"I said that seemed very hard. Our request was surely a reasonable one. And I was just going to ask them to consider one or two things from our point of view, when another of the councilors—a very old rabbit—said, 'You seem to think you're here to argue with us and drive a bargain. But we're the ones to say what you're going to do.'"

Jane stands in the hallway just outside her room, listening to the lively and excited voice of her wife as she reads to their children. She'd promised to be home in time for the story and she's just made it, using the siren on the way home for good measure. But she lingers out of sight, listening, imagining her children, all crowded onto the extra-large bed, Noah half asleep because Watership Down has not really grabbed his attention. Levi, pretending not to be engrossed, lying lengthwise at the foot of them bed.

Jane smiles, and rounds the corner, looking in, though she doesn't cross the threshold. Her interview of Jesse McNichol is still too fresh in her mind, and she smells like pot and bad coffee and she does not want to taint the scene in front of her with police work.

Maura glances up at the movement, and flashes as smile at her detective. Four sets of eyes that were trained on the doctor's face flick over to Jane as well. She waves and they smile, but no one says anything. No one wants to break the moment. Maura looks back down at the page.

"'Animals don't behave like men,' he said. 'If they have to fight, they fight; and if they have to kill, they kill. But they don't sit down and set their wits to work to devise ways of spoiling other creatures' lives, and hurting them. They have dignity and animality."

Jane crosses to the master bath as quietly as she can, listening. She has always been awed at her wife's ability to choose a book that both transports their children to a different world, and yet speaks directly to their challenges. She turns on the shower and climbs out of her work clothes, listening to the muffled voices of her family. She would smile if the case wasn't weighing so heavily on her shoulders. She hates interrogations at night, that eat into her family time, that leave her wound up and at a dead end, and tonight is no exception. The teenager that she and Frost questioned a couple hours ago had founded all of her worst fears about teenage boys, especially as they relate to teenage girls. Her teenage girls.

She twists the shower nob so that the shower is as hot as it will go and steps under, gritting her teeth. She tries to ground herself, focus on the fact that she is here and she is home and home is the place she wants to be the most, but every time she blinks, the thin, sallow face of Jesse McNichol floats up behind her eyes.

Jesse is wearing a necklace with a little silver pendant that reads "you." Jane catches Frost's eyes and tilts her head at it as she shuts the door of the interrogation room.

"Nice necklace, Jesse," she says dropping the case file onto the table.

Jesse leers at her through red rimmed eyes, and she can feel him taking in everything from her tight ponytail, to her hands on her hips, to the rounded toe of her boots. "Thanks," he says, inspection over, "It was a present from my girlfriend," he pauses, "you must know how that is."

Frost takes a step forward, but Jane shakes her head, grinning. "It's okay, Frost, I'm pretty sure we're both getting more action than this little shit."

Frost manages to cover up his shock. Jesse McNichol does not. He sputters, caught off guard. "Y-you can't talk to me like that! I-I'm like...the law like..." He casts about, and Jane throws an amused look at Forst.

"I'm like. protected by the law and lawyers and shit."

"You hear that, Jay?" Frost laughs meanly, "He's protected by shit."

Jesse looks furious. Jane sits down across from the boy, wondering momentarily what would have happened to her sons if they hadn't taken them in, or, worse, if they had been raised by their kidnapper. "Not even shit can protect you now, Jesse," she says grimly, and the teenager squares his shoulders, attempting bravado.

"What do you know, bitch?"

"I know what the twin of your pretty little necklace says. We picked it up off your girlfriend. We found her in the park, where you left her."

Jesse spits onto the concrete floor of the room. "So? Fucking good for you. It's not a crime to leave a girl somewhere."

"You better lose that attitude," Frost says, moving over from the corner, "You are putting yourself deeper into a world of hurt."

"I didn't do anything!"

Jane raises an eyebrow, glancing at Frost. "Well, goodie! I guess we can let him go, then! I wish all my murder suspects were as honest as you!"

And Jesse's face goes pale. Jane had not been expecting that. "Wait what? Murder? Amaya is dead?"

"No," Frost sits leans down so that his mouth is close to Jesse's ear, "You're little girlfriend is. Melina."

Jesse frowns, looking back and forth between Jane and Frost, and for a moment, he looks truly perplexed. But then he seems to understand something, and the smirk reappears.

"I get a lawyer, don't I? I ain't got nothing more to say."

Jane exits the bathroom twenty minutes later to find Maura alone in bed, still on top of the covers, looking over a medical report.

"I did not smell that bad," she says, and Maura chuckles, holding out her arms. Jane falls into them gratefully, sighing as Maura traces kisses around the outside of her ear.

"They are loving that book," Maura says quietly. "You should think about joining us sometime, Jane."

"Eh, rabbits…" Jane trails off at her wife's expression. "I'm sorry, Maur. I made it home on time…I just couldn't plop down into bed smelling like…teenage boy and…"

But Maura places a gentle kiss on her lips and she loses her train of thought and her remaining grumpiness.

"Love you," she offers, when the doctor pulls away.

"I know you do. I love you too. Now, go say goodnight to your children and come to bed."

Jane laughs and pushes off the bed, "Yes ma'am," she says, but Maura does not appear to hear her. She has flipped the report back open and is reading with a little frown on her face. Jane turns away, and she is almost to the door when she hears Maura mutter.

"Pike! The older he gets the less sense he makes…I have got to let that man go."

Jane grins.

.

Her boys are easy, all "good night, mama's," and "I love you's" Noah snuggles under his covers and lets her kiss his freckly forehead.

"You'll get the bad guys, Ma. I know it," he says sweetly, and for a moment she longs for the times when he was small enough to hold, and she would dance him to sleep in the kitchen, in the hours of the morning when it was still dark.

"Love you buddy."

"Can T.J. come for dinner tomorrow?"

"By himself?"

"Lydia and Tommy have an appointment."

Jane sighs, "Yes, that's fine."

"Love you, Ma."

"Double it. Go to sleep."

Sofia is alone in the twin's room when Jane knocks on the door. Jane glances around, just to make sure. "Where is your sister?"

Sofia doesn't look up. "Guest room."

Jane raises her eyebrows. "Is this a permanent change?"

Sofia shrugs.

The detective stands in the door way for a moment, and the silence stretches out between them, palpable and physically uncomfortable. For a moment, Jane considers saying good night, and leaving well enough alone, but she finds she cannot leave.

She crosses the threshold.

"I punched a boy in the face once, when I was about your age." Jane speaks into the prickly silence, and Sofia jumps, but doesn't look around at her.

"just one boy?" Her tone is more mocking than playful, but Jane doesn't take the bait. She knows her brothers can't resist telling tales about her.

"Okay, more than one…" she pauses and then decides on the whole truth, "More than five," she says but when Sofia looks around at her, she doesn't grin. "But there was only one that mattered."

"Which one?" the teenager looks back down at her hands. "Was it for mom?"

Jane frowns, "for her? You mean, to protect her?" the detective pauses, trying to think of the best way to answer. "Yes," she says finally, "I suppose at the time, I thought I was protecting your mother. And avenging your uncle Frankie."

Sofia doesn't answer or ask any more questions, she just keeps looking down, but Jane takes it as a good sign that she's not yelling or demanding that her mother leave her alone. She swallows.

"You know what, Sofia?" two deep dark eyes look up at her curiously. "That's not true, what I just said. It wasn't about either of those things."

Surprise. "It wasn't?"

Jane shakes her head, "No. I was frightened."

For a moment, Sofia looks stunned, then she laughs, as raspy as her mother. "Come on, Ma, you were not scared. Uncle Frankie says you are never scared of anything, ever." She looks up at her mother, smile fading when she sees the somber look on the detective's face. "You're serious?"

Jane's grin is tremulous. "Yes."

"What were you scared of?"

"Joe Grant called me a dyke," Sofia's face goes as steely as Jane has ever seen it, "in front of an entire park full of our friends. In front of your mother. I hadn't told anyone...that that's what I was...not yet."

"You're not a dyke, Mama," Sofia interrupts, her voice around the derogatory term is hard, like it's sharp on her tongue. "You just love your doctor."

Jane is too overcome for a moment to say anything. It's what they used to say to the kids when they were too young to understand sexuality. Mommy just loves her detective, Mama just loves her doctor. There's nothing wrong with love, babies.

"Right," Jane says, a little thickly, and Sofia has the decency to look away while her mother composes herself. "Right, well, I was scared…in that moment, because…" She pauses again gathering herself. "Because I thought Joey's declaration would lose me the best friend I'd ever had."

Sofia looks around with wide eyes. "You mean Mommy?"

The detective nods, "I didn't know how she felt about me, but I knew I loved spending time with her, hanging out with her, just being around her, and…I thought if she knew about me, she wouldn't be my friend anymore. That it would…."

"Change everything," Sofia fills in quietly, and Jane knows by the look on her child's face that the story she's picked is the right one.

"Yeah," she replies, just as quietly, "and I didn't want anything to change between us." She leans over and takes Sofia's hand in her own, "But honey, whether we like it or not, things change. And sometimes…they change for the better, Sof, you-"

But whatever moment they might have almost had seems to be over. Sofia pulls away from her mother and stands angrily.

"You don't know what you're talking about," she says and her voice betrays tears, even though her eyes are dry.

Jane stands too. "I know more than you might think, if you would just give me a chance to-"

"Just because Nona wasn't a good mother until you got old doesn't mean I need you in my business."

"Alright, enough," Jane growls, and Sofia barely breathes, waiting. She looks torn between agony and fury. Jane knows that tearing better than anyone, but she will not raise a child who is ungrateful. "You do not get to waltz around this house…wounding people, Sofia!"

They square off, and if Sofia had seven more inches and a little more bulk, they could be twins. Jane glares at her daughter, trying to keep her cool. She takes a deep breath.

"Were you trying to protect your sister?"

"Yes." Clipped.

"From what?" Jane can play that game, if she has to.

"I can't tell you."

"Was she in danger?"

"I…can't tell you."

"You have to tell me something."

Sofia's glare is near perfection. "I don't have to tell you anything."

Jane switches tact immediately. She has found that living with teenagers is like living in an interrogation room filled with suspects. She adapts.

"Fine," she says now, shrugging her shoulders, "I'm a detective. I figure things out for a living, so let me tell you what all the evidence adds up to…shall I?"

"Ma," a warning Jane has given her own mother too many times to count. She ignores it.

"We get a call from the school saying you've punched a boy in the eye. You refuse to tell us why, even to save yourself from suspension. This doesn't add up because you love school." Jane moves to her daughter's desk, looking at a photograph of the twins at the beach in Cape Cod, seven years old and beaming. Jane frowns. "Your partner in crime, and twin, and best friend, is nowhere to be seen, except to come to Mom in private and asked that you not be punished," Jane glances at Sofia when she says this, and is gratified to see shock and a little guilt creep over her features. "You then proceed to be horrible to everyone, from your youngest brother, to both of your parents, when they are only trying to support you. You try to remove an anklet that you and your sister have had on for the majority of your lives."

"Ma," Sofia growls, but Jane holds up her hand, signaling that she is almost through.

"There are two options that I see here," She says ticking them off on her fingers. "One, this boy has threatened your sister in some way, and you went to her defense. This explains your atrocious behavior in the living room,"

Sofia doesn't answer, her jaw is set. She is unmovable.

"Two," Jane says, and her tone does not betray her worry or her doubt, "You are in love with this boy," Sofia looks up angrily, but seems unable to form a coherent sentence, "and he prefers your sister. This also explains your outburst, if Isabelle is oblivious to this boy's affect-"

"I DO NOT LOVE JACOB. HE'S SCUM. HE'S A COMPLETE ASS. HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT IZ AT ALL."

Jane raises her eyebrows, but doesn't say anything. She just waits. Sofia takes a shuddering breath.

"He found out about her, and he told his stupid basketball buddies and they were laughing with her in the hall. Making jokes and stuff, and she didn't get any of them. She thought it was funny too. She thought she was in on it…not…"

"The butt of it," Jane finishes, nodding. She can picture Maura perfectly in the bullpen, mouth curled into a curious little smile, while some asshole cop from narcotics asks her if she's a top or a bottom. "I get it, Fi," she says quietly. "You were protecting her." Jane knows her daughter well enough not to ask from what. Not yet.

"I don't want things to change. I don't want her to change," Sofia sits down heavily at her desk. "I want her to stay the same. I don't want her to understand what those kids were saying."

Jane comes to sit down next to her, and this time, when she takes her daughter's hand, Sofia squeezes back. "It's gonna be hard enough for her, Mama. Can't I just give her…another year? Half of one?"

Jane kisses the hand that she's taken, just a miniature version of her own. And she has always loved this child with a deep and aching ferocity. But now she respects her too.

"What did Jacob find out?" She asks, though she already knows the answer, deep down.

Sofia sighs, like resignation. Like relief.

"He saw Isabelle kissing Mckenzie Brown," she says. "They're girlfriends."

.

Jane waits for half a beat before nodding. "I have to tell Mom."

"I know," a pause, "Do you have to tell Isabelle we know?"

"She doesn't know?"

Sofia shakes her head sadly. "She thinks it's still a secret. She's…scared, I think." Sofia rolls her shoulders, and Jane has to work hard not to mimic the action. She considers.

"Alright, I don't have to talk to Isabelle, but-"

"and you'll keep Mom away?"

Jane laughs, "Yes, and I will keep your mother away, but you have to promise me something Sofia,"

The teen looks apprehensive, "What?"

"You have to tell your sister we love her. That we love her and support her no matter what, got it?"

"But she doesn't know I know!"

And Jane smiles and kisses the side of Sofia's head, standing and heading back to the bedroom.

"Then you better be smooth when you work it into conversation," she says over her shoulder. And with that, Jane heads out into the hall and back down to her bedroom.

…

Maura's face drops into one of almost comical surprise. For a moment, they just stand on opposite sides of the bedroom, looking at each other.

"She was…kissing…"

"And that little shit Jacob was telling everyone, and they were all laughing at her and calling her names behind her back," Jane says furiously. Maura doesn't respond to this. She sits down on the bed her face cloudy and troubled. Jane comes to squat in front of her, confused.

"Did you hear me, honey? Fia's not a psycho, and Isabelle doesn't feel threatened at school. Everything's okay."

Maura's eyes focus on Jane's, angry an wet. "Everything's okay? They're making fun of her, Jane!"

"She didn'tknow that's what they were doing, Maur. And Sofia took care-"

"That's what makes it better? She didn't know? What happens when she finds out?" Maura's eyes are wide and panicked, and Jane acts without conscious thought, standing and pulling Maura up and into her arms. It does not happen often that they are so apart in their reactions, and it happens even less often that Maura is the more emotional one, but Jane still knows her part and she murmurs comfortingly into the dark blonde hair, running her fingers through the strands, the way she has so many times before.

"Oh, Oh Jane, I'm sorry," muffled against her shoulder, and Jane pulls back to look into her favorite set of deep green eyes.

"What for, honey?"

"I…because...I...I wish it were Sofia," the doctor says this so lowly that Jane almost doesn't catch it, and even when she has worked out what her wife has said, it takes her a moment to find meaning.

"You…what…oh. OH..." she pauses, still a little confused.

"She's tough like you," Maura says, and she's getting choked up again. "She's tough and brave, and she'll punch those boys that... and Isabelle is…is…"

"Tough, and brave, like you," Jane says quietly, "And when she realizes that some people may be making fun of her, she'll use her superior brain power to put those creeps in their places. Like you did with Deacon, remember?"

Maura almost smiles, "I have to talk to her." She moves to step around Jane.

"You…can't," Jane says, cutting her off.

"What?" Maura tries again, and Jane cuts her off again, so that it's like they are dancing.

Jane bites her lip, "You can't, talk to Isabelle, not yet."

Maura looks perplexed and a little annoyed. "She's kissing another girl, Jane. She's got a girlfriend! I will most certainly-" but Jane blocks her movement again, and Maura huffs impatiently.

Jane takes the doctor firmly by the shoulders. "She doesn't know that we know, honey, we have to give her time to figure-"

"How can she not know that we know?" Maura stops trying to get around Jane, and the detective lets her go. Quickly, before she can decide to make another break for the hall, Jane recounts her conversation with Sofia, and Maura's face softens from concern into affection at the story. As Jane finishes up, she turns back to the bed, sitting down.

"And I told her she has to find some way to convey to her sister that we love her, that there's nothing she could bring to us that would make us turn her away."

After a moment, Maura nods, "do you think she'll come? Soon?"

Jane sighs, sitting down next to her, "I don't know, Maur. We don't know a lot of things."

"Like how long it's been going on," Maura says.

Jane nods, "If this other girl is a good kid."

"If Bella has put any type of label on herself yet." Maura turns to look at Jane, and she runs the pendant around her neck back and forth on its chain. "I don't like not knowing things," she says quietly, and Jane nods, her eyes following the little silver circle as Maura pulls it back and forth, up to her lips, back down to her chest. The detective frowns, something niggling at the back of her mind.

"…and when one twin is gay, there's a fifty two percent chance that…"
Maura is still talking, but Jane is looking at her necklace. There's something about the motion that makes her think of the case.

"Jane…are you listening to me?"

She makes a noncommittal sound, still thinking hard, and Maura sighs, like she knows this is not the truth. "Poor Sofia," she says absently, She must feel so conflicted…she wants to protect her sister, but she wants to…protect her sister. No wonder she wanted to take the anklet off…It must feel like a betrayal…" Maura presses the little pendant on her necklace against her throat, before letting it go, and Jane's eyes widen.

It clicks.

She looks up at her wife, mouth opening and closing wordlessly.

"Jane?"

"Betrayal," she says, and Maura looks back at her, blank.

"Yes?"

"Betrayal!" She jumps up, excited, and Maura stays on the bed, looking up at her detective curiously.

"Yes…we've covered-"

"The necklace! Maura! Oh My God!" She runs her hands through her hair, trying to pull all the pieces together through the euphoria of sudden realization. "Oh, my God," she repeats, and Maura makes an exasperated noise, waiting for Jane to regain her vocabulary.

"Maura!" Jane says again.

"Yes, darling." Maura says, half amused now. "Tell me."

Jane grins and grimaces at the same time.

"I know who killed Melina Ross."

Best Friends Forever Pt. II

Thank you so so much for your kind words and thoughts and vibes here and on tumblr as I go through this tough time. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of all of you and wish I could produce faster for you. But I won't abandon a story, so...don't lose heart.