**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.)

Wicked Game -Chris Isaak (one of the sexiest songs ever!)

How to solve a problem like a wedding ring.

Chapter Nine – Wicked Game.

Jane walked to the porch door after the rat-a-tat-tat on the frame, sauntering through the hallway she thought nothing of courier. She hadn't been expecting anything in the mail, that said; now her mother had been unleashed to the world wide web, little packages would arrive now and again. Garments of the wrong size, piano tutorial books that Jane was skilled enough to have bypassed many years ago; pictures – lots and lots of pictures, many of them now adorning the formerly rented house which she had bought.

Life with Gabe here had seemed as insignificant as a yawn in the night, over a year had passed and she had made the house her own. Maura had been once, to a barbecue the previous summer. They had kept their space, as promised; getting along better at work and preventing themselves from spending one-on-one time, Jane had come to fall in love with the M.E all over again. Not that she had ever stopped loving her, but the compulsory distance between them developed a tryst of sorts; the thrill was evident again, the staring into each others eyes for just a moment longer than necessary, the staccato beat their hearts would adapt as soon as a hand accidentally brushed flesh, the blushes that would creep up their necks when one would smell the others perfume. They danced around each other, never letting themselves creep into how things once had been but in a way they both loved it. Jealousy was a huge factor in reigniting the souls of the women.

Jane's mind drifted back to a late August evening, as her fingers absent-mindedly took the package and snaked their way through the seal of the envelope.

It was the first time Jane had been to Korsak's new house. Since his (fourth) marriage had been a last minute job, the kind Lieutenant had organised an evening celebration a few weeks later in his back yard. Jane was impressed with the old place, it had a lot of character. The garden was huge, bordered by beautiful old oak trees with gardenias making the place smell like a wander in a valley. Her gaze wandered to her various colleagues, seeing many of them in a different light. Men she had witnessed smashing windows in, wrestling with collars; carrying small children in their arms, gently swinging an arm around their partners, stealing a sip of lemonade through a straw on a hot autumn evening. She sighed gently, not feeling alone as such; but with a longing to do the same. She could have been here with her own husband, knowing the kind Agent would be in the middle of the children by the swings, she could almost see the light of his smile, how he would have enjoyed an evening like this, how she would have enjoyed being his wife on such an occasion. A reverie to her right caught her eyes, a woman with sandy-blonde hair; falling gently off her shoulders, half pinned but still wild. The Detective let her eyes roam over the one shouldered dress, cut ruffled at the knee, black and sprinkled with gold, setting off the woman's hazel eyes. If Jane wasn't such a sceptic, she could swear the woman fell right outta heaven.

She was fairly certain she stopped breathing as the vision approached slowly, stopping in front of her she could smell the smooth musk of her perfume. A smile spread across the woman's face as she spoke.

"Good evening, Jane," Maura spoke in her usual soft tones.

"My God . . . You . . . Maura . . ." Jane was dumbfounded. Actually, dumbfounded was an understatement. She was screwed. If she wasn't previously utterly addicted to the Doctor, she was now. If she died on the spot, she would die one horny woman.

Maura simply smiled, before bowing her head and looking at the taller woman from behind sculpted eyelashes.

"I take it you like the dress?"

"I think I just lost the power of speech," Jane gulped.

Maura smirked and slowly turned away from Jane towards the house to greet Korsak. Jane's eyes never left her. More specifically, they never left the Doctor's ass, but if she was going to put it on display like that then Jane would be damned if she didn't take a peek. Or a glare. Or a five minute worship.

Frost approached Rizzoli's side as she was still lost in her own little wonderland.

"Hey Jane."

"Oh, Frost, how you doing buddy?" She couldn't remove her eyes from the other woman, Frost reached out and turned her head towards him.

"You signed those papers yet?"

"No. I just, I can't believe I'm about to get divorced, you know?" She looked sadly at her former partner.

"Well, let me put it this way – the happiness you keep clinging on to, what you think you could still have with Dean . . . it doesn't touch the happiness you could have with her," he motioned with a discreet look over to the Doctor.

"How do I know though? How do I know how much I'm willing to give, when I couldn't give it to the man I was married to?" She looked confused, torn, in need of a defining answer to convince herself that she could truly love the blonde.

"Give me a minute," he stepped forward to walk to Maura before turning to Jane. "What you're about to feel, that's why you need to sign those papers."

A soft song started from the band as she watched Frost walk to the M.E requesting the dance. He led her by the hand into the centre of the garden, his eyes never leaving Jane's as he snaked his arm around Maura's waist, leading the dance.

Jane bit her lip as fury built up inside her, watching them sway slowly. Her grip tightened around the beer she held to her chest, her eyes not able to divert from the scene causing her breath to become erratic, causing her heart to over-beat, causing her the most painful rush of jealousy she had ever experienced in her life. She watched for three long minutes, as her colleagues stood chest to chest with their fingers linked, dancing to a song she couldn't hear for the burning pulse in her ears.

When it ended, Frost; still with his eyes fixed on the Detective's,returned to his spot beside her.

"That, Jane; that's what she felt when you came back with that ring on your finger. It meant something to you. But what you just felt, it knocks any feelings you had for him right outta that ball park, and you know I'm right." He gave her a playful punch on the shoulder before whispering in her ear: "Sign the papers Jane, 'cos if you don't and you lose her to someone else; he sure as hell won't be mentally reminding himself not to touch her ass in front of you."

She shot him a death glare before gulping the rest of her bottle, leaving the party.

When she returned home later that evening, she pulled the divorce papers out from her kitchen drawer, spreading them on the table. Taking a pen in her left hand, she whispered 'I'm so sorry Gabe, but I never want to see her dance with anyone but me,' scrawling her signature on the papers.

Her eyes shot back to the present, to the paper she had pulled from the folder; letting it fall onto the table as she reminisced to the previous summer. Focusing now, she read the documents. She was finally free.