Thank you for all the encouragement to continue. I'm enjoying writing this story :-)
While the evening progressed like any other, a chat over a meal and a glass of wine, more general chatting on the couch with the another glass of wine, the exhaustion of both Jane and Maura kept the night short and they soon found themselves in bed waiting on sleep to succumb to them. The briefness of the night's encounters did not, however, stop their minds from conjuring up thoughts of each other. Arousing and confusing thoughts of each other.
"Jane?" Maura whispered into the darkness, "Are you asleep?"
"Yes," Jane replied with a smile before she rolled over to face Maura who already lay facing her. "Can't sleep?"
"I was just pondering the fate of Detective Crowe," Maura stated with a smile that Jane was only just able to see given the darkness of the room.
Jane smiled, before responding, "He'll get his own. I'm used to his antics by now. However I am curious about what your reaction would have been, had I not walked in. Were you defending my honour, Doctor Isles?" Jane finished teasingly.
"Yes, I suppose I was," Maura replied smiling back at Jane.
After a brief silence, Jane closed her eyes, determined to force sleep to overcome her and take away her more than friendly thoughts about best friend. Thoughts that made her jaw ache because every time she let her memory (not that it asked permission) wander back to the vision of Maura standing out in the rain, her jaw clench in order to supress the urge to touch, kiss, fondle, stroke her best friend in places she had never before thought about much less seen. Thoughts that made her core ache, because the memory of those pert nipples… of water cascading down such delectable skin into a space she now wished she could bury her face were becoming too much for her body to ignore. Thoughts that involved doing very non-platonic things to very private parts of the woman lying next to her. She felt like a horny teenager, and fought her body's reactions as best she could to avoid acting on what she believed could be the undoing of the most meaningful friendship she had ever had.
Maura remained wide awake, watching Jane's face as it lay upon her hands. She watched dark lashes fall onto soft cheeks. She watch slightly parted lips, and lazy locks of hair as they lay carelessly framing Jane's face. Not unlike Jane, she also had very non-platonic thoughts about her best friend that she was determined not to act on for fear of ruining a friendship that had more meaning in her life than anything else. Thoughts that had her returning to the moment she walked in on Jane in a state of undress, only to have her breasts covered by Maura's mouth instead of Jane's hands. Thoughts that had Jane with her back against the wall with those black lace panties down with her pants around her ankles and Maura's fingers deep inside of her. Thoughts that had Jane crying out Maura's name in the throes of passion. She had never felt so turned on by just imagining what she wanted to do to someone. The fact that it was a woman wasn't really an issue for her. The fact that it was Jane, her best friend, her confidant, her rock… that was an issue, and she didn't want to change the foundation of their friendship unless she was sure it was something more than a fleeting physical attraction.
"Jane?" Maura whispered.
"Mmm," Jane responded, her eyes remaining closed.
"I am sorry for splashing water at you," Maura stated softly, watching as a small smile appeared on Jane's slightly parted lips.
"It's ok, Maur," Jane replied in hushed tones, "It actually was kind of funny."
Silence came over them once again as Maura allowed her eyes to roam from Jane's face to the rest of Jane's form. Taking in her soft, tanned skin, the steady pulse on her neck, the delicate collar bone leading to...
"Jane?" Maura whispered again, before swallowing nervously.
"Mmm?" Jane replied, eyes still closed.
Maura hesitated. She wanted to apologise for walking in on Jane. She wanted to talk about her own reaction to Jane's state of undress. She wanted to ask Jane why she was suddenly aroused by thoughts of her. She also wanted to ask Jane if what she saw in Jane's eyes was arousal when she was standing out in the rain. Fear, however, kept her from voicing what she wanted.
"Goodnight," Maura whispered.
"Goodnight," Jane replied.
After tossing and turning for over an hour, unable to sleep because of her raging hormones, Maura resigned herself to the fact that she wasn't going to get any sleep until she sorted out her head. She glanced across at a peacefully sleeping Jane before getting out of bed and making her way to the lounge room. As she sat down on the sofa, Jo Friday jumped up with her and swiftly made herself comfortable as she snuggled close to Maura, her head in her lap.
"Maybe you can help me, hey Jo?" Maura asked Jo Friday, patting her on the head as she looked up at Maura with eyes full of adoration.
Maura spent her time with Jo Friday analysing the data she had on her friendship with Jane. She was, as Jane so eloquently put it, a science geek, after all. It was what she did. So, she would come up with a hypothesis and test the validity of it by looking back on past examples. In this case, she had two plausible theories for the way her body was reacting to Jane.
The first was that it was merely an intense physical attraction that was brought on by a) a lack of male presence in her life and in turn a lack of sexual physical contact, b) an afternoon of intense frustration towards Jane for being… well, for being Jane, and c) the obvious fact that Jane is a gorgeous woman and sometimes gorgeous women made Maura look twice (maybe three times) and contemplate what it would be like to explore the female anatomy. She knew, however, that testing this theory was going to take time (and maybe an experiment or two), and thus could not yet be confirmed to be a valid reason for the way she was reacting to Jane.
The second theory was more involved. The second theory was scarier. The second theory took into consideration all those long gazes, all those lingering touches, all the times being with Jane made her feel like the most special person in Jane's life. It involved delving deeper into the meaning behind all the times she would rather have spent time in Jane's company, in Jane's apartment, in Jane's arms, than in the company of a respectable male suitor. The second theory was that she was in love with Jane. Thinking about it as a possibility didn't worry Maura as much as she thought it should. While there were the obvious concerns, like whether Jane felt the same way, and whether it would ruin their friendship, and how the people closest to them would react, the overall feeling of falling in love with her best friend brought a smile to her face.
She knew Jane, and Jane knew her. They held barely a few secrets from each other. They were comfortable and happy when they were together. Looking back on their friendship, she realised that the only thing that stopped their friendship from progressing into a romantic relationship was that there was no physical attraction. With this new development, however, Maura was not so sure that what she had with Jane was anything short of what people often described as 'True Love'.
She recalled that Biologist Jeremy Griffith defined love as 'unconditional selflessness', and recognised that what Jane and herself shared was just that and then some. What Jane and herself shared was so far beyond what any of her previous relationships with men ever were, for she felt truly entrenched into Jane's life and found that she wanted to be even closer, even more involved, and more deeply embedded into Jane's life. She also knew that if there was ever a threat that promised to undo, disfigure, hurt or upset Jane, she would stand in its way, no questions asked. Deep down, she knew that Jane would do the same for her.
With her mind finally free of unanswered questions about her increasing attraction to Jane (albeit there were still many obstacles to overcome), her final mission before she would be able return to bed was to put a damper on her raging hormones to enable her to get some must needed sleep. With this in mind, she moved herself out of Jo Friday's snuggle, sat on the floor in front of the sofa, and began to meditate.