A/N: Sorry it has taken so long to update. My job takes up a majority of my time and since I get paid for that, well ... anyway, I am sorry about the lack of updates. I don't care how busy my work life is though, I do finish fics I start and I have this one pretty well mapped out to the end. I just need the time to write. Thanks again for your patience.

Maura got off the phone with Jane, smiling. She had been trying not to get her hopes up too much since the other night, but for the first time since this had started she felt like Jane and her were turning a corner

She knew there was still a long time to go before things could ever be like it was before but having some sort of progress was better than nothing.

The intimacy she and Jane shared the other night had felt so familiar to her, but even during it she had to force herself not to return the touches. She had no way of knowing if they would be welcomed by Jane. And she wondered if she hadn't been a little selfish in that she didn't want Jane to stop so she was afraid to touch her in case Jane would have frozen up on her.

She loved Jane.

The hurt she had felt when she thought Jane had cheated on her was nothing compared to the pain of when she thought Jane was dead.

She felt her whole life collapse, yet she couldn't bring herself to care that it was. All that mattered to her was that Jane was dead and she wanted to be dead and join her.

Now she had Jane back – at least part of her was and Maura wanted to hold on to that.

Being there, watching Jane at the doctor's office while she was in the room with the VR unit, Maura had gotten chills. While she wasn't experiencing it like Jane was experiencing it she couldn't help but feel like was once again in the basement room looking in on Jane being held captive.

She had tried to get back to work and concentrate afterward but found her mind kept wandering throughout the day. It didn't help that the body that had been pulled from the water – at the simplest details at least – the hair, height, body type – were similar to Jane. The body had been so water logged and having been in the water so long it had trauma you would expect to see from fish so getting an accurate picture of what she looked like was not working. But there was enough there for Maura to see she was probably very beautiful.

Even working on the autopsy Maura had to keep herself from thinking it was like working on Jane's body.

During the time Jane was thought to be dead Maura had a nightmare that she was the one performing Jane's autopsy and today brought that dream back into her mind.

When Jane came home she was distant, and Maura let her be. They still had dinner together, but there wasn't much talking as Jane was disappointed over her trip to the prison.

Jane was sitting on the couch watching SportsCenter although Maura could tell she wasn't paying attention to it really.

"The Globe will send over the proof tomorrow of our announcement of the recommitment ceremony for one of us to check over and approve," Maura said finally to break up the silence. "I will take care of it if you wish."

"That'd be great," Jane said as she began flipping through the channels.

The announcement would let the public know that she and Jane and were planning on renewing their vows and hopefully it would force Samantha to try something. Drawing her out was their best play at this point. Maura truly believed that Samantha wouldn't be able to handle her and Jane making such a public display because to her it would be akin to losing Jane once more.

To pull off faking Jane's death and framing Maura, Samantha must have spent a lot of time planning it out. Perhaps it was their marriage in the first place that had put Samantha on that path.

She wondered again when it was that Sam had become so fixated on Jane – was it an immediate thing, was it when Jane wouldn't go to New York with her – what had it been that sparked all of this?

"Do you mind if I ask you something?"

This got Jane to stop changing the channels and look at her. She didn't answer yes or no, so Maura took it as a sign she should proceed.

"We know Sam manipulates things to be in her favor, but is it something she did when you were dating?"

Jane turned back to the television and Maura figured it was her way of cutting off any such conversation. The only sounds were those of the channels being changed again.

"I don't know," Jane said suddenly. "I know I didn't see anything as manipulation at the time. Looking back, I guess …" She turned the television off and readjusted so she was facing Maura. "We didn't keep our relationship secret exactly, but we weren't really open about it either. For me, I didn't want to be the stereotypical lesbian cop but for her, well she just didn't seem to care if people knew about us or not. She didn't care if we didn't really go out a lot in public together. Yeah, we would catch a Red Sox game or go to dinner, but even when we did that there weren't a lot of public displays if you get my meaning. But once we were home, that all changed. It was like we were around each other a lot, would hold hands while we were watching tv and stuff. When we were dating I liked how things were between us but after Hoyt … nothing had changed exactly. There we were in my place and she was living there with me just like before but this time I felt suffocated by her and that led to me kicking her out of my life. So I guess now that I have a different perspective I wonder if we didn't go out in public so much not because it was what I wanted, but because it was what she wanted. She wanted me all to herself and I essentially let that happen. I don't know that it was manipulation or not. I do know now that she's not ever going to stop unless I stop her."

"We are going to stop her," Maura said. "I know you feel like we have been running around without direction with this at times, but I believe we will end this."

"Believe?" Jane asked, her eyebrows lifting. "What happened to the Maura I know who didn't make such statements without evidence to back it up?"

Maura smiled. "Well my wife taught me that sometimes you have to take things on faith."

"She sounds like a smart woman."

"She is," Maura said.

Jane moved closer and gave her a kiss.

…

"Morning Ma," Jane said as she paid for her coffee at the café Friday morning.

"Good morning Janie," she replied. "Anything you want to tell me?"

Jane looked at her in confusion.

"I went down to see Maura yesterday, but she wasn't in her office. On her desk was a print out for a recommitment ceremony."

"Oh yeah, it's going to be in the Globe on Sunday."

"And when were you going to tell your mother?"

"Um … Sunday?"

"Janie!"

"What? We were going to tell you together at the family dinner."

"It's Friday," Angela said. "This is hardly enough time to prepare a celebratory dinner."

"Ma you don't have to do anything special," Jane said. "Just a normal dinner. Normal, ok?"

"Ok, be that way."

Jane gave her mom one last look before heading upstairs. On her way up she pulled out her phone and texted Maura. "Ma is planning on a special dinner for Sunday, just so you know. She saw the newspaper announcement."

The reply was quick in coming.

"Your mother means well."

"I suppose," Jane responded.

Getting up to her desk, she plopped down in her seat and took a large drink of her coffee.

"You free Sunday?" Jane asked Frost.

"Sure, what's up?

"Korsak, what about you?"

"Yes. Rizzoli family dinner?"

"Yeah, ma is going to go all out so we can celebrate the recommitment ceremony."

"So you want us to set up surveillance in case Sam tries something?" Frost asked.

"No. I want the people who are important in my life to be there," Jane said. "Besides you know how my mom is, she will cook enough to feed a small army."

"Hey me and I my stomach will be there," Frost said.

"Good," Jane said taking another drink of her coffee. "Now let's get to work."

They still didn't have an identity of the woman found in the water. No one matching her description had been listed as missing even with the expanded nationwide search that Frost had conducted. They also had a separate case from yesterday but that one appeared to be a domestic – a man killed his wife, but now he was on the run.

…

Jane was tired when the alarm went off on Sunday morning. Groaning as she turned over to turn it off and then immediately closed her eyes again. She hadn't gotten in until around 4 a.m. that morning.

They had tracked down the man who had killed his wife and arrested him at his brother's house. There were kids in the house so they had staked out the place and thankfully the guy had ended up giving up but only after a four-hour standoff. Then there was the booking and paperwork to go through – meaning it was a late night for her and Frost.

Maura had woken briefly when she came to bed, but only long enough to ask her how it had went.

Jane hadn't heard Maura get out of bed that morning. She looked at the time – she hadn't set the alarm which meant Maura had - and saw it was noon which only made her groan again. That meant her mother would be there already to prepare dinner.

She usually needed a cup of coffee before dealing with her mother.

Getting up, she showered – taking her time so that the water would help wake her up. Once she was done and dressed she made the inevitable trip out to the kitchen where her mother was indeed in the midst of cooking with Maura right beside her.

"Morning Ma," Jane said.

"It's the afternoon," Angela said. "But I understand you had a late night."

"Both Frost and me did," Jane said, yawning even as Maura slid a cup of coffee over to her. "Thanks Maur."

"Well I was telling Maura that your article in the paper was very lovely," Angela said.

"Oh, yeah, I actually haven't seen it."

Maura slid the paper over to her and Jane picked it up while sipping her coffee.

RIZZOLI RECOMMITMENT CEREMONY

Dear Jane,

The day we got married was the happiest of my life. The moment you said "I do," I saw our lives together stretching out into the infinite unknown. The unknown didn't scare me though because I knew you would be there with me.

Despite what we have gone through over the last year, what matters is that we are still together.

When you asked me to have a recommitment ceremony – to show the world once again that your love is mine, I knew that there was nothing more I wanted.

So yes my love, on June 18, we will once again stand before family and friends in the same place we first exchanged vows to rededicate the love we share.

I know in my heart nothing will ever tear us apart again.

Love, Maura

Jane finished reading, put the paper down and got out of her seat, coming around the counter and hugged her wife. "That was beautiful," she said kissing her.

"I thought an open letter might get more attention," Maura said.

"I don't care if it gets her attention," Jane said. "It wasn't meant for her, it was meant for me."

Jane gave her a couple of more kisses, squeezing her in tight.

"Girls," Angela said, after a moment. "Perhaps you could save your affection for later and help me out here."

Jane gave her another kiss before letting her go so they could help her mother. She didn't miss the smile that Angela gave her once Maura's back was closed.

Maura was smiling as the day went on. When the rest of the family and their friends got there – including Maura's mother – it felt like it had before. Korsak ate too much and complimented Angela's food over and over again, Frankie and Frost were debating which were the best cartoons growing up, Constance who called Maura every week now and kept in constant contact spent a lot of time talking to Angela and her about the recommitment ceremony.

And throughout it, Jane seemed more relaxed than Maura had seen her since all of this started. She laughed and joked with the guys, occasionally rolled her eyes at her mom, helped clear the dishes and sought out Maura out for a kiss or a touch.

After everyone left and everything was cleaned up, they were sitting on the couch, Maura leaning against Jane who had her arm around her.

"Today was a good day," Jane said.

"Yes it was."

Jane shifted positions so she could kiss her and they kept kissing for a while until the doorbell rang.

"I swear if that is ma," Jane said getting up.

"Since when does she ring the front bell," Maura said.

"Good point," Jane replied. "Stay here, I will see who it is."

She got to the door and opened it to fine Cavanaugh standing there.

"Detective," he said. "Mind if I come in?"

"Um, no sure," Jane said moving out of the way.

"Is Dr. Isles here?"

"Yeah, just in here," Jane said leading the way into the main room where Maura had already gotten to her feet.

"I'm sorry to show up here like this, but I thought it best to tell you in person."

"Tell me what?"

"The body, the Jane Doe from the water. We got an ID. I knew you were both off today and with the announcement in the paper I didn't want to disturb you until it was confirmed through dental records."

"Who is she?" Jane asked. "Someone we know?"

He shook his head. "Her name is Penny. Penny Moscot. She's from New York."

Jane looked over at Maura. "Sam's former girlfriend."

"You are absolutely sure?" Maura asked stepping forward.

"Yes. It took so long because Penny had apparently been fired from her job a while back and no one really knew she was missing for sure. But when she didn't pay her rent the landlord began asking questions to her neighbors and went into her apartment but there was no sign she had been there recently. He called the cops and they began to investigate which is why there was a delay before she was added to the NYPD missing persons database," Cavanaugh said. "We got a hit today; one of the other detectives looked into it and NYPD sent over the dental records and they matched. Not only did I think you two deserved to hear this in person but given Penny's connection to Samantha, you are both off of the investigation."

"But …"

"No," Cavanaugh said interrupting her. "Don't argue with me about this detective. If this is indeed connected to Samantha, and frankly it would be an awful big coincidence if it weren't, then Samantha isn't just the suspect in your kidnapping, she is now a murder suspect. I already wanted to get this woman because of what she did to you, but you add this to it … we're going to get her. Your announcement was in the paper today and we're going forward with the plan. If she was involved in the murder then she's been here and could be here still. I want to put officers here."

This time it was Jane saying no. "You put officers out there and it's gonna scare her off or keep her from acting."

"I appreciate that, but I'm not willing to take chance with you or Dr. Isles' lives."

"I'm here, I'll protect her. I won't let her out of my sight if I have to," Jane said. "As for my life, Sam isn't going to get anywhere near me again – not like that. Never again."