Maura got dressed and went to the bar by herself; Jane didn't see her until later. Until it was too late. She knew Maura was stacked but seeing it all like that - in a gay hookup bar - was a lot.

But Maura seemed comfortable, and the bartender and bouncer were on the ball when it came to women touching the bar staff. But there was an extra flounce, an extra flourish to her walk when she came by Jane's table to retrieve the evidence they'd been seeking. Maybe it was just Maura feeling useful on a case, maybe it was all the eyes glued to her chest - Jane had only just noticed that Maura was a) wearing garters and b) they were very visible below her skirt, and she was straight and she'd been here two hours - or maybe it was because she knew how uncomfortable Jane felt. Not because she was in a gay bar, and not because she was interviewing potential suspects that were also kind of her dates. Jane was uncomfortable because all of these women she was on dates with were clearly attracted to her, and she wasn't attracted to any of them. Which was a good thing - one of them was a murderer. And Jane wasn't really attracted to women - she didn't really like dating men, but Jorge had really shown her what dating someone feminine would be like, and she didn't like it.

It was like Maura could feel Jane's eyes on her, always looking back when Jane glanced over. The amount of people staring at her, and she knew when it was Jane - Jane couldn't even hide out in a crowd. Maura knew Jane was worried about her, even if she wasn't - on paper - the killer's type. She was just offering reassurance, probably, Jane thought. Trying to make sure Jane knew she was okay with this - and she looked more than okay with this, she was flirtatious and giggly and Jane found it very distracting, having to keep an eye on Maura to ensure she was safe while also vetting lesbians that were making it very clear that they would love to take her home and have their way with her. It should have been flattering - some of these women were gorgeous, but Jane's attention was split between them, knowing she was being recorded on tape that would be available at work, and Maura's personal space and safety.

Plus, back at the precinct, people were going to talk. About butch Rizzoli having lesbian dates - she'd be lucky if her face wasn't Photoshopped onto some porn. She didn't want the same thing to happen to Maura, although she suspected there was some kind of pool going about who in the station was going to seduce her first. She had no doubt that there was so called 'locker-room' talk about her friend, and if any photos of her in that outfit got out, there was going to be more. At least if anyone other than Frankie and Frost knew Jane had stayed at Maura's that one time when Hoyt was out, the rumours would have already been flying around so she thought they were safe.

Another woman sat down and started talking about her feelings. Jane smiled politely. And then, last night, Maura had joined Jane in the bedroom with their wine, adjourning to the one queen bed and falling asleep next to her. But when Jane woke, the lamps were off. Maura had woken in the night and made the room more comfortable for them both before climbing back onto the bed with Jane. It had been a conscious choice from Maura to stay. It made Jane feel some kind of way she couldn't identify. Like the first time Jo had fallen asleep on her lap. Like something soft and sweet had happened. If anyone found out, they wouldn't understand. They'd assume there'd been something sexual about it, that two women couldn't simply fall asleep in the same bed. And sure, grown women didn't always have sleepovers, but it had only been twice, and it had been so late - nearly ten at night - Maura probably would have had to stay anyway, and Jane's couch was no good for that. The last thing Jane needed was a cranky, sore ME on her case. So even if she'd woken - which she definitely hadn't - there was nowhere for Maura to really go at that time of night anyway. To get back to Beacon Hill might have been risky, and Jane wasn't going to send a woman out into the night alone when she had a perfectly good bed that the woman was already asleep in. Her mother had raised three gentlemen, unwittingly.

Another date - the girl with the Celtics tickets. Jane's smile felt less forced when they talked sports. She hoped this one hadn't killed their victim - she was someone Jane could see herself hanging out with outside work - if she ever found time to hangout with someone outside work. When she passed Jane her number, Jane didn't hand it off until Maura forcibly took it, her jaw set firmly as though she was a little upset.

Jane wondered then, for a moment. Now that she knew Maura better, she knew Maura couldn't lie. She could evade, as seen with Jorge. She hadn't told the full truth. She hadn't come out and said she wasn't attracted to Jane when Jane had asked the first time Maura had slept beside her. She hadn't answered the question at all. Which meant she was being evasive. And last night she'd asked a hypothetical question, and Jane knew Maura hated hypotheticals. 'What kind of women we'd like, if we liked women'. It was the 'if' she found herself thinking about. Jane looked over to the bar; Maura was being ogled with every apparent sign of enjoying it, tossing her hair as she laughed, showing all her teeth. Maura liked to feel attractive so this field trip was a field day for her. Meanwhile Jane felt as much like a piece of meat as she did when Hoyt had looked at her.

There were more dates, and Jane paid attention to all of them, not seeing anything amiss - although she certainly wasn't an expert at dating women, she was used to finding stories that didn't fit, alibis that were stretched too thin. The music wound down and the lights came up, and she sighed thankfully and got to her feet as the club started to empty. She stood at the bar until it was empty, Frost and Korsak coming out of the back room.

"Very enlightening," Frost said. "If she wasn't gay, I'd ask out the one with the Celtics tickets myself."

"Yeah, she was nice," Jane mused, looking over at the evidence Maura had bagged. "Can you get that loaded? I need to get this mike off." Jane headed for the back room for a little privacy; she didn't like clubs at the best of times, which these hadn't been. Maura slipped in behind her.

"I might need some help," Maura said, her voice high and a little upset as she came into the room, closing the door behind her.

"Yeah, anything. Whatcha need?"

"My... shirt. The tension on the knot behind my neck has increased since I did it up." Jane used all of her willpower not to look down. She'd been caught out once that night already. Who could blame her, with those things right next to her face. They were especially magnificent tonight. Jane shrugged and turned Maura away from her, brushing Maura's hair away from her neck to look at the knot.

"This is tight, you know my hands aren't great. Can you... uh... ease the tension a little?" Jane was tall enough to see what it looked like when Maura lifted the straps at the front, hoisting all sorts of interesting things. Namely two breasts and a firm, enticing cleavage that Jane could see straight down into, like it would swallow her whole. Jane swallowed and kept working on the knot, aware of the warm smooth softness of the nape of Maura's neck as she worked, aware of the view she was having to work very hard to avoid. "Got it," Jane said finally.

"And the stays?" Maura asked.

"The what?"

"The laces down the back. Would you be able to undo those as well?"

"Oh, sure," Jane said, pushing Maura's hair out of the way again as she reached for the knot. That one was also difficult, Jane's fingers fumbling against Maura's vertebrae and shoulder blades. Finally she managed to get it undone, and Maura heaved a sigh of relief, releasing the parts of herself she'd been keeping contained as the stays loosened. Maura turned to face Jane, away from the door as she tugged at the stays, loosening them enough so she could pull the corset top off. Jane swallowed and tried to look away; she was trying to retrieve her mike, that was why she had come back here. But Maura was shameless - and looking at her, she had nothing to be ashamed about. Her eyes drifted over Maura appraisingly without any intervention from her brain, drinking in the sight of Maura just in the skirt and stockings, a little bit of garter flashing on her thigh.

And then the door opened, and Maura made no effort to cover herself so Jane leaped into action using what she had at hand - both of her hands, actually - to cover two of the more vital parts of Maura that needed to be covered. Namely, Maura's bare breasts that she was just fine about brandishing in public.

Detective Lacey from the surveillance unit was standing in the doorway, holding her hand out for Jane's wire.

"On your own time, if you don't mind ladies," she smirked.

Jane's hands were a little full, so Maura kindly removed Jane's microphone and the wire from beneath Jane's shirt, her hands warm and soft where they brushed Jane's bare skin. Maura handed the equipment over as though it was completely normal to have Jane being her own human bra.

"Have a good night, ladies," Lacey said, giving Jane a wink as she walked out. Jane was frozen, wanting to pull away but not wanting it be exposed to Maura's... torso again. A torso with healthy, hefty breasts. Her hands were sore, not from volleyball but from undoing knots, and standing here with a breast in each hand wasn't helping, especially when Jane knew her own weren't anywhere near as hefty, wouldn't pose anywhere near as much of a problem.

"Does my nudity bother you?" Maura asked, tilting her head to the side, a curious smile on her face. Jane knew, with mounting dread, that her hands had been on Maura for too long now, that she needed to remove them, she could feel something hard pressing against one of her scars but the rest was impossibly soft and Jane had her own but they didn't feel this good and Maura was looking at her softly still as though she expected an answer and Jane nodded, unable to formulate words.

"Oh," Maura sounded disappointed. Jane shrugged as well as she could. "Well, if I cover your hands with mine, you can have your hands back and I can get dressed." Jane nodded and Maura's hands covered hers, using more pressure than Jane had been and now there was a compression factor and Jane thought she was going to pass out. At least Maura didn't look upset, just faintly amused and pleased with herself. "Jane, breathe," Maura reminded her. Jane nodded and gasped in a raspy breath, finally pulling her hands away from what she would have assumed from touch alone was the holy grail. She stretched her hands three times to get the blood moving again.

"Where's your shirt," Jane asked, looking around. "They're going to want to pack up the rest of the equipment."

"Oh, I wore this here, I thought I'd wear it home but it was digging in too much. You did offer me your jacket earlier," Maura said hopefully.

"You are not going anywhere dressed like that," Jane growled, taking her jacket off and handing it over. It had no buttons, no zipper. Jane poked her head out of the door, found the bar owner and got a box of lost and found. A lot of underwear. A lot, a lot of underwear

"Who loses their panties at a bar?" Jane asked, choosing to refrain from digging through the box. She sighed and pulled off her overshirt, handing it to Maura, who happily put it on.

"Not lost so much as abandoned," Maura noted, handing Jane her jacket back. She'd looked good in the corset, but she looked good in Jane's shirt too. Jane opened the door to the back room.

"Oh. Oh, ew, is that why so many of them asked if I wanted to go to the bathroom with them?" Jane asked as Frost came in.

"You took your time," Frost said. "The team is going to pack up, you can head back to the office for analysis if you like, Doctor Isles."

"Nah, first we're getting her some pants, and then we're going to the lab," Jane grumbled.

"Are you jealous because more women hit on me?" Maura pulled out her handbag and started counting lipstick marked napkins. "I got...sixteen, seventeen phone numbers, Jane. How many did you get?"

"Twelve," Jane grumbled. "But I wasn't in scaffolding."

"How many are you going to call back?" Frost asked. He shrugged off the glare Jane gave him. "Celtics front row tickets are Celtics front row tickets, I'm just saying."

"We'll meet you back at the office in half an hour. Got to get her some pants."

"What did take so long?" Frost asked, unsure if he really wanted to know.

"Oh, you know Maura. She's a handful." Maura rolled her eyes.

"Jane," Maura admonished as they went out to Jane's car, to head back to Jane's apartment where Maura could divest herself of her stockings and suspenders. "I think we both know I'm two handfuls," she added coyly, Jane's chuckle loud in the still night air.

Notes:

Yes, it is 2023. Yes, I am writing about that episode.

No, I don't know the difference between garters and suspenders.