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When Lauren had refused Bo's advances that morning, she had promised she would make it up to Bo. Although Bo had been expecting a different type of make-up session, she had to admit this one had been fairly pleasant as well. She had been standing in the entrance hall of the Mirvish theatre flexing her hands to quell their shaking when Lauren had called, inviting her to dinner and a movie.
The sound of Lauren's voice had calmed Bo down enough that a smile easily spread over her features despite an underlying sense of anxiety regarding her recent lack of control. Regardless, the pressing need to get to the bottom of what was going on with the dark sprites caused Bo to try to refuse Lauren's invitation at first. The doctor was having none of it. She told Bo in no uncertain terms that after the day they'd had they were entitled to a little down-time together.
Now, as they exited the movie theatre, Bo was happy she had agreed. She snapped open an umbrella and reached for Lauren's hand before stepping out onto the dark, rain-soaked sidewalk. It had been a long time since she'd had an experience that could be considered both 'normal' and 'human'. She had forgotten what it felt like not to have the weight of the world on her shoulders. With considerable effort, Lauren had made sure to keep their discussions light and far away from the troubling world of the fae as possible.
Lauren walked pressed into Bo's side and the warmth of her body suffused Bo. The succubus shifted so that she could put her arm around Lauren's shoulders allowing the woman to fit even better to the contour of her body. Lauren's arm encircled Bo's waist, snugging the women into an affectionate hug.
"That was nice," Lauren said. "I haven't been to a movie in ages."
"Me neither," Bo admitted.
"Do you think that kind of thing happens to normal people?" Lauren wondered referencing the cutesy romantic comedy they had just absent-mindedly absorbed while practically inhaling the biggest bucket of popcorn she had ever seen.
"Define normal," Bo said, turning to look at Lauren with a teasing lift of her eyebrows.
Lauren laughed. "Oh no, Bo, I'm not being drawn into a philosophical discussion of what constitutes normal. I'm well aware that you think it's cute to incite a complete geek meltdown, but I'm not falling for it this time."
"Is it so wrong that I love listening to your babble about things I have no possibility of understanding?"
Lauren's blond locks bounced as she shook her head. "I guess not, although I think you understand far more than you let on."
"Shh! Not so loud—you'll give away my super-secret fae power!" Bo exclaimed making a production of glancing left and right to make sure no one had overheard Lauren. Then she laughed. "But to answer your question: no, I don't think that happens to normal people. No one travels the planet in search of a random stranger they met at an airport and actually manages to find them."
"It's a nice thought, though, isn't it? To think that somehow the universe aligns perfectly to allow for the unification of soul mates?"
"For sure, but for me the more comforting thought is the implication of the existence of soul mates in the first place." As soon as she had expressed the thought, Bo felt a slight shift in Lauren's demeanor. If she hadn't been paying attention to the wonderful feeling of the way Lauren's body moved next to hers while they walked, she would have missed the slight falter in Lauren's step that signaled the change. It prompted Bo to ask, "You believe in soul mates?"
"It seems I forgot my own rule: no philosophical discussions, Bo," Lauren said, deflecting the question.
They walked in silence for a little while, each lost in their own thoughts but enjoying the closeness of the other. Thinking about soul mates and the movie brought up another train of thought that Lauren hadn't allowed herself to follow in quite a while. In closing, the characters on the screen had reunited and eventually settled down to raise a family. It made the doctor think of the discussion she and Bo had been engaged in the fateful night when they had first made love, so long ago.
"Remember when we were discussing white picket fences and children—" Lauren abruptly stopped talking. Realizing she had spoken her thoughts aloud, she clamped a hand over her mouth. She hadn't intended to draw attention to memories of that night. She wanted to keep the feeling of lighthearted happiness alive as long as possible. Inwardly cursing herself, Lauren waited for the inevitable fallout.
Bo stopped walking and turned to face the doctor, studying her lover. "What about it?" Bo asked and Lauren couldn't decide if she sounded upset or merely curious given that her facial expression was uncharacteristically blank.
"I'm sorry." Lauren panicked and tried to distance herself from Bo slightly, expecting some sort of verbal rebuke. Any time she had tried to bring up that night in the past it had always drawn the succubus' ire. Lauren was anticipating this moment to be no different.
Bo's grip on the doctor tightened not allowing Lauren to take the personal space she seemed to want. "Lauren, tell me what you were thinking," Bo said, intentionally keeping her voice low and even, although she still felt a twinge of anxiety whenever she remembered Lauren's betrayal that night.
"I was just… I was wondering if you really did think about having a family someday. I was thinking about the movie and how it ended and—"
Lauren's halting words were silenced as Bo gave her a gentle, compassionate kiss. The succubus felt the blonde relax, obviously relieved that Bo wasn't angry at the turn their discussion had taken. Bo took that moment to deepen their kiss. Feeling an unexpected spike of arousal in Lauren's aura, the brunette made an executive decision.
She pulled the doctor down a nearby, darkened alley and ducked into a recessed entry that would shield them from the rain. Tossing the umbrella aside, Bo buried her hands in the doctor's hair and kissed her again. Lauren's hands found the succubus' waist and she pressed the succubus back against the wall. The doctor thought the understated aggressiveness of the action seemed to coax out the latent predator in Bo when she growled.
Lauren realized too late how inaccurately she had read Bo's reaction. One moment she and Bo were melded together, the next Bo was putting herself between Lauren and three dark-hooded figures that had suddenly appeared in the alley with them.
The doctor's brain couldn't make the switch from passion to potential danger quickly enough. She watched, paralyzed, as Bo snapped the first opponent's nose with a quick open-palmed strike. He went down to one knee, cradling the pulverized cartilage while screaming expletives.
She vaulted over him, wasting no time in her attack. Lauren saw the glint of steel as Bo drew a dagger from her boot. In a blur of motion, Bo stepped forward and hooked one leg around that of her opponent's. She braced her forearm across his chest while grabbing a fistful of his sweatshirt, thereby preventing him from moving anywhere but into the dagger. The succubus struck him with blinding speed, once to the solar plexus and twice to the throat; the last of which ripped the tender skin from just below the left ear to the right clavicle. Using her arm as leverage, she pushed off from her victim and spun to face the next.
This time her positioning was off and she lost the advantage of surprise. She moved to strike, but he dodged, using Bo's imbalance to swing her around and slam her into the wall. She staggered on impact. He grabbed her wrist and smashed her knuckles against the wall, forcing her to drop the dagger.
Lauren lost sight of the struggle when she felt an arm snake around her throat from the side. She hadn't realized she'd left the recessed doorway, exposing herself to the broken-nosed attacker. Her first thought as her airway was compressed was that Dyson would have been disappointed that she had put herself in a vulnerable position. Her assailant dragged her back a few feet before Lauren managed to get her arm around behind the guy's shoulder. She splayed her fingers out over his face, feeling the wet warmth of blood that had yet to cease flowing spread between her fingers. She pushed backwards on his face and twisted at the same time.
He went down howling, but Lauren didn't stop; she continued to beat him. The doctor was operating out of sheer uncharacteristic panic, riding the adrenaline high, and didn't stop until she heard Bo's faint voice whisper her name somewhere behind her.
Lauren abandoned the man, instinctively knowing that he wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon and scrambled to her feet. Her hands ached, but she ignored the pain. She found Bo propped against the brick wall of the building. The succubus' head was leaned back and her eyes were closed.
"Lauren?" she moaned again.
"I'm here," Lauren said, dropping to her knees beside Bo.
The succubus looked as though she were merely resting after an exhausting fight, which Lauren was pleased to note they had both survived. But when Bo opened her eyes, lifting her head, they shone with pained tears and Lauren realized that she had made her second incorrect assessment of the evening. She looked down and saw that Bo's arm was pressed firmly to her abdomen.
Lauren made to move Bo's arm to see just what damage her lover had suffered, but Bo stopped her.
"Don't."
The word was spoken so quietly that Lauren at first didn't register it. She pushed Bo's coat aside, noting the massive pool of blood that was beginning to spread beneath the succubus. Terror leapt into Lauren's throat again.
"Oh my God," she breathed. "Oh my God."
"Lauren? I wanted—I want—"
"Shh, Bo. Stop talking," Lauren said.
Bo grabbed the front of Lauren's shirt and used it to drag the blonde closer. Instead of kissing Lauren as the doctor expected, Bo brought her lips close to her ear and whispered, "Children. I do wa—" The word died in Bo's throat. Her eyes fluttered shut.
"No, Bo!" Lauren said, slapping the succubus' cheek. "Stay with me!"
As the rain beat down on them, Lauren shakily drew her cell phone out of her pocket. It took her three tries to get the number right. When it finally connected, Lauren could barely speak. "Bo's in trouble and I'm about to do something universally stupid," she said and then tossed the phone aside without ending the call.
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