A/N: Whew a lot goes down in this chapter! We are almost to the end and things need to all come to the surface so that they can be dealt with. Chapter 15 should tie things up, or at least make some of the hot tempers in this chapter more understandable. Enjoy!
When the song ended and they parted to return to their table, when they had finished dinner and Jane graciously paid their tab, when Maura had pulled Jane close outside and told her to follow her home, they fell into what brewed between them.
The drive took twelve minutes, but Maura's knuckles blanched against the steering wheel the whole way back to Beacon Hill. She looked in the rearview mirror and found Jane each time, following steadily behind. They had exited their cars slowly when they reached her front walkway, kissed deeply while Maura struggled to unlock the door from within the wrap of Jane's arms.
They stumbled up the stairs and into the main bedroom, removing clothes in the dark and retreating under the covers. Now, Maura wanted to melt into the mattress, with Jane on top of her, inside of her, hands all over her.
Their lips met throughout the exchange - she loved how the wet press of it sounded in her quiet bedroom and she chased it.
Jane returned it all. "I'm being selfish right now," she said, into the hot cavern of Maura's mouth.
Maura swallowed those words up. "I'd prefer it if you keep being selfish a little to the right," she teased through a peppering of kisses, with her fingertips resting against Jane's defined jawline.
"And deeper?" Jane asked without any qualms.
"And deeper," Maura confirmed. She loved how Jane anticipated her needs, and when she got that deep stroke, she pulled Jane even closer.
They kissed again, rocked in a heady embrace, with Maura's legs wrapped around Jane's waist for nearly an hour until they made each other come undone. It was Jane who fell apart first, nose in the crook of Maura's neck until the thunderbolts became static shocks. Then it was Maura, who moaned into the row of their lips together as she came down from her high.
They shared breath when Jane knocked their foreheads together. Maura hummed her satisfaction at the gesture. "How's the tachycardia?"
Jane released a breathless little laugh. "Well it reached a peak there for a second, but we're comin' down now. Gettin' back to just regular bein'-around-Maura speed."
"I see. Is this a recent development? Is it affecting your performance of everyday tasks?" Maura teased, taking on a doctor's persona, pretending to palpate around Jane's shoulders and chest.
"I dunno… you tell me," challenged Jane, thrusting forward slowly, timing the kiss she gave with the movement of her hips.
"Stupid question," Maura said on a gasp.
"But to go back to your first one, no. Not recent. I just think I had been moving so fast that I didn't notice it," Jane whispered. She looked into Maura's eyes, hoping to convey all the vulnerability she felt.
Maura saw it, and swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. "I… I have to call your brother."
Jane pulled back, resting on her elbows on either side of Maura. "Really? What the hell, Maura. I'm still inside, here."
Maura shook her head. "I know. I didn't mean like that," she explained, trying to gather her thoughts. "He told me he wanted to date me."
This didn't help. Jane struggled, but Maura held her in place with her calves. "You coulda told me that before you asked me to come home with you." Jane said.
"I am doing an awful job of explaining myself," said Maura. "But stop. Listen. I have to call him to tell him that I can't."
Jane visibly relaxed. "You can't, huh?"
"No, I can't," Maura said. "But he deserves to know now."
"Now now?" Jane whined. She rolled over onto her back and huffed dramatically. "Talk about a buzzkill."
"I know," Maura acknowledged. She turned on the bedside lamp anyway, and then she pulled the sheet up to her chest. "But he's coming first thing in the morning, Jane. If I don't do it now, I'll have to do it then when we're all together."
Jane waved her hand dismissively and moved onto her side, dropping the boxers she was wearing to the side of the bed. "A'right, a'right. I get it. Doesn't mean I have to like it."
Maura rolled her eyes and kissed the shoulder that turned away from her anyway. "Would you like the alternative better? Leaving that door open long enough for he and I to be in the same room tomorrow with it hanging over us?"
"No," grumbled Jane into her pillow. "I'm cranky because I'm tired, I guess."
"Then sleep. I'm going into the other room; I'll be right back," said Maura. She picked up the robe that was draped over her lounge, and grabbed her cell phone.
Jane's eyes fluttered open at the feeling of fingers running through her hair. She winced, right eye shutting again, when she realized that light had started to filter through the window. "Time is it?"
"About 7:30," Maura answered quietly from her place on top of the covers, just across from Jane. "I didn't mean to wake you, sorry."
"Shit, 7:30? I slept through the whole night?" Jane asked, "I meant to ask you how it went with my brother."
"He took it about as well as I think one could, given the circumstances," Maura said.
"What'd you say?"
"That I didn't see a relationship between us working out long term," Maura shrugged. "Which I don't. The point of our… arrangement was that feelings weren't supposed to develop."
Jane hummed, all gravel and morning voice. "And what'd he say to that?"
"He asked me if it was because of you," Maura replied. "He asked me if it was because I was dating you."
"And how'd he take it when you said you're not?" Jane closed her eyes again and snuggled deeper under the covers.
Maura's heart dropped. She knew it was an objective fact, but for Jane to state it so simply still hurt. "All I said was that my relationship with him was completely separate from my relationship with you. One did not affect the other."
"Which isn't true," said Jane.
Maura sat up on her forearm. "I'm sorry?"
"He's my brother, Maura. And you're my best friend. Of course if you're involved with the both of us, one relationship is gonna affect the other. That's how human connection works," Jane argued.
Maura wanted to bicker, but she realized that Jane told the truth. "For whatever reason, he seemed resigned. He said it didn't matter anyway, and when I asked him what he meant, he told me to have a good night and hung up. So, maybe you're right."
"I am," Jane deadpanned. She opened one eye again and smirked at Maura's annoyed expression. "You smell good."
"I showered and styled while you slept," Maura explained.
"All to get dirty and sweaty again today? Suit yourself. I'd rather have a few more minutes in bed," said Jane.
"The only reason I'm letting you linger is because today is wash day." Maura chuckled when Jane made a face. "And the sheets are usually last."
Jane was about to retort, but then the doorbell rang. "Already?" she groaned.
"Now you see why I wanted to bury the hatchet last night," Maura said. When she got up, Jane noticed for the first time that she was fully-clothed, head to toe in athleisure. "I have to get the door. Your mother and I bribed your brothers with breakfast."
"Do I get some of that?" Jane called from the bed, finally lifting her head up.
"Me or the breakfast?" Maura teased, hand on the threshold and with a devilish smile.
"You're not as funny as you think you are," Jane said. Maura was down the stairs before she could reply.
Jane indulged in the feeling of crisp cotton around her for just a little bit longer. She heard the rustle of her brothers down below, the loud kisses of greeting between them, Maura, and then her mother, whose voice carried throughout the halls and upstairs through the open door. Supposing that meant it was time to get up, she sat up on the edge of the bed gingerly, and cracked her ankles. Eventually she walked into the closet and borrowed one of Maura's robes, entirely too short for her taste, and crossed the hallway into the guestroom where she kept several changes of clothes.
After a quick face-wash and teeth-brushing, she pulled on some functional black lace underwear and a bra, and then on went her joggers and t-shirt for the day. Socks went on last because they hurt the most, requiring the most bending. And after a week of gnarly, two-person plumbing work, most of her joints barked as she folded over. So, after a hefty exhale through her mouth and some positive inner monologue, she hoisted herself back up off the guest bed and trotted down the stairs looking like her usual self. Athletic, if still crotchety. "Mornin' Rizzolis," she grumbled, and had kisses for all of them, though the last and longest went to her mother.
Angela accepted the gesture to her cheek as she whisked pancake batter at the counter. "Morning, baby," she said to her oldest. "You sleep over last night? You look rested."
Jane blushed and wiggled her nose. "Yeah. Figured it'd be better with a late night right before an early morning."
"That was good thinking," Angela commented, dropping batter onto the hot griddle that Maura was silently manning on the stove.
Jane watched Maura trying to stifle a smirk at the undertones of their conversation. She decided they needed a hard left turn before somebody got embarrassed - namely her. "Tommy not on pancake duty this morning? His are the best," she said, smiling softly at her youngest brother.
He did not smile back. He didn't make eye contact, either. "Not really a bribe breakfast if you have to make it yourself, sis," he teased, but the mirth didn't reach his face.
"Guess not," Jane acquiesced. She knew what ate at him, and seeing her bound into the kitchen, clearly from the bedrooms upstairs, probably didn't help. She took the seat next to him at the island and patted his back, but he stiffened under her palm and she took the hint.
Frankie looked between them, sensing the shift in the mood, and took over. "So how much ju… stuff you got up there, Maura?"
"Enough to keep us busy for at least until the afternoon," Maura caught his correction and glared at him good-naturedly. "So I hope you don't have plans."
"You throw in a sub for lunch and I'm all in," he said, and it broke some of the tension. Even Tommy bit his lips to keep from smiling.
Angela tossed a plate in front of Jane, and then Tommy, and smacked her hand towel at them. "Now quit sulkin' and eat. We have a lot of work to do and I don't want neighbors seein' us make a ton of trips to the old house. People are nosy."
After a few hours lugging all of Maura's knick-knacks into the living room so that she could go through them, Jane and Tommy had spent the last forty minutes or so carrying larger furniture items like the antique bow chest they hauled down now, and it had just enough bend to be awkward at any angle. "Ok you gotta slow down Janie, I'm walkin' backwards here. One wrong move and I'll break my neck," Tommy grunted. Sweat peppered his forehead.
Jane's biceps burned from having to lift her portion of it higher. "You wanna switch places? Cause I will. That's not a problem. But this is takin' way too long," she snarked back.
Maura waited for them at the bottom of the stairs to make sure that no paint, railing, or hardwood floors were scuffed in the process. "It's not a big deal, Jane. We have plenty of time. Just set it next to the mirror along the front wall there." Jane glared at her, but did as told without any more complaint.
Frankie walked back into the living room from the open side door after loading smaller pieces that were to be sold into the bed of Tommy's truck. "You need a break, Tom? I can take over for a bit," he said, intending to be helpful.
Tommy didn't take it that way. "You know what? Go ahead. Jane likes it when she can get me out of the picture," he griped. He squared his shoulders back and stared down his two siblings.
Frankie stepped forward. "What? The hell are you talkin' about?"
"Oh you don't know? Just ask Maura." Tommy pointed to her trying to lean as inconspicuously as possible on the pillar that divided the front hall from the living room, until her name was brought up. "She'll tell you all about it."
"Tommy-" she tried, but there were two other Rizzolis ready to spring to her defense, and a third walking in from outside.
"Fix your attitude," Frankie warned his brother. It was simple, but direct.
"I got it," Jane told him, just before the much more confrontational chest-to-chest staredown she started with Tommy. "You better watch your mouth. Whatever you're about to say, can it."
Tommy never backed down. He was incapable, and that had gotten him into many scrapes in his youth that could have been avoided. "Or what, huh?"
"What is going on in here?" When Angela called from behind them, just by the dining room table, they turned their heads. "You two can't be civil with each other for one day?"
Jane was the first to look back at him. "Or I'll make you. Whatever way I have to, Tom. I'll make you. You're entitled to however you feel but if you insult Maura here, in her home, where she took both you and Ma in when life threw you out on your asses, I'm not just gonna let that go."
"Jane, don't, it's fine," Maura said, attempting an approach. She reached forward, but Frankie pulled her arm away from them and towards him, shaking his head silently. Let them have it, his actions said.
"You know what? Fuck you," Tommy spat, and whatever had been boiling in the atmosphere raged now.
Angela gasped. "If you two can't be respectful, take it outside!" she ordered, as she had a thousand times before in their childhood.
Tommy glared at his sister. "With pleasure," he said, and he shoulder-checked her on the way to the courtyard between the main house and the guest house.
He'd thrown the gauntlet.
Knowing Jane wouldn't let a physical blow go, he used it to draw her out. She wanted to fight? They would fight. He would hurt her if he had to, but first he needed her out in the open, away from breakable things and innocent bystanders - even if the only blows he wanted to land were verbal.
"What the fuck, Tommy?" she said as soon as they were outside, but she was loud enough for the three others inside to hear.
He spun around then. "I should be askin' you the same thing! Maura calls me last night to break things off and you just happened to stay over? What'd you say to her, huh? How'd you convince her to dump me?"
"Dump you? You weren't together. And even if you were, I don't control Maura. She's a grown-ass person who can make her own grown-ass decisions, and if you don't like 'em, tough shit. They're not yours," Jane said.
That rattled him. "Easy for you to say when you're the one who benefits from all those decisions, Jane," he shouted, and then he shoved her shoulders. Hard.
"Do not fucking touch me," she growled, giving it back to him. He stumbled backwards. The scuffle got the attention of Frankie, Maura, and Angela, who ran out toward the commotion.
"You two need to stop!" Their mother pleaded with them from the doorway. Her voice was wild, distraught. The younger two waited on bated breath for what happened next.
"You ever think to ask yourself why she wouldn't see anything with you workin' out long term?" Jane called out, her temper already at its height. "You live in a shitty South Boston apartment. You can't hold down a job. You barely finished high school. Tell me how that is compatible with all of this!" she yelled gesturing around them to the property so clearly out of both of their leagues.
Tommy took that moment of her arms stretched out and her legs spread far to throw a punch. She saw it just as it came and ducked, but it caught her jaw. She bent over, retreating quickly, but Tommy landed another blow to her body.
"Tommy!" Angela shrieked, and in a mirror of Maura from just before, she reached out, only to be stopped by Frankie.
"Ma do you have a death wish?! Stay back!" Frankie said through gritted teeth, pushing her roughly back towards the rosebushes.
Tommy hit again, causing Jane to stumble back from the force of him swinging wildly at her eye: his intent was to catch her off guard and lay her on the ground, no mercy. She weaved mostly out of the way, catching only part of it on her brow, and he was stepping forward, still in motion, when her right fist connected with his gut two quick times in succession. He doubled over, breathless, but then lunged at her.
It was his mistake: Maura and Frankie tried to rush in before Jane's left hook connected, but they were too late and Tommy took it straight to the face. It flattened him on his back. He jumped back up in an instant, dazed and disoriented, but not deterred. Even with his brother pushing on him, fistfuls of shirt in his hands, Tommy chirped. "You wanna try that again?" he slurred, spitting at Jane's feet as Maura yanked her away.
"You stupid enough to ask a boxer for another left hook? Huh?" Frankie shoved him toward the guest house door where Angela waited inside the front hallway. "Let's go!"
"You not done yet? You want more?" Jane goaded, even with blood trickling down into her eye. Her lower lip was already bruising around the gash that Tommy's knuckles put there.
But Maura wanted to hear none of it. "Upstairs. Now," she demanded, and Jane deflated. "Now," she repeated when Jane's speed wasn't to her liking. She herded her past Frankie, Tommy, and Angela, even though Jane wanted to stop, to walk through the guest house door where they all hovered. Maura slammed it shut, eliminating any chance for another scuffle. "Go."
Jane pulled her t-shirt over her head wordlessly, and used it to stifle some of the bleeding before she walked back into the house. When she went up the stairs, Maura veered toward the freezer door in the kitchen. Jane didn't bother to wait for her.
"I hope you didn't make the water hot," Maura called from the other side of the shower door in her bedroom's ensuite. Her words were clipped, stern.
"I know better," Jane answered, "boxed in high school, remember?" Her clothes littered the floor. "It's uncomfortably cool."
Maura yanked open the door and stared Jane in the face, nakedness unacknowledged. Even given her fury, the moment was intimate. "I cannot believe you let your brother bait you into a fist-fight. In my home. My home, Jane."
"Technically it was right outside your home," Jane tried humor, but it fell flat when Maura watched blood swirl down the shower drain.
"Really? That's really what you decided to say to me right now?" Maura barked. "You could have avoided all of this if you stepped up."
"Excuse me?" Jane whipped her head toward Maura, finally looking at her, while leaning one hand high above her head on the tile to let the water pour over her wounds.
Maura didn't back down. "You know you didn't put Tommy on the ground because he said something disrespectful to you, or to me. You did it because you want me, and you don't want to share."
"Maura, he-"
"No. You embarrassed me; you're at least going to listen. I see it every time you look at me, how much you want me. It burns you up. And that's ok! God, it's ok to want me. I want you, too. I want all of it with you. Do you know what made me decide to call your brother up last night and tell him we were done for good?" when Jane shook her head, Maura went on. "I realized, when we were in Pellino's, when you told me how magical we were together, that I am madly in love with you. I have never felt anything so good, not like the way it feels to be with you. But you need to stake claim, Jane - stop dancing around it and tell him that you want me, too. Tell him to back off. He loves you, and he will. But it needs to come from you," Maura crossed her arms as she leaned against the wall, unconcerned that droplets of water speckled her skin as she spoke. Jane sighed, and then nodded. "Now, out. The iron isn't going to stay cold for much longer."
Long fingers, starting to swell at the knuckles from the beating Jane had doled out, swiped at the water controls. The flow stopped and she stepped out, into the towel waiting for her on Maura's hooked finger. She dried quickly, hopped into the change of clothes waiting for her on the toilet seat cover, and made her way to the edge of the bed where the Jane-bag sat open. Maura was taking care of her, even when livid. When did she become such an oblivious asshole? "Sorry. About everything," was all she could think to say. "I've been a coward."
Maura lifted Jane's chin up, stepping between her open legs, and pressed the ice-cold no swell iron on her lip first. "I forgive you. I think this black eye is punishment enough."
Jane winced. Her first instinct was to pull away, but she leaned in, knowing the cold would keep her lip from getting fat. "I promise I'll talk to him in a second."
"Let me make sure you'll be able to see him, first," Maura teased.
Jane's heart swelled at the first smile sent her way since she'd followed Tommy outside, but then she cried out at the frigid pressure just under her eye. "Ouch!"
"Think about how much this hurts next time you have the chance to get into a fist-fight," Maura threatened. She pressed down again, and Jane yelped. "I shouldn't even have this. Do you realize how niche of a first aid tool this is?"
"I do," Jane said. She billowed the front of her BPD tee between her thumb and forefinger just to do something, anything to distract herself from the shocking cold on her face. "I appreciate your dedication to my wellness. Definitely outpaces my own."
Maura huffed. She replaced the iron with her lips, first to the bruise forming under Jane's eye, and then her mouth. "You should apologize to your mother, too."
Jane hung her head after kissing back. "One thing at a time, please."
"Jane," Maura admonished, and with just a word, Jane made an about-face.
"Listen. They'll all be there when I go down; it'll be a group apology. They can pile on," Jane grumbled. Then she rested her head on Maura's belly, grateful that her gamble paid off when she felt hands cradling her.
"She deserves to hear from you," Maura said softly. "Jane?"
"Yeah?" asked Jane, against Maura's impossibly soft shirt.
"I'm sorry you got hurt. I'm sorry that your brother swung at you first. That has to sting," Maura said.
"I know it doesn't make it better, but I'm used to it," Jane explained. "I told you that he takes and takes. And it takes a lot to like him."
"But you do," said Maura. "I do, too. And I know that means you have to be the bigger person in a few minutes, but right now, take some time just for you."
"Thought you were mad at me," Jane sniffled.
"I am," Maura confirmed. "But I love you," she teased. Jane groaned with emotion and Maura laughed out loud. "The least I could do is hold you for a little while. Before you face the music. I meant what I said, Jane. He'll listen to you."