A/N: Oh, goodness; almost 200 follows! You guys are amazing! Thanks for your awesome favorites, follows and reviews. Also, thanks to rehellams for inspiring me:)

The tension in Maura's office was thick with contempt. Her day had had a bitter premise, so why was she surprised it was about to end on the same sour note. Her ex-husband was exactly the last person on earth she wanted to see.

"You have some nerve coming here. What do you want, Ian?" Maura came around the coffee table as she crossed her arms over her chest defensively, having already decided that no excuse he had would be good enough.

"Maura, what the hell were you thinking?" he snapped at her.

Her eyebrows lifted in shock at the nerve of this man. "Excuse me? How dare you raise your voice at me in my own office? I suggest you calm down before-."

"Do not tell me what I need to do! You promised not to tell the kids about the affair. Yet, after spending a few days with you, I now have a moody teenager on my hands who walks around screaming at me and slamming doors!"

She scoffed at him and rolled her eyes. "Well, now you know how I felt. And maybe you should have thought about your children before you decided to go sleep with everything in a skirt."

"Give me a break. I already said that was a mistake. What more do you want?"

"A mistake?! A mistake is maybe when it happens once, but when you cheat repeatedly with three different women, that's not a mistake. That is a lifestyle. And exactly what was I supposed to do? She asked me about it directly and I simply refuse to lie to my children about anything. And for what? So you can save face and have people continue to believe what a good man you are? Well, I'm done enabling you, Ian. You can keep playing this game all you want, but not with my children."

Jane stood quietly on the other side of the door, trying hard not to eavesdrop on her boss's private conversation, but she got a bad vibe from this Ian character and she wanted to make sure things didn't get out of hand. All she could hear at that point were raised voices going back and forth, but she anticipated things would start being thrown around whenever their voices couldn't go any louder. She debated with herself about whether or not to step in before anything escalated, but remembered how the last time she did, she almost got into trouble.

"They're mine too! You are such a selfish bitch!"

Before she realized it, Jane barged into the room with fire in her eyes, immediately locking them on Ian as she addressed Maura. "Everything okay in here, boss?" she asked, staring straight at Ian. She noticed his close proximity to Maura and it instantly made her uneasy.

"This conversation is between my wife I, so if you could just leave us alone, that'd be great," he snarked.

"Don't you mean ex-wife?" retorted Jane, moving closer to him.

His sharp gaze grew darker. He looked genuinely insulted as he turned to Maura and said, "You can't just let her talk to me like that."

"Well, she's right, isn't she? And you will not order me around or anyone else I'm associated with for that matter. But don't worry, I'm sure you could find one of your little whores to order around."

Jane swiftly put herself between the bickering exes before Ian could take even one enraged step towards Maura. "Hey!" Maura stepped back as Jane stopped him with a firm hand on his chest, giving him a slight shove. "It's time for you to leave."

He sneered at Jane and his eyes flashed with anger. For once, Jane was grateful for her height, just so she could stare him down. "Now," she growled with a dangerous finality.

One long, hard stare into her unblinking eyes was enough to send Ian retreating to the doorway, but not without having the last word. "You can forget about seeing the kids this weekend."

"You can't do that, Ian."

Having the upper hand for once, he smirked. "We'll see." Ian slammed the door behind him and they were submerged in silence.

Maura was still staring at the door when Jane finally spoke to her.

"Ms. Isles, I'm really sorry about that," she shook her head. "He just… kinda gives me the creeps."

Maura let out a heavy sigh as she walked over to her desk and leaned her hip against it. She placed her hand on her chest and took deep breathes.

"No, Jane it's okay… Thank you. He… he has a temper."

After Jane stuffed her hands into her pockets and nodded, Maura began to gather her things to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"Home."

"Are you gonna be okay?"

Before she walked out of the door Maura turned to face her assistant. She sounded pained as she admitted, "Probably not."

This broke Jane's heart. She gently caught her wrist. "Wait. Let me at least buy you dinner. I mean, you've had a rough week and everything."

A brief silence passed before Maura sighed again, gently tugged her arm away and walked out of the room without another word.

Jane watched her leave, restraining herself from going after her. Realizing she was alone in her boss's office for the first time ever, she looked around the dark room and reflected on what had just happened these past few minutes. She went from coming out to her boss to having a pissing contest with her boss's ex-husband… and her big mouth ruined everything once again. She just couldn't shake the odd feeling that the guy gave her. He just seemed so manipulative and it sent a disturbing shiver down her spine.

Jane went and plopped back down on the couch with a heavy sigh escaping her. She leaned forward and ran a restless hand through her hair, contemplating going home. Her sketchpad stared back at her, almost as if that happy little moment she and Maura had shared earlier had been paused or frozen in time. She shifted her gaze to the paperwork on the table and decided her time would be better spent on finishing up the budgets. At least then, Maura would have one less thing to worry about.

The next two days were incredibly slow. Maura was relatively quieter than she usually was and her assistant began to worry. She worried that all this time spent together, the coffee runs, the pep talks, the little personal conversations were all ruined by a man who seemed to think he was far more intimidating than he was. She had tried numerous times to make Maura laugh, but she just seemed too somber.

Even though he had full custody, Ian would let Maura have the children over on some weekends when he other 'pressing' matters to attend to, but now he would most likely not allow it just to spite her. And she always looked forward to these meetings, always being at least forty-five minute early every other Saturday morning. She had gotten to spend a few days with Alice, because of the suspension, but she deeply missed her son.

Jacob was always excited to see her. He would burst out of his father's car and runs to his mother's car, beating on the window before she can even get out of the door. They talked on the phone every night and sometimes during the day and he told her about all of his adventures that he had at school and how his art teacher said that his watercolors were the best in the class. He talked on completely unaware that his mother would pull the phone away every few seconds so he wouldn't hear her sniffle. Unaware that she had difficulty strangling the whimper at the back of her throat and ceasing the silent tears.

As Friday evening wore on, Jane decided to give it her last shot at making this woman feel better. She walked to her office slowly opening the door and silently closing it. She wordlessly walked to the desk and sat down.

"What is it, Jane?" Maura continued to draw with her straight edge without looking up.

"What's… going on?" she shrugged.

Maura stopped in the middle of the line and looked up with a strange look in her eyes.

"What's going on? You decided to barge in here and interrupt me in the middle a very important blue print to ask me… What's going on?"

The assistant was taken aback as she filtered Maura's words. It had been a while since Maura had spoken to her in that tone. She closed her mouth cleared her throat, not really sure what to say, and sat up straighter in the seat, tugging at the collar of her shirt.

"Sorry, that's not what I-"

"-what you meant to say? Yes, I know. That seems to be a recurring trait of yours. Perhaps, Ms. Rizzoli, if you took the time to actually think before you speak, like I'm sure they would have taught you in College, I wouldn't have to constantly jump into your unintelligible caravan of random thoughts."

Maura's face was completely flushed. She looked almost as angry as she had when Ian had shown up that evening. The only difference now was that this time she hadn't raised her voice. However, the venom was there.

Jane had no idea what to say. As they both sat there, she tried to convince herself that her boss was going through a rough time and just lashing out at her out of convenience, but as her boss's demeanor didn't change and she seemed to be getting even more irritated, her words finally took root. Jane silently got up from the chair and walked to the door. She couldn't say she was surprised when Maura didn't call after her but she decided to have the last word.

Stopping at the door and glancing over her shoulder she said, "Have a good night, Ma'am." It ended up only a whisper.

When the door finally closed, a ton of guilt washed over Maura and she slammed her pencil down. She really hadn't meant to speak so vehemently at Jane. She actually didn't know what had come over her. The blue print interruption wasn't even the problem. She really wasn't even concentrating on it as the calculations seemed to flow from her hands with trained monotony. The architect really had been thinking about past events and the look in her ex-husband's eyes as he told her she wouldn't be able to see her children. Maura glanced at the clock and sighed.

She started gathering her things and mumbled, "I should really leave before I mess anything else up." Maura fully expected to walk out of her office into a hall of darkness, but a flash of light caused her to look up. Jane sat in her desk with her iPad in front of her and her desk light illuminating the dark space. Gulping, she walked over to her assistant's desk.

"I thought you were leaving."

"Answering a few emails," Jane grunted still looking down at her boss's e-mail account.

"... I suppose I can wait a few minutes then."

"Why would you do that?" Jane mumbled, finally looking up.

"Oh. Well, I just thought that you would… you know… walk me to my car."

Jane had started walking Maura to her car on late nights and it became routine for them.

"Walk you to your car? I dunno, hey. Let me think… I mean, I didn't learn how to do it in college or anything so maybe I'm not qualified to do that." She watched as her boss shifted uncomfortably in her Jimmy Choos and looked anywhere but at her.

"I shouldn't have said that. I wasn't angry at you, it's just... I apologize."

Jane picked at her nails. She looked down and was about to say that she forgave her and not to worry about it, but the woman pressed on.

"And I know you didn't deserve that. It's just my life is…and these past few weeks-" Her hand shot up to her mouth and the quick movement caused Jane to snap her eyes back up to her boss.

She watched as she stood frozen with her eyes screwed shut. She started to ask her if she was okay, but a sudden devastating sob, silenced her. Then another and another before the tears began to flow. Maura grasped her stomach with her other hand, trying to quiet herself. She squeezed tight, begging her body to calm down when she felt a rush of air and then strong hands tugging her hands away from her midsection and her face.

Jane pulled Maura arms down away from herself. She let them go only for a second while she pulled the smaller woman into her arms. Maura sinking into her made Jane pull her tighter.

"N-No… I can't… I-" Maura tried to push away from the brunette. The sorrow that she had forced herself to contain for so long was now mixing with confusion and shame. She didn't cry in front of anyone, let alone someone she worked with. Maura continued to push away from her to no avail. Jane brought one hand up to hold behind her head forcing Maura's face into her shoulder and the other hand wrapped around the woman's waist.

"Don't, Jane. I shouldn't be…we-"

"Hey, shh… You're allowed to cry. It's okay, Maura, you're okay."

When Maura heard her assistant utter her name all hell seemed to break loose. Her knees buckled, but she could immediately feel Jane's arms holding her up.

Jane's heart broke as her boss let out a gut wrenching sob and clenched her arms tighter when she lost her balance. She wondered how this could happen. How could someone break down such an amazing woman and reduce her to this clingy weeping mess? She pulled her tighter and began whispering in her ear.

"You're okay. I'm here, Maura… It's gonna be okay." The woman seemed to be settling down after a while and Jane could tell that her body was drained. "I know everything seems like a complete shit storm right now but… your kids know how much you love them. So, everything will work out. Okay?"

Maura let out a burst of air that created goose bumps across Jane's skin. Her boss's lips lightly brushed over her neck as she snuggled closer to her and tugged harder on her assistant's blazer. She tensed for a second before pulling the smaller woman away and attempting to clean the tear stained face. Her boss refused to meet her eye as she calmed her breathing pattern.

"Sorry."

"Look at me." Hesitantly her boss's eyes met hers and she could see the slight embarrassment. She gave her a tight lipped smile and gently squeezed her shoulders. "You got me anytime you need someone to cry on or…yell at," she joked, breathing easier when her boss let out a shuddered chuckle. "But seriously. I'm here."

Maura closed her eyes and let her words wash over her. She had waited so long for someone to say that. She didn't have any friends that weren't only there, because of her last name and her children would never be an option for sharing her burden. Collin was her brother, but he couldn't even keep a promise in being with her on one of the most intense days of her life. But Jane said she would. And she always had.

"Thank you."

Jane gave her shoulders one more squeeze before she gathered her things and began to lead the woman out of the building with a tender hand on the small of her back. When they reached the parking garage, she bypassed her car and walked toward the Benz.

Taking her boss's keys out of her hands, she unlocked the car and opened the driver's side door. Maura got into the car, receiving her keys from her assistant, but looked up when the brunette didn't close the door.

"Are you sure you want to go home? I know this really good place a couple of blocks away if you want to…" She let her sentence trail off hoping Maura would fill in the blanks herself. Even thinking it made her nervous. Maura considered her offer for a second before speaking.

"I would be horrible company."

"Oh, no. You're not horrible… not all of the time… outside of work." They both laughed and Maura playfully swatted her assistance's hand that was still on the door. "But really, you haven't been eating much lately."

"Thank you, but I think I'm just gonna go home and take a bath."

Jane nodded and took a step away from the door trying to not concentrate too hard on her boss taking a bath. "Okay. Guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Actually Jane, why don't you take the weekend off? I think I'm just going to work from home."

In the two and a half months that Jane had been Maura's assistant, they had only taken off every other weekend and even then Maura would ask Jane to go to the office to finish reports without her or clean up sketches.

"Are you sure you're okay? You don't have a fever or anything? You're not dying are you?" Jane teasingly reached into the car and placed the back of her hand on the other woman's forehead. Maura laughed, but didn't pull away from her and felt a slight dissatisfaction when Jane removed her hand.

"No, I'm fine. Although, I'm sure it wouldn't be too disappointing if I wasn't." The smile immediately dropped from Jane's face and her brown eyes pierced into hazel.

"Why would you say something like that?" Maura only shrugged and sat back a little noticing Jane's sudden serious manner.

"I don't know… I was only kidding."

The tall woman gave her an incredulous look and sighed. She squatted down to Maura's sitting form and placed one of her hands on the woman's knee. "You don't think people would miss you if you were gone? Jesus, Maura. Those kids absolutely adore you. You are a seriously talented architect and no one will ever be able to even touch your excellence and accomplishments in the field. You're so smart. People care… I mean… I know I do."

Maura swallowed the lump in her throat and was able to conquer the rising tears she felt coming. She hadn't expected Jane to say that and it took her a little by surprise. Even though she truly hadn't meant what she said, her assistant's words still touched her.

"I really was only kidding," Maura whispered.

Jane smiled dutifully and stood, placing her hand once again on the door prepared to close it. "Maybe you do need to take the weekend to decompress. Your sense of humor is getting a little too dark there, Isles. Enjoy your bath."

Without another word she closed the door and turned to walk to her car. She wasn't sure if Maura was truly only kidding, but she didn't want to think about where she would be if Maura Isles hadn't taken her on as an assistant.

"Jo, slow the hell down!" Jane looked a couple of feet in front of her as her dog strained against her leash. Jo Friday went from one side of the side walk to the other sniffing out for the perfect place.

"Jane, you gotta let the leash out a little. You're gonna choke her."

"Oh, would you calm down, Tommy. I'm not choking her." Her brother reached for the leash and tried to wrench it from her hand. "What are you doing? I can handle it. It's not like she's a German Sheppard."

Her brother finally wrestled the control away and let the leash run out a few more feet before stopping it. "Look, you hired me to walk your dog."

"Yeah, when I can't. I told you I'm off this weekend. I don't know why you insist on coming along."

"Because you can be kinda hostile. Plus Jo knows me."

"Oh, really. She's MY dog."

"Yeah, but we have a special bond, you know."

She watched as Jo happily chased a bee and laughed when the bee started to chase Jo and she growled at it. "I can see that, Cesar Millan."

Before Tommy could retort their attention was brought back by a small screeching laugh. A little boy was laying on the ground, feet in the air as Jo licked all over his face. The boy laughed loudly and started playing with Jo.

Jane walked up to the two of them and squatted down to pet Jo."Hey, there. Sorry about her. She gets really excited around kids."

"No, she's AWESOME!"

Jane smiled and looked around the park. She couldn't see any adults that seemed to be looking for anyone and it worried her a little. She pulled Jo off of the boy who sat up and started petting the dog again.

"What's your name kid?" Tommy asked lowering himself to be level with his sister.

"Jacob!" The boy said grinning through a missing tooth.

"Hey, Jacob. I'm Jane."

"Really?! Our names have the same first letter!"

"Yeah, cool! Where are your parents?"

The boy glanced around and simply shrugged his shoulders before turning his attention back to the dog jumping up and down.

"Okay, well when was the last time you…" Before Jane could continue her question she heard a woman shouting from behind her.

"Jacob!" Jane barely turned around before the woman was in front of them falling to her knees and pulling the boy into her. He grimaced and tried to pull out of her arms. "This is my mom."

Tommy smiled at the woman's smothering, but became confused as he looked over to his sister who was only staring with her eyebrows raised. The women finally sat back holding her son stiffly by his shoulders. "Jacob Louis Faulkner! What have I told you about disappearing like that? You can't do that. If you go wandering off like that and Mommy can't find you, do you know how -"

Then a teenage girl walked up beside them and locked eyes with Jane. They recognized each other and Alice grinned down at her. "Hi, Jane!"

The boy's mother stopped mid-rant and finally looked over at her. Jane smiled and gave an awkward wave. Why didn't you say hi? She's right there.

Maura completely released her son and stood up as her assistant did the same. Her shocked face turned into a full blow grin. "Jane. What are you doing here?"

"Well…" Jane looked from Jo Friday to the surrounding dogs at the dog park and then back to Maura, who seemed to blush a little from asking such an obvious question.

"Of course. You have a dog."

"Yeah, I don't actually have a sleeping bag under my desk."

Maura rolled her eyes as they shared a light chuckle.

"By the way, how did that happen?"

"Well, let's just say Alice decided to take her brother to the park, and I happened to… bump into them."

"What a coincidence, right?" Jane asked as she looked between mother and daughter. Alice shook her head at the same time as Maura nodded.

"Of course," she smiled.

"See? I told you they missed you too," whispered Jane with a smirk.

They both grew silent, content to just smile and stare at each other. Tommy looked between the two women, but finally ended up blatantly staring at the blonde.

"I'm Tommy by the way. Jane's brother."

Maura seemed to snap out of her haze and turned to the man who had his hand stuck out for a hand shake and donned a smile that mimicked Jane's. "Oh, of course. It's nice to meet you, I'm Maura Isles." She shook his hand a tried not to notice how his hand lingered in hers a few moments beyond appropriate.

"So, Maur-… Mrs.-… Wh-what are you doing here? Where's your dog?" The assistant had no idea what to call her boss at a dog park. She knew she was her boss, but when she had used her first name last night, it seemed so natural.

"We don't have a dog. Dad's allergic." The boy Jacob spoke tiring of petting Jo.

"Yes, we were just walking around the park. And we were about to grab something to eat, when someone decided to practice his disappearing act."

Jacob looked away avoiding his mother's glare.

"This is your dog?" asked Alice.

"Yeah, Jo Friday."

"I never pegged you for a small dog person." Alice said leaning down to pet Jo's head.

"Yeah, well I found her on the side of the street one day and we just kind of stuck together."

"Oh, well isn't that sweet." Jane smiled at her boss ready for another grinning staring match when Jacob interrupted.

"Mom, I'm hungry."

"Sorry, sweetheart… okay, we're going to go. I guess I'll see you at work?"

Tommy stepped up closer to Maura handing Jo's leash to Jane. "Where are you guys headed?"

Jane then realised that Tommy was talking to Maura in that I'm-trying-to-be-charming voice he used on girls all the time. Then Jane realised it usually never worked.

"There's this place right up the road… The Dirty Robber? I've never eaten there, but I've heard that their food is naturally sourced so I thought we would give it a try." She smiled missing her son's face scrunch up in disgust at the mention of anything remotely healthy.

"Yeah, I know that place. Me and Jane eat there all the time. Although, I'm not sure why you want to eat something so healthy. You're like super-skinny." The salacious look he gave her made Alice quirk a brow and then glance at Jane.

Jane had to physically clasp her hands together in an attempt to stop the face palming that almost happened. Her brother was always the worst at flirting. He was flirting with a woman in front of her kids for crying out loud. She glanced over to him giving the don't-flirt-with-my-boss look. When he only smirked at her she tried a different tactic with the she's-out-of-your-league look.

"Thank you? It's mostly for the well-being of my children."

"I dig that. Mind if I tag along? Those burgers are so good."

Jane couldn't believe it. She had definitely succeeded in telepathically telling him to stop whatever he was thinking and he was ignoring her.

"Are you kidding me, Tommy? No!"

Everyone's eyes snapped to her including a specific set of confused hazel.

"Why not?"

"Because… you have that… that thing."

"What thing?"

She had to think quick and glancing down at her watch she sighed in relief. "You have to take Jo to her grooming."

"What happened to I can handle it?"

Jane shrugged and placed the leash in her brother's hand. "Oh, but you're the dog whisperer, remember? You two have a special connection. And last I checked, The Robber didn't allow pets."

Tommy rolled his eyes and reluctantly grasped and pulled Jo away giving the Isles family a quick wave.

"Your brother seems nice," said Maura once he was gone.

"Yeah, he seems… a lot of things." Jane turned to walk away, glad that she succeeded in getting her brother away from her boss. "It was cool seeing you guys. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Wait, Jane! Aren't you gonna come eat with us?" asked Alice.

Both adults were surprised by the request, but more so who the request was from. Jane contemplated. "I dunno. I don't feel like intruding on family time."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Oh please. Coy is not a good look on you. Just come."

Jane laughed out loud. "What? Miss me already?"

Ali quirked an eyebrow. "No, you just look hungry," she quipped.

"You always were a big ball of sunshine, huh. Nice shoes, by the way." Jane meant it as a joke because of the outrageous color but Alice took it in stride.

"I know, right? I wish I could say the same to you," she countered, feigning remorse.

"Ouch. I'll take that as an insult."

"As you should." Alice felt triumphant until Jane went on.

"Still a vegetarian?"

When Ali opened her mouth but stayed silent, Jane knew she'd won.

"Whatever. Are you hungry or not?"

Jane quickly quieted down her laughter as she patted her stomach. She really was hungry, but wondered if it would be over stepping. She and Maura had gotten closer after last night and Jane thought that if her boss thought it was unprofessional she would have rebuffed Alice's invitation, but instead Maura just watched their little interaction with surprised adoration.

"Yeah… sure, sounds good."

"Mom, can I pleeeaaase have French fries?"

"Remember when you asked me that question five minutes ago?"

"Yes?"

"Good, and what was my answer?"

"No?"

"Well, there you have it."

Jane tried to hide her smirk. They all sat in a booth near the middle of the restaurant. Alice sat next Jane and Maura sat next to her ten year old son on the opposite side. They had all ordered and Jane wasn't surprised to see two salads in front of the two Isles women, although Ali didn't look too happy about hers. Jane nursed her burger and the boy had begged and pleaded for chicken strips.

"But Mom-"

"Jacob."

The boy sighed and sat back in his seat disappointed.

"Hey, buddy," The boy turned his big sad, hazel eyes up to look at Jane. He looked like his mother just as much as Alice did, but he had his father's dark brown hair. "I have an idea. If it's okay with your mom, you can have a few of my fries. That way you won't be completely clogging your arteries."

The boy perked up in his seat and turned to his mother for approval so fast she was sure he would break his neck. "Oh, mom! Please!"

Maura glanced over the table at Jane who looked back at her apologetically. Maybe I shouldn't have offered. "Well, if it's okay with Jane."

The boy perked up and an instantly reached across the table into Jane's plate.

"Jacob, what do you say?"

"Thanks, Jane."

"No. It's Ms. Rizzoli."

Jane chuckled and waved her boss off. "It's fine, Ms. Isles. He can call me Jane."

The architect couldn't believe what she was about to say, but it seemed fitting. "Only if you call me Maura."

The assistant's eyebrows shot up to the top of her forehead. "Really?"

"Yes. When we're outside of work anyway."

Jane smirked and leaned forward placing her arms on the table. She looked into her boss's eyes and her voice dropped a few octaves as she said, "And will we be spending a lot of time together… outside of work?"

The woman noticed an instant flush that she was sure would be visible if it weren't for her shirt. She fiddled with her hands in her lap and shifted a little uncomfortably in her seat. Her entire body went hot and she sputtered trying to make a coherent sentence.

"We… work in… design is-"

Jane traded glances with Alice, who narrowed her eyes at her. Jane quickly averted her eyes, embarrassed at being caught flirting with her boss in front of her boss's kids. She was officially worse than Tommy.