A/N: Okay, here we go for chapter 10. The reviews so far have been so kind. I appreciate the time you all take to read this story. The case is a little disturbing and it is about to get a whole lot stranger. However, Maura and Jane seem to be clearing at least some things up...

Chapter 10

I can't seem to find the way to keep you
from running 'round in circles in my mind
There are things that we've both done that haunt us
There are things that we both left behind

~Ben Rector – Need You Tonight

The Dirty Robber was quiet, apart from a couple of retired cops sitting at the bar, several empty beer glasses and some impressive stories standing between them. Murray, the bartender, was wiping down and every so often cast a look at the two women sitting in one of the booths on the other side of the dimly lit room. Jane's hands rested on the table, scars facing up. There was nothing left to hide. Her dark eyes were fixed on Maura, half and half challenging the honey blonde to try and diagnose the extent of her injuries.

"Why didn't you want to tell me what happened?" Maura asked, finally severing the silence that had lingered between them ever since walking in nearly fifteen minutes ago.

She had been surprised when Jane had turned around and began walking away from the shrink's office. She had quickly followed the detective and in the elevator had cast her a questioning look as if to ask where they were going. Jane had merely stared ahead but had eventually said, "We'll go to the Robber.

"It's not exactly the type of conversation you have over coffee or during an autopsy, is it?" Jane said dryly. She arched an eyebrow as Maura's puzzled expression. "Got a cause of death yet? Oh and by the way, the scars on my hands were caused by a crazy serial killer when he nailed me to the ground with a scalpel."

Maura studied Jane's hardened expression. As she mentioned what Hoyt had done to her she saw the hint of hurt behind her eyes but she kept her stoic mask firmly in place. "Is that how you survive, Jane? You're being sarcastic about what happened?" She cocked her head. "Is that how you cope?"

"I cope by doing my job," Jane answered.

Maura leant slightly across the table. "What else do you have. Jane?"

Jane wanted to say something in return but realised that there was nothing she could say. All she had was her work. She worked to cope with Hoyt, to forget what had happened. She worked to avoid her mother, who was frantic about her wellbeing as well as being obsessed with her trying to find a man and getting married. She worked so she didn't have to think about Tommy and what an idiot he was. She worked so she didn't have to be at home, alone, with the shadows in her apartment reminding her of the shadows in her head.

"Well done, Doctor Isles," Jane eventually snorted and couldn't help the slight twitch of her mouth. "You have a Psychology agree I don't know anything about?"

Maura smiled. "It isn't rocket science, Jane."

"Really? You're talking to me about not having anything else but my job and this is coming from the woman who purposely locks herself away in a morgue surrounded with dead bodies?" Jane said sharply. It came out harsher than she had intended and she saw the hazel eyes reflect the hurt. She Was quick to apologise but the damage had been done. "Oh Maura, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

Maura shook her head and was about to push herself out of her seat, scrambling to get away from the dark haired detective. "I'm used to being alone. I'll be fine."

Jane reached over the table and her fingers closed around Maura's wrist. "Don't go."

Maura's eyes met Jane's and the honesty in them was what drew her back into her seat. She slowly sat back down and felt the warm sensation of the other woman's hand against her own. Jane's skin was warm, she felt. The touch of her fingers against the inside of her wrist was so soft. In her chest her heart briefly leapt up, like it had done that night in Central Park.

"Why won't you talk about it?" she tried again. "People are worried about you, Jane."

"I don't want to talk about it because I don't want them to see me like they saw me back then!" Jane suddenly flared up. "I'm a cop, Maura. I am supposed to protect my partner, my fellow officers. How can they even go into a dangerous situation with me when they've seen me like this?" She raised her hands and turned them around so Maura could see the scars on either side. "This broken!"

"You're not broken!" Maura urged as she grasped the detective's hands and put them back down on the table. She had been touched by the raw pain in the other woman's voice. "You're not broken, Jane. You're scarred, and that's not the same thing. Scars tell us stories of the times in our lives when we got hurt but where we survived. Hoyt wanted to make you a victim but he failed. He made you a survivor!"

Jane cocked her head as she let Maura's words sink in. "You really believe that?"

The honey blonde nodded. "Yes."

"Well, then why do they keep sending me to that stupid shrink?" Jane asked.

"Mandatory, Jane," Maura said calmly. "But I'm sure that if you ask the lieutenant nicely, he will sign the paperwork that will see it revoked." She paused and a little smile broke through on her face. "Besides, you can't really see someone that isn't there?"

Jane frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Doctor Zimmerman has a second practice in California, Jane. She took a leave of absence from BPD six months ago to work in San Diego," Maura smiled.

Jane's eyes widened. "Why didn't anyone tell me this?"

"Don't you see, Jane? They were hoping that you would find the strength inside yourself to step through the door only to find out that there was no one there waiting for you. They needed to know that you were willing to face what happened to you but they all know that you've survived," Maura said. "Why else would they have allowed you back on the street with a gun?"

"They wouldn't have," Jane whispered softly. "God, I feel like such an idiot!"

"Enough with the blame," Maura answered. "You're a good cop, Jane. Erratic, maybe, and definitely not someone you would wanna cross but you're good at your job. They recognised that too."

Jane's eyes narrowed. "Who have you been talking to."

Maura stared down at the table. "Detective Korsak."

"Korsak?" Jane repeated, looking shocked. "When did you talk to him?"

"Doesn't matter," Maura answered and was about to say something else when Jane's cell phone vibrated. The detective looked apologetically at the medical examiner and unclipped it from her belt. The caller ID flashed 'Frost' and she answered.

"Hey Frost, what's up?" Jane's eyes remained peeled on Maura. Her eyes widened. "Come again?" Another pause. "Ok. We'll be right there." She hung and looked at Maura. "Did you take your cell out with you?"

Maura padded her pockets. "I must have left it on my desk. Why?"

"Figures," Jane said and climbed out the booth. "The lab's been trying to get hold of you. The DNA results are back."

"Really?" Maura asked in surprise. "That's unusually fast. Did Detective Frost say if they'd found anything?"

"Something big," Jane said and playfully smiled. "Whatever that might mean."

They walked out of the Dirty Robber together and realised with a shock that the heavens had opened and a surprise summer rain downpour had been unleashed upon the city of Boston. Jane turned to Maura, who stared at the heavy rain in a mixture of horror and disdain. "Not afraid of a little bit of water, are you, Doctor?"

"I spent thirty minutes doing my hair!" Maura protested as Jane went to reach for her arm and pull her out into the rain.

"You need to find something better to do in the morning," Jane said as Maura wiggled free from her grip. Suddenly something hit her. "We were in New York this morning. How did you have time to do that when we checked out so early?"

Maura's eyes unexpectedly snapped up and met Jane's dark brown. "I couldn't sleep."

"Oh." Jane chewed her bottom lip. "Listen, Maura, about what happened in the park…. I don't know what got into me and I am really sorry if…" She only then realised that there were tears in the other woman's eyes and her words fell silent. She just stared at Maura, shocked by the sight of her crying.

"Don't," Maura whispered. "I think you said enough this morning, Jane. You're right. We should just focus on the case and try and solve it as fast as we can. What happened in New York was a mistake and I think it is me who should be sorry. I crossed a line." She reached up to brush the tears from her face. "I really am sorry, Jane."

"What is it about you, Maura?" Jane suddenly asked and Maura looked up. "You come so close but then you are just as desperate to push me away. I know I did wrong. I know I did wrong twice. I walked away when I should have talked to you. You were trying to be friendly, you tried to be nice. I was an ass and I know it." She took a step in the medical examiner's direction. "But I do not regret you kissing me."

"Forget it, Jane," Maura said and stepped away from the dark haired woman. It meant she stepped into the rain and it quickly reduced her beautifully styled hair to thin, wet sleeks that stuck to her suddenly pale looking face. "We're not right for each other anyway. What were we thinking?"

"What do you mean; we're not right for each other?" Jane asked. "I've seen where you live, Maura. I know you have more money than I will ever earn in a lifetime and, unlike most, I am not freaked out by you cutting into dead bodies. What I am freaked out by is how comfortable you make me feel. I don't feel like I have to pretend when I am around you, even if I have never known anything different." She too stepped out into the rain and became increasingly aware of the traffic around them. "How can you say that?"

"I know more about you than you know about me, Jane. I don't even know anything about myself!" Maura suddenly said and the tears continued to trickle down her cheeks, lacing seamlessly with the rain. "I was adopted." Jane's eyes widened and suddenly she could just feel the other woman's sadness. "My parents were never very good at actually being parents and I never understood why they wanted me. I was an only child. I didn't have any friends when I was growing up." She raised her hands. "Hell, I don't even have any real friends now!"

"You have me!" Jane came to Maura's defence. "It doesn't matter, Maura! Whoever your parents are, or whatever they did or didn't do, it doesn't make you who you are." She brushed a strand of wet hair out of her eyes. "Look at you! You're the Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. That's something to be proud of!"

"Nice try, Jane," Maura sighed. "All I have is a tortoise, a house in Beacon Hill and…" She shrugged. "Soaking wet designer clothes."

Jane suddenly smiled. "Did you just say soaking wet designer clothes?"

Maura peered at Jane through her eyelashes. Thick, black curls had latched themselves to the olive skinned detective's face. Her dark eyes were fixed on Maura and reflected a world of emotions the honey blonde had never seen in anyone. The hint of a smile still lingered on Jane's lips and Maura couldn't help but smile too. The shy grin changed into a full blown giggle and Jane closed the distance between them before wrapping her arms around Maura and pulling her close.

"We're good?" she whispered softly as she rested her chin on Maura's head.

"Yeah," Maura answered. "We're good."

It was perhaps the strangest way two people had ever acknowledged a friendship, or whatever else there was between them, and as the years went on they would often laugh at that moment outside the Dirty Robber where they had stood in the pouring rain, their clothes soaking wet and laughing like a couple of school girls. But it was what had happened between Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles and the honesty shared in an unexpected summer rain shower had been the foundation for something that changed their lives for good.

~()~

Their hair was still dripping wet when they walked back into the Homicide Department. Jane had swung past the female locker room and got changed in a clean, and dry, pair of black slacks, matching blazer and soft yellow t-shirt. Maura had to settle for a pair of grey sweats and matching BPD t-shirt Jane gave her. Jane knew better than to say it out loud but she did think Maura looked good in them.

"What happened to you?" Frost asked when he spotted Jane and Maura walking towards him.

"Shut up," Jane said with a twinkle in her eye and looked at Maura. "What have you got?"

Frost handed the file to Maura who opened it. Jane peered over her shoulder and recognised two separate DNA print outs. Maura picked both of them up and held the see through sheets up to eye level. Jane couldn't tell the difference between them but she had seen plenty of these to know that the answer wasn't usually easy to see. Maura picked up a third piece of paper and her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Oh wow."

"What is it?" Jane asked.

Korsak, who had been sitting at his own desk, also came over and Maura held the two DNA profiles up against the light. Now Jane could see that the patterns were distinctively different. Maura then slid the left profile on top of the other and held the set up again. Jane frowned but recognised how some of the parts of the pattern overlapped.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," she said, "but that looks like a match to me."

Maura turned slightly to look at Jane. "I can and I will correct you, detective. It is a match but not like you think."

Jane frowned. "Then how?"

Maura put the two printouts down. "The DNA of an individual is very nearly the same in each and every somatic, or non-reproductive, cell. Sexual reproduction brings the DNA of both parents together randomly to create a unique combination of genetic material in a new cell, so the genetic material of an individual is derived from the genetic material of both their parents in roughly equal amounts." She pointed at the two different DNA samples. "The lab tested these two samples to see if they matched and in a way they do, just not in the way we were expecting them to. These two samples share some of the same alleles but not all of them, meaning they did not come from the same person."

"So what does it mean then. I thought you said you had a match?" Jane asked. She felt a sense of anticipation creep into her chest.

"Some of the alleles do match," Maura said. "This suggests a biological link between the two donors." She took a deep breath and her eyes found Jane's. "But the sample also contains the same Y-chromosome and a Y-chromosome is passed along directly from father to son."

"They're father and son?" Jane exclaimed and stared at Maura in shock. "You sure about this?"

"Pretty sure," Maura answered. "I would only be able to confirm it if I have both donors in my lab and I'd do another DNA test."

"You don't have both donors, Maura. In fact, you have no donors at all!" Jane said. "In your expert opinion, Doctor Isles, do these two DNA samples belong to father and son?"

"Yes."

Jane slumped down in the nearest chair and shook her head. "Father and son." The words lingered between them for a few seconds. "Are they in this together? Daddy started it and now he's teaching his kid?"

Korsak rolled his eyes. "That's one father-son bonding ritual I'd rather not think about."

"Did any of the suspects in New York have children?" Frost asked and his eyes fixed on Jane.

"I'll call Mike and Alex and see if they have ever considered this possibility before," Jane answered and stood up. Slowly she crossed the area to her own work station and sat back down. She didn't know what it was that suddenly filled her with such dread. Was it the discovery that the killers were related or was it the fact she had talked to Maura earlier? She looked up and noticed the medical examiner standing a few steps away from Frost's desk, looking a little lost. Jane smiled and beckoned her to come over.

"Would you like to go and get dinner later?" she blurted out. It wasn't what she had intended on asking Maura at all but now that the question was out there she looked at her in anticipation.

Maura smiled. "Do you like Chinese?"

"I do," Jane answered sheepishly. "Meet me in the parking lot at six."

Maura nodded and was about to walk away when Jane called her back. She had remembered what she had originally meant to ask her. "What do you make out of all of this?"

"It is rather disturbing, isn't it?" Maura asked. "I don't know Jane." Hazel eyes found dark brown. "I wish I had an answer for you."

"Thanks, Maura," Jane smiled and watched the honey blonde walk away. Once Maura was gone she reached for the phone on her desk, took a business card out of the top drawer and dialled the number. The phone rang a few times before someone answered.

"Detective Whitfield."

"Alex, it's Jane."

"Hey Jane," Alex said on the other side of the line. Jane recognised the soft sound of someone typing on a computer and guessed Mike was sitting on the desk opposite his partner. "Can I put you on speaker?"

"Hi Jane!" It was Mike's voice that filtered through. "How's Boston?"

"Thrilling," Jane answered dully. She heaved a sigh and ran her fingers through her damp hair. "We've had a bit of a development here and I was wondering if you guys have ever come across it before. The results on the DNA tests came back and the results were, shall we say, surprising."

"How come?" Alex asked. Jane detected the hint of surprise in her voice.

"The samples are a partial match. Partial as in, they belong to father and son."

"No way!" Mike said. "That's…" He hesitated, as if looking for the correct word. "Disturbing."

"For starters," Jane admitted. "I know you gave me a list of possible suspects for the New York murders back then but I didn't take all their background information back with me. Do you know if any of the guys you liked for it back then had kids? Well, sons obviously."

"We'll have a look and I'll email you the rest of their background information," Alex said. Jane heard some papers being pushed around. "At first glance no one stands out but I'll get back to you on that."

"Thanks," Jane said and ended the call by saying goodbye. Suddenly she was hit by a wave of tiredness and as she put down the horn, she rubbed her eyes. Ever since this case had started she'd felt like she was being thrown around like a piece of plastic on a wild ocean. First there had been Maura, who had just walked into her life, and then there was the case itself that left her with more questions than answers. Actually, all of this left her with more questions than answers. Maura included.

She stood up and looked at Frost and Korsak. It was half past five. "I'm going home."

"So soon?" Frost joked.

"Shut up. Unless you've flown back into the city, spend half a morning in a car with you and got soaking wet in an unexpected downpour, you have nothing to say," Jane said warningly and Frost chuckled. "I am going home, eat Chinese and drink beer."

"With Doctor Isles," Korsak reminded her as she was about to open the door and she felt a smile spread across her face.

"Yes," she said. "With Doctor Isles."