Author's Note: Insert standard disclaimer here. I don't own the show or the characters. Dammit.
Stylish leather heels click confidently along the tile flooring of the station as Maura makes her way through the morning crowd, balancing her matching bag in one hand and a half empty coffee cup in the other. She pauses outside the entrance to the Division One Café, trying to decide if she should top off her gourmet coffee with the station blend. Her eyes flick to the coffee pots as she thinks. That's when she sees her. The corner of her mouth ticks up in a half smile as she notices the familiar long brunette curls cascading down the back of the tall woman standing at the coffee station, struggling with the lid to her cup.
Maura makes a show of checking her watch as she slides in place next to Jane, her hip barely brushing the detective to make her aware of her presence.
"I was hoping you would be late this morning," she says out of the corner of her mouth as she wiggles her eyebrows suggestively. Her voice is low, almost to the point of being scandalous, "You know, that maybe your date from last night would have turned into breakfast this morning."
Jane whirls around at the sound of the doctor's voice; palms flashing at her sides in mild annoyance.
"Do you even know me?" Jane's voice rises slightly in irritation. She's not really mad at the doctor for the lame blind date setup from last night, but it's hard for her to contain her natural tendency to overreact in her uncaffeinated state.
Maura's eyes immediately widen as she plasters on a fake smile, trying to mitigate the fury of the moody Italian standing in front of her.
"I take it things didn't go well?" Maura asks tentatively.
"Didn't go well?" Jane crosses her arms in front of her chest. Deep, intense eyes stare at the doctor. "It was pure torture." She shakes her head as her eyes float up to the ceiling tiles above her. "You told me he worked with numbers, Maura."
"He does!" A hand flies to the doctor's chest in defense.
"Yeah, well...I thought that meant banker or accountant." Jane's back stiffens. Her voice is low with distaste as she practically spits the next words out, "He was a freaking actuary!"
Maura shakes her head slightly, unsure of why that would be a problem. "So? That's a very prestigious occupation, Jane."
"That's a very boring occupation, Maura." Jane counters. She takes in a deep breath, her body relaxing slightly as she picks up her coffee cup and walks over to a vacant table. She slumps into the chair as Maura settles in, all prim and proper, across the table from her.
"All he talked about was the affect rapidly increasing life expectancies made on his probability tables." Jane rubs at her brow, "That is, until I flashed him my gun and told him that his little probability tables didn't mean a whole hell of a lot if he ran in my circles."
Maura cringes at the mental image, "You did not."
"Oh, I most certainly did." Jane says with a cocky grin as she stirs her coffee, recalling the horrified look on Jerry's face last night when he caught sight of her firearm. Poor sucker never stood a chance with Jane Rizzoli.
Maura shakes her head at the detective, her eyes dropping down to her own coffee cup. It is almost too painful to watch. This wasn't the first time Jane's self-sabotaged a date, insuring things wouldn't go beyond the initial meeting.
"You could have gone home before dinner and changed, you know. You really didn't need to bring your gun on the date, Jane." The disappointment is clear on the doctor's face.
Jane shrugs her off, "Nah, I needed it last night. I was going to blow my own brains out if he continued to talk about insurance for another minute."
Maura leans in closer and lowers her voice, "You need to switch into 'Jane mode' and leave 'Detective Rizzoli' at home when you go out with someone new."
Jane's lip snarls slightly. It's the same argument she's heard from Angela countless times. She knows Maura is right, but dammit, that doesn't make it any easier to hear.
She shrugs one shoulder, indifferent to another wasted evening with a man she had nothing in common with.
"I feel more comfortable as Detective Rizzoli."
She means safe, but she doesn't say it out loud. She's almost certain Maura understands her. Too many men in the last four years have made her leery of trusting new people. It's too hard to let anyone new in. They need to be able to put up with the hard, protective shell of Detective Rizzoli before they ever get a chance to meet Jane.
Maura nods and sighs. The corners of her mouth dip into a small frown. She was really hopeful that Jane would have found a connection last night. Not that she really expected Jane to jump into bed with him on the first date, but she was hopeful that she could have at least stretched in out for 2 or 3 dates before she called it quits. At least give him a chance.
It was agonizing to sit by and watch the detective self-destruct time and time again.
She deserves to be happy, Maura thinks as she gazes across the table at Jane.
She deserves someone to hold her and love her; to keep her company and end the long lonely nights spent at the station to avoid going home to an empty apartment. She deserves to find someone who appreciates her the way that Maura does.
Jane catches the tiny hint of failure on her friend's face. She especially hates that it's her own fault that it's there in the first place. Maura is just trying to help her, after all. She swallows some pride as she works up the nerve to put herself out there again, even if it is only for Maura's sake. It's worth it just to see the doctor perk up and not be so disappointed in her.
"Okay…," she starts, but then has to pause to gather herself, "So maybe Tony has some other friend you've met that would be a better match for me." She works to quell the natural gagging reflex at that forced statement coming from her mouth.
Maura's head tilts in mild annoyance, "His name is Anthony," she squints her eyes at Jane, "A fact we've been over countless times before." Jane tries but fails to hide the grin that tugs at the corners of her mouth. She loves teasing her about his name, loves getting a rise out of the normally composed doctor.
She knows that's not the name he goes by, but Maura's new boyfriend is a little too slimy for Jane. He reminds her of some of the kids she grew up around; a nice Catholic Italian boy on the outside with a smattering of greasy thug on the inside. Of course, she has no proof that he is anything other than an upstanding citizen of Boston, but Jane has just as much of a hard time trusting men for Maura as she does for herself.
"We need to find you someone by Friday." Maura's face brightens, "I have reservations for four at that new bistro off of 42nd Street. I've been trying to get in there for weeks."
"Oh, great." Jane's face is anything but enthusiastic.
The doctor pulls her phone from her bag and scrolls through her lengthy list of contacts. After a few thumb flicks on the screen, she sets the phone down and Jane watches as Maura mentally runs through the rolodex of potential mates for her in her head as she absentmindedly taps her lip with her finger.
Jane cringes when Maura finally scrunches up her nose.
"What?" Jane barks.
Maura winces slightly, "It's just that I'm running out of possibilities for you. You've shot down all of the names that come to mind already."
"Yeah, well...you have terrible taste in men." Jane takes a sip of her coffee as Maura purses her lips at her. Maura's eyes narrow as she studies the detective.
"Maybe you just need to lighten up a bit and just try to have a little fun. You know, take things one step at a time instead of trying to find the perfect man for marriage and kids."
Jane narrowly avoids a full-fledged spit-take of her coffee. She wipes furiously at her lips to keep the liquid from spilling onto her shirt. "Who said I was looking for someone to marry, for Christ's sakes!" She quickly snatches up a napkin and dabs at the errant drops of coffee that have made their way to the back of her hand.
"All I'm saying is just open up your mind a little. You're very quick to find faults in people. It's a defense mechanism. You use it to avoid intimacy." She blows on her coffee and takes a sip, watching as Jane visibly squirms in her chair at her usage of the word 'intimacy'.
"You have plenty of faults, yet I put up with you on a daily basis." Jane waves a hand up and down in front of the woman across the table from her. She slumps back into her chair, and crosses her legs.
Maura lets the dig go. She's used to Jane using snarky quips in an attempt to derail conversations away from unpleasant topics, like the detective's lackluster love life.
"Yes, but we aren't sleeping with each other, are we?"
"Jesus, Maura!" Jane quickly unfurls her legs and leans across the table as her eyes dart around making sure no one heard the doctor.
Jane lets her head fall into her hands. She mumbles into them, something that closely resembles 'it's too early for this shit' before she looks back up just enough to find the doctor waiting patiently for Jane to stop over reacting.
Once she has her attention, Maura plows on, undeterred by Jane's attempt to avoid the conversation.
"There's no shame in sharing an emotionally unattached, physically stimulating evening with another consenting adult. It might help you break out of your rut." Maura states matter-of-factly.
Jane's head snaps up, her chair squeaking on the linoleum as she inches closer to the doctor in an attempt to keep the conversation as private as possible. Jesus Christ, woman.
Again, her head swivels around the café, but she's unsure if she's desperately looking for back-up to get out of this conversation, or if she's hoping that there isn't anyone within ear shot.
Or maybe she just wants to make sure no one can see the color rapidly rising up her neck.
Because the way the words 'physical' and 'stimulating' rolled off the doctor's lips keeps playing on a never-ending loop in her head.
It takes Jane a moment to refocus before she can speak intelligently.
And when she does, it's out of the side of her mouth, trying to make her voice low enough so that Maura will take the hint that this conversation shouldn't be happening in public (or at all), but instead the words come out slow, deep and raspy.
"I think the term you are looking for is a one-night stand."
The syllables hang in the air like audible sex lingering between them, and Jane can't help the tightness that forms in her chest at the uncomfortable silence that follows.
She breaks eye contact and lets her gaze fall to the table. That's when she sees it.
Sees that her chair has somehow miraculously gravitated towards the doctor during their conversation, edging its way around the perimeter of the table so that their knees are now touching. Her hand has totally betrayed her, sliding over to cover Maura's forearm on the table as she leaned in to speak, as if the doctor was somehow going to get up to leave in the middle of their conversation.
Son of a bitch.
It all makes the innocent words seem more intimate than intended, or at least than she consciously intended.
Funny thing is; none of it seems to faze the doctor.
She waves a hand dismissively, "You can call it whatever you'd like, Jane. All I'm saying is that it is perfectly normal."
What is not perfectly normal is having this conversation in the café where he mother and colleagues might overhear something. She attempts to put an end to it.
"I don't need a man, Maura. I do perfectly fine by myself." Jane leans back into her chair, taking a sip of her coffee, trying to distance herself physically from the doctor, as well as from the conversation she is fully entrenched in at the moment.
"While masturbation is a perfectly normal bodily function, Jane, I think you're forgetting about the benefits of skin-to-skin contact which can enhance-"
"Oh for the love of God would you please stop talking!" Jane's eyes squeeze shut as she pinches her brow. "That is not what I meant." She exhales as she tries to relax, every muscle in her body tense at the moment.
Maura blinks, unsure as to why Jane is so prickly this morning.
Jane exhales again, head in her hands, and Maura catches the way her shoulders slump slightly. She looks defeated, and Maura can't tell if it's just the conversation that's making her shut down or if she really is at the end of her rope when it comes to finding a man.
Maura swallows slowly as she wavers on whether or not to bring up the subject she's spent countless nights considering. Her finger nervously runs along the top of her cup.
"Maybe you should think about expanding your pool of potential mates." She tries to keep her voice calm so Jane doesn't shoot out of her chair. "You could easily double the dating pool."
The detective's eyes narrow suspiciously as she raises her head to look at the smaller woman, "What exactly are you talking about, Maura." Her voice is cautious, clipped; daring the doctor to push further.
"I just think you should keep an open mind, Jane." Maura's eyes are on her coffee, avoiding the glare coming at her from the other side of the table. "Maybe you're right. Maybe it isn't a man that you need."
Jane's mouth is open, her eyes incredulous as she stares at the doctor a moment, too shocked to answer right away. She shakes her head slightly, trying to clear her mind.
"Okay, now I know you've been drinking. What did you put in that coffee this morning?" She motions towards Maura's drink with her head. "Do I need Susie to run some tests on that, Dr. Isles?"
Maura purses her lips, "Of course not," she reaches across the table and squeezes the detective's hand, "Jane, you deserve to be with someone who appreciates you. I just want you to be happy."
Jane half-snorts, "Yeah, like Tony makes you, huh?" The detective has yet to find one redeeming feature in that man. She has no idea why a genius like Maura Isles is wasting her time with him because it seems as though they have nothing in common.
Maura's lips curl up in a mischievous grin. "Well, I'm hoping he makes me happy, if you know what I mean. I'm thinking of sealing the deal with Anthony this weekend." She squirms in her chair slightly as she drops this bomb, and Jane can't help pulling a face as thoughts of a naked Tony in Maura's bed rapidly flash in her head.
"Jesus…I did not need to know that." Jane crosses her legs and looks off to the side, too grossed out at the moment to look at the beaming doctor. Apparently it wasn't his mind that Maura was interested in after all.
Maura chuckles and slaps at the detective's arm, "Just think about it, Jane." She pushes up out of her chair. "I need to get downstairs and finish some reports. Lunch this afternoon?"
Jane exhales, relieved that the conversation is over for now. "Yeah, sounds good."
The detective's eyes dart to the clock on the wall as her stomach growls impatiently once again. Maura hasn't returned her text, and Jane's liquid breakfast of coffee can't sustain her any longer. She pushes up out of her chair and throws her blazer over her shoulders, flicking the long dark hair over her back before tugging down the sleeves.
When she gets downstairs, she finds the morgue empty. All the lab techs have already gone to lunch as Jane strides across the length of the sterile room towards the doctor's office.
She leans in, grabbing onto the doorframe as she pops her head around the slightly open office door.
"Hey, you ready for lun..." Her voice trails off and she stops speaking as soon as she notices Maura is standing beside her desk, hand clutching the office phone to her ear, finishing up a call.
She's nervously pulling at the neckline of her blouse and leaning into the desk as if it is the only thing keeping her vertical.
"I look forward to it. Yes. Thank you." Maura says uncomfortably through a forced smile.
The detective can see the normally poised Medical Examiner falter, gripping the corner of her desk as if she is trying to hold it together for just a few more seconds while the caller hangs up at the other end of the line.
Jane watches as the phone slips from the doctor's hand, dropping into the cradle with a loud thud.
Maura melts into her seat, unable to stand any longer. She sits motionless as she continues to stare at the phone. Jane quickly makes her way around the desk to Maura's chair. Her hand immediately goes to Maura's shoulder to comfort the visibly upset doctor.
"Hey...what's up? Talk to me, Maur."
Hazel eyes turn to meet hers as she lets out a shaky breath.
"That was my sister. She wants to meet me tonight."
Jane nods, "That's good, Maur. Maybe Cailin is starting to come around." Jane tries to sound hopeful. Maura's half-sister has continued to shut her out of her life, even after the kidney transplant.
Maura slowly shakes her head, clearly in shock from the phone conversation. "No, not Cailin." She swallows before she can continue. She points at the phone as she tries to get her brain to form the words.
Jane quirks her head, confused.
"That…that was Anna on the phone. Jane...I…I have a twin sister."