A/N: This is a slow, very intense, first-time realization story. It will get angsty at times (but not more than in the show), because it explores in depth the slow changes in both Jane and Maura, but nobody runs away, nobody has an accident. I'm keeping it as close as the TV show universe I can. Also, not exploring cases, mothers, etc. Just Maura and Jane.
IMPORTANT: #Rizzles will happen, but not until a other things happen first. Most importantly: the story will involve someone else in the process. This is a point critical for the story, and for #Rizzles. So, if you are not open to the idea of Maura with another woman, or are looking for a story that starts with or jumps right away into #Rizzles, this story may be just too shocking. Still, I'd give it a try ;D
Having said that, welcome to this unexpected, intense path to #Rizzles :)
Chapter 01
Maura held the door to the morgue for Jane, who was precariously carrying a large tray loaded with coffees. Suzie rushed in to help Jane while Maura made space on one of the counter tops and spread out the donut boxes they had brought. Satisfied everything was now in order, she called her staff.
Once they had all gathered around the unexpected breakfast, she swiped her hand towards the food as she sent a smiling, thankful glance at Jane.
"This is just a small token of my gratitude for your hard work in the Shoelace Murders case. Actually, the donuts were Detective Rizzoli's idea although refined sugar is not…"
Jane touched Maura's arm, gently guiding the pointing finger in the air down. Leaning forward, she whispered in Maura's ear.
"It's fine, Maur. I think they are quite happy with the processed sugar."
Behind her mocked reproachful squint, Maura was thankful; it was one thing to tell Jane what or not to eat, another thing was to try it with her team. Jane grinned and Maura smiled back with her entire face, so happy to be able to share moments like this with her.
The clapping and cheering startled her; she turned around and saw the usually quiet lab techs huddling around the unexpected breakfast. She felt Jane's presence right behind her, followed by the warmth of her hand on the small of her back. Their eyes met. Jane's face was glowing with deep pride; her eyes were holding Maura's dearly, making her feel like the luckiest person on earth to have such a good friend.
"Hi…" The shy voice coming from the door behind them made them turn around in unison. It belonged to a tall, brunette woman dressed in a simple but elegant –and possibly very expensive- suit and carrying a black executive bag. Poster girl for a lawyer's practice, thought Jane.
The woman smiled as her eyes scanned them and then the room. "Looks like I'm interrupting…"
Maura took a couple of steps closer to the door. "You must excuse us, this is not a normal occurrence. How may I be of assistance?"
"I'm Julia Green, the new assistant District Attorney. I'm looking for Dr. Maura Isles in connection with the investigation on the murder of John Evans."
Jane grabbed one of the last donuts while following with faint interest the exchange between the newcomer and Maura. Then her sharp detective eye caught the clear raised-eyebrow, appraising-smile once-over the ADA gave Maura. Amused, she grinned as she took a bite. Then she saw how flustered Maura was; the grin died in her throat. She forced the donut down.
Maura turned around and called her. Not bothering to erase the frown, she approached them and stood next to Maura, their arms touching.
"This is Detective Rizzoli, in charge of the investigation. This is Miss… Or is it Mrs. Green?"
The ADA smiled, her eyes not leaving Maura's face for a second. "It's Miss, but you can call me Julia."
Maura laughed self-consciously, and suddenly Jane felt a strange weight in the pit of her stomach. Holding back a sneer, she turned to the woman and gave her a tight-lipped stretching of barely upwardly curved lips and a small nod.
"Nice to finally meet you, Detective. I've been on the job for less than a month but I already heard quite a bit about you – you're quite the hero, I'm impressed."
Without waiting to see Jane's scoff, she turned back to Maura.
"We are preparing the Shoelace Murders case for court, and the DA suggested I spend some time with you to prepare your testimony." She smiled and lowered her voice, looking around. "Actually, I think he wants you to help me avoid any rookie mistakes."
Jane stared in disbelief as Maura blushed slightly behind a coy smile. Clearing her throat, she lightly touched Maura's arm. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the ADA notice the gesture.
"Okay, I gotta rush. See you later, Maur. Miss Green." Jane didn't wait for a reply; not that she'd expected to get any, given the way Maura was behaving. The woman nodded and smiled her way and turned back to Maura.
Jane knew that very instant that she did not like the new ADA, and she'd get flak for it.
Maura led Julia to her office, away from the oblivious and now raucous lab technicians. As Julia stood appraising the décor, Maura saw the woman's suit and nodded a small knowing smile.
"You'll have to forgive me, but I positively must know. Is that an Escada?"
Julia laughed in earnest. "Well now, if that isn't a well trained eye!"
Maura smiled embarrassed. "Actually, I saw it last week, and was so tempted to buy it. It is a gorgeous suit."
"It is nice, isn't it? Way out my league too… To be honest, I could never afford it; it's a good luck present from my mom for my new job. I was afraid it might look too pretentious, but it is just so comfortable and nice."
"It suits you perfectly, and it is not pretentious: it's classy, elegant, but not over the top. Perfect for your job."
Maura and Julia stood smiling at each other, in silence, for a brief moment. Maura felt a strange tingle inside. She briefly assessed her reaction; it was surprisingly pleasant.
"So, how can I help you?"
Julia explained that she had read all the reports but she needed help with the forensic procedures and process.
"I'd like to cover just a few basics and agree on a proper meeting to go in depth. I can imagine that, as Chief Medical Examiner, you must be terribly busy."
Maura was happy to help even though she had a rather large backlog demanding her attention. This was not only a very public case, but it was also one of her biggest ones ever so she was quite willing doing whatever it took to ensure a guilty verdict.
Maura invited Julia to sit. She felt a pang of pride when Julia's eyes focused on the Rashid chair and grew wide, recognizing and admiring it. She chose the couch next to it and gave her an outline of the key turning points on the case. Julia followed her attentively, stopping her every now and then to ask a clarifying question and take notes. When Maura finished, Julia estimated they'd need a morning, perhaps two, to cover all the procedures and then prepare her for court.
Maura was quite impressed with the efficiency and laser focus of the young ADA, but even more so when, as she got up to fetch her laptop, Julia asked her if the masks on her wall were from West Africa. It turned out to be that Julia was a travel enthusiast and had visited several African countries. Soon, the case was left behind as they exchanged travel routes, tips and memories. The conversation about travel soon moved to art and from there to history.
When Maura's phone beeped a few moments later, she realized it was the alert she had set to meet Jane at the Dirty Robber. That meant she had spent more than two hours talking to Julia. Instead of being nervous about her glaring disregard for her duties, she felt a pang of regret that she had to stop the conversation.
Julia saw the slight frown on Maura's face and stood up. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I've stolen too much of your time."
"It was a pleasure. We should meet again soon." Her eagerness was surprising, but was also easy to rationalize: they had to get down to details as long as they were fresh in her mind.
Julia turned to the door, but hesitated before turning back to Maura.
"I have a crazy idea. I was really enjoying our conversation. If you don't have plans, maybe we can continue over lunch?" Julia flashed a smile, and Maura felt disappointed she couldn't.
"I can't today, but what about tomorrow?" Her renewed eagerness startled her but Julia's smile made her forget about it.
"Tomorrow is fine. I'll find a place and send you the details." Julia's easy, catchy smile echoed in Maura.
After the ADA left, Maura sat back at her desk struggling to believe that she had just spent so much time conversing with a stranger, a work colleague, as if they were good friends. Hours that had felt like minutes. She was not good with live people, but it had felt so natural, so easy.
Actually, it felt as if Julia had brightened the entire morgue.
.
.
Jane sat in their favorite booth tapping her foot and rubbing the scars on her hands, as she heard Maura mention Julia's name for the tenth time.
"So. Julia, huh?"
"What about her?" Maura's answer was flat but her eyes were consciously trained on her plate, aware that she may have been a bit over enthusiastic and chatty.
Jane tilted her head, assessing Maura through narrowed eyes.
"Can't believe you didn't notice how she checked you out. Like big time. All smiley and stuff."
"That's preposterous. Clearly Julia is not gay. She was just being friendly and we happen to share many interests. And even if she were… checking me out, that's her problem, not mine. She is a very polite person." Maura's tense brow and lips made sure the conversation ended right there.
"Hey, it's not like that. It was just… ah, forget it." Jane brushed her hand on her hair and pressed her fingertips to her forehead. "I'm sorry. Maybe it has nothing to do with her. I'm just going out of my mind here, nothing challenging to do for days."
"So I am your challenge?" Maura was not impressed.
"You're not, I didn't say that, and stop twisting my words. But it's still funny that you didn't notice it."
"Noticed what?"
"Maura! Really? That chick is so into you! And by listening to you, I bet that if she were a man, you'd be all over him already."
Jane's eyes grew bigger, shocked at the hint of reproach in her words, but it was too late to even try and fix it – or even understand it.
Maura pursed her lips, suddenly deep in thought. After a few moments, she smiled and waved her hand, making a conscious decision not to get dragged down by Jane's lack of interesting work. "You need to find a real case to investigate, Jane. And even if she were into me, like you say, she hasn't done anything but be most pleasant."
"Ooh-kay then." Jane tapped on the table with her palms, as if trying to squash an unnamed nagging feeling and a budding bad mood. "I must get back to my exciting pile of papers and dead end leads."
But Jane's mood was about to get worse. As they reached the door they were greeted by sudden downpour.
Maura had a small foldable umbrella in her large bag but it was barely enough to cover one person. Maura hooked an arm through Jane's, bringing her close; it was barely enough to cover the left side of her head and shoulder but better than nothing. They half-walked, half-trotted back to the office, hopelessly trying to avoid the rain that seemed to attack them from all angles. Maura's high heels had become water clogged and were making squishing sounds every time she took a step. Jane thought it was amusing. Maura was about to protest when she realized it was funny. They arrived at the station dripping wet from waist down but bent in laughter.
Maura took her emergency bag and went to the toilet. A short while later she emerged in new dry clothes and immaculate hair. She settled at her desk to continue preparing the due reports when her phone beeped. It was a message from Julia.
'Thanks for the lovely chat. I made a reservation at my favorite restaurant. Hope you like it. See you tomorrow at 12:30?'
Maura felt again an odd but pleasant fluster in her stomach. She wrote down the address, sent a quick reply and spent the rest of the day in an airy, oddly chirpy mood.
.
.
Maura could tell by the natural light coming through her window that she was running late. One look at her bed screamed her indecision as to what to wear; dresses, suits, blouses and pants piled up after one hour of trying them all – some more than once.
She kept expecting Jane to come in any second but neither door or phone gave signs of life. Jane had passed up on her invitation to come around last night. Maura guessed it'd be a matter of time until she either was assigned a murder case or found a way to channel the pent up energy. In any case, if it continued like this by the weekend, she'd drag her out of Boston for some or other item on her bucket list; the same bucket list Jane had hastily written down months ago, and which she had kept after she forgot it on the couch one night, never to speak of it again.
Jane's comments at the Dirty Robber still nagged her intermittently, especially now that she wondered why she was having so much trouble picking out something to wear. It was easy to rationalize it as a being unfocused on her personal care, and life in general, due to a high volume of work. It was easy, now that she got down to it, to rationalize Jane's comments as the product of an idle brilliant detective mind. There was nothing to think twice about. She felt happy with her conclusion as she picked her favorite new navy dress; the one that she felt confident highlighted her complexion.
Jane was already at the precinct when she arrived, as she found out from Frankie who was on his way out as she walked in.
"What the hell has gotten into her?" Frankie confided in Maura, gesturing up with his thumb, towards the elevator. "She goes from barking to not saying a word."
Maura shook her head. "She needs to be busy, she'll be fine. But I'll talk to her later."
She didn't.
She found a hit-and-run victim waiting for her when she walked in and the morning flew by, busier than ever. Her phone beeped to warn her of her lunch meeting and her first thought was Jane. The promise to go see her after lunch appeased her as she changed out of her examining gown. A quick glance into her pocket mirror confirmed her make-up was still spotless, but she took her compact out to erase an almost invisible spot. As she fixed it, she heard Jane's voice in a corner of her mind. "She is so into you!" It had been an irrelevant, preposterous even, remark despite its insistence in coming back to her. Julia seemed to be the most pleasant ADA she had ever met, and there was nothing more to it.
She left the morgue convinced of that.
Almost convinced.