Reader...Warning...you may object, but please hold out for the ending. There is a method to my madness and these scenes WILL move Maura and JAne closer together. I Promise!
Please comment though, in what ever manner you see fit. Reviews do help to influence the action. :)
"Kitty- Thank you for the invite, however I must decline. I have just settled in for the night and will be going to sleep shortly. -Maura"
Maura considered taking Kitty up on her proposition, if for no other reason then to fill the void she was feeling with the company of another. However, she understood the implications in the text and did not want to negotiate that particular hazard this evening.
Returning her phone to the bedside table, Maura registered her disappointment that the text had not been from Jane. She wondered if Jane would ever be comfortable enough with herself and the world to accept attraction to another woman. Given her Catholic upbringing and adamant assertions regarding her heterosexuality, Maura doubted it very much. She switched off the lamp and settled into her bed. As her mind kept wandering back to Jane, Maura realized that there was a strong possibility of her interest in the detective getting the best of her, as it had tonight. Maura's social skills were awkward enough, without having to worry about spooking Jane with her attraction. Maura resigned herself to not pursuing the detective, and to be very diligent about that point.
Before Maura could ruminate on the matter any further, she heard the dulcet tones of the doorbell from the other room. She opened her eyes wide, and for the second time in a span of a quarter of an hour she found herself wildly hopeful that Detective Rizzoli had overcome her inhibitions. Though hoping was an altogether different thing then thinking it actually might be, Maura held out for it as she pattered to the door and looked outside to see who her caller was.
Kitty stood at her doorstep with a bottle in her hand and a perfectly sultry, wind blown look on her face. Maura opened the door and stepped aside to let the reporter inside.
"Good evening Kitty." Maura said almost curtly.
"Oh come on Maura, its not even nine o'clock. You can't be that pissed. Besides I come bearing gifts." Kitty smiled and held up a bottle of wine that Maura noted was not a casual purchase. Kitty leaned in to kiss Maura's lips but had to settle for an abruptly proffered cheek. "Oh, so its like that now?"
"Since we are no longer romantically involved it would be imprudent to continue relating to each other physically as though we were." Maura responded, trying to curb the annoyance in her voice.
"Do you want me to leave?" Kitty was less conciliatory.
Maura thought about the option for a moment before replying, "No,no, I'm sorry. Please come on in and have seat." Her manners trumping her desires.
Kitty registered the hesitation but chose to pointedly ignore it. If she was going to have a chance wooing Maura back, she was going to have to let it slide. Kitty had considered her prospects and realized that she wasn't quite ready to call it quits with Maura. The woman was stunning and considerate and an amazing lover, and Kitty was not going to let a little thing like a difference of opinion on public persona ruin it. Though she was not ready to come out professionally, once she had established herself as anchor material, she capitulated that she could probably work it to her advantage. What was more, having a smart, sexy, and well respected girlfriend like Dr. Maura Isles would be highly beneficial, if she did.
Maura followed Kitty to the sitting area but neglected to acknowledge the bottle of wine the reporter had brought with her. Maura sat in the chair opposite the couch and tucked her feet up underneath her as she appraised the woman across from her.
"So really Kitty, what is this visit about?" Maura asked when she had settled in.
"Why does it have to be about anything? Its a Friday night, I had no plans, we are friends, why does it have to be anything more than that? Just because we broke up doesn't mean we have to stop being friends. It was really great lately, with you around. We share history, and sometimes that kind of familiarity is comforting."
Maura had to admit the younger woman had a point. Part of what made their relationship work was the understanding and shared experience. Kitty knew Maura, she had long ago worked past the quirky exterior, the social awkwardness and the pedantic instructional conversational style. Furthermore, Kitty grew up in the same environment. Maura never had the need to explain any of the privilege that she was privy to, because Kitty had had it as well. True, Kitty had not gone to Europe for boarding school, but Miss Porter's in Farmington Connecticut, was a well respected prep school and one that had a long and illustrious list of alumnae. They had both enjoyed and endured the same lifestyle of maids and stewards and distant parents. They were birds of a feather, as the idiom goes.
"Maura?" Kitty had been waiting for a response, and was met with a blank stare past her instead. "Maura?"
Maura snapped back into the present and refocused her attentions to Kitty. "I am sorry, I think my mind wandered a little off track.
"Yeah, you looked a bit zoned out. What were you thinking about?" Kitty hoped that her words were having an effect on the Medical Examiner, slowly but surely working their way around Maura's defenses.
"Homophily." Maura said by way of explanation. "How a being is attracted to that which is similar to itself: like attracts like." Maura's tone was light, trying not to put any more importance in her words than she really intended.
"Interesting." Kitty said, extrapolating the doctor's train or thought and taking hope in it. "So are we going to crack into this bottle of vino or sit here discussing zoology?" Kitty displayed one of her most charming smiles, trying to be both assertive and submissive in the same gesture. Maura thought for a moment and opened her mouth to decline when Kitty interrupted.
"No strings, just two old friends having a drink after a hell of a week, fair enough?"
"Fair enough," Maura capitulated. Kitty was up off the couch and over to the bar in no time, making fast work of the cork and returning with two glasses.
"To old friends." Kitty said, raising a glass and tapping it against the one she had handed Maura. "Here's to us, who's like us..." Kitty waited for Maura to finish the line.
Reluctantly Maura continued. "Damn few!" Maura could not help but smile. She and Kitty had seen many theatrical productions over the course of their friendship and one of them was the Sondheim revival that Kitty was quoting. Maura, in her own way, used to tease Kitty about her propensity for quoting songs from musicals in any given situation, and here she was doing it again. It was comfortable and familiar and not exactly unpleasant.
"That really was the most bazaar show we saw." Maura recalled sipping the wine and easing into a more genial disposition, lowering her guard just a bit.
Kitty scored her victory but declined pressing her advantage further. She retreated to the sofa so as not to jeopardize the ground she had gained. This was silly, non-threatening, reminiscence of events that they had overlooked in the past few months in their haste to redefine their friendship. Kitty noted that the doctor's posture was less rigid and her face less drawn; this was her in.
"I beg to differ, the costuming in that was odd but not freaky, and the whole receding plot line was confusing, but I could name a few shows that we ought to have walked out of if we had lesser manners." Kitty had found purchase on the topic and was willing to ride it through to the end of the evening, if it meant that she would have an opening for a round two.
"Well yes," Maura considered, "There was that production of Animal Farm that I dragged you to." Maura giggled at the newly rediscovered memory.
"Or the one in New York that you insisted on seeing off, off, off Broadway" Kitty prompted.
"Ophelia's Madness. I really rather liked it. It was quite an interesting interpretation of Shakespeare through the eyes of a female character." Maura defended.
"No, not that one, the one you thought was going to be about evolution but was actually about Creationism and the evils of darwin." Kitty was leaning forward in her seat, eager to pull Maura out a little more.
As soon as the words were out of Kitty's mouth, Maura was filled with the recollection of the whole disastrous event. The show, the Q & A after where the entire cast and most of the audience had turned on them, and the shear imperceptibility of the playwrights assertions. At the time, the event seemed so horrible, but in retrospect it was quite amusing. Maura bubbled over with laughter, and Kitty knew she was back in the running.
The two woman continued chatting for the rest of the evening and the remainder of the bottle of wine. Kitty maintained a respectful distance and was carful to display only the most plutonic of intentions toward the ME. She kept the topics on the past and avoided references to their current employment or their recent romantic involvement. Kitty did not want to rattle the tentative connections she was building and instead was content to work diligently to reenforce the foundation.
At ten thirty Kitty rose and cleared the glasses and began winding up the evening. Maura noted the woman's consideration and the hour, and began to reassess her original reservations with regard to a continued association with Kitty. If Kitty was going to maintain this level of distance and respect, then Maura might just have a good friend yet. In school they had done things together and been friends, but they were a few years apart and had had distinctly different lives. Today, the age difference barely registered and there was nothing like the rigidity of the college social scene keeping them from being friends. Maybe even, dare she hope, best friends. Maura had never has a best friend. Someone she could call for anything at any time, with no strings attached. Someone who cared about her above all else, just because. If Kitty was truly seeking just a friendship, this might be a good thing.
Maura saw Kitty to the door. They exchanged an affectionate but wholly appropriate hug and Kitty left. Maura watched the woman retreat across the drive way to the waiting cab and felt not content exactly, but reassured. For as much as the debacle with Jane earlier in the evening was still weighing on her mind, she felt like she might have just found someplace to ground her thoughts, a place to prevent the "Gentle loosening of the moorings, sending the mind adrift." -A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee. O my, now she was doing it.