"I'll just leave you two alone, and," Angela winked as she headed to the back door, "if I hear anything, I'll just pretend like I didn't."
"Good night, Ma!" Jane rolled her eyes, throwing her hands up in a classic gesture of frustration.
"Well, that went well," Maura's smiled beamed as she walked over to take the cowboy hat from Jane's hand and place it back upon the taller woman's head. "I do like you in that hat."
A smirk firmly planted on her face, the detective replied back in her best Texas drawl, "Well, thank you kindly, ma'am. Recon I ought to wear this thing here," she tipped her hat slightly, "more often if'n you like it so much."
They laughed as Jane removed the hat again and tossed it onto the kitchen island, ignoring Maura's pout at the haphazard way the new accessory was being treated. "So," Jane started again in her normal voice, "I guess I should get going. It's late."
"Yes, you could leave." A mischievous smile graced the doctor's lips. "Or you could stay here with me and test how honest Angela is about remaining in the guest house if she hears noises."
A blush rushed up Jane's neck, settling across her face. "Maura, I'm so not ready for that. I mean, I just got here, to this place in my head, I mean. I don't think I'm ready to just," she make a vague motion with her hand, "you know."
"Okay, then how about we at least talk about all of this?" At the eye roll she received, Maura shrugged. "You knew this conversation was going to have to happen sooner or later. Sooner seems like it would be better than later, don't you think?"
"Probably, but that doesn't mean I have to like it." Jane walked over to the sofa and sat down, heaving a giant sigh as she did so. "What do we talk about?"
"We could start," Maura offered as she took her place next to the dark haired brunette, "by defining our parameters. What is and isn't okay anymore? Who do we tell about the change in our relationship, and who do we not? Or," hazel eyes lowered, not wanting to meet the other woman's intense gaze, "is there any change at all?"
Jane quickly reached a hand out, taking Maura's in her own. "Hey, there's a change, okay?" She gave her best reassuring smile. "I didn't go through dinner with a cowboy hat on to make my best friend happy, and I didn't sit there listening to my mother asking me when I was going to get married to my," Jane shrugged, shaking her head in confusion. "What do you want to be, Maura?" Her voice was soft, insecure.
"There are so many answers to that question." Maura looked up again, eyes shining in the low light of her home. "It's difficult for me to answer that question. I can tell you what I don't want to be. I don't want to be without you."
"Yeah, I don't want that, either." Jane gave the hand in hers a squeeze. "Sounds kind of corny, doesn't it?" She ran a line of thoughts in a mocking voice, "I don't want to live without you. I'd rather be your best friend than nothing at all. I can't stand the thought of never being able to touch you again. I don't want to mess up what we already have. How can I deal with it if we didn't work out?" She rolled her eyes, sighing again. "It's all true, though."
"I wish I could reassure you – both of us, really – that we would remain friends regardless of the outcome of a romantic relationship, but I can't. No one can predict that." Maura shifted, frowning. "I don't like what if statements, Jane, but what if..."
"Don't. You don't like them, and I don't like to plan. It's part of what makes us... us. You do things based on all the data you've got in that big database that you call your brain, and I go with the flow and trust in what you know and in what I know my gut tells me. Don't start doing things you don't like to do, Maura. That sort of thing'll just screw everything up." Eyes pleading, Jane pulled the hand in hers up, so that it was a few inches from her lips. "We're a good match; we are. We just have to trust ourselves." She kissed Maura's hand.
"You seem sure of yourself. That's unlike you, Jane."
"No, it's not. I thought about it before I came in here and kissed you. I thought about it hard, and I decided to go with the flow – just do what felt right. Kissing you felt right. Being here with you right now feels right. Being with you, being your... your," the normally self-assured detective gave a shy smile, "Being your girlfriend, your partner, your," the blush deepened, "lover, or whatever you want to call me... that feels right, too." The corner of her mouth twitched, the smallest sign of her internal turmoil and fear. "What are you going to do?"
Smiling gently, the doctor took a moment to observe the woman in front of her. "I've gathered a lot of data on the physical effects my presence seems to have on you. I've also observed your behavior toward me compared to others, and I've taken note of your attitudes toward the idea of a same-sex relationship both in regards to others and to yourself." She pulled their joined hands closer toward herself. "Over time, I've gathered enough data to form a hypothesis." She tilted her head to the side. "I've hypothesized that you do, in fact, have romantic feelings for me, and, given an opportunity, you would be likely to act upon them once the initial moment of recognition was made between us. I further hypothesized, based on what you've told me and I've observed of what you'd like in a romantic partner and would to be for a romantic partner, that you and I would be a good match." She pulled Jane's hand to her lips, kissing it lightly. "It would seem we were 'on the same page', as you like to say."
"Then, what's the problem? We go with it and see where it leads. If we're right - and how often are we wrong? - then we should be fine. Better than fine, even. Right?"
"Maybe." At Jane's frustrated look, Maura gave a small chuckle as she set their joined hands down between them on the sofa. "It is the best you'll ever get from me. Nothing in life is an absolute except for birth and death."
"And you wonder why people call you the Queen of the Dead," Jane rolled her eyes, Maura chucked again. "I guess I can live with that. What I can't live with," she stood, puling Maura up with her, "is the idea of Ma walking in on us regardless of what we may or may not do tonight. What do you say we go to my place?"
The smaller woman nodded, smile beaming. "Let me just go get my overnight bag."