A bird makes a loud noise from above as it glides from one tall tree to another. The forest's ground is wet beneath her feet from a waterfall's spray. She doesn't understand how this could be considered fun for anyone but Maura looks delightfully comfortable so she bites down on her lip to keep from complaining.

"Jane look!" Maura points while looking through a pair of binoculars hanging from her neck. Jane tilts her head upwards, looking at the blue open sky. "It's a Vesper Sparrow."

Without the binoculars, the bird looks like a speck in the sky to Jane but she pretends to be intrigued anyway. "Oh wow!" she manages with as much enthusiasm she can muster without sounding sarcastic.

Behind her Alex – Senior Criminalist Susie Chang's boyfriend – imitates what she can only imagine is a bird call.

"Nice imitation." Maura looks over her shoulder at him far too impressed for Jane's liking.

"Thank you, Dr. Isles." He smirks at having been complimented by the Chief Medical Examiner. "Susie's been teaching me bird calls."

"Hope it's not during sex," the Detective mumbles louder than she hoped. She receives glares from the other three campers. "Sorry." She says with a barely apologetic shrug. Mostly she's sorry to Maura but Alex and Susie are the only ones that smile at her like she's forgiven.

"This isn't your sort of thing." Susie says from beside her when they continue moving. Jane's backpack is starting to chafe against her skin. "I'm just glad Dr. Isles convinced you to come. I wasn't comfortable my first time either."

"I'm just not that all into camping…or the naked thing," Jane says low enough for only Susie to hear. But it's not like Maura's listening anyway. She's talking to Alex about tree bark or something. And he looks annoyingly fascinated by it. It's not that she's not open to new experiences. Usually she'd do anything with her best friend because Maura makes it fun. She just feels like the fourth wheel on a tricycle.

Alex and Susie are into this kind of stuff whereas Jane wishes she could be in her living room drinking a beer and watching an old game with Maura.

The Criminalist nods slowly with appreciated understanding. "Alex is the one that got me into this. So I get what it's like to have to pretend you enjoy doing something just because you want to connect with someone you like."

Jane looks at her a little taken aback and confused. "I don't like Maura." She stops walking. Susie does too. "I mean, she's my best friend but I don't like her…" She's not sure why it feels like she's lying.

Not even ashamed Susie shrugs. "Seemed like you did. My best friend Melinda and I have known each other since middle school and I know I couldn't get her to do this in a million years. I can't even get her to go camping with clothes."

The Detective rolls her eyes. "Maura and I are different."

"How so?" she's genuinely interested and Jane makes a note to lay off giving Susie intimidating looks in the lab.

"Well we didn't experience the same things growing up. I never got to go camping and she never got to eat a peanut butter and fluff sandwich."

"So some things you're willing to try for her?"

"Exactly." Jane nods. "This just seems to be one of them."

Still confused but willing to let it go, Susie half-shrugs and continues walking.

From behind, Jane looks at Maura who happens to be explaining something to Alex. She looks happy and comfortable while Jane had to adjust the straps on her backpack to cover her breasts. She follows behind Susie, staying behind a little.

At the campsite next to the beach, Maura's wrapped one of Jane's oversized sweaters. It's still unzipped so her breast are bare and Jane tries to ignore the fact that it's going to take forever to get the smell of a sweaty Maura off of it.

She's sitting on a log used as a make-shift bench while Susie is reading a book and Alex is keeping the fire going. Maura's putting the food back in the rented SUV.

"Are you a fan of Stephen King?" Susie asks from the circle around the fire. "I'm reading Carrie."

"Not really." Jane says with her head tilted back. She was counting the stars because there's not nearly as many in Boston. Or as Maura would tell her, there are she just can't see them as clearly. "I liked the movie, though."

"The movie was awesome." Alex agrees eagerly. "My favorite part was the end."

"That's the only good part." Susie says to her boyfriend.

He looks at her considerately.

"I could empathize with Carrie." Maura says, joining the conversation, as she sits next to Jane on the log. "I was picked on a lot as a child. Though I certainly didn't retaliate by killing them all."

"No you just dissect dead bodies for a living." Jane says finally taking her eyes off the stars. She loses her breath when she looks at Maura's eyes. They're more beautiful to her than the sky. It takes a lot of effort to finally look away.

Maura makes a face at her that shows she's unimpressed with Jane's teasing.

"The book is good too." Susie comments over her shoulder at them. "I think you'd like it." She says to Jane.

"Maybe I'll borrow it from you sometime." The Detective says without any real commitment that goes unnoticed by everyone but Maura. The Medical Examiner pinches her thigh. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"You could at least make an effort." She says angrily in a whisper.

Jane scowls as she rubs her already bruising leg. "I am making an effort! I'm here aren't I?"

"And you've been sarcastic and mean the entire trip." Maura tilts her head, daring Jane to lie and disagree.

"Well what do you expect?! This is all new to me and so fucking weird!" She zips her sweater up to prove her point. "Who goes camping while naked? There is nothing normal about that, Maura and you know it."

Maura's anger dissolves like smoke and her face softens. "Why do you care so much what other people think of you? That's the entire point of this. We enjoy ourselves and our bodies and our liberation from social opinions. You have a beautiful body, Jane. You wouldn't be so angry if you accepted it."

"What I look like has nothing to do with it. It's weird." She scratches her shoulder.

Maura's eyes narrow as she studies Jane's face. "Are you afraid to admit you're beautiful or do you truly not believe me?"

"That has nothing to do with it, Maura."

The honey-blonde takes her friend's hand.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to show you something." She stands, grabbing the flashlight next to Susie, and pulls Jane away from the campsite. Susie looks over her book to them while Alex looks like he's already fallen asleep. The Criminalist turns her attention back to her book.

Jane doesn't protest as Maura pulls her to a path. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see," Maura says as they walk the very path they started at the beginning of the day.

"Come on, Maur. My feet hurt and I'm tired. Just tell me what you want to show me."

They come to the first waterfall that sprays into a creek that leads to the river. The falling water hides a small cave and Jane can tell that's where her best friend plans on taking her.

"I don't want to get wet." She says, finally protesting.

Maura only gives her a look of encouragement and apparently that's all she needs because Jane goes through the cold spray.

"I want to show you how beautiful you are." Maura says, turning around to face her friend. Behind her is a stone wall.

"I know how much you hate to hear compliments, especially around other people. But look," she sits in the sand with her legs tucked beneath her. Jane copies the movement. Maura puts the flashlight far enough away so that they can see each other and the sand.

She presses her hand in the wet sand. The moonlight from outside the cave turns everything into a blue glow. When the honey-blonde pulls her hand away there's a mold of it in the sand.

"Now do yours," she instructs patiently.

Jane does the same next to Maura's handprint.

"Our hands," she begins to explain in a soft voice that's barely audible over the waterfall behind Jane. "They're different sizes. Your fingers are longer and thinner than my own. Your palm is slenderer than mine. But they both still look like hands, yes?"

"Yeah." The brunette agrees quietly.

"Now," she says. "Lay down."

Surprised, Jane looks from the handprints to Maura. "What?"

"Lie down on your back. And take your sweatshirt off."

Hesitantly and a little annoyed, Jane does so. She lies into the sand with clattering teeth and closes her eyes.

"Look at me," Maura commands softly. She presses her palm to her friend's cheek. "You have a beautiful face. When I first saw you, I was envious of your natural beauty. It takes make-up for me to look half as decent as you. Your eyes remind me of darkness. Most people are afraid of the dark but I find serenity in it. The dark protects me from myself and others. They cannot see me and I cannot see them. Your eyes remind me what it feels like to be momentarily insensible to what's in the light."

Her hand moves to Jane's hair. The brunette swallows thickly. "Your hair flows so gracefully in waves. We passed a river earlier and it reminded me of how naturally undulated your hair looks after you've had sleep."

Her index finger indents the sand and she draws an outline of Jane's head and shoulders then she touches the other woman's arms with both hands, gently caressing her biceps. "Your arms are stronger than they look. Just like you are stronger than you look."

She continues the outline from Jane's shoulders down to her hips.

"And these," she says touching the dimples in the taller woman's hips. Her hands are shaking and they have been since she brought Jane here but especially since touching Jane. The Detective isn't certain if that's because she's cold or nervous.

"These carry a gun, and a badge, and a Taser and so many things. These carry what has kept you alive since becoming a cop."

Jane knows she should feel uncomfortable with her best friend touching her so intimately and it is slightly off-putting but mostly feels something akin to arousal and comfortable and oddly familiar. For the first time since Hoyt, she feels beautiful again.

Suddenly, the cave isn't so cold anymore and there's an intimate atmosphere between her and Maura that keeps her warm.

She also notices that Maura's hands have stopped shaking as well.

Her fingers resume the outline they'd started around Jane's body and she gets down to the other woman's hands. "Your hands have been through so much," Maura says quietly, more to herself. "Your father worked with his hands and he taught you the same. They're rough, unlike mine, but they're strong."

She touches the scars from Hoyt. "He tried to break you. He wanted to demean you." She brings Jane's hands to her lips and places a delicate kiss on her knuckles. "But you are so much stronger than he originally thought. He left a scar that he thought would make you ugly to everyone else. He wanted you to think of him every time someone touched your hands. But it's what makes your canvas original. There's a story behind it and the story tells how brave you are."

Maura places her hands back down in the sand and remains the sketch to Jane's feet.

"When we first met and you were undercover as a prostitute, after I'd learned you were a Detective I was in awe that you could stand on your feet for so long in such high heels." She massages the other woman's right foot. "Detective Mateo once told me you rarely expressed your discomfort."

There's a comfortable silence as they both listen to the waterfall next to them while Maura continues to massage Jane's feet.

The back of her hands travel up to Jane's knees. "You are an excellent softball player," she simply says as she continues to the brunette's thighs. Her hands stop suddenly and the sensation of being touched by Maura has Jane shaking with anticipation she didn't know she had.

Beneath Maura's palms, Jane's thighs are shivering. The honey-blonde looks at her from beneath her lashes and she smiles shamefully.

She places her palms over Jane's belly. "Your abdomen is firm and well-developed. Years of being physically active has made you very fit. Socially, you are absolutely beautiful, Jane. But it's your womb that fascinates me the most. You're not a mother and you have no plan to be. Your womb is empty and yet you have the maternal instincts of your mother. The way you are with TJ is so beautiful to me. You love him as if he were your own."

She finishes her outline between Jane's legs but opts out of commenting on anything further.

"Now," she says pulling the brunette into a sitting position. "Do me."

"What?!"

Maura smiles sheepishly. She gestures to the outline. "Do me."

"Oh," Jane looks relieved but feels disappointed. "Okay." Maura lies next to where Jane had been.

"You don't have to say anything." Maura tucks her hair under her head. "Just do it quickly."

Jane doesn't do it quickly. In fact, she takes her time and even though Maura told her not to praise her body in the way that had just been done for her, internally Jane does. She goes over everything she likes about her best friend's body.

She doesn't know why Maura thinks she's the most beautiful thing to walk the Earth, it's like she hasn't even seen herself in a mirror.

When she gets to Maura's legs, she sees the scar from the car accident. It hasn't been that long since the accident but the scar is still red and prominent like a souvenir of the moment they became friends again.

"I used to think it was ugly," Maura says quietly, staring at the ceiling of the cave. "But it's a reminder that you stayed with me…it reminds me that you love me. In ways no one has ever been willing to love me before." She says the last part quietly. So quietly Jane almost doesn't hear it.

But she does. She does love Maura. More than she's ever been willing to love anyone. Jane's spent her entire life distancing herself from people because caring about them took a lot of effort and was so dangerous.

She took her chances as a cop than allowing someone into her life.

It was easy with Dean and Casey because they were both hundreds of miles away and she could handle not seeing them daily.

But Maura, she breathes as she touches the other woman's hands – linking their fingers, what she has with Maura is different. Two people feeling something so passionate for each other. Willing to do unspeakable things for each other.

She would die for Maura. Quite enthusiastically so if it meant her friend was safe.

She would die for her family too but it's different with her best friend. All she wants to do is protect Maura from even the smallest of threats, even when Jane considers herself to be one.

Their breath is visible and it entangles before dissolving between them.

"I'm done." She says quietly.

Maura sits up and moves out of the way. "See." She points to both of their outlines. Jane looks at them and thinks together their bodies make art. "Both are different. Both look the same. Both are be—," her sentence is interrupted by a pair of soft lips on her own.

Maura's surprised but she doesn't pull away. In fact, she smiles in the kiss and returns it with one of her own. She allows Jane to pull her closer and entangles her fingers in the long wavy raven-hair she loves so very much.

Jane's tongue seeks Maura's and she grants access eagerly as she's gently laid down into the sand again next to their outlines. The quiet around them is sedating. The sound of the spray and the sound of their hitched breathing combined makes music Jane doesn't ever want to stop listening to.

"Maur," she whispers against the other woman's lips. "Can I…can I…"

"Yes."

Jane's hands are on her in an instant, though hesitant and fumbling. She palms Maura's right breast and her thumb strokes the nipple until it's achingly hard and Maura's begging her for more.

She kisses her way down from her neck to her left nipple and she covers it with her tongue. She's never really had an interest in touching a woman before except for once at summer camp in middle school when she was dared to kiss her bunkmate.

But now, there's something distinctly arousing about the way Maura tastes. Even after hiking all day and taking a bath in the river, Maura tastes just like Jane had expected her to.

Sweet like honey.

Maura's head tilts back in the sand as Jane gives attention to both of her nipples. Her mouth lathering one and her thumb teasing the other. It feels entirely too good and she knows if she asks for more she'll cross a line that they can't forget. Even what they're doing now is as unforgettable as it is confusing.

They're relationship had always been unique and complicated and hard to describe to others. Even Maura spent nights trying to decipher what they really meant to each other.

Eventually she just decided that the term "soulmates" best described them. Though she never voiced it to her best friend or aloud really. As Plato would consider it, Jane is her other half. What makes her whole.

And she doesn't disagree.

Jane's fingers are thrumming against her abdomen and Maura's brought back into the moment. They're going to pass a point tonight.

"Wait," the honey-blonde says, reaching between them and grabbing the brunette's wrists. Jane entangles their fingers and holds Maura's hands above her head. "We'll never come back from this."

"I think we've already reached the point of no return." Jane smirks lecherously. "And I don't care."

"What about Dean?"

That kind of kills the mood for them both. "Dean is back in D.C. where he belongs. There hasn't been anything between us for months."

"And Casey?"

"Casey's not important. He was once but not anymore. You're what's important to me now."

Maura kisses her. "You won't regret this in the morning?" her voice hitches insecurely at the end.

"God no. I was worried you might, though."

Without even having to struggle, Maura moves her hands from under Jane's—proving to the brunette just how strong she really is, and presses her palms to each side of the other woman's face.

"I could never regret this."

"We're going to have sand in ungodly places," Jane reminds her.

Mauras green eyes narrow playfully and she smiles. "You're worth it."