Please see Ch 1, 5 & 9 for disclaimers… enough disclaimers that they almost need their own chapter…


Maura could hear Jane's jogging tread and knew she'd been spotted. She turned around and waited for Jane to appear around the corner.

Jane stopped abruptly several feet away and leaned against the wall "Hey Maura. It is you, I wasn't sure. I thought I saw you through the window. I just really wanted to, you know, thank you for dinner."

Maura couldn't help the flush building and started to fiddle with her ring. "Barry told me you had to re-qualify at the gun range tonight and I didn't think you'd go home to eat first."

Jane walked forward a few steps. "I wasn't going to bother. Did you already eat?"

Maura could tell she already knew the answer "Not yet. I brought something to eat downstairs while I caught up on my transcription and I have to review and sign off on Inez's reports."

"Would I bother you if I came downstairs to eat? It's too quiet up here." Jane had partially turned away as she said it, confident in the answer before catching herself and turning back. She shouldn't assume.

Maura bit the inside of her top lip. Prior to their fight and her absence Jane would have just told Maura that she'd be downstairs. No questions or qualifications needed.

Perhaps by trying not to push she wasn't being very clear either. Maybe she needed to at least make sure Jane was clear on where she stood. "No, I enjoy your company. If Barry or Vince had still been upstairs I would have just joined you." She gave a tiny smile to temper her words "It just seems that you are so careful not to be alone with me."

Maura paused a second before continuing, forcing herself to stop twisting her ring."So when I checked to see if you had found dinner and saw you were by yourself I just figured I'd eat downstairs. I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

Jane flushed. She hadn't realized that it had been so obvious. Explaining why would be awkward so she wasn't going to try. She just stared for a moment trying to read Maura, but her hazel eyes revealed little. "Let me just go grab my food and I'll be down in a minute."

Maura wandered into her office and weighed her options. Her desk was easy to eat at and that would give Jane the chance to choose if she wanted to pull up a chair and share the space, or grab any other spot to sit and eat. On the other hand, it also was formal to walk into and carefully designed to be that way. Formality between them was certainly part of the problem.

Tilting her head she considered the space, knowing her rather direct comment to Jane about avoiding being alone with her had already predisposed Jane to being apprehensive. The desk was out then.

She continued to evaluate the room. She could go sit on a chair and leave the rest of the seating as an option, but a chair also made a statement that Maura wanted space. Maura crossed her arms, tapping her fingers against her elbow. Wanting space was the exact message Maura was trying to avoid.

Maura sighed, thinking. This wasn't intuitive for her and it was confusing. Part of her wondered what Jane would do in the same situation.

Nerves aside Maura knew. Jane would have just taken the obvious risk and sat on the couch. She could do that too. She could take a chance and sit on one side of the couch. Then Jane could pick to sit on the couch with her and even pick how close they sat. If Jane didn't want to share the couch she could just sit on one of the chairs across the coffee table and maintain more personal space.

Maura gingerly sat on the couch. Her pulse built in strength at the base of her throat and she could feel each beat of her heart. It was going to hurt if Jane chose one of the chairs. It shouldn't, but it was going to. She narrowed her gaze at the hapless seats.

Jane walked in and saw Maura sitting on her couch, legs pressed together, hands in her lap and her shoulders perfectly straight. Her nerves settled immediately, she knew this Maura now. Maura was just as hesitant as she was. They were both in this together and would get through this together.

She walked over to Maura and placed her food down. "Maura, why are you looking at your Rashid chair like you'd like to melt it? Usually you're all gushy over that red monstrosity." Jane sat down, grabbed her salad and leaned against Maura's side. "I mean, you know I'd support you, that stupid thing is painful to sit on and look at."

Jane's sudden appearance and then casual drop next to her startled Maura. She caught the teasing rise of Jane's eyebrows and she felt her tension dissipate as she chuckled "I love that chair."

Jane took a bite of salad. "I'm telling you, you'd be doing the entire BPD a favor if you donated it to the interrogation room. " She waved her fork around circling the chair in the air "It would be our secret weapon. Our interviews would get done in half the time because everyone would be desperate to escape that chair."

Maura picked up her own food and started eating. "If you don't respect the chair Jane, I'm going to replace every seat in here with Karim Rashid designs and then where would you sit?" She raised an eyebrow at Jane and took a sip of her water.

Jane simply gave her a little half smirk and a wink. "Your lap." and knocked Maura's knee with her knuckle, enjoying the changing expressions on Maura's face as her quip registered.

Instant images flashed though Maura's mind and she accidentally inhaled her sip of water and she coughed uncontrollably, red faced, while shaking her head at Jane. Two could play this game.

Recovering she took another sip allowing her eyes to slowly peruse Jane, stopping to lock her gaze into two laughing brown eyes. She put her glass down and leaned back, gradually crossing her legs at the knee. "Is that supposed to be a deterrent or an incentive?"

Wide-eyed, Jane swallowed her bite of lasagna. Maura was leaning back, relaxed, against the back of the couch watching her through lidded eyes. Jane put another forkful in her mouth trying to come up with a response.

Maura chuckled low and deep her throat and reached out to grab Jane's knee for balance so she could lean over her lap to steal a slice of apple; knowing she'd made her point when Jane suddenly stopped chewing until she sat back up. "Did you have a chance to read the forensics report on the skeletons yet?"

Exhaling audibly at the sudden change in topic Jane rubbed her palms over her knees for a minute, regrouping her thoughts. "Yeah I did. You might claim you're not anthropologist but you were pretty darn close. I did notice that they said the two better preserved specimens showed stress cracking indicating that while they were protected from direct contact with most environmental pressures, that they were exposed repeatedly to extremes in temperatures."

Maura let out a contented sigh as she leaned shoulder to shoulder against Jane. "Harvard's team believes that they may have been stored in a cave. The bones do show some trace mineral deposits that would indicate there was some moisture in the environment and the deposits came back as mix of minerals we generally call granite which is regionally pervasive in New England."

Feeling Maura relaxed against her was soothing. The warmth along Jane's side, enjoyable. "Great, so a cave with granite in New England, for a second round of fun we'll look for a needle in a haystack."

"You know we use that idiom somewhat incorrectly. Originally it was written as needle in a bottle of hay, when bottle referred to bundle. Later it was adapted to haystack and today most hay is baled so perhaps we should call it finding a needle in a bale of hay." At ease the words reflexively poured out of Maura.

She grimaced a bit when she realized she was lecturing and regretted her outburst until she realized Jane was relaxed against her, listening, just like she used to. How many times had she daydreamed this moment in Africa? Maura's throat tightened and she blinked hard.

Utterly content sitting side by side, it took Jane a few minutes to realize that Maura had stopped talking. Her phone buzzed and she glanced at it with a frown, the alarm reminded her that it was time to get to her appointment.

Jane stood and stretched. "I have to leave so I can make it through Quincy in time." She glanced at Maura who had sat up a bit and was fussing with the leftovers on the table. Jane could feel the apprehension in her movements. The detective in her took a chance. "Want to come with me?"

Jane could see practically see the anxiety wash out of Maura and she had a delighted smile on her face. "My reports can wait and I'll take Inez's home. I'd like to see Moon Island." Maura walked over to her closet and pulled out her bag and an empty tote for their leftovers.

"Okay I have to run upstairs for my keys first. Want to meet down here or upstairs?" Jane snagged the tote out of Maura's hands and loaded it with the containers from dinner.

"Don't bother. We can just take my car." Maura pulled her coat out and slid into it watching Jane try to mask the hesitation. She held back a smile while holding up a set of keys. "I was in the mood to drive the Mercedes this morning."

Maura headed for her office door confident Jane was following, grinning as she heard her office door close behind her as Jane rapidly caught up.

"Okay we'll take your car but I still want to drive." Jane eyed the keys in Maura's hands wondering if she could steal them. Maura looked over her shoulder pointedly and wrapped her fist around the keys.

Dark eyes pleaded.

"Alright Rizzoli I'll let you drive on the condition you do not jump the green lights. I just ate and my stomach can't take it." Maura dangled the keys out.

"I don't jump green lights Maura. My foot just slipped." Jane tossed the keys up and down.

Maura rolled her eyes. "Once I could buy. However, statistically abnormal reoccurrence would lead me to believe you have a transient tic disorder brought out by green lights and this car. In theory you absolutely should not be driving."

"I thought we talked about you and the diagnosing." Jane unlocked the car and opened the passenger door for Maura before cheerfully trotting over to the driver side and eagerly buckling in. "Are we ready?"

Maura was shaking her head. "No."

Jane adjusted Maura's mirrors "Let's rephrase the question. Are you buckled in?"

She gave a drawn out sigh. "Yes."

"Good enough." Jane put the car into drive.


A/N – quick thank you to everyone for the support with that last beast of a chapter. It was appreciated and made it worth the editing nightmare :)