DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: second post of the day. love this chapter and hav a feeling everyone else will to. definite flip on events. more to come, but for now, enjoy!

-/-

Jane smacked the hallway wall in frustration.

"Jane." Maura rubbed a hand down Jane's back to calm the detective down.

"She fits Maur! Everything points to Summer Raley. You confirmed that she was posing as Raya's girlfriend. She disappears without a trace… it all fits."

"Maybe you want to solve this so badly that it's clouding your judgment. Maybe Summer was staying with Raya, or they'd recently reconnected. Maybe she really did walk in on our killer and Raya was already incapacitated. You saw her eyes when you showed her that picture. Her first reaction was one of compassion, and when I asked her if this was her attacker her expression grew to one of disbelief and she shook her head. Summer is not our attacker Jane, but maybe she does know who is. We still need to find her."

Jane glanced at Maura. "You've changed so much. Maybe wasn't exactly part of your vocabulary before."

Maura shrugged. "It's hard to keep living your life by facts when they betray you. They were the one thing I could always count on; I relied on them heavily, they made me excellent at my job. But when I got sick… I'm a walking exception. I shouldn't have the type of cancer I do, and yet I do have it. For the first time in my life it felt like the facts were lying to me."

-/-

"We have everyone out there looking for Summer Raley." Frost handed Jane a cup of coffee and sat next to her at the conference room table. She was studying the murder board, searching for the missing link.

"I think Summer Raley is our link. With a little more digging Crowe found that she worked at the Delow Women's clinic under an alias. She had a former connection to our surviving vic. She was there when Raya Lewis was attacked. It all falls so perfectly into place. So why is it all wrong?"

"Sometimes things are not what they seem. Everything can't always be taken at face value. Maybe Summer Raley's relationship with her teacher wasn't consensual. Maybe she really was being taken advantage of. In that case, Raya Lewis quite possibly saved her from a rapist she felt she otherwise couldn't escape from. But there was one person we know would have held a grudge against Raya Lewis."

"The teacher." Jane nodded. "He lost his job because she ratted him out, his reputation went down the drain. He lost everything because of her. He claimed the sex was consensual, that he loved Summer Raley and she loved him. If he truly loved Summer, then Raya not only took away his job, but his girlfriend, and quite possibly his baby. He probably blames her for everything." Jane stood. "Have Moore find out what happened to our dear professor after he resigned. I want to know every move he's made since then."

Frost stood too. "Where are you going?"

Jane gave him a half smile. "I have some unfinished business to attend to."

-/-

When Jane entered the apartment the first thing she saw was the suitcase on the couch. Her stomach dropped. No, this wasn't happening. The case wasn't over yet.

"Maur?" She walked down the hallway to the open bedroom door.

Maura was sitting down on the bed, staring down into her hands. Jane followed her gaze to the little box Maura was holding.

"I was unpacking and I…" Maura glanced up at Jane with tears in her eyes. "I didn't know… you kept it all this time."

Jane frowned. "All this time?"

"I found it in your coat pocket the morning after you proposed. I didn't have the heart to open it. I had refused, so it wasn't mine. I remember feeling as if it was my evidence that it wasn't some spur of the moment decision, that you had really thought out the proposal. I took it with me to my appointment, as a reminder that if it was nothing, if I was just being paranoid, that I would go back to the hotel and accept. Only after I had found out what I was facing did I return it. But you… kept it."

Jane crossed the room and sat down next to Maura. She took the little box from the medical examiner's hands. "I was hoping it was all some big mistake. That you'd land in San Francisco and then just hop right back on the next flight back to Boston, back to me. This became a symbol of my hope, my faith that you'd come back." Jane opened the little box and smiled. "Besides, it was too pretty to return."

Maura just stared at the ring. She'd put it back in Jane's coat pocket without looking that day. After the news at the hospital, she'd wanted to get herself as far away from that box as possible. But now… "Jane, that must have cost you a small fortune." It was three diamonds on a white gold band, at least two carats, maybe two and a half. A small dusting of diamonds accented either side of the main trio. It was outrageous on a detective's salary.

Jane shrugged. "It only took me six bank robberies before I'd raised enough."

Maura narrowed her eyes and pushed Jane's shoulder. "Very funny Jane."

"It took a while, months, to save up enough. And I was so proud when I bought it. I wanted something worthy of you." Jane snapped the box shut as if closing it would push the memory from her mind.

"I'm sorry Jane."

"Why San Francisco?"

Maura was taken aback by the sudden change of topic. "What?"

"You could have gone anywhere. If the goal was just to get away from me, to spare me, why San Francisco?" Jane sighed. "Why pick a city so far away?"

"Stanford."

"College?"

"I had been offered the job in San Francisco several times since I started working here in Boston and it never occurred to me to take it. I'd have to uproot everything, change my life, …leave you. It was never worth it. But Dr. Hayward told me about this doctor at Stanford who was pushing the boundaries in leukemia research. He'd done several clinical trials with various treatments. She recommended I meet with him. I figured that was a sign. So I finally took them up on the offer and agreed to take the job in San Francisco. That way I could get the treatment I needed and still work."

"Did it help?"

Maura was quiet for several moments before she shook her head. "I wouldn't know."

"He wouldn't help?"

"I refused. I didn't want to be a guinea pig, not when I had plenty of good years left. Why risk accelerating my demise? I realized, for me, it was more about quality than quantity."

"So you did nothing?"

Maura smiled. "No, Jane, I am a doctor after all. I know the risk of doing nothing. I just wasn't willing to take the risk of doing some radical treatment. If it went wrong I'd never…"

"You'd never what?"

Maura stood up and put some distance between her and the detective. She rubbed her eyes. "I'd never see you again; I'd never get the opportunity to tell you the truth."

"Maura, I don't want you putting your health in jeopardy."

Maura smiled. "I knew you'd say that." She shook her head. "You're always thinking of what's best for me. Even after everything… Why?"

Jane ran a finger across the little box she still held. "Because love is messy. It's not perfect. The stars don't align, the clouds don't part. You can meet your soul mate, know they are your soul mate, and still never end up together. Like a girl who meets the man of her dreams, but he's already happily married to someone else and he's just a decent enough guy that he won't bail on his commitments. People can be meant for each other and it still doesn't work out... the timings not right, their families won't approve, the distance is too great. The reasons to break up start to outweigh the reasons to stay together. Everything in life is a constant struggle, love is no exception. It's hard work and heart ache. You fight and you scream and at the end of the day you find yourself evaluating every breath you've ever taken together and calculating if it's still worth it to move forward. Love is messy, and it's hard. I'd be stupid if I had gone into this believing I'd never be hurt."

"This isn't the same Jane."

"Isn't it?" Jane stood up. "I've known Maura, from day one, that it was you. It's always been you. It will always be you. I was done from the moment we met and everything I've done since then has been to bring you into my arms. I've always known it was going to be a long road."

"Jane…"

"I'd wait forever for you, Maura."

"Jane…"

"Being with someone else isn't an option for me. I'd just be settling for second best."

"Jane…"

"And I don't want anyone else."

"Jane!"

Jane had been so off in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice the petite blonde was now standing right in front of her. "Hmm?"

"Marry me?"

Well that was just about the last thing Jane Rizzoli had been planning to hear that day, especially coming from the mouth of the medical examiner.

"I should say no, because wounds need time to heal." Jane pushed a few strands of Maura's hair behind her ear. "But, healing aside, I know what I want in my future, who I want in my future. So yes, Maura Isles, I will marry you."

Maura gripped Jane's shirt and pulled the detective's mouth down to hers. They kissed for several minutes, Maura gripping Jane's shirt tighter every time she tried to pull back for air. Finally she let her go.

Jane grinned, resting her forehead against Maura's. "You do know what the downside to this is?"

Maura pulled back. "What?"

Jane made a face. "I'm going to be related to Frost now."

Maura burst out laughing and buried her face against Jane's shoulder.