Author's notes: This chapter takes place during 2x03.

4. Alone, Together

"Misery loves company. So does masturbation." | Unknown

She swabbed vents and traversed ducts in the name of science-Lauren's science-and despite the vermin and bugs, Bo sort of enjoyed herself. Lauren was delicious as she doctored the ailing residents and Bo had a front row seat to observe her bedside manner. In a word, Bo was captivated. They spent half the day together, or in the close proximity of each other, and Bo was hungry for more.

Two days ago she had her hand in Lauren's pants in the humid interior of her Camaro. It was a bold move, but those were the only kind of moves Bo had. Things were accelerating and it was hard to say who the driving force behind their speeding love affair-love?-she scoffed. Dyson had ruined her and she worried that what she felt for Lauren might not be enough to bring her back from the ashes.

When she listened to herself talk about Dyson and Lauren she realized she was onto something with Lauren, she wasn't just a passing fancy, she was an enduring force. It wasn't until she was with Dyson in the minefield of her subconscious that she knew. It was over, and Lauren was the one that interested her now. Her beauty, her inherent nerdiness, the way she said specimen but mostly just the way she looked at Bo.

Bo checked her phone for missed calls. Nothing. She sighed and called her again. It was probably the last call needed for a baker's dozen and Lauren still didn't answer. It was ten o'clock Bo set her cell phone on the side table. Kenzi was downstairs holding the fort and Bo was tossing and turning in her massive bed by herself, still too awake to succumb to sleep. If she could just talk to Lauren…to make sure she was okay. Lachlan was playing a dangerous game with Lauren and Bo looked forward to being the one that destroyed him for it. But for now, she remained concerned.

Lachlan had denied her bid to see Lauren even after Bo had been as nice as she could muster on an hour's sleep in three days. He was his usual charming self, and by charming Bo, of course, meant that he was a true ash-hole. He was holding Lauren somewhere and Bo worried it was because of that night, with her hand so deep in Lauren's pants, that Bo could still feel her. Inevitably Bo's thoughts turned to sex-the Succubus' curse and gift all rolled into one-and she remembered their first time together. Lauren had been so careful, and had loved her so thoroughly that Bo was in awe of her. Granted, Bo didn't have a lot of experience with Humans that stayed alive, but from what she could remember, there was little tenderness. The men had wanted to use her, so she used them first. The women were another story, she used them, too, but the difference was they knew she was using them.

Bo sighed. She needed to feed but she was exhausted, and yet wide awake. Her body was humming and thinking about Lauren on top of her was not helping the situation. Bo had left herself in a bad way when she declined Lauren's attempt to please her in the car and she hadn't fed since. Her thoughts returned to Lauren and Bo's hand was reaching beneath the sheet and between her own legs. She pushed the fabric of her panties aside and hummed as her fingers brushed against herself. She smiled and closed her eyes, retreating to her memories.

A shiver ran through her as Lauren flashed into her mind. She remembered how gentle she was, and how it moved her deeply to be touched with such care. Bo thought about how she felt that first time their skin met-a spark of what was to come had not been wrong. Their connection had only deepened since then. Swiping a finger across herself, Bo's hips rocked gently as her other hand squeezed her breast.

She took a deep breath and kept her breathing steady. This would do nothing to quell her hunger but Bo would enjoy every slick move between her thighs, and she would do it thinking of her favorite doctor-and the only person that truly understood Bo as a woman and as a Fae. There was the delicious pressure of knuckles skipping over her that she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out. And when she tested her waters, a howl of pleasure was but a whimper.

She pressed a finger inside and her breath caught in her throat. She thought about how Lauren had unabashedly sunk into her their first time. And the look on her face as she watched Bo's was one of awe. It inspired Bo to be better, to be everything Lauren needed that night.

She had to admit that she had fallen off on that track and their encounters since their first time had been of the feral and greedy sort on Bo's part, at least. Her hips jumped. Lauren's mouth was on her-at least in her mind's eye-and Bo moved faster. Her hand moved in sweeping circles and her breath caught in her throat.

She yearned. A yearning so vast that Bo was still unprepared for the flashes of Lauren that continued to play like an old movie on the backs of her eyes. Bo squeezed her hips with her hands and lifted her own to meet Lauren's, she rocked against her, touched her face and her hair,. She kissed her and it was over. Her body shook with a concentrated effort as she rode a wave of satisfaction.

Bo stretched languidly on the cool sheets and looked at her phone. No calls. She inhaled deeply and rolled onto her side, her palm warming the sheet beside her. She was on the cusp of something, readying herself for the inevitable fall. Bo was all heart and she couldn't deny how Lauren made her feel.

After Dyson-and the devastation wrought-Bo wasn't sure she could do it again. She had to be sure that Lauren wouldn't and leave her alone again. It was selfish and she probably knew that on some level, but Bo had lived her life without borders. She had been a killer-albeit a reluctant killer-and she had been a girl who loved a boy before she was a Succubus who loved a Wolf and now, what? Bo let the question roll from one corner of her mind to the other as sleep neared. Her hunger burned in her belly but she wasn't in the mood for a pizza boy or a drunken hook-up. She wanted Lauren even knowing it would only exacerbate her hunger further. She checked her phone again.

Nothing.

Bo's hand squeezed into a fist. The next time she saw Lachlan… She sighed and rolled onto her back again, staring at the stained ceiling. There was nothing she could do right now. Bo wasn't used to feeling helpless so not being able to help Lauren was a tough pill to swallow. She knew Lauren would be fine. Lachlan wouldn't hurt her or he'd have Bo to reckon with and she thought enough of herself to believe that he wouldn't want that. Her mind rolled scenario after scenario over and over in her head but she couldn't come up with a way to save Lauren and not bring hell down on them both. Bo began to let herself give in to the tiredness that she felt. Her eyes drifted shut and the gears slowed-Bo was in deep.

Staring into a microscope, Lauren's eyes began to blur. She looked away and squinted her eyes to make them focus again. The clock on the wall said ten-thirty. She was exhausted, after being taken from her loft at eight that morning and brought directly to the lab. She certainly hadn't anticipated the new Ash being such a tyrant, but then she hadn't anticipated a lot about the Fae. Her eyes drifted to her colleagues who were being rounded up to be taken back to their quarters by a huge security guard. Lauren, however, hadn't been approached to leave and she was really beginning to wonder why.

"I'll only be a minute, Doctor," the security guard said as he ushered the group of five out into the hall.

Lauren looked up from her microscope disinterestedly and nodded. When she couldn't hear his keys jingling anymore, Lauren darted across the lab to the phone on the wall. Quickly, she dialed but the moment before the call rang through, a fat hand came down on the telephone and hung up. Lauren turned around to find the security guard standing behind her.

"No phone. You know that."

"I was ordering a pizza. I've been working like a dog. I'm hungry."

The guard looked at her suspiciously. "You don't want me to see who picks up if I press redial, do you?"

Lauren sighed. "Can I go to my quarters now?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Lauren cleaned up her station, removed her gloves and washed her hands, all in her own time. She calculated the distance to every door they passed as he walked her to her loft. She knew she could outrun the guard but she wasn't so sure about the others that were posted on the outside of the building.

"Good night, Doctor," he said, unlocking the door to her unit and letting her pass.

Lauren stepped inside and watched him pull it shut, followed by the jangle of keys as he left. Immediately, she went to the telephone and, lifting the receiver, she found it dead. "Shit." She slammed the phone down. They had taken her cell phone, cut her phone in her unit and refused to let her make her own supply order call at the lab as she worked like the slave that she was. This was her punishment for missing curfew. Lachlan didn't bother to tell her that this was her punishment, but Lauren knew he wanted to cut her off from Bo and she was rattled. Lauren looked around her hollow home and decided against food, against wine, and against television. She just wanted to get to bed and forget about her predicament.

Climbing the stairs, the heaviness settled upon her. That she had agreed to all of this. She sold her soul to the Fae for someone who felt like a stranger to her now. But Bo, she had told herself, was her reward for putting up with the rest of the Fae. Bo was special, not because Lauren loved her, but because she identified as Human, at least on some level despite the fact that her Fae made her so powerful.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she stifled a yawn. It had been two days and Lauren missed her. She kicked off her shoes and rubbed her throbbing feet. Fourteen hours on her feet; she hadn't done that since her residency. She put pajamas on and stretched her back. Time was catching up with her and she was toiling away as a slave when life was out there somewhere. Her life seemed so one-dimensional. If it weren't for Bo, Lauren would be a scientist without a cause. Research had been her saving grace. It had kept her hands busy and her mind calm. Research was the great equalizer for Lauren. It was easy to let the difficult things slip her mind when she was working on endless hypotheses.

But now, out of the lab, Lauren's mind was noisy again and she could only think of Bo to quiet the chaos inside. She climbed into bed and began to wonder what tomorrow would hold for her. Would Lachlan began to lock them in their quarters during downtime as he had threatened so many times before? Would he collar the Humans just to prove a point? Would Bo come looking for her? Was she worried? Her mind swirled from one topic to the next and she was in little control over which direction the next subject was coming from. She stared at her clock, its red digits blinking in the dark-it was half-past midnight. She sighed. Lauren wanted out. She wanted to run away and escape her commitment to the Fae. She had made a horrible mistake and if she could just get up the nerve to tell her, she knew that Bo would help her.

Her eyes closed, the ghostly halo of the clock's numbers faded behind her eyelids. She remembered the rumble of the Camaro's engine as Bo eased it into park and switched it off, the silence between them was overwhelming. The city lights twinkled below, and her eyes were as wide as saucers as she looked between the glimmering of the city to the glow of Bo's eyes. The way her mouth curled upwards as she leaned over the console and kissed her had turned her to jelly, even as she sat beside her. When she whispered Lauren's name against her lips, pressed her forehead against hers, Lauren was undone. Her breath was hot against Lauren's cheek as her hand popped the button on her pants and deftly slipped into her underwear.

It was a shock, and Lauren was surprised not only by Bo's urgency but her need. Her eyes shimmered as they canvassed Lauren's body. She watched her with such interest that Lauren trembled at the touch that ghosted across her skin. Bo didn't waste time with teasing, instead she pushed into her and Lauren's white-hot desire exploded through her body. Her heart beat ferociously in her chest and fire pulsed through her veins. She was alive again. Bo's breath blew across the whorls of her ear-there were no words, just her energy-infectious and overpowering-and Lauren was crumbling to her whims. Her hand was a blur and Lauren couldn't keep her eyes open. The pressure in her body was building and her need was evident. Just as Lauren hovered on the precipice of self-realization, Bo's mouth covered with hers with a heavy force and she lurched toward release.

Lauren's hips lifted off the bed and she cried out, her voice echoing off the sparsely decorated walls. She was alone, again. Still. She withdrew her hand and stared up at the sky through her bedroom's skylight as her breathing slowed. She kept going back to the Camaro, Bo inside of her, Lauren's fingers gripping the leather upholstery as she came. She didn't know when they'd be together again so she held on to Lookout Point.

Bo would help her-if there was one thing Lauren could trust, it was that.

TBC