It was a Tuesday night. Basketball was on and Maura had been kind enough to allow Jane to watch the Celtics game while she dusted one of her shelves of primitive art, specifically the Pacific Rim shelf. Jane sat comfortably on the couch holding a beer in one hand and the remote in the other. The Celtics took a three point shot from the line right before the buzzer and bricked it. The announcers mumbled a few quick quips and it cut to commercial.
Jane looked to Maura as the woman reached for a wooden mask bearing the face of a mutated owl with constipation. Jane would never understand what drew the doctor towards such bizarre forms of art. She watched Maura grasp the mask by the chin her entire body a perfect line from the top of her longest finger to the tip of her toes. No wooden masks of garish freak creatures could hold a candle to the masterpiece that was Maura. Jane could gaze at her all day. They could literally erect a building called "The Maura Isles Museum". It would have just one room with Maura standing in it doing practically anything and Jane would stand there all day long.
"How often do you dust those?" Jane casually inquired taking a sip of beer.
"It depends on the collection. Some hold onto or show dust easier than others. A certain amount of it can be traced to the grain of the wood. A deep or open grain tends to hold onto dust and reflect it more easily. These pieces are made of a fine, closed-grain wood indigenous to the jungles of Papua New Guinea and-"
"Okay, Maura, I got it. I was looking for more of a number. Like once a month?" Jane pressed the doctor though she couldn't help but be charmed by the woman's extensive command of useless knowledge.
"Oh," Maura smiled adorably, realized she'd been rambling, blushed and attempted a more succinct answer, "Well, these masks, because of the fine grain, get dusted the least often which means once every nine days."
"Nine days?" Jane drawled. "Maura why-"
Maura cut her off, "I thought you wanted me to be brief. But if you really want me to extensively explain my rationale to you I'm more than willing."
Jane put up her hands in defeat, "No, you're right. Nine days it is."
Maura nodded content to go back to her dusting. Jane's eyes went back to the tv. It was still commercials. She sighed and took yet another sip of beer more out of boredom than desire as she offered her thoughts aloud, "Something must be up with this game. This is a lot of commercials."
"You sighed. Are you bored?" Maura queried as her eyes focused on removing all dirt particles from under the prodigious nose of a mask that looked like a weeping monkey.
Jane was bored but not eager to admit it. She didn't like being easy to read but so often with Maura she seemed an open book. It was a constant source of amazement to the detective how despite Maura's uncanny ability to read Jane's emotional states from the slightest of physical cues she had not yet picked up on Jane's longstanding and deep-seeded crush on her. The truth was no matter what Jane was feeling at any given moment throughout the day, whether she was with Maura or not, always in the background like a pilot light, Jane burned for Maura.
How did Maura feel? Maura liked Jane a lot. She'd been nursing a crush on Jane but did not allow it to go much farther that, in reality or the confines of her mind. They were so different. Jane was brave, stoic, sarcastic and lived simply. Maura was inclined to complicate things with facts and details, decorations and thoughts. She lived an elegant lifestyle and did what she could to avoid conflict. Besides she never expected someone as impressive as Jane to be interested in her. Many times Maura would find herself standing next to Jane in public wondering what people saw when they looked at them. She felt like a shy, awkward mouse next to Jane; fair but plain. Jane was dark, gorgeous and determined. And she always moved with purpose. Maura did not allow her mind to wander much past the barriers of reality. She feared igniting a desire which would prove difficult to extinguish.
But there Jane sat. On her couch watching basketball, her work-shirt long ago discarded in the guest bedroom leaving her in a white tank top, work pants and work shoes. Her long, dark hair fell around her face in a combination of ephemeral curls and twisting rebellion. Maura made a note to find a reason to touch the woman's hair at some point that night.
"I'm almost through dusting but if you'd like you can take a look at my oven. There is something in there making a funny noise when you pre-heat it. A repairman is coming Friday but maybe you could save him a trip."
Jane's father, the lout, possessed a love for tinkering with things. He passed the trait down, and hopefully ONLY that one, to all of his children. The chance to tinker with Maura's oven, pun intended, piqued Jane's interest. She stood and sauntered over to the oven taking a final swig of her beer before setting the empty down on the island and regarding the oven with a fixed gaze.
"Yeah okay, maybe I'll get lucky and it'll be an easy fix." Jane agreed. Knowing where Maura kept her tools, she headed to get them. Upon her return Maura was onto a new mask polishing the jowls of one that resembled the lovechild of a horse and an iguana.
Jane selected the tools she thought she might need, opened the oven door and craned inside. Clicking on a penlight she studied the interior and found it to be surprisingly dirty. "Doctor Isles your oven!" she exclaimed from inside in a mock-housewife tone, "I would never expect it to be this dirty!"
The word "dirty" in either context always captured Maura's attention. The doctor walked over with a concerned look in her eyes. "Dirty? Oh no. That's not dirt, Jane. It's Gestalt."
"God Bless you."
"No, Jane," Maura began smiling at the woman's response. "Gestalt refers to the build-up of cooking layers, much like seasoning, which imbues a more nuanced flavor to the food cooked within it."
"Call it whatever you want," Jane stated easing out from inside the oven to grab another tool, "But it's dirty."
Inside the oven once more the detective began making small banging and tinkering noises with her tools as she worked. Maura folder her arms regarding the woman's lower half as she inquired, "How often do you clean YOUR oven?"
"I don't." Jane answered amidst her repairs. She followed up, "But that's because I am dirty. But you know, in an adorable way. No one expects my oven to be clean."
Charming lines like that which the detective tossed off with such practiced ease always made Maura swoon. She was grateful the brunette's head was buried in the oven so she couldn't Maura's physical response to her words. Jane kept tinkering away making many sounds that indicated progress. Finally she stopped, took a long deep breath and said, "Okay, that's it."
"Oh!" Maura responded happily, "You fixed it?"
Jane extricated herself from the mouth of the oven, covered in streaks of dusty black char. They darkened her face and tank top sullying the detective in such a way as to make Maura suddenly feel flush with desire. Jane looked rugged and raw as if she'd just taken apart a racecar engine. Her neck was dewy with sweat. Maura licked her lips unconsciously as Jane responded, "Nope, didn't fix a thing. Sorry."
Jane placed the tools back in Maura's toolbox and was starting to wipe off her hands when she realized Maura was staring at her. "What?" she asked in her usual husky tone.
"What?" Maura asked back. She was so distracted by Jane's entire being at the moment she had no idea where they were in the conversation.
Jane chuckled nervously as she asked again, "You were staring at me Maura, why?"
"Oh, it's just that you, um, got some gestalt on your face and shirt." Pointing it out verbally made the doctor more nervous.
Jane looked down seeing the mess she'd made of her tank top and rightly assumed her face looked just as bad. "Geez, I really got it all over me. Too bad I didn't actually fix anything." She took the rag and began to wipe herself off when Maura stepped in.
"Here, let me help, I have a better" she paused trying to think of a judicious word she settled on, "perspective." Taking the rag from Jane's hand she started to clean her up. But she took her time, for a lot of reasons.
"You've been dusting for forty five minutes in a white shirt and white pants and you still look perfect. I try to fix your oven for less than five minutes and I come out looking like a coal miner."
"Well you said it yourself Jane," Maura began, "You're dirty and I'm not."
"Hey!" Jane protested.
Maura paused in her ministrations putting a warm hand on each of Jane's cheeks before offering lovingly, "But adorably so."
Any objection in the brunette's eyes melted away replaced by a look half surprised and half smitten. It touched Maura's heart and before she knew what she was doing she leaned forward and placed a tender kiss slightly askew, on Jane's lips. It was only as she pulled back that it hit her what she had done.
"Oh, Jane I-" she stumbled wanting to immediately make excuses for her lack of inhibition but Jane's urgency silenced her words.
"No more talking." Her sooty hands took firm hold of Maura's hips pushing the woman back and against the island. Soft breasts underneath a dirty tank top pressed into Maura as the detective's face got so close she felt her warm breath ushering in sumptuous lips. The kiss was instantly deep. It broke all of their walls, everything put up between them was torn down in a single incendiary moment.
Maura felt as if somehow she lost her balance and was falling rapidly upward with each exquisite touch. "Jane," she began trying to find a moment amidst the desperate flurry of desire to condense her thoughts. "Jane, please, Jane" begging her name only spurred the detective on as she pressed her body harder into Maura. She kissed her deeper still and ran her hands so hard down the woman's sides it burned. Maura was delirious with twin needs. She needed this woman to never ever stop touching her and yet she needed to speak.
Jane began feasting on her neck freeing Maura's mouth to stumble around toward a coherent sentence. "Jane, my God, Jane, we, us, we, what is, oh, I mean , what is this?" Jane ignored the breathless question and continued to devour the woman's neck. "I'm serious, I mean it, I-I-I, I mean-" Jane managed to stop all Maura's words when she found a particular spot right between the neck and collarbone. It magically halted all brain activity in the doctor for a solid ten seconds.
When Maura finally regained knowledge of her own existence she spoke again, still breathless but with more determination, "Jane, please, wait, what is this?"
It was the word "wait". Jane stopped everything she was doing and pulled back enough to see the doctor's face. She too was breathless and barely able to pull her thoughts together amidst the churn of desire. She said no more but was able to reign in her need long enough to give the woman space to speak if she wanted.
"What is this Jane? Should we be doing this?"
Jane felt herself get angry and she gripped Maura's shoulders with insistence her brown eyes boring into pleading greens, "No, DON'T do this now!" she stated. She got close to Maura's face so close it seemed they might kiss again but Jane continued, "Don't question it, don't fight it. We are here now. This moment is here. I can feel you, you can feel me. We know the truth."
Shakespeare had nothing on this homicide detective. With renewed vigor and lust Maura pulled Jane into a zealous kiss. Jane couldn't stop the smile spreading across her face as Maura kissed her insistently. After a few moments of this Jane pulled back just enough to say in a gravelly voice thick with confidence and desire, "I guess this means you're taking me to bed?"
The words poured over Maura like the first deliciously hot streams of water in a morning shower. She bit her bottom lip to keep from grinning outright though it was difficult when she beheld Jane's cocky smirk. "What makes you think I'm that easy Detective?" she asked betraying herself with a flirtatious tone.
Jane's warm, strong hands trailed up the doctor's sides and back down again to settle comfortably on Maura's waist as she stated, "I don't think you are Doctor. But I know I am."
Maura felt desire flare inside her like a gasoline fire. Her nostrils flared, a physical manifestation of her arousal. Without giving it another thought she wrapped her arms around Jane's neck and hopped into her arms. Jane hadn't expected the move and though she was able to catch Maura she stumbled for a moment before she could right herself. It didn't help any that Maura didn't seem to care whether she was dropped or not choosing instead to immediately shower Jane's face with loving, rapid kisses before the detective steadied herself.
She managed to carry Maura into her bedroom only running into the wall once along the way. To be fair she couldn't see anything and she had Maura in front of her to act as a shield. Jane dropped Maura rather unceremoniously onto the bed wanting a moment to catch her breath. Maura gave her no time for it by reaching out for a fistful of Jane's tank top. She yanked it so hard it ripped Jane's thin shirt practically in half.
Jane straddled the smaller woman and hovered over her stating, "Look what you did Maura. This was my best tank top!"
"That can't be true." Maura reasoned.
Jane's eyes widened, "What do you mean? You ripped it in half. I can't ever wear it again."
"No I meant that can't possibly be your best tank top. Point of fact, there's actually no such thing as a best-tank-top." The woman reasoned.
Jane's reaction was to grin wildly and shake her head as she observed, "You are one geeky, gorgeous, goofball. You know that?"
This time Maura rose up from the bed to meet Jane speaking in a voice so thick with need it caused Jane's heart to flutter. "To quote Jane Rizzoli, 'no more talking.'" She sealed the statement with a kiss so deep and passionate it stoked fires within them that wouldn't be extinguished until early the next morning.
The Next Morning
Angela Rizzoli woke up earlier than usual. Normally she would look out her window to Maura's and see the doctor's lights already on. Maura normally rose quite early to do yoga, meditation and get ready. But this morning it was still dark. Jane's car had spent the night in the driveway which meant Jane had spent the night inside which wasn't uncommon. Angela felt bad going into the house when Maura hadn't yet stirred but she really needed a cup of coffee.
Deciding she would make coffee for everyone and maybe even a quick pastry she let herself into the house and started putting together the coffee in the kitchen. Once it was brewing she endeavored to make a quick batch of biscuits to have with jam and butter.
Once the biscuits were in the oven she wandered over to the guest room to see if Jane was stirring. As she neared the door she saw that it was wide open. Barely peaking in, because she didn't want to be nosey, she saw the bed still made. That was odd. If Jane's car was still in the driveway and Jane wasn't asleep in the guest room where was she?
She turned and headed back toward the kitchen. It wasn't any of her business where her daughter was. Maybe she had just parked her car at Maura's but was out somewhere else. Maybe she was out on a date. Angela sighed. That was probably not true. All of Jane's dates seemed to be short-lived and unremarkable.
Reaching the kitchen she just kept going deciding to casually walk past Maura's bedroom door to see if it was in the same state as Jane's. Ha, Jane's bedroom. It's funny how easily she thought of the guestroom as Jane's bedroom. Though, to be fair, her daughter did basically seem to live at Maura's.
Maura's door was shut and there was no light coming from under the door. She wasn't awake. She would deny it to herself later but Angela was just starting to bend down to peer through the keyhole when the oven timer dinged signaling it was time to take the biscuits out.
As she plated them the door to Maura's bedroom opened and a very scantily clad Dr. Maura Isles emerged. She wore a scandalously short, flower-patterned silk robe. She moved slowly with heavy lidded eyes and hair tousled like she'd gone paragliding in a tornado. Neither she nor Angela saw each other until they almost collided.
The near miss caused them both to scream in terror/surprise. They grabbed each other's arms to steady themselves both physically and in the moment. "Oh Honey I'm sorry!" Angela exclaimed, "I didn't hear you come out."
"Angela, no it's my fault I-" But Maura never got to finish. She was cut off by Jane suddenly appearing in bedroom doorway bleary-eyed, brandishing her gun as she yelled,
"WHAT!? WHAT!? Maura! Are you okay!?"
Maura and Angela yelped and ducked as Jane's gun pointed momentarily in their direction before the detective realized the current situation did not reflect the horrified screams she heard a few seconds earlier. "Jesus! I thought someone had broken in!" she cursed.
"Sorry Janey it's just me." Angela apologized. The woman was only barely aware she had even said anything to her daughter as the majority of her intellectual bandwidth at that moment was being taken up by what it mean that Jane came barreling out of Maura's bedroom in the early morning hours wearing only her boy-short underwear and what appeared to be a severely damaged tank top. "Wait a second," she began as she looked to Maura. Disheveled hair, extremely short robe, Oh-my-GOD, "You slept together!" Angela yelled directing the final portion of her train of thought right into the station.
Jane's eyes went wide and she felt herself going into panic mode. She put up her hands approaching her mother slowly as she attempted denial, "Ma, no it's not what it looks like."
"Actually it's completely what it looks like." Maura countered logically.
"Ma, don't freak out." Jane continued as if she was a hostage negotiator.
"Me? Freak out?" Angela asked in a tone difficult to discern.
"Do you need to sit down?" Jane offered taking her mother by the elbow. "Can I get you some water?"
"Jane," Angela began stopping her daughter and forcing eye contact with her. "Tell me now, with your own words. Are you and Maura sleeping together?"
Jane offered her trademark look of confusion as she stumbled, "Uh, ah, I uh, I mean we were um intimate last night." She answered so painfully awkwardly it made Bass squirm, "I mean, are we gonna continue to sleep together going forward? I don't know I mean that seems a bit of a premature question to be asking. I hope so. Gosh I REALLY hope so. But I don't want to assume I mean-" Jane was rambling and to Maura it was adorable. To Angela it was annoying. The older woman put her hand on Jane's arm to stop her unchecked word-vomit.
"Just one second honey okay?" she reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She dialed a number and put it to her ear while she waited for the answer.
Jane was completely confused. Her eyebrows scrunched up and she turned to see what Maura thought of the current situation. She found her new girlfriend only half paying attention as she sipped hot coffee and munched on a warm biscuit slathered in butter and jam. Jane rolled her eyes and turned back to her mother just as the call was answered.
"Tommy!" Angela greeted her son. "Yeah, I know it's early I'm sorry Sweetie but I wanted to tell you that I'm going to need your help moving out next weekend." The sound of Tommy on the other end of the line was only vaguely coherent just like the teacher on Charlie Brown. His response suddenly sounded very loud and jubilant. Angela replied with her own voice and face lighting up as she did so, "I KNOW! I can't believe it either! FINALLY!" More garbled but upbeat Tommy sounds followed then Angela replied, "Yeah, I know. I came into Maura's this morning to make coffee and out they both came half naked and all fussed up!" Tommy responded with something funny and Angela laughed, "Yeah well Jane pulled her gun on me!" More Tommy then, "Okay Honey I gotta go. Tell Frankie he won the pool. Okay, buh bye."
"What the hell was that?" Jane asked quite irritated.
"Oh Jane, first of all go put on some clothes that aren't torn. My God Maura you can't let your girlfriend walk around in torn clothes." Angela chastised adding, "I'd say you need to let Jane borrow your robe but I'm sure you're naked underneath."
"I sure am!" Maura confirmed as she took another large bite of biscuit. They tasted like soft, warm heaven and she was famished.
"You are NOT helping!" Jane cursed as she stomped into the bedroom grabbing the first thing she found.
Once she was back out she started interrogating her mother. "Why did you call Tommy? What is going on? Are you pissed off right now? Or in denial? I just came OUT to you Ma." Jane spoke.
Angela laughed, "Came out? Good Lord Jane you act as if I haven't watched you grow up for the past thirty some years. I've known you liked girls since you first participated in organized sports. This is no surprise."
Jane had always dreaded coming out to her mother but she certainly didn't expect the final moment to be so anti-climactic. "You've known for all these years? Okay. But what about me and Maura? That's got to be a surprise."
Angela laughed even harder at that. This time Maura responded with brief indignance, "Hey!" It wasn't much but it was something given she was still stuffing herself with biscuits.
"I agree with my girlfriend, 'Hey!'" Jane mimicked.
"Look, girls, I know you both thought you were keeping some huge secret," Angela began, "But believe me fourteen year old girls with unlimited text messaging plans could keep this secret better than you did. Everyone has known for three years now. Well, everyone except you two apparently."
From shock, the second half of Maura's fifth biscuit fell to the counter with a light thud. Jane looked at her and then her mother saying, "The only thing I have to drop out of shock right now is my gun and that's not safe but let it be known that I too am SHOCKED!"
Angela continued since neither of the women appeared to have the wherewithal to continue their end of the conversation. "We've all had bets on it for awhile now. It's been easier since I started working at the precinct café. The pool is much bigger now and so is the pot. Maybe Frankie will use it to pay off his credit card."
Jane looked to Maura again throwing her hands up in the air, "Is this happening?" she asked her girlfriend and God.
Finally Maura contributed to the conversation in a positive way asking, "You told Tommy you were going to move. What was that about?"
"Yeah!" Jane agreed, "Great question Honey!" she encouraged. Maura smiled winningly at the support.
"Oh that," Angela dismissed as she walked back toward the kitchen to get her coffee, "Well now I can finally move out and get an apartment."
"Because I'm gay?" Jane concluded suddenly scared again.
"Actually it's because you're both gay, together."
"That doesn't make me feel better." Jane quipped.
"I moved in at Maura's invitation to give you more of an excuse to be over here if you needed it. Now that you two are together I can move out and get my own place."
Maura smiled extending a half hug to Angela with the hand that wasn't holding coffee, "Angela, that's so sweet."
Angela smiled at the doctor as Jane countered, "Is it? Is it sweet or is it kind of manipulative and intrusive?"
"Oh come on Jane." Angela began, "If we left the two of you to your own devices you wouldn't have gotten together until the sun turns into a red giant."
Jane had no idea what that meant and Maura smiled happily, "What an eloquent and apt astrophysical turn of phrase."
"Thanks, I watched a program on the Discovery Channel last night."
"Oo, which one?" Maura inquired until Jane yelled at both of them.
"Okay enough!"Jane's hands were balled into fists at her sides as she responded a tad petulantly, "Mother please take your cup of coffee and go back to the guest house you plan to vacate in the near future. I would like to spend the rest of my morning with JUST Maura."
"Leave the biscuits." Maura added.
Jane concurred, "Yep, leave the biscuits."
Angela lunged at both women pulling them into a strong hug. "I love you both so much!" she declared. Once she let go she took her warm mug of coffee and headed out the door.
When she was gone Jane turned to Maura and took her in her arms. "I still have no idea what just happened." She stated.
Maura sighed contentedly as she gazed into Jane's soft brown eyes, "I think we just found out that everyone has been rooting for us."
"Do you want to go back in your room and root for ourselves?"
"So much." Maura agreed adding, "bring the biscuits."
Jane reached out with a long arm and snagged the plate of biscuits before disappearing into Maura's bedroom.
THE END
Follow Ups:
Frankie made a extra $50 payment on his credit card making his new balance $4,950 then bought a pair of Oakleys and a framed print of Al Pacino as Serpico for his living room.
Tommy finally had a conversation everyone could hear.
Angela never got around to moving out.
Maura ate too many biscuits.
Jane never slept in the guest room again.
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