Gift
I checked my express, a book named 'Global Chelonian Species', and got immediately who sent me this. The giant turtle on the cover would mean enough though.
…Had our genius ME just ordered a sense of humor from amazon?
Or a sense of sarcasm.
As a message from Maura said that she got something about our victim, with the book under my arm, I took the elevator downstairs to her.
She was right there, bending her body behind the table, hands digging in the dead body, elegant and exquisite as usual. Hearing my steps, she straightened up and put on a genuine smile.
"Oh, you've got my gift for you." said she in a happy voice, seeing the book.
I could not help rolling my eyes, "What is this? I hope you're gonna tell me you've found our unsub is a turtle."
"No, actually the DNA test I have just got tells that the killer is of homo sapiens." she smirked, "I bought you this book so you can have a relatively complete knowledge of Chelonia, at least the differences between tortoises and turtles."
"You really think I will read this… brick? I'd rather give it to Bass so he can look for some pictures of female turtles of his kind and use it as a porn maybe."
She pouted a little at my sarcasm and gave me a dirty look.
However, speaking of gift…this Saturday happened to be her birthday. August 7, the same day on which the founder of Wikipedia was born and Tagore passed away, the day on which my walking encyclopedia was born and all jokes in the world passed away.
"The DNA sample doesn't match with anyone in our database. However, I found the unsub is a sufferer from Klinefelter Syndrome."
"That is…?"
"It's also known as XXY Syndrome, which means the patients are male but have an extra X chromosome in their gene, resulting in smaller or no testicles, mammary development and no sperm."
"That may be easy to distinguish. Good, I'll ask Frost to search the databases of hospitals." I was quite excited at Maura's finding. She was no longer annoyed at my attitude to the turtle book and smiled at me again.
"So what do you want for your birthday? " I stopped and asked before walking out of the door to get back upstairs.
She raised a brow, trying to look serious but turned out to be rather adorable, "You stop calling Bass a turtle."
"Only if you stop calling the blood we find in the crime scene 'reddish-brown stain'. "
"That's unfair…I'm being precise…"she mumbled while getting back to the autopsy. My lips curved a little at the scene.
When I got in the café looking for something to fill in my growling stomach, I saw my Ma holding a big bunch of red roses in her hands.
"Wow, who did you get that from? You dating a florist?" I set my butt on a chair, "And can I have a sandwich without pollen on it," I darted at the flowers, really fresh ones, "and a cup of espresso, please, Ma?"
"Shut up, you." Ma put the roses on the counter and turned back to make the sandwich for me, "It's not mine. The card says it's from Mart to Maura, and you can take it to her after you finish your food."
"You read the card again?"
"Even Maura herself doesn't mind. So why are you yelling at me?"
I could never reason with my Ma, let alone my thought had flew to the Mart guy, a man having been dating Maura for a few months. It seemed their relationship was going on a steady way. The guy was full of romantic ideas to suck up girls, and that really worked. He came to join us for dinners sometimes at Dirty Robber and the family thought him not bad. Being rich and humorous and generous, it was quite easy for him to be welcomed.
Nevertheless I felt a little uncomfortable now and then, seeing Maura having fun with Mart. I told Ma that it was a small-beer feeling of losing part of the best-friend thing when she asked me, 'cause we couldn't spend as much time as the 'BM' (before Mart) period with just two of us. Besides, sometimes I sensed Mart had a little hostility when he looked at me. I didn't know why since I thought I always act properly in front of that man. Maybe it was me being so exhausted in work that my detective instinct got oversensitive. Hope so.
But it's a normal thing that friendship faded a bit after one getting in relationships. It's normal, I suppose. All I wanted is her being happy and blissful. The smiles on her pretty face could light up my darkest night, and that was something I would never tell my best nerd friend.
Maybe.
"Here, your sandwich and coffee." Ma dropped a plate in front of me, and then dropped herself on the chair across from me, too, still looking unhappy.
"OK, I'm sorry, ok, Ma? You've got the right to read whatever you want to read and I won't judge any more." after taking a bite of my sandwich, I burbled in a low volume, "I won't say a word even if you read a porno in front of me next time."
"Hey! Don't you think I can't hear that!" she glowered at me. I pretended to be deaf.
"Ma, what do you suggest me to get for Maura's birthday?" Changing the topic was just what I needed to do. And I did need some suggestions, unless…
"Oh, how about a surprise party at her house or the Robber?" Ma got quite active on that topic, coming up with an idea that I could totally guess with my toes.
"I'd rather you to make her a no-organic sandwich like this for birthday present than that."
"It's only you who doesn't like surprises! Maura will absolutely like a surprise party!" She shoot me another dirty look before getting up and back to the counter.
By now I still didn't have a good idea of the birthday gift. It seemed she didn't lack anything.
And I was not able to set free her mobster-boss natural father. Let alone persuading him to be a good man. A good father.
Thus I decided to put it away temporarily and fix on the case first. I grabbed the rest of my lunch and got back to the bullpen.
"There is no medical record that fits our unsub." Frost frowned behind his desktop. Maura was sitting in my chair and turned into thinking hearing that, me laying against my table next to her.
Hit another dead end again. I've got such a headache in that, "Maura said the unsub has K…Kannolli Syndrome? " I really could not recall the term.
Frost and Korsak both tittered.
"Klinefelter Syndrome." The doctor corrected me with a serious face.
"Whatever. Thus he got no balls but boobs." I ignored the boys' louder titter, "Who's gonna get us a warrant for searching for boobs on guys?"
Guys burst into laughter and Maura gave a light pinch on my forearm.
"Given that no search for boobs, could you give us a hint of external appearance of that Kangaroo Syndrome, doc?" I turned to Maura.
"Klinefelter." She pouted at me, triggering the adoring feeling inside me again, "Men with this disease mostly behave in a gynecogenic way."
"…a what way?"
"A girly or womanish way, in common words."
"OK. Ask the relatives and friends of the victim and see if there is a girly guy around him. And thank you doc, for your help in the K…Korsakfroster Syndrome."
"Hey!" my two partner yelled at me.
The doctor corrected me tirelessly like I thought, "Klinefelter."
I wandered in the street, wishing I could find something good enough for Maura's birthday during my dinner hunting. And I just ran into Mart accidentally, parking in front of a jewelry store.
"Hi, Jane." greeted he.
"Hi, Mart. What are you doing here?"
He smirked, "Well, it's Maura's birthday the day after tomorrow, so I come to get something for her. You? Same goal?"
"Yes…I mean no. I've just finish some inquiry work and been looking for something to eat." I really didn't like the twinkle of elation showing in his eyes. It looked like he felt himself somebody superior to me or something. I didn't know why he had this look.
"Do you have a few minute to help me choose something nice for Maura? " he asked in apparently mock sincerity, which was so easy for me to tell, "You'd been her best friend after all."
I'd been? What the hell is that?
"I still am." I frowned a little, "And I'm glad to help."
I followed that guy into the jewelry store. He asked the shop assistant to show us some bling, which were of quite high prices. I knew the guy was rich. I just didn't get why he was showing off to me. Was he trying to seduce me or thinking I would drool over his wealth? Bad try, anyway.
"You are jealous of me, aren't you?" he suddenly said, in a low voice, while the assistant was off for some necklaces.
"What? What do you mean?" I was totally confused. Me? Jealous of him? For what?
"Don't fake it." he threw a sharp and arrogant look at me, "Don't you think I didn't notice when you stared at me making out with Maura, you little poor fish. Are you imagining taking place of me when you see me kissing her? You may keep doing that 'cause you'll never get her. I'm gonna propose and marry her! And you will only become some outsider who doesn't matter at all!"
He got louder and louder, with fury lit up on his face, and I started to know what he meant. He thought I was into Maura.
Which was right, though.
But I wasn't putting a hand in their relationship as long as Maura was happy with it.
Even though at that moment I thought the jerk howling at me really didn't deserve a girl so good as my Maura.
God…was there really no one I could feel reassured enough that could take care of her and protect her 100-percent well?
Maybe there was.
I. Myself.
Of course I would be extremely reassured if I was the one who was going to stand next to her for good. Though I could not see through any guy, I could definitely be sure that I would never do anything bad to her.
"Can't talk, huh?" Mart seemed to feel quite good yelling at me, and he might thought he had successfully broken my heart rather than got me clearer at my heart. "Yeah, just enjoy the last days when she still hasn't seen your dirty thought."
Really? A genius like the doctor would have not seen through my 'dirty thought'?
I did doubt it.
The way she looked at me across a crowd of people.
The warmth sent to me when she sat with me on one booth shoulder by shoulder.
The smiles, oh yeah the beautiful smiles.
I couldn't help but curving the corners of my lips.
"Why do I feel it's you being jealous of me?"
"Take your shit back." He ground his teeth, however I believed he didn't have gut to fight a detective.
"Are you jealous of the way we look at each other or she always searches for me first while entering a room instead of you? "
The guy's face turned green at my words. "Bullshit. We'll see soon." He was full of hostility when he strode out of the store without paying for anything.
The store assistant came back from the storeroom and started to look for the 'gentleman' who asked her for the necklaces curiously.
"He's gone." I said, shoving my hands in my pockets, a smile on my face, "But I would like you to get me something else."
"The sister of our victim claimed that one of our victim's ex-boyfriends matches the profile of the unsub. We put out a bolo and the Philadelphia Police District has got him. We are heading to Philadelphia." Frost said to me.
"OK, when?"
"A few hours later. Midnight flight at 12 o' clock."
"What? But it's Maur's birthday tomorrow!" I widened my eyes at that. The more important thing was that I didn't know how I should give the little velvet box in my pocket to her if I was far in Philadelphia. It had been lying in my pocket for over 24 hours, even I had changed my outfit this morning.
"I know, but Cavanaugh told us to start off as soon as possible." He felt sorry for that, too, as I could tell. "If things go well, we can get back before the surprise party your mother is going to hold for her tomorrow night."
"Again…WHAT?! She still has not change that horrible horrible plan?!"
He smirked, while Korsak got his eyes up from the files. "I can take your gifts to her if you two aren't sure you can come back in time."
"No…nonono…thanks." My hand touched the small box in my pocket again. That was the very gift you could not ask others to take for you.
"OK. Do you want to go home and pack?"
"Yes…no. I still have some paper files to finish before leaving. And maybe we can make it to get back tomorrow. If that, no need of package." Nice, a good wish, Jane.
My partners exchanged a look and got back to their work. I sat there, while my mind ghosted downstairs to the morgue.
What can I say to her? I always suck at this emotion things!
And what if I was wrong? What if she does think me as a 'best friend' only? Hallucination of that kind of things can completely be a disaster!
Holy shit!
I rocked my head against my desk.
"Err…Jane, you okay?"
"…Do I look okay?"
"Oh…kay…"
9.30pm. Time to leave. By the time Frost and I settled ourselves in the cruiser, the little box was still where it had been.
"You've been acting weird, partner." Frost arched his brows, stopping at a traffic light.
"Maybe I'll be this weird for the rest of my life." I replied in a depressed mood.
"What's it? You can tell my anything at any time."
"…Do you like Mart?"
"You're into him?"
"No! No absolutely no! What the hell are you thinking!"
"Well…"he chuckled, "He's not bad, but a little out of our type."
"Do you think it good if Maura marries this guy?"
"I respect the doctor's own choices."
"You are not answering my question, boy."
"Um…I think it's better if she marries you."
"WHAT?"
He let out a genuine laughter, "Don't freak out, but we all think you two are a perfect match. It even feels a little weird when you are not mad or jealous when she dates others."
"You all? Who are this 'all'?"
"Me…Korsak, Frankie…"
" Frankie? I'll kill him when back…but first could you drive me to Maura's?"
My understanding partner giggled loud, "Wow, here goes our badass Detective Rizzoli!" I sent back a smile, however my heartbeat got faster and faster and faster as the distance to Maura's house shortened.
"Jane?" She opened the door, in a claret silk night gown, hair still dripping. "Aren't you supposed to be in the airport now? Why are you here?"
It was so hard to open my mouth and say what I should to say out. Especially when she looked dizzyingly beautiful in front of me, with curious questioning eyes staring into my eyes.
The worse was that my Ma heard the sounds we made and came out of the guesthouse, too.
"Janie? I thought you were leaving for Philadelphia when you texted me…"
"I am still heading there, Ma, but I have a must to do before that." I was answering my Ma, yet my eyes fixed on Maura's.
"I…I thought maybe we can't get back tomorrow so I have to hand my present to you in advance, which means, now." I continued with a gradually steadier voice and more and more rapid speed, "YoumayhavealookatitafterIleaveanddoremembertocallmethenpleasepleasepleaseandbyeandgoodnightMaur."God I could not breathe…
I grabbed the little black velvet box and tucked it into her hand in a blink of an eye and turned back to grab Frost's elbow and threw out a 'Bye Ma' and dragged him into the cruiser and pulled away with incredibly fast motions.
As I recalled, Maura seemed to turn into rock during my speech. And Ma's mouth was gapped like it could be stuck into with a bowling.
God…I was even not sure she had caught up on my blurting out…
I took a look at my partner on the co-driver, who was laughing like a nut with his shoulders shaking severely.
"I've never seen you nervous like this." Frost giggled, with his eyes still full of tears from the laughter.
"Congrats that you may also have a chance to see my more heartbroken than ever in two days." I rolled my eyes to the back of my head.
How will she react at seeing that? Will she slap me in my face when I get back? Will she never want to see me any more? I was so afraid and anxious and desperate…It was like waiting to be sentenced, naked.
I hadn't got any calls or texts from Maura for the last two days. Even after I sent her a 'happy birthday' text to her on her birthday. I thought she must be extremely mad at me and disappointed with me. The confidence I had when I faced Mart had all leaked out now. Everything turned unsure and worse and worse with time passing by. I even had the idea of never getting back to receive my 'death warrant' if it was not Frost keeping reassuring me.
The guy caught by PPD was not the killer, but he had confessed something useful about the right guy we were looking for. And we had to continue on that case back to Boston.
Of course I would finally be back to meet Maura, no matter what bad things she would throw on my face.
"You look like a mess, sis." Frankie saw me at the hall of BPD, shock in his voice, "How could you seem at least five pounds less than when you left, in two days? Wow…look at the dark circles under your eyes…did you get a drug problem in Philadelphia?"
"Do you want to lose a couple of digits?" I threw an evil stare at him. I hadn't even gone home to take a bath and change the clothes I had been wearing for three days—not taking a package with me was thoroughly a bad idea. I felt myself stink somehow. But I could not wait to meet Maura at work though I still felt giant panic when I thought about that.
"Hey, Jane, don't panic. Things are going quite well, as you wish." My brother patted me on my shoulder.
"What do you know?" I looked at him suspiciously.
"Just go and see." He gave me a kind smile and left.
To be honest, I got a little less anxious on Frankie's words.
While I was preparing to get into the elevator, I got stopped by a voice behind me.
"Jane! Jane Clementine Rizzoli! What have you done!"
I turned back unwillingly and saw my Ma, who looked at me like she was going to bite me.
"Ma…"
"What you have done is exactly irresponsible! You know how I freaked out when I saw what was in the box you gave to Maura?! You…"
"You checked her birthday gifts, again?"
"She opened it right away after you left!"
"Oh…what did she say? Was she cross with me?"
"She got tears in her eyes!"
"What?! No!...Is she that mad?"
"Mad? Oh God, what a jerk you are…I won't tell. I think you should find out by yourself. And I do urge you to give her a good apology." Ma glazed over at me.
"I will…"Since the measly hope Frankie had given to me got swept by her…
"You should have told me that you had a feeling for her. You know I'm not a judging mother! And I want my kids to be honest with me! Otherwise I wouldn't have given Mart that much support."
"For what?"
"For pursuing Maura you idiot! It's fortunate that they haven't married or my daughter would have been a home wrecker!"
"Ma…save some sarcasm on me, could you please? You've seen how bad I've got. And if you want to help, then tell me how Maura has dealt with Mart, OK?"
"What do you think she would have done! Go home and bath yourself after seeing Maura! I don't want a stinking daughter!" She left for the café angrily. I sighed heavily. My own Ma did nothing but bit her daughter's bloody head off. Thanks a lot.
I took the elevator downstairs. When the doors of the elevator opened, I saw the ME through the blinds opened to the elevator directly.
She looked a lot less angry than I thought, scooping some yogurt thing into her mouth behind the laptop.
I took a few deep breaths and just one second before I pushed in, I saw something glistening on her left hand, the third finger.
My heart finally landed into my chest. It had been hung in my throat for almost three days, blocking my every breath.
I pushed into the morgue, meeting her eyes, and witnessed a flash of surprise and happiness in them.
"Hey, doc." I said, unable to remove my eyes on her gorgeous face.
"Hey." She replied, a sly tone in her voice, "You looked like a mess."
"I deserve that." I could not help the smile, "Well…the glass I bought looks good on your finger."
"Oh, is it glass? But it looks like rea…oh. You are messing with me again." She rolled her eyes at me, and I chuckled a little.
I bent over her table, took her hands in mine, and tugged her up to round the table towards me. She followed my lead meekly, and leaned against the desk with my body inches from hers.
Jesus, her scent was getting me intoxicated.
"Why didn't you call me?" I asked in a low voice, leaning my forehead against hers.
She feigned annoyance at me, "After that? Really? Don't you think at least I needed to teach you a lesson, letting you know that a proposal to someone doesn't means buying a ring and throwing it on her face and running off?"
I faked surprise with an involuntary smile, "Really? Wow, that's far beyond my sense…Anyway, you could punish my more after that, to be honest."
"I planned to refuse you, but this 'glass' wouldn't come off my finger after my…accidentally…trying it on."
"Hey, doc, watch your hives." I chuckled.
"I'm not lying. It did stuck a bit, so I did a little adjustment on it. Now it fits." She smirked. And I really wanted to kiss her. The moments when her lip corners curl are always the moments when I want to kiss her. And it seemed that I no more needed to hold the impulse back.
I leaned forward and claimed her soft lips. It was a brief kiss, but it felt way better than all the kisses I had had in my last years. This woman is the very one I've been longing for for countless days and nights. The love for her was buried so deep inside me that I almost felt the kiss surreal. We shared our breaths and I heard my heart nearly pounding out of my ribcage. It was a dream from which I would never want to get awake.
"Dr. Isles, the test you asked me to…OH! I didn't see anything and good to see you Detective Rizzoli!" Susie Chang showed up and rushed off like a tornado. However our first kiss had been interrupted after all.
"You tastes like heaven…and yogurt." I let go my hand on her waist and arched one brow at her, "Please do tell me you didn't take that yogurt out of your corpse fridge."
"If I told you that, it would be a lie." She smiled as our fingers intertwined.
"Oh…After you eating the food stored in the corpse fridge, I have to say I may have an illusion of kissing a zombie." I joked, my hand stroking her silky blonde locks. It was wonderful to have her in my hands.
She elbowed me on my side lightly and raised an eyebrow, "This is how you treat your girlfriend?"
"No, doctor." I held her left hand to my lips and sealed a hard kiss on it, "This is how I treat my fiancé."
Her face lit up on that word for a second and then got a bit confused, "No dates? We are going directly to the fiancé step? Wouldn't it be a little too fast?"
"Come on! We almost date every day! Seven days a week, twelve months a year, just with a bit lack of intimate contact…for which we can make up in the future time. Huh? You think?" I tugged on her hips to me and hugged her tightly in my arms. Her body fit my embrace perfectly. As Frost said, we are a perfect match.
"That sounds reasonable." I could hear her snickering by my ear side, jaw on my shoulder. She pulled off a little, and said in a flirting tone, "So…would you like to have another zombie kiss?"
I scooted near her, our nose tips touching, "Cannot wait to. I think zombies are gonna be added to the list of illicit drugs soon. Mmmmh…"
I leaned forward to kiss her, but at that very moment my phone rang.
And so did hers in a few second.
"Oh…Kay…let's save it until getting back home." I left a peck on her plump pink lips, "And I really need a shower. Even who gave birth to me said I'm smelly. I'm sorry for having you share my stinky kisses, in exchange of the zombie kisses."
"Ok, fiancé." She shook her head and beamed at me, then picked up her phone.
"Oh, and I do miss your turtle." I added before answering the duty call.
"Tortoise." My fiancé threw me a familiar glance as the ones when she always corrected me.
Sweet. I picked up my cell.
"Rizzoli."
"Isles."
-The End-
A/N：Thank you for reading. This is my first fiction and before this I've never done a fiction in English. So if there're any linguistic bugs please forgive me and I'll try to do better in the next. Share your opinions in reviews with me.