As the dust settled an uneasy silence filled the warehouse. Sobbing could be heard by the other officers as they rushed in, followed closely by Korsak and Frankie.

"Oh my god..." Maura could hear someone talking behind her, over the pounding in her ears as she repeatedly compressed Paddy Doyle chest.

"Come on Doyle! You can't leave me with that... you can't just leave me with hope!" She lost all sense of decorum, all her training for appropriate technique as she thumped away at Doyle's chest with clenched fists.

"Maura...Maur c'mon, he's gone" She felt arms pulling her up and she turned, seeing a fleeting glimpse of blue uniform as she buried her face in Frankie's chest. "Jane...she needs you..."

Frankie pulled her away from her father's prone body. Or is it sperm donor? Maura thought, as her stiff legs struggled to find purchase on the floor.

"Maura look at me." She leant back and met her brother-in-laws eyes, they were filled with sorrow and unshed tears. "Frost is...Doyle shot Frost." Frankie looked over her shoulder and she turned, her stomach dropping unpleasantly.

Jane was on her knees, her whole body shaking and Maura could see Frost's legs, one bent under the other, unmoving.

"She shot him Frankie... she shot Doyle." Was all Maura could say.

"And Doyle shot Frost! He's dead Maura...Jane's parter is gone and she needs you." Frankie said, aghast.

"I...I can't...I..." Maura took a deep breath, she was lost. Her wife had just shot her sperm-donor father, but there she was, sobs wracking her lithe body, kneeling over the body of her partner.

Maura took a deep breath, steadying herself. She needed to see this as statements of fact. Doyle shot Frost. Jane shot Doyle. She was doing her job, just doing her job. It was...it was what she was trained to do and Maura needed to push her own feelings down for another time.

Steeling herself, Maura straightened and moved out of Frankie's hold.

Her wife needed her.

This CANNOT be happening, Jane shook. How could it have gone so wrong so quickly?

"Jane..." She heard her wife's shaky voice. "Jane come on, get up, we need to get you out of here."

She felt Maura's arms slip under hers, pulling her up and pulling one arm over her shoulder. Jane couldn't tear her eyes away from the man on the floor. Not even being in wife's arms could distract her or take away the shocking pain in her chest.

"Let's go... work with me Jane, please." She felt herself turn, woodenly putting one foot in front of the other as Maura guided her out into the sunlight.

It was too bright, causing Jane to squint as she was sat down on the back of an ambulance, a foil sheet quickly wrapped around her shaking shoulders. Blinking, she saw Maura crouched in front of her looking into her eyes, an unreadable expression on her face.

"It's going to be okay Jane." She felt hands running up and down her thighs, it warmed her a little.

"It's going to be okay." She repeated the mantra to herself, praying it would ring true. As her mind cleared, Jane ran the events of the last half an hour through her mind.

Doyle shot Frost. She shot Doyle. Maura's reaction.

She'd shot Doyle. Had she killed him? A fall that far...he couldn't have survived surely?

"Maur...what happened to Doyle?" The hands on her knees were lifted abruptly. She was cold again.

"He's dead." Maura's voice was flat and empty of emotion.

Oh.

The funeral for Detective Barry Frost the following week was a sombre affair. His father stood tall and silent in his navy uniform, a white beacon in a sea of navy blue. Maura stood across from her wife and the other detectives, the distance stretching further than the plot between them. Jane refused to meet her, or anyone else's gaze.

Staring blankly ahead as the service went on around her, the only thought running through Jane's mind was that it was her fault, if she had done something, if she'd drawn her weapon quicker, used her goddamn intuition and realised it was highly likely that Paddy Doyle would be there to defend his only daughter. If she had done more, this would not have happened.

As the coffin was lowered into the ground, Jane allowed her gaze to drop, her scars ached and her fists clenched and unclenched repeatedly behind her back while she struggled to control her emotions, to not break down or show any weakness.

Only Korsak, who stood next to her, heard the whispered "I'm sorry."

Maura drove home in silence, the humming of her Prius was the only sound between herself and Jane.

As she pulled up in their driveway, Maura glanced across the console at her wife, staring blankly out of the window. "Jane, let's go inside."

"Okay" Came the reply as Maura led the way up the short drive and through the front door. "Can we...can we have a bath?"

Maura let a tight smile show, "Of course," and led the way to the bathroom.

Throughout their relationship there had never been an urge to cover up or hide their bodies from one another, but in the week since the shooting everything had changed. Jane barely said two words to her and Maura, usually so sure and assertive around her wife, just didn't know how to tackle the problem.

Sighing as she settled between her wife's legs, Maura thought that really, she was scared to face what their mutual silence was really about. There was the real concern that if she bought up all that had happened she wouldn't be able to hold back her anger, however undeserved it was and she would say things she didn't mean.

Jane, who had only been doing her job, had been there to protect her.

Jane, who had shot her father before he had the chance to tell her more about her birth mother.

Jane knew that. She knew how much finding out more information about her birth mother meant to Maura.

As Jane's arms wrapped stiffly around her waist, hands resting platonically together over her stomach, Maura closed her eyes.

Soon. She would face everything soon.

Jane needed her.