Jane safely guided Maura so that her back was against the building so she wouldn't see the big sign that revealed where they were.
The car-ride over had been nothing like she had expected, it hadn't been awkward at all. They had talked about music and television shows, realizing they had very different taste in both. Talked a little about work and the coffee in the downstairs café, but mostly they had just talked about random stuff that were on their minds- things they usually didn't have time to think about out loud. Jane acknowledged silently to herself that it was refreshingly nice to talk to someone who actually talked back out loud that wasn't one of the voices in her head. They had stopped for coffee on their way and Maura had threatened to steal all her sugar if she didn't get at least a hint about where they were going. Jane on the other hand had managed to keep her lips firmly shut no matter how adorable Maura looked when she tried to be a villain. Except for the curious sideway glances and the not so subtle way of checking the other woman out, it was like carpooling with a childhood friend. Even if they didn't have much in common when it came to music, out of respect for the other woman, the channels were changed every five miles so that they both could laugh and share reasons why their station was obviously the better choice.
They were standing on the parking lot waiting for Frankie to arrive with the rest of the guys. When Maura had started asking her all types of question to try and figure out where they were, and suddenly tried to twist around so that she could see the building behind her, Jane had quickly side stepped her and trapped her in arms. To onlookers it probably looked like the most natural thing, if you considered trapping someone from turning around to be normal that is, but the chemical reaction that happened was a whole different ballpark. To not freak the other woman out, Jane tried to explain herself quickly. "Alright, I can see Frankie's car pulling up from the main road now, I'm going to keep my hands on your face until he gets here. "You really don't trust me to wait for your signal to look?" It was the first time Maura had ever been questioned about her ability to follow through on a request in her life.
"With the way you're tripping on your feet Ms. Curious, no way." Maura hadn't even realized she she'd been doing it. Jane just laughed.
"Alright, here they come. Maura, I'm going to remove my hands now and introduce you to a couple of people. Are you ready?" Maura could only nod in reply. Truth be told, she had the strangest feeling, she found herself actually too impatient to form a reply. Maura opened her eyes and found herself face to face with a small crowd of such a size that she would normally feel nervous, but with the presence of Jane's light touch to her lower back she managed to stay calm.
"Yo Rizzoli, is this the doc we've heard so much about?" Of course they had the tact of a bunch of elephants trying on new wigs for a performance at 'Circus de Weird'. She hadn't been talking about Maura that much, had she?
"Hey man, hang on, let me just explain what's going on here and we'll step inside and get changed alright?" Jane was thankful that they weren't paying them all that much attention and rather catched up with each other after a long week so she could explain things properly to her new… friend.
"We'll be playing teams. You've already met my brother Frankie, and that goofy looking guy standing next to him is Barry Frost, you've probably seen him around, he works in the-" "Hey Rizzoli, heard that!" "Yeah, yeah, shut up or I'll tell the good doctor here to keep you away from all the dead bodies so you don't contaminate her crime scenes!" "Low blow Rizzoli! Hope you brought you A game today, cause just for that, you're going down!"
"Yeah, yeah yeah..." As if the day would come where she would actually feel threatened by Barry Frost... "Where was I? Oh yes, right behind Frost there's Edwards and right next to him you have Alex Brody, Jonny Carew, the tall one behind them is Jason Matthews and finally there's Bill Weatherly, but for some reason we just call him Captain Kirk.
Jane knew it was a lot of names in a short amount of time, but hopefully she'd been correct in her initial suspicion that she was dealing with a genius on her hands. "Think you got it?"
Maura paused for a second and furrowed her brows before reviewing the information she'd been given. "Frankie, your brother, Barry Frost, he works at the department and will somehow contaminate my crime scenes for reasons I am yet oblivious to. Edwards is the one in the cerulean blue cap," Maura turned to face Jane, "actually, did you know that the ancient Greek didn't have a word for 'blue' so when they were describing something which were blue they simply called it 'bronze'?" Jane could only shake her head. "Alex Brody is the tall dirty blonde, the figure to his right is Jonny Carew, Hispanic, Jason Matthews is the one with the broad shoulders to his left and finally there's Bill Weatherly who goes under the conspicuous name Captain Kirk." Jane she really didn't expect her to remember them all, which her baffled expression clearly revealed. Maura just beamed back at her happy for once she had what someone would define as eidetic memory.
Maura turned to face Jane again, looking into those pools of chocolate brown which made her intestines do the most peculiar little dance. "Are you ready to tell me where we are now?"
Still being lost in the clear hazel searching her face for something, Jane blinked to get her head back on track. "Almost." Jane stepped back and affectively blindfolded her again with the use of her hands. Luckily she managed to do so before Maura could notice all the grins coming from the rest of their company.
Jane just rolled her eyes in their general direction, careful so that she didn't lose focus on the precious cargo she was guiding. "Alright, there's a big step coming, watch out."
As the doors swung open her senses were overwhelmed with loud noises and strange smells she couldn't completely place. "Jane, I'm not sure about this..." Maura looked around at the flashing neon lights that was the only thing coming though the palm of the hand gently resting on the brim of her nose.
Jane leaned in to whisper, "Oh come on Maura, where's your sense of adventure?" Jane couldn't keep a grin from her face if she had been threatened by her mother and the countless dates she could escape if she managed to keep her posture for five seconds. "I don't understand why you can't just tell me where we are." Forget 'villain' Maura, pouting Maura had to be the most adorable thing Jane had ever witnessed.
"Maura, do you know what a surprise is?"
"Well, its most commonly categorized into three categories. The first definition is 'to encounter suddenly or unexpectedly, to catch unawares. The second is to attack or capture suddenly without warning. However, as I'm still standing here and you haven't tackled me to the ground I don't think that one is applicable for this situation."
Jane found herself leaning closer to the shorter woman's ear so that her whisper could be heard over the crowded place. "Do you think we'll have more luck applying option number three?"
"'To cause to feel wonder, astonishment, or amazement, as at something unanticipated.' Her voice had cracked a little at the end in anticipation, it was merely a breath when she continued. Jane's body smelled like fresh lavender and something else Maura couldn't quite put her finger on. Feeling her own body shiver without her permission she could only whisper. "Yes, I think we can safely use that one."
"Welcome to Boston Paintball, what can I do for you?"
Jane cheekily winked at Maura before addressing the young male teenager behind the counter. "Hi, we've got a reservation, 1PM-4PM, small group package, private game? It should be under Rizzoli."
"Alright, let me check."
Maura didn't know if she should laugh or cry. "Paintball? Jane, I don't even know how to hold a gun!"
"Don't worry, that's what you have me for, I'll teach you, don't worry."
"But…" Jane took the opportunity of leaning into her ear and whisper to her while the guy searched his computer for their reservation.
A welcomed chill ran though the shorter woman again as soft raven locks made contact with her cheek. "You wanted mess in your life, and this is about as messy as it gets."
The reservation confirmed things were about to go down. "Alright, we'll see you guys in a minute!"
Maura followed after Jane as she waved the guys off. "Where are we going?"
"To change, I can't have your fancy pants smeared in paint now can I? Plus these suits will prevent too many Charlie horses on that fair skin of yours."
"Charlie's horses? Are we going horseback riding too?" Why would they mix paintball with horses? That couldn't possibly be humane for the animals or very legal.
"Charlie horses? Horse gummit? The british dead leg, gunt, chopper? Really, nothing? Doesn't ring any bells? Come on Maur-" Jane stopped herself and added the last letter in her name quickly, realizing they probably hadn't hit the stage where she could start calling her pet names like Maur, "and you call yourself a doc." Maura looked lost. Jane snapped her fingers as if she had just solved the Schrödinger's cat paradox. "Ah, it makes sense now. This very moment has to be the reason I did sport as a kid and fell on my ass so many times - so that one day I would stand face to face with a doctor and explain to her what the nicknames for a common bruise is."
"I have never come across those terms in any of my medical books. Are you sure a hematoma is called Charlie's horse?"
"I'll tell you what, after Frankie's taken a few hits I'll make him show you his bruise and you can photograph it and send in a suggestion to revise Gray's Anatomy, okay?"
"You know Gray's Anatomy?" Not that she would put it passed her, Jane was full of surprises. It was one thing to be referring to 'Grey's Anatomy the television show, which was what most people did when they tried to impress her with their knowledge over dinner, but Jane had actually used the proper name.
"What do you mean, do I know Gray's Anatomy, of course I do, read it before bed every night."
"You do? That's so unexpected, I do the same. Although I like to mix it up a bit, I find B. Alberts, D. Bray, K. Hopkin & A. Johnson's' Essential Cell Biology' a decent read when I want to change it up.
"Funny, I was just about to say the same thing!"
There had to be something about her dramatic flabbergasted expression that gave her away. Maura rolled her eyes, Jane realizing she was catching on to her sarcasm.
"Jane…" There was something about her name when coming from those velvet lips. She could probably listen to Maura calling her name for hours without going insane. "You're making fun of me, aren't you?"
"Maybe just a little." Jane held up her index finger very close to her thumb just to show Maura that on a scale of teasing she was actually being very nice. The laugh they shared confirmed that Jane hadn't gone too overboard with her teasing.
"Maura, come on, you've been in there for like fifteen minutes. You ready yet?" Jane was sitting on the bench in her black padded suit. She looked like something a space pilot would be wearing if he was floating around in the Battlestar Galactica universe.
"Jane, it's hardly been four minutes, and I'm sorry, but I don't think this is right."
"What's not right?" Jane was fiddling with her gun, trying to remember when she'd actually wiped the thing clean. Coming up blank, she mused that Frankie must have done it. "The size, its… well… I don't think it's meant for people of my proportions." As Maura stepped out from the little bathroom stall Jane knew exactly what she meant. If Jane was looking like a Viper Jokey riding in the colonial fleet, Maura in her outfit was the species she was willing to risk her life saving. "Oh."
"This isn't how it's supposed to fit, is it?" If you're a part of a very vivid dream I'll be having tonight that is exactly how it should fit…. Jane coughed, trying to get the anticipation of the dream away. "I'm sorry, Maura, I think they made a mistake when they thought only adolescent boy and underdeveloped girls would rent their suits…" Her legs and toned stomach was nothing of a problem for the suit to follow, however when it came to certain… highly feminine attributes a little higher up, the poor thing screamed for mercy.
"Alright, we can fix this." Wait a second, why am I fixing something that is so clearly not broken? Because you don't want all the guys on the planet ogling her. Right, there it was; logic.
"Can't I just go ask for a size bigger?"
"No, it fits your length perfectly, so if you get it any bigger you'll have big problems trying to stay on your feet and not stumble over your own legs. The next size up is the one I'm wearing so you'll see how that might be a problem." "Alright, so what do you suggest we do?" Jane had to think for a second, which was completely Nobel Prize worthy of her when all she could see was the midnight colour push up bra Maura was wearing at her display. "Alright. Alright, we can do this. They're very elastic the second you've managed to close the zipper. Does it fit you everywhere else?" Maura moved graciously in front of her stretching her arms over her head. "Yes, the rest is surprisingly comfortable." Jane was still frozen on the image of a bodysuit clad Maura Isles stretching in front of her. "What's that? It fits, alright, good, then… We can do this." And the Nobel Peace Prize for show of best control over own body goes to…
Jane moved very slowly towards the honey blonde, afraid she'd go all bananas if she moved too quickly allowing her common sense to shut down. "I need you to take a deep breath, and when you let it out I'm going to quickly zip this thing up, is that alright by you?" "Sure Jane, I don't see why that would be a problem." "I'll count to three…. One…" Jane stepped close to Maura, so close she could see every tiny little adorable freckle on her nose and collarbone," two…." Her hands were reaching towards the two lapels securing the zipper in her shaking fingers, trying her damnest to not stare, "three." Maura released her breath and Jane could feel the minty freshness assault her senses. They were standing so close, if they'd just-""Janie!" Frankie's voice was coming from just outside the woman's wardrobe. "You guys coming? We wanna go before it gets too crowded."
Maura and Jane jumped a part like they'd both been victims of an electric current on the loose. Jane took in Maura one more time, mildly surprised that it had actually worked. In front of her was a goddess, one she'd swear to the higher gods to protect when they made it out on that playing field. "There, all set."
"Hang on," Well; she couldn't remember everything when she had enough trouble remember breathing when she stole glances at the beauty beside her all the time."Frankie; I forgot the guns. Back of my car, could you run get them while I suit up Maura with the equipment?" The suggestive look he gave her as a reply left too little to Maura's imagination for Jane's liking, but thankfully the hazel eyed beauty was too focused on the hopper in her hand to pay them any attention.
"Wait, Jane, I don't know how to use a paintball gun. Honestly, I've never held a real gun, or any form of gun really, in my hands before; I'm going to ruin your game completely. It would probably be best if I just sat this one out until I have practiced a bit. I wouldn't want your team to lose just because of me."
Jane lowered her voice, so their conversation could be somewhat held in private as she was guiding Maura over to one of the benches so they could get into the right footwear. "You know, for a genius, you're pretty dumb." The way Jane said it made it clear to Maura that she wasn't supposed to take it as an insult. Jane managed to turn her voice another octave down and suddenly she could have been raving about Suricata suricatta's in helicopters for all Maura cared as long as she kept talking like that. She glanced over to the guys who were anxiously tripping to get started.
"There's no way you're sitting this one out. This is about you having fun, not about winning. Listen, we're not about to fight world war three out there," A loud "speak for yourself, Rizzoli!" from Bill was ignored, "this is your chance to do something messy, alright, so just… follow my lead and I'll make sure you'll be the only one standing at the end without as much as a smudge of paint on that suit of yours."
The smile on Maura's face was enough to melt both the poles and jump start a new ice age. "Alright, if you're really sure about this." Jane didn't know how she'd managed to get the most intriguing woman on the planet to go out with her. Not as, in a date, but out for an outing. Right. Whatever, she still felt pretty good about it. Jane gave her a little wink for the show of courage. "Alright. Now, the rules." She turned around to get the guys attention. "Guys?" Instead of getting right down to it, the already suited up guys were clearly having problems trying to mask their surprise when they saw the result of a real woman in one of the standard equipment suits.
Jane just rolled her eyes and made sure to glare at each and every one of them before starting herself."Equipment. You've got your suit, and then you have to wear a full face mask, an Air Tank, a hopper, an elbow and barrel bag."
Knowing what was good for him, Carew followed suit. "The velocity of the .50 caliber balls we use are around 280 feet per second."
Maura gulped, and took Jane's hand unconsciously muttering more to herself than Jane. "I see I'm about to have my first encounter with Charlie's horses today." After a quick moment of total freak out over the wonderful feeling it was to have such a warm soft hand in her callused own, Jane squeezed her hand back, "Don't worry, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."
Oblivious to the tender moment that was happening right under their noses, Alex ventured on.
"You have all kinds of ways to play this game. After some trying and failing we've come up with the perfect combo. It's sort of a mash up between 'capture the flag' and 'shoot the captain'. That's the game we're going to play today. Unofficially we just call it "Conquer Jane", cause she's always the last one standing." Jane rolled her eyes and muttered "So not true" only to show Maura that she wasn't completely ruthless when given a paintball gun.
"Each team tries to capture the other team's flag, but the game isn't won before all other players on opposite team are out. You're not allowed to shoot the captain before all his or hers team members are already out. I mean, you can, but it won't matter because she'll be 'holy ground' until that happens."
"You follow so far?" Maura could only nod, taking in all the information like there would be a pop quiz Monday morning.
Jane laughed; each and every one of them contributed in a way that made it seem too rehearsed. She probably should have told Maura that they used to come here all the time at the weekends when she was at the academy. The tradition had followed Frankie and his graduating class, which later had led to both Jane and Frankie's classes meeting up every now and then for an unceremonious battle.
"Now, for the fun part. Who's playing who?" Frankie had come back with the guns from the car. This caused a loud discussion with gentle showing and hollering, probably what someone would describe as the equivalent of men measuring their penises. After a lot of back and forth, Jane only having one rule, that she and Maura would be on the same team, they'd finally reached a decision.
Team one consisted of Bill "Captain Kirk" Weatherly, Jonny Carew, Sam Edwards, Jason Matthews and Alex Brody, which left Jane, Frankie, Frost and Maura on team number two.
Although the teams were uneven they decided it was only fair as Jane counted for at least two. Team captains were a whole other discussion. Bill was team one's captain, which was just a given, he wasn't Captain Kirk for nothing. Team two on the other hand didn't have it so set in stone. "Isn't it time you came down from your high throne and let someone else reign for a little while?" Frankie was looking more like the little brother she had dared to eat a spoon with cinnamon than the young man paroling the streets of Boston with a badge. Not to be outdone, Jane knew how to give back as good as she got. "I get down from that throne when you take it away from me." "How about letting a brother get a chance for a change? Huh? I've already made it though polishing your ancestor's toilets; if you think about it, you kinda owe me." "Frost, now you're just being ridiculous." "Hang on, hang on, I've got it." Jane wondered why they didn't just do this in the first place. "I suggest Maura gets to be captain, then the rest of us don't have any advantages and we can play like a team, right?" Even though Frankie thought it was a great idea and he wanted Maura to feel part of the team, he couldn't just let her get away with being right so quickly. "Who died and made you mother Theresa?" "Uh, mother Theresa?" Jane smacked Frankie's head. The kind of slap that' wasn't supposed to be humiliating, but more to get someone to focus. "Fine by me", Frost's 'fine' sounded a lot more genuine than the 'fine!' that came out of Frankie, although he made sure to wink at Maura when Jane wasn't looking.
"Wait, Jane, are you sure this is a good idea?" Maura was more than a little anxious at the prospect of having the responsibility for her team either loosing or winning. She was just starting to get comfortable being around so many people, and if she messed it all up by making their team loose… She wasn't an athlete in the same way as the rest of her team. They were used to playing team games, they knew how to have someone's back. Maura was used to the opposite, in fencing it was only you and the person you were up against. Ballet, although they were supposed to be an ensemble, girls going up against each other for the lead didn't really help build team spirit and a sense of belonging. Jane saw the obvious concern the doctor had about being the last woman standing. "Don't worry, to get to you they'll have to go though us, and that's not gonna happen." The confidence coming from Jane being in her element had to be one of the sexiest things Maura Isles had ever witnessed.
Feeling pretty confident with having his sister and Frost on his team, Frankie figured it would be a good time to score some free beers after the game. "Hey, when we win, we can't just start singing "team two" won- we need a proper name for when you losers have to buy us beers at the Robber afterwards."
"Do we really want to drive all the way back to the Robber after we've finished? There will be paint everywhere. I just cleaned the carpets yesterday." Carew looked like he might live in a pigsty, with his scruffy appearance and haphazardly self cut hair, which wasn't very far from the truth because everything he made went into his car budget. "Who the hell needs pillows, a carpet or even a damn razor when you can have a V8 engine instead of a V4?" Clearly, his car was his baby and if it hadn't been for the fact that they'd spent around three weeks good-naturedly harassing him for it, they would still have to ride with their shoes on a plastic sheet as to not mess up his pristine car floor.
Bill, living up to his nickname where the original version of him had made the "no-win scenario" winnable, decided it was time to cut in before the boys would start arguing about where the best pizza and beer would be located. "'The Brown Jug' it is then."
"Team names?" The guys looked sheepishly towards the two women. Jane couldn't help but shake her head in defeat. Boys will be boys. The contest of finding the right team name was usually more violent than when they actually had guns in their hands. "Fine, make up a stupid team name so we can go play already!"
Tom being a little older than the rest of the guys on his team knew what was coming and decided the best approach was to just let them have at it and await the situation until something usable came up. Not sure who said what, the conversation was mostly a blur. "American superheroes'!" "Dude, are you trying to offend me? I appreciate my Mexican heritage thank you very much." "The Flamenco's!" "What are we, shooting rainbows?" "The A-team!" "I'm pretty the franchise has the copyrights for that one" "The awesome foursome!" "I know you did not just suggest that." "The invincible musketeers" "Aren't they usually three? Do your math dude!" "The Incredibles!" "I swear, if you call me elastigirl, I'll kick you!" "Black mambas" "Don't like snakes." "Hot raccoons!" "Are you even trying to take this seriously?" "I know, I know, I know! The Spray painters!" Matthew and Jason who had been face to face in a heated argument looked up from their death glares in unison to nod at Sam. "That's actually not bad. It even makes sense, unlike the 'Gangster Teddy Bears' Jason just suggested." "Hey, have you not seen 'Ted'? At least it's better than 'Voodoo Masters of Magic'."
Jane dared a glance towards Maura only to check if she was ready to run for the hills. Maybe exposing her to the boy's antics had been a little too early for their friendship. To her surprise Maura was actually following the conversation, looking like she was taking them all into account and evaluating them. Jane made a mental note that she would have to fill Maura in later on the importance of picking the right team name. Bill had had enough and made the team quiet down with a power only he possessed over them. "Everyone in favor of team one being known as "The Spray painters" say I!" Seconds later it was official.
"Maura, you're team captain, what's the name of our team?" Jane did not expect Maura to understand what was going on, so when the honey blonde shyly quipped "Veracious Voluptuous and oh so Venomous Vixens and their handsome sidekicks" Jane could only shake her head in disbelief and laugh, letting out a "that's my girl" before she had time to stop herself.
As the guys did a slow clap and bowed their head in her direction she quickly whispered a "Did I do alright?" to Jane, who found herself at a loss for words and made due with a nod and giving her the widest grin her mouth would allow.
AN: To those awesome individuals who guessed paintball- how does it feel to be awesome at guessing? And can I call you up when I'm stuck in some parallel universe and don't know if I should take left or right on my way to the castle?
AN2: Alright, so I know you probably wanted to jump right to the actual game, but this mind just doesn't do logic, so I've managed to fill 8 pages on word with just the preparations. Sorry about that. If it helps, you can all blame the plumber. I do. Explanation follows in one second: I so graciously offered to babysit my sister in laws Nintendo64 because it was lonely. Now, I have never had a gaming console in my hands before, so… damn those stars and my obsession to get them all. It's sort of… I hate myself when I play it because the damn thing won't jump when I say jump or run when I say run, and I can't blame anyone other than myself. However, if I look at it in a different way, it's not my fault that he's clearly a thrill seeker and jumps off cliffs? In other news I think my brain mentally shut down while at the hairdresser today (oh yes, you are now witnessing my day off. It feels nice!) and somehow I ended up blonde. Ish. Maura's blonde, right? Well, honey blonde it is then. It feels weird. I'll be going to bed now. If you hear a scream in a few hours, just carry on with what you were doing, it's just me waking up looking in the mirror haven forgotten I'm now blonde. Ish.
Did I mention I love your reviews and follows? Because I really really do (it's better than redbull and coffee combined* and I go all fuzzy inside for each and every one of you. Today you're rocking my purple socks with ghosts on them (they're a fancy pair) I salute you all and hope you have a wonderful weekend!
* not completely combined, which I suggest you don't try- because that actually tastes awful.