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Bo threw her jacket over an empty examination table and leapt up on it. She rolled up the sleeves of her blouse after unbuttoning the top two buttons. Sweat still lingered on the brunette's brow, but at least she felt marginally better.
It was unusual for her to feel so disoriented after feeding; the lightheaded feeling had begun shortly after being exposed to the massive amounts of sexual energy that Lauren's intern had been projecting and had continued to build. Her reaction—the jealousy—and Lauren's rejection had ultimately overloaded her system and she realized that she had waited too long to feed. Feeding hadn't quite dissipated the discomfort, though.
Instead of feeling invigorated after she had her way with the entirely too willing fae man, she had felt dissatisfied and angry. When her mind cleared and rationality had set in it had been too late. Lauren had already disappeared. Now she sat suffering the scrutiny of an unexpected guest.
"Cleo, it's good to see you," Bo said, trying to sound nonchalant. "What brings you back to Toronto so soon?"
Kenzi barged around Cleo and skittered to a halt between them. "Maybe she felt the overwhelming need to be the first sentient stink bomb to be deployed in the Megacity?" Kenzi suggested. The tiny brunette eyed Cleo with disdain, waving a hand in front of her nose.
Cleo ignored the pugnacious young woman. "I witnessed something that I needed to discuss with the Ash. It was decided that I might be more useful here, so I pledged my services for the time being."
Bo made a face at the thought of anyone pledging themselves to the Ash, even for a short duration. She chose to ignore the fact that she had also vowed to be the champion, thereby indenturing herself. She supposed none of them really had the option to do otherwise. If this Garuda thing was as bad as the Ash made it seem they were all in for a world of hurt unless they banded together.
"Forgive me if I'm overstepping, Bo, but is everything okay? You don't seem like yourself."
Bo felt a blush of embarrassment creep up her cheeks. They both knew what Cleo was really asking. "I wasn't—I'm not feeling well," she admitted.
Thankfully Cleo didn't challenge the vague nature of her reply. The erised looked completely knackered and Bo noticed a somewhat unpleasant odor emanating from the woman. She finally understood Kenzi's previous statement and felt a pang of sympathy for the redhead. "Cleo, do you have somewhere to stay? You look like you could use a rest," Bo said.
"And a bath," Kenzi muttered in agreement.
"I haven't been in town long enough to arrange accommodations," Cleo replied.
Bo opened her mouth to offer to let Cleo stay at the clubhouse, but Kenzi's eyes got wide and she silently begged the succubus to keep quiet. Bo shot the younger woman a disapproving look.
"She can stay with me."
While her attention was on Kenzi, Bo had completely missed Lauren's return. The doctor stood on the far side of the lab with Dyson. The blonde no longer wore her pristine lab coat. Her eyes were puffy and her face was red. Bo also noticed that both her hands, which were barely visible, tucked under her crossed arms as they were, sported fresh, white bandages.
Despite obvious signs of emotional distress there was a steely glint in Lauren's eyes that belied vulnerability, projecting a sense of strength. Even Kenzi seemed to notice a change in the doctor and she muttered an exclamation under her breath.
Bo's breath hitched in her chest and she slid off the examination table to take a shaky step forward. Lauren glared at her and subtly shook her head, indicating that what had happened would be dealt with at a later time. Bo stopped and bit her lip, anguished. Lauren had slipped into professional mode and was wearing it like armor.
Breaking the awkward silence, Cleo said, "I would appreciate that."
"I need to speak to Bo about some Fae business, but I can call someone to escort you to my quarters if you like," Lauren said, moving through the lab to come to a halt before them.
Before Cleo could respond, Dyson piped up. "I'd be happy to show her the way, Doc."
"Dyson, this is Cleo Silsbury," Lauren said by way of introduction.
Dyson extended his hand, but Kenzi darted forward and slapped it down. "Don't touch her D-Man!" The changer looked shocked at the human's blatant disrespect. When she saw that everyone was looking at her, Kenzi shrugged, wilted a little and said, "What? She's dangerous."
"She's wearing gloves, Kenz," Bo chastised in a harsh, appalled whisper.
Cleo cleared her throat. Bo watched as the woman assessed Dyson. Whatever she thought of the shifter didn't appear on her face. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Dyson. Your friends have obviously not had time to tell you about me. I'm an erised."
Dyson absorbed this quickly and proffered his hand once more, which Cleo quickly gripped. "I've never met an erised."
Cleo chuckled at that. "I'm not surprised. We're rare."
"Then the pleasure belongs to me," he said before turning to Lauren. "I'm assuming you will fill me in later?"
"Of course," Lauren said. She pulled a keycard out of her pocket and handed it to Dyson. "Ask the seneschal to send someone with some clothes for her as well."
"Sure," he said. "Follow me, if you please." Kenzi looked as though she were about to have a coronary when Dyson offered Cleo his arm. The erised accepted, hooking hers under his, and the tiny brunette's lip curled in a snarl. Bo had to jostle her with an elbow to her ribs before Kenzi would let Dyson and Cleo pass.
When they had gone, Bo turned to her best friend and disappointedly asked, "What was that?"
"She's trouble."
"Kenzi, really. I want you to try to get along with Cleo. What happened between us was my fault, you know that."
Kenzi obviously didn't like it; she kept her lips pressed into a firm line. She stared at Bo long enough to gauge how serious the succubus was before letting out an exasperated breath and shrugged. "Oh, fine! I'm hungry. I'm going to see if I can find the Ash-wipe's kitchen."
Bo knew Lauren would have protested Kenzi roaming around the compound on her own, but the girl had disappeared before she got the chance, leaving the two of them alone in the sterile lab. Bo studied the toes of her boots, unsure of what to say or how to act. She suspected that nothing she did right now would be the right thing, so she waited to see if Lauren would give her some sort of cue.
The doctor simply gestured at Bo to follow her over to the examination table where three little petrified bodies had been deposited. Lauren easily picked one up, studying its rocky expression for a moment before setting it down again. She turned to her instrument cart and picked up something that looked vaguely like a hammer.
Giving Bo a stony look, Lauren lifted the hammer and proceeded to pulverize one of the sprites.
"You scare me sometimes," the succubus muttered, reflexively taking a step back as Lauren once more turned an unreadable expression on her.
"I need to make a bone powder using particles that are less than point-five microns so that I can create a solution, which will then go into the centrifuge to be decalcified."
Bo gaped blankly. She couldn't help it. "You lost me at micron."
Lauren set down the hammer. She gripped the edge of the table, bowing her head to her chest. The bandages stood out against the gleam of the stainless steel. "It's a millionth of a meter."
The succubus was no longer listening. She was staring at Lauren's hands. She could see scratches not quite covered by the bandaging along with the start of some fairly serious bruising. Her heart clenched in her chest and she instinctively reached out to touch Lauren's wrist. "Lauren…" she trailed off as Lauren glanced up to meet Bo's worried gaze.
"I made a mistake, Bo," Lauren whispered. By smashing the sprite to tiny pieces, she seemed to have let go of whatever residual anger she'd been harboring.
"What? No, Lauren, I shouldn't have… I don't know what came over me." Bo struggled with an acceptable explanation, but came up infuriatingly short.
A helpless laugh escaped the doctor. "We both know exactly what came over you, Bo."
"I know, but I mean—that wasn't, like, normal." Bo stopped and puffed out her cheeks, frustrated at her inability to communicate precisely when she sensed Lauren needed to understand the most. Before she could articulate further, Lauren had already steamed ahead.
"I expected you to need sex, Bo. It's just that I was caught off guard and I have a hard time being… less than professional here." Lauren gestured around her. "I've had a lot of stuff on my mind and Cleo had just called and—look, it makes no difference, Bo. I made a mistake by not taking care of your needs."
Bo tilted her head to the side. "You're not mad at me?"
"I was before I realized the unfairness of it. It hurts, Bo, more than I want to admit," Lauren said, her voice shaking from the sheer effort of holding emotions at bay. "But how can I deny you what biology demands, especially now when every day has the potential for so much danger?"
Bo moved to envelope Lauren in a tight hug. "I don't want to do this to us," she whispered, kissing the top of Lauren's head.
"We'll figure it out, Bo." Lauren leaned back so that she could look into Bo's eyes. "Later. For now, let's focus on what happened to those sprites. I'd like to know if it's somehow connected to all the other random acts of violence we've been getting reports of. That's why Cleo is here, but I haven't had a chance to ask her about it yet."
Bo reluctantly agreed, but she wouldn't let the doctor extricate herself from her embrace. She narrowed her eyes, focusing once more on Lauren's damaged hands. "First tell me about this," she said.
Lauren looked sheepish. She took a shallow breath followed by a self-conscious chuckle. "I tried to beat the crap out of Dyson."
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