Author's Note: Long time, no update. Sad, huh? Well, I decided that I would write something up today! However, I must warn you, I feel like I actually write Maura better than I write Jane. That's weird though since I started with Jane. Haha. Maybe it's just me. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this (and if you do…or don't…review please!) as much as I enjoyed writing it!

XOXO,

Nanny

PS. It is really short! My mom says I have to do the dishes, and...well, actually, I had no idea what to do to continue the chapter anyway. I liked the last line. Dialogue driven. Sorry! Also, just finished. All mistakes are mine. I don't have a beta...

It was Thursday afternoon, and things were slow for Boston's homicide unit. That was good for the citizens of Boston, but bad for the detectives. That meant they had to spend the day doing paperwork, and if there was one thing cops hate other than criminals, it is paperwork. Jane Rizzoli was a cop, a detective, therefore she hated paperwork. It was that simple.

She was at her desk, filling out paperwork that probably should have been completed long before, having already filed the paperwork from her most recent case, one of the most difficult cases she had faced in a long time. As she was writing down the reports for each case, she thought long and hard. The day before, her mother had ambushed her at her apartment and sprung a ridiculous idea on her, an idea that invaded every thought since that moment. Her mother, the same mother that had continuously tried to get her married off to the next available guy, had accused her of being in love with a woman. And not just any woman either. No, her mother thought she was in love with Maura Isles. But Maura was her friend. Her best friend. She could not be in love with Maura. No way. Although, the more she thought about it, and she did think about it long after her mother had left and she continued to think about it, she had to admit that there might be something to her mother's absurd claim. Maybe she did love Maura, as a friend. Or, maybe, as something more. Jane just did not know. She was confused.

That was why she was at her desk now, not that she actually had to be when she was filling out paperwork. In fact, she usually wasn't at her desk when she had to complete paperwork. Writing reports was boring, and she preferred to write them down in the morgue, with Maura. But today, today she was avoiding Maura. Not in any obvious way. Jane knew how to be sneaky with her reluctance to see her friend, because she didn't want Maura to know that she was being avoided. After all, it might hurt the medical examiner's feelings, and Jane certainly didn't want to do that. That was why she did greet Maura when they saw each other at the elevators that morning. She just didn't go down to the morgue that day. Maura would understand. Jane did have paperwork to fill out after all.

Well, okay, the paperwork wasn't the only reason Jane was avoiding the morgue. She knew that she couldn't face the doctor with the memories of her thoughts of the previous night still fresh on her mind. Her mother had left her in her apartment, alone and puzzled. Her mind had decided that the best way to work through the problem was to imagine any and all possible outcomes. As a detective, that's what she did. She tried to figure out how things would turn out, how she would make her next move, and how a perp would react. So she did just that, and her thoughts had led to some pretty pleasant scenes of her and Maura, together. Happy. Consequently, she knew that she could not go see the medical examiner then, not when she had been imagining things like that all night long. Maura would know. Jane wasn't sure how Maura would know, but she knew that Maura would just totally know. The doctor had that ability, that way of just knowing what Jane was thinking, and it unnerved her yet pleased her all at the same time.

Lost in thought, pondering the motivations behind her reading and watching things to impress Maura, as her mother so delicately put it, and her sudden fantasies, Jane was startled when she felt someone tap her shoulder.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, breaking the silence that had overcome the bullpen as everyone so diligently tried to finish there reports, or quietly tried to get away with not doing so. She turned around to see Detective Frost, her partner, looking at her.

"Here, Jane," he said, offering her a cup of coffee, looking nonplussed that she had just yelled at him. "Looked like you could use some caffeine. We've been in here for hours, and you kind of zoned out."

Rizzoli accepted the proffered coffee. "Thanks, Frost. Yeah, I know. Is it bad that I want someone to kill today, just so we don't have to do all of this?" She motioned to the stacks of paperwork that took over half of her desk.

Frost laughed, "I've thought the same thing. But, you know, that would mean more paperwork later. Best do it now, right?"

"I suppose," Jane sighed. Then a thought occurred to her. "Hey, Barry, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, sitting down at his desk. "You can ask me anything, Jane. You know that."

Jane waved her hand dismissively, "It's nothing important. It's just, well, I was wondering how you tell if you like someone. You know, if you're in love with them. Do you try to impress them by learning about the things they like?"

Barry listened as Jane asked the question, and then gained a seriously contemplative look on his face. "Well, you've certainly liked someone before."

"Yeah, of course," Jane said. "But, you know, Ma thinks I'm acting like I'm in love and I told her that I'm not. Then she accused me of tryin' to impress Mau…this person and now I'm not so sure."

"Well, I've never really been in love," Frost admitted, although he smiled at Jane's slip, even if she did try to cover it up. "However, I do believe in true love. Now, don't make fun of me, and don't tell the other guys, but I think it exists. Or I like to think it does, and I think when you find it, you just know."

"Wow," Jane said, sarcastically, "that's deep, Frost. Really, touched my soul. But it's unhelpful."

Barry took no offense to Jane's sarcasm. He knew that was just her nature. Instead, he smiled. "You know, I don't even know why I tried. Why don't you go down to the morgue and ask Maura what she thinks? She's a chick, and you'd probably feel better about listening to chick advice from a girl."

Frost had her there, and he totally knew it. There was no way she couldn't go to the morgue now, not when he had practically dared her to go. And Jane understood. She was trapped.

"Fine, I will," she said, shooting him a dirty look as she gathered the rest of her unfinished paperwork and stood up. "She probably won't be as hokey as you though, pal. She'll probably go all scientific Google on me and say, 'Jane, love is just a term of endearment. It is not a state one could actually be in. The human brain produces endorphins that release the feeling of blah blah blah.'"

And with that, Jane walked right out of the bullpen, leaving Frost with a smirk on his face. This was going to be good. He knew, or at least had suspected, that something was up with his partner and the socially awkward medical examiner. That was one of the reasons he hadn't made a pass at her. Bro Code strictly stated that he could not hit on another bro's girl, and Maura was definitely Jane's. There was no questioning that.