After another long, but fulfilling day, Maura was seated at her desk finishing up an autopsy report. She had spent her day doing her favorite thing: tagging along as Jane chased leads. After a dramatic (and mildly traumatic) car chase culminating in a foot chase and a comical incident involving an unfortunate skateboarder, the perpetrator had been apprehended.
She looked at her phone and saw that it was already 15 minutes after seven, time to meet Jane and the gang at the Dirty Robber.
She heard a knock and looked up, expecting to see dark, unruly curls and the most beautiful brown eyes she had ever seen. Instead, she saw a bald head and steel blue eyes.
"Oh. Casey. Come in," Maura greeted, rising to meet him.
"Maura," he said, rather tersely.
"Please, take a seat. I must say, I'm surprised to see you here."
Casey stiffly sat down. "Yes, well, I have something very important to speak to you about."
Maura bowed her head in encouragement, unable to fathom what he could mean.
"I know that you're in love with Jane."
Maura willed words to come, but she simply sat, mouth uncharacteristically agape, shaking her head in denial.
Casey smiled sadly. "Maura, it's obvious."
Her breath was coming shorter, her heartbeat increasing and decreasing in uneven bursts.
"Cardiac dysrhythmia and dyspnea...I…I…" she bent over double in her chair, putting her head level with her knees. "I can't…I'm not…"
"Oh yes, Dr. Isles. You are very much in love with my Jane," he chuckled to himself, as if remembering something amusing. "All the looks, all the touches, the adoration in your eyes. It's very easy to see."
Thinking about her best friend, she felt a rush of shame. Maura felt the inevitable blush creep across her cheeks.
"So, I'm going to ask her to marry me. And I want to ask you, as Jane's friend, not to go confusing her. She's been fighting all her life against all those damned people calling her 'Gayzolli' and 'dyke.' I was there in high school to help her through it, and I'm here now, too. She loves me, and we can be happy together. Please, I'm just asking you to let her live her life."
Tears in her eyes, Maura nodded. She took a few seconds to get her breathing under control. "I will. Now please, go."
I can't tell her.
Jane moved her face closer to Maura's, searching desperately for the reason behind her best friend's watery eyes and tortured expression.
"Maur. Please," Jane rasped, her gravelly voice conjuring a ball of warmth in Maura's stomach.
She found herself experiencing more cardiac dysrhythmia at her best friend's proximity.
If only you knew.
Jane placed her hand gently on Maura's warm cheek, tilting the blonde's head up to look at her. Maura closed her eyes and unconsciously leaned in to the strong hand, reveling in the touch of the lanky brunette.
Those long fingers running down the length of her bare abdomen…
Her eyes flew open and she jolted backward, mumbling a round of "I can'ts."
"You can't what, Maura?"
Watch you love somebody else.
"Spend so much time with you," she said quickly. "I think I'm getting in the way of you and Casey."
"Really, Maur? That's what you're worried about? I have my Casey time and I have my Maura time. Right now, it's Maura time," Jane said, her eyes softening at the beautiful blonde before her. She kissed Maura quickly on the forehead.
"Now come on and let's go to bed," Jane said, pulling up a still-dejected Maura off the couch. She smiled fondly at her best friend, who currently looked very small standing with red-rimmed eyes and a short, thin silk nightgown. It was a far cry from the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who wore crisp, perfect outfits and never had a strand of hair out of place.
She loved both those women.
"If you give me a smile, I'll promise to wake up early and do some yoga with you before work."
Jane accompanied this with her most charming smile.
A quiet smile softened Maura's eyes in return.
Jane pulled her up the stairs. "Good. It's settled!"
Once in bed, Maura found every atom of her makeup straining toward the olive-skinned detective. Instead of giving into it, she resolutely laid stiffly at the extreme end of the bed.
How long? She wondered to herself. How long have I felt gynephilia?
She laughed to herself.
Gynephilia? More like Janephilia.
"What's got you all giggly?" Jane asked, scooting closer to her friend. Her body moulded to the side of the Medical Examiner. "Got any secrets?" she whispered conspiratorially.
"Plenty," Maura purred, cocking an eyebrow.
"Tell me one."
"I'm not wearing any undergarments."
Maura stopped breathing, unable to believe what had just come out of her mouth.
Jane froze in her subconscious nuzzling. She was currently pressed up against her best friend who was not wearing underwear.
She peeked downwards and saw two pert nipples standing erect underneath Maura's purple silk nightgown.
Or, apparently, a bra.
Suddenly, she was hyperaware of the bare, creamy legs pressed up against her, the thin purple nightgown that barely reached mid-thigh, those damned attention-grabbing nipples…
Unbidden, a soft moan escaped Jane's lips. It sent little streams of desire down Maura's stomach and into her core.
Jane felt a very distinct rush of heat and moisture between her legs and an overweening desire to cross the line she had been toeing since the two had met.
"I…I, uh, forgottobrushmyteeth." And Jane flew out of the bed and into the bathroom, where she promptly splashed some very cold water on her face.
What was that, Rizzoli?
It wasn't like this hadn't happened before. There had been moments where they had gotten too close and Jane found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss the Medical Examiner.
There had been moments when the medical examiner's hand had been on her thigh and she felt a faint rush of heat begin to coil in her lower abdomen.
But nothing so intense, so immediate, as this.
She's your best friend, Rizzoli. You're not gay.
Jane splashed one more handful of cold water on her face before heading back into the bedroom. She settled herself in her previous position, not wanting to create any more awkwardness and definitely not wanting Maura to question her about her strange behavior.
"Maur, whatever happens, I'm so glad I have you in my life," Jane mumbled into Maura's honey blonde hair. Her arm thrown lightly over her best friend's stomach, Jane felt utterly at peace. "Everything's gonna work out okay, right? With Casey?" Jane asked, burying her head back into Maura's neck.
"My dear friend, what is this our life?" Maura began to recite. "A boat that swims in the sea, and all one knows for certain about it is that one day it will capsize.
"Here we are, two good old boats that have been faithful neighbors, and above all your hand has done its best to keep me from capsizing! Let us then continue our voyage each for the other's sake, for a long time yet, a long time!
We should miss each other so much! Tolerably calm seas and good winds and above all sun. What I wish for myself, I wish for you, too, and am sorry that my gratitude can find expression only in such a wish and has no influence at all on wind or weather."
Jane pulled back a little bit to look at Maura's face. "Wow," she rasped. "Where'd that come from?"
"It's Nietzsche," Maura smiled proudly, "I've always wanted to employ that in everyday conversation."
Jane's eyes softened, searching the hazel eyes she loved so much. She lifted a hand to stroke Maura's cheek.
"Thanks, Maur."
"Omnia fato fiunt: what is meant to be, will be," Maura sighed.
Maura nestled into Jane, relishing in the contact. It was moments like this that Maura felt something settle deeply inside her. It was a certainty, a conviction: this was meant to be.
Will be.
Maura only had to wait.