"Dr. Rosenberg, you've got something for us?" Julian asked once he and Tara reached Willow's side beside the steel examination table. They were in a well-equipped morgue in the basement of UCLA Medical Center. The medical examiner, though not unusual, was alone inside the room.

Willow was seated on a swivel stool beside the metal table on which the victim laid. She was looking into a microscope on an adjoining table, occasionally adjusting the lens as she examined the contents on the slide. "Yeah. Here, take a look at this." She moved aside to allow the two detectives to take turns looking into the microscope.

"I also found several bruises around the abdomen and scabs on his knuckles, but they were already healing. He could have gotten them a few days or even a week before." She continued.

Tara furrowed her eyebrows when Julian gave her a shrug and a blank stare as he looked up slightly from the microscope. She gave him a little push as a signal for him to get out of the way.

"Care to tell us what it is we're looking at?" Tara asked while looking at the dark colored crystal-like specimen through the scope. Science had never been her forte in school and the image on the slide was just as baffling as anything she had looked at while in class all those years ago.

Willow took a calming breath to soothe her nerves at hearing Tara's peeved tone, but couldn't help frowning in annoyance. "It's obsidian," she stated plainly. There were times when she wanted to make nice, but whenever they started 'talking', Tara's snappiness reminded her how that could never happen.

"So?" Tara questioned after sharing a baffled look with Julian.

"It's a type of volcanic glass; chemically similar to granite. I found several tiny pieces stuck inside the victim's body along his sternum. In the ancient times, obsidian was used to make ceremonial objects and blades for knives. Now the only place you can find one is probably in an antique store." Willow explained.

"Or on the internet," Tara replied sarcastically as she asked, "ever heard of E-bay?"

Willow narrowed her eyes indignantly at her. She decided that she had had enough of the brunette's insolence. "You've got what you came for. Now, why don't you get the hell out of my morgue?" she hissed as she narrowed her eyes at the detective.

"You're throwing us out?" Tara breathed out in disbelief. This was the first time Willow had declared to want them out of her examination room.

"Wouldn't be the first time a woman threw you out," Willow sneered.

"What did you say?" Tara raised her voice at the redhead, staring angrily as her nostrils flared. Julian moved to stand directly in front of Tara, blocking her view of Willow. He placed his hands on either side of the brunette's shoulders in an attempt to calm her down. Her face was beet-red as anger flushed her body.

"Let's just go, Tara." He said in a soft voice. He had never witnessed the two women squabble so heatedly before. Things between them had escalated to a whole new level and he was fearful that fists would start to fly.

"Did you hear what she ju-" Tara stopped her protest grudgingly when she saw the stern expression on Julian's face. She put her hands on her hips and squeezed her eyes shut in anger and frustration. "Fine." With that, she turned around and stormed out the double-doors of the morgue.

Julian turned back to Willow, who had one hand on her forehead and the other on her hip. A look of exasperation evident on the young woman's face. He pressed his lips into a straight line before turning to leave as well. He was at a loss of words.

When he was halfway down the hallway, Julian heard a loud bang resounding from the morgue much like someone had just slammed a fist onto a metal table. He stopped abruptly at hearing it. After letting out a defeated sigh, he continued his walk to the elevator.

*

"I can't believe she said that!" Tara yelled, gesturing wildly inside the car. She had been going on and on about the interaction at the morgue for the last twenty minutes, which was about the same time they drove away from the hospital. "She doesn't know anything about me. And she acted all high and mighty, like she's better than me. Who the hell does she think she is?"

Julian had been listening to his partner ramble on angrily about Willow, not an uncommon occurrence after being in the redhead's presence. Today however, his ears were starting to hurt. She had started to bring up snippets of arguments she had had with Willow in the past six months, which he was sure no one actually remembered. He himself didn't even remember the events and he was there in all of them, apparently.

He put the brakes on the car when the traffic light turned red. Tara was still rattling on in the passenger's seat, but it barely registered in his mind. The rambling had become gibberish about ten minutes ago, the words a low buzzing nose steadily penetrating his ears. Julian took in a deep breath. That's it.

"Stop!" he yelled, dragging out the one syllable word. Tara jumped in her seat at the sudden shriek, pressing her back into the corner between the car door and the seat. Her left hand gripped the side of the leather-cushioned seat while her right palm was pressed on the ceiling of the car, in a comical pose. She stared wide-eyed in shock at Julian, her face having shifted to a slightly pale color from the fright.

"Would you please stop?" Julian pleaded breathlessly, his face flushed.

"You couldn't have told me nicely? No need to yell. You nearly scared the crap out of me." Tara grumbled, settling back into the seat once more.

"Yeah right. Would you really have stopped if I asked you nicely?" Julian shot back with a smirk as he stepped on the accelerator when the light turned green.

"No," Tara mumbled sheepishly as she crossed her arms against her chest.

"You've never been like this before. It's not like that was the first time Rosenberg made a jibe at you. Why are you making such a big deal about it this time?" Julian question as he arched an eyebrow. For the first year or so, whenever she and Willow argued, Tara would brood for a while or plainly shrugged it off after leaving the redhead's presence. However, he had noticed that she had become increasingly bothered by the redhead in recent times for no obvious reason.

Tara let out a long breath through her nose. She seemed to have calmed down significantly. "I don't know. When she said that, it kinda …" hurts? "…just pissed me off," she replied. She frowned slightly at the initial thought, wondering where it came from. She couldn't deny the fact that Willow seemed to get on her nerves much more lately, making her feel a tad uneasy.

"You always get pissed off," Julian retorted, interrupting Tara's train of thought. "It's like your trademark."

"Yeah, like I am right now," she snapped her head to the side to glare at him. Julian shot her an amused smile, infecting Tara as well. She shook her head in amazement at how he seemed to always make her feel better so effortlessly.

"Well, now that you are feeling better, can you call Harris and have him check out that obsidian thing?" Julian asked, putting his head back into the case after getting a little sidetracked by the drama of it all. "We need to go talk to Osbourne's girlfriend."

"Fine. But if he asks me to buy him that stupid donut again, I'm gonna shove one down his throat when we get back to the precinct." Tara quipped as she dialed the number on her phone.