Author's note: thank you very much for all your reviews and messages.

Chapter twenty-six: Yes Or Not

"May I ask you something? The two of you?"

Jane and Maura exchanged a knowing look and nodded at Margot. The adolescent usually didn't ask for permission. After two months spent in Boston, she simply went ahead and asked. Her sudden hesitation was taking them aback.

"Fine." Margot put her pen down on the kitchen counter and looked at her hosts. "How... How did your proposal go? Who proposed whom? When, where?"

Jane and Maura remained silent for a while. They hadn't expected such question. Not now, only four days before the end of Margot's American stay. The absence of reply and her hosts' embarrassment made the French girl laugh.

"What? Is there a problem with it? Was it... Was it bad or something?"

Jane snorted. She knew that it was ridiculous but her ego prevented her from remaining quiet over it. There was no way Jane Rizzoli would have faced a failed proposal; even for a make-up story. It had to be beautiful and successful. Period.

"Jeez... Of course no! It was perfect." She barely cast a glance at Maura before feverishly sharing the scenario she had just come up with in her head. "Fenway Park. It was packed. The sun was..."

"You are lying, Jane."

Maura's comment took her completely aback. Of course she was lying but Margot wasn't supposed to know about that. What was going on? Jane turned around and stared at her partner in disbelief.

"She wishes it happened at Fenway Park. She wishes everything happened at Fenway but reality is different at times." A timid smile played on Maura's lips as she approached Jane.

She grabbed her hand and took the ring off. Jane swallowed hard. What was Maura doing? Had she reached her limits and didn't want to pretend that they were married anymore? Was she about to let Margot know that it was all a lie?

They only had a few days left before it being over. It was nothing compared to the two months they had been through. She could do it. They could do it.

Maura shook her head and sweetly looked at Margot.

"Fantasies don't always come true but that doesn't mean reality can't be beautiful either."

Jane widened her eyes in panic. She didn't like the way things were turning. Two minutes before, she was enjoying a night talk in the kitchen after a full day at work. What had happened? Why so suddenly? She looked down at her bare hand and bit her lips. She felt naked without the ring.

"What do you mean? It didn't take place at Fenway?" Margot looked as lost as Jane but a lot less panicked. She grabbed her glass of water and took a sip, eager to know what Maura had to say.

The medical examiner shook her head and let the ring slide under her fingers. Her hesitation didn't last very long as if what she was about to do was purely logical, fair. And it was. She knew it was.

"No." She made a step towards Jane and swallowed hard.

Trust yourself, Isles. Listen to your heart.

Maura laughed timidly and locked her eyes with her partner's dark ones. She was shaking but didn't focus on it. If she did then she knew that it would be over and – perhaps – she wouldn't dare to ask ever again. She had to do it now.

"It happens in the kitchen, just here... After a day at work." Her voice rose in an emotional murmur. "I stand here in front of Jane and am unable to tell her all the things going on in my head. I am not good at expressing my feelings but luckily, you know they are there." Not breaking eye-contact with Jane, Maura touched her heart, tilted her head slowly. "There are a thousand words I could use... But I can't find the one that would reflect with accuracy how I feel and you know how I hate when one lacks precision. I don't have a speech written in advance. I have nothing... Nothing but this ring and my eternal love for you. We have been through a lot together but the best still has to come..."

Jane froze. She doubted that Margot had noticed the subtlety of the tense Maura was using but she herself hadn't missed it. She wasn't talking in the past – unable to lie – but in the present being. As if she were about to do it.

As if Maura were proposing her. Now.

Actually, there was no if. By the honesty of Maura's voice, Jane understood immediately what was happening. She was proposing her now, in the middle of the kitchen; in front of Margot who really had no idea what was going on.

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you, in your arms. Nothing really makes sense when you aren't around. I am lost without you. Do you... Do you remember the day you asked me how far I would go for you?" Maura waited for Jane to nod. "Well, I would die for you. And if you happened to die today... I would die tomorrow. Because I love you and... I can't go on without you." With an emotion barely contained, she grabbed Jane's hand to slide back the ring on her finger before locking her eyes with hers. "I want to marry you. I really do."

Time seemed to get suspended and Jane remained still, unable to move. She kept on blinking but couldn't say a word at all. She was shocked, in the most beautiful way one could ever imagine.

"Oh my God... I don't know what the cutest is: the fact you remember it all or that you are still so emotional when talking about it."

Margot's comment made Jane jump and she finally turned her head around to look at the teenager. Margot was clapping her hands; tears in her eyes. Her grin lit up her graceful features as her eyes went back and forth from her to Maura.

She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Gosh, Maura. That was so beautiful. I wish I had been there when you really proposed Jane. It must have been sooo romantic!" She shook her head. "You two are almost too cute to be true."

...

Maura turned the lights off and the room plunged in the dark. Laid on her back, Jane stared at the ceiling quietly. If they had moved on – carried by Margot's energy – she hadn't stopped thinking about the kitchen scene; all evening long. She hadn't dreamed. She knew what Maura had done. It was not just a fantasy in her head. No.

Maura had proposed her; subtly, implicitly.

Wasn't it too early? They had barely been dating for a month. But then could she say their relation had ever followed a classic scheme? Even as friends, they weren't like the others. They had always been different. Always.

The two months spent under the same roof had really gone smoothly. Jane's slight anxiety before the idea of sharing someone's life 24h/day hadn't found a single echo here.

It worked out with Maura. It worked out so well that she didn't feel like going back to her own place. She couldn't ignore it.

But what if they were rushing into things? What if it cost them something that could mean so much more? Something that could define the rest of their life?

Perfectly still in bed, she let her eyes wander on the form lying next to her in the dark. Maura had not tried to get closer to her. She had not asked for cuddles when she usually did. Instead, she seemed to keep that reasonable distance that only highlighted the weight of the words she had had in the kitchen in the evening.

Something had to happen. Yes or no. But they couldn't remain quiet nor pretend that it was not relevant because it was and they knew it.

"Yes."

Jane's hoarse voice broke the silence of the night. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She thought about her brother, about her mother. About the first time she had met Maura. About all the rest; all the things she had lived since then.

And the kiss. The first one they had shared.

Maura turned her head and squinted her eyes in the dark. She rolled on a side to face her partner and caressed Jane's cheek with the back of her hand.

"Are you sure?"

The question made Jane laugh. It wasn't the kind of reaction she had thought Maura would have - it wasn't classic - but she didn't care if it didn't match all these movie scene proposals she had watched once.

Theirs was better, worth any Hollywood scenario. It was cute in its own way, and personal. It was theirs and nobody else's.

"Yes." She nodded. "Yes, I want to marry you."

Something shone in the dark. Jane squinted her eyes and realized it came from tears. Maura was crying; quietly. She bit her lips and surprised herself sobbing.

"Don't cry."

Maura threw herself in her arms and held her tightly. She laughed in the crook of her neck and planted a kiss there, by the jaw.

"I am sorry it didn't happen at Fenway."

Jane rolled her eyes – not caring much about the tears that were now running down her cheeks – and let a laugh pass her lips.

"And I apologize in advance if you don't get your Santorini fancy thing."

They had got used to the dark by now and could easily see other other. Maura's smile echoed Jane's own one.

She shrugged.

"I really couldn't care less about Greece right now." A veil of uncertainty darkened her features. "Do you think... Do you think..."

She didn't finish her sentence. She didn't have to. She loved Jane and Jane loved her in return. They had been knowing each other for so long that waiting a bit more didn't make much sense. They were ready. They wanted it.

So they would do it.