DISCLAIMER: I do not own this show, the books, or these characters. I only borrow them.

Chapter 32

Maura gazed up at Jane with wide eyes. She could only remember one other time when she was this petrified in front of her best friend.

~10 weeks into dating~

Jane and Maura were sitting across from each other at the Dirty Robber enjoying a nice leisurely lunch today as yesterday they had solved a major case. After a morning of paperwork, Jane decided that the pair needed a treat. Their food had been placed in front of them about five minutes before, and so the only sound at the table was that of Maura's silverware hitting the place between bites of her chef salad. Jane, on the other hand, needed no silverware for her big burger and fries.

Frankie walked into the Dirty Robber hoping to grab a quick lunch away from the usual cafeteria fare. His face lit up as he saw two of his favorite women in the world sitting in a nearby booth. He decided to go over and talk to the pair.

Jane was sitting so that she could watch the door. Being a cop, she hated the idea of being out of the line of sight of doors so that someone could sneak up on her. Therefore she saw him before Maura could, and she groaned and dropped the french fry that was slathered with ketchup back to the plate. "What do you want?" Her voice was a cross between annoyed and a childish whine.

Maura was curious about who could garner such a reaction from the usually poised and well-spoken Detective until she was nudged over in the booth so the the new person could sit down. She took a large drink of her water with lemon in order to block the wide smile that wanted to break out on her face when she saw Frankie.

Frankie loved that the girls sat across from each other so that he was able to slide in beside his girl and get comfortable against her side without his sister even knowing what he was doing as she just assumed it was so that he could talk to her better. He reached over to grab one of Jane's fries with his right hand while his left hand reached under the table and caressed a bare knee as Maura was wearing a gorgeous red and white dress dress today. He tried not to laugh as first his right hand was smacked away from the plate of greasy fries, and soon after his left hand was lifted gently off of the silken knee.

"I don't think so buddy, nothing comes free in life," Jane stated.

Frankie knew where this was going as he had been having similar conversations with his family for the past few weeks, ever since he let slip at a family dinner that he was serious about a girl. All the family could get from him was that she was gorgeous, smart, and that they worked fairly close so they wanted to try to see how they worked together both personally and at work before they added a new dynamic into the mix. But Jane being Jane couldn't help trying to interrogate him whenever she got the chance, "And what do you want in exchange for your cold fries?" Before his sister could answer, the waitress came by and took his order. He ordered a grilled cheese, onion rings, and a diet coke. He could see out of the corner of his eyes that Dr. Isles was dying to say something about his food choices. She poked him in the thigh instead, and now it was him taking a drink of the diet coke that was just delivered in order to hide the wide goofy smile that was about to shine and would tell Jane all she wanted to know.

"So...you mentioned a couple Sunday's ago that you were serious about a girl from work..." Jane started.

Luckily Jane was gazing intently at Frankie in order to not miss anything on his face that she missed the quick flash of panic on Maura's face before she placed on her professional mask that she used when she needed to go to court and give her expert testimony. She again poked Frankie in the thigh. This time a bit harder than before.

Frankie just grabbed hold of the attacking hand and gently grasped her hand to let Maura know that everything was fine. "Yea, what of it?" He just smiled at the exasperated look on his sister's face.

The soggy fries that were once being fought over now lay forgotten. Now it was solely about getting information out of her brother. "How about a hint?"

"I think you knowing that we work together is enough of a hint."

"Is it Erin?" Jane could see the women who worked in the hair and fibers lab as fitting the bill of being pretty, smart, and working near her brother.

"That would be more than a hint," her brother chuckled.

Jane just stared at the twinkling in her brothers eyes. Crap. She had lived with him enough to know that twinkle had more to do with him playing with her her than the fact that she had spoken the name of the love-of-his-life...not that he'd had a love-of-his-life before to really get a feel for what that might be, but it was fun to pick on him for. Her brain processed quickly to think about who else could fit the description, "How about Susie Chang?" Jane had a lot of respect for the senior criminologist who interacted more with Dr. Isles.

"Nope."

She was running out of name who were in the right age range. She knew Maura was in a relationship so it couldn't be her, not that she would have minded if her brother and her best friend got together. "Maura," The waitress came and placed the food in front of Frankie and so Jane missed the fact that the twinkle in his eyes got a bit brighter and the edges of his lips curled up in a knowing grin before he could school his face when he heard his girls name being stated. As Jane was still trying to see Frankie through the angled body of the waitress, she failed to see the panicked look on Maura's face when she thought that Jane might have guessed her name in the 'Guess Who Frankie's Dating?' game. "So where is a good pressure point to poke in order to make him talk?"

Maura halfheartedly chuckled as her heartbeat returned to normal and was glad that was the question Jane asked her rather than if she knew who Frankie was dating. She didn't look forward to passing out in front of the pair.

Frankie just laughed and grabbed the largest onion ring on the plate. "Much better than your crappy fries anyway," and he took a big bite.

Maura felt her heartbeat slowly returning to normal as she stared up at her best friend. She was starting to regret not telling her back when she was panicked at the Dirty Robber about her and Frankie. She might have been in Jane's proverbial doghouse for awhile, but they would have had a small window of time when they could have celebrated life and relationships together while they had the chance. Now she knew she was going to have to tell the Rizzolis anyway, sooner rather than later, about her relationship with their son or brother as the case may be, and the longer she waitied, she was just digging a deeper grave. She nearly sneered at the fitting metaphor.

Jane was worried about the silence from her friend. "I heard you weren't feeling well, so I came to take you home."

"Don't you have work to do?" Maura asked. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to handle being around Jane for a long time right now.

"Not really...it's desk duty. I'm pushing papers. Yesterday I thought my eyes were going to get stuck cross." Jane made both of her point in toward her nose.

"Strabismus. It's when the eye muscles don't work correctly so that the eyes can't both focus at the same place at the same time. Yours would be classified as esotropia as your eyes are turned inward. The condition is often genetic can develop after a stroke or severe trauma to the head."

Before Dr. Isles could say anything else about the condition, Jane interjected. "I wanted to bang my head on the desk all afternoon yesterday. Does that count?" At Maura's pale glare she added, "I guess not. Okay, come on, up and at 'em." She pulled Maura into a seated position and worried at the look on the still much too pale face. "You're not going to hurl again, are you?"

Maura looked up and pushed the golden brown hair behind her ear that had fallen in front of her face. "No, just give me a minute."

"Good." Another thought came to Jane and she chuckled. "Be glad that Korsak and Frost are out looking for more evidence. Frost would love to know that he's not the only one tossing his cookies over the dead." Her laugh got even louder at the confused look on Maura's face.

"I didn't have have cookies, Jane. It's not a healthy breakfast choice."

"It's an expression, Maura." After that the silence reigned for a good ten minutes until Jane finally spoke up, "So...need a ride home?"

"Sure." Maura wished to say so much more, but she didn't know how to yet. She hoped a good night's sleep might help her frazzled thought and feeling come to an understanding of what to say and do.

Jane walked back into the BPD headquarters slightly after noon due to taking Maura home and grabbing a nice lunch before she went back to work for the afternoon. She was hoping that she could get some good information from Frost and Korsak about the interesting serial case they were still working on; however, one of her least favorite things happened when she stepped up to her desk.

"RIZZOLI!"

Shit! She just walked in the door, and she was still on partial days so it's not like Lieutenant Cavanaugh could be annoyed with her for being late or anything.

"Yes, sir?"

"Get in here, and shut the door."

Jane noticed that the blinds were already drawn. This definitely couldn't be good. She wanted to start out like she often did with her Ma, with the 'I didn't do it' defense, but she couldn't even think of what to say she didn't do. Jane watched him nervously tap the pen on the desk in front of him a few times and wished he would just talk already; however, once he did, she really wished that he would have remained silent.

"It's about Hoyt."

Oh God! From the serious look on his face, she could tell it wasn't to tell her good news, like he dropped down dead in his cell. For a moment, Jane wondered if the stomach bug that Maura mentioned having on the way home was catching as her stomach was doing cartwheels. Maybe the nice lunch she had on the way back to the office wasn't a good idea. "Sir?" She couldn't think about what else to say or ask.

"He had his lawyers petition to get him out of solitary. He is citing police brutality."

"How so? When?"

Cavanaugh took a deep breath and looked at his detective. He knew she was not going to take this well. "All of it in relations to you, and with the police department as a whole since he hurt one of our own" At the shocked look in Jane's eyes he went on. "He mentioned that at the...um, first time you both met he...," the Lieutenant glanced at the paperwork in front of him to make sure he had the wording correct, even though he was fairly sure he wouldn't forget it as Hoyt and his lawyers were slimy bastards, "'feared for his life' as you were in plain clothes and you never mentioned you were the police."

"What?" Jane wondered how Hoyt can claim fear when all of his emotions are dead and affected. Her mind flashed back to that musty, dark basement, and the fear that she felt when she was laying on the floor with Hoyt poised over her with that first scalpel. "So skewing my hands and pinning me to a basement floor was what? Self-defense. That's a load of crap," Jane quickly realized that she was yelling and being a bit disrespectful and so she added a quick, "sir."

"He mentioned he was worried when someone broke into the place he was staying."

"Yea, the place that he was breaking and entering in. Not to mention was in the process of killing someone in, and his trophies of other kills were on a nearby shelf." Jane pointed off to the side as if she could still see those jars that had nearly made her as green as Frost. "How is he spinning that?"Jane didn't even bring up the fact that Hoyt had made Catherine Cordell scream so that Rizzoli heard it and come running to the rescue, and him waiting to hit her over the head with a two-by-four when she stupidly put her gun down so that she could check on Cordell.

"He's not fighting the fact that he deserves to be in jail for murder, just trying to mitigate anything dealing with you. He's then suggesting that the police and techs railroaded him to make his crimes look worse than they were because of him attacking you."

"And people are buying that?"

"It comes at bad timing since the department is already under a magnifying glass about cops not acting above board so yea...some are."

"Shit!" Jane was wondering who the bigger asshole was. Marino was for taking her brother and running all cops names through the mud, or Hoyt for his torture and terrorizing of women. This is bullshit! Jane dragged her finger halfway through her long hair before she had to give up as she reached a tangle. She sounded tired when she asked, "And what does he say about his prison break?"

"He's saying that he felt that you were the only officer that he could trust in order to apprehend the Apprentice, and if anyone clued him in he would just uproot and disappear to another location."

"That is ironic considering he supposedly was scared of me," Jane ruefully chuckled. "Plus why couldn't he have told me what he knew about the case when Frost and I went to the prison in order to talk to him? And why would he care about stopping a man that he trained?"

"He mentioned that he didn't know if he could trust the guards, so he needed to talk to you in person. Plus that he didn't train the Apprentice...he learned based on articles written on his cases."

"If that was the case, he didn't need to kill the doctors and nurses. How can people buy this crap?"

"He said he needed to get out of the hospital quickly and easily and it was a few lives for the many that he knew the Apprentice would take if he wasn't caught soon. Plus he knew that it would be a good way to get your attention."

Jane remembered the video where Hoyt lightly sliced into his palm with a scalpel as a message to her. "And tazing me in the ME van?"

"A way to get you in position to take out the Apprentice."

"Of course." Jane couldn't believe the stupidity of people if anyone actually was going to believe even an ounce of this drivel. This was just another way of Hoyt playing with his latest toy, and Jane hated it. Hated that there wasn't really anything she could do to fight back. "And about when he had Lola come after me and Frankie?"

"He said he had nothing to do with what Lola did, but he did bring up the fact that you barged into the interrogation room and roughed him up a bit." He bit his tongue to keep from telling her that he told her to keep herself away from Hoyt. He could tell from the look on Jane's face that she wasn't faring very well.

Jane closed her eyes. The day couldn't get worse. "This is ridiculous."

The lieutenant couldn't help but agree, and he thought of one more thing that would send his detective's mood spiraling down. "Oh, and Rizzoli," he went on when he had her eyes, "Dr. Zucker will be in the office within two hours. See him," he barked out.

Jane could tell that was not a request. "Yes, sir. Is that all." At his nod, she got up and walked out of the small office. She should have known that the day could always get worse...soon she would be dealing with one of her other least favorite things to do at work.

AN: Just assume it's Hoyt playing with Jane again...plus I need to figure out how to break him out of jail eventually and he's already broken out from solitary so I didn't want to repeat that.

Thanks so much for the great reviews. You make my day! Probably won't get a chapter out next week as life is going to be 'fun' for the next week.