A/N-Decided to make up for the late update last chapter by giving you two chapters in the span of four days, which is twice the rate I usually go at :) Special thanks to everyone for the feedback last chapter. I love hearing reader thoughts on the direction of the story, and I'd like to give a special shoutout to JustMindingMyBusiness, whose suggestion inspired me to tweak this chapter.
Still don't own the rights to R&I. I don't make any money from this stuff either...
"I like to know names of things, people, you know, stuff. Thought since Jane won't let me ask any other stuff that'd be safe enough, so we can bond and stuff like you said," Angela said. She smiled vaguely as she examined her half empty glass. "What's the name of the woman you slept with?"
"Ma-
"I'll tell her," Maura blurted out without understanding why she'd ever let the words come out of her mouth.
Well. With those words, Maura realized that she had officially managed to turn the evening into one of the more supremely uncomfortable encounters of her entire, socially awkward life.
That, right there, was one of a number of problems with alcohol. Consuming it tended to drastically increase the chances of Maura saying foolish and extraordinarily counterproductive things.
Jane shook her head vehemently behind Angela's back, and Maura nodded to indicate that she understood Jane's meaning. Maura was going to do it, and it wasn't going to be pleasant, but she saw no other way to save face, not after foiling for the third time Jane's effort to remedy the situation. Maura would have to tell a bold faced lie and hope that her alcohol consumption would explain her physiological reaction.
Or maybe, just maybe, Maura could get away with using another name that related enough to 'Jane' that it wouldn't have been a complete lie. Only problem was that Maura was having some difficulty coming up with any such name under pressure, so she had to go with the first one that popped into her head.
"Juanita," Maura said. She almost immediately felt her skin grow hot where she knew hives would show up any minute. She should have know that wouldn't work; despite their etymological similarities, the two names were from two distinct language families.
"Juanita, huh? Sounds exotic," Angela said.
Maura nodded and swollowed hard. She looked at Jane who mouthed 'thank you' after raising her eyebrows at Maura's unexpected name choice.
"See, Jane? That was painless, and now we've started that bonding stuff," Angela said.
"Ok, now can we drop it, please? Talk about, I don't know, something else besides her sex life with Juanita?"
"You're not much fun tonight, Jane, you know that?"
The more she thought about it though, the more Maura was able to come up with other names that would have been far more suitable and closely linked than the one she'd chosen. As the seconds ticked by, Maura convinced herself that she actually had effectively lied. She didn't last long before she felt the anxiety start to build.
"I, I'm going to, to the bathroom," Maura said as she got up to hurry to their private bathroom which, fortunately enough, was only a few feet away from Maura's seat on the edge of the sofa.
As soon as the door slammed shut, Maura pressed her back into the cool tile of the bathroom walls. She tried to control her breathing with very little success as she closed her eyes to fight off the light headedness that was creeping up on her. Maura got to the point where she hardly registered the fact that Jane had hurried after her and was standing in front of her.
"Maura? Maura, are you ok? Are you gonna be sick?" Jane asked.
Maura shook her head.
"What's wrong then? You got like wicked pale and bolted like you were gonna puke," Jane said.
"I lied. I just lied to your mother, Jane," Maura said.
"Um, ok, but, you know I do that to her all the time, and she usually doesn't take it personally," Jane said. "Besides isn't Juanita technically like a different version of my name?"
"It is the feminine of the name Juan, which is commonly translated as John, and Jane is the feminine version of John," Maura said. The explanation made her feel marginally better, though she couldn't help one particularly troubling fact. "But women named Juanita occassional prefer the slightly less literal 'Jenny' as an abbreviated translation. And one comes from a romance languages, while the other is more rooted in the Germanic languages. Those are two entirely different language groups!"
"Well, let's just go with the first part about the John/Jane thing. How 'bout that?" Jane said as she kept her hands on Maura's shoulders and looked directly at Maura, as if attempting to ground her.
She was doing her best to calm Maura down, and Maura appreciated that, but Jane, without knowledge of Maura's physical inabilty to lie, seemed puzzled and troubled by Maura's physiological reaction to what Maura had convinced herself was a lie.
But Maura did as Jane suggested and focused on the etymological connection and she began to feel calmer, though only calm enough that she wouldn't passout. She still had a difficult time controlling her breathing and her heart rate was well above normal.
"I just, I need, I feel as though, I feel faint," Maura said between taking deep, steadying breathes.
"Ok, ok, um, you want some water? A cold towel or something?" Jane asked, then added with a nervous smile. "I'm not the doc here."
Had she had all of her wits about her, Maura would have informed Jane that her specialty left her ill-prepared for that type of medical care anyway.
"Distract me," Maura said. "Do something."
"Like what?"
"Anything, just, something. I need to focus on something," Maura said. "Sometimes it helps."
Jane abruptly pulled off the fitted tshirt she'd been wearing and dropped it on the floor so that she stood in just shorts and a bra. Well, that was surprising and a little distracting, but not quite enough to keep Maura from fixating on the lie she'd just told. Also, it was a litle puzzling that getting naked was Jane's first thought.
"What?" Maura asked between deep breaths. "What are you doing?"
"I couldn't think of anything else," Jane said, a little defensively. "Kinda paniked a little. I'm not great with the first aid stuff. Didn't hurt though, right?"
"But why?"
"It's been distracting me all night not being able to undress you, so I figured why not," Jane said. "Maybe me being a little naked'll help distract you."
Jane's logic definitely had it glaringly obvious flaws that Maura normally would have pointed out, but the conversation was helping a little bit, so Maura just nodded as she continued her deep breathing exercise.
Maura had to admit that the partial nudity was also distracting to her, perhaps moreso than the conversation. If a small amount of partial nudity distracted a little bit, Maura could only conclude that more nudity would be even more effective.
"More," Maura managed to say between her deep, calming breathes.
Jane unbuttoned her shorts and kicked them off so that they landed by her shirt.
"Better?" Jane asked with that confident, almost cocky grin.
Maura was definitely feeling better now. Not great, but definitely better, and far more aroused.
"A little," Maura said as she nodded. For the first time in their conversation, Maura took an unsteady step away from the wall.
Jane took a step closer and rested a hand on Maura's shoulder.
"Can I kiss you? Would that help?" Jane asked. It was soft and concerned, not agressively sexual in the way that Jane had been during most of their encounters. "Won't make you swoon or anything, right?"
Maura's eyes flicked down to Jane's lips, then up to her eyes and back to her lips. Maura bit her own lip and nodded. She could feel her anxiety ebb away as Jane moved her hand up to Maura's neck. Maura's eyes fluttered closed as Jane pressed her lips to Maura's. Jane moved more slowly than usual, a little more delicately, waiting for Maura to make the move to deepen the kiss. Waiting for Maura to decide at what pace to move the kiss from almost-chaste to steamy to scorching.
Maura even pulled up her own dress so that she could more effectively pull Jane up against her. By that point, her breathlessness was entirely different from the breathlessness she'd felt when she first burst into the bathroom. Which reminded Maura...
"Jane, your mother," Maura said after pulling away from Jane.
"So not the visual I need right now," Jane said. She smiled and trailed kissed along Maura's jaw before nipping her ear lobe.
"But she's right outside, Jane," Maura said.
For some reason, either arousal or alcohol, likely a combination of the two, it appeared as though that were the first time the thought had occurred to Jane. She contemplated a second before walking over to the door, flicking the lock closed and returning to kiss Maura.
Jane's hand moved up Maura's thigh, pulling the fabric of the dress up even higher than it already had been. In return, Maura trailed her fingers down Jane's back, dragging her nails with just the slightest bit of pressure over Jane's skin, just the way she'd learnt that Jane liked it.
Maura had reached the point where she was ready to rip off both Jane's underwear and her own when there was a loud knock on the door. Both woman froze in place, Jane in just a bra and underwear, pressed up against Maura, in what now looked like a wildly, inappropriately short dress.
"Jane! Is everything ok?" Angela called as she jiggled the doorknob. "Why'd you lock the door?"
"Shit! I told her to stay put," Jane whispered as she pulled on her shorts with impressive speed before grabbing her tanktop.
"Jane, do you want me to get Gerald?" Angela asked.
"No, ma! No, I'm coming," Jane called back quickly before Angela could follow through on her threat.
She glanced in the mirror, ran a hand through her hair and rubbed a lipstick mark off of her neck and lower lip before turning back to Maura.
"Stay here," Jane whispered. "I'll take care of it."
Jane could not believe how incredibly weird the entire night had been. Like, Jane seriously thought she was on a hidden camera show that put people into mortifying situations repeatedly just for shits and giggles. There was no other way to explain how Jane had spent the night in a VIP lounge with her female fuck buddy and drunk mother as said drunk mother asked eagerly about how the sex was with said fuck buddy. If that hadn't been enough, Jane had a hyperventilating woman to calm down and the best she could think to do was strip, all before Angela very nearly caught Jane making out, half naked with another woman. Only thing that would have made the evening more mortifying would have been if Angela had checked on them about a minute earlier and opened the door to see Jane's tongue in Maura's mouth and her hands in very compromising places.
"Hey, ma," Jane said, opening the door just enough so that Angela could see Jane. Jane figured she'd give Maura some time to regroup and look presentable.
"What's up? Is she ok?"
"Yeah, she's fine, just, she's not feeling herself is all," Jane said.
"Well, if she's sick, let me see her," Angela said as she tried to peek over Jane's shoulder.
Jane took a step forward and closed the door behind her.
"She's fine, ma," Jane said. "I took care of her."
Angela narrowed her eyes at Jane.
"I still say I'm better suited to take care of puking people. I've raised three kids, you know," Angela said.
"I know, but I've got a little more experience with the type of thing that made her feel better," Jane said, biting back a laugh at how ridiculous the situation was.
"If that's your way of saying you drink a lot, then you better watch it, Jane," Angela said, pointing at Jane. "You're the good one, Jane. I don't need you having a drinking problem too. One's enough."
Jane was saved from having to respond to Angela's reference to Tommy when Maura opened the door to the bathroom.
"One what?" Maura asked.
"Nothing," Jane said. "And don't worry, ma. I'm still the good one, always will be."
"Oh, Jane," Angela said, wrapping Jane in a big hug despite Jane's well docoumented discomfort with hugs. "I love you so much. I know I complain Janie, but you're always such a good girl. You're my good girl. Always."
"I love you too, ma," Jane said, patting Angela's back as she glanced over at Maura apologetically.
But Maura didn't look mildly amused by the comically excessive affection. She looked touched, maybe a little wistful. Jane was reminded of their first conversation about Maura's emotionally distant parents and wondered if that could have something to do with it. Could it be that Maura wanted this kind of affection from her mother? Did she get that little love from her parents?
Well, those kinds of thoughts were thoroughly depressing and completely unproductive for Jane, both in the big picture 'she's only your sex friend for a few more days' situation, and the shorter term 'we need to find a way to get the hell out of here' situation.
"Ok, ma," Jane said, untangling herself from her mother's grip, which was surprisingly strong. "We should probably go now. Like I said, Maura's not feeling herself."
Maura glanced down at her shoes, but said nothing to contradict Jane. Good, so she'd learnt her lesson about that kind of interruption.
Angela looked over at Maura, and Jane hoped that she was drunk enough to not notice that Maura looked absolutely fine. Her cheeks and neck were still a little flush, but other than that Maura looked like the picture of health. Better than she had for most of the night, probably from freshening up while Jane held off Angela.
"Well, it was wonderful to meet you," Angela said as she pulled Maura into a hug. Jane could tell from the way Maura stiffened a little that she, too was only a fan of selective hugging. To Maura's credit though, she did hug back.
"Likewise," Maura said, smiling her sincere smile. She was just so damn nice. To a drunk woman who had invaded her privacy and personal space within hours of intrducing herself. And there wasn't a single ounce of fakeness there. "Feel free to stay here if you'd like, though the policy is that bottle service will stop once I leave."
"Oh, you're lovely," Angela said, taking Maura's face in her hands."Isn't she lovely, Jane?"
"Yeah, ma," Jane said. "She's great. But I think we need to get you back to your room. You're kind of shitfaced."
In a testament to her own drunkeness, Angela ignored Jane's swearing and just shrugged before walking towards the door while Jane and Maura followed.
"It really was lovely having that girl time," Angela said, opening the door to the main club. If it was possible, the music seemed to have gotten louder and the crowd larger in the time since they'd last seen the floor.
"We should do it again sometime," she yelled over the music.
Yeah, it'd be right be right on top of Jane's bucket list right after 'have every tooth pulled with a pair of rusty pliers.'
Jane nodded to keep from saying just that to her mother. Maura nodded to Gerald and pointed towards the exit.
"Pleasure having you, ma'am," Gerald said. "We hope to see you again."
"Thank you," Maura said, reaching into her purse and pulling out several bills to hand over to the man. "It was lovely."
He nodded politely and grinned as she pressed the money into his hand.
"So where to now?" Maura asked as they made their way across the club. So, apparently she'd forgotten to act the part of the sickly one.
Jane waited to get just outside the club doors to answer Maura. It also gave her the opportunity to talk to Maura without her mother as rapt audience. Angela loved tropical things, so Jane pointed out the large fish tanks at the entrance to the club. The distraction worked, since, as expected, drunk Angela found the display endlessly fascinating.
"Well, I'm gonna get this one back to bed," Jane said, gesturing to her mother, then added, just in case her mother was paying attention, "After that I'll check in, see how you're feeling."
"Oh, ok. I am feeling better," Maura said. Then Jane nodded her head in the direction of her mother, whose back was to them a few feet away. "Though it's best to be sure about these things."
"Yeah, see you in a little bit," Jane said. A sudden thought occurred to her as she recalled the last time she'd been in Maura's room. She took Maura by the arm and spoke just above a whisper so that Angela couldn't hear. "Don't forget. You owe me."
"And I always repay my debts," Maura said. "See you in ten?"
"Make it five," Jane said.
With Angela still preoccupied by the fish, Jane took the opportunity to watch Maura and that gorgeous, fitted dress walk away for a few seconds.
Well, Jane thought, maybe the night wouldn't be so bad after all.
A/N-Just so you know, getting naked is not a doctor recommended solution to hyperventilation. I have, however, had experience with bouts of anxiety and having a distraction does sometimes help. I've just never tried to use toplessness as that distraction:)
That said, what do you think of Maura's response and Jane's reaction? Was it all just too unrealistic to be enjoyable? I'd love to hear how I can make adjustments to make this chapter better, because I do sense room for improvement.
Reviews make me feel like I'm snuggling on a mattress with my LLBFF and a glass of pinot noir :)