1. In the Bar

Sometimes Maura wished people wouldn't treat her like she was fragile. They were always shielding her from barfights and serial killers - okay, that was mostly Jane, and Maura always appreciated the protection at the time.

But in a crowd, Frankie and Frost would position themselves so she wasn't jostled, and Tommy had punched someone for grabbing her ass in the bar, and Jane glared down every person who talked down to her, talked over her, talked down to her or overlooked her.

But Maura was a grown adult. She'd survived by herself all this time, she wasn't a damsel in need of rescue. Then she remembered letting Jane teach her to box and chuckled. She was already quite proficient at boxing.

It was kind of sweet, really. Jane didn't infantalise her like the others did; Jane knew what Maura was capable of, and she usually let Maura handle as much as she could, and checked in with Maura before she stepped in. And Jane wasn't scared to touch Maura like the others were. Jane's hands were often hard and forceful as she manoeuvred Maura to safety, unable to tackle the threat until she'd determined Maura wasn't in the line of fire.

And those situations, Maura understood. Jane had training, Jane had a gun.

But in the bar tonight, Maura had stepped up to the bar and Jane had stepped up behind her, covering her from the crowd, arms resting on the the bar in front of Maura. Her entire torso was pressed against Maura's back, and Maura could feel the occasional jostle from the crowd behind Jane.

"Do you want to just go home?" Jane yelled in Maura's ear; the music was so loud Maura missed it and turned to look at Jane as though that would help her hear better. But Jane had leaned in again, and Maura's mouth was now where her ear used to be, and Jane's mouth was surprisingly soft when it met Maura's.

Jane was jostled again and she pulled away, turning to snap at the offending patron. She took Maura by the hand and led her to safety, to home.

Sometimes Maura wished people wouldn't treat her like she was fragile. But Maura never minded anything Jane did to her.

2. In Bed

Maura woke up in the night. It was dark, but not as dark as usual, and the bed was harder and smaller than she was used to. There was the gentle sound of someone else breathing, and a warm weight over her legs that felt like they might be someone else's legs.

She could smell lavender; she immediately knew where she was. Not that she'd woken up anxious or worried, she'd just wondered. She slept here so often that she should just buy Jane a new mattress.

Jane was crosswise on the bed. She always slept oddly, half-dressed, half-asleep, waking frequently from nightmares and pain - from her hands and her gunshot wounds. Maura sighed, wondering if she had the energy to shift her upright and onto a pillow. Then she realised she had to pee, and sighed again, pulling herself out from under Jane.

When she came back, she carefully checked Jane over, the lights still off so as not to disturb her or wake her from whatever kind of sleep she was getting. It seemed restful. Her belt was off, and so was her badge, gun and phone. Maura plugged Jane's phone into the charger and set the alarm. She wondered how Jane used to survive without her. And then she - carefully, tentatively - reached out and pulled Jane so she was lying up and down the bed instead of diagonally, lifting Jane's head carefully to slide a pillow under it. Jane moaned once and rolled over into the space Maura usually slept in, so she climbed in on Jane's side instead. She could still get a few hours of sleep, and it was pointless to try to go home now. Dangerous too, probably. Jane sighed again and Maura reached out a hand, placed it on Jane's back and felt her relax. Jane turned to her and moved her head onto Maura's pillow, her lips sliding against Maura's for a moment before Jane's head moved lower, finding the soft place on Maura's chest she seemed to prefer in her sleep. Maura raised her fingers to her mouth and chuckled before letting both hands rest on Jane's back, holding her close to fight off the bad dreams.

3. At Work

There were Christmas decorations in the lab. Maura frowned, but she didn't order them to be taken down since they weren't obstructing any of the equipment. She noticed the mistletoe in the doorway of her office, noticed that everyone came in through the autopsy room instead today.

No one really wanted to kiss their boss, Maura supposed, shrugging. And the tinsel was nice. Shiny. Festive. Terrible for the environment, of course, but pretty nonetheless. Maura sighed.

Jane came in through the hallway, throwing herself down on Maura's couch.

"Frankie is driving me nuts," Jane complained. "Wants to know what I want for Christmas. I don't know what I want for Christmas! And he says he won't get me socks this year."

"If not socks, why not Sox?" Maura asked. Jane sat up, eyeing Maura questioningly. "Red Sox season tickets," Maura elaborated, and Jane's face lit up. She grabbed her phone and texted someone - probably Frankie, given the conversation.

"Now, Doctor Isles, what do you want for Christmas?" Jane asked, and Maura felt her eyes shift to the mistletoe in the doorway. Jane didn't notice.

"You know what I like," Maura said softly, and she knew Jane would be taking her to more baseball games in the coming year. Maybe even slip some merchandise from her favourite team under the tree she'd dragged in a week ago 'for TJ'. Whatever Jane got her, it didn't matter, because it would be from Jane, and Jane knew what she liked. And what she liked best was Jane. Jane got to her feet.

"I have a suspect in custody," Jane admitted. "I'm letting Frankie practice so I could get away for five minutes."

"Oh, I'll come. I'd like to see if their musculature matches what I saw in the footage BRIC found at the nearby gas station." Maura got to her feet and followed Jane. Jane paused in the doorway and pointed up as Maura bumped into her, their lips brushing together for a moment before Maura steadied herself and pulled away.

"I guess we hafta," Jane said, shrugging and digging her hands into her pockets. Maura nodded and brought her face up to Jane's, the mouth meeting hers already familiar.

4. In the Car

Jane always had a change of clothes in the car, which was fortunate, especially in cases like this, where something unfortunate happened. At least this time it had only been the fresh Officer spilling coffee on both of them - not hot enough to burn badly, but hot enough to hurt - and soak both of their outfits. Maura pouted as she pulled off her dress - it had been one of her favourites, and she'd only worn it twice. That's what she got for wearing it to a crime scene. She'd pulled it off before she remembered that her spare dress she kept in Jane's car was at the laundromat - last week they'd had that incident with the other new Officer not having the stomach for crime scenes - and she had nothing to change into. She dug around on the backseat for a spare something of Jane's, coming up with a blazer and some pants but no shirt. She could pull it off; Jane's pants always were a little too long on her, and the blazer had buttons at least. The neckline would be low, but she could work with that. Jane looked over and sighed, realising Maura's quandary, then reached over Maura - she'd pulled her bag from the trunk and had a full outfit, but she'd only got the top half off so far, so many buttons, and she'd had to help Maura with the zip - and started digging around in the backseat too.

"There should be a shirt in here somewhere," Jane said, and Maura pulled back between the seat to let Jane dig through the old takeaway food wrappers and empty soda cans littering her backseat. BPD really should have a clause in their car pool about that sort of thing, Maura thought to herself, even though she knew Jane took it in weekly to be cleaned. Jane's mostly bare, toned torso was visible, and Maura put a hand on Jane's back, reaching into the backseat again. Jane's head turned at the unexpected contact, and Maura found herself looking into Jane's deep, confused eyes as their lips brushed against each other's, noses bumping as Jane kept moving.

"Get dressed," Jane said, looking Maura over. "You can have my button down and I'll just wear the tee."

"Are you sure?" Maura asked, pulling Jane's pants on. They'd been worn at least once but they weren't damp and coffee stained like her dress, so they were an improvement. All she needed was to get from the car to her office, where she had scrubs and a spare outfit.

"If anyone was going to complain, they'd have done it by now," Jane pointed out. Maura chuckled, wondering if Jane was hinting that Maura could complain about the brief moment their lips had met across the console, then immediately forgot about it as Jane stretched and pulled off her own pants.

5. On a Phone Call

Jane was on the phone with Hoyt; Maura could tell. Jane's back was stiff and her hand was clenched around the phone like she was going to snap it in half. Maura slid in next to Jane unobtrusively and put her ear to the phone, their faces close. She took Jane's spare hand and unfurled it, feeling Jane relax a little.

"Is your girlfriend there?" Hoyt taunted Jane. "You sound so much more at ease than you were a moment ago."

"No, I just realised how to nail you to the wall for this one too," Jane said triumphantly. "See you in court." Jane hung up, her hands shaking, and turned to look at Maura, who hadn't moved far enough away to accommodate such movement, Jane's mouth sliding past Maura's with the barest brush of their lips. "I've got him this time," Jane said, but Maura hadn't stepped back at all, was still close enough to put her arms around Jane, who was still shaking with what she thought was rage until the tears started.

"It's okay," Maura said quietly, holding her. "I've got you, and you're going to get him."

Jane nodded and Maura smiled at her, her lips still tingling. Jane hadn't corrected someone calling Maura her girlfriend, and even if it had only been Hoyt, Maura still felt a little glow in her chest.

1. Alone at Home

It was just dinner at The Dirty Robber. Nothing to get worked up about, it was something they did once a week, if not more. But Maura was nervous. They were close; Jane never set off Maura's proximity sensors, which was probably why they kept accidentally kissing. Although the mistletoe had been deliberate, it hadn't been - but that was beside the point. She was too comfortable with Jane, and it was too much. She relied on Jane too much. She trusted Jane too much. And she'd spent the last two nights waking up from dreams where Jane had kissed her because she'd wanted to, not just because Maura had been in the space where Jane intended to put her head. And they were too much, and Maura wanted too much, needed too much from Jane to let it carry on. But she'd tried standing further away, and Jane closed the space. When she read on her computer, Jane's head was on her shoulder. They were at work; it was unprofessional. Maura needed personal space. But she couldn't quite manage to stay away either - she found herself pressed against Jane in the kitchen when there was plenty of room on the counter for her to work elsewhere. She found herself snug against Jane on her empty couch. It was like Jane had some kind of density that drew Maura to her, some sort of geological tug - magnetic or gravitational, Maura didn't know. But when Jane came in, a cheeky grin when she saw Maura, Maura wiped her damp hands on her dress, wondering when she'd started to perspire.

"Jane, we need to stop kissing," Maura said, once their dinner had arrived and she'd had a chance to calm down a little. Her heartrate sped back up when Jane fixed her with a gaze she couldn't read.

"We haven't been," Jane said mildly. "It was just mistletoe, that one time."

"It's been five times," Maura said. "And it's going to keep happening because I can't stay away from you, and you can't stay away from me. We need to stop kissing by accident."

Jane looked Maura over, then nodded. "Okay," she said, and turned back to her burger. She didn't even complain when Maura stole half her fries. Korsak and Frost came in, and Jane squeezed in next to Maura, arm slung over the back of the booth, and Maura found herself leaning into Jane out of habit. Even when she caught herself, she couldn't stop. She sighed. Her willpower was too weak, her craving for human contact too strong. She'd been hoping Jane would be able to resist the pull between them, but they always ended up together.

Jane drove them home, followed Maura into the house. Maura wanted to tell Jane to leave, but she never wanted Jane to leave. She just couldn't stand another one of those dreams where she and Jane were everything to each other, only to wake and find it had been a lie her brain had told her. Jane fidgeted against the counter.

"I know you said..." Jane started, making a decision and coming closer to Maura, resting her hands on Maura's hips. "I know you said no more kissing on accident," she said, and then she was leaning in, her lips surprisingly soft and supple when they met Maura's. It never stopped surprising Maura, how soft Jane could be. And then Jane pressed forward, and they were kissing, really, truly kissing in Maura's kitchen in the glow of the fridge, Maura matching Jane's tempo, hands grasping Jane's shoulder blade and hip, pulling her closer, tangling in Jane's unruly hair until Jane finally pulled away, gasping for air. She pressed a series of deep, thoughtful, tender kisses to Maura's mouth, Maura returning them until Jane pulled away with the same cheeky grin she'd greeted Maura with earlier that evening. "But how about on purpose?" Jane asked, and Maura didn't bother to dignify that with a response, pulling Jane in again to wipe the smile off her face.