Characters belong to TNT, Tess Gerritson, Janet Tamaro and Jan Nash.

Story is mine.

Thanks to Elviswithoutthetassels for the advice and edit.

Constructive criticisms are welcome.

Thank you for reading, even if you end up not liking it.

Cheers.

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Outstretched fingers glide through the air with a slow and gentle purpose, to move the hair off Maura's face. It was just a few stray hairs, but they had fallen across her face. The golden tresses that normally framed and enhanced her face, were now blocking Jane's view of the enchanting and adorably innocent splatter of freckles that had made their home across the cheeks and nose of the medical examiner.

Jane liked these moments. The moments when Maura was unguarded and make-up free. Times like these, when Maura was alone with Jane or asleep, were the times Jane thought Maura's uncontested true beauty really shone through. The only moments when Maura really allowed herself to be exactly that. Herself.

And that was precisely who Jane had inadvertently fallen in love with.

Jane would do anything... anything... to make sure no harm would come to her.

Which is exactly why she found herself squatting in front of a sleeping Maura, gauze on her bicep, hiding the stitches from a ricochet, a bruise just below her left eye, a butterfly stitch on the corresponding eyebrow and various other bruises hidden across the rest of her body by ragged, torn and filthy dirt and blood encrusted clothing that the hospital couldn't repair like her body. She had been on her way home. But she had to check in on Maura on the way, just to make sure it wasn't all for nothing. That Maura was indeed safe now.

Jane's hand moved to caress and cup the side of Maura's face with a gentleness the detective rarely let anyone see. Leaning forward, she pressed the slightest whisper of a kiss to the side Maura's forehead, near the edge of her eye. She pulled Maura's blankets up and tucked them around her neck, encapsulating Maura in a cocoon. A book fell from Maura's grasp as she snuggled to the new warmth around her neck. With the quiet agility of a feline predator, Jane caught the book before it hit the ground. Book in hand, Jane moved to the big reading chair in the corner of the bedroom. Quietly, she manoeuvred it to angle towards the bed and sat down, once again staring at her best friend's sleeping form.

With her knees drawn up and feet tucked onto the seat of the chair, Jane fell asleep cuddling Maura's book. It wasn't a good replacement for wrapping her arms around the medical examiner, but it was still a connection to her that Jane found satisfying enough to drool on the cover.

She woke up to the scent of Maura surrounding her. The gentle and soft whisper of "Jane," started her mind waking, but it was the shake of her arm and the more urgent call of her name that caused Jane to jolt upright, fling Maura's book across the room, reach for her gun and yell "Don't hurt her!"

Gun drawn, Jane pulled Maura behind her and scanned the room. Jane heard Maura gasp and spun around, preparing to eliminate the cause of it. Seeing Maura look at her, Jane holstered her gun, her left hand raising to flip her hair away from her face and her right resting in her belt. The act, although intended to convey a sense of normalcy and calm in Maura, had the exact opposite reaction as it revealed the bruised and stitched face of the Detective, which, having not been iced through the night, was now much worse.

Maura's hand covered her mouth as her eyes widened. Jane could see tears forming in her eyes as Maura approached her and whispered "Jane." Jane's eyes closed as Maura's hands reached up to inspect the damage. "What happened Jane?"

"Well..." Jane said as she unconsciously leant into Maura's touch. "I got the bad guy."