Title: Hamilton Gregg Wants to Kill Your Face (7/?)

Author: Maggiemerc

Rating: M

Status: In Progress

Fandoms: Rizzoli & Isles, Grey's Anatomy

Pairings: Callie/Arizona, Rizzoli/Isles, Rizzoli/Arizona (but purely past tense)

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. It is a tragedy I suffer through daily.

Summary: Fresh on the heels of the season two finale Rizzoli is trying to manage her confusing feelings for Maura and the case of a criminal from her past. Her hunt to stop him before he kills again takes her to Seattle, and straight into the sights of her ex.

Author's Note: If Maura and Callie had a BAMF off who would win?

Chapter Seven

She remembered the day she met Jane. She was dressed up like the most ridiculous stereotypical prostitute Maura had ever seen. While intellectually she knew that most prostitutes did not, in fact, dress that way, the rough working class Boston accent and the entertaining undressing of the commissary manager clouded her judgement. She thought, very naively, that she really was meeting her first honest to goodness street hooker and she offered to buy her coffee.

Angela laughed, "Jane was wearing turquoise eye shadow?"

"It was a very arresting shade on her."

"When was this?"

She told her. Angela frowned.

Maura continued, "She was so grumpy. Jane's always grumpy but that day in particular she was wildly unpleasant."

And intriguing. Thoroughly intriguing. Maura wasn't a people person but that day she knew she wanted to get to know the sex worker (or more likely, the vice cop) better.

"That was right after Tim died."

"Tim?"

"Arizona's brother. They were real close. He died over in Iraq and a few months later she and Jane were dividing up their things like they were going through a divorce."

Arizona. Arizona Robbins. The familiarity of the name had bothered Maura and finally she'd looked her up. She'd been a few years ahead of Maura at John Hopkins. Top of her class. Chief resident of the surgical program at Mass Gen. Peds head at Seattle Grace Mercy West and one of the youngest recipients of the Carter Madison grant ever.

If Maura were to ever be envious of another doctor it would be that woman.

"I went to school with her," she noted.

That surprised Angela. "You did?"

"Mm hm. She was a few years a head of me. Very accomplished. By all accounts an excellent doctor."

Angela nudged her with her shoulder, "I like you better."

"Angela," she chastised.

Angela had always struck Maura as relatively conservative. She was always desperate for her little girl to settle down and get married and because of that fond desire for a stereotypical relationship Maura had just assumed the woman was socially conservative.

But her bitterness towards Arizona Robbins had nothing to do with her gender. It had nothing to do with Jane's apparently fluid sexuality.

"What? That woman broke my little girl's heart."

She didn't like Arizona Robbins because the doctor had hurt her daughter. Natural. Like any mother. They took their children's sides. Even when—

"I hardly think I've been fair to Jane either."

"But you didn't string her along for years and years Maura. You have a good reason to be mad at her."

She did. An excellent reason. Jane knew her father and her father knew her and he wouldn't have shot. She knew that. But Jane had shot any ways and then acted like Maura was the silly one for being mad.

And then Jane called and spoke of missed opportunities for joy.

"Jane called me."

Angela leaned forward her warm hand on Maura's knee.

"I think…for Jane it was an apology."

"She misses you you know."

"I do. And I miss her. But I can't figure out a way to rectify this problem."

"Someone has to give."

An astute assessment. But the question was who: her or Jane?

####

Out of habit Callie slipped into scrubs and a lab coat before meeting up with Arizona outside of Radiology. Her wife noted the change in clothes but said nothing. Just held up the x-rays. "X-rays are done? I'm told I have a perfectly shaped head that's fracture free."

She shook her head and snatched the films out of her hand, "Great. You gambled with your brain and won. Do you want a hug for that?"

"I want you not to be mad about it."

"You're an idiot," she said quite sincerely.

"I'm sorry," Arizona responded, just as sincere.

She'd said it so many times in the last hour that the apology was starting to lose meaning. It was rote. She slung her wife into an exam room and shut the door firmly behind them. "Stop it."

That managed to startle Arizona.

"You keep apologizing. And I get it. You maybe even feel bad. I get that too. But you need to stop."

"What—what do you want me to do?"

She stepped close to Arizona. Studied her. The scratches on her face and the wariness in her eyes. A wariness that had been there since Jane arrived.

"All this time…what were you hiding? Her? Or him?"

Arizona didn't look away. She swallowed and her eyes wandered. Not away from Callie, but from her eyes to her lips.

"Both," she whispered.

She took her wife by the waist and pressed her back into the door. Pressed her forehead to Arizona's and spoke in a hushed and harsh tone. "I need you to be honest with me Arizona. I can't—I need you." She readjusted her grip on Arizona's waist. Held her tighter. Pushed her back against almost violently. "I trust you. You know that?" Her voice was cracking. She closed her eyes.

Arizona had sprung a leak and was crying again. She nodded. "I do," she said softly. The smell of fire still surrounded her and even her breath seemed to have been saturated in the smell. But she could still feel the puff of air on her face. The things her wife did to her. She made Callie a better person. A different person.

She opened her eyes. Arizona was so close she could see the tears clinging to her eye lashes. Clumping them together. It wasn't grief bringing Arizona to her knees. It was the demand Callie was making. The one she'd always made. Her wife was a cypher and Callie demanded the key.

"So trust me. Be with me. Make this a marriage."

Arizona's hand rose and curled around the back of her neck. She leaned up into a kiss and pressed her lips, salted by her tears, to Callie's. She could feel her trembling against her and even through the veil of anger she felt the pity and concern well up. She missed her wife, but more importantly, she wanted to help her.

Arizona was always the strong one. The good woman in a storm. And Callie could honestly say she'd never seen her wife at a loss. Never seen her faltering at the weight of responsibilities. She might run from major emotional problems, but even then there was this cockiness—an intoxicating self-assuredness—that she maintained.

Arizona wasn't fragile.

She didn't balk.

But the woman she was kissing was terrified. By Jane. By this crazy guy stalking her. Especially by Callie. So as much as she hated her wife for the lies she had gladly lived she still recognized her struggle.

She deepened the kiss and tried to ignore the pungent smell still clinging to Arizona's skin. Maybe if she kissed her hard enough—deep enough she could heal her. Could fix the dispirited woman before her and bring back the one she'd married.

Arizona moaned into her mouth and her came up to cup Callie's face and hold her in place. They couldn't be separated then. If one tried to pull back the other pulled forward. Only air was allowed between them.

But as quickly as the wound seemed to be healed by a kiss it was reopened. There was a knock at the door and they broke apart, breathless. Arizona's lips were a bruised red. The bright color was at odds with the soot and blackened dried blood and scabs on her face and neck. It was like a spot of life in a harbor of death.

The knock was louder now. And then a deep and unfamiliar male voice spoke.

"Doctor Robbins."

Her wife froze and for half an instant Callie was certain the stalker had found her.

"This is Detective Williams? Seattle PD."

They both sighed and shared a look confirming that Arizona had actually suspected the same thing Callie had. Arizona gave her a peck on the cheek and turned in her arms to face the door. "Yes?"

"I need to speak to you…preferably not through a door."

Callie kissed her wife's neck, "We should probably let him in." A little reluctantly she let go of Arizona and stepped back—grabbing the films just as the door opened and moving to the view box to examine them.

The detective, an attractive if vaguely bland man, looked surprised to see Callie. Arizona smiled brightly, the mask of happiness she wore so well slipped into place. "You were looking for me?" She sounded curious. Delighted. Like they were playing a game. Like he wasn't here because of the bomb she'd survived.

He glanced back over at Callie.

"My wife," Arizona provided. The smile faltered. Not to the common observer. But Callie saw it. It was all in the eyes. Which were sharp and focused.

"Heard you and Rizzoli ran into some trouble in Cle Elum this evening."

She continued to smile serenely but said nothing. Callie privately enjoyed the scene. That was her wife, polite, but trying to get information from her was like milking a stone and she was happy to see someone else make the attempt.

"Your girl from last night is fine," he provided.

"I know," she said far too confidently.

He scowled. "Right. Okay. So in light of events today you need to stay away from that girl. Her care should be transferred elsewhere."

"Excuse me?"

They all looked surprised as Callie was the one that had said that. She continued, "Why on earth—"

"Your wife and her 'friend' went down there to talk to that woman and she's dead now. Murdered. They're people of interest."

"You think I killed that woman? That I'd hurt that girl?"

"I think they never found who killed those girls in Boston and that it's suspicious that one appears after you move here. And I think that man put you in the hospital for two weeks and that might have made you angry enough to hurt people connected to him."

He glanced over at Callie and she realized her mouth was hanging open. She knew for a fact she look stunned. A whisper of a smile crossed his lips. Arizona followed his look to Callie and she immediately grew pale.

Two weeks? This guy was blowing up buildings and kidnapping kids and putting her wife in the hospital and— "No." she said firmly, "this guy kidnapped a kid and put her in our hospital. Not my wife. And not the cop who's been in Seattle less than a week. And he put my wife in the hospital. He murdered a woman and blew up her house to cover his tracks and you're really going to focus primarily on my wife and her ex?"

"We don't have any proof that he harmed that girl or murdered that woman."

"And you don't have any proof my wife harmed them either. So I suggest that if you want to come back here with poorly planned accusations you speak to our attorney first."

Arizona's mouth snapped shut as she fought not to say whatever she really wanted to say. Callie came up behind her and wrapped an arm around her wife's waist. It bolstered Arizona. "I'll see to it that her care is transferred to Seattle Pres. You can send an officer down to watch and everything."

She had no idea what the guy had expected to learn from them when he's sailed in with bad ideas and even worse presentations but he now looked suspiciously from one woman to the other. His plans, whatever they'd been, were faltering.

"Now if you'll excuse us, my wife has yet to be treated for the incident this afternoon and needs medical attention. You should leave."

Callie was a surgeon. An attending at a top tier hospital and she was used to being listened to. And the detective must have realized that because he didn't argue with her. Just turned to Arizona and said, "Try to make yourself available for further questions please."

He left and both women slumped in relief. "Thanks," Arizona whispered.

She reached out and took her hand. Ran her thumb along the muscles and tendons. Arizona had beautiful hands. At night she liked to hold those hands up to the moonlight and look at them. She could list off every detail and each minute imperfection and just running her thumb across their surface settled her just a tiny bit.

But she couldn't actually look at Arizona. The anger was still too present.

"I need," she said, "you to tell me everything. Who this guy is. What he did. I have to know. I trust you. I love you. But Arizona, I have to know what we're dealing with."

So Arizona told her. She spun a tale of starry eyed twenty somethings out to save the world and forced to face off against the worst that humanity to create. And by the end she felt no better than she had at the beginning. She felt only numb.

No. Not numb. It was terror. Deep and incapacitating. Now she knew what Hamilton Gregg could do. And it made everything exponentially worse.

####

Ma was sobbing. Loud wet sobs. She was inconsolable. It was worse than when she'd rent Love Story and force Jane to sit and watch it with her when she was a kid. Her father took a long draught of his beer and looked from weepy wife to apologetic daughter and muttered something about space.

He couldn't actually get much space. They were at Jane's apartment and it was paid with the combined salaries of a surgical resident and a police officer. It was nice. A good location and hard wood floors and a fantastic bathroom, but it was also small and lacked the big deck her parent's place had.

She'd invited them over. One to show off her new place. And two to break it to them that she was sharing the rent with Arizona and the apartment was a one bedroom.

Angela had been slow on the uptake. It was her father that said it quite succinctly, "Jane's a lesbian."

To be fair she was bisexual, but she wasn't ready to tackle that nuance of her sexuality so quickly. Especially as her mother was still sobbing.

"Ma," she said her name. Part pleading with her to stop crying and partly to console her.

"Grandkids," she wailed. "I was gonna have grandbabies."

"You still can. I'm sleeping with a woman not sterile."

"But how are you—my grandbabies are going to come from a turkey baster!"

She patted her mother on the back and glanced behind her. Her dad had wandered into her bedroom with the rest of the six pack and shut the door behind him. That would be fun later.

"I just—what did we do wrong? Was it because we made you share a room with Tommy? Because we let you be a cop?"

She had to fight the desire to thump her mother, "Ma. Or course not. It just…happened."

"And you met this woman on the job. What is she? A hooker?"

"A doctor."

The hiccuping sobs ceased immediately.

"She went to John Hopkins and she's doing her residency here at Mass Gen. She's a surgeon."

"You snagged a doctor?"

"Yeah mom. I did."

Somehow that made everything better. Apparently her mother could overlook the whole woman thing because Arizona was also an accomplished doctor with a decorate Marine officer for a father and another one for a brother. In fact, she suspected that if Arizona had been a man her ma probably would have left her dad for her.

Her father still didn't handle the news quite as well as his wife and chose to spend the rest of the evening quietly getting drunk and pondering his daughter's newly revealed sexuality.

Her mother though—after dinner she took up Arizona's giant laptop and started typing like a cavewoman on it. "Did you know," she called out, "that gay marriage is legal here?"

She hadn't.

"I know you can't get married in the Catholic church but I do know an Episcopalian. They're like Catholics."

Her mom had always called them "fake Catholics" growing up.

"And there are some really love Episcopalian churches. I bet we could get you married in one of those."

"Ma we just started living together. I think it's too soon to start planning weddings."

Her mother's sharp look indicated that it was not too soon.

Around ten she poured her mother and herself a cup of decaf and eyed her father, who had passed out on the couch. Her mom noticed her look and patted her hand, "Your father's just a little shock. Give him a couple of days."

"He drank himself into a stupor and passed out on my couch."

"His only little girl just told him she's moved in with a lesbian lover."

A doctor too. She saw her mother amend it in her head and rolled her eyes. Which her mother promptly misinterpreted. "Now don't give me that. This is a shock Jane. You can't get mad that it takes us a minute to process it."

"Sorry," she grumbled.

They sipped their coffees in silence and her father lightly snored. If she wanted to be honest and not just irritated as she was ninety percent of the time she dealt with her parents then she had to admit she was impressed with how they'd handled her coming out. She'd expected more tears. Maybe a damnation or two. She definitely hadn't expected that she'd still be nursing a cup of coffee with her mother when Arizona came in at ten thirty.

Her girlfriend paused in the doorway—surprised to find they had company. But the shock wore off quickly and she threw on her winningest smile. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you Mrs. Rizzoli."

Ma recovered quick enough to greet her, but she didn't give her one of her big bone crushing hugs like she normally gave her kids' dates. They chatted for a little bit, with Ma grilling Arizona and Arizona being a pitch perfect girlfriend despite coming off a forty-eight hour shift. Finally everyone agreed it was time to call it a night and Jane helped her dad down to the car and came around to give her a hug.

"She past the muster Ma?"

"She's a good girl Jane. She seems to really like you."

"I like her too."

Ma raised an eyebrow. "You're living with her now. It had better be more than like."

She hugged her mom once more for the road and trudged back up the stairs. Arizona had showered in that super speedy way doctors all seemed to move and was sitting on the couch in her robe looking at through the box of evidence they'd collected.

Hamilton Gregg was still on both their minds. Even though Korsak had threatened to have her fire if she bothered the guy. She'd simply made her investigation more low key and Arizona took on any leg work on her days off.

"I was doing this Heller myotomy on an eight year old this morning and I thought of something."

Jane flopped down on the couch next to her and laid her head in Arizona's lap. From her new vantage point she had a clear view of what Arizona was looking at. It was the time lines she'd created for the victims.

"Korsak said Gregg's out because he had an alibi for Amy right?"

Amy was victim number three.

"Right."

"He couldn't have possibly watched her die, retrieved the body, and dump it half a mile from the pit because he was out at a party."

"That is the claim."

"What if she climbed out?"

They'd been over that one. The girls were all far too weak to have climbed up the twelve feet necessary. Amy hadn't even been the fittest of them.

Arizona continued her to explain her theory, "So today in surgery this kid's sinus rhythm goes crazy and for some reason it made me think of these children. Specifically Amy. She didn't die from from dehydration like the others. I mean. She did. But we had her on a heart monitor before she died and her heart…there was something more than dehydration going on."

Jane sat up and pushed her hair away from her face. Arizona was asking her something. In that roundabout way of hers. "You want me to get the coroner's report."

"She might have had something in her system. Something that would have kept her moving. Gotten her out of that pit. If so—"

"Gregg's alibi goes kaput."

"Exactly."

Damn it. Arizona had to have a great idea. Had to come home after a hard day and make nice with Jane's parents and then have a great idea involving their case. And she had to look gorgeous doing it all.

"You know, if Korsak finds out I'm snagging the coroner's report."

"You could always tell me how to do it. The police part. I did a stint in a morgue once you know."

"So I'm gonna teach you how to steal a coroner report from the police?"

"Makes me way more awesome than anyone else you dated right?"

It really kind of did. She loved a woman who could get involved in Jane's work.

####

She woke up to find Callie Torres leaning against the door and staring. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she'd pushed the sleeves up on her red sweater giving her a bit of a threatening appearance. "How you feeling," she asked.

Jane moaned, "Headache."

"I bet. You got knocked a loop. I've been monitoring you all night though and you seem fine so far." But just to be safe Callie proceeded to ask her a number of questions to ascertain her cognitive faculties. Or at least that's what she said the questions were for. Jane answered as best she could and marveled at Callie's…awakeness.

"You've really been up all night?"

"Sure."

"You just seem—"

"I was a surgical resident not too long ago. We're kind of awesome at going without sleep."

Of course she would be. Arizona had been the same way. She'd have epic shifts that seemed to last for days and still find time to curl up on the couch with Jane and talk about her own job.

When Callie was satisfied with the state of Jane's brain she started in on another avenue of discussion that made it very clear why she'd been up all night playing nurse to Jane. "Detective Williams stopped by and spoke with Arizona."

"Here?"

"At the hospital. Then Arizona told me," she made the next part very clear, "everything."

Oh.

"And now that I know I'm going to go against the crazy jealous monster inside and ask you to stay here until they catch this guy."

She peered up at the other brunette. "You're that worried," she asked. Almost in awe. For a woman that had just learned everything she seemed calm. Secure. And set on a very specific course of action.

"This guy put my wife in the hospital once. And now he's here stalking her and sending her," that part she struggled with, "he's sending her messages. I'm not worried. I want to kill him. But barring that an armed officer of the law hanging out in my living room every day and protecting my family is the next best thing."

"So I'm—"

"You're staying."