A Letter to Santa
Disclaimer: As usual, all things Rizzoli & Isles belong to Tess Gerritsen, Janet Tamaro and TNT. This is just for fun and not for profit.
"Wait, Jane, you want me to go shopping with you?" an incredulous Maura asked.
"Christmas shopping, Maura. I need help picking out Ma's gift. She wants a sweater and I don't want to repeat the disaster from the last time I bought her a sweater," Jane replied, defensively. Maura couldn't help but start to laugh.
"Oh, Jane, what did you do?" Jane scowled at Maura's laughter.
"I bought her an orange sweater," she mumbled. Maura's laughter increased.
"I'm sorry, I can't help it. Your mother can't wear orange, it clashes with her hair and complexion," Maura managed to gasp out.
"So I found out. Anyway, it wasn't orange, it was some siennase color or something."
"Burnt sienna, Jane. In the orange family on the color prism. Your mother can't wear that," Maura managed to contain her mirth.
"Can we go this afternoon around three?" Jane glowered at Maura. Maura nodded and both women returned to work.
"Where are we headed, Jane?" Maura asked.
"Macys. Ma saw the sweater in their latest ad."
"Have any idea what it looks like?" Jane shook her head.
"No, Ma threw the circular in the recycling bin," Jane sighed.
The store wasn't as crowded as Jane feared it might be. They quickly made their way to the women's department and Jane started looking through the sweaters in her mother's size. Maura looked around the store. A large red mailbox at the end of the aisle caught her attention.
"Jane?"
"Yeah?"
"Why does Macys have a mailbox in their store?"
"Hmm? Oh, that's their charity campaign, Maura. It's based on the story, 'Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.'"
"I'm not familiar with that story," Maura answered. Jane wasn't surprised, given Maura's lack of childhood books and games.
"A long time ago a little girl wrote a letter to the editor of her newspaper asking if Santa Claus really existed or if he was just a myth. Hey, Maura, what about this one?" she lifted a yellow sweater out of the pile.
"No. Same problem as orange, clashes with her coloring. So what did the editor say?"
"He wrote an editorial and titled it, 'Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.' Went on to say her friends were wrong and that the Christmas spirit lives in all of us."
"Cute story. I wouldn't mind reading that. Can we stop at the bookstore?"
Jane laughed. "Sure Maura, just as soon as we find a sweater for Ma."
"Grab the red one and let's go."
Later that night Maura lie curled on her bed, reading the story and the original editorial. As sleep overtook her Maura placed the book on her nightstand and thought over the rest of her day. Jane took her to the bookstore where Maura bought several books including the story of Virginia and Santa Claus. The two then stopped at their favorite Italian restaurant for dinner and ended the evening on Maura's sofa watching Christmas specials on TV. Several times during the evening Maura felt her gaze wandering over to Jane, watching her laugh at the appropriate places. She knew her feelings for Jane went beyond friendship but hadn't fully explored their meaning. The problem was that for as much as Maura wanted to tell Jane of her feelings and see if they were reciprocated, Maura didn't want to risk the loss of Jane's friendship if Jane were to reject her advances. Maura drifted off to sleep thinking of Jane's chocolate eyes and smoky voice.
Maura knew she was dreaming but it was such a cute dream she fought against waking. She was sitting at a child's school desk, writing a letter to Santa in crayon. With the purple crayon in her adult sized fist she crafted a letter asking for Jane to love her. And on Christmas morning Maura found Jane under her Christmas tree, a large red bow on her head. She was the best gift Maura ever received.
When the alarm rang Maura stretched, a smile on her face as she recalled the dream that was so sweet. A letter to Santa, she thought and giggled. Maybe I should write one anyway.
The morgue wasn't busy that day; Jane and her colleagues kept busy cleaning up paperwork piles on their respective desks. Maura spent part of the morning shoe shopping on the internet but quickly got bored by the same styles on each site. Opening a blank document, Maura started to type.
"Dear Santa, I never wrote to you as a child, my parents didn't believe in fairy tales. I never had a chance to believe in you. My holidays were spent with nannies while my parents went skiing in Europe. But yesterday I was introduced to you through the story, 'Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.' I just loved the response Francis Church wrote in his editorial for the New York Sun. Anyway, I am writing to ask for a very special Christmas present. I am in love with my best friend, Jane Rizzoli, and I want to know if she has feelings for me. Can you help me, Santa? Your friend, Maura Isles."
Maura read over her writing, giggling to herself. She heard the elevator doors open and she closed her laptop.
Late afternoon Maura returned to her letter to Santa. Still giggling softly she printed it out and decided to drop it in Macys red mailbox. Addressing the envelope Maura tucked the letter in the side of her purse, grabbed her coat and got in the elevator to meet Jane for dinner.
Korsak turned off his computer and stretched. It still took him substantially longer to look up his computer files, since he wasn't "computer savvy" according to Frost. Korsak was still old school as to his detecting and that included case file management. Oh, well, he thought, at least the perps still get caught and put away. He started to get up and noticed an envelope on the floor, next to Jane's desk. Bending down he recognized Dr. Isles' handwriting on the outside. He started to put the envelope on Jane's desk when he noticed it was addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole". Turning the envelope over it hadn't been sealed. Fighting his conscience, Korsak opened the letter.
It was Maura's letter to Santa Claus! He reread the contents and understood that Maura finally recognized what others in the precinct already had: Jane and Maura had feelings for each other that went beyond friendship. Korsak replaced the letter in the envelope and debated what to do. Return the letter to Maura? Obviously she meant to put it somewhere, but he didn't know where.
For the time being Korsak slipped the letter into his jacket pocket.
The weeks until the Christmas holidays passed by in a blur. They alternated between those crazy 16- and 18-hour days of cases and chasing perps followed by a few days of mind-numbing paperwork. Jane didn't know which she liked least. She did acknowledge that the slow days gave her time to spend with Maura, both in the morgue as well as in their evening hours.
Jane didn't know what to do with her feelings for Maura. She gradually came to a realization that her feelings went beyond friendship. But Jane knew Maura probably didn't have the same feelings for her and she didn't want to lose Maura's friendship.
Numerous times as she was in the morgue doing paperwork or just talking to Maura Jane let her gaze glide over her beautiful friend. But before those feelings could intensify Jane forced herself to think of other things and leave her feelings for Maura tucked away.
Korsak reached into his pocket to grab his coffee money. He felt his hand brush against paper. What's this? He wondered and pulled out Maura's letter to Santa. He smiled briefly as he realized just what he was going to do.
TBC.