Author's note: Thank you very much for all the reviews, it is a pleasure to read them.

Story Four: A Four-Year Evolution

The nerves. As Maura rushed back to her car to pick up an extra pair of latex gloves, she let a very heavy sigh pass her lips before clenching her teeth angrily. She was pissed and didn't mind it at all that people could see it. On the contrary.

After months of moral support to help Jane overcome her breakup, Casey was back into the picture. Worse: he had proposed the Italian after a few hours in Boston. And Jane – apparently amnesic before what she had gone through – had forgotten her pain to the point she might give him a second chance.

And break Maura's heart forever. Just like that, through a three-character word. A mere 'yes'.

"What was that?"

The honey blonde slammed the door of her car and turned around to shoot an icy glare at her friend. She shrugged then resumed her walking towards the crime scene. A thin curtain of rain was falling – making the roads icy – and she didn't want to lose any more time outside. She was too cold. The morgue seemed a lot more appealing in spite of everything.

"I don't see what you are talking about." Lie. Yet she couldn't care less about getting hives or even pass out. At this point, she could have even died that it would have not made it worse.

At least the pain would have ceased.

"Oh, bullshit. Casey drops me here and you yell at him for absolutely no reason when he tells you hi. I know you're a bit antisocial when you want to but come on... Make an effort and be polite!"

Maura stopped suddenly. Jane bumped into her by accident and raised both arms in the air as if to apologize. A few feet away, the typical frenzy of a crime scene had everyone else's attention. Both women could have killed each other that it would have passed unnoticed.

Jane bit her lower lip nervously and tilted her head on a side before looking at Maura with her big puppy eyes. She hated it when it went like that.

"What is going on? Please, talk to me." Her hoarse voice vanished in a bare whisper; a shaking one that echoed the uncertainty of her current being. Her fear.

The medical examiner shrugged but didn't say a word. She had no excuse whatsoever for what she had just done except for the amount of pain Casey had inflicted to Jane for the past few months.

And she couldn't tolerate it. Nobody hurt Jane. Nobody did that as long as she was herself alive and breathing.

"Maura, what is it?"

"There is a corpse waiting for..." The scientist didn't finish her sentence. The words vanished – trapped in her throat – as she felt Jane's hand tighten a grip on her forearm.

"All the fucking crime scenes in the world can wait. I want to know what's going on."

A truck honked somewhere in the background. Maura turned around briefly to look in the direction of the intrusive sound then found a sudden interest in the observation of the gloves she was holding. What could she say? She had got trapped into a dead-end alley. Unable to properly speak, she only shook her head and sighed rather loudly; bitterly.

"I don't like it when you hide things from me." Jane looked sorry, and hurt. "You don't like him, do you?"

"This isn't the issue..."

The detective snorted and crossed her arms against her chest in a protective attempt. She was cold and felt lonely. Obviously, it wouldn't be a very memorable New Year's Eve.

"Well, I think it is." Jane rolled her eyes and made a step towards her friend. "Maybe you see things differently but I do give people a second chance. Especially people I care about. Yes, Casey hurt me but he also apologized. He recognized his own mistakes."

Maura clenched her fists and swallowed hard. She didn't want to make a scene. Not now. Not there. Too many people were around. It was a very bad timing.

"I cannot force myself to like someone who made you feel miserable for so long and damaged your self-confidence. You cannot ask me that."

Her words hit Jane like a ton of bricks. She hadn't expected that. Maura was never harsh, always a tad balanced in the way she expressed her opinions. Especially on such personal subject.

Sure she couldn't lie and the brunette had guessed that her friend didn't like Casey much but still, it was not how she had imagined it to go. Not the slightest bit.

"No, indeed."

A heavy silence began to float above their heads, barely troubled by the murmurs of the BPD there on the crime scene; on the other side of the yellow tape that secured the area. Television vans were already on their way. Now within a few minutes, the place would be crowded.

Jane turned on her heels and took a deep breath to repress the tears that were menacing to roll down on her cheeks.

"Let's go back to work, now."

Maura looked at the Italian go away, counting her steps in her head. As she made it to number seven, she called out her name rather loudly.

"Jane!"

She ran after her friend, not caring much about the dozen of people who had turned around before her unexpected outburst to check what was going on. She grabbed the detective's forearm to force her to stop.

"It isn't you but me." Maura closed her eyes as if to find the strength – the courage – she needed and bitterly laughed at her own wonders. "I don't want anyone to touch you but me. I don't want anyone to kiss you but me. Not Casey... Me. Me – me – and me. I don't want anyone to wake up next to you but me. I don't want... I don't want anyone to love you but me. Just me."

The silence that followed took Maura in an ocean of uncertainty. Wrapped up in doubts, she looked in disbelief at her friend; unable to move an inch.

She had never meant to say all this. Even less on a crime scene, with half of local television networks witnessing the scene. Her confession.

The wave of heat rushing up her cheeks took her back to reality. She swallowed hard and widened her eyes as an obvious panic began to spread over her mind.

"Oh my God."

Her words passed her lips through a blank voice she didn't even recognize as hers. The only sure thing was that her murmur hadn't been inaudible enough to remain unnoticed. Unfortunately.

Shocked, Jane cast a glance around her but didn't say anything. She had listened to the medical examiner's heartful monologue without moving an inch; carried by a sentiment of witnessing a scene from the outside in spite of being at the center of it.

Four years. She had met Maura Isles four years earlier on another crime scene. In theory, the very first time they had talked had occured at the Division One Cafe but deep in her heart, everything had started on Interstate 90 during an icy – snowy - New Year's Eve.

Four years for a friendship to build and develop leading to this exact moment of them standing in a dark alley of Chinatown. To the confession of something different, a lot more intense.

Love.

It might have been indirect – through half-words – Maura still had expressed herself openly; her shaking voice betraying the pain she was enduring. The battle of her heart trying to fight off her reason.

And among all this, Jane remained there. Quiet. Astonished.

"Rizzoli?"

Jane frowned and raised a hand in the air to stop her colleague. The officer was somewhere in her back. She couldn't see him. Anyway, her eyes were locked on Maura. The rest had turned invisible. Fuzzy and unimportant.

Three steps. She closed the distance that separated her from the honey blonde with three steps. An absolute nothing that still made the difference and marked a complete turn of direction.

A change of events.

She kissed her. Her hand slid on Maura's nape as she captured her friend's lips in a troubling kiss, a confusing one.

But soon the shape of reality – the taste of logic – imposed itself to her mind and she relaxed; smiled brightly in Maura's mouth before abandoning herself the least calculated gesture of her existence.

She didn't pay attention to the profusion of a thousand feelings that had suddenly passed underneath her skin to rush through her veins to nourish her heart. The whole world had stopped as evidence had won. The most delicate one, the most beautiful one.

The most unique one.

The fireworks exploded in the sky in a multitude of colors. She broke apart and immediately looked for the scientist's hazel eyes. She swallowed hard.

"Happy New Year, Maura Isles."

The confusion on the medical examiner's face slowly melted into something graceful; a peaceful sweetness that lit up her features and finally got rid of their darkness, the depth they had been caring for a while. A quiet pain.

"Happy New Year, Jane Rizzoli."