"It's 9:17am, October 9th, 2012. The subject is John Doe. Approximate age, 40-45; weight, 176 pounds; reclining length, 185 centimeters. Preliminary analysis on the scene, by Doctor Pike, suggested overdose as cause of death on the basis of an injection site in the Brachial vein of the left arm. I will proceed with the visual examination of the body."

Maura took a quick glance at her tray to double-check she had everything she would need for collecting trace evidence from the body and snapped on a pair of examination gloves. She'd wanted to conduct this autopsy the night before, but the governor had called to discuss the FBI's involvement in Jane's case and to demand results and say pointless things like Doctor Isles, Boston doesn't need another serial killer. By the time he'd finished talking her ear off, Jane was waiting at her office door with Maura's coat in hand, ready to take her home, dutifully eat kale salad, and regale Maura with a detailed explanation of Yankees players ranked from most to least loathsome. As it turned out, the majority of them were tied for 'most' but one fellow named Curtis Granderson was, according to Jane, not that bad, for a Yankee.

New York lost their playoff game and the rest of Maura's evening passed quite enjoyably, the next morning even more so. It wasn't until they'd arrived at the precinct and Maura caught sight of an FBI jacket in the Division One Café that she realized they'd gone the entire evening without talking about Agent Dean. She found herself enormously pleased that his appearance hadn't managed to cast a shadow over their night.

Maura put those thoughts aside and prepared herself for the autopsy. She stretched her neck to the right, then to the left, rolled her shoulders, and began the external examination of Detective Crowe's decedent.

As much as she preferred working with Jane, the fact that Detective Crowe avoided the morgue at all costs afforded Maura the rare pleasure of being able to narrate her process without interruption. Jane's inquisitive nature led to autopsy recordings that were two or three times longer than they needed to be, though it would be dishonest to say she really minded. Before Jane got her transfer to Homicide, it would only take back-to-back autopsies to ensure that an entire day could pass without Maura speaking to anyone else. It was quite lonely then, and it was testament to how much Maura's life had changed that now, the quiet sanctuary of the morgue felt like a special treat.

With a clear voice, Maura described her steps as she performed a thorough inspection of the body. She noted the absence of tattoos or other distinguishing marks, examined the scalp for any signs of injury, and proceeded with an examination of the limbs.

Blood had already been drawn on this body the night before, both for a toxicology panel for the suspected overdose and a DNA test in hopes of getting a positive identification. Toxicology could be done in house at the crime lab, but DNA testing was outsourced.

Because of the office she held, Maura's samples always made it to the top of the pile and returned from the lab much faster than average, but the day before she'd even gone a step further and put a rush order on all her tests. She wanted the results on Jane's missing heart victim as fast as possible and had included Detective Crowe's suspected overdose. She knew that if it was simply an unattended death and not a murder, Crowe would dump the identification duties on some rookie cop who would barely put in the effort and Maura had always felt a strong duty to every dead person, not just the murdered ones. The least she could do was help notify their loved ones as expeditiously as possible.

She found nothing of note on the deceased's right arm and proceeded to the left.

"As noted by Doctor Pike, there is a recent injection site on the left forearm, consistent with the injection of a controlled substance. However, it is the only injection site thus far observed on the body."

This was unusual. Typically in an overdose a medical examiner would find evidence of long term drug abuse. Of course, it did sometimes happen that people overdosed their very first time using intravenous drugs and it was also very like Doctor Pike to make up his mind so rashly. He was a textbook example of someone who only looked for what was present and not what was missing.

Maura had dreamed, vividly and more than once, of Doctor Pike requesting a transfer out of state.

She continued down the arm and lifted the hand up for closer inspection. Something on the left ring finger caught her eye and she lifted a hand to flip down the magnifying loupes attached to her protective eyewear.

On the pad of the finger, barely visible, was the faintest cut. She pressed the finger such that it caused the edges of the wound to come apart and noted how clean the incision was—undeniably the work of a surgical scalpel.

That was certainly interesting. In an instant, the distant corner of her brain that had, largely against its will, learned to speak Jane's language was clamouring to be heard. Maura was nowhere near fluent in hunches but she knew Jane would find this significant.

Maura glanced up at the clock. She and Jane hadn't discussed it but she'd be shocked if the detective didn't make her way downstairs before lunch. She'd tell her then. Maura took a deep breath, forced her brain to quiet itself, and proceeded with the autopsy.

At 11:33 Maura was ready to close and by 11:58 she'd finished. Susie Chang had come and gone with the initial toxicology panel, one that had shown no evidence of any of the common drugs associated with overdose. This had come as no surprise to Maura; by that point she had discovered the internal bleeding and multiple organ failure that eliminated most recreational drugs as a cause of death. She'd sent Susie away with stomach contents for further testing, just to be sure, but had also found no evidence suggesting death by an ingested toxin—no irritation of the stomach lining, no foaming in the throat, nothing. A wider scope of drug testing would have to be conducted and Maura was prepared to entertain the possibility that this wasn't an accidental death.

"That's Crowe's guy?"

Maura hadn't even noticed Jane's arrival in the morgue. She looked up to find her standing halfway into the room holding two brown paper bags pockmarked with grease spots and a tray with one fountain soda and one bottle of water. She smiled warmly and Jane responded in kind.

"That doesn't look like a healthy lunch, Jane."

"Yours is healthy." Jane said and Maura eyed the greasy bag again before looking back at Jane skeptically. "Yours is healthier," Jane amended, emphasizing the comparative degree. "Listen, our dinner last night was interchangeable with the one you gave Bass, I needed something a little more substantial today. Can you eat soon?"

Maura rolled her eyes but, secretly, conversations like this always thrilled her. The two of them had always bickered like a married couple but doing it these days, while enjoying certain other benefits often associated with marriage, was even better.

"Yes, in a moment. I'll meet you in my office."

Jane gave a nod, nudged the office door open with her hip, and disappeared inside. Maura removed her gloves and tossed them in the wastebin, then removed her eyeware and peeled off her surgical gown. Maura elected to remain in her black scrubs for the time being because she wasn't about to subject couture to whatever messy lunch Jane had just delivered. She scribbled down a few notes before closing the folder.

When she stepped inside her office, Jane was already more than halfway through her burger and three balled up napkins were resting on the edge of Maura's desk. In front of her chair, Jane had laid out the components of Maura's lunch: a foil-wrapped burger, a small bag of fries, and the bottle of water. She eyed them warily as she navigated around to her seat, dropping the file down.

"I see that look," Jane said. "I swear it's not that bad. It's a black bean burger, no cheese, and they put it on a whole wheat bun. And those are sweet potato fries and I told them to give me less than I actually paid for, so, you're welcome."

Maura glanced at Jane's food as she settled down in her chair and unwrapped her veggie burger. "And yours?"

Jane paused with her burger halfway to her mouth to look over at her side of onion rings which also contained a small scattering of regular fries. She remained silent for a beat.

"Okay, fine, so I told them to give me in french fries what I wasn't getting in sweet potato fries. Can you believe yours cost more? Fuckin' criminal." Jane nodded her head at Maura's food. "Now eat your lunch."

Maura grinned as she bit into one of her luxury complex carbohydrates, so happy in their little moment that she decided to let the cursing slide. "Yes, dear."

Jane lofted one eyebrow and gave Maura a smirk at the pet name before taking another bite of her lunch. A wonderful warmth settled in Maura's chest.

"So what's the deal with Crowe's body?" Jane asked before popping an entire onion ring into her mouth.

"Well I certainly think he could stand to work out more." Maura shrugged.

Jane's choked laughter quickly turned into a coughing fit. Maura looked on with alarm as Jane scrambled for her drink and took several long pulls from the straw of her fountain soda.

"Oh, Jane. I'm sorry," Maura said, wincing as Jane coughed a few more times. Jane gave an emphatic shake of her head.

"No, no, that's my mistake. I have to be more careful," Jane wheezed. She cleared her throat aggressively, using the sleeve of her blazer to wipe at her watering eyes. "You have jokes now and I need to respect that. That was a really good one."

Maura could feel her cheeks go pink with the praise and she ate a bite of her burger.

"To answer your question seriously," Maura said when she'd finished chewing. "I doubt very much that Crowe has a simple overdose on his hand. The results of the autopsy aren't really consistent with any kind of recreational drug overdose. And I found something a little unusual."

"Yeah?" Jane said around another large mouthful, having crammed the rest of her burger away in her cheeks. It was perhaps an excessive amount for someone who had, moments ago, literally inhaled part of her lunch. Maura mentally tabled a lecture about reasonable bite sizes and how many times Jane ought to be chewing before swallowing.

"Yes." Maura cleaned her hands off on a napkin and reached for the folder she'd brought into the office with her. At that moment, nearly simultaneously, there was a knock on both doors of her office. Maura looked from one to the other.

"Uh, come in," Maura called out.

Susie Chang entered from the morgue entrance while Detective Frost poked his head in from the hallway door. They both blinked at each other, unsure of who should have the floor first, before Frost gestured grandly to Susie.

"The DNA test results arrived, Doctor Isles," Susie said. "And we got an ID on yesterday's vic, Jane." Frost held up his pocket notebook and Jane nearly jumped out of her seat.

"Shit, finally we get a lead." Jane wiped her hands vigorously on her pants and Maura reconsidered her plans to upgrade the rest of Jane's work wardrobe. "Who is he? No, save your breath, you can tell me on the way. Let's go." Jane took a step towards the door then stopped herself to make quick work of gathering her napkins and disposing of the rest of her lunch mess.

"I think you should hear these results before you go, Detective." Susie ventured, her voice wavering a little. It was never any easy feat to stop Jane when she got into Go Mode.

"What is it, Susie?" Maura said. Jane stopped what she was doing and turned expectantly to the criminalist.

"Well, we got an ID on Detective Crowe's deceased," Susie said, suddenly nervous to be on the spot.

Jane looked confused. "Okay," she said slowly. "That's great for Crowe."

Susie made a tortured face but soldiered on. "And then we got a hit on the blood that was found in the armpit of yours and Detective Frost's victim."

Jane's eyes went wide. "Oh fuck, that is big. Who is it?"

"Detective Crowe's deceased."

Everyone in the room fell silent for a beat.

"... What ?" Jane's eyes darted down to the folder Susie was holding and grabbed for it. Susie gave it up without a fight.

Although she never made mistakes, Maura nonetheless mentally retraced her steps from the day before to figure out if she could have possibly mislabeled or compromised some of the swabs she'd taken. She then remembered what she'd found earlier that day.

"Jane," Maura said. "During the autopsy this morning I discovered a very small scalpel incision on the left hand of Detective Crowe's deceased."

Jane whirled around to look at her and Maura could see the wheels turning in her head.

"Hold on, wait," Frost said, trying to piece it together. "So somehow Crowe's guy from yesterday got his blood on our guy from yesterday? While alive?"

"There's no way of knowing that," Maura said, shaking her head. "It could have ended up there post mortem. Perhaps he was the second victim, not the first."

"But you're right about the other part, Detective Frost," Susie said. "And like I said, we also got an identification through CODIS. His name is Gregory Hammersmith, M.D."

"He's a doctor?" Jane said, frowning.

"What the hell? Our guy is a doctor too. Doctor James Alberts. " Frost said.

"They're all doctors?" Jane sputtered. "Oh my god." she pressed her fingers to her temples. "I bet the first guy is a doctor, too. We've got to run a narrowed down Missing Persons search for every missing doctor."

"We didn't get any matches for him in Massachusetts, Jane," Frost reminded her. "We went through all of them."

"Well since the fucking FBI is here now, they can do a federal search. Might as well be good for something. I'm gonna call Korsak." Jane pulled her phone from its belt holster.

"Wait," Maura said. An ominous, ice cold feeling settled around her heart as the information began to arrange itself in a pattern in her mind. She thought about how the work on the two organ resections was almost certainly performed by two different people, and how their second victim did specialized work in hematology while their first victim had died by exsanguination. She remembered back to the hesitant but technically proficient work she'd discovered on the heart removal and how conflicted it had seemed. Maura was so precise about never looking beyond where the facts took her, but after that autopsy she couldn't shake the terrible feeling that whoever had removed the heart had done so under duress.

"Susie, Detective Frost, what were those doctors' specialties?"

"Doctor Hammersmith is—was—a cardiothoracic surgeon at Saint Elizabeth's," Susie said.

Frost flipped open his notebook, checking his notes. "Abdominal transplant surgeon, Brigham and Women's."

"Oh my god," Jane breathed, picking up on the threads of Maura's line of inquiry. Susie was looking a little shell shocked and Frost was trying to catch up.

"Can someone spell this out for me?" he said, looking between the women. "Starting to feel a little left out."

Maura ran it through her head one more time and took a breath. "Our first victim was exsanguinated and our second victim was a hematologist. He, in turn, had his liver removed, and then our third victim, at least in terms of the chronology of when the bodies were discovered, was an abdominal transplant surgeon. He was found with a missing heart and the blood of Detective Crowe's victim, a cardiothoracic surgeon, is present on his body. There appears to be a pattern."

"So the killer is killing people with…the next guy's specialty?" Frost furrowed his brow.

"No." Jane's voice was both grim and confident. "They killed each other. Like some kind of fucked up medical malpractice daisy chain." Maura shot her a look.

"Holy shit," Frost muttered.

"We cannot say that for sure," Maura said emphatically, which was indisputably true—the evidence for that conclusion was insufficient.

"Come on, Maura." Jane looked over at her, eyes piercing and dark. She had that slightly wild look she got when she was in full blown down-the-rabbit-hole mode. "I know you're thinking it. You said there was no way the heart removal was done by the same person that did the liver removal."

Maura shook her head, trying not to give an inch. "That just means there's more than one killer."

"You said it seemed like the person who cut out that heart was being forced to do it!" Jane exclaimed.

"I shouldn't have said that," Maura said. Truthfully, she still couldn't entirely shake the feeling that she was correct, but she felt a duty to play her usual role in an investigation and rein in Jane's flights of fancy. "That was speculation and it was unprofessional."

Jane groaned. "Maura, come on. You're the one that spotted the pattern. You practically walked me into this." She held her arms out wide, her expression beseeching. "Like why is that guy's blood on our victim? And you said he's got a cut on his finger! He must have cut himself while doing the surgery. Oh man." Jane whirled around to face her partner. "Frost, I wonder if he did it on purpose, like was trying to leave a clue? He probably knew he was in CODIS, maybe he was hoping we'd go looking for him."

"I bet he did. Poor bastard." Frost shook his head sympathetically.

"Uh, Doctor Isles," Susie ventured carefully, reminding everyone of her continued presence. She'd been awkwardly standing by through the whole debate, though having her as an audience for Maura and Jane's routine back-and-forth was nothing new. "Is it…may I please return to the crime lab?"

"Of course, Susie." Maura gestured to the door and Susie gratefully headed towards it. "Please alert me immediately if the lab comes up with anything else on these deaths."

When Maura turned back towards Jane to continue the discussion, she found the detective on her phone.

"Korsak, hey." Jane was pacing from one end of the office to the other, her long strides clearing the distance in just a few steps each way. Frost and Maura exchanged glances, both very familiar with the way Jane was going to be bouncing off the walls for the foreseeable future. "Listen, we just got a bunch of huge breaks down here. The body that Crowe caught yesterday—yeah, suspected OD. Well it's not, it's actually… Wait. Hold on." Jane covered the mouthpiece with her hand and turned to address Maura. "Sorry. Do you have a COD on that guy?" He died of multiple organ failure," Maura said. "Why, I don't know yet, but most likely some kind of poisoning."

"Murder, though, right?" Jane said, sparing a curious glance over at Frost who was grabbing his own phone from his belt and stepping out into the hallway.

"I can't say conclusively," Maura replied, raising her voice a little on the last word because Jane had already started groaning loudly as soon as Maura had started her sentence with 'I can't.'

"Seriously, Maur?" Jane was whining in that raspy, high-pitched way she did sometimes and it was truly the least attracted Maura had felt towards her in some time.

"Seriously, Jane," Maura said sternly. "It could just as easily be self-administered."

That possibility actually gave Jane pause. She'd opened her mouth to respond but quickly closed it as she considered that new angle. Maura could practically see her putting a mental pin in it in order to finish her phone call.

"You there?" Jane said. "Okay, sorry. Yeah, cause of death is a little up in the air, but it's confirmed that this guy is connected to our case. His blood is on our vic from yesterday. Can you go get Cavanaugh to authorize us taking the case from Crowe? Make sure he doesn't make us team up, no murderer is going to get caught if I'm busy killing Crowe. And try not to clue the feds in quite yet, maybe we can wait until the end of day debrief for that. Frost and I are heading up in a few."

Jane got off the phone just as Frost was stepping back into the room. The younger detective was wearing a proud expression.

"What was that about? What do you have?" Jane asked.

"I called Amanda in Missing Persons to ask if any doctors have been reported missing since yesterday."

Jane's eyebrows shut up. "They got one?"

"They got one this morning." Frost nodded. "A Doctor Samantha Preston was reported missing by her husband this morning. No one has seen her since she left her house. Never showed up in the hospital but her car was found in the parking garage and the attendant remembers seeing her."

Maura watched as Jane frowned deeply. Something about what Frost said changed her mood entirely, like a flip had been switched, and Maura wondered if Jane knew this woman. Jane looked back at Maura, The usual thrill of the hunt had been replaced with something much more somber.

"Specialty?" Maura asked warily, tearing her eyes away from Jane to give her attention to Frost.

"She's an oncologist," Frost glanced out through the windows at the body still on Maura's table. "Could, uh…"

"Yes," Maura sighed. "An overdose of chemotherapy medication could cause internal bleeding and multiple organ failure. I'll have the lab test for all the most common drugs in chemotherapy cocktails."

It was more fuel for Jane's fire and both Frost and Maura looked over at Jane in anticipation of her smug insistence of victory, but she was still just frowning darkly, her posture stiff, eyes drilling a hole through a random spot on the wall. She shook her head and blinked a few times before looking between them.

"Frost, can you go upstairs and clue Korsak in?" Jane nodded her head toward the door. "I just need a minute with Maura and then I'll be right behind you."

Frost glanced between the two women, Jane's expression serious and Maura surely looking a little bewildered. "Yeah, no problem. I'll see you up there."

Frost exited the office swiftly, leaving them alone. Maura turned to Jane.

"What's wrong? Did you know her?" Maura wondered if Jane was worried about revealing she'd had a relationship with this woman and she found herself a little put off that Jane would feel so weird about it. While Maura's hadn't exactly covered herself in glory when that woman had shamelessly hit on Jane in front of her at the Lenox Hotel, she didn't really begrudge Jane any of her dalliances.

"Huh?" Jane said. "No, never heard of her. But she's a woman."

Maura let the confusion on her face do the talking and Jane exhaled noisily.

"She's a woman and a doctor," Jane continued. She wrung her hands together and Maura realized she was rubbing at her scars. "It didn't even occur to me when the first four guys turned out to be doctors, I was just so excited to finally have a thread to follow, but now that there's a woman involved…"

"Oh," Maura said quietly, putting it together. "You're worried about me."

"You gotta be careful, Maur." Jane said seriously, clenching and unclenching her fists a few times. "Text me when you're leaving and I'll come down to walk you to your car. Try not to go anywhere alone. I know you think we don't have enough information for some of the angles we're considering but one way or another doctors are being murdered."

That much did seem indisputable, though Maura was having a hard time believing she might be at risk.

"I'm a pathologist, Jane. They were all doctors employed at hospitals, working with the living, and I'm not doing either of those things. I'm sure—I think there's something connecting them that we just don't know about. I've only ever met one of them."

Jane took a few step towards Maura and it was clear by the look on her face that none of what Maura had said had decreased her concern.

"Please, Maura." Jane said softly. She eliminated the rest of the distance between them and pulled Maura in her arms. "You're probably right, but please. Just be careful."

Despite the blinds of her office being open, despite signed paperwork promising to refrain, Maura welcomed the embrace. Well aware moments like this might be few and far between for the foreseeable future, she slipped her arms around Jane's waist and rested her cheek against Jane's shoulder.

"And what about you?" Maura asked while Jane rubbed slow circles against her back.

Jane spoke quietly into Maura's hair. "I really hate to break it to you, honey, but I'm not a doctor."

Maura pulled a hand from around Jane's waist to give her a firm jab in the abdomen.

"You know what I mean," Maura groused. "You're going to do that thing, aren't you? Where you stay here day and night and sleep on my couch and never stop working?"

"Yeah, I gotta," Jane said gloomily. "We had nothing to work with for so long and now there's so many leads to look into. Maybe if we work fast enough we can catch this guy before the next doctor goes missing."

Maura sighed quietly. She knew it was true, and she was no stranger to working well into the night either. She just hated what it did to Jane, how much Jane internalized the entire responsibility to get the solve.

"Please work with the FBI, Jane." Maura felt Jane stiffen against her and she drew back to level Jane with a serious look. "Come on. They can help. This is about expediency and we know they're qualified to do the work, even if they are really annoying."

Jane's body softened again as she let out a long, slow exhale. "I know," Jane grumbled. "I will. I'm gonna go right now to tell Dean everything we got today."

Maura offered a small smile and Jane, after casting a careful glance around at all the windows, dipped down for a soft kiss. Maura appreciated the concern but found herself entirely unconcerned about who might see and she lifted a hand and slid it around to the back of Jane's neck, encouraging her closer and drawing out the affection. In a moment, Jane would be gone, lost to the grind of the case, but for the next few heartbeats she was still Maura's.