"I really didn't mean to surprise you two," Angela apologised to Maura, who was moving around making breakfast for the three of them. "I was worried."

"Angela, please," Maura interrupted. "It was a simple mistake. I understand why Jane is bothered at you, but I never had a mother walking in on me and my lover, or even a friend that I may have had over, so I find it a little funny, to be honest."

"It's not funny," Jane grumbled from behind her.

"No, Angela, it's... it's not funny; not one bit," Maura said as seriously as she could without making herself laugh.

"Maura..."

"Sorry, babe."

"Well, I am sorry, and in future I won't come over, not until the smell of your decomposing bodies wafts through to the guest house because you've died and-"

"Ma, stop!"

"I'm trying to make a point, Janie."

"Well, stop making a point! It's disgusting!" She argued as she grabbed a piece of toast from Maura's plate.

"Okay."

"Well, I hate to dash and leave this absolutely marvellous conversation," Jane started dramatically. "But I have to get to work. I'll see you later." Maura turned to kiss Jane and then watched as the still tired brunette marched out the door to head off to her day off paperwork and waiting around for Dr. Pike.

"She loves you," Angela hummed after Jane left, bringing a bright pink blush to Maura's neck and cheeks.

"I love her, too," Maura whispered.

"I know. It sounds odd, but I swear there are times when you're the only one who sees the real Jane." Maura looked up from her plate of jam covered toast and into the other woman's eyes. "She hides a lot from me, as much as I try to deny it; but you know all of her. You know the secrets that she'd never dare tell me, and I think sometimes I get a little jealous."

"Oh, Angela; she tells me things that she wouldn't ever tell you because you're her mother. And whether you know it or not, mothers can seem very criticising and over protective at times, even when they try not to be."

"I know. Whenever Janie would do something and she wouldn't want me to find out, she would avoid eye contact with me. Apparently I had a look that could cause her so much guilt, without me even trying." Maura laughed along with Angela as the earlier awkwardness faded.

"She used to not tell me things too because she'd think that I'd blurt it out to you in conversation by accident; or you'd ask me for the truth and I wouldn't be able to hide it from you."

"That sounds about right. But, Maura," she waited for the blonde to look back at her. "If Janie ever tells you something that you think I should know, please tell me. I'd hate for something bad to be going on and I don't know until it's too late."

"Angela, I know. I'd tell you anything, because... well, you're like a mother to me too." Angela smiled at Maura just then letting her know that she always was part of their family, and it made her warm and tingly inside. "Sometimes I think I'm greedy because I have three mothers, but you're the one I sort of always dreamed of having. One that would play with me after school, and would ask me what I wanted to do instead of making me do things thinking they were fun."

"Maura," Angela began, reaching her arm across the counter to touch the younger woman's arm.

"I know my mother loved me, but when I talk to Jane and she talks about sports that she used to play; real sports, as she says, like baseball or football, while I played... fancy ones, it made me feel like I was missing out. I had the pricey and flamboyant childhood filled with private schools and competitions that would earn me a medal, but I never had the fun like Jane always seemed to have. If I stained my uniform, I got in so much trouble."

"So did Jane."

"But she wasn't told that ladies don't damage their uniforms, even though I was nine years old and didn't really care what a lady would do. I wanted to have fun."

"Well, now you do."

"Because of Jane. You raised a beautiful daughter, Angela."

"Thank you." Maura stood up and dusted the crumbs off her plate into the sink and placed it down, deciding not to do the dishes yet. "What do you want to do today?"

"Um, well, I'll be going back to work tomorrow, so I should really organise my things, but after that we can do something, if you like?"

"Do you want to play a board game?" Maura smiled from the inside out feeling like she'd won a 'mother-for-a-day' competition and Angela was hers until Jane came home.

"Yes, please."

Maura was going to be able to spend as much time as she likes with her mother-for-a-day as Jane was going to be stuck solving this case until the sun had set and risen again.

"So we know who this guy is, where he was killed, what he was killed with, when he was killed, but not who killed him?"

"Yep," Frankie grumbled as he flicked through the statements given by neighbours and witnesses.

"Well, that's crap," Jane said sarcastically. When she walked into BPD, Frankie was right there with their latest findings and information that could help solve the case, but then nothing. They'd figured out that their victim, Thomas Dunn, had been shot in the chest in the park behind his place, using his own weapon at exactly 10:14pm, and then dumped outside BPD headquarters the next morning, but no matter what angle they took the case from, they could not figure out who the murderer was.

Dunn had had a few enemies as most human beings do, but none said they would actually kill the guy and they all had alibis; solid alibis. The men of the block, including Thomas Dunn, got together once a month for poker and that is where they were last night. According to the group, Thomas won nine times out of ten, and hence, his enemies.

"Hey, Frankie!"

"Yeah."

"He liked poker, right?"

"Yeah, and before you ask, we're looking around for any clubs he may have gone to."

"What if he didn't go to a club? He wins nine times out of ten, right? That's pretty good."

"That's better than good, Jane," Korsak chimed in.

"What if he was gambling illegally?"

"Well, then it's going to be even harder to find his killer."

"Start searching for any underground clubs, okay?"

"On it," Frankie said as he got up and moved into BRIC.

"What else can we do?"

"His financials," Korsak stated. "If he was raking in a whole lot of money, it would show there. He wasn't in debt of any kind, and he was paying all his bills on time, so maybe he had some secret account where he kept all his winnings."

"Do you want me to do that, 'cause otherwise I can go check if Susie has anything new?"

"No, you go down; I got this." Jane nodded before standing to jump out and catch the elevator before the doors closed. When she got in, she pressed the button for the morgue and smiled politely at the uniformed cop who stood beside her.

"Sorry about Dr. Isles, Detective," he said, causing Jane to spin suspiciously toward him. "I worked with Officer Brian on occasion and I had no idea that he was like that deep down. I really am sorry."

"Don't worry, Officer," she said, relaxing a little, but still edgy due to the murderous officer's name. "That's the thing with psychopaths; they can be any one of us and we'd never know."

"I know. Give my best to the doctor when you see her next?"

"Sure," she said before he stepped out, and then she was alone again. Suddenly her palms were sweaty and she felt hot and cold at the same time. A bead of sweat burnt as it slid down the side of her forehead and dripped off her jaw to her shirt. Her head felt dizzy, so she closed her eyes, but suddenly images of Maura chained to the wall, and Brian on the floor bleeding out seeped into her mind, shattering her confidence as she dropped to the floor.

"Detective?" Susie asked, worried at the state of the stoic brunette.

"Susie?" she breathed out as the other woman helped her up.

"Are you okay?" she asked as she helped Jane to the lab to sit down.

"I just got... flashbacks... Maura chained to the wall...I don't know what happened."

"Sit down here," Susie said, tapping a stool for Jane and then moving out of Jane's view to grab her some water. Jane pressed her palms to the cold surfaces of the lab tables as she tried to calm her breathing. "Here," Susie said as she placed a cup of water in front of Jane. She drank it quickly, feeling it sooth her wired body.

She sat a few more moments as the lab techs bustled around her and Susie gathered her reports to inform Jane. When she felt more like herself, she looked up and Susie began.

"Nothing?!"

"Sorry, no."

"But there's gotta be something."

"That's it; there's nothing. And I do mean nothing."

"What?"

"No prints; not just on the gun, everywhere CSU swept; his house, his backyard, his back gate to the park; nothing."

"Which means that maybe there were prints that our killer didn't want us to find; maybe his. Thanks, Susie."

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"I am now. I might take the stairs though."

When she got back to her desk, she needed to breathe before she could talk. Maybe stairs weren't such a good idea.

"What have you got?" Frankie asked as he came out of BRIC.

"No prints anywhere."

"That doesn't help us... unless you mean no prints, at all, not even our vic's."

"Bingo. I'm thinking that our killer has been to Dunn's place; in his backyard, and I think he comes in via the back gate because there were no prints on that either."

"Well, I guess that means we get to do some more interviewing before we go home tonight," Korsak said. Jane frowned to herself, for she had been so excited about a break in this case, but that meant no Maura for a few more hours yet.