If you were to ask around at BPD for three words to describe Detective Jane Rizzoli, you'd probably get three synonyms of "stubborn." Or maybe the three words would be "pain in ass."
I'm not saying they don't respect her, but I get the impression she's not exactly the most warm and fuzzy person on the planet.
That's why when I finally worked up the nerve to ask her about her romantic relationship with Dr. Maura Isles, which was brand new when we were investigating Charlotte's case together, I had a few ideas about what she might do. They ranged from her refusing to answer, to her telling me to stand up, face the wall, and put my hands behind my head.
Instead… Well, not only did I get the following recording, but I got permission to air the following recording.
"Detective Rizzoli, do you mind if I ask about you and Dr. Isles?"
"Sure, what do you want to know?"
"Really? Okay, well, I guess we can start with how you two first met? And please don't tell me it was on the scene of a grisly murder."
"No, actually, it was much worse. I won't go in to the details, but can tell you that I was dressed like a prostitute, and she was wearing blue latex gloves."
And later I got this:
"You and Dr. Isles have worked together for so many years, and as a tag team you two are unstoppable. As a true crime junkie I can tell you that I am not surprised when I learn that the two of you are responsible for putting someone away. Why do you think you two work so well together?"
"Well… I guess… We're like a baseball. You know how a baseball is two strips of leather stitched tightly together? And together those two pieces hold in all the innards of the ball. That's how we are—except sometimes I think, for us, those stitches don't exist. When we're figuring out these cases, or even just talking, I can't tell if something's coming from me, or from her. We're so in tune with one another. We're just… Seamless."
That's right, people. Seamless. You guys, I hope you all manage to find someone who loves you as much as Jane Rizzoli loves Maura Isles.
-An excerpt from To Charlotte, With Love - Bonus Content: "Seamless"
As Jane was unlocking Maura's front door her cell phone vibrated from where it sat on her hip. She pulled it off its clip as she punched in the security code on the house alarm, then looked down and read the text she'd just gotten from Maura. "Frankie just brought another victim in so I'll be home about an hour late. Sorry!"
"No problem," Jane wrote back, even as a stab of disappointment shot through her. "Want me to order a pizza?"
"Meat lovers, please," replied Maura, and Jane chuckled.
"Have I ever mentioned how glad I am you learned how to make jokes?"
"I don't understand why you think I'm joking. I could go for a big juicy sausage right now."
"Do me a favor and take your temperature real quick? Need to check for subtle signs of sexual arousal."
"I'm not aroused by pizza, Jane."
"You're not?! …I mean, um, of course you're not. I'm not either. That would be weird."
She was disappointed when Maura didn't text back, and she was forced to conclude that work had drawn her attention away from her phone. An image of Maura standing in the morgue in her scrubs smiling down at her cell phone popped in to her mind. That had been when Maura was texting with Ian, but she couldn't help but wonder if Maura looked like that when she was texting with Jane, as well.
She was still standing in the foyer; the text exchange with Maura had distracted her so thoroughly that she hadn't taken more than two steps in to the house. Now she headed over to the guest room to change in to some jeans and a ratty old BPD t-shirt she had stored in the dresser so that she didn't get any grime on her work clothes. Then she doubled back to the kitchen and grabbed the portable speakers Maura had mentioned and a beer out of the fridge and brought them with her to the bathroom in Maura's bedroom. She pulled up Maura's text from earlier, tapped on the hyperlink and started the first episode of the podcast before setting to work on the sink.
It took about 45 minutes to finish the job, but the time flew by as she listened to Sally Stark narrate the details of Charlotte Turner's life and disappearance. Before she knew it, she'd listened to the entire first episode and half of the second. The first episode was surprisingly personal as Sally explained why she'd chosen to research this particular cold case: It was because they had been best friends when they were growing up.
Sally and Charlotte had gone to the same elementary and middle school in Pennsylvania, but then Charlotte and her family had moved to Boston about a year before Charlotte had gone missing. Sally candidly explained that though they'd cried and been devastated when they were forced to part, they had promised one another to keep in touch. Neither one of the girls had followed through on the promise, however. Soon they had both become swept up in their new high school lives. Charlotte had called Sally on her birthday about a month after she'd moved away, but that was the last time Sally ever talked to her. It was easy to discern the regret in Sally's voice as she told her story, and Jane found herself tearing up as she wrestled with her socket wrench.
In the first episode, Sally made an artistic decision that Jane appreciated to barely mention Charlotte's disappearance at all. Instead, she used the first 30 minutes of her program to describe the girl she'd known and loved, and she began to introduce the other people who had loved her as well. She interviewed both parents and one of Charlotte's favorite teachers. The listener also got to hear from Gary Hopkins and Robbie Dunbar, and Jane listened to their interviews carefully. They both sounded sincere in their sadness as they described the girl they'd known. Despite knowing her for only a year before she was taken from them, she had clearly left a lasting impression in their minds.
One new detail that Sally mentioned was that Rich Dunbar had since passed away, and she promised her listeners that a future episode would be devoted entirely to his "life, crimes, and death." Jane made a mental note to have Frost run a background check on the deceased Dunbar twin, if he hadn't done so already.
Then in the second episode Sally described the details of the last days of Charlotte's life. There wasn't any information in it that Jane hadn't already learned from the BPD's case file. In fact there were details that she knew that it seemed like Sally didn't know.
When she finished with the sink she paused the podcast and went to put the toolbox away in its place in Maura's utility closet, and then she called in her pizza order—half plain, and half mushroom for Maura. Years of experience had taught her that the delivery kid and Maura should arrive at roughly the same time.
As Jane was scrubbing the mechanical grime off her hands in the kitchen sink, her mother walked in the back door. "Hey sweetie," said Angela, looking around. "Where's Maura?"
"Still at work," Jane told her. "She should be home soon, though."
"Oh," said Angela, running her fingers along the edge of the countertop. It was the type of "oh" that Jane knew well. It usually meant her mother was about to express a highly annoying opinion.
Grabbing a dish towel to dry her hands, Jane gave her mother an irritated look. "What?"
Angela shrugged one shoulder. "I thought maybe she was on a date."
"What?" said Jane again, this time utterly confused. "Maura isn't seeing anyone right now."
"I know that. And neither are you, right?" asked Angela.
It had been over three months since the last time Angela had pestered Jane about her complete lack of a love life, and Jane was disappointed that her luck had run out at last. "Come on, Ma, don't start up with this again," groaned Jane.
"I'm not. I'm just making an observation. Neither one of you is dating. Instead, the two of you spend more time together than you ever have before, and that's saying something. But somehow you both seem happier than ever."
Leaning against the countertop, Jane obstinately crossed her arms over her chest. "What exactly are you trying to say?"
"Detective Frost told me you and Maura had salad for lunch. Salad, Jane!"
"What the hell, Ma? You're gossiping with Frost about me now?"
"He was in the café for lunch today. I wanted him to take you a sandwich and he told me you brought salads to Maura's office."
"Okay, fine, yeah, I brought salad," confessed Jane, exasperated. "I still want to know where you're going with this."
Angela came around the kitchen island and took both of Jane's hands in her own. "I think you know where I'm going, Janie. And I want you to know that I've really enjoyed seeing you so happy recently. No matter what or who is causing it." She met Jane's eyes with a focused intensity that Jane couldn't look away from. "You got that?"
Normally Jane's instinct would be to shake her mother off and roll her eyes, but this time was different. Something deep inside of Jane came alive and shifted aside, and she knew that this had just become one of the most important conversations she would ever have with her mother. She felt completely blind-sided by it, though, and for a long moment all she could do was look into her mother's eyes, taking in their warmth and love. Finally, Jane nodded and squeezed her hands. "Yeah, I got it," she rasped. "Thanks, Ma." She dropped her gaze, needing a moment to try and keep herself from crying. It was completely ridiculous, of course, but she couldn't help it.
"You talked to Maura about this yet?" Angela ventured carefully, her voice soft and compassionate.
"No, not yet." Jane gave a shaky sigh. "It's scary."
"Sweetie, I don't think you have anything to be scared of," said Angela with a chuckle. "That girl loves you."
The words sent a tingle up Jane's spine and made her stomach do a happy flip. The best part was that Jane knew it was the truth. "I know she does," she replied. "I'm not worried about that. I'm mostly worried I'll screw it up somehow. I mean… It's Maura, you know? I've got a hell of a lot to lose if it falls apart."
"But a hell of a lot more to gain if it doesn't," countered Angela. "You should tell her."
"I will soon," Jane assured her. "I've been thinking about it recently."
"You two have been so close for such a long time. What changed?"
Jane shrugged. "I don't know, Ma. It's definitely been a long time coming for both of us. Once I understood what was going on I tried to ignore it. But that didn't work at all, and eventually I got tired of being in denial. I realized it's a huge waste of energy. I love her so much," she said emphatically. "Why should I bother fighting that? How could it possibly be a bad thing?"
Reaching up, Angela patted her daughter's cheek affectionately. "It's not."
"And I get that now. She's the best thing that ever happened to me. So I think I'll let it happen." Her phone vibrated and she picked it up and checked it—Maura was letting her know she was leaving work. Excitement bubbled in Jane's chest at thought of their impending reunion. They hadn't seen each other in over five hours. That was way too long, in Jane's opinion.
"You got a time frame on that?" asked Angela impatiently. "If you two are gonna give me grandchildren the clock is ticking."
Jane regarded her mother contemplatively. "How about tonight?" she said. "That soon enough for you?"
Angela's jaw dropped. "Are you serious?"
"Sure," replied Jane with an easy smile. "Why not?"
For reply, Angela threw her arms around her daughter and squeezed happily, and then she abruptly turned and headed for the back door. "I'm gone. In fact I was never here." Before she shut the door behind her, she blew Jane a kiss and said, "Love you, Janie. Text me in the morning, if you think of it." Then she winked and left.
Shaking her head, Jane laughed and selected a bottle of wine from the cabinet. Then she went to collect the portable speaker from Maura's bathroom and plugged it back in to the charger in the living room where she'd found it. After she'd done that, she thought about what she intended to do tonight and decided to change out of the dirty t-shirt she was wearing. She selected a different BPD t-shirt she kept here at Maura's house that was much newer and less ragged and put that on instead. For a moment she wondered if maybe she should try and put more of an effort in to her appearance for this, but ultimately decided that after so many years of close friendship, Maura ought to know by now that Jane preferred to dress casually. In fact, she was willing to bet that Maura liked that about her. So she banished the thought from her mind.
She was just uncorking the wine when Maura walked in. Their eyes met and they grinned at each other. "Hey," said Jane, and the cork came loose with a pop.
"Hi," replied Maura. "Is that a Malbec?"
"It is."
"Perfect," said Maura briskly as she set her purse down on the counter and accepted a glass from Jane. "It'll pair nicely with my sausage."
"Girls don't have sausages, 'Doctor' Isles," said Jane, putting sarcastic finger quotation marks around the word 'doctor' and rolling her eyes. "Shows how much you know about anatomy."
"I wasn't using the word sausage as a euphemism for the male anatomy, Jane. I was referring to actual sausage, as in ground meat encased in a thin membrane usually made of either genuine animal intestine or a synthetic imitation of such."
Jane made a disgusted noise. "God, when you put it that way I am so glad we're not eating that crap anymore."
"I could tell you things about hot dogs that would make your hair curl," said Maura. Then, after a beat, she amended: "That is, curl more than it already does."
"Please don't," said Jane, wincing. "I don't care about the hot dogs, but if my hair curls any more than it already does I'm going to start getting thrown out of movie theaters for blocking everyone's view."
Maura laughed and turned to head over to her bedroom. "I'm going to change in to something more comfortable, but then I want to hear about what happened with the podcasters today."
A smile played on Jane's lips as she watched Maura walk away, knowing that under normal circumstances, Maura's idea of "comfortable" was roughly equivalent to most peoples' idea of "business casual." But over the years as Maura grew more comfortable with her, she had gradually introduced more and more sleepwear, and now Jane was quite sure Maura would reappear in something only slightly less casual than what Jane herself was wearing. Jane couldn't wait to see. Her impatient feet began carrying her towards Maura's bedroom. Maura emerged just as Jane approached. She looked adorable in her sweater and yoga pants, and Jane decided she'd had quite enough of not kissing this woman.
When Jane kissed Maura for the first time, there was no pause or hesitation in it. Instead it was part of a seamless motion—as seamless as the progression of their relationship. From strangers to colleagues, from colleagues to friends, from friends to best friends, from best friends to lovers. Jane walked right up to Maura, took her face in her hands, and brought their lips together. It felt easy and natural and right.
It was short but sweet, and Jane backed off just enough to take in Maura's expression, delighting in the barely-contained glee sparkling in her eyes. "Okay?" Jane asked, her voice hardly more than a whisper.
"That depends," Maura replied breathily, running her thumb over Jane's bottom lip.
"On what?"
"On whether or not you fixed my sink."
Grinning, Jane said, "Yeah, I fixed it."
"Okay, then," said Maura, and she wrapped her arms around Jane's shoulders and drew her back for a much longer kiss. But she had to break away to laugh when Jane hugged her tightly and lifted her off the ground, her smile so big that Maura wasn't sure she'd have been able to keep kissing her anyway. "Jane!" she squealed through her mirth.
"Sorry. Can't help myself," said Jane, and she placed Maura back on her feet, backed her up against the wall, and kissed her again. She couldn't get over how small Maura was. It was a new experience to kiss someone who was so much shorter than her. And she smelled incredible. Maura was also soft—so, so soft. Jane couldn't decide where she liked having her hands best. Feeling the racing pulse on Maura's neck was awesome, but so was the feeling of her gorgeous blonde hair sifting between her fingers. And the curves of her hips were unreasonably sexy. If she put her hands there and spread out her fingers, she could almost cover the whole curve. Maura was so feminine, so delicate, and so beautiful. It was different from what she was used to, but now that she'd felt it, she couldn't imagine wanting anything else.
They finally drew apart and beamed at each other. "That was nice," said Maura.
"Eh, turns out I'm not that in to it," replied Jane, scrunching up her nose.
"Don't tease me, Jane. Not about that."
"Sorry," said Jane. "I promise I was only teasing. I liked it, too. You're beautiful, and that was…" She shook her head, taking Maura's hands in her own and smiling. "Can we do that again?"
The doorbell rang and they both turned to stare at the front door. "Apparently not," said Maura, sighing. "That must be our pizza."
"Ordering that pizza was probably the biggest mistake I've ever made," grumbled Jane, and Maura laughed. When Maura tried to get out from between Jane and the wall, Jane pinned her back with an assertive hand on her shoulder. "Woah woah woah! Where do you think you're going?"
The doorbell rang again. "To get the door," said Maura, laughing again as Jane ducked down for a kiss. She allowed it for a few delightful seconds before pulling away again. "Jane, I'm hungry and the delivery guy is going to leave."
Frowning, Jane considered the situation. "Okay, I have a solution. I'll go with you." She let Maura pass, but wrapped her long arms around her waist from behind, and together they shuffled awkwardly to the front door, laughing the whole way. When Maura opened the door, their usual delivery kid from their favorite pizza shop was standing there, and as soon as he saw them his entire face turned red. "Hello, Jason. How are you today?" said Jane, resting her chin on Maura's shoulder. She didn't miss the shiver that went through Maura's body when she spoke, her voice so close to her ear.
"Not as good as you, Detective Rizzoli," replied Jason, regaining his bearings. "That'll be $12.50."
When Jane removed an arm to fish out her money, Maura grabbed her hand and pulled it back to its place around her waist. "It's my turn to get it. My wallet's in my purse on the kitchen table."
"Alright, let's go," said Jane cheerfully. They waddled to the table and Maura grabbed some cash. Then they waddled back to Jason, who was laughing at them.
"I always wondered about you two," he said as Maura swapped her money for the pizza he was carrying.
"Yes, well, you were right. Bye now," said Maura hurriedly, beginning to close the door.
"Wait, Dr. Isles, you gave me a fifty…"
Maura cut him off with: "Keep it. Good night, Jason." She kicked the door shut and put the pizza box on the table by the front door. Then she surprised Jane by spinning in her arms, turning them around, and pressing Jane up against the door.
Raising her eyebrows, Jane said, "This is new. Since when are you so aggressive?"
"Shut up and kiss me," demanded Maura.
"You got it."
Eventually they got around to the pizza, and Jane filled Maura in on what had happened at the high school that day. Then they lounged on the couch and listened to the rest of To Charlotte, With Love. Jane took notes on her transcripts and they paused the program frequently to bounce ideas off one another. Once they had finished, Maura said, "You should really be working on this with Frost, not me. I'm not a detective."
"You might as well be," said Jane. Maura was reclining against her, close enough to be able to read the transcripts that Jane had in her lap. "I know you don't put much stock in gut feelings, but your hunches are solid even though you won't admit it."
"Maybe, but I don't need to explain to you that there's a lot more to being a detective than getting reliable information from your gastro-intestinal system. I could never understand people as well or as instinctively as you." She paused, and then added: "Not live ones, anyway."
"You understand me," observed Jane. "Better than I understand myself sometimes."
"That doesn't count."
Jane's jaw dropped, a completely offended look coming over her face. "What do you mean I don't count? I'm about to kick you off your own damn couch, Maura."
Laughing, Maura took her hand and patted it reassuringly. "That's not what I meant. I just mean that it's not the same thing when it comes to you. I made a conscious and concerted effort to learn to understand you implicitly."
"You did?" asked Jane, her heart melting in her chest.
"Of course I did. And I think you probably did the same for me."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that. Half the time I don't understand a single word that comes out of your mouth." When Maura opened her mouth to respond, Jane put her finger on her lips to stop her. "I know that's not what you mean. You're right. I may not always understand the contents of all the random factoids you come out with, but I always understand why you're coming out with them. And do you want to know something, Maura?"
"What?"
"The fact that we understand each other so well, that's what's going to make this," she gestured back and forth between herself and Maura, "make us work. My detective gut is telling me that this is going to work. Isn't yours?"
Maura leaned up to place a soft kiss on Jane's smiling lips. "Yes," she said. "It is."
"Yay."
"I concur. But…"
Jane groaned and let her head fall against the back of the couch. "I knew it. I knew there was a 'but.' This was entirely too easy."
Laughing, Maura slapped Jane's stomach with the back of her hand. "Stop. It's nothing bad." She paused and chewed her bottom lip before launching in to a hasty stream of word vomit. "I just think that with the sheer magnitude of the emotional investment we've put in each other over the years, we run the risk of getting overconfident and making a misstep in to a venture we're maybe not quite prepared for yet."
"So… What I'm hearing is that you think we should take it slow so that it doesn't blow up in our faces."
"God, Jane," said Maura dreamily. "It's going to be so nice to do this with someone who actually gets me for once."
"I do get you, Maur, so you don't have to be nervous."
"I'm not nervous," said Maura unconvincingly.
"Uh huh. Your hives and babbling are telling me otherwise. Look, I agree we shouldn't rush. And you don't have to treat me like a piece of evidence. You can take the blue gloves off. If there's something you want to say, just say it, alright?"
"Alright." Maura took a moment to gather herself, and then she turned to Jane and placed her hand against her cheek. "I hope you know that you are extremely important to me, and if we're really going to do this then I want to keep you."
"That's good," said Jane warmly, "because we're really going to do this, and I'm yours."