AN: Hey y'all! Just want to say a big thank you to all of you who have read, followed, favorited, and reviewed. It's meant so much to me. Without your reviews and pleas for more this story would probably still be a one shot. Anyway, sorry this has taken a little bit longer for me to get out to you, but thanks for sticking around with me until I could. Enjoy!


She made her way down the stairs. She could tell from the smells and the clanging of pots and pans that Angela was already in her kitchen. Now was a good a time as any to talk to Angela about dinner tonight.

"Good morning Maura," Angela said gaily as she made her way into the kitchen.

"Morning Angela," she replied in as happy of a tone as she could manage. Honestly, she kind of felt like a nervous wreck. She noticed that bunny pancakes were already in a pan and there was coffee already made. She smiled a little at the fact that the bunny pancakes were already going. It might be a little childish of her, but she really did like them, and it was sweet that Angela continued to make them for her.

Maura made her way over to the coffee pot and poured herself a cup. "It smells wonderful Angela."

"Thank you. I hope you like it."

"You know I always enjoy your bunny pancakes," she replied with a sincere smile lighting up her face. "I was wondering if we could talk about dinner tonight though?"

"Ok?" Angela asked her questioningly. "What about dinner tonight?"

She had to be careful about how she phrased this. The last thing she wanted to happen was to end up with hives. She didn't necessarily like that she was lying either, but it was necessary. "I was wondering if dinner could be moved to your house tonight?"

"Oh, are you having company over tonight? Of course we can move it over to my house," Angela replied giddily.

"No, I'm not having company over tonight. I just have some things that I need to take care of that won't be done before dinner starts and I would prefer to move dinner, this once, to your place."

"Alright, we can do that for tonight. Are you still going to be joining us?"

Here was where she needed to be careful. Yes, she would definitely be at that dinner; at some point. She just wasn't sure if she wanted to be there before it started the way she always had in the past. She wanted to make a little bit more of an entrance this time. "It's a definite possibility," Maura replied noncommittally. "I don't think I'll be able to help you prepare this time like I usually would either."

"That's okay. I'll call Janie and see if she can come help. It's too bad though, it would be fun to have the two of you in the kitchen helping me," Angela said as she slid a plate of bunny pancakes in front of Maura.

"Maybe one of these days we can do that," she commented. That maybe depended on her plan working. Aside from when they had caught a case Jane hadn't spoken to her about anything that wasn't work related. She hadn't even come down to the morgue to try and get her to hurry with an autopsy report. When the report was done she didn't bother taking it upstairs to Jane. Instead she sent it with Susie.

"Is everything okay between you and Jane?" Angela asked as she took her own plate and sat down beside Maura.

Maura finished chewing the piece of pancake in her mouth and then tried to suck in a deep breath as discreetly as she could. This was not territory she wanted to venture into this morning, but she had to say something. "Things have been a little stressed lately. We've been thrown a few cases that have been a little tougher to solve recently and you know how both Jane and I hate to have those that we just can't piece together enough to solve."

"Sounds about right," Angela mused. "Jane hates to have cases go cold or end up unsolved."

They sat and chatted a little while longer about different things as they drank another cup of coffee. Their main topic of conversation was what Angela would prepare for dinner that evening. Maura was thankful that Angela didn't bring up anything more about something going on between her and Jane. She didn't want to have to lie. Though the more she thought about it, she may be doing something worse than lying later. She wasn't sure yet how her idea might go over, but she had to give it a try.

R&I

After finally getting Angela out of the house Maura went upstairs to start getting everything ready. She needed to decide on just the right outfit for tonight. She walked into her closet and started to look around. First, she needed to decide on whether she wanted to go with a dress or possibly go a little more casual. How she normally dressed depended on how formal Angela would consider the dinner. Usually it was fairly casual, but she hadn't ever let that stop her before if she wanted to dress up a little. Tonight was different though.

Maura walked over to the dress section of her closet. She started there, but she couldn't seem to find anything that caught her eye as just the right thing to wear that night. So, she decided to move on to mixing and matching. She tried out several pairings, but still couldn't find anything. They all still seemed a little formal. While this night would be important she still wanted to seem a little relaxed about it too.

She turned and started looking at her jeans. She thought how she really should wear them a little more often. Jane would often ask her to go out places dressed a little more casually than she usually preferred, but she would always oblige Jane's requests. A thought flitted across her mind about possible dressing a little more like Jane did and she started to look around her closet. It wasn't long before she found what she was looking for.

Maura pulled the clothes from her closet and looked at the time. She had picked her outfit just in time; she needed to get going to make it to the florist's. It had taken a couple of days to track down a florist in town who could get what she needed and was open on Sunday so that she could pick them up that day before dinner. She risked someone else discovering them if she had to pick them up the day before and then keep them until dinner the next night.

She unlocked the car and climbed in to head to the florist's. She had the whole grand gesture down. She knew she would need one if she was going to prove to Jane that she wanted to be with her. That's what she had planned for tonight, the grand gesture. However, to go with it she needed the right thing to say; and she still didn't have that just yet. The flowers would go a ways in helping to say the things she had a hard time expressing verbally, but they could only go so far she needed more. Maura pondered it the entire way to the florist's but still didn't have anything she felt right for the situation.

Maura got out of the car and headed into the open shop. The florist was currently helping a man pick out the right flowers for his anniversary, so she decided to browse the shop a little until the florist was free. As she looked around the shop she wondered if she should get something else to take to dinner tonight besides the flowers. Then she remembered she had a few bottles of wine that she had bought a while back that would pair well with the meal Angela was fixing and decided that would take that as well.

"May I help you," a voice startled her out of her thoughts about the wine for dinner.

"Oh, yes," Maura replied as she turned around to the shopkeeper who had finished with the other customer. "I have some flowers I need to pick up. Isles is the name."

"Why yes, Ms. Isles, we spoke on the phone. I've got your order all ready to go right over here."

Maura followed the woman over to a counter. The woman walked behind it and over to a refrigerated case where she pulled out two bouquets of roses. The first bouquet of a dozen being all pink; the second bouquet of a dozen containing a mixed assortment of colored roses.

"Now I hope you don't mind, but blue roses are a little harder to come by so I did the best that I could. I couldn't find any that were truly a deep blue, but I thought that a deep blue would stand out a bit too much from the other colors you requested in the bouquet so I went with a little bit lighter blue. However, not so light that it's like a baby boy blue or anything, or a blue tint that could be construed as lavender. Here, let me just show you," the woman said as she finally gathered up the bouquet and brought it over to show Maura.

"It looks lovely," Maura replied. She gazed down a the bouquet composed of red, white, yellow, orange, and the blue roses. Yes, compared to the other colors any kind of blue would stand out a little, but it was more about what the colors meant than it was about how well the colors looked next to each other. The florist had done an amazing job at arranging them and getting the right shade of the colors so they did complement each other.

"I hope you don't mind my saying this, but it seems as though you have a lot you are trying to say with these bouquets. Especially the mixed bouquet."

Maura looked up from the bouquets and into the eyes of the florist. Who would know better about what she was trying to say with the flowers than a florist? "You could say that."

"Well, she must be one special woman. I hope she knows what all of these mean and understands what you're trying to say to her with all of them."

"I don't know if she will at first or not, but I'm hoping that eventually she will see. Giving her these is all I know to do. I seem to freeze up when I try to say the things to her I really want to say. I've made some mistakes here lately, but I'm hoping these can be a start to saying what it is she means to me. I'm hoping that she will give me one more chance to show her what she means to me."

"Personally, I think she would be crazy if she ignored all the trouble you went through to get flowers for her that said all that these say. But, she was smart enough to choose you once, I'm sure she'll be smart enough to give you one more chance," the florist winked at her at the end of her statement.

Maura flushed a little with embarrassment and handed over the money to pay for the flowers. She then scooped up the two bouquets and made her way out of the shop. A smile played at the corners of her mouth. The words that the florist had said gave her a little bit of hope. Jane had chosen her. Jane had wanted her until she messed things up. Now she could just hope that the florist was right and that Jane would give her one more chance.

R&I

By the time she had gotten back from the florist, got out the bottle of wine she had decided to take, and started to get ready Maura was now running a few minutes late. Though she would get over to Angela's a little earlier than she thought she would. They should be getting started eating by the time she made it, but only just. It's not like she was going to make it only in time for dessert or anything.

Maura took a couple of steps back and looked at herself in her full length mirror. She had decided on dark skinny jeans and a white button up dress shirt. Over that she had put on a pullover sweater and then rolled the cuffs of the shirt up over the ones on the sweater.

It wasn't at all typically what she would wear; she thought of it more of something Jane would wear. Actually she would love to see Jane dressed like this one day, she would have to try and make that happen. But, for tonight she really thought it would look good for tonight. Compared to her normal style this was fairly casual, but she didn't want to go over dressed to dinner. It might seem like she tried too hard if she showed up in something else.

Maura slid into a pair of flats. She hated to do it; she hated going out in anything that was less than three inches, but every pair she tried on with her outfit didn't seem to work. Heels had always helped to even out the height difference between her and Jane and she hated to give that up. Tonight though, it was a sacrifice she was willing to make.

Maura took one last look at herself in the mirror and then made her way downstairs. She walked into the kitchen where she had the wine and the bouquets on the island. She picked them all up and made her way over to the back door leading from the kitchen to the courtyard where she could cross over to the door of the guesthouse.

A couple of short minutes later she found herself standing outside of the front door to the guesthouse. Part of her wanted to turn around and walk back to the main house and not look back, but she knew she couldn't; she had to do this. Before her brain had time to register what her hand was doing she had reached out and hit the doorbell.

She faintly heard voices and the sounds of a chair scooting back. One of them was headed to answer the door. She hoped it was Angela. It was going to be even more awkward if it was Jane or one of her brothers at the door instead.

The door started to open and she heard, "Oh, Maura dear. You made it after all. And just in time too, we've only just started eating."

"Thank you Angela," she stuttered a little as she started to step through the doorway. "Here this can go with dinner if you like," she said as she handed the bottle of wine over to Angela. "And these are for you," she said as she presented Angela with the bouquet of pink roses.

"Oh Maura, they're lovely. What's the occasion?"

"I'm just grateful to have you in my life and thought you might like them." So, that wasn't the whole truth. Pink roses symbolized admiration and gratitude and she very much admired Angela. But she also hoped that if things went terribly tonight the flowers would soften Angela up a bit.

Maura followed Angela the short distance to the dining room of the guest house. Everything stopped and Jane and her brothers looked up. The boys had forks halfway to the mouth. Jane just looked up from her plate.

"I'm just gonna go open this and get these in some water," Angela said as she made her way to the kitchen from the dining room.

Jane just continued to stare and Maura was lost for a moment as to what to say to her. "What's with all the flowers?" Tommy asked as he laughed a little like he was in on some kind of inside joke.

This pulled Maura from her thoughts. "Oh, Jane, these are for you," she said as she stepped closer to where Jane was sitting and holding up the bouquet for her to see.

"Ooooo, has Maura been in the dog house?" Tommy inquired in a suggestive tone; again with a little laugh like he was in on a joke.

If looks could kill the one Jane was now giving Tommy would qualify as killer. Maura kept her eyes on Jane. Frankie sat back in his chair and observed everything that was taking place.

Jane finally returned her attention to Maura. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to say everything that I should have said before, but didn't," Maura replied honestly.

Jane rose from her chair and rounded the table. She took a hold of Maura's arm and led her into the kitchen. Angela was just about to make her way back to the dining room with the now open bottle of wine. "Girls what's…?"

"Not now Ma," Jane interrupted. "Just give us a minute."

"Actually could you just wait a minute?" Maura requested. "I have something that I would like to ask you."

"What is it?" Angela questioned.

This was not going exactly how she had imagined it might, but she was here now and she needed to take a stand and do something. "I would like your permission to date your daughter," Maura spat out hurriedly.

"What!" Angela and Jane both exclaimed at the same time.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jane asked in a hushed tone through clenched teeth.

Angela laid her hand on Maura's forehead. "And Ma, what do you think you're doing?" Jane asked turning her attention to her mother for a moment.

"Just checking to make sure she's not running a fever. She's been acting a little strange here lately so I thought I'd check."

"Ma, just give us a minute," Jane pleaded.

"No," Maura spoke up. She turned to Jane, "I asked a question and I want an answer to it. Angela," she said now looking at the mother of the woman she loved, "Jane and I have had a relationship for a while now. A few weeks back she asked if we could make things more serious and I got scared, so I walked out. It was the biggest mistake of my life. I came tonight to ask your permission to date your daughter so that she understands that I am taking the commitment of a relationship with her as a serious thing. I want to be with her and I want the most important people in our lives to know that we are together."

Both women stood there looking at her. She didn't know what she should do next, but only one thing came to mind. She held up the bouquet of roses she hadn't yet been able to give Jane. "Pink roses are said to symbolize gratitude and joy. I am so grateful to have someone as amazing as you in my life and you bring me more joy and happiness than I ever thought possible. Yellow, is for friendship. It's really the only rose color that is platonic in meaning. You and I started out as friends. Orange speaks of passion and energy, something we both definitely have. Red, of course, stands for love. Jane Clementine Rizzoli I love you more than anyone else in this entire world. I can't imagine my life without you in it and I hope that I never have to experience it. Blue roses often stand for unobtainable things. As if I know I can't have you, but I also can't stop thinking about you. I have made mistakes, I know that, and because of them I may never be able to have you. But, I won't ever stop thinking about you or loving you. And white, which stands for purity and innocence because I came here tonight with the purist of intentions; to apologize for the things I've done, to show you that I am serious about loving and wanting a relationship with you, and to ask that you give me one more chance. I picked the six colors that I felt represented things about us and made sure there were two of each; a pair…This isn't exactly how I thought this might play out in my head, but I think I accomplished what it is I came to do. So, I'll go now."

Tears welled in the eyes of all of the women standing in the room. Maura forced the bouquet into Jane's hands and turned to leave. She was out in the courtyard by the time she felt a hand on her arm to halt her steps.

Maura started to turn, expecting to get an anger fueled rant about what she'd just done. Now that she thought about it the idea of walking into dinner and asking Angela if she could date her daughter wasn't the best idea she'd ever had. In face it was quite imprudent now that she thought it through more.

Before she could think of anything else though, a pair of lips crashed on hers. It took a moment for her brain to register what was happening and she could kiss back. It was intense, but not in the hungry way they normally kissed each other. Maura could feel love in the kiss and the tense feelings she had about Jane being mad at her slipped away with every moment that the kiss lasted.

They broke apart a few moments later when their lungs started to scream for oxygen. Jane leaned down and rested her forehead on Maura's. Her eyes stayed closed as she just breathed.

After a couple of moments of just standing there together like that Jane opened her eyes and looked deeply into Maura's hazel ones. "You can't just walk into dinner and say things like that, make me feel like I've turned into a puddle of goo and then just leave," Jane whispered to Maura. "Especially when you managed to effectively render my mother speechless," she said as she gave a breathy laugh as the thought about the look on her mother's face. "And I kind of like the fact that you're a few inches shorter than I am without your heels."

"Jane I'm…"

Once again Jane's lips were on hers. It was just a short chaste kiss meant to keep her from finishing her sentence. "Just stay," Jane asked of her.

"You couldn't make me go anywhere else if you tried."

THE END


Yeah, as much as I hate to say it this one has come to an end. I had an idea for another chapter, but I think I might just make it a one shot to itself. Anyway, thank you all again for sticking with me on this. I hope you enjoyed this fic and as always, I'd love to hear anything you have to say!