Quarantine seemed like a good time to take another look at this story :)

Reminder: I intend for them to end up together, but for now, this Jane is approaching a FWB situation as a straight woman, and this Maura is bi. If you can't stomach a Maura or Jane who have ever been genuinely attracted to men, and aren't immediate soulmates, now would be a great time to choose a different fic.

Back to Boston. Back to work as usual.

Unable to think of anything else but that stuff in the hotel, Jane spends the entire plane ride pondering.

The more she thinks about it, the more Maura's logic is so backwards that it actually circles all the way back around to making sense, in some crazy way. Maybe the thing that makes it ridiculous is the exact thing that would make it able to work: they aren't compatible.

The only real barrier is deciding whether she wants this.

Work never leaves Jane any time to pursue a real relationship, and she's never been the casual hookup type. How anyone could trust a stranger like that so quickly is beyond her, and not just because of all the crime scenes she's processed that began as dates. Opening up to new people fast, emotionally or sexually, isn't her style.

Even if she met some dream man today, it would take a long time to build up the level of trust and familiarity she already has with Maura.

That's the draw here. Maura is safe. Maura is neutral and doesn't judge and isn't secretly in love with her (she said so!) or anything weird like that. There are no unknowns. She's just... exactly what she said: a safe, easy source of release.

That one word just won't leave her mind: release. That's not really even sex. Certainly not romance. Not even experimentation. That's just like pulling a lever and venting steam. Just hey, do me a favor.

So why not do this? Is she afraid of people finding out and thinking she's gay? Eh. No one close to her would care if she actually was, and anyone who did could kiss her ass. She's thought before that being gay would have probably improved her dating life. She's a big hit with women; they like all the things about her that sometimes keep men at a distance. It's flattering, and she's given herself license to return their interest if she felt any, but she never has.

And it's not that she's interested here, either. It's just that Maura is.. a safe, easy source of release.

Release.

Jane could use release.

Screw it, what else does she have going on? Who's ever gonna know? She's gonna do it.

She ends up deciding not to bite off more than she's sure she can chew.

All she tells Maura is that she liked them getting off together - that is, separately - and asks if they can do that from time to time.

And Maura says, "Okay, how about right now?"

"Like, right here?"

"Why not?" she smirks. "Don't tell me my couch would be the most daring place you've pleasured yourself."

"Har, har," Jane answers sarcastically, but realizes she doesn't have anything very daring to boast about. "What are you doing?" she asks when Maura gets to her feet.

"Getting some wine." She disappears behind her into the kitchen. "Pinot. Would you like some?

"Nah, thanks. Well- on second thought.. maybe, yeah."

Maura chuckles.

"Where've you done it?"

"Hmm.." Jane hears two pours of liquid while Maura thinks. "On a sailboat."

"Sea level club, huh. Like, in the cabin?"

"No, up on the deck." She rejoins Jane on the couch and hands her a glass. "I was dating Garrett. He was taking ages doing something with the boat.. I was bored and the sea air was relaxing and I didn't care if he saw me or not. So I just lay there, looking at the clouds... it was nice."

Jane shakes her head, unable to imagine what it must be like to be Maura Isles. She takes a sip of her wine, finding for the hundredth time that she doesn't really like the taste, but it's more of a medicinal thing right now.

"Did he? See you?"

"No."

What a loss for that guy.

"Where else? Let me guess - private jet?"

"No." She laughs. "What about you?"

"Nothing too exotic I guess. I used to do it in my first car when I still lived at home. The privacy was a luxury," Jane recalls with a pink grin. "Just park somewhere empty and... I'd have to look at a map or something the whole time, but..."

"Wh-" Maura laughs suddenly enough to cup a hand under her wine glass for fear of it sloshing. "Why did you look at a map?"

"Because cars have windows and I needed to look normal above the waist? Not everyone's an exhibitionist, Miss I-Get-Off-On-Boats."

"It was one time! And there weren't any other boats nearby." She interrupts her next sip, touching a finger to her bottom lip to add, "No, twice. Well... kind of."

Jane snorts.

"So I could look right at you sitting in your car, and not know what you were doing below the waist?"

"Yeah."

"What a valuable skill to have on your stakeouts..."

"I don't do it on stakeouts!"

"Where else?"

Jane feels the evidence of her evening as she climbs the stairs to her second-floor apartment, her still-wet underwear saying "Really?" with each step. She shuts her door, does up the security chain, and just leans against it in silence.

That had been a hot and fucking bizarre evening.

Playful trading of masturbation stories had been easy enough. It was a fun conversation, but Jane had wondered if it was actually going to warm her up enough to unbuckle her pants.

But that wasn't the only sort of story Maura wanted to trade. Eventually she got onto the topic of blowjobs, and things got.. different.

That kind of made it easier, but kind of just made it weird in a different way. Well, definitely weird in that Maura kept calling it fellatio, even after she yelled at her.

How often Jane do that with her partners? How did she do it? What did she like about it? So many questions. And on every question where Jane hesitated, which was basically all of them, Maura volunteered her own answers in ever-increasing detail.

Long story short, she sounds like she's good at it. Which... Jane had never thought about that before, but like.. is it a surprise, really?

She ended up powerless not to picture it, and combined with the way Maura started enjoying herself to the memories, that's when Jane's hand finally strayed south too.

No, that wasn't even the weird part.

That title goes to the part where Maura finally got fed up with Jane's lack of detailed responses to her questions, and started describing how she would picture Jane giving a blowjob. Like, exactly how.

It'd taken Jane a minute to decide whether she was more weirded out or turned on - because with minor exceptions, her idea of it was uncannily accurate. And she talked about it like Jane would be good at it, and like she clearly found the idea of it hot. (And why wouldn't it be? She's never had complaints, either, thank you very much.)

Despite the warm blush on her cheeks, Jane had found herself having to correct the occasional detail... and then getting more candid as she saw the pace of Maura's hand quickening, and hers sped to match, and then there were more questions, and...

By the time clarity hit at the end, she felt like she'd just let Maura watch her have sex. She had overshared. She cannot believe how much she overshared.

But oh boy, that wasn't her standard weeknight zoned-out-with-one-hand-down-her-pants orgasm. That was the kind that made her toes curl in her boots. The kind where she had to clench her teeth to keep quiet.

If doing weird shit with Maura means she can have one like that once in a while, she can survive some awkwardness.

She pushes off the door and heads for the bedroom to change her underwear and go to sleep.

They do it again at the end of the week.

Maura clearly has a greater variety of stories to share, but she seems no less riveted to hear Jane's more vanilla ones, provided she goes into some detail.

They do it another time, and another.

Until Jane quits blushing and hesitating. Until getting off in front of Maura stops being super weird and becomes just sort of a fun, casual, kinda hot, ego-boosting way to unwind.

Until Jane has revealed enough about her sex life verbally that it starts seeming silly to refuse to do it physically.

Agreeing to more doesn't seem like such a big thing now.

There's just one last part to think through before she brings it up, though: having Maura do stuff to her is one thing, but this would go both ways. That would be the far more uncomfortable part.

Jane fluffs her pillow and stares at her ceiling, listening to her neighbor's pipes making that clunking sound, pondering. Could she do it?

She imagines kissing Maura, and tries really hard to think it would be hot and fun, but all she can come up with is that it'd be sort of weird. Sure, Maura would probably have fresh breath and kiss fine, but that isn't the point. Jane just doesn't think about her like that. Ok, well, there's no reason they'd be kissing anyway. Scratch that.

Anyway, this is about an exchange of favors, not about mutual enjoyment. Gotta be a giver if you wanna be a getter. How bad could it be? Maura's pretty, and nice, and there could hardly be anyone more hygienic. At worst, it'd be awkward, but at least she won't have to pretend she's enjoying it.

It's worth a try.

"Alright," Jane wipes her palms together, dusting her plate with pizza crumbs. "Rules?"

Maura purses her lips in thought.

"Rule one: if either of our feelings begin to change in any way, we have to immediately disclose it."

"Yeah. Rule two: this isn't an everyday thing. Just now and then, if neither of us are seeing anyone and we really need it. We can't do it too often."

"How often is the maximum?" Maura asks.

They both cast around, trying to decide what figure to pull out of thin air.

"Twice per week?" Maura suggests at exactly the same moment that Jane shrugs "Once a month?"

"Twice a week? What are we, dating?"

"Once a fortnight," Maura compromises.

"Fine."

"Fine. Rule three: we should state our desires plainly and without embarrassment, but the other won't be obligated if they aren't up for it. And rule four, any reciprocation of favors is purely optional."

"Okay. Five, no dating crap. No little gifts or dinner first or talking about feelings. We'll just get right to the point, do what we gotta do, and otherwise be exactly how we are now."

"Okay."

"I don't want to kiss. Or cuddle, or sleep with you, or any of that."

"Okay," Maura nods.

"And.. what are we on? Six? This thing ends the second it gets in the way of our friendship. Getting off once in a while isn't worth messing that up."

"Absolutely."

That seems to be the last of the ideas for rules.

"So is that it? Do we...?" Jane extends a hand.

"I don't know," Maura laughs but shakes it. "I've never done this before, either."

"So."

"So. Do you want to come back here after work one of these evenings and...?"

"And what?" Jane asks, already half-ready to chicken out.

Maura smirks. "And do whatever we like."