*This has been revised for grammer mistakes!*

The first time Jane caught a glimpse of the bruise on Maura's arm she was in to much of a rush to note the darkness of it, nor did she completely catch the oddness of its shape, instead she registered it as just another one of Maura's accidents. However now as she sat at her desk catching up on the bucket load of paper she had been deliberately ignoring her mind flashed back to it and something about the entire situation irked her. She realized that Maura had been unusually quite and while still explaining the complexities of the victims' injuries in her normal doctor talk, there were no added factoids or arguing about Jane's assumptions. Not only that but when Jane had reached out to grab the file containing Maura's autopsy report there had been a flinch, well hidden, but a flinch never the less.

Deciding that the DD5 forms could wait another night Jane decided to launch her own investigation into Maura's strange actions. Minutes later, she had been held up by one of the night guards who wanted to chat, she arrived outside the autopsy room and was delighted and slightly perturbed to see that Maura was still in there. She knocked on the door before entering and a wave of unease rolled through her as her best friend practically jumped out of her skin before realizing that it was only Jane.

"Jumpy tonight, Maura?" Jane asked and approached the autopsy table where Maura had laid out three different medical text books, not a good sign, because Maura tended to bury herself in useless work and studying when something was bothering her.

"Huh?" she said looking up from the textbooks and, completely ignoring Jane's question she self consciously pulled down the sleeve to her lab coat and asked "Why are you still here?"

"Paperwork." Jane replied, not ignoring Maura's blatant ignoring of her question "Look, Maura, you only bury yourself with work and pull those monsters out when something big is bothering you. So, as your friend, I'm just going to ask you..." she paused to gauge Maura's reaction "What's wrong. You practically jumped out of your skin when I knocked earlier and I didn't miss that flinch when I reached for your autopsy report today."

"I'm just sleep deprived Jane, it's nothing serious." Maura said, a hastily explanation provided in hopes that Jane would lay off but no such luck.

"Then you should be at home sleeping and last time I checked, didn't you have a boyfriend?" It was now that Jane's real detective skills kicked in. Jane had had suspicions of Maura's boyfriend from the moment she'd met him and this little disaster was on track to confirm all of them.

"Yes, Jane, I do have a boyfriend. I'm only here because I have work to do and I would prefer to not have to do it tomorrow night."

"Right." Jane said, her voice dripping with sarcasm "Like I believe that. Maura, I saw that bruise on your arm and it didn't come from a door or a table or something else. Did he grab you and try to force you to do something?" she asked bluntly.

"Wha-no." Maura said and even as she brought her arms up in denial, mocking surrender, the lab coat slipped down to reveal a mottle of bruises on her left and right arms.

"Son of a bitch." Jane hissed angrily, barely able to control her rage "Did he do this to you?" she asked, not even bothering to remember Maura's boyfriends name.

It was at this point that Maura had a decision to make and she had to make it fast. She could either tell Jane, her best friend, everything that Donatello had been doing to her or she could deny it. Some part of her wanted to just open up and let the pain flow out so she wouldn't feel so trapped. However a much larger portion of her, the more sensible part (or so she thought), told her that Jane would judge her. Simple as that thought was it rapidly spiraled out of control in Maura's brain, leading her to believe that Jane would be incredibly disappointed in her, ashamed even, that she was too weak to stop Donatello from smacking her around. In a matter of seconds she had convinced herself that if Jane knew the truth she would loose the her best friend.

"No." she said quietly

Jane started Maura, open mouthed "Come on Maura, I'm a detective not an idiot. Donatello did this to you didn't he?"

Maura shook her head "No" she repeated "He didn't do this to me. I-I-I-" she couldn't even make up a lie, she never was very good at it. Even now as she stood here lying to her best friend it was tearing her apart, no worse than Donatello did on a practically nightly basis.

Jane didn't understand, she couldn't understand. Here was her best friend who was obviously being abused by her asshole boyfriend and she could even tell her? It's not that Jane blamed Maura, she never would blame Maura, instead she blamed the boyfriend for making Maura such a shell of what she used to be.

It was as she stood facing her friend that Jane began to fully realize the full extent of the damage Donatello had caused. No longer was Maura the confident, super genius, super stylish, medical examiner for the homicide unit and other Boston PD units. No, she was the tired, almost frightened looking, still intelligent but not as confident girlfriend of an asshole, and boy oh boy did it make Jane's blood boil.

However she knew that Maura would come to her when she was ready but until then Jane would do everything in her power to stop the bastard from hurting her again "Okay, Maura." She said and although she would rather drag Maura to her apartment and beat the shit out of Donatello she continued "You know my apartment is always open." She said and walked out of the autopsy room.

Jane sat back down at her desk and pondered the situation angrily. She didn't have enough evidence for an arrest and there was no judge that would give any kind of search warrant at this time of the night. There were something's she could do, so she did it. Quickly turning on her computer she opened up the Boston Criminal Database and entered Donatello Marshaw into the search box and soon saw his ugly mug shot. Silently she reviewed his rap sheet and, although not bad he still had done two six month sentences for assault and that irked her.

Surely Maura would have at least searched his name?

Or would she? No, Jane decided, Maura would probably analyze him first and if she saw no structural problems she would let him get close, comfortable. That was the thing about Maura. What she had in superhuman intelligence she lacked in people skills and that was the root of the problem.

Rubbing her temples with both hands Jane tried to figure out what she would do to help her friend. She didn't understand why Maura just wouldn't tell Jane what was going on, she was a cop for crying out loud! Anger surged through as she felt powerless to help her friend. It's not like she could barge into Maura's house and arrest Donatello, it was illegal, not to mention Maura might never speak to her again. What could she do? Slowly an idea came to her although she would much rather spend the ngiht apssed out in her bed than in a car she would do anything to keep Maura from getting hurt again. Grabbing her wallet, phone, badge and gun from her desk drawer she took one last look at the stack of DD5 forms, and went back to grab a few of them, she headed out to her car.

Hello! This is my first Rizzoli and Isles fic and the general idea behind it is this:

Maura is getting abused by Donatello and (as you know) Jane knows this. However Maura has convinced herself that if she tells Jane what is really going on Jane would stop being her friend. How wrong she is right? Anyway then something happens and together (admist a case) the two women come to realize that they are more than just friends.

Sound good? How about a review to let me know?

AllOverTheWorld