A/N-Well, it's about time, amiright? Life happened, but I'm back now!

Still don't own them...

By the time Maura arrived at BPD, parked her car, changed into her spare black scrubs, and moved her first body to the autopsy table with some help from one of the techs it was about 10. She was roughly 45 minutes behind her usual schedule, which meant that she would have to work very efficiently if she was going to make dinner with Jane.

Maura had little doubt that she could do it though. What little doubt she did have was the kind of doubt she had about reddish-brown stains at crime scenes. Maura knew, according to several awards she had received from the National Association of Medical Examiners, that she was one of the best at what she did. She also had motivation that was a little more compelling than the usual documentary waiting at home.

She had Jane.

Well, Maura had Jane as much as Jane could be had by another person. Jane had never struck Maura as the type to let herself belong to any person in a romantic relationship. The detective was fiercely independent and actually appeared standoff-ish in speaking people who weren't in her small circle of friends and family. Maura wasn't sure how much a person like that could be had, if at all.

Not that Maura wanted to possess Jane; no, that wasn't it at all. Maura just wanted Jane to be hers, and she wanted to be Jane's, whatever than meant. The sentiment certainly implied possession, but that wasn't what Maura wanted. Maura couldn't exactly articulate what she wanted, just that she wanted Jane.

Maura thought that she could have lived with Jane seeing other people earlier in their relationship, when they were trying to be just friends. Maura really and truly thought she could have managed it without excessive angst. Now was different though; things had changed. Maura couldn't pinpoint when, but the relationship had evolved to a point where she couldn't stand it, where dating other people felt vaguely like cheating even though there was no concrete foundation for such a feeling.

That feeling had been the root of Maura's strange sense of guilt when she was planning her date with Kitty, so it had been there before spending the night with Jane. Still, Maura couldn't pinpoint exactly when it had developed into this sense of exclusivity despite a complete lack of conversation on the topic.

These thoughts and thoughts like them occupied Maura's mind all while she examined each organ thoroughly, noting abnormalities if she saw any and taking particular interest in the stomach contents for anything out of the ordinary.

Maura continued with her work, different versions of the same general thought occasionally popping up. She tried to go about her usual routine, humming along to the background music she put on before every autopsy in an attempt to occupy her brain with something other than repetitive thoughts about Jane. But Jane's influence showed up even in that facet of Maura's life. In the mix of classical, mostly instrumental, Maura now had a number of rock power ballads courtesy of Jane fiddling around with Maura's ipod during particularly slow days in the homicide department.

Maura could have deleted them, but they reminded her of Jane's influence in her otherwise monotonous life. So the songs stayed. And they were always a nice little surprise when she put the ipod on shuffle.

It happened to be "Open Arms" one of Jane's songs that Maura hummed as she began to stitch up the Y-incision. Maura smiled to herself, recalling the first time she'd heard the song and commenting to Jane that it seemed a bit over the top, thinking that Jane, ever the unsentimental one, would readily agree. Jane admitted that it was a little sappier the other songs, but insisted it was still a classic because it was a Journey song and Journey would always be awesome, so she proceeded to put it on Maura's autopsy playlist.

That round of song updates had occurred a little less than a week ago. Actually, Maura thought as she finished stitching up the incision, it had been this past Monday, just a few days after their little charade in the park. Maura wondered if perhaps Jane's song choice had been Jane's way of admitting something that she was, at the time, too stubborn to admit to. Even if it hadn't been intentional, Maura imagined there must have been some subconscious feelings at work for Jane to choose a song so expressive and emotional at a time when she was clearly working through and against her feelings for Maura.

Fortunately, Maura was prevented from making any more uncharacteristic conjecture regarding Jane's motivation when her phone vibrated to indicate she had a new text.

Maura removed her bloody gloves and disposed of all the rest of her protective equipment before grabbing her phone off the nearby counter to read the text. It was from Jane, and it was maddingly cryptic.

Change of plans. I'll text new address

Care to elaborate?

patience doctor...you'll hear soon ;)

Maura sighed and put her phone back on the table. She could pester Jane, but Maura knew that the detective would remain tight lipped until she was good and ready. Jane was stubborn like that. Maura kind of liked that about Jane, that, if Jane decided to dig her heels in on something, however inconsequential, she was not going to yield.

It surprised Maura a bit that a trait that she usually found annoying, or, at the very least, counterproductive, was actually endearing on Jane. It flew in the face of logic and Maura's personality to think in such a way about a personality trait that she believed to be objectively problematic.

But it was Jane, and everything felt different where Jane was involved. Maura suddenly recalled the moment earlier in the morning as she'd said goodbye to Jane, how different even that had felt.

She'd just taken a moment to look into Jane's eyes, to really see Jane, and Maura felt emotions stronger than she'd felt with both Ian and Garrett combined. Maura'd been so overwhelmed, had wanted to say so much, but the words got stuck in her throat, and she'd settled on stumbling over a simple "I'll see you then."

Maura sighed. Well, regardless of the circular and repetitive Jane related thoughts floating through her mind, Maura still really needed to get a start on her next autopsy if she were to have any hope of finishing in time for Jane's mystery date. She started towards her office to complete the report.

Jane was a little stressed out. Strike that, she was actually super stressed out, especially considering these were the kinds of things that Jane did not normally care about at all.

Jane had never stressed about getting a reservation. If she found out that a place was busy and didn't take reservations or was all booked, she'd just go somewhere else. Wasn't like they were living in a one restaurant town or anything. There were plenty of places to eat in Boston.

But she'd stupidly made plans with Maura at the one place that was reservation only and booked up a few days in advance on weekends. Well, there was probably more than one place like that in Boston, but none that Jane knew of or would even think to frequent.

So Jane was stuck without a restaurant for her date with Maura. And Maura liked to know where she was going ahead of time on a night out. Even what had initially seemed a spontaneous visit to the nightclub on the cruise had been planned out 24 hours ahead of time.

Jane hung up the phone after the failed reservation attempt, tossing her phone on the couch. She sat down and rested her feet on the table, exhaling as she ran both hands through her hair and closed her eyes.

She took a few more deep breaths as she willed herself to not dwell on the stupidity of suggesting the restaurant in the first place.

Hell, Jane wouldn't have been comfortable at the place anyway, not with its weird noveau take on traditional Italian food not when Jane liked her mom's version of Italian just fine. Maybe she could work with that, work with things that were more, well, Jane. If being a detective in homicide had taught Jane anything, it was that you had to work with the stuff you have, not the stuff you wish you had.

Instead of scrambling around for some equally in demand restaurant that did have a reservation, Jane decided to go a different route as a way of making the day special. She'd make a day of it, and do it in a way that was far more her style than just going to some ritzy restaurant. She's drop little hints here and there for Maura, get her guessing if possible. It would be give Maura a fun, if slightly frustrating diversion from cutting up dead people for half the day, then writing about it for the other half.

Before she could change her mind or overthink the thing, Jane sent the text to Maura, and smirked at the predictable response from the doctor. She could even imagine Maura saying it, how her head would tilt to the side and her lips would purse together in frustration even as a smile pulled at the corner of her lips.

Jane snapped herself out of what she'd deem in anyone else a disgustingly sweet daydream for long enough to realize that she still had to find a half decent place to eat. Then she'd have to decide on a few other breadcrumbs to toss Maura's way.

Then, as if the idea had always been there a fully formed plan popped into Jane's head.

Jane had a perfect idea, and just enough time to pull it off.

Nothing was easy. Or at least Jane felt that way with how her day had been developing so far. First, she couldn't get in the restaurant. No problem, she found a small traditional Italian restaurant in her old neighborhood. She knew the guy who took it over after his father retired, so she'd talked him into saving a table for her.

Then came the second challenge. Jane had decided that she wanted to get Maura a new outfit for the date. First of all, because Maura liked that stuff, but also for more practical reasons. As sexy as the dress had been on Maura, she didn't seem to feel comfortable. Even if Maura was comfortable in the dress, it probably had a wrinkle, and Maura definitely was not comfortable with that.

The idea seemed good in theory, but was a bit more complicated in practice. Jane had been standing in front of a rack of dresses at one particular mid-price boutique for a good half an hour as the sales girl tried to help her figure out what the hell she was looking for. Jane hadn't a clue, so the girl just rambled on and on about the hottest new trends, hoping something would strike Jane. It had only bewildered Jane more, so she'd wandered out of the store and back to her car.

She sat for about a minute trying to work out some idea on where she could get a dress that was Maura. Jane just wished that she had someone to tell her what to do, someone who knew Maura well enough to know that hot pants, however 'in' they were going to be come summertime, were not the answer.

Jane sighed and turned her key in the ignition. Then she drove towards Newbury Street.

After finding, by some miracle of the parking god, a spot right in front of the store, Jane hopped out of her car, slammed the door, and walked briskly towards the store. She swung the door open without breaking her stride as she moved across the store towards the first available cashier. Jane was, after all, behind schedule and at a place where she felt out of place in every way imaginable. It added to already mounting anxiety levels.

"Hey, I need to see Millie," Jane said as she approached the woman and the main desk, a petite red-headed woman with a snobby air that fit right in at such a fancy place. She made a face somewhere between surprise at the ambush and disdain as she took in Jane's off the rack blazer and v-neck. "Is Millie in today?"

"Do you have an appointment?" the woman asked.

"No," Jane said, and when the woman appeared ready to lose interest, Jane added quickly, "I'm here for Maura Isles. She doesn't have an appointment either, but she needs a dress for tonight and got tied up at work. I thought Millie could help."

"Hold on," the woman said with a little more warmth when Jane mentioned Maura's name. "I'll see if she's available."

Jane stood there, resting one hand on the counter as she drummed her fingers while waiting. Then, for lack of anything better to do, wandered over to the nearest rack of clothes, some fluffy blue shirts paired with obscenely expensive pants, or what Jane assumed were obscenely expensive pants. She started looking for the price tag to confirm her suspicion.

"Jane?"

Jane looked up and quickly let go of the tag as if she'd been caught touching stuff in the history museum. Millie smiled pleasantly at Jane, although she looked surprised to see her.

"Hey," Jane said, holding out her hand for Millie. "Nice to see you. Kind of surprised you remember me."

"Of course. I don't easily forget a woman who wears couture so well," Millie said. "I do have to admit that I'm surprised that you came willingly on your own. From what I remember, you seemed to be here simply to please Maura."

Jane smiled and nodded. For a fashion lady, Millie had a really good memory and a pretty good read on people.

"Yeah, well, this is kind of a desperation thing," Jane said, rubbing her hands together. "I'm not exactly sure how this works, but I'm wondering if you could maybe, I don't know, give me a consult on the type of stuff Maura likes. We're going out tonight, and I'd like to get her a nice dress."

"Hmm," Millie hummed as she pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I might have something."

She took a quick look in Lacy's direction to make sure the girl was busy talking to another consultant before gesturing for Jane to follow her. Millie turned and walked away before Jane could respond, so Jane had no choice but to follow.

Millie led Jane through a door that, though not labelled employees only, looked like an employees only type of door. She led Jane down a short hallway, past two empty offices and stopped at the third door. She took a key from the pocket of her tailored black dress pants and unlocked the door. It was all done very quietly. Millie hadn't spoken a word since leading Jane towards the door. Even the way that she closed the door and turned on the light was quiet, like she was letting Jane in on a secret.

When Jane took a look around, she could sort of understand why.

They were in a large room, bigger than Jane's living room, and it was full of dresses, pants and shirts that Jane hadn't seen on the floor. Jane still wasn't sure that this collection could be of much use to her though, since the cheapest item was likely about $500 out of Jane's price range.

"This is the surplus room. We occasionally have special orders that are cancelled last minute, or trends that never actually become trends," Millie said, smiling to herself at the last part, probably remembering some inside fashion joke or something. "We store a portion here to either be sold back to the designer or chain stores."

"Okay," Jane said. "Um, that's great, and, I mean, I'm not unappreciative of the tour or anything. Just, I'm not sure how this helps."

"Patience, Jane," Millie said with a smirk as she walked down the second aisle. "You're an awful lot like and antsy six year old around shopping, aren't you?"

Before Jane could reply, Millie returned with a dress. It was beautiful, in a deep shade of purple with some kind of ruffly detailing along the neckline. It was really classy, and definitely something Maura would wear extremely well.

"As part of an employee benefit program, we are allowed to purchase two items a month from the surplus room. We pay whatever the company would have received from the designer plus our employee discount," Millie said. "I was thinking maybe we might be able to work around that to get Maura this lovely dress. It's practically tailored for her."

"How're we gonna do that? I'm no employee, and I'm not sure I could pass for one even for a day," Jane said.

Millie laughed. She actually laughed. Jane had been aiming for a little humor, but it shouldn't have been that funny.

"I wouldn't dream of torturing you in that way," Millie said, still smiling. "If you can pay the $100 in cash, then I can put this down as my second purchase of the month, and you can bring Maura the dress."

"You'd do that? Why? I mean, that's your big bonus," Jane said.

Millie shrugged.

"Next week is the end of the month, and there's nothing here that I want or don't already own," Millie said as she held out the dress for Jane to take. "I like Maura. She and I have known each other since she started visiting here during med school. She's always been so good to me. One of the nicest people from money that I've ever met."

"Yeah, she's something else," Jane said as she took her wallet out of her back pocket to pull out the five twenty dollar bills she'd withdrawn from the bank before her shopping trip. Millie took the cash and handed Jane the hanger.

Millie slipped the cash in her pocket and opened the door to lead Jane back down the hallway. As they were about to open the door, a strange question popped into her head that came out before Jane could stop it.

"What did you think of us last time we were here?" Jane asked.

Millie turned back from the door and smiled at Jane.

"Why do you ask?"

Jane shrugged. "You seem like a pretty perceptive lady. I'm just curious."

"It was awhile ago, but I remember being surprised," Millie said.

"Surprised?"

Millie nodded.

"That Maura was so obvious," Millie said. "She's always been a little...hard to know. Even when she's nice, it's hard to know the real Maura without feeling like she's holding something back, protecting herself. She wasn't like that when she came in with you. Maura was relaxed. She was so comfortable around you, touching you, talking to you. She so openly adored you. I thought you guys must've been together awhile for that to happen."

Jane nodded and looked down at the dress so that Millie wouldn't see a rare Rizzoli blush creep onto her cheeks.

"You've got Maura down," Jane said. "I'll give you that."

"Believe it or not, reading people is part of my job. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it," Millie said as she peeked her head out the door to make sure Lacy wasn't on patrol or anything. "You're good to go. Looks like Lacy and Pete are in with clients."

Millie led Jane back out onto the main floor, even walking with Jane to the front door.

"Thanks again, Millie. This is really great of you," Jane said, holding her hand out for a handshake. "If I liked fancy clothes and had all kinds of money, I'd come see you more often."

"Of course, it was my pleasure," Millie said, smiling warmly as she shook Jane's hand. "You just enjoy your evening out."

"Will do," Jane said, nodding as she leaned against the door to open it. She waved one more time and stepped out into the sunny street.

Now, Jane just needed to find a way to get that dress to Maura.

A/N- I'm really sorry for the extra long wait. I had some really rough stuff happen in my personal life that just made it tough to think about writing much of anything. No need to worry about me though, because I'm doing better...the main reason for mentioning it at all is that I just wanted everyone to know that the long delay is not a sign that I'm giving up on the story :)

So, are we excited about the date? That'll be coming in the next chapter! I know very little actually happens for a chapter of this length, but I promise it's necessary to the set up ;)

Reviews warm me up in this bitterly cold weather!