Disclaimer: All original property is not owned by us and we do not infer that any characters, creations or the concept of 'Rizzoli & Isles' are our property and the following fan fiction has been written purely for entertainment purposes only.

Flutter: Part One

"Maura, you have to help me." Jane pushed the door to the ME's office open with her ass as she cradled something in her arms to her chest, covering whatever it was with her arms as she carried it towards where the examiner was sat at her desk frowning into some report or other.

"Okay, you know I will try." Maura looked up still frowning, not sure what on earth Jane had just carried into her pristine office.

"I knocked it off his desk." Jane continued as she gently opened her arms to spill the numerous pieces of the very recognizable 'action figure' that stood in pride of place on Frost's desk, though right now it was in far more pieces than it should be.

"Oh!" Maura looked down at the broken figure with a frown, picking up various pieces to see if any were actually destroyed or if they had simply become unhinged when they hit the floor. "While I assess, why don't you take my laptop and check online to see if we can buy a replacement, in case the case is... hopeless." She held up a small plastic hand with a frown.

"Why didn't it bounce, it's a toy." Panicked eyes looked at Maura with a hard frown. "Made for children, a child's favourite thing is to throw things." Jane moved directly to flip around her best friend's computer and poke at it. "Where should I check?"

"It's an old toy Jane, which will both be to your advantage as it may be possible to repair it as well as the fact that its age will have led to it being more fragile as time has passed." She began to treat the pieces like a skeleton and began to lay them out where they should be. "I'd start with a general search to see if he's available at a local antique shop, then maybe try EBAY and Craig's list. Detective Frost will notice he's missing." She admitted with a soft frown.

"He's out on a call with Frankie, we have some time." Jane continued to frown as she began her search. "Does he just clip back together? Tell me he just clips back together."

"I'm not sure some of him is going to clip back together, but I might be able to secure those pieces enough to give you time to stage him until you can locate a suitable replacement." Maura pushed away from her desk and went out into the lab, reappearing a moment later with a tube of super glue and a small scalpel and spatula. "You will have to tell Detective Frost of your deception sometime Jane, it was an accident."

"So I broke it, it's official?" Jane groaned louder.

"Well his left forearm armour have been snapped off the rotational joint that attaches his gauntlet... his right femur seems to have permanently detached from the rotational joint that is supposed to be his knee. I think those are the two most significant injuries." Maura gave a sum up. "Though... hold on... I think he's been repaired before..." She reached into her drawer and pulled out a magnifying glass. "His back plate had previously been detached and was reattached with an adhesive of some point. I may be able to repair him as long as no one rotates the joints too significantly."

"You've seen Frost he doesn't touch him." Jane perked up immediately. "What can I do?"

"Put on some gloves, I'm going to need help supporting the joins while they dry. I think it's best to reattach these portions before I try to relocate the dislocated joints of his shoulder and hip on the other side." Maura began to push a small amount of glue onto a post it note to manipulate with her spatula. "So how much is he worth on EBAY, I have meant to look as to whether his sword was available. It would be a nice surprise for Barry to have a complete Guardian."

"We could think about it for his birthday for sure it would be nice." Jane nodded and moving from the desk she picked up gloves and began putting them on. "But for now can we focus on the patient we do have." She nodded to the somewhat dismantled action figure on the table. "I knew getting a longer blazer was a bad idea." She cursed her wardrobe choice.

"I like the longer blazer, it accentuates your torso, makes you seem taller and I know you enjoy being tall." Maura smiled softly as she appreciated the change in wardrobe. "Perhaps a stand for him would also be a good birthday gift." She added as she handed Jane an arm to hold and began to prep the hand.

"You enjoy putting time into choosing exactly the right gift for everyone don't you." Jane flashed a quick smile at the blonde as she moved to help as much as she could. "It's a really beautiful part of you." She kept her smile as her chocolate eyes lingered on the ME.

"Why thank you Jane, I do think that finding a gift is an art form." Maura blushed a little under the attention as she held the hand into place trying to let it set it. "I wanted to ask if you were doing anything tonight, or if you'd like to go out for something to eat."

"Please not the Robber, I don't want Kale or sweet potato fries." Jane groaned with a little grimace.

"No, I was thinking maybe something a little more relaxed. There is a food truck showcase happening down at Dupont Square, I thought it would be a palate opening experience." Maura explained her motivation.

Jane quirked her eyebrow at the blonde and then smiled nodding slightly.

"Sounds good." She agreed easily. "As long as we get Guardian Chogokin back in one piece and I make it out of here alive at the end of the shift." She added the proviso.

"Detective Frost is not a violent man, he'll understand this was an accident, especially if you point out immediately you're getting him a replacement." Maura teased using her magnifying glass to check the placement of the hand.

"I hope you're right, he threatened to kill Frankie if he tried to take it back." The brunette reminded Maura with a soft wince, lightly tossing her dark mane over her shoulder out of the way.

"I think he was just being dramatic." Maura assured her. "Well I think his hand is reattached, it needs to dry for a short time, let's work on his leg."

-x-

"With all the wondrous creations on offer, you still had to choose something oozing with red meat and deep fried." Maura held her container up as she speared a piece of her artisan salad.

"Because it sounded amazing." Jane grinned brightly as she looked at what she had ordered, her container literally over flowing with the size of her 'sandwich'. "It smells even better." The brunette raised it closer to her nose and drew in a long breath. "You sure you don't want to swap?"

"No, my corn and blackbean salad is lovely, smell?" She offered it towards Jane laughing when the taller woman immediately seemed to duck away. "This is nice isn't it, eating outdoors, with a wide variety of options, supporting local businesses."

"It is." Jane laughed back. "I love how you turn everything into an adventure worthy to be covered by National Geographic." She shook her head smiling brightly at the blonde.

"Well one has to find enjoyment in the small things, the everyday portions of our life." Maura offered as they moved to occupy a bench overlooking a nearby fountain. "Spending time with people who are important to us, it's a luxury that I haven't been able to enjoy most of my life and I cherish it now."

"Well I'm happy that you're getting the chance to do it now, and I'm happier still that I'm one of those people you consider important." Jane smiled even more as she dissected her sandwich a little and then gave a soft breath out. "Especially as the longer you settle down here the more people you get in that life of yours." She grinned at Maura. "You came here with just parents that you saw rarely and that you felt a little dis-attached to, now, what five years later, you have a mob boss birth father who's serving time, a birth mother and half sister who idolizes you, the entire Rizzoli clan who've adopted you, and your own parents who are closer to you know than they have been in your life." Jane grinned around a fried onion. "Who knows what'll happen if you stick around much longer."

"I wonder." Maura gave a soft smiled looking from the fountain to Jane and then back again. "I feel blessed already for all the people I have in my life." She underlined honestly. "What would you like to accomplish in the next five years?" She looked at Jane taking a mouthful of her salad.

Jane paused before answering, digging around in the container in her hand, discovering a fat covered fry in it's depths with a grin of excitement.

"Maybe a kid?" She offered with a shrug. "I'm getting older right?"

"Are you expecting to find one at the bottom of a take out container or do you have a plan for that?" Maura smiled at her enthusiasm for the discovered fry. "I have also been contemplating my increasing age and wondering if perhaps it's time to abandon the idea of finding a husband first and just have a child on my own."

Jane's eyes came immediately up from her food and over to her best friend, at first a little shocked by her words, but then the shock dissipated being replaced with a softer smile.

"It wouldn't be on your own." She shook her head slowly as warm brown eyes appraised the blonde. "Please see my earlier sentence for an explanation if you need one." She clarified. "And come on Maura, you're beautiful, smart, everything any man in Boston would want, the only reason you're single is because you want to be." She continued. "Hey I'm happier when the man that makes me 'happy'.." She used quotations with one hand. "Is on the other side of the world and out of my way, what does that say?"

"That neither one of us is very good at sharing our lives with those of the male persuasion." Maura gave a soft laugh. "If this was the 1800's we'd both be considering the nunnery." She gave another laugh. "Have you ever thought about just having a baby on your own?"

"I have to admit every time TJ is around my baby hormones kick in..." Jane admitted. "And I hate to tell you this Maura, a nunnery wouldn't have either of us."

"Why not? Well okay I am atheist and don't believe in their traditionally patriarch religion that is really just a compilation of older transitions that had been amalgamated by the Catholic Church in order to further marginalize the earliest harvest based celebrations and pagan ceremonies." Maura pointed out to her. "And you're... well... you're mouthy." She grinned.

"I meant more because you enjoy sex too much and I couldn't stand the diet." Jane smirked. "Don't even get me started on the fashion..."

"Well you know what they say, every girl likes a candle..." Maura giggled around a mouthful of salad.

Jane smirked and shook her head.

"You are bad." She took a large bit of the cholesterol heavy sandwich with a happy content moan. "But before we let the conversation die. You do know I wouldn't let you 'be alone' and have a baby don't you. I'd be with you every step of the way." She made sure to catch hazel green eyes.

"I would hope so." Maura smiled back at her meeting dark eyes. "So you wouldn't object to me looking into artificial insemination? Wouldn't think I was admitting I was undesirable and unsuitable for marriage?"

"You are not undesirable or unmarriable." Jane shook her head with a soft groan. "I know a couple of people who would marry you." She smiled more.

"And who exactly would you put on this list?" Maura pushed for details.

"Frankie." Jane teased with a bright grin.

"I was going to preempt my question by asking if two of them were your brothers." Maura rolled her eyes softly. "Do you have anyone else other than Frankie and Tommy on this list?"

"You saying there's something wrong with my family?" Jane sat up a little.

"No, there is nothing wrong with your family." Maura corrected immediately. "It's just despite how both of your brothers are handsome, intelligent and wonderfully friendly men, neither of them... set my heart a flutter." She looked almost shyly back at the fountain.

"Set your heart a flutter, I love how you do that." Jane set her half empty container down by her side and just focused on the blonde. "Maura, you're beautiful, if you wanted to find someone to marry you first and then have a baby with then you could but the facts are that you don't NEED a man, you are perfect, and you can have a baby on your own because you are who you are." She shook her head and kept her eyes on the other woman.

"Jane..." Maura glanced back at her, seeing the soulful deep dark eyes looking back at her and feeling the aforementioned flutter of her heart. "Have you ever found yourself wondering if perhaps the reason that you're not having success in the relationship sphere of your life is because the flutter of your heart is already settled on someone you can never have?"

"I'm not sure my heart flutters, but yes, I have often wondered if Casey for sure isn't the 'right' one, that the reason it's easier with him not here is because it's easier with him not in my life." Jane was honest but then she paused. "Now is that because I have feelings for someone else..." She pulled in a breath. "Maybe." She blinked brown eyes softly.

"You have a lot of people on your list who would need only the slightest hint from you that you'd give them an inch." Maura put her tray down as well turning to look hazel eyes fully at the detective. "So if I decided to have a baby, would we have to draw up a custody agreement or would we just wing it?" She decided as always that it wasn't a good time to push things she was sure that Jane wouldn't appreciate.

"You going to leave me and not let me see the kid?" Jane arched her eyebrow.

"Of course not, but it would be best if we have legally binding documents so that in case there is an emergency, or if one of us is incapacitated the other is able to step in without any hesitation." Maura offered as always thinking ahead. "I say this mostly because its not as if any of my family, adopted or biological are in a position to just be called to help at a moments notice. With legal paperwork it would not only give you innate rights but the rest of your family, your mother in particular, who I know will be there anytime our child needed them." She used the term without editing herself.

Jane paused and then moved her food container even further away.

"I'd sign pretty much anything for you." She admitted softly. "And if it came to the welfare of your child then yes, we'd have papers drawn up. Any child you had Maura I would love like it was my own, you know that and I would sign off on that." She reached out and put her hand on the blonde's knee. "Like I love you."

"I love you too Jane, and I couldn't imagine raising a child without you having a big part of that, married or not." She admitted putting her hand over the brunette's tracing her fingers over the knuckles. "I would want any child of mine to have your influence and guidance in their lives, I would want you to help teach them about the world, the real world that I don't understand, about baseball and sarcasm and the love of the Rizzoli family that could literally move mountains."

"You know I could teach you about baseball and sarcasm." Jane turned her hand over and closed her fingers around Maura's with a soft tender smile at the blonde.

"I thought I was getting better with the sarcasm." Maura admitted softly, letting her fingers curl around Jane's in the hold. "What else would you like to teach me about?"

"The intrinsic benefits of red meat." A smirk pulled at Jane's lips as she looked into hazel eyes. "Who is it?" She asked her voice dropping a little as she blinked her own warm brown ones. "I don't think anyone is beyond your reach Maura, anyone stupid enough to consider themselves too good for you..." She shook her head. "They're not, and they're not worth whatever little pedestal you have them on so..." She smirked a little. "If it's Dr. Popoff..." The detective winked.

"I can assure you without doubt that it is not that pickled Russian." Maura gave a soft laugh and shook her head. "And I didn't say that I thought they believed I wasn't good enough for them, I just... don't believe they'd ever consider me for a romantic relationship, there's no fault in that." She tried to clarify.

"Hey don't rule Korsak out like that, he's open to more things than you'd think." Jane winked again and moved closer, nudging the blonde's knees with her own.

"Jane." Maura objected instantly with a soft noise of amusement. "Vince is a very sweet and I appreciate his kindred spirit with animals but he's not exactly my type." She pointed out tactfully. "And there is no point in you naming up everyone else we know because there is nothing you can fix, and I know you'd want to, find a way to make them see how wonderful I am, but it's not necessary, the relationship I have with this person is more than enough to sustain me, I feel more than lucky to have the relationship I do have with them already and I would never want to jeopardize that."

Jane drew in a long slow breath and shook her head, giving Maura a kind smile.

"You're too nice for your own good." She announced pushing up from her place. "Sometimes you need to rock the boat, push the limit and ripple the waters." She moved to pick up her carton and drop it in the recycle bin nearby. "I didn't become a homicide detective by playing nice and being passive, I got it by being a bitch and speaking my mind." She smiled more as she wiped her greasy fingers on her pants.

"So you really think I need to be bold and just make it obvious how I feel to them and then see how they respond? Not wait until I'm sure that my approach wouldn't be seen as unwanted or nonthreatening." Maura pushed up as well, more delicately having taken out a wet wipe from her pocket to clean her hands before she carefully dumped her container in the same bin.

"I'm saying take a chance Maur, what have you got to loose? If you have a friendship with this person already, then putting it out there shouldn't ruin that, not if it really means anything." She shook her head. "Hell, I've slept with Martinez and I can more or less be in the same room as him and be civil." She smiled. "And I can't honestly tell you if I ever actually liked him."

"Your relationship with Martinez is very confusing." Maura admitted slipping her forearm into her purse strap and taking a deep breath. "All right, so what you're telling me is that if you, Detective Jane Rizzoli, were in my place, and felt the things I felt you would just take a chance and hit on this person that made your heart flutter just to see what their response was?" She stepped over to be two feet in front of Jane with her eyebrow arched. "You, being you of course, would throw caution and the natural release of inhibiting hormones and neuro-chemicals to the wind and just do something about it so that you could get past it and no longer live with the what if question?"

"I'm pretty sure I didn't say all that..." Jane smirked. "But ultimately I did say that yes, I think you should do something about how you feel." She brought Maura into focus now that she was closer again, bringing her hand up to rest on the slightly shorter woman's shoulder. "You could be missing out on the best relationship of your life." She smiled brighter still. "The one, Prince Charming." She chuckled. "George Clooney."

"Mmmmmm." Maura made a contemplative noise, her hazel eyes suddenly darker as she studied Jane as she gave her small speech of encouragement. "It would be very nice to have the question answered, one way or the other, it has been very distracting at times, not knowing, reading things into their behaviour and then convincing myself that I'd miss read."

"See." Jane hopped up a little in her heels. "You know it's the right thing to do." She smiled more. "So we just have to work out a when, a where and a how you are going to do this..." She beamed a little more.

"Do you think a planned strategical approach is the best thing or just relying on a more spontaneous moment?" Maura questioned immediately seeing Jane's enthusiasm as a bit confusing to the thoughts running through her head at that moment.

"Maura you hate spontaneity." Jane narrowed her eyes a little. "It's like guessing, it leaves too many things open to erroneous outcomes." She clarified. "No, this has to be planned to the enth."

"I know I don't like spontaneity but this person does, and I think they might interrupt a planned, calculated event as too overwhelming, too confining and it might pre-empt their answer before they've even had a chance to discuss it with themselves." Maura argued.

"They won't know it's planned, what are they Clark Kent?" Jane laughed.

"He had no intuitive or telepathic powers." Maura scrunched up her nose slightly.

Jane gave a groan and rolled her eyes.

"He's a super hero give me a break Maur." She shook her head at her best friend. "What I'm saying is how will 'insert name here' know it's planned unless you tell them, hey 'insert name' I'm planning this huge thing to seduce you next Friday, please don't get worked up about it but keep your calendar free."

"Fine, I am going to take your advice on this and plan something." Maura took another breath and gave a soft nod. "But... as my co-conspirator I want you to go through a run through with me on Friday, are you free?"

"Of course I'm free and of course I'm going to go through a run through with you." Jane nodded instantly. "You deserve the best and if you think this guy is that and you want him, then I'm damn well going to make sure that this has ever chance it can of being perfect." The tall brunette gave a confirming huff.

"Wonderful, now can we go back to the car, I'm getting cold." Maura gave a soft shiver and taking a side step she slipped her arm into Jane's and urged her to move towards the parking lot.

"Should have had the sandwich, can't feel a thing." Jane grinned.

-x-