Chapter 10

Going back to work:

About a week later it was the big day for both women : It was time to go back to work.

Both women were happy to go back, they both missed work and their team..

They were both fairly excited to go chase criminals again. Of course they were also a bit anxious not only to test their relationship in another environment their the comfort of their home, but also they were anxious to face people. They didn't care what people would say about them, but they knew they might have to face some dirty looks. Jane was determined to make things easier for Maura and had decided not to let anybody either make fun of them or make dirty comments.

Lucky for them they were called for a murderer on their way to the precinct .

A young woman had been found dead in a night club by the owner and Frost called Jane and Maura so they could join him directly to the crime scene.

"Are you ready?" Jane asked standing in front of the door of the club.

"I think I am, are you?"

"Of course, come on let's do this." Jane said opening the door.

When they stepped inside the night club, the crime scene had already been secured and Frost was interviewing the owner who found the body.

The two women naturally moved toward the body so Maura could examine her.

After a few minutes:

"So what do you have ?" Jane nervously asked.

"Well body temperature indicates that the victim died this morning between 5 and 7, I don't see any obvious signs of trauma or gun shot, Jane are you listening?" Maura asked rising her head and seeing that Jane wasn't listening to her.

"Yeah, have you seen how that prick is looking at you?" Jane frowned.

"He's the club owner, I'm quite sure he's looking at the dead body on his dance floor."

"No, he's not, give me a minute." Jane said moving towards the man.

"Jane.." Maura called trying to stop her.

"Hi, I'm Detective Rizzoli, is everything ok here?" Jane asked hands on both sides of her hips revealing her gun and badge.

"Well apart from the dead body over there yes, I was answering your partner 's questions."

"His alibi checked out, he was home with his kids. Security cameras at his house confirmed he arrived home at 2 am left at 9 am." Frost explained.

"Would you mind looking at my partner when you answer his questions instead of staring at our Medical Examiner?" Jane demanded seeing that the guy only had eyes for Maura.

"I was looking at the dead body."

"Look, you're lucky your alibi checked out for the time of the murder, please don't make me arrest you for seriously pissing me of alright?Do not look at her like that ever again, you hear me?" Jane threatened.

"Alright Detective I think he got the message." Frost said trying to keep his partner from attacking the guy.

"Detective May I talk to you for a minute?" Maura called trying to get her from this embarrassing situation.

"I'm coming. Frost get him out of here." Jane ordered as she was moving back towards Maura.

Jane knew she was in trouble, but she felt like she didn't do anything wrong, but she knew Maura wouldn't see it that way.

"What do you got for me?A cause of death maybe?" Jane asked trying to avoid the subject.

"I would like us to talk about what just happened. What was that all about?"

"The prick is a pervert he was looking at you like he wanted to…you know."

"Jane, it's sweet of you, but men look at me just like they look at you because we are two attractive women. You can not threaten every single man who exhibit an attraction to me ." Maura quietly explained trying to calm her down.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want you to. I appreciate your protectiveness and even if I can find jealousy quite charming at times, we are working Jane. This is professional not personal."

"So you're ok if I threaten a guy when we're out, but not on a crime scene or during working hours?"

"It's not what I said. Look Jane I know coming back to work is challenging for you especially because the nature of our relationship changed. But I would appreciate if we could keep things professional while working."

"Yeah what ever. Call me when you have the autopsy results." Jane groaned storming out of the crime scene.

"Jane, don't take it like that…"

So Jane drove to the precinct and started to work on the victim, her finances, her private life, possible suspects.

As she was sitting at her desk Jane couldn't help but thinking how stupid she had been. She knew that it would be hard for them to go back to work. They spent the past 10 weeks mostly at home in their bubble. In the outside world things were different, there would be guys threatening them or hitting on them. They would be confronted to all the normal thing a relationship faces but that they never experienced in their comfortable and safe bubble. Jane didn't think she overreacted , Maura was a lady and she deserved to be treated as such and she wasn't going to let anybody treat her otherwise.

"You miss her already?" Frost suddenly asked.

"I guess I do." Jane pouted a little embarrassed.

Frost and Korsak always saw her as "one of the guys", playing softball with them, drinking like a guy. They certainly never imagined her in a relationship and certainly not all being all romantic like that.

"Well, I think it's perfectly natural, you spent every single day with her, 24/7 for the past 10 weeks. The good is you can see her anytime you want, she's just two floors below us."

"I know, but I don't want to show her that I'm so weak that I can't spend an hour without her . Besides after what happened at the crime scene I'm not sure she wants to see me."

"I'm sure she does, you know before you started dating you already looked pissed off when a guy would hit on her, trust me she noticed it back then. Now you're just acting on it, because you're together and you feel the need to protect her."

"I know , you understand, but Maura she's not like us, she's very…rational. In her mind I have to reasons to be possessive or because I know that she's with me and that she doesn't want to be with someone else.."

"Well apologizing can't hurt right?"

"I'm not apologizing, I didn't do anything, now go back to work we have a crime to solve." Jane ordered not appreciating that Frost was on Maura's side.

Down at the morgue Maura felt that she might have been to hard on Jane. She knew Jane's intentions were noble, that she only wanted to protect her. Actually Maura found herself a little aroused seeing Jane defending her honor like that. She loved that masculine part of her, that could kick doors and put a suspect down like a man, but she was too rational and stubborn to admit that she actually like when Jane was protective over her.

Around noon Jane decided to go check on Maura to see if she had performed the autopsy and had a cause of death.

She took the elevator, pressed the button for the morgue and tried to put her thoughts together.

She knew Maura would like to talk about what happened, but she didn't. Maura wanted things to stay professional at work and she was going to give her what she wanted.

Coming out the elevator Jane took a deep breath and entered the morgue.

"So do you have cause of death yet?" Jane abruptly asked.

"Can we talk about what happened?" Maura pouted trying to make nice to her.

"No, you were right we are working, let's keep things professional while we're here." Jane objected her eyes fixated on the dead girl on Maura's table.

"Alright, then maybe we can talk about this once we get home?"

"Yeah, why not?So what do you have?"

The two women stood there talking about the case, avoiding eye contact.

Maura almost didn't recognized Jane, she was rude,well she was obviously hurt by what happened.

Maura realized that she might have hurt her pride somehow. She knew that Jane had this visceral need of protecting her against criminals but also against the entire world. She realized that taking that away from her was like rejecting a part of her identity.

After talking with Maura, Jane went back to work and didn't speak to her until she got back home later, very later.

She didn't want to go home, she knew Maura was the type of woman to just let go. She knew she would have to face her at some point.

Around 10 pm Jane decided to finally go home to Maura.

She drove as slow as she could, arrived home, dropped her keys on the kitchen's counter and painfully make her way to their bedroom and crawled in bed next to Maura.

"Jane…"Maura who was already sleeping mumbled.

"How much do you hate me?" Jane pouted.

"Oh Jane, I don't hate you , Actually I would like to apologize for being so hard on you."

"Don't apologize, it was my fault, I'm just paranoid sometimes, I mean I have one responsibility, one obsession actually , it's to keep you safe. I'm a cop, I have seen the worse in people and I know what could happen to you. Ever since the shooting it's even worse, because you could have been shot or worse. I know that we're not even safe in our own precinct. So when a guy looks at you I don't think that he only wants to sleep with you because you're attractive, I immediately think about all the horrible things he could do to you."

"I know and I love that you always try to protect me. I know things have changed since the shooting. But you have to accept that you can't always protect me, but I also have to accept that's who you are. I love you just the way you are and I wouldn't want you to change, I feel safe with you."

"Good, because I will never stop worry or care for you, but I guess I could try to control myself a little bit more, it's just it's always been hard for me to watch men look at you with so much disrespect before. Now that we're dating it's worse."

"Do you feel like it's ok to react the way you did because we're dating?"

"Well, I don't I know that If I had listened to myself before we started dating I would have reacted like that already."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because as your best friend it wasn't my place."

"So do you think it's your place now, because you're my girlfriend?"

"I'm not saying that, but actually yes, I want to protect you, I always wanted to protect you now, I feel the need to do it more, but I understand that as long as were are work we have to keep things professional."

"How about we compromise: as long as we are at work we act professionally and you put your jealousy and protectiveness aside. But once we're outside of work I let you be my personal bodyguard."

"Alright, that seems reasonable, I'm sorry Maura, I mean first day back at work and we have our first fight."

"Well we knew that it would be challenging for us to test our relationship in the outside work, considering the way it was born. I'm sure we are going to be just fine. How about we have a good night of sleep and tomorrow morning you bring me my breakfast to bed as your way of apologizing." Maura offered knowing that Jane felt so sorry that she would need to do something to make it up to her.

"Alright, good night. I love you." Jane whispered snaking her arms around her.

"Good night, love you too."

So guys, what did you think of this chapter?I mean Jane is protective and jealous, this wasn't jealousy, it was protectiveness it makes sense that she would look every single guy like a threat after what happened at the morgue. Later I will write a pure jealousy chapter, maybe with a flirty Maura, don't know yet.

Next chapter : flows of living together.

PS : As I always say, it only takes 30 seconds to review if you want this story to continue!