They sleep for hours. Maura whimpers and curls in on herself a couple of times, but never fully wakes up. Each time Jane just holds her closer and whispers in her ear that she's safe, and each time it seems to help. Jane chooses not to think about why this is working so well on this person she's known for less than twelve hours, focusing instead on smoothing out the wrinkles on her guest's forehead before sinking back into her own soft sleep.
Of course, it's her mother who ruins it.
Jane's phone rings shrilly from the living room, piping out a tiny version of literally the most absurd song possible in this situation. Jane is torn between wanting to leap out of bed and shutting it off before it can wake Maura, and not startling her with any sudden moves. She compromises by trying to quickly ooze out of the bed toward the phone, which of course means that Maura ends up both startled and awake.
"Sorry, sorry," Jane hisses as she stumbles out the bedroom door. "Sorry!"
"It's – " Maura's voice is weak and tired. She rubs a hand over her face, trying to grasp what's happening. "It's fine – I just – sorry, is that Yellow Submarine?"
Jane walks back in the room, holding her phone that is still obnoxiously chirping away. She rolls her eyes in disgust. "Yes. My…mother…chose it." They way she says mother is so long-suffering and exasperated that Maura has to smile. "She insists that I liked the song when I was a kid. I have no memory of it, but every time I change the ringtone she goes like, nuts." Jane then slips into what Maura assumes is an impression of her mother, pitching her voice higher and adopting a much stronger Boston accent. "Oh, Janie, I chose that song just for you, so when I call you'll have good memories of me! I heard on the tv that having good memories is so important! Don't you want to remember me during the day?" Jane flops dramatically back on the bed, throwing an arm over her eyes. "Like I don't see her ten times a day as it is."
Maura is smiling, reveling in the experience of normalcy. Even before she was taken, the idea of waking up in bed with someone who promptly complains about an overbearing mother's ringtone – this has never been part of her normal. She finds that she likes it.
"Jesus, I have like 45 texts from her too." Jane looks up from her griping to actually look at Maura for the first time. "What are you grinning about?"
Maura quickly tries to rearrange her face into a more neutral expression. "I – nothing." It's true, now that she's stopped grinning.
"Well, sorry for the weird wake-up call. Rizzoli's aren't really known for their subtlety."
"I didn't mind it."
Jane raises an eyebrow. "That makes one of us."
"Are you going to call her back?"
"In a couple minutes. I need to call into work. Get some updates. It's a little after 3pm, so if they need me to come in today I'll need to do that pretty soon."
Maura suddenly feels like an idiot. She hadn't considered what would happen when the "night" was over. She doesn't have any plans for how to survive and breathe regularly when she's more than four feet away from Jane. She doesn't know how to go home. She doesn't want to go home. But pretty soon Jane is going to go into work and she'll be alone.
Jane is still waking up, so she's oblivious. "Mind if I make the call from here?"
Maura shakes her head silently. Jane nods and dials, and is soon holding for Frost.
Maura arranges her pillow behind her back, sitting up fully and leaning against the headboard. She has a flash of how domestic this is – the two of them in sweats starting the day in bed together. It hurts, how much she likes it, but she can't stop herself from leaning into it and soaking it up while she can. She smoothes the sheets over her lap as she mindlessly listens to Jane, letting her head gently fall back to rest on the headboard.
Jane leans back too, shifting on the bed and ending up closer to Maura than she meant to. Maura's body rolls a little into her, and she turns her head to look over. She's a bit surprised to see Jane's face so close to her own, but she doesn't pull back. Jane doesn't want to move away in case that makes Maura feel rejected, so she just gives her a small smile while Frost is talking.
Maura isn't sure how it happens, but somehow her head drops down onto Jane's shoulder.
Jane freezes for a moment, and Maura panics. She immediately weighs the likelihood of developing hives if she lies and says she urgently needs to use the bathroom or eat something, but before she can choose an appropriate course of action, Jane saves her. Again.
"Hey, Frost, hold on a sec." She pulls the phone away from her ear and turns to Maura. "Hey, sit up for a second?" Maura gingerly pushes herself up, too embarrassed to do anything other than what she's told. Jane pulls herself up so she's sitting up properly, raising herself a couple inches. She pulls her arm away from her body and raises her eyebrows. Maura understands only when she says, "Okay, come back."
She very carefully tucks herself into Jane's body, resting her head on Jane's chest and feeling Jane's arm come around her, soft and strong. "Okay?" Jane asks it softly and Maura can only nod, completely overcome.
Jane goes back to her call, and Maura's eyes slip closed as Jane's fingers start drawing mindless patterns on her arm.
"Hey, Maur?"
Maura groggily opens her eyes. Her neck is a little sore, and her face feels oddly warm. She's disoriented – she hadn't realized that she'd fallen back asleep. She makes what, in retrospect, she's sure is completely incoherent and unattractive sound.
She feels, more than hears, Jane's throaty chuckle. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."
Maura pushes herself up, self-conscious again at how she was lying all over Jane. She's suddenly desperately afraid she drooled on Jane's chest, but she's too paranoid to wipe her face and check. After a few too many beats, she remembers that Jane had said something. "Oh, it's…no, fine."
Jane smiles, confused but polite. "Uh, I just got off with Frost – he says I don't need to come in today, but that they'll want you in tomorrow for another interview."
Maura nods. She should have been expecting that.
"He said to bring a lawyer, cause they'll be collecting testimony that will serve in the court case. I'm guessing you have a lawyer or something, but I could try to hook you up, if you need…"
Maura shakes her head. "That won't be necessary, thank you. I know who I'll call." She should be thinking about the lawyer, but her mind is still eighty percent occupied with the question of whether or not that's really a damp spot on Jane's chest, direct from her sleeping mouth.
"Okay, good. Um, so I was thinking that we could go try to find your car? I'm guessing it was impounded after you were reported missing, unless the Whole Foods towed it or something?"
Maura flips her wrist up, instinctively looking at a watch that isn't there. That hasn't been there in ten days. She puts her arm back down quickly, flushing. Jane catches it. She doesn't say anything about the blush or the watch. She just softly tells Maura that it's 3:45.
Maura doesn't look up. She gently fingers her wrist, tears starting to come despite how hard she is pressing them back. After a few tough moments, she can feel Jane's silent question. "It…it was a gift. From my father." She says it quietly, ashamed. "My parents, they don't…approve…of my life. But when I graduated from medical school…" She swallows. "It was gift," she finishes, even quieter than before.
Jane's voice is just as soft. "We'll try to get it back, okay?"
Maura nods a little, not looking up.
Jane feels her heart crack open, and she reaches out to take Maura's hand in hers. But before she can reach it, Yellow Submarine once again absurdly and infuriatingly shrieks through the air.
"Jesus Fucking Christ!" It's somewhere between a scream and a moan and it makes Maura smile.
"Ma! What!" Jane sounds like a petulant child and Maura is left marveling at how quickly Jane can shift from detective to friend to solace to angsty teen. While Jane is distracted, Maura surreptitiously wipes her mouth, checking for drool. She doesn't find any, but it is scientifically impossible to prove that something doesn't exist, so she isn't off the hook yet.
For a minute or two Jane seems to be barely listening, throwing in an occasional "no" and "I know," but then her tone changes. "Wait, what do you mean?" After a few moments, "Ma, slow down. Where are you now? What do you…No, I don't…No, Ma, I can't, I'm – okay, Jesus. Okay, lemme…okay, Ma, lemme find out, okay? I'll call you back…No, yes, I will. Okay! Jesus, bye."
Maura blinks rapidly. Usually she's quite good at guessing what is happening on the other end of a phone call but this one leaves her completely baffled.
Jane throws the phone down on the bed, and is met by Maura's one raised eyebrow. "My mother," she offers.
Maura blinks again. "I followed that part, actually."
Jane grimaces. "She's not great with personal space."
Maura is immediately overcome by how closely they're sitting in the bed, and how she has pretty much refused to let go of Jane for the past number of hours. She flushes again, and vows to control herself. She sort of tunes Jane out as she struggles to get herself under control, checking her face one more time for any embarrassing sleep fluids. She only snaps back to the conversation when she hears the most important word in the world.
Her head snaps up. "What about Kylie?"
Jane looks over, quizzical. "Did you hear anything I said, except for Kylie?"
Maura falters. "Not…really."
Jane grins. She knows what that's like. "I was saying that Ma wants me to come over and see Kylie. I guess my Ma's at Tommy's house and Kylie isn't doing so great."
Maura is immediately concerned, speaking more urgently than she has since leaving the station. "What's wrong? Is she okay? What's going on? Can I – oh." She stops herself, immediately fighting back tears, choking back the knowledge that she can't. That Kylie isn't hers.
Jane notices. "I don't know exactly what's wrong. My Ma said it isn't urgent, but she'd like me to come before they try to put her to bed."
Maura nods, unable to hide her devastation at not being the one to put Kylie to bed anymore.
"Maur?"
She looks up, fighting to keep her face neutral and failing miserably.
"I think you should come with me."
After another quick meal of Thai food, Jane and Maura leave the apartment and head back to Jane's car. They've decided to deal with Maura's car later in favor of stopping by Maura's house to get her some clothes of her own (and shoes) before going to see Kylie.
Maura softly directs Jane to her home, and before she's quite ready, they're pulling up in her driveway, Jane whistling softly in appreciation. The house is just as she'd expected. Huge. Pretty. Expensive as all hell.
Maura looks around with a critical eye. There aren't any newspapers on her stoop, which surprises her. Maybe they stop your mail when you're reported missing? Before she can turn fully around to ask Jane, who is still gawking a couple of feet behind her, a booming voice from her left startles the living daylights out of her. "Dr. Isles!"
She squeaks and hops backward, colliding with Jane who neatly catches her and sets her back on her feet. "You okay?" Jane asks hurriedly.
She nods, blinking rapidly, and turns to face the voice that, now her heart has stopped trying to escape her body, she recognizes as coming from her next door neighbor, standing right on the edge of where her property meets his. She walks toward him, sending a thousand silent thanks to Jane as she follows her over to the left.
"Dr. Barnes, hello." Maura holds her head up, willing him to ignore her bare feet and clearly slept-in borrowed sweats. "How are you?"
Jane's jaw hits the manicured grass. How is he? She was fucking kidnapped! Missing for a week and half! How the fuck is he?
And it just gets worse.
"I'm doing quite well. We're just packing up to head to the Vineyard. We'll be meeting the boys there, you know. Should have some great weather at the club." His voice is superior and supercilious and Jane definitely hates him.
"That sounds lovely." Maura's voice is different too, and Jane can't quite put her finger on why but she's definitely not a fan.
"You know, Dr. Isles, you should really call and have the newspaper held for you next time you go on vacation." Now he's slipped from patronizing to downright offensive. Jane is ready to slap him in cuffs and send him to the dirtiest holding cell in Dorchester. Fucking VACATION? She must have actually twitched or made a move forward, because, through the small part of her vision that isn't clouded with red, she sees Maura subtly hold up a hand to stop her.
She's cocked her head to the side, and she says, a light dose of confusion apparent in her voice, "Vacation?"
"Yes, my dear." His voice is absolutely dripping with patronization now. "The missus has been collecting your paper for the last week! Didn't want any of the neighborhood vagabonds knowing the house was empty and breaking in. You should be more careful next time."
It clicks for Jane that this pompous windbag doesn't know what happened to Maura. That he didn't once think to question why he hadn't seen his neighbor for a week, why this normally responsible person hadn't made arrangements for her mail and newspaper. Why he hadn't seen her car. He hadn't seen the cops who must have come by when she was reported missing or the reports that must have been on the news. What. A. Dick.
What really makes her grit her teeth, though, is Maura's response. "Oh, my goodness, I'm so sorry to be such a nuisance. Please, do thank Cynthia for me. I'll bring something over to apologize. I was gone a bit unexpectedly, and it completely slipped my mind. My sincerest apologies."
It seems really over the top to Jane, all the lady did was walk five extra feet to pick up an extra newspaper. But it seems like Maura's groveling is only scraping the bottom of the bucket for him. He nods in acknowledgement, but manages to make it seem like he's doing her a favor by accepting her apology.
After another few minutes of Maura nearly simpering at him as he drones on about his house in the Vineyard, he blissfully goes back into his house, leaving them alone on the lawn.
"What a dick." Jane whispers it just loudly enough for Maura to hear.
Maura looks over and raises that eyebrow again. Jane is worried for a minute that she overstepped – that maybe now that they're back in Rich People Land, suddenly Maura expects and appreciates that level of dickishness. But then Maura dismissively shakes her head in the direction of his house, rolling her eyes and letting out a breath that's almost a laugh.
"Is he always like that?"
Maura nods as she picks her way around to the other side of her house. "Always. His wife is perfectly pleasant, but he's always…" she pauses, considering her words carefully, "a bit condescending."
Jane snorts at the understatement, and Maura smiles, a real genuine smile. Maura starts digging in the bushes on the side of her house, and emerges a few seconds later with a key in her hand.
"Not safe, Maur."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Maura says over her shoulder as she returns to the front door. "Would you rather we break down the door? Or maybe," her smile turns wicked, "that I'd left this key with Dr. Barnes, and we were currently making small talk in his formal living room while he and his wife, completely out of obligation, forced us to tell them all about our vacation and hear more about Vineyard?"
Jane shudders, actually physically shudders. Maura laughs, turns the key, and enters her house.
It doesn't smell as musty as she expects, and Maura realizes that Sofia, the woman who comes and cleans, was there just a few days ago. She can't quite wrap her mind around the notion that while she was desperately fighting to keep an explosive belt off a three-year-old, the rest of the world was so normal that Sofia was cleaning her floors and dusting behind her television.
But thinking of Sofia helps allay a serious fear she'd had. Leaving Jane to close the door, Maura softly pads through the house, making soft "pishhh pishhh" sounds.
Jane creeps after her. "What are you doing?" She hisses, nearly crouching down, trying to follow Maura's stealthy lead.
"Looking for Bass."
"What's bass?"
Maura leads her in and out of the largest kitchen Jane has ever seen and into the doorway of what looks like a laundry room. She stops abruptly and Jane nearly careens into her, stopping just short of re-bruising Maura's ribs as she flails around to keep her balance. But Maura doesn't even notice. She's scooted forward and is bending down, patting the biggest and ugliest looking decoration Jane has ever seen.
"Oh, hi, sweetie. Hi Bass. I'm so glad Sofia was here to feed you and check your lamp." She's using a tender little voice, not the same one she used with Kylie but certainly different from her normal voice. Suddenly the decoration moves and Jane nearly leaps back with surprise.
"What is that!"
Maura turns her head to chastise Jane, not bothering to stand up. "Shh! You'll scare him."
"He's…alive?"
"His name is Bass. He's a geochelone sulcata. An African spurred tortoise. I've had him since he was like this big." She holds her fingers out in an impossibly small circle, her face adoring and open and sweet. It does something to Jane that she can't quite figure out, but really makes her want to hug Maura again.
Instead she settles for a joke. "What's his name? Barnes? Named after your cool neighbor?"
Maura laughs and Jane tries to keep it together. "Not quite." She pats his shell, lovingly. He doesn't seem to respond. "Bass. For William M. Bass. The forensic anthropologist who founded the famous body farm."
Jane leans on the counter, trying to be casual. "Right, yeah. That Bass. What a…happy namesake."
Maura gives him a final pat and stands. She twists her hands a little, and Jane realizes that this last joke wasn't funny.
"Sorry, I didn't mean that."
"No, it's – it's alright. It's true. Up until now, most of my interests were around relatively morbid topics. It will be…" she pauses and searches for the word, "interesting, to reacclimate to that."
Jane scratches the back of neck and tries to think of something to make it better. "Well, I'm sure Bass will be very helpful with that reacclimation process."
It works, at least enough. Maura laughs a little and moves past Jane into the kitchen. "Would you like some coffee?"
Jane immediately snaps to attention. She hasn't had coffee all day. "Oh god, yes." It comes out a little more like a moan than she'd expected, and she quickly flushes. Bad, Jane. Mind out of the gutter.
Maura blissfully hasn't seemed to notice. She quickly sets up the machine, marveling at how her body remembers how to complete this mundane task, even after a week and a half of extraordinary torture. She would have wept at the sight of her coffeemaker in that house, and now here she is, less than 24 hours after escaping, measuring the grounds like it's nothing.
After it starts brewing, Maura shakes off her thoughts and turns to Jane. "I'm going to change my clothes," she says softly.
Jane nods, but something in Maura's voice is tickling at the back of her mind. "Uh, do you want me to wait here?"
Maura pauses, and Jane realizes she was right. Maura's scared. "Um, I…" Maura shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot. Jane reaches out and takes her hand.
"It's okay," she says softly. "I'll come with you."
Maura drops her head, clearly infuriated with herself. When she doesn't pull it up after a moment, Jane realizes she's trying not to cry. Again.
"Hey, hey, it's okay." Jane slides off her stool and walks over to Maura, ducking her shoulder slightly to get it under Maura's head before wrapping her arms around her. "It's okay."
"I'm so…" Maura's voice is small and sad and frustrated, coming out muffled through Jane's chest. "I don't want to be scared anymore."
It positively breaks Jane's heart. "I know. I know you don't. But it's still so soon, it's okay to still be scared to be alone. I promise, it's okay."
"But I – I have to stop. I have to get better."
"It'll take time. It's okay for it to take time." Jane is rubbing her back again, and Maura wants to throw herself away from this loving safety before its ripped away from her, but she can't quite bring herself to.
"No, I…" She takes a deep breath and lets it out, shuddering. "How am I going to be alone all night if I can't even go upstairs to change my clothes, in the daylight, while you're right here?" Her voice cracks on the last two words and Jane tightens her arms instinctively.
It takes a second for the words to sink in, but when they do Jane actually pulls back from the hug, bringing her hands up to cup Maura's face. "Oh, no." She's kind of whispering but it's firm and affectionate. "No, Maura, god, I keep messing this up, don't I?" Maura looks at her, rightfully confused, and Jane keeps going. "Maur, I didn't mean for you to stay with me the one night and then I'd drop you off and that was that. I meant – I meant for you to stay with me as long as you wanted. Here or my place or whatever."
That gets Maura to look up, tears clinging to her eyes and eyelashes. "What?"
"Maura, there is absolutely no way I'm leaving you alone tonight. If you wanna come back with me, I'll come upstairs with you and we can pack a bag so you can have your own stuff for a couple days. Or we can stay here, whatever. But you're not getting rid of me that easily, okay?"
Maura seems floored and Jane kicks herself for how scared she must have been. "Jane, I can't keep interfering with your life like this."
"For the love of god, Maura, you're not interfering, okay? You saved Kylie's life, and even if you hadn't, I like being around you, I like helping you, you're not interfering. The only thing about you that bothers me is when you say you're bothering me. Capish?"
Both of them take a moment, startled by the strength of Jane's words. But neither of them has it in them, emotionally, to deal with anything that it might mean. So Maura just dips her head back onto Jane's shoulder and they just stand there, in another kitchen, desperately trying to sew up their hearts.
After a quick cup of coffee, change of clothes, packing session, and thorough tortoise-patting, the two leave Maura's house. They blissfully miss Dr. Barnes this time, and Jane spends most of the ride to Tommy's trying to goad Maura into ordering double newspapers for the next week or so that she'll be at Jane's.
Every time Maura laughs or smiles or rolls her eyes, and even when she swats at Jane that one time, Jane feels like she's finished a marathon, like she's one of those kids lifting a car off their mother. Proud. Protective.
As they get close though, Jane realizes she has some business to deal with. "Hey Maur?"
Maura notices the change in vibe immediately. She looks over, concerned. "Yes?"
"What, uh, what do you know? About Tommy and Lydia?"
"Very little. I didn't even know their names until I was at the station. Kylie told me, hmm, let me remember." She lets out a breath as she thinks. "Kylie told me that her daddy was like Bob the Builder, and then she did a little chant afterwards that I didn't quite understand – it seemed similar to Obama's 2008 campaign slogan, but I assume that was a coincidence. She said that her mommy, and I quote, 'wears blue at work with food,' and I never figured out what that meant."
Jane laughs. "Oh my god, I fucking love that kid. Bob the Builder, that's a kids' tv show about a guy in construction. It goes, um, oh yeah, okay, first it goes 'can we fix it?' and then it goes 'yes we can!' It's like, his catchphrase."
"So, not related to Obama, then?"
"No, I think it pre-dates Obama, actually. Kylie's into the classics."
Maura grins at the idea of Bob the Builder being a classic. "Is Tommy in construction?"
"Uh, well, yeah, I guess."
"You guess?"
"That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. Tommy and Lydia, they – look, I'm gonna be blunt here, and I hope you can keep this between us." Maura nods, and Jane continues, gripping the steering wheel tightly. "They're kind of a mess. They weren't totally together when Lydia got pregnant – she actually got a paternity test to see if Ky was Tommy's or not."
"Ah."
"Yeah. And they're still definitely on the rocky side. And they're both kind of idiots. I mean, Tommy's really smart, actually, like good-at-chess smart, but he flunked out of school and he's spent some time in jail and stuff. He's like your classic fuck-up: full of potential, unable to focus on anything or hold down a job. Or basically do anything that he isn't 100% happy about doing. He's very…immature, I guess."
"What did he go to jail for?" Maura asks it quietly, and Jane hears the question she's actually asking. Do I need to be afraid of him.
"Drunk driving. He hit someone. In a crosswalk. A priest. Our priest, actually. He did a couple years for that. He'd been arrested a couple times before, mostly for drunk and disorderly, once for trespassing. Never for assault or anything. Just dumbass stuff, you know?"
Maura nods, slightly reassured. "And Lydia?"
"Lydia's…okay, I hate to say it, but she is an idiot. Not a lot of brains, and it's not like she had a lot of opportunities or whatever because she didn't and that sucks, but she's just kind of useless. She's an assistant manager at a small supermarket, which is good, she got promoted like six months ago. But she's just…I don't know. She's trying to be good to Kylie – they both are – but they're both like children themselves. They're…" Jane pauses, and Maura can tell this is what she really doesn't want to say, but needs Maura to hear. "They're not the best parents. That's why I'm so involved. I mean, I love Ky, I'd be involved no matter what, but Frankie – you met him for a second last night – he and my Ma and I all try to be there for her a lot. To be stable, you know."
"That's really…that's really sweet of you."
"Yeah, well, we try."
"She talked a lot about you, you know." Maura's voice is soft. They haven't talked much about what happened in the house since leaving the station, so Jane knows it's a big deal for Maura to be sharing this with her.
"She did?"
Maura smiles at how happy that makes Jane. "All the time. She told me that you were big and strong and nice and that you read her books and sing her songs. She told me that you're – oh, how did she phrase it? – 'a police' and you make sure no bad guys get away. She told me about how fun it is when you pick her up from school because you always let her get ice cream."
Jane interrupts, aghast. "Oh my god, that was like two times! Is she telling everybody that? What a rat."
Maura laughs, loud and bright. "It'll be our secret, Jane."
"Good. Did she talk about my Ma at all? Or Frankie?" Jane's trying not to push but she can't help but be curious.
"She talked about a 'Nona,' which I'm guessing is your mother."
Jane nods. "Yeah it means grandma in Italian."
Maura tries (and fails) to tuck back a smile. "I know. I actually speak Italian."
"What!?" Jane nearly crashes the car. "Wait, really?"
Maura knits her eyebrows, confused at the reaction. "Yes, why is that so strange?"
"I…I dunno. I just didn't know." She looks over at Maura, searchingly. "What else do you speak?" Somehow she knows there's more.
Maura rattles them off, like having even one other language isn't a huge feat. "French, Spanish, Italian, Swahili, and Serbian. And English, obviously."
"What, only six? Embarrassing." Jane hasn't been sarcastic yet, really. This time she couldn't control it.
"Well, only six fluently. I'm passable in Spanish, Portuguese, Croatian, and a couple local Ugandan dialects."
Apparently the sarcasm thing didn't work. Jane looks over with a grin. There's still time.
She stops the car in front a shabby little house on a quiet street. She tries not to see it through Maura's eyes, knowing how much the entire family sacrificed to get together the down payment for this little hut, and how much she and her Ma both kick into the mortgage each month. Instead she just looks over at Maura, who is positively vibrating with nerves.
"Ready?"
A/N: This one really got away from me, length-wise. Next time: plot! (sort of)