A/N: Multi-chapter fic. At least, it will be.

Disclaimer: If I owned the show, there would be a lot more than 15 episodes per season. So that's a negative on ownership.

Maura had finished her work for the day. The autopsy for the Livingston case was completed and the tox screen was going to come in tomorrow. She was shoes shopping at the moment, trying to decide between Loubutin and Jimmy Choo. It was at this moment she received a text from Jane. "Meet us up here. We got something you might want to see." It was so nice of Jane to forgo the text speak. She knew Maura didn't like it. Maura was now excited, and headed up quickly to meet her friend.

Maura stepped out of the elevator and walked into the bullpen to meet Jane and the other detectives. She met Jane leaning against her desk with her arms folded across her chest and a satisfied smirk plastered on her face. Korsak was sitting at his desk, trying not to laugh, and Frost was smashing his own grin into a donut. Maura was beyond curious. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, Maur. We were just wondering if you would humor us for a little bit," Jane took the opportunity to speak. She reached a hand behind her back and pulled out an old desk pinball game. Maura giggled.

"Okay, what would you like me to tell you about pinball?"

Frost tried and failed to keep a straight face, but managed to spit out "Anything and everything you can, please."

"Okay," Maura started. "I know that the origins of the game were mixed with that of today's billiards, golf, croquet, and bowling. The spring launcher for the start of the game was developed in the late 1700s, but only became mainstream around 1870. In 1871, Montague Redgrave got a U.S. patent for the desk pinball game and his advancements in the development of the game would, logically, name him the "Father of Modern Pinball", so to speak. There are other small stuff, like wickets and holes in the board, but I don't want to bore you."

"Thanks for your insight, Maur." Jane was practically beaming at her best friend.

"It's not a problem, Jane. But now you three have to humor me." Maura saw all three of the detectives' smiles falter a little bit, and couldn't help but giggle and admire the tight-knit group she had grown accustomed to over the years.

Jane regrouped quickly and asked Maura, "What kind of humoring did you have in mind?" Maura could tell that Jane's tone was a little scared, a little playful, and a lot intrigued. It was not often that Maura wore that mischievous grin she sported now; but when she did, interesting things happened. Very funny things, too.

"I am calling for a wager between the four of us. Nothing special; it'll just be a pinball challenge. Each of us takes three turns with the game, and since no electronic points can be awarded, winner will be determined by highest total time before the ball fall out of play. A stopwatch will be used by another player to officiate and ensure fairness. And to prolong the fun, only one person gets to go per day. Frost, you will go first tomorrow, followed by Vince. Jane will go next, and I last. Winner decides what each of the other three have to do. Are these terms acceptable with everyone?" Maura sounded like she had authority over the entire world. The trio of detectives hung on to the doctor's every word and nodded enthusiastically when she finished speaking. "Great. I'd actually like to know where you found this. It's very antique."

Korsak now spoke up. "We looked over the Livingston house again and found it in the basement. Not part of evidence, and family didn't want it. We thought that putting it to use would be fun." Jane picked the game off her desk and pulled the plunger that started the game. That is, until Maura snatched it away from her. She said something about an addendum rule where no one gets to practice beforehand. Jane wasn't particularly listening; she was still trying to comprehend how Maura had gotten the game away from her so fast. It was like she had read Jane and knew what she would do a half-second before she did it. If Jane were to be completely honest with herself, it was pretty hot that Maura did that. She knew how interesting things got when her best friend decided that she wanted others to humor her in return for some intelligent banter. Especially when this humoring of hers involved Maura's wagers.

During Jane's brief daydream, Maura had taken the liberty of calling Frankie. She told him to come up and take the pinball game to his house and bring it back the next day. This was to make sure that no one 'stayed late' at work to try and practice. After he left with the game, Frost suggested the foursome go for drinks at the Robber. Korsak had accepted his invitation, but Jane stated she wanted to look over all the notes they currently had on the Livingston case one more time to see if she could find a hit somewhere she hadn't looked before. Maura simply wanted to get back to her shoes online, but filtered herself to a friendly and polite "No, thank you." She proceeded to tell the detectives to drive safely and have fun. Of course, she did it in her own "Maura" way, so it involved some kind of statistic about driving drunk versus driving in anticipation.

Maura had turned and started to head back downstairs to her office when Jane called out "Hey, Maur. Where'd you get that idea?" Maura stopped and swiveled in her spot, a move she had seen Jane perform many times over the years. She knew it exhibited authority and some level of sexiness, so she decided to try it on herself. She liked the way it felt on her.

As if to add to the "sexy factor", Maura innocently smirked and replied to Jane honestly. "I guess you could say the idea just popped into my head. I thought it would be fun." She smiled and Jane proceeded to ask her who she thought would win. Maura contemplated this for a moment and then turned her attention back to Jane. "I can truthfully tell you that based on the fact that I have no data on yours, Frost's, or Korsak's pinball skill levels relative to mine and to each other, I don't know who would win for certain. Maura gave Jane a wink and a smile before swiveling back around and heading towards the elevator, swaying her hips just a little more than what came purely naturally. She thought it would add to the act. She silently congratulated herself for being able to be so truthful, yet so mischievous and deceiving with Jane all at the same time. She did, in fact, have a relatively good idea of who would be the winner in this wager. It was true that she did not know of the skill levels of any of the detectives, but she did know her own. Maura was relatively certain that none of the three cops could say they had as much of a pinball experience as she did growing up. When Maura was young, she had found her father's old desk pinball set and had taken it to boarding school with her and played constantly. It was probably the thing she did most often in her free time, barring the dissection of frogs and learning of anatomy.

Maura knew that she was very good at desk pinball, and any sort of pinball at that, and she had a fairly good idea of who would win this bet. She also had a good idea of what each of the losing parties would be doing later.