Author's Note: Hello. It's been months, I know. Pardon the absence as a lot has happened. To the well wishers, thank you. And yes, I'm doing much better.

This is a story that started as an attempt at a one shot, maybe a two-part story at best in "Increments" where I often lump all my story bits together. I read a review that suggested maybe delving more into some of those one shots a bit further. I tried that with "Broken" and it seemed to have done well, so here's another.

This one stems from the last chapter of Increments originally titled "Who Knew."

Here we go.


Who knew?

Who knew that an hour past midnight, in a smoky bar well out of the way and in the middle of a lull from the band, she'd lay her eyes on someone she thought she'd never see again.

Not since she all but kicked her out of her life.

Who knew…?

…that a week after shooting Doyle, Maura simply told her to stop calling.

So she did.

Who knew…?

…that after another week, Maura said she was accompanying her mother to recuperate out of the country.

Who knew…?

…that two months would pass without a single word before she had to hear from Cavanaugh that Dr. Maura Isles had resigned as Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Who knew…?

…that after half a year since the incident, Jane was done being sad and preferred to wallow in anger. Some nights, she walked the line between bitterness and sadness.

Who knew…?

…that a year to the date, she'd see someone tag her former best friend online, congratulating her on her engagement.

To a woman.

A fellow doctor.

Socialite just like her.

Someone befitting an engagement to an Isles.

A year and a half to date, it seems Jane was simply the last to know as apparently evident in that she was well taken aback in the fact that Maura was even in the same time zone as her.

A hand on her shoulder jars Jane back to the present and she turns to see the woman she came in with tonight.

"Hey." There's a smile on her face, but the hint of concern is present. "Called you twice. You didn't hear me?"

Jane shrugs, and with more force than she thought she'd ever need at this point after so much time has passed, she takes the few steps necessary to start taking her away from Maura.

"Yeah. Sorry." She croaks and clears her throat.

"I thought I saw someone I knew."

"Who?" Her companion cranes her neck slightly to the side to see for herself, but Jane sidesteps and tugs on her hand.

"Turns out I was mistaken." Jane shrugs.

The BPD detective's companion remains silent and simply smiles in response as she allows Jane to lead her away.

But not before she catches the eye of a strange blonde woman by the bar.

A blonde woman whose frown seems to have deepened the moment Jane took her hand.

x-x-x-x-x

Kate shuts the trunk close and shortens the distance between the two of them.

"Don't be a stranger, Rizzoli." She grins as she hugs the Italian woman.

Jane rolls her eyes, but returns the hug.

They linger longer than they should in each other's arms, but mostly due to the feeling of gratefulness that Jane's hesitant to verbalize.

When Kate pulls away, "If you want, you could always give New York a try. I promise I won't make fun of your Red Sox."

Roll of eyes is all that she gets before Jane's gaze turns serious and, dare she say it, quite adorably begins to shuffle on her feet like a kid who's too shy to say something.

"What is it?"

A huff.

"Just thanks. For everything."

Kate beams. "Nothing you wouldn't have done for me. This was just the break I think I needed. And hey—" she places a hand on her forearm, "—if you need more time, if you need a 'reprieve', you know you could come to me. Any time."

Jane sighs and shrugs. After last night, she's seriously considering her friend's offer.

Both women lean their back towards the side of the car.

It's something she's come to appreciate with Kate. She knows when to leave Jane to her silence.

Like Maura used to.

Shit.

She pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration.

"Hey."

A comforting hand goes to lightly ruffle the hair at her nape and Jane finds herself willingly leaning towards the other woman.

"I thought I was done. I really thought I was okay." Her voice is slightly muffled, but Kate hears her friend perfectly.

A beat passes before Kate comes to a decision.

"Come with me."

Jane's head lifts to meet her sure gaze with her own confused one.

"What?"

"You need a break," Kate shrugs "and I think this'll be the perfect getaway."

Perhaps it stands as testament to her friend's state of mind and heart when the expected Rizzoli pride and stubbornness does not make an appearance and that Jane seems to seriously consider her offer.

It's serious, Kate tries to keep her gaze calm and un-assessing.

Jane needs a friend, not a fellow cop.

"Okay."

x-x-x-x-x

The lights in her apartment are muted.

Jane never found a reason to remedy the scenario. Jane figures it fit her mood since…since she left.

Had Maura been around…

This light isn't conducive to reading, Jane.

How do you even find anything in this place, Jane?

But at least it isn't messy.

The first couple of weeks after the "fallout," as Jane's dubbed it in her mind, her apartment was the epitome of her own mind. Chaos.

When she realized Maura wasn't coming back, Jane somehow found it in herself to start picking both literal and metaphorical pieces of herself back together. No doctor was going to do it for her.

When anger became her go-to emotion, Jane took it as the drive she needed to prove to herself and everyone else that she was fine before Maura Isles ever came into her life, so she was going to be just fine without her. Better, even.

Now, as Jane's packing the items she'll need on this last-minute trip, she takes a slow careful look around her place.

It's clean. It's organized. A bit dark, but livable.

It's lifeless, Jane concludes.

She sighs.

She seriously needs to let her go. She didn't want her. She just left. She discarded her like their friendship was worth nothing.

Jane's been living just fine without her former best friend. She's closing cases left and right like no one else's business. She's considering taking the Sergeant exam. If she passes, she'd be breaking another record as the youngest. Her inter-agency skills recently garnered recognition and now she's seriously considering a number of positions across different states. She helped solve a federal case by coming across an integral clue she deciphered coincidentally on her own. She apprehended an international fugitive with a tackle that went viral online thanks to a number of civilian onlookers.

It's like with Maura gone, all of the possibilities and all sorts of opportunities are out there waiting for her to come and grab it.

But it's all wrong at the same time.

She's forgotten what kale tastes like.

She doesn't quite remember anymore how to cook that eggplant dish Maura said was her favorite.

She no longer wakes up early on Sunday mornings. She doesn't have to follow the Sunday routine of jog, brunch, shopping, late lunch, errands, then Rizzoli dinner.

She only has to jog, eat, run her errands or laze about until it's time to make an appearance at family dinner.

She's learned to stop looking at the place her mother insists on keeping at the dinner table for Maura.

It's all wrong.

It's like everything's upside down and she's still waiting for the world to go back upright.

With a huff, Jane angrily zips her bag close and strides toward her front door, turning off the lights as she goes.

Kate's offer may just be what she needs.

After all, she's never taken a vacation since that day.

Time away may even be the perfect prelude to some decisions she's been considering.

Her phone rings and Jane answers without looking at the caller ID as she fumbles with her keys and bag with one hand.

"Hey, Kate. I'm done packing. I'll be there in about ten minutes or so."

Silence.

"Kate?" Jane repeats to no response. She turns to look at the ID but registers an unknown number.

"Hello? Who is this?"

Jane is in the middle of ensuring she has her passport and wallet when she finally hears a voice.

"Hello, Jane."

With a thud, Jane's bag falls to the ground.

The sound it emits is almost as heavy and reverberating as that of her heartbeat upon recognizing the voice. But before she can even fathom the reality of who is on the other end of the line, a timid knock on her door surprises her further, causing Jane to go for a gun at her side that she's actually hidden in her safe instead.

The somewhat tiny voice from her phone travels through her ear at the same time as the voice quite muffled from the other side of the door travels in similar fashion to reach the interior of her apartment.

"I'm here."

The phone clatters to the ground.


AN2: The next chapter is for uploading in a bit. Just fixing some format stuff. Please do let me know what you guys think. I know I suck at replying to each and everyone who leaves a review. Rest assured I take them to heart and do my best to get back to writing.

Again, shout out to the lurkers whose imprint on my stories via numbers is still enough to make me feel like maybe my summaries for attracting you all in the first place aren't all too shabby.

To the faithful reviewers, I honestly wait and see your names pop back up on the reviews and wonder if I'm still on the right track to get you guys coming back again and again. Thank you. Seriously.

I know I owe an update on "Little Do You Know" and I promise I'm trying to get to it. It's just to be honest, I've been lurking in another fandom and was a bit busy catching up on that one. Latecomer and all that. Anyone know Carmilla? :)

Catch you all on the other chapter then.