Truck dropped off, car retrieved, and Joe still at her parents' home, Jane let out an audible sigh as she pulled her car into Maura's driveway. "Want me to walk you to the door?"

"Only that far?" Maura asked playfully as she pulled the keys from her purse.

"I don't want to assume." Jane shrugged as she turned the car off and opened her door to rush around to the passenger's side. Offering her hand, she helped Maura out. "Someone keeps telling me that assuming stuff all the time is a bad idea." Despite the playfulness in her voice, it was clear the evening had taken its toll on the detective. Her eyes looked pained, and her hands shook slightly as she offered an arm to Maura to walk her to the front door.

As she took Jane's arm and gave it a squeeze, Maura took a moment to lay her head against Jane's shoulder before setting off for the door. "I want you to assume things with me," she admitted as she pushed her key into the keyhole and flipped on the light to the entry way. "Given the choice, I'd always rather be with you than without you. Come inside? It will be so much easier to rub your back until your stress goes away and you can fall asleep, if you're actually prone at the time."

There was no argument from the dark haired brunette. Instead, she followed her girlfriend inside, making sure to lock the door before heading toward the guest bathroom. "Before you say it, it'll be faster if we both get ready for bed at the same time. I left my over night bag here about a week ago. Remember? I tripped over it when I dropped it on the kitchen floor." And you said something about not having to mark you. That feels like ages ago, not just a couple of days. I'm guessing you put it in the guest bath, right?"

Maura lifted one shoulder as she shook her head. "No, I put your things in our bathroom, but I believe I have duplicates of your brands still in the guest bathroom as well, if you'd rather shower alone." She slipped around Jane with one hand trailing the detective's waist and headed for the master bedroom. Our bathroom, she'd said, without batting a lash. The person who'd never actually spent a full night with someone other than Jane, who never invited lovers into her room at all. Our bathroom.

With a shrug, Jane followed, turning lights out as she went. "Maura," she said as she followed the honey blonde into the master bedroom. "How long have you considered your house our home" She asked in almost a nonchalant way as she pulled off her shirt and folded it to place it neatly on top of the dresser. Jane did a double take of what she'd just done. She's training me.

As Maura unzipped her dress and slid out of it, she had the grace to look a little sheepish. "Do you remember the first time you slept here? That was when you claimed it, in my mind. When you came here, to me, to feel safe."

"I never meant to invade your space." Jane sat down on the edge of the bed to pull off her boots, placing them neatly under the edge of the bed. "You were just the first person I thought of when I left my apartment to get away from Ma and everyone else." She stood, pulling her pants off to fold them neatly and place them with her shirt. Yeah, I'm definitely being trained. I should be annoyed by this, but I'm thinking I'm not. Weird. "You've always made me feel," she turned, a thoughtful look on her face, "peaceful. Since day one, when I walked over and made those other cops leave you alone and let you do your job instead of having to duck them to keep them from hitting on you, you've had that weird affect on me." She frowned, face going slack with remembering. "I have no idea how to explain what I mean by that."

"I never felt invaded," Maura replied. "Claimed, but never invaded."

Have I always had a crush on her? Maybe. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "My bag only has one change of underwear, so, unless you have some boxers and a shirt I can wear floating around, I see an issue about to come up here."

Wordlessly, Maura gestured to the left-hand side of her chest-of-drawers, finger moving up and down to suggest that all the drawers, not just the bottom one, should be investigated. Then she walked off to the bathroom, where noises indicated a teeth brushing and face washing. The drawers proved to be equipped with socks, underthings, hosiery, bras, T-shirts, sweaters, and pajamas, all in Jane's correct sizes. Not many of each, but enough for Jane to spend one fairly comfortable week there.

That's it, Maura is perfect, and I'm talking to Ma tomorrow. She pulled out a shirt and boxes, laid them on the bed, and walked into the bathroom. Wordlessly, she wrapped her arms around the smaller woman from behind and placed a kiss on her neck. "I love you. Let's take a shower and go to bed."

Thank you for reading. We appreciate it very much! :-)