Jane's smiled wrinkled adorably when Maura caught her gaze while taking off her beige overcoat later that evening.
"Finally!" Angela exclaimed from her spot beside her daughter in the kitchen. They had been setting up a dessert station for the ME's arrival and she was beginning to get sleepy. "I thought we'd have to eat these healthy vegan things without you." Angela wiped her hands free from having just washed them and looked back at the banana she was coaching her daughter through mashing. If she was going to live so far away from home, she'd need to learn how to cook something other than cereal. "Jane too much, you're mashing it too much." She began to nudge.
Jane looked down quickly at what she was doing and then frowned at her mother. "You said mashed banana, Ma."
"You're being too rough, honey." Angela took hold of the small bowl and wiggled it some for emphasis, what Jane had somehow managed to do was create soup. She sighed with a small smile. "Maybe it'll freeze?"
"Thank you for waiting for me." Maura had since slipped out of her heels and was padding toward the two. "I surely did not want to miss Jane cooking." She teased affectionately bringing Jane's attention back to her best friend. "Welcome home." Maura smiled as she rested her briefcase down and came around the island to wrap an arm around the taller woman in a side hug that Jane instinctively leaned into. It allowed Maura to rest the tip of her chin on her right shoulder and look up at her in a way that let her know she had been missed. It was incredibly brief, but it was such a tender greeting one that implied years of togetherness.
"Hey." Jane tried not to blush when the ME gave her a small squeeze before she let go. Her signature perfume lingered between them and it was in that moment that Jane felt truly like she had made it home. "'Bout time." She cleared her throat a little to fight her smile. "I made… something." Jane lifted her banana and oat flour caked hands to show the other woman. Angela had long since taken the bowl away from her in efforts to try and undo the damage of her daughter's distraction. She had completely missed their moment. Both women glanced behind them immediately after to be sure of it.
Maura's brow furrowed cutely as she regarded the gooey batter lazily dripping down Jane's palms. "Oh…" How had she not seen it before?
Jane rolled her eyes at her familiar look. "I washed my hands, Maura."
"Today?" She looked back up into Jane's face and offered her a small smirk. Their eyes danced over each other's letting this feeling of being less than two feet apart again overtake them for only a second.
The homicide detective chuckled finally. "I almost missed you." She dismissed.
Maura hummed amusedly to herself before regarding Jane's mother who had just closed the freezer door. "Can it be salvaged?" Jane moved behind her to wash her hands and it struck the doctor at how she quite suddenly became hyperaware of the other woman's every movement even when facing away from her.
"Well." Angela sighed again loudly and put her hands on her hips. "I don't know, we might have to just eat regular old ice cream at this point."
Jane chuckled as she washed her hands. "Yeah Maura, I really screwed this thing up, best to just order a sundae or something."
Angela nodded again. "From an animal."
Maura chuckled at the two. Clearly something had been decided before she arrived. "I appreciate the effort to try one of my vegan recipes." She looked over at Jane. "What would you prefer?" It was after all Jane's homecoming. If she wanted to clog her arteries with the cholesterol of other living things she was not going to get in her way tonight. In fact, she would help, if it made Jane happy.
Jane shrugged gently at the new information. "You put it together?"
Maura nodded. "There was a fascinating recipe for Vegan Banana's Foster Cakes in the newspaper last week. Angela thought we could make it into a cookie—"
"It looked easy enough." Angela shook her head.
"—I especially liked how the author broke down the complexities of mimicking animal proteins in the baking process." Maura started but then paused. "I also especially like gelato."
Jane grinned. "Well we already started it. Might as well see how it comes out… and get gelato."
"You aren't tired?" Maura asked her specifically. It was already getting close to eight. Jane shook her head no. "Have you unpacked?" She moved to touch her shoulder but thought better of it and instead put a hand to her hair to brush away a tassel.
Jane waved her off. "Yeah c'mon." She picked herself up from the island and took a few steps over to where Maura was standing. "Let's make hockey puc—"Maura playfully nudged her in the stomach. "—Cookies, I was going to say cookies!"
"You were not, Jane." She shook her head as she tried not to laugh. "Let's begin the process again." She gently pushed past Jane to stand with Angela. "The texture of the banana is very important."
Angela watched her daughter take a comfortable seat at the island and regard the ME's medical bag a moment before looking back at them. It was clear Jane had missed her. She could see it in the way her daughter's eyes followed the ME about the kitchen as she worked to gather equipment. It was nice that they had fixed whatever riff was going on between them a week ago when she found them arguing in the kitchen that one morning. The air then felt as thick as molasses but now the mother of three felt the unmistakable ease of friendship, and the excitement of togetherness in the air again. It was welcome. Maura had been so reserved this weekend. "Can baby George eat what Jane made?" Angela turned to ask Maura whom she caught raising a playful brow at her daughter as if she had just told a joke. It seemed innocent, out of place enough to notice. Much later she'd recollect the interaction with new eyes, but for now the two just seemed to be up to their usual shenanigans.
"Whatddya trying to kill him?" Jane waved before Maura could respond. "He can't eat oats Ma."
"It's Oat flour." Angela corrected.
"Hind gut fermentation would make it difficult for him to digest." Maura explained as she pulled out a new mixing bowl. She paused and then raised a finger as she turned to the two. "Oatgrass would not be entirely out of the question though." She shrugged in that half committed Maura sort of way of hers as if stating common knowledge. "Providing the soil is unfertilized of course."
Jane nodded slowly. "Course."
Angela looked over at her daughter with a little grin. "You don't know what she just said."
"Ma, I never know what she's saying." Angela chuckled and then went about busying herself with helping Maura find all the utensils they had just used. Jane's features softened and she could feel a faint blush at her cheeks when Maura held her gaze in a meaningful way before going back to what she was doing.
There was a dynamic they held as a trio; the three women had spent the last three years spending at least two nights out of the week watching a movie or cooking together after work. There lay a certain familiarity and rightness to it all that caused Jane to relax fully into the evening. The differences weren't lost on her, their collective tiredness, the stolen glances between herself and Maura and the thoughtful look she caught her mother in a few times. It was all there, but Jane Rizzoli had spent the last few days missing her family immensely, especially these two women, so she decided to let it play out as it may.
Three hours later Jane found herself beginning to wiggle her way out of her mother's embrace. "Alright, Ma. You're welcome. Just don't change the input." She waved the older woman's remote control that had been trapped at her side in warning before fully slipping away and setting it on the coffee table in front of her.
Angela clad in her striped pajamas and curlers watched her daughter fondly for a moment. "How am I supposed to know what not to press when I press it every time?" They were in the guesthouse; something had happened to her tv a day ago and she was just too busy to get one of her sons in here to help her. After helping Maura with the dishes Jane had offered to see if she could figure it out.
"It's the button that says input, Ma just don't press it." Jane didn't understand what was so hard. Angela crossed her arms and glared cutely at the remote. She wasn't some bumbling old woman; she knew how technology worked. Why just the other day she was able to get into a cloud. "Ma." Jane grinned while watching her. Angela looked back at her. "Just don't press it."
She waved her off. "Yeah yeah."
Jane looked around the cozy guesthouse that Angela had made her own over the years. She was unsure how exactly she managed to get it to smell exactly like their old family home, but she had managed it and it was putting the detective in a reflective mood. She bit the side of her mouth and sat back down on the sofa where they had both been sitting a minute ago. Noting a change in her Angela sat down beside her and sighed knowingly. She reached out a hand and rubbed her daughters back.
"You gonna tell me how you really are or am I going to have to hug it out of you?"
Jane snorted softly. "Please don't."
Angela rubbed her back aggressively for a moment, the same way she did when Jane was a baby and couldn't burp. She'd never share this with her adult daughter of course, but some things never changed, and Angela relished in the small ways she still was able to comfort her children. Jane especially.
Jane visibly sighed before looking over at her mother. "I'm worried about… everything."
Angela frowned. "Everything?" Jane nodded. "I thought you were just not talking about your trip because you hated it."
Jane huffed. "Ma, c'mon."
"Maura's going to ask you about it. I asked her to while you were washing up."
Jane just shook her head. "You two shouldn't be so close."
Angela smiled proudly as she pulled her hand away from Jane's back now noticing how much more relaxed she seemed. "So she'll handle that, but what else is everything? Why don't you tell me?"
Jane shook her head dismissively. "It's late, Ma."
"Is one of them your brother?"
Jane quirked a brow. "What's wrong with Frankie?"
"Tommy."
"Tommy?" Jane shook her head. "Tommy's the only Rizzoli who's got it together right now." She shook her head and looked at her hands. Angela found the statement interesting as she watched her daughter. "I'm worried Frankie's working too much." She said out loud for the first time. "I'm worried Korsaks two days away from retirement and some kid out of vice is going to have to step in and take Frost's desk." She rubbed gently at her temple. "I'm worried about you." She looked over at her mother pointedly. "I'm worried about Pop."
Angela sighed grandly before resting a hand on her daughter's knee. "I can't tell you not to worry, that's what you do when you love people, Sweetheart, it comes with the territory."
"Well can you say something comforting already?" Jane deadpanned and Angela let up an unexpected augh. "Preferably in Italian, preferably something grandma said that solved everything just like that?"
She was smiling. "No." The only grandmother Jane grew up knowing was Frank's mother and she quite frankly thought she was full of shit half the time. "What I can say though is that this great big everything you're worried about is already running a course that you or I don't know about. It'll all work out sweetie."
Jane looked back ahead of herself and nodded. "Yeah."
"I wish you didn't have to go back to work right away. We could go get breakfast."
Jane looked back at her. "Let's get breakfast this weekend. Just you and me." She offered. Her mother was a magnetic woman, it was hard not to feel smothered by her sometimes, others though, like now, she wanted nothing more than to be sheltered by her, and she felt lucky to have her in her corner.
Angela's smile was wide. "I would love that."
"Okay." Jane nodded before standing and leaning down to press a kiss on her cheek. "Night Ma."
"Goodnight baby."
Jane nodded and slipped her sneakers back on at the door to make the short trip between the guest and the main house in the dark. "Lock your door." She reminded as she pulled it in. Her mother nodded as she shooed her off. In the garden between the guest house and Maura's back door Jane took a moment to take in a big breath of crisp night air. It was the kind of spring night that still held the faintest chill to it, the kind where the dark skies were speckled with clouds shadowed innocently by the night. It would be hot soon; they could have a barbecue back here like they had the previous summer one Sunday. She glanced toward the corner of the small patch of green where Maura's motorcycle was covered with a tarp beside a small grill. It wasn't much to look at but for a moment it's what Jane chose to turn her attention to. She needed a hard stop to help her transition her mind from her father and everything else to being just here right now. The only thing that was important right now was spending the last wee hours of the day with the woman she had been thinking about all weekend. The rest could wait.
Maura looked up from a large stack of manilla envelopes with the medical examiner's seal on them when she heard Jane returning from helping her mother with her television. She gently closed a folder she had been reading while watching Jane walk over to her with her hands in her pockets.
"Were you able to fix her television?" Maura asked genuinely curious.
Jane nodded as she came over to where she was standing beside the kitchen island. "She keeps hitting input." Jane explained with a soft roll of the eyes. "What's all this?"
Maura smiled at how close they were now. She pushed herself back some to hoist herself onto the island stool and motioned to the folders at her elbow. Jane took the invitation and stood in front of her chair as she looked at one manilla folder. Their knees brushed one another's innocently.
"I thought perhaps you and your mother might want to talk so I brought out some reading."
Jane flipped one folder open and then glanced at Maura. "Cases of yours?"
Maura brushed her fingertips away from the folders. "A neighboring precinct has sought my expertise." She closed them which brought Jane's full attention to her. "I thought you might be longer."
"You sound disappointed."
Maura let up a small chuckle. "No.' She reached for Jane's hip, a small grin appearing on both their faces. "I've missed you."
Jane let out a little sigh. "I missed you too" She leaned down finally and they both sighed into a soft first kiss.
"How was it?" Maura whispered between the series of even softer smaller kisses that followed.
"Not as good as this." Jane admitted cutely. Her cheeks flushed when she realized just how corny that sounded. The pathologist held her face in her hands and chuckled at how Jane's features turned red and contorted into a wince. "—I mean it was okay." She nodded and smiled as the ME's thumb gently caressed her right cheekbone then fell to her bottom lip to trace the thin scar there. "How was it for you?"
Maura brought her attention back to Jane's soulful brown eyes. "Horrid." Jane chuckled. "—I mean, it was okay." She let her hands fall from Jane's face and rest gently at her forearms. "I want every detail." She adjusted her posture to show that she was at the ready to receive even the most granular of information.
Jane exhaled. "Maura—" She began, but she was here, right in front of her, looking up at her with this adorable curious look. How on earth was she supposed to say no? How was she ever supposed to say no? "Alright." Jane sighed again. "But I'm gonna need something so I don't fall asleep." She moved into to go into the kitchen but she felt Maura's hands gently keep her forearms in place. "What's your strongest tea?" She asked looking down at her.
"Perhaps it's too late for a full account." She raised a blonde brown gently. "I do expect one though."
Jane let herself be amused as their hands joined. "Maybe a baby one."
Maura smirked softly. "It is the least you can offer me after your recent ambivalence."
They looked at each other silently for a beat before Jane let her shoulders hang. "Yeah."
"Hm." The ME agreed as she slipped off chair to stand nearly chest to chest with her, their hands still joined. She looked to say something, but Jane leaned in and pressed a soft kiss on her lips, when it ended she let her forehead rest against the ME's sweetly as she took her hands back and took a step backward. Maura hugged her own elbows as she watched her retreat for the kitchen to start a kettle.
They stayed up most the night talking about their time apart on the couch while drinking tea. Each woman deciding to leave the more complex of subject matter for another time. It was nice to be alone though, just them, in their new space. It was hard to tell how much time exactly had gone on, but eventually they grew so tired that their sentenced were peppered with yawns and sleepy looks of fondness.
"We're sleeping here?" Jane finally whispered when Maura snugged up against her mid-sentence and exhaled tiredly as if exhausted from carrying her own weight all day. It made the detective frown.
"No, let's go up." Maura agreed but made no effort to move. She smiled to herself when she felt Jane's arm come to wrap around her shoulders. "That is unhelpful." She snuggled closer into Jane's midsection.
The detective chuckled to herself and let her other arm rest lazily on the ME's lap fully embracing her frame from behind. "What? You want me to kick you off the couch?" Maura simply shook her head no and grew slightly heavier. Jane just let herself take in the moment. The faintness of Maura's shampoo tickled her nose, and she was once again reminded how much she loved this place they were in. "Hey… um." She began, Maura's lack of movement told her it was okay to proceed, she was probably already dozing off anyway so if this sounded stupid she could probably scrap the idea and ask in a different way. "We never got to finish our first … experiment date. At that seafood place near the water? We should go…it's getting warmer and they have these little house boat festivals where each boat is like a shop or something and you can walk around and get wine or snacks… like at night." Jane bit the inside of her mouth and she looked at the back of Maura's blonde head. "It's supposed to be romantic… I mean that's what I read…. When I read about it." She sighed at herself. "We can't just keep going to Daily's." She said more to herself. Maura shifted slightly against her and Jane looked at her quickly. "Maur?" The ME sighed gently in her sleep in response and Jane rolled her eyes and kissed the back of her head as she tried to make herself as comfortable as possible sitting as the other woman's anchor. Eventually Maura stirred awake causing Jane to lift her head heavily and smirk when their eyes met, she had fallen asleep as well. Jane hummed softly when the ME settled back against her. "I can't carry you." she mumbled against her shoulder before pressing a small kiss on a cheek. Maura snorted softly and let her hand snake behind her to touch Jane's cheek. Jane's arms wrapped securely around her midsection. "Too much osso bucco."
Maura yawned in the back of her hand that wasn't touching her love's face. "Did you enjoy it?"
"I did." Maura rested her hands over Jane's forearms around her stomach and sighed contently. It made the detective smile. "I'm sorry I missed it, Maur."
"I could certainly manage it." Maura said finally before turning her head to look over her shoulder at Jane. "But I am glad you have returned." Her eyes were as warm as tempered honey and her smile was an adorable wrinkle on her face.
Jane held her closer. "What are you doing to me?" She whispered after they shared a silent exchange.
"I am attempting, Jane, to entrap you." Maura smirked to herself as she broke eye contact to pull the small throw from her feet over her knees.
Jane snorted with laughter before nodding to herself. "Well you know you can entrap me whenever you like." She flirted before pressing a small kiss a centimeter or so below her right ear. "We are in your living room though." She reminded. She could feel Maura laugh quietly against her. "Also that sounds dangerous. Can we go to yoga first?" Maura's laugh this time was a little louder as she stretched out along the length of the couch. "Shh, Maura."
"Lay down with me." The ME pouted softly and then smiled to herself when she could feel Jane shake her head no. "insubordination? So soon?"
Jane grinned. "If I lay down with you we're not gonna make it upstairs." Maura simply waited and Jane rolled her eyes before getting onto the couch properly and laying down to spoon the other with her own back was to the tv. "You're seriously not going to give me any cover?"
"It is not meant for multiple people, Jane." The ME defended as she tried to share the already small patchwork between them. She giggled when Jane's hand covered hers as she moved to share the sparce material. "Jane"
She began to pull the material slowly. "I have a literal inch, Maura." A small struggle began. She chuckled when Maura yanked the entire thing for herself.
"Never mind." Maura rolled the material with her body into the couch to make it more difficult for the detective to grab hold of it. "I no longer wish to share." She bit back her laughter to attempt a dismissive tone.
"Oh it's too late." Jane laughed as Maura's right hand swatted her away from her legs. They rocked and rolled forward some as a unit pretending to truly mind the scares protection the woven coverlet provided them. As their swatting away turned into gentle pressing away, and their laughter hushed into amused affections both women allowed themselves to further appreciate how it felt to physically be in each other's presence in a way that felt denied to them by a world that had no certain clue of its cruelties. Jane finally let the throw lie unceremoniously at their calves and instead brought her right hand to rest gently over Maura's. Maura responded by backing slightly against her. The pathologist's breath hinged slowly when she felt Jane rest her chin on her right shoulder in response. She found herself filled with a sudden awareness of how much she did not want this to end. Metabolically speaking infinity were impossible, everything had span, a cycle, a time…
Jane found herself transfixed on the quietness of her love's breath, the softness of her cheek against her own. She was so warm. She let her fingers brush gently against thigh where her palm had been lying before touching her bare hipbone that had protruded from under Maura's cotton shirt during their struggle. Jane could feel the ME's breathing deepen in a way that required a new holistic tempo buried within her stomach. Words could not describe how it unearthed her. She closed her eyes and reached her fingers further beyond Maura's hip until her hand lay bare to the skin of her lower abdomen at the swell of her warmth.
They stilled there for a moment, breathes laboring curled in on one another. Maura's eyes hooded, Jane's closed in the most peaceful concentration.
"I don't wanna wait anymore." Jane's gravelly voice whispered finally.
Maura responded by covering Jane's hand with her own. "We don't have to." She breathed. She could feel Jane exhale hotly against her ear as she guided her hand further south past the soft waistband of her yoga pants.
Jane's hand was met with the softest of materials and a warmth that caused a wave of heat to lick down her spine like the beginnings of a wildfire. She pressed her body further into Maura and kept her eyes closed as both women took a second to adjust their breaths before Maura gave Jane's hand the gentlest of permissions which caused her to sigh heavily into the back of her couch when Jane cupped her gently. She found herself smiling though when she felt a wetness at her cheek from Jane peppering lovely little kisses there and below her jaw. Maura hummed appreciatively and reached her hand behind her head to tangle loosely in Jane's hair. The truth of the matter was that she wanted Jane to kiss her like that everywhere but all the sense she still carried told her that this was not the brightest ideas on her living room sofa. Jane hardly seemed to remember the fact as she continued her kisses along the ME's sensitive neck and began to gently rub circles along the most inner part of her upper thigh. Maura let out a soft moan which had Jane respond with another hot breath against her neck,
"Jane…Jane." Maura stilled her hand and looked over her shoulder at her best friend. "We—"
"—You wanna stop?" She asked cutely, though her voice was thick with arousal her eyes darker than the deepest depths in the ocean. Jane looked at Maura as if she had just taken the remote control away from her with five minutes left in the last inning. It was fine truly, the game was already called and if anything she could re-watch it later, but she wanted to see it to it's end. It wasn't fair.
Maura giggled to herself and turned in the other woman's arms to kiss her. "No." She whispered when they separated.
Jane had placed the hand that had been between the ME's legs on her hip. "So what's the big idea?" She whispered back, a smile forming of her own.
"I'd prefer a bit more privacy."
Jane looked around them for the first time since lying down behind the other woman. "Oh." She looked back at Maura sheepishly. "Why didn't you say something?"
"It was quite hard to focus just then." She deadpanned. Jane grinned.
"I missed you." She whispered. They gazed at each other for a moment. "It was so annoying." She began to grin again and Maura laughed a little but it turned into a small yawn. It was after all past midnight at this point.
"Come." The ME pulled gently at a random spot of material on Jane's shirt for emphasis. "I never did get to finish giving you that massage."
"I fell asleep."
"You fell asleep." She confirmed the recollection as they they began to get up off the couch.
"I might again." Jane warned.
"You won't."
##
They hadn't slept much, possibly an hour each. It was hard to tell with the way the room felt different. Neither morning nor night, neither Earth nor Mars. Jane could feel a peaceful sense of disorientation in the ME's room the next morning as she woke to the soft hooting of… An owl?
Hoot H-Hoot Hooooot
She exhaled softly into Maura's warm shoulder blade as her body began to regulate wakeful functions like her sense smell. Maura smelt like a lavender fields and the faintest top note of a musk so intoxicating it caused the detective to pinch eyes closed more and pull the other woman closer against her half naked form.
Hoot H-Hoot Hooooot
Jane exhaled again when Maura barely stirred. She tucked herself further behind her and snuggled them back into the blankets.
Hoot H-Hoot Hooooot
She opened her eyes as the call got louder. "For the love of Christ." She cursed. "Maura c'mon." She whined as her tactic changed and she began to gently push the other woman closer to the sound in hopes it would disturb her as much if not more than it was her.
Maura shifted finally before letting out a slow and very even noise that could only be described as a sigh. "It's a bird, ma puce." She dismissed in a dream.
Jane rolled her eyes as she labored the small reach over a mess of blonde tassels and blankets to grab the ME's cell phone. She squinted at the device as she tried to figure out how to turn it off. If she couldn't shut the damn thing up in the next two seconds it was going out the window.
Maura woke fully a moment later to an uneven weight at her back and Jane's best impression of Jane Goodall.
"—but they can also acclimate to various gradients of open woodlands."
Maura smiled widely into her pillow and sighed contently as she listened to Jane read on. When there was an obvious break in her reflections Maura blinked slowly. "What is a Barred Owl?"
The homicide detective looked down at the woman who's back she was using to prop herself up. "Nerd." Maura huffed tiredly beneath her. "You wanna hear about their diets?" Maura slowly began turning on her back causing Jane to scoot over some. She blushed when she realized their bare chests. Without having to justify her motives Jane rested Maura's cell phone on the mattress beside them and put her arm around the ME's abdomen as she looked down at her lovingly. "I hate that alarm." She murmured and Maura smiled at the outcry of curls that surrounded her face like a lion's mane. She reached forward to tame one strand as she spoke.
"It is well known that low levels of alertness resulting from sleep deprivation are associated with a reduction in the ability to focus…" The strand of hair refused to lay still so Maura let her hand fall to Jane's bicep. "I'm simply attempting to circumnavigate sleep deprivation that I was experiencing after returning from Paris."
"You've been back for over two months, Maur."
She tilted her head. "I happen to also enjoy ornithology." Jane gave her a faked critical look before letting it fall ungracefully in place for a softer, tender expression. Maura's smile widened as she let the pad of her thumb caress the muscle of her bare arm. "Good Morning. How did you sleep?" She asked just above a whisper.
"Good." Jane murmured back.
"Are you… alright?" Maura turned some to be more oriented in her sideways embrace. Their breasts pressed gently into each other's at the movement reminding her almost instantly of how the other woman's nipples felt plucked between her fingers, against her cheek….
They hadn't had sex. At least not by Merriam Webster's definition. It was impossible for the ME to think of another sexual experience that had felt as intimate as last night though. After coming upstairs, they continued to explore each other's upper torsos with open mouthed kisses and slow and teasing caresses before helping the other pleasure themselves. It had been… erotic, passionate, even a little playful and in their play they tired more, so they hugged more, kissed more, until their lips were somewhat swollen and they began talking quietly in each other's arms. Jane was quiet for a long moment before asking her out on date, on the docks where an annual night market was being held the weekend coming. Maura of course said yes.
Maura knew that the definition of perfection landed heavily to the causation of insanity, but there was no other way to describe their night together. Her best friend was back in town and their relationship felt… different, stronger somehow.
"I'm okay." Jane nodded. "Are.. you..?"
The ME nodded. "we have progressed, I was just checking in."
Jane snorted. "Progressed?"
"Sexual—"
"—I know what you mean Maura it just sounds so… science-y."
Maura tilted her head at her. "Need I remind you it was science that got us here in the first place."
Jane grinned. "Yeah…" She trailed off as if debating something before looking back at her. "Maur, it was amazing." She finally breathed with a little laugh at herself. "It's just y'know now thinkin' 'bout letting you go is something I can't do." She shrugged her shoulders for emphases at their positioning. Maura began to smile. "I'm serious." Jane smiled back; mirth evident in her warm eyes. A thought crossed her mind, it was evident to the blonde by the way she bit her lip. "I want more."
Maura's smile lopsided as she touched her face. "More?" Jane began to grin cutely.
"Mhm."
The pathologist chuckled as they learned in and shared a small kiss. "I suppose I can acquiesce." Jane pulled her closer and the ME laughed against Jane's hands on her bare ribcage. "Were you referring to now?" Jane kissed her chin. "In this moment?"
"Uhuh."
Maura tucked another wild strand of the detective's black hair out of her face and smiled at Jane's raised eyebrow. "I love you."
She had meant to tell Jane that they didn't have time, that for a proper liaison she would need more than seventy-eight minutes of sleep and perhaps some water. Looking at Jane, feeling her body so warm and pressed into hers filled Maura with a sudden and overwhelming need for her to share that just her being, simply by her cells congregating to create her, made her so happy.
Jane smiled easily. "I love you too, Maura."
They leaned into one another and pressed their lips together in a supple kiss that was slow to break but when it did Maura chuckled softly as her love pulled the covers better around them. They kissed again but thought better of a third when both their cell phones began to vibrate wildly at the same time at the nightstands near their heads.
Jane exhaled softly. "That didn't take long."
Maura only smiled as they dislodged themselves away from one another to answer their devices.
"Rizzoli."
"Dr. Isles."
##
"So what should I call you now?" Korsak greeted warmly when Jane stepped from under the yellow crime scene tape he held up for her chivalrously. "Agent Detective?"
Jane smirked at him as she pulled a set of baby blue crime scene gloves from her suit pocket. "Just Detective, Sergeant Detective."
Vince grinned at his partner. "How was it?"
She shrugged gently as she put her gloves on. "Impressive… the butt ton of paperwork wasn't fun though." She motioned to his suit hip where his gold badge was just visible. "Glad to be back wearing one of those that's for sure." Putting her gun on her waste and her badge on her hip this morning somehow was a more thoughtful process. They were heavy, just like the first time.
He nodded. "Buy me a beer, tell me about it."
Jane made a face but then thought the idea way too pleasant to poke fun at. "Yeah alright, tonight."
"I gave your mother the shift off, so I'll be there all night."
Jane got her last finger in her right glove. "So why am I buying the beer again? You own the place."
"Because it's not every day an FBI agent buys you a drink." He chuckled before motioning toward the storefront they were standing in front of. "Body is in the alleyway. Milk delivery guy found it this morning on his route."
Jane furrowed her brow at the huge pink fuzzy letters strewn across the front of the storefront. "Non- Dairy…" She read slowly before looking at her partner. "Why's a coffee shop that doesn't sell dairy getting a milk delivery?"
Vince shrugged. "Non-dairy milk?"
"Tell me something." Jane crossed her arms. "How exactly do you milk an almond, Vince?"
He put a finger up. "That is a question for Doctor Isles." He raised a brow softly after a moment of leisurely glancing the scene for the blonde woman. "You two ride together?"
Jane let her arms fall as she cleared her throat a little. "Uh, yeah." Korsak looked back at his partner with a growing smile. Jane rolled her eyes. "She's in the car changing her shoes." Because work shoes and crime scenes shoes could not be the same shoe apparently.
"I see."
Jane gave him a look. "You wanna take a look at the body or what?"
Vince chuckled at her obvious agitation. "After you, Agent."
"C'mon quit it."
"It's got a ring to it. You have to admit."
"I'm not even an Agent."
"It sounds cool!"
They began rounding the corner of the vegan coffee shop front toward a weathered alleyway with a bright pink dumpster (to match the store sign no doubt) and a few scatted bags of trash. The body, obviously female, lay in a corner behind the dumpster. Both Jane and Vince's soft smiles in reunion fell into fixed expressions of concern. It wasn't their first dead body, but it was still a dead body, a dead person. Someone's sister or daughter, someone's person maybe too. Jane's brow set. Theoretically she was always aware of the possibility of their victims having significant others, wives, husbands, often she'd interview them first, give them the news herself. Today the potential disrupted her thoughts and distracted her from asking the question Vince always waited for her to ask the attending officer out of courtesy.
"What do we have officer?" Korsak asked after giving his partner a nod. The uniformed officer, a man in his early twenties with puberty acene scars and thick red hair was standing nearby waiting to be acknowledged. He seemed nervous, and his crisp blues smelt of the starching agent from the factory where they were made. This was likely his first week on tour.
"Name is, Fiona Murphy Sergeant Korsak. She worked here."
Jane walked over to where the woman clad in a pink polo and khakis. Her blonde hair with grey spurts at the roots stood out most to the detective under the brightness of the crime scene lamps. "You found the body like this?" She was laying on her stomach, arms and legs splayed out as if she had suddenly found a reason to fall, and none at all to stop herself from hitting the ground.
"Yes, Detective, Rizzoli. The delivery driver said he called right away when he got here, he knew her."
"You get his stament?" Jane watched Korsak come to stand beside her as she asked it though. "Where's Frankie?" She asked him next.
"Got a call from him while I was parking, said he hit some traffic."
Jane took the statement pad from the rookie and nodded before glancing it over and then handing it back. She put her hands on her hips and took a step back to assess the scene. "Back door open?"
Korsak nodded motioning to the door that led to the coffee shop micro kitchen. "Ends her shift, goes to throw out the last bit of trash, gets attacked?"
Jane shook her head and then squatted to get a better look at the body again. "I don't see any defense wounds, no blood, nothing…" She shook her head. "If Miss. Congeniality would stop talking to every living person on the way over here. We'd have a time of death already." She had looked up and could see Maura smiling and nodding at something another uniformed officer said at the crime scene line. She looked stunning today in red… She was also wearing a deep near black crimson bra on underneath it all… Jane shook at herself and looked back to her partner.
Korsak huffed with amusement. "Sometimes it's good to be patient." His tone suggested he wasn't at all talking about the expectations they had of each other's working relationship.
Jane stood up from her position and crossed her arms. "Sometimes." Maura approached them a moment later all smiles.
"Detectives." She smiled. "What do we have?"
Jane motioned to the body. "Looks dead to me."
Vince nodded. "Definitely dead."
"I-I think she's dead too." The rookie nodded quickly and took off his hat. Jane gave him a look and he put it back on quickly. "Doctor Isles."
Maura shook her head with a soft grin at Jane's crossed arms. Some things never changed. "Allow me to confirm."
"Yes, please." Jane huffed routinely. She took a moment to see if Maura could manage squatting in her crime scene heels before looking over to Korsak. "What do we know about the milk guy?"
Korsak shrugged. "He delivers milk. Nina's working a background on him, the store owner, and the vic."
Jane nodded. "Alright well first things first let's just make sure that the company he works for actually sells milk to this place… soy milk, or birch milk or whatever—"
Vince chuckled. "Birch, that's a new one."
Jane watched Maura examine victim's nails. "Every week it is like a new milk comes out, and every other week soy milk is up like four dollars to make it seem more whatever. I don't get it."
Korsak nodded. "You drink soy milk, Rizzoli?"
Jane looked over at him. "God no."
He chuckled. "Oh so you're just an expert then?" Jane shrugged and motioned to Maura before them. Vince nodded once. "Ah." He thought for a moment. "Kiki is into oat milk."
"Oat milk?" Jane moved to get a better look under the victim's arm where Maura was momentarily fixated on a seemingly innocent patch of skin.
"It's basically oatmeal."
""You found something?" Jane asked softly as she squatted beside her to get an even better look.
Maura glanced at her on her left. "Depigmentation…" The rest of her thought was either too speculatory to give words to or it was in a word with more than eight syllables. Either way, the lack of sleep showed itself in very subtle ways with the ME. No google today.
"Hm." Jane looked at the body again and stifled a small yawn into her sleeve. "What's on her collar, Maur?"
Maura put Fiona Murphy's arm down where she had found it and regarded the collar of the pink coffee shop polo Jane had looped around her finger. "Hm, it appears to be a small particulate of food.." She leaned forward to sniff it. "A biological excretion of some form…. Savory in aroma…"
"Vomit?" Jane pulled her hand back and looked at the ME essentially stuffing her face into the dead woman's neck. "Doctor Isles I asked you what it was not what vintage of Posh McBougie Reserve it would pair best with." She chuckled a little at the goofy woman backing up some as she thought of a way to respond. "Don't."
Maura smiled. "Fine, I won't." She settled herself back onto her calves and motioned to the body. "I would put time of death between nineteen hundred hours and twenty-one hundred hours."
Korsak nodded. "Sign out front says the store closes at six thirty."
Jane looked up over her shoulder at the rookie cop who apparently had nothing better to do but try not to be obvious about looking at Maura's legs. "We need a copy of their security tapes; think you can manage that?" He nodded quickly and was off. Jane looked back at Maura who was sending her the iconic "be nice" face, to which Jane responded to with an equally iconic shrug.
"What about the vomit?"
"I cannot say, and we do not know that's what it is, Detective."
"Ten bucks it's vomit." Jane sighed heavily when the bridge of Maura's nose wrinkled. "What can you tell me then?" She tried again.
"Cause of death unknown. I suspect a full toxicology panel will be needed to determine—"
"What poisoned her." Jane nodded and she looked back at Fiona Murphy's face.
"I did not say she was poisoned."
"Yeah, I did though." Jane stood and motioned toward the back entrance of the coffee shop. "Let's see what we can find in there." Korsak nodded and was about to put out his hand for Maura as she moved to stand but stopped himself when Jane offered the ME her forearm. He smiled a little at the gesture, so did Maura.
##
"I already called it in." Korsak nodded. "Head back to BPD, get settled. I'll expedite those surveillance tapes."
Jane nodded. "You gonna be long?"
"Maybe an hour."
She nodded again and looked at her watch. "Hopefully by then Dr. Isles would have already started the autopsy and we have access to Murphy's bank records."
Korsak motioned toward the back of the coffee shop where the hustle of a new investigation lay before them. "I'll have Frankie send the crime scene photos."
Jane paused. "They get her locker open yet?"
Vince shook his head distractedly. "Weird don't you think?"
Jane agreed by crossing her arms to her chest. "If I'm at work and leaving for the night whatever is in my locker is what I need to go home. She's gotta have a key somewhere here."
"Unless of course someone took it."
"Busting the lock could ruin evidence." He knew sooner or later though that that's the call he'd have to make if they didn't find anything. "I rather find that key."
Jane nodded. "I want the schedule too, of everyone working this week." Vince nodded having already reached for his cell phone. Jane took another walk round the coffee shop before taking the same path behind the register as Fiona Murphy had on her way to dump the shift's trash. While she went she ran her hands along the tops of tile and the corners near the coffee pots and stirrers where one would normally mindlessly rest something important down. Nothing.
Outside a cool wind whipped in the smell of the sea and the promise of rain with the mid-morning. Jane checked her watch again and glanced over the familiar figures until she found the one she was looking for hunched over the body of Fiona Murphy again with a member of CSRU. One her short trip over to them Jane was stopped three times with questions from patrolling uniforms she had already given canvasing tasks to and the occasional welcoming back. It was funny how the constant interruption of thought was comforting, she was in her element again, swimming laps effortlessly.
"Quickly please." Maura was heard asking when Jane finally made it to them. She stood and smiled as the crime scene tech began moving faster to get the images she needed. He was the best photographer out of the entire CSRU unit, Maura always requested him by name if she and Jane were working a case together. When she noticed Jane, she turned to her. " Petrichor, can you smell it?"
Jane nodded surely. "It's gonna rain."
"We're ready to transport the body."
"Good, Frankie's almost here, he'll supervise on our end." Maura nodded in understanding. "I'm gonna head back to BPD, get started on her background with Holiday." They both regarded the body of Fiona Murphy lying lifeless as a group of men strategized a way to move her without compromising the integrity of her clothing. "What do you think?" Jane crossed her arms as she watched them.
"I won't know much until we begin the autopsy. The depigmentation on her trunk and arm can be a caused by a number of local and systemic conditions." She sent her an apologetic look. She knew Jane was anxious to get back into work, but she just could not say one way or the other. There wasn't enough data.
Jane nodded. "When are you starting it?"
"After you purchase me a latte and I have checked my emails."
The detective smirked a little to herself only glancing at the woman beside her as they watched CSRU work. She never imagined she'd be the kind of person that would enjoy every moment with anyone, but Maura made it so easy. A beat later Maura stepped forward to assist and Jane continued to study the area where Fiona Murphy had fallen. When she felt satisfied with what she could see, and what was being photographed she caught Maura's eyes while the ME worked and motioned toward the mouth of the alley where they had initially entered. Maura nodded back and continued what she was doing and Jane reached into her pocket for her cell phone as she turned to head towards her unmarked.
They were dressed and out the door so quickly that Jane hadn't a chance to see how her mother was doing that morning. There was something about their conversation last night that stuck to her inner thoughts. Knowing she had the day off now she decided to give her a call to check in while she waited in for Maura to wrap up what she was doing. When the call went to voicemail after a several long rings Jane frowned. Her mother was hopelessly careless with her cell phone, but still the initial strain of anxiety that linked far back into her career became a soft alertness within her.
She waited for her mother's voicemail to prompt her to leave a message as she leaned against her unmarked. "Ma, it's me, Maura and I got called into something before you got up and uh, yeah we left early. Call me back. Love you." She hung up and stared at her phone for a moment before sliding it in her pocket and watching the surrounding area come to life with the bustle of morning. She was anxious to get back to BPD to start putting things together. Inside the coffee shop they found Murphy's belongings ready to go near the employee time clock. The contents of her purse yielded nothing out of the ordinary. The coffee shop had been cleaned and ready for the next shift, and everything looked more or less in order. Jane wanted to watch a few days of surveillance footage to get a sense of who Fiona was, who she talked to for longer than the customary two-minute latte interaction, who she avoided…
"Hey, you keep your face like that and the wind will change y'know?"
Jane looked up from her thoughts to see Frankie approaching her. He was wearing a grey suit today with a brown tie with grey spirals on it and was holding a coffee cup in one hand. She smiled. "You're late Francis, and that's not how the saying goes." She called. "Where's mine?" She pointed at his coffee.
"Traffic was insane." Frankie shrugged. "And my names not Francis." He put his arms out and they hugged. "How was the trip? You alright?" He patted her shoulder down affectionately. He really had missed his older sister. Work wasn't quite the same and with all this stuff Nina was pouring down his ears he admittedly was confused as all hell about what he should think. He trusted her, but still couldn't shake the little bit of hurt he felt that she hadn't said anything to him. Anyway If she wanted him to know something, she always told him when she was ready. This couldn't be any different right?
"Yeah good." Jane motioned toward the coffee shop now surrounded by yellow crime scene tape and new vans. "Stick around and make sure the vic Fiona Murphy gets to transport?"
He nodded quickly. It was the least he could do showing up after the initial intake. "Yeah no problem." He looked back toward the coffee shop. "I hear about this place you know, on the food blogs." Jane gave him a skeptical look. "What? Frost got me into those cooking shows way back, Nina like them too so. Y'know I read up on it."
Jane stood upright from leaning against her unmarked. "Alright master chef what'd you hear?"
Frankie snorted. "Just that they don't have cow milk and the coffee is like ten bucks cause they put this vegan butter in it." Jane quirked a brow. "Supposed to be good for you."
"Vegan butter?" She squinted at him. "I've only been gone a weekend. What the hell is going on around here?"
Frankie chuckled and paused when he noticed his sister yawn. "So what happened to the victim?"
"Maura doesn't know." Jane waved off. "She needs to do tox panel."
"So poisoning?"
"That's what I'm thinking. We found vomit on her clothes, on the items in the trash bag she was throwing out." Frankie nodded. "We're gonna get the surveillance tapes pretty soon so once this is all wrapped up come back to BPD."
"Yes boss."
Jane rolled her eyes. "Shut up."
Frankie chuckled and then motioned toward the crime scene. "I'm gonna get caught up. The Robber later?"
Jane nodded easily. "Yeah." She watched him nod in agreement before heading down the small slope toward the coffee shop. He was really coming into his own in this work, it made her proud, she was sure he knew. They had to talk soon about priorities, she didn't want to see her little brother fall down the path nearly all of her colleagues had.
A few moments later as a humid mist began to sprinkle the morning grey Maura made her way with her medical bag over to where Jane was sitting in her unmarked listening to the local public news station. She turned it down as Maura sat beside her and sighed heavily after closing the passenger's side door. Jane raised a brow softly.
"You're not contemplating a life of crime are you? You got that look on your face like you're contemplating a life of crime." She buckled her own seatbelt.
Maura looked over at her and smiled softly. "I am not. I assure you."
"Good." Jane quirked a brow when the small furrow at the arch of her perfectly shaped brows didn't settle. "What's up?"
"I will have to have Kent begin Ms. Murphy's autopsy." She rested her medical bag at her feet and began to buckle her seatbelt.
Jane nodded. "Coffee?"" Maura agreed. "We can swing into Boston Joe's on the way in." She began reversing from her parking spot across the street from Non-Dairy as Maura pulled her tablet out of her bag. "I mean don't get me wrong, Clark is just as good as any, we needed that toxicology report like yesterday… I would prefer you do it y'know?" Maura was the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. When she sent in for lab results, she got them in an hour, two hours tops, when anyone else did it took two business days it seemed.
"It can't be helped." Maura was distractedly plucking away at the technology in her hands.
Jane glanced at her and then the road. "What's up?"
"I have a rather last minute meeting I am required to attend." She looked up from her calendar when she had been moving a few things around for the morning.
"Required?" Jane snorted. "You're the boss right?"
"The Governor has deemed our consulting relationship with the Federal Bureau of Investigations to be my priority for the time being."
"Oh." Jane drove in silence for a moment. "So what? They call a random meeting and you have to drop everything? That's annoying."
"It is particularly annoying when the person who called it refuses to fully read the reports I meticulously put together for the specific purpose of avoiding such occurrences."
"…Davies?"
Maura nodded.
Jane exhaled thoughtfully and Maura made a small noise anyone around them would read as dismissive. She did not want to talk about it and Jane supposed it was probably the right call. Morning traffic had swarmed them though and the silence was making Jane antsy. Eventually though the emails and rescheduling was handled and Maura slipped her tablet back into her bag a few blocks away from the only Boston Joe's with a drive through window.
"I had a type." Jane finally said as she looked over at her best friend at a red light.
Maura let up a small smile. "It is very clear."
"It's really just because of my Daddy issues."
She chuckled. "Jane."
Jane smiled but then grew thoughtful. "He really ruffles your feathers."
"I do not have feathers to ruffle."
"You know what I mean."
Maura grew thoughtful as well. Jane was right. It was hard to articulate. "…He postures." She decided.
Jane glanced at her as traffic began to move. "Ignore him." She began to drive. "Or if you want you can tell him that you can't make the meeting because you're busy doing your super-hot, super intelligent, super unavailable secret lady—who he lost out on because you were just so smooth-a favor." Maura laughed. "Choice is yours."
"I should go with the latter." Maura touched her leg as Jane drove. "It is fraught with inaccuracies, however I feel it will be far more entertaining."
"Inaccuracies my ass!" Jane laughed.
"You believe I am smooth?" Muara pointed at herself.
Jane grinned as she drove. "I mean you get to talking about skin eating bacteria and cutting open dead people and I can't help myself, Maura."
Maura snorted and brushed her away. "Kent will begin the autopsy; I will attend the meeting."
"Yeah alright." Jane nodded to herself as she drove. They fell silent for a while before a thought crossed Maura's mind as Jane turned into the Boston Joe's queue and drummed her fingers along the steering wheel impatiently.
"I would like to talk to you." She announced.
Jane looked from out the window at the pastry and coffee combo advertisement beside the car toward Maura. "About last night?"
Maura hesitated before sending her a soft expression. "Would you like to talk about last night?"
Jane seemed confused. "I mean… wasn't… don't you?"
"I enjoyed it. You are beautiful, Jane. I share your sentiment of wanting more." She blushed a little. "Sooner rather than later." She thought it prudent to add.
Jane blushed now too. "Okay." She looked out her window again for a moment before back at the ME. "You know I've never—"
"—I know."
She ran a hand through hair. "I was uh… I thought last night would have been good to…" She sighed at herself. "I wanted to."
Maura smiled at how she stumbled a bit at the topic of sex when she now had firsthand experience that spoke volumes on Jane's confidence on the matter. "I would have welcomed that." She said slowly feeling her own heart rate pick up. "Perhaps next time we can explore that."
"Maybe Saturday?" She offered.
"Saturday?"
"After the festival thing." She hurried out and then rolled her eyes at herself. "I mean it doesn't have to be Saturday that was just a day I had in my head cause of this thing we're going to. It could be Wednesday or Thursday." Jane shrugged. "I mean it could be whenever really." She looked forward at the car in front of them and prayed for it to move forward already so she can find an excuse to get out of accidentally scheduling sex with Maura.
"Saturday works for me Jane." Jane looked over at her. "It would give me time to have the leathers dry cleaned and perhaps find the key to the handcuffs I misplaced." She explained seriously.
Jane just stared at her. "You're an ass." She decided and Maura laughed and tried to touch her shoulder. "I knew you'd be into that stuff too." She swatted the other woman away. "I don't want to be touched right now, don't touch me." A chuckled escaped her though.
Maura continued to laugh as she finally got hold of Jane's right arm and pulled her closer some to kiss her cheek. "Saturday." She said finally. Jane only grumbled and kept her attention forward for the rest of the coffee run. When they got to BPD Maura recalled what she wanted to talk to Jane about but decided to wait for another time. The second they stepped into the building she was bombarded with greetings and questions about her time in Virginia. From the officer at the front desk, to even some of Maura's own lab techs who had just left the café with their morning coffee's. She would take the elevator down with them which didn't leave the two much time to talk further amongst themselves. Jane offered her a cute little smile though when they were all waiting for the elevators to go in opposite directions of the building. They wouldn't see each other again until much later in the day but there was a steady knowing now that vibrated between them.
AN: I'm still here I promise! Just juggling a lot at the moment and am writing when it feels right. I hope you all understand. Anyway let me know what you think! I hope you all are well and continue to enjoy my musing on Jane and Maura's journey.
KathleenDee