A/N: Please don't hate me. I did warn you.

When they'd announced their relationship to Wylie, and to Maura's staff, things had gone pretty smoothly. Wylie was surprisingly happy for them, giving hugs and congratulations as if it were some sort of accomplishment, and he made an earnest effort to keep a respectful distance. Thomas had already known, of course, but he was glad they'd finally decided to open up about it. No one else seemed to care really, except Charlie, who seemed inexplicably annoyed. Jane, ever the detective, decided to watch him closely. She remembered the warning he'd given her months ago, that had nearly scared her away. She hated it, but it kept replaying in her mind and she wondered, should she have listened? Each new acknowledgment about their relationship brought their secret closer to the light, and with that Jane's fear and anxiety grew. Maura was scared too, but she hid it well behind her practiced smile. She kept telling herself that everything would work out okay, as long as she had Jane by her side. But the question still remained, nagging incessantly within her logical mind, would Jane always be there?

One afternoon, while Maura was taking a phone call in another room, Jane was resting on the couch, bored, when she spotted Charlie's phone sitting on the coffee table unattended. He had been such a prick lately, she figured she'd do a little spying, and maybe get back at him with some social media hacking. She remembered his birthday last month, in which he'd gotten incredibly hammered and stumbled in the next morning still drunk, and typed the date in for the password. Jane smiled when the phone unlocked.

"Why do people actually use their birthday for their passwords?" she wondered aloud, and silently thanked Frost for tip. She immediately started scrolling through Charlie's picture gallery, looking for anything suspicious, and potentially for an embarrassing selfie to post, when she discovered a photo of herself and Maura, lip-locked in a rather private and heated embrace, on this very couch. Apparently they had thought they were alone, as they were sure never to display that kind of affection in front of others. Charlie had to have been spying... and keeping photographic evidence. But for what? Jane immediately saw red. This confrontation could not wait. She stomped through the house until she found him in the kitchen and thrust the picture in his face.

"What is this?" Jane asked, accusatory.

His jaw dropped. "Why do you have my phone?!"

"Answer the question, asshole! What is it?"

"It's an insurance policy," Charlie snarked.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, clearly you're intent on ruining Maura's career, which will leave me without a job. At least I can sell that photo for a few grand, and get something out of it."

"This photo could ruin her career!" Jane was fuming.

"You two are cutting it too close already, it's only a matter of time before you get caught," he answered with disdain. "If I play my cards right and sell that photo just in time… let's just call it my severance pay."

"You can't do that," Jane argued.

"What do you know?" he challenged. "Huh? Look lady, I've been in this business for a long time, okay? I know how things work. You? You're just an outsider. Fresh off the bus and you think you have it all figured out!" He snorted and shook his head. "You couldn't be more wrong. You have no idea what you're doing here. And you really don't know what you're doing to her." He snatched the phone out of Jane's hand and looked at her closely, narrowing his eyes and spitting the words with contempt. "You don't even belong here."

Stunned into silence, Jane could do nothing but watch him walk away. Was he right? She jumped when Maura touched her shoulder from behind. She hadn't even heard her enter the room.

"Jane, honey, what's wrong?" Maura asked, concerned.

"Oh uh, nothing, don't worry about it." Jane waved her hand in the air dismissively.

But Maura read the anguish in her features. "No, you're upset about something, I can tell."

"You know, maybe I need some fresh air." I need to get out of here. I need to think. She felt around in her pockets for keys. "I think I'm gonna go for a drive. Are you good here?"

"Of course." Maura eyed her with worry. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"I'll- I'll call you, okay?" Jane said over her shoulder, rushing out the door.

"I love you!" Maura shouted to her, watching the trail of Jane's retreat long after she'd gone. Ever since they'd returned to Los Angeles, Maura had noticed that Jane had been a bit off, but she couldn't figure out what it was exactly. Distracted? No. Well yes, but more than that. She just couldn't put her finger on it, and it was threatening to drive her mad. She needed to get to the bottom of it, and soon.

Jane drove across town to Elysian Park, parked her car in a lot and walked across the road, passing a white gate to follow the secluded foot trail into the solitude of nature. Here, the sound of the freeway was muted, and no one else seemed to be on the trail but her. She followed it, winding past an odd-looking rock formation that looked like a dragon, with painted eyes and a graffiti neck, and continued on the path, navigating small hills, until the trees opened up on her left. There she found a spectacular view of the Golden State Freeway, with the San Gabriel mountains standing taller than gods in the distance. She paused for a few moments to admire the beauty of it all, trying her best to commit it to memory before continuing on the narrow path, the heat of the day fading as dusk approached. After a half mile or so, she came upon a more graffiti, this time on a short wall, with a worn stony path leading up and over, which she scaled to land back on the road. She followed it west, so she could face the setting sun, walking alongside a drainage route until the path ended at an empty soccer field. She kept to the south side, where she could see the tall downtown buildings reaching into the sky, then picked up the road heading north until she saw the sign for Angel's Point. Maybe the angels would have some advice for her. The short path took her to an odd, graffitied sculpture-thing that she was sure Maura would call 'art' but just looked kind of silly to Jane. So she ventured just past the far edge of the thing to admire an unobstructed view.

Her timing was perfect. The sun was still setting, painting the sky in a million shades of oranges and yellows and reds, illuminating the enormous, incredible city that she simultaneously loved and hated. She loved it because it was Maura's city. It was where they met, where it all started. Ground zero. And she hated it because it was tearing them apart. It wasn't just the city, she knew. It wasn't just the industry, either. It wasn't 'the gay thing', or the fake boyfriend thing, and it wasn't just that she missed Boston and her family and everything about being a detective… it was all of these things, and everything in-between that couldn't be said.

As she watched the sun make its descent, taking in the unspeakable beauty, she thought long and hard about Maura, and about how they fit into each other's lives. The love was there, obviously. The love was everything, and it was amazing. She'd never felt anything like it. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that their relationship didn't really make sense, logically. She had been so swept up in the feeling of being with Maura - wonderful, incredible, beautiful Maura - that she had completely failed to acknowledge the obvious fact that it simply wouldn't work long-term. Their worlds were far too different. And most importantly, Jane's very presence in Maura's world was now threatening to destroy it.

She sat for a long time and thought about everything. About her life since she'd left Boston. Traveling the world. Falling in love. About who she was before, and how much she had changed. She though about her mother, her father, her brothers, and how much she missed being with her crazy family, even if she didn't want to admit it. She thought about being a homicide detective and how solving murder cases felt as natural as breathing, and simultaneously more exhilarating than the roller coaster at Six Flags. She thought about how she could describe being with Maura the exact same way, only it also felt warm and soft and like coming home to a place like heaven that she never knew existed. She thought about the way they fit together seamlessly, like they were two halves cut from the same whole. She thought about the softness of Maura's skin, her lips, and the indescribable way she tastes. She thought about the sound of her laughter, and the way her voice deepens when they're alone together in the darkness of night. The impossibly sexy way she looks when she comes undone. Her smile. Her kind heart. She deserves the world, Jane thought, and she nearly has it by the balls. And only one flaw: me. Jane knew she would become Maura's undoing. And she couldn't bear to destroy the person she cared about most in the world, the best person she had ever known. She knew what she had to do.

The sky had long since turned dark and the moon and stars took their place above the glowing city as she said a silent goodbye and took the short route back to her car.

Sitting in the driver's seat where she'd left it, her phone flashed with missed calls and voice messages, all from her mother. She didn't bother to listen to the messages, instead just dialed Angela's number. She answered on the first ring, sobbing incoherent words into the phone. Jane tried to make out what she was saying, but it was imporssible.

"Woah, woah, woah, Ma! Slow down, okay? Take a deep breath. Breathe with me. In and out. In and out." Just like Maura had done for her. "Good. Better?"

"He's leaving me, Jane!" Angela managed to choke out.

"What?" Jane was clueless.

"Your father. He's leaving me!"

"Wh-where's he going?" Jane asked, confused.

"Florida!"

"Like, on a trip?"

"No! He's divorcing me and shackin' up with some floozy!"

"What?!" Jane was incredulous. "Ma what are you talking about?!"

"He wants a divorce! After all these years, he doesn't want me to be his wife anymore!" she sobbed. "What am I gonna do, Janie?"

Jane sighed and shook her head in disbelief. When it rains, it pours. "Don't worry, Ma. I'm coming home. We'll figure this out together."

Maura was sitting alone in her kitchen when Jane returned. She immediately noticed Jane's down-turned face and lethargic movements, the worry lines on her brow working overtime.

"Maura, we need to talk."

Her tone put Maura's defenses on alert. Something was very much not okay.

"Okay." Maura swallowed. "What do we need to talk about?"

Jane took a deep breath, steeling herself for the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. There were so many things she wanted to say, but knew she shouldn't. She had to be quick, and she had to be direct. No room for argument or negotiation, because Jane knew she didn't have the strength for any of that. She had to do this, for Maura.

"We can't do this anymore," Jane said simply, trying her hardest to look at Maura and not break.

Maura's heart sank at the words. It was exactly what she had feared most. Part of her had seen it coming, she had just refused to acknowledge it. Now she was left with no choice.

"And by this, you mean us," she clarified, something between a question and a statement.

Jane nodded, unable to meet Maura's sad eyes. She knew it would destroy her. It was part of the reason she couldn't stay. "And... I'm going back to Boston."

A second blow, this one straight to the heart. While Maura had somewhat anticipated that their relationship might not survive in its current form, she hadn't allowed herself to consider the possibility of losing Jane from her life entirely. "What?"

"I'm moving back to Boston. I can't be here anymore, Maura. I just... I can't."

"But you don't have to leave!" Maura heard the desperation in her own voice, but was powerless to expel it. She didn't even try to hide it when her voice cracked and tears sprung to her eyes. "Let's talk about this. Jane please-"

"Maura, please don't make this harder than it already is."

"I just- I don't understand why-"

"Come on, don't act so surprised." Jane tried to appeal to Maura's logical senses. "Brilliant as you are, you had to know this couldn't actually work."

And it stung even more because Jane was right. Maura had thought about it. A lot. She'd read the studies, she'd seen the statistics. All the obstacles in their way, from fame and careers, to money and opposite social backgrounds, to the relationship itself being deemed socially inappropriate by a large - albeit ignorant - portion of society simply because of their anatomy. In her mind, her logical, information-seeking, analytical, genius mind that she had always trusted, she knew they would never have a fair chance. But something else had told her differently. Something inside her felt differently. Something she could never find in a study, or even describe in words. It was the same part of her that even in that moment, that horrible, gut-wrenching moment that Jane Rizzoli, the person she loved more than anything in this world, was breaking her heart, she wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around her and pull her tight, because she could see that Jane's heart was breaking too. The hurt was written in her features, the way her lip trembled ever so slightly, and the uncharacteristic slump of her strong shoulders. Maura tilted her head to the side and started to walk towards her, sensing the slightest opening. "Jane-"

"Don't." Jane put up an unsteady hand, stopping Maura in her tracks. Her voice shook when she spoke. "It will only make it harder." So much she wanted to say… I'll ruin everything if I stay... You deserve so much better... I'll never forget you... I'll never stop loving you... Yet she remained silent.

They stared at each other for long moments, tears starting to flow freely now, both wanting nothing greater than to hold the other, and kiss her, and tell her that nothing could ever separate them.

But instead, Maura closed her eyes.

And Jane walked away.