Chapter Text
Janes birthday had been a little over two weeks ago, which meant that Maura and Janes talk also happened a little over two weeks ago. They hadn’t gone on their day so far, mostly because they both tended to have weird irregular shifts which meant that they had taken a rain check four times so far. Either someone was getting murdered or Maura was needed at the hospital.
They spent as much time as possible together. Jane swinging by for lunch and Maura making dinner for them. More often than not Jane stayed at Mauras place and left a note for the doctor early in the morning to wish her a good day. It had become a little ritual, Jane would bring lunch to the clinic and they’d have a little lunch break together, talk a bit about their mornings and then they saw each other again for dinner at Mauras place. After dinner they cuddled up on the couch and watched documentaries or checked the sports channel for the game results. They still slept in the master bedroom and the guest bedroom.
They still hadn’t kissed yet and slowly but surely it was becoming harder and harder not to do it. With all the rainchecks and never knowing if a date would actually happen it was hard to wait for a date to kiss, well to maybe kiss. They wanted to do it right which also meant that they’d be waiting for the perfect moment.
Well in both of their eyes they had a number of rather perfect moments but when they had talked about it on Janes birthday it was silently agreed on that they would wait for a date. And the thought behind that most definitely was (at least for Jane) that she wouldn’t be able to control herself if they just kissed in whatever moment. She had a few flings over the last decade but nothing serious or on a regular basis which meant that she was really looking forward to having sex again and especially with Maura which was way more than sex. But no, they had to wait, Jane had to wait and it was driving her crazy, especially since she knew very well how Maura looked in her underwear and it didn’t help that Maura sometimes decided to just walk around in one of her shirts or Janes shirts.
Jane felt like Maura was teasing her and maybe testing her, testing if she really meant the going slow part and doing things right. Jane was this close to just kiss Maura but she restrained herself, drank lots and lots and lots of herbal tea to calm herself down (she absolutely couldn’t understand how Maura liked those) which did not work. Every time they were close to each other, every time she could smell Mauras perfume, every time Maura walked with an extra sway to her hips, every time Jane saw her in scrubs, like literally every time they were just somewhat close to each other Jane had to fight back the urge to just kiss her.
There had been many moments:
Jane bringing Maura lunch and them saying goodbye in the doorway of the break room, Jane leaning against the doorframe while Maura stands in front of her looking up at her with her hand on Janes waist. It would’ve been so easy to just lean down and kiss her, but no.
Them watching some documentary on the couch, Jane being the big spoon and Maura the little one, Jane holding onto Maura tightly and at some point Maura turned around and they were face to face for a moment until Maura buried her face in the crook of Janes neck.
Jane cleaning their dishes from dinner and Maura coming up behind her and hugged Jane from behind and leaned her head on Jane. It would’ve been easy to turn around in Mauras arms and kiss her but no.
There also had been moments when they nearly kissed (accidentally), going for kisses on the cheek or forehead and the other one moved making it a very close miss. Every time they’d laugh and make a joke about it but in the end they both were hoping that the kiss would come sooner or later. It was harder than they had thought to resist a person you know so intimately and that you have feelings for. It wasn’t the awkwardness of people dating for the first time, just getting to know each other, it was the awkwardness of two people who knew each other so well going through the beginning phases of dating again.
Jane had planned several dates, four to be exact, each a little smaller than the last one because she wasn’t looking forward to canceling a lot of stuff last minute.
The first date was going to a museum that Jane had booked a one hour spot at for them to be alone, like just them, Jane had rented a freaking museum for Maura and they couldn’t go. After the museum she wanted to take Maura to dinner which she also had to cancel. The first date had to be rainchecked because Jane had been called to a crime scene which turned out to be for another department but the date was already postponed.
The second date was going to be a reading from one of the many authors Maura liked. This time it was Maura who had to take a raincheck, there’d been a virus going around and two doctors weren’t able to come in and if they didn’t find someone who could come in the clinic would have to close till enough personnel was back. Maura just couldn’t say no to that and Jane couldn’t be mad at Maura for helping out. At least they had lunch together that day.
The third day was supposed to be a brunch date and going to one of Mauras fancy yoga classes after. Jane had spent two days trying to figure out what a good place for brunch was and had to sign them up for the yoga class. The yoga place looked like something that fitted Maura very well while Jane felt out of place. For a moment she had second thoughts, her fear of not being good enough coming back but she remembered of herself that Maura had told her that she was enough, that she was good enough. This date actually fell through because both of them didn’t have time.
The fourth day was just going to be a nice dinner, like the least amount of preparation necessary and not hard to cancel in case they had to cancel again. The only hard thing about it was finding nice restaurants both of them would like, which weren’t as far from their homes and which they hadn’t already canceled on. And of course they had to cancel again, Jane wasn’t even sure which one of them had to cancel or if it was both of them.
Jane had enough no more big dates unless they could actually make their reservations and plans, no big dates unless they couldn’t fall through because of work. Which was kind of hard when they both were basically on call 24/7. Well Jane was actually on call all the time because murderers typically didn’t wait for the detectives to be at work, they usually just killed whenever. Maura wasn’t technically on call but she got called rather often for her opinion on some cases and if there weren’t enough doctors available.
Maura had started to write her own medical books, something about wanting to be a part of the researchers and wanting to give young female med students someone to look up to. Maura had explained to Jane that she was using some of her actual research but would mostly write about her experience in the field, during her studies and what kinds of tips she could give the next generation. She wanted to give the awkward young woman like herself back then some advice, some real advice from one of them.
Jane had decided since Maura was busy writing and working she could easily prepare a nice romantic dinner at her apartment and pick up Maura to make sure that they would actually get to go on their date. Jane hoped that she would have a higher chance of having their date when she picked up Maura. Maybe it would all work out when they were in one car. Or at least they would spend some time together.
The whole thing was a secret as well, she just told Maura that she had some paperwork to catch up on and couldn’t come by that evening which gave Jane the time to get home early and cook up some Rizzoli lasagna for them to eat later. She parked it in the oven (without the heat on) to make sure it wouldn’t go cold when she was driving around getting Maura for their date.
When she arrived at Mauras house she was met with a confused Maura who was actually wearing sweatpants, well some yoga variant of sweatpants, they looked fancier and Jane knew that she would need more time to convince Maura to wear sweats. Maura looked adorable and sweet, a concentrated yet confused look on her face because Jane had canceled for todays dinner. Very comfortable clothing which Maura mostly only chose when she was alone at home because nobody saw her in those non fancy, perfectly planned outfits.
“Jane, I thought you said you couldn’t come tonight” Maura stated, obviously confused as to why Jane was here.
“Maur, I had to lie, so I could prepare something and now you are coming with me like right now, no changing clothes and we’re going to have a nice dinner date at my apartment, with nothing to disturb us.” Jane just smiled at her and held out her hand for Maura to take it.
“Jane, can’t I at least put something else on? I don’t want to look like that for our second first date.” Maura complained trying to get out of a spontaneous date which would leave her in somewhat sweatpants.
“No, you look amazing Maur, you are perfect the way you are. I don’t care what you wear and if you wear what you are wearing right now and just come with me for dinner, then you can choose what I have to wear for our next date, alright?” Jane offered up, which made Maura smirk and nod.
Maura quickly went inside to get her purse and Jane finally realized that she was at Mauras mercy when it came to their next date. God, Maura had amazing taste but the amount of times she had made Jane try on a dress were too many, way too many. Jane knew that Maura wouldn’t chose anything that Jane wasn’t comfortable with, well normally, in this situation she had the right to leave Jane hanging a bit uncomfortable.
“Pretty bold of you to assume that there will be a second date.” Maura said in a cheeky tone, when she came back out of the house.