A/N: Inspiration from this story came from a whole bunch of different places: my recent trip into Boston, my university's Christmas concert coming up, general boredom, and the fact that I've had Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" on repeat for the past 48 hours. I highly suggest listening to the song before you read on—there are remixes up the wazoo, but to get the full effect of the story, you definitely have to hear the original. I imagine the singer in this fic to have a voice very similar to Heap's, so if you want a clear picture of what's going on, avoid the dubstep! (Even though it's pretty awesome). Enjoy!
Maura wasn't around much anymore. Well, of course she was at work every day, but when it came to nighttime and weekends off, she would disappear off the map completely. Jane had tried to track her down numerous times, but Angela had no idea where she was going and after six P.M. her phone almost always went to voicemail. When Maura did pick up, the response was always "I have a previous engagement. I'm sorry, Jane, but I just can't get out of it. It's too important."
It was starting to piss off the detective, a fact that became obvious to everyone around her. She'd snap at random officers in the café whenever Korsak and Frost couldn't keep her confined to the bullpen, and when she was up there moral became so low that Cavanaugh finally took Frankie aside and ordered him to occupy her for a weekend.
"I don't care what the hell you do, just fix her," the lieutenant growled as he shut the door on Frankie one Friday afternoon, leaving the younger Rizzoli to figure out how he was possibly going to cheer Jane up.
The next day, he showed up at his sister's door dressed warmly. "I'm taking you out on the town."
"Fat chance." In her sweatshirt and yoga pants, Jane wandered back into her kitchen to grab an apple. "Aren't you on call today, anyways?"
"I'm supposed to help you get your head on straight," Frankie replied, leaning against the doorframe. "Cavanaugh's gonna kick my ass otherwise."
"Well, in that case…" Jane flopped gracelessly back down on her couch, flicked on a Friends rerun marathon and proceeded to ignore her brother.
Frankie waited about thirty-five seconds before he crossed the room to stand in between Jane and Ross, Rachel and Phoebe's argument about "unagi". "Come on, Janie. We'll take the T down to Back Bay, do some Christmas shopping there, then hit up Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market for dinner and head home from South Station. It'll be fun, I promise."
"Oh yeah, holiday shopping with you sounds like a barrel full of monkeys," Jane grumbled through a mouthful of apple, craning her neck to try and see around Frankie.
"If you come, I won't make you buy me a present this year."
"Tempting, but MOVE."
Frankie sighed and reached into his pocket. "Don't make me use this, Jane," he threatened, brandishing his phone.
A half-smile of amusement appeared on the detective's face. "You gonna call the fuzz on me?"
"I think you know exactly who I'm gonna call."
A look of horror slowly replaced Jane's grin. "You wouldn't."
Frankie gave her a pointed look. She dropped what was left of her apple on the table and lunged for her brother. "Frankie—!"
He dodged her. "Speed dial number TWO—"
"Alright, alright, I'll go!" She gave Frankie a hard shove and stomped towards her bedroom. "I hate it when you bring Ma into it."
The younger Rizzoli smiled in satisfaction. "Ten minutes, Jane."
"Yeah, whatever."
The sun was setting by the time Jane and Frankie made it to Quincy Market, still arguing about the amount of time they spent in Tine's Electronics.
"You found that video pen for Korsak, what're you complaining about?"
"We spent an extra twenty minutes in there just so you could stare at that employee with the two-foot-wide hovercraft. Come on, Frank, really?"
"It was a hovercraft, Jane! A hovercraft!"
"Yeah, and you're a child."
"Hey, I stood in Tiffany's with you for a good half hour while you picked out just the right bracelet to give Maura. That was a bit ridiculous."
"She sent me to racing school for my birthday! How was I supposed to follow that up?"
Frankie thought for a second, then shrugged. "A hovercraft?"
As they approached the gigantic Faneuil Hall Christmas tree, Jane noticed a crowd gathering near the south entrance of the Market. "Damn, street performers." She gestured with the fist holding the Tiffany's bag. "Now there is the start of a riot."
"You're crazy."
"No, I'm reasonable." Jane glanced around for a way to avoid the gathering. "Sound like plastic buckets and drumsticks to you?"
"Nah, it's actually…" Frankie took a few steps closer to the crowd and listened hard. After a couple moments, his eyes widened. "Hey, it's the Subdominants!"
"The Subdominants?" Jane snorted. "They sound weak."
"No, they're an acapella group based near Maura and Ma's place." Frankie grabbed his sister's arm and began to drag her towards the performers, eliciting a "hey!" from the older detective. "Come on, let's listen for a bit.
"Oh, would you—" Jane yanked her arm out of her brother's grasp with a huff. "I can walk myself…and what the hell do you know about an acapella group near Maura and Ma?"
Frankie shrugged again. "I get around."
The Subdominants, a group of about fifteen adults, were finishing up a jazzy version of "Sleigh Ride" as the Rizzolis maneuvered their way to the front of the crowd. They clapped along with everyone else when the piece was over, Jane somewhat reluctantly, and an older man in a cheery red hat-and-scarf set approached the microphone.
"I'd like to thank you all for stopping by and listening to us today, we really appreciate it," the man said in a light Southern drawl, flashing a set of pearly whites. "Now, we only have one piece left for y'all, and it isn't really a Christmas song, but our newest member sounded so good on the melody that we just had to share it with the world." He turned away from the microphone for a moment and motioned for the group to rearrange and come forward. "Here to make her Subdominants debut, singing lead for Imogen Heap's 'Hide and Seek', let's all give a big round of applause for our newest soprano—Maura Isles!"
Jane and Frankie froze. The throng burst into supportive applause as a very pink, very happy-looking Maura Isles centered herself by the microphone, the rest of the Subdominants arranging themselves behind her. The siblings slowly turned to look at each other, completely stunned.
"Did you see that coming?"
"Absolutely not."
A pitch pipe sounded one note and the crowd fell silent. Jane and Frankie turned their attention back to Maura and her groupmates, all looking quite serious as they began the very slow, meaningful ballad.
"Where are we? What the hell is going on?
The dust has only just begun to fall,
Crop circles in the carpet, sinking, feeling."
The elegant otherworldliness of the piece stunned Jane, almost as much as seeing her shy best friend contributing to the sound. "I can't believe this is what she's been doing," Jane hissed to her brother, never once taking her eyes off of Maura. Frankie just nodded, still dumbstruck, and they both continued to listen with fervor.
"Spin me round again and rub my eyes,
This can't be happening.
When busy streets a mess with people
Would stop to hold their heads heavy."
Jane felt an odd swoop in her stomach as Maura raised her head and took a step closer to the microphone. "She's actually going to do it, isn't she?"
"Hide and seek,
Trains and sewing machines..."
Jane's jaw dropped. "Oh, my God." Maura's voice was perfect—that was the only way she could think of describing it. Strong but light, blending with the harmonies beautifully, it could bring the hardest of hearts to tears.
All those years, they were here first."
The ME stood still when her part was over, and the rest of the Subdominants joined in.
"Oily marks appear on walls
Where pleasure moments hung before.
The takeover, the sweeping intensity of
Still life."
Maura leaned towards the microphone again. Jane grabbed her brother's jacket with shaking hands. "Who the hell is she anymore?"
"Hide and seek,
Trains and sewing machines (Oh, you won't catch me around here)"
The detective's vision blurred with tears, catching her completely by surprise.
"Blood and tears…"
Maura opened her mouth and belted out a high note, the likes of which neither Rizzoli had ever heard before.
"They were here first."
Jane brought one hand up to her mouth and realized her cheeks were soaked with tears. "Oh my God," she whispered, half-laughing, voice otherwise choked with emotion. "This is amazing."
"Mm, what you say?
Mm, that you only meant well? Well, of course you did.
Mm, what you say?
Mm, that it's all for the best? Because it is.
Mm, what you say?
Mm, that it's just what we need? And you decided this.
Mm, what you say? What did she say?"
"Jane, are you gonna be okay?"
"Yeah, Frank," Jane waved off her brother's concern, feeling another wave of tears coming. "I just…she has such a great voice. Why has she been hiding it?"
"Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth,
Mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut-outs.
Speak no feeling, no I don't believe you.
You don't care a bit. You don't care a bit."
Maura slid her harmonies gracefully over the rest of the Subdominants as they repeated the phrase back and forth to each other, echoing the last line several times over before it was just one woman in the back row singing.
"You don't care a bit."
There was a few seconds of complete and total silence when the song ended. Then, as suddenly as if somebody had flicked a switch, applause burst forth, echoing out across the entire Marketplace, nearly shaking the stones beneath their feet. Jane and Frankie clapped the hardest, each of them so ridiculously proud of Maura Isles, who was happily taking her third bow before the mass and the Subdominants dispersed, everybody chattering about what had just happened.
"Maura…Maura!"
Jane began pushing her way towards her friend, heedless of anybody and everybody who stood in her way. Frankie followed his sister and took up the job of apologizing to whomever she stepped on or elbowed. "Jane, slow down!"
She ignored him and finally reached a break in the crowd. "Maura!"
The ME turned towards the sound of Jane's voice, her eyes widening in surprise when she saw the detective rushing towards her. "Jane? What are you—"
She cut herself off with an "oof!" as Jane threw her arms around her, nearly tackling her to the ground. "Why didn't you tell us you could do that?" the taller woman demanded, her voice muffled by her friend's scarf.
Maura quickly wrapped her limbs around the detective's lean body, holding on for dear life. "Jane, I…" She hesitated when she felt cold wetness on her neck and pushed away carefully to cup her friend's cheeks. "My God, Jane, why are you crying?"
"I'm crying because that was incredible, Maura!" Jane exclaimed, her voice cracking. She reached up and drew the ME's hands away from her face to clutch them in her own, and repeated, "Why didn't you tell us you could do that?"
Maura's face flushed, barely visible in the lightly illuminated Marketplace. "Well, I didn't know how well I could do it, until I just…did it, and I wasn't sure how comfortable I would be singing in front of people I knew." She tilted her head to one side. "To be honest, I'm not sure I would have been able to perform, had I known you and Frankie were there."
Jane frowned. "But now, after you've done it once? Would it matter if we were watching?"
A smile lit up Maura's expression. "Absolutely not. Come to think of it…I'm glad you came. It saved me the embarrassment of asking you to show up."
"Sweetie, there's nothing to be embarrassed about!" Jane pulled her friend in tightly again. "You sounded amazing and I can't wait to hear you again."
"Really?"
"Really," Frankie chimed in, having snuck up on the two of them unnoticed. The women released each other and Maura slid her arms around Frankie in a friendly hug. "Great job, Doc."
"Thank you both, so much." Maura stepped back and finally took stock of the situation, looking over the shopping bags the siblings were holding. "You went to Tiffany's, Jane? It doesn't seem like your kind of store."
"Um, Christmas present for Ma," Jane said quickly, dropping the small turquoise bag into the larger Tine's one. "I'll show you some other time."
Frankie noticed the look of curiosity cross the ME's face and decided to save his sister. "Hey, Doc, we were just about to grab dinner. Care to join us?"
"I'd love to," Maura replied, smiling once again. She slipped an arm through each of the Rizzoli's and let them lead her into Quincy Market, happy to not have to hide her secret from them any longer.
A/N2: I'm debating over whether or not I should continue this. Thoughts?