A/N: Did I throw an "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" reference in there? Yes. Yes I did.


Jane thought the evening was going pretty well until Garrett Fairfield decided to walk up to their booth. Leaning his palm down on the table in front of Jane, he looked past her and said, "Hey, Maura. How's it going?"

"Quite well, Garrett, thank you."

"Wait, wait. You two know each other?" Frankie asked.

"They're neighbors, man," Jane said.

Garrett arched an eyebrow at her. "Yes, well. I also happened to be at the Isles' home for dinner when your brother helped mine take my car for a spin," he said pointedly. "At the end of the day, it's no big deal, I guess. If the price for a dinner at casa a la Isles is a scraped car, it's one I was happy to pay."

"Oh right, like you're the one paying for it," Jane drawled.

Clearing his throat, Garrett gave Maura a look which expressed his confusion at her choice of company. She just shrugged and tried to smile, and he grinned back. "Am I gonna see you at the fair this weekend?" he asked.

"I wouldn't miss it," Maura said. "Sumner and Tommy have had trouble talking about anything else for weeks!"

"Oh yeah, about that," Frankie said. "Tommy's sort of gotten grounded."

"Sumner's being kept from going as well," Garrett said, though he sounded much less sorry about it than Frankie did. He had rather presumptuously put his foot up on the booth next to Jane, and he rested his arm on his knee, still grinning at Maura. "So if you need someone to go with, you're more than welcome to come along with my gang. I know I'd like it."

Giving Garrett's leg a shove with one hand, Jane put her other arm around Maura's shoulder and said, "Well gee, I hate to burst your bubble there, buddy, but she'll be going there with me. Us." It was a lousy recovery but she went with it anyway, gesturing to Riley and Frankie. "She's got a gang already."

Maura was not accustomed to people competing for her time or attention, and she hated to be rude and dismiss one entirely in favor of the other. "Maybe I'll see you there," she said, giving Garrett a polite smile.

Looking unfazed by Jane's brazenness, Garrett shrugged and took a step back. "You can count on it, doll." He nodded to his friends and they all followed him out of the shop. Bringing up the rear were Emily and Debbie, both of whom made a point of sneering at Jane. She responded by making a face right back at them, then holding her hand low enough so that nobody at her table would see her flip them the bird.

"Those jerks," Jane muttered. "Maura, how can you be so nice to a slimeball like Garrett Fairfield?"

"He's not so bad once you actually talk with him," Maura said. "He's an art aficionado and he loves my mother's work. My parents have been meaning to get to know his family better, and they thought it might be a nice start to have him over for dinner the other night."

"Why him? Why not the whole family?" Jane mumbled, picking at the plate of fries she'd ordered a while ago.

"Sounds to me like someone's parents are playing matchmaker," Riley suggested in a sing-song voice.

"Aw geez, Maura, you're not gonna fall for a guy like that, are ya?" Jane groaned.

"You just don't like him because he's rich," Maura said.

"Yeah, and he's rubbed it in my face our whole lives."

"Well you weren't exactly being polite to him yourself just now!"

Frankie give Jane a light-hearted kick under the table. "Lay off him, sis, he's just trying to impress a girl. If she doesn't have a problem with it, why should you?"

Jane said nothing for a few moments until she saw Maura taking another one of her fries. "Maybe you should start dating a rich guy," she said. "Then he could afford to buy you your own fries."

"I don't want my own order, though."

"Then stop eating mine!"

"Jane!"

They were looking at each other, and it was only then that Jane realized her arm was still around the girl. Awkwardly bringing it back, she pushed some fries around the plate and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to corner you into coming with us. Guess that made me kind of a jerk, huh? I mean, if you'd rather go to the fair with Garrett and his crowd…"

Maura had half a mind to say she'd do just that if Jane didn't start respecting her decisions a bit more. But all Jane had to do for the answer she wanted was furrow her brow upwards, frown favoring her bottom lip, and turn those big brown eyes on Maura, and the choice was out of Maura's hands.

"Don't get dramatic," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "Of course I'll go with you."

Frankie put a hand up to his mouth, pretending to yell after Garrett, who was long gone. "Yeah, you hear that? She said 'of course!' Ha, ha!"

Once the fries had all been eaten, Riley said it was probably time she was headed home, and Frankie left to walk her there. It occurred to Jane just then that she had no idea how Maura had gotten to the pool hall, as she'd been standing there alone waiting for Jane to get there. Maura explained that her chauffeur had (with some reservations, considering the area) dropped her off, and she just needed to use the phone in Murray's shop to call and ask him to pick her up.

"You sure you wanna go to the trouble?" Jane asked. "I mean, I could take you. I've got Joey's bike. There'd be enough room on it for you."

The hopefulness in her tone was impossible to miss, and Maura was sorely tempted. But, "I'm not sure my parents would approve of riding through town without a helmet."

Jane crossed her fingers inside the pockets of Joey's jacket. "C'mon, Maura, what your parents don't know won't hurt 'em!"

"I think their concern would be that it might hurt me," Maura said with a smile, the kind that made Jane feel as though her stomach was doing some sort of aerial flip.

"I promise I'll go real slow, c'mon."

Maura bit her lip. "Well, maybe if I called and asked if it was all right…"

"Don't do that if you think they'll just say no. It's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission," Jane said. "Trust me."

"Trust you?"

"Yeah, trust, it's what friends do."

Maura didn't think she was ever going to get tired of being called someone's friend, not even when Jane used that exasperated tone of hers. So she relented and told Jane to lead the way back to the motorcycle. Jane smiled and without quite thinking about it, reached for Maura's hand and started to walk. When she realized what she was doing, she worried for a moment that Maura might pull away, but she seemed happy to keep their hands interlocked.

Jane remembered making fun of Frankie when he was excited about the first time he'd held Riley's hand. It had been such a nonissue for Jane when she and Joey reached that stage. In fact, it had always felt a little awkward to her, and she would often slip her hands in her pockets when they walked to avoid having to hold his. How could Frankie gush over something so simple as that?

Well, now she had a good idea, if not as good an idea as Maura. All Maura could think about was the fact that there were two hundred and fifty nerve receptors per square centimeter in each fingertip, and five of hers were pressed hard against the back of Jane's hand as they walked. It was electrifying in a way unlike anything she had ever experienced before. It didn't feel like Jane was trying to be possessive (the only word that seemed to describe her arm-around-the-shoulder move in the diner); it felt like a sincere attempt to just keep close and… oh, wait.

"I think I know why you're doing this," Maura said, giving Jane's hand a squeeze to explain what she was referring to.

Wait, what? I don't know why I'm doing this! Why would you?! "Hm?"

"Every time I walk someplace with you, you stay on the curbside of the sidewalk. If we cross the street or turn a wide corner and you wind up on the inside, you go out of your way to be on the curb again, even if I'm trying to do the same thing. This way," she said, swinging their clasped hands a little, "You sort of get to dictate where I stand."

"Hey, it's because I don't wanna be responsible for your dry-cleaning bill," Jane chuckled. "If some punk comes driving down the street and splashes a mud puddle in our direction, it'd be better that my cheap stuff got the works, right? I don't even wanna think about how much you must pay to get your clothes cleaned out."

"That's the only reason you do it, hm?"

"Aww." Jane shrugged and smiled, catching Maura's eye. "Heck. Chivalry ain't dead."

By then they had reached the spot where Jane had parked the bike, and she let go of Maura's hand to pull on her gloves. Clearing her throat, Jane got onto the motorcycle and nodded for Maura to get on. After much hemming and hawing, Maura quit stalling and straddled the bike. She spent a minute or so fixing her skirt so that it wouldn't fly up once they got going, and once adjusted, she realized her knees were pressed firmly against Jane's hips.

"Is this all right?" she asked.

"Yeah," Jane answered gruffly, looking over her shoulder to make sure Maura was situated. "Your feet okay? Find the hold?"

"Yes."

"All right. Let's go!"

Jane started up the bike and took off, and Maura's attempt at calm vanished immediately. The other day she'd seen a couple riding together on a motorcycle, and the girl had been sitting almost straight, her hands clutching the back of the bike for support. It had looked safe, and yet when Maura tried putting it into practice, she could not fight the heart-hammering fear that she'd go flying off at any moment.

Within seconds of their takeoff she had leaned forward and wrapped her arms tightly around Jane's waist, screwing her eyes shut and burying her cheek into the upturned collar of Jane's leather jacket. Due to what she assumed was the suddenness of her move, the bike swerved a little and her grip tightened accordingly.

"Is this okay?" she asked over the roar of the engine.

"Yeah, it's fine!" Jane laughed.

And Jane found a sensation that was even better than the freedom of riding this thing alone. No wonder Joey liked it when she came along with him. Having someone she was deeply attracted to cling to her like this, try molding their bodies together like this? It was beyond heaven. Jane could swear the only reason air was reaching her lungs at this point was due to the wind whipping past them as they rode—every time one of Maura's hands shifted, Jane felt her stomach lurch and her breath catch. When she finally heard Maura laugh a little, letting go of at least an ounce of her fears but still holding on tight to her, Jane's heart swelled.

This was it. "It." This was everything she was supposed to feel with Joey, with Casey, with any of those guys. She was finally feeling it with Maura.

Never had Jane been so simultaneously thrilled and terrified in her entire life.

They reached the Isles' street far too soon for Jane's liking. She cursed herself for not taking more back roads, lengthening their trip, but maybe this was for the best. Maybe she was letting herself get a little too comfortable in this position. The beginning of the school year, when she had tried to unsettle Maura by "pretending" to flirt with her and teasing her? That felt like eons ago. Now there was always this desperate need to impress surging beneath her, simmering just below her skin, yearning to keep this sweet girl entertained and adored.

Maura had forgotten how loud the engine actually was until Jane stopped outside her house and cut it off, and the relative quiet was jarring. "Here we are," she said.

Rather than let go right away, Maura kept her hold around Jane's waist for a short while. Slowly she started to unclench, pulling her knees back from Jane's hips and letting her legs stretch out, her right foot at last touching the ground. She gave Jane a gentle squeeze, and Jane reached up to pat her forearm.

"Thanks for bringing me home," she whispered.

"My pleasure."

With that, Maura dismounted and started heading up the walk towards her house. Halfway there, she turned around and asked, "Should I just meet you at the fairgrounds tomorrow?"

"Don't be silly! Pop said he'd lend me the car. Me and Frankie'll come pick you up around five—maybe a quarter to."

"Frankie and I."

"Yeah, yeah," Jane laughed, waving her off.

She turned the bike back on and was trying to think of the fastest way back to Joey's. The growl of the engine drowned out the sound of Maura hurrying back, so Jane barely had a chance to register what had happened when Maura's lips brushed against her cheek. She looked up and Maura was already running back to the house.

Jane flew all the way back home.


The next day, Maura went outside the house promptly at 4:45. Less than a minute later, a humble automobile came rumbling down the street. It pulled to a stop in front of her house, and Maura walked towards it, waving at Frankie and Jane. Riley was already in the backseat, and Maura climbed in to join her.

"So! What's—"

Three people shushed her in unison, and Maura would have felt affronted if she hadn't realized they were all listening intently to the car radio. Jane started to drive the car again, but not a one of them spoke a word. For a few moments, Maura thought they were listening to some sort of police report, but then she realized this was a fictionalized account of an interrogation. She had never much cared for procedural radio shows herself, at least not as much as other people seemed to. Riley and the Rizzoli's were so invested that they wound up taking two wrong turns because Jane wasn't paying attention to where she was going and Frankie and Riley hadn't either.

The fair had been set up in a park just down the street from the high school. A Ferris wheel stood almost seventy feet tall in the thick of it, and it was surrounded by a seeming endless number of tents and other discombobulating rides. Jane found a place to park but didn't turn off the car, which is when Maura resigned herself to the fact that none of them would be going anywhere until the program was over.

A man's voice, confident yet understated: "We have a warrant for your arrest."

A woman, sounding shocked: "Me?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Now you listen to me, cop. You've got no right to come in here and break up my home. I know all about you cops! All about you. Pussyfootin' around, trying to make everybody think you're so good!" Frankie and Jane hissed their disgust. "I know you for what you are! And I tell you this!"

"Yes, ma'am? What's that?"

"Nothing ever fazes him," Riley laughed.

The woman was slightly hysterical: "You better get those kids back here fast, do you hear me? You get them back here fast, 'cause if you don't, I'm gonna sue you… and her… and the city for every dime it's got. You ain't half as good as you think you are. You want it plain? Real plain so's you can understand it? You stink! That's what. All of ya—stink!"

"All right, ma'am, I think that's enough of that. Where've you been for the last two weeks?"

She sounded self-pitying now. "It was the most terrible thing that ever happened to me. To anybody. He told me he loved me. Said we was gonna get married. I thought it'd be nice for the kids. That's what I thought. For the kids. We was gonna drive down to Mexico and get married. All nice."

"Uh-huh."

"He walked out on me. Left me right there in the bar, all by myself. All the promises he made to me. All the things we were gonna have. All of it just a lot of lies. Soon as I get a little sick. We just had a couple of drinks. He walked out on me. Left me right there, all by myself, y'know."

"Mm-hm."

"All by myself. I didn't have no money. No way to get back. What was I gonna do? I believed him. I really thought he was gonna marry me. I believed all he said… how things were gonna be better. I believed it all. The dirtiest trick I ever heard of, walkin' out on a girl like that. The dirtiest trick."

"I got one to beat it."

"Huh?"

"The one you pulled on your children."

The ending theme music blared on, and the Rizzoli's cheered. Riley laughed. Maura just sighed, "How can you be entertained by all that melodrama?"

"Melodrama?!" Jane gasped. "Maura, this is Dragnet! Don't you know?" She, Frankie, and Riley all imitated the announcer's voice as it came on to say, "The story you have just heard is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent." Jane went on over the sponsor's closing message: "These come from real case files pulled from the Los Angeles police department! Listen, listen, in a minute they'll say how this chick was really convicted."

"Rowena Esther Telford was tried and convicted of violation of Section 273A-P.C., endangering the life and safety of a minor, which is punishable by imprisonment in the County Jail for a period of not more than one year. The four Telford children were made wards of the Juvenile Court and were placed in foster homes."

"You think Joe Friday's a real detective?" Frankie asked.

"If he is, I bet they changed his name," Jane said. "I wouldn't mind going out to L.A. and finding him, though! There's a real man."

"Men in uniform your type, Jane?" Riley chuckled.

She shrugged and turned off the car. "What can I say? Fighting for justice really turns me on."

The four of them all got out of the car and began trekking towards the ticket booth at the entrance of the grounds, and Maura took the time to appraise Jane's apparel. Angela had browbeaten Jane into at least wearing a skirt if not a dress, but Jane had rebelled in her own way by kicking off her dress shoes at the last second and replacing them with a pair of Chucks. She didn't care if it looked silly with a skirt; it was comfortable. For her part, Maura found it endearing.

Frankie paid Riley's way, Jane and Maura bought their own tickets, and into the fair they went. Frankie and Riley dashed off for the Ferris wheel, which Jane turned down when she saw the length of the line. Maura tapped her on the shoulder and pointed at a nearby booth, asking, "Is that…?"

"Giovanni!" Jane laughed, walking over. "Whose bright idea was this?"

He had volunteered to be this season's dummy for St. Dominic's dunk tank. "Think you got a shot, Rizzoli?" he asked, holding up his arms. "I know your aim's not bad, for a girl."

"Is that true?" Maura teased, smiling at Jane.

Jane grinned back. "Yeah, I can throw, pretty girl. Uh—pretty good, I mean."

She flipped a nickel at the other St. Dominic's representative, and he tossed her a ball. Telling Maura to take a step back, Jane took careful aim and launched the ball at the target. She missed. In jest, Giovanni jeered her, and a second ball was tossed her way. Fighting the urge to close one eye as she aimed, Jane threw again and missed again—this time, just barely.

"Come on, you throw worse than a Fairfield!" Giovanni taunted her.

That was the most insulting thing he could think of to say, as Garrett had been by earlier and not even come close to hitting the bullseye. Jane treated the taunt with utmost seriousness, and once getting her third and final ball, hurled it towards the target with all her strength. She swore under her breath when the ball missed its mark for the third time. A few people who'd lined up behind her laughed good-naturedly at the effort, and she felt her face starting to burn with embarrassment. Maybe if she hadn't been trying so hard to impress Maura, she wouldn't have goofed up like that.

Wait. Where was Maura?

She looked both ways, and the girl was nowhere to be found. Then suddenly, Giovanni yelped: his seat had been tucked out from under him and into the tank he fell. Everybody was laughing now, and coughing badly, he flipped his hair out of his eyes as he stood up in the tank. Maura appeared from behind the target, laughing, and that got Giovanni to start guffawing as well. While Jane had been prepping for her third throw, Maura had walked curiously around behind the target, and when Jane had missed, decided to flip the switch mechanism for her. Jane's pride was easily wounded, she knew, and if people saw Giovanni caught off guard, she figured maybe they'd stop laughing at Jane.

"Nice shot there, hustler," Jane laughed, as Giovanni wished them well and they walked away.

"I wanted to see how it worked, and you were of no help in that regard," Maura said.

Jane nudged her shoulder. "Hey, don't be a jerk." She frowned when she saw Garrett and his friends at the next booth. "Speaking of jerks…" she muttered under her breath.

"Oh hi, Garrett!" Maura chirped.

"Hi there!" he greeted her back, just as cheerfully. "Jane, hi."

"Hey." She nodded at the high striker, which Garrett was next in line for. "Anyone had much success yet?"

"Rory came close, but he couldn't win his girl that bear," Garrett laughed, nodding at the giant prize being offered to anyone who could beat the game.

Jane wrinkled her nose at the thing: a giant, pink stuffed bear, the size of a small child. Maura, however, was looking at it like it was the Holy Grail. "Don't tell me you want that," Jane said.

"I do, I want it!"

"Your parents probably never got you a teddy bear when you were a kid, did they?"

"No. And it looks so soft!"

"It is," the worker assured her. "Just ask any of these fine boys to win it for you, and I'm sure they'd love to give it a chance!"

"Forget it," Jane said, stepping in front of Rory when he was about to volunteer. "I've got it."

"If I don't win it for Emily first," Garrett said, rolling up his sleeves. He paid the worker, took the hammer, and looked up at the bell at the top of the small tower. After pausing for dramatic effect, he swung the mallet down as hard as he could, praying to hear the puck hit the bell and signal his victory. His friends groaned in disappointment, as he only managed to hit the puck about three-quarters of the way up the tower.

Emily sighed and put her arm around Garrett's waist as he handed the mallet back to the worker. "Better luck next time, hon," she said. "Who needs an old stuffed bear, anyway?"

Pleased that Emily was still at least paying attention to him, Garrett turned around to watch Jane take her shot. "All right, Rizzoli. Let's see it!"

Unseen by any of them, the man working the high striker adjusted the lever on the device slightly, just enough to allow Jane the chance at beating Garrett's score, if not winning altogether. Something about that smarmy kid made him want to see a girl beat him at all costs.

Jane removed her cardigan and tied it around her neck, leaving her in just a short-sleeved top. Maura bit her lip in appreciation of Jane's biceps as she flexed before taking the mallet in her hands. She held it by the ground as she stared at the base she was intended to hit. Just some imagination could take her a long way… she pretended the base was Garrett's pretension. Joey's horny face. Her mother's disapproval. Every nun who'd ever slapped her for writing with the wrong hand.

With a grunt of exertion, she swung the mallet towards the base, and was rewarded a moment later by a bell chime.

The surrounding crowd cheered; even Garrett clapped and looked impressed as Jane let the mallet drop back to the grass. She was winded with the surprise at having accomplished it; it felt like it had been so easy and happened so fast. Maura was beaming at her, which was a much better prize than the giant pink bear that was foisted upon her moments later.

"So I guess you want this?" she asked, sounding disinterested as Maura eyed the bear longingly.

In response, Maura grabbed the stuffed animal away, and Jane laughed. Garrett's gang had since walked off, and Jane was tempted to take Maura's hand again. Plenty of girls were walking around holding hands, or with their arms linked together, simply because it was a gal-pal thing to do and/or they were wary of being separated in the crowds. For some reason, Jane was nervous about holding Maura's hand in such a public place, even if everyone else was doing it. She was irrationally afraid that it would signal, like a neon marquee, to her true intention in the familiar move.

"Jane?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for winning this for me."

Jane stopped and turned to look at her. "No problem."

Maura was smiling and dear Lord, Jane had never seen anything so beautiful. She stumbled a bit, caught off guard, when Maura swept the bear in her direction and had it kiss her on the mouth in gratitude.