Title: Home Remedy

Author: hbomba

Rating: T

Summary: Even doctors get sick. Bo takes Lauren's recovery into her own hands when Lauren comes down with a cold. Total fluff.

"A hospital is no place to be sick." | Samuel Goldwyn

Lauren sneezed. Again. This was not happening. She had a multitude of things to attend to and she could not afford to be sick today. Or tomorrow. Make that this month. She had obligations, appointments, research to conduct. Quite plainly, Lauren had zero time for what amounted to a nuisance.

Three soft knocks came from her office door. She looked up to find Bo, standing in her doorway, holding a Styrofoam container. "Chicken soup to soothe a doctor's soul?" Lauren looked at her skeptically and sneezed again. "You sounded scratchy on the phone."

"I'm fine. It's just allergies."

"I've known you five years, Dr. Lewis, and not once can I recall you even glancing at the pollen forecast." Lauren sniffled into a tissue as Bo reached out and touched her forehead. "C'mon, get your things."

"Bo, I can't. I have things-"

"They can wait. You need rest."

Bo pushed Lauren and her Styrofoam soup container toward the door. "I can't just leave without telling anyone."

"I'll handle it." Bo wrapped Lauren in her coat and passed her the keys to her car. Lauren opened her mouth to say something but instead sneezed again. She sighed and walked through the sliding doors, out to the parking lot. Choking on the stale, humid summer air, she unlocked the Camaro and slipped into the passenger seat, the leather creaking beneath her. She inhaled and it was all Bo. The leather, the spice, the heady chocolate notes. Her senses bloomed and Lauren categorized it as a scent she never wanted to forget. Even when the Camaro has gone to the scrap yard, Lauren would remember its scent. The other door popped open and Bo slid into the seat beside her. She turned the key and the Camaro chattered to life. "Your place or mine?"

All good things started with that question. And while Lauren's apartment afforded her more supplies, the clubhouse-and its veiled four-poster bed-was the clear choice. In relative silence, they drove to the industrial district where you could squat in an abandoned building for five years without anyone noticing. Bo fiddled with the radio. It had been hopelessly jammed by Kenzi some time ago but Bo tried the knob out of habit. When nothing but static came through, she tapped it off.

"Are you going to tell me what's really going on?" Lauren asked from behind a tissue.

Bo pulled into the laneway in front of the clubhouse and set the parking brake. "I'm looking after you because you're too stubborn to do it for yourself." She turned her head and nodded once at Lauren to punctuate her thought.

"Just for tonight…" Lauren bargained.

"We'll see." Bo popped open her door and rounded the car. Lauren followed in suit and climbed the stairs into the clubhouse.

"Bo, I have obligations. I can't just walk out on the clinic without notice," she called over her shoulder as she pushed inside the derelict shack that Bo (and Lauren, to some extent) called home.

"Enough," Bo moaned. She grabbed Lauren by the shoulders. "Can you do one thing for me?" Their eyes locked in an intense gaze. "Just one thing?"

"Fine." She sighed. "What is it?"

"Upstairs." She pointed. "Get in bed." Lauren snatched a box of tissues from the side table and marched upstairs without a word. Bo dropped her keys on the counter and sighed. She knew it would be a fight. Doctors make the worst patients, after all, but Bo couldn't watch her get run down so badly that she needed more than a day to recuperate. Bo peered into the refrigerator. Empty, save for a pair of Coronas and a sad little lime half, wasting away in a plastic bag next to them. "Dinner…" Bo wet her lips and reached for her keys to pop its cap with a bottle opener. Foraging for a bowl to put Lauren's soup in, Bo sipped her beer. She sat on the counter as the bowl went round and round in the microwave and wondered if Lauren was going to give her grief over the soup or if she'd relax into the spirit of Bo's endeavor and unwind? The microwave beeped and she jumped off the counter.

She wasn't surprised at all to find Lauren, sitting up, having shed the bottoms to her scrubs, which lay folded neatly at the end of the bed. "That's a start." Bo smiled, setting the soup on the night stand. "Now eat. I went all the way to the good deli because I care."

"Friends don't let friends eat condensed soup?"

Bo laughed. "Yeah, something like that."

Lauren looked at her seriously as she sipped her soup. Her eyes lit up. "This is really good."

"Trust a succubus who doesn't know how to cook because she knows the best take out for every occasion."

Lauren sniffled, dabbing her nose with a tissue. She smiled. "Thank you, Bo."

"Someone's gotta look after you." As Bo sat down on the edge of the bed with her beer and watched her eat, a smile crept across her face.

Lauren looked up from her bowl. "What are you grinning at?"

"Nothing." Her smile spread wider.

She set the half-empty bowl on the night stand, its spoon rattling noisily in the silence of Bo's bedroom. "Don't you think you should eat something, too?"

Bo knocked on the glass bottle in her hand. "Dinner, for the busy gal on the go." She glugged back a mouthful and swallowed happily.

Lauren smoothed the covers across her lap and looked up at Bo expectantly. "Now what?"

"Sleep, remember that?"

"It's seven o'clock, and last time I checked I wasn't eighty, surely there was more to your plan than that?"

Bo picked at her thigh high boots. "Actually, I'm just flying by the seat of my pants right now."

"So there is no plan."

Bo nodded humbly. "Nope. No plan."

Lauren smiled and cocked her head. "I should have known." She sneezed and blew her nose into a handful of tissues. Bo slid the trash can next to the bed for Lauren and watched as she threw away an array of dirty tissues. "Thanks."

Draining her Corona, Bo stood. "I'm just gonna get a refill. Can I get you anything?"

"Tea?" She asked cautiously.

"Can do." Bo stood and stole a glance at Lauren, tucked in her bed, before descending the stairs. She turned on the kettle and popped the cap on her last beer. Bo sighed. Life was going pretty good for ol' Dennis lately and her relationship with Lauren was never better. There were plenty of things they just didn't talk about anymore, but they both understood that those things were only ever going to be divisive if they let them be. Disagreeing over their pasts was just not worth it anymore.

Bo dunked the tea bag in the mug full of hot water. Another swig from the bottle in her hand and she waited. Bo stared at the clock, daring it to move faster to no avail. She paced in the living room, rooting around in the old fashion magazines Kenzi had abandoned on the coffee table. Bo couldn't bring herself to get rid of them after her beloved friend had left. It was little reminders like these that she held close to her heart. She sighed and returned to the tea bag, removing it from the steaming cup. A squeeze of honey-just as the good doctor liked it-and Bo was stalking back upstairs with a mug for Lauren in one hand, a Corona in the other.

Upstairs, Lauren was reading the paper when Bo returned. She set the mug on the table beside Lauren and sat down next to her again, her hand on Lauren's thigh. "Plotting your next move?" Bo smiled.

"I'm a week late." Lauren pointed to the date on the paper.

"Better luck next time." Bo smiled.

Letting the paper fall to her lap, Lauren's head fell back dramatically. "How long are we going to do this?"

Bo looked amused. "Do what?"

"Pretend that I'm not here for other nefarious reasons."

"Why doctor, I don't know what you are implying." Bo patted her leg and stood. Taking a long drag from her Corona, she strolled around the bed to the other side. She sat on the bed with her back to Lauren who could hear the long zippers of her boots being unzipped. A loud thud sounded when she pulled it off her foot and dropped it to the dusty floor. A moment later, another thud. Bo scooted back against the headboard, lifting her feet onto the bed, she looked at Lauren. "What? I thought we could talk."

"Talk." The way Lauren's lip curled, tickled Bo to no end. "About what?"

"You? Me? Us?"

Lauren shifted uncomfortably. "What brought this on?"

"We've been given the gift of time…"

"And here I thought I was given the common cold by a patient."

"That, too!" Bo held a finger in the air. "In all seriousness…" Bo inhaled sharply. "Are you happy?"

Lauren's expression broke into a smile. She laughed. "You have to ask?"

"Yeah, I don't know…" Bo shrugged. "You work a lot and I don't see you…"

"We're busy people." She smiled. "But I always have time for you."

Bo smiled. "You should get some sleep."

Lauren's hand found hers. "Bo, I'm fine. It's just the sniffles."

"Alright, Doctor, if you were your patient, what would you prescribe?"

Lauren crossed her arms. "You, me. A bottle of red. The rest will figure itself out."

Bo laughed. "You know, it's just plain unfair the way you prey on my weaknesses." Bo stood and padded toward the staircase.

"Where are you going?" Lauren asked, concerned.

Bo hung around the doorframe and shrugged. "To get some wine." Lauren smiled down at her lap as Bo disappeared down the steps. Lauren swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, walking to the rack where Bo's kimonos hung. She could hear Bo rooting around in the cabinets and drawers downstairs. She tugged her top over her head and slipped into Bo's favorite red kimono. As she was cinching the belt around her waist, Bo returned, going to the side table and placing the wine bottle and glasses there. She turned, biting her lip and shrugged out of her jacket, letting it fall to the floor. "This is unexpected." She smiled, gathering Lauren into her arms.

"Is it?" Lauren looked skeptical.

Bo chuckled. "So maybe this is best case scenario." They swayed together. "You look thirsty." Bo pulled away and set about pouring the wine. She held a pair of glasses aloft and Lauren received hers gratefully. Climbing onto the bed, Bo sat back on her heels, sipping her wine as she went and Lauren settled beside her.

She adjusted her robe and Bo's eyes watched her every move. She sipped her wine again and sighed. "I'm feeling better already…"

"I knew this doctor thing wasn't so hard." Bo grinned into her wine glass and took another drink. Lauren laughed and pushed her away. "Hey take it easy." She laughed.

Lauren squelched the laugh in her throat and sat back against the headboard, grinning. She hummed. "Tell me a story," she said, staring into the ruby-red wine in her glass. Bo smirked. Scooting closer, she reorganized the pillows behind her as they became entangled.

"Hmm… let's see…" Bo pondered. "Wanna hear the one about the water nymph with a heart of gold and a mouth like a trucker?"

Lauren let out a little grunt that passed for a laugh. "Sure."

"I found her down by the lake. She had washed up in an empty Coke bottle. I was at the lake looking for a suspect but she started to sing so I picked her up. As nymphs go, she was beautiful, tiny, but beautiful.

"Hydriads." Lauren nodded.

"And then she opened her mouth and this stream of obscenities came pouring out." She laughed into the back of her hand and sipped her waning glass of wine. "The story's really not important-and probably kind of boring-but suffice it to say, she used words in an artful way."

"Gives new meaning to the words 'blue period,'" Lauren chortled.

"Yeah." Bo smiled, not really knowing what Lauren had meant. She looked at the ceiling and followed the cobwebs to the posts of her bed. When was the last time she cleaned up there? She looked at Lauren, aglow with liquor and love. Bo yawned into the back of her hand. With a kick of her heels, Bo was standing beside the bed, watching Lauren as she rounded the corner of the bed. She unzipped her skirt and let it fall to the floor as she walked. Lauren leaned forward. Crossing her arms over her chest, Bo pulled her top over her head. She stood in front of her kimono rack and rolled her stocking down her leg, mindful of Lauren's gaze upon her. She turned to face Lauren as she pulled a robe around her shoulders and cinched the belt. Systematically, Bo shut the pair of lamps in the corners of the room before returning to bed. She climbed under the blanket and reached over Lauren to the lamp on her side table.

"Subtle," a muffled voice came from beneath Bo's chest. A click and the room went dark. Bo pulled back to her side of the bed and stared up at the ceiling again, this time not so concerned with the cobwebs. A minute or so later Lauren's arm snaked around her waist and she hummed, her head on Bo's breast. "You surprise me every day."

Bo sighed happily. "That is my aim, Doctor."

"Thank you."

It was short and to the point but Lauren's 'thank you' spoke volumes about Lauren and how far she had come in regards to trusting Bo. There was a time when Lauren was too timid to share her truth that it nearly tore them asunder. But separation allowed Lauren to find herself as Bo finally looked inward at what she wanted. They had come so far and yet they were getting nowhere fast. Bo hadn't intended to be the hero when she showed up at the clinic with a Styrofoam container of the best chicken and dumpling soup in the city. She may have only showed up on a hunch and she might have pushed her luck getting Lauren to leave the clinic before her shift was over but they were alone now and in a much better place than before. There was so little perfection in the waking world that Bo held on to her heaven where she found it. And there, with Lauren in her bed, the smell of her hair in her nose, her fingertips smoothing over her skin, was the closest she'd ever been to heaven. A smile in the dark. "Anytime."

Fin.