Author's note: just a quick oneshot to wish you all a happy new year.
She had always disliked the snow as it had cost her the most important moments of her life.
First she had broken her elbow at the age of six in the backyard of their British townhouse just a few hours before she was supposed to attend Swan Lake at the Opera House. She still heavily regretted it now. By the age of eleven, she had been about to receive her first kiss from a classmate named James after weeks of uncertainty but other children had thrown snowballs at them before their lips to touch.
The list of unfortunate events caused by the snow that had marked her existence was endless and she could have told each one of them out loud until the very last one – the one she was now facing – but she preferred to fight her bitterness with a smile. It was New Year's Eve, after all; people were supposed to be hopeful and happy.
Yet she had to admit that her current disappointment caused by the snow was a lot stronger than all the previous misfortunes she had had to handle at some point in her life. It hurt, in a very shameful way for she had never told anyone about the real nature of her feelings.
Under other circumstances, she didn't mind much. She went with the flow and tried to take the most out of whatever could be reached. It worked quite well. But tonight was different, tougher.
She wouldn't be alone but the only person she wanted to be with was stuck on the other side of town. Her absence would weigh a lot at midnight. They had always spent the last evening of the year together. It wasn't really a tradition, it had simply kept on happening and seemed to now be one of these little details that made of their lives what they were.
"I have found six bottles of Champagne, Dr. Isles."
Susie Chang's voice took Maura out of her slightly gloomy wonders. She nodded at her assistant but remained leaned against her desk. She wasn't particularly eager to move even if a dozen of her employees were waiting for her in another room.
"Do we have anything for dinner?"
The question was vain but she had felt the urge to add something. The silence that floated above her office wasn't very friendly, she didn't appreciate it much. She was supposed to be festive.
The criminalist tilted her head. She squinted her eyes at Maura before a pout to play on her lips. She seemed to be looking for her words, for what would seem appropriate enough. Maura patiently waited as she wasn't much in a hurry anyway: they were stuck at the morgue for an unlimited lapse of time.
"We got chocolate bars at the vending machine. Sadly the Division One Cafe closed earlier today and it's impossible to go out with this blizzard."
Maura pursed her lips at the mention of the weatherforecast. She could hear the wind from her office in spite of the room not being on the first floor. The wind was blowing strongly and the neon lights of the corridors kept on dancing a strange waltz with seconds of darkness every since and then. If she didn't consider this place as her second home, she could have found it rather creepy right now.
"I suppose we don't really have a choice."
Her statement caused her assistant to look down at the floor almost apologetically. Maura bit the inside of her cheek to repress a moan of frustration: she had been too harsh, for absolutely no reason. Her attitude was unfair.
She opened her mouth to add something but Susie had already left the office.
She couldn't go on like that. It was nobody's fault if they were stuck at the morgue on New Year's Eve because of a blizzard. As a matter of fact, everyone was facing the same situation: all the plans the employees had made for the evening had been swept away the moment authorities had announced a state of emergency.
She grabbed her cell phone in a rageful gesture to check whether she had signal again. Sadly nothing had changed and she was still unable to call anyone nor send a text message. It was more frustrating than important. Obviously Jane knew that she was safe, that everything was okay in spite of the unusual circumstances, but Maura couldn't accept it. It was a whim and nothing else: she wanted to talk to Jane, she wanted to hear her voice.
She needed her friend by her side and now.
Nobody could really understand. As a matter of fact, Maura hoped that nobody did or else she would have died of shame. As much as she had no hold over her feelings, this was something she preferred to keep secret.
She had understood everything the day Jane had showed her Casey's engagement ring; a light had flickered in her head by then, a strong one. Jane hadn't got married in the end but it hadn't changed anything to the way Maura felt towards her friend.
Such was life as they said.
The popping sound of a bottle of Champagne brought her back to reality once again. She straightened up, took a deep breath then walked out of her office. It was a night of celebration. She had all the time in the world to see Jane.
What were a couple of hours in someone's life? Nothing, absolutely nothing.
"Happy New Year, Dr. Isles!"
The frenzy of the laughter and of the bright smiles took her slightly aback. Had she really missed midnight? She had been lost in her wonders, in her ridiculous disappointment and childish sentiments. She checked her watch then frowned: she hadn't even heard the countdown, trapped in the depths of her office as she had been.
"Happy New Year everyone... May it be filled with love and success." Her eyes stopped on each one of her employees who had happened to work tonight. She gladly accepted the glass of Champagne that Susie held out to her then raised it before forcing a smile. "To 2016."
Everyone echoed her last words as she took a long sip of her drink. She definitely deserved a bit of alcohol after the long and exhausting day she had gone through and to forget the bitter note on which the new year seemed to start.
It was the first time in five years that Jane wasn't by her side.
Hopefully her friend was home, with her mother and her brother; in front of the fireplace. As long as everyone was safe...
A loud bang made everyone freeze and look up on the left. The sound didn't come from the BPD where officers were probably celebrating the new year as well but from the autopsy room, the one that led outside.
A disturbing silence spread over the room until Maura cleared her voice and let a forceful laugh pass her lips.
"It's probably nothing but the wind."
Nobody was coming back from the dead. She had a scientific mind and couldn't believe in such paranormal ideas. She took another sip of her Champagne. The least she could say was that her explanation wasn't very convincing. She had a hard time believing that the wind could produce such important sound.
"I'll go check." She set down her empty glass on a table with a barely contained annoyance and started walking towards the door. "I'll be right back."
She tried to ignore the remark someone made about the fatal meaning of her sentence, quoting some scary movie she hadn't watched, then walked towards the autopsy room with very little confidence. It was plunged in the dark, clean and awfully quiet. Maura squinted her eyes before pushing the door to walk inside.
"Is there anybody here?"
The silence that followed her question sent a chill to run down her spine. She turned the light on but didn't see anything; even less anyone. The door that led to the parking lot was closed as it was supposed to. Strange.
Perhaps the bang actually came from upstairs and she had misjudged its origin. She was about to leave when a stifled sound caught her attention: it came from her office this time.
She hadn't paid attention to it. Convinced that the mysterious noise came from the autopsy room, Maura hadn't cast a glance further down the corridor yet the moment she walked out the room, she noticed a ray of light that came straight from there.
Someone had turned the lights of her office on.
"Hey, may I help..." Her voice disappeared in an "O" of surprise as she reached the door and found herself facing her friend. "Jane? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be home? I mean, at my place?"
Beacon Hill was on the other side of town. There was nothing more dangerous than to go out with this weather, especially at night. Yet Jane seemed to have not listened to the authorities' recommendations and she was now taking a ski hat off, sweeping away snow flakes on her shoulders at the same time.
"You really thought I'd let you not lecture me about Champagne? That's what you're supposed to do on New Year's Eve, Maura: you gotta make Champagne drinking borin'..."
Jane rolled her eyes which caused Maura to smile. She remained subtle though, discreet enough. She still had a hard time believing that her friend had made it to the morgue in spite of the blizzard Boston was facing.
"How... Please tell me you didn't drive. This is extremely dangerous."
Concern rose in Maura's voice which pushed her to look down. Her reaction had betrayed too many feelings in one go; this wasn't how she had to behave in Jane's presence.
"Of course not. I came here skiing. Frankie let me use his pair of ski. Well... In theory. Because he actually doesn't know I've taken them."
The explanation only caused Maura to burst out laughing: Jane absolutely hated skiing, they had gone to Vermont once and she hadn't lasted very long on the slopes. Yet she had made the effort to reach the morgue tonight. Just to see her even if she wouldn't admit it properly.
"You shouldn't have come here..."
It wasn't embarrassment but timidity, a very singular one that always seemed to embrace them at the most unexpected moment. Maura had fallen for it as she had found in their sudden silence a meaning stronger than words would ever be able to express. Of course Jane would discard her remark. She would make a joke to avoid facing a couple of things and everything would be back to normal. But it was okay, Maura didn't mind.
Her friend's gesture had still reached her heart.
"Are you still alive, Dr. Isles? David was getting worried, because of what you've said the moment you've left." Susie Chang didn't hide her surprise to see a third party in the office. "Oh. Happy New Year, Detective Rizzoli."
The young woman didn't wait for a reply. She immediately turned on her heels and left both friends alone in Maura's office.
"Why are you supposed to be dead?"
The question caused Maura to roll her eyes. There was no point in answering. She closed the distance that separated her from her friend instead and swept away from Jane's dark curls a snow flake that had begun to melt. A serenity wrapped her up as soon as her hazel eyes found her friend's dark ones.
"Happy New Year, Jane."
Maura took her friend in her arms and closed her eyes as her lips brushed Jane's cheek. She didn't need more than that to feel alive, to feel fine and in peace. Her bad mood vanished within a second. She buried her bitterness in a dark corner of her mind and smiled.
She had been wrong: a year that started in Jane's arms couldn't be that bad.