Disclaimer: I am not Tess Gerritsen, but thank you to her and TNT for the show Rizzoli & Isles. Now go watch the show. And buy the DVDs.
"The drinks here are defiantly better than the Merch," declared Jane, enjoying her beer in her regular booth at the Dirty Robber. "The music's better, the company is better. The ..." She faltered, looking for the word.
"Ambiance," filled in Maura, and Jane pointed her bottle at the woman across the table. That was the word she was looking for. "Actually, The Merch was using a higher quality of alcohol than is generally found here. They had a cabernet-" Maura stopped when Jane glared at her. It was endearing that Maura launched into GoogleSpeak, but not tonight. They'd solved the case, it was time to celebrate.
Korsak chuckled, sitting in a chair at the head of the booth. "Dr. Isles was watering down your drinks."
Coughing on her drink, Jane spluttered. "Maura!"
The Queen of the Dead blushed a little. "Vince thought if you got drunk and anything happened, you'd blame him."
"Don't put this on me, Doc," laughed Korsak, waving his hands in denial.
As Frost eased into the booth next to Jane, she shot a glare at him. "Were you in on this too?" Jane demanded of her partner.
Frost had the wit to point at Korsak. "He said if you got drunk undercover, the lieutenant would kill us. I said you could handle your drink."
"He wanted you to be listed as butch on the website," retorted Korsak, pointing at Frost.
"Oh my god," groaned Jane. "My partner, my ex-partner, are all conspiring against me!" She pulled from her beer and groused at Maura, "What's your excuse?"
Hesitating a little, Maura finally confessed, "I thought with a potential killer as your date, you should be more alert."
At least Maura's reason was good. As the boys started to fight, Jane kicked them out of the booth, "That's it, if you two are going to fight like girls, go get your own booth!" She shoved Frost out and kicked Korsak's chair until they both left. Had Jane not glanced back at Maura, she might never have noticed the pained expression on her friend's face. "Hey, Maura, sweetie, sorry. I'm not mad at you."
When Maura didn't say anything, Jane reached across the table and gently touched her hand. Maura twitched and blurted, "Why do you say that?"
"Said what?" asked Jane, leaning back flummoxed.
"That Barry and Vince are fighting like girls."
Jane stared at Maura, confused. "Because ... they are."
Maura pursed her lips and then picked up her bag. "I'm going home," she announced, and got up. The wine glass was half empty.
What the hell was going on? Jane threw down money to cover their drinks as Maura stormed out the door. "What'd you do to piss off the doc?" asked Korsak, daring to come back after his eviction.
"Hell if I know," growled Jane, pulling on her coat and abandoning her own beer to chase after Maura. She was halfway to the parking lot when Jane realized that she had no idea what she was doing. "Maura, wait up!"
The coroner made impressively good time in her heels, and had she not been arguing with her car keys, Jane would have never caught up. "Jane, I'm going home," she repeated, angrily. It seemed Maura was having trouble getting her car to unlock.
Quietly, Jane took the keys out of Maura's hands and pressed the door unlock button for her. She held the keys back out to Maura, saying nothing, but Maura just stared at her. "I'm angry and I want to go home," Maura finally said, her jaw set. But she made no move to get in her car, even when Jane gestured for her to do so.
"I'm not stoping you, Maur," Jane pointed out, and stepped back, arms held out. Still, Maura didn't move. "Why're you mad?"
"I'm not mad, I'm angry with you."
Jane frowned and tried to sort that out. She couldn't come up with a reason why Maura would be mad at her. After all, Jane had been ribbing on Korsak and Frost, and backing up Maura. There was nothing she could think of to say about why Maura was angry. But. "Studies have shown that driving when you're angry or upset is more dangerous and less fuel efficient than driving drunk."
Maura's mouth worked for a little while, but no sound came out. "Well, yes," she agreed, flustered, and launched into a more technical explanation about the perils of night time driving while angry.
As Maura went on, Jane found herself smiling. "So why're you so angry at me you're willing to put yourself in mortal danger? You'll just call me to pick you up, only the cops will write you up and it'll just be a huge fucking mess."
"Language, Jane," Maura remarked, seemingly out of reflex. She too was smiling a little.
Jane spread her hands out, palms up. "Give, Isles."
The smile on Maura's face faded. "Why do you have to make being a girl an insult?"
Jane blinked. "I what?" Her mind whirled back over the day until it landed on the bar altercation, "What? Korsak and Frost?" Maura nodded, very slightly, very controlled. Sighing, Jane put one hand on her hip and pinched the bridge of her nose with the other. "Jesus, Maura. It's just ribbing with the guys."
Again the comment was simple. "Language."
Christ! The woman was infuriating. "Maura, they were acting like a pair of teenaged girls! Pointing fingers, bickering! It's like Ma and her sister."
While Maura's expression didn't soften, her lips quirked a little. Probably she was envisioning two Angela Rizzolis. "You made it sound like acting like a girl is a bad thing," Maura pointed out.
Jane blew out a breath, almost spluttering, "No, being Korsak or Frost is a bad thing. They're idiots." She pushed onward, before Maura could interrupt. "I didn't say thank you." Maura quirked her eyebrows and tilted her head. "For the online profile."
Now Maura looked confused. "You're welcome," she managed, as if it was the safe answer.
Smile, Jane explained, "You cared enough about me to make sure I wouldn't get embarrassed with the kind of girls who hit on me." Maura made a little 'O' with her face and then smiled brightly. "And for coming with me."
"You made me," Maura pointed out.
"You could have said no." Silently, Maura nodded, agreeing to Jane's point. "There's nothing wrong with being girly. I like girly. I mean, not on me, but it looks great on you." Again, Maura twitched. Definitely there was something going on in that scientific little head. Jane decided her morning theory was on the ball. "Do you want to come over and talk?"
Maura hesitated and then shook her head. "No. No thank you. I think I want to go home."
"Okay," agreed Jane. "You safe to drive?"
Now Maura smiled. "I'm not angry with you any longer, if that's what you mean."
Jane grinned and held up her hand, thumb and forefinger a hair's breath apart. "Not at all." And she did wait until Maura had cleared the block before getting into her own car and going home.
Most definitely, Maura was into her. There was no point trying to wonder when that happened. They were friends who all but lived in each other's back pockets. The only thing left was to decide if Jane was going to just ignore it or do something about it. Decades of tying to ignore the stereotype of the gay detective, Jane was hesitant at the idea of diving head long into it. Except that it was Maura.
At home, Jo was bouncing and ready for attention, so Jane tore a leaf of lettuce for her baby tortoise, checked his water, and then took Jo out to enjoy the surprisingly warm spring night. She was going to be running the Boston Marathon soon, with Maura, and while Jane didn't really favor the idea of the milage, she'd enjoyed running with Maura. And there that was again. Jo bounced around and Jane smiled at the dog.
"Uncle Korsak's an ass, but I like you, Jo," she told her dog, who yipped back at her. Since it wasn't like she was going to do anything else that night, Jane cut through the park to the dog run and let Jo run up and down a few times. They played fetch the stick, chase the ball, and Jane laughed as the scruffy puppy flipped over trying to catch the ball off a particularly weird bounce.
By the time they were on their way home, the scruff-monster was worn out and Jane ended up carrying her. "You should just be glad no one's here to see this, Jo. I'd never live it down." Jo licked her face by way of reply, and then draped her head over Jane's shoulder. The dog was a comfort, in much the same way as the tortoise was. They both represented friends Jane would kill to keep. Not that she'd ever tell Korsak that. She might tell Maura, except Maura would look affronted.
"Come on, I'm not carrying you up the stairs," she informed Jo, and put her down to pick up the mail. Jo barked once and bolted up the stairs, leaving Jane to curse and run after her. In no way was she surprised to see that the reason for Jo's excitement was Maura, who was staring at Jane's door with a conflicted expression.
Jane smirked, scooped Jo back up and opened her door, before Maura could come up with something to say. "You comin' in, Maur?"