Love cannot be planned. If and when it does strike, it does so without warning.
And occasionally, it strikes in the most literal of fashions.
She'd been watching a fucking bird.
Jane Rizzoli was a fan of a lot of sports, but tennis was one of her favorites. It was a sport of honor and courtesy and, except for doubles, was a one-on-one sport. You didn't have any teammates that could fail you and only had to hold yourself accountable for a loss. Little communication was needed aside from the calling of scores or fouls. It was a sport where you could think or not think as you pleased.
And that was what Jane had come here today to do: not think.
Still fresh to the Homicide Division, Jane's past week had consisted of nothing but grunt work and being the office gopher. The "boys" were making it very clear what they thought about a women in their ranks; they didn't outright object to her presence, but she would have to work twice as hard as any other newbie to earn their respect. Not a quitter in any sense of the word, the brunette had knuckled down and plowed through their damn "machismo" with a vengeance.
Frustrated nonetheless by her coworker's general treatment, Jane spent her free days at her local tennis courts. It was a great way for her to blow off steam and prove herself without having to break anyone's nose; or their family jewels, for that matter.
On this day off, after a particularly nasty workweek, Jane arrived at the park to find that all of the courts were currently taken up. Slightly irked, but determined nonetheless, the brunette decided she would hang around for a bit to see if she could convince anyone to let her play the winner. Taking a seat a ways away from the corner of one court, Jane spent her time waiting stretching out her leg muscles one at a time.
She had just finished her left leg and was about to move on to her right when she was startled by a loud warble coming over her left shoulder. Turning her head and looking up, Jane spotted a rather large bluebird sitting atop of the chain-link fence that ran all around the courts. Jane had never really cared much for birds, aside from the ones she ate, but something about this one caught her eye.
It was a very beautiful bird; its feathers the brightest blue and orange the brunette had ever seen on a bluebird. And its song; a sort of warbling sound, for some reason brought a smile to her face. Ceasing her stretching, Jane was content to simply sit and observe the small creature as it sang its song for all to hear.
The detective felt her previous grievances fade away for all of thirty seconds before a new sound entered her ears, this time coming from her far right.
Jane turned her head and had just realized that the sound was of someone's cry when-
Whack!
Something struck her right temple, instantly igniting a spark of pain and sending stars scattering across her vision.
Just barely managing to keep herself from falling over with her left hand, her right automatically flew up to her temple where she could already feel a bump beginning to form, coupled together with a slickness indicating that whatever had hit her had left a cut as well as a possible concussion.
Coming back to her senses, Jane heard a clatter in front of her and opened her eyes to see a tennis racket lying just off of her left; a small smear of red on it the only proof the detective needed to prove that it was indeed the object that had said "Hello" to her head. Realizing that someone had thrown a goddamn tennis racket at her, the detective turned back towards the courts, fully prepared to let the perpetrator know exactly what she thought of them when she saw that they were already heading over to her at a sprint-
And all of a sudden Jane was having trouble remembering exactly why she was mad in the first place.
For coming ever closer to her was the most gorgeous women the detective had ever seen. She was decked out in a vibrant blue outfit that looked like it had been tailor-made for her, and her strawberry-blonde hair, flowing out from underneath a white visor, seemed to glow scarlet when the sunlight danced across the elegant locks.
If Jane had any doubts about a possible concussion before, she was sure of it now; because as the woman-no-as the freakin' goddess fell down to her knees next to the brunette, Jane could do nothing but hold her head and stare at the vision before her; positive that her mouth was simply hanging open like an idiot when she dearly needed it to be saying something.
Anything!
Because the goddess was in front of her and her mouth was moving and she looked concerned about something, and if she looked this beautiful while she was upset, Jane was willing to bet anything she was divine when she smiled.
And Jane really wanted to see her smile.
Shaking her head out of her daydream, causing herself to wince in the process, the detective finally snapped to attention and heard what the angel was saying.
"-a new racket and I was trying a new type of grip tape and it slipped out of my hand and went flying and I tried to warn you, but at the rate it was flying and the distance it travelled I don't think you could have really avoided it; though you might have been able to catch it, or at least deflect it, because you look like someone who takes very good care of themselves and studies show that people who work out regularly tend to have faster response rates, but still I didn't warn you in time and I am so very, very sorry about the contusion and laceration my racket caused to your temple, though in my opinion it's not severe enough to warrant anything more than a few butterfly bandages and a pack of ice, although at the velocity my racket was going the possibility of a concussion is very probable and-" on and on she went, listing the various muscles she had unintentionally damaged and apologizing profusely again and again.
She was rambling at this point and generally Jane disliked ramblers, but she was more than willing to make an exception for this goddess' sake; her voice was sweet and melodious and sounded genuinely concerned and apologetic for the accident. And besides that: she looked really cute spouting off random facts about the purpose of each muscle as her hands gently turned the brunette's head this way and that, seeing her injury at various angles.
Deciding to put the poor angel out of her self-induced misery, Jane caught her hand as her thumb began to trace around the bump on her head, cutting off her latest tangent about the symptoms of a concussion, and blurted out, "Jane."
Halting from her examinations, the flustered goddess looked the detective in the eye for the first time, blinked, and said, "I beg your pardon?"
Clearing her throat and feeling more than a little embarrassed at her outburst, Jane repeated, "Jane. My name is Jane."
Understanding dawning in the angel's vibrant hazel eyes, the blonde-haired woman replied, "Oh Jane. Hello: my name is Maura. Maura Isles. It's a pleasure to meet you," she winced apologetically, "Or rather, it would be, if I hadn't managed to throw my racket at your head."
"Heh heh, yeah. I could've done without that part," Jane remarked, grinning like an idiot.
"I really am sorry about that-" Jane cut her off before she could go off on a rant again.
"Aw, no worries. I take worse hits than that from my brothers playing basketball," she assured the angel as she tried to stand. Maura grabbed her arm as she wobbled slightly.
"No, you really shouldn't be moving after a hit like that. Concussions might not seem like a big deal but they could lead to serious problems if left untreated for too long," Maura exclaimed as she began to guide Jane over to a nearby bench.
"You really know your stuff, don't cha?" the brunette observed as they took a seat.
"I should." Maura replied as she released Jane's arm and once again began examining her head wound, "I am a medical examiner after all."
The brunette's eyebrows shot up in surprise, though the motion caused her to wince.
"Really? You're an ME?"
Smiling a gorgeous smile, Maura remarked, "You seem surprised."
"I'll say I am. I work with MEs as part of my job-I'm a homicide detective-and I have never met one that was so…" Jane, struck by a sudden case of shyness, mumbled the last word.
"So…what?" the goddess asked, her eyebrows coming together in confusion.
Swallowing hard and throwing caution to the wind, the detective repeated herself.
"I have never met one that was so… cute."
Maura blinked her hazel eyes at the brunette before a small, shy smile crept onto her face and she said, "You think I'm cute?"
Not hesitating for an instance at the appearance of that smile, Jane continued, "And gorgeous; and angelic; and lovely; and charming; and stunning; and pretty much every other word that is a synonym for the word 'beautiful'." Face now completely red from her impromptu ramble that reeked of a teenage confession, the brunette dropped her chin and suddenly decided that the ground was very interesting.
Slim fingers slid under her chin and gently brought it back up so that the eyes above it could see that the small smile had grown a bit since they had last seen it, though it could still be described as shy.
Giggling lightly, Maura asked, "How hard did my racket hit you?"
Not skipping a beat, Jane quipped, "Hard enough to make me realize that there was an angel playing tennis on the court next to me."
It was the blonde's turn to blush and look at the ground, before she looked back up to nervously say, "I have a first aid kit in my bag. I could treat your wound? If you don't mind, that is."
Jane nodded and said that would be great, and as she watched her strawberry blonde angel dash over to where her bag laid on the opposite side of the court, waving and apologizing to her previously forgotten opponent, the detective decided that when the blonde returned she would work up her courage to ask her out for a cup of coffee-
As thanks for treating her head wound, of course.
A/N: Do not ask me where the inspiration for this came from, because I wouldn't be able to tell you.
Please R&R.