She could hear Bass exploring his new home; the occasional thud indicated his new exploration had met either a cramped turn or a reflective surface. In recent years, he seemed to have crept into sexual maturity and anything even vaguely tortoise shaped was met with a knock. Maura had meant to find out if he was being amorous or aggressive but had never gotten around to it.

As she drained her wine, she returned to the house, sighing heavily at the large crates that still sat, unpacked, in her lounge. She meant to pick up a crowbar when she was out but after the incident in the store, she had totally forgotten about it. There was nothing in the house that would open the shipping crates and she knew no one that may have one. That’s a lie, Jane would have a crowbar and she would be there in a heartbeat to help. But that was before. Maura wondered when their lives had become so intertwined, when what’s hers had become Jane’s and vice versa. She couldn’t remember. Shaking the memories of her past from her mind, she climbed the stairs slowly.

Who was she kidding? If it was herself, then she really was being naïve. She showered quickly and slipped into an oversized baseball shirt. It was Jane’s, of course.
She’d moved across the country for a fresh start, to get away from the hurt that was Boston. Inhaling the warm scent of the detective that still clung to the shirt; she felt tears prickling her eyes. She’d moved all that way and the only thing that made this home was the remnants of Jane that she’d brought with her.

”What have I done?” she asked softly.

-/-

Jane crashed onto the couch of her apartment with an icy beer and drained half the bottle in one hit. She was missing something big.
Reaching for her laptop, she finished her beer and fetched a fresh one as the computer booted up. Opening her browser, she immediately went to Google maps and typed in San Francisco, CA. The little red marker mocked her, riling up a jealousy in her that she hadn’t anticipated. That little red marker was closer to Maura than Jane was. She knew it was impossible, ridiculous even but still she felt a fire twisting her gut.