Maura, ashamed of her tears, dug her face further into the soft skin of Jane's neck.

"Hey, it's ok," Jane said soothingly, her hands strong and familiar on the bare skin of Maura's back. "I know it's a lot - trust me, I know how much all of this is, and it's a lot - but you're not alone. I'm just as confused and scared as you, and still a bit turned on, which just adds more to the confusion, but your mouth is on my neck and I'm having a... a physiological reaction to it." Maura let out a noise between a laugh and a sob. "I'm not saying I've been perving on you for years, but God, Maura, have you ever seen yourself? I'm lucky if I can even make eye contact half the time. And you... I'm always touching you, and your skin is so soft and you smell so good... so if you need to cry about it, at least you're... mostly nude," Jane said, her hands tracing down Maura's spine, coming up to span her ribs and hold her.

"I didn't know I was going to cry," Maura said petulantly. "But I spent so long wondering, so long scared that you wouldn't want me that I guess..." Maura sighed but didn't wipe her face, eyes still leaking tears. "I guess it's a relief," she said. "A weight that's been lifted. That I won't lose my best friend over something I've tried so hard not to want in case she didn't."

"I do though," Jane whispered. "I do want you, and not just now, because we're in bed and a bit undressed, but tomorrow morning when your hair isn't done and your makeup isn't applied and you're in the slinky little gown you wear in the morning instead of a designer dress with your bare feet and your sleepy smile, and tomorrow afternoon, when you're in scrubs and elbow-deep in a corpse telling me facts about human biology that I very much don't need to know, and tomorrow evening, when I take you to The Dirty Robber in your designer dress and heels and everyone looks on enviously as I walk in with you, and leave with you, and tomorrow night, when I take you home and kiss you at the front door like a teenager on their first date and you invite me in and I can't believe my luck because of all the people I could feel this way about, it's my best friend." Maura sniffled against Jane again, and Jane was relieved, hoping Maura hadn't heard everything that had just come flowing out of her nonsensically out of her need to comfort Maura.

"Oh, Jane," Maura said, crying harder than before, and Jane was starting to worry about Maura's hydration levels. "Why didn't you ever say anything?" Maura asked.

"Same reason you didn't, I suppose. I couldn't lose you."

"You couldn't," Maura said fervently. "Are you asking me out on a date? To the Dirty Robber?"

"We can go somewhere else, if you'd like," Jane said shyly.

"No, the Robber is fine. Just wanted to clarify that it was a date," Maura said, eyeing Jane's lips hungrily.

"Oh! Um, I guess..." Jane was cut off by Maura's mouth descending on hers, Maura's body clambouring over her to straddle her. Jane had never liked being trapped under another human body, but Maura was light and not crowding her. "You were just crying," Jane said softly. "I don't think this would be a good idea, right now. Too much to process."

"I don't want to process anything right now," Maura said against Jane's jaw, and Jane pulled her away, rolled on to her side to twist Maura off of her.

"You process everything," Jane pointed out. "You might regret it."

"I've never regretted any moment I've spent with you," Maura said, straining towards Jane. Jane thought about it for a long moment - Hoyt's accomplice slicing Maura's throat, being trapped in that car, in the tunnel to a parking lot. They'd been in a lot worse places than this, and Maura had regretted none of them.

But Jane did. She'd put Maura in danger, over and over because she couldn't bear to be apart from her.

"I need to process too," Jane said slowly, her thumb stroking over Maura's ribs as she slackened her grip, letting Maura pull herself in flush against Jane. "It's not a no, and it's not because I don't want you - god, I've never wanted anything so much in my life - it's because I don't want to hurt you, and being with me has already hurt you so much. You asked if you would be an experiment. You wouldn't be, but you would at the same time. And I would feel like one too. Let me take you out for dinner. Your call where we go. And we talk it out like adults." Maura's hands had been busy, but they'd finally settled on Jane's ass, pulling Jane tighter against her, no space between them. "Or you could do that," Jane said, feeling Maura's teeth against her neck.

"I know enough to know I want you. You're so warm," Maura's hand lifted up Jane's singlet. "But. You might be right. I'm not thinking straight."

"I'm glad you're not," Jane said as Maura kissed her again, hand firm against Jane's taut abs.

"Not what?" Maura asked when she finally pulled away.

"Not straight," Jane said, and her grin against Maura's mouth was damp and perfect.