Disclaimer - I don't own Rizzoli and Isles.
~Taking Care Of Maura~
"Hey Korsak, where's Frost?" Jane Rizzoli asked curiously, as she breezed into the bullpen and immediately made a beeline for the coffee machine set up in the corner.
Korsak quickly minimized the screen of his computer; immediately hiding the video of the two adorable, golden retriever puppies rolling around together he'd been softly cooing at, before Jane walked in.
"Oh Frost, he's downstairs in the morgue," Korsak replied as he opened a drawer at his desk, and pulled out a pack of Twinkies.
"You know that if my Ma ever saw you eating those things, she'd pull you by the ear over to the nearest garbage bin to throw it away," Jane said with an amused grin, as she lightly stirred creamer into her coffee.
"Yeah well...what Angela don't know won't hurt me, right?" Korsak replied with an unrepentant grin.
Jane just chuckled lightly in reply, as she took a long sip of her daily fuel.
"Oh, and is the reason Frost is down by the morgue because he's 'visiting' Maura?" Jane asked with a teasing wiggle of her eyebrows.
"Actually the Doc ain't here. It's Dr. Pike who's downstairs right now, and he practically dragged poor Frost down there with him, spouting crap about how completely 'unacceptable' it was for a 'Detective' to get so queasy at a crime scene," Korsak replied as he polished off the two Twinkies in the pack in record time, and tossed the now empty packaging into the small bin by his desk.
Jane froze with the cup of half-finished coffee midway to her lips, and looked hard at Korsak.
"Korsak...please tell me why is 'Pike' here today and not Maura?" the low, almost-dangerous tone of Jane's voice caused Korsak to look up startled, before he quickly remembered everything that had gone down the last time Pike had come in to cover for Maura.
"Oh geez Janie, I didn't mean it like that. It's absolutely nothing like what happened last time," Korsak quickly said. He still remembered vividly the last time Maura didn't show up, and Pike had to come in to 'replace' her. And he very much remembered how worried Jane was to leave the good Chief ME's side, for the two weeks following that whole unwelcome situation with Paddy Doyle.
"Then please tell me where Maura is Korsak," Jane bit out between tightly-clenched teeth.
"She's sick!" Korsak replied quietly.
Jane stared blankly at Korsak for a few seconds, before she lightly shook her head in mild confusion.
"Sick? Wait, but Maura can't be sick. If she even had the sniffles, she would have called or texted me to let me know that she'd be out today. And I never got a single...oh...oh shit!" Jane cursed softly, as she pulled out her cellphone which she now saw was inexplicably on silent, and saw that she had two missed calls and one unread text from Maura.
"Dammit Korsak, I missed Maura's calls!" Jane exclaimed, as she quickly hit speed dial for Maura's number.
"Hey, don't blame me. I'm just the messenger here," Korsak replied as he reached into another drawer in his desk, and pulled out a pack of Ding Dongs.
"I'm going to tell my mother on you," Jane threatened as she raised a warning finger at the older Detective, while waiting for Maura to answer her phone.
Korsak quickly stuck out his tongue at the younger Detective, causing a small grin to creep across Jane's face just as a groggy, scratchy-sounding voice answered her call.
"Jane...?" Maura Isles croaked out into her phone, as she rolled over in her bed and pulled her plush, Egyptian-thread covers over her head.
"Hey Maur," Jane's voice took on the gentle, caring tone it always unconsciously did whenever she was speaking with her best friend.
Korsak just chuckled lightly under his breath, causing Jane to stick her tongue out quickly at him, before she moved into the back of the room where it was blessedly empty and more private.
"Jane..." Maura groaned softly again, before a wracking cough forced it's way out of her throat, and she had to pull the phone away from her mouth to get it out.
Now Jane was really worried. In all the time she'd known Maura, she'd never once heard the ME sound so sick before. A slight cold here, a brief case of the sniffles there, all usually around the winter season. But Maura was borderline OCD and germophobic. She did pretty much everything within her considerable mental powers to keep harmful, illness-carrying germs as far away from herself as was humanly possible. So, Jane was stumped to understand just how Maura had managed to pick up such a nasty-sounding cold/flu in the 36 hours since she'd last seen her.
Then like a lightning bolt the reason struck Jane.
"You picked up something nasty from that medical summit you went to in New York City over the weekend, didn't you?" Jane asked the sick ME, whom she could now once again hear breathing shallowly through the phone.
Maura nodded her head slightly, and in her semi-drowsy state realized that Jane wouldn't be able to see her nod, so she cleared her throat a couple of times and tried to reply around the painful soreness in her throat.
"Yes and no. I do not believe that I contracted this flu while I was at the summit itself. Rather it was on the ride back to the airport when I decided to take a public taxi, instead of my usual limo service. I'm still not sure just why I decided to forgo my usual mode of transportation, but I guess...I just wanted to be...'spontaneous'. Unfortunately, the taxi driver had a terrible hacking cough, and even though the window between the driver seat and the backseat was up, whatever germs he'd already released into the air through his coughing throughout the day, was obviously still lingering in the vehicle. And so...now I'm sick." Maura said this last part so piteously, that Jane felt her heart simultaneously melt and break at the same time. She wished with everything she had, that she could just leave work and take care of her sick best friend.
"Maur...hon...don't worry, I'm going to come over right after work and take care of you. There isn't a cold or a flu that Ma's famous chicken soup hasn't been able to lick," Jane said in a lightly playful tone, in an effort to lift Maura's spirits a bit.
A small smile crossed Maura's lips, and she whispered a soft "thank you" into the phone, before she said goodbye to her favourite Detective...and really her favourite person...and ended her call with Jane. She then flopped back onto her pillows, closed her eyes and allowed her tired, sick body to drift back into a fitful sleep.
Jane ended the call with her best friend with a deep, worried sigh. She then immediately called her mother, and waited impatiently for her to answer the phone. When she did, Jane quickly asked her mother if she could make her signature chicken soup for Maura, since she'd be leaving work much earlier than Jane would be today.
Angela immediately agreed, and even promised to stop in and check in on her 'second daughter', as Angela truly did consider Maura 'her business', and hearing that the ME was so sick Angela's motherly heart instantly went out to her.
Jane thanked her mother, and ended the call with another deep sigh.
She now couldn't wait for the work day to end, so that she could quickly go over and take care of the woman who held her heart in her small, capable hands.
To be continued...
AN - Hope you all enjoyed. Please review~ =3