Disclaimer: these characters are not mine. They belong to Tess Gerritsen, Janet Tamaro and other assorted people at TNT.
I Married A Hero
The first day Detective Jane Rizzoli rejoined her squad the whole precinct threw her a party. She entered the precinct through the front door only to find all of the uniforms lined up to applaud her entry. Snapping to attention each and every uniformed officer showed his respect for the heroism of Jane Rizzoli.
Lt. Cavanaugh had instructed Angela to bake a couple of large cakes for the officers to enjoy together and Korsak and Frost made sure the coffee urn was constantly full of hot, freshly brewed coffee. The day passed with individual officers and detectives from all departments stopping by the bullpen to welcome Jane back to work and offer their congratulations. Even Lt. Cavanaugh, when he informed her she was to be honored by the city of Boston for her heroic efforts, couldn't help backslapping Jane and pumping her hand up and down in congratulations.
Maura stood back and watched with a smile fixed on her face lest anyone think she didn't love her wife. Married for two years, most of their colleagues accepted their relationship without a lot of backtalk, at least by now. Time smoothed over the subject of same sex marriage partners working in the same precinct although Maura, as Chief Medical Examiner, wasn't exactly one of their own.
But Maura carried a secret she wasn't ready to share with anyone: she wasn't applauding the heroism her wife showed in breaking up a bank robbery and releasing unharmed hostages. No, Maura was angry. She married a hero, when all she wanted was a wife. A loving wife whom she adored, who adored her in return and who would come home to her every night, safe. Instead Maura Rizzoli-Isles had a wife who was reckless with her own personal safety and to Maura that meant Jane didn't love and adore her wife like Maura thought.
Both women managed to get through the day; Jane celebrating with her colleagues as she spent the required time on desk duty until the doctor released her back to full duty. Her badge was on her hip but her service weapon was locked in Cavanaugh's office. Maura spent the day in the morgue, finishing up an autopsy of a confirmed suicide and the various pieces of paperwork a suicide entailed. She didn't go to lunch with Jane like always. Jane was being feted at a work lunch upstairs. Maura stayed in her office.
At six Maura shut down the morgue, locked it for the night and exited through the back entrance. She drove home alone. Once inside she quickly shed her teal green two piece suit and matching pumps for her yoga pants and tank top. She fed Bass his favorite strawberries and gave Joe Friday kibble and fresh water. She knew Korsak and Frost were taking Jane out to The Dirty Robber for drinks after work. She'd been invited but declined the invitation, at the same time giving Jane permission to enjoy her first night out since the bank robbery fiasco.
Yes, Maura saw it as a fiasco. Suddenly feeling too tired and drained to go to her yoga class she settled on the bed to read a magazine. Instead of seeing the new fall line she was eager to shop she saw that day once again. The day she realized she married a hero, not a wife, and almost lost Jane, again.
Jane exited the morgue with a smile thrown over her shoulder for Maura. Frost texted her that a call came in for a bank robbery in progress and all hands were needed. Maura admonished Jane to be careful.
Maura spent the next two hours cleaning the morgue. She tried to keep her mind off of Jane but felt unsettled. A bank robbery gone wrong meant guns were in possession of men who didn't think they had anything to lose by using them. She finished cleaning the morgue, completed all open files, filed away closed files and reorganized her filing cabinet. It was time to go upstairs to the bullpen, see if anyone was around to give her an update.
Chaos ensused. Korsak was putting on a bullet-proof vest while uniformed officers handed out sniper rifles. Maura started to feel panicked.
"Korsak?" she asked.
"Shooting inside the bank Maura, we don't have any details yet," he said. He looked at Maura then, knowing that Maura was experiencing exactly the same turmoil all three of his ex-wives faced during their marriages to Vince.
"Maura, she'll be fine. Jane is an excellent detective and one hell of a shot. She's probably behind the lines at one of the communication centers they've set up."
"I know, Vince. But I have a funny feeling."
"Don't, Maura. You're just concerned. We'll all be fine and go out for drinks later. Or dinner, okay?" he asked her as he grabbed his weapon and headed out the door. Maura nodded her ascent. She sat down at Jane's desk.
Barely ten minutes later the dispatch call was broadcast throughout the precinct. "Shots fired! Shots fired! Officer down! Need assistance!" Maura didn't know the tears started rolling down her cheeks. It didn't matter if it was Jane or not an officer was now fighting for his or her life. A cop family could easily lose one of its own.
Two minutes later Maura's cell phone vibrated in her pocket. She let it continue as a sudden reluctance to pick up bad news washed over her. At the last moment she relented.
"Mass Gen hosp," Frost texted. "Jane."
Almost in a fog Maura stood up, returned to the morgue to retrieve her purse and car keys and head over to the hospital to see about her wife.
She hoped she wasn't a widow.
Maura slipped the magazine shut and slid under the covers, openly sobbing.
"Maura!" she heard Frost call as she drove up to the emergency room entrance and parked her car. She gave her keys to the valet without thinking.
"How's Jane?" she asked Frost. He shook his head.
"I don't know, exactly. I saw her go down but I was too far away to see much."
"What happened?" Maura nearly screamed in his face.
"She went in the bank under the pretense of being an EMT. She singlehandedly got the hostages released except for one, chased the robbers' car with the hostage, shot out their tires and hung onto the back window of the car while it ran on rims. I know, I know, Maura it seems unbelievable but she did it. When the rims began to spark and the car slowed she put her weapon through the back window and managed to get the guy to give up his weapon and release the last hostage."
"How did she get shot Barry?" Maura insisted. Frost hesitated.
"The other robber was in the front passenger floor. He rose up as Jane was getting the driver to give up his weapon. He fired two shots."
Maura felt her knees grow weak. Her vision suddenly became blurry and she began to sink down on the parking lot asphalt. Frost caught her under her arms and yelled for assistance. She felt hands helping her into a wheelchair and taking her into the emergency room.
After being examined and given a sedative Maura slept for several hours. She woke to a quiet emergency room. It was dark outside, she saw through the windows. Maura sat up, anxious for word about Jane. Her heart began to hammer. Was she Jane's widow? Was Jane okay? Or was Jane in a hospital bed worried about her wife in emergency?
"Nurse?" Maura managed to squeak out. The pretty redhead she saw earlier came to her bedside.
"Welcome back, Dr. Rizzoli-Isles. I thought you were planning on doing a Rip Van Winkle."
"How's my wife doing?"
"Let me get the doctor, he knows more than I do." The nurse went quickly over to the nursing station and spoke to the tall dark-haired doctor Maura remembered treating her earlier.
"Yes, Doctor, your wife is still in surgery."
"Still? What are her injuries?" The doctor hesitated for a moment.
"Two gunshot wounds, one to the left shoulder, one to the abdomen. She lost a lot of blood on the street and in the ambulance," he spoke quietly. Maura closed her eyes. Tears squeezed out and ran down her cheeks.
After two days of Jane being in a coma, after being told Jane died twice on the table only to be revived at the last possible moment, Jane woke. Maura was at her bedside. Relief flooded Maura when Jane opened her eyes and Maura once again gazed into those chocolate eyes she loved so much.
Jane was discharged two weeks later and ordered on bed rest at home, with a slow recovery period scheduled. Jane fought that, fought everyone including Maura, to push herself harder faster, but Maura persisted. Jane spent another seven weeks at home recuperating. And now she was back on limited desk duty.
Maura didn't hear the front door open or the sure and steady footprints of her wife as Jane entered their bedroom. Jane stopped at the doorway. She thought she'd find her wife either reading one of her medical journals or already sleeping peacefully, but watching her wife sob like her heart was broken surprised Jane. Quickly she crossed the room and gathered her wife in her arms.
"Maura, sweetie, what's wrong?" she asked. Maura struggled to escape Jane's grasp, another surprise to Jane.
"Maura, come on, it isn't that bad," Jane said although at the moment she had no idea what had upset her wife.
"Are you angry I went out tonight with the guys?" Jane asked.
"No, Jane, I'm angry at you."
"I gathered that much, Maura. Help me out here please, I don't know why you're angry. What did I do?"
"You're a hero, Jane," Maura spit out the word 'hero' like it was one of the worst words in the English language.
"Yeah, okay," Jane said slowly, thinking. "I'm confused, Maura. What's bothering you?"
Maura finally managed to quit sobbing. She scooted up against the headboard and looked coolly at her wife.
"When I finally decided to tell you of my feelings for you I was scared, Jane. Then elated to find out you shared the same feelings for me. I felt loved, cherished, wanted, all the things I never experienced during my childhood. I always wondered how it felt, to have someone want to wake up next to you, hold your hand, call you in the middle of the day just to hear your voice. A whole new world of feelings opened up for me. They only intensified when you proposed, Jane. I thought, I get to have this for the rest of my life? There are no words in any language Jane that can describe how lucky I felt. How loved.
Then came the realization that I married a hero. A hero who risks her life everyday for others. I want a wife that will come home to me, Jane. Who wants to spend her off hours with me, not in the hospital clinging to life through artificial means.
When I woke up in the emergency room that afternoon, Jane, the first thought that ran through my mind was if I was your widow." Maura looked up at Jane, new tears threatening.
Jane's heart dropped in her shoes as she heard Maura say she wondered if she was Jane's widow.
"I never thought of it like that, Maura. You know how dangerous my job is."
"Yes, it is a dangerous job, Jane. It's just that you go above and beyond the call of duty to look for danger. Are you an adrenaline junkie, Jane? Does that do it for you? Because I thought I was the only adrenaline you needed. You told me that one night after you made love to me for hours. 'You're my adrenaline, Maura' you said. 'You're all I need.' Am I Jane?"
"Maura I am so sorry. You never mentioned how you really felt about all of this. I never thought to ask." Jane sat on the side of the bed. She was amazed at how obtuse she'd been.
"I nearly lost my wife that night, Jane! I want you to come home to me, not lie in a cold grave before you reach forty! What if we'd had children, Jane? Think you want to make me a widow and orphans out of our children?"
"Come here, Maura," Jane said softly. Feeling tired and vulnerable Maura scooted over to climb into Jane's lap. She buried her face in Jane's neck.
"All I could think of that day, Maura, was what would I do if it were you in that car. I couldn't lose you. I guess I didn't think things through. One thing led to another and the next thing I knew I was on the back of the car, hanging on for dear life. When the driver stopped I thought, great this is over now. I can go back to work, get Maura and take her out for a nice dinner. My fault was in forgetting how many occupants were in the car. I saw the shooter at the last possible second and he got me good. Just as I lost consciousness I saw your face, Maura. If I could have cried then, I would have.
"Please understand, Maura, I love you more than my own life. I will always come home to you. I'll be extra careful from now on. I don't want to spend any more time in hospitals and I certainly don't want to worry you. I love you, Maura." Jane stretched out on the bed, Maura lying on top of her. As she spoke Maura's eyes were glued to Jane's face, drinking in every word.
"I don't want a hero, Jane. I want you, my wife. Please don't do this again," she whispered. "I don't want to be married to a hero."
"I agree, Maura. No more heroes."
The End
Thanks, hope you enjoyed reading.