Author's note: I would like to thank everyone who took time to read this story! Thank you for your interest, favs and reviews!This chapter tells the infamous meeting with the amazing Jo!

Meeting Jo Friday

Bass was happily munching on his customary plate of veggies with strawberries on the side when a "yip!" Followed by intense barking almost made him choke on his lettuce! "Hey Ma! Look what i found on Maura's house! Its like 'thingy' at our house, but it's huge! You won't believe it!" while, through all this excitement, Bass tried to collect himself and turn around as fast a any tortoise his size could to get a look at the new visitor. Although between the incessant barking and a wet nose trying to sniff itself inside his shell up his tail he was pretty sure it was a dog...
"Hello, I am Bass Isles, and I have no idea of what a 'thingy" is apart that by your description it is smaller than me." The scruffy hyperactive little dog was visibly excited "Hi I'm Jo! My ma and yours are friends. You talk funny!" She said in rapid succession alternated only by incessant sniffing of Bass himself and everything around him.

Before he could demand to know just what was so funny about his manner of speaking he heard a by know familiar "Maura..." along with quick footsteps.

Turning around the counter Jane found Jo and Bass "Maura! Jo found your turtle!", " Mother! I found your Italian-american!" For some reason he did not enjoy being called a turtle, although he came to know quite a few of those species, and they were all great fellows. Maybe it was the slight mocking tone Jane used when saying it. Maura came rushing in, "Tortoise! Are they getting along? ! " upon seeing Jo she immediately knelt and cooed " Hello my sweet girl! Did you make friends with Bass?" Jo rushed to her "Maura! Maura! We came in Ma's car, but i didn't get sick! I was worried 'cause I thought I was going to the vet! You know, you never know! You get in the car, and sometimes you end up in the park and others its the vet! But then Ma said 'we gonna see Maura' and then i knew it was alright 'cause we gonna see you!"

Then with a serious look and a slight tilt of her head "Did you know that you've got a HUGE 'thingy' in your kitchen?"

Bass huffed as he watched the interaction between the three... Jo now on Maura's lap, Jane laughing "That dog of mine sure loves you" Maura smiled " And I love her!" they both stood staring longingly into each other's eyes.

Bass though that for such a clever species humans were sometimes quite dull...

He couldn't help to feel a little twinge of jealousy watching Jo on his mother's lap - he loved roaming the house and deciding where to go, but he sometimes missed being smaller and fitting in her lap... But alas such was the passing of time, and still, when there was no one around, Maura often sat of the floor with her back leaning on the couch, with either a book or watching tv, with a hand on his shell or petting his head and calling him ´mon petit' her nickname for him, we would never admit to it, but sometimes he even feel asleep with his head on her lap.

The evening progressed calmly enough, given the circumstances, and surprise, surprise, their guests were staying overnight. He had to admit, the dog wasn't a bad company, once she settle down from excitement - which took quite a while - but it was good having someone to talk to, humans did a lot of company, but he often missed to be able speak and be understood.

Bass also couldn't help but to marvel at Jo's intuition, things that had so far eluded him, became predictable with her presence, she could sense someone at the door before the bell even rang, and anticipate the ringing of the telephone – something that he couldn't never even see, aside from his mother's 'cell'.

It was like having a personal alarm system, she did have some false alarms, specially if she was dosing off and a bell rang in the black box thing... which also triggered intense barking before she would realize what it was and then sheepishly shrug at him and return to sleep.

He wondered if it was this apparent affinity with bells that made Dr. Pavlov choose them as study subjects to begin with, or if it was some kind of collective trauma all canines shared from then on. Anyway, quite useful!

Jo seemed to have a very close relationship with Jane, and he noticed they cared for each other deeply. He loved Mother, but he needed to look and study her demeanor to tell her moods, and then after some time became aware of little tells in their familiar routines.

But Jo sensed change in humans, sometimes before humans themselves! For no apparent reason she would get closer to Jane, as if in anticipation, when the woman would start looking at the distance or rubbing her hands, and that would set Jo into motion, she would start pawing, making a little whine or even jump on couch and nudge her.

Even when Jane was to oblivious to notice, his mother would notice Jo and look to Jane, placing a hand on hers and calling her back. And this too, was simple intuition, apparently, all Jo did was mostly out of intuition or 'gut feeling' as she called it.

Brought back from his thoughts from the lack of noise from the tv box or whatever the contraption was called, Jane and Maura were again looking at each other and making a somewhat meaningless and apparently uncomfortable small talk before petting them and heading to his mother's room... "How can a species be so clueless of its own kind? I wonder what they do when they take off like that..." he said aloud, forgetting that he had someone who could actually understand him. "They hump, silly!" Jo said matter-of-factually... "WHAT?!" how could she talk about that, and even propose that their respective mothers were going to... gosh he still had nightmares "Humping is good! It helps with stress." and with that, Jo Friday simply circled the ground on top of a fallen couch pillow and laid down to sleep "Well I never..." to which Jo playfully countered "i know Bass, it explains a lot!", if a tortoise could blush, and mind you, he was thankful that they couldn't "That's not what I was going to say!", the dog just grinned "I know Bass, just messing with ya, good night." and with that she was sound asleep.

"MAMALLS..."
He should have given her a piece of his mind, joking or not, or at the very least ,look for one of his usual sleeping spots and leave her alone, but he knew deep down that it was the dog's idea of a joke - she wasn't a bad creature and besides, if something was about to ring he wanted to know too.

The next day

The very next evening Bass and Maura were alone, and Maura had gotten on the floor between the couch and the coffee table, petting him as usual. "You know Bass, you looked quite cozy sleeping beside Jo..." she said thoughtfully, "That is pure speculation mother!" he retorted, but he knew it was to no use. Still he wanted to see where this was going... She kept petting him for a while "I hope you liked her Bass... I know you don't respond well to change, but I would like them to spend more time with us...Jane and Jo are quite.. enjoyable to be around..." she trailed off. He had his doubts whether enjoyable was a term he could ever relate to Jane... But it had been great having someone to talk to, and Jo was quite nice once one got used to her.. antics for lack of a better word.

He always new that a time would come when his mother would find a mate... Until very recently he always thought that was the purpose of the backyard.. that it would be where Mother would dig a whole and lay the eggs and all – it turned out it wasn't quite like that... He mentally ran the list of potential serious candidates to 'mate' the Mother had ever had – there was that weird guy that would show up, from time to time, Mother was always elated when he arrived and devastated when he left.. He was his least favorite... Not only Mother would be miserable for days on end afterwards, but he would always look at him and talk about this time or another in the middle of nowhere where he 'ate' something like him – usually as a soup. The nerve... besides when he wanted Mother to go with him he always implied that she could leave him to her parents or whoever..

Then there was this kind of nice fellow... He never payed him much attention, and likewise, until the eventful night that he tripped over him, and was slightly miffed at mother's concern of his shell... He didn't know what had happened, he stopped showing up for some reason – but anyway something had always seemed off, or even forced.. like Mother went through the whole thing like it was what she was supposed to do.

With Jane, whatever it was they had, it seemed at least natural – and there was a shine in Mother's eyes that he had never seen before, she seemed happy more than content... Of all candidates, he had to admit that she was the best, and plus, with Jane came Jo and... whatever 'thingy' was. He could have a friend, someone that could talk to him, and even spend time, and that was good.

He remembered in the morning, they had been both in such a good mood – it was the 'after hump' as Jo had explained to him... He even got extra strawberries! He still was not sure about the whole concept of humping... but if it meant extra strawberries and a happy Mother – well then, hump away!

ps- hope you liked it. Next on the list is Angela Rizzoli!