A/N-I'm sorry, so very, very sorry about how long this took. I've had bits of it done for a really, really long time, but I can't seem to get the motivation to work on it. With the new episodes coming up though I figured it'd be good to give you all a little something. This chapter was meant to wrap things up, but now there's going to be another chapter because you lovely people waited quite long enough and I didn't want you to wait any longer...
I don't own much stuff, least of all the rights to a successful book/television series...
It took almost an hour to take Maura on the short walk through Jane's neighborhood. It should have only taken about a half and hour tops, but Maura stopped Jane once in awhile and asked the significance of a particular place as they walked by. She claimed to know that the places were important to Jane because the route she chose to take through the streets did not follow what would be the natural flow of pedestrian traffic. And the funny thing was that Maura was right every single time.
Towards the end of their walk, as Jane turned down a side street on the way back to the car, Maura stopped Jane one last time.
"This street has special significance too, doesn't it?" Maura asked as she slowed to a stop and looked up at the name of the street.
"You mean aside from the fact that it's going to get us back to the car quicker?"
Maura raised her eyebrows in that no nonsense 'be serious, Jane' way that always worked quite effectively.
"It will get us back to the car in the same amount of time as if we'd turned around, because we will simply be coming out onto a street that runs parallel to this one," Maura said. "So, yes, aside from that, what is the significance of this street?"
"Well," Jane sighed. "Lots of stuff happened here. It was a pretty popular place to hang out. Especially around the feast days. Outsiders didn't travel here too much, but it was crowded enough to still feel, you know, like you were still a part of it."
"Tell me your favorite memory then," Maura said as she took Jane's hand and resumed walking down the street.
"I, um, I guess I was about seventeen," Jane said, feeling herself blush at bringing up something that she hadn't told anyone about, at least not in the past fifteen years. "I kissed a girl for the first time here."
"Really?"
"Yep. Her name was Leena," Jane looked down at her boots as they scuffed along the pavement. "Wasn't out in the middle of the street or anything though. It was kind of cold and rainy, and she was working this little ice cream booth. I came to keep her company because we were friends, and we tried to stay out of the rain by hiding behind the booth when there weren't any customers. It was kind of a tight fit, so we were really close, and, I mean I guess we might have flirted a little before, and there was this moment where she just kissed me. Then I kissed her back."
Jane looked at Maura as she finished and saw the other woman grinning as she observed Jane's behavior. She squeezed Jane's hand.
"Does it embarrass you to tell that story?" Maura asked gently.
"No, not really. It's just, it's not something I told people even back then. So it's kind of weird to talk about all these years later," Jane said.
Jane felt Maura watch her for another few seconds before speaking again.
"Thank you for telling me," Maura said. Maura was rarely insincere, but there were times when she seemed so intent on expressing something beyond simple sincerity. It was a mix of gratitude, sincerity, and deep respect for the woman that Jane had shown herself to be.
"Sure, I mean it wasn't a secret," Jane said. She swallowed and looked away from Maura as she spoke, hoping her deepening blush wouldn't be too apparent. "Anyway, it was just a fun summer thing we had. She went away to college at the end of the summer, and I started my senior year. She's married with a few kids now I think."
"Well, I appreciate that you were comfortable enough to tell me," Maura said as she squeezed Jane's hand again.
Jane shrugged.
"Of course. I mean you're kind of my comfortable place," Jane said. "I've admitted more stuff to you than I've told anyone else, I think."
Such a monumental confession felt like something Jane should have rehearsed, or at least thought about beforehand. But it just came out, right there, as they walked down the streets she'd walked down as a kid. That's what Maura did to Jane. She put Jane in a place where she wasn't in her usual tense, guarded, defensive resting state. Maura just being there made Jane want to spill her guts, to show every part of herself to the other woman, because Maura was so open, so warm and Maura deserved that kind of openness from Jane. Maura deserved everything Jane could give her and then some.
"I think you're my comfortable place too," Maura said, a satisfied smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "I feel safe with you, Jane."
Jane smiled and looked down at her feet at they walked on towards the car.
Before Jane could think of some clever way to respond, they slowed to a stop by Jane's car. Jane opened the door for Maura, mostly because it seemed like the chivalrous first date kind of thing to do for your date.
Maura tilted her head to the side and squinted her eyes thoughtfully.
"Oh, did you want me to drive back?" Maura asked.
"What'd you mean? I was opening the door for you," Jane said.
"Well, that's not something you generally do for me," Maura said. "And I'm perfectly capable of opening my own car door. So I concluded that you wanted to sit in the passenger seat. By process of elimination, I would be the driver."
"First of all, we're not generally out on first dates, and second of all, I know you're perfectly capable of a lot of things. I was being polite," Jane said.
Maura laughed.
"I appreciate the gesture, Jane, but you needn't be chivalrous," she said as she got into the passenger seat. "Particularly when we're both women and I have every intention of doing things with you tonight that a lady would blush to even speak of."
Sometimes when Maura talked like that, with her meticulous pronunciation and three syllable words, it took an extra second for Jane to realize that Maura was talking about really hot stuff. Jane actually liked that because the extra work meant a little extra reward.
"Well, then, close the door and drive me to the precinct to get my car," Maura said. "Then we're going back to my place."
Maura and her soft bossiness worked every time. Jane smirked and nodded as she slammed the door, walked around the front of the car, took her place in the driver's seat, and drove back towards the precinct.
Maura had exactly 12 minutes to do what she had planned. She'd insisted that she and Jane take separate cars back to her place and given Jane directions that she knew would take a little bit longer, though she implied that it was a shortcut. The route usually was a shortcut, so Maura was able to get away with telling Jane that the route usually saves 5 minutes. She left out the part where the city was performing road work that meant it would take significantly longer for Jane to arrive.
The deception was for a good cause, and she hoped Jane would think so as well when she saw that the delay was necessary for Maura to set up Jane's little surprise. She'd called her housekeeper to ask him to leave candles out for Maura to arrange and light when she got home. That task would take about ten of her twelve minutes, because Maura was very particular about the way that the candles were to be arranged. Lighting was crucial to setting the right mood, and Maura wanted to it to be just right.
The remaining two minutes, well, Maura was going to use those to change into the second half of her surprise for Jane…
By the time Jane pulled up to Maura's house in the Back Bay, her cursing had become very creative. Of all the places in the entire commonwealth, the city choose resurface the one street she needed to drive down to get to Maura's house at the exact time that Jane really, really wanted to get to Maura's as quickly as possible. Instead, she found herself winding through streets that she'd only been down a handful of times years ago on patrol. The traffic was pretty brutal too, even by Boston standards.
Before she got out of the car to approach Maura's door, Jane took a quick look in the rearview mirror to make sure she looked presentable. Not that she could do much if she didn't look good, but she was stupidly nervous to say that she and Maura had known each other for months and had even slept together several times. It just, it felt so different and important and, weirdly enough, so fragile. Like everything was so good that it might shatter, the bubble might burst, if Jane didn't handle things just right.
Jane took a deep breath and stepped out of her car. She slammed the door behind her and walked with a quick decisive stride up the walkway towards Maura's door. Jane had only been to Maura's place a handful of times now that she thought of it. She and Jane spent most of their time together in Jane's apartment, which was a lot closer than Maura's place to BPD. The few times she had been to Maura's it was merely to pick her up on the way to a crime scene or group outing, so she'd waited just inside the doorway, sometimes even staying in the car so that Maura could just jump in.
This would be the first time Jane had ever been inside Maura's house beyond the front door. Yet another thing for Jane to feel weirdly nervous about.
Jane pressed the doorbell twice, then stuck her hands in the pocket of her light spring jacket as she rocked back on her heels while waiting as patiently as she possibly could for Maura to answer the door.
It was probably only about ten seconds, fifteen at most, but it felt a lot longer than that. Then, when Maura did answer the door, Jane's sense of time stopped existing altogether. Maura was breathless from rushing to answer the door and wearing nothing but an oversized Red Sox jersey.
Jane blinked once then looked Maura up and down…slowly. Maura allowed it, even seemed to enjoy the attention. There was something so damn appealing about a woman in nothing but a button up, then to make it a Sox jersey. On top of all that, you make the woman wearing the jersey Maura standing in a very carefully lit room, and Jane, well, Jane was working really hard to think of words that would make any sense.
"I've recently become aware that you have a keen interest in the Red Sox and their jersey in particular," Maura said. She took a step back so that Jane could enter, which Jane did, shutting the door behind her without taking her eyes off Maura. "Although your childhood obsession with wearing a Red Sox jersey to formal events seemed a little odd, I thought that it might be a nice surprise. A way to make you comfortable in my home."
"Maura, that shirt is awesome, but comfortable is not the word I'd use for how it makes me feel," Jane said as she took a step forward, and resting her hand on Maura's cheek.
"No?" Maura replied, though she did not seem all that confused. Her eyes betrayed a barely concealed smile.
Jane shook her head before pulling Maura in for a kiss, the kind of kiss Jane had been wishing she could give Maura since the moment she got off than elevator back at the precinct. Much as Jane had made with the small PDA moments over the course of the evening, it'd taken some serious self-restraint to keep from anything more than brief kisses and handholding.
Now, in the privacy of Maura's home, with Maura in nothing but a jersey and…god, heels. Maura was wearing nothing but a Red Sox jersey and black 'fuck me' heels. Jane had seen the heels, but she hadn't truly appreciated the visual until that moment, when, instead of being a bit taller than Maura, she was exactly the same height as the other woman.
The image made Jane eager to move this thing along, so she found herself, without ever having made a conscious decision to do so, pulling at the buttons of Maura's jersey, undoing one after the other until the shirt hung open so that Jane's hands could roam over Maura's bare skin at will. What Jane hadn't expected was the fact that Maura wasn't entirely bare. As her fingers brushed from Maura's hip and up her side, Jane felt luxurious, lacy fabric under her finger tips.
Jane was forced to pull away from the kiss to see what exactly it was she was missing. And it was the most breathtaking things she'd ever seen. Maura, breathless and smiling with her whole face in nothing but heels and an unbuttoned jersey with expensive black lingerie underneath. Because it was all so Maura: all pure, sincere enthusiasm and high fashion. Yet, she'd added a touch of Jane with the jersey; she'd taken what Jane brought to her life and hadn't dismissed it as silly or low brow or blue collar. No, instead she took what Jane had to offer and used it in her own very Maura way.
"You're beautiful," Jane murmured as she pulled Maura closer.
"As are you," Maura said against Jane's lips as her fingers started working at Jane's buttons. "Though I'd like to see quite a bit more of you just to be certain."
"That can be arranged pretty easily," Jane said.
"Well, I think it's about time you see my room then, isn't it?" Maura replied as she unbuttoned the last button on Jane's shirt. She took Jane by the hand and gave her the most adorable smirk, a smile that was just a tiny bit too enthusiastic to be a 'come hither' smile, though it was even more attractive on Maura.
"Lead the way, Doctor Isles," Jane said as she squeezed Maura's hand and followed her towards the bedroom.
A/N-One more chapter to go, and I mean it this time. I'm thinking of doing something epilogue-ish that flashes back to where this chapter left off while also wrapping up all the loose ends, but I'm open to suggestions. Even if I don't/can't use them, it's always fun to hear where people want a story to go!
Thanks so much for sticking with me and this epic story. It's been exactly one year since I published this fic, and I've just gotta say, it's been one hell of a year, both for better and for worse. But one thing's for sure: all the reviews have made that year a little bit brighter, like little rays of sunshine :) So, thank you for that, and I hope you can find it in your hearts to give this horrible updater just a little more sunshine! :)