Author's note: It should be a bittersweet story (a tad angsty but not dramatic), daily updates and reviews appreciated (as usual).

"Be happy. It's one way of being wise." - Colette.

Chapter One:

Maura

We got married on a beautiful day of June. The sun was shining, the flowers had blossomed and the temperatures were warm. Everybody was happy. I remember the smiles that played on our faces, the lightness that made our eyes sparkle. There wasn't any volcano in Santorini nor any Red Sox jersey. We chose Louisburg Square because this is where it had started. It was a small ceremony, a delicate mere nothing. But it was us. It was what we wanted.

They say love lasts three years, that what we feel after such a short lapse of time is something different. It is sweet but certainly not as powerful as what brought us hopes and dreams in the first place. This is when reality hits you back and partners have to come to their first conclusions. Have they done well? Have they succumbed to dangerous mistakes? A new page is about to get written and it can go either way.

In June, Jane and I will celebrate our third wedding anniversary. I know that it's a milestone, even more for people like us whose romantic backgrounds are just as fragile as a house of cards. Are our current days darker than the ones we used to live? Have our smiles faded away? A part of me wants to believe that we are the exception that confirms the rule because she's everything to me. Everything.

"Sex."

Maura gave Cailyn an amused smile. They were at a restaurant, it was a public place and customers – strangers – could overhear their conversation. Maura didn't mind much though. She was simply surprised to see that her half-sister dared to talk about such personal matters under these particular circumstances.

"What about it?"

The question was rhetorical. Maura knew what the young woman meant, what the one-word sentence actually implied. She simply felt the desire to play the role of the ingenue for a while. There was nothing wrong about it. Besides, Maura was even certain that it was what Cailyn actually expected from her, what she really wanted. Then she would be able to develop her thoughts, to give her opinion on whatever was bothering her.

"When was the last time you and Jane had sex?"

Maura let Cailyn's words sink in. She let the softness of her sister's voice pass underneath her skin, and caress her heart. Cailyn didn't mean to sound intrusive, thus Maura didn't take it badly. As a matter of fact, it wasn't Cailyn who was now talking but the couple therapist she had become three years earlier already.

"Two weeks ago?" Maura shrugged. She honestly didn't remember the date. Had it happened on a Sunday? "Two weeks and a half, perhaps."

It had rained on that day. She remembered the sound of the rain on the window like a lullaby being sung in the distance. She had liked the melody. She had found it to be sweet, the perfect match to her and Jane's caresses.

"How can you not remember it? I know you both have demanding jobs but still... You're married. Your sexual life is very important."

They Say Love Lasts Three Years. Maura had read Cailyn's article. It had been published in one of the best science journals of the country which had made Maura very proud. Cailyn's analysis of the married life was spot-on but it lacked what only experience could bring. Cailyn was twenty-seven years old. She was young, too young.

"Of course, it is." Maura paused as the waiter went to take away their empty plates. The employee didn't need to overhear such private details of her life. "But I don't need to remember when it happens. Who cares, as long as it does happen?"

Maura thought about Jane and how embarrassed her wife would have been if she had been here with her right now. Jane didn't like talking about this kind of things. She found them to be too personal to be shared with a third-party.

Especially if said third-party happened to be a couple therapist.

"Routine." Cailyn gave Maura a nod. "Routine is the enemy of any married couple. You and Jane need to be careful. You're about to celebrate your third wedding anniversary. You're at a crossroads. Believe me: I know what I'm talking about. I've spent the last five years studying it."

...

Maura came back to a quiet home, that evening. She set her bag down on the kitchen island then fed her dear Bass before pouring herself a well-needed glass of wine. She felt tired. Her legs were sore and the muscles of her nape were tense. She had had a long day at the morgue. The tension that had built up now weighed heavily on her shoulders.

"Jane?"

Nobody answered yet Maura knew that her wife was home as well since there wasn't any note left on the fridge nor any text message Maura hadn't read. She took the stairs to the first floor then poked her head inside the master bedroom. It was empty but a ray of light slid on the hardwood floor: it came from the ensuite bathroom.

"Jane."

It wasn't a question anymore but a mere affirmation, just another way of letting her wife know that she, Maura, was home. Maura took off her stilettos then walked barefoot till the bathroom door. She knocked on it.

"May I come in?"

"Since when do you even have to ask?"

An ephemeral smile played on Maura's lips. It didn't last very long but it nonetheless reached her eyes and made them sparkle with delight. She pushed the door that Jane had left open ajar and walked in. She went to the tub.

There was a time when she would have joined Jane in the bath. She would have taken her wife in her arms and they would have listened to music together until very late in the night. Such scenario hadn't happened in a while.

Maura sat down on the floor. She gave Jane a smile then soaked a finger in the bath to check how warm the water was. Jane loved it when the water was hot, almost burning. Maura preferred a cooler temperature.

"How was your day?"

Jane wrinkled her nose and began to pout. She didn't blame Maura for asking, she simply blamed a part of her job that she didn't like at all.

"I hate trials."

Jane did. They kept her away from crime scenes, from the surge of adrenaline she felt whenever she worked on a case. She wasn't made for administrative tasks: she hated paperworks and saw her presence at the courthouse as a waste of time. Everything she had to say was in her report, she didn't have anything else to add.

"Cailyn says hi. She also says you and I should be sexually more active."

The way Jane's dark eyes widened in shock didn't disappoint Maura. It was exactly the kind of reaction she had hoped to get from her wife. She burst out laughing.

"I like Cailyn a lot but she's obsessed." Jane shook her head though a sudden and unexpected timidity prevented her from looking at Maura. She focused on an invisible point instead. "We're not her patients. We're doing just fine." The absence of reaction from Maura pushed Jane to talk anew. "We are, right?"

Maura planted a loud kiss on top of Jane's shoulder. She stood up, walked to the bathroom sink and picked up her bottle of makeup remover.

"Of course, we are. It's exactly what I told her but you know how she is... She's an excellent couple therapist, a very competent one, but she's too young and unexperienced to understand that statistics cannot entirely define a couple."

It had actually taken Maura a lot of years to come to this conclusion. Her scientific mind didn't match the unpredictable side of a romantic life. She had had to get used to the idea and every day was a source of discoveries. Every day was a challenge, actually.

"You're tired?"

"They brought two brothers at the morgue, today." Maura avoided the reflection of her face in the mirror. She focused on the bathroom sink instead. "They were nine and seven years old."

She felt like going to bed. She missed the warmth of the blanket and the smoothness of the pillows. Jane's scent on the bedsheet.

"I won't be long."

"No, please. Take your time. I'm fine."

Jane had learned to interpret Maura's state of mind. She knew what to do, how to soothe her wife's silent cries. Maura simply needed her presence by her side. Yet not this time.

"You're sure?" Doubts invaded Jane. Autopsies on children were always emotionally hard to handle. "Nah give me five minutes and I'll be there."

Jane kept her word as she always did. Her loyalty had comforted Maura more times than she, Jane, could even imagine. They turned the lights off as soon as they settled in bed. It was still quite early but they were both tired anyway.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

Cuddled up next to Jane, Maura shook her head in the dark. She appreciated her wife's efforts and how soothing her tone of voice was but it was all vain, this time.

"There's nothing to talk about."

Both young boys were simply the victims of an umpteenth tragedy, the kind of ones Maura faced on an average basis. She didn't get used to them but she knew that they would happen eventually.

For the moment, Maura just wished Cailyn were here. Thus she would be able to see that even if the so-called sparkles of the beginning had vanished, there was nothing to fear about her marriage to Jane.

Absolutely nothing.