Okay, I know it's been FOREVER since I posted chapter 2. Real life can sure get in the way, huh? Thank you for the adds, comments and subscriptions. Awesome. So let's just move on to chapter 3, shall we?
Disclaimer- TNT, Tess G, and others own the two ladies I write about. Me: Debt, vodka and cats.
As Maura waited for Jane, she wiped down her kitchen for the second time, running the antibacterial wipe over marble and steel, her mind slid back to earlier in the evening when she was eating gnocchi with Angela.
"How come you aren't having dinner with Jane tonight?" Angela had asked her after a few moments of silence between them.
"Oh, I think Jane had something to do tonight." Maura's shot at evasiveness flopped to the floor.
A small smile appeared on Angela. "Hmm, on a Friday night without you, huh?" He sipped her wine and watched Maura keep her eyes on her plate. "That doesn't sound like my Jane."
Maura looked up slightly, trying to figure out what she was going to say. It was clear that Angela wasn't going to drop the subject matter anytime soon. However, Maura caught something in Angela's eyes that made her want to keep Angela talking. "Well…" She drifted off, leaning the conversation to Angela. Jane had taught her a long time ago that when interrogating a subject, the more silence you give the perpetrator, the more he or she will talk just to void the gap. Angela did just that.
"Seems to me that you and Janie aren't together because one of you said something to the other that caused either confusion or hurt." Angela matter-of-factly stated. "Believe me, Maura, I know my daughter and I have seen how often she is over here or you are over there, or going out to dinner or sleeping over. For her not to be here tonight, there must be a funeral or a date that I don't know about." Maura's eyes widened. Angela chuckled. "So which one did what to who?"
"Whom," Maura automatically corrected her, then winced. "Sorry. It's a habit." She took a breath. "I don't know if you really want to hear it, Angela. I'm not even sure if I can tell it." She tried to be ambiguous.
Angela poured both of them a little more of the wine and sat back slightly. Maura absently ate a piece of gnocchi. Angela sipped wine. Maura broke down and told her the story of Susan Vaughn, the game of truth or dare, Jane's reaction and her now attraction. When she was finished, Angela was silent as she cleared the counter and rinsed dishes. Maura felt that maybe she had gone too far.
"Well, that seems just about right," Angela said as she dried her hands with a dishtowel. "I figured it had to do with matters of the heart, but what I am hearing is that you told Janie about something that you were hoping never came up, right?"
Maura had stood up, "Well, yes. I am very aware of Jane's attraction to me, even if she doesn't see it herself yet. And I am aware of my attraction to her, even though I do my absolute best not to show it to her." Angela hawed at that one. "The last thing I would want to do is put our friendship in jeopardy over a little attraction. It just doesn't seem right. Look what it did to Susan and I? I really liked her as a friend, and I haven't spoken to her since the day I quit my job. I still mourn that loss, but if I were to lose Jane I would never get over that. I'd probably have to move to the villa on Capri and die a lonely old woman."
Angela laughed at that. "Dramatic!" She said with a flourish, "I think the Italians have rubbed off on you, Doctor!" They shared a laugh, and then Angela turned more serious.
"So tell me, Maura, what is wrong with all of those men you see? I mean I've noticed a pattern. You always find something wrong with them and there is hardly a second date." Angela asked her.
"Oh, Angela, it's more than that." Maura tried to respond, "It really has to do with a chemical response and an initial attraction or even an initial interest. Most men I have dated just don't fit up to the standards that I have. And once I realize this, the attraction is gone and there is no need for a second date."
Angela narrowed her eyes a bit, "Oh yeah? And what are these standards of yours?"
"Strong," Maura started off, "Caring, smart, brave, with no egotistical behavior. Umm, someone for whom the warmth seeps out of their heart and into their eyes. Someone who doesn't judge me. Who likes me, not just the way I look. Who doesn't date me for my money. Someone who gets it."
She came back to herself and saw that Angela was pulling on her coat. "What are you doing?" She asked the older woman.
"I'm going to visit my sister," She looked pointedly at Maura, "For the weekend. I think you know what you need to do."
Maura came back to the situation, "Are you okay with this?"
Angela walked over to her with a big hug, "Honey, I'm okay with it. As long as it is you."
Maura came back to herself with Jane's knock at the door. Her heart jumped as she opened the door and saw Jane on the other side with a small bag, huddled against the cold wind.
"Jane." She said, and let the detective inside. She let her fingers trail Jane's arm as she walked past the doctor. "You look cold." She hung Jane's jacket and turned back to her. Jane's cheeks were flushed from the cold, Maura's from the relative distance. "Why don't you start the fire? I'll get us something to drink. What would you like?"
Jane watched the doctor, "I'll have whatever you are having. But don't baby me, I'm really not drunk." A smile, then she made her way to the fireplace and began to light the gas flame. The sudden jolt of heat began to warm her numb face, causing the rash of red from the cold deepen into warmth. She sat back on the soft rug in front of the fireplace and waited for Maura to return.
When she did, she came bearing tall mugs with a hot tea like substance. "Hot toddies," She explained, "I figured that since you were drinking bourbon earlier, you might as well continue." Jane cocked her head, "I have a very keen nose, Jane." Jane suppressed a shiver that did not go unnoticed. "Are you cold, detective?"
Jane fought the urge to growl. Here she was, in front of a fire with Maura. That alone should make her frustrated enough to express herself in wolf-like fashion, but Maura's teasing was nowhere in the comfortable realm of the indistinctness that made life with her tolerable. She took a sip of her toddy and tears sprang to her eyes. "Wo," She gasped, "Trying to get me drunk, Maura?"
She seemed to ponder the question as she sipped her own cocktail. "Perhaps," She said lightly, "Why don't you finish that drink and we will find out."
Sipping the drink, Jane became aware of the trembling in her hands and chest. Maura didn't take her eyes off of her as she sipped her own drink. Hot alcohol pulsed into her brain as the heat from the fire bore into her skin, flushing a brighter red than before. She continued trembling, Maura's eyes overseeing this purely sensual undoing before her eyes. She ran her fingers over Jane's hand. Explosions of heat and fire spat everywhere inside of Jane. Her trembling manifested into erotic shaking. Maura flushed as she became aware of how undone Jane was in front of her. She moved closer and trailed her fingers up Jane's arm, feeling the tension, the nerves beneath her skin vibrating solely for her. When she reached Jane's neck, she let her fingertips barely graze her skin in an upward motion to her cheek and over to her lips where her soft fingertips ran along the contours of her desire.
Jane reached up and stopped her hand, her eyes deep inside of the doctor's. "I'm going to stroke out if you don't stop." Maura looked concerned, and then she smiled the most seductive smile Jane had ever seen. Jane's heart lurched and she felt a sheen of sweat break out all over her body. Without breaking eye contact, she took the drink from Jane's hand and set it nearby.
"Well, I'm not going to stop, so you are lucky that I am a doctor," The rumble of the tremor began again inside of Jane, "detective."
