Jane listened to the sound of late September rain as it pattered lightly against the main bedroom window, a peaceful harbinger of the slurries that were no doubt to come in the next several months. She tossed a stress ball into the air as she laid out on the bed, her head at the foot, her feet crossed on her pillow, and closed her eyes to single out the comforting clamor of the late fall shower. It made her sleepy. It made her lazy. "Ma!" she called out as she turned her head slowly toward the walk-in closet.

There was no reply. She could hear her mother speaking in hushed tones with Maura deep within the recesses of the closet, so she tried again. "Ma!"

Angela finally poked her head out of the doorway. "You wanna talk to me so bad, get off your ass and come in here," she said through gritted teeth before disappearing again. Jane huffed, stopped throwing her stress ball, and swung her legs over the side of the bed. When she got to the closet, she saw an already surprising amount of shoes on the floor, and Maura standing guard at the rest.

"You already got her to dump that many?" Jane said, looking between the pile and Maura.

"We're clearing the clutter, Jane," Angela replied, rolling her eyes. She took another pair of black heels from the floor to ceiling shelves and moved to toss them onto the pile.

"Oh not those," Maura said, reaching her hand out before thinking better of it and pulling it back.

Jane squinted. "What do you mean not those? You have six other identical pair."

Maura gasped. "They're not identical. That's black patent, black suede, kitten heel."

"It's your money and your house." Jane shrugged. "You shouldn't be gettin' rid of any if ya don't want to."

Angela grumbled. "Jane, what exactly did you want?"

"What?" Jane asked, turning to her, confused.

"You were screaming for me out there like you were six years old again," Angela said, pointing toward the bedroom.

"Oh. Yeah, when is this gonna be over?"

"Ask Maura," Angela answered.

"Oh, I don't really think it's for me to say-" started Maura.

"Ok, so you're not the person who hired my mother to help you clean out your closet?" Jane responded.

"No," Maura answered, maybe a little too quickly.

"Great," Jane exclaimed, pushing herself off of the threshold with her shoulder, "let's kick her out and go do somethin' else."

"No - I- I mean yes. I did." Maura looked nervously between mother and daughter, both wanting to communicate something on the verge of threatening with just their eyes, it seemed.

Angela sighed, breaking the trance. "Ok, sweetheart. Maybe the shoes are a little too overwhelming for you." She walked over to a row of dresses and held up one she had never seen before. "When was the last time you wore this dress?"

Maura's eyes went wide and Jane stepped between them. "Ok, a'right, Ma. Let's just drop this whole closet thing and I will pay you double whatever she is paying to help me clean out the gutters this weekend. Whatever it takes to avoid World War 3 in… the garment district," she said waving her arms to all the clothes and shoes among them.

"Oh Janie. You couldn't afford me, even if your condo does sell," Angela said, patting her daughter's cheek before shooting a downcast look to the floor. Then she walked back to Maura's clothes and went through them, taking in each item.

Just as Jane was going to ask what the hell that was all about, the doorbell rang. Both she and Maura spared a glance out the door toward the hallway. "If that's dinner, I'll let you both rearrange my closet," she said with a crooked smile. Maura beckoned her toward the staircase and away from her mother.

"Come with me," Maura said quietly, with a hand on Jane's arm.

Jane followed easily. "If you're doin' this to help Ma make extra money, please stop," she said when they reached the front hall. Maura only looked back at her meaningfully. "Baby, you are not responsible for her finances."

The doorbell rang again, but Maura stopped just before answering it. "Yes. But we both know something's wrong."

"Then why won't she just tell me?" Jane whined.

"I don't know," Maura answered honestly. She pulled open the door, and, shockingly, her sister stood on the other side.

"Hi," said Cailin, a duffle bag on her arm. She nodded to Jane, too, who smiled at her flatly.

"Cailin, hi. Come on in," Maura said, moving aside for her. "Is everything ok?"

"My mom went to Europe," Cailin said, stopping in the living room.

Maura was confused. "You didn't go with her?"

Cailin huffed the duffle bag back onto her shoulder uneasily, and Jane reached out for it. "Well, here. Let me help."

Cailin blushed, and turned away just enough to keep the bag out of reach. "No, it's fine. I got it," she said, but the smile she gave to Jane was wide and winning. "Fall classes just started, so I had to stay behind."

"Ah. A busy time, especially for someone pre-med," Maura offered kindly, though the atmosphere was awkward with Cailin just a few feet across from her, in the same place she had stood when she confronted Maura about lying to Hope in the fall of the previous year.

"Listen, I know this is a lot to ask. Can I stay with you?" Cailin asked her this time. Maura couldn't decide which conversation had been more frightening.

"With me? With us?" Maura responded, and when Cailin nodded with enthusiasm, she grinned, too. "Uh, yes. Sure, sure. You don't want to be home alone?" She was enveloped in a warm, sisterly embrace. She quite liked that.

"I wasn't alone," Cailin said with contempt, "My mother hired Mrs. Craberton to babysit me."

"You're nineteen," Jane said.

"I know, right?" Cailin agreed. "I knew you guys would understand."

Maura half-smiled. "So, how long is Hope gone?"

"Three weeks," said Cailin, hugging her again. "Thank you so much," she whispered into Jane's shoulder, having moved into her surprised arms next.

"Y-yeah," Jane replied, patting Cailin on the back, "anytime."

When Cailin pulled away, her phone rang and she answered it. "Hey Dylan. Yeah, I did the homework. It was like a discussion board thing on the inspiratory muscles," she said, already walking toward the hall that led to the upstairs rooms.

Maura turned around immediately. "Cailin, where are you going?"

To her credit, Cailin at least paused before she was out of sight. "Oh, is it ok if I just stay in one of your spare rooms?"

Maura shot Jane a worried look, but Jane just nodded encouragingly and winked. "Yes. yes," Maura said, "I-I'll show you where they are."

Jane held in a chuckle when Cailin replied. "That's ok. I can find it," she said, adjusting the overnight bag on her shoulder all while keeping her phone at her ear. "No, yeah, I'm listening. Just getting settled at my sister's place. Yeah. Oh my god. He so did not say that." Apparently the conversation on the other line was riveting, because she left without so much as a goodbye toward the stairs.

"Oh my god, he so did, too," Jane teased, turning to Maura and using her best Valley girl cadence. She laughed at her own joke until she saw the abject horror on Maura's face. "Babe?"

"Three weeks?!" Maura whined. "That's…"

Jane smirked. "You're the one who said yes."

"You should have stopped me!" Maura whispered sharply, shoving her finger into Jane's shoulder.

"Ow!" Jane griped, snatching the finger and kissing it in revenge. "Listen, Maura. One thing you'll learn is no matter what I think about them, I'm never gonna tell you to not spend time with your family. It's like, Rizzoli blasphemy or something. Maybe you'll get to know each other better."

"And what about you? Are you ok with having her here, in your house, for three weeks?" asked Maura.

Jane shrugged. "We spend so much time at work, it's not like we're gonna be all up in each other's business anyway," she said. When she felt the familiar buzz of a text message against her hip, she groaned. "Ok, we got a possible homicide in the parking lot of the hockey rink out by Suffolk Downs."

Maura took her purse and medical bag from Jane gratefully. "Maybe you're right. Maybe it'll be a nice reset for our relationship."

"Yeah. Didn't start out on the firmest of foundations, did it?" Jane asked over her shoulder as she gathered her keys from the counter. She nearly dropped them when the thumping bass from an alt-rock song boomed through the house. Cailin must have smuggled in some kind of speaker, because it was clearly coming from upstairs and it clearly wasn't Angela's musical taste.

Maura's jaw dropped. "That is like 100 decibels!"

Jane only winced in response.

"You know, I just read a report about hearing loss in adolescents - it's up thirty percent!" Maura shouted. "I'll meet you there," she said, marching toward the guest rooms.

Jane moved in front of her. "Whoa whoa whoa. Is that what you're gonna say to her?"

Maura scoffed. "Yes. She's premed - it should be convincing enough."

Jane shook her head. "You're her sister, not her professor. Let me take this one, a'right?" She bounded up the steps, two at a time, the music pulsating louder the closer she got, and Maura followed closely behind. The door to the bedroom right across from hers was closed, but Jane paid that no mind and swung it open. "Hey!" she shouted to Cailin, who laid on the bed, poring over An Introduction to Laryngology.

Cailin jumped at the human intrusion into the very curated digital assault on her inner ear, and reached for the remote on the bedspread. They were suddenly engulfed in quiet. "Hey," Cailin replied, a little out of breath. "What's up?"

Jane leaned her shoulder on the threshold and smiled crookedly. "I didn't peg you for indie music."

Cailin brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and blushed. "Well, maybe I'm full of surprises."

"Maybe," Jane volleyed back. She stuck her hands in her slack pockets. "So me and Maura have to go to work. Sorry we can't stay to keep you company. But keep the music down to a respectable level, ok? You're gonna give your sister a coronary."

Cailin smiled and nodded. "You got it, Jane. Have a good day - good night? At work," she said, shaking her head lightly at the awkwardness of it when Jane thanked her and walked away.

Maura waited in the hall, noting that the music did not return when Jane reemerged. "What was that?"

Jane patted her along on the small of her back. "Sweet talkin', Maura. People like it when you make them feel wanted."

Maura rolled her eyes as they trotted down the stairs and out the door. "You mean women like it when you specifically make them feel wanted."

"Same thing," Jane said cheekily when Maura grabbed her face and brought it forward before lowering herself into the passenger side seat of Jane's car.

"Definitely not the same thing," Maura said, enjoying the feel of Jane's scrunched lips against her own when she pulled the detective in for a kiss. "I appreciate that your feminine wiles are a tool you're very comfortable using, but she's nineteen."

Jane laughed. "Gross, Maura. I wasn't flirting with her." When she took her place in the driver's seat, hair a little damp from the drizzle outside, Maura glared at her. "Ok, maybe I was flirting a little bit."

Maura only turned toward her window, pretending to admire the late evening glow against damp Beacon Hill townhomes.

"Are you serious?" Jane asked, and when Maura didn't answer, she tapped her fingers against the center console in a tense, musical beat. "Maura. You know why I was flirting with her?"

Maura turned back to her, inquisition on her face. "Why?"

"Because it was the fastest way to get what I wanted," Jane said, "I didn't want to ride without you. So I buttered her up a little bit - I just wanted to make sure we could go to the scene together."

Maura grabbed her hand and smirked. "I suppose I can accept that. I like clingy you."

Jane made a vomiting motion. "I can't really control it, so at least it makes you happy."

"It does. But stop flirting with my teenage sister. Even if it is to get closer to me," Maura demanded.

"Because you think I'm going to get caught up and then run away with her to Florida?" Jane asked, laughing to herself as she turned onto the main drag towards East Boston.

"Because I think she's going to get caught up and shutting her down will be awkward for all of us," Maura said seriously, but with a smirk on her face. She took Jane's right hand in her own and kissed the scar on the back of it.

"No way," Jane said, more to convince herself than Maura. "She probably thinks I'm ancient." She paused, and then turned to Maura, desperate and nervous. "You don't think she would, do you?"

"Oh, sweetheart," Maura said pityingly. Her smile was open and mocking. "You have a lot to learn about very smart girls who feel like people their own age don't understand them."


"Where's Maura?" Frankie Jr. asked when Jane strode up to their victim, who was sprawled out face-first on the parking garage ground in a lake of her own blood.

"On the phone with Hope," Jane said distractedly, shining her flashlight on the dead woman with a jagged wound across her throat. "She'll be over in a bit. Cailin's staying with us while her ma's God knows where."

Frankie stood up from where he was perched and patted her on the back. "Yikes."

"Yeah yikes. Maura thinks the best way to go is to keep Hope in the loop. I argued against it, but, you know."

Frankie laughed. "You remember when Cousin Theresa stayed with us for a month because Anthony was on a drunken rampage all across town?"

Jane shook her head. "I thought Ma was gonna murder her before it was all said and done. They fought about everything from dinner to Days of Our Lives."

"Hopefully it's not that bad," Frankie said as his chuckles died down. "So, you think you can let me get some practice in before she comes over and gives us all the answers?"

Jane looked over to the private-ish corner where Maura spoke to her mother, and then the body. "Yeah sure. What'cha got?"

Frankie straightened his belt, pulled it up just the way his sister always did. "Ok. Well, Maura's always sayin' that the human body holds six quarts of blood, and there's about five of it on the ground."

"Good, that's good," Jane said with an approving grin. "What else?"

"I don't see many crime-scene markers," he continued, "did you find a purse or a wallet?"

"No. Frost said nothin' on the body or nearby," said Jane.

"She's not wearing much jewelry except a cheap charm bracelet. Maybe robbery was the motive?"

Jane shook her head. "Could be. But it's a pretty vicious way to kill somebody if all you want is their purse and jewelry." Maura approached them then, a pensive look on her face. "Hey Frankie, do me a favor, write down all the tags and get 'em to Frost. I want a record of every vehicle down here."

"You got it," Frankie replied, looking between the two women and then walking toward the row of cars farthest away from them.

Jane pointed down to the victim's neck when Maura arrived. "That's one end of her carotid artery." Maura nodded, and she pushed forward. "And I saw blood droplets far apart over here. She was in a hurry, and she was bleeding when she left the rink."

"The droplets would be consistent with her broken nose," Maura said. "But not with the jagged injury to her throat."

"See why that doesn't make sense?"

"What doesn't make sense?"

"Two separate injuries. Not related."

Maura stood closer now, looking up to where Jane shined her light above them. "How do you know that?"

"Well, the blood spatter says that she was ambushed from behind, but the droplets from her busted nose says that she was punched over there," said Jane, pointing about twenty yards away.

"Blood spatter isn't really a sound science," Maura said.

"I'm not tryin' to write a peer-reviewed paper, I'm just tryin' to get a picture of what happened. And that spray tells me that no one was standing in the way when it got all the way up there," Jane argued.

Maura nodded. "Fair enough," she acquiesced, and then she sighed. "Jane."

"Yeah, babe," Jane's eyes weren't on her as she walked directly under the spray to get a better look.

"Your mother agreed to stay with Cailin for a couple of hours until she gets settled. Do you think that's ok?" Maura asked, annoyed that Jane would make her say it loud enough for the cops around them to hear, that Jane wouldn't give her the courtesy of an intimate conversation when she had called her name so softly.

"Do I think it's ok that my mother is babysitting a grown adult? No, I do not," Jane said honestly, still investigating the blood around her shoes and above her head.

"Hope was so insistent," Maura said weakly in order to defend herself.

Jane finally shined the flashlight on her. "Hope should back off. Giving my mother license to be in the house at all hours is like asking for her to walk in on us. This is gonna escalate, Maura. But for right now, let's get this scene squared away. It's gonna be a late night."


"Puncture wound is point-five centimeters at the apex. Twelve point seven centimeters of jagged tear," Maura said to Jane, also just centimeters behind her at the autopsy table.

Jane placed the victim's fingertips onto her handheld scanner while Maura examined the victim's thyroid cartilage, now exposed to the open air. "It's like someone pulled her throat open with claws. What kind of weapon does that?"

Maura shrugged and Jane felt it more than saw it. "It snagged the carotid. Notice I said snagged."

"I noticed," said Jane. "Notice how much I would love to know what the murder weapon is."

"The carotid artery was pulled until it tore," Maura used her thumb and her index finger to spread the cut skin on the right side of the woman's neck.

Jane leaned in to see the jagged arterial rip. "I notice you said pulled," she said, and Maura moved a couple of steps back so that she could get a better look. Jane peered around Maura's expert fingers, and Maura trusted her when she moved them ever so slightly with her own fingers to get a better look.

Maura widened her grip, pulled against the skin just a little tighter, so that Jane could see exactly what she meant. "I did. By a weapon with a curved end."

Jane smirked. "Ok, we'll put out an APB for Captain Hook."

Maura smiled at the crown of Jane's head. "Stop deflecting. No one's in here but you and me. What do you see? What does that tell you?"

Jane blushed. "Somethin' not sharp. Also probably not a knife. At least, not an American one. Somethin' that required a lot of force to get in there, judging by all the ripping and bruising. Which also means she was alive when it happened."

Maura elbowed her shoulder, quite pleased. "Excellent. I won't tell anyone how smart you are. Or that you secretly like this."

Jane stood and glared at her, though it lacked bite. "Mmhmm."

Maura took her place in front of the victim, her forceps back in the perimortem wound. "There's a beige, gummy substance here."

Jane crossed her arms. "Lost boys' gummy bears?" They shared a laugh until Maura's phone rang out within the empty crime lab.

"Oh, it's Hope," she said nervously. "Hello?" Jane glared again, this time seriously. "Yes. But you know, I am just in the middle of an autopsy with Jane. No - no I don't know if Cailin did her homework, but she's a sophomore in college, so… Ok. Ok, I will. I'll make sure she's in bed by midnight. Ok. Bye."

"Wow," said Jane when she had hung up. "It's like ten-thirty here. Doesn't that mean it's like four AM over there?"

Maura nodded. "No wonder Cailin is frustrated. I am so glad that Constance taught me to be independent."

Jane widened her eyes and sucked her lips into a straight line in commiseration, but then the phone rang again. "Do. not."

"What do I do?" Maura asked, panicked.

"That's what they invented voicemail for. You just told her we were at work!" Jane stamped her foot.

"I can't - I can't. Hello?" Maura answered again anyway. Jane groaned. "Yes, yes. No, I did say I would monitor her and makes sure she takes her immunosupression drugs. No, no - it's ok. You have every right to worry. Alright, I'm sorry. Bye," she apologized, and when Jane glowered, she shirked. "I just keep forgetting that Cailin had a kidney transplant."

"How do you forget?" Jane nearly shouted, "It's your kidney! A kidney you imposed a two month celibacy on me for!" Maura just shrugged guiltily. Her computer beeped, providing a distraction for Jane's ire. "Agh. No hits. I gotta go upstairs and let the guys know. They should be talkin' to the lady we arrested at the scene right now. Do not answer any more calls from Hope!" she warned, squeezing Maura's forearm before walking out of the suite towards the elevators.

Maura waited until she was gone to pout.


"No match on the vic's prints," Jane announced to her particular corner of the bullpen before slumping into her chair.

Korsak removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, taking her cue to sit down. "We're holding hockey mom, but I don't think she's our killer - that lady's as squeamish as Frost."

Frost grimaced. "She puked all over the table when she saw the victim's photo."

Jane sighed. "Well shit. Did she ID the victim at least?"

"Nah," Frost said dejectedly.

"Damn. Maura's checkin' her dental records, but those results probably won't be in until mornin'. She's already goin' home. What else can we do?" asked Jane.

Korsak didn't brighten her mood. "Every car in that parking lot is accounted for."

Jane rose sharply and stomped over to their facts board. "Ok. There is no bus service in that area. There is no record of a taxi dropping anyone off at the rink, and there is no way that she walked more than half a block in the heels she had on, which means she had a goddamn car."

Frost joined her. "We showed all the parents, employees, and coaches her photo. The kids remembered her handing out helmet pads, but no one knew her name."

"And the killer took everything that could identify her, except her body," Jane said, crossing her arms.

"Maybe because he was interrupted?" offered Korsak, "He pulls the car back, stops by her body. Maybe he was about to dump her body in the trunk."

"Yeah, and that's when our hockey mom came out for a smoke. Maybe she interrupted him?" Frost followed their line of thinking to its logical end.

"Maybe," Jane said. She felt a tiny buzz against her hip and pulled out her phone. "What the hell?" she said when she saw the caller-ID.

"Who is it?" Frost asked, standing at attention.

Jane didn't answer. "Gimme a minute, guys," she said, not waiting for their response before she walked to the break room. "Cailin, hey."

"Jane. Thank god you answered," Cailin said. Jane could hear a heavy bassline on the other end. "I thought you might be asleep."

"No, I'm still at work. What'd ya need?" Jane let a little Boston slip, unsure exactly what was going on, feeling her cortisol ratchet up. "It's late."

"I know, and I've gotta be home by midnight," said Cailin, "but my Uber just cancelled on us."

"Ok…" Jane goaded.

"Me and my friends need a ride home, Jane. Could you come get us? I know it's an inconvenience, but I wouldn't be asking if I weren't desperate."

Jane scratched her head with the hand that wasn't holding her phone to her ear. "No, no. It's ok. Call Maura, yeah? She's already home and she'll be awake. She waits up for me when I get stuck here."

There was a pause where the music took over and there were harsh whispers in the distance. "I… I can't, Jane. I already told her I was at the library studying."

Ah. "Which isn't true. Where are you?"

"At a frat house in Cambridge," as Cailin explained, Jane sighed loudly. "We thought it was going to be like a chill kickback, but it's turned into a full-blown rager. None of us have cars and we gotta get out of here because we've got exams in the morning. Please, Jane?"

"A'right, a'right. Text me the address. I'm on my way. How many of you are there?"

"Four, including me. We're all good kids, all premed. I promise," Cailin cooed, trying to soothe Jane's inflamed conscience. "We still need to study and all the libraries are closing. We'll be quiet, I swear."

"Yeah yeah," Jane ignored the attempt, snatching her blazer and keys from her desk and then waving to her partners without so much as a farewell on her way to the elevators. "Any of you wasted? Because if so, we gotta leave them behind. We are not telling Maura your ass was at a party, and I am not sleeping on the couch because one of you can't keep a secret."

"No way, none of us are drunk. Thank you, thank you. I'm texting you the address now."

"I'll be there in fifteen," said Jane. She ended the call when she got to her car and instantly began an anxious drum against the leather of her steering wheel. The drive to Cambridge was quick at 11:15 PM, with empty streets that slowly grew louder the closer she got to BCU's campus. She slowed when she made her way behind the science buildings to a small neighborhood of Greek houses, peering out her windshield for the specific address that had been given to her. She shrugged her shoulders inside her blazer, which was starting to feel rumpled over her blue v-neck after basically two whole work days crammed into one. She turned down her stereo, music quieting from a sensual thrum to a quiet pulse in order to help her better concentrate. When she pulled up to the right place, she redialed Cailin's number. "Hey, I'm outside. You better come out quick before I see somethin' I have to bust up," she said by way of greeting.

A few minutes later, Cailin and three equally young people ambled toward her dark blue Civic. She spared a pained glance toward all the duffle bags in the back seat - one for a change of clothes during a stakeout, one for softball practice, one for the gym. She would have to get out and throw them in the trunk. She pushed the driver's side door open and grabbed them before popping the lid. "Sorry. Should be enough room now. It'll be a close fit, but the drive home's ten minutes, tops."

Cailin smiled widely from the passenger side when Jane made it back into the car. "Jane, this is Dylan, Akilah, and Rebecca," she said, turning to the three stuffed in the back seat. "Guys, this is Jane. My sister's girlfriend."

Jane looked briefly in the rearview mirror to acknowledge them as she pulled away from the house. "Hey," she barked, waiting for them to say all their greetings in return before sparing a glance at Cailin. "Listen, kid. I'm bailin' you out this time, but you can't make a habit out of lying to Maura. We're takin' a big risk by bringing all of you home anyway. If she's downstairs when we get there, I'm toast. I won't be able to cover for you."

"I know, I know. This is the first and the last time. We just got caught up tonight. And lied to. I'll be smarter from here on out," Cailin promised, patting Jane's free hand before turning to join her friends' conversation in the back.

When Jane pulled into her usual spot outside of her Beacon Hill home, she cut the engine and locked the doors before her passengers could spill out onto the street. "Alright, everyone, listen up. That," she said, pointing to her front door, "is the house you will be going into. Quietly. Respectfully. I don't care about me, but the lady in there right now has a real, big-person job. Where she routinely talks to the governor and everything. So, tiptoe up the stairs and into Cailin's room, and study. And then go home. Without disturbing her. She's got work early tomorrow."

"You got it, Jane," said the boy with one side of his head shaved, Dylan, in a weird echo of Cailin hours before, and Akilah and Rebecca nodded in agreement with him.

"Great," Jane said, satisfied enough that they would at least try. "Let's go, then. I just pulled a double and I'm tired." She exited and trotted to Cailin's door, just in time to grasp the handle as Cailin was opening it. She held it open and Cailin gave her a small smile, with her three friends oblivious to the exchange.

They walked up to the courtyard, only for Jane to see her mother, arm-in-arm with Lieutenant Cavanaugh, entering from the side street. "Ma? I thought you were home. Watching her," she said accusingly, pointing to Cailin, who had walked ahead to open the door for her friends. Cavanaugh nodded to Jane, his forehead suspiciously sweaty in the crisp fall air. "Sir," she acknowledged him even though she wanted to bury her head in the sand. The evening continued to deteriorate.

"She said she needed to go study, so I let her," Angela said defensively. "What are you doing with them?"

"She didn't. She went to a party. And I just got back from picking her up because she lied to you and to Maura that she was out studying. Supposedly that's what they're here to do now," Jane explained, pulling Angela to the side. To his credit, Cavanaugh allowed it, waited patiently near Angela's roses, making damn sure he heard nothing of their conversation. "Is this a thing again?" Jane asked, looking between the two of them.

"None of your business, Jane. Go to bed. You look awful," Angela replied, shutting her down with a condescending kiss to her cheek. She left Jane standing near the back door, flabbergasted.

"What the hell is tonight?" Jane wondered aloud as she pushed into the warm house. She heard barely a peep as she made her way upstairs, and counted it as a blessing rather than a sign of no-good. She noticed the office light on at the end of the hallway, the bedroom light conspicuously off, so she walked over to see Maura, wrapped in an oversized cardigan and her contact lenses replaced by chunky black-framed glasses, typing away at her Macbook. "Cailin made it home with twenty minutes to spare," said Maura without looking up, "I'll give her that. Though I will say that I didn't expect it to be with three other people."

"You and me both," said Jane quietly, stopping in the doorway and crossing her arms around herself.

"I also didn't expect you to be the one bringing her here," Maura said pointedly, looking up over the rim of her glasses, not moving her head. "Why are there four of them?"

"Well, I guess her Uber cancelled and so she called me for a ride. When I got there, they all were waiting. She said they needed more time to study. Hence the gaggle of kids," said Jane, sighing. She kept her distance, Maura looking too imposing behind her ornate oak desk, surrounded by the regalia of a lifetime of affluence and academics.

"Hmm," Maura hummed thoughtfully. She closed her computer. "Why didn't she call me?"

"You're her big sister. Whom she is tryin' desperately to impress. Of course she wouldn't want to burden you," Jane lied easily, kindly, in the way that she always did when it was to Maura.

Maura got up and tugged Jane toward the hall, turning out the light and leading them to their bedroom, right across from the guest room Cailin had occupied. Presumably now with her friends. "Do you remember that conversation we had just after Paddy's trial, about how you tell me kind lies, all the time?"

"Y-yeah," Jane sputtered, bright red both at having been caught and at the memory of exactly what they were doing when they had it. "I remember."

"I think, this time, it's better if I don't ask," Maura admitted, removing her clothing as she went about the room, ending in a satin black robe in front of the mirror with her toothbrush in her hand. "Since I am not her parent and she's just here for a little while. But," she warned, watching Jane come near in the mirror's glass, "don't start telling me unkind lies. Because I'm not going to open my legs for you every time I want you to tell me the truth. I'm just going to be angry."

"Yes ma'am," Jane said quietly, and gravely. When Maura looked up skeptically, she put up her hands. "I mean it. Tonight wasn't really a big deal, promise. And they'll be gone before you know it."

"Let's hope so. Otherwise I don't know how we're going to get through these three weeks," Maura said around the toothpaste and vibrating brush in her mouth.

Jane let the gravity of the statement sink in, staying quiet as she removed her boots first, placing them at the foot of the bed for the next morning. Her blazer went in the dry cleaning hamper next to her dresser, and then her badge and gun went into the top drawer on her side. She walked back to the bathroom and prepared her own toothbrush while Maura washed her face next to her. When she spit the froth out of her mouth and patted it dry, she leaned her hip against the counter. "You'll never guess what I saw when I was bringin' the kids up," she said in a conspiratorial truce.

Maura was intrigued, and her raised eyebrow betrayed it. She smoothed the last of her night cream under her eyes and then started to undo Jane's belt. "Oh?"

Jane grunted at the rough tug it took to divorce the tooth of her belt from its loop. She exhaled in tired relief when her pants were unbuttoned and her fly pulled down. "Ma, walking up to her door, with Cavanaugh. Clearly back from a late movie, popcorn bucket and all."

"Interesting," Maura said, pulling Jane's tee out of its tuck. "I never understood why they broke up in the first place. Put those in the hamper and I'll take the dry cleaning in the morning."

Jane hopped out of her pants and did as she was told. "Whatever the reason was, they should have stayed that way," she grumbled.

"Why?" Maura asked honestly.

Jane stood, feeling a little sheepish in boyshorts, black business socks, and her blue v-neck. "Uh, it's weird. And it makes him awkward around me and Frankie at work," she answered, admitting to no one but herself that it sounded like a dumb reason.

"If he makes your mother happy, you should let him. Life's too short," Maura said, removing her robe and climbing into her side of the bed.

Jane hurried to follow, tossing her tee and the plain black bra beneath it onto the chair closest to her side. She sat at the edge of the bed, close to her pillow, and undid her watch's clasp before turning out her lamp and sliding in. "What if she's back with him because of her money issues?" she asked quietly after several minutes, almost hoping that Maura had fallen asleep. She turned on her stomach and hugged her pillow to her face to hide her fears.

Maura heard them anyway. She rolled over in the dark to find Jane's back with her hand. "Your mother doesn't strike me as the type. I think we just have to accept that she's not going to tell us what's going on until she's ready," she whispered, hoping the wide swaths she was making against deltoids, trapezii, latissimi dorsi, would be calming enough. She wondered if she should even say what she was about to. "When I got home… she was in the kitchen, baking all kinds of desserts. Almost like she was gearing up for a bake sale."

"Shit," Jane cursed, having seen this reaction before several times in her youth. She sighed into her pillowcase. "That's not good. I'll have to talk to her in the morning."

"Well, that makes two uncomfortable conversations to be had, then," Maura said, flipping onto her back and fluffing the pillow behind her. "I need to talk to Cailin about bothering you while you're at work."

Jane's eyes shot open in the dark. "Maura, you don't need to do that."

"Yes, I do. Hope's not on a plane here, not abandoning her next MEND clinic, only because she's entrusted Cailin to my care," said Maura. "I need to make sure that she comes to me first."

"She said it was the first and last time, for what it's worth," Jane replied.

"Don't fight me on this, please," Maura commanded.

Jane felt compelled to obey. "I won't," she said. After a few beats of silence, she pushed herself up on her elbows and leaned close to Maura's face. "We sound like parents."

"Except we skipped all the fun parts and catapulted straight into the teenage years," Maura complained, huffing when Jane tried to kiss the annoyance away, but she found herself turning toward the affection anyway.

"Maybe let's just think of this as more practice, then," Jane said, vowels all muffled by the way her mouth hovered so close to the crook of Maura's neck. "A trial run. She's a pain in the ass and she's one of the good ones. Still want a kid?"

"Absolutely," Maura grumped, "you're not getting out of it that easily." She used her hips to generate the amount of power needed to pin Jane on her back. She had meant it in good fun, had anticipated Jane to struggle, even if only halfheartedly under her, and so she was taken aback by the way they simply watched one another instead.

"We're good, right?" asked Jane, glancing down at where the apex of Maura's thighs slid against her abdomen for just a moment. Then she looked back up, keen for an answer.

"We're good. We'd be better if we forgot about them for a little bit," said Maura, nodding in approval when Jane's hands trailed their way up her bent legs. "Cailin and your mother."

Jane hummed. "They're troublemakers," she teased. "Maybe we should ditch 'em and hole up in a hotel til they get the hint."

Maura chuckled softly. "We should. But we won't. Because they're family."

When Jane agreed, they kissed until they were breathless, until kissing led to writhing together under the covers, until writhing led to sighing and sighing led to spent sleep. They would figure out the rest in the morning, together.