Disclaimers: The characters in this novel are of my own creation, this is an 'Uber' story. Some may bear a resemblance to characters we know and love that are owned by Renaissance Pictures and Universal Studios. Others are based on real life people I know and love. The names have been changed to protect the innocent…or not so innocent.

Violence and Naughty Language Disclaimer: There may be the odd swear word and slight violence on occasion. There may also be words that don't transfer across the ocean too well but this Brit is trying her best. They're also not spelt incorrectly just differently!!

Subtext Disclaimer: This story deals with the love and physical expression of that love, between two adult females. There may also be some heterosexual sex thrown in there too!! But then again maybe not! Whatever is here I have tried to make it tasteful and have left some things to the imagination!!

Dedication: I would like to dedicate this to my soulmate – here's to true love and fate – the impossible really can happen. Also thanks go to Tiggster who offered to house this on her site initially, and Midgit who put it on hers now.

My thanks go to the many people who have betaread the odd chapters here and there. Your time and help is much appreciated.

Feedback is appreciated of all kinds – this is my first effort at a story so please be kind – I can be found at xenajules@hotmail.com

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## By Jules Matthews (J Y Morgan)

Chapter 1

It had been a frustrating day at school, the kids had listened, well most of them but Cory felt there were some who were wasting their potential but in the mood she was in they could all go to hell. She'd had one of those days that starts on a low note and just ends up going from bad to worse. She sat in her car the music on the CD player slowly began to soothe her frazzled nerves. It hadn't been the kids' fault really; the job was beginning to get to her, the job, and the paper work…. basically everything. Her life in a nutshell was boring her rigid – it was always the same coming back to work after the school holidays, the Autumn term was usually the worst because of the 6 weeks of fun and relaxation. She couldn't believe that the term had finished so quickly and that Christmas had been and gone, she hadn't gone away but she had lazed about and it had been a great family Christmas, if only she'd had someone romantic to celebrate it with.

This made her mood dip lower than it already was; the reason being she was married and although Sam and her got on well the passion had died and well they were left with a platonic friendship which was nice but Cory needed more. She needed to feel loved and although she knew Sam loved her she wasn't sure he fancied her. In every department he was the most loving husband there was but there was no romance, no passion and frankly no sex. In the beginning she didn't mind, most relationships start off with passion and then it slowly ebbs away but their relationship hadn't had any fire for a long time and Cory missed the intimacy. She felt unloved and that somehow she was failing as a wife and as a woman. Her image had been dented by the rebuffs she'd received when she tried to initiate any sexual intimacy and quite frankly she'd come to the end of her tether.

It wasn't that she thought she was great looking or a sex machine in bed, but she had had several comments about her looks and body; it was the colour of her eyes that drew people to her, they were the colour of the sea on a warm summer's day and her features were soft but strong. Many people called her cute; others beautiful but Cory saw none of this. Her mind drifted back to her dating days; she'd liked dating, especially the initial chase but after a while and when the thrill had worn off she couldn't put up with the hassle. Her job prevented her spending much time in the week with potential lovers, as there was the marking of schoolbooks and lesson planning. Most people envied her job, as the thought of so many holidays seemed idyllic to them, but once they spent anytime with her they realised that this was just an illusion; that the children's needs came first to Cory, she loved the children and they made the job worth doing.

She'd been single for a while and on a drunken night out she'd met Sam. They'd dated for a year, mainly meeting up at weekends and they got on great it seemed like they had the same interests and watched the same television programmes. They'd moved in together, did the usual things like decorating the house, extending the family with cats and a dog and when he'd asked her to get engaged Cory went along with the flow. It had seemed the right thing to do at the time but on reflection and looking at their relationship now maybe she'd jumped into things without thinking. Family pressure had also played a part; her mother's religious views had caused problems with her 'living in sin'. Men were only after one thing according to her mother and once they got it they were off. This often still caused laughter amongst the family when Sam often enquired what it was he'd been after, as after 5 years he'd still not received it and he was still there. He liked winding the mother-in-law up and Cory's mum bit every time.

Cory was jolted back to reality by the sounding of car horns, the traffic hold up had moved and she was still there. She shook her head and headed towards home. She'd missed going to the gym tonight but her gym partner, Rachel had rushed home to watch a TV programme she'd become addicted to. It was a mythical fantasy program called Xena something or other. Cory had listened as only a good friend would to her friends ramblings about the programme and as tonight was the start of a new series her gym partner and work colleague had apologised about putting her obsession before their regular gym time and had shot off home.

Rachel had desperately tried to get Cory interested in Xena but Cory whilst she listened to her friends avid ramblings, she didn't think it would be her cup of tea. Rachel had also commentated about the remarkable resemblance between Cory and one of the characters, but when Cory had listened to the description of the character, she'd just looked at her friend and commented that blondes with green eyes were a dime a dozen. This had shut Rachel up. Cory had sat down to watch the programme once, she'd missed the start and had only watched a few minutes when she'd been interrupted by a phone call and to be honest she'd never watched any more. She'd looked briefly at the character that Rachel had said she looked like and while there were some similarities the character had long reddish blonde hair and Cory's was very blonde and short. She'd never seen the lead character, well she thought she had, the character had had long blonde hair, brown eyes and was very thin and sort of pretty but Rachel had later informed her that the character she'd seen was actually another character and Xena had been in her body! This was a bizarre concept to Cory and made the show even more unrealistic but still she kept promising Rachel that one day she'd sit down with her and watch one of Rachel's choice.

They had had some very deep conversations about the content of the show; Rachel kept discussing something she referred to as 'subtext'. Cory had needed to have this explained to her and she'd been quite surprised that a lot of it referred to the growing relationship between the two characters, nothing too surprising until she'd found out the two characters were both female and apparently soulmates, according to Rachel. Rachel and Cory had had quite a lengthy discussion about this topic as Cory had often had similar thoughts about this at college.

Her college mates had often teased her saying that the way she went through men one day she'd run out of her quota and end up single and on the shelf. Cory had always replied back with the same remark, that there was a pebble on the beach for everyone, one day she'd find hers. She'd also grown up a huge fan of the 'Anne of Green Gables' series and liked the thought of having a 'kindred spirit', someone who was your friend for life and just knew you. She'd liked Rachel's description of what she thought a soulmate was; that there was someone out there that was your other half and when you got together with them they made you feel whole, complete.

Rachel had become an addict to the Internet in her search for background information on the programme. Cory thought this was an asset to her staff training in ICT (Information and Communication Technology), which Cory was the staff co-ordinator for. Her job was to make everyone computer literate especially with the Internet and e-mailing. With Rachel's developing skills she'd have someone else help her train the older members of the staff who were technophobes in the worst possible way. They hated change and were stubborn as mules when it came to taking on new ideas or gaining new skills. Through these web pages, she'd joined a few mailing lists and was discovering the excitement of e-mail. A few months ago, Rachel had gone to the house of another fan, Jo, and met up with quite a few devote fans of the show, a rare breed in such a small country. Whilst there she'd overheard someone say that they were reading a book for the fifth time. A fan fiction book that was linked to the show, something called an uber story.

Rachel had then spent the next month raving about the book. Cory had no idea what an uber story was but in her mind any book that could keep someone entertained for that many rereads was worth checking out. She'd asked Rachel if she could borrow the book and when Rachel had said she'd read it on-line, Cory hadn't fancied reading the book on a computer screen she liked the real thing in her hand. She was a voracious reader and often read whole books in a day. Rachel had suggested she try the bookstores on-line. When the half term holiday arrived Cory had surfed the net and had been surprised that the book was available to buy in the UK. She had no idea what the book was about, she'd only vaguely listened to Rachel's views but she'd give it a go anything to relieve the boredom and here she was 6 weeks later and three rereads.

The book had been a wonderful romance between two women; this factor had surprised Cory only because she'd had no real knowledge of the book's context, it wasn't that she had any problems with who slept with who. In fact she'd often thought about her own sexuality. In secondary school she'd had a huge crush on her PE teacher, Miss Hudson, but she hadn't thought twice about it, I mean didn't everyone have childhood crushes? Cory'd had quite a few relationships at college; she'd found herself attracted mainly to men but on the odd occasion she had found certain women intriguing and if they'd been interested she could have easily been batting for the other team. The thought of telling her parents and seeing the look of disappointment and horror on her mother's face had deterred her; also in her type of job it was best to keep on the 'straight' and narrow, Still she'd found the book most inspirational and comforting in a way she couldn't explain and she wanted to read more. She'd found herself joining a mailing list devoted to the writing of the fan fiction author and now every night she just loved wading through the various e-mails some on topic many off but she enjoyed becoming part of this unique family.

After 30 minutes, Cory finally arrived home, it had been a long journey time wise, she'd stayed at work later than usual, when Rachel had cancelled their plans, she'd decided if she stayed on at school she could try and clear the back log of mounting work. Leaving work so late had meant she'd hit rush hour traffic and that made a short journey very time consuming. As she opened the door to her house, she was welcomed as always by the cats, hungry for food and company. She patted each one on the head and opened the cupboard searching for the food that would quieten down the large tomcat, whose name was Chips. He demanded his food and cried mercilessly until he received it, anyone would think she never fed him but he was adorable – the perfect companion.

When the cats were fed and purring their satisfaction, Cory's attention turned to herself. She made a mental note of all the jobs she needed to do tonight. She had to feed herself and Sam; wash clothes unless she wanted to do a naked day at work, mark her latest pile of English books and read her mail. Her first choice of activity wasn't difficult, check e-mails there were bound to be loads as the time difference between the UK and US would mean she would have a few to look at. She made herself a cup of tea and settled in the lounge with her laptop. The TV was on with music playing in the background and Cory settled down for a bit of quality 'me' time. Sam mostly worked from home so she didn't often get quality time to herself, today he'd had to go to one of his monthly sales meetings.

The computer slowly downloaded the mails; many were about a role-playing war on the fan fiction list. This sort of thing appealed to Cory she had no idea why, she liked reading books but she'd never really had any inclination to write them, her interest had been poetry at school and college and whenever the teenage blues had hit her she'd put her emotions down on paper. She had vague memories of hearing stories when she was younger linked around myths and legends, there were no storytellers in the family except her aunt, who coincidentally was also a teacher, but she found a pull towards the role playing. The role-playing was linked to the Xena work the author wrote, and as Cory hadn't read them she'd been lost at first but now she'd read enough to understand.

Her eyes drifted over the mails, a grin beginning to curl on her lips as she read the ongoing activities of the chocolate war – well it was hardly a real war but on the odd occasion some irate reader would often remind the participants that war was real and dangerous. Cory was desperate to join in the battle but she didn't know how too. The list was friendly enough but she was a bit intimidated, she scanned on and then a mail caught her eye. The humour of the mail jumped out at her and she realised that she had a goofy grin on her face.

From: JJ Matthews

#### Please let me join in the search, I will leave no stone unturned on my search for the little one…

The rest of the mail was a blur to Cory she just knew that for some reason this was her opportunity to join in the game. She quickly composed a return mail and hurriedly pressed the send button before she chickened out. There she'd made a move, she hoped her mail would be accepted and suddenly for no reason she felt a calming presence fall over her. She had no idea why she felt so warm and cosy she just did and it wasn't long before she'd fallen into a wonderful peaceful sleep;

She was in a field full of poppies, the smell was fresh and the view ahead of her was the colour of blood. Ahead of her was a tall, dark-haired woman who seemed to be in some kind of conflict with her emotions, the image before her tormenting memories she had spent years trying to atone for and her mind appeared to be racing with anger. Cory felt herself touch the woman's hand, the touch felt warm and her presence seemed to reach into the tall woman and caress her heart and Cory felt the peace; the woman's anger was soothed and as she turned sapphire eyes smiled down at her and she was drowning……….

The sound of purring nudged Cory out of her slumber and as she opened her bleary eyes she was confronted with another pair of eyes but these were not as wonderful as the image she had just experienced and the breath not so sweet, it was Chips, he'd come for his evening cuddle on the sofa.

"Oh Chips, not now honey mum's got to work. Sam will be home soon, I know you want a fuss baby but well if I don't mark tonight I'll never get it done!" The cat was hard to deter once he got comfortable so Cory ended up pushing him onto the floor. She checked the time on the video player, she'd been asleep for an hour and she hadn't done any work, she glanced at the floor, 34 story books to mark, it was going to be one hell of a long evening.

She summoned up the energy and grabbed the books; her mind was soon lost in incorrect spellings and the rules of grammar that she hadn't heard the front door open and an angry hubby enter the lounge.

"Bloody traffic, why they have to put up road works in the middle of rush hour traffic is beyond my logic! The bloody motorway was packed; bumper-to-bumper. Still I'm home now and I'm starving. What's for dinner Cor?"

"Oh shit Sam! I forgot to put something in. I just got so caught up in my marking!" replied Cory, knowing she was about to get a lecture. It wasn't often she had to do any work around the house, usually Sam did all the cooking and cleaning as he was home so often.

"For Christ's sake Cor, you and your school work. I see you found time to download and read your mails. I guess I come pretty low on your priorities now!" He stomped upstairs and Cory rummaged around in the cupboard for the Indian takeaway number. She knew she could easily pacify him with a curry and a few beers. She looked at her pile of work and the computer and she knew her quality alone time was not going to happen, she closed the computer down and focussed on her marking hoping to clear the books away before the meal arrived and then work on cheering up her annoyed spouse. It was going to be a long evening.

As it turned out when Sam came downstairs his mood had brightened and he accepted the apology and hug that Cory gave him. He also had a smile on his face when he saw the laptop tucked away in the corner, switched off. Cory knew he'd accepted her dedication to the job when they'd met and he didn't mind the extra hours she put into planning and making sure the children's work was completed and checked each night, but now her interests had recently diversified and her time spent with him was decreasing.

They had spent the last 5 years in each other's pockets and she felt this was one of their problems, they'd spent so many years being best friends they'd forgotten how to be lovers. Their friendship group was small as they'd both relocated from their hometowns and had lost touch with school friends. Cory's best friends were the friends she'd met at college and whilst they were still good friends they lived all over the country and only met up in the holidays. She missed having her friends around and missed a social life, now she was meeting people with similar interests and she loved it. She'd already met two friends through the mailing lists and they mailed and met up regularly. She liked the fact that these friends were her friends and they didn't view her as part of a couple. She was an individual in their mind. As she thought about these new friends her mind drifted back to her new contact that she'd mailed tonight and she found herself smiling.

Part 2

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