Disclaimer: I do not own Rizzoli and Isles.


Chapter 2

Maura shook her head.

No, that hadn't been her first mistake. Her first mistake had been falling in love with her best friend.

The loud, brash Italian had blundered her way into Maura's life, knocking down her walls so quickly Maura barely had time to breathe. She had gotten to her in more ways than one. Growing up, she had been independent, she had been smart. But at the end of it all, she had also been alone. Bullied for her smarts, the constant teasing, 'Maura-the-bora'. She rolled her eyes in recollection. She had thrown herself into her books and later on, into her career and what did she have to prove for it? Apart from having the top position in the State...

Yes, she'd been lonely. And she'd been alone. But all that had changed with Jane. And she wouldn't wish her life any other way, because if she hadn't done things the way she had, she would never have met the brunette who had brought so much love and laughter into her life.

God, Jane.

She chuckled recalling the first time they'd met in the Division One Cafe. Jane had been dressed as a hooker, and a very realistic one too, what with her 'sista'. And even then, she'd noticed how attractive the brunette was with her strong, Italian features and olive skin. And oh, god, those abs. Those perfectly, delicious rectus abdominus. But it was her eyes that did it for Maura; that drew her deeper, that showed sincerity and warmth and compassion and sparkled when she teased. And on occasion, when she believed to have imagined it, love.

She'd moved back to Boston from her previous job with the ME's office in San Francisco, expecting her work experience to be more or less the same. There would be the cruel nicknames, the words whispered behind her back, the absence of having a friend, someone to confide in, to go out with when cases got tough and while it had certainly been the case when she'd first started as Chief ME in Boston, it wasn't something that had continued once she'd found a friend in Jane. The brunette had given her friendship, companionship, a shoulder to lean on, colleagues with whom she now got along with with the exception of Crowe and albeit, not without a few threats she reckoned, kinship, and most of all, a family; loud, and boisterous and with so much love to give that sometimes she became overwhelmed at how lucky she'd gotten.

And then there was the brunette herself...

Constantly chasing up leads and suspects, unable to keep still, always questioning, digging, demanding to get to the truth, the Detective was the fire to her ice, the antithesis to her calm. And yet they fit so well. They were like an equation that did not make sense, where one plus one equaled infinity. Even when she was with Maura and they weren't working, she was always fidgeting be it at Sunday dinner or watching the Sox play.

The only time she was at rest was when she was asleep; complete and vulnerable, soft and at peace. Admittedly, her time spent watching her friend sleep, was her favorite time spent with the Detective.

Because then, she was simply Jane.

No sarcasm, no frown marring her perfect features, no walls. Almost childlike. Innocent even. She wanted to be there for it all. Even the nights when her peace brushed with deranged serial killers who invaded her dreams because it was the one time, Jane allowed for comfort. But with time, and Maura at her side to calm her, to brush away her fears and whispers words of reassurance, these had become few and far between and she couldn't help but feel slightly proud of the way Jane let her guard down around her, the way she let her in when she was most susceptible and exposed.

Yes.

Falling in love with Jane Rizzoli had been her first mistake...

And things had been in a downward spiral ever since...