A/N: Sorry it's been so long since the last update! Life got in the way of writing - rude I know ;)

Anyway I tried to make this one longer to make up for the long wait, hope you enjoy!


"Jane is that you?"

The front door squeaks shut and Jane winces like she's been caught doing something she shouldn't. Maura is too busy to notice. Eyes wide she stares around. The house is slightly messy, by no means a mansion, and there are family photos and school projects covering every available surface. To Maura it's perfect.

Jane sighs and moves further down the hall, "Yes Ma."

"For heavens sakes how long does it take you to walk home? I was worried sick!"

Maura turns to Jane, an apologetic look on her face. It had taken Jane the better part of an hour to convince her to come here.

"Please Maura just come would you?"

"Jane I can't, I'll get in so much trouble, I-"

"You don't have to stay for long just-"

"Jane-"

"Please Maura, come with me?"

But Maura only catches the back of Jane's head as she walks around the corner.

"Geez Ma I'm sixteen and I can-" Jane stops talking and lowers her voice so that Maura can no longer hear. A loud thwack comes from the kitchen followed by a grunt of indignation and the loudest whisper Maura has ever heard, "Jane why didn't you tell me you had a friend over."

"Ma," a warning tone, but less than a second later a middle aged woman in an apron peers around the corner. Her eyes widen slightly as they take in Maura's bruised appearance but she says nothing and a smile is soon fixed on her face.

"Hi I'm Angela Rizzoli."

Maura relaxes slightly, Jane had said it would be fine but she half expected to be asked to leave.

"Maura."

Angela opens her mouth to ask another question but before she has the chance Jane is squeezing past her, "Actually Ma we were just going to grab a bite to eat and then, uh, go study, right Maura?"

With her back to her mother Jane raises her eyebrows and nods discreetly. Maura feels like she's been dropped in a foreign country without a map.

"Uh, yep," Maura nods slowly, Jane had mentioned no such plan but Angela beams.

"Oh I'm so glad you're taking interest in your studies Jane, here, you two sit down and I'll find you a snack."

Angela disappears and Jane motions towards a small dining table mouthing 'sorry' as she does so. Maura shakes her head confused, she doesn't know why Jane is apologizing. If she had any mother at all her life would be perfect.

Maura runs her hands over the chipped surface of the table. The table at the home is chipped too but in an ugly neglected way. These marks seem happy. She looks up to find Jane studying her.

"I carved my name into the underside just over there," she grins and a black piece of hair falls in front of her face, "I was seven. Ma yelled at me for a week."

"Of course I did!" the echo wafts in from the kitchen, "Because if you did it Frankie and Tommy were gonna do it too." Angela bustles in carrying a plate of cookies and two glasses, "they always copied you. Still do."

Jane shakes her head but the smile doesn't leave her face. Angela places the plate on the table and a glass in front of either girl. She looks like she's about to stay and chat but after a pointed glance from Jane she turns with huff and retreats back into the kitchen.

Jane takes a drink from her glass and Maura doesn't quite know where to look. Angela did put the glass in front of her but surely it's not all for her is it? And those cookies, the plate is full, so does that mean she gets a whole one to herself?

Her stomach growls. Jane grabs a cookie and without a word sits it in front of Maura. Looking down in disbelief Maura reaches hesitantly for the biscuit, "All of it?"

Jane nods once, "Of course Maura, all of it."

Did Maura imagine it or was there a slight hitch in her voice when she said that?

Maura eats in silence, enjoying every last morsel, reveling in the feeling of a full stomach. She listens while Jane tells her about the games she and her brothers used to play. That scratch over there is from the time they played pirates, the table was their ship. The one over there is from the time they played lava and Jane stood on the table. Maura smiles and nods, she's never heard of any of these games but she doesn't mind. As long as Jane's talking she'll be listening.

When Jane has run out of stories she takes Maura upstairs to her room.

It's not big, there's piles of clothes and books and sports gear everywhere. The bed hasn't been made, probably ever, but it's all so Jane that Maura can't help but smile and stare in wonder.

Patting the spot next to her Jane collapses on the floor.

Maura is frozen. She can't help feeling like she shouldn't have come. Surely she's outstayed her welcome by now? But then she looks at the soft brown eyes staring expectantly and she melts.

Slowly Maura lowers herself to the carpet and rolls, lying on her back, facing the ceiling. She's careful to leave a good foot between herself and Jane, but the majority of her brain is desperate to lie closer. Arm to arm.

"I thou-," Maura chokes, Jane Rizzoli is less than a foot away, her heart beats faster, "I thought we were going to study?" She tries to sound casual and in her mind fails dismally.

Now she's going to think you don't want to lie on the floor with her.

There is nowhere else Maura would rather be.

Jane snorts and if Maura could've caught that sound and stored it away, next to her heart perhaps, then she would have.

"Well technically," Jane arches her back and shifts, trying to get comfortable, closing the gap between them by ten centimeters. Maura never wants to move. "-technically we are." She raises one arm and points at the ceiling.

Maura's eyes widen, and her sharp intake of breath hurts her ribs. Right above them, stretching to cover the space over Jane's bed are pages and pages full of long spindly writing. Colorful and vibrant each page of notes is written in a different hue. English. Geography. History. Chemistry. Biology. It is absolutely all Maura can do to turn her head, full of amazement, and look at Jane.

White teeth flash in a fast, dazzling smile and Jane shrugs, like it is no big deal, "Helps with my school work."

Maura exhales and her body shudders, eyes never leaving Jane's face, "Why?" Suddenly, after that smile, single syllables are all she can manage.

"I wanted to study from my bed," ruefully, "only took me about a day to get them all up there."

Maura shakes her head, and stares at the endless sea of knowledge above her, "It's amazing." So are you.

Jane turns her head back, gazing up at the ceiling, "Yeah."

All the places Maura has dreamed of escaping to but for the first time, the only place she wants to be, is right here.


She pushes open the door, un-fearful of retribution. The woman will be sleeping off the alcohol, she won't wake until morning. Of that Maura is sure.

She isn't sure about the dull ache that seems to have settled just below her stomach ever since she left Jane.

Her whole life Maura has always done the logical thing, the clear, thing the thing she can see right in front of her face. She has learned that the only way for her to survive is to know the facts, know the statistics, analyze and collect data until she is sure of the outcome.

There is nothing clear cut about Jane Rizzoli. There is no study to prove that missing someone you've known for less than one week is normal. There is no study to prove that it isn't. All Maura really knows is that the minute Jane drove away this afternoon Maura felt like someone drove away with her right lung. Something tells her she won't be able to breathe properly until she's with Jane again.

"Please let me drive you a little further?" The brown eyes that are normally guarded now reflect a small hint of worry.

Maura almost had a panic attack letting herself be driven this far.

Her voice surprises her. Inside she is jelly but her voice comes out strong, sure, everything she is not, "No Jane, here is just fine," softer now, "thank you though."

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow." The way that the brunette says it sends shivers down Maura's spine. She doesn't ask it, there is no inflection, no wondering, to Jane this is a fact. Maura would give her other lung to be that sure about anything. She nods, scrambling out of the car a quick goodbye on her lips.

Setting off down the road the wind sweeps right through her and the setting sun creates long, menacing shadows across the dirt. She waits to hear the sound of the disappearing engine. It doesn't come.

It takes all of her willpower to keep moving forward, to not look back.

She wishes Jane would drive away already.

This road only leads one place and deep down Maura knows that Jane must've realized where she's from, but as long as Jane doesn't see her actually go inside Maura can still pretend that Jane doesn't know. She can still pretend that Jane doesn't know that nobody wanted her enough to give her a proper home.

Don't look back.

"Maura!"

She can't help it. She looks.

Driver's side door hanging open, electric car lights illuminating the road in front, Jane Rizzoli tearing down the road toward her.

Her black mane streams out behind her like some kind of visual fanfare and she arrives just in front of Maura a little breathless. Quickly she peels her knitted sweater off and over her head, pressing it into Maura's hands.

"Stay warm."

She smiles, and then she's gone, back down the road and into the Rizzoli family car. She flashes the lights once and then she drives away leaving a slightly giddy Maura in her wake.

The house is quiet now, the calm after the storm. Maura walks down the bare hallway, reveling in the rough feeling of wool against her skin. Jane. All around her. Five times already she has closed her eyes and breathed in lavender shampoo and grass.

Tiny half smile on her face she reaches the end of the hallway and walks into the open space beyond. Kitchen to her right, three legged dining table to her left. The other kids are spread out all over and they look up in mute surprise as Maura enters.

They will leave now that she is here. Normally that brings tears to her eyes but today the thought of it only makes the smile disappear from her face.

She waits for them to leave. For them to break eye contact and shuffle past her, eyes averted. She's long stopped wishing that they would stay.

No one moves an inch until quietly the tiny girl that Maura pulled off the stairs and hid underneath the steps runs over to her.

A dirty over-sized nightshirt hangs around her knees and her short, light brown curls frame her face. She stops a foot away from Maura and raises her startling blue eyes to the older girls darker ones. She doesn't say a word, simply raises her baby arms in the air.

Maura is dumbfounded and dizzy with confusion. The silence weighs in on her and dimly she realizes that she should probably know what this means. She has no idea.

Gently the pale girl perched on the kitchen counter coughs timidly, breaking the silence, "You have to uh- you have to pick her up."

The whole room seems to wait with bated breath to see Maura's reaction. Three of the children tense, automatically getting ready to run should anything go wrong.

Slowly, as if sleep walking Maura lowers her eyes again until they're fixed solely on the little girl in front of her, waiting patiently with her arms in the air.

And then she bends lifting the light little body, resting it on her hip. Quickly, like it's nothing, as if she's been doing it her whole life the girl adjusts, wrapping her arms around Maura's neck and nuzzling her face into Maura's collarbone.

The whole room seems to deflate with an almost audible sigh of relief and then the children simply continue to play as if nothing had happened.

The pale girl on the counter wriggles over making room for Maura and the brood continue on with their almost silent game.

Maura's heart beats almost three times faster than usual and her arms feel heavier than lead as they cradle the tiny child to her chest.

She doesn't think she's ever been this happy in her whole life.


A/N: As always I love hearing your thoughts!