Hiya all again. AforAntechinus here. I know who? sorry that it has been such a long time in between stories Honours, work and Girl Guides have literally taken over my life this year. I had an idea for this story with one of the drabbles, but it needed extra parts so here we are. This was completed in about an hour or so of writing. I hope you enjoy. This is for D.U my beta and fellow Di/Nikki lover.

Her lips were soft and warm. When she kissed her she felt right. But then reality hit and she pulled away. She really, really shouldn't have just done that. For one thing Nikki was straight and she was her sergeant. As she turned to run out of the room, she heard the calls to come back, but she couldn't. She didn't want to admit that in her one moment of need, she had succumbed to what she had wanted to do for months. It had started off just an idea running through her head that her sergeant was attractive. This had grown to a slight infatuation, then a fully fledged attraction. At that thought Diane flushed red. It had been years since she had had these feelings. Then finally when she had started to stop feeling, she had kissed her. Good idea, Diane, she scolded herself.

The next morning as she awoke, she still couldn't fathom why exactly she had decided to kiss her sergeant. It wasn't like it would actually go anywhere. It would only make it awkward at work for the next few weeks and lead to a lot of denial.

As she entered the briefing room, her eyes flittered around, trying to find Nikki. It only took a moment; she was at the front of the room. Diane sat down and shook her head, no fireworks, no bombs exploding, nothing. Normal, that was all it was, and as if the universe was laughing at her, normality was what she found throughout the whole briefing and the day that followed.

She was walking through the corridor at the end of the day, determined to put yesterday out of her mind when Nikki called out to her.

"Diane, can I have a word?" It was a question, but like the usual sergeant request it really turned into a thinly veiled order.

As Diane shut the door she looked at her shoes.

"You kissed me yesterday."

All she could do was nod.

"Why?"

Silence. She couldn't make herself speak, she just couldn't.

She looked up slowly and watched as Nikki raised an eyebrow, still expecting an answer.

"Why does anyone kiss anyone, Nikki?" Diane answered, and with that she walked out of the office.

The Sun Hill Christmas Party was something not to be missed. The music blared as Diane looked around her. She had had a drink, but she wouldn't have any more. She was driving after all. She surveyed the scene, there was Neil and Grace dancing together. She smiled at their relationship, it was good. Smithy and Stevie were talking closely, she was sure she knew where that was heading. CID was laughing together, Max wasn't there, but that was not a surprise. Leon and Kristy were talking together. As Diane looked around again looking for a specific person, someone spoke behind her ear.

"Looking for someone in particular, P.C Noble?"

"You scared me, Sergeant Wright."

"We're out of work Diane, it's Nikki."

"Nikki."

It had been over a month since the incident; 37 days actually, not that Diane was counting, though! And no mention had been made of it.

Before they could say anything more, Ben came up.

"Hey, you guys dancing?" Said the noticeably drunk P.C

That was how Diane found herself dancing with the sergeant that she had kissed only 37 days before. It was all going as good as could be Diane thought, her hands were not anywhere inappropriate and Nikki seemed to be happy. When the incident that would change their world occurred.

A drunk Kristy and Leon were on the dance floor drunkenly dancing when Kristy took a step to far back and pushed Nikki into Diane. All Diane could do was wrap her arms around Nikki who had suddenly invaded her personal space, whilst a drunk Kristy stumbled and muttered a quick apology. She could feel the warmth of Nikki through the clothes and suddenly the events of 37 days before came back to her and she flushed. Nikki regained some balance but even so, their faces were mere inches apart and they were looking at each other eye to eye when, for Diane, the whole world stopped.

Diane woke up and grinned, it was her first day off in over two weeks and lying next to her was Nikki who also by 'chance' had a day off. Since that night at the Christmas party when they had gone home together, they had been together. It was during that night during and after love making that Nikki explained how she had developed feelings for Diane and would have told her earlier if she had been given the chance. Since then they had been together.

The door opened and closed quickly.

"Diane?"

"In the kitchen."

As Nikki came in and smiled at her, Diane let out a breath that she had been holding for the afternoon. It was going to be okay after all.

Today had been a tough one, for the first time since they had been together, Nikki had had to row her. She had been a tad tough on a suspect which had almost resulted in a complaint being lodged. She wasn't sure if they would be the same. Had they successfully been able to keep work and life separate?

As they settled down to eat, Nikki spoke up.

"Di, I think if this is going to work, were going to have to leave work at work, home at home okay. I know I yelled at you today, but now at home, I don't want to think about it, okay? It was a work thing."

"I'm not complaining, Nik."

"Okay then, so what did you want to do tonight?"

"I could think of a few things…" Diane smirked

Diane heard the bell ring, but she couldn't get up and answer it. She had no will power to do so, and, well she didn't really want company, not tonight. She didn't want Smithy to try and cheer her up, or Tony to bring some beer round. A moment later she heard the door quietly open and shut again. Finally she allowed herself to give in to the emotions that had been threatening to spill over for the last hour.

When Nikki walked into the lounge room she couldn't see her, so she quietly progressed through the rest of the unit, finally coming to the bedroom. She could hear music coming softly from under the door and with that pushed the door gently open. Diane was lying on the bed looking away from her, her shoulders shaking, heaving. In only a moment she was lying next to Diane cradling her in her arms like she did when her kids were upset.

They lay like this for minutes, but eventually Diane's tears ran out and dried up, the tears for that young girl that she had seen die today were gone. Perhaps the image wouldn't go away straight away, but as Nikki knotted her fingers in her own she knew that they would.

Diane shook her head in amazement; the last year had been crazy. She did not imagine a year ago that this scene would be occurring, but here Nikki was moving the last box into the house that they had brought together. As Nikki finished, she looked up at Diane smiled and then moved to kiss her.

She may not have imagined it a year ago, but hell she was glad that it was happening.