I am so sorry! I don't even know what to say to apologize for my very late update other that I'm terribly sorry! Hope you like this chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my All Stars.


Maura woke up the next morning when the alarm clock went off. She knew that she needed more rest but she wanted to get to work early so that she could start fixing all the mess Dr. Pike had probably made. She went to the bathroom and in less than half an hour she was ready to go. She decided to make some coffee to take with her. As she entered the kitchen she noticed Angela already making breakfast. As she went to get her coffee Angela greeted her.

"Oh, hi Maura." Angela said surprised to find Maura already up and pulled her in for a quick hug since it was the first time she saw her in a month. "What are you doing up so early, you must be tired?"

"I'm not that tired and I was looking forward to get to work early so that I can start organizing everything at the office."

"Well, at least have some breakfast." Angela smiled at Maura and started dishing up her meal.

"Thank you." Maura said taking a seat at the kitchen isle.

"How was your trip?" She asked placing Maura's breakfast in front of her.

"It was rather challenging but very interesting; I got the chance to work in a lot of different cases that are not very common here in Boston." Maura said. She really was happy that she had taken that opportunity.

"You had a good time then, that's great." Angela said smiling at Maura.

"Yes, I had. I mean, it was a little difficult being away from home all this time but it was rewarding."

"Have you seen them yet, I mean Jack, have you seen him yet?" Angela asked.

"Yes, I saw him yesterday; Jane and me went to pick him up from daycare after my arrival and went to have dinner at her place. He looked a little bigger and was in a good mood, it was really fun."

"Yeah, he was probably happy to see you, he really missed you." Angela said thinking about the special relationship that her grandson and Maura shared. She was thinking about how, if it wasn't for Maura, Jane hadn't taken that kind of responsibility this well and had probably lost her mind trying to figure it out all by herself. Angela was really proud of them doing an amazing job raising her grandson together when everyone else had abandoned him. "Wait, you said that you had dinner with Jane and Jack?" Angela asked looking confused.

"Yes, after we picked up Jack from daycare." Maura explained again.

"So, were you three alone or…?" Angela said hoping that Maura would get the hint. She was happy that Jane had finally found someone but she was also a little preoccupied with the reaction that other people might have, even though Jane had no problem coming out to her mother. It had been a little bit more difficult for Jane to introduce Kate to her friends and even though Angela noticed that their relationship was going very fast she felt that somehow Jane wasn't one hundred percent committed to it. That's why she was asking Maura if there only had been the three of them at dinner or if somebody else was there as well. If there's someone that Jane would be afraid of losing, that person would be Maura.

"No, Kate, Jane's partner, joined us as well." Maura said.

"Oh, you've met Kate, that's great." Angela tried to sound convincing. She waited for Maura's answer whom was confused by Angela statement.

"Yes, she looks like… a nice woman. Jane seems to care a lot about her."

"It looks like it." Angela said and regrets it seconds later when she saw the sadness on her face that Maura was trying to hide. "She really missed you, you know?"

Maura smiled politely and excused herself from the table.

She drove as fast as she was allowed to get to BPD. At least work was something that she could control in her life right now.

Two weeks had passed since Maura was back and everything was as normal as possible. Maura didn't spend as much time with Jane since she was busy with Kate but as least she had more time for Jack.

It was Friday afternoon and they had just solved a murder that had been bothering them all week. Maura had just finished filling in the final autopsy papers when she saw Jane walking into her office with two cups of coffee in her hand. Jane placed one of the coffees in front of Maura and waited with a goofy smile for her to take it which she did gratefully and thanked Jane.

Jane waited a few seconds before she grabbed a seat on one of Maura's chairs and then asked. "You got any plans for tomorrow night?"

Maura considered the question, there could be thousands of possibilities for what Jane was going to say next and Maura didn't know if she would like any of them. But it was Jane, what could go wrong.

"No, why?" She simply answered.

"I was wondering, actually Kate wanted to ask you, well both of us wanted to know if you were up to a double date tomorrow night"

"That would be great, if I had a date to go with." Maura answered trying to find something in her desk to keep her busy.

"Well, actually, Kate knows a guy, Kevin, he works with her in the hospital, she says that he's smart… well, he is a doctor so... He is really handsome too."

"I don't know Jane. I don't really feel like going out."

"Oh, come on Maura! It will be fun, we haven't gone out since you went to New York. You don't even have to worry about anything." Jane said and hoped it would convince Maura. When she noticed that her friend wasn't very interested, she tried again. "Besides you don't feel like going today, if you refuse now you might be sorry tomorrow."

"What about Jack?" Maura asked giving up.

"My Ma will take care of him. Like I said, you don't have to worry about anything, just be ready at eight okay?" Jane said smiling at Maura already heading to the door.

"Okay." She answered smiling as well at Jane as she left.


It was 7:45PM and Maura waited patiently in her living room for her male date to arrive so that they could go to the restaurant to be with Jane and her female date.

Kevin was a nice looking man but what impressed Maura the most was his socialism. The guy didn't seem to shut up, for the 20 min. ride from Maura's house to the restaurant he just kept talking which was actually good for Maura because she didn't feel like talking. All she had to do was nod and occasionally pretend that he was funny. Kevin was wearing a dark blue suit that fit him well with a shirt with two bottoms undone. He was driving a black two seats BMW that made Maura assume he was probably very wealthy as he also mentioned some of his family houses in New York and Europe.

They got to the restaurant and Kevin rushed to open the door to help Maura. The restaurant wasn't too classy nor too common. Maura thought that it was perfect for an evening like this. But she couldn't say the same about her date.

"Is everything alright?" Maura asked him.

"Yeah, why?" He answered.

"It's just that you seem a little uncomfortable."

"No, I just wasn't expecting... this." He said and threw his hands in the air while looking at the space that they were in.

"Well, I think it's nice." She said smiling.

"Your table's ready. "The waitress said behind them. They both turned around and saw a young woman smiling at them. Maura smiled back and started following her to the table.

They were given a round table with four seats in the middle of the restaurant. Ahead of them was a small dance floor and a black piano where an old pianist was preparing his show. They sat at the table and the waitress who had been guiding them asked if they needed anything else. Maura politely refused her offer and said that she would wait for the others to arrive; Kevin already ordered a whiskey and waited until the waitress turned around before starting to talk to Maura again.

"So Maura, tell me about yourself. I barely heard a word from you." He said smiling at her.

She didn't know what to say, or rather what he wanted to hear so she just started with the basic.

"There is not much to say" She tried to smile. " I grew up here in Boston, when I was a teen I moved to France where I attended a boarding school and came here again to start college at the age of 17."

"Oh, that seems nice; did you immediately start working at the BPD after you graduated?" He asked.

"No." She answered. "I traveled a bit after I finished my studies and I had a few jobs in different countries but when I started looking for a job here in the States this position was offered to me." Maura watched Kevin take a sip of his drink from the corner of her eye as she looked at the door hoping that an amazing brunette would appear.

"What about your family?" He interrupted her thoughts. She didn't understand why he was asking so many questions because he didn't seem that interested in any of her answers anyway but she kept answering them politely.

When Jane and Kate finally arrived Kevin was on his second whiskey on his way to his third and Maura was starting to get uncomfortable with him being extremely close to her. They ordered their food and Maura had to admit that she was having a good time with Jane and Kate telling her all kind of crazy stories about Jack. In fact she was so caught up in the conversation that she forgot about her date sitting next to her. She only noticed his presence when he tapped her on her shoulder to invite her for a dance. She thought about refusing him but then she looked at Jane who gave her an encouraging nod and she decided to go.

He wasn't that bad of a dancer but wasn't exactly the regular kind of guy that Maura would appreciate neither. He was good looking but he was very rough on his pick-up lines. It was starting to make her very uncomfortable now and Maura could definitely smell the strong liquor on his breath. He started telling her a story about his childhood and that his mother had made him take dance classes but she wasn't paying attention as she was too focused on the tall Italian that had made her way to the dance floor as well. She watched Jane and Kate interact for a while, how they talked, how they laughed, how they looked at each other, and most of all how they moved. She noticed how Jane's hands moved on Kate's waist and pulled her closer to her. The pianist started to play a slow, really the kind of melody that forced two bodies to be close and Maura couldn't bare it anymore. She looked back to her date and said that she had to go to the bathroom.

She was about to leave the dance floor when a hand tapped her shoulder, she turned around ready to give her date some lame excuse about her feet hurting and that she really needed to use the bathroom only to find Jane smiling at her.

"May I have this dance?" Jane asked with a funny voice trying to look like a gentleman.

"I thought you didn't dance?" Maura answered playing along with Jane.

"Oh I don't, you will see." Jane played as well. She gave Maura her hand and she took it with a smile.

The made her way to a close corner that had less people than where they were before but they were still close enough to see Kate dancing with Kevin now. They were looking at them dance when Jane spoke.

"He is a douche bag, uh?"

Maura looked at her confused.

"You barely talked with him the entire night. Did he say something to you?"

Maura looked at him for a few seconds. Was she going to tell Jane that he was trying to feel her up under the table all night even after she took his hand off her multiple times… Was she going to tell her that he asked her to have a 'little fun' with him in the bathroom while they were waiting and when she refused he answered that he was just going to have to wait until later then… She wasn't going to tell any of this to Jane.

"He is not really my type." Maura simply answered and looked back at Jane.

"Great." Jane breathed. She was still looking at him and when she realized what she said she turned quickly to look at Maura again and tried to play it off. "I mean good because I won't have to, you know, beat the crap out of him in a corner somewhere then." She said playfully but deep down she was speaking the truth.

Maura lowered her head and rested it on Jane's shoulder. "Thank you." She muted. They danced in silence for a few minutes and then Maura talked again.

"How have Jack and Kate been doing?" She asked. She knew that the little boy didn't interact with Kate that much.

"Good, he is always a little cranky when she is around but I'm starting to think that he is getting used to her, so I guess that's good."

"Mmhmm. So she spends a lot of time with him then?" Maura asked.

"Yeah, well, she spends the night sometimes and has dinner with us most of the time. I think he was just a little jealous because I don't spend that much free time with him as I used to."

"Mm." Maura though about it for a second, she knew Jack wasn't like that. He didn't mind if he had to share something or someone, but she didn't knew how much of their time Jane had diminished to be with Kate so she wasn't the one to talk. "Yeah, he will come around." She smiled.

"Hey, I hope so. I have something I want to show you." Jane said and turned them around so that Jane wasn't standing in the direction of Kate and Kevin anymore. She put her hand in her pocket and Maura thought that she was going to show her a picture of Jake on her telephone but there was no need to hide it from their dates if it was a simple picture.

It was a pretty keychain with a key attached to it that Jane held carefully in her hand.

"I'm going to ask her to move in with me." She said looking down at the key with a huge smile. "What do you think?" She asked finally looking at Maura.

She didn't know what to say. Weren't they just having a conversation about how Jack not interacted that well with Kate? And now Jane was asking her opinion asking the woman to move in with her? What was she thinking?

"I think that's good." Maura tried to smile "If that's what you want, if it makes you happy." She finished and smiled again, Jane looked back to the key in her hand again. Maura tried to read Jane. She almost couldn't understand her; Jane looked confused at first but all of the sudden a smile appeared. Not one of her best ones, not like when she found out that Jack had said his first word or when she listens to his educator talking about how great his behavior is, it was just a smile.

Jane nodded and then gave Maura a long hug. "Thanks, that means a lot."


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