Sorry this update took sooooooo long. Had a pretty crappy week, me and my girlfriend of 16months split up recently so we had to do the whole 'giving back each others stuff' thing. Which SUCKED. But as they say, each time one door closes another one opens.

Here is chapter two. I hope you like it...Please read and review (reviews make me smile).

Characters are not mine, made up story etc etc and so on...

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Lauren stood at the entrance of the big dark-glassed building and watched the sports car speed away. She had half expected Lachlan to come in with her so he could keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't say or do something that would show him up, but he had claimed he had more important things to do than 'babysit her' and 'even she should be able to not screw up something so simple.' Lauren suspected that they were just excuses and in reality he was unable to accompany her, for reasons other than his own. He had made up for not being there by having a long rant at her in the car.

"Right we are here. We are going to go through a few things before you go in."

"You're not coming with me?"

"No Lauren. I think even you should be able to not screw up something this simple."

Lauren flinched a little at his words, he always knew how to make her feel small.

"Besides I have much more important things to do today than babysit you."

Like visit one of your whore? Lauren thought with disgust. Lachlan's infidelity was no secret to her, in fact he made sure she knew all about what he got up to, and how lucky she was that he didn't permanently trade her in for another woman. Lauren looked out the window at the tall glass building, the glass was dark and she was unable to see inside, but the outside didn't resemble any medical facility she had ever seen before.

"Lauren, I do not think you are paying attention to what I'm saying."

Lauren felt a sharp pain in her wrist and looked down, Lachlan's fingers gripped her tightly, his nails digging into the delicate skin. Lauren did her best to not let out a whimper of pain.

"Lachlan you are..."

Lachlan's grip tightened even more and Lauren bit the inside of her cheek to stop her cry from escaping. Amusement and anger seemed to dance in his eyes, almost daring her to challenge him, daring her to tell him to stop. In that moment Lauren wanted to speak up more than anything. Being here, outside this building that could hold so many possibilities seemed to spark something inside her, but she knew she couldn't. Any words she said or moves she made would be used to punish her later.

"I know you are only trying to help me, you always do your best for me. I'm sorry I wasn't listening, I guess i'm just nervous."

Almost as an after thought she added,

"I'm lucky to have you."

Lachlan seemed satisfied by her words and loosened his grip a little, however his hand stayed on her wrist, Lauren could see the cream coloured skin underneath was now a mess of pink and purple.

"Yes you are Lauren, and its something you shouldn't forget in a hurry. Now here are the rules..."

Lauren gave a deep sigh and pulled the sleeve of her shirt down a little further, once Lachlan had finished talking and removed his hand from her wrist, he looked almost remorseful about the discoloration of her skin. Not about the fact that he had done it, more about the fact that people might see it, important people that he wouldn't want to learn of his abusive nature.

Lauren entered the tall glass building and let out a surprised gasp, the interior of the building was not at all how she had expected. She fingered the edge of her portfolio nervously and walked across the vast white lobby. The lobby was empty except for two pristine looking white sofa's and a receptionist desk, as Lauren drew closer she got her first real look at the woman behind the desk. The woman, or perhaps girl was a better word as she looked barely out of her teens, looked as out of place in the giant white lobby as Lauren felt.

The girl was dressed mostly in black, the only colours coming from her bright red hair and her green and orange painted nails. She chewed gum loudly with her mouth open, a habit Lauren absolutely detested, while she flipped through a magazine and took sips from a coffee cup. The girl clearly hadn't notice Lauren arrive and for a moment Lauren felt lost about how to make her presence known, she placed her portfolio on the desk and cleared her throat.

"Hello I.."

The girl let out a yell and jumped up, knocking her chair over and spilling her cup of coffee in the process.

"Holy crap on a cracker! You scared the hell out of me. Why didn't you knock or something?"

Lauren raised her eyebrow quizzically at the young woman.

"Ok point taken, but sneaking up on people isn't cool you know. You could have given me a heart attack or brain aneurysm or asthma or something."

Lauren opened her mouth to argue that it was impossible for her actions to give the woman a brain aneurysm or asthma, but she thought better of it. She watched as the young Goth girl picked up her chair and began dabbing at her now coffee stained shirt with a tissue.

"I'm sorry about..."

The young woman raised her hand cutting Lauren off.

"Don't sweat it. Bo is always telling me I should pay more attentions to what's going on around me or whatevs. What can I do for you?"

"I'm here for an interview with..."

Crap, Lauren thought suddenly. Lachlan always referred to Trick simply as Trick, but Lauren didn't know if that was his first name, his last name or simply a nickname. Of all the things Lachlan had drilled into her in the car and he didn't even think to point out something so simple.

"With erm...Mr Trick?"

The young woman stopped dabbing her shirt and looked at Lauren as though she was crazy. When Lauren didn't respond, the young woman let out a loud laugh.

"Its just Trick. Who are you?"

"Dr Lewis. Lauren Lewis."

"You're going to be the new doc? You are not exactly what I expected."

Lauren didn't know whether to be happy or offended by the young woman's comment so she said nothing, however the fact that she had been called 'the new doc' didn't escape her notice, and she felt an internal wave of confidence build up inside her. Lauren watched patiently as the young woman picked up a phone and dialled a number.

"Yo Trickster, that doctor chick is in reception. Want me to send her to your office?... Yeah... Ok... Will Do...Peace Out T-Dog."

Lauren listened to the one sided exchange with interest, the woman seemed to be very familiar with this Trick, and the relationship seemed to be more familiar and friendly than professional.

"Ok so, go down the corridor on your left, fifth door on the right is Trick's office. He is just finishing up with something but he said you can wait in there for him."

"Ok great, thank you erm..."

"Kenzi."

"Thank you for your help Kenzi."

"All in a days work for wonder-Kenz."

Lauren picked up her portfolio and began walking towards the corridor, it looked the same as the lobby, bright white walls, floors and ceilings. Each door she walked passed looked the same as the last and none contained numbers. As she reached the fifth door on the right she gripped the handle tightly and pushed the door open. For the second time since arriving at the building, she found herself surprised. The room in front of her looked nothing like what she had seen so far. This room looked almost homely, a bookcase lined one wall and the rest of the free space seemed to be taken up by various statues and painting. In the middle of the room stood a beautiful mahogany desk, this too seemed to be covered with open books and papers. Lauren took a seat in one of the two chairs in front of the desk, she rested her portfolio on her lap and allowed her eyes to scan the beautiful artwork on the walls.

"Trick? Are you in here?"

Lauren jumped as a dark haired woman entered the room, she looked behind the desk and upon finding the chair empty, turned to leave. That was when she saw Lauren, their eyes connected and in that moment Lauren felt like she was on a roller-coaster going backwards through a loop. Her palms grew sweaty, her heart began beating rapidly and her stomach felt like it was doing summersaults. A smile tugged at the other woman's mouth before she seemed to catch herself and her face grew impassive, her eyes flashing with distrust.

"Who the hell are you?"

Lauren was taken aback by the question and the ferocity of her tone, clearly this woman had a shoot first, ask questions later kind of attitude.

"I..erm...my name is...Lauren."

Lauren knew she was stuttering like a child and she hated herself for it, but the strong presence of the woman in front of her made her feel nervous, and some other emotion she couldn't quiet put her finger on.

"Well...Lauren...Why are you here and where is Trick?"

Lauren watched as the woman rested her hand on the knife handle poking out of her belt. Lauren was sure if it was a conscious choice or a force of habit but she felt uneasy none the less.

"I...I dont know...The girl behind the desk...Kenzi? Told me to wait in here for him."

The dark haired woman gave a pained sigh and shot Lauren an annoyed look.

"Beeeeeecaaaaaaaaause?"

"I'm a doctor."

The annoyed look disappeared from the dark haired woman face and instead she now looked at Lauren as if she was trying to read her mind.

Lauren gave herself a mental kick. The more she opened her mouth the more she sounded like a fool. Lauren had never felt this way around another person before, she didn't understand it and she didnt much care for the affect it was having on her. She took a deep breath, I'm a doctor for Christ sake, I should be smart enough to at least string some words together into a coherent sentence. She mentally scolded herself.

"Sorry, let me try again. I'm Doctor Lauren Lewis, I have come for an interview with Trick for the lead medical researcher position."

The dark haired woman said nothing, but her face and body language relaxed a little, she continued to stare at Lauren, and Lauren couldn't help wondering if this was how the organisms under a microscope felt when she had the lens zoom set to a thousand.

"But you're human"

"Excuse me?...I don't understand what..."

"BO!"

The new voice belonged to a man, he hurried into the room and took the seat behind the large desk. He smiled apologetically at Lauren, before turning his attention back to the dark haired woman.

"Bo I told you I was busy this afternoon."

"Yeah Trick, I know but I need to speak to you about something."

"Is it urgent?"

"Its not...not urgent?"

"Bo..."

"Okay okay...just point me in the right direction and I will help myself."

Trick gave an exasperated sigh and shook his head as he got up from his desk.

The exchange reminded Lauren of how her father used to act sometimes when she was a child and wouldn't stop pestering him to look at one of her countless experiments. "Cant this wait till later?" he would ask, as he looked over the top of his newspaper at her, and she would always reply "I guess so daddy..I just really want you to see this one..." and then she would look at him with her big brown eyes and give him the hopeful smile that always worked, and with a small sigh he would be up and reaching for her hand, "come on then Dr Lewis, show me how we are changing the world today..." he would say, his paper already forgotten.

The memory made her heart hurt a little and threatened to provoke a tear to fall from her eyes, she hadn't thought of her father in so long but the pain still felt new. She quickly pushed back the memory and focused on the two people in the room. Trick was looking for something at the bookcase behind his desk while still talking to the dark haired woman. Bo, Lauren remembered even thought they hadn't been formally introduced. Bo however didn't seem to be listening because when Lauren turned to her, Bo was staring at her again, her face almost concerned.

"Are you ok?"

The question caught Lauren by surprise, first this Bo seemed almost hostile towards her and now she was asking about her wellbeing? if past experiences had taught her anything it was to always be wary of the intentions of strangers, and right now Bo was raising more red flags than green ones. The less contact she had with Bo the better.

"I am fine thank you."

Lauren replied keeping her tone cool as she turned away from Bo to once again focus on Trick.

"Jeez what is your..."

Bo was cut off by Trick dropping a heavy book onto his desk.

"Ok so this should help you identify the fae...miliar erm plant you were looking for earlier. Take it to the Dahl and I will meet you once I am finished here ok?"

Lauren could tell Bo wanted to argue with him, but from Trick's expression she clearly thought better of it.

"Fine. I will catch you later. Ok if I take Kenzi with me?"

"Yes that fine. She will probably be of more use to you anyway."

Bo grabbed the book and opened the door.

"Kenzi! We are going to the bar!"

"Whoop, Whoop! Mama bee is gonna get herself some sweet, sweet nectar!"

Bo gave Lauren one finally searching look.

"Good bye...Dr Lewis."

"Goodbye Bo."

"Kenzi! Nothing from the top shelf. I mean it."

Trick called out as Bo began closing the door.

"Sorry Trickster I can't hear yooooooooooou"

Bo gave Trick a wink and closed the door behind her. Trick once again sat down behind his desk and got comfortable. Once he was settled, he gave Lauren a big smile, almost at once Lauren felt calm and relaxed.

"Ok Dr Lewis, shall we begin?"

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I wasnt going to write the actual meeting...then I decided I would but this chapter is already kinda long so its going to be the next one. :)