The moment Jane stepped into Maura's autopsy room she knew the woman had softened. Not a lot, but a little. She saw Maura's face betray the slight twinge of joy when she stepped inside with her magazine tucked under her arm, ready to grovel. Maura smiled, just a twinge, but a smile non the less. It was enough to comfort Jane into the realization that thing were actually on the mend.

"Hello doctor." Jane said without hesitation.

"Detective." Maura said doing her best to sound cold, clearly an act.

"Did I mention how sorry I was for taking everything you do for me for granted? I was thinking about that first time you helped me with the nightmares. I fell asleep in your arms. I even woke up in your arms. I felt so happy, so at peace. Nobody has ever given me peace like that except for you. Thank you for that."

Maura stared, doing her best to fight back a smile. "You're welcome."

That was it. That was the extent of the conversation on the second day. Jane sat in the room with her for nearly forty minutes in total silence. She was watching Maura work out with one eye and reading Sports Illustrated with the other. Finally Maura sent her away, albeit gently. Don't you have to get back upstairs? It could have been a lot more harsh, a bit colder. Jane took this as another win.

The third day was even better. When she came into the room she planted herself on her stool and flipped through the pages of the same Sports Illustrated magazine she'd been reading all week. It was Maura who pulled it away from her.

"You've read this thing cover to cover. I've been begging you to read that article on Mustard Gas toxicity."

Jane wanted to cry. She hated Maura's stuffy medical articles. Every time she attempted to read one she walked away with a headache. Still it was good that she was making her suffer. This was good according to Korsak and Frost. Torture was great.

"I've been meaning to get to that." Jane lied effortlessly.

Maura smiled playfully. "Great. Well we can discuss it tonight."

"Tonight?" Jane asked. Was she forgiven already? Surely this article couldn't be her big test she wondered.

"Dinner. At my house. You bring the wine."

Wine. That sounded easy enough. "What kind of wine?" Jane asked.

Maura shrugged. "The kind I always drink."

Before Jane had a chance to ask her what kind THAT was, the door to the autopsy room opened. It was Detective Kinkaid. She came strolling in with her black pants and ponytail, her eyes on Maura.

"Kinkaid what's up?" Jane threw out like a stop sign. Shark.

Kinkaid looked genuinely surprised to see her. "Oh, hey Rizzoli. I didn't know you'd be down here."

Jane nodded a bit smugly. "Where else would I be?"

Maura either ignored the discomfort in the room or didn't actually notice it. "Nice to see you again Kate."

"Doc." Kinkaid shot a nervous look over at Jane but once again didn't back down. "I was wondering if you wanted to do something later."

Jane felt something in her stomach turn. Really, while she was sitting right here. Didn't she have any sort of decency? Boundaries detective ponytail.

"Actually we're having dinner tonight." Jane cut in not able to hide the edge of hostility in her voice.

Maura shot her a curious look but didn't speak.

"Oh." Kinkaid said. "I didn't realize you guys had mended fences."

"Consider them mended from here on out," Jane said a bit snidely.

"Sorry Detective Kinkaid. Jane and I did have other plans for tonight. I appreciate the offer though."

Kinkaid didn't linger. She said thank you then politely excused herself. "Oh, okay. Maybe another time." Was all she said on her way out the door.

"I didn't realize you guys had mended fences." Jane mocked.

"Now why do you insist on doing that? Kate is a perfectly nice woman yet here you come after a week of ignoring me, putting her down."

Uh, oh. Jane surmised this was the second fight she'd been warned about. What was she supposed to do about this? The boys hadn't warned her how to deal with this. This could go terribly wrong.

"You know what Maura, you're right. I'm being childish."

Maura however didn't let up. "You know you always do this. You mock everything. Even my feelings. You refuse to admit that anything is your doing." She pulled a bloody glove out of a body cavity and pointed a red finger at Jane. "You don't care how I feel."

Okay, don't defend yourself. The boys said that always makes it worse. Apologize.

"You're right Maura. Up until now I've always been really selfish about us. I want you to know that was the old Jane. I promised you before and I'll promise you until the end of time that nobody will come before you again. I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart for having taken you for granted. It won't happen again."

Maura stared at her and Jane could see the skepticism in her eyes. "So you've said."

"I said and I meant." Jane said again.

"What is your deal with her anyway? Why do dislike Detective Kincaid so much? You guys always seemed to have gotten along up until now."

Was this another trick? Okay be honest. "Because I know why she's down here Maura, and I don't want her to be down here."

Maura nodded. "If you want her gone tell me and she'll be gone."

"I can't tell you anything. I haven't earned the right, especially lately. But I at least want the chance to try. I at least want the chance to prove to you I've earned it and I would like to do that without Kate Kincaid breathing down my neck."

"Jane Kate and I are friends. Not friends like how we're friends, just regular friends." Maura said her voice softening.

"Yeah but she wants you guys to be friends like we're friends. Not just regular friends."

Maura seemed to contemplate this. "Do you think so?" She seemed totally caught off guard by the revelation.

Jane wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. Instead she decided to take the non assault route. "I do think so."

"Okay, so your anger with her is territorial and not simply you being childish."

With anybody else Jane would have taken offense but with Maura she understood the woman didn't mean it that way. She was simply making an observation. It wasn't mean spirited.

"Right." Jane replied.

Maura nodded along. "I understand now. You were being protective."

"In an inappropriate way yes. Its not Kincaid's fault, she just sees what I have for the past few years. That you're someone special."

Maura went back to her dead body. "I just realized I have a ton of things to do tonight. Bass has a vet appointment, I have clothes at the dry cleaners that need to be picked up, and I really don't feel like going out tonight. I want a nice bubble bath. Rizzotto sounds delicious but there's just too much to do."

"So you're taking the rest of the day off to get set up right?" Korsak asked.

Jane shook her head. "Set up for what? She called it off."

Frost rolled his eyes. "Jane have you not been paying attention at all. Those were hints. She wants you to do that stuff for her. The bubble bath, take the dog to the vet."

"Turtle." Jane corrected.

"Turtle," Frost corrected himself. "The thing is you have to go home, take the turtle to the vet, pick up the dry cleaning and the wine, make the Rizzotto and have a bubble bath waiting."

Korsak was nodding. "Simple."

"Simple? How am I supposed to do all of that by the time she leaves work?" Jane asked.

Korsak scoffed. "Seriously Rizzoli. This is a softball."

"It's one of those tee ball games where the ball sits on the stick and all you have to do is swing the bat. This is nothing. This is her letting you off with a warning." Frost added.

"It's still a lot of stuff to get done."

Korsak looked at his watch. "It's one o'clock Jane. If you leave right now you can get it all done in plenty of time before the doc leaves at five. This is you getting off light. Now stop bitching and get to it."

"I don't even know what kind of wine I'm supposed to get. I have to go back downstairs to ask and once I do that I'll blow it." Jane surmised.

Korsak and Frost gave one another a look. "God Rizzoli you're like ten years behind where you should be, maybe even twenty. She asked you to get the wine because you're supposed to already know what kind it is. That's why she didn't tell you to go pick up a bottle of Ripple."

Frost gave Korsak and disturbed glare.

"Ripple? Who is she Fred Sanford?" Jane asked.

Korsak ignored her comment but Frost laughed lightly. "Listen you're supposed to know this Jane. I told you it's a test. It's all a test. A test to see if you mean what you've been saying. Have you been paying attention?"

"Apparently not." Jane mumbled.

"Listen Jane, you're a detective. This is what you do for a living. Figure it out." Frost suggested. "Where do you two go for dinner? Where does she buy her wine? It can't be that hard. I've seen you track down a murderer using a bubble gum wrapper. This should be a piece of cake."

"A little help would be nice." Jane plead.

Korsak and Frost both shook their heads. "This is rule number one Jane. Us who screw up, we clean up our own mess. Getting your buddies to help you is cheating."

"Cheating, really? So you guys really aren't going to help me?"

Korsak shook his head then started to speak in a fake Maura voice. "Oh this is wonderful Jane I can't believe you did all this."

"Frost and Korsak did most of it. I handled the turtle." Frost added doing Jane's voice.

"Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?" Korsak asked.

"You guys suck." Jane said grabbing her phone and clipping it to her hip. "If anything important happens I'm turtle sitting and picking up laundry."

"Don't forget the wine and the bubble bath." Korsak added.

"And the Rizzotto. That's important, don't forget dinner." Frost said.

Jane took a few steps away then stopped and turned back. "If I go to the Restaurant to find out about the wine is it cheating to order the Rizzotto to go?"

Korsak nodded. "Absolutely not. Now you're thinking Rizzoli, now you're thinking."

"I think I got this thing licked guys." Jane proclaimed.

Frost laughed. "Don't get cocky. You're a novice. You're only getting through lesson one."

"How many lessons are there?" Jane asked.

"How many stars are in the sky Rizzoli? I'm a couple of marriages in and I'm still learning." Korsak said with a smirk.

Jane twiddled her thumbs while she waited for Maura to finish her bubble bath. When Maura stepped into her house and saw Jane waiting Jane knew she had been expecting her to be there. She didn't look to be the least bit surprised to find dinner waiting and a hot bath warming. The boys had been right. This had all been a test and if she had simply gone home to pout she'd have failed.

"That was really nice." Maura said stepping out of the bathroom. She was wearing a pair of pink satin pajamas when she emerged into the kitchen. Jane had kept her mouth shut while Maura came home from work and let the woman sneak off into her bath. Now things had to be said and the more she spoke the bigger chance she had to screw things up.

"The vet said Bass' car space is fine."

Maura chuckled. "Carapace. It's his upper shell."

""Well it's okay. He said you shouldn't worry about stuff like that. It's built to last."

Maura simply shrugged. "Dinner looks great. Did you make the Rizzotto?"

"No, I was pretty sure you wanted to enjoy your pasta tonight."

Maura chuckled again. "You're not a bad cook Jane. You're much too hard on yourself."

"Still I wanted tonight to be perfect and me cooking would put a serious question mark on things. I got it from your favorite restaurant."

"Did you get the wine?"

Did she? The damn bottle was almost seven hundred bucks. "Yes. That Chataux Margaux stuff you like."

Maura's eyes widened. "Jane you didn't. That a very expensive bottle of wine."

Jane wanted to laugh. Now you tell me, she thought. "It's okay. I figured I wanted to go all out." Plus there was no returns.

"Shall we eat then?" Maura asked, staring at her.

"Let's. Have a seat. I'll bring it out."

"I'm getting the full service treatment tonight aren't I?"

Jane simply nodded. No need to skimp now. "Of course you are. Tonight is Maura's night."

"Where's you mother?" Maura suddenly asked.

"She's with her friend Gertrude. They went to a weekend Bingo retreat downstate, which is code for Atlantic City."

"Sounds like fun."

"She likes it." Jane said with confidence. "Besides we don't want her hanging around all night asking a thousand questions do we?"

"I suppose not."

Maura sat down while Jane pulled the food out of the warmer and prepared dinner. Maura was halfway through a glass of wine when Jane finally sat down to eat.

"Thank you for this Jane it's exactly what we needed."

Jane decided to keep pressing forward. "I'm just sorry I let us get to this point."

"It wasn't just you. I was being unreasonable." Maura admitted. "I want today to be the first day of a new beginning. What happened is in the past and I forgive you. From the depths of my heart I forgive you."

"So we're good?" Jane asked. "Because I have no problems with groveling."

Maura laughed, it was music to Jane's ears. "We're good."

"Great because I think I may have to sleep over. I feel one of my nightmares coming on."

Maura's eyebrow arched with interest. "Really, because the spare bedroom isn't prepared. We're going to have to double and I don't have extra PJ's, you're not my size."

Jane shrugged. "I'll make do. It's not like it's the first time I forgot my PJ's right?"

"Certainly not. We'll make do."

The End.