Everyone noticed Lacey at first. Something new in Dog River always needed a close eye kept on it, until harmlessness could be ascertained.

But Karen found herself noticing Lacey a long time after everyone else stopped.

She was always so clean and cheerful and classy and other words starting with c, because alliteration was important to Karen. She reminded Karen of what she could have had, if she'd been stationed somewhere other than Dog River. Big city life, where coffee had options other than 'black or cream'. Where folks could go out at night, past 6pm, and go dancing or buy potatoes or whatever happened to take their fancy.

And that's how Karen kept convincing herself that her fascination with Lacey was a simple longing for a life in a city where a cow in the street wasn't a reason to call the police emergency line. Where there was something on the horizon other than grain elevator after grain elevator.

Karen was thrown when Lacey asked her if she found her attractive. She just threw out the first thing that came to mind, to make it seem like she hadn't been thinking about it quite so much as she had. She thought she passed it off pretty well, but later that night, dozing in her chair in the police station, she thought, really thought about what Lacey had asked her and it hit her like Hank's truck hit that cow in the street.

Karen did find Lacey attractive.

The next few days were awkward for Karen and her new awakening. Dog River wasn't homophobic, as far as she knew, it was just that there was no one to be homophobic about. And as a female police officer, she felt a little ashamed of living up to the most popular stereotype. And Lacey was so sweet and unsuspecting and wholesome that Karen couldn't quite bring herself to meet her eyes when she filled her coffee cup twice a day.

Lacey noticed, and used her typical Lacey logic.

Karen was dozing in the office, feet on desk, when the phone rang. It startled her and she knocked her nameplate off her desk with her feet before answering the phone.

"Karen? I think someone's in my house." Lacey whispered on the phone.

"Be right out." Karen said, pushing her cap back on her head.

When Karen got to Lacey's there was no sign of suspicious activity. Still, she pulled her gun along with her torch and sneaked carefully around to the back door.

The door opened. Lacey was standing there in bare feet and pajamas, the light from inside the house revealing her silhouette.

"I think they're gone," Lacey said breathily. "But I think I'd feel safer if you stayed. For a little while."

It was awkward because Karen still couldn't look at Lacey, even when Lacey handed her a coffee she made herself, in her own kitchen, for her.

"So are you going to tell me why you can't look at me anymore?" Lacey asked Karen.

"Was there even anyone in your house?" Karen countered, spying one of Lacey's not-so-elaborate ruses.

"Well, no, but I couldn't ask you about this at the diner." Lacey said with a huff.

"So you decided to waste valuable police resources and call me in the middle of the night?"

"I thought it might not be something you'd want to talk about unless I…"

"Unless you trapped me in your house?" Karen countered, but Lacey sighed and moved closer.

"You can leave if you want to," Lacey said.

"Might as well finish my coffee," Karen said nonchalantly, trying to ignore where the heat radiating from Lacey's thigh was heating her itchy police pants where it was pressed against her own. Besides, Karen never turned down coffee. It would be unseemly to start now.

"If the reason you won't look at me is because I asked you if you found me attractive, Karen, you don't have anything to worry about." Lacey told Karen in a reassuring tone, sliding a hand on her thigh. Karen just watched Lacey's hand carefully, the way she'd watch a pedestrian nearing a crosswalk. Waiting for the inevitable corner-cutting and a jaywalk fine to break up a quiet day. "I didn't realize until after I asked that I might have put you in an… awkward position."

"Awkward?" Karen asked. "What could be awkward about one attractive friend asking another attractive friend if they're attractive? That's not awkward at all."

"Then why have you been avoiding me ever since I asked?" Lacey asked, and Karen was so sick of that tone in Lacey's voice, that whiney 'I don't fit into Dog River' thing she did; so much so that Karen leant in and shut her up.

With her mouth.

On Lacey's mouth.

It took her a little while to notice that Lacey was kissing her back because she was wondering why her brain thought this was a good way to shut her up and why were Lacey's lips were so soft and when Lacey's tongue slipped its way into her mouth she pulled back.

"You know I'm going to have to write a report about this, don't you? You called the emergency line." Karen informed Lacey sternly, if a little breathlessly.

"You don't have to put this in the report," Lacey said, putting on her innocent voice. "You can just say you spent the night in the lounge-room of a concerned citizen who heard an intruder."

"Spent the night?" Karen asked hopefully.

"Yeah." Lacey said, leaning back in. And Karen discovered that Dog River had so much more to offer than tracking the speed of an unladen swallow with a radar gun.

Karen was back in the office when Davis came in the next morning.

"Quiet night?" He asked, as he did every morning Karen was on overnight.

"Guess so. Lacey heard something, had to go check it out." Davis nodded.

"Must be scary, single woman like her, hearing things," he said knowingly. "Coffee?" He asked.

"I'll get it," Karen told him, and headed over to The Ruby. It was always busy this time of day, but when Lacey poured Karen's coffee it spilt over because of the way they couldn't stop looking at each other.

No one noticed though, because they'd stopped noticing Lacey a long time ago.