This chapter's a bit longer, but only because I didn't like where I had split it between chapter three and four, because of the content that I wanted to have in each of them.

Enjoy.

Maura drove Jane home once she had stopped crying. Neither spoke on the way, both afraid that they wouldn't be able to keep it together if they spoke.

Once in the apartment, Maura ordered a pizza while Jane sat on the couch. She opened the fridge, not really all that surprised to see that there was only milk and beer in there. Shaking her head, she grabbed two beers and walked to the couch to give Jane one of them.

"Thanks," Jane said, voice cracking a little. Maura nodded and opened her beer, taking a sip and closing her eyes to savor it. It had been a while since she'd drunk a beer; she found that she had missed it. "No beer on your trip?"

Maura looked at Jane to see her smirking, though it lacked its usual shine in her eyes. "No, there wasn't. I did have lots of wine though, many straight from the vineyards in Europe."

"Fascinating."

"I brought quite a bit back. You'll have to try a few," Maura said, looking forward and not at Jane. There was a positive noise, and then silence.

"That all you're gonna tell me about your adventures?" Maura shook her head, but didn't continue. Jane sighed. "You wanna talk about this… whatever first don't you?"

"I would like to touch on the subject some," Maura admitted. She looked at Jane and studied her. "I would like to know what happened to you. You look…"

"Like shit, I know. Hard to care when…" Jane shook her head, but forced a smile, knowing that it would fall short of looking like anything but uncomfortable. "I was awful, after the first couple weeks. I mean, I figured you'd be back after a few weeks and even if we weren't talking at least you'd still be there. Then you didn't come back."

Maura had the decency to look guilty at that. "You're right, I didn't. And I was selfish in my desire to stay away."

Jane grunted and took a drink. A knock announced the arrival of the pizza, so Jane got up to get plates while Maura paid the delivery man and took the pizza to counter.

"Why did you let go so much?" Maura asked, going back to the conversation regarding Jane's appearance.

"Where was the point?" Jane asked with a shrug.

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean."

Jane considered her words carefully for a moment. "You always say your fault is that you aren't good at being social, to be around live people, right?" Maura nodded. "Well, my fault is that I don't let people in. When you were gone, you felt you were able to be social because of me, right?" Another nod and Maura's eyes widened as she realized what Jane was implying. "You were the one I had let in. And you left me."

"Jane…"

Jane shrugged and, putting pizza on her plate, escaped to the couch again. Maura quickly followed suit, but she put her plate aside to focus solely on Jane. Jane, on the other hand, was pointedly ignoring her. A thought occurred to Maura as she considered what Jane said.

"What about Dean?"

Jane snorted, quickly swallowing the bite she'd taken before she choked on it. "Fuck him. I trusted him with the whole Doyle thing because I wanted to be able to protect you somehow. And he gave me his word he'd hold back until I gave him the go ahead. If the dick hadn't gone to the warehouse, who's to say what would have happened? Maybe Doyle wouldn't be dead. If I'd been in Doyle's shoes, I'd have pointed a gun at me too if I'd been shot by a Fed and didn't know if someone else would shoot me too. And if Doyle hadn't shot a Fed and turned the gun on me and Frost, maybe I wouldn't have shot him."

Maura nodded. "That's true. I had considered all of that."

Jane hummed and took a drink. "What made you bring him up, anyway?"

"I assumed he had been let in, since you engaged in intercourse."

"No way, he wasn't let in. I slept with him, yes, but he definitely didn't make it that far under my skin. You, on the other hand, have full access." Jane sighed. "He tried to touch me when he woke up, before I was awake, and I smacked his hand away."

Maura couldn't help but laugh. "I almost feel sorry for him."

"Yeah, well don't. He sucked in the sack, extremely boring," Jane told her, unable to keep from laughing along with her.

As they settled and the TV was turned on, Maura thought that perhaps Jane would recover now. And, perhaps even she would be able to as well.

Jane woke up with a weight on her right side and peeked open one eye to see a mess of blond hair. She couldn't help the smile that broke out on her face as she closed her eye and basked in the feeling of the other woman cuddled into her side.

She felt Maura take a deep breath, signaling her waking.

A moment later, Jane spoke. "I must admit, sleeping with you is definitely comfortable. I always sleep better."

"Studies have said that humans tend to-" A hand was placed over her mouth.

"Maura, I love your googlemouth and I have totally missed it, but it's too early," Jane groaned, detaching herself from the blond to get up and go to the bathroom.

She missed the smile Maura wore after she heard Jane say she loved her "googlemouth." If she'd seen it, she'd have probably questioned why she had a silly look on her face. Then she'd probably joke about the fact that there was a silly look on her face after waking up next to her, and spout off some innuendo to hide behind.

Maura frowned. Or would Jane have just let it be? After all, Jane wasn't quite who she was before the separation. And even though she felt they had made progress since Friday night, she could tell Jane was still holding back. She just wished she knew what was making Jane so hesitant.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Jane came back. "I know you're not gonna like this, but since you wore the only thing of yours I still had here yesterday, you'll have to go home in my clothes or wrinkled unwashed clothes."

Maura made a face. She hadn't thought about that. Of course, staying over last night had been entirely accidental. "I suppose I can make do with your clothes, so long as they aren't dirty."

"I'll even dig out my ironing board and you can make doubly sure their de-wrinkled," Jane joked until she saw Maura's face brighten. "Maura, do you really think I own an iron, let alone an ironing board?"

And then the face fell. Jane sighed.

"Oh, Jane, I'll manage. It's not like I'll be in your clothes all day and in public," Maura told her, getting up to go to the bathroom. Jane chuckled at her, because Maura was wearing her clothes right now too. And she wondered if she ever made those shorts look that sexy, or if it was just Maura.

Most likely, it was just Maura.

Maura was roped into helping Angela cook, and Jane happily sat on the couch with Bass at her feet. She had a socked foot rubbing his shell, something she'd discovered by accident that he seemed to enjoy. But she didn't question it, because who was she to deny the tortoise?

"You seem pretty cozy with that turtle," Tommy commented as he sat down, sinking into the chair.

"Tortoise," Jane and Maura corrected him, earning Jane a bright smile from Maura that she didn't see because her eyes were on the TV. "We bonded over strawberries, okay? Besides, he's not so bad once you get to know him." Frankie laughed. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing," Frankie said, trying to hold in his laughter.

"Bass is awesome," Jane said, pushing him in the shoulder, "in his own way. He may not be as interactive as Jo, but at least he's appreciative and doesn't demand a lot."

"Which is why you're rubbing your foot on his shell?" Frankie asked.

"You scare him, and he likes it, so this is me comforting him in a way," Jane explained, shooting him a dirty look. "Back off, all right? Me and Bass are buddies."

"Bass and I," she heard Maura correct her.

Jane smirked. "Right, Bass and I are buddies."

Frankie started at the sight of the smirk. It wasn't like the half-hearted smirks he'd seen, and it was almost frightening.

"What the hell are you looking at?" she mumbled, turning to Bass because she didn't really want an answer. "Hey, bud, how about a strawberry? I bet I can get Maura to bring one over to give you."

"No. You do not need to spoil his dinner," Maura answered. Jane scoffed, and whispered that she'd get him a couple strawberries later. "I heard that Jane. Bass will get a strawberry or two with dinner. You've got him spoiled enough already."

"You're just jealous because I give him strawberries," Jane retorted, looking over her shoulder at her friend.

Maura raised an eyebrow in her. "I don't see how that has anything to do with this. Bass getting strawberries would be like allowing him to eat dessert all the time. As for me, getting strawberries would be a healthy snack. There isn't a proper correlation there."

"Fine, then you are just jealous I don't let you eat dessert all the time," Jane said, adding a wink just for fun. Frankie and Tommy burst out laughing, causing Jane to miss the color on Maura's cheeks as she realized what that could imply.

"All right, kids, be good," Angela said just to remind them she was here. "Maura, would you mind getting a salad put together?"

"Hm? Oh, of course not," Maura said, glad to have something to distract her from the thoughts Jane had pulled unbidden from within her. At one time, intimate thoughts about Jane weren't uncommon, but she wasn't usually affected too much by them. She thought it was because she and Jane had a very close friendship. But during her absence she was afraid they had become all too common, and Maura had a hard time figuring out how she felt about that.

Maura felt unbalanced.

After dinner and cleanup, and once the other Rizzoli's had left, Jane fell onto the couch with some strawberries, waiting for Bass to make it over to her. Maura had tried to tell her not to feed him any but Jane wouldn't have it since Maura didn't give Bass any with his dinner.

"Come on, Maura. It's us time. Me and Bass and the strawberries."

"Bass and I. And you already have him spoiled. I would like to get him back on a proper eating schedule again with a proper diet."

"Maura…" Jane whined.

And of course, Maura gave in. She watched as Bass made his way to the couch fairly quickly and smiled, happy to see that he liked Jane finally. They had never gotten along before, mostly because Jane wanted nothing to do with him and Bass was too scared of her to even give her a chance.

She watched Jane lean over to give him a strawberry, and then ate one herself.

"I hadn't been informed that you would be eating them too," Maura said.

"Well, yeah. It's us time, so we share them. Did you really think I was going to feed him six strawberries, Maura?" Jane asked with a smirk. Maura refused to comment, choosing instead walk around the couch and lift Jane's legs to sit down, her feet landing in Maura's lap. Jane leaned down to give Bass another strawberry, and offered the other to Maura, who took it graciously.

Silence fell over them. Maura, needing something to do besides follow her thoughts, started to rub Jane's feet. She heard Jane hum in content, her lips turning up at the thought that she was giving Jane something.

Jane was so lost in the sensation that she was surprised to hear the TV come on. Opening one eye, she groaned. "What? No, we are not watching… whatever this is."

Maura kept the remote, lips quivering as she tried not to smile and to keep a serious look on her face. Jane's eyes narrowed and she set the bowl on the side before sitting up and putting her feet on the floor. She scooted a little closer to Maura, and waited. She saw Maura's eyes glance over to her, and then Jane grinned as her finger jabbed at Maura's spot in her side.

Maura yelped, jumping up and away from Jane, who nabbed the remote and jumped into her previous position, pretending not to notice the glare Maura was sending her. "You are insufferable."

Jane sent her a bright grin. "You love me."

Maura felt something in her chest at the words.

Monday morning, Frost looked up to see Jane walk in looking tired but with a little more life to her. Korsak had told him about Friday when he came in, so he had prepared for the worst. Instead, he found himself looking at Jane with a smirk.

Jane was in her seat before she noticed. Her eyes narrowed at him. "What are you looking at?"

"You," he answered coyly. "You have a good weekend?"

"Maybe, what's it to you?" Jane asked, pointedly ignoring him. Frost shook his head, but wasn't given a chance to answer before they were called away for a body and the conversation was set aside to be brought up later.

Just so you know, I will probably elude to cases but I won't delve into them. I haven't quite gotten the hang of crime writing. My mind jumps around too much for me to be able to keep the evidence straight and all that. So, I hope that's not a problem.