O'Malley's Later

Rizzoli sat in the booth in the back of O'Malley's facing the door. Gibbs sat across from her watching her hold the bottle of Smithwicks to her lips. Gibbs, while watching her, unconsciously pealed the label from his. Both were thinking about the end of their case. Gibbs had a feeling of a job well done; not so Detective Rizzoli. She felt something was missing, something she couldn't put her finger on.

Dinner had already been ordered and would arrive any moment. Jethro sensed something was amiss with his partner. "I'd give a penny for your thoughts Detective Rizzoli."

Jane had just placed her bottle back on the table. Her head shot up at the sound of his voice. She shook her head as if to clear her unwanted thoughts away. She thought a moment and then proceeded. "While we got O'Rourke, did we get him for the right reasons? Will he go to prison or to a hospital for help? How do we know what's right here?"

Gibbs had not really expected this from her. "Jane, it's not our job to decide that. A judge and jury will do that." He realized there was more to Rizzoli's feelings. "I need to hear your reasons for your beliefs. We caught him with a device and he admits to placing the first one. He had a motive. We caught him dead to rights."

Jane pushed her beer to the side as she grimaced with all those truths, but more bothered her. "The first device should have created more damage than a mere scorching. If it had burned more he'd have been caught then. I think he set the device and when he saw sailors on board he hit the remote to set it off. There was no chance for total destruction.

Gibbs watched her face. He never saw a sign of her joking with him, just total honesty. She'd meant every word of what she's said. He thought about her reservations. It had been a solid bust, but what if she was right? "We caught him with the second device. He held you as a hostage. What makes you think he wouldn't have set it off?"

Rizzoli looked away from Gibbs. She was working on a gut feeling and didn't know if he'd understand those feelings. A good cop always works from a combination of information gained, proof of guilt and gut feelings. Gibbs had to know those feelings, didn't he? She glanced back at him and blurted out her reasons. "Gut feeling and proximity to O'Rourke told me a lot. Rapid, shallow breathing, sweat, shaking, all tell you a great deal about a person and he had them all. He was serious about his feelings for his brother and his parent's dismissal of him disturbed him so much. All of those things, added together make me feel that prison would be wrong for him. He needs psychological help, not Walpole or some federal prison and definitely not Gitmo. We did label him a terrorist after all. He needs to stay near his wife and daughter."

Gibbs smiled across the table at her and let out a small chuckle. "Gut feeling? For me gut feeling is sometimes more important than the information that we garner from sources. It's nice to see someone else uses their gut to get things done."

Rizzoli gave a grin to the grizzled agent. "So you understand where I'm coming from? I just don't feel O'Rourke needs to go to jail. I think that he needs professional help and perhaps a visit from his parents. His wife and daughter are already here and Rose made a call to his parents. Hopefully they're able to come for him."

Jethro nodded. "That's exactly what he needs."

Jane looked up to see Frankie coming towards them. Behind him was Jane's best friend Maura.

Frankie, feeling chipper after the case shouted to Jane. "Where's my beer?"

Maura sat next to Jane. Frankie went to the bar for his beer and wine for Maura.

Gibbs looked up from his beer and saw Maura for the first time. He just stared, slack-jawed, at the Medical Examiner.

Jane watched Gibbs face as it changed emotions from shock, to disbelief to amazement.

Except for the color of her hair, she was a dead ringer for Kate. He mumbled something and Jane could have sworn it was "Do you embroider pillows?"

Maura, totally in the dark as to the question didn't know what to say.

Jane looked first to her friend, who just shook her head, and then to the man across from her. "Gibbs…what's going on?"

Gibbs just shook his head negatively but spoke quietly. "Nothing," He looked at his watch. His flight was in three hours and his meal hadn't come yet. Just then the meal arrived and it was an awkward half hour while they ate. He had no idea what to say to Maura. He found himself staring at her. Her presence made him nervous. He just needed to leave.

Jane sensed his need to leave but couldn't fathom the reason for it. She'd actually hoped to spend time alone with him. Maybe they do it another time. "Come on Superman, I'll take you to turn in your rental car." She turned to her brother. "Frankie, make sure you pay our bill, we've got to run."

As the two of them walked to their cars the silence grew heavy. "Gibbs what went on it there? I had so hoped that we could talk."

Jethro still was a bit shell shocked. "I wanted to ask you if you'd come to Washington next weekend for a visit?"

Jane gave him a shy smile. "Sure 'boyfriend'." She winked at him. "I'd like that."

Jethro smiled back. They got into their vehicles and pulled out of the parking lot. Jethro gave a lot of thought to Jane and realized they would have a great friendship and maybe more. She probably wouldn't ever leave Boston but he'd give it a try.

Twenty minutes later he returned his rental and Jane gave him a ride to the departure gates at Logan. As he got out of the car he smiled at Rizzoli. "I'll call you when I get home and we can make arrangements." Jane nodded and then asked him a question."Are you going to tell me what happened in the restaurant with Maura?"

Gibbs gave his typical smirk, shoulder shrug, and an almost non-committal answer. "Nope." And he turned from the car and disappeared into the terminal.