It had been an intense couple of days that started with Jane's brother kissing her. Maura liked Tommy, he was sweet and smart and funny, a lot like Jane. But she didn't like him in that way, unlike Jane. For that spilt second when he'd closed the distance between them in her kitchen that night after dinner Maura had wished it were Jane moving towards her, which is why it took her brain a second to long to stop him. Tommy's lips gently pressed to her own before she had a chance to stop him, to gently push him back. The hurt she'd seen in his eyes had tugged at her heart and in another place another time that scene might have played out differently. But there was only one Rizzoli Maura wanted to kiss, and that was Jane.

The secrets between her and Jane were starting to pile up. Maura still hadn't told Jane about Ian's proposal. She hadn't told her about Tommy kissing her, and then Barry's ex-fiancé slapped her with a Title Eighteen, which meant she couldn't tell Jane that Tommy was in trouble. It was no wonder Maura had been feeling ill. She always had a physical reaction to lying, and the more she withheld from Jane the sicker she felt. Helping Jane prove Tommy was innocent of helping in the bank robbery had helped, but she wouldn't feel completely better until she and Jane had made up. She really didn't like it when Jane was mad at her, especially this mad. The world just felt wrong when they were fighting and Maura wanted her world to be bright and sunny again. When she got the text from Jane that night about coming over Maura felt a sense of relief wash over her that nearly brought on another round of tears. She'd been crying a lot since their fight in the morgue, though no one knew it.

As soon as Maura walked into Jane's apartment that night both women said, "I'm sorry." At the same time which caused them both to smile. Then Maura said, "Jane, I should have told you, I really am sorry."

"No." Jane said with a shake of her head. "No, you're hands were tied, I know that. I was just freaking out about Tommy and I took it out on you. Hell, if you had told me and ended up arrested for it I'd a been pissed. It was an impossible situation and I'm sorry I took it out on you."

The tensions between them lowered a great deal but there were still things lingering between them that needed to be dealt with. Maura followed Jane towards her kitchen and took a seat on her barstool while Jane made dinner. They talked a little about this and that just to let the air between them settle before they tackled the next big issue. This time Jane started, talking about great romances, and it made Maura's heart ache. "If you wanna be with Tommy that's ok by me." Jane said, though it was tearing her up inside. Seeing Maura with anyone else was hard but seeing her with Tommy, when it was herself she wanted to see with Maura most, that would be hard as hell. Then again, she'd rather see Maura with Tommy then with Ian. At least if she were with Tommy she'd be in Boston, she'd still be in her life, even if she did spend the rest of hers envious of her brother.

"Jane." Maura said softly as she reached out to touch Jane's arm. "I like Tommy, a lot. But I love you."

Love. What kind of love? God how Jane wished Maura meant that the way she wanted her to mean it, and how Maura wished Jane knew just how true those words were. Maura didn't want to risk their friendship, and neither did Jane. Jane who took risks all the time couldn't bring herself to take this one, and Maura who was so good at reading Jane wouldn't let herself see the truth. So they fell into what felt easy and safe, teasing each other, focusing on the crap wine Maura had brought over. Then Maura smiled. It was that full on smile that gave her deep dimples and lit up her eyes like fireworks on the fourth. Jane loved that smile. It made her weak in the knees. She laid a hand on Maura's arm. "Maura I…"

Jane's phone began to ring. Damnit. She'd ignore it. Then Maura's phone started. Fuck. They both answered.

"Rizzoli."

"Isles."

God that was cute; and Jane was annoyed with herself for thinking so. Then listened, responded, and then grabbed their stuff to head out to a murder scene. At the door Jane grabbed Maura's arm. "Maura I…"

"I know Jane." Maura said softly, giving Jane that sweet look, the one that said I love you too, the one Jane didn't really get because as they left her building she wondered, do you, Maura? Do you really know?

The next several days were hectic to say the least. Three dead bodies in as many days and all were tied to the same person. The more they uncovered the less they actually knew. There were so many lies webbed around these people that Maura wondered if they would have known the truth in life if it smacked them in the face every morning. As she worked on the third body, a young man of twenty-three, she knew that what she could offer the case right now was the only real truth they had. DNA, cause of death, physical facts of the body, those things rarely if ever lied. As she worked she could feel Jane's gaze on her and for once it wasn't comforting. She'd been keeping something from Jane and to her that felt nearly as bad as lying so after giving Jane her findings, just as Jane was about to leave, Maura called out, "Jane."

"Hmm?" Jane replied as she turned to face her friend.

"Ian asked me to marry him." Maura blurted out.

Jane blinked. Of course she'd already known this so it wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise was Maura finally admitting it and so out of the blue like this. Moving away from the door and a little closer to her friend she said, "He did?"

Maura nodded. "He sent me a gift and a note asking me to marry him."

The tightness in Jane's chest was alarming and for a moment she tried to remember what the symptoms for a female heart attack were. "Wow, Maura, I…" She was going to pretend she didn't know but she didn't want to lie. "I know. I saw the note. It was on your kitchen floor."

"Oh." Maura said softly. "You didn't say anything."

"I didn't know what to say." Jane admitted. "And I know how much it hurts you to talk about Ian so I didn't want to ask."

"Oh." Maura repeated.

There was a long moment of silence as both women gnawed over this new information. Maura wasn't sure if she should be angry with Jane for not speaking up, for putting her through the stress of worrying about telling her. Jane was scared to death of Maura's decision. If Maura choose to accept would Jane finally speak up about how she felt or would she love Maura enough to let her go? Finally Jane couldn't take it and asked, "Are you?"

"Am I what?" Maura asked as she looked into Jane's eyes.

"Are you going to marry him?" Jane asked and then held her breath.

Maura shook her head. "No." She answered, surprising herself since she hadn't really even given it much thought. She'd been to focused on keeping it from Jane then about what she would actually do. "I have a life here, Jane. I'm not ready to give that up."

Jane tried not to smile but her lips did twitch a bit. "As long as you're happy Maura. That's what matters."

Was that relief she'd seen on Jane's face. "I'm sorry I've been keeping that from you."

"I know it isn't easy for you to talk about Ian." Jane repeated. "So it's ok. I'm sorry I didn't tell you I knew."

Jane was walking towards the door again when Maura called out, "Jane."

"Hmm?" Jane replied as she turned to look at her again.

I love you. I'd never leave you. "I am happy." Maura said out loud.

Jane smiled. "I'm glad to hear it."

For the first time since finding the note Jane felt like there was a huge weight off her shoulders. Knowing that Maura wasn't going to pick up and leave her for a life with Ian had given her a little bit of peace. Of course that good feeling wore off by the time she'd reached her desk upstairs in Homicide. How incredibly selfish of her to be happy about keeping Maura to herself when she wasn't willing or able to give Maura more, not that Maura wanted more from her. But it did feel a little like she was keeping Maura from having a life, the kind of life that included husbands and babies. Jane had snuck in to watch Maura as a kangaroo volunteer and the look on Maura's face while she held those babies was beautiful. Maura should have that. Some futuristic kid should have that. Who was she to keep that from happening?

Yet it would kill Jane to see Maura with someone else. It would kill the very best piece of herself and she knew it. "This is so fucked up."

"What is?" Korsak asked.

Jane jumped. She hadn't realized she'd said that out loud. "The case." She said quickly. "This case is just really fucked up."

Korsak nodded. "Yeah, it's givin' me a headache. People don't know the meaning of bein' honest anymore, not even to themselves."

Jane snorted. Wasn't that the truth?

"The strongest people I know are also the most honest." Korsak continued. "Like you and the Doc. You two kids get it. You two have a lot of integrity kids your age don't have these day."

If this were a cartoon there would be a huge sole of a shoe with the word heel written across it sitting in Jane's chair. Yeah, a lot of integrity she had. She couldn't even tell the one person who meant the most to her in this world how she felt. Yeah, she was a heel all right.

Jane spent the next several hours staring at the case board looking for what it was they were missing. Something, anything, that would help but nothing came to her. Day four, a fourth body, a connection, a summer camp that all the victims went too, but Jane still felt that something was missing. Downstairs in the morgue Maura had the same feeling. Sitting behind her desk writing her notes on the fourth victim's autopsy Maura looking for the little piece of the puzzle that she knew was there, but where? The small desk clock behind her chimed softly, once, twice, three times, again and again until it sounded off a full twelve chimes. Twelve o'clock. Maura's eyes went wide.

"There's a pattern." Maura said as she walked into the bullpen. Walking up to the case board she picked up the yellow mark and wrote the numbers one through four in parenthesis under each victims' picture. "The first victim had a single stab wound to the heart. The second had two, the third had three and the fourth had four. The last stab wound is always the fatal one." Maura explained. Then she wrote times under the numbers starting with zero-one-hundred. "There's an hour between each victim's time of death. If the pattern holds out the next victim will be stabbed five times at five a.m."

"They're being killed by the hour." Jane said when she caught on. She gave Maura one hell of a smile. "That's good Maura. That's really good. That gives us seven hours before the next murder."

"So our killer has some weird hiccup about time or clocks or something?" Frost asked from his desk.

"It would appear that way Detective Frost." Maura replied.

"How'd you figure it out Doc?" Korsak asked. "I mean now that we see it it's plain as day but we all over looked it."

"The clock on my desk chimed." Maura answered honestly.

"Chimed." Jane said with that look on her face that said she was working something out in her head. "Or rang." She added as she looked over the map where they'd pinned markers where they'd found the victims. "Church bells ring on the hour." She smacked a finger down on the map. "There's an Episcopal church in the middle of the killing field. We start there."

It was a close call. Jane, Korsak and Frost hunted down leads and unweaved the web of lies in the field while Maura continued processing evidence in her labs. She was able to help even further by pinpointing where the victims had been killed, since they're bodies hadn't been killed where they were found. Down the street from the church there use to be an old ice cream parlor, which was now an empty lot. The kids from the summer camp, a camp run by the church, use to hang out there. Sitting behind her desk again Maura waited. The clock behind her began to chime. It was five a.m. would she be going another autopsy? The minutes passed by so slowly. Finally her phone rang. "Dr. Isles."

"We got him Maura." Jane's voice came over the line. "It was close. The victim's on his way to the ER, but we stopped him before he could kill him. Nice catch, Maur. We'll make a detective out of you yet."

The next evening after the suspect had been interviewed, all the paper work was finished, and the case handed to the D.A. with a nice little bow, Jane and Maura found themselves in Jane's apartment. Maura was sitting on Jane's couch with Jo Friday pressed up against her thigh, waiting for dinner and trying to not to fall asleep. Jane had asked her over to share her favorite victory meal. When Jane finally carried over two plates they were heaped with macaroni and cheese with bits of hot dogs in it. Then she carried over two glasses with something very blue and unnatural looking it them. "What is that?"

"Macdogs n' cheese." Jane said with a beaming smile.

"And in the glasses?" Maura asked looking uncertain.

"Blue raspberry lemonade Kool-Aid." Jane answered.

Maura blinked. "I've never had Kool-Aid before." Maura said while continuing to stare at their dinner.

Jane smirked. "It's good Maur. Just try it."

Maura picked up the glass and sniffed, making a face at the odd sweet scent.

"Its Kool-Aid Maura." Jane chuckled. "Not a fine wine. Just drink it."

She trusted Jane when it came to trying new things just as Jane trusted her. Though she didn't whine and complain as much as Jane did, for a moment she thought about doing so. Taking a small sip she crinkled her nose. "It's very sweet."

"It's pretty much sugar with a dash of fake color a hint of fake flavor and two quarts of water." Jane replied, still smirking. "We lived off that crap as kids. It's even better when you don't add the water. You just mix the Kool-Aide with sugar in a sandwich baggie and eat it like a pixie stink!"

Maura couldn't help but make a face at the thought of that.

Picking up their plates Jane handed one to Maura. "When I was a kid every time I'd win a game or something Ma would make this for me for lunch. I started making it myself after I left home."

Maura set her glass down, took the plate, and picked up her folk. As she poked at the pasta and processed meat she asked, "What are the green bits?"

"Broccoli." Jane answered before shoving a fork full into her mouth. "It comes in the box."

"Broccoli?" Maura repeated with some disbelief.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Just try it."

Maura tried it, and it wasn't to bad, but she was already thinking of ways to get Jane back for this. Snails, Maura thought. Yes, something with snails would be lovely.