Chapter 2

It had been 3 weeks since the Jane and Frankie were shot. Four days after the shooting, the review board had determined that although Jane's actions weren't ideal, nothing about the situation was. Today would be Jane's first day back on the job while Frankie still had a few weeks of recovery left. In the past three weeks, Maura had actually seen Jane very little. She was busy with work and as Jane always said, 'summer brings out the crazies'. Maura tried to convince herself that her absence from Detective Rizzoli was strictly due to work, not the fact that somehow her feelings for Jane were changing. Maura was a smart woman and had reminded herself of that several times over the last few weeks. She understood that in tragedy sometimes people become a victim to themselves. False feelings were realized and when the drama was done and every day life took over, you realized that a mistake had been made. Maura was sure that's what this was. A misunderstanding within her own body; her own mind. Her mind was a very powerful tool, but she did still have control over it.

As she browsed for shoes on-line, her thoughts were interrupted. "Find anything in my size?"

Maura turned to see Jane standing in the doorway smiling. "Good morning." Jane smiled and moved toward Jane. "I was just looking." Maura wasn't lying, she was just looking. Looking at the screen while her thoughts were all over the place. She couldn't have told you one pair of shoes on that page, even if her life depended on it.

"Haven't seen you much." Jane said walking in the room.

"Busy, busy. You know…."

"Yeah, crazies and all. I know."

"You look good." Oh god Maura, really? She couldn't help but notice the smile on Jane's face."I mean you look healthy and extremely ready to return to work." What the hell? Why did that just bother me?

"I am, and thank you. Frankie says to tell you hi and that he hates that he missed your big award. Being all…" Jane flailed her hands around, "…heroic and stuff."

"I still can't fathom why they gave me that award. I did what anyone would have done."

"Well either way, you saved a man's life and that man just happened to be a cop."

"All I saw him as was your brother." Come on Maura! Is the conversation sounding as bad as I think?

"Well then I owe you a thank you."

"It's not necessary, Jane."

"Yes it is. How about Dinner?"

"It's fine, Jane. No need to…"

"Maura, You saved my brother's life and ran out in front of a firing squad to get to me. Let me take you to dinner."

After weeks of running and trying to talk herself down from the ledge she was on, she was now faced with the source of her dilemma. The source that was now asking her to dinner. Something they have done a million times before. Just dinner. Just food and wine. What could go wrong? "Sure." Maura finally said.

Jane noticed the hesitation in the other woman's response. For a moment she was worried. "Maura, did I do something to you? I mean, I know you agreed with the review board and I didn't understand, but….."

"No." Maura said quickly. "No, you didn't do anything. I was just mentally checking my schedule."

"Wow, we really are busy these days." Jane laughed. "Well since your schedule is free, I'll pick you up at seven?"

"Sounds good."

Maura had never been so thankful in her life to hear a phone ring. Jane checked the phone on her side. "Hang on." She lifted the phone to her head and began to talk. "Rizzoli…..yeah….alright I'm on my way up." Jane place her phone back on her side. "Well, looks like we're both in luck…dead bodies."

"Oh, plural?"

"Yep."

"Another busy day." Maura said to Jane as she walked out.

"Yep. Crazies!" She yelled, already down the hall.

Jane sat at her desk going over the files and evidence of the case. She was the only one in the room until Frost walked in and sat at his desk across from her. Jane closed the file she was looking at and looked up at her partner. "Hey."

"Yeah." Frost said not looking up from the work he was doing on the laptop.

"Maura seem alright to you?"

Frost's fingers froze on the keyboard. "What do you mean?"

"She's a little…I don't know. Distracted or something."

"I don't know. Haven't noticed."

"You're lying."

"Why would you say that?"

"Maybe because you have yet to look away from the computer screen. Spill it."

"We all know that you hate people to worry about us and our jobs. She's just trying to respect that."

"What? Maura is still upset about what happened? She should be use to it. We do this every day."

"Every day?"

"Every day."

"So every day a group of gunmen come in this building, shoot a bunch of cops and start looking for evidence on a case? Oh yeah, and while they are here, they shoot Frankie, hold her at gun point, take you outside in a choke hold with a gun to you and you put a bullet in your stomach? Oh and let's not forget that you brought her your dying brother and said, 'Here Maura my brother is dying save him' with those big brown puppy dog eyes." Jane took a deep breath. "Just give her a minute to calm down. When you were worried and scared about Hoyt, you went to her. She made you feel better. She can't do that with you because she knows that you don't like people in your life that worry about your job. She's fully aware of that. Just give her a minute." Frost didn't say another word before leaving the room.

Please don't let him die, Maura, Please. He's going to die right here on this table if you don't do something. Jane put her elbows on the desk and took a deep breath. "Great."

Three hours later, Jane walked back in as Maura was inspecting the victims. "Got anything for me?"

Maura heart jumped when she heard Jane's voice. Stop it! "I do. The first victim died of blunt force trauma to the head."

"Nice."

"From the splinters I recovered from the wound, it looks like a board or maybe a wooden baseball bat."

"Wow, look at you, Doctor Isles. Did you just give me a guess?"

"No, the wood fibers were that which are only used in making…."

"I was kidding, Maura." Jane smiled and Maura somehow felt butterflies in the pit of her stomach. Had she ever really noticed how beautiful Jane was? Those dimples, that badge, that gun….STOP IT MAURA! As she scolded herself, thank God, Jane spoke again. "And the other guy?"

"Little more complex. He has no signs of external wounds, so it is going to take me a little longer with him. The toxicology reports should be back any minute."

"Maybe, victim 2 hit victim 1 with a ball bat and then he dropped dead. Wow, maybe there is justice in the world."

"You know that could actually happen. It's not justice really, it's a condition in the heart. When they get too excited…." Maura noticed Jane smiling at her. "What?"

"I have missed that. That….Wikipedia thing you do." Jane smiled and started to walk out. "Gotta go. Bad guys to catch." She stopped just before the door and turned to Maura, who was watching her leave. "Oh, and try and wrap this up by dinner. I'm starving already and I don't want you working late." With that she was gone again.

Maura looked at the two bodies. "Was that completely obvious? Don't answer that."

Maura heard a knock on the door at seven exactly. She smiled thinking that Jane really must be hungry. She stopped just short of the door, sighed and straighten her already incredibly straightened clothes. .GOD this has to stop! She quickly grabbed the door knob and smiled at Jane.

"You ready?" Jane asked. "I'm starving."

"You mentioned that earlier." Maura said as she closed the door and followed Jane.

"Yeah, well now add like five more hours of hungry to it."

Maura laughed as she got into the car. "Over dramatic much, Jane?"

"Ha, Ha."

"Did you get any leads on the investigation?"

"No, not yet. We came up with a few starting points, but nothing solid."

"The toxicology report can back about fifteen minutes ago. Took longer because they had to go through everything. All the tests are coming back negative, so it will be sometime tomorrow."

"Well, we wait 'til tomorrow then, but right now I would really like not to talk about work. I haven't seen much of you lately…."

"I'm sorry about that."

Jane looked over as she was driving and smile. "I know, you were busy. You said that already."

An unbelievable amount of guilt hit Maura in the stomach. "Yes, I was busy." Busy running like hell from what ever this is. Maura had been wrong before, she had no control of her own mind anymore.

The drive to the restaurant and the first part of the meal was filled with small talk. Jane took Maura be surprise. "So, any new juicy love life gossip."

Maura almost dropped her fork. "Excuse me?"

"You know, anything new. You been seeing anyone? Anyone new caught your eye?"

"N….no." Maura stuttered.

"You don't sound very C….convincing." Jane laughed.

"I meant, that….." Come on Maura, babbling will always stop her. "It is a physiological fact that when people are attracted…." Maura noticed Jane's eyebrow raise and her intently listening.

"What?" Jane smiled.

"You didn't stop me. You usually stop me."

"I said that I missed you. And I did. So I am listening, Maurapedia. Tell me about what happens in a persons body and brain when they meet someone. I'm listening, go on." Jane continued to eat, looking up at Maura smiling.

"We really don't need to talk about my boring, momentary attractions to people that are without doubt, going nowhere."

"How do you know it isn't going anywhere?"

"Jane."

"Oh my God, they don't know." Jane laughed putting her hand on top of Maura's which was laying on the table. "How cute is that. Dr. Isles has a crush on someone." Jane leaned over. "Ok, you have got to tell me who it is."

"I do not have crushes, Jane. Don't be ridiculous. I am a grown woman, not some high school girl with her hormones running all over the place."

"Yeah, yeah whatever. Who is it?" Jane sat back and chuckled.

"No one. There's no one."

"Why won't you tell me?" Maura continued to move the food around her plate. "Ooohhh, I know 'em"

"This is preposterous."

"Call it whatever you want. I'm gonna find out."

"Oh really, and how do you propose you'll do that?"

"Excuse me? How?"

"Yes, how?"

"Aha! So there is someone."

"No, Jane there isn't."

Jane raised her eyebrow and raised her hands to her chest. "I am a homicide detective. I find the truth for a living, Maura." She leaned against the table and looked Maura in the eyes so deeply that Maura thought she would lose her breath, then continued. "If I can find out who killed someone, I will find out who Doctor Maura Isles has her eye on."

Maura watched Jane sit back as confidence poured from her body. Suddenly Maura was very worried.