Maura woke late Saturday morning to Jane reentering the bedroom with two cups of coffee and some of the banana bread from the day before on a small plate. She climbed back into bed as Maura sat up and took one of the proffered cups. Jane grabbed her remote and turned the tv on that hung from the wall opposite the bed. She turned to a news channel and turned the volume down really low. Just loud enough to hear the story, but not too loud to discourage conversation.

The two leaned against the headboard in companionable silence as they took in their coffee and bread.

Jane took a moment to watch Maura from the corner of her eye.

xxx

(Earlier)

The brunette had woken just as the sun was coming up and hadn't been able to fall back asleep. Especially since there was a gorgeous blonde in the bed next to her that had agreed to a date with her. She had immediately grabbed her phone and started scrolling through restaurants in Boston that Maura might like. She'd taken a few notes and decided to call about reservations later in the day when Maura was studying.

She thought about her first date with Emily. It was super chill, and Jane was just going along for the ride. Emily had been asking her for weeks to go out on a date and Jane had finally relented. They went to some upscale restaurant across town and Emily had paid with her daddy's shiny black credit card. Afterwards, they went dancing at some club that Jane was barely old enough to enter. The whole date had been kind of lack luster for Jane, but Emily was pretty hot and even though she (at the time) didn't see a future with her, she wasn't going to turn down free dinner.

Jane's first date with Casey had been much the same. He was a senior and she was a junior. He was the goofy kid from England that had grown up to be the hot goofy soccer player. He asked her out right before she elbowed him in the eye in gym class. The whole eye thing was totally not intentional. She just got super competitive. They laughed over it on their first date, which turned out to be super chill as well. He picked her up in his dad's beater pick-up and they went to the bowling alley down the street from Jane's parent's home. They ate hotdogs and played two games before calling it a night. He had kissed her on the cheek before leaving.

But now, with her first date with Maura looming on the horizon, Jane was terrified. This was the first date of something that could change her whole life.

She had to keep talking herself down.

Okay.

Let's go over our checklist.

Maura's pro column:

- Loves Hayley Mae (that's the biggest thing)

- Loves hanging out with her

- Fun

- Funny

- Ridiculously smart

- Totally gorgeous

- Loves ma

- Loves ma's cooking (who doesn't?)

- Wants to stick around in Boston

- Wants to have a family

- Perfect spooning partner

- Loves cuddling

Okay.

Now Maura's con list:

…

…

…

Jane couldn't think of anything so far.

Man, she had to have something wrong with her…

Was she really that perfect?

A low grunt came from the body in her arms and the sound pulled Jane from her thoughts.

Maura snuffled a little and settled back to sleep.

Okay, so she snores?

Not really.

Oh! Jane thought

She likes to shop.

That wasn't really a con either.

She did get two new pairs of super nice jeans from the whole ordeal.

I hope she doesn't do that often. Jane thought, I hate when people spend money on me.

She can spend all she wants on Hay though.

xxx

The slight twinge in her head signaled to Jane that it was time to get up and make some coffee.

Maybe she could even microwave some of that banana bread…

xxx

xxx

Maura let the coffee wake her slowly as her eyes zoned out on the TV in front of her.

As her brain came back to life, she thought over the previous week. Maura couldn't remember the last time she'd met someone so amazing and smart and gorgeous and wonderful and caring…

Okay, so maybe the coffee wasn't working yet and was making her ramble in her head.

She took another sip and felt the caffeine start to work a little more.

Jane had finally asked her out and they were set to have a date on the coming Friday.

She'd have to tell her mother.

Speaking of…Maura thought as she dug around the covers for her phone. She opened up her mother's text chain and sent off a quick, We have a date next Friday.

There was almost an immediate response Huzzah!

She chuckled.

"What?" Jane asked, looking over at her.

"Nothing. Just my mother."

Jane nodded and turned back to the TV.

Her phone vibrated again, Where is she taking you?

She wasn't sure yet. She typed back.

Maura thought about their coming day alone, "So what will you be doing while I am working on schoolwork today?"

Jane shrugged, "Eh, I've always got something I can work on. I have a few books that have been sitting on my shelf, unread. Maybe I'll pull out one of those."

"If, at any time, you get bored of waiting for me to finish, please don't hesitate to tell me. I really don't have to do any schoolwork today."

"You have to get back into it sometime, Maur. School starts back up the day after tomorrow."

The blonde grimaced, "I find that for the first time since I was a child, I am not excited about school starting again."

Jane laughed and pulled Maura close, "I knew you had some normal in you!"

xxx

The two soon found themselves curled up on Jane's couch, each with their own tasks set before them. Maura pulled her detailed notebooks from her bags and started to review the subject material, whereas Jane pulled her laptop out and was answering emails.

"Hey Maur." Jane asked

"Yes?" the blonde didn't look up from the formula her finger was tracing over

"Uh, I guess we never talked about it, but when are you going back to you place?"

That caused Maura to look up. Her lips pouted slightly as she thought, "It would make the most sense for me to leave tonight. I have laundry to do after this week, I'll need to unpack and get my things in order for Monday."

"So today is our last day?" Jane already knew the answer, she just didn't want to accept it.

"Seems so."

They made a sad sort of eye contact, before going back to their work.

xxx

Lunch was leftover sandwiches from the meats and cheeses from the deli the day before.

Maura finished her review shortly before 2 pm and started on packing up her things.

"If you forget anything." Jane started, helping Maura fold a t-shirt, "You can just text me. I'll bring it by." Her voice was quiet and held a hint of sadness.

"I know. Thank you Jane."

xxx

Just before dinner, Angela dropped of her granddaughter and two pizzas for the small threesome and went on her merry way. Once dinner was through, Maura said her goodbyes to both Rizzoli women and made her way home.

xxx

Sunday morning came a little early for both Maura and Jane. Both women had had restless nights with little sleep. They had come to realize that after just a few days, they had become quite used to sleeping beside someone else, and both of their beds felt rather empty.

Jane let her daughter sleep in a good chunk of the morning while she started on getting the house back in order. Maura woke early and got quite a bit of studying, and laundry done before she even thought about lunch.

As afternoon shifted into evening, Jane found herself stuck in a loop of cartoons. She had told Hayley Mae they had one more day of cartoons before school again and the girl took it as a challenge.

Dinner passed and Jane soon found herself nursing a beer, alone on the couch after Hayley Mae went to bed. Without much thought, she picked up her phone, swiped a few times and put it to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Is it weird that I could barely sleep last night?"

"You had a problem as well?" Maura sighed

"And now I'm kind of dreading going into my room."

"I understand very well what you are feeling. Going from sleeping in your large bed to my simple twin was a little bit of a shock."

Jane smirked, "So you only liked me for my bed?"

Maura scoffed, "I also missed the warm body wrapped around me, thank you very much." She defended

"I know, I'm just kidding. I feel the same. Took me forever to fall asleep, and then I woke up super early."

Silence rang over the line.

"…I can't wait for our date, Jane."

The brunette smiled, "I know. I've got the perfect restaurant picked out. It sucks that it isn't till Friday." It started to sink in that she didn't really have a reason to see Maura for another five days, unless they bumped into each other.

"We'll see each other at some point, I imagine. You know, in case I visit the library to bring my favorite librarian an afternoon pick-me-up."

Jane had a thought, "I don't want to wait till Friday."

"What?"

"I mean, I so want to do our date Friday, but, would you be interested in moving it up a few days?"

Maura cut in, "Absolutely."

"Tuesday?"

"Can you wear those jeans?"

Jane laughed, "Yes I can wear those jeans."

Maura hummed, "Then can we do tomorrow night?"

The brunette laughed again, "I can't tomorrow. I have a late meeting at seven."

"Then Tuesday it is."

"Tuesday it is."

xxx

xxx

xxx

Jane woke with a new vigor Monday morning. Hayley Mae was already getting herself dressed when she went to wake her. Jane picked up her phone and swiped a few times.

"Morning baby." Came her mother's smoky voice

"Hey ma, what are you doing tomorrow night?"