Author Notes: Well I wasn't expecting that amount of reaction to the last chapter. Thanks a lot to everyone who faved/followed and/or reviewed. Contrary to the belief of some, I do not write for reviews, but of course it's lovely to receive them. This chapter took a turn I wasn't entirely expecting, the timeline on the loose plan I have keeps changing.

"Come on, Maura, you can do this," Jane said, holding Maura's hand.

She squeezed Jane's fingers, gripping tightly as her face contorted. The pain in Jane's hand was nothing compared to the work that Maura was doing. Jane smiled and watched her, spurring her on with every encouraging word.

"Just one more push."

Her hand ached from the pressure. Maura closed her eyes and opened her mouth, her face bright pink with the exertion. When the baby's cries filled the air, Maura lay back against the pillow, gasping for breath. Her grasp of Jane's hand loosened, but not fully removed.

"Congratulations, Mommas, you have a boy," someone said, a faceless voice handed the baby over to Jane and she cradled him in her arms.

"He's here," Jane whispered, staring up into Maura's eyes. Maura stared back, tears welled in her eyes. She lowered their son into Maura's arms and kissed her roughly on the lips, not stopping until she could barely breath. "I love you so much."

"I love you," Jane said, opening her eyes, sitting up. She stared around the empty room, her chest heaved with heavy breath. "Maura?"

"No, it's Silver."

Jane twisted round on the bed. Silver sat beside her, cross legged, a crease formed between her eyebrows.

"Oh."

"You looked like you were having a nice dream," Silver said.

"Yeah," she said, shaking her head. She tried to brush the lingering feelings aside.

"Wanna tell me about it?"

"Maybe later," Jane said, climbing off the bed. She didn't mean to sound so distant. "I need to take a leak."

In the bathroom, Jane stared into the mirror, her eyes were red. She rubbed them, then splashed cool water across her face. Every breath was one step closer to coming down from whatever it was that made it harder to breath. She could still see Maura clearly in her mind, holding their son. She wiped a towel across her cheeks and returned to the bedroom, then on out to the kitchen.

"I thought I'd make you some breakfast," Silver said, pushing a couple of slices of bacon around a frying pan.

Jane nodded. She slipped into a seat at the table and watched her. In everything, Silver had done nothing wrong. She cared for her, she wanted her to be happy, she just didn't know how to tell her that it would never be with her.

"What time is it?" Jane asked, then narrowed her eyes. "What day is it?"

"You slept right through, it's morning. You got back yesterday."

"Oh right."

"You mother called, wanted to know if you would like to have dinner with her tonight."

"I'll call her later," Jane said, running her hands across her face and staring down at the table.

"She invited me, too."

Jane looked up. "She did?"

"Yeah. I hope you don't mind."

"No," Jane said.

She shook her head. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. She didn't know what was supposed to happen. Everything inside of her pointed to Maura. Every feeling, every emotion.

"Silver," Jane said, the second she sat down opposite her. She reached a hand out and grasped Silver's.

"What is it?"

"I." The words caught in her throat. She stared down at the plate of bacon and eggs. "Thanks for this."

x

Maura placed a coffee cup in front of Angela, and sat down beside her. In the hours since arriving home, she was thankful for the company. Who she really wanted to spend her time with was Jane. She knew it was selfish, after all, they'd just spent days together. Besides, Jane needed time alone, time with her girlfriend.

"I wanted to invite you to dinner," Angela said. "Jane's bringing Silver over."

"Oh," Maura said, a niggling feeling crept up on her. "Then no."

"Why not?" Angela raised an eyebrow. "Don't you like Silver?"

"I don't really know her," Maura said. "She seems nice. I don't want to impose when you're meeting her. Would you like me to go out so you can have dinner here?"

"No, don't do that," Angela said. "This is your home. I don't want to kick you out of it."

"I don't mind."

"No. We can eat in the guest house."

"If that's what you want."

Relief overshadowed the niggling feeling. Despite knowing that Jane would be just across the driveway, Maura was glad she didn't need to be party to the situation. Besides, she had not quite reacclimatised yet. She planned to curl up with a new book on the couch, and have an early night.

"If you change your mind, you know where we are," Angela said.

"Thank you."

x

"What are you doing here?" Maura asked, snapping on a pair of gloves and walking across the football field.

"I was gonna ask you the same," Jane said, falling into step beside her. "You took today off."

"So did you."

"They called," Jane said. "I didn't wanna sit at home all day waiting for Silver to finish work."

"Likewise. I imagine Silver's glad to have you home."

"Yeah."

Approaching the centre of the field, Maura crouched down beside the body. A young man, wearing a football uniform, lay face down in the grass, with a large metal pole piercing his back. She checked him over for additional injuries, while a crime technician took photographs around her.

"The football coach called it in," Jane said. "He came out here this morning to make sure the field was ready for practice and found him here."

"It appears he was stabbed with a javelin," Maura said.

"Stabbed, or, you know, accidentally got in the way of a flying pole?"

Maura stood up. "I don't think I can answer that until autopsy. Do we have any witnesses that saw what happened?"

"No." Jane folded her arms across her chest. "Football coach claims everyone got changed after last night's game. There's no reason why a javelin should have even been removed from the storage room."

"Do you know who the victim is?"

"Joselin Evans. Weird thing is he isn't even on the football team."

"Let's get the body back to BPD," Maura said, signalling to the morgue technician. She wandered back across the field.

Jane wandered behind her. "You settle back in okay?"

"It's nice to be home," she said. "I called Cailin this morning, she's got a few things to tie up in Oxford. She's going to come over here in a couple of weeks."

"I'm glad," Jane said. "You deserve to have people around you."

"Maybe we can have drinks, tomorrow after work," Maura said. "We can talk about what we do next, with trying again."

"Yeah." Jane ran her hand across Maura's shoulder. "Okay.

x

The CCTV footage played out on the large monitor in the BRIC. Maura watched Nina expertly enhance the footage, until they could see a person as clear as possible on the screen.

"That's definitely the victim," Maura said. "You said there was evidence to suggest he was murdered?"

"Not evidence exactly," Nina said, pointing to the screen. "But if you look over here, you can see that the victim appears to have some sort of disability."

"He's limping, that ties in with the bruising I found on his lower leg. I found no evidence of a permanent disability. The bruising suggests he was physically assaulted."

"Could they have killed him?"

"The evidence suggests he may have been murdered," Maura said. "The javelin severed his spinal cord. There is some scarring around the injury site which suggests it was not an accident. The javelin was not thrown; it was likely pushed into his back."

"I still have a couple hours of footage to look through," Nina said. "I'll let you know if I find anything. I'm hoping we'll be able to catch someone taking the javelin out of the storage room."

"Let me know if there's anything I can do."

Maura walked towards the doorway, then turned back. "Nina, could I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"How has Jane been today?"

Nina frowned. "She seems fine."

"She seems fine, or she says she's fine?"

Nina laughed. "She says she's fine. I'm not so sure. She seems a little sad."

"Thank you," Maura turned back to the door.

"Maura?"

"Yes," she stopped and face Nina again.

"How are you holding up?"

"I'm…for want of a better word, fine."

"It takes time," she said. "Losing someone close. Especially when it's unexpected."

"It does. Thank you for asking."

"Maybe we could get a drink sometime, if you wanted. As two people who know what it's like to lose someone they love."

"That would be nice. Maybe in a couple of days."

Nina nodded. "Is everything okay with Jane?"

"I think," Maura said. "But I fear something I did may have contributed to her being 'fine'."

"If there's anything I can do to help," Nina said, trailing off.

"I think this is something only Jane and I can sort out between ourselves, but I appreciate the offer."

x

"More wine?" Angela asked, lifting up the bottle.

"Yes, thanks," Silver said, holding her glass out.

"So, tell me, Silver, are you gonna break my baby's heart?"

"Ma!" Jane said. She shook her head and held Angela's gaze. If anyone was going to break anyone's heart, she didn't expect it would be Silver. "Do you have to?"

"What? I'm trying to look out for you."

Silver smiled, took a sip of wine, and placed her glass back down on the table. "I can assure you, Mrs Rizzoli, I care for your daughter very much. I don't intend to hurt her."

Jane stared down at her hands. She rubbed at her scars, seeking the relief that that usually brought. It didn't work. She rubbed harder until her palms ached.

"Enough of the Mrs Rizzoli," Angela said. "That loser ex-husband of mine has no place in this conversation, and calling me Mrs Rizzoli makes it seem like I'm still married."

"It's your name," Jane said, rolling her eyes.

"So? Maybe it shouldn't be. Maybe I should go back to my maiden name."

They were Rizzolis. It was all Jane knew. In some ways she didn't like the idea of her mother having a different last name. Though, really, deep down, she didn't really mind. Her father had treated her badly, and she didn't know why Angela hadn't done it sooner.

"Why would you wanna do that?" she asked, irritability seeping into her words.

"Hey, if it works for Jennifer Aniston," Silver said.

"Exactly," Angela said, holding her hand out in front of her. "Silver understands."

Jane sat back in her seat and forked a green bean into her mouth. She pushed the remainder of her food about on her plate, uneaten. The dinner was going better than she could have expected. Silver and her mother were getting along just fine. Except that seeing it happen made her feel anything but okay.

"You've got a good one here, Janie," Angela said, smiling. "Silver's wonderful. Why didn't you bring her over for dinner sooner?"

"I dunno."

"What's gotten into you this evening?" Angela asked. "You've got a face like a wet fourth of July."

"I'm fine."

"Did you ever notice how much my daughter says she's fine?"

"All the time!"

"It started when she was seven. She got hit in the face by a baseball and I don't think she ever got over it."

Jane rolled her eyes and buried her face in her arms. "Ma, do you always have to tell stories?"

"She got a bloody nose, you can still see a scar on the left hand side if you look closely enough. She cried for hours. We tried everything; ice cream, pizza. She wouldn't stop. Wouldn't even go to the bathroom until she wet her panties and I had to take her."

"Ma! Seriously, stop talking."

"She was irritable because she was tired, just like now," Angela said, staring at Jane. She sighed.

"Probably jetlag," Silver said, sliding a hand across Jane's thigh. She jumped under her touch, and pushed her hand away. Silver's eyes narrowed in Jane's direction, before she forced a smile back onto her face.

"You should take her home," Angela said.

Silver nodded. "After dessert, I wouldn't want to miss out on what looks like an amazing chocolate cake. You are a fantastic chef."

"Please," Angela said, shrugging. "I'm not a brilliant chef, I just make nice food."

"You must give me the recipe."

"I'll take a copy and give it to Jane."

Jane watched, her eyes danced back and forth between her mother and her girlfriend. They smiled, and laughed, and joked. The result of the dinner was what anybody could want from meet the parents. But the whole thing just felt sour in Jane's mouth.

"If you like good food you should try the Italian on Berkshire," Angela said. "They make the best gnocchi this side of Rome."

"I love gnocchi!" Silver said. "Hey, Jane, we should go there next week."

She nodded, forging a smile. They just kept talking, chatting, getting along. Every word that passed between them built up and up until Jane couldn't listen to it any longer. She stood up and tossed her napkin on top of her plate.

"I need some air."

Outside the guest house, Jane stood in Maura's garden, staring out across the cut lawn and array of flowers. She looked up at the main house. Maura was so close, and yet so far away. She half expected her to be invited to dinner, too. That was the kind of thing her mother would do. She closed her eyes and imagined she was back in Oxford, stood in Hope's garden with Maura by her side. Nothing made sense anymore. The night was perfect, it was everything it should have been. She should have been happy.

"What was that?" Silver asked, walking up beside her. She reached out to Jane's hand, but she pulled it away. "And what was that?"

"Nothing," she said, clearing her throat.

"You were completely rude in there."

"Why? Because I walked out while you and Ma were swapping recipes, restaurant recommendations and my most embarrassing moments?"

"Because your mother went to all that trouble to make us dinner and you barely ate, you sat and you criticised."

"That's how we do it," Jane said, standing a little taller. "You don't know our relationship."

"I know that you should go in there and apologise to her."

"Back off, Silver," Jane said, turning to face her. The second their eyes locked, Jane lowered her gaze.

"Look at me," Silver said, stepping forward. She rested her fingers against Jane's chin. She lifted her gaze back onto Silver's, then on up towards the sky. "Why won't you look at me?"

"I can't."

"Jane."

"I'm going home," she said, pushing past her and out across the driveway.

Jane didn't want to do this. Not here. Not so close to Maura. She could hear Silver's shoes tapping across the concrete, following her towards the car. She fumbled in her pocket for her key and unlocked the door.

"You can't walk away from this."

"I don't want to talk right now," Jane said, gritting her teeth.

"Is this how you deal with conflict, Jane?"

"No, it's not."

She turned around and caught Silver's gaze. Despite everything, she still liked her. She stared into her eyes, into the softness, into the kindness.

"I'm sorry."

"Talk to me," Silver said, cupping her cheek. "We're in this together. Don't shut me out."

Leaning closer, Jane brushed her lips against Silver, pushing her tongue into her mouth as she intensified the embrace. Silver reacted. She wrapped her arms around Jane and they kissed, fumbling in the dark, their hands travelled across clothed skin. For the briefest second, Silver melted away, merging with Maura, until Jane felt herself react to her touch.

"No," Jane said, pushing her away. Silver pulled her back in, tugging at her shirt, reaching out to her mouth. Jane pushed her again. "Stop."

"Please, Jane," Silver said, attempting once more. "If we just forget about talking, maybe we can work through this."

Jane turned her around and kissed her again, pushing her against the car. She tangled her fingers up in her hair, searching for something she struggled to find. Her other hand skirted around the bottom of her dress. It would be so easy to push through, to allow her body to react and do the work. But it wasn't right. It wasn't okay. She stepped back.

"I can't," she whispered, brushing a tear away before it could stroll down her cheek.

"What's wrong? You can't just kiss me then tell me you can't. Talk to me." Silver tugged at Jane's fingers, pulling them into her hands.

"I can't," Jane said, retrieving her fingers, holding her hands up at both sides. "I don't want to. I don't wanna do this anymore."

Silver lowered her arms down by her side. Jane watched her clutch the edge of her dress. "Don't want to do what?"

"This. Us."

"Oh." Silver narrowed her eyes, her voice barely audible. "Why?"

"Does there have to be a reason?"

"I need a reason."

"I can't give you one."

"Don't do this, Jane," she said, stepping forward again.

She reached up and tried to kiss her again, but Jane lowered her head. She couldn't pretend that she wasn't confused about Maura. She had to be honest, even if that meant breaking her heart.

"I can't be with you. Please don't make this harder than it needs to be. Having time away allowed me to think things through, and this isn't what I want."

"But we were good together. You brought me to meet your mother."

"You brought yourself," Jane said, wiping fresh tears from the edge of her chin. "I didn't invite you to dinner. She did."

"But you said it was okay."

"It wasn't."

"I see."

Jane closed her eyes. "I like you Silver, I do. I just can't be with you. I don't wanna hurt you, that's why I'm trying to be honest."

"Too late."

The tapping of Silver's shoes echoed off into the distance. When Jane opened her eyes, the street was empty.

Author Notes: There we go...that's what everyone wants, really...I hope it's to your satisfaction...