A/N~ Sorry for the extremely late post but I had o rewrite this three times to get it the way I wanted it. Plus it's a bit longer than I intended it but worth the wait I hope. Enjoy.~A

A/N/N~ Ok so this is the final chapter on this particular story. Once again I would like to say thank you and kudos to Jommy26 for this story idea. Everyone please give her a thumbs up. I would also love to thank everyone who has followed, loved and reviews this story. I love and appreciate all of you. Hope you will eventually get to enjoy some of my other writing. Thanks everybody. ~A

Expunged but Involved

Kenzi drew in a deep breath, crossed her arms over her chest defensively and sat back in the booth. She gave a sad little smile and said, "So what do you want to talk about D-man? Don't even start about me coming out to this club on my own, cause I've been here before, I know the owner, you may not believe it but I actually consider him a friend. So surrounded by fae or not I actually feel fairly safe around here. As for me coming out on my own, guess what Detective Thornwood I actually have an ID with my legal age on it. True it may not have my legal name on it, but the age is accurate."

As Kenzi continued to talk the smile fell from her face and her expression and tone became more sullen, and as she continued talking he could feel her literally pulling away from him. His wolf growled, definitely not what he wanted.

Leaning forward Dyson put both elbows on the table and said firmly, "Stop."

Kenzi's voice stuttered to a stop and a wrinkle appeared between her brows as she said, "What? Stop, what?"

"Stop talking," Dyson said smoothly.

The wrinkle between her brows turned into a scowl as she snapped, "You said you wanted to talk I'm going to assume since you still think I'm a child you have to protect from…well everything, that that's what you wanted to talk about. If not…"

"I wanted to talk about us actually." Dyson said calmly, watching the young woman's face closely.

Eyes dimmed, face became calm and resolved, as Kenzi whispered, "We already had that talk, message received. No need or desire for a repeat thanks."

Dyson opened his mouth, but Kenzi cut him off, "Look I get it. I'm a child, a friend maybe but not anyone or anything you would ever have a romantic interest in, desire of or…or lust for so if you don't mind considering I am over twenty-one I would like to have a little privacy while I get fall down stinking drunk. Thank you very much."

When the fae detective didn't move for a few seconds after she had spoken and instead pulled the watered down alcohol out of the young woman's reach Kenzi said more sharply, "Look Dyson.."

The wolf stood up and leaning over the table, wrapped his hand around the back of her neck to hold her in place as he kissed her. She oomphed in shock then joined in the kiss as Dyson explored her lips and mouth thoroughly but gently.

As he ended the kiss gradually, he sighed with dare she say reluctance as he leaned his forehead against her own. "Finally a way to win an argument with you." he said a little breathlessly before adding, "A very enjoyable way."

"Wha…what?" Kenzi said in a befuddled way as the wolf admired the color on her usually pale cheeks. He moved around to sit on the same booth seat next to the dazed woman.

Good thing too, as soon as Kenzi recovered, the color in her cheeks heightened and a snap of anger entered her eyes. "You…I… "

Dyson avoided any sign of amusement and waited for the younger woman to get over her flustered stuttering. She snapped at him, "What the hell do you think you're doing? Bo is my friend, no matter what I feel…" She blushed slightly and looked away, "Besides like you said it doesn't matter what I feel, you made it clear you weren't…interested. So mind telling me why you just kissed me?" she said sharply.

"Because I wanted to?" said the Shifter gently. He reluctantly turned to face the other side of the booth and continued, "You should have stayed to hear Bo out after your confession, you know."

"What are you talking about?" Kenzi said irritably as she downed more vodka. Dyson pushed the bottle of vodka further out of her reach. "We decided a couple of weeks ago, that while we love each other, we're not in love."

"That's nice," Kenzi said in a flat tone.

Dyson saw a pained expression flash through her eyes though and realized he must have missed something or was messing this up badly as he added,

"Which is why I came here after going and talking to Lauren about her and Bo getting back together."

"That's very nice," Kenzi said with a nod, voice still flat as she explained, "I mean it's very nice of you to work to get them back together. Very thoughtful."

"Kenzi," Dyson said gently as he realized his wolf was actually beginning to whine slightly as he felt Kenzi withdraw even further. "Pretend for a minute I'm not fae."

"Yeah right," Kenzi replied rolling her eyes at the werewolf. "Like that could happen when you never cease to remind me how human I am and how fae are sooo much better."

Dyson felt guilt and a twinge of relief as he heard the anger return to Kenzi's voice. At least her voice didn't sound so…defeated. "Did it ever occur to you, that you have proven me wrong on that point on more occasions than I care to remember."

Kenzi merely waved him off as she tried to attract the attention of one of the barmaids. As Dyson repeated, "So pretend for a minute I'm not fae." As the young woman once again rolled her expressive eyes at the man sitting beside her, this time she did at least look at him as he continued to speak.

"Pretend you are talking to your friends from Camp and you are talking about the rules for dating your best friends ex-boyfriend. So tell me in what world would that be okay?"

Kenzi blushed slightly as she remembered the conversation that Dyson had walked in on but she actually considered what he had said seriously. "First off, she said thoughtfully, "They have to be seriously over. Not on a break, not on a rebound, not in an open relationship or seeing other people; they have to be seriously over."

"Done." Dyson responded with equal seriousness and perhaps a bit more quickly than might be considered politically correct. Kenzi did give him points for enthusiasm though.

"Then you both have to get her permission to start dating," Kenzi said third person following along with Dyson's suggestion about pretending they're at Camp.

Dyson pulled out his cell phone and calls Bo. Then puts her on speaker phone and hear her say breathlessly, "This had better be really important Dyson," she says with more than a little heat but no real anger.

"It is," the Shifter said, "according to Kenzi we need your permission, approval something like that to date."

"Oh thank Gawd…" the succubus said and with a great deal more passion than was really needed. Dyson and Kenzi looked at each other a suspicion glowing in both of their eyes.

Kenzi asked the question because it was becoming more than a little difficult for the detective to keep a straight yet smug look on his face, "So do we have your permission to start dating?"

Apparently Bo and Lauren have reached a certain point in their encounter because Bo screams out, "Yes, yes, yes!"

Both Kenzi and Dyson are blushing as they got an encouraging audience response from the surrounding crowd of club goers. Applause, cat calls, wolf whistles, and so forth. "Thanks for the enthusiasm Boster," Kenzi said trying not to choke on her laughter or die of embarrassment.

When they finally get off the phone, it takes a couple of minutes to get back on track. As the crowd around them continued cheering and jeering for several minutes. "Anything else?" Dyson asked amiably.

"Uhm there should be a cooling off period…" Kenzi began only to be interrupted by Dyson who took her hand under the table.

"Kenzi your just making excuses you know Bo and I haven't dated since before Lauren and she got together."

"Dyson you do remember that I live in the same house right? The walls are pretty darn thin Wolfman." she said a little sadly

"Kenzi do you object to me helping Bo by feeding her my chi?" Dyson asked seriously.

Kenzi thought about it and said, "No of course not. Just the intercourse thing. I can deal with that its just…

"Just what?" The cop asked curiously and with concern.

"I'm tired of being the second choice. I want someone to treat my like more than…" Kenzi said thoughtfully.

" You want to be wooed?" he said insightfully

Kenzi thought about that for a moment before saying, "That would be nice," whispering a little too softly, "but really being loved would be better."

"You think I don't love you?" Dyson asked a little sadly. "Or that you can't be loved?"

The younger woman blanched but said determinedly, I think you love me. I'm just not sure your in love with me."

Dyson studied her for a minute before he said confidently, "I'll convince you."

She snorted and said, "Think it'll be that easy do you?"

"Oh I hope not," he said with dark amusement, "I'm going to make you believe me. I'm going to show you that I do love you. So shall we go find some place a little quieter to discuss this?" he asked sensuously but with an intense look to his eyes that made her insides feel like warm caramel.

"Dyson look if this is some kind of pity thing to make Bo stop worrying about me…"

"Trust me Kenzi, I have lots of feelings for you, Admiration, love, lust, friendship, jealousy, protective, occasional anger, envy…"

"Ok whoa, envy? Yeah okay what would you envy me for?"

"You are a very enviable person, I would love to tell you its because of who you know. I've seen you face down fae creatures that even the Ashe and the Morrigan have never heard of or have a great fear of. You got my heart back from the Norn," He laughed still amazed and said, "You know what the fae councils would say if they knew that fact. I think they might just create a new position in the fae hierarchy just for you. Trick says you even talked a phoenix out of one….

Kenzi put her fingers over his lips and looking around to see who was listening in, said fiercely, "We're not supposed to talk about that."

At her touch the wolf enjoyed the scent, feel and taste of her. He chuckled in that sensuous way of his the deep in his chest rumbling that always caused embarrassing things to happen inside her body.

"How else am I supposed to tell you how much I admire your strength, your courage, your loyalty, your beauty, grace," she put her fingers over his lips again and although she did it this time because he was embarrassing her, he also detected a hint of lust in her scent and whispered the offer, "Maybe you should give me something else to do with my mouth then Vixen."

Kenzi gave him a disbelieving look, he gave her a classic puckering of lips, she snorted a little before leaning forward and pecking him on the lips but his taste…he was a very good kisser there was no arguing the point.

They were still holding hands under the table and after a few minutes his other hand came up to wrap around the back of her neck and hold her in place gently as he explored her mouth thoroughly.

"Are you using fae magic on me?" she whispered when he let her break the kiss to catch her breath.

"What?" He said obviously just as affected by her as she was by him.

"Never mind," she said thoughtfully "maybe its just our magic."

He pulled away and leaned their foreheads against each other. "So some place quieter?"

She nodded and he dropped some cash on the table before he could wrap his arm around Kenzi he looked over and caught the eye of a certain Mesmer and nodded his head as they shared a speaking glance.

Seven years later:

The Ashe entered the Dahl Riata and headed to the large booth in the back. Lauren looked up from where she had been studying a file and smiled she didn't rise to greet him though. She looked toward the waitress and catching her eye indicated the new arrival needed a beer.

When he sat across from her he handed her a small box wrapped with a bow. When he saw her start to object he denied her the opportunity, "Personal gift between you and I. Me doctor not the Ashe."

A warm smile bloomed on her face, a match to the dimpled one on his face. "Thank you Hale," she said with a smile, as she struggled with the tape on the sides of the box. The doctor didn't notice when Hale noted the difficulty she was having and actually flinched. He was smiling though by the time she got the tape off and glanced up at him before opening the present to reveal a bracelet.

The stones were purple and green and wrought in gold to look like a grape vine wrapped around the wrist, "Let me help you with that, the clasp is a little tricky," Hale said and helped close the clasp around her left wrist.

Right above one of the burn scars, and almost immediately saw the shiny pinkness begin to fade.

"Hale?" Lauren said in an almost painfully breathless tone.

He looked up at her with a bright grin and said, "Wanted to make sure it would work before I said anything. It's never been used on a human before."

"It's believed to be a gift from Apollo to his son Asclepius while he was still mortal. He had a tendency of rushing in to war zones to protect and heal people." Hale explained, "Remind you of anyone we know? This was to heal him and keep him safe until his father could get there."

Lauren and Bo had been in the clinic when Berserkers had attacked the light fae compound. Lauren had stayed in the clinic while Bo and several of their friends had gone to repel the attackers. Only two had slipped past the defenders to get to the clinic. Lauren had gotten most of the patients out before the attackers had gotten past the magical defenses of the clinic and had started a fire.

The fire had spread quickly but Lauren was still able to get the last of the staff and patients out before a burning beam had landed on her. Surprisingly it had been Vex and Kenzi who had come to the rescue.

Vex had taken control of one of the Berserkers who had managed to lift the beam off of Lauren and Kenzi had braved the flames to pull her out of the burning clinic. The damage had already been done and burns had covered a third of her body, she had also suffered from several broken bones and a spinal injury.

It was later discovered that the Ashe who had taken over after Hales interim status was trying to improve his popularity by proving his worth in a battle situation and so sent in the Berserkers so he could defeat them. Foolishly not really taking into account how difficult they were to control let alone defeat. That Ashe known as Calaveras had died in the attack and Hale had been named his successor.

The Morrigan had mysteriously disappeared a few years ago and Vex had been named her successor. After the light fae compound had been rebuilt the light and dark fae had entered into a more amicable alliance and relations were steadily improving between the two groups.

As Hale watched the doctor sat dumbfounded the healing continuing on her old injuries. The new Morrigan, Kenzi and Dyson came into the pub. The two men were arguing boisterously as was common between the pair while Kenzi walked behind them literally pushing them along toward the back of the pub.

Nodding her head toward the bartender who turned and pulled down a bottle of golden colored whiskey and several glasses to place on a tray. Kenzi continued guiding the pair of fae into the back room where the other two sat.

While Bo and Kenzi continued with their fae investigation business. Things were going well with the business, to the point both women had moved out of the shack and after a rather heavy remodel a couple of years previously it was now used exclusively as the offices for their firm. They had even hired a office manager and a couple of underfae as staff. Dyson had asked Kenzi to marry him three years after their first unofficial date at the Carpe Noct and they were actually talking about kids.

They were soon followed through the door by Trick, Bo and Effie. Effie was a fae child whose mother had died in childbirth. The fae woman had already been in hard labor when she managed to make her way to the light fae compound. No one knew who or what kind of fae she was and she had been so delirious by the time she had been brought into the clinic she hadn't been able to tell them anything.

She was three years old now and was beginning to display some amazing psychic abilities which the two women were working with her on. Calaveras had objected to the human and the unaligned succubus raising the unknown fae child, when it was discovered that no other fae wanted her, he had even suggested "putting her down."

That was when his popularity had dropped to sub basement levels in the first place. The Light Fae Council with encouragement from Trick, Dyson and several others however had approved the adoption however.

Later on as the birthday party progressed, presents were unwrapped, cake and ice cream were eaten, and conversation and laughter were rampant. Kenzi leaned into Dyson's side and smiled happily at the crowd of people gather around the table with contentment. This crazy group were her family, their Pack and she wouldn't have it any other way.