A/N: I am glad you all enjoyed the interaction between Jane and Maura in the previous chapter. Going to take it a step further here. Piece by piece and step by step. Three different scenes, all connected. And it looks like Jane and Maura are getting some help from behind the scenes, too. The updates may become a little less frequent from now on as I have started work again and I am immediately falling back in the busiest rotation. I am doing my best to keep them coming.

Chapter 13

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference
~ The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost (1874–1963)

Boston PD Headquarters – morgue
Boston, Massachusetts

She hovered outside the morgue for a good ten minutes before opening the door. For all this time her heart had been pounding in the back of her throat and her hands were clammy. It frustrated her. Jane Rizzoli's hands were never clammy. What irritated her even more was that it had taken her so long to be able to control herself. In her own opinion she had looked like a total idiot leaning against the cool walls, staring at some strange stain on the lino floor. But now… now she had finally overcome all the twisted side-effects of her feelings and she pushed the door to the morgue open. She had not been here for a while and it was surprising how quickly a person could forget what a morgue smelt like. She wrinkled her nose for just a second, took a deep breath and then closed the door behind her.

Maura stood by the autopsy table, dressed in light blue scrubs, matching cap and bloodied gloves. She has just cut out what looked like the victim's liver and put it in the scales. She looked up when she heard the visitor enter and behind plastic space goggles, as Jane had once called them, her hazel green eyes lit up.

Jane awkwardly clenched and released her hands and averted her eyes, unable to make eye contact. "Hi."

"Hi," Maura said tentatively. It appeared that her own nerves matched Jane's.

Jane looked around. The morgue hadn't changed. Everything was still in the same place. Maura's neatly organised and sterile tools, boxes of gloves and scrubs, the X-ray machine…. It was all still here and yet it all felt different. She peered at the medical examiner through her eyelashes. Maura had her hands wrist deep in the victim's open chest cavity. "You errr… you got a cause of death yet?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Maura said and the perkiness with which she said it suddenly seemed to break the tension between them. She removed her hands from the body, took off her gloves and removed the plastic glasses. Jane found herself walking towards the autopsy table, keeping a safe enough distance so that no blood or any other bodily fluids would stain her slacks of shoes. Autopsies were messy.

"I found contusions on her face and blunt force trauma to the head." Maura looked up. There was a sadness reflecting in her eyes. The death of a child never left anyone untouched. But she hid it well behind her mask of professionalism and the safety of her science. It was what she always did. "Her jaw has been fractured in two separate places. Her body is covered in bruises, both new and old and I found evidence of a previous fracture to her wrist and two of her ribs."

Jane's eyes had fixed on the girls' face. Now that the bloody smudges had been washed off she could see the fractures as well as the bruising. "Someone beat her to death?"

Maura nodded. "That is my professional opinion, yes."

"With a weapon?" Jane arched an eyebrow. The injuries covering the girls' body were severe. She had only ever seen this extensive bruising in victims who had been subjected to an attack inflicted on them by a group of people or maybe a football player. But to see these injuries on a teenage girl from a wealthy family who lived a good neighbourhood meant the pieces didn't quite fit into place yet.

"No," Maura said and shocked brown eyes snapped up to meet hers. "They used their hands, Jane."

"Son on a bitch," Jane growled and subconsciously rubbed the bridge of her nose. It still hurt. "I think I know just the guy."

"How is your nose?" Maura interrupted the trail of the detective's thoughts and Jane fell silent. They stared at each other from opposite ends of the autopsy table, an opened up body lying between them. There was a hint of curiosity in Maura's eyes, the type that Jane recognised from before the shooting. It seemed that now that they had returned to the familiarity of their working relationship Maura was more at ease around her. Jane wished that the same could be said for herself.

"Fine," Jane answered a little sharper than she had intended and she watched the hurt flash behind Maura's eyes. She forced herself to smile and even though it was a nervous one it still seemed to erase the unexpected fear she had seen appear in Maura's eyes. "It's fine. You did a nice job fixing it. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Maura replied, seemingly unsure whether to be kind or distant towards the dark haired detective. She eventually chose the safe middle route, the scientific one. "I'll call you if I find anything else, OK?" Questioning hazel green eyes looked up to find Jane's dark brown.

"Sure," Jane answered and another silence fell between them.

The silences had never been this long or this awkward. Neither seemed to know where to look or what to do or say. Jane's eyes darted around the autopsy room several times, taking in and registering different items whenever they did. Every so often her eyes would accidentally meet Maura's and it was as if someone just rammed a nail into her heart. She physically ached as she looked at the smaller woman.

"I'll errr….I'll be going now," Jane said after about five minutes of uncomfortable silence has passed and she turned on her heels. When she reached the door she turned around and found Maura looking at her. There was another reason she had come down to the morgue, apart from the case. A reason that involved her mother. Angela had been adamant and not even Jane's best 'I am going to throw a tantrum' glare had been managed to change her mother's mind. Resistance was futile. She swallowed. This was harder than she had imagined. Her mother and Maura shared the same house, the same space. "Ma's organising a family dinner tonight. Tommy got a job today. A real one. One that doesn't involve walking poodles in the park. But he's moving to Seattle for it. He leaves first thing tomorrow morning." The question was left hanging in the air. She couldn't bring herself to say it.

Maura nodded weakly and a smile brighter than Jane had ever seen spread across her face. It seemed that she had understood what Jane had wanted to say even if the detective hadn't said it. "I'd love to" she said warmly. "Thank you." Then something hit her and a frown appeared on her forehead. "Oh darn it!"

"What is it?" Jane asked, all of a sudden startled. "Can't you make it?" Please tell me you can make it. Ma is going to kill me if you can't make it. Please… please… please….

"My mother's landing at Logan at six o'clock tonight," Maura said and looked at Jane apologetically. "I was going to pick her up."

"You two are speaking again?" Jane inquired and when Maura didn't answer she shrugged. "She can come too, if you like?"

"Really?" Maura asked and her eyes lit up again.

"Yes," Jane said and felt her phone vibrate on her belt. A quick glance down told her it was Korsak. She sighed and looked back up at Maura. "Just turn up, OK?"

"It's my house, Jane. Where else was I going to be?"

Jane couldn't come up with an answer to give her and just decided on a smile. Maura returned the smile and then Jane slowly walked out of the autopsy room. Maura watched the detective's retreating form through the glass walls that separated them and caught Jane looking back over her shoulder before disappearing around the corner. Their eyes met across the long distance between them and Maura smiled. Suddenly hope began to glow in her heart when Jane returned her smile. It was the first real smile she had seen of her friend and Maura wondered if maybe it wasn't too late to fix things after all.

~()~

Logan International Airport
Boston, Massachusetts

There was only one flight due from Geneva that night. And the only reason Maura had known her mother was going to be on that flight was the text message she had received the previous day. She had not replied, not knowing of anything to say, but she had decided there and then she was going to meet her at the airport. She felt guilty for leaving her in Switzerland, still recovering. She knew her mother had called Angela a few times to reassure her she was truly fine. Angela had always passed the messages along and although she had rejected any offers to speak to her mother, hearing that she was doing better every day had eased some of the horrible guilt.

Maura waited patiently outside Arrival Hall 3. The board told her the flight had landed thirty minutes ago and she guessed that, taking in account the passport controls and the luggage belts, her mother was about to come through those doors. She had left work early and had gone home to get changed. Angela had been in the kitchen, preparing for that night, and had almost immediately asked Maura if Jane had passed on the message about the family dinner. Upon hearing that Jane had indeed invited her Angela had smiled and Maura had realised that the Rizzoli matriarch just wanted things to go back to how they had been. Maura wanted that to but she didn't know if they ever could. After all… she had confessed to loving Jane. A confession like that could never be taken back. And it changed everything.

When exactly she had realised she was in love with Jane, Maura didn't remember. Somewhere along the way she had realised that it was the brash, sometimes foul mouthed yet loyal and funny Italian detective who brought out the best in her. Jane made her feel safe. It had been Jane who had opened her eyes to the world and what else there was to see. And Maura knew, even if Jane strenuously denied it, that she had opened Jane's eyes to the world too.

"Maura?"

She looked up when she heard her mother's voice and smiled. "Hi Mother."

"What are you doing here?" Constance searched her daughter's face and upon realising that the dark circles around her eyes had gone she smiled too. Whatever had been said and done lay behind them now and though it would take a lot of time for the wounds to heal and the scars to fade, suddenly she believed that she hadn't lost her only child after all. "You look well."

"Thank you. You do too," Maura concluded after inspecting Constance's face. The bruises had disappeared and the cuts and grazes had healed. She looked like her usual self again and now that she was no longer confronted with the marks left behind by the car accident Maura found it was easier to look Constance in the eye and see what had really happened between them. They had changed. "I'm sorry for leaving you in Switzerland."

"There were things you needed to take care off. Important things," Constance said and allowed Maura to take her suitcase. "Have you spoken to Jane yet?"

"Yes," Maura said softly and tried not to remember their first few run-ins since her return to Boston. The way Jane had looked at her the first time their paths crossed still broke her heart and she wasn't sure whether that pain, that devastating feeling of physically feeling you heart break, would ever find a place. So instead she tried to remember how she had fixed Jane's nose. Again. "Yes, I have."

As she said it she remembered. It had been that moment. That very moment in a middle of a crime scene she knew had haunted Jane. The realisation her tormenter had returned. But there had been a moment of tenderness when she had fixed Jane's nose. Her fingers across the fracture in an attempt to sooth the pain. Not just the pain in her nose but also the pain in Jane's hands. The pain that lived endlessly in those scars. And the pain in her soul. The pain the stubborn detective pretended she didn't feel. Yes, Maura knew. That moment, when she had felt that tiny bone pop under her fingers, had been the moment she had fallen in love with Jane.

"Have you two sorted things out?" Constance wanted to know. They had left the Arrivals Hall and walked towards the parking lot. Darkness had begun to fall and soon Boston would be shrouded in darkness. Around them the street lights illuminated their surroundings and countless of lights would soon be gracing the shapes of buildings and houses.

"We're getting there," Maura said, feeling strangely sure of herself. She had no idea if they were ever going to get anywhere but Jane had turned up in her morgue today. It was better than nothing. And Maura would be damned if she wasn't going to believe they had at least one last chance at survival. They reached Maura's Prius and the medical examiner held the passenger door open for her mother to get in. As she did so their eyes met and Maura smiled. "Angela has invited us for family dinner."

"Has she?" Constance asked, masking the lack of surprise in her voice quite well. "Is Jane going to be there?"

"Yes," Maura answered and couldn't help but smile as she walked around the car and got into the driver's seat. "Yes, Jane will be there. In fact, she is the one who asked me to come."

Constance merely smiled and glanced out of the car window as Maura drove away from the parking lot and soon picked up a course straight for home. As the images of the city flashed by outside, Constance caught a brief glimpse of her own reflection in the window and observed her own face. The wounds had healed. She could smile again. And she knew, as she glanced at Maura at her side as she casually drove the car, that her phone calls with Angela had paid off. All their daughters needed was a little help and support and it looked like they needed less than Constance had thought.

~()~

Jane Rizzoli's apartment
Boston, Massachusetts

Jane looked at the pile of clothes on her bed that had steadily grown into a mountain of dresses she had bought to please Maura, skirts her mother had insisted she'd wear and slacks that were better suitable for work than a dinner party. She couldn't choose between a dress or jeans or anything else for that matter. She eyed up the clock. She had an hour before she was she supposed to be at Maura's and it would take her half an hour to get there. At this rate she was going to be fashionably late.

"What do you think?" she asked, holding up two different dresses. Jo Friday sat at her feet, looking up with her big brown eyes. "Oh screw it." She threw the simple black dress on the bed and chose the light blue one instead. She had not worn it yet, and it even came with a matching pair of shoes. Maura had insisted she bought it in the sales two months ago. It had hung in the corner of her closet ever since, doomed to a life spent on a coat hanger.

Zipping up the dress and readjusting the fine laced underwear she was forced to wear for the occasion, Jane shot another quick glance in the mirror. Her hair was hopeless. She had long since given up on it and other than brushing it there was little else she could do. She sprayed some of her favourite perfume on the insides of her wrist as well as her neck, pushed her feet into her high heeled shoes and grabbed her watch off the side table. If she wasn't read now she was never going to be ready. As she stalked out of her bedroom and towards the front door, Joe Friday enthusiastically followed her.

"Ma didn't say you could come," Jane said as she eyed the dog up. "Not after last time." The dog gave her a pathetic look and Jane gave in and opened the door. "She never said you couldn't come either."