Maura shut the front door once the last of their guests had left. Their fun evening with the family, blood related and not, had been a complete success. She made her way over into the kitchen, where she saw Jane looking at one recently given binder.

"Is that what I think it is?" Jane asked as she looked at Maura with a surprised look on her face.

"Open it," Maura said simply.

Jane opened the binder slowly, as if flipping through it quickly would damage its contents. "When did ma give you this?" She turned to look at the blonde, surprise still evident on her features.

"She gave it to me while we were down here having tea. You and the guys were upstairs watching the game. I was quite surprised to say the least."

"Yeah, I think that is a good description for the both of us," Jane replied. "I'd heard of this before and ma had mentioned wanting to pass it down to me when I 'got a life, a husband and kids'."

Maura looked instantly worried. "Jane, your mother gave this to both of us, I hope you know that," she said as she placed a gentle hand over her girlfriend's.

"I know she did. I'm not mad that she did it Maura; I'm just surprised is all. For ma to give you this, I mean, it's HUGE! She's truly welcomed you into the family."

"Us Jane, she gave it to us."

"I know my ma, and I know what she thinks of me… that I don't put enough of an effort when it comes to being the stereotypical 'housewife'. I can handle it Maur; it truly doesn't upset me. It makes me happy that ma trusted you enough to give you this. It's what giving it to you means more than anything else. She likes you, and she's accepted you as my partner. That's all I ever asked of her," she said as she wrapped an arm around Maura and kissed her temple.

"I think you and your mother have a misconception of one another. You love and care about each other, that much is obvious. Yet you are similar in so many ways that you get on each other's nerves so quickly. I think it would be nice if you were more patient with one another."

"That's something we'll definitely have to work on," Jane agreed. "Until then, I'm exhausted. Who knew grilling and drinking beer with the guys and yelling at the television could take so much energy?" she asked with a smirk.

"About that," Maura began. "Did you ever ask any of the men about what we had talked about?"

"What? The grill fascination?"

Maura nodded.

"I did; I just couldn't get a straight answer. Frost started off with 'it's like this' before stopping short. Korsak and Frankie tried to back him up to no avail. Tommy finally said 'it's a guy thing' and the others heartily agreed so we're still at square one. I tell you. Men!"

Maura just laughed at the lack of answer as she took Jane's hand and began to lead them upstairs to bed.

Both were lying fast asleep in bed when Jane's phone went off. She knew it was work; dispatch and work related numbers had a certain ring tone. She groggily looked at the alarm clock on the night stand to see it read '2:51'. Groaning, she picked up her phone, knowing there was only one reason why work would be calling now.

"Rizzoli."

"Jane, it's me. Sorry to wake you so early; we have a body."

"And here I thought I was gonna get a good night's sleep," she replied sleepily to Frost.

"I'll text you the address."

"Thanks. I'll get the coffee."

"Thanks partner."

Jane made to carefully remove Maura's arm off her but then realized Maura was awake and looking at her.

"You have to go to work," she said it as a statement and not a question.

"You know how it goes. I love you, and I'll see you tonight." Jane replied as she leaned in to kiss Maura before rising from the bed and hurrying to the bathroom. There was no way she would stay awake without a shower.

Jane met Frost and Korsak at the crime scene, strong coffees in hand.

"What do we have?" she asked as she passed around the coffees to her partner and sergeant.

"Thanks Jane," Korsak and Frost replied in unison.

"Ashley Carol Roth, Caucasian, 27. Bled out. She was badly beaten and possibly raped, though we cannot tell if it was post mortem or not. The medical examiner was paged but you know that son of a bitch takes an eternity to get his ass over here."

Jane crouched down to get a closer look at the victim. "Her carotid was severed." Her face went pale. "It appears like a very precise cut." She looked between Frost and Korsak.

"I made a call Jane; he's in lockdown," Korsak replied solemnly.

"How do we know this isn't a sick son of a bitch copycat?" Jane asked, getting an ugly taste in her mouth.

"We have no way of knowing that as of now, but we are not ruling that possibility out. We're going to take every –"

"We have a live one!"

The detectives immediately turned their heads in direction of the house.

Jane rose to her full height and ran inside the house.

She made her way over to what appeared to be another body; it was not moving.

"It is a very weak pulse, but it's there," the paramedic stated. "If we hurry, we may be able to get to the hospital in time."

The woman before them made to move, her eyes fluttered slowly and her lips moved as if she was about to speak.

"Can you tell me your name?" Jane asked her.

"Me…" the woman started before she lost consciousness once more.

"Detective there's no time for this, we have to go now!"

Jane walked through the front door to be greeted by an overly excited Jo Friday. It was way past dinner time.

"Hey girl, what's going on? Didn't Maura take you out today?"

The little dog jumped up and down expectedly as Jane quickly made her way towards the fridge.

A handwritten note awaited her.

I got called into work. I don't know when I'll be home tonight. Don't wait up. ILY

"That's why I couldn't get a hold of her all day. Come on girl, let's take you for a quick walk."

Once Jo had been walked Jane came and walked back into the kitchen to get bass his leafy greens and strawberries before throwing some leftovers in the microwave for herself. She ate quickly knowing that Maura would probably get home much later.

The day had been very hectic. She had spent a large portion of her day waiting at the hospital to see if the victim who had survived at the scene would make it past surgery. After hours of waiting, the attending surgeon had come out with a grim look on his face and bad news; she'd died on the table. Frustrated that they had nothing to go on for the time being and that yet another life had been lost, she'd made her way back to the precinct with Frost and together with he and Korsak had gotten to work nonstop on what they had. They'd hit a dead end and Cavanaugh had given them the rest of the night knowing well that this case was going to take a lot out of his detectives.

Jane was surprised to see Maura getting ready for bed when she walked out of the bathroom after her shower.

"You're here," she stated simply.

"I had to postpone a couple of surgeries; the one I got called in for took most of the day."

"Is everything ok?" Jane asked as she pulled back the covers on her side of the bed.

"It's going to be a long process that is going to require many more surgeries, but it looks like my patient will be alright," Maura stated, relief evident in her voice.

"That's great news Maur," Jane said with a small smile.

"How was your day?"

Jane's smile disappeared instantly. "The complete opposite of yours it seems. Dead body at the scene and a woman who died at the hospital after being rushed from the scene after being found alive. We have nothing to go on," Jane replied with a tough exhale.

Maura ran her hand up and down Jane's arm. "It's been a long day. Maybe there's just nothing to go on yet, but I know you and the guys will figure something out. You're the best Boston's got."

"I hope that's enough," came Jane's reply before she wrapped her arm around Maura's middle and pulled the smaller woman's body onto her own to welcome sleep.

Hey everyone! I'm so sorry for the delay. Work has been absolute chaos and to top it off I've had no internet connection for my laptop which is chaos in and of itself. I truly admire those of you who have the patience and dexterity to type out updates on a phone; I simply cannot do that. This was a bit of a filler but I'm working on this being a case that Maura helps with in some way. I've got some stuff written and I'm still debating. I have another chapter almost completed so that will go up tomorrow night at some point. I'd love to read your thoughts and ideas! Thanks for your patience and for sticking with this story!