Author's Note: Thank you very much for all the reviews and messages, I really appreciate them.

Chapter Twenty-Four

"What if what we lived in Maine can't be lived in Boston? What if Boston is irremediably linked to sex and nothing else? What if it doesn't work? What if we fail? What if... What if it is a mistake?"

At least Maura managed to put words on her fears. As a matter of fact, she could write down the list of all these things that bothered her and prevented her from sleeping at night. The only issue was that she was unable to answer any of her own questions and it freaked her out.

The serenity on Lucy's face let Maura understand that her friend didn't share her fears. Lucy shrugged, very matter-of-factly. She poured herself a glass of water and took a sip before saying anything back.

They had all the time in the world. Or so. Maura had her day off and Lucy wanted to enjoy her last hours in Boston with her friend. Thus she had invited Maura to a French restaurant near the harbor. The view was breathtaking and if Maura usually enjoyed it a lot, she was currently unable to focus on it.

"Relax, Maura. You've made it back here three days ago only. You need to be patient." Lucy laughed lightly. "You can't build a romantic relationship with anyone within two days. It's impossible. Besides, it's not that easy to go from being friends with benefits to romantic partners. It requires... Some adjustments."

Maura wrinkled her nose. She didn't disapprove. As a matter of fact, she even knew that Lucy was right but she lacked the patience such situation required. She wanted immediate results because she needed them to feel fine. To be reassured.

She was glad to share this lunch with Lucy because Lucy was the only one Maura could confine in. Angela was out of the picture for a thousand different reasons. Jane's mother was another source of stress, actually.

"Hmm. I don't know. It's just that... I don't regret the shift in our relationship. On the contrary... I wanted it and Jane asking for it was a relief. It's just that outside of sex, we don't seem to be in a relationship. It looks like the same friendship as the one we have always had."

Maura reluctantly saw it as a bad omen. Perhaps she and Jane weren't meant to be in a romantic relationship. They were friends and sexual partners but romanticism may not belong to their world. The idea broke her heart yet she couldn't help thinking about it.

"You don't get involved in a relationship by simply stating it, Maura. You can't wait for it to get built by itself. Take Jane on a date."

The suggestion made Maura burst out laughing. She raised a hand to apologize for her reaction. Lucy was trying to be nice. The least Maura could do was to listen to her friend's advices.

"Jane and I don't do that, Lucy. We don't... We don't go on a date. We don't need to go on a date because we already know each other by heart."

"Then call it an evening out, just the two of you. Something romantic. That's what couples do, Maura. They don't simply share a meal before having sex. They go to the movies, they attend a venue... You know all this. Now you simply need to apply it to you and Jane."

Asking Jane on a date seemed odd to Maura. Her friend had a point though. The nature of her relationship depended on the actions she and Jane would take.

"I wish Jane talked to her mother." Maura bowed her head. Her confession embarrassed her a lot more than what she would have imagined. "I guess it would make things easier. The situation is such that... It's hard for me because I'm standing between both."

Maura had learned these past few days that an upset Angela was a very quiet Angela who didn't dare to do nor say the slightest thing anymore. Her behavior was so unusual that it worried Jane too. Maura didn't know what to do. She had promised Angela that she wouldn't say anything to Jane but the weight of their secret was too much on her shoulders.

"One thing at a time, Maura. It's not easy to announce to your parents that you're in a same-sex relationship. You should know about it."

Touché. It had taken Maura months to tell her parents about it even if she knew that they were opend-minded.

Maura nodded. It was even less easy when said relationship was still a bit fragile. Their feelings were strong but they still had to build the base of their relationship. It was a delicate time for the two of them.

"Would you like it too? Would you like to be in an exclusive relationship with me?"

Maura remembered how Jane's voice had shaken, how her uncertainty had melted into a strong hope as her dark eyes had looked into Maura's hazel ones.

"Yes... Yes, I want it too. I really want it too."

It had seemed to be a rather surreal moment. Maura had never imagined that Jane would ask her such a thing at a cafe in Maine. It had come from nowhere but with such evidence that the world had looked brighter. Suddenly.

"Really?"

Maura had burst out laughing before Jane's incredulity. She had nodded rather vehemently before squeezing her friend's hand tightly from the other side of the table.

"I want to be yours, as I want you to be mine. I really do."

They hadn't added anything else because they hadn't needed to. Everything was clear. The decision that they had just taken followed a logic that didn't need to be discussed. Yet four days later, Maura was sitting at a restaurant in Boston with Lucy wondering if she and Jane had made the right choice because it wasn't working out the way she had imagined.

"What does Jane like to do? It's the summer... There are plenty of music festivals. Perhaps you could take her to one of them. Unless you'd like to do something quieter and more intimate. You have to fight for your happiness in this world, Maura. It doesn't come up all by itself."

...

Maura stopped the engine of her Prius and waited for long seconds before getting out of her car, just as she had waited for Lucy's plane to take off before leaving Logan International. She would miss her friend, even more in these moments of doubts. Lucy had brought her a wisdom these past few weeks that Maura needed desperately. Now she would have to handle her life all by herself again.

It was hard.

"Do you sleep with my daughter?"

Maura walked till her house. She came in and closed the door behind her before heading to the kitchen counter where she set her bag down. Angela's very direct question had completely taken her off guard the day she had come back from Maine feeling light and happy because she and Jane were now in a romantic relationship.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Mateo saw you and Jane in the laundry room on your birthday. You were... Doing things. That's why I'm asking you, Maura. Do you sleep with my daughter? Do you date her?"

Maura perfectly remembered what she and Jane had done in the laundry room on her birthday. However, she was sure Jane had closed the door behind them. It was an old door, a noisy one. They would have heard it if someone had tried to open it. She didn't understand how Mateo and Finn had walked in on them. Unless Jane hadn't closed the door completely.

The breakup with Finn made a lot more sense now though.

"Yes. Yes, we do."

Maura could have said to Angela that it was none of her business, that her question was intrusive. But she hadn't wanted to. On the contrary. She wasn't ashamed of what she lived with Jane. It actually made her proud and happy. She wanted to say it to everyone.

She wanted to hold hands in public.

"Why not telling anyone about it? I don't understand. I... You're the best thing that ever happened to Jane, Maura. Everyone knows it."

Perhaps Maura should have been blunt too. Perhaps she should have said to Angela that the nature of the relationship she had had with Jane until a few hours earlier was not a classic one. She had skipped that part and had decided to focus on the idea that she and Jane needed some time before letting everyone know about them instead.

She hadn't been able to comfort Angela. She had felt Jane's mother incomprehension and distress to have failed in her bond with Jane but she had been unable to tell Angela that it would be alright and that Jane would speak to her some time.

Bitterness tightened Maura's heart as she picked up her cell phone and wrote a text message to Jane. Lucy wasn't here anymore but her advices remained intact. And true.

May I pick you up tomorrow at 7pm? I miss you.

Maura

Jane answered almost immediately as if she had been waited for a message all day long. They hadn't had a chance to meet today. Maura had focused on Lucy before her departure.

Of course! I miss you too.

Jane

A sigh of satisfaction passed Maura's lips. Her eyes fixed upon Jane's message, she nodded at nobody but herself.

"There we go... Our first date."