I am not making a profit off this. Character belong to others, I just play with them for a bit then return them to their normal, straightish spots at the end of paragraphs.
Rated T to M
A Purrr-fect evening
"I'll be there in just a minute," Jane Rizzoli shouted, her face dipped down and her focus narrowed on the three by five screen of her touch screen phone. She leaned back against her car trunk, her fingers moving furiously over the screen to finish typing her response in. With the thump of her thumb against the screen she sent off her latest thought out into the vast world of cyberspace.
"Jane, this body isn't planning to get up and walk toward you. Put your phone away and come over here," Frost shouted back at his occupied partner and rolled his eyes as she flipped him off, then stashed her phone into her pants front pocket.
"You know Frost, Maura's not even here yet." Jane made an elaborate gesture of taking off her sunglasses and looking all around the alley for the elusive Medical Examiner, and not seeing her, turned back to glare at her partner. "I don't see her. Do you? No, didn't think so." She jabbed her finger in his direction. "And quit rolling your eyes like a teenage girl. Man up here and calm down." Pushing up her sleeves, she gazed down at the spread eagled body before her. "Fill me in while we wait on Maura," she said to Frost, her eyes never leaving the body. "He looks young, probably 20 to 25."
Frost smiled at Jane, listening to her thinking out loud, then said, "the call came in around three. The restaurant to your left is open until two in the morning, and caters to the college crowd. They serve alcohol and have live music most nights."
"Probably lured out here, maybe a drug deal gone wrong. With kids these days, it's hard to know." Jane looked over at him. "Any witnesses?" She stared at the half clothed man for another minute. "Do you think it's a sex crime? Based on the positioning of the body…"
"I'm not gonna say yet. Wait on the Doc. "
She knelt down to get a better view. Gently lifting the t-shirt, she confirmed that he was without pants. Glancing down at his feet, she said, "Frost, looks like he's missing a shoe. Orange sandal. Look around for it will ya?"
"Sure thing, ma'am," he muttered, walking away from her to circumvent the alley. Jane taught him to look under the dumpsters for clues, so he knelt down and peeked under the dumpster directly across from the victim. He grinned as he saw the balled up pair of white pants and the orange sandals. "Found em," he said in a sing-song voice. Quickly snapping a photo of the evidence, he then reached under and gingerly pulled out the bundle, looked over them and put them in an evidence bag for the Lab-techs to look over.
Jane stood up, pulling out her notepad and started to make notes. Hearing Frost, she muttered, "that's great." She walked over to him to look over the evidence, and hearing the sound of tires crunching down rocks, she looked up and right at Maura Isles driving the Coroner's van. Jane shrugged at Maura, then laughed at her friend as Maura delicately stepped down and out of the van, being extremely careful not to bend or break the heels on her boots.
"Maura, so glad you could come to our little party," Jane burred, flipping shut her notepad and ignoring Frost in favor of paying attention to her colleague. Maura shut the door of the van and looked up, meeting Jane's eyes, smiled at her then pulled out her touch-screen phone from her coat pocket. She used her thumb and scrolled down the screen, glancing down at the screen and giggling at something she saw, then typed a response while ignoring Jane's suddenly scowling face in the process.
"Hey Digital Doc," Jane shouted, waving her hands in front of Maura's face to get her attention. "Body. Over there." She pointed behind her with her thumb.
"My eyesight isn't damaged," Maura responded, never taking her eyes from the tiny phone screen as her fingers moved and jabbed at the shiny glass. "I'm inputting some information into my calendar."
Jane raised an eyebrow. "Mmhmm. And you always laugh at your schedule?"
"When it contains information of a humorous nature, yes." Maura finished typing, locked the screen then slipped it back into her coat pocket, her eyes lifting up to meet Jane's skeptic gaze. "Body you say? Why, lead the way, Detective."
Jane turned on her heel, stomping toward the supine man, laid out in the middle of the alley. She pointed down at him, nodded to Maura then turned to Frost. "Here he is, I'm going to interview the owner of the club that found him. Where's he at man?"
"He's inside speaking with a uniformed officer. I was just about to do that. In fact, Jane, why don't you assist the Doc here and then we'll coagulate our strategies later," Frost said, grinning then spun on his heel and left the two women alone in the alley.
Maura knelt over the body, looking at the condition of the skin and the clothing. She went back to the van for her scene case, leaving Jane by the body. She leaned against her door and pulled out her phone again, checking the status of her sent message. The red message light, indicating a received message remained dark. She sighed as she slipped the phone back into her pocket and proceeded with getting her material. Closing the door, she looked up and met Jane's stare.
Jane snorted, watching Maura slip the phone into the pocket, trying to be discreet but not really succeeding. "Maura…you ready to get to work or do I need to leave you and your phone alone here. I've got places to be and things to do," Jane shouted, patting her trouser pocket as she felt her phone vibrate inside, indicating a message was received.
Maura ignored Jane until she set out her scene kit and finished taking the specifics of ambient temperature versus body temperature and calculating in her head to get an accurate estimate on the time of death. She penciled in the time on her scene clipboard, her gloved fingers slipping on the slim pencil she clutched in her left hand. When she put the clipboard away, then she glanced up and looked at Jane.
Jane stood off to the side, one of her hands ungloved and her thumb scrolling on her touch-screen phone, which matched Maura's exactly. They purchased the phones at the same company. "Detective, this body isn't going tell you what happened to it, and I doubt that your phone will give you the answers to the crime."
"MMM. What?" Jane smiled as she looked up, her hand quickly slipping her phone back into her pocket as discreetly as possible. She snapped her glove back on as if she had never removed it.
"Jane, when you end up with Hepatitis because you just did that, I am not going to hold your hand why they poke you with many needles at the hospital."
"Hepakack? I'm not gonna get anything. I haven't touched the body yet? Or any of his, stiff parts."
"It appears that he was sexually assaulted, but I won't be sure until I get him unclothed and on the table. Have the Sex crimes unit been notified, or were you planning to send them an email via phone?" Maura said, her voice light and sarcastic as she was able to make it without sounding condescending.
"Okay. Fine. If you must know, I was checking my purrs."
"Your what? You are not telling me that you have a purring phone?"
"No, it's the new way of communicating. The software is called Meow and you send Purrs, uh, notification on the timeline. It's like status updates, the newest thing in digital messaging. People book is so out of date nowadays."
"Oh, you're on Meow too." Maura ducked her head, suddenly wondering if Jane knew that she was also on Meow and Purred on a regular basis. In fact, that's what she was doing when she stepped out the van. Since she signed up for Meow, she rarely left her phone alone, it was with her at all times, even during autopsies. She was border lining on obsession, but she couldn't put the phone down for very long, the addiction to the program was so strong.
"Yeah. I follow the Sox and a few others, mainly cops but a few famous people. There's this one user, name is IncisiveSlices, lives somewhere in Boston and is absolutely hilarious. It doesn't say the gender in the profile, but I'd almost bet female based on the Purrs, because they are full of intelligence in the most endearing of ways. A man that smart would be condescending and a complete ass wipe. But, I love reading her updates," Jane smiled, flipping out her notebook to finish writing down the scene notes, because Maura was right about the body not speaking and solving the crime all on its own. After a few lines, she looked over at Maura and noticed the pale sheen to her normally ruddy complexion.
"Hey Doc. Are you okay? You look a little sick."
Maura shook her head to clear it. "I'm fine. I'll let the transport get him to the morgue. I'll meet you down in the autopsy suite." She shuffled her materials into her case and quickly walked away, not looking Jane in the eyes again until she was seated in the van and staring at Jane over the steering wheel. The deep brown eyes of her friend and colleague looked concerned and confused. Maura looked down at her lap, then reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, seeing the red light blinking that a message had been received. It was a tail, stuck on the end of her last update.
She exhaled as she unlocked the screen and read the message.
If you have time, I'd like to direct message you and maybe get to know you better, LustriousLead.
With shaking fingers, Maura typed in a response.
I am free this evening. Message me at twenty hundred.
Then she started the car, gazing up once more and only seeing an empty space where Jane once stood. She looked around and after not seeing her, pulled away from the alley, her phone still resting in her lap. As she drove down the street toward the precinct building, her phone bleeped and the message light started to blink. She quickly pulled into the parking lot for the morgue, then eagerly unlocked her phone screen, and reading the message that popped up.
I live in Boston too, so why don't we just meet up and save all this digital shadow, stalking thing for another day. And, I'm not sure I can wait until eight tonight. So, please meet me at the café at the corner of 16th and Sherman. At fourteen hundred. LustriousLead.
The message light blinked again to indicate another incoming message. This message from another one of her Meow followers.
Doc, it's Frost. I'm going to bury Jane's phone in that dead body if you don't take it away from her. She keeps reading the screen and grinning like a nimrod! We just left the scene and we'll be there in a bout twenty minutes.
Maura laughed, typing in a response and still sitting in the van. How did you match the username to me?
A minute later, a response came. Because nobody else speaks the way you do. Easy to figure out. And I am a Detective. Now, please hurry. +Takes phone…smacks Jane+
On the way. Do you think that Jane knows? That it's me?
Bleep. She opened his response and smiled as she read. Nope. She's pretty oblivious to things that are right in front of her face. Quite literally too.
She smiled as she delicately jumped out of the van, slipped the phone back into her pocket, and walked into the building. She kept smiling as she walked down the stairs, ignoring the side long glances that passersby cast her direction. Glancing at her watch, she noted that she had several hours before her café date and wanted to change before meeting her 'date'.
Maura changed into her scrubs and waved at her assistants to get the autopsy suite set up for the pending autopsy on their John Smith. She checked her phone one last time and noticed the message light blinking again. Before she snapped on her gloves and prepared the instrument table, she unlocked the phone and read the message.
Why wait for us to meet in an uncomfortable environment. Look to your left. LustriousLead.
Maura spun around, not quite sure what or who to expect. She focused on the figure standing by the door, her eyes traveling the length of the figure until she reached the pair of eyes staring right back at her, and she met Jane's gaze head on. Jane discreetly slipped her phone back in to her trouser pocket and grinned the biggest smile that Maura had ever seen on.
"So, IncisiveSlices…We meet at last. You know, I've been stalking you for a while now and have been dying to meet you face-to-face."
"Excellent phrasing, LustriousLead," Maura whispered, then gulped. "How long have you known?"
Jane glanced over at the assistants then back to Maura. What she had to say to her friend just couldn't be said in the company of others. "Come over tonight. I'll explain everything. As long as you promise not to citizen arrest me or maybe accost me, I'll tell you about the stalking, the illusive thoughts about who you might be, and more."
"Yes," Maura stuttered, her palms beginning to sweat and her phone starting to slip from her hand.
"And Maura… leave the phone at home," Jane burred, turning on her heel and walking out, almost plowing in to Frost in the process.
Maura nodded then stared at her phone in disbelief, and muttered the only curse her befuddled brain could conjure up.
"Feces," she muttered, her eyes never leaving her phone. Not even when Frost grabbed her shoulders and tried to snap her out of her trance. Then, she smiled a silly smile.
Frost gave Maura another gentle shake, still not able to get her to quit staring at her phone. "Great. What a bunch of…" he mumbled, spinning around and leaving Maura where she stood. "I told Jane not to buy that stupid, portable, stalking device. But did she listen, did either of them listen to me… Oh, No! Well, Jane caused this, so she can snap her out of it. I've got a case to solve." He slipped his own phone back into his pocket, secretly smirking at his success in bringing his two best friends together.
A/N: A little bit of silly cuteness. Meow is the pseudonym I've given a certain messaging software and Purrs are the status updates. Just a bit of fun, no harm meant. Anybody want a continuance or are you happy with the one-shot?