The dim morning light was just beginning to creep under the curtains when Laura's mobile started to ring. She groaned, and barely opening her eyes, thrust a hand out from under the duvet to grab the offending item from her bedside table.

"Hobson"

The dispatch controller was polite and professional, they always were…and she tried to be polite back. They were only doing their job, even if it was 6am.

"Right, so the police are already there, and the area is cordoned off?"

"Yes, Dr; the SOCO team arrived in the last few minutes, hence my call."

"OK, thank you. How many bodies?"

"One, elderly male."

"I'll be there in 30 minutes"

She hung up, and for a moment slumped back into the pillows, relishing their soft embrace. She'd actually slept ok for once, and although she could have done without the early start, she felt much better. Gradually, the events of the previous night filtered back into her consciousness. Robbie. Her breath caught slightly, remembering his words. I want to be with you. She rolled over and pressed her face in the pillow, the warmth of anticipation spreading through her. She would see him today, that much was certain now. But what to say? How to take the first step? She couldn't exactly throw herself at him, could she? No. That wouldn't be right. She didn't want to do that. Small steps. She'd just be normal…wait for the right moment. It would come.

Arriving at the woods, she parked and looked quickly around. There was no sign of his car yet. Good. She felt nervous enough already, and she needed to get stuck in to whatever situation was beyond the cordon tape. Ten years of friendship…and now she chose this moment to be nervous. God. Even if her mind was elsewhere, she was very aware that she needed to focus on the scene and the job ahead. Every little detail mattered, and whatever she may or may not be feeling about seeing him, she had to be professional. She put on her suit carefully, making sure her jumper was closely fitted under the white elastic, and collecting her kit from the boot of the car, walked in the direction of the rest of the team.

About an hour later, she heard the sound of more cars arriving, and looked up briefly from her work. There he was. She looked back down quickly, and tried to concentrate on the task in hand. There were too many people around, and she was pretty sure that he would be as keen as she was to keep it discreet. She took another sample from the corpse's right sleeve, and tried to remember to breath. Just be normal, Hobson. Normal is fine. It seemed an age until his feet appeared in her line of sight.

As he stretched out his hand to help her up, she smiled broadly. She was wearing her surgical gloves, but the contact still sent a spark of energy up her arm. Here they were, joking as usual, as if nothing had happened…but it had. And as he looked into her eyes, she realised that some shift had occurred, everything felt different today. He still held her in his grip, and she realised that her thumb was caressing the back of his hand. Slowly, he released her hand, and he went back to his questions.

Little by little, Laura felt the nervous energy dissipating. This isn't so bad. He seemed distracted, but not by her. As always, he was methodically analysing the scene before him, taking in every detail. He made no mention of their late-night confession, but there was no need. He was as comfortable in her presence as she was with him…once they were alone, away from work, she was confident things would unfold naturally.

His phone rang, and he smiled awkwardly, stepping back slightly.

"I have to get this"

She nodded, smiling and stepping back into the shallow grave. He turned as he spoke, and soon he was engrossed in a conversation with Jean Innocent, outlining the scene and the first lines of enquiry. He turned back quickly, indicating that he needed to go and sort something, and then he was gone.

Later, as she walked back to her car, with Chris in tow, she wondered if she shouldn't have made that joke about him being a single man. She hadn't meant it quite like that. He seemed preoccupied and his comments about Jack Cornish really hadn't made any sense at all. Had she missed something? As she had feared, they had had almost no time to be alone this morning, and having Chris tag along in her car back to the lab did not help matters. She was pleased that neither of them had tried to force it, making a fool of themselves in front of the whole SOCO team. Still. Peeling off her gloves, she extracted the phone from her pocket, and quickly texted him,

'I'm sorry if that was a bit awkward. Are you ok? Lx'

She'd never added an 'x' before. She hoped he would notice. Small steps and all that. She slipped the phone back into her pocket, unlocked the car and waited for Chris to catch up.

As Robbie strode into the mortuary, he was immediately disappointed to see a number of technicians busy about their work. He'd hoped to finally catch Laura alone, but it seemed that now wouldn't be that moment either.

God she was beautiful. Even in those hideous green scrubs.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

She smiled knowingly, almost daring him to challenge her,

"I'm just wondering how you plan to solve this…"

He grinned, his eyes falling once again on her lips. How easy would it be to kiss her, right now? Her blue eyes sparkled, and he felt himself stepping forward. The door swung open again, startling them both, and another of the technicians brushed past him, brandishing an unfortunate array of drill bits on a tray. He shuddered slightly, and wondered, not for the first time, how to equate the delicate woman standing before him with that image of horror.

She bit her lip nervously, the moment lost. There is no rush. She smiled, their eyes meeting again, another moment of exquisite tension.

"I'm just wondering how you're going to manage all this without Hathaway"

He grinned, basking in her warmth, her good-natured teasing.

"With great skill…"

As he walked down the corridor, he found he couldn't resist sending her a message, and he extracted his phone from his inside pocket. When he had received her message earlier in the day, he hadn't know what to reply, but now he knew exactly what he wanted to say,

'Soon, pet. I promise. X'

It wasn't until later that afternoon that Laura saw his message. She had been caught up in the gruesome task of performing the preliminary organ investigation on the elderly man until 5pm, and it was only after she'd taken a quick shower and changed again, about to leave the office, that she noticed her phone flashing. As she read his short message, she felt instantly calmer, and a soft flush began to spread across her cheeks. He wanted this as much as she did. All day she had been worried about how they might take things forward, how they might finally open up to each other. They could do playful, she knew that, but she needed more. And here he was, Robbie Lewis the romantic. She hadn't seen that coming. She saved the message, and slipped her phone into her bag. She wasn't sure what to do now. Suddenly her evening plans seemed so insufficient…home, cleaning, gardening, dinner, work, bed. Should she call him?

As she walked to her car, she scanned the parking spaces. He wasn't here. He hadn't been on shift this morning, not until the call out, so she assumed he must be working a late one. She opened the car door, and swinging her bag onto the passenger seat, wondered again if she should call him. Sliding the keys into the ignition, she hesitated, cursing herself. She reached over and rummaged in the bag, and before allowing herself to think, she dialled his number.

It rang for a while, then clicked through to voicemail. It was automated, he'd never bothered to record a personal greeting, and before she realised it, the beep sounded, and she didn't know what to say,

'It's me…Laura… I just…. I don't know. I just wanted to see if you were free this evening.'

She paused, painfully aware that she sounded like a total idiot,

'Thank you for your message earlier… it was lovely. Anyway… I'm leaving work now. Hope you've had a good day'.

She hung up and sighed loudly. Well that went well… 'Hope you had a good day'…what was that all about? He was working on a murder enquiry. It was just like when her mother rang and asked if she'd done anything nice at work. Oh my god, I'm turning into my mother. Flinging the phone back into her bag, she turned the ignition, and eased the car out of its space.

With Hathaway on his way to Pristina, Lewis found himself still at his desk at nine. Things weren't looking great…an embalmed corpse with no name, no clear leads. He sighed deeply and stretched back in his chair. Laura. He had listened to her message three times already. He smiled to himself, and picked up the phone again. She answered on the third ring.

"Hello you…"

It was two words, but immediately he relaxed into their new familiarity.

"Hello yourself"

"Still at work?"

"Aye… Still trying to pin a name on that bloke"

"Nothing new?"

"No…. and I'm afraid that I think I'll need to stay late…so…"

"…so no five course dinner for me?"

He could hear her smiling, the way her voice softened a little, acquiring that slightly teasing tone,

"No…I think I'll need to be here for another couple of hours at least."

"That's ok, it's just nice to finally have a chance to talk to you"

He sighed, knowing exactly how she felt,

"I know, pet. I'm sorry"

"Hey, this isn't your fault…we're both in the same boat on that one."

There was a pause, neither wanted the brief exchange to end.

"I guess we just have to approach this like everyone else who meets at work – does Innocent let you take a lunch break?"

After she put the phone down, Laura had a thought. For a moment she hesitated, wondering if it might be too much, too soon, but decided to throw caution to the wind. Picking up the spare set of keys hanging on the hook and her wallet, she left her house and got in the car.

When he arrived home, just after midnight, Robbie was surprised to find Monty fast asleep on the sofa. Normally he would be yowling for food when he came back from a late shift, but tonight he seemed very relaxed. As he bent to pick up his food bowl, he noticed a small piece of paper underneath it. In a neat, unmistakable hand,

He's had his, don't let him tell you otherwise. Yours is in the fridge. I hope you don't mind. Sleep well x

He smiled and shook his head, struggling to disentangle his amusement at her gesture, from the lump now forming in his throat. When he opened the fridge, he found a steak. On the hob was a frying pan, and in that, in the same delicate hand,

Turn heat on. When the pan is very hot, open the packet and put steak in pan. 3 mins on each side, don't guess. Microwave chips are in the microwave, put them on once you have the steak in the pan. Do not cook this piece of paper…x

Laura was just falling asleep when her phone buzzed with a text,

'Didn't want to wake you, thank you for our dinners. Can we keep you? X'

Sleepily, she placed the phone back down, too tired to think of a witty reply. As she drifted off again, her body finally relaxing, a smile played across her lips.