Susie liked her job. She liked science, liked the lab. Liked her colleagues. Liked her boss, liked the work she did.
The first time she'd met Doctor Isles she was intimidated by her crisp, formal manner and obvious high intelligence. She was a little in awe of her, the style and elegance she brought to her work, along with her obvious compassion for her patients. It was hard to focus sometimes, with Doctor Isles hovering over her shoulder, unaware that her proximity was dizzying.
It was even harder to focus with Detective Jane Rizzoli glaring at Susie for daring to exist in that proximity. Susie had learned a lot of things on the job, but first and foremost was that Detective Jane Rizzoli was very territorial, especially over Doctor Isles. They were a package deal; Susie rarely saw the one without the other, and she wasn't stupid, she'd heard the rumours. She'd walked in to the morgue to see Jane pulling Maura's hair into a ponytail as Maura was bent over a body, had seen Jane help Maura over unsteady terrain in her heels. She'd overheard enough to know that Jane mumbled in her sleep about bears, and that Maura kicked in her sleep. Susie wasn't a detective, but she could put easy clues like those together, and obviously it meant they slept together in some capacity, and the glaring was Jane being jealous of another woman being close to Maura.
But it was a hypothesis she couldn't prove, and so she held back on making a finite judgement.
Susie was late back to the lab, coming back from a crime scene, locking down the van and filing away evidence, aware of a light still on in Doctor Isles' office. When she was done with her work she went to turn the lights off, surprised to see Jane and Maura curled up on the tiny, uncomfortable couch in the office.
"She wanted to be here when you got back," Jane said, awake, sitting up, letting go of Maura reluctantly. "Wanted to run any ballistics." Jane rubbed her face, then ran her hands over Maura's torso gently, waking her up.
"No ballistics," Susie said, shrugging. Maura smiled up at Jane like she'd personally given her an award for best ME of the US, and Susie knew. The rumours might not be entirely true, but the way these women felt about each other was the most honest thing she'd ever seen. Jane seemed embarrassed.
"Your place or mine?" Maura asked, yawning, not making any move to get up.
"Yours, Frankie has Jo," Jane said. "You need carried?" Maura nodded against Jane's chest, and Jane sighed, getting to her feet. "C'nya grab her bag?" Jane asked, and Susie nodded. "I'll run you home too, if you want."
"Oh, I was going to..."
"It's too late to argue, c'mon," Jane said, easily lifting a willing, sleepy Maura into her arms. Maura's arms went around Jane's neck, like they'd done this before, like Maura felt at home in Jane's arms. Susie turned the lights off and locked the door on her way out, opening the door for Jane, unlocking the car so Jane could shift a still only half awake Maura into the passenger seat.
"I can get home by myself," Susie protested, handing over Maura's bag. Jane opened the back door of the car and glared at Susie until she finally gave in, Jane closing the door triumphantly.
Susie was used to sitting in the back seat of a car - she went on a lot of hiking trips with friends, out to the rapids and up to the best hang-gliding and rock climbing sites, went out camping with her friends. But Maura was her boss, and Jane was still very hard to read, despite the years Susie had spent with her. Jane was nice to her - to a point. She only ever called her Chang, but she called Nina and Korsak by their last names as well. She only called her family and Maura by their first names. Susie had been driven home by Jane before, in Jane's unmarked, had been driven home by Maura before, in her Prius. Maura was a cautious driver, and Jane was not, but Jane was a lot more careful driving Maura's car than her own.
They pulled up at Susie's apartment block, and Maura reached back, found Susie's hand. "Goodnight Susie," Maura said. Jane reached back too, covered both of their hands.
"Goodnight," Susie said, warmed by this show of unexpected affection. Jane wound down her window, scanning the parking lot as Susie got out.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Susie said, a knowing grin on her face.
"That a long list?" Jane asked sarcastically, and Susie shook her head.
"Surprisingly short," Susie said cheekily, and Jane snorted, still looking around.
"I'll see you to your door," Jane said unexpectedly, closing the window and getting out, locking the car.
"I'm an adult, I'll be fine."
"Hmm," Jane said, still looking around as though something had unsettled her, leading the way to Susie's apartment.
The key stuck in the lock, which was strange. Jane watched Susie struggle for a moment, then pushed her aside roughly, jerking the door open. There was a gunshot, and in the blink of an eye a second one as Jane drew her gun, too fast for Susie to track each individual motion. The gun had been in the holster; now it was smoking in Jane's hands. Jane announced herself, pulling her cuffs, and Susie peeked around the door to see Jane cuffing a man who was bleeding profusely from the shoulder.
"Call it in," Jane said, ratcheting the man's arms up behind him, heedless of his bloodloss. Jane looked up with a sigh, using an extension cord to tie him to the towel rack in the kitchen so she could leave him. She stepped across the space between them and bundled Susie into her, pulling her phone a moment later to call it in herself, little whispers of assurance to Susie in between the conversation she was having on the phone as Susie shook uncontrollably in Jane's arms. "Forgot it was your first time being shot at," Jane apologised as she hung up, redialing a moment later to tell Frankie to check in on their Ma. "What's all this evidence doing in here?" Jane asked, pulling away, and Susie shrugged. "Man, I wish I could question suspects after I shoot them," Jane huffed, annoyed, and Susie pulled all the way away to look around. Evidence bags were strewn through the room, and a pile of cash was on the counter.
"We'll get to the bottom of this. Looks like our long night just got longer."
"How did you know?" Susie asked, voice sounding strange to her own ears.
"Something didn't feel right," Jane shrugged. Later they'd find that the assassin's car in the apartment parking lot was one Jane had been tracking for a cold case, hadn't recognised out of context, but was familiar enough that the sight of it had her alert. The tumbler had been scratched, and Jane knew the signs of a break-in. It was all done in microseconds, her processing, even if she hadn't realised the conclusion she'd drawn to at the time - that Susie was in danger. But she'd been right, and Susie was grateful.
It was midmorning by the time BPD finished with Susie and Jane, Maura having come back to the station with them as well. Susie was beat - she knew how close it had come, knew she owed Jane her life. And she knew Jane had had to file her gun, had to answer a lot of questions.
"Your place is a mess," Jane said, throwing herself down next to Susie on Maura's office couch. "You can stay with us, catch up on sleep, and we can help you clean up after the crime lab."
"Us?" Susie asked.
"Maura has a spare room," Jane said, standing. "C'mon."
"Just the one?" Susie asked, and Jane rolled her eyes, not taking the easy bait.
Maura wore the softest, silkiest pyjamas and was sitting on the guest bed when Susie got out of the hottest, most perfectly pressurised shower.
"It would have been a great loss," Maura said, starting in the middle of a conversation, the way she did when she was tired. "Professionally as well as personally." Susie rubbed at her hair with a towel. "If he'd been successful." Susie nodded, understanding that this was Doctor Isles telling her that she valued Susie's work, as well as her friendship.
"Bed," Jane growled at Maura, coming in to the room. She was in flannel pyjamas that actually fit her - they must be her own, they must have been here already. There had been time for Angela to go grab something for Jane, but Susie suspected that hadn't been the case, suspected that Jane kept a spare pair here. "You'll be fine," Jane said to Susie, showing her a gun. "They took my service firearm but I keep one here. She's Paddy's daughter, and my Pop's a homophobic piece of..." Jane trailed off, her eyes wide. "Well, he ain't no prize himself."
"I don't care," Susie said. "I mean, I know. It's adorable, but whatever you two are, I don't care. It's none of my business how adorable it is."
"You need to sleep. Your speaking patterns are affected, likely from stress and fatigue." Maura, as ever, was precise. Maura stood and hugged Susie, all of them in their sleepwear. The only people Susie had seen hug Maura had the last name 'Rizzoli', and Susie's wasn't, the last time she'd checked. She hugged back, looking at Jane with some trepidation, but the usual glare wasn't there, Jane smiling softly at them.
"She's right. Would have been a great loss." And with that Jane hugged Susie - not the way she'd held Susie earlier that morning to comfort her, the way she hugged a victim of a crime, but she hugged her the way she hugged Maura, Angela, Frankie. The way she'd hugged Frost. The way she hugged family.
"Goodnight, Susie," Jane said, leading a sleepy Maura away to presumably a bedroom they might share sometimes. Susie wanted to point out that it was nearly noon, but they were gone, and while Susie had nearly been murdered and had a very long day, she smiled to herself at the confirmation of her suspicions.
It looked as though her hypothesis had been correct. She nodded to herself as she tucked herself under the surprisingly soft covers, onto the suprisingly soft bed. Susie liked her job. She liked science, her boss, her colleagues, the lab. She liked the work she did. But right now she especially liked that while her job had put her in danger, her colleagues had saved her from it.
Notes:
For all of you reading and reviewing and reblogging all my silly little fics, thank you very much.
Susie deserved better.