A/N Just a little Rizzles Story that I couldn't help writing. I have a specific direction I'm going with this and it may get a little grim... Let me know what you think.
Tempting Fate
Chapter 1
Jane took another bite of the now lukewarm lasagne. Every forkful made her feel more and more nauseous – the butterflies in her stomach were becoming heavier. She could almost imagine the cheesy sauce clogging tiny wings, making their fluttering sluggish and strained. The cutlery felt cold in her sweaty hands and anticipation tickled at the back of her neck like a lover's breath. Her world was about to shatter into a million tiny rainbow coloured pieces.
Unable to force down another morsel of Angela Rizzoli's home-cooked (or more accurately café-cooked) meal, she placed the knife and fork down on the plate and let her eyes wander around the deserted Division café.
It was after closing time on Friday afternoon. One of the perks of having their mother work there meant that her and Frankie could sometimes sneak a meal in after hours. Especially on a Friday when Stanley hoofed out of there early - keen to get home to his stamp collection or model airplanes or something equally less like a life.
"Janie, you've hardly touched your lasagne. Is everything alright?" Her mother queried as she came out of the kitchen, a cloth in one hand and some kind of spray cleaner in the other.
She busied herself cleaning the tables as her daughter looked up thoughtfully. "I'm okay Ma, just not so hungry at the moment"
"Ha, then I definitely know that something is up, you not hungry." She challenged. "This is your mother you're speaking to. I had to consider buying milk from the hospital breast milk bank when you were a baby because you were draining me dry!"
"MA!" Jane turned in her chair so quickly that she unbalanced the cold cup of black coffee that had accompanied her meal, it tipped unceremoniously into her waiting lap. She jumped up knocking her chair back, it clattered to the floor heavily with a resounding crack. "Shit!" she cursed, trying unsuccessfully to mop up the coffee with a handful of napkins. She pulled her phone from her belt and, using her shirt, attempted to stop the liquid seeping into it. The detective was so aggressive with her ministrations that she managed to fling the phone a couple of feet across the café and into the wall.
"Could this get any damn worse!" she growled as she hurried to check on the health of her phone. "Damn it!" the screen was cracked. "Great. Just. Great!" At that moment it beeped signalling a text. She just about made out Maura's name and the gist of text being that something had changed and that she would call, but mostly the text was unreadable.
She assumed it was to do with the flight details. She brought an unconscious hand to twist in her hair. Getting the text from Maura reminded the Detective why she was so jumpy.
"So are you going to tell me or do I need to hug it out of you?" Jane startled a little. She had forgotten that her mother was there. Her feisty brown eyes met a matching warm pair. Angela looked decidedly amused, and she was, not least because of her physical affection joke, but also to see her ordinarily well composed daughter so clumsy and frazzled.
Jane sighed.
"Well I suppose I need to talk to someone about it before I go putting a bullet in my foot!" She chuckled in spite of herself, a little less anxious now that she had made the uncharacteristic decision to share with her mother.
"Let me get us both some fresh coffee" Angela said excitedly.
Jane nodded.
A moment later they were both seated at opposite sides of one of the smaller tables. The Rizzoli Matriarch was giddy with suppressed excitement. She remained silent and tried not to bounce in her seat eagerly, lest she alarmed Jane into changing her mind.
Jane took a deep breath. Sure she was making the right decision to confide in her mother, she began to recount the incident that had her so flustered…
Two weeks previously
Jane sat across from Maura at a small wooden table. She looked on with affection as the honey blonde took great precision in preparing her tea. It was rather impressive to watch – anything that Maura did was impressive to watch her subconscious mind told her. Jane was sure she would have spilled at least half of the tea had it been her.
They were in one of the smaller coffee shops at Logan Airport. The M.E. was heading out to go to a medical conference. Her flight was due to leave in an hour and she had asked the Detective to grab a drink with her before she went through to the gate.
They sat in companionable silence, though Maura kept glancing surreptitiously towards her dark haired friend. Jane didn't need her detective gut to tell her that Maura was struggling to find the words to say something profound.
"I've been thinking a lot about Officer Curtis." Maura began.
"Er…okaaay." Jane drawled. Not sure where this was going.
"There's something important I need to say to you Jane. And I need you to just listen so I can say it before I talk myself out of it. Okay?" Hazel eyes looked up uncertainly.
"Sure Maur, you know you can tell me anything!" Jane sat a little straighter and the fingers of her left hand found their way into her unruly dark curls.
"Remember when Officer Curtis was shot and we were trying to stop the bleeding?"
Jane nodded.
Doug Curtis was about three years from retirement when he had interrupted a gang fight on the wrong side of town. The two of them were first to respond to 'Officer down'. Jane had been driving them back to Headquarters from another crime scene and they had happened to be a block away when the call came through. As soon as she pulled the car to a stop, the doctor had rushed to provide medical assistance.
It had needed two pairs of hands to even come close to stemming the flow of blood from his fragile body. They succeeded in keeping him alive until the ambulance arrived. But he had died later that day in hospital.
Jane saw the sadness in her friend's eyes as she thought back to that day.
"He kept saying 'I never got to take her out!' and then he asked you to get that picture from his wallet… and I thought it was going to be a picture of a woman, some unrequited love interest…but it was a picture of a 1958 Ford Fairlane."
"A-huh" Jane was still trying to predict where Maura was going with this.
"Korsak told me later that he'd bought the car after his wife died, he'd spent years fixing it up. And when it was finished he couldn't bear to take it out in case it got scratched or dinged or something. So he just polished it every weekend in his garage and he didn't get round to driving that beautiful machine." She sipped at her tea. "I just think it's so sad, he loved that car and he let his fear stop him from getting the chance to enjoy it fully."
"Hmmm" Jane acknowledged taking a mouthful of her latte.
Maura looked up uncertain. "Well Jane, you…you are my Ford Fairlane!"
"What?!" Jane spluttered through her coffee.
"Err…what I mean is, my… er…feelings for you are, my feelings for you are like Curtis's car…" The medical examiner blushed "Er…this sounded a lot better in my head!"
"Maur, I'm not really following you"
"There's this thing between us Jane, the way we are with each other, I think it's more than just friendship..."
She sighed " What I'm saying, is, I'm attracted to you…"
"Maur."
"Let me finish!"
Jane held up her hands in mock surrender, her eyes not quite hiding amusement at the unusual firmness to Maura's tone. The honey blonde continued.
"My feelings for you are more than platonic, I'm attracted to you, I… want more from our relationship" She continued shyly, " I want to take you out on a date, I want to kiss you, I want…" to love you. "I just want more… and I didn't want to waste another minute not knowing if you could feel the same." She took a shaky breath. " But Jane, your friendship means more to me than anything and I don't want to lose that. I can get over the other feelings and keep your friendship if that's all you can give me"
She saw Jane leaning forward and held up a hand to silence the Detective.
The honey blonde took a deep breath not meeting eyes with the dark haired cop. "I have a proposition for you…"
The next words gave her confidence, she had thought a lot about this part. "As you know I'm going to Seattle for two weeks, I'll be back next Friday. If you are interested in participating in a romantic relationship with me, then pick me up at the airport. If you don't come to get me then I will know that you just want to be friends and I will make my own way home. I'll see you at work on Monday and we can pretend that this conversation never happened. Things can be the same as they have always been, no harm no fool!"
"Foul!" Jane interjected almost inaudibly.
"Pardon?" Maura queried.
"You mean no harm no foul…never mind!" Jane shook her head as if to clear it.
"So, there it is, I said it!" Maura said feeling a sudden lightness now that she had confessed her desire. She dared to look up to see how Jane had taken her revelation. The brunette was unreadable, an expert in hiding her feelings when she wanted to. The doctor wasn't sure if her closed expression was a good sign or not.
"I have to go now Jane" She drained her teacup and stood, "please consider everything I have said carefully and whatever you decide, know that having you in my life in any capacity is a treasure to me"
On impulse Maura leaned in and placed a chaste kiss to Jane's lips. "I'll see you when I get back!"
Jane nodded in shock. Speechless from the conversation as a whole, and rendered immobile by the fact that her gorgeous, genius, best friend had just kissed her. She touched her fingers to her lips as she watched the retreating back of the woman who had just tipped her whole world upside down.
She sat at the table in shock for over an hour after the Medical Examiner had left.
"So what are you going to do Janie?" Angela asked, secretly pleased that one of her girls had dared to suggest taking their relationship to the obvious next step.
Feeling like a giddy teenager, Jane smiled a goofy smile and pulled a homemade cardboard sign from a bag she had left by the counter. Angela recognised her daughters' familiar scrawl 'DR MAURA ISLES'. They both chuckled.
"I'm so happy for you!... Maura is a sweet, kind woman, and a doctor what more could a mother ask for?" She enveloped Jane into a big hug that the detective immediately tried to disentangle herself from.
A sudden burst of music interrupted the exchange. Angela went behind the counter to answer her cell phone.
"Ahuh…yes she's here Vince, just a moment…Jane it's Detective Korsak!" She placed the phone into the waiting hand.
"Korsak?"
'I tried to get you on your phone'
"Agghh…I think it must be broken, it's taken some abuse tonight, what's up?"
'Jane I'm sending Frankie to come and pick you up… you need to get here right now'
Jane felt sudden panic rising in her chest at his tone.
"Korsak. What are you talking about? Where are you? Why does Frankie need to pick me up?"
"Jane, trust me okay, I'll explain when you get here!" The older detective sounded very strange.
"But… " What could have him so troubled? "Is it, is it Hoyt?!"
'No it's not, just get here Jane!'
"Wait… where is 'here'?"
The growing panic in her chest exploded when Korsak gave her the address, as familiar to her as her own. The home of Dr Maura Isles - Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She didn't remember ending the call or handing the phone back to its shocked owner.
She burst out of the café in a full sprint.
So there it is, let me know what you think...