Chapter 14

For some reason, Jane felt a very strange connection to this Dr. Isles; Maura. Seeing her so upset when she went home, Jane couldn't just leave it be.

So, doing what she did nowadays, which was acting mostly on instinct, she had found out Maura's address, bought some flowers and driven over.

But now that she was actually here, she didn't know if she should get out of the car or not.

"Flip a coin?" she mumbled to herself.

After a few long moments arguing with herself, Jane finally got out of the car and walked to the front door of the warmly lighted house.

She sheepishly looked at the flowers in her hands, lilies, then took a deep breath and rang the bell; worrying briefly if maybe she should have knocked instead.

There were some sounds coming from inside the house, the rustling of keys, and then the door opened revealing a still immaculate looking honey blonde woman.

The sight completely took Jane's breath away, which kind of freaked her out. She wasn't really used to having that kind of response, well, to anyone really.

She didn't have very long to think about it though, because the doctor seemed very startled at seeing Jane on her doorstep.

As soon as Maura saw who was standing there outside her house, she couldn't help the emotions that overcame her. Several memories hit her all at the same time.

The first time Jane had shown up at her doorstep after Hoyt had escaped from jail.

Times when they were still friends, and Jane would show up at night just for a drink, or to relax with a movie.

Other times came back as well. From when they started to become more than friends, and Jane had picked her up for their first date; dressed up and nervous, flowers in her hand.

Seeing the brunette standing there now, so unexpected at her door, was almost too much for Maura, and she couldn't help the warm tears that instantly started to trickle down her face.

"Oh, no, don't cry." Jane said, completely taken off guard by the doctor's response to her presence. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Please don't be upset."

Maura held up her hand to stop the apologies, asking silently for a moment to compose herself, "I'm okay, I'm okay. It's…it's just seeing you like that," she shook her head, not sure if she should continue that sentence.

"I shouldn't have just shown up," Jane said again, "it was a bad idea. I just…I felt like you maybe needed someone to talk to. I sometimes forget…sorry, bad choice of words. I sometimes...don't realize that it's hard for people that knew me before the accident. I'm really sorry. I'm…going to stop talking now. I should maybe…yes, I should probably go." Jane was about to turn around and walk away when she heard her name.

Maura took a deep breath, "would you like to come in?"

"Are you sure, I don't want to bother you," Jane looked unsure.

Maura opened the door further and took a step to the side, indicating wordlessly for Jane that it was okay.

Once Jane was inside she remembered the flowers she still had in her hand, and pushed them towards Maura, "here," she said.

Maura gently took them from the detective and moved them in front of her face, enjoying the delicate scent, "thank you," she said softly, then walked over to the kitchen so she could put them in a vase.

"Would you like a beer?" she asked, her voice still not a hundred percent steady.

"Sure," Jane had followed Maura into the kitchen, and was now leaning against the counter. She was overcome with this strange sense of deja vu being in this house, in this kitchen. The feeling was quite disconcerting, but not unwelcome.

Maura handed Jane her beer and poured herself a glass of wine, taking a small sip.

"Dr. Isles?" Jane asked after a few moments.

The blonde woman actually physically cringed when Jane called her by her title, "please, call me Maura."

"Okay, sorry. Maura. This will probably sound strange, but have I been here before? In your house I mean."

Maura grabbed onto her glass of wine a little tighter, looking for something to steady herself. She was completely out of her depth with the situation. She wanted to tell Jane everything, but she remembered what Frankie had told her, so finally she just settled on, "yes, you have been here before."

"Did I spend a lot of time here?" Jane asked the follow up question.

"You did." Maura again answered without adding any extra information.

"I thought so," Jane hesitated. "I feel like I've been here," 'it feels like home' she thought, but didn't say.

Silence fell over them, neither of them knowing what to say next.

Maura didn't know how much she should share, and Jane didn't know how much she wanted to know.

It was right around the time when Jane thought it might actually be best if she left, that there was a slight bumping coming from around the kitchen counter.

The detective actually jumped in her seat, then got up to see what had startled her. "What is that!?," she said, pointing at the rock like creature that was crawling around the kitchen.

Maura looked over at her beloved pet, "it's just Bass, he's a Geochelone Sulcata or -"

"African spurred tortoise," Jane finished the sentence.

Maura was completely taken by surprise.

"Am I wrong?" Jane asked, seeing the doctor's startled expression.

Maura shook her head, trying to find her voice again, "No, you are correct. How did you know that?"

The detective shrugged her shoulders, "I have no idea, really. Sometimes these random things just pop into my head. Riley sort of makes fun of me for it, but I don't care. It's nice to know some stuff."

"You usually called him a turtle," the words fell out of Maura's mouth before she could stop them.

Jane raised an eyebrow, "maybe I was just trying to get a rise out of you", then redirected her attention back to the slow moving animal. "So Bass huh, that's an unusual name."

"I named him after William M. Bass. Famous forensic anthropologist who founded the body farm.

"Ah, yes, of course, that Bass," Jane responded with a smirk.

The whole conversation left Maura with a strong sense of dejavu, reminding her of the first time Jane had come to her house.

Maura gently put down her glass of wine on the counter, and turned to fully face the brunette.

The detective took another sip from her beer, then started playing with the edge of the label.

"Jane, I don't know what to do here. Frankie told me you don't want people to tell you things, and I want to respect that. But I feel dishonest not telling you."

Jane bit her lip, then looked up in warm hazel eyes, "I know it's odd. It's just that when I first woke up from my accident, everyone kept looking at me, expecting me to know them. They would keep telling me things, their memories, and then they would look so hurt when I didn't remember what they were talking about. And then they would tell me things about myself, that I would actually be better off not knowing anymore. I had to draw a line. Everything or nothing. I chose nothing. Maybe I was wrong, I don't know anymore. I just…I feel very comfortable with you. I'd like to get to know you without feeling that I should already know you. You know?"

Maura almost had to laugh at Jane's way of explaining herself, if it wasn't so sad.

Jane got up from her chair and walked over to the doctor, grabbing one of her hands in her own. "How about we start slow, and you can tell me something about yourself. Could you do that, please?"

Maura realized that this was going to be on Jane's terms, and as difficult as it was, she did accept it. "Okay, what would you like to know?"

The detective thought for a moment, then a smile appeared on her face. "You can start by telling me why you chose a 'turtle' for a pet?"

Jane had only stayed a few minutes longer before going home. Frankly it had been a little awkward for both of them.

After Jane had left, Maura had called her mother and told her what happened since she arrived in Boston. To her surprise Constance told her not to give up. To stay for a while longer, to give it a few months. Maura had been surprised at her mother's reaction, but she had agreed.

Giving up was what had gotten her in this horrible mess in the first place. If she hadn't given up and left, Jane wouldn't have gotten into an accident.

Frankie was right, and she owed it to Jane to stick around. If nothing else, maybe she could be a friend to her again.

Before everything happened, the first thing Maura would do every morning when she got to the precinct, was visit the 'Division One Cafe'. Sometimes for breakfast, other times for a cup of tea or coffee. But there was no way she was going anywhere near the place this morning. She did not want to have another run in with Angela.

In a way, Maura understood where the woman was coming from. Yet in another, she was angry with the older Rizzoli woman as well.

After Frank Rizzoli had left Angela out on the streets, Maura had opened up her guest house to her. Angela had lived with her for a few months, until she got back on her feet. And they had gotten pretty close for a while, she had almost been like a mother to Maura.

But Angela had completely tried to erase her from Jane's life.

Yes, Maura had left, but they knew where she was, and nobody had told her what happened to Jane. They knew Maura would have flown back instantly if she'd known; she would have been with Jane the whole time. She could have helped her deal with her amnesia. It would have still been difficult, but at least she could have been there for Jane. Angela had taken that away from her, from them. The more Maura thought about it, the angrier she got.

So she avoided going to the precinct cafe, at least until she knew what to say, and how to deal with the situation.

She only wished she would have realized this sooner, since now it was too late to go somewhere else, and she felt like she needed the caffeine today.

Resigned to her faith until lunch time, Maura got on the elevator and headed down to the morgue to start her day.

Thirty minutes after she had sat down behind her desk and in the middle of a stack of paperwork, there was a knock on her door.

"Hey Maura, are you busy?" Jane popped her head around the corner.

Maura shook her head and closed the file in front of her, "come in."

The detective was carrying two cups of coffee, handing one to Maura. "I don't know how you drink yours, so…" she dropped several packages of creamer and sugar on the M.E.'s desk, then smirked at her.

It received her a smile back from the doctor, but Jane noticed it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Are you feeling any better today?" she asked, opening the lid to her own cup and blowing inside.

"I am," Maura got one of the packages of creamer and put it in her coffee, all the while being observed by Jane.

…

"Oh, since you're here. I got some of the test results in this morning," Maura reached for the file she needed and pushed it towards the detective.

"Can you give me the cliff notes?" Jane asked, "I don't really understand all the scientific mumbo jumbo."

"Okay," Maura grabbed the file back and opened it up, "well, there really wasn't that much we found. The lack of blood in her system definitely complicates things. But we did find something." Maura pulled two images out of the file and put them side by side. "These are the diatoms we found in her bone marrow," she pointed to one, "and these are the diatoms we found in the sample of water we took at the scene."

The detective looked closely at both photos, then understanding shifted across her face, "they are different. Which means...," Jane tapped her fingers on the desk, "…I have no idea what that means."

"The diatoms," Maura continued, "came from the oysters we found in her stomach."

"Oysters? That's …gross." Jane pulled a face. "sad last meal, I think I'd prefer a steak before I go."

Maura gently shook her head, "oysters are actually quite the delicacy, especially the oysters our victim ate, they are called Belon Oysters and are only found in Maine."

"Maine? Well that's a clue, there can't be too many places in Boston that serve Balloon oysters", the brunette looked ready to leave, "anything else?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, no. Without a blood sample, it's impossible to determine if there were any traces of drugs or poisons in her system," the doctor sadly admitted. She did not like it when she couldn't provide definite answers for the detectives.

"At least we got something. Thanks, Maura," and with that Jane left the room.

The rest of the day had been fairly uneventful, with no real leads. Jane and Riley, after speaking with the victims roommates, did find out that Susan was supposed to go to a conference in Phoenix two days ago, and they hadn't spoken to her since. They also told the detectives that Susan had been dating some guy, but they had broken things off.

Coincidentally the detectives found out that Logan airport has a specialty Oyster bar and decided to ask if anyone had seen the victim on the day she disappeared.

Jane looked around the bar and spotted a guy with blonde hair behind the bar, "Detective Rizzoli, BPD, do you recognize the woman in this picture? We believe she might have eaten here two days ago."

The guy took a glance at the picture, "yea, she looks familiar. Can't say if she was here two nights ago, we get very busy at night."

Jane's senses were telling her something was off with this guy, but there wasn't much she could do right now. "Ok, well here's my card, give me a call if you remember anything."

The detective made her way over to Riley who had been talking to two women seated at the bar. "Rizzoli, these girls just told me that they know Susan. They were all supposed to go to the same convention, but Susan blew it off last minute. She had mentioned something about going on a date."

Back at the station, the detectives reviewed the airport security, which confirmed the story they had been able to piece together so far. Susan had been at the oyster bar, then left. The cameras outside the airport showed her getting in a cab by herself and leave.

The puzzle was coming together, but only very slowly.

They had put in a request with the cab company to get a location of where Susan had been dropped off that day.

With nothing else to do but wait for the information to come in, the detectives had decided to call it a day and get some rest.