Under Cover of Night - Part 4: From Here
"Where is your gun, Jane?"
"...Jane? Where is it?"
It is just past midnight.
She is aware of the sound created by the clicking of her heels against the floor's surface, as she moves through the corridors with practiced ease, the consistency of the tempo edging out the heaviness that has settled in her stomach. The doctor knows the familiar taint in her lungs; the scent of disinfectant and poorly filtered air. After all, she spent enough time within walls like these – very early on in her career – becoming accustomed to the reality of life and death.
Ahead of her an elevator door opens, and she is as quietly grateful that the single occupant leaves as she is nobody follows her inside. Her fingers find the sixth floor button as her other hand grips the side rail against the wall, and as the doors slide closed with a metallic whir, Maura closes her eyes.
~.~.~
"Dr Isles"
"Doctor I'm down at the docks, we have a body – male, late thirties. Gunshot wound and a-
'shit…we need a bus here! Officer down!'
-wait, Dr Isles there's been-
'fuck…Rizzoli? Officer down! Get someone here now!'
Doctor I have to-"
"I'm on my way."
~.~.~
Ariel Leith.
The name sends a chill down her spine.
Like the seven hours of research she had completed between dusk and dawn two nights ago would have yielded something more, had she looked just that little bit further.
Like Detective Rizzoli might have chosen a different strategy had she known… had they known.
The elevator stops two floors before hers, and Maura opens her eyes in time to see a dishevelled looking man in scrubs step inside. He nods once in her direction, the wisps of curly red hair sticking out from his surgical cap indicative of the length of time he's had it on. He presses the floor above hers, quickly followed by the 'door close' button, then leans against the far wall and passes a weary hand over his face with a sigh.
Maura glances at her watch.
She knows how he feels - she herself has only been out of scrubs for forty five minutes. Long enough to change, eat a small sandwich, and make her way…
Here.
~.~.~
'Hi Jane,
I noted the name on your list and took the liberty of contacting an associate of mine. He has information you may find useful and asked me to pass on his details to you. Please find them enclosed.
I hope it offers some assistance.
Regards,
Maura'
~.~.~
The elevator reaches her floor, opening to the limited lighting of the late shift and Maura steps out, locking eyes with the doctor one more time on her way. She watches him sag further against the wall as the doors close, wondering idly if she had read correctly a physical response to the relief of being alone.
She feels her phone vibrate in her blazer pocket and she pulls it out, swiping her hand across the screen
'It was really great to see you today. Next time in better circumstances. My treat. LJ.'
She purses her lips and sighs, slipping the phone back into her pocket as she begins to make her way down the corridor.
The 'Associate'.
His name is Det. Lucas James, from the organised crime division… A person Maura had made a point of avoiding, following a slightly-better-than-average sexual encounter four months ago, that had taken several weeks to convince him would not be repeated in any permanent fashion.
But spending a night unearthing decades of Leith enforcers within the Irish mob, how else was she supposed to help? Who else was she supposed to contact?
Surely, a dinner next Friday night was a small price to pay for Detective Rizzoli's safety.
Except in the end….it hadn't even done that.
~.~.~
"She went in without backup. She's damn lucky we were behind her."
"You would think, after everything she of all people would have learned…."
~.~.~
The doctor is already standing in the dimly-lit doorway before she even realises she has stopped. At this height there is little illumination offered by the small window, so the room's shadows and shapes are formed instead by the soft lamp tucked beside two IV poles, their structures casting the faintest pattern over the hospital bed and the person in it.
Even in the low light, Maura can see the outline of a bandage wrapped tightly around her head, the white almost bright against her dark hair. Her face is tilted away, so as to not put pressure on the laceration the doctor knows lies across the left side of her skull.
A silent heart monitor flashes in the far corner of the room, slow and steady beats rhythmically pulsing across the screen.
Alive.
Maura draws in a full breath, closing her eyes at the feel of air expanding her lungs, the pressure and tension finally uncoiling from her chest. Her fingertips find the middle hinge of the open door and she rests them there, quietly.
"She's unlikely to wake up, tonight."
The voice startles her at first, and Maura drops her hand, looking over her shoulder to see a young nurse - no older than twenty five - smiling softly at her. She is holding a small file in her hand, and Maura recognises the medical lettering along its edge as Jane's.
"Common for a lateral cranial injury." She says, turning away from the entrance and facing the younger woman. "Obviously not a skull fracture or she would be in critical care." Maura can tell by the flash of surprise that crosses the nurse's features, that her response is unexpected. "I am a doctor." She says simply, and glances at the file in the nurse's hand, then back up again, her eyebrows knitting together. "- contusion?"
The nurse appears to take a moment to compose herself, then shakes her head.
"…nothing significant showed up on the scan." She says. "It is more likely to be a severe concussion. But the doctors are still monitoring."
Maura nods, and runs her right hand down the sleeve of her opposite arm, feeling the texture of the fabric under her fingertips. It is strangely grounding.
"I see." She says, eyes falling back to the figure in the bed.
There is a notable silence, and when the nurse speaks again, her voice has changed.
"You can go in, if you like, Doctor."
Maura freezes.
And it occurs to her, for the first time, that she doesn't know why she came here. It was hardly the first time an officer has been injured in the line of duty, and in truth she had known half way to the hospital that the injuries were not life-threatening.
Why did she come?
Her fingers move over the cuff of her blazer and slide underneath, brushing against her opposite forearm as she curls the material over into her half-fist. Her eyes find the heart monitor again, following the pattern of beats as they traverse the screen, disappear off to the right in time for a new one to lead in from the left.
She shakes her head.
"No, it is not necessary." She says, "We are only colleagues. We work together." Yet even as she says them the words feel strangely foreign on her lips, like they are a lie, without there being a premise of truth to ground them.
It unnerves her.
"Still, you came all this way…" The nurse trails off, and Maura catches a hint of knowing in the younger voice that makes her shift uncomfortably in her heels, feeling them slip gently against the linoleum floor.
"I was just passing by-" She starts, finding a thread at the cuff hem and pulling on it absently. "I just- I thought I might…"
There is the slightest pressure of touch as a hand closes over her arm, and the Doctor feels it through her blazer, directly to her fingers and the forearm that lies beneath those.
"Work colleagues can be friends too."
A/N: Oh wow - to everyone who has jumped on board this thing, thank you so much for following and reading and... just... thanks. Hope I can keep keeping you interested. Muses have been very slow going these last couple of weeks... which is frustrating... I'm considering couples therapy to get them to talk to me again :)