This is my first Rizzoli and Isles fic. Let me know what y'all think and if I should continue.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rizzoli and Isles. Not for Profit. Etc. Etc.

"Rizzoli."

"Jane. It's Frost. We've got a body."

"I'm on my way." Jane set her phone back down on the nightstand and rolled over rubbing her eyes. The red light from her alarm clock blinked 4:40 am. "Shit," she groaned, pushing herself out of bed. Today was her day off, which should have meant spending all day on the couch in her pajamas, beer in hand, watching ESPN. But now it meant a murder.

As Jane got up and slipped into her suit, she sent up a prayer of thankfulness that Maura was still on vacation so she didn't have to deal with that round of headaches before the sun was even up. Suffice it to say, things had been a little...strained between the Detective the Chief Medical Examiner since Jane shot Paddy Doyle, Boston Mob Boss and Maura's biological father. Just a little. Jane grabbed her keys, gun, and badge, and headed out the door.

When she arrived at the scene twenty minutes later, a hint of pink was just beginning to show over the buildings in the surrounding neighborhood, hinting at sunrise. Jane spotted Sergeant Detective Korsak, her old partner, and hurried over.

"What've we got, Korsak?" she asked brusquely, never one for pleasantries, especially before her morning coffee.

"Young female, late teens, found by some homeless guy in the dumpster. Dr. Isles is examining the body now," Korsak knew better than to try and greet the female detective with anything other than the details of the case.

"Maura's here?" Jane asked, surprised. "I thought she was still on vacation."

Korsak shrugged as the two moved into an alley blocked off by police tape. "I sent Frost back to the Brick to get started. He's running the vic's ID, trying to find her family."

Jane merely nodded. "Dr. Isles," she said cooly, coming up behind the, as always, impeccably dressed woman who was crouched beside the body. No one would have been able to tell that the Medical Examiner had been awoken by a phone call just as Jane had, not by her appearance anyway.

"I wasn't expecting to see you until next week. Too much sun down in good old Mexico? Or were you just having too much to handle all by yourself?" Jane didn't bother to hide her sarcasm. She was hurt still, as much as she didn't want to admit it, even to herself. Maura was her best friend, but after the incident, she had refused to even acknowledge Jane in anything other than a purely professional manner. She had rebuffed any and all attempts Jane made to apologize or explain her actions. The detective hadn't even known Maura was going on vacation until after she was already gone. Jane missed Maura, her companionship and google-mouth and horrible jokes. She missed her best friend. But she refused to apologize anymore; the ball as in the ME's court now.

"Detective Rizzoli, my vacation was fine. Thank you," Maura responded, not bothering to look up from the corpse before her.

"Any guesses as to cause of death, Doctor?" Jane asked innocently, knowing Maura refused and abhorred to guess.

"I do not guess," the distaste was evident in the doctor's tone, "detective. Science is less faulty," and with that, Maura finally looked pointedly up at Jane. "You might do well to use more caution before presuming to guess on something or take action on something as weighty as death."

The two stared at one another. Jane hadn't missed Maura's not-so-subtle reference to the shooting. Finally, Korsak cleared his throat awkwardly and both women jumped slightly, having forgotten the older detective was there. "Dr. Isles," she glanced up at him, "do you need anything else here?"

"No, Detective. I believe I have everything I need," she looked over the scene once more before rising smoothly to her feet. But as she came to her full height, she seemed to wobble for a moment. It could simply have been because of the three inch designer heels gracing her feet, but both Jane and Korsak reached out. Jane stopped herself before her arm was fully extended, but Korsak gripped the medical examiner's arm tightly to steady her.

"Dr. Isles?" Korsak questioned, gently.

"I'm fine. Thank you, Vince," she responded softly, stepping out of his hold. "Just orthostatic hypertension, that's all," she explained, shaking her head as though in irritation at some invisible annoyance. Both Jane and Korsak stared at her. "A head rush," she supplied. "But I'm fine. Thank you for your concern. Excuse me," she turned away from the two detectives and walked out to the street, pausing to address one of the officers about having the body delivered to the morgue.

"Well, that was weird," Jane muttered, looking at Korsak who merely shrugged in response. The Medical Examiner had never exhibited any such vulnerability at work before, even one as small as a slight bout of dizziness. It just didn't fit into Maura's put together persona. Jane shook her own head to clear it. She could deal with Maura and the tension there later. For now, there was a homicide to investigate. This was what Jane was good at: examining a crime scene, finding evidence, putting the pieces together, not all the emotional crap that came with dealing with her own personal life. This was her element.

Maura opened the door to her car and sank down into the seat with a sigh. She rubbed her temples in a frustrated attempt to remove the headache lodged there. She wasn't feeling any better for her time away. Seeing Jane so quickly after coming back to work hadn't gotten the day off to the best start.

She was no longer furious with the detective. In fact, Maura wished they could simply put the incident behind them, but Jane was stubborn; they both were. And Maura knew Jane had her guard up. Maura had treated her terribly and Maura knew that behind Jane's rough exterior, the detective was fiercely loyal and loving to her family and friends. Maura had destroyed that trust with her inability to forgive the detective her actions.

At first, Maura had spoken out of anger, but now that her hurt had passed, the doctor regretted her harsh words. Jane was one of the few people who put up with the good doctor's oddities and quirks. If Maura was honest, which she was, Jane was the first real friend Maura had ever had. She was her best friend. She wanted to go back and answer Jane's calls and text messages. She wanted to give the detective the chance to explain. But Maura knew that you couldn't erase what happened. Time travel was a scientific impossibility.

That problem wasn't going anywhere, at least not for awhile, but there was a murder to be solved, so, with a sigh, she turned the key and pulled out into the near empty road. This headache was driving her crazy. She'd come home from her vacation early because all she'd managed to do was lie in bed, and she could do that just as well in Boston as she could in a fancy hotel room. Plus she'd missed Bass, and Jane, even if they weren't speaking.

The morgue was still dark when Maura exited the elevator. They would be by t o drop off the body soon, but for now, all was quiet. Maura walked into her office and pulled out the Ibuprofen she kept in her desk. She knew it wouldn't help. The medication hadn't been successful in alleviating the near constant pressure for the past several weeks, but it didn't hurt to try. Maura knew that, at least on some level, the headaches were caused by the stress of dealing with her job and with her emotions related to Jane and their situation. She had tried to work it out by jogging and using her meditation techniques, but when those things hadn't worked, she had decided some time away might be best.

By lunchtime, the autopsy was complete and Maura was exhausted. She hadn't been sleeping well. Nightmares where Jane hesitated in the warehouse and Paddy shot her instead of the other way around, while Maura could only watch, left her shaking and sobbing in her bed. When the nightmares didn't haunt her, Maura still slept fitfully, waking often, until would eventually get up, exhausted from yet another lackluster night of tossing and turning.

Jane hadn't been down yet to ask about findings from the autopsy, but Maura knew the feisty detective would come sooner rather than later. Determined to get something done while she waited, Maura settled herself behind her desk and picked up the files from Dr. Pike. She spent the next hour reading over the notes he had left in her absence. They were messy and disorganized and full of barely concealed distaste her his boss' office and staff. Pike was rude, but he was capable, and that was all she could ask when she left for a two week vacation on only 24 hour's notice. When, after another round of visual sparring with Jane left the, usually cool and collected, ME crying at her desk, she realized that she needed to step back and regain her composure.

She looked up from her work and realized it was past lunch time. She glanced queasily at the salad sitting on her desk and decided to forgo food. Instead she bent back over the notes from the older medical examiner. It wasn't long before her eyes were crossing and then her head dropped slowly onto her desk.