A/N: This was another hard chapter for me to write but I want to thank you all for the reviews and the PMs. Thanks to my followers as well.
After work Jane went home grabbed a beer and waited for Maura. Soon she saw headlights in her driveway and went to the door and opened it before Maura could ring the bell.
"Hi." Jane said to her and leaned in to kiss Maura but Maura pulled away and walked passed her into the house.
Jane shut the door and followed Maura into the living room.
"What's wrong Maura?" Jane asked her.
"I have to talk to you." Maura said to her.
"Come sit down with me." Jane said as she took Maura's hand to go to the couch. Maura resisted and slowly pulled her hand out of Jane's.
"I can't see you anymore." Maura blurted out.
"What? Why?" Jane asked her confused.
"Jane, please this doesn't have to be difficult." Maura said to her, "We just can't see each other anymore."
"Where the hell is this coming from?" Jane asked, "Is this because of your mother?"
"We've had our fun Jane but now it's over." Maura told her.
"Our fun?" Jane said to her, "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"I can't do this anymore. It's gotten out of hand." Maura told her. She was doing all she could not to burst into tears at the moment.
"Maura what the hell is going on?" Jane asked as she went over and took Maura's face in her hands, "Please just tell me what's going on."
Maura took Jane's hands off her face, "This was never who I am."
"What did she say to you?" Jane asked getting angry. "What did that bitch mother of yours say to you?" Jane yelled and Maura slapped Jane across the face.
Jane clenched her jaw as she looked at Maura.
Maura turned around and started to walk to the front door. Jane followed behind her and as Maura opened the door Jane put a hand up and slammed it shut and held it closed. Maura held onto the doorknob. She didn't turn around. She could feel Jane's body against hers.
"We were happy this morning and everything was fine." Jane said in Maura's ear, "What happened?"
"Things change Jane. Things happen and people change." Maura said quietly.
"Please turn around and look at me." Jane said to her. "If you're gonna lie to me at least look me in the eyes when you do."
Maura pulled on the door knob, "Just let me leave." She said quietly.
"Maura, you said you wanted to be with me." Jane said choking back her tears.
Maura turned around and pushed Jane away from her, "Don't you see what was going on?" Maura yelled, "I was just using you."
Jane stepped closer to her, "I don't believe you." She said through clenched teeth.
"I really don't care what you believe." Maura said as she turned and headed back to the front door.
Jane grabbed Maura by the arm and turned her around, pressing her against the front door.
"I don't know what the fuck is going on right now but you better be damn sure I'm going to find out." Jane told her.
Maura pulled her arm away from Jane, turned around and opened the door.
"Please don't leave." Jane pleaded to her.
Maura didn't bother turning around, "Don't contact me anymore." She said and kept walking.
Jane slammed the door then punched it with all her might, "FUCK!" She yelled and grabbed her hand. She sunk to the floor and started to cry.
Maura walked as calmly as she could to her car and got in and drove off. As soon as she was away from Jane's house she pulled the car to the curb and sobbed.
A rage surged inside of Jane as she got up and went back into the living room. She kicked her coffee table over. She grabbed her half empty beer and threw it against the wall in the kitchen. The bottle shattered spraying glass and beer everywhere.
Jane's vision blurred through her tears as she went into her bedroom, slammed the door and crawled into bed. Her left hand throbbed as she cried herself to sleep.
When Maura calmed down she called her mother, "You don't have to worry about Jane anymore." She said and hung up.
Angela tried for the 4th time to get Jane to pick up her phone. Finally fed up she drove over to Jane's house and used her spare key to go in. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the over turned coffee table and shattered glass in the kitchen.
Angela didn't bother knocking as she went into Jane's bedroom. Jane was in bed under the covers.
"Jane, what the hell happened?" Angela asked her.
"Go away Ma, please." Jane mumbled.
"Jane, talk to me." Angela said to her as she sat on the end of Jane's bed.
"Maura came over and we broke up." Jane said still under the covers.
Angela pulled the covers slowly off of Jane and looked at her daughter, "And I think I broke my hand." Jane said looking at her Angela with tears in her eyes.
Angela and Jane drove in silence to the emergency room. When they finally got into a room Angela sat down in a chair and looked at Jane.
"What happened?" Angela asked.
Jane hung her head and started to cry.
Angela got up and held Jane, "Oh honey, just tell me what happened."
"She pretty much said she doesn't want me anymore." Jane said through her tears. "She said it was never who she really was."
"Oh Janie." Angela said giving her a squeeze then let Jane go.
"Ma, it has to be her mother. It can't just be good one minute then over the next." Jane said to her as she wiped her face with her right hand. "It just can't be that simple."
After x-rays and a talk with the doctor Jane found out she sprained her wrist. The doctor told her to ice it, keep an Ace bandage on it while she slept. No work for at least two days.
Angela took Jane to her restaurant where she put one of her senior sous-chefs in charge then Angela took Jane home.
Jane tipped her coffee table back over and started to pick up the magazines on the floor. "Leave it for now Jane." Angela said to her as she sat on the couch.
"Come talk to me." She said patting the cushion next to her.
Jane got up and went to sit down next to her mother.
"So, what are you going to do about Maura?" Angela asked her.
"What can I do Ma?" Jane asked, "She doesn't want me anymore."
"Bullshit." Angela said and Jane's jaw dropped. "She wants you Jane. Don't give up on her." Angela said then she looked at Jane, "You need to fight."
"I need to kill her mother and find a place to dispose of her body." Jane said in frustration as she rubbed her tired eyes.
"I know of a few places." Angela said.
Jane chuckled, "I bet you do."
Angela leaned over and hugged Jane, "I love you Jane and I know you well enough to know that you won't give up, not if it's something you truly want." She said to Jane.
"I love you too Ma." Jane said to her.
Angela got up and told Jane that she'd check in on her later then she left.
Jane took her cellphone out of her pocket and called Maura only to get her voicemail.
"Maura, I need to talk to you. Last night was just too much. Shit was said that we probably didn't mean." Jane said, "Just please call me back so we can talk."
She hung up her phone then got up and finished cleaning the mess she'd made last night.
Maura went to work the next day and her mother pretended as if nothing had happened.
On the way to one of Constance's campaign stops, Constance looked over at Maura, "Don't look so glum Maura. People will be watching you almost as much as they will me." She said putting a hand on Maura's knee.
Maura pushed Constance's hand off her knee, "I really don't give a shit." She said with a look to her mother then went back to staring out the car window.
Two days went by and Jane still hadn't heard from Maura.
She went back to work only to run the kitchen. She couldn't prepare any food since her wrist still hurt.
At lunch Jane went to the hospital to visit her mother.
"Let me talk to her." Angela said to her.
"I don't think that will help." Jane told her as they sat outside.
"I'm very persuasive." Angela said to her.
"I don't want her to be persuaded into being with me Ma." Jane told her, "I want her to just want to be with me."
Jane started to feel sad talking about Maura.
"I better get going." She said as she threw her trash away in the garbage can. "I'll talk to you later." She said and Angela watched Jane walk away sadly.
The next day Maura joined Pamela at her bistro.
"What's wrong with you Maura?" Pamela asked while they sat and ate lunch. "You seem so quiet or upset."
"Nothing's wrong. I've just been working too hard." Maura told her as she poked at her salad with her fork.
"And how's that beautiful chef of yours doing?" Pamela asked her with a smile.
Maura looked up at her and Pamela's smile vanished. "What'd I say?" Pamela asked.
"It's nothing." Maura insisted.
"Maura, any other time I mention Jane to you, you have a huge smile on your face." Pamela said to her, "What's changed? What happened?" Pamela asked and before Maura could say anything she said, "And don't tell me nothing."
Maura sighed and put her fork down, "I broke up with her."
"Oh no, why?" Pamela said and when Maura didn't say anything, Pamela knew.
"Connie made you do this didn't she?" Pamela asked, "She said something to you or did something and made you break up with Jane am I right?"
"She was going to have Angela arrested for assault." Maura told her, "She said she'd make calls to have Jane's restaurant shut down and she'd see to it that Jane would never get another job on this coast again."
Maura looked down at the table, "I can't let her hurt them."
"Maura, did you tell Jane this?" Pamela asked her.
"No. If I would have told Jane what my mother had said, she would have confronted my mother. It would only make things worse. I can't have that." Maura told her.
"But how can you be okay with that?" Pamela asked her.
"I'm not okay with it, I'm dying inside. I go out to my car at lunchtime just so I can have a moment alone to cry." Maura told her.
"I said horrible things to her, things I didn't mean just to get her angry at me so it wouldn't hurt so bad when I walked away." Maura held back her tears, "But in all honesty Jane has made me the happiest I've been in a long time."
Pamela reached over and put a hand on Maura's, "You have to do something Maura."
"I can't." She said sadly.
'You can't but I can.' Pamela thought to herself.
After lunch Maura went back to the office to work and Pamela took off to A Taste of Italy.
"Does no one see the 'Employee's only' sign on the door?" Jane asked as Pamela came into the kitchen and walked right up to Jane.
"You're being an idiot." Pamela said to Jane.
Angela set down the spoon she was using to stir, "Do I need to slap this one too?" She asked Jane.
"No Ma, it's fine." Jane told her.
Jane ushered Pamela to the alcove in the kitchen, "What do you want?" She asked.
"I want to talk to you about Maura." Pamela said and Jane started to turn and walk away. Pamela grabbed her by the arm, "She's doing this for you."
Jane turned around, "What the fuck are you talking about? Can you people stop being so fucking cryptic? I'm just really sick of it. Just say whatever it is you need to say."
"The only reason Maura broke up with you was because Connie threatened to throw your mother in jail for hitting her and for threatening to have your restaurant shut down and your reputation ruined." Pamela told her, "Don't you see? Connie knows by hurting you she can control Maura."
Jane gave Pamela a look as if she didn't believe what she was saying.
"Maura couldn't tell you because she was afraid of what you might do, afraid that you might make things worse by going after Connie." Pamela told her
"What kind of sick person would do that?" Jane asked in disbelief.
"The kind of person who doesn't like homosexuals and who can't accept the fact that their daughter wants to be with a woman." Pamela said to her.
Jane turned around, "Ma, keep an eye on the kitchen." Jane said taking off her chef jacket and hanging it up.
She left the alcove and walked off then came back to Pamela, "You really can't be in here." She said to her then walked out the double doors.
Jane drove to the campaign office. She swung the glass door open and marched inside.
"Jane what are you doing here?" Maura said getting up from her desk. "Jane please don't do this." She called after Jane.
Jane ignored her and went right over to Constance's office, opened the door and went inside. She slammed the door shut and locked it.
"You get the hell out of here right now before I call the police." Constance said to Jane as she grabbed the phone. Jane ripped the phone line out of the wall.
"Where the fuck do you get off, you uptight, self-righteous bitch?" Jane yelled at her. "What kind of sick twisted fuck are you that you bully Maura into breaking up with me just so people won't know you have a gay daughter?"
"My daughter is not gay!" Constance yelled as she stood up.
"Oh trust me, she's gay." Jane said to her with a small smile.
"You disgusting, crude and vile woman." Constance said to her, "You get the hell out of my office right now!"
Maura was knocking hard on the door, "Jane, please just leave." She called through the door.
"You can have my restaurant shut down and ruin whatever reputation you think I have." Jane told her, "I don't care because none of that means as much to me as Maura." Jane told her.
"Jane I'm going to call the police." Maura called through the door.
The expression on Jane's face changed from anger to sadness as she turned and looked at the door.
"It doesn't seem like you mean as much to her now does it?" Constance asked with a smug grin on her face.
Jane looked back at Constance, "Fuck you." Jane said then went to the door, unlocked it and swung it open.
She stared at Maura who had her cellphone to her ear.
"Don't you see she's just trying to control you for her own purposes?" Jane asked.
"She doesn't give a shit about your happiness or what you want, Maura. She never has and she never will." Jane didn't wait for Maura to respond she just walked out of the campaign office.
Constance came out of her office, "When are the police getting here?" she asked Maura.
"I didn't call them." Maura told her then went back over to her desk and sat down.
Constance went over to Maura's desk and picked up the phone. Maura took the receiver from her and slammed it back down, "Just leave it alone, Mother. She's gone and I don't think she'll be coming back." She said to her.
"See to it she doesn't." Constance said to her then went back into her office and slammed the door shut.
Jane slammed her hand on the steering wheel when she got into her car, "FUCK!" she yelled at it sent a surge of pain through her wrist.
"Fuck." She said quietly as she rested forehead on the steering wheel.
Jane went back to the restaurant and Angela asked no questions while Jane quietly went back to work.
For the next week Maura was busy working for Constance as her campaign started to heat up. She'd regained a few points from her last visits at some of the colleges in Massachusetts.
Jane's wrist finally healed and she was back in her kitchen yelling and ordering people around.
"You've given up haven't you?" Angela asked Jane after Sunday dinner.
"What can I do Ma if she doesn't want to see or speak to me?" Jane asked.
"You just keep trying." Angela told her.
Jane leaned against the counter, "Ma, she broke up with me for the stupidest reason."
"She loves her mother, Jane." Angela said to her.
"I love you too Ma, but I'm not sacrificing my happiness for yours." Jane told her.
"That's the difference between me and Constance Isles. I'd never ask you to." Angela told her.
A few days went by and Jane was at the restaurant making cannoli for a party at a country club when her cellphone rang.
"Hello?" She said as she put down the pastry bag and answered her phone.
"Please stop making this so hard. Stop calling me, stop texting. Stop sending me hibiscus flowers." Maura said on the phone, "Please Jane, just stop."
"Why, because you want me to?" Jane asked her. "Or because your mother wants me to?"
Maura hung up.
Jane put her phone back in her pocket and returned to her work. She had her staff load up the two catering vans and she and her team drove to the country club.
Maura and Constance were on their way to Watertown for a debate. Maura sat quietly while Constance went over her notes and studied her speech.
"How does that sound?" Constance asked.
"That sounds just fine." Maura said to her even though she hadn't been listening. Jane's words echoed in her mind, 'Because you want me to or because your mother wants me to?' Maura didn't even know anymore.
Jane was setting up in the banquet hall of the Oakley Country Club for a wedding reception. She was ordering people around like she did at her restaurant. She went into the kitchen and started to prepare some of the food.
Maura and Constance arrived at the Oakley Country Club and went inside. They'd been setting up to debate in a banquet hall. The debate would be shown on live TV so Constance was a little bit nervous.
Maura sat off to the side while pre-interviews were done with both candidates. People started to gather into the hall. Press and town folk alike took their seats and waited for the debate. Constance was told well in advance that some questions would be from the audience and Constance was happy there would be no surprises.
Jane had just finished the last touches for the reception when the guests started to pour in. She went back into the kitchen and told her staff to keep an eye on the food and drink levels. The waiters were sent out and the party started.
Each candidate had a 2 minute shot to answer any question posed to them. Constance was holding her own against her opponent.
"We'll now be taking questions for the audience." The moderator said as he turned to the audience. "First questions please." He said.
A young woman stood up and asked about the high price of college tuition. Each candidate answered then they moved on to more questions.
"I'm going to take a break, keep an eye on things." Jane told her senior chef then took off her jacket and left the kitchen.
As she walked up the carpeted halls she heard loud cheering and clapping coming from one of the other rooms. She poked her head in and saw what looked like some kind of TV show going on with all the cameras. She slipped in and took a seat in the back.
The questions switch more to the candidate's personal views rather than political. They were asked about what they thought about the war, about the President and gun control.
"This question is for Candidate Isles, How do you feel about homosexuals?" Someone asked from the back of the room.
The crowd turned and a spotlight hit the person asking the question. Pamela stood with a microphone.
"I'm sorry could you repeat the question?" The moderator asked.
"I asked Mrs. Isles how she feels about homosexuals." Pamela asked as she started to walk up the main aisle.
Constance stood in horror as she watched her friend coming towards her.
"Mrs. Isles, the question is for you." The Moderator said to her.
"Um, yes well, I believe our state has allowed many rights to homosexuals and is one of the more accommodating states as well." Constance said as she swallowed hard.
Maura looked on wondering what the hell was going on.
Jane was sitting in the back, her arm across her chest and a smile on her face.
"That's not what I asked. I asked how YOU feel about gays, not the state." Pamela asked her.
"I believe I answered your question." Constance said looking down at Pamela.
Jane looked around the room, she spotted Maura sitting off in the crowd.
"No, you didn't." Pamela said to her. "Just answer the question Connie, be honest about it for once in your life. Stop trying to control everything. Let your daughter be happy with her girlfriend."
"My daughter doesn't have a girlfriend." Constance said to her.
"Well you made sure of that didn't you?" Pamela said to her.
"Fine Pamela, you want to know what I think?" Constance said to her. "I think it's wrong. I think it's disgusting and perverted. My daughter is not gay. I didn't raise an abomination."
The crowd gasped at Constance's words. Constance looked up at the crowd then down at Maura. She looked around the room then just walked off stage and out a side door.
The crowd was up on its feet talking loudly, news reporters were calling in to their stations. Town folk were calling anyone that wasn't there to update them.
Jane pushed through the crowd towards Maura, she caught Maura by the arm just as she was about to leave. "Maura." Jane said to her and Maura just looked at her.
"Not now Jane, please." Maura said to her and Jane let her go.
Maura followed her mother down the hall and out of the building. "Mother, wait please." Maura called after her and she stopped before getting into her car.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Constance asked turning around to look at her.
"What am I doing to you, Mother?" Maura said to her, "All I'm doing is living my life."
"Is that what you were doing with that woman?" Constance asked her.
"Yes." Maura said to her.
"Well then what you were doing was wrong. The way you were with her was wrong. It's was disgusting." Constance said to her.
"And the way you are treating me is just as disgusting." Maura said to her. "You are a controlling, mean and self-centered woman." Maura said to her and Constance slapped her across the face.
Maura's eyes watered as she touched her cheek, "That hurt less than breaking up with Jane." She said to her mother.
"I'm done with you Mother." Maura said to her, "I'm done being controlled and manipulated by you."
Constance looked at Maura, "You're choosing her over me?" She asked.
"No, for once in my life I'm choosing my happiness over yours." Maura said to her then she walked away.