OH MY GOSH! Y'all's response to this is amazing. Thank you so much. Feel free to review if you want. Or not. I don't mind. Again, not my property, except for the ideas. A bit of strong language in this chapter.


Walking into Jane's apartment, Maura knew something was very wrong. Jane was sitting on the couch, knees pulled tight to her chest, with her arms around her knees, just staring at the TV, which was currently off. Walking over to her wife, Maura wrapped her arms around Jane. "Maura, its…the lump is…its cancer. Oh my God. I have breast cancer. It just hit me fully, saying it to you. Oh man. I have cancer. What am I gonna do? I don't know what to do." The tears that had previously been threatening to fall were doing so freely now.

"Oh, Jane. We'll get through this. Do whatever we need to be able to beat this. You're not alone Jane, you have me, your family, Barry, Vince, probably the whole precinct."

Jane shook her head. "Not Ma. She told me this morning our marriage is the reason I have cancer before storming out. Oh, man, the whole precinct probably knows by now."

"I don't think so, love. She wasn't in the café when I left. I think she left after coming into the morgue to yell at me."

"Whoa, holdup, she did what? What did she say?"

"Angela came in about 15 minutes after Tommy did, neither of them saying things that made much sense. Angela said she thought I was a good girl, but I was really corrupting you. Tommy said a lot of things I didn't quite get, and I'm not sure what he meant by 'After all she's done for you, you're just kicking her out'."

"None of this is your fault, babe." Jane said, hugging Maura. "Although, I don't know what Tommy means either, but I will kick his ass for yelling at you."

"Jane." Maura shook her head.

Jane's phone rang before she could respond. "Yeah, Frankie?"

"What the hell is going on? Ma said you and Maura are kicking her out?"

"No, we aren't. We haven't said anything like that to her, not even remotely mentioning moving, but that does explain what Tommy yelled at Maura earlier."

"Why'd she say that then? Janie, is Ma mad at Maura or something?"

"Or something. Frankie, Ma found out this morning that I'm married. To Maura."

"About damn time," Frankie said after a few seconds. "You two had been dancing around your feelings for years. I'm coming over when I get off, and we can talk, and you two can explain everything."

"Thanks Frankie. Call Tommy and tell him to come over to my apartment too."

"Why the apartment?"

"I really don't want another confrontation with Ma."

"Ok, see ya about 6."

As Jane hung up the phone, she turned to Maura. "I think he has been waiting on us to announce that we're together for a while." Jane laughed. "Korsak & Frost probably have bets on us, too." She suddenly frowned. "I'm not gonna have to quit, am I?"

"Probably not, but we'll deal with that if and when we come to it. For now, just tell me what Dr. Titan said."

After Jane told Maura all she could remember, and ate lunch, the women laid down for a quick nap before getting dinner started. "Jane, now that the dog's out of the bag, can we live together?"

"Cat, honey, cat's out of the bag. I was thinking maybe we could spend the weekend moving into the house, and help Ma move into this place. We can get Frankie & Tommy to help."

"I'm gonna jump in the shower before your brothers get here. Can you handle the food?" Maura asked, heading to the bedroom.

"Sure thing, babe," Jane said, stirring the tomato sauce. After making sure nothing was in immediate danger of burning or boiling over, Jane sat down at the table, looking over all the information she received earlier. She was so lost in thought that Jane forgot about the food until the smoke alarms went off. Moving quickly, Jane turned off the oven and burners, and opened the oven door, before trying to shut off the smoke alarms. Jane moved the sauce to a cold burner, and the chicken to the stove top before opening the front door as Maura came out of the bedroom. "Sorry, sweetheart, I got lost in thought."

"Its ok, we can just wait on your brothers to get here, and then decide what to do for dinner."

"Sounds like a plan," Jane said as she stepped over to her stereo, turning it on. "May I have this dance?" she asked, holding her hand out to Maura, bowing deeply as she did.

"Of course," Maura answered, curtsying slightly as she took Jane's hand. The two women were so lost in the music, and each other, that they didn't notice Tommy show up, shortly followed by Frankie, Frost, & Korsak.

"Aww, they make an adorable couple," whispered Frost.

"I know. Janie's so cute when she acts like a girl." Frankie said.

"Maybe, if we ignore them, they'll go away." Jane said to Maura.

"You invited us, Jane," said Frankie. "But why is your door open? And what's burning?"

"The door is open because I burnt dinner. So, Pizza or Chinese? And did you two come for free food or another reason," she asked, turning to Frost & Korsak, still dancing with Maura.

"We had another reason, although, free food is always good to us," said Detective Vince Korsak.

"Yeah, food is good. Anyways, we decided to give you a heads up about some of the sh-stuff flying around the precinct," added Detective Barry Frost. "And Frankie said you had some big news for us."

"Right," Jane said as she turned herself & Maura to face the guys, wrapping her arms around Maura. "Let's see if any of these are true."

"So the one flying around with the most veracity is that you kicked Angela out of Maura's guest house." Said Korsak.

"Not true. Although, she apparently wants to move out."

"There's one flying around that one, or both, of you are currently pregnant."

"Well, I'm not pregnant. Are you pregnant, Maura?"

"No."

"Well, glad that's cleared up. What's another rumor? They're kinda entertaining."

"The last new one is that you have moved in together."

"That isn't true," said Maura. "We both have separate houses; although I don't think we have spent the night apart in almost 7 months."

"Not true," said Jane. "I slept at the precinct about 2 months ago while we were working on that kidnapping case."

"Ok, and of course," said Frost, "the ever-present rumor that you two are dating."

"Which is obviously true," said Korsak, motioning between the two ladies.

"Actually," said Jane, "that's technically not true. Sure, we go on dates, but we're not dating."

"So, friends with benefits?" asked Frost

"No way, man, Maura's too special to do that to," argued Jane.

Frankie started laughing. "Janie, I think you should just tell them."

"Wait!" said Tommy, "How does Frankie know, and I don't."

"Because he was smart enough to call me and ask about what was going on, instead of storming down to the morgue to yell at Maura, which you owe her an apology for."

"Janie, if you and the doc are romantically involved, why have you two been hiding it?"

"We've been living separately, but staying together to avoid suspicion, and to avoid getting extra shit at work. Ma's reaction was as I expected, and we wanted to avoid more like it. I'm just glad she waited until the doctor left to explode at me."

"Why was Ma at the doctor's with you?" asked Frankie

"Because Maura was doing an autopsy."

"Aren't you a big enough girl to go by yourself?" asked Tommy, causing Frankie and Frost to laugh, but Korsak noticed the look the crossed both Jane and Maura's faces.

"Jane, what's going on? What's wrong?" he asked.