A/N: Thanks for the support, everyone! Just one more chapter after this, I think. Then it's back to work on the Bones/R&I crossover, and hopefully the AU I've been getting off the ground. Also, I posted a new video today, so if you'd like to check it out, that'd really make my day! :)

Jane perked up a little in bed when Frankie walked back into the room, looking as uncertain as he had upon leaving it a few minutes ago. When he mumbled that Maura was on her way, Jane was immediately grateful that she wasn't hooked up to a heart monitor, because she knew the instrument would betray her heartbeat's sudden spike. She wasn't even entirely sure why it had started pounding so hard; after all, she had been the one to ask Maura to come. Was she afraid? Was she excited? Upset, happy?

"Hon?" Angela asked. "Are you all right? You look stressed."

"Well, Ma, as you may or may not recall, I was shot yesterday," Jane said.

Angela gave her a vaguely annoyed look. "I meant your expression. Are you sure it's a good idea for Maura to come over here?"

"Of course it is, why wouldn't it be?"

"Well, you know…I just want to make sure you didn't ask her over just to chew her out."

"Chew her out? What for?"

Gesturing to Jane's heavily bandaged shoulder, Angela said, "Her father is responsible for this!"

"Ma, if you're gonna talk like that, I want you to leave before she gets here," Jane said shortly.

"Oh, sweetheart, you know I don't mean anything against Maura," Angela sighed. "I adore that girl. But she may feel guilty for what happened is all I'm saying."

Jane looked over at her brothers, who were both standing on either side of Angela. "You guys don't think that, do you?"

Frankie shrugged, looking uncomfortable. Tommy just folded his arms and shook his head. "No way. Maura's not her dad, she's not close to him. She knows you well enough to know that you won't hold her accountable for what he did."

"I still can't believe he did it at all," Jane admitted. "I mean, I thought he…" She trailed off, not sure how to finish that thought. Liked her? Respected her? No… it was more like he needed her. The last time he'd seen her, he had asked her to take care of Maura. Why, then, would he have taken a shot at her? He could've killed me, Jane thought dumbly to herself. And although it was terrible and a bit stupid of her, she couldn't keep her imagination from jumping into overdrive and visualizing Maura weeping over her lifeless body, vowing revenge on Paddy Doyle.

Frankie pulled her out of this romantic reverie: "You know, maybe we should go anyway." Jane looked at him, and he knew this was what she really wanted, but had felt bad asking for it. "I mean, so you and Maura can talk alone."

Angela looked like she was about to protest, but Tommy put an arm around her shoulder and started steering her out of the room. "Come on, Ma, Janie's survived worse. Let's get some breakfast, huh? You haven't eaten in like, fifteen hours."

"You guys haven't eaten? Yeah, go, go on," Jane said, waving them away.

Tommy and Angela (still under slight protest) left, but Frankie hung back a moment. "Don't worry about Maura," he said.

"I'm not," Jane insisted, sounding thoroughly unconvincing.

"It was hell, Jane," Frankie stated simply. "I mean, the last time you got shot on the job, I didn't have to see it. I wasn't conscious, either. But when Frost told us what happened, I ran in there and saw you, and…" Jane saw him twitch, as if reacting to a shiver that had just ran down his spine. "I think I knew in the back of my mind that you'd be okay, but I just immediately found myself assuming the worst. And Maura was there. She was holding you."

Jane forced herself to bite back the question "holding me how?" It was too embarrassing to ask, and without a concrete answer, she was again able to imagine various possibilities. But then Frankie, again just seeming to know what Jane needed, was able to answer her unasked query:

"I didn't even see you at first, because Frost was kneeling in front of your legs and Maura was like, uh, she had her arms around you and was just sort of hovering over you, like she was trying to protect you." There was more he could have said: Maura was sobbing like she'd lost a lover; when Frankie had come down by Jane's head, Maura had flinched and held Jane closer to her before realizing it was Frankie; she had needed Frost's help in getting to her feet once the ambulance had arrived …but these were details he felt were a bit more private. He saw another unasked question in Jane's eyes, and tried to answer it: "Just be nice to her when she gets here."

"Of course I will, Frankie. I'm the one who asked her to come, remember?"

He nodded and started backing out of the room. "Right, right. Well, I'll go down and wait for her to get here. Tell her where to go."

"Thanks, Frankie."

That old anxiety was creeping in again, and Jane had nothing and nobody around to distract her. She stared up at the television, but didn't feel like turning it on. The pain in her shoulder was surprisingly dull, perhaps overshadowed by Jane's nervousness. She tried to come up with a game plan, but psyched herself out in the process. What on earth to say to Maura? What would Maura be expecting when she got here? Had it been rash to ask her to come? Stop thinking so hard, Rizzoli! Just figure out what you're going to say. Hi, Maura. What's up? …okay, that was lame. Oh yeah, I'm fine. No big deal. Yeah, smooth. Hey, so, I'm sort of in love with you? Is that a question? For the love of God, Rizzoli, STOP!

Her thoughts indeed had no choice but to come to a screeching halt when Maura appeared suddenly in the doorway. Jane felt as though her heart may have stopped as well, as heavy sense of waiting passed between the women. As always, Maura looked breathtaking, and Jane couldn't get her fill of looking at her: she was wearing a pale blue dress that played up her more feminine qualities, but on her way out the door, she'd thrown on a black leather jacket. It wasn't quite Mad Max in appearance (this was Maura Isles, after all), but it leant a sort of tough feeling to her. Jane could envision Maura protecting her in that jacket, going into mama bear mode. Wait, mama bear, whose thing was that? Sarah Palin's? Oh God, why am I thinking about Sarah Palin right now?

"Hey," Jane finally said, mostly to try and initiate anything that would get Palin out of her head.

Instead of giving Jane some kind of verbal response, Maura stepped inside and closed the door behind her. She took the few steps necessary to reach the chair closest to Jane's head and collapsed into it, visibly trembling. On her way over to the hospital, Maura had tried to collect herself and her thoughts, to remind herself that injuries like this always looked worse than they really were. But she had forgotten and underestimated the heartache of seeing Jane lying in a hospital bed (even propped up), bandaged and looking exhausted. Maura couldn't bring herself to say anything, mostly because like Jane, she had no idea where to start. Her chin and lower lip were quivering as if she was about to burst into tears at any moment.

"I feel okay," Jane said, wishing she could come up with something more profound or at least comforting. At the moment, her priority was just to fill up the silence, so she kept on with her bland words. "Really, I'll be fine. I've been in worse scrapes than this. I just feel really tired for some reason."

With a short burst of aggravated breath, Maura said, "How can you just sit there and say that? How can—how can you even look at me?"

"Maura, what're you talking about?"

"My father did this to you!" Maura cried, tears stinging her eyes.

Jane couldn't believe her mother had been right. "Maura, Doyle isn't you. What happened is not your fault."

"He was there to protect me, it is my fault."

"Don't say that. I was there to protect you."

She wasn't really sure what had caused her to say that. Technically she'd been there to catch a criminal, but what had really got her blood going was the fear that Maura might get hurt. Sending her out to do this job alone had been incredibly risky, but the only way of getting the bad guy. Maura also looked a little confused by the sentiment, and ignored it.

"Doyle—came to see me that night."

Jane sat up straighter. "What? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine, I just told him to get out. He wanted to tell me that he didn't mean to shoot you."

"Huh…"

"That he was aiming for Frost."

"Oh." This actually made a lot of sense: Frost had had his gun pointed at Doyle, so Doyle was only defending himself …then Jane had pushed Frost aside, and it had taken only milliseconds for that bullet to hit the wrong target. A chill ran through her at the thought: Frost could have died, but also, Doyle hadn't been aiming for her. She felt strangely… relieved?

"Jane, I don't…"

Jane reached for Maura's hand and grasped it tightly. The doctor inhaled sharply and looked Jane in the eye for the first time. Careful to maintain that contact, Jane said, "Please don't apologize again, Maura. Doyle did what he had to, and I got in the way. And I'm gonna be fine, really."

"It'll scar," Maura protested.

Chuckling, Jane said, "What else is new? It'll be a nice addition to my collection."

A long silence followed. Maura was unconsciously rubbing the back of Jane's hand with her finger, tracing designs that went nowhere. Jane fought the urge to close her eyes: she felt so peaceful, no longer tired from stress. Having Maura at her side, massaging her hand, seemed to be the most natural thing in the world. The only thing that was missing was just one more tiny step to intimacy, anything …a kiss anywhere… but how could she bring that up? She knew why she had wanted Maura the moment she woke up: she had wanted this. She needed her. She loved her. She didn't want that to be a secret anymore.

Then, Maura felt the words just come flowing out of her, unplanned and nervous: "I got your message."

"My message?" Jane asked, looking confused. After a moment or two of silent gazing into those soulful hazel eyes, Jane felt her own eyes widen. "Oh."

"What is it?" Maura asked quietly. When she saw a blush creep up on Jane's cheeks and the detective averted her gaze, Maura tensed. "Is it—bad?"

"I dunno," Jane said, breathing shallowly. "I can't, uh…" It was suddenly hard to think straight. These pent-up emotions had been snowballing inside of her for so long, but she still didn't feel to tell Maura everything. But she had to, now. Trying to talk her way out of explaining the message would be lame and only put off the inevitable.

"Please, just tell me," Maura begged softly.

Jane took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling. "Would you come lie with me?"

"In the bed?"

"Yes, Maura, in the bed," Jane sighed, too tired to tease.

"Is…that allowed?"

"Of course it is. Just come up here."

Sparing a glance for the closed door, Maura hesitantly stood up and waited for Jane to inch over. Once there was enough room for her to feasibly fit, Maura took off her shoes and climbed awkwardly onto the bed. She settled herself in, wary of the light hairs on her arms brushing against Jane's. Part of her understood why Jane had done this: now they weren't looking each other in the eye. Both of them just stared straight upwards. It made talking bluntly much easier, at least in Maura's experience. She felt herself calmed slightly when Jane's hand blindly searched for her own, and their fingers interlocked.

Finally, Jane whispered, "Is there a word, a scientific word, for that feeling you get when you're leaning back in a chair, and for a second you're afraid you're going to fall, but you don't?"

Even though Maura knew exactly the sensation Jane was describing, she had no idea why it was being asked. "I don't think so, no."

"That's how I've been feeling about you lately."

Wondering if Jane's muscle relaxers were messing with her brain, Maura furrowed her brow. "What does that mean?"

"It means…I think it means…I'm crazy about you, Maura. You're on my mind all the time. When I'm not with you, I wish I was. When I am with you, I love that we can spend hours just talking, just being together." She gulped and shut her eyes. When she spoke again, her voice was shallow and cracked with emotion: "I think it means I'm in love with you."

Maura turned her head to look at her, surprised to see that Jane's eyes were closed. Now Jane was the one who was trembling, and Maura wanted to say just the right thing, but her mind wasn't speaking to her right away. She shifted to lie on her stomach, carefully draping an arm around Jane's stomach and tucking her hand beneath Jane's shoulder blade. She lay her face against Jane's unwounded shoulder, inhaling deeply at the feeling of Jane's breath hitching beneath her.

"Jane, I've been waiting so long for you to say that."