Tamsin frowned at Lauren's still form stretched out on top of the grey comforter. Dyson had wanted to take her to the Light Fae lab, but the valkyrie had pointed out, with Bo and Kenzi's vehement backing, that it was unlikely they could do anything for her given that all of the techs in the lab were so clueless when it came to human biology that they would most certainly do more harm than good when dealing with anything internal so they had brought her back to her own apartment, hoping that something in the half-lab half-living room would have something that could help. Tamsin had some herblore knowledge stored in the recesses of her mind from having spent numerous lives before modern medicine and so had spent ten minutes agonizing over the doctor's living wall near the door while Bo fussed over her in her room. She ended up coming away frustrated and empty-handed, though. Without knowing the exact nature of the toxins inside the doctor, it was hard to know what would help and what would make things worse. While she was more or less confident in her ability to identify the medicinal plants Lauren had stashed around her apartment, she knew she didn't have the kind of knowledge needed to take samples and identify poisons. Asking the venefica was out of the question as Dyson and Kenzi had taken Rona to the lab, worried that Tamsin had given the witch some kind of head trauma. Part of her was actively wishing she'd hit the redhead harder while the other part was hoping she was fine so they could get to the saving Lauren part of the stupid bargain the shifter had agreed to.
Bo had been hovering around the doctor once Tamsin returned to the bedroom after giving up on discovering anything of use, smoothing back Lauren's hair and looking like she was on the verge of bursting into tears or throwing something and honestly, Tamsin could relate. Bo had excused herself a moment ago to call Trick and inform him as to what was going on. If anyone could help them with Lauren, it would be him. Her gaze was drawn toward the doctor's face when she let out a pained groan in her sleep, but didn't open her eyes. Lauren had passed out on the way to the apartment and while she wasn't running a fever and was at the very least, hovering back and forth between waking and sleeping, they were still concerned given that none of them knew what kind of toxins needed to be counteracted and Rona wouldn't tell them before they helped her even if the Valkyrie hadn't cold cocked her. Tamsin knelt down next to the bed and tilted the doctor's head to one side gently to take a look at the wound on her neck. She couldn't help with the poisons, but wounds she could do. The cut was deeper than it had initially looked but it wouldn't need any stitches and it probably wouldn't even leave a scar. She knew it needed to be cleaned, but the blood had stopped, the wound was dry and she was very reluctant to leave the doctor's side when there was no one else there.
"C'mon, doc." She whispered more to herself than to Lauren. "You're gonna be okay." The valkyrie took the human's hand in both of hers and sucked in a breath, trying to get air in her lungs past the tight knot of helplessness in her chest. Letting out the air slowly, she started murmuring supplications in a language she never spoke if she could help it. She wasn't even the praying kind. It wasn't really that she didn't believe in gods, it was that she mostly didn't care. They never did much for her except give her grief and yet there she was, using the language of her birth to plead with a healing goddess long forgotten by humans to do something where she could not.
"That's pretty." The doctor said softly, interrupting her mid prayer, her voice quiet and strained. "I've never heard Old Norse out loud. I expected it to sound more like Icelandic."
Tamsin smiled and turned her gaze to Lauren's face, finding the doctor looking at her. "You ever turn that science brain off?" she teased lightly.
Lauren returned the smile weakly and twisted her hand to interlace their fingers. "What were you saying?"
Tamsin shrugged, suddenly feeling embarrassed. "Nothing, just talking. How are you feeling?"
"Like I've been poisoned." She joked dryly, gently squeezing the hand in hers. "I'm not really in the condition to do anything about it." She continued, her voice displaying her rising frustration. "My whole body feels too heavy to move… I think… whatever toxins are in me are mildly paralytic."
"Bo is downstairs talking to Trick right now. Is there anything here that would help?"
Lauren closed her eyes for a minute, trying to recall if she had anything useful on the premises. If she was half as tired as she looked, it was a small miracle she was carrying on a conversation. "I wouldn't know without some tests first." She said finally, opening her eyes. She let out a breathy laugh but her face was pained and she looked as if she was struggling to keep her eyes open. "You know, it's never occurred to me to keep anything more serious than aspirin for my own use… kind of reckless, now that I think about it."
Tamsin frowned and leaned over to place a kiss on the doctor's temple. "I won't let anything happen to you, doc, don't worry." She let go of Lauren's hand and stood up when the human gave a barely perceptible nod, closing her eyes as she slipped back into unconsciousness. The valkyrie shifted her weight back and forth uncomfortably, hating the powerlessness overwhelming her. She wanted to be able to do something immediate to help, wanted to hurt something to make things better, but they wouldn't even know where to start until Rona was checked out and conscious.
"How is she?" Bo asked behind her as she stepped into the room, the distress she felt evident on her face and in her voice.
The valkyrie shrugged and stuffed her hands in her back pockets. "In and out." She replied as passively as she could, taking several steps back as she watched the succubus cross the room and sit on the edge of the bed next to the doctor. "She came around for a second while you were on the phone… she said there's nothing here to help her without getting real sciencey about it."
Bo's brow creased in further worry and she gently stroked the side of Lauren's face before sighing and looking over at the Dark Fae. "Trick said he'd sold the abath horn he'd gotten from when Kenzi ate some infected soup once, but he had some of the powder left. He wasn't sure if it would be enough to fully cure venefica poison, but if nothing else, it would help slow the effects until Rona can tell us how to cure it... I called Kenzi and Dyson too. They said they'd go get the powder from Trick once Rona is cleared, which should be any minute."
"Did you tell them to hurry up? She'll be fine, I didn't even hit her that hard."
"Kenzi said you fractured her nose and gave her a grade three concussion, whatever that means." The brunette replied.
Tamsin shrugged more at the irritation in the succubus' voice than at the information. If she hadn't punched the redhead, they would probably be off hunting down Mr. Miller but there was no point in getting pissy about it now, she had already done it and couldn't undo it. She pulled her gaze back down to Lauren to avoid rolling her eyes at the perturbed brunette. The doctor's face had grown pallid and the delicate skin around her eyes was darkening to reds and purples as if it were bruised. She crossed her arms over her chest and gripped her upper arms hard, digging her fingernails into flesh through her jacket to keep herself from fidgeting nervously and taking purchase on the other side of the bed next to the doctor in equal measure.
She definitely wasn't as unobservant as she liked to make people think. She was well aware that the succubus knew about the mutual attraction between herself and the human and probably had for a well before it had ever been acted on. Normally, Tamsin was all about making people uncomfortable if not downright mad, especially when she felt their relationship was too friendly. It kept people from getting or wanting to get closer than she was entirely happy with. It was her way of not just keeping herself safe, but others as well. It was different this time though, and she was aware of that too. She wasn't really one for defined romantic relationships and usually, even the word 'relationship' being mentioned by a partner sent her in the opposite direction.
It wasn't like she and Lauren had ever talked about having a relationship, but the valkyrie was mindful that the human didn't seem the type to love em and leave em if she could help it and when she thought of the doctor, she found the prospect of something beyond something casual enticing rather than anxiety inducing. And if she were brutally honest with herself, she actually really liked and cared about Bo's little circle of friends and wanted to stay in rotation with them. Even Dyson had moments where everything coming out of his mouth didn't make her want to roll her eyes out of her head. For once in her life, and that was certainly saying something, she felt like she belonged somewhere. She didn't intend on fouling that up, and pissing Bo off too much was almost certainly a ticket out of the Happy Sunshine Gang so she made a point of not being too overtly familiar with the human in Bo's presence though she knew the succubus realized something more was going on recently, even if she didn't know the exact details.
Tamsin felt wasn't her place to say anything anyways. If she said anything to the succubus, it would definitely be taken the wrong way. If not for her usual inability to choose the right words when it came to serious topics, than for the almost constant underlying caustic timbre to her voice she didn't know how to get rid of without being exceedingly drunk or scared (and mostly, if she was willing to admit she was scared out loud, she was probably exceedingly drunk as well). She figured the best course of action was to leave everything up to the doctor. It was true that Lauren and Bo had been more off than on in the last couple years of their revolving door relationship and Lauren was very receptive to even her subtle flirting, Tamsin had purposely let the doctor take lead with anything physical just in case and thus far, she hadn't disappointed but she still didn't want to make assumptions. Lauren was good at masking her emotions when she wanted to, and while the valkyrie was confident to the point of arrogance that the human had been physically attracted to her for quite some time, it was hard to know what she expected. So she figured the litmus test about the seriousness of the doctor's feelings was whether or not she'd talk to Bo about it; but first they had to fix this mess to even give that idea a chance.
"You do care about her." Bo said suddenly as if reading her thoughts and causing the valkyrie to pull her gaze away from the doctor's face to the succubus who was staring at her intently.
"Yeah, well…" Tamsin replied shrugging and trailing off when she realized it hadn't been a question.
"I know what you mean." Bo replied, a ghost of a smile flickering on her face. She pressed her lips to Lauren's forehead as she got up from the bed and stood near the taller blonde, studying her carefully.
Tamsin knew she was being sized up in a way that had nothing to do with physical fighting and it took everything within her to not to make an exasperated noise in the back of her throat and keep her expression as neutral as possible. She wanted to point out that she didn't need the succubus' permission to do anything that didn't involve her, but she clenched her jaw instead and held the brunette's gaze, practically daring her to question her motives but she nodded her head once as if she'd seen what she had been looking for and sighed.
"We're going to fix this." Bo said finally, sounding more sure than she looked. The valkyrie nodded though both of their attentions had drifted back to Lauren when she let out a troubled whimper. "I'm going to make sure Trick knows they're coming." She glanced over at the Dark Fae as she moved to leave the room again. "Stay with her, okay?"
"Yeah, of course." Tamsin responded, cocking her head slightly to one side as she tried to puzzle out the other woman's distressed expression. She couldn't be sure if it was the result of the situation, the verbal acknowledgment that something was happening between the two blondes or some combination of both but she wasn't going to question her about it.
"I'll tell them to hurry."
The valkyrie made a noise of acknowledgement, but wasn't really paying attention to Bo, having already situated herself sideways on the edge of the bed so she could keep an eye on Lauren's face. She could feel the succubus' eyes boring a hole in her back but she ignored her, exhaling as much tension as she could a minute later when she felt Bo leave.
"We're gonna fix this." Tamsin echoed softly, pushing stray hair away from the doctor's forehead which was covered in a light sheen of sweat and burned under her fingertips.