Chapter 3: Meant to be

Saturday Morning
Maura

Maura and Jane returned to the restaurant. Maura had to admit that she was nervous to face their family again. It wasn't that she thought they wouldn't approve of her and Jane trying to make this work, whatever this was, but she was still embarrassed about how it happened. Plus, she really wanted to just hole away in their suite exploring this new aspect of their relationship with Jane.

When they exited the elevator, Maura slid her hand into Jane's, intertwining their fingers. She wasn't sure how Jane would feel about holding hands in public, but Maura really wanted the physical contact right now. It grounded her. Calmed her. She smiled to herself when Jane gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

Jane led them back to the table where Frankie, Nina, Frost, Tommy, and Cailin were still eating. Tommy was the first one to notice them return. What Jane would call a 'shit-eating' grin crossed his face when he saw them together.

"Are you guys okay?" Frost asked.

Maura nodded at the same time Jane replied, "Yes, we're okay." Jane turned her head and smiled at Maura before pulling out her chair for her. They both sat down, and Jane immediately stole two pieces of bacon from Frankie's plate.

"Hey!" Frankie exclaimed.

"I'll order you more," Jane said with a laugh. "But I'm starving."

"Okay, seriously?" Cailin said in mock annoyance. "You have to tell us what happened."

Maura laughed. She glanced at Jane before looking back at their family. "Well, it seems that all along we've both wanted the same thing; we just didn't know it," she said, unable to hide her smile.

"Yes!" Nina said, pumping her hand in the air in celebration.

"Finally!" Frankie added, leaning back in his seat dramatically.

Maura blushed profusely.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jane said, waving them off genially. "We know, we were a little oblivious."

"A little?" Tommy scoffed, laughing. "Try a lot."

"Okay, fair enough," Jane said, joining his laughter. She turned towards Maura, reaching over to take her hand. Jane's smile could light up the room. Maura could see the happiness twinkling in her eyes, and it warmed Maura's heart to know that she was the cause of that happiness. She was still in shock at everything that had happened today.

"But really, Janie, we're happy for you guys," Frankie said to his sister. Turning to Maura, he added, "I'd say welcome to the family, but we all know you've been family for years already."

Happy tears burned at the corners of Maura's eyes. "Thank you," she said thickly.

"So, you guys are going to stay married?" Cailin asked.

Maura and Jane shared a quick look before Maura turned to answer Cailin. "Well, we're going to be together," she said. "We love each other, and we both want to see where this goes. Legally…" Maura started before hesitating, not wanting to upset Jane again but unsure of how to answer the question.

"We aren't going to do anything while we're here," Jane interjected. "But we're going to talk to Maura's lawyer when we get back to Boston. We're not going to make a decision about staying married, getting divorced – or an annulment…" Jane gave Maura a playful look as she said that part, "…until we get back to Boston."

Maura let out a shaky breath. Before she could say anything more, a waiter stopped by their table, and they ordered breakfast (including a lot of extra bacon).

After ordering, Maura resumed their conversation. "The thing is, neither of us remember…well, anything," she said, trying to ignore everyone's triumphant smirks. "We were hoping you guys might be able to tell us."

"Before our mothers return," Jane added.

"I can't wait till ma finds out," Tommy snickered, and Jane kicked him under the table. "Hey!" he exclaimed.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Nina asked.

Maura thought back to the night before, eventually offering, "When we split off from our parents. We all had dinner together, but then Angela, Catherine, Hope, Vince, and Kiki came back to the hotel."

"Yeah, they said they wanted to enjoy the suites since they'd probably never stay somewhere this nice again, but I think they just knew the rest of us didn't want to go out drinking with our parents," Jane added with a laugh.

Maura smiled. It had taken a really long time to convince everyone to let her pay for suites for the trip, but she was so happy that they had finally let her. She had booked the Chairman three-bedroom suite and the Presidential three-bedroom suite at The Palazza at The Venetian and told Frankie and Nina that they could invite whomever they wanted to fill the rooms. Since she had chosen the three-bedroom Chairman suite over the four-bedroom suite because it had a nicer terrace, she had argued that she and Jane could share a room so that her decision didn't impact the number of people they could invite. At the time, she had thought that they believed her (and it was true about the terrace), but now she wasn't so sure that they didn't also see her ulterior motive of wanting to share a room (and a bed) with Jane.

It hadn't taken long to decide whom to invite. In the Chairman suite, which had two rooms with 1 king-sized bed and one room with two queens, Frankie and Nina were in one room, Maura and Jane were in another, and Angela and Nina's mom Catherine were sharing the room with two queens. In the Presidential suite, Vince and Kiki were in one of the rooms with a king, Cailin and Hope (who Maura suspected that Nina invited more for her than for herself despite her insistence to the contrary) were sharing a king bed, and Tommy and Frost were staying in the room with two queens.

They had flown in on the Isles' private jet on Thursday, arriving in the early evening, and they were staying until Tuesday. They had spent Thursday evening exploring the hotel and enjoying the suite. During the day on Friday, they had explored the city, stopping in a few different casinos to play for half an hour to an hour at a time. Since Saturday evening's dinner was supposed to be the "main event" followed by the official bachelor and bachelorette parties, they had a relatively laid-back group dinner late Friday evening.

Friday evening

"Where to, little brother?" Jane asked Frankie once the older generation had left. They were standing on the street outside the restaurant.

"Let's just walk," he said. "We'll find somewhere." And of course, they did. They ended up at a bar attached to a Mexican restaurant.

"Round'a margaritas and a round'a shots?" Frost said to the table. They had been lucky enough to find a table that (mostly) fit all of them together, and they weren't about to risk giving it up and having to stand all night.

When Frost and Cailin, who had joined him to help him carry the drinks, returned, putting a margarita and shot in front of each of them, Jane couldn't help but laugh at the look on Maura's face. She elbowed Maura lightly to get her attention.

"I don't enjoy shots," Maura said, her nose scrunched adorably.

Jane chuckled. "Come on, just try it. When's the last time you did a shot?" Jane asked, realizing that she didn't actually remember the blonde doing a shot in the entire history of their friendship.

Maura looked around at the group, who were clearly waiting for her to decide. "Alright," she said with a smile, picking up the shot glass.

"Hold on there, eager beaver," Jane said, putting her hand on Maura's wrist to stop her from doing the tequila shot without salt or lime. Jane picked up the saltshaker. "Lick your hand," she said before doing it herself. "Salt your hand."

"What?" Maura exclaimed in disgust. "I'm not licking my hand. That's so unsanitary."

Jane rolled her eyes. "The alcohol will kill the germs," she reasoned.

Maura considered this for a moment but wasn't convinced. "I'm going to at least wash my hands," she said, standing up. "I'll be right back."

The rest of them did their first round of shots and ordered a second round before Maura got back.

"Ready?" Jane asked, raising her eyebrow in Maura's direction.

"Yes," Maura huffed, clearly still unhappy about licking her hand but wanting to participate in the fun. Maura licked and salted her hand, licked the salt off, did the shot, and sucked on her lime with everyone else.

Jane really, really, really wished she had a picture of Maura's face as she swallowed the shot.

"Ugh," Maura said, giving her head a little shake.

Jane chuckled. "Not a fan?" she teased.

"Does anyone actually like this stuff, or do they just like the feeling of being inebriated?" she asked rhetorically.

They didn't do another round of shots right away, but the margaritas kept flowing, which meant that they didn't notice how tipsy they were getting. It turned out that Maura was a very giggly drunk.

"Jane, Jane, Jane," Maura said, tapping Jane's arm incessantly despite the fact that she already had Jane's full attention (or what remained of her attention span at this point, anyway).

"Whatttttt?" Jane whined.

"I want…I want…death by sex," she said dramatically before bursting into giggles.

"Is that a challenge?" Jane said boldly.

Maura paused for a moment as though seriously considering Jane's offer. "Pffft," Maura made an awkward spitting noise as laughter overtook her again. Suddenly, Maura stopped laughing and sat up straight with a huge smile on her face. "Yes!" she squealed, and before Jane could figure out what was happening, Maura pulled her out of her chair.

Before Jane had a chance to panic, Maura had dragged her up to the bar, expertly weaving between the crowd of people despite having had too much to drink.

"Two…two…two shots, pu-lease," Maura said.

"What kind?" the bartender asked, unamused.

"Death by sex," Maura said, trying and failing to get her giggling under control.

He nodded to Maura and smiled at Jane before making their shots. "Two death by sex," he said as he placed the shots in front of them.

"Thanks," Jane said, sliding a $20 across the bar, not wanting to bother with trying to get them added to their tab since they were no longer at the table.

"Ready?" Jane asked, looking at Maura.

"Ready!" she said, smiling at Jane as she picked up her shot. They both quickly threw back their shots and ordered another round. Somewhere inside her, Jane knew that this 'competition' was a bad idea, but her self-control was gone.

The bartender brought back two more shots for each of them. "The second one's on the house," he said, flashing a smile at Jane. Jane knew he was flirting with her, but she just ignored it and remained polite. However, the epic pout on Maura's face told her that Maura wasn't planning to ignore it.

Jane tried to pull Maura's attention back to her. "Bet I can finish faster than you," she challenged, meaning she could finish both shots faster than Maura could.

Maura smiled goofily, picking up two of the shots. Maura stepped into Jane's space. "I guarantee you I could make you finish faster," she whispered seductively before stepping back and quickly downing both shots.

Jane remained frozen in place, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"Jane?" Maura said, fear peaking through her slurred speech as Maura worried that she had gone too far with her joke.

"What're you two doing?" Tommy said as their group found them at the bar.

Jane tore her eyes from Maura's face to look at her brother. "Killing each other with sex," she said before throwing back one shot after the other. Maura instantly burst into laughter, losing her balance and falling against Jane.

"Ooookayyy," Tommy said, his face a mask of surprise.

"Let's get you two outta here," Frankie said as he guided Jane towards the door and Frost guided Maura out.

As soon as they were outside though, Maura and Jane somehow gravitated back to each other's sides. They were basically holding each other up as they walked down the street. Everyone else was buzzed, bordering on drunk, but Maura and Jane had done quite a few more shots at the bar than the rest of them.

"Where we goin'?" Maura slurred.

"Back to the hotel," Cailin said, trying not to laugh at her sister.

"Nooooo!" Maura whined dramatically.

"Yes!" Cailin said, finally giving up on suppressing her laughter. "When you start leaving verbs out of your sentences, we all know it's time to go home," she teased.

"Wait!" Maura said, stopping suddenly in the middle of the sidewalk.

Jane tripped over Maura. She would have hit the ground if Frankie hadn't caught her.

"I have to say, if I had to guess who would get wasted tonight, I never would have guessed the two of you," Frankie said as he held his sister upright.

"Come on, Maura," Nina said through her own laughter.

"Nuh uh," Maura said, pulling away from Nina much the way a petulant child would pull away from a parent.

Jane turned to look at what Maura was looking at – a wedding chapel. With her filter completely gone and the last few shots really taking over her brain, Jane blurted out, "Let's get married!"

"Yes!" Maura squealed, giving a happy little skip as Jane grabbed her hand and pulled her into the building.

"No! No, no, no!" Every single person in their group called after them.

"We wanna get married!" Maura slurred happily to the attendant standing just inside the door.

"We have a number of packages…" the woman started to explain with a smile.

"We want everything," Maura said. "All. The. Stuff."

"Yeah, and, and she's loaded," Jane said, nodding her head vigorously as she pointed to Maura. "She can pay for anything."

"Nope," Frankie said. "They're good," he said to the woman. "They don't need a wedding."

Jane rounded on her little brother. Despite her drunken state, he still flinched slightly. "Yes, we do," she said firmly, sounding more sober than she was. "We loooovvveee each udder," she slurred.

"Yeah, we know that part," Tommy quipped, standing slightly behind Frankie.

"See!" Jane said happily, turning back to Maura and the woman working at the chapel. "Everyone knows it. We're getting married!"

"Yay!" Maura squeaked, giving a little hop and losing her balance toppling into Jane, causing both of them to burst into laughter.

"Guys, let's go," Nina tried to step in.

"No!" Maura said, stepping away from Nina and pulling Jane with her.

"You're too drunk to make any decisions tonight," Nina reasoned.

"Come on," Frost tried. "You guys can date. See, it's still a good outcome because everything is out in the open. You both know how the other feels, and you can stop pretending…"

"Yeah, we can stop pretending…and get married!" Jane said.

They argument continued in circles until the attendant threatened to throw them out.

"Get ridda them!" Jane said, throwing her thumb over her should indicating their friends and family.

"Jack," the woman called.

"No, no," Frankie said, stepping forward. "We're done. Sorry for the trouble."

The woman held out her hand to stop the man named Jack from throwing them out.

"Alright! We're getting married!" Jane said happily.

The woman looked at Frankie. "Fine," he huffed in annoyance.

"Frankie, they can't…" Nina said.

"What am I supposed to do? The alternative seems to be getting arrested," he argued.

"This is a bad idea," Nina said, but Maura and Jane had already followed the woman to another room, presumably to 'plan' their wedding.

"Yeah, it is," Frankie said, frustration clear in his voice. "But what can we do?"

Nina sighed.

"It's not like they aren't in love," Tommy reasoned. "It could be worse."

Cailin burst into laughter, causing everyone to look at her. "I'm sorry," she said, trying to stifle her laughter. "I mean, you guys are right. This is a terrible idea, but Tommy's also right. At least, they really do love each other. It's not like we don't all know they're gonna end up married eventually anyway, and I, for one, would like to see my sister's wedding."

Frankie let his head fall back in frustration. "Ma is going to kill us," he muttered to himself.

"Yeah, she is, but let's go," Tommy said, and he and Cailin led the way into the chapel.

A/N: You probably figured this out since Frost and Nina are both in this fic, but it's not really placed at any particular time during the series. However, Cailin is 21.

Also, I was trying to write including Tommy being an alcoholic, but it was becoming too much a part of the story, so we're going to change that part of canon, as well (which I normally wouldn't do because I don't like ignoring those kinds of things…real life things).