Hey readers! Merry Christmas to those who celebrate the holiday! I got a sudden burst of inspiration and I ran with it. It's pure fluff from Jane's POV.

It happened the way it always does. Torturously slowly and then all at once. I noticed the feelings right away but figured that it was just how female friendships were, and how could I know the difference, really, if I'd never had a female friend before?

I'd noticed it when Maura had called me gorgeous for the first time. The way my heart skipped a beat to have those beautiful hazel eyes assessing me in that dress. When I realized she looked at me like that no matter what I was wearing; as if I were the beautiful one.

I felt it grow and change with every joke about how we were LLBFFs.

"Are we having a sleepover or is this your way of saying you're attracted to me?" I asked and noticed that Maura had simply laughed in lieu of response and had been surprised to find myself hoping that Maura hadn't answered so she didn't have to lie. I'd been too nervous to ask and laughed at the oddity of the thought.

I noticed it with every click of Maura's heels as she walked into the bullpen. I still smile at the sound every time I hear it. I found myself looking forward to seeing what ridiculous outfit Maura had chosen to wear to a crime scene. I thought at first that when my eyes lingered over the blonde's thighs or chest that I was simply noticing the cut of the outfit from an aesthetic perspective, but as time wore on, I realized that I was appreciating Maura, what Maura looked like in the clothes and not the clothes themselves. Friends could do that, right?

I would find my mind going blank when Maura would look at me with that smile. The one where her dimples would show and her hazel eyes would sparkle. The one that Maura only wore while she was looking at me. I wondered if I had a special smile for her, too. She deserved it if anyone did. My heart still flutters every time she throws her head back with a laugh and my stomach seems to writhe with happiness knowing that I'm one of the few people who can make her laugh like that.

We had very different upbringings but that's amazing for us. Every day we show each other new things. I convince her to partake in carpool karaoke, water gun fights with my brothers, baseball. She convinces me to go to art galleries and learn about the beauty of what humans can do. She shows me she cares in ways that blow me away and I do the same.

We're constantly challenging each other and growing and learning together, just as it should be. I noticed, after years, how much she meant to me, how I wanted to see her 'Jane' smile every day and as often as possible. I realized how I wanted to appreciate what she looked like both in and out of her fashionable outfits. I realized, so suddenly that I had to stop walking in the middle of a busy Boston street beside her, that I loved her. That I loved her more intensely than I'd ever thought possible and that I yearned for her with every particle of my being.

"Jane?" Maura turned to look at me in confusion at my sudden lack of motion. I had to laugh. I looked down at her and smiled at her as I shook my head at myself for not realizing sooner that I was deeply, madly, desperately in love with this smart, beautiful, goof of a woman.

"Maura," was all I needed to say for her to understand. She turned to face me fully and grinned up at me with that smile, God, that smile, and I lifted a hand to caress the side of her cheek and tuck her soft, loose curls behind her ear and suddenly, we were both leaning in.

It took me a day to fall in love with this woman and it took me seven years to realize it. It took me a single moment of walking through Boston to recognize what it all meant, and right before our lips touched I loved her even more for her patience. Seven years is a long time to wait for me. Seven years' worth of longing was poured into that first kiss. Seven years of smiles, of the Christmases already spent together. Seven years of friendship. Seven years of calling Bass a turtle just to get a rise out of her. Seven years of inside jokes and teasing and laughing together. It took seven entire years for me to realize that she was my person. Seven years; and I would spend the rest of my life repaying her for her patience, for her grace. I poured all of this into the long kiss we shared in the middle of the city we both loved so much and I thought as I pulled away from her that seven years with this woman wasn't nearly long enough.

Happy Holigays, my friends.