Apologies for the delay on update! Here's the next chapter - I hope you enjoy!

7

The sunlight creeped through the curtains and caused a ray of light to fall across Jane's face. She groaned and rolled away from the light, rolling into Maura's side. Remembering where she was, she smiled contently and slowly opened her eyes to find hazel eyes staring straight at her.

"Maura! Don't stare at me when I sleep...it's weird!"

The doctor laughed and placed a soft kiss on the detectives lips, "Good morning to you too Jane."

"Well...yes...good morning, that's what I meant to say there. Slight overreaction upon wake up, sorry! I was startled!"

Maura chuckled, "it's fine Jane, it wasn't quite the way I expected you to greet me this morning but it made me smile none the less."

The Italian gave an apologetic smile as her cheeks gained an embarrassed glow. Wanting to change the subject Jane began to speak. "So, pretty lady, was there anything in particular you wanted to do today? Maybe you should work on some of your book? Not that I'm trying to get rid of you but you did come to Paris for inspiration and so far i've gatecrashed the inspirational writing with dragging you to tourist attractions."

The honey blonde smiled "you haven't been dragging me anywhere, i've wanted to enjoy those moments with you. As I said two days ago, I want to enjoy this vacation with you, but I do appreciate you thinking about me..." Maura linked their hands together "...but I think I may take a couple hours today to write some ideas down if you don't mind. I feel like with the whirlwind that's happened in the last few days it has given me new inspiration." She drew Jane's hand to her mouth and kiss the back of it gently.

The detective wrapped the arm with linked hands around the doctor and cuddled up to her. "Of course I don't mind, that's why I suggested it. Plus...erm, I guess I probably need some time to figure out what I'm going to do." Jane felt Maura suddenly tense. "Before you start to worry about what that means, I mean job wise, not us. I'm certain about us. I love you. Ok?"

The doctor relaxed again and exhaled "Ok. But what do you mean? You have a job Jane, I can't ask you to give that up for me. We can work out the long distance thing. Lord knows i've been waiting long enough for this i'm sure we can manage to make this work over a few hundred miles."

Jane kissed her love behind her ear and held onto her tighter. "I know you wouldn't ask me to Maura, and you haven't. I just feel I need to seriously consider what I want to do now. I don't doubt that we can make a long distance relationship work, but in an ideal world, do I want a long distance relationship? No, not really. I kinda want the whole thing with you, not to rush things but eventually i'd want to consider living together and that's not going to work being in two different states." The hazel eyed beauty began to speak but Jane cut her off, "Before you offer to consider your options career wise, don't. You have an amazing career that you have worked hard for and you deserve...and you are fantastic at! So no, that's not going to be a thing. I'm the one who moved the goal posts and took a job that isn't conducive to us - which is once again a ridiculous decision by me because it was always us that I wanted! so who knows what I was thinking! So give me the couple hours today that you are going to work on your book, i'll go for a walk, clear my head and come up with a couple plans we can discuss over dinner. How does that sound?"

Maura bit her bottom lip, Jane could see she was a little distressed over this situation. "It sounds like a start Jane. But please don't put this all on you. Ultimately we are partners now, this is a joint discussion and a joint decision. I love you. This is going to work regardless, I know it is, so don't pressure yourself to find all the solutions yourself...or find them all today for that matter."

Jane climbed on top of Maura and kissed her hard "I love you Maura Isles! How'd I manage to trick you to love me! Anyway, this is a heavy conversation for pre 9am. Lets get freshened up and head out for some breakfast...oooo I fancy toast...french style of course!"

Jane jumped up and headed for the bathroom, Maura sat up and chuckled "Jane, you've had French toast everyday for two weeks!"

Jane's head popped back round the door "I think you'll find it's just toast out here babe." And with a smile and a wink Jane closed the door to get ready for the day.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The two lovebirds said their goodbyes after breakfast and went their separate ways, Maura strolled back to the apartment to work on her book and Jane...Jane just strolled. She was happy, content, wasn't really worried about considering her future...until she had 30 minutes of her own company. It was at this point she was at a loss.

She felt like a million things were running through her head at the same time. If she went to D.C, it would put an unnecessary strain on her and Maura's relationship considering it was so new. She didn't doubt they both wanted the same things in their relationship but in her heart Jane knew she was a jealous person and realistically, she wanted to be around her girlfriend as much as possible. Not because she didn't trust Maura, of course she did, but because she liked to mark her territory and she certainly didn't trust the population of Boston. And who would blame them? As far as Jane was concerned, anyone would be crazy not to want to follow Maura with their eyes. She was beautiful, stunning.

But parking the fact that Jane knew she was probably putting too much weight on that point for the sake of being territorial, she wanted to be around Maura everyday. She wanted to know she could see that smile or those eyes, hear that laugh, smell her scent every evening when she came home.

But what did BPD have now? Frankie? Nina? Sure. But things were different now. Frost has been gone a while and she'd been able to adjust...just...but the thought of not having Korsak around anymore either really changed how she felt about her old role. Korsak was the staple of the office, the father figure, the dependent she could always be honest with and would always tell her when she was out of line or had gone too far. Jane smiled as she thought of the memories. She loved that place, it built her, made her who she is. But did she still have the desire to be there now things had changed? Would there even be a job for her now?

The FBI had been a new challenge, something different and something that would take her out of the line of fire. It was safe. She would be safe, and she knew that this was going to be a major stumbling block if she told Maura she was turning it down. Maura has been through so much trauma during their friendship and half of it was caused by Jane putting herself in harms way. She didn't want to be the cause of Maura's upset from now on.

At this point the pro's and con's list started to be constructed in her head. "Ok Rizzoli...lets do it:

Pro's Boston:

Maura.

Family.

Ma's cooking.

Comfort of old job - potentially.

Know where everything is.

Already have apartment.

Con's Boston:

Work will be different now.

Will still be in the line of fire.

Potential lack of Maura's safety because of me.

Potential lack of Family safety because of me.

Ok, D.C pros:

New experience.

Learn new stuff.

Get to teach the investigators of tomorrow.

New apartment.

Weekends with Maura will be fun.

Cons:

Maura isn't there..."

That was the only con Jane needed on her list. She knew what she wanted, she just needed help to find the right solution.

Looking down at her watch, her two hours were up. The Italian knew Maura wouldn't be able to wait until dinner to ask what her thoughts were, she knew a discussion would happen almost immediately as she re-enters the apartment. Jane smiled at this thought, finally she was not running from a situation - she knew she needed Maura's help with this decision and she was ok with that.