Maura is sitting on a bench, concentrating deeply on the New York Times Crossword puzzle on her lap, when a shadow falls over her, and a deep voice makes her look up, startled.

"Excuse me, Doctor," Jane Rizzoli says. "I believe you've stolen my dog."

Maura jumps to her feet, the newspaper falling to the sidewalk. "Oh!" she says. "Detective!"

Her cry alerts Jo Friday, who has been sniffing around a bush several yards away, and when she sees her new caretaker standing with her old one, she bee lines it for them, tail wagging so hard it is just a blur.

Jane grins, lowering herself slowly onto the bench so that when Jo Friday leaps at her, she can catch her and bring her to face level.

"So you did miss me," she says fondly. "I was wondering. Swanky new digs. Fancy new dog food."

Jane smiles up at Maura over the wiry hair of the dog. "Hello, Dr. Isles," she says.

Maura is still standing, shock fixing her feet to the ground as securely as pitch. "You're…not in the hospital!" she says blankly.

Jane chuckles. "And I'm not in a gown, either, so you know I didn't break out."

Maura blinks again. "But…Aisha told me that you weren't going to be discharged for another four or five days! What are you doing here?"

"Dr. Roswell gave me the go ahead this morning. I got it out of Frost where you were staying."

Maura's hands clench into fists. "Girard Roswell wouldn't know what a healthy discharge was if it bumped into him on the street," She says angrily. "Once his surgery is done, he could not care less about the patient." She reaches for her purse still on the bench, thinking of calling Aisha.

Jane reads the gesture and snaps up the purse before she can reach it, grimacing a little at the movement.

"Doctor," she says quickly, "No! Hey! Doctor! I'm fine. I swear I'm fine."

"Seventeen days is hardly enough time for sufficient healing," Maura says, trying to figure out how to retrieve her bag without causing the detective more harm. "Give me that, please."

"I'm healed enough to be discharged," Jane argues, though the corners of her mouth are tugging upwards. "No strenuous activity for another four weeks. Physical therapy," She shrugs. "But my own bed! No more hospital food."

Maura crosses her arms, letting out a breath. She looks around, realizing something. "You don't have a walker?"

Jane's grin widens. "You don't miss a trick, do you?" she asks, but when Maura stares at her she puts up a hand in surrender. "I bargained down for a cane, which," she says reading the doctor's expression, "I may have just accidentally left in Frost's car."

"Detective," Maura says. "You must realize how dangerous-"

"Jane," the other woman says, still peering good naturedly up into her face. "You stole my dog, you can call me by my first name."

"I did not!" Maura says indignantly.

Jane chuckles again. "And," she continues, "to be fair, you didn't visit me once in the hospital." Her smile fades just slightly, revealing the possibility of a deeper emotion. "So you don't get to really comment on my healing, Doctor."

Maura feels herself blush crimson. So, she knows.

"Yeah," Jane says, as though she can read her thoughts. "Ma says it's because you're scared I'll yell at you."

Maura shakes her head. "I'm-no. I'm not frightened of you."

"I know," Jane says, and Maura watches her lower Jo Friday slowly back to the ground. "But you shouldn't feel guilty either."

Maura stares at her. Does she know I know about the baby?

"I didn't think you'd want to see me," she says finally. "I thought you'd resent me. I took-" she catches herself, watching the subtle tensing of the brunette's shoulders. "I-I almost took your life," she amends.

Jane exhales. "You aren't the first," she says easily, "and you won't be the last."

Maura looks away, trying to hide the twinge of pain that this statement has caused her, but Jane notices anyway.

"Hey," she says, softer. "Sit down."

Maura sits down next to Jane. "I wish you would have stayed in the hospital until Dr. Hamilton let you go."

"I hate hospitals," Jane says, her voice is still quiet, and Maura can feel her eyes on the side of her face, watching her closely. "And…I wanted to make sure you were getting along okay." she raises an eyebrow when Maura looks around at her, surprised. "I read in the paper that Fairfield was denied bail last Tuesday. I saw that interview his mother gave on channel six." she rolls her eyes, and makes her voice high and nasal for an imitation. "Oh my son is such a good and caring person. I don't believe for a second that he could do something like this."

Maura smiles, but it fades under Jane's intense stare.

"I'm sorry," she says, unsure of what her apology should be fore. "I'm fine," she amends, looking down into her lap.

It is true. She will make it so.

Jane is silent for a long moment, and then she leans back slowly, nodding.

"Yeah, okay," she says quietly. "Me too, then."

They sit in silence, side by side, and Maura tries to find a way to bring up Jane's pregnancy. She begins several sentences in her head, but they all sound too stilted or too nosy.

"I-" Maura turns to Jane, determined that she should apologize directly for what she has done, and realizes that the brunette is statue still with pain, her face devoid of color.

"Oh!" she says quickly, reaching out to put a hand on Jane's shoulder. "I knew you should not have been discharged so early."

"I'm okay," Jane says through gritted teeth. "It's the bullet I took in the stomach. I didn't expect that asshole to shoot three times. I thought-" she breaks off abruptly, closing her eyes. "It hurts," she admits, almost an octave lower.

Maura uses her other hand to press Jane gently backwards. "Breathe," she orders. "Keep breathing. Holding your breath intensifies the feeling of pain, as your brain compensates for lack of respiratory function."

Jane cracks an eye to look at her. "Wha-?" she pants. She's breathing shallowly, trying to do as Maura says.

"I'm sorry," Maura says, slowing her own breathing, as though Jane simply doesn't know how, and needs an example.

Jane shakes her head, but is unable to really speak for several more minutes.

When the wave of pain has ebbed, she turns her head to look fully at Maura. "You apologize a lot," she says. "Did you know that?"

Maura bites back her first answer, which begins with an apology, and Jane grins like she knows what was about to happen.

"I do feel guilty," Maura bursts out. "For hurting you so badly. For being the one responsible for your injuries."

Jane is shaking her head as vigorously as her hurt side will let her. "No," she says firmly. "That's why I wanted to come see you. I knew when you didn't show up at the hospital that you felt like this."

Now, Maura thinks. Tell her now. Tell her you know she was pregnant. Tell her your guilt is for two lives, and not just one.

"But…I swore an oath to protect people who couldn't, or didn't know they had to protect themselves," she waves away Maura's interruption. "I did. It's the same as your oath as a doctor. I understood what I was saying when I made that promise."

For a moment, Jane looks supremely, enormously sad. "Or, if I didn't then, I do now."

Tell. Her. Now.

"Can I drive you home?" Maura asks. "I'm assuming that you let Detective Frost drive off with your cane." She glances at Jane. "Accidentally, of course," she adds.

And whatever despair there was gripping the detective vanishes as she laughs.

Maura allows herself to believe it is genuine.

"Okay, Doctor," she says good-naturedly. She pushes herself to her feet slowly, and lets out a sharp little whistle for Jo Friday.

In the car, Maura thinks. Where there is more privacy.

She cannot bring herself to do it.

…

…

Maura is invited to Rizzoli Sunday Dinner. Jane arrives at their normal meeting spot in the park on a sunny Friday afternoon to deliver the invitation, and Maura looks up at her from where she has bent to scratch behind Jo Friday's ears.

"Sunday Dinner?" she asks, feeling nerves prickle her hairline. "With your entire family?"

Jane gives her a dark look. "You can say no," she says, "and save yourself. But I should warn you, there's an eighty percent chance that then my Ma will show up at your condo with leftovers. And once she invites herself in, you can kiss your evening good-bye."

Maura straightens, taking her time with her answer, not because she doesn't want to attend, but because it catches her off guard every time this family acts as though she is a part of it.

It has been three months and change since Jane took a nearly fatal bullet to the stomach while saving Maura's life.

Garrett Fairfield's trial is scheduled, and Maura has moved out of the Liberty Hotel and into a condominium on Charles Street. At first, Jane when Jane came by to see her, she always brought Jo Friday, claiming the dog missed "the high life." But as the weeks wore on, and it became clear that Maura would not turn her away, that in fact she wholeheartedly welcomed her visits, Jane started showing up more often. And alone.

She sees Jane at least three times a week now, usually to walk in the park or grab lunch downtown. Once for an ill-fated yoga class Much to Maura's surprise, they have become friends.

Maura continues to keep her knowledge of Jane's pregnancy a secret. It begins to feel less like a betrayal and more like a necessary evil.

This is what I have to do to keep Jane in my life. This is what we need.

Because Jane does seem to need it.

"Maura?" Jane is staring at her, hands on her hips.

"Sorry, I was just thinking."

"About coming to Rizzoli Sunday?"

Maura pulls her hair back into a ponytail, and looks down, double checking her laces. "The name suggests that one must be a Rizzoli in order to attend," she says, falling into step next to Jane as they begin down the path.

"Nah," Jane says, picking up the pace in what she clearly thinks is a subtle manner. "It's just only Rizzolis who would be crazy enough to come. Seriously, Maura, if you don't want to-"

Maura puts her arm on Jane's bicep, holding her back a little. "I would like to come very much," she says. "And Dr. Hamilton said no running until next Thursday."

This earns her a sidelong glare and a disgruntled huff. Maura bites back a smile.

"I feel perfectly okay," Jane says, her tone just this side of a whine. "Good enough to even think about recertifying."

Maura deliberately slows her pace, and is charmed when Jane slows too. "You'll be back on the force before you know it," she says. "For now, just enjoy your time off, and be grateful that it's not Roswell signing off on your disability inquiries."

Jane chuckles. "Yeah," she concedes. "Okay."

They walk in silence for a little while, each lost in her own thoughts, until Jane bumps Maura gently with her shoulder and says, quietly, "they scheduled Fairfield's trial yesterday. Cavenaugh told me."

Maura feels the familiar tightening in her chest that always happens when one of the Rizzolis mentions her soon to be ex-husband. "I'm aware," she says shortly.

Jane frowns. "Are you going to be there?"

"Beyond my testimony, I don't see why my attendance would be necessary."

Jane gives her a sideways look that she can't read. "Closure," she says a moment later. "Something like that."

"I'm not sure I need closure." She glances over at Jane, at the little beads of perspiration that have collected on her brow. "Are you going?"

"Yeah," Jane says. Her face flickers like the blinds on a window. Maura has seen it happen before, when her partner or her mother get too close to something that hurts.

"For closure?" Maura asks carefully.

Jane opens her mouth, closes it, and then opens it again. "Yeah," is all she says.

Both Jane and Aisha have tried to get Maura to attend therapy. She resisted them both, on the grounds that she was no longer in love with Garrett, and therefore his betrayal meant nothing. Jane had even gone so far as to confide that she was seeing a therapist. Maura knew Jane well enough by then to know that this confession meant a great deal.

So she doesn't press her now. She changes the subject.

"You're breathing much less heavily than you were on even this past Monday, Jane," she says, chancing a touch to the brunette's bicep.

Jane relaxes, looking at her with a mixture of gratefulness and pride that makes Maura's chest expand with affection.

"You're going to be a detective again before you know it," she says softly.

And that is when Jane reaches out and takes her hand.

It is so surprising, so utterly unpredicted, that Maura stops walking abruptly, and their hands break apart.

Jane turns back to look at her, eyes wider than normal. "Sorry," she says quickly, voice a little wobbly. "I mean…well, shit. Did I read that wrong?"

"I…" Maura does not know what to say. Her brain, usually packed full of information and analyzations has been emptied out completely by the feeling of Jane's fingers in hers.

"No," she says finally, because the other woman looks like her lip might start quivering. "No, you didn't read anything wrong. I'm sorry. I was just startled."

Now that her thoughts are catching up to the situation, she has nothing but questions.

This woman is nothing but mysteries, and Maura seems only to get tangled more deeply, more the more time they spend together.

Jane moves back to her slowly, dark eyes on her face. "Are you…" Jane seems to struggle. "I'm…sorry," she finally says. She looks a little miserable. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"There's no reason to apologize," Maura says quickly. "I am not upset or uncomfortable."

I am confused, she thinks, but there is no way to express this confusion without bringing up the one thing she has thus far been unable to bring up.

Jane nods at the ground, clearly unconvinced. "So…do you want to keep walking?"

"Yes," Maura says, hoping her voice sounds warm. "Please."

They walk on. Jane is not looking at her, nor does she reach her hand out again, and so after a full three minutes of silence (in which Maura mentally calculates the likelihood that she is about to lose the second real friend she's ever had), Maura reaches out and takes Jane's hand in hers.

"Do you want to hear what I was reading about before you arrived?" she asks quietly.

This time, when Jane nods at the sidewalk, she is also smiling.