Fuck, Jane thought to herself. "Nooo?" she asked herself stupidly. He was cute. He was charming; in a weird distant, I'm not telling you everything kind of way. Hell, he offered to stay. He had been on the receiving end of her temper and he still wanted to be around her.

Dropping her head to the counter in frustration, she sighed. She was about to start a bitter tirade that sounded a little too much like her mother when her phone went off. Head still on the counter, Jane groaned into the phone, "He asked if I wanted him to stay and I said no."

Isles chuckled lightly into the phone, "Said no or scoffed it?" Isles knew her best friend well enough to know that she couldn't stand being treated as if she was weak.

Jane groaned sitting up and rubbing her face tiredly. "Am I that bad?" It wasn't as if she hated the thought of being taken care of. There was just something so patronizing about the offer coming in the middle of a crisis.

"Kind of," Maura said, biting her bottom lip humored. She didn't want to hurt her friend, but the idea of telling her anything but the truth would never cross her mind. "You obviously had a reason though. I mean, really Jane, he's good looking; he's successful; he's interested, more than all that, he's okay with you being a cop. If you told him no, it wasn't without purpose."

Jane rolled her eyes all through Maura's chattering and finally asked," Purpose? What logical purpose would I have for kicking him out when he was definitely more than willing to stay?"

"More than willing?" Maura asked, interested. She was quickly snapped back to the main, point when Jane sighed her name. "Sorry," she blushed.

"Jane you're a strong woman. You're also somewhat prideful, and before you even argue with me let me finish. You're not the type of person who wants help, let alone needs it. "

"You're damn right I don't need help," Jane snapped. Realizing she'd cut Maura off she mumbled an apology and asked her to continue.

"Listen, you barely let me in on the rare occasions you are vulnerable. Jane, you didn't let him stay, because you didn't need him to. He's obviously not someone you feel safe enough to open up to. When you're upset, you like to be by yourself. Besides, if you really needed someone you'd find a way to let them know."

"It's not about being safe or even being with someone," Jane argued defensively, "I have no trouble with letting a guy know how I feel. It's just, I don't need to be anyone's woman. I don't need to be just hanging around with someone safe, while I freak out over being some lunatics target. I'm a homicide detective for god's sake, I can look after myself," she argued. Growling in frustration, she changed the subject, "Wanna go get a drink? I could really use one."

"Uh, sure," Maura said, pleased. After Jane's rant about not needing anyone, she was surprised the other woman wanted to hang out. Her own words about Jane opening up rushed back into her head and she quietly wondered. Shaking the thoughts from her head, she grabbed her purse and headed out.

Maybe Jane didn't need someone to hang around and protect her. Maybe she didn't need some safe presence to turn to when things got too bad. Maybe, just maybe, she already had it all.