Back sooner than I thought! Thank you so much to everyone who's followed / favourited / reviewed this - they all mean a great deal. Hope you enjoy!

'It looks like a suicide'.

'Which means it probably is a suicide'.

Frost and Korsak stood over the prone body that was slumped across the couch, taking stock of the sight in front of them. At the tender age of thirty one, Toby Redfell had died from a single gunshot wound to the right side of the head, and Maura knew what the detectives were seeing. The pattern of blood spatter on the wall behind him indicated that it had happened right there, and there was a gun on the floor that looked as if it had dropped from his right hand. No sign of forced entry - in fact, no sign of anyone else having been there at all, and the top-of-the-range laptop was open on the coffee table with a typed note on the screen.

It certainly did look like a suicide. But Maura, crouched on the floor in front of the body, still looked up at the two men with a frown on her face.

'Which means no such thing. You'll have to wait for any definite conclusions until I've done the autopsy'.

'But he died here, right?'

Maura turned to see Jane walking into the living room, her hands still encased in blue gloves and the sleeves of her shirt and blazer rolled up to her elbows, and she swallowed. Since they had arrived at the new apartment block half an hour ago, Maura had been so focused on what she had to do that she had not thought about Jane. Or what had happened - almost happened - at the department store.

At least, she thought, that meant that she wasn't losing her mind completely.

'Lividity indicates that he died sitting down'. Maura pointed to the darkening of the skin on the underside of Toby Redfell's legs, showing where the blood had settled after death.

'Yeah, but I meant that he died sitting down here. Right?' Jane indicated the couch, and Maura could have sworn that she saw the beginnings of a smirk on the detective's face. Jane knew how much she hated making even the most obvious guess before she had had the chance to process everything properly in the orderly calm of her lab, and Maura narrowed her eyes. She suspected that Jane was doing it deliberately.

'I will tell you later, when I've had a chance to process everything'.

'Ah, come on, Maura'.

Jane walked over and crouched down next to her as Frost moved over to speak to the uniformed cop hovering in the doorway. She was concentrating on the corpse, but Maura was struck by her sudden proximity and wondered if the hammering of her heart sounded as loud as she thought it did. She hoped not.

And anyway, this was totally inappropriate at a potential crime scene.

'Blood spatter straight across there'. Jane pointed to the wall, and Maura followed her finger. 'Consistent with the gun being held to his right temple...' She moved her finger down to the neat hole in Toby Redfell's head. 'And fired at close range'.

This was definitely deliberate. But, Maura decided, two could play at that game.

'Have you actually tested that to make sure it's blood?'

Jane turned her head to face Maura, an incredulous look on her face.

'What else is it gonna be? Ketchup? Barbecue sauce?'

'No, but there's lots of things that are red, Jane. Not just blood'.

Maura knew that Jane was gearing up to argue, but at that moment Frost walked back into the room and interrupted before she could even begin.

'That was the landlady, she lives downstairs. Told her we'd be down to talk to her and take a statement, but she did say that he lived alone and has done since he started renting this place three years ago. Quiet, always paid the rent on time...' He paused, and consulted his notes. 'A very nice young man'.

Korsak huffed, and Maura jumped. She had almost forgotten he was there.

'They always are'.

'Okay. Korsak, you finish processing here. Frost, I'll come with you, talk to the landlady'. Jane straightened up and, as she did so, her stomach gave an enormous rumble.

'What the hell did you eat for lunch?'

'I didn't'.

Frost looked disbelieving. 'Thought you two went out?'

'We did. Shopping'.

'Oh yeah'. Frost brightened up. 'Find anything?'

'Not for Frankie'.

'Doctor Isles, I'm disappointed'. Korsak did indeed look as if he had just been seriously let down. 'We'll be forced to order the Red Sox sweats now'.

'No. Over...'

Jane abruptly stopped, and Maura smirked as she realised why. Over my dead body. Hardly the best choice of words given where they were. But she felt compelled to make it clear that she hadn't failed completely. She did, after all, have a reputation to protect, and she had never yet returned from a shopping trip empty-handed.

'I found Jane something. A dress'.

'A what?'

Both Korsak and Frost looked astounded, and Jane grimaced.

'You don't know what a dress is, Korsak?'

'Sure I do, but I've never seen you in one. You really get her to buy it, Doc?'

Maura couldn't help grinning at the look of discomfort on Jane's face.

'Well, no...I had to buy it for her. But she did try it on'.

Frost whistled softly, smiling from ear to ear. He loved teasing Jane almost as much as Korsak did, but it wasn't often that they had a willing accomplice.

'Now that I have to see'.

Jane shook her head firmly.

'You should be so lucky. Now can we go, please?'

Still chuckling, Frost walked out into the hallway as Korsak collected a handful of evidence bags and headed towards the kitchen. It didn't escape Maura's attention that she was now alone with Jane. And that Jane was clearly waiting for the other two to be out of earshot before she said anything.

'Did you really have to? I'll never hear the end of it now'.

Maura nodded as she straightened up. She knew that her eyes were challenging Jane. Flirting with her. And she didn't care. She knew that she had not been mistaken back at the department store, when they had been in the changing cubicle and she had sensed with absolute certainty that Jane had wanted to kiss her. She was fairly sure that she was not mistaken now, as she saw a slight darkening of Jane's eyes, along with the hints of excitement and heat and fear that Maura knew were mirrored in her own face. And it had not taken her long to figure out where all the crazy feelings that seemed to be overtaking her were coming from.

It was a simple chemical reaction that was telling her, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that she was in trouble.

Her friend's face earlier, on the precinct steps, had been a priceless combination of astonishment, shock, and disbelief as the meaning of Maura's words had sunk in. 'It was as much for me as for you. You looked beautiful'. She had meant every word, although her heart had been pounding as she spoke and, as she had quickly called in at her lab to pick up the gear she would need, she had noticed that her palms were clammy and that she felt shaky.

Norepinephrine - the chemical that makes the heart race and the sweat glands go into overdrive. On top of that, dopamine was giving her a high that, scientifically speaking, was similar to a tiny dose of cocaine, and massive amounts of seratonin were sending her temporarily insane.

She was completely at the mercy of a biochemical Cupid. This kind of behaviour was so unlike her, and she was not at all sure that she should be succumbing quite so easily...but in a dangerously exciting kind of way, it felt good.

Really good.

'I didn't just spend almost a hundred dollars on a dress for it to be shoved in the back of your closet'.

She saw a smile spread across Jane's face, a sexy smile that made Maura feel a bit weak at the knees.

Or maybe it was just because she hadn't had lunch.

'Yeah, I know'. Jane nodded. 'But since you bought it...thought you might want the first showing'.

As the detective left the room to join Frost, Maura let out a long, slow breath. She had never dared to even dream that her feelings towards Jane might be reciprocated.

Until now.

'I didn't just spend almost a hundred dollars on a dress for it to be shoved in the back of your closet'.

Jane didn't need her detective's badge to figure out the bit that Maura had left unsaid.

I want to see you in it.

A slow, slightly tentative smile crossed her face as she took in Maura's expression. Her friend never had been much good at hiding her feelings, and Jane could almost hear the furious debate going on inside her head. I want this woman in front of me versus you shouldn't be attracted to your best friend - exactly the same dilemma that had kept Jane up for most of the night.

She wondered which one was winning in Maura's mind. She had thought she knew, but...well. She wasn't really sure of anything any more.

'Thought you might want the first showing...'

As she turned away to follow Frost down to speak to the landlady, she saw the shock on Maura's face turn to a barely-concealed spark of desire. It was what she had been secretly hoping for, what she had been wanting to see. But it also left her with a sudden, cowardly terror that perhaps she had gone too far. She didn't know what she was doing, and maybe she didn't want this to happen anyway.

That feeling was still with her twenty minutes later as she and Frost wrapped up their interview with the landlady downstairs.

'Are you sure there's nothing else you can tell us, Mrs Morris?'

The small, dark haired woman shook her head vigorously at Frost, even though it was Jane that had asked the question.

'Nope, there's nothing else. As I said, I never saw him except when he paid the rent, and that was always like clockwork. In cash, the last day of every month. Suicide, you say? Well, who would have thought it?'

Jane opened her mouth to ask another question, but Frost cut in smoothly before she could speak.

'Indeed. But if you do think of anything else...' He handed over his card. 'Don't hesitate to give us a call'.

'I certainly will do, Detective...?'

'Frost'.

'Detective Frost'.

Jane rolled her eyes as they left the apartment, and mimicked Frost's voice softly as they headed back upstairs.

'Don't hesitate to give us a call?' She raised her eyebrows at him. 'She'll be calling you all right'.

Frost chuckled.

'She's just lonely'.

'Yeah, well. Good luck with that one'. Jane grinned as she ducked under the police tape that was now stretched across the doorway of the victim's apartment, and skirted around the uniformed officer to make her way back to the living room. She could see that Maura was still there with Korsak, and she took a deep breath. She still hadn't quite calmed her jitters down from earlier.

'We all done?'

Maura turned to look at her, but Jane deliberately avoided her gaze and directed her question to Korsak instead.

'We're all done. The autopsy should confirm whether it was a suicide or not'.

'Ok...anything to say that it wasn't?'

'Only this'. Korsak pointed to the laptop, now sealed in a large evidence bag. 'There's two sets of fingerprints on the keyboard,one of which will be Redfell's. But he lived alone, and this was his personal laptop. And I'm wondering what kind of person types a suicide note instead of writing one'.

'So someone else has been using the laptop. You're thinking that someone else typed that note?'

Korsak shrugged.

'Nah, probably not. It's unlikely, it's just niggling at me, that's all. It was probably a friend wanting to check email or something'.

'Yeah'. Jane sighed. Death never happened at a good time, but this, right now...she could really have done without it.

She felt a familiar twinge of despondency, of sadness as she looked once more at the body on the couch. There was always another one. It seemed that human beings would always kill each other, and if they did not kill each other, they would kill themselves. And, once more, she was there to pick up the pieces.

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't notice Korsak leave the room, or see that Maura was standing, bag in hand, looking at her with a curious expression on her face.

'The body'll be taken back to the morgue. We don't need to wait around here'.

Jane started at the sound of Maura's voice, and gave herself a mental shake. The was nothing more they could do here for the moment and, if it turned out that Toby Redfell had shot himself in the head, there wasn't much that she would be able to do at all. No point in dwelling on it until they knew for certain what they were dealing with.

'Yeah. Coming'.

Four hours later, in the cool calm of the autopsy suite, Toby Redfell's ordeal was almost over. He had been thoroughly dissected, inside and out, and all that remained was for his blood and tissue samples to be analysed by the crime lab, and for the gaping hole that had once been his chest to be sewn back together.

Maura wondered if he had realised that this was how it would all end.

It always seemed a bit unfair to her. The bodies that ended up on her table had usually been put through some sort of trauma already, whether self-inflicted or not, and then, on top of that, they had to suffer the final, undignified invasion of privacy that was an autopsy. Everything laid bare on a steel table for the whole world to see, identity reduced to the sum of body parts and the status as a victim. She suppressed a shudder as she hoped, for the umpteenth time, that she would never end up on such a table. She hoped that she would never need the help of someone like her, someone who dedicated their careers - their lives - to speaking for the dead. No, she wanted to die of old age. Preferably in her sleep after a good meal and a bottle of pinot noir.

But this time, apart from the obvious bullet wound in the head, there hadn't been a great deal to find. Toby Redfell's body would have served him well for many more years to come, if it had only been given the chance.

'Mr Redfell is a very healthy specimen'.

Maura straightened up and dropped her scalpel in the tray, ignoring Jane's raised eyebrows.

'Apart from the fact that he's dead, you mean?'

She ignored that too.

It had not escaped her notice that Jane hadn't been able to meet her eyes back at the victim's apartment. Nor had she missed the way that Jane was now trying to act as if everything was normal, when Maura could tell that she felt anything but. It was obvious that things had somehow shifted between them. A very thin, invisible line had been crossed, and Maura could see Jane desperately trying to get back over it before any damage was done. But she couldn't help wondering if that was what Jane really wanted.

There was only one way to find out.

'So is it suicide?'

Jane's impatient question brought Maura out of her reverie.

'Not necessarily'.

'So it's a homicide'.

Maura shook her head as she pulled off her gloves and dropped them in the hazard bin. 'Not necessarily'.

'Alien attack?'

'I don't think aliens would use a Colt 45'. Maura couldn't help but grin at Jane's expression. 'Suspicious death. Until I get all the lab results back from the blood and tissue samples'.

'That's worse than the aliens', Jane groaned. 'Come on, you know suspicious death gives me a headache. It covers everything'.

'Tylenol?' Maura offered the packet of painkillers from the steel desk drawer, and Jane grimaced.

'Depends. How long am I likely to have a headache for?'

Maura sighed. She knew that Jane genuinely hated having to wait for results when she could be out there tracking down the people who had committed the crime in the first place, but in this case, she didn't think there was much they could do.

'Tomorrow'.

Jane grabbed the packet of Tylenol.

'Are these extra strong? Come on, Maura. Something. Anything. I promise you won't get hives'.

Maura shook her head.

'You can't promise that'. She took a deep breath, trying to phrase it in such a way that she wouldn't feel like she was making a presumptuous guess. 'But so far, I have not found anything to suggest that there was anyone else involved'.

She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the tell-tale prickle on her neck, but she felt nothing. When she opened her eyes again, it was to see Jane's face breaking into a smile, and her hand outstretched to give the painkillers back.

'Thank you'.

As she turned to leave the autopsy suite, Maura felt slightly panicky. There was only one way to find out...well, now or never.

'Jane?'

'Yeah?'

'Would you...uh...'

For the first time that she could remember, Maura's voice and brain failed her completely. She had no idea what she wanted to say, and even if she had, she wasn't sure that she would have been able to get the words out. After she had been standing there for a good twenty seconds with her mouth open and a terrified expression on her face, Jane gave her gentle prompt.

'Would I...?'

It did the trick.

'You forgot this'.

No, that wasn't what she had meant to say. But she reached over to the desk anyway, and picked up the small tube of cream that she had left there for Jane - or someone else - to rub into the insect bite. Jane's eyes widened slightly as she handed it over.

'Thanks'.

And... 'Would you like to get dinner tomorrow?'

She could tell that the question took Jane by surprise, and she didn't blame her. The two of them usually ended up eating together, somewhere - either at her place, or the Dirty Robber, or at Jane's apartment, the sophistication decreasing with each one. But neither of them had ever asked the other. It just happened.

Then she saw the realisation dawn on Jane's face.

She was expecting a 'no'. Or at least a 'this isn't a good idea'. But instead, after a few agonising seconds, what she got was a slow nod and another smile.

'You want to come over to mine?'

All sorts of answers flew through Maura's mind, many of them drawing attention to Jane's terrible cooking. Cocoa puffs are not particularly nutritious. Or as long as you don't blow up scrambled eggs in the microwave again.

'Okay'.

'Okay'. Jane pulled open the door to the morgue. 'Oh, and Maura? Keep thinking for Frankie'.

Maura just nodded as Jane left. She couldn't have answered anyway. There it was again...the rapid heart rate, the shallow breathing, and - ugh. Clammy palms.

She told herself not to get too excited. She still didn't really know how Jane felt, or what she was expecting from dinner tomorrow apart from food. And anyway, she had just made arrangements to do what she did five nights out of seven, every single week. There shouldn't have been anything different about it.

And yet everything was different. This didn't just feel like best friends having dinner.

This felt like a date.

And, whether it was right or wrong or anything in between, Maura found that she was looking forward to it.