Hey, guys.

So, apparently I inadvertently created a Lost Girl personality quiz last chapter, and the results have come back - half of your are Bo, and half of you are Lauren. What's really funny to me is that last chapter I was so, so blocked, and just trying to work something out, and I was talking to my beta (lynedele77, check out her fic Fae to Fae, available where fine fanfics are read - seriously, guys, it's so good. Why are you still reading this? Go read her fic. I'll wait. Done? Okay, cool), who was more a Lauren. I understood Lauren, but tended more toward being a Bo. So, that's fun for everyone.

Alright, this chapter - we're going to break some shit, guys. Literally. I mean, like, sledgehammer some shit. You know what? Just read it.

Enjoy!

"You know, they really make this look a lot easier on the home improvement shows." It was a lazy Saturday morning in early October, and the Fall air was crisp and sharp as Bo stood in the kitchen of her new house, a sledgehammer in her hands, covered in drywall dust. The breeze from the open windows swirled the white grit in the air, pulling it up and settle in her hair and on her face.

"Why didn't we just hire someone to do this for us?" Lauren quizzed, leaning against the partially destroyed counter, trying to catch her breath.

"I don't remember. I think we thought it would be fun to do it together?"

"Well, that was stupid."

"Yeah." Bo maneuvered the sledgehammer to rest in on the floor, the handle sticking up and resting against the lower cabinets. "I don't know, I guess I just imagined that it would be easy, and that we would have fun, and I'd get to see you all dirty and sweaty, and that seemed kind of hot," Bo commented as she glanced around the room.

"Really? You didn't want to hire someone to do this because you thought it would be sexy somehow?"

Bo turned back to Lauren. "Yeah. Why didn't you want to hire anyone?"

"I just assumed you were trying to save money," Lauren replied incredulously. "I mean, what other sane reason is there for a doctor and lawyer to suddenly attempt a home renovation without help?"

"Oh. No, I hadn't really thought about that."

Lauren shook her head, straightening back up to her full height. "You're lucky I love you, because you're definitely insane."

"In my defense, we're just trying to tear things up. Why would I think I need help doing that? I know how to break things."

Lauren walked over to the far wall, looking toward the top of it, where it met the ceiling. "Do you even know if this wall is load bearing?"

Bo shrugged. "No, I don't. But there's only one way to find out."

"Yeah, there's definitely more than one way," Lauren insisted with a light laugh.

"I think Nate has done some side jobs in construction," Bo supplied. "Maybe he can help us."

"He definitely can't hurt us. We've barely accomplished anything."

"Hey, I'll have you know that I started breaking up some of this old floor without any help from anyone," Bo noted.

Lauren rolled her eyes. "You dropped the sledgehammer. I don't think that qualifies."

"You say tomato…"

"And I say you accidentally broke the floor."

"So particular about everything, Dr. Lewis," Bo answered, smiling at Lauren as she walked over to give her a quick kiss.

Two hours later, Nate was walking through the house with Bo and Lauren. While Bo spoke, explaining her ideas for renovations, he just nodded along, his eyes taking in everything.

"And this place passed inspection?" he asked, leaning toward an electric outlet that looked disturbingly scorched.

"Well, not technically…"

Nate looked at Bo, still kneeling by the outlet. "What do you mean 'technically'? Did it pass, or did it fail?"

Bo glanced over at Lauren. "Bo, didn't get an inspection," Lauren supplied with a sigh.

Nate looked at Bo, his mouth dropping open. "Wait, you bought this house, and you didn't bother to get it check out first? How do you know any of it is up to Code? How do you know you two haven't been breathing in asbestos all morning?"

Bo shrugged. "I feel fine. I'm sure it's all fine."

"Just saying 'it's fine' doesn't make it fine," Nate quipped. He stood back up and walked to the sledgehammer, heaving it up. He then crossed the room again, returning to the area of the scorched outlet. "Let's open this wall up and see what's happening with your electric."

Nate widened his stance and propelled the hammer forward, knocking a large hole in the wall. Once the sledgehammer was in, he let the head fall forward and pulled back on the handle, using the weight of the tool to tear a larger hole in the drywall. He then put the hammer down and stepped forward, looking inside the wall.

"It looks like your electric might be knob and tube," he murmured, looking intently into the hole.

"What does that mean?" Lauren asked.

"It means you get to replace all of your electric to make it safe and up to current standards," Nate answered. "So that's a few thousand dollars."

Bo groaned. "Oh, come on, how dangerous can it be? The house hasn't burned down. Can't we just leave it?"

"You could, I guess," Nate said. "Quick question, how badly do you want this place to be insured?"

Bo looked at him blankly. "What? Obviously I'm getting insurance. I don't think that's even optional, is it?"

"Oh, then never mind, forget what I said. You definitely can't leave it like this."

Lauren took a deep breath. "Alright, this is fine. So you need some electrical work. That isn't a big deal."

Nate nodded. "Hey, off topic, have you noticed that your floor is slanted?"

Bo and Lauren both sighed loudly.

Nate continued to walk Bo and Lauren through the house. By the time they had finished, Nate had a large list of potential issues he had seen in the house, and Lauren felt her head starting to swim at the sheer volume of work that was awaiting them in getting the house up to a habitable condition.

When he finally left, Bo and Lauren sat down on the kitchen floor, both quiet and feeling slightly dejected. "So, that wasn't great," Lauren commented, trying to keep her tone light.

"Yeah," Bo answered, looking around. "Should we even be sitting in here? This place is starting to feel like a death trap."

Lauren smiled at her. "I'm sure we're safe enough just sitting here. Just, you know, don't make any sudden movements."

Bo gave Lauren a sideways glance at her subtle jab. "Ha, ha," she fake laughed. Lauren smiled wider. "I don't know, I guess I just assumed…it seemed so perfect, you know?" Lauren looked at Bo fondly, feeling her heart warm. Bo continued to look around, her eyes not on Lauren. "I saw us drinking coffee in here in the morning, because once we took the wall down we would be able to see the TV in the living room to watch the news. We could put a grill outside and have everyone over on the weekends, or we could maybe build a deck outside so on nice nights we could eat dinner out there…when Kenzi and Nate have kids we could put a tire swing outside, and there's space for them to run…maybe we could even get a dog? A big shaggy dog that would just lay around and that we would pretend to be annoyed by but that we would love like crazy, and he'd like you better than me, but still…" Bo's voice trailed off as she continued to scan the room, watching her future with Lauren play out before her like a movie that only she could see.

Lauren was quiet for a few moments, letting Bo stay lost in her thoughts. A few beats later, she quietly broke the silence, "you thought about all that?"

Bo looked at Lauren, her eyes still looking slightly dreamy from her previous thoughts. "Yeah. I mean, it's our home."

"It's your house," Lauren said, softly.

Bo looked at her, concern and confusion crossing her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I mean…I don't know, is it ours?"

"Lauren…"

Lauren put her hand up, stopping Bo from continuing. "I'm not trying to…I know you did this because you…well, because your Bo, and these are the things you do. You jump. You take risks. And I love you for that, but…I mean, I don't own this house. I didn't jump with you. I guess I just…it's your house."

Bo looked at her, not speaking. With the weight of Lauren's words heavy in the air, Lauren could see Bo struggling, although she couldn't decipher why exactly.

"Lauren…this…I didn't do this to…" she sighed, the words not coming to her. "This is our home. Or, it's supposed to be…"

Lauren didn't say anything, giving Bo time to find the words.

"I know I should have talked to you about this before I just did it. I know. I get that, because we're together, and this…it isn't just my decision. So, I should have talked to you. I know that. But…I don't know, I guess I just fell in love with this idea, this…I just pictured the look on your face, and I imagine it all being so perfect, you know? I just…I wanted to give you that. That perfect moment, that… I don't know, I guess I just got caught by this idea of you walking in and seeing our home. Not a house, not a building, but our home," Bo paused, her eyes solely focused on Lauren gauging her reaction. When Lauren remained silent, she continued.

"Yeah, only my name is on the deed, and yeah, if we stop making payments it'll mess up my credit and not yours, but...does that matter? I own the house, but it's our home."

Lauren nodded, staying quiet for a few moments while she processed Bo's words.

"I don't want to push you too far or too fast." Lauren's voice was low when she spoke, just edging above a whisper. "I know that…look, I was with someone for five years, and it was serious, and for a long time I thought it was going to last forever. I know you haven't done that. I don't want to make this, us, something that is too much for you. I know we've talked about the future, and I know we both said we envision the future being us together, but…I'm just worried that one day you're going to wake up and realize that I made you do things you weren't ready for, or didn't want to do."

"Why would you even think that?"

"Because…because you shouldn't even exist. Sometimes I can't believe that you do. You're just this…this presence, this gift that makes the world seem brighter, and better, and safe, and magical. I can't believe I met you. I just keep waiting for something to happen to mess it up, and I want to make sure that that thing that messes it up isn't…me."

Bo was stunned and silent, letting Lauren's words process. "Did I ever tell you about my sixth birthday?" Bo asked.

Lauren looked up, the change in conversation topics jarring her. "Um…"

Bo scooted over to sit beside Lauren, wrapping her arm around Lauren's shoulders. "So, when I was six, I really wanted to get a bike. It was all I talked about. I kept thinking that if I had a bike I could go anywhere, I could do anything…a bike was freedom. My parents were…well, they were my parents, so a bike seemed like heaven.

"For weeks all I talked about was this bike. Kenzi and I would talk about it, I'd describe it to her – I had never seen it, of course – it was just in my head. This perfect bike – I wanted it to be lime green, with purple around the tire rims, and one of those annoying air horns on the front.

"So, the night before my birthday, I could hardly sleep. I was so excited – it never occurred to me that my parents wouldn't get the bike, or that the bike would look different, I just knew, you know, knew that my bike was going to be perfect.

"My birthday comes, and…no bike. Just, nothing. I was crushed. I remember going to my mom, asking where my bike was, and she just said 'you don't know how to ride a bike.' That was it. And you know the crazy thing – she was right. I didn't know how to ride a bike. It had never occurred to me that even if I'd gotten it, I wouldn't have been able to use it.

"Anyway, a few days later my mom told me she was going to help me learn how to ride a bike, and if I learned, she would get me one for Christmas. She found an old bike somewhere – I'm not sure where, maybe a neighbor – and for an entire afternoon she kept pushing me on this bike, trying to teach me to ride. I kept falling, of course, because the bike didn't have training wheels, and by the end of the day I was so cut up that I could barely walk, but I did it a couple times, I kept the bike upright and actually made it a little ways."

"Did you ever get a bike?" Lauren asked.

"I think I did, eventually."

Lauren was quiet, leaning against Bo.

"Anyway, the point is…sometimes I just see the future, the possibilities. I see that a bike can give you freedom, so I just want a bike. I see that we can have a great life in this house, so I want the house. I'm not great at the details. I don't always notice that you have to learn how to ride before you just get on the bike and go."

A few minutes passed while Bo and Lauren continued to sit together in silence. "Do you really want us to get a dog?" Lauren asked, breaking the quiet.

Bo smiled. "He'll like you better than me."

Lauren laughed and nestled further into Bo's chest. "I actually do like the house."

Bo kissed the top of Lauren's head, smiling as she did so. "It's going to cost us a fortune, you know that right?"

Lauren nodded. "Yeah, I do, but it's worth it. I mean, it's our home."

Bo hugged Lauren tighter. "Yeah. It's our home."

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