The next morning, Maura left for an early appointment, and Jane found it a little odd that she woke up alone. Usually Maura stayed for breakfast or woke up her to say goodbye (which, even if Jane moaned made her lose sleep, she quite liked). She couldn't help worrying that maybe Maura was getting nervous about Jake's time coming up soon. When there was a knock at the door, Jane hurried to answer it, though she realized pretty quickly that of course Maura wouldn't be knocking to get into her own home.

It turned out to be Adelaide, who started off with: "I won't have any sass from you today, Jane. I've come to tell you something very important, and I'll be darned if I have to leave because you're rude to me at the first."

"Something important? What about?"

"An old case I believe you were interested in."

Jane's eyes narrowed. "A…which is that?"

Adelaide invited herself in, waltzing across the floor to the sofa. She beckoned for Jane to follow, and the deputy warily did so, settling on the chair near the end of the couch. Picking at some imaginary dust on the cushion next to her, Adelaide cleared her throat.

"Do you remember that school teacher you used to loathe so much?" Adelaide asked, her eyes on the floor. "A Miss Dolores?"

"How could I forget her?" Jane snorted. "Woman made my life a living hell."

"I didn't care for her myself," Adelaide said. "She spent far too much time with my sister."

"Your sister," Jane said slowly. "Which one did…" Her eyes widened. "Kathleen?"

"Kathleen. The one who never married. The one who ran away."

Jane's mouth hung open, and she straightened up in her chair. "So—what, did you hear from her? Did she… tell you she saw Miss Dolores, or somethin'?"

"No," Adelaide said. "I haven't heard from Kathleen for nearly twenty years. Not since she and Dolores ran off together." She looked pointedly at Jane, and saw realization register in those dark brown eyes. Jane leaned back in the chair, suddenly anxious about sitting this close to Adelaide. Addie, though, leaned closer to her. She pulled a small slip of paper from her sleeve, and handed it to Jane. It was a photograph of an empty room—a beautifully decorated room, but with no people in it. "You see this? That was to be Kathleen's first portrait. She was twenty-two at the time. But she refused to sit for it unless Dolores was allowed to be photographed with her."

"And Mr. Johns didn't want two people in the picture?"

"I didn't want two people in the picture," Adelaide said. She swallowed hard and avoided Jane's gaze, keeping her own eyes on the photograph. "I had told Kathleen time and again that she would never get married if she didn't start spending more time with men and less time with her best friend. I had gone to Dolores and asked her to please see the truth in this, and to please encourage Kathleen to start spending time with other people. Both of them refused. And Kathleen did not show up for her portrait, because I would not allow Dolores to be in it with her."

Jane found it hard to speak. Her voice didn't sound like her own when she said, "You took the picture anyway."

"The room had been set up. I liked it. I liked the arrangement of those flowers, for instance."

"So…" Jane flitted the photograph restlessly.

Adelaide took it from her. "So one night Kathleen did not come home. You know she lived with me and Mr. Johns at the time, and perhaps she'd spent many nights elsewhere, and this was the first I'd noticed of it. I went to Dolores' house to see if maybe she knew where Kathleen had gone, and… well, I suppose it's my fault for not having knocked first, but… I saw this woman in my sister wrapped in quite a familiar embrace."

"How familiar?" Jane asked weakly.

Addie sighed. "They were kissing, Jane. As a husband and a wife might kiss. They were wearing traveling clothes, and there was luggage on the floor. I did not ask them to stay, to reconsider. I did not beg my sister to remain. I told her never to write to me once they'd gone." Adelaide's voice had gotten weaker, and for the first time, she actually sounded as old as she looked—which, Jane realized, was older than she ever had seemed in even the recent past. Her voice was reedy, and when she took a deep breath, it rattled. "My youngest sister, Jane. My responsibility. My own. And I let her leave."

Jane kneaded her hands together, staring at the same spot on the floor that Adelaide herself had claimed. "You're sorry you didn't stop her from throwin' her life away, huh?"

"I'm sorry I didn't just turn a blind eye," Adelaide responded. "I know that you, Jane, of all people, can appreciate the importance of family. That it is not to be taken for granted. Sometimes our families do bad things. Sometimes they take actions we cannot understand, and do not wish to understand. I had no control over Kathleen and the choice she made. But I did have control over myself, and how I chose to act in response. Coldly. Cowardly." She straightened up with a deep breath as she considered the empty photograph once more. "You know," she said casually. "Your Maura resembles Kathleen quite a bit, if I remember correctly."

"You ain't gonna tell me I look like Dolores, are ya?" Jane asked with a weak laugh.

"Heavens, no. You're a sight more handsome than she ever was, Calamity Jane!"

They chuckled over that, and Jane finally caught the old woman's eye. She was hesitant to say much else, afraid that Addie was about to reveal she felt that Jane was holding Maura back, that she ought to leave. Or maybe that they both ought to leave.

"I hate to think that I chased my own sister away," Adelaide said. "I know my attitude did not help, and I… I would hope to provide some sort of balance of justice by standing by your side. I should like very much to take a proper portrait of the two of you, if you'd let me."

She pulled another photograph from her sleeve and handed it to Jane, pressing it into her palm before getting to her feet. As Adelaide walked towards the door, Jane looked down at the picture, which she only barely remembered taking: she and Maura had been on their way to confront Angela, and had stopped in at Adelaide's first. An open parasol, held over Maura's shoulder, kept them in silhouette from the shoulders up. A lump rose in Jane's throat as she saw they were practically nose-to-nose.

"Adelaide," she whispered, standing up and turning around. She did not go to the door. "How…" She had to wait a moment for emotion to pass, for the ability to get these words out without tears interrupting. "How did you know?"

"I didn't for certain," Adelaide admitted. "But suffice it to say I only did know for certain quite recently and quite innocently. Treat that woman well, Jane. For whatever reason, you have chosen her to cling to in this life. You'd better damn make sure it's worth it."

"Rizzoli, you okay there?"

Riley's voice barely registered with Jane, but she sat up a little when the woman gave her shoulder a shake. They were sitting in Korsak's office with Frost, all gathered for a meeting as Frankie stood guard outside. But it had been clear since Jane had gotten there that she wasn't paying much attention; her gaze kept dropping to the floor and she was unresponsive when addressed. Frost had attributed it to her being nervous about the proposed plan, and when she did not refute the assertion that she was scared, Korsak knew something had to be amiss.

"What? Sorry, I'm here," she muttered, rubbing her eyes and looking at Korsak. "You said you heard back from Dr. Pike?"

"Yup," Korsak said, tossing the letter at Jane. "He works just outside of Colt City, and said he'd be all too happy to drop in there for a drink with me. I may have led him on a bit about the possibility of opening up his own establishment here …by promising Dr. Isles as his assistant."

"Well then," Jane snorted. "Ain't so much of a surprise that he's so eager to help."

"We'll arrange a drink at the Silver Spur, and Maura will come along to help seal it up. Then who'll make an appearance but that cad Jake Wyatt!" he said with a theatrical flourish, pointing at Riley, who held her hand up in mock celebration. "Silver Spur's a place for gentlemen, and I don't care how much the bounty on Jake Wyatt is worth—you ain't likely to find a soul in there brave enough to take on Jake. He'll ask for takers on a poker game, and that's where Jane comes in."

"Goody," Jane muttered.

Korsak didn't hear her. "Frost, you'll bring her, as you're the one who'll have found out somebody was going around posturing as your boss. Now, Jane. Don't start a scene in the saloon, all right?"

"I know. Take it outside."

"After you make sure you've sold your legitimacy on everyone else. I don't care how you do it, but do it. You and Frost'll ride Riley out of town, far enough away that you won't have any onlookers—you know that stretch on the road towards Mesa? Well, stay off the road. Away from buildings, away from other travelers. Get so nobody'll see it comin' when Frost rides back askin' for a doctor."

"Because I won?" Riley clarified.

"Exactly. Don't you let on to the Sheriff there that you're a woman, though. He might feel kinda funny handing over the bounty that way. You're too young to be a veteran, so… let's make you a cavalry man. Tell him with your reward money, you'd have enough to send for your family and raise all your boys in Colt City. He won't be able to deny you that. Then you leave, take your share, and give the rest to Frost."

"How do we know we can trust this Dr. Pike?" Riley asked. "I mean, does he get a cut, or how come he won't spill?"

"He'll be drunk," Korsak scoffed. "Pike's good at acting like an ass, but a convincing doctor when he wants to be. He won't be able to resist the chance to check out Jake Wyatt's corpse."

"You saying he won't be able to tell?"

"I'm saying that if we set it up just so, we can make him believe Jane's dead without having to kill her," Korsak said. "The Sheriff knows him and knows he's a good doctor, so his word can be trusted. But we know him better. You just gotta play on his pride, and you'll have him the palm of your hand. Make it look like Jake Wyatt's dead, and the coward will say he's dead, just for the honor of being the man who called it first."

"And then I ride off back into the sunset, and Jake's gone," Jane muttered. "Yippie-kai-yay."

"Sounds fool-proof," Riley said with a shrug.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Ain't nothin' fool-proof," she said, getting to her feet. "But it'll do. We done here, Korsak?"

"Day after tomorrow, we head out," Korsak said, also standing. He clapped an arm around Jane's shoulder. "Why don't you let me walk you to you horse, deputy?"

"I walked here."

"Well, I'll walk a ways with you, then." Before Jane could argue, he cheerfully took her elbow and dragged her through the swinging double doors outside his office. Frankie tipped his hat as they passed, and Korsak nodded, but Jane gave no indication she had seen her brother. As they started to walk down the street, Korsak asked casually, "You nervous, Jane?"

"No."

"It's just that you don't seem very excited about this plan. Which, by the way, was all your idea in the first place." She shrugged. "Everything all right with the doc?" he asked, and he knew he'd hit it by the way Jane bristled. "I thought you said she was gonna be at that meeting. Said she wanted to be in on everything."

"She did. Does. I'll tell her what happened."

"Hey," Korsak said, stopping and putting his hand back on Jane's shoulder. Even though she'd been taller than him for some time now, it still felt a little funny to him that he had to look up at her. Right now she was wearing what Angela had always called her "wounded puppy dog look," which Korsak had to admit was an apt description. Jane's eyes had been tinged red when she'd arrived for the meeting, and Korsak couldn't help wondering if it was related to some sort of marital spat or … mourning for Jake? He nodded to the side, and they ducked into an empty alley way. "You be straight with me, Jane. You feel okay about this?"

"Yeah," she said a little breathlessly, though she didn't meet his eye. "Yeah, Korsak, I do."

"I hope it ain't out of line for me to say I'm a little worried about ya. I just mean that I know Jake's been a big part of your life for quite some time, now. It might be hard for you to let go of him."

"I been gettin' ready to," Jane said, cracking her knuckles. "And I can do it, Korsak. Ain't gonna be a problem, I promise. I'll be glad to be rid of him." Her features darkened. "He didn't come from a happy place."

"Yeah, kid. I know. But…if you're nervous about it, you can tell me, y'know? I always …I always felt a little bad that I didn't go out looking with ya, Jane. It's not so much that I expected you would ask me, but when I found out you had a partner and it wasn't me, I felt like maybe I'd let ya down."

Jane's eyes widened in honest surprise. "You? Korsak, don't ever say that. You didn't let me down; I let you down. You saw me when I was weak. When I was nothin'. How could I ever—how could you ever think I'd have your back when ya saw Hoyt had taken the rug out from under me? Hell, sometimes I still can't believe ya hired me to—"

"Jane." She looked down and realized Korsak had both her hands in his own. "You were a kid when that happened, and you handled it braver than many a soldier I've known. Life socked ya in the teeth, and you spat 'em back out, waiting for the adult ones to grow in 'cause you weren't gonna just sit back and swallow that misery. That's what makes you a great deputy. That's how I know you're gonna pull off this job all right. That, and the fact that you've got someone waitin' for you to come home or come home to every night." He gave her hands a gentle squeeze. "Ain't that something, Jane?"

She gulped and took a step back. "Yeah, Korsak. It sure is."

That night when Jane came home, Maura was indeed waiting for her-in bed, in fact. She looked apologetic about something, and Jane could tell it was about having been to Colt City.

"I was afraid."

Jane went lie next to her on the bed, not bothering to change her clothes, but Maura kept her gaze upwards. "What?"

Maura licked her lips. Sometimes it was hard not to feel as strong as Jane. "This whole plan, Jane, it's got me thinking so much about you... you and Jake. I was afraid," she repeated. "Of physical intimacy. It's a childish insecurity, I know. But I remember visiting galleries with my mother as a young girl, knowing women not much older than me who were married. And we would we see these statues on display. Nudes. Nothing much vulgar about them, which is why they were permitted, but I remember feeling a little disgusted nonetheless. Well," she considered, "disgusted is probably not the right word. But they made me nervous, uncomfortable. My mother laughed it off as my virginal, innocent self. Ladylike blushing and averted eyes. But I was afraid. I knew enough to know that at some point in my marriage, my husband and I would be unclothed and he would be…" She winced, still uncomfortable with the memory. "Inside me. And these statues, they always made it look so large and…" She knew she was blushing, and she felt embarrassed just to be relating this, even to Jane. "Intrusive."

"Maura, hey…"

Jane reached over, but Maura didn't notice, raising a hand to brush away a tear that had fallen. "When I got older, I didn't think of it so often, but it's only just occurring to me now that perhaps it's why I was all right with such a long courtship from Garrett," she said, her voice rising slightly in pitch. More tears. Not from fear, from disbelief at the realization that perhaps her longing for another type of touch had started only after she'd met Jane. "I was still thinking of that inevitability, and how I had once overheard one of my mother's friends saying men used that sort of intimacy for their own desires, their own pleasure, not the woman's. And my fantasies here, Jane, they always started with Jake but they melted into you because I didn't want him, I wanted you—"

Jane couldn't just watch any longer: she shifted over to Maura's side of the bed, reaching an arm over her and pulling her in close. Maura gasped out a sob, cringing at her sudden emotion.

"Sh, sh, sweetheart," Jane murmured, brushing the hair out of Maura's face and kissing her forehead. She cradled her close, and Maura tempered her breathing to the steady beat of Jane's heart that she could both feel and hear in this position. "Maura. Look, you ain't got nothin' to worry about, okay? It's gonna be all right."

Maura just nodded, swallowing more tears. "I know," she said thickly. "The reality of your plan, though, it's just striking me how dangerous your life has been, and how dangerous this could be. And you as Jake ...I don't know; I was all right with it to catch your imposter for some reason. But that felt so small, like it wasn't going to affect anybody else. This would be so public, and it makes me think of the life you had before we met, and how conflicted I was about you the first time I met you ...my concerns must sound silly, I know…"

"Silly? Not you, Maura. Not ever."

"No," Maura said softly. She had calmed down now, with Jane's arm curled around her shoulder. Her breath hitched as she ran her finger down Jane's chest, ending with her hand at Jane's waist. "If you were a man, Jane, I don't think it would've mattered. I would still have fallen in love with you."

"I don't think Mr. Fairfield woulda let you spend so much time with me if I'd been a man," Jane said.

"He didn't want me spending so much time around you as a woman," Maura pointed out. "So it was inevitable. You'd have given me the courage not to settle. I feel attracted to you physically, and I feel tied to you emotionally. If you feel out of sorts, I want you to talk to me about it. I don't want you to ever struggle through anything on your own, be it a battle or confusion."

"I ain't so confused anymore," Jane muttered, turning her head away. "Had a talk with Korsak today, and it really hit home for me. I liked bein' Jake more than I let on. I liked the respect I got for it, I liked makin' men feel weak compared to me. I liked makin' 'em think maybe there was someone who was stronger than them, smarter than them, one step ahead. Someone their wife would like, maybe. But all of that, it's…" She shook her head as if trying to clear it, closing her eyes and tightening her grip on Maura's shoulder. "It's chicken feed compared to how I feel when I see you. You, lookin' at me, with respect in your eyes. That's all I need, Maura. That's all I need. I don't wanna pretend to be somethin' I'm not."

"An outlaw?"

"A man. People used to joke I had to be one if I didn't wanna be no lady, and I got it in my head that I could only ever really get respect and have any kinda power or control over my own life if I acted as much like one as possible. Hell. I can't ever be President. I can't ever be a soldier. I can't help the woman I love give birth. But." She looked back at Maura, whose eyes were brimming with tears again, her hand reaching for Jane's free one under the covers. "I am a deputy. I got the respect of my community. And I have the smartest, sweetest, most beautiful woman this side of the Rockies right next to me for the long haul."

And there was the other glorious aspect of Jane that had sealed Maura's devotion to her. For all of Garrett's education and exposure to great minds both creative and technical, he had never quite been able to sweep Maura off her feet. Jane had a way with words like nobody else Maura had ever known. She had always thought it silly when her girlfriends would swoon over poetry or lyrics delivered by a well-dressed boy. She had just never expected her own swooning to overcome her thanks to a woman in fringed buckskin.

"Who would guess," Maura chuckled, "That Jane Rizzoli has pleased more women than even the legendary Jake Wyatt?"

"I've only pleased the one," Jane said.

"Exactly," Maura laughed, brushing her finger against the cleft in Jane's chin.

Jane grinned, taking Maura's hand and lifting it to her lips. "We finalized the plan today," she said after a moment's pause. "Day after tomorrow, Colt City. You, Korsak, me, Frost. And uh, Dr. Pike."

"You'll tell me the details tomorrow?" Maura half-yawned. "I'm afraid I won't be able to digest much if you told me tonight. And it's well I'll have the day's rest before we go, too. I'm afraid I might not be able to walk tomorrow." She smiled to herself when Jane chuckled, kissing her forehead. "I think this will be good, Jane. Not just because of the reward money for Frost, but for you, too. Jake, your past, won't be able to hurt you anymore." Jane was a little surprised when Maura laughed lightly. "Tommy said whenever Jake died, women would be in mourning all over the country."

"Not this one," Jane snorted. "I'm glad to be rid of him too, Maura. I dunno if I'd ever had the courage to let go of him if it weren't for you. Not just 'cause you helped us find Hoyt, either. You gave me courage I didn't think I ever had. I believe a lotta things I dunno if I'd ever even thought of if you hadn't believed in me first."

"Like what?" Maura asked, tired but interested.

"Like I told ya, I don't need to hide behind Jake for respect." Jane sighed in contentment. "Now I figure if a woman wants to be a legend, she oughtta go ahead and be one."

A/N: Yup, that last line there is a quote attributed to the real Calamity Jane. It felt fitting.

Also, that bit with Maura talking about statues...I didn't quite make that up. When one of my friends came out to me a couple of years ago, she told me she'd had those feelings the first time she went to an art museum (when she was 14), and it had felt weird to think about and sort of embarrassed her. And then when she realized a few years later that she was gay, she laughed and said that was one of the experiences that should have helped really tip her off.