"Angela - I have a dilemma."

Jane's mother looked up from her book with a start, sitting up straight on the guest-house's couch and meeting the M.E.'s eyes with concern. Maura's expression softened with guilt as she backed away from the newly opened doorway.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to startle you, I should have knocked even though I have a key, I -

"Maur!" Angela interrupted with an overwhelmed laugh, beckoning the woman forward to come sit beside her on the couch. Maura obediently followed, but struggled to sit completely still, fidgeting under the weight of Angela's gaze and the stress on her shoulders. "There, there," the older woman soothed as she nodded approvingly at Maura's attempt to calm down, however half-hearted it was. "Now tell Mama Rizzoli what's wrong, eh?"

Very quickly, Maura blurted out, "I don't think Jane and I are on speaking terms."

"Impossible!" Angela shot back immediately, her eyebrows raising up to her hairline.

"I beg pardon, but I know for a fact that something has -

"ohh…what did Janie do now?!" She interrupted Maura once again, prematurely distraught over what she could only assume was her daughter's latest, grievous error.

Maura took in a shaky breath and broke eye contact, enunciating slowly and carefully,

"I think that it is something I have done."

Angela, strangely enough, only smiled before offering up reasonably,

"Then just apologize!" Causing Maura to chuckle and shake her head with a rueful grin.

"What I've revealed to Jane may be irreparable. I only spoke of science, and reason…but I made her realize things that I believe have scared - or scarred - her deeply."

"Scared her? About what?" Mama Rizzoli all but gasped.

Maura said, "Herself," Prompting Angela to grab at her chest as if reaching to steady a racing heart.

"Oh - Oh! Is she okay?"

"Oh!" Maura gasped as well, her arms flailing slightly with the urge to soothe the woman, "no - no! I mean yes, Jane's fine. Jane is…"

Angela waited, becoming more and more confused by the second, until eventually Maura re-established her train of thought, her arms stilling in her lap.

"Your daughter probably wouldn't want you hearing this…. but after she kicked out yet another incompatible, boorish man from her home two nights ago, she came to have a glass of wine with me. She was distraught, and lonely, and so I felt the need to inform her of what I had come to observe. Namely…" she bit her lip and trailed off, until Angela reached forward to lightly grasp her hand in support. She resumed shakily, staring at their hands and refusing eye contact -

"Namely, her lack of commitment towards the opposite sex, and the lack of - pardon me but - physical drive towards them, which implies of course disinterest…and with her much healthier and chemically charged interaction with females on top of that, I only suggested that perhaps…."

Angela cut her off with a light laugh as she pulled her hand free of the younger woman's, "you told my daughter she was a lesbian!" She laughed again in a care-free way that seemed to irk Maura given the situation, causing her to all but shout in defense of herself, "I did no such thing!"

She sighed, and amended at Angela's searching look, "Well…I didn't mean too." She frowned, looking down at her lap once more.

"You do know that I've kind of always known anyway, right?" Began Angela somewhat guiltily after a moment's silence, startling Maura.

"What?"

"I mean - I am her mother! I couldn't just tell her to give up on men, though. It's Jane we're talking about. She'd get the wrong idea, especially with her self esteem! - with how much she was teased about - about the way she dressed, and acted in middle school, and in high school, even in the academy!" her smile went soft, as if lost in memory, "Oh, my little tomboy. She's always been that way, you know? And I never meant to assume…I just knew she needed to figure it all out for herself, either way."

"I am so sorry. I've ruined everything," Maura whispered, a tear tracking down her cheek.

"No! You didn't do anything wrong, not on purpose. It will all be okay. Jane's probably just scared, and a little confused. You know how much she trusts your word. She's probably thinking. I'm telling you my Janie's fine but…she needs to be with her thoughts for a while, I'd assume."

Maura pouted, thinking of Jane staring off into space and so uncharacteristically contemplating life, and love…all by herself, in that empty apartment.

"Oh dear, should I go give her a hug?" She asked, genuinely alarmed at the image she had painted in her head.

Angela suddenly smirked, "you can go give her a kiss too, if you like. I can't imagine you told Jane about her love life being aimed towards the wrong gender without a goal in mind, eh?"

Maura's mouth opened in shock, and then closed, and finally she got up from the couch silently to exit the way she came. In the doorway though she turned and smiled tenderly, shyly at Angela, who was watching her knowingly.

"I - I'll take good care of her, if she'll have me."

And the other woman's response was exactly what she needed to hear.

"Sweetie, I may have always had some idea about Jane, but I knew for sure after she met you."