A Matter of Perspective

A/N So, I'm back at it again. Since I don't believe "Quadology" is actually a word I suppose we need to just agree that I'm doing a series of stories in the Rizzoli and Isles Universe I have created. I was going to start something new and not just add on to the world I created in the first three stories, but then it occurred to me that I put a lot of work into creating the world I created in the first three stories. So why waste that effort. I happen to like the Jane and Maura from my Universe. So, I decided to do the next installment. Maybe I can make "Quadology" a new word. Maybe it will catch on.

Regardless- I have returned for another installment. I just have too much airport and hotel time not to be writing something. This has become better for me than aimless channel flipping or Netflix surfing. So you all get a new story. I hope you all enjoy.

General Author Call Outs:

As a continuation to the world I created with 'At a Distance', 'Discovery' and 'Dark Side of Tomorrow' if you haven't read those yet. Stop. Click on my name. Read those first. Then come back and start this. I promise you will be slightly confused if you haven't read the first three stories. So go on. Stop reading this, read the others and then come back and play. This will still be here waiting for you- promise.

My usual apologies to all my English teachers. Brain still thinks and writes in sentence fragments. Never going to get any better. Sorry.

You all know I love chapter cliffhangers. Guess what. That hasn't changed. So, get used to that again. But, you should all know by now I also update daily at a minimum so I still feel I have the right to mercilessly tease you with the chapter cliffhanger because I never make you wait more than 24 hours for a new chapter.

Disclaimer:

I do not own anything related to Rizzoli and Isles. The show, characters and concepts are the property of Tess Gerritsen, Janet Tamaro and TNT. All of the above are much better than I at storytelling. I just mess around. Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander both are wonderful actresses that have brought to life strong, capable female leads and they are exactly who I picture when I play out these stories in my head.

Chapter 1

Time can be a funny thing. Empirically, time ticks at the same pace regardless of the event. Time is constant. Never changing. But, that's time as a tangible, constructive concept. Then there is the perception of time. That is inconsistent, ever changing. And always a matter that depends upon who you ask and always dependent upon the nature of the event in question. So maybe time isn't a funny thing. Maybe it is perspective that's funny.

Sergeant Detective Jane Rizzoli-Isles sat at her desk inside the Homicide division of the Boston Police Department thinking about time and perspective. It had been one of those days. One of those weeks if she was honest with herself about how things had progressed for the week. She was happy it was a Friday in the sense that the weekend could offer a temporary relief from the stress work had recently brought about. Not so happy in the sense that it appeared all but certain that she would be looking at putting in extra hours this weekend because she had had one of those weeks and the mountain of paperwork seemed unforgiving towards her perspective of time.

Her thoughts about time had started as she was thinking about all that had occurred in the last three months. It had been three months since she married her best friend Dr. Maura Rizzoli-Isles, Boston's Chief Medical Examiner. As she thought about time in relation to her relationship with Maura that was purely relative to what event she would think about. She had known Maura for almost six years and from Jane's perspective it had felt like a lifetime. But six years wasn't a lifetime. In fact at age 37, six years was only a small fraction of her life to that point.

And while six years felt like a lifetime, three month of marriage to that point felt as if it had passed in the blink of an eye. It all had happened relatively quickly. Three month from the proposal to the wedding. Three month from the wedding to that Friday afternoon. It's just a lot had happened to both ladies in that span of six months.

From proposal to wedding Jane and Maura had dealt with a major criminal enterprise. Jane had to flush out what turned out to be three dirty Boston police officers including the second highest ranking officer in the department, Deputy Superintendent Mitchell Schultz, as well as exposing the heads of two Irish mob families as working together to consolidate power in Boston. Jane also was stabbed in a confrontation with Maura's biological father, Patrick Doyle, in an attempt to save Maura from being targeted by the Irish mob. Doyle had agreed to enter Witness Relocation to help save Maura and the world all thought he had died after attacking Jane at the prison in Cedar Junction.

The wedding had been picture perfect. It would go down as one of the best days in Jane's life. The ceremony went off without a hitch and Jane had even managed to surprise Maura twice, once by playing the piano for her and the guests and the other by wearing a wedding gown for the ceremony. Their honeymoon had also been perfect. Two weeks in Europe. Italy, Germany and Spain. Maura was an excellent tour guide when they bothered to venture out of their suite. Which hadn't been very often. But a honeymoon wasn't meant to be measured in terms of sights visited or pictures taken. They chose to measure their honeymoon in terms of minutes and hours spent together in bed. On that scale, they were immensely successful.

They had both been back in Boston and back to work for two months now. Even that time was both fast and slow again depending upon the events Jane wanted to focus in on. Quick when it was relative to days and nights spent with Maura. Slow when it was relative to days and sometimes nights spent back at work. Work had been uncharacteristically busy for Jane and riddled with change. Most of it unwanted change.

Jane had declined an offer by now Captain Sean Cavanaugh to become the new Lieutenant of the Homicide division. She didn't want to come out of the field and becoming a Lieutenant would have done just that. Cavanaugh was surprised when she turned him down. He felt sure that Jane would take it if for no other reason than to give Maura some peace of mind with Jane having a safer job. But Jane spoke with Maura about the promotion offer and Maura didn't want Jane to come out of the field unless it was what she had wanted to do. And she didn't. So she said no.

The Lieutenant position was then given to Sergeant Detective Vince Korsak. Jane had recommended her former partner and current Sergeant to Cavanaugh and Sean informed Jane that Vince had been his second choice. Jane requested that Cavanaugh never tell Vince she was in consideration for the job. Cavanaugh promised not to mention it. Korsak didn't need long to accept the Lieutenant position and the entire Homicide division was happy to have Korsak as their Lieutenant. He was an excellent cop and a good man. The entire department was confident he had their collective backs and would do the job as well if not better than Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh had earned his promotion to Captain as well and the division was glad to have him in the position to really watch over the division.

But then things got complicated and changed in ways Jane didn't see coming. Jane's declining of the promotion ruffled the feathers of the highest ranking officer in the Department. Superintendent in Chief Max Hamilton had been the one to personally request that Jane be named the new Lieutenant in Homicide. Cavanaugh didn't relish having to tell him that Jane had ultimately turned down the promotion. What had annoyed Cavanaugh the most was Hamilton was mad not because he felt it was a bad career move for Jane but because he would be denied the PR about having a female lieutenant in a prominent division. Cavanaugh hated the politics involved in the department and Hamilton's annoyance with Jane was all about politics.

Jane had singlehandedly delivered three dirty police to Hamilton. She managed to singlehandedly discover enough evidence for the District Attorney's office to guarantee guilty verdicts against all three dirty cops as well as two heads of mob families. The District Attorney, Patrick Hagan, had never had such air-tight cases handed over to him before. So good was the evidence and information that he was able to avoid long, tedious trials for all five defendants as he was able to gain plea agreements for all five. The case was turning into the wave of press and celebrity that was likely going to ride Hagan right into the Governor's mansion in November. But he had yet to discover that he would owe it all to Jane.

One of the issues with the Hamilton situation was that Jane refused credit for any of the arrests. Her only demand from Cavanaugh when this entire situation started had been that Hamilton, Hagan, and the rest of the department and District Attorney's office were not to be told about Jane's role. No one would ever be told of her direct involvement in the Irish Mob cases. Korsak, Frost and Maura were the only ones who knew exactly everything Jane had done.

Hamilton had figured out that Jane was involved to some extent especially after Jane was attacked by Doyle at Cedar Junction but he was still clueless on exactly what Jane had managed to accomplish to secure the data used to build the case, obtain the warrants and ultimately force five criminals to accept plea agreements. Cavanaugh kept his word and never revealed the entire source of the information that Jane had obtained. Part of how Jane got information was through less than legal means. She had hacked into the computer system of the BPD and befriended a computer expert to unencrypt records and emails. Cavanaugh refused to share that part so he had to continue to take credit for the information himself, which Jane had been fine with.

So when Jane turned down the promotion and requested that Cavanaugh kept it quiet that it was even offered to her Hamilton saw that as lack of gratitude. Apparently Jane was supposed to feel honored that she was given the chance to skip over the rank of Sergeant and go straight to Lieutenant. She felt bad putting Cavanaugh in a position of having to apologize for her but she didn't want the promotion and was firm with her denial. Cavanaugh, more in an attempt to at least appease Hamilton, then offered Jane the promotion to Sergeant Detective effectively replacing Korsak's position in the department. Cavanaugh knew Hamilton could get some good PR off of a female Sergeant Detective too and felt it was imperative that Jane accept this promotion.

Jane did but immediately regretted the decision. According to Cavanaugh she would still be allowed in the field. She knew Korsak worked cases with her and Frost all the time so she really didn't think anything about it. She wanted Frost promoted too but he hadn't taken his Sergeant's examine yet so it wasn't going to happen. Jane had taken her Sergeant's exam over a year previous and had scored a 99%. Her promotion was a lock. So she agreed after again discussing it with Maura. Hamilton got his PR and he seemed happy Jane was gracious in accepting the Sergeant's position.

It wasn't until after she had accepted the Sergeant Detective ranking that Cavanaugh had to inform Korsak that he needed to break up the primary pairing of Jane and Frost. Much like Jane and Frost were primary partners with Korsak overseeing their work as Sergeant, Jane was to shift into that role herself. Which meant that Frost and Detective Riley Cooper were set to be primary partners with Jane the overseeing Sergeant of the new team of three. It wasn't anything she had been prepared for and she hated the idea immediately. Frost hated the idea even more. The last thing he had wanted was to have Cooper as his primary partner.

But, it was done. And no one, including Cavanaugh, could put the genie back in the bottle. Frost and Cooper had played at dating before everyone had discovered Cooper was a cop. She had been undercover at the time she met both Frost and Frankie. Jane thought she was a drug dealer. Turned out she was a Narc detective. And a good one. She had earned her way onto the Homicide team. Jane liked and respected her. Her jacket was clean and full of well-earned collars and merits for duties performed. Plus, after working out their differences, she was dating Frankie exclusively and they were both very happy.

Frost had eventually gotten over Cooper's deception about the undercover work. And Jane believed he had even gotten passed her choosing to continue to see Frankie over him. He hadn't, however, fully accepted her has his primary partner. He liked working with Jane. He trusted Jane. He would do anything for Jane. He hadn't come to that place with Riley. Not even close. And it fell to Jane to fix that. Problem was she didn't exactly know how.

Time was a funny thing. Or maybe it was perspective that was the funny thing. Jane's two months as Sergeant Detective had felt like two hundred. She needed to fix Frost and Cooper's relationship as partners. She needed to accept that she wasn't just a detective anymore. And she needed to get the paperwork in front of her done before the end of the day otherwise she'd have to work on Saturday and that wasn't going to sit well with her wife. Time. Sometimes it went too fast. Sometimes it didn't go fast enough. How could that be constant? Jane would never really know.