Author's Note: Sorry for the delay! Life, as it often does, crept into the way of writing. So I am a mafia geek and am a little bit fascinated by organized crime - you will probably start seeing a lot of that throughout the story. And keep up the reviews and the love. It is much, much appreciated. Keeps me writing :)

Maura does not sleep. She attempts to think of things that comfort her, of memories that she might be able to slip into when a dream cannot and will not do, but even those memories seem too distant tonight. She tries to remember being young, being happy, but the memory of holding her first beaker, reading her first medical textbook, are invaded by the first time she held a gun, the first time she fired a gun. Her memories give way to another, a nightmare in comparison, and she feels the cold chair underneath her, feels the stares of the men around the table on her as she holds out her hands as if she were still there.

By our laws, you are already one of us. Your blood is your tie. You were born into the family, and you'll have to take your life to leave it. By blood you live, and by blood you'll die.

A knife had sat in the center of the table. When instructed, Maura had taken it into her hands and pressed the tip into her index finger. A single crimson line had run down her palm, fallen onto the table. Each man at the table came up to her, took her hand in theirs.

Maura could feel her heart pound even at the memory of that moment.

"Jane?" She cast the name out into the night like an offering, still hoping that there would be no response, that Jane would be asleep. But there was a groan from the other room, and a shuffling of feet. Jane appeared in the doorway, her hand on her holster.

"What is it? Are they here?"

Maura sits up in bed, pulls the covers to her chest when she realizes that she is in nothing but a bra. Jane's eyes look downward for only a second, but are then at the window, the closet door. A detective first, Maura thinks, and smiles to herself, some small comfort in this thought.

"No, it's not that. I..." Maura realizes she has nothing else to say. She bites her lip, slides farther down into bed. Jane stands at a distance from the bed, the same distance they've kept since that night. Any other time and she'd already be sitting beside her, maybe have fallen asleep with her, and Maura would have spent the night all too aware of her breathing, of their elbows brushing as Jane shifted in her sleep, the soft pressure of their hips touching.

Jane lets out a long sigh. "You're not going to give me even a hint, are you?"

"What kind of hint?"

"The kind that tells me where, and who, I should be aiming for."

Maura shakes her head.

"Right. I suppose you've sworn on it or something. Girl scout's honor." Jane goes to the window, stands in the shadows so that the streetlight doesn't catch her. "And I'll just shoot whatever comes through here, is that it?"

"I'm...sorry. I've already explained myself, Jane."

"Yeah, I know." Jane shrugs, slumps to the floor, still a few feet from the bed. Maura sits up, ignores the fact that the blanket has fallen into her lap, revealing her chest. Jane makes momentary eye contact, immediately blushes and looks away. Maura notices her posture, how Jane sprawls like a teenage boy, her head angled to the side. She almost smiles at the familiar stance, the way Jane reveals her vulnerabilities in small and private ways that only Maura seems to notice.

"And I'm sorry I woke you up for nothing."

Jane lets out a dry laugh. "Trust me, I wasn't asleep." Her face softens momentarily, her eyes large when she looks up at Maura. "Were you?"

"Not really." Maura shrugs. "Insomnia is directly tied to anxiety. After a night like this, it's natural for our bodies to want to stay alert, preventing sleep in order to prevent an attack from a predator."

"You make it sound like there's a tiger in the kitchen, waiting for us to drift off."

Maura smiles. "Why does that sound preferable to our current situation?"

"I don't know. I have zero training for animal control, particularly large and dangerous animals. It would definitely be up to you."

"Panthera tigris."

"Bless you."

"Scientific name for the tiger. I know a bit about its anatomy, but I'm not sure I could prevent it from killing us. It's the largest of the cats, the third largest land predator."

"What's the second largest? No, wait. Don't tell me. Is it Angela Rizzoli when her kids haven't shown up to dinner yet?"

"You should be nicer to your mother, you know."

"Not this lecture, again."

Maura throws a pillow at Jane. Jane's a better catch than she anticipates, though, and throws it right back.

"You have a beautiful family. They may bring you trouble sometimes, but they always offer you love, a home. I...have always envied that."

Jane sighs, leans back. "I mean, you're a part of that home. My mother's basically adopted you. My brother considers you a sister. My other brother would prefer you not be my sister so he can do non-brotherly things with you, but whatever. And I...I can't imagine my life without you. Actually, I can, because I lived my life without you for a few months, and it was kind of fucking awful."

"Jane."

"Yeah?"

Maura sighs. "Thank you. Do you, uh...is the couch comfortable?"

"I'm not sleeping, so it doesn't really matter. Why?"

Their eyes meet, and nothing is said for a few moments. Maura's palms are curled under the blankets, her nails digging into her palms.

"I'd better go back in the other room." Jane gets to her feet, goes to the doorway. "Let me know if you need anything, okay?"

Maura feels the words tripping out of her mouth before she can stop them. "You can sleep here if you want, it doesn't - "

Jane puts up a hand, shakes her head. "Please don't finish that sentence, Maur. Just...please don't ask me that."

"I'm just - "

"You and I both know why that would be a problem."

"Jane."

"I'm going in the other room, okay? Try to get some sleep."

Maura listens to her feet on the floor, the sound of the springs in the couch as Jane slams her weight into them. She takes a deep breath, counts backwards. The white dot in the center of her fingerprint is still slightly raised.

This isn't the end, lass. It's your blood, but it's someone else's, too. They kill our soldiers, so we kill theirs. Your father would have wanted it this way, and you're your father's daughter, ain't ye?

Maura closes her eyes, sees the pleading face in front of her, sees the man on his knees, begging for her to give him his life. Her finger twitches where it had been pricked, where it had paused on the trigger before finally giving way.

She doesn't want to be alone, but here she is.

R&I R&I R&I

Jane wants to pound a hole in a wall. She wants to get up and smash every object in sight, put a bullet through all the windows. What the fuck were you thinking, Jane?

Does she want to get in that bed? Of course she wants to fucking get in that bed. She wants to get in that bed like her life depends on it, but look at her, taking the high road. Pretending like she can totally handle herself and just sit on this couch without blinking an eye. Pretending like she doesn't want to throw herself on that bed and do something to solve all this tension in the air.

Fucking fuckity fuck.

The thing is that she can't go there right now. The thing is that maybe there are armed men outside who want to kill them, and maybe that should be taking priority. The thing is that she can't trust Maura farther than she can throw her because Maura's not telling her one damn thing about this particular evening, and that's a problem. The thing is also that Jane can't explain how one woman can make her this confused, this excited, this obsessive, this aroused.

Her whole body aches like an overbothered trigger finger. She wants to crawl the walls and jump every fence in the world. She feels like being fifteen again and running the length of the field, grass in between her fingers from touching the lines, mud on her calves. She wishes that she could shrug this onto her shoulders and sprint it out like all the issues she had when she was a teenager. If she couldn't run it away, she could tackle it away in the form of the next overeager player with a ball she wanted.

There's a sound at the door. Jane hears it because every single one of her senses are on fire, and because she's a detective. This is what she does, right? She serves and protects. She is loyal, alert, a barrier between good and evil. And if something is trying to hurt Maura, then she has no problem jumping in the way just like every other time.

The doorknob tilts, a few clicks on the other side. As a head emerges around the other side in the dark, Jane's gun is out and her hand goes for the collar, knocks the temple with her elbow.

"What the everloving fuck!" A familiar voice starts to curse, and Jane takes a step back, her gun still drawn. She switches on the light in the living room. Maura is standing in the doorway to her bedroom, but when she identifies the culprit, she lets out a noise and runs back inside to cover up.

"Rookie?"

Teddy Martin looks up at Jane, nursing her forehead. "Hey, boss. Funny running into you here."

"You have got to be kidding me."

"I definitely have an explanation, and it is definitely a good one." Teddy points to the gun in Jane's hands. "Any chance you could put that down first?"

"I wish I could describe this night to you in a single word, rookie, but "hell" doesn't even come close. So no, let's hear your story first."

"You're gonna wanna sit down."

"Am I?"

"I know how this looks, but you can trust me. I mean, I'm not going to tell anyone that you and Maura are sleeping together. Which, by the way, props on hitting up a ten, boss."

"Detective Rizzoli and I are not sleeping together." Maura emerges from the bedroom again, a blanket over her shoulders. "We're in a difficult situation and I was forced to stay here." Maura shoots a look at Jane. Jane rolls her eyes, as she cannot honestly believe her fucking luck tonight.

"You were saying, rookie."

"This is actually about that difficult situation. I assume you're talking about the visit from Finnegan and company."

Maura's eyes narrow. Jane's arm starts to get heavy, but now she feels especially compelled to keep the gun drawn.

Teddy shrugs, gives them a hopeful smile. "In the past, I have...maybe not been completely honest about my friends."

"Now would be a great time to open up, rookie."

"It's a long story, and like I said, you might want to put down the gun. I'm very much on your side of the situation, ladies. And I am definitely a cop, I didn't fake my way through the academy or anything. I just might have left out some details about who, or what organization, funded that journey."

"So you're in the Irish mob?"

"Not exactly. I'm a little more like Dr. Isles. I'm not in the mob itself, but the mob does own me. And I may or may not be one of your assigned guardians. You're not going to like this, boss, but there's a price on your head that's pretty darn sky high. I'm just trying to make sure your ass isn't grass, okay? The Italians want Dr. Isles, the Irish want you. Luckily, Dr. Isles has been pretty gracious in making sure they don't lay a finger on you...yet. I'm not saying they make no promises, but they kind of fucking don't make promises. Anyway, sorry for breaking in. The boys told me to drop by, just in case you needed an extra gun tonight."

Jane lets out a sigh, finally setting down her gun. "This night is actually hell, isn't it?"

"Naw, they haven't started trying to kill you yet. That's gonna be the real shit."