Disclaimer: I don't own, I rent.

A/N: Sorry about the wait guys, got a bit of writers block on this one.

Chapter Twenty-Five
"Picking Up the Pieces"

Maura had no idea how long she sat on the floor crying, not out of sadness, but out of anger. Maura honestly couldn't remember a time when she had been more furious than she was right now.

How dare she?

How dare Jane walk out on me? How dare she think she has any right to tell me where I'm supposed to live? Did she even for one second consider moving wherever I needed to for my career? No, she didn't.

She just expects me to do whatever fits in her plan. Well, what about my plan?

Maura had given up everything for Jane. She had given up her family, her money, and now Jane wanted her career too?

She had meant what she said, there were hospitals in Boston where she could easily work and get the valuable experience she deserved, she had been accepted to work at Massachusetts General Hospital, it was a very prestigious program.

But is it the right one for me?

Maura finally was able to dry her tears and pull herself up from the floor and move to the couch. She sat down and pulled her knees into her chest and attempted to calm herself by taking deep breaths and attempting to push Jane from her mind.

It worked for a few minutes until she heard the key turn in the look and the door opened, revealing Jane, hair a mess, eyes red, Maura assumed from crying, she closed the door behind her and walked over to the couch and sat next to the blonde.

"I'm sorry, Maura."

Maura didn't answer. If Jane thought she was going to get off that easily, she had another thing coming.

"I didn't mean to upset you, I was just surprised. Confused. I just…I'm really sorry."

Maura continued to stare at the wall in front of her, still refusing to answer.

"So you're not talking to me now?"

Maura sighed, not ready to have this conversation. Of course they would have to speak eventually, but honestly, and Maura never thought she would say this, she wished Jane hadn't come back quite so soon.

"You can't keep doing this to me."

"I know."

"Do you, though? Do you even get why I'm so upset, Jane? You promised me. You promised me you wouldn't walk away from me again, and that's exactly what you did!"

"Maura, I-"

"No, I'm not finished. You don't get to come here and demand I move to a different city just because that's where you want to be, then when I don't jump on board immediately, you sulk like a child and run away from the problem. Did you ever once consider moving somewhere to be with me? No, you didn't, because it's all about you. It's always about you."

Maura paused for a brief moment, taking a deep breath and gathering her thoughts.

"You don't get to treat me like this, Jane, I'm not your property, you can't just make decisions for both of us without even asking my opinion! If you want to talk about it, fine, I'm more than willing to discuss it, but don't act like I've betrayed you because you're not my only priority."

The two sat in silence for a moment, Maura too angry to say anything else, Jane too stunned. Finally, Jane sighed and broke the tension.

"You're right. You're completely right. I was selfish. I really am sorry, Maur."

"That's it?"

"You know I'm not good at this stuff! I'm not good with the talking about emotions thing. I act; typically, without thoroughly thinking things through and without much regard to the consequences; that, I'm sorry for. You don't deserve that. I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions when I saw the letters. And while I'm at it, I'm sorry I even read them. But mostly, I'm really sorry I left. You were right. I said I wouldn't leave again and I did. All I can do is promise you I won't walk away again and do anything I can to make it up to you."

Maura couldn't help but smile a little. She was sure she had never heard Jane speak for that long at one time, and she had certainly never willingly admitted to her faults. She was in no way ready to forgive Jane completely, but she knew it was only a matter of time.

Maura leaned toward Jane and rested her head on the brunette's shoulder. She grabbed Jane's hand and laced their fingers together, then sat them both down on Jane's thigh.

"I still haven't forgiven you yet."

"You don't seem to be too upset with me anymore."

"Oh, I'm very upset with you," Maura replied, lifting her head to look at Jane. "But I also love you. So I will forgive you. Just not yet."

"Well, I meant what I said. I'm really sorry. And I'm willing to talk, whenever you're ready. I promise I won't go anywhere, I'll listen to everything you have to say and won't jump to any conclusions about anything."

Maura nodded and placed her head back on Jane's shoulder and turned on the TV, desperate to get a little bit of distraction from their fight. She put it on one of her favorite documentary shows, she knew Jane would never disagree with her on what to watch right now, but she couldn't seem to focus.

All she could think about was this decision she had to make. She was graduating in two months; she had 60 days to figure out what she was going to do.

Boston was the easy choice. Maura had met with the pathologist there when he had come to Columbia for her interview and they had gotten along well. Their program was well above average and she could easily learn all she needed to and more there.

And, of course, Jane would be there. They would be able to see each other everyday; Maura would get to know Jane's family better. She and Angela had been emailing back and forth for a couple months now and they got along wonderfully, Maura couldn't wait to have that in real life. She knew Angela had already accepted her as another daughter and she reminded Maura so much of her own mother, she couldn't help but want to bond with her.

But there were so many other factors to consider.

Hopkins. The name alone was enough to make her want to pick it. Who walks away from an offer from Johns Hopkins? They had a top-notch facility, the name would certainly look more impressive on her resume, and it was the second deadliest city in the country.

Maura wasn't sure if that was in the pro column or the con column. On one hand, it was a good thing, she would never run out of opportunities to learn more and help solve cases.

On the other hand, she could be murdered.

On the other hand, it seemed like a nice enough place, murders aside, and she could wake up singing that Hairspray song "Good Morning, Baltimore" everyday.

Wait, when did I grow a third hand?

And Baltimore didn't have Jane. In fact, it was even farther away from Boston than New York.

Can I really live apart from her for four years?

Can we even survive that?

Maura knew she couldn't put off the decision much longer. The stress of all the wondering and worrying and going back and forth trying to make up her mind was really starting to wear on her, so she made up her mind. She would decide by the next morning and then she would tell Jane and they would deal with whatever may come from that.

Maura looked up at Jane, who smiled and placed a light kiss to her forehead, then turned back to the show and the blonde resumed her previous position.

It's going to be a long night.

- R & I -

A/N: I know a lot of you think Jane is selfish in this story, and she totally is, but I hope this helped win her a few points.

Also, I just wanted to say, I did a little research on the steps you need to take to become a medical examiner and apparently you don't need an internship, then residency, you just need four years as a resident (I was basing this on what I know from Grey's Anatomy) so we will just pretend that Maura was applying for residencies, not internships from now on.

And like I said, I'm kind of having a bit of writer's block at the moment, so bear with me as I work through it. Let me know what you think!