Chapter One
"You have nobody to blame but yourself, Detective." Dr Maura Isles spoke candidly, as she always did, whilst she walked alongside her friend, Detective Jane Rizzoli. The darker of the two brooded as she sulked beside her.
"Maura," Jane whined, her hand raking through her wild hair as she battled with the breeze to keep it under control. "It's not fair."
"It is harsh," Maura agreed, "However, since you threw the first punch, you can hardly complain. You'll just have to chew it up."
Jane rolled her eyes. "Suck."
"Pardon?" Dr Isles stopped dead in her tracks. A brief image of the detective naked and demanding pulsed through her mind, and elsewhere. It wasn't the first time such an image had prevailed, and she did her best not to blush when the Detective fixed her chocolate, melted and dripping in sex, eyes on her a moment later.
"Its 'suck it up' Maur, not chew it up." Jane offered with a grin. Maura Isles was the most intelligent woman she knew and yet, she was such a dork, and Jane loved it really, even if she did like to pretend otherwise. Jane loved many things about Maura. A lot of them she tried not to think about.
"Oh, well do that too then." They reached the bank of elevators. "I'll see you for lunch maybe?"
"Sure," Rizzoli sighed, her shoulders sagging in an overexaggerated manner, one final attempt to get some sympathy from her best friend that went ignored.
~R&I~
Detective Jane Rizzoli stood stoically in full uniform, her punishment for punching Crowe square on the nose. The lieutenant had given her the opportunity to explain her actions and reasoning, prepared to write it off if Darren Crowe had been an ass as usual, but for whatever reason, Rizzoli took the Fifth. He had no option then but to reprimand her. One month back in uniform, pounding the beat.
She had complained and cajoled, tried every trick in the book to get out of it, and once more Cavanaugh asked for her version of events. Again she refused to explain, so here she was, out on the streets of Boston with a rookie cop for company.
"Bates, I need coffee."
"Yes, sir, I mean, ma'am, Detective," he stuttered. Detective Jane Rizzoli was a hero within the ranks. Officer Bates was unsure if this was a punishment or his lucky day.
"Oh for God's sake. There, that looks like as good a place as any." Rizzoli lengthened her stride and made her way towards 'Joe's Cup O'Joe'. It was a new place, somewhere hip and chic, somewhere Maura would like, she thought to herself. The thought made her smile as she sauntered inside and up to the counter.
The blonde with the pink tips to her hair made her way over, smiling and appraising the newest and quite frankly, hottest, officer on her beat.
"Hey, black coffee for me and something frou frou for my partner here," Jane said, thumbing over her shoulder at Bates as he caught up with her.
The barista seemed to pause, her eyes firmly on the detective. Jane considered whether there was some remnant of doughnut on her mouth and subconsciously wiped her face.
"I haven't seen you in here before, you new?" she asked, the lingering look continuing as she poured a double shot of espresso into a takeaway cup.
"Uh, no," Rizzoli replied, a little offended that anyone would consider her a newbie. "I'm actually…" she was about to say that she was a detective, but then she considered just how lame it would be to have to explain why she was in uniform, and that just wasn't a topic she was prepared to discuss. Instead, she took off her hat and placed it under her left arm and took the proffered drink. "Just working this beat for a few weeks. Officer Rizzoli, and this is Officer Bates." She thumbed at her partner over her shoulder again, and then paid for the drinks.
"Trish. See you around, officer!" the barista called as the door was about to close behind her.
~R&I~
As the day wore on Jane became increasingly bored. Wandering the streets of south Boston, she was beginning to tire of the entire thing when a call came over the radio. An argument had broken out at Joe's Cup O'Joe.
"Yeah, 825 responding." She groaned as she checked her watch. It was just a half hour of her shift left before they could take lunch. "Come on Bates, I want this dealt with in 15 minutes, you got it?"
"Got it." He rushed off ahead, leaving Jane to roll her eyes at his disappearing back.
~R&I~
Arriving back at the coffee shop, Jane found the barista from earlier standing over a woman. She sat with her back to them all, her face resting in her hands and elbows on her knees. They were arguing between them back and forth – fingers pointing and faces nose to nose.
"Alright, calm down, both of you!" Rizzoli hollered. Both women stopped their shenanigans immediately and gave her their full attention. Bates watched as the darker-haired barista gave the detective the once over – twice.
"Apparently, this woman and the barista got into it because there was an accusation of…"
"For God's sake Bates, just cut to the chase, I have dinner plans."
"Fine, Pinkie said that the blonde stole a cookie from the side there." He pointed at the bowl of wrapped chocolate chip cookies.
"Pinkie?" sneered the barista at Bates. "The name's Trish."
"Right," Rizzoli answered before she turned to face the accused. "Did you?"
"I did not!" The offended look that crossed her face was almost comical, but this was exactly the kind of thing Rizzoli knew she would hate about being back on the beat: pounding the streets and dealing with crap like this while murderers were hunting their prey. She huffed and reached for her cuffs. "Officer, there is no need to arrest me." She continued to look mortified. The blush that had covered her cheeks was now much more evident. "Can't you just look through my bag, that will prove I didn't take anything."
Before Rizzoli had the chance to speak, the barista piped up. "She put it in her pocket." Jane checked her watch. She was going to miss lunch with Maura.
"Right, stand up and put your hands against the counter, feet spread." There was a small smile now on the woman's face. And Bates was pretty sure he saw her wink at the barista. Jane placed her hands on the woman's shoulders and proceeded with the pat down. "Frisking suspects for cookies," she mumbled to herself. With no evidence of a crime, she instructed Bates to take down the woman's details.
"I am sorry, Officer. I thought she had taken them." The barista seemed contrite enough.
"Yeah well, these things happen." Rizzoli shrugged. "Can I grab another coffee? Might as well get lunch."
~R&I~
Maura Isles opened the door of her Beacon Hill home to find Jane Rizzoli sitting on her couch, still in uniform, drinking beer with her feet up on the coffee table as though she lived there. Which, she might as well do. Since being given a spare key some years back, there were very few times that Jane actually went home. The week of her period and anytime Maura had a date seemed to cover the extent of Jane not using the guest room, or as was the case just as often, Maura's bed. They liked to sit together and unwind, talk about the case or the day in general and inevitably, they would fall asleep. She had lost count of the number of times she had awoken in the arms of one Detective Jane Rizzoli. She found comfort in it at first, but now…now it was more an arousal that she didn't know what to do with, and so she had pushed it down and ignored it, refusing to even think about it.
"Hey Maur, sorry I missed lunch, wanna get dinner?"
"Sure. How was your first day?" she inquired as she removed her coat and hung it on a hook. She noticed Jane's boots left where she had obviously kicked them off and she moved them, tidily placing them together on the shoe rack, where they belonged. She thought about that, Jane belonging here. A smile appeared in an instant.
"I spent all day dealing with crap," Jane called out.
She smiled at the weary Detective. "What nonsense did you have to deal with?"
Jane rubbed her face and took a last swig of her beer. "Would you believe cookie theft!? Twice Bates and I were called to that new coffee place. Twice, Maura!" she stood and moved towards the kitchen, flinging the empty bottle into the recycling. As she grabbed the refrigerator door she added, "That barista? She's got issues. You wanna beer?"
"No, water please. I need to hydrate after a busy afternoon. Three bodies I've not ruled out homicide on yet." Isles prepared herself for the potential rant that would come from Jane, and she wasn't disappointed. She smiled to herself as she realised just how well she knew and understood her companion.
"Aww man, see…this, this is what I knew would happen," Jane said, using the bottle to point at Maura. "Three potential homicides and I am frisking women for stolen cookies!"
"Frisking?" Maura asked, her interest piqued just a little more than it was when it was just nonsense that Jane was complaining about.
"Yeah, twice Maur… I told you, that barista has issues. Keeps accusing women of stealing cookies, they get into it and we get called down to assist."
"Well, I guess there could be worse things, Jane." Maura blushed as she considered the detective patting her down in search of mysteriously disappearing cookies.