Sandy Springs, Georgia, 1958.

Jane Rizzoli is 19 years old, and struggles with the fact that she's gay. She does everything in her power to hide it from herself and everyone around her. But she just can't stay away when she meets Dr. Maura Isles.

Don't Stop Dancing, Girl

Chapter 1
Lollipop

"Can I get you anything else?"

Jane Rizzoli was standing in her pink 'Rizzoli & Sons' apron, happy as ever. She was always in an abnormally good mood every time she merely set foot in her father's ice cream shop. Her smile was positively radiating as she was serving a particularly cute older couple.

"No, thank you, darling," the lady answered with a wide and warm smile. "Oh, but wait!" she quickly added before she started digging in the purse. "There you go, dear," she said as she handed Jane a small pile of quarters.

"Thank you!" Jane said with a big smile.

Jane quickly went over to the jukebox to put the money to use. Her father had bought the machine just over a year ago, and it already looked as though it had been used for decades. Jane, her family, and the customers had been using it non-stop ever since. It was a good investment to the shop as it drew a lot of customers. Occasionally, the bar could even turn into a dance floor, filled with young as old dance enthusiasts.

Jane started singing and dancing lightly when 'Everybody Loves a Lover' by Doris Day started playing, as she prepared her orders. "I'm a lover, everybody loves me" she sang, which drew out a few howls from some customers. Jane laughed gaily, with a bright smile on her face, before she suddenly laid eyes on a young woman walking through the doors. Her mind fell blank, and she nearly dropped the ice cream she had in hand, as she could do nothing but stare. The woman was the most beautiful thing she's ever seen, Jane thought. Her eyes immediately landed on her beautiful face, which held eyes that looked like deep forests, and a smile as bright as the sun. Jane could almost feel her heart jumping as her eyes traveled down her body. The woman was wearing a cream white blouse, a pink skirt, which ended just below her knees, and a pair of very high white heels. To match her outfit, she was wearing a pearl necklace (which Jane couldn't help think looked awfully expensive). Her thick, strawberry blond hair was put up in a ponytail, and the curls flowed beautifully down her back. The woman was walking hand in hand with a man, who looked to be a few years older.

Jane suddenly felt somebody tugging on her shoulder. "Janie?" her mother's voice disrupted her thoughts. "You have customers, Jane. Get to work!"

"I, uhm… Okay, Ma," Jane stammered before she snapped back to reality and went to finish her orders. Jane felt her heart sink a little when she looked up again to search for the woman, only to find that she'd already left the shop. She desperately shook her head in attempt to rid her mind of what had just happened.

A few minutes later, she spotted Tommy, her little brother, and his friends. She waved and quickly went over.

"Hey, Tommy! What'll you have?"

"Uh… Just six specials," Tommy answered, clearly embarrassed of his sister in the pink apron.

Jane smiled, highly amused of how much discomfort she was causing her brother. She felt slightly worried, though, when she looked back and spotted Tommy's friends. It was a gang at school, 'White Monkeys', that he'd been hanging out with for a while. They were rather infamous around town, mainly for stealing cars and destroying property. Jane had told her brother time and again to avoid them, but being a typical 14-year old, he didn't care. He'd admired them for years, and for the past few weeks, it was all he could talk about. Both him and Jane had managed to keep it from their parents, though, as they both knew what kind of trouble it could bring him. But Jane had an eye on him, and made sure he knew what would happen if he did anything stupid.

As she prepared the ice creams for her brother and his friends, she couldn't help but just stand and admire her surroundings.

Her father's shop was really beautiful. Everything went in white and blue, with a black and white checkered floor (which Angela just recently had convinced Frank to put in).

It was a fairly small shop, but oh so lovely. Looking around, she spotted the older couple by the window, enjoying their vanilla-and-strawberry ice cream together. She smiled widely at the sight.

A few feet closer to her, a group of youngsters were laughing and all enjoying the Rizzoli Special, which consisted of three big scoops of chocolate ice cream with hazel nuts and fudge, sprinkled with coconut and caramel sprinkles and finally topped with an unhealthy amount of dark chocolate sauce and a small pile of whipped cream. It usually comes with one or two strawberries as well, but the kids were rarely that interested in fruit. Or anything remotely healthy, really.

'Lollipop' by The Chordettes suddenly came on the jukebox, and Jane adapted the look of a child on Christmas. She'd been listening and dancing to the song for weeks, and she just couldn't help herself this time either. She quickly ran over to the jukebox to turn up the volume, then grabbed her mother's hand and pulled her away from her customer.

"Jane! What are you-"

"Dance with me!" Jane happily interrupted.

Angela scanned Jane's face for a second before giving in and grabbing hold of her other hand and started swinging to the beat of the song.

They twisted and turned and laughed until they couldn't breathe. A few couples joined them on the floor in the middle of the shop, which had turned into a frantic dance floor. Others happily sat and laughed with them and cheered them on by clapping their hands together and hooting.
The show caught quite a few eyes from people outside, most of them smiling widely and walking by.

When the song ended, a big round of applause rose from the audience they'd gathered. The couples returned to their seats and their ice creams, all of them red in the face from dancing and laughing so hard. Jane and her mother came together in a long hug before taking a seat by a table nearby.

"I haven't danced like that in years!" Angela blurted as she tried to regain her breath. Jane laughed loudly and gave a mother a look of love and gratefulness.

They sat there a few minutes, catching their breath and laughing together before getting up on their feet to get back to work.

Meanwhile, Maura was walking hand in hand with her fiancé by the river, while eagerly eating her mint-chocolate-with-everything ice cream.

Hank was talking about his promotion, which Maura usually had been happy to listen to, but she found herself strangely distant. Her mind kept going back to a young girl she'd laid eyes on in the ice cream bar. She didn't know why, but she felt herself being oddly drawn to her. Almost like destiny was supposed to bring them together.

Silly, she thought.

The girl had been wearing a white T-shirt with some sort of rock'n'roll band printed on it, Maura guessed, and bright, blue and very worn out jeans under her pink apron (which Maura thought she'd looked awfully cute in).

Her hair was like an amazon-woman's, Maura thought. It was long, mysteriously dark, and filled with wild curls, and her eyes were big and displayed a wildness that Maura couldn't quite comprehend.
Maura had caught her openly staring and couldn't help but feel flattered. She'd felt particularly pretty that day, wearing her new outfit her fiancé had bought for her as an apology for spending so much time at work lately, due to his promotion.

"Maura?" Hank asked with a tone of concern.

Maura quickly snapped back to reality. "Hmm?"

"Are you okay? You seem a little distant, dear."

"Oh, yes," Maura responded cheerfully. "I'm so happy, darling, and I just keep thinking my life's like a dream. A fairytale, almost."

This brought out an impossibly wide smile in her fiancé. "I'm so glad, Maura. You make me so happy, and I can't even begin to explain how much you mean to me. I love you, darling," he said before he wrapped the hand he'd been holding Maura's with around her waist and drawing her in for a soft kiss on the mouth.

They looked at each other in a moment of silence before Maura sighed happily and went back to her ice cream (which, she had to admit, was the best she'd ever had).

This night was something Maura had been longing for for several weeks. It was the grand opening of Jazz, the new dance club in town. Maura had nagged at Hank for days to convince him to go, which had paid off when he'd finally agreed.

Maura was standing in front of the mirror in her bedroom, singing, while gently running a brush through her thick curls. Her ever so happy mood had remained the entire day, and her smile now grew bigger and bigger with each minute that past.

Dancing had always been a passion of Maura's. It was something she'd been taught all her life by her father, and something she always could escape to when life was hard. Before she and her father had moved to Sandy Springs, when she lived in Savannah, she'd go out dancing every night together with her father or her friends.

Maura was startled out of tune when she heard a loud honk from Hank's brand new Chevy, which she'd helped pick out just the day before. Hank had picked the type of car and Maura had picked the color. She'd chosen a bright, baby blue color (her favorite).

"Coming!" Maura shouted through her opened bedroom window as she gathered her things and practically skipped down the stairs and out the door.

Jane arrived to Jazz together with her family, everybody very eager to check out the new club the whole town had been talking so much about for the past few weeks.

Jane immediately fell in love with the place at first sight. It was a big space with gorgeous wooden floors, optimal for dancing, and bright yellow walls. In the back corner she spotted the bar, where a few people already had settled for the evening. In the opposite corner, she spotted the jukebox and some chairs.

The stage was located in the other side of the room, where a band of four young boys (whom Jane recognized from school) was playing 'Sweet Little Sixteen' by Chuck Berry, and the dance floor was quickly filling up with enthusiastic dancers.

Jane took a step to find a partner and join the people on the dance floor, but suddenly felt a hand wrapping around her waist and pulling her in for a hug.

"Hi, sweetie," Casey said in a low voice before giving Jane a brief kiss on the cheek.

Jane was too excited to answer him, and instead just gave him a quick smile and grabbed his hand to lead him out onto the floor.

"Come on!" she said with a bright smile and a glimpse in her eyes.

They were dancing intensely to the fourth song of the night when Jane suddenly spotted the woman she'd seen in the shop earlier walking through the door. Her arm was wrapped around the same man Jane had seen with her before. Probably her boyfriend, Jane figured.

Jane was, once again, absolutely mesmerized by the woman. She immediately noticed that she'd let her hair down. Gorgeous curls were lightly grazing her slightly pink cheeks, her neck, and the top of her-

Jane was drawn out back to reality when she noticed a hand waving in front of her face.

"What?" Jane hadn't even noticed that she'd stopped dancing.

"What are you staring at?" Casey asked, slightly annoyed, before turning his head to search for the distraction.

"Nothing!" Jane desperately tugged at his shoulder to regain his attention. She felt embarrassed by the fact that she'd openly stared at a woman, and didn't want to take it any further by letting her boyfriend know.

Casey knew she was lying, but also knew there wasn't much point to start arguing. "Fine," he grunted.

They picked up the dancing again in silence when the next song started.

Maura walked into the club in the same happy mood she'd left home with. Her smile grew to impossibility when she took in the sight in front of her. "Oh, Hank, it's been so long since I've been dancing! Thank you so much for taking me here tonight," Maura said, so happy she thought she was about to start crying.

Hank smiled brightly back at her and gave her a side hug before walking towards the bar to get a drink. Maura was about to follow him, but stopped abruptly as she caught the eye of the girl she'd seen in the ice cream shop. She felt a strong twitch in her stomach when she noticed the young boy the girl was dancing with. She did her best to try not to analyze why.

She was left staring at the girl, unable to avert her eyes, before Hank came up to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Ready to dance?" he asked.

"Oh, yes," Maura answered before practically dragging him out on the floor.

Maura soon forgot about the feeling in her stomach and just enjoyed the evening. She'd missed dancing immensely, and was happily exhausted when she finally got home and into her bed. She still had some trouble sleeping, though, as her mind just wouldn't stop picturing the mystery girl she'd seen through the day. She couldn't stop thinking about how her heart had felt as if it had skipped a beat every time she caught her eye, or how she'd almost felt jealous seeing her dancing with somebody besides her.

You don't even know her name! What are you doing? Maura scolded herself and tried to force the thoughts away.

Unable to, she soon fell asleep with nothing but the girl on her mind.

Perhaps it would've been a consolation to know that just a few miles away, Jane was doing the exact same thing.