Hi everyone, I'm baaack! So I've had a few people ask me how I managed to break my wrists... it's not a terribly interesting story, but here goes: My mum was on tuckshop (I don't know what they call it wherever you live, but the little shop that kids can buy food/lollies from at school), and I had this agreement with my classmates that when my mum was on tuckshop, I went to collect the lunches for whoever had bought lunch that day. Anyways, class was released and this other kid started bolting towards the shop, so I started racing after him, yelling out it was my turn etc etc... and there was this little, itty bitty, tiny tiny crack in the concrete, I managed to catch the tip of my shoe in it cause I'm just talented in that super special clumsy way, and over I went. And I didn't snap my hands out in time to brace my fall, so they were still kinda tucked under and my wrists hit the concrete first. Yeah, so... not so interesting. OH, but when I went to the sick bay, all they could see was my grazed knees so they cleaned them up, (apparently ignoring the way I was gingerly holding my arms), told me to stop crying and get back outside and play. Went to mum, she took me to the docs who x-rayed me, plastered me up then sent me off to hospital, and OMG the look on the office lady's faces when I came back to school a few days later with two arms in plaster? HILARIOUS. They felt so bad... teehee. Oh, and I had my casts on for seven weeks... they were going to only be on for six, but the doctor wasn't happy with my pain responses or something (can't remember that part now), so he decided to keep me in casts for another week. Thought about doing it to Jane but then thought Maura might actually kill her... :-P Anyways, that's my story... onto the chapter!

***WEEK SEVEN***

"Are you okay in there?" the voice came through the bathroom door and Jane groaned.

"Maura, I am peeing by myself for the first time in a long time... leave me in peace!" Jane had been very disappointed when, upon going into short casts, she still found that she needed assistance in that particular area of personal hygiene. Bending elbows was not sufficient... she still required movement of her wrists to toilet independently... otherwise, as helpfully pointed out by Maura, she ran the risk of contaminating her casts with various, uh, substances. Maura was happy to help Jane, of course – well, willing to help anyway – but it didn't help Jane's feelings on the subject. "Ahhh..." she sighed as she let out what felt like several litres of fluid, wiped herself and pulled her pants up with a flourish. Flushing the toilet and washing her hands felt like a major feat, and when she walked out, she grinned at Maura proudly. "See Ma, did ya see me? I did it all by myself!"

Maura rolled her eyes, though Jane noticed that she dropped her own hands pretty quickly... she surmised that Maura had been wringing them with nerves and subsequently rolled her own eyes at the thought.

"I'm an adult, Maura, I've been peeing by myself for quite a few years now... you didn't need to be worried."

"You're sure there's no pain?"

"None, I promise." To prove her point, Jane carefully flexed her fingers in front of Maura's face, even gently moving her wrist joint (having learnt from the whole 'short casts' incident, she was very cautious now in moving her newly freed arms). Finally, Maura seemed satisfied. "Now, do you know what I want to do?"

"What?" Maura asked, smiling in faint amusement.

"I want to eat a sandwich! No, wait, I want to make a sandwich, then eat it... all by myself!" Jane was practically giddy in her enthusiasm and Maura seemed unable to stop the laugh that bubbled out.

"Oh Jane."

"What?"

"I know you've been feeding yourself for over a week now," Maura said and Jane stopped dead in her movements to walk past and get down the stairs.

"Uh... no, I haven't."

"So the container of icecream just mysteriously emptied itself?"

"Uh... yes?" Jane smiled sweetly and Maura rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me you knew?"

Maura shrugged. "I knew you'd tell me if you didn't want help anymore."

Jane decided that the best defence is a good offence, so, "That sounds like a guess."

"Is not!"

Jane almost laughed at the look of sheer horror on Maura's face. "Is too."

"Is n... shut up, Jane."

Jane gasped. "Maura!"

Maura simply lifted her chin and pranced down the stairs. Jane growled.

"Shush me, don't you shush me. Wasn't even a shush, she said shut up, how rude..."

"Stop mumbling and make your sandwich," Maura called up, laughter in her voice.

Jane moved downstairs (making sure to step down very firmly... not stomping though, thank you very much) and walked into the kitchen, and saw everything already set up for her neatly. Bread, peanut butter, fluff, plate and a knife. She smiled despite herself.

"I'm not saying thank you," she said petulantly, and Maura laughed.

"That's good, because I won't tell you that you're welcome, since you're not."

"Good. So long as we have that clear." Jane picked up the knife and began making her sandwich, but every few seconds she lifted her gaze to catch Maura's. The two women smiled at each other fondly.

R&IR&IR&I

"My arms smell. How can you not notice that my arms smell?"

"Oh, I noticed."

Jane stared at Maura suspiciously. "When were you going to say something?"

Maura glanced at the clock. "We've been home for 1 hour and 16 minutes now. I was going to give you 90 minutes to say something by yourself, which means you had... 14 minutes left. Oops, 13 minutes."

"Trust you to give me a time limit," Jane grumped, glancing up to see that, yes indeed, the clock had just moved forward one minute. She lifted her arm to her nose and took a big whiff. "Oh God," she moaned, lunging forward and dry retching, hand clapped to her mouth. Which, on second thought, probably didn't assist the nausea.

Maura laughed unsympathetically. "I could have told you that was a bad idea."

"Why didn't you tell me before I did it?" Jane groaned, trying to control the unpleasant rolling of her stomach. She didn't know how she could handle all manner of dead bodies, some in various states of decay, and not bat an eyelid, but this made her nauseous. Possibly because it was a scent coming from her own body, she mused.

"Well, I didn't know you were going to do it, did I?" Maura replied sensibly and Jane rolled her eyes.

"I don't remember a bad smell when I went down to short casts."

"No, but the hospital cleaned your skin with wipes afterwards, remember?"

No, Jane didn't remember, but that was probably because she was shouting 'short casts' and 'elbows' like a mental patient. She flushed slightly at the memory.

"Why didn't they do it this time?"

"Maybe because you were threatening bodily injury if they didn't let you leave immediately?"

"I...!" she started, but stopped at the look on Maura's face, which clearly seemed to say 'don't even'. "Huh. Fine. Guess I should go have a bath."

"You can shower now, you know."

"Ooh, shower!" Jane leapt to her feet and waited for Maura, who just looked up at her patiently. "Oh. Right. I can, uh, do that by myself now. Of course."

"You can call me if you need help," Maura said mildly as Jane left, but she should have known the placid attitude was too good to last. "But don't press too hard on the shower handles, you might damage your wrists again! Oh, and don't exfoliate the skin too hard, just gently rub it over with a cloth. The skin underneath all the dead flakes will be very new and sensitive, so I recommend using the soap and fragrance free body wash. It's in the blue bottle in the shower caddy. When washing yourself, try to avoid having the water too hot, it might damage the new skin. Just leave it at room temperature... slightly above is okay though. But I mean slightly. The new skin is... Jane? JANE!"

Jane slammed the bathroom door and rolled her eyes. Maura, Maura, Maura, what to do with her, what to do.

R&IR&IR&I

"Uh, Maura?"

"Yes?" Jane nearly leapt out of her skin as Maura instantly appeared to her left, staring at her expectantly.

"Were you waiting outside the door?"

Maura flushed, and Jane watched as the telltale red splotches began appearing on her chest even though she had not yet opened her mouth.

"Yeah, Maura, you know what? Don't worry about replying." The red splotches disappeared almost instantly. "You know, I will be okay. I don't need you to stand outside and supervise me. Either when I go to the toilet, or when I have a shower. I'm perfectly capable."

"Okay then," Maura agreed readily, and turned around. Jane quickly realized her dilemma.

"Uh, that is..." Maura turned around slowly, staring at Jane expectantly. "Normally I'm perfectly capable."

Maura tilted her head, and Jane felt a fond smile breaking out on her face at the sweet, innocent movement. "Normally?"

"Uh... well... I, uh... I might, you know... requireassistanceatthemoment."

Maura's lips quirked up. "Pardon?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "Get in here and help me," she paused, then added as an afterthought, "please."

"All you had to do was ask," Maura said, and pushed on the door gently. Jane pushed back (using her whole body, thank you, she wasn't silly enough to try using her hands... this time).

"I'm naked!"

Maura sighed, and Jane immediately realized the stupidity of her statement, seeing as how Maura had been seeing her naked almost every day for the past six weeks. It was different though, she had been incapacitated, whereas now she was (almost) back to full potential. It felt different.

Not altogether bad though, Jane mused, and with that thought she finally swung open the door. "I can't turn the shower on."

Maura walked over to the shower straight away, not even glancing in Jane's direction, and Jane wondered why she felt vaguely disappointed. Could casts mess with a person's mental status? Like... maybe the plaster got absorbed into her blood stream somehow and clogged up an important artery in the brain, and that made weird thoughts and impulses appear? She opened her mouth to ask, but Maura was already talking.

"It's not surprising that you couldn't turn the taps on by yourself, you know. You only just got the casts off, you haven't had any chance to rebuild muscle mass at all... therefore your hands will be extremely weak. To build up muscle mass again, we will start doing some light exercises tomorrow, some very light weights, stretching, perhaps even som..." Maura trailed off, turning to look at Jane for the first time who, without even thinking about it, had been standing completely naked in the centre of the room without even a vague attempt at covering up to preserve her modesty.

And, she was right, it did feel different. Maura's gaze travelled slowly up her body, starting at her toes and moving up to her calves, her knees, her thighs, her... ahem 'private area' (Jane noticed she spent an extra second or two there too, she might add), her stomach, her breasts (easily an extra 5 seconds there), before finally moving up to her face.

Maura immediately flushed. "Um, do you need anything else?"

"No. No, I think I'll be okay," Jane replied, an odd breathy tone to her voice that she had never noticed before.

"Okay," Maura said, and quickly walked out of the bathroom.

"Wait," Jane said, and Maura turned, keeping her eyes downcast. "You said the blue bottle, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Thanks." Her voice still sounded breathy. Weird. "Oh, and Maura?" She waited until Maura lifted her gaze to hers. "Thank you."

Maura's eyes darkened. "You're welcome, Jane."

The bathroom door shut with a soft snick, and Jane stared in the mirror, ignoring the water pounding down in the shower behind her. Her skin felt flushed and hot, and her heart was racing.

Must have something to do with the plaster being absorbed into her blood theory.

Sure, Jane was positive that was it.

And, as she stepped into the shower and gently started washing her whole body, she ignored the plaintive cry inside her that arose when it realized that it was no longer Maura's hands doing the washing.

END CHAPTER NINE

You know the drill, read and review pretty please! :-D Thought this chapter would take me longer to do cause... well, it's raining here, and my hands reeeally don't like the rain, but where there's a will, a muse and painkillers, there's a way! :-D haha! :-P