Maura stood in her kitchen the next morning waiting in silence for the toast to pop. It was 7.24am and she was perfectly on time, everything was going back to normal today, she was going to work, Angela would be back in her guest house this afternoon and once again she would push aside any troublesome feelings. The only uncertainty she had was Jane, she had no idea what was going to happen at work between the two of them. She prayed that the tension between them would slide away once they were both buried in their elements, but she couldn't be sure and she hated to guess. Inhaling the smell of the toast she thought about how much Jane loved that smell in the early morning, personally she didn't understand what was so appealing about the smell of burning bread but she appreciated Jane's little quirks all the same. But as soon as her mind crossed to Jane she became unsettled, agonising of what possibly happened to Jane last night that had caused her to leave. Maura had thought everything had been going just fine, the two of them ended up watching a documentary on sea turtle migration before retiring to bed both exhausted from the heavy run of emotions the day had entailed and fallen asleep within minutes. Yet when Maura had woken up the next morning she found the other side of the bed cold and empty, no one had been lying there for several hours. Maura had wandered around the house, wondering if perhaps Jane had gone out for a run or was in the kitchen like she had found her the previous morning, but when she discovered her house was completely empty a dejected feeling had filled her heart.

The sound of the toast popping broke the walls of silence that had built around Maura as she had become lost in thought, she quickly spread Angela's homemade fig and apricot jam over it, eating it quickly then dropping several of Bass's favourite leafy greens in front of him before slipping out the front door and going to work. She was thrilled to be getting back to the morgue, all she wanted was to submerge herself in work and ignore everything else that was happening in her life.

Jane wasn't having a good morning. She felt terrible to say the least. She had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a phone call. It had been Casey, he had been called back to Afghanistan and he had to leave immediately. A dismal feeling had swum around in her stomach as she realised she had no idea when she was going to see him again, or if she was ever going to see him again. It was only then she suddenly remembered she didn't have her ring on, it was still sitting on the sink of Maura's guest bathroom. She wasn't wearing her ring and she hadn't even given Casey an answer yet.

"What are we gonna do?" She asked him and he hadn't responded. He didn't know either. He hadn't asked her where she had been the past few nights, he didn't ask her for an answer, all he said was "I'm so sorry Jane, I've got to go". And she understood that, his work needed him, she would do the same, but all the uncertainty was doing her head in. She didn't want to live like this, she felt restricted and caught in a web she couldn't get out of. She had crawled out of Maura's bed and gotten into her car, then driven around until the sun had started coming up before she found herself parked outside her house. She hated herself for leaving Maura to wake up alone, but she needed to be by herself, she needed to watch the sunrise all the pinks and golds starting to fade into soft blues of the long day to come. She needed space. She wanted nothing more than to return to Maura's and be there when the doctor woke up but she couldn't, she knew she needed to be by herself and process. But god she missed Maura's face already. She could look at the Maura's face forever; her gorgeous honey blonde waves, those beautiful wide hazel eyes, the perfect point of her nose and her pink lips. Oh those lips Jane thought, the memory of there tender touch still hadn't faded.

She couldn't believe she was thinking about Maura when Casey had just told her he was leaving indefinitely. She ran a hand through her messy brown curls and sighed loudly before she got of her car and walked across the car park of the BPD, she was only ten minutes late which seemed somewhat a miracle.

It wasn't a busy day at work, Frost, Korsak and Frankie were all knee deep in solving a stabbing of a musician in a bar, Jane couldn't help but feel the slightest bit redundant as they all rushed around not needing her help. So she had decided to catch up on the piles of paperwork that she had been successfully putting off for several weeks now, but by 11.30 she was bored to death. Getting up from her chair and stretching her back she decided it was time for a trip down to the morgue as she hadn't seen Maura all day, and plus her paperwork could wait a little longer.

Maura was sitting in her office going over the autopsy report from the musician who had been stabbed to death, Dr Pike as usual had written a very efficient and very long report in which Maura had to take several breaks before continuing on. She was struggling to pass the time when she heard familiar sounding footsteps coming down the hallway, and sure enough within several seconds Jane meandered through her doors and smiled at the doctor.

"Hey" Jane said and collapsed into one of Maura's favourite art deco chairs that she had decorated her office with.

"Hi" Maura said slightly shocked by Jane's calmness.

"You wanna grab lunch?" Jane asked leaning forward in the chair discovering how uncomfortable it was.

"Lunch?" Maura repeated.

"Yeah you know, food"

"Um, yes okay" Maura agreed "it's a bit slow today"

"Tell me about it" Jane said rising to her feet and letting out a bored sigh. Maura quickly stacked her paperwork away in her desk tray, not wanting to keep Jane waiting.

"You look nice" Jane said speaking softly, as Maura stood up and straightened her dress, she blushed and looked down at her black leather jacket and the bold red, white and black squares of her dress that were standing out from under her jacket.

"Thank you" she smiled at the detective's comment, Jane didn't usually notice her outfits unless she was wearing 'inappropriately high' heels. Maura wasn't quite sure why Jane was being so calm and sweet either, could it have been because she felt bad for leaving Maura in the middle of the night with no explanation?

"Shall we go?" Maura asked and Jane nodded leading the way out. The two of them made their way to The Dirty Robber without too many awkward silences, Maura decided it was best to busy their minds by talking about the case, something which Jane was silently grateful for.

They finally fell into their usual booth, Maura ordered a salad and Jane got a burger with a side of fries. Just as they always did.

"I feel as though I owe you an explanation for this morning" Jane said once the waitress had gone and this made Maura automatically look up.

"I'm so sorry Maur" she said and Maura knew that she meant it, Jane had that look in her wide chocolate brown eyes a look that Maura had grown accustomed to recognising when Jane was feeling terrible for something that had happened, it was like they exerted sadness and pain.

"It's okay" Maura said quietly looking back down at the table unsure of what else to say.

"No it's not" Jane said "I just…it's just…"

"You don't have to tell me Jane, if you don't want to" Maura said and looked back up meeting the detectives eyes as she struggled for words.

"Casey went back to Afghanistan" Jane blurted suddenly and Maura's eyes widened.

"What?"

"He called this morning to tell me, he had to leave immediately and I just needed some space, I'm sorry" Jane explained ruefully.

"Oh, Jane" Maura said reaching out sympathetically and placing her hand over Jane's.

"I'm sorry" she said realising that her thoughts earlier had been incredibly selfish as she hadn't truly known why Jane had left.

"No, I-I should have just stayed" Jane's brow furrowed in frustration with herself.

"Jane" Maura said making sure the detective really heard her "I understand why you left don't be sorry, we all need space sometimes"

Jane looked at Maura gratefully, sometimes she couldn't believe how lucky she was to have Maura in her life, she was always so understanding and compassionate.

"I just can't believe how sudden this was" Jane said shaking her head in disbelief. Maura pulled her hand away from Jane's, glancing at the detectives slim fingers and immediately noticing the absence of her engagement ring, her heart swelling instantaneously.

"Y-you took your ring off?" Maura said and cleared her throat, trying to compose herself.

"Yeah well, I never said yes and know we don't know so…"

Maura nodded.

"It's tucked away for now in the safety deposit box at home"

"Maybe" Maura said knowing her next words may be vexed "It just wasn't meant to be"

As soon as those words left her mouth Jane looked up at her her brown eyes full of hard worn emotion.

"Maybe" Jane mumbled as the waitress approached them with their food.

"But we're all good, right?" Jane asked as soon as they were alone again.

"Yeah" Maura said unsure of how else to respond "Every things just…normal" the word felt like vomit in Maura's mouth, it immediately made her feel itchy telling such a blatant lie, but she wanted to tell Jane what she wanted to hear, it's what she needed to hear right now whether Maura liked it or not everything had to be okay and …normal.

The rest of the day went painfully slow, after lunch the two of them returned to their places behind their desks and continued with the what seemed like endless streams of paperwork. When 5 o'clock hit and neither of them were needed anymore they both went home. To their separate homes. Jane had dinner, took a long shower and then settled on the couch to watch some sport and distract herself from the hellish day she had just been through. But when she could no longer deal with herself anymore she picked up her phone and called Maura.

"Jane?" Maura sounded worried "What is it?"

"Nothing" Jane said "I just, I need a distraction"

Maura knew there were several things she could say but she quickly picked the most appropriate.

"Does this mean you finally want to hear about how ketchup was sold as medicine in the 1830's?"

Jane smiled down the phone "Yes Maura, that's exactly what it means"

And so they talked, like they always did at night, Jane half focused on the TV and half listening to Maura telling her strange facts that she never really needed to know. It was just like it was before, normal. But not even the TV or Maura's continuous rambling was shutting off her thoughts, maybe she didn't want normal anymore, not that anything was entirely normal now anyway. She hadn't forgotten what had happened. She never would. But she couldn't bring herself to think about that now, as much as she wanted to with everything that had just happened so suddenly with Casey she was having trouble processing even just one thing at a time. Right now she needed Maura as her best friend more than anything else.

So then the day that followed and the day after that were as 'normal' as any other, the two women worked in perfect harmony with each other, it was incredibly slow on the homicide front so Jane had spent the rest of the week at her desk finishing up all her paperwork, which by Friday afternoon was finally done and she felt a huge wash of relief flood over her. And then it was the weekend, and Jane went over to Maura's on Saturday morning, dragging the tousled haired blonde out of bed to go for a run which of course she hadn't said no to. She couldn't help but notice Maura was acting a little off, she wondered what was bothering the doctor and whether or not asking would be a dangerous idea. She noticed that when she bought up Casey Maura would look off in the other direction seemingly appearing disinterested or trying to hide frustration with the topic, so eventually she dropped it. So instead she asked Maura if she thought it was a little weird her boss was sleeping with her mother.

"No of course I don't" Maura had said "but you, you'll never be old enough to hear about your mother's sex life"

At those words Jane had pulled a disgusted face and Maura had let out a small laugh. It was obvious the doctor was trying hard to conceal whatever it was that was pressing on her mind so Jane decided to leave it alone.

So firstly I would just like to relay my excitement onto whoever may be reading this...yesterday afternoon I successfully planned the next 11+ chapters and that's not even going to be all of them. Yes. That's right. Eleven chapters. So get excited.

In other news...how did you enjoy this chapter? tell me your thoughts and emotionssss!

The pace is definitely going to pick up a little in the next chapter, which if you're lucky might be up a bit later ;)

Thank you all for reading. And welcome aboard to those who just started, please stick with me on this Rizzles adventure! Much love xxx