A loud knock on the door startled Lauren awake and she bolted upright from her slumped over position at her desk, immediately regretting the action as her vision became consumed with bright white light and a flash of pain shot through her head. She pressed the heels of her palms gently into her eyes that were now squeezed shut and groaned slightly. Sighing, she pushed herself away from the desk and gently ran her hands over her cheeks checking to make sure she didn't have any sleep lines embedded in them. Smoothing down the front of her shirt, she opened the door to reveal the Dark Fae valkyrie standing akimbo with a strange mix of concerned and annoyed on her face.

"Catch ya at a bad time, doc?" Tamsin asked, crossing her arms over her chest and sounding exasperated, but she looked relieved as she gave her a once over. "Were you…were you sleeping in the middle of the day?"

Lauren felt her face flush in spite of Tamsin's teasing tone and shrugged slightly taking a step back into the apartment while running a hand through her tousled hair to make room for the other woman to get by her. "It was a long night." She mumbled, her voice hoarse and closing the door behind the fae woman while trying not to look away when Tamsin threw her a cocky smile.

"Oh my god." Tamsin said suddenly when she spied the half full pitcher of water on Lauren's work desk along with the empty glass beside it and just then registering how dim the apartment lights were. "Are you hungover, doc?" She whispered conspiratorially, doing nothing to hide the glee in her voice or on her face. "Is that why you weren't at the lab?"

Lauren frowned slightly. When she had gone inside last night, she knew she needed to hydrate and go straight to sleep since she had predicted a hangover but against her own logic, she'd lain awake half drunk from the whisky she'd drank and half drunk from replaying that kiss over and over. "I was in the lab this morning." Lauren defended, nearly wincing at how loud her voice sounded in her head. "If the opportunity to work from home presents itself, I do take it on occasion." It wasn't a total lie. "You should have called."

Tamsin let out a puff of air between her lips like she was trying not to laugh and gestured to the cellphone on Lauren's desk. "I did. A lot. You can check, if ya want."

The doctor moved past her, unnecessarily brushing against Tamsin's arm on the way to her desk and picked up her phone. Five missed calls, four from the police station and one from Tamsin's cell. She chided herself mentally, only just then realizing how long she'd been asleep at her desk. No wonder why her neck and shoulders were so sore. "I'm guessing since only one of these missed calls is your number that this isn't a personal visit?"

The valkyrie licked her lower lip and smirked. "Would that it could be, doc, but nah, I'm all business today." Tamsin knew Lauren hadn't meant the question that way but she couldn't help herself.

"What's going on?" the human prompted, her tone professional.

"There's sort of a predicament the wolf boy and I find ourselves in, see? It's actually better that you're here since the less fae that know about this, the better."

"What's happened?"

"Well you remember that manticore nest a while back?" she waited for Lauren to nod before continuing. "It was a little more complicated than 'business as usual'. The jackass breeding the damn things was a human and he's not the first one we've caught with underfae or fae related crap on him in the last six months."

"What?" Lauren breathed, her tone incredulous. It wasn't unheard of for humans to get their hands on fae artifacts or even the occasional underfae but it was highly unusual to hear of it more than once in a six month period let alone come across any humans with the knowhow on breeding something like manticore.

"We've been kinda Secret Squirrel about this whole thing but it's getting ridiculous. From what we've gathered so far, there's something of a black market for fae and underfae related shit. No big deal, right? That's the nature of the beast. The problem is, is that this market isn't sanctioned."

"Isn't that what a black market is though?"

Tamsin shrugged. "Sure, your average illegal human black market is exactly that. They even end up with our shit on occasion too. You know, I heard that a while back there was even a mongolian death worm on the human market, but that's not the point. Somebody always runs fae black markets, despite the name. They probably would still be under the radar without this Dark Fae, Light Fae intramural kumbaya bullshit at the cop shop, to be honest. Wolf boy says his people aren't running it and my people sure as hell aren't running it so someone is not only making unsanctioned money on this shit but they're selling exclusively to humans."

"How do you know it's only humans? I admit it's highly unusual to find fae related anything in human possession with any frequency, but…"

"…Nine times." Tamsin interrupted. We've caught nine different humans in the last six months with some serious shit, doc. At least four of them didn't even know what they really had. We did a catch and release on the last guy, the one with the manticores? Well we followed him to where this thing is going down, big abandoned warehouse, natch but when we go to do the undercover thing, we can't get in."

"What do you mean you couldn't get in? Wards?"

"Yeah, some kinda wards too. Tried to take a step in through the side door and got thrown back a good distance. The shifter has no soft parts, I'dda been better off landing on the ground, ya know?" Tamsin frowned and rubbed at her elbow like she was remembering the landing. "Anyways, I've only seen wards like that a couple times. They're really hard to pull off properly. Generally, they only keep certain fae out. It's a popular ward when one side wants to keep the other side out of an area temporarily since it only works for about six hours. But since neither Dyson nor I could get it, it's not side specific. Near as we can figure, it's keeping out all fae except whoevers running the damn thing."

"And you guys can't figure out who that is?"

"Nah. There's only three ways in that we saw. There's a delivery entrance but it's sealed, the aforementioned side door and the front door the humans were using which was also warded. I waited at the front and Dyson at the side but we only ever saw the humans who'd gone in come out. We went in after the wards wore off and the whole damn place was empty."

"What can I do?"

Tamsin smiled slightly. "Gee, I'm glad you asked! So the thing is, if only humans can get in there, we need some humans to, well, get in there, right? Figure out if they can see whose running the show, or if not get a scope on what's being sold and that might give a clue."

"And…and you're asking me to do it? Tamsin, I'm not really…"

"Oh c'mon, doc! I've seen you spit in the face of a dude who could bench you with one hand, you'll be fine. Plus, you won't be going alone, Kenzi will be with you."

Lauren refrained from rolling her eyes. "You want me and Kenzi to go undercover as purchasers of illicit fae goods? Have you lost your…"

"Yeah, sounds crazy, right?" the valkyrie interrupted. "But look, you guys'd be perfect for the job! You've got all the required fae and underfae knowledge needed but no offense, you're lacking in some of the social graces needed to clench a black market deal."

The doctor scoffed, but wasn't really offended, Tamsin was right. "And Kenzi does?" she asked anyways, already knowing she did.

"That little land pirate once swindled me out of an unopened bottle of scotch old enough to have babysat her grandmother and I wasn't even mad about it until two hours later."

"Good enough for me." She conceded, not surprised but still impressed. "Still, I don't think I'll be allowed to…"

"…Taken care of! What do you take me for, an amateur? Anyways, like I said, everyone is losing money and only god knows what they're selling these dumbasses. The Morrigan and the Ash are very interested in seeing this come to a successful, profitable and more importantly, quiet, conclusion. So, you gonna help or what?"

A self-deprecating smile flickered on the shorter blondes face. "Do I really have a choice in the matter?" Lauren rolled her eyes at the sharp bitterness in her tone. It wasn't Tamsin's fault, being resentful about it wasn't going to change things.

Tamsin frowned and moved into Lauren's personal space. "Hey," she started, her tone softer than normal. "I can just make some shit up, if you don't wanna, I'm not going to make you." She reached over the short distance and hovered her hand near Lauren's shoulder like she was going to touch her but dropped it back to her side and stepped back far enough to where she couldn't hear Lauren swallow hard. "Just think about it, is all." She supplied in her normal voice after clearing her throat. "We'll be meeting at the clubhouse tomorrow at noon to get ready. You know, if it hasn't caved in on itself before then. If you're not there by twelve thirty, we'll work on plan B, okay?"

Lauren nodded and smiled slightly, walking the taller woman to the door. She wanted to ask her about last night, wanted to tell her that she hadn't kissed her because she wasn't sober but had gotten the courage to but she opened the door and leaned against it slightly and watched the valkyrie step over the threshold. "Thanks…again."

Tamsin shrugged nonchalantly but she looked pleased with herself. "Don't worry bout it. Just keep hydrated, alright?"

"If you could maybe not say anything about…"

"Really?" she interrupted with a hand on her hip. "Who am I gonna tell? If a girl isn't entitled to get stupid drunk every so often, what's even the point? Don't worry, doc. Last night is strictly between you and me." She winked and sauntered down the walkway, leaving a slightly besotted Lauren staring after her.