A/N: So I was bombarded with requests to continue this story. The response was amazing you guys, thank you for your support, I know I blabbered on the last time so this time I'll leave the blabbering for the end. So on with Jane's POV.
If They Come Back, They Were Yours.
Jane Rizzoli fumbled nervously with the shiny ring on her finger as she walked into the Boston PD elevator. For some reason, ever since she had seen that ring being pulled out of Casey's pocket, she had been feeling her heart sink further and further down. She didn't understand it, she knew what was supposed to happen, you were supposed to be elated when the love of your life proposed to you, you were supposed to cry tears of joy and extrapolate poetry and all that sappy stuff. Then why did she feel like hiding in Bass' shell until Casey went away.
Jane sighed, thinking about Bass made her think about Maura, actually nowadays everything and everyone made her think about Maura, Maura whom she had missed four breakfast and five lunches with because she was spending time with Casey, Maura with whom she hadn't had a sleepover with ever since Casey came back. It always seemed to be a choice between Casey and Maura and Maura she always acted like she didn't mind but she always saw the disappointed acceptance in her eyes.
She had seen it when she had been acting all impatient about meeting Casey at the autopsy table today, she had broken eye contact and started giving her everything she needed so Jane could be on her way but it was obvious that Maura, like her was thinking of their easy lunches and their numerous discussions when they ate.
Jane didn't understand any of it, wasn't this supposed to happen, she was Jane's best friend but when one of them found that special someone then weren't they supposed to spend more time with them, it seemed that Maura didn't understand that and Jane found herself not wanting Maura to understand; if Maura decided that yes she should allow Casey and Jane to spend more time together then she wouldn't come out of the morgue anymore, she would send assistants with her reports, she would no longer request Jane's presence to explain cause of death and such and she would stop making time for Jane outside of work and that is something that Jane did not think she would survive without. For some reason ever since Dr Maura Isle entered her life she had become the reason she came to work. Her job description in her head was; Get a call about a murder, check on the body with Dr Isles, get the evidence from Dr Isles, have lunch with Dr Isles, conduct interviews with Dr Isles, catch the perp, have celebratory drinks with Dr Isles and sometimes have snuggly sleepovers with Dr Isles. Her life revolved around Maura and she loved it that way.
Jane threw her head up and groaned in frustration as the elevator dinged at the basement floor and the doors opened up, she needed to see how Maura reacted to the ring on her finger, she didn't want to tell her a lie but as much as Maura claimed not to jump to conclusions she knew that in her mind Maura jumped to a hell of a lot of conclusions, it was the conclusion she chose to speak out about that was always done with care and with evidence backing it up.
Jane had realized that Maura had not seen her ring as she entered so she had constantly been putting her lefthand forward for her to see; Jane didn't know what she would do with Maura's reaction but if her guess was right and Maura didn't want her marrying Casey then she would have to figure something out, truth was her relationship with Maura was the most important relationship that she had, Casey would never be able to change that so if push came to shove she already knew who she would be choosing.
When Maura admitted she had already seen the ring Jane was unsure about what to do, should she be squealing with joy and shit like that? Maura saved her the trouble by finding nothing fascinating about the piece of clear rock on her hand and Jane had to admit that there was nothing fascinating about it to her as well.
The real shocker came when out of the blue Maura asked her question. "So you're leaving us?" she spoke as if it was a foregone conclusion and Jane hastened to correct her, she stopped herself from saying that she would never leave Maura for Casey but refrained, she needed to figure out why she felt that way because being her best friend was not a good enough reason to feel that way.
Maura had accepted Jane's response that she was just testing it out but when Jane looked back up from the rock, she saw a sight that she hated to see, Maura was tearing up, she saw her friend put her hand up to stop her tears and say something about a foreign body entering her eye but Jane knew she was trying to lie, and then she had bolted leaving Jane feeling completely useless in the lab. Jane couldn't help but feel that it was her who put those tears there and she hated herself for it.
Jane felt like a douche for thanking the gods when Casey's leave was canceled, after all he was going in a potential war zone and had already been injured in the line of duty once but still, it gave her a little time to sort out her feelings regarding him and his ultimatum slash proposal. It didn't help that every time she thought about him Maura's teary eyed face appeared in front of her. She had finally figured out how Maura felt about her and Casey and this realization didn't come from her crying at the lab before, although that had caused Jane a serious amount of pain, no it was when Maura told Jane that it was okay for Jane to leave the investigation to speak with Casey, it felt to her that Maura was finally giving up. Exactly what she was giving up on Jane didn't know but something told her that it was something very important and that she should not allow Maura to give it up.
At the time though she couldn't have done anything about it, her team were all encouraging her to talk to Casey and all she wanted to do was talk to Maura, but most of all she hated that he was interrupting her investigation, she had to put that kid first, Maura, she knew understood that, Casey on the other hand didn't really seem to care.
She finally understood Casey's urgency but her mind was still on the kid and she didn't want to rush into any decision with her boyfriend. She was already considering telling him no, she really couldn't see herself married to the man and really didn't want to quit her job for him.
So when Casey insisted that she didn't need to rush she grabbed that as her lifeline and held on, she said goodbye to him and breathed a sigh of relief at his departure. It all felt so wrong to her, her longest relationship and yet the most she had personally spent time with him could be calculated at a little less than three weeks. And that was not nearly enough time to be thinking about marriage.
Jane had let out a long suffering sigh as she had gotten into her apartment and spotted the champagne and flowers. She really needed to talk to Maura. As if she had heard her thoughts there was Maura entering her apartment and Jane found herself reluctant for that talk she had wanted to have with her best friend, she allowed herself to be swept up in her whirlwind impromptu massage therapy, her only regret was that the masseuse had not allowed her to hug her friend, she felt that holding Maura close to her would have been so much better than any massage ever.
Jane was sad that they had had to arrest the man who had been in her personal view delivering justice to that animal who had hurt his brother. Unfortunately in his quest for vengeance he had killed an innocent man, and for that he had to pay, even in Jane's eyes.
She sighed and packed away the case files leaving it for Frost to take it down to archives tomorrow. As she started to shut down her laptop she got a prompt for an incoming call, she sighed yet again; Jane had been hoping to do this tomorrow but she guessed she should just get it over with now.
Twenty minutes minutes later Jane wiped her eyes and shut down her laptop and also a part of her life that never should have started up in the first place. She glanced down at her watch and realized that she was late to meet Maura at the Dirty Robber, she hurried into the bathroom to freshen up and remove any trace of her previous tears and hurried out to meet her best friend.
Jane had just sat there as her best friend had poured her heart out, she had just sat there taking it all in and feeling like she had been the most clueless detective in the world. How could she have not known?
She wasn't even talking about not knowing about Maura's feelings, she wasn't at all surprised that the honey-blonde had kept her secret for so long; Maura may not be able to tell a lie but if she wanted to hide something important then it was next to impossible to get her to talk.
No what she was feeling clueless about was her own feelings regarding the Medical Examiner. It wasn't until that exact moment that Maura had admitted her own feelings to Jane that she finally realized; her reluctance to say yes to Casey, her decidedly unenthusiastic response to his proposal, her need to see Maura's reaction to his proposal, the ring, her relationship. Jane's dislike of any of the men that Maura had ever dated, her need to have Maura in her sights as much as possible, her melancholy at not getting to see Maura as much, not having lunch with her, not having sleepovers, hell not being able to even visit her because she was busy being the dutiful girlfriend, it all made sense now.
She was in love with her best friend, Jane Rizzoli was in love with Maura Isles. And she had been an idiot, because of her inability to realize exactly what her relationship with with the honey-blonde was she had possibly caused her to lose the most important person in her life.
Jane felt a tear slip down her cheek at the thought of losing Maura but then she stood up and wiped that tear angrily away, she had worked too hard and been through too much with the ME to let her slip away into the night thinking that her feelings weren't returned. At the very least she wanted her friend back but if everything that she was thinking went according to plan then Dr Maura Isles was going to be in for a surprise tonight.
She also felt a little peeved at her friend, sure she couldn't imagine what Maura had gone through seeing the love of her life contemplating marrying someone else, now her behavior at the lab yesterday made a lot more sense, but what made the brunette angry was that the Queen of the Dead, Miss I Don't Make Assumptions had made the biggest assumption of her life and Jane was going to be the one to reprimand her this time.
Jane was so glad that she had ended things with Casey when she had. She walked purposefully out of the Bar and Grill; it was time for her to make things right.
A/N: So that was Jane's POV, and a little bit more angst, I don't think I'll have to tell you what the next chapter will bring, but what happens after that will be up to you, see if you like that ending or like some people you would like a full story, I've got a few ideas for that so until then, don't forget to review, I appreciate the feedback a lot.