Author's Note: Apparently, my muse likes Rizzoli & Isles better than the fic I usually write, since she coughs up ideas for those two lovely ladies, but not for the rest. Oh well. This story starts right the next morning after my previous one Slap some Sense into Me, but will be (hopefully) much longer and actually has more of a storyline than my first fic. I hope you'll enjoy :) Fair warning to the faint of heart, this story will include several quite graphic images and foul language. Feedback is highly appreciated.

Disclaimer: Rizzoli & Isles are not my property, just borrowing them for a while from their rightful owners TNT and Tess Gerritsen, I promise I'll give 'em back and I'll make no money with 'em.

Keeping up the show's tradition of naming the episodes after songs, I borrowed Lordi's Blood Red Sandman for this fic, if you're into hard rock / metal, you should definitely check it out.


Blood Red Sandman

If there is one noise I hate more than anything in the whole world, it's the sound of my phone ringing while I'm still asleep. Or, better said, the sound of my phone waking me up. I can't help but let out a little grunt as the totally inappropriately cheerful ringtone echoes through the room, accompanied by the vibrating sounds the phone makes against the wooden surface of the nightstand.

Grunting again, I roll over while I open my eyes – just in time to see the mass of caramel-coloured hair before it's in my face. Don't get me wrong, I love Maura's hair, well I love everything about her, her Googlemouth maybe not always, but usually I do, but, well, getting her hair into my face like that right after waking up… Let's just say it's not the best thing to feel.

"Are you trying to eat my hair?" she wants to know while I get my face out of the tangled mess – talk about bad bed-head, but it was well earned. The only answer she gets is another grunt, but she knows by now that I'm not much of a morning person, so this doesn't stop her from going on while I finally manage to reach over her and grab my phone from her nightstand.

"You shouldn't try to eat hair", Maura lectures me while I look at the display and see it's Frost calling me, "it's indigestible. Cats are capable of vomiting it back up easily, but it's different for humans."

"I wasn't eating your hair", I tell her, rolling my eyes, why would I do that anyway? "My phone's ringing and I had to grab it. See?"

"I hear it", she corrects me while I finally take the call and hold the phone to my ear, greeting Frost with quite the impolite "What?", but, well, it's early in the morning, he won't expect me to be all too formal with him.

"I woke you up, didn't I", he replies, and there's something in his voice that makes me just a tiny bit uneasy, even though I'm not sure what it is and why I react that way.

"Yes, you did", I let him know, "so this better be good. What is it?"

"You should come to the precinct", is his not very informative answer, "as fast as possible."

"What is it?" I repeat, I wanna know what I should be prepared for after all, "another homicide? God, can't these people go one night without killing each other?"

"Can you just come here?" Frost replies, okay, this is getting weird, normally, he's not so tight-lipped.

"Okay, fine, I'll come", I let him know, I can pester him more about what exactly is going on once I'm there. "Should I bring… coffee?" I manage to stop myself in the last second from asking if I should bring Maura, after all, he doesn't know I spent the night – not that it would be surprising, we've done this quite often before yesterday and the… special events, but still, no need to rub his face in it. Urgh, bad choice of words there, Jane.

"No, just bring yourself", he mumbles, "I'll call Dr. Isles in the meantime, alright?"

"…alright", I agree after yet another moment of hesitation, wondering if he noticed; if he did, he doesn't let it show, since he simply says his Goodbye and hangs up, making me do the same before I turn to look at the woman next to me.

I'd been planning to tell her that her phone will ring any moment now, but the words are forgotten the moment my gaze lands on her, and for what feels like the hundredth time, I ask myself if all of this really happened or if I'm having some sort of elaborate dream, maybe I'm in a coma or something.

"Barry's gonna call you any minute now", I finally manage to say something; in response, Maura briefly looks at her phone, then shrugs and sits up as well, scooting closer to me so she can wrap her arms around me from behind. Okay, definitely not dreaming this, nothing ever felt as good as this in any dream I've ever had, and God knows I've had plenty of dreams about Maura. Ahem.

"Another murder?" she wants to know, scrunching up her nose adorably, "already? We just solved one yesterday."

"I have no idea", I have to admit, "he wasn't all too talkative. Maybe he'll tell you more, to me, he just said I should come to the precinct."

She just shrugs, looks at her phone again, then back at me, with the sparkle in her eyes I've seen quite often during last night. "You didn't kiss me good morning yet", she reprimands, with a smile though so I won't end up offended; of course I can't let that happen, and I gladly kiss her, more than gladly to be honest, I think I'll never get enough of kissing her. Wow, normally, I'm not such a sentimental sap, but clearly, Maura brings out that side of me. Not sure if this is good or bad…

"Better", she tells me after the kiss, and just then, her phone rings at last, and I briefly wonder what took Frost so long while she pulls back from me and gets her phone, her answer much more polite than mine: "Isles? …good morning Barry. … Yes of course. … Yes I will be there as fast as possible. Goodbye." She hangs up again and puts the phone back on the nightstand, then moves closer to me for yet another kiss – hooray! – before she gets out of bed and moves to her cupboard and opens it.

"Should we tell the others?" she asks while looking at her clothing, and for a moment, I'm not sure what she means, then it hits me – she's talking about "us", whatever "we" are, we didn't really clarify that the night before. There wasn't much talking at all the night before I have to admit, except for the occasional "Oh, God", "Oh, Jane" and "Oh, Maura".

"What do you mean?" I play it dumb anyway, and she gives me that look that shows she knows I'm playing dumb, but is willing to go along, either for her own amusement or to gently guide me towards the answer she wants.

"About us", she clarifies, then turns to her wardrobe again, man, how can one person have so many clothes, and goes on, idly repeating what she already said the night before, right after I kissed her for the second time, up against the kitchen counter. "I don't think anyone would be very surprised. After all, we've already been dating in everything but name."

"Except we didn't kiss and do what we did last night", I remind her of that little, but not unimportant fact, "so they might be surprised after all. Or start having dirty fantasies. I do not want to be in the room when this happens."

"Jane", Maura chastises me as, finally settling on an outfit and putting it on the bed, to be put on after her morning hygiene routine, "Vince and Barry are your friends, they won't have dirty fantasies about you or me, or the two of us together."

"They are men, of course they will", I argue back, "not to mention all the other guys at the precinct."

"Well, you know I can't lie", Maura says while she finally turns to look at me again, and I decide to ignore the little fact that not too long ago, she actually did what she now claims she can't do, "so if any of them asks me, I'll have to be honest. Of course, we could just keep going without saying anything. See if they'll catch on." Her eyes sparkle at the last words, and I get the suspicion that this is some sort of game she wants to play with the guys, but fine, if she's up to it, it's better than going there and announcing that we're… well, what are we actually? An item? A couple? I ask her just that, and she shrugs, sitting down on the bed next to me and looking at me sincerely.

"We don't have to put a label on this", she tells me, sounding as sincere as she's looking, "labelling it is something I'm not requiring. There is one thing I do require though…"

"And what would that be?" I ask, smiling when she moved even closer to me and makes it possible for me to put my arms around her; she lowers her voice when she replies, and the tone sends shivers up and down my spine. "That this is not a one-time-thing, Jane."

"It's not", I tell her at once, making her smile as well, "not if it's up to me."

"That's settled, then", Maura says, and we kiss once more – just a short innocent peck this time – before she finally vanishes into the next door bathroom to get done while I take the time to stretch once more, then get out of bed and start collecting my clothes, now asking myself what is going on and why Frost wouldn't tell me anything over the phone, something he's never done before.


At the precinct, no one even looks twice when Maura and I arrive together, even though a few eyebrows rise at the fact that I'm wearing the same outfit as the day before; no one bothers – or maybe, dares – to ask about it though, after all, that's not happening for the first time, either.

We head to the bullpen together and find Frost and Korsak there, along with Cavanaugh, standing at Korsak's desk with their backs towards us and looking at something their bodies are shielding; when I call out to them, they all turn their heads and spot us, and I can tell immediately that Frost puked not all too long ago. Maybe that's why it took him so long to call Maura. One should think he got used to those sides of the job by now, he's been doing it long enough.

"What's going on?" I wanna know while I stride over to the desk, Maura close behind me, "Frost wouldn't tell me anything."

"See for yourself", Cavanaugh is the one to answer that and steps aside so I can see what's on the desk; it's a cardboard box, big enough to fit a ball into it, and the sticker on the side of it has my name on it. Someone sent me a present.

Now my curiosity knows no boundaries, and I even sped up a bit as I move up to the desk and peer into the box, Maura still right behind me, then next to me, and I hear her gasp when she sees what's inside, her hand automatically finding mine and grasping it. I have to admit that, despite years of working in homicide, I'm taken aback too; I've received presents to the precinct a few times already, by Jorge and other guys trying to impress me, but it's quite obvious that this was not send here to woo me.

The head's been cut from the body at the neck, dried blood on the skin and matting the light brown hair; the eyes are open, but rolled back so far that I can only see their whites and not which colour they have, and the tongue sticks out slightly between the blue-ish lips, looking dried out and shrivelled. And, as if to make this even more obscure than it already is, someone has tied a bow around the head, a red one.

"What the Hell", I finally manage to say something, looking away from the gruesome sight and up at Cavanaugh, then at Korsak when he just shrugs, feeling dismay when my former partner just mimics the gesture.

"It was sent here this morning, regular mail", Frost tells me, sounding as if he might throw up again any moment, even though he's turned away from the box by now. "You know the procedure about closed packages going to cops, so they ran the usual check-ups on it and found this inside."

"And that's all?" I want to know, only now realizing that Maura is still grasping my hand, but I don't really care if anyone notices, so I don't let go, even give her a reassuring squeeze, "no card or anything?"

"Nothing", Korsak shakes his head, "just that head, addressed to you."

"This could be a threat", Maura speaks up for the first time since she saw the gruesome content of the package, and even though I don't like it, I have to agree. Unable to help it, I have to look at the head again, study the pale face and the dead eyes; the man seems vaguely familiar, but I'm not sure if that's for real or if I'm just imagining it. At least it's nobody I know.

"I'll take this to the morgue with me", Maura decides, already moving to pick up the package, I figure they already checked it for prints before taking it up here once they'd discovered what's inside, so I don't stop her, "it's not much to work with, but…" She falls silent and cringes at her own words; Frost looks decidedly greener, but Cavanaugh decides to ignore the bad choice of words his top M.E. just made and merely nods, then tells her to let him know the moment she found anything, no matter what.

"You try to find anything on this guy in the meantime", he then turns to me, "compare to the pictures we have in the database. Maybe something will come up." I make some agreeing noise, I'd rather go downstairs into the morgue with Maura, but I know that the job's more important right now, so I throw one last dismayed glance at the box before Maura vanishes downstairs with it, then I look at Frost and Korsak and, trying to sound as if I'm not freaked out at all, tell them that we should get started, making both of them nod, and I don't miss the uneasy glance they exchange just before they get going. Good to know I'm not the only one uneasy about this.