Summary: CIA operatives FDR Jane Rizzoli and Jack Armstrong are inseparable best friends and partners. Together, their good looks, covert abilities and combat skills rank them among the CIA's elite, but their longstanding personal and professional bond is put to the test when they meet Maura Isles. AU based on the movie of the same name.
Disclaimer: We own nothing but the words. Characters belong to TNT and Tess Garritsen, plot belongs to Fox.
Co-written with Maurarizzoli16 who deserves complete credit for coming up with this idea.
Five years ago, when Special Agent Jack Armstrong learned he was being partnered with a new CIA recruit, he was not happy about it. When he found out his new partner was hotshot Boston detective Jane Rizzoli, he was downright pissed off. Rizzoli was credited with single-handedly bringing down a serial killer known as The Surgeon and because of that, her face had been on the news every night for weeks. Jack knew that having that kind of notoriety was the last thing you wanted in the spy game.
Jane, for her part, was equally leery of Jack. Having grown up in a blue collar neighborhood and worked her way up to detective the hard way, she didn't know what to make of him. It was hard for her to believe that this computer geek who was recruited while he was still a student at MIT could have her back. She had been recruited to the country's top spy agency while lying in a hospital bed, recovering from having had a scalpel plunged into each of her hands. Given his lack of law enforcement experience, Jack didn't exactly fit the profile of who Jane wanted to be out in the field with.
After months of going at it, and with the not so friendly encouragement of Deputy Director Korsak, they gradually gained some respect for each other. Jane discovered that even if he wasn't as stealthy as she was, Jack had written a program that allowed them to clone cell phones wirelessly. That technology alone saved their asses on numerous occasions. For his part, Jack realized that everybody had bought the story that she had accepted early retirement and promptly forgot all about her. No one ever even gave her a second look when they were out in public and that was all he needed. He was also quite impressed with her intuition, but he would never admit that to her.
Professional respect eventually paved the way for friendship. By the time they found themselves running across the world chasing the Rockmond brothers, they were best friends. This had been a long, convoluted mission and they were grateful that they at least had someone they worked well with. Derek and Dennis Rockmond were world class smugglers that the CIA had been watching for years. Using their father's art brokerage as a cover, they were using sculptures to smuggle human organs. Poor people in small Central Asian and Baltic countries were selling their lives for a meager stipend to be paid to their families. Their hearts, lungs, kidneys and whatever else could be sold were being shipped to wealthy Americans who thought their money should put them first on any waiting list. Jane and Jack had been following them through Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Belarus and now back into Russia. They were always one step behind the deals until Jack managed to finally get close enough to Derek to clone his phone in St. Petersburg. That is what led them here.
Moscow 11:37 pm
They had been waiting for over an hour for the man of the hour to show up. Standing near the bar in the hotel they watched the crowd of people walking around, flirting and drinking. "Hi, my name is Lannie," said the bar patron sitting at the bar watching them.
"Pleased to meet you, I'm Jack," Jack replied, shaking Lannie's hand.
"Jane," Jane said as she kissed the girls hand.
"What bring you to Moscow?" asked Nicole, Lannie's friend.
"Business." "Pleasure." Jack and Jane replied at the same time. Turning to give Jack a look, "a little bit of both," Jane clarified.
"What kind of business are you in?"
"I'm an entertainment software engineer and my friend here is in consumer research. We were in town for a conference, but we always make sure to stick around for a few days to get to know the area," Jack answered, giving Lannie his best dimpled smile.
Jane turned to Nicole and leaned in close to her ear. "So, why don't you tell me what you're here for?" she asked in a deep, seductive voice.
Just as a flustered Nicole was about to respond, Jane looked up and saw the Rockmonds entering with a whole entourage of bodyguards. They were followed by two bell boys carrying a large wooden crate. She was glad that for once they had done their homework and weren't flying by the seat of their pants. The organ broker that the brothers thought they would be meeting had been detained at the airport. Jack was prepared to take his place, with Jane acting as his assistant. They even had a tactical unit, on loan from the Moscow police, in place to take the suspects into custody once the transaction was done. It was old-fashioned detective work, just the way Jane liked it.
Nodding to Jack, she interrupted Nicole with "Oops, sorry, looks like it's time for us to get to our meeting. Hopefully we can catch up with you lovely ladies once all this silly business is done with." With that, she grabbed their brief case and they headed towards the conference room. Just before he knocked, Jack straightened his tie, ran his hands through his hair and adjusted his fake glasses. He had a hard time getting into the persona of someone who could sell body parts for a living. Jane's experiences in Vice trained her to be able to become any character in an instant. Once she dropped her shoulders and plastered on her fake smile, nobody would ever doubt that she took orders all day.
One knock later, the large door was opened by a large man in a black suit. Looking around, Jane realized that was the best description she could give for any of the half dozen men in the room. That is, except for the two who could be described as large men wearing expensive suits, the two who were so obviously in charge. Dennis sat at the head at the conference table with a man posted on either side of him. Derek was in a corner, talking animatedly on his phone, as though he was above the business currently taking place. He, too, was flanked by a pair of guards.
Introductions were quickly made, and then Jack and Jane sat down to get started. Jack quickly struck up a conversation with Dennis about art in the hopes that keeping him slightly distracted. As Jane pulled out her tablet so she could process the wire transfer with one of the goons, she couldn't resist running her fingers across the images on her newly engraved leather case. It made Jane nervous that the government was going to let her hand over 1.5 million dollars, even if it was temporarily. Just before she hit enter to start the transfer, Derek ended his call and looked around the room. He looked directly at Jack and started shouting.
"You, I know you. I saw you at that restaurant in St. Petersburg. Why are you following me?"
With that, the doors flew open and all hell broke loose. Jane grabbed Jack and pulled him under the table. Though she was never one to run from a fight, she decided this one was best left to the guys dressed for war. It felt like they had been watching bullets fly and wood splinter around them for an eternity when suddenly everything stopped.
They slowly crawled out and took in the scene around them. There were 5 dead bodies spread across the floor, including that of Derek Rockmond. The tactical response team was lined up along the wall, looking none the worse for the wear. Conspicuously missing were Dennis Rockmond and Jane's tablet. The one consolation was the crate still sitting on the conference table. At least they still had their evidence.
Jane wiped off her blazer and shrugged. "Rockmond's gotta be fuckin' pissed."
"I'm much more worried about the boss."
"Shit, yeah, there's that. Hey, do you think those girls are still here?"
Jack just laughed at that, it always amazed him how quickly Jane could get distracted. "Not if they figured out that I used a fancy way of saying that I write and you play video games for a living."