"Frank yes." Maura looked down to the naked woman on the table in front of her. "I'm sorry but this area is closed to visitors." She pulled gently at the thin sheet at Carla Jepsin's waist. With a small nod to his visitors pass poorly stickered to his beige jacket Maura motioned to her office. "Perhaps my office?"

Frank must have noticed the body because he visibly tensed. "She's dead right?"

Maura took her gloves off and stepped around the table to obstruct his view. She forgot sometimes that dead bodies made people uncomfortable, that and she felt obligated to protect young Carla's signity a little, after all she had been splayed out for everyone to gawk at in death, that wouldn't happen here. "She is." She motioned to her office. "This way?"

Frank Rizzoli nodded as he followed her slowly and entered the very out of place yet stylishly adorned medical examiner's office. "I didn't mean to interrupt your work, Maura." He always found Maura odd, slightly off if he were really to put a finger on it, but Jane had taken to her so quickly. It wasn't that Maura wasn't nice, no Frank enjoyed having her over for Sunday dinners early on in the two's friendship but working on dead bodies like this couldn't be healthy and if he were really dialing in he'd acknowledge the bit of resentment he held for her for taking his family away.

But there was no dialing in when you downed three beers to get the courage to confront your daughter at her place of work was there?

He seldom made a habit of it anyway.

Maura studied his inability to maintain attention before motioning for him to sit. "Please, anything for the Rizzoli's." She hadn't meant for it to come out as knowing as it did. His ex-wife was living with her after all and his daughter well… she and Jane had kissed, well she had kissed Jane…twice Maura shook her head at her trailing thoughts. "What can I help you with, Frank?" She took a seat opposite him and that was the point when the very obvious aroma of cologne masking fermented wheat finally registered.

"I came to see Janie, but they said she was down here." He looked around the office curiously. "When she got hired she took her mother and me on a tour, she was so proud… You uh, haven't seen her have you?" He looked back to Maura after scanning the office. Maura noted how he swayed slightly with the scan.

Maua nodded. "You just missed her, she's working a case."

"I went by her apartment last night and she wasn't home." He brushed invisible debris from his jaw.

"She was with me." Frank gave her a strange look. "At my home, we had plans…" She further explained.

"You're protective of my girl."

Maura felt it was an accurate assessment even considering his mild inebriation. "I am." She straightened out a wrinkle that had just began to form on her blue scrub pant.

"You think I'm here to hurt her huh?"

Maura blinked. Yes that was exactly what she thought. "I… think she is shocked by seeing you again." Not a lie.

"You guys are always together; it'd be nice for Janie to settle down." Frank shrugged. "You too, doc."

Maura nodded. "Well it hasn't been for lack of trying, Frank." She let out a polite chortle while checking the time on the wall; it was possible Jane were still in the building perhaps if she were able to ring her. "Would you like some coffee?"

He shook his head at an offensive thought completely ignoring the pathologist's invitation. "Jane maybe not, y'know all my kids got some kind of hang-up, I blame their mother really. She spoiled them rotten." He went on sluggishly "Janie, she's too bullheaded to compromise on anything, she probably scares half the men this side of Boston, how's se gonna get married if she scares 'em.?" He reclined in his seat and sighed heavily.

Maura stood. "I'll go make us some."

##

Jane stopped the buzzing phone at her hip for the third time and motioned to their surroundings. The once lit street she had chased Edgar Knowles down was shadowed with late evening and speckled with traditional suburban street lamps save for the one she and her brother stood under. "It's kinda perfect huh?" Frankie asked before looking over at his sister.

Jane nodded and looked into the darkness passed the large overgrown street that jutted out right before the next working light in front of Knowles residence. "Not low visibility, no visibility. He could literally carry a body through the front door and neither neighbor would notice."

They had decided to start as Edgar would, begin at his home and drive to the closest ex-place of employment. Evening traffic had slowed them down considerably and Jane finally resigned in the fact that she was going to be more than thirty or so odd minutes late to the hour long class with Maura, she needed all her attention here and though it had proved harder than she liked to admit she spoke case facts with her brother the entire way to get herself here.

"Alright so we know he worked at night…." Frankie looked around them. "Which store is open at night?"

Jane shook her head. "No, which place is closed at night. He'd had to have had credentials to access whatever area he hid the body in, but the places he worked aren't like this place. They are public, open spaces, with parking lots and security cameras. He may have taken the bodies here but to stage them he had to have been somewhere where he could manipulate them to be private when it was public." Jane raised her flashlight and slowly walked toward the house while Frankie pulled out his tablet. "What's the closest?" She asked as she took her time to notice things about the house she hadn't had the time to notice before, like the boots on the ground near the front door, there were two of them one seemingly bigger than the other and in no way fitting their five foot four inch tall offender. Jane dragged her flashlight across the doorframe and then paused and leaned closer.

"Alright you got the pharmacy although hat's twenty four hours receiving is only from five to eight, that's the closest location, maybe he was able to come at a time when they weren't receiving—"

Jane tone came fast and hushed. "Frankie?"

"Wha?"

Jane looked back at him but made sure to hold her flashlight in place near the lower part of the doorframe right below the doorknob. "That look like scratches to you?"

Frankie squatted and leaned in closer. "Yeah." He reached forward but Jane stopped him.

"Hold on, we gotta get CSU down here again."

"The initial photos didn't show this." He shook his head. "They did a sweep twice for anything remotely off." They both stood to their normal heights.

Jane pulled out her cell phone with one hand and motioned with her flashlight to the other. "Korask, I think we got our second guy, get down here… Yeah." She hung up before motioning to her brother and his tablet. "Put that damn thing away." She grabbed her gun. "Think you can kick this thing in?" She whispered lower this time while motioning the nose of her weapon at the door.

Frankie was already holding his firearm forward. "What? You can't?"

Jane regarded the door with her flashlight. "Well it should be unlocked at the bottom, but I'm pretty sure Knowles had a deadbolt."

"So we've got company if it's dead bolted." Jane nodded and looked around. There was only one way in and only way out, she supposed it made keeping someone captive fairly simple that way. None of the yellow crime scene tape had been disrupted nor were there any new tire marks on the ground around them that she could see. "Twenty bucks says you can't."

Jane looked back at him quickly. "You're on Momma's boy. On my count."

Frankie positioned himself so he could flank left once the door was opened. His heart was racing and his chest vibrated with it as a fluttering moment of childhood nostalgia of playing cops with Jane hit him then. "Say when, Janie."

##

Maura took a slow sip of her chamomile tea and blindly rested her mug back onto her coffee table later that night. She was clad in her silk pajama bottoms and a simple white shirt relaxing on her couch covered with a blanket indulging in some light bedtime reading when she heard the front door to her home began to jingle. Maura Isles looked up with a brief sense of reality as she realized she was alone at home until she realized no burglar would know her first door's security code or have the second door's key unless she had given it to them. The ME turned to the next page of Enzyme Property a short story filled with bad puns and medical jokes written by a colleague of hers turned real estate broker. She chuckled softly at the illustration before looking up again when the front door was finally opened. She could make out the shuffling of bags and then a wooden drawer opening and being filled with something and then closing before Jane appeared looking rather sheepish and holding bags in both arms.

"You're still up." She was hoping by now Maura had just gone to sleep.

It was eleven forty five at night.

Way past seven.

Way way way past seven.

Maura smiled softy at her as she closed her book against her lap. "I was on my way." She tiled her head as Jane came to sit on the couch with all of her bags. "What's this?"

"Well." Jane began slowly. She took in Maura's relaxed features and realized with a sigh of relief that she wasn't upset. "I missed our thing." Jane looked around. "By a lot."

Maura nodded slowly. "Two lots."

Jane smiled at her apologetically. "By five lots even."

"What happened with Knowles?"

"We got him."

Maura nodded. "I knew you would."

"You didn't go to that class did you?"

Maura smiled. "No."

"We're rescheduled aren't we?"

"Absolutely."

Jane winced. "Saturday?"

"Eleven thirty."

"Before twelve!?"

Maura actually chuckled. "Jane."

"Alright alright, I'm just asking because unlike you Jettlag Junkie some people really do value their sleep."

"I can assure you I'm not enjoying this. I've maintained proper hydration for two days now and I still feel…awake." Maura sighed with her shoulders before changing her attention and leaning forward to peer into the bags at Jane's feet. "What have you brought me in apology?"

Jane smirked as she reached into the first bag. She was truly running fumes, but she was glad she decided to stop by the local grocery store before they closed because it had given her a chance to decompress after the vicious scene she and her brother had run into; suicide with a full written confession with details to the whereabouts of the other victims and a homicide: Knowles partner's last victim. Rose O'Grady, 22, she had still been warm when they found her meaning that though Jane had enough to put away a bad guy for good, one got away and took an innocent woman's life that could have been stopped.

It was a win tonight, but it felt like a loss to Jane.

She didn't want to be alone, and she also knew that the class that she had missed symbolized something between her and Maura, and once again the rescuing theme of her life's work getting in the way of her life floated to the surface and rippled slowly throughout her entire consciousness.

Jane rifled through the bag. "I brought hemp cookies, and gelato, and…" She continued through the bag and pulled out a six pack of beer. "Beer for me."

Maura chuckled and took the six pack away from her to place it on the table beside her favorite hemp cookies and the pear gelato. "Yes, of course."

"That was to cope if you weren't all too pleased with me." Jane joked as she continued to pull items out of the bags. Maura stilled. "And… let's see, oh! Those little cheese puffs made from peas and carrots. I wasn't sure which one would taste worse, so I got both…" Jane glanced at her and then did a double take when she realized Maura's face. "Hey listen, they didn't have beat flavor, I wasn't about to drive away from here to…What is it?"

"I have to tell you something." She regarded Jane seriously.

Jane straightened up and placed the bag of faux cheese puffs beside the six pack. "Alright."

"Your father stopped by today to see you…."

Jane narrowed her eyes. "Stopped by where? To see me where?"

She rested a hand on Jane's arm naturally in an effort to calm her. "The morgue—"

"How in the hell did he get to the morgue?"

"I'm not certain." Maura shook her head. "He had a visitors pass, Jane."

"Oh great, good, so any Joe off the street who may or may not be armed or who could just end up being a dead beat father can just stroll in there, go shopping in the evidence locker, tamper with evidence, fondle bodies whatever because they have a visitors pass!"

"Jane."

"Maura."

"Evidence wasn't tampered with and I assure you none of our guests were…fondled."

Jane tried to lower her temper some to match Maura's cool. "Did you call security?"

"He's your father."

"I don't care if he's Tom Brady—"

"—Angela has visited me in my office—"

"—Which she walks through from the other way. No one is supposed to go down the way the dead bodies do, that doesn't work for BPD, did you put in an incident report?"

Maura shook her head. Another procedure she had broken for Jane. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because Jane he just wanted to speak to you." Jane huffed. Maura furrowed her brows as she got lost in her own emotions on the matter. It had complexly inconvenienced her autopsy schedule and she was left feeling emotionally exhausted and not to mention a little insecure afterward. "You had just gone up to leave and I was distracted while working and thought it was you initially—"

"How?"

"You have a strikingly similar heel toe strike pattern…well stomp really."

Jane sank back into the couch. "Great."

"I tried calling you."

The detective ran a hand through her hair with recognition. "Frankie and I were on a scene…" She looked over at Maura suddenly cooling down fully and reevaluating the situation. She was way too tired to stay at that height for long, but she damn sure wasn't going to let this slide. Jane lazily cast a hand out to Maura's leg and covered her knee. "Did he wreck anything? Spill anything?"

Maura shook her head before resting a hand on top of Jane's. "We had a coffee, and I escorted him upstairs."

"That's it? Are you okay?"

Maura nodded. "I'm fine."

Jane nodded slowly to herself before looking to Maura again and shaking her knee gently. "What'd you guys talk about?"

"How much he loves you." Maura smiled at her knowing her answer would cause one of Jane's classic eye rolls.

"Barf, was he drunk?"

"…"

"Maura." Jane raised a brow. "Maura." Her name climbed a decibel and earned an extra syllable.

"No, he was not drunk."

Jane removed her hand from Maura's knee to support herself sitting up on the couch. Okay so they were playing this game again. "Well in your professional medical opinion had he seemed as though he might have maybe had a few to drink?"

"…It's possible…." Jane crossed her arms. "Yes, it seemed so; however I don't think he was heavily intoxicated." Jane exhaled slowly and loudly before running a hand down her face. "Save that for Saturday." Maura tried to joke but Jane just remained in a state of concentration. "Tomorrow." She tried again softly before running her right hand along the detective's back from shoulder to shoulder. She hated seeing her like this.

Jane took her head from her hands to look over at her friend. The gentleness of her touch was welcome but she couldn't help but maintain her agitation. "He can't just show up to my job drunk and harass you, Maura."

She did see how that could be unsustainable for their father daughter relationship. "I didn't feel harassed."

Jane snorted softly. "It's not okay, even if you say it is. It's clear we need ground rules here. He needs to know he can't just push his way back into our lives."

"How long is he in town for?" She took her hand away from comforting Jane who looked at her curiously in response before nodding to herself when Maura used it to reach for her tea.

"He told you about that job huh?"

"Yes." She took a sip and motioned to it. "Would you like some tea?"

"No, thanks though." Jane relaxed back onto the couch and sighed again. "He's going to New York in a few weeks."

"Permanently?"

Jane shrugged as she looked at the ceiling fan. "I guess so, but we were permanent and he didn't have us around long?"

"Well this would mean there is room for a relationship of some kind. You had a happy childhood and he was a large part of the reason why. You don't have to reconcile the past because of how things are now."

"I know…." She looked over at her quickly as a small smile played at her lips. "Thanks, Dr. Phil."

Maura shook her head in slight amusement Jane was defecting but she would let her for now. "I am only trying to help."

"I know Maur… Thank you, for getting him coffee and…y'know listening to his crap for me. You did do it for me right?"

"Well yes, firstly." She nodded but it began to slow; a telltale sign that the doctor had anterior thoughts that borderlined misinformation.

Jane quirked an eyebrow. "Firstly?"

"I was sick with varicella for my rotation on family planning and social work, there was a lecture on addictions that week too that had turned out to be fascinating or so I heard." She shrugged before taking another sip.

Jane just stared at her not knowing where to even begin. Something tugged at her brain's collar though to tell her that Maura was messing with her yet again, the doctor had been getting eerily good at sarcasm. Jane knew she could only blame herself. "Ok what is varicella? But before you even go full google you cannot study my family dynamics by entertaining my drunk father, Maura."

She chuckled. "It wasn't my first motivation, Jane that was you."

"What'd you grow elf ears and a fever or something?"

"It's commonly known as chickenpox." Jane made a face. "I contracted it rather late in life."

"Hm."

"It was rather uncomfortable."

"Ma put Tommy, Frankie and I in a tub together so we'd all get it as kids, had it for a few days and then it was gone."

She took another sip of her tea. "I don't think showering with my other fellows would yield much of a cure."

Jane nodded. "Nah I don't think so."

"Everything will be clear in the morning you know." She could still see the worry on Jane's face. It nestled itself right underneath the bags under her eyes. "Think of all the good you have done today instead." She nudged the taller woman softly.

Jane nodded slowly but then shrugged as if convincing herself of a job well done was just too much. She rubbed at her hands for a moment before looking over at Maura. "Y'know I'm starting to feel as though maybe I made a mistake in turning down the full time position with the FBI." Maura didn't say anything at first which caught Jane's attention. She reached a hand out to her knee again. "Maura." She said quietly as they locked eyes. "You know I would miss you too much to last there anyway right?"

Maura chuckled softly, her cheeks flushed under Jane's intense gaze. "That wasn't why I hesitated to respond, Jane."

Jane blushed now too. "Oh." She moved to move her hand but Maura quickly put her right hand over Jane's left to keep it against her knee. "You know sometimes I don't think you know how magnificent you are, not just to me." Jane looked away shyly but then forced herself to look back at the doctor. Maura had the same look in her eyes she did at the airport; Jane didn't really have one set word for it but the detective decided then that she liked it. She liked when Maura looked at her like she was proud of her, it sounded cheesy but it honestly made her feel special, and when you were special to a woman who literally knew everything that had to mean something right?

"You're not going to kiss me again are you?" Jane teased if only to get a handle on the butterflies in her stomach that such a look caused. How could she feel so comfortable with someone yet so off balance at the same time?

Maura chuckled. "Jane."

"What? I just had this sandwich with all these onion for dinner—"

Maura shook Jane's a hand on her knee vigorously to get her attention. "What I am trying to say is that you love being a cop and though I agree that you should not close yourself off to other opportunities, you know in your heart what makes you happy, and it's your work. Everyone sees that, everyone who you help is impacted by that."

Jane sighed "I'm missing so much though—"

"Like?"

"TJ, and and more Sox games…and I'll probably miss my brother's wedding, and when you become a famous author book readings in all the languages you know." They laughed. "I don't know Maura, I just feel like even though we won, we lost, how do I deal with that? It used to never be an issue…"

Maura pursed her lips together thoughtfully. "…Loosing interest in the things you normally enjoy…"

Jane pulled her hand away from Maura's knee only to get up from the couch and pad into the kitchen. Once there she yanked open a drawer and pulled out two spoons. "I'm not depressed, Maura."

"Well something is obviously creating a chemical imbalance that is making you feel this way." She watched Jane come back into the living room and plop down on the couch beside her.

"I thought feelings were just feelings." She reached for the sweating pint of pear gelato and fought to open it. "Sometimes you have good ones and sometimes you have bad ones."

"That's a very elementary way of thinking of them." Maura took the pint away from her when she noted the continuous struggle and twisted it open easily. "And you are eating yours."

Jane snatched the container back playfully before digging into it with one of her spoons. "My doctor says I should gain weight anyway." Jane closed her eyes briefly as the sweet and pleasantly tart ice melted like butter on her tongue. She motioned the container toward Maura and the other woman hesitated before reaching for the second spoon.

"Well if it would make you feel any better I have moments where I wonder how long I will do the work that I do now."

Jane raised a brow as she rolled the gelato around on her tongue. "Oh yeah?"

"Yes certainly." Jane motioned the pint in her direction again and she paused to scoop out a reasonable amount. "I've always envisioned a dynamic life for myself. "

"Well we're not getting any younger are we?"

"No, but that doesn't mean anything really right?" She reached for another scoop over Jane's arm. "If we were programed to age and stop learning new things physiologically speaking the brain would stop all production of valuable learning synapses instead of slow them some." Jane watched as Maura sucked gently on her spoon as she relaxed into the sofa. "The last well-funded study on learning done at BCU by Morgan and Davis was conducted about a year ago and though it yielded promising results on the body under duress and learning it yielded very little on the longevity of those neurological connections. It's interesting because no matter how old the subject was learning universally was nearly impossible without a tranquility of the mind. Children had difficulty sustaining attention leading to poor results and adults with more emotional control were able to access a level of meditation while learning which implies nothing but positive connections between aging and learning…" She paused and looked over at Jane. "I'll send you the article."

Jane was still working her way through the first thousand she had sent to her personal email account. The detective reached for the pint of gelato that somehow made it into the shorter woman's hands. "Learn good. Stress bad."

Maura chuckled. "It was an interesting article."

"Mhm." Jane shook her head and smiled to herself as she moved about a chunk of stewed Anjou inlay. "Thanks." She said suddenly when she looked up at Maura's face. "You googling somehow always makes me feel better."

Maura shrugged gently and watched Jane go back to her gelato. "You know what?"

She was caught working on a particularly large mouthful. "Hm?"

"I think you are the only person to think so."

Jane paused to finish her mouthful before wiping the back of her hand across her mouth much to the medical examiner's dismay. "Well everyone else is crazy Maura, you know that."

She smiled. "Yes."

"Good."

"Some actually were crazy,"

Jane chuckled. "I think the craziest by far was Byron. Ugh! Just thinking about him again makes me want to ditch this and grab some kale, just so I never ever have to see 'us' again."

Maura laughed. "Really? Not the actually mentally disturbed Dennis Rockman?" She shivered at the memory but successfully hid it from the other woman.

Jane put her socked feet up on the coffee table and waved her spoon. "Mmm…..yeah no, Byron was worse."

"Byron was actually very sweet."

"Stop it."

"He was." Maura reached for the pint from Jane. "You never gave him a chance."

Jane beckoned for the container back once Maura had her spoonful. "Maura because he has seen me naked, and he has literally cut into my body AND because he says everything like he's talking to a toddler."

"When you are sick you are a toddler."

Jane licked her spoon. "I wasn't sick."

"You shot yourself in the stomach, Jane."

Jane fished for more stewed pear in the pint and shrugged. "Eh."

Maura shook her head. "Unbelievable, you know maybe I should call him?"

Jane continued her hunt. "Psh, he's not taking you back." Maura jabbed her playfully in the arm. "Ow!" Jane glared back.

"That didn't hurt."

Jane's glare turned smirk. "You're right, unless you think a million pillows are painful."

"Ninety percent of strangulation with pillows were successful." She warned.

Jane shook her head. "You're lying."

"I am not."

Jane laughed and motioned to a spot on Maura's chin with her spoon. "Hive."

"That's not a hive!" They grinned at one another "It's a premenstrual hormonal imbalance that causes—"

"Ah! Maura no period talk while I'm eating."

"My gelato by the way." She grabbed the container back and dug her spoon in.

Jane watched her fondly, Maura ate like a bird, but when she was sad or on her way to get a visit it was always so amusing to the detective. "So if you get your period we don't have to go on Saturday right?"

"On the contrary." The doctor said in between bites. "A good meditation can be better than most over the counter pain relievers."

Jane snorted because she was pretty sure Maura was the only woman on the planet to think so. "Yeah well my old man is truly going to need to sign up for a year long circuit after I speak to him."

Maura frowned a little. "Jane, it's really fine."

She shook her head. "It isn't. He knows how I feel about you, why can't he—"

"He does?"

Jane looked at her. "Huh?"

Maura was slow to rest the pint of gelato down. "Does he know how you feel about me?"

Jane met her unsure gaze and shrugged softly as she put her hands together and leaned them against her knees. "Doesn't everyone?"

Maura blinked. "I…don't think so." Did everyone know?

"C'mon they have to by now."

She grew confused. "By now?"

Jane nodded. "You're my best friend Maura, if anyone messes with you they mess with me, and there is a reason why people don't mess with me." She nodded surely but then paused. "Oh…." Her palms grew slightly damp. "No I…uh…I'm… you…." She clamped her mouth closed and looked back at her hands. "I don't think anyone knows about….that."

Maura blushed despite herself. "That?"

Jane shook her head at herself and then waved a little. "Yeah y'know, that difference and all the um." She gulped hard and looked at her. "Differences."

"Bass knows."

Jane couldn't help but chuckle. "Damn turtle knows everything."

"Tortiose."

"Right."

"Robert asked me out."

Jane winced gently to recall the name. Ah the pilot. She wasn't sure what her face was saying now, but she could feel the familiar sting of jealousy that had been occurring for the past year now whenever Maura would mention a new guy. When presented with an opportunity to acknowledge it Jane gulped it quickly hoping it wouldn't burn on the way down. "The pilot."

"I turned him down."

"You should have said yes. You never know—"

"Jane all I could think about on the flight back was seeing you."

They fell quiet for solid minute.

"I missed you." Jane finally confessed before looking at the doctor squarely. "I know that much."

"Accepting his offer felt wrong."

Jane looked back to her hands. "So…"

"Perhaps you can take me out instead." Jane looked up at her and read her seriousness before seeing it slip into an endearing embarrassment. She hadn't meant to say it. "An experiment of sorts.' Maura recovered.

The idea made Jane chuckle. "What like dinner and a movie in lab coats?"

"It could be fun."

"Or a disaster."

"How will we know?"

Jane allowed herself to entertain the idea along with several other scenarios. Logically Maura was right; they were too close to pretend that they didn't know the other, too close to pretend that what was happening between them wasn't confusing, too close to really be negatively affected by something they would normally do together anyway but with a different title. Jane let herself smile a little. "Alright, an experiment."