Jane sat on the curb with her head in her hands, waiting for the bleeding in her nose to subside. It had already been a long night, and a drug bust at a meth lab gone wrong had just made it even longer. Even though it was well after midnight, the temperature was still in the low eighties, only serving to add to the tense atmosphere.

Jane and Martinez had been a part of a drug bust that started out as routine, but things turned hairy very quickly when a suspect high on meth spiraled out of control, pulling a gun on the officers. He shot and wounded an officer before they were able to subdue him. Then, a routine sweep of the building to make sure it was secure uncovered a dead body in one of the closets.

Flashing lights blinded her as another police cruiser pulled up to the scene. She wasn't surprised when she saw the Lieutenant hop out, charging past the crime scene tape and into the building looking extremely irritated. That didn't bode well. Jane spat out more blood and straightened up, reaching up to tentatively feel what she was pretty sure was a broken nose. The bleeding had slowed to a trickle and Jane could already feel the swelling around it. In her attempt to help bring down the suspect, she had caught an elbow to the nose, hearing a sickening crack as it connected with her face.

Jane heard another vehicle approaching, and got to her feet, wiping the back of her hand across her face, trying to clean off some of the excess blood. As the vehicle got closer, Jane was able to see the familiar white of the Medical Examiner's van. Oh great-she thought-Grumpy ol' Dr. Benton at 2:30am. This should be fun. Not. She yanked the tie out of her hair and re-did her ponytail as the van pulled up next to the army of police cruisers.

The door opened, and Jane breathed a sigh of relief when a pair of familiar heels appeared on the pavement, and her wife peeked out from behind the door looking surprised to see her.

"Jane? What are you doing here?" Maura called out as she grabbed some supplies from the van.

Maura had been working at the Medical Examiner's office for a week, but hadn't been called to a crime scene yet, as Dr. Benton seemed dead-set on having her stay in the morgue and do all of the things that he didn't' want to do. She was surprised to get the call an hour ago to go to a crime scene, but suspected it was simply because Dr. Benton hadn't wanted to disturb his sleep. But Maura didn't care, she was just thankful for the chance to gain some experience.

"I could ask you the same question Maura." Jane replied, leaning against the trunk of a police cruiser as her wife slid the van door shut and made her way over.

"I got called about a body." Maura shrugged. "Evidently Dr. Benton was too concerned about achieving his eight hours of sleep and told them to call me." She frowned as she got closer. "What happened to your nose?"

"Uh, I took an elbow to the nose, courtesy of a guy tweaking out on meth." Jane grimaced as Maura's fingers gently probed the tender area. "Ow! Easy there Maur!"

Maura gave a sympathetic smile. "Sorry. Looks like a nasal fracture. I can set it for you, if you would like. It might hurt a little." She looked at Jane for confirmation.

Jane nodded, and Maura positioned her fingers over the broken bone. "Yeah, whatever. I don't want to look like Mike Tyson for the rest of…Ow! Shit!" Tears burned in Jane's eyes as Maura expertly set the bone with a faint popping noise. "A little? Jesus…Maura that hurt!"

Maura examined Jane's nose, making sure the bone was properly in place. "Sorry. It should be all set now. Make sure you put some ice on it later to help reduce the swelling." She slid the equipment bag off her shoulder and onto the pavement. "So what happened in there?"

"Oh, you know…just your every day, run-of-the-mill, drug bust gone bad." Jane said sarcastically. "Everything was fine until this meth-head went berserk. He pulled a gun and shot Malone before we were able to get him into custody. And then we found a body." Jane let out a loud sigh. "I'm starting to realize that there's never a dull moment when you work narcotics."

"It certainly is quite unpredictable." Maura said quietly, as she reached up and grasped Jane's bicep gently. "I'm glad you are okay."

Jane stared at the pavement. "Me too." She looked up to find Maura looking at her with concern. She cleared her throat. "The body is inside. I can walk you in if you'd like." She reached down and picked up the equipment bag Maura had dropped. "Come on." She nodded her head in the direction of the building.

They ducked under the crime scene tape as Jane nodded her greeting to her buddy Frost who was standing guard outside the run down building. As they entered the building, Jane led Maura up a rickety set of stairs and down a dark hallway into the room where they had found the body. There were already several people in the space, as crime scene techs took pictures and gathered evidence. Maura pulled a pair of gloves out of her bag and snapped them on before kneeling next to the body in the closet.

Jane heard footsteps in the hallway and turned to see her partner standing in the doorway, looking exhausted.

"Hey Rizzoli, I'm gonna need you to head back to headquarters and get started on the paperwork for this mess. Lieutenant is up my ass on this and wants me to take him step-by-step through everything that happened in here." Martinez rubbed his eyes. "Sorry to dump it on you."

Jane watched Maura examine the body for a second before turning back to Martinez. "Yeah, no problem. Yeah…when I saw Cavanaugh roll up I knew it was going to be a long one." She shot him a sympathetic look.

He craned his neck to look past Jane, and noticed Maura crouched down next to the body. "Hey Dr. Isles-Rizzoli. Thanks for coming out so late for this."

Maura straightened up. "It's not a problem Rafael. I'm glad to see you are safe. From what Jane told me, the situation escalated quickly."

He nodded, his tension evident in the clenched muscles of his jaw. "It did. I'm just hoping that Malone makes it. He lost a lot of blood." He looked over his shoulder as someone called from down the hall. "Hey, I've got to get back to Lieutenant. Thanks for helping out with the paperwork Rizzoli. I owe you one. As soon as you are finished with it, just leave it on my desk and head home. We can deal with the rest of this tomorrow. I don't want to see you in before noon Rizzoli. You got that?"

"No arguments from me on that Martinez. Good luck dealing with Cavanaugh. I'll see you tomorrow." Jane waved as Martinez disappeared back down the hallway, and then turned back to Maura who was pulling off her gloves. "Find anything?"

Maura shook her head. "Nothing definitive. There is some bruising around the neck which certainly could point to strangulation, but we will of course need to do a complete autopsy to get a clear picture of how he died." Maura said as she wrote down some notes.

"Right. Well, some guy from the Homicide Unit will be here shortly if you want to report to him. Martinez called him. Detective…Korsak…or something." Jane rocked on her heels. "Hey, I gotta head back to headquarters and get cracking on that paperwork. I'll be home after that."

Maura put the cap on her pen. "I just want to speak to the homicide detective and examine this area for evidence and then I will head home. The autopsy can wait until later today." She glanced around the room to make sure no one was looking before giving Jane a quick peck on the cheek. "I'll see you at home. Don't forget to put some ice on that nose."

Jane waved her hand dismissively as she headed for the door. "I won't." She turned and shot Maura a grin as she paused in the threshold. "I'll see you later Dr. Isles-Rizzoli."

The sun was just coming up as Jane pulled her Jeep into their driveway. She yawned loudly as she got out of the car and headed for the back door, noting Maura's car in the garage as she fished her keys out of her backpack. Jiggling the key in the lock, she opened the back door and let herself into the house, dropping her bag onto the floor and yanking her boots off as soon as she was inside. Jane yawned again, sliding the deadbolt back into place and stumbling down the hall, through the living room, and up the stairs to their bedroom.

She opened the door slowly, trying to be as quiet as possible. The room was dark, but she could make out the lump that was Maura curled up on the bed. Jane peeled off her jeans and shirt and made a beeline for the bed, hoping to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep before Maura's alarm would go off. Gently, she lifted the blankets and sank down onto the mattress, stifling a groan as she settled into the comfort of the soft bed. She scooted as close to her sleeping wife as she could, wanting to be close but at the same time not wanting to wake Maura.

A few seconds after Jane shut her eyes, Maura stirred, causing Jane's eyes to open once again. Rolling over, she pulled Jane close almost automatically, letting out a contented sigh as Jane's arms wrapped around her protectively.

"Mmmm. What time is it?" Maura asked, her voice laden with sleep.

Jane kissed the top of the blonde head. "5:15. Go back to sleep."

Maura nuzzled her face into Jane's chest. "Mmkay. Love you."

"Love you too Maur." Jane's eyes fluttered shut, and she was fast asleep within minutes.

"Ma, I told you, I'm pretty sure we can make it, but I need to run it by Maura first."

Jane paced around the officer's lounge, trying to remain calm as her mother rambled on over the phone about the upcoming Fourth of July barbecue. It was a yearly tradition, and since Jane and Maura had missed last year's festivities because of work, Angela Rizzoli was hell-bent on making sure they were going to be there this year.

"Okay Ma. I promise I will talk to her today. Look, I gotta go, we are in the middle of a case here. I'll call you later, okay?"

Jane disconnected the call and took a deep breath. Her mother had been on her back about the barbecue for the past four days. She had meant to talk to Maura yesterday, but the case with the meth lab had escalated into something much bigger than they had realized over the past few days, and had been consuming all of Jane's time and energy. After pouring herself a cup of stale tasting coffee, Jane headed back toward her desk. As she walked through the lobby, she decided to take a detour, and opened the door to the stairwell, descending the flight of stairs that took her to the morgue.

It only took a few minutes of searching to locate her wife. Maura was sitting in her excuse of an office-it was barely larger than a closet-with her cellphone in her hand. She had a faraway expression on her face, as if she were contemplating something important. Jane briefly considered leaving her alone, but rapped on the door instead. Maura's head snapped up, her contemplative look turning into a wide smile as she noticed Jane standing in the doorway.

"Jane. Hi. Come on in." Maura gestured to a small chair beside her desk, pushed up against the wall in the cramped space.

"I'm not disturbing you, am I?" Jane asked.

"No, of course not. I'm glad you're here, actually. I have a question for you."

Jane chuckled lightly. "That's perfect, cus I have one for you too. Do you want to go first? Or should I?"

Maura bit her lip. "No, please, you go first."

"Okay. It's nothing major, but Ma keeps bugging me about the Fourth of July barbecue. I told her that we were probably going to be there, but that I wanted to run it by you first. So what do you think?" Jane reached out and picked up the paperweight on Maura's desk, fiddling with it as she waited for a response.

Maura didn't answer immediately, instead twisting her wedding band nervously. Finally she spoke. "I would love to go to the barbecue. Providing I don't get called to a crime scene of course." Jane nodded. "But my question sort of relates to that."

Jane looked confused. "Okay…so what's your question then?"

"I just got a call from the social worker at the hospital. They have a baby that they are looking for a temporary placement for. It would just be for the holiday weekend. The office is closed for the holiday and they can't find a permanent placement until then, so she called me to see if we would be willing to take the baby for the weekend." Maura's eyes flicked up nervously before fixing back on her desk. "So…what do you think?" She asked quietly.

Jane was surprised by Maura's proposition. They had filled out the paperwork to be able to foster children months ago and hadn't heard anything since they were approved, so finally getting the call about a baby was a little bit of a shock. Jane leaned back in her chair and mulled it over, weighing the pros and cons. They certainly didn't have all the things they needed to foster a baby for even just a few days, but that could be easily remedied. For some reason, the idea of taking care of a baby with Maura seemed pretty perfect to Jane, and she looked up at Maura.

"I think we should do it." She stated simply. Maura's hazel eyes flicked upward again, locking on Jane's brown ones.

"You do?" Maura seemed shocked that Jane had agreed so quickly.

"I do. We talked about fostering a lot a few months ago. This seems like a pretty good way to get our feet wet…test the waters a bit." Jane placed the paperweight back onto the desk. "Really…I think we should do it."

Maura stood, a smile spreading across her face. She looked positively thrilled that Jane had agreed. "Okay then. Of course we will need to pick up some things before the baby arrives, like diapers, formula, a crib, some clothes, maybe some…"

Jane chuckled and cut her off with a kiss. "We'll figure it out Maur. Just give the social worker a call and we can go from there." She smiled as Maura's arms wrapped around her. "But you have to be the one to explain to Ma that this doesn't mean we are planning on having any babies soon."

Maura giggled as she let go of Jane. "She has been asking us about that a lot lately, hasn't she?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "We've been married for over three years Maura. In her eyes, we should have popped out a couple kids by now. Maybe having this baby for the next few days will give her, like, a baby fix and she will stop bugging us."

Both women laughed, knowing that fostering a baby for a few days was not going to stop Angela from harassing them.

"I gotta head back upstairs. Martinez wants to go over some more leads on the case." Jane took a few steps toward the door. "So I'll tell Ma that we are a yes for the barbecue?"

"Yes, but it will be Jane and Maura…plus one." Maura smiled.

"Got it. I'll see you later, okay? Text me when you have finalized the details for us taking in the little peanut."

"I will. Bye Jane."

As Jane headed down the hallway and back up the stairs, she couldn't help but smile as she thought of the idea of her and Maura…plus one.