I am not making a profit off this rambling tale of silliness.

Rated T to M

In The Dark

"You want me to go where?" Jane shouted, her voice ending in a high-pitched screech. Her wide brown eyes stared at her best friend in disbelief.

"I want you to go with me to the haunted antique store."

"Why? Maura, you know that there's a game on tonight."

"Yes… the antiquated ritual of watching the 'football' game. I know. But Halloween only comes around once a year and I read that the building is the most haunted in the United States. And the specters only come out on the Eve before Samhain."

"Sama-whata?" Jane stared at Maura, her hand up, palm out to stop the scientific explanation that was sure to follow her question. "Whatever. If you buy me dinner, I'll go wherever you want. So long as I don't end up puking it back up in fright."

Maura smiled. "I will take you to your favorite pizza parlor, Jane. I promise it will be fun." Maura grabbed Jane's hand and shook it enthusiastically. "Pick me up at six?"

Jane nodded, then sighed. "Yeah. Sure…sounds good." She dropped her head to stare at her coffee mug. The click of her friends heels echoed around the squad room as Maura left with a rush of lingering vanilla and ginger. Jane inhaled the sweet smell of her friend and drank the rest of her cool coffee with a dejected sigh. She set her empty mug on her desk with a final clink of ceramic against cheap laminate. "How do I get myself into these 'arrangements'?" she asked the empty squad.

"I don't know Rizzoli, but if the Doc asked me to escort her somewhere dark and haunted, I'd jump at the chance." Korsak burred as he left the LT.'s office and returned to his desk, his eyes looking at Jane sympathetically.

"I didn't ask you, but now that you're confessing your deep dark secrets, I have to ask, you're not afraid of haunted places?"

"Afraid? No. But I spent a lot of time in Salem as a kid, and rather than find the stories spooky, I found the history fascinating and the pictures intriguing." He leaned back, propping his feet up on the corner of his desk, watching her mull over his answer in silence for a few minutes, then said, "are you afraid of ghosts?"

"No," she screeched. "No…not afraid at all. Of anything and especially not," she made the quotations with her fingers, then said softly," ghosts."

"Mmmhmm. Okay if you say so. Just wear something warm. Those antique malls are very chilly at night."

"You spend a lot of time in the antique malls or something? Are you one of 'those' people? You know, antiquers?" she laughed as she thought of the show on tv where the two men went to the antique mall and were mistaken as being a couple. "You know Korsak, antiquing is totally acceptable for a man of your stature. I mean, what's wrong with a little interest in the past?"

He set his feet down with a plop. "I am not, one of those people. I just enjoy the history behind the objects, that's all. And maybe the fact that most antique stores are haunted is fascinating to me too."

"Really?" Jane asked, her voice higher then normal. "You're sure about the haunting stuff? Like its been recorded before as actual truth?"

"So they say. I've never seen any ghosts, but hey, if Hollywood says that antique stores are haunted, then they must be." Korsak shrugged, then turned toward his computer, effectively dismissing Jane's skeptic staring at him.

"I'll wear a hoodie. I can shove my nightstick in there. And a flashlight," Jane muttered, turning away from Korsak and toward her computer. "I'll just do a little research on ghosts before tonight." The prospect of a free dinner really didn't matter to her anymore, her mind so stuck on the haunted antique building, and the images of scary Hollywood ghosts from her youth floating before her minds' eye, as she flipped on the computer and started her searching.

The hours flew by and before Jane knew it, it was time to go home. She shut down her computer and looked around the squad room for Korsak. He was nowhere to be seen. It appeared that she was totally alone.

Suddenly she heard a scraping noise in the hallway.

"Hello…" she called out, then waited.

Nobody answered her. Then she grabbed her gun and a pen and prepared to do battle with the specter in the hallway.

"I hear you out there lurking about, Frost," she called out again, then bit her lip while waiting for a response.

And still only silence answered her query.

She stared down at her pistol, clutched tightly in her hand, muttering, "this is ridiculous." She slipped the pistol back into its holster and shut her desk up tight, making sure to make lots of clanging and clacking noises as she went. Though a sheen of cold sweat broke out underneath her shirt and she started to tense up.

Something was out there and it just didn't feel right to Jane.

Slipping her jacket over her shoulders, she left the squad room, looking right, then left just to be sure. She walked to the elevator with quick steps, her eyes still darting about, looking for the cause of the earlier noises. The hallway remained empty. The elevator door dinged and opened.

Jane jumped back.

Frost stood before her in a Freddy the Creep costume, complete with fake bloody covered ax.

He laughed at her bug-eyed expression. "Ha. Hi Jane. Did the Doc catch you? She was up here about ten minutes ago looking for you."

"She was? I was at my desk the whole time. Huh, that's weird. I heard noises out here, but nobody was there."

"hmm. Maybe she scared someone to death." Then he bent at the waist and laughed.

She hit him over the head with her messenger bag. "You're a riot. I guess I'll go to the morgue and see what she wanted. See you later, Frostbite."

"Yes, you will," he said, his voice deep and in a raspy tone. "Don't forget about the party tomorrow night. And to dress up."

Jane huffed at the thought, then said, "yeah. Yeah. Between you and Maura, I'm never ever going to watch another game again. Maybe I'll dress as a football player and watch myself running around the punch bowl, escaping drunken solicitations from Rodriguez." She slapped the button for the morgue and rolled her eyes at her planned evenings.

Their eyes met as the doors clicked shut- hers with mirth, and his with understated humor. And the sound of Frost's evil laugh echoed for a few moments until the whine of the elevator car drowned him out.

"Why, oh, why?" she muttered to her reflection, spotless and only mildly distorted in the shiny metal double doors.

"Because Jane," a deep voice, neither male nor female, answered her question.

Jane jumped back from the doors startled. "What the…"

The elevator car reached the morgue, and the doors clicked open. She jumped out as fast as her feet could carry her and she sprinted down toward the morgue suite, her eyes darting back and forth. Shoving open the doors to the morgue, she stepped inside quickly.

And right into a warm body.

"AHHHHH," Jane screamed.

The figure before her stood still. And very quiet.

Then, her eyes rolled back and she dropped to the floor with a thud.

The cold air flowing over her bare arms pulled her from her impromptu nap. She opened her eyes and saw pale blue. Scowling at the sight, she lifted her arms and touched the blue covering, shivering in surprise as it fluttered and moved.

It was a sheet.

Using her fingertips, she felt the bed under her. Cool metal contrasted with the heat of her skin.

Realization came down with a crash.

"Oh shit," she muttered. "I'm in the fucking morgue."

Then she screamed, "MAURAAAAAA."

"Frost? Korsak? Maur?… Come on guys, this isn't funny." She thrashed on the table, but her ankles were strapped to the bottom with the catch restraints that Maura used to keep the stiffs on the table while wheeling to and from the freezer.

Nobody answered her queries.

Gasping beneath the sheets, she listened for any movement nearby. The only sound she heard in the stillness, was the rapid thudding of her own heart as it pumped faster and faster, the more anxious she became.

She closed her eyes to calm down and think.

Then, with a rush of warmer air and a gentle jerk, the sheet was ripped away. She opened her eyes and saw…

Maura Isles, grinning behind her costume makeup mask.

"Got you," Maura husked, then grabbed Jane's shoulders, pinning her to the table so she couldn't try and jump up and injure herself. "And I'm not letting you go."

"What the fuck?" Jane shouted, not amused by the joke at all. She wanted to leave as the cold air made her shiver and shake harder.

"That's it exactly, Jane."

"What's it exactly?"

Blood red lips descended toward Jane's, the full lips placing soft kisses to Jane's open mouth. Warm fingers brushed her chin, guiding her to close her mouth, as the lips kissed her more firmly.

The lips pulled away, and Maura husked near Jane's ear, "did you like the trick or the treat?"

Jane panted, shaking her head to clear away the fog. Maura just kissed her…after putting her in the morgue cooler.

"Neither…and both," Jane husked, her voice raspy from screaming earlier, and then the dryness as Maura kissed her.

"Good. We have a haunted antique store to visit." Maura unclipped the restraints and helped Jane to sit up. "Now that your heart rate has escalated and your endorphins are flowing, you're less likely to die of a myocardial infarction while at the antique showing."

Jane blinked, then blinked again. She was still confused by the whole thing. "uh, good to know." She stood up, and finally saw exactly what Maura was wearing.

Brown eyes drifted from Maura's green eyes all the way down to her black heeled feet. Then, they widened and disappeared behind her lids as she fainted once again.

"Jane, I'm worried about your blood sugar.." the drabbling of Maura's voice accompanied Jane's dreams.

A/N: This was just something running through my brain. A one-shot to celebrate… Happy Halloween. :+)