A whole new world

Not as sweet as it seemed

TW// abuse in relationships
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It was a beautiful sunny morning in Boston when Jane woke up. It was quite late in the morning, but luckily it was Saturday. As the brunette sat up, she realised that the amount of beer the night before might've been a bit too much. The dizzy feeling in her head made her sigh, yet she didn't want to waste this beautiful day to a hangover. Jane grabbed the water bottle that had been standing next to her bed for weeks by now, but she didn't care, she needed to take a sip to cure the pain. The next thing she did was grab her phone - 11a.m. - 3 missed calls.
She sighed but unlocked it to check who had disturbed her while she was asleep - it was Maura. Her best friend. Maura had left a voicemail the third time she called.
„Hey, it's Maur. I need to talk to you when you're awake. It's important. Call me back, or better text me a time if you're able to meet. I'd rather do this in person. Thank you."
The beeping noise at the end of the voicemail brought Jane back from her trance. Maura didn't sound really happy.
The detective could only imagine what was going to be said. Her best friend had mentioned that her relationship to David, her boyfriend who she had started dating a month after returning to Boston, wasn't really going as well as It did in the beginning. She hadn't told more than that, but Jane felt that something was off. Maura changed. She was silent. More than usually, and especially weirdly silent around Jane. Their jokes had died off and the medical examiner barely had time for Jane anymore. It didn't bother Jane that she spent more time with someone else now, in fact she was happy. Maura deserved to be loved the way she needed it. But Jane felt like the reason Maura had less time wasn't the fact she had a boyfriend now. It felt more like something was going very wrong in Maura's life.

Jane turned on her back again and opened her texts to reply.
„You can come over any time. I am awake now."
Maura had immediately read the text, as if she had been waiting impatiently the entire time.
The brunette imagined how the woman had been staring at her phone for ages, waiting for Jane to finally answer. Jane felt bad thinking about it, but she knew Maura would never think she was being ignored on purpose.

„Be right there. Give me 5 minutes."
Maura replied quickly, grabbing her purse and her keys. She had indeed been waiting this whole time. Nervousness started to build up in her body as she tried to already find the right words to say. It was hard, especially because she didn't want Jane to get mad. But this was probably going to be the case either way, no matter how hard she would try.
The honey blonde woman quickly grabbed her keys and made her way to Janes house. She greeted her with a hug before walking in.

„Thank you for letting me come over, Jane."
„Its fine, really. You know I'll always be there."

Maura knew that, but hearing it comforted her a lot today. She took a seat on Janes couch after pushing some shirts and pants asides. Her fingers ran up and down her legs. And she heard Jane ask what was wrong, but didn't reply. The words that were needed to explain all of this felt like bricks. „Maur?" She heard Jane ask, shortly before the cold hand ran over her back gently. The examiner winced a little, barely audible.

„See. I don't know how to explain this without you getting mad. Not at me. But someone else."
„Whatever it is, I just want you to be happy. And safe. What's it? Are you pregnant? I know you said you don't have the time for a baby now...", Jane replied, just trying to comfort her at least a little.
„No, Jane.", Maura chuckled a little. She would rather be pregnant right now than tell Jane what was actually going on.
„See. It is about David. But promise me that you're not going to jump up and say you're driving there immediately."
„Fine."
Maura had noticed Janes eyes roll, but she ignored it.
„He was lovely and everything in the beginning. But he... he isn't anymore. He stopped being caring, loving. A while ago. He treats me like the dirt that is on the porch. Like I am worthless. He calls me a slut. He even hit me when he drank too much last week. I'm scared of him. I don't want to be with him anymore, but I'm scared he will hurt me when I leave. It's not easy, but I don't want worse things to happen, Jane. I want to be safe. I haven't slept properly in weeks because I was scared he might hurt me while I sleep..."
Maura had started crying while she was talking and Jane could tell how scared Maura was. But Jane on the other hand was very, very angry. She wanted to yell and jump up, drive to his house and smack him right into the face. Or even better - to shoot right in between his legs and see him suffer from the pain. But she didn't want to scare Maura. She hadn't done anything and didn't deserve to be scared again. Regarding these facts, Jane stayed calm and made sure to find the right words before opening her mouth.

„Maura...this is horrible. I'm glad you came to me with this, okay? I'm proud you talked about it to prevent that more could happen. You can stay at my place for now if you want to. I'll make you a tea. And we will find a way for you to break up with him. I can come with you, stay further away or be directly next to you. However you want it.", Jane said while slowly pulling Maura into her arms. She hated to see her cry. It hurt her to do so.
Maura nodded as she leaned into Janes hug. She hadn't let anyone touch her the past months, especially the past weeks since the relationship turned to be so harmful.
„Thank you, Jane. I like that idea.. and I know I need to leave him. Its the only right thing to do. But for now I just want to stay here for a while. I need to calm down and be able to progress what happened.", she replied honestly. And Jane just nodded.
„Anything you want, Maur."

Jane smiled softly at her and got up to make her a cup of tea. As she came back, the honey blonde woman had fallen asleep on Janes couch, her head on Janes freshly washed shirts that she had pushed asides so carefully before taking a seat. The detective smiled and tugged Maura in one of her blankets. „Sleep well. Ill be right here. You're safe, I promise.", she whispered before she got up to silently clean her apartment a little, making sure her best friend could get some well deserved sleep.