DISCLAIMER: Do not own. Nothing, nada. But would be cool to choose something out of Maura's office. Not the hand.

"So, then he proposed we head to dinner. A little French restaurant by the water. Apparently the chef is a close friend." Maura spoke airily as she arranged a new vase of flowers on her dining room table, smiling as she recounted an encounter she'd had picking up groceries.

Then she frowned. Jane was slouched in a chair in the corner of her living room, looking out of the window - clearly not paying attention and clearly...frustrated? Angry? They'd skirted around talking about dates, dating for a while now. Ostensibly this was because her last date had tried to kill her, but even before then they'd kept it light, stuck to funny and weird anecdotes.

"Jane?"

Jane straightened. "Sorry. So are you going out with what's-his-name?"

"His name is Grant. And were you even listening to me? This man could be the love of my life and you couldn't care less." She spoke lightly, but she could see Jane pick up on the rebuke, could see anger kindle.

"Maur, this guy, this –Grant– is not going to be the love of your life. He's just a filler. You'll flirt and have fun...and I'll be oh-so-happy for you and then you'll break it off and then you'll move on to the next not-love-of-your-life."

Shocked, Maura tried to smile. "And isn't that my choice?"

Jane met her gaze. 'Yeah. But I have a choice about watching you go through all these guys, Maur. God, you don't even give them half of who you are and you sit there and smile and tell me how perfectly nice they are until you send them on their way." She hesitated, then raised a shoulder. "Don't you ever want something real?"

Maura looked back at her, confused. This was what they did. The funny-or-weird date stories were part of their routine, before the fight, before...everything. They'd shared loss and hope and horror and fear for each other. They'd lost faith and regained it together and they'd built a friendship on a foundation of mutual trust and respect... but they didn't do this. They didn't go deeper. She knew instinctively that this was a boundary line – one drawn at the edge of a steep cliff. They stayed back from the edge by mutual unspoken agreement and Jane was suddenly changing the rules.

She cleared her throat, spoke carefully "I'm not certain that real is possible. So I suppose I make do with what is possible...tangible, in the hope that maybe I'll happen on something...well, someone to call mine." She tilted her head. "Why are you so angry?"

Jane pressed her lips together, indicating she knew they were treading a dangerous edge. She stood up and wrapped her arms around her waist. "Because he's not your person."

Maura blinked at the movement as well as the words. "My person."

Jane shrugged. "Yeah."

"Explain."

Jane shifted on the balls of her feet, then fixed her gaze on a point somewhere over Maura's shoulder, a trick Maura knew meant that she was nervous. "Your person. You know, the one you're supposed to be with, together forever, till death do you part yadda yadda yadda."

She raised a brow. "Yadda, yadda, yadda?"

Jane's eyes flicked over to meet hers and she scowled. "Are you going to repeat everything I say?"

She narrowed her gaze back. "Define person."

Jane shrugged again, too casual. "That one, I guess, that knows all of you, everything – all the lies you tell yourself and all the things you don't say. That person you know in a way that's completely terrifying..." She laughed a little. "...and as normal as breathing. That person you can be your whole self with - without judging it or analyzing it or locking it away..." She trailed off, twisted her hands hard together.

Maura took a careful breath. "Grant may not be that man...but don't I owe it to myself to find out? I need someone in my life that will love all of me, Jane. I need someone that wants to...fit."

Jane spun and paced. "But he doesn't fit with you! Can't you see that? Don't you know that he's never going to fit!" She looked frustrated and furious, although with Maura or herself, Maura couldn't determine.

Studying her, she could see that beneath the anger there was something else. Jane hid her fear well from everyone else, but she'd grown adept at reading this woman. She did what she normally wouldn't, because her heart was pounding and her mind was racing and she couldn't settle on any one thought except that she suddenly felt like they'd both stepped right to the edge of that cliff they'd been standing on the past few months.

"Why?" She snapped, and Jane stopped pacing to stare at her. "How the hell do you know if he'll fit or not? What evidence can you offer me that he won't? I work in absolutes, Detective. I can't work in theory, don't you know that by now?" She shook her head, angry that a pleading note had worked itself into her voice.

She'd meant to push, enough to garner a reaction. She wasn't prepared for Jane's face to crumple, just for a second, just long enough for Maura to raise her hand to wipe away tears that didn't come.

Jane set her jaw and Maura lowered her hand, watching as Jane closed her eyes, briefly, then looked at her. "Maur. It's that person who, if they were on their knees begging you for a second chance, just this once, you'd give it to them a thousand times – ten thousand times. Because they're yours. And because you're theirs. He doesn't fit."

Jane eyes were so serious, so full of meaning, that she couldn't look away, couldn't process that she was supposed to have a casual response ready. One that would place no onus on Jane and one that would allow them both to take a step back from this precipice they were about to fall over. That was the routine. One step together, two steps away. Ad infinitum.

She licked her lips. Watched Jane's eyes flick down to her mouth, then up again.

She cleared her throat, and her voice still came out husky. Nervous. "What if it was you, Jane?" She registered the sudden panic on Jane's face and spoke quickly "I mean, what if you had that person in front of you? And they were on their knees, pleading with you, begging you to love them? What if that desperation and need for you made you turn from them?"

Jane held up a hand, indicating she was thinking. She kept watching Maura, cataloguing her as she'd seen her do a thousand times to the people she arrested. Her gaze lingered on Maura's left hand, where her thumb and little finger where pressed together, skipped along the lines of her body and rested once again on her mouth. Then Jane shook her head slightly, and gave a half-smile. "I'd say if I turned from them I probably wouldn't be worth it in the first place." She took a deliberate step towards Maura. "So what are you going to do, Maur?"

There was a dare in her eyes now, and Maura's thought processing issue suddenly returned full-force.

"Do?"

Jane grinned suddenly, taking another step towards her. Maura felt her stomach tighten inexplicably. "Yeah. About Grant."

Oh, that. "I suppose I'll find another person." She hesitated. Stuck a toe over the edge. "Any suggestions?"

Jane nodded slowly, and took another step, so that they were toe-to-toe. The dare in her eyes was still there, but as Maura watched, breathing too fast, unable to look away, the expression on Jane's face abruptly changed to concern.

"Maura...you're my best friend. I want you to choose who you want...and I want you to be happy. Who knows? Maybe this Grant guy is what you want...maybe he's that person for you. And I'd be a sucky best friend if I kept you from that." She clenched her fists, and took a step back. She tried to smile and ended up looking miserable. "So you should date him. Call him. I'll...I'll get out of the way." She nodded once, oddly formal. "Have a good night, Maur." She walked to the door and was on the other side before Maura could even process what had happened.

She went to the window, watched Jane jog to her car, get in. She sat for a moment before pounding the steering wheel once.

Maura stepped back and wrapped her arms around herself, shaking from the shock of being yanked back from that unknown edge for the hundredth time.

She looked around at her living room, with its pretty mementos and uninterrupted clutter, exactly how she liked...wait. There were Jane's sneakers, dumped in a corner. Jane's beer on her counter. Jane's DVD's on her table.

She went into her bedroom. Photos of her and Jane on the vanity – the matching photo and frame, she knew, resided on Jane's dresser. Jane's night bag under her bed. The book on interrogation techniques that Jane had suggested she read was on her night stand.

She went into the bathroom noticed Jane's spare toothbrush had pride of place beside her own. She stared into the mirror, trying to analyse what exactly she had wanted to happen just now.

"My person." She muttered. How many times had she wanted to sink to her knees before Jane when they were fighting and beg for everything to be okay between them? How many times had she caught the quickly hidden anguish and desperation in Jane's face each time Maura deliberately froze her out, all those months ago?

She met her own gaze in the mirror. And how certain was she, now, that if she yanked Jane over the edge of the boundaries they'd placed on their friendship that she'd still have this woman? Jane, who had all of Maura whether she understood that or not.

Her cell beeped in her pocket. She pulled it out, to see a text from Jane.

Wear the blue dress with the gold whatsits. And have fun. X

Jane, in full-scale back-pedal mode. Maura grinned suddenly. She looked again at the toothbrush and laughed out loud. She already had her person.

She just had to convince her person of that fact.

A/N: I don't know. I had the person thing in my head as a random weird thing to explore but now I'm kind of curious to see how Maura is going to convince Jane XD. Have a great week, thanks as always for reading and for the reviews, you're all genuinely lovely. Can't wait until R&I comes back!