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Chapter twenty-seven: The Future We Will Build Together
"Rizzoli! Hey!" Martinez snapped his fingers to get Jane's attention. "Rizzoli! You're with us?" His laugh fell flat – sounded forced – but he didn't stop nonetheless. The situation was strange enough like that for him to not give up.
Leaned against the window by her desk, Jane finally turned her head around.
Daydreams. She had been daydreaming since the moment she had passed the door of the BPD earlier in the morning. A group had gathered in the room and was now staring at her. They were waiting for her opinion. On what? She swallowed hard. She had missed the whole conversation and had no idea what they had been talking about.
"I am getting married." A shy smile made her lips curl up.
She had no idea why she had said that. It was neither the right time nor the most appropriate place for such announcement. Her colleagues' reaction made it clear enough, besides.
They were staring at her as if she had lost her mind. Although curiously, none of them really seemed surprised by the news. It simply didn't fit in there.
"To whom?"
The rookie's question got welcomed by a snort coming from an officer on her right. She frowned at the guys – uncertain of the way she was supposed to take such reaction – and cleared her voice.
"To Maura. I'm getting married to Maura." Silence. No reaction. "Dr. Isles...?"
They hadn't talked about it to anyone yet. It had just happened, anyway. Maura had proposed to her the evening before and she had accepted in the middle of the night. They were still under the shock of their decision. It hadn't been twenty-four hours yet.
She would have never thought that the first people she would break the news to would turn out to be her colleagues. She wasn't even close to all of them. But it had come up by itself, all of a sudden.
"About time. Congrats, Riz'. She's a smart one."
Before she had a chance to realize what was happening, Jane found herself going from one pair of arms to another. All the guys were congratulating her, laughing and joking at the same time. It was touching. She loved it when brotherhood reigned over the BPD. Unexpected but touching.
"Hey! Here's the bride! I mean... The second one."
As a dozen of faces turned towards her, Maura stopped walking and tightened her grip on the file she was holding. She forced a smile and tried to ignore how her cheeks were burning.
She was blushing. Heavily. She knew it.
"Congratulations, Dr. Isles. You deserved better, Rizzoli is a stubborn one. Welcome into the family!" Mahoney smiled at Maura before looking back at Jane. "You'll surely get us favors from the lab if we need any, now! It's good to have some contacts."
"Don't start, Mahoney." Jane shook her head and squinted her eyes at her colleague. "Dont start."
...
Maura grabbed the tea spoon and began to play nervously with it. She read one more time the web page on her tablet and sighed. She was determined herself but unsure for Jane.
"Are you sure that you are fine with it?"
Sitting on the other side of the table, Jane nodded at her. She didn't look as self-confident as Maura but it was only because she always feared the unknown and that was exactly what they were about to throw themselves into.
Together, though. And that made the difference.
"I should be the one asking you that!" She laughed lightly and bent over the table to check the page Maura kept on reading over and over. "You have a zillion wedding fantasies. I don't... I'm fine with this."
"My wedding fantasies only belong to a game, Jane. I don't want them to come true. I don't want to be... Some sort of a princess. I just want to marry you."
Their conversation seemed completely surreal. As much as Maura had proposed to Jane, she had a hard time believing that it was now coming true. So quickly.
She didn't even know the day before – while coming back home – that she would ask Jane to become her wife. But now she was on a roll and eager to get to it as soon as possible.
"Your mother is going to hate us, isn't she?"
Sadly, the question was fair and almost rhetorical. Jane squinted her eyes – pursed her lips – and ran a hand through her hair. She didn't want to lie to Maura, not now. Not about their wedding. But then she didn't want to disappoint her either.
It's a dead-end way, Rizzoli. You're stuck in a freaking dead-end way. And she knows it. Maura knows it.
"She'll get over it." She made a face. There was nothing less sure at all. Her mother was obsessed with the idea of getting her to marry someone. "She doesn't need a ceremony. She just wanna take pics and send them to the whole neighborhood to show everyone how good I'm doing."
"Oh. I see."
"You're a doctor, Maura. That's gonna be her main weapon for the next ten years or so, I tell you. I know her. A doctor in the family... It's the cherry on the cake. A very fine cherry..." Jane nodded enthusiastically. Her argument was a fair one. It had taken her a while to find a good one but she had finally got it.
"But I am a medical examiner. I work on dead people. Isn't it a bit different?"
"And so what? You still went to med school. That's the important point of the story. The rest is just details. Who cares if you work on dead body? You're the freaking chief medical examiner of the state. That's big!"
Maura nodded and started biting her nails. She hadn't done that since boarding school.
"Hmm... Details."
"You don't seem... Convinced. Listen..." Jane grabbed her partner's hands and locked her eyes with the scientist's hazel ones. "If you don't feel it now and prefer to wait then I'll respect your choice. I am not gonna change my mind any time soon. I want to marry you. But I want you to feel at ease... There's nothing worse than a bride breaking into hives and passing out because she'd be too stressed out."
"I am not going to pass out..." The smile that played on her lips highlighted the fact she had got that Jane was only kidding. "I want it so let's do it." She grabbed her tablet and opened a new window.
"Good. I can make it for 5.30pm. Do you want me to change?"
Maura shook her head at the question but remained focused on the electronic device as she began to fill the application online.
"No. I want you to be you, Jane. The courthouse doesn't impose any dress code. Wear whatever you want to wear."
As much as Maura was sincere, Jane knew that – deep inside – she wanted to look pretty. She didn't want to marry her in her work clothes. It was too casual, not appropriate. Just because they wouldn't have a ceremony did not mean that she couldn't dress up for the occasion. She nodded at her partner – kissed her goodbye – and left the coffee store to go back to work.
"See you there!"
Of course, they could have waited but what for? They wanted to get married. They had the rings – they lived together – and they were more than ready for it.
She spent the next two hours wondering what her mother's reaction would be. She had tried to reassure Maura but the truth was that she knew for a fact that her mother would be upset by the absence of ceremony.
That's fine. You'll organize something later, something with everybody. It's gonna be fine. She'll be happy for you. She already is. She let you know about it so don't freak out.
At 4pm, Jane left the BPD and drove downtown. The fifth store turned out to be the right one. She found the dress she wanted to wear. Not really wedding-like but classy enough for such event. She bought a pair of stilettos – a makeup kit – and showed up at 5.30pm in front of the courthouse. Ready.
She was shaking – her heart was beating fast – and her hands were moist but there was this smile on her face that wouldn't go away; this smile that seemed to scream to the whole world that it was one of the most important days of her life.
They officially got married at 6.15pm. Not even twenty-four hours after Maura's proposal. For long seconds, they both looked at their signatures at the bottom of each page; unable to speak, wrapped in the exhilaration of their feelings.
Here we are... You married Jane. She is your wife, now.
They went for a drink at a bar nearby. Maura ordered a glass of Pinot noir and Jane got a beer. They cheered, talked about anything and everything at the same time. At 7pm, they drove back home and spent the evening with Margot.
As if nothing had happened.
Life was just going on. They had got married but it sounded so natural that it simply looked like the logical continuation of what they had started. And that was what they wanted their future to be. Just that.
Nothing fancy, nothing extraordinary. Just the quietness and serenity of their mutual feelings; a couple of smiles, a thousand kisses.
And the promise that it wasn't just a dream.
