Only One Jane Rizzoli
A/N This story picks up a few days after Maura and Jane's less than spectacular Nashville adventure.
Maura entered the building promptly at 4:30 and checked the log. Today was going to be super busy; seven bodies from a five car pile up, three stabbings, two shootings and a drowning. At the morning staff meeting, Maura listened without hearing a single word. She offered a daily silent prayer of thanksgiving for such an excellent staff. If she were being truthful, Maura had been back in Boston for a week, but her heart was still in a hotel in Nashville. Instead of a late evening run and Chinese with Jane, Maura had jogged for an hour on the treadmill and then watched a documentary on PBS while eating an egg white omelet. Jane had been busy with a case. Maura noticed everyone had fallen silent and seemed to be waiting for her to speak. She stole a look at the list of bodies to post and quickly gave assignments.
"Dr. Isles, would you like me to make the Y incision?" Candice Morris, Maura's Anatomic morgue technician asked.
Maura stood looking into the open body of the drowning victim. It was the last post of the day. Candice had been stellar as usual. Maura made a mental note to talk to Candice about returning to the Pathology program at BCU. Instead of the suicide on the table, Maura wished she were posting Angie Alexander, the woman who had abducted her, tortured her and distracted Jane. Oh how she missed Jane. The first two nights after returning to Boston, Jane had insisted on staying with Maura. When the first nightmares pulled her under, it was Jane's strong arms that pulled her back to safety. Without Jane there to save her from the shadows, the nightmares were taking over the entire night.
"Dr. Isles. You've had a long day. I don't mind writing up the findings and finishing the notes." Candice assured her. "Why don't you go on home and try to get some sleep."
Sleep, if only she could. Every time she chased sleep, dark menacing eyes or a glinting steel blade filled her with images of horror so real she found herself fighting to breathe and her bed covers tangled around her. She had tried to catch a short nap in her office, but found herself back in that awful dark isolation chamber. Sleep was as elusive as her...friend, lover...Jane.
What had that night of lovemaking meant to Jane? For that matter, what had it meant to her? Were they lovers? Had this one night turned them both lesbian? Could one become a lesbian after having lived her entire life as a heterosexual in just one night? Where the hell was Jane? Maura sighed and raised her gaze to the concerned face of her technician. She smiled guiltily and passed the clipboard to Candice. "I don't know what I'd do without you Candy. But, you really should complete your degree and realize your dream. I could use another ME on staff."
"I'm living my dream every day Dr. Isles? Mark and my two girls are my dream, my world really. Is Detective Rizzoli going to pick you up for yoga tonight?" Office scuttlebutt had spread word of Maura's kidnapping and dramatic rescue in Tennessee. The entire morgue crew had always liked Jane Rizzoli, but now she was a true hero. Everyone wanted to tell her how grateful they were she had saved Maura.
"Jane, sit down you're going to wear a hole in the carpet." Detective Vince Korsak pleaded. "We aren't going to catch her today. When my buddy has word, he'll call and then I'll call you."
Detective Barry Frost, Jane's new partner just two years out of Robbery, sat scowling at a report the front desk sergeant had delivered right after the morning briefing. Jane ran both hands through her hair then dropped into the chair opposite Frost. "How could she have just vanished?" Jane growled. Angie's yacht had been found at a dock near Aurora, Kentucky. "Did you talk to the police in this Ar..where is this place anyway?" She stood and paced over to the map on the far wall. "That place is so tiny it doesn't even show on this map." Jane poked a forefinger at the map and dropped her face in her other hand.
"We talked to the sheriff and her picture has been sent to every police station in Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida." Korsak assured. He knew Jane burned to capture the creep who had taken Maura. If possible, Jane wanted Alexander more than she had wanted her own arch nemesis. Hoyt was now on death row burning through his appeals and thankfully no longer a threat to Jane.
Frost closed the report he had been reading and pinned Jane with a hard look. "Did you get a good look at Alexander?"
Her mind filled with white. How could she have been expected to see anyone else when Maura was there naked and terrified. Thoughts of Maura naked, sparked memories that had Jane longing to run and … Jane Rizzoli did not run! She cleared her throat and pushed aside naked Maura so she could see the other almost naked woman. "Tall, almost 6'. Slender, but athletic. Dark hair, past her shoulders. Large breasts. Why?"
Frost and Korsak shared a long silent look, then Frost asked in a soft voice, "Sound like anyone else you know?"
"Guys, this is too damn serious to play games. If you have something to say, just come out and say it." She rested her face in her palms then jerked upright to pin both with a look of incredulity. She had been so busy with thoughts of Maura and the night they shared that the obvious had been laughing at her from the shadows the entire time. "Me. The bitch looks like me."
"Makes perfect sense." Korsak held up a copy of the report sent to him by the VUPD. "The students questioned all said they saw you and Maura. The only one lying, was the one being paid by Alexander to lie."
Jane tried to clear her head of the memories of the night after the rescue. It had been the single most satisfying night of her life. When the alarm rang the next morning, she had opened her eyes sure that life from that moment on would be perfect. She knew she loved Maura and felt that Maura loved her. But when she opened her eyes and faced reality, doubt swung like a ten ton hammer. She was a woman with absolutely no experience in love. She had smiled when she felt the warm body still lying atop hers. Maura had her legs entwined with Jane's and her arms locked around Jane's waist. The face she had kissed and stroked with loving fingers just hours before lay nestled in the curve of her shoulder, Maura's lips pressed against her neck. Then reality hit again and doubt took round two. They had sex! All night long and into the early morning hours. Kisses rained on every inch of skin. Caresses both tender and possessive had covered their bodies and explored their most intimate spaces. Fuck!
"The bitch got away. She tortured Maura and would have killed her. She did kill one of her associates and she killed Detective Grey. Korsak, we have to hunt this...'
The phone rang preventing further comments. Frost answered on the second ring and passed the receiver to Jane a very puzzled look on his face. "You better take this."
"Detective Rizzoli." Jane listened a minute then turned to look at Frost. "I've just been accused of police brutality in Alabama."
Frost pressed the speaker button and sat forward in his chair. Korsak left his desk and came to stand behind Jane his hands on both her shoulders. "Detective, I'd like you to come back here to my office so we can sort this all out all nice and friendly like." A deep male voice said striving to be polite.
"Come back to your office?" Jane questioned. "Sheriff, I'm in Boston, where I've been for the past week. What's this about?"
Silence ticked off several beats of the clock before the Sheriff spoke again. "Detective, one of my officers worked with you just two days ago. I just need your statement, nothing fancy, just your side of things. He said you helped him get an alleged wife abuser in his patrol car." The voice became muffled, then returned along with another male voice. "Are you saying you didn't help Deputy Collins..."
This was like something out of the twilight zone. Jane stopped the Sheriff."Sheriff, I assure you, I've
never had the pleasure of traveling anywhere in the state of Alabama."
Frost tapped the report he had been reading earlier. "Sheriff, can your deputy give us a description of Detective Rizzoli?"
Angie placed the stolen credit card on the counter with a huge smile. "Those are perfect," she said leaning close to smell the delicate fragrance of the lilies. Ah lilies, the flower that dared love. "My friend has had a rough couple of days and these will cheer her up nicely." She signed the credit card receipt and left the florist. Angie slid into the creamy leather seat of the Jaguar and laughed aloud. "Yes, our poor Dr. Isles has indeed had a rough few days. Getting such a beautiful flower arrangement from her beloved Jane, will cheer her up nicely. Too bad Jane is having such a hard time with all those pesky feelings she now has for the Dr. Maybe some nice chocolates to help ease things along. I do love playing match maker."Angie checked her mirrors and slid into the flow of traffic.
Maura was sitting at her desk holding onto a cup of long cold tea when the flowers arrived. Just minutes earlier someone had dropped off a huge box of Godiva chocolate. Maura had searched, but found no clue as to the giver.. She signed for the delivery and immediately opened the card. Thinking of you and our first very special night together. Maura inhaled the beautiful fragrance and allowed thoughts of that special night to flood through her. Had she truly been so bold?
Flashes of kisses and sighs came to an abrupt halt as Maura again read the card. "This isn't Jane's writing. These aren't from Jane!" The writing was not the slanted writing of a left handed person.
The office door flew open and both Korsak and Frost barreled through. "We got even more problems Doc?" Korsak bellowed before Frost could utter a single syllable.
Maura stood and rounded her desk. She passed the card to Frost and closed the door while the two men read and then re-read the card. Korsak was the first to speak. "You think this came from the devil who grabbed you?"
"She sends you flowers from a florist right down the street?" Frost kept looking from Maura to the flowers. "The report I got this morning was from Mississippi. And just before you called, a Sheriff from Alabama called saying she was there two days ago. She can't be in three places at once. What game is she playing?"
"Yeah, all that traveling around. Somebody seen something." Korsak took the note from Frost with his handkerchief and held it to his nose a long minute. He held it under Frosts' nose and waited for him to inhale. "She even knows what Rizzoli wears."
"Soap." Maura supplied twisting her favorite ring around her finger several times before dropping into her chair and looking at Korsak. "Well, Vanilla body scrub. The flowers are supposed to be from Jane. There's no note with the chocolate, but I'm guessing it's from her too."
"Speaking of Jane, where is she?" Korsak asked Frost nodding toward the chocolate and flowers. "Oh yeah, she went to visit the Capt. To get permission to visit the Sheriff in Alabama and then in Mississippi." He pinned Frost with a look and said, "Hey Hot Shot, why don't you take those and the note to the PD and see what you can come up with. I'll take the Doc's statement."
Maura waited until both Frost and the scent of lily had left her office before facing Korsak. "Jane and I. We got really close in Nashville." She began. "Do you think Angie will come after me again?"
Korsak pulled his cell phone from his inside pocket and pushed a speed dial button. "I think this nutcase is setting Jane up to take a big fall. We gotta find her and get her behind bars before she can put any more of her evil plans in motion."
"Detective Jane Rizzoli." Jane answered. She listened while Korsak explained about the gifts recently delivered to Maura's office. "Korsak, stay with Maura. I want officers with her every second of every day. I want calls every hour on the hour letting me know she's OK."
"What did the Captain say, Jane? You need just as much back up as Maura needs protection. When do we leave?" Korsak listened a look of disbelief on his weathered face. He pulled at his goatee and shook his head. "Jane, this broad wants to take you down just as badly as you want to take her down. It aint safe for you to go alone." He ran his free hand through his hair then sighed and said, "I'll tell her. But you really should tell her yourself."
"Tell me what?" Maura asked nerves making her voice quaver.
"Jane says make sure you have an officer with you at all times." He pulled his goatee again. "And she loves you."
Maura smiled and whispered. "And I love you Jane."