It had been two days since their first kiss and they were both in the car on the way to Maura's house, Jane was driving whilst Maura sat beside her in the passenger seat with her hand resting on the dark-haired woman's thigh.
"Are you sure about this Maura?", Jane questioned yet again, the concern was clearly evident in her voice as she glanced in the other woman's direction.
Doctor Isles nodded, "Of course", she answered softly, "I need clothes, Jane, I can't keep borrowing yours".
Jane sighed slightly and bit her lip, a nervous habit, "But what if he is there?".
"You know I hate sentences that start with 'what if' Jane", Maura said as she sat focusing on Jane, "The police said that they haven't found him yet so that means he hasn't been to the house".
The younger woman still felt very unsure about the visit and it showed in her body language as she pulled up at the house, the wheels making a crunching sound on the gravel of the driveway. She turned off the engine and looked over at Maura.
Maura was sat staring at the house, moments from the last time she had been there started to flash through her mind like a poorly put together horror movie where she was the main star and the images made her feel nervous.
Jane reached out and took hold of her hand, "It's going to be okay", she reassured her, she got out of the car and moved around to the passenger's side door whilst Maura remained stationary. The student opened the door and knelt down beside the car, "Hey", she said softly as she placed a hand on Maura's leg, "I'm going to be with you the whole time, okay? I won't leave you for even a moment".
"Promise?", Maura asked very quietly, her voice barely audible.
"I promise", the Italian woman confirmed with a reassuring smile as she leaned in and pressed a very brief kiss on her lips before standing up but keeping hold of Maura's hand.
After a moment, Maura stepped out of the car and closed the door behind her whilst never letting go of Jane's.
They walked up to the front door together, neither letting go of the other's hand. Maura unlocked the front door before nudging it open, looking around as if to expect someone or something was going to grab her. She wanted to go back to her house to get clothing, she wanted to be back in her house to stay without him but she was finding herself on edge and wanting to leave.
The entrance hall was a mess, the vase that had been on the table at the side was smashed on the floor with the flowers still scattered in the broken pieces but the water had dried up now whilst the table that it had once stood on was now leaning unusually to the side on a slightly busted leg. On the floor were smears of blood that had dried and the smears showed the direction of her body being dragged towards the living room. There was an empty bottle of whiskey abandoned on the floor near the coat closet and a stain nearby where the last of it had clearly leaked out of the cracked bottle.
Jane stepped into the house first, tugging Maura behind her, "Come on", she said softly, "We'll grab some clothes and then we'll go back to mine". "We can watch movies and later on, if you feel up to it, then we'll go out to eat somewhere", she suggested with a smile, "How does that sound?".
Maura was stood just inside the house facing Jane, holding on to both of her hands, "That sounds good", she said with a small smile on her face.
"Come on then", Jane said with a grin, putting on a confident front to reassure the older woman, "Let's go to the bedroom", as she said it she winked in a joking manner.
She could not help but laugh as she followed the other woman up the stairs before leading her into the bedroom. The bed was a mess, the covers were strewn all over the place and there was a smashed whiskey glass to the side of the bed whilst the items that had clearly been on top of the cabinets were all scattered on the floor.
Jane opened up the closet doors, "You have a lot of clothes Maur", she commented, "What do you want to bring with you?".
"I'll only need a few outfits for now", she said as she pulled a case out of the back of the walk-in closet and placed it on the bed. A bed that she had hated for months, she slept only when her idiotic soon-to-be ex-husband was passed out drunk on the sofa downstairs because if he was in the room with her she simply could not sleep at all.
Gradually they started to work together to pack a few outfits for the woman along with the toiletries and things that she needed for her stay with Jane. They hadn't spoken about how long that stay would be but Jane had been adamant that she could stay for however long it was that she needed to.
"I think that's all", Maura said as she finished packing the suitcase, "I just need to grab a few things from my study".
"Okay", Jane replied as she picked up the case, not flinching at the weight of it as she put it down on to the floor.
"Could you take that out to the car whilst I get the things from my study?", the honey-blonde woman asked with a smile as she stepped closer to Jane and wrapped her arms around her waist.
Jane nodded, "Are you sure?", she questioned, "I can wait and take it out once you have your things".
"I'll be okay", Maura said with a smile as she leaned up and kissed Jane lovingly, "Hmm… I love doing that".
"Kissing me?", she asked with a slight smirk.
Maura nodded in confirmation, "Definitely".
"That's good because I plan on doing that a lot now", Jane said with a bright smile as she pulled her in again in order to kiss her much more deeply and passionately.
She had a huge smile on her face as she pulled back from the younger woman, it was the most love she had felt in that house for so long, "I'll see you in a moment", she said with the continuous smile on her face.
Jane nodded and made her way down the stairs with the bag, following Maura down before going out to the car with the case.
Maura went into her office and picked up her briefcase before putting together the things that she would need to work from 'home' as she had some assignments to mark and an article to finish writing. She was crouched down pulling a couple of items out of the bottom drawer to put them into her briefcase when she heard someone come into the room, "One moment Jane", she said softly, "I'm almost done, I just need a few more things".
Doctor Isles did not look up as she put the last item in her briefcase and that was a mistake. She did not hear Jane respond but instead, she felt a hand grab her honey-blonde locks violently and pull her away from the desk resulting in her being dragged along the carpeted floor.
The dark-haired woman was still outside, she had taken the bag out to the car and had moved a few things out of the trunk before putting the case in but just as she shut the trunk, she heard a loud scream. She had been talking to the neighbour when she had heard that awful sound so she turned to the woman who was stood in the neighbouring driveway and in a rush shouted out to call the police.
Jane's eyes went wide and she ran into the house as quickly as she could, she did not care about what danger she herself might find herself in but was more focused on getting to Maura and stopping whatever it was that was causing such a fearful scream.
When she reached the study, where she knew that Maura had been heading to, she was met with the sight of Maura on her knees with Ian gripping the woman's hair roughly. She could see his fist with her locks bunched within it and it was clear that the grip was tight enough to hurt Maura from the look of pain on her face and the way he was tugging at it to make her kneel up in front of him. The horrid looking and clearly drunk man was bending over as he spoke to her with his other hand gripping her chin to force her to look up at him.
"Let go of her", the student demanded straight away, "Let go of her now".
"This has nothing to do with you", he spat in her direction, "I suggest you leave before I make you regret ever interfering".
"I said let her go", Jane repeated with determination.
Maura had tears starting to stream down her face as his grip tightened on her face.
"Who do you think you are?", he challenged Jane.
"That one who's going to stop you", the young woman stated simply.
Ian smirked, "Cocky little madame aren't you?", he said in amusement, "You really think that you're going to stop me? Do you think you have the right to tell me what to do with my own wife?". He let go of Maura's face and reached his arm behind his back, "Well, we'll see about that", he said in a much more cocky manner as he started to extract a gun from behind his back.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you", Jane stated calmly as he observed the man's movements and listened to the sounds of the police car coming closer.
"By the time they get here it will be too late for the both of you", he said with his head close to Maura's and his grip tighter than ever on her soft hair causing her head to be moved rapidly in a vicious manner that hurt her neck.
"The police are the least of your worries", Jane stated with a fierceness as she was determined to protect Maura no matter what, it was the woman she was in love with in danger, and she would do anything for her.
When Ian pulled the gun out from behind his back and directed it at Jane with the aim to kill her first as another way to hurt his wife before killing her too, he noticed something that he had not noticed before. Jane had beaten him to it. Jane had a gun in her hand too but hers was pointing at him.
The moment that she saw him flipping the safety off of his gun she fired hers and as that sound echoed throughout the house and the surrounding area multiple things happened at the same time.
Maura collapsed to the ground as Ian suddenly let go of her hair as he had been forcing her upright in an uncomfortable position which made her already injured body feel even sorer than it already had been.
Ian's body dropped to the floor with a thud although partially landing on top of Maura.
And the police charged into the room with their guns raised.
Those moments seemed to happen quickly but Jane managed to put the gun on the table near the door after shooting, she knew that that way the police would be able to take it from there rather than taking it from her. She knew it would give her a chance to move to Maura if she wasn't armed.
Maura was shaking when Jane reached her side, the younger woman pushed Ian's body away and instantly pulled Maura into her arms. Doctor Isles clung to her as she cried into her shoulder.
"It's going to be okay", Jane whispered softly into her ear, "He won't hurt you again". This time she knew that it was a promise that she would be able to keep no matter what as she had ensured that with a singular bullet to the head.
It hadn't all been easy after that, Maura had nightmares quite often and found herself unable to return to the house but after Jane, Frost, and more of Maura's students surprised her with the redecoration of her house she was able to move back into the house. What happened in that home was no longer a secret after what happened on the day of her hospitalisation because of the police presence in the neighbourhood and the search for Ian but when the shooting occurred her students decided to club together in order to pay for the materials to redecorate the house and many of them helped to carry it out too with some cleaning, some painting, some wallpapering, some sorting out smaller detail work, and some even making drinks and food for the workers/students. Jane had ensured that all of the decors would be to Maura's taste by getting magazines and pretending to design a 'perfect house' where she asked Maura what colours she liked in various rooms or what designs she would like in this imaginary house, although in reality, the house was not, in fact, imaginary.
Maura moved back into her home a month after her husband was shot, she was rather impressed with the results of the redecoration and she was touched that they would go to so much effort to make her feel comfortable again in her own home. She was so grateful, especially as she had not thought that she was that popular among her students, so it had all come as a surprise to her.
"So, do you really like it?", Jane asked as they stood in the living room after the other students had left, wanting to check that her ideas of the decor were correct and were in alignment with what the other woman wanted.
Maura looked at her with tear-filled eyes and nodded, "I love it Jane", she said softly as she threw herself into her arms and kissed her passionately on the lips. "Thank you", she lovingly, "I love you".
"I love you too", Jane said back with a smile before kissing her again but a little slower and a little deeper than the previous kiss.
When Maura pulled back she smirked slightly, "You know despite how amazing you all were, I still can't cancel the test next week, right?".
"Damn", Jane said jokingly, "And there I was thinking that we could throw a bit of paint around and get out of that tortuous thing".
Maura simply laughed and shook her head before returning to her embrace.
Although they had had to disclose their relationship to the Dean of the school, it made no difference to them other than Maura being unable to mark Jane's work anymore which did not matter to them at all. Maura continued to teach the same classes whilst Jane eventually graduated with top marks.
Jane walked through the archway after receiving her certificate on stage and listening to the various speeches from the staff members, although, truth be told, she only listened to Maura's.
The lecturers were lined up on either side in order to be able to congratulate their students and Doctor Isles had been shaking her students' hands but when Jane walked past she opted to pull her close instead before kissing her passionately. A few whistles sounded from around them when the others realised what was happening. When Maura pulled back she said softly, "Well done Jane, I knew you could do it".
"Hey, Doc?", one student called out, "Do we get one of those too?".
"Oh hell no", Jane said with a smirk and a raised eyebrow as she glanced over at the student in question and pulled her girlfriend closer, wrapping her in her embrace.
Maura simply leaned into Jane, hugging her back for a while before she had to go back to her duties although not that the students minded that she was occupied. "I love you", she whispered to the dark-haired woman.
"I love you too Maura", Jane said just as quietly back with a huge smile, "so much".
A/N Thank you to all of those who took the time to review, follow, and add this to their favourites. I just have 'Jane's Girl' (an estimated 14 more chapters), 'I Understand' (an estimated 8 more chapters), and 'Crystal Blue' (an estimated 5 more chapters) to complete although this is the last chapter of 'Saving Maura' there is a possibility of some one-shots if people would like them.