a/n: Thanks for all of your positive reviews! To answer some questions, I'm not exactly sure how many chapters the story will be but I know neither woman will have another relationship. Maybe getting asked out but no dating anyone before the end. Eventual Rizzles means when the story starts they are not together, but by the end they will be.


Maura lay in bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling above as her thoughts raced. Dropping Jane off in Quantico yesterday was so much harder than she expected. Especially because she was now aware of her more-than-friends feelings towards Jane. Maura had realized it when they were in Paris and the confession had been at the tip of her tongue ever since.

Jane eyed the cookie suspiciously. "Maura, this does not look like a cookie."

Maura rolled her eyes. "They're called macarons and they are wonderful and delicious French cookies. They are believed to have been born in Italy and brought to France by Catherine di Medici as early as 1533 where it developed into the cookie it is today."

"Alright, alright I'll eat it, enough with the history lesson"

Maura grinned and watched as Jane took a bite of the bright yellow cookie. As she chewed, the brunette's face transformed from one of apprehension to one of appreciation. A faint moan escaped her lips as her eyes fluttered shut. Maura felt her cheeks flush and her stomach shift at the image of her best friend sitting before her.

Maura, ever the scientist, recognized those as physical responses to attraction. But attraction towards Jane? That was a new one. Maura had been attracted to women in college, even tried dating a few before transitioning to dating mainly men. Throughout Maura's adult life, she had felt attraction to women she would meet but the pull was never strong enough, never worth her attention. And Maura definitely never felt this way towards Jane before. Maura expected to feel shocked, unsettled or even a little disgusted but she felt none of those things. Surprisingly, all she felt was a warmth spreading through her body like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"Earth to Maura" came Jane's voice interrupting her thoughts. Maura focused back on Jane to find the detective looking at her strangely.

Maura shook her head to say she was fine. "What did I tell you, good right?"

Jane nodded enthusiastically, curls bouncing and brown eyes shining. "Fantastic! How come you've never showed me them before?"

In that moment, on the streets of Paris, the sunlight creating a faint glow surrounding Jane, Maura realized that she was in love with her best friend.

From then on, Maura tried to ignore the feelings and just be Jane's friend but the opposite happened. With every day in Paris, Maura found herself falling deeper and deeper for Jane with no way of getting rid of the feelings. She even tried sleeping with another woman while in Paris to try and move on, but the girl paled in comparison to Jane.

Maura shut her eyes and pushed those thoughts away. Jane was in Quantico and to Maura's knowledge, was very straight. Nothing could happen, nor would anything ever happen. Maura had to move on with her life without Jane. Even as she thought that, her fingers itched to call Jane and see how the brunette was doing. But instead, Maura twisted and turned before finally falling to sleep.

The ringing of her phone woke her up a couple hours later. Groggily, she saw it said BPD dispatch and answered it. "Dr. Isles...I'll be right there."

She hung up, took a deep breath and got ready to go to her first crime scene without Jane.


Back in Quantico, Jane had woken up at 6:30, gone for a run and was currently unpacking boxes to make her apartment feel less empty. Her couch was placed in front of her now functioning TV. Clothes were organized into the closet and drawers. Angela had secretly packed pots and pans with a note saying, "In case you want to cook sometimes. You can't live off take out forever." Beneath her mom's handwriting was another note in what she recognized as Maura's perfect penmanship, "Try out some of the recipes we learned in Paris xoxo, Maura." Those pots and pans were rinsed and stored in cabinets that she predicted would never be opened.

Finally, she moved to unpack the last box which she purposefully left beneath the coffee table so she didn't have to look at it while she organized her furniture. Scrawled on the side in Jane's messy handwriting was pictures. Inside the box were all of the pictures Jane wanted to take with her and she dreaded opening it in fear of the feelings it would evoke. She took a deep breath for courage and opened the box.

The first picture was of her and Angela, a scowl on Jane's face as her mother gave her the biggest hug. A smile tugged at the corner of Jane's mouth at the thought of her ever-intrusive but always loving mother.

The next picture was of the three Rizzoli siblings, arms around each other and big, genuine smiles on their faces. TJ sat on Jane's lap and was smiling a toothy grin up at the camera. It had been taken by Maura on family day at the precinct. After a game of baseball, which Jane's team of course won, Maura had snapped a picture of the three high on victory.

She pulled another picture out of the box and felt her heart ache. It was of Korsak, Jane and Frost at the Dirty Robber. It was taken, again by Maura, right after they solved a big case. Jane couldn't remember exactly which one but she remembered the feeling of pride and honor that came with catching a murderer. She was going to miss that. Her finger lightly traced over Frost's face. It still stung how soon he was robbed of his life and she still missed him every day.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled her favorite and final photo out of the box. She and Maura had their arms wrapped around one another, eyes sparkling from French champagne, the lights of the Eiffel Tower flickering in the background. She couldn't help but think back to that night and all the emotions that came with it.

"Picture ladies?" came the voice of their waiter. Excitedly, Maura nodded and popped out of her seat, dragging Jane to the window where the Eiffel Tower was visible in the background.

The blonde, drunk off the champagne placed a kiss on Jane's cheek and wrapped her arms around the brunette before turning towards the camera with a wide grin. Jane couldn't help but be infected by Maura's exuberance and found herself mirroring the doctor's smile as she looked at the camera. The waiter snapped the picture and waved goodbye before moving onto the next table.

The pair sat back down and Maura leaned forward, whispering like she was giving away sacred secrets. "Want to know what I did last night?"

Amused and well aware Maura had gone to dinner with her parents and slept at their apartment the night before, Jane decided to play along. "I don't know, Maur."

"I had dinner with my parents" Maura then giggled, actually giggled. Jane didn't think she ever heard Maura giggle before. "But that's not the secret."

Jane raised her eyebrow. "And what is your secret."

The blonde placed her hands on either side of her face and whispered, "I had sex."

Jane snorted. "Alright, what was his name?"

Maura leaned back in her chair and let out a frustrated sigh. "You don't understand!"

Jane looked at her friend confused. "What don't I understand?"

Maura repeated, "I had sex"

"Okay, what was his name?" the detective was growing tired of this game.

"Not his" Maura gave up on getting Jane to guess. "Hers"

Jane's eyebrows shot to her hairline and she sputtered to come up with a response. "You had sex with a woman?" She asked surprise laced in her voice.

Maura nodded, eyes wide. "But don't tell Jane."

Jane could tell her friend was way passed tipsy and Jane wanted to end the conversation so she just nodded and changed the subject. Maura had sex. With a woman. She knew her friend had less rigid ideas of sexuality than she did, but it never came up that Maura was attracted to woman. Throughout their friendship, Maura had only dated men, at least as far as Jane knew. The detective couldn't place the feeling forming in her gut as she processed the information she just learned. Jane felt a headache forming her temples as Maura drunk-explained the history of the Eiffel Tower.

Even now, Jane still couldn't place what she had felt that night in Paris. Maura woke up the next morning with an incredible hangover and mentioned nothing about the night before. Jane didn't know whether or not the blonde remembered the discussion and she certainly wasn't going to bring it up at risk of it becoming too awkward. So like many things in life, Jane chose to ignore it and move on, suppressing whatever emotions she felt about that night down deep where no one could find them. And it had worked until that damn picture came in the mail as a surprise gift from the restaurant. Then that night and all those feelings came rushing back and Jane was left utterly confused.

Sighing, Jane pushed the confusing thoughts out of her head as it didn't matter now- they were 450 miles apart. With the pictures being the final touches on her apartment, Jane had nothing left to do. She decided to go out and find a grocery store to buy some food so she didn't starve, trying, and failing, to forget a certain medical examiner.