Just a filler chapter. Not totally the same, but still...it's all the things I feel should have been said in that episode, minus the gold flecked chocolate. ;)

Enjoy!

Chapter 25

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

She'd had it all planned.

A nice picnic by the beach. The weather had been just right. Not cold but not the sort of sweltering heat Bostonians had come to expect in the run up to summer when it was bordering spring. It wouldn't have been crowded either. Not yet. Not at this time of year.

They'd woken up together as usual; nights apart were becoming few and farther between these days. Jane had gone for a run whilst Maura had made them both a light breakfast and prepared the picnic basket.

They'd both had the day off.

But then they'd been called in. Work, as always, had put a damper on their plans but that wasn't the issue here. Not today. No. The issue was that their case involved none other but Garrett Fairfield. And that was when the chaos had begun.

xxx

"Perhaps we should give the family some space" Jane's eyes widened at Maura's words, her gaze going back and forth between the honey blonde whose hand lay sympathetically on Fairfield's arm. Garrett looked gratefully down at the ME who gave him a small, understanding smile. Jane gritted her teeth. Ass, she thought. Frost shifted nervously beside her, foreseeing the fact that this would end badly.

"If you don't mind, doctor, there are certain questions Mr Fairfield needs to answer given the fact that his brother was murdered," she ground out, trying her hardest not to overstep and make a scene. Something about the guy just didn't rub right with her. He was too smarmy for a start, but she could hardly arrest him for that though she would have loved to have tried.

Maura flashed Jane a look as if saying she should know better. "I have yet to perform the autopsy, detective. And forgive me if I'm wrong, but I believe it is up to me to tell you whether a person has in fact been murdered. Since that has yet to be, I believe the questions could be left for later, during a more appropriate time. After all, we only just delivered the news that Adam is dead" She failed to notice the imperious smirk that adorned Garrett Fairfield's face. The brunette simply glanced between the honey blonde and the man standing beside her uncomprehendingly before usually kind, olive features hardened and Maura found herself staring into the face of someone she didn't really recognize.

It had ended with Jane not so subtly storming off back to the car where once Frost and Maura had joined her, the tension had been palpable; tension that stemmed mostly from Jane as well as the uncertain glances Frost gave his partner. Maura sighed. Since then, Jane had been standoffish all day. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, her mind running over Barry's words after the beseeching look she'd given him once they'd arrived back at the precinct and Jane had slammed the door, quickly disappearing through the doors of the BPD.

"You may have had her back, but to the casual observer, and Fairfield himself, it seemed like you were protecting him." Maura exhaled as Frost's words filtered through her mind for what seemed like the umpteenth time that day. Sometimes she wished she wasn't so socially clueless but he'd been wrong in what he'd said. She hadn't been protecting Garrett. She'd been protecting Jane in the only way she knew how; by appeasing Garrett and making him think that he had the upper hand. The Fairfield brahmin had always been arrogant enough to think they were untouchable. The only person who'd been remotely down to earth had been Adam and he was dead.

"It's where I'm from, it's not who I am ."

Jane snorted. "Coulda fooled me," she retorted. The detective turned away from the honey blonde's hurt expression, wrapping her arms around her midsection in an unconscious effort to protect herself.

"Jane, please." She made to go towards the brunette but stopped abruptly in her tracks at the whispered 'don't.' There's a few stilted moments of silence in between the ticking of the clock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. She's at a loss about what to do, how to fix this but then the brunette speaks, her words a mere whisper like the branches of a weeping willow swaying in the gentle wind. Back. Forth.

"I understand why you did it. Hell, a part of me is even grateful you did because I was just itching to smack him a good one, but it doesn't change the fact that standing there beside him, it looked like you belonged. It looked like you were home." Maura's heart ached at the pain and vulnerability in the brunette's voice and she longed to go to her, to prove to her she wasn't a part of that world, that everything she needs is right where she is but she senses that right now isn't the time.

"There's nothing between Garrett and I." At this, the detective whirled round, throwing her hands up in that typical Italian fashion.

"I know that. Don't you think I know that?!"

"I - "

"But still..you looked like the trophy wife standing by his side. It was my side you were supposed to be on! Me you were supposed to be sticking up for.."

"I was! I am! I was trying to protect you!" she cried.

"And yet you couldn't have found a different way to do it?! Without making me look like a fool? Like I was some roach to be crushed, to be put in place? Because that's exactly what he thought. And you acted out his standards exactly; right to the point of perfection."

"Garrett's Boston brahmin. Do you understand the type of hell he could have created for you, for the department?! He would've had your badge! The job you love! The one you worked so hard for! He has power, connections! His ancestors built this city.."

"My grandfather built this city!" The sound of Jane's hand coming down hard on the metal table reverberated throughout the morgue. All that could be heard within the silence that ensued was the whirring of soft machines elsewhere. Lab technicians and pathologists alike kept still, watching the scene play out before them.

Maura gulped. Desperate to salvage what was left of the situation and not let it worsen, she apologised. "I'm sorry," she said, "I'm sorry if that's the impression I gave, but it was the only was I knew how to appease him. To protect you."

Finally, Jane turns. Exhausted from the back and forth, she rubbed a hand over her face. "I know that. Believe me, I do. And I'm not saying I'm not grateful for it, I just don't agree with the way you went about it. And then to see him and you..." She takes a step towards the blonde, to take her hand in hers, in part a silent apology for having reacted so badly to the whole situation, to try and...explain...her feelings when she saw the two together - something she has always struggled with but will always try and overcome just because it's Maura - how it had taken her back to the day when she had first seen them together in each others' arms. Maura stands there, watching, waiting. She watches Jane squirm and stutter as she tries to find the right words. She sees the conflict and wants nothing more than to go to Jane, to close the distance but she also understands that their relationship can't always be about her making the moves, that Jane is in this with her and that that involves her opening up; a bit of give and take like all relationships. She also knows that if she doesn't let the brunette say what she needs to, then it's just going to be one more thing between them that will not get resolved and she refuses to put their being together under that sort of pressure, but a sudden buzz startles them and cuts Jane off, causing her to fall silent once more. It was the ME's phone. Steeped with the knowledge that Jane wasn't going to say more till she could be sure they would be uninterrupted and relieved that she's still standing there for the sole purpose of saying her piece and righting the tangent between them, she hurriedly scrambles to get it.

Eyes on the screen, she checks to see who it was calling. "It's the governor," she said.

Throwing her hands in the air in that typical Italian fashion that so signified Jane, the detective bit back the curse that was on the tip of her tongue. Her frustration once again building.

"Typical."

Maura looked up from her phone only to meet Jane's steely gaze. On the one hand, she knew she had to answer it; on the other, she knew they still had things to work out between them, that there were still things to be said. Gesturing to the phone Maura held in her hands, she urged her to pick it up.

"Go ahead. Duty calls."

The sarcasm hadn't been lost on the honey blonde but by the time she looked back up from the screen where her thumb hovered over the decline symbol, the detective had once again disappeared, leaving only the swish of doors in her wake.

xxx

Shaking herself from her thoughts, the ME looked down at Adam Fairfield who lay cold on her slab. He'd been different from his brothers. Grounded, less self-serving. And definitely the nicest of all three. Always jovial and friendly, he hadn't ever given the impression, dressing aside, that he came from aristocracy. Jane would have liked him. At the thought of the brunette, Maura sighed once more. Jane was off chasing a lead on one of her other cases. One that had actually be 'declared a homicide' and which for the moment took precedent till she heard otherwise. She couldn't really blame her.

The case involved a young girl, no more than 12, who had been found in a shipping container brutally beaten to death, and with the BPD's leads, more often than not, being scarce on who had murdered her, any lead, however big or small, required their attention. And besides, it wasn't like she had ruled Adam Fairfield's death to be a homicide as of yet, though she knew Jane believed it to be. The woman was dogged when it came to gut feelings, and most often right. Which infuriated Maura to no end as she'd be on the receiving end of the detective's triumphant look. The one that said 'I told you so.'

Rolling her eyes, she thought back to the text she'd received from the detective no more than half an hour ago, roughly two hours after Adam Fairfield had been brought in and her meeting with the governor had concluded whereby it had been emphasised that his death was a high priority case. Maura had thought that once she'd done the autopsy, they would be able to have lunch together, pick up their conversation where they'd left off and hopefully put it all behind them. Jane's reply had simply been: Lead on Chang case. Out of precinct.

She hadn't missed the stiltedness of the reply.

Resigned that that was all she'd get out of the detective till she came back, Maura picked up the scalpel in preparation for the y incision. If there was one thing she could do, it was to prove Jane's gut right and wipe that smug look off Garrett Fairfield's face.

With a steady hand, she began.

So I hope you all liked that. We're back to the sixteen again plot next chapter. It's already been written out, it's just the present frame that has yet to be done. Stay tuned and thanks much for all your reviews! Keep em rolling in! :)