A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who voted on whether or not Disillusioned should have a sequel. Many of you wanted something a little more detail oriented and I hope this doesn't disappoint. I can't say whether or not there will be any fluff because I don't want to give anything away yet, but I promise this won't be an all-out Jane vs. Maura battle like the last one.
When Maura booked a flight to Boston for Chloe and herself, her only intentions were to spend time with her mother. Six months had passed since Chloe had seen her grandmother—their only form of communication in the meantime being phone calls and Skype—and Maura knew they were due for a visit. Her mother had been attentive to Chloe since the day Maura had adopted her and, although Maura had wished she were attentive and nurturing during her own childhood, she was grateful that what her mother didn't do for her, she was now doing for Chloe.
Being a single mother sometimes took its toll on Maura and it left her little time for dating, not that Maura would spend any of her spare time on dates or have intimate encounters with other women. There were women in Maura's life—many of them—but they had no romantic inclinations whatsoever. Unlike in Boston, Maura had a group of friends in Los Angeles that gave her all of the emotional support and even parenting advice that she needed. While their children were playing, save for Chloe who would spend most of her time on Maura's lap because she was afraid to play with other children, they would socialize over mocktails and appetizers prepared by whichever woman happened to be the host for the afternoon. Although Maura enjoyed her new social outlet, she occasionally felt as if she were on the periphery. Her friends had husbands or wives and, as the only single woman in the group, Maura would be subjected to endless chatter about how she should start dating again. Maura would respond by saying she didn't have time to date because of work and if she did have free time she preferred to spend it with Chloe. They'd all accept the answer because Maura did work a lot and she did prefer to spend her free time with Chloe, but they knew there was something Maura was leaving out: she was still in love with her ex-wife and she always would be. Her friends knew all about her marriage to Jane and what had happened between them, but they'd still never pass up an opportunity to tell Maura she needed to move on with her life.
For four years, Maura went to bed with a memory. Fragments of her years with Jane would fill her mind—each night something new—until there was nothing left for her to remember. When that happened, she'd detach herself from the memories and view them in the third-person perspective. They were her experiences, her joyful moments, and her mistakes, but Maura felt as if she were watching someone else. There were moments that made her laugh, moments that made her cry, and moments in which, if it was an actual movie instead of her memories, she would have yelled at the screen and asked the main characters what they were doing. To cheer herself up, she'd imagine reconciling with Jane. The scenarios were always different, but they all had the same objective: she'd be Jane's wife again. Although the reconciliation scenarios offered a temporary distraction, Maura would eventually face the realities of an empty bed and 2,500 miles between her and the woman she loved. They were no longer in the same time zone, let alone the same bedroom. She'd never admit it to her friends, but Maura had Boston bookmarked on her phone's weather app for the sole purpose of knowing what the weather was like where Jane was. She remembered holding hands in the park on sunny days and how Jane had proposed to her in the rain, but her favorite were the blizzards. Being snowed in meant spending the entire day making love and cuddling with each other. There was always the possibility that Jane was having similar moments with a new woman and all Maura could do was hope that Jane at least held onto the memories of the two of them and thought about Maura from time-to-time.
There was hardly any deviation in the weather where Maura currently resided, but on the rare occasion that it did rain, Maura had a new reason to enjoy the weather. On rainy days, Maura would set aside time to be outdoors with Chloe. She'd dress her daughter in jeans, a rain coat, and rain boots so she could enjoy her favorite rainy day activity: splashing in puddles that formed on the sidewalk in front of their apartment building. When it was time to go inside, Maura would make hot chocolate for her little girl and spend the rest of the day reading to Chloe and telling her facts about rain and thunder that were age-appropriate for a toddler.
Although the three-year-old was too young to understand, Chloe Jane Isles was the one who had saved Maura. She missed Jane every moment of every day, but being Chloe's mom had pulled Maura out of her depression. Her daughter's existence, alone, had given her hope for the future. They had both been abandoned by their birthparents when they were babies and, unlike her own adoptive mother, Maura was going to give Chloe all the love and nurturing she needed. Maura didn't give birth to Chloe, but that didn't lessen the connection she felt as Chloe's mother. From the moment she brought her home, Chloe became her priority. Even if she couldn't be with Chloe around the clock, she made sure her daughter knew she was only a phone call away and that night was no different.
After driving her rental car into the parking lot of the agreed upon location, she examined her appearance in the mirror. Maura was now past her prime, but she was still considered a beautiful woman. Four years had passed since her divorce with Jane, which meant four years of growing older, but none of that seemed to matter to Jane when they were reunited at Boston Common. Both of them had gotten older, but Maura knew it was something to look forward to if she were able to grow old with Jane. Just the thought of bickering with each other as elderly women filled Maura's heart with comfort.
They were catching up over drinks—it wasn't a date and there were still issues they needed to address, but Maura hoped this was a start toward the reconciliation process. She loved Jane and Jane loved her, which is what Maura kept in mind as she stepped out of her car and prepared to face the woman she had spent the past four years pining over.