On the Beach

Pairing: Jane/Maura
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles do not belong to me.

A/N: This was supposed to be just a smut-filled one-shot, but it kinda turned into more than that so I broke it into two chapters.

In the first chapter Maura and Jane talk about relationships. The second chapter is the M-rated stuff.

A few notes: This is set after the Season 4 finale, with a few differences. Forget about the pregnancy scare. Frankie's "crush" on Maura still happened, but the gross kiss didn't because I just can't deal with that. I'm treating Casey as just the nice but boring guy Jane knew from high school that we saw in Season 2 without all of the recent douchey behavior because I don't really want to get into that either.

This story is set at Tommy and Lydia's wedding. I'm also ignoring the Tommy starts drinking again and Lydia dumps him five seconds after their engagement storyline because that seemed to happen solely so that Tommy and Frankie could act like dickbags and fight over Maura.

Tommy and Lydia wanted to get married on a beach. Because it was the off season, and with some help from one of Jane's extended family members who lived on Cape Cod—Maura couldn't remember who exactly, it was hard to keep all of the Rizzoli family members straight—they were able to hold the wedding and reception at a hotel on the beach about an hour and half from Boston. As a wedding gift, Maura had reserved the honeymoon suite for Tommy and Lydia and arranged rooms for herself, Jane, Angela and Frankie, so they didn't have to drive back to Boston after the reception. Many of the other guests, mostly Jane's extended family, had stayed as well and several hours later were still enjoying themselves at the reception.

"Dance with me?" Maura asked Jane as they sat, wearing matching bridesmaid's dresses at one of the round tables surrounding the makeshift dance floor.

Jane scrunched her face at her.

"Please?" Maura said pouting. "I want to dance and if you don't dance with me, I'll have to ask Frankie."

"Don't even think about it," Jane said humorlessly.

Maura frowned at her attempt at a joke. She was still trying to figure out Jane's reaction to the idea of her and Frankie dating. She wasn't interested in Frankie romantically and she hadn't even realized that he might be interested in her until Jane brought it up. But then she didn't know why Jane seemed to be so angry with her about it, especially since she hadn't done anything beyond her usual friendliness with Frankie and she told Frankie she wasn't interested.

Her hope, when she allowed herself to hope, was that Jane was jealous. It would explain her reaction to anyone Maura did show an interest in. Maura only considered that possibility when she recognized she was acting the same way towards Jane when Casey was around and realized her own feelings for her best friend. But Jane was so protective of Frankie, Maura was afraid that instead of jealousy, Jane was angry because she thought Maura was somehow leading Frankie on. Maura even considered the possibility that Jane didn't think she was good enough for Frankie.

She pushed those thoughts aside and said, "Perhaps I should ask one of your uncles? It's not my fault that Tommy and Lydia's guest list was almost entirely your family members. It doesn't leave me with many dance partner options if you won't dance with me."

"I don't know how to do all this fancy dancing," Jane said, nodding her head toward the couples on the dance floor slow dancing to the steady stream of slow romantic songs that made up Lydia's playlist for the reception.

"It's not fancy and I'll show you how. I'll even let you lead."

Jane rolled her eyes, but said, "Fine," and followed Maura to the dance floor.

Maura stood in front of Jane and said, "Hold your left hand up and put your right arm around my back." Jane complied, stiffly putting her arm around Maura, and Maura put her left hand on Jane's shoulder and slipped her right hand into Jane's left hand. "Now we don't have to do anything more than sway in rhythm to the music. If you want to move around more, you just have to lead me by moving your feet and leading me with your hand in the direction you to go. Wherever you lead I'll follow."

After they danced for a few minutes, only talking when Maura gave the occasional instruction, Jane finally started to relax. Maura felt the tension in Jane's shoulder lessen and Jane's arm around her relaxed and dropped lower as Jane pulled her a little closer.

"Are you okay? You've been quiet all day," Maura asked gently.

"I…um…yeah. I'm okay."

"That wasn't very convincing." Maura let her hand drift up Jane's shoulder so she could gently rub her thumb against Jane's neck. "You can talk to me."

Jane didn't respond for a long time but then she said, "You know, all I've ever heard from Ma was stuff about getting married and having kids."

"But you don't want that?" Maura asked.

Jane frowned. "Actually I do. I absolutely do want those things. I just don't want to have to settle for them."

"What do you mean?"

"Saying yes to Casey would have been settling," Jane said firmly.

Maura stiffened at the sound of Casey's name.

If Jane noticed, she didn't say anything about it, instead continuing with her explanation. "Casey was my friend, you know. I've known him for years. I thought I could just make it work with him because we knew each other and at least I liked him. But when he was actually around for more than a couple of days, I got bored with him. And he…I guess he still saw me as the girl he knew in high school. It was kind of nice at first actually, to be kind of free of all of my baggage from the past few years, but after a while I realized that he didn't really know me now and it didn't seem like he really wanted to. I realized that I didn't want to settle."

Maura swallowed the lump in her throat and said, "What doyou want?"

"I want to be with someone who sees me and accepts me for who I am, but also challenges me to try new things and to be a better person."

"That sounds nice."

"What if we've been looking in the wrong places?" Jane said enigmatically.

"Looking for what?"

"Love."

"What do you mean?" Maura asked cautiously.

Jane looked into Maura's eyes and said, "What if it's been right in front of us this whole time but we didn't realize it?"

Maura felt a flutter in her stomach as she wondered if Jane was saying what she thought, and hoped, she was saying. She pushed that feeling aside and said, "I'm not sure if I understand what you mean."

"What if the reason all of our other relationships haven't worked out is because you and I are supposed to be together?" Jane asked.

Maura felt a little lightheaded as she struggled to form a response. "Weddings can be overly emotional experiences. They can make people feel things they wouldn't otherwise be feeling," Maura said, but her hand betrayed her by clinging tighter to Jane's neck.

"Does that mean you disagree?"

Maura stopped moving to the music."It means that I'm reluctant to respond because of the extenuating circumstances. I don't want to say things…admit things… if you're just saying all of this because you're going through some sort of wedding related crisis. I don't know if this is the right place for this conversation."

Jane let go of Maura's hand so she could put both hands around Maura's waist and leaned her forehead against Maura's and said, "Maybe this is the right place. We're away from all of our normal routines for the weekend. We can talk and see what happens tonight without any pressure and if it doesn't go well, we can go home and never talk about it again."

Maura closed her eyes and brought her free hand to other side of Jane's neck, but she didn't say anything.

"I thought you said that if I led you would follow," Jane said. "I trust you. You can trust me too."

The music changed and Maura opened her eyes, remembering that they were in a public place surrounded by Jane's extended family. "I think I need some air. Do you want to go for a walk?"

"It's kinda chilly out tonight. We'll be cold in these dresses."

"I'm going to go change and if you want to take a walk with me I'll meet you in the lobby in about ten minutes."

"Okay," Jane agreed.

Maura went to her room to change out of the bridesmaid's dress and into jeans and a sweater and took the opportunity to freshen up. She went into the bathroom and decided to remove the makeup that had been applied earlier in the day and let her hair down from the bun it had been tied up in.

Maura assessed herself in the mirror, trying to ignore the effect the harsh lighting of the hotel bathroom. She looked a little tired, not surprising after a long week as usual and a long day today, but she also noticed that her skin was flushed and she knew it was because of the things Jane had said to her downstairs and the way Jane had held her.

After one last look in the mirror, Maura went down to the lobby and found Jane, who had changed into jeans and a hoodie sweatshirt over a t-shirt, waiting for her. They walked along the boardwalk path between the hotel and the beach and when they got to the sand Maura slipped off her heels and left them on the boardwalk.

"You're going to go barefoot?" Jane said in surprise.

"I can't walk in heels on the beach. You should take your shoes off too so they don't get filled with sand."

Jane reluctantly agreed and took her shoes off and left them next to Maura's.

It was high tide and they walked between the water and the three foot high stone wall that separated the beach from the rest of the property. An almost full moon and a few dim lights from nearby properties provided the only light for their walk.

A little ways down the beach Jane stopped and sat down on the stone wall. Maura sat down next to her. In contrast to when they were dancing, Jane was now quiet. Maura waited, wondering if Jane was rethinking what she said earlier. But when it seemed like Jane wasn't going to say anything, Maura finally asked a question that had been bothering her. "If you felt those things about your relationship Casey, why did you consider marrying him?"

Jane swallowed thickly. "It would have been the easy thing to do. It would have made him happy."

"What about you?"

"I would have been okay. As long as I still had you. I know you were worried that you were never going to lose me to Casey, but that was never going to happen. But I realized that I could actually lose you to someone else and that's when I started thinking about our relationship."

Maura stood up and walked a few steps away before turning back to face Jane to say, "Before you say anything else I think I should tell you something."

"What is it?"

Maura tentatively took the few steps forward until she was right in front of Jane. She took a deep breath and moved closer, stepping between Jane's legs, and when Jane didn't question it or move to stop her, Maura put her hand against Jane's cheek and said, "I'm in love with you."

Then Jane's hands were around her waist, pulling her closer, and Jane's lips were pressing against hers. Maura's other hand went around Jane's neck and she leaned into Jane, parting her lips and letting Jane's tongue find hers.

Maura's hand tangled in dark curls while her other hand dropped to Jane's thigh and gripped it while the heated kiss continued and Jane pulled her tighter.

With a shuddering breath Maura broke the kiss. She opened her eyes and found herself staring into Jane's brown eyes and said, "I can't go back. I can't go home and pretend this never happened."

"You won't have to. You're the person I belong with. You're the person who sees me and knows me. And I know you. We belong together. I couldn't marry Casey because I want to be with you. I'm just sorry it took me so long to figure it out."

Maura dipped her head and, laughing, wiped her hands at the few tears that managed to escape her eyes. She looked back up at Jane with a broad smile. "It's okay. As long as you're sure now."

"I'm sure. I love you, Maura."