It had taken weeks of petitioning on Maura's part to convince Jane to let her do it. Freshly cooked pancakes in the morning; almond biscotti to go with Jane's crudely brewed filter coffee; precisely produced tiramisu for after the evening meal; they had all contributed to Jane finally caving in and saying yes. Maura had entered the Great British Bake Off, and Jane was coming with her.

Maura, being her usual self, had made sure preparations were in place before she entered. She had cleared the time off work at the Boston Police Department in order for her to take part in the competition. The department weren't happy about having to call in Dr. Popov, the alcoholic Medical Examiner who had filled in for Maura during her quick stint in prison for a crime she had not committed, however they were all excited to see her on this baking competition that they had heard so much about.

The glaring problem was that Maura wasn't British, she was so determined however that she applied many times to the program, making sure to attach pictures of her most acclaimed desserts that she had produced; layered cakes of uncountable tiers, chocolate chip cookies that straddled the perfect line between crunchiness and chewiness, and other delectable treasures.

Sure enough, this had convinced the producers. Maura had, extremely reluctantly, included a small lie in her application, claiming that she spent a lot of time in England due to the fact that her adoptive mother, Constance, was English. It appears that it had worked, and two weeks after her application had been sent off, Maura received an e-mail that she had been accepted on to the competition. Apparently the producers couldn't resist the opportunity of having such an interesting character appear on the show, even if she wasn't of the same nationality of the rest of the contestants.

With all of her plans already in place, all that was left to do was for Maura to book the tickets over to England for her and Jane. They were staying in accommodation provided by the producers of the show in a town called Richmond, where the competition would take place. The filming started very soon, and the couple were eager to travel over the Atlantic to get to their destination.

Tired from the flight, Jane and Maura settled into their hotel room. American hotels focused very much on convenience and thrift, at least the ones that Jane had stayed in, and this room differed from that completely. It was decked out in the kind of furnishings that you might find in a little countryside cottage. A very large four poster bed lay in the middle of the bedroom, against the master wall, decorated with a fitting blue gingham pattern. There was a small electric heater to keep the room warm, and the wall was adorned with inexpensive but pleasant looking paintings.

Jane collapsed on to the bed and looked expectedly at Maura who gave her a knowing look as she joined her on to the bed. As Jane went to drape her arms around Maura's tired shoulders, there was an impatient sounding knock at the door and both women sighed in exasperation. Maura gave Jane an all-too-familiar look that perfectly communicated the word 'later' before she lifted herself from the bed and opened the door to a stern looking elder man.

"Maura Isles?" the man queried in a loose, estuary-English, accent.

"That's me" Maura responded with her subtle Bostonian twang.

"Everyone is meeting downstairs. You will be introduced to your fellow contestants, and then we're going to get on with the first part of round one today" the man informed Maura, to which she and Jane received in shock. Maura silently acknowledged this information and absorbed it, however Jane did not take this quietly.

"Today? We were told that the first round wouldn't begin until tomorrow!" Jane told the man, although he was undoubtedly already aware of this situation.

"Yes, that was indeed the plan. However it has been decided that the show will press on".

"We've just got off of the plane!"

"We are aware of this, but we've already made an exception in allowing Maura to come on to the show, so now you will have to make an exception in return".

"Of course, and I'm extremely grateful for that. If you'll give me five minutes, I will be right downstairs" Maura reasoned, trying not to cause any unnecessary friction. She was already the outsider, and she didn't want to become known as the 'difficult American', especially as she knew of the reputation that was afforded to those from Boston.

"Thank you, Miss Isles. My name is Steven by the way, we'll see you downstairs in a moment" Steven said to her as he closed the door, throwing the pair a small, polite smile. Once he had left the room, Maura looked at Jane and sighed with a smile; Jane could read this perfectly well. She had known Maura for long enough now to be able to read her emotions, to a certain extent anyway.

"Honey, I promise you, you're going to be absolutely fine" Jane told Maura, completely sure of what she was saying and taking Maura's hand in her own.

"What if I get down there and I'm completely out of my depth? What if every other baker has had experience in little English provincial bakeries, specialising in traditional confections and patisseries and I'm just the baker from Boston with her quirky cakes?" Maura protested, her fears finally being expressed. She had been so excited for this opportunity right until this moment that she had forgotten that it was in fact a competition, and also one that would be screened on national British television.

"Maura, you're a great baker! Remember that autopsy table cake that you made just the other week? I bet none of the others could make anything like that". Maura gave a small smile at this, looking back at Jane.

"It was anatomically perfect, wasn't it? Detective Frost wasn't such a fan though".

"Well, you know how he is. Plus, after he had finished vomiting in the sink he took a slice, and he even finished it off!"

"Yes, I remember him taking part of the table, but making sure not to get any of the corpse".

"Can't say I blame him there". Maura giggled at this and felt a renewed confidence in her ability. She had often compared baking to a scientific process, but this had never worked out how she had hoped that it might. It all made sense that you add the right ingredients and perform the various functions on them, and you should be able to observe a predictable outcome of empirical data. However, it never seemed to go in a manner that could be expected, for better or for worse.

"Okay Maura, you should probably get down there now. You don't want to be tardy for meeting your new chums now, do you?" Jane laughed, putting on a mock English accent to dress her words in. Maura allowed herself a small giggle before kissing Jane goodbye and slipping out of the door. Jane was on her own now and wondered what she could do for the rest of the day; the bed was the answer and she slumped lazily on to it, falling into a blissful nap.

...

A number of hours later, Maura slipped back into the room that she shared with Jane, who she found fast asleep on the gingham bed. Maura prodded Jane in the side who jolted awake with a violent kick.

"Maura?" she mumbled, the sleep sand still partially obscuring her vision.

"Hi Jane" Maura greeted Jane, beaming at her.

"So… how was it?" Jane asked, unable to ignore the question that was floating between them. Maura didn't know if she would be staying for the second round yet, as each round had three stages, shot over two days. In each round, one baker would be eliminated from the competition.

"Yeah, I think it went well" Maura told Jane, without saying anything more.

"You gonna elaborate on that?" Jane pushed, impatient to hear the details of Maura's day.

"Well, the first round was simple; cookies!"

"Starts off simple alright, what did you make?"

"I went for oatmeal cookies; a classic, but I gave it a bit of an English twist. I don't want them to think I'm too American you see".

"Really Maur? They don't care that you're American, they just wanna know that you can bake. So, what did you make? I'm salivating here!"

"Rhubarb and custard; that was my theme. It's a traditional English dessert, a rhubarb and custard crumble. So, I made the oatmeal the crumble part, and gave it a rhubarb and custard filling".

"Never heard of it".

"Y'know, Jane, I tried it before I came over here, and it really works. The sharp taste of the rhubarb is a direct contrast to the creamy custard; perfection".

"Perfection indeed. And what did Mary and Paul think? Were they as scary as they seemed on YouTube?"

"No, actually they loved them! According to them, I had baked the oatmeal perfectly, and it complimented the filling fabulously. The only issue was that the filling was a little bit too thick, but it wasn't a major bone of contention".

"That's great Maura! What about the second round?" Jane inquired, smiling proudly at her loved one.

"Well, that was the technical challenge".

"Of course, so what did you make?"

"The challenge was to make baklava; my worst nightmare". Baklava had been the one thing that Maura had struggled to master in the kitchen.

"Oh no! How did it go though, Maura? It couldn't have been that bad, could it?"

"Well, I think it was the worst nightmare of some of the other contestants; I came seventh out of twelfth. Not bad, really, although my pastry was definitely nowhere near the optimum level of flakiness that should be expected. I hope I can do better tomorrow; it's the showstopper" Maura informed Jane, looking anxious. Jane soothed Maura by giving her a slow kiss on her forehead, which once wrinkled in anxiety now settled into relief and comfort.

"Maura, you'll do great, I can tell. You're gonna win this for sure!" Jane cheered Maura on. She was willing to become Maura's personal cheerleader if it meant that she would face this competition with a bit more confidence and self belief.

"I hope so Jane, I hope so" Maura replied, still not seeming too sure of herself.

"Don't suppose you brought back any of those rhubarb and custard cookies that you were telling me about? I've been asleep all day and I'm kinda hungry" Jane asked Maura, hoping ravenously that Maura had delivered a confection for Jane to feast upon.

"No, but I actually have another surprise for you" Maura informed Jane with a crafty look in her eye; one that Jane had seen many times before.

"What's that?" Jane inquired, her curiosity heightened only by her hunger.

"You'll see" Maura smirked, as she began to unbutton her blouse that she had picked specially for the occasion.

"Wait, why are you taking your clothes off? Did you smuggle some of the cookies in your bra?" Jane asked as Maura continued to undress.

"Close! But no coconut" Maura told Jane, retaining her impish tone. As Maura stepped out of her clothing, Jane took a step back, looking at Maura's chest in disbelief. Maura beamed a seductive smile at Jane who looked utterly perplexed.

"Is that…. Is that, uh… a cookie bra… that you are wearing?" Jane stuttered, not quite believing what she was seeing. Maura was standing, staring at her, wearing a bra that seemed to be made out of baked cookie dough. Jane could not possibly fathom how this came to be, and wondered if she was still asleep plunged into some crazy dream.

"Do you like it? I baked it whilst I was doing the rhubarb and custard cookies earlier, I thought I'd give you a nice surprise to wake up to!"

"You mean to tell me that you baked yourself a bra in front of a group of strangers?! You baked yourself underwear on national television?!" Jane would have been highly aroused by this situation as it combined two of her greatest passions; Maura's baking and Maura's breasts, but she was so perplexed by the situation that it didn't quite tickle her.

"What do you find weird about that?" Maura asked.

"Maura, if you don't understand what is weird about that, then I'm not sure you'll quite comprehend it upon me explaining it to you! How did you even make it so that it fits you?" Jane questioned her girlfriend, as yet another question entered her mind about this bizarre situation.

"Oh, I took my bra down with me and fashioned the cookie dough around it so that it would fit my breasts. Clever, don't you think?"

"Yes, Maura, very clever. Now the whole of England will see you coating a bra with cookie dough. How is this going to look? Can you imagine the newspapers back at Boston reporting on the state's chief medical examiner filling her bra with cookie dough on English television?!"

"Well, I was very discreet!" Jane sighed at this.

"That can't be comfortable, Maur".

"No, it does chafe quite a bit. I was expecting you to have eaten it from my chest by now".

"Under different circumstances maybe. Still, I'm not ruling out doing so right now. Hey, isn't your bra going to be really filthy now that you did that?" Jane asked, genuinely curious about the state of Maura's bra after receiving such a bizarre treatment.

"It's in my bag, I should probably put it in for a soak actually, now that you mention it". Maura bent down to retrieve the bra from her bag that she had taken with her. "Oh, mother-fudger!" Jane heard Maura exclaim from down below; she sounded exasperated.

"What's up Maura?" Jane asked.

"I've left them downstairs!" Maura responded.

"Wait, them?!"

"Yes, I made you a cookie bra too!" Maura brandished the second cookie bra, looking genuinely proud of her handiwork. Jane looked both exasperated at the growing weirdness of the situation, and self-conscious at the fact that her cookie bra was noticeably smaller than Maura's.

"You took my bra down there as well? My bra is going to feature on English television? Maura, you know how popular this show is!"

"Don't worry, we'll just have to go down there and get them back" Maura told Jane imperatively, throwing a T-shirt over her bare torso.

"Seriously? You're not taking the cookie bra off?"

"Well, I don't want to waste it. If anyone asks, I'll just have to tell them that I left my washing out on a cold night".

"Oh, why lie? Why not tell people that you baked your bra yourself?" Jane said sarcastically.

"Come on, let's go and get them". Jane followed Maura out of the door, heading down to the Bake Off tent in one of the most bizarre situations that she had ever found herself in, including the multiple kidnapping attempts she had suffered through.