Recently, both gain and lasing have been demonstrated in the NF(a(1) Delta)/BH energy transfer system. In this paper, measured emission and absorption time profiles are presented for all key electronic BH states involved in the transfer mechanism. The highly metastable BH(a(3)II) state has for the first time been monitored directly by resonance absorption using a spin-allowed transition to the b(3) Sigma(-) state. These measurements show, in the absence of pump species NF(a), that both the BH(a) and BH(A(1)II) concentrations are negligible, and the total BH concentration is adequately reflected by the BH(X(1) Sigma) state. Also under lasing conditions, with high densities of NF(a) present, the BH(a) state is efficiently populated by collisions with NF(a) and retains a significant fraction of the total BH concentration, which is controlled by a competition between the dissociation of its precursor and rapid chemical removal. Finally, our experimental results are compared with a simple kinetics model which assumes sequential excitation of the BH(a)and BH(A) states by NF(a), leading to BH(A-X) emission and optical gain at 433 nm.