Maura couldn't lie.

It took her a few minutes to realise that she'd just told the man who'd tried to send Jane a drink that Jane was a lesbian. Which was a ruse they'd tried before. Never in those actual words, and never with Maura, who couldn't lie, saying it. Maura checked her hands; no sign of a rash. She checked her chest in the front camera of her phone, since Jane's gaze had been drawn there, but there were no hives.

Maura hadn't said it out loud before; she'd never needed to. She'd always been quietly supportive of the men Jane professed to have interest in, she'd always nodded whenever Jane made a random statement about a woman's body immediately followed with a 'but I'm not gay'. She'd melted into Jane's arms when Jane took the Giovanni bullets for her, at the garage, their height difference just right, at Jane's school reunion, Jane's hands all over her. She always pretended not to nice when Jane's eyes slid down to her chest, trying to gauge if Jane was checking for hives or just checking her out. The evidence had been mounting for months. Years. And so when Maura said, out loud, that Jane was a lesbian, it was with little shock that she realised that it was true.

Jane was a lesbian.

Maura's best friend was a lesbian.

The woman Maura spent most of her days and nights with was attracted to women. Yet she never asked any out, she barely even glanced at Susie - pretty Susie, it was a shame she was a direct subordinate - or Nina, who was enough of a badass to handle someone like Jane. When they went jogging Jane never checked out other women, but she always flushed when they stopped for a break, her eyes running over Maura's tight clothes a little too long to be entirely friendly. Maybe she didn't know she was doing it, but it had been driving Maura nuts for months now. Years, maybe. And they slept together, in the same bed, even though they were adults, and sometimes Maura would wake to Jane holding her possessively, the way Maura had always wanted to be held, and she'd wonder. But it felt too much like guessing, and Maura never guessed, so she lay there silent in the still dawn wrapped in the warmth Jane could never quite give her when Jane was awake; she always held back. And because Jane held back, Maura followed her example.

If Jane was a lesbian, what did that make Maura? She was the one going to a gay woman's house and sleeping in her bed. She was the one who flushed with happiness when Jane's eyes dropped to her mouth. She was the one who tucked the blanket over their laps in the evenings on the couch. She was the one who'd started all that Jorge and Giovanni business in the first place.

If Jane was a lesbian - and conclusively, Jane was a lesbian - then was Maura likewise gay? Gay for Jane? Maura had always figured that she was open to any and all new sexual experiences, so she wouldn't rule anything out at this juncture, but the memory of Jane's eyes looking soulfully at her as she held Maura's hand, the memory of Jane waking up slowly and sleepily blinking up from Maura's chest where she'd nestled for the night, the grin on her face when she saw Maura, no matter how long it had been since she'd last seen her - those memories had Maura melted down to a molten core.

So Maura asked Jane to think about her baby's future, and later that evening, Jane tucked into the sidecar while Maura posed on her bike, Jane opened up a little.

"If something ever happened to me, y'know something serious, I would want you to have the baby. Would you be willing to do that?" Jane looked uncertain, as though it was an imposition.

"I'd be honoured," Maura said, putting her heart on her face.

"And uh... even if something serious doesn't happen to me... I'd still want to raise it... with you." Jane looked down at her lemon juice. "As a co-parent. As a... something."

"As a what?" Maura asked, confused. Jane had been about to say something, about to ask something, and then withdrew entirely. She looked scared, breathing fast and stretching out her chest.

"Aw, forget it," Jane said, picking at her drink. "I just mean I'll be coming here a lot, so Ma can take the baby when I go back to work. And that you'll be my next choice for babysitting. If you wanted a legal claim, I'd figure something out." Jane had given herself an out, and Maura was disappointed in her. Jane wouldn't look up at Maura, as if she knew and she was sorry.

"Is this because I called you a lesbian this morning?" Maura asked bluntly, not willing to tiptoe around and longer. "I was just putting off a man you had no interest in." Technically that was true, and she hadn't meant to say it, hadn't meant to come out for Jane.

"Why do you always jump to lesbian, Mau?" Jane complained, and Maura's heart froze for a long second, wondering if this was where it turned around, if this was where Jane told her in very firm language that she wasn't interesting in Maura and never would be. "I just wanted to ask if you wanted... look, I rely on you a lot. You're right. I'm worried about my future, my baby's future. I'm worried I'll turn out like Ma, and I was hoping you could..." Jane was avoiding eye contact, but in doing so her eyes had dropped to Maura's chest again. Maura chuckled to herself.

"I go to lesbian because Jane, my eyes are up here." Jane looked up, eyebrows furrowed as she met Maura's eyes, darting away uncertainly at the mirth she found there. Maura sighed. "I knew you were going to call me out about this."

"You can't lie, and you said I was a lesbian! Of course I'm going to call you out. I was checking for hives, by the way," Jane grumbled unconvincingly.

Maura sipped at her drink, trying not to roll her eyes. Trying to think of a way to tell Jane that the likelihood of Jane being gay was high enough that Maura couldn't pass it off as a guess any more.

"So if I can't lie, and I were to hypothetically say you were a lesbian, what would deductive reasoning lead you to conclude?" Maura asked, attempting to use logic to force Jane to the obvious conclusion, the way Jane always tried to make her say that the reddish-brown stain was blood.

"That I was gay. But I'm not gay. So how can you say I am without breaking into hives?" Jane looked genuinely confused, so Maura took pit on her.

"You're a lesbian," Maura said, and Jane's eyes darted down to her chest again, paused and perused what bare skin Maura had exposed there, eyes slipping down, and then guiltily, back up to Maura's face, darting away before she could meet Maura's eyes. "No hives," Maura said gently. Jane got out of the sidecar and put her drink down.

"Lie about something," Jane snapped, eyes narrowed. She looked angry, but Maura had faced an angry Jane before.

"Jane, I'd rather not have a histamine reaction this late at night," Maura said calmly.

"Lie to me," Jane insisted, her face crumpled, and Maura felt her heart crumple like a used tissue.

"I believe that Jane Rizzoli is not attracted to women." Maura could feel the rash rising before she had even finished the sentence.

"So you think I'm gay. You believe it so strongly that to say otherwise makes you break out in hives. What I need to know is why." Jane went into the house and came out with Maura's antihistamines, handing them over wordlessly. It was the little things like those which had made Maura so certain, so sure that Jane loved her more than a friend.

"I may not be a Detective, but I am observant. I know the signs of female human arousal, and you don't display them around men. You've been lying to me for years," Maura huffed. "Thinking that I was too socially inept to notice the signs, too unintelligent to piece together the cues, too ignorant to notice the way you looked at me -"

Jane cut Maura off sharply. "Yeah? How do I look at you? Like a piece of meat I can't wait to dig my teeth into? Like a predator hunting for prey?"

"No, Jane," Maura said, shocked. Wondering if that was how Jane saw herself, if that was how Jane thought Maura saw her. "Do you really not know? You look at me like I'm someone you love."

"I do love you," Jane said quickly. "I love you like a friend," she followed up even faster.

"Like a sister?" Maura asked, and Jane couldn't answer, mouth twisting as she looked away again. "That's what I thought."

"I'm sorry," Jane mumbled. "You said you didn't want to sleep with me, so I didn't tell you. You never asked, I never lied. I didn't want... I didn't know... I thought I was straight." Jane looked up in her jumble of words, looked away again. "I thought I was straight, and that you were straight, and that... I knew I was attracted... I didn't think I was a lesbian though. Not even when you said it."

"You know I don't jump to conclusions. There was a lot of evidence, evidence that I initially ignored, because it seemed to make you uncomfortable."

"Huh. So I'm gay. Really? I liked Casey," Jane said, running her hand through her hair.

"You ran away every time he came home," Maura pointed out.

"So I'm gay. And I know I'm gay. And you know I'm gay. But you don't wanna sleep with me," Jane said, looking away, the hint of a question in her voice.

The same as last time, Maura tilted her head, a long pause.

"Do you?" Jane asked again, voice cracking. Maura took the antihistamines and closed her eyes. The last time Jane had asked this, Maura was able to say no because all she'd wanted to do with Giovanni was sleep with him, and even back then Maura had known that it wouldn't be enough to just sleep with Jane. If they'd added a sexual element to their relationship, Maura would have happily drowned in it for an eternity, would wallow in the shallows of love before diving in whole-heartedly.

"No," Maura said again, her answer unchanged. "I want more than that, Jane." Maura said definitively.

"You do?" Jane asked, her voice cracking with hope. "What... What do you want?" Jane asked, almost bashfully.

"I want what we have," Maura said. "But I want more. I want you sleeping next to me at night, I want you waking up next to me in the morning."

"You've just taken antihistamines. How do I know..." Jane looked wary, looked guarded, looked uncertain. Maura took pity on her; her data, collected over many years, wouldn't let her down.

"Would this help?" Maura asked, getting off her motorbike and facing Jane. Her hands slid around Jane's waist, on top of her belt, pulling them together. One hand raised to push Jane's curls away from her face, then cupped a cheek, watching the expressions cross Jane's face. Trepidation, fear, but most of all hope. Maura let her thumb brush over Jane's lips, following her thumb with her lips when Jane did nothing more than stare at her with desire, pupils invisible against the depths of her eyes. She could feel Jane relax the moment Maura's mouth met hers. Soft lips, impossibly soft lips, pressed against her own, Maura's body pressed against Jane's, the softness of Maura pressed against Jane's lean lines. Maura's hand wandering up from Jane's waist to hold her ribs. Maura pulled back a little.

"That felt pretty gay," Jane said, an exhilarated laugh forcing its way out of her mouth.

"You know I can't lie," Maura said, smiling slyly and kissing Jane again.