AN: Hey y'all! I'm not gone I promise, just trying to keep balance during such an unbalanced year. I hope you all are doing well and everyone is staying safe. Please enjoy, the next chapter should be coming along soon.

KathleenDee

Jane blindly reached for her beer as she let one socked foot hang over the edge of her couch. The bases were loaded, her stomach was full, her beer was cold, and most importantly she had nowhere to be. When she first moved out of her parent's place Jane lived for these moments. The off night where she had no obligations to anyone. Back then she had no open cases while working the beat, and she certainly couldn't afford the all access sports channel she had now, but there was something so precious about the time alone after dealing with incident after incident, call after call. She needed it to decompress, now was no different. Sure, there were open cases now, and more than enough going on in her personal life to keep her mind occupied, but at least she could still steal a few hours to herself to zone out in peace.

Between commercial breaks Jane was too lazy to fast forward she thought about Tasha and their dinner tomorrow night, she thought about her father and brothers, she thought about Maura and how her body language had changed ever so subtly when her mother brought up Agent Davies and her upcoming trip to Virginia. She wouldn't be worthy of her gold badge if she hadn't noticed, but now what was she supposed to do? What could she say? Maura had been unavailable all day seemingly, so even if she had come up with something the ME was just as busy as she was. If it wasn't her getting shot and fumbling the communication ball it was her father drunkenly interrupting them, or her mother's unknowing implications. If it wasn't any of that it was dead hamsters and crime scene intakes. She knew coming back from New York would be an adjustment, but it felt like that's all they had been doing, and now she was to leave for three days…

The game came back on and Jane took a sip of her beer and let the thoughts drift away for the time being. When another break circled back she went to the restroom and returned to her couch, this time pulling a throw Maura had gotten her from Ethiopia over herself and yawned. The game went on with mild intensity, it seemed all the players on both teams must have had a lot on their minds too Jane reconned, because they sure played like it. Regardless of where her thoughts began, they all ended with Maura, so it was hardly a surprise to see her smiling face flash onto her cell phone screen moments later when she called. Jane muted her television and turned completely onto her back on the couch as she moved to answer it.

"Hey." She greeted warmly. "How was book club?" That's where she suspected she had been all evening anyway. It was the ME's every other Thursday night routine after all. Lab tech meeting with the PM crew until six, book club till eight thirty…

"I am finally seeing some reprieve from the romantic genre, Jane. Finally."

Jane chuckled. She sounded just as relieved as she did last winter when the post office promised to send her shoes at re-delivery after an intake took all night and she missed the rather thin delivery window. "Murder mystery?" She drummed her right hand over her stomach as she tried to listen for the other woman's surroundings.

"Forensic murder mystery." The doctor corrected as she neared her Prius.

"Ahhh." Jane grinned. "So now you'll get to sit at the cool kid table?"

"Precisely." She unlocked her car and checked the back seat before getting in. "They must have noticed how utterly uninterested I was during our discussions on the sexual awakening of Edna Pontellier."

"Why does that name sound familiar?"

"It's likely you were mandated to read it in grade school. The Awakening by Kate Chopin?"

Jane strained her memory. "Maybe?"

"—While important literarily speaking I loathed every moment of our last two meetings."

Jane chuckled again. She always seemed to be worked up after book club. That was because all the other highly educated women in Maura's circle wanted to read what their teenagers were reading and not the latest scientific journals Maura had already memorized. She had made a commitment to sticking with it though. "I know, Maur, I know."

Maura let out a soft sigh and smiled. She had missed her last night and today. "I can not say the experience has been completely negative." She buckled her seatbelt and started the car. After checking her mirrors, she put their call on the car speaker phone and began to drive. "My writing has improved as a result of the… Exposure to different works." It was a cool night, the suburban streets she drove on winded their way down a small hill that would lead Maura from Dr. Alice Goodwin's home in a gated community thirty minutes or so away to her own home closer to the heart of the city.

Jane nodded. "That's good. Are you still thinking about going into the woods to write and eat granola?"

A chortle escaped the doctor and she shook her head. She had grown too fond of the various names and descriptions Jane gave her writer's retreat in the Adirondacks to correct her. "Yes, I am." Jane made an amused noise on the other end and the call went quiet for a few beats. "What are you doing? It is too quiet."

Jane sat up. The ball game started back on the muted television. "That's only because I muted the tv."

Maura nodded to herself. "A baseball game?" It would explain Jane's sudden shift in attention.

"Sox against the Mets."

"We don't like the Mets."

"Eehh only because they're not the Sox. They're actually decent, and they're not the Yankees so automatically they are a better team."

"I see." Maura tried to process the logic. "How so?"

"What?"

"How is that plausible?"

"How is what plausible?"

"What you just said about the Mets."

Jane furrowed a brow at her phone. "Because, Maura."

Maura smiled. She could just imagine the little wrinkle of her right brow. "We just accept it?"

"Yeah, like cheese whiz. No one knows how they get cheese in a can, but it's good." Jane brought her full attention back to the call after a short out on the television. "You headed home?"

"I am on Cononley Avenue, yes."

Jane bit her lip. Cononley was about fifteen minutes away from Maura's home, but eight or so minutes away from her own. The idea of seeing her best friend was one she couldn't ignore entertaining. "Come over." She found herself saying. "We can… Watch the game." She scratched the back of her head. "Or anything else if you want I just had it on."

Maura hesitated. She hadn't been ignoring Jane by any means, physically speaking at least. Her day had been insanely busy just as the last. Mentally was another thing entirely though. She was sure Jane could tell. They had been best friends for nearly a decade, and in this closeness they had reached a new level of awareness toward the other. Was "watching the game" guise for talking about what happened last night with her mother? Maura wasn't convinced there was anything to really discuss. The conversation with Angela had completely ripped the floor from underneath her last night and it had nothing to do with Jane actually. It was about her feelings, and Angela's perception of them. She wasn't sure what exactly she had been trying to accomplish or prove by stating that she could take care of Jane, but in the moment it felt like the right thing to say. That even in all of her worry for her family, that she didn't have to worry so much about Jane, because they had each other. Angela for all her wisdom could never see it, and that hurt her feelings. Feelings were just that though, they were often inconsistent throughout the day and relied heavily on external biological stimuli. They could not be "hurt" in the modern definition of the word, and that comforted the pathologist on some level.

"It's cool if you say no, Maura."

Jane's voice jolted the ME back out from her thoughts. She regretted not agreeing faster, Jane actually sounded a little confused by her hesitation which did not appropriately reflect how badly she did want to see her and be close to her.

"No, absolutely. I have already made the turn."

Jane stood from her couch. "Oh… You don't have to it was just an idea that—"

"—We missed our coffee date today."

She smiled a little. "Alright then, I'll pour you a beer?" Jane was already moving toward her kitchen.

"Do you have seltzer? Maura asked hopefully. "I'm afraid I have had a minor headache today."

Jane's smile frowned. "What like a headache or a headache headache?"

Maura smiled. "I am otherwise feeling fine, Jane."

Jane opened her fridge and continued to frown. "I have ginger ale?"

"Do you have tea?"

"Yeah, I have that."

"Then that would be perfect."

They hung up and after a mad dash of cleaning Jane changed her hoody with the bleach stain on it from when she helped Tommy clean and move into his new place into a simple grey "Property of BPD" v neck. She was in the process of kicking one of her snow boots back from where it had been peeking out from under the couch when the doorbell rang.

Jane knew she had to bring up the conversation her mother tried to have with her in front of Maura the night before, she didn't want to leave for the long weekend with Maura wondering if her mother's words had gotten to her. When she opened the door and Maura smiled at her as she entered, the detective realized she didn't want to spend the long weekend without Maura period.

"Hello." The blonde drew out cutely as she gave her best friend a critical eye. "Has something happened?" Jane looked… nostalgic.

The detective closed the cold air out behind her at the front door and smiled at herself for being such a dork. "No. I um, you just caught me off guard." She tried to explain. Maura was wearing her red trench coat over a grey high waisted skirt with a simple silk blouse the color of pearl. She looked beautiful as always.

Maura began to take her coat off. "I rang the bell."

Jane rolled her eyes. "C'mere let me get that for you." She came over to take Maura's coat away and hang it up before smiling to herself some more and wrapping her arms around her when Maura surprised her with a little hug. "Hey." "Hello." They smiled at each other before leaning in to press soft kisses on the other's lips. Two to be exact. After the official greeting Jane motioned to her couch. "So baseball or something else?"

Maura took her time letting her hands run down Jane's arms as they left the embrace. She turned and watched the muted television a moment. "Perhaps we can find something we both haven't seen before." She began to step out of her heels.

Jane made her way around the couch and fell onto it. "I haven't seen this game before." She pointed out and Maura hummed gently as she tried to find a way out of it. Jane was already pulling up the tv guide though which earned her a gently shoulder squeeze in thanks from over the back of the couch. "National Geographic? Or since you just came from book club do you wanna hate watch Forensic Files again?"

Maura came over to the couch and sat down beside her. "We did not hate watch it."

"What would you call it?"

"We are professionals, it was a critical analysis of the fictitious elements of the show." She shrugged.

Jane passed her a look. "Wow Maura." The ME smiled.

Maura's smile soon turned lopsided from the weight of affection for the woman beside her as they gazed at each other for the first real moment all day. It was a sweet exchange, one she never tired of. Soon Jane's soft expression edged into a curious one and then back again into a softness that made Maura want to kiss her. She didn't though, instead she adjusted her posture on the couch and let her smile fade gently before looking away into the kitchen. The detective's knee gently nudging her own caused her to look back at her moments later though.

"How was work?" Jane asked after a moment more of silence. Something was obviously on her mind.

"Very busy." She shared. "How was your day?"

Jane nodded. "Paperwork. That store robbery is interesting though, Korsak and I ran some plates…"

"Did you receive our findings?"

"Yeah, heart attack seems to fit the surveillance tape." She paused. "You gonna stamp it?" Maura had yet to certify the autopsy.

"You have a day." She nodded. "The nature of death itself is not suspicious."

"The circumstances are."

"I do not operate under circumstantial evidence."

Jane smirked a little at that. "I know."

"Well?" Maura's features softened. She knew at times she made Jane's job harder. "What are your theories?" Jane shared she and Korsak's thoughts on the set up. That the scene was made to appear as a robbery when in all actuality the goal was to get rid of the store clerk who himself had some unsavory connections of his own that would put him on anyone's list. As Jane spoke, she got up to finish up preparing a cup of tea for the pathologist who remained seated on her couch analyzing her every word. For a moment in time nothing at all had changed between them, and it was in this normalcy that Jane felt compelled to bring up her mother.

"—I want to know who else knew he went to the heart doctor that week." Jane commented as she brought over the finished tea. She tried to fancy it up by pairing it with a few mini chocolate chip cookies on the one dessert plate she owned.

Maura took the hot mug from her. "His wife surely."

Jane came around the coffee table to sit down. "I don't think a guy like this would want his family to know he had a weak heart." She reached for her beer. "If she's anything like my mother it makes total sense to me why he'd hide it."

Maura seemed to consider this and shook her head. "I do not understand why." She took a tiny sip of her tea and sighed contently. "This is lovely, thank you." She paused before taking a mini cookie and motioning it to Jane. "I will not thank you for this however."

"What's one cookie gonna do?" Jane defended.

"Mhm." Maura chewed.

The taller of the two took another sip of her beer and then placed it on the coffee table in front of them. "So speaking of Ma." She began as she leaned her forearms on her thighs to shift her stance to a more present one. "Please tell me she cut that crap about Virginia when I left last night?"

Maura took another sip of tea before placing her mug down and dusting the invisible cookie crumbs off her skirt. "A bit." She leaned into Jane some as she tucked her right leg under herself to get comfortable and by herself some time to decide on what to say. "She is very concerned about you." She nodded.

Jane shook her head as if Jo Friday had chewed another one of her work boots. "What'd she say?"

"I'd rather not, Jane." Maura confirmed. The detective seemed quickly frustrated with the response as she reached for the remote and started flicking through channels. Maura picked up her tea again and took a few sips as she waited for Jane to settle on a documentary on space exploration. She watched out of the corner of her eye as her monogamous exchanged the remote for her beer and leaned back into the couch, lips pressed in concentration.

Four whole minutes passed.

"If she said something that offended you." Jane began softly. They had cuddled up close in their usual television watching positions two minutes ago, so Jane really did not have to project for the other woman to hear her clearly. "I need to know. I would…"

"You would what?" Maura challenged just as quietly. On the television an astronaut was explaining weightlessness. After a few seconds Jane looked at her and Maura turned to meet her gaze. "She was not aware what she said was hurtful because she is unaware of how I feel, how you feel." Jane opened her mouth to say something. "I wish you would respect my wishes to leave it be."

Jane took her time to exhale before nodding. "Okay."

"Thank you." Maura waited for the detective to say something else and when she didn't, when she returned her gaze to the television then to her beer, an unruly sort of regret filled her belly. She did not want to hurt Jane or situate her where she would feel compelled to move in either direction on the matter. The truth was, so long as they continued to not tell their friends and family about them, they fell prey to situations like this. It wasn't on either of them to fix until they were both ready, and Maura knew they weren't. "Jane." Jane looked at her quickly. "I love you." She pressed a hand to her side for emphasis. The homicide detective's response was a tender nod in acknowledgement, her eyes warming at the newness of the declaration.

"I love you too, Maura."

"I would not ask you to let it go if I didn't believe I could."

Jane knew this to be true. "You do know that whatever she could say is bullshit right?" She rose a brow at the ME. "I don't need anything that isn't here already."

Maura nodded and let out a little sigh. "I felt foolish for having as strong a reaction as I did, but I did… I do. When it comes to this." She was protective over their thing. Jane was too, that's how she knew she understood.

Jane bit her lip. "You really won't tell me what she said to you?"

Maura thought for a moment before sitting up some and taking her hand from Jane's side. "I told her that I can take care of you."

Jane chuckled suddenly. It surprised them both. "You literally do."

Maura let up a smile. "I shouldn't be." She reminded her. Jane only shrugged and Maura's smile stayed in place albeit a tad distant now. "…Angela agreed that I could, and it felt for that moment…" She pulled at all the English language for the right word. "Satisfying."

Jane nodded slowly now getting the full picture. It broke her heart a little imagining the scene of Maura in the kitchen with her mother. "But I need a man to really take care of me." She finished. "Not you."

"Precisely."

Jane sighed and shook her head at her mother. There was no way hearing that felt good. Never mind all the weird questions Davies asked about Maura that day, she already put two and two together that they had to be working together with the Fed's on this confidential thing. Which certainly was bothering the ME but she was too professional to say anything about it. Jane made a small groaning noise and reached with her left hand to Maura's right. "What can I do?"

Maura laced their fingers together. "Just continue being you."

"That's so cliché, Maura." It wasn't fair.

Maura nodded smiling slightly. "But it is what I would like, what I need for now."

"What about this weekend?"

"What of this weekend?"

"I won't be around for Sunday dinner, what if Ma starts going off again?"

Maura shook her head. "I don't believe she would get far with Frankie and Tommy present." There was a closeness that she and Angela shared, one she never thought would backfire until she started realizing her feelings for Jane of course. She soon realized that she had to weigh that against the older woman's want for Jane to get married and have children. It had all been so hypothetical back then though, never this close to reality or her heart.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jane nodded slowly. Frankie was good at squashing her nonsense when it really came time to. Still there was the whole thing about Boston Fire Gary with the muscles… Jane looked back to her side as Maura returned to her comfortable position there and once she was settled she let go of her hand to put it protectively around her shoulders. After that Jane grew lost in her thoughts. it wasn't until fifteen minutes later or so when Maura shifted to sit up at the documentary's conclusion that Jane realized she had lost track of time. She watched carefully as Maura yawned and then checked the time on her slender wristwatch.

"I should go."

"You could stay." Jane offered. Maura stood and began to brush away the wrinkles on her skirt. "I um, have lotions and stuff." Maura quirked a brow at this and Jane stood. "The last time you came over I bought some stuff…" She shrugged. "If you ever wanted to stay over."

Maura stepped closer to her and rested both her hands on the fronts of her shoulders. "Perhaps tomorrow night?"

Jane tried not to seem disappointed. "Yeah, that works for me." They leaned in and shared a soft kiss followed by a longer one. "If you're sure." Jane murmured at its end as their bodies brushed against the others.

Maura blushed. "I wanted to do something special for you, since you are leaving."

Jane put her hands around the shorter woman's waist, Maura returned her hands to her shoulders. "I can't get half today and half tomorrow?"

Maura chuckled warmly against her. "Would you prefer that?"

"Well if you got me baseball tickets then no, don't rip them, they're strict about that kind of thing."

Maura nodded. "I did not get you baseball tickets."

"Oh." Jane grinned a little. "Well in that case…" Maura gently pushed her away.

"Goodnight Jane."

The detective chuckled. "Yeah okay, Goodnight. Whatever." Maura laughed and they shared another soft kiss. She helped the ME locate her heels and then helped her into her coat. "Hey." Jane touched Maura's elbow to get her attention while she put her designer handbag over her shoulder. "I think I'm gonna miss you over the weekend." Maura began to smile.

"Have you just decided this?"

Jane handed her the cell phone she had been holding while she got situated in her coat. "Yeah." She smiled too.

"It is a mere three days." Maura reassured, though she wasn't sure who she was directing it to. The fact of the matter was that these days she was really feeling every bit of distance between them, she had never experienced anything like it before.

"Yeah." They neared the front door together. "Our first though."

Maura nodded. "This is true." While she was in France she and Jane spoke a few times over the phone or video call but nothing she could put to schedule, it was all very irregular, probably she decided because of the kiss. "Will you call me? I won't know what you are doing or what the schedule is."

Jane reached for knob the front door but didn't open it. "Of course, I'm gonna be bored out of mind."

Maura chuckled and touched her extended arm. "No, you won't be."

Jane let the door go and they shared another kiss. "Alright, I'll call you later, like we do now." They shared another slower kiss that lasted a little longer than was productive for a goodbye kiss. Maura's lips were so soft, it was hard not to give in when signs of the first kiss ending set in. "You know I could talk to Ma if you wanted, tell her…" Jane broke the kiss softly to say. She hated the idea of Maura being uncomfortable in any way, even if her mother didn't know and the ME's logic behind all this made sense.

"I know, that isn't what I want though. It will pass."

"Okay…"

Maura let her hand fall from the detective's collar. "Goodnight."

Jane opened the door for her. "Night."

##

"What do you think?" Korsak asked as he looked over his shoulder at his partner.

Jane furrowed a brow. "Looks fake."

"That's what I said." He agreed before bringing his attention back to his monitor. "Look here at the state seal."

"Never mind that, that's a blue bird." Jane pointed to the tiny holographic image on their victim's driver's license. "Massachusetts state bird is a black capped chickadee." Korsak took his computer glasses off and looked over his shoulder at her again. Jane only shrugged. "Wha? I'm a woman of many talents."

He snorted. "I'll add bird watching to the list." He slipped his glasses back on and squinted. "Well I'll be damned; it is a blue bird." He squinted.

"Alright so why does our victim have a fake DL, and why the hell didn't the system pick up on it?"

Just then Nina walked into the bullpen holding her tablet. "It hasn't been run yet; this was a scanned image of the pocket lint we found." She paused. "Then again our system is about twenty years old, anomalies like state birds aren't really mean to mean anything." She came over to where they were standing. "So long as the color, size, and inference scanners match…"

"Why haven't we scanned any of this in yet?" Jane shook her head and looked back to Korsak.

"Feds put everything on hold until the final bits have been tied up from the park murders. That's what that meeting was about. They didn't want any discrepancies."

Jane narrowed her gaze at the stupidity in that. "We aren't Amherst County; we can handle more than one case at a time." She looked around the office then for Davies. They had other things to do and she'd be damned if she missed out on closing a case before she left because the FBI thought they couldn't handle it or would screw something up. "Where's Davies?" She asked Nina.

"Last I saw him he was in the hall talking to a few uniforms." She shared. "Although who could miss that bright orange tie he's got on today."

"How is that fashion?" Korsak took off his computer glasses. "if I came in with a tie like that on you guys would grill me."

Jane started for the hall. "It's called roast Korsak, and yes we would." She waved. "I'll be right back." Just as she rounded the corner to the hall and called out Davies name to get his attention before he took the stairs, the elevator opened, and Maura came out clad in her scrubs and lab coat.

"Jane." The ME made a B-lined toward her.

Jane ignored Davies turning and slowly making his way back toward her in exchange for a frantic looking Maura. She put her hands on her hips and smiled at the sheer goofiness that was this other woman. She was wearing her duck shoes today, lord knew why, and they squeaked and squawked the short distance between them.

"What's up? Another Semi-annual shoe sale they didn't notify you of?" She called but raised a brow seriously when Maura shook her head. "You alright?" She asked when the ME made it to her.

"Clara can't pick Tasha up."

Jane waited. "Uh… Okay."

"She has an appointment with Dr. Leroy in half an hour and there was a medical emergency at the hospital where they need to halt rotating staff. She just phoned me." Maura motioned to her cell phone in her hands.

Jane took her hands off her hips. "Where's the fire, Maura?"

"I'm in the middle of a double autopsy why didn't you pick up your phone?"

Jane looked around the busy hall. Why did it suddenly seem like she was in the doghouse? "It was at my desk. I was at Korsak's desk."

Maura took a breath. This was not her desired way of communicating this to Jane, she was just… worried. "You have to take her." She finally cleared her throat and sent Jane an apologetic look. "I can't leave the office."

Jane nodded sympathetically. "Alright well… I'm at work too. Y'know murders and all that? Tell her to catch the bus."

"Municipal busses are routinely unreliable. Dr. Leroy moved around her entire week to accommodate us."

Jane shook her head. "Am I missing something here?" She searched her features. "Why can't she just go? She's old enough to have sex bu—" Maura crossed her arms. "Would you just tell me what the problem is?" She lowered her voice when a few officers walked by. "She say something about going alone?"

"Tasha still suffers from some forms of posttraumatic stress Jane, she shared that she—" Maura began to explain but stopped herself and sighed again when someone stood beside her to join their conversation.

"Rizzoli, what's up?" Cameron finally made it over to them. He looked at each of their expressions and took his hands out of his pockets. "… Am I interrupting?"

Maura ignored him. "It would mean a lot to me if you would pick her up and accompany her."

Jane nodded slowly. "Yeah alright." She trusted Maura's judgment, and if she felt based on whatever information she had from talking to Dr. Leroy and Tasha that she needed some kind of support for this visit then she would believe her. "Can you send me her information?" Maura nodded and quickly began to look through her phone for the young adult's itinerary. Jane looked over to Davies. "Uh, sorry just a hold up with the processing time. Korsak said all other cases are on hold in admin? How the hell exactly am I supposed to do my job?"

"It's not coming from me, Rizzoli."

"You do know we have Wi-Fi here? We can handle more than one case at a time."

"It's a temporary thing, a few hours."

"Oh, well alright I'll just wave my magic wand to make sure no one commits a crime in the span it takes for the FBI to come to terms with reality."

Davies shook his head in amusement. "You don't turn of the intensity, do you? This is a standard procedure for when we offboard a case." Jane shook her head no.

""I'm just trying to do my job."

"I can talk to my CO." He offered then watched as Maura slipped her phone into her lab coat pocket and touched Jane's shoulder. Jane nodded at her reassuringly as if she hadn't just been giving her technical superior a hard time about a policy he had no control over.

"I'll take care of it, go back to your autopsy." Maura thanked her. "And next time a please would be nice." She added for good measure to which the pathologist's serious features broke and she let out a soft laugh.

"I am in your debt."

Jane nodded surely and crossed her arms while trying not to smile. "Yeah you are." With a final exchange of some sort Maura was off squeaking back down the halls leaving the two of them standing there. Jane shifted and looked over at him. "So you'll help me out?"

He chuckled. "Do you need to leave?"

Jane uncrossed her arms and nodded. "Gotta take the kid to a doctor thing," She said it more to herself as if rearranging her day in her mind as she turned to grab her things. Cameron followed.

"You're boxed in, I can give you a ride." What kid?

Jane shook her head. "Just push my stuff through?" They entered the bullpen. "Hey Holiday I need to borrow Frankie's car."

Nina looked up and nodded when she heard her name. "Is this a Tell Frankie Thing or a Don't Tell Frankie Thing?" She reached for her purse.

Jane considered it. "Ehh, Let's make it a Don't Tell Frankie Thing. I'll be back in two hours."

Nina nodded as she handed Jane the extra keys and nodded again when Jane offered her her own car keys just in case they absolutely needed to be somewhere.

"Where's Korsak?" He had just been at his desk.

"He went to go see if he could bully some admins into passing our fake license through the document database. If we can find others like it and attach a pattern, we can figure out who made them and then go from there."

Jane nodded. "Keep me posted? I have a family emergency; I'll be back." She nodded at Cameron. "Can you back him up?"

"You mean go against my CO's orders?"

Jane shrugged as she grabbed her jacket and phone. "Yeah?"

"Yeah alright." He shook his head. "Now you really do owe me a drink."

##

"Whose car is this?"

"Frankie's."

"Why didn't Maura pick me up?"

"Because she doesn't love you anymore." Jane deadpanned. Tasha snorted and the detective watched as she buckled her seatbelt before slipping the car back into drive. "How was the ride?"

"Lame."

"Lame." She repeated slowly as she tried to navigate out of the Bluehound Bus parking lot. "You hungry? Did you eat?" She checked her watch before looking over at Tasha again. The young adult was wearing torn jeans, a pair of chucks and wore her hair out in a glorious mini afro. She would always look young for her age Jane supposed but there was something about today that made her seem vulnerable. Maybe Maura was onto something about this doctor visit thing.

"Yeah I had a salad before I left." The younger woman reclined in her chair some and looked around. "Nice car."

"A salad isn't food."

"It is to most manuals."

"So you're not hungry?"

"Are you hungry?"

Jane grinned to herself as she drove. "Maybe a little."

"So then drop me off and go back to work." Tasha chuckled. This had to be her lunch hour.

Jane glanced at her and drove in silence for a moment. "You know Maura thought it might be a good idea that I go with you to see Dr. Leroy."

Tasha nodded. "She thinks I have PTSD still…"

"Do you?"

The young adult shrugged and looked out the window. "Maybe a little…." All the major things, the maladaptive things down to riding an elevator were easier now. it was a decision every time, but it was one she found she could make. Going to the doctor though? Well that was never a good time for her growing up, even before she was homeless. Hell, the only doctor she trusted really was Maura, and now Dr. Leroy. it annoyed her. "Left over stuff from being a kid y'know?"

Jane nodded. "Everyone's got their stuff." She glanced at Tasha who simply nodded. "You wanna talk about it?"

"Not really." She paused and looked back over at Jane before offering her a little smile. "Thanks for picking me up." Jane smiled back. "You can come in if you want, but you know we're going to be talking about penises and vaginas and stuff." Jane sighed loudly. "Also sex, the sex that I'm having and would like to have without a condom."

Jane rubbed her temple. She had to be messing with her, right? "With who, Tash? The guy you said you weren't into?"

Tasha shrugged. "Loads of people."

Jane shook her head and went back to minding the road. "I'm naming all my grey hairs after you."

##

"Just sit here and don't touch anything."

Tasha looked up at Jane. "it's a desk not a nuclear warhead."

"Yeah well it's my desk, and I have things organized in a particular way."

Tasha looked between Jane's messy desk and the detective who was taking off her coat. "Yeah alright, sure."

Jane nodded. "You want a coloring book or something?" She asked seriously. She couldn't use any computers since the FBI were still in the office and Jane wasn't sure if it were an age thing now but Tasha perpetually looked bored since graduating high school. Maura thought she wasn't challenged enough and she was probably right.

"Are you serious?" Jane shrugged and Tasha paused to consider it. "…. You guys got color pencils in here or what?" Jane leaned over and opened a drawer at her desk to pull out a rather weathered box of colored pencils to hand to Tasha. The younger woman looked at them skeptically and then pointed at it. "It says there is twelve but I'm counting five."

"This is a police department not an ivy league university."

The undergrad pulled out the knubby grey pencil and eyed it critically before putting it back and shaking the box before peering into it again. "I can't even make colors with the colors that are in here." Jane cracked a grin and Tasha laughed. Just then Nina walked into the office space with a purpose that grabbed their attention.

"Alright Jane I'm so glad you're here cause that Not Telling Frankie Thing turned into a Frankie Found Out Thing and he's looking for you." She shook her head and tossed Jane her own car keys as if they were on fire. "I obviously had no idea how this happened."

Jane laughed. "Yeah so I got his keys how again?"

"Don't look at me." Nina put her hands up but then paused when she noticed Tasha sitting at Jane's desk. "Hey!"

"Hey Ms. Holiday." Tasha got up to accept the little hug Nina was coming over to give her.

"Nina, it's Just Nina—"

"—It's Ms. Holiday." Jane corrected pointing at Tasha.

"Ms. Holiday Rizzoli soon I guess?"

Nina chuckled. "Kinda sounds like a meatloaf or something right?" She sat down on the chair beside Jane's desk. "Jane and Maura can't shut up about how well you're doing. How's New York?"

Satisfied that Nina would keep Tasha's attention Jane went about navigating the halls trying to listen for her brother's voice as she made her way to the elevator. Once down at the morgue she found Kent leaning over a body and humming a musical tune while roping out a large intestine.

Jane made a face as she watched him before shaking her head. "Hey Cark, where's Maura?"

Kent looked up from his work. "You know Detective Rizzoli I finally see what you were doing there." He put his tools down. "Clark. Kent." He explained and then chuckled. "Spider man's alter ego."

Jane shook her head. "Peter Parker was Spiderman's alter ego."

Kent paused. "Right, right…." He was going to rub his chin but then realized he was wearing a glove. "But I Identify more with his transformation to tell you the truth."

She did not have the time to get into this with him, though honestly intrigued. "Yeaahh, so she's in her office then?"

"Do male red widows force feed themselves to female red widows, Detective?"

Jane blinked. "Uh…. No?"

"The answer is yes." He nodded seriously.

Jane just shook her head to herself as she made her way down the hall. "Guy needs a day off." She mumbled as she passed the crime lab. When she got toward the end of the hall she noticed Maura's office door left ajar. The ME was sitting behind her desk typing away. A stern crease lifted her brow and she only paused once from her work to take sip of water from her glass water bottle nearby. Jane pushed the door open before knocking on its frame. "Kent needs a vacation."

Maura looked up from her work and squinted before smiling. "You're back. How did it go?"

"She got a prescription." Jane plopped down on the couch and yawned. "It was stressful." Jane shook her head. "For me." She clarified.

Maura chuckled. "Did she tell you about the orgy she was planning with her dormmates?"

Jane exhaled. "I knew you were in on this."

"Thank you for going."

Jane smiled a little and nodded. "I'm sure she would rather have had you there."

"I am sure you've done just fine."

"Tash is here, upstairs, we're ready for dinner whenever you are."

Maura nodded and motioned to her laptop apologetically but then shifted and closed it. She seldom got to see Tasha these days, and Jane was going away for three whole days. She could work on her project over the weekend. "I can be ready in one hundred and twenty-nine seconds."

"Good, I'm starving." She stood. "She did okay."

Maura stood as well and begin to gather her things. "Tasha?"

"Yeah." Jane thought on their experience in the waiting room, and how the younger woman seemed a little apprehensive about the whole thing the minute they walked in. "I get what you mean, why you said I should go. She did okay. I think she just needed to know that she couldn't avoid it." Jane smirked after a thought. "Never seen you Momma Bear before though. Scary stuff, Doctor Isles."

Maura huffed. "Sow's are traditionally protective of their own cubs. Tasha is not my offspring and I have no imprinted examples of overprotection from my youth to draw on, Jane."

"You almost took my head off for not answering the phone."

Maura hesitated before shaking her head. "We shared a conversation prior to the visit to Boston where she expressed not seeking medical attention for her annual because she wasn't in Boston, that is very serious Jane. Since Dr. Leroy is a practitioner she trusts I wanted to make sure she went. " She focused on putting her laptop away. "There are a plethora of biological happenings for a woman her age. She needs to go annually. If she needs support from time to time given her past experiences, it would be nice for her to have it don't you agree?"

"Momma Bear."

Maura rolled her eyes. "I am not a… Mother Bear."

Jane was grinning. "Yes, you are." She shook her head. "From now on I feed George exactly as you say."

"Jane—"

"—I'm not trying to lose any limbs here okay?""

The ME waved her off. "Did you speak to her about staying in school and not taking a gap year?"

Jane sighed and went to grab Maura's laptop bag from her. "I planted a seed."

"What does that mean—Thank you."

"It means I made up some stuff to lead her in the right direction to come to the decision that you want—"

"We."

"Yeah alright. We." Jane shook her head. "C'mon Maura, I'm hungry." Maura was watering a small cactus on her desk. "I think he'll survive one more night without food. I on the other hand can maybe survive half an hour more."

Maura disregarded her and finished misting the little plant. "Were you aware that some cactus species can go for two years without water?" Jane sent her a look and Maura sighed to herself. She could be so impatient sometimes. "Three days? Not three weeks?" She joked lightly as she put her mister back in her desk drawer.

Jane let up an amused noise. "You already trying to get rid of me?"

Maura smiled as she picked up her medical briefcase and met Jane near the doorway where she was however after grabbing her laptop bag. "Not yet." She turned off her office lights and followed Jane toward the elevators. "Are you wearing that to dinner?"

##

Nina shook her head as Frankie circled his car once again. "She's always doing this stuff! My bike, my scooter! My car!"

"Frankie she took Tasha to the doctor."

"Well she better have refilled the tank." He pointed and nodded. "Or else."

"Or else what?" She couldn't hide her smile. Frankie was about as menacing as an Easter peep.

He shrugged. "I dunno, Nins, I could take her car, drive it till it's on E." He finally unlocked the car so they could get in later that evening. The workday was officially over an hour or so ago and they were now leaving BPD. "I cut off one of her pigtails once."

Nina raised a brow. "You come anywhere near my hair—"

Frankie chuckled. "Listen, I am not a stupid man." He helped her put all her equipment into the back seat of his car and then buckled up. "What do you wanna do about dinner?"

Nina buckled her seatbelt and shrugged. "I was watching the food network again last night when you fell asleep."

"Oh man, here we go." He smiled as he pulled out of his spot off a back street near BPD.

"No no, here me out, all I need is an egg, some chives, and wonton wrappers."

"This how it always starts." He shook his head slowly as if he didn't love their mystery basket chef nights. It was a little thing they did together every week on a random night and started during a particularly violent string of break ins a summer ago to decompress and remember that they were in fact a couple. Tonight it was Nina's turn to play "chef" and all she got was three new ingredients from the supermarket. Everything else in their apartments was fair game, which wasn't saying much since they had been at BPD and ordering out most nights that week.

"You'll love it." Nina reassured. She had been planning their meal secretly all week after Frankie raised the bar with his tomato broth last time.

"Where am I driving?"

"The market near Joni's Barbeque."

He nodded and began to mentally orient the fastest route there. "Oh man, when's the last time we went there?"

Nina leaned back in her seat. "Not for a while huh?"

Frankie shook his head in agreement. "No, not for a while." He put both hands on the wheel and for a healthy leg of the trip they fell into a comfortable silence. "…It was cool seeing Tasha." He commented on one of his thoughts out loud.

Nina nodded. "Is she getting taller, or am I getting shorter?"

"What's she in town for?" He wondered.

"Doctor's appointment and I think to see Clara."

Frankie nodded. "Makes sense." He thought about his sister and Tasha for a few blocks more. "You know Janie set her up with a little something in her Will, right?"

Nina softened. "No, I had no idea."

"Her and TJ, she had me fax some stuff a year ago." He chuckled. "Then she hustled me down to buy her a coffee, you believe that?"

"That's definitely a Jane move." Nina paused and thought long and hard about what she was about to say next. She doubted the younger woman meant anything by what she had said, but the conversation with Tasha earlier in the evening sure had been interesting. Frankie never gossiped; it just wasn't in his nature. Sometimes though she wished he would say more. "Do you think she wants to try and have kids again?"

"Jane?"

"Mm."

Frankie thought for a moment before shrugging and glancing at his fiancé. "That's a Maura question."

Nina nodded. "Funny no?"

"Hm?"

"It seems like a very personal thing… To be a Maura question."

Frankie furrowed a brow. "Yeah, maybe, but she'd have the answer." He felt confident about that much.

"Why is that?"

Frankie glanced at her and then back to the road. Where was this going? "Well you know Jane, she's not really…I dunno, she doesn't talk about that stuff. Maura's more matter of fact y'know?"

Nina sighed. "Francesco."

"Wha?" He smiled a little.

"That's the kind of thing that I would know about you right?"

"What, if I wanna have kids? Or who I put in my Will?"

"Either."

"Yeah alright okay." He paused and looked over at her after drawing a few lines of his own. "Nina this again?"

Nina threw her hands up in a burst of scandal as if having held it in for weeks. Which to be fair, she had been. "I cannot be the only person who thinks they are totally made for each other."

Frankie shifted in his seat as if he had an upset stomach. "Yeah but… Janie's not gay."

"How do you know?" Nina challenged.

"Cause she's never y'know… I mean I don't know like actually, but she would have commented on someone or said something, or maybe not dated all those guys…" He was starting to confuse himself. "You know what I mean?"

Nina nodded. "All valid points, but you are her brother. I don't think she would tell you about her sex life—"

"—Why are we talking about her having sex?" Just the word sex in relation to his sister made him wince. "C'mon." He shook his head.

Nina chuckled; the look he had tossed her made it seem as though she had suggested something downright immoral. "Let's examine the evidence."

Frankie shook his head again. This wasn't the first time she had brought this up, but she never had evidence before and the investigator in him couldn't help but be just a tad curious. "Eh, what evidence? She loves Maura, I know that." Nina just stared at him. "What? That doesn't make her gay, Nina."

"And you think that's just platonic girlfriend love?"

Frankie glanced between the road and his fiancé. "You love Shannon." Shannon was one of Nina's best friends from back home.

"Frankie if I loved Shannon the way your sister loves Maura you need to take this ring back immediately 'cause I'm cheating on you… It also means I'm maybe a little gay."

Frankie waved her off. "Janie would have said something by now, they've been friends for years, best friends." He corrected. "So maybe it's not like… I don't know buddy love, right? But they been through some stuff and they were there for each other…That's like a different friendship y'know?" He shook his head again. "Janie would have said something by now." He repeated to bookend his point.

Nina actually chuckled. "Maura left for France and your sister was unhinged. Then she came back and they suddenly decide a week in New York alone is what they need? In the middle of the big case that we just had?" She shook her head. "You know Jane won't even go pee if she knows the case is heating up. A week, Frankie?"

"Nina."

"Or alright, how about Davies?"

"What's he got to do with anything?"

"Um, he used to sleep with your sister and now Maura is low key avoiding the hell out of him." Frankie gave her a look asking how in the world she had caught something like this. "We have lunch together." She explained. "They are working on some government project together and every single time he pops up it looks like she rather drown puppies than talk to him, Frankie."

"Maura would never do that."

"My point exactly. Just think about it."

"I think maybe you need a day off work or something." He joked. "You're seeing stuff." His tone suggested he was hardly sure himself though.

Nina crossed her arms. "You're a good cop." She reminded him. "Juussssst, think about it."

And he did, for a while. Hours even. On the rest of the car ride, on the grocery store checkout line, while he watched baseball and Nina cooked. Jane and Maura? Why not? No. He'd shake his head focus on something else, then all the little things Jane did for the ME that fell somewhere between friend and significant came into focus, and all the gradual liberties they took with each other's time. Then their big fight after Jane shot Paddy Doyle… then Frost's funeral and the protective arm around Jane's back, then that Jack guy, man, Jane really didn't like that Jack guy… she always thought he might not be the person he said he was, but honestly he was the chilliest guy Frankie ever knew to date the ME. Then sitting with Maura when Jane jumped, and holding her shaking hands as she tried to tell him what happened… A million different instances observed and stored as one way in his brain regurgitated at a speed he was almost uncomfortable with. Still, if all of this was stored incorrectly, and Nina, a woman he loved and respected and who was seldom wrong about most everything felt that there might be something there, why couldn't he lock it down? He didn't care if his sister was gay or not. Frankie reasoned as he showered that evening. He just wanted her to be happy. So if she was, and she loved Maura the way he knew deep down she did, what was she waiting for?

Frankie rolled over and whispered to see if Nina was still awake…

"Hm?" The analyst rubbed her face and rolled over to face him. "What's wrong?" His eyes were sweet, maybe a little unsure.

"You ask Maura?" He whispered. Nina squinted at him in the dark. "About Jane?"

She let out an amused puff of air. "You thought about it?" He nodded. "And?"