A/N: Getting to some of the good stuff now we're reaching the mid point. Thanks for your views, reviews, follows and faves!

CHAPTER SEVEN

Jane reeked of confidence when she strode back into the interview room and sat facing Charlie Winter once again. For the first time she noticed the nurse fidgeting. She had succeeded in her attempts to unsettle the overly-confident brunette.

Notepad in hand, she adopted a casual posture, turning to the side and crossing her legs. "Tell me about Harry Mitchell," she said, her tone was relaxed, inviting conversation. "What was he like?"

"I don't really know. I didn't have much to do with him myself."

"The retirement home manager gave us the shift rotas. You were working the night Harry died."

"I was, but I was dealing with other residents."

"Do you remember Bernie Ross? What was he like?"

Again, she dismissed, "I – I don't recall any time I dealt with him." Jane just smiled patronizingly as the woman added, "There are a lot of other nurses on staff y'know."

"My colleague did some digging, spoke to a few relatives and it's interesting what they all had in common." Flipping the notepad over in her hands, she read from the bullet points she'd added to the information Korsak had compiled. "Harry Mitchell's daughter said he could be a very difficult man. Bernie Ross died at the retirement home two weeks ago. His widow called him abrupt and irritating."

Charlie was unresponsive again but the fidgety plucking of her fingernails was getting steadily worse.

"Ivy Hardwick, eighty-four, died three weeks ago, her son said she was very hard to please. Mary Coleman, ninety-one, died six weeks ago, abrasive. Lesley Munn, died eight weeks ago, could be… impossible." She sat up straight and watched Charlie blink repeatedly, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. "People rarely speak ill of the dead, particularly not family members, so it's striking when they do."

The silence stretched on as the detective waited to see if this mountain of evidence would be enough to bury the woman in front of her. She looked ready to break, almost, but still said nothing.

Jane released a sigh of frustration, and flung her chair out from underneath herself, preparing to leave. She stopped inside the door at the sound of a text message arriving and grabbed at her cellphone angrily.

She turned back with a grin upon reading what Korsak had sent.

Maura says victim's DNA on the syringe. Charge her.

oOo

Jane leaned back in the dining chair patting her stomach, "Wow, Constance. I'm speechless."

"I told you mother was a good cook," Maura smiled as she cleared empty plates from the table. "All those years spent living in Europe really paid off."

Constance was very gracious, "I'm glad you liked it."

Jane chuckled, turning to Constance who was sipping a glass of wine. "You're not kidding. That cannelloni was incredible. Are you sure your name is Isles and not like… Illiano or something."

Constance scoffed, flattered, "No. My maiden name, in fact, was Smith. Not very glamorous, I'm sure you'll agree."

Jane blushed. Regardless, there was still an air of something exotic and mysterious about Constance Isles. Like she'd seen the world and absorbed its secrets. It had been intimidating to meet her at first, those many years ago, though Jane had behaved to the contrary.

"You could still show my mother a thing or two," she said. Then regretting the comment almost immediately, she added, "Don't tell her I said that!"

Constance chuckled as she rose from her chair and rubbed Jane's shoulder, "Don't worry, Detective. Your secret's safe with us." Walking into the kitchen, she took Maura gently by the waist and encouraged her away from the sink. "Let me do that, darling. Go and spend some time with Jane."

Maura shook her head, "You did all the cooking, Mom. It'll just take me a minute."

"Really," Constance pleaded quietly. "I don't mind." She lowered her voice further and winked when Maura looked at her questioningly. "Go."

The blonde made her way back to the table, refilled their wine glasses and invited Jane out onto the back porch.

"Are you sure you don't need a hand?" the brunette called to Constance. Her own mother would pitch a fit if there was no help forthcoming with the mountain of dishes used during an average Rizzoli dinner.

"No, dear," replied Constance. "You're a guest," as if that excused her from everything. Jane could get used to this.

As the two younger women made their way to the back door, Maura called to her mother and gestured with her wine glass, "We'll just be out here for a little while."

"Okay, darling. I'm going to finish these and go to bed." Wiping her hands on a tea towel, she smiled, "It was nice to see you again, Jane."

The brunette nodded, "You too, Mrs. Isles." Following Maura out of the back door, she realized that as she'd said the words she'd really meant them.

Sitting down on the plush cushions of the porch swing, Jane looked around appreciatively and said, "This is really nice, Maura. Your house is great."

"This is my favorite spot. I thought you might enjoy it since its still warm out."

They sat in silence for a while, pressed against each other with the porch swing gently rocking, soothing. It was the least stressed Jane had felt in a long time.

Constance had planted some lavender, Maura realized, in the container boxes by the swing and the scent filled her nostrils, carried on the warm evening breeze. It was calming and she closed her eyes, letting her head fall back onto the cushion.

Jane turned her head when Maura murmured, a quiet little sigh indicating she was relaxed. She couldn't help staring, sweeping her eyes up and down Maura's body for another full minute until the younger woman spoke.

"You closed the Beechgrove case today then, I assume?"

"Yeah, not all of it. The assaults will be dealt with separately, though I'd love to personally see them all banged up for what they did to Eddie and the others." Jane sighed. It was touch and go there for a while that they'd ever get full closure for all of the families and she was relieved to have gotten such a good result. "The homicides are officially closed though. She was a tough nut to crack. Denied everything right to the end."

Maura lifted her head and met Jane's eyes, "They can't argue with evidence." She practically shone with pride, her faith in the irrefutable nature of science oozing from every pore.

"She tried," Jane laughed. "Right up until we had the victim's DNA on the syringe. The look on her face when she knew she was going down was priceless. She broke down soon after that, spilled everything. Turns out her massive ego couldn't cope with the few old folk that were mean to her."

Holding her glass with both hands, the blonde tipped her head to the side, thinking. "She wasn't very smart."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Maura shifted in her seat, twisting her hips to get a better look at her friend but pressing her leg more fully into the detective in the process. "There are numerous ways to kill someone without detection."

"It's scary that you know that, y'know."

Maura jerked a shoulder nonchalantly after a sip of wine, "It's available on the internet if you know where to look."

"Okay, don't go broadcasting it." The brunette poked Maura's thigh and grinned accusingly, "We'll have every homicidal maniac from here to Connecticut avoiding detection and my case closure rate will be down the toilet."

Maura rolled her eyes at Jane's exaggeration and drank from her glass, "I just meant… her attempt to frame someone else was ultimately her downfall. You found the evidence that put her away because she put it there herself." Jane was about to speak, but raised an amused eyebrow instead when Maura hiccuped and carried on speaking without a beat, "What's with bad guys using potassium chloride anyway? You see it a lot in movies. Don't they know a syringe full of air does the same thing and there's no trace to test in a lab?!"

When the doctor hiccuped again Jane's eyebrows lifted to her hairline and a grin exploded on her face. Pointing an index finger at her friend, she laughed and teased, "How much of that have you had? Were you drinking before I got here?"

Maura was shaking her head wildly, her eyebrows were scrunched and her face was falsely serious, denying everything.

"You did! Oh my god." Jane made a grab for the blonde's glass, "Gimme that! No more wine for you."

Maura laughed hysterically and squirmed away, swatting at Jane's grabby hand, holding her glass out at arm's reach, "Nngh. No! Stop it."

Regarding her skeptically with a squint, Jane gave up and sat back and Maura held a palm to her chest while her breathing returned to its normal rate. Had Maura imbibed a little liquid courage just as Jane wished she had herself before this evening started? What could she have to be nervous about?

They were still both smiling like idiots when Maura broached a subject Jane had been dreading.

"So, how's everything with Casey?"

Several really deep breaths later, Jane still hadn't been able to put a positive spin on anything that was running through her mind and so she just glued her eyes to the wine glass held in her lap and started talking.

"He got shot…"

Maura gasped, covering her mouth with a hand, but didn't interrupt.

"… in the hip. It wasn't life threatening but he was out of action for a long time. The doctors said he might have problems with his leg for the rest of his life. The army offered to pass him out, y'know, medical retirement… but he wouldn't accept it." She took a big gulp of her wine and a big breath and continued, "He found a surgeon who said he could fix it but that there'd be months of physio afterward. He went ahead and did it without talking to me, and he's been to every session alone since. Didn't want me there." She laughed once, "Apart from that we're fine!"

Tentatively, softly, Maura inquired, "Why would he do that?"

"Ohhh," Jane drawled. "Because… he loves the army more than me. He always did. He wants to go back so badly. Whatever we had in the beginning fizzled out pretty quickly after the first time he disappeared for deployment at five minutes notice."

"So, his ultimatum then -"

"Marry me or I'll re-enlist?" She scoffed, "Yeah, that lasted about three months. I came home one day to find his stuff gone and a note on the coffee table. They'd offered him a promotion and he'd been on the first plane out."

Maura was stunned at the blatant disrespect, "Wow." How could anyone put Jane anywhere but first?

There was an almost guilty look on the brunette's face now, "What's weird is… I was kinda glad he was gone. I mean, I missed him, but… I felt… relieved. I got to do my own laundry and throw away my own expired groceries."

The two of them laughed together. Maura nodded, remembering fondly her friend's proclivity towards takeout and fast food, a habit that frequently led to a refrigerator full of expired groceries or greening leftovers.

"We just coast along now I guess. We don't fight that much and when we do it's always the same stupid shit that I hear from my ma. 'Why can't you do something less dangerous, Jane? Why can't you wear dresses more often, Jane?' Honestly, it's like having a nagging roommate who I don't wanna sleep with." Jane was embarrassed; she'd never spoken to anyone about what did or didn't go on in their bedroom. Sheepishly, she hung her head before draining the last of her wine. "I'm not sure what I'm even doing anymore."

A whispered, pained, "I'm so sorry, Jane," from Maura forced Jane's formidable iron will to fight a sudden gathering of tears and lump in her throat that the blonde clearly saw her swallow down.

"Oh, pshhh," she waved, shaking her head and slapping on the mask of indifference she regularly wore at home. "Nobody's fault but mine."

The weary sadness Jane felt, weighing down every muscle and vibrating through her bones, was second only to the look of sheer sorrow etched all over Maura's face.

Jane stroked a hand over Maura's forearm, "You don't have to tell me… what happened with Ian, if you don't want to." She didn't hesitate when Maura's arm moved to join their hands, twining their fingers together and supplying a reassuring squeeze.

Maura's eyes had filled with tears and Jane thought perhaps this thing, whatever it was that had happened, might be too big for Maura to share.

But she swiped at her cheek, removing the wetness that had escaped unbidden, and smiled faintly, "I missed you, Jane." Another squeeze of her hand seemed to say the feeling was mutual. "That's not – I do want to tell you, it's just… gonna be hard."

Jane sighed. "I know we kinda grew apart after I got married, Maura, but… I'm right here."

Maura put down her empty wine glass and covered where Jane's hand still held hers. Holding on for dear life, she whispered, "Okay." She breathed in deeply and held it for a second, calming herself. She was ready to open up. "Okay."