A silent agreement had somehow been reached, that Jane was coming home with Maura. They stood together on the District line, Jane, as she always did, planting her feet and not holding on.

"Have you ever fallen over doing that?" Maura asked.

Jane pretended to be offended. "I can't believe you think so little of my balance."

"Statistically, considering the irregular movement of London Underground trains, either you've fallen over, or you usually hold on."

Jane made no answer, but folded her arms as she swayed with the movement of the carriage.

"I think you're trying to impress me," Maura baited."I think, if I weren't here, you'd be holding on like a normal person."

"I would not," Jane argued. "Those handles are covered in germs."

"Actually, they're sprayed every day with an antiviral coating," Maura said, tilting her head towards a poster which proclaimed this.

"Did you ever see them getting sprayed?" Jane asked.

Maura frowned, looking at the handle she was holding. "They wouldn't have the poster if it didn't happen," she said, but she was fighting the urge to let go and use her hand sanitizer.

"If it's bothering you, you're welcome to hold on to me instead," Jane said, eyes twinkling.

"Shameless," Maura breathed.

The train reached South Kensington. It stopped with a jolt that Jane handled like a surfer, then they got off and went upstairs. Jane noticed that Maura was walking a little awkwardly, and remembered her underwear confession in the cafeteria.

"Did you eat anything today apart from that sandwich?" Jane asked, eyeing the sign for Ben's Cookies right outside the station.

Maura shook her head. "Only a lot of coffee," she admitted.

"I'm buying you a cookie," Jane said.

"You're taking care of me again," Maura pointed out.

"And I expect to be appreciated. What would you like?"

Maura didn't answer, but Jane saw her eyes flick to the lemon, and the dark chocolate and ginger. She asked for both, plus an oatmeal and raisin for herself.

"You must get these all the time," she said, taking the bag.

Maura shook her head. "Never."

"Seriously? How long have you lived here?"

"Around six years."

"Six years, and you've never once tried them? But don't you use that station every day?"

Maura nodded.

"And you don't get tempted by the smell?"

"I like the smell," Maura said. "But I don't eat things like that."

"Maura, you love eating things like that."

"I never used to, before I met you."

Jane was shocked. "I can't believe I had so little lasting impact. Did you at least carry on eating M&Ms?"

"I wanted to, but…"

"What?"

"They made me too sad," Maura admitted.

Jane couldn't decide if this was heartbreaking or hilarious.

"Do you want me to cook something with nutritional value as well?" Maura asked as they passed Tesco.

"Nah," Jane said. "There's fruit in the cookies. If we're still hungry I'll order a pizza. Oh my God, please tell me you've had pizza since you moved here!"

"I have," she said, but Jane wasn't convinced.

"When?"

"At work," Maura admitted. "At a party."

"So you didn't order it yourself."

Maura shook her head.

"We're getting pizza," Jane said, pulling out her phone as she opened the door.

She found an independent store locally, and flicked through the menu. Then, suddenly, she stopped.

"You did like it, right?" she asked.

Maura was taking off her shoes. She followed Jane into the kitchen. "Like what?"

"When we were going out, you did like eating stuff like pizza, right?"

Maura stepped closer to her, finding her anxiety about this very sweet somehow.

"I loved it."

"But, if you loved it, why haven't you eaten it since?"

Maura shrugged. "I suppose I associated it with you. And I lived with my mother when I first came here. She hates that kind of thing, so for almost two years it wasn't an option."

"Her hating it doesn't mean it's not an option," Jane said. "I didn't realise you actually lived with her. I mean, I knew it was her place you were moving to, but I kind of assumed she wouldn't be there."

"She travels a lot for work," Maura confirmed. "But I think she wanted to spend time with me."

"With you, but not with pizza. You think she'd disown you if she found out how much double pepperoni you ate when you were in Boston?"

Maura chuckled. "No. She'd just list the carcinogens in pepperoni with a very disapproving look on her face."

Jane held out her phone to Maura. "Add whatever you want. And don't take off the jalapeno poppers."

Maura leaned against the kitchen counter. It was surprisingly difficult to choose a pizza after all this time. Jane had picked a fancy looking place, with sourdough crust and a woodfire oven. Maura added a pizza which appeared to involve plenty of vegetables, then handed the phone back.

"I just need to go upstairs for a minute," she said. "Make yourself at home. There's beer in the fridge."

"Can I have one last look before you change them?" Jane asked.

Maura raised a questioning eyebrow.

"The paper panties," Jane said, grinning.

"I'm afraid that ship has sailed," Maura said. "They showed under my dress."

"Wait." Jane's eyes darkened. "You mean you're not wearing any underwear?"

Maura smirked, moving towards the hallway. "I can neither confirm nor deny…"

"You're evil," Jane said, watching her walk up the stairs.

"Stop looking at my ass," Maura called over her shoulder.

"I can't help it. I'm transfixed," Jane said, but she went to get herself a beer. She hopped up to sit on the counter, swinging her legs, kicking off her shoes.

Maura reappeared, dressed in leggings and a sweater.

"What are you wearing now?" Jane asked.

"Bloomers," Maura said, without missing a beat. "You?"

"Chastity belt. Actually," Jane said, "I honestly might as well be. It has been a while."

Maura fetched herself a beer and leaned opposite Jane.

"Abstinence in itself isn't necessarily bad. Are you still having orgasms?"

"Maura!"

"What? I'm a doctor. And it's not as if we haven't discussed them before."

"That's different. We were together."

Maura shrugged. "I just want to make sure you're not getting too tense. I can recommend a vibrator."

"I appreciate your concern, but I'm good. Thank you."

Maura swigged her beer. "Why are you happy to talk about my underwear, but not your sexual health?"

Jane blushed. "Because that was joking. Or flirting, maybe. It's weird when you get clinical about it."

"I seem to remember you used to enjoy me 'getting clinical' on occasion," Maura said.

"See! That, that's fine. Because you're flirting. But when you just casually say you can recommend a vibrator in the same way you'd recommend, I don't know, a laundry detergent, that's weird."

Maura was too preoccupied by the realisation that they had, indeed, been flirting, to worry about the criticism.

"I was always terrible at flirting," she said.

"You weren't so bad," Jane said, but she couldn't help smiling. "You were only bad when you started overthinking everything."

"You were always so confident, I felt as if I made you do all the work."

"You kissed me first," Jane pointed out. "And you took me to Rachmaninov, which was a come on in itself."

Maura bit her lip. "It really was," she admitted.

"When did you first realise you were attracted to me?" Jane asked, suddenly curious.

BREAK

In the months since they'd met, studying together had become something they did at least twice a week. They set up in the common room at Maura's dorm, Jane read books about criminology and forensics, and Maura read books about anatomy and medicine.

As Maura's finals loomed closer, the sessions became more serious, and Jane had taken to helping Maura, rather than reading her own.

Jane picked up a flashcard. "Symptoms of a heart attack?"

"Chest pain, shortness of breath, pain radiating throughout the body, particularly the left arm, sweating, anxiety," Maura rattled off, pacing around the room.

Jane tossed her a blueberry. "Nice one."

"Surely that was worth chocolate," Maura complained.

"You got chocolate for the last one. It was your idea to alternate."

Maura ate her blueberry. She was still pacing.

"When did you last go outside?" Jane asked.

Maura looked out of the window at the April sunshine. She wondered how concerned she should be that she didn't remember.

"I don't know," she admitted.

Jane put down the flashcards. "Okay, pacey. We're going for a run."

"I don't like running."

"It's like weekend trips, you can make me do yoga next time," Jane reminded her. "Go get changed."

Jane was already wearing shorts and sneakers. Maura had to admit, a run sounded appealing.

"I have to study," she said, but she was already going towards her room.

"If you're that desperate, I'll bring the flashcards. But there is such a thing as cognitive overload."

"Cognitive overload is the reason I'm studying this now, rather than trying to revise everything the week before finals."

"Makes sense in theory. But what if you forget? The exam on this stuff isn't for more than a month," Jane called through the door.

Maura reappeared in her running clothes. "If I keep to the timetable I have devised, I will have returned to each topic with enough frequency to develop reliable neural pathways."

Jane knew the timetable well. She'd actually helped to make it - it had been at her insistence that Maura's Saturdays were always free.

"Ready?" Jane asked, already bouncing towards the door. She had never been great at keeping still.

Maura picked up her keys and followed Jane out. She took a deep breath of fresh air.

"Come on, slowpoke," Jane said, taking off down the path.

Maura began to run. Her body felt stiff, but as she moved, her muscles loosened and soon she had accelerated to a comfortable rhythm.

An hour later, sweaty and satisfied, they flopped down on the grass outside her dorm.

"Thanks," Maura said.

"Anytime," Jane replied, hand on her chest as she felt her heart rate return to normal. "You were pretty quiet .Were you thinking about school?"

"Actually," Maura said, her heart racing for a different reason, "I was thinking about inviting you to a concert."

"Oh yeah?"

"It's classical," she said.

"Oh no," Jane groaned.

"I'd use my turn," Maura said, "although it's an evening, not a Saturday."

"Do I have to wear a dress?" Jane asked.

"You can wear whatever you like. But I imagine everyone else will be wearing formal attire."

"I can do formal," Jane said with a sigh.

"You might like it," Maura said. "It's one of my favourite composers."

"You know what, if it'll get you out in the world and away from your books, I'm in," Jane decided. "But you'll owe me. Classic rock."

Maura reached over to shake her hand. "Done," she said.

BREAK

"It was a little before that," Maura explained. "Maybe I first had an inkling at the shooting range. But I really knew when my mother gave me the tickets, because I wanted you to go with me, and I realised how disappointed I would be if you said no."

Jane had another swig of beer.

"I could never say no to you," she said. "I kind of thought you knew that. You could get me to do anything."

Maura chuckled. "I did figure that out, in the end. But I thought you liked trying new things."

"I do," Jane assented.

"What about you?" Maura asked.

"What about me, what?"

"When did you first realise you were attracted to me?"

"While you were kissing me outside Symphony Hall," Jane lied.

"Bullshit."

"Gutter mouth!" Jane exclaimed.

"Come on, I told you. You have to tell me."

"Okay, it was when you shot that target in the nuts," Jane said, laughing.

"I don't think you're being honest," Maura said, looking a little hurt.

"Fine, I'll tell you. But you mustn't judge."

BREAK

Jane looked over at the breathtakingly beautiful woman in the passenger seat of her squad car. She had never felt so spellbound by another human being, she hadn't even realised it was possible. Jane had so many questions, but she focused on the road.

Jane thought about the future doctor, getting drunk, going to nightclubs, trying to fit in, and wanted to tell her she didn't have to do that.

The drive was over far too quickly. Maura, who had been falling asleep, opened her eyes as the car slowed to a stop. She moved to get out, and Jane felt her heart beat faster. She had to do something, she couldn't just let her go.

Jane reached out, touching Maura's arm.

"Hold on," she said, scribbling her number down on the back of a receipt. "If you want to go out with someone who'll take better care of you than the friends you were with tonight, call me." She felt like an idiot, but she at least had to try.

"Do you always try to make friends with drunks you pick up off the side of the road?" Maura asked, but she took the number.

"Only the ones who are going to be doctors," Jane said with a grin. "See you, Maura."

"Thanks, Jane."

Jane watched Maura go inside, shaking her head.

"What're you getting yourself into, Rizzoli?" she muttered to herself.

BREAK

"All those months?" Maura asked. "Why didn't you say something?"

Jane shrugged. "I didn't know if you felt the same way. I thought maybe you just wanted to be friends, and I was good with that."

"I suppose being friends is better than nothing at all," Maura said quietly.

"Exactly," Jane agreed. "Way better."

They stayed that way, Jane on the counter, Maura standing opposite, doing nothing but look at each other and occasionally sip their drinks, until they were interrupted by the doorbell.

"That must be the pizza," Maura said, not moving.

Jane reached out, brushed Maura's shoulder with her hand, then slid off the counter with a grunt.

"We can revisit this," Jane said as she walked towards the door, "but right now, let's just have dinner."