Cheers for all the feedback folks, you guys are awesome, it certainly keeps the motivation going and ideas pumping. Obviously moving into a different stage of the story outside of Tamsin and Lauren being captive. I'm still not entirely sure how to play it but have a reasonable idea of endgame. I have a heap of travel (i.e airport down time) coming up in the next month so hopefully I'll be able to crack through and finish this bad boy. Thoughts, advice and inspiration are all welcome at this point!
Tamsin woke to the sound of tapping on her truck window. She wasn't startled, she knew she'd be found. The Valkyrie had barley tried to cover her tracks. In the month since the woods there had been alcohol, passing out and very little else.
"Just when you thought a girl couldn't look any worse..." the Morrigan looked Tamsin over from a safe distance outside of her truck.
Rolling down the window but barley lifting her vision, eyes only partly opened, the Valkyrie simply smirked, "keep up those comments Evony and I might actually grow some feelings and start to give a shit."
Tamsin started rustling around the passenger seat of her truck trying to find the remnants of the previous evening's liquid dinner. Victory! The Valkyrie must have passed out before finishing her bottle of whiskey leaving just enough to give the day the jump start it needed. "Are you here to take me in sheriff?" taking a strong swig from the bottle the blonde finally met the Morrigan's eyes.
"I'm not taking you anywhere, you're filthy and pathetic and quite frankly I don't want to risk catching filthiness or patheticness from you". Despite the facade Evony saw a look of relief flash across the Tamsin's face before she brought the bottle to her mouth again and shrugged her shoulders dismissively. "You are however going back to work. You might have cocked up the execution but we'll be calling in that IOU soon enough, so until then its back to the wolf you go".
"I was actually thinking about a career change" the Valkyrie mused.
The Morrigan lifted her thin eyebrows "Is there much of a market for drunken sociopaths?"
"I don't know, how'd you land your gig?" Tamsin responded.
The Morrigan smiled. The Valkyrie may not have wanted to believe it but she still had some fight in her. If she has fight in her, then she must want to live and that was all the leverage that was required to control her.
"Let me be very clear for you Tamsin. You have no choice. You go back to working with Dyson today, you go back to playing nice with the happy sunshine gang and most importantly you go back to being my little bitch".
The anger that burned in Tamsin's eyes gave the Morrigan an inordinate amount of pleasure. Giving Tamsin a final smile the Morrigan simply turned on her heals and walked away "Toodles darling".
Tamsin slumped back into her seat eyeing the remnants of the bottle in her hand. She thought about what she would have to face in partnering back with Dyson. She thought about what she'd eventually be forced to do for the Morrigan. Shaking her head the Valkyrie let out a frustrated groan before leaning her arm out of the window of her truck and emptying the contents of her whiskey bottle onto the ground. Placing her hands on the steering wheel the blonde growled again before turning the key in the ignition and driving off.
The drive back to the city would give her plenty of time to think and although she tried to suppress the thought as best she could, it was impossible for her not to realize that being sent back to work would inevitably lead her to see Lauren again. For whatever reason the prospect made her nervous.
Arriving at the precinct Tamsin ignored the stares as she walked through the door and headed straight for the locker room. Her belongings still in place she was able change her shirt and freshen up before facing up to Dyson. As she approached their desk she saw him look up from his paperwork and was relieved to see a genuine smile cross his face.
"Tamsin, you look...well you look like shit" a sympathetic look came into his eyes.
"Wow. A girl might start to get a complex. It's good to see you wolf breath, at least it's good to see you when you're not trying to bite chunks out of my ass"
"It's good to see you too, especially when you're not trying to kill one of my friends", Dyson stood up to hug the Valkyrie but watched the expression on her face turn to a clear don't you dare as she pulled back.
"Clearly it's been too long between beers bud, but we don't hug...I don't hug"
Dyson laughed and threw his hands in the air "sorry."
"...and about the sword over the Doc's head, you should know we had kind of struck an agreement, she wanted me to cut off her head..." Tamsin winced as she heard her words and saw Dyson's face. The two things combined immediately made her stomach churn. She was riddled with guilt.
Noticing the sudden emotion in the Valkyrie's eyes Dyson lifted a hand to her shoulder, "Lauren hasn't said much about what happened but what she has said is that she would have been dead a long while back if you hadn't been there, she told us what she asked you to do"
"Oh yeah, so the Succubus is understanding then?"
"I'm not sure there is an excuse good enough in the world for Bo as to why anyone would lay a hand on Lauren, but yeah, I think she accepts that you were in pretty unique circumstances."
Tamsin fiddled with some files on the desk in front of her before asking almost off handedly, "how is Lauren?" When she looked up at Dyson she could see he was considering how best to answer the question.
"Physically she's on the mend, she won't be dancing anytime soon but she's doing well..." Dyson paused briefly as he took stock of the next part of his answer. "...emotionally, I don't know what to say. She doesn't speak much, she hasn't really told anyone what happened, but I guess we all know it was pretty brutal." Tamsin looked at Dyson with an emptiness in her eyes you've got no fucking idea.
Dyson saw the Valkyrie's reaction to his comment "what did happen to her? To you?"
Tamsin tried to find the words, even a witty retort, but she was blank. As the memories of her experience with Lauren flooded her mind, she abruptly shook her head in an attempt to shake them away. The two stood there silently, Tamsin trying to find an answer and Dyson desperately wanting to understand what his friends had been through, but no words came. In the end the wolf quietly whispered "another time". Tamsin, grateful for the interjection simply nodded her head.
"So what are we working on?" Tamsin asked charging the subject.
"Bo" Dyson replied.
"If you're talking sex I'm not sure I want to partner up with you on this one" Tamsin responded patting the wolf on the shoulder.
"No. When we came to the woods to find Lauren, Bo was bitten by something that injected a venom in her"
"It would have been the Drakkon that was there running the show"
"Right, we worked out as much, but the funny thing is, despite healing, the venom in Bo's system won't go away completely. Healing seems to just reduce the venom count briefly before it builds in her system again".
"So the Succubus needs to have longer healing sessions? Doesn't sound all that awful to me"
"She's tried everything, trust me..." Dyson caught himself and the Valkyrie smirked "oh I do"
Feeling the tension Tamsin continued "so what impact is the venom having on her?"
"Very little at the moment but she hasn't been letting the venom get to significant levels. What we know is that Drakkon venom is potent and can kill but it should have been wiped from her system by now, this is something different".
"So what do we do?" Asked the Valkyrie
"Ideally we need to get Lauren to look over these files and give us her opinion, nobody knows as much about this stuff as she does. In the meantime we continue the search for the Drakkon who was in the woods that day".
Tamsin and Dyson got to work. The Valkyrie was able to give the wolf a run down on her conversation with the Drakkon and together they started piecing together a list of networks to tap into. For Tamsin, it felt good to be useful and more importantly, busy. The whole day the two detectives bounced ideas off each other and complained about the quality of the precinct coffee. They worked well together, both of them would admit as much.
Stretching back in her chair, the Valkyrie was tired but ready for a drink "It's been a big first day back, I suggest we try to forget about it with a couple of beers and my kicking your ass at pool"
"Actually I was hoping I could give you one more job."
"Urrrgh, pushing the boundaries of friendship here Dyson"
"I need you to take these files to Lauren, you might be able to get a better sense from her whether she's up for reviewing them. Bo has been keen to let her rest but I don't think we can afford the time"
Pausing for a moment, the Valkyrie's stomach turned for the second time that day. "OK, give me the files."
Tamsin stood outside Lauren's apartment door for nearly five minutes before finally bringing her knuckles down to knock. When she did she could hear shuffling inside. It took a couple of minutes for Lauren to get to the door. When the human finally opened up she stood in front of Tamsin with a cast on her leg and arm and an exasperated expression on her face. The two women looked each other in the eye both with a measure of warmth and saddness. Without saying anything, Lauren opened the door further and in the action of doing so invited the Valkyire in.
Tamsin walked in and passed the Doctor, holding her eye a brief moment longer than was required, "looking better than the last time I saw you Doc."
"Not sure I can say the same for you Tamsin".
Lauren's comment stopped the Valkyrie in her stride. She turned to face Lauren and smiled, "ouch Doc, I'm not getting a lot of love today". Lauren, also smiling, limped up to the Valkyrie and placed her arms around her for a warm embrace, a hug, "I was worried about you" she whispered. Still with arms around each other Lauren pulled back slightly to face the Valkyrie "are you ok?"
"You don't need to worry about me Doc".
Bringing a hand to the Valkyrie's cheek Lauren's eyes welled up with tears "I know" she whispered.
The two women disengaged from their embrace and Lauren walked slowly over to her couch where she gently put herself down. Following behind Tamsin stood over Lauren with the medical files in her hand. Looking up Lauren noticed them for the first time.
"Back at work I see, are you here for help?"
"Only if you're up for it"
Nodding her head Lauren's eyes again filled up with tears but this time they overflowed and ran down her reddened cheeks "of course".
"Hmmmm, convincing. Look, why don't I come back in the morning, bring you some coffee and we can get into this then?"
Nodding again Lauren non-verbally agreed with the Valkyrie. "Alright then, I'll be back with breakfast in the morning" Tamsin winked and began to walk past the Doctor on the couch. As she moved towards the door Lauren grabbed hold of her wrist. Turning around Tamsin looked down at the Doctor with questioning eyes.
Lauren's eye's, still filled with tears, pleaded with Tamsin, "please don't go...I need you to stay with me..."