For those of you wondering, the information about rubies and ruby engagement rings are true. I did a little research ... for personal reasons ... a while back. :-)
As the dark haired detective waited, her love's hand in her own and engagement ring held in trembling fingers, the doctor tried desperately to pull herself together enough to at least answer in words what she felt, but the emotion of the moment was overwhelming to the honey brunette, and they sat in the quiet.
Very long moments later with a tear streaked face and voice rough from unspoken thoughts and emotion, Maura spoke, "Jane," she reached with her right hand to run a finger across the tense face of the woman kneeling in front of her, "when did you start speaking in Google?"
Of all the answers Jane expected she might hear, that was not one of them, and the surprise of the statement combined with tenseness of the moment managed to break the detective's already frazzled nerves. Leaning into Maura's touch, first she gave a harsh laugh and then a tear fell, "Maura," she said between quivering breaths, "since when did you answer with sarcastic remarks?"
Maura smiled and gave a chuckle, hand still on Jane's face, "I believe I picked that habit up from you a year or so ago. These things are difficult to pinpoint for accuracy, but, then again, statistics show that couples who have been together for long periods of time tend to adopt each other's habits. In fact, when they live together, studies have found couples in romantic relationships become even more similar in both behavior and appearance." She gave a chuckle. "I'm interested to see how we blend together once we're living together and married, aren't you?"
"I… uh… you," the normally composed detective stammered, brain desperately trying to catch up with the events unfolding. "Maura, are… are you saying yes?"
Dimples fully in play and eyes dancing, Maura gave a nod of her head, "Yes, Jane, I'll marry you."
Grinning, Jane slid the ring on Maura's finger before pulling her down for a kiss. "Ma is going to go off the deep end. You know that, right?"
Maura gave a thoughtful hum. "We'll hire a wedding planner and let them deal with Angela."
"Evil. I like that." Standing, Jane gave a heavy sigh. "It's Wednesday night, and you worked on that article longer than I thought you would."
"Well, to be fair, I didn't know you planned to propose to me. Had I known, I would have put the article off for a few hours," Maura responded with a smile as she stood up. "Stay here tonight."
"I plan to. Frankie has Jo tonight." She pulled the other woman into her arms. "This living in two separate places thing is getting old."
"Well," the doctor answered as she wrapped her arms around her detective, "that will soon be resolved. Perhaps we should start looking at houses?"
"Wait, you want to buy a house with me? But, Maura, you already own this one. I mean I could just move…"
Covering Jane's lips with the pads of her fingers, Maura shook her head. "No. This is my house, but I want a home that is ours. I want a place that you're just as comfortable in as I am and we create together."
Jane smirked, pulling back from the doctor's light touch to add, "With the help of your interior designer."
The doctor shrugged. "If you're comfortable with that, then yes. If not, I'm sure we can manage on our own."
"Let me think," Jane tilted her head in mock consideration. "Do we hire someone to take all of my stuff, a list of stuff we'd like, and all of your stuff and figure out a way to mix it together so it looks nice, or we do it on our own? Yeah, we're calling Blake."
Chuckling, Maura turned to head to the master bedroom. "I thought you might prefer someone else do the decorating. If we find a house we like, Blake and the movers can have everything moved and set up while we're on our honeymoon. Of course, we'll need to set a date first so we know what our timetable is."
"Really?" Jane trotted along behind. "How about a year from today. I mean, why mess up a good run?"
Maura stopped and turned around to face the taller woman. "You mean get married on August 22nd of next year?" At Jane's nod, Maura seemed to really think about it. "I think… Well, why not? You're right. We should stay with our habits; they've served us well so far."
"Maura, what is that on your hand?" Angela's eyes narrowed as she leaned closer to Maura's left hand. The early morning was a slow time for the little café at the precinct, and it gave Angela Rizzoli enough time to stop and chat with the regulars. Unsurprisingly, two of the regulars were her daughter and her daughter's longtime girlfriend.
"A ring," Maura replied, a smirk on her face as she looked across the table to Jane for help.
"What kind of ring?" Angela pushed, clearly becoming more excited with each passing moment.
"It's a ruby ring, Ma." Jane smiled from behind her cup of coffee.
"I can see it's a ruby ring, Jane," the elder woman snapped back, "but why is it on the ring finger of the left hand of the woman you've been dating for two years?"
Jane shrugged, carefully sat her coffee down and away from the edge of the table, and answered as nonchalantly as she could manage, "Probably because I put it there last night."
"What?" The exclamation from the older woman drew everyone's attention in the café. "Jane, are you telling me you finally proposed? Are you two getting married?" Angela's head turned quickly from one to the other of the two women still calmly seated at the small, round table.
"Well," Maura replied quietly, "we didn't actually say…"
"Yes, Ma." Jane shook her head no, indicating not to string her mother along. "I asked, and Maura said yes. We've set the date for a year from yesterday."
Angela was giddy. "There's so much to do! We have get invitations, and find a place, and make a list of guests, and…"
Placing a hand gently on her mother's arm to quiet her, Jane said patiently, "Ma, we got it. We're going to shop around for a wedding planner this week, and, once we find one, we're going to let them deal with the stress. Maura and I have enough stress with our jobs. We don't really need it coming from anywhere else."
"You are?" Her mother sounded crestfallen. "But, I always thought that I would help you plan your wedding."
"And you will. We're going to need help gather names and addresses for my side, and you know I know you're going to be there when we shop for dresses and tuxes for the wedding party. We're just going to let someone else deal with the details. Is that okay?" It was Jane's turn to give Maura a pleading look for help.
"We would never dream of not including either of our mothers in our wedding planning process. Don't worry, Angela. There will be plenty to do for everyone," Maura gave a reassuring smile. "I'm certain our wedding will become a newsworthy event, so we'll need to be sure everything is well coordinated, and that will take help from everyone to accomplish."
"Newsworthy?" Jane's voice sounded panicked. "Why would our wedding be newsworthy?"
"Jane," Maura raised an eyebrow in amusement at her detective's lack of understanding, "Not only are you a well-known Boston Detective who is highly decorated, the first woman in homicide, and the youngest detective on the force, but you're marrying the Chief Medical Examiner, who is from an affluent family here in Boston, top in her field, and the first female Chief ME Boston has ever had. I think the potential for a story writes itself. Add in the fact that we're both women, and I highly doubt the press will step away from such an easy to write and socially relevant story."
"Oh God, I didn't think of that. Maybe," the detective's flight of fight response was starting to kick in, "we could elope and just make an announcement after?"
Angela balked "No! Absolutely not."
"Ma…"
"Jane, I've waited too long for you to finally get married to be robbed of it because you're scared a couple of cameras and a news reporter. You chase killers for a living! A little article in the newspaper about you isn't going to hurt you." Angela looked to the honey brunette who was gently smirking. "Right, Maura?"
"Physically? No, it's not likely to harm you, Jane."
"I hate you both," Jane muttered before finishing her coffee. "This is going to be a really long year; I feel it."
