DISCLAIMER: Lost Girls and its characters are the property of Showcase. No infringement intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the third, and final joined story that follows Control and then Possession. They should be read in order, but they make stories on their own as well. Thanks to Pandora007, always. Enjoy the story!
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
FEEDBACK: To nerocorvo[at]gmail.com
Freedom
By The Raven
"Gotta go." Bo said to Kenzi as she pulled on her jacket and grabbed her phone.
She had plans for the evening and night and those plans involved Lauren and a preferably, though optional, horizontal surface. Add some hormones, some pheromones and some actual moans, and it would make for a perfect night.
"Don't wait up, mom." Bo added with a wink and ducked as Kenzi threw a pillow at her.
With a laugh, Bo closed the door and made her way to the street. It was a good day to be alive. Things had been going remarkably well for the last little while. She had not killed any humans, she had been able to be with Lauren and even business had been good. Also, Kenzi had not been nagging her as much about just how she was conducting her life, or something.
Now, where would Lauren be?
It was weekend, or well, Friday. Would the workaholic doctor be in her lab, or would she be at the Pub, or where?
Bo reflected that she was not entirely sure where exactly Lauren lived. All of their encounters had been at either Bo's place or at the lab.
La vida loca.
Deciding to try the lab first, as it seemed more likely that the other woman was there, Bo walked down the street with a jaunty spring in her step.
It was going to be a good weekend, she could just tell.
It took her half an hour to reach the lab and with the confidence borne of her kind, Bo entered the hushed space. It seemed to still be bustling with activity and this promised that Lauren would still be there, good.
As Bo walked down the corridor, she felt a familiar presence come up beside her and turned to look at Dyson, who seemed to have a question in his eyes and his body as well. "What's up?" Bo asked as they reached the door to Lauren's lab and Bo did not wait for an answer before she pulled the door open and stepped into Lauren's inner sanctuary.
The space immediately brought scathing memories of the time that she had fucked Lauren in this intimate, yet clinical space. Lauren looked up at then and Bo could have sworn that she saw a frown flicker across the other woman's face briefly.
Why?
"Hi, Lauren." Bo offered, all but ignoring Dyson who seemed to be eager for her attention at her side.
She really wished he would go away as he was currently cramping her style.
"Hi." Lauren offered cooly and Bo frowned mentally.
What was going on?
"You free for tonight?" Bo asked without preamble, wanting to get the blonde woman alone so she could ask what was wrong.
"No." Lauren said at once and Bo felt the cold slap of rejection right in her face.
"Oh good, that means I get to heal you for a change." Dyson murmured unpleasantly and Bo felt like taking him to the vet all of a sudden.
Lauren simply looked at them and then at Bo with a completely inscrutable look on her face.
This was not expected.
"I need to go." Lauren said abruptly and before either Bo or Dyson could react the good doctor had swept up her things and departed.
Bo blinked in confusion. "Okay, what just happened here?" She asked herself, trying to figure it all out.
She was not used to rejection and Lauren had seemed downright angry, actually.
"I think it's me." Dyson offered softly and Bo turned to look at him in surprise, she had forgotten that he was in the room. "What do you mean?" Bo asked, feeling the niggling sensation of emotional doom looming. "And if it is you, thanks a lot you know. I had plans with her and you should just deal with it." Bo added testily.
"Now, what do you mean, it's you?" Bo asked again more impatiently this time.
"You're going to need to work that out by yourself, Bo. It's between you and Lauren and if I were you I would not let her get too far." Dyson offered with a inscrutable look that was directed at her before he turned away and quietly left, leaving Bo alone with her thoughts and the scent of Lauren in the air.
Was it too much to ask that someone gave her a straight answer? What was with all the laconic, cryptic messages these days?
Shit.
Lauren ignored her phone as she moved through the streets of the city, she wanted to go home and bury her mind and body in the oblivion of a bath and a bottle of wine. She did not want to think, she just wanted to go to sleep and wake up to another reality, one where there was not an insatiable succubus who haunted her body and her heart, but who seemed determined to be as obtuse and as difficult as possible.
Her phone vibrated again and Lauren considered throwing it into the river, but that could easily mean that someone who actually needed to reach her could not get through. "Stop calling me, Bo." Lauren murmured as she looked at her call waiting and frowned at the display.
When had this all become so complicated anyway?
"Lauren." The voice of Bo called from behind her and she turned, surprised at the speed which the succubus had found her.
"Wait, Lauren." Bo pleased and Lauren, against her better judgement, slowed down, allowing the other woman to catch up.
"What is it, Bo?" Lauren asked, feeling impatient and desire and sorrow war in her body and mind.
Bo got into step beside her, obviously intent on something. "Well, you just ran out of the lab suddenly and I have no idea why." Bo said, sounding a bit lost.
It pained Lauren to hear the confusion, but it also steeled her resolve. Bo needed to make some decisions about things and Lauren was just tired and fed-up tonight. "Bo, what did you have planned for us tonight?" Lauren asked softly as she stopped to consider hailing a cab.
"Well, maybe something to eat and then a night of the horizontal mambo?" Bo offered, raising a hand and easily hailing a cab, of course.
As if anyone would reject Bo, but Lauren had just done this.
"And that is all?" Lauren asked as she pulled open the cab door and glanced at the other woman. "Well, yes." Bo replied, looking confused.
"And what do you do with Dyson, the same thing?" Lauren asked, the words tasted sour in her mouth and she was angry at herself for caring so much.
"What?" Bo asked, clearly befuddled.
"The world does not revolve around you, Bo. People have feelings, wants, needs that include more than just boinking like bunnies and you need to make some choices as to how you are going to live." Lauren said in a rush.
"I don't want to share you, Bo and I am not going to explain what I mean by that, or you'll never come to the realisation yourself. So, you need to make some choices." Lauren stepped into the cab and pulled the door shut without another word; she had said enough for now.
As the cab pulled away from the curb, Lauren spied Bo in the rearview mirror and oh boy did the succubus look pissed off and frustrated. Lauren hoped that her action would not cost her the friendship of Bo, but as it stood right now, there needed to be changes in the whole scenario.
Lauren did not want to be Bo's fuck-buddy, or the go-to girl when Bo felt like being with a human. And she certainly was not ready to play second fiddle to Dyson, of all people. Lauren did understand that Bo needed to feed and that Lauren did not possess the ability to feed Bo, not alone anyway, but she was not prepared to be a snack among many.
She did have some self-respect, after all.
Well, shit.
Bo was at a loss as to what to do next.
Go home?
Attempt to follow Lauren?
That would require that she knew where Lauren was going.
What on earth had Lauren meant by not wanting to share her?
Dyson had seemed awfully specifically cryptic about what Bo needed to do and that was also frustrating to say the least. Could she get straight answers out of anyone?
Perhaps Kenzi would have a useful suggestion, or at least make her feel better.
Home it was, at least until she thought of something better to do. She also needed to find out where Lauren lived. Probably Trick, at the Pub would be able to provide her with an answer to that question, assuming that it was allowed.
Allowed?
Bo was sick of rules and sick of games. She just wanted to know what the hell was going on without having to constantly wonder about it, guess at it, or have Kenzi pretend to read her tea leaves and tell her about it.
Fucking hell.
Time to go home.
In this mood, Bo might very well kill someone as she certainly did not feel in control of much at all, not her power, her emotions, nothing.
What had Lauren meant about needing to choose?
Was the blonde doctor looking to have some sort of relationship with her, in a more serious way? If so, why had Lauren not stated this more clearly?
Grumbling as she opened her front door, Bo reflected that Lauren had actually been clear about it before, but Bo had been ignoring her, mostly. Living the good life and day by day without much consideration for the future and what it might bring.
"Home already?" Kenzi asked from the couch and Bo looked over at her roommate and friend. "Yeah." She muttered dejectedly, suddenly feeling sorry for herself.
"What?" Kenzi asked, obviously picking up on her tone. "Come here and talk to mama." Kenzi urged, moving over and petting the couch. "You know I will simply follow you to your room and annoy the hell out of you if you don't." Kenzi added blithely, easily winning Bo over; it helped that Bo wanted to be won over, of course.
"So?" Kenzi asked as Bo sat down and reached for the bowl of popcorn that the younger woman had sitting between them.
"Lauren told me that I need to choose." Bo blurted out, foregoing any pretence with Kenzi of all people. "But she refused to explain what that really means or whatever." Bo added, feeling confusion and hurt flood her system again.
The popcorn was not helping.
"Whoa, like really?" Kenzi asked turning towards her. "That's major beaucoup big time stuff." Bo refrained from rolling her eyes at Kenzi's choice of words. "This is serious." Kenzi stated to punctuate the point and then rose from the couch to go towards the kitchen.
"We're gonna need beer. I wanna say we need tequila as well, but we only have beer." Kenzi explained as Bo watched curiously and wondered what was going to happen next.
When Kenzi returned, Bo gratefully accepted the cold beer and waited for her friend to get comfortable again. Kenzi might be crazy, but Bo knew that the younger woman was just full of good ideas, even if they were expressed in bizarre ways.
"Lauren is falling for you, Bo. She does not want to be your other choice, or your second choice. She wants to be your primary choice; the only one you would choose." Kenzi stated emphatically after drinking almost half the bottle of beer in one large gulp.
Burp.
The seriousness of what Kenzi was saying was mitigated by that and Bo could not help but smirk. "You think so?" She finally asked when Kenzi stopped talking and was now chewing a whole mouthful of popcorn very enthusiastically.
"Yep." Kenzi provided as a concise answer.
Huh.
By the time Lauren got home, she was in a foul mood. Part of her mind argued that it was better to have Bo in anyway that she could, but another part of her mind could not help but point out that how she really wanted Bo was not like this. Even though intellectually, Lauren agreed with the fact that she needed to either cut Bo free, or that the succubus needed to change, her emotional side was not playing along nicely.
The ball was in Bo's court, though.
With her bathtub ready and with Thai takeout staying warm in her broiler, Lauren made her way to the bathroom and prepared to spend the night pampering herself and trying to organise her thoughts and emotions when it came to Bo and the seeming endless set of complications that being involved with the succubus wrought.
What had started out as a simple caress in her lab had now blossomed into this and to add to the mess, she faced pressure from all sides when it came to motivations. Lauren simply did not want to play, she wanted Bo and in the end it was just that pure and simple, not anything more, or anything less.
The candle-lit bathroom started to annoy Lauren, so she decided that the bath had gone on long enough and that it was time to go and eat and contemplate the city at night instead. She had a good view from her living room and really she did not want to think too much, though not-thinking was going to prove to be an impossibility tonight.
Padding into her kitchen while wrapping a silken robe around herself, Lauren initially failed to notice that she was not alone, it was not until she had set her glass of wine down on the countertop and had removed her dinner from its spot under the broiler that she became aware of the fact that there was someone standing in the middle of her living room.
"Bo." Lauren whispered, recognising the leather-clad woman even in the relative darkness of her inner sanctum. "Should I be asking you how you found me?" Lauren queried as she steadied her hands and began to serve up the food, opting to spread it across two plates.
It seemed that she had an impromptu dinner-date and it was only polite after all.
"You could, but you probably would not enjoy the answer." Bo provided softly and Lauren could not help but shiver at the sound of that voice as it caressed its way up her spine and down into her lower abdomen.
As she had concluded previously, there was what her intellect knew and what her emotions wanted and the two were not in exact agreement about things, after all.
"Sit." Lauren offered, pointing to the couch and placing the plates down on the coffee table along with two glasses and what remained of the wine that she had opened before. "Please." Lauren added when Bo did not immediately comply.
"Thank you." She heard Bo murmur and a moment later they were seated across from each other as the lights of the city spread out behind the window that gave them a fine view for this dinner.
Turning her attention back to Bo, she became aware of the fact that the other woman was not looking at the food, or drinking wine, or even noticing the city; Bo was focused intently on her legs and when Lauren glanced down, she suppressed a slight smile. It seemed that silk and bare skin was an Achilles heel for her succubus.
"Food will get cold." Lauren offered and picked up her fork to eat.
Bo was just going to have to do this at her pace, whatever this is. Obviously the other woman was here to talk, or something, but Lauren was not going to make it too easy for Bo. That would simply not be fair and Bo needed to realise the gravity of the situation in any case, so making it easy would simply defeat the purpose.
"I thought about what you said earlier." Bo said after some minutes of comfortable silence. "Oh?" Lauren said, not bothering to hide her interest.
She had no intention of playing coy.
"I can't be monogamous, not in body. You do not have the energy to feed me." Bo offered, sounding regretful almost.
Was it possible?
"I know." Lauren conceded, feeling the roiling ball of squirming octopus in her lower abdomen ease a little. "I know you have to feed and that you can't get what you need from me alone." Lauren offered mildly.
It was a fact of life, really.
"I don't have to be a slut about it, though and now that I don't have to kill, I can be more discerning, though." Bo offered and sipped some wine.
"Just don't bring anything back to me." Lauren said after a beat, not sure exactly what she meant by that, but wanting to ensure that Bo really did understand the seriousness of this sort of commitment.
"I don't have to kiss to take energy, just touch and get close to them." Bo said after a moment, seeming to comprehend what Lauren was saying.
"And I expect you to control your hunger, Bo. I know that you have to feed, but I also know that you do not need as much as you want." Lauren breathed out and pushed aside her food, no longer interested in it.
"I expect some things as well." Bo finally said after a period of silence.
That was not something that Lauren had anticipated, but all was fair in love and war, after all. "I can't handle you being possessive, or jealous. I did not choose to be a Fae." Bo extrapolated after a beat. "I cannot help my nature." Bo added and leaned back against the sofa behind her.
Lauren lifted her glass in acknowledgement, Bo did have a point.
"Fine." Lauren said after taking a sip of wine and feeling her body relax at last.
A long moment of silence followed where neither woman did or said anything and then Bo stood up. "Come on." Lauren heard the succubus say and looked up. "You were not expecting me to ignore that robe all night, were you?" Bo's smirk made Lauren smile.
"Obviously not." Lauren replied with a smile and accepted the hand that she was being offered.
This was a start.
They would work out the details as the need to do so came up.
This was enough; it was actually more than Lauren had dared to hope for.
The End