thank you, of course. It's just that…"

"Oh, relax, I'm just messing with you," Bo grinned. "Of course she's here. She's upstairs, holding them off. Said to give you this," the Succubus added and tossed something at Lauren. The jacket. It was a bit large for her, as it had obviously been fitted for someone taller, but she didn't care. A wide grin spread across her face as she eased herself into the jacket, which was still warm and retained the familiar smell of Tamsin's skin.

They hurried up the stairs and got to the main hall just in time to notice the Valkyrie's wings retracting and her features returning back to normal. She was the only one still standing in what looked like a sea of Red Caps trying to pick themselves up but only succeeding to groan and moan even louder in pain.

Neither Lauren nor Tamsin was sure how they ended up caught in a tight hug right there, in the middle of the room, dozens of injured Fae at their feet. Hardly what you'd call a romantic reunion. Lauren was sure it was Tamsin that rushed to meet her. The Valkyrie was pretty sure it was the doctor who had literally flung herself at her. What they both agreed on was that the kiss that followed was initiated by both sides. A kiss so passionate and complete that even the Succubus was impressed. A kiss so deep as if they hadn't seen each other in ages. It had felt like ages, really.

And as she and Tamsin were more or less dragged out of there by Bo, who was urging them to snap out of it and get the hell out of Dodge before it was too late, there was only one thing Lauren could think about. How she was no longer disappointed.

So, yeah, just another attempt at writing something less angsty than most of my stuff (I can't help myself, I swear).

I'd love to know what you think about this little story here. :)

Thanks for reading!