Sup.

"This is completely hopeless," Bo declared, tossing her pen on top of the legal pad before her. She looked expectantly at Lauren's back, waiting for a response. When none came, she crossed her arms. "Hopeless," she repeated, louder this time. Still no reply.

Bo cleared her throat, preparing to repeat herself a third time, when she heard Lauren's soft voice singing all will be well in a tone barely edging above a whisper as she cleaned the kitchen. As she moved, Bo caught sight of the white earbud cords extending to her ears.

"Wow, I can't believe it's come to this already. We're those old people where one person complains about nothing while the other person ignores them."

Lauren, still completely unaware of Bo, continued singing quietly to herself as she moved around the kitchen.

Bo sat with her arms folded a moment longer before speaking again. "Hey now is probably a good time to talk about buying that speed boat I've been wanting. You're cool with that, right? If you are, don't say anything." Lauren kept cleaning. "Awesome, and while we're on the subject, I think we should get matching face tattoos, you know? Just get real weird with this relationship." Lauren gathered up the debris she had amassed and walked it toward the trashcan, still humming to herself.

Bo sighed dramatically and picked her pen back up, looking at the paper again. "Well I'm glad you're having such a productive morning. Meanwhile, I'll just be here. Sitting. Staring. Watching the minutes tick by until I destroy my sister's wedding." Bo's eyes were trained on the paper as she started doodling. "No, no, really, I don't need help, thanks for offering. I mean, if there's one thing we all know I'm good at it's writing long and thoughtful speeches about love and healthy relationships. That's what all my friends love most about me, my romantic nature. I remember when I was with Rainer and they'd just always say 'wow, you are so good at all things relating to romance! What's your secret?' and we'd just all sit together and marvel at my ability to…"

"That's all you have so far?"

Bo jumped, startled. "Jesus, you scared me!"

Lauren looked at her, confused, one earbud now removed from her ear. "…how did I scare you? You were talking to me."

"Yes, but you weren't listening!"

" 'Kenzi, when I think about Nate, I think about love'? Are you hitting on him?"

"No, I meant like…when I think about Kenzi and Nate, I think about how much they love each other."

" 'You guys are super awesome.'. Are you eight?"

"I was going for a cute, folksy kind of a vibe!"

"Then there's just a bunch of drawings of…boobs?"

"Those are mountains, you perv, I was drawing a landscape."

"Sure, sure," Lauren said with a smile, patting Bo on the shoulder as she turned back towards the sink to start washing the coffee mugs from the morning.

"What, that's it? That's all I get?" Bo said, gesturing with her arms toward Lauren. "You mock my speech and then go back to cleaning?"

Lauren smiled at Bo as she worked the sponge around the top of the first mug. "Oh, sweetheart," she said, warmly. "You really think that's a speech?"

Bo stared at Lauren, her mouth agape. "Wow. Wow."

Lauren laughed, setting the first mug in the dish drainer and reaching for the second. "Alright, alright. How can I help?"

Bo gestured broadly at the legal pad.

"Well, okay…so, when you think of Kenzi and Nate's relationship, what does it make you think of?"

Bo stared at her, her expression blank. "Thank you, Hemingway, that's a brilliant angle," she said, sarcastically.

Lauren smiled. "So glad I could help." She finished with the second mug and put it beside the first in the dish drainer.

"Hey, should you really be cleaning right now?" Bo asked, tossing the pen down again. "Shouldn't you be resting?"

Lauren glanced up at her, quirking an eyebrow quizzically.

Bo rolled her eyes. "I'm not being overprotective, I'm just asking."

Lauren smiled. "I'm just straightening up a little, I'm not going to go crazy. I promise I'll rest today."

"Good." Bo looked back down at her paper. "Well, this is hopeless."

"I agree, I mean, you've been working on it for almost ten whole minutes now. Everyone knows that something important like a speech for your sister's wedding should take no more than seven minutes to write."

"Exactly," Bo smiled back.

Lauren dried her hands on a towel and walked over to take the seat beside Bo at the counter. "Okay, so, let's see." She read over Bo's scrawled handwriting a second time. "Have you thought about writing about what you think of when you think about Kenzi and Nate's relationship?"

Bo groaned and dropped her head on top of the legal pad.

The rest of the weekend passed in the pleasant, easy way of the warm fall days still hinting at a summer hangover. Other than Bo's quick trip to check in on the bar on her way to pick up pizza, the pair did very little that didn't involve laying around the house. In short, it was vaguely perfect.

By the time Sunday evening rolled around, Lauren was sitting on the couch while Bo sat on the floor folding laundry. She sighed. "I don't feel like going to work tomorrow," she commented, tossing a towel on top of the pile.

Lauren looked over at her, mildly alarmed. "Why, what's wrong?"

Bo shrugged, still folding. "Nothing, I guess. I just really hate sex offense cases."

Lauren felt a clenching at her heart. "I know you do. I'm so sorry."

Bo shrugged again and kept folding.

"You haven't talked about your cases much lately."

Bo looked over at her and smiled slightly. "I mean, we've had some other things going on."

It wasn't funny, but something about Bo made her smile anyway. "Yeah, I know. I just meant…well, you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do." Bo finished folding the last towel, tossed it on the pile, and scooted back to lean against the couch. "I'm going to lose this case because I know someone got to the victim. It happens more than you'd think, and there's really nothing I can do about it. I mean, I can't actually prove that someone convinced her not to testify. It happens, you know, it just…"

"Sucks?" Lauren supplied.

Bo nodded. "Yeah. It just sucks."

Lauren started absentmindedly playing with Bo's hair, and within a few moments Bo was relaxing her head back, her eyes falling closed. They said that way for a few minutes before Lauren spoke again. "So, how worried do I need to be about these nightmares?"

Bo opened her eyes again and looked at Lauren. "What?"

"You've been having nightmares."

Bo didn't say anything in response.

"You haven't been talking about them, but I sleep beside you, Bo, I know. And I know dreams can just be manifestations of stress, but you've had a few now. I guess I just want to know how worried I should be about that."

I don't know. That was the truth, if Bo were to be honest. Nightmares weren't terribly familiar to her, frankly., Yeah, maybe it was stress, but the fact that they all revolved on a theme of Lauren, or something happening to Lauren, or Lauren breaking up with her made them sting particularly sharply. Even still, they were just dreams. They weren't real.

"Don't worry," Bo answered, giving Lauren a quick kiss.

"Let me clarify – I'm going to worry. I was just checking in to get a level. The fact that you told me zero puts me around a 97."

Bo smiled. "Alright, alright. I just need to get through until Tuesday. Once this case ends – even though it isn't going to end well – I think it'll be better."

"You mean Wednesday."

Bo glanced at her. "No, the case is over on Tuesday."

"Yeah, but you told Kenzi you'd show her a first draft of your wedding toast Wednesday night."

"Shit."

"Yeah, what are you going to do about that?"

Bo thought for a second. "There has to be a good one on the internet, right? I mean, you can find anything on the internet. You can download ebooks about dinosaurs having sex with the ghosts of colonial soldiers on there."

"I really, really don't want to know how you know that."

"I thought you wanted me to share more about my work?"

"God. Alright, but seriously, what's your plan?"

"What do you mean 'seriously', that is my plan."

Lauren stared at Bo for a moment until it was clear she wasn't kidding. "You're going to try to steal a speech off the internet. For your best friend's wedding."

"Well, when you say it like that it just sounds bad."

"So how would you say it?"

"I would say I'm going to do research and find the best possible way to express my happiness for Kenzi and Nate using the inspired writings of others who share in this immaculate joy."

"Wow, that sounded…surprisingly good."

Bo smiled. "I have a gift."

"So use that gift to write a speech."

"I don't have that much of a gift."

Lauren smiled. "Alright, do you want me to help you write it?"

"No, I want you to write it. Just you," Bo answered. "You're good at this stuff."

"On what basis do you claim I'm 'good at this stuff'? You've never heard me give a speech."

"You're good at everything," Bo answered. "You're beautiful, and smart, and thoughtful, and kind, and –"

"And you're trying to flatter me into saying 'sure, Bo, I'll write the speech for you'."

"You will? That's awesome, yes, thank you so much"

Lauren sighed. "Yeah, walked right in to that one."

Reviews are always welcome, though in keeping with my upload speed, you have three and a half years to get them in.