Chapter 12

Having gotten last minute assurances from both Frost and Korsak they could handle things for the rest of the night and with Jane's promise that she would be in tomorrow to finish going through the files sent from Cedar Junction, Jane turned off her computer and headed down to get Maura. She knew Maura had brought a change of clothes with her so they wouldn't have to stop back at Maura's place before heading out. Jane had changed earlier in the day now simply sporting jeans and a t-shirt.

She stepped off the elevator and headed for the ME's office. She was surprised that she hadn't been able to shake her nerves yet. She was starting to feel a little ridiculous. Maybe she really was all twisted up. There shouldn't be anything to be nervous about. She went places with Maura all the time and she kept trying convince herself that there was nothing different about tonight as she walked the last few feet to Maura's office door.

Walking into the office Maura was nowhere to be found but the door to her private bathroom was closed and Jane assumed Maura was getting changed.

"Maur," Jane said loud enough for her voice to carry through the closed bathroom door. "I'm here but take your time."

She looked around and thought for a brief moment about taking a seat to wait for the doctor until she remembered her chair options. Maura's tastes in decorating may very well have been refined but that refinement left much to be desired in the comfort category. Her office furniture was anything but inviting. The only decent option seemed to be Maura's desk chair but Jane just couldn't bring herself to sit there so she remained standing.

As Maura exited the bathroom she smiled at the sight of Jane. Jane had her back to the bathroom door and was glancing at some of the titles of the books Maura had in her bookcase. Maura watched Jane for a moment and found it amusing that she seemed unable to stand still. She was swaying slightly shifting her weight from side to side. Maura's first assessment was that it was a form of nervous energy.

"You could have at least sat down," Maura said getting Jane's attention.

"Not on what you try to pass off as furniture," Jane answered as she was turning around. Once she turned Maura came into full view and Jane's breath hitched. She couldn't help it and she certainly couldn't stop it. The woman in front of her was breathtaking.

Maura was very casually dressed considering Jane's one wardrobe request. She wore a black button down blouse with a white camisole underneath and jeans. It was the best match to the sneakers she wore. There was nothing fancy about what she had chosen but Jane wasn't sure if she had ever seen the woman look better. Maura always looked impeccable in anything she had on but Jane always seemed to think less was more for the ME.

"You look great," Jane said managing to get her mouth to start working as she was hoping Maura hadn't noticed her reaction.

"This was the best I could do to go along with these," Maura replied pointing down to her shoes.

"Your best is perfect," Jane replied. They just stared at each other for a moment. "Are you ready?" Jane asked desperately wanting to move away from any conversation about how she looked.

"I most certainly am," Maura answered. "Now that it is officially Friday night, will you please tell me where we are going?"

Jane smiled. "Because you've been so patient this week," she started and didn't hide her sarcasm, "I'll consider telling you along the way."

Maura couldn't help the pout. That wasn't really much of an answer and she had a feeling that Jane was going to milk the surprise portion of their evening for as long as she could. Before she could really protest Jane had grabbed Maura's purse and was ushering her to the door.

"Come on," she said as they made their way out towards the parking garage. "We've got some place to be."

R&I

They had been driving for about twenty minutes and Maura still didn't have a clue as to where they were heading. Their trip seemed to be somewhat slowed by pockets of Boston's rush hour traffic. As nervous as Jane seemed to be back in her office, Maura noticed the slow moving traffic didn't seem to be annoying her. She supposed that Jane had either factored in the congestion into her timing or they didn't have any sort of set reservation to make.

The twenty minutes had been filled with casual conversation. Maura gave up questions about the night after about five minutes of non-answers or deflections from Jane. So they just settled into their normal conversation. The two women were very different in many ways but they never had any problems finding things to talk about when they were together. As the conversation carried on through the traffic Maura had almost let herself forget that they were driving towards some mystery location.

But suddenly Jane turned the conversation towards their impending night. "So," Jane started. "I know you are wondering what we are going to be doing tonight."

"I've been curious," Maura admitted with a smile.

"You'll see soon enough," Jane said and had to laugh when a groan escaped from Maura. "Seriously, we are almost there."

"Which would be?" Maura tried to coax out of Jane.

"First I want to explain something about why we are going where we are going," Jane said. She took a breath and started to explain. "I know we always spend Fridays getting takeout and watching movies."

"I love our movie night," Maura interjected not sure if Jane was changing things up because she was afraid Maura didn't want to do that anymore. She did love movie night. They had fallen into a pattern of the movie and takeout tradition which was more than fine for her. Fridays had been the one night of the week that unless there was an unusually involved case Maura was guaranteed time with Jane. She had never cared about what they did as long as they did it together.

"I love our movie nights too," Jane reassured Maura. "But I got to thinking the other night that it wouldn't hurt for us to mix things up a little bit from time to time. I don't want you to ever think I take the time we spend together for granted."

Maura was surprised to hear Jane say that. "Jane," she started, "I would never think something like that."

Jane smiled and looked over at Maura. "Well, I'm glad because any time I get to spend with you is very important to me."

Jane pulled off the highway and they were now driving through a neighborhood Maura did not recognize. She had been trying to pay attention to where Jane was driving in hopes of guessing their destination but she was not familiar with any of her surroundings.

"I wanted us to do something special together so I decided it was time to do one of the things I know you missed out on as kid. Something I used to love to do and I want you to experience it too," Jane said looking over at Maura.

This wasn't the first time Jane had tried to give Maura an experience she missed growing up. Several years ago Jane had compiled a list of things she felt Maura had missed out on from her childhood but still needed to experience. Jane had decided to make it her mission to make up for things Maura never had the chance to do either because she was away at boarding school or simply because her parents never thought to take her to do it.

The two had slowly worked through some the items on Jane's list. The items ranged from things she needed to do, shows she needed to watch and even foods she needed to eat. As apprehensive as she was in the beginning, Maura had come to love working through Jane's list. Not only did it allow her to have some of the experiences she had missed out on during her childhood but she had been able to experience all these things with Jane. Which as far as Maura was concerned made each experience better than it would have been had she done it as a child without Jane.

As Maura began to mentally run down the list to activities she knew were still on the list, Jane pulled into a parking area signaling their arrival to their destination. Maura looked around but from the outside she couldn't tell where they were at or what was in store for her. All she saw was a building and a sign that told her they were at some place called Chez Vous but the building's sign just served to confuse her.

"What is this place?" Maura asked as Jane parked the car and started to get out.

Jane waited for Maura to exit the car and they headed towards the doors. "This is where I spent most of my pre-teen years," Jane answered. Maura watched as Jane stopped and knocked on the door instead of pulling it open to enter. "I hope you are ready for this Dr. Isles," Jane teased.

Before Maura could ask a question the front door opened and they were both greeted by an older gentleman. "Right on time Rizzoli," he said and held the doors open for both ladies.

"Traffic wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be," Jane said to the man Maura had yet to be introduced to. Turning to Maura Jane worked to correct that. "Maura, meet Jake, an old friend of mine as well as the owner of this establishment. Jake, this is Maura, my best friend and Boston's Chief Medical Examiner."

Jake smiled warmly and extended his hand to Maura who accepted it and smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you," Jake said to Maura.

"Nice to meet you," Maura replied.

They moved further into the building and once they got inside Maura finally understood what the picture on the awning outside had meant. They were at a roller rink. She let her eyes scan her surroundings. There was a large open floor with wooden railings all around the outside and Maura could see multi-colored bars of light mounted on the ceiling. Off to the side there were several benches and what looked like an arcade and snack area. On the other side there was a long counter behind which were shelves with an endless supply of roller skates.

Jane led Maura over towards the benches and told her to sit down indicating that she was going to be right back. She sat down and finally realized that she hadn't stopped smiling since they had entered the rink and she realized what they were going to be doing. As she sat there, she also finally realized that they seemed to have the entire place to themselves.

Jane returned with several items in her hands. "Jane, why are we the only ones here?" Maura asked looking around.

"Because Jake is technically closed right now," Jane said as she stood in front of Maura and placed everything she was holding down on the bench.

"Then why are we here?" she wondered.

Jane snickered. "Jake is doing me a favor. They don't officially open on Fridays until 8 pm. For several reasons, I didn't think coming here when they were open tonight was a good idea."

As she spoke Jane squatted down in front of Maura and began to undo the laces on the shoes Maura was wearing. Maura, still taking in her surroundings, barely noticed this. "What reasons?"

"For starters, Friday nights are 'Teen Night' and I'm way too old to try to keep up with teenagers," Jane admitted with a chuckle. "Plus, this place gets crowded and loud and I wanted you to enjoy your time on wheels without the hassle of crowds."

Jane finished removing Maura's shoes and examined Maura's socks. When she told Maura her dress code hint of sneakers she had done so to get Maura into jeans and socks. She had been afraid if she just said casual or jeans Maura would have still tried to wear some version of a dress shoe. But, as she looked at the socks Maura had chosen she knew they wouldn't do for roller skating. Too thin. Luckily she had come prepared for such a possibility.

As Jane proceeded to pull off the socks the ME was wearing, Maura finally seemed to realize Jane was removing her shoes and socks and looked at her. "Don't you think I will need the socks?" she asked.

Jane held up a different pair of socks that were much thicker than what she had been wearing. "Trust me, these are better for skating." She handed them to Maura to put on while she went to grab one of the skates. Maura noticed immediately that the skate in Jane's hand was brand new.

"Why are these new and all those," she said pointing to the shelves of roller skates behind the counter, "look like they are twenty years old?"

"For the same reason I got you your own pair of shoes when I took you bowling for the first time," Jane casually replied as she was working on lacing up the new skates. "There's no way I would make you suffer through an encounter with germ infested rental shoes. Or skates in this particular case." She smiled at Maura. "Oh and I also wanted to avoid another lecture on the hazards of E. coli."

"Escherichia coli can be quite harmful," Maura pointed out. "Not to mention Serratia ficaria and Klebsiella pneumonia both of which are common bacteria found inside of shoes that are not properly maintained."

"Which, again, is why you are sporting a brand new set of wheels. I can't have Serrate ficaro and Club-silly pneumonia threatening you," Jane answered. She had finished with the laces on the new skates and as she talked she gently slipped Maura's right foot into the new skate. Once her foot was in place, Jane worked to tighten and tie the laces. She then did the same thing with Maura's left skate.

Maura watched as Jane situated the new skates onto her feet. She could easily have put the skates on herself but there was something about the process of watching Jane take care of it for her that mesmerized her. She suddenly recalled what Angela had said to her earlier.

"Jane may not have said to me with words how she feels about you but that's only because Jane doesn't use those words in the first place. She does, however, show me, and you if you would simply open your eyes and see it, how she feels about you in the things she does for you. Her heart, young lady, is in her actions not her words."

Maura was beginning to see what Angela was talking about.

"You know I do own a pair of rollerblades," Maura pointed out as Jane finished tying the last skate. "You could have just brought them here."

"True," Jane admitted. "But since we are going for the true roller skating experience here I decided you needed side by side wheels and not in-line skates. We are doing this right and back in the day skates looked like mini cars not ice skates."

Before Jane stood back up she leaned closer into Maura and used her hands to check and squeeze Maura's skates making sure she had bought the correct size for her. "Are you good?" she asked. Maura simply nodded as she was pretty sure having Jane this close to her had rendered her incapable of speech. Once she was sure everything seemed to fit properly she quickly switched out of her shoes and into rented skates for herself.

Maura glared at her as she was lacing up her last skate. "Don't," she warned without making eye contact with the doctor. "Just like I told you with the bowling shoes, they spray disinfectant and I will be fine." Unlike Maura Jane didn't have a fear of unpronounceable bacteria.

"Then why do I get new skates?" she pushed trying to make a point.

"Because you're you," Jane answered as if that magically explained everything. Without letting Maura get back into the bacterial growth that was no doubt occurring in Jane's skates, Jane stood up and took Maura's hand in hers leading her out onto the floor. "Come on. Let's skate."

R&I

Both ladies took a slow, careful lap around the rink to test out their skates and their sense of balance. It had been a long time since Jane had been on roller skates. They both would rollerblade on occasion but in many ways this was different. About halfway through their second time around the rink Jane was pretty comfortable with her balance and focused on Maura. Maura, too, seemed to be handling herself in the skates quite well and looked comfortable. With their comfort set, Jane knew it was time to kick it up a notch.

As they skated past the counter Jane hollered out. "Alright Jake, show us what you got."

Within a few seconds the lights over the rink dimmed and a song started to play. Jane recognized the tune within the first few bars and couldn't contain the smile.

"What?" Maura asked as she had seen Jane's sudden smile.

"Just listen," Jane said not wanting to explain quite yet. She was fairly certain that the song wouldn't mean anything to Maura as she may not have heard it before so Jane just wanted her to listen and take in the whole experience. As far as Jane was concerned this was the quintessential roller rink song. She would explain later if she needed to.

The song continued to play and the multi-colored light bars that Maura had noticed when she walked in started to light up. Each bar would flash on and off somewhat to the beat and rhythm of the music. As Maura tried to take it all in, Jane skated closer to her so they could talk.

"You really spent a lot of your time here?" she asked.

Jane smiled still enjoying the sounds of Queen's 'Another One Bites the Dust'. "Practically every weekend when I was younger," Jane said. "When I was twelve, this was the place to be on Friday and Saturday night."

They continued to skate side by side in a circle as the music and lights all worked to set a mood Maura had never quite experienced but found appealing.

As the next song Jake had selected started Jane decided to put her roller skating skills to the test and turned so she was now skating backwards. She wanted to talk with Maura and figured this way she could talk and be facing her at the same time. Based on the look Maura greeted her with, she seemed to have impressed the ME with the maneuver.

"Back then this rink was like our own private world. From the ages of twelve to thirteen at least. There was just something magical about this place. Perhaps it was that age more than anything else. At twelve you are still just a kid but you were convinced you were so grown up. The high school kids all had cars and went to parties or cruised the city streets. The junior high kids took over the rec center each weekend. The twelve year olds got the roller rink.

"Dropped off by parents, away from teachers and chaperones, removed from the structure and rules of school, there was a sense of independence that this place brought. This was a safe little bubble where we all could come and let the dramas of our lives play out. Or as much drama one could find in the life of a twelve year old anyway."

Maura watched Jane's facial expressions as she both talked fondly about the past and tried to concentrate on skating backwards. She was completely captivated by the detective. Perhaps it was their surroundings. The lights, the music, the nostalgia. But Maura understood all too well that it mostly was due to Jane. Just Jane.

"The entire life cycle of pre-teen romances would play out here for everyone to witness. Simple, innocent crushes become these epic romances which at that age basically meant the boy you had a crush on become the one you skated with for the boy-girl skates. That was the height of the budding romance. A couple of laps around the rink holding hands skating to a cheesy love ballad. If one of them could manage there was even the daring couples that showed off with one skating backwards. That got the girl's hands up on the guy's shoulders and the boy's hands on the girl's hips.

"And then, without fail, within a few weeks that 'relationship' would have its demise play out with some tragic argument that would pit your friends against his friends and always seemed to end up with the girl crying in the bathroom while the boy bragged he had been the one who caused the emotional fallout. But once the girl had shed her last tear she would skate a few laps and always manage to find that next new crush and the tragic love cycle would start over once again."

Maura smiled as she listened to Jane reminisce about her past. As Jane spoke she tried to picture a twelve year old Jane skating here with friends and even having some of those first innocent crushes. "You cried in the bathroom?" she couldn't help but ask. She just couldn't seem to picture that as Jane was talking.

Jane laughed. "No," she said. "I was the exception to that particular piece of the ritual."

"How did you manage to get so lucky?" she asked. A part of her wondered what foolish boy would ever break up with Jane in the first place.

"It wasn't luck," they both heard Jake's voice shout out as they passed by the counter. Both ladies slowed down and looked at the older man. "Jane ended her ill-fated romances with a wicked left hook."

They had stopped skating and Maura turned to Jane. "No," she exclaimed. Although as she thought about it she could easily picture Jane doing something like that more than she could picture her crying in a bathroom.

"Yes," Jane proudly admitted.

"That one there built herself quite a reputation as being more of a nose breaker than a heart breaker," Jake added with a laugh.

"Hey," Jane said defensively, "it was only one nose and he deserved it."

Jake snickered at Jane's correction. "If my memory serves me correctly that nose belonged Tony Ashton."

"You would be correct," Jane said. "And like I said, he totally deserved it."

Maura had watched the exchange between Jake and Jane completely amused. "What did this Tony Ashton do?" she just had to know.

"The jerk told all his friends he kissed me out in the parking lot," Jane said. "No one seemed to believe him after I decked him in the middle of the rink." She pointed out to Maura about where they had been standing when it apparently had gone down.

"Maura," Jake warned, "you be careful around this one. I'm not so sure she's changed her evil ways."

Maura smiled. "I think I'll take my chances," she answered him back.

Jane took Maura's hand and pulled her back towards the middle of the rink. "Come on Maur," she said. "We've still got some skating to do."

R&I

After another song ended Maura asked Jane to teach her how to skate backwards. It took a few minutes but Maura picked up on the basic idea fairly quickly only having some issues with turning while going backwards. After two more songs she was almost a pro.

Jake's voice came over the PA system. "Alright Rizzoli, you know what's next and you can't get out of it."

Jane groaned, "Jake," she hollered. "I never agreed to that," she protested.

Jake leaned his head out from behind the counter. "You asked for my help creating the roller skating experience for the lovely Dr. Isles. This is a necessary part of that roller skating experience. So shut up and get in the middle."

Jane pouted but seemed to be complying as she pulled Maura towards the middle of the rink. Maura had no idea what either of them was talking about but she had a feeling she was about to find out.

"As much as I hate to admit it, the old man is right," Jane said to Maura.

"Right about what?" Maura asked still not understanding what was about to happen.

"For the record, if you tell a single living soul about what we are about to do I promise you I will haunt you from beyond the grave." Jane warned in a sudden seriousness that Maura immediately understood meant she wasn't kidding.

"What is it that we are about to do?" Maura asked in excited anticipation. Jane never threatened her like that unless it was something extremely embarrassing.

"Watch me once and then follow along," was Jane's only answer. "And you will follow along as I refuse to be the only one that does this," she warned once more.

Before Maura could ask another question music filled the rink. Maura looked at Jane not sure what it was she was supposed to be watching.

You put your right foot in...you put your right foot out.
You put your right foot and you shake it all about.

Maura watched in awe as Jane complied with verbal instructions with her right foot.

You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself about….that's what it's all about.

At the sight of Jane turning all the way around while doing what apparently was called the 'Hokey Pokey', Maura burst out laughing. The image was not only priceless it was hysterical.

Left foot!

Suddenly Jane was about to start again and she looked at Maura. "You are doing this too," she demanded.

You put your left foot in….you put your left foot out
You put your left foot in and you shake it all about.

Maura had not yet joined in and Jane gave her the evil eye. "Not an option here Isles. You will do this with me," she insisted as she hokey pokeyed and turned around. Maura again laughed but when Jane gave her the glare a third time she knew she needed to try to follow along.

Right arm!

Jane was relieved to see Maura finally stop just laughing at her and start following the directions. By the time the song got to the right elbow, both ladies were fully participating but also laughing at each other and at themselves. By the time the 'backside' part was called out both were laughing so hard neither managed to be able to stay on their feet Maura falling before Jane but not by much.

It took a few minutes for the two of them to stop laughing and compose themselves enough to be able to get up. Jane was up first and she helped Maura to her feet.

"Oh my," Maura said as her breathing was finally coming back to normal. "I can't believe you did that."

"Every time I was here," Jane admitted.

"No," Maura corrected. "I can't believe you did that just now. That was fabulous."

"Like Jake said," Jane pointed out. "The entire roller skating experience."

With that Jake's voice shouted out again, "Last skate Rizzoli. I need to get ready for actual paying customers."

"Got it," Jane hollered and then turned to Maura. "One last song around?" she asked.

Maura nodded as a song started to play and the lights turned almost all the way down. The rink got darker than it had before and only a few soft, white lights lit up. Jane started to let go of the hand she still held from helping Maura up but felt Maura's grip tighten. She didn't seem willing to release Jane's hand. Jane looked down at their hands and then up at Maura and they both seemed to lock onto each other's eyes.

"The entire roller skating experience?" Maura asked softly.

Jane now seemed to be unable to find her voice so she nodded wondering what Maura meant.

Seeing Jane nod Maura released Jane's hand only to put both her arms up near Jane's shoulders with her hands reaching behind Jane's neck. Instinctively, Jane's hands settled in on Maura's hips and they started to resume skating what would be their last skate.

The song, 'Faithfully' by Journey, filled the rink and the ladies quietly skated several final laps. Jane skating backwards as she had more experience. They skated in silence but their eyes never left each other. They both seemed to get lost in each other barely even aware of their surroundings.

It took Jake raising the lights for the two of them to realize the song had ended. Reluctantly, they broke apart from each other. They were on the opposite end of the rink from the benches and as the two made their way back to the benches, Maura reached down and took hold of Jane's hand. She didn't let it go until they sat down to undo their skates. Skates were removed and shoes put back on. All still in a calm silence.

Jake came over to retrieve Jane's skates and say his goodbyes. "Maura," he said with a smile. "It was a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise," Maura replied. "Thank you for this. I've never done this before and I had an amazing time." She was looking more at Jane when she spoke than at Jake.

He walked the ladies to the door. "Don't you two be strangers now," he said. "Adult skate is Sunday afternoons."

Both women just nodded as they headed out the door after Jane thanked him one last time for everything he did.

As the two walked away he couldn't help but shake his head. He was just happy he got to meet the lady that had Jane all twisted up and he was even happier that he was going to get to tell his wife he had a pretty good idea as to why.