Breath exploded from Jane and her eyes flew open. The last thing she remembered was being in the morgue. Her head jerked one way, then the other. Maura. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting her heart slow down. She looked out the window, it was almost dawn.

She felt the need to get up, to go somewhere. She unhooked herself and stuck her head into the hallway. It was empty. She frowned as she looked the other way at the nurses station. It was empty too. That would explain why no nurses had come running when she'd unhooked her monitors. She shrugged and started walking. Not quite sure where she was going.

She came to a room she'd had some time in. The chapel. Jane let her breath go. She could see Maura sitting in the front pew. She slowly made her way up to join the blonde ME, and sat down next to her. "Hey."

Maura's head whipped around, "Jane." She crushed her in a hug, but only for a second before Jane yelped. "What are you doing here. You shot yourself, you should be in bed, or, or... are you okay?"

Jane put two fingers on Maura's lips, and after a beat, replaced them with her lips. The dark haired detective could feel surprise in Maura's lips, but then Maura was kissing back, and it felt right, it felt perfect. Jane groaned and pulled away, whatever drugs they had given to her to stop the pain had stopped working. "Oh God, that hurts..."

Maura wiped a bit of lipstick from around Jane's lips, "That because you shot yourself."

"No." Jane shook her head, "Really?"

Maura frowned at her friend, "You don't remember?"

Jane shook her head again, "Nope. Didn't die though. How about...?"

Maura cut her off, "Frankie's fine. Bobby's dead."

Jane looked up towards the amazing blue stained glass window, and crossed herself. "Thank you."

"You're..." Maura trailed off with a sheepish look on her face, "Sorry."

Jane laughed and wrapped an arm around Maura. "Never stop being you. Uh... and would you help me back to my room before Ma or one of the nurses yells at me for taking a walkabout?"

A gruff voice spoke from behind Aphrodite as she stood in the doorway and watched the two women hobble back into the room. "You don't even know if they are the souls of Xena and Gabrielle."

Aphrodite sighed and but didn't turn to look at her brother, "Can't you see it?"

"You could ask the Fates, they'd tell you, not me, but they'd tell you."

Aphrodite rolled her eyes, "That's because they don't like being given orders Ares. And I don't need them to tell me. I know."

"You might be wrong."

Aphrodite shrugged, "Maybe I am, but really, in the long run does it matter why they've been brought together, because of their souls, which you know as well as I do were intertwined very much before Xena and Gabby."

Aphrodite could feel Ares looking over her shoulder at the two on the bed. Finally he grunted, "Gah, she's smiling in her sleep."

Aphrodite rolled her eyes again and turned away, taking her brother by the arm, "C'mon big brother, let's leave them in peace, 'cause, if they do have the souls, well, they won't have too many entirely peaceful moments."

Ares tilted his head to one side, "Let me guess, just happy ones."

Aphrodite smiled. "Foxholes can be very romantic, especially ones in Boston." Aphrodite whacked herself on the head, "Ooh, almost forgot." She snapped her fingers and then let out a breath, "Phew."

Ares winced, "Do I want to know? Neither of them are gonna get pregnant or anything are they?"

"What, of course not. Lesbians, pregnant, there are enough of those. No, just taking care of poor Bass."

Ares shook his head, "The turtle. I'm outta here."

Aphrodite grasped Ares' hand before he could disappear, "Will Afghanistan be done anytime soon big brother?"

Ares glowered through Aphrodite. "Unless you're planning on mojo-ing the entire world, no." A rare sigh came from him, "And if you could work on the mojo over the world thing, I wouldn't get in the way."

"Ares?"

"War is one thing, but this isn't just about power, or land, or whatever, this is the most potent hate I have ever seen..." He shook his head, "I'm glad that you kept X and Gabrielle's souls closer together. Later sis."

Ares disappeared in a shower of blue sparkles. Aphrodite turned and had one more look at the now two sleeping women, their chests rising and falling together. "One couple at a time, love will win over hate."

Even though she'd been back in her room when the nurses and Angela Rizzoli had reappeared, somehow they'd known that she'd gone out to find Maura, and she'd gotten yelled at anyway. But she found that she didn't really care. She was alive, and she'd kissed Maura, not to mention Maura had kissed back, and then not run away screaming. All good things.

Honestly Jane wasn't sure how her and Maura's relationship was gonna go, but she didn't regret kissing Maura, and wanted to try for more. A lesbian. She'd never even wondered if she was. She'd never had a great time with guys, but that was usually her fault, not theirs. It would be going fine, and then they'd want to take control, they'd want to change her, make her love pink and frilly things, and the ones that lasted that long, they'd want her to take a desk job.

Maura, she knew who Jane was. Knew more of her past and her secrets than anyone else in the world, and yet she'd still kissed back.

She hummed to herself for a moment, then spoke, "She's the Church of England, She's Ginger.

She's got Dutch-Boy Fingers

She's a MOT, a member of the tribe

She's a Gold Star, Got her ID Card." She lapsed back into humming until there was a knock on her doorway. Maura. "Maura."

"Have you survived your mother?"

Jane smiled, "I have."

Maura nodded, "Good. Good. They won't let Frankie out to see you, or you out to see Frankie yet. So, I've been tasked with making sure you're set for the day."

Jane rolled her eyes, "Parents staying with the youngest, go figure."

"He doesn't seem to be coping quite as well with his experience as you are."

Jane winced, "Yeah, that's weird, isn't it. I do seem sorta laissez-faire about the whole thing. I can't explain it."

Maura came a bit closer and closed the door behind her, "Perhaps it just hasn't hit you yet."

Jane shrugged, "Or maybe because I had the control I'll be okay."

Maura raised her eyebrows, "So, because you shot yourself..."

"I had control."

Maura put her hand next to Jane's on the hospital bed. "Jane Rizzoli, always in control." The ME nodded, "Okay. If you need anything I'll have my cell, but I should-"

"Maura, please, stay. I..." Jane gave a self-deprecating sigh, "I'm tired, and, when..." Jane paused, "I don't want to sleep if I have nightmares... I..."

"Of course Jane. I can..."

"Here." Jane put her hand on the left side of the bed, "Please."

Maura tilted her head to one side, "It is significantly smaller than your or my bed."

Jane shook her head, "Never mind."

Maura suddenly got shorter, "Oh, I was simply pointing out that fact, I said I would be here for whatever you needed, I am here." She climbed onto the hospital bed and seemed to sort of halfway hover here and there over Jane, not sure where to put her legs or arms. "I don't want to hurt you."

Jane smiled and closed her eyes, "You won't. I'm so doped up..."

"Ah, mental pain, not physical. I understand."

Jane opened one eye and peered over at Maura, "Okay. What's that from?"

"Imzadi, a book by Peter David, he has written some very structurally complex novels. Q-Squared has multiple plot strings that come together and fall apart in an inexor..."

"Maura..." Maura fell silent, "What's the book about?"

Maura looked out the window of the room. "Soulmates..." She cleared her throat, "Uh, among other things like aliens trying to steal precious items from a Betazoid museum and a naked wedding."

Jane laughed, "Naked wedding?"

Maura nodded, then laid her head down on Jane's shoulder. "Sorry, is this an okay position?"

Jane's eyes drifted closed as she yawned just a little, "Perfect."

Maura waited until she heard Jane's breathing even out and felt sleep take hold of the dark haired woman. She looked up at the ceiling of the room. "Thank you."

~Fin - September 29th, 2010