Author's Note: Thank you very much for all your reviews, suggestions and hopes over this story. The story isn't over yet (I don't know how many chapters are left to publish and write) so... Anything still can happen to Jane and Maura! (anything good, of course)

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Excuse me."

A foreign voice caused Jane to jump with surprise. She turned her head on the left – where the sound had come from – and stared at a visitor in the dark. She mumbled inaudible apologies before making room for the person to walk past her and Maura.

Maura.

Jane couldn't see her very well because of the lack of light in the tunnel of the ancient mine but she could feel her despair nonetheless. Maura's hazel eyes were shining as well. Jane swallowed hard. It must have been the tears, tears of distress in Maura's eyes.

Distress.

Jane frowned. She could already feel the icy grip of panic on her heart. It had just passed underneath her skin and had made her freeze. The world had stopped on turning. Or at least her world. Everything, actually. Everything had stopped making sense. Life had ceased to be.

"I..." Jane ran a hand through her hair. She hadn't seen it come at all. Not there. Not in the middle of a tunnel that only had one exit and that exit was fifteen minutes away from her. It oddly reminded her of that stolen kiss on the west point of the Île Saint-Louis. She hadn't seen it come either. "I mean..."

Except she didn't mean anything, because she didn't have any satisfying answer to give. She needed time and light, and fresh air. The semi-darkness of the Catacombs brought her the exact opposite. She took a deep breath but the dampness of the place stuck to her lungs. She didn't suffer from claustrophobia but the walls of bones suddenly seemed to be way too close to her.

She needed space. She needed to get out of there.

"Never mind."

Maura turned around and resumed her walking through the long tunnel. Her pace changed though and she began to walk a lot faster. By the time Jane reacted anew, Maura had already disappeared among the crowd of tourists.

It wasn't Jane who had run away this time but Maura. The bitter parallel between both scenes caused Jane to smirk. They couldn't keep on running away from each other. That wouldn't lead them anywhere.

They had to take action, and to assume everything. They were adults. They knew what they were doing. Trying to escape inevitable feelings was nothing but a waste of time and energy. Besides, Jane was tired of that game. She didn't want to run anymore.

Neither to Quantico nor to Boston.

She wanted to stop. She needed it. She had run behind something all her life and it was now time to see things differently because all that running hadn't brought her any satisfaction.

"Shit."

Jane started walking. She couldn't catch back Maura but hopefully Maura would be waiting for her by the exit. There was only one path anyway. Maura simply couldn't disappear. She hadn't left running. She was simply walking at a fast pace.

She didn't have to vanish in the streets of Paris. Not again.

Jane tried to walk past a dozen of tourists but the tunnel was too tight and she had to wait for her turn with the patience that she had never had. The Catacombs were packed. Bad timing.

She finally managed to read a sign that said 'Exit' after an endless walk in the dark. She climbed the stairs – over two hundred steps all in all – and winced as the light of the day suddenly pierced through the darkness of the underground world.

"Bonne journée, madame."*

Disarmed and disoriented, Jane vaguely gave the guard a nod before walking outside the small exit that led to a small street. She looked on her right: the street was empty. She looked on her left: Maura wasn't there either.

Just as she was beginning to think that Maura had run away, Jane heard a well-known voice. It came from the small boutique opposite the street. She would have recognized that voice anywhere. It belonged to her life, to her memories. To her smiles. Except that voice carried all the sadness of the world now.

"I'm here."

...

"Merci..."* Jane gave the waiter a timid smile as he brought her an espresso. Or at least it was supposed to be an espresso. It looked more like a miniature coffee to her. Even the cup was a doll-size one. She cleared her voice and consciously avoided Maura's eyes. "I liked the Catacombs a lot. Thank you for taking me there. It was... Ahem... A... Unique experience."

They had walked until the first cafe that they had found after meeting back at the exit of the underground mausoleum. Neither of them had talked during that short walk. Timidity and embarrassment floated above their respective heads. An invisible pressure weighed on their shoulders as well.

The imminence of a necessary talk made them feel nervous, and almost resigned.

The situation was delicate to handle. Neither of them wanted to hurt the other yet they both knew the power words could have. Words could hurt a lot more than a thousand blows.

"I'm glad you did." Maura picked up the small sugar cube and began to play with it. Her unusual gesture highlighted an extreme nervousness. Then she sighed. Heavily. Too heavily. Quickly. "Please forget what I said. It was incredibly childish, disproportionate and... And selfish. Immensely selfish."

"No."

Maura looked up, taken aback by Jane's very short but clear answer. She opened her mouth to speak but the words had a hard time hitting the air. She was stuttering. Jane's monosyllabic answer had betrayed a strong will. It was almost - if she dared to say it - intimidating.

"I... I beg your pardon?!"

"It was neither selfish nor childish and even less disproportionate. It came out of the blue but it was fair."

Maura had rarely seen Jane so serious. Her traits were deep and her eyes dark. Her level of concentration was intense. She wasn't here to make jokes nor to run away from something as important as the conversation they both needed to have.

Her stubbornness wouldn't let her do this.

Not this time.

"It was. Because you're allowed to live your life. You're allowed to go away and to start something new. Besides, Quantico isn't far from Boston. It's barely a..."

"Just as you're allowed to not like it and to tell me that you don't like it. Don't apologize for the way you feel, Maura. Don't ever do that. Your feelings are fair. More than fair, as a matter of fact."

The semblance of a smile brushed Maura's lips. A ghost, nothing else. It vanished even before Jane to notice it. Maura shrugged – not really convinced by what Jane had just said – and focused on the tiled floor of the cafe instead.

"What for? It won't change anything anyway."

It didn't have to change anything. Maura didn't want Jane to renounce to her dreams just because she was in the picture. That was terribly selfish. A relationship – no matter the nature of it – was made of compromises but not to the point of giving up on everything. Jane hadn't complained when Maura had begun to work at Hope's clinic. On the contrary. She had encouraged her.

It had to be mutual.

"I... I don't know. Maybe it will. It could. "

You sound desperate and terribly insecure. Because of me. I appreciate your sincerity and I understand that you can't give me a proper answer. It's too early. You love me but how can you be sure that your feelings will still be the same once we head back to Boston? Everything started here, in Paris. It may as well finish here before we leave.

"Maybe?"

There wasn't any hope in Maura's voice. As a matter of fact, her voice was shaking. It was her heart that had spoken. Not her head. Her head kept on yelling at her that she had to accept things the way they were now, that Jane couldn't take a decision within the next seconds because it wasn't possible.

Nobody gives up on an opportunity like the one Jane had been given in Quantico. Nobody. Not so easily. It required a lot of patience and an immense wisdom. If Jane now rushed into things then chances were that she wouldn't make the right choices and the consequences would be disastrous ones.

"It won't be the same without you." Jane bit her lips. She didn't regret what she had just said but her statement was brutal nonetheless because she had consciously avoided thinking about it until now. She had succumbed to a bottomless denial and everything had collapsed within a second. She felt lost. But not lonely. Not lonely at all. "Even more now. Even more after Paris."

You're torn. I understand your reaction because I feel exactly alike. I'm torn as well. A part of me wants you to stay by my side for the rest of our life while another one wants you to follow your dreams.

We both know that I don't belong to Quantico nor to Washington D.C. And that's the problem. It's a dead-end path and I hate it. We're stuck. We're completely stuck, Jane. Whatever you decide to do, it will change our lives forever.

"I meant what I told you last night, Maura. I really meant it." Jane approached a timid hand towards Maura's. Her fingers brushed Maura's wrist. Softly. Carefully. "Perhaps Quantico isn't a good idea."

Perhaps. A fragile, tiny doubt.

Maura looked up for the first time since they had walked in the impersonal cafe. Her hazel eyes looked into Jane's dark ones with a strength that defied Jane's stubborness.

"Perhaps Boston isn't a good idea either."

A honest surprise lit up Maura's traits as she spoke. Her sentence was clear, and simple. Except it was made of a hundred different layers and those layers hid a thousand different questions. Unanswered questions. If neither Boston nor Quantico were an option, then what was left exactly?

...

*Bonne journée, madame : Have a nice day, Mrs.

*Merci : Thank you