Disclaimer: All characters belong to Tess Gerritsen and TNT. I own nothing.
Jane clicked on her hazard lights as she began to pull her car off to the side of the dark street, "Damn it!" she yelled as she flung her belt off and exited the car. Jane rolled her eyes and in frustration, waved her hands vigorously at the flat, rear tire.
"Really?... Come on!" Jane, however admittedly discouraged, calmed herself quickly and sprung into action.
"Pull it together Rizzoli…," she spoke to herself as she reached in the driver's side door and released the trunk lock to acquire the car's spare tire. Jane peeked down at her watch as she walked to the back of the car and lifted the trunk open. Forty-five minutes, she thought to herself. Forty-five minutes until I break my promise. Jane felt uneasy at just the thought of breaking that promise as she coiled the carpeting in her trunk back revealing the spare tire.
"You've got to be kidding me…," she said, letting a sarcastic chuckle escape.
Jane leaned into the trunk and rested her hand in the indentation within the flat spare tire that was bolted down in the concave of the trunk. Memories of Maura nagging her for the past two months to get a new spare tire came flooding back to her.
"I'm never going to hear the end of this." Jane let the current situation momentarily amuse her. Jane exhaled in thought as she closed the trunk.
It hurt Jane's heart to think she was going to break her promise to Maura. Jane looked down at her watch again, forty-three minutes. Jane looked around the dark empty street as her thoughts began to flood of Maura. She had to see her. She had to tell her how she felt. That even with the distance for the next three months, she wanted her; wanted them…
Six miles away Maura paced throughout her living room quietly. She looked over at the clock decorating her wall noticing that the car to take her to the airport would be arriving within the next forty-five minutes. Maura rubbed her hands together anxiously as she continued to pace.
"Come on, come on…," Maura whispered to herself.
Though they had known Maura was leaving, her departure date had been unexpectedly moved up by a full month, and Jane found herself desperately trying to get to her after being on loan and undercover with the NYPD for the past seventeen days with no contact.
An ache ran through Jane's body as she stood still in the cool night air of Boston looking around trying to figure out her next move but was finding herself at a loss. The overwhelming desire to see Maura began to slowly engulf Jane's entire being. A primal urge sprung up in Jane, and without thinking she took off running in the direction of Maura's house…
Jane ran miles one through three on pure adrenaline and mile four on the unadulterated need to see Maura. But now, beginning mile five, as she closed the final bit of distance remaining between her and Maura's house, Jane began to cramp up. "You're almost there Rizzoli...," she tried to encourage herself but could feel her feet getting heavy, and her calf muscles beginning to tighten. She took one last pass at her watch, 10:40 pm. "Five minutes Jane, come on…"
Maura's front door was ajar as her driver stepped through the threshold and picked up the last two pieces of luggage waiting near the door.
"Ready ma'am?" the driver stood looking at Maura, bags in hand.
Maura looked around the quiet house, disappointed.
"Ma'am?..." the driver pressed Maura one more time.
As Jane came sprinting around the corner onto Pickney St, up in the distance she noticed the brake lights of a black town car release their brightness from in front of Maura's house and begin to slowly drive away.
"Maura!" Jane yelled as she tore down Maura's street after the departing car. Jane pushed with everything she had, but after five miles found she couldn't keep up as Maura's car turned the corner, out of sight.
Jane began to slow her pace and came to a stop a few yards past Maura's house, "Shit!" she yelled and motioned emphatically into the quiet evening air. Jane stood in the street facing the departed car's direction, hands on her hips and head hung down in defeat, …in exhaustion. She tried with all she had to make it to Maura on time but had failed. Jane took a few seconds in the dark to steady her breath and collect herself. As she readied she inhaled deeply and spun to the left facing the direction of Maura's house. Jane's face dropped, and the breath she was holding came out rapidly and in a burst…
"Hey," Maura said. She stood smiling on her front porch as the light lit her from behind.
"How? Wh-what are you doing here? I just saw you drive off." Jane was flipping back and forth between feelings of confusion and the total and utter elation at the sight of Maura standing in front of her.
"Correction, you saw my car and driver drive off." Maura motioned down the street, "As you can see, I was not in said car."
Jane didn't even hear the last part of Maura's sentence as she felt the world around her melt away on her approach over to Maura. Jane locked eyes with her as she climbed the steps of Maura's porch, a smile on both their faces.
"…Why?" Jane asked simply, stopping a few steps away from Maura.
Maura knowing exactly what Jane meant without needing to elaborate responded, "Because you promised we'd see each other before I left. …I knew you'd come Jane, you'd never break your promise." Maura stepped forward in Jane's direction and slid her hands into Jane's as they hung at her sides. She laced her fingers within Jane's. "Thank you for proving me right…" Maura's eyes sparkled as she gently squeezed Jane's hands in hers.
"I had to see you Maura. I couldn't let you leave for three months without telling you…" Jane trailed off as she tried to summon her courage.
"Without telling me what, Jane?" Maura smiled at Jane longingly.
"You're remarkable. …You're beautiful and brilliant and the best friend I could ever ask for. I am so proud of you and the work you'll be doing while you're in Africa, but I'm going to miss you. A lot." Jane's words were laced with affection and sincerity. "We've been friends for four years Maura and these past few weeks, not being able to talk to you, not seeing you every day… was unbearable. Made me realize just how important you are to me, how much I need you in my life, depend on you…" Jane leaned into Maura, hovering inches from her face, "…how much I do love you." Jane and Maura were still holding hands as Jane lifted both their arms slightly up to their sides as she leaned down and brushed her lips tentatively against Maura's.
Maura ached as much as Jane did, and after a second or two of Jane's breath on her lips she leaned up and into Jane and let their lips collide into each other softly. The kiss was hypnotizing. Neither girl had ever had such an enrapturing sensation completely wash over them.
The girls let their first kiss linger gently as they leaned their foreheads against each other; Jane releasing Maura's hands and wrapping her arms around Maura's waist pulling her closer into her.
"Maura, I want to be with you. I want to have a relationship with you."
"We already have a relationship Jane. You mean you want to expand the boundaries of our current relationship."
"Okay… then yes, I would like to expand the boundaries of our current relationship," she replied, then whispered to Maura, "I don't know how to do that though when you're on the other side of the world, but I want to try Maura."
"I want to try too Jane. Three months is not that long; then I'll be back. Right here, with you. You know, Rizzoli and Isles… the way it should be." Maura winked and tilted her head to the right and gave Jane another kiss. This one harder, deeper, and with more passion behind it, and Jane didn't dare fight it.
After several long seconds of unbridled kissing Jane broke their kiss and leaned back a few inches and placed her hand up against her temple, "Whoa, sorry. Feeling a little dizzy…"
"Are you okay?" Maura asked sympathetically.
"Ya, just a little dehydrated from the run I think..."
Now it was Maura's turn to be slightly confused, "Run, what run?"
Jane chuckled as she took Maura's hand and led her to the porch steps and sat down. "I got a flat tire on my way here, had to hoof it the last six miles."
"Hoof it? That would indicate you took a ride on some sort of hoofed animal."
Jane rolled her eyes, "Dear lord... okay, I got a flat tire on my way and ran the last five miles to get here. Better?"
"You ran five miles just to get here before I left?"
Jane looked devotedly at Maura, "Believe me I would stop at nothing to see you… so I started running."
Maura leaned to her left and rested her body up against Jane's as they sat on the porch stoop. Her head placed gently on Jane's shoulder, and Jane's right hand resting on Maura's left thigh.
After a few moments of comfortable silence Maura asked, "So guess you're back from New York. Any plans tonight?" She placed her right hand atop Jane's which was still resting on Maura's left thigh.
"Free as a bird. You…" Jane asked back.
"Well, being how I was supposed to be on a plane going to Africa in two hours, my evening plans are now, rather undeveloped."
Jane nodded her head gently in understanding, "Right…, Africa. Are you still going?"
"Yes of course. Tomorrow. I just couldn't leave without saying goodbye to you. It didn't feel right."
"And this…," Jane squeezed Maura's hand, "Does this feel right?"
"The way I feel about you Jane is the truest version of 'right' there is." Maura lifted her head off Jane's shoulder and kissed her on the cheek.
"You ran six miles... I-I can't believe you sometimes," Maura cooed lovingly as she squeezed Jane's hand between her thighs gently. "You hate to run." Maura let her head fall naturally back to its resting place on Jane's shoulder. Their bodies fitting perfectly together.
Jane sat in silence basking in the bliss of the moment she was sharing with Maura.
"Jane?"
"Ya...," Jane replied to Maura's inquisitive tone.
"If you had a flat tire why didn't you just use your spare? Your vehicle comes equipped with a full size spare. Changing a tire would still have surely taken you less time than running six miles here?" Maura pondered out loud.
Jane let her head drop in disbelief, "Serious?... I knew this would come back to bite me in the ass."
Maura couldn't help but let a tender laugh escape at an exacerbated Jane. "Serious –ly," Maura corrected gently. "You never got your spare tire fixed like I've been telling you, did you Jane?" Maura smiled as she turned Jane's face toward her own.
"Fine!..." Jane gave into Maura's playful gaze and what had precedingly been her own stupidity and stubbornness, "You were right; I should have gotten the spare tire fixed awhile back."
Maura leaned in and gave Jane an adoring kiss on the lips, "Then you wouldn't be you Jane."
"Hey!" Jane teased. "I'm dangerous..–ly close to passing out because of you; give me a break here."
Maura laughed at Jane's playfulness. She liked seeing this side of her. "Let's go inside Jane, get you hydrated. Doctor's orders."
Maura grabbed Jane's hand as she proceeded to lift herself to a standing position on the porch, Jane following in succession.
"Thanks for not getting in the car Maura," Jane said quietly as she started her progression towards the front door, her fingers still intertwined with Maura's.
"Thank you for giving me a reason not to," she replied with a smile as she led them into the house, closing the door behind them.
A/N: Reviews are welcomed if there is something you'd like to share.