Julia wrapped her hands around the steaming cup of freshly brewed coffee Daniel had placed in front of her. He sat down across from her, pushed a plate of warm blueberry crumpets toward her before leaning back and taking a sip from his own mug.

"I made them exactly the way you like them."

"You like them exactly the way I like them too, so you mean you made them exactly the way you usually do." She smiled as she forked a crumpet onto her plate, acknowledging his attempt to take her mind off the dream from the night before.

"Actually, I have a confession to make." He forked another crumpet onto her plate as she eyed him with mock suspicious. "I hate blueberry crumpets, so you can have them all."

"You do not. You're such a fraud." Julia uncapped the chocolate sauce and squeezed a smiley face onto the top crumpet. "You just want me to eat all of them so my ass will grow to the size of a blimp, then you can have an excuse to break up with me and run off with Ludmila... I see the way you look at her when we are at the store." She transferred the smiling crumpet back to the serving dish and pushed it over to his side of the table.

"You mean the one at the butcher's section with the beard?" He shook his head. "She's not really my type, baby... too skinny." He winked at her before taking another sip of coffee.

Julia sighed, setting her fork down and staring into her coffee cup as if there were answers to be found there. "I'm sorry if I scared you last night. I scared me too. It felt so real... it still does. I can't get it out of my head."

"It's okay, baby. It was just a dream." He leaned over to place his hand on hers. "You want to talk about it?" It had never been his style to invade her privacy, but she could tell that he was plagued with concern for her mixed with a touch of curiosity.

"I was running from something... in the dream. In the dream, I was running from something." Her fists clenched at each mention of the 'something'. "I don't know what it was. Or who it was. I just knew that I was about to die."

Daniel reached across the table and laid his palm over her clenched fist, but didn't say anything.

"I knew that I could not stop for even one second. I dared not look back. Yet I knew that no matter how fast I ran, I was about to die." Tears welled in her eyes as she looked up at him for the first time since she had started talking, thumb absently stroking the silver heart locket Daniel had given her. "Do you have any idea how that feels, Danny? That feeling of all-encompassing hopelessness." She took a deep breath, batting back tears, clearly trying to wrestle back control of her emotions.

"No, I have never felt that way, but I can imagine that it would be scary."

"And as I lay there bleeding... dying... I felt a strange sense of calm. As if the act of dying was setting me free."

"You died?" Daniel's outburst, while out of character for him, barely fazed her.

"I think I did. Yes. I think I did. I woke up before I actually died, but I think I was killed. Or at least that is what I would imagine dying would feel like. I've never given it any thought before. Have you?"

"No, never." He shook his head slowly. "So... in this dream... how did you die? I mean, what killed you?"

"I was shot. From the back." She looked back up at him and paused before adding, "With an arrow."

"An arrow?" 

She could tell that it was hard to keep the incredulity out of his voice, and if it hadn't been that the dream had upset her that much, they probably would've joked about it. She knew Daniel well enough to know what he was thinking - he was remembering the movie they had watched a few weeks ago. She had made him watch the movie with her a second time, that was how much she had enjoyed it. The medieval heroine was a feisty brunette, they had laughed together when he told her how much she reminded him of her. The same medieval heroine who took an arrow to the back saving the man she loved.

"I'm just being silly. Like you said... it's just a dream." She laughed as she dabbed at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Look at me... I'm acting like a big ole baby."

"Yeah, but you're kinda hot when you're all mopey and teary faced and your hair is all funny and..."

"My hair is all funny?" She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to smooth down her unruly curls.

"Yeah, I think you should leave it like that for your girls' night out. Even leave that tuft of chocolate sauce in there, it adds character."

Julia broke out into a fit of giggles. Every second of being around Daniel reminded her of why she loved him as much as she did. Her night out. She had forgotten all about the night of fun she had planned with her girlfriends. It would be a welcome distraction, something to drive the demons right out of her.

"What shall I wear?" Daniel lifted the morning newspaper. This was clearly not a discussion he wanted to be a part of. "Danny? You're going to sit right across from me and pretend you didn't hear me?"

"Nope. I heard you just fine." He turned the page without looking up at her.

"How about the blue dress with the ribbon detail at the neckline?"

"Uh huh."

"Or the brown one with the low cowl neck?"

"Yep, sounds good too. You should wear both."

"Danny, you're not helping." She scowled at him, but he merely flipped to the sports page, adjusting his glasses and continued to read.

"Or... something hot and sexy?"

"Uh huh."

"Sexy enough to get some serious male attention?" She rested her chin on her hands and cocked her head to look up into his face.

"Yes, baby. That's what 'uh huh' means... you go knock their skivvies off."

"Danny! Stop that." She grabbed the paper, folded it and set it down on a chair. "Help me think of something to wear."

Daniel sighed, she already knew he hated what he calls 'these femme discussions'. "You know that neither I nor you will win here, right? When your car refuses to start you can ask my advice. But for this... why don't you call up Miranda or Emma?" He looked at her, trying for his best 'pitiful man who is admittedly out of his depth' look. "Honestly sweetheart, you are beautiful in anything you wear."

Heart swelling with love, while at the same time recognising the sly tactics he was employing, she pushed back her chair, made her way around the table and leaned in to kiss him. "You're so sweet." Her arms wrapped around his neck as she lowered herself onto his lap. "Too sweet at times, baby."

"And you are my gorgeous jelly-baby." He beamed at her, clearly chuffed with his smoother than silk handling of the situation.

Julia graced him with her sweetest smile. "Thank you for your generous offer, my love. You really are too good to me."

"Offer?" Puzzlement creased his brow.

"Yes, baby. Your offer to buy me a new dress for tonight."

"Ohhh no you don't... what's wrong with what you have? You're not getting..." His voice trailed off as her tongue traced its way slowly along his strong jaw; she felt his sharp intake of air as the tip of her tongue fluttered lightly across his earlobe. "Ahh fuck Jules, you're such a wicked witch."

"Yes, but I'm your wicked witch, baby." Her warm breath fanned his ear as she spoke, grinding herself down gently against his stirring crotch.

"Ahhh... credit card is in my wallet," he replied barely above a whisper.

"You're the most amazing boyfriend in the world, did you know that?" She kissed him briefly and scooted off his lap, leaving him struggling to compose himself.

▼▲▼

"I would put time of death at just a little after midnight. Cause of death... well I think that's obvious." Judson took a bite of her sandwich, dabbed at her mouth with a napkin before continuing, "But if you need it to be on the record, then it would be losing her heart."

"How can you eat in here?" Briggs looked like he was about to lose the contents of his stomach.

Judson merely shrugged and took another bite. For some reason she never appeared to be queasy around dead people, it was the living breathing ones that seemed to make her uncomfortable.

"You're saying that her heart was removed while she was still alive?" Kelly tried to focus on the wound to the woman's chest, rather than her face. Her death-mask was one of grotesque horror. It was clear that she had been a beauty, but death had robbed her of that.

"I would need more time to confirm that, but at a glance, I would say yes." She peered over her glasses as she inspected the jagged opening on the girl's chest. "The arrow pierced her outer jugular, so she would've been bleeding profusely, but the heart was ripped from her chest before she bled out."

"Ripped?" Briggs looked two shades paler than he had before.

He'd never been able to handle being down there in the morgue, but neither did he try to fob off his duties. There was a lot about the man Kelly admired, his dedication and determination when he was on a case were at the top of the list.

"Yes, nothing about this fissure is consistent with it being surgically removed. I can't explain what could do something like this, but her heart was literally ripped from her chest." Judson Neill had been the city's top medical examiner for as long as Kelly had been on the force, her findings were never contested. She was hardly ever wrong. "Let me rephrase that... I can't explain it yet."

"We will check back here in about an hour, is that okay?" Kelly rubbed her temples as she watched the expressions chasing each other across the MEs animated face. "Doc?"

"Yes. Yes... now go, I need to figure this out." She was already lost in her own little world before the two detectives left. "And don't come back here until I call you," she called after them.

"Is it my imagination, or does she get stranger every time we see her? And did she really look excited about this? That wasn't my imagination, was it?"

"She hangs with dead people all day, Briggs. I'm thinking that working on her social skills are not top on her list of priorities." 

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