Disclaimer: Wishing I owned some of this; Still don't.

AN: Okay I KNOW I'M SORRY. I had to do it though. I mean I've read up on the mythology of Succubi and Incubi and I had to use some of it. I could have wasted everyone's time in this chapter and reviewed all of the mythology but I was nice enough not to. However, the child is Dyson's, explanation below.

I will say "theoutlier" you got it right on the money. You clearly took a gander at the myths surrounds succubus, nicely done. I thought of going the route of Taft's kid but that grossed me out even more than Dyson's the 'noble'. So no Taft.

I'm sorry for the confusion for those who did get lost in my methodology but I hope you end up liking the twists and turns in this story. I'm going at a faster pace then I had expected so lets hope I can keep it up.

Please feel free to continue feeding my ego. Thanks to all those keeping up and reviewing this story.

Again question: should I put the little flashbacks into Italics? Easier or harder to read? Thoughts, comments, angry criticism?

Lauren woke up to the smell of cinnamon and honey. Slowly rising from the bed she wasn't overly surprised to see that Faith was gone. She was surprised to see Faith setting down a tray on the small dining table for two.

"Did I wake you?" Faith asked pulling out a chair for Lauren.

"I'm not sure. I think I was ready to wake up anyways. Do you know what time it is?" She asked looking out towards the window.

"It's past two in the afternoon. I figured since you missed breakfast you might want some now." Faith said removing the heating covers. "I wasn't sure how your stomach has been so I went with oatmeal and strawberries, a glass of orange juice, and a cup of decaffeinated coffee."

"I'm starving actually and it smells wonderful." Lauren said getting up and walking towards the dining table. She wished she had thought to pick up her robe from the lab cabinet before letting Faith bring her upstairs.

Faith waited for Lauren to take a seat before taking the one opposite her. "I think we should talk." Faith said wishing for a more opportune moment but knowing if she didn't address the topic soon she would only end up avoiding it.

"I'm guessing from your tone it is serious." Lauren quipped placing a napkin on her lap and stirring her oatmeal.

"I have a spent the morning and afternoon researching what you told me this morning." Faith began referencing the pregnancy and paternity of the fetus. "It's been a long time since I've looked into the lives of the Fae and their various species. I've had no need to until today really." Faith said unsure how to really broach the topic. "Though my knowledge is not as extensive as perhaps yours is I do know enough to know where to look. As it is...I know you are curious as to how you managed to conceive Dyson's child since you have never had relations with him." Faith said hoping to remain impassive and clinical.

"I can assure you beyond a single doubt that I have never had 'relations' with Dyson nor would I ever want to." Lauren said a little too harshly.

"This is awkward to say the least." Faith began again. "I am sure you have studied up on Succubus's extensively as a species but I am afraid you have missed something. Part of it was lore and most of it I suppose can be disregarded, however, you are proof that part of it is true."

"Faith get to the point, you're not making much sense." Lauren said sharply and instantly felt ashamed for snapping at Faith. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm more than comfortable talking about sex but the process of conception through a third party seems to put me to the blush." Faith said looking anywhere but at Lauren. "But as I was saying, lore states that Succubus would harvest the sperm of males and transfer it to Incubus, so that the Incubus could impregnate a woman. The lore is clearly off but it does have a bearing of truth. You see most Succubus don't reproduce. It is counter-productive to their nature. A succubus is a creature of sexual desire and a lot of desire is based on appearance." Faith paused collecting her thoughts. "Succubus do reproduce but from what I have found and what I have gathered is that most do not go into their reproductive cycles until after their Dawning ceremony. Some take centuries after the ceremony. Even when they do enter their cycle it is on a longer scale than that of a different species of Fae or of a human. From what I have been able to gather they are only fertile twice a year once they are ready to reproduce."

"So what you are in essence saying is that Bo harvested Dyson's sperm and used it to impregnate me?" Lauren asked incredulously.

"Basically...yes. I mean it's the only thing that makes sense. The history of Succubi and Incubi is rather distorted by separate accounts from humans. Humans blamed Succubus and Incubus for a variety of deformities in children. So removing the human factor and lore I conclude that by having sex with the succubus after she had sexual relations with the wolf you were able to conceive. It's clear the succubus doesn't know enough about herself to be careful with her male sexual partners or her female ones for that matter." Faith said hoping she had kept the disdain from her voice.

"I think I am going to be sick." Lauren said standing up and running to the adjoining bathroom.

Releasing a frustrated sigh for a conversation that had clearly not gone as well as she had planned Faith stood up and followed Lauren to the bathroom. Grabbing a washcloth she turned on the hot water and let it run for a minute before soaking the cloth. Wringing it out she handed it to Lauren wordlessly.

Flushing the toilet Lauren used the cloth to wipe her mouth and stared at Faith hopelessly. "What am I going to do Faith?"

Again Faith wished she wasn't being asked a question she didn't know how to answer. "Beatrice I can't answer that question for you. I can give you options but some of them might be obsolete either way." Faith said getting ready to enter the next part of a difficult conversation.

"Meaning?" Lauren asked taking a seat on the toilet and bracing herself.

"Your body could naturally abort the child."Faith said feeling it was better to put out the most difficult topic first.

"Why?"

"Because the child's father is Fae." Faith said simply but knew from the look Lauren was giving her that she would have to expound on the topic. "We are two different branches of the same evolutionary tree you could say. Humans are the tree. We are both able to reproduce with humans but nearly every case of interbreeding between us and the Fae have been catastrophic. The children either don't survive the pregnancy, the birth, or through their first year. The few that do survive are worse off than the dead. They are deformed with a hunger that can never be satisfied. The grow too quickly and destroy everything in their path. The birth mothers in those cases also have a hard time surviving. I didn't want to bring this up yet but I don't really have a choice in the matter.

You are a hybrid of us and human. So the child has a fifty percent chance of survival. If the child is a mix of your human side and Fae, he or she will most likely survive. If the child is a mix of us and Fae than it would be kinder to you and the child if we abort it now. That is if your body does not do it for us." Faith said sadly.

"Faith what am I really?" Lauren asked amazed that she had held off from asking for so long.

"You are Dhampir, though not through the traditional sense. Michaels daughters were Dhampir directly. You are a rarity. Your mother and father were both great grand children of vampires. Over the generations the blood lines get diluted and eventually only humans are born but every once in a while a child will be born Dhampir without having a vampire for a parent. You are that rarity. It's why you rarely get sick. It's why you've healed faster than the other children. It's why you will live longer than any human and it's why you can become vampyren. You won't be as powerful as us or live as long but you will have most of strengths and few of our weaknesses." Faith said wondering how well Lauren would take the news.

"I don't know why but I'm not as shocked as I expected myself to be." Lauren said softly thinking of all the times Faith had referred to her as part of the family. She wondered now why she never questioned it, never asked why Faith was welcoming her so eagerly. "For some reason I kept classifying you as a type of Fae. I suppose it was easier to fall into that safe zone than to ask for the truth." Lauren said feeling a little dazed.

"Yes well it is a conversation I haven't been looking forward to." Faith said softly.

"So am I related to you?" Lauren asked suddenly confused.

"No, not even a little bit. If you want I can show you your family tree." Faith said wishing the conversation were over already.

"So how do I find out if the baby will be okay or not?" Lauren asked suddenly worried about her unborn child.

"Do you want to keep it still?" Faith asked unsure of Lauren's feeling on carrying her rivals child.

"I...I...Yes I do want to keep it." Lauren said finally finding her voice.

"Well then I would think you could compare the DNA samples from us, you, Dyson, and the child. If the child has any of our markers than it would be better to terminate now." Faith said wishing she wasn't the one delivering this news.

"Yes I think I will." Lauren said unsure if she was actually willing to terminate regardless of the results of her comparison. With the topic actually out in the open she finally took the time to consider her options. She couldn't stand the idea of termination and the idea of giving the child up for adoption was intolerable. The only option really was keeping the baby.

She knew she had already subconsciously decided on keeping the baby from the moment she realized she was pregnant. She was still impressed that as a doctor it had taken her so long to actually realize she was pregnant. Then again it wasn't surprising that pregnancy wasn't on her list of reason for missing her period. She was a lesbian, she was in a committed relationship, and the last time she had relations with a man she was in high school. Overall there were a variety of reasons for missing one or two menstrual cycles and pregnancy wasn't always the top cause. She had thought at first it was stress considering she was under a lot of it dealing with Bo and the devolving of their relationship. Then she had considered the possibility of irregularity due to weight loss since she had lost a couple of pounds during the first couple of months of dating Bo. Then came the fear that something was biologically wrong. She worried about ovarian cysts and cancer which turned up negative since her white cell and t-cell count were all within norms. If she had considered pregnancy she would have realized her EPT levels were elevated. She was just grateful she had done all the testing at home and not at the lab.

"Beatrice" Faith said drawing Lauren out of her reverie. "Do you want a minute?" Faith asked tentatively.

"I do, though there is still a lot we need to talk about, a lot I need to know." Lauren said standing up and moving towards the sink to brush her teeth.

"Do you think you are going to eat again?" Faith asked doubting it.

"Uh no I would rather not. My stomach is still feeling a little upset at the moment." Lauren said at the thought of food.

"Alright, I'll bring the tray down to the kitchen. When you are ready to continue this conversation I will be in my study." Faith said then stopped. "Do you remember where that is?"

"Yes, it's connected to the library." Lauren said without thinking.

Nodding her head Faith turned and walked away. She was grateful she had left the books on Succubus and Incubus in her office. She had no doubt that Lauren would want to look over everything. Now she had to take out Lauren's family tree. Soon enough she knew she would have to tell Lauren the whole truth. There was so much she had left out when they spoke about Lauren coming to live with them. There was so much she had refrained from mentioning for fear of scaring Lauren away. Now because of the baby some of the truth was out and there was no reason to keep the rest hidden. She hadn't lied when she swore to protect Lauren and the child. Even if Lauren decided to leave she would always have their protection.

Lauren watched Faith walk away and released a small sigh when she heard the door to her room close. Her brain felt like it was floating in new information. She wanted to blame her naiveté on the hormones and the pregnancy but knew it wasn't either. She had chosen to stay ignorant of everything Faith ever referred to. She had wanted an out and Faith had provided it. It didn't matter what happened or what Faith demanded, if it had meant leaving the Fae then Lauren would have agreed to it. As it was she had agreed to plenty in exchange for the comfort and security that Faith would provide and had already provided.

From the moment she had met Faith, Lauren had begun an affair of sorts. It had never shifted to a physical or sexual relationship but an emotional one. After the incident with Dyson a wall had slowly built itself between herself and Bo. She hadn't realized it had happened until it was too late. Just like she hadn't realized that she had come to rely more on Faith for emotional support than she did Bo. She talked to Faith regularly about her feelings and her problems where she merely accepted whatever Bo did without complaint until she was miserable. She didn't know how much of her relationship with Bo she had sabotaged but she knew she couldn't blame Bo alone.

Deciding to take a shower Lauren turned on the water and took off her clothes. Looking into the mirror she stopped and looked down at her body. She hadn't changed much and if it wasn't for the missed periods and the test she wouldn't know she was pregnant. She supposed it helped that she had lost weight before becoming pregnant. Running her hands over her abdomen she pictured her unborn child. She estimated if Faith was right about the date of conception that she was about twelve weeks pregnant. Soon she would start feeling the tiny little kicks and punches. Soon she would start feeling the baby shift around. It was amazing to think that a human being was growing slowly inside her.

Stepping into the shower Lauren thought of all the little cracks that had slowly formed in her relationship with Bo. The first was clearly Dyson, but strangely enough he had been a crack from the beginning, a rival, an obstacle, and the personification of everything she would never be. Dyson had claimed Bo as his mate. Dyson was able to satisfy all of Bo's physical and biological needs. Dyson was Fae. She realized that she had never hated the Fae until she met Bo. Now she wasn't sure if she hated them but she knew she didn't want to be around them. She didn't want to raise her child to always be thought of as inferior, or worse as an abomination.

Again she strayed from the thought of her relationship with Bo to the fact that she was pregnant with her rivals child. A part of her felt it was only right that Dyson be told of his child but another part of her balked at the idea. She didn't want to return to the Fae. She didn't want her child to be raised anywhere near the Fae. Dyson might be noble, he might be honorable, and he might be the father but he was still Fae. The same people who had enslaved her. The same people who degraded her. The same people who killed humans for food and pleasure. She couldn't tell Dyson. She couldn't reveal to the Fae that she was still alive and well. No Lauren Lewis was dead and it would be better for the Fae and for her child if Lauren remained dead.

Turning off the shower Lauren stepped out and dried off, put lotion on her body and got dressed for the day. Avoiding thoughts of her child and of Dyson she thought back to all the times Faith had stepped into her life when she needed her most.

Taking a seat on the bench Lauren wondered what she had done. How had things gone so wrong so quickly? How could she fix things when she wasn't sure how to fix things?

"Penny for your thoughts?" Faith asked taking a seat next to Lauren.

"Is that all they are worth?" Lauren asked playfully momentarily forgetting her troubles.

"Okay a nickel for your thoughts."

"I suppose that is something." Lauren said taking a quick moment to really look at Faith. The woman was pale but not sickly pale, more like someone who spent more time indoors than out pale. Her long brown hair had strands of gold that shined in the sun highlighting her face. Her eyes nearly glowed a warm honey brown reminding Lauren of a primal feline on the hunt. There was something predatory about Faith that always lingered in the background. A controlled power that settled over Lauren every time they met. "Thank you for coming to meet me. Are you sorry it's not a bar?"

"No, I'm happy to be outside. It's a wonderful day. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. The weather has started to warm up." Faith said rolling her eyes a little. "Shall we continue with the pleasantries? I've spoken about the weather. I suppose you could bring up the people walking the park today."

"Sometimes you act like we are in a 18th century novel. I suppose that was a stupid way to break the silence. I just hate the fact that I always ask you to meet me when things are going wrong in my life. Lately it feels like it's always going wrong."

"There was nothing wrong with the 18th century besides the lack of hygiene, wars, and rampant disease, oh and imperialism. I'll stick with the romanticized version of it though." Faith said giving Lauren a genuine smile. "Plus you know I don't mind our meetings regardless of the reason behind them."

It was that easy charm that made Lauren wish in the back of her mind that she had met Faith before she had met Nadia. "For once I should ask you how you are doing?" Lauren said hoping to keep the crushing sadness at bay for a little longer.

"I'm well, I'm here with you after all." Faith said pouring out a little more charm. "Things are going good. I'm hosting another political dinner party tonight and if you weren't already taken I would ask you to be my plus one."

"You're into politics?" Lauren asked curiously.

"I'm not so much into politics as eager to keep up with current political movements. I'm a business woman and the head of my family. I must always keep their interests in mind so that means I have to keep an eye in the way the world's politics and economics shift." Faith replied easily never delving into her political beliefs or parties she supported.

"Aren't you too young to be head of your family? Are you married Faith?" Lauren asked suddenly very curious.

"I'm old enough thank you very much." Faith said with feigned insult. "I was married once upon a time but she died." Faith finished looking away from Lauren out towards the park.

"I'm sorry." Lauren said suddenly unsure of what else to say.

"It was a long time ago. Sometimes it feels like it was lifetimes ago."Faith paused thinking of how long it had actually been. "So now that we have delved a little into my life how are things going in yours?" Faith said happy to bring the topic back to Lauren.

"Slowly degrading." Lauren said simply not quite ready to spoil the tentative feeling of happiness blooming in her chest.

"Well that doesn't sound good."

"No, it's not good. It turns out Kenzi was infected with the essence of a Kitsune. The Kitsune tracked her down and kidnapped her, then used glamour to take Kenzi's place in our lives. I didn't notice the difference between one and the other but honestly Kenzi and I have never been really close. I mean I noticed a few little things but I don't' know enough about Kenzi to have considered any of them odd. I certainly didn't think she had been kidnapped. Either way Bo dragged the Kenzi Kitsune into the Dal and claimed that the Kitsune was a Kenzi imposter. I didn't believe her. Honestly no one believed her except for Tamsin."

"Why did you believe her?" Faith asked curiously.

"Well she had been acting different, Bo that is, she had lost control of herself. I found out this week that she is devolving for lack of a better word but I had been worried about it for the last couple of weeks. I knew something was wrong with her I just didn't know what it was." Lauren stopped mentally back tracking. "So I didn't believe her but in my defense she wasn't making much sense. If she had just provided a little more evidence beyond she had a 'feeling' then I would have believed her. Then again as her girlfriend shouldn't I believe her regardless of whether or not I really believe her?" Lauren asked rhetorically. "So we locked her up and I collected some samples. She got really angry with me and things were said. Things that I don't think either of us can ever really take back or forgive."

"Such as?"

"She said if anything happened to Kenzi that she would never forgive me. It placed a real strain in our relationship that I don't know how to get over. What little trust we built seems to have withered away." Looking away Lauren decided to switch back to the main topic. "Then we found out that she is devolving because of the Dawning. I've spent a good portion of the week finding a way to slow down the process."

"I feel like something important is missing here." Faith said into the sudden silence.

"Part of the ceremony is going through a gate of sorts. In order to do that Bo had to clear up some emotional issues regarding her adopted parents. I wanted to go with her back home. I wanted to be a part of her life and not just in the background. I had hoped it would be a way for us to reconnect since there has been this wall building between us. Instead she decided to take Kenzi. She said they needed to reconnect and I am so angry at myself for not saying anything. I feel like I am trying and working towards something and this wall keeps getting in the way. She won't talk to me. She keeps hiding things from me. I just don't know what to do." Lauren stopped and looked at Faith with a note of pleading.

"You could tell her how you feel." Faith said simply sliding her arm around Lauren's shoulder in comfort.

"I'm not sure what I would say. She is keeping her distance and the truth about Dyson is like a specter lurking in the background of our relationship. I keep waiting for her to tell me the truth. I keep waiting for her to leave me." Lauren said finally breaking down and crying. "I'm not enough for her and he is. I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and I just don't want to let it drop any faster. I don't want to push her into leaving."

"If you don't talk to her about what you are feeling you are only going to make this worse you know?" Faith said logically.

"I know but I'm so afraid of what will happen when I do say something. I just keep hoping that once she completes her Dawning ceremony everything will get better. Once she gets her hunger under control she'll be able to focus on us again." Lauren said with a slight sniffle.

"You mean once the Dawning is over you hope she will finally be able to put you first?" Faith asked seeing the truth behind Lauren's words. Receiving a slight nodded Faith released a sigh of frustration. "I wish I could make this all better for you." Faith said without thinking.

"I wish you could too." Lauren said leaning more of her weight on Faith, basking in the comfort of physical contact, something that had also been lacking in her relationship with Bo.

The two sat in silence for a long time. Long enough for Lauren's tears to dry and the slight hiccups to dissipate. In unison the two got up from the bench and walked along the graveled path of the park before making their way back to the Light compound in silence.