Hey, everyone! Thanks for all the reviews, as always I really look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for taking the time to give me feedback on this.

So, I've had a weird day - I had hearings in three cases this morning that involved sex offenses against children, and it's put me in a funk. So, I wrote this for my own mental health. Again, doesn't really move much forward, just kind of some fluff, but I just felt like this was something I needed today. Hope that's okay with everyone, and hope everyone else can use this as a little break from whatever shit I'm sure you all are dealing with, too.

Enjoy!

Lauren woke up the next morning in bed alone. She looked at the clock and saw that it was just after 9:00a. She had slept later than usual – though that probably wasn't surprising, as she and Bo had been up late the night before. Stretching out, she took a deep breath and caught the smell of coffee. She smiled slightly, knowing that meant Bo was up and likely in the kitchen.

Her thoughts ran back over the previous evening. It felt surreal; for the last couple weeks she had found the word love flitting through her mind more and more often when she thought of Bo, but she had made a conscious effort to suppress the thoughts. She and Bo hadn't been together that long, after all, and saying "I love you" too soon seemed like a colossally bad idea.

At first she had written it off as infatuation – they were at the beginning of a relationship and intense feelings were normal. But how close to the beginning were they, really? They'd been together four months, surely the newness and infatuation should be wearing off.

Then she had decided that it was lust. There was no question she felt that for Bo – but, to be fair, it was Bo. Lust wasn't a shocking thing to feel. But could it be considered lust when she found herself daydreaming about laughing with Bo, or having dinner with her, or watching TV with her, or doing any number of other every day, mundane things?

Alright, so not lust, not infatuation; what did that leave? Maybe, like in medicine, it was like co-morbidity – it was two things occurring at the same time. Maybe it was a combination of lust and friendship. There was certainly no denying that Bo had become one of, if not her best, friend. She could talk to Bo about anything. Bo understood her sense of humor. If Bo was someone that Lauren wasn't attracted to, she felt certain that they would still be close friends. So, maybe that was it – she was best friends with someone she was also deeply attracted to.

But…well, that was close to love, wasn't it?

In the last week or so, it had gotten more or less impossible for her to deny. She couldn't ignore the fact that her heart sped up when she saw or heard Bo, that she often thought of Bo's happiness and feeling before considering her own. She had driven four hours in the middle of the night to a place she'd never been because she had the sense that Bo might need company. These were things people did for those that they loved.

Alright then, she loved Bo. She had accepted that, and told herself that she would just keep it to herself. Maybe Bo would feel like that too, at some point, but it needed to be Bo that said it. Her history with relationships was very different than Lauren's, and her upbringing had made it far more complicated. If there were to be any sweeping declarations, Bo needed to be the one to initiate them.

And then…last night.

She didn't mean for the words to slip out. They had come from her, unbidden. They were true, of course, but the time wasn't right for them. Things with Bo were so good, she didn't need to mess that up with sweeping proclamations. She wanted to future with Bo; she could wait as long as Bo needed for pronouncements of love.

But she had said it back. It was crazy to Lauren – Bo, the girl who though love was death, was freely acknowledging that she loved her. Her. How had she gotten this lucky?

She stretched and got out of bed, wrapping a robe around herself. When she entered the kitchen she saw Bo dressed in underwear and one of Lauren's tee shirts, the bottom of the shirt barely reaching her thighs. Lauren grinned. She looked at home here.

Her grin stopped when her eyes snagged on Bo's hand, wrapped in a dishtowel. A red dishtowel. A red dishtowel that before this morning had been a white dishtowel.

Bo saw her and smiled. "Hey, Baby, I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"What did you do to your hand?" Lauren exclaimed, hurrying over to Bo to inspect the damage.

"It's not a big deal," Bo said, moving the hand out of Lauren's view. "Don't worry about it. How did you sleep?" She was angling her body to block Lauren's view of her left hand.

"Let me see your hand," Lauren said, firmly.

"It's fine. Honestly."

"What did you do? What is this?" Lauren asked, looking around the counter.

"Well, because I'm an amazing girlfriend, I decided to make you breakfast."

"…really? You were going to try to…cook?" Lauren asked, uncertainly.

"Well, I was going to make you a breakfast sandwich. So, I started by thinking I'd make eggs for sandwiches, but that didn't work out."

Lauren glanced over at the sink, where she saw a pan with egg charred too it. "No, I see that."

"So then I thought, a BLT would be easy, and that's mostly breakfast foods, right? So, I made the toast –"

"It looks a little…well done."

Bo sighed. "I turned it up to a higher setting because I thought it would make it go faster. Turns out those numbers are for minutes, not heat levels."

Lauren smiled. "You can't even make toast."

"I can make toast. I'm not helpless."

"You burned it."

"Geez, you make one mistake…"

Lauren put her hand, laughing slightly. "Alright, alright. Get to the bloody hand."

"Well, you don't have bacon, and let's be honest, that's probably for the best given how my cooking has gone on the rest of the meal, so I decided to make LTs."

"LTs?"

"Lettuce and tomato sandwiches."

"Of course," Lauren said, with a smile.

"So, I started cutting tomatoes, and it turns out that your knives are way too sharp."

Lauren sighed, shaking her head with a smile. "Let me see it."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because…it's fine," Bo answered, lamely.

"There is a lot of blood on that towel. You might need stitches."

"I'm not getting stitches."

"You are if you need them," Lauren answered.

"No. It'll be fine."

"Bo…"

"Seriously, I'm sure it's not that bad."

Lauren hesitated for a moment, wondering why Bo was fighting this. Then, she smiled. "You're afraid of needles, aren't you?"

"No…" Bo mumbled.

Lauren smiled broadly. "So the tough prosecutor, who doesn't blink when she looks at autopsy photos, is afraid of needles."

"I'm not afraid of them, I just…don't like them."

"Let me see the hand," Lauren said, reaching out again.

"Promise me you aren't going to make me get stitches."

"Let me see the hand."

Bo sighed and extended her hand, wincing slightly as Lauren slowly peeled back the towel.

"Shit, Bo, how did you get a cut this deep?"

"The knife just slipped. It's not my fault it was weirdly sharp."

"It's a knife, it's supposed to be sharp," Lauren answered, her eyes still trained on the cut. "You're going to need a few stitches."

"You promised you wouldn't make me get stitches," Bo protested.

"No, I didn't. You asked me to. I didn't promise anything."

"It was implied," Bo answered. "An implied contract can be just as valid as a written one."

"Good thing we aren't in court, then. Come on, let's get you dressed and take you to the hospital."

An hour later Bo was sitting on a bed in the ER while a doctor stitched up her hand. Lauren was standing beside her, her arm around Bo's shoulder, while Bo had her head turned toward Lauren's chest, trying to ignore the needle being used to stitch her back together.

As Lauren saw Bo wince, she felt her heart start to ache slightly. She had been trying to do something nice for Lauren, after all. She found herself running her hand through Bo's hair, softly telling her what was happening. "It's almost over," she said, quietly. "You're doing really well. Once she's done, she's just going to clean it up a little bit and put a bandage over it. The worst part is over, almost finished."

Bo didn't answer, keeping her face turned away from the doctor working on her hand.

When she was finished, Lauren felt an overwhelming sense of relief. She hated seeing Bo shaken – it was a rare sight, and not one Lauren enjoyed. The doctor finished by placing a bandage over the cut, and when that was completed Lauren saw Bo visibly sigh with relief.

"Okay, so you're going to need to keep it clean and dry. I'm going to prescribe you some painkillers. Dr. Lewis can help you with aftercare, she told me she'd keep an eye on everything. You are going to need to come back and get the stitches removed after it heals. Any questions?"

Bo shook her head no. Lauren smiled warmly at the doctor. "Thank you, Doctor Fryern," she said.

The doctor smiled back. "No problem. Maybe stay away from knives, yeah?"

Bo smiled slightly. "No problem."

The doctor nodded and walked out, leaving Bo and Lauren alone. "Feeling okay?" Lauren asked.

Bo sighed. "I hate needles," she mumbled.

Lauren smiled and leaned down to give Bo a quick peck. "Really? I hadn't noticed. Come on, let's get you to the pharmacy." She helped Bo up and they headed out of the hospital.

Once home from the pharmacy, Bo and Lauren headed inside and Lauren crossed to the kitchen. "I'm starving," she commented. "We should have gotten something while we were out."

"Want me to cook?" Bo said with a smile.

Lauren laughed. "No, I think one trip to the ER is enough for today."

Bo crossed to the sink and took one of the painkillers with a glass of water. Lauren glanced over at her. "You really should eat something if you're going to take that."

Bo shrugged. "I'm not hungry."

Lauren shook her head and looked through the fridge. "As a side note, you really do need to learn how to cook," Lauren commented.

"Cooking seems boring. It takes too long."

"How have you survived this long without knowing how to cook? Does Kenzi cook?"

Bo laughed. "Please. Kenzi makes me look like…who is a famous chef?"

Lauren laughed in response. "Whatever. You both need to learn how to make a few basic things at least."

"Are you offering lessons?"

Lauren turned to Bo and smiled. "Sure, why not? I'm not a great cook, but I can make a meal without starting a fire or needing surgery."

"Show off," Bo responded.

Lauren grabbed some things out of the fridge and set about making lunch. "When you start feeling tired you need to lie down."

"I'll be fine," Bo answered.

"You'll be high."

Bo waved her off. "I'm not going to be high."

"I think you said that last time. As I recall, I found you wandering around your apartment telling me I was pretty and making incomprehensible case notes."

Bo hesitated. "I'm sure I wasn't that bad…"

"You don't remember?"

"Not really."

Lauren smiled. "Because you were high," she said with a laugh.

Bo rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever."

"You know, maybe I should just let this play out. You seem to be very honest when you're high. I could learn all kinds of things."

"Maybe I am hungry," Bo said, walking over to see what Lauren was making.

Lauren laughed. "Afraid you're going to let something slip?"

Bo smiled. "I'll have you know that I am a very honest person. I have nothing to hide."

"Great, so when you're high in like an hour, I'll just start asking you things."

"I might take a nap," Bo said.

Lauren smiled.

After they had finished lunch, Bo and Lauren piled up on the couch to watch a movie. Lauren could see Bo's eyes starting to sag, a sure sign that the medicine was kicking in and she need to go to sleep. "Why don't you rest your eyes for a minute, baby?" she asked, running the back of finger against Bo's forehead.

Bo's eyes started to droop, but she shook herself back awake. "No, I'm good," she said.

"Why are you fighting getting some rest?" Lauren asked.

Bo shrugged and smiled. "Because if I go to sleep now, I won't get to hang out with you. We were already apart for three days. I don't want to spend all my time with you asleep."

Lauren was taken aback by the response. "Are you high?"

Bo smiled. "I don't know. Maybe."

Lauren stretched her feet out, putting them on the coffee table, and patted her lap. "Come on, lie down. We can still hang out. Just relax at least."

Bo stretched out on the couch, laying her head in Lauren's lap as Lauren turned on the movie.

"Thank you," Bo said softly.

Lauren smiled. "For what?"

"Taking care of me."

Lauren ran her fingers against the side of Bo's face, tracing her cheekbone with her index finger. "Anytime."

"You're too good for me," Bo mumbled.

"What?"

Bo's voice was heavy, a mixture of sleep creeping in and the medicine taking away Bo's filter. "You're perfect. You're gorgeous. You're nice. You're smart. I love you."

Lauren's heart swelled slightly. "I love you, too. Go to sleep, sweetie."

"I've never loved someone before."

Now Lauren was really paying attention. "What?"

Lauren could see that Bo's eyes were closed now, almost asleep as she spoke. "I've never said it to someone I date before. I never wanted to. I didn't want to be like my parents. But you're so good. I like loving you."

"I like loving you, too."

"Will you be here when I wake up?" Bo mumbled.

Lauren ran her fingers along Bo's hairline. "Always," she said without thinking.

Bo smiled and drifted into sleep.

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