The Next Chapter (A Rizzoli & Isles fanfiction)

5.

Shopping was not the detective's thing. She despised it. If she wasn't chasing a criminal or sat at home watching the football game with a bottle of beer and a greasy pizza, she wasn't interested. Maura knew that, but Paris was so romantic and it was at the centre of fashion. Maura simply refused to walk around with Jane looking like a scruffy and rebellious teenager in ripped knee jeans and baggy tees. She had to gather a form of fashion sense, even if Maura did have to listen to complaints.

"Come on Jane. I want to see you in that -" Maura's words were cut off as Jane emerged from the dressing room in the pink jumper Maura had picked. She had to admit, Jane did look wrong in pink and a giggle started to form on her lips. Covering her mouth, she attempted to stop her giggle from coming, but as Jane did a twirl, Maura burst into laughter.
"Okay, that's..."
"Gross!" Jane finished and then disappeared back behind the curtain. "Told you pink looks wrong on me..." She was mumbling mainly to herself as Maura attempted to get her laughter under control. She managed to stop laughing in time to see Jane in the next jumper. A light blue, fuzzy one, with baggy sleeves. It looked good on her and Maura nodded in approval. 
"I like that one."
"Well," Jane says, smoothing it against her slim figure. "I don't hate it." She pulled at the sleeves and sighed. "I just don't like the baggy sleeves." 
"Okay. Try something else. We don't have to get the first thing you sort of like." Maura smiled softly at Jane as she went back behind the curtain again. She then lowered her voice to nothing but a whisper, but still loud enough for Jane to hear in this quiet early morning shopping haul. "Even if it might be the only thing you like."
"I heard that!" Jane called out with a soft laugh.

A few more times Jane had appeared from the curtain, with various items hanging from her body. Some of the blouses she liked, but they were simple and neutral so Maura guessed she would. There was a few more jumpers which Jane liked and even a pair of black jeans which was a bonus. No rips and they didn't look like they were ready to see the trash can. Now they were onto dresses and that was going to be quite the task. Jane just wasn't a dress wearing person. Her mother had brought her a LBD for a date she had set up. The date didn't end well, but Jane looked amazing. After her failed date with Joey Grant, Jane's childhood crush, Jane came to see Maura. She was wearing that dress and it hugged her figure perfectly. Maura remembers Jane asking her if she looked silly, and Maura could only tell her the truth. She looked gorgeous. She was breath taking... Jane looked great in a dress, it was as simple as that and it knocked the breath out of Maura.

Maura was in a daydream, thinking back to that night where they shared a glass of wine in Maura's lab with Jane in that black dress. She didn't hear Jane come out the changing room, nor did she notice her, until the impatient and bossy detective was snapping her fingers in front of her face.
"Maura! If you're going to make me try these damn things on, at least pay attention!" Jane barked as she pulled the bottom of the dress she had tried on. She had a point. Maura snapped herself back into the room, forcing herself to focus and she brought her eyes up to Jane. 
"Hmm..." She stood from her seat, then looked at Jane through the floor length mirror. "The colour isn't right."
"Okay, great. This one's a no!" Jane was already unzipping her dress at the side as she slips back behind the curtain. Another four dresses of various patterns and colours are tried on but none of them are right.
"How many more do you have, Jane?" 
"Just three more. I have two BLD's or whatever they are called and one more colourful one." 
Maura chuckled at Jane's attempt of the abbreviation which she had gotten so wrong. "LBD, Jane. It means -"
"-Little black dress? Yeah, I got it." Interrupting in a small mumble, Jane appeared again in the first of two black dresses. It had a small cut out on the back, exposing her shoulders and it came to the middle of her thighs. It looked.... incredible. A little lost for words, Maura swallows a small lump which formed at the back of her throat and nods.
"I love that one."
"Yeah?" Jane's lips curved into a smile as she looked at herself in the mirror. "I like it. It's not awful." She shoved Maura playfully and disappeared again.

Jane's other black dress didn't quite work. It had a small cut out around the front of her dress and it exposed the place she was shot. She wasn't comfortable and Maura could tell from just looking at her. It wasn't for her, so she didn't make Jane try to like it. One more item to try on before they checked out and hit the shop a few doors down for shoes. They might make another stop in another favourite store of Maura's for more clothes, but they could and 100% would shop in Paris too!
"Okay, last one." Jane says and changes into the last dress. Coming out from the curtain, Jane stops to look at herself in the mirror, a smile forming onto her features. She's speechless for once and Maura is too. The dress is a faded yellow, with a deep and plunging neck line. It has a tie around the middle and flares at the bottom. Floor length. It looks stunning, like it belongs on the runway and the joy painting female's faces is enough to cause a silence to settle upon them. Maura is the one to break the silence.
"You /have/ to get that one..." Her voice comes out much quieter than expected and hitches in her throat almost. It takes everything she has in her to not kiss the skin on Jane's neck and whisper in her ear how gorgeous she looks.

God, Maura... What's happening to you? 

"This will sure get me places! Woah." Jane exclaimed, checking out herself in the mirror still. "Might even find myself a hot french man in this dress!" Jane nudged Maura playfully before going to change into her normal clothes but Maura's playful expression disappeared. Man. She said 'man'. She wasn't interested in Maura and why would she be? There had been no signs over these years. Was there? They were friends and Maura would go as far to say close friends. But was there anything there? 

The times they shared a bed together. The sleep overs. The looks Jane gave her across the table at meals or at crime scenes, the nights they spent together. They were there for each other, through thick and thin. Maura was there when Hoyt attacked her, she was there when Jane killed Hoyt, when Jane had a miscarriage, she was there when Jane was abducted. She was there for Jane, all the time. Jane was there for her too, when she was abducted, when she was accused and almost framed for murder, when her father died, when her biological family came crashing into her life, and she was there when Frankie almost died whilst Maura was protecting him. Jane took a bullet for them. And she'd do it again. Do friends do that? Do they really go to that extreme? 

Maura knows she would only do that for people she /loved/ and Jane...
well, she l o v e d her. 

Jane emerged from the changing room again with arms full of clothes. "A little help, Maur'?" 
Getting to her feet, Maura grabbed the clothes on Jane's right and placed those back on a rack of things they didn't want and they made their way to the check out. Jane was buying two dresses, a few jumpers, a few blouses, a pair of jeans and a few basic tank tops they found last minute. Never know when you need one to go under a blouse or with a pair of jeans for a chilled day. They queued up, paid and then left, arm in arm again.
"Where to now? What other places of hell are you dragging me too?" Jane chuckled, walking with Maura through the shopping centre with shopping bags already hanging from her arm. 
"Shoes." Maura managed to say in a slightly cheerful tone, but her mind was still in deep thought.

Were they just friends?
Could they ever be anything more?
God, Maura's mind was a mess but her heart was clear on how it felt... All she could do, was hope Jane felt the same at some stage. Right now, they had shopping to focus on and Maura just hoped it would be enough to distract her busy mind.