Author's notes: This part takes place during 2x06.

6. Consequences

"If you build the guts to do something, anything, then you better save enough to face the consequences." | Criss Jami

She was pressed up against Kenzi watching a young adult's wildlife show with Bo, more than two arms-length away. Since she had come to stay with them, Lauren had been shut down by Kenzi so consistently that she was beginning to wonder if she had some sort of controlling stake in Lauren's unhappiness.

A knock at the door jolted Lauren upright. As soon as Bo was up, Kenzi was on the prowl again and Lauren just stayed put. She could hear Bo's voice but couldn't make out who she was talking to or what they were talking about, but Lauren tried anyway.

The door shut and Bo returned to the kitchen. "I'll, ah, be back soon." Bo swiped her keys off the table and turned on a heel to meet Lauren's gaze.

It had been three days since Lauren claimed the clubhouse's couch. The first night Bo nearly joined her on it but the following two days had been all quiet on the western front, which was, well, excruciating. The electricity that crackled between them kept Lauren on edge. It was so easy to get swept up in Bo and she supposed that was a Succubus' charm at work but whatever the case, Lauren was utterly captivated.

When Bo passed through the door and out of sight Lauren stood and began to clear the table. She could feel Kenzi watching her but she stayed the course, filling the sink with soapy water as she scraped the plates. She slipped into a pair of rubber gloves with practiced ease and began to wash their plates.

Kenzi tapped her on the shoulder. "Ahem. Excuse me, but just what in the holy hizzle are you doing right now?"

"Dishes," Lauren replied curtly.

"Why?" She put her hands on her hips.

"Because that's what guests do."

Kenzi made a noise of disgust. "Have you ever just not done what you were supposed to do?"

Lauren paused washing to turn her question over a few times. "I escaped."

"And honey, nobody could be prouder than moi, but this was your 'A' plan?" Lauren returned to scrubbing the plate in her gloved hand and sighed. Direct hit. "Besides, Bo's kinda busy saving everyone else." And, just like that, Kenzi had sunk her battleship.

Lauren dropped the plate in the drying rack and turned to Kenzi. "Bo said she would help me."

"Sure, in the beginning. Now, I mean, you're on the lam from the Ash, staying in her territory-her home-and you're not even dating."

Lauren smiled and nodded. There was no rebuffing Kenzi. She would keep coming and coming and coming like a little dog who thinks they are a two-hundred pound mastiff so in the interest of keeping the peace, Lauren subjugated herself and said nothing else. Kenzi tried to bait her but Lauren continued to wipe down the table and straighten the kitchen until Kenzi retreated to her room. She refolded the quilt on the sofa and sank into the cushions with a sigh. She was going a little stir crazy. And the fact that she was surrounded by someone else's things also kept Lauren ill at ease. Sure, they were Bo's things, but Lauren was no pugilist and no matter how many sharp implements she was surrounded by, Lauren didn't really feel safe when Bo was away.

She woke to the bang of the front door and sat up, alarmed. Bo breezed in, eyes immediately on Lauren. "Hey," Bo said, out of breath.

"Is everything all right?"

She smiled. "Yeah, I've got a case. I came back for Kenzi. Is she here?"

Lauren nodded. "Upstairs."

Bo examined her carefully. "I'd invite you, too, but you're hiding from the Ash and all…"

She shook her head. "No, you're right. I can't afford to be seen."

Sitting beside Lauren, Bo lowered her voice. "Is everything okay?"

"Of course," Lauren whispered.

Bo leaned in. "I have never been less convinced of anything."

That was the moment that broke Lauren Lewis. Teetering on the precipice of something deep, something murky, something undeniably theirs, Bo pressed her lips against Lauren's. It was a sweet kiss, tender and reserved, but an infinite heat burned just beneath the surface.

And never missing an entrance, Kenzi clomped down the stairs. "I thought I heard you come in," she said as she jumped off the last step and onto the main floor.

Lauren shrank away and looked at her lap awkwardly. Bo sighed and clapped her hands on her thighs before standing in front of Lauren. "I'll see you later." She nodded reassuringly before turning to Kenzi. "I was just coming to get you."

Kenzi looked up from her nails. "Yeah, looked like it."

Bo wrapped an arm around Kenzi's small shoulders and hugged her into her side. "How do you feel about graffiti?"

Lauren was alone in their space for hours. She read, straightened Bo's bookshelf, examining the titles she had collected, and channel surfed for longer than any show she tried to watch. When Kenzi returned alone, Lauren had to admit she was disappointed. That, and she was going stir crazy and the only time she didn't feel like she was going to crawl right out of her skin was when Bo was around. She worked on setting up protocols for a new experiment on her spare laptop. It was woefully out of date but when she had loaned it to Bo, she didn't need it for much more than a word processor and a web browser.

She wasn't ready for Kenzi to sit beside her and threaten to bash her head in, though. How could she ever be ready for something like that? But she was bolder with Kenzi this time and if there hadn't been a knock at the door, they might've come to blows. Instead, Lauren hid in the stairwell while Kenzi got choked for lying for her. She felt terrible to have brought that down on another person.

And when she saw the judgment on Kenzi's face when she asked her if she was really going back to Lachlan, Lauren knew no one could even try to understand until she started explaining why she was making the choices she was. But she couldn't say it out loud and see the look of hurt on Bo's face. And after Kenzi's death threats, Lauren wasn't sure she'd want to be left alone with her after she found out, either.

Kenzi rubbed her neck. "Wine?" She marched into the kitchen and made a noisy show of opening a bottle of red wine.

"Kenzi, I'm sorry. Lachlan had no right-"

"Since when do the Fae play by the rules?"

Lauren smirked. "I guess you're right."

"So what's your excuse?"

"I'm Human."

Kenzi chortled and shook her head. "And she's out on a technicality, folks."

"I know you think I'm some sort of threat to you, Kenzi, but I'm not."

"I know how people like you operate."

"And what kind of people am I?"

"The kind that hides something for no other reason than they don't want to share it, meanwhile Bo falls for you and finds out the now-terrible secret and you crush her heart. And I'm not having it. That's not happening on my watch. Not after Dyson. Nope."

By the time Kenzi had finished her rant, she was pouring another glass for herself and Lauren watched as she chugged that one, too. On her third pour, Lauren took the bottle from her. "Kenzi, the last thing I want to do is hurt Bo."

Kenzi leveled her gaze over the top of the garnet-colored wine. "Then don't." She snatched the wine bottle from the table and stalked toward the sofa.

And for the first time in a week, Kenzi would not interfere with what would happen next.

She planned on telling Bo when she came back and then she chickened out. Bo was so vulnerable and Kenzi was going to kill her when she found out. The lure of sex was too much for her and Lauren succumbed to her need. It was fast, for fear of Kenzi waking up and knocking on the doorframe to ask if anyone wanted a sandwich. And it was quite serious, each of them focused on remembering what it was like to be with the other. The worry and the pain of another separation were palpable even as they tore their clothes off. She was hesitant to call it making love and found it more aptly-named taking love. It was offered so freely and there were no limits, no conditions, nothing separating them except the world, and it was pulling them apart.

They could not be satisfied, even as they reached oblivion again and again. Bo did not tire, bringing her to life over and over and only when Lauren grew weary, did she wrap herself in Bo's arms and drift off to sleep.

When Bo awoke they were still locked together. She let the feeling swell in her breast before leaning over Lauren. She looked down at her, brushed her hair away from her face and kissed her cheek. As she pulled away, Bo was overcome with emotion. "I love you," Bo whispered as she kissed her again and pulled away. She was halfway to the shower when she heard her stir.

"Bo?" Lauren's sleepy voice filled the void in the room.

She returned to Lauren's side. "Hey, good morning." She slipped between the sheets, Lauren's warmth spreading through them.

"What time is it?"

"Early." Bo kissed her.

Lauren could see the sun shining through the slats on the windows so naturally, she wondered aloud: "How early?"

"Kenzi isn't up yet," she said suggestively.

Lauren chuckled as Bo kissed her shoulder, mouth traveling to Lauren's neck. "Sweet Succubus of mine," she purred, hands in her hair.

Bo hummed and ducked her head beneath the sheet, disappearing down Lauren's body.

Things unraveled quickly and soon Bo had picked up where she left off, but instead of the fast and relentless treatment that she gave Lauren the night before, she touched her painstakingly slow with such tenderness that Lauren felt a little emotional. There was a connection between them that had always been there but something had changed and the breadth of this new emotion began to feel overwhelming.

Her hands were in Bo's hair, her fingers playing with the strands as Bo relentlessly teased her. Bo delighted in the smile on Lauren's face just before her expression changed to one of surprise at her command. The slow, insistent rocking of Lauren's hips became the driving force and her heels digging into Bo's back were a reminder as if she could forget. Bo never ignored her needs, giving her the gratification that she wanted so desperately with an expertise unlike any she had ever had the good fortune to meet. When her voice grew hoarse and her body tensed, Bo held her until the quaking subsided before returning to her side.

Lauren's eyes were still squeezed shut in concentration even as she reached for Bo. Bo's hands caressed the skin on her navel, her mouth whispered its intention like an echo reverberating between them. A secret, a promise, and a morsel of bliss she hadn't tasted yet-Bo overwhelmed her again. Swiftly, she was between Lauren's legs again, this time pressing herself against Lauren and it was amazing, it was fabled and forbidden and as Bo took the utmost care at a painstaking pace she honestly couldn't remember being happier…in any circumstance. But there was little that even compared to what Bo was doing between her legs. Her hips ground against Lauren's, the soft slide of her excitement between their bodies. It was a deliberate madness-the way she felt hard against her as her hips kept steady pressure as they moved.

Everything about the way Bo moved was different than the night before. She took her time, drawing each circle with her hips careful and slow until Lauren began to tremble. She clung to Bo, her face buried deep in Bo's neck as she pressed Lauren further into the mattress. "Bo," her voice was breathless, desperate and pained, sparking something in her. Long, full strokes against her-she was so close-but Bo kept her pace deliberately languid. And when Lauren arched off the bed, clinging to Bo, she trembled with her own release.

Falling back onto the bed together, Bo exhaled, a smile spreading across her features. "Good morning," Lauren breathed.

"The best," Bo laughed.

Just then Bo's cell phone bleated on the night table. They exchanged a knowing look as Bo untangled herself and reached for her phone.

"A lead?" Lauren asked.

"Yeah…" Bo was reluctant. "It can wait." She rolled onto her back and sighed. There was never enough time. She reached for Lauren and her phone beeped again. "Shit."

"Downtime is over." Lauren smiled.

She hazarded a glance at the phone's screen. "Will I see you tonight?"

"Maybe," Lauren said, a sadness palpable in her voice.

Bo nodded. "That's better than no." She kissed Lauren on the cheek and rolled away. "Tonight," she said as she disappeared into the bathroom.

TBC