Well you all have been asking for it, so here it is; the third installment in my 'Fate' series. I've got a few plans up my sleeve and I really hope you all will enjoy it!
This chapter involves a little storyline from the show that I think you'll recognize, and it's one that will continue on in a later chapter!
Thanks so much in advance for reading! -J
Chapter 1- Six Months In
"I hate that second grade class," Jane groaned as she flopped, fully clothed, onto her bed next to Maura who had just pulled on her pajamas a few minutes earlier. "They are full of germs! Like seriously they need to teach them to wash their hands or something Maura! This is Mia's 2nd cold this year and it was way worse than the last one. I don't think I will be able to handle another one."
"They're 7 and 8 year olds Jane," Maura laughed. "It doesn't matter if you teach them to wash their hands properly, they touch everything and they have a tendency to sneeze without covering their mouths properly as well. It's likely Amelia will suffer a few more colds before the end of the school year," she explained. "But she seems to be on the mend now."
"I didn't think her fever was ever going to break," Jane sighed as Maura's fingers worked their way into her hair. "She's been so stuffed up and exhausted and just so not herself. I hate seeing her so sick," she sounded sad. "I just want to make her feel better."
"She'll be back to herself in a few days," Maura smiled, finding it sweet how caring and attentive Jane had been to the 6 year old all week. "We should probably keep her home again tomorrow but she should be able to return to school after that. Just one more day of Angela's chicken noodle soup and cuddles and she'll be better," she laughed. "You know she has you and your mother wrapped around her little finger."
"Hey it's not our fault," Jane exclaimed, though her eyes were closed, soothed by Maura playing with her hair. "How are we supposed to say no to her when she's all sick and sad?" She asked, having been talked into an extra story at bedtime almost every day that week. "I just want to see her happy again."
"I know you do," Maura nodded, leaning down and placing a kiss on the brunette's forehead. "You are a wonderful Mother Jane. Amelia is lucky to have you."
"Yeah?" Jane opened one eye to look up at her wife. "You don't think I let her get away with too much?"
"Of course you do," Maura laughed as Jane immediately pouted. "But you're learning," she added with a kiss on Jane's nose. "And I'm confident you'll get better with time, Amelia's just hard to say no to."
"You're telling me," Jane sighed. "And she's learning fast. She totally knows she can get away with more with me," she continued. "And I just don't know how I'm supposed to resist when she's looking at me with those big eyes and that cute little pout she gets when she really wants something."
"Oh the pout will get old," Maura continued to laugh, her hands suddenly leaving Jane's hair as she crawled over so she could straddle Jane's waist. "Don't worry Jane. You're doing a great job with Amelia."
"How great?" Jane opened her eyes, smiling as Maura's grin turned mischievous; another look that Jane had a difficult time resisting.
"Just the greatest," Maura replied, leaning down and kissing the brunette. "In fact that's not the only thing you've been great at," she pulled away, receiving a raised eyebrow from her wife whose eyes looked darker than usual. "You've also been a wonderful wife. In fact I think I'd like to show you just how wonderful you've been."
"Oh you would huh?" Jane smirked. "Well who am I to argue with that?"
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Jane was on cloud nine. For the last 6 months the Detective felt like her life had never been better. She had heard from countless people that the first year of marriage could be tough, but so far she couldn't help but think that, that was the furthest thing from the truth, as married life with Maura and Amelia was a dream come true. Sure, things weren't always perfect, they argued about silly things and got on each other's nerves constantly, but at the end of the day Jane was able to call Maura her wife and Amelia her daughter and that was enough for her.
Just like life at home, things at work had also been going well as she, Frost, Korsak and Maura seemed to close case after case as if nothing could stop them.
"What do we have boys?" Jane called as she helped Maura down the slight slope of the dirt path that led to their current crime scene.
"Boys?" Frost scoffed. "I think you mean men," he flipped up the collar of his jacket. "The boys are over there," he pointed to where Frankie and another officer were guarding the perimeter.
"All right, men," Jane rolled her eyes. "What do we have?"
"Her name's Celia Grant," Frost replied, reading through his notes. "Hiker found her here first thing this morning. She had her purse on her. I.D. was in there. She's 28 years old and she lives about 5 minutes from here. How's Mia?"
"She's feeling better," Maura smiled as she pulled on her gloves, placing her bag on the ground beside the victim so she could start her examination. "She's not exactly dressed for a hike is she?"
"Definitely not," Korsak shook her head. "There looks to be some drag marks over there," he pointed out. "But we haven't found any tire tracks near by. Whoever did this must have parked far enough away and carried her out."
"Which means they would have needed to be out here while it was still dark," Jane added. "And our killer would need to be relatively fit. She must weigh at least 120."
"Just about," Frost nodded. "Think you can give us a time of death doc?"
"Based on rigor I would say she's been dead at least 12 hours," Maura replied, her attention still on Celia's body.
"Which means she was definitely dead when she was brought out here," Jane nodded, looking at their surroundings. "Any guesses as to cause of death?" She asked with a smirk, knowing Maura hated when she was asked to guess; something Jane just couldn't resist doing.
"I don't see any obvious cause at the moment," Maura glared at her wife, while both Korsak and Frost hid their snickers. "You will have to wait for the autopsy for an answer, but there is some odd bruising around her wrists. It's possible her wrists were bound at some point. Do we know how long she's been missing?"
"A report was filed yesterday morning by her parents," Korsak was the one to reply. "They had been trying to get a hold of her and got worried when she never called back. They went to her apartment and she wasn't there either but her car was," he explained. "It appeared that she had been taken while getting out of her car."
"Any surveillance footage?" Jane asked.
"Cameras at the apartment were broken," Frost answered.
"Of course," Jane sighed. "Looks like we've got our work cut out for us. Don't have a lot to go on."
"Well we'll have more as soon as I finish," Maura stood up, pulling her gloves off and placing her things back in her case. "I'll see you later?"
"I'll come see you as soon as I'm back at the precinct Dr. Isles," Jane smiled, giving her wife a wink. "Try not to miss me too much."
"It will be difficult," Maura tried not to roll her eyes. "But I'll do my best."
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Maura never thought marriage would change her. She never imagined marrying Jane could change the way she lived her life, or the way she worked; and yet it did. Not only was Maura's home life better than she ever imagined possible, but she was feeling like she was connecting with people at work better than she ever used to and for reasons she couldn't quite explain, it was helping her do her job even better than she already did.
"We're going to find out who did this to you Celia," Maura whispered as she recovered Celia's body, having just finished her autopsy. "We're a great team and we'll find whoever did this to you."
"You know most people would find it strange that you're talking to a dead person," Jane startled the blonde as she made a quiet entrance. "But as your wife I must admit I find it kind of sweet," she smirked. "You okay?"
"Yes I'm fine," Maura nodded, reassuring her wife with a small smile. "I was just assuring Celia that we would find who did this to her," she explained, knowing Jane would understand.
"Of course we will," Jane nodded, moving closer to her wife, but resisting the urge to reach out for her. "Did you find anything?"
"Yes, I did. I found a cause of death," Maura replied, gesturing for Jane to come closer to look at the files she had completed. "It appears that Celia was poisoned."
"Poisoned?" Jane sounded surprised. "Really. That…that doesn't make any sense," she shook her head, suddenly confused. "I mean what kind of killer kidnaps someone and bounds them by the wrists only to poison them? I mean usually this stuff is about the torture but poison would mean a fast death."
"That's true," Maura nodded her agreement. "But choosing poison as a weapon tells us a lot about our killer," she added. "I mean we know he has to be physically strong to have carried Celia out to where he left her, but you're right, poison is a fast killer. It's also clean and doesn't really require a lot of effort. I would guess our killer hasn't done this before."
"But if that's true don't you think we would have found more clues?" Jane countered. "Tire tracks, fingerprints, footprints or at least a hair?"
"I thought about that," Maura replied. "And that's where I think the poison is also telling," she said. "It's possible that our killer is obsessed with cleanliness, which is why he was able to erase all traces of evidence."
"Like OCD?" Jane raised an eyebrow.
"It's just a theory," Maura shrugged.
"Sounds kind of like a guess to me," Jane laughed just as the morgue doors opened.
"Hey Dr. Isles we've got another one for you," the man wheeling a body in, greeted.
"Thank you Tim," Maura nodded, taking the file from the young man and giving it a glance over before opening up the body bag to get a look at the body just as Jane came over and Tim left.
"What happened to him?" Jane asked as she took a look at the man lying on the stretcher.
"Possible heart attack," Maura replied, having read it in the file. "But he looks so young. And he's so handsome. What a shame."
"He's so handsome, what a shame?" Jane scoffed. "So what if he was a dog it would be fine that he died?"
"Well of course not Jane," Maura scolded. "That wasn't what I meant. It's just that…"
"Uh Maur," Jane interrupted, pointing towards the body bag, which had suddenly tented up. "He's…" she froze as Maura quickly moved her hand into the bag.
"His penis has a pulse!" Maura exclaimed, shocking Jane, who took a moment to realize what this meant. "He's alive!"
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"Okay so explain to me how a Medical Examiner ends up saving a man's life," Angela said later that night as she handed both Jane and Maura a beer, before taking a seat in the chair across from them in the family room; Amelia sitting on Maura's lap.
"Well apparently our dead guy wasn't as dead as he appeared," Jane was the one to answer, glad that Amelia seemed unfazed by this response. "Once Maura figured that out she just flew into action. She knew exactly what to do and she saved him. You should have seen it! It was amazing! Mommy's a hero Mia."
"Wow," Amelia smiled, turning in Maura's lap so she could look up at the older blonde. "You're a hero Mommy!" She beamed wrapping her arms around Maura's neck.
"Well I couldn't have done it without your Mama," Maura was actually blushing. "She was a big help."
"Then Mama's a hero too!" Amelia grinned, jumping from Maura's lap to Jane's, immediately throwing her arms around the brunette, who luckily managed to catch her with a laugh.
"Thanks Bug," Jane placed a kiss on the little blonde's head.
"I am just so proud of both of you," Angela looked thrilled as she watched the little family from across the room. "You saved a life! That is a big deal! And it must be quite a change from what you're used to."
"I must admit it was a rather nice change," Maura nodded. "I mean I can't imagine doing it every day, but it did give me quite the rush."
"Yeah I gotta say it feels pretty good," Jane agreed, grinning at her wife. "I mean I know we didn't get very far on our case today, but I feel like we accomplished something great. Almost makes up for our lack of progress elsewhere."
"We'll solve the case Jane," Maura assured her, reaching out for the brunette's hand. "We always do. We make a great team."
"Yes. We do," Jane smiled, nodding. "The best."
