InsaneJournal

Who: Lara and Bo with a cameo from Logan
What: Lara's all ragey and she and Bo have a showdown.
When: During the Rage Plot
Where: Their home
Warnings: High for violence and blood



This week had been a strange one. It had gone from being normal to suddenly being a headache. Lara’s short temper had, at first, been chalked up to her getting the flu shot and potentially having a reaction to it. Or maybe something was going on with work that Bo didn’t know about, and she wasn’t one to ask about that. But whatever the reason, Bo felt like she was walking on eggshells around the house. Part of her was scared that whatever was going on wasn’t going to be able to be fixed.

Had some artifact affected Lara? Was she just sick and not handling it well? Was Orange County at it again? It was rather difficult to tell at this point. So Bo was trying to keep an eye on the situation. After all, if Lara started getting violent, she’d have to find a way to subdue her and most likely get her in the panic room before anything really bad happened.

Of course, she hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but better to be prepared, right? They had built the panic room so if one of them got affected by something in Orange County that would make them a danger to others, they could be locked in there and not hurt anyone.

Bo stepped into the kitchen, intending to find a snack. She glanced out the window to see what the weather was like. She was debating taking Fae for a walk.

The kitchen was trashed; the coffee machine was smashed on the floor, the fridge tipped over, the contents scattered across the floor. The windows leading out to the back yard and the ocean and docks beyond were all smashed. There were broken plates and glasses, making the kitchen floor even more dangerous than all the knives that were sticking out of each wall and the counter.

And then an arrow struck the wall right next to Bo’s head.

At first, the mess in the kitchen hadn’t been noticed by her, but it did finally register in her brain. She frowned, suddenly feeling on edge, and that was when the arrow whizzed right by her head and hit the wall next to her. She jumped out of being startled. Luckily she hadn’t been carrying anything otherwise she might’ve dropped it.

“Shit,” she cursed as she turned her attention to where the arrow had come from. This was definitely not good, and Bo was going to try not to die here.

“We can talk about this, Lara,” Bo said cautiously. She was preparing for a fight but Bo didn’t do so well against someone with a bow. And she of course was unarmed. Though she did eye one of the knives and wondered if she could grab it and throw it at Lara before she got shot with an arrow.

There wasn’t anything rational in Lara’s gaze. It was steely, it was dangerous, but it was more like an enraged animal than anything human.

Lara had another arrow knocked and flying before she started to rush towards Bo, drawing out one of her climbing axes and looking like she had every intention to kill.

“Oh, fuck,” she managed to say and she only just barely managed to dodge the arrow. And she saw that climbing axe in Lara’s hand and she definitely needed something to defend herself with. She dove out of the way, managing to pull a knife out of the wall but she landed and rolled over some shards of broken plates. The shards cut into her, but she didn’t stay still long enough to notice anything other than the initial sting.

“Okay, no talking about this. That’s fine.” She didn’t want to hurt Lara, but likewise she didn’t want Lara getting out of the house and hurting anyone else. So Bo decided if she could keep Lara busy, that would be the best. If Bo could manage to tire Lara out enough that she could get one hit in to render her unconscious, that would be her goal. And then putting her in the panic room where she couldn’t hurt anyone.

The trick was actually knocking Lara out. While Bo was a highly skilled fighter when it came to swords and throwing knives, Lara had her own strengths that would make this difficult.

The axe swung, smashing a priceless vase but at least missing anything vital on Bo. Lara rolled, also picking up a number of glass shards, and retrieved one of her arrows. In her anger, she was slower in knocking it than she normally would have been.

When Lara was back to normal, hopefully she wouldn’t mourn the loss of that vase too much. Considering if her axe had connected with its intended target, Bo would probably be at the very least grievously injured right now. However, as Lara moved to grab another arrow, Bo threw the knife she had. She was a good aim with throwing knives, so she certainly didn’t aim for Lara directly.

Instead, she threw the knife so it would give a glancing blow to her arm if she didn’t dodge it. Sure, it only serve to make her angrier, but it was Bo’s only counter to arrows. And right after she threw the knife, she moved to grab another one.

It sliced her bicep open, nearly making her drop the bow. But Lara recovered, and drew the bowstring back. Her aim wavered, and she tried to focus on Bo’s chest, but she could only hold it for so long with her arm bleeding like that, and she let go with a loud twang.

If Bo managed to knock Lara out, she’d definitely bandage the cut on her arm. If not, well, Lara was resourceful, she could probably patch it up herself if Bo managed to lock her in the panic room.

As it was, she’d been moving for a knife, but the arrow sunk into her shoulder. She let out a cry of pain and recoiled, then ducked behind the counter. “Fuck,” she muttered through a clenched jaw. Well, this wasn’t going to be good. She needed to get out of the kitchen, if only to save them both a little trouble from all the broken shards of plates and glass on the floor. But that might be a bad idea. Lara’s hunter instincts would kick in and Bo would be at a disadvantage, even with knowing the layout of their home inside and out.

So perhaps she should keep this encounter here in the kitchen. Bo might have to pull out the emotional manipulation if Lara charged her again, but she wasn’t sure that would do much. Perhaps it could quell the anger a little, but that might be it. She’d need to get creative, so she grabbed a knife and waited to see what Lara would do. She wasn’t going to poke her head out of cover. That would just be asking for an arrow to her head.

Lara’s breathing was heavy, like this was all taking a lot out of her. She flung her bow to the side, cracking the tv in the living room and drew out the kind of knife Crocodile Dundee might appreciate. She flipped it into a reverse grip; there was no one to take her anger out but this familiar seeming woman in front of her.

She jerked a little when Lara threw her bow. Well, that clearly meant melee would be happening, and Bo couldn’t exactly fight with a long arrow sticking out of her shoulder. She set her knife down momentarily and broke the arrow, a sharp grunt of pain coming out of her as the arrow in her shoulder jostled a bit. She didn’t pull the arrow properly out because that would require more time than she currently had.

So she got back to her feet now that she wasn’t going to get shot in the head and she looked at Lara.

“Do you think you can take me?” She probably shouldn’t taunt like that, but she was also kind of hoping that if Lara was blinded by rage, it might make her sloppier in melee fighting. Bo had the definite edge when it came to strength. So if she could pin Lara and not get stabbed in her vitals, that would be ideal.

Bolting forward, Lara leapt over the table, skidding across it in a manner that would have been really attractive under normal circumstances. But then she was in rage and slamming her palm into the arrow shaft and attempting a head butt.

Because apparently she was so angry she forgot she had a knife.

Under normal circumstances, yes that would have been hot. But with Lara in rage mode, Bo was solely focused on not getting killed and trying to render Lara unconscious with as little injury to her as possible. Bo did want her wife back once whatever was going on had passed.

She screamed in pain when Lara slammed her palm into the arrow shaft, driving the arrow deeper into Bo’s shoulder. She could feel muscle tearing, and more blood started to come out of the wound. Lara’s momentum caused her to fall back against the wall. While Lara had forgotten she had a knife, Bo hadn’t. She dropped the knife she’d picked up and grabbed the wrist of the hand Lara held the knife in and applied some pressure. Not enough to break the wrist, but it was tight enough that Lara wasn’t getting her hand free to stab her.

Though as Lara was close to her now, Bo decided to try and make a move now that her wife couldn’t stab her right away. Moving the hand of her injured shoulder wasn’t the best idea as her shoulder protested any movement of that arm, but she lifted her hand enough to get her fingers under the hem of Lara’s shirt and make skin-to-skin contact.

“Calm down,” she said as she started dosing Lara with the emotional manipulation. She was trying to calm her down the same way she’d calmed Kenzi down in the Dreams after Hale had died. And if this didn’t work, then it was onto the next plan.

Lara shook her head, stumbling back from Bo as she let go of the knife. The scream snapped something in her, reminded her of something primal, but then the rage reasserted itself. She growled, pushing back at Bo, her strength much higher than normal but still not enough to best her wife.

And then she gasped at the skin contact and while her eyes didn’t clear, she did stop resisting quite as much and her growl was suddenly much less heartfelt.

At least Lara dropped the knife. If Bo was going to get stabbed, she’d rather it be by a much smaller knife that had less of a chance of killing her with one stab. But even with the knife being dropped, she didn’t let her guard down.

Lara’s strength was a bit surprising. Bo well knew Lara was strong but this seemed to be something beyond even her capabilities. Still, as she noticed Lara seemed to calm down a bit with her touch, she kept feeding that.

“Good. Just calm down. It’ll be okay,” she coaxed. Bo was going to try and put Lara to sleep like this. She’d done it to Kenzi, but there was no guarantee it was going to work on Lara in this situation. But if she could keep her calm enough where she could simply direct Lara to the panic room without resistance, that’s what she would do. And, well, keeping the hand on Lara’s skin, she wrapped her other arm around Lara so she couldn’t pull away and she did start trying to lead her to the panic room.

She’d stop for bandages along the way for Lara’s arm as long as she cooperated.

“Bo?” Lara asked. She was shaking from the effort, from fighting, from the urge to hurt and destroy, and she was shaking as the emotional impact started to crush her. The anger still burned, but it was being pushed back, back and back until only exhaustion and guilt remained and her eyelids fluttered.

Technically speaking, Bo didn’t need to keep skin-to-skin contact to keep Lara under the effects of her emotional manipulation ability. However right now, she was afraid that if she pulled her hand away, whatever was happening would take Lara back over again.

“Yes, it’s me. And it’s okay, I’m okay. I’m trying to get you to the panic room.” Bo was staying focused on the task at hand. She was trying so hard to ignore the pain in her shoulder, and she kept dosing Lara to keep her as calm as possible. But god her shoulder was killing her right then. “And no matter what you say, we’re grabbing bandages for your arm on the way there.” Because who know how long Lara would need to stay in there, and Bo was not going to allow that wound to get infected if she had any say about it.

So she moved along with Lara in tow. If she hadn’t gotten shot with the arrow, she would probably have just thrown Lara over her shoulder and carried her. But as it was, she kept one arm around her and held her close as they walked.

It would be really easy to push on that arrow shaft again. It was fortunately Bo had left it in there so keep from bleeding out, but it was also a vulnerability. One Lara could easily exploit.

But she was too tired to even try, and by the time they were near the panic room, Lara was nearly passed out.

Bo wasn’t even going to try to pull the arrow out until she had help there. After all, she didn’t want to pull it out, ask for help and then be unconscious or dead by the time said help arrived.

Once to the panic room with bandages in hand, Bo opened it and pulled Lara inside, moving her over to the bed. “It’ll be okay, I promise.” She didn’t know if Lara was still conscious or not, but she did manage to clean and bandage the cut on Lara’s arm while maintaining contact with her skin to keep dosing her. Bo didn’t know how long she’d be asleep for, but she just hoped it was enough for her to get out of the panic room and lock the door behind her.

“Rest now. I know you’re probably not going to like it down here, but it’s better this way.” She leaned over and kissed Lara’s forehead lovingly. “I love you.” Again, she didn’t even know if Lara could hear her anymore, but she would still say it on the off-chance she could. And also to help keep Bo focused on anything but her shoulder. If she wasn’t a succubus that could heal, she did actually wonder if this wound would result in losing the arm.

Taking a breath, she finally broke contact with Lara after making sure she was laying down. She’d left some other bandages there so Lara could change it if she had enough rational thought to do so while she was down here. After breaking contact, Bo wasn’t taking chances and she booked it out of the panic room, closing the door and sealing it from the outside. She pressed her forehead against the door and pinched her eyes shut, the adrenaline pumping through her, but it wouldn’t last forever. She needed help.

So texting Logan it was.

Lara drifted in and out of a haze, barely registering what Bo was doing. Her dreams were fitful and stressful and repeated the visual of Bo being shot over and over and over and over again.

She thrashed, at times, disrupting Bo’s work on her arm, before finally seemingly settle down and fall silent.

Logan would be there and gone before she woke up again.

It hadn’t occurred to Bo until she’d started feeling like she was dying that the arrow she’d been struck with had some sort of poison on it. It made her situation more than a little dire, but the important thing was that Bo healed and she was physically fine. Once Logan had left and Bo cleaned the kitchen up, she had gone to stay outside the panic room and simply waited. She waited for some sign that Lara was herself again and that she could let her out.

At least if this was an Orange County thing, that meant it would be over sooner rather than later. Bo only left the door to get something to eat or take care of the animals. Waiting was the difficult part. Especially as she didn’t know how Lara would take it when she was herself again.

Logan arrived quickly enough, giving Bo the healing she needed on the beach for lack of anywhere else to do so since Bo refused to do it in the house. And hopefully that was the only thing he gave Bo.

For her part, Lara was unawares and unconscious, and by the time she came to, the anger had burned its way out of her system.

She sat up, rubbing her head, feeling a little aches and her arm hurt, but she at least felt well rested.

Even if most of her memory was a blank. “Why am I in the panic room?”

Every so often, Bo checked to see if Lara was awake or not. As it was, Bo had dozed off, but shook awake. She took a breath and got up from where she’d been sitting to see if Lara was awake. And it seemed she was. So she pressed the button to allow them to talk.

“Lara? Are you yourself again?” She asked. It didn’t appear that Lara was in rage mode anymore, but Bo was still going to be cautious. She didn’t want to get into another fight because she hadn’t taken precautions.

“What happened?” Lara inspected her arm and body. Besides the cut, there were a large number of bruises, like she’d been in a fight. “Who did I get into a tussle with?”

Worry crept into her voice. A fight. The panic room. She put two and two together. “Did I hurt anyone?”

So Lara didn’t remember what had happened. In some ways, that was probably for the best. Just how Bo didn’t remember anything Dark Bo had done but she’d borne the consequences of it. So she could definitely relate.

“Only me in response to both questions. And the kitchen, technically.” Bo had at least cleaned the kitchen up, but they’d need people to fix the windows and the marks from all the knives. They’d also need new plates. “But I’m okay now.” She started to punch the code in to open the door so Lara could come out.

“Oh god…” Lara pressed her palms into her eyes. This was probably her worst nightmare, even more so than her hurting Sam somehow. She sank to her knees in front of the door, feeling her heart twist in her chest and her guts follow suit.

She was staring at the floor in dismay by the time the door slid open.

It definitely wasn’t easy for Lara to hear, but she wasn’t about to lie about it. After all, there was obviously a reason Lara was in the panic room. After the door opened, Bo stepped inside and went over to her wife, kneeling down beside her.

“It’s okay, Lara. What happened wasn’t your fault. It was an Orange County thing.” Sure, Bo was probably traumatized from the experience, but she also knew that if Lara had wanted to kill her, she most definitely would have. After all, she could have shot her in the head with that arrow and she wouldn’t have even known. But instead Lara had put the arrow into the wall beside her. Though Bo didn’t know if that was due to the fact Lara had wanted to toy with her or if it was that deep down she knew it was Bo and didn’t actually want to hurt her.

Or maybe it was a bit of both.

Lara tried to jerk away at first, only to wrench her arm. She winced, then looked at Bo. Not that she expected any injuries and Bo had clearly changed in the interim, but she was going to look her over, regardless. “I’m so sorry…This is like… one of my nightmares. Literally.”

Bo didn’t try to touch Lara just yet, it was obvious she was struggling with what had happened. And she wasn’t going to push for physical contact just yet. “It’s okay, I’m okay. I understand, but this was not your fault. You weren’t in control of yourself.” Oh Bo was aware that Lara had a dark side, but it generally took someone pushing Lara into it as opposed to her just falling into it.

“And it wasn’t just you acting like that. A lot of people around here were acting all ragey. And you were...way stronger than you actually should have been. It was like you and everyone else affected had some superhuman strength.” It had definitely surprised Bo, but she’d at least managed to handle it and counter with her own strength.

Lara rubbed her palms on her knees, looking away from Bo again. She couldn’t bare to look at her, not after hurting her. And the damned thing was, listening to Bo speak, was that Bo was probably the best possible person for her to have faced in that situation. “It figures, I get superpowers and it’s just to hurt you. I get immorality and that is fucked up too.”

She sighed. Better to be human, she supposed.

Bo definitely would rather be the one Lara hurt than going off and hurting innocent people. “If you had been anything other than a vampire or something that needed blood, it would have been fine. And honestly, I’d rather you hurt me and fight me rather than running out into the street and hurt innocent people. I can take it.”

Even though she still had flashes of that arrow going by her head and knew how easily Lara could’ve just ended her life right then and there. But that hadn’t happened.

“I don’t want you to take it,” Lara hissed. “But… you can and that means you’re right. I just don’t have to like it.”

But she relented in part and leaned against Bo, before wrapping her uninjured arm around her. “I’m still sorry, love.”

“I didn’t say you had to like it. I only said that I can handle it better than random people on the street.” And that was all Bo was going to say on that because she didn’t want to get into an argument.

When Lara leaned against her, she wrapped her arms around her and held her tightly, rubbing her back gently. “I know,” she responded gently.

Disinclined to keep her eyes open, Lara held onto Bo more tightly. She wasn’t actually tired -- if anything she was wired and wide awake. But she just needed to assure herself of Bo’s physical presence and her scent.

Just for a little while.

Bo was more than content to hold Lara. She tightened her arms around her and pressed a kiss to her head. She would check on Lara’s wound a little later. But for now, it was holding her wife and reassure her that Bo was fine. That they both were fine.