"So, I say we play if fairly straight," Jane says, leaning back in her seat. Across from her, Frost nods. "I want one of us to go hard at the kid. She knows more than she's saying. She knows who she's been living with the past week. Maybe she's starting to see things differently."

Frost nods again, jotting something down on his notepad.

Jane lets the comfortable silence sit between them for a moment longer than it takes her to realize why she's not fully relaxed.

"Where's Brisby?" she asks, "Why is he not sitting as close to us as possible, nose breathing while we discuss the case?"

Frost shoots her a sideways glare. "I...sent him with Frankie to pick up Ms. Kohut and her daughter...or niece." He holds up his hands as Jane starts to stutter. "He's really into this case, Jane! And he needs someone to take him under his wing."

"And that has to be us?"

"You know what the other guys call him?" Frost asks, standing and coming around the side of her desk. "Lispy Brisby," he says, lowering his voice.

Jane snorts. "That's not even clever."

"You've noticed," Frost says, voice still half whispering, "that weird whistle he gets when he gets excited?"

Jane shakes her head. "I still don't see what this has to do with us being his babysitter," she grumbles.

Frost gives her a pointed look. "Frost, Frost, lunch all lost, how much will some new shoes cost?" he whispers.

"Aw...Frost-"

"Or maybe you'd like to add something? Roly-Poly Riz-"

"Don't. Say it."

"Or we could just ask your wife...you know, the Queen of the-"

"I get it," Jane hisses. "Now shut up before someone hears you and reminds us all what it was like to be rookies."

"So Brisby can help?"
Jane sighs deeply. "Brisby can help."

"And you'll make an effort to be nicer to him?"
Jane makes an indistinct motion with her hands. "I will...not not try," she concedes.

Frost smiles at her. "I'm going to go set up Interrogation 3 and 4. Which one do you want? The kid or the fake mom?"

Jane opens her mouth to respond, but at that moment, Frankie and Brisby appear around the corner, both gesturing widely, ushering Liliya and her mother forward.

The woman pretending to be her mother, Jane reminds herself. Brisby catches sight of Frost and Jane watching him and practically sprints over to their desks.

"They didn't want to come in," he says breathlessly. "Frankie did some really fancy talking to get them in the car. Verbal trappage."

Jane glances up at Frankie, but he is deliberately not looking at her, showing the two Kohuts towards the interrogation rooms.
"Brisby," Jane says, trying not to sound condescending. "It's bad practice to leave your person of interest alone. Even in a precinct full of officers."

Brisby pales. "Oh, God!" he says, stricken. "You're so totally right. That's completely my bad. I've got it. I'll go and...I've got it."

He starts away, but Jane has barely heard him. She is watching the way Lilliya and her supposed mother are interacting. They aren't looking at each other. And when Frankie indicates that they will be split up, neither seems very concerned. In just the three days since she's seen them, Lilliya looks calmer, more in control. Shura, Sofiya, whoever she is, looks smugly confident as she steps around Frankie and heads into Interrogation Room 4.

"Hold on, Brisby," Jane calls him back, pretending not to see the trash can he kicks over in his haste to return.

"Yeah, Detective?"

"Let's put both the Kohuts into IR 3, okay?"

Frost comes to stand next to her too. "You want them both together?"

"Look at them," Jane says, "they've got a story to tell and they're going to stick to it."

"Unless," Frost nods, picking up.

Brisby looks between them like an overeager puppy who's been told he will get a treat. "Unless what?" he asks when he cannot wait any longer.

"Unless we catch them off guard together," Frost fills in. "You want to observe, Bris?"

This seems to render the young man completely mute. He gapes at them like a human sized guppy.

Jane rolls her eyes and heads towards the back of the precinct, where the Kohuts are waiting.

"Let's go see how much Lilliya knows about her mother's past."

…

…

"Talk to me about the fire."

The older woman leans back in her seat. She is not smiling, but she doesn't look uncomfortable. "We've already been through this, Detective, my son and I were away on vacation when the fire happened."

Jane leans back in her seat too. She glances at Frost. "I'm sorry," she says, "I should have been more specific. I'm speaking about the fire that killed your parents."

For one moment, the other woman's face is nothing but blank shock. Next to her, Liliya's attention sharpens palpably.

"That was a long time ago," The woman who is not Shura says. "And I was not there when my parents were killed in that fire."

"Convenient," Frost says, and now the woman does smile.

"Let me get this straight. You are trying to tie my parents murder with the murder of two random people in my house almost three decades later?" Her grin grows. "You are grasping at straws."

"There are more similarities than you might think," Frost says. "And, you know the old saying, once an arsonist, always an arsonist."

Jane leans forward so she can make eye contact with Liliya. "You know your mother has a twin?" she asks, and when Liliya doesn't looks surprised by this information, she nods. "Sure. It's common knowledge. But did you know that she was a sociopath?"

Shura -Sofiya - turns her eyes on Jane, narrowed.

"Actually...she's a Psychopath. Technically speaking."

"She burnt her family's home to the ground, with her parents inside. Relatives had to send your mother and Martyn away. They sent them all the way to America to get them away from their psychopath sister."

"She was no psychopath!" the older woman bursts out. "Don't fill the child's head with such lies about her, about her aunt."

Neither Jane nor Frost miss the stumble. Frost leans forward.

"But aren't you mad at her?" He asks. "She took your parents from you. She took them from your infant brother. He'll never remember them at all."

"Hey," Jane cuts in. "When was the last time you spoke to your brother, by the way?"

The woman's eyes flicker. Jane can't place the emotion. Pain? Fury?

"We don't talk," she says curtly.

"Convenient," Frost says again. He glances at Liliya. "For someone who stands up for her murderer sister, it seems odd not to speak to your innocent baby brother."

"Innocent," Shura spits.

"Mom," Liliya speaks for the first time, and Jane can definitely place her tone. She is frightened.

She is determined.

"Liliya wouldn't bail on her brother, do you think Frost?"

"She certainly doesn't have as much contempt for the innocent as her aunt," Frost puts his hand up. "I'm sorry," he says. "Aunt."

Shura - Sofiya, Jane is sure of it - crosses her arms. "Let us cut to the chase," she says. "Tell me why I am really here. Why my daughter is really here."

"We know you or your sister flew to see Liliya days before the fire. We know the story about the trip to Cape Cod is imaginary. We know that the corpses found in your house match descriptions of your sister

"We think you set the fire. We think you killed your brother and your sister."

"Why would I do that?"

Jane shrugs. "Revenge. Jealousy."

"Psychopathy, Frost puts in.

The woman laughs. "Ah. I see. I see it now. If I am Shura, then I have defended myself from a jealous sister who know I set the fire. If I am Sofiya, I am the vengeful sister." She laughs again. "This is too good."

"Either way," Jane says, speaking directly to Liliya. "A murderer."

Liliya doesn't answer. Her jaw is clenched so hard it looks painful.

"You do all this thinking," the woman says, and when she leans forward to speak again, she bares her teeth. "Why don't you skip to the proving?"

She lets the silence sit for a beat longer than is necessary. "No? Well then," She looks at Frost. "Arrest me."

Frost makes no move. The Kohut twin positively beams. "Circumstantial evidence is...how do you say the phrase...A bitch." She stands. "Liliya. Let's go."

They stand as one, and head around the metal table towards the door. The elder Kohut goes first, And when Liliya heads after her, Jane grabs her arm, holding her back.

"Think of your brother," she says under her breath. "I know you know more than you're saying."

Liliya looks at her, eyes fierce. They make her think of her daughter. A twin.

"You don't have to worry about us," Liliya says forcefully. "Just leave us alone." And she yanks her arm out of Jane's hand and hurries after her mother.

Her aunt.

A murderer.

There is a slight whistling sound directly behind her and Jane turns to see Brisby watching them go. He looks like a boy who has just lost his favorite balloon.

"C-can I help, Detective Rizzoli?" He asks.

Jane sighs. "You want to help, Bris? Find evidence that puts that woman away. Find a way to get that boy out of there."

…..

…...

"Do you ever think about retirement?" Jane accepts the mug of coffee her wife offers, and scoots over to make room on the couch.

Maura doesn't answer for a moment, just takes a sip of her own coffee, the furrow between her brows becoming a little more defined.

"Well, logistically," Maura begins, "of course I do."

Jane nods, then shakes her head. "No, I mean...do you ever think about early retirement. About stopping early, and just…" but she trails off here because she hasn't even gotten that far in her head.

Maura laughs softly. "What would you do all day if not chase criminals and restore justice?"

"I could find something else to do," Jane reasons, "I could...go into private security."

This makes Maura laugh louder. "You could no more go into private security than I could become a neurologist."

Jane raises her eyebrows.

"They are both in the same family. I am a doctor, you are...in security, but we both know where our hearts are, why we do what we do."

Jane nods. "I just...dinner with all of them. I feel like I'm missing everything."

Maura leans back into the couch. "Well, they're teenagers, so much of what your feeling is because they're just naturally more clandestine now."

Jane takes a long sip of her coffee. "But Sof has a boyfriend now?" She holds her hand up and Maura's face, forestalling her protest. "Have you ever heard her talk about anyone like that? All soppy? And Levi's got a whole new crop of friends whose names I don't even know." She sets the coffee cup on the side table and then tugs Maura's mug out of her hands to set it aside too. She holds out her arms and Maura grins, sliding forward to hug her.
"You'll get that Kohut woman," she says, pressing a kiss to the hollow of Jane's throat. Somehow she always knows what the conversation is really about. " You're a fantastic mother, and if our children notice your absence, it is only to consider how good you are at being a detective. You'll figure something out. You and Frost are the best."

Jane sighs. "God, I wish you could help me on this one."

"I'll go over her medical files again, if you like. There's not much there...but maybe there's something I missed."

Jane kisses the crown of Maura's head. "So sexy, so intuitive, so smart."

"You're buttering me up for something."

"Noah wants to take TJ to Dave & Busters this weekend," Jane says. "I was hoping…"

Maura sighs, pulling away. "I will," she says slowly, "But you could also ask Frankie. I know he'd be more than willing to run the boys between-"

"No," Jane growls. This is the longest she and Frankie have gone without talking, ever, and she's including the time when she accused his murdered best friend of still being an drug addict. But every time she thinks about him keeping her father's presence from her, some new bubble of hurt or fury will detonate in her ribcage.

"He can do whatever he wants with his kid, Jane," Frankie had said. Nearly the only words he'd been able to get in edgewise. "I told him to leave me the fuck out of it, and not to breathe a word of it to you. I told him that if his kid got hurt...I told him that you would murder him at the most. At the least he'd never see TJ again."

And Jane had sighed and told him she had to go, ignoring the way he'd said her name. Ignoring the way he'd said. "I know what he did, Jane. I never wanted you to have to hear his name, and your kids' names in the same sentence.

Now, she repeats the same thing to Maura that she'd said to him.

"I'm not ready. I need...I need more time."

And Maura nods, leaning forward to kiss her again. "Okay. You get extra time on that," she says, and then she lowers her voice. "What you have to do right now, however, is talk to your youngest son. Can you do that?"

Jane looks at her confused, and Maura tilts her head to the doorway of the living room. Jane turns in time to see the back of a little blonde head.

She smiles. "Yeah. I can do that."

…

"Ma?" Noah stands in the doorway to the living room, waiting as though he needs permission to approach her.

"Hey!" She says, putting aside the case file she's been pretending to read since Maura left ten minutes ago. "What's up?"

"Why couldn't TJ stay with us forever?"

Jane pats the spot next to her, gesturing that he should come and sit with her. "Come here, love." Both she and Maura had known this conversation was coming since they'd sent TJ home with his mother almost four days ago. She'd seen his face as he'd watched his cousin head down their front steps, but she hadn't pressed him to talk.

Well, Maura had made her promise not to press him to talk. She'd practiced, though, late at night, with her wife whispering alternative sentences into the darkness of their room. It was easier, when she couldn't see, to pretend.

Now Noah climbs up beside her, stretching his legs. He's started to really grow in the last few months, finally starting to shed his baby fat. Maura had lamented it at night, the last of her babies, succumbing to adolescence.

"You know we couldn't keep him here forever," she says. "But he'll visit just as much as he did before." She makes sure he's looking at her. "I promise."

It's a promise she knows she can keep. It's the only thing she and Tommy had been able to agree on: that the cousins should not be kept apart simply because their parents could not get along.

"Lydia's almost got her new place set up," Tommy had said on the phone. "When she's ready, she'll text you, and you can drop him off there."

"Tommy, you and Lydia have been together for almost 8 years. Pop's going to be what ends things? A fight over Pop?" Jane hadn't meant to sound so incredulous, but she couldn't help it. Next to her, Maura had squeezed her arm.

"This is about your nephew," she'd mouthed.

Jane reaches out and squeezes her son's knee. "Mommy and I know how much like hanging out with TJ. That's not going to change."

Noah frowns down at the carpet. "I'm mad at Uncle Tommy," he says. He leans against her.

Jane tries to remember how she and Maura had talked about handling this. "Do you want to tell me why?" she asks.

"He took us to see Grampa. Grampa is scary."

Jane can hear Maura in her head. Relax. He's safe. He's right there. "Did he scare you?" she asks, impressed at the way her voice doesn't shake.

Noah thinks this over, biting his lip. "No," he says finally. "I don't think so."

Jane lets out her breath, giving herself a moment to feel nothing but the sweet kiss of relief. Then she says the thing that she's been practicing for almost a week. "Noah, if you had fun with your grandfather, that is okay."

He looks at her. "It is?"

"Yes," she says, surprised she might mean it. "I didn't make that rule because I was worried you might have fun there. I made it for the same reason I made the rule about boogie boarding down the stairs."

Noah smiles. "It's fun, until it hurts," he says.

Jane smiles too, briefly. "Exactly. I have known your Grampa longer than anyone in this family but Nona. He can be really, really fun. But he can also hurt people, and be very dangerous. And if anything ever happened to you, honey, I would never be able to forgive myself."

Noah nods, like he understands. Jane kisses his blonde head.

"I love you," she says.

"Even though I gave him my shoes?"

Jane smiles. "That makes me love you more, Noah. That was a really, really selfless act. But it was wrong of him to accept."

"He needed the money," Noah says. "I wanted to help."

"I know he probably said he needed it, Bud, but-"

"No," Noah says, adamant now. "He really needed it! I saw the bill for all the medicines he has."

This makes Jane tense. "Medicine?"

Noah nods. "He's sick."

For a moment, Jane is at war with herself. Half of her mind says not to push. She does not want to question her son on this subject any more, nor does she particularly want to delve deeper into her father's supposed illness. He's not in her life. It doesn't matter what's happening to him.

The other half of her has to know. Right now.

"Do you know what he's sick with?" she asks. "Did he tell you?"

Noah nods. He's frowning again at the carpet.

"He's got Cancer."