A/N: Hi, all. Got started on this prompt from thepriceisrizzoli over on tumblr, and it turned into a two-shot. Happy reading!
Jane liked to fancy herself an interrogation expert. When she had a suspect, she could tell almost right away if a direct or indirect line of questioning was the best way to get the information she needed. Sometimes people were tricky; they seemed open and honest, but that was a front. Or they were open and honest, but you had to be a few steps ahead of them to ensure that you still controlled the situation, that they wouldn't be able to follow your line of reasoning.
All of this flew through Jane's head as she stood in the morgue, watching Maura at her computer.
They had a fairly amiable relationship at this point, on the clock and off. Maura had come to meet Jane and Frost, or Jane and her brothers at the Dirty Robber a few times. More than once, the two women had been the only ones left in their booth by the end of the night, talking and laughing and trying each other's drinks. To borrow a phrase she hated to use, Jane was certain there was "a vibe" between them, but was wary of just diving in the way she normally did when it came to asking a woman out because she didn't want to make things weird at work.
Indirect line of questioning it is.
But before Jane could so much as figure out a casual way of even concluding whether Maura was attracted to women, she was found out and her unasked inquiry answered.
"Oh!" Maura said, turning at the sound of Jane's footstep. "I'm sorry, have you been waiting long? I got distracted."
"No worries, I'm a little early." They had agreed to meet for lunch. Maura was making no effort to hide her Internet activity, and Jane took a curious glance. "Whatcha lookin' at, Balto?"
"No, I'm not familiar with that site," Maura said absent-mindedly, turning back to her screen. "My ex just went to Norway and saw the Northern Lights. Look at these pictures, aren't they beautiful?"
Jane got closer and shook her head in amazement. She'd never seen such vibrant colors in nature, and would have assumed the photos were altered in some way if Maura hadn't gone into explaining the phenomenon of the Aurora Borealis. It was an interesting science lesson, but Jane was also a little distracted trying to see the name of the person who'd sent the email whose attachments Maura was scrolling through.
"Still friends with your ex, that's nice," Jane observed.
"Oh, yes, things ended amicably between us some time ago. She's a photographer for National Geographic, isn't that cool?" (Jane was glad that Maura's gaze was still fixed on the computer, otherwise she might've noticed the barely-repressed grin of relief on Jane's face.) "We used to talk about going somewhere to see the Northern Lights sometime. It's always been a dream of mine to go see them. Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Alaska... I mean, you could even go somewhere as close by as Canada."
"I'm surprised you haven't been, if that's the case."
"Yeah," Maura said, her voice trailing off. She closed out of the email and got her purse, leading the way out of the morgue. "Well, when I was a kid, my parents always wanted to go someplace warm during my school winter breaks, so that never happened. It wasn't until I was older that I realized you can actually see the lights at times of year besides winter, but it's better when the days are shorter and seeing them amidst a snowy landscape was all part of the idea in my head, all part of what it should look like. By the time I was at BCU, I was way too focused on my studies to allow myself the extravagance of taking a trip. I really wanted to give something like that it's due, you know? Not just make a weekend visit out of it, because what if it was foggy and I went to all that trouble for nothing? And then once I grew into my career, I was going on trips with partners who were more interested in going other places, I mean places I wanted to visit, too, and so I sort of forgot about it. I could go myself, I mean, I've traveled other places by myself. But I'd gotten this romantic notion into my head that it would be nice to share a sight like that with someone, even a friend, and it just never came together."
By the time this monologue had ended, they'd already gotten upstairs to the cafe and Jane had shooed a uniformed officer away from her regular table. For having said so much without seeming to take a breath, Maura appeared collected as she took her seat.
"Anyway, I'm sure I'll get there someday. Now, enough about me," she chuckled, again missing the expression on Jane's face which indicated there could never be too much of her. "What childhood dream are you still holding out hope for?"
Angela swooped in with a fresh pot of coffee to answer the question before Jane could. "Oh, don't ask!" she groaned, and Jane immediately put her face in her hands. "It's been years and I still haven't heard the end of it, how we never got her the Lightning TRS, ABT-included, thermo-hydro-whatever rollerblades."
"Thermo-hydro rollerblades?" Maura asked, blinking in confusion.
"If I'm remembering the ad correctly, it was glass-reinforced thermo-plastic," Jane sighed. "Adjustable Lightning TRS Rollerblades with active brake technology, aka, ABT. Would have made me the coolest cat on the block circa 1989."
"What did TRS stand for?"
"Thermo...y'know what, that's a good question. I dunno. The point is," she said with an exasperated smile as Angela whisked away to tend to some other customers, "I was an obnoxious kid who didn't really have a full appreciation for, y'know, family finances as they pertained to expensive new toys, or whatever you'd classify rollerblades as."
"Athletic gear?"
"Right," Jane chuckled. "Well, no one was going to college on a roller-blading scholarship. When I got a job later on, I kinda fantasized about buying them myself, but by then my brother was trying to convince me to go in on a used car with him, so I started saving up for that instead. And then I kinda felt like, I dunno, my window for being 'allowed' to enjoy that kind of thing had passed."
Angela had returned with Maura's usual salad and way too much food for Jane. "And yet, every Christmas after that when I've asked what she wanted, she'd still say those darn things. 'Ma, if you just saw the kids in the commercials...'"
"Hey, you ask, and yet you still haven't gotten them!" Jane laughed, then added to Maura, "I never know what to ask for. Not that my track record for having requests filled is so great."
"No kidding!" Angela sniffed. "I'm still waiting for the 'thank you' on that canopy bed."
"Oh God, that thing," Jane said, rolling her eyes. She explained to Maura, who looked adorably intrigued, "I wanted a bed like a fort."
"That bed was like every little girl's softest, fluffiest, princess fantasy," Angela whispered in a reverent tone of voice, as if she was preparing to offer to sell Maura ten of the beds right now with a discounted shipping rate. "Apparently there was a miscommunication about what exactly this princess wanted."
"Your princess was more of a general," Maura observed with a smile, earning a grin from Jane.
Angela sighed affectionately, ruffling Jane's hair. "Sit up straight, general. Oh! All this gift talk reminds me. Have you two signed up for the Secret Santa? The drawing is starting later today."
This was another question Jane had intended to ask Maura, and she tried not to look too eager for a response. "I think the idea of secret gift-giving is a nice one," Maura said. "I've never participated in something like it before, and my techs all sounded excited about it, so I think this will finally be the year that I do it."
"Cool!" Jane blurted out. "Cool, yeah, me too."
In what could only be described as a total plot contrivance, Jane wound up drawing Maura's name. This was what she had been hoping for, but now that she was staring at the slip of paper with Maura's name impeccably written on it, panic started to set in. What could she possibly get this woman? There was a price limit on gifts, gratefully, but even without the pressure of getting something expensive enough for Maura's taste, nothing seemed good enough. Jane decided to let it stew for a day or two, which then turned into several days, which then suddenly turned into most of December as work piled up and every idea she got seemed increasingly stupid.
"Just buy her, like, a really nice pen," Frost suggested in the break room one day. He'd drawn the name of someone in dispatch who hadn't shut up about his Pez collection all month, which Jane thought had been a rather obnoxious tactic of ensuring his Secret Santa got the message, but she envied Frost the easiness of his task. "What do nerds like?"
"She's not a nerd," Jane muttered for what felt like the hundredth time.
Apparently, Frost needed a hundred times to get what was going on. "Wait a second. Are you into Dr. Isles?"
"No shit, Sherlock," Korsak said from the corner of the room, not looking up from his lunch. "How you ever made detective is beyond me."
This set off a brief and very unhelpful argument between Frost and Korsak, and with a sigh, Jane resigned herself to going back to her desk to figure this out alone. Frost had a bad history of romantic gestures, but he was a regular Romeo compared to Korsak—so maybe neither of them were great choices for advice in this area. In time she humbled herself enough to ask her brothers for their input, and they both recommended safe-but-sure classic bets of romance: flowers or chocolates. Frankie remembered someone bringing in a gift basket from a grateful elderly citizen, which had contained fudge that Maura got excited about. Jane had a vague memory of the same occasion, and grasped at the straw.
So, she went scouting for the best Yelp-reviewed chocolate stores in the area. Normally she'd buy a gift bag from a dollar store and be done with it, but she took care ahead of time to find a nice box and tissue paper for it, and it turned into her first arts-and-crafts project since middle school. She remembered seeing Maura store food in a fridge in the morgue before (which had almost sent Frost into vomit-mode), and that inspired her to steal away downstairs during a brief window of time when she knew Maura would be out. Ensuring that the tag with Maura's name on it was prominently displayed, she stuck the box inside the fridge when none of the lab techs were looking.
By the time Jane got back to her desk, a sizable wrapped present was sitting on it.
"Did you see who left it?" she asked Frost.
He just shrugged and smiled. "C'mon, you know I can't say! 'Secret' is in the name of the game."
With no sense of decorum, Jane tore into the package and her mouth fell open. She was vaguely aware of nearby officers cracking jokes about what year it was and retro TV reboots, but ignored them as she marveled at the packaging of the Lighting TRS Rollerblades, black with neon purple wheels and neon green shock absorbers. Jane didn't know if she hoped the skates matched the image on the box or not; the colorful styling hit nostalgic notes she hadn't thought about in a long time but were about as far as you could possibly get from her current color palette of choice. Her teenage self would've rocked the neon, though, and she was surprised to find herself tearing up through her laughter as she opened the box and pulled out the brightly colored skates.
Jane was jarred out of her reverie by her mother's voice: "Oh, she tricked me!"
"Angela!" Frost cut in sharply. "I think you mean, 'he or she or they' tricked you! We don't want to out the gift-giver...!"
Angela rolled her eyes, which gave Jane a moment to brush away the few tears from her own. "Fine. The person who gave you those asked me what your shoe size was. I thought she - they! - were gonna get you some really cute pumps or something! She - he! They ... have such great taste in shoes." With a sigh, Angela promptly left the bullpen muttering about footwear and broken promises.
"Okay, did she come up here just in hopes of seeing me open a box of heels?"
"You gonna put 'em on?" Frost asked.
Jane glanced around to make sure Cavanaugh wasn't in sight. She quickly yanked off one of her boots and tried on one of the skates, just to see if it would fit. It was a little big, but she figured if she wore a couple of layers of socks, that might make up the difference. She only realized there'd been a dopey grin on her face when she heard Korsak snap a picture on his phone.
"Ah, shoot!" he muttered, when Jane glanced up, frowning. "Forgot to turn the sound off."
"What exactly are you planning to do with that picture, old man?"
He stuck his tongue out at her. "Just thought I'd send it to the person who dropped that off, so they'd know how happy they made you."
"There's no need," Jane chuckled, and though Frost insisted it would be faster to rollerblade wherever she was going, Jane put her boot back on. "I'm going to go tell them thanks myself."
"Who told you?!" Frost called after her as she headed for the elevator.
Jane was slightly put out to reach the morgue and see some of the lab techs taking bites of Maura's fudge. Hadn't she clearly marked the intended recipient? She was in the midst of wondering whether she should make a point of bringing that up, when Susie Chang caught her eye. Looking nervous and totally misreading Jane's expression, Susie pushed the box towards her.
"Would you like some?" she asked. "It was Dr. Isles' Secret Santa gift, and she offered it to us."
"Oh," Jane said, trying not to look disappointed. Maybe I didn't get a flavor she likes. Ugh! That was a stupid gift idea. "Looks like you guys have made quite a dent, huh?"
"Well, she took some of it," Susie said defensively.
That was something, at least. Shaking her head, Jane thanked Susie for the offer and headed for Maura's office, knocking on the door. Upon being welcomed inside, it brightened her spirits a little to see Maura at her desk with a piece of fudge on a napkin in front of her, as she tied the ribbon from the package around her pen holder. That at least seemed to indicate she liked Jane's decorative taste.
"Hi!" Maura said brightly. "Isn't this ribbon pretty? I thought it would help make my office space a little more festive. It even came with a tiny garland," she said, pointing to the item that she'd laid in front of her monitor.
"That's cute, where'd you get it?" Jane, you smooth, smooth criminal.
"My Secret Santa used it for decorating my present," Maura said, smiling. "The gift itself was fudge, which is really delicious but it's generally too rich for me, I'm afraid. I can only have so much of it."
There was a careful line in revealing too much, but Jane thought she could tread that line well enough as she took a seat. "Oh, yeah, it's the same for me. I remember loving it when I was a kid, but I guess maybe my tolerance has gone down the older I've gotten. O'Hara brought in a gift basket a few weeks back, had some fudge in it and I... mean, it was good, but yeah, too much. Too sweet. I thought I remembered you taking some of it?"
Perhaps that was actually crossing the line into obvious territory, but Maura seemed oblivious. "Oh, I remember that. But he kindly allowed me to abscond with the fudge clusters, not fudge. The walnuts and granola really help cut the sweetness. They're an indulgence of mine, I admit."
Okay, well, the names were similar so Jane figured she couldn't beat herself up too much over that one. "Ah, gotcha. Speaking of Secret Santas, though, that's why I came down here. Just had to take a minute to thank you for mine."
"Why, I don't know what you're talking about," Maura said with a girlish smile that Jane couldn't help but return. "I know it meant risking identifying myself as your gift-giver, but I just couldn't let go of that idea after you brought it up."
"A bit more than a risk," Jane chuckled. "The only other people here who've heard me go on about those skates are my brother, who didn't participate, and my mother, who outed herself as an advisor on this gift regarding shoe size. She's bitterly disappointed that you didn't get me kitten heels, by the way."
"Oh, gosh. Tell her next time."
The best Jane could offer was another light laugh. "That was sweet, Maura. It was really sweet of you and I'm touched." It was clear that Maura's thoughtfulness wasn't something she got complimented on often; she was beaming and it warmed Jane's heart to make her feel that way. She imagined the only comparable thing that would feel as good would be getting Maura a gift that would make her light up the way the rollerblades had done for Jane. "I'm super jazzed about going for a ride later. I think I might rollderblade my way over to the Dirty Robber after work, you free?"
She wasn't, but Maura did tell Jane to text her when she was leaving so she could see her off. Frankie and Angela were on the steps to watch her depart, too, talking about getting her a helmet or knee-pads for Christmas. Maura offered to be a steadying force as Jane took a minute to readjust to balancing on the rollerblades, and applauded in delight when Jane whisked down the sidewalk. She garnered her fair share of surprised and amused looks as she wended her way to the Dirty Robber, a little wobbly at first, but she knew for the most part that she was seeing her own smile reflected in people who saw her and had a little nostalgia brought back to them, too. Murray gave her a hard time about it, but that couldn't dim her enthusiasm as she made her way to a bar stool.
What did finally bring her down a bit was her disappointment that Maura had gotten her something so specific and memory-driven, and Jane had given her something so generic. Not just generic, but something she didn't even like that much. Jane didn't want to ask outright for a good gift idea, though. Maura hadn't done that; she'd just had lucky timing and a good memory. Instead of attempting to pick an objective great gift as she had done before, Jane tried to think back on every conversation she'd had with Maura to mine it for a good gift idea. This got harder the drunker she became, when all she could remember were Northern lights and garlands. But she couldn't very well buy Maura an airline ticket to Norway, or even Canada.
"Murray, tell me how this sounds for a Christmas present. I change my name to Aurora Borealis, like, legally."
"Is this a Christmas present for yourself or for someone else?" he asked with a straight face. "You know what, it doesn't matter. Either way, it's an absolutely amazing idea."
Jane slapped her hand on the bar. "Done. I will start the paperwork as soon as I get home."
She didn't. And when she woke up the next morning, her mind was still stubbornly blank.
A/N: Thanks for reading, folks! Chapter 2 is already in progress and should be up shortly.