Thank you for still reading and this story. I really appreciate it. :)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jane went through the file, Frankie had give her, while she sat in the Café. She stopped her task when someone placed a mug on her table. Jane frowned and raised her eyes to look into her mother's serious face. "What?"

Angela crossed her arms over her chest. "That's all? A simple what?"

Jane narrowed confused her eyes. "Hey, Ma?"

Angela huffed annoyed. "Yesterday you accused Sean that he is corrupt."

Jane sighed heavily. "I apologized, didn't I?"

"In the way that you almost stood backed in front of him.", Angela replied louder and some heads turned to them.

Jane drew in her head and made big eyes. "Could you ... please keep it down? And I wasn't ... naked, I had a bath towel around my body."

"Why were you naked?", Angela wanted to know.

"Because I prefer to shower without clothes.", Jane replied through clenched teeth.

"Or did you generally worn no clothes?", Angela asked.

Jane hit the file closed and wanted to get up. "Okay, we're so not talking about this."

"Jane, it's perfectly normal that two adult persons have sex with each other.", Angela said louder and everyone, including Stanley, looked at them.

Jane quickly sat back in the chair and leaned forward. "At least stop talking so loud or people start to think that not only you're involved with Cavanaugh.", she hissed. "Exactly, Ma. Maura and I are adults. And that's why it's none of your business whether we have sex or not. It's just Maura's and my business. It's neither your nor Cavanaugh's or the entire Department's business."

Angela took her daughter's hands in her own. "I just want you to be happy, Jane."

Jane's eyes softened and squeezed Angela's hands. "I know, Ma. And therefore I am really ... really thankful. But it's ... it's my life, Ma. And I want to enjoy the time I spend with Maura in private.", she paused and took a deep breath. "I love her, Ma. And I don't want to mess that up because I am really happy. So please, don't butt in. Do you think you can do that for me?"

Angela beamed proudly and nodded. "I can do that."

Jane smiled lovingly and squeezed Angela's hands again. "Thank you."

"It took the two of you long enough that you became a couple."

Jane rolled her eyes and exhaled loudly. "Jesus."

Angela beamed. "What?"

"Nothing.", Jane laughed and shook her head. "I love you, Ma."

Angela chuckled. "I live you too, Jane."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jane stood in Back Bay after Frost and Frankir had unanimously confirmed that several emergency calls were received in the emergency call center on August 19th 2011 in a very short time in which people reported about a dispute between a white man and a black woman and several shots.

All calls came from the same neighborhood.

She eyed the apartment houses and couldn't suppress a loud sigh.

The patrol officers who had been taken into confidence by Frankie, began to swarm out.

Korsak came to the Italian and blinked against the sun. "That's a mammoth task."

"Which we can handle.", Jane replied.

Korsak ran a hand over his grey beard. "If only one witness has moved away the case is on pretty shaky ground."

Jane pushed her aviator sunglasses on top of her head and looked at him. "Then let's hope that all still live here. Maura's with Frankie?"

Korsak nodded agreeing and started to walk. "I have made sure that Frankie let the Doc not out of his sight."

Jane looked confused at him. "How did you made sure of that?"

Korsak shrugged. "I told him that Maura better come back without any scratches if he wants to see his next birthday unless he is tired of his life."

Jane looked at him and started laughing.

A few hours and several apartments later Jane and Korsak were at the last apartment door of the fourth floor.

She looked at him and furrowed her eyebrows. "Why do we always get the houses without elevators?"

Korsak wrinkled his nose and shrugged.

Jane rolled her eyes and knocked at the apartment door. "Benjamin Rolins, Boston Police."

Korsak drew his eyebrows together as muffled sounds came out of the apartment.

Jane knocked again, a little louder. "Mr. Rolins, we'll want to ask you a few questions. Open the door, please."

The door opened a crack and an older man looked at the two Detectives skeptical. "How do I know that you are really the police?"

Jane looked at Korsak in surprise, took her badge from her belt and held it in front of Rolins' eyes. "Is that proof enough for you?"

Ben Rolins grunted and opened the door.

The two Detectives entered the apartment and looked around.

Jane had never referred herself as a order-loving person but even she would call the apartment of Ben Rolins a pigsty.

Ben took a half-full beer bottle and sipped the liquid. "What do you want from me?", he growled and burped.

Jane rolled her eyes and looked around in the mess again.

Korsak cleared his throat and opened his notepad."You called on August 19th 2011 the emergency call centee and reported a dispute between a man and woman."

Ben sipped his beer again. "2011? Do you realize that three years have passed?"

Jane turned to him and frowned. "We are aware of this, yes."

Ben pulled the corners of his mouth downward. "Since when is the police interested for what happened that day?"

Korsak looked up questioningly. "What does that suppose to mean?"

"The only thing the investigators were interested in was how much I had seen.", Ben replied and emptied the bottle.

Jane drew her eyebrows together. "And what have you seen?"

Ben paused in his movements and scrutinized her for a moment. "A white man and a black woman. He pushed her, she pushed back. They argued. Really argued."

"They knew each other?", Korsak wanted to know.

Ben shrugged. "It seems like they knew each other."

Jane furrowed her eyebrows. "Did you see as the woman got killed?"

Ben shook his head. "No, but I can put one and one together. This white guy has harassed the lady. And when she was found dead a few days later, I knew this boy has something to hide."

"Could you discribe him?", Jane wanted to know.

Ben snorted and looked at her incredulously. "Listen, lady. It's been three years and I live in the fourth floor. However, although I have a good memory but no eagle eyes."

Jane frowned and looked long at Korsak.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jane sat at her desk, staring straight ahead thoughtfully.

With every answer they got, new questions arose.

"We have questioned all who called on August 19th 2011.", Frankie pulled her out of her train of thought.

Jane looked at him and blinked a few times. "How many witnesses do we have?"

"Eight at the day and eighteen at the night.", Frost informed her.

Jane closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. "Let me guess. With twenty-six witnesses we have twenty-six different statements."

"On the contrary.", Frankie said. "Almost every statement confirms and add each other. Each of the witnesses has seen a white man and a black woman who had quarreled violently. All agreed that the man was from the upper class. Neat and well dressed. The woman was seen again on the same evening, with three white persons. They had talked insistently to her. Shortly after, shots were heard."

"This is a very rare phenomenon.", Maura stated. "It has been proven that the alleged eyewitnesses are more likely to contradict and thus create greater confusion. Starting with the involved persons up to the time of day. If you get such statements, you can usually suggest that people have agreed with each other."

"What for?", Korsak wanted to know. "None of them knew neither the man nor the woman. None of them could get an advantage from this situation."

Maura looked at him long and shrugged.

Jane gritted her teeth and exhaled loudly. "Maura is right on one point. How often does it happen that we get twenty-six identical statements in a case that dates back three years and are helpful?"

"You've heard yourself what Ben Rolins had said.", her former partner replied. "The police hasn't cared about that three years ago."

Jane raised her eyebrows and leaned back in her chair. "I've also seen myself what Ben Rolins imbibe at this time of day as staple food. And I'm not talking about the beer."

Korsak rolled his eyes and huffed.

Frost raised his eyebrows in silence.

Frankie crossed his arms across his chest. "Does that mean that everything was in vain?"

"I didn't said that I don't believe the story has no truth. I just want to say is that we shouldn't pay all too much attention to all twenty-six statements. I would like to know who this man is, though."

Korsak eyed Jane skeptically and could exactly see that the case got to her.

They definitely needed a new breakthrough.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Maura walked with a glass of red wine to her couch, lifted Jane's feet up, sat down and placed them on her lap.

Jane looked at her and wrinkled her nose. "My feet,were all day in my boots. They smell musty."

Maura placed the glass of wine on the coffee table and swallowed the sip. "I work all day with various bodies, Jane. I am not bothered by a pair of smelly feet."

Jane made a face. "Still, Maura."

Maura rolled her eyes again. "Then go upstairs and take a shower if it is embarrassing you."

Jane sipped her beer. "I'm too lazy to get up."

"And I like to sit down on my couch.", Maura countered. "And that's pretty hard when you hog it."

Jane exhaled loudly and stared at the blonde. "Will it always be like that?"

Maura smiled a little. "Like what?"

"That we begin a debate for every little thing.", Jane replied and laid her head back,on the cushion.

Maura raised with a broad grin her eyebrows. "Was it ever different?"

Jane closed her eyes with a smile. "No.", she chuckled but then she opened an eye. "We're almost like an old married couple, aren't we?"

Maura started to laugh and ran her left hand over Jane's shin. "Maybe that's why people have thought we were a couple already."

Jane sighed deeply. "Yeah, maybe."

Maura turned serious again and licked her lips. "Jane."

"Hmm?", the brunette replied sleepy.

"Perhaps it would be good if you take a few days off."

Jane opened her eyes again and drew her eyebrows together. "Why? Has anyone complained about me without I've noticed it?"

Maura shook her head while she stroke Jane's shin. "No ... no, it's just me who noticed that the case demanded a lot from you. I don't want you to collapse understand all the pressure."

Jane looked long at her and frowned. "Maura, you know what I think when someone takes off days during an open case."

"I know.", Maura said and pressed her lips together. "I know. I won't say that you should take a three weeks leave. Only the rest of the week. That's three days including the weekend."

Jane raised her eyebrows. "What makes a total of five days."

Maura rolled her eyes. "Jane, you are nit indispensable.", she paused when she saw Jane's hurt face. "That way I didn't want to express it. What I want to say is that also you are only made out of flesh and blood. And your body needs the opportunity to regenerate too. Not to mention your mind. You're literally working 24/7, Jane. There is nobody who will take it the wrong way once you take some time for yourself."

Jane pondered the words and pressed her lips together. Yes, there would be a person who take it the wrong way. Herself. While open cases, she also declined to eat. Well ... rather forgot to eat but that didn't matter at the moment.

She would hate herself if she would take a time out now. It would hurt her pride.

At least, she was Jane Rizzoli.

The only female Detective in their Homicide.

A sea full of hungry and brutal sharks. Sharks who were willing to tear everything apart that got in their way.

Jane was already confronted in the academy with the prevailing dominance of men in the police work.

And yet she had proved herself. She had survived in the world of men. She had integrated and earned respect.

Not by showing signs of weakness. But because she didn't allowed herself to be pushed aside.

At least she was ...

"Jane.", Maura interrupted Jane's train of thought. "Just because you need a break, you're not weak."

Jane stared at the blonde and blinked a few times. What had happened? Since when she had become so transparent? Since when ...

"I'm your best friend.", Maura chuckled. "It's my job to know you inside out."

Jane growled, sat up,grabbed gently Maura's wrist and pulled her on top of her own body. "Stop wandering around in my head. I haven't allowed it."

Maura smirked and kissed the Italian gently. "For some, you are a closed book but for me you are an open book, Jane."

Jane raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

Maura nodded smiling and ran a hand along Jane's cheek. "Yes.", she whispered.

Jane growled again and kissed Maura passionately. "Beast."

"I know.", Maura laughed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Of course your reviews are welcomed . And thanks for reading.

T73