Disclaimers in previous chapters.
Now, I know I took longer to update, but that's why I'm going to shoot two tonight (yes, it's late over here). Happy reading :)
"Apple juice, some really crappy non-alcoholic beer, microwave popcorn, chips, chocolate... Take your pick!" she said it all in one breath the second Maura opened the door for her.
"Impressive. You thought of everything." she said, entertained, as she moved out of the way for Jane to enter.
"I see you gave up on your daily outfit." Jane said as she passed by.
"I have realized that sweatpants are often a more comfortable option. They are also less straining for the body and allow it to relax to a greater extent. Isn't that why you are wearing some right now?"
"If you say so. By the way, they don't have non-alcoholic wine. They call it grape juice!" she called from the kitchen where she went to leave the shopping bags.
Maura chuckled at the comment as she settled on the couch. "What are we watching?"
"Um... I thought you had like... a bottomless storage of sciency stuff on everything!"
Jane had to yell again to be heard over the noise of moving around, opening chips bags and generally doing stuff in not even nearly as gracious way as Maura could.
"You bought an entire rack of snacks but you didn't get a movie?" she called, laughing at the irony of this meeting being titled a "movie night".
"I thought you were picking!" Jane said with her mouth full of chips as she loudly threw herself on the couch, handing the bag to Maura. The doctor was happy to notice that regardless of the past events, Jane was still very comfortable around her place. Except for the fact that they weren't sitting as close as usual.
"Remember, it's all for the better."
"You don't want to watch a documentary, Jane." she smiled calmly at her.
"But..."
"You don't need to just do things for me." Maura interrupted.
"Maura..."
It was a ridiculously stupid situation. In the past they used to just randomly pick a relaxing movie and enjoying watching it just for the company. The two of them could make the most banal plot-line and the flattest of characters interesting when they started commenting and joking around. Jane had watched documentaries on the newly designed procedures for targeting antibiotic-resistant genes in MRSA pathogens and Maura had accompanied her through specials on topics ranging from "guns and ammo" to "baseball through the ages".
Yet now they had reached a point where it was somehow meaningful who picks the movie.
"Let me make a suggestion." Maura said playfully, wanting to ease the situation.
"Yeah, sure."
"I have several comedies and drama movies lying around. I will take those along with some documentaries that I have interest in, and I will take the disks you have brought but we never got a chance to watch. Then we will choose one at random."
"Sounds good!"
It took Maura no longer than two minutes to assemble the tiny collection.
"You wanna draw?" Jane asked.
"Not really." Maura shook her head in thought. "I suggest we each take one disk away at a time. There are... let me see... seven of them. The one remaining wins!"
"Okay."
Maura ordered with her soft and polite bossiness.
"You go first. Close your eyes."
Jane did as she was told. She could hear Maura scrambling to place the disks in her hands as she would hold playing cards. She didn't know how long she stood there waiting but it was long enough for the cancellation of her vision to give way to heightened sensitivity on the rest of her senses. Her nose was the first to report a sensation: Maura's perfume. Something exotic. Something fruity. Something delicious.
Jane opened her eyes as she caught herself enjoying it, scared by her body's response to it.
"It's just a perfume."
"Hey! No peeking! Go ahead now." Maura scolded her in jest.
"Alright alright!"
Jane reached for the disks pulling one out of Maura's grasp.
"Maybe you should take two more. It would be impractical to take turns seeing as it took me so long to take a proper hold."
And Jane obliged, pulling two others from Maura's hands before opening her eyes for them to switch roles.
"Your turn." she said, leaving the picked ones aside, not bothering to see what she eliminated, and taking the pile from Maura.
The blonde smiled excitedly and held her hand out, hovering over Jane's hands. Her eyes were closed, but Jane's were carefully observing Maura's hand, marveling at the tenderness, and more importantly, lack of scars on it. The smoothness must feel amazing!
"This one!" the loud squeal shook Jane away from her swooning.
"The hell, Jane? Stop it. Seriously."
"And this and this!" the rest came in two quick successions, and Jane took a second to note what had been the result of their choosing.
"This means war. Nice. Just as I'm trying to patch things up with you." She said sarcastically, not fully meaning to vocalize the second sentence. But it happened, and she only hoped Maura wouldn't react to it in any inopportune way.
"Jane?" Maura started, bringing Jane's mind's and eyes' attention to herself.
"Yeah?"
"I am a mature, emotionally stable woman. There is no need for "patching things up"." she looked at Jane reassuringly for a second, then continued. "I know you understood what I meant, and I know you will understand that I will go past this. And... considering the things you said yesterday, I think we could be on a path to going back to how things were."
"Maura... what do you..."
"What I'm trying to say is simply that I agree we should try to be friends again. And that I'll get over you."
Maura used the short pause while Jane stood not knowing how to respond to grab the disk from her. "Now let's watch this." she said and settled on the couch. "Come on."
It was a happy evening in the life of Maura Isles. She had already let her guard down, at least to the level appropriate for them to loosen up, but not so much as to give up on her decision to get over Jane. They were comfortable on the couch, sitting close but separated with a bowl of popcorn. Jane had found it amusing to comment on the believability of the fighting on screen, and Maura couldn't help but make remarks regarding the way the characters dressed. In a short time, the main character and her best friend were enjoying a girls night in, sitting together with glasses of wine.
"Those are some giant glasses!" Jane commented.
"That depends. I mean..."
"Maura?" Jane interrupted her, still looking at the screen and Maura couldn't see her face properly to read her expression.
"Yes?"
She raised her torso, leaning to grab the remote from the coffee table. She paused the movie and tuned to her friend.
Maura noticed her eyebrows were raised and her eyes were full of worry. It gave her a glimpse of an invested caring Jane. And as much as she thought it hardly possible that things snap back quickly, Jane must have been trying really hard, or had one hell of an epiphany, for things to seem so warm and inviting so fast.
"I was thinking... I thought you'd tell me yourself, but since you didn't so far..." Jane started hesitantly.
Maura hated the small breaks because they gave her mind enough time to panic and envision the worst possible scenarios about what her conversation partner could follow with.
"What happened, Maur? Why aren't you drinking?"
A/N: No comment here... the next chapter will follow shortly.