Jane couldn't believe it. She turned and sat down heavily on Maura's front stoop, carefully placing the box she held down next to her.
Jo Friday looked up at her puzzled, 'Why aren't we going in?' his eyes seemed to say. Instead he lay down at Jane's feet and closed his eyes. He would wait his owner out.
"How did I get here?" Jane muttered out loud. Her thoughts went back two hours earlier when she'd picked a fight with her beloved. She winced thinking of some of the things she'd said.
The fight had started like a tiny snowball that keeps rolling down a mountain only to end up huge once it reaches the bottom. Jane couldn't believe it. She knew she longed to take back some of the things she had said to Maura. She knew she longed for a do-over like when she was a kid.
"God," she thought to herself, "What an idiot I am."
Jane had to acknowledge she'd wanted to have an argument, had maliciously picked and picked at Maura until Maura had no choice but to fight back. At first Jane had felt smugly triumphant at being able to get to the usually unflappable Medical Examiner but quickly realized as the snowball of a fight rolled out of control that this wasn't a game but real life, their real lives they were fighting about. What annoyed Jane most was that she really just wanted to ask Maura to move in together, to mesh their lives together more, to have an "our" home not hers or Maura's. But she didn't know how. And she was frustrated with herself for not being able to ask, to suggest it, to just say it so she'd picked a fight with the person she loved most, who loved her back the most.
"For crying out loud…" Jane murmurs, "Just do it, you big sissy."
She hears Maura's front door open quietly behind her, turns her head to gaze at her girlfriend.
"Do what?" Maura asks quietly, shutting the door behind her and coming to sit down next to Jane on the front stoop.
Jane held her chin in her hand, as she looked sideways at Maura, at her heart, her home. She sighs. Maura's eyes are puffy and her make-up is gone. Her green eyes are clear. She is wearing a heavy blue Red Sox sweatshirt and Jane's old Boston PD sweatpants.
Jane gently places her hand along Maura's warm cheek.
"You are so beautiful, so beautiful and I'm so sorry, so sorry. I'm an idiot." She runs her thumb along Maura's cheekbone. Maura closes her eyes into the caress.
"Oh Jane…" comes out on a whisper as Maura inches closer to her on the stoop, their thighs touching.
"No, let me finish." Jane murmurs turning to look her beloved. Maura nods her consent holding Jane's hands warmly in her lap.
"I love you, I love you so much, " Jane's voice cracks but she manages to keep looking into Maura's warm green eyes. "And I'm sorry I picked a fight with you, so sorry because I picked a stupid fight," she pauses, " because I couldn't just figure out a way to ask to you, to tell you I want us to live together, to share the same home all the time…"
Fresh tears are seeping out of Maura's eyes and she's squeezing Jane's hands in a death grip.
"That's what this is about? You want to move in together," Maura manages through a teary smile, "always? No negotiations of whose apartment tonight, where is my favorite red dress? One bed, one couch, one home?" Maura's eyes are filled with hope and love and the barest remnants of apprehension from their earlier fight.
Jane feels tears moving down her cheeks at Maura's questions, her chest tight and full, her emotions, the love she feels for this woman overwhelming. Maura reaches up and brushes tears away with the pads of her thumbs.
"Yes, one home, with our stuff, and our pets, and our life. Always. What do you say?" Jane asks in a whisper.
Jane hears a whispered, "Yes, of course," before Maura kisses her. Her lips warm and soft.
They pull away from each other, foreheads touching, arms having found their way around necks, waists, and shoulders.
Many silent moments later, "Jane? What's in the box?" Maura murmurs before leaving a kiss on Jane's neck and leaning back.
"What? Oh…I…" Jane can feel a blush creeping up her neck, "Its silly."
"Oh, I'm sure it's not, what's in it?"
"Well, we both have stuff at each other's apartments? Right?" Maura nods.
"We share closets and drawers and you have fancy shower products in my shower and beer in your fridge and extra coats and well just everything. We practically live together anyway; our stuff is just spread out all over the place. Half the time I don't know where anything is." Jane waves her hands in the air.
Maura can't help but smile widely, giggling, agreeing, "I know… last week I spent almost a half hour looking for my blue silk dress at my house that was really hanging dry-cleaned at your place the whole time. Even I had forgotten."
Jane smiles, "And remember we forgot Bass last week because he was hiding in the guest bedroom at my place and" she drops her voice, " we may have been a little bit distracted."
They both go silent, smiling at each other. One house was definitely going to be good.
Maura raises her eyebrows after a moment, "The box?"
"Yeah, well the only thing that's really stayed the same was my bedside table. What was on it, in it. That was the same so I thought I'd empty out mine and bring it here, somehow charm you into letting me have my bedside table here, you know, always."
Jane looks down, slightly embarrassed.
"That was the plan?" Maura says laughing.
"Yeah, well that's why I was still sitting out here where you found me. Trying to think of a better plan." Jane huffs, pouting.
"Oh alright, don't pout." She wraps her arms around Jane's neck, kisses her cheek. "So Jane Rizzoli would you like to move in here with me? Make my home, our home?" Maura asks tentatively.
"Yes, Maura, if you'll have me. I mean your place is bigger and your kitchen is amazing, it's a better neighborhood…" Jane trails off.
"I would love nothing more than to live with you always. But Jane only if we can have your bed and your couches. I like yours better."
"Really?" Jane smirks.
"Really." Maura kisses Jane on the lips soundly and hauls her up from the steps. "Come on, you big sissy, grab your bedside table, let's go set it up."
Jane follows Maura into the house, laughing, relieved, thankful.