Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, blah blah... If I did we wouldn't be left hanging all the time!

She immediately jerked her head away. Maura didn't care if Jane felt the sharpness of her own words as she sighed. Maura didn't care if Jane regretted what she said. The detective's eyes were now roaming the room, adamantly refusing to meet her best friend's.

"You really think that?"

"You know I didn't mean it, Maur!" the Doctor heard Jane's raspy voice say. Maura was angry, yet she couldn't stop her eyes from tearing up. Jane had said and done many hurtful things in the past. Some of these cases were Maura's fault, really, for she had not admitted. Jane was an excellent detective, but failed to comprehend the feelings Maura had for her. And she hurt them, she did, but she never knew.

This time however, she hurt Maura's pride. And that wasn't going to be looked over. But the ME knew that if she helped heat up an argument, she could blurt out some things she shouldn't say and that could complicate things even more, now that Casey was back.

She grabbed her purse from where she left it, on Jane's couch, looking for the fastest, easiest escape.

"Stop, Maura, please. I'm sorry."

But Maura just headed to the door.

"Hey, hey, Maur. Talk to me. Please."

And Maura wanted to. She wanted to yell. But she could feel her voice breaking and she wasn't going to embarrass herself. She shut the door dramatically, smearing her makeup as she tried to wipe her tearful eyes.

The worst part was, Jane was right. Only not for the reasons she thought.

Jane's front door clicked twice, giving notice he was back and on the other side of it.

"What's wrong?" he said, noticing her sitting on the couch with slouched shoulders, in the company of several empty beer bottles.

Although her place always had visitors as Maura and her family used to drop by at any hour, Jane still hadn't gotten used to her new living arrangements. She barely got used to being in a relationship with Casey, let alone moving in with him. And now that he was dropping hints of planning to propose, she couldn't even imagine what kind of shifts her life would endure.

Jane just shook her head in place of an answer.

"What happened?"

How was she supposed to explain? What would Casey think of her afterwards? Was she really that mean?

She looked up at him.

"I fought with Maura." she whispered. Her words, spoken in the deepest of voices tore both her heart and the silence apart.

"It's okay, you guys will make up. You always do, right?"

"This is different."

"What did you fight about?"

"I... I just..." Jane stuttered. In all honesty, she didn't know how to explain. "I said some things."

"It's okay, baby, come on." he said, sitting down next to her, attempting to hug her and bring her closer. But she just kept still, resisting his attempts to get her to lean in to him. Cuddling wasn't gonna fix this.

"I called her jealous." she admitted, embarrassed.

"Why?"

"She was upset because I canceled on our plans yesterday, so we could go see that movie."

He didn't prompt for more, but now that she started, Jane felt it would be the easiest if she continued.

"I said... I said she was jealous because she can't find someone like I found you." She got up maybe a bit too fast. Her head rush forced her to close her eyes, but it didn't help. The image of Maura flew before her eyes in the very same moment. It made her feel even dizzier.

"Look Jane, I have a friend at work. He's young. Handsome. Single. We can go out Saturday night, the four of us."

Jane didn't bother to respond. She attacked the fridge for another beer.

"Baby maybe it's been enough for tonight, okay?" he called. "Let's um... Let's go to bed."

Jane felt him approaching her from the back, and soon his hands were enveloping her waist. Her neck was for some reason bothered by the soft sensations his lips evoked there.

"I'm sorry. Not tonight."

She pulled away, rejoining the couch.

"She appears to be around 17. Her body shows no signs of assault, sexual or otherwise. It has been, however, a subject to the use of illegal drugs."

"Heroin." Jane said, pointing at the inner arm.

"Yes. The test results do confirm that."

"So why'd they assign this to us? No wounds, no fight. Must have been an overdose."

"It wasn't."

"So what was it?"

"I don't know that yet."

Jane started pacing nervously, massaging her neck with her right arm. Maura's responses were sharp and short, not showing any intention of continuing discourse.

They had no chance to speak since they both got called in to the scene very early, and Jane had to struggle to act properly despite her hangover and raging headache. She wanted to apologize, to make up, but for that she needed the other side to acknowledge it.

"Maura?"

The ME kept looking at the reports in her hands. She didn't answer.

"Maura can we talk?"

Her gaze never left the files, not even bothering to meet Jane's. She barely took the time to politely send Jane off.

"I'm obviously in the middle of something, detective."

And there it was. The word they both knew set every private non-professional matter aside, as if it didn't exist.

"Oh, sorry for interrupting, doctor." she mumbled sarcastically as she pushed the door on her way out.

Her kitchen was clean. Her dishes were in the washer. The living room was tidied. Her closet was rearranged, Bass fed, and there was still plenty of time Maura had no use of and no distraction for. She couldn't even look at Jane today. Of course she had been jealous, but not of her friend, as Jane thought. She had been jealous of Casey. He was not only occupying her best friend's time, but her mind, her thoughts, her heart. All of her smiles directed to him now, all of the sleepovers at their place, all of the evenings at their dates. And that one occasion of the very few lately that Jane had set aside for some girls' time, she cancelled last minute. For a movie. With Casey.

Maura went in the kitchen, masochistically recalling all the Friday movie nights that were saved for just her and Jane. She didn't bother putting much thought into trying to decide which bottle of wine would help her drown her tears tonight. Not even a short minute of glancing through what she had available, she grabbed a random one. She wasn't going to pay too much attention to the aroma at this point.

Her couch was waiting for her to settle on it and Maura was just about to satisfy its purpose when her phone rang. She swiped the screen that flashed "Jane" to cancel the call, sighing at how childishly she was acting. But she really didn't feel like talking.

"Can't I just enjoy the silence of..."

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her land-line ringing. She barely ever used it. Adamantly stubborn Jane, trying every mean to get what she wanted. And what was that anyways? To apologize for noting the obvious and stating it blankly? To make new evening arrangements and get the doctor's hopes up only to stomp on them once more? Maura was rational enough to know that letting Jane smooth talk her was in no way helpful.

But the phones kept ringing on, and despite being silenced, still obstructed Maura's tries to forget about the woman she loved. "Maybe I should just answer, ask her to stop calling." She closed her eyes, shaking her head in personal reprimand in regards to letting herself arrive at this situation, and she answered her cellphone.