1. Frank (season 1)

Maura washed the dishes after Sunday dinner. Angela had done enough, and Maura could tell that Frank and Frankie weren't going to 'stoop to women's work'. And Jane's hands hurt; Maura knew they hurt because the barometric pressure had dropped that afternoon and Jane had hissed quietly, rubbing ineffectively at her hands. Maura had driven them both, knowing it would rain tonight. Jane had given her such a grateful look when she'd slipped away to the kitchen.

Frank rose a little in her esteem when he came in to dry the dishes.

"You've been good for Jane. All of us really. With Tommy in jail and all." With that he leaned in and kissed her. Maura closed her mouth firmly, pulling away politely.

"Thank you, Mr. Rizzoli," Maura said, emphasising the 'mister' to remind him of the disparity of their ages. And that his wife and two of his children were in the other room. Jane came in and her brow scrunched when she saw Maura.

"I got a call, we gotta go."

Maura dropped the dishes in the sink and called out a goodbye behind her.

Maura opened the glovebox and handed Jane the small, reusable heatpacks she kept in there for her. Jane snapped one and sighed in relief.

"You're too good to me, you know that, don't you?" Jane asked, and it was worth boiling heatpacks once a week and doing dishes by hand to see that smile aimed at her.

A week later, Jane shot herself and there were no more family dinners like that.

2. Tommy (season 2)

Tommy really was just like Jane would have been if she was a man. Physically, at least. His intelligence wasn't anywhere near on par with hers, but the familiarity of his body compared to his sister's made Maura let her defences down a little. She liked him, despite his lack of money and social standing. Because he made her feel safe, like Jane did.

Usually when a man looked at her like that, Maura would distance herself a little if she couldn't, for some reason, consummate. And she didn't want to consummate with Tommy. Well, she did, but she couldn't. It would feel like a betrayal somehow. To Jane, and their friendship.

Besides, he looked at her the same way Jane looked at her, and Jane had never done anything that implied consummation was imminent. Only recently had Maura started to realise that Jane's soft eyes were for her alone and that they weren't what she thought they were - a sign of attraction. They were just a sign of affection, and the Rizzolis, as a family, were very affectionate. Maura loved that about them, but about Jane especially.

That's why she was surprised when Tommy kissed her. Jane had been looking at her like that for nearly two years, and Jane had never tried to kiss her.

But Jane was a woman. And Tommy was a man, and he was awkward. Too much tongue, all hard angles. None of the softness or comfort Maura sought out in Jane.

She pulled away as though she'd been burned. Jane. Tommy wasn't Jane, and Jane would be mad.

"I can't do that to Jane," Maura said quickly, and even though it was her house, she left. She went to Jane's and opened the terrible wine and she laughed with Jane and told her she loved her. Because she did.

And Jane looked at her with eyes that looked like she wanted to kiss her. But she didn't. She just made a second sandwich and gave Maura a beer, brushing up against her when she laughed next to her on the couch, Jo Friday sprawled across their laps.

3. Angela (season 3)

Angela was subdued when Maura came home from holding.

"I shouldn't have..."

"No, you were right. I possess the skills that could have caused the death of that man."

"I still shouldn't have. It made me sick inside. Jane said she'd have deleted it. Maybe I should have."

"Jane said that?" Maura looked up, touched by Jane's willingness to commit yet another crime for her.

"Said the most she'd get was a year."

"She'd have done time for me?" Maura was moved. Jane was parking the car. She'd been there, smug, as Maura had been released and Maura had clung to her like an oppossum. Jane had whispered a few kind words into her hair and Maura had felt like she was drowning.

"I don't think you know how much she loves you," Angela said awkwardly, and Maura eyed her with confusion. "How much we all do." Maura nodded, remembering how Angela had come to the hospital when Constance had been injured. The support and love she'd offered over the years. It didn't stop her from wondering - as an orphan with both parents alive and well and dug out from nightmares, she'd thought about this a lot - if she'd been biologically related to Angela, would Angela still have submitted the footage? If it had been Jane instead? Angela was fiercely protective over her family - almost as protective as Jane was over Maura. She remembered the glower on Jane's face as she'd threatened an entire cell of criminals for Maura. It had given her a little thrill, even as she saw the surly looks aimed at Jane.

Angela looked worried still, so Maura nodded and stepped forward, bracing herself for a too-tight hug from Angela. Angela kissed her cheek as Jane opened the door, and Maura turned her head, already missing her. Angela let her go quickly, and Maura was vaguely aware that something damp had brushed her mouth, but Jane was stepping forward and bundling her up in her arms so she didn't have the time or patience to think about anything else but Jane's hand on her back and Jane's warm breath on her throat and Jane's soft chest against her own.

4. Frankie (season 4)

It had been a weird few days. Tommy's engagement and subsequent break up. Seeing the Rizzoli brothers fighting each other. The pesticide, Jane not stepping back when Maura told her to, stepping forward instead and using her own handkerchief ('Ma makes me carry them,' she'd mumbled once, years ago) to staunch the flow of blood from Maura's nose with her bare hands. Jane was so stupid and she always took stupid risks. But her intentions - toward Maura, at least - were always kind so she tried not to mind when Jane deliberately put herself into avoidable danger for Maura's sake.

Then the bomb scare, and Frankie holding her hands. He was like Jane too, but softer. Kinder. Gentler. Maybe Jane had been like that before Hoyt, but Maura doubted it. Maybe she'd have been like that if she hadn't had to constantly prove herself as a woman in a field of men. She loved Jane, but there were parts of her she saw in Frankie too. Parts that made it confusing. Frankie was like a brother to her, but Jane wasn't like a sister. Jane was like a sunbeam filtering through a window on a winter afternoon. Jane was the way the moon shone over the forest they were digging up for more bodies. She was the caramel to her latte. Jane was -

- and then Frankie was kissing her, and she'd really gone over to see Jane, to ask her if she'd like to be willed anything from her estate since the last few days had such potential dangers that it had her thinking about it, had her wondering what it would have been like to have Jane holding her hands like that instead of Frankie.

Maura hadn't met Colin while he was still alive, but she imagined this must be what it would have felt like to kiss him. Or Cailin. There was no spark - there hadn't been with any of the Rizzolis - no fire, no passion. They were all very attractive people that she had no response to. Perhaps it was that they weren't rich or titled? Perhaps Maura was too much of a snob? She'd been attracted to Giovanni, though. He'd reminded her of Jane too, until the face licking. He had such a big mouth too. She shuddered, and Frankie pulled away.

Later they admitted it had been a mistake, and the relief had been overwhelming. But Maura had gone in. And Jane wasn't getting married, and Maura thought it was spite and jealousy at Jane being engaged while she was single and still suffering from her last few dates turning out to be Bad People that made her so pleased.

And then the pregnancy test. Maura's first thought was that she was going to be a mother. Not Jane, her. Because if Casey didn't want Jane, didn't want her to keep her life, then that meant she was Maura's more than anyone else's, which meant the baby could be hers too.

But that wasn't logical, and Maura's heart ached with everything she wanted and couldn't have. Frankie long forgotten, she held Jane close as she cried from the pain of a lost future with a man Maura hadn't hated, and with the uncertainty of single motherhood on her shoulders.

5. TJ (season 5)

TJ was running around. Sunday dinners were a thing again, but they were held at Maura's, and Angela cooked and Jane loaded the dishwasher because the boys were too rough with Maura's 'nice things'. They were relatively cheap, but still considered fancy to the Rizzolis, who treated her and everything she owned with care.

Hope and Cailin were there, too. They'd been mending bridges. TJ stopped at Jane, looking up at her with Rizzoli eyes.

"My dad is Tommy, and I'm Tommy," TJ said. "Is your baby going to be Maura or Jane?"

Maura and Jane exchanged confused looks.

"I hadn't thought that far ahead," Jane told him, not sure why he was pursuing this line of questioning.

"Well, Aunty Maura is the dad, so you should name it after her." TJ smiled at having sorted out all of the naming problems .

"That's not - she's not - Tommy?" Jane's voice rose as she tried and failed to explain that Maura was not the father, and that most people didn't name their babies after themselves any more.

"Hey bud, you got your shoes? Time to get out of their hair." When he hugged Maura goodbye, he added "I'll give him the talk."

Maura chuckled, then hugged TJ too, straddling his dad's waist. Fatherhood looked good on Tommy, but Maura had never been able to forget the way Jane had looked holding TJ as a baby.

TJ grabbed her cheeks and landed a sloppy, messy kiss on Maura's face.

"Bye," he yelled, and Maura tried not to flinch. Jane went through the same thing much more patiently.

"I wish Ma hadn't taught him to kiss goodbye," Jane grumbled after they'd left. "And why do you get to be the dad?"

Maura's heart froze, wondering if Jane would take back her carefully worded offer of co-parenting.

"Maybe I wanna be the dad," Jane complained, and Maura laughed up at her.

"Whichever one you want to be, I know you're going to be a wonderful parent."

"Yeah, but only because I have you," Jane said, and she gave Maura the Rizzoli eyes - a lot of softness, a lot of affection, a lot of trust and maybe - perhaps - a little longing?

1. Jane (season 6)

The distance between them felt like a chasm, and Maura found herself constantly wondering what she'd done wrong. How she'd lost Jane. They were still friends, sure. But long gone were the sweet nicknames, the casual affection. They hadn't shared a bed for months. She'd known Jane needed time to mourn her relationship and the child she hadn't had and her partner, but Maura could have helped. Maura usually helped. But now Jane was so closed off. It was like a stranger was staring out of those familiar eyes. Maura could see herself reaching out for Jane. And Jane pulling away.

If Maura needed her, she was there, and she was always over, the way she used to be. The way she still was. But she put space between them on the couch where no space used to exist. She didn't kiss Maura's cheek goodbye when she left. She didn't fall asleep and wake up at Maura's house; if she did fall asleep, it was on the couch, and she'd wake up and drive home if Maura jostled her even a little.

Being kidnapped hadn't been so bad. She'd known Jane would come for her. And she had. But she'd been just as detached as what was usual now. Storming off to kill the guy that had dared to hurt Maura, while Korsak freed her hands and let Maura cry against him. A year ago, Jane wouldn't have let Maura out of her sight. A year ago, Jane would have held her until all her tears were gone, then used her handkerchief to mop up the rest. A year ago, Jane would have pressed a soft kiss against her hair.

But Jane had fled into the darkness with barely a word.

Maura didn't flinch when she heard the gunshots. Jane had made it clear that Maura was as good as dead to her. She might as well do the autopsy of her body as well as their friendship.

Jane swooped in while Maura was being taken away. She knew she was merely dehydrated and shaken up, but the paramedics insisted and it was nice to have someone care. Jane ducked away as fast as she could, and when the ambulance doors closed, Maura let herself cry. For everything she'd once had. For everything she'd lost.

Jane didn't visit her in the hospital. Maura was quickly discharged, and Angela picked her up. No Jane. She was probably still doing paperwork for killing that guy as surely as she'd killed whatever had once blossomed between them. But later, much later, there was a tentative knock on her bedroom door. Angela never came up here. No one did, except Jane. She didn't answer, feigning sleep when the door opened. Jane, of course Jane. Her gun back on her hip - she'd been cleared then. She closed her eyes more firmly as Jane quietly turned on a bedside lamp, gently sat on the mattress, scared of waking her, looking down at Maura. Maura could feel the ghost of her touch over her face, over the stitches. Then Jane's hand made a decision that, from the sudden, shocked intake of breath Jane made, Jane hadn't been ready for. Jane's hand brushed Maura's hair back from her face, digging in past her ear, resting on Maura's scalp, tangled in her hair.

"I've been - I've been putting you in danger for so long. Too long. I thought it might keep you safe. If it wasn't so obvious. That you're my weakness. You're my soft spot. But it was too late. I was too late. I already made you a target. They took what mattered most to me, but I'd already... God, Maura. I'd already let go of you. So you could find another Jack. You should have gone with him. You're built for sun and exploration. And all I ever give you is... Boston rain and dead bodies."

"I like dead bodies," Maura reminded Jane quietly. Jane jumped, clearly startled by Maura responding, but her hand remained in Maura's hair and Jane looked down at her with those impossibly soft Rizzoli eyes. The way she used to.

"You do," Jane conceded. "But maybe you should get into a less dangerous line of work. Make less dangerous friends. I've been trying to keep away so something like this didn't happen to you. And it still did. It didn't help anything. All it did was-" Jane's free hand went to her chest, to cover her heart. "All it did was hurt me."

"You knew why you were doing it," Maura said, and she could hear the bitterness in her own voice. Could feel the accusation behind the words. "You hurt me too."

"I was trying to protect you," Jane said feebly.

"You're not a sniper," Maura pointed out, seeing confusion on Jane's face. "You do your protection better up close," Maura clarified.

"How close?" Jane asked, and she was leaning in to press her lips against Maura's temple, against her eyebrow. "How close?" Jane asked again, her eyes looking directly into Maura's, the way they hadn't for a long time. Maura's breath caught at the fierce longing in them, tears unshed, her bottom lip trembling. Jane swallowed and moved further onto the bed, leaning down, her unruly curls draped over them like a curtain, trapping them both inside a world where there was only space for the two of them. "How close?" Jane whispered, and Maura let her hand wrap in Jane's hair, brushing it behind her ear. She let her fingers trace Jane's cheek, and then her bottom lip, seeing Jane's eyes close as her mouth opened to Maura.

"As close as you want to be, Jane," Maura said, and her voice sounded low and husky, her chest felt tight and scared, her lung capacity depleted as she waited to see how Jane would respond.

Jane closed the distance between them, her lips landing softly on Maura's, opening as her bottom lip slid between Maura's parted lips. "This close?" Jane asked, and her voice had dropped octaves. Maura nodded, unable to speak, noting that her lips dragged against Jane's as she moved.

"Closer," Maura requested, and Jane complied, sliding her body next to Maura's, who turned to hold her, to kiss the only Rizzoli she'd ever wanted to kiss.

"Your lip," Jane said, pulling back, panicked, her fingers seeking out the wound.

"I don't mind if you don't."

"I mind. I mind that someone hurt you. I mind that I wasn't able to get to you before anything happened to you. I mind -"

"I don't mind," Maura said. "I rescued myself, didn't I? And you're finally here, and you're finally..." Maura leaned up to kiss Jane, who not only accepted but returned the kiss, as gentle as a bee landing on a flower. As gently as she hand washed Maura's delicate china. As gentle as Jane could possibly be. "You're finally here," Maura said, hearing the wonder in her voice.

"I can't stand the thought of losing you," Jane's voice was still low, still husky. Her grip on Maura tightened, then loosened when she realised she didn't know what injuries Maura had sustained in captivity.

"Is it just panic, or are you trying to tell me something? Something big? Something about you and me?"

"Whoever is after me is still out there."

"And they already know enough about how you feel about me to have me kidnapped. I won't be in any less danger if you pretend this isn't happening."

"What's happening?" Jane asked, her voice small and insecure.

"This," Maura said, and kissed her again.

Notes:

Little epilogue

2. Jane (season 7)

The morning light found Maura's face, but the weight of Jane's head on her chest had already filled her with warmth. Maura took a deep breath as Jane's dark eyes met hers. Even after a year, she'd not gotten used to being loved so completely.

Jane yawned and nestled deeper into Maura, and Maura stroked her shoulder. In a minute, they would have to get up and start the day, but for now -

- for now, everything was perfect.