Maura emerged from the bathroom to find Jane back on the couch, her head reclined, eyes closed, wine in hand but balanced, so still awake. Rolling the sleeves on her long tee up, Maura moved to join Jane, sitting somewhere in the middle. There was not a lot of space between them, but certainly it fulfilled the dictates of discretion, as determined by Maura. Rolling up the other sleeve now, she suddenly realized how much longer her friend was than she: longer arms, longer legs. Jane was just long! Longer than ther'eve been fishes in the ocean...Maura giggled despite herself; she loved that brilliant, grammatically incorrect song, and it suited Jane, who also had decidedly smaller breasts, Maura thought, as she wiggled in her shirt to try and find more room for her ample cleavage. She was feeling a little constrained she decided, and began tugging at the shirt to find some give.
"Jane," she quipped, "while I certainly appreciate that you arranged clothing for me to feel more comfortable in, I must say it would help if I had a shorter best friend."
Jane opened her eyes and rolled her head toward Maura, who was now working on rolling up the legs on Jane's yoga pants. Jane chuckled, then changed gears into full out laughter;
"And bigger boobs, right?! Seriously Maura, you kinda look like she-hulk trying to burst out of that shirt!" Maura returned Jane's declaration with laughing eyes. "Do you want me to try to find you something a little less, um, form fitting?"
"Well Jane, it might be best. We don't want the remainder of our evening spent focusing on my breasts trying to escape." Maura batted her eyes at Jane flirtatiously. Jane just laughed.
"Ok Maura, one over-sized tee coming up." Maura had finished rolling all things that needed to be rolled and sipped on her wine. Jane was back in a flash with a faded old army hoodie. "Casey's." She stated handing the garment to Maura, who held it away from herself between thumb and finger, examining it in disbelief.
"Jane," Maura started. "This is…well, it's really quite hideous."
"It's comfy Maura, and warm. It's also the only thing I could find that might, um, hang loose on you?" Jane giggled, covering her mouth to try and save her friend from embarrassment over the whole runaway breast thing.
"It's fine Jane, I think I'll take my chances on my inner she-hulk containing herself tonight." Maura giggled, placing Casey's hideous hoodie on the arm of the couch, as far out of reach as possible without having to get up.
"Ok Maur, up to you." Jane sat back down and smiled at Maura. "But just so you know, if you catch me staring it's only because they're pretty hard to miss." Jane shot Maura a trademark smirk, to which Maura, without missing a beat, shot back with a knowing smile and a flirty "well, it wouldn't be the first time, Detective."
"Maura!" Jane gasped, "surely not!" But then she flashed a wicked grin of near admission and leaned back into the couch.
Fearing their flirtatious banter may run the stop sign and fly straight off the tracks if someone didn't introduce some seriousness in short order, Maura waited until they had slipped back into comfortable silence and then introduced the topic that had troubled her most that night .
"Jane," she began, then stopped. Jane turned to face her, quietly beseeching her to continue. "I…well, I was thinking. Earlier, when you were teaching me to hurl bottle caps at Casey, you mentioned pinning up the picture of Jack. Well, I was thinking that I don't recall showing any pictures of Jack."
With no discernible change of expression, Jane answered quickly and nonchalantly: "you didn't."
Maura felt confused. "Well then how did you see the picture?"
Again, not a trace of anything hidden or unsavory. Jane continued to look at Maura openly and without guile. "I haven't."
"I don't understand, Jane" Maura challenged, clearly confounded.
"Well, I wasn't snooping, if that's what you think." Jane grinned.
"I didn't think that."
"You SO DID Maura," Jane leered, pointing at Maura now, "look! HIVES!"
Maura flushed red with embarrassment, grabbing her neck. Jane laughed out loud. "It wasn't that hard Maura. You do know I'm a Detective, right? Some might even say Boston's finest," she continued, flashing her best self-congratulatory grin. "And so I am very good at detecting things, puzzling them out, putting them back together and filling in the gaps."
Maura listened, entranced now.
"Well, the last time Jack came by to pick up Abby, she actually came to visit me. She told me she was bored waiting. I suppose you and Jack were doing whatever it was you two did that left that poor girl with no other option than to visit my grumpy ass. I was distracted, but she did show me a couple of goofy pictures of the three of you taken in a photo booth at the mall. She told me she tricked you into it by saying she wanted a photo of the three of you, and then she jumped out before the last two shots. So, by deduction, if she had two pictures, and jumped out before the last two, that left two pictures remaining. Since I saw her two, chances are you and Jack kept the other two. I know, genius right?" Jane's eyes held mischief, her grin implored challenge and Maura felt quite simply foolish. "No creepy, stalker stuff Maura. Just one enthusiastic teen and one brilliant detective. Magic" She snapped her fingers. "Just like that I put two and two together!" Jane turned away, chuckling at her own wit and celebrating her great triumph over her genius best friend.
"I feel so silly, Jane." Maura finally spoke. "I'm so sorry. Really. I am very, very silly."
"No harm done, Maur. I might have thought the same thing in your position." Jane sipped her wine. "But then again, probably not, because I trust you." She turned to Maura and smiled, lest Maura think she was serious and not playing with her. Maura looked downcast. "Hey," Jane husked, grabbing at Maura's knee, "just kidding. Really. Look, look at my face. KIDDING." Maura looked up. Jane really was smiling. Maura smiled back, placing her hand over Jane's and squeezing.
"I trust you too, Jane. With my life. I had a very silly thought, for a moment, and I allowed it to cloud my judgment."
"Happens to us all, Maur," Jane said softly. "And, I do know our relationship is based on trust. So we're cool." They gazed at each other, emotion pooling between them again, until Jane, always the first to break, pulled away with a mischievous smile. "Of course, Dr. Isles, that doesn't preclude the inevitable question, which is, why exactly would you think I was snooping into your private affairs…or, um…stalking you?"
Once again, Jane Rizzoli had rendered Maura Isles absolutely speechless. She could of course tell Jane that she had cause for suspicion after their experience with Ian and Interpol, but she already knew without asking that Jane had run Jack through every checkpoint and database she had access to – or not – because her friend was very protective, especially after the incident with Dennis, the "serial killer". But it wasn't that. It was something niggling and not altogether unpleasant, but disconcerting nonetheless. And Maura had not yet clearly identified the feeling herself, so how could she possibly explain it to Jane? Well she couldn't, so instead she thought "what would Jane do" in this situation. Inwardly she smiled: Jane would change the subject!
"Jane, it's actually getting late, did you still want to watch a movie?" Maura felt very proud of herself for diverting the conversation away from herself and hoped Jane would take the bait.
"Nah, not a movie," Jane dismissed the thought with a wave of her hand.
"Well, is there something else you'd like to do Jane?" Maura offered, still feeling quite pleased that she had safely derailed a conversation they were not yet ready to have.
"Yeah, there is something." Jane looked over at Maura, and paused.
"What Jane?"
"Um," Jane continued, seeming a little unsure of herself. "Well Maur, I think I'd like to talk."
Maura stared back at Jane in complete disbelief. Who was this person, and what had they done with her best friend?
"Jane, you hate to talk…"
"No Maura, I hate talking to other people, and you, when you try to make me talk…"
Maura took a deep breath. Pulling a throw across the two of them, and settling into the couch, she mulled over possible responses and then finally said the only thing she could think of: "Okay Jane, let's talk."