A/N: For the Rizzles Girls writing challenge.
Jane's running late. After the day she's had, this isn't surprising, but Maura's a stickler for timeliness and won't accept any non-emergency-related excuses (hell, sometimes even emergencies don't cut it). They're meeting at their usual haunt, and there's a cold beer with Jane's name on it if she can only get her ass in gear.
"You still here?"
Jane looks up from her desk and straight into the eyes of NYPD Detective Olivia Benson. She shrugs. "Oh, y'know. The paperwork never ends."
Liv chuckles knowingly. "Boy, do I know how that feels. My captain's gonna slam me with a whole bunch of it the second I get back to the city. Great coming home present, huh?"
Jane offers her a rueful grin. "When are you leaving?"
"My flight's not until ten." Liv cocks her hip, resting her weight against Jane's desk, and Jane's eyes trace the outline of the badge at her belt. "But that's probably a good thing, given the state of my hotel room and the time it's gonna take to pack. I'm heading there now, actually."
Liv had come to Boston on a case, in hot pursuit of a rapist who'd fled her jurisdiction in favor of Jane's. Liv had a history with the guy, really got inside his head, so her captain had loaned her out to the BPD for the duration of the investigation. They'd finally made the collar earlier that day, so it was time for Liv to return to Manhattan – all of which was perfectly well and good, except for the weird tug in Jane's stomach whenever she thought about the other detective leaving.
Liv had turned out to be a cool person, tough as nails in the face of the perp but warm and gracious around Jane and her colleagues. It had been nice to have another female detective around, and the two had become fast friends. Jane knows this isn't the last she'll hear from Liv, but that does little to abate the lurching unease that accompanies the notion of seeing Liv go.
"Well, hey," Jane begins, trying to sound casual and wondering why it suddenly seems so difficult. "If you find the time between packing and heading to the airport, Maura and I are meeting up at the Robber down the street, so you're welcome to join us."
Liv nods slowly, as if considering the offer. "I might take you up on that," she says after a beat, then smiles that smile of hers – the one that makes something inside Jane quiver.
"Great," Jane manages a little breathily, then ducks her head to finish her paperwork.
xXx
Maura's sitting at their usual booth when Jane walks in, clad in a stylish gray and black minidress and sipping a glass of Chardonnay. Somehow the Medical Examiner always seems to look fresh and un-rumpled even at the end of the working day, in stark contrast to Jane whose hair is usually a mess, her collar askew. Maura smiles perkily when she catches sight of the detective, and Jane makes a face as she ambles over to sit down.
"Uh-oh," Maura says concernedly.
Jane raises an eyebrow. "What?"
Maura gestures to her. "You. This. Your… Jane, you really need to do something about your hai-"
Jane silences her with a scowl.
"I mean, ah, I'm happy you made it! Better late than never, right?"
Jane just stares blankly at her, and she laughs nervously.
"First round's on me?"
"Keep talking," Jane says approvingly, signaling the waitress. Her lips curve into a smile in spite of herself, which Maura returns.
"Tough day, I take it?"
"Whatever gave you that idea?" Jane shoots back drolly. The waitress comes over before Maura has time to retort, so she contents herself with rolling her eyes as Jane places her order.
"I noticed that Benson has you wound pretty tightly," she observes airily, noting Jane's reaction.
"Liv? Nah, we're cool."
"That's not what I meant."
Maura's eyeing her carefully, as if watching for some kind of sign of something, and Jane starts feeling like a subject in one of the studies Maura's always invoking to prove a point. Her beer arrives, and she takes a long gulp before questioning a tad irritably, "Well, what did you mean, Maura?"
Maura's sitting across the table with a strange look on her face, one Jane's pretty sure she's never seen before.
"Dare I present the hypothesis that you may be feeling more than a platonic attraction towards this woman?"
Jane sets her beer down with a clunk. "Excuse me?"
Maura shrugs, then delivers her findings in that annoyingly calm, confidently accurate way of hers. "Your orbicularis oculi cannot lie, Jane."
"…Excuse me?" Jane repeats, only louder.
"Additionally, your pupils dilate when you converse with her."
"My… So?" Jane blusters.
Maura glances around self-consciously, noticing that a couple of patrons are staring before leaning in towards Jane. "Keep your voice down," she murmurs before continuing, "A physical reaction of that kind serves as a powerful indicator of sexual att-"
"It's bright in the squad room," Jane hisses.
Maura looks momentarily confused, then realization dawns on her face. "Jane, if your pupils were reacting to light, they would be contracting, not dilating."
"…Oh," Jane mutters, feeling stupid. Maura's right, as usual. Vague stirrings of high school anatomy class awaken themselves in her brain unhelpfully late. She's scrabbling for something to say when she sees Maura's expression change, as if the other woman has recognized someone.
"I'm pleased you could join us, Detective Benson," Maura says warmly.
No way – no way is Jane's luck this bad, and she's about to say so when a familiar voice somewhere behind her says "Please, call me Liv."
xXx
Liv ends up sliding into the booth on Jane's side (Jane could swear Maura's smirking) and the close contact is making her palms sweat. Either that or it's especially warm in the bar, which is equally likely and a hell of a lot easier to swallow. She holds it together through small talk about the case and Liv's flight and how glad they all are that the detective could join them, but then she becomes aware of Liv staring hard at her face. She runs her tongue across her teeth self-consciously, but before she can ask if something's stuck in them, Liv comments, "You're blushing."
"Uh, I-I think it's just hot in here," Jane stutters, but Liv's shaking her head.
"No, you're…" She presses the back of her hand to Jane's cheek, which of course only incites further reddening. "You're either blushing or you're sick."
"She's not sick," Maura interjects, and Jane glares daggers at her – something she cheerfully ignores. "I believe the cutaneous vasodilation she's currently experiencing is being caused by a mixture of embarrassment and physical attraction."
"Mauraaa," Jane warns, hoping fervently that Liv won't dig deeper into this because Maura literally will not lie to save her life.
"Oh, yeah?" Liv asks, a hint of mirth in her voice. She gets a kick out of Maura too, just like Jane does, but now is so not the time. "Attraction to whom?"
Maura bites her lip and looks nervous, while Jane puts her head in her hands.
xXx
"So, uh, I hope Maura didn't…" It's a little while later, and Jane's driving Liv out to Logan Airport because the cab fare is like forty dollars and Jane thinks that's extortionate. "You know, make you uncomfortable with her little… hypothesis, or whatever."
Liv's sitting in the passenger seat of her car, face framed by wispy tendrils that had escaped from her loosely held back hair. It's really too short to pull into a ponytail but she wrangled it somehow, all but a few errant chestnut strands.
"Why would that make me uncomfortable?"
Jane turns onto the Mass Pike and tries to maintain her composure. "Well, I. You know, I didn't want what she said to make things… awkward."
Liv glances at her sideways, looking disbelieving. "It wasn't like I didn't already know," she says matter-of-factly with just a hint of coquettishness. "I mean, come on, you've been flirting with me all week."
Jane almost crashes into a Range Rover. "Wait, what?"
Liv's eyebrows shoot up. "Uh, or not, apparently. Wow, okay." She raises her hands placatingly. "Forget I said anything."
They drive in silence for what's probably realistically only a short while, but feels far longer.
"Does this mean you're…" Jane starts, then trails off. It's really none of her business. She doesn't know why she felt the need to ask.
Liv offers her a wry grin. "I guess that means you're not."
Jane doesn't respond immediately, and it's her hesitation that scares her more than anything. Of course she's not gay. She's straight because she's always been straight. She's never even considered that she might be anything else. But here in her car, next to this woman, she questions that for the very first time.
"Listen…" Liv begins, and it's her talking-to-victims voice, gentle and non-accusatory. "I misread the signals. My fault. I apologize."
"It's fine," Jane says lightly, hoping Liv won't press the issue. "Terminal B, right?"
"Yeah." Liv sounds uncertain, like she wants to draw a line under the conversation too but isn't convinced this is the right way to do it.
Several minutes later, Jane pulls up to the sidewalk and jumps out to open the trunk. Liv slides her long legs out of the front seat and strides around to the back of the car, but Jane's already setting her suitcase on the ground.
"I can do that myself, you know," Liv comments, not unkindly, and Jane grins in spite of herself.
"Sure, you spent a week trying to keep up with me and Frost, now you have to sit through a plane ride, and I'm gonna make you lift your own suitcase outta my trunk? I think not, Detective."
Liv's eyes sparkle mischievously as she rises to the light-hearted jibe. "You may have apprehended the guy before I got to him, but you wouldn't've known where to look if it wasn't for me."
"I know," Jane says seriously, still smiling. "We make a good team."
Liv doesn't say anything for a second, and Jane plays back her own words in her head. God, it does sound like she's flirting. No wonder Liv made that assumption. They stand in awkward silence until Liv breaks it with a sincere, "Well, it was a pleasure working with you" and leans in to give her a hug.
It takes Jane a moment to acclimate herself to the feeling of being in Liv's arms before hugging back. Maura's words about physical indicators of sexual attraction echo in her head as her heart thuds in her ears. When Liv pulls away, she smiles – a little sadly, maybe, if that's not just Jane's imagination.
"Take care of yourself," she says quietly, then turns towards the sliding doors that will soon swallow her up into the vast terminal.
"Wait!" Jane finds herself saying, and Liv turns back almost too quickly, as if she'd anticipated the other woman might call after her.
Now that she has Liv's attention, Jane doesn't know what to do. She flounders for a second, looks down, steps forward, then lifts her gaze back up to Liv's face. The NYPD detective's dark eyes are filled with a mixture of uncertainty and hope, but she doesn't say anything, just waits for Jane's next move.
"I wanna…" Jane begins, letting herself trail off. "And I don't know why."
Liv puts a hand on her arm and squeezes. "It's okay."
Jane feels strangely pathetic. She's not used to feeling so out of control. She's a cop, for God's sake, with a gun and a badge and a no-nonsense personality to match. It's crazy that Liv can make her feel this way.
"I'm gonna go now," Liv continues gently, "but if you… you know, wanna talk about anything, you call me."
"No, wait," Jane says again. She takes a deep breath, just like she does before busting a door down or opening the trunk of a suspect's car, and then leans forward to give Liv a timid yet lingering kiss on the cheek.
She steps back, heart hammering, and when Liv reaches out and strokes her hair it's as if all the butterflies in the world have suddenly come to life in her stomach.
"They'll be boarding us soon," Liv says, and there's a gravelly tone to her voice that hadn't been there before. Jane nods, not trusting herself to speak, but Liv doesn't say goodbye either, just squeezes her arm again before turning around.
xXx
There's traffic on the Pike on the way back to the city, but Jane's so distracted she barely notices. She climbs the staircase of her building in a daze, and when she unlocks the door to her apartment, she realizes her heart is still pounding. It's her routine to place her badge, gun and cell phone on the kitchen counter as soon as she gets in, and as she does she catches sight of a new text alert.
Takeoff in 10. I'm glad I came out tonight.
Jane smiles and locks the message.