"Hey, Rizzoli, why does the lock on my desk drawer look like a 3 year old tried to pick it?" Frost stood by his desk, leaning to get a better look at the locked drawer containing the coveted action figure.

"Probably because it was," she shot back as she sat down and flipped her monitor back on.

"Man, really? Okay, first of all, I paid for that action figure fair and square. Second of all, he's a cop. How is he that bad at…Jane? Yo, Jane?" Frost looked up to see his partner leaned forward, elbows on her desk, with her face in her hands. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm great," came the muffled reply.

"You don't look great." Shrugging at his desk drawer, he walked around to stand by his partner's desk. He eyes took in the fact that the pretty present was no longer on her desk and her body language to quickly come to a fairly obvious conclusion. "So, I take it you went and talked to Maura?"

"Yup," from behind her hands, Jane sighed.

"I'm guessing it didn't go very well."

"Nope."

"You want to talk about it?" Frost's eyes narrowed as he leaned closer to his partner so that no one else could hear him. "If you need to punch someone or, you know, a shoulder to cry on, you know I'm here for you."

"No, I'm good," Jane sat back, taking in a deep breath of air. "I'm… I'm good. I just need to get back to work." Her eyes blinked rapidly as she turned a glazed expression to her monitor.

"Yeah… why don't we go grab a cup of coffee? I'm out. What do you say?" He was already grabbing his jacket.

Jane watched him move to pick up his things as she thought about what she really wanted to do. Her mind battled between wanting to ignore everything and fall back into work and wanting to talk to someone about what was going on. Her natural instinct was to talk to Maura but that, of course, was not an option. Her next course of action was normally to go to her mother, but she had a feeling her mother would make things worse given the living arrangements at the moment. But, the nagging in her head and the feeling in the pit of stomach told her she needed to talk to someone, and she trusted Frost.

So, with a small nod in the direction of her partner, she flipped her monitor back off, grabbed her own things, and followed him to the elevators.

"I don't care what Korsak says, this coffee is a hundred times better than that crap he buys at the donut shop down the corner." Frost took his seat at the small round table in the corner of the local coffee shop he and Jane normally went to when they wanted to talk alone about a case and not be disturbed.

The small shop was cozy and had a warm, comfortable feel to it which was a welcome relief from the harshness of the squad room and brick room. They had both learned a long time ago that finding a relaxing place to give their minds time to slow down and process was often more help than anything else they might do on any given day to solve a case.

Today, however, they were there to give Jane the chance to vent, and Frost was happy to let her do it if she wanted. Otherwise, he would enjoy a good cup of coffee with his partner, and they would go back to work.

"He only goes to that donut shop because the little woman behind the counter has a crush on him, so she gives him an extra two dozen donut holes instead the half dozen she gives everyone else." Jane stirred her coffee, smiling at the memory of the first time Korsak had figured out the connection between extra donut holes and his presence. He'd never been to a different shop since.

"Figures. It's like he collects women. It's crazy. He's been married 3 times, and he still can pick a good looking woman up. Meanwhile, I barely have time for a date. I don't know how you two do it." He stopped short, glancing up at the woman across from him.

"I don't. I haven't been on a real date since that double date I went on with Maura, and you know how that turned out." She shook her head as she took a sip of coffee.

"Yeah, I'm still using the line 'Chocolates from Jorge make me sadder' whenever Korsak tries to pawn those nasty chocolate glazed cake donuts at me." Frost gave a shiver of disgust. "I don't know how he eats those disgusting things."

"I'm about to decide Korsak will eat just about anything if it's covered in chocolate or glazed. The man has no discerning taste at all."

"You got that right."

For a time, they sat in companionable silence. After watching the steady but quiet flow of customers come in and out of the shop from their vantage point in the corner at the back, Jane finally spoke.

"I yelled at Maura and told her enough was enough about whatever it was she was really mad at me about and, when she was done with whatever, she knew where she could find me." Sighing, she sipped her coffee, not taking her eyes from the front door and the people coming in and out.

"What did she say to that?" Frost's voice was quiet, careful, as he followed her lead, not making eye contact, just letting her speak.

"Nothing. I left after that." She cleared her throat, looking down into her half empty cup.

"You know," she started quietly, reflection in her voice, "I went down there to tell her I was sorry for making her so freaking mad at me, and I took that present that's been sitting on my desk all week with me because I bought it for her, and I wanted her to have it. I figured direct was best, so I just asked her why she was really mad at me, and she told me that the idea of losing me had scared her really badly. She said the reason it scared her so badly also scared her, and then she accused me of being insensitive of the feelings of the people that loved me, and she asked me what I thought she would do without me if I wound up on her table. I went off on her." She slowly shook her head, her eyes dark with memory.

"I told her I was trying, and, basically, I should get credit for that. That I am who I am, and risk taking is part of the job, which she knew before she was my friend." She looked over to Frost, who only nodded. She nodded in return and turned back to the door. "I told her she was acting like my scared girlfriend who was trying to punish me for scaring her by giving me the silent treatment, and she needed to quit. Enough is freaking enough, man. Then, I told her she knew where to find me when she was doing acting up."

Sighing heavily, Jane brushed a few stray hairs from her face. "Before I left, I told her she could do whatever she wanted with the gift I left on her desk, that I bought it for her because I loved her and not as emotionally bribery – which is what she accused me of buying it for, and she could feed it to the dogs or burn it for all I cared."

With a grunt, she finished her coffee. "I have no idea what she's doing now. She's probably kicking the little box around her million dollar office like it's a soccer ball or something."

Frost listened and his mind took in the details. It took him a quiet moment to realize a few very important and very key details that his seasoned partner seemed to miss despite her many years as a detective. "Jane, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Did Maura tell you what the reason was for why it scared her so badly that you got shot?" He glanced to his partner, waiting.

"You know, she didn't." Her face pulled down into an even deeper frown. "And I was so caught up, I didn't even think to ask. But, come to think about it, she never said." She turned to Frost, finally making eye contact. "I wonder what it is that has Maura running scared like that? It's not really like her. The woman has balls, you know?"

"Oh yeah, I know. Anyone who can do what she does for a living," he shook his head.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Jane gave him a weak smile.

Frost stood up, taking both empty cups to the trash, and coming back. "Listen, I'm going to go run a couple of errands before I go back, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." Jane stood and followed him outside.

Before they parted ways, Frost turned back around. "Hey, Jane, I got another question for you."

"Shoot."

"What was in that box anyway?"

"I went to this place Maura likes to shop and bought her this handcrafted tea set and display box she's had her eye on for about a month, why?" She shifted her weight, looping her thumbs over her belt as she did so.

"Just curious. That's a pretty thoughtful gift, hell of a lot better than flowers and chocolates." He smiled at his reference to Jorge. Jane gave him a dirty a look. "You know," he said in an off-handed sort of way, "You two, you and Maura I mean, you both said the same thing. Did you catch that?"

"What are you talking about?" Jane tilted her head to the side, giving Frost a hard look as she tried to decide where he was going with his train of thought.

He shrugged. "It's just that, she told you she loved you. You told her you loved her. Then, you two both fight like two kids in a schoolyard, that's all." He gave another shrug, choosing to ignore Jane's puzzled and somewhat shocked expression. "But, whatever. I'm sure you women say crap like that to each other all the time. Listen, I'm going to. Catch you later."

With that, he turned and left Jane standing on the sidewalk by the front door of the coffee shop with her jaw still moving as if there were words to say but no ability to say them.

I feel Frost is an underutilized character both on the show in fan fiction, so I decided to use him. ;-) So, what did you guys think? Review me! Thanks for reading... I'm not done yet. Got a few more chapters in me, I think.