What If?
Rating: It's fine.
Disclaimer: I do not own Rizzoli & Isles. Darn.
Summary: What-ifs were something Maura Isles stayed away from, but when she gets into a fight with Rizzoli, it's all she can think about.
A/N: So I stayed up until almost 12 am writing this for you guys... again, sorry for grammar. No beta. Weird enough, I got this idea while I was in the shower? How random can I get? Let's not go there. Hope you guys like it!
"Well obviously, she wasn't focused on school," Maura had concluded from the positive drug tests she had performed on her recent victim. All day, she had speculated different scenarios for this poor girl who had been murdered on her high school football field and Jane had to listen to every last word of it. At one point, it had even proven to be annoying. The two women walked through the Boston police department, Jane with a cup of coffee and Maura with handfuls of lab results. "Even if she was, I imagine it'd be quite hard with all the toxins in her system."
Jane fell back in the seat behind her desk and began clicking away at her computer, not quite sure what she was looking for yet; anything to distract her from Maura's assumptions. It had never really bothered her before, that Maura had a tendency to subconsciously judge people from different backgrounds as her. If someone wasn't quite as rich, or intelligent, a certain confidence passed over her that only Jane was able to see. It had happened before and they had gotten over it, but today was just not the day to test Jane's patience.
"For someone who doesn't like to make assumptions or take guesses at things, you sure seem to be warming up to the idea," Jane muttered before taking a sip of her now cold coffee. She sighed in frustration at not even being able to enjoy her daily cup of coffee before a headache started to kick in.
Maura let the folders drop to the desk with a loud "thud" and placed her hands on her hips.
Oh shit, Jane thought. This is gonna be good.
"What was that, Jane?"
"Nothing, Maura. Let's just go back to the high school. Maybe someone there can give us more to go on. Our best bet would be to start with the best friend or the boyfriend." Jane stood from her chair. "Assuming you're not too good enough to step foot on the campus," she muttered again under her breath.
Maura stood amazed, baffled. Had she done something wrong? Was it something she said? She racked her brain, going through their earlier conversations and came up empty handed. Once she realized Jane had made it outside of the building, she quickened her strides to meet up with her.
"Jane, is there something wrong?" Jane pursed her lips and began to shake her head. By now, the two women were standing on the sidewalk in front of the police department. The skies were cloudy and dark. The wind had picked up considerably and the air smelt of salt, an indication that a storm was coming. Out of no where, Jane stopped and turned to face Maura. The look on her face nearly made Maura take a step back.
"You know what? Yeah. Something is wrong," she began in a calm, casual voice. "A teenage girl was murdered two days ago and all you seem to care about is if she was on top of her grades or not. What happened to the Maura Isles that didn't like to guess, the Maura that didn't make assumptions? Is it because she's from a poor neighborhood or because she wasn't privileged enough to go to a private school?"
The wind picked up and blew Maura's hair gently, exposing her pale face.
"What are you talking about," she asked softly, taking a step forward to reach for her friend. Jane only took a step back to keep the distance between them a considerable amount.
"Because she was using drugs, that must automatically mean she's going to drop out of high school and never go to college. Oh! Did she have a kid? Because wait... kids who do drugs must be having sex, too, right?"
Maura swallowed hard and looked down at the grown, where leaves were scattering across the sidewalk, hiding from the violent weather. She wished she was one of those leaves; finding some shelter to ride out the storm of Jane's rampage.
"You're obviously mad at me," she whispered softly, just barely over the howling wind and the traffic. Jane just stared at her for a few seconds, then shook her head and laughed.
"It's always about you, isn't it?"
This set Maura off.
"Why don't you just tell me whats made you so mad! You're acting like I don't care about finding this girl's killer! I'll have you know I'm very determined, if not so, more than you!"
Jane turned around with her fists balled up at her sides.
"Maura, I'm not good at meeting new people. I don't have good taste in fashion. I didn't come from a privileged family. I didn't go to private school or some pristine university, but I know for a fact that no one is better at my job than myself."
"So... so what? What does that mean? Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?" The question made Jane's blood pressure rise.
"Of course not. I wouldn't ever expect someone like you to feel sorry for someone like me!"
"Then what was the point of that?"
"To show we're different!" Jane finally exploded. "We're different in so many ways, sometimes I think it's a miracle that we've managed to work together!" This silenced Maura, but Jane wasn't done. "I mean... look at us, Maura. We're a joke."
"Jane, come on-"
"Degree and passion." Jane pointed to the university down the street. "You have a degree." She placed her hand over her chest. "I have passion."
–
In high school, she had learned to think for herself. In college, she learned to look out for herself. This concept, everyone for themselves, was what helped her graduate the youngest in her class. Motivation; that maybe one day, she could make a difference in the world, to speak for the dead, to provide closure for families of the murdered.
Reality had set in after her career took off and she realized then and there, in her dark apartment, that she had lost touch with the reason she became a medical examiner in the first place.
She fell back on her couch and covered her face with her hands.
Another thing she had picked up in college was to never become too attached. Chances were, her best friend in Chemistry would be lying on her examiner table years from then. So why did it surprise her that she didn't have any close friends? Jane had been the only exception.
Her words came back suddenly, louder than ever in her empty apartment.
"We're different in so many ways, sometimes I think it's a miracle that we've managed to work together! I mean... look at us, Maura. We're a joke."
One last thing that she had learned was to never hypothesize about anything without reliable evidence first. In this case, to hell with the rules.
What if she lost her one and only friend? What if she destroyed the one friendship that meant the most to her? What if Jane didn't trust her anymore?
It wasn't until lightening crashed and shook her apartment that she realized she was crying.
With the back of her hand, she wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes and sighed. She had to find a way to make things right again.
She was interrupted from her thoughts by a knock on the door. She looked around her apartment for a clock to tell her what time it was. It had to have been past 10, at least. As she stood to answer the door, another crack of lightening shook the entire apartment complex.
When she opened the door, a soaking Rizzoli was revealed on the other side. Her hair was matted to the sides of her face and dripped at the ends. Her clothes clung tightly to her body. She tried to control her shivering.
"There's no use crying."
Maura sighed and pulled her friend through the door, their arms going around each other instantly in a comforting hug. The opposites converged again; warm and dry with cold and wet, but it worked. When they pulled apartment, Jane wiped away a raindrop that had managed to cling to Maura's nose.
"I realized this afternoon that I can't have my one and only best friend mad at me."
"Do you really consider me to be your best friend?" Jane nodded.
"In all honestly, yes. I do. Who else do I have?" Maura shrugged. "I sure as hell wouldn't walk in the pouring ass rain for Korsak."
A/N: So I watched two full episodes before I wrote this... and I laughed because Angie Harmon was on one of the commercials, doing the little advertisement saying: "You should probably getting work done right now... but I won't take you in for that." I kinda LOLed because my Biology homework has been ignored for the past six hours. LOL. Oh well. Just something short I came up with tonight. Tell me if you like it or not. Won't hurt my feelings, trust me. But nice reviews would make my day go by a lot faster tomorrow :D