A/N: was going to take some time away from this story to reassess, but then i felt terribly guilty for leaving you guys hanging. so to everyone who left sweet reviews demanding i continue, this is for you. :)

Jane woke up the next day to incessant pounding at her bedroom door.

"Wake up, sleepyhead! Rise and shine!" Frankie was smart enough now to complement the incessant pounding with words so that he wouldn't find himself staring at the wrong end of a gun held by his sister. He was learning.

Jane groaned into her pillow. This was not what she had signed up for when she had given her little brother a key for emergencies.

"Go away, come back when it's not 9 am in the morning on a Sunday, asswipe."

"I would do that if you hadn't signed us up for doing a Costco run for Korsak's thing."

Korsak's thing. Right. It was all coming to her now. Korsak was having a thing – a small gathering of friends over to watch the Pats game, or so the email she had helped him write to the woman he was trying desperately to woo had said. She and Frankie had offered to make a Costco run to give Korsak extra time to clean and bake and do whatever the hell older men did to end up with ladyfriends.

Although she was severely regretting that decision at 9 am this Sunday morning, with Frankie still pounding at the door and the events of last night just beginning to resurface.

Maura.

On her lap.

Those long legs, hair still damp from her shower, the smell of her soap, her hands snaking around Jane's waist.

Maura.

Her best friend.

Jane groaned and buried herself further under her comforter, piled the pillows over her face.

"That's it. If you're not dressed and ready to leave in 5 minutes, I'm calling the only person you listen to."

Shit, that would be Maura. Jane bolted out of bed.

"Ok, ok, I'm up."

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Maura, on the other hand, woke up to a text message.

Hey. Me and Frankie are at Costco want anything?

Probably too forward to respond with "You. In my bed." Jane would probably need to be… coaxed.

No thanks. What time are you going to Korsak's? Need a ride?

Noonish? Nah, I'm with Frankie.

Okay. I have errands to run so I'll be a little late. I can drop you home.

Thanks, but Frost lives closer. I can probably bum a ride off him.

Maura sighed. Jane wasn't going to be able to avoid being alone with her forever.

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By the time Maura got to Korsak's, the game had started and everyone was buzzed and crowded around the TV and yelling. She should have gotten to him before Jane and Frost did, this was perhaps the wrong kind of gathering to invite a ladyfriend you're trying to impress to.

Maura ignored the open chair and made a beeline for the couch, squeezing herself in between Jane and Frankie, who moved over good-naturedly.

"Geez, Maura, would you like to sit in my -"

An abrupt pause. A blush.

Luckily everyone else was too engrossed in the game to notice Maura's eyes crinkle with un-laughed laughter, her shy hopeful glance at Jane, who looked stubbornly at the screen.

And then a few minutes later, their knees brushed when Maura got up to use the bathroom and Jane jumped as if she had been hit by lightening. Had their every interaction always been so charged with sexual tension?

It took her till almost the end of the game to muster up the courage to test her hypothesis. Jane's hand lay on the couch, and Maura would never have a better opportunity. She brought her own hand right next to it and touched the pinky with hers.

Jane sat up straight. She stole a glance at their hands and gulped. Audibly. Maura looked ahead at the screen and smiled.

Maura liked to think that this, them, all of it, would not have transpired had Jane not done what she did next. Jane took her hand gently in her own and held it.