**DISCLAIMER – I do not own the characters, they belong to TNT and associated bodies. **

(However I have a wonderful imagination and that belongs all to me, just sometimes Jane and Maura wind up naked in it, and there's not a thing I can do to stop it. Gutted.)

*Make it without you, belongs to Andrew Belle*

How to solve a problem like a wedding ring.

Chapter Four – Make it without you.

Boston hummed with life the next morning. Easing her way through the chaos of the city, Maura Isles graciously swept her way into the Homicide Unit, keeping her eyes to the floor. Maura was a contradiction this morning. Something about her had changed. There was a sort of patience radiating from her, a calmer outlook.

"Morning Doc!" Frost practically bounced on his seat at the sight of her. She looked content. Not broken, or confused or wretched with grief. She genuinely looked 'content'. "Have I missed something . . . 'cos you're smiling, and I have not seen those pearly whites in quite some time?"

"I'm allowed to smile Barry," she said quietly. "I just . . . I think I'm okay, you know? I think I'm finally okay. I can't keep on wishing for the past, wishing things were different. She moved on and I have to too. I have to. She made a willing commitment to someone and you know what?" She let out a small breath, "I'm okay with it. And I want to move on. I lost four years of my life to her, I certainly won't lose the rest of it."

"I'm glad for you, really," Frankie whispered from behind Maura, startling them. "It's kind of a good thing too," he scrunched up his nose.

"She's coming back to work isn't she?" Maura didn't need an answer to her question.

"Yes. And no. It's complicated." Frost rolled his eyes. "All the stuff they dealt with out there, Jane saw a lot of bad things go down Doc. Gabe's told . . . Agent Dean," he corrected himself; "Agent Dean has went back to Washington to have a full debrief. Jane declined. So the only way she's coming back to work is if she signs up with the shrink. But she's not coming back here."

"But she loves it here," Maura said without thinking.

"We don't have the need to warrant employing another Detective, but she got lucky. When Korsak made Lieutenant he kissed a bit of brass on a case," Frankie explained. "So when Jane's papers were coming through, Korsak called in his favour. So . . . Sergeant Detective Jane Rizzoli, will be liasing between Homicide and Special Operations," Frankie said proudly.

"She's been back from Iraq for a day, and they're putting her in charge of SWAT?" Maura questioned, almost angrily. "Who in their right mind would put her straight into that," Maura kept her voice low but the anger was still clear.

"Maura she's spent four years in a combat zone," Frost appeased, while Frankie looked confused at Maura's anger. "She's good for this. Yeah she saw some things. She saw some things here too. She was still sane. She knows what she's doing and she didn't want time off,she wanted to get straight back into things. I can't say I blame her."

"Just . . . just keep an eye on her. For a little while at least." Maura's concern was evident.

She had never questioned Jane's abilities. Never. The problem with Jane was her stubbornness, no-one would know a thing was wrong until it was too late; the only person that was ever looking for the signs was Maura. After four years apart, Maura questioned if they would even recognise one another, let alone still have the uncanny ability to pick up on one another's feelings. It was protection; unspoken and unacknowledged protection of each other that they both relied on to get them through the day. For four years Maura had been learning how to protect herself, and failed miserably. Had Jane failed too?

-x-

Maura was sitting at her desk later that afternoon,when she raised her eyes to the doors of the morgue as familiar, albeitly slower even cautious footsteps sounded.

"Hey," Jane breathed, looking shyly at the blonde.

"Hey," Maura breathed in return, before returning her eyes to her paperwork.

Jane simply watched her for a moment before continuing.

"I just wanted to come say hello." Her voice still had the adorable huskiness, but she spoke more softly than before. Every word now had thought to it, her off-handedness had gone somewhere far away, somewhere locked away in her mind when they didn't think about what was okay to say.

"Hello, Jane," was all that Maura offered.

Jane's breath hitched at the sound of her name on the Doctor's lips. It had been so long. She'd missed Maura's grace, missed her gentleness. She had missed so much. She touched the scars on her palms, desperately trying not to give into the need to touch Maura.

"I'm c-coming back. For a little while. We'll probably have to work together, now and again. Maura . . ." she couldn't say anything more. She shifted on her feet, looking everywhere apart from the person she was speaking to.

"I can work with you Jane." Maura turned to face the brunette, touched by the fact Jane had let her guard down to show what she was actually feeling; that she had made the effort, the emotional effort; to come here, to talk. "I have no issues with you being here."

Jane turned her eyes again to the woman sitting in front of her.

"Thank-you."

"I'm coming up later with this," she pointed to the various files laid on the desk, "for Korsak. I'll update you on the case and take you through the complicated bits."

"Okay." Jane had never hoped for anything good by coming back but she hadn't expected indifference. She turned to leave the morgue, stopping slowly at the doors, half turning to look at Maura but keeping her head down and her eyes on the ground. "Maura I was drunk. If I'd only known the implications, if I'd known you felt the same . . .".

"It was four years ago Jane . . . the past, it's gone. There's no point trying to understand or even make good, on something that is too long gone for either of us to go back to that point. It's gone. You've moved on with your life. Respectfully . . . let me move on with mine." Maura's eyes went back to her work as Jane forced herself to walk away.