A/N: Part 3 of a very, very, very long day for Maura. Thanks for all the lovely reviews, and for walking this slow, intense path with Jane and Maura.

Chapter 16 - Saturday evening

A strange, unfamiliar sound woke Jane up. She tried to locate it, not knowing the source, or even where she was. Her fingers found the culprit: it was the new phone in her belt - she had forgotten to change the ringtone. As she answered the call, she realized that she was stretched under a blanket on Maura's couch.

Another phone rang. It was Maura's.

Jane heard shuffling on the chair behind her head, and muted steps running to the kitchen.

"Isles." Maura's voice sounded sleepy.

A body had been found on the water behind Ryan Playground, and the real world came crashing in. Jane sat up and rubbed her face, her consciousness filling with a tide of memories – confessions, fear, embrace, yawn…

She heard Maura coming back. As she was putting away her phone, she saw Maura sitting next to her, still trying to wake up, eyes uncertain, questioning.

Jane smiled, nodding reassuringly, but also letting the familiar, comforting hazel eyes shield her from the onslaught of emotions and thoughts she could taste coming. She took a deep breath, drawing a confident smile to dress up a reality far more intense than all of her dreams. She hoped that going out and getting down to work would help them ease the weight of all the unsaid things hanging between them.

"Come on, let's go have some fun."

"I can't go like this, my clothes are all wrinkled."

"Maura, we're going to a crime scene, in a park, at night, and I'm sure the dead guy won't mind. Come on." Jane stood up and helped a protesting Maura stand up, her hand gently leading her by the elbow.

Maura shifted her left shoulder. "I will mind."

"I'm sure you will, let's go. Can we stop to get a take-out burger on our way? I'm starving."

They got their keys, jackets and turned the lights off. Maura adjusted her bag on her shoulder as she walked out and closed the door. "We're not eating in the car."

"It's my car, Maura. Yours is at the Dirty Robber."

"Oh, right. Okay."

"Oh, so you don't mind messing my car with food?" Jane pushed an accusatory eyebrow up, and found an easy, adorable smile as reply.

They got in the car, basking in the unexpectedly easy aftermath of a night that had brought more questions that resolution, and that seemed more like a dream than any of Jane's dreams.

A half submerged body tangled in roots and leaves was a distraction all right, Jane thought, cursing as her feet stepped into unseen water. Maura was still by Jane's car, changing her high heels for a pair of sturdy rubber boots. Jane smiled when she realized that Maura had finally learnt her lesson, even if that meant giving up her own boots for the cause. She followed her with her eyes as she got down to work, painfully aware that she was looking at her differently.

When she would usually see just the familiar form of her friend bent over a body, now she was paying attention to the little frown as she concentrated, the way her head tilted from side to side looking for clues, how her pinkie shifted up as she was picking something from the body. She remembered those hands trailing her back, gripping her neck. Her body throbbed.

Oh god, I'm batting for the Yankees...

Korsak shook that thought out of her startled head with a very pragmatic comment about the case. After that, Detective Rizzoli took over and, for a while, everything went back to normal.

It took Maura and the CSI team over an hour to process and retrieve the body. By the time they were ready to go, Jane felt like her feet were made of lead. That hour of sleep on Maura's couch had been enough to get her here and do her job. Now she wanted something hot in her stomach, a bed, a long, long night sleep and a finger on the pause button.

Maura was not in better shape. She changed out of the boots and dropped –even if elegantly- on the passenger seat of Jane's car.

"I need a hot, long, bubble bath." Maura let her head fall on the backrest and closed her eyes.

"I need food."

Maura shot an incredulous glance her way.

"What? That was a very small burger!" Jane pointed at her watch. "And soon I'll need breakfast too."

"Aren't you tired?"

"I'll deal with that after I solve the food issue." Jane turned the ignition and put the car in drive. And all the rest can wait until tomorrow.

"I need to get my car." Maura's comment was nothing more than a mental note, but Jane mistook it, together with the bubble-bath wish, as Maura's way to tell her she wanted to be on her own.

"I'll drop you off on my way, don't worry." The disappointment in Jane's voice was mirrored in her sudden somber mood.

Maura winced. The taxing complexity of the crime scene on top of heart-wrenching, almost eternal day, had her barely thinking past her own exhaustion.

"Come home, Jane. Let's warm up the food I made." She held her breath when she saw the indecision in Jane's face, exhaling only after Jane's curt nod.

They ended up leaving Maura's car where it was; Jane was too tired to drive more than was strictly necessary.

As they walked into Maura's house, she kicked off her shoes and picked them up. "The food is in the fridge, in the plastic container with the red lid. I'm going to run the bath."

Jane had no idea what the food in the plastic container with the red lid contained, but it smelled wonderful, even cold. She put it in the microwave and set out two plates and glasses on the counter. When everything was ready, she took out a beer and sat on the couch to wait out the remainder of the customary 30 minutes Maura usually took for her special bubble bath. She hoped she would make it that long before starting to drool or something.

The beer was empty and she was falling asleep, her exhausted brain blissfully empty from thought, when something startled her. She checked her watch; it was just after 1 a.m., and that meant that Maura had been gone for over 45 minutes. She left the bottle on the coffee table and sprinted upstairs. The bedrooms were empty and there was no sound coming from the bathroom.

"Maura, are you okay?" Jane knocked again on the bathroom's door. "Maura?"

She had never, ever entered the bathroom when Maura was inside; it was one of the very few clear unspoken limits of their friendship, but it was also yet another sign of her astonishing prudishness. But Maura had been in the bath for way too long; although it was highly improbable that something had happened, Jane's heart hammered with fear.

She knocked a third time. "Maura, wake up. If you're awake, cover yourself up, I'm coming in." When no reply came, she braced herself to walk in on a very naked Maura. Jane entered the bathroom with only one half-open eye. Maura's head was leaning back on her special bath cushion, her skin glowing against the shimmering lights of the candles. The relief to see that Maura had not drowned was violently overcome by the flush cursing her entire body as she saw Maura quite naked without the covering of the bubbles.

Taking a deep breath, she knelt next to the bath to check for signs of normal breathing. She saw Maura's breasts gently dip in and out of the water, and lost her breath. Relief and embarrassment crashed against mesmerizing curiosity.

Maura, already partially awake from the knocks on the door, opened her eyes and saw Jane kneeling next to her, staring at her naked breasts. A strong shiver coursed through her -a mixture of cold and something much more profound and embarrassing. She knew that feeling well: it was need. It was desire; raw, intense, and impossible to dress up, ignore, or confuse with something else.

Jane saw ripples in the water and jumped back, looking away visibly flushed. "I was just… checking….," Her finger pointed at Maura's chest. "…breathing."

"I'm cold but fine, Jane. I just fell asleep. Could you please pass me the towel?" Maura got out of the water slowly, completely at ease with her naked body, but not so much with her reaction and Jane's nervousness.

Jane gave her the towel, her eyes fixed on the wall.

"I'll just… wait..." She pointed with her index finger towards the door.

Safely back in the kitchen, she set the food to warm up, and hovered, seeing not the microwave, but Maura's breasts, and the memory of how they felt in her dreams, and -more recently- during their last hug. Her tired brain was struggling to deal with this when Maura walked in wearing a red silk robe, her hair brushed but not styled, her soft but tired face clean of makeup.

So beautiful, so fragile, so strong…

Jane stole a piece of what she thought was chicken from the serving dish and stuffed it in her mouth. She chewed it furiously until that damn dream got out of her head, and her heart rate was back under control. When she finally sat next to Maura it was nearly 2 a.m. They sat eating slowly, in silence; exhaustion blissfully overpowering thinking. After the meal was over, Jane loaded the dishwasher and then got her keys and jacket.

"Where are you going?"

"Home?"

"At this time of night? Why? It's late."

Jane didn't know exactly why she made a motion to go, because she wanted to stay -and didn't dare ask herself why. She nodded and followed Maura upstairs after turning the lights off.

Jane hesitated when they reached the upper floor; the guest bedroom was made up. She hovered for a second to see what Maura would do. Maura's briefly caught her eyes, then flickered to the guest bedroom and back at her robe tie as she adjusted it.

She spoke softly. "The good thing about being so tired is that it will almost guarantee you a peaceful night sleep."

Jane felt at once relief and disappointment, and nodded, forcing her hint of a smile. "That's good because I'm beat." She took a deep breath. "Well…"

Maura stood looking at Jane, her eyes uncertain and unreadable. "All right. So… I guess you'll sleep tight then?" She hesitated for a second and reached up, softly leaving a gentle kiss on Jane's cheek. She then turned around, leaving a jittery and drained Jane Rizzoli standing against the guest bedroom's door.

.

A/N: Oh, hm... did you really think that...? Oops. ;)