They made it back to Maura's just before six o'clock.

Due to interesting names in the ownership papers of the garage, the car theft ring had been handed over to organized crime with a red bow on top. Cavanaugh was enjoying rubbing OC:s noses in it over the phone, while glaring through his office windows at Rizzoli's new, inappropriate and unexplained clothes as she left for the day. The night shift took over the search for Robert and his mustang. Holter was pleading guilty to interfering with a police officer while under the influence of horse tranquilizers and was going to stay eight months in jail, incidentally getting to spend the fierce Boston winter indoors with daily doses of warm food. Susie went home, took the phone off hook and ran Jane's evidence photos and videos on a non-stop loop on her laptop while setting an impressive personal record for number of orgasms in a single evening. Korsak put in a couple of volunteer hours at a dog shelter, walking dogs in the park and giving them and himself quality time. He collected quite a few phone numbers during these walks. Someone had to do it. Frost was at his gym, working on sculpting his body to display the suits perfectly. He had a small but dedicated following of gym rats who by strange coincidence always matched his gym time regardless of when he showed up. He suspected they ran a phone chain. He didn't mind, in fact he made sure to do a long warm-up to give them all time to arrive. Frost was equal opportunity.

Maura and Jane bought Chinese take-away and ate it in Maura's kitchen according to habit: neatly poured into delicate bowls and straight out of the carton respectively. When they had finished, they stayed at the table just looking at each other in silence, trying to start the monumental conversation. There was a lot to discuss. A lot of things had been said, and needed working through.

Getting started was hard, though. The banter that had flowed easily when surrounded by people dried up when they were alone again. Everything was serious now. Maura thought about Cavanaugh's comment about responsibility.

"Jane, do you want to make a bet?"

"About what?"

"Truth. I'll flip a coin. You pick one side, I'll pick the other. The winner gets an honest answer to any question from the loser."

"Question about what?"

"Anything. Anything at all."

"That sounds dangerous."

"Only for someone who has something bad to hide." Maura looked into her eyes, and Jane felt her fears shrink a little. Maybe it was time to do this.

"I take heads. Heads all the way. Your tail looks much nicer than mine." Again with the goddamn mouth!

Maura tossed the coin.

Clink.

"Jane, do you love me? Not as a friend, but as a lover?"

"Yes." There it was. No going back now. "Yes I do. When everything went bad at the garage my only thought was 'I can't die before I tell her'. Now I've finally told you."

"That makes me happy."

"It makes me scared."

"New toss?"

"Yes."

Clink.

"Jane, I want this to go further. I want us to go further. Will you come with me?"

"I want to, but I am so afraid of doing something wrong and losing you. What if you get tired of me? What if someone better comes along? It would destroy me."

"I can think of no-one better."

"Oh. Then... yes. Baby steps. Let it take time."

"One more toss?"

"Yes."

Clink.

"Maura, when you said you needed to think about that sex slave thing at Marseille... that worried me. What did you mean?"

"I said I needed to think about whether I cared what people assumed, you understood me wrong. Now I have considered it. I don't care. If people thought I was keeping you as a toy I would hate it, but if the alternative was that I couldn't show that you were mine at all I would live with the slander. You would never be a toy to me. I want you in my life. I want you in my bed. I want you just the way you are right now, just more of everything."

"Flip again?"

"Yes."

Clink.

"Maura, what are we going to do about Susie? After that photo session I can't just pretend she's not there."

"I think she loves us both the way we have pretended to love each other all this time. What we have is stronger, and she knows it, but she loves us. Her love for you is a little bit more physical than her love for me. Did that make sense to you?"

"Yes, but it didn't answer my question. What do we do about it?"

"We make her part of our family as best we can. I'm not about to invite her or anyone else into our bed, but I want to make her feel happy and included. We can do that. We've been doing it with each other for years. She told me once, when she was very drunk, that she thinks you and I make one perfect person. So let's be perfect for her."

"Another go?"

"OK."

Clink.

"Jane, remember the parking lot. Tell me how you look at me. All of it."

"You hurt my eyes. It's like looking at the sun and I can only take it in a little bit at a time. My heart beats faster, I want to touch you, I want to hold you forever. I want to see you naked. I want to caress you. I want all of it..."

"What do you like best?"

"Your smile. Your breasts. Your eyes. Your legs. Your ass. Your freckles. All of it."

"That's not a good answer."

"That was your second question off the same toss."

"You're keeping count?"

"When I'm this nervous, yes."

"Do you want me to hold you and calm you down?"

"Yes."

"Let's go to bed."

"Yes."

"You can keep the collar on, if you want to. The day isn't over yet."

"Then it would be right to keep it on. I made a promise."

"All other clothing has to go, though. Pets are not allowed to be dressed in bed."

"OK."

"It was that easy to finally get you out of your clothes and into my bed? I could have done this two years ago!"

"It wouldn't have worked then. I needed today."

They went to bed and just slept, tired and bruised and naked and tangled together. There would be more, but it could wait a day or two.

- R&I -

On Friday morning they went through their usual start-of-day routines. Jane left the collar on the bedside table and dressed in her normal slacks and blazer. They headed for work in the prius and the night shift handed over the work from yesterday. The mustang had been found but the owner was still missing. Assman Bronwyn came looking for Jane and was disappointed that she was back in her regular clothes. He thanked her for giving him part credit for the arrest, and she spent some time giving him tips on how to work smarter and build a career. Frost was working his way through a never-ending list of suppliers and truck drivers who could be witnesses. Korsak was trying to get hold of tenants who had not responded to calls the day before.

Maura sent a couple of emails with test results from the crime scene samples. Her subjects had found one of the bullets, streaked with essence of Floyd, and had identified the gun as a Taurus PT 92 with no criminal history. Jane expected both the gun and the rebar bludgeon to be in the harbor by now, but unis were still checking drains and dumpsters near the club just in case.

At eleven Susie called Jane and said "Maybe you should come down here. I think Maura has something to tell you." She sounded excited. Jane rode the elevator down and walked into the morgue and was confronted with the whole crew of Queen's subjects lined up against the far wall, facing her and grinning like maniacs. Susie was front and center and looked like she was about to burst. Jane looked around and finally saw Maura, and her jaw dropped.

Maura was dressed in leather. Not one of her regular dresses, like the mind-warping blue leather number that had made Jane walk into doors twice. This was a short leather skirt, a T-shirt and a leather jacket, all black. The T-shirt had a weird japanese-looking logo and an image of a feather with blood splattered on it. She was wearing black nylons and FM pumps. She even had a leather choker with rivets, a dainty version of the spiked beast collar she had given to Jane a lifetime – two nights – ago. This was rocker-Maura and she looked good enough to eat.

Jane tried to kick-start her brain and it commented on the first thing she could focus on: Mauras chest.

"What's on the shirt?"

"Strapping Young Lad, a Canadian band. They're brilliant."

"Never heard of them."

"That's because you are a Def Leppard kind of girl, and these people are far beyond metal."

"You never cease to amaze me."

"I wasn't honest yesterday, Jane."

"What?" her heart sank like a stone.

"I do have a running tab at Shock." She gestured to her outfit.

"Oh."

"I thought about us, and I can't stand the idea of doing this half-hearted or slow. All in, Jane, right now. Are you coming with me?"

"Yes." The word came out so easily, and pulled all her fears and misgivings with it like the tail of a kite. She was suddenly completely calm and ten pounds lighter.

"OK, folks. I'm claiming this woman for myself. It's official." And Maura leaned forward and put a ring on her left ring finger. It was silvery, and had tiny writing around the outside. Jane brought the hand up to her face to read the script. It said "property of Maura Isles". She looked up just as Maura closed in and gave her a kiss that made her brain seize up again. The subjects cheered. Susie was crying and smiling at the same time. Jane recognized a real ambush when she saw it.

"Mwah! Hands off for the rest of you, until otherwise notified. Quietly ogling is still OK, by popular demand. We're going for lunch, see you in... two hours or so. Maybe three."

"Where are you going?"

"We are off to cause a scandal at le Beau Truc, and then Jane has some explaining to do about a wedding dress she was staring at yesterday. See you later." Maura looped her arm around Jane's and walked her out of the morgue.

It didn't feel weird at all.

Final story notes:

The jacket-and-jeans combo is loosely based on the look and walk of Alannah Myles in her "Still got this thing" video, minus shoulder pads and chaps of course.

The all-leather combo owes something to Motoko Kusanagi (the jacket, which she wore with rolled sleeves) and a swedish company who made leather jeans with a jodhpurs pattern for bikers. They looked strange but hot on ladies, less so on gents.