Chapter Text
Up until recently, Jane Rizzoli had never quite considered herself lucky. For instance, graduating from the Boston Police Academy at the top of her class and the city has a hiring freeze. An eventuality she hadn’t considered when she declined to attend Boston College University. She couldn’t forget getting her hand impaled by a crack addict. And oh, traveling to New York to a dead-end job as a beat cop. Moving back home to a nagging mother. Having her younger brother find her a new job. Just about all the things an adult pushing thirty could want for themselves, right? (Insert eye roll here.)
The idea of being a doorman for a building full of rich, snooty assholes filled her with dread. Subservience was not a word usually found in Jane’s dictionary. But all she had to do was hit an elevator button to get her by. Until she could reevaluate and make a new plan.
But then she met Maura.
A member of the elite, yet nothing like them. A monkey wrench that halted all her processes. A gift she didn’t see coming.
And with Jane’s lack of luck, she knew it was a bad idea to chase the mind dizzying fantasy that was Maura Isles.
But she did. And they were fast friends. Maura was wonderfully weird, smart, funny, accepting. Their friendship quickly grew into something Jane knew she would be hard-pressed to ever give up.
So, she didn’t.
Kissing Maura Isles for the first time finally turned Jane’s luck on its head.
Now as Maura’s car pulled up to the devastating scene before them, she saw the face of a man that made her groan aloud. In the last year, she had survived being tied to a chair by a mad woman and nearly shot dead. She was ready to take on Paddy Doyle and anyone with him to get Maura back, but fortunately didn’t have to even speak to him. She even shot herself in order to kill a psychotic asshole and managed to wake up to a beautiful woman telling her she loved her.
It was only a matter of time before her luck would run out.
“Shit.”
Naturally, Maura looked at her curiously as she cut the engine to the car. “What is it?”
Jane’s face screwed up in faux pain. “An ex of mine.” After a beat, she added, “Sort of.”
Maura frowned a little. “Sort of?”
“You’ll see,” Jane sighed, swinging her door open to keep from talking too much more on it. They were immediately hit with the smell of smoke, fire and ash. The lights of the black and whites bounced off the many different surfaces around them. A limousine was ahead of them completely charred, still smoldering, but a prone form was covered in a sheet on the ground. It was possible that Maura might get a preliminary look at the body after all.
Up ahead of them, Barry was talking to an officer donning his dress blues. It was obvious this officer had attended the awards ceremony. She could hear him saying, “It happened right in front of me….” as they approached. His voice was still annoyingly English. When they made eye contact, he paused long enough to recognize her. His expression was shy, which Jane felt was odd, but what exactly did she expect him to say or do if they had ever been given the opportunity to see each other again?
“Don’t leave town,” Barry said to him. “We might need your help.”
“Of course, Detective Frost.”
Jane and Maura finally reached Barry. He smiled at them both, before asking Jane, “Did you give her the puppy dog eyes?”
Maura sighed. “She was supposed to stay in the car.”
Jane chuckled. “I can be persuasive.”
“You certainly can.”
The three of them turned to the voice. His voice. His still annoyingly English voice. Jane knew she could no longer ignore him.
“Casey.”
“Jane.”
Barry looked between them. “Oh, you know each other?”
“We dated,” he said, his tone a little teasing.
“High school,” Jane said, her tone edging into irritated.
Casey Jones was still handsome (she was gay, not blind). His face was mature, honest, wiser. She doubted those physical features actually amounted to a change in his actual behavior. He rejoined their little circle, his eyes dancing a bit with mischief. She would have preferred talking to him alone, because knowing Casey, he was likely to say something embarrassing.
He did not disappoint.
“How do you say ‘hello’ to the girl that broke up with you in high school by saying, and I quote, you’re the reason I know that I’m gay, end quote.”
Maura’s eyes widened in surprise. Barry coughed to suppress his guffaw.
Jane glowered at her ex. “I guess like you would anyone else. I’ll start. Hi, Casey.”
Casey smiled back. “Hi, Jane.”
She instinctively slipped her hand into Maura’s and she was pleased when he glanced down to spy their joined hands. Somewhat unenthusiastically, she introduced them, “Casey, Maura. Maura, Casey.”
Casey bowed slightly, ever polite. “Ma’am.”
“Nice to meet you, Sergeant Major,” Maura said in return. It was clear she was still processing what was going on.
“Casey is fine,” he said, amused. “I’m on a short leave. I might pretend to be a civilian for a few days.”
“So, you were her beard?” Barry jumped in suddenly. She had forgotten he was there and Jane immediately hit him in the arm. He jumped away from her, rubbing the spot she smacked. “Ow!”
“Don’t you have an investigation going on or something?” she said between her teeth.
“I’ll go find Dean,” he grumbled, still holding his arm and walking away. At the last moment she saw him grinning.
When she turned back to Casey, he was actually smiling too. She remembered why she disliked him so much. Playing dumb, he asked, “What, exactly, is a beard?”
“You know what? It was really great catching up with you,” Jane said tersely. Unconsciously her hold on Maura’s hand tightened. “See you around.”
She just caught his ‘bye Jane’ as she tugged Maura away.
“Jane, he doesn’t have a beard.”
“I know, Maura.”
After a few more hurried steps, Maura gently pulled on Jane’s hand to bring her to a stop. Jane reluctantly turned her attention to Maura but was surprised to see delight. Jane frowned, “What’s funny?”
“He’s handsome,” Maura commented coolly.
“C’mon, Maura, don’t,” Jane said. “He’s also a dick.”
“Well, you could have certainly done worse,” Maura said, smiling wider now at Jane’s groan. “And that accent. I can hear the appeal.”
“Please stop saying my ex-boyfriend is attractive. Please.”
Maura let go of Jane’s hand, to bring her palm to the side of Jane’s face instead. She leaned up to kiss her softly. Against her lips, keeping Jane close, Maura said, “If Casey was the epiphany you needed to start you on a path that led to me, then I’m grateful for the short time that he was in your life.”
Jane blinked once, twice. How was it that Maura could be a goofy, socially awkward geek one minute then spit out these crazy romantic declarations in the next? Maura kissed her again, pulling back further this time. Jane chuckled, “For the first time in my life, I don’t regret dating Casey Jones.”
“Hmm, well, you can regret it a little.”
“Okay, I regret it a lot, but maybe not as much as before.”
“Better.”
“Dr. Isles!” It was Gabriel ‘God, what an asshole’ Dean yelling from across the street. His tone suggested he had seen their little PDA and his patience had run out.
“Showtime,” Jane remarked, reflexively following Maura who had begun to walk away. There was a hand to her chest, stopping her movements.
“You were supposed to stay in the car,” Maura reminded her.
“I’ll stay behind the tape,” Jane said, a clear renegotiation of the original terms.
Exasperatedly, Maura repeated, “Behind the tape.” As she walked away again, she said over her shoulder, “I mean it, Jane!”
Jane stuffed her hands in her pockets, smiled to herself. She watched her girlfriend catwalk her way across the street to the crime scene and thought, at the least the view is nice.
***
Jane followed Maura out of the elevator, down the hall and into the morgue. It had been months since she had been down here and a wave of bad memories flooded her subconscious in a series of flashes and broken words.
When the last henchman was shot point blank in the chest, Bobby Marino had dragged Jane down this same hall and back into the staircase. Just as that doorway was closing, she caught her last glimpse of Maura exiting the morgue into the hallway, shouting out her name again.
The sidewalk. Pleading they shoot him. Lying on the ground bleeding profusely. Maura fading away.
When the morgue doors swung shut behind Jane this time, the slight wave of air that followed sent a chill through her. And with a short intake of breath, she felt a sharp pain in her gut.
Maura immediately noticed. “Jane?”
For three months, Maura had a sixth sense about her. She would appear at Jane’s side even when she was down the hall far enough away that she could not have possibly been able to hear Jane whimper when the pain was at its worse.
“I’m fine,” she said quickly, tried to hide her grimace.
Maura was slipping on her white coat as she made her way back to Jane. She pressed her hand lightly against Jane’s side.
“Ow,” Jane said, shooting Maura a glare.
Maura was immediately concerned. “You still have pain.”
“Yeah, that’s usually what saying ‘ow’ means,” Jane griped. She stepped back and away from her girlfriend’s probing hand. “I’m fine, Maura. It’s been a long couple of days, that’s all.”
“The combination of the party and attending the crime scene might have been too much strain,” Maura said, stepping back into Jane’s space. “You’ve been largely on the couch or in bed for the last three months. Maybe you should rest.”
“Nope, done resting,” Jane said, insistent. “I really feel I should be here.”
Maura watched her with quiet resolve, before she seemed satisfied that Jane was okay. “The moment you feel anymore pain…”
“I’ll tell you and we’ll go home,” Jane finished for her with a smile. “I’m fine.” As Maura walked back over to her workstation again, Jane took a moment to look around. “It looks different in here.”
“That is correct, Rip Van Winkle,” Maura answered, a brighter smile on her face now. “And wait until you see my office. The decorator just finished.”
Jane rolled her eyes. “Oh my God, I’m so excited, I might need a paper bag.”
Maura narrowed her eyes some, but was smiling as Jane pretended to be hyperventilating. “You know, your attitude could be the reason your pain isn’t completely gone.”
“Did we miss the part where I was shot?” Jane quipped back. “My attitude has nothing to do with it.”
Maura pursed her lips, her expression thoughtful. Jane watched as Maura began taking slow measured steps back to her. Jane recognized that look and it never failed to overpower her. She stood very still when Maura was back in her space, looking up at her through her lashes, smirking at Jane’s increase in breath. “There is another possibility.”
Jane felt her lips spread into a smile. Her heart thumped; her skin tingled in anticipation of what she would say next. “Yeah?”
“Yes,” Maura said softly, having closed the distance between them enough that Jane could feel the word against her lips. “You do need to boost your immune system. Sex is very good for that.”
Jane’s throat went dry. Their relationship, by and large, was still pretty new. It had barely been a week before Jane was shot. She was basically still out of it when Maura said she loved her. The physical part of their relationship had to be put on hold up until recently.
And Lord, the build up to finally taking that next step. Jane was all hot and bothered for months with little options to relieve herself.
And Maura was a force in bed even when she was gentle. Jane could only imagine how things would be when Maura would no longer have to hold back.
She cleared her throat. “You, uh, you think so?”
“Maybe,” Maura began, kissing Jane lightly. Invitingly. “I can show you my office now.”
“Oh, like, now now,” Jane said, as she felt Maura’s hands slide inside her jacket finding purchase at the small of her back, careful to tread around her wounded side.
She was being kissed thoroughly now and it was absolute heaven. Her fingers threaded Maura’s hair and she gave the smallest of tugs. Just enough to have Maura gasp into her mouth. And Jane smiled because she could do that. She could kiss this woman and she could pull these sounds out of her; sounds that hit her right below the belt.
This was getting out of hand really, really fast. She managed to breathe out between kisses, “Now, now is good.”
“Oh! Shit! Sorry!”
Jane jumped back in surprise, hitting one of the tables behind her, hearing metal instruments clanging onto the floor. Maura looked a little disheveled as she was doing her best to fix her hair and straighten her lab coat at the same time. Jane finally steadied herself before looking over her shoulder to see Barry shielding his eyes, looking about as embarrassed as she had ever seen him.
And she had seen the man puke in the bushes at a crime scene.
“Uh, are you, like, decent?” he asked shyly.
Jane looked down at herself. “Oh.” She began tucking her shirt back in because Maura had clearly untucked it. She felt Maura swipe a thumb across her lips and mouthed the word ‘lipstick’. Jane allowed Maura to clean her up and then said, “Okay. Decent.”
Barry peeked through his fingers somewhat adorably. “Sorry. I, uh, I guess I need to knock from now on?”
“No, Barry. That wasn’t very professional of me,” Maura told him apologetically.
“Don’t you have a new office?” Barry said, his hand finally lowered and his voice playful now.
Jane sighed. “We were kinda on our way there….”
“Okay, cool. Next time, start in there,” Barry advised, grinning now.
“We’ll keep that in mind,” Jane said, before eyeing Maura almost accusatorily. She could see that Maura wasn’t really all that sorry.
“Did you need me for something?” Maura asked him finally.
Barry chuckled. “Honestly, I have no idea what I even came in here for.”
Jane sighed, squeezing the bridge of her nose. “Okay, leave. Leave now.”
Barry was backing out. “Do you two have any idea how hot that ….”
“Barry, out!” they both shouted at him in unison.
He disappeared quickly.
Jane looked at Maura. She cleared her throat again. “We should probably not …”
“Not at work,” Maura agreed quickly.