Ok, the consensus seems to be that Jane should propose, and that everyone hates Tommy. It seems to be about split evenly on Angela, so we'll see what happens.
2FaceMyFate: I have no idea who Mark Sloan is, but I don't think Tommy would jump at a chance to watch his sister having sex. I figured out what to do with him, though, and I hope it's true to his character.
Swishla: Yes, there will be a better description of the rings when the girls get them. If I was able, I'd post pictures. I'm just largely incapable to drawing out my ideas, and I lack a scanner to get good images if I did draw out the ideas.
Over the next several days, Jane was able to ask each of the guys with they were willing to help. After some ribbing and knowing looks, they agreed. She suspected it had as much, if not more, to do with the free beer and food than helping out friends.
When they caught another case, it looked like moving day would have to be postponed. They had no witnesses. The body was found in a trash-filled ally, which made it almost impossible to tell what was real evidence. To top it off, the victim was a lawyer that had cheated on both of his ex-wives, and had an entire filing cabinet in his office filled with hate mail and death threats. For once, their problem was too much evidence and too many suspects.
Jane and the guys spent time in the morgue helping sort through all the trash from the ally. When they weren't doing that, they were reading through boxes of letters from people who had reason to want their victim dead. Most of them were unsigned, and either had no return address or were hand-delivered to his office and had no postage of any kind.
By the end of the third day, Maura had started just bringing lunch up to the squad room for everyone, and had stopped asking Jane is she was ready to go home for the night. The trash had all been processed, very little actually looking like evidence, but there were still several boxes of mail to read through. Maura couldn't spend too much time away from the morgue, and the mail needed to be gone through together, in case someone noticed similarities. It left Maura with little to do, and Jane frustrated and overwhelmed.
Maura went home, after Jane insisted that at least one of them get a decent night's sleep, while Jane stayed to help go through more mail.
She was curled up with a glass of wine, trying to decide if it was worth it to call Jane in a couple hours and ask her to come home, when Tommy knocked on the backdoor. She let him in, grateful for the distraction. When the silence became too awkward, she offered a game of chess.
They talked and got to know each other a little better, and traded stories about Jane. Halfway through the second game, Tommy grew quiet and Maura went back to Jane still at the station.
A few minutes later, Jane let herself in, kicking off her shoes and collapsing onto the couch.
Tommy stared at her, looking confused and a little annoyed. "Hey, Janie, don't you have your own place? And when did you get a key?"
She tilted her head back over the arm of the couch, seeing him for the first time. "Shut up, Tommy, and don't call me 'Janie.' Maura gave it to me when she moved in. You just haven't seen me use it. What are you doing here?"
Maura got up to straighten up the minor mess Jane left behind, and to get her a some food. She listened as she worked, choosing not to get between the siblings.
Tommy was too busy glaring at Jane to notice the ease Maura took care of Jane, ease that could only come from long habit.
"I was just playing chess with Maura. I happen to enjoy her company. In fact, I was just getting ready to ask her if she'd be willing to go to dinner with me, this weekend."
Maura looked up, sharply, from where she was handing Jane a beer and setting a plate of food on the coffee table. She looked at Jane, who just leaned back with a grin.
With a sigh, she sat back down in her previous seat. "As flattered as I am, it just wouldn't be appropriate. I am already in a relationship."
Looking embarrassed, Tommy started to fidget in his seat. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. It's just that, I haven't see you with anyone but Jane in awhile."
Jane chuckled, tipping her beer to point at him, "Got it in one, little brother."
He looked back and forth between them, "Wait. Really? Wow, I did not see that, at all. I didn't know you were gay. I mean, Jane, yeah, but not you."
Jane put her beer down, loudly, and stood up, "Hey, what do you mean you you knew I was gay. I. Am. Not. Gay. We're not lesbians."
Now, he just looked confused. "But, you said you're together. If you're dating, then you're obviously gay. That's how it works."
Maura jumped in, to prevent a very tired Jane from fighting with her brother, "Actually, human sexuality is not that black and white, especially for women. A woman's sexual orientation can change several times throughout her lifetime, while a man's is usually more static. In the 40's and 50's Kinsey did research that showed that very few people are exclusively hetero or homosexual. Almost all fall somewhere between. I won't bother explaining his scale, since it's not entirely relevant here. What is relevant, is that human sexual attraction is not binary. The only options are not 'gay or straight.' I, myself, have identified as bisexual since I was a teenager, although pansexual is probably a more accurate term since gender plays no part in my choice of dating partners. Jane, on the other hand, was never sexually attracted to a woman before me, and still identifies as straight. Therefore, neither of us can be truly considered lesbians. I do, however, understand that it is the most obvious, and least confusing, description of our relationship. Still, neither of us identifies as lesbian, we are merely women who happen to be in love with another woman."
Jane smiled at her fondly, while Tommy looked a little overwhelmed.
After a few seconds, he seemed to finally process everything Maura said. "Ok, sorry. So, you guys really are a couple? Is this something you want kept a secret, or are you ok with people knowing? You do know, that with Ma living in your guesthouse, she'll find out eventually, right? Once Ma knows, the entire world will know."
Jane sat back down, shoveling a couple bites of food into her mouth before answering, "We're not hiding this. We're just letting people figure it out on their own, for the most part. Ma's about the only one who HASN'T figured it out. Actually, since you now know, you get to help me move. Next weekend, as long I'm not busy at work. I'm donating my furniture and anything else I don't need, so it's mostly just boxing stuff up and putting it in the donation truck."
That caught his attention, making him sit up straighter, "You're moving in together, and donating all your stuff? Does that include dishes and everything? If you're donating it anyway, can I have it? I've been looking for a place, and wondering how I was going to afford that and furniture. I'll rent a storage unit until I get a place."
Jane waved her fork dismissively, "Yeah, that's fine. It's all yours. I just wanted it to go to someone who needed it. You can just donate anything you don't want."
Maura pointed something out neither had thought of, "Actually, Jane, do you think the building manager would be willing to let you either sublet your apartment or sign over the lease? Tommy needs a place, and you're already moving here. You would just need to pack what you want to keep, and Tommy could move right in. I'm sure having two detectives and a medical examiner as references would relieve any worries associated with Tommy's criminal history. It's in a good location to access public transportation, or even walk to a job."
Jane smiled and got up to give Maura a kiss. "Babe, you are a genius. I know you already knew that, but I felt the need to point it out." She turned to Tommy, still smiling, "So, how does that sound to you? Furniture, dishes, AND an apartment. Not bad. I can talk to the manager sometime this week, and we can still do the moving next weekend. And, it'll save us a lot of heavy lifting."
Tommy got up to give them both big hugs. "Really? That's amazing. Thanks, Sis. Maura, thank you. You guys are the best. Maura, welcome to the family. I hope you know what you've gotten yourself into. Ma's gonna flip when she figures this out."
They spent the next hour or so working out details and just talking. When they finally noticed the time, Tommy left and the girls went to bed.
Jane snuggled into Maura, half asleep. "Tommy's right, you're a Rizzoli, now. We're all nuts, and you haven't even met most of my family, yet. There's lots of aunts and uncles and cousins, and they're all just as crazy as Ma. I'd tell you to run while you still can, but I'm not letting you go anywhere. You're stuck with me, so you're stuck with them."
Maura pulled Jane's hand up, placing a kiss in the palm. "I'm honored to be a part of your family. I always wanted a big, loud family. I love you, either way, but I'm glad you have a 'crazy' family. Our children will never have to doubt if they're loved."
Jane fell asleep smiling into Maura's hair.
A/N: Another short one, but it just needed to end there.
I know, a lot of you hate Tommy, but I like him. He seems like a good guy who's trying to get his life back on track. Yes, he likes Maura, but who can really blame him? (Come on, she's gorgeous, intelligent, quirky, and loving. There isn't anything to not love about her.) He loves Jane, more, and would never do anything to prevent her from being happy. He likes Maura, but Jane is in love with he. I think he'd see that and be happy for them.
Next chapter will probably be Angela finding out. It kinda has to be. She's gonna notice that Tommy's moving out of the guesthouse, and into Jane's apartment. So, I get to figure out HOW she finds out.
Which is why this chapter is so short. i still don't know. The plans I had early on, probably won't work at this point. I'll probably end up recycling the idea later in the story, though.
Oh, and the proposal is still coming up. I was tempted to have Maura propose, just because everyone wants Jane to, but decided that wasn't a good enough reason. I could think of several reasons why either of them would get to propose first. I thought about it, and came up with a scenario that I think fits both characters. I'm not giving any hints, though. I just hope you like it.