"You speed up. You slow down. You speed up…"

"I slow down. Yeah, yeah, we've done this routine before. If I keep it up you'll get seasick. You want me to stop playing, take a metronome, and go practice more." Grunting in frustration, Jane started to make a grab for her sheet music but was stopped by Dr. Chang's hand on her own.

"Why you so distracted?" He looked down at her, his eyes face full of question. "You're normally so focused. Today, you focus and slow down, then you leave the room," he pointed to his head, "and you speed up. Where you go?" He shook his head. "You can't play if you're not here. You have to leave work," he pointed toward the street, "outside."

"No, it's not work." She groaned. When had her piano instructor become her makeshift therapist? "I upset Maura last night, and I keep thinking about it. I hate it when I accidentally hurt her feelings."

"Then don't!" He gave her a look as if to say that was the most obvious answer in the world.

"Yeah, because I accidentally on purpose hurt her feelings, so I can so easily not do it next time. Right. Yeah. Got it. Thank you, Dr. Chang for clearing that up for me." She rolled her eyes but stopped trying to pick up her sheet music.

"You make things so complicated." He rolled his eyes. "Always too hard on some things and not on others." He pointed at her. "Priorities are all wrong. All wrong!" He pointed at the keys on the upright piano in his studio. "You need to learn to play without watching her fingers move. Like typing. No hunt and peck." He glared at her. "Always think too much." Sighing, he seemed to consider his tactics. "Play something memorized, and tell me why you hurt your friend's feelings."

Jane's eyes widened. "At the same time!"

"Yes. At same time. Now go!" He sat down in the chair beside her bench, crossed his eyes, and waited. "Well?"

"Okay, this is going to be disastrous," she mumbled as she got into proper playing position and began the basic melody to 'O, Holy Night'. As she spoke, her fingers walked up and down the keys, missing notes. She would flinch, but Dr. Chang's face said he expected to play on. "Well, I hurt her feelings because I won't tell her where I'm going on Sunday mornings, and she felt like I wasn't telling her because I didn't trust her." A massively wrong chord rang out. She grunted, repositioned, and kept playing. "But that's not it. I do trust. I really do." A wrong note. "It's just that I don't want to tell anyone where I'm going or what I'm doing until I don't screw up so much with it." Another couple of wrong notes.

"So you don't trust your friend." It was a statement from her instructor, not a question.

"That's not what I said!" Another massively wrong chord. "I trust Maura. I trust Maura more than I've ever trust anyone in my life. Hell, I'd trust her with my life." Another wrong chord followed but a few under the breath curses.

"With your life?" He eyebrows rose in appreciation. "High praise."

"She deserves it." Jane began to play the piece again. "Maura's smart, intelligent, funny, and quirky. She's loving, caring, and loyal. She's so loyal, and giving! Did I tell you that she's letting my mother live in her guest house while the divorce is going on?" Jane turned her head to look at Dr. Chang. "Can you believe that? You remember my mother. I just… honestly, I don't know what I would do without Maura. She's involved in practically every aspect of my life, Ma adores her, and my brothers like her. I think Tommy likes her a little too much." Another massively wrong chord and another curse from the detective. "But Maura would never do anything with Tommy. She told me that, and believe her. Actually, what she told me was that she liked Tommy but she loved me. I believe that, too. Maura, she's just one of the good ones, you know? I know I can trust her. There aren't a lot of people in my life that I can trust like I can her. I'm actually really sorry I said what I did to her last night. I was just yanking her chain. I sometimes forget how literal she can be, especially when she's tired."

"You should play like that all the time." Dr. Chang stood and held his hand up to indicate that Jane should stop playing. "Much better. Fewer mistakes. See? It's better when you don't think so much."

"I… wait, what? Are you kidding me? Did you hear all the wrong chords I hit?" Jane was clearly baffled.

"Not at the end. Here," he handed her an SD card. "You go home. Listen to today's lesson. Try to practice to sound like you did today." Flipping his hand over to look at his watch, he grimaced. "Go. I'm going to be late for church!"


Jane sat alone in her apartment and listened to the recording of her last session. It was Thursday, and she had been putting it off all week. Each time she'd gone to the studio to practice, she'd avoided her instructor so she wouldn't have to make up an excuse for why she hadn't listened to it yet.

She really didn't know why. She was chalking it up to a combination of personal laziness and the fact that she had been working on a case. However, Sunday was fast approaching, and she knew he'd ask her about it, so she finally muster up enough 'want to' to listen.

As the session played, she held her breath, amazed that the sounds coming from recording were sounds she had produced. He was right, when she wasn't thinking about it, she played really well. She corrected herself as her comment about Tommy made her hit a wrong chord. When she played while talking about Maura, she played really well.

"Well crap," she muttered to herself. "I don't think I like where this is going." Her mind mulled over the comments about passion and music that Dr. Chang so often talked about. "Not sure I can keep it from going there, though." With a resigned sigh, she turned her computer off and headed for bed.