Long Way Around
Chapter 11
Disclaimer: Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles do not belong to me. No infringement intended and no profit will be made from their use.
Jane went to back to Maura's house when she left headquarters. She visited her mother in the guest house first, bringing lunch for the two of them to eat while Jane gave an update on what they had found about Hope on their trip.
"I heard you spent the night last night," Angela teased after Jane finished updating her.
Jane shook her head. "When I came downstairs this morning I wasn't thinking about what it would look like," she answered.
"If it isn't what it looked like, what is it?" Angela asked.
Jane shrugged. "Too soon to tell."
"Does Maura know how you feel?"
"Yes. But," Jane said emphatically before Angela could say anything else, "Maura can tell me how she feels when she's ready. She's got enough to deal with right now without me pressuring her."
"Don't worry, she loves you."
"Thanks, Ma, but honestly I just want things to get back to normal. Whatever happens beyond that happens. And you and Constance gossiping about us is freaking me out a little. So can you take your weird glee about my feelings for Maura down a notch? Otherwise I'm gonna stop telling you things."
A little while later, Jane and Maura were sitting on the floor of Maura's office. When Jane came back Maura had been sitting with her mother, but Constance said she needed to rest for a while so they went upstairs to look through Hope's things. Jane was mostly just sitting and thinking. Maura was looking through papers and folders and making piles on the floor that Jane assumed had some organizational purpose.
"Jane? Jane?" Maura said trying to get Jane's attention.
Jane finally said, "What's up Maur?"
"Are you okay? You've been pretty out of it since you got back from your meeting. What's the expression? You're a million miles away?"
Jane hadn't said anything yet about her meeting that morning. She wasn't sure if she should tell Maura what happened. Jane didn't want to give Maura something else to think about but she also really wanted to talk to someone about it.
"Are you going to tell me about it or not?" Maura finally said when Jane remained silent.
Jane let out a loud sigh. "Cavanaugh called me this morning and told me to come in for a meeting. I figured it would be about my suspension, like he'd come up with another punishment for me. But instead Dean was there claiming there's a joint BPD-FBI investigation into who within our organizations has been working for Doyle. You know, feeding him info, protecting him."
"What did they want from you?" Maura asked.
"Dean claimed they were looking into all leads. He said they found out that Doyle called my cell phone, remember he called after he showed up here hurt. But I don't know if they're being serious about me being a possible leak, or if they were just jerking me around, or what. This so-called investigation doesn't make any sense. Doyle is dead. They should be concentrating on what's left of his organization and the new mob bosses that have stepped into his place."
"If there's a dirty cop or FBI agent I think it makes sense to find out," Maura said.
"Sure, but I don't trust Dean. Like him giving you that folder and sort of vaguely threatening you. It doesn't make any sense. I don't understand what he's really up to."
"Just don't do anything rash okay?" Maura said seriously.
"What? I don't do things rashly," Jane protested.
"Please?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be careful."
Maura went back to looking through Hope's papers and Jane fell back into silent thought until Maura said, "Jane, look," and handed her a manila folder.
Jane opened it and the page on top was a printout of an article about Maura's appointment to Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The other pages in the folder were all articles about cases Maura was involved in and had testified or made other public comments about, including stories about Hoyt's apprentice and the siege on police headquarters. "She was following your career," Jane said. She looked up from the folder at Maura and saw tears streaming down her face and immediately moved to comfort her.
"No, it's okay," Maura said as she tried to wipe the tears off her face. "I'm happy she knew at least something about me."
"Yeah, she knew you were successful and brilliant, and," Jane held up the picture that accompanied the article about Maura's appointment to Chief Medical Examiner, "gorgeous. I'm sure she was really proud of you. It's too bad she never tried to contact you."
"I think under the terms of the adoption she would have been forbidden from contacting me. But this, I don't know, it kind of makes me feel better. She cared about me enough to keep these and although it's too late to really get to know each other, we at least weren't complete strangers to each other." Maura wiped her hands over her face. "Okay, I think that's enough of this today. I want to do something normal tonight."
"Regular people normal or normal for you?" Jane teased, sensing Maura's mood had greatly improved.
"Stop it," Maura said playfully. "I want to go out to dinner and, I don't know, a show or something."
"So what you're saying is you wanna go on a date?"
"Yes, I suppose I am saying that. Jane, would you care to go on a date with me?" Maura asked brightly.
They agreed on a place for dinner, a Japanese restaurant within walking distance from Maura's house, and left the rest of the evening to be determined. It was nice for both of them, doing something normal. Jane felt like she was breathing easier than she had for the past week until, when there was a lull in the conversation, Maura asked "Do you wanna talk about last night?"
"Only if you want to talk about it," Jane responded.
Maura dropped her gaze to her food. "I want to say something. Thank you for taking care of me last night. I feel so stupid for trying to believe anything good about him. I'm still kind of an emotional wreck. Every time I think I've gained control over them something else sets me off. Although I'm feeling a lot better now. And I know I said it before, but I'm so sorry for comparing you to Doyle. You have to believe that I don't think you are anything like him."
Jane considered it for a moment before responding, "I'm a little bit like him."
"Jane, don't think that way."
Jane reached across the table and took hold of Maura's free hand. "No, look, I understand him. Both he and I are willing to go to great extremes to protect the people we care about. I certainly won't forget that he was at the warehouse to protect you and that he did protect you." When Maura didn't respond to that, Jane pulled back her hand and cleared her throat before saying, "So, I was thinking about something. Have you come across anything about whether Hope was buried or if there is some place we can go pay our respects to her?"
"Actually I did find something. She donated her body the University of Massachusetts Medical School."
Jane was confused. "For research?"
"Not exactly. All medical students, usually in their first, have a human anatomy course that includes dissecting a cadaver. Schools rely on people to donate their bodies for the courses."
"Oh. Isn't that kind of weird to think about?" Jane asked.
Maura cocked an eyebrow, "Because performing autopsies is weird?"
Jane smiled. "That's not what I meant. I mean thinking about other people doing that to someone you know or a family member."
"It's not weird to me, in fact I find it incredibly moving. How do you think I learned how to do my job? I'm donating my body when I die. But as for your question, she stipulated that her body be cremated afterwards but there is no other instruction so I'm not sure. Often schools will have a memorial service once a year to honor the families of people who have donated their bodies. I'll have to check with the school to see if that has happened yet."
"Okay, but that can't be coincidental right? You're a medical examiner and she donated her body to the future medical examiners of Massachusetts."
"Well, future doctors, but it could be a coincidence. She didn't have any family around so maybe it seemed like an easy thing to do."
Jane shook her head. "Or more likely she was inspired by you. If there is a memorial service or something I'll go with you if you want."
"Thanks, Jane. That would be nice."
After finishing eating and leaving the restaurant, Jane said, "So where to now?"
"Actually I think I'm ready to just relax at home, if that's okay with you? Maybe we could just watch a movie."
Jane had been thinking about something all day and was hoping to put if off longer, but the time to bring it up had arrived. "There's something I wanted to talk to you about. Please don't be upset, but I don't think I should be spending the night right now. So I think I should head home now."
Maura was confused and hurt. "Why?"
"Both of our mothers noticed that I stayed last night and asked me about it. I don't think I should stay until I know how to answer their questions about what's going on with us."
Jane watched Maura's expression become closed off. "Oh. Okay, I understand. Will I see you tomorrow?"
Jane felt terrible but she knew it was the right thing to do for them right now. "Sure. We'll talk in the morning."
"Do you need a ride home?"
"I'll just jump on the T. Do you want me to walk you home?"
"No, that's okay."
"So, uh," Jane moved closer and gave Maura an awkward hug. "Goodnight, Maur."
A/N: I often forget to say it, but thanks for reading for all the alerts and reviews!
