Rainy Wednesdays in Boston: Healing Clue
Jane was sitting on her couch. Her stomach still hurt from the shot, but she wasn't going to tell anyone. She gingerly moved on the couch trying to get comfortable. She was happy to be sitting upright and eating. The days of her mother fawning over her were almost as bad as the days that Maura came over and tried to coax her into working out. She was independent and wanted to do things at her own pace. She knew that she would be back at her desk and in the field shortly.
It didn't stop the nightmares, though. If it wasn't Hoyt, it was reliving what happened in the precinct over and over again. She was thankful that Maura helped her brother survive the ordeal, but she could still remember the looks on Frost and Korsak's faces when she told them to shoot. She didn't blame them for not taking the shot, but the look of horror in their eyes as she wrestled the gun just enough to pull the trigger was enough to keep her up at night.
She didn't care about medals or ribbons. She wanted to do a good job. She wanted to catch the bad guys and make the streets safer. That was why she was a cop. It wasn't for the pay or glory. She was in it for the pride and justice. So, what if she got hurt every now and again, that was just part of the job. She could take the lumps. She'd proven that with Hoyt.
This was different. This was more life altering, they told her. But, then again, "they" didn't know about her nightmares and that her "boogeyman" had a face and a name. He was the reason that she kept going. She wanted to stop the monsters.
She dropped her head back on the couch. She didn't want to think about him. She did enough of that already. She would rather be at her desk looking at case files and doing paperwork than sitting on her couch nursing her GSW.
She was brought out of her thoughts by a knock at the door. She glanced over at the clock on cable receiver. It was just after two. She pursed her lips in thought, before she pushed herself up off of the couch and towards the door. Her face changing from wonder, to pain, back to wonder, and finally settling on mild anger, just before she looked through her peep hole.
She'd have lost it if it had been her mother. Instead, it was Maura and she had a box in her hands. Jane had to smile. Maura was her best friend and she was just trying to help her get better. She'd even let Jane know that they were talking about her speaking at the Women in Uniform event during Police Week.
Jane was still trying to figure out how to get out of the banquet. When she couldn't find a reasonable excuse, she just decided that she wasn't going. Her mother had already collected her uniform and got it pressed. Korsak helped Maura get Jane's service record so they could make sure that it had all her awards on it. Jane knew that her mother and Maura were planning to drag her there. She'd already made sure that her mother wouldn't come get her. But, seeing Maura in the peephole, she knew that it would take more to shake the ME off her "I'm not going" scent.
Reluctantly, she opened the door and let Maura into her apartment. She looked her friend up and down and let her eyes rest on the long rectangular box in her hands. Maura just smiled and waltzed into the room like she owned the place, like always.
"Morning to you, too, Maura," Jane told her as she lumbered slowly back over to the couch.
Maura walked over to the couch, sat the box down and then looked at the bowl of cereal the Jane had. She realized that the injured detective had been nursing the bowl for some time that day, but she didn't comment on it. Instead, she just went into the kitchen. She knew that Jane liked her junk food and things that weren't overall very healthy for her, so she would cook her something that would help her heal faster. It was her duty as a friend.
"Maur…Maura, what are you doing?" Jane asked as she looked over the back of her couch.
"I'm making you a nutritious breakfast. What you have over there in that bowl cannot be construed as something that I would say is healthy enough to help aid in your healing, so I am going to make you something. Now, if you'll just give me a moment to take stock of what you have in here, I can find something to adequately feed you with," Maura answered her.
"Maur, just come sit down. There is nothing in there. I should know. Mom came over last night and cooked. Tommy and Frankie came over, too. You know the weekly family health and welfare check that Mom orchestrates."
"She loves you, Jane."
"I know," she replied exasperatedly. "Sometimes I wish that she didn't love me quite so much. I haven't had a day's peace since I got out of the hospital, Maur. I just want to lounge around in peace and veg out. Is that too much to ask?"
"For your friends and family, yes, it is. We want you to get better quickly. I know that Frost and Korsak can't wait for you to be back behind your desk helping them with the investigations."
"How are they?"
"Amiable," Maura answered.
"Well that tells me a lot."
Maura finally gave up in the kitchen and came back into the living room. She hovered over Jane for a second. Jane cut her eyes up at her and then looked at the couch. Maura understood the unsaid command and sat down on the couch again.
"What?" Jane asked.
"Are you that upset about what happened that you can't face Korsak and Frost anymore?"
"Maur, I told you in the hospital that I didn't want to talk about it."
"Has the department psychiatrist cleared you for duty yet?" Maura asked her.
"Yeah, last week. I am just waiting on my doctor to release me. He keeps telling me that it will be a few more weeks. He doesn't want me to do something 'heroic' and hurting myself further," Jane told her.
"Well, I am inclined to agree with him. I don't want you to do anything that would cause further injury. To be honest, I wasn't that impressed with you shooting yourself either. That was very reckless of you, Jane," Maura told her.
"I am sorry that doing my job and getting the bad guy seemed like a bad idea. I am not sure if you remember that he tried to kill my brother, and he killed the witness that saw him kill another cop. I didn't think that it would prudent to let him kill me, too," Jane offered sarcastically.
"I didn't mean it like that, Jane."
"Well, forgive me for thinking quickly and taking care of the situation."
"Jane…"
"No, Maura, just no."
"I am sorry."
"It's fine."
"Why don't we go do something?" Maura suggested.
"Have you looked outside? It's raining. I am not going anywhere."
Maura looked out Jane's front windows from her seat on the couch. She looked back at the box on the table and then back at Jane. She knew that Jane needed some sort of mental stimulation or she was just going to keep wasting away on her couch until the doctors told her she should go back to work. She needed to work out, but she wasn't getting off the couch long enough. It was hard to see Jane like this, which was why Maura was there.
"I have a game we could play," Maura offered.
"A game? What kind of game? And not scrabble, I swear you make up words."
"I do not. I can't help it that I use medical terms or the correct terminology for body parts. You would honestly think that being around me during all the investigations would have helped you improve your vocabulary. But, I was thinking something a little more non-cerebral."
"Like what?" Jane asked her.
"Something that we could both agree is a farce and yet, mildly entertaining," Maura answered.
"Like?"
"Clue," Maura replied.
"Clue?" Jane asked.
When she saw the seriousness in Maura's eyes, she started laughing. Her laughing brought on a bought of pain which made her double over somewhat holding her sided and coughing. After she finally managed to catch her breath, she stared back into Maura's eyes and realized that she meant it. Jane just gave her a smile and nodded.
"Sure, Maur. Clue. We can play Clue," Jane told her.
Maura squeaked with enthusiasm. She grabbed the box on the table and opened it. That is when Jane realized that it was wooden box version of the game. There were no cardboard or plastic pieces. No, the board was wood and the pieces were metal. She knew that this wasn't some run of the mill version of Clue from Wal-Mart. Wherever Dr. Maura Isles had found this version, it must have sat her back a few.
She just watched as Maura set up the game. She could only smile at her friend and her enthusiasm. When she was finished setting up the board and handing out the papers, Maura turned with the game pieces in her hand, holding them out for Jane to see.
"Who would you like to be?"
"Miss Scarlet," Jane answered quickly.
"Really?"
"What?"
"Nothing."
"No, what, Maura?" Jane demanded.
"You chose the femme fatale character," Maura stated.
"As opposed to?"
"I don't know. I was thinking that you would have chosen someone with more authority. You know someone like Colonel Mustard," Maura answered.
"The fat old army guy?"
"Well, I guess when you put it that way, it does sound a little farfetched," Maura said.
"Well, Smarty-pants, who are you going to be?" Jane asked her.
"I was thinking about being Professor Plum," Maura replied.
"Of course you were," Jane murmured.
"What?" Maura asked as she turned back from the board to look at Jane.
"Nothing. Let's just do this. You can go first," Jane told her.
Maura just nodded at her. She held the cards out for Jane to pick the murder cards that would go in the envelope. After that was done, she shuffled the cards and dealt them out. Once they were selected, they both took their "detective's notebook" and entered the information that they had from the cards they'd been dealt. She handed the Jane the dice.
"You can go first," Maura told her.
Jane took the dice and rolled. She leaned over, off the couch, and moved her piece. She handed Maura the dice. They continued to move around the board and playing.
For once, Jane didn't feel the pain in her side. She laughed as they played. She couldn't help the seriousness of each "guess" that Maura made as they proceeded through the game. She knew that it was driving Maura nuts to do it, but she was doing it because she knew that Jane would enjoy the game. She smiled at her friend.
In not feeling the pain, Jane actually let go for a while. She just relaxed. She didn't try to think about getting out of her apartment and back to work. She just let go and lived in the moment. Something that Maura had been trying to get her to do for months because she could see how the job was affecting Jane's mental state. Jane was actually finding a new way to let it all go.
"Do you have a guess?" Maura asked her, bringing her back to the game at hand.
"A guess?"
"As to who actually committed the murder, Jane, in the game?" Maura questioned.
"Ah, yes, that," Jane replied.
"So?"
"I think Professor Plum did it in the kitchen with the knife," Jane told her.
"That just sounds so cliché," Maura added.
"It does, but…" Jane stated as she handed Maura the envelope to check.
"You're right," Maura said as Jane began to laugh.
Maura handed her the cards so that Jane could see it. Jane just smiled bigger as she looked at the cards and realized that she had actually won. Maura could only smile at her.
"What? Do I have something on my face? Come, Maur, what is it?"
"How do you feel?" Maura asked her point blank.
Jane looked at her incredulously. She couldn't believe that Maura would ask her that and then she thought about it. It was raining still and they had been at the game for hours. They had tied the score two-two just before Jane won. She'd forgotten her pain.
"Thank you," Jane replied.
"That didn't answer my question."
"I know."
"Jane?"
"What?"
"Seriously, how do you feel?"
"I feel fine, Maur. I feel fine. Wanna play again?"
"No, I thought that we could order a pizza and watch a movie," Maura told her.
"Whatever you want," Jane stated as she reclined back into the couch, smiling at her friend.
A/N: I have plans to make this in a multi-chapter deal. They are all going to be basically one shots that progress through the seasons and are usually in the downtime for both Maura and Jane. This is going to be Rizzles (friendship into something more) all the way, but it is going to be a slow burn. I hope that helps. Also rating may change as the story progesses. I hope you enjoy.