Thank you for all the nice reviews, guy, I appreciate it very much. I hope you'll like this chapter as much as the previous one. It's short, though. Anyway,

Enjoy,

T73.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I haven't seen Maura the entire day and I decided to leave her alone because I am sure that the meeting with Gabriella was no picnic and that she needs some time for herself. Months ago, I would have hurried down to Maura's office and ask her how the meeting went only to give my girlfriend the opportunity to pick up another fight. Today, I'm wiser, that's why I went to the Dirty Robber after my shift to grab a burger and a beer. Maybe I meet with Frankie and Nina there, too. I am right but pause when I enter the bar and see my little brother shaking his head vehemently, and I can see Nina's worried expression. I ignore the voice in the back of my head that tells me to run as fast as I can and approach the two. "What's the matter," I ask with a nervous laugh.

"Run!" Frankie whispers low and my heart begins to race. What the … Did I burst into some kind of armed robbery? I doubt so, the Dirty Robber is known as a cop's bar and only totally wackos would dare to commit a crime in here. But who knows. "Run fast, Jane. Get outta here."

My hand automatically finds its way to my gun and my body tense up.

It seems like Nina has noticed the move and also whispers to me, "It's Angela."

I immediately relax again. I doubt that my mother is going postal. I furrow my brows and shrug because it lies in the eye of the beholder. I know how crazy my mother can get. I still ignore the voice in the back of my head and sit down at the table after I took my jacket off. "It can't be that worse."

"Oh, you know our mother, Jane." Frankie replies, and I can tell that he means it. Perhaps I really should get out of here immediately, perhaps I should listen to the warning of Frankie and Nina.

"Angela, you really should stay out of it." I hear Korsak say and I am hoping that he's talking about the planning of my brother's wedding. I turn my head and I am even more alerted when I see his face after he comes out of the kitchen. My mother's following him, and her eyes light up the moment she sees me. "Angela!"

Frankie points with his index finger at her, warningly. "Ma, don't!"

She ignores both of them and I wish I'd rather be in Maura's office and have an argue instead of being here. "Jane, I got an idea."

Uh-oh. The glee in her eyes isn't implying anything good. I really should grab my jacket and get out of here before Ma can reach me. I know that my getaway would hurt her but that's nothing that couldn't get fixed with a little patience and endeavor.

Nina is the next who speaks, "Angela, I don't think that it would be appropriate if -"

Ma also ignores her soon-to-be daughter-in-law and cuts Nina off, "Why don't you and Frankie have a double wedding?"

Frankie groans loudly and throws his hands up in the air, Nina closes her eyes and rubs the bridge of her nose, and Korsak rolls his eyes without any sound.

I, on the other hand, stare at my mother like completely lost her mind and blink a couple of times. She didn't just say that, did she? What happened to her restraint. I raise my brows high. "What?"

Our mother ignores the warning signal. "We could kill two birds with one stone. Nina gets married to Frankie, and Maura gets married to you."

"No!" I growl and get up from the chair again to leave. I am beyond happy that it's already that late that the Dirty Robber is empty because I know that I won't be able to keep my upcoming anger at bay.

Ma's happy smile drops immediately. "Why not?"

"Because it's not an option, Ma."

"You were about to propose to Maura anyway. Why -"

"That was before Maura got abducted by Taylor O'Keefe, mother." I cut her off loudly now and neither of the others make a sound. "Ever since that a lot of things have changed. You know what happened after Maura got to know about my plan to propose to her? We broke up and I ended up in a shabby apartment above the Dirty Robber." I pause and look at Korsak. "No offense, Vince." He turns the corners of his mouth downward and shakes his head. I turn my attention back to Ma and sigh. "Ma, I know that you only want Maura and me to be happy, and that you really want us to share the rest of our lives together like Frankie and Nina are about to, but we are not ready to take this kind of step just yet. Maybe we will never be ready to take the step, after all that happened."

"But -"

"And bringing that topic up shortly before the trail starts wasn't the best idea, either." Nina reasons and Ma is slowly nodding now. "I know that you are really excited because of our wedding, but it isn't necessary to push Maura and Jane into something they don't really want to do now. See it from that point, maybe you'll get the chance to plan a second wedding, or even a third."

Ma frowns deeply. "A third?"

"Nina's talking about Tommy, Ma." I say and roll my eyes; my anger is gone as fast as it came up.

Ma huffs and puts her hands on her hips. "For that he need to date someone."

"I'm sure you have something in my already." Frankie states and I smile, just like Nina.

My mother mumbles something incomprehensible before she disappears in the kitchen again.

I groan and make my way to the bar counter and Nina is following me. "Have you really planned to propose to Maura?"

Korsak shoves a bottle of beer to me and I take it into my hand, glancing at the label. "Yeah, I was planning to propose to her on the weekend but then O'Keefe kidnapped her. And then, before she and I broke up, I was walking down the memory lane and had a talk with my mother. Unfortunately, I had the engagement ring down in our kitchen as well and left it there before I went to bed. Maura found it the next morning on the kitchen counter and went nuts because she thought this would be my way asking her to marry me."

"That's why you broke up?"

"It was one of many reasons."

She's nodding and knows better than to ask any other question.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I came home late and sneak into the bedroom, changing into my sleeping clothes and brushing my teeth before I slip into bed. I sigh heavily and skid closer to my girlfriend, wrapping my arm around her. I hope that I was quiet enough, so I didn't … Maura turns to me and I can tell that she's studying my face in the dark. Crap!

"Hey," she whispers softly, and I make out a small smile.

"Hey," I reply and frown a little. "I didn't want to wake you."

"You didn't." she states, and I am alerted again. "Well, I was dozing."

I nod slowly, and my frown deepens. "Any particular reason that kept you awake?"

She takes a deep breath and shakes her head. "It's just some of those nights."

I tug a strand of hair behind her ear and nod slowly. I know those nights very well and also know that they can be painfully long. I suspect that she has had another nightmare but don't want to tell me about it right now.

"What is bothering you," Maura asks, and I hate the fact that she knows me so well.

I groan and turn onto my back. "It's nothing that can't wait until tomorrow." So, my mother has to face the music when Maura's freaking out. I don't want her to stay up all night just because she is mad at Ma, or at me. Okay, I can tell her a little bit. "Ma only had a really crazy idea."

"About what?"

"I'll tell you about it tomorrows, Maura."

Maura is shifting and leans up on her elbow. "Jane."

I roll my eyes even though she can't see it and tuck my arm behind my head. "Ma got the crazy idea of a double wedding while planning Frankie's. And I told her to back off." I start to chew on the inside of my cheek because she falls silent. I really should learn how to shut my mouth sometimes, especially when it comes to sensitive topic that once made us break up even though it was just for some time. I blink a couple of times when I suddenly feel a head on my shoulder and a hand that slips underneath my tank top. I expected a lot of things, but that I did not see coming. And I didn't see the kiss on my chin coming, either. "Okay," I say with a smile but that's all because that would ruin the moment.

"I love you." She whispers and puts her head back on my shoulder. "You know that, don't you?"

I look down at her and furl my brows. How can she doubt that I know that she loves me? I am not thinking that because I wanna pick up a fight, I wonder because if I wouldn't know it, I wouldn't be here anymore. I would be gone for a long time. Don't get me wrong, I already left but that was not because I thought that it'd be the best for both of us if we take a time-out before we'd be at each other's throat. Okay, and the fact that Maura actually had said that she loves me so much that it hurt didn't make things any better back then, and that she hated me in the same time. But that's past and today we are better, I know that. I nod slowly and pull her closer to me. "I know. And I love you, Maura." I pause and wait for her outburst, but it doesn't come. "You're not mad at my mother?"

Maura takes a deep breath and hesitates for a moment. "No, I am not."

I must have misheard right now because her response makes me speechless, for a moment. "You're not mad? How so?"

She puts her chin on my shoulder and looks long at me. "It wouldn't change anything, even if I'd be mad at Angela. I am sure that you made it clear that it is … inappropriate."

"I was about to strangle here when she brought the topic up all happy." I reply, and she scoffs. "Frankie, Nina and Korsak tried to put her into her place again."

"In vain?"

"Yes."

She smiles broadly but something is mirrored in her eyes. I can't tell what it is because it's dark, but I can tell that it's there. "It's not like I don't want to marry you, Jane." She finally says and intertwines our fingers.

My heart drops because I know that there is a but and I am not sure that I wanna hear it right now. I can live with our current arrangement, I don't need to be officially married, though it would be … I would like it, very much. I don't need it, but I would like it, but I keep that thought to myself. At least there is one thing I can keep to myself at the end. "We don't have to talk about it, Maura."

She sighs heavily, and I hear her swallowing hard. "It seems so unfair, Jane. We were happy together."

"Aren't we anymore?"

"We were happy on a different level, Jane." She says and sits up, turning the bedside lamp on. "We were about to start a family and you were about to ask me if I want to marry you. And now we are trying to pick up the pieces that Taylor O'Keefe has left behind."

Actually, she is right, but I won't admit it. "But we're doing good at picking up the pieces, don't we?"

Maura sighs again and glances long at me. "But what it took from us until we became good at picking them up, Jane. We fought, we gave each other the silent treatment, we try to compensate the problems with sex and in the end, we broke up."

I sit up and run my hand through my hair. "And after a short while, we got back together."

"Jane, it was almost more than six months."

"Does the amount of time really count?"

"Yes, to me it does."

I don't think that I like where this is going, and I try to prepare myself for what is coming next. "So … this is it? We're done? After all we went through, you think we don't stand a chance anymore?" She is silent for a moment and turns her back to me without answering my question, and I feel a well-known anger bubbles up in me again. It's not the same anger I felt earlier that day. This anger is pure and hot, and I don't give a fuck who's hit by it. "Seriously? Now you are breaking up with me, Maura? You can't be serious. I mean, I am patient with you, and try to keep things like marriage away from you, but you think it's the best to end our relationship again just because my mother went all crazy about a double wedding?"

Maura turns back to me and scowls at me for a second before she hands me the little black box that holds the engagement ring and my heart drops. I am going to pay this son of a bitch another visit and this time I am going to kill this bastard for real. I am not afraid of a life sentence or even losing my job. Not anymore.

"I am tired of this kind of life, Jane." Maura states and my eyes find hers, and I have to swallow down the lump in my throat and blink the tears in my eyes back. So that's it. "I want you to take this back."

I clench my jaw and nod slowly. "Okay." I croak and swallow one more time hard.

She cups my left cheek and makes me to look at her, a smile is on her lips. "I want you to take this back and I want you to think of an appropriate way to propose to me. As you know, I do like French food."

Wait, what? Is this is really happen? Is she telling me that it is safe to pop the question anytime soon? Is Maura really telling me that we are almost done with healing? I know that there is still a lot in progress but that she is ready to take the next step? I can tell that she can see all the questions in my eyes because she's smiling broadly before she kisses me gently before she turns the light off again. "Goodnight, Jane."

Goodnight? She has to be kidding, right? Like I could find any sleep after this. I groan once more and put the box in the top drawer of my nightstand and I have to think of a perfect way to ask Maura to marry me. There is no time to sleep.