Author's note: thank you very much for all the reviews and messages, it's a pleasure to read and answer them.

Chapter Ten: I Am Sorry

If Maura didn't stop staring intently at Jane within the next minutes then Jane and the rest of their group would find her attitude suspicious. It wasn't Maura's fault though. She hadn't assumed that her friend would dress up for the private beach party. As a matter of fact, she had been very surprised when Jane had immediately accepted to come along.

So the fact she would wear a rather short black dress that emphasized her endless legs and olive skin had never crossed Maura's mind.

Jane had completely taken her aback. In the most tantalizing way ever. How was she – Maura – supposed to handle the situation? She could barely make a sentence. And she could barely take her eyes off her friend's fit body.

The music was blasting so loudly that they hadn't needed to ask the locals where the party exactly took place. They had simply followed a rather young crowd and the deafening beats of electro music until they had arrived on a parking lot. A tunnel led to the beach that had been transformed into a huge night club for the occasion. A luxury one.

Margaret grabbed Emily's hand and they both disappeared among the crowd of dancers right away. Frankie and Frost followed them. Within a second, Maura found herself alone with Jane as Susie had preferred to remain on board of the Serendipity with Sarah for a quiet evening.

Maura swallowed hard. Great. What was she supposed to do now? Whenever she tried to look at Jane, her eyes landed on her subtle lowcut or – a bit less subtly – on her legs. Her uncontrollable reactions were embarrassing.

"Would you like to have a drink?" Maura approached her friend to make sure that Jane would properly hear her in spite of the loud music. "A cocktail? This is on me."

As a matter of fact, Maura wanted nothing but to simply take her distance with the DJ who was only standing a few feet away from them. It was too hot in spite of being outdoor. Too crowded as well. She wasn't in her element and she could easily see that it was the same for Jane.

"A Sex on the Beach...?"

The sparkle that suddenly seemed to light up Jane's eyes made Maura shiver. Was her friend tipsy or she had simply chosen the worst timing ever to make a joke? A mischievous smile began to play on Jane's lips. She grabbed Maura by the wrist then dragged her towards one of the bars. She literally crashed against the counter and – relieved – rolled her eyes at her friend.

"Just remember you won't make me dance, Maura. Jane Rizzoli doesn't do dances. Not even in your craziest fantasies... There won't be any dancing. Nope." Jane pursed her lips. "No. Dancing."

Yet thirty minutes and four cocktails later, Jane was giving herself over to the electro music like she had never done before.

Once she had overcome the surprise to see her friend rush to the dancefloor to join the rest of the group, Maura had actually found the radical change of behavior to be entertaining: exit Jane's classic speech about how dance sucked and how she preferred to stay at the bar or find an available couch a bit further down the improvised night club. She was going wild now.

Completely unleashed.

"Break! Break!" Jane waved before shaking her head at Margaret who was still dancing at a very high pace. "I'm beyond thirsty..."

And breathless. She was beyond breathless too but this wasn't something that Jane was eager to admit. She didn't want to pass for the old one in the group.

She pierced through the crowd and managed to find her way to a bar only to realize that Maura had followed her. Aware of her unusual behavior, a wave of timidity wrapped Jane up. Her cheeks turned pink as she started blushing.

"We only have one life, right?"

She didn't need any excuse to her joyful behavior. It was just a dance, a moment of wildness in a rather quiet life. She was simply seizing the day; or better said, the night. Yet deep inside she felt the urge to explain her gesture to Maura. To everyone. Besides she was intoxicated. Alcohol had made her lose her inhibitions.

"It's hot... Do you mind if we go a bit further on the beach?"

Maura shrugged – paid for their drinks – then started walking down a small path that led to the rest of the the beach.

The summer breeze made her shiver. It wasn't a cool night but the crowd on the dancefloor had made the temperature rise. She took a deep breath – cast a glance at Jane – then burst out laughing.

"And then you say that you can't dance... Now I know this isn't true. You're a good dancer, Jane. A really good one."

Jane rolled her eyes and took her sandals off. The cold sand embraced her feet of a lovely caress. She wouldn't need more to be happy right now.

"It's electro, Maura. Anyone can move on that. The goal's to make you look like a scarecrow that'd face a freakin' wind." She stopped by a rock then sit down on the sand. The beach was plunged in the dark but they still could hear the music from there. "Though... I gotta say it feels good to let go of everything like that. It... Feels... Good!"

Jane lay down on her back rather loudly, carried away by her laughter. She had no idea what was really going on, why she had suddenly felt the urge to join Margaret on the dancefloor. This wasn't her. Her move had been unexpected, incomprehensible. Yes, she had drunk a bit but she was still in full posession of her faculties.

No. There was something else, something that lay deeper within herself. A feeling that remained in the shadows of her mind and seemed to suddenly be playing with her.

"Are you havin' fun?"

Maura nodded. The truth was that she was a bit tipsy as well but the sudden intimacy of their new location made her feel incredibly timid. She had never been loud and extroverted like Jane anyway.

She was pretty much the exact opposite.

She took off her stilettos then lay down next to her friend. The moon was shining high in a sky of darkness – there – just above their heads. It made her think about Margaret and the conversation they had shared on the boat earlier in the afternoon. Was it as romantic as they had both assumed that it would be way back then? She couldn't tell.

"A penny for your thoughts."

Why had Maura said that? Jane didn't even look pensive. She had simply rolled up her dress enough to make sure that her hot legs would make full contact with the cool sand. Just because she had stopped speaking didn't mean that she had lost herself in a labyrinth of endless wonders.

"I..." Jane bit her lips. She hadn't expected Maura to be direct somehow. She rolled on her side to face her friend then shrugged. "You wouldn't like being in my head right now."

Incomprehension deepened Maura's graceful features. What did Jane mean? Obviously she hadn't taken Maura's stupid question badly – and she had even decided to be honest – but her reply was way too mysterious for Maura to understand the slightest thing.

"You aren't fine?" Panic echoed in Maura's voice as she realized that this was something she hadn't thought about until now. "Oh."

Jane had been in an excellent mood since they had arrived in France.

Of course she had used sarcasm on a few occasions but she had woken up every single day full of energy and happy, ready to enjoy whatever the South of France had to offer her. It hadn't crossed Maura's mind that she could actually not be feeling well.

"No! I'm... I'm okay." Jane's nod didn't bring more power to her fragile reply though. "I guess. It's just that there's... There's something I need to..."

She didn't finish her sentence. The words wouldn't come up anyway. She bent over instead and captured Maura's lips in a determined – yet confusing – kiss. The warmth that rose from the sudden contact stirred up an odd feeling in her lower stomach. She slid a leg between her friend's ones and let her hand cup Maura's face before she took the odd decision to deepen their kiss the moment she realized that there was no resistance from her friend.

It wasn't planned. Even less the boldness – the certainty – that seemed to emanate from the gesture. Jane had absolutely no idea why she had done that nor why she didn't stop. She had lost control of the situation. She had lost control of her body.

But everything crashed the moment she felt Maura's hand brush her lower back. Reality hit Jane back. Harshly. She immediately sat up then took a reasonable distance with her friend.

"I'm sorry. I'm..." What on Earth had she done? Why? Panicked, she ran a hand through her hair then shook her head. "I'm just... I'm just drunk. I don't know why I did that. I... Let's say nothing happened, okay?"

Maura blinked. Even if she had wanted to react – to oppose to what Jane was now saying – she wouldn't have been able to do it. The unexpected move – the bold kiss – had taken her too far from the beach where they were now sitting. She was miles away from everything.

"Sure." Even her laugh sounded foreign to her ears. She was in shock. In shock and completely empty by the abruptness of whatever was already over. "Nothing happened. Nothing..."

Her very own words passed underneath her skin then reached her heart to break it in a thousand pieces.