A/N: Thanks for reading! I don't own the characters nor show and I'm not making money on this. Hope you all enjoy! I have lots more to write and hopefully some time will open up so I can make it happen!
"I'm pretty sure that you can't return opened wine," Maura commented as she accepted a Blue Moon from Jane and settled herself on the stool at Jane's kitchen counter. "Although I can't say I've ever tried."
"You can if it tastes like your morgue with an after-note of burned garlic." Jane sat herself opposite of Maura and took a healthy swig of her own beer, seemingly compensating for the horrific shock to her senses that the wine had brought. "I can't believe Tommy spent six hundred bucks on that crap."
Maura opened her mouth, ready to defend both Tommy and the wine, before thinking better of it. That was probably a path best avoided now that Jane - how did she put it - hated when she had to hate her. But Jane wasn't a detective in title alone, and Maura internally groaned when Jane pounced on her almost-rebuttal.
"Or...maybe I can believe it." Jane leaned forward as she sized Maura up. Despite all of the countless times that Jane had scrutinized her before, Maura was surprised to feel nervousness coursing through her body. "You're certainly worth it. The price, I mean, not the shitty wine."
Maura laughed, breaking some of the tension as she did so. "So I'm worth six hundred dollars," she teased. She laughed again as Jane registered the impact of her own words and dropped her gaze, embarrassed. "Not a bad price, I suppose, but that does mean that I'm out-valued by some of my own belongings."
"Shoes and purses, no doubt," Jane muttered. She chanced a look back up at Maura's face. "That wasn't what I meant and you know it. You're worth a thousand times that. A million times that. There's not even a number."
"So six hundred million," Maura continued to tease, aware of how absurd the conversation had turned. "Up from six hundred. That's quite a range. Don't leave your day job, detective, because I don't think you'd make much of a saleswoman. You're vastly overpricing me here."
"I don't think that's possible." Jane's face turned serious even as her tone stayed deliberately light. "Tommy's of the two buck chuck variety. But after a few chess games with you, he's shelling out for the fancy stuff. He barely has enough sense to look after himself, but even he knows that you're someone to...that you're worth it."
Maura sensed that this was spinning into a different conversation. "I told you," she said directly. "I like Tommy. A lot. I really do. In a lot of ways. But I love you."
Now it was Jane's turn to open her mouth only to close it a second later. Maura watched her repeat the same pattern a few times before taking pity on her. "What is it that you're trying to say," she asked softly, reaching across the counter to lay a hand on Jane's arm. "Because you're clearly starting and stopping, but I can't say anything back if you don't give me something to go on."
Jane kept her eyes on Maura's hand on her own arm. "You like Tommy a lot. For a lot of different reasons?"
Maura nodded, not sure where this was all going. Wasn't that what she had just said?
"But you love me." Was it Maura's imagination or did Jane's voice hitch a little when she repeated Maura's own words back to her? Maura nodded again, still confused, but squeezed Jane's arm gently to make her point.
"I do. Love you, I mean. And like I said, liking Tommy is not worth hating when you hate me. Love trumps like." Maura shrugged and smiled, trying to show Jane that she was as sincere as her words were breezy. It was up to Jane to decide how deeply she wanted to dive into them.
"But why?" Jane was on her metaphorical springboard poised for the leap.
"Why, what?"
"Why do you love me?" This time, Maura's eyes flew to Jane's, only to find that Jane was studying her carefully. "I know, I know. That sounds a little melodramatic, I guess. But if you have all of these reasons for liking Tommy that you'll leave alone because you love me, I guess I just want to know why. Like what reasons you have to love me." To choose me over him. Jane didn't say it aloud, but it still hovered in the air between them like a dam about to burst.
Maura sighed, then immediately regretted it as Jane's face clouded noticeably. She adjusted herself to take both of Jane's hands in her own. "That wasn't about you," she explained quickly. "I'm sorry."
Jane pulled her hands back slightly. "No, I'm sorry," she mumbled. "It was a lot to ask. And it's been a weird enough few days as it is. Between everything with Tommy and me taking it out on you...I really hate fighting with you. And I could never really hate you. Like, never."
"Jane, I know. It's okay. Can we sit somewhere else though? Stools aren't good for serious talks." Maura felt a bit triumphant as Jane smiled goodnaturedly at her before ushering Maura off her stool and toward the couch.
"Better," Jane asked as they both sunk side-by-side into the cushions.
"Yes." Maura took a breath and then plowed toward. "So I love you because you're considerate. You look out for me, I know that you do. But you aren't obnoxious about it. And you listen when I say that I need something."
Jane looked over at her with an uncharacteristically bashful expression. "That should just be basic human decency," she offered. "A foundation of good friendship."
"Maybe. But it means everything to me."
"I've seen the way he looks at you," Jane said softly. "Tommy would eat out of the palm of your hand. He'd bend over backwards for you."
Maura shook her head. "You look out for me like an equal," she pushed back gently. "You challenge me and tease me and probe me and annoy me sometimes, but you're so constant and solid and...safe. You keep me safe."
"I don't know about that. Doyle's gotten to you twice and I wasn't there to protect you. And don't even get me started about Hoyt." Jane fingered the scar on her neck just as Maura instinctually stroked her matching mark on her own throat.
"Don't do that. None of those things were your fault." Maura gently eased Jane's hand off her neck to hold it gently in her own.
"So you love me because I'm a decent human being and a good friend and because occasionally I've been able to protect you from bad things." Jane let her fingers stroke against Maura's. "I still don't see how that outweighs Tommy. Who thinks the run rises and sets on you. Who fascinates you with his chess moves. Who you're clearly attracted to."
Maura forced back another sigh. "I think you're being intentionally obtuse," she fired back gently. "You're minimizing everything I said about why I love you on purpose. And why? I thought that you didn't want me involved with Tommy."
"I don't! It's just that...I. Ugh. Maura, I don't know." Jane tried to pull her hand away but Maura's grip was resolute.
"Jane, did it ever occur to you that everything you just said about Tommy applies to someone else also? Like another Rizzoli, even?"
"Do I need to put Frankie in line, too? God, what is it with my neanderthal brothers…" Jane's voice trailed off as the full impact of Maura's words sunk in. Maura was glad that they were seated side-by-side, if only so that Jane couldn't see the self-satisfied smirk that was spreading across Maura's face. Finally.
"So you're saying that…" Jane was still stumbling, but Maura patiently waited for her to put it all together. "You love me because…"
"You act like the sun rises and sets on me," Maura filled in. "You care about me - obviously and completely care about me. But I see how you care about everyone else, too, how you help your mother even when she aggravates you and look after Korsak when he's having a hard time on a case, or when you've been gentle with a child who's a witness or a victim or had some horrible thing happen. You're the best person I know. And you look at me like I mean something to you and just mean something, in general, and sometimes I don't think I really deserve that, because I'm just me, not someone to put on a pedestal. But I love...I love how you look at me. I love how you watch me when you think I'm not looking."
Maura paused to see if Jane had anything to offer, but she seemed to have been stunned into silence. "And Tommy does fascinate me with his chess moves," she continued. "But he reminds me so much of you. I believe someone said recently that Tommy wasn't the only Rizzoli with a beautiful mind?"
"Or long bones," Jane added in, stealing a quick glance at Maura almost to ask for permission. Maura smiled broadly at her in return.
"Who could forget those," she whispered, holding Jane's eyes and making her point particularly clear. "And what was that last one again?" She watched Jane visibly swallow as some of the earlier triumph swirled through her yet again. Maura wasn't one for dominance or power trips, but the the tone of this conversation and the role reversal it has brought about between the two of them - Jane the protector and Maura the protected, Jane with her directness and Maura with her subtlety - was turning her on in ways that she never anticipated.
"Oh, yes," she continued, keeping her voice soft. "About attraction. But, Jane, I think you were the one who put it best. Don't opposites attract?"
Later, Maura would wish she had a camera or a photographic memory or hyperthymesia - anything that would allow her to capture and revisit the exact moment when Jane's face had registered Maura's meaning, when the understanding had arched over her like a rainbow in vivid technicolor. But in the moment, Maura could only watch in fascination, and with the same love that she'd been trying to convey throughout the entire drawn out conversation, as Jane finally put the pieces together.
"So," Jane eked out once the initial processing seemed to be complete. She held Maura's hand tightly. "You like Tommy. But you love me. Like, love me, love me?"
Maura felt her composure slipping away as the truth she'd carried for so long finally was put to words. Less than succinct words, that is. "If by "love me, love me, you mean do I love you, the answer is yes," she said simply.
"Not because you're my friend?"
"No. Well, you are my friend, but not just because of that."
"And you're not going after Tommy just because you don't want to compromise our friendship?"
"No, again," Maura admitted. She angled her knees toward Jane and adjusted herself so that she could face Jane head on. "I can't "go after" Tommy, as you put it, because I already love someone else. I'm already in love with someone else."
"And that someone else is…" Jane's mouth was all business, but her eyes were dancing. Maura poked her ribs gently.
"Not Frankie," Maura said pointedly. "And not Korsak or Frost or Cavanaugh. Or any of your cousins or your childhood friends or your mechanic or your neighbors."
"Well, thank god," Jane grumbled teasingly. "Because some of those options - well, all of them, really - are worse to picture than Tommy. If that's even possible."
"There's not anyone else," Maura said firmly, bravely. "Just you." She felt her stomach swoop as Jane reached for her then, tugging her across the couch and into her arms. Oh. Oh. And there it was. They'd hugged so many times and in so many ways - so many circumstances, so many places before - that it had become commonplace. Sweaty but exhilarated at the end of the marathon. Exuberant and grateful at birthdays and holidays. Comforting and protective when Doyle or Hoyt made an appearance. But this, this was something new.
What could have been an awkward tangle of limbs and hair and tumbling words somehow melded into Maura and Jane curled up together across the length of the couch, arms intertwined and bodies pressed firmly completely against each other. Maura let Jane stroke her hair and tucked her face against Jane's neck, happy just to breathe her in, until Jane gently eased her chin up so that she could press her lips to Maura's.
After a moment, Maura pulled away, a bit breathless and discombobulated, her thoughts everywhere. "When I imagined this," she confessed softly. "And I should tell you, I imagined this a lot, it ended with me finally kissing you. I've wanted to so badly."
Jane was quiet for a moment as she digested Maura's words. "I did, too. And for what it's worth, I love you, too. I've loved you all along." This time, Maura was the one to initiate, and their lips met and danced and slid together like they'd been practicing for a lifetime.
Maura pulled back just enough to catch Jane's eye teasingly. "So what I'm saying is, you sort of stole my moment." She smiled as Jane laughed freely, her arms coming back around Maura again to hold her close.
"We wouldn't even be having a moment if it wasn't for you," Jane commented softly. "You being brave...that's one of the things I love about you."
Maura wrapped her arms around Jane and let her head rest against her chest. "One of the things?"
"Yeah." Jane moved a tendril of hair from Maura's face to kiss her forehead. "Do you want to hear the rest of them?"