A/N: I don't own shit nor do I make money here, but I hope that I make people happy! I challenged myself to an hour to write this one. How did I do?
All was well.
Relatively speaking, Maura supposed. Her leg was going to need some healing and she was aching for a shower and clean clothes. But the bottom line was that she had a leg, which was of course ideal, and she made it home alive, which was even better. And she and Jane were friends again, which might have been the best thing of all. Even considering how much she loved her leg.
Jane pulled away from their little makeup hug a bit too soon for Maura's liking, although from the regretful look on Jane's face, Maura figured it had more to do with Jane not wanting to hurt her than actually wanting to let her go. So Maura took the cow by the horns - was that the expression? - and leaned back into Jane's space, letting her head settle somewhere between Jane's neck and shoulder as she wrapped her arms loosely around Jane's waist. She didn't need to wait long before Jane's arms were around her, gently wrapped around her own shoulders and across her chest, anchoring her to Jane's warmth.
Maura suddenly realized that she'd been spent a bloody, sweaty night in the woods and nearly drowned in a polluted river of filthy water. She'd never been one to be self-conscious, not even around Jane who she revered so fiercely, but their close proximity suddenly had her feeling anxious and shy. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, still not quite over their distance and their fighting and harsh words. "I probably really need a shower." She fidgeted a little in the hopes that Jane would catch on and let her untangle herself with some dignity.
Jane just held her tighter. "You're fine," she soothed, bringing one hand up to smooth back Maura's uncharacteristically messy hair. "Please, just stay here. Don't go anywhere."
"That would be pretty hard to do anyway," Maura said literally but pointedly, looking down at her bandaged leg and choosing the lightest path of conversation possible before giving in. "But okay. You're a good pillow." She was close enough to Jane in every sense of the word that she swore she could actually feel her smiling even though their odd angle meant she couldn't see it.
"We all really ought to go," Angela cut in gently, causing both women to look up at her like deer in headlights. "Maura, you need to rest." She gestured at Tommy and Frankie until they both got reluctantly to their feet. "Jane, you take good care of her, you hear? And get some rest yourself. I don't think either of you have slept well since your big fight."
Maura felt Jane tense a bit behind her and made another move to untangle herself, noting that this time Jane let her go. "I think we'll both sleep better now," she offered, directing her comment to Angela but aware that Jane was likely hanging on every word. "Thank you for everything, Angela. I've...I've really missed this. All of you."
Angela gave her an easy smile but seemed to not be able to resist her usual meddling. "We've all been right here, Maura. No one's going anywhere. And especially not Jane, no matter how stubborn and obnoxious she was being."
"Ma!" Now Maura could definitely sense the eyeroll. "Thank you for that. Now goodnight. Maura needs her rest."
"So does Jane," Maura muttered under her breath. She had to swallow a smile when Jane smacked a little at her thigh. Or was it her thigh? Their close proximity on the couch made what might have been a friendly, teasing move into something a bit more colorful. She reached for the offending hand and tugged gently, essentially pulling Jane's arm around her waist and turning it into a move of her own.
The rest of the Rizzolis said their goodbyes and finally made their way out the door. Maura sighed in relief as the silence settled in around them. It was good to be home. It was good to be alive. And it was good to have Jane back again, Jane with her arm around her waist and holding her gently as Maura leaned back into her on the couch, finally content. She shifted again so that she was curled fully against Jane, sighing as Jane wrapped her other arm back around her shoulders.
"I'm sorry," she whispered into the silence. "I shouldn't have said those things about your father. Or about you and Dean."
"I'm sorry, too," Jane answered immediately. "Truly. I was harsh and petty and mean. And I shouldn't have kept going and going with it. Especially after I left you that day."
"You weren't the only one who kept going," Maura countered. She stopped for a moment to ponder Jane's words. "Left me where?"
"Crying over your grave. Your own grave, for God's sake. I can't tell you how much I wish I had turned back around and gone back to you. I shouldn't have left you there."
"Jane." Maura played with Jane's fingers, pressing lightly to get them to loosen their grip on her as Jane tensed up from the weight of her memories and of their recent trauma. "I told you to go. It wasn't your fault that you listened. You did what I asked you to."
"I should have known," Jane burst out. "I know you, Maura. Better than I think I know anyone else. I should have known enough to see through that and to stay with you. To not have let you push me away. I shouldn't have left you crying at your own grave, after everything you'd been through."
"I put you in an impossible position," Maura insisted, swinging around in Jane's embrace to be able to look her directly in the eyes. She realized then that her move might have been a mistake, for now she was mere inches from Jane in every sense. Her eyes. Her lips. "I asked you to go and you left. You listened to me. That counts for something. For everything, even. You did what I asked. I wouldn't hold you accountable for doing what I told you to do."
"But it's not what I should have done," Jane insisted. She put a hand on Maura's cheek. "Do you want to know what I should have done?" She waited a beat until Maura found her resolve and nodded back, carefully looking Jane in the eye. Maura felt her heart pounding and her hopes lifting. They were alive. She'd keep both her legs. They were friends again. Was it too much to even hope for more?
"I should never have left you," Jane repeated as she held Maura's gaze. "No matter what you said or told me to do. I should have gone back to that grave. I should have been next to you. I should have held you while you cried."
Maura's eyes welled at that and suddenly there was moisture on her cheeks. "Jane," she whispered.
"Please. Let me finish." Maura nodded again and Jane continued, her hand smoothing away Maura's sudden tears. "I should have held you. I should have told you right then that I was so, so sorry. About what I said and what had happened and what you had just learned about your life. And for sleeping with Dean when I should have been with you. I should have always, always been with you."
Maura could scarcely breathe. She'd started the day - most days, lately - believing that she and Jane would never even be friends again and now they were teetering on the edge of something else entirely. "I've always wanted you to be with me," she answered evenly, aware that the truth was exploding before them like it never had before. "But I was never brave enough to admit it. And after Dean and Doyle, I wished more than anything that I had."
"Do you know what else I should have done?" Jane's eyes held a dare and a truth and a promise and a bridge...to what, Maura didn't know, but she had a feeling that it was going to take them very quickly from what was and had been to something else entirely. And then Maura wasn't thinking coherently at all because Jane's lips were pressed against hers and Maura's arms hands were on Jane's face and then she was kissing her back and - oh my God, how was this all exactly like Maura had hoped for but in the same moment well beyond even her wildest imagination?
They were lost in each other for more than a few minutes before Maura gently eased back. "Was this...when you wish you had done this before, was this better than how you thought it would be," she asked bravely, meeting Jane's eyes and rejoicing at the outpouring of love she saw there.
"Well, you're not crying," Jane joked lightly. "And we're not kneeling at your grave."
"But we nearly just ended up in one," Maura pointed out. "And I'm still in desperate need of a shower and my leg is pretty battered, no offense to your handy work, and we're only just friends again."
"Maybe shooting to be friends again isn't the goal," Jane said boldly, smiling as Maura's eyes widened happily. "Especially if, uh, you might want some help with managing the shower and the leg situation."
Maura laughed for the first time in what felt like ages. She was alive. She was sitting on her couch in Jane Rizzoli's arms. Jane Rizzoli, her hero. Her rescuer. Her unlikely surgeon. Her provider of her surrogate family. Her partner in crime. Her best friend. And her...soon to be something else entirely.
She kissed Jane back firmly, reveling in the familiar yet novel taste of Jane's lips against hers, aware for the first time that soon there would be nothing about Jane Rizzoli that she didn't know. "I'll take that offer."
All was well.