Author's Note: Because I suck at all things related to chemistry (and biology, history, geography, math… oh, you get the idea) I asked SGAConvert to do a tiny [I hope] bit of research. So, thanks for figuring out the world for me, SGA! You are a rockstar!
Having said that, whatever errors are found herein can be blamed solely on me.
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Lauren slowly came awake to the feel of Bo's body spooned against her, an arm around her waist. The succubus shivered again and the doctor realized that was what had originally wakened her.
"Are you cold, Bo?"
"It's freezing in here. But you're so warm," Bo said, and wiggled a little in an effort to get that much closer to Lauren. Although she tried to mask her discomfort at even the tiniest movement, Bo still let out a pained groan.
Lauren turned. She pushed a sweaty lock of hair out of brunette's face and placed the back of her hand against her brow. "I think you have a fever."
"Not sick," Bo mumbled.
Lauren pursed her lips. She could feel a knot of irritation building in her chest, annoyed at Bo's continued stubbornness regarding her injury. She sat up, ignoring Bo's protestations, threw back the covers and leapt out of bed.
She walked around to Bo's side and eased the duvet out of the brunette's grip. The doctor was sure that if the succubus wasn't in so much pain she would have curled into a ball to prevent Lauren from getting a good look at her wound. Instead, she feebly fought Lauren for possession of the sheets covering her body.
No sooner had she pulled the sheets back than her breath caught in her throat. Bo had bled through her bandages overnight and blood had begun to seep into the mattress. She covered her mouth with her hand.
"Bo!"
"'Tis but a flesh wound!" the succubus muttered, quoting Monty Python.
She stared at Bo in disbelief. The succubus was trying to make a joke when she was clearly extremely sick and Lauren was at an utter loss for words.
Instead of speaking, Lauren leaned down and kissed Bo, softly at first. When she touched her tongue to her lover's lips, trying to coax the succubus into allowing her access and perhaps to entice her into feeding, she felt a shaky hand on her chest, pushing her away.
"No."
Her hands involuntarily tightened into fists as frustration crashed over her. She clenched her teeth together and fought back angry tears. She couldn't understand why Bo was being stubborn. "Bo, you might have sepsis. Do you know what that means? If you don't feed and heal completely you could die in a matter of days, goddamn it!"
"I'm fine," Bo said obstinately.
Lauren's heart pounded in her chest. "I can't do this!" She threw her hands up in the air, turned and marched into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. At the sink, she closed her eyes and gripped the edge of the counter until her knuckles turned white. She tried to breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth until she could calm down. When she finally felt a little more in control, she opened the door and saw Bo standing in the middle of the room, clearly attempting to make her way to Lauren.
"Lauren, I'm afraid if I start I won't be able to stop."
"Then find someone you won't hurt, Bo. This… this… behavior is just plain reckless. And selfish! You can't just think about yourself. Or—" Lauren paused, taking a deep breath, "or me. The Ash appointed you champion. You need to start acting like one. Either that or tell him to find another 'figurehead' and give up this farce."
"Farce?" The remaining colour drained from Bo's face.
Lauren wondered if maybe she had gone too far, but she pressed on. "That thing caught us off guard, Bo, and nearly killed you. It laughed at us because we're weak."
"I'm not weak," Bo growled.
"Then prove it. Call someone. Anyone." She walked over to her night table and picked up her cell phone. "Now, I have to go to work. I expect you to take care of yourself." She handed the phone to Bo and tried to give her a conciliatory kiss, but Bo turned her face away. Even though Lauren expected it, she still felt the sting of the rejection. It seemed par for the course, so she simply smiled half-heartedly and went back into the bathroom to turn on the shower.
As she stepped under the spray, she felt a bitter-sweet triumph at the sound of Bo's voice as she spoke on the phone.
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Lauren had been poring over the books for a good hour. She had stopped by the lab first to make sure that the centrifuge was still spinning down the bone slurry she had made of the pulverized sprite. She had been puzzled by a series of bright pink stringy lines crisscrossing the interior window of the machine, but she would have to wait until it stopped to figure out what the problem was.
Before leaving again, she had given the technician instructions to send James into the conference room as soon as he arrived.
She flipped the page of the alchemy text, sighing in frustration. It seemed the longer she searched, the more her eyes burned, but the more elusive her goal became. The sick feeling in the pit of her stomach at what she had bullied Bo into doing continued to worsen as well, disrupting her focus.
She didn't know what she expected; brilliant alchemists had been searching for centuries for what she now sought. Not a single one of them had ever made a break-through. She idly wondered if any of them had known about the fae.
"Morning, Doc!"
Irritated at the arrival of her overly chipper assistant, Lauren's lip curled. She struggled not to snarl at him. "Coffee?" she asked, hopefully.
"Better! I have water. You know what they say about water, right?"
"No." Lauren wasn't really in the mood for trivia, but she suspected he was about to fill her in anyway.
"It's the elixir of life," he said, tossing her a 500 milliliter bottle.
Lauren narrowed her eyes as she regarded the bottle. James continued to prattle, but Lauren was no longer listening. "It couldn't be that easy," she muttered, turning the bottle in her hands.
"Doctor Lewis? You all right?"
The blonde looked up, a thrilled feeling burgeoning throughout her chest. She stood the water on the table and after two quick steps had grasped James' face in her hands. She gave him a huge, sloppy kiss and patted him on the back as she sprinted for the door.
Her stunned assistant remained rooted to the floor for a split second while his brain processed what had just happened. An enormous grin spread across his face and his legs were wobbly as he followed her back into the lab.
Lauren stood in front of a microscope, switching to a high-powered objective.
"Uhm, not that I don't appreciate it, but what was that all about?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck. "If I'd known all it took to get a beautiful girl to kiss me was a bottle of water, I would have begun offering them up as pick-up lines a long time ago."
The doctor stopped fiddling with the scope. She frowned, realizing her mistake, and turned to the young man with a serious expression. As it turned out, Bo had been correct after all: James was crushing on Lauren and she might have just exacerbated the problem. "James, you know I'm only interested in women, right?"
His face heated to a glorious, embarrassed red. "Yeah… Uhm, yeah, I knew that. So, you and, uh, the succubus, eh? That's what that was all about last night? Never mind," he rolled his eyes and managed composure with alacrity. He waved a hand at the microscope. "You gonna fill me in now? It was kinda hard to know what you wanted when you wouldn't even tell me what I was looking for."
"The answer to their longevity," Lauren explained as she turned back to the microscope. "The fae have a hydrogen rich system, meaning they must metabolize water differently."
"Oookay," James said. "So, what you're telling me is that to the fae water really is the elixir of life?"
"I think so, yes. Normally hydronium is short-lived, so I'm guessing that their circulatory pH levels are more acidic, thereby preventing the degradation of the ions."
James studied the excited doctor for a moment, trying to string his thoughts together. At first his lust for her clouded his reasoning and he couldn't figure out why the long life of the fae might be important to her. As he came to understand, he felt like kicking himself. The succubus. Lauren had been researching a way to put herself on a level playing field. He couldn't decide if he should be impressed or disturbed.
If the doctor succeeded and word got out, humanity would never be the same.
Lauren suddenly stopped her excited chatter, cocking her head to the side. "Did you hear that?"
James shrugged out of his reverie. "Hear what?"
A second, enormous explosion rocked through compound, rumbling the floor beneath their feet. The lab went dark. Seconds later the emergency lights blinked into existence.
"What the fuck was that?" James questioned, forgetting his number one rule not to swear in the presence of a lady.
"I have no idea, but it can't be good," Lauren said.
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