DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters or copyrights to anything Rizzoli and Isles related. Nor do I own some lines you might recognize from songs. This goes for the entire story so that I don't need to repeat myself each time.

AN: Hey Y'all! Yep, this story is back. I think I've gotten a good hold on where I would like for it to go, but it is still in progress in my mind. If this story seems familiar that's because it was up as a one shot previously with an idea of making it longer. This is the same chapter as was posted before so if you've read it you may just want to skip it for now and wait for chapter two, but I'll leave that up for you to decide. Enjoy!

It had been a long, tiring day. Working a murder was never an easy job, but when it was a college professor there was always a lot to check out. Anyone on campus could have motive and that meant a lot of interviews had to be done. Jane must have done twenty interviews with advisees of the professor herself, and that still left students who had the professor for classes, colleagues, and other staff of the university. So far they had nothing.

Jane stood up from her desk and stretched out her tired aching muscles and rubbed her eyes. Much more of looking at the statements they had taken today and she swore she would be cross-eyed. She looked up at the clock on the wall and smiled. It was time to head out for the day and she knew exactly what she was going to do. It was the same thing she always did on this night of the week. She was going to see her best friend. That would almost certainly make everything better. Just being near Maura always had a calming effect on her. She found that she could relax and just leave her stressors at the door when she got there. Thinking about it, she had to be one of the luckiest people in the world to have found a best friend like Maura Isles.

Rounding the corner of Maura's street Jane noticed there were no lights on in the house that were visible to the street. She had talked to Maura about trying to keep at least one visible light on so it would look like someone was home. No lights on though did surprise her a little. Maura knew she was coming so she had expected to see lights on in the living room since it was most likely that they would be watching a movie in there later. Maybe she was just prepping for their evening in the kitchen and hadn't gotten around to turning on other lights yet.

Jane pulled up in the driveway and parked on her side as usual. She hopped out of the cruiser and made her way up the steps of the Beacon Hill home of her best friend. She took out her keys and found the one that would correspond to the lock, but she stopped herself short of inserting it into the lock.

Maura had a bad habit of not locking her doors too; especially when she knew that someone was coming over. Jane had talked to her more about this than she had the visible light, but she still had a hard time getting Maura to lock the door. So she reached down to try the knob, expecting it to yield to her turning, but to her surprise it didn't budge. Maura had actually locked the door even though she knew she was coming over. Maybe some of the things she has said were starting to register with Maura.

She slid her key into the lock and felt it slide back smoothly when she turned the key. She immediate switched on the light in the foyer and started to unclip her gun and badge from her belt. She placed both of them in special drawer of the side table Maura had bought specifically for securing her service weapon for when she stayed at the house. "Maura, it's me," she called as she removed her boots and jacket. No reply came.

"Maura, you here?" she tried again moving towards the stairs. Still no reply came. She didn't like this. It was not like Maura to just not be somewhere she had said she'd be and not at least leave a note or send her a message to give her a heads up.

Jane made her way through the house switching on lights and lamps as she went. She still found no signs of life as she entered the kitchen and switched on the lights there as well. "Maur, answer me if you're here," she said more to herself than really thinking Maura would pop out from a cabinet somewhere and respond.

It was then she noticed it; a plain white envelope lying on the island countertop. Jane walked over to it and found that it wasn't entirely plain. It was addressed to her; her name, only her first name, was neatly scrawled in the unique script that could only belong to Maura Isles across the front. Jane's heart and stomach simultaneously plummeted to the floor. She had seen things like this before and she knew it couldn't be good. This was the equivalent of someone saying "we need to talk," except that this talk was much more serious than what could be done in person.

Jane flipped the envelope over and found that it had been left unsealed. She lifted the flap and found pages with Maura's neat script. Her hands started to shake; whatever this was she knew it was about to change her life.

My Dearest Jane,

I'm sorry for doing this, but I'm leaving Boston. I can't stay here any longer when all this place seems to hold for me is sadness. I know I seemed happy; and for a time I was, because of you. You are in every happy memory I have of Boston and I want them to remain happy memories for the both of us.

So why leave? Because staying would break me; more than I'm broken by leaving you now. I Love You. I fell head over heels in love with you some time ago, but I knew I could never say anything. The second you pulled that trigger outside BPD you save your brother and the rest of us I knew I loved you more than anyone else I had in my whole life, and that I would never love anyone as much as I love you. At the same moment you scared me to death because I wondered how I would ever be able to go on if I couldn't get your bleeding under control and get you transported to the hospital quickly enough to save you.

I came so close to telling you; the day you took down Hoyt for good before he could kill us like one of his couples. I came so close to grabbing ahold of you and telling you exactly what you mean to me and how I felt about you. But there is one problem to this; you don't love me the same way I love you. It's alright that you don't because it's something that I have to deal with and work though. For a time I thought I had worked through it. I thought that I could be your best friend and be completely fine having no other hold on you than that, but I'm not. And I can't stay here and watch you fall in love with and have a life with someone else. It hurts too much.

Like I said before this place now brings me sadness. It's where I learned that my birth parents aren't anything like I imagined when growing up. It's where I fell in love with the woman that I can never have. It's your town anyway. It's where you grew up and everything you love is here. I now bow out as gracefully as possible and tiptoe away. This will give us both space and allow the opportunity for new people to come into our lives. So you can have Boston, because I can't have you.

All My Love,

Maura

P.S. I don't currently have arrangements made for what I will do with the house, but I hope to soon. Your things might get packed in with mine if you don't take them before I have everything packed and sent to me, so please make sure you get your things.

The pages of the letter and the envelope slipped through Jane hands. She turned so her back was to the island and slid down the cabinets to the floor. She couldn't move any more than that. She felt as though she had entered a nightmare or some crazy alternate universe. It couldn't be real. Her best friend in the entire world could not have just decided today to write her a letter telling her she loved her and then just left. Those kinds of things didn't really happen. But then again they must, because it just happened to her.

As always, I'd love to hear what you think.