A/N: I am so deeply sorry that this chapter took six months to come out. Ridiculous. This is the final chapter in this story. I spent the day editing and tightening up each previous chapter, to make each one what I'd always wanted it to be and never quite felt like it was. If you don't feel like a reread, no major changes were made. But if you feel like taking a trip down memory lane, I hope you'll find everything better written and narratively stronger than on our first go-round together.

But, mostly, thank you so incredibly much for you support of this story and of me. It means more than I can say.

Enjoy, fishies.

They spend the week in dazed bliss. They, somehow, manage to keep it professional at work, something Jane thinks deserves some kind of medal. Because, I mean, have these people seen Maura? Each night after work they've gone back to Jane's apartment, studiously avoiding Angela or any of their friends.

On Monday night they were extremely awkward and in love with each other and had no idea what to do about it or where to put their hands. The whole night felt like the end of a first date. It wasn't until they got in bed and Jane spooned Maura that they could breathe freely.

On Tuesday night they watched a game and held hands and, at the end, they found their courage and leaned in for a kiss at the same time and bumped their teeth together. Maura convinced Jane that a thorough examination of the injury site was required. Jane convinced Maura to do it with her tongue.

On Wednesday night Maura took Jane out on their real first date, both a laughable and a terrifying notion. Jane wore a dress she'd bought that morning, causing her to be late enough to work that Cavanaugh reamed her out in front of the entire floor. But the look on Maura's face when she saw Jane in it was completely worth it. Maura look her to a fancy Italian restaurant—the perfect compromise because Jane could understand the menu and Maura could ply her with expensive wine. They held hands all night. Before dessert Maura reached over and tucked Jane's hair behind her ear. Jane's sweet blush nearly killed her. Maura drove her home and refused to come in, insisting on being respectful on a first date. She kissed Jane at her door until Jane was ready to explode from the way Maura's lips tasted and her hips felt under her hands. She pulled away and pressed her forehead against Maura's for a long moment. Maura drove home, completely high.

On Thursday Jane took Maura to a movie in a park. It was Jurassic Park. Maura spent the first half of the movie incessantly cataloguing all the scientific and historical inaccuracies, citing everything from mitochondrial issues to the time periods of the various species of dinosaurs. She only stopped when Jane leaned over and kissed her lips, softly. She took Maura's face in her hands and told her, in no uncertain terms, that she was in love with her. Maura was silent for the rest of the movie. She focused on burrowing as far into Jane's chest as she possibly could and counting each kiss that Jane dropped on her head. She lost count at 27.

And now it's Friday. Robber night.

Jane pops down to Maura's office for lunch. She hands over a container of sushi, verifies that she got it from Whole Foods (true) and personally asked the chef about the mercury count (false), and sits on the couch.

Halfway through the meal, she looks up. "Hey, Maur?"

Maura has just taken an unseemly large bite of sushi. She tries to make a polite noise of interest, but she's so undignified looking that Jane cannot possibly take her seriously.

A few moments later Jane's stopped cackling and Maura has cleared out her mouth. "Yes, dear?" Maura asks dryly.

"Do you want to go to the Robber tonight?"

"Of course."

"Okay, cool. Do you wanna, um, like..."

"What, Jay?"

"Do you wanna tell them or like, keep it under wraps?"

Maura doesn't have to ask what "it" is. She looks intently at Jane. "What would you prefer?"

Jane shrugs. "I have nothing to hide. I'm not ashamed of you, or of us. But I know that it's important to you to have control sometimes, and I wasn't sure if this was one of those times." Maura's heart completely melts. "So I'm totally cool with you taking the lead on this."

Maura rises and comes to sit next to Jane. She removes the chopsticks from Jane's hand (which were clearly just there for show, as Jane had been dramatically throwing each piece into her mouth with her fingers) and kisses her deeply. She tastes like wasabi and rice and it's perfect. "I love you so much," she breathes onto Jane's lips.

They spend a long time grinning at each other like idiots.

"I'd like to tell them. I'm...I just love you. Okay?"

Jane grins at her, and then her grin turns wicked. "What if we kinda fuck with them a bit first?"

Maura raises an eyebrow.

All week Frost and Frankie have been pestering Jane for info on what happened on Rizzoli Sunday. Korsak's been listening in, pretending he's above gossip, but never failing to pay attention. Jane's been close-mouthed about it, but she's sick of the incessant questions and snickers every single time Frost and Frankie see Maura, and of Korsak's smug superior attitude.

It is, certainly, time for payback.

Jane and Maura roll into the Robber fashionably late. Jane wanted to make a dramatic entrance, so she'd hung back when the rest left, citing paperwork. In fact, she'd killed the time by making out with Maura in her office, so it really wasn't too much of a hardship.

They head over to the guys who, as they often are this early in the evening, are lounging at the bar. Immediately upon joining the group, as always, a man appears right up next to Maura and offers to buy her a drink. Usually she politely declines by saying she's flattered but here with friends.

Tonight, however, is time for payback. She smiles at him, and says, loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Oh, how sweet of you. But I'm afraid I'm here with someone tonight."

Korsak snaps his eyes to her. The doc can't lie. He looks around, then realizes that she didn't explicitly say that she was here with a romantic partner. He chuckles at her evasion tactic.

The next man comes up, already holding a drink for her. Jane admires his confidence. Maura smiles again. "I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid I'm unavailable. But I happen to know that woman at the end of the bar is single, and I'm sure she'd appreciate a drink."

Frankie narrows his eyes. The fuck? Maura doesn't lie. But then he realizes that "unavailable" could just mean busy. Tricky woman.

There's a long lull before the third man makes his approach. He's brave – he's seen two much better looking men be rejected, but he's decided to go for that anyway. Maura makes sure to be extra nice to him. "I'm very flattered, and very impressed by your boldness, but I'm sorry. I'm seeing someone. Best of luck, though."

Frost nearly explodes. Who the fuck is Maura seeing? How is Jane so calm? He tries to breathe normally but is going to be super pissed if she and Jane have managed to get through these last few months learning absolutely nothing.

Jane walks away from Maura to flag down the bartender working just a few feet down the bar. While she's gone, the a super hot androgynous blonde woman comes up to Maura. "Hey," she says, low in Maura's ear, wrapping an arm around Maura's waist. "I saw you turn away a couple of eights. And a six. So I thought you might want to try a nine." She winks.

Maura laughs, loud and clear. "Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I'm afraid that woman over there is my girlfriend. And she's a ten, so..." She shrugs one shoulder, adorably. "The math is against you."

Jane looks over and waves, grinning. The woman laughs. "Well, at least I was half right about you. You guys are super hot together." As she walks past Jane, she whispers, "Nicely done, man. She's smokin'."

The men are standing, jaws dropped to the floor. They're each trying their best to figure out if Maura's learned to lie or if they've been expertly played by their friends all week.

Taking pity on them, Jane saunters back over, hands Maura a fresh glass of wine, wraps an arm around her waist and kisses her thoroughly. When she pulls back, she looks to the guys and says, totally casually, "So, what are you all drinking?"

There's a moment of shocked silence, and then they explode. They launch forward and hug each woman in turn. Maura is laughing, Jane is grinning, and she couldn't be happier.

Korsak is the first to hug Jane. "Don't fuck it up, Janie," he says as he pulls back.

She grins. He's the least chatty person in Jane's life, but shit, does he have a way with words.

He claps her on the back and moves over to hug Maura tightly. It's their first hug. "Don't let her fuck it up, doc."

Maura grins. "I might need your help with that."

He places one finger to the side of his nose and smiles.

Frankie kisses Jane on her cheek and cups her face. "I love you, sis. Congrats."

Jane feels tears prick her eyes. "I love you too, little brother."

He goes to Maura and kisses her cheek too. "Welcome to the family, Maura. It's about time."

She squeezes him. "Thank you. For everything."

Frost walks right up to Jane and looks her carefully in the eye. "You got this?" He asks.

Jane nods seriously. "I got this."

He hugs her tightly, then pulls away, looking serious. "Call me if it's ever bad." He's really the fucking best person in the world. Then his eyes dance with mischief. "And text me when it's good!"

She smacks him.

He goes over to Maura. He sees the tears forming in her eyes. He hugs her, deeply and seriously. "You've got this," he tells her. She nods, still attached to him.

Their friends are perfect.

They spend the rest of the night huddled up in their booth, all five of them. They banter and bicker and talk about work, like always. But tonight Maura is snuggled into Jane. Tonight they don't have to pretend not to look at each other or keep themselves from reaching out to touch a hand or brush away a crumb.

Tonight they don't have to miss each other or leave in separate cars for appearances even though they want to go home together.

Tonight the other men in the bar are just background noise. Neither has forgotten that, too recently, they came to the Robber and Maura couldn't even be in the same space as Jane. That she was so lost and broken and abandoned that she'd spent the whole night avoiding and evading and making destructive choices. That Jane was so selfish that she completely missed her friend's deep descent into depression and panic. That Secret Sex Panic happened and it was horrible.

That Casey happened, and he was horrible.

But tonight, they have finally done more than recover from it, from him. They have finally moved forward.

It took them fucking forever, but they are finally here. Together, in this booth, sneaking each other's fries and stealing kisses when no one else is looking.

Just like they've always wanted to.

It's the end of the night. Somehow they've left the booth and are leaning up against the bar again. Jane is feeling perfectly tipsy. Her limbs are a little heavy and she's a bit more touchy than she'd normally be out in public with half the department around. But every time she touches Maura, the doctor leans into it and purrs a little bit, and it's not fair, really.

Unable to go another second, Jane draws Maura into her and kisses her deeply. She's holding a beer in one hand and has the other wrapped low around Maura's back and she's pretty sure this is heaven. She's never going to stop. She doesn't care about the department, or last call. She'll live in this bar, forever, kissing Maura. It's fine.

But her bliss is short-lived. Someone clears their throat right in her ear and she's ready to kill them.

She pulls away from Maura, who looks adorably furious at whoever has interrupted them. But as Jane's eyes snap over to Frost, filled with murder, she catches sight of her mother standing in the doorway.

She drops her arm from around Maura's waist immediately, but the damage has clearly been done. Maura cranes around and immediately blanches. Frost, rightfully concerned that Maura is going to faint then and there, takes her arm and leads her away.

Angela and Jane slowly approach each other. Jane is submerged in cold water. Her mother, her Catholic mother, her conservative mother, her mother that loves Maura like the femme daughter she never had, her probably homophobic mother, is staring her down after watching her make out with her female best friend. For the second time. Jane walks toward her mother like a woman on her way to the gallows, shaking her hair in front of her face like a child.

To her astonishment, Angela just reaches out and hugs her. Tightly. "I love you, baby girl," she whispers. "Be good, be nice, and for God's sake, brush your hair!"

Maura brings Jane home with her that night and refuses to let Jane leave her sight all weekend. On Saturday they go for a run to Jane's apartment to get Jo Friday and bring her over to the house. They get back around mid-morning. Maura shuts the front door behind them as Jo pelts off through the living room to find Bass. Jane looks over her should curiously as Maura sets the alarm, something she only does at night.

"You going to bed, Maur?"

Maura walks up to her, devilishly slowly. "I thought you might like to come with me."

Jane gulps before nodding as much and as quickly as she can. Maura quickly kisses her before she gives herself brain damage. She leads them up the stairs and they spend the next day and a half slowly exploring each other.

It's like nothing they've ever imagined.

They finally roll out of bed on Sunday around three in the afternoon to shower before Rizzoli Sunday ("Oh my god, Jane, no, I cannot shower with you. I have never been this sore in my entire life.")

Their family slowly trickles in around five. Angela has clearly told Tommy about their relationship because he's strangely subdued for the first half of the evening.

It's not until they retreat to the living room to watch the game that he perks up. "Hey! You know what? If it weren't for me, you guys wouldn't even be together. It was me that got you to kiss, remember? The bet."

Jane smiles indulgently. He wants to badly to be included. "Nice going, brother."

Maura is squirming in her arms. Jane looks at her, giving her some serious detective scrutiny. "What's going on in there, squirrely?"

"Well, um, Tommy is right, in that, if he had not been here I might not have made the bet that led to our first kiss yes..."

The suspense is killing her. With a barely suppressed eyeroll, Jane prompts: "...Buuuut?"

"But..." Maura swallows. "I intentionally bet on the losing team."

Jane looks at her for a long minute. So does everyone else. "Wait, what?"

"I lost the bet on purpose."

Jane gets it.

Tommy doesn't. "Why'd you do that?"

Maura wraps an arm around Jane's, rooting herself. "Because I wanted to kiss Jane," she admits softly.

Angela coos, loudly, and everyone laughs. Once the tension is broken, she demands that everyone come help her clean up.

As soon as they're alone in the living room, Jane turns to Maura. "So, wait a minute. You lost on purpose to be able to kiss me?"

"Yes."

"So, not only did you intentionally make the first move toward seducing me...you did that by secretly knowing which team had the best early game?"

"Yes."

"Oh my god."

"What?"

"You really are the perfect woman."

The End