Chapter 25

Maura stood by the window and looked out at the empty ball park. It had gotten dark out, but the lights were on, and it had a sort of haunting look. It was the first moment during the reception that Maura had found herself standing alone, and she doubted it would last long, but she was grateful to have a chance to catch her breath. She wasn't even sure where Jane was, but she knew she had to turn up sooner or later. She touched her new ring, a simple engraved gold band to match Jane's. With this ring came not only a new life, but a new name, for her personal life at least. Professionally she would still be known as Dr. Isles, but outside of work she was adopting the name Isles-Rizzoli. She didn't want to give up her own name, but she was very happy to finally be an official member of the Rizzoli family, and she wanted to brag about it.

Not by any stretch of the imagination had Maura ever imagined herself getting married at a baseball field, but she was glad she had. She knew Jane had gone into the engagement just wanting to be married, but not really wanting the wedding itself. The venue choice made Jane as excited about the ceremony as Maura was, which made it completely worthwhile. Maura knew her parents didn't really approve of the location, or her secondhand engagement ring, or, for that matter, her choice of mate. Hope at least wasn't disapproving, but then, she had never been a big enough part of Maura's life to really have the right to disapprove of anything. Still, they had all come, as had Jane's father, who had initially been very upset to learn that his only daughter was actually marrying another woman. Maura still felt like he wasn't that crazy about her, but at least he was respectful.

And then there was Angela, who was practically running the reception. Maura knew this scenario wasn't exactly what she'd always dreamed of for Jane either, but in the end all she cared about was seeing her daughter happy. Maura could not possibly have asked for a better mother-in-law, or better brothers-in-law than Frankie and Tommy. Nor could they have asked for better friends and co-workers than Korsak and Susie and everyone else who was there, but there was one noted exception: Frost was no longer with them. He had been killed in a car accident not too long after the engagement. They had invited his mother and her wife to the wedding in his stead (after all, Jane and Maura had attended their wedding), but his absence was more tangible than ever today, at this event that might never have taken place without his help.

It had been over a year since the Thing happened. Maura was never exactly sure what to call it, since it was really several terrible things happening all at once and becoming one single awful event. In her mind she just thought of it as the event that had shattered her entire life, at a time when life was better than it had ever been before. She wasn't so bitter about that now. It had taken time, but she had put her life back together, and now life was even better than it was before the event happened. That Thing could easily have torn her and Jane apart, but somehow, it had brought them closer together instead. And because of that, Maura really had no fear for the future of their relationship, their marriage. She was pretty sure they could handle anything by now.

She had come a long way since it happened. While at first she had felt completely destroyed, now most of the time she felt like some sort of mighty warrior for having gotten through it. She still had her bad days, of course. There were certain things that could trigger her and throw her off for an entire day, sometimes longer, but it was happening less often as time went on. She still saw her therapist every other week, and that helped. Jane had even put in a solid year with her own therapist to help her deal with what happened, which made Maura proud. She knew Jane wasn't the biggest fan of sitting around talking about her feelings.

Oddly, she found that she no longer remembered certain things about her attacker, while other details were still much too clear. She couldn't remember his face at all, and she had a really hard time remembering his name, even though she'd heard Jane and the others mention it several times. But she remembered the feel of his hands on her so clearly some days that she wanted to climb right out of her skin, and for some reason, she remembered the sound of his breathing. That remained her biggest trigger: if she heard someone in public whose breathing reminded her of his, she had to leave immediately. Fortunately, it was not a common occurrence, and Jane was very understanding. Maura felt like she had fallen in love with Jane in a whole new way through this otherwise very negative experience.

"Hey." Maura looked around and saw Jane coming up behind her. "It's a nice view, isn't it?"

Maura smiled. "I like this view better," she said, tracing Jane's form with her eyes. "I know I said it already, but you look gorgeous in that dress."

"And I'm glad you like it, but I won't pretend I'm not looking forward to taking it back off."

Maura tilted her head, unable to suppress a devious grin. "Well, I won't pretend I'm not looking forward to taking it off you."

Jane chuckled, wrapping her arms around Maura's waist. "We could just go."

"We can't leave early! It's our party!"

"Yes, it is our party, which means no one can stop us from leaving. Come on, there's only an hour left anyway. Let's go break in our marriage bed."

Maura frowned. "But we still have the same bed."

"Yes, but it wasn't a marriage bed before today. We just magically turned it into one, or at least we will when we officially consummate our marriage in it."

"Well, yes, I suppose so." She studied Jane's face. "Is the crowd starting to overwhelm you?" She knew Jane tended to get uncomfortable at large social events like this.

"A little bit. I'm actually not sure which side of the family is driving me crazier, but you can certainly tell which is which."

Maura's eyes swept the room. It was pretty obvious which guests were her relatives and family friends, and which were Jane's. You could tell by what they wore, their mannerisms, their speech patterns…and they really weren't interacting much with each other.

"I think everyone who came here for you is wondering how you got stuck with me," Jane whispered.

"How did I get stuck with you?" Maura teased.

"I knew I was marrying up, but in my case I don't think that means I'm actually joining high society. I'll never fit in with those people."

Maura gave her an indulgent smile. "I don't really want you to. I like you so much better than them."

"Well I hope so." She took Maura's hand. "Shall we go?"

"Yes, I think so. But we should say goodbye first, shouldn't we?"

"Nah. I think everyone will figure out where we went." She squeezed Maura's hand. "I say we just run."

Maura lit up. "Like we're escaping criminals or something?"

Jane laughed. "So we're starting the role play right now, are we?" She kissed Maura's cheek. "Yes. Exactly like escaping criminals."

"We could be prison cell mates who formed a relationship and are now escaping together," Maura suggested excitedly.

"Yes. In our wedding dresses, which we had on in jail."

Maura made a face at her.

"We'll work it out in the car," Jane promised. "Now let's run."

So they ran.

Thank you for reading, and please check out the sequel, Beyond the Shadows!
A fiction adaptation of Out of the Shadows is now available in paperback and on Kindle! It's the same essential storyline, but with new characters and a lot more detail! Visit my profile for the link or go to Amazon and search for Out of the Shadows: A Detective Amy Sadler Mystery.