Risks:

'I can't believe I did that...'

At 9:00 the following morning, Maura still couldn't fully process the frantic, forbidden experience that she and Jane had shared just a few hours before. Unfortunately, most of their encounters were frantic and forbidden.

'I can't believe Jane let me do that.'

Perhaps it was partially because of their eclectic work schedules, but Maura suspected that there was more behind their tendency to rush, to consume each other in flames until nothing remained but ashes. Maybe they didn't want to bring deeply buried emotions to the surface and jeopardize their fragile relationship.

'She made herself so vulnerable to me...'

Maura shook her head and sighed. "What am I doing here?" she asked aloud. The Medical Examiner was not referring to her early-morning presence in the morgue, but it was easier to phrase her question as 'what am I doing here' instead of 'what on earth are Jane and I getting ourselves in to...'

Unfortunately, Maura had a feeling that she knew exactly what they were getting themselves in to. According to her research, it was called a 'relationship'. The only problem was Jane. She wasn't sure if the detective was ready for labels, or any kind of relationship beyond what they already had. Maura knew that Jane was fond of her. More than fond of her. They were friends. But did her friend have any romantic feelings for her aside from sexual attraction?

Maura had never been good at working through these sorts of problems. In fact, she went out of her way to avoid them. This time, she did not need to search for a work-related distraction, because one presented itself right on cue.

"Dr. Isles?"

Maura looked up. She had a memory for voices as well as faces, another of her quirks, and she immediately recognized Rose Heissmann's son. "Good morning, Mr. Weaver. I assume someone upstairs directed you to my morgue, since there is no other way you could have gotten past the detectives and patrol officers upstairs."

The young man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small white square. "I showed them your card."

Maura decided to have a talk with the boys upstairs later. Although she was actually grateful for the brief respite from her own thoughts, that didn't mean she wanted strangers tramping through her morgue on a regular basis. She gave her card out frequently, and it wasn't an all-access visitor's pass by any means.

"Very good," she said anyway, putting the problem aside for later. Maura was very skilled at putting problems aside for later. "How may I help you?"

Looking much less angry than the night before, Mr. Weaver seemed almost contrite as he shifted his weight from loafer to loafer. His hair was neatly groomed and he had no facial hair to speak of. "I apologize if I behaved... inappropriately last night. I was very upset, and no one seemed to be able to give me any answers."

"Understandable." Maura dismissed the apology. "First thing's first, your..." she paused, remembering that Mrs. Heissman's husband was not Weaver's father, "your mother's husband is officially on record as our contact for her remains. This might be an awkward subject, but do you have any plans to challenge that in court?"

"I didn't know I could," said the young man. "But no. I'm sure I'll help with the funeral arrangements, but I have no problem with that. I just wanted to be certain that she was... taken care of. You understand."

Maura was about to state that she did not understand, since her own mother was still alive, but thought better of it. Sometimes her literal nature rubbed people the wrong way. "Of course."

"Do you know how she died?"

The medical examiner did not mind the abruptness of the question. "I'm afraid that I can't give you a straightforward answer," Maura said, putting on her most convincing disappointed face. "I will say that her death was unexpected and sudden, and most likely not directly related to her recent battle with cancer. There were no signs of trauma to her body, so I suspect the answer will come from the lab in a few days."

"You think she had some kind of infection? Or something poisonous got in her system?"

Maura's eyebrows rose slightly, lips parting. "It is possible that your mother received too much medication, or medications. Sometimes the danger lies in the combination..." She decided not to delve further into the subject. "Anyway, as soon as I find out anything pertinent that I am authorized to share with you, I promise to let you know. You have my card and my work phone..."

To be honest, Maura was slightly confused about why Mr. Weaver had dropped by in person. Most of this information could have been delivered through a phone call. However, she chalked it up to normal grief and concern after the death of a loved one and the fact that he didn't live in the area.

"I'm planning on staying for a few weeks," Mr. Weaver said, "just to make sure everything is settled. I want to find out what happened to my mother, and make sure she died of natural causes."

Maura nodded sympathetically even though she already suspected that Rose had definitely not died of natural causes. She wasn't going to make her next move until she was absolutely sure – the lab results would answer her questions. "All right. I promise to stay in touch." Making sure that he was comfortable with having her in his space, she carefully approached him and put a small hand on his upper right arm. "I'm very sorry about your mother. My friend Jane tells me that she was a very strong and cheerful person despite her illness." The medical examiner wasn't always the best "people person", but she wasn't terrible at faking it, either. She really did feel sorry for Mr. Weaver.

"Thank you. My first name is Jim, if you'd like to use it." As far as Maura could tell, Jim wasn't trying to flirt with her, and so she didn't object.

"All right. I need to get back to work, but I would highly recommend the deli across the street. I don't always trust meat in places like that, but Frank's has some excellent lunch sandwiches... that is, unless you aren't omnivorous and prefer a vegetarian diet."

Jim Weaver nodded his thanks. "Uh, yeah, I'm not a vegetarian. I'll give it a look. I definitely need something to eat. Thank you again."

"You're most welcome."

Maura wasn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed when her guest departed, leaving her alone in the morgue. She almost wished one of her assistants were there to bother her. She could use the distraction. She stood in silence for a moment, wondering exactly what she and Jane were heading towards, and hoping the fast pace of... whatever it was... wouldn't end in a collision.

Automatically, Maura started drawing up a mental contract with herself. The passionate, risky sex she and Jane had engaged in the night before couldn't happen again. They would just have to return to their regular friends-with-benefits routine or cease and desist completely, she decided.

'Rule one. I will not have sexual intercourse with Jane in places where we might be discovered. Rule two...'

Maura paused. Unfortunately, the thought of discovery aroused her even more than simply remembering the encounter, and even though she was glad that no one had walked in on them, she had to admit that it heightened the sense of excitement. Perhaps she was a closeted exhibitionist... but she would deal with that later. Like so many other things that swirled around in Maura's giant brain, it would just have to be put off for another, more convenient time.

'Rule two. I will not confess my feelings to Jane because it might scare her away.'

The medical examiner deliberately ignored the fact that she had already let a few things slip. She would have to keep the rest of her cards close to her chest.

'Rule three. I will not do anything to endanger Jane's physical or mental health while she is recovering.'

That was the only rule that Maura thought she would have an easy time following. She didn't want to do anything to jeopardize her friend's healing process.

'Rule four. I will resume my yoga practice in order to perfect the art of meditation and clearing my mind of all... distractions.'

Distractions – Jane, licking her – long, dexterous fingers clutching at her thighs, spreading her knees –

"Ugh," Maura said, walking over to the desk that held the autopsy room computer and banging her head on it repeatedly. "Rule four needs to begin immediately."

With a sigh, she decided that she might as well get most of her boring paperwork out of the way. If she was going to be distracted, it was better to be distracted over paperwork than a corpse. She didn't want to miss a single detail during the autopsies she had lined up for later in the afternoon.

Maura collected her things and headed for her office, smiling at the thought of the new red chair that was waiting for her there. Jane would throw an absolute fit when she saw it - 'Have to stop thinking about Jane.'

Digging through her purse to find her keys, Maura finally found what she was looking for and pull them out, inserting them into the lock and entering the dark room for the first time that day. To her surprise, a red light was blinking on her work phone, indicating that she had a message.

"Already?" she asked herself aloud, setting down her things and striding over to her desk to see who had tried to call.

The medical examiner pressed one for Voicemail, then speaker. "Dr. Isles? This is Teddy from the lab." Maura smiled at the familiar, slightly high-pitched voice of the lab technician. He was still very young, in his mid-twenties, and had a bit of a crush on her. Despite her guilty conscience, she had occasionally used that to get her results processed slightly faster. "I processed the samples you gave me for Rose Heissman. Apparently she was on several medications, but one level was several hundred times over the recommended dosage limit, an SERM called Raloxifene, marketed as Evista."

Although Maura wasn't a surgeon, she knew enough about cancer to recognize the acronym. SERMs were Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators, hormone therapy drugs used to slow or prevent the growth of breast tumors.

"But aside from the sky high dosage, here's the weird thing... she's also on another SERM called Tamoxifen. I'm no surgeon, but I don't know why they would prescribe both. Just something to look in to. I'll fax you the full report later in the day."

The message ended. That was all Maura needed to hear. Obviously, someone had given too much medication to Rose, causing her untimely death. Now, she just needed to find out who, why, and how.