It's the end of a case when it finally happens. The case hadn't been too tricky, but there had been a lot of legwork involved both for the detectives and the morgue team, but they'd found the killer and they were now closing it all up.

Jane had just come down to see Maura, to get the last of the evidence all boxed up for the DA, when it happens. They're just standing there, packing the box when Maura makes a silly joke and Jane laughs before she says, without thinking, "I love you, Maura."

They both freeze at her words and stare at each other for a long moment. Jane starts to say something about how she meant it as friends, not anything else, but Maura's voice stops her in her tracks.

"I love you too," she says in a quiet voice.

They continued to stare at each other in stunned silence before they both started smiling, massive grins spreading across their faces as they held each other's gaze. Maura is the first to move, stepping closer to Jane one step at a time until they're practically touching.

Then she stops, and the two of them stare into each others eyes, still smiling.

"You love me," Maura whispers.

"And you love me," Jane whispers back.

There are people around them, lab technicians going about their day-to-day jobs, but there is no one with them in the morgue proper. It's just the two of them, standing staring at each other.

If you asked them later, neither would be able to tell you who moved first, but at some point both of them closed their eyes and leaned in, touching their lips together.

The kiss was light but heartfelt, neither opened their mouth to let the other in, but they could both feel the love that the other one had for them. At some point they joined hands and pulled away from each other, resting their foreheads against each other.

Maura opened her eyes but found that Jane's were still shut. She took the chance to study Jane's face, drinking it in, and then she pressed another kiss to the corner of Jane's mouth. "I love you, Jane," she whispered.

Now Jane opened her eyes and stared at the woman in front of her. She thought she'd been in love before, but she had never felt the way she did right now. "I love you too," she whispered back, tilting her head and kissing Maura on the cheek.

The door to the room suddenly burst open and then two of them jumped apart. Jane turned to glare at whoever had intruded on their moment, while Maura turned her back and took some deep breaths, steadying herself.

"Am I interrupting?" Frankie asked.

"What do you want Frankie?" Jane asked, ignoring his question. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw as Maura turned to face Frankie as well. She didn't look at her, just stared at Frankie.

"We're getting ready to go out for drinks," Frankie said with a smirk, "And we're wondering if you were planning on joining us at any point."

"I just need to finish some paperwork," Maura said quietly, "But then I'll meet you all there."

Frankie nodded and then turned to leave. He turned back suddenly. "You coming Jane?" he asked.

Jane involuntarily glanced at Maura before she answered. Maura gave her a smile and a tiny nod.

"Sure," Jane said, moving from Maura's side to stand with Frankie. "See you in a bit, Maura."

"Jane, Frankie," Maura said by way of goodbye as she headed for her office.

Jane and Frankie headed for the elevator but as they went to step in Jane stopped. "I think I've left my phone in the morgue," she said in a rush, "I'm gonna go grab it. I'll meet you and the others at the bar ok?"

She turned and headed back the way they'd come before Frankie could say anything. He watched her go and shook his head. Oh yeah, this was going to be good.

-/-

Jane burst into Maura's office, pushing the door so hard it bounced off the wall. Maura looked up from her laptop, startled. The shock left her face though as she saw who was there.

"Hey," she said softly.

"Hey," Jane replied, her voice equally as soft. She stood awkwardly in front of the desk, not really sure what she was going to do.

Maura solved the problem for her. She got to her feet and walked around the desk to come to a stop in front of Jane. Jane closed the space between them and kissed her hard on the lips. Maura returned the kiss with just as much force and walked Jane backwards until her back hit the door.

Jane moaned and Maura pulled away slightly. Jane looked at her with hungry eyes. Maura looked back with a slight smirk on her face. "We can't do this here Jane," she whispered, "As much as I would love to."

Jane gave her puppy eyes for a moment but Maura just laughed quietly and then kissed her quickly before she pulled away. "Later," she promised.

"I'll hold you to that," Jane promised in return as she stepped away. "How much work do you need to do?" she then asked the doctor.

"I'm basically done," Maura told her.

"Already?" Jane asked.

Maura shifted awkwardly for a moment but Jane pinned her with a stare. "I just needed a moment to gather my thoughts," Maura said in a rush, "I wasn't expecting any of this and just needed a minute away from people to work things out."

Jane froze for a second, her mind jumping to all sorts of conclusions, some of them not so good, as she wondered if Maura was having second thoughts. The soft smile on Maura's face dispelled those worries, however.

"In that case," Jane said, "Shall we?" She offered Maura her arm and gestured towards the door.

Maura laughed and grabbed her purse from behind her desk. "So…" she started.

"So what?" Jane asked.

"So what is this?" Maura asked in a quiet, unsure voice.

"This is whatever we want it to be," Jane answered after thinking for a moment, "But I thinking more than friends?"

"Definitely," Maura answered with a smile as she linked her arm through Janes. "Do you want to tell people?" she then asked as they walked out of the morgue and towards the elevator.

"We work with Detectives, and my mother is probably better than any of us at seeing relationships," Jane said, "They're going to know as soon as we walk through the door. And that's if Frankie hasn't already told them that he saw us kissing."

"And are you ok with that?" Maura asked.

"More than," Jane assured her quickly. The elevator arrived and as they waited for it to reach the entrance Jane leaned in and lightly kissed her on the cheek.

Maura turned her head and caught her lips with her own. Both of them were smiling as they pulled apart and Maura whispered, "To forever."

"To forever," Jane parroted.

-/-

They were right, as soon as they walked into the Dirty Robber, Angela, Frankie, Korsak, and Barry could all see the shift in their relationship. Even if they hadn't already known something was coming, thanks to Frankie telling everyone that he was pretty sure he'd caught them kissing, the fact they came in with Jane's arm wrapped around Maura's shoulders, and Maura's arm wrapped around Jane's waist, would have given it away immediately.