Maura sat at the kitchen counter the next morning, the golden glow of the morning sunshine pouring through the window and spilling across the the kitchen. She sat with her head in her hands, her bleary eyes fixated on the newspaper but the print was blurring together making it impossible for her to read. She had woken with a heavy headache after a disturbed night of barely any sleep, she had felt fine when they had returned home, it had only been in the early hours of the morning that she was woken with thumping headache and dizziness that made her feel as if she were about to vomit. Maura knew Jane wouldn't go to work if she was visibly showing signs of post concussion, so when Jane had gotten up that morning had Maura too, she had made them coffee and smiled and told Jane she would manage when the detective asked "Are you sure you'll be okay by yourself today?"Angela was at work today and so was Hope, so Maura really was going to be by herself all day until the detective returned home late this evening, Jane's concerned eyes had searched Maura's face as Maura gave a small nod, the headache rattling in her brain with even the slightest movement. "Call me if you need anything" Jane had told her before kissing her once lightly on the forehead and then on the lips, before she left. "I mean it Maur" she had stopped halfway out the door.

"Anything."

Maura's neck ached from being hunched forward for so long, she had been seeing a chiropractor for two hours every second day since she had gotten out of hospital, even such a small accident could cause a massive amount of damage to her fragile body. Her back and neck were often feeling stiff and sore and that was doing nothing to help her throbbing head. Distract yourself Maura told herself. Think of something nice.

Of course the first thing Maura thought of was her and Jane's first unofficial date last night, how they had almost fallen asleep under the stars, Jane's arms around her protectively holding her close, keeping her warm, making her feel safe. She was safe with Jane, she felt less scared that something would happen. It wasn't like Maura to be scared of pain, she was a doctor, she knew what was causing it and why, but this pain, the constant aching and pounding of her head and muscles ever since she and returned from hospital was scaring her. She felt pathetic she couldn't handle being by herself, she never thought she would ever be so reliant on someone but lately she found she hated being without Jane. It wasn't just because she loved the detective it was because with Jane's arms around her and the sound of her comforting husky voice she felt safe, that if anything happened Jane would be there to help her, to fix it. Jane was like home for Maura.

Slowly getting up from the counter she decided to go back upstairs and try to have a nap, her eyelids felt heavy from the lack of sleep and she knew it was incredibly bad for a person not to get the average amount of hours a night. But as she stood on her own two feet with nothing supporting her she felt wobbly, her muscles felt weak like they couldn't hold her and her head immediately went fuzzy, black dots appearing round the edge of her vision. She could feel the blood rushing through her veins. Her head felt light and a heavy fatigue settled over her body. Quickly reaching out to grip the side of the counter Maura steadied herself, her heart pounding with fear she was all alone in her big house. Call me if you need anything. Jane's words were the only clear thought Maura could have. Anything. She hated the idea of being so weak she couldn't handle a dizzy patch by herself, but swallowing her pride she found herself reaching for her phone.

"Maura, what is it?" Jane answered almost instantly.

"I'm just…" words fell over each other in a jumble in Maura's head, she couldn't think straight. She could barely think at all.

"I'm dizzy" she mumbled quietly everything around her slowly becoming harder to see.

"Okay, okay" Jane said concern growing in her voice "Are you sitting down?"

"Jane…" Maura said

"Maur, I'm coming" Jane said, she knew something was wrong in Maura's tone, she sounded almost as if she was about to pass out. Grabbing her keys off her desk she yelled out to Korsak before sprinting out the doors towards her car.

"Stay on the phone Maur, keep talking to me" Jane instructed her.

"Kay.." Maura mumbled. Jane was kicking herself, she knew she shouldn't have left Maura all by herself today, Lena had said it would take several weeks for her to start feeling better at the least, she would easily still experiencing symptoms of concussion.

Maura struggled to hold her eyes open, everything rapidly becoming darker. She needed to lay down, that much she could think of. Releasing her grip on the counter she determinedly took a step towards the couch, one, two, three. She stopped, catching herself as she felt the ground beneath her spin.

"Maur?" Jane's voice was calling down the phone but she was too tired to reply, she took another step but everything went black before her foot touched the ground again.

"Maura?" Jane's heart stopped as she heard a clatter on the other end of the line. When Maura didn't reply Jane felt every muscle in her body tense.

"Maura!" she shouted down the phone but there was nothing.

"Fuck" she exclaimed, she was only a minute away from the doctors house now so she dropped her phone onto the seat next to her and gripped the wheel with both hands holding it so tightly her knuckles went white.

Crashing through the door Jane's eyes frantically searched every available space she could see before running into the kitchen and seeing Maura on the floor halfway to the couch.

"Oh my god"

Jane's heart was beating a million miles a minute, her hands were shaking and she could hear her heart beating in her ears. Collapsing down beside Maura she rolled the medical examiner into the recovery position, checking her pulse as she pulled out her phone dialling 911.

"I need an ambulance now" Jane heard herself shouting down the phone. She wrapped her arms around the doctors shoulders, stroking her honey blonde hair.

"I'm here Maur, you're gonna be okay" Jane whispered not even noticing the flood of tears that were falling like raindrops onto Maura's bare arms. Jane struggled to place the order of what happened next, the medics burst into Maura's house, she was on a stretcher and in the ambulance with people talking all kinds of google speak Jane couldn't keep up with, they asked her questions and she told them about the accident barely hearing herself speaking, then they were plugging her into oxygen and put an IV drip into her arm.

"What's happening" the words left Jane's mouth but she wasn't sure if anyone even heard them. Fear coursed through her veins, along side the regret and anger she had for not staying home with Maura today, this wouldn't have happened if I had been there Jane wanted to ram her head into a wall for being such an idiot. She had known Maura had a restless night, she had just felt the doctor was awake next to her staring up at the ceiling not wanting to move, afraid of the pain, waiting, just waiting for the sun to come up. She had never known Maura to be scared of pain before but over the past few days she had begun to attach herself firmly to Jane not wanting the detective to be far from her ever, whether she verbally admitted it or not Jane could see the hesitation in Maura's eyes and her voice as she told Jane to go to work every morning. And now this had happened, in result of both of them being too stubborn.

"She's gonna be okay right?" Jane asked frantically looking between the medics who were too busy focusing on Maura to even notice Jane was speaking

"Tell me she's gonna be okay?"

"Ma'am I'm gonna have to ask you to sit back" one of them said as Jane moved forward trying to get closer to Maura.

What seemed like an impossibly long journey to the hospital finally came to an end, the medics lifted Maura out of the ambulance on the stretcher and began running her through the emergency doors. Jane ran along behind them, tears still falling down her face. She was terrified. Running down the hospital corridor alongside a stretcher with her loved one on it was a cliched scene that she had never once imagined would ever happen to her. A doctor in a white coat and a nurse in blue scrubs appeared alongside the stretcher, the medic handing the doctor the clipboard and talking too fast for Jane.

"Get her to neuro-trauma now and do a CT" the doctor suddenly barked throwing her arm out towards the next set of doors that were coming up. As they disappeared through the doors the nurse stepped in front of Jane to stop her from following them.

"You can't go through there I'm sorry" she said holding her hands out in front of Jane.

"W-what's happening" Jane whimpered running both her hands through her hair in distress as she felt herself beginning to break down, her legs feeling weak underneath her, her heart hurting at the thought of what could happen, and her head pounding from all her racing thoughts.

"Hey" the nurse said softly "We're going to do everything we can okay? Come here" she took Jane by the arm guiding her through to a seated area and sat down next to her, a hand comfortingly on her knee.

"We're going to to do everything we can, I promise you" the nurse repeated and Jane just nodded, choked up from tears.

"Can you tell me if she was showing signs of any unusual symptoms?" she asked and Jane nodded again, they were going to help her. Whatever happened they were going to help her, and save her. They had to.

"Sh-she was nauseous a lot" Jane recalled "She called me and told me she was d-dizzy, she s-sounded like she was tired"

"Difficulty talking?" the nurse asked and Jane nodded vigorously. "Okay, anything else?"

"She always and headaches" Jane said finally getting her sobbing under control.

"She wasn't sleeping, she complained of having a sore neck and wanting to vomit, but Lena said that was to be expected after the accident" Jane frowned in confusion.

"That's great, very helpful thank you- "

"Jane"

The nurse smiled trying to comfort the detective.

"Okay, I need you to listen Jane, what's happening to her is called cerebral edema, our neurosurgeons are going to do an MRI just to be sure, but what that means is the pressure inside her skull is rising…"

"Like brain swelling?" Jane asked, she had heard Maura asking Lena about it when she had been in hospital earlier.

"Yes, exactly" the nurse nodded, her fierce blue eyes looking directly at Jane.

"It's common to happen after an accident- "

"Is it bad?" Jane cut off the nurse her brow furrowed.

"It's…it's not good Jane"

"She can't die, please don't let her die"

"We're going to do everything we can"

"She can't die" Jane whispered. She can't.

A strange pain made Jane wake from her sleep, as she opened her eyes slowly everything came rushing back to her. Maura. The ambulance. The nurse. Her tears. She had fallen asleep in the chair in the waiting room where the nurse Rebecca had deposited her several hours earlier, her neck ached from being on an awkward angle for so long. Rubbing it gently Jane looked up at the clock staring blankly at the second hand as it ticked around, slowly, torturing her. There hadn't been much word on Maura, Rebecca had come back 45 minutes later with the neurosurgeon Dr Fitzroy who had informed her they needed to perform an emergency surgery to "shunt the fluid out of her brain and relieve the pressure that caused the swelling when she fell" and since then there had been nothing. Not a word. Nothing. Jane sat in agony. She had called her Ma as soon as Rebecca had left her side, sobbing down the phone hysterically repeating how much she couldn't let Maura die. But as soon as Angela had said she was coming in Jane had immediately said no. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate her mothers willingness to come and be with her and support her and Maura through this, it's just no one knew that her and the doctor had become so involved, and that was not a conversation she wanted to deal with having in an hospital waiting room.

"I'll call you when there's news Ma, okay" she had said and her mother, unconvinced had agreed. Jane wanted to be by herself right now, she wanted to punish herself in the agony of waiting, and waiting alone for being such an idiot and leaving Maura's side. For being an idiot and not telling the woman she loved, those three words just once. If she dies she'll die not knowing I loved her Jane thought with tears cascading down her face, she didn't know how she would live with herself if Maura didn't make it.

After what felt like an eternity of waiting Doctor Fitzroy emerged through the double doors with a blank look on his face that Jane couldn't possibly decipher as good or bad.

"Well?" she said leaping to her feet immediately, her heart began pounding this was it.

"Jane" he said his voice was deadpan. She stared at him with wide eyes, hearing her heart beat in her ears and the clock ticking on the wall behind them.

"She's fine" he said a smile cracking on his face "She's going to make a full recovery"

"Oh my god" Jane felt her eyes welling up with tears again as relief flooded through her heart and veins, an overwhelming happiness filling her entire being.

"There was no damage done" he explained "you got her here just in time, when she collapsed it was most likely just from the dizziness and her post concussion, but when she hit her head her brain started swelling, thankfully you were there and it didn't develop into a serious cerebral edema, which could have been life threatening"

"I saved her?" Jane asked baffled.

"You did, Jane, she definitely owes you now" he said with a light chuckle and Jane wondered if that was meant to be a joke.

"We have her on oxygen and an IV, we'll put her on some different medications when she's discharged which will hopefully speed up her recovery and lessen the headaches she's been having"

"Can I see her?" the words fell from Jane's lips as soon as he had finished talking.

"Of course" he said with a warm smile and led the eager detective to the head trauma wing and stopped outside Maura's door.

"If you have any questions please contact me" he said and placed a empathetic hand on Jane's shoulder.

"She's lucky to have you Jane" he said before turning to walk away.

"Thank you" Jane called out after him "Thank you for saving her…I owe you"

Doctor Fitzroy turned around and smiled humorously and gave a playful bow. The smile on Jane's face couldn't be contained, she turned back to the closed door and took a deep breath before pushing it open. Again she hadn't been sure what to expect, she never thought she would have to deal with seeing Maura in a hospital bed more than once in her life. But this time as she walked in a pair of gorgeous hazel eyes greeted her.

"Jane" Maura's voice trembled when she saw the detective.

"Hi sweetie" Jane said unable to stop her eyes from filling with tears at the sight of Maura being alive and breathing. Jane was frozen in place, her eyes furiously studying the blonde making sure everything was definitely still okay. She had an oxygen tube in her nose, and a IV drip in her right arm with tubes and cords hooked over a stand that was next to the bed, her face was pale and her lips looked chapped. But she was fine. She was breathing. She was speaking. There were tears falling down her cheeks as she looked at Jane.

"Jane" Maura said again softly her voice broken from the tears.

"I'm here" Jane said soothingly, instantly un-grounding her feet and moving Maura's bedside, a pair of hazel eyes following her every move.

"I'm right here baby" she took Maura's delicate hand in hers and kissed it several times.

"Jane…they s-shaved my hair" Maura whimpered tears still falling down her face.

"What?" Jane asked her eyes scanned over Maura's honey blonde hair.

"Where?"

"T-the back" Maura said with a wounded pout.

"Oh honey" Jane said not being able to help the small smile that was creeping onto her face at Maura's grievance over her hair above all other things.

"Well that's the good thing about hair, it grows back" she said leaning forward and kissing the doctors forehead softly, the feel of Maura's warm skin against her lips made her heart flutter.

"I'm sorry" Maura whispered lifting her hand up and placing it over Jane's heart as the detective kissed her forehead.

"No, no Maur, it's my fault I should never have left you" Jane frowned pulling back slightly so she could look at Maura's face. She wanted to look at that face everyday for the rest of her life. She could look at it forever, and never get it tired of it.

"No" Maura said "I mean, I'm sorry I scared you" her hand still lingered over Jane's heart and she played with the fabric of the brunettes t-shirt between her fingers.

"I-I know that you care" Maura gave a tiny shrug, her eyes glistening with tears. Jane stared at her, feeling the warmth of the doctors hand flowing through the fabric of her top, burning her skin and touching her heart.

"I can see it…" she continued her hazel eyes focused solely on Jane's.

"I see it in the way you stare, and I know it's always been there but I'm s-still sorry I scared you" Maura said and tore her eyes away from Jane's as another few tears fell down her face. She let her hand drop back down onto the bed only for Jane to pick it up again and kiss it, before holding it close to her.

"Maur" she said tenderly and the medical examiners eyes finally lifted "It's okay" she said.

"You're okay, I'm okay, its-it's going to be okay"

The words served not only to reassure Maura, but to reassure Jane as well. They were going to be okay. She had to believe it.

"I'm sorry I need you so much" Maura said quietly her eyes wet with tears.

"I just, I'm scared without you" a small feeling of relief was lifted from Maura's chest as the words left her mouth and filled the room around them. Jane's dark eyes were filled with a deep affection and she slid up onto the bed with Maura, gently and very carefully not to disturb any of the tubes or strange remotes and buttons that surrounded them. She slipped her arms around Maura's frail body and held her close.

"You don't need to be scared" she said the feeling of Maura in her arms again sent a warm energy flooding through her body.

"You're home" she whispered "I'm not going anywhere"

Maura rested her head comfortably on Jane's chest, those consoling arms around her immediately making her feel untouchable. Jane listened to the sound of Maura breathing her fast quick breaths slowly becoming less rapid, she began to take longer and deeper breaths and Jane knew she must be falling asleep. She missed those beautiful hazel eyes looking at her already. But Maura was in her arms, and she was okay. Nothing could hurt them. Nothing could touch them right now. Yet Maura still clung to Jane in her last state of wakefulness, like a final breath you would breathe. Scared of what was to come, unwilling to ever let go.

Hey team! I think this is the longest you've had to wait for an update, which makes me feel terrible but here it is! I'm sorry I couldn't get this up sooner, I have a multitude of shit going on in my life right now and I fell asleep before I even wrote three words last night, apparently I couldn't handle these ladies emotions on top of my own...big apologies!

I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's a bit of a roller coaster and I smashed it out in a couple of hours so if there's any grammar/spelling errors I'll fix them shortly.

Let me know how you're feeling after this... I may or may not admit to a tear or two falling when I wrote this (is that even acceptable to cry at your own writing)

Thank you for all the support. Another update should be coming soon so hang in there. Much love xx