Hope tip toed down the hallway, past her youngest daughters room. Cailin had been up late studying and Hope didn't want to wake her youngest daughter from some much needed rest. She slipped carefully down the stairs, grabbing her jacket and her keys before slipping out the front door. If luck was on her side, Hope could procure breakfast and coffee before her youngest rose. Hope wasn't great at being maternal but Hope knew better than most the importance of good coffee after a particularly rough study session. It was something.

Luck was not on Hope's side. Half of Boston had come out for coffee and pastries. Hope fidgeted, checking her email, shooting off responses as she waited. When she finally reached the counter, Hope placed her and Cailin's order accepting that it would 'be a few minutes'. Judging by the lingering masses, Hope expected it to be quite a while. So she found herself a chair off to the side to resume working from.

Hope is almost surprised when her order is called nearly thirty minutes late. The harried barista apologised profusely, saying they'd thrown in extra pastries to make up for the wait and then hurried on to the next person. Hope didn't even have time to offer a thank you. She opted to slip a few extra dollars in the tip jar on her way out. Hope was certain more than a few patrons would stiff the hard working baristas and Hope didn't mind doing her part to make up for them.

Hope entered the house, pausing to listen for her youngest daughter. She was pleasantly surprised to hear her eldest daughter speaking as well. Hope tip toed closer to the bottom of the stairs, hearing Cailin and Maura talk about the human genome made her smile. Hearing Jane make a joke about gnomes made Hope hide a giggle behind her hand. Hope took her goodies to the kitchen, pulling out a plate and dishing up the pastries with a side of fresh cut fruit for Cailin. Hope was just about ready to bring it all up when she heard Cailin coming down the stairs.

'Good morning dear,' Hope said with a smile for Cailin, 'I brought you coffee.'

'Coffee!' Cailin said making grabby hands at her mother, the same way she had when she was four and looking for candy. Hope chuckled as she passed the latte over.

'I heard you and Maura speaking. I didn't expect you to be done so soon,' Hope said casually sipping her own coffee. 'I was going to bring you up breakfast.'

Cailin snagged the plate from her and shoved half a croissant in her face with a moan. 'So -ungry. Fanks mum.' Hope shook her head and rolled her eyes as Cailin shovelled more food in to her mouth. Hope would be worried her daughter would choke if she hadn't witnessed this a thousand times before. 'Maura had to go,' Cailin said when she successfully swallowed an unreasonably large bite.

'Oh?' Hope asked, an eyebrow raised, 'was everything alright? I didn't think she was due back in DC until today.'

'She wasn't,' Cailin said swallowing down a second unreasonably large bite, 'she came back early to be with Jane.' Cailin squished her nose up in an icky face motion, making Hope laugh.

'She's in love,' Hope said voice full of amusement at Cailin's antics.

'Yeah,' Cailin said rolling her eyes, 'believe me, that was abundantly obvious. They're sweeter than candy floss together.'

'And what's wrong with that?' Hope asked, her eyes twinkling as she watched her youngest come alive with the help of food and caffeine.

'Nothing,' Cailin said with a wicked grin, 'except it gives me cavities and a stomach ache watching them.'

Hope laughed, swatting playfully at her youngest daughters arm. 'Oh you,' Hope said with affection.

Cailin's face sobered some, 'I actually really love seeing them together. Maura's happy. She deserves it.'

'I agree,' Hope said with a warm smile for her youngest, 'I hope you'll be just as happy one day.'

Cailin looked at her, head tilting to the side, 'maybe but it won't be because I caught the love bug.' Cailin wiggled her fingers in a creepy crawly way, 'it will be because I've won the Nobel prize or cured cancer or something.'

Hope grinned, 'if you're happy, I'll be happy.'

Cailin swooped in and in a rare display of affection, she kissed Hope's cheek, 'thanks mum! I'm gonna get back to it. But the coffee was great. Exactly what I needed!' She left Hope behind feeling pleasantly pleased with her mornings work. Hope watched her youngest take the stairs two at a time, so grateful she got to see Cailin grow up. That she hadn't lost her. That she might one day live to see her daughter win a Nobel prize or cure cancer or, maybe even, fall in love.

Maura's ring tone interrupted Hope's thinking. Perhaps luck was with her that morning if she got to speak with both of her daughters. Hope answered quickly, with a smile on her face, 'Maura, dear, what a lovely surprise.'

'Hello Mother,' Maura said her tone conveying a level of seriousness Hope wasn't prepared for.

'Is everything alright Maura?' Hope asked, a sinking feeling in her stomach.

'I'm afraid not,' Maura replied, 'it may be best for you to sit down.'

'It's Paddy?' Hope asked, 'he's passed already?'

'It is Paddy,' Maura began. Hope felt the sting of a hundred emotions in an instant, 'he hasn't died though Hope. He has escaped.'

Hope's ears roared, her vision grew dark at the edges and she found herself sinking to the floor, 'he what?'

'I'm afraid I don't have the details,' Maura said with compulsory politeness, 'simply that the FBI was here asking questions. They informed us we would be under surveillance. It is likely you will also be placed under surveillance. I just didn't want you to be caught off guard. Hope?'

Hope realised she had been silent for too long. 'I'm here,' Hope whispered, barely managing that.

'Hope, I can't stress how important it is that you do nothing to reach out to him, to help him, to find him. You have to go on as if he is still in jail. If you help him in any way…' Maura trailed off. Hope remembers the spark of anger in Maura's eyes the day she came to tell Hope to testify against Paddy for killing that poor Cavanaugh family. Hope knew Maura was threatening more than just legal trouble. Maura was telling Hope that helping Paddy would cost her relationship with Maura.

'I wouldn't. I won't.' Hope whispered, trying to assure them both.

'If he contacts you, you have to tell the FBI,' Maura says again, a steel quality in her voice.

'I will,' Hope breathed, 'of course I will Maura.' Hope doesn't say that she would never choose Paddy over Maura. That she would put Maura first, every time, without fail.

'I'm sorry that I've distressed you,' Maura says, her tone softer now. 'I'm sorry I can't be there to help you with this.'

'You don't make Paddy's choices for him,' Hope murmurs. She knows it is true even if she can't quite process things at the moment.

'No,' Maura says softly, 'I wish I could though.' It was a sentiment that Hope understood completely. 'I need to go but will you be alright?'

Hope thinks she manages to pull off a reassuring tone when she says 'of course I will. Good bye Maura dear. I love you.'

'I love you too Mother,' Maura replies with a tenderness that is rarely shown. Then Hope hears the click of the phone hanging up.

Hope knows she should get up. She knows that it will concern Cailin to find her mother crying on their kitchen floor. But Hope's head is still spinning. Cailin still had hours of studying to go, Hope reasoned, she had hours to fall apart and put herself together again. That is her last rational thought before Hope feels her emotions swell, grief overwhelming her conscious mind in a flurry of tears. Her heart broke, wondering how much more Paddy Doyle could possibly hurt her in this lifetime.


It was all too easy to get the recruits to leave. Jane had half hoped Noemi and Aarna would stay and save Jane from herself. Instead, the pair had left with matching concerned glances and promises to check in later. Jane spotted out their surveillance team with almost no effort. Feeling particularly petty, Jane flipped them off before she closed the door. Jane knew it wasn't their fault they were there but she certainly wasn't going to take it laying down.

Maura was sitting on their couch looking so sad it practically broke Jane's heart. Jane settled in beside her, placing a hand gently on her back, 'you told Hope?' Maura nodded mutely. 'How did she take it?'

Maura let out a sigh weighted in sadness, 'not well.' Then Maura turned to look at Jane, her hazel eyes were piercing laced with fear and confusion. 'Tell me,' she said softly. Her voice was calm, controlled, and absolutely disconcerting for Jane.

Jane pulled her hand away, flexing her fingers. She couldn't bring herself to look at Maura as she spoke. 'I called Paddy, when all of this started.'

'I'm sorry,' Maura's voice was icy, 'you did what?'

Jane winced. Maura was hard to anger but Jane knew she was when she used that particular tone. 'You were threatened and prancing all over the country. I couldn't be there to protect you. It was driving me crazy. But Paddy -'

'Paddy what?' Maura asks, standing and beginning to pace, 'what exactly is Paddy going to do? Put a hit out on someone asking questions about me? Send his hit men to follow me around the States?'

'I don't know,' Jane shot back, feeling her own anger rising, 'but whatever he could do it was a damn sight more than I could.'

'I didn't need you to do anything,' Maura shot back, her voice elevating, 'I didn't need you or Paddy or anyone else. I'm fine!'

Jane's mouth fell open, a pain in her heart at Maura's words. Maura didn't need her. Jane sat down hard. She heard herself answer, sounding far away, 'okay Maura.'

Realisation at what she had just said seemed to dawn on Maura's face slowly. 'I didn't mean that, Jane,' she whispered in a horrified voice. 'I did need you. I do need you. I just meant I wasn't in danger. I'm safe. I was never in danger.'

'Sure, Maura,' Jane responded numbly, burying her face in her hands. 'I believe you. You weren't in danger.'

Jane could see Maura's feet resume their pacing but she couldn't bring herself to look up at Maura's face. Jane didn't know what she expected but Maura's next question was not it, 'what did you tell Paddy exactly?'

'Just that someone was interested in you and he should keep an eye on you,' Jane said, feeling defeated and crushed.

Maura paused looking down at her, Jane didn't bother looking up. Jane wasn't sure she could endure the look Maura was giving her. 'Do you know how foolish and risky that was? You could lose your job if those agents out there find out. You could lose everything you've worked so hard for! You could go to jail for aiding and abetting!'

'None of that matters if I lose you,' Jane whispered so softly she isn't even sure if Maura can hear her.

'Jane,' Maura says, her voice brimming with emotions. And then Maura is kneeling in front of her, her gentle hands tugging Jane's face up until brown eyes met hazel. 'You won't lose me,' Maura said with a soft but firm voice. 'You won't lose me. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere.' She presses a kiss to Jane's lips, not soft and reverent but solid and reassuring.

Jane clung to Maura, her mind flashing back to Maura's kidnapping. They had taken her then. Chained her up in some forgotten room. They had hurt her. Kept her from coming home, kept her from Jane. Jane had to make sure that would never happen again. Even if that meant getting Paddy involved. Even if that meant making Maura angry. Maura pulled back to look her in the eyes again. Jane looked back, letting her eyes drink in every line of Maura's face.

'You aren't even remotely sorry are you?' Maura asked at last. Her voice was resigned but Jane heard the tiniest sliver of humour in it. Jane shook her head no, her hair whipping against both of them. Maura chuckled, ducking away from the wild mane. 'Of course you aren't,' Maura said letting out a weighted breath. 'You're infuriating you know that right?' Maura asks before pressing another kiss to Jane's lips.

Jane smiles in to the kiss, pulling Maura in to her lap. She wrapped her arms around Maura's waist pulling her in tight. Maura's hands slid back in to Jane's hair, pulling softly until Jane's head is angled back for Maura to kiss more thoroughly. The need for air pulled them away at last. 'To be fair,' Jane's voice is hoarse with relief and desire, 'I didn't think he'd break out of jail.'

Maura frowned, her eyes glittering in that way that told Jane she was thinking, 'no he wouldn't need to. He has people who watch from afar. The only reason he would break out is if…' Maura trails off, biting her lower lip.

'He found something,' Jane finishes Maura's thought for her. 'The only reason he would do this is if he found something and he felt like he needed to protect you. Even the added surveillance adds a level of security for you.'

'So you think he's in DC?' Maura asks softly.

Jane shrugs, 'if I knew where he was, I'd have told Dean. Dean might be a prick but I'm not a dirty agent.'

Maura smiled at that, 'no you're remarkably good at sorting through moral quandaries.'

Jane quirked her head sideways, smirking at Maura, 'is that your way of saying I'm noble?'

Maura laughed, her hands moving of their own accord, touching as much of Jane as they could. 'A true knight in shining armour, I assure you.'

Jane blushed, ducking her head, suddenly feeling shy under Maura's adoring gaze. 'So,' Jane cleared her throat, 'even though I'm not sorry and even though it still makes you mad, are we okay?'

Maura's hand found Jane's chin tilting her head up to look in her eyes, 'yes, we're okay.' She sealed that promise with a kiss and then another one for good measure. 'I don't like what you did but I can respect why you did it. You didn't know Paddy would break out and it wouldn't be fair for me to hold you responsible for his actions.'

'Is there anything else you need to say?' Jane asks, her hands rubbing gently at Maura's back.

Maura bites her lower lip, considering Jane's question. 'No, I don't think so. You?'

Jane shook her head, 'nope. But I definitely have some things I'd like to show you.' Jane wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and let her hands slip under the soft BPD shirt Jane had dressed Maura in the night before. It was one of Jane's favourites and seeing Maura in it made Jane's spine tingle in anticipation.

'Mmm,' Maura said closing her eyes as Jane's lips found their way to her pulse point. 'That- that could be- be arranged,' Maura stuttered out, leaning her head to the side to give Jane better access. It was all the permission Jane needed.

'Mmm,' Jane moaned as her fingertips brushed the sides of Maura's breasts, 'I've missed you so much Maura.' Maura lets out a stuttered breath, gasping when Jane's fingers tease her, and Jane devotes herself to drawing that sound out of Maura's lips over and over again.