The next week passed by slowly for Jane. It was the last week before her cast came off and she couldn't wait for her appointment at the hospital. She knew that she had a long way to go to completely recover, but at least she would be able to do all the normal things again. After some practice. Sighing as she checked her watch, she stood up to grab her things.

"Heading to the hospital?" Jane nodded at Frost.

"Oh yeah, finally getting this damn thing off." She glared at the cast just to prove how annoyed she was by the offending thing.

"You sure you don't need a ride?" She looked at Korsak, raising her eyebrow.

"Really? You offering me a ride old man?" He laughed, shaking his head.

"Nah, its fine. Maura pretty much forced herself to come along."

"I didn't force you Jane." The Detective looked up, smiling as she saw her girlfriend walk into the bull pen, coat in hand.

No one knew about them yet and thankfully Maura hadn't brought up the subject of her mother either. Jane had been staying over at Maura's for the past few days under the excuse of giving both herself and Angela some space. Jane had both been surprised and unsurprised when Angela hadn't made a big deal out of it. Instead, she had told her that it was a great idea. It also gave Jane and Maura a chance to get to know each other a little better. And give Maura the opportunity to tell Jane that she was coming to the hospital with her.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. Let's just go and get this over with." Maura rolled her eyes – a trait she had picked up from Jane – and followed the Detective to the elevator.

"Finally! I'm free!" Jane all but pumped her left hand in the air, doing her best to try and make a fist. She didn't completely succeed in making a fist, but she got close. Besides, she couldn't care less at the moment.

Maura laughed behind her, amusing eyes following the Detective's screams of joy. Jane came running up to her, grabbing both her hands with her own.

"Come on Maura! Celebrate with me." Maura let herself be pulled into Jane, letting out a surprised yelp when the Detective picked her up and spun her around.

"Jane! Put me down." She glared at the other woman once she complied. "You shouldn't do that! You need to be careful. Or otherwise the cast will have to go back on." Jane sighed dramatically.

"Maur! I'm fine. Come on!" The Doctor sighed, but kept her mouth shut as they made their way back to the car. At least Jane would be able to drive better now. Maura wouldn't admit it to her girlfriend, but she was always worried when she was in the car with her.

"Let's go out tonight. Get some drinks, dinner. Then come home and spend the night in bed." Maura smirked at Jane as they got in the car.

"Sounds nice." The Detective started the car.

"Exactly! So where do you want to go? Dirty Robber or somewhere else?" Maura shrugged, leaning back in her seat.

"Dirty Robber sounds good Jane." Jane nodded, confirming she agreed with her girlfriend. She smiled. Calling Maura her girlfriend still hadn't gotten old. And it always brought a smile to her face.

Both women were enjoying a drink, making small talk as they looked around them. They had yet to order dinner, both not all that hungry.

"How are the exercises going?" Jane looked over at Maura, shrugging in response.

"They're… annoying."

"But they're important to your recovery. I can help if you want?" Jane smirked.

"Well, I can think of an exercise I can use my left hand for." Maura blushed, a smile tugging at her lips.

"Jane!"

"What! It's true isn't it?" Maura frowned at the other woman, shaking her head.

"Not yet. That's too soon. Your movements have to be controlled and you have to take it slow." Jane raised an eyebrow, a challenging look in her eyes.

"So you're saying that I don't control my movements?" Maura huffed, narrowing her eyes.

"You tend to lose yourself when we engage in sexual activities yes. But if you want to go ahead and try… then you can also be the one to tell the doctor that you overdid it when you had your fingers inside of me while trying to prove to me that you would be able to bring me to climax with your left hand. Just please make sure I will be there to see his face."

Jane did a decent impression of a fish out of water and it took Maura everything she had not to burst out in laughter.

"Maura!" Jane's eyes darted around them, making sure that no one had heard what the Doctor had said. "You can't just say that!" Maura shot her an innocent look.

"Why not? It's the truth isn't it? It is what will happen if you decide to go ahead with it." The Detective groaned, burying her head in her arms.

"Jane?" Maura reached out, taking Jane's hand in her own. The Detective looked up, a weary look in her eyes. "When do you want to tell people?" Jane had been dreading this moment. Had wanted Maura to just forget about it. But she knew that it was impossible. She knew that they were bound to talk about it.

"I don't know. I was kind of happy with the way things are." Maura frowned, looking down at their linked hands.

"Don't you want them to know? Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?" Jane shot up so fast it nearly scared Maura.

"What no! Why would you think that?!" Maura shrugged, not trusting her voice to speak.

"Listen babe. I don't care about what people say or think or do. I would shout it from the rooftops if you want me to. I just… I know that the moment people know they will start to meddle and I don't want that." Maura smiled softly.

"You mean your mother?" Jane rolled her eyes but nodded nonetheless.

"Well, yeah. If she would be okay with it in the first place. But people at BPD too. They'll look at you differently, they might even start calling you names. I got used to it, but that doesn't mean I want you to have to go through it."

"That's really sweet Jane, but I can take care of myself. I've been called names too, I've told you that. But you know what? I don't care. I know who I am. They can call me whatever they want. It will only show how jealous they are of me and you. Because in case you haven't noticed, you are beautiful. And many men and women would be lucky to be with you. I feel lucky to be with you." Jane had looked straight into Maura's eyes as the honey blonde told her this. She swallowed at the emotions she was seeing there, the truth that was there.

"Gee, you make me sound like I'm some kind of super model or something." As always, she looked for humor to make a serious situation less serious.

"Jane, I'm serious. But I will wait until you are ready to tell everyone. But you should know that my mother already does." Maura blushed as she confessed this.

"Constance knows?"

"Yes, I uhm… called her when I started cooking for you. She helped me understand my feelings for you." Jane smiled, showing her white teeth.

"Then I guess I'll have to thank her someday."

"I guess. I think she'll be happy to meet you. She's noticed that I've been considerably happier since we started dating."

"Of course! Who isn't happy when being around me?" Maura rolled her eyes.

"You're very humble Jane." The Detective shrugged, winking at her girlfriend.

"Hey! Today, I don't care about anything. I am finally free and I can get back to chasing perps."

"Jane." Maura's warning tone made Jane roll her eyes.

"Relax, not until the doc has cleared me. Still on that stupid desk duty until then. The only good thing about that is that I finally learned how to properly use the damn computer."

"I never knew you were non-technical Jane. You always seem to know your way around technical devices."

"I'm not non-technical. I just never really bothered to know everything about the program BPD uses. Besides, I have Frost for that. I'm only going to get worried if Korsak starts to best me. And that's never going to happen so… I don't have anything to worry about."

"How about we order dinner?" Maura effectively ended that conversation, not ready to hear about Jane going back into the field just yet. That would only make her worry.

"Right! Burgers and fries!" At Maura's stern look. "And a salad?" The honey blonde smiled victoriously.

Jane grumbled for the umpteenth time that morning. She had been spending the last couple of days exercising her wrist and was happy when the weekend finally knocked on her door. She was stupid enough to think that Maura would let Jane get away with fewer exercises. Instead, the honey blonde had come up with extra ones. And Jane was getting frustrated with the damn ball in her hand. All she had to do was squeeze it, but it was harder than it seemed. That and the fact that she was already stressful for dinner that evening only caused her frustration to grow.

They invited Angela over. To tell her that they were dating. And Jane was afraid for how the other woman would react. She sighed, throwing the ball away. She had done enough exercises for today.

"Are you done?" Maura's voice came from her walk-in closet.

"Yes. I'll do some more tomorrow."

"Tonight." Maura poked her head inside the room just to give her girlfriend a stern look.

"Maura!" Jane's whine did nothing to stop it. She huffed. "Fine. But I'm not promising anything if Ma starts to yell and scream and…" She trailed off, her voice becoming softer towards the end.

Maura stepped out of the closet, carefully draping her dress over a chair before walking over to Jane. Sitting down next to her, she leaned her head on the Detective's shoulder.

"It's going to be fine Jane."

"Yeah? Can you back that up with a scientific fact of some kind?"

"No. But I can back it up with a gut feeling. That should mean more to you than science." Jane laughed softly, looking down at her fidgeting hands.

"Yeah."

"If you want… I can distract you?" Jane glanced at the honey blonde hair on her shoulder.

"Really? How would you propose to do that? Give me more exercises?" A chuckle from her right made her narrow her eyes.

"No, I had something entirely different in mind." A hand pushed Jane back onto the bed and Maura made quick work of straddling her. Smirking, Jane locked eyes with Maura.

"I'm liking this distraction."

"You have a lovely home Maura." Maura smiled at Angela, watching as the woman walked into her home, her eyes taking in everything they could. She was putting the finishing touches on dinner.

"Thank you Angela. Please make yourself at home. Jane would you get your mother something to drink?" The Detective nodded at her girlfriend before fulfilling the request.

"Wine Ma?"

"Thank you Jane. Why can't you be so sweet and nice to your mother when we're not around other people?" Jane sighed as she grabbed the wine bottle.

"Because you're annoy-" "Jane." Maura quickly interrupted, knowing that making the other woman angry wasn't going to be helpful for later on.

"Sorry Ma. I'll try next time." She glared at Maura, the honey blonde giving her a stern look. She had started to be good at those.

"Good. Maura's a good influence on you. I'm happy to see that. Dinner smells lovely Maura."

It smelled lovely and it tasted even better. Well, according to Angela anyway. The other two occupants had barely touched it, too nervous to really have an appetite. Despite their workout earlier. They made small talk during dinner and Jane was glad it was mostly directed towards Maura. She was afraid she would just blurt it out if she were asked a simple question.

When they had cleared the table and sat back down to enjoy their wine, Angela spoke up.

"All right, who is going to tell me what is really going on?"

"Sorry, what?" Jane looked at her mother, her mouth hanging slightly open. Angela smiled at the couple.

"I'm not stupid Jane. I thought you learned that by now. I wondered why you invited me over for dinner. So what's going on?"

Jane sighed. Of course her mother caught on. It would've been too easy if she hadn't. Sharing a look with Maura, she took a deep breath before taking Maura's hand.

"We have something to tell you." She saw Angela glance down at their hands, but her eyes didn't betray anything.

"Maura and I… we're dating." Right, there, she said it. And without stuttering! She mentally patted herself on the back, congratulating herself.

"Well. That's… unexpected." Jane swallowed, waiting for Angela to continue. "But I guess not at all surprising."

"What do you mean?" It was Maura who spoke up, a frown adorning her features.

"I've heard rumors going around. And I have to say that after observing the two of you it became clear to me." Jane blinked,

"You knew." It was more of a statement than a question. Angela nodded nonetheless.

"Yes."

"And you're okay with it?" Again a nod.

"Yes."

"Really?" Angela smiled.

"Yes Jane. I was surprised at first, but… she makes you happy. And I don't think I've ever seen you this way before." Jane slumped in her seat, the tension from the day drowning from her body.

"Thanks Ma. I was afraid you wouldn't be okay with this… with us." She squeezed Maura's hand, sharing a smile with the other woman.

"Please Jane. I might be old in your eyes but that doesn't mean I'm stuck in the past."

"Well, I was more thinking about the Catholic thing." Angela raised an eyebrow.

"God doesn't judge. And neither do I." Jane smiled, feeling tears prick behind her eyes. Standing up, she went over to her mother's side of the table and embraced the other woman.

"Thank you."

"I love you Janie."

"I love you too."

Maura watched the scene before her with tears in her eyes. She had felt Jane's nerves, felt her fear. And now that everything seemed to be okay, she felt her own relief wash over her. As Angela and Jane pulled away, the older woman walked over to Maura, bringing her into a hug of her own. Maura let out a surprise yelp and both Rizzoli women laughed heartedly. That's all it took for Maura to make up her mind. Returning the hug, she smiled at Jane.

"That's not all though Angela." She saw the confused look in Jane's eyes, the same ones coming from Angela seconds later.

"You didn't ask her to marry you before talking to me did you Jane?" The Detective held up her hands in surrender, her eyes going wide with fear. She wouldn't dare. Maura laughed.

"No, we're not getting married. It's actually something I would like to ask you." Maura swallowed down her nerves. "If you'd like you could move into my guesthouse. I initially bought this house because of it, so my parents could come visit, but I don't see them coming anytime in the near future."

Jane groaned. "Maur, I thought we talked about this." Maura turned her eyes at her girlfriend.

"I know. But that was before your mother knew. You were afraid she would walk in on us and cause an awkward situation for you to explain. But now she knows."

"I wouldn't just walk in Jane! I always knock." Jane snorted.

"No, you knock and open the door at the same time. Knocking is made to let the other person know someone wants to come inside. And after they're ready they tell you to come in."

"Well, then I wouldn't have known about several things would I?"

"That's the point!" Jane threw up her arms, knowing it was futile to try and talk to her mother.

Angela turned back towards Maura a smile on her face. "Thank you sweetie. But are you sure? Jane is right. I wouldn't want to intrude." Maura was quick to shake her head.

"You're not. As long as you knock before you come in and let me know if there is anything you'd like then its fine. I would love for someone to make use of the guesthouse. And I can't think of someone other than you."

Angela brought the honey blonde in for another hug. Maura smiled, watching as Jane slowly did the same. It didn't stop her from giving her a look that said just-wait-and-see. But she didn't care. Right now, everything was as it should be.