A/N: So I didn't like the way I originally wrote this chapter, so I rewrote it and replaced it. If this is your first time reading this, hi! If you've read this before, it is now kinda different, but I think is more true to character.

I do not own Rizzoli & Isles.

...

Today was the day. Jane was finally going home. Jane had originally insisted on staying at her apartment, but Maura was very convincing and had finally gotten Jane to agree to stay with her while she recovered. So today Maura was taking Jane back to her house.

Jane was sitting on the edge of the hospital bed in baggy gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt, attempting to put her shoes on. She couldn't bend over without a stinging pain in her abdomen, but she was too stubborn to give up. Which is why Maura walked in to find a grumpy, distressed Jane.

"What are you doing?" Maura asked.

Jane looked up to see Maura standing in the doorway, suppressing a smile. Jane couldn't help but think how gorgeous Maura looked in her blue fitted dress and black heels.

"You really do always have to look like you're on the runway, don't you?"

"I happen to know a certain detective who very much enjoys the way I dress, so yes, I do." Maura gave Jane a wink as she walked over to her. They had been flirting a lot this past week. They'd also been doing a lot of kissing. Jane couldn't think of a better way to spend her time confined to a hospital bed.

"Here, let me help," Maura said as she dropped her bag in the chair. Jane begrudgingly complied as she leaned back on her hands and lifted her leg for Maura to tie her shoes.

"This is so humiliating," Jane grumbled. "I feel like I'm in kindergarten again. Except instead of Ma it's my girlfriend tying my shoes."

Maura's hands stopped tying and she looked up at Jane. Jane stared back at her, confused.

"I'm your girlfriend?" Maura asked.

"Oh, um, I just, um -" Jane was rubbing the back of her neck with one hand as she tried to come up with a response.

"I like it," Maura stated. "I just hadn't realized we were labeling it."

"I mean, yeah. I love you. You love me. Kinda seems like girlfriends to me."

"Of course. You're right. I like the sound of it. I'm Jane Rizzoli's girlfriend."

Maura finished tying Jane's shoes and stood back up straight. Jane sat up and placed her hands on Maura's hips, drawing Maura in between her open legs. Maura leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on Jane's lips.

"Let's go home," Maura said.

...

Three months later and Jane was back in her own apartment. Maura had wanted her to stay but Jane had insisted that she wanted to be like any other normal new couple. Each at their own places.

Maura was a frequent visitor to Jane's apartment in the last couple months. She stopped by almost daily to see and spend time with her girlfriend. But tonight was different. Tonight Jane was being honored at BPD's salute to heroes night and Maura was going over to make sure that Jane was ready.

Maura used the key Jane had gotten made a couple weeks ago to let herself in. She found Jane lying on the couch, still not dressed.

"Jane. What're you doing? You were supposed to be ready by now."

"Maura, I'm not going tonight." Jane said as she leaned against one of the pillows at the end of her sofa.

"Jane, you have to. Where is your uniform?" Maura walked back into Jane's room and quickly located her uniform. Walking back out, she sighed. "Here, put this on."

"It makes me look like a man." Jane looked at Maura with pleading eyes.

"I think you look very sexy in your uniform."

"You've literally never seen me in it."

"So put it on and show me how sexy you look."

"I'm not a hero, Maura. Shooting yourself is not heroic."

"While I don't like that you shot yourself, I do think that what you did is very heroic."

"Eight people died. I don't want a medal for that."

"Five of them were bad guys, Jane."

"Whatever." Jane mumbled.

"This ceremony isn't for you." Maura said as she sat down on the couch and pulled Jane's legs into her lap. "This is.. this is for… your fellow officers, and your parents, and your community, and me. You're a symbol. You're a heroic flesh and blood reminder of the thin blue line."

Jane smiled up Maura. "That's good. You almost had me."

Maura tried not to roll her eyes as she knocked Jane's legs off her lap and stood up. "Fine. We'll do this the hard way. No kisses or sex unless you go to this ceremony."

Maura knew she had her when Jane whined her name and tried to hold her hand. Maura pulled it away and walked to the other side of the room.

"Please, Jane, for me? So I can go and be very proud of you?"

"Fine" Jane whined as she eased herself off the couch, grabbed her uniform, and stalked off to change.

Maura stood with a pleased smile on her face and followed.

...

The ceremony for Salute to Heroes night was lovely. The event space was tastefully decorated with beige tablecloths and fancy silverware. Jane sat between Maura and Frost, Maura's hand gently caressing Jane's thigh in an effort to the alleviate the anxiety she had no doubt her girlfriend was feeling. They listened as Lieutenant Forman spoke about the night's other honoree, Abby Sherman.

"Private first class Abby Sherman's support squad was headed to a rendezvous with my platoon to rearm and resupply us, when her truck was hit by an RPG. She was shot, she crawled to a saw, firing round after round at Taliban militia. Because of her courage, these three men are alive today," Forman said.

The room filled with applause as three men in military blues stood up to be recognized.

"See? That's a hero," Jane whispered to Maura.

"There are many ways to be a hero," Maura replied, squeezing Jane's thigh in reassurance.

"Detective Jane Rizzoli was the first female officer to work in the drug-control unit," Korsak began his introduction. "She was also the youngest officer ever to be promoted to the rank of detective. After working with her for only one week, I knew she was special and I knew she had more balls than any guy on the job. Ladies and gentlemen, Detective Jane Rizzoli."

Maura squeezed Jane's thigh one more time and whispered an 'I love you' as Jane stood to make her way to the stage.

She walked up the steps and over to Cavanaugh as applause filled the room once again. Cavanaugh went to pin the medal to Jane's uniform, with protest from the honoree.

"Can't you just hand it to me?"

"Stand still Rizzoli, or Ill pin it to your forehead," Cavanaugh responded. "Say a few words."

Jane gave a small whine of protest, but proceeded to step towards the microphone. "Uh, I didn't really prepare anything. Um, just 'cause... 'cause I... I... I don't really think of myself as a hero. Um..." Jane sighed as she tried to think of the words she wanted to say. "Uh... Most of you... you know my... my little brother, Frankie. Frankie, just stand up and help me out."

Frankie stood and gave a small wave as the crowed clapped for him. He then sat back down and Jane continued.

"Um, Frankie is alive because of Dr. Maura Isles," Jane smiled as she looked out at the crowd and found Maura. "You know, she normally works on dead people. He's alive because of her, not... not because of me. She's the real hero here. I, uh... I-I was just doing my job. You know?" Jane was struggling to hold back her emotions as she thought back on that day three months ago. "Um, I... we... we all do this job Because it's, uh... It's what we've been trained to do. You know, we... we've been trained Not to think of ourselves but to act, Because, you know, life is unfair and... And bad things happen, and... You know, I think that we're here... We're all here... to remind everybody That, uh, sometimes the good guys still win. Thank you very much."

The crowd cheered as Jane stepped down from the stage and headed back to her seat. Jane's hand grazed Maura's shoulder as she passed her and Maura's moved up to grab it and keep it there. But they were in public and no one knew, so Jane begrudgingly pulled her hand away and into her lap.

Jane turned toward a table in the back to find her parents, only to be surprised to see just her mother. She turned back to Maura and asked, "Where's my father?" Maura offered nothing but a confused look and a shrug.

After the conclusion of the ceremony, the honorees and the guests mingled about. Jane was on a mission to get a drink for Maura when she heard someone call her name. She turned and saw the last person she was expecting.

Standing before her was a man in a formal military uniform. "Casey?" she gasped out as she stared at her high school boyfriend, or rather the guy she dated because he was kind to her and she was trying to convince herself that she was not gay. "Hi-hi. Hi." She didn't know how to greet him. Should she shake his hand? Hug him? She decided on a hug because that's how you greet people you've know forever, but it was awkward. "How are you? What are you doing here?"

"You don't come to the high-school reunions. Wanted to see how you turned out."

"You came from Afghanistan to see how I turned out?"

"Everyone on leave got an invite. Thought it'd be fun to see you." Casey chuckled awkwardly. "You look great."

Instead of replying with a 'you look great, too,' Jane went for a safer topic to keep this from divulging into flirting territory. "Lieutenant colonel, delta force. That... that's impressive." She looked around for a means of escape from this unexpected encounter and found one when her eyes landed on Maura, Frankie, and her mother. "Um, you know what, it was great to see you, but I have some family stuff to take care of."

"Sure," Casey replied. "It was good to see you."

Jane turned and headed back towards her family.

"Oh, Jane. I'm so proud of you," Angela said as she stood from her seat and embraced Jane.

"Thank you." Jane smiled a genuine smile. "Where's daddy?"

Angela began sobbing on Jane's shoulder at the question. Jane shot a look to Frankie.

"Ma... What's the matter? Ma..." Jane pulled Angela off of her and Frankie helped Jane sit Angela down into a chair.

Angela was sobbing so hard she couldn't get words out. She mimed for a pen.

Jane turned to Maura. "I need a pen."

"What's wrong?" Maura asked.

"I need a pen. She gets very emotional and the she can't talk, so we have her write it down," Jane explained.

Maura, finally understanding what was happening, turned and dug through her purse for a pen. She found one and handed it to the Jane, who handed it to Angela. Angela scribbled something onto a napkin and handed it to Jane who passed it to Maura so she could console her mother.

"Divorce," Maura read off the napkin.

Jane's eyes went wide. Angela was still crying and Jane could not process this right now.

"Ma, it's gonna be okay. Let Frankie take you home, okay?" Jane told her mother. Frankie guided Angela out of her seat and towards the exit.

Jane moved to stand next to Maura and get eyes on that napkin. She read it aloud. "'we are getting divorced.'"

All Jane could do was stare blankly into space. She knew her parent's didn't have the perfect marriage, but she never imagined that it would come to this. Her parents were getting divorced.

"That's terrible," Maura said. She placed her hand on Jane's shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Jane. Whatever you need..."

Jane turned into Maura's touch and wrapped her arms around her waist, pulling Maura close. "I just need you."

"Everyone will see," Maura whispered.

"I don't care."

Maura wrapped her arms tighter around Jane's neck in response.

...

The rest of night went as well as could be expected. Jane spoke with the other honoree, Abby, for a while. She was impressed with Abby's actual act of heroism and she didn't hesitate to tell her that. Everyone here may think that she was a hero, but deep down Jane knew that shooting herself to save Frankie was not heroic. It was a desperate attempt to get help to her brother. Maura had done the heroic stuff. Maura was the one who kept Frankie alive long enough to get him to a hospital. It was Maura who should be honored, not her.

Jane and Maura were on their way out of the event when they ran into Casey.

"Uh, Maura, this is Casey. Casey, this is Maura."

"Nice to meet you," Maura greeted as she shook Casey's hand.

"Casey and I used to date in high school," Jane explained. Maura raised her eyebrows and muttered an 'oh,' before Jane continued. "Maura is the chief medical examiner for the commonwealth and my gi- best friend."

"Jane, don't we have to be going? We have that thing to take care of," Maura said. She might not be great at social situations, but she knew Jane and she knew that all Jane wanted to do right now was get out of this situation and go home.

"Oh, I'll walk out with you," Casey said,

The three of them headed out the door and onto the sidewalk.

"You know, Jane," Casey started, "I'm not surprised you were honored tonight. You've always been a force, even in high school. Smart, beautiful, didn't care what anybody thought of you."

They stopped beside a car and Casey opened the door for the girls.

"Thank you." Jane smiled politely and she felt more than saw Maura shift uncomfortably.

"It was great to see you, Jane."

"Yeah, you too." Jane replied as she waved her arm at Abby, who was getting into the car in front of them.

"It was nice meeting you," Maura said as she slid into the backseat and Jane began to follow.

But before Jane could close the car door, a loud explosion filled the air. Everyone watched as the car Abby Sherman just entered exploded to pieces.

...

The fire was hot. Jane could feel it on her face as Maura pulled her from the car. Casey was shouting to get back, that there might be another bomb. All Jane could think about was Abby. We need to help her.

Maura knew Jane was in shock. All she could do right now was get Jane somewhere safe. So she dragged her to the sidewalk on the other side of the street and sat her down on the curb. She sat down with her and pulled her close.

"We're alright," Maura told Jane over the noise of the aftermath.

"But Abby..."

"We can't help her now."

"I was just talking to her. She was just..."

"Dr. Isles!" Cavanaugh was shouting to her from the middle of the street. "We're gonna need you!"

"You don't need to be here right now," Maura said to Jane.

"I wanna help," Jane protested.

"You're in shock. You need to take a step back for a minute."

"I wanna help."

Maura pulled Jane even tighter to her. She buried her face in Jane's neck for just a moment. "I love you. I need you safe," She whispered. Then she shouted, "Frankie! Take her home."

Frankie rushed over and pulled Jane up from the sidewalk. He quickly and quietly took her home.

...

Maura walked into the morgue ready to get started on the autopsy. She was not ready to see her girlfriend standing in the middle of her morgue reading a file.

"Jane?" Maura asked. "What are you doing here? I told you to go home."

Jane looked up from what she was reading. "I did go home. I showered, I changed. Now I'm here, ready to find who killed Abby."

Maura sighed and walked over to Abby's body laid out on the autopsy table. Honestly, she should have known that Jane would be back here. Jane was stubborn. She wouldn't stop until this case was solved. So if Maura wanted Jane to rest, she needed to help her solve this case.

"Are you sure you want to be here?" Maura asked as she grabbed gloves and put them on. "She was very badly burned."

Jane just hummed and focused on the contents of the tray table. "Are those her dog tags?" Maura nodded. "She survives two tours in Afghanistan and gets blown up at home. It's so sad."

Maura pulled down the drape that was covering Abby's body. Jane looked, but quickly turned away. "I can't. I can't."

Jane turned and walked out of the morgue and into Maura's office. Maura was only a few steps behind. Jane had settled herself in a chair, so Maura positioned herself in a chair opposite.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" Jane started. "I've seen worse than this."

"It's different when it's someone you knew," Maura replied.

"Abby deserves better."

"Jane, you are the best. You know that."

Jane sighed. "You know what, I'm gonna head upstairs. Will you text me with updates?"

"Always," Maura said as she watched Jane stand and leave.

...

Upstairs in homicide, Cavanaugh, Korsak, and Frost had been hard at work. Jane entered the bull pen and immediately jumped in.

"Bring me up to speed," she said as she sat down at her desk opposite of Frost.

The boys filled Jane in on everything they had so far: they found the explosives casing and a large diameter pipe suggesting a pipe bomb. They were discussing if the attack was caused by terrorists or if it was perpetrated by one of the men in Abby's platoon. Jane knew they would need to talk to those men, but getting access as just the police could be tricky. She thought about Casey. He could give them access to all the military personnel potentially involved in this. She didn't want to, but she knew calling Casey would help her solve this case fast, and she did want that.

"You met Lieutenant colonel Jones," Jane said to Cavanaugh. "He's army special ops. He's got a stake in this."

"Okay, well, get him in here," Cavanaugh replied.

...

Jane headed down to the morgue to talk to Maura. She knew if she was going to work with Casey, she would have to let Maura know first. She would that if the shoe was on the other foot.

She peaked in Maura's office first and found her girlfriend working, so she walked in.

"Hey," Jane greeted.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" Maura asked with a smile.

"I just wanted to give you an update."

"You usually just text me with updates."

"Yeah, this one I wanted to tell you in person." Jane took a seat on the arm of the chair.

"Okay..." Maura tried to hide the worry in her voice.

"So, I asked Cavanaugh to let Casey help on this case."

"Well, he is a soldier so his expertise would be invaluable. I don't see the need to update me on that in person."

"I'm updating you in person because Casey in an ex and I wanted you to know that I am working with him. You know, since we're dating."

"Oh, you wanted to let me know that you would be working with him because he was flirting with you at the event and you believe I will be jealous."

"Yes... are you not?"

"I see a reason to be." On Jane's confused look, she explained. "I watched you interact with him. You were kind and polite, but you never once looked at him the way you look at me. I have no doubt in my mind that you love me. I know that you would never do anything to jeopardize what we have."

Jane stood and clapped her hands together. "Okay. Then I'm gonna go solve this case."

Maura just smiled and watched Jane walk out the door.

After finally finding Abby's killer and locking him away, Jane was glad for a few moments of peace and quiet at her desk. Maura was meeting her up here so they could go grab a drink at the Dirty Robber before they headed back to one of their houses for the night.

She was glad that this particular case was closed. After all it was a tough one. Friendly fire in a war zone and jealously over a relationship. Neither of those things should lead to someone's death. But as tough as this case was, Jane was mostly glad it was over because it meant that Casey was leaving. It wasn't terribly awkward working with him, but he did make it clear with his actions that he still had feelings for her. And she did not want to deal with telling him that she doesn't feel the same way.

Unfortunately, the universe had other plans.

Jane sat at her desk reading cards from kids in the community that had been sent to her while she was in the hospital. She had stored them in her desk drawer, but needed the pick me up, so she pulled them out.

"You're my hero," she read aloud.

"Mine, too."

Jane turned at the voice and saw Casey. Great. Just what I need.

"Casey, hi."

"I just wanted to come goodbye. My leave's up. But I loved seeing you."

"It was good to see you, too."

"You know, when I first saw you at the ceremony, I had hoped that maybe we could try again, with our relationship. But, it's clear now that you have someone."

"Ah, yeah, I do." Jane blushed a little and she hoped that Casey didn't notice.

"Well, I hope that he treats you well." Jane smiled and glanced behind Casey when she saw Maura walk in. Her entire demeanor must have changed because Casey amended his statement. "Or she."

"Hello, Lieutenant Colonel Jones. Nice to see you again," Maura greeted.

"Doctor," Casey addressed. "I'll be on my way."

"Bye, Casey." Jane called as Casey walked out the door.

"Are you ready to go?" Maura asked.

"Yes." Jane put the cards back in her bottom drawer. She stood, grabbed her coat off the back of her chair, and headed out to spend the evening with her favorite girl.