This is pretty much pure fluff. but I thought Jane and Maura needed some happiness before the crap storm that's about to come. hope you enjoy!
-t.c.
February does nothing to break the chill of winter, and as Maura gets off the T, she zips her coat all the way up to her chin.
"Finally!" Jane's voice makes Maura's head shoot up. Her girlfriend in front of her, her breath rising in little puffs of steam. Holding out a white rose.
"Jane!" Maura is both delighted and appalled, "You aren't wearing a coat!"
Jane shrugs, "I gave it to Frankie. His is way too small now." She looks at Maura and rolls her eyes, "I have two sweatshirts on, Maur."
"Why are you out here? Why aren't you at school?"
Jane's eyes sparkle as she holds out the rose, "Happy Valentine's Day, Maura!" She says, grinning.
Maura's face falls. "Oh! Oh God Jane," She says covering her face with her hands, "I forgot!"
Jane's smile doesn't waver, and she holds the rose higher until Maura takes it. "It's beautiful," she says miserably. She can't believe that she didn't register the date. Her brain has been full of nothing but Jane for months, how could she forget about Valentine's day.
"Hey," Jane says, pulling Maura close to her, "It's okay. You give me Valentine's day, like, every day, Maur, okay?"
Maura sniffs, "I can't believe I forgot."
"That's not all!" Jane says, quickly, barely able to contain herself. She reaches into her pocket, pulling out a small little box. Maura sighs, "honestly Jane, are you trying to make me feel horrible?"
"Just open it Maur," Jane says, smiling, "I don't care you didn't get me anything."
Maura pull the top off of the little box and can't help the gasp that comes out of her mouth. It's a silver necklace. The little pendant that hangs from it has a stone sparkling from it, and Maura realizes with a swoop of her stomach that it is a diamond. A real one. Above the sparkly little stone is one word. Maura.
"Oh," Is all Maura can say.
"Turn it over!" Jane says, practically bouncing up and down.
She does. Jane.
Maura feels tears beginning in her eyes. "No, no!" Jane says, putting her hand against Maura's face, catching the tears. "It's too fuck-" she catches herself, "way too cold to cry, Maur. And there's no reason for it."
"Jane, this is a real diamond. Like, a real one."
Jane looks prouder than Maura has seen her, and she loops her arm in Maura's as they start off towards school. "I told the guy in the store you'd be able to tell. He had to like chop up a much bigger one to get one tiny enough for me to afford but-"
"How did you afford it though?" Maura blurts. Since Frank's departure, Maura has noticed a definite decline in the Rizzoli's financial situation, and she notices that on the weekends when Jane stays over, she eats more food, as though trying to store it for later.
Jane shrugs, "I sold my autographed rookie of Garciaparra,"
"I don't know what any of those words mean."
Jane laughs, "It's a baseball card. I sold it."
"Jane, you are…" Maura looks around, as though the correct word might fall out of the sky. "And I didn't…"
But Jane slips her arm through Maura's and pulls her towards school, "Shush," she says firmly, still smiling. "Like you don't do so much for me every single day. I know I'm not very good at, you know, showing you how much I care about you. And I know I get nervous sometimes, like, in public, but..." She looks at her hands, smiling when Maura takes one in hers. "I really like you, Maura."
Maura smiles, wiping a stray tear away. "It's gorgeous Jane. I love it so much."
Jane seems to relax as they fall into stride, "Good. I've never done a Valentine's Day before. Not really."
"Me either," Maura says, and smiles when she sees Jane's incredulous look.
"Come on, Maur, you've had a boyfriend. you told me that-"
"One does not need a boyfriend to engage in intercourse, Jane."
"UGH," Jane mimes vomiting. "Do not call it that. God!" She is silent for a moment as she processes this.
"It was Italy," Maura says, forestalling Jane's question. " Where I was before we moved here. All the kids were...much different than they are in America, and I was, curious."
"Okay," Jane says, "We should stop talking about this now."
"I'm sorry," Maura says quickly, "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable,"
"You didn't" Jane says simply, "But I kinda want to swim to Italy and kill the dude you were with. And I don't think it's warm enough for a dip that lengthy."
"Not to mention that it is physically impossible for a human to swim that distance without perishing from..." Maura catches sight of Jane's face, and blushes. "Oh. Oh, Jane. You're saying you're jealous?"
"You don't have to shout it, Maur," Jane hisses, but she blushes and Maura squeezes her hand.
Maura moves to drop her hand a block from school, already working on shifting her body language away from Jane. But the taller girl holds tightly to her hand, even as they walk up the steps to Saint Catherine's.
"You okay?" Jane asks Maura quietly as she pulls the doors open.
"Yes," Maura says. She has no problem with holding Jane's hand in public, "But-"
"Good," Jane cuts her off, bringing Maura's hand to her lips for a quick kiss, "Happy Valentine's Day, Maur. Part three."
Maura can barely keep herself from skipping all the way to her locker, Jane's hand clasped tightly in hers.
Maura watches Jane talking to a girl from her history class. It is five minutes before lunch, and she is crouched around the corner with three scrawny freshman boys.
"You're clear on what you're doing, right?"
"Yeah...you know, people are gonna be pissed that they can't get any more roses," one of the boys says. He has freckles and big glasses and a clip on bow tie.
Maura goes to answer him, but the freshman next to Maura, a skinny little black boy with light brown eyes answers first.
"Chill, dex, she paid for them all. And she's trying to do something nice for her lady, aren't you Maura."
"Yes," Maura tries to remember this boys name. "She did so much for me today, I want to show her that I care too."
"Right on," the second boy says, "You forgot Valentines, but you didn't forget her."
"Yes! Thank you, Barry." Maura looks back at Jane, momentarily getting lost in how pretty she is and how at ease she looks, leaning against her locker and talking to her classmate. The bell for lunch rings. 300 students burst from their classrooms into the hallway. "Okay!" Maura says, feeling her heart speed up, "go!"
The boys race around the corner, Barry in the lead 300 red roses in messenger bags over their shoulders. "Out of our way folks, 'scuse me ma'am, sir," they yell over the talking crowd, which slowly falls silent, watching the sight. "We gotta get to Jane Rizzoli" the last boy says to a random student in the crowd, "You haven't seen her, have you? Jane? Rizzoli?"
The three boys spread out, asking people if they've seen Jane, calling over the crowds head to each other,
"Have you found her?"
"Do you see her?"
"JANE?"
Finally they make it to Jane's locker, where the crowd backs away, leaving Jane standing like a statue, gaping at the three boys in front of her.
"Jane!" Barry steps up, pretending to be out of breath.
Jane gives him a bewildered smile, "What's up, Frost?" she says looking suspicious.
"My boys and I have a message from you, from someone who is super into you."
The crowd, which had gone deadly silent so they could hear, now whistles and cat calls.
Jane's face goes slightly pink, and Maura sees her scanning the crowd, looking. She ducks down, out of sight, and therefore only hears the boys break into a rendition of "I'll be there" by the Jackson Five.
The crowd cheers and claps and stomps their feet, And when Maura chances a look back at the scene, she sees frost has gotten down on one knee and is handing her the note that Maura wrote in AP Biology.
J-
no matter what.
I promise it.
Happy Valentine's day.
-m
Jane stares at the note for longer than it takes to read it, and Maura realizes, with nervous jolt, that she is working not to cry in front of a hallway full of people. Oh, God, No, Maura thinks, working her way towards Jane. But before she can get there, Barry Frost steps up takes Jane's hand, and twirls her on the spot, sliding her into a dip, and makes her laugh out loud. Maura feels herself relax as the song comes to an end, and the crowd cheers and whistles and begins, gradually, to head towards the cafeteria. Maura thanks God for Barry Frost, and when she reaches him, they are still talking.
"Thank you, Frost," Jane says honestly, smiling at Maura as she makes her way towards them.
"I saw you getting misty, mama," he says, winking at Maura as he turns away, "Don't worry, I always got your back." And with that he heads off.
Jane looks down at the three bags of roses at her feet, and then up at Maura, who has her eyebrows raised expectantly.
"Hey, Rizzoli!" a kid calls as he passes, "You wicked lucky to have someone dig you that much, gurl!" Jane laughs, picking up a rose and threading it through Maura's hair.
"Yes. I am."