Chapter Two

There was a hypnotic beauty in the way her fin shimmered when the sunlight glanced off it. Her reddish brown hair - darkened by the water - swirled behind her. Lauren had been watching the whole time from her vantage point on the side of the pool, only looking away to write down notes and check the time. Ava had been down there for over an hour swimming back and forth in the pool, sometimes lazily, sometimes at a surprising clip.

It was rare for Lauren to work outside. She kept turning her face up to the sun, smiling at the feeling of the breeze on her skin. She'd taken off her boots and rolled up her pants. Her bare feet were immersed in the water and she swung them back and forth, moving the water around with her toes.

Finally Ava broke the surface and swam over towards her, leaning against the side of the pool with her elbows on the cement. She was wearing a simple black bikini top and it made her skin look even paler.

"So I'm not quite sure what this was for. What good is it to the Ash to know that I'm really good at swimming laps?" Ava said sarcastically, but she grinned at Lauren as she spoke.

Lauren smiled back at her a little apologetically. "I collect as much data as I can. I'm compiling a text. It'll be very well protected by The Ash. There are a lot of books about the fae but not many studies based in science."

"Uh-huh. So do you want me to pose for the glossy photo inlays?"

"Haha. Well there are a few things I can record here – how long you can breathe underwater, your speed, the muscles you use to propel yourself when you swim, that sort of thing. I de-identify all the fae I study by the way."

Ava raised her eyebrows and leaned over conspiratorially. "Sounds a bit dry. Don't you want to know other things about me too?"

"Like what?" Lauren said, laying her clipboard off to the side.

"Well, we're not really just about that are we? We're not just muscles and bone and blood, like humans. No offence."

"None taken," Lauren said. She'd long ago moved on from feeling patronised by the fae, especially since most of them had no idea they were doing it.

"Well, as a human I would have thought you'd be interested in what my relationship to humans might be."

"You mean, do I want to know how you feed? You know I could never ask that. If you tell me it's off-the-record," Lauren said. She'd done some reading since meeting Ava, given that she was the first mermaid she'd met. She knew that their food sources varied; like a lot of different types of fae it was influenced by their parentage.

"My father was a Merman and my mother was an Aphrodite," Ava said. Lauren had the sensation that she were being tested; Ava wanted to see if she could figure it out.

"So do you feed on love?" Lauren clarified. She must have heard of thousands of varieties in the ways there were to feed, and that was one of the more pleasant ones.

"Bingo. Although as you must know by now we're usually a little more specific than that. If you're into classifications, and I'm guessing that you are," Ava said, splashing water playfully at her. "It's only the romantic, unrequited kind that I thrive on."

"Wow," Lauren said. She had an image of Ava like the mythical creature she seemed sometimes, out there in the ocean luring sailors towards her with a song. "So you make people fall in love with you?"

Now the thought made her uneasy. Was that what the flirting was all about? It all made sense now – she'd suspected that Ava was trying to groom her for something.

"Fall in love with me? No, I don't have that sort of power. The objects of love are always other people or fae, and I feed on that," Ava explained.

"Ah, right. Because if it were you, that might mean you'd have to be intimate with humans."

"That's really wouldn't be a problem for me," Ava said, staring at Lauren. "And it's not about the sex, it's about love. That's just the way it is, it's not something we choose."

"Okay," Lauren said. She wanted to ask more questions but the subject was starting to make her uncomfortable. Ava's gaze was intent and strong, and she had to look away.

X X X

Bo winced as she looked down at her stomach. She'd healed with Dyson since she got that cut across it, and it didn't make sense that it was still there. There had been a nasty fight with a territorial underfae over a week ago and she had been thrown through a window. It was starting to worry her, because it hurt whenever she moved. She wondered if she'd been jabbed with some kind of poison – who the hell knew what might have happened?

The answer to that was obvious. Dyson had acted petulant about the idea. He wanted Bo to just find someone else to examine her. But consulting another doctor was out of the question when there was nobody else she could trust with this sort of stuff. Besides Lauren knew her body and the way it worked. Professionally, of course, she thought with a trace of sarcasm.

Maybe she had even been looking for a reason to go and visit. It was hard to cut someone out of your life; especially someone whom she'd started to consider as kind of important to her. All of those years of disconnection had made her want to hang on to the connections she had even more.

She didn't call before she went over. That would be making a big deal out of it. She'd stopped visiting Lauren for any other reason than to seek her assistance with cases. Now that she had Dyson on tap to assuage her hunger - and she'd proven she could feed from humans without killing them - control had fallen off her list of priorities.

"Hey," Bo said, knocking self-consciously on the wall as she stood in the doorway.

"Hi," Lauren said with surprise, turning to look at her.

Bo felt an answering surge of hunger inside her at the sight of Lauren. There she was, sweet and sexy looking, her eyes warm pools of brown. She hated that she still felt such a physical reaction to having Lauren in front of her; it was like her body had forgotten the betrayal even when her heart couldn't let it go.

"What can I help you with?" Lauren asked quickly. Her words hung in the air, both of them feeling the coldness they embodied. There was a time when they would have started off with a bit of banter; they'd talk about their days and what was happening in their lives. Even when there was serious business to get down to they'd take their time if they could.

Bo took a few steps forward hesitantly. "Actually it's me – I'm not healing properly. I've had this cut for like a week now. I'm worried there might be something wrong with me."

Lauren looked her up and down, worry spreading across her face. "Sit on the table. I'll take a look."

Bo sat down and pulled up her top. Lauren did her best to look blank, as though unaffected by the finely muscled stomach that Bo revealed. She was soon distracted as she frowned at the angry looking red cut, moving close to look at its edges. "How did you get this?"

Bo shrugged. "Nothing out of the ordinary. Line of duty. Got thrown through a window actually."

"So I would assume that you've healed since this happened?" Lauren asked the question like it was routine but didn't meet Bo's eye.

"Of course, Dyson. Many times," Bo said. There was a part of her that enjoyed the almost imperceptible flinch. It satisfied her to think that she could make Lauren feel a fraction of the hurt she'd felt.

"Any other symptoms?" Lauren pushed on. When Bo shook her head Lauren kept her eyes trained on the cut. She picked up an instrument and removed something tiny that Bo could barely see from her skin.

"Ah ha. Simple explanation, you've got glass embedded in the wound. It's not healing like it should because there's foreign material in there. I'll clean it up," Lauren explained brusquely.

"Oh, right," Bo said with relief. It made sense. She watched Lauren as she snapped on gloves. "Can you lay down please?"

Bo propped herself up on her elbows to watch as Lauren gingerly starting removing the tiny shards of glass with tweezers. Lauren had a look of intense concentration on her face.

Bo had always loved to watch her work. She was just so into it, no matter what she was doing. The smell of Lauren's hair and her closeness was conspiring to make Bo feel very edgy. Even the pain of having the cut disturbed was not enough to distract her from seeing Lauren in side profile, her long-fingered hands hovering over her.

She'd been thrilled to find out how skilled those hands had been when they'd made love. Had sex, whatever. It struck her that watching Lauren work was kind of like seeing her when they were being intimate. Any trace of shyness or awkwardness (although she had always been attracted to those traits in her too) melted away and Lauren became utterly confident and focussed. Bo had been pleasantly surprised by how much Lauren had taken the lead, and surprised at how much she'd enjoyed being just a little bit submissive. It was new for her and exciting.

Bo knew deep down that despite her fierce pride, she might have crumbled by now and gone back for a second time if it weren't for Dyson. She was thankful that she didn't have to worry about that decision, and that it helped her to overcome the temptation. It would do awful things to her heart to have that happen again.

"Why did you decide to become a doctor?" Bo asked to take her mind off the thoughts. She saw a smile cross Lauren's face.

"Honestly I don't even remember. My dad told me he used to catch me playing doctors all the time with my dolls, I had a whole clinic set up. I asked for a real first aid kit for my fifth birthday," Lauren said. "Just a weird nerdy kid I guess, never grew out of it."

"Not at all, that's adorable," Bo said without thinking.

Lauren looked quickly up at her, and then away. It was quiet again. "Okay, I'm all done here."

"Thank you," Bo said gratefully as she rose up. She noticed the way Lauren watched her when she pulled down her shirt, as though she was sorry to see the skin disappear.

It was starting to make her feel guilty that Lauren always dropped everything to help her out. Maybe she shouldn't have made that dig about healing. Still, she had to remind herself that the way Lauren helped her didn't necessarily mean anything – least of all that she could be trusted. For all she knew Lauren was just trying to stay close to her to please the Ash.

"You shouldn't have waited so long. You know you can come and see me any time there's a problem," Lauren said softly. It was obvious that the invitation was wider than her words indicated.

"I know," Bo said. She broke their eye contact, which had been stretching out for far too long. She smiled to diffuse the tension.

"Thanks," she said before striding out, not looking over her shoulder to witness the way Lauren looked after her as she went.