Maura is almost three quarters of the way through her first round of grading, when a knock at her door makes her look up.

Jane Rizzoli is standing in her doorway, looking nervous. "Hi, Dr. Isles," she says, and then, seeing Maura's pen poised over a test. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I bothering you?"

"Not at all," Maura says, setting the paper and pen aside. "I always have time for my students."

Jane visibly relaxes, but she doesn't enter the room, a throwback to when she was in Maura's class and was required to wait for a formal greeting in order to cross the threshold.

Maura taught Jane Chemistry in her junior year, and then had her once again for the first semester of this year in a Senior Elective, "Crime, Forensics, and Speaking for the Dead."

She will admit to herself, only when she is alone, that she was a little sad to see that Jane was not on list when the second semester class rosters were posted.

"Come in, Jane," she says now, a little touched that the teen has remembered, and respected, her class rule. "It's lovely to see you."

Jane's ears go pink just the slightest bit at this. She has gotten control of her blushing, Maura notes, a little disappointed.

"How are you, Doctor?" She looks like she's grown another two inches over the break, and basketball season has added muscle to her biceps and forearms.

"Better, now that they've fixed the heat in the science wing. How was your winter vacation?"

Jane shrugs, moving further into the room and collapsing into the desk she occupied while in Maura's class. "It was whatever," she mumbles to the desktop.

Maura cannot resist. "Enunciate," she says firmly. "And I am certain that you can find a more descriptive adjective than 'whatever.'"

Jane smirks momentarily, but then she looks up at her teacher. "It was stifling," she says finally.

"Interesting choice," Maura responds, hoping she does not sound too interested. "Would you care to elaborate?"

Jane looks away when Maura sits down. "I dunno…My parents don't really…" she trails off, and then seems to pick another topic. "My little brother got picked up for shoplifting, so that made everyone kinda on edge."

"Oh," Maura says gently. "I'm very sorry, Jane."

Jane lets out a breath, as though she'd been worried Maura might be angry with her for her brother's discretion. "Yeah," She says. "I mean. They let him go after Pop went down there. But then he didn't want to give him any of his Christmas gifts or anything."

A deeper, darker emotion passes over Jane's face for a split second, before she masks it with nonchalance. "But he ended up getting them anyway. My Ma always wins in the end."

This sentence falls oddly on Maura's ears, but she knows better than to question it. She leans against her desk, folding her arms. "I caught the tail end of your game yesterday as I was leaving campus. Mr. Henderson informed me you scored over a third of your team's points."

Jane sits up a little straighter, looking cheered. "Yeah. P.S. 116 is chumps," she catches herself and looks up at Maura questioningly. "Are chumps?" she corrects herself hesitantly, and when Maura only smiles at her, she bites her lip, thinking.

"P.S. 116 is full of chumps," she amends finally, and Maura laughs, charmed.

She has to admit to herself that Jane Rizzoli is one of her favorite students. She is bright, inquisitive, funny, sarcastic, and – though Maura would never say this aloud – extremely gentle.

As a senior, and captain of the field hockey and basketball teams (and most likely the softball team in the spring), Maura had seen her stay late to practice with the freshman on junior varsity. She'd seen her stand up for a bullied sophomore mathlete in the cafeteria, and in her classes, Jane had always walked the narrow line between class clown and class champion.

She could be more popular if she didn't do these things, Maura suspects, but the thought either hasn't occurred to Jane, or she doesn't care.

In either case, Maura finds it very admirable.

"So what can I do for you, Miss Rizzoli?" Maura asks, because nerves seem to be overtaking her student again. Her leg bounces up and down under the top of her desk, and she doesn't seem to be completely in control of the movement. These visits from Jane during her free time are not new, but there is a different feel to this one, definitely.

"I…if you're busy, I can come back later."

Maura smiles. "Will coming back later help you to gather your thoughts?" she asks.

Jane runs a hand through her hair and sighs dramatically. "I guess not," she says, sounding a little glum.

"Then why not just come out with it?" Maura suggests. "I surmise that it's not something to do with Science?"

"Surmise," Jane repeats.

"Infer," Maura says. "Conjecture." She has taught every student in her class that when they don't understand a word, they are to repeat it back to her. She will then give them a synonym they will recognize, and one they might not.

In this way, she teaches a child two words without making him or her feel put on the spot.

Only a handful of her students had carried this with them when they left.

"No," Jane says, looking down at her desk. "It's not about Science."

"Or, perhaps," Maura ventures, "even about school specifically?" They have rarely had a conversation about anything other than Science, Jane's hopes for whichever sports team she was currently playing on, or her lamentation about a professional sports team on television. The teen keeps many of her deeper emotions close to her chest, and it is very rarely that Maura gets a glimpse of this real person underneath the armor.

Jane chuckles. "You're good at surmising," she says. "I was…I just hoping that you could…I wanted to ask you a couple…" She shrugs her shoulders again, sliding a little lower in her seat. The English language seems to have defeated her.

Maura stands up, moving to sit at the student desk across from her, because she understands that feeling very well, and because she thinks she knows the reason for Jane's visit.

"I saw you over break," Jane bursts out. And then she is speaking quickly, trying to explain herself.

"At a seafood place," she continues, sounding apologetic. "Frost got a couple extra shifts as a busboy at Reel Seafood. And when I can get the truck going I pick him up so he doesn't have to take the bus. And I was hanging around, waiting for him and I…" she looks up into Maura's face and then back down, flushing with embarrassment down into her collar. "I saw you."

Maura can't help but laugh. Jane looks scandalized. "It's alright," she says to the teenager gently.

"I didn't tell anyone," Jane interrupts. "Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. I just…don't want you to worry."

Maura has to resist the urge to reach out and pat Jane's arm. The sweetness of this statement pricks her like the thorn of a rose. "It's not like you uncovered some great secret," she says easily. "We obviously weren't hiding. And we wouldn't. I wouldn't. I am not ashamed."

Jane stares at her, eyes wide.

Maura raises an eyebrow. "You think I should be?"

"No!" Jane shakes her head vigorously. "No! I don't think that. I just…you never mentioned that you, uh, that-"

"I have a wife," Maura fills in, and she smiles as Jane blushes crimson once more. "Is it something I should have mentioned?" She asks lightly. "I wear a wedding ring."

Jane's eyes flick to Maura's hands, folded on the desk in front of her, and then seem to freeze there. "Yeah," she says after a minute. "I just…"

"Made an assumption," Maura finishes for her.

Jane smiles, Maura's Chemistry lessons clearly her mind too. "I made an ass out of just me this time though, I guess," she says. "I'm sorry, Dr. Isles."

"You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about. You're right, that I don't make a point of flaunting my personal life."

"Yeah. No!" Jane corrects herself hurriedly. "Yeah, I mean. I get it." She picks intensely at her nails, clearly trying not to ask any of the questions that Maura can practically see spinning around in her brain."

"Jane," Maura says gently. "You stated you wanted to ask me a couple questions."

She gets a nod in return, but no eye contact.

"So, you may ask me any questions you like. If I find one or more of your inquiries to be…out of line, I will decline to answer."

The teenager swallows visibly. With some difficulty, she stops her knee from bouncing up and down. "When did you know?" She asks, her voice almost a whisper, "that you…you know…"

"Well," Maura leans back in the desk, considering her answer. "I realized I was attracted to women as well as men when I was about thirteen or so."

Jane glances up at her, surprised, having caught the meaning of her sentence, and Maura pauses, thinking she might say something about it, but when the silence stretches, she continues. "And at first I was very frightened. I thought something was wrong with me."

She is worried for a moment that this is too on the nose to work, that Jane will realize her ploy and will storm out.

But Jane stops fidgeting completely. She looks at Maura with dark, searching eyes, and this time Maura has to work not to let her own cheeks color.

"What happened?" Jane asks, a vague enough question that she could just be interested. But her body language says something else entirely.

"I told my parents," Maura says. "And my father was shocked, and angry, and told me in no uncertain terms that I was to put the thought out of my mind."

Jane swallows. "And your mother?"

"She was…less shocked, and less angry," Maura says gently. "But it took her a long time to accept me. And when I married Lily, it felt as though all the progress we'd made was undone for a while."

Jane presses her fingers together, then links them, Mara sees her mouth move faintly over the name. Lily.

"Are, um," Jane clears her throat. "Are you religious, Dr. Isles?"

They are creeping closer to it, Maura can tell. She tries to sound as though she hasn't guessed, that she doesn't feel a bit like she's committing a betrayal with her answer. "No," she says gently. "My family was never very religious."

Jane nods, ducking her head. She seems unable to speak, and Maura realizes after a moment that she's choked up.

"Jane," Maura says. And though it is against school rules. Though it could very easily end her career, she reaches out and puts her hand on her student's arm. "It's going to be okay."

"Casey broke up with me…Sort of," Jane manages. "He said I was a dyke."

Maura frowns, squeezing Jane's arm. "Even if you find yourself exclusively attracted to women, you are not a dyke."

"I didn't-" she takes a deep breath. "I didn't want to have sex with him. It didn't feel right."

Maura's frown deepens. "The decision to be intimate with anyone is yours, and yours alone," she says. She wants to say much more, wants to ask much more, but the tightrope walk of this conversation is threatening to throw her off balance.

"When did you?" Jane asks suddenly, momentarily diverted from her malaise around Casey. The look on Maura's face makes her backtrack, looking nervous. "Sorry! I didn't mean to ask that…it can be one of the questions you decline to answer…like you said."

And Maura should move her hand, and she should decline to answer, but she doesn't.

How she wishes someone had answered her questions when she'd had them.

"I was twenty three," Maura says. "And I…when I let myself be happy," Maura can't help smiling. "It was as though I had been given an entirely new life. One in which anything was possible."

They sit in silence for a while. Maura pulls her hand away from Jane's arm slowly, and she has just begun to think that maybe she has done all she is able, when Jane leans forward, just a tiny bit.

"Could I change it?" She asks, whispering now, though the hallway outside of the classroom is deserted. "If I really, really tried? Could I change it?"

Maura wants to cry at the heartbreaking earnestness of the question. "No," she says softly. "Speaking scientifically, as well as from experience, you can bury it, deny it, compartmentalize it, and blind yourself to it, possibly for your entire life. But you cannot change it."

Jane wipes at her eyes with her free hand.

"But you deserve a life in which anything is possible. Your sexuality-" Jane throws her a glare at the word "-has no bearing on your ethics, your morals or your ability to fulfill your dreams. And I think you might find that in College, you'll be freer to-"

But Jane laughs at this, and Maura pulls up short. "I'm not going to College, Dr. Isles," she says, in answer to her teacher's questioning look.

"What?" Maura is genuinely surprised. "Why?"

"Where would I go?" Jane still looks amused, as though she and her teacher are playing a game.

"You could go anywhere you like," Maura says, "There are several amazing schools here in Boston. I received my undergraduate degree from Boston University. And I-"

"I mean where do normal, non-geniuses like me with no money and shit grades go?" Jane asks. "Sorry," she adds as an afterthought. "Poor grades."

"Your freshman grades were weak," Maura says honestly, "but you're much improved, Jane. And you are currently in the top 10% of your class."

"How do you know that?" Jane asks curiously.

"I'm on the College Counseling committee here," Maura answers. "And there are so many different kinds of scholarships. I can think of five off the top of my head that you qualify for. Money and poor self-esteem should not limit your dreams. Especially when there is no need for them to do so."

Jane seems to be caught up in thought. Maura lets her be, hoping she's planted at least two seeds in her student's mind.

They are still sitting there when Casey Jones strolls by the classroom door, and catches sight of Jane.

Casey is a tall, handsome, moderately bright senior. Maura has him this year for AP Organic Chemistry, and though he is not one of her brightest students by far, he manages to hold his own.

"Jane!" he calls in the door, and Maura sees Jane flinch at his voice.

"Hey, Casey."

"Don't tell me you got detention again!" Casey moans. He has not lifted his eyes to Maura, and he watches Jane with what appears to be a mixture of jealousy and possession. "We gotta talk."

"Nah," Jane says. "I was just…asking Dr. Isles about some stuff."

"Well put some fast in that ass and meet me outside okay?"

"Language," Maura says automatically, and Casey's eyes shift to hers for the first time.

"Apologies, Doctor." If Maura were better at nuance, she would be able to pinpoint the tone of voice with which some of the boys say her name.

Casey looks back at Jane. "See you out there?"

Jane's whole body has tightened. She is looking at a spot by the doorframe near his head, and not directly at him. "Yeah," she says. He doesn't seem to notice.

She does not relax until his footsteps fade away.

Maura feels uneasy. "Just because you and he were, or are, romantically involved does not mean he has a say on how you live your life," she says.

Jane snorts. "Yeah," she says, though her sarcasm lacks its normal bravado. "Tell him that."

This cannot be ignored. "Jane, what you said before," Maura begins, and then decides that directness works best with this teenager. "Did he hurt you?" she asks bluntly, and her breath catches when Jane makes a motion with her shoulders that she cannot decipher.

Her hand reaches out to Jane's arm again, and tightens involuntarily. "Miss Rizzoli," she says authoritatively, and Jane's eyes snap to meet hers. "Did. Casey. Jones. Hurt you?"

If this is a secondary reason for Jane's confidence in her, Maura doesn't have the slightest idea what she will do.

Jane shakes her head. "Not really," she mumbles.

"That is not good enough," Maura says immediately, falling back on the phrases she uses when teaching. "Elaborate, please."

"We…started," Jane says, the color rising in her cheeks. "I'd…done some stuff, with this girl…and I wanted to prove to myself that it was just…" She trails off at all the difficult junctures, and Maura fills them in with her own history, her heart aching. "So we sort of started to, like, and he was really into it…But I...It felt wrong. He felt wrong, and I told him to stop. He didn't really."

It is difficult to breathe. "He didn't really…stop?" Maura presses.

Jane shrugs. "I sort of gave in," she says, her voice has dropped to almost a whisper, and Maura stares at the girl sitting across from her, horrified.

That's all she is, really. The thought hits Maura like a blow.

Jane is still just a child, who is afraid of her religious parents' reaction to her sexuality. She is frightened, and she has nowhere else to turn.

"High school can be difficult for all types of people," Maura says, though she immediately regrets how canned the line sounds. "I just mean," she tries again. "It can seem hopeless, yes. But you mustn't give up."

Jane shakes her head slightly. She moves to stand, and Maura rises with her. She wrings her hands as the teenager heads to the door, she wants to say more.

She wants to embrace Jane, and tell her that she must keep going. Must put one foot in front of the other, until the day when she looks up and realizes that she has reached the other side.

Jane turns at the door to the classroom to look back at Maura.

"Dr. Isles."

"Jane."

"Thanks."

Maura beams. "Of course. Anytime, Jane. I meant that."

The teen turns away, but then spins back again. "Remember how Joey called you a stuck up bitch before break? And you couldn't even give him detention for it?"

Maura remembers every single taunt that any child has ever thrown at her. "Yes," she says simply.

And Jane grins that sly grin that Maura has come to recognize from her. "Well," she says, grin widening. "I'm the one who put him on those crutches."

Maura wants to laugh and cry at the same time. What a miraculous, lovely, protective girl she has found, buried here in the middle of Boston.

"I do not condone violence against others," Maura says, in the semi-stern voice she uses when some of her male students' roughhousing gets out of hand.

And Jane smiles like she knows what Maura really wants to say, and she turns away and disappears out the door.