"You do?"

Jane's smile was small and shy, she had never been surer though. "Mhm."

Maura exhaled shakily as she ran the tips of her fingers down her cheeks. "You…" It was all she could muster while searching Jane's big brown eyes.

Jane bit her lip softly and nodded again while looking up at her. "I love you too, Maura." She murmured.

The ME made a soft noise as the tiniest ripple of a smile ribboned onto her lips and she held the other woman's face in her hands as if it were a small bird or tiny delicate organ, a heart. "How?"

Jane felt the corners of her eyes sting with emotion as she smiled up at her, their noses nuzzling softly as she hugged her even closer. "Here's the part—" She rasped quietly, her tone alone was so utterly Jane, so teasing and sarcastic, yet unmistakably soft, and kind. Maura's smile began to grow before she could even finish. "—Where you don't leave me hanging." Maura chuckled warmly into a kiss. "Okay?" She raised a brow and jostled the other woman in her arms softly. "Alright?"

Maura nodded. "Yes, yes, of course." They smiled at each other. "Of course, Jane." She took a small breath and let her left-hand hang gently over Jane's shoulder. "I love you so much." She mouthed as she shook her head at her and pressed her right thumb gently into Jane's dimple. "How could I not?" Tears stained her eyes glossy and she inhaled quickly to keep them at bay, Jane was looking at her with the most adorable expression of affection she had ever seen, it was just too much.

Jane helped the ME bat some of the happy tears away before sighing at her best friend. "Jesus Christ." She cursed when Maura helped catch the one that slipped down her own cheek without permission.

"I've got it." She eased.

"Get it away from me." Their lips twitched with amusement at one another as they dared the other to laugh with their eyes.

"Don't say that." Maura chided softly as if they tear could hear them.

"No?"

She moved some hair behind Jane's ear. "No."

"But I'm not sad."

Maura's smile softened as she reached for Jane's face again, it was hard not to want to touch her, have her under her finger tips, Jane hardly seemed to mind though as she grazed the area on her lip where a thin scar of her own doing lay. "Though conducted by the same neurotransmitter sometimes we may experience tears of joy." She rested both arms over Jane's shoulders now. If she kept touching her face she wouldn't be able to think right, it was already bad enough she had forgotten the name of said neurotransmitter. "The physiological act of crying can intensify some of life's happiest moments." Jane just smiled. "Do you understand?"

She nodded as she inched closer. "I think so, Maur." She murmured before their lips met in a supple kiss. It was the kind of kiss that was slow to start and slow to end, the kind that held them both at the most unbearable distance brushing lips and yet made the high of their connection rival any drug. The kind that if possible, made them love the other even more.

It grew into the kind that let their hands wonder without caution, the kind that trapped the small noises of pleasure between them like secrets. Soon it made waiting a second longer apart sound like the most ridiculous and unnatural thing in the world, like drinking air or breathing water.

Before either of them knew it Jane was kissing and suckling down the Maura's neck with such purpose which was encouraged effusively by the pathologist letting one hand hide in the Jane's loose ponytail while the other squeezed her bicep every time Jane's lips brushed against her carotid. The detective felt her blood thicken and begin to sink her when she nibbled on a particular patch of skin right under her best friend's earlobe and the response she received was Maura curling into her immediately and moaning her name through pouted lips.

Jane hadn't expected it to turn her on quite like this, and as their lips met again she realized she was completely and utterly criminal here, and Maura's body was the swift and punishable hammer of the law. It was in this moment Jane held within her a resignation to serve her time, to fall into a statistic, if it meant having this she supposed it was what needed to be done to right her past wrongs, and feed her debt to society.

She purposefully ran the tip of her tongue along the sensitive skin and exhaled hotly when Maura rocked their hips together in response.

They could throw her on death row for all she cared…

Before Maura could in fact accomplish such a feat they were startled apart by the very loud pounding on the front door downstairs.

They looked at each other, as if unsure if it had been real, but then it came again against the drizzle of the wee morning like a brick against the dining room table.

Jane thanked her law enforcement instincts for getting her out of the bed (because nothing else could) and into the room across the hall where Maura had asked her to move her firearm lock box when TJ was over. She ripped open the lid, entered the four digits that belonged to Jo Friday's real home address as the security code and pulled out her off-duty Beretta and met Maura in the hallway.

"I wasn't expecting anyone." She was fighting with her robe.

Jane shook her head at the innocent comment as she flicked the safety off her gun and let the magazine fall into her palm for a quick examination of its contents. "That's my concern, Maura." She snapped the magazine back in place and gave her a stern look. "Stay here." When she got a nod as confirmation, she lowered her weapon in front of her and as she was trained let it guide her line of sight down the stairs.

The pounding continued once she was at the bottom step and a light in the kitchen turned on. Jane swung her weapon around and glared at her mother when she made eye contact with her across the room. Angela swatted the air in frustration and Jane lowered her gun.

"You're not expecting Ron?" She whispered throwing a thumb over her shoulder at the door. Which thankfully was locked and bolted just the way she had left it.

"It's three in the morning!" Angela hissed. Who in the hell could she be expecting?

The pounding started again, and Jane whirled herself around to face it with her gun brought out in front of her.

"Angie! Angelaaaa!"

Jane lowered her weapon with a soft growl at the unmistakable call of a man she knew all too well. "Are you serious?" She looked over at her mother. "Three in the goddamned morning, Ma?"

Angela was already making quick work of the distance between them in fear that her drunk ex-husband would not only wake Maura, but all her neighbors too. "Watch your mouth!" She swatted Jane's arm as she passed her in the way Italian mothers were somehow still able to do in a crisis.

Jane slipped her safety back on her gun and pushed her way past her mother to be the one to take all the locks off the front door and open it. Her father stumbled into the threshold having been in the process of readying another knock. "Janie, Jane." He slurred when he met her stern features. "Where's yuh mother?" He patted his pocket a few times. "I lost my keys again, Janie. I lost my keys."

"You don't have keys here, Pop." She tried to remain in his way but he was bigger than her and sluggishly making his way past her as if this were their old home and he was simply locked out. He reeked of cheap malt liquor, sour wheat, and perspiration and looked like he had been drowned in them as well.

"What are you gonna keep me outside? I lost my keys, honey." He swayed some and Jane took a step back in case she had to brace herself to catch him. "Angela!" He looked over at his two daughters, three daughters. "Where's yuh mother?" He hiccupped. "Huh?"

Angela turned on the entry light and crossed her arms. "What in the hell are you doing here, Frank?" She snapped.

Jane pressed a hand to his damp shirt at his chest to stop him from coming into the home any further. "You're drunk, Pop. You can't be here." She was still holding her gun in her right hand which was making holding him in one place with this method increasingly difficult. "Let me call you a cab."

"What am I doing here?" He shook his head at her and motioned to her mother but the motion somehow seemed several degrees off target. "I'm talking to yuh mother." He easily pressed past Jane who finally was free to slip her pistol into its old spot with her keys and her wallet near the entry way. "She tell you I'm dying, honey?" He pivoted and hopped backwards a little to turn and look at Jane again. "She tell you?" His eyes were muddied with a serious sadness Jane never seen before, It threw her off.

"Yeah, Pop. I know." She nodded.

"You know?" He swayed.

"I'm… Sorry." She nodded again but then exhaled and motioned to the door. "We can talk about that some other time though."

"I wanna talk about it now." His tone stiffened coldly as if to scold her for suggesting otherwise.

Jane platted her feet and matched his gaze. "I'm only gonna say it one more time, Pop. You gotta go."

"Jane." Maura interrupted from the middle of the stairs. Jane looked up at her while Frank grappled with the idea that he wasn't wanted in his own home. The blonde motioned to her silently and Jane glanced at her mother winding up to give Frank a piece of her mind for coming over like this then climbed five steps up to the ME when she decided she more than anyone could handle him. "Jane he is—"

"—Drunk off his ass and likely to piss on your thousand-dollar rug, Maura." She cut. "No."

"He is clearly disoriented and unable to stand on his own." She pointed at all six feet two inches of her father teetering between leaning heavily on the stair banister and the front door which her mother had closed to keep the entire neighborhood from waking up.

Jane ran a hand through her hair as he almost knocked over Maura's coat rack. "No." She shook her head and looked up at the ME from her spot on the lower step. "No."

"I can not in good conscious let him leave like this." She asserted. He was a lot of things, and so was she, but right now he was someone in need of medical assistance, and she would not turn a blind eye to that.

Jane let her hand fall from her hair. "So what? You're gonna run him a warm bath and bird feed him Ibuprofen? He's a grown man, Maura."

"I'm allergic to Ibuprofen—"

"Damnit, that's not the point!" Maura crossed her arms over her robe clearly unamused with the outburst and Jane pinched her brows before shaking her head at herself. "I'm sorry." She needed a moment to calm down, she needed a moment to put her gun away, actually realize that there was no imminent threat and that for the most part they were safe, and she needed a moment to settle into being properly pissed at her father and not Maura for loving her, and not her mother for loving her. It wasn't on them.

She needed a moment.

##

Jane sat slouched forward with her elbows impressed to her pajama pants and her chin under her knuckles as she critically watched the man sitting on the loveseat in front of her. Frank was babbling on about some memory of her as a baby that she had never remembered which he recalled lovingly, in a haze only alcohol could produce. The police officer in her understood that entertaining him would only lead to more drunk stories or confessions which quite frankly she wasn't in the mood to hear. Maura had insisted they at least ensure he hydrate properly before sending him off, she even let him sit on her couch even though he smelt awful, because Maura was Maura.

it was why she loved her, but also what was silently driving her crazy right now.

Because Jane couldn't, she couldn't just sit here and make sure he finished his glass of water in perfect bliss with himself for fathering such a cute and angelic baby girl, as if everything were okay, as if he weren't dying of cancer, as if he hadn't literally robbed her mother of her better years, as if he hadn't left her with the house and the bills, the IRS, all to then pop up out of nowhere to ask for an annulment, as if they just happened to him on accident, and he was the victim.

He did not get to sit here and literally feed off their happiness, Maura's kindness.

He was an alcoholic, and it was now four twenty-eight in the morning, and all Jane Rizzoli wanted right now, all she really wanted to do was punch a wall.

Because despite all of that, she loved him and he knew it, they all did.

She was not expecting so quickly to learn how such feelings of love could free you and cage you all at the same time.

"—You were just this little thing, this little thing." He hiccupped. " and all those idiots wanted a boy first, all my friends, to play ball with and throw stones with. This and that and that and this." He tapped her knee excitedly. "I had my, Janie." He chuckled cheeks full of beer blush. His eyes suddenly grew hard and his voice climbed an octave without his control. "You were tough, and you could throw a ball faster than all those little puss—"

"—Drink. Pop." She grumbled from behind her fist.

Frank paused and looked at the glass of water in his hand and raised his brows at as if meeting it for the first time. "Yeah yeah yeah yeah." He nodded. "This was a good idea, sweetheart, this water." He nodded again. "Good idea."

"It was Maura's idea. I wanted to put you in a cab and send you to Norway myself." She explained dryly. "She wanted you to stay."

Frank managed to look over his shoulder at Maura and Angela having a hushed conversation in the kitchen before turning back to his daughter and spilling a little water on himself in the process. Jane raised a brow at him as if to dare him to say something out of line. He didn't though, simply shrugged and mumbled something about their home back in Revere and how it was nicer, or warmer or whatever.

Jane leaned all the way back on the armchair and slouched deeply into its arms as she sighed and massaged her forehead. "Just drink the water."

In the kitchen Maura glanced over to Jane slouching in the chair and looking up at the ceiling. Gone was the woman who embraced her against her chest, who looked at her with such tenderness. Jane's energy toward her since the decision was made was somewhat cold. It was okay, she understood why. The ME just didn't expect to feel it in quite this way, and she hoped it didn't last longer than need be. "Perhaps I should have let her take him home." She looked to Angela who hadn't stopped cleaning surfaces since Maura finished her cup of tea ten minutes ago.

Angela shook her head. "You got a good heart, Maura." She touched her arm. "I'm so sorry you have to be dragged into this."

Maura nodded, in addition to cleaning she had also not stopped apologizing either. "I simply wanted to prevent an accident." She wasn't taking sides, her place without question was with Jane and Angela, but without saying too much to Jane his prognosis had concerned her. If he had been taking medication for his chemotherapy then consuming enough alcohol to appear so disoriented or any at all for that matter was incredibly dangerous. There was also the case of him not on medication but still at a similar risk for toxicity by lowering his intake tolerance through his multiple sobriety attempts. The thrill of chance was always lost to her so she did what she thought was best for his health, because whether Jane liked to admit it or not she cared what happened to him, and Maura cared what Jane cared about. "Do you know if he has begun seeking treatment?" Procarbazine and lomustine were notorious for causing serious irreversible damage if combined with the consumption of alcohol.

Angela shook her head as she went back to wiping down the stove. "He had an appointment tomorr—" She checked the antique kitchen clock on the wall near the back door. "Tonight." She shook her head again. "How can I go with him after this?" She looked over at Maura who struggled to find words to answer her.

"This is indeed an uncomfortable situation." Maura nodded. She was a little out of her depth but she wanted to try and comfort the other woman the way she had comforted her countless times before.

"He can't keep doing this to our babies." She said as she watched Jane try and hide a yawn. She looked at Maura. "It's too much."

"It seems he is suffering severe amounts of denial." She played with the handle of her empty teacup as she thought aloud. "Anticipatory grief is grappling with and grieving a loss before it completely unfolds. Added with the complication of addiction biologically speaking the intoxicated disorientation into an easier time or a happier memory might be the way he copes with his own immortality." She continued to ramble for a moment about a study on hospice workers and accumulated trauma before stopping herself and waiting for Angela to say something. When she only continued cleaning, Maura bit the inside of her mouth and tried another approach. "What I mean Angela, is I cannot imagine how hard this is for him." Angela looked at her. "He isn't the only one grieving though, and as painful as it is it should be done in a way that brings respect to the relationship you all had with him." Angela smiled softly at her. "Jane has expressed nothing but fondness for that time, it should be honored."

"You know you can go back to bed." She offered after resting the polishing cloth down and examining the ME in a motherly way. "Jane and I will put him in a cab." Maura shook her head easily and looked over at her daughter across the room.

"No, I'd like to wait for Jane." She turned back after a lost moment; one Maura had not realized lasted as long as it did. Angela continued to watch her.

"She won't stay like this for long, honey." Angela offered as she read the doctor's concern for a second time. She looked back into the living room.

##

Jane rested her glass of water down and braced the kitchen counter in front of her tiredly. She had no idea a forty-five-minute encounter with her father would drain her as if she had been pulling a three-day stint at work with little leads. She exhaled and used a hand to balance herself while turning and tossing the cup in the sink across from her. It was one of TJ's plastic tumblers and managed the fall into the sink's depths better than she was handling her life right now.

"Can you sleep?" Maura inquired quietly as she made her way into the kitchen after having turned off all the lights on the first floor. The pale blue and rose hue of morning crept in through the curtains near the back door and colored them and all that surrounded them a calming lilac.

Jane ran a hand through her hair. "I wanna try." She had to be at work in four hours.

"Okay." Maura nodded and leaned against the counter as she regarded Jane with open concern. "Can I do anything?" She asked after watching Jane struggle between processing her immediate need for rest and the untimely visit of her father.

Jane sighed and let herself be freed of the support from the counter as she stepped over to the ME to press a kiss on her cheek. "No."

Maura watched her pad towards the stairs in the dark stiffly and exhaled quietly once she heard her start the stairs after checking the locks on the door again. She had a feeling she had done exactly what Jane as her best friend would have needed, no, she was sure that she had. The taller woman would want to be given the space to express her frustration if she wanted to, and the space to not express it if she didn't want to. So why did Maura feel so unaccomplished?

"Maur." Jane called quietly from the stairs. The blonde appeared in the hall below her looking curiously up at her dark silhouette. "C'mon." She motioned.

"I am going to set the coffee pot on a timer." She explained just as quietly. "I'll only be a moment, go." She made quick work of the task, knowing the momentary fatigue would pale in comparison to the thick comforting aroma of freshly brewed Corsican beans in a few hours. She also washed out their glasses and pulled a frozen loaf of brioche sans sucre from the freezer to thaw a little knowing both Jane and Angela liked to dunk it in their coffees. When she returned to climb the stairs, she chuckled softly at the sight of Jane sitting on them with her head leaned against the wall and her knees tucked close to her chest.

She was sleeping.

"Réveille-toi." She hummed just above a whisper as she brought her hand onto her shoulder and applied a gentle pressure to a muscle there. Jane blinked rapidly and took in a deep breath while looking up into her face. Their eyes met in the dark as it had earlier that night, as if the meeting had been set weeks ago.

"I fell asleep?" Jane finally asked. Maura nodded. "So my old man didn't show up here drunk as a skunk to tell us he was dying?"

Maura let up a small smile. "You know I cannot lie to you." Jane groaned and Maura let her hand run down her arm. "I would like to though, does that count?"

"Yeah." She sighed and offered the ME a little smile. It was so tired and lost in thought the only indication that it was Jane's was that it was on her face. "That counts."

"Come to bed." Maura helped her up.

"Did you start coffee?" Jane asked after yawning and being helped up.

Maura looped her arm in hers. "I set a timer."

Jane nodded to herself as she let her body naturally lean into Maura's. "When are we gonna get that IV drip you keep promising me?" Maura simply patted her arm as they made the final step together. Once in bed they snuggled up close to one another on their backs, sharing the same pillow.

"It was the right call… Helping him." Jane murmured into the delicate space they had begun to reconstruct around them. "Thanks Maur." Maura promised it wasn't necessary as she curled herself in on her shoulder. Sleep took them almost instantly after that.

##

"Morning, Sweetheart." Angela greeted before taking a sip of her coffee as Jane came into the kitchen a few hours later dressed for work in a black suit with a white button-down shirt.

"Hey Ma." She finished adjusting her collar as she came into the kitchen and pressed a kiss on her mother's cheek. "You get any sleep?" She went over to the cabinet where Maura kept her soup mugs. She was going to need enough coffee to power a small village to make it through today.

"I've been awake watching infomercials." Angela shook her head at herself. "Did you?" She looked over at Jane who had paused just briefly while getting her mug.

"Yeah… I got some rest." She had almost slipped and said we. That morning the two woke to the sounds of the smallest bird species in the animal kingdom from the family Trochilidae or something, Jane remembered that much, and then the small tug of her tank top when it first began to sing them awake. Maura had seemingly buried herself under the blankets and was for the briefest moment unwilling to let the reality of morning disturb her. It only lasted a second, maybe less, but Jane's heart must have melted an ounce when she realized it was because she wanted to stay in bed and close to her.

Last night she had told her that she loved her.

It felt almost wrong to have such strong emotions inhabit one being at the same time. All she wanted was to be close to Maura, even now standing in her kitchen drinking coffee while she was upstairs getting dressed was too far apart. It was an irrational thing, peppered with lust and sluggish in its regard toward daily responsibilities. Jane really wished there was some way to pause time so she could talk to the ME to make sure everything was okay between them, but then the rivaling feeling of upset, the very real disappointment and embarrassment that came along with her father's actions last night plagued her in a visceral way.

It made her angry, but… Not necessarily at any one person, for any one thing.

In a general sort of way that she knew just needed to be channeled to be taken care of but existed nevertheless.

"He call?" Jane asked as she topped off her soup mug and grabbed an odd looking thing she supposed was a fruit off the bowl in the middle of the counter where she had once seen an apple.

"Your father?" Angela asked wondering silently where her daughter's mind had just gone.

"Yeah." Jane sat at the island and looked down at the thin prickly skin of the avocado shaped fruit. She shrugged mentally and began to try and peel it with her fingers. Angela brought her a plate.

"No. He will though." She sighed. "I'm sorry you had to see him like that, Sweetheart."

Jane shrugged as she continued to peel. "Not the first time." She played with lining of where her tooth was being held in place with her tongue as she worked. "What are we gonna do?"

Angela crossed her arms and looked at her. "That's not up to us, honey." Jane paused what she was doing and looked up to her. "Your father needs to decide for himself how he wants to conduct his life." Jane put the fruit down. "But in the meantime, I'm going to need him to sober up by three so he can really listen to what I'm going to tell him."

"You're going over there?" Angela nodded. "Not by yourself you're not."

"I am."

"Ma—"

"—This is a conversation I need to have with him alone, honey." She put her foot down and Jane closed her mouth from trying to protest. "You kids deserve better."

"He needs to know he can't show up here like that." She wanted to make sure her mother knew where she stood on this. "Maura's too proper to turn him away but it's not okay."

Angela nodded. "She's the best of us." She sighed and went to pick up her mug. " She knows that I love her like one of my own? She knows?"

Jane's brows softened as she smiled at her mother. "Yeah, Ma, she knows." She thought back to Maura's actions last night. "Think that's why she even cared at all."

"I was so embarrassed last night. I didn't know what to do, what to say to her." She shared as she leaned against the counter and brought her mug to her lips. "Then you with this gun." She made a noise of disapproval.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Ma how many times do either one of us have to get kidnapped before you think—"

"Don't even say it. I don't want to relive it." She held her head. "Mother of Mercy."

"Alright, calm down before you bust stitch or something."

Angela gave her daughter a certain look. "I will when I see your father again if he gives me any of his crap" She shook her head.

"C'mon Ma is it really going to solve anything? You going down there?"

"It will for me. He isn't the only one having trouble with all this."

How could she argue with that? Jane nodded. "Just be careful."

For a moment, the two women just drank their coffee in silence. "You don't seem mad." Angela read aloud.

Jane put her mug down. "Of course I'm upset."

"Are you doing that thing where you stuff it all in?" She raised a knowing brow at her daughter.

"No Ma." Jane sighed. "I'm doing that thing where I'm trying to put aside my own personal family drama so I can go to work and help people."

"We can talk about it."

Jane deflated a little. She was making an effort and it was making her feel guilty. She didn't want to talk to her mother about this, not right now at least. "Yeah, I know Ma, I just need another cup of coffee or something ok?"

Just then Maura came downstairs clad in a black and white wrap around dress that hugged her frame in certain place and billowed out in others. She had her briefcase and her heels in hand, and though the shower and the makeup refreshed her Jane could tell by the way that she blinked that she was still sleepy.

"Good Morning, Angela." She offered a small smile to Jane as she rested her heels on the ground and her briefcase on the stool beside the detective. Maura was going to say something but then stopped when she noticed the bits of green peel that surrounded Jane's elbows as she worked to peel a bitter melon as if it were a banana. "Is that what you are going to eat?" She asked with a raised brow.

Jane looked over her shoulder slowly at her. "You're nagging me on two hours of sleep?"

"Would you like me to leave you alone?" She asked softly, there was a teasing nature to her tone Jane smirked at.

"Yeah, please." Maura put her hands up before abandoning her belongings for the coffee pot.

"How did you sleep, Maura?" Angela asked while putting her mug down and going into the refrigerator to grab Maura the carton of soy milk there.

"Very well." She admitted as she poured her mug of coffee. It was true, the sleep she had gotten was peaceful. "How did you sleep?"

"I didn't." Angela handed her the milk.

"Thank you." She opened it. "I'm so sorry to hear that."

Angela waved her off. "I don't have to work until five, when you girls leave I'm going to try again."

"Would you like a sleep sedative?"

"No, those things make me feel like It's nineteen seventy-three all over again."

Maura chuckled softly. "Some popular over the counter sedatives have been known to increase physiological responses similar to that of anxiety in some patients. This one is herbal though, infused with ginseng. It is very effective."

Jane sighed loudly and waved the fruit toward Maura. "You got any ripe ones, Maur?" She had finally made it to a part where the flesh was exposed and was disappointed to report its firm potato like texture.

Maura turned to her. "Those are ripe, Jane."

She motioned to the plate in front of her with all the bits of green peel and then to fingers. "My fingernails are numb, there is no way this is ripe."

Maura came over with her coffee and motioned to the fruit bowl. "They are bitter melon I was saving them to make a salad."

Jane turned the avocado looking thing she had thought was some kind of pear banana hybrid over in her hands. "A melon?"

"A bitter melon." Maura repeated. "Momordica charantia actually, it is said to have originated in India and was introduced into China in the 14th century before—"

"—Can I eat it?" Jane interrupted.

"Yes." Maura nodded surely but then paused. "Technically."

Jane groaned loudly and looked to her mother for help. "Ma."

Maura chuckled "It is extremely bitter, Jane."

Jane motioned to the large silver bowl in front of her. "Why is it in the fruit bowl?"

"Because it is a fruit."

Jane just stared at her for a long moment without blinking before turning to her mother. "Ma can I have eggs?"

Angela chuckled and put her mug down. "and toast?" She wiped her hands off into a kitchen towel with the same gusto a superhero adorned their cape.

"Yes, please."

"I left out some brioche for you both." Maura pointed.

"See that's what I call a breakfast." Jane put her bitter melon down dismissively.

"You're eating it, you already put your hands all over it." Angela warned.

"Ma, it's bitter."

"You know children are starving all over the world." The mother of three nodded as she removed the foil paper wrapped around the loaf bread. "What about you, Doc, egg whites?"

Jane gave Maura the melon and Maura gave the melon back to Jane. "That sounds lovely Angela but I really had better go."

At this the detective looked up at her from their game. "Wait, you don't wanna drive in together?"

Maura shook her head. "I have a meeting this morning with the Governor's office, remember?"

"No."

"I told you yesterday." Maura was sure of it.

"Was I watching baseball?"

"No."

"Was it before I took TJ to play?"

"Do you really have this many instances where you cannot retain information?"

Jane nodded and Maura sighed not being able to help her smile. She glanced over at Angela who had her back turned and was in her own world of thought before lowering her tone. "I told you before we went upstairs after tea."

Jane began to grin. "Oh well I definitely don't remember that."

The ME rolled her eyes a faint blush brushing the tips of her ears. "I need to leave. I will be late if I wait for you to eat."

Jane suddenly looked conflicted. She glanced at her mother before bending and grabbing the ME's briefcase for her. "You're okay?" She had really wanted to take their car ride in to talk about last night, (pre and post Frank) but now tasked with getting it done as quickly as possible she supposed just flat out asking would be her best bet. "With… y'know?" She nodded as she handed Maura the briefcase.

Maura smiled a little. "I am okay." She whispered back. Jane nodded. "Are you?"

Jane couldn't help but smile a little too. This secret of theirs just kept on getting bigger and bigger. "Yeah."

"Will you stop by when you have a moment today?" Maura asked in a regular tone as she began to slip into her heels.

She watched her as she managed the balancing act before nodding. "Yeah, sure."

"Okay." She wanted to kiss her goodbye but instead touched her forearm and gave it a small squeeze. Jane seemed to understand. "Feed George."

"I will. I will."

Maura went around the counter and gave Angela a small hug before grabbing her things and taking one last sip of her coffee before leaving. Jane pulled out her cell phone and saddled up to the island again.

"Turkey bacon?" Angela asked.

"Do you still have real bacon in the freezer?" Jane asked as she began to construct a text message to her brothers.

##

"Well someone has to go with her." Frankie dipped his chin as he handed his sister the mug of coffee he had just poured her in the break room at work.

Jane ran a hand through her hair. "She's determined to do it alone." She sat on top of one of the tables. "Maybe we should let her?"

"How's she gonna get home?" He asked as her began to pour his own mug.

"She's not an invalid, Frankie."

He exhaled. "Why didn't you call me? I could have taken him back to that facility. Now you're out fifty bucks for the cab." He put the coffee pot back in place and leaned against the counter opposite his sister.

"It was four in the morning; it didn't make sense for the whole family to wake up for it." Jane brought the mug to her lips and smiled at the familiar aroma. "Thanks." It was her third cup of the day and she had only been at work an hour.

Frankie shrugged her off. "I get it… So, how'd he look?"

"Drunk." Jane sipped her coffee and wrinkled her brows. "Sad."

"Yeah well it is a depressant."

"He asked me if I knew he was dying, Frankie."

Frankie bit the inside of his mouth. "You think he started drinking again because he decided not to go on any medication?"

Jane nodded. "Yeah."

The room was quiet for a few beats as the siblings tried to organize their emotions. They were similar like that, it didn't make sense to dispense so much energy on one thing when they still had to get through the workday, still it was nice to be able to do it together.

"How's Maura?"

Jane rubbed away some more sleep from her eyes "Maura is Maura." She was busy in the lab with Kent geeking over dissolvable metals or something. She would honestly pay to know what she was thinking during all this. The detective realized while laying in bed with her sharing a pillow that she couldn't ask for a more supportive person in her corner though. She decided then that even if they didn't have an anniversary date she still wanted to do something nice for the ME. Who she loved and who loved her back…

"She's okay I think." Jane nodded.

"Good." Frankie agreed. "She's like my other sister now. I guess I forget that y'know, she's not."

"Yeah." Maura did not at all feel like her sister last night. Jane swallowed as she drank her coffee. They had gotten pretty close to having sex before her father showed up, or at least that's what Jane thought. Maybe they would have stopped… Was that what Maura would have wanted? Things had gotten intense so quickly that she was having trouble deciding if it was good that they stopped or not. Regardless she could not recall a time where she was as happy as she was last night helping Maura catch tears and trying not to laugh too loudly at the other.

Frankie watched his sister's face change to one of deep thought. "How 'bout you?"

"Hm?" Jane looked up at him

He gave her an odd look before smiling a little to ease the worry that crossed her face. "You alright?"

Jane exhaled and shook her head. "What are we gonna do about Ma going over there?"

He shrugged. "Nothing."

"Should we wait for her at The Robber like before?"

"Couldn't hurt."

"God, Frankie." She shook her head. "Why does he have to make all this so difficult?"

"Cause he's our old man?" Just then the break room door opened and Agent Cameron Davies stepped in all smiles. Frankie took that as his cue to leave. Now that the case was over the drug unit was borrowing him for some work with a case he helped them crack when he was a floater, Jane was jealous, all she had to do today was paperwork. Paperwork and think. "I'll catch you later." He promised before kissing his own palm and using it to pretend cheap shot her on the cheek. "Pow." He echoed sweetly. Jane gave him a soft look; message was received loud and clear. They'd get through this.

"Yeah, I love you too." She sang after him sarcastically while wiping the patch of wet from her face.

"Hey Davies." Frankie greeted as they passed one another.

"Frank." He smiled. "Narcotics stole you today huh?"

Frankie shrugged. "Find any more dead bodies and I'll come running."

"Here's hoping not."

"Yeah, you could say that again." He nodded before leaving.

"Hey, Mornin'." Cameron smiled at Jane as she he came in and began to pour himself a cup of coffee.

"Morning." Jane gave him the once over. "Where's the dumb tie?" She asked. Cameron was dressed in a normal grey suit today with a simple black tie.

He chuckled as he poured. "Cleaners."

"Didn't know you owned anything that wasn't on the rainbow, Davies."

He rolled his eyes in amusement. "How was your weekend?" Jane groaned without her permission. He turned and raised a brow at her. "That bad?"

"No…" It hadn't been actually. She got to spend time with TJ, see a really good hockey game with friends, touch Maura's breasts... "Didn't get much sleep last night is all."

"Oh." He nodded dramatically before turning to her with his mug. "You know how important sleep is, Detective."

Jane quirked a brow at him. "Yeah, Mom thanks."

Davies chuckled as she brought the mug to his lips. "Don't call me that."

"What you don't like it?"

"No."

Jane smirked and motioned to him with her mug. "Noticed the news vans still outside."

Davies nodded. "We'll tie 'em up before we go, don't worry, you'll get your parking spot back."

"When is that?"

"End of the week. My CO wants to make sure everything here sticks." He took a sip of his coffee. "We're gonna give that recruit a federal burial."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"That's nice of you guys. I'm sure the family would get something out of it."

"That's the goal." He shook his head. "I doubt a few soldiers with rifles and an American flag is gonna make up for the loss though."

Jane nodded slowly. "It's the work we do."

"Yeah well I'm once again impressed with you and your team, Rizzoli." He smiled. "Bureau's not gonna know what to do with themselves when they realize they can't have you full time."

Jane rolled her eyes at the compliment. "We did okay."

"We made a pretty good team there, you and I."

Jane sat up a little. "Yeah I thought so too." She paused. "Of course I did all the police work and you just stood there with your badge looking pretty." She pretended to remember.

Cameron grinned. "You think I'm pretty?"

Jane rolled her eyes again. "Really could use my parking spot back so feel free to leave a day early."

He laughed. "C'mon, Mr. Top Cop and you ever bust a serial killing gang of low life's in two business days?"

Jane snorted in amusement. "You do realize I had the case for a month from when the first body showed up."

"Yeah but then we showed up to help—"

"—More like bulldoze."

"Answer the question."

"No." Jane nodded. "We haven't done that."

"So, it's a we now?"

Jane gave him a look. "I mean no… Not officially…" She scratched the back of her head. "I don't know."

Davies raised a brow. "Office politics?"

Jane really rather not talk to him about Maura, but she realized that she wanted to talk to someone about it, or at least to herself but out loud. "You could say that."

He tried not to seem as delighted to learn this as he was. "What's he waiting for?"

Jane shook her head and brought her mug to her lisp. "Me, I think."

"Hm." He crossed his arms. "What are you waiting for?"

Jane thought about it before looking at him and realizing his face. "I'm not talking to you about this."

He chuckled. "Why not? I'm a guy, I know what guys think."

"What do guys think, Davies?"

"Well for one it's always about sex."

Jane raised a brow. "That's so enlightening, I never would have imagined."

He laughed. "Hear me out."

"Something is telling me I shouldn't."

"But after that initial y'know, thought. Then we start to think about other things, other qualities. Is she the kind of girl you can take to a ball game? Does she want the same things?"

"You do know that women think about the exact same things in the exact same order."

Cameron chuckled. "Maybe we aren't that different after all. You and I."

Jane rolled her eyes at him for a final time before standing from the table and motioning her mug at him. "I want my parking spot back."

"I'm on it." He paused. "You get the call?"

Jane nodded. "I'm due for orientation this weekend."

"Maybe I can buy you a drink, show you around?"

"You're not gonna let up are you?"

He shrugged gently. "I'm just trying to be friendly." He reassured. "I don't want to upset the delicate balance you and Mr. Top Cop have." He mocked but all in good fun. He liked Jane, she had to know that, but their dynamic was shifting. "If you have the time." He gave her an out. "Most of its clearance paperwork. Trust me you're gonna want a drink after writing your social security number eighty-seven times an hour."

Jane nodded. "I'll let you know."

##

Maura nodded at the request. "Yes, let's run It through toxicology first to ensure we have a viable enough sample." The lab tech nodded quickly and darted off. Maura watched her go before checking her wristwatch and returning to her office. She was ahead of schedule today despite the sleepless night and the boring meeting over lab finances with the Governor's treasury aids.

It was almost lunch time, which also meant almost Tasha's last class of the day would start soon. She had mailed her the textbooks but aside from a quick thank you test the young woman had mostly been quiet. Maura expected it, finals no matter the subject matter could be a lot. Organic chemistry three with one of the nation's leading chemists at one of the nation's leading institutions was surely giving her a run for her money. Still Maura felt compelled to check in.

"Hey Maura." Tasha picked up on the third ring.

Maura sat behind her desk smiling. "I've called to wish you luck."

Tasha looked around her dorm room and smirked at it's distressed state. "Hold on, I'm gonna video call you."

Maura sat up. "Okay." She waited for the request to come through and smiled at the other woman's familiar features.

"Look at my life." Tasha moved the camera to scan her small dorm. It was covered with sticky notes and littered with open books. On the far wall near a mirror was the periodic table with all major life elements drawn out.

Maura chuckled. "I am only mildly concerned." She cheered.

Tasha huffed and brough the camera back to her face. "Mildly? At this point you need to be all the way concerned."

"You'll do well."

"I know I'll do well, but I want to do the best. I won't get those scholarships if I don't."

Maura sat back in her seat and continued to smile. "Have the textbooks helped?"

"Yeah they really have." She sighed but then lit up when recalling something. "Who's Bucky Nielson?"

Maura quirked a brow. The name sounded so familiar. "I beg your pardon?"

Tasha searched her desk for a moment before pulling up the textbook Maura had lent her on cells. "He wrote his number in your book."

Maura pressed her memory and then laughed. "He was a teacher's assistant for my undergraduate course on biology."

"Does Jane know about Bucky Nielson?"

Maura glanced up at the door to be sure it was closed before shaking her head no. "I had completely forgotten he existed until now." She smiled at the memory of their tutoring sessions. "He was quite intelligent. I wonder where he ended up working."

Tasha smirked. "Remember you called me to wish me luck?"

Maura nodded. "Studies have shown that affirmation before cortisol induced examinations can lower the risk of performance anxiety."

Tasha sat back in her seat. "Alright, lay it on me."

"You're going to do extraordinarily well, and even if you do not get the highest score, I'm sure those who end up achieving this probably cheated and have much more shallow moral compasses in life which will eventually lead them into a number of unsavory life situations." Maura paused. "Statistically speaking you have already scored the highest score." She nodded and Tasha burst out in laughter not expecting her to say that at all.

"Thaaank youuu." She dragged out in the way young adults did when praises were rained down upon them.

"Where would you like to eat on Friday? I can make a reservation anywhere."

Tasha shrugged. "Um, I don't know. I really miss the potatoes and corned beef there, maybe somewhere like that. Jane took me to this place for graduation near BPD." She shrugged again. "Whatever."

"Whatever…" Maura repeated slowly as if to try and understand it better. "There is a lovely pre-fixe at Maison Cru."

"What's that?"

"A brilliant café near Newbury."

"Meehhh, do they have french fries?"

"I will inquire."

Tasha smiled. "So… Did you tell Jane about why I'm coming down?"

"I did."

"What'd she say?" For a moment the young adult actually looked a little concerned.

Maura bit her lip. "She supports you in whatever you decide." A slight itch tickled her throat.

Tasha seemed a little skeptical. "She knows I'm not getting it for acne or anything right?"

"Yes." Maura nodded. "Contraceptive."

"For sex?"

Maura chuckled. "Jane understands."

"She hasn't called me yet asking for a name or anything…" She furrowed a brow. "Are you sure she understands?"

"I assure you."

"Wow…" Tasha nodded. "That's impressive. Fee has been looking over his shoulder all week."

"It was Felix wasn't it. Felix Randal?"

"No Randy was the med student. Felix is majoring in Sociology."

"Sociology, right." Maura nodded.

"Anyway, I have ten minutes to pee, finish reading this chapter, and then head to class to take the exam. I'll catch you guys this Friday."

Maura waved. "Drink plenty of water, hydration is critical."

Tasha chuckled a little to herself as she waved back. "Thanks Maura." Maura hung up with Tasha and carefully regarded her cell phone. She had asked Jane to come down when she had a moment but the morning was well over and she hadn't heard anything from the detective, surely that must have meant that she did not have a moment. She bit her bottom lip to try and hide her facial muscles natural response to thinking of her best friend. Where did she even begin?

Last night had been overwhelming in so many ways. Most good, liberating even. Others reminded Maura of her inability to change the world around her to a liking she saw fit and fair for those she cared about. It was a difficult thing to process, especially with the heavy burden of love on her mind. Ever the logical thinker Maura realized as she stared at her cell phone that she had never felt so compelled into action solely based on her feelings for someone. There was always something else to consider, always another variable that fell neatly within a binary.

Well…

Jane shooting herself to save her brother had her leap into an active gun battle with police without so much as a calculation of bullet trajectory, and there was Jane jumping off of the bridge to save an innocent man, for a moment as brief as it was she lunged forward, seemingly ignorant of the traffic or stability in her heels.

Jane had always been the one to challenge her logic, and she loved her for it, it made her feel… Imperfect, beautifully organic… Human.

How could you not long to touch something so transformative?

The ME ran a hand through her hair to calm the sudden physiological response her body had become familiar with over the weekend whenever the notion of touching Jane crossed her mind. It was a warming pull that brought her attention solely to her memory of Jane's tempered skin and the twitching of her fingers as she slid them over its softness.

Where would they have gone if left uninterrupted?

"Are you watching baby turtles getting rescued on YouTube again?"

Maura looked up from what appeared to be her laptop but were in fact her thoughts and let up a soft smile run across her lips when she spotted Jane leaning against the doorframe holding two paper coffee cups from Boston Joe.

"I beg your pardon?" She greeted with a little laugh.

"You're all red." Jane pointed out as she came into the office and set the blonde's nondairy latte down on her desk beside her. "Here."

Maura closed her laptop and smiled. "No, I was… Meditating." She took the coffee and stood. "Thank you for this, how did you know my acetylcholine levels were dispersed incorrectly?

"I just knew?" She shrugged and they shared little smiles. "Can you take a break?"

Maura nodded quickly and motioned to her couch and coffee table. "Yes, please sit." They moved over to the setting and as Jane plopped herself down in her usual spot on the seafoam colored sofa, Maura decided sitting across from her was probably best. "How was your morning?" She asked once they got comfortable.

Jane took a sip of her coffee. "Long." She chuckled a little. "I uh, was gonna text you but I figured you'd be busy."

"You could have." It wasn't like she had been checking her phone all morning or anything.

Jane waved her off. "Nah, we ended up getting more information on Macon and his crew so that kinda took over from paperwork. We drove by his place again."

Maura nodded. "I noticed that federal agents were still here when I got in this morning."

She nodded. "Davies mentioned they'd be out by the end of the week after making sure all the charges stuck." The funny thing about learning to read people was that you became pretty aware of the small gap between cursory question and critical question. Maura always paused longer than the average person, probably to make a point. Jane nodded at their silence. "You're gonna ask me how I'm feeling aren't you?"

Maura smiled easily before taking a small sip from her coffee cup. "I was."

"I dunno, Maura. Tired?"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Jane shrugged. "Not really. Right now I'm more worried about Ma going over there alone…"

"It is unlikely that she is any danger, Jane."

"I know but.." She paused to try and figure out a way to explain it. "It's like TJ going up the stairs."

"Your mother going to see your father at his sobriety clinic is like watching a toddler with lesser motor skills climb vertically without guard?"

Jane paused. "Well… Yes."

Maura nodded. "Go on."

"I know he's fine; he's done it a million times but I'm still worried he'll fall again." She leaned forward some. "So I look out for him, I don't want him to get hurt."

"You're concerned about the emotional toll of all of this on Angela."

"She's beem… I don't know, weird since the hospital visit."

"Her ex husband is dying of cancer, Jane." It was the first time Maura had said it that way and she realized the error as the other woman visibly shifted under such certain words. "Jane I—"

"No, you're right, Maura." She exhaled and put her coffee down on a nearby coaster. "He is, and I don't really know how to help, and it sucks."

The ME nodded sympathetically. "It does suck." Jane cracked a little smile. "I can't imagine what all of this must feel like, for any of you."

"Yeah." Jane took a moment to gather her thoughts before clasping her hands and shrugging a little. "I mean it's hard but, not so hard when you're around." She admitted shyly.

Maura reached out a hand to rest on top of her clasped hands. "I'm here."

"I know." Jane smiled. "I like it."

Maura matched her expression. "I do too."

"Last night I…" She began unsure of what she even wanted to say. "Well you know…"

Maura chuckled softly and took her hand back as if to help her. "Yes."

Jane began to blush. "I was gonna say this morning that, I was liking that too." She raised her brows suggestively which made them both laugh and eased whatever tension the newness of talking about the more physical aspects of their togetherness brought about. "I meant what I said though, how I feel." She finished strongly before finding the ME's eyes. "You have to know that."

Maura nodded surely. "I know it." She put her coffee down. "I've known it." She admitted after a second more of thought. "The issue—the challenge was accepting it first and then…" She grew shy. "Seeing if you would accept me."

"This why you kissed me at the airport?" It still struck the detective as pretty damn bold considering everything she knew about her best friend. She had always wondered if there was something more driving it, something other than simply missing her and wanting to show her affection like the ME initially stated.

Maura nodded. "Yes. I believe it was."

"I didn't kiss you back."

Maura chuckled suddenly remembering how dumbfounded Jane appeared as she wished her a safe flight. "I chose not to hold it against you."

Jane smiled. "Oh good." They simply smiled at each other for a minute more before Jane motioned to the office. "I'm probably going to see Tommy and Frankie tonight at The Robber for Ma's shift. What time are you done here?"

Maura thought of her workload. "I anticipate around five."

"Do you want to come?" Maura looked as if she was hesitating. "She'll just keep asking about you if you're not there, and if she keeps asking about you then I'm going to have to talk about you, and if I have to talk about you then well… She'll know something is up." Jane cutely motioned between them. "I'm not gonna be the one responsible for pre-publishing, so maybe you should just come."

The logic tickled her; how could she say no? "That tracks."

Jane grinned, It was something Tasha said often. "Where is Girl Genius anyway? You talk to her?"

Maura motioned over her shoulder to her desk. "You just missed her. I called to wish her luck for finals."

Jane was about to ask what time the exam was, maybe she still had time to wish her luck as well. The sentiment was however interrupted when her cell phone clasped to her hip began to buzz rapidly signaling she had a phone call. Maura nodded but her attention was also pulled when the device on her desk began to chime as well.

"Rizzoli." Jane answered as she watched the ME and her legs move across the room to retrieve her phone.

"Detective Rizzoli this is Dispatch Victor Seven Two—"

"–Hi Kennedy, what's up?" Jane smiled. They had been working together for nearly four years now and she still read her dispatch code at the beginning of each call as she was trained. Across the room Maura was holding her cell phone to her ear and looking at Jane.

"Doctor Isles." Maura answered.

"We have a possible Homicide that you've been assigned to. Crowley Boulevard and Tate." Kennedy recovered.

Jane stood. "I'm on my way." She hung up and waited for Maura to hang up as well. "You too?"

Maura shook her head. "It's…"

Jane raised a brow. "Confidential?"

Maura nodded with an apologetic smile as she came to stand beside her. "Very boring." She reassured.

Jane gave her a look. "Usually something that requires confidentiality isn't, Maura."

She motioned them forward. "This is."

"What is it?"

She chuckled. "Nice try." They continued into the hall toward the elevator.

Jane nodded to herself. "You're not getting yourself into any trouble are you?"

"No." Jane gave her another look. "I promise." She added as they walked through the lab and toward the elevators. "I am consulting an agency, that is all I can say."

"Sounds like trouble."

"It is not."

"Well if it was then I'd need to know, under these new circumstances." Jane nodded.

Maura smiled up at her as they waited for the elevator. "New circumstances?" She teased.

Jane smirked to herself before giving her a side eye. "Yes."

The elevator opened and they both stepped in alone.

Maura waited for the doors to close before looking over to her best friend. "The one in which you love me?" Jane sighed as if she were asking her for the fourth time why some baseball players insisted on spitting on the ground between innings. "That circumstance?"

Jane looked at her. "You're enjoying this way too much."

"I only seek clarity."

"I'll give you clarity." She threatened without malice but before she could follow through with the threat the door to the elevator opened on a second subbasement floor and none other than Vince Korsak was on the other end.

"Hey you two." He stepped in.

"Sargent Detective Korsak." Maura smiled warmly.

"Hey, you got the call?" Jane stepped aside for him.

"Yeah, possible homicide, uniforms on scene think he might have had a heart attack though, hard to tell." The elevator doors closed.

Jane put her hands in her pockets. "Well I'd sure like to find out." She watched the digital numbers on the elevator panel tick up slowly along the building's sub-basement levels. "What's up with this thing huh?" It was running so slowly today.

"Be patent." Maura eased.

"I am patient."

"You routinely drive five miles over the speed limit when approaching cautionary yellow lights."

"That's because I don't wanna wait at a red." Wasn't it obvious?

Maura looked over Korsak's shoulders at her. "You do realize that that example exactly embodies impatience."

Jane paused when she realized it before looking back at her then to her partner between them. She nudged his stocky shoulder. "You think I'm impatient, Vince?"

He put his hand up as he tried to hide his chuckle. "I'm not getting involved." The elevator opened finally to the first-floor lobby. Jane waved bye to Maura with a promise to call her later before scanning the area to possibly identify who she was there to meet. "I'm glad she talked you into that trip."

Jane's attention was brought away from her police work when Korsak spoke. She had been blindly following his lead toward the exit. "New York?" He nodded in the way he always did when he was considering his words properly. She had seen it mostly in interviews with small children or elderly witnesses. "If it was that obvious I needed a break why didn't you kick me out or something?"

He smiled as they exited the building into the comfortable mid-day sun. "You and I both know I couldn't kick you out, Rizzoli." They shared knowing looks. "I been your partner almost ten years." He added.

"That's a long time." She agreed. Jane couldn't imagine her life without him but feared that that conversation was beginning to take place right now and there was no way to stop it.

"Long enough to know when you're hurt, in trouble, hangry—" Jane laughed at this one. "Or when you're happy." He agreed. They both stopped on the sidewalk outside the precinct. "You are, aren't you Rizzoli?"

Jane blinked rapidly at the sharp turn. He gave her a look that suggested she not even make a move for denying it. For as good as she was, he was better. "What?" She narrowed her eyes at him to try and pin down what he was talking about.

Vince Korsak began to smile in a way that made his cheeks redden. "Dr. Isles is too, isn't she?"

Words became solids on her tongue and a fresh panic erupted and then tamed and then erupted again within her. "How'd you—"

Vince responded to the shock by capping a hand on her shoulder affectionately. "It's okay." Jane found his eyes and the two exchanged an hour-long conversation in one glance. "You better not let this one go.". She nodded dumbly and Korsak patted her shoulder one last time before motioning them forward. "Let's take Crenshaw down, there was an accident on McDougal."

AN: It's funny how times like this make you appreciate all the little things. Today for me, that's posting for you. Thank you for all who take the time to read, revieview, share, and follow. I'm overwhelmed by all your kind words and love the little community this random one-shot created. It brings me so much joy to be connected with ya'll during all this. Stay well.

KathleenDee