DISCLAIMER: I do not own Rizzoli & Isles nor any of the characters from the show. I am writing this purely for entertainment, not profit. Rizzoli and Isles are property of Tess Gerritsen and TNT.

Please find the full disclaimers in the beginning of Chapter 1.

Chapter 18

Maura shuddered more intensely now.

"I… I rationally assessed what was the most effective way to hit him with the blade once I got it in my hands…" she admitted.

"In the police academy, we are taught two things. If you just want to stop a suspect or perp who is running away, you aim for the legs. If it is a life and death situation, you shoot to kill. This was clearly a life and death situation, Maura… You were just trying to make sure he would not raise up again to resume his assault…"

"But I didn't care that although effective, he would still take long minutes to die. I actually thought long minutes was not long enough… Although I didn't have time to dwell on it when I saw the trail of your blood on the wall behind your head…" Maura shuddered again. "I was sure I had taken too long, and that he had killed you…" Maura gasped lightly as she voiced the memory.

"You weren't too late…" Jane squeezed her arm gently, offering her a small smile.

"When I couldn't find your pulse with my gloved hand… Gosh… I was desperate…" Maura shook her head, trying to dispel the memory.

"Your idea of doing CPR helped…" Jane praised.

Maura immediately tensed, closing her eyes. "Although it did start as an attempt of CPR, that was not how it ended…" Maura admitted, deviating her eyes.

When Maura's words sunk in, Jane raised from the sofa abruptly, startling Maura. Maura followed Jane with her eyes, and saw as Jane stopped, her back to Maura, facing one of the external windows.

Maura sighed deeply.

She had been bothered by what had happened. She felt she had broken Jane's trust, and continued to do so by not telling her what had happened.

Maura stood up, and approached from one of Jane's sides. She saw Jane had three of her long fingers lightly touching her lips.

"Talk to me…" Maura pleaded. Jane harboring ill feelings would not make this any easier. Rip the Band-Aid, deal with the consequences, Maura thought to herself.

"I thought I was dying…" Jane whispered, her fingers still over her lips as she spoke softly. "Everything was dark, and I was suffocating. And then there was air. Warm, blessed air. And then…" Jane's eyes fluttered closed, and she blushed, before whispering. "Then I felt there were soft lips… the salt of tears… And a delicious tongue…" Jane panted, flushed. She opened her eyes to look sheepishly at Maura. "I thought that if dying was like that, it was not too bad… And then I began coughing, and sputtering, and trying to catch my breath…" Jane admitted. "But I thought I was just hallucinating as I was fighting for consciousness."

After a pause, Maura added. "I felt comforted when your lips responded to mine. It meant you were alive. I… I should have broken the contact immediately then but… I didn't… It took a while longer before I did it…" Maura confessed. "I was conscious. You were not…"

"It seems I was more conscious than I thought I was… I thought it had all been only my brain depleted of oxygen…"

Maura sighed, hugging herself, as if bracing for impact. "Well… it wasn't."

Jane kept still, looking out at the window. Maura could not decipher her body language.

After what seemed a long while, Jane offered in a whisper, her fingers having never left her lips. "It does not need to mean anything if you don't want it to."

Maura inhaled deeply before exhaling slowly. This was a way out. Jane was offering Maura an easy way out. But Maura could not lie. She would not lie, now that she had found how she felt.

"What if it did mean something?" Maura's voice sounded breathless.

"Have you been thinking about it?" Jane turned her face slightly so she could look into Maura's eyes.

A moment's hesitation, and Maura blushed as she answered with a simple "Yes." Before deviating her eyes.

Jane was quiet for so long that Maura was sure she had screwed up the best friendship of her existence.

"Please… as you said, it does not need to mean anything if you don't want it to. Let's forget we ever had this conversation." Maura offered, evasively.

Jane looked at her, a small smile tugging the sides of her lips up under the light touch of her own fingers. "I was just trying to remember how I felt. I was dying and my recollection is fuzzy…"

"Should we… do it again?" Maura asked, uncertain.

Jane turned and stepped closer to Maura, their bodies almost flush.

"I think that is a fabulous idea…" Jane leaned her head forward, but Maura ducked out.

"I am so sorry, I think I misunderstood you…" Jane blushed profusely and apologized, feeling like a fool.

"No…" Maura placed her hands over Jane's forearms. "I… I just wanted to say… This… this is not an experiment to me, Jane. It is not a fling. It is not something you do to make me feel better." She stuttered, her eyes almost crossed looking at Jane looming form over her given how close together they were.

Jane smiled gently. "It is not an experiment, or a fling, and I am not doing it for you to feel better. I mean it."

"Good." Maura smiled, before she went on her tiptoes and slowly closed the distance between them until their lips met.

It was soft and sweet, but at the same time it was electrifying… They gently explored each other's lips, until Jane ran the tip of her tongue gently over Maura's bottom lip, requesting access, that Maura granted.

As their mouths and tongues danced together in a slow exploratory pace, their hands moved to hold the other. Jane's entangled in long honey blond silky hair. Maura's circled behind Jane's neck, her knees growing weak.

When they parted for air a long while later, Jane husked: "This is so much better than what I remembered…"

Maura chuckled in response. "True… It is great not to be afraid you were dead…"

"It was great not to ask myself why there were tears…" Jane gently cupped Maura's cheek with her hand, her thumb caressing the smooth skin.

Maura turned slightly sideways to kiss the scar on the palm of Jane's hand before closing her eyes and leaning on her touch.

Jane pulled Maura closer, and enveloped her with both arms in a warm and tight hug.