Back when Maura was learning the ropes of longevity and how to make a committed relationship work, she had attempted to correct her then-girlfriend's version of how they had started, the story of them.

"Jane, it definitely did not start with that sneeze."

"Did too." Jane nestled her face deeper into Maura's hair, pulling them into a body long embrace. The movie they had chosen blared on. Jane had chosen it specifically, because it afforded time for snuggling and conversation during the parts when people were talking, in the breaks between the plentiful car chases and explosions.

"Definitely not. This – , " Maura waved her hand, "Us. This had been a long time coming."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Remember that time we were at the Dirty Robber celebrating the closing of the Anderson case and you got really drunk?"

Jane responded by nibbling Maura's ear.

"Jane, you had your hand on my thigh the entire night. Frost and Korsak kept nudging each other and whispering and grinning."

"I was drunk, Maur. I'm touchy-feely when I'm drunk."

"No, this was… different. You kept drawing circles and moving your hand further and further up my leg."

"Kind of like this?"

Needless to say, that conversation didn't go very far.

The next time Maura brought it up, she got a more satisfying answer. They were spooning one night, basking in post-coital bliss, and she couldn't resist bringing it up again.

"Jane, do you remember the first time we spooned?"

"Mm. Wasn't it that time after you dragged me to go dancing? At that fancy club where those guys tried to hit on us?"

"Good memory, yes. That was way before the sneeze."

"Hm?"

"We were doing Things Friends Don't Do even before that sneeze."

"What? I don't get where this is going." Jane disentangled herself and propped up to be able to look at Maura's face.

"It's just, you're so adamant that we started with that sneeze. That's inaccurate. There were all of these little things going on. That's what made me respond to the sneeze the way I did. It didn't just come out of the blue."

"That's not what I mean by the story, Maur."

"I know, it's just. What were all of those things then? The touching and the cuddling and the intimacy? Was I misreading them?"

"No! I… liked doing all those things with you. I had never really had a best friend and I told myself that's what best friends did. It didn't really hit me how, um, intimate it all was until that sneeze. The sneeze made me see things differently that's all"

"Ok."

"I've loved you for a very long time Dr. Maura Dorothea Isles."

"Ok."

"Ok? I'll show you ok." Jane put on a menacing grin and flipped over Maura, who squealed and giggled: an unmistakable signal for end of conversation.

A/N: sorry for how long this took to update. I got stuck on this chapter, had a hard time figuring out how to contextualize their relationship. Hope this works. Chapter describing the headcannon that prompted this story coming soon!