It was elegant, and warm. Light poured on one pivotal point and illuminated the woman that was focused in that beam of white-yellow. She sat on a bench before a grand piano and played tones she had never heard before as Maura sat in the front row of an empty auditorium. Jane. Maura looked around realizing this was not real, she knew this was a dream, but she leaned back and looked down at her deep burgundy almost black gown, and then focused even more of the raven-haired woman at the piano. Black, classic spaghetti dress clung to Jane's frame. Her arms were free and her hands… OH! They were whole, and unscarred. They were fast and fluttering on those ivory keys.
She knew of the concept of Lucid dreaming but never had the pleasure of partaking of this activity. Yet the woman let her body and mind connect, decision made to let actions happen, and Maura felt her body lift from her seat and walk to the side of the stage. She slowly, quietly walked to the woman on the bench. She watched shoulders ripple and shift when Jane's hands and arms played the great instrument. Maura smiled warmly at the woman as she observed Jane shift on the bench and make a little bit of space for Maura to sit beside her. Maura eased on to the bench and looked to Jane's face.
Jane's smile was soft, and sublime. Her eyes were dark in color but bright in soul. When Jane chanced a glance to Maura and their eyes locked momentarily there was a spark. Yes, a spark. As if two souls ignited. Maura leaned forward, her chest brushed Jane's arms when Maura's eyes slid to Jane's lips. Not once was that warm, soft smile gone from Jane's lips. Closer and closer, Maura leaned into the woman, listening to the music, feeling the woman move.
"I love you," Jane's husky voice ripped through the air. Maura pulled back, eyes wide.
"Jane, I…"
Maura's eye sprang open when her damned phone rang. She reached over and blindly answered. She confirmed she would arrive at the destination. She plopped back into her pillows and looked around her room, the dream fresh in her memory. She swallowed and rolled out of bed toward the shower. She will analyze this further later… if she remembered.
OOOoooOOOooo
Jane was there, in the middle of a beach bonfire, gone wrong. Blue gloves adorned her hands, a grey hoodie and navy-blue sweats clothed her body. Her hair was tied back into a ponytail. She looked back to the firepit. She lifted one of the branches, then placed it back into the charred pile, and motioned for a Crime scene tech.
"Get some of the branches would ya?" she asked, and the tech began bagging and tagging. She looked at the woman laid out on her back, her lips blue, and her eyes wide in horror. Jane kneeled next to her and looked at her neck. Red scratches. Then she looked to the woman's hands and saw build up under her nails. Jane sighed, and she looked around. A smile grew when she caught a flash of a certain Doctor coming onto the crime scene, but her brow furrowed slightly.
"Late night?" Jane joked as she pointed to the woman's clothes. Maura was not in her regular heels, or expensive skirts. She was in a plain pair of yoga pants, a black sweatshirt, and running shoes. Her wet hair was thrown into a messy bun, and Jane could not tear her eyes from her.
"Not really. I had issues while sleeping," Maura responding not wanting to lie. Jane didn't miss the 'while' part of that statement. But Maura cut her off.
"I need to get her to the Morgue. I want to run the smoke in her lungs against the oleander from Caro," Maura said as she took the temp, and prepped the body for transport.
"Do you think its oleander again?" Jane asked, and then looked into Maura's eyes. She noted the posture. And then threw her hands into the air. Evidently the doctor wasn't in the mood again.
"I know, I know, you don't like to guess," Jane said and then moved as the team lifted the body and took the corpse away. She reached out for Maura's arm. Just a light friendly touch. Something she would do for Frost or Korsak, maybe. "Are you ok?" Jane asked as she moved her body to look into Maura's eyes.
"I am tired, sleep has not been a restful as it usually has been," Maura confessed.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" Jane asked as she finally removed her hand from Maura's arm. Maura closed her eyes, she appeared to look like she was thinking, but she simply needed to grasp her thoughts, and hold them to her chest. Filter her feelings, and personal views, and let the scientific Dr. Google, come forth.
"No, I'm alright, but if you could get coffee on the way to the lab I would be grateful," Maura smiled as she attempted to bypass any more of Jane's questions. She was relieved when Jane nodded and gave her that smile. That same smile she saw in her dream. She looked down to Jane's hands and saw the scars, saw the reality of this moment. She pulled the left hand to her.
"How do they feel after yesterday?" Maura asked keeping the question vague, for which Jane was appreciative.
"Fine, sore, but fine," the detective watched the blonde.
"It may take a long time to work them like that without pain Jane," whispered Maura as she examined the left then the right hand intentionally keeping her voice low. Jane pulled her hand from Maura's grasp.
"Yeah, maybe, or I can stop," Jane said with a shrug.
"No," Maura said loudly and then looked around and motioned with her head for Jane to follow, "I loved hearing you play. Please don't stop. It also seemed to make you so happy," Maura spoke while looking down at her feet navigating the sand as if it will swallow her up. Jane walked her to her car but said nothing. Finally, their eyes caught. Time and space seemed infinite. Time stretched thin, too short, and the space between them seemed too far. Jane blinked and broke their spell.
"Ill be by for the lab results," Jane said and shut the door on the doctor's car, but she knocked. And the window came down. "If you had to guess…?"
"Jane, I thought…" Maura began and then watched Jane's mischievous eyes glimmer and that cocky smirk slip across her lips as the detective strolled away. Maura found herself amused watching the woman walk away, silently thanking her for making her smile.
OOOoooOOOooo
Jane walked into the BPD homicide bullpen and looked for her partner. His desk was empty, but she saw Korsak with an impish smile on his face while doing some of his paperwork and following up on any lead the body could give them with out the results from Maura's report. No name, no ID, nothing, just like the other Vic. She walked to her old partner and looked down.
"What's so funny?" Jane asked and then Vince looked up, smile never leaving his face.
"Sent the new guy to get the report from the Doc," Korsak laughed loudly as Jane quirked a smile but still rolled her eyes.
"We can't keep calling the new guy Vince," she threw over her shoulder as she walked to the morgue to save her partner. She only heard Vince Korsak's laughter ring through the bullpen reaching her ears all the way in the elevator.
When the doors opened she strode to the morgue and came to a halt. Blinking, holding Maura's coffee, and seeing Maura's hands around Frosts midsection holding his hand. Her grin grew almost Cheshire like. Maura had Frost's hand wrist deep in a body pushing around his organs. Jane almost laughed out loud when Frost's body moved forward hinging at the hips, and his other hand went to his lips. Then when he could no longer take it he sprinted to the sink and released his guts into the trough.
"Good job, Detective Frost. You lasted longer than last week?" Maura praised the young man as he wiped at his mouth and sprayed down the sink. Jane simply smiled. She took a breath in and walked to Maura and nudged her arm with the coffee in her hand. Twin smiles watched the Detective cleaning up his mess. When Frost turned around and saw Jane his head lowered in shame as he tried to make a retreat for the doors.
"How long was it Frost?" Jane asked and froze Frost to the floor.
"14 minutes," Maura said with pride beaming at the detective. Frost turned around but could not make eye contact. Jane watched his posture, and his darker skin pale at the number. He stood there as if braced to for the jokes.
"I'm impressed. Keep it up Frost," Jane said and then Barry looked right at her, "Now I know you can make it through a crime scene. Soon you can help with the body. It will only be a matter of time," Jane spoke to her friend and raised her own cup of coffee to her lips looking at him. For a moment he simply watched Jane and then his shoulders and face melted as a tentative smile pulled at his lips. He motioned for the door and made his exit. Jane watched her partner leave and smiled.
"You did a good thing Jane," Maura said to Jane as she returned to the other body on the table. Maura reached for a file then stood over the body of the girl from the beach.
"Na, all he needs is time," Jane excused and waved off the compliment. Maura simply looked at the detective. Jane felt her skin crawl, but not in an unpleasant way. She looked back at Maura. She saw the darker circles under her eyes, and the pale pallor of her cheeks. Jane wasn't thinking, she wasn't even sure when it happened but the back index finger of her left hand slipped up under Maura's eyes, and tenderly caressed the flesh beneath her left eye.
Maura felt her lungs seize to function, and her flesh heat at the sensation. Jane looked her over. Her gaze slipped from Maura's eyes, to the space beneath them, and then her lips. Maura didn't move. She took mental inventory of all the sensations Jane was eliciting from her. Finally, after time had seemed to stretch for too long the logical part of Maura's brain moved her body. She reached up to Jane's hand and clasped it, held it to her cheek, then as logic pumped more and more firmly through her brain and actions she let Jane's hand fall as she turned, lifted her coffee to her lips and walked toward her office with the young woman's case folder. She sat down and fired up her laptop as Jane sat in the red chair watching her. Maura worked, as was her way when she couldn't figure something out.
Jane sat watching Maura. The way she moved, the way her brow furrowed on a fact and then pick up the file to double check the accuracy. She observed the way her hand lightly grasped her coffee cup and the way her lips met the lip of the cup, tasting. Jane sighed as she closed her eyes and slouched in the hard chair. She began to rub her scars. She thought about last night, the way Maura looked at her as she played the piano. She saw something there, that was different from Maura's usual array of emotions, or expressions. Then just now, touching Maura just moment ago, what the hell was she thinking? All Jane wanted to do was comfort her friend. Sooth her fears if she had them, or even make the woman feel better, safe.
"Yes," Maura spoke suddenly but calmly, "She had inhaled the oleander smoke, and then suffocated," Maura spoke and handed the file out to Jane. Jane leapt from her chair and took the manila folder. She flipped through the cause of death, all the other logistics and then her eyes finally fell on her name. Ava Crowe. Jane sighed, closed the file and looked to her friend. Maura still tapped away at the keys. Jane walked to the desk and placed her fingers on the back of the laptop pushing the screen slowly closed. The screen paused half way down, not turning off, so the work would not be lost but forcing Maura to look at her.
"Go home, and get some sleep," Jane rasped softly. She didn't want to push Maura. She was very much like Jane was, just nicer about it. If you pushed Maura too far she would shut you out. She would avoid you whereas Jane would rant and rave, and verbally accost the person nagging, and getting into her business. Proof of that was the way she interacted with her mother. Jane sometimes wished that Maura would rant and rave. Maura's eyes narrowed. Jane pulled back her hand and swallowed, hands lifted in surrender.
"Maura I…" Jane tried to explain but was cut short.
"You want to tell me to sleep when you NEVER sleep when you are on a lead," Maura argued lowly. The small growl in her voice made Jane's blood run cold. Maura stood slowly and walked toward Jane, and then brushed past her toward the coat rack, and retrieved her jacket and slipped it on. Maura looked back to Jane as she grabbed her purse and keys.
"Where are you going?" Jane walked after Maura trying to keep up but turned and snatched the file from Maura's desk and hurried to catch up. Maura hit the button to ground level parking garage. Jane watched, eyes flickering to the woman and the buttons illuminating on the wall.
"Maur…" Jane began again, but Maura sighed, and then placed a hand on Jane's arm.
"I'm going home," Maura said softly taking the edge out of her voice. Jane's shoulders dropped, and a relieved smile beamed down at Maura. Jane reached out and shook Maura's hand.
"Good, thank you," Jane whispered then shook Maura's hand. Maura turned tired eyes to her friend and Jane spoke, "Ill stop by later to see how you are."
"That won't be necessary Jane," Maura rebutted, but Jane shook her hand firmly and Maura sighed, then nodded.
"Thank you," Jane said to the woman. Maura nodded once again and then stepped from the elevator. Jane watched her walk to her car as the doors shut on her. She punched the button for the homicide bullpen floor.
She came out of that elevator like a hurricane. Hurricane Jane.
"We got a name," Jane smirked as she dropped the folder on Frost's desk. He began to type into his computer, Korsak stood next to her, and they did what they do best. Connect the dots.