A/N: Thanks for all the comments and reviews! I can't say much (the story will) but remember: sometimes, nothing is what it seems and often there is a reason for everything...

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Chapter 03

Jane entered the room with her thumb pointing out the door.

"Was that our new friendly ADA?"

"Hello, Jane. Nice to see you too." Maura allowed Jane into her office and closed the door behind them, hiding all traces of her intense reaction to Julia's goodbye kisses.

"What was she doing here again?"

Jane's comment carried an underlying aggressiveness that felt like a cold slap after the easy, comfortable lunch and the intense goodbye.

"You don't like her, and I don't understand why." Maura turned around, unsure she could stand to be interrogated by Jane.

"I don't have to like the ADA, we just have to work together."

Jane comment was flat, but Maura knew best. Jane was still high-strung from her lack of interesting work and Julia somehow seemed to provide her with an easy target. Still, Maura couldn't stop a wave of anger lapping at her chest. She understood Jane, but the dry comments and unpleasantness of her tone, right after the wonderful afternoon talking and working with Julia, was more than she wanted to take.

"Is there anything you wanted, Detective Rizzoli?" Maura's icy tone made Jane back down.

"What? Wow, okay. Don't Detective me, please." Jane raised her palms up. "I just wanted to say hi. Had a shitty night, didn't sleep much." She smiled at Maura tentatively at first. When she saw cracks on Maura's façade, Jane gave her a full dimpled-smile that disarmed her completely.

"Hi, Maura, how are you today?"

"Hi, Jane." Maura conceded over a smile. "That's better."

"Okay then. I'm going nuts. Feel like grabbing a pizza later at my place?"

Maura wanted time to reflect on today's events and her reactions to Julia, but she really missed Jane. She wanted to share with her all she had shared with Julia, and how good it was to meet interesting new people, but she knew she couldn't not, as long as Jane was as tense as she was.

"Maur?"

Jane was bending forward in front of her, trying to get their eyes to connect, the apologetic grin washing the frown away. Maura laughed.

"Fine, but I've got much work to do, so I'll be late."

"How late? Come on, Maur, the bodies are well refrigerated; the paperwork mountain will not grow legs. Please?"

Maura took a deep breath. "Oh, okay. I'll be there around 7:30 or 8."

"7. And you bring the pizza."

Maura laughed. "Okay, 7:15 and you get the pizza."

"That's what deliveries are for. Laters!"

"Jane?"

Jane stopped and turned around.

"I'm glad you are in a better mood."

Jane's smile for Maura washed away the second she turned around. The bad mood was gnawing just below the surface, but she just couldn't stand upsetting Maura by dumping her frustrations on her. That is not what friends are for, even though a little bitching was just so much fun.

She left the precinct at 6:30 that evening and drove past Maura's favorite Italian restaurant. She ordered a large pizza with all Maura's green-and-healthy toppings, ordered a cold Blue Moon and settled at the bar to wait. She could have chosen any other pizzeria and asked for a delivery, but this was Maura's favorite. Also, the gesture of driving up and taking the time to order a pizza unique to Maura's taste was an odd but effective way to feel she was making amends.

She knew how out of line she'd been, even if she didn't fully understand why. Maura hadn't done anything to upset her. Her restlessness was not Maura's fault. Her work was like that, but that wasn't a comfort. Taking a long, slow swig from the bottle, her mind went back to the ADA's eyes checking Maura out, Maura's strange –almost flustered reaction- after the ADA had left, and Maura's excitement when talking about her nonstop back at the Dirty Robber. She could have dismissed it all after a joke or two, except that she hadn't. Something about the whole thing was off, and couldn't put her finger on it as much as it seemed to be nagging her.

As she drove home, the smell of the hot pizza dismissed all processing. She behaved like an ass and that was that. The pizza and a relaxing evening would make it all much better.

Jane left the pizza inside the warmer drawer of the oven and rushed through a much needed relaxing shower. She had just changed into comfortable sweatpants and an old T-shirt when the bell rang. It was exactly 7:15 pm.

"You get an A for timing, Dr. Isles. Or did you smell the wonderful pizza and rushed before it got cold?"

Maura smiled and settled in the couch, letting her muscles relax for the first time all day. Jane brought napkins, a bottle of wine and the pizza and got comfortable next to her.

"So, movie?"

"I rather enjoy the silence for a while. It's been a rather testing day."

"Okay. So I will not speak then." Jane covered her mouth with her hand with a theatrical gesture. Her eyes sparkled above her hand and Maura shook her head, smiling.

"You know I didn't mean it like that." Maura looked at the box. "Oh, this pizza is wonderful! But La Mamma does not deliver…"

"Nope, they don't."

"Did you go all the way there to get this?"

"Yep." Jane could barely contain her smug grin.

Maura checked the pizza toppings. "And this pizza is not on their menu either! Oh Jane, you're such a good friend…"

"You say that now that I'm not in a bite-your-head off mood."

"Oh, you always are a good friend, the best of friends, even if you are growling." Maura's smile was genuine; her eyes could never lie, and they stared into Jane's almost adoringly. Jane smiled back, holding Maura's gaze for a few seconds before putting her armor back on.

"Good. So that's settled then. Glad you like the pizza. I'm starving! Tell me about your day."

Maura shifted in her seat and took a bite of her pizza, avoiding Jane's eyes.

The clue that something was amiss didn't go unnoticed.

Jane squinted and stretched her lips. "I so own your butt. What did you do?"

"What do you mean?" Maura looked away, praying that Jane wouldn't notice the flush in her face.

Jane scrutinized Maura. "Don't tell me that our new smiley neighborhood ADA has anything to do with it."

Maura shrugged, focusing on her pizza. "We went for lunch, then continued working at my office. It was a… a nice business lunch amongst new colleagues." Maura continued to hide behind her now tiny pizza slice.

"Maura, hives…"

"Okay. All right. She invited me for lunch and it was incredible, she took me to this restaurant in a reconverted warehouse that has tables on the courtyard under these lovely trees and she is such a nice person, so well-travelled, and knows about art and fashion and history and…"

"Wow, wow. Stop. Breathe. What the hell has gotten into you?" Jane leaned back, as if pushed by the mighty force of the realization that Maura was actually infatuated with the ADA. Worse even: Maura was smitten with another woman.

The room shrank to the size of that single thought.

Maura left the pizza crust in the box and began to rub clean her fingertips, even when there was barely any trace of food on them to begin with.

The heavy silence amongst them started to choke Jane. Part of her was amused, but the biggest part of her was completely, utterly shocked. She took a large breath and spoke slowly and calmly.

"Maura? Do you realize that you sound like you are completely infatuated with this woman?"

Maura pressed her lips, eyebrows almost begging, and nodded.

Jane was terrified to ask what she really wanted to know, but the detective in her was stronger. "Did anything happen?"

Maura shook her head, running her fingertips along her eyebrows. No rationalization could save her now from the fact that her skin still tingled just by remembering Julia's chaste but intense kisses. Jane was right: if Julia were a man there would be no question about it. Still, Julia hadn't said, implied or done anything beyond being her charming self. That goodbye kiss could be just part of her effusive self, and nothing more. Maybe it was all in her head.

"I feel so silly." Maura blurted out, covering her face with her hands.

Maura's answer threw Jane off balance. It was not what she expected, although she didn't know what to expect anymore.

"Silly? Why?"

"I don't know. I don't know what's happening to me, Jane. I have all the telltale signs, but it can't be. How can it be?"

"Well, I don't know, but look at you." Jane chewed on the insides of her lips, completely uncertain how to react, what to say, think or even feel.

"What do I do now, Jane?" Maura's hands were now crossed on her lap, compulsively straightening out an invisible wrinkle in the hem of her skirt.

"I don't know. Nothing? Relax and get your head straight?" Jane giggled at her own words.

Maura frowned at her. "Why are you laughing now?"

"Get your head straight. Get it? Oh, forget it, bad joke. I dunno, Maura. This is, I don't know, so not like you."

"The strangest thing is that I actually haven't felt like this for a guy in… well… I haven't. Not even for Jack, and I liked him the second I saw him."

"Are you telling me you just decided to flip like that?"

"Oh, what a crude way of putting it. No, Jane. This is not about flipping or any such thing. This is about a specific set of reactions in a completely different circumstance."

They sat in silence for a while. So much for the special pizza and the quiet time, Jane thought, while grabbing a now barely warm slice and began to chew on it, just to do something.

Maura pointed at the pizza box. "Can I have one, please?" She wasn't hungry, but eating made it all look normal.

But nothing felt normal anymore. Maura had a crush on a woman and Jane felt even more confused that Maura did.