Hello all, thank you for the follows, favorites, and reviews. So I'm think I know where I'm going with this story, for now anyway. If this chapter seems a little dry it's because it's a set up for the next chapter. I hope you enjoy. All grammatical mistakes are my own and I apologize in advance.

Jane walked back to the table and tapped her colleague on the shoulder."Hope, come to the bathroom with me, there's a woman in there that's bleeding from her nose and needs your help.

"What's happened?" Hope stood up and grabbed her bag.

"I accidentally hit her in the face with the door." Jane said under her breath.

Hope rolled her eyes and looked at Jane as if to say "not again." "It's because you barrel through every door you enter, you really are a bull in a china shop Rizzoli."

"Noted." Jane replied trying to rush Hope along.

When they got to the bathroom they saw that it was empty.

Jane put her thumb and forefinger up to her nose, slightly pinching the bridge and closing her eyes. She let out a sigh. "She's gone. I hope she's okay." She threw up her hands. "This day just keeps getting better and better."

Hope looked around the bathroom. "You said she bleeding from her nose?"

"Yeah, she was practically gushing. Why?"

"Well, I'm sure she wasn't gushing, Jane, she would've passed out from the blood loss."

"Just answer my question. God, can anything ever be simple with you?"

"No need to be testy, you asked for my help remember?"

"HOPE." Jane said loudly and in frustration.

"There's no blood."

"What?"

"If she was bleeding as much as you said she was, there would be evidence of it somewhere."

"Maybe she cleaned up."

"... And took it with her? There are no bloody paper towels in the trash can."

"That's weird."

"Are you sure she was even here?"

"Yes, Hope, I'm not seeing things."

"Okay, okay, I'm just checking. Let's look around the bar, see if she's still here.

The two exited the bathroom and looked around the bar to no avail. Then they returned to the table to finish their meals.

"Give me your wrist," Hope said as she noticed something on Jane's sleeve as she bit into her burger.

Jane did as the medical examiner asked.

Hope took Jane's hand examining a stain on her sleeve. "You handed her paper towels right?"

"Yeah?"

"I think she got some of her blood on you when she took them. I'll get some club soda to get that out." Hope put up her other hand to signal the waiter.

Jane glanced at Hope's watch when her wrist was in Hope's hand. "No time. I have to go. They'd be done lunch by now. I'm going to grab Korsak and head to the docks." Jane put some money down on the table.

"Hold on, wait. Caillin is picking Julianna up from school today, are you two staying for dinner?"

"Depends how much homework she has, and I'm going to that group thing tonight."

"I could have Cailin do it with her, you get out at seven, she should be done by then."

"Alright fine we'll stay, now I've got to go." Jane turned around to leave.

"Jane?"

The detective stopped. "Yes?"

"I'm glad you are still going to that bereavement group."

"It's nice to have the support of others going through the same thing, as shitty as it is."

"I wish, they had these groups years ago. I think it would have helped me." Hope said frowning, taking a sip of her tea.

Jane walked back to her friend and put her hand on the doctor's shoulder. "I couldn't imagine what it must have been like for you."

"It was tough, I got through it, I'd never thought I'd be a mom again, but then Cailin came along. She saved me."

"She's a wonderful kid and she's really great with Julianna. You're a good mother, Hope, I want you to know that." Jane hugged the medical examiner then exited The Dirty Robber.

/

Maura walked into her house and immediately went to the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and saw that her nose was slightly out of place but again no where near as bad as she had originally thought. She popped it back into place without even the slightest grimace. The scotch prevented her from feeling any pain. Then Maura went to her kitchen and grabbed a ziplock bag and filled it with ice. She walked into her living room and plopped down on the couch, putting the bag of ice on her face. Maura knew exactly how to treat her broken nose suffering many in her life time. In her late teens and early twenties she was dubbed the "queen of the bar brawls" often beating up men twice her size. She looked at the picture on her coffee table which showed her and her brother with bloodied fists shown proudly after her brother's first bar fight. He was seventeen and she was twenty- nine. "Don't worry Colin, I'll get the bitch."

Then she heard a key turning, unlocking her door and the voice of her father as he entered. "Maura?"

"This is not what I fucking need right now," Maura thought to herself. "I'm in here dad."

Paddy walked in the living room to see his daughter on the couch with ice on her nose. He chuckled "Another bar fight? You just can't help yourself can you? He laughed. "What's the other guy look like?"

"It wasn't a fight."

"What happened."

"She did it, and she saw me."

"You took care of it right?"

"No. It wasn't exactly the most opportune moment."

"Jesus Christ Maura, you blew it."

"Yeah, I know."

"Well, I guess I can have one of my guys rig a car bomb."

"No, I want this."

"How do you plan on doing that?"

"I'm going to have to play the long game, I guess, earn her trust, make it look like an accident. I don't know I haven't really thought about it yet, all of this happened less than an hour ago."

"That's a terrible idea, you're going to have to lie."

"Not necessarily."

"This would be a con job, Maura, and that's what a con is."

"She's not going to flat out ask me if I plan on killing her, last time I checked normal people don't do that. Don't worry I can handle it."

"You're really taking a gamble by doing this, are you sure your going to be able to get the job done?"

"I always get the job done, don't I?"

"This is different. You are going to need to be more careful. Don't get lost in this. You've been warned." Then Paddy left.

Maura knew that her new approach was out of her comfort zone. She had to find a way to befriend the detective in an authentic and natural way so she would not raise suspicion. Surveillance on the detective would now have to turn into a full time job so that she could find a way into the detective's life. Maura considered her previous thoughts of torture and considered a hard betrayal as an equivalent and more personal alternative.

/

Jane and Korsak entered the Port of Boston and found the shift supervisor.

Korsak addressed the man. "Harold Madigan?"

"Who wants to know?" He took a look at the both of them. "No non-employees on the docks." He continued with an annoyed tone.

"Boston homicide" Jane replied as she and Korsak showed their badges.

"Oh yeah, what do you want?"

Jane held up a photo. "You recognize this man?"

The shift supervisor took the photo looked at it briefly and handed it back to the detective. "Yeah, that's O'Malley, he didn't show up for work today, tell him he's fired."

"That's the least of his concerns, considering that he's dead." Korsak responded.

The shift supervisor just shrugged.

"You don't seem surprised." Jane said looking to her partner then looking back at Harold.

"I'm not, he pissed off a lot of people, owed money to almost everyone. O'Malley had a gambling problem. If you ask me, he had it coming."

"Do you know the names of anyone he owes money to?" Korsak asked.

"I don't pay attention to any of that shit, as far as I'm concerned that's his business."

"Did he owe you any money?" Jane asked.

"Hell no, I'm smart enough to not get involved in others financial affairs. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work." Harold walked away from the detectives.

"Well, that was a bust." Jane said.

"I think he's hiding something, we'll come back later when we have more evidence." Korsak replied.

The two went back to the station and worked on the case until it was time to leave for the day.

/

Maura followed Jane as the detective drove to a small church to attend her bereavement group meeting. Maura parked her car across the street grabbed her binoculars watching the detective as she walked inside. When the detective was out of sight, the assassin took note of the surroundings, with her focus soon falling on the sign in front of the church. "Bereavement group?" It was as if a light bulb went on above her head. "This is perfect, it's personal, emotional, and I won't have to lie." Maura took a bag of tobacco and rolling papers from her bag, and rolled a perfect cigarette. She lit it, and took a hard drag, then exhaled as she got out of her car approaching the building, leaving a large plume of smoke in her wake.

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