Author's Note: This is my first fanfic and I'd love to know what you think. I've left this story open as an incomplete as I think there could be a nice 2nd chapter, possibly of the M variety. But I do realise that the Lewis / Robson universe is shrinking as time passes so it might be that no-one is too bothered about it anyway, so I'll see how it goes and might possible update it for my own amusement. Or not. Cheers!

It was mid October. Night was falling and the sky was a shining luminous blue that faded upwards to a deep sapphire. The air was dry and cold. Laura Hobson pulled her jacket around her and adjusted her scarf as she left the pathology lab and headed to her car. A few stars had started to appear in the dome of the sky and in the west she saw, hanging delicately, the thin crescent of the new moon. She stopped at her car and before getting in took a deep breath of the crisp evening air and slowly breathed out. There was a scent of autumn leaves and woodsmoke even in the centre of the city. She loved this time of year.

Her phone throbbed briefly in her pocket signalling a text had arrived. and as she retrieved it she smiled when she saw the sender's name on the screen. Robbie. She opened the text and read:

pie been in oven 15 mins, shiraz opened to breathe, mushy peas on a low light,

She thumbed a reply

Glad to know you're doing what you've been told to. Home in 15 mins

She smiled again as she pressed send. The previous evening she'd spent cooking for the week ahead, preparing food and loading the fridge with freshly cooked meals that she could leave for Robbie to just shove in the oven. He'd offered to cook numerous times since moving in but it soon became clear that it wasn't really his forte and anyway she enjoyed cooking, she found it relaxing. She also got a kick out of Robbie's enjoyment of her offerings. Tonight it was steak and ale pie and mushy peas. It was one of Robbie's favourite meals and the first time she'd made it for him he'd pretty much gone into raptures over it. It wasn't just the rich and tender steak, or the delicious ale gravy or even the meltingly and crisp handmade shortcrust pastry that had astonished him. It was that she'd taken the time to make proper mushy peas. Just for him. Of course she had; she'd had enough take away fish and chips and pub pies and peas with him to know that he loathed anything other than properly cooked mushy peas. Had listened to him curse each time a meal had arrived with bright green tinned slush. Heard him wax lyrical about how it was impossible to get proper mushy peas anywhere south of Derby. Of course she'd taken the time. For him. Even if it did mean coming home after a long day and preparing them so they could soak overnight, then carefully cooking them the next day to tender perfection just the way he loved them.

Those reasons, of course but it also helped that Laura Hobson was a perfectionist. Even for a dish of perfectly cooked dried peas. There was little she couldn't do if she set her mind to it. Sometimes she didn't even have to try, she was one of those gifted people who could turn their hand to pretty much anything. She excelled at sports, music, science and maths and of course her chosen field of expertise in her career. She could cook, bake, compose music, paint, draw and even throw a ceramic pot. Robbie knew all this. He'd never ceased to be in awe of her talents and her genuine humility in knowing that she could achieve almost everything she wanted to.

Almost everything.

Robbie read her reply and smiled to himself. She always left strict instructions with oven temperatures and timings for him to follow. So far he'd not messed up. Much. He didn't "get" cooking but he loved food. After his wife had died he'd lost interest in the comfort that food could offer and had sunk into bad habits of takeaways and blisteringly hot and equally unappetising microwave meals. When he moved in with Laura he'd soon discovered that she had yet another talent in her repertoire. Bloody hell woman, is there anything you can't do? And she'd hooked her hands around his neck and pulled him in close. There used to be two things, but now its just one, and I'm not telling you what it is . . . Two things? After long afternoons in bed together making love and talking for hours, she opened her heart to him and told him how utterly miserable she'd been when it had come to relationships and love. In this she had failed spectacularly. Until him. But what was the other thing? It hadn't taken too long for him to find out.

The night air had chilled even more by the time Laura reached home. She parked up and could see the curtains closed against the darkness and lights on in her home. Their home. She smiled to herself. This was becoming a regular occurrence - she kept finding herself smiling when she thought of him, of them, together. It had happened so quickly but oh so easily. These days she found herself leaving work on time, desperate to get home so they could spend as much of the evening together as possible. It was a good feeling.

She put her key into the door and let herself in shouting a hello as she did so. On the hall table she saw a glass vase full of bright yellow and orange rudbeckias. Robbie appeared from the living room, a tea towel over his shoulder.

"Hello love" he said and no sooner had she closed the door and locked it behind her he had his arms round her and had pulled her in close for a kiss.

"Hello" she returned, with a smile, into his kiss. Her arms wrapped round his back and she felt him nuzzle his face into her hair.

"You've brought the cold in with you, bit nippy out there eh?"

"It is getting a bit colder. What's with the flowers?" She gestured to the vibrant flowers. They were almost luminous in the evening light and seemed to glow, almost as if in an attempt to stave off the coming darkness of the change in season.

"It's going to be frosty tonight, I thought it was a shame for them to get hit so I brought them in"

"Frost?"

"Yeah, according to the weather."

"Hmm, looks like we'll have to put the heating on tonight"

"Maybe. Come on, let's eat. I've been jonesing for that pie of yours since this afternoon"

She rolled her eyes at him

"At least let a girl have a quick shower after a long day in the morgue"

"Go on then. I'll set the table. According to your instructions you've got another 15 minutes before the pie's done. I'd better go and stir those peas."

He gave her backside a playful slap before heading back towards the kitchen. Smiling Laura went upstairs to shower and change. She was still getting used to "off duty" Robbie. Off Duty Robbie would sneak up behind her and grab her unawares, kiss her and make her shriek with amused indignation. Off duty Robbie bought her cups of tea before making breakfast for her on her early starts. Best of all, off duty Robbie got into bed with her every night, wrapped his arms round her and kept her warm.

Down in the kitchen Robbie turned the gas down under the mushy peas. He was very careful to make sure that he didn't burn the bottom of the pan. No one made peas for him like Laura, well, maybe his old Gran had, but it had been a long, long time since then. Laura didn't really eat much of the peas herself but she still made them for him. He smiled to himself, she was quite a woman. Clever, kind, sexy and full of sass. Usually aimed at him. His smile broke into a grin. Sometimes he questioned how they had ended up together, when she could have had her pick of any man she wanted. But she had picked the man she wanted, so she said, when he asked her that question not long after they'd got together. He smiled to himself again before shaking his head slightly at the warm feeling he got each time he took stock of the fact that they were now living together, after all this time. Sighing contentedly he gave the peas a final stir before going to the back door of the kitchen that lead into the garden.

When Robbie had moved in to Laura's house he'd been excited by the presence of the stove in the living room. It sat impressively in the large fireplace that must have once housed a cooking range. It was a large cast iron affair with decorative doors, large enough to take a big hefty log or two and looked just the thing for a cosy night in during the depths of winter.

"I bet that gets nice and toasty eh?" He'd said to Laura not long after moving in with her

"Mmm" she'd said, tight lipped. She had quickly changed the subject.

Although that had been in the summer months he'd thought it was odd that she didn't seem to share his enthusiasm about sitting in front of a warm stove on a frosty night, all tucked up and cosy. Not to mention how romantic it could be. Eventually she had confessed to him that she'd tried numerous times to light a fire in the stove and failed miserably. Consequently, she'd never been able to muster anything other than a few flames and some damp smoke before the whole lot had sputtered out. She told him she'd bought white spirit, firelighters, applied the laws of physics, checked wind speed, had it insprected by a sweep and even watched video tutorials on the net. But to no avail. He teased her mercilessly at the time that he'd found the one sole thing she was incapable of. It was no secret that she was a perfectionist and he could tell that she was genuinely irritated at not being able to light a fire. It was this that was the one thing she couldn't do. Not exactly a big deal, unless of course you were in a survival situation.

So it was that a few days after seeing that cold weather was finally on its way, Robbie sourced a load of logs and a flat packed wooden store and arranged for delivery in secret that morning. He had spent the afternoon stacking logs into the newly installed log store in the back garden. He'd bought a small hand axe to split some of the larger logs and a log basket for beside the fireplace. By the end of the day it was filled ready with various sized logs and kindling. He'd left the basket outside. He wanted it to be a surprise. Outside, now in the chilly night air, he could hear and see the boiler vent puthering out white vapours. Good, she was still in the shower. Time enough to bring in the fruits of his afternoon's work

After her shower, Laura dressed quickly and headed downstairs. She was hungry and felt a flush of joy when she thought about how a simple shared meal with Robbie filled her with such happiness. As she reached the bottom of the stairs she shivered slightly. Maybe the heating should go on now before the house got too chilly. She went towards the central heating dial on the wall. She paused briefly - there was a fragrant scent in the air, she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, it was slightly sweet and almost mossy. Odd.

Her hand went to the dial.

"I wouldn't bother" Robbie's voice behind her stopped her before she dialled up the thermostat. She turned to see him leaning in the doorway. She frowned at him.

"It's going to be cold tonight, you said so yourself" she looked at him in exasperation, almost irritation.

Smiling at her and without saying anything he went towards her and took her hand. He lead her through the doorway into the sitting room. "Robbie – the heating" she protested but he ignored her, still smiling, and continued to lead her into the sitting room, towards the fireplace.

The scent that Laura had detected earlier became stronger and sweeter and as Robbie came to a stop at the fireplace she realised what it was. She saw the door to the stove was open and a stack of kindling was laid expertly within. An attractive looking basket of firewood sat to the side of the fireplace and a few logs were also stacked either side of the stove in the sides of the fireplace. Robbie watched as a smile started to spread across her face.

"Here" he said softly, handing her a box of matches "just light the two firelighters at either end, it'll be up in no time"

Laura held the matches in her hand. She looked at him, her eyes dark and shining, one of her gazes that always made his heart thump a little harder.

"What?" he said with a curious smile

"I want you to light it"

"But I'm going to show you how to do it"

"I don't want to know. I don't need to know. Not anymore."

"You want me to light your fire?" He smiled, getting the gist of how she was feeling

"You already have" and she went to him, putting her arms around him and pulling him down for a kiss.

"Thank you" she said when they finally pulled apart. "it's wonderful" He smiled down to her.

"Do you want to light it now or shall we eat?"

"Well, being as we've got all night and that I can hear – or rather I can feel your belly rumbling, I think we'd better eat now"

"Agreed" he smiled, kissing her again before leading her into the kitchen.

Later on, with the pie and peas demolished and the dishes done and half the shiraz drunk they returned to the sitting room. Laura sat with her legs tucked under her on the sofa and watched on as Robbie lit the stove. He was right, it was up in no time and within minutes she could feel the warmth from the flames. The scent of the logs was still delicious and Robbie picked out a cherrywood log from the basket and told Laura it would smell good as it burned. He was right - a sweet woody cherry scent filled the room as it caught in the stove. Once the fire had got onto a roll Robbie found his place next to Laura and drew her into an embrace. She snuggled up to him and rested her head on his chest. She thought of all the times she'd sat alone on that sofa, miserable and cold and lonely - Staring into the empty dark stove and berating herself as she catalogued all her failed relationships. Now, her eyes took in the bright cheery light of the fire that Robbie had lit. She inhaled deeply, taking in the warm scent of the room and, nuzzling her nose into his jumper, the reassuring scent of Robbie. She let out a long, contented sigh and anchored herself deeper into his embrace. He smiled as he looked down at her arms around him. In a few minutes he would have to get up to put another log on the fire and with a smile it occurred to him that the fire was a bit like a relationship. You had to tend to it, respect it and keep it going. You had to follow its lead sometimes, stoke it up or damp it down. You could see how it was doing by just watching it or by feeling its warmth. He pulled Laura in a bit closer and placed a kiss into her hair.

Later on, after they had finished the wine and the logs on the fire shifted lazily into embers. Laura could feel the drift of sleep start to descend over her. She felt warm and cozy and suddenly aware of how happy she felt. They had relaxed their way through the evening chatting and laughing and discussing work and old cases as they often did when left to their own devices. In-between there were easy pauses of peaceful quiet, accompanied by a soothing caress on each other's hand or arm.

Robbie checked his watch, 11 pm. It was late. Laura needed to be up early in the morning, and moreover he needed to be up to bring her a cup of tea while she pulled round. He gave her a gentle squeeze.

"Come on love, bedtime. Let's go upstairs before the fire goes out"

She looked up at him, lost in some sort of thought. Her eyes were dark and shining again, looking only at him. He looked back at her, a gentle smile on his lips before getting to his feet and pulling her up off the sofa.

"Yes, let's" she said and taking his hand she led him upstairs.