A/N: So this is going to be one of those 'to be continued' chapters...

The entire Rizzoli family, save for Jane, was going to her paternal grandmother's house to celebrate her birthday. Jane loved her grandmother and her aunts, uncles, and cousins, but she often found herself out of place with them. Her parents and her brothers knew and accepted her for who she was even if there were times when her mother would tell her to dress like a girl, but her extended family was different. Jane's eighteen-year-old cousin, Jessica, had been voted prom queen during her senior year and, as a college freshman, she was already engaged to her high school sweetheart. The two of them adored each other as children—Janie and Jessie, their grandmother called them—but once they turned fifteen, everything changed. Jessica had gone from being a tomboy to dating boys and being obsessed with her hair and make-up, while Jane 'discovered good music and became an asshole' as Mark liked to put it.

With Jessica there, Jane knew she would have to endure an entire evening of her grandmother comparing them and asking why Jane didn't dress feminine like Jessica and why she wasn't seeing anyone. Unlike every other time her grandmother asked her why she wasn't seeing anyone, this time Jane would actually be able to tell her that she wasn't just seeing someone but she was in an actual relationship. Jane wanted nothing more than to tell her grandmother about her girlfriend and how much she loved her, but she knew that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Jane wasn't out to her grandparents or anyone else from her extended family and she didn't plan on being out to them in the near future. She wasn't afraid of the backlash she'd get—she'd dealt with it from her peers—but she was afraid of what they might say to her parents about not raising her right or their daughter going to hell. Jane knew her lesbianism had nothing to do with the way her parents had raised her, but without a doubt, that would be her grandmother's first accusation.

"Why does Jane get to stay home?" Frankie asked as they were preparing to leave.

Angela took one look at Frankie's backwards cap and immediately turned it around. "Because Janie has a paper due on Monday and she needs to concentrate." It wasn't exactly a lie. Jane did have a paper due on Monday, but what she hadn't told her mother was that she had already completed it.

"Bullshit!" Tommy said. Now that he was a freshman in high school, he felt it were his right to use swear words even at home.

"Language!" Angela told him.

"Frankie and I have homework, too," Tommy argued. "Why can't we stay home?"

"You and Frankie can do your homework tomorrow," Angela pointed out. "Janie works a seven hour shift tomorrow."

"I bet her girlfriend is coming over the moment we leave," Tommy told Angela.

"Thomas, get in the car," Angela commanded. "Janie, I need to talk to you."

"Maura isn't coming over," Jane promised. "Mark is going to be here for awhile, but nobody else."

"I don't want you two having girls here while we're gone," Frank told his daughter. "And no drinking. I know how Mark is."

"We're both going to be working on our papers," Jane insisted. "Mark is going to read over mine and I'm going to read over his."

"I want to meet your girlfriend soon," Angela told her.

Jane rolled her eyes. "She'll be here on Halloween. That's in two days."

"Maybe this is all a Halloween prank," Frankie brought to their attention. "Jane with a girlfriend?"

"Who'd date Jane?" Tommy asked. "Jane, you have an actual girlfriend? A human girlfriend, not a blow up doll?"

"Get in the car," Angela reiterated.

Jane followed her brothers outside. "Yes, I have a girlfriend, a girlfriend who is an amazing kisser and looks hot in lingerie," she said mischievously. "Have fun at grandma's."

As soon as she was alone, Jane picked up the phone and called Mark. They had both finished their papers and there wasn't much they could do with a thunderstorm expected to hit in a couple of hours, so she wanted to ask him to bring some horror movies over. Mark and Jane had a selection of cheesy horror movies they had watched dozens of times, but they never grew tired of adding their own sarcastic commentary to them or muting them and adding their own dialog instead.

"Yo," Mark answered.

"Bring Friday the 13th," Jane commanded.

"I'm not going over, man," Mark said hesitantly. "I'm going to Markie's."

"You're ditching me?" Jane asked. "What's worse is you're ditching me to get laid."

"Don't be such a cock blocker," Mark told her. "I've arranged for you to get laid, too."

"Mark, I have a girlfriend," Jane reminded him. "I don't know what you have planned for me and I don't want to know."

"I know you have a girlfriend and this is gonna work out for both of us," Mark insisted. "I wanna be alone with Markie in her dorm, which means poor Maura has no place to go and, keep in mind, Jane, you have the house to yourself. Do you want Maura to spend her evening in the library or do you want her to spend it with you? With you, all alone, in your bed, with no interruptions?"

"And if I'm caught with her over here, I'll never be trusted again," Jane told him.

"Too late, man," Mark laughed.

Before she could chew him out, Jane heard the doorbell ring. "Once again, I hate you," she said before hanging up.

"You're not happy to see me," Maura said once they were sitting on the couch.

"Maur, I'm always happy to see you," Jane insisted. "I just wasn't expecting to see you while I look like this." She had expected an evening with Mark, so she wore sweats and yet another ripped t-shirt she had stolen from Mark.

"You look sexy," Maura pointed out. "And how is this different from the way you usually dress? The only difference is you've replaced ripped jeans with sweatpants."

"We can't all look like we just got back from a Seventeen photo shoot," Jane said jokingly.

"I don't read Seventeen," Maura snapped back. "I read an issue of Cosmo last month, but I became disinterested when I got to the articles about pleasing a man sexually. I'm far more interested in pleasing a woman, one woman in particular."

Jane leaned in to kiss her. "Which woman?"

"My girlfriend," Maura responded with a confused look on her face. "You, Jane."

"I know," Jane snickered. "Nevermind."

Without saying a word to Jane, Maura quickly got off the couch and walked around the living room. There weren't any family photos in her house, so she was amazed to see how many photographs the Rizzoli family had in their living room. There were framed photos hanging on the wall and propped up on tables and shelves. There was a section devoted to each child as well as a picture of Jane's parents on the day they were married. Maura had never met anyone in Jane's family, but she could already tell so much about them by the photos displayed in the living room.

"Don't look at the Jane section," Jane warned her girlfriend. "It'll make you think differently of me."

After hearing that, Maura rushed over to the section of photos devoted entirely to Jane. There was Jane as a baby, Jane in elementary school, Jane during her awkward years, her senior photo, but what Maura focused on was her prom picture. "You're in a dress," Maura pointed out. "You're in a formal dress and Mark is wearing a tuxedo. You look beautiful, Jane, and Mark looks very handsome."

"We look okay," Jane said nonchalantly. "Mark and I never wanted to go to the prom, but our parents made us, so we just thought the only way it'd be fun is if we went with each other. He was a jerk and asked me in this grandiose way."

"How does that make him a jerk?" Maura asked.

"He asked me over the intercom, so the whole school heard him," Jane pointed out. "He said, 'Jane, I love you and you'd make me the happiest guy alive if you went to prom with me.' Everyone thought we were a couple after that, but he did it because he wanted to get back at me for losing his Pearl Jam tape."

"That sounds like Mark," Maura smiled. "But, at least you went to prom. My school didn't have prom. I've never even slow danced with anyone."

"You've never slow danced?" Jane asked in disbelief. Maura wasn't given a chance to answer before Jane grabbed her hand and led her to her bedroom. Jane's bedroom was just how Maura had hoped it would be. There were posters of her favorite bands and movies on the wall, a Red Sox pennant, and pictures of her and Mark.

"Are you wondering where the pictures of you are?" Jane asked.

"Yes," Maura responded.

"Close the door," Jane told her.

When Maura closed the door, she saw it entirely covered with pictures of the two of them and pictures of Maura by herself. Some of the pictures were of the two of them kissing, some were silly pictures they had taken with a Polaroid camera, and others were professional-quality pictures that Markie had taken of Maura that were meant especially for Jane.

"I put them there because that's the direction I face when I sleep," Jane pointed out. "And I want you to be the last thing I see when I go to bed and the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning. Our wishing star is there, too."

It was yet another moment that made Maura feel as if Jane were the perfect girl for her. "This is my favorite picture," Maura said as she focused on a picture of the two of them. It was a candid photo that Mark had taken and, instead of looking at the camera, Jane and Maura were looking at each other. "Markie had once told me there's a certain look that we give each other, but I never understood what she was saying until I saw this. You and I belong together, Jane, and we're not the only ones who notice that."

While Maura was waiting for a response, her girlfriend was putting a cassette into her stereo. It was a familiar song for Maura, one that evoked memories of the first time she had made out—as her friends had crudely put it—with Jane. It was in that moment that Maura felt as if her life had changed. It was the first time she had ever been desired and desired someone in turn—one of her many firsts with Jane, her first girlfriend, the first girl she ever made love to, and most importantly her first love, her first and only love or so she hoped.

"I think I would have liked prom a lot more if I had gone with you," Jane admitted. "I can picture you in a dress with your hair and make-up done. You'd have been the prettiest girl there. You're the prettiest girl no matter where we go."

"You are," Maura insisted. "Sometimes, I glare at the girls who check you in."

"Check me out?" Jane asked as she tried not to laugh. "I never notice them. I'm always too busy looking at you. Maura, will you do me the honor of allowing me to be the first person to slow dance with you?"

"Yes," Maura smiled. "I was waiting for you to ask me."

It was the perfect song and the perfect moment with her perfect girlfriend. Never before had Maura thought she could use such an adjective to describe her life, but there she was in Jane's arms as they slowly moved to the music.

"Make love to me," Maura whispered into her ear.

They had hours left to themselves and they wanted it to be slow and sensual. As the next song played, Jane leaned in to kiss Maura. Without pulling away from their kiss, Jane lifted up the hem of Maura's shirt until it was above her breasts. Taking the hint her girlfriend was giving her, Maura pulled away to take her shirt off.

"I can feel you better this way," Jane insisted. "It'd be even better if you took your bra off."

"You always want me topless," Maura pointed out. "You can take my bra off in a while, but I want you out of these clothes and in your bed by the time I get back."

Jane had no trouble complying with her request. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"The living room," Maura responded. "I made a tape for you and it's in my purse."

"You made a tape?" Jane asked.

"You're not the only one who makes good mix tapes," Maura responded. After a quick kiss, Maura was on her way to the living room.

As she was searching through her purse, she heard the door open and Tommy Rizzoli enter Jane's house. "Ma, some hot girl broke into our house!" he turned around and shouted.

"Thomas, what are you—" Angela began to say until she saw Maura.

Maura was stopped dead in her tracks. She wanted to hide. She wanted to run back to the room and warn Jane. She wanted to do anything other than stand there in nothing but her jeans and her bra in front of her girlfriend's mom and brothers.

"I'm Maura. Jane's girlfriend," she said nervously.

"Now, why is a hot girl like her with Jane?" Tommy said jokingly.

"Tommy, Frankie, go to your room," she ordered.

When Maura hadn't returned, Jane decided to check on her. The loud music had prevented her from hearing what had happened and the moment she set foot in the living room, she was grateful she had decided to keep her underwear on.

"Jane Clementine Rizzoli," Angela said angrily.

For once, Jane was speechless. She stood there, eyes wide, trying to think of a way to explain this. I don't think she'll buy the 'we were just studying' line.