"Jane, you okay?" Frost leaned back in his chair to regard his partner. "You seem… off today. I mean, I know its Mondays, and they suck. But you're off even for a Monday."

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just… I got a lot of stuff going on right now." Jane stopped tapping her pen. Dropping it to her desk, she stood up with a determined air, and made a motion for Frost to follow her lead. "Actually, I'm not okay, and I need to tell you something. You want to grab an early lunch?"

"Sure," came the guarded reply as Frost stood up to follow Jane out of the building.

As they sat down with their burgers at the diner just a few blocks from the station, Frost asked lightly, "Rough weekend or something?"

"You could say that," came the quiet reply. Jane salted her fries and cut her burger as she spoke. "I told Ma something that really hurt her, and I'm not sure anyone else is going to like the news any better." She looked up at him, eyes hard as she added, "Including you."

Barry set his burger back down and gave his full attention to her. "You know, I am your partner, Jane. You can talk to me."

"Yeah, well, there's a lot of stuff we still don't know about each other, Frost, and, honestly, I don't… Man, I don't even know where to start will all of this." She sighed, running a hand over her face.

Tilting his head and raising an eyebrow, he suggested, "How about the beginning?"

"I would, but I don't really know where this all started." At his questioning look, she cleared her throat. Jane glanced around the room as if looking for something to help her with her thoughts. As her eyes settled back on her partner, she asked quietly, "Frost, let me ask you a question. How do you really feel about Maura? I mean, I've seen how you look at her sometimes. Do you, you know, have a thing for her? Be honest."

The apparently abrupt subject change threw him, and he stared at her for a moment before he answered. "Why are you asking me that? Would you have a problem with it if I wanted to ask your best friend out on a date or something?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "Well, yes and no." Before Barry could respond, she quickly answered. "Let me explain."

He leaned back, crossing his arms. "I'm all ears."

"Okay," she nodded to herself, pushing her plate full of food away from her and toward the middle of the table. "Look, I wouldn't have a problem with you dating my best friend if I didn't know for a fact that my best friend was currently dating someone. I mean, you're a great guy, Frost. I mean that."

Barry narrowed his eyes. "Maura's seeing someone?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"And that's the only reason you wouldn't be okay with me asking her out?" He leaned forward a little, keeping eye contact.

"Yes," again, she nodded.

He tilted his head. "And you'd be fine with me dating Maura otherwise?"

She sighed. "Right."

"And what does any of this have to do with your weekend and why you're so wound up today?" He asked, slightly irritated by the whole situation.

"Because," she answered, face going pale, "I'm the one dating her."

"You what?" Air knocked out of him, Frost gaped at his partner as he fell against the back of his seat.

"I'm dating Maura." At his blank look, Jane kept explaining. "Maura and I are dating. As in, we are a couple. You know, like girlfriends?" When he didn't make a move to acknowledge her, she asked quietly, fear and worry lacing her voice, "Frost? Say something."

Slowly closing his dropped jaw, he regarded her with a wary eye. Finally, he asked, "What did Angela say?"

Jane nodded, more to herself than her partner. "She said that we're Catholic, and she needed time." She looked up at him, eyes pleading for him to be more okay with this information than her mother was. "What do you need?"

"A beer," he sighed.

"I guess that's better than wanting a new partner." Shaking her head, she sipped her water.

"Stop working with the best homicide detective on the force because she has good taste in women and better luck with them than I do? No way. This just means you've been holding out on me. Remember all those times I needed a wing man? You could have been backing me." Despite the obvious uncomfortable feelings he was having, there was light humor in his voice, and he winked at her.

Relieved, she chuckled. "Would it make you feel better if I told you that, before Maura, I didn't realize exactly how into women I was?"

"Maybe," he shrugged. "God, Jane, are you sure about this? I mean, you work with her every day, and you know how Kennedy was treated when she came out. Don't you think things are hard enough for Maura without her being even more of an… I'm sorry to say this …more of an outcast? And what about you? The guys already give you shit about being the only woman on homicide. You sure you want to deal with all of this on top of that?"

"I don't want to deal with any of it, Frost, but I don't have a choice. I can't change who it is I'm attracted to any more than you can change the color of your skin." Leaning back and crossing her arms, she frowned deeply. "I can't control this. I tried. I tried for years, and, the more I tried, the more I had to be with her all the time. Do you know what that's like? I mean, have you ever wanted to be around someone so badly that, when you weren't in the same room with them, you started to get antsy? There's something about her that I just need. I need her, Frost, and not just in that way, either. So, no, I don't want to deal with all the shit I'm going to get, and, no, I don't like all the shit Maura's going to get either, but neither one of us wants to hide, and we're both big girls. We'll deal."

"I hope you're right," he said, picking his burger back up.

"Me too," she said as she followed his lead. "So, you okay with this? I mean, really?"

"No," he shot back from behind his burger. "I was going to ask Maura out today, but now I can't now. You'll beat the shit out of me." He smirked.

"Damn straight," Jane said before popping a fry in her mouth.

"You haven't done anything straight since you drew that line with a ruler three months ago, and I think it's the straightest thing I've ever seen you do," Frost shot back, a twinkle in his eye.

Jane choked down her fry. "Fair enough," she said between coughs to clear her throat. After a few moments of more comfortable silence, she said quietly, "Thanks, Frost."

He nodded in response before flagging the server down for their ticket.

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