A/N: I had posted this story before, but decided that it needed to be reworked. After several changes, more plot and some more changes, I feel like it has finally turned out to be the story I wanted it to be. Hope you enjoy, and please review.

-There Will Always Be Another Dawn-

Chapter One: A Mysterious Case

"What a day…"

Detective Jane Rizzoli sighed and took a swig from her half empty beer bottle.
She flopped down onto Maura's couch and leaned back to stare at the ceiling for a few moments.

"Yes I agree. It has been a long day," Maura said.

She sat down next to her friend and placed her wine glass on a coaster.
They'd decided to end the evening at Maura's place because it had been closer to where Jane had arrested the suspect and turned him over to a patrol. And now it was about time to wind down, have a drink and get a good night's sleep.
After getting up at approximately four in the morning and pretty much running in circles for the rest of the day, they'd solved the case only two hours ago. It had been a gang-related murder, and many of the clues had simply led nowhere. Jane had expected to work on this case for several weeks to come, but a lucky turn of events had driven the killer right into her arms. More or less.

Jane emptied her beer and placed it on the little table in front of them. She knew she had missed the coaster by mere inches, but the scowl Maura was shooting her way was well worth it. Jane grinned and turned her head to the side to look at Maura.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Maura tried to shrug it off, but her gaze returned to the beer bottle again and again until Jane took pity on her and placed it on the coaster. Maura wasn't even aware of the relieved sigh that escaped her lips and Jane had to hide her laugh behind a yawn.

"It's getting late, I should go."

"But you just had a beer," Maura reminded.

Jane wrinkled her nose and raked a hand through her black tresses.

"You're right."

Jane wasn't going to ask, because she knew Maura was going to offer anyway. It wouldn't be first time that she spent the night at Maura's house, but lately it had gotten a lot more complicated. But obviously only for Jane.

"You can stay here," Maura said, a bright smile on her face.

"You know you're always welcome in my guest room."

And that, Jane thought, is exactly the point. She suppressed the sigh rising in her throat and instead smiled back at Maura as brightly as the tiny pain in her chest allowed.

"I know, thanks Maur."

Jane got up from the couch and stretched her arms above her head. She turned toward the guest room and looked over her shoulder back at Maura who was finishing her wine.

"You did a good job today. If you hadn't found the DNA on the vic's tooth, we would have never nailed that guy down."

Maura stood as well and smoothed some invisible wrinkles out of her silken skirt.

"And if you hadn't figured out that he was hiding with his high school girlfriend, he'd still be out there."

Jane stared into Maura's gentle eyes and folded her arms in front of her chest to stop herself from reaching out. This was difficult enough without touching.

"We make a good team," she said.

Maura nodded enthusiastically and her honey colored curls bounced on her shoulders.

"We certainly do. Goodnight Jane."

"Night."

Jane walked through the living room and stopped at the door to the guest room. She turned and watched how Maura collected her glass and the beer bottle to take everything to the kitchen. She couldn't wipe the silly smile off her face when she slipped into the room. There was something heart-warming about the fact that Maura kept beer in her fridge simply because Jane could want some when she came over.

She quickly walked over to the adjoining bathroom to take a nice hot shower, and just as she was about to work some of Maura's sweet smelling shampoo into her hair, the door to the bathroom opened. She instinctively covered herself with both hands although the middle part of the shower stall was made of glass that Maura's wouldn't be able to see through anyway.

"I brought you something you can wear for the night," Maura called over the noise of the running water.

Jane's heart was suddenly beating erratically fast and it took her a couple of seconds to actually make her mouth say the words her head had thrown together.

"Uh… thank you! That's great… thanks."

She held her breath and waited until she could hear the door open and close again.
For a moment she wondered if Maura had noticed anything, but then the bathroom was completely filled with steam and why should Maura have gazed in her direction anyway. She dragged her palm across forehead and down her face. She needed to get her act together and finally get over these confusing feelings. Maura was her best friend, she valued their friendship more than anything, and she had to get those emotions back under control before she did anything she would eventually regret.
She turned the water off and stepped out of the shower before grabbing a fluffy white towel and wrapping it around her body. Jane smirked when she saw that Maura had brought her a shirt with a large-eyed drawing of a cute dog on the front that said 'If I follow you home, would you keep me?'.

So after slipping into Maura's shirt, she crawled into bed completely exhausted from the day she'd had. She slept soundly, content with her surroundings and with life, not knowing that trouble was looming just around the next corner.

-o-o-o-

Jane woke with a start when something knocked against her nightstand, or maybe it was her bed. She gazed around the room bleary-eyed and needed a moment to shake the fog of sleep off. She had her head buried in the pillow and inhaled deeply. The scent reminded her that she was not in her own bed, but in Maura's guest room. She slowly sat up and raked both hands through her tangled tresses.
She had no idea where the noise had come from, but after sitting there in the dark for a minute she heard it again, this time louder. Jane switched on the lamp beside her bed and looked around. At first she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, but when she leaned over the edge of the bed she saw Bass how he ran smack into the nightstand once again.

"What in the…?"

Jane crawled out of bed and regarded the turtle frightfully. She stood there until he bumped against the nightstand again and then hurriedly began moving. She pulled her pants on and then tiptoed through the house toward Maura's bedroom. Jane knocked on the door and waited, but no answer came.

"Maura?"

She turned the doorknob and pushed it open.

"Hey, wakey wakey, I think we've got a case of confused turtle," Jane whispered into the darkness.

"Mhh… Jane," Maura mumbled.

"You awake Maur?"

Her eyes needed to adjust to the dimness in the room and by the time she could see she was already standing beside the bed. Jane smiled down at Maura who was clutching at the pillow with both hands, mumbling something in her sleep. Even like this, in the early hours of the morning, Maura's hair fell in perfect curls across her shoulders. Jane knelt down and carefully moved her hand to rest on her friend's shoulder.

"Time to wake up. A certain green someone needs your help," Jane said while shaking Maura gently.

Maura groaned quietly and slowly her eyes fluttered open. Suddenly she jerked her head forward and hit Jane's forehead squarely with her own. Jane fell backward and landed on her butt.

"Ouch!"

She held her forehead with one hand while blinking her eyes to clear away the tiny little stars she was seeing.

"Jane! Oh I'm so sorry! I had no idea it was you. I though someone was in my room."

"And the first thing you do is headbutt them?"

Maura shot out of bed and helped Jane to her feet.

"Are you alright? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. It just reacted instinctively. You know when fear overrules voluntary bodily functions."

Jane groaned quietly and pushed Maura's hands away.

"It's okay, I'm okay. Ugh… I just wanted to tell you that Bass is acting weird and you should really have a look at him."

Maura's eyes widened and she dashed past Jane out of the room and down the hall.
Jane followed her slowly, still a little unsteady on her legs. Her head still felt like she had repeatedly slammed it against a brick wall. Plus Maura was wearing a silken negligee that revealed more of her creamy skin than any of her usual outfits, and that made Jane even more lightheaded.
When she returned to the little guest bathroom, Maura was kneeling next to Bass, gently patting his shell. Jane gazed at her reflection in the mirror on the wall across from the bed and there was a red bump forming on her forehead. She experimentally poked it with her fingertips but flinched at the pain. How could Maura's head be that hard when she was all smooth skin on the outside?

"So, what's wrong?" Jane asked.

Maura slowly shook her head and carefully lifted Bass away from the nightstand.

"I don't know. I think I'm going to take him to the vet first thing in the morning, it seems as if he is disoriented."

"And you know that how? By the crazy look in his eyes?" Jane asked, but quieted as both Maura and the turtle's head turned in her direction.

She raised her hands.

"Okay, to the vet then. I can drive you."

Maura looked down at Bass for a moment but shook her head and smiled.

"Thank you, but I can drive him. I know you have plenty of paperwork tomorrow… or today? What time is it?"

Jane glanced at the clock on the nightstand and rubbed her eye.

"Almost five," she answered.

"I think I'm going to head home, the earlier I start in the office the sooner I can go home and get a good night's sleep."

"Alright, thank you for waking me," Maura said.

"Sure. I hope Bass is alright."

"Me too."

Maura smiled at Jane and then walked out of the room, following Bass who had somehow managed to waddle away without them noticing.
When Jane had brushed her teeth and splashed some cold water into her face, she left the guest room and followed the scent of coffee. Maura had made some and a steaming cup was already waiting for her.

"Ah you're perfect," Jane mumbled into her mug before taking a sip.

Maura beamed at that.

"Will you be okay?" Jane asked as she grabbed her keys and walked toward the front door.

"Yes thank you."

-o-o-o-

After two cups of coffee she felt halfway like a human again, and she was ready to face the day. A carload of paper work was waiting for her, but since her last case was officially closed she would hopefully have enough time to file everything away and call it a day before sunset.
She left Maura with a wave of her hand and didn't hear from her for the rest of the day.

Everything was rather quiet at the station and Jane sat at her desk for most of the morning. She went to lunch with Korsak and Frost, and stopped by the lab afterward but Maura wasn't there. So after a couple of more hours spent with paperwork, she went home that afternoon, feeling drained as if she had just chased down an entire gang of drug smugglers.

She was dozing in front of the TV, Jo napping beside her leg, when her cell phone shrieked to life with Maura's ring tone.

"Hey what's up?" Jane asked, lazily rubbing her eye with her free hand.

"Hey, I just called to tell you that Bass has received some medication and the vet thinks that it might be a case of mild dyspepsy. An upset stomach," Maura added after a moment of silence.

Jane smirked.

"Who'd have thought that turtles can have that."

"Tortoise, and well they can, but I'm only wondering what I gave him that caused this."

"I doubt that it was your fault Maur, you're always so careful what you feed him, hell he eats healthier than I do."

Jane heard the smile in Maura's voice when she answered.

"Thank you. Alright, I won't bother you any longer then. See you tomorrow?"

Jane glanced at the clock and buried her hand in Jo's fur.

"Definitely. Night."

"Goodnight Jane."

Jane smiled to herself and shook her head. She glanced at Jo who was staring back at her.

"It's sorta cute that she called only to let me know about Bass, don't you think?"

Jo cocked her head to the side and actually sneezed.

"I'll take that as a yes."

-o-o-o-

Jane's cell phone rang at exactly six-thirty the next morning. She groaned quietly and rolled onto her side. She groped around the nightstand for the device, almost knocking her clock to the ground before she pushed the right button and held the cell phone to her ear.

"What?" Jane asked, her voice still rough from sleep. She cleared her throat and settled back against her pillow.

"Jane? Frost here… we found… there has been…"

The connection was so bad that Jane could barely hear Frost, but she eventually figured out that he was trying to tell her that there was a crime scene somewhere in the industrial district. She told Frost to text her the exact address and then the line went dead. Jane sighed and dropped the phone onto the bed before rolling around and burying her face in the pillow.

It was way too early to get up, but there was obviously no schedule for murder.

Jane knew she had to cut back on her daily caffeine dosis, but as a cop it was almost impossible to survive without the brown liquid. So after two mugs of coffee, a quick shower and a donut, she was on her way to the crime scene.
They were somewhere in the industrial district, not far from the harbor, and all she could see were large warehouses as she drove by. The crime scene however looked pretty much like any other. Police cars and crime scene tape all over the place and Maura kneeling over a bloody corpse.
Jane pulled on her latex gloves as she walked toward Korsak and looked around. They were inside one of the huge warehouses. It was empty and seemed abandoned, most windows were broken and the large sliding front doors probably hadn't been locked at all.

"So, what have we got?" Jane asked.

She came to stand beside Korsak and gazed at the ID he was holding.

"Jim Abernay, twenty-five. Found the ID in his pocket. Looks like a gunshot wound to me," Korsak said.

Jane nodded and stepped closer to Maura and the body where she could get a better look at everything.

"Can you tell anything yet?" Jane asked.

Maura wrinkled her nose and looked up from the body to gaze at Jane.

"He looks perfectly fine to me."

Jane snorted.

"You mean apart from the hole in his head?"

Instead of engaging in their usual banter, Maura simply shrugged and appeared completely unfazed.

"I can tell more as soon as I'm done with the autopsy."

Jane crinkled her brow and regarded her friend more closely. Somehow Maura looked a little pale, with circles under her eyes and her hair a little less bouncy, if that was the right word for it. Jane decided that she would ask Maura later about it.

"Looks like an execution to me."

"You know that I don't…" Maura began.

"…guess," Jane finished the sentence for her.

That actually elicited a smile from Maura as she rose to her feet and took off her latex gloves. She nodded toward one of the officers and he began taking pictures.

"Talk to you later?" Jane said quietly and Maura nodded.

For a brief moment Maura looked endlessly sad, but she hid it behind yet another smile before she waved to Frost and Korsak and walked toward the front doors. Jane stared after her for a few seconds, an odd feeling settling in the pit of her stomach, but she didn't have the time to dwell on it.

"This seems like the perfect place to dump a body," Korsak remarked.

"Yeah, we only found him that quickly because a group of students received permission to use the warehouse for a science project," Frost said as he joined them.

He pointedly ignored the body only a few feet away from them and gazed at his phone instead.

"No reception."

Jane chewed on her bottom lip and looked around the warehouse one more time.

"The ID will make our work much easier."

She was sure that it would take them more than a day to solve the case. And Jane had no idea how wrong, and at the same right, she was with that assumption.

-o-o-o-

A couple of hours later, Jane was back in the bullpen. She had spent the entire morning collecting all kinds of information on the victim. Frost and Korsak had also worked without a break but they still hadn't gotten much further toward bringing anything relevant to light. Meanwhile Maura was busy with the autopsy downstairs.
Korsak leaned back in his chair and rubbed his neck with one hand.

"Our vic worked as a journalist, nothing big though, just wrote about local events, shop openings, that kind of stuff. Maybe this time he found something and dug too deep?"

"Wouldn't be the first time," Frost agreed.

"Maybe," Jane said.

She tapped her fingertips on her desk and rested her head in her free hand. The man they'd found dead, Jim Abernay, didn't have any family and apparently very few friends. He'd traveled quite a bit but other than that there was nothing unusual about him. Who knew on whose toes he might've stepped?
He'd still had his wallet with almost two hundred dollars inside, so it wasn't murder with robbery either. Just as Jane was about to get up, to head down to the morgue, Frost spoke.

"I think I have something. Phone records here say that Abernay called one number again and again over the last three months, and they were lengthy conversations."

He pointed toward his screen and began typing something.

"And he was frequently exchanging emails with someone too. Let me see if I can find out…"

Frost fell silent for a couple of moments until he leaned back with a self-satisfied smirk.

"Yep got it. Seems like he was working with a partner on something. The number and email account belong to a journalist. His name is Mason Chesterfield. Unfortunately the mails they exchanged are not very specific, so I don't know what exactly they were doing."

Frost turned the computer screen and Jane looked at the picture there. It showed a rather handsome man of a about thirty with short dirty blonde hair and a three-day stubble. There was a young girl in his arms who looked just like him and they both smiled broadly into the camera.

"Well good job. Then we need to question Chesterfield and see what he knows. Maybe he has an idea why Abernay was killed," Jane said.

That was a lead, even a solid one, and she liked leads. Almost as much as she liked seeing Maura smile.
Jane crinkled her brows at her own thought, trying to find out where it had come from all of the sudden, but Frost interrupted her internal musing.

"We won't be able to question Chesterfield," Frost said, looking at his computer screen.

"What? Why?" Korsak, who'd already gotten up from his chair, asked.

"He went missing three days ago. Report says that when he didn't show up for work, a colleague went by his apartment and found the door busted. No trace of him since."

Jane raised an eyebrow.

"They work on something together and one of them disappears before the other is executed. That looks pretty suspicious, if you ask me."

"For all we know Chesterfield could either be another potential victim or the killer," Korsak said.

"But how could a small time writer come up with a story that's worth being killed for?" Frost asked.

Jane slowly shook her head and grabbed a pen which she tapped onto her desk.

"I suppose only Chesterfield can answer that question."

"Who is Chesterfield?" Maura asked as she entered and walked over to them, clasping a brown folder in her hands.

Jane immediately felt her face stretching into a smile as she watched Maura walk over to her desk.

"We think that our journalist slash victim had a partner with whom he was working on something. Maybe it was something big and someone wanted him silenced," Jane answered.

Maura perched on the edge of Jane's desk and Jane tapped against the folder Maura was still holding.

"What can you tell us?"

Jane barely managed to wrestle the smile on her face back into a neutral expression. It was so very endearing how Maura only ever sat on her desk, and how comfortable she seemed with it. Had anyone else tried something like that, Jane would've unceremoniously shoved them off her desk, but with Maura it was different.
Many things were different with Maura, really.

"He died because a nine millimeter bullet went through his cerebral cortex and damaged…" Maura began, but for several moments Jane was completely distracted because she was simply watching Maura talk. Her back was straight, and her legs crossed elegantly so that a very smooth calf was only a few inches away from Jane. Her hand twitched and she felt the inexplicable urge to reach out and trail her fingertips from Maura's knee down to her shapely ankle.

"Yeah, makes sense since we found his brain all over the place," Frost said, grimacing.

Korsak nodded thoughtfully and Jane snapped back to attention. She blinked twice and directed her eyes up to Maura's face.
Maura was watching her, and for a moment their eyes met. There was something strange in Maura's gaze, and Jane had no idea what to do with it. But it disappeared again and Jane wet her lips before speaking.

"So anything regarding the killer?"

"No, so far we have found nothing. No fibers or particles out of place, but I sent a couple of samples to be analyzed. There are no fingerprints or other injuries on the body."

Maura flipped open the folder and scanned the page.

"But judging by the angle of the entrance wound, the victim was kneeling down when he was shot in the head."

"Sounds more and more like an execution to me," Korsak said.

Jane nodded.

"That's what I'm thinking too."

She lifted her hand and dragged her fingertips across her chin in thought before she gazed at Maura.

"Thanks Maur."

Maura smiled and nodded. She got up from the desk and straightened her skirt. Jane rose from her chair as well and touched Maura's forearm with her hand.

"Are you alright?" she asked quietly.

Maura nodded again and pressed her lips into a firm line.

"It's okay… I just…"

She took a deep breath.

"Bass died this morning," she said.

"What? Oh… Maura I'm sorry. What happened?"

Jane squeezed Maura's forearm gently and Maura raised her other hand to rest it on Jane's.

"Thank you. And I think it must've been wrong medication, he reacted negatively to the antibiotics the veterinarian prescribed."

"That… I can't believe that. What kind of quack is that? You know, I should pay that guy a visit…" Jane began, but Maura slowly shook her head.

"It's okay. It won't bring Bass back, but thank you Jane."

"I've got some background on Chesterfield," Frost announced.

Jane gazed at Maura and let go of her arm. She immediately missed the warmth and flexed her fingers.

"Talk to you later?"

"Yes."

Maura smiled again and then turned to walk back to the elevator. Jane watched her go and sat heavily in her chair.
Even though she needed to focus on the case and start sorting through whatever Frost had come up with, her mind was occupied with trying to think of a way to cheer Maura up. That was how deeply in trouble she already was.
Jane sighed and spotted a large thick leather-bound book on Frost's desk. Just as she was reaching for it, Frost snatched it away and dropped into his drawer.

"What are you reading?" Jane asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.

Frost only shook his head.

"Nothin'."