A/N: Okay, y'all convinced me, this is another continuation of the previous chapter. I couldn't help it; the prompt fit it. But please don't expect this to go beyond a two-shot. Hope you like it!

"Rizzoli, where do you think you're going?"

"Coach, please! There wasn't a scheduled practice for tonight, and I've gotta be in Concord by six!"

"You're the captain, Rizzoli, you set the tone for the team! We've got State coming up, and if you—"

"This is the most important night in my girlfriend's life and I promised her I would be there!"

It was too bad, really, that Maura hadn't been present for the first time Jane referred to her as her girlfriend.

"Oh, don't roll your eyes at me!" Jane argued. "You think I'm just being cute? That being in a relationship doesn't mean anything at this age? I've spent years devoting every hour of my life to this team! And somehow I managed to keep my grades up! I've never gotten detention or been tardy or cut class. I've never embarrassed the team by getting wasted at a party or flashing the school during a band concert or—or anything! I've given this my all, and I will continue to give it my all until we win that state championship. But tonight, the person who means more to me than anyone or anything else—she needs me! She needs me right now a helluva lot more than you do."

Jane prepared to storm out of the locker room, but her coach stood up and warned her, "You walk out those doors, Rizzoli, and you can say goodbye to playing State."

A hushed awe fell over the girls who had already shown up, and Jane slowly turned to glare at their coach. She clenched her fists, wishing fervently that she was at good with words as Maura. "I'm an integral part of this team, coach. I don't want to let the team down, and I don't think you do either, and that's exactly what you'd be doing if you chose not to let me play that game. I'm not being a diva," she said, raising her voice when it looked like her coach was about to protest again. "But if I don't go to Maura's forum tonight, she'll have nobody there. Nobody she knows will be there, not even the other kids in her club. She's the representative they chose, and so she went there alone. I'm not about to let her feel like nobody cares."

And with that, she banged the doors of the locker room open and left to a wild round of applause from her teammates. Their coach rolled her eyes, knowing that nothing would beat their chances of winning the state title like keeping Jane off the field. It had been an empty threat.

Jane had broken several speed limits and other traffic laws, and it was still 6:30 by the time she reached the International Youth Science Forum's venue. The first parking spot she thought she found was taken by a Smart Car, and the second housed a motorcycle. She had to go two blocks down to park, and ran as fast as her legs would carry her back to the address Maura had given her. Inside, she followed the signs that led to the conference, taking her up three flights of stairs. When she finally arrived at the proper floor, she was gasping for breath, and she slumped over the check-in table to keep from doubling over.

A bespectacled gentlemen sitting there looked on disapprovingly as some of Jane's sweat threatened to fall on the table. "Am I… too late?" she choked out.

He shuffled some papers. "The conference began forty minutes ago."

"P…please," Jane gasped, grasping a stitch in her side. "I have to be here. I prom—I promised her I'd be here."

"Who, exactly?"

"Maura Isles. Rep from St. Dominic's."

"From…?"

"Boston."

The man consulted one of the programs, checked his watch, and said, "I'm sorry, but your friend's presentation is in all likelihood nearly over."

"What?! No, she—no, please!"

"'Please'? There's nothing I can do for you, miss, it's the schedule!"

"Please, then, let me go inside. She has to—to know I came. I broke so many traffic laws to get here, and there was this awful accident, and the parking … please, just let me slip in the back, sir, please."

Finally he decided to let her in, mostly because she looked like she was about to pass out and he'd rather let somebody else deal with it.

Jane wished there'd been a water fountain nearby, but there were none to be found as she sneaked into the enormous conference room. There were more seats than attendants, however, and Jane tried to get as close as she could. Maura was sitting with twenty-four other students up on the stage, and seeing her made Jane lose her self-consciousness entirely. What did she care if people were giving her dirty looks for walking in late—or, for that matter, wearing her field hockey uniform and sweating like a pig when they were all dressed in their Sunday best?

That was to say nothing of Maura. She had taken as much care in her appearance as most girls reserved for the prom (except she was wearing a silk blouse and pencil skirt instead of a gown). Her hair glowed golden as it fell over her shoulders; she was listening to the current speaker with rapt attention, and Jane just tried to focus on quieting her breathing: her gasps were still fairly consistent, but smaller.

"Are you all right?" whispered the boy she had sat next to. He offered her a water bottle, and she started chugging it without a second thought.

She drained it and wiped her mouth with the back of her arm. "Thanks, I'll be okay." She took one final deep breath and tried to relax. "Who's speaking now?"

"Peter Jenkins, from Augusta," he said, pointing on the program. "It was supposed to be um… Maura Isles, but she hasn't gone yet."

"What? Why not?"

The boy shrugged. "It was her turn, and she said something to the moderator, and I guess she and Jenkins switched."

It dawned on Jane that Maura had seen she wasn't there, and at risk of personal embarrassment, had asked someone to switch places with her- prolong Jane's chances of arriving. Rather than being grateful, Jane felt nothing but deep shame. She pictured Maura scanning the assembled crowd, finding no familiar faces. How her heart must have dropped.

But then Jenkins concluded his presentation, and the applause set in. Jane silently willed for Maura to look her away, and after what seemed like an aching eternity, she did. The sober look of concentration on Maura's face was at once replaced by an ecstatic grin as they locked eyes, and Jane smiled widely back. She flashed a double thumbs-up, and Maura was quick to return it. Maura squinted when she saw Jane mouth something, and after Jane realized that cupping her mouth would only make it more difficult to understand, she signed I love you as exaggeratedly as possible.

"And we will now be pleased to hear from Maura Isles, our delegate from Boston. …Miss Isles. …a-hem."

Maura jumped when the girl next to her flicked her arm, and the audience chuckled as she scrambled to the podium. She had to double back for her notes, during which time Jane ruffled for something in her own bag.

"Good evening, everyone. It's c-certainly an honor to be here. Thank you," Maura began. "As was just said, my name is Maura Isles, and I am a senior from St. Dominic's High School in Boston. I'll be presenting on the role of extracellular cations in cell motility, polarity, and chemotaxis."

"WHOO! YEAH!"

Everyone's attention was instantly diverted to Jane, who was wearing a foam finger with "Isles" written onto it, and she used two fingers from her free hand to whistle. For a few moments, Jane was happily oblivious to the shocked looks in her direction, but then she glanced at the boy next to her and her smile faltered at his dismal expression.

"Do…people not do that here?" she whispered. He stared back at her in silence. "I'm… I've never been to something like this before, sorry."

But Jane's outburst of excitement had brought on some appreciative laughter, and people began to applaud preemptively. The boy next to Jane was stunned - no one else had gotten clapped for until they were finished. Maura, for her part, was far from embarrassed. She recognized Jane's expression as the most vocal support she knew how to express, and it put her at ease. It was a good reminder not to be so tense.

Jane understood about as much of Maura's presentation as she had of its title, which is to say, roughly 2% of it. That didn't keep her from beaming with pride, though, and her attention never wavered from the presentation. She was in love with how intelligent Maura sounded. She was in love with the way her hands moved, her body shifted, as she gestured to the diagrams next to her. She was in love with the way the lights made Maura's hair glint. But most of all, Jane was in love with how confident Maura appeared. Nobody in this room was snickering at her high-brow vocabulary. Nobody thought she was boring. Nobody thought it was dumb or uncool to be so invested in the scientific things she was discussing. This was her element.

The only thing Jane had to actively try and avoid was thinking about Maura's parents and how they weren't there. Maura's mother was traveling on business and her father hadn't been able to get out of a meeting, apparently. Jane was certain that if either of them really cared, they'd have done whatever was necessary to show up. She knew her own parents would travel half the globe to see her play.

But then, at least, the Isles actually knew of Jane and Maura's relationship and had no complaints about it - something Jane wasn't sure she could say of her parents, which was why they weren't in the know yet. So maybe that was one point that could be chalked up to the Isles side.

For the remaining hour, as every other student spoke, Jane just waited for the moments when Maura would look her way. Ever polite, Maura mostly kept her eyes on whoever was speaking. But she couldn't keep from glancing at Jane every so often, and she was rewarded either with a funny face or a blown kiss.

When the last student concluded, Jane clapped just as enthusiastically as everyone else, but she was disappointed to see nobody was getting up yet. "Please tell me there's not more," she whisper-groaned. "I don't think I can take it!"

"The panel is just trying to pick a winner," said the boy next to her.

"A winner? There's winners in this stuff?"

"Well, yeah. No money or anything, but there's the prestige and all that. Third, second, first. Nice thing to put on college applications, too."

The panel convened for a full five minutes before sending a representative to the podium. When Maura nervously caught Jane's eye, Jane crossed her fingers—then her arms, then her legs, and then her eyes. She curled her tongue just in case. It got Maura to laugh, which was really all she had aimed to do. It also got the boy next to her to hang his head and say, "Oh, my God. You need help."

"…and after much deliberation, we have decided that third place shall be awarded to Sasha Harmon, from New Haven, Connecticut." A polite smattering of applause. "In second place, Meg Debren from Burlington, Vermont." (A lot of applause for this one, Jane noticed, concentrated in a cluster of girls sitting in the front row of the room.) "And the coveted award for first place in the New England chapter of the International Science Forum goes unquestionably to Maura Isles, from Boston, Massachusetts!"

Jane leapt to her feet, leading a roomful of thunderous applause. "That's my girl!" she yelled, but remained mostly unheard over all the clapping. The stage was suddenly lit with flashes of light, and Jane noticed reporters there for the first time. People in the audience were starting to disperse and kids were walking off the stage, so Jane felt assured it would be all right for her to at least try and approach Maura.

By now Maura had shaken hands with the members of everyone on the panel (and with a few of her gracious competitors), and was currently getting interviewed simultaneously by three reporters. But when she saw Jane standing at the foot of the stage, Maura couldn't keep from looking at her.

"I'm sorry, I've never done an interview like this before, but is it all right if I go say hello to my girlfriend?"

The reporters affably agreed, and all started murmuring to each other the instant Maura walked away. Jane held her arms out, and rather than take the stairs around, Maura slid off the stage and into a kiss in Jane's arms.

"You are the sexiest dork on the planet, it's official," Jane said, giving her a squeeze. "Is that what it says on the certificate there?"

"Mmm, I don't think so."

"It should. The panel that consists solely of me just decided." Jane gave Maura another quick kiss before adding, "I'm so sorry I was late. Traffic was a beast, and then I—I guess I'm not as in shape as I thought, because I was out of breath running here from my parking spot and then up the stairs to this room—"

"Why didn't you take the elevator?"

"…because you're the certified genius here, not me." They shared a laugh over that, and Jane kissed the corner of her mouth. "But seriously, babe, I'm sorry. Coach wanted to throw in an extra practice, and I had to put my foot down."

"I'm just so glad you made it, Jane. Your being here means the world to me."

Jane was touched by the tears in Maura's eyes, knowing it wasn't in her nature to exaggerate. "And I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Not in its entirety, anyway."

"Um, Jane. I hope you don't mind I told those reporters you were my… um… girlfriend."

"Really? Cool!"

"You're okay with that?"

"Yeah! Maura, I've hardly even looked at another girl since we kissed that first time. I want to be yours, exclusively."

"And you've got me," Maura laughed.

"Wow, check us out! This is a first for me. Having an actual girlfriend and all."

"How does it feel?"

"Absolutely amazing." They kissed once more, and out of the corner of her eye, Jane noticed the reporters and their photographers sneaking closer. "And speaking of milestones—Maura, you're gonna be in the papers tomorrow! You're like, starting your career already!"

"Hey kid, what's your name?" asked one of the reporters.

"Me? Jane Clementine Rizzoli!"

"Jane, how's it feel to be dating New England's brightest young scholar?"

Looking down at Maura's lovestruck, ecstatic expression, Jane couldn't bring herself to snark or even joke harmlessly around. "Feels like a million bucks, sir. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a prouder girl on the planet."

…

The next morning, Jane went down for breakfast and saw her father sitting at the head of the table, newspaper open as usual. Angela was standing behind him, reading over his shoulder. As soon as Jane sat down, Frank lowered the paper, and Jane realized both parents were staring at her. Before she could ask, she glanced at the paper and her stomach lurched: there was a large, black-and-white photo of her kissing Maura on the cheek. She looked nervously back up at her parents, both of whom were wearing masterful poker faces.

"Jane," her father began. "Why didn't you tell us you were dating—"

"A GENIUS?!" he and Angela asked in unison.