A/N: Here's the next chapter, guys. I think it's sweet, even if it's not quite as long as chapter six. Have fun. ;)

Chapter Seven: Quite the Shock

Tuesday morning arrived far too early for Jane and Maura. There wasn't a body call, thank god, but regular work meant having to get up. Up, as in, out of bed.

Maura was awake first, as was her tendency to wake before Jane whenever they were together. Still, she found herself reluctant to face the world, merely because Jane's arm was still draped around her waist. And it was very comfortable and soothing and well, nice to wake up with that feeling. That feeling of belonging somewhere. She liked it a lot.

As if Jane's subconscious mind could sense Maura's gears turning, her eyes fluttered open slowly and found purchase on Maura's temple. Her lips followed suit. "Morning." Her voice was extra raspy from sleep and her eyes were still adjusting to the natural light from outside. She moved to get up out of bed for some quick coffee before having to be dragged through the tedious day. Apparently Maura had expected this action from Jane and pulled her back as soon as the arm left her side. Jane was thrown off balance and landed semi on top of Maura. "Uh…"

The detective was quickly silenced with a huge smile and a brief kiss from the blonde under her. "Morning, Jane." Of course, Jane didn't feel that that kiss was long enough, so she reached her head down again. A 'one more' was mumbled right before lips collided once again.

This was the part they loathed: the getting up. Unfortunately, it was a required part of their day, so when their lips parted, Jane got up and went to go fix some coffee. She had a long day ahead of her. No case meant…what exactly? It meant old paperwork she had neglected. It meant poring over still open cases. It meant boring hours playing trash basketball with Frost and Korsak. But most importantly, it meant that Maura was down in the morgue doing whatever she was doing while Jane would be many floors up. That would undoubtedly be the least favorite part of her day, especially regarding their newfound extreme closeness.

But it would be almost worth it at the end of the work day when Maura would come up and the both of them and Frost and Korsak would play their last game of pinball. Jane was feeling confident; probably because of the fact that she had some new incentive. Besides, she didn't really think she would be that terrible at the game. It didn't look too hard after all, and those comments she made about her hands were not exactly screaming accuracy anyway. Maybe not so confident as to beat Maura's kickass time, but at least enough to show Frost and Korsak who's boss. Jane did have a reputation to uphold, after all. She could beat a game if she wanted.

Meanwhile, Maura had occupied herself in Jane's room trying to compose herself and make sense of what was happening. Jane felt the same way about her. Of that she was now sure. Maura was feeling nothing short of gleeful as she got dressed for the day ahead of her; one she'd probably spend most of down in the morgue. Well, that was a bummer. But she'd see Jane later, and then Jane would play her round of pinball. And things would be all sorts of humorous.

It was thoughts like these that Maura spent her time with as she made herself ready for the day to come and joined Jane in the kitchen for coffee. Jane had already prepared both of their mugs just the way they liked it, and there was a bunny pancake sitting on her side of the counter. "Oh! Thank you, Jane. I didn't know you could, well, successfully prepare food." The doctor's tone was full of mirth and levity, and there was the largest smile on her face, clearly very proud of her joke.

"Well done, Maura. You're certainly getting the hang of humor, aren't you?" At the dark blonde's satisfied nod, Jane continued. "And as for my food-preparing skills, I just don't like to cook. Or bake, or whatever. So I don't. But Ma passed on the genes, so I can if I want." The brunette finished with a shrug and a sip of her coffee.

"You know cooking skills aren't genetically linked, Jane."

"Yes, Maura, I'm quite aware," Jane chuckled. "Eat up, Doctor Bunny Pancake. You don't wanna be late to work, do you?"

Maura shook her head vehemently. "No, of course not. And on that note, you should go get dressed."

Jane made her way to her room, but turned back uncertainly once she reached the threshold of the door. "Maura…? What are we? I just want to be sure of this."

The doctor sitting at the counter stood, set down her coffee mug, and walked over to the detective by the doorway. In the steadiest, most loving tone she could muster, Maura started. "Jane, we're just…we're natural. We're right. I don't think there's an exact name for it, but the closest I can come up with, if you want, is that we're dating. Together. If you want, I'm your girlfriend, and you're mine."

Jane looked like she had just won the Stanley Cup, the World Series, the Superbowl, and the NBA Finals all in one. "Yes. Yes, of course I want that. Girlfriends. Yes. Um, I'm rambling. I'm going to go get dressed now," Jane motioned behind her with a thumb. And with a quick sneaked kiss, she was gone into the room behind her.

The day was passing just as slowly as Jane had anticipated. And in fact, she and the boys had started playing trash basketball an hour and some inconsequential amount of minutes ago. There really was nothing to do. Every old page of paperwork had been completed a number of hours ago, there were no leads on old cases, and they'd even each had at least three extra cups of coffee just to keep from dying of boredom. Just then, Frost spoke up.

"What do you think the doc will make us do? She doesn't seem like the dirty type."

Jane's thoughts went something like this: She won't be dirty with you. Me, on the other hand… A slow grin had spread on her face, and Korsak had to interrupt certain thoughts.

"You okay, Janie? Jane."

The brunette snapped out of it, mentally chastising herself. Get it together, Rizzoli, you've been dating, what twelve hours? Quit bowling and get your mind out of the gutter.

"Yeah, boys, I'm fine. I don't know what she'll do. Maybe she'll make you stay in the morgue for a full autopsy," she nodded at Frost, and then at Korsak, "and you go a whole week without a meaty sandwich of any kind. You know, stuff for 'your own good'." Jane pulled out the quotation marks and smirked.

"Ha, ha, clever Rizzoli," the Robbery transfer commented. "And what, pray tell, would she have in mind for you? An early morning run? I doubt it."

"Yeah, thanks Columbo, I doubt it too." Then in a quieter tone more to herself than anyone else, she mentioned "She'll have something else for me." Another small grin pasted itself on Jane's face, but she managed to rid herself of it before anyone got suspicious.

"Let's just get on with the game, why don't we. Frost has 37, Jane 43, and me with 42. Come on. I'm starting a comeback." Korsak sounded gruff, a little put out for some reason. Jane picked up on it.

"Yeah, that. Or, you just can't stand the thought of not having a meat sandwich for a whole week. And my partner here would concur, wouldn't you, Frost?"

"Righty-ho!"

"Yeah, yeah, you both are so hilarious. Let's get back to the game. We only have an hour or so before Doctor Isles come up."

Jane immediately brightened at the mention of the blonde doctor a few floors down, and channeled that energy into kicking trash basketball ass. By the time the hour or so had gone, Korsak had indeed fueled some kind of comeback. But Jane of course was the boss. The scores ended up 68 for Jane, 53 for Frost, and Korsak's miraculous recovery put him at 57. Jane finished the game with a 'three pointer' just as Maura stepped through the doors, and Maura couldn't help but be impressed by the long distance shot, even if she didn't exactly have a penchant for sports.

"Afternoon, gentlemen. Afternoon, Jane," Maura said as she approached the two disgruntled detectives and the one farther away celebrating in her chair.

"Hey, Maura," came the three simultaneous replies. And then Frost got on with the real business.

"Let's get right to it then, huh? Call Frankie to bring up the pinball game, and we'll get started.

And in fact, within a few minutes, after Maura had made the call, everyone's favorite beat cop turned up at Jane's desk. "Hey, guys. Can I stay here and watch Jane this time? I've got a feeling this one will be good."

"Is that a compliment or an insult, Junior?" Jane retorted, picking up on her little brother's sarcastic tone and replying with her own.

"Yeah, yeah, forget about it," he smirked. "Just flick the ball, why don't you?"

"Maura has to get the timer, smartass," once again kicking her brother's butt in argument. Before said argument could escalate in any way, the doctor did indeed step in.

"Alright. Let's start then, Jane. Boys," she nodded towards the two detectives watching with amused expressions, "you two will take control of the stopwatch." She tossed it to them. "I will stand behind Jane and tell you when the ball falls. Frankie can watch. Are we all understood?"

Everyone nodded yes.

Before Jane started, she made a request. "Wait, guys, don't tell me my time until after the second turn. Don't tell me my first score." So Jane began her first turn with the little metal ball. Everything apart from the small plastic box in front of her melted out of notice as agile hands and acute eyes worked away. Jane couldn't be sure how much time she actually spent on this one turn once the ball finally fell through the little gap in between flippers. Jane barely registered her girlfriend's call to stop, and not at all with Frost and Korsak's wide eyes.

"Can I go again now?" Jane pressed. She was eager to get back to the little ball that had unexpectedly drawn all of her attention.

At everyone's silence, she looked up at Maura behind and above her. Frost had shown her the stopwatch and there was a look of shocked awe on her face. "Jane…you don't need to go again. You've been sitting here for ten minutes just flicking that ball. Ten minutes." The awe was evident in her voice as well.

The brunette's eyes widened in shock as well. "Ten minutes?! I've just been watching the ball move up and down and around." And then the smug badass detective reappeared. "Well. Ten minutes. I must say, I'm pretty damn good for someone who sucks. Looks like you called it right, Frankie. And," Jane motioned towards all the dumbfounded colleagues in her wake, all you three are going to pay up sooner or later, aren't you?"

Once again met with silence, Jane dismissed herself from their company and took her blazer off the back of her chair, heading for the double doors. As a last thought, Jane once again turned around and called out. "If and when you princesses regain brain and speech control and you find yourself wanting to join me at the Robber, that's where I'll be." And then, just to humor herself and whichever patrol cop happened to stroll by at that moment, Jane gave her all to an vocal Elvis impression of Thank you, thank you very much. And with that task completed, she turned and left her friends to a few minutes of silence, just like that situation two nights previous.

As predicted, the silence extended for a few minutes. It wasn't exactly winning gold at the Olympics, but nonetheless, Frost, Frankie, Korsak, and Maura were floored. Especially Maura. Maura knew that she was good. What she didn't expect at all was for Jane to be good. Well, she didn't expect Jane to beat her. And in only one try? This was madness.

But once again, she picked her jaw up off the floor, her ass off the desk, and made her way out the doors and down to the morgue. She picked up her things, shut off the lights, and found her car. If it was the last thing she would ever do, Maura decided that she would take Jane's ego and swagger head on tonight. If nothing else, it was incredibly hot.

With these thoughts on her mind, Maura parked the sleek black Mercedes she had impulsively driven to work today after Jane had dropped her off at home for a little while in the morning. She opened the door to the Dirty Robber, mentally bracing herself for whatever her new girlfriend might throw her way.

A/N: Yeah, I realize that having Jane go ten whole minutes on the game is a bit of an exaggeration, and not exactly realistic for someone who's never played before, but I wanted to surprise you guys a little bit. I hope it worked. :)

Thanks so much for all the support. Review!