A/N: Sorry it's been forever since I've updated this story, but updates should be back to a regular schedule! Disclaimer: I don't own Rizzoli & Isles.

xxx

When the duo arrived at the precinct, Jane was immediately intercepted by Frost before she could enter the homicide unit.

"Come on, Frost, I'm not in the mood for questions. Move please so I can get started on this case."

"Jane, you're not on this case."

"What the hell do you mean I'm not on this case? Korsak!" She saw her old partner making his way to his desk, and dodged Frost so that she could investigate the situation further. Before she reached him, Korsak began to raise his hands in protest to the questions and accusations he knew were about to come flying out of her mouth. Maura was still by her side, but hadn't yet felt it was appropriate for her to reason with Jane. She knew the brunette needed to release some of that fiery Italian energy before anything the doctor could say would get through to her. Maura waited patiently for the right time to intervene while Jane obnoxiously waved her hands around, offering the perfect visual to accompany her tone. As Maura took in the surroundings of the precinct, she noticed someone who looked very familiar being led down the hall in handcuffs by two uniformed officers. Now she needed to speak.

"Jane..."

The detective was unable to hear her because she was still ranting to Korsak about how they had no right to pull her from the case.

"Jane." She spoke a little louder, with a firmer tone this time. Still nothing.

"Jane!" Black curls whirled around as Jane quickly turned to face Maura.

"What?!" One look at Maura and she knew she shouldn't have taken it out on her. "Dammit.. I'm sorry. What is it?" She shook her head and rubbed her temples with the thumb and index finger of her left hand.

"I think what detectives Korsak and Frost were trying to tell you is that the suspect is your ex-fiancee. I just saw two officers leading Alex down the hallway in handcuffs towards an interrogation room."

Jane stood still, looking at Maura with a blank expression for a moment before turning back to Korsak. "You gotta be shitting me. She couldn't have done this, she was in D.C. all weekend! You gotta let her go. Her alibi's solid."

"Janie, I wish it were that easy. Found her prints on a gun that was left near the scene. Waiting on the lab to determine if the bullet lodged in his chest matches that gun." Jane flashed a pleading look towards Maura.

No verbal communication was necessary. Maura stepped closer to Jane and placed her hand on the detective's forearm to comfort her. "I'm on it, Jane. I'll have an answer for you within the hour granted the crime techs have done their job efficiently thus far." Jane gave her a small smile and dark brown eyes offered an unspoken 'thank you.'

Once Maura turned and headed for the lab, Frost took the opportunity to lead Jane to a more private place to discuss the details of the case. When they entered an empty interrogation room, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small plastic ziplock bag with a diamond logo stamped on it. Jane recognized the baggie and immediately grabbed it from Frost, her eyes were full of questions she already knew the answers to.

"This can't be possible, Frost. The Dealer was murdered in D.C. a couple of months ago. This has to be old."

"Jane, it can't be that old for it to be in this good of condition. Raphael says the coke that was found inside of it was definitely top of the line. Think about it, The Dealer hasn't been in Boston since all that went down with Alex years ago. This baggie couldn't have survived all that time in this good of shape; and even if it did, what are the odds that it would just happen to wash up at our homicide scene?"

Jane couldn't offer any logical rebuttal. Frost was right, as much as she hated to admit it in that moment. She kept her eyes focused on the baggie, which she now held in her left hand while her eyes studied it as if it could offer her all the answers she needed.

"How long before this case gets kicked to the drug unit?"

"Until we prove that it's definitely a drug-related murder."

"Good. I'll let Maura know."

xxx

Jane entered the morgue a few hours later to find Maura dressed in black scrubs with that goofy lamp and those dorky glasses strapped to her head, leaning over the victim examining every detail. Despite how terrible her work day had gone so far, just seeing Maura that invested in her work was enough to make Jane smile. Of course, it helped that she was wearing the black scrubs. Those were always Jane's favorite.

Without looking up from the body, Maura greeted Jane. "You should learn to walk without dragging your feet. That's why you have such poor posture." She looked up to smile at Jane.

Jane was too concerned with trying to accept that her ex-fiancee might be a murderer to offer a witty reply to Maura's comment, so she simply returned a warm smile of her own.

"Got anything for me yet?"

"Pertaining to the case or otherwise?" Maura gave her a mischievous grin.

"The case, Maur... for now." Maura smiled at a glimpse of Jane's personality shining through in spite of the difficult situation she found herself in.

"In that case, yes." She began walking toward two baggies similar to the one Frost showed Jane earlier. "These tiny plastic bags were found at the crime scene. The one on the left was found in the victim's clothing. The one on the right was found at the scene like the one I'm sure Frost has shown you by now." Jane studied the two baggies on display.

"Wait a minute. This one on the left... the diamond has different markings than the one on the right."

"...which is precisely what I was about to say!" Jane loved when Maura showed that much enthusiasm about a case. It was refreshing to her to know that someone else got such a thrill over cracking a case and connecting the dots.

"So are you saying we've got a copycat dealer trying to pass off his drugs as The Dealer's?"

"I wouldn't quite speculate that, Jane. The markings on the victim's baggie are different than the one on the right, but all the others are identical."

"So we've got two competing copycats. Got it." Jane began to turn and leave the morgue, satisfied with Maura's findings so far, but Maura spoke up to stop her.

"Jane this isn't a copycat. I compared the markings to the original seal on The Dealer's baggies. It's a perfect match. Also, there was only a trace of cocaine in original baggies. The rest were never used, but appeared to have been scattered around the crime scene-"

"-to send a message." Maura watched as the figurative wheels turned in Jane's head. Jane gave a slight nod, as if to reassure herself of the theory that had just been formulated. She stepped closer to the doctor, placed her hand on the back of Maura's neck and gave a chaste kiss to her forehead before leaving the morgue.

xxx

That afternoon, Jane and Maura were already exhausted from trying to determine a solid connection between Alex and the murder. They sat in the coffee shop while Angela served them coffee, tea, and sandwiches for a late lunch. Maura had been meaning to ask Jane how she was doing with Alex being held in police custody, but she already knew. She could see it on Jane's face. She was confused, and she felt betrayed and angry and she wasn't sure why. That bothered Jane because she never felt angry for no reason. Sure, she got mad easily, but it was always for a reason. She knew there had to be something behind all of this, but the fact that she couldn't quite put her finger on it yet bothered her. Maura could see all of this, and Jane recognized it.

"Girls do you need anything else?" Angela's voice brought them out of the comfortable silence they shared.

"Yeah, a new round of crime techs that will do their job the first time they're asked." Jane's voice rose as she became more enthusiastic in describing how incompetent the crime techs were. "I mean honestly, who 'forgets' to check in with ballistics? Seriously?" She let out a big puff of air through her nose and took another sip of coffee.

"To answer your question, Angela, I'm fine. Thank you though." Maura smiled at Angela as if to apologize for Jane's outburst. Stanley called Angela back to the register, and Maura took that opportunity to lighten the conversation and discuss something that had been weighing on her mind throughout the day.

"Jane, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, Maur."

"Would you consider us to be a couple?"

Jane's face turned red, prompting Maura to believe she had said something wrong. "I'm sorry - I shouldn't have brought it up. Just forget I said anything. We don't have to be if you don't wa-"

Jane placed her hands on top of Maura's giving them a soft squeeze of reassurance. Her signature Jane Rizzoli grin began to make its way across her lips. "Yes. I would consider us to be a couple. I just didn't think I had to say it. Not that I mind saying it. I just thought you knew." Her voice grew softer as she spoke. She realized Maura was slightly embarrassed at her ineptitude in reading social cues, especially ones as important as this. Not wanting her girlfriend to feel ashamed, she continued, "I should have told you what I wanted out of this. I should have been more clear. But this all has happened kinda fast. I'll do better next time." Maura looked into dark brown eyes, knowing it was the truth.

Just then, Maura's phone began to buzz. Jane looked at her expectantly.

"The ballistics results for Alex's gun came back. It's a match."

xxx

"Frost I'm not asking. Let me talk to her. Now." Jane was pacing outside Alex's interrogation room with a set jaw and clenched fists.

"Jane, she asked for a lawyer! Even if you weren't banned from this case, I still wouldn't be able to let you talk to her. You know that!" Jane didn't reply, but kept pacing back and forth. Back and forth. Frost knew this meant she was thinking of some kind of plan to inevitably have her way.

"Okay. Here's what we'll do. You interrogate her once her attorney gets here." There it is, Frost though. "I'm gonna give you a list of questions to ask." She sat down and began to write questions down on a legal pad.

"She's barely said a word since we brought her in. What makes you think she's gonna talk?"

"Well what has she told you so far?"

"Nothing really. But she's sticking to her story that she was working undercover for the feds. She won't even really tie herself to the crime scene. She just keeps repeating that she was working for the feds. Her badge checks out."

Jane tossed the legal pad and pen back onto the table in front of her and started fidgeting with her hands. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah, I didn't think it did either, but-"

"No, Frost. She hadn't started working for them yet. That's why she was in D.C. this weekend. She was supposed to be getting everything finalized so that she could start in another month. They hadn't given her a badge yet."

"Jane, I cross-checked every database multiple times. The badge number, her I.D...everything is legitimate. She had been working with them since a month after she was pronounced dead and moved into witness protection."

Jane's body seemed to know exactly what she needed at the moment, and she made her way to the Maura's office without another word to Frost. By the time she reached the door, she was struggling to hold back tears. She was about to raise her hand to knock on the doorframe, but Maura sensed her coming and motioned for her to come in as she ended a phone call. Jane nervously played with her hands as she made her way to Maura's couch. The doctor had noticed Jane seemed distraught upon her arrival, and quickly put down the phone to make her way to her girlfriend.

She sat to Jane's left and placed one hand on the detective's back, the other on her left hand. "Jane, what's wrong?"

Jane began to sniffle and a tear threatened to fall from her right eye. "I can't cry about it. I can't give her the satisfaction."

"Who, Alex? Did something happen?"

Jane laughed cynically. "Yeah, Maur. Everything happened. She lived a whole other life without me."

Maura didn't want to pressure Jane to talk about it and upset her further. Instead, she began rubbing small circles on Jane's back to calm her while she waited for her to continue at her own pace.

"Frost found out she hadn't actually been in witness protection for as long as she said. She's been working with the feds since a month after we held her funeral. They cleared her, picked her up, and somehow everything she's been working on has led to this case. I don't even know how to begin sorting all this out, Maur. And who knows what she's actually been doing in D.C. when she was supposed to have been preparing to start working with the feds."

Maura's left thumb began mimicking the actions of her other hand, tracing circles on Jane's scar. Oddly, Jane had found that when Maura did that there was no pain at all. But anyone else could so much as look at her hands and she could feel Hoyt stabbing her all over again. She thought the effect Maura had on her was odd and a little scary at times, but she loved it.

"You know what the worst part is, Maur?"

"What's that, Jane?"

"She knew how she left me, and she never bothered to tell me what really happened. She knew that she left me in Boston to grieve her for three years, Maura. She never made any effort to let me - her fucking fiancee - know that she was even alive. Three years of my life were wasted crying over somebody that never gave a damn about me in the first place."

"Well I'm glad you recognize that you deserved better than how she treated you all that time. And it's perfectly reasonable for you to resent her because she could have offered you the closure you needed."

Jane leaned into Maura so that her head rested on Maura's right shoulder. She wrapped her arms around the smaller woman's waist and pulled her in close.

"I love you." It was so quiet that Maura barely heard it escape her lips. Maura lifted Jane's face so that she could place a soft kiss on her lips.

"I love you too, Jane." After a moment to take in each other's embrace, Maura spoke again. "It's almost five. Technically you're not even supposed to be on this case, which leaves you with no other real responsibilities other than filing paperwork for your last one. I can give my last lab to Susie, and we can head out the Robber if you'd like."

"I think I'd rather just go home." Maura began to frown, and that didn't go unnoticed by Jane. "Home with you, I mean. Home is with you, Maur." Jane stood up from the couch and lowered her hands to help Maura up and then pulled her into another hug. She placed a kiss on Maura's forehead as they hugged. "Let's get outta here."

xxx

TBC