Hello, hello!

Wow! Thanks guys for all of your positive reviews, I'm so glad there is still a following for this story, that really means a lot, so I thought I'd return the favour by getting a nice quick update to you. I wasn't sure what reaction I'd get from putting our lovely Maura on the 'meat market' but it served its purpose and I'm happy you're all on-board. Also, don't worry about Crowe, if you're all finding him as despicable as I intend him to be then it's all to do good- he'll get his comeuppance.

One last thing; to the religious reviewer who seems to think it's acceptable to use my story as a platform to preach at folk? FF don't seem have to gotten around to my request to have your 'message' removed but while you are more than entitled to your own beliefs please keep your judgemental claptrap away from my story and its readers. If you find homosexuality offensive, then can I make the rather logical suggestion that you do not deliberately go out of your way to seek out fanfiction which contains homosexual content? See how easy that was? Everyone happy!

Now…onward!

Chapter Eight

Jane removed her hand from Maura's azure-silk-clad buttock as soon as they reached the relative sanctity of the landing, but the blonde's brief sigh of relief died in her throat the instant she turned to face her would-be rescuer, almost stumbling into the taller woman who had come to a stop mere inches behind. For a moment, Maura remained perfectly still, encapsulated in a strong yet deceptively gentle grasp, entranced by the lines and planes of Jane's marred face. Jane too seemed to give pause, marvelling at the other woman's perfect alabaster skin displaying just the slightest pink tinge of exertion but most of all a pair of rose tinted lips. Absently, she wondered if the blonde used rouge or if that vibrant shade was all Katie. She was not exactly an authority on such matters and truth-be-told, she would have been quite content to remain puzzling it over right there in that embrace for the rest of the night but the faint wisps of revelry wafting up from the bar below and the sound of not-too-distant laughter reminded her that they had not yet found the privacy both women probably needed to regather themselves;

"Uh, which, which one is yours?" she asked with a jerk of her head in the vague direction of the varied bedrooms along the hallway while she helped Maura regain her feet, dismayed a little when the other women appeared suddenly nervous; her skin which had been flush from the race up the staircase had paled to a deathly white.

Maura gulped in abrupt realisation of what Jane might be expecting of her. Then again, had not her body just been bought with a view to rescuing her from those wicked men? Did she now owe Jane her maidenhood?

"This one" she replied vaguely, leading Jane just a few doors down the corridor where trembling fingers fiddled with the handle, the pair of them tentatively stepping inside. As Maura picked her way further into the room through the, towards the one hopeful shaft of bright light provided by the moon she turned, starting at the sound of Jane thudding the door shut and locking it with a snap. Suddenly the clamour of the outside world was a distant memory, the only sound the heavy breaths that lay thick in the air between them. Maura could just barely make out Jane's form in the darkness but as she glanced around the room it became clear to her that this had all been planned from the start. The second Crowe had made the decision to employ her talents at The Dirty Bandit he knew he could use her to attract and entertain a new brand of wealthy clients. That was why he had given her this, the largest room in the bordello with its luscious, richly laden bed and rich drapery everywhere. She even had fresh flowers on the dresser and god-only-knew where they were to be found in the middle of the Arizona desert!

Strangely, the other woman had not yet made a move towards her and Maura wasn't sure whether to be thankful or concerned;

"Jane?" she tried, cautiously.

Slowly, Jane began to ease forward through the gloom and Maura noticed that she was fiddling a lot with her hands;

"Jane?" she tried again.

Finally, after what had felt like hours rather than moments, Jane reached her, lingering just on the edge of the narrow beams of light pouring through the window so that her face remained in shadow;

"Kate, I…I don't want you to be scared of me, please?"

For the first time since Maura had met this dashing stranger who looked as to have come to life from some fantastical story she might have read as a child, there seemed a tremor in that unshakeable confidence that Jane had always displayed. Is she as nervous as I am?

"Katie, I ain't brung you up here for that" she continued.

"Brought" said Maura before she could stop the work falling from her lips.

"Huh?" replied Jane, confused.

Maura bit her lip in an effort to keep an unwilling smile at bay;

"You didn't bring me up here or if you insist; you ain't brought me up here."

"Well, yeah, that's what I said ain't it? I ain't brung ya up here for that" said Jane again more firmly.

"Yes Jane" said Maura tolerantly, deciding to believe that in the darkness Jane might have been displaying the most adorable pout. She had no idea what on Earth would make her think such a thing but she had to clamp down on the incredibly inappropriate urge to giggle.

"Anyway, umm, I uh…I don't want you to think that I think of you that way" continued Jane, seemingly oblivious to Maura's plight.

"Oh," said Maura, surprised to find that she felt rather disappointed. Jane didn't find her attractive enough to…?

"I don't mean…well, it's not…you're a beautiful lady Kate but that's just it. You're a lady. An' I don't know what you're doing here an' all and that's your business but I know you just no whore. I'm sorry, I'm messin' this up real good, aren't I?" she said, shoving her hands deep into her Levi's pockets.

"No Jane, you're not. Not at all" replied Maura with genuine warmth this time, "I think I understand what you are trying to tell me."

"I just couldn't think of any other way to fix it. I didn't mean to…y'know, buy ya. That's what I mean by, I don't want you to be afraid of me Katie. I just wanna make sure you're safe, that's all."

The almost pleading note on Jane's softened intonations made something in Maura break and before she realised what she was doing she found herself stepping forward into Jane's surprised but willing embrace. Something about the stresses of not only the evening but of the entire operation and at last finding a such a solid safe haven forced weeks of unshed and buried tears to force their way down her cheeks as she clung tightly to the brunette's doeskin waistcoat. The fact that she was essentially crying into the arms of her quarry was not lost on her but it was just all too confusing, trying to reconcile the evil deeds of the woman she had read about in official reports and news clipping with the kind, gentle and protective soul that now held her close to her breast. The outlaw's scent was strange to her nostrils, a combination of midnight sweat and horses with something so uniquely Jane. It was not unpleasant at all and in fact, felt oddly comforting. Something like coming home, she mulled.

When the tears began to subside and Maura could breathe again without hiccupping, she careful ease back a little, her fingers touching at the damp spot just above the other woman's breastbone where her face had rest;

"Your hurt" she said curiously, the extent of Jane's injuries only now sinking in as she tentatively traced the marks left behind by Crowe's goons.

"Aw, just a few scrapes is all, nothin' much" she shrugged in reply.

"Jane, please" said Maura more firmly, "please let me take care of you." Those same tones that Jane had used on Maura minutes before had much the same effect and without any more fuss, Jane allowed the smaller woman to lead her over sit to the plush bed.

Maura immediately began fussing about the room, lighting candles and gathering supplies. She found a stray piece of cloth that looked relatively clean then eschewed in favour of tearing a strip of expensive silk from her dress.

"Katie, no!" cried Jane when she spotted what Maura was doing to what must have been precious garments.

"Too late!" said Maura as she gleefully stripped more and more fabric from her skirts, "I don't have anything else clean enough to cleanse those wounds."

Jane did her best to find a comfortable position on the mattress but a sharp pain in her ribcage was making it difficult, eventually opting to just sit upright on the edge of the bed. She stayed put for several minutes contemplating the state of her tan, leather boots and whether or not she would buy a new pair before or wait until after these ones had fallen apart when Maura inserted herself between her knees, kneeling on the floor.

"Uh, Katie, what are you doing?" asked Jane, her voice shaking with a fresh round of nerves and another new decidedly earthier sensation.

"Well, Jane, I need to be able to reach those cuts and check you over and I need you to be as comfortable as possible while I do so" said Maura blandly.

"But Katie, this isn't that comfortable" said Jane, her breath hitching as Maura placed a hand on her knee.

"Why did you sit that way then?" asked Maura, confused.

At this point Jane wasn't sure if the other woman was just being deliberately obtuse or if she really had no idea what she was doing to her but at that moment it was taking all of her effort and sheer willpower not to twist her fingers through those satin blonde locks and urge the blonde's head lower;

"Kate, just, please, ain't there any other way we can get this done?" she asked with the tiniest tinge of desperation creeping in.

"Of course, Jane, whatever way you are the most comfortable, I will simply work around you." Replied Maura good-naturedly, taking the first cloth and dipping it in some cold water she had retrieved in a bowl from the large vanity unit that sat in the opposite corner of the room.

Eventually they manage to arrange themselves so that Jane had one of her long legs stretched out in front of her on the bed with the other hanging off to the side so that Maura could perch between them.

Conversation ebbed away to leave a contented silence while Maura began to dab at Jane's wounds, cleaning away the dirt and grime of desert roads and congealed blood to leave the neat slices that lay hidden beneath.

A fresh, cool cloth was brought next to soothe the angry and rapidly blackening bruises along Jane's cheek and eye orbit. It was a balm to the outlaw's spirit and she raised a hand to the blonde's fingers, encasing them tenderly within her own grasp, her lips quirking suspiciously when she caught Maura mumbling under her breath; Oh, the Maxilla's connected to the Zygomatic, the Zygomatic's connected to the Lacrimal…

Eventually Jane let out a chuckle and Maura gave an abashed smile. Jane thought her utterly captivating.

"Y'know you're really good at this" said Jane though the way she enunciated the words it sounded more question than statement. In truth, Jane did have several questions for the blonde. Why she had suddenly blown into town as she had and gone to great lengths to conceal her history. Then there was the fact that she frequented Chinese Chang's medicine shop after which Jane would sometimes spot her scurrying off to a dilapidated barn on the outskirts of town. Hardly the usual comings and goings of a brothel-dweller, even if this woman was something a little different than the rest of the girls that worked there but she also knew that before she could go digging for answers she would have to gain her trust.

"Well my father was a doctor" said Maura simply, breaking Jane fro her contemplation.

"Was?" ventured Jane quietly.

"He passed away some time ago" replied Maura, "now, does anything else hurt?" she asked resolutely.

"Uh, no, I think I'm good from here, thanks" but as she tried to lift herself from the bed Jane let out a groan before she could stop it.

"Jane!" Maura cried sharply, her arms outstretched, already trying to coax the other woman back down again.

"I'm fine Katie, really" Jane hissed.

"Sit!" said Maura firmly and for a second Jane could only look at her aghast before letting out a mighty belly laugh.

"By god, Miss Katie's got herself a feisty side, huh?" she chuckled, "just where in the heck was that earlier?"

Maura looked down at the bedclothes, turning a fold of material over between her fingers.

"Hey, I'm sorry…" said Jane soothingly, coming back to her original position on the mattress, "I wasn't thinkin'. Guess that was tough on ya tonight. Probably not used to bein' treated so ill by so-called gentlemen."

Maura shook her head and swallowed hard. The truth was, the incident with Crowe and Jenkins had hit her harder than she wanted to admit. She had already found herself questioning at various times over the previous weeks whether or not she was tough enough to brave out this assignment but the question was; was she now in too deep as well as over her head. Jane, for her part, sensed the shift in blonde's mood, certainly brought about by her own doing.

"Maura, I know I said I didn't want anything from ya but looks like we're gonna be spendin' a lotta time together, least until I know you're safe but uh, I was wonderin', in that case if you would do me the honour of keepin' me company? Talkin' like, I mean" said Jane, dipping her head to catch Maura's eye.

Maura lifted her gaze, searching through the golden flecks in Jane's eyes for any sign of deceit but instead all she found was the earnest sincerity of someone who, for whatever reason wanted to see her safe and happy.

"Take off your shirt Jane, let me see those ribs…"

Oh, I'm a rotter leaving it there aren't I?

Haha!

To those who wondered if this was where Jane and Maura were going to 'get it on' I apologise but we need to give our ladies the chance to get closer first I think.

Love to you all and a pleasant evening!