A New Path
By RandomGnome
Note: After a very long hiatus, I am back. This isn't my usual fair, but bless Hulu, it has S1 – S6 of Rizzoli and Isles and I finally got to watch all of them. After watching the whole thing, I decided that it could use with a little Rizzles and some re-writes of episodes. I hope you enjoy it. All mistakes in editing are mine alone (editing sucks!) The characters are not mine and I do not own anything but the story plot. Mostly.
Chapter 7: Possession (Knock Out)
Jane woke slowly to the realisation that her arm was being layed on and it was starting to go numb. When she tried to move it from underneath whatever was laying on it, however, she was halted by a sleepy groan, causing her to stop. She blinked open her eyes and was met by a wealth of red gold locks. Abruptly, memories of the previous night came flooding back.
She grinned and tugged at her arm again. This time, the groan was louder and sounded a bit grumpier. It made the lanky brunette giggle silently. Sitting herself up on as best she could, Jane took a deep breath and let it out - blowing gently on the pale hair covering Maura's ear. A hand came up, brushing sleepily at the air, then lowered.
Jane giggled to herself again. She took another breath and blew out again, watching golden strands of hair dance in the dim light of the rising sun issuing from Maura's bedroom window. Once more a hand came up to bat at a non-existent pest in the air.
Jane tried her arm again and this time, Maura shifted, rolling over, and glared daggers at Jane.
"Hey," Jane said softly.
Maura blinked a few times, then her expression turned from grumpy to confused. "Jane? What time is it? Did we get called in?"
Jane giggled again and shook her head. "No."
Maura's frown deepened and she blinked some more. It was adorable. "Are you okay? Why are we awake?"
Jane smirked at her. "I'd be great if I could feel my arm."
"What? Oh!" She lifted her hips and Jane pulled her arm back. She bent it at the elbow a few times, wiggled her fingers, and then used said arm to lever herself up, resting on her elbow. She stared at intent hazel-green eyes, barely visible by light, but always there nonetheless.
"Thanks. Hi."
Maura smiled now. "Good morning, Jane."
"Have I told you how much I like waking up next to you?" Jane asked her. She reached out with her free hand and brushed lightly at Maura's cheek, enjoying the reaction she got. Maura shivered and her eyelids fluttered shut. Jane let the light touch linger a moment before tracing a feathery trail over her jaw and slowly down Maura's neck. She only stopped when she hit the collar of Maura's sleep shirt.
The M.E. opened her eyes again, her lips curving upward. "My, my, Detective. Someone is feeling bold, this morning."
"Maybe," Jane admitted, "a little bit. I really did miss you when you were gone, Maur. And after the bar last night - I might be feeling a tad possessive."
Maura's smile grew. "Last night was... fun. Even if it had unexpected consequences."
Jane grinned right back at her.
"So what do you think?" Vince asked as he walked over to the group at the bar. He and Bobby were between sets and he'd come to the bar to get a drink. He was smiling so hard, it was obvious that he'd been enjoying himself on stage.
"I think it's fantastic, Vince!" Angela told him, handing him the beer she'd had waiting.
"I completely agree," Susie added.
"Here, here!" Frankie held up his drink.
Jane reached out and punched him lightly on the arm. "I knew you could play. I didn't know you sang, too! It's beautiful, man."
"It is absolutely fantastic, Vince! I look forward to the next set," Maura told her friend with a huge smile.
"Thank you, everyone," the older man said, taking two large swallows of his drink. "Hey, can you all stick around afterward? I want to introduce you all to Bobby."
Everyone - excluding Susie, who had to go because she had an early appointment before work in the morning and had only stayed to give Vince her kudos - said that they would love to meet the kid. Vince finished his beer and went back to the stage to help with whatever he could.
Jane had had two glasses of pineapple juice and excused herself to go to the restroom. She was feeling great! They had solved their case, - he thought he was so smart, but then so did most murderers - Maura was back from her conference thing, and she had just learned that her oldest friend had some serious chops! Today had been a great day. So good, in fact, that she was almost willing to admit that Susie's 'to scale' Doctor Isles, was perfectly formed in every way. That made her smile and she looked at herself in the mirror. For the first time in what felt like forever, she liked what she saw there.
After she washed her hands, she left the bathroom and entered the main bar. She searched for Maura in the crowd - which had grown in the few minutes she'd been gone - and found her girlfriend at the bar, sans the rest of her family.
Being hit on by some guy in a suit and tie.
Jane saw red. She stormed over to where the guy in the suit was leaning into the conversation he was trying to have with Maura. To her credit, the M.E. was leaning away as far as she could get without falling out of her chair. Jane got control of her temper and lightly tapped the guy on the shoulder. He turned his head, got one look at her, and smiled lazily. "Hey, there, gorgeous," he said, with a heavy southern drawl, alcohol wafting from him, "What can I do with - I mean, for - you?"
Jane showed her teeth in an expression that was in no way a smile, no matter what it appeared to be. "Well now, first thing you could do is back off the nice lady."
He frowned at her. He had nice eyes and a pretty mouth for a guy. "Well, now, why would I do that?" He looked over at Maura and smiled. Maura did not smile back. She looked at Jane with a raised eyebrow. "We was just having a drink."
Jane rolled her eyes hard. "No, you weren't."
His brows turned down, but he kept the smile on his face. "Listen, bi-" he did not finish the sentence.
"- Language." Jane admonished, "You should really think twice about what comes out of your mouth next."
Now he turned his full attention on Jane. "I don't know who you think you are," he began. He started to say something else, but Jane shut him down once again.
"I'm the nice lady who is going to ask you, one more time, to leave the doctor alone or you will not like what happens next."
"I'd do what she says," Maura offered helpfully. Then she added, with a wink at Jane, "She's crazy."
Oh so it was like that, was it? Jane had to fight not to smile at her.
The man said, "Don't worry, I can take care of this." He tried to take a swing at Jane, but he couldn't even get off of the chair without his legs giving out under him. He tumbled and Jane got out of his way. He managed to make it to his knees without hitting his head on anything, but once down there, he seemed confused. As Jane and Maura watched, he began crawling away.
Jane took his chair, laughing. "Well, that was fun."
"For you, maybe." Maura retorted, but she was smiling now. She handed Jane a pink fizzy drink with a couple of maraschino cherries in it.
"What's this?" Jane asked as she took it.
"I thought you might be tired of pineapple juice," Maura said, as usual, taking the long way around answering the question.
"OMG, yes!"
"So your mother suggested something called a 'Shirley Temple'."
Jane immediately perked up. "A what? I didn't know bartenders still knew how to make these!" She plucked one of the cherries from her glass by its stem and put it in her mouth. She held the sugared fruit between her teeth, pulled off the stem, then bit down. "Mmmm. I love these things!"
Maura was laughing at her evident joy. Watching the almost childish delight that Jane got from the most ordinary things was just one of the many things that Maura loved about the woman in front of her.
Jane held up the other cherry then looked at Maura and said in a suggestive voice, "Hey, Doctor Isles, you wanna take my cherry?" She made the last word extra-long followed her question with a leer and gave the cherry a little shake. Without missing a beat, Maura leaned forward and took the cherry - stem and all - into her mouth. Jane's eyes flashed. A couple of moments later, Maura opened her mouth and withdrew the cherry stem - tied into a loose knot.
Jane's mouth fell open for a second before it turned up into a wicked smirk. She leaned close to one of Maura's ears and murmured, "What else can you do with your tongue?"
"You'll find out, someday." Maura responded. She picked up her purse from where it sat on the bar, "Excuse, me, Detective, I need to use the facilities." She slid out of the chair and practically sauntered to the bathroom, Jane's eyes on her all the way.
"What the hell was that?" Frankie asked as he came through the crowd towards Jane.
Trying to play it off, Jane took a sip of her drink and replied, "What was what?"
Frankie was scowling at her. "Jane, if I didn't know better, I'd say that you were just flirting with Maura."
Jane's first impulse was to panic and deny it. Except that what came out of her mouth was, "I'm allowed to flirt with my girlfriend, Frankie."
Her little brother's head rocked back as though she'd hit him. Oh shit! It was too late to take it back, so Jane just smiled at him and waited.
"You're what? Are you kidding me? Really," he suddenly looked around for a moment and finished, "are there cameras? Am I being punk'd or something?"
"No cameras," Jane told him. "Maura Isles is my girlfriend."
Frankie's eyes threatened to bulge out of his head. "Janie, since when are you...gay?" He'd leaned in to say the last word in hushed tones.
"I'm not gay, Frankie." Jane told him. "I'm just dating Maura, that's all."
Frankie stared at her, uncomprehending. He shook his head a couple of times as though sloshing his brain around in his skull might help him to comprehend. When he looked up, he saw something and went still. Then, without another word, he turned around and dived back into the crowd.
Maura appeared at the bar a moment later, looking after the departing Rizzoli with a frown. "Is everything alright, Jane?"
"Uh...Um, yeah. Yeah, Maur, everything's good. Frankie knows about us." She took another drink while Maura took in that information.
"He knows? How?" She wanted to know. "Oh god, your mother!"
Jane just took another drink. "I'm not sure if we need to worry about Ma, yet, but yeah. Frankie knows flirting when he sees it."
"Oh. Oh, dear. I suppose we weren't being very circumspect, were we?" Maura looked across the room and saw Frankie in conversation with Vince. Vince looked like he was trying to persuade Frankie of something, but the younger man was shaking his head and wincing. Finally, Vince nodded and gave his shoulders a shrug. Frankie seemed like he couldn't leave the bar fast enough.
Jane was watching, too. "Think I should go after him?" She asked.
Maura shook her head after a moment of thought. "No, it's probably best to give him space. It wasn't so long ago that he kissed me."
"He what?" Jane's mouth fell open in horror. "When?"
"Relax, Jane, it was before 'us'. He kissed me and he said that he just wanted to know what it was like." Maura told her, soothingly. "We both decided that it would be too weird to date because we are too much like brother and sister."
That did seem to assuage Jane's ire and she calmed down. "Well, I'm really glad you don't see me like a sister."
"So am I," Maura replied, with heat in her voice.
"I think they are getting ready for the second set," Jane said, changing the subject. She got down from the bar and she and Maura wound their way closer to the front of the crowd. Jane, being as tall as she was, did her best not to stand in anyone's way. When Maura tried to move around a much taller man in front of her, Jane tapped her shoulder and shook her head. Then she tapped the man on the shoulder. He turned around with a question written on his face. He saw Jane, then noticed the smaller woman. Jane smiled. "Would you mind stepping over a smidge, so my girlfriend can see the show?" She asked.
The man blinked, then smiled and nodded, moving sideways and out of Maura's line of site. They both murmured "Thank you" as he did.
Then, much to Maura's surprise, Jane wrapped the arm not currently supporting her drink, around her waist and pulled her backward until they were touching. She dropped her arm, but continued to stand close enough to touch. Just as the first song began, Jane leaned in and whispered directly into Maura's ear, "I'm tired of hiding. I missed you and I don't care who knows that. I don't care who knows that my girlfriend is the hottest woman here. But people do need to know that you are mine."
A shiver of desire slid down Maura's spine. Under normal circumstances, that sentiment would have gotten Maura's back up - the idea that someone could claim another person as their property did not sit well with her feminist side. When Jane said it... It made her weak in the knees.
As they were getting ready for bed later in the night, laughing and joking, Jane had said out of the blue, "I want to tell Ma about us. Tomorrow. First thing."
Maura pulled down the duvet on her bed and sat on the edge of the bed, taking this in. "Are you certain, Jane?"
"Yeah. Honestly, I think that she will figure it out eventually - she's pretty smart, you know - and it would be better if it comes from us." Jane confirmed. She pulled down her side of the duvet and lay down on her side. She reached out for Maura, gently caressing her back. "C'mere, Maur. I missed you and I just want to hold you, tonight."
Maura acquiesced at once. She turned off her lamp and got into bed. She moved backwards until her back was pressing securely against Jane. A long, strong arm encircled her and she sighed in contentment. "I missed you, too, Jane." A tender kiss was placed on the back of her head. She yawned. "Okay, we can tell Angela in the morning. Good night, Jane."
"Sweet dreams, Maur."
They slept for another hour, cocooned in the light blanket on Maura's bed. When the alarm went off, both women jarred awake at it.
"Grr," Jane grumbled when Maura rolled over and turned it off. "Do we really have to get up? The sun's barely up."
Maura giggled and sat up. "Yes, we do. We have something important to do, this morning, remember? It was your idea."
Jane let out a huge yawn, then rubbed her eyes, blinking them open. "Oh, right. I did say that, didn't I?"
"Second thoughts?"
"And third thoughts." Jane conceded. "But, it needs to be done. It would hurt her, I'm sure, if she found out some other way."
"I agree. I have no problem with her knowing, Jane, I just want to make sure that this is something you are ready for." Maura stretched, arms above her head, arching her back. Jane watched the movement with interest and earned a smirk when Maura caught her out at it.
"You can't blame me for staring, Maura. Even in your pajamas, you are damn sexy."
"Thank you for saying so."
"To answer your question, I don't know if I could ever be ready for something like this."
"Is it another 'Band-Aid' thing?"
"Kind of, yeah. And part of me just wants to be able to tell her to go away when we want to be alone."
That made Maura laugh. "Yes, that would be nice." She agreed.
"Well, why don't we go down stairs and get this over with?"
"I need to go to the bathroom, but I will be down shortly." Maura paced around the end of the bed and stopped next to where Jane was still lying down. She dipped down and gave Jane a light kiss on her forehead. Jane sighed, but she was smiling.
When the bathroom door closed, she got out of the bed and made her way downstairs to Maura's kitchen. Her mother didn't appear to be awake yet, so she decided to use the downstairs bathroom. When she came out, Maura was in the kitchen chatting amiably with her mother. This was something they did often, whether Jane was there or not. She hoped that telling her mother about their new couple-hood wouldn't change that.
"Hey, Ma."
Angela looked up and smiled. Jane had to admit that she looked a little like her mother and that it wasn't a bad thing. "Good morning, baby. How are you feeling today?"
"I'm fine, Ma." Jane padded into the kitchen and dropped a kiss on her mother's cheek. She got the special, healthy coffee out of Maura's cupboards and loaded the granules into a filter, then loading it into the coffee maker.
"Wasn't Vince's concert fun? He can really sing!" Angela bubbled as she sat down and waited while Maura used the espresso machine. Maura nodded enthusiastically. Jane stared longingly at real coffee for a moment, then shook her head. She filled the coffee pot about half-way up with water and poured it into the reservoir in the coffee maker, then flipped the switch. When the coffee began to dribble into the glass pot, Jane took a deep breath and turned to face her mother.
"Ma, there's something I need to tell you."
Angela had opened her mouth to say something else, but she stopped, frowning. "What is it? Janie, are you okay? The baby?"
Jane had to smile. "Ma, I'm fine. The baby is as fine as it can be. No, this is something... Um, you know how you always say that you just want me to be happy?"
"Of course. It's all a mother could ever ask for her children." Angela had a confused look on her face. "Why are you asking me that?"
"Because, Ma, I just need you to know that I am happy, okay? I'm," she glanced at Maura, who had gone still, like a bunny who didn't want to be noticed by a predator, "We are happy. Ma, Maura and I are... we're together. Like, we're a couple."
Angela let out a hard breath. She stared at Jane with an unreadable expression on her face. "Ma?"
Her mother ignored her. She turned to Maura and took the cup of espresso from her. "Maura, would you please allow me to speak to my daughter in private?"
A little miffed, Jane declared, "Whatever you have to say to me, you can say in front of Maura." She stepped closer to the blonde and put her hand on her lower back. Maura jumped a little, then relaxed.
"Jane, please?" Angela gave her daughter another unreadable look.
"It's alright, Jane." Maura told her, softly. "I'll go get ready. Come up when you're finished." She took her own cup of espresso and fled upstairs.
Jane watched her go and wished like hell she could follow. Instead, she did the adult thing and faced her mother again, waiting.
For a few more seconds - in which they both clearly heard Maura's bedroom door close - Angela regarded her daughter in silence. Finally, she said, "Jane Clementine Rizzoli - I swear, if you do anything to hurt that woman, I will make you pay."
Startled, Jane could only goggle at her mother. Her mouth moved, but no words came out.
"Listen to me, Jane. I have watched you and Maura dance around each other for years in the guise of being best friends. I was really hoping that one or the other of you would get it, but then Casey came along. Janie, I liked Casey, and I think that he would have been a good husband for you and a good father."
"Ma. Can we not talk about me and Casey? It's over." Jane replied, trying to keep the frustration that she usually felt when her mother tried to butt into her life down so that she didn't bite Angela's head off.
Angela nodded. "I know. I know. I'm just telling you what I see. What I also see is that since Frost died, you and Maura have been closer than ever. I see the way that she looks at you when you aren't paying attention and I can see that you're happier than I think I've ever seen you. You're glowing - and I don't think it's just the pregnancy."
"Wait, so you knew about us?"
"I suspected. I was hoping you would just tell me."
"So, you're not mad?"
"Why would I be mad?"
Jane made a face. "Because we're Catholic - well, mostly. We try."
That made her mother laugh. "Oh Janie! That's what you're worried about? My religion?"
"Well... Yeah. Sort of. I mean doesn't the church forbid, you know, same sex anything?"
Angela sighed and looked a little sad. "Jane, I made a bargain with God when you and your brothers were born. I swore that I would always love you, no matter what you did, as long as you were healthy and happy."
Jane snorted. "That explains a few things." Her mother reached out and swatted at her, but she was smiling again.
"I'll just say this about faith - It isn't about church and it isn't about blindly believing whatever some priest or cardinal or pope says you have to. Real faith means that you accept the world as it is, as God's creation in all its wonder and diversity. It means that I believe God is merciful and He wouldn't have made people the way that they are if He didn't have a plan for them."
Jane was in awe. This was not a side of her mother that she got to see a lot of. "Ma, I didn't know you felt that way."
Angela nodded. "Like you, I keep my faith close to my heart. I treat people how I would like to be treated."
Jane was smiling now. She rounded the end of the kitchen island and grabbed her mother up a huge hug. "I love you, Ma."
"I know you do, Janie." Angela hugged her daughter back. Then she let go and pointed a finger at her, going stern. "But I meant what I said earlier - I love Maura and if you hurt her I will die - just so that I can come back and haunt you for the rest of your life. She's a good girl."
"She's the best thing that ever happened to me, Ma. I want to do everything that I can to keep her. I'm in love with her."
Angela nodded. "Well, now that it's settled, I suppose I'm obligated to give Maura the 'don't you hurt my baby' speech, aren't I?"
Jane rolled her eyes. "Hold off on that, would ya? This is still new to both of us and we are taking it slow."
"Oh? Does that mean that you two haven't... you know?" Angela wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
"Ma! Boundaries, remember? And for your information, no, we haven't. Happy?"
"Yes. Thank you. I have to go get ready for work now." Angela stood up, took her tiny cup of nectar, and went out the door to the guest house. Jane stared after her, still a little bit in shock that it had gone so well. She glanced up the stairs towards Maura's bedroom and grinned. She couldn't wait to tell her girlfriend about this conversation.
