Author's note: Thank you very much for all the reviews, I'm glad to see you're liking this story so far.
Chapter Nine
"Hey, Maura! Do you want another beer?"
Emma wrinkled her nose at Matthew in obvious disapproval. She briefly motioned their colleague with her head then leaved over the bar counter to make sure that she wouldn't be overheard.
"Don't you think she has had enough? Four pints, Matthew."
The medical examiner from Michigan burst out laughing. It was Friday afternoon – they were back from the morgue for the weekend – and had nothing else to do than drink away their boredom at the pub William had found by accident in Depoe Bay.
"And so what? Her friend dumped her. She definitely is in her right to get drunk tonight." Matthew cast a glance at Maura before ordering the pints. "She needs to forget, Emma."
Emma didn't reply. She didn't necessarily like the idea of alcohol making the lines blurry but then she had to agree with her colleague. Sometimes alcohol helped. For a couple of hours. She would just make sure that Maura woult eat a little something too.
Sitting at a large wooden table by the windows, Maura kept on staring at the ocean outside. She felt empty. Her disappointment had melted into something a lot harder to define now. Her cell phone remained desperately quiet. She hadn't got any email either. Forty-eight hours had now passed by. She didn't need to be a genius to interpret Jane's absence of reply. Everything was clear, cruelly clear.
"Here come the babies..."
Matthew came back from the counter holding a tray full of pints of beer. Everyone gladly took one even if Emily didn't show her sudden lack of enthusiasm.
"Please don't call them like that, not after the day we've had."
Vera chuckled. Emily had a point. They had worked on the corpses of newborns for most of the day and as much as none of them was a forensics novice, it was still a situation quite hard to handle.
Nobody practiced the autopsy of a child without feeling a whirl of poignant emotions tightening its grip on their heart.
"A penny for your thoughts, Maura."
William's remark caused Maura to abandon the contemplation of the raging weather. She turned her head around and smiled at her colleague. Bitterly. It was strange but she actually felt lucky. Her life was a mess and seemed to depend on a very uncertain future but having all these people around her today brought a well needed warmth to her heart.
"I'm glad to be here, with you all... It's..." She hesitated. The words started dancing on her lips but she held them back for a long second. "It's my birthday, today."
"Oh my god! You mean you're turning twenty-five? Finally!" William stood up and trotted towards Maura to plant a warm kiss on her cheek. "Wait. We definitely need a cake. Damn, couldn't you tell us about it before?"
Maura rolled her eyes. William's exhuberant reaction was the exact reason why she hadn't said a word about her upcoming birthday during the week but now that the day had come, staying quiet over it had lost importance. As a matter of fact, everything had lost importance. She had never liked birthday celebrations but she had reached such a point of emotional blankness that she couldn't care less if her colleague found her a cake and a ridiculous paper hat to wear.
The only thing that matter – that weighed on her existence – was that it was the first time she wouldn't hear from Jane on August, 7th since they had met. Not a single text message, not a single Skype session. Nothing but the silence of her regrets.
...
It was barely 8pm but the clouds were so heavy and dense that the light was very poor on the streets. The rain added its usual curtain of icy diamonds to the gloomy scene, way too thick to let people see in the distance.
Laughing away their intoxicated state, the six medical examiners were happily walking on the main road to reach back their house. They had just stopped by the diner to get Maura a proper birthday meal: burgers – French fries – and a chocolate cake. They hadn't found any other last-minute celebratory kind of supper.
Their take-away in hand, they were now fighting the wind and the rain thinking about nothing but the glorious moment when they would find themselves sitting by the fireplace. Warm and in dry clothes.
They had just passed the blue house – the last one before theirs – when they spotted a shadow in the distance. Someone was waiting on the sidewalk.
The person had just rushed down the front porch and was now looking into their direction but the rain was so heavy that none of them could properly see who was there.
"It's not Caruso, is it?"
Intrigued, nobody replied to Emily's rhetorical question. The medical examiner of Newport was a lot shorter, actually.
They all resumed their walking until Maura stopped – her birthday meal in hand – and let a loud gasp pass her lips. She swallowed hard. For some reason, she had sped up the pace of her steps and was now slightly ahead of her colleagues who had stopped just in her back.
She wasn't utterly drunk. As a matter of fact, the five pints of beer hadn't had the single impact on her body. She was perfectly sober, way too much to now have hallucinations.
Confused, she made one more step towards the person who was waiting for them then stopped anew. No, she hadn't dreamed. Jane was standing there in front of her; only a few feet away. In the rain. She was wearing a rain coat but hadn't bothered on putting the hood on. Her hair – tied up in a ponytail – seemed to be absorbing most of the rain.
Only rebel drops dared to embrace her face before dying in the depth of her neck.
Something happened the moment she realized that it was Maura who had approached her. A light got turned on in her head and everything started looking bright again. She dropped her backpack on the floor then walked the distance that separated her from her friend.
Each step seemed to engrave an invisible yet strong message in her brain and by the time she found herself only mere inches away from Maura, a honest smile had curled up her lips and was now making her eyes glimmer delightfully.
She only stopped walking the moment she slid a hand on Maura's nape and captured her lips in a long – vital – kiss. It was raining heavily – she was icy and tired – but she couldn't care less. The same could be said for the group of people who were now witnessing them. She had found back the warmth of Maura's body against her and the softness of her lips; the sensation of satisfaction that emanated from the kiss. The rest didn't matter one second.
Cold rain drops began to slide along their lips and made their way to their mouths. The contrast of temperature turned out to be sharp, almost arousing.
Breathless, Jane finally broke the kiss but cupped Maura's soaked wet face with her hands before leaning her forehead against her friend's. She locked her eyes in Maura's hazel eyes and took a deep breath.
She had thought about this moment over and over. She had even learned by heart some sort of speech; a random series of words that she wanted to see as symbolical ones. But she didn't find the strength to actually speak. The moment she lost herself in Maura's eyes, Jane understood that they didn't need long sentences.
Everything spoke for itself, every single gesture.
"Happy birthday..."
Maura needed long seconds to react. As a matter of fact, if William hadn't cleared his voice in her back then she would have probably remained still – astounded – in the pouring rain. She opened her mouth to speak, to let the thousand words that were now dancing in her head pass her lips but she found herself unable to pronounce any of them. She blinked instead, frowned.
She understood tears were running down her cheeks when they reached her lips and she felt their salty taste against her tongue. Their warmth passed underneath her skin and rushed to embrace her heart of a powerful feeling.
Way too powerful for her to handle it properly.
She knew that she wasn't dreaming and yet it was exactly how it sounded. Even in her craziest fantasies she hadn't dared to imagine such scenario. Yet it had happened. Jane was there - standing in the rain - a hand on her waist. A protective hand.
"Someone needs to go back to the diner and buy an extra burger." William smirked. "Anyone?"
The remark made Maura smile. She turned around to look at him then shook her head with a lightness that she hadn't felt in a very long time.
"I'll share mine. It's okay."
Matthew snorted. Obviously he completely disagreed with what she had just said. He immediately gave his bag to Vera then shrugged at Maura.
"Blasphemy! Nobody shares a hamburger on a birthday. You're supposed to clog your arteries all by yourself. It's how it works... It's okay, I'll go get one. In the meantime, everyone go back inside... We're not having a submarine picnic. Do you want onion rings with your burger, Jane? Welcome here, by the way. If you don't mind about not seeing the sun for more than three seconds a day then you're gonna love it here."
"Oh..." Jane shrugged. She hadn't expected such welcome. As a matter of fact, she hadn't thought about the moment that would follow the kiss she was dying to give Maura. Reality had just caught up on her with all its oddness. "Onion rings... Yeah that sounds good to me. Thanks."
Vera grabbed the backpack Jane had dropped on the ground and walked the stairs of the front porch. She opened the door and motioned Jane to get inside.
"I don't know when you arrived nor how long you've been waiting in the rain but I guess it's time for you to enjoy some warm clothes and our fireplace... Oh don't pay attention to the lobster disaster in the kitchen. A recipe turned into a real nightmare last night. William and Maura are to blame."
Jane nodded, confused and slightly amused. At the mercy of a sudden timitidy, she quietly followed Vera inside while Matthew was running his way back to the diner at the end of the road.
