A/N: And here we go...enjoy!

How can one woman have this many damn bags?

Jane fumbled down the aisle in first class, trying not to knock anyone unconscious with what seemed like an entire life's worth of carry-ons. She wondered how she had gotten through the airport with her own small suitcase as well as Maura's three bags haphazardly slung across her limbs. Maura had insisted on carrying her own bags, but Jane quickly shot it down, claiming that it was her job. Me and my big mouth.

"Okay, so it looks like we're right here," Jane announced before she began stowing their carry-ons into the overhead compartments. She then had a look around at the comfortable chairs that were spaciously separated and all the small tables in the area.

"Since when do they have actual tables on an airplane?"

"Since we flew first class. Duh," chimed Alice from behind her in a tone that couldn't be misinterpreted as playful in any way.

If Jane didn't know better, she would think the child's default setting was to belittle Jane any chance she got. They had exchanged very few words that morning, and even those were immensely standoffish. When Jane picked up the Isles trio earlier, she had attempted to grab the teenager's suitcase to put it in the trunk of the car, just as she had done for everyone else, but only to have it snatched back with an annoyed scowl. Maura was too busy fussing over Jake to have witnessed the clipped interaction, but that pretty much set the tone for the day.

"Jane, have you never flown first class before?" inquired her employer as she fetched a pillow to place under her snoozing son's head.

"Really, Mom. Why would she? She's just an assistant," shrugged the girl as she retrieved her iPod and something to read.

Jane frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Alice Grace Faulkner. Just because you refused to wake up early enough for coffee does not permit you to be rude. Settle down."

Ali glanced at her mother before covertly rolling her eyes and dropping into her seat beside her brother.

Maura apologized to Jane on Alice's behalf as they got settled and buckled up in adjacent seats. "I'm sorry. I have no idea what's gotten into her lately."

"It's fine," Jane lied, "And to answer your question… no. I've never even been on an airplane before."

Maura paused, eyebrows raised. "Are you serious?"

Jane only nodded her head as she stared straight ahead.

"Well, how do you feel about flying?"

Jane finally looked at her flying companion, but before she could answer, the pilot's voice filtered through the cabin. She was secretly grateful for the interruption. The truth was, Jane hated the idea of flying. She was absolutely terrified of heights. Ever since she was younger and her brothers dared her to climb the tallest tree in their yard, only for her to fall from the top branch and break her arm. She never told anyone about her phobia though, having never expected she would ever have to fly anywhere.

The fact that the convention was in California was one of the things that freaked her out at first. Through Maura's excitement of it being in a different state all she could hear was,"I'm going to make you ride a death tube, 40,000 feet in the air."

Jane was brought out of her thoughts by a dinging noise and then the plane jerked forward as it proceeded down the runway. She squeezed her eyes shut and gripped her armrest as she tried to think happy thoughts while taking slow, deep breaths. In through her nose and out through her mouth.

"Jane, are you okay?" Maura noticed Jane's death grip on the armrest that was so tight her entire hand was white, except for the subtle scar. The brunette snapped her head over to the other woman with pursed lips and wide brown eyes.

"Huh? No… yeah, I'm good. Why?" Jane's voice was uncharacteristically shaky and pitchy.

"You just seem a little nervous." She shot a pointed glance down to the woman's hands on the arm rest.

"No… A little, maybe."

"Oh my goodness. Is Jane Rizzoli afraid of heights?"

Jane had the decency to look offended. "What! Of course I'm not a-fffuck!"

Jane's objection was cutoff when they hit an air pocket that caused the plane to drastically dip. She immediately threw her head back against the seat and screwed her eyes shut. Her right hand acted of its own will and darted over the armrest to grasp the hand next to it.

Oh, my God. I'm gonna die. And I didn't even get to say goodbye to my family. Ma's gonna kill me... For dying. She warned me to be careful and now look at me. I'm dying. As good as dead. At least I'm in first class, I'll die with legroom.

"Hey."

And my apartment is a complete mess. What if they go to collect my things for the funeral and they can't find anything in my cluttered closest. Damn it! Why don't I ever clean anything up? I'm going to Hell. Hoarder's hell. And what about Jo Friday?

"Jane, can you hear me?"

I feel light-headed. Is this what death is? Oh man, I'm gonna die alone. No soul mate. No kids. No one. I didn't even get to tell my boss how beautiful she is. Wait… Maura?

"Jane!"

She bolted straight up and gasped for air; she hadn't even realized she wasn't breathing. Jane, feeling constrained, undid her seatbelt and bent forward to try to regulate her breathing again. Deep breaths, she told herself.

"Hey, it's over. Everything is fine." Maura tried to calm her assistant down by rubbing slow patterns on her back. Maura had only been teasing Jane about being afraid of heights. She wasn't expecting to provoke such a physical reaction from her usually cool, calm and collected companion.

Finally getting a hold of herself, the younger woman sat back in her seat and let out an awkward half sigh half laughing breath. "What in the hell just happened?"

"You kind of… freaked out," Maura said carefully.

"Wow, that's… embarrassing." Jane ran a shaky hand through her hair, looking sheepish as she faced Maura.

"Don't be embarrassed," Maura shook her head, "It's your first time. I should have asked how you felt about flying."

"And what, we would have driven from Boston to LA?" Jane asked skeptically.

"Well… perhaps we could have-"

Jane waved it off. "No, Maura, it's fine. I just need to not focus on the fact that I'm in a metal tube."

"So you suffer from pteromerhanophobia as well as claustrophobia."

Jane stopped mid-breath and turned to her boss with an incredulous stare. "Tearing me a what now?"

"Pteromerhanophobia. The fear of flying. Here, I have just the thing." She reached into her purse, pulling out a medicine bottle. She tapped out two small pills and held them out for Jane to take.

"Uh, no thanks. My dealer back home would get jealous," Jane joked without cracking a smile.

"Oh, come on. They're just sleeping pills."

"You expect me to take someone else's prescribed medication?"

"What are you going to do, report me to your brother?"

Jane glanced down at the pills and then back to the woman offering them. "I just might."

"Jane, I swear…" Maura sighed and grabbed Jane's hand, placing the tablets on her palm.

Jane smirked at the aggressive gesture but then rolled her eyes and threw them back, dry swallowing the pills. "This better not have any side effects."

"Well… I hope so too."

An incredulous Jane snapped her head back at a smirking Maura. "You're kidding, right?"

"Relax," she said pushing back on Jane's shoulder so she could lean back. "They work fairly quickly, so you'll be asleep in a few minutes."

"I better be," grumbled Jane, hoping the next time she opened her eyes she had solid ground beneath her. Resting her feet on the table, she slowly let the tension in her body go and shut her eyes.

"Is this how you deal with that one?" Jane good-humoredly gestured in Alice's direction, who was reading a magazine, seemingly unbothered by the previous turbulence.

Maura smiled down at her lap with her eyes hidden from sight and said, "Something like that."

Halfway into slumber, Jane tried to figure out the hidden meaning behind Maura's words. She sounded sad and almost guilty. That along with thoughts on why Maura would need sleeping pills, if not for flying, were her last thoughts as she drifted off into a deep sleep.

"Ugh!" The sleeping woman was jolted instantly awake. By what, she wasn't sure. She was dreaming. A good dream, actually. Maura was sitting across from her at some fancy restaurant and they were drinking wine. She was eating the best chocolate cake she had ever tasted and just as she reached her fork across the table for Maura to have a bite of her piece of cake, something squished the air out of her lungs and her eyes popped open.

"What the hell?" Her arms instinctively wrapped around whatever it was that had decided to plop down on top of her. Blurry eyed, she breathed in the scent of vanilla… Oh, God.

"I am so sorry, Jane."

Her hazy vision finally cleared. She found herself clinging to the form of Maura Isles who was sitting in her lap with her back completely settled against Jane. Maura shifted attempting to get off of the other woman, but relented when she noticed her waist encircled in the woman's arms.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

Seeing as she wasn't able to get up, Maura merely turned sideways in Jane's lap to look into her face. "I was walking from the bathroom when we hit a bit of turbulence and I… lost my balance."

"Oh. Okay." Jane fell back into her seat and closed her eyes. She let out a heavy sigh. Deciding to drift back into her dream, she let the medicine start to take over again; however, her eyes lazily opened when someone cleared her throat.

"I'm going to sit back in my seat now."

The brunette blankly stared at the woman still seated in her lap. "Sure, go ahead," Jane said shrugging her shoulder.

Maura glanced down to her lap with a nervous look at the woman's arms around her waist. "I would, but… your arms are…"

The medicine had Jane's brain still fogged up and she didn't even notice that she still had a tight grip on the smaller woman's waist. She jerked her hands back like she had touched fire and held them up in surrender.

"Sorry."

Maura looked at Jane for another moment before getting up and taking her own seat. The assistant didn't dare look over to the woman she could feel burning a hole in the side of her face with her stare. Instead she chanced a glance over to Jacob who was surprisingly still asleep. Her eyes locked with Alice who scowled at her with the coldest eyes the girl had yet to inflict.

"That wasn't my fault." Jane mouthed to the teenager who proceeded to roll her eyes and ignore her the rest of the flight.

Jane huffed and tried to drift back off to sleep again. She really needed to talk to Alice about this back and forth they'd been having. She sighed and thought that it would have to wait. Back to that chocolate cake.

A few hours later they landed at LAX. Maura was surprised that both her assistant and her son had slept through the entirety of an almost six hour flight, including the rickety landing. As Ali got her things in order and other passengers began unboarding the plane, she walked over to wake her son.

Jacob grumbled something at her for a second, but then something seemed to click and he hopped up out of his chair to look out the window. He grinned and wiped the sleep from his eyes. "We're here!"

Maura kissed the top of his head and whispered, "We sure are, sweet boy." She gave him one more pat on the head before walking over to her slumbering assistant.

"Jane," she whispered, pressing on the woman's shoulder, but it seemed to do nothing. Maura gazed at the woman's currently peaceful disposition. She couldn't resist raising her hand to tuck a curly dark lock behind her ear. Strangely, that soft touch seemed to get Jane's attention, who grabbed Maura's wrist as she briefly tensed then she eased into consciousness.

When she opened her eyes she gave Maura a lazy smile with a certain look in her eye that she couldn't quite pin down. "Hey, Maura…"

The architect was slightly taken aback by her dreamy tone and even more dazzling smile. "Are you going to make a habit of grabbing me whenever you're startled?"

Jane chuckled and looked down at the delicate wrist. When her dream state began to wear off and she realized what she was doing, she jolted straight up in her seat, discarding the tender grip she had on the other woman.

"Damnit. My bad. I was… I thought... Never mind. Are we done? I mean, ready to go?"

Maura silently stepped back as her assistant sprang to her feet and started unloading the carry-ons.

As they walked through the airport, Maura allowed herself to wonder. What was Jane dreaming about?

"Sweet baby Jesus," exclaimed the tall brunette as she tried to keep her jaw off the plush, carpeted floor of the hotel suite. First class flight and now this? She hadn't been the one to book the room, so she didn't really have any idea what it would look like. The suite had its own elevator, for Pete's sake!

The living room was an open floor plan with an offset kitchen and a grand granite table in the middle of the room. There was a long hallway immediately to the right. Jane dropped all of the bags in the entryway and set off to explore the remarkable structure.

The first door to the right was a normal bedroom with two single beds and a bathroom. She was about to enter when Alice brushed past her and mumbled that it was hers and her brother's room. Jane ignored the hostility and continued to look around.

She discovered two more bedrooms, each with a spacious private bathroom. At the end of the tour she found herself in a room with glass walls and a Jacuzzi dead in the middle of the room.

"That will come in handy one of these days."

The brunette jumped a little and turned to face her boss who was leaning against the door frame.

"You know, I didn't even know a hotel room could have so many rooms in it."

Maura laughed. "Yes, well that's why it's called a suite. Plus, I thought it would be better if we occupied the same space." Maura looked around the room and walked over to a panel on the wall. She examined it for a minute before she pressed a button and a curtain like silk slid down the glass walls blocking the outside view. "That could come in handy too."

Jane's throat visibly bobbed up and down as she swallowed dryly, eyeing Maura closely as she turned to her. She cleared her throat, asking, "And why would that come in handy?"

"Oh, well you know…" Maura shrugged (actually, more like shimmied) a shoulder as she searched her mind for the right words. The atmosphere felt thick and Jane wondered if she was just imagining the sexual tension in the air. She took a step toward the smaller woman and was going to take another when the door burst open.

"Cool! A pool!" Jacob ran to the jacuzzi and climbed into the empty tub. Jane let her eyes wander the floor before bringing them up to meet Maura's. The other woman immediately turned to her son with a fond smile.

"Sweetheart, that's not a pool. That's a jacuzzi."

"Oh. What's it for?" he looked genuinely confused.

"People use it to…" Maura finally looked up to Jane and then back to her son, "… relax."

"Oh, a jacuzzi. Cool. Hey, mom did you see the Ping-Pong table behind the kitchen?" Maura merely shook her head, having paid no mind to anything after dropping her bags off in her room, which was right across from Jane's, and going off in search of her assistant.

"Hey, Jane. Do you wanna play?"

"Sure, but maybe a little later, buddy."

"Yes." Maura walked over to the panel on the wall and pressed the button again, lifting the curtains once again. "Maybe later. We still have to unpack, young man."

The boy's shoulders sagged as he sighed dramatically and began to protest. "But Mom, we just got here."

"All I hear is how much you don't want ice cream after dinner."

The boy practically launched out of the tub and ran to his room. Jane smiled at how easy the kid was. And Maura was still standing at the door.

"Are you coming? You need to unpack as well."

"Oh great. You're my mom too now?"

Maura squinted her eyes in challenge. "That depends. Do you want ice cream after dinner?"

Jane played shocked for a second before mimicking the boy's eagerness and jogged out of the room. Maura laughed and followed her assistant down the hall.

When Jane was finished unpacking, her dress pants and button downs hanging in the closet and her toiletries in the bathroom, she walked across the hall and knocked softly onto Maura's bedroom door. When she heard the 'come in', she pushed her way inside and found the blonde woman sitting in the middle of the bed, cross-legged with her laptop and glasses. She had changed into slightly more causal, yet still designer, white jeans and a dark purple silk blouse.

"Hi, Jane. Can I help you?"

"I just want to double-check the schedule," she said as she further entered the room.

"Sure. And I'm sorry you got thrown into this, but I'm glad it's you and not the last assistant I had." Maura smiled, patting a spot on the bed for Jane to sit.

Jane quickly glanced towards the hallway, as if expecting Ali to be there with a venomous glare, but shook the thought out of her head and walked over. She sat down and lasted all of three seconds before shaking her head again and standing back up.

"Are you okay?" asked a confused Maura.

"Mhm. Yup. So, today there's nothing, right?"

"Correct. The events start tomorrow."

"Brunch at 10 a.m., right? Then, there's the afternoon TED lecture at 1 p.m. And another at 5 p.m. And… is that all for Sunday?" Jane had been steadily walking back and forth along the room. Ticking off the events in her head.

"Yes, then Monday-"

"Is the morning lecture with Michael Graves, and then his constituents afterwards. Then there's the Q&A… We definitely need to be there. Well, you do. I guess I can get lunch then…"

Maura stifled a smirk as her assistant walked back and forth and her schedule reciting turned into mumbling to herself.

"…And then Tuesday, there's the architectural tour and of course more lectures, blah, blah, blah… and oh! The banquet that night and…" She stopped when her glance ran past Maura and saw her smiling up at her. "What? Did I miss something?'

"Nothing, it's just… your mumbling is…well, it's endearing. Very cute."

The brunette could instantly feel the heat rise from both embarrassment and excitement. Didn't Maura know she couldn't just call her cute so innocently? She leaned her back against the wall near the door. "Then our flight leaves at 6 p.m. on Wednesday."

Maura scooted to the edge of her bed and nodded her head. "Sounds good. Now, I don't know about you but I'm completely famished. And since we're all pretty jetlagged, room service is a good idea."

"Oh, well I kinda had another idea on the ride here, but if you want hotel food… I guess that's cool too." Jane smirked when curiosity lit the other woman's eyes right up.

"Wait, what idea?"

"I was thinking that maybe I'd cook for us instead. All of us."

"You? Cook? I mean, you cook?"

Jane feigned a slightly hurt look and placed her hand over her heart. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean? I cook. Very well actually."

Maura leaned back on her hands and crossed one leg over the other. She subconsciously bit her lip and Jane's stomach did a small flip. "And what would you cook, Ms. Rizzoli?"

"Easy. My Ma's lasagna."

"Lasagna?"

"Yeah, it's good. Trust me, I'm Italian. And I guess I could squeeze in a salad too since you're so into that sort of stuff." They both laughed.

"Okay, but we don't really have anything in the kitchen to cook."

"Leave that to me."

"Because you're Italian and you happen to travel with groceries in your suitcase?"

Jane's back pressed against the wall. "No… customs is a nightmare," she laughed, "but I'm sure there's a Walmart somewhere around here."

Maura was about to agree when her daughter stormed into her room without knocking and walked up to her mother. She failed to notice Jane, who was now partially hidden by the open door.

"Mom, can we please go to the store?"

"Did you forget to pack something?"

The girl paused for a second, not wanting to admit that she had indeed forgotten something at home. "My multivitamins."

Her mother grew relieved it wasn't serious and leaned forward. "Alice, you don't need them that badly."

"Yeah, I do. It's important for my fruit and vegetable cleanse."

They both heard a deep chuckle from behind them. Alice turned to see Jane appear from behind the door. "Cleanse? It's always something with you."

"Of course you would be in here."

"As opposed to doing my job via tweets and instagram?" Jane quipped back. They both stood staring at each other in an intense gaze. The awkwardness of the silence was brought to Maura's attention after almost a full minute passed with them just staring at each other.

"Alice, Jane is going grocery shopping. You should tag along."

A simultaneous, "What!" came from both Jane and the teenager. They both looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

"Yes, you need to go to the store… she needs to go to the store." She barely got the suggestion out before they both objected.

"I don't know if that's a goo-"

"But Mom, we don't even-"

Maura raised her hand and they both fell silent. She looked between the two of them, trying to figure out why they were so against it. Then she thought about it and wondered why they'd been taking shots at each other all day. She knew they had a sarcastic relationship. That also made her think about how she'd never had an assistant who even knew of her children let alone had a relationship with them.

"Jane, you are cooking tonight, yes?" Jane nodded her head. "Alice, you would like to go to the store for your vitamins, right?" The girl crossed her arms looking off in the distance and nodded her head. "Good, now go. Both of you. Together."

Alice turned and gestured for Jane to walk out of the room. Jane smirked sarcastically and opened the door widely for her.

"After you, Little Miss Sunshine." The girl rolled her eyes and walked through the door and Jane followed after darting an annoyed look at Maura.

Jane thanked her lucky stars that the health products were on the other side of the store. The cab ride had been insufferable, and not because they threw digs at each other the entire time, but because they didn't speak at all. She realized that she would take a bratty Alice over a silently brooding, planning teenager any day. Her luck soon ran out as she was walking down the aisle and felt a presence beside her. She turned to see the girl dropping her vitamins into the basket and looking at its contents.

"Last time I checked, you don't need wine to make lasagna."

"Well, it's one of your mom's favorites. Plus, it's been a long day, and I thought it would help her unwind a little."

The girl looked off to the side and laughed knowingly with a shake of her head. "And you'd just love that, wouldn't you? My mother unwound."

Finally, Jane had had enough. She pulled the basket to the side of the aisle while the other hand dragged the girl with her.

"Okay. Could you explain to me exactly what your problem is?"

"My problem? You're the one with the problem. The staring problem, the speech problem, the hands-to-yourself problem..."

Jane played dumb, unwilling to admit to anything yet. "What are you talking about?"

The girl threw her hands up in frustration. "Sai bene di cosa parlo!"

The taller woman sighed and ran her hands threw her hair and rubbed it across the back of her neck. They were about to make a scene and she knew it. "Look, I don't know what you think is going on between your mom and me, but I can assure you that-"

"No, it's not you and my mom… it's just you. She has absolutely no idea what's happening, but you… you don't think I see the way you look at her or your little innuendos that you think are so charming, but really aren't?"

When Jane stayed silent, the girl set her shoulders and put her hands on her hips.

"I see it. And I can tell you right now that she's way out of your league so just save yourself the embarrassment and back off."

"You don't know anything about me."

"Maybe not, but I do know my mother and I can tell you that she has no idea what's going on, but when she figures it out… well, she won't be too happy."

Jane's annoyance instantly changed into bashful hope and she mumbled, "How do you know?"

Alice paused in confusion, then shock. "Oh. My. God. You do like her, don't you?"

The older woman pursed her lips and stared into Alice's surprised eyes. She cleared her throat and started pushing the basket again.

"We should head back before your mother thinks we've killed each other."

Alice stared at the woman's retreating form. What was Jane's angle? If anything, she became even more suspicious of the flirting assistant but followed her to the checkout counter.

"Jane, that was… really surprising." Maura sat back, bringing the wine glass to her lips as contentment ran from her taste-buds to her sated stomach. They all sat at the round table with Jane's empty pan of lasagna in the middle. Jacob had scarfed down two helpings, as did Jane, while Maura and even Alice enjoyed one as well. Jane and the teenager had shared a few awkward glances over the table, but both would quickly avert their eyes. If Maura noticed, she didn't mention it.

"Is that a good surprise or a bad surprise?" Jane grinned, already knowing the answer.

Jacob wiped the ice cream off of his mouth with his sleeve and cowered away from his mother's disapproving look before looking up at Jane. "A good surprise. You should come over to our house and make some more."

Alice's eyes met Jane's in a silent conversation.

"Hey! You don't like my lasagna?" asked Maura, only slightly offended.

"When you're home to make it," the boy said through a toothy grin.

Jane looked at Maura and found what she had expected to see. A mother stricken with guilt whose eyes suddenly found the ground very interesting.

"May I be excused?" Jake went on, "I really wanna check out all of the channels before Ali starts with her stupid girl shows." The boy perked up already standing, seemingly oblivious to the path of destruction his words had caused.

"Of course, sweetheart. Not too long, though. We have to get up early tomorrow."

Jacob nodded before giving his mother a kiss on the cheek, swinging by Jane for a fist bump and then sticking his tongue out at Alice. After he left, the room grew eerily quiet. Maura thought about what her son said about her never being home and both Jane and Alice thought about his previous comment.

"I'm going to do some reading on the balcony. Goodnight." Alice stood, walked to the couch for her iPad and then out on the balcony without looking at either woman who remained at the table.

"Well," Jane said as she started to collect the dishes, "I'm glad you all liked the lasagna. You barely touched your salad."

Maura snapped back to the present when Jane reached for her plate. "Jane, you don't have to do that."

"Don't worry about it. I've washed dishes before." Jane walked over to the counter and placed the dirty dishes into the sink. "Plus, I wouldn't want you messing up those soft hands of yours." Jane gripped the counter and dropped her head. Stop the flirting, Jane. Turn it off. Shut it down. Right now.

"Well, thank you but that's not why I said that." Jane turned around to see Maura standing in the kitchen with her, wine glass in hand. "This," she said pointing to a sleek appliance, "is a dishwasher. It washes dishes," Maura teased.

"Right. I guess I just forgot. But I really don't mind. I'm used to it." She smiled at the blonde, but it slowly diminished as her boss walked closer to her. Maura walked up into her personal space and took one last sip of her wine. She reached down and grabbed Jane's empty hand and brought it up between them to place her empty wine glass in it.

With a one hundred watt smile she said, "Well you should wear gloves then. Your hands are quite soft as well."

Jane watched, frozen in her spot, as her boss walked away down the hall. She jumped a little at the sound of the bedroom door closing and closed her eyes taking in a shaky breath.

At that moment, Jane couldn't understand what was going on. Alice had said that her mom had no idea that the flirty back and forth between them even existed. So how would she explain what her boss had just said and the tone she had just said it in? The assistant walked back to the table and went around it to grab the last of the dishes.

When she got a hold of her body temperature, she chanced a glance at the balcony. And of course, there was Alice staring into the room with a bewildered look on her face. Jane dropped her head and walked to the sink. Turning the water on she wondered once again what in the hell she had gotten herself into.

Italian Translation: "You know exactly what I'm talking about!"

A/N: Thoughts? By the way I was totally caught blushing by my friends while reading your reviews:)