Chapter 8
Disclaimer: I Own Nothing, Still
Jane parked her cruiser and walked towards the little shop, bouncing the ball in her hand. She walked into the store, the bell above the door ringing, announcing her arrival.
"Hey, Sal!" Jane shouted into the shop, to no one in particular. "Where are you?"
A small stooped old man came shuffling out of the back of the store, carrying a large book. "Hey, Janie!" he said, closing the book and walking around the counter to greet Jane face to face.
"How you been?" he asked, taking her hand in his, smiling up at her.
"Me?" Jane answered. "How you been?" she asked, smiling back genuinely.
"Oh, I been fine. The same as always." He said, patting her hand, squeezing it lovingly. "How's the family?"
Jane leaned over and said jokingly, "Well, you know." She shrugged her shoulders. "It's the family!"
Sal laughed and nodded, "Yeah, they're original!" he squeezed her hand again. "So what can I do for you, Janie? You got something for me?" he asked, looking at the ball Jane had been holding against her chest, protectively.
"Actually, Sal" she said, looking down at the ball. "It's something for me." She held the ball out to Sal.
He took it gingerly, watching Jane's reaction to his touching the ball.
"Is this one special?" he asked, rolling the baseball around in his hands, feeling it's weight and noticing the dent and the smudge.
Jane reached out and took Sal's hands while he held the ball, closing her fingers over it. "It's special to me." she whispered.
Sal smiled up at Jane. "How can I help?" he asked, leaning closer to Jane.
Jane squeezed his hand again. "Make this one original. Like my family."
"You got it, Janie. It'll be ready in a couple a' days." He whispered back to her.
Jane's eyes welled with tears. "Thanks Sal. You know that my family considers you one of us, right?"
Sal turned the ball over in his hand. "Yeah. And you's are all my family, too." He said. Then he became all business. "Give me the specifics."
Jane gave him the specifics.
"I'll be invited, right?" he asked.
"First one on the list" Jane replied, wiping her eyes. And then she hugged Sal and left the little shop, smiling to herself.
-R&I-R&I-
Jane sat in the car, her hands in her lap. She had another quick stop to make, but she had to gather herself. She took several deep breaths, knowing that after the next step in her plan, there was no going back. Not because she couldn't, but because she wouldn't. She had made a promise to herself when she had set this plan into motion weeks ago. If it got to the next stage, the next stop, she would have to be fully committed and aware that there was no going back.
She held her hands out in front of her, palms up. They were shaking. The scars that each palm held seemed to mock her. "What are you doing, Jane? Do you think that such an exquisite being such as Dr. Maura Isles could possibly accept someone as damaged as you?"
Jane closed her hands. "Yes." she whispered to herself. "I do."
-R&I-R&I-
Jane pulled the cruiser up to the curb in front of Headquarters, her mind full of the enormity of the last stop she'd just made. She got out of the car, closing the door and beeping the alarm. She walked towards the steps in a daze. She wanted to cry out, in victory, at the top of her lungs. She'd done it! She'd overcome all her fears…all the voices…and made the biggest decision of her life. Instead, she calmly walked up the steps to the doors of the station.
"Hey, Rizzoli!" a voice boomed across the street. "How 'bout them Yankees!"
Jane stopped and turned towards the voice. A group of beat cops stood looking at Jane. When Jane started to walk towards them, they all scattered, pulling on their hats and finding more pressing things to do.
Jane stopped walking in the middle of the street. She watched them slink away, holding her hands up, shrugging he shoulders. "Yeah, that's what I thought!" she yelled at them as they made themselves disappear into the scenery. "Everybody's gotta fuckin' mouth, until they don't!"
She turned and made her way into the station. She'd completely forgotten about the ramifications of the "Jumbotron". And, quite frankly, she didn't care anymore. But she wasn't about to put up with any bullshit, either. Last night's game had not only decided the outcome of the Yankee win-loss ratio. It had decided the outcome of Jane Rizzoli's future. And God dammit, she wasn't about to let a bunch of immature underlings give her hell about it, either!
She made her way into the bullpen, taking her jacket off and throwing it over her shoulder. Korsak saw her and quickly stood between her and her desk.
"What the hell, Korsak?" Jane asked, the irritation sounding in her voice.
He held his hands up to her. "Now, Jane, remember. It was just a damn game!" he said forcefully, trying to imbibe more respect then he actually deserved.
"Okay?" Jane said, huffing and walking past Korsak. She made her way to her desk. She stopped in her tracks, dropping her jacket off her shoulder and holding it at her side. She looked over at Frost. He shrugged.
On her desk, was every conceivable piece of New York Yankee shwag that could be found in the twelve or so hours since the game.
Yankee felt pennant flags, pins, mini-bats, mini-helmets. A Derek Jeter bobble-head, nodding at her. Even a big New York Yankee flag that someone had draped over her chair.
She looked at Frost and Korsak. "You couldn't get rid of this for me?"
They both stood looking at her. Deer caught in the headlights. Korsak spoke first.
"We tried, Jane. But every time we turned our backs or left the office, it all reappeared! God,honestly. This shit must've cost a fortune! Me and Frost thought about resellin' it on E-Bay!" he finished, pointing to a bin filled with Yankee memorabilia that they had already confiscated.
Jane softened a bit. "You should. Make a few bucks, huh?"
Frost walked forward to his partner. "Jane. It's all in fun. If I thought for one second that it wasn't, I'd kill somebody. You know that, right?"
Jane touched Barry's arm. "I know, partner. Thanks." She smiled. Something she rarely did towards Frost, not because she didn't like him, but because she did. "Have you seen Maura?"
"No. I thought she came in with you." Korsak interjected. "She didn't?"
"No." Jane said, feeling uncertain. "She left before me. She should be here already."
She turned to leave the bullpen, heading towards the Morgue.
"Janie!" Korsak yelled to Jane as she exited the room. "I'm sure she's fine!"
-R&I-R&I-
Jane practically ran out of the elevator, pushing the doors open, heading towards the Morgue.
She pushed the glass doors open, searching for Maura. Jane spotted her immediately, sitting at her "morgue" desk, her back to Jane, head down, looking as though she were studying some lab report.
Jane inhaled deeply, relieved more than she was willing to admit, her hands flying to her forehead. She closed her eyes and exhaled silently. She was sure that Maura somehow had gotten caught in the crossfire of the whole fallout of the game. Jane would have rathered cut off her own hands, than have that happen.
She walked over to where Maura sat, relief saturating her body. It was short lived.
Maura was crying.
Jane stood next to her stunned and confused. And then, very angry. She did her best to contain that anger.
"Maura, baby?" Jane whispered, approaching Maura slowly. "Why are you crying?" She reached Maura and put her hands on Maura's shoulders softly, reassuringly.
Maura lifted her head and sniffed, covering her mouth with her hands.
"Oh, God baby! What is it?" Jane questioned, leaning around Maura and taking her hands. "Are you alright?"
Maura tried to gain control of her emotions. It took several minutes. Jane waited, holding Maura's hazel-green eyes with her own chocolate-brown.
Then Maura spoke haltingly. "I'm sorry, Jane." She whispered.
Jane didn't understand. "What?" she asked. "Why? Why are you sorry, baby girl?"
Maura answered, the emotion so close to the surface. "I'm the reason for everybody making fun of you. I should have known to be more careful when it came to your sports customs and rituals. Instead, I just disregarded them and jumped head first into something that I had no business getting involved in. I am a newcomer to the whole sports rivalry dynamic. I had no right to throw myself into the middle of a century old custom of win and loss. I'm so sorry, Jane." Maura finished, looking at Jane with glassy, teary eyes.
Eyes that Jane never wanted to see again. Especially when she felt that she was the cause of those teary eyes. She took Maura's face into her hands slowly, incredulously. She was thinking about what she had done earlier for Maura. The one thing that she wanted to tell Maura, to reassure, her but couldn't. Not yet.
Instead she kissed her. Soft and comforting. Barely grazing Maura's lips. Softly moving her lips across Maura's, closed. Back and forth. Then placing her hands on either side of Maura's jawline, her thumbs tracing her cheeks, she pressed her mouth to Maura's, asking for entry with her tongue, not forcing. Maura controlled this kiss.
Maura opened her mouth, allowing Jane's tongue inside, Jane's teeth grazing Maura's lips. Jane pulled back and took Maura's bottom lip between her teeth and nipped at it, softly at first, then more forcefully. Maura let Jane do this, breathing Jane's breath, sucking it into her lungs, deeply. She pulled back, not away, from Jane's mouth, Maura's tongue snaking out and finding Jane's. They licked each other's tongues briefly, their lips never touching. Then both sensed each other's need and they pushed their mouths together, no tongues, at first. Then both opening their mouths as wide as they could, forcing their tongues out into each other's mouths, sucking anything they could. Tongues, lips, teeth. It was an intense kiss. It was an entire kiss. One that they both needed, for their own reasons. Unknowingly, their own reasons were each other. And then it was over.
They sat looking at each other, breathless, knowing that whatever anyone threw at them, they were prepared to face together.
"I love you, Dr. Maura Isles. In case you didn't know." Jane said to Maura.
Maura smiled, her eyes twinkling, something Jane never got used to. "And I love you, Detective Jane Rizzoli."
-R&I-R&I-
Two days later, Maura let herself into her house and dropped her keys into the tray by the door. It had been a bad past couple of days. No new cases, but poor Jane had had to deal with the complete and utter chaos of the repercussions of the now infamous "Jumbotron" incident. And Maura felt that it was all her fault. Had Maura known how much grief and interrupted productivity the simple wearing of a baseball hat would have caused, she would not have insisted so heartily.
In fact, she would have burned the damned hat herself. As much as she loved her newfound favorite baseball team, let's face it. It wasn't worth the trouble it was causing her beloved Jane. Maura was mortified at the everyday tauntings that Jane had to endure. And yet she was so proud of the way Jane handled such tauntings. She merely smiled, and if Maura was near, took her hand. It was something out of a fairy tale. Something that Maura never expected to happen to her, ever. She was fully prepared to spend the rest of her life alone.
Alone with her science. Alone with her dead bodies. Alone in awe of the human species that she had so much trouble interacting with.
Until Jane.
This is what she was thinking about when she walked into her house and put her keys in the tray by the door.
She walked into her living room and noticed something was different. The lighting was off. It took her a minute, after looking around and measuring in her mind what was different from when she'd last been in this room, yesterday.
She looked up at the mantle above her fireplace. And sitting dead square in the middle (Jane had measured this knowing Maura's need for symmetry) was what looked like a glass box. She realized also the lighting was off. Because whomever had placed the glass box on the mantle, had moved the spotlight that normally shown onto the Roy Lichtenstein original above the fireplace, to point directly at the glass box.
She took off her light jacket and walked over to the mantle, leaning into the little glass box that sat there. She smiled, pulling her hands together below her chin, once she realized what it was.
Inside the specially made glass case, was the baseball that Maura had caught. It sat on a specially made mounting and on the outside of the glass there was a little plaque, engraved in gold.
It said: This homerun ball; hit by Robinson Cano on this date; caught by Dr. Maura Isles, Yankee Fan; Loved by Jane Rizzoli; Forever. Yankees 6 Red Sox 4 Will You?
Maura squinted at the inscription again. She picked up the case and held it close to her eyes. "Will You?"
"What does that mean?" Maura thought. "Will I, what?"
Then she heard a noise behind her and turned quickly.
Jane was standing there holding something in her hand. She looked nervous but happy.
"Hey, baby girl. How was your day?" Jane asked, smiling.
Well, I've somewhat explained the baseball. Those that have an interest in what happens next, I ask to please stay with me. I will not hold you hostage. I promise. But know that I think about this story all the time. The direction isn't random. And I think about how to make it great for you, the reader. I'm a reader, too. When I'm not writing, that's what I'm doing; reading. Your stuff! Thanks for the great reviews. They are truly inspiring.
