Much later, after Jane had made the coffee and Maura had shown her appreciation for Jane making the coffee, they headed out to the Arboretum. Maura had already thoughtfully downloaded the app on both of their phones so they could identify plants.
Someone yelled 'thief', and someone ran in their direction. Jane judged the distance, then stuck out her arm to clothesline the criminal, chuckling as he fell to the ground. She held him down and checked his pockets, pulling out a wallet, checking it quickly.
"You don't look like a 'Patrice'," Jane told him, watching as a security guard ran over. She handed him over happily, receiving thanks for the family that came over behind the guard.
"And I thought today was going to be dull," Jane joked, dusting herself off.
"Oh. We can go somewhere else..." Maura suggested.
"No, I'm enjoying all these trees. And you wanted to go meet one of the scientists."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, we're not in DC every day, and you wanted to come here."
"I feel like a lot of the stuff we've done on this trip has been for me," Maura said quietly. "I told you, you don't need to try to impress me."
"I'm not! I mean, I am a bit, but we went to baseball thing and horse riding and the space stuff... Trust me, it's been pretty even, activity-wise." Maura narrowed her eyes at Jane, but she did trust her. "And I just took down a criminal! What's not to love about nature?" Jane asked, taking Maura's arm. "Now, tell me what the app got wrong about this one?" Jane asked, half-joking.
"Jane, I mean it. If you find this boring we can do something else."
"Look, Mau. I know how lucky I am to be with you. You're a gorgeous genius millionaire. You could be with anyone you wanted to be, and I'm just a white collar schmuck, tagging along trying to understand your hundred-dollar words with my dime vocabulary. I'm not saying I enjoy this guided walkthrough of the state trees, but I do enjoy the way you enjoy it. I'm happy doing anything you want, as long as I get to watch you enjoy it."
"Jane." Maura turned to look at a tree for a long time, and Jane expected a lecture on some idiom typical of the species. "I'm with who I want to be," Maura said finally, reaching in her bag for a tissue. "Everyone else just sees the millionaire, or the outfits and the face."
"I just see a nerd who knows too much about trees," Jane shrugged. "The other stuff's nice but it's not you. The stuff I like about you is that I know what to order for you at the administration office coffee bar while you have a vigorous argument with the staff about some of the 'fun facts' in their app."
"They're not facts if they're wrong, Jane," Maura said, composing herself.
"Do you want to go do the FBI tour?" Mara asked that evening as Jane hunched over a new puzzle. "Jane?" Maura asked, and Jane finally looked up, smiling when she saw Maura looking at her.
"If you ever turn bad guy, I don't think we'd ever catch you," Jane said, putting the paper down. "FBI HQ? Isn't that a four week lead time?"
"I applied back when you asked me to come here with you," Maura looked nervous. "You don't have to, I just - while we're here - "
"I didn't think about it until it was too late," Jane said. "And even then, I thought you might find it boring."
"Why would you think that?" Maura asked, pulling out the laptop. "Because we work for the police back home? The FBI has completely different caseloads and systems. I - I might have - mentioned your name." Maura showed Jane the laptop screen, and Jane left the desk to come over to the couch, tucking her knees up as she read the email response Maura had received.
"A private tour? Mau, how'd you even talk them into this? They're going to show us... Oh wow... That's the new system they're rolling out, even Frost hasn't seen it." Jane took the laptop from Maura, scrolling through excitedly.
"And you call me a nerd," Maura said affectionately.
"Yeah, you are, though," Jane said, kissing Maura's cheek absent-mindedly. She finished reading the email, shaking her head. "I can't believe you asked them to do this! I can't believe they agreed!" Jane put the laptop down on the coffee table, looked over at her puzzle wistfully, then hustled Maura into bed, to express her gratitude.
Notes:
So I found and ended up watching owls for much of the afternoon. I wish we had something like this for our endangered birds.
I've kind of forgotten what people do with each other in their free time. I haven't left the house in a week, and even if I did our museum is not impressive. It's not even large. There are so many options in DC, and writing this and researching the museums has felt like a small holiday. I've signed up for some Smithsonian webinars and CSIRO online events as a result of the past few chapters.
It's like travelling without going anywhere.