Chapter five of the new set. Hope everyone is enjoying so far. Let's get to it
Bo woke up to light streaming in the windows. She looked around in confusion, realizing she was in bed alone. She felt drugged, like she was recovering from the flu. Her body hurt with an ache she couldn't quite define. She looked to the nightstand and found her cell phone missing. Disoriented, she became aware that she could hear faint noise from the living room. Heaving herself up, she shuffled out to look for Lauren.
When she arrived in the living room, she immediately saw Kenzi on the couch, holding mug of coffee and leafing through a magazine with the TV on.
"Where's Lauren?" Bo asked, still feeling askew. "And where's my phone?"
"Where are your pants?" Kenzi asked, taking another drink of her coffee.
Bo looked down and saw her bare legs, her tee shirt not reaching her thighs.
"I guess Lauren took them off?"
"Ew," Kenzi said, turning back to her magazine.
"What time is it?"
Kenzi looked at her watch. "9:42," she answered, taking another drink of coffee.
"What? Kenzi, why were you letting me sleep, I have to go to work!"
"No, you don't," Kenzi answered, not looking up.
"What are you talking about, of course I do!"
"You're out sick today."
"What are you talking about? Why are you here?"
Kenzi took another sip before answering. "See, it took you that long to realize it was weird that I'm here at 9 on a Thursday, which explains why you need a sick day."
"Where is my phone?"
Kenzi shrugged. "You're in quarantine, babycakes. Workaholic detox. Coffee's in the kitchen."
Bo took a steadying breath, pinching the bridge of her nose, trying to keep herself calm. "Kenzi, I need my phone, okay? I can't do detox or whatever, not today, I have some pretty major things going on this week."
"I know," Kenzi answered, flipping the page. "Helen told me."
"Helen? What the…what is happening right now?" Bo asked, scanning the room like she was looking for hidden cameras.
"Helen, your secretary. She came by and picked up your laptop."
"My laptop? What is…what…"
"Bo, I don't know if you know this, but the American workweek is 40 hours long. You've surpassed that for the week."
Bo took another deep breath. "Kenzi, I swear to God –"
Kenzi dropped the magazine and looked at Bo, her expression stern. "You can swear to whoever you want. You're out sick today."
Bo's voice was eerily calm when she spoke again. "Where is my phone?"
"On the charger in the kitchen," Kenzi said with a shrug. "But it won't do you any good."
Bo walked to the kitchen and snagged her phone. She saw a message from Lauren but ignored it for the moment. She dialed Helen's direct line.
"Good morning, Ms. Dennis," Helen said in a fake, sweet tone.
"Helen, what the hell is going on?"
"You're out sick today."
Bo pinched the bridge of her nose again. "No, I'm not."
"Well, you're right, you're not technically out on sick leave, because you exceeded your 40 hours this week so you don't need to mark this as PTO. We've already cleared it. So you're just…off today. And tomorrow."
Bo took a deep breath. "You know I'm just going to come in, right?"
"Lauren has your keys," Kenzi called from her place on the couch.
"Was that Kenzi? Tell her I said hi," Helen said over the phone.
Bo was nearly vibrating. "Fine, I don't need a car. I'll call an officer and get them to pick me up."
"You can try it, Helen said, brightly. "But we've already called around and told them not to."
"Fine. Then I'll take an Uber, or –"
"Ah, yeah, about that, Lauren arranged for Kenzi to be there so you can't leave anyway."
"Kenzi is lighter than a premature kitten, if I want to leave –"
"Hey, I've been working out! I'm ripped!" Kenzi protested from the couch.
"I'm told Dyson is also available for Kenzi to call if you become too unmanageable," Helen supplied.
"Where is my laptop, Helen?"
"Well, IT wanted to do some software updates, so I figured no time like the present! It'll be back to you on Monday morning."
"I have court tomorrow, Helen!"
"You know what's funny? You actually don't. Your plea hearing came out yesterday afternoon and the rest of the schedule has already been reshuffled."
"Helen –"
"Oh, that's the other line. Talk to you later, Bo, enjoy the rest of your week!"
"No, Helen, wait, I –" a click sounded in Bo's ear as Helen hung up.
Kenzi took another sip from her mug. "So, how's Helen? I haven't seen her in hours."
Bo closed her eyes and tried to think of the breathing technics that had been mentioned in the meditation class she dropped out of. "Kenzi, I don't know what Lauren told you, but I need to get to work, okay?"
"She told me you were up for almost two days straight working a murder case and by the time she got you home you forgot how to dress yourself," Kenzi replied, flipping her magazine page again.
"She's exaggerating. Look, I need to –"
"No can do, babydoll."
"Kenzi –"
"Nope."
"Kenzi."
"Nu-uh."
"KENZI!"
Kenzi set the magazine down. "You want to argue about it? Fine. There's the phone, call your wife. But I can do this all day, and I'm not leaving. So, unless you're going to catch an assault charge, I suggest you grab some coffee and relax. This is happening."
Bo was seething. "If I call Lauren and she asks you to let me leave, will you?'
Kenzi took a sip, acting like she was thinking. "No."
Bo gave Kenzi a withering stare that Kenzi ignored entirely. Bo lifted her phone and opened her message thread with Lauren to check the text she had briefly seen before.
Lauren: Yes, I called Kenzi to babysit you. Yes, I told Helen to shut down all the ways for you to get to work. Yes, I have Dyson as a backup, and Nate as a safety. No, I will not change my mind. Love you.
With shaking hands, Bo dialed Lauren's number.
"If you're calling to argue, I'm going to tell you up front that I'm not changing my mind."
"Lauren, what the hell?"
"You're off today. Take a bubble bath, go to sleep, watch Netflix, I don't care. But you're off today."
"Lauren, listen –"
"No, you listen." The force of Lauren's tone stopped Bo momentarily in her tracks. "I know that you're pissed. For the moment, I don't care. When I was in that accident, you tried to tell me, tried to explain to me what you were feeling. Guess what? I get it now."
"That was –"
"It. Was. Not. Different." Lauren shot back, cutting Bo off. "You do this. You get self-destructive. When you were single, or with another person, I don't know, maybe that was alright for you. But it isn't going to happen now. This case is not your fault. You didn't cause this. But it will destroy you if you let it."
"Then it destroys me! I can't just walk away because it's hard, Lauren!"
"Are you even listening to yourself? Do you hear what you're saying? How are you any help to anyone when you work so long that you can't even stand up from your own desk? What is that accomplishing?"
Bo drew a deep breath. "This is my job. A friend of mine died. A woman I tried to help died. Two kids might die. Three other friends of mine are hurt, one may die. And you want me to, what, take a nap?"
"Yes."
"Lauren…" there was warning in Bo's voice.
"You want to hate me for today? Fine. You can hate me today. But you're going to hate yourself more if you get so burnt out that you can't see this case through, if something slips through the cracks because you exhausted yourself to the point that you couldn't catch it. Hate me if you want, but know that I'm right."
Bo was stock still, and angry. And she really, really, really hated that Lauren was right.
After she hadn't spoken for a few beats, Lauren spoke again. "So I'll talk to you tonight?"
Bo blew out a breath. "Fine." They ended the call.
Bo dropped the phone onto the counter and leaned her hands on it, taking a deep breath.
"So, how's Lauren?" Kenzi asked, leafing through a second magazine.
Bo gave her a look that would melt iron before walking to bathroom to brush her teeth.
Bo took Zeus for a run after changing into sweatpants. It had seemed like a good idea initially, but Bo was quickly realizing how long it had been since she had gone running. Quickly she found her lungs burning, her legs straining. She pushed through it, pounding her sneakers harder into the ground, reveling in the loud slap they made when they connected with the pavement.
She ran until she felt physically couldn't any longer, and then stopped, taking gulping breaths of air, her hands on her knees. Zeus panted beside her, clearly enthralled with the exercise, but also tired. She scratched her hand on the top of his head while she kept getting her breath back.
She wasn't sure how far she had gone, and she knew she had a long walk back. With a sigh, she turned and started to walk home.
By the time she got back she could see Kenzi, rooting through the fridge. Bo unhooked Zeus' leash and hung in by the door as he padded over to his bowl for a long drink.
"Office further away than you realized?" Kenzi quipped, pulling out a jar of pickles.
"You can just leave you know, I don't have keys anyway," Bo answered, pulling her sweatshirt off over her head, her tee shirt underneath sticking to her.
"Please, you'd just call a Lyft or something."
"Yeah, God forbid I actually do my job, how awful would that be."
Kenzi turned from the fridge and quirked an eyebrow. "You really want to start this with me? Or do you want to save it for another ten rounds with your wife?"
Bo rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Kenzi."
Kenzi slammed the fridge shut. "Okay, it's been a while since we had it out, I'm game."
Bo sighed, irritated. "Shut up."
"Oh, please, like saying that to me has ever worked."
"Kenzi, I swear, if you –"
"What, Bo? What are you going to do? Storm out again? Go for another two hour run? Yell at me? Call me a piece of shit, see if I'll walk out? What?"
Bo rolled her eyes. "I'm not doing this."
"Of course you aren't, not untouchable Bo. So much stronger than the rest of us mere mortals, so put upon with saving the world."
"Kenzi –"
"No matter how hard you work, no matter what you do, not matter how much you refuse to stop, it's not going to undo what Jack did to her, Bo."
Bo went terrifyingly still. "What?"
"You don't need a PhD in psych to figure this one out, Bo. You can't undo the past. You can't change what he did. You can't save her from it. One day you'll have to stop trying."
They stood in silence, staring at one another.
"Fuck you, Kenzi," Bo finally said, walking back out of the house.
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