A/N-So, looks like I nailed it with my finale prediction :) Here's a really long chapter in celebration of one beard exiting permanently...

The first ten days of work in Boston were not going well for Maura. Her books were a disorganized mess, with a text on biology by Abrams sitting on the shelf next to a book on preservation of remains in paleontology by Ziggler. Then there was the matter of socializing with a new group of coworkers, a task that Maura failed at more often than not.

Of course, Jane proved to be the single most problematic part of adjusting to the new work environment. The detective refused to talk about anything that was not directly related to a case and had even go so far as to avoid face to face contact unless absolutely necessary, and that meant that Maura only had two conversations alone with Jane.

First there was the one during autopsy, which had been a failed exercise in not staring awkwardly at each other. Then there was another brief conversation in which Jane managed to avoid any significant eye contact while telling Maura that they got a confession out of the jealous ex-girfriend. Any other interactions were limited to a few brief phone calls and conversations where other officers were present. It took a lot for Maura to notice that someone was avoiding her, but she had no problem realizing that Jane was making every effort to maintain emotional, physical, even professional distance.

Despite that knowledge, Maura had no way of determining the precise cause of Jane's behavior. Perhaps she was upset that they had lost contact in the month since their last meeting, or she could also be attempting to ignore their sexual history in hopes that Maura would do the same. Maybe, just maybe, Jane felt as clueless and lost in this social situation as Maura felt.

That situation wasn't made any easier by the fact that Maura felt an elevated level of hormones associated with sexual arousal whenever she was in Jane's presence. The month since their last sexual encounter had done nothing to decrease the arousal Maura felt when thinking about Jane.

On the contrary, seeing her assertiveness some of the gruff officers in homicide had made Jane even more attractive. Maura knew that the increased attraction merely had to do with a primal instinct to find a mate capable of protection, but that did not change the fact that Maura found Jane nearly irresistible.

Maura couldn't help but think about how that unruly hair had been spread across the pillow of her bed, how sexy Jane's voice sounded in the heat of the moment. How expertly Jane used those lanky fingers…

"Doctor Isles? Hey, doc?"

Maura snapped her head up with her professional smile in place, an automatic reaction for whoever her surprise visitor was. She was happy to see Detective Frost standing in her doorway. In the week she had been working at Boston PD, he had been very kind to her and was one of the more patient detectives in the department.

"Hello, Detective Frost," Maura said. She glanced down at the report that she had been finishing up and saw that she had stopped halfway through writing her own name on the signature line. She finished with a quick flourish and looked up at Frost. "Did you need something?"

"Nope, just heading out to the parking garage and I saw light still on in here," Frost said. He glanced at the empty autopsy tables and took a step into the room. "Is there another body coming in?"

"Oh, no, not that I've heard," Maura said as she closed the manila folder. "I was just completing the Greybeck suicide report. Then I was thinking of looking over some cold case reports in order to familiarize myself with them."

"On a Friday night?" Frost asked, raising his eyebrows. "Last ME didn't stay a minute past 5 if there was no body to cut open."

"I don't consider Fridays to be any more exciting or important than any other day of the week," Maura said. Then she perked up when she remembered the treat she had waiting at home. "Although I do have a documentary on development of electric shock therapy and its effect on the brain chemistry in schizophrenic and bipolar patients."

"Hmm," Frost muttered. "Well, if you want to get out, I'm headed to this bar called the Dirty Robber to meet up with a few other detectives. You're welcome to join in."

Maura did not immediately respond. While she knew the names of each homicide detective, Maura did not know much beyond that about them. She felt her level of social anxiety, held in check by medication and intensive therapy as a child, might kick up.

But Detective Frost was very kind. He could potentially be a good friend and she figured he would not bring her along just to leave her out. If Maura refused the invite, he might take that as a refusal of his friendship.

That didn't change the fact that there were a number of unknown variables that did not sit well with Maura. For example, Detective Crowe might be there and Maura did not care to spend a great deal of time with him outside of work.

"C'mon," Detective Frost said when he noticed her hesitation. "It'll be fun. Besides, Jane might like to have another woman around for once."

"Detective Rizzoli is going to be there?" Maura asked, trying not to sound too interested. This purely social situation could present the perfect opportunity to clear the air with Jane so that they could both move on.

"Yeah, I mean we're partners. I think she'd probably kick my ass if I didn't invite her," Frost said, laughing to himself. "So what do you say? I'm DD tonight so I can drive you there."

Jane really had no idea what Frost was thinking. What the hell would possess him to bring a woman he knew in passing to their weekly get together? After a very long, trying week, Jane just wanted to relax, enjoy a few beers, go home, and fall asleep for about twelve hours. She did not want to have to worry about complications and censoring herself around Maura, as she had been forced to all week.

Damn Frost and his damn friendliness. Rationally, Jane understood his reason for bringing Maura along to the Robber. She was a gorgeous, apparently single, friendly new coworker. Jane herself had admitted to him that Maura seemed like a genuinely kind, friendly person. Why wouldn't he want to spend more time with the woman? But Jane did not really want to think rationally when she saw Maura smiling enthusiastically as she followed Frost to their table out back.

"Hey guys," Frost said as he pulled out a seat and gestured for Maura to sit down before taking the final seat at the table.

God, not that too. Now Jane was going to have to watch her partner try to seal the deal with a woman she had already sealed the deal with several times over. It felt strangely incestuous and just generally weird.

"Doctor Isles, you know Vince and Jane," Frost said.

After Korsak shook Maura's hand, Jane did the same, as she would if they actually had just met this week. Maura looked confused.

"Yes, I know her quite well," Maura said. Korsak, who was sitting right next to Jane raised his eyebrows at Maura's comment. Frost looked from one woman to the other, way too interested in the exchange for Jane's liking.

"Because we talked. During autopsy and when she moved in," Jane said. Before Maura could add any more or correct Jane, or Korsak could make a smartass comment, Jane continued. "It's nice to see you again Mau-my friend Doctor Isles."

"It's great to see you too, my friend Detective Rizzoli," Maura said, beaming like a Christmas tree. It was as if she'd never been called someone's friend before, a thought that softened Jane's resolve to maintain her distance from Maura, if only a little bit.

"Yeah, super, so, um, I was just gonna go get another beer. Anyone want something?" Jane asked, desperate to get away from the conversation that she had managed to work herself into.

"Just water for me," Frost said, still grinning like he'd managed to actually win win a game of hallway hockey or something.

"I'm good," Korsak as he gestured to the bottle he had just started. At least he seemed to be acting like a normal human being.

"I'll come with you," Maura said, getting up from her seat, still smiling so brightly that Jane could not very well say no. "I want to see what kind of wine they carry."

Without another word, Jane moved towards the bar and Maura followed close behind. As they waited for Murray to notice them at the end of the bar, Maura decided it would be a good time to just skip the small talk altogether.

"Jane, I would like to talk about the state of our relationship," Maura said, as if she were a teacher giving Jane a homework assignment. "So that we might work efficiently and effectively as coworkers."

"Huh?"

"Our relationship history, Jane. We've successfully avoided talking about it for just over a week now," Maura said. "And I don't think it's wise that we continue that way. We had sex, Jane. We need to figure out a way to deal with that."

So, the moment had come, the one Jane knew would happen eventually where she was forced to speak directly about having sex with Maura. She'd managed to work around that conversation on the few ocassions where Maura had created an opening. Jane knew the question would come, she just hadn't expected it to happen when she was trying to unwind at the Dirty Robber.

"Um, whoa, ok. Well, yeah, we had sex. A lot," Jane said, pausing as really good memories came back to her. Even if those good memories put her in the uncomfortable conversation she found herself in, Jane still couldn't find it in herself to regret everything because there were parts of it that were so damn good, and that whole vacation was more fun than she'd had in a really long time.

Then she realized that her and Maura's references to lesbian sex had caught the attention of a nearby patron, so she turned her back to him and lowered her voice before continuing. "But I mean, as far as, I'm concerned, it was a vacation thing, you know?"

Maura, despite Jane's fear that the woman had developed an emotional attachment, looked relieved as Jane spoke.

"So we can have the strictly platonic relationship of two coworkers?"

"Yeah, that would be great. Hey, Murray," Jane said, waving over the bartender in another desperate attempt to save herself from another awkward conversation with her newfound friend. "Can I have a Sam Adams, a water, and, uh, you like red wine right, Maura?"

"Yes, please, your finest Pinot Noir," Maura said. Clearly the woman didn't realize that she would be lucky if the place had more than one type of Pinot Noir.

With the quickness and precision of a guy who'd tended bar for about twenty year, Murray set out the beer, filled a glass of water and retrieved a bottle of red wine from the fridge under the counter.

"That'll be four bucks for the beer," Murray said. He paused for a second as if trying to remember the price of the wine he had just poured. "And eight for the lady's wine."

"Really, for the glass?" Maura asked. Jane thought the tone of surprise came from the steep tab in comparison to Jane's beer. "That's a fantastic deal. How much for the bottle?"

"Hmm, uhh, thirty five bucks, I think," Murray said, obviously as surprised as Jane by Maura's reaction.

"I'll take it," Maura said.

Maura's night was going quite well by her estimation. She had cleared things up with Jane with relative ease, had apparently been accepted into a new group of friends, and had purchased an entire bottle of decent pinot noir for the price of one glass at some of the restaurants she'd visited with her parents.

"Uh, Maura, have you noticed Frost?" Jane asked as they carefully made their way back through the crowd.

"I have noticed his presence at the table," Maura said. "Though I came in with him, so I doubt that was what you meant."

"I mean, I think he likes you," Jane said, lowering her voice as they drew closer to the table. "I just don't know if it would be a good idea."

Maura had noticed potential signs of sexual interest from Detective Frost, but they had been so subtle, much more subtle than Jane's advances on the cruise, so Maura could not know with 100% certainty that Frost had been anything other than friendly.

"Why don't you want me to see him?" Maura asked as they reached the table. "Is it because he's African American?"

Jane pinched her eyes closed and opened them again as she place Frost's water on the table and sat down. Korsak and Frost in particular were looking at Jane, waiting for her response even though they likely did not know what they were talking about. Maura sat down in her seat, placing her bottle in front of her and taking another sip of her wine.

"No, Maura, that's not why," Jane said.

Maura could tell that her suggestion had made Jane tense. She should have known not to mention race. Despite its generally liberal reputation, Maura was aware that Massachussetts, like any other state, had its racial tensions.

"It's just, do you remember our first conversation," Jane said slowly, picking each word very carefully. "The very first time we met, do remember what I learned about your, um, your interests?"

"My interests?"

"Your type, Maura, the type of person you find yourself attracted to," Jane said, nodding to put emphasis as she said person.

Oh, so this was Jane's veiled attempt at saying that she though Maura would be uninterested in men without outing her to the table. Maura appreciated the sensitivity, as she knew that many people found discussions of sexuality to be unseemly and unconfortable, especially in discussions of same sex attraction. Maura had no such issue.

"Oh, you're referring to my indication that I enjoy sex with women," Maura said calmly, choosing her own words very carefully because Jane clearly wanted to avoid discussing their tryst in front of others. "That is true. But I also occasionally enjoy the company of men."

"Really, I mean, wow. That's cool and everything doc," Detective Korsak said. "But, I mean, you don't look, you know, you don't really look the part."

"Because I'm feminine in appearance?" Maura asked.

"Well, um, yeah, I guess I was just sayin' if you told me one of the ladies at this table liked other ladies, I'd guess it was Jane, not you," Korsak said after taking a long sip of his beer.

Jane took the opportunity to punch the older man in the arm, though Korsak laughed it off. Frost, Maura noticed, remained a quiet, attentive, even amused spectator to the conversation.

"I suppose," Maura said as she poured herself a second glass of wine. "That is why stereotypes can be harmful and inaccurate. For example, I present as extremely feminine and I have stereotypically feminine interests, but I am often the more dominant one in the relationship."

Both Korsak and Frost seemed at a loss for what to say in response. Maura was actually quite amused by their fumbling attempts to respond. A large number of straight males had fantasies involving lesbianism and female bisexuality, but when confronted with the reality, many men couldn't handle Maura's straightforward, unapologetic expression of her sexuality.

Jane, who was just finishing her first bottle of beer, coughed violently and stared for a moment at Maura. Maura couldn't understand Jane's shock at having heard such information. They had, after all, been sexual partners. Jane knew that Maura liked to have control, as much as Jane had resisted giving up her own control.

Jane rested her face in her hands and groaned. She rose from the table quickly before Vince and Barry regained their composure enough to notice the curious exchange of looks between Jane and Maura.

"I'm gonna go get a few more beers," Jane said, walking away before Maura could get up to follow.

Maura watched Jane leave and turned around to face the two detectives. They looked very uncomfortable. Niether could look directly at Maura. Well, she had gone and done it again; Maura realized that she had said or done something to scare away potential new friends. She had only been trying to get to know them, to share something about herself, so that they would feel comfortable sharing with her. That was how social bonds were formed after all.

So Maura did the only thing that she had ever had any success with. She took another gulp of wine, then took the attention off of herself.

"Enough about me. Tell me something about you, detectives."

Maura was definitely well on her way to getting good and drunk. She was drinking the wine like it was water, claiming with increasing enthusiasm after each sip that it was a good, full bodied blend or something like that. Jane could not imagine getting that wasted drinking just one bottle of wine, but the doctor clearly was not use to drinking so fast. Jane, though she had a good buzz, was not drunk enough that she would have any significant reprecussions in the morning.

Maura, on the other hand, was probably going to have a few drinking related regrets.

"Jane, I think I'm gonna go to the little ladies room," Maura said, smiling lazily as she got up slowly. "Would you like to join me?"

"Sure," Jane said, resisting a temptation to roll her eyes.

Jane had just returned from the bathroom five minutes before, but she wanted to keep an eye on the doctor, make sure none of the guys took advantage of her. Jane swore she could not have managed those heels sober, let alone while completely sloshed on red wine, so she also wanted to make sure Maura did not break both ankles trying to walk in them while drunk.

Maura moved rather smoothly, much more swiftly than Jane could ever hope to move in heels as they found their way to the small, two stall woman's room at the back corner of the bar.

Murray had just redone the bathrooms a few months before. It had been painted a deep green shade of paint reminiscent of the Green Monster and a few framed pictures of the Sox, Celtics and Bruins on the walls adjacent to and facing the door.

Jane leaned against the wall facing the sink and looked at one of the pictures, trying to figure out if it was of the '04 or '05 Sox. It should have been very easy, after all, she just needed to see if Pedro Martinez was in the picture, but there were a number of faces to scan and Maura interrupted her before she could look at all of them.

"Jane," she said, peeking her head out of the larger handicap stall that she had just entered. "Could you come here?"

"Sure thing," Jane muttered.

Well, at least if she had to clean up after drunk Maura, it would kill a little bit of the sexy. Maybe then Jane would not be so distracted by having had mindblowing sex with the hot new M.E.

Maura, however, seemed to need no help at all. She stood straight and appeared steady on her feet. Jane wondered what Maura had called her for in the first place. She didn't have to wait long to get her answer.

Maura managed to get an arm on either side of Jane as Jane leaned against the wall of the stall.

"Did you, know, Jane," Maura said, the hint of a sultry smile on her lips, "that Pinot Noir results in chemical reactions in my body that cause me to become very aroused?"

"Really? Red wine makes you horny?"

Jane could have gotten away from Maura with ease, but it would be a lie to say that Jane hated her current position. She just had to maintain control so that things did not go any further. Maura was not in any condition to make the decisions that she seemed ready to make.

Maura ran a finger lightly and slowly over Jane's skin, following Jane's jawline to her lips.

"You make me aroused as well," Maura continued, staring at Jane's lips. She leaned forward and lowered her voice so that Jane had to lean right next to Maura to hear. "I like to imagine that first night when I need a little…relief."

"Oh my God," Jane said, swallowing hard.

There was only so much one person could take before giving in. Who could say no to that? Better yet, why was Maura now trying to have a quickie in the bathroom in the same night that she had gleefully agreed to be just friends?

Alcohol. That was the only reason the otherwise logical, reasonable doctor would do something that could make things even more awkward at work.

"Let's just get you home," Jane said, gently removing Maura's hand from her cheek where it was resting. "I think you probably need to rest."

"No, Jane. I don't need rest," Maura said, grabbing Jane's wrist with surprising strength and swiftness for someone as drunk as she seemed. She smiled softly and continued. "I need relief. I'm sure I could do it myself, but I could really use some help relieving this tension. It would probably be very helpful to you as well."

"Are you fucking kidding me right now? I can't do this," Jane groaned, stepping away from Maura so that she could think clearly. Maura was not making this easy. It would have been a hell of a lot easier in the short term to just let Maura have her way, but she couldn't let that happen.

"Is this some kind of warped nightmare fantasy or something?" Jane said as she leaned against the opposite wall and rubbed her face with both hands.

"Well I would hope that it would be a fantasy of yours," Maura said. Then, fortunately, she dropped her seductive voice and simply sounded like her inquisitive self. "You know, it just occurred to me that we never had sexual relations while both of us were standing up for the entire encounter. Of course, we almost did in the bathroom at the club. Then there was the shower, but I'm not sure if that technically counts because—

"Ok, no, no, no," Jane said, taking Maura's arm and opening the door of the stall before Maura could weaken her resolve any more than the booze and seduction had already.

"We are going to leave this bar right now before you say any of that shit in front of Frost or Korsak," Jane said. Before opening the door, a thought occurred to Jane and she turned to face Maura, putting a hand on either shoulder. "You do understand that we can't ever tell them about what happened on vacation, right?"

"You can count on me, Jane," Maura said, again adopting her best seductress voice as she reached up to fix the collar of Jane's shirt so that her fingers just barely brushed against the skin of Jane's neck.

"That sounds great," Jane said, getting increasingly annoyed with how damn difficult this woman was making things. "Just, um, try to be kinda, I don't know, normal. Ok?"

"What's normal?" Maura asked, sincerely curious about Jane's instructions. "There are varying standards of, um, what do you call it? Normalcy, that's it. You see, there is no standard of normalcy for all social interactions. Normal amongst peers can be very different from what is considered normal behavior with parents. Or priests."

This was going to be harder than Jane had thought. She again wondered how it was that Maura was so good at romantic and sexual things and so, just, unusual about regular, everyday social things.

"Just, we're going home, ok?" Jane said. "Just don't speak while we're out there. I'm going to get you to bed."

Jane immediately regretted her word choice and actually blushed at what Maura would probably at any moment call a Freudian slip.

"That is not what I meant. I'm going to get you into a bed by yourself," Jane said. Maura continued to smile smugly. Jane cracked a small smile. "Oh, shut up. Let's get out of here."

A/N- What'd you think? Thoughts on Frost's motivation for inviting Maura along?

Since we get no new episodes til November, fanfic is the only R&I-related joy in my life. Please keep that joy coming by leaving a review :)