"So what's a 'green room' anyway?" Jane asked unabashedly as they made their way toward it. "Like, don't famous people have green rooms?"

"It's actually quite interesting. No-one really knows specifically as there isn't really much or any documentation of its origin," Maura stated with a genuine interest. "It has however led to many interesting theories. And, whilst most historians can agree that the rooms were originally the colour green, no-one can say why with certainty."

Korsak nodded on with intrigue though had pretty much accepted that he wasn't going to get an answer to that particular question today.

"Maybe it's 'cause everyone wanted to be famous and so everyone was green with envy," Jane joked, well-aware of the fact that her words had no basis whatsoever.

Maura pursed her lips slightly, this time with the corners turned up in a small smile.

Just as she did, they entered through a large doorway created from a long collapsible door that unfolded about 10 metres (also the length of the green room).

"It's not even green!" Jane remarked, feigning disappointment.

Her playful nature though was quickly dampened as they looked around and so a group of people, all potential witnesses, in various states of emotion.

"Are you the detectives?" A young man in skinny jeans and an ironic cardigan said. "Your goons over here won't let us go and won't tell us why?" He said, obviously quite frustrated.

Korsak raised a hand defensively, encouraging the man to take a step back. Before Jane or anyone else could respond, Korsak put his thumb and finger in his mouth, whistling loudly at the relatively tame crowd to draw their attention. "Ladies and gentleman, I would like to apologise for the inconvenience. My name is detective Korsak and this is detective Rizzoli. If you co-operate with us and answer our questions, we'll have you returned to your day as soon as possible," he said amicably.

Everyone seemed to respond to him quite well, even the young man from a moment ago.

A little too proud though to have had his bluff called, he tried to say angrily, "Can you at least tell us why we're here?"

"Hey," Jane said firmly. "Step back," she warned. Rationally though she added, "We've got a job to do. Let us do it, and then you can get back to yours."

The young man watched, gauging just how serious Jane was being at this point. Deciding that it wasn't a fight he was going to win, he chose instead to sigh in a passive-aggressive manner before rolling his eyes and returning to his bags. Preppy laptop case, the newest Apple laptop, oversized headphones, a pair of typical geek-chic glasses and a bottle of Voss water with leaves and strawberries through it.

Jane couldn't help but think, hipster. She looked over the crowd of people to find out what they were in for. Although she only glanced at one particular older woman for a moment, she knew they were familiar. She even suspected she knew who the woman was but didn't say anything.

Maura returned to the body to continue her job as the detectives began interviewing the workers and visitors.

They set up two tables about a metre apart from each other (one for each of them) and began speaking to all of the library patrons.

"So, you were in the children's fiction section with your daughter?" Jane asked a young, tired looking woman.

She nodded in response, arms still wrapped around her three-year-old child. "We got here just after nine," she paused. "We had just dropped my son off at kindy, and she was already getting restless so we came here to pick up some books for later."

Jane watched the woman, knowing that she had nothing to do with it. She looked at the little girl on her lap and smiled gently as if to say that everything was okay.

At the other table, Korsak happened to be interviewing the woman that Jane had caught a glimpse of when they arrived.

Her frail voice spoke quietly, "I was at the reception desk. That's all." As she spoke, she kept looking over to Jane thinking that she was a very familiar face.

Korsak picked up on her glances and finally asked, "Is there something wrong, ma'am?"

"N-no, no," she said shaking her head. "I just… that young lady … I – I'm sure I've seen her before…" Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she tried to figure it out.

Korsak looked over to Jane who was entirely involved in the conversation she was having with another patron.

"What did you say her name was?" She asked curiously.

Korsak turned back and said, "The police officer? Detective Jane Rizzoli."

"Jane…" She said thinking how familiar that sounded. Her eyes lit up. "Little Jane. Brilliant little Jane." It was a statement, not a question.

"Do you know her, ma'am?" Korsak asked curiously but a little protectively.

The older woman nodded. "She used to come here all the time when she was in school. Then one day she just… stopped."

Korsak looked back over once again. She knew Jane was smart, but he never would have picked her for someone who hung out at libraries.

•••

"Well, that was a waste," Jane said, slumping back into her chair back at the precinct.
She was motivated to solve the case but, at this moment, didn't have any leads and that bothered her.

"Yeah," Korsak scoffed. "Had to be done though," he shrugged.

Jane just groaned in unsatisfied agreeance.

"I'm pretty sure none of them did it," Korsak re-iterated.

"I'm pretty sure none of them know who did it either," she said as her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

Korsak let out a short chuckle. "Speaking of knowing things, I did talk to one woman who seemed to know you?"

Jane rolled her head over to see Korsak looking quite giddy about something.

"She said she knew you when you were in school," he paused somewhat deviously watching her response.

Jane began looking annoyed as he continued to withhold the information. She, of course, knew to whom he was referring, but thankfully she was careful not to arouse suspicion.

"She called you," his cheeks what blushing red as he held in a laugh. "Brilliant little Jane."

"Mrs Overton…" she said, unexcited by the reveal.

Korsak was giggling like a school girl without saying anything more.

"What?" She said in her usually snarky tone. "I used to go to the library because there was no peace at home with my insane little brothers running around," she said to her defence.

Korsak shrugged and added, "Hey, I didn't say anything."

"Yeah, yeah," Jane responded, knowing full well what was going on in his head. "I wasn't a nerd or anything, I just did my homework. Gees."

"I didn't say anything," he repeated, entirely aware that he really didn't have to.

•••

That evening, Jane was over at Maura's for their weekly take-out dinner. Jane had take-out pretty much every other night, but that was usually at home in her pyjamas (and occasionally her work clothes when she'd had a long day).

"Mmm!" She groaned happily. "These noodles are even better than last time!"

"I had noticed that their consistency in terms of the dishes that put out does tend to vary," Maura said analytically into her stir-fry. "On average though, it's above-average quality, so I'm happy to keep going back." She finally looked up only to see a very dissatisfied face sitting across from her.

"I was kidding," she paused. "I just meant it tasted good!" Jane smiled lightly as she nudged her dorky friend.

"Oh," Maura said, momentarily thrown off by the fact that they were discussing different things entirely. Quickly recovering though, she reached her chopsticks over and took a mouthful of Jane's noodles. She chewed, swallowed and then looked very pensive for a second. "I concur. Better than last time," she smiled.

Jane laughed. "Just for that, I'm stealing some of your dessert," she winked.

The two continued their evening quite happily, all the while Maura had something else on her mind.
She noted that on a few occasions throughout the day Jane's responses seemed a little out of the ordinary. A part of her, a very naggy part, thought that something might be upsetting her. She didn't trust her instincts enough to bring it up though as her social skills weren't the finest and she had been tripped up by them too many times before. Instead, she decided to leave it alone; although it didn't make her entirely content. She didn't want to mess up her friendship or look like a fool though, so she insisted to herself that was logically the safest option.


Thank you for reading.

Sorry it took so long to update. I should be updating every week (or two, at the least).

Hope you enjoyed this chapter.