Author's Note: Oneshot. Rizzles.

'The house is old, the trees are bare,

Moonless above bends twilight's dome;

But what on earth is half so dear,

So longed for, as the hearth of home?'

-Emily Jane Brontë

"Maura, talk to me," Jane said frustratedly. Her co-worker and best friend hadn't spoken to her properly in days. Days. Maura had been particularly evasive recently and it was really starting to worry her. The detective thought they had an understanding with one another- that they would always talk to each other if something was wrong.

"I'm sorry, I'm just really busy."

The doctor quickly walked into her office and was dismayed to see that the raven haired detective had followed her. She just needed space. It was all getting too much and she felt she was falling further and further away from the happy life she thought she had. Ever since she'd fallen in love with Jane. "Maura! Snap out of it! I already asked Susie and she said you haven't had an autopsy since Thursday!"

"Paperwork is very time consuming..." she tried, Jane's hard glare halting her in her words.

"Maura!" Jane grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at her, tired of her hazel eyes determinedly staring at the floor. "What's going on? Would you please just tell me what's wrong?"

"Jane, I can't, I just can't okay." Maura physically deflated. She knew she couldn't tell Jane the truth. It would ruin everything they'd built together in their years of friendship. All of it, gone in an instant. She just couldn't risk that.

Her friend looked at her worriedly, brows furrowing. "You're not being yourself, Maur. Did I do something to upset you?" Jane felt both clueless and helpless. She knew how Maura liked to carry the weight of her problems alone- they both did. It didn't mean she'd be able to stand watching it though.

"No! No, you didn't," she said quickly. Nothing upset her more than Jane thinking she could have hurt her. She couldn't have been farther from the truth.

"Is it something with Hope or your family?"

Maura shook her head and looked down. She didn't want to play this juvenile guessing game but she didn't feel there was any other way that she could truly tell Jane. She most certainly wouldn't be able to find the words.

"Please let me in, Maura," Jane began, a frown more wounding than that of a miserable Labrador. "It's me, we've been through everything together. We're best friends."

"That's exactly why I can't talk about it," she said sadly.

"Because we're best friends? Maura did something happen with Jack? Did he hurt you? Because I swear to god, I'll-"

"He didn't hurt me," Maura sighed. "I broke up with him actually." She picked up an ornament from her desk and begin circling it in her hands, caressing the various shapes and textures with her fingertips.

"Why?"

"Because I have feelings for someone else."

"Oh. Look, Maura, if it's one of my brothers it's okay, I- I'll get over it. You don't have to be weird around me for them." The thought of Maura possibly wanting to pursue something with one of her brothers again, hurt her far more than she was letting on. It was taking all her might just to even hold back tears. What she didn't expect, however, was to see tears on the doctor's cheeks herself.

"Jane, it's not your brothers." She met her eye sadly. Taking a shaky deep breath she said, "It's you." Her hands were shaking as well and she immediately stepped back to brace herself for some kind of reaction. It would only hurt more to see Jane's disgust up close.

"Oh my god," the detective startled. She couldn't believe it. She couldn't comprehend that the doctor, her doctor, returned her feelings. The feelings that had been plaguing her for years.

It had been torture.

"I'm sorry," Maura said quickly. "I should have never said anything. I'm so sorry. I'll get past it, I'll try my hardest I promise." She turned around and grabbed some papers, throwing her ornament down haphazardly. "I really must go." She left the room quickly whilst wiping at her eyes.

"Maura," Jane said quietly. She watched as the doctor walked briskly down the hall. If she didn't know her best friend so well, she wouldn't have known that Maura's hunched shoulders meant she was openly crying. A moment passed and the detective couldn't take it anymore. Why was she waiting? She snapped out of her trance immediately and ran after her friend. "Maura! Maura!" She yelled desperately, receiving a few raised eyebrows from the lab technicians in the room beside her. Jane finally reached her and grasped her shoulder, pulling her around to face her without option. It broke her heart to see how distraught the doctor looked. "I'm sorry I didn't say it straight away," Jane said quickly, chest heaving. "Maura, I feel the same way! God, i'm such an idiot." She finally released her friend's shoulder from her vice-like grip.

"What? You-you feel the same way?" she asked shakily, disbelief scrambling her words.

Jane nodded, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands as wetness embarrassingly escaped them. "I-love you, Maura. So much. So much," her voice cracked slightly with the emotion she just couldn't withhold anymore. "You have no idea."

Before she could even think not to, Maura clasped Jane's neck with both of her hands and pulled their lips together. The kiss was deep and full of relief. It had the weight of years of emotional turmoil and secrecy being lifted and discarded in an instant, and both sighed with the utmost of gratitude. Jane's hand had found itself in the doctor's hair and her other snaked around her back, forcing them to be flush against each other. They'd never felt closer, or more safe; or more relieved.

"I love you too," Maura hummed as their lips separated and their foreheads rest together.

Things were finally going to be okay.