Firstly, I would like to say that this has been the most challenging chapter yet. Mainly because of the comments I have been receiving for this story. I never expected to get the AMAZING feedback that I have, and that has put so much pressure on me because I don't want to disappoint you guys! Thank you for all the follows and favourites. And secondly because work has had me REALLY busy. That, however, is no excuse for the long wait for this chapter. Hope you enjoy.
I would like to say thank you to all the readers who have left comments, I really appreciate EVERY SINGLE one of them. I didn't think that my story would stand out amongst the thousands of stories here, but clearly I was wrong. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
Trigger warning: suicide. (don't know if this is appropriate but putting here it anyway)
I still don't own any of the characters, just using them to tell my story.
ClaireBear, my BETA, this is for you.
Hope you enjoy. R&R
Chapter 7
"Ma, you do know that we are not actually going to start planning the engagement party right now, right?" Jane questioned as they all walked into the cottage. Angela ignored Jane and walked into her room, returning with a box marked 'Jane'.
"Ma, seriously? What is that?" Jane knew as soon as the words left her mouth, that she would regret the question.
Angela started opening the box as everyone looked on with curiosity.
"Ma, if that is money that you have saved for the day when Jane gets married, I'm just letting you know that Lydia and I are getting engaged tomorrow!" Tommy said, and they all burst out laughing.
"Hey genius, if Ma saved that much money for each of us, don't you think she would have used it when pops left her?" Jane slapped her little brother upside the head, causing yet another round of laughter.
"There better not be embarrassing photos of me in there Ma." Jane stated, anxiously waiting for her mother to reveal the contents of the box.
"Janie… I started collecting this when you we just a little girl." Angela started becoming emotional, ignoring the foolishness of her children. She started unpacking bridal magazines, swatches of lace and other white fabrics, menus and then to the horror of Jane, a scrapbook!
"Come on Maaa…" Jane whined. "You gonna make me cry now!" Jane said as she picked up a wedding magazine dated July 1991. "This book is from the year I turned 15… Wow!" Jane said, astonished. This is when she looked over at Maura who was now drinking a cup of tea. She was on the brink of tears thinking about whether either Constance or Hope ever thought about their daughter getting married. Constance would definitely not have an old, dusty box filled with magazines and fabric swatches. She would probably just hire some fancy wedding planner to do everything. Have a wedding at the country club or some fancy yacht. That was not her life anymore, Maura thought. She could still afford all of that and more, but she no longer felt the need to splurge on material things because she had a family and all that mattered was that they were there with her.
And then it hit her like a ton of bricks, she hadn't shopped online since she started dating Jane. What did this mean? Was she trying to fill a void all of these years? Was Jane and her family all she needed all along?
Jane saw the far-away look in Maura's eyes and decided that now was the best time to excuse the couple and head to bed.
"Look Ma, I really appreciate all this stuff and I would like to go through it all some other time, but Maura and I really need to get to bed. We have had a very long, busy, stressful and exciting day. Maura needs to get some rest and so do I." Jane thanked her mother with a kiss on the cheek and motioned for Maura to follow suit.
Once in the main house, Jane locked up all the windows and doors and headed to their bedroom to join her sleeping fiancé. Or so she thought. Upon entering the room, Jane saw that Maura was still very much awake. Sitting at the foot of the bed in her BPD t-shirt, waiting for Jane.
"Jane," Maura started.
"I'm hungry." She said softly, knowing that Jane had just turned off all the lights downstairs.
"You're kidding me Maura?" Jane asked rolling her eyes. She was exhausted.
"Well, I can't go to bed now. I need an apple… And peanut butter… Or maybe some almond butter… Please." Maura pleaded with Jane.
"Maaaaauuuurrraaaaaaa! I just turned off all the lights downstairs!" Jane whined before she made her way down to the kitchen. Knowing that she would never be able to leave Maura unsatisfied and that since it is her baby growing inside of Maura, she felt obligated to wait on her, hand and foot.
As Maura waited patiently for her snack, she took off the t-shirt she was wearing and moved to Jane's side of the bed and crawled under the covers. Her side had been growing increasingly uncomfortable recently.
Hearing Jane stomp back up the stairs, Maura felt nervous about her next request. While Jane was in the kitchen preparing her snack, Maura suddenly felt something wash over her. A white, hot sensation. She knew that she was in trouble. She only felt this way when Jane was about to ravish her! Or when she needed Jane to ravish her. The smell of Jane on the sheets had sent Maura's hormones into overdrive.
"Not now… Please not now!" Maura pleaded with her body.
Jane heard Maura say something as she stepped into the room. "What was that you said?" Jane asked she looked back from securing their bedroom door.
"Maur… Why are you on my side of the bed? … And why is the t-shirt you were in, lying on the floor?" The detective questioned because Maura would never just discard her clothing on the floor. She was always on Jane's case for tossing her clothing all over the place.
Maura pulled the covers up to her face, trying to hide her smile, but Jane saw the need in her eyes.
"Babe… Are you serious…?" Jane asked lovingly so as not to hurt the blonde's feelings.
"I don't know what happened just now…" Maura confessed.
"I just wanted to sleep on your side because your baby is no longer liking my side of the bed." She shyly said. "Once I was here, your scent woke something deep within me." Maura said. Again, hiding her face.
Jane's mind was exhausted, but her body clearly liked the idea of getting frisky. Especially when she thought about their conversation earlier that day regarding Maura in some alternate universe as a hooker.
"So, is that a yes…?" Maura asked, looking down at the very awake member in Jane's shorts.
Maura was drawn back to reality when Jane sat down next to her at the foot of the bed with her snack.
"I brought some peanut butter and almond butter… Just in case you had changed your mind. I also brought some water for you." Jane said handing the plate with the apple slices to her fiancé.
"I love you so much Jane, thank you for my snack." Maura said with a certain sadness in her voice.
"What's wrong? Please don't tell me that you're craving something totally different. I love you Maur, but there is no way I am heading back downstairs for something else." Jane's voice sounded defeated, knowing that if Maura indeed wanted something else that she would go back downstairs. She would even get into her car and drive to a gas station if what Maura wanted was not in their home. And Maura knew this too.
"No darling, this is perfect. Thank you…" Maura started. "But I think that I may have had a hallucination… I am so tired that my mind is playing tricks on me. I needed you, in my dream."
"You needed me?" Jane asked, confused.
"Yes, I got into your side of the bed and I waited for you to take me. I needed to feel you inside of me." Maura said quietly.
"You were standing by the bed with my snack in your hands and I looked down at your tented shorts and just as you were about to approach me, I was snapped out of my dream by you sitting down now." Maura sounded sad, as if she really wanted her dream to continue, or as if she wanted Jane to ask if she only needed her in the dream, or if she wanted Jane now.
Afraid of Maura's answer Jane questioned her anyway. "Do you feel the way you felt in your dream? Do you want me right now?"
Maura looked at Jane with that same look she gave her in her dream. The one Jane knew meant that Maura needed her. She needed to feel Jane. She needed to taste Jane. She needed to be consumed by Jane's love.
"Okay, hold that thought." Jane said as she headed to the bathroom to freshen up.
Maura set down her snack on the nightstand by Jane's side of the bed and crawled under the sheets. As soon as her head hit the pillow, Maura was out.
Jane returned to their bedroom ready for action when she heard light snores. Laughing, she turned off the lights and got into the bed behind Maura and just cuddled with her soon to be wife.
She too, was out like a candle in the wind in no time.
Jane rolled over, reaching for the object of her utter annoyance. Her alarm was blaring, signalling that it was time for her to get up. She felt like she had just closed her eyes but when she checked the time on her phone after shutting the thing up, she realised that they had slept right through the other two alarms set to go off an hour ago. It was now 7:30 am and they were definitely going to be late for work. Jane gently woke Maura who seemed to have slept through all THREE alarms! Growing a human must be exhausting, she thought, because Maura was usually up before any of Jane's failsafe alarms sounded.
Once the couple had a light breakfast and got ready for the day, they left to the office in separate cars because Jane was likely to work late again tonight. She didn't want Maura to have to wait for her to go home.
Sitting at her desk, Jane once again ran through all the evidence they had collected from the scene as well the other cases she felt were linked to their current case.
It was just before lunch and Jane had set a target for herself, 'solve this case and you can go have lunch with Maura… Away from the station.' She worked hard to reach her target and then just like that, she saw something. The handwriting on the victims was identical.
She jumped up from her seat and rushed over to Frost for him to 'push some buttons' on his new and fancy gadget the department acquired recently. What she wanted to him to look for was the handwriting analyser. To determine if they were in fact identical.
"Well what do you know. A link between the cases. Now let's get everything from the two 'solved' cases from the other precincts and see what we find there." Jane said enthusiastically.
After skipping lunch and working non-stop until around 6:20 pm, Frost got a name, Peter Brass. He was a student advisor at the other campus around the time of the murders. "And what do you know, he just started at BCU three weeks ago!"
"Great! Let's get him in for questioning. What are the odds of him being at two campuses involving three murders?" Jane asked.
As the three detectives made their way to Jane's unmarked squad car, Jane asked out of curiosity, "What were the detectives thinking when they mentioned 'suicide pact'? I mean doesn't there have to be a strong link between the victims for them to start thinking that? And there was no link between them beside the fact that they both were busy with exams and that they both passed well, right?"
"Oh yes, I got the results of our latest victim's exam. Passed with 98%." Frost stated matter-of-factly.
"Do you think that had something to do with all of this?" He questioned.
"I certainly do." Korsak said.
"98%, did the room we found our victim in look like the room of a student who gets 98% for anything?" The old man chuckled.
"Well, my entire apartment looked like that when I made detective minus the dead body… and I scored 100%" Jane added, sending the trio into a fit of laughter.
The rest of the drive over to the university was spent talking about how they would approach Mr. Brass.
Once they reached BCU, they headed to campus security to find out where Mr. Brass could be found and also to update the university on their new findings. They also found out that the university had not done a background check on Mr. Brass since he came highly recommended from his previous employers.
The detectives made their way to the study centre Mr. Brass was said to be at and entered with caution. They did not want to make a scene, fearing that he would retaliate and since he was in a public space, they feared the safety of the rest of the students.
Luckily there was only one entrance and exit to the centre and Jane posted Frost there in case the suspect decided to run.
She entered the centre with Korsak and searched the room for the suspect. She spotted someone resembling the picture they got from campus security and made her way to him. Korsak saw Jane moving in that direction and decided to approach him from a different direction.
Once Jane reached the man, she showed him her badge and asked if she could have a word with him regarding the murder. "We just have some questions for you. I believe that you were the victim's student advisor." Jane said with caution. Trying not to reveal to him that he was a suspect.
"Yes, she was a brilliant student and I would love to help you find out who committed such a heinous act." Said Peter.
He followed Jane out of the centre calmly. She asked if they could do the interview at the station and that is when he became suspicious of the detective's intentions.
"Why would I need to be interviewed at the station?" He questioned. Backing away from the detective, not realising that Korsak was behind him.
"Standard procedure." Jane stated and with that he made a run for it.
Jane looked at Frost and the young detective took off behind the suspect. Frost caught up to him in no time and tackled the taller man to the ground. "Now why did you have to go and do that?" Frost questioned as he slapped the handcuffs on Mr. Brass and yanked him up.
Back at the station, Korsak sat down in front of the suspect handcuffed to the table in an interrogation room.
"Why'd you run, Peter?" Korsak started.
"Only guilty people run from the police." The detective added and that is when Jane entered with a file in her hands.
"Mr. Brass, seems like you have been quite busy." Jane said.
"Peeping tom, stalking, public indecency… And the list goes on…And all of this from a boy who went to catholic school." She continued.
"Hey, listen, those charges were false! I did none of that!" Peter tried to convince the detectives of his innocence. "I am a nice guy! I am honest! Why can't people see that?" He questioned.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Calm down buddy." Jane shouts.
"So, tell us about your job as a student advisor…" Korsak asked, trying to distract Peter from his obvious annoyance with his rap sheet.
Jane's phone started buzzing. She looked down and saw that Maura was trying to reach her.
Jane turned her phone upside down on the table between her and the suspect when it started buzzing again. She knew that it was Maura trying to reach her again. The detective thought that her fiancé just wanted to speak about engagement party things or baby things, not that they were not important, but she was busy at the moment and would call Maura after the interview. Or her calling because she missed Jane, because that was a usual thing now, with Maura's hormones in control of her most of the time. She continued to ignore the calls from the ME until there was a slight tap on the mirror dividing the interrogation room and an observation room.
Jane stepped out of the interrogation room to find out what was so important.
"Jane Clementine Rizzoli!" Maura admonished. "Why have you been ignoring my calls?!"
"Maura? Why did you have to say my name like that? I was busy in an interrogation? I thought that you were just calling to say that you miss me…" Jane said cautiously, knowing that Maura's hormones controlled her emotions, and that there was a delicate balance between the 'loving Maura' and the 'weepy Maura'.
"No, Jane." Maura said sounding very annoyed. "I needed to let you and Vince know that I have found DNA at the crime scene belonging to our suspect." She added.
"Well, he was the victim's student advisor, they have been in contact, maybe she just needed a hug…" Jane stated.
"Okay detective, that type of DNA would only have landed up on the victim if he had his pants down hugging her with his pe…" Maura said clearly being sarcastic and pulling it off very well. But Jane had cut her off when she realised what Maura was going to say.
"Okay, so this biological sample, where was it located and was it still fresh?" Jane asked.
"Yes, Jane, it was still very fresh, there were a few hundred motile sperm, meaning that the sample had been deposited within the last few days. This also depends on his sperm motility." Maura said, rolling her eyes seeing Jane roll her eyes, probably for her 'google-mouth'. As Jane always put it. "It was found inside of her, when I performed the internal examination and collected samples." Maura stated.
"I have a feeling that this man is the killer, Jane. I feel it in my intestines, and you know that I never listen to my intestines. I don't know what this baby of ours has done to me." Maura said, with a smile.
Jane gives Maura a kiss on the cheek and makes her way back to the interrogation room, ready to call it a day. When she enters the room, she sees Korsak get up from his chair and he starts walking towards Jane. "He's lawyered up." Korsak said with so much anger in his voice.
"Well, maybe Mr. Brass will change his mind when he finds out that we have his DNA on our victim. Actually, inside of our victim… That would suggest that there had been relations between the two of them… Maybe he forced himself on her? No-one knows…" Jane said to Korsak sarcastically.
"So, would you like to retract your request for counsel, Mr. Brass?" Korsak questioned after turning the camera back on.
The suspect sat down and told the detectives that he was ready to talk.
"Ok, we had a relationship. It was consensual. I didn't force her or anything!" Peter said defensively.
"Korsak, transfer Mr. Brass to holding. He doesn't see the gravity of the situation. He thinks that we have time for his childish games. Let him get a taste of what the next fifteen to twenty years is gonna be like behind bars." Jane said, not liking that Peter was wasting their time. She felt that if she put a little more pressure on him, that he would come clean, and that she would be able to wrap this stupid case up and go home.
"No, no, wait!" Peter yeld as Jane was about to get up from her seat. "I will tell you. I didn't mean to do anything to those students. I promise. But once I found out what they were doing, I could not stop myself. They needed to be punished and the punishment was not from me but from the lord. Their actions had consequences." He stated.
"Oh, so now you're telling us that the 'lord' has crowned you, enforcer of his law?" Jane spat.
"You're the only man who can stop their actions by taking away their lives? Please do tell what their sins were, oh enforcer, so that we do not commit them too." Her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Jane. They were scum. They pretended to be who they are not. They cheated and lied about it too. I gave them the opportunity to come clean!" He continued.
"So why not just turn them in to the university?" Korsak asked.
"The university was in on it. They are the ones who helped the students cheat. I tried it before, but I was turned away by the faculty and had to then take matters into my own hands. That is when god came to me and told me what had to be done."
Jane got up, "Korsak, you deal with this, I really can't deal with this nutjob."
As Jane was leaving, Korsak asked Peter to write down his statement and followed Jane out of the interrogation room.
There was no suspicion that Peter would try to harm himself in any way. Korsak and Jane had left him alone for not more than 2 minutes. When Korsak returned to the room he found the suspect staring at the pen in his hand.
"Hey, buddy. Let me have that pen before you get any ideas." Korsak said, taking the pen from Peter. Peter began convulsing and this shocked Korsak.
"I need help in here! Someone call 911!" Korsak yelled out of the door.
After all the commotion of the paramedics trying to save Peter and him eventually dying in the interrogation room, Korsak went back into the room to collect any evidence. He found the statement Peter had written.
It read: 'I did it for redemption and now I am going home.'
"This is so sad. We could've helped you." Korsak said out loud in the empty room as Peter was still there, to accept his offer of help.
Jane was on her way out of the building, heading home for the day when se heard about what had happened and decided to shoot Maura a text, choosing to deal with the paperwork to finalise this case instead of going home.
Maura's phone buzzed, somewhere in the room. Trying to locate it, she had forgotten to turn the ringer up after work.
There were magazines strewn all over her lounge; on the couch, on the coffee table where she suspected her phone was and even on the floor. 'Where did Angela find all of these in such a short period of time.' The ME thought.
"Angela, could you look if my phone is underneath the magazines on the coffee table, please. I am afraid I am stuck on the couch with all of these menus." She laughed, feigning getting up while samples of non-alcoholic bubbly threatened falling from her lap.
"No, no. You stay right there. I will look for your phone. I don't want you on your feet at all once you're home. You need to relax, that's my grandbaby in there." Angela said, stepping on some swatches in a pearly pink shade. They were for the tablecloths, even though Maura suggested plain white.
"I've told Jane to see that you don't work as long as you used to. You need to take breaks at work. Maybe even cut out working with those dangerous chemicals altogether until you have given birth."
"Jane has been wonderful, she reminds me to take breaks and even brings me healthy snacks. I have also been delegating more, only doing autopsies and working with chemicals when I really need to. I have a wonderful team at work, and they have started doing certain things without me even asking." Maura said as she reached forward for her phone.
"Mmm. Jane still needs to help you more. She also needs to start coming home with you, what if anything, God forbid, were to happen to you when you were here all alone?" Angela said, not convinced that Maura was getting enough rest.
Just then Maura's phone flew across the room, her eyes as wide as saucers. Angela looked up at her from the dessert menu she was browsing.
"Maura honey, what's the matter?" Angela questioned as she started clearing the space around Maura.
Maura's mouth opened but nothing came out. Her hand on her belly.
"Maura darling, are you in pain?"
Again, not a sound came from the blonde.
"You're scaring me Maura. What's the matter sweetie?" Angela asks putting her hand on top of Maura's, resting on her belly.
"Something's not right…" She eventually manages to say, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"SOMETHING'S NOT RIGHT!" Maura is starting to freak out.
Angela grabs Maura's phone, not wasting time looking for her own phone in the sea of events magazines. She dials Jane's number and waits for her daughter to answer.
"Come on Jane! Answer your phone." She says impatiently.
Just as she was about to hang up and try again, Jane answers.
"Babe, I sent you a text, I won't be ho.." Angela cut her off, "Jane, GET YOUR ASS HERE RIGHT NOW! Something's wrong with the baby!"
Jane didn't have to wait for her mother to finish her sentence to dash out of the bullpen. "Ma, is Maura ok? What's goin' on? Did she fall or somethin'? I'm on my way!"
She hung up as she got into her car, not even waiting for Angela to reply.
While Jane was rushing home, Angela tried to establish what the matter was.
"Honey, you have got to tell me what you are feeling. Do I need to drive you to the hospital? I could call Jane to meet us there."
"No… I'm not sure…" Maura sobbed.
"It comes and goes…"
"The pain?" Angela tried to understand.
"No… this feeling inside. Like a sinking feeling. The way some people have described what a ride on a rollercoaster feels like. I have experienced similar feelings, when an elevator starts after being stuck. Or the way my stomach feels when Jane drives too fast over a hill." Maura explains.
"Oh, Maura dear, sounds like you're feeling the baby move inside of you!" Angela says overjoyed, reaching for Maura's belly.
"I remember the first time I felt Jane move, it was the strangest feeling ever. But I was in love with the feeling immediately. When she got bigger, she wouldn't stop moving. There were times when she was only still for 2 or 3 hours a day. I think that is why she can go on working for hours without a break now." Angela said reminiscing while rubbing Maura's belly.
She had never let anyone besides Jane close to her like this before. But it felt good. Good for the baby and good for herself.
Jane burst through the front door in search of Maura and her mother.
"Maura!" Jane ran almost missing the two ladies in the sea covering everything in the lounge.
"Let's go! Come on, …" Jane said, careful not to step on the wedding cake section of the sea, making her way to help Maura up.
"What's goin' on? Why are you guys not moving? We need to get you to a hospital."
"Jane, baby…" Angela started but got cut off by the ever rushing and rambling of her daughter.
"Look Ma, I don't have time for whatever it is you and Maura want to try before we go to the hospital, we need to get her checked out by a professional." Jane was starting to become frustrated with the women.
"Jane honey, we are not moving because your baby is moving. That's all." Maura said with the biggest and brightest smile Jane had ever seen, tears still rolling down her cheeks. But this time they were tears of joy.
Maura had never felt love like this before. It was different to the way she loved Jane, it made her feel whole in a completely different way than what Jane made her feel.
Not caring if she stepped on any of the party planning guides or swatches, Jane made her way to kneel in front of Maura. Tears in her eyes, "baby, are you sure… Can I feel it?" Putting her hands to Maura's belly. "I don't think you will be able to feel it yet, you will have to wait until the baby is a bit bigger." Maura chuckles.
"And what was that about getting me to a professional? Like I am not a doctor myself?" She joked with her fiancé.
"I think I'll start cleaning down here. You guys don't need to worry about this. And Jane, you better draw Maura a nice bath and start preparing something for her to eat. The poor thing must be starving." Angela scolded her.
"Ma, she was in her own house, I think that she would have eaten something if she were hungry." As soon as the words left her mouth, Jane regretted it.
"Babe, when is our appointment with the real baby doctor?" Jane tried to change the subject seeing that her mother was not happy with her previous statement.
"I will have to check my calendar, I cannot tell you off the top of my head." Maura said with a look on her face that said that she had forgotten. A stunned look. Maura Isles doesn't simply 'forget' things…
Jane saw this and commented, "My, my, my… The Isles… Soon to be Rizzoli-Isles has forgotten something…"
"It is merely my brain allocating brain power to more important things than remembering a date and time. Simple science." Maura stated.
"The dreaded pregnancy brain." Angela added.
"My genius fiancé is gone…" Jane joked as Angela playfully slapped her arm to get her to stop faffing around and get started on her to-do list. "Bath, missy." Angela warned.
"Yeah, yeah… I am on my way. I feel like I am the slave of two evil stepsisters." Jane said under her breath, but Angela heard.
"Who said that it's gonna be a girl and what was that about stepsisters?" Her mother questioned.
"I meant Princesses." Jane corrected, causing a round of laughter.
I hope that it was worth the wait. I know that there was not much about the wedding or engagement party, but all in good time my dear Rizzles fans!