"Las Vegas is a city built on hopes, dreams, and a little bit of crazy." —Michael McDonald

Saturday Morning
Maura

Maura squeezed her eyes shut tighter to block out the sunlight that was making her head hurt through her eyelids. She couldn't bring herself to open her eyes, knowing it would only hurt more. Why hadn't she closed the blinds last night? And why did she feel terrible? Was she sick? No, she was hungover.

Which means she needs water.

But to get the water, she would have to move.

And moving would require opening her eyes.

And moving.

Which was not at all appealing.

She felt so comfy.

Wait? Why did she feel so comfortable?

Because comfortable and hungover were two words that did not typically go together.

Which reminded her…she needed water.

But instead of getting up, she'd rather stay right here.

So, she snuggled deeper into the body underneath her.

Wait….why was there a body underneath her?

Maura froze, but she still didn't open her eyes. She wasn't sure she ever wanted to open her eyes again. She was definitely snuggled into a body…and there was definitely a lot of skin-to-skin contact. She couldn't really tell whether she or the other person had anything on without moving…but if they did, it wasn't much.

Maura tried to figure out as much information about her situation as she could without moving or opening her eyes.

Man or woman? Definitely a woman…the skin under her cheek was soft and the body was smaller than she would expect for a man, even a slender one.

Smell? Well, she definitely smelled alcohol…and smoke, but not enough that she thought that this person smoked – more like they'd been in a room with smoking. Oh, right…Vegas…she was in Las Vegas for Frankie and Nina's bachelor and bachelorette parties. Did she really leave her friends to sleep with someone? That didn't seem like something she would do. Except…it had been a while…

Okay, back to smell…she couldn't really distinguish anything unusual. Other than the smoke and alcohol smells, everything just smelled…normal. Like home and comfort?

At this point, Maura knew she was being ridiculous. She couldn't avoid opening her eyes forever. She just wasn't ready to break the spell of the comfort that surrounded her. She knew as soon as she opened her eyes, she'd have to deal with the consequences of whatever drunken decisions she made last night.

Except, Maura was in for a surprise because the consequences she'd have to deal with were not even remotely close to what she was thinking at the moment…

And then she heard a groan come from underneath her. She would know that groan anywhere.

Jane

Jane groaned. Her head hurt, and she was hot. She tried to move, but something was holding her in place – not in a threatening way…just in place.

It almost felt…nice?

As soon as Jane opened her eyes, they landed on the mass of tangled blonde hair splayed across her chest. Hair she would know anywhere.

"Maura?" Jane croaked out, her voice hoarse from sleep and her hangover.

Maura winced at the loud noise. She sat up quickly, causing her head to spin.

Jane sat up too quickly as well, and her stomach instantly revolted. Before she could process anything else about her situation, Jane threw herself out of bed and dashed to the bathroom. She barely made it to the toilet before vomiting.

Jane flushed the toilet and stood up shakily. She still felt like crap, but getting whatever that was out of her system seemed to have helped. However, when she looked down at herself and realized just how little she was wearing (literally, only her panties), what little improvement she felt flew out the window.

"Fuck!" Jane said under her breath. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

How the hell was she supposed to walk back out of this bathroom and face Maura. She could stay in the bathroom forever, right?

To be fair, if there was a bathroom that she could spend the rest of her life in, it'd be this one because, holy hell, she still wasn't over how beautiful this suite was. This suite that Maura paid for. For Frankie and Nina's bachelor and bachelorette parties. That Maura paid for. Shit. She had to go back out there.

She really, really had to go back out there. And not because of the money – although, that felt a helluva lot safer to focus on right now. No, she needed to go back out there because this was Maura, and whatever stupid thing they did wasn't worth losing the most important person in her life.

Jane quickly brushed her teeth (because eww) and pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail. She put on one of the hotel bathrobes (that felt like heaven), grabbed the other one for Maura, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

And her heart instantly broke.

Maura was sitting in the bed, right where Jane had left her. She had the sheet pulled up to cover her chest, and thick tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"Maura," Jane said gently, her shoulders dropping at the sight in front of her.

"I'm sorry, Jane," Maura said quickly, her voice laced with fear and sadness. "Whatever happened, I'm sorry."

Jane glanced down at herself before looking back at Maura. "Do you know what happened?" she asked. "Because I sure as hell don't."

"No…not…not what happened last night…but we woke up…and…and…and…" Maura gestured vaguely to the bed as her voice broke.

Jane sighed. "Here," she said, holding out the robe for Maura. She turned around as Maura slipped it on and sat back on the bed.

"Jane," Maura said quietly.

Jane looked back at her friend before sitting down on her side of the bed. "Did we sleep together?" Jane asked, unsure if she wanted to know the answer.

Maura tilted her head in confusion. "Yes," she said.

Jane's heart caught in her throat.

Then, after a pause, Maura added, "But we sleep together in the same bed all the time."

"No!" Jane said exasperatedly. "I meant, did we sleep together…like, did we have sex?"

"Oh," Maura said, sitting up a little straighter. "You were using the colloquial term…"

"Maura," Jane whined.

Maura instantly stopped talking. "I don't know," she said softly. Maura was biting her bottom lip – a tell-tale sign that she was in distress – and she had her arms wrapped around herself protectively.

"Fuck!" Jane said, lying back against the pillow and bringing her hands up to rub her face in frustration.

"Jane, I'm sorry," Maura repeated her earlier apology.

Jane let her hands drop to her sides. "You don't need to apologize, Maur," she said. "Unless there's something you're not telling me, we both equally at fault for whatever did or didn't happen."

Maura nodded, but Jane could tell she was unconvinced.

"What happens now?" Maura asked quietly.

Jane shrugged. "I dunno," she said. "I guess we shower and go to brunch because if we don't show up, all of our friends and family are going to know something's wrong."

Maura nodded and climbed off the bed. She started to walk towards the bathroom when she stopped and turned back to Jane. "Is something wrong?" she asked, her voice laced with vulnerability.

Jane didn't answer at first. She wanted to be sarcastic. She wanted to blow off Maura's question. She wanted to say, 'yes! Something's wrong. I may or may not have had sex with the woman I'm secretly in love with, but neither of us remember.' But she could hear the fear in Maura's voice, so instead, she gave the truth, "I honestly don't know. I don't like that neither of us know what happened, but if you're worried it's going to change things between us, don't. It might be awkward for a while, but nothing's going to change." But I wish it would…just not in the way you think. "We'll still be best friends."

Maura let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, nodded, and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

When she heard the door shut, Jane turned to look at it. She wanted to cry, but she was afraid Maura would hear her. How could this have happened? Jane had wanted this for a long time…okay, well maybe not this exactly. She had wanted more with Maura for years. She was head-over-heels in love with her best friend. She had fantasized about them together…intimately…many times. She had pictured what their first time would be like. What it would be like to wake up with a naked Maura in her arms the next morning. But it had definitely not been like this.

And to add insult to injury, Maura had seemed so distressed by the idea of them sleeping together…no, having sex. Okay, yes, Jane was distressed that they might have had sex and that they didn't remember it. But it wasn't the having sex part that distressed her. It was the circumstances…the situation…the fact that they didn't even remember.

Maura

Maura stepped under the warm spray of the shower, letting the water rush over her as she took stock of her body. She was pretty sure that she hadn't had sex last night. She still couldn't remember anything, but she knew her body – and she knew it well.

They had both been wearing panties (and nothing else), and hers weren't…ruined…which is usually what happened when she thought about Jane that way.

She also wasn't sore…or at least not sex sore. She was sore from wearing heels for too long and not exactly taking care of herself the previous day, but it was different.

She also didn't feel the post-orgasmic afterglow that she usually felt after having sex. Although, that could be due to her hangover and her and Jane's current predicament. Yes, predicament. She liked that word, because in her mind…being with Jane…that could never be a mistake…unless it ruined their friendship. But Jane had said they would be okay – and Maura believed her. Because she believed in Jane. She believed in their relationship, regardless of what kind of relationship they had.

They didn't talk as they showered and got ready for the day. When they were both ready, they looked at each other awkwardly.

"Maybe we could not tell everyone about this," Jane suggested quietly.

Maura nodded. She didn't really think Jane's statement was necessary, but at least they were on the same page. "I agree," she said. "But also, Jane, just so you know, I don't think we had sex."

"You remember something?" Jane asked quickly.

"No," Maura said, shaking her head. "But I've compiled the evidence, and…"

"Evidence?" Jane cut in.

"Yes, first of all, we didn't smell like sex this morning," Maura explained. "While that alone isn't enough – the smoke and alcohol could easily cover up the smell of sex – I also took stock of my body. I don't believe I orgasmed last night, which I suppose doesn't mean that you didn't. However…" Maura frowned. How could she tell Jane that she doubted Jane had an orgasm – at least while Maura was in the room – because she knew that watching Jane climax definitely would have ruined her panties?

"Okay, okay," Jane said, waving her hand between them. "I get it. You don't feel like you had sex last night. Honestly, neither do I, but I still wish I could remember what happened."

"I do, too," Maura admitted softly.

Jane's eyes searched Maura's face for a few moments, but all she said was, "We should get to brunch."

Jane

Jane thought about Maura's words the entire way to bunch. Once Maura had started (somewhat unnecessarily, in Jane's opinion) describing the reasons she didn't think they'd had sex, Jane realized that she agreed. Maybe she couldn't describe it as accurately or as detailed as Maura, but she didn't feel like she'd had sex any time in the recent past, let alone last night…let alone with Maura.

"Hey, sleepy heads," Frankie teased as they joined him, Nina, Tommy, Frost, and Cailin.

"Food. Need food," was all Jane said.

"And water," Maura piped up. "Make sure you drink plenty of water. Dehydration is the biggest side-effect of a hangover."

"Already the nagging wife, Maura, aren't you?" Cailin quipped.

Jane looked at Cailin in confusion. She'd expect that kind of comment from one of her brothers or Frost…maybe even Korsak. They teased her about how Maura took care of her all the time. But Cailin? Cailin didn't usually go there. At least not in front of them.

"What?" Maura said in surprise. "I just meant…for all of us…we should make sure to drink plenty of water today," she stumbled over her words.

"Yeah, Janie, you gotta hydrate to keep the wife happy," Tommy said with a laugh.

"Eww, dude, no," Frankie said. "They're our sisters. Don't talk about them like that! I don't want to think about that."

"Frankie, don't be a child," Nina scoffed. "They're both grown woman, presumably with active sex lives."

"I'm sorry, what?" Jane snapped.

"Ma's gonna kill you, ya know," Frankie added.

"What?!" Jane squeaked, unable to follow the conversation going on around them.

"Yeah, I don't want to be in the room when you tell her," Tommy said, feigning seriousness.

"What? I'm not telling her…I mean, there's nothing…what the hell are you talking about?!" Jane said.

"Angela's going to be pissed that she missed her daughters' wedding," Nina said.

"Jane got married?" Maura said in shock.

"You both got married," Nina said, looking between them. "You know she considers you a daughter too, Maura"

"Who'd Maura marry? No, wait, who'd I marry?" Jane asked in shock.

"Uh, each other," Cailin said, her eyes wide.

The table went completely silent as Maura and Jane tried to process Cailin's words. Jane was torn between turning to look at Maura and never wanting to look Maura in the eyes again. Which meant that she stayed frozen in place.

"Do you guys not remember?" Nina asked, raising an eyebrow.

Frankie just pointed at Jane's left hand, which was resting on the table. Jane looked down to find a ring on her left-hand ring finger. She immediately turned to see if Maura had one too, and she saw that not only did Maura have a matching ring, but she was staring at it in shock.

"No, this can't be real," Maura said lamely. "They wouldn't let us sign if we were…if we were that drunk. I mean, we wouldn't. You guys wouldn't let us…I…I…"

"We tried to talk you guys out of it," Tommy said. "But you were adamant. And Vegas doesn't really care if you're drunk. Most people who get married in Vegas are drunk."

Maura glanced at Jane before looking back at the rest of the group. "We should…I should…I-I-I should contact my lawyer…" she said weakly.

Jane felt like she had been stabbed in the heart. She knew she was being unreasonable. She knew that they had to talk to a lawyer about this. She knew that they couldn't stay married. But still, the fact that the first words out of Maura's mouth had been that she had to talk to her lawyer…that she was already thinking about divorce…that hurt.

Jane immediately jumped out of her seat, trying to hide the tears in her eyes, and fled the restaurant.

A/N: Okay, I have some good news and some bad news. First, the bad news: I'm not able to work on my heavier stories right now (Family by Love, Postpartum Love, Serch Bythol, etc) for reasons not related to writing. However, the good news: I'm here for all the fluff, smut, rom-com stories!

On Facebook and Twitter, people overwhelmingly voted for this story over flufftober. However, many people said they'd still like to see both at some point. Obviously, I'm starting the Vegas story. For flufftober, I'm considering fluff-fall (follow the prompts but don't try to post daily…just throughout the fall instead) or Flufftober in July (like, Christmas in July…get it…I know I'm not funny ). I still expect to finish An Isles Christmas before the end of September.