The honey blonde haired doctor stood quietly beside Jane, rubbing circles on the small of her back.
"I can't believe that just happened," Jane whispered in disbelief.
Maura swallowed the lump in her throat before quietly asking the brunette how she felt.
"Sad, but," Jane turned her head to look sheepishly at Maura, "is it bad I also feel..."
"You feel what?" Maura implored.
"Relieved." The detective's sigh was heavy.
Maura turned to gently place her Birkin back on the red sofa and then turned back around, hooking her arms low around the taller woman's waist, pressing her cheek up against Jane's taut upper back. "It means you did the right thing for you," the doctor replied quietly.
Jane rested her arms and hands against Maura's and took a deep breath.
"I'm proud of you, Jane," Maura finally told her.
"What am I supposed to do now, Maur?"
"You do whatever you need to do in order to be happy."
Turning in Maura's embrace, Jane faced her best friend again. She bit her lip, clearly contemplating what to say next, first looking away and then looking back at Maura. Finally she broke the silence. "You make me happy, Maura."
Sensing that Jane wasn't finished speaking, the honey blonde waited quietly.
The detective swallowed hard and looked away, whispering, "But I don't know if I can do this."
"What do you mean?" Maura asked, confused what she meant by "this" exactly.
"Be with you, be with a woman." Her gravelly voice was laden with sadness. "You deserve to be loved openly and honestly. I don't know if I can do that right now. Or ever."
Moisture clouded Maura's hazel eyes. "Ever?" She bit into her trembling lower lip.
"Maur, being g-gay," Jane stuttered, "it's hard."
"Do you not think it's worth it to be happy?" Maura asked softly. "Am I not worth it?"
"C'mon, be serious," Jane protested.
Maura narrowed her eyes. "I am being serious, Jane!"
"Of course you're worth it, Maur," the brunette replied, "I just...I don't know why this is so hard for me!"
"You don't want it to overshadow who you've become. You want to be known first and foremost as a homicide detective," Maura explained, "and you're afraid others will focus instead on the fact that you're in love with a woman."
Jane gave Maura a small smile. "How do you do that?" she replied, amazed.
The honey blonde's brow furrowed in confusion.
"You manage to find the words to verbalize what I can barely organize in my own head, much less actually say."
"I know you very well."
"I love that you do. It makes everything so much easier with you. It isn't, wasn't like," she paused, glancing down.
"It wasn't like that with Casey," Maura finished for her.
"No," Jane whispered, clearly feeling guilty, "it wasn't."
"Jane, it's okay things didn't work with him. You should never settle for less than you deserve, and believe me when I say that you deserve everything you want."
"What I want is you," the brunette whispered, on the verge of tears, looking back up to meet her best friend's loving gaze.
"You can have me, Jane," Maura whispered in return. She grabbed Jane's hand and placed it palm facing down over her chest, close to her heart. "This," she patted Jane's hand lightly, "this is all yours, whenever you want it. I will be here as long as it takes."
"What if-"
"No," Maura quickly interrupted, "you know how I feel about 'what if's,' Jane."
The detective was silent for a few moments before she spoke again, looking away briefly before returning to watch hazel eyes. "You deserve so much more than I can give you, Maura," she responded quietly, remorse thick on her tongue.
"I deserve love, Jane," Maura replied. "That is what I deserve, and you," she placed her right palm gently against Jane's cheek, "Jane Rizzoli, love me better than anyone I know."
Suddenly Jane burst into laughter, her dominant hand quickly shooting up to cover her mouth.
Maura blinked, hurt quickly washing over her face, and stepped back from Jane, wringing her hands together in front of her.
Her best friend's reaction quickly sobered Jane and she stepped forward immediately, placing her arms gently on Maura's upper arms. "No, I wasn't laughing at you, I was laughing at us, Maur. We sound like straight out of a romantic comedy movie. The thought crossed my mind just now, and I couldn't help myself," she explained.
Instinctively Maura searched Jane's visage for sincerity, and finding nothing but, she relaxed, the corner of her mouth turning up into a smile. "Yes, quite a few things said tonight have sounded a bit trite, haven't they?"
Jane smiled back.
"But that doesn't make any of them less true, does it?" the honey blonde asked hesitantly, fear evident on her face and in her voice.
Shaking her head no, Jane wrapped her arms around Maura, pulling her in tight against her body. "I will always love you, Maur," she whispered into the smaller woman's ear, "no matter how trite it may seem. Nothing could ever make that not true, ok?"
Maura nodded gently against Jane's shoulder, then buried her face there, inhaling Jane's comforting scent.
Neither knew exactly what was ahead for them both, but standing together in the middle of Jane's living room, wrapped in each other's arms, silently Jane and Maura finally acknowledged they wouldn't have to face the road alone.
I'm marking this complete for now, and I acknowledge fully that it's open ended. It's meant to be at this point, though I know how annoying it can be as a reader to not have closure for a story. In the end, I feel as if most Rizzles stories are the same. Jane and Maura live happily ever after together, even with bumps in the road from time to time (those bumps simply vary from story to story). Right now I don't want the story to be about that road. I want it to be about what happened in these few moments that brought them to a point where they realized they needed to be together.
I hope you can still love me. :)