Disclaimers: All original property is owned by Showcase, and we do not infer that any characters, creations or the concept of 'Lost Girl' are our property and the following fan fiction has been written purely for entertainment purposes only.

Time-Frame: Set directly after Episode 2:22

Rating: T

Pairing: Bo/Lauren

Missing : Part Eighteen

By: The RainbowWriters

By the time Bo arrived back at the hospital, the emergency doctors had assessed Lauren enough to know she wasn't going anywhere for the night and had her in an emergency area room awaiting transfer to a ward. As Bo pushed her way into the room that the nurse had indicated, she wasn't surprised to find Tamsin sitting next to the sleeping blonde's bed flipping through a magazine.

Tamsin sat up a little seeing Bo, closing the magazine as she pushed up off the chair and glanced to the bed.

"They've given her meds, she fought them for a while but..." A soft smile graced the shifter's lips as she nodded to how the blonde's head was leaned heavily on the pillows a slim tube feeding oxygen to her lungs through her nose.

"She's a fighter." Bo nodded as she moved to the open side of the bed. "Thank you for staying with her, I'm sure you want to go and get some sleep." She smiled softly. "Realign your electrical fields."

"Are you sure I shouldn't be saying that to you?" Tamsin countered. "I promise to stay with her, we're waiting for a bed right now." She glanced at the slim watch on her wrist. "How about I call you in what, five hours, and you can take over from me? By then she'll be ready for more meds and you might get to talk to her a little."

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Bo was genuinely surprised and touched by the offer. In her brain she had begun to tally all the ways that the two shifters were different, but in some ways the same. Both looked after their own, that was the one thing she had figured out quickly. "I can't remember the last time I slept." She gave a soft laugh. "Wait I remember, just before I found you naked in my hotel suite." She grinned.

"And still I worry about what kind of a succubus questions a girl's nudity like you do." The shifter sunk back down onto her chair and picked up the magazine again. "By the way do I want to know where you went and what you've been doing for the last little while – or is ignorance the best policy?"

"Considering you're an officer of the Light Fae, maybe it's better you don't know anything yet." Bo gave her a stunning smile. "I'll be back when you're awake baby." She finally leaned down to Lauren, brushing her hand over blonde hair and leaning in to place a feather kiss on the blonde's lips.

"Bo?" Tamsin did her best not to openly watch as the succubus said goodbye to her lover.

"Yes?" Bo smoothed her hand over blonde hair again but looked at the shifter.

"What's it like?" Amber eyes scrunched closed a little. "I'm sorry that came out of no where and really isn't anything to do with me." She shook her head and turned back to pick up a new magazine.

"No, it's okay, but what is what like?" Bo titled her head curiously at the blonde shifter.

"Being with a human?" Tamsin nodded towards Lauren. "I mean I don't have the same opinion of them as some Fae but..." She paused shaking her head at the blonde as if seriously thinking about the concept. "Still they're humans." She said the word with a slight edge trying to put so much into the simple word.

"It's beautiful." Bo started with the simple appraisal. "As you said before, with someone like Lauren you forget sometimes that she's not Fae, she talks more Fae and knows more about them then I do but at the same time you remember that she is just human, frail and desperately mortal. Every time she takes a chance, every time she risks something, you remember how much more it means to a human. Fae have lifetimes to get it right, to find their soul mate, to carve out their place in the world. Humans get one life, less than 80 years on average." She held Tamsin's eyes for a moment longer then smirked. "If you ever have the chance to love one, I'd tell you to do it, no matter what the rules are. If they love you back, they will love you with all that they are."

"I'll remember that advice should the situation ever crop up." Tamsin smiled back at the succubus. "Go on get home, I think there's another human there who needs you."

"She's the only reason I'm leaving Lauren." Bo made the admittance. "Though really, if you get the chance, let humans in, they're aren't as scary as Fae make them out to be." She smiled at the shifter and then giving Lauren another kiss headed out the door.

-x-

"Kenzi? Kenzi?" Bo gently called her roommate's name as she came closer to the other woman's bed.

True to his word, Dyson had made sure that Kenzi had washed, dressed and was now tucked up in bed. The fact the brunette had a large stuffed toy monster tucked under her chin, made Bo frown softly. She only hoped the little one eyed creature was doing its job and keeping the nightmares away.

"Kenzi?" She said her name louder.

The succubus' best friend who had obviously dropped into an exhausted sleep turned onto her back and opened one eye, sleepily lifting her hand to rub across her eye.

"Bo?" She mumbled dragging her hand down her face looking adorably sleepy as she blinked at the succubus. "You two are home already?" She rubbed at her sleep tousled hair.

"No, just the one of us, they're keeping Lauren in. Tamsin's sitting with her so I can get a few hours sleep for when the painkillers wear off in a few hours. Trick's in my bed so I was wondering if I can crowd in with you?" She gave the younger woman a loving smile.

"You bet." Kenzi flipped the comforter back off her bed, revealing her bright striped pj bottoms and sock encased feet. "Knew you'd be back." She gave her best friend a smile as she turned on her side to face the succubus who slipped into the bed having already stripped down to just her underwear, and grabbed a shirt from off the young woman's floor to sleep in. "Your feet are cold." She added immediately moving to lean against her bestie.

"Sorry." Bo wrapped one arm around the smaller woman and purposefully moved one foot to touch her leg again where Kenzi's pj pant had been pushed up. "Not." She teased instantly.

"Is Lauren okay?" Kenzi squirmed a little trying to push her pant leg down with her other foot to cover the bare patch of skin Bo was aiming mercilessly for, a smile stretching across her face as she woke up a little more.

"The doctor thinks she pushed herself way too hard, but with all things considered I think we can guess how." Bo rubbed her hand against Kenzi's back. "Kenz..." Her voice got a bit more serious. "I don't know if Dyson told you, but you never have to worry about the Reverend again."

"Did you..." Instead of pulling away Kenzi seemed to nestle a little closer to her best friend.

"Yes, yes I did." Bo confirmed what she knew her best friend was guessing so correctly. "No one hurts you Kenzi and gets away with it."

"I think all this has messed with my head a bit Bo." The young woman admitted quietly reaching out to draw her one eyed stuffy closer.

"I know, and it's okay, you've been through a lot." Bo assured her, hugging her a little tighter, remembering suddenly those frantic moments when Kenzi had been missing. "But we're going to work through it together, I promise you."

"I'm sorry that I caused so much trouble." The words were just a whisper out of Kenzi's mouth, that was itself half covered by the stuffed toy.

"You didn't do anything other than try to protect the Fae in the first place Kenzi, remember that. What Nate did, what the Reverend then did, that was their choices not yours, you've just been swept along in all of this." Bo smoothed her hand over dark hair. "The only thing I care about is that you are safe and back with me." She said the words softly, her voice thick with emotion. "When you were missing... I thought I was going to lose my mind... it made me realize that I need to tell you more how important you are in my life. How much I rely on you to help me figure out how to just be me. I love you Kenz." She placed a kiss on the crown of the younger woman's head.

"I love you too." Kenzi closed her eyes as she leaned against the succubus.

-x-

Lauren opened her eyes and for the first time in a long while wasn't immediately assaulted by a wall of pain and nausea. She was in a small amount of pain, but it was obviously being treated, and the world around her was still. The bed was oddly uncomfortable, adjusting itself noisily to every major shift in her position, which made her just lay still and resort to just looking around her private hospital room to try and orient herself. With a slight smile she caught sight of the succubus who was framed in the early morning light, her head leaned against the high backed seat she had brought up to the bed side, her eyes closed, her mouth slightly open as she lightly snored.

"Bo." The blonde whispered. "Bo." She repeated her lover's name a little louder.

In a completely reflective reaction, Bo startled awake and popped up. All of the last weeks activities having frayed her nerves past the point of bouncing back in the few short hours she'd had since this recent crisis had passed its fiery climax.

"Lauren." She managed to orient herself to the dimly lit room and focus on the blonde in her bed. "You're awake." Her mouth pulled into a pleased smile as she moved to perch on the side, inadvertently making the automated air mattress adjust to the pressure of her behind. "Do you need painkillers? We just have to hit the little button if you do." She picked up the small device pinned to the bed sheet near Lauren's hand.

"Right now I'm okay." Lauren shook her head as she smiled at Bo's level of concern. "I feel a lot better than I did." She added honestly. "I think I pushed a little too hard." She admitted with a little eye roll.

"You? Never." Bo gave her a nod at the same time. "Can I push that you let the other doctor's decide when you're ready to push it again and content yourself to be a patient for a few days?"

"I'm not sure I can promise a few days." Lauren shook her head. "There are things I might need before then." Her smile turned into a smirk as she kept her eyes on Bo.

"Things that are more important then looking after yourself? I don't think so." Bo shook her head, but smirked with her, a part of her pleased to hear Lauren at least sounding like herself. "Besides, I'm down on your file as your 'spouse' so anything you need I'm sure the nurses will understand."

"Really?" Lauren couldn't help the happy smile that spread across her face as she moved to put her hand on Bo's leg.

"Well when we brought you in last night they weren't moving fast enough for my liking, so I kinda said I was your wife somewhere in my tirade." Bo felt a soft blush come to her cheeks. "Sorry if I got ahead of myself, but you were in pain and I needed you looked after. Though, it may have been Tamsin and her shiny badge that really got them moving but the triage nurse put me down in the little box so I didn't correct them."

"You seem to like her." Lauren mused softly, keeping her hand on Bo's thigh, leaning into the mattress so it adjusted again to support her.

"She's been awesome through all of this." Bo gave the feline shifter the credit easily. "She even stayed with you for the first shift last night while I went back to the clubhouse to check on Kenzi."

"Well at least you haven't been sleeping in that chair all night." Lauren pointed out the plus side to the fact. "How is Kenzi?" She added with a brief frown.

"She's..." Bo gave a soft sigh trying to figure out how to best describe the state of her best friend. "Still shaky. She thinks all of this is her fault because she ever let Nate in, even a little bit. I've told her it isn't, but I think it's going to need time. She did however say if you weren't out by this afternoon, she was going to arrive with the biggest bunch of balloons you'd ever seen."

Lauren chuckled softly and closed her eyes briefly.

"And your grandfather? How is he?" She asked turning her head to look at Bo, not lifting it off the pillows.

"He's trying to keep his mind busy. I found him in my kitchen this morning making out a rough list of all the things we need to make the club house 'livable' as he put it." Bo gave her a soft shrug. "I don't think he wants to face the Dal yet but he will, I know he's strong enough to get through this with our help." She put her hand over Lauren's. "He also sent his well wishes, apparently you were very heroic in his words and deserve some well earned time to recuperate."

Lauren nodded smiling softly at the high praise.

"And you." She asked squeezing Bo's leg under her hand. "How is my Bo?"

"She's good." Bo smiled back at her. "And she has something important to talk to you about, because she knows how your big brain works in there." She lifted her hand off Lauren's, up to the blonde's neck and curled her finger around the linked silver chain that was just visible over her hospital gown. Slowly she pulled the rest of the chain free, revealing the ever present pendant that marked the doctor as property of the Ash. "We need to talk about this." She reached up with her other hand when she freed the clasp, undoing it slowly.

"The elders..." Lauren began knowing that even after all that had happened to the Dal, what Kenzi had done at the compound would need explaining to the succubus sooner rather than later.

"I know, about them and what Kenzi did." Bo softly cut her off as she finally collected the pendant and chain in her left palm. "But I want you to know one thing, the most important thing..." She made sure Lauren could see the pendant before she expertly threw it and it landed with a clatter in the nearby garbage can. "No one owns you." She repeated the sentiment she'd explained to Lauren the first time they'd made love. "No one but you."

"I.." Brown eyes tracked from Bo to the small trash can and back. "You.."

"I'm sure when the Elders make their official announcement you'll be listed as unaligned but on that team, no one owns anybody else." Bo's smile broadened as she watched Lauren struggle with the idea that she could be free.

"What did you do?" Lauren shook her head obviously more than shell shocked by the news.

"I went to their chambers last night and reminded them of a few key things; like none of them really is capable of taking on the Champion, that you were integral in killing the Garuda and..." She reached to take Lauren's hand in both of hers. "I made them aware that I had an agreement with the former Ash, I defeat the Garuda and you get your freedom. That Llachlan doesn't have a head anymore wasn't my problem, it's theirs."

"And they agreed to this?" It wasn't that Lauren didn't believe Bo it was just that she had been in the middle of Fae politics for five years now and she understood how petty they could be.

"They didn't disagree, neither did the Morrigan, who was next in line to tear a strip off them all for not warning the Dark that there was a bug hunter in town." Bo continued to smile. "But they will agree, or I will do what I told them I would and they all like living too much."

Lauren tightened her grip on Bo's hand and took a breath closing her eyes.

"I..." She opened them again and looked at Bo shaking her head slightly. "Free." She whispered the word as if just testing how it sounded. "You always said you would do it." She look again at Bo with a soft smile as she quirked her eyebrows up briefly.

"It's what you deserve and even if I hadn't killed the Garuda, with what you did yesterday to help the Fae, you earned it." Bo leaned forward and kissed her lightly, still mindful of the angry bruises on her face from the recent car accident.

"I'm going to have to think big for Christmas." Lauren teased softly smiling under the kiss.

"Just buy a bow and stick it somewhere on your body." Bo grinned at her, feeling more at ease then she could remember in forever.

-x-

"Hey Poppa Trick." Kenzi hooked her chin onto Trick's shoulder as the Blood King was sat on a stool in the club house kitchen. "What's this a plan for the new improved Dal?" She looked at the drawings and lists of things that littered the top around the older Fae.

"No." He shook his head and glanced at Kenzi with a smile. "More of a plan for this place." He admitted moving the largest and more detailed sketch of them all and putting it on top of all the smaller pieces. "As much as I love it as it stands, it lacks a few..."

"Walls." Kenzi offered the obvious one with a bright smile as she moved and shimmied up onto the other stool, pouring herself a mug of coffee as she did so.

"And other security features." He nodded glancing specifically at one large boarded up window.

"You know we don't exactly own this place right." Kenzi picked up a donut, from a plate of them that had magically appeared in the kitchen, they had actually been bought in by Tamsin when she had come in from her shift at the hospital and quickly taken up the offer of a bed. "Might make changing stuff kinda hard."

"Yes well I'm planning to look into that as well." Trick gave Kenzi another smile and a little shake of his head.

"No shit really?" Kenzi beamed brightly. "Cause you know some people might say it has its flaws but to Bo and I this place, is home." She summed up glancing around smiling even more when she saw Hale's legs hanging off the end of the couch, the Siren obviously asleep on the well worn piece of furniture.

"I know." Trick acknowledged with a nod. "I spoke to Ysabeau briefly before she went to the hospital and she said much the same thing." He looked back at his 'plan' and tidied the pile a little more.

"Trick." Kenzi's tone dropped to a more serious one as she watched the Blood King for a moment. He looked up and over to her with a slight frown, more reacting to her tone than anything, nodding at her to continue. "I'm sorry, for what happened to the Dal, I would never..." She shook her head quickly, blinking her blue eyes a deep furrow creasing her brow as her emotions began to cascade on top of her as she thought about all that had happened again.

"Kenzi." A small, soft hand came down on top of hers and squeezed it tightly. "You didn't do anything. This all happened because of fear and obsession, not because of you." He stressed sincerely. "Yesterday you risked your life to save the lives of others, Fae who didn't know you, who you didn't know." He patted her hand and then squeezed it again. "You may be many things Kenzi, but none of them do I regret you bringing into my or my granddaughter's life. We love you, you have a place with us, a home. Nothing about what happened has changed that, for any of us." He closed his eyes briefly and patted her hand once more before sliding his hand off hers and pointing at the plate of donuts. "Now pass me one of those before the mice get to them."

With a bright smile Kenzi picked out one of her favourites and after taking a bite out of it handed it to the Blood King, powdered sugar dusting her nose and chin.

"Still love me?"

Trick took the donut softly shaking his head as beside him Kenzi happily swung her legs on the stool and nibbled coloured sprinkles off another tasty treat.

"You are the most unusual creature." Trick made the admission pulling out one particular drawing to start getting her feedback on his plans for the clubhouse.

The End... for now?

Author's Note: The RainbowWriters had every intention when this story first started for it to be a singular stand alone piece, but now we're not sure, we kinda love our Tamsin and there is of course so many things left unsettled (Kenzi's rash, The burnt out Dal, Bo's increasing powers, The indecisive Light Fae Elders, Dyson's issues after the blood bonding etc)... but that need their own time to sort out completely. So what do you, the readers think? We're leaving it up to you. If you think the story is done, we thank you for reading. If you think it should continue, please let us know. We're not begging for feedback but if you want this little universe to continue... well... send us word that you do.