Chapter 2

Maura woke by habit shortly before her alarm was due to sound and managed to extricate herself from Jane's arms just in time to turn it off before it woke the sleeping detective. Jane needed the rest, Maura reasoned. They could stay in bed a little while longer. With an affectionate smile, Maura folded herself back against Jane's chest. Her smile grew as she felt a long arm slip around her bare waist and squeeze.

"You're naked," Jane mumbled sleepily without opening her eyes. "And in my bed."

"Actually, you're in my bed," Maura reminded her with a quiet chuckle and Jane opened her eyes then, to blink at the room around her. A glimmer of understanding flickered in her expression. She remembered the nightmares, arriving at Maura's door, and - blushing - all that had followed.

"You... You did that... for me," Jane faltered. It wasn't a question but she sounded bewildered.

"It worked," Maura answered, the barest hint of uncertainty in her voice now. "You slept through the rest of the night, Jane."

To Maura's relief, her lover had begun to grin. "How was I gonna have a nightmare after that?!" She trailed her fingertips over Maura's hip with a disbelieving little laugh, following them with her eyes until Maura's hand on her chin gently guided her gaze upward. Their eyes met and Jane's blush deepened but she still met Maura's kiss with lips upturned in a helpless smile.

Jane trailed her fingers from Maura's hip to her shoulder as she kissed her, then cupped her neck with both hands to pull her in closer. She could clearly feel every inch of the little doctor pressed up against her and the thought that this should feel strange in its newness barely occurred to her. It was as though Maura's body was made to fit against hers.

"Hey," she said softly, an entirely different thought striking her as she leaned her head back. She wet her lips, embarrassed. "Y-you know I would've done the same for you, right? Last night? I wasn't just-"

Maura kissed the worry from Jane's lips. "I wanted you to sleep," she promised.

"Yeah but I wasn't-"

Maura smiled to see Jane stumble over her words.

"-I wasn't just using you like a sleeping pill, y'know?" Jane's cheeks were as red as they'd ever been, her olive complexion offering little respite. Nervously, she tucked a lock of honey blonde hair behind Maura's ear, earning a little chuckle in the process. "I reallly... honestly... wanted that, Maur. I mean I want that - this. With you."

"I love you," Maura murmured in reply - the summation of Jane's nervous ramblings - and she could feel the detective's sigh of relief. "And, Jane, you can have me anytime you want. ...Except," she dodged a kiss here, "right now. We have to get up for work."

Maura volunteered to take the first shower and so Jane lay in the doctor's bed, nudging the twisted sheets with her toes until she could no longer stand the inactivity or, equally, the continuous patter of running water that meant Maura was naked just behind the en suite door.

Sliding out of bed, Jane ran her fingers through her hair twice before finding her pyjamas from the night before and then - at the last second - one of Maura's robes. It wasn't a decision made so much for the additional modesty as it was made for herself.

This robe wasn't the same one that she had seen Jack parading around in one morning almost a year ago (thankfully Jane hadn't seen Maura wearing that particular robe since either and she sincerely hoped that it had been unsentimentally disposed of) but that morning had affected Jane more than she'd cared to admit at the time. Out of nowhere she'd felt a deep emotional push to send him packing. Sure Jack was a human Ken doll of male charm, thoughtfulness, and success, but Jane had hated him as much as she'd hated any of the loser boyfriends that had preceded him. No matter how suave he was, he had no place in Maura's kitchen, in her wardrobe, in her bed. No one did. (No one else).

Now, Jane took absolute pleasure in swathing herself in the silky lavender folds of one of Maura's favourite robes, as if claiming herself for the beautiful blonde. The boundaries of their relationship remained murky in their newness, yet for once that didn't petrify the detective. She had faith that they would figure it out. She already knew that she would give Maura any part of herself that she asked. In many ways, she had done so a long time ago.

And so it was with her guard completely down and a broad smile on her face to boot, that Jane paraded into Maura's kitchen, intent on a first cup of coffee to complete the best morning of her life. Maybe she'd even do battle with the doctor's crazy coffee machine so that she could surprise her lover with the good stuff!

All of these thoughts flew from Jane's mind, however, when she saw her own mother, fully dressed, standing at the stove over a pan full of bunny pancakes. Fuck. Maura had turned off her alarm; it was later than usual and Angela was already here. Jane's cheeks flooded red but she couldn't move. Her feet froze against the tiles as her mother reacted to the footsteps and began to turn.

"Morning, Mau-"

The silence that should have been filled by the second half of Maura's name was deafening and Jane pulled her lover's robe tighter around her defensively.

"Morning, Ma!" Jane winced at the unnaturally high pitch at which her own voice escaped and Angela's mouth fell open. "Um…" she faltered guiltily, glancing around the kitchen for a distraction. "D-do you know how to work, um, how to work the coffee machine… y'know, for Maur?"

Angela gawped for only a few moments longer before turning to flip her pancakes over without a word.

"Ma?" Jane tried again, more softly, and Angela forced a nod.

"Just let me finish the pancakes," she answered, still not turning back around. Her voice was as high-pitched as Jane's had been, with a little quiver added in, and Jane felt her heart break to hear it.

"Um, I can finish the pancakes if you make the coffee…?" she suggested, although there were a hundred things she wanted to explain first. She was relieved when her mother finally nodded and stepped back, entrusting her pancakes to Jane while she retrieved a set of mugs from the cupboard - three, Jane noticed. At least her mother wasn't going to run away (although Jane thought she might).

"So, you and Maura had a bit of a girls' night last night?" Angela tried hopefully as the coffee machine began to grumble. She glanced at Jane over her shoulder but her smile didn't reach her eyes.

"I had a bad nightmare," Jane answered. Her voice was quiet as she prodded at the pancakes with a spatula. "Sometimes when they're too much, Maur lets me come around. To talk. Or just… not be alone."

"So that's all-?" Angela began with a sigh of relief but Jane's expression as she took the pancakes off the stove and turned caused the Rizzoli matriarch to fall uncharacteristically silent. "…Oh," she finally said.

"We've never… before," Jane felt the need to promise. "It's not like we've been sneaking around behind your back or something. Honestly, we just- I mean- It was bad, last night, Ma. And I needed her. …In a different way than I thought I did."

Biting her lip, Angela passed Jane a cup of coffee and gave an uncertain nod. "Maura's robe is a really pretty colour on you, Janie."

Jane grinned at that, flipping her messy curls over one shoulder and striking a sassy pose just as Maura walked into the kitchen and burst into such a joyful bout of laughter that Angela had to join in.

"What?" Jane whined, not even trying to hide her excitement or her relief at Maura's entry. "I can pull it off!"

Maura flipped her own hair, now neatly blow-dried, and winked. "Of course you can, Jane." She nodded gratefully as Angela handed her a cup of coffee too. "Thank you, Angela. I'm so glad that one of you can work the coffee machine."

Angela chuckled, shaking her head at that. "I've told Janie a hundred times, she's never gonna find a man if she can't at least make a good cup of coffee! But it seems like my worries were misplaced."

Maura's jaw dropped as she caught the sparkle in Angela's eye, and she rounded on Jane, shocked but delighted that the detective had seen fit to confess their activities to her mother. Jane offered an apologetic shrug, mistaking Maura's surprise for censure, yet seconds later found herself being pulled into a kiss every bit as passionate as it was public.

Jane touched Maura's cheek in a brief gesture of understanding as they separated and then ducked her head before turning back to her mother. The hand not wrapped around her hot coffee, she wrapped around Maura's waist, pulling the smaller woman's warm body flush against her side. "So you're okay with this, Ma?" she hinted with a hopeful flutter of her eyelashes.

At that, Angela began to scoop her finished set of perfect bunny pancakes onto three plates and to draw faces on them with a bottle of syrup. She kept her head lowered, both to concentrate and in an attempt to mask her increasingly bright smile. Stifling a cruel little giggle, the Rizzoli matriarch let her daughter sweat for a few long moments more before whipping her head up and setting the syrup down on the counter with a flourish. "I'd welcome you to the family," she announced to Maura. "But, sweetie, you've been part of our family for a long time."

All at once, Angela's bravado was melting into sweetness and sincerity in a way that couldn't help but remind Maura of Jane. Happy tears flew to her eyes and Maura found herself leaning heavily into Jane's side as the detective squeezed her arm around her and dropped a tender kiss on top of her head. "Angela, thank you," she whispered. "That means so much."

Angela shrugged the praise off, as per her nature, but an appreciative grin lingered at the corner of her mouth. "I don't know anyone who could love my Janie like you already do, Maura," she added truthfully and Maura's beam grew, if possible, brighter still.

"There's no one on this earth I love more," she breathed.

Halfway to picking up a pancake in her free hand, Jane instead wrapped both arms around Maura's waist and pulled her into a tight, possessive hug. Her voice, when she was finally able to speak, came out choked with emotion, huskier even than usual. It was, Maura thought, her favourite sound.

"How'd I get so lucky, Ma?" Jane managed to ask, and into Maura's hair she murmured, "Maur, I'm so so done pretending I ever wanted anyone but you…"

It was only later, once the three of them had shared a breakfast filled with love and laughter and Maura had hustled Jane on into her car in a last ditch attempt to get them to work on time, that Jane had a chance to reflect fully on the past day's happenings and how, most improbably, her worst nightmares had caused her sweetest dreams to come true.