A couple of times now Maura had turned the tv off just as Jane came in unannounced. Jane assumed it was Jersey Shore again, but Maura always looked flushed and embarrassed. Given the size and soundproofing of Maura's bedroom, Jane knew it couldn't be porn; there was no need to watch it downstairs when the tv upstairs was so much larger.

Jane was a detective. Jane was sneaky. Jane could be furtive.

A week later, Jane had solved the case. She bought a DVD and slapped it down on Maura's kitchen counter. Maura looked down at it and blushed.

"What on Earth about Women's Murder Club has you so flustered? Got a little crush on James Patterson?" Jane asked.

Maura shook her head and pointed at the cover.

"Who's that? Angie Harmon?"

"She plays Lindsay Boxer. I find her very... compelling..." Maura said, blushing an even darker red. Jane examined the cover. There was a passing resemblance between Jane and this Lindsay chick, and it would be worth an hour of boring murder tv to watch Maura continue to squirm like this. She shrugged.

"I'm sold," Jane said, giving Maura a wicked grin. "Let's watch."

Maura, impossibly, blushed again. "I bought it on the store," she said quietly. "In high definition," she added in a whisper. Jane's grin only grew more wicked.

"I'll make the popcorn," she said, dropping her voice low, watching as Maura's cheeks burned. She smiled to herself as she pulled out the kernels; Maura herself had compared Jane to Angie in the past. And if this was, as Jane suspected, a little crush, Jane was going to have a little fun with it.

"That Lindsay Boxer sure is a heart breaker," Jane said casually, looking over at Maura.

"She can break my heart any day," Maura said, her hand absent-mindedly brushing against Jane's in the popcorn bowl. They were almost at the last episode - it had been a long night, but they'd had longer and worse nights. "Do you think she really likes Pete? He's about to go overseas before she commits to him, as though she's almost relieved she's leaving."

Jane had managed to ignore all the sniping little comments about how hot Lindsay Boxer was, all the times Maura had paused when Lindsay flexed her muscles or licked her lips, the way Maura was obviously thirsty for Angie Harmon, given the other shows in her library, but this was too much. It felt like a jab about Casey.

"You can love someone and not be with them, Maura," Jane pointed out, trying to forget how relived she'd been when Casey had been offered his promotions. "You said the same thing about Ian, didn't you?"

"There are... reasons for why we're apart."

"Yeah, he's a fugitive with commitment issues," Jane scoffed.

"And I don't think I love him any more. I think I've moved on."

"Moved onto who?" Jane asked, her sharp mind fixing on the unspoken suggestion.

"Someone else I can't be with," Maura sighed, looking back at the screen, pausing on Lindsay's lovelorn face as she spoke to Pete. Jane sighed.

"Lindsay Boxer doesn't count. She's not real. And she's a woman, which you never used to be into. Not before Women's Murder Club, anyway."

"Things change, Jane. People change. Angela said so. You said so." Maura sighed and leaned back on the couch. It had been a very long night. She was very tired. She moved the popcorn bowl and rested her head against Jane's shoulder, closing her eyes as Lindsay's husky voice spoke onscreen.

Jane was in her sweats when Maura came over, and she guiltily flicked off the tv.

"Nuh-uh," Maura said. "You made me watch all thirteen episodes of Women's Murder Club with you, you can't..." Maura grabbed the remote and turned the tv back on. It was a rerun of NCIS, very old, with that actress that had left after the second season. Maura remembered how gutted she had been; the woman had more than a passing resemblance to her. Jane was blushing, which was rare. "Oh my, do you have your own little lady crush on... Agent Caitlin Todd?" Maura asked, batting her eyes. Jane groaned and covered her face with a cushion as Maura sat down next to her. "I've always thought she was gorgeous. Not my type though."

"Excuse me? Have you seen Sasha Alexander in Shameless? Absolute smoke show," Jane grumbled as Maura, chuckling, tucked herself in next to Jane.

"Oh, can we go back to the start and watch the whole thing?" Maura asked pouting as Jane hit play. Jane sighed and slung her arm over Maura's shoulders, going back to the menu and selecting the pilot.

It took a few weeks to get through NCIS.

"Do you think she's bisexual?" Maura asked, absently stroking Jane's arm that rested over her stomach. Jane had crept up onto Maura as they'd watched, her head on Maura's chest.

"Who? Kate or Sasha?" Jane asked, watching as Kate swept a room, her gun drawn, her eyes sharp, her jaw tight. "She has good form."

"Does it matter which?" Maura asked, yawning, tightening her arms around Jane.

"Well, yeah, one of them is real and the other isn't."

"Like you'd have a chance with either," Maura pointed out.

"I mean Kate... we'd have a lot in common, you know? A lot to talk about. She'd have my back. That's appealing."

"I didn't ask if you were bisexual, I asked if she was."

"Oh. Well, I am, for her, yeah."

Maura paused.

"You find her attractive?"

"Well, duh."

"And you're aware she bears more than a passing similarity to me?"

"Nah," Jane sat up and looked at Maura. "You're way prettier. And you have better form. And you already have my back."

"Oh," Maura said. It was true she'd been probing for answers, but she hadn't expected Jane of all people to be open about her attraction to a fictional woman that resembled Maura, let alone her attraction to Maura. "Oh," she said again, in lieu of anything else to say.

"And you're real," Jane added, leaning in to kiss Maura, who leaned in to kiss her back, to tangle her hands in that unruly hair, to pull herself into Jane's lap to negate the height difference, pulling away with hitched breath.

"That I am," Maura smirked, pulling Jane back in to kiss her again. On the TV, Caitlin Todd lived on for another episode.

Notes:

I don't know if I tagged this right and I have no idea what year they're watching this - season 5 maybe?

Big thanks to BirdOfDawning and Fabrizzles for putting up with my pausing when I see a mlem or a shoulder - appreciate you both (but especially your overlapping timezones)