A/N: Here's a little one shot taken from a prompt by rizzlesficprompts on tumblr. :)
For the past four years of their lives Jane Rizzoli, Maura Isles, and Barry Frost had been inseparable. Together, they had survived questionable fashion choices, awkward first dates, and terrifying driver's ed experiences. They considered themselves to be The Three Musketeers or, as Frank Rizzoli liked to call them, The Three Stooges because they were always up to something like the time they built a marble launcher for their physics class project and broke one of the windows in the Rizzoli house while they were testing it or the time Frank offered to take the three of them out for a driving lesson and, when he returned, swore to Angela that he narrowly escaped with his life. "Maura, turn your head, not the whole car when you look over your shoulder!" "Barry, you can not stop the car in the middle of the street just so you can change the radio station!" "Janie, a yellow light does not mean you can go 75 miles per hour to make it across the intersection! These are city streets, not the Indy 500!" They were quotes that the three of them still referenced although two years had passed.
Four years of friendship, memories, and lessons-learned were behind them and they were reminded of this when the banner hanging from the bleachers on the football field that read, "Congratulations, Class of 1994" came down and in its place was a banner that welcomed the Class of 1998. 1998—it was the year Tommy Rizzoli would graduate and his entrance into high school brought on the realization that it was time to leave those years behind and begin the next phase of their lives.
"We're going to be okay," Jane tried to reassure her two best friends while they were all seated around a campfire just outside the cabin that Mr. and Mrs. Isles had rented for the weekend. Mr. and Mrs. Isles trusted their daughter and her friends, but Jane's parents weren't comfortable with three teenagers spending a weekend alone in the woods, so Mr. and Mrs. Isles agreed to provide adult supervision, although they spent most of their time in town while Jane, Maura, and Frost spent their time getting into whatever minor trouble they possibly could.
"You sound like an after school special," Frost chimed in.
"Or the start of a horror movie," Jane said jokingly. "We're three teenagers in the woods on a summer night."
Her statement wasn't the least bit funny to Maura. Their first night at the cabin the three of them were too exhausted to do anything besides unpack, so they spent the majority of the night watching horror movies. The violence and the blood were exaggerated, but Maura was still terrified because of them.
"I'll protect you," Jane smiled at her once she realized Maura wasn't joining in on their debate over which movie was more of a classic: Friday the 13thor Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
"You could probably protect her from Leatherface, but not Jason Vorhees," Frost pointed out. "Jason Vorhees is immortal, like Freddy Krueger."
"I can protect Maura from anything, even Freddy Krueger." Jane paused, "Well, I can protect her from Freddy Krueger as long as she's awake. Maura, how long can people go without sleep?"
"Can we talk about something else?" Maura asked them. She was looking at the fire instead of the two of them and they realized Maura's desire to change the topic of conversation had little to do with her being afraid of a movie they had watched. "We're all going to be at different schools tomorrow."
Frost grabbed the bag of marshmallows from his side and passed it to Jane after taking a couple for himself. "We'll still be in the same city."
"It's not the same as being at the same school," Maura insisted. Jane offered her a marshmallow, but she declined. Instead, she grabbed the chocolate bars that were going to be used for s'mores and broke off a piece for herself. "We won't see each other at lunchtime or go to Jane's after school."
"This is co-dependency at its finest," Jane smiled. After a brief internal debate, she decided to hold Maura's hand. It was something she had wanted to do for years and she felt proud of herself for finally working up the nerve. "I'm going to miss you guys and, yeah, it's going to be different, but maybe it'll be better. None of us are going to have a curfew, so we'll have more freedom. We can stay out all night doing whatever we want, even if it's just talking at an all-night coffee shop. We can even make a promise to hang out every weekend."
"Unless we actually get lives," Frost interjected.
"I don't foresee that happening," Maura smiled.
"It hasn't happened yet and it probably never will," Jane added. "The three of us were like fused together in some nuclear explosion and we've become some kind of three-headed monster…or something less weird."
The three of them stayed around the campfire until midnight, when Mr. Isles suggested they should come inside. School wasn't due to start for another week, but in a mere twelve hours, Maura and Frost were scheduled to move into their dorms at BCU and BU and time was of the essence because being the first to arrive meant the difference between having the bottom bunk or the top bunk and, for Maura, there was also the amount of closet space to worry about.
After putting out the campfire, the three of them decided to actually get some sleep instead of spending another night watching more of the horror movies they had rented before they left Boston. As the only guy in their trio, Frost had his own room and Jane and Maura shared one right next to his.
In a few short hours, they'd be leaving the cabin and starting the next chapter in their lives and Jane felt as if she had nothing to lose. As soon as Maura closed their bedroom door, she leaned in and gently pressed her lips to Maura's. Kissing her felt as wonderful as she had always imagined and when she noticed how shy Maura had become Jane was grateful that she had finally worked up the nerve to kiss her.
"Jane," Maura blushed. "What's going to happen now?"
"I don't know," Jane smiled. "It took me four years just to do that."
"You can do that again," Maura hinted. "Just don't wait another four years."
There was no second kiss that night, but Jane fell asleep holding onto Maura. It wasn't the first time they had fallen asleep in that position, but that night holding onto Maura meant so much more to Jane. Maura was her source of comfort and consistency and, as she was holding onto her, she finally felt ready for what the future had in store.