”NO!” Maura slammed her hands on the table, making Jane jump. ”I can’t lose her, I can be her friend. Nothing more.”

Jane felt tears prickle at her eyes as Maura continued to sing sadly. ’Does she mean me?’ Jane wondered hopefully as Maura sang something about gods, lizards and lightning bolts splitting people in half. She shook her head; there was nothing about her that Jane could possibly see Maura loving.

”And Osiris and the gods of the Nile, gathered up a big storm, to blow a hurricane to scatter us away.” Maura reached forward, prodding at something Jane couldn’t see.

”In a flood of wind and rain, and a sea of tidal waves.”

Maura settled organs back into place, happy that nothing was amiss with any of them. ”To wash us all away, and if we don’t behave….” She turned for the needle and thread to close the body and saw Jane sitting on the vacant table. Her song died on her lips as she waited for Jane’s usual sarcastic retort.
Instead Jane remained silent, loving eyes burning deep into Maura’s very being. Peeling off her gloves, Maura stepped towards Jane cautiously, focused solely on tear filled chocolate eyes. Removing her blood speckled gown, she stood on front of the stoic detective, feeling naked and vulnerable under her gaze.

Taking a huge breath, Maura braced herself before taking the biggest risk of her life. She continued singing.

”Last time I saw you, we’d just split in two. You were looking at me. I was looking at you.”

Jane swallowed heavily. She hadn’t expected this late night visit to the morgue to head in such a frantically different direction.

”You had a way so familiar, but I could not recognise ’cause you had blood on your face; I had blood in my eyes.” Maura reached up and wiped a single tear from Jane’s cheek. The detective nuzzled into her warm hand, inhaling the delicate aroma of Maura’s perfume.

”But I could swear by your expression, that the pain down in your soul was the same as the one down in mine?” Maura sang hopefully, watching as Jane studied her face before nodding slowly.
Pulling the ear buds gently from the doctors ears, Jane set the ipod down and licked her lips as her forehead came to rest on Maura’s.

That’s the pain, cuts a straight line down through the heart; we call it love.

”Really?” Maura whispered her hands resting on Jane’s thighs. Jane couldn’t speak around the melon sized lump that had formed in her throat. She only nodded, moving both of their heads with the action.

So we wrapped our arms around each other, tried to shove ourselves back together. We were making love. Making love.

”Since when?” Maura could barely speak as her heart hammered wildly in her chest. Jane pulled back and searched Maura’s eyes for any sign of doubt or hesitancy. ’how can this be wrong?’ she wondered. Her mind screamed with everything she’d ever been told, every condemnation and prayer. ’Shouldn’t let it all be in vain.’ Jane decided as she pulled back and met Maura’s eyes, her own clear and determined.

Maura’s question hung heavily in the air and Jane could see she was regretting it. Nodding towards the ipod on the table, Jane grinned.

”Since the earth was still flat.” She said earnestly.

She watched as her words registered within Maura’s big brain before a brilliant smile lit up her face. Returning the grin, Jane leant in, capturing Maura’s lips with her own and kissed her softly.

The world fell away and somewhere in the background of their minds, they heard the final strains of the song that had inadvertently paved the road to this moment.

It was a cold, dark evening such a long time ago when by the mighty hand of Jove. It was the sad story how we became lonely two-legged creatures, it’s the story of the origin of love.

That’s the origin of love.