Constance did cry, and so did Hope. They all asked about a date for the wedding, but Jane just shrugged.

"You did get divorced, right?" Jane asked, remembering Maura had accidentally been married a large number of years.

"Oh yes, the paperwork was lodged properly this time. I have to say it was a happy marriage, mostly because neither of us knew we were still married."

"If you were married to me, you'd know about it," Jane growled, and Maura laughed and kissed her.

"I can certainly tell we're engaged," Maura said much later, looking at her ring, the way it looked nice on her hand as it rested on Jane's chest.

Each time they were together, Jane always found some new way of showing Maura how much she cared about her. From their first night, Maura had expected that same passion, but every time with Jane was different. Sometimes Jane was fast and needy, sometimes she needed to be held as Maura slowly had her way with her, and sometimes it felt like Jane was reading her like a book, anticipating her every need before she even knew what she needed.

But even as different as all those experiences had been, Jane had always, always made sure that she was looking into Maura's eyes as she pushed her over the edge, the connection strong and unyielding before Jane caught Maura's mouth in another easy kiss.

Maura let her fingertips trail over Jane's torso, watching her ring catch the light from the bedside table.

"Did you ever think it would be like this?" Maura asked, and Jane sighed.

"I never let myself imagine you'd be interested in me."

"You're very interesting," Maura pointed out.

"And I never thought all of our parents would be so... into it, for us."

"Well, we still have two to tell, technically," Maura said.

"They can read the paper," Jane said flippantly. "You'll make the society pages."

"I always thought you'd find someone else, someone like Casey, someone as involved in their job, and you'd marry them and they'd try to keep you home or change you, and you'd be miserable and leave them, or they'd leave you, and you'd come back to me because you had nowhere else to go..."

"Wow, you really had faith in me, huh?" Jane asked, looking a bit shocked.

"You weren't interested in any of them. You kept wanting them to leave. I could see you trying to fit in, trying to be what you thought you were supposed to be and getting crushed every time. Dean, Casey... and then using them as an excuse not to date."

"I was that obvious?" Jane asked. "I liked them, but I didn't like them touching me. I didn't want to touch them. I thought that all woman had to force themselves to want to... but with you," Jane said as Maura's hand ran through her hair. "With you... it's not that I don't mind, it's that I want to... I want you. I can't believe I was going to settle for..."

"I can't believe that I was going to let you," Maura said, sounding sad. "I had my suspicions, but I thought if I asked you'd..." Maura trailed off, but Jane knew what she meant. It had taken so long to get to the point where she accepted she was attracted to Maura that any intervention beforehand would have been heavily resented. If Maura had even hinted that she thought Jane was attracted to her, Jane knew she would have lashed out, scared at being seen, scared at being obvious. She would have said that Maura was probably just projecting and had wanted to get into her pants this whole time, would have made Maura out to be predatory, would have wounded her any way possible to keep her attraction a secret, even if it meant ruining their relationship.

"Really? You would've just let me marry someone and watched me be miserable? Some friend you are," Jane scoffed.

"I might have kindly suggested it might not be something you wanted to do, but it wasn't something I could have commented on without you resenting me. And you're so stubborn you would have gone ahead and done it anyway, and then felt you had nowhere to turn when you finally decided it wasn't something you wanted. And part of it was wondering if it was just wishful thinking, that I was reading too much into it. That maybe I couldn't trust my own reasoning."

"I would have come to you," Jane said. "If I had, if all that had happened. If I'd realised it wasn't something I wanted. I would have come to you and got drunk and cried about my failed marriage and hoped you'd invite me back into your bed and just hold me that way you do. The way you used to, when you were asleep, sometimes. But I wouldn't have been able to ask... to put it into words. And I'd have gone back, because being with you even for an evening would have given me enough to tide me over for another week." Jane rolled onto her side, touched Maura's lips gently. "And if have always wondered..." She kissed Maura thoughtfully, pulled away slowly. "I never really thought much of marriage until I realised I could be married to you."

Notes:

So now I want to write this as another spinoff but I have a job and books to read and also it sounds miserable (but I love miserable, and it would have so much yearning!)
Maybe one day, maybe when this is finished. It'd be called 'Time' based on the Sarah MacLaughlin song.