It had been two weeks since Maura had visited the library, save the early morning that she'd dropped the book she first borrowed in the book return. But, almost every day, she'd thought about the tall brunette librarian. With the new classes, and new syllabi full of information to organize and plan, it left Maura with little time to spare a visit to Jane. Now, she sat in the coffee shop directly across the quad from the library, mustering the courage to go talk to Jane again.

Maura entered the library taking a deep breath; her eyes scanning the room. A couple of students sat behind the desk. One was checking out another student, and the other was reading a magazine with his feet propped up on the desk. Maura looked around the immediate area before walking up to the unoccupied student, "Excuse me." She called quietly

The guy looked up from his magazine with an annoyed look, "Yeah?"

"I'm looking for Jane Rizzoli. Is she working today?"

"Who?"

"Jane? Rizzoli? She's tall, brown hair, thin?"

"Oh…yah, she's upstairs. Third floor I think."

"Thank you."

Maura found the stairs and climbed with a racing heartbeat. Turning at the top of the steps, she walked down the center aisle looking left and right through each row. Coming upon the last row, her head spun to the left and saw a mess of brunette curls hanging almost to the ground as Jane bent down to file a book on the bottom shelf.

"Jane?"

The lithe woman turned her head and looked through a curtain of brown curls, "Maura?" She stood straight and pushed her hair from her face. "Hey." Long arms pulled two books close to her chest as she smiled shyly, "What are you doing here?"

"I thought maybe you could use some lunch." Maura tried, holding on to the straps of her backpack.

Jane smiled, "I didn't know med students had time for meals."

Maura blushed, "When they're as well organized as I am, we have plenty of time. At least, today I have time. As for any other day, that is a different question."

The taller woman smiled widely, "Yeah, let's go."

Within ten minutes, the two women were sitting at a table in the cafeteria, feasting on second-rate food as they talked.

"I got a job here when I was fourteen." Jane explained after Maura had asked how she first came to work at the library.

"How did you get a job so young?"

"I needed a place to get away from my parents one summer. I came here to get some books because the library in our community was too small. Linda, the head librarian at the time, took pity on me I guess and let me restock books every day after school."

"Did she pay you?"

Jane shrugged, "Under the table; cash. So I didn't need a work permit. It wasn't anything much, but just enough to buy a snack before work and save a few bucks in the shoebox under my bed."

"Why were you running from your parents?"

"They fought a lot when I was a kid. My brothers were able to tune it out, or go out with their friends to play. I didn't have anywhere to go, so I went to the library. It's down the street from my parents' house, so I could easily run there as a kid. But, once I got to high school, I'd read all the books that interested me. The librarian there told me to check out this place." Jane chuckled, "Have been here since."

"How did a fourteen year old get access to a college library?"

Jane shrugged, "They don't advertise that they're open to the public, but they are. Normally you have to get a special library card, but Stacy let me read after I did my daily work. So books never left the building."

Maura took a bite of her meatloaf and thought, "What kind of books did you read as a kid?"

Jane smiled wistfully, "Greek mythology, Norse mythology, Renaissance literature, history, geography, almost anything I could get my hands on."

"Who's your favorite Greek god?"

"Athena, goddess of wisdom and war. Yours?"

"Persephone."

"Queen of the Underworld." Jane chuckled, "Yeah, she's pretty rad. Why her?"

Maura's face became slightly downcast, "It was my nickname in high school. As a freshman in our speech class, one of our speeches was supposed to be about what we wanted to do when we grew up. My speech was about becoming a medical examiner. After that, people started calling me Queen of the Dead. In my Mythology class, when we read about Hades and Persephone, they started called me Persephone as well."

"Well." Jane started, sitting back in her chair, "Obviously they didn't know what they were talking about. Because Persephone is actually a badass. She's the queen of the Underworld. And everyone knows, queens are better and stronger than kings. So…ha." Jane took a bite out of her breadstick and nodded her head. "Plus, she's the goddess of spring time. With spring comes flowers and life and rebirth. You should take it as a compliment, a big one too."

Maura couldn't stop the feeling of warmth from blossoming in her chest.

Less than a half hour after that, Maura's phone beeped, reminding her of an upcoming class. She looked up at her meal partner with a sheepish smile, "I've got class in ten minutes."

"Thank you for inviting me to lunch." The brunette said as they walked out the main door of the student cafeteria that faced the quad.

Maura blushed, "Thank you for saying yes."

Jane smirked and shoved her hands in her pockets, "Well, I guess I should get back to work before Stacy has a conniption."

The blonde chuckled.

"But yeah. Let's do this again sometime. You know where I'm at."

Maura nodded, "I'd like that."

"You ever need a study room; I'll get you the prime room, closest to the bathrooms and vending machines." Jane winked conspiratorially

Maura laughed, and her retort was cut off by someone coming up behind them, "Hey Isles, you ready for the comp in bio-chem?" The blonde turned and saw her friend from class and held her hand up, asking her to wait, "I'll remember that Jane." She smiled, "See you later."

"Bye Persephone." She called after the blonde.