I've been spelling Jo Friday wrong! Oh my God... it's Jo not Joe … I feel like a moron … enjoy this chap, tell me if I made any errors, I've been writing this at night... my brain is fried.


The car ride home was eerie. Kristen shifted uncomfortably, the lack of conversation set her on edge. Emma was still shook up from Maura bursting into their class and flashing her medical badge to legitimately drag them out. No doubt everyone would ask about it in days to come, Emma cringed.

Maura drove faster, her eyes narrowed and fists white, clutched around the wheel.

"Mom" Kristen started, Maura glanced at her daughter through the rear view mirror.

"Yes honey?"
"What's going on" Emma blurted, a little too loudly and stared at the back of her Mother's head.

"Family business"

"We've never had to be pulled out of school for family business" Kristen pointed out harshly.

"Because family business has never been this urgent" sometimes Maura wished Jane hadn't had such a profound impression on Kris, she was bright to say the least but was forceful in getting information, much like Jane.

"Is someone hurt?" Kristen asked again, Emma shook her head at her sibling, urging her to be quiet, she respected that her Mother might want to concentrate.

"No" Maura pressed her lips into a tight line.

Not yet anyway.

"Then what are we doing going home exactly?" Kris inquired, Emma shoved her sibling.
"Shut up" Emma hissed, witnessing Maura's fingers flex.

"Why?"

"Maybe becouse Mom doesn't want you to ask so many questions"
"But I wanna know"
"Ease up a little" Emma warned and Maura sighed at their bickering, she'd made them irritable, a motherly impression wasn't always the best.

"Girls" Maura snapped, silencing their angry mutterings. Forcing a smile upon her lips she spoke.

"We are going home to keep this family normal" Maura tried to pick her words calmly, while looking ahead, fixated on the map in her mind of how to get home. In times like these her natural instinct to go home was out of whack, so to speak.

Kristen crossed her arms and glared down at her feet. Emma peered out of the window, watching how the light bounced off the glass and created an orange and red line of circles.

Pulling into the driveway the Lexus purred and faded into silence as Maura took the keys from the ignition and looked back at Kristen and Emma. In turn the siblings were looking opposite ways from each other and from Maura.

"Listen, I just need you two to be good" Maura unclipped her seat belt to turn fully.

Emma and Kristen rose their heads to look at Maura. Only then the M.E got a sense that they really were her children.

Kristen's brooding often resembled her own at that age. Maura used to hate it when she didn't know things, Kristen simply mirrored that as a memory, but a living one not just as a blur of emotion.

Emma's care for other people and concern for them made Maura feel fuzzy, like her whole body puffed up in a blanket. Maura remembered being that careful, trying not to butt in, attempting to please people with a shy sense of charm. Maura's babies sat in front of her, the girls were a tiny biological replica of Maura, nothing ever indicated that they came from Richard, nothing ever assured her that Claire was their former mother. The two girls had inherited everything that was Maura Isles, apart from the mischievous spark Jane had ignited in Kristen, Maura had always had it, but it'd been suppressed through rules and a shy quality, Jane had ushered that away in Kristen from the moment they met. Maura smiled, feeling the waves of affection pass through the simultaneous movement of the 26 muscles it took for the smile to spread across Maura's lips.

Kristen flicked a wave of hair from her face and frowned at Maura.

"Momma, you're staring" Maura had picked up on that tendency to, her daughter hated it when people stared at her, probably something linking back with her being an identical twin. People staring always seemed to make the young girl flinch, surprisingly, Kristen was the more talkative, drawing attention but contradicting it by hating the matter.

"Sorry honey"

Kristen wriggled under Maura's gaze. It wasn't so bad if it was Jane or her Mother, but when it was someone else, she felt goosebumps crawl on her skin like parasites.

Emma bit on her bottom lip and unclipped her seat belt.

"Can we go in or are we going to see how long it takes for Kris to explode?" Emma teased her sibling happily and Kristen pouted.

"Mom!" she reached out to flick her sister when Maura raised an eyebrow at the need of physical dominance.

"Don't provoke her Emy and Kris, please don't flick your sister"

"She started it!" Kristen wagged a finger in Emma's direction.

"Well I'm ending it, out" Maura instructed and got out of the car first to shepard her daughters into the house.

Maura closed the door firmly behind her, jumping at Kristen gave a loud shout.

"Uncle Tommy!"

Maura span around to see Tommy stood happily with both girls in his arms.

"I don't want to know how you got in" Maura held up her hands and chuckled.

"The back door was easy enough" Tommy shrugged, his thick accent charmed Maura into hugging him.

"I missed you Tommy" Maura kissed his cheek and watched Kristen sneer at the affection.

"Why do you all insist on kissing and hugging? I mean a hug is okay, but kissing, nah" Kristen objected, setting off to find Bass.

Emma curled up in the arm chair and watched the pair talk, she enjoyed watching people, observing was her favourite pass time.

"Ma called saying Jane needed me, I thought she'd been here" Tommy shrugged, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Tommy, it's fine, I think I'll have to tell you about the current situation while Emy goes and changes" Maura turned dashingly to her daughter and Emma pouted trudging off, sour in reaction.

"Ma sounded pretty shook up, what's going on?" Tommy sat on a stool at the island and leant in as Maura spoke.

"They are in danger" Maura angled her head in the direction of the girls room. "Richard was involved with illegal substances and after four years they decided to come and claim their money back" Maura sighed heavily and leant back as she sat on a stool.

"Jane wants me becouse?"

"Because I think she needs her brothers. Frankie is already on alert at the former crash sight for any activity and you well, I think she trusts you to protect us" Maura rested her hand up on Tommy's and he nodded.

"You got it Maura" Tommy spoke softly and a smile twitched the corners of his mouth.

"They can't know" Maura whispered and Tommy rubbed his thumb over the back of Maura's hand.

"Play it cool, I got it" he assured and Maura pulled away.

"Have you eaten?"

"Nah"

"Well, I have a new toaster that works miracles" Maura smirked.


Jane sat at her desk rolling her jaw, with a hand rested on her forehead. The bull pen rumbled with constant waves of clicking and the sound of shouting.

"I can't just sit here at wait, it's either they find us or we find them"

Korsak glanced over to her while rooting through files, giving her a sympathetic look.

"Frost, have you got any links?" Jane peered over the obstructing monitor on her desk and Frost rubbed his eyes.

"I'm looking, it keeps trailing to a dead end, I get one tiny note then it falls to shit"

"Keep trying Frost" Jane tried to mould her words as assuringly as possible.

Jane shifted, her mind toying with her, the scar on her hip twinged into life.

Jane knew she had to do something or the tiny collection of injured tissue would plague her.

"Jane" Korsak stood from his buffer zone of files to look at the Detective. "Did you say the drugs unit was handling it?"
"Cavanugh said so yeah" Jane mumbled.

"Frost, hack into the drug unit's data base" Korsak hushed and Frost span around, he chair going off balance for a second as he did so.

"You want me to what?"

Jane was grinning now, a tiny mischievous grin that only often appeared if it meant breaking rules.

"Do it, I'm not getting all the information from scratch, if they have already got it" Jane ran a hand through her hair, wincing as her fingers caught a few knots.

Frost was intently typing away, his eyes glued to the monitor.

"I'm going to do background checks on every person Kris and Emma are in contact with" Jane flung herself at her desk and Korsak frowned, peering into one of the files.

"Well I got one thing up on our guy" Korsak tossed the file to Jane.

"Wait you mean to say all that junk is his files?"

"Nah, his side of the family were... pretty busy people"
"I bet they were" Jane sneered and plucked a few papers from the file.

"Weed when he was fifteen" Jane looked up unimpressed.

"What? He probably kept a good lid any business like that after"

"Nobodies 'lid' in air tight Korsak, we'll find something more recent, people slip up"

Frost slammed his hands down on his desk, making the other two jump.

"GOT IT!" Frost hollered in victory.

Jane dead panned him.

"Why don't you just show everyone the frikin' pass word?" Jane rolled her eyes and started from the closest people to the girls apart from herself and Maura, their teacher.


Maura cradled a mug of coffee, the heat prickled her palms. She was sat in the arm chair, watching the screen but not really taking in the obscurity Phineas and Ferb offered.

Tommy was sitting with the girls sandwiched between Kristen and Emma as they giggled. He was also not interested in the cartoon, he was just bothered about the woman sat in the arm chair.

"Maura" Tommy started, breaking the M.E's aimless staring.

Maura snapped out of her thoughts and smiled weakly at Tommy.

"Yes?"

Tommy stared at her for a brief second, his eyes wide.

Shit, what was I gonna to say? I was gonna say something, damn Tommy say something.

"Nice coffee" Tommy replied meekly and looked down at his mug on the coffee table, the liquid steamed.

"It's fair trade" Maura looked down at her own mug and peered into the murky liquid.

"Good" Tommy dragged the word and tapped his hands on his knee, looking into his lap.

Say something and something that's not so damn helpless. God just say it.

"Maura, can I, talk to you... in the kitchen" Tommy jerked his thumb back in the general direction.

Maura nodded and set her mug down on the way there.

Kristen watched the two adults move and she narrowed her eyes, peering from over the sofa to see what they were doing.

Tommy had one hand on the cold marble of the counter and the other stuffed into his pocket.

"During my... time, I overheard a lota stuff about gangs, drugs, whatever you wanna call it, all I wanna tell you is that they have people in corners of society that you wouldn't dream about Maura" his eyes were dark, Maura was cast back strongly to the look that Jane usually had when she was talking like this.

Maura nodded slowly.

"Should I tell Jane?" Maura twisted the ring on her finger.

"Nah the smart ass already knows about that... it's just, they way they operate... you gotta get inside there heads to know what's happening. Maura, the God damn post man could be one of them"

"Tommy get to the point"

"Don't let Kristen and Emma outta your sight through the next coupla days"

"I wasn't intending to" Maura gave him a stern look. Tommy nodded and shifted.

"So how've you been, with the girls an all?"

Maura knew what Tommy was really asking are you and Jane still together?

"Yes, the girls are fine, Jane and I are also fine... well, were fine"
"Were?"

"This" Maura motioned around them, symbolising the situation. "Is never good on a relationship"

Tommy puffed out the air he'd been holding and tapped his fingers on the counter.

"Don't I know it" Tommy looked away and Maura winced, she knew how Tommy felt about her, he'd always had a held flame for her, Jane owned a camp fire.

"Tommy" Maura cupped the side of his face and his large brown eyes creating a hole in Maura.

"I get it Maura" Tommy smiled, but it was pained. "Want me to make some banana bread?" Tommy glanced over to the fruit bowl for a distraction. Maura was taken back by the random comment but nodded, she knew it would help them all relax.


Jane picked at a limp, soggy looking salad and shoved it away from her.

"Seriously, can you still not get into their files?" Jane groaned irritably, Frost had gotten past one fire wall, that had been half an hour ago.

"Patience is a virtue" Frost snapped.

"Patience and virtue went out the window when you started mumbling rhyming words" Korsak's voice seemed muffled from behind the wall of files that kept mounting.

"Okay, so far I've got seven people to look into and none of them have got a criminal record, I'll have to ask Maura about Robert's friends"
"If he had any" Korsak added, holding out a file containing past achievements.

"Huh?"

"Well he got A's in everything since he was about five"
"A in play doh sculpting, real character building" Frost chuckled to himself.

"Kristen threw a wad of that stuff at me when we first started to live around each" Jane smirked. "She has one good throwing arm I can tell you"

"Probably from Maura" Frost's tapping blocked out half of his words.

"Speaking of Maura, I'll call her" Jane took the chance and bolted from the room, her phone clutched in her hands.

Jane tapped her foot as she waited for the M.E to pick up.

"Jane"

"Maura, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine, Tommy is here by the way"

"Right, that's good. Are the girls okay?"

"They're getting restless, but it's fine, have you gotten anything?"

"Just a sore butt and square eyes" Jane stifled a yawn as she leant against the wall. It was only mid afternoon and she was wearing out.

"'Square eyes' doesn't exist Jane"

"Well the ache in my butt does and I'm frikin' worn out, nothings coming up that's solid"

"Keep trying"

"We're trying, I'm trying... I called your Mom" Jane trailed off, rubbing her eyes.

"Saying what!"

"That she needs come, it's urgent"

"Jane why didn't you consult me before?" Maura's voice was sharp, snapping Jane out of her groggy state.

"I didn't think I needed it considering that, oh well, ya know, some fucking gang is after our kids"

"Our kids?" Maura's tone was harsh. "That maybe true, but Jane calling my Mother!"

"Hey, I rang her up to ask a favour, that proves I have the guts to get past my 'thing' with her"

"Thing, really? You mean to say dislike"

"Maura, I don't dislike her, she's the woman who raised you, I have to like her. We just don't see the world the same" Jane sighed and bit at her lip. "Sorry Maur for doing it, I shoulda said..."

"Jane, what's done is done... cleaning with occupy me"

"She's your Mom, Maura... let her be around you and a very Mauraish environment"
"Ish?"

"Be a Mom around her Maura, prove to her that you can be a Mother"

"You want me to show my own Mother up?"the horror in the M.E's tone made Jane smile.

"It seems legit"

"Legitimate"

"Don't correct me when I'm tried"

"Don't cut off words to form slang while I'm stressed"

Both women smirked.

"I'll call you when I get the first thing"

"Please do"

"Bye Maura"

"See you later"

The bleep that sounded when Jane finished the call signified the never ending research to get back to. It was like a nasty Mother in law, Jane guessed she'd be facing a much worse Mother in law tomorrow morning than a cluster of background history and files. At least files only risk paper cuts, not a lecture on art and achievements.

Jane groaned and trudged back into the room, grimacing, but determined.