CH7

**Disclaimers: still don't own anything that is R&I.**

They got to the station on time for work. Jane had told Maura that she needed to stay with her at all times. She was truly sorry for treating her like she needed a babysitter but it was really the only way.

Maura understood and was grateful for Jane wanting to keep safe.

xxxxx

They spent the first part of the evening in the morgue so they could speak freely without the potential of being over heard.

Maura had asked her if anyone else knew, she said Frost did; then she went on to explain that she always tries to feed on a regular basis, at least once a week. They were working a case that had them going straight for about two and a half weeks without a night off. She had gotten to that point and she had to feed.

Maura asked what happens when she doesn't feed on a regular basis.

"We turn reckless and dangerous and violent. I was almost to that point, remember I said I usually only feed in intimate situations."

She nodded.

"Well in that frame of mind all discipline goes right out the window, I've spent a long time getting my urges under control but that night I was desperate. If I didn't feed soon I was going to hurt someone and risk being discovered. He came looking for me when I didn't answer, well he found me."

"How did he take it?"

"He was actually OK with it surprisingly, he pukes at crime scenes but vampires, he's OK with. He said he has always liked vampire movies, he thinks we're cool; he just asked that I don't ever bite him." She grinned.

"Can I ask you a question Jane?" Her eyes were soft and caring.

"I think by now we've established that you can." Half laughing.

"Are you this protective over everyone?" Her tone was very inquisitive, she knew there was an underlying question in there and waited for the brunette to respond.

"No" was all she said barely audible.

"Then why me?" Her hazel eyes found the dark one's and silently demanded her gaze.

It took Jane a minute to respond, "If I do tell you, I don't want to frighten you or freak you out."

"I think we're beyond that point in our conversations." Maura was completely serious.

"Arianna asked me if you were my inamorata." Jane suddenly looked nervous.

"To which you said no." Still holding her stare.

"To protect you...to you, inamorata means lover, to us, it means eternal mate."

"Oh"

"I lied to her." Jane whispered.

Maura didn't understand.

"We don't pick our inamorata's, they pick us...your scent picks us."

"My scent...do you mean the smell of my blood?" Clearly confused.

"No...believe it or not, your blood doesn't have anything to do with it. It's your scent, when you find your eternal mate, your body releases a chemical that is distinctive to only that vampire. It's actually not that different from normal people selecting their mates. When a human finds their eternal mate, the love is pure. I don't know if you've noticed how people throw themselves at me trying to capture my attention."

"Believe me, I've noticed." She half smiled.

"It's because the attraction is not real, it's just raw carnal lust, they see what their suppose to see, basically sex on two legs. Vulgar description I know, I'm sorry, but that's what our scent does to humans. But inamorata's don't get that lust emotion, they have love, and no... they don't realize that's what it is. Did you ever ask yourself why you haven't thrown yourself at me, even though you've thought about it, like you've seen everyone in the bar and the department do on a regular basis."

She shook her head no.

"Remember when I said that to turn you we must feed of each other?"

Maura nodded.

"If you were a regular feeding, like I was, then the virgin controls the destiny of the relationship with the creatrix. But when you and your eternal mate feed from each other for the turn, our blood mixes with each other, then our destiny is set in stone. When our scents picked each other, it made us bond together and neither of us can explain it. Maura...you picked me."

"That's the craziest thing I've ever heard." She was being truthful.

"That's the craziest thing you've ever heard...24 hours ago, you learned vampires were real... and eternal mate picking is the craziest thing you've ever heard of...that's funny." She was laughing.

Maura couldn't help but start to laugh; Jane, she just learned, had an infectious laugh. "OK, I guess it all sounds crazy."

"Do you remember the first time we saw each other at that crime scene?" Jane asked her.

"Yes." Maura remembered it very well, her world had stopped when her eyes focused on the this amazing creature. Her breath caught and she couldn't think straight or move for several minutes. "Oh."

"Have you thought about me everyday since then?" She reached out and took her hands.

"Yes." Whispering.

"Am I in your dreams."

"Yes."

"Why did you come to my shift?" Holding her gaze as well as her hands.

"To be near you." She confessed.

"You have no idea how hard it was for me to stay away from you, knowing what I knew, that you picked me; the closer you are to me, the more heightened my senses are to you. I'm deeply in tuned to you." Jane voice was a tad deeper.

"Then why did you stay away." She asked dying to know the answer.

"I knew it would not turn out well for either of us, so I figured if I stayed away, you would move on and... I did not want to get my heart broken...again."

Maura went to say something, but Jane stopped her.

"It was that hard for me Maura; if you noticed, I avoided you, barely spoke to you."

"Trust me, I noticed."

"I figured it was just easier than to have this conversation; you'd be none the wiser and you could have a normal life with a normal person, but Arianna coming her kinda threw the monkey wrench into the works."

"Well clearly the normal thing would not have happened anyway and now that we know this, you can make me yours." She smiled.

"Maura I don't want to bite you."

"But you said." She almost looked sad.

Seeing this Jane butted in "Maura, I don't want to make you mine because I have to; I want you to choose to be mine, because you want to and the few hours since you've learned this, is not enough time for you to logically decide that. I will keep you safe until you decide for yourself what you want and then we'll revisit this conversation...do you trust me?"

"Apparently with my life." Her voice was soft.

"Understatement of the year." Jane half laughed.

Maura had to laugh at that comment as well, here she was the M.E. who had always gotten along better with the dead, than the living. In that case, this whole thing makes perfect sense.

Her phone rang out, "Rizzoli."

It was Frost, "I need you up here now...we have a your kind of problem."

***You ladies are AWESOME, the feedback just gets better and better. GREAT BIG CYBER HUGS FOR EACH OF YOU:)

Had MRI yesterday, man did that hurt like hell, since I can't lay flat, that was the longest, most painful 15 minutes of my life.***