A/N: Takes place before episode 1.08 "Vexed". I'd really hoped for that episode to turn out differently - but at least we got a really good look at Lauren's motivations. I'm also really hoping that the show will be fair to the Bo/Lauren relationship, because they are really the reason why I'm still watching. Reviews are always appreciated.

Disclaimer: The show and all characters are the property of its creators and Prodigy Pictures. I do not profit from this story in any way.

Touch

Bo is such a tactile person. Lauren has seen her with Kenzi, playful and protective in her big sister role – warm hugs, kisses to the cheek. Lauren has seen her with Dyson – stroking fingers, kisses on the lips. The doctor in her swallows the jealousy like a large bitter pill and tries to assess Bo clinically, indifferently. Bo flirting is as natural as Lauren breathing. There's nothing to it.

Lauren would have given much – too much for common sense, she who prides herself on caution and logic – to be held and touched and caressed as casually, as thoughtlessly. Only when Lauren is examining her as a doctor does she have the excuse fof a lingering hand. But otherwise Bo reserves only the barest of hugs for her, only a brief, occasional hand on her elbow.

Lauren thinks she knows why. It's temptation. But she doesn't let herself hope in it. She is human, and frail. Perhaps she is just lonely - it's happened before, when she has let herself fall, with relief. Regret comes later, in the morning.

She doesn't have an explanation, there's no solid evidence, but she knows with a deep unyielding certainty that whatever happens there will be no regret with Bo.

It had been a tiring grey kind of morning, the kind where every minute seemed to pass with the deliberate slowness of an hour. At half-past-eleven Lauren is bent over her baby, her custom microscope, stubbornly concentrating, even though all she wants to do is go home and fall into bed –

The click of tall boots alerts her to an unexpected visitor. She thinks she knows who it is, but doesn't look up, pretending – why is she pretending? – to work. She thinks she can feel Bo's gaze burning into her shoulder, but that's probably her fantasy. She gets so tense that before she realizes it she is pressing her eyes tightly against the eyepiece. Bo chooses that moment to speak.

"Hey, Lauren. Do you have a moment?" Bo asks. Lauren closes her eyes, allowing herself to revel for the slightest breath in that voice, the timbre of that smooth confident voice. Her dreams could never quite capture the real thing.

She swivels around on her stool. "Bo. You never mentioned you were coming in today," she says, trying to be nonchalant and likely failing.

Bo's dark eyes are amused and she smiles as she replies, "You never mentioned I needed an appointment." Oh, how Lauren loves that smile. They look at each other, Lauren with her baggy lab coat and hair all dishevelled from a long morning, Bo with her immaculate braids and tight polished leather. Lauren feels the heat in her cheeks. In this way this crush is no different from any other – except now she knows she is, quite possibly, in love with someone who is, essentially, a serial killer, who is off-limits, who is not human. But none of those reasons seem compelling enough to stay away.

In three long strides from the doorway Bo is next to her and Bo's hand is on her shoulder. Lauren starts, realizing she had been gazing at Bo's lips instead of listening to the words falling from them. The Fae's face is concerned – filled with concern for her.

"Are you feeling okay?" Bo asks, worry lacing her voice. "You zoned out there for a moment."

"Oh – yeah. Yes. I was just thinking," Lauren replies vaguely. She finds herself feeling unaccountably embarrassed. "It's been a busy morning." She tries to focus mentally, taking the time to look over Bo, who seems healthy and fit. So it was nothing physically serious, then.

"Do you want me to come back another time?" Bo offers, and Lauren's brain immediately springs to life, shouting a rebellion against the very idea.

"Absolutely not," she says hurriedly, tearing her eyes away from Bo's and glancing towards the clock on the wall. The minute hand had magically travelled a quarter of a circle, in a manner of seconds it seems, while she had been thinking and breathing Bo. The reassuring bland whiteness of the wall gives her strength for what she is about to do – she tries not to think about consequences. Her life is dominated by consequences, now. She takes a deep breath and says, "Actually, I'm off on lunch. If you want… whatever you want to talk about… if it's not urgent…"

Bo smiles again, showing teeth. Lauren knows the Fae is amused and wonders just how bright of an "aura" she is giving off right now. Is she rating a ten? Eleven? Bo leans forward and Lauren freezes.

"Relax," Bo murmurs, warm breath ghosting over Lauren's ear. The human doctor gives up any pretence at professionalism and inhales the scent of Bo's shampoo. Definitely an eleven.

"Anyway, I'm hungry," Bo continues, in a nonchalant purr. "How about we get out of here?"

Lauren stifles a sudden urge to laugh. How Bo manages to breathe sexual innuendo into every word she speaks is beyond her. It's probably just habit, like her flirting.

Her laugh dies when she looks back into Bo's eyes in acquiescence. Bo's warm hand lingers on her wrist. Maybe it's not just habit. Maybe there's more, maybe she means more, to both of them. For a sweet, satisfying moment Lauren allows herself to imagine.

Then her other hand travels nearly unconsciously to her necklace. The Ash's sign nestles just below the hollow of her throat, pulsing against her skin, and she looks down at Bo's hand, and she knows simple touch will never be enough.