Ex-Factor
A/N: Sorry for the delay. I ended up re-writing this chapter three times. So hopefully third time lucky. Enjoy or not. And I do apologise if there are any spelling or grammatical errors in advance.
Jane sat alone on the roof of her parent's house. So much shit had gone down in the past couple of weeks and it was like her life had been turned upside down and thrown in the pocket of where Joey Grant kept his snotty tissues. Her father had left their mother during the summer. So Jane got herself waist deep helping her mother out financially without her mother actually knowing. She had two younger brothers, thankfully Frankie looked up to her and wasn't a little pain in the ass for their mother. Tommy on the other hand was a different kettle of fish. Jane couldn't recall how many times she had taken Tommy for a 'drive' during the summer. Their Ma would ask how Tommy always came home with either a black eye, swollen lip or limping whenever Jane would take him out for a drive. Tommy would always say that their play fighting got a little too out of control. She was a hard sister, but she had to be. Her father never gave her a choice.
She reached for another beer bottle. Her mother Angela nor did her brothers know that big Frank Rizzoli left his prized beer still chilled in the fridge in his shed. From the moment he left them, Angela nor her brothers ever went near it. She twisted the cap and took a long hard gulp. She now marched to the motto 'if he can't fucking help my mother out, then everything he left is mine.' She hated her father. Really hated him. She didn't really care if he fell out of love with her mother, no she didn't hate him for that. She hated him for leaving his responsibility to her. She remembered that dreadful night she could hear her parents arguing.
Jane had made Frankie and Tommy stay in their rooms while she went down stairs to find her mother begging her father not to leave. Jane asked what was going on and all her father could muster up was a pathetic; "Janie, be a good girl and help your Ma with the boys."
Jane got angry. She had never seen her mother so distraught and her father so careless. And as he walked out of the house and toward his truck, Jane followed him.
"So that's it. Not even gonna tell us why you're leaving?" Jane yelled from the porch more so because her mother's sobs were echoing through her.
"Just be a good girl Janie and help with the boys."
"Why? You're their father!"
"Just be a good girl."
"Well, if that's the case then, fuck off!"
"Janie!"
"FUCK OFF!"
And he did. He left without as much as a backward glance at Jane flipping him the bird on the porch.
A lone tear trickled down her cheek Jane quickly wiped it away. She never allowed herself to cry over that. She rarely spoke about it to anyone. Frost had only just found out when school started back. Her brothers just thought that their father was away working and would be for a while. Jane couldn't blame her mother for not having the heart to tell them.
Other than Frost she never really had any other friends. Of course there were Bird and Possum, they were the only two girls Jane would associate with and would probably call friends. They of course had proper names, Bernadette and Phillipa but they earned their nicknames on the hockey turf for a reason. Bird and Possum were Jane's co-vice captains. And being the captain herself she had to form some sort of a relationship with the two girls. But even as the three teenagers made an impeccable trio of attack on the turf, no one would ever bet to see the Tough Jane Rizzoli associating with anyone but Barry Frost. Bird and Possum were her team mates, the girls she joked around with and yeah may have had a few hot and heavy moments with Bird on a hockey trip. But point was, Barry was her best friend, her brother, the only one that really knew her.
She took another long gulp and then leant forward wrapping her arms around her knees. She sat for the next half hour just thinking. She checked her watched and realised she was going to be late for her job and she practically leaped off the roof of their house.
She was doing something that her mother would have a heart attack over if she ever found out. But in Jane's eye's, after the first two weeks when her father left and she saw her mother in tears with the utility and mortgage payments, Jane decided she had to do something to help. Angela was a proud woman and Jane knew she would freak out if she had a job. Jane as the eldest, had to set the example for her younger brother's and that was to stay at school, do well and get a hockey scholarship or something. So far, those plans were sort of still together. She just had to shuffle school and hockey around this thing she called a job.
()
In her car she weaved her way to the darker side of Boston. She parked outside a red brick two story building and grabbed her duffle bag. Mad dashing on the pavement she passed a few ladies working on the corner who whistled at her. She barely heard them as she came to a halt outside a well secured run down building.
"He's waiting for you Rizzoli." The tower of a guard by the nick name of Twinkle –Toes said warningly.
Jane retorted as she pushed pass Twinkle-Toes. "It's pretty good for Doyle that I came at all."
It was halfway through the semester and Maura was finding it more difficult each day she was at Boston High School. Maura found herself wanting to be around the young brunette all the time. She had become use to Jane showing up late to her classes and never bothered to ask the young brunette any questions until one morning the teenager limped in with a pair of aviators on.
The students had just settled down and Maura had already called the roll and was in the middle of going through an essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Robert Malthus, when the young Italian walked in. The honey blonde paused and with her students she watched Jane limp toward the back of the glass with her black aviators still covering her eyes. They really did suit her, Maura inwardly shrugged her thoughts aside and began to speak again.
"So Charles Darwin's theory of Evolution by natural selection was influenced by Thomas Malthus' essay on the Principle of Population. He-
"Miss?" Jarred Hayes shot his arm to the ceiling.
"Yes, Jarred?"
"Is it awfully bright this morning?" The acne prone student asked.
"No." Maura answered
"Then why is Jane allowed her wear her glasses in class?"
Maura looked from Jarred to the back of the class. "Please take your glasses off Jane."
Jane groaned. "Do I have to Miss?"
"Yes" Jarred answered
"Was I asking you Rafriki?" Jane bit out.
"Doesn't matter Rizzoli, you still have to take them off." He smirked.
"I'll take your face off and re-arrange too, ya want that?" Jane deadpanned.
Clearly scared Jarred turned around back to the whiteboard and hung his head low.
"That's what I thought."
"Jane"
Through her glasses she looked up at Maura. The teacher looked pretty that morning. Her loose honey blonde curls hanging loose. She wore a blue frilly looking top and jeans that made her ass look almost eatable, but it suited the Teacher. The outfit along with the black heels she was wearing made her look human, of course all the teachers in Boston High were human, Jane knew that, but Maura in that moment just looked all woman, without being the teacher that she was.
"Yes, Miss."
"Please take your glasses off."
Jane sighed. Moment ruined
Maura bit the inside of her cheek when Jane removed the aviators and revealed the periorbital hematoma she had been hiding. She regretted making the young Italian take the aviators off. The students went into a frenzy. Questions were getting fired at Jane. Who done it? Was she gang bashed? Was she jumped? Maura frowned at that, how could one be jumped? she mused. But Maura was not prepared for Jarred Hayes to say what he did.
"Guess someone got one up on you Rizzoli." He smirked. "Goes to show even the Great aren't the invincible!"
Maura didn't hear what Jane had said but she knew from the stance Jane took when she kicked her stool away and leaned both her hands over the table. The dead set glare her eyes were enough to scare Maura and what the young brunette said definitely made Jarred visibly shiver.
"Class, please settle down." Maura called out firmly. Surprisingly they all listened to her and she picked up her lesson where Jarred had ended it.
Jane didn't really pay too much attention, her mind was elsewhere. Every now and then Frost would lean over and ask if she were alright.
"I'm all good bro." She answered
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"Does that mean you got paid though?" Frost whispered. "Cause if not, I have some dosh stashed that I can loan you. I just wanna help out."
"I got paid." Jane whispered back. "And save your money, so that when you finally pick your balls up and ask Jennifer Howard out for date you can take her somewhere fancy. Cause straight up bro, she has high maintenance written all over her."
Frost laughed. "She does eh."
They quietened down when Maura shot Jane a look. Jane wanted to smirk at the teacher but she decided not to. Maura looked bothered after Jane took her glasses off so Jane didn't wanna piss her favourite teacher off.
By the end of the lesson and as the students were packing up to leave, Maura murmured. "Please remain after class Jane."
Maura leaned her behind on the front of her desk. She watched the students leave and waited for Jane and Barry to approach and when they did, Barry did not leave Jane's side.
"I'm fine Baz, carry on." Jane murmured.
"You sure?"
Jane nodded. "What's the worst that could happen? I already have a black eye." She joked.
Barry smiled and then walked out of the class leaving Jane standing in front of Maura.
"What happened?" Maura asked clearly concerned.
"Just got into a fight." Jane shrugged.
Maura eyed Jane warily.
"It's nothing really."
"You should try and keep an ice pack on it regularly to reduce the swelling."
"Yes Doctor." Jane muttered sarcastically.
"Oh, you knew?" Maura asked clearly missing Jane's sarcasm as always.
"Knew what?"
"That I'm a Doctor."
Jane frowned. "Really?"
"Yes, well actually a Forensic Pathology was my chosen field." Maura corrected herself.
"Then shouldn't I have to die before you examine me?" Jane joked.
"In terms in what my chosen field is, then yes." Maura answered unaware of the joke. "But I do know how to help the living."
Jane shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans and leant back on the high tables. "You really are a doctor?"
"Qualified yes." Maura nodded. "I have just finished my one year doing the forensic pathology fellowship."
"Shit, learn something new every day."
"Language Jane." Maura chastised.
"Sorry." Jane shrugged.
"So are you going to be getting into any more fights?" Maura asked.
"Probably." Jane answered honestly.
"Is it too difficult for you to walk away?" Maura asked.
"Yes it is."
"You find no comfort in not getting hurt or not harming others?"
Jane sighed. "Look, there's more to it Maura."
The honey blonde blinked back, it was the first time Jane had said her name.
"I can't just walk away and I'm prepared to live with the consequences of whatever happens." Jane wasn't only talking about her shiner. "Please drop it."
Reluctantly Maura dropped it but that didn't stop her from saying, "If you ever need anything , especially help with your injuries than." The doctor turned around and began to scribble something down on her notepad. She turned to the teenager after she tore the paper off and handed it to Jane. "This is my address and phone number, I'm sure your mother would not like to be called by a hospital about your injuries."
Jane took the paper and eyed Maura. "You shouldn't have to feel obligated."
"In all honesty, I never looked at it as if it were an obligation." Maura spoke more gently.
Jane shoved her hand in her pocket to stop herself from reaching out and touching the teacher. "Thank you anyway Maura." Jane husked out.
They spent a few moments just looking at each other. Jane challenged Maura with her eyes. She wanted the teacher. But there wasn't a dude in the school that didn't want Miss Isles. The football guys would always talk about how hot the Bio teacher was. There was even a bet, Jane heard, to see if the quarter back Nick Willis could nail Miss Isles by the end of the year. There were even rumours that the football coach fart arse Benjamin was interested in her teacher. Jane wondered what those guys would do and think once they actually spoke to Miss Isles. She giggled inwardly, they would probably call her a freak.
"If you ever need anyone to talk to, you know where to find me." Maura stared into those dark eyes.
This is getting to be too much. Jane nodded "I gotta go."
BTW I'm not American so sorry if the slang is off. And Happy Easter hope the bunnies are nice to you :)
