A/N: I'm in medicine, not law so I apologize in advance for any let's say…any creative license I took with judiciary proceedings over the next few chapters. =)

Chapter Ten

Jane settled herself in the front row behind the defendant's desk in the Las Vegas courthouse. Case after case appeared before the judge as Jane became more and more anxious to see Maura; to search her eyes for how she had handled her first and hopefully only night in jail.

When Maura was finally escorted into the courtroom by a uniformed officer she immediately searched the small crowd of attendees for Jane.

With one look, Jane saw it all. Maura hadn't slept at all the night before. Her eyelids were heavy with tears and exhaustion but held a small glimmer of hope now that she was about to appear before the judge and that Jane would be sitting directly behind her. Maura gave Jane a weak smile. Jane returned it with the most reassuring smile she could rally, soft eyes that held Maura's gaze for her entire walk to her seat, and mouthed then to her, "It's going to be okay."

"The people of Nevada v. Maura Isles. Charge is murder in the first degree." The tall bailiff recounted the charges.

"How does the defendant plea?" The judge didn't even look up when she spoke.

"Not guilty, your Honor." Maura's attorney stood up and buttoned her blazer.

"So entered. Bail is set at $500,000.00." The judge was reaching for her rubber stamp that had already been slammed down several times this morning.

"The people ask for Dr. Isles to be remanded in custody your honor…" the prosecutor had gotten his chance to speak finally.

"On what grounds?" Both Maura's attorney and Jane had yelled the question in unison.

"Order in the court!" The judge had looked up for the first time at Jane's outburst. She would have slammed her gavel too had it not been hidden under a massive number of files that she would have to get through before the end of her day. "Ms. … I don't know who you are, but you had better take a seat before I have you removed from my courtroom."

Maura had to suppress a smirk for the first time in days. There was her Jane: the one that spoke her mind and stood to protect Maura whenever she deemed appropriate.

Jane sat back down, murmuring obscenities under her breath, and this time perching herself on the edge of the bench for lack of being able to sit still and to be a little bit closer to Maura.

"Your Honor," the prosecutor started again, "Ms. Isles not only has assets into the millions, so does her family. She has a passport, is a seasoned traveler, and has access to a private jet and three family homes in countries that offer no extradition…"

Maura's attorney cut off the prosecutor. "Your Honor! Doctor Isles is a respected member of not only the medical community but the legal one as well. She is the Chief Medical Examiner for the city of Boston and spends nearly all of her free time devoted to charitable endeavors…"

The judge held up her hand to stop the defense attorney from speaking. "That may very well be, counselor. However, this isn't the first public servant to appear in my courtroom for a heinous crime. Bail is denied. Trial will begin three weeks from today." The judge found her gavel and smacked it down.

"Jane?" Maura had turned to Jane, desperation rising in her voice as she looked to her to do something.

"It'll be okay, Maura," Jane grabbed Maura's cuffed hands in her own, "I promise. Don't lose hope, sweetie. It'll be okay. I'll get all of this figured out…"

The bailiff pulled Maura away from Jane and led Maura out of the courtroom through the door in which she had entered.

Jane looked at Maura's attorney with desperation in her eyes. "It will be okay, Detective." The fact that Maura's attorney knew who Jane was with no introduction took Jane aback.

The attorney waved off Jane's questioning look. "Maura told me all about you when we met yesterday afternoon. Cindy Scott." Cindy outstretched her hand for a shake. "How about we get some coffee, detective?" Cindy was already through the small swinging door that separated the gallery from the court proceedings area.

"I've never seen such a crap job and flimsy reason to arrest someone!" Jane was yelling again.

"I know that, Detective." Cindy was trying to settle the hothead in front of her.

"Maura doesn't have an evil bone in her body!"

"I know that too, Detective." Cindy's eyes lingered closed for a moment. She was starting to get a headache over her eyes.

"Listen," the attorney cut Jane off before she could start again, "you don't have to spout Maura's innocence to me. I know she's innocent. I've also seen the lack of evidence against her. Everything is circumstantial right now; the bad thing is that there's a lot of it. Attendees of the conference speaking of how much time Maura and Dr. Monroe spent together, video of Maura guiding a woozy Dr. Monroe to her hotel room, then rushing back to her own room at the estimated time of death, leaving unexpectedly the next day… it's a lot of coincidence for one night."

Jane sat back in the booth. She too was starting to get a headache.

"Listen, you can see Maura again this afternoon. In the mean time, I assume you're going to pay a visit to the arresting detective?"

"Sure as hell am."

"Alright, well there are some other things you need to be aware of before you go to see him. Maura told me that Dr. Monroe had gotten an upsetting phone call while having lunch together. Something at her office. Then when Dr. Monroe visited Maura's hotel room she said a case had come up back in Iowa and that she was leaving the conference early to tend to it. She also said that Dr. Monroe was complaining of a stomach flu…"

"Yeah, I heard her say all of that when I was on the phone with Maura."

"Good, we'll need that to corroborate her story. It seems to me that Dr. Monroe most likely became woozy from not feeling well and then fell and hit her head after Maura left the room. And that's what we're going to tell the jury if it comes to that."

Jane nodded feebly. It was all too he-said, she-said. And those types of cases were always a crap shoot when going to a jury trial. People were only supposed to convict when there was enough evidence to prove beyond a doubt of the defendant's guilt; but personal biases, the uneducated, and those taken in by the circus show or a charismatic prosecutor could easily be swayed.

Cindy reached out a hand and placed it over Jane's. "We'll get Maura through this. You go and do what you do best… investigate, go ask questions, turn everyone on their heads, and I'll do what I do best… show dumb ass detectives when they're being dumb asses."

Normally Jane would take offense to such a comment about law enforcement but considering the most innocent person she had ever met was behind bars for murder she could only agree with Cindy's assessment of the situation.