Jane readjusted in her stool. She began to fidget. It was funny, because her mind was practically frozen in thought whereas her body continued to move every muscle. Maura began searching her eyes in an attempt to understand what exactly it was Jane was processing. She searched her facial muscles to try and recognize any emotions she could see. All Maura truly saw was the fidgeting and assumed Jane was uncomfortable with this newly expressed information.

Maura let out a small sigh. It was obvious she was holding her breath in anticipation of Jane's response. She let the disappointment of the silence finally reach her. It was an odd feeling to feel uncomfortable with someone who usually defines your comfort. She got up and did the only thing that made sense at the moment. She took the pizza out of the oven. She places it on top of the cooling rack and glanced back over at Jane. Her mind began to wonder what she should do next. Should I stay? I should probably leave. Jane feels uncomfortable. This is very unfortunate. It may be possible that I have misunderstood Jane's feelings for me and possibly analyzed information that was not truly there. A voice broke her thoughts. Jane was still turned away from Maura.

"How come you've never told me before?" Jane asked; her voice nearly cracking while the words escaped her mouth.

Maura began to analyze the back of Jane's head the best she could to figure out what Jane was feeling. "Well, it would be safe to say THIS is one of the reasons." Maura's frustration began to show slightly.

Jane remained quiet. The air grew thicker between the two of them. It was as if everywhere in the room felt slightly uncomfortable and hard to breathe and the closer both of them would physically get to each other the more intense it would make it. Maura couldn't stand that Jane wasn't looking at her directly as she spoke. She felt that at least she had deserved that much from her friend. Her eyes began to sting with the tears reaching at the back of them. Her nose began to make it hard to breathe. I can't be here anymore.

"I am going to grab my bag and drive home." Maura began to walk past Jane, towards the door where she had sat down her handbag. As she was walking past, refusing to make any sort of eye contact with Jane, she felt a hand grab onto her wrist. It pulled slightly firm but still gentle. She turned around and faced Jane in the process. It was obvious her eyes were fighting off the tears as well. Maura's face scrunched up as she analyzed just what exactly Jane's emotional state was telling her. Maura's heart felt as if it were being torn thread by thread. She waited for a vocal response from Jane.

Jane's mouth slightly opened but no words fell from it. Maura began to feel the disappointment grow. With that alone, she felt as though three threads were torn at once as her heart dangled together, holding on by the few threads left but nearly completely torn. She began shaking her head, no longer able to hold back the tears that were sitting at the back of her eyes. She pulled her hand from Jane's grip, turning around and walking towards the door. She grabbed her handbag and began to reach for the doorknob when again, she heard a voice.

"NO!" Jane practically yelled. She stood up and took a few steps toward the doctor.

"No? That's seriously what you have-

"NO. I said."

"Jane, you can't just say-

"No, you listen. You can't just lay that all on me. You can't just say everything that you've figured out, you're feeling, over the past few months and expect me to sum it up for you in the course of seconds. I haven't figured out everything yet! You've gotten to sit here, analyze and understand what you're feeling for months! Or even years! Hell if I know because you HID it from me for so long. You don't make me the bad guy because I'm still trying to figure out something that is BRAND NEW to me. I'm not the bad guy because I don't know how to respond. YOU'RE the bad guy because you hide everything you've ever felt for me, spit it all out at once as things start to develop and when IIIII can't respond, you walk away as if you had suspected as much all along. That is NOT fair." Jane's bottom lip quivered.

Maura's heart hurt at the fact that Jane had called her the "bad guy". She began to think of her thoughts and how to respond next.

Jane spit out one last sentence. "You have to be just as patient with me as you were with yourself in figuring this all out." Jane's voice nearly cracked at the end of that sentence.

Maura's eyes reached up to Jane's and held them. The amount of emotion held between both pair of eyes was incredible. The amount of feelings that have gone unexpressed for years. The depth of each emotion one felt for the other was nearly released as each second had gone by as they continued with their locked eyes. Maura wanted to point out how poorly Jane may have reacted to her feelings for her if she had told her months ago. She wanted to explain that it's not easy to express something like this. She wanted to say that she feared for their friendship. She wanted to explain that Jane had probably been feeling exactly what she had and had had just as much time to figure it out as she had. With that last statement though, she knows she has no true evidence of that. She knew that all of her reasons were just excuses for her failing to having expressed sooner. She felt herself bite back on her pride, and take everything for what it's worth.

"I, I- Maura tried to respond.

"Stay." Jane nearly pleaded.

Maura smiled at the remark. She thought in her head, As if I have a choice. She let out her smile into a full grown grin as she glanced down at her feet, blushing slightly.

A small chuckle escaped Jane's lips as she saw the thoughts dance across Maura's face.

Maura looked up, and with loving eyes responded. "Okay."

"Okay." Jane nearly sounded surprised.

"Okay." Maura reconfirmed.

Jane smiled.

So, uhh… I apologize profusely for the delayed updating. Here are my excuses. I had finals for school about a month ago and it was important to focus on that. Then shortly after…I had my birthday…and then I was in Europe for a couple of weeks. (BTW, that was awesome. I went to Prague and Budapest. Gorgeous). Then additionally, I had to get back into my writing groove. Again, I'm sorry. I hope I haven't lost my "groove" completely.