TWENTY-FOUR

The afternoon light was seeping into Jane's apartment as she opened her eyes and stretched across the length of her bed. She hadn't meant to take a nap, but staring at those chocolates trying not to eat them had grown so exhausting. She ran her hands through her hair until her fingers snagged on the knots that were still sort of there from yesterday. Jane's hair was the kind of hair that looked messy brushed or not, so simply tying it up in a ponytail when she went out or wearing a beanie was always the best solution, lest she stay in her bathroom for an hour trying to get out an unbelievable amount of knots. Her eyes wandered around her apartment, searching for a reason for her to get up and do something, but nothing was grabbing her eye. Then her eyes latched onto her bedside draw. She remembered when she had drawn a little comic strip on a napkin at the diner when Maura had come in and so she reached over and opened the draw.

She dug around until she found it tucked under a notepad. She snuggled backwards into her den of pillows and unfolded the napkin, interested in what she had 'predicted', she joked. 'Pregnant Jane'. "Check," she said out loud, as if it were a list of events. 'Meets Maura'. "Check". 'Become friends'. "Check". She then paused a little longer as she gazed at the next picture. "Holding hands with Maura." She'd kissed, held, and made love to Maura, but she hadn't yet just held her hand. She made a mental note to try and do that the next time she saw Maura.

She couldn't stand it anymore. Thinking of Maura and all her sweetness was practically a mental sign (there was really no such thing... Jane was grasping at straws here) so she got up and waddled herself over to the chocolate. She picked it, stared at it, and knew that it would be just her luck for Maura to come up stairs just during Jane's moment of weakness. She stared at it some more, then thought it was now or never. She poised her fingers over the corner of the wrapper and began pulling. Licking her lips excitedly, she pulled it back further until the chocolaty deliciousness was revealed to Jane's waiting eyes. She pulled the wrapper back as far as she could so that she could take the biggest bite possible, and just as she was raising the bar to her mouth she heard the lock from the door across the hall unlock.

"Shit," Jane whispered, before scurrying over to her door, chocolate bar still in hand. She then noticed it in her hand, and made a quick 'do I-don't I' dance trying to decide if she should just eat it, but then there was a knock on her door. "Babe!" she practically sang as she opened her front door. "I got you chocolate."

"I know; I was at the cash register when you bought it," Maura stated.

"But I have unwrapped it, and I am presenting it to you after your long, hard day of work."

Maura tried to hide her smile by pressing her fingers to her lips. When she had gotten it under control, she dropped her fingers to her chin. "You were gonna eat it, weren't you?"

"To be fair, I had only just given in," Jane started as she let Maura in. "I was perfect all day."

"You're perfect every day," Maura mumbled as she passed Jane, causing them both to smile. "I mean... you're-" Maura tried to clarify, before Jane shut her up with a kiss.

She pulled back and smiled. "I like doing that."

"I like it too," Maura replied.

"You know, I still can't actually believe that we... um... you know..." Jane confessed as she followed after Maura to the bed.

"Me too," Maura whispered as she sat down. "I kept thinking about it all day."

"Oh yeah?" Jane asked with a subtle raise of her eyebrow.

"Yeah. I mean, not about that... although I did think about that, but I just kept getting... I don't know... giddy."

"Giddy?" Jane asked sitting down beside Maura.

"Yeah," Maura said sheepishly. "I kept smiling; all day. People began to think I was on something!"

"Well, last night, you were on me," Jane stated, but immediately after she said it, a pair of joyful and... giddy laughs filled the apartment. Maura nudged her shoulder into Jane as she laughed, and then fell back onto the soft bed's mattress. Jane lay down as well, a little slower as she rolled onto her side. She propped herself up on her elbow and watched as the blonde beside her vibrated with laughter, even when she tried to calm it. She really was the most beautiful thing Jane had ever seen.

"I really am happy, Jane," Maura said, turning her head to face the brunette. "And I haven't been happy like this for a very long time."

"I'm sorry, Maur."

"It's not your fault."

"I know, but... I am. I can't imagine why anyone would think that hurting you was an okay thing to do."

"I'm sure she didn't mean to do it when it all started." Maura knew that Jane was mentally cursing The Professor, so she may as well just be straight with her. "She just didn't do the right thing in the end."

"What was the wrong thing?" Jane asked quietly. "What did she do?"

Maura looked back up at the ceiling before answering, hoping that that little bit of gravity or whatever would hold in the tears that were inevitably going to fall. "Another teacher found out about it, though they didn't know it was me; but she... she offered me up so that she would keep her job. I was lucky I even got to stay."

"How'd you end up here, though?"

"I wished they would've expelled me. That would've been less humiliating that what the students did to me."

"What did they do?" Jane had meant it as just a simple question, but Maura could hear the anger in it; the growl of protection almost.

"Called me a slut; beat on me; some congratulated me in the oddest ways... ways that made me remember what I'd done; made me relive it in the guiltiest way possible." Maura squeezed her eyes shut as a lone tear crept out of the corner of her eye. Jane slid her arm slowly across Maura's tummy and pulled her in close. "Like I was to blame."

"Shhh," Jane hushed into the other woman's ear. "It's not your fault, baby. It's not your fault. It never was." Hearing these words comforted Maura greatly. Somehow they lifted a huge weight off her shoulders and her conscience. In the months where she felt most alone; most tormented, they were the words she'd wished to have heard from her mother or her friends, but it was all too silent. She had to travel to a whole other city to find the person that would understand and love her unconditionally. "What can I do to make you feel better? Buy you pizza? Rip up the drawings of her?" Jane smiled a little too devilishly for that one, but lowered her voice to a whisper before saying the last one. "Eat you out?"

"Ha! I do like the sound of that, but I don't think I'd be into it. About the drawings though..."

"Oh? I mean, I'd let you do some ripping to if you want," Jane offered.

"No; not that I don't want to get rid of them, but... it's complicated," Maura said, sitting up.

"I know... but the drawing?"

"Right; when do you wanna start sketching again?"

"Oh, goodie!" Jane said, clapping her hands together, but then stopped when Maura started laughing at her. "Too much?" Maura nodded. "Well, when do you wanna sketch? When are you off work?"

"Um... I'm off on Saturday afternoon and Sunday."

"Really? Don't you get paid more on the weekend?"

"I do, but I wanted to spend at least one full day with you on my holidays."

"Aw," Jane said, biting her lip. "That's adorable."

"Yeah, well, I'd feel pretty crap if I didn't get a little bit of Jane-time before I went back to school."

"You did get a little bit of me last night. Actually a lot. More like all of me. All night."

"It was a good night."

"The best." The two women looked at each other like they hadn't seen each other in years, taking in every ounce of their beings so they would never forget the other.

"I love you," Maura whispered, reaching her hand out to caress Jane's arm.

"I love you, too," Jane whispered back. The quietness of the room made their words seem like they were loud; loud enough to deafen someone. Jane could barely make her ears focus on anything else... birds outside, cars, even the clock on the wall. Nothing worked. All her ears heard was Maura; her voice, her breathing, and her heartbeat when she laid back down beside Jane.

Her tummy was getting a little bigger now, and so she couldn't lie on her back for too long. Rolling over, she slipped her arm back around Maura's waist and pulled her in and kissed her cheek. She didn't feel like sleeping again, nor did her girlfriend, so they lay in simple silence daydreaming about their next kiss.

Although the silence was sweet, as was the feeling of being so close to Jane, Maura's mind was abuzz, so she held her phone up and decided to scroll through her facebook, something she hadn't done for quite a while now. "Jane," she said, to which the brunette replied with a hum. "Do you want to say that we're dating on facebook?"

"Um... only if you want to. The people I know on there... I don't really want them to know; like I don't really care about them anymore."

"Oh..."

"I haven't been on it in ages... close to a year, I suppose. All the people I want to talk to; I see them every week, so..."

"Ok; well I didn't really want to either." Maura could feel Jane nod before turning her head back in to the blonde's neck, the slight brush of her eyelashes closing tickling her skin. She then refocussed on her phone.

She only really used to go on here to talk to her friends that she didn't have classes with, back in New York. But now those people were... indifferent to her. She didn't hate them, because they weren't the ones that made her life hell after the affair became public, but they also didn't stand up for her and try to make her feel better. She'd left them behind in search of more worthy people to have in her life. And now she'd found them.

She kept scrolling and suddenly there she was. Maura tried to shift herself to her side so that Jane couldn't see the screen if she opened her eyes, but it was no use. "I gotta pee," she whispered, and just like that, Jane rolled over onto her other side, and Maura scurried as calmly as she could into the bathroom and closed the door. She sat down on the closed toilet and stared at the screen.

There she was. "Margaret," she whispered. The post said that she had updated her status yesterday. When Maura read it, her heart stopped, and then when it started again, it felt like it was going to burst out of her chest in fear. Off to the upcoming art exhibition in Chicago. "Oh my god. Oh my god." This feeling was going to make her throw up if she didn't do something. She looked back at the photo of Professor Swann once more before getting up. She still looked the same. Unchanged by anything that could have possible ruined her life; her career. She looked as if she had won the lottery, not almost destroyed a student's, and her girlfriend's career. "Jane!" Maura called as she bounded across the small bathroom and swung open the door. Jane was sliding to the edge of the bed, reaching out her arms for Maura.

"What is it?" Jane asked, concern flooding her face. She could see how flustered Maura looked, and that there was a slight shine on her hands from nervous sweat.

"She's here. In Chicago. She's here."

"Who?"

Maura, with shaky hands, held out her phone for Jane to see, and with an even shakier voice whispered, "The Professor."

A/N Sorry about the long wait for this update guys :/ Moving house (and state) and starting university really takes it out of you! Now that I am more settled, I will endeavour to update more frequently, I promise! xo