A/N Thanks for the reviews! Greatly appreciated. Forgive me for drawing this out, but I don't like an instant answer/solution as I don't think it works that way in life. I promise I'll get to the heart of the issue soon. And I should be able to do frequent updates so if won't be forever before it comes to a head.

Chapter 4

Maura woke up with a start. She looked around the room to try and settle the disoriented feeling and as the features of the room came into view she realized she was in fact home and in her room. She sighed and started to rub the heels of her palms into her eyes. She looked down and was surprised she was still in her clothes from yesterday. Nice Maura, she thought. Can't even change out of your clothes.

She slowly stretched her upper back and arms and looked over at the alarm clock on the nightstand. 4:35 am. She took in a deep breath and tried to focus on the events of the night before. She got called into the lab at the last minute to re-work a series of test that had given inconclusive results. She thought she would have had time to re-do the tests and still make it back for dinner with Jane and the rest of the Rizzoli clan. Jane. I missed dinner with Jane.

Maura groaned at this thought. Jane was going to be mad at her about last night. Maura thought through the events again and tried to pinpoint where it had gone wrong. Playing it back, her big mistake was laying down on the bed before taking the shower she had intended on grabbing. She was going for a quick shower before trying to join the Rizzolis for dessert. She never made it passed the bed.

Maura stood up and made her way to the bathroom. She started the water for the shower. She knew she had time for a yoga workout this morning if she wanted one but she wasn't so sure that was going to be in the cards. She let the warm water wash gently over her shoulders hoping it would push some of the tension out of her shoulders.

Jane's going to be gunning for me, thought Maura. She inhaled deeply at the thought of this and started to feel the makings of a headache coming on. She hadn't intended on missing dinner last night, just like she hadn't intended on falling into a pattern of avoidance with Jane that she now found herself. She cursed herself for being too weak to just talk to Jane about everything. She knew she was making things unnecessarily hard but just couldn't find the strength to talk to Jane.

She got dressed to head downstairs. She had fallen into a new routine for the morning during the last week. Up early and out the door before Angela could come over for coffee. She missed her contact with Angela. She missed their conversations. Angela had taken Maura into her family and the time Maura spent with her was precious. But Maura found it harder and harder to be around Angela. She was afraid her discomfort and unease was becoming noticeable and she wasn't in a position to explain. So, avoiding Angela became the better option.

As she made her way downstairs, Maura thought about the last week without Jane or her family. It had been a lonely, quiet week. Maura had to admit to herself she had come to rely upon the interactions with Jane and her family more than she realized. Their absence, even for only a week, hurt her in a way she wasn't expecting. What was she going to do?

She was desperately trying to work through everything and make sense of her emotions. Sometimes emotions were just foreign to her. She had been just fine a week ago but after an unexpected visitor Maura's world had been completely turned upside down. She didn't have a handle on all of it yet and just didn't have the resolve or the strength to pull Jane into any of it.

Maura entered the kitchen walking but lost in her thoughts. There was a small part of her that expected to find Jane standing in her kitchen. However, the rest of Maura was startled and almost screamed.

"Jane!" gasped Maura.

Sure enough, there was Jane. The tall brunette was leaning against the counter over by the sink, arms crossed and tightly pulled across her chest. There was a small smirk on her face- a reaction to scaring Maura. What struck Maura about Jane's appearance was that she was fully dressed, ready for work. She wasn't asleep on the couch or in pajamas. She was wide awake and clearly waiting for Maura to walk into her kitchen.

"Good morning. Sorry if I startled you," Jane stated. She was looking at Maura and trying to assess her friend. She was convinced something was wrong but had no idea where to start so she was looking for a clue.

"That's quite alright. Did you stay here last night?" Maura walked the rest of the way into the kitchen and walked over the coffee machine. Jane had already brewed the coffee so she just grabbed a cup and started to pour.

"No, I went home last night after dinner."

"Jane…." Maura took a sip of coffee. "I'm sorry about missing dinner last night. The tests I needed to re-run took twice as long as I thought. When I got back I expected to find you guys here and I thought I'd at least make dessert but you were over at the guesthouse. I was just going to grab a quick shower and head over and apparently didn't make it passed my bed."

Jane observed her friend as she spoke. There was such sincerity in her voice as she spoke. Also, Jane knew that one of Maura's most endearing qualities was her inability to lie without suffering from immediate and obvious physical reactions. There was no reason to doubt her about what had happened last night.

"That's ok Maura. I found you asleep last night. You were completely out. I can't say I've ever seen you fall asleep in your clothes at home before."

"I can't say that it happens often," she answered. She maneuvered around the kitchen and looked into the refrigerator for some yogurt. "You do realize that it's 5:35 in the morning, right?"

"I know what time it is. I've been here since 4 am," Jane stated matter-of-factly.

"Jane, why on Earth are you here this early?" Maura knew what answer she was going to hear, but she felt the need to ask anyway.

"I'm here to check in on you. Maura, is everything ok?" The amount of care and concern Jane placed into that question caused a lump to form in Maura's throat.

"Why are you asking? I don't need any checking up on, Jane. I certainly don't need you losing sleep on my account."

It did not go unnoticed that Maura hadn't answered the question. Maura couldn't lie but Jane knew she was a master at diverting from a question. Hell, she was almost as good at that as Jane was. Jane tried again.

"Maura, I haven't seen you in a week. I haven't talked to you in a week. I've only managed to trade text messages and voicemails with you for a week. I'm sorry, but I'm starting to believe you are trying to avoid me. Have I done something to upset you?"

"No!" and although it was an instant answer, it was absolutely the truth. The conviction behind Maura's emphatic answer could not be denied. That, in and of itself, made Jane breathe a sigh of relief. "Jane, you have not upset me at all," Maura added to finish her thought.

"Ok, then where have you been all week? Did I miss the memo that you entered a witness relocation program or something?"

Maura laughed at Jane's sarcasm. "No relocation here. I'm sorry I wasn't around much last week. It was just a long, long week. I was swamped with reports, there were about 18 different emergency lab orders and I had 3 different articles due for peer review. Haven't you ever had a week that just got away from you?"

As Maura asked the question, Jane realized that it had happened to her a few times in the past. Maybe she was being silly. Maybe Jane was just reading things that just weren't there. Maybe it really was just a case of Maura being busy and nothing more.

"I've had a few lost weeks before. I guess I just got worried there was something wrong. You're sure everything is alight?"

Maura hesitated for just a moment. Had it been anyone else Jane would have missed the hesitation altogether. But, just as she was about to chalk up her concerns to nothing, Maura hesitated to answer a simple question. There was that same flash of sadness and look like the world was overwhelming her that Jane had seen last week when they were in Maura's office. Jane watched closely and as quickly as the flash of sadness came it went.

"Maura?" Jane slowly took a step closer towards her friend. "What is it?"

Maura looked away from Jane unwilling to make eye contact. She started to say something and stopped. She couldn't lie and especially not to Jane. But the truth was not something she was prepared to discuss. She took a step back from Jane. "Jane, I'm sorry. I just can't." And with that, Maura walked out of the house before Jane could make another move.

What was that? Jane stared at the now closing front door in disbelief.