Disclaimer: TNT and Tess own the characters. I own my fertile imagination.
Another cold and wintry day dawned in Boston. The light grey clouds had rolled in overnight and blanketed the sky giving every indication that the snowstorm the local forecasters had warned about was imminent.
Detective Jane Rizzoli arrived at the Boston Police Department in her aging green Honda bundled up and cursing her temperamental heater. Of all mornings this was the one it chose to blow cold air instead of hot. She looked tired and defeated the shadows under her eyes an echo of sleepless nights.
Coffee in hand she arrived at her desk and slouched into the chair. As she took a big swig of the caffeine-laced liquid she quirked a small smile remembering happier days when she would have taken a cup down to the morgue for Maura. Several months had passed since the…incident and a working relationship was all that remained of their once closest of friendships. The coffee had finally warmed Jane up enough to discard her outer garments and as she took them off Korsak and Frost entered the room.
"Cold enough for you Rizzoli?" Korsak asked rubbing his hands together vigorously. "I don't mind the cold so much just please no snow today," she responded peering out the windows and making a face as she saw a few small snowflakes dance by in the wind.
"Too late for that," Frost remarked, "the forecast is for blizzard conditions before lunchtime."
Jane sighed as she sat back down and checked her email. There was a new message from Maura requesting her presence in the morgue to discuss an autopsy result. The days of the ME making a special trip upstairs or calling were long gone. Dr. Isles had returned to her "Queen of the Dead" demeanor – and not just to Jane. Korsak and Frost were complicit in her eyes and subject to the same treatment.
Sighing again, Jane closed her eyes and relived the moments that lead to Paddy Doyle's shooting. It was her own self-imposed torture she supposed for the memories would not fade away. The recollection of the look in Maura's eyes and her words cast in anger threatened to bring Jane to tears again. Quickly she blinked them away but not before Korsak glanced over and gave her a nod of support. It had been extremely hard on all of them.
"Maura, uh, needs me in the morgue," she said as she stood up. Both men quickly busied themselves with tasks hoping Jane would not ask one of them to go down with her.
Shaking her head Jane left the room and headed to the elevator. In a few moments she was opening the door to the morgue. Maura was all business in her black scrubs, hair pulled back into a ponytail and a stern expression on her face. She looked up as Jane walked in.
"Detective Rizzoli," she said politely. "Good morning Dr. Isles," Jane responded, "I came down as soon as I saw your email." Their interactions had been like this for months; professional and cordial with only the bare minimum conversation outside of work related discussions.
"Yes, I have those autopsy results back for you. The weapon used was, by my estimation, a cylindrical object approximately 4" in diameter.."
As Maura continued to provide the details in a monotone, Jane's mind drifted back to the first few hours after Paddy Doyle had been shot…
Jane watched as the ambulance left with Maura, Paddy and a uniformed cop. Maura had refused to talk or even look at her and stayed knelt by Paddy's prone body until the paramedics arrived.
Gabriel sat in another bus being triaged. Jane walked over to see how he was doing. Paddy's shot had hit his vest and caused either a cracked rib or mere bruising. He smiled when he saw Jane but it quickly faded when he realized the expression on her face was not friendly.
"You doing ok?" Jane asked curtly gesturing at his midsection. "Yeah, nothing too…," he gave a sharp intake of breath as the paramedic finished taping him up, "..serious." He tried to take her hand but Jane jerked it away as if his touch would burn her. "She'll get over it Jane," he said, "Paddy Doyle is a criminal, you know we did the right thing." Jane stared at him with her hands on her hips. "You don't know me at all Dean," she said, "and you definitely don't know Maura." She stalked off before he could say another word.
…Detective, did you hear what I said?" Maura asked with a touch of annoyance, bringing Jane back out of her reverie.
"Sorry Mau…Dr Isles, I was thinking about the case," Jane lied, quickly finding an excuse for her inattentiveness, "just give me the report and I'll read it at my desk."
The ME studied Jane's face before shrugging her shoulders and handing over the file. "Fine, " she said, "please bring it back down once you are done."
As Jane turned to leave the morgue she missed the wistful look Maura gave her. It was only a momentary slip and the doctor shook her head before returning to work.
The elevator was running slow, Jane pushed the button several times angrily, all the while hearing Maura's voice in her head explaining why multiple iterations of button pressing would not make the elevator come any faster. "I even miss her random facts," she said aloud.
Back upstairs the detectives were all clustered around the window. "Really?" Jane asked, "Have you guys never seen a blizzard before?"
Frost turned around, "Maybe not this bad Jane," he replied, "There are already 2 or 3 inches since you were down in the morgue and it's that nasty sticky snow too. I wouldn't be surprised if we get some power outages today."
"Anyone talk to Cavanaugh about this?" Jane asked, "I don't feel like being snowed in here overnight."
At that moment the Lieutenant walked into the room. "No one gets to leave," he said, "with the number of incidents we're likely to have today and tonight we've been asked to be on standby. Stanley is cooking up some extra food and filling urns with coffee right now."
There was a loud chorus of groans – Stanley's food and coffee were not exactly stellar cuisine.
Over the next couple of hours the blizzard continued to build in intensity, creating white out conditions in and around the Boston area. The detectives did what paperwork they could from their desks and Jane read through the autopsy report, making notes as she thought of questions to ask Maura.
"I'm taking this back down to the morgue," Jane announced as she closed the file folder, "I won't be long."
Maura wasn't at the autopsy table or over by the lab area which meant she must be in her office. Jane tapped softly on the door and waited until the ME said "Enter." before going inside.
"I'm done with the report but I do have a few questions if you have time?" Jane asked. Maura nodded her response and the two women spent twenty minutes clearing up all of Jane's queries. The lights flickered a couple of times but the power stayed on.
"Thanks Dr. Isles, that's a big help in the case," Jane said and began to head out of Maura's office. "Wait a second," the doctor said, "I need to bring some forms upstairs to Lieutenant Cavanaugh. I'll take the elevator with you."
The two walked in silence. Jane wished for perhaps the thousandth time that she could return to the burnt out warehouse and change the events that had taken place therein. She missed her friend, she missed their closeness. Truth be told she missed everything about Maura. The one other memory that kept being replayed in her mind, usually late at night in bed when she was trying to get some sleep was Maura standing in her kitchen with that look on her face saying "..but I love you Jane." That memory was her happy place and she clung to it like a child clings to a well-loved teddy bear.
The elevator arrived, they entered and Maura pushed the button. A few seconds later, the lights flickered, the elevator juddered and came to a halt as the lights went out.
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