Chapter 26

After finding her own house empty, Maura immediately jumped back in her car and drove towards Jane's apartment.

The minute Angela had told her what she had done, Maura knew Jane would jump to the wrong conclusion; how could she not. The only people that were supposed to know about David's request to Maura, was the two of them. That David had first asked Angela for help, was a fact not known to Jane.

Maura was worried, she had no idea what had happened that afternoon. The blonde knew she should probably call David and ask him to explain, but she was too furious with the man to have a polite conversation.

Maura had been afraid something like this would happen, she'd almost been anticipating David forcing the issue. Unfortunately with Angela providing the opportunity, that's exactly what happened.

Now all she could think about was to find Jane, and she had no idea in what shape she would find the woman. Dr. Liberty had warned Maura of what could happen when the brunette would be pushed too hard, and it worried her. She hoped Jane would just be angry; it would mean her feelings were right at the surface and it could be dealt with. What scared Maura more was the possibility of a withdrawn, shutdown version of Jane.

It had taken her weeks to get Jane to open up to her, to be honest and vulnerable with her feelings. If this resulted in Jane reverting back to the way she was when she was in the hospital, or right after her release, when she was completely closed off; she wasn't sure if she could ever forgive Angela for doing this.

Maura parked across the street of Jane's building; she got out and locked the door to her Prius. Maura figured this was the place the brunette would go, it was where she would feel the most secure. The blonde quickly ascended the steps outside of the building. A small part of her brain wondered if Jane could have even made it up the steps on her own; but she pushed the thought away and hurried inside.

When Maura finally stood in front of Jane's door, she took a few deep breaths trying to steady herself. But when she heard a loud crash coming from inside the apartment, followed by a string of curse words, she instantly raised her hand and banged loudly on the door.

"Go away," she heard from inside.

"Jane, open up the door."

"No, just leave."

"Jane, ...I'm not leaving. We need to talk and I'd rather not have your neighbors listening in on us."

"Maura, just go, ...please."

Well, if Jane wasn't going to let her in, she had no choice but to explain through the door. "Listen, whatever you think I did today, I didn't. It wasn't me."

…

"Jane?"

It took a few more moments, before Maura heard movement inside the apartment and the sound of the door being unlocked. However to her surprise, Jane didn't actually let her in. Maura briefly stared at the still closed door in front of her, wondering if she should continue to wait, or just let herself in. She decided on the latter.

She gently made her way inside the apartment, her eyes searching for Jane. It didn't take Maura long to spot the brunette, the woman was standing in the kitchen with her back towards her, leaning heavily on her crutches. Her whole body posture clear evidence of her state of mind.

Maura took in the destruction around the living room and she almost breathed a sigh of relief. Jane was definitely angry, but she hadn't withdrawn; she could handle angry Jane.

She carefully took a few steps closer to the woman still standing frozen in the kitchen. The tension radiating off of the brunette's body was almost palpable.

Maura reached out her hand to touch Jane, but at the last moment she pulled it back; it wasn't time for that yet.

"Jane…?" she softly spoke.

"It wasn't you?"

"No."

"Then who? How?" and then it clicked, "ma?" she asked, her voice taking on an ominous tone.

"Yes," Maura affirmed. "Jane, can you please turn around."

The brunette shook her head.

"I need to know if you're okay."

"I'm not."

Maura took the chance and stepped around Jane's body and in front of her. She bend her head down, trying to catch the woman's eyes. When the brunette finally made eye contact it broke the doctor's heart, the chocolate brown eyes were so sad and dark. Her cheeks were tear stained and…blood? "Jane, you are bleeding."

Maura instantly went into doctor mode and pulled Jane down to sit on one of the kitchen chairs, but the brunette waved it off. "I'm fine."

"You are not fine, you are bleeding. What happened?" Maura grabbed Jane's chin, moving her face to the side, trying to inspect the injury.

"Please stop, I can't do this anymore."

Maura dropped her hands, confused, "what do you mean?"

The brunette squeezed her eyes shut, but tears still trickled through.

"What do you mean?" Maura repeated, unable to keep the concern out of her voice.

"This! I...I can't be so helpless all the time. Have everyone take care of every single thing for me."

"Jane, I love you, I want to take care of you."

"It's too much Maura. You take care of everything and I've let you. You stay with me all day, every day. You check up on me constantly. You help me shower, get dressed. Maura, you even cut my food. And I love you for it, I do, but it's too much. It makes me feel small, like a child. It's not me, it's not us. We are not equals anymore." Jane now looked defeated, Maura had been nothing but great to her, she didn't want to hurt her feelings. But things couldn't go on like this either, they had to change.

"It's not just you," she continued, "it's everyone. Everyone treats me like I'm going to break, they all tip toe around me. And now they are just going behind my back and make decisions for me? I can't deal with it anymore."

"You don't want me to take care of you? Because if that's the case, I don't think I can stop that."

"No! No, I do. Maura, I like it when you take care of me, it's just…it needs to be less. You need to let me be me again. Let me take control of things. Let me take care of you some of the time."

Maura sat herself down next to Jane, deep in thought for a moment. She had been going a little overboard lately. In the beginning the constant care had been necessary, needed and wanted. But Jane was getting better; physically definitely, emotionally a little slower, but still. Jane from three weeks back and Jane from today were worlds apart, but yet Maura had still been treating her the same. She had been doing everything for her. "Okay," she finally said.

Jane looked a little surprised, she had not expected Maura to just understand. "Okay?" she said a little unsure.

"Yes, you are right. I have been going a little overboard lately, I didn't even realize it." Maura grabbed Jane's hand, "I will try and make changes, but I am still going to want to take care of you. So if I do too much, you have to tell me. And you can tell everyone else to back off as well."

"You are not going to tell them for me?" Jane said with one corner of her mouth lifted up, showing a little amusement.

"No, I think you are perfectly capable of doing that yourself," the blonde replied, the start of a smile playing on her lips.

…

"Jane?"

"Yea?"

"Will you come back home with me now?"

"I don't know, Maura. I kind of want to stay here."

The blonde quirked an eyebrow and looked around the living room which was still pretty much a scene of destruction. She frowned for a moment, thinking of a solution.

"Jane, you know you can't stay here. Not because I think you are incapable of taking care of yourself, but because of your mobility. You can't go up and down those stairs yet."

The brunette opened her mouth to start to protest, but quickly closed it, accepting the point.

"So," Maura said, "how about a compromise?"

"I'm listening." Jane tilted her head towards Maura, an amused expression on her face.

"You let me take you back to my house and you will sleep in my bed." Maura looked at Jane, who indicated she was still listening. "In return I will give you space. I will go back to work full days when you don't have therapy, but I want to be home on the days that you do. And I will stop helping you so much. However I prefer to continue our showering arrangement, but for totally unrelated and completely selfish reasons. Deal?"

"Almost."

Maura quirked an eyebrow waiting for the addendum.

"Tonight we do stay here, because if I have to face my mother right now, I am not responsible for my actions. I am furious with her."

This comment brought both women back to the realization of what happened today.

"Will you tell me what happened?" the blonde tentatively asked, unsure if it was the right time.

"I will, but not now. Tomorrow. I promise. Now I just want to go to sleep. I'm exhausted."

Both women got up and walked towards the bedroom, but when Jane sat down on the bed Maura noticed how the brunette flinched in pain.

"Let me see." She pushed Jane backwards on the bed and pulled on the edge of her shirt.

"You just can't help yourself, can you?" Jane said, but her tone was light.

Maura almost looked apologetic, but when she had pushed Jane's shirt all the way up, she gasped. "My god, what happened?"

"Au…Maur! You don't have to push on it."

"I wasn't pushing, I was barely touching you. I need to check if you broke anything. And I am still waiting for a response."

"I fell, …okay? When I went up the stairs outside I slipped and fell." Jane pulled on her shirt trying to cover up the fresh bruise on the left side of her body.

Maura gave Jane a stern look, "where else did you get hurt?"

The brunette let out a deep sigh, "well, besides what you can see," she said pointing at the scrape on her forehead and left arm. "I kind of fell on my …uh, ...um" and she pulled her pants slightly down to expose another bruise on her butt.

After Maura surmised Jane wasn't seriously injured, she bit her bottom lip, trying not to laugh.

"Maura! Don't laugh, it really hurts."

"I'm sorry, Jane. But you falling on your gluteus maximus is kind of humorous."

After briefly pouting, Jane joined Maura in her humor. Even though it was rather painful, it must have been a funny sight if anyone had seen her. And after everything that happened today, after all the emotions they had gone through, it actually felt really good to laugh together.

When they were laughed out, Maura got up and got the first aid kit to clean up the scrapes on Jane's face and arm, before getting some ice to put on the two bruises. She grinned again when she was holding the ice pack on the woman's behind.

Thirty minutes later they were both comfortably settled in bed, ready to go to sleep.

"Jane?"

"Hm?" the brunette was completely relaxed now.

"What are you going to do about your mother?" Maura turned on her side facing Jane in the dark.

"I don't know yet. What she did, … going behind my back like that. It's just not right."

"But she's your mom."

"I know. But I'm still pissed at her."

…

"Maur?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry I blamed you. I should have known you wouldn't force me…I should have trusted you."

"It's fine, Jane. I understand why you would think it was me, it was the logical conclusion considering the circumstances. You didn't know about your mother."

"But still…I know you better than that."

"Jane, … things between us are still a little sensitive, a little raw from before. We are going to make mistakes sometimes. But as long as we keep talking to each other, we'll get back to where we were before; or even better."

…

"Maur?"

"Yes?"

"I'm wide awake now."

"Just close your eyes."

…

"Maur?"

"Yes, Jane?"

"What time is it anyway?"

Maura looked over her shoulder at the alarm clock, "it's almost eight."

…

"Maur?"

The blonde chuckled lightly, "yes?"

"Why are we in bed by eight?"

"I don't know."

…

"Maur?"

"Hm?"

"I think we should stay awake a little longer."

"Oh?" Maura said playfully.

"Yes, and I think you should take off your clothes."

A/N: Next chapter will be the conclusion to the Sam story arc. After that we are moving on.

A few of you were angry or frustrated with Jane last chapter, some even called her selfish. That's okay. She probably shouldn't have left. But, to me, it felt like something Jane would do. She felt weak, so she went to her own apartment, a place where she would feel secure and in control.

I'm a little confused about the 'Maura is always getting blamed comments' though. The only one that ever blamed Maura for anything was Frankie (and Maura blamed herself for a while). Jane never blamed Maura for what happened to her with Roy, and neither did anyone else. Last chapter Jane jumped to the wrong conclusion about Maura, and she felt betrayed. But her anger, more than anything else, was directed at herself. I hope that came through the way I meant it.

Next chapter will be up in a few days.

Yea... cookies? *points at box below*