It all happened so suddenly. Jane went out on a date with a guy and it was horrible, so naturally, she found herself at her best friend's house. She changed out of her nice clothes and into some of her sweats that she kept there, venting to her best friend about how she would never find someone and she would have to live her life alone and bitter.

Somewhere in that spiel, Maura had grabbed Jane's hand in her own smaller ones, and looked her best friend in the eye.

"I can personally guarantee that you will never be alone, Jane." Jane stopped her rant and frowned.

"Thanks, Maura, but that is not what I meant. I meant as someone that is in love with me and that I can be with romantically."

Maura pulled a shallow breath through her lips, deciding that this was the time to come clean, once and for all. She would not hold anything back and would be completely honest.

"No Jane, you don't get it. I am in love with you and I think that in some way I always have been and I know that I always will be. I love you, Jane Rizzoli."

Jane was taken aback. Maura loved her? Her? Why in the ever loving hell would Maura love her?

Jane was blindsided with this. Her best friend loved her.

Many thoughts and emotions were swirling around in her head, but the most prominent one was that Jane needed Maura in her life, no matter how this played out. Jane knew that she loved Maura in the friend way, but she didn't know if she was in love with her. She didn't know if she could love her in that way but she was willing to try this out. To explore her feelings and see if they ran as deep as Maura's.

Jane looked back into Maura's eyes, seeing hope and love in them and she knew what she was going to say.

"Maura, I'm going to be honest, I don't know if I am in love with you but I am willing to try dating you to see what I feel. Are you okay with that until I can give you a real answer?"

Maura had tears brimming in her eyes but she nodded.

"I love you and I was hoping that you would love me back but I will take any part of you I can get, so yes, I will date you until you know."

Jane smiled at Maura. Maura, feeling a bit bold, closed the distance between them and kissed her detective on her lips. Jane didn't mind, kissing her back.

From there the kiss got rushed, hungry for more. A simple kiss turned into a heated make out, clothes being pulled until they came off, from there the two women's hands roamed about the others body. From that came a desire to take the other to the bedroom, and they did, lost in the haze of new emotions and new feelings for the other. They let emotions overrule any other thought than what was being felt in the heat of the moment.

Neither one knew what happened after that. Until morning that is. Jane awoke first, the light shining into her eyes, she sat up. That was when she noticed that she was naked. After a few seconds of freaking out, she remembered that Maura told her that she loved her.

Happiness and confusion ruled her thoughts. She still didn't know what she felt towards her best friend. Suddenly a pang of regret overcame her. She should not have done that, not if she didn't know how she felt. Going from being friends to thinking of someone in that light was confusing to say the least.

She felt guilty again, her best friend loves her and she just slept with her after she told her that she didn't know how she felt.

She felt bad for sending mixed signals but at the same time, angry at herself for doing that. But right now, she just felt sick to her stomach, disgusted at herself for doing this, for not being fair to Maura and her feelings. She should never have slept with Maura, not when she was still processing all that happened. She should have waited and made sure this was what they both want. But she didn't and now she had made a mess of things.

Jane stood up and went in search for her clothes, scattered all down the hall way. When she found them, she pulled them on and went back into the bedroom where Maura was. When she walked in she saw that Maura was awake and smiling a megawatt smile at her, like she had just won the greatest prize of all time.

Shit.

The guilt hit her right in the chest, knocking the breath out of her for a moment.

Jane walked to the edge of the bed and perched on the end of the mattress. This is going to be hard.

Maura grabbed Jane's hand, seemingly unaware of Jane's battle of emotions, raging inside of her friend, as she was on an emotional high.

"Maura, I don't really know how to say this but please just hear me out until the end." Maura's brow furrowed, but she nodded.

"I think that last night was a mistake." Was all she got out before she heard a sharp intake of breath beside her. Maura was trying to hold back tears. Jane felt like shit for putting them there but she had to say this.

"NO! Not that way, just listen! Please? Don't cry, just, hear me out before you do? Please?" Jane's voice broke on the last word. Maura nodded again, still fighting back the tears that wanted to overflow, lower lip quivering.

"Maura, I don't regret saying that I want to be with you and explore these feelings I may or may not have, but I do regret falling into bed with you. That should not have happened."

Maura piped up at that. "We don't have to do that anymore Jane, I promise that I just want to be with you, no strings attached, I just love you." Jane gave a small smile to her that melted Maura's heart.

"I know, but I don't think that we can do this. I don't think that this will be a one time thing for us if we are around one another, our emotions will run wild. I think that this is going to keep happening to us. I don't want to do that while I'm still sorting out my feelings for you."

"What do you mean, Jane?" Maura was afraid to ask.

"I can't be with you while I'm still thinking about what I want, so I don't want to do this if we can't keep our hands off one another. I'm still confused as hell. Maura, I mean you just told me that you loved me last night for Christs sake. I can't do this," Jane waved her hand back and forth between them (ever the Italian), "If we are going to fall into bed five minutes after you tell me that you love me and I don't even know how I feel." Maura nodded, seeing her point.

"What do you have in mind then?" Jane gave a shaky breath.

"I'm going to go." Maura frowned.

"What?"

"I am going to take some vacation days off work and I am going to go somewhere to think about what all of this means and what I want to do about it."

Maura felt tears come back into her eyes again. She knew that Jane need to think this over and she respected that. She probably would too if it happened to her.

"Jane, I want you to take my credit card and go anywhere you want, for as long as you want. I want to treat you. After all, I am the reason for this trip anyway."

Jane was going to refuse, she could pay for herself, where she wanted to go, but looking into Maura's eyes, she understood so she snapped her jaw shut, swallowing her pride, and nodded her consent. It wasn't about the money, it was about caring for her, making Jane comfortable and safe in any place she chose to stay, providing for Jane in a way. If Maura knew that Jane was safe then Maura could relax.

So instead of arguing, Jane accepted the gift.

When Jane left to make her arrangements, Maura broke down.

When Jane got on a plane the next morning, promising to come back, Maura felt a heavy weight on her chest.

After weeks of thinking things over... and then making sure that she felt that way and there was no changing it, Jane flew back home.

No one knew that she was coming back, not wanting to be interrupted. She wanted to go to Maura and tell her that she had made her decision before her family could ambush her.

Jane walked up to Maura's door, ringing the bell, and waited for Maura to appear. She waited for a minute and was about to ring again when Maura answered the door.

She was in her yoga pants and one of Jane's t-shirts, her hair was a mess, and her eyes were puffy, probably from crying.

Jane had never seen such a beautiful sight.

When Maura saw who was at the door, she wanted nothing more than to launch herself into Jane's arms and never let go, but she didn't know if she was allowed to do that anymore so she had to restrain herself.

Jane rolled her eyes and pulled Maura to her and into a kiss. Maura sighed in relief. Jane pulled back. "I missed you." Maura smiled and kissed Jane again before pulling back and saying. "I missed you too." Jane pulled Maura into another kiss, laughing into it.

They had a lot to talk about, but for now, this was all that they needed.