I would like to thank all the people that commented and are now following this story. Scarletsounds :) even though your whole review didnt make it in i appreciate the PM and words of encouragment and We Love Us just give it a chance and i promise you wont be disappointed. the first chapter was a real rough draft so hopefully i get it more in control throughout. Cagney thanks for following. It means a lot that you are giving it a chance. the first chapter was just a mood setting thing and now on to more of an interction between our two main ladies :) A bit of back story wil come up and some rizzles action.

Chapter 2: Follow The Leader

'You certainly don't procrastinate...'

Agreeable comment that Maura utters that follows Kirsty and I two fold. Not the one to wait around after finding myself very much alone knowing that Maura had ducked out earlier, to be here and now in this den, when we were at Simon's I had followed in a sick form of protection. It was at the beginning of the live shows and the beginning of a weirdly long arduous night.

Six hours ago there was a swagger to my step as the single glass door swung open with a rough groan against the old hinge and jamb connection. From the outside you could only tell the dim red light highlighting the shadows of the bodies undistinguishable and every soul in here wanted it that way. This place was every sort of shady and every sort of dreg would be breathing in the excited anticiaption of the perfect score. Knowing my instincts were still keen I knew the type of dive bar this was meant to be and knew earlier that Maura would be here.

I saw her across the way. A small distance it was perhaps but made greater with the pack of bodies that lumbered oddly to the sway of the undertones of thrumming bass. Not anything well known but underground collection of a band with no standing in the mainstream charts. No way I knew it so it isn't worth mentioning. My sight was more focused on Maura at that point in time and that is more important and perhaps more detail could be placed to the memory if I try or care. Such as the detail of the far end where she resides could be mentioned a short stage befitting the guests of honor 'The Flutes'. The detail of the bar tender that asks me what I will have could be mentoined. Older and scraggly wearing a baseball cap, hook nose and jack o'lantern smile. I wave him off concentrating trying to keep inconspicuous as my trained eyes focus. The detail of her stature not demure or waif but proper and with a sense of entitlement. Straight back, shoulders back with confidence that is only punctuated by her smile of perfectly straight teeth. The detail of her hands can be mentioned that I have seen perform actions of gentle comfort. The detail of her legs, long and smooth, toned that lead to a full hip where mine was narrow. The curve of her back into her long neck. Soft face framed with reddish blonde hair. The detail of her clothes could be mentioned but all I see is her corset. It makes her breasts more pronounced. Makes her more sexually appealing, and her personality could be mentioned with knowing that is exactly what she wants.

The corset she wears with lace accoutrement makes her femme fatale. She uses it as a tool to get what she wants from people. Maura Isles was not dim but very intellgent. Possibly the brightest woman, no... person I have ever met.

"Anthropologically speaking, women with certain attributes are much more likely to attract male attention. Such as breast size, hips and of course their mouths. Women with wider hips small waists and large breasts are attractive because it means we can bare and care for any children we produce making it a safe bet for the the joining of gentic makeup."

"I am screwed then." I say with a false grimace only half joking.

"No, Jane also it is the face. Such as the lips I mentioned." It was then she had reached forward and grazed her fingertips across my aforementioned lips causing my breath to hitch. "You have perfect lips." she breathed against them, her eyes set, lids hooded. Her voice dripped with pure sex. "Your mouth twice as wide as its height. Perfect." There was a pause as she looked up and leaned back. Both her hands moved to cup my face. I felt the feather light touch as the ghosted across my cheekbones to meet at the tip of my chin. "Your face falls into the higher end of the one to ten scale of what's called the golden ratio."

"What is that?" I asked not realizing I was moving forward as her body pressed back. Drawn like a magnet. Polar opposites attract. She is the north to my south.

"It is the equation that determines beauty."

Yin to my yang.

"And me?" I asked feeling very unsure if she was just humoring me.

With that wide grin that was so rare she said "Lets just say you are gorgeous."

Light and dark. Black and white. Life and death.

That was the memory I most treasure as I am looking at her attire now. The corset. Her weapon, her armor is that elegant bodice that accentuated her gorgeous form that cut electric in the dim haze. I cut me deep but more with a feeling of righteous jealousy as she laughs and hangs off an imposing figure with the most accurate description at first sight:

Big man

Broad shouldered

Deep set eyes near black

Hair shaved to the quick

Permanant frown

Long nose that looks as if it has been broken three times over cutting it into odd angles

Thin face that looks scarred

Left over talents from being a detective, although for not that long it seems, that made my mind force the details to register. I did not know who he was till later. This was the man you would act as my shepard. This was Docker, and Maura was hanging on his arm petting it gently with a smile. There is laughing eminating but it isn't real. Its not the laugh I knew but it doesn't lessen my envy.

I know my stature is thin and lank so I have no problem with slipping between the throng of people who do not notice my rough pass and push through them. Or maybe they don't care to notice because my brows are pinched down angrily. I make quick work to close the distance and without being too forceful to cause alarm, but still to convey my annoyance, I grab Maura's upper arm. With a strength that surprises me, I pull her away.

Docker stands at attention.

We ignore him.

"What are you doing?" Maura's eyes are wide with surprise and maybe a hint of humor that plays in them.

"Looking for you. Can you please try and not do this tonight?"

Maura still is playing coy. "What am I doing Jane?" she asks me sweetly pulling her arm from my grasp and then linking in the crook of my elbow.

I grunt in response, "You know what you are doing. If I am supposed to look after you, you make my job incredibly difficult. Purposely" I added through clenched teeth.

"Dear Jane." She laughs derisively, "All you have to do is help me out of trouble."

"I am supposed to keep you from getting in trouble." She looks at me intently and it is hard to read her expression. Is it thoughtful? "Can you just answer me what you were doing?"

"I was laughing at what that rather interesting fellow had to say." She answers pointing in the direction of the man I did not yet know.

"And why are you around him?"

Maura had a set code of ethics and did not like to lie if she could help it. Being in the upper echelon of society, having means to get what she wanted she really never saw the need to lie to feed her habit.

"He can get me drugs." She said pointedly as if this wasn't glaringly obvious and I am still shocked that she could ever show tact. Always blunt. Always direct.

"Geez Maura." I say pushing her away from a group of people next to us that are now interested in what we are talking about.

"What Jane?"

So now hours later I am standing in the freezing apartment of a drug den trying to coax my charge away from the wasted lead singer of 'The Flutes". A notorious woman that lives the code of the libertine lifestyle. It's all about you. Your pleasure. No morals. This is why Maura drew me so deep. I never understood why she wanted to be this way and I was feeding my own need, an addiction to her, to know why Maura Isles was like this.

The damning way to what I am. So focused from the dark and dank of the room I focus on anything besides what is unfolding as Kirsty sinks the needle into giving flesh. I reserve myself to see the slight crack or notch in wood. The depth and age of the color in crown moulding, baseboards, shoe moulding. Chipping and pull from the plaster the hazy yellow hue of the paint. Dull and as flat as the shadow cast sending odd images onto the wall distorted by the unevenness of its finish. Normally, so withdrawn in my psyche, that I notice the mundane details.. but when Maura is around all I see is her and I know for long I cannot keep my attention away no matter how hard I am fighting it now.

I chance to look her way. Her lips part as she places a cigarette between them. Rose in color a shock against the pallor of her skin that is described near life like. It is a porcelain veneer. Seems so fragile but so hard to crack past and for a year since first seeing her, I have been trying. Since first my eyes met her in an interrigation room right around my fall from grace.

I break my eyeline from her and chance a look at Docker. He is enthralled with Kirsty. Every move of her long awkward limbs. I notice now his look is reflective on my own, and I start to think how far do those emotions stretch..

"Jane..." I am knocked from my reverie as I hear the dulcet cadence of her voice. My head shifts left again as my eyes focus. I was wrapped up in memory and have trained my body to cast my eyes downward so no one would ever meet my gaze. Cold.

Frightening.

Inhuman.

I smile now at the thought as I brush the long lank of my hair from my face. There is a beat that counts the rythym of the moments that I wait to hear her again. Anxiety growing. There is nothing but the loaded silence and it is then I decide to look at Maura again. When I tilt my head up the smile fades from my face. "Are you following me again?" She says with a smile. A smile that makes her seem so much out of place. It radiates and it is full of a true inquistive joy that is much unlike the death stupor of our companions of the hour. Junked out to the brink and incoherant. Maura is vibrant and alive. Awake. It breaks my heart a little more.

I can only nod in response keeping myself in firm repose with my face set hard against her contrasting mirth at the question 'Are you following me?'. She only shakes her fine head. Locks of reddish strands slip around her shoulders and I can remember how silken they are to the touch, and that sensation has been few and far between in practice. I long to feel it again. Unconsciouly, I take a steady step forward. My need for her betraying me.

"Kit." Maura stands swiftly looking down at the now head rushed singer. "I have to go. My mom is here." And that last addage Maura gives a devilish sneer as she motions to me. My jaw sets even tighter, perhaps with embarrasment, but no doubt anger. So tight my jaw flexes that I can feel my teeth on the verge of splintering.

I feel all their eyes trail to me making the feeling blaze and my face rushing a deep shade of red. Docker's deep set now from across the room where he is perched protectively next to Kirsty, and Kirsty's now looking dead behind half lids as she also smiles gravely at me. Maura... she looks at me again only it seems to me her smile softens into something more of respectful. Perhaps wishful thinking on my part. Perhaps I am just hypnotized by those green eyes. Full of life that I want to protect.

"Why do you have to call me that?" My voice is rough and harsh and I have always hated it. My face, I can tell you, everytime I speak as a reflex action contorts to a mask of loathing. Self hater is my perfect description.

"Because you tend to be a bit over protective." Maura answers simply. Its amazing how her simple thoughts she bluntly expresses hurt me the worst. She turns away from me and crouches down to the bare mattress that cradles the sprawled form of Kirsty who has fallen back in a fit of giggles. I cannot give benefit of a doubt that she is laughing out of amusement of the condescension Maura directs toward me or if she is just high as fuck.

"Kit I know you arent fully here but I am leaving." I scoff internally and fold my arms in front of my chest at the tone Maura gives her. It sounds caring and soft.

The Mancunian is hitting her peak I can tell and perhaps it isnt her just being amused by us but by herself and whatever odd thoughts are entering her mind. "Aw." She responds with a frown as she grabs Maura's flawless face cradling as gently as her shaking large hands will allow. Kirsty, Kirst, Kit is genuinely saddened by her departure it seems and I cannot blame her. "My Kitty Cat leaving so soon?" The comment from earlier makes the vaguest sense now. Apparantly Maura has become her pet of sorts. It sickens me as Kirsty leans forward planting a chaste kiss on Maura's rose colored lips. I feel sick as she pulls away and I notice the goofy smile and lame eyes as if she just received the best kiss ever. My insides are boiling over.

"Kit" Kirsty says laughing pointing at herself and then sharply turns her finger to Maura saying, "Cat" and then falls back right into Docker's lap laughing. "Ain't we a pair Dock?" She says reaching up and stroking her friend's face. Docker merely nods and Maura straightens up with a grin enjoying Kirsty's antics.

I was not.

"Can we go now Maura?" I say stiffly already turning and reaching for the door that leads to the hall. I slam it shut behind me and hear through the wood the muffled voices now coming from within. I close my eyes not caring to distinguish who is talking. I lean against the door just wishing Maura would follow, not far behind.