A/N: Hi, all! I saw a prompt on Tumblr and ran with it. As a reminder, Jane and Maura are 22 here. And also be prepared to suspend your disbelief about pharmacy shelf set-ups.

Nobody had ever taken Maura's breath away like this—much less in unflattering fluorescent light at a pharmacy.

The girl was tall and lean, wearing a formal suit with the blazer slung over her shoulder an undone bow tie around her neck. She ran her hand through tousled dark curls as she scanned the shelves, looking cool as could be. Cool, that is, until Maura entered her peripheral vision and she suddenly straightened up, looking like a kid who'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"'Lo," the woman, named Jane, mumbled awkwardly. She'd felt the need to make some sort of vocal acknowledgement when this woman made brief eye contact, but now it felt weirder that she had. Jane took a small step away, trying to be subtle about it.

Maura felt an uncharacteristic urgency to size the opportunity to talk with this woman. "Hi!"

She said it with such enunciated deliberation that Jane chanced a second look. Her stomach flipped. Who showed up at CVS at 10:45 pm in heels and a tight dress? And who dared have eyes and dimples so gorgeous that the only words coming to Jane's mind were riddled with cliches?

Jane cleared her throat and returned her gaze to the shelf, pretending to look for shampoo. A few moments ago she'd been about to grab the last KY jelly, but had been overcome with self-consciousness when someone else had walked up. But this was fine; she could just pretend to browse for something super innocuous until this woman got whatever she'd come for and moved on to another aisle.

What she failed to know, of course, was that Maura was eyeing the exact same box. She had never been one to get squeamish about anything of a sexual nature (and had in fact been told by more than one friend that she sometimes over-shared), but something now was giving her pause. She often had a tendency to over-think, and that tendency was pushing her imagination into over-drive right now: What if this woman made some kind of comment about the lube, like a joke or nudge-nudge comment about sex? Maura wouldn't be able to handle it; it would be too devastating—and it would be too obvious that Maura felt enormously attracted to her. And then, in a weird way, buying this lube made it feel like Maura was cheating on this woman-which was insane for numerous reasons, not the least of which was that the lube wasn't even for her, it was for a friend's bachelorette party.

So much irrational thinking made Maura's head hurt, and after she and Jane had hovered awkwardly by each other a few moments longer, Maura made a brave stab at safe, un-sexy conversation.

"This is an excellent array of merchandise," she said, having drifted towards the shampoos as well. "Some very professional choices here."

"Mm." Jane didn't know enough about hair products to make any sort of comment; hell, her mother still cut her hair. By comparison, Maura looked as though she lived in a Pantene commercial.

"What do you put in your hair to get it to curl like that?"

Jane's eyebrows rose, and she instinctively ran her hand through her hair again. "What, this old briar patch? I just wash it and hope for the best."

"You're kidding!"

"Nope, this is all natural. Au naturel." Wait, doesn't that mean naked? Oh god oh god oh god, change the subject! Jane was blushing hard and averting her eyes, missing the look of surprise her Freudian slip had elicited from Maura. "What do you recommend? You look like someone who uh, who knows her way around a hair salon. I mean..." She wasn't sure how that could possibly be taken as an insult, but she felt the need to elaborate all the same: "Um, your hair. It looks nice. Nice hair. S'nice."

Why are you talking like Tarzan? Shut up!

"Wow, thanks," Maura chuckled, tucking some hair behind her ear. "I like Temperance products myself, but I've never used any of the ones designed specifically for curls. Do you have a salon you like? I'm sure they could make some good recommendations for you."

"Um, can't say I've got a favorite, no."

"Oh! Well, I'm new in town myself, so I haven't had the chance to do much research beyond the first one I tried, but..."

Jane was glad for the chance to grasp a new subject for more stimulating conversation. "Oh, welcome to Boston! What brings you here? Where are you from?"

Maura smiled, also grateful for another excuse to keep their conversation going. "I just finished my undergrad at Stanford and came here to start med school at BCU."

From anyone else this would've sounded like bragging, but Maura's tone was more matter-of-fact. Instead of being put off, Jane was impressed. "Wow! That's amazing, good for you! California girl, huh? How're you handling our brisk northeast autumn?"

"Well, I'm not a California native, so this is actually nice for me. I've missed true seasons."

"Ah, yeah, I bet you don't get colors like this back there, huh?"

"Oh, actually there's a number of places to see foliage in the Bay Area." And though Maura's tone was again matter-of-fact, Jane mentally berated herself for her stupidity. As if sensing Jane's self-consciousness about having asked the question, Maura was quick to add, "The autumnal beauty of this region really is distinct, though. I mean, literally everywhere you look there are just these resplendent reds and magnificent yellows and oranges."

Jane's broad smile was without question the most beautiful Maura had ever seen. Did I just lick my lips? Oh, no, Isles...

"Yeah, I love this time of year," Jane said, turning fully to face Maura.

That was when Maura noticed—"Speak of the devil, there's a leaf in your hair." Before Jane could even register what Maura had said and swat the leaf away herself, Maura's hand was raised. "May I?"

"Oh," Jane breathed. "Yeah, sure."

With a delicate touch, Maura pulled a leaf fragment from Jane's curls. "Ooh, looks like a red maple."

"Gosh, have I got any more hiding out?" Jane chuckled, giving her head a light shake and running both hands through her hair.

Both women jumped when a man suddenly showed up in the aisle and hugged Jane from behind. "Geez, babe, what's been taking so long?"

"Jesus, Casey, I said you could just wait in the c—"

He growled playfully, picking Jane up in a tight hug. Once he set her down, she twisted around to tell him off for being obnoxious. He asked her if she'd gotten her item yet, and held up a package of condoms. Blushing, she batted his arm down and whirled around to see if the beautiful stranger had noticed—but the girl was gone. Her heart sank in disappointment, but it bolted right back up her throat when she realized that the last KY was also gone.

"So what's taking you so damn long?" Casey asked, an impatient bite creeping its way in to his jovial tone. "Just pick one!"

Jane felt dazed; it took her a moment to respond. "I...there's no more KY left."

"So?" Casey laughed. "There's plenty of others to choose from!"

KY was the only brand Jane had ever seen advertised, and was thus the only one she'd been prepared to buy. "Fine, whatever, you just pick one and meet me at the self check-out," she grumbled, embarrassed. She hurried to the front of the store to try and catch a glimpse of the stranger, maybe ask her name if nothing else, but no dice.

Out of sight, but definitely not out of mind.

Jane was a virgin. She'd never done anything remotely sexual in nature, even the things kids in her high school health class had insisted didn't count as sex. Until Casey, she'd never had a boyfriend. She hadn't even been on a date, unless you counted senior prom, which her mother had forced her to attend with a family friend's son. When Frost didn't get the hint after a night of no dances and two ducked kisses, Jane surprised them both by coming out to him.

He had been sworn to secrecy, and the day afterwards Jane had told him she wasn't totally sure she was gay, so it was possible in the future she'd be dating guys and Frost shouldn't worry that she was repressing anything. In the four years since, Jane hadn't vocalized her orientation crisis to anyone else. She still wasn't even sure she could conclusively say she wasn't attracted to men, but it was becoming harder and harder to pretend she didn't like women. She'd always been taught that being gay was bad, but unless you actually had sex with someone of your gender, you couldn't call yourself gay. Being gay was all about sex, right? Right. Sure.

What Jane knew for certain was that she couldn't follow through on her reluctant agreement to have sex with Casey tonight, and more than anything else, it was because of that girl she'd talked to at CVS. That beautiful girl who'd left with lube, and by the looks of it, nothing else.

On the drive back to Casey's apartment, he kept one hand on her leg and kissed her cheek at red lights. He kept up a non-stop monologue that was probably intended to turn her on, but she had totally zoned out, just saying "mm" and "yeah" enough to make him think she was listening. But she had her own inner monologue going:

She only bought lube. Some lucky bastard is with her somewhere right now. Or lucky ... lady? No, stop, there's no way a woman who looks like her is into women. Please. She was just being nice. So, so nice. It's nice to be friendly. Just because you're not friendly to strangers doesn't mean other people aren't.

Jane was mortified to start thinking intimate thoughts about a total stranger. Hell, if she heard one of her brothers fantasizing alike this over a girl they'd met in passing at a pharmacy, she'd call them both pigs.

But it was the first time she'd ever felt another woman was low-key flirting with her. It was something about the look in her eyes when she'd taken the leaf out of Jane's hair, such an unnecessary and close-up thing to do. And as nerve-wracking as it had all been, it'd also been exhilarating.

When Casey pushed her against the door of his apartment and started kissing her neck with uncalled-for aggression, all Jane could think about was the stranger's lips; their shape, their color, their sheen. She had always wondered how it would feel to kiss glossed lips. Casey's grip shifted upwards, one hand palming her breast; she thought of how the stranger had asked before extracting a leaf from her hair. Casey never asked. He took, presumed, guilt-tripped.

All of a sudden, Jane had a moment of clarity: she deserved better.

She dumped him on the spot.

Jane's phone buzzed for the seventh time in two minutes. She groaned loudly and hit her head against the wall.

"Has that limp dick not gotten the hint yet?" Frost asked, passing by. With another groan, Jane grabbed Frost's lapel and dragged him to the nearby break room. As she closed the door and checked that no one else was hiding by the fridge or something, Frost said, "Why don't you just tell him what you told me at prom if you want him to leave you alone?"

"Because I knew I could trust you. I can't trust him," Jane said shortly. She sat down and indicated for Frost to do the same. "Look man, I need to ask you a serious question. Do you believe in love at first sight?"

He answered without hesitation: "No." Seeing Jane's surprise at his abruptness, he elaborated, "I believe in lust at first sight, but love seems like a bit much."

"Okay, maybe I'm being too technical. What about love at…first conversation?"

Frost folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "I guess that's a little more plausible, depending on the subject matter. I mean, deep and intimate stuff like your views on politics or religion? Sure, maybe. Talking about, I don't know, the weather or hair products or something? C'mon. You wanna tell me what's going on?"

Feeling pinpointed, Jane sighed heavily. "Like a week ago I was at CVS and I met this… this person. This woman," she added in a quieter voice, flicking her eyes up from the table for a second. "And I haven't been able to stop thinking about her since."

"And we're not just talking about lust at first sight?"

Jane blushed. "No—I mean yeah, sure, in part. She's beautiful. Totally gorgeous. But we talked, too. Maybe not about deep stuff, but I dunno, that's kind of what got me about it. We didn't have to keep talking, but it's like we both wanted to, so we kept propping up kinda mundane stuff to keep it going. Okay, you know that thing people do in movies? Like, two strangers meet somewhere totally random and talk for like, thirty seconds, and then all of a sudden it's like boom, clap—" She clapped her hands together. "It cuts right away to them hardcore making out, or having sex, like with no lead in."

"A smash cut!" Frost said, proud of retaining some terminology his film student sister had taught him.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. That. The screenwriter is cheating! I need a play-by-play on how to get from the chit-chat to that."

"Damn, you thirsty son of a bitch!" Frost chuckled. He mimed speaking in to his shoulder radio. "We need an APB out on a CVS hottie; I'm gonna guess early-to-mid-twenties, blonde, about 5'6'', named…" His eyebrows rose when Jane said nothing. "You want to bone her and you don't even know her name?! Who are you?!"

"I didn't say I wanted to do that!" Jane said, insulted that Frost would use such a crass word in reference to what's-her-name.

"Okay, sorry, you want to make love to her."

"I didn't say that, either!"

"You as good as did! Smash cut sex!"

"I meant more like smash cut make out," Jane scowled. "Against her car… against a wall, against …oh God, I'm a creep, aren't I? I mean, obviously, I'd only be into that if she was into it. Which she probably wouldn't be, so never mind. Forget we had this conversation."

But something else had just occurred to Frost, helped along when Jane's phone buzzed yet again. "Wait, this was a week ago, you said? Is she the reason you dumped Casey?"

"No."

"She is! She totally is. You dumped him for some random chick whose name and number you don't even have."

Jane sighed again. "She wasn't the cause, she was more like the catalyst. I dunno, man. Like I was super awkward and I'm sure I said a ton of stupid stuff, but… just this thrill I got talking to her, it was so much more exciting than anything I ever did with Casey. Anything."

And she looked so enamored, Frost couldn't bring himself to tease her anymore. "Do you feel like she was likewise excited, or were you too self-conscious to notice?"

"I dunno," Jane groaned. "I keep going back and forth. I think so? But I'd just left that going away party for Casey's best friend, and I wore a suit just to piss off my mother—"

"Yeah? What'd Mr. Traditional Tight Ass have to say about that?"

"Oh, he was cool with it. He was in a weirdly accepting mood. I think he thought it made him look all cool and progressive to be seen with me." Another loud sigh, and Jane was half-slumped over the table. "I bet she thought I looked dumb. But it doesn't matter, anyway. Boston's a big city, it's not like I'm ever gonna randomly bump into her again."

But that opportunity was about to come roaring around the corner when Korsak stuck his head in the break room. "Hey, young pups. Who wants to deal with a noise complaint?"