Bed and Breakfast

After the days - no, actually the weeks since they've really spent any quality time together - Maura waits for Jane to come home. She potters in the kitchen, watches some television - Jane having introduced her to the delights of The Shopping Channel, and re-runs of The Antiques Roadshow. Hart to Hart and Will and Grace have also become firm favourites (though she'd never admit that to her mother.)

Even after years of living together, Maura finds she can't truly settle until she knows Jane is back safely. When she does go to bed, unless she herself is exhausted, she'll read, and doze, but not truly sleep, not until Jane is home and cuddling into her.

Jane is exactly the same if Maura is ever away from home - it doesn't feel right not breathing her in as she falls into a gentle slumber.

Maura understands the demands of Jane's career, and would never dream of asking her to slow down, or take fewer risks, because she knows that if Jane loses focus just once, in thinking of Maura being left alone, rather than of herself and the immediate situation, she would lose those vital few decision making seconds. With a weapon aimed at her, those seconds would make all the difference.

Maura doesn't tell her that she worries, but of course Jane knows, and while she loves having someone at home to care about her - something that had once been just a pipe dream - she also hates the worry her vocation causes Maura.

'Home'

Until fate had brought them into each others lives five years ago they'd never really known or understood the meaning of 'home' - not like it is now anyway.

Home to Jane had been an empty apartment, with a fridge full of beer and very little else, and a scruffy little dog for company. Socialising was either a late one at The Robber with Frost or Korsak, or a late night walk around the block for Jo to do her business.

Maybe there'd be a nod to a neighbour as they put the trash out, but mostly, it was just back to the soulless apartment for a shower, then reheat some of Ma's lasagne and watch the game until her eyes became so heavy she'd drop off on the couch. Sometimes Frankie or Tommy would drop by to watch the game with her, and there was the regular family dinner at her Ma's house, but mostly it was just Jane and Jo.

Occasionally she would bravely venture out on a date, sometimes after accepting the offer directly, but often under duress from her 'Grandma in waiting' - her mother, Angela.

The majority of these dates would invariably end in one of the following ways -

1) A peck on the cheek and an 'I'll call you' (which she never did)

2) Another few dates until she stands him up a couple of times because she was busy chasing a suspect halfway around Boston and couldn't just stop to let him know. (not the most conducive way of forming a lasting relationship), or

3) Very occasionally, a one night stand, when she just needed to feel the heat and contact of a body lying next to her (and the scruffy little dog just wasn't gonna cut it.)

Of course Jane hadn't realised by this point that her romantic future lay with a woman. But, everything that had gone before had made her what she was now, and she was quickly accepting of the feelings she was developing for Maura - they didn't freak her out at all, the attraction was instant and Jane knew that this was the 'real deal'.

She never felt like this about anyone when she was a teenager, but boy her hormones were making up for it now.

Her only 'regret' was that she hadn't met Maura sooner.

Before Maura, Jane often didn't make it to bed at night simply because she was tired of sleeping alone - the empty bed confirmed her status that she was still single, and likely to be so for the foreseeable future.

Thank goodness she wasn't on social media, she'd never post a thing.

As much as she told her mother she was happy to be single until the right one came along, and that the demands of the job and the lifestyle that goes with it really don't make for relationship heaven, she knew she was lying to herself as well.

She just had no idea where to find someone who understood that 90% of the time the job wasn't nine to five, punch in and punch out and then home to make dinner and read to the kids - a lot of the time it was brutal, dangerous, and exhausting.

But Maura understood.

As far as Jane was concerned, when Maura arrived at the Crime Lab five years ago it was as if someone had imported wholesale sunshine into BPD. Every day seemed a thousand watts brighter, and every visit to the lab or to a crime scene was no longer such a depressing part of the job.

Suddenly the air seemed thinner whenever she chatted with the new Medical Examiner, as if she was at altitude and she'd feel a little light headed and giddy. The very fact that she was willingly chatting with someone, and not just making small talk was in itself a big deal...and one her colleagues noticed too. As they got to know Maura they realised the same was true of her.

And so it was that very soon she and Maura realised there was far more to this relationship than just being 'friends', although now actually having a best friend was enough to make them both feel like teenagers again.

For Maura, who had realised and happily accepted long ago that she was attracted to both men and women, after too many relationships that just didn't seem to work out, she realised that Jane was the someone she'd left a space for in her heart...she just fitted so perfectly.

Often loud, sometimes volatile and with a swagger and an apparent sense of confidence that seemed to command respect, Jane Rizzoli was the shade to Maura's sun - the Yin to her Yang.

In Jane, Maura had found someone who was more than comfortable with her apparent lack of knowledge of popular culture, and actually found it quite endearing. Maura certainly never felt the frustrating inadequacy that she'd suffered as a child and in previous relationships. Now she was only subjected to warm hearted banter from Jane and the rest of the Rizzolis- it was never malicious.

Though they had very different upbringings and lifestyles, there was never any sense of rivalry, they just seemed to compliment each other perfectly and immediately 'clicked'.

And sometimes, even excited and eager geniuses know it's best not to try and explain the science of attraction, rather to just keep on experimenting and enjoy comparing the results.

~0~

Their first 'official' date was after a few weeks of dancing around each other and some shameless flirting from a bold and over confident Jane, as she taught Maura how to play pool.

As she draped herself across Maura's back to 'help her get her elbow cocked at the right angle to make the shot' she'd breathe in that delicious perfume and feel the heat emanating from her willing pupil.

And as for the rear view of Maura leaning over the table for those trickier shots...oh yes, life for - and with - Jane Rizzoli was never going to be the same again.

That first date was memorable in many ways - not least for Jane slipping on the icy sidewalk (in unsuitably high heels) before they'd even reached the restaurant and badly spraining her ankle.

After hobbling back to the car, the rest of the 'date' was spent in the Emergency Room, and then on to Dr Isles' place for some very personal intensive care...and the memory of that would live on for eternity.

'Status update - Jane Rizzoli is now in a relationship'

Two years later they were married in a quiet ceremony at City Hall, and then went on to Santorini for their honeymoon. It was a compromise on both sides - a quiet wedding for Jane, a dream honeymoon for Maura.

Maura heard the front door being closed quietly, and the familiar muffled 'plunk' as Jane put her house keys in the bowl on the hallstand. Next it was the boots being placed 'neatly' in the hallway closet. (Maura will make them more neat in the morning) and then the jacket is hung up.

It's after midnight and she knows that Jane will strip off before she gets to the bedroom and then go and quickly shower before coming to bed so she doesn't disturb the 'sleeping' Maura - it's the same predictable, yet comforting ritual every time she's late home.

Tonight is no different.

A few minutes later and Jane is big spoon to Maura's little one and all is right with the world again.

Tomorrow is Saturday and they have the whole weekend to themselves, with their family instructed that unless Boston is invaded by aliens overnight they are not to be disturbed.

"How would you like breakfast in bed tomorrow?" Jane asked a yawning Maura. She finished her long, drawn out yawn and replied while smiling to herself.

"I should enjoy that very much Jane...and maybe afterwards we can get ourselves some food..." she said sleepily, but suggestively and the meaning was clear.

Jane smiled and pulled Maura closer.

Oh how she loved lazy weekends with Maura.

~0~