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The next afternoon Maura called to make sure Jane was fine and didn't need anything.

"Maura, I don't know what I'm supposed to say now. I know I'm not good with this stuff but I'm pretty sure you broke up with me yesterday. The only thing I need is for things to go back to the way they were."

"I didn't break up with you. I said I needed some time to think about things."

"To think about if you're going to break up with me?"

"You shot yourself. I don't know if I can handle that or handle what you might do next."

"I did what I did to save Frankie."

"So even if you had died it would have been worth it?"

"Yes."

"I don't know how I'm supposed to be okay with that. Has it ever crossed your mind how it would affect me if something happened to you?"

"I warned you, Maura. Remember? I warned you that this is how I did my job."

"I just need time, Jane. I'll talk to you later."

Later Angela stopped by with food for Jane, like she did almost every day since Jane had been home, and she could tell something was bothering her daughter. "What's wrong, Janie?"

"Ma, I need to ask you something. Do you think what I did was reckless?"

"Oh, honey. There seems to be endless ways for you to get injured at your job. You have always tried to protect others before yourself and you'd probably do that even if you weren't a cop. That's why I worry about you every day. Very few people would have gone after Hoyt without waiting for back-up but you wanted to save that woman even if you put yourself in danger. Same this time. You hurt yourself so Bobby couldn't hurt anyone else. There are a lot of ways to view that and reckless is definitely one of them. But it's who you are and I learned a long ago there was no way to change that."

"Can you tell that to Maura?"

"What are you talking about?"

"She said I was reckless and she didn't know if she could be with me anymore."

"Oh Janie, it's been an emotional couple of weeks. I'm sure she'll come around, just give her a little time. She loves you."

"How do you know she loves me?"

"Because I've seen you two together. It's obvious in the way she looks at you and how happy she is when you're with her. Hasn't she told you she loves you?"

"No."

"You've told her you love her, right?"

"Um, no. I mean I think I love her, but it's not something you just go around saying without being sure."

"Jane! No wonder she's running away from you. I would smack you if you weren't recovering from being shot. You better decide how you feel and tell her before you lose her."

"How do I do that?"

"You're going to have to figure that one out on your own."

Jane's right. She warned me. I knew it could all fall apart and I accepted that as part of being with her. I told her I didn't care, that she should stop trying to protect me from getting hurt by her. Is it wrong to look for some kind of reassurance from her now? To show me that I matter to her? Am I the one being irrational now? But she shot herself. Of all the ways I thought she could get hurt this never even crossed my mind. Jane said she wants things to go back to the way they were. I don't know if I can. Honestly, that's not even what I want. I still want more. Even though I'm so angry with her part of me never wants to even see her again, and I'm terrified of what could happen in the future, I still want more.

Angela left Jane sitting on her couch, absentmindedly petting Jo who was stretched out next to her. "Fuck, how am I supposed to know what to do?" Jane looked at Jo. "Why don't I have someone to talk to about this who isn't a dog? I warned her that I would hurt her. She accepted that. And now she's angry at me because I did exactly what I told her I'd do. Is that my fault? Don't answer that, Jo. Okay, we have to think about this rationally. Maura is...everything. I want to be near her all the time. When she's gone for more than ten minutes I miss her. I want to go to sleep with her every night and wake up with her every morning, even though we've only done that once. Her smell makes me happy. Wow, that's a weird thing to say. Don't tell anyone I said that, Jo. Fuck, I'm having a conversation with my dog."

Jo seemed to take offense at that and got up to go to the kitchen to look for food. "I love Maura. What am I going to do now?"

The next day Jane asked Maura to come over after work. She couldn't wait any longer to see Maura. That evening Maura sat on Jane's couch while Jane paced the living room.

Jane said, "I want to tell you something but I have to ask you a question first. How come you never stay the night with me?"

"You've never asked me to."

"Oh."

"Why didn't you ever ask me to stay?" Maura asked.

"I thought you didn't want to because you always left. And I thought if I asked, you'd say no and then it would be awkward. But it turns out that we both just might be too dumb to be in a relationship."

"Is that why I'm here, so we can talk about how bad we are at this?" Maura started to get up.

"No, please stay. I have a few things to say, so please let me say them, and then you can respond however you want to."

"Okay," Maura sat back down.

Jane sat down on the coffee table facing Maura. "I'm sorry that I hurt you. That I didn't think about how my actions would affect you. I can't promise you that I won't do something like this again. It's just who I am. I will take irrational risks again in the future. But I can promise that I will try to make every moment we spend together worth it for you. I want to spend every available second we have together. I want to hear every piece of knowledge in your head. I want to do all things you love to do with you. I want to go to sleep with you and wake up next to you." Maura was looking down at her lap. Jane waited until she realized Jane had paused and looked up into Jane's eyes. "I love you, Maura. No, that's not quite right. I'm in love with you."

Maura was silent for a moment. "Can I ask why you're telling me all this now."

"When you left the other night, I thought that was it, that I was going to lose you. I talked to Ma. She told me I should tell you how I feel. You know I'm not really introspective. It seems stupid but I hadn't really thought about how I felt. I talked to Jo about it."

"You talked about your feelings with your dog?"

Jane shrugged, "She's a good listener. I realized I took you for granted. I took it for granted that we'd just keep keep going along like we had been. I didn't want to deal with feelings. I was wrong, as usual. I want us to really be together, no more holding back."

"I'm embarrassed to say I wanted to hear all of that. Or maybe I needed to hear all of that. I don't think I did before the shooting. Since then I needed something from you to show me that this was real to you. I love you too, Jane. I've been in love with you for what seems like forever. I want everything you want."

Jane leaned forward and Maura closed the distance between them and they shared a gentle kiss. "Will you stay here with me tonight?"

"Of course," Maura replied.

A/N This might it for this story. What do you think?