A/N: The thing about writing a flufftastic story is that when you're an emotional wreck it's incredibly difficult to write which is a prelude to: if this chapter has a different vibe, or voice, or tone than the other ones sorry about that. I tried to curb it as much as possible but I probably slipped somewhere. Also: adult themes.

Disclaimer: Don't own. No money. ETC.

Jane stood in the foyer of a mansion on the upper side of Boston. She hardly ever ventured into this area, hardly ever wanted to even. If it weren't for her job or Maura she never would, given the choice she'd rather not. That second reason was why she was there to begin that night, it was why she was rubbing elbows with Boston's elite, why she was dressed so out of character for her. It was Maura. It was always Maura.

It always astonished her that the nearly petite woman could talk her (her steadfast, stick to her guns, stubborn self) into practically anything. It annoyed her how with one look at her with that pouty lip and the completely crushed face and slightly teary eyes, that she could cave that easily. Maura could get her to do anything, be anything, with that look. One day, she vowed, she was going to figure out Maura's formula and dish it back at her just to see how she liked it. But this particular evening she had a pretty good idea how it happened.

She had gone to lunch with Maura as planned but before they could eat the doctor had insisted on caring for Jane's wound. A thing, if Jane were being completely honest, she had pretty much forgotten about. That's how much on a nonissue it was. But Maura, of course Maura saw it differently. She had Jane sit on a stool while she did her medical duties. Only those duties entailed having her boobs practically shoved in Jane's face for an extended period of time. She put some antibiotic ointment on the cut, studied the stitches, and then gently put a new band aid on it. The stupid cut was getting more attention than Jane thought it deserved, and she could've done all of those things herself, a fact she neglected to point out because she was distracted.

Jane sat with Maura's steady voice humming somewhere above her while she stared at Maura's boobs in a completely unprofessional manner in a very professional environment while not listening to a word Maura was saying. All she could think about was pale skin and a maroon bra and lace she couldn't see. All she could think about was Maura's breathy moans in her ear and a leg wrapped around her hip. She shifted on the stool as she felt a blush rise to her cheeks.

They were so close last night, so close to getting rid of that final barrier between them. Jane had to admit it was great. It made her feel magnificent even, that she, she, could make Maura make those sounds, those movements. Suddenly that step wasn't so terrifying, or life altering or any of those big giant scary thoughts she'd had before. She wanted it, she knew Maura wanted it, wanted her. It was just a matter of finding the right time, the right moment, the right day.

Maura eventually stepped away from her with an expectant look on her face clearly waiting for Jane to answer some question. Jane rather than admit she hadn't been listening just said 'yes' out of complete reflex without knowing just what exactly she was agreeing to. A fact that didn't seem to matter much when Maura broke out into that wide, bright eyed, dimple popping smile of hers. She figured anything that could make Maura smile like that ought to be a good thing.

She was wrong.

After another full day of court, another day of waffling defense attorney's, charged silence, and repeating her testimony of the evidence and the investigation she was head of for what felt like a thousand times Jane found herself in a small boutique in Boston with the Isles women.

Jane had lost count of the amount of dresses and suits that she was forced to try on and model for them. What she had agreed to, apparently, was being Maura's date to a charity event. One in which the Isles family was a vocal and responsible partner of. They were like on the board of directors or something and just had to attend while they were in town, of course bringing Maura with them. And apparently where Maura went Jane went too.

She was tired, having not gotten much sleep the night before. She'd gone home after…after the heavy, heavy make out session with Maura completely wired. So wired and hyped up that she cleaned her whole damn apartment and took Jo for a midnight run and took a cold shower and she still felt jittery. It was close to three AM when she finally got some rest. Regardless, she liked to humor Maura and Maura's face was priceless every time she came out of the dressing room to show off. But after a certain amount of time, even that was grating on her.

It wasn't until the sales associate put a pantsuit in her hands and promptly shoved her back into the room that Jane decided that it was going to be the last one. She put the suit on. She was only calling it a suit for lack of a better phrase. To her, a suit was supposed to make her feel powerful. It was supposed to work in her favor, not against it. They were practical for practical reasons and useful. But the one she was currently wearing was kind of the opposite of all of that. She liked it, she guessed. It just wasn't really her. And it wasn't practical at all. The pants were too tight to chase down bad guys and the top was far too low cut to wear in a professional setting, but she definitely felt more comfortable in it than in anything else she tried on. She would take it if Maura so much as smiled at it.

The second she stepped out into the small alcove her eyes landed on her girlfriend's. She ignored the gasp of delight from Constance and the line about being a supermodel from the sales associate instead choosing to focus solely on Maura.

She stood from her place next to her mother and walked slowly towards Jane. Jane saw Maura's hazel eyes rake over her figure, felt herself stand a little straighter at the slight hum from her lips, and she felt a surge of arrogance wash over her as she witnessed those hazel eyes become impossibly darker. Maura looking at her like she was a million bucks always sent pride coursing through her. Maura walked around her in a circle in an almost predatory way. Constance and the sales associate were talking amongst themselves at that particular moment and therefore missed Maura's stray finger as it grazed her ass. Jane however, did not. She jumped a little on the spot. Maura shot her a smirk with an incredibly flirtatious eyebrow lift before turning to her mother. "This is the one."

That had been hours ago though, so long ago that it seemed like another lifetime. Or maybe that was just the tiredness creeping in. All she knew was that she wanted to leave. She took one last glance at the sharply dressed people mingling in throughout the large space.

Her eyes landed on Maura. She didn't even notice Jane had vacated the area, she was so engrossed in the mingling. She watched as Maura shook hand after hand, shared an obnoxious laugh, and nodded seriously to all the different people she encountered. Jane hated this particular version of Maura. She understood on some basic level that it was needed for her to be the person she was in that environment. It was a means of survival, an adaptation that Maura had to learn growing up. She understood, but she didn't like it.

In fact she hated it. She hated how easy it seemed for Maura to be able to turn it on and turn it off and turn it on, hated how she became a completely different person under the watchful, scrutinizing gaze of Boston's most wealthy. She thought maybe after all of the times Maura dragged her to these kinds of things, it would've gotten easier, but there was something about this time, this event, this moment that just rubbed her the wrong way. She took a deep breath before opening the door and walking outside.

It didn't occur to her that Maura had her wallet or that her coat was still inside in the coat room with her cell phone in the inside pocket. She also had no idea how to get home from where she was because she'd ridden in the backseat of the town car next to Maura and Constance while Peter took the front passenger seat. But she wasn't going to go back into that building. She'd rather walk home in the torture devices Maura called shoes and freeze her ass off rather than go back into that utterly suffocating building.

It was far too fake and plastic and superficial for her liking. There was too much hoity-toity bullshit floating around, too many egos, too many underhanded compliments. Then there were the creepy men, which were an entire issue on their own.

The second the four of them had arrived Constance swept Maura away to go talk to some family friends or something leaving her with Peter. He was nearly too preoccupied with his own search for people he knew but he was polite enough to introduce her to someone before running off on his own. Jane briefly wondered if that was what it had been like for Maura growing up attending these types of functions. She wondered if her parents just ran off in separate directions leaving her to fend for herself in the lion's den.

The thought was interrupted, however, when Peter introduced her to an older gentleman, his money was in oil or fishing or both Jane didn't quite care. Peter introduced her as 'Jane Rizzoli, one of Boston's finest.' Jane had smiled and stood taller at the introduction. All her life Jane loved the fact that people called first responders 'finest.' It was a big deal to her, no one knew just how much she actually loved it but she did. It made her feel special and important. Being the 'finest' of anything was pretty damn awesome in her book. It was of how it set her (and others like her) apart from the rest of society because they were the ones that did what no one else wanted to do. But then the man had looked at her, he ran his green eyes over her lithe form with a cocky smile on his stupid face and he'd said "You certainly are one of Boston's finest. Can I offer you a drink?" And Jane felt physically ill.

Maybe it was just because she was tired and hungry and a little grumpy. She flexed her jaw realizing only then that she'd been clenching it tight, grinding her teeth all night. The cold wind blew her hair to the side and for a split second she thought about going back in, just to get her coat before deciding against it.

She could hang with the worst of the worst, the lowest of the low. She could tell truth from lie with an incredibly high accuracy rate amongst Boston's murderers, rapists, and psychopaths. She could go toe to toe with just about anyone and come out on top, regardless if they were bigger. (Because bigger didn't necessarily mean braver, stronger, smarter. Bigger just meant bigger in most cases and that, often, was her greatest advantage.) But these people had their own code, their own language, their own rule book. They were a different breed. And Maura was one of them.

She sighed rubbing a tired, sore hand over her face. She hated how being around them, being around that version of Maura, made her feel so unbelievably inadequate. It wasn't just this particular time, it was every single time. Even the day before at the college, she felt that way. When she was pulled from her element, when the badge and the gun were stripped from her, she was nothing but Jane. She never liked Jane. That was the only thing those people saw. They didn't see a decorated detective when they looked at her, they saw Jane. They saw the low class shmuck who shouldn't be in the same room as them without wearing a waiter's uniform. To them she was South Boston. She was paycheck-to-paycheck, not new money or old money but no money. She had that blue collar stink and didn't belong in their world of high stakes ego.

It led to other thoughts too. Like if Maura was one of them then wouldn't Maura feel as they feel? Like she was all of those things? Which opened up an entire can of worms, multiple cans actually. She found her shoulders sinking down with each step, like her back bone was disintegrating as she walked.

She made it halfway down the obnoxiously long driveway before she heard the telltale sound of the familiar pattern of clicking heels on cement. "Where are you going?" The patronizing tone in Maura's voice left a bad taste in Jane's mouth. Maura wasn't as good at turning it on and off as she expected her to be.

"Home." Was Jane's one word reply. She shoved aching hands as deep as they would go into her pockets. She wanted a beer…or two and a pizza and to watch the DVR'd game on her TV.

"So you're just going to leave with no explanation?" Maura asked incredulously. She noticed when Jane left, she'd been keeping an eye on her all night. She wanted to stay with her, but her mother swept her away and she nearly let herself get sucked in. Just as she'd been thinking that she saw Jane out of the corner of her eye open the door and leave.

Jane continued walking. "Go, be with your people. Don't let me ruin your night."

Maura nearly growled in frustration. "You can't keep hating me for where I come from, Jane!"

"I don't hate you, I lo…" She spun around as she said the words only her feet in those stupid shoes got all twisted underneath her and she wound up on the pavement. She kicked out of the godforsaken heels wondering how in the world she always wound up in losing situations. Now her right ankle burned and pain shot up her leg on top of everything else.

Maura was too stunned by Jane's almost love confession to even think about helping the woman to her feet. "You what?" Her heart fluttered in her chest. Was Jane going to say love? Did she really love her? In that romantic capacity that she so wished she returned? Because Maura was sure, she'd been sure all those weeks ago when she sat opposite Jane on the couch. It wasn't known, the word for the things she had felt then was unknown to her, but she knew now, she knew then standing between where she came from and where she wanted to be.

"Nothing." Jane hissed. She stumbled to her feet with a slight limp. She grimaced at her almost confession. That wasn't what she meant to say. It wasn't at all what she had in mind. She hadn't even thought about it that much, love and Maura, aside from that one night when she freaked out about it. Words always screwed her over, it was why she was an action kind of girl. She couldn't remember the last time she said the words 'I love you' strung together in a line like that. Standing there frustrated and angry and tired was the wrong time to say that sentence.

Maura blinked, logic taking over her like it always did. "Wait, so you're just going to do what? Walk home barefoot?"

Jane shrugged trying to ignore the tears burning behind her eyes. She was just so angry. The court case she was in the middle of looked like the guy was going to walk. She was flat out exhausted in all the ways a person could be exhausted and she was hungry. Maybe if her day had been shorter, if there hadn't been court, the lunch break that only seemed to increase her frustration, the shopping trip, and the charity event all in the same day, she may have felt different. But the truth of the matter was that Jane was terrible at handling her emotions, it all built up throughout the day and if she didn't remove herself from the situation she was going to end up doing or saying something she would regret later. "Give me my wallet." She demanded turning towards Maura who she noticed also had her coat.

"No." Maura took a step back.

"No?"

"We need to talk about this, before it causes a problem between us."

Jane rolled her eyes and gave a frustrated sigh. "It's not you, okay? It's me. My personal junk, my business."

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: you are my business." Maura said taking a step forward.

"I'm not you." Jane snapped.

"If you would set aside your own prejudices…"

"My prejudices?" Jane interrupted heatedly. "Do you know how many times I was asked to 'take care of' some big shot's parking ticket? Do you not see the way those people look at me? They know, Maura. They know I'm just playing dress up here, like some charity case. I'm not a charity case!" Her voice echoed around the cold empty space. "And it makes me feel," Her voice cracked on the word. "It makes me feel stupid, inadequate, lousy. Like I'm not enough and never will be." She gave a hopeless shrug. "I don't even hold their opinion in a high regard but people look at you one way for an entire evening and you get ideas."

"Jane," Maura said softly reaching out for the other woman.

Jane snatched her coat and wallet from Maura's now limp arm. "I don't hate you for where you come from, Maura. It made you who you are, and I love who you are." Not a love confession, but near enough. "But you need to understand that it's not where I come from."

"You're more than adequate, Jane." But the compliment was said to deaf ears as Jane called a cab from her cell phone relaying the address before hanging up.

"You should go back inside." Jane said flatly. "I bet your parents are wondering where you are."

Maura bent down picking up the shoes Jane was going to leave behind. "They aren't." She said in a voice so quiet Jane had to strain to hear. "When I was younger, old enough to go with them to these types of events, I would play a game. When we got to wherever it was we were going I would mingle for a few minutes and then run off to some corner of the house, usually the library." Jane smiled sadly at the image of a young Maura dressed to the nines running to find an empty library to get away from people, to see if anyone cared enough to follow. "My parents never knew I was gone." Maura looked up from the shoe her eyes locking immediately on Jane's. "I'm sorry that I drug you here without properly noticing you weren't enjoying yourself. I think I was just so caught up in my parents that I never thought about you. That was selfish of me. I'm also sorry if I've ever made you feel like you weren't enough for me. Because I assure you, Jane, you're more than enough."

Jane softened immediately at the words. Maura wasn't a 'them.' She could have been, but she wasn't. She chose not to be. And really Maura didn't drag her to those kinds of places that often. "I'm just having a bad day." She said scratching the back of her neck.

"I didn't even ask."

"I'll consider your turn in court tomorrow, my payback."

"That bad?"

Jane shrugged. The taxi she called pulled up the driveway. She looked at the cab and then back at Maura. "Look, I-I'm going to go. I've got a headache and I'm afraid if I go back in there I'll deck someone." Maura laughed a bit at that and Jane smiled easily at the sound. "You stay though, be with your parents." Jane gave her a lopsided grin. "How often do they request your presence?" She said all of this while hoping Maura would slide into the taxi next to her, no matter how selfish that was. She opened the cab door. "You can call me later if you're bored or whatever."

"Jane?" Maura's voice was full of uncertainty.

Jane paused one foot (still bare) rested inside the cab. "Yeah, Maur?

"Are we okay?"

Jane gave her a knowing look. "Yeah, we're okay." Then Jane shut the door of the cab and Maura watched it leave until she couldn't see the taillights any longer.

…

When there was a knock on Jane's apartment door, she answered with her half-drunk beer in one hand and a crumpled twenty in the other, still wearing that stupid suit. She'd only just gotten there not even ten minutes ago. Beer and calling for pizza had been her only priority. But when she opened the door it wasn't who she thought it was. "You're not the pizza guy." Jane commented bringing her beer to her lips.

Maura intercepted the item. She grabbed the cold bottle from Jane's hands and downed it. Jane blinked. Maura actually downed half her beer in one go. She furrowed her eyebrows as Maura handed her the empty bottle. She took a determined step into her home pushing past the stunned brunette. "I get it, now, Jane." Maura said as she walked into Jane's bedroom. Jane locked her door and followed her curiously. "Unzip me?" Maura asked authoritatively. She held her hair up away from her neck and waited for Jane to do as she asked. Stunned, Jane had no idea what was going on but she did as she was told trying to ignore the sensations coursing through her at Maura's newly exposed skin. Her knuckle dragged along each vertebra in Maura's spine as she pulled the zipper down. She loved the reaction Maura seemed to have for her touch. "Thank you." The honey haired doctor said curtly once the zipper was all the way down. She stepped away from Jane.

Jane watched transfixed as Maura shimmied out of her dress and walked around her room to her closet. In nothing but her underwear. Her very skimpy, very matching black underwear. In a last ditch effort to control her thoughts (and actions) and to listen to what Maura was saying she turned around putting her back to Maura.

"I went back," Maura started talking again. "It felt wrong, even though you told me to go back inside and enjoy the rest of the evening I couldn't!" She opened one of Jane's drawers and selected a tee shirt before pulling it on. "I realized I wasn't enjoying myself before or after you left. I never enjoy myself at those things. Yes, sometimes I do, but never the kind of joy I feel when I'm around you or with the guys at the robber. I never understood it until then." Maura's tone was full of passion, full of someone who finally understood something they never did before. It was all shock and awe and amazement.

"I saw it Jane!" Maura claimed exasperatedly. She hung her dress in the closet. "I went back inside and saw all of these things I've never noticed before. I could never understand why others felt uncomfortable in that type of environment. That was where I grew up. I'm uncomfortable at amusement parks." Jane smiled at the wall she was facing. "That's what I always equated it to, a preference of sorts. But I went back inside and I saw the tight lipped smiles and heard the backhanded compliments and the sheer snootiness of it all finally hit me."

Jane snorted at Maura's word choice before she felt a hand on her shoulder turning her around. Their eyes met, Maura's pleading with her to understand what she was saying and Jane's full of wanting to understand. "I know you're not making me choose, that you would never make me choose, but I don't want to be that person. I want to be the person I am when I'm around you all the time. I want to be the person I am when I'm around our friends, our family." She hoped Jane understood what she was saying. "I choose you, and Boston, and the Chief Medical Examiner position, and everything that all of those things entai –"

Maura's speech was cut off by Jane's lips pressing into her own. The dominance was quickly won over though and Maura had Jane pressed against the wall. It was then as her hands trailed down Maura's body that Jane noticed Maura neglected to put on pants. She moaned into the kiss as Maura's tongue met her own.

Maura started unbuttoning Jane's top still keeping the kiss going. When her the top was finally open revealing a landscape of lean muscle and tan skin she had a flashback of every time she'd seen Jane shirtless, every time she'd wanted to reach out and touch her abdominal muscles and she did just that. Jane's head fell back into the wall as Maura's incredibly soft hands kneaded her abs. "Do you have any idea how amazing you are?" Jane swallowed hard as Maura's mouth trailed down the middle of her breasts. Her fingers stroked the scar on Jane's side. "A bullet went through you and you are still alive." Maura accentuated with a kiss to Jane's clavicle. Jane's breath hitched at Maura's words.

"Jane," Maura said causing Jane to once again look at her. "I want this. I want you. You said earlier Jane that you don't feel like you're enough," She took a step closer bringing her mouth tantalizingly close to Jane's. "Let me show you you're more than enough." The shirt that was only barely hanging on to Jane's shoulders slipped and fell to the floor behind Jane's feet.

"Maura," Jane groaned as Maura's hands danced down her abs and played at the top of her pants.

Hands immediately stopped moving and retracted. "If you don't want to it's fine, Jane. Really it is." Maura gave Jane's bicep a reassuring squeeze. "I can wait as long as you need me to. I just want you to know that when you're ready, I'm ready." She was about to take a step around Jane to go into the living room when Jane grabbed her wrist.

"Your parents?" The detective prompted.

"They don't live here, Jane."

Jane laughed as she pulled Maura close to her. "I might be really bad at this."

Maura smiled genuinely at her. "There are books, videos." She leaned in to Jane's ear. "We could always practice."

Jane swallowed hard. "Don't laugh at me?"

"Never." Maura smiled genuinely at her.

Jane took a steadying breath. With the way Maura was looking at her eyes so full of emotion, Jane didn't even have to ask if she'd be there in the morning. She just knew. She had a feeling that this was how they were always supposed to be. That had there been a differing of circumstances one day, eventually they would end up together, always. She would have to make a mental note to find out if Maura felt the same. Jane held Maura's gaze as she backed them towards the bed. This was her best friend, her girlfriend, her favorite person. She took a step forward pressing their lips together in a soft, slow, passionate kiss hoping to put everything she couldn't find the words to say and more into the one moment. Maura gave it all, and more right back at her and she found herself smiling.

She paused a moment to kick the door closed, forgetting about her pizza order entirely as Maura's hands moved from her shoulders to the belt buckle of her pants. They stumbled towards the bed. Maura's shirt fell to the floor along with Jane's pants leaving them both in just their underwear. Maura's knees hit the back of the bed. Jane broke the kiss only long enough to say, "No turning back after this, Maura."

"I think," Maura said sensually as her right hand moved to the clasp of Jane's bra. "We crossed that line a very long time ago."

Whatever stupid comment that lay at the tip of Jane's tongue ready to burst free and ruin the moment was silenced by her bra being unhooked and Maura's hand cupping her left breast through the material before Jane shrugged it off. Jane let her body rest against Maura's as her bra was thrown into some random location. The feeling of skin to skin contact with such minimal barriers between them was intoxicating and Maura, too, felt her train of thought leave her at Jane's heated kiss, her touch, as her own bra was unhooked and shrugged off.

Jane felt a wave of desire and want and need flush her system at every touch of Maura's deft hands against her hot, hot skin. She knew that there wasn't going to be any faking tonight. And she knew absolutely without a doubt that Maura felt the same. That this moment, with the two of them lying in bed together, moving against each other, was a long time coming. That it was right and good and whole and real. It was more than a means to an end, more than one desired goal. There was passion. There was love. Even though neither of them said the treacherous word it was there behind every reverent touch, every kiss, every dark eyed, wide eyed stare as the last and final barriers were shed.

In the end it didn't matter that there was flubbing hands or awkward first touches. It didn't matter that 'I love you's' weren't confessed in the throes of passion or in the wake of it. It didn't matter that there was giggling or butting heads or the knocking of hands or confusion. It didn't matter that it wasn't perfect or seamless. Because they were together in all the ways two people could be together and that they both decided was more than enough.

A/N: This chapter took a lot of crazy turns. And again, sorry if the vibe is off. There are two chapters left. Like a real one, and an epilogue of sorts.

Thanks for reading!