"What does it matter?" Jane stepped toward the windows in her bedroom. "You're calling me at 2am, Maura. Someone better be dead." Jane heard the redhead somewhere behind her stifle a chuckle.
"That's not funny, Jane. Given our jobs…"
"Maura, I mean it. Why are you calling me right now? I'm kind of busy here." Jane leaned her right hand against the side of the window and looked out over the apartments across the way.
"Busy how? It's 2am. Is there a homicide? Are you and the family okay?" Jane heard something in background and Maura whisper, "No, now stop helping."
"Maura, who is that in the background? Is that a man's voice? Are you calling me at this hour while you have another person in your hotel room?" Jane smacked the windowsill. "Damn it, Maura…"
"Jane, it's not what you think. JR and I were sharing a bottle of wine while we discussed…"
"I've heard enough. Whatever it is, I don't want to know. I'll see you when you come back to work, Dr. Isles." Jane ended the call and turned her cell off. "I'm through dealing with this," she mumbled as she turned back toward the center of the room.
"How through?" Jude had made her way onto Jane's bed. Jane couldn't help but notice the redhead had managed to lose most of her clothing on the way there.
"So through that it's already a fading memory." Jane stalked toward her bed. "In fact, I don't even remember what we were talking about." She kicked off her shoes as she climbed onto the bed. "Do you?"
Jude smirked. "I don't know what you're talking about." She reached over to help Jane with her shirt.
"Good."
"I'm guessing that didn't go well?" JR finished off the wine by way of drinking the last bits directly from the bottle.
"No, it didn't, and her phone is now going straight to voice mail." Maura ran a hand across her face. "I think she was with someone. She told me she was busy. At 2 in the morning, the only things Jane are generally busy with are homicides or…"
"Getting busy?" He chuckled at the blonde's offended reaction. "Well, hell, that's what you were thinking even if that's not what you were going to say. You think she's already got another woman?"
"I have no definitive evidence. In fact, I have no evidence at all." Maura frowned. "None."
"You just have a hunch?"
"Hunches are unfounded. I don't base decisions on unfounded reasoning and little to no concrete evidence."
"God, Doc, you're frustrating. I don't know how that woman of yours put up with it for two years. You ever say anything that doesn't involve correcting the other person?"
"Well, of course I… I," Maura stopped talking. They sat in silence for a long while as she assessed her general interactions with Jane. "Perhaps not." She could feel the tears starting to fall, but she was too tired and too frustrated to care. "She told me she wasn't a doll to dress up. She said I was constantly telling her what to do and how to do it." Maura closed her eyes, letting the tears flow. "Perhaps she was more accurate in her assessment of our relationship than I wanted to believe? I never considered… sometimes I become so focused on the details that I disregard the perceived meaning behind my actions. I forget, or don't always understand, that what I say or how I do something can be thought of as… as…"
"Hurtful and bossy?"
The blonde shot the man across the room from her a dirty look. "Yes. Thank you."
"My pleasure," he retorted with a smirk.
She pulled a tissue from the box on the side table and wiped at her eyes. "Maybe she is right to leave me?"
"You really think so?"
"I don't know what I think." She blew her nose. "What do you think?"
"I think you ran away instead of working it out, and you left her feeling vulnerable. That can be a pretty bad place to be. I've had many a rebound relationship from that sort of thing happening." He rolled his eyes. "Nothing good ever comes of those rebounders, either." He shifted in the chair. "You miss her?"
"You know that I do."
"You love her?"
"Yes, I have for quite some time."
He nodded to himself. "But, are you in love with her?"
"I'm not certain I understand the difference as you imply."
"Well, I love my dog. She's a beautiful lab that's been nothing but loyal to me from the day she came home. But, I wouldn't take a bullet for my dog."
"Are you saying that, to determine cordial familial affection from romantic affection, I should assess whether I would put my own life in danger or at risk to save that of the other person?"
"I'm too drunk for whatever you just said to make sense." He shut his eyes tightly for a moment. "Say it again so a normal person can understand it."
She sighed. "Are you asking me if I'd 'take a bullet', as you say, for Jane?"
"Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it."
Maura looked down at her hands. She slowly ran her fingers over the back of her other hand and then flipped her hand over to run her fingers over the palm. She stared at her hand in concentration. "I never want anything awful to happen to her again. I'd do anything to stop." She balled her hand up into a fist. "Anything."
"Well, I think that answers that." He stood up. "You ready to deal with losing her?"
"I… no, I don't want to. But she…"
"Said something stupid in the heat of anger. You're the one that left her alone and hurt."
"This is all my fault, isn't it?"
"Yup."
Maura gave JR another scornful look. "I am starting to understand why others find my blunt truthfulness so frustrating." She sighed. "But, what can I do? It's not as though I can just hop on a plane and fly back to Boston right now."
"Sure you can." He gave her a smile.
"I don't understand."
He picked her still unpacked suitcase up. "Well, let's just say it's nice to know folks who have more money than God."
"God, any deity really, would have no need for money."
"Well, it's a good thing I'm keeping it safe for him, then." He started toward the door with her suitcase.
"Where are you taking my things?"
"I'm taking them to my car. We're leaving. Come on."
Yes, I went there. I hope I don't lose anyone. Trust me, this will get better.
Please feed me my crack. I can take it... whatever you need to vent off