Hey y'all! So, one week down and about 16 left to go for me. I did really intend to have this up sooner, but it just didn't happen. I will keep working to get chapters to you as soon as I can. Thanks again for all of the reads, follows, favorites, reviews, PM's, etc. I can't believe how popular this story has become with just a few chapters posted! Y'all are simply amazing and awesome, and it always puts a smile on my face to think about y'all enjoying my stories. Anyway, lets get back to it! Enjoy!
She came awake slowly that morning. She almost didn't want to move, but her body needed to stretch out a bit. Jane was stretching out her long limbs when her brain suddenly remembered that there should be a body next to her in her bed. Her eyes shot open and scanned around the room. Maura wasn't anywhere in sight.
She had just started to sit up when she smelled coffee drifting in from the kitchen. A small smile made its way to her face. She was glad that Maura hadn't left yet. She pulled back the sheets; she might as well get this day started.
"Morning," she said as she headed immediately for the coffee pot. "I was starting to think that you'd taken off on me when I smelled the coffee."
Maura took a sip from her mug before setting it down on the counter. "Well the sense of smell is the last thing to 'wake up' in the morning. Since I wasn't really doing anything in here there probably wasn't any auditory stimulation that you would have picked up on."
Jane smirked to herself. Maura wouldn't ever change. It would actually be a tragedy if she did. "You're probably missing your fancy coffee machine right about now." She finished fixing her mug and turned to Maura.
"Actually it's not the machine I miss so much as the caffeine in general. Numerous studies have proven that it's not good for mothers to consume caffeine while pregnant. Now that I'm quite sure that is the case that means no more caffeine."
"I thought there were some studies that showed that a mother could have one cup of caffeinated coffee a day."
Maura shook her head in response. "I don't feel that there are enough studies done on the effects of that. So, it's best to just give it up completely for now."
"So, if you're not drinking caffeine, what's in the mug?"
"Organic orange juice. Orange juice is high in folic acid, which is important for baby's health while pregnant."
Jane raised her eyebrows, "Fair enough." She took another sip from her mug. "I don't have to give it up too for one of those showing my support and solidarity things do I?"
Maura laughed just a bit. "Like I would have a chance at getting you to give up caffeine and alcohol."
"Oh hell no, there would be no way I would give up alcohol for just a solidarity showing."
"Exactly my point. My baby, which means that my caffeine and alcohol have to go, no one else's."
A pang pricked at Jane's chest with the words 'my baby.' It hurt more than she ever thought it could. She would have loved to have heard the words 'our baby' come out of Maura's mouth, but she'd given up that chance a long time ago.
"Maur, I need to…" She only managed to get out half of her sentence before both of their phones went of simultaneously. It was a bit creepy that they always seemed to get a call at the same time; she didn't have time to think about that right now, there was a new case they were going to have to solve.
R&I
A soft knock resonated off of the open door to her office. "Hey," came the soft, deep voice that she loved to hear. Maura smiled and looked up from her computer. "Come in Jane."
Jane stood a few feet from her desk looking slightly awkward. It was usually how she looked when she had something she wanted to ask, but was unsure of how it would be perceived. "Something you needed?"
"Uh… Yeah I guess there is," Jane responded, only to go no further than that.
Maura slightly rolled her eyes. She couldn't understand why Jane was being so awkward at the moment. "You do know that you can just ask whatever it is that you're so nervous about?"
Jane ran her fingers thought her wild, dark locks and sucked in a deep breath. "Right, okay. So, I was wondering if you wanted to get a drink or something later. Except that I know that you can't drink obviously so I didn't…" She had trailed off midsentence. She tried again after taking a breath. "Mainly I think I wanted to ask if we could talk. Everything happened and then we got thrown this crazy case and now that we have the perp, and I thought we should probably talk."
"Why don't you come over tonight after work? You can have a drink and we can have that talk."
Jane's eyebrows knitted together slightly, but she agreed, "Alright."
"I should get finished with everything here and be home no later than 6:30. Does that work for you?"
"Yeah I should be finished with all of the paperwork by then. Is there anything that you'd like me to pick up on my way?"
Maura shook her head. "I think that I have everything I need. We can order in dinner when you get there if you want to."
"Sounds good," Jane said as she slowly inched back from Maura desk. "Better head back up and get my paperwork finished up."
"I'll see you soon Jane."
R&I
Maura had finished her work a little bit sooner than she thought and had headed home early to prepare for Jane's arrival. Just as she thought, her husband was nowhere in sight. She knew that he'd been at the house at some point in the last few days because some of his clothes were missing from the closet. Other than that though he must have found a hotel to stay in for now.
A part of her was saddened by the fact that her marriage could so easily fall apart. Another part of her didn't mind it so much since she had gotten married for fear of never finding someone else. She realized now that fear was definitely the wrong reason to get married. She had started to remember that she used to do everything on her own. That had changed when she met Jane and her family, but Maura knew that she would be able to do things on her own once again.
By the time that Jane walked through the door a few minutes after 6:30 she was most of the way through preparing Angela's recipe for gnocchi. "Wow, something smells good in here," Jane said as she walked into the kitchen. "I thought we were just going to order something in?"
"We were, but I thought this might taste better to you. Especially after that case we worked on the last few days."
"It will definitely taste better to me than take out, but you didn't have to do all of this for me. How in the world did you have time to do all of this? It normally takes close to three hours to make Ma's gnocchi."
Maura winked at her, "I have my ways detective."
Jane quirked an eyebrow and looked curiously over at Maura as she continued to work on finishing off the meal. "Really? That's all you're going to tell me about it."
Maura looked up at Jane from her place by the stove. She raised her eyebrows and smiled coyly. "A good cook never gives away all of her secrets Jane; at least not right away. Your mother taught me that."
"That sounds like my mother," Jane said as she made her way over to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. It hadn't occurred to her until this moment that even after Maura got married that her favorite beer was still always in the fridge when she was over here. She knew in that moment that she was definitely going to have to talk to Maura.
Jane sighed slightly as she grabbed a bottle of water for Maura and closed the door. She popped open her beer and took a drink. "Have you heard from him?" she asked quietly as Maura finished plating the gnocchi for both of them.
"I haven't," she replied as she moved the dishes over for them to eat at the island.
"I'm sorry," Jane said as she moved their drinks over to them and moved back around the island to grab their silverware. "I would have thought that he would have come home by now or at least tried to talk to you."
"I can't say that I'm completely surprised by it," Maura said as she blew on one of her gnocchi and popped it into her mouth.
Jane mirrored her actions and moaned slightly in her approval of the food. "I do think that we should about Nate though."
"Alright. What is it we need to talk about regarding him?"
"I think I understand why it is he thought we were having an affair," Jane answered nervously.
Jane could tell she now had Maura's full attention on the subject even though she hadn't said or asked anything else. She set her fork down on her plate and looked away momentarily to gain back her resolve to say this. She hadn't ever planned on telling Maura about the conversations that she had with Nate, but he had somewhat forced her hand when he accused Maura of having an affair. She looked back and Maura and knew that she had to tell her the truth.
"He told me to stay away from you," Jane said hesitantly. "More than once." She reached over and placed her hand on top of Maura's. "He's thought that something was going on between us since the day you were married. The first time he approached me about staying away from you he said that he saw something in both of our eyes that day."
Maura almost couldn't stand to listen anymore. She knew then that she had been right all along, Nate had married her for her name and nothing more; otherwise he would have stopped the wedding that day. She stood up and pulled away from Jane, moving from kitchen quickly.
"Maura, Maur," Jane said instantly rising to her feet to follow. She quickly caught up to the other woman, grabbing her arm to stop her and pulled her in to an embrace. "I am so sorry. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you before now. And I'm so sorry that I let him drive a wedge between us a few times. I couldn't do it though. I couldn't give up my best friend, no matter what it might have made him think."
Maura couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her husband had tried to drive a wedge between her and her best friend and he had succeeded, even if it was only for a short time. She was angry and sad all at once; at both her husband and her best friend. She couldn't make herself pull away from Jane at this moment though. "Why didn't you tell me?" It was all she could think to ask while being embraced by her best friend.
Jane sighed. "I don't know for sure Maur. The first time I thought he was just being a little protective and paranoid or something. I can understand a guy feeling a little threatened by a best friend, like the friend is suddenly going to decide she doesn't like him being in the picture or something like that. I was surprised though, by the fact that he said that he saw something in our eyes the day of the wedding. Thought I'd done a better job of covering it up than that as I walked you down the aisle."
They both pulled back from the embrace to look at the other. Maura eyes shined with unshed tears. "I can't believe he acted like that the whole time we were married. I really thought that he was a good man."
"I still think he is somewhat of a good man Maura. The fact that he thought we were having an affair isn't all that big of a deal. We both know we love each other. We knew it the day we walked down that aisle together and you married him, so you can't really blame him for figuring that out and suspecting something."
"He married me for my name Jane, not because he loved me and wanted me as a spouse."
"A lot of people get married for the wrong reasons. Doesn't always mean that the marriage will fail. I think that people can grow to love one another over time if they really want to."
"I think we're past that point now Jane. Maybe if I'd known all of this before it would have been something that we could work on, but now I think it's over."
"Don't say that Maur. I mean, what about the baby? Doesn't your child at least deserve to have two parents if it's at all possible? At least talk to him first before you just decide your marriage is over."
Maura couldn't take anymore. She pulled away from Jane completely. "At least talk to him first. I think he made things quite clear the other day. What you don't know, Jane, is that in his mind it is entirely my fault that I'm pregnant. I knew that he didn't want kids so I was supposed to be the one taking care of those kinds of things so that we didn't have children. He doesn't give a damn about me and he will do the same to this baby. At least if I leave now I might have more of a chance of getting him to give up parental rights."
Jane took a couple of more steps back from Maura just to give her some space. She stuck her hands in her pockets and felt somewhat like a child that was being scolded for something they did wrong, but didn't quite understand why. She somewhat understood though. She hadn't known all of that about what Nate had said before. She felt that Maura was justified in leaving. Maura deserved someone who would care about her and her child. She deserved someone who wanted to give her the world, and Nate hadn't turned out to be that man like they both thought he would.
"I've done a lot of things on my own," Maura finally said breaking the silence. "I can do this on my own too."
"Be alone? You're going to be lucky if Ma doesn't move back in here five minutes after you tell her." She had meant it as a joke, but Maura wasn't very receptive to her humor right now. She took a few steps closer to Maura knowing what she was going to have to do now.
Jane stopped a couple of feet from Maura and looked her deeply in the eyes. "Please just think about this a little bit more once you've calmed down. Talk to him first. If it's mutual that things won't work between you fine, but it at least deserves some sort of conversation first." She could see anger starting to rise up in Maura again and she held her hand up to stop her from saying anything. "I'll go."
With their food long forgotten Jane made her way to the door and started gathering her things. She turned as she opened the door. Though Maura wasn't looking directly at her she knew Maura would be paying attention. "Again, I'm sorry that all of this is only coming out now. I'll talk to you later." With that she was through the door and pulling it gently closed behind her.
Maura sat heavily down on her couch. She couldn't believe what a mess her life had turned into in just a few short days. It seemed as though she were living a nightmare. She couldn't be that lucky though; this wasn't something she could just wake up from. A tear slowly made its way down her cheek. Though it might be hard to see it at the moment she knew that things were going to work out just how they were meant to; even if she did end up all alone.
So, cue a bit of dramatic music right here after that one, right? Now Maura has no husband and no best friend. Or does she? Guess we'll find out with the next chapter! As always, thanks for reading and you know wolves and I are anxious to know what you thout of this chapter so click right down there in the box and leave us a little somethin'! Please?
