Hey, guys. I am sorry for the delay but life got busy again. Thank you for the following, favorites and for all the kind reviews. You guys rock!

However, I hope you will like this update and you're as always welcome to tell me what you think!

Enjoy,

T73

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Frankie enters the house of Maura and is about to wish his mother a good morning, but he stops as soon as he spots a familiar yet strange woman preparing breakfast. "Uh, good morning."

Claire turns to him and smiles brightly at him. "Don't look so confused, you're in the right house."

"Oh," he laughs and gives her a proper hug. "Hello, Dr. Salinas. It's nice to see you again."

She hugs him back and then rolls her eyes. "Likewise. I thought we've passed the Doctor, Frankie."

"Bad habit." He replies and sits down at the counter, frowning. "I thought I'd find my mother in here."

"I told Angela to have some time for herself and that I'd take care of you guys."

"If I remember right, you're a fan of greasy stuff."

"I can't go without bacon, right."

"Perfect." He states and looks out for Maura or Jane. Since Maura didn't feel able to work in the morgue and Jane took s leave, he felt a little lost even though Korsak was still there. "What about Maura, or Jane?"

Claire smirks and flips the pancake. "They fought, and then they made up."

"They made up?"

"Several times."

Frankie looks confused at her and then he makes a face. "Ooh, I didn't want to know that!" He laughs with the psychologist and thank her for the coffee she poured him. "So they're good again?"

Claire sighs and presses her lips together, glancing at him. "You know, it takes a lot more than a good fight and make-up sex after all they went through. But it's a start, a good one. I mean the argument."

He nods slowly and sips the coffee. "You made them fight."

"I listened to Maura and poked Jane." She replies with a shrug.

"And you survive it."

"Apparently, but your sister was about to rip my head off. I gave her some pokes."

Frankie sighs and is silent for a moment. "Maura told you about the baby."

She pours her lips and wiggles her eyebrows. "I wish she would have earlier." She smiles again and braces herself on the counter. "Anyway, where's your beautiful girlfriend Nina?" She snickers when he chokes on his coffee. "I'm sorry, is it still a secret? We can talk quietly about it, whispering."

Frankie chuckles and wave it off. "No. No, it's not a secret ... anymore. Nina and I tried to keep it for ourselves but it seems to be impossible."

"Family always knows first."

"Yeah."

"You know, it's good to see that one of this family has a healthy relationship."

"It was different with Jane and Maura until -"

Claire shoves a plate to him and furrowd her brows. "Was it?"

"Absolutely. You should have seen them when they got together. They were head over heels."

"You don't think that they love each other anymore."

"Oh, they sure do, but things changed."

"Life is always changing us. What I'm asking, do you think they shall stay together or call their relationship off?"

Frankie suddenly becomes weary and narrows his eyes. "What do you think?"

Claire takes a moment and runs an the fingers of her hand along her jaw. "I think that they are a couple who went through a terrible experience and lost their child. But I also think that their strong enough to make it, but I'm not seeing them 24/7. I can make a wrong call, too." She pauses and walks to the fridge, getting orange juice out of it. "When Maura told me for the first time about Jane, I was able to tell that she was madly in love with Jane, secretly. She didn't dare to tell your sister that she had romantic feelings for Jane, though she knew that she is a lesbian." She frowns when he's cringing. "I'm sorry, does that word bother you? Lesbian!"

Frankie smiles and shakes his head. "Not at all, but Jane prefers gay."

"Gay, lesbian, whatever. Even though Maura knew that Jane is into woman. Maura was my student and I knew that she likes men and women, it never bothered me because I always knew what kind of potential she had. She has a very extraordinary way of thinking, that's why I respect her. And your sister's brain is working the same way than Maura's. That doesn't happen very often. Anyway, when Maura told me about your sister for the very first time, I knew that they -"

"Are meant for each other." Frankie jumps in and Claire smiles approvingly. "I mean, at some point my little brother and I had the crazy idea that we're in love with Maura."

Claire laughs out loud because he's blushing. "That's the Maura Effect'"

"The Maura Effect? What does that suppose to mean?"

"Even I once thought that I am into Maura, even though I love men."

Frankie laughs out loud and turns his head as soon as the front door opens.

"A beautiful woman called me this morning and invited me over for breakfast." Korsak says cheery.

Claire welcomes him with a hug and grins. "Don't let your wife hear that."

The older man chuckles and looks around. "She knows about you. Nina gave me a call, she'll be here in twenty."

Frankie checks his phone and furls his brows. "Jane's going to kill you."

The psychologist shrugs and thrusts her chin to the backdoor. "Go and tell your mother that breakfast is ready, I'll take care of the girls."

"They're going to kill you." Frankie laughs but does as he's told.

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I have woken up because of the laughter downstairs and I immediately knew that we're not alone anymore, I also know that this one doesn't go on Ma because there isn't a intrusion in our room yet. And this almost feels normal because I woke up having Maura close to me, in my arms. I missed it that she rest her head on my shoulder, that she doesn't take her distance after we had sex. I try not to move when she starts to stir and understand that Maura just pretended that she's still asleep as soon as she smiles sweetly and open her eyes. "I didn't wake you, did I?" I whisper and have absolutely no clue why I'm keeping my voice low. Perhaps because I don't want anyone to know that we're already awake and force us to go downstairs. Perhaps because I want to pretend that nothing bad has happen and that this is a ordinary morning. For my sake. I need to feel like everything's going back to normal, even if I fool myself.

Maura wraps her arms around my middle and shakes her head without saying a word, I'm sure that she needs this as much as I do and I pull her even closer. God, no matter what kind of words she's telling me, I can't stop loving her. It needs a hell of accusations to push me away, that I can tell. It'll need a hell of a crowbar and thousands of men to get rid of me! That's what I already told Maura and this is the time to prove that I stay true to my words. Yes, I don't break promises and I sure as hell don't let anyone down in their time of need, in my time of need, in our time of need. I have to bite my tongue because I am about to say Maura, we're both in this. I really don't want to ruin the moment we're sharing right now by saying such a foolish phrase. Of course we're both in this, and we'll get through this together, but I can't comprehend what Maura's going through. I can't comprehend what it's like to lose your child, knowing that you'll lose it, while you're captivated. I don't know what it's like to be forced to watch how a nutcase rapes, tortures and then kills women, and how it has to be to fear that you're next. Okay, the last one, I know how it feels. All too well! Still, I normally meet the victims after all is done, and then I have to figure out what happened to him or her, just like Maura. And it's not like only women are rape victims. We also had to investigate the murder of men who had been sexually assaulted before being murdered. I always wondered how you can force a man to have sex, I was narrow-minded back then, but I had a great teacher who explained that even men can't always control how their body react if its stimulated some ways. I still doubt it but after three male victims and the confession of the female perpetrator I was disabused. I got sick when Rose Coe told us blow-by-blow how she aroused her victims. The cause why Rose Coe did what she did? Said men have been one-night stands but she thought it would be something more, and when they told her to stop showing up at their home, work or gym and to get lost, she snapped. But to be fair, it turned out that Rose Coe had some serious mental issues. Rose Coe has been abandoned by her father at the age of six. He left her in their apartment with food and water for a month and told her that he'll be back at the end of the next day, but never showed up again. No one knows what happened to Walter Coe. A neighbor called 911 after she haven't seen neither him nor Rose and a really troubling smell came from their home. Said neighbor thought that Walter firstly killed Rose and then himself. Well, I think I'd thought the same after not seeing the family and then a strange smell. When the officers arrived at the apartment house and kicked in the door, they found the neglected girl and called in youth welfare service. Happily, services located her wealthy uncle Steven who took her in immediately. He was a godsend, or so they thought. It turned out that Uncle Steven was a well-hidden monster who abused his niece mentally and sexually. In a nutshell, he broke her and was one of main causes why Rose became who she is today. When everything pointed at her, and after we had all we needed to arrest her, she didn't resist it. On the contrary, she thanked us for taking her behind bars because if we wouldn't, she wouldn't stop the killing. She was relieved that we brought her down because she wanted to stop this insanity, she wanted to get help. However, I think during the interrogation her evil side took over.

I'll be honest, while we looked into Rose's past, somehow I started to feel sorry. Not for the woman who committed these murders but for the little girl who went through hell. I've soon learned in my job to look behind the surface to understand what drives people. To understand that some people who turned into murder have a checkered past which turned them into criminals, and to understand that some people do terrible things just because they want to. Who kill people because they are greedy or are jealous, or want to get rid of their opponents, or kill other people just for fun. Don't get me wrong, I won't excuse any of them. Killing is a crime, and it's my job to bring those down who took others lives.

But somehow I can understand a Rose Coe who suffered because of her Uncle for years. Somehow! I mean, I'm only human, too, and there's nothing more than pedophiles I loathe.

But I also loathe people who are wealthy and think because of that they're unimpeachably. Just like Taylor O'Keefe. Seriously, I don't give a fuck about names. Remember? I also arrested politicians of Boston, athletes, DA's, mob bosses like Paddy Doyle and I arrested Dr. Maura Isles, the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, too, just to prove that at least she's innocent. It doesn't matter right now, though. Well, it does to me because she's the love of my life, and was back then. Anyway, it didn't frighten me when we found out that Taylor O'Keefe was the one we've been looking for, who killed women the most gruesome ways. That was before he took Maura. Maura was shocked when his name turned up over and over again Jane, Taylor O'Keefe is a highly respected cardiologist, she said He would never do such thing, she said. Neither of us knew of what Taylor O'Keefe is capable. Neither of us did know that Taylor O'Keefe would be on parole. Thank God for the favors his family called in. I don't know how we got the idea that the poor O'Keefe boy could be a serial killer.

I feel fingers at my jaw and only realize now that it's clenched. I blink a couple of times and look down at Maura who has a worried expression. I haven't noticed that I got lost in my train of thoughts and try to smile.

"What have you been thinking about," she asks and traces my jaw.

I take a deep breath and come up with a lie, "Rose Coe."

She's cringing at the name and I run my hand over her bare back. I know that she's more empathic than me when it comes to Rose Coe, I don't know why. She sighs and places her head on my collar, I can't tell her that I was thinking about O'Keefe too. "Why are you thinking about her?"

I shrug and furrow my eyebrows. Shall I tell her that Rose reminded me of Maura. Well, not the part in which my girlfriend started to rape and kill her one-night stands. As far as I know she never killed anyone, but that can change with me if I say something undeliberated. I take a deep breath and answer truthfully, "I just wonder how kinky someone's life has to be so they turn out to be monster in their adult life."

She's silent for a moment and I think that she'd figured out that I'm not only talking about Rose but also about O'Keefe. Well, after all that happened, it's obvious. She snuggles into me and sighs. "Rose once was a victim, too, Jane."

"I know that." I agree and sigh as well. "I know that she was a victim of her uncle, and that apparently no noticed what he was doing to her. Or wanted to ignore it because of Walter's social status and his money. But I don't understand that services haven't noticed that he was sexual assaulting her. If they would brought Rose to a caring foster family, would she turned out to have a normal life?"

Maura's bracing herself on her left elbow, looking long at me. My heart skips a beat when I meet those hazel eyes which are not filled with hate right now, they are filled with love, for me. God, how I missed this kind of look. A small smile starts to spread across my lips and I tuck a strand of hair behind Maura's ear. She smiles back at me and says, "Let's not think about things like that now. We should go downstairs, our guests are surely waiting for is by now."

"No, they're not."

"How do you know?"

I can't help the smirk and look at the door, whispering. "If they'd know that we're up already, Ma would burst in this room, grabbing our legs and dragging us out of bed by now." She knows that I'm right and yet she looks skeptically at me.

"Let's stay in bed for five minutes, everything else would be rude." She finally states.

Five minutes? That's all I need. "Deal," I growl and bury her beneathe me. My heart skips another beat when I hear her giggle.

"Jane, that would take more than five minutes," she chuckles.

What the ...? Really? I start smirking again and reply, "You should know me better by now." I hear her gasping when I start going down on her. Have I already mentioned that I missed mornings like this? No? Now I did.

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This morning feels pretty normal to me, besides all of our friends being in our house for having breakfast with us, but I don't mind it and neither does Maura. On the contrary, she's having nice chats with everyone and for now it feels like nothing has changed, like nothing has happened. Frankie and Korsak told me what currently is happening at the BPD and I can tell that I'm missing every single idiot of them pretty much, and apparently they do miss Maura and me as well because they daily ask Frankie and Korsak how we're doing. Perhaps I stop by at BPD in the near future. Not as a detective, though. Only to show my colleagues that I'm still alive and that I'll come back, and to show them that I care about them, too, even though sometimes I want to hit one of them because of a stupid line. Frankie's telling me how my stand-in Jason MacDonald is holding up when I hear Korsak's phone ringing. I don't know why but a chill is running down my spine and I turn my head so I can look at him. My stomach drops as soon as I see his face darkening and getting up from his chair to walk in the direction of the foyer. It seems like he's getting information he doesn't want Maura or me to know about. Well, he should know me better.

"Jane, is everything okay," Frankie's asking me and I look confused at him. "I'm not sure." I answer before I get up to my feet and follow Korsak into the foyer, hearing him say, "How the hell is this possible? Are you sure? Alright, I'll be on my way."

"What's going on," I ask him and he swirls around.

He starts to shake his head and furls his brows. "Nothing. Just some problems at the office."

Yeah, sure. Because this is his grimly face he always makes when something went wrong at the office. No! This is his grimly face when something went terribly wrong somewhere. I cross my arms and shift my weight from one foot to the other. "Vince."

His shoulder are slumping and he looks over mine. I turn my head and can see that Frankie and Nina followed us. Korsak says with a hushed voice, "There was a prison riot in Walpole."

"You have to be kidding me." Frankie whispers harshly.

"Oh, my God." Nina gasps.

I don't know what to say. Walpole, a supermax and place I was hoping I wouldn't see from inside ever again, one of my nightmares that became true. I've already been there way too often. Because of Hoyt and because of Doyle, and now because of O'Keefe. Of course this place has to be mentioned at a morning when our lives are starting to go back to normal, like those bastards sensed it. And the voice in the back of my mind is telling me that this friggin prison riot isn't a coincidence, and in the same time the voice tells me that I shall not be ridiculous. How the hell should Taylor O'Keefe know that our lives become normal again, unless ... No, this is ridiculous for real. No one of us would be a snitch for Taylor O'Keefe. I trust all of them, they are my friends, my family. But somehow I know that O'Keefe is the reason for the riot. He wouldn't be the first to do something like this so he won't be forgotten, or to show that he's still in control, but he isn't and he will be forgotten. I make sure of that. "Is he on the run?"

Korsak looks seriously at me and I can see that he knows about whom I'm talking, shaking his head. "No. No, O'Keefe is still in prison, but he got a good blow to his head and is currently in the hospital ward."

I have to swallow hard because I feel sick. I just wait for the sentence He wants to see Maura before he dies. Hell, that won't happen as long as I am breathing.

"Frankie, you're coming with me. We'll figure out what happened. Nina, you stay with Jane and Maura."

Frankie doesn't think twice. "Yes, Sir."

I'm not moving and try to figure out what to do next. Of course I would like to stay and pretend that everything's alright, but I am not good at it. Maura wouldn't need five minutes to figure that I am beyond tense, like Ma. "I'm coming with you," I say and don't even know why.

Frankie's looking at me like I've lost my mind and Nina's pursing her lips.

Korsak stares at me and is thinking about how to turn me down.

"You're not on duty, Jane." Nina suddenly says.

I turn to her and glare at her. "So?"

"And you're not objective." Frankie agrees.

Now, I glare at him. "I am objective, Francis. And I'm not coming with you to make sure that O'Keefe is still behind bars, I'm coming with you to make sure that everything's in control!" Liar!

Korsak nods slowly. "Alright, but no gun and no badge. You're coming with us just to ... make sure."

I know that he sees right through me but I irgnore it, nodding. "Sure." I reply and get my keys. Frankie, Nina and I went back to the others and I smile at Maura, opening my mouth.

"Jane, what's going on," Ma asks me before I can come up with a good lie.

I growl low and roll my eyes.

"There is a water damage in the Dirty Robber." Frankie jumps in.

"And you can't fix it by yourself?"

I raise my brows. "You do remember the last time when Frankie fixed the pipes in the Dirty Robber? The son of a plumber needed to hire a plumber." I smirk when I hear Nina snort.

Ma rolls her eyes. "Fine, you go and help your brother."

I nod and look at Maura. I can tell that she doesn't buy my lie at all but kiss her on the lips. "I'll be back in a bit."

She swallows hard and is nodding. "Be careful, Jane."

"I will," I say and squeeze Maura's shoulder before I leave with Korsak and Frankie. "Let's do this." I whisper and feel like in charge again. If this is because of O'Keefe, I'll burst his party!