Maura wakes up to the sensation that someone is watching her. She rolls over onto her side and opens her eyes, already smiling, expecting to see Jane's deep brown eyes looking back at her.

Instead she's met with two of the lightest blue she's ever seen, so close to her face that their noses are almost touching.
Maura jumps, sitting up quickly, which makes Lukas jump and tumble backwards off the bed, hitting the plush carpet of the floor with a soft thump.

"Oh no, Lukas?" Maura throws back the covers and rushes around the end of the bed. The little boy is lying on the floor where he fell, staring up at her with wide eyes, completely shocked. She squats down and gathers him up into her arms, feeling the back of his head. "Are you alright? I didn't mean to scare you, honey, I just didn't expect to see you so early."

Lukas rests his head on her shoulder, letting Maura rub the back of his skull. No bump. Thank God for expensive carpeting.

She pulls the little boy away from her, and smiles down at him. "When did you come in here?"

"I heard Jane get up," he says. "She comed into my room, but she didn't stay," he thinks for a moment, "Just to check, maybe. She's in the kitchen, now. I waited longer but no one comed back. So I looked for you."

Maura smiles, "I'm very glad you did."

Lukas reaches his hand up to play with her necklace; a little frown creases his face. "I thought man was comed into my room, but he didn't come."

Maura works hard to keep her body relaxed, "He's gone," she says simply.

Lukas slides off her lap and stands on the bed, his hands on his little hips. The tiny pair of sweatpants Jane brought home for are is still too big, they sag a little. Lukas pulls a mean face. "dogs isn't pozed to sleep. You get up dog!"

Maura thinks she will never do anything as hard as to keep her face neutral.

"Is that what the man used to say to you?" she asks after a moment.

Lukas nods, looking at her questioningly.

"Come here," she says, and he flops back into her lap. "The things that he said to you were very, very mean."

Lukas searches her face, "like when Alex told me I's a fart on th' playground?"

Maura shakes her head, "Even meaner," she says quietly. "I bet when he said that it made you feel pretty sad."

Lukas nods, his bottom lip shaking a little.

"That's okay. It's okay to feel sad about it. But you mustn't believe it. Okay?"

"Jane says Imma good boy."

"Jane is right about that. She's right about a lot of things."

Lukas considers her. "Cuz she catches bad guys?"

"Yes," Maura says, smiling. "And we're going to her work a little later, to take some pictures, and talk to some people."

Lukas looks worried, "But you'll go too."

"Yes, Honey," Maura says, standing with him still in her arms and heading towards the kitchen. "I'll be there too."

...

Jane is drinking coffee and looking at her laptop when Maura and Lukas enter, and when he sees her he struggles down off of Maura's hip and runs towards her. "Jane! Maura said we's going to you your work!" He leaps into the air before she can eve turn around, and Maura catches her breath, sure that Jane will not be ready for him.

But she is, of course she is, catching him like it's nothing, like she's been doing it all her life, and swinging him up to sit next to her on the counter.

"Yes," she says, sliding her coffee away from his wriggling little body. "Maura's going to take you to get some pants that aren't ripped or sweats, and then you're going to meet me at work.

Lukas' face falls. "No!" He wraps his arms and legs around Jane's mid-section and refuses to let go, so that when she steps away from the counter, he's clinging to her without any support. Wrapped around her like a tiny baby koala.

Jane looks up at Maura, her eyes wide and scared, but Maura is laughing. She can't help it.

Jane's face softens and she tugs Lukas away from her and settles him on her hip. It doesn't take him half as long to get comfortable as the night before.

"You can't go," he says quietly.

"Why not?"

"who's gonna tect me and Maura? If you walk too far from us, man might take you, too."

Jane sits hard on one of the stools at the breakfast bar, like her legs have given out, pulling the little boy off her shoulder so she can look at him.

"Lukas," she says after a moment, "I want to tell you a secret, but I don't know if you're a good secret keeper," she says seriously, and the little boy's face lights up.

"Kurt got mommy diamonds for Christmas, and I 'int say one thing!" he says quickly, his voice just above a whisper.

Jane smiles, "Okayyyy. Well…I'm magic."

Lukas' mouth falls open, and Maura has to stifle a giggle behind her hand. "you are?"

"Yes."

"Prove it," Lukas says skeptically.

"Alright," Jane says, "put your hand behind your back and make any number,"

He does as he's told, his little hand curling, three fingers sticking up. Jane glances at Maura who mouths, three.

"It's three." Jane says, and Lukas' eyes widen. He pulls his hand from behind his back to look at it, just to make sure.
"Wow," he breathes, and Maura sees Jane look at him. And fall in love.

"Yeah," she says. "So. Even if I go away for a little bit? I know how you two are doing. I know if you're okay and if you need me. And I'll come if you do."

Lukas frowns, "Dogs isn't to cry. Dogs is just for using."

Jane puts her hand under Lukas' chin and pulls his head up so that they are looking each other in the eye, and Maura takes a step forward, because the little boy looks a little alarmed at the ferocious anger in Jane's eyes.

"You're not a dog, Lukas. You're a boy. The best boy. And if you need me, I will come and be with you. Immediately."

Lukas reaches out and touches Jane's face, his tiny hand cupping her cheek. "promise?"

"Yes." Jane says without hesitation.

He wraps his arms around her and she stands, looking at Maura for affirmation that she has done the right thing.

Maura puts her hands over her heart.

"Oh Jane," Lukas says, sighing with the tiredness of a much older man, "You's hard out and soft in." He twirls some of her hair around his finger.

"Mommy says that's the best kind."