Disclaimer: All recognizable Rizzoli & Isles characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners including, but not limited to Tess Gerritsen. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this fan fiction story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No financial gain is associated with the publishing of this story. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: This is a post-ep for "Knockout" (5x06). The scene is Korsak on stage singing with the gang singing. I couldn't resist continuing that scene. There was some crazy good chemistry between Jane & Maura in that final scene (maybe it was the dioramas…) and it begged to be written. Categorizing this one was tricky. Humor? Angst? -dkc
Form & Balance
Jane gravitated toward the beautiful woman she had missed deeply over the last few days. Listening to Vince and Bobby, swaying gently to the music, Jane stepped forward to place a hand at the small of Maura's back. The way Maura leaned back knowingly into the familiarity of Jane's hand made Jane smile. There were certainties in their relationship that both found comforting. That Maura would never shy away from Jane's touch was one such certainty.
"They are very good," Jane leaned in, whispering in Maura's ear.
Nodding her head, Maura reveled in the scent that the closeness of Jane allowed her to experience. She had missed Jane more than she realized. It wasn't only her worry about Jane's pregnancy that caused this. Something was fundamentally different between them of late.
The song came to an end, the bar going wild for the duo. Maura noticed Jane hadn't dropped her hand from the small of her back to clap. She leaned back into Jane, the lengths of their bodies connecting.
Turning her head, Maura's eyes asked for Jane to offer an ear. When the detective did exactly that, Maura's voice softened to a level that only Jane could hear.
"I missed you."
The smile on Jane's face gave Maura that telltale tingly feeling she knew only Jane was capable of causing.
"I missed you, too," Jane rasped.
For a moment they had successfully shut out the world. It was only Jane and Maura, Rizzoli and Isles. Jane's heart began pounding as she weighed the consequences of kissing this gorgeous woman here in the bar surrounded by so many prying eyes.
"Wasn't Vince amazing?" Angela's voice broke in, her presence breaking both the physical and emotional bond that had formed in the moment.
"Uh..." Jane's eyes apologized to Maura as she took a step back. "They were great."
Maura immediately felt the loss of the brunette's tall form against her back.
"Vince is very talented," Maura added.
Whatever had been interrupted between them, Maura's eyes promised they would revisit it later.
"Maybe I need a Keke in my life," Frankie joked. "Korsak is a whole new man."
"I think this is the man he has always been," Angela said, a longing look at Korsak that none of the Isles children missed.
As they each congratulated Vince Korsak on his set and mingled with colleagues in the bar, Jane never strayed far from Maura. When the doctor excused herself to use the bathroom, Jane was drawn to Susie's dioramas. It was there that Maura found her when she returned.
"If I didn't know better, detective, I'd think you were admiring 'those things' on my miniature chest," Maura smirked, inserting herself next to Jane where their arms brushed.
"There's nothing miniature there," Jane smiled.
"Perfect form and balance," Maura smirked.
Jane gulped.
"I guess I'll have to take your word on that," Jane continued looking ahead.
"You don't have to take my word for it," Maura said.
Stillness and silence made Maura immediately regret her words. She read Jane's not saying anything as her having taken it a step too far. While their flirting had increased in recent weeks and their closeness was unmistakable, there were still boundaries that they brushed against from time to time.
But then she felt it. A slight and fleeting touch. Jane's hand passed over Maura's.
"Jane?" Maura turned her head inquisitively.
Without a verbal response, Jane traced the well-manicured forefinger of the woman beside her. Would this be the breaking point? Would it be the moment they were both honest about the changing dynamic of their relationship?
Finally turning her head, she asked, "do you want to get out of here?"
Maura quirked an eyebrow, her subtle response.
Jane's hand found the hollow of Maura's back once again, leading the doctor through the crowd of people.
The two women made an inconspicuous exit, the cool evening air awakening their senses as they made their way toward Maura's Prius. The doctor fished the keys from her purse and was surprised when Jane took them. The detective got in the driver's side, waiting for Maura to join her.
"Jane?" Maura watched her friend's pensive features.
"Is this the hormones?" Jane asked.
Jane's furrowed brow concerned Maura, but her question lacked the specificity with which Maura could offer a medical opinion.
"The hormones?" Maura asked.
Jane rolled her eyes.
"Are the pregnancy hormones why I feel like this?" Jane was ashamed.
"How do you feel?" Maura tread lightly.
Blowing out a burst of air and releasing the steering wheel that she had been gripping tightly since getting in the car, Jane chose honesty over any other approach.
"Jesus, Maur," Jane finally looked at Maura. "Like I want to tear your clothes off!"
The shyness and frustration that overtook Jane as she spoke gave Maura that feeling in her stomach for which she knew precisely the medical explanation.
"Why are you smiling? Why aren't you, I don't know, appalled?" Jane gestured to the smile on Maura's face.
"What is there to be appalled about?" Maura turned her body toward the center console. "Pregnancy hormones don't make you suddenly irrational or prone to inventing something where nothing exists."
"Huh?" Jane hadn't followed.
"You aren't suddenly looking at me this way because of your pregnancy, Jane. At least not because of the hormones. That would be like saying you just noticed my breasts because of a diorama."
The brunette's jaw dropped as she processed what Maura was intimating.
"I don't understand why you aren't repulsed by this," Jane shook her head.
"I will let it slide that you avoided my diorama comment," Maura teased. "How could I be repulsed? You're gorgeous, my friend. And did it occur to you that I might feel the same way?"
"Don't tell me you're pregnant, too," Jane deflected.
"Jane."
"Might?" Jane returned to Maura's comment about her own attraction.
"Do."
"What do I do with this, Maur?" Jane groaned. "What do we do with this?"
"What do you want to do?"
Jane was suddenly fidgety. She wrung her hands and avoided eye contact once again.
"Jane."
Maura's voice broke the heavy silence as she reached over and stilled Jane's anxious hands as well as mind.
"Would it be the worst thing?" the doctor hummed in quiet contemplation.
"This isn't what..." Jane was cut off.
"What best friends do? I'm so tired of thinking that with respect to our friendship, Jane. Who is to say what is and isn't normal or acceptable? We are far outside the norm. Normal parameters should not apply."
Jane was surprised by Maura's mini-rant. She couldn't have known her best friend felt this way because they never had had an honest conversation about how the way they interacted might be seen from the outside. How others saw them was the furthest from Jane's mind.
"Are you saying I'm abnormal?" Jane, true to herself, provided comic relief.
"I'm saying there isn't a normal to be attained. We are who we are."
Maura's hand had completely stilled Jane's hands by now and her thumb was caressing the scarred backside of the hand closest to her.
"How did we get from me ripping your clothes off to a philosophical discussion?" Jane asked in seriousness.
"Discussions like this are often needed in healthy relationships."
"Healthy," Jane mused quietly. "I guess I don't know what is and isn't healthy or I didn't. Not until you."
This made Maura's eyes well with tears. Tears she couldn't have prepared for.
"Jane," Maura's voice cracked with emotion.
"Oh, god, I've made you cry," Jane quickly caught one of Maura's escaping tears and left her hand cupping Maura's cheek.
"No, no, these aren't sad tears," Maura tilted her head into Jane's hand. "These are merely tears of affirmation."
"Affirmation?" Jane asked.
"I've never had a best friend, you know? And I had no idea what was and wasn't acceptable in a friendship like ours. Then I started to realize that there simply aren't friendships like ours, at least not in the traditional sense. There is love here, Jane. There is respect, of course. There is so much, yet it was love I was feeling and to a degree attraction. Affirmation," Maura explained.
"You're attracted to me," Jane deadpanned.
"Shut up," Maura smiled before turning her head and placing a kiss to the palm of Jane's hand.
"Sooo…" Jane smiled. "It isn't hormones?"
This made Maura laugh, the hearty laugh that only Jane could pry out of the reserved doctor.
"I just spent an entire conference with a group of adults who treated a professional setting like a bachelor party, drinking and carrying on like teenagers. I probably am not the right person to ask about hormones. Unless you're asking for my medical opinion, of course."
Jane chuckled as she finally started the car.
"I don't think your medical opinion is necessary, doctor."
Maura buckled in and suddenly turned her head toward Jane with a mock look of confusion on her face.
"So you don't want to rip my clothes off?"
"I didn't say that," Jane grinned, pulling the car out of the parking spot and turning on to the street.
"Perfect form and balance…" Maura smirked, looking ahead.
"Uh huh."
-finis-