"Hey, you okay?" Frost carefully set a hot cup of coffee down on his partner's desk.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Jane answered, not bothering to look him in the eye. It was Friday, but the week had been long, and she knew that rumors had been flying around the station since the middle of the week when her mother moved out of Maura's house and Jane had moved in. "I'm just glad it's Friday. Know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I feel you." He nodded as she leaned against her desk and took a sip of his own coffee. "You know," he started as casually as he could, "if you need to talk about anything with me, you know you can, right?"

"Frost, I don't want to talk about it. I know what they're saying. What's going around the station about me, my family, and Maura is mostly true, and, frankly, I really can't deal with it right now." She grunted as she picked up the coffee cup, visibly struggling to keep her fingers wrapped tightly around it. "But, yeah, I know, and thanks."

"I'm your partner, Jane. I don't want you to think that I'm one of them. I'm not." He glanced around the room to see if anyone was listening, but no one seemed to be paying attention to them. "I know what it's like to be discriminated against. I know how it feels to be the outsider, and, even though I'm still pretty pissed at you for getting to Maura first, I've got your back."

Despite herself, the senior detective chuckled. "Hey, you snooze, you lose."

Frost shrugged. "You sure you don't want to go grab lunch or something? I mean, I know you and the doc normally eat together, but, you know, if you just needed a break from the drama…"

"Okay, Frost, okay. I get it." Jane set her coffee cup down and picked up her desk phone. A few short seconds later, her partner was hearing one end of what he clearly considered to be an amusing conversation.

"Maura, can I take a rain check on lunch today? Apparently, I need to spend some quality time with my partner. What? Oh… ha. I bet you thought that was funny, didn't you? …Yes, I know, Maura. You don't have to explain it to me. 'Partner', I get it. Look, are you okay with… oh, right, I forgot about that. Yeah, okay. I'll see you at my place tonight?" Jane groaned and rolled her eyes. "Sorry, sweetie, I'm still adjusting. I mean, when will you come home tonight from your class? Gotchya. Okay, I'll see you then unless, you know, work comes up. Later." With a frustrated sigh, she hung up the phone, stood, and pulled her blazer from the back of her chair. "Okay, Frost, this is your show. Where are we going?"

"My show?" Both of his eyebrows shot up and he smirked. "Really?" He turned around as if looking for something. "Where the hell are my cameras, then?"

"Hey," Jane gave him a playful push, "shut up, and you're driving."

"Yes, ma'am," he answered back, giving a crisp salute before leading the way out of the office.

"Man, there's nothing like a homemade tamale," Frost said as he settled at the small table in the very small hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant to which he had brought them. "Maria is the best at making these. I'm telling you, Jane, you really should try their tamales. You sure you don't want to at least take a bite?" He made an offer by waving a hand down toward the food in front of him.

"First of all," Jane glanced around at the clean but small establishment with its Mexico themed décor and small group of patrons scattered about, "where the hell do you find these place, Frost? And, second of all, you know Maura would kill me if she knew I was eating that many calories with that much grease in one sitting. Can't do it. I have to stick with the taco salad." She gave a heavy sigh. "Chicken's good, though."

Frost chuckled and shook his head as he began to unroll a tamale from its cornhusk prison. "Man, anyone ever tell you that you're whipped?"

Jane stabbed her salad as she glared at her partner. "One, and the only reason she's still alive is because she gave birth to me. Got it?"

"Whatever," he shrugged. "So," he looked up, eyes apologetic but determined, "speaking of, do you really know what they're saying about you and your family?"

She shrugged. "I have a pretty good idea."

"They're saying Angela moved out of Maura's guest house because she and your brothers don't want to have anything to do with you now that you're… you know… that you're out, and they're saying she kicked you out of your apartment, too, which is why you're staying with Maura. Any of that true?"

For a long moment, Jane sat there and thought about how much she wanted her partner to know. In the end, she decided it was best to keep him out of the loop in case things became messy and people's jobs that weren't in HR came on the line. She didn't want to cost him his job, so she stuck with the cover story. "Well, mostly. You know when I told Ma, and she… she didn't take it how I hoped she would. I mean, she tried for a few days, but, you know how she is. She always wanted me to get married to a nice guy and give her grandchildren."

Dropping her fork on top of her salad, she leaned back. Her food suddenly looked less appealing. "Frankie has always followed whatever Ma did, and Tommy really does have a thing for Maura, so you can kind of see how neither of them would be on my side. So, yeah, they pretty much disowned me, and Pop's just out of the picture."

"Yeah," he nodded, frowning deeply as he listened. "What about your apartment? How can she kick you out of your own place? That one didn't make sense to me."

"She can't. I offered it up. I figured it would be the quickest way to keep any more drama from coming up. I mean, there's no way that situation was going to be pretty if Ma kept staying there after … after disowning me, and I figured I could just move into the guest house like how Ma was doing. Maura insisted I stay in the main house." Jane shrugged. "I'm not sure how I feel about that, to be honest. We just started dating, and we're already living together. If I started wearing flannel and a tool belt, I'd be a walking punch line for a lesbian joke."

"Sometimes life throws you curveballs. At least there was a way to get things squared away kind of quick, but," he stopped talking, looking for the right words. "I want to say I'm sorry, but I know that doesn't really help. If you need anything, you know you can ask." He pulled another tamale open as he thought. "And, if you want me to set them straight at the precinct, I will."

Jane shook her head in the negative as she leaned forward to pick her fork up again. "No, Frost, let it go. Maura and I have enough crap going on without dragging up more, and you know that's all that'll happen. Cops gossip worse than old women. They talked about us before, and this isn't any different. Let them talk."

"Okay, but, if you change your mind, all you have to do is say the word." He dipped his tamale into a little plastic cup of hot sauce. "Hey, you want me to fill Korsak in?"

Again, she was quiet as she considered how much she wanted her former partner to know. She finally decided it was best to keep everything in the family. "Yeah, if he asks or whatever."

"Okay." Finishing his food, he bunched up the trash on the table. "Hey, you want dessert? They've got this really great Tres Leche cake that…"

"Calories," Jane grumbled as she continued to munch on her salad.

"Right," he laughed. "I'm going to go get a piece. I'll be right back."

"Maura owes me for this," the detective mumbled when her partner walked away. "Whatever she wants me in that little black dress for better be worth it."

Okay, I think I may see the end of the piece coming into view. This really did turn out to be epically longer than I meant for it to be. Thanks for hanging in there with me!