Jane's leg was bouncing restlessly as she waited for Maura at the Immigration office.
She was contemplating dropping Maura altogether and moving to Boston when she heard Maura's heels round the corner. "Took you long enough. Stop for some tea?" Jane mocked.
"I had to take Bass to the vet. He's not eating. You know how restless he can get?" Maura greeted. She eyed the line of people waiting to be helped. "Come on" she grabbed Jane by the elbow and dragged her to the front of the cue.
Jane groaned out of sheer embarrassment as Maura cut the line trying to get the Fiance visa application.
"Maura Isles?" the guy at the front desk enquired.
"Yes," Maura ended with a pleased smile.
"This way"
They followed the man into an impossibly tiny office. Jane took a seat after the man left and took a deep breath to steady herself. Maura stood by the door, cell phone in hand as if this were the most normal procedure in the world.
"How are you so calm right now?" Jane finally asked.
Maura finished her text and met Jane's gaze. "Someone has to be"
A Chinese woman entered the room. Greeting them warmly. "Sorry for the wait. It's a war out there" she extended her hand to Maura. "Susie Chang. You must be Maura Isles. And Jane Rizzoli" she shook Jane's hand.
An Ancient Persian artifact symbolizing the importance of truth and honesty caught Maura's attention in the corner of Susie's office.
"Urdu Ottoman. 1312 BC. I have the exact replica in my home office" Maura enthused.
"Isn't it beautiful? I had to call in a lot of favors to get this one" Susie added excitedly.
"The symbolism is so subtle yet so poetic" Maura got excited talking about Ancient artifacts. Something Jane secretly loved about her.
"That was like the mantra for Ancient Persia. Fer and hatis lefe withun song?" Susie spoke with a crisp Persian dialect.
"Vaht ys lefe vithoon hones yif nor emry?" Maura echoed.
Jane looked between them and mumbled "One nerd at a time" under her breath. Maura heard her and shot her a warning look.
Susie sat behind her desk and started flipping through the file in her inbox. "Let's see, aah yes. Are you both committing fraud to avoid deportation so she could keep her position as editor and chief at Penguin Random House publishers?"
Both women shifted uncomfortably.
"Ridiculous-"
"Of course not"
She stared them both down as an uncomfortable silence filled the room. "Look, I know you're very busy dealing with true criminals all day so can we move this along so we can clear this whole mess up? I mean really" Maura ended with a nervous laugh.
"Well, miss Isles. Or is it doctor? I see you hold a Ph.D."
Jane shot Maura a look but tried not to seem surprised. That seems like a detail that a fiance might know.
"Sweetie, just tell her doctor is fine. I know how much you like your title"
Maura cleared her throat. "I do hold a doctorate in forensic pathology but Miss Isles is fine, no one calls me doctor anymore"
Luckily for Jane, Susie was making a note and couldn't see Jane's expression.
Pathology. That's cutting into dead people right? Jane's mind was afoot. Somehow a job like that suited Maura.
Maura took the seat next to Jane and stared straight ahead, ignoring the sensation of having Jane's gaze burn a hole in the side of her face.
"Let me explain the process that will unfold." Susie started.
"Please do" Jane enthused with a plastered smile.
"Firstly, I'll put each of you in a scheduled interview in separate rooms and ask you questions that a real couple would know about each other"
Jane swallowed thickly. She thought that she knew everything about the woman she'd been working for for the past six years until today. Though she still knew more than Maura knew about her.
"Secondly, I dig deeper. I look at your phone records. I talk to your neighbors. I interview your co-workers. If your answers don't match up at every point you" she pointed to Muara who sat back at the gesture. "Will be deported and you-"
She pointed at Jane who jolted in her seat at the sudden volume change. "Will have committed a felony, punishable by a fine of $250 000 and a stay of five years in federal prison."
Jane resisted the urge to start bouncing her leg.
"So Jane, you wanna talk to me?" Susie whispered as if Maura couldn't hear her.
She looked between Maura and the immigration official. "The truth is…" She swallowed thickly. "That Maura and I are just two people who weren't supposed to fall in love but did." she turned to Maura "We couldn't tell anyone I work with because of my big promotion coming up" She added cheekily.
"Promotion?" Susie and Maura say in unison.
"I-we um… both felt that it would be deeply inappropriate if I were to be promoted to being the executive private investigator for the firm, while we were involved."
Maura narrowed her gaze on Jane.
"Have you told your parents about your secret love?" Susie continued.
"Not quite yet," Jane replied.
"We were going to tell them this weekend. My parent's 50th anniversary, families coming together, I just thought it would be a nice surprise." Maura added.
"Yeah. Big surprise." Jane added with a plastered smile.
"And where is this surprise going to take place, Jane?" Susie continued without missing a beat.
"At Maura's parent's house." Ok, maybe Jane didn't know as much about Maura as she thought.
"Where is that located again?" Susie pushed.
"Um, why am I doing all the talking? Tell her, sweety. Why don't you tell her where it is- jump in." she mumbled hurriedly.
"Primrose Hill" Maura replied.
"Primrose hill." Jane echoed.
"Londen" Maura added
"Londeeeen?" Jane's head swung around to meet Maura's gaze.
"You were going to England this weekend?" Susie asked in between her diligent note-taking.
"Yes. Yes, we are going to England. That's where my Maur is from." Jane placed her hand on Maura's leg awkwardly.
"Ok fine. I will see you both at 11 o clock Monday morning and your answers better match up on every account. Thanks for coming in. " Susie handed them a sticky note along with a list of example questions that would be asked in their interview…
They exited the building and Jane was in a daze.
"Use the miles for the tickets. We'll fly there tomorrow. Please remember to check the vegan meal option- wait why aren't you writing this down?"
"Were you not in that room?" Jane frazzled her curls anxiously.
Maura's brow furrowed with confusion. "Oh, the thing you said about being promoted. Genius. She completely fell for it."
"I was serious. I'm looking at a $250 000 fine and 5 years in jail that changes things."
Maura moved her purse to her other arm. "Promote you to Executive investigator for the firm? No way. We use several investigators for a reason. It's too much work for just one person. Besides it's not just my decision, I would have to talk to the board-"
"Then I quit and you're screwed, bye Maura"
"Jane"
"Really has been a little slice of heaven," Jane added over her shoulder as she made her way through the busy Manhatten street.
"Jane fine… I'll make it happen, fine." Maura moved a tray blonde lock out of her eyes. "If you do the meeting of the parents and the immigration interview I will make you lead investigator."
"Exclusive investigator. And not in two years. Right away." she added. She had Maura right where she wanted her. If she was going down, she was going to make sure it would have been worth getting away with.
"Fine"
"Also, we'll tell my family about our fraudulent engagement how I want and when I want. Now…ask me nicely."
"Ask you nicely, what?"
"Ask me nicely to marry you, Maura."
Maura shifted her stance. "Youre trying to confuse me."
"You heard me, on your knee." Jane pushed.
Maura looked around at the flow of New Yorkers around them. She sighed and got down on her knees, taking Jane's hand to lower herself down, barely able to spread her legs inside her tight skirt.
"Does this work for you?" She looked up at Jane.
"It'll do"
"Will you marry me?"
"No. Say it like you mean it." Jane challenged, enjoying seeing Maura in her current state.
"Jane. Sweet, humble, Jane."
"I'm listening."
"Would you please cranberries on top, marry me?"
"Don't appreciate the sarcasm but I'll do it. And it's cherries on top" she corrected.
Maura held out her hand. "Do we have a deal?"
Jane thought for a moment. Her chances of getting out of this before it was too late were few and far between.
"Deal" she took her hand and pulled her up with a little more force than was necessary and Maura's small figure propelled into Jane's.
They stood there dumbly, holding onto one another for what seemed like an eternity.
Maura finally pushed herself off of Jane and backed away.
"See you at the airport tomorrow." with that she turned and disappeared into the crowd. Leaving Jane to search for her retreating figure…
On the plane, Maura fussed with her travel pillow. Then she fussed with her seatbelt.
Jane rolled her eyes. "Not this again. I thought your therapist healed you of your fear of flying" Jane huffed in annoyance.
"It's a process." Maura fastened her seatbelt even though people were still boarding. "Did you know that a study was conducted in 2013 that found that 56% of pilots had fallen asleep during long flights and 29% of pilots had woken up to find that their co-pilot had also fallen asleep?"
Jane's expression was blank. "I do now" she fiddled around in her backpack and retrieved a sachet with a few pills. "Here. Take one of these. You'll fall asleep and wake up when we get there" she held out a white tablet for Maura to take.
"No thank you. I need to remain awake just in case"
"For 8 hours? You are the dumbest genius I know. You know if we're going down, we go down whether you're awake or not" Jane sat back and popped a pill into her mouth.
Maura contemplated it. "What is it?"
"Don't know. Ma gave them to me. Always gets me through long, annoying flights" she opened an eye to watch Maura's expression.
She looked around the plane hesitantly. "Fine. Just give it to me"
Maura took the pill with a small sip of complimentary, first-class champagne.
After a few minutes, the plane started moving onto the runway before stopping abruptly.
Jane sat up quickly. "Damn. That was Quick"
Maura sat up and removed her eye mask, leaving her hair slightly messy.
The announcements came on. "Greetings folks. We've encountered some issues and we're going to have to head back to the gate. Sorry for the inconvenience."
They made their way through the gate and stopped at the first person at the front desk.
"Hi, hello-"
"Were you just on the canceled flight to Londen?" The woman asked.
"How did you know that?" Maura asked suspiciously.
"There is a connecting flight to Milan, from there you'll fly to Londen. The flight leaves at gate 32 in 6 minutes, you can make it if you hurry"
Jane thanked her and lead Maura by her arm toward the gate. She peaked at their newly printed itinerary and grabbed Maura's arm, holding her back. "Wait this says Milan. We're going to Londen" she turned them around and headed back to the same woman.
"There's been some sort of mistake" Maura pointed to the ticket in hand and Jane nodded in solidarity. "We don't want to go to Milan. See that's in Itally-" Maura explained.
"Mam. You're connecting in Milan. From there you will fly to London. It's a connecting flight"
Maura stared at her blankly. "See I'm having trouble processing information at the moment-"
"We took sleeping pills" Jane added with a grimace.
"You are connecting in Milan to Londen. You need to be at gate 32 in five minutes now. Do you understand?"
"Yes. We're not idiots" Jane added as she turned them around. "Ok, we have to be at gate 5 in 32 minutes-"
"No! Gate 32, write it down" the woman behind them handed Maura a pen.
"Why is she so angry?" Maura asked in a hushed tone as she wrote the gate number on her arm. "Perhaps it has something to do with the statistic regarding workers in hospitality. You know studies have shown-"
"Alright, google-mouth" Jane lead Maura by her elbow toward where she hoped the gate was located.
"Wrong!" the woman yelled after them and they quickly changed direction...
"Maura, why do you have 32 written on your arm?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's some sort of code. Or maybe it's my age, do I look 32 to you? Tell me the truth"
"Maybe it's important" Jane replied as they wandered the Terminal.
"We should write down other things that seem important so we don't forget."
"Yeah ok. Um" Jane looked around and saw a Dunkin Donuts. "Donuts" she wrote it on Maura's arm.
"Donuts. Obviously." Maura echoed.
"I feel like there was something else-"
"32-" Maura announced.
"32" Jane echoed as she wrote it on Maura's arm.
"Attention, please. Passengers Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli"
"You're hearing that right?" Jane looked up, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.
"Yes"
"Please report to gate 32 immediately." The announcement concluded.
"Are we in trouble?"
"I don't know"
"He sounds mad"
"He does"
"Ok, Maura fokus. We have to get to the gate-stop that!"
"Stop what?"
"Youre eyes are doing that thing again. Theyre sucking me in-"
"Pull yourself together!" Maura grabbed her face and squeezed her cheeks.
An air hostes came running up to them. "Are you Rizzoli and Isles?"
"Yes. She's Rizzoli, I'm Isles" Jane replied through her squished cheeks.
Maura let go of her face and the woman lead them to their gate where they finally boarded their flight…
"There's something amok with this cheesecake" Maura commented as she poked at her dish with her fork.
"That's because it's sheppards pie," Jane opened her jaw wide and closed it. "Do you still feel it?"
"I feel something warm on my leg"
"Huh. I feel it in my jaw- oh my god! Whos dog is that?" Jane pointed to the jorkey peeing on Maura's leg. Maura seemed unfazed.
She flagged down an air hostess.
"Excuse me, two qeustions real quick. When do we land in Milan and who's dog just peed on my fiance's leg?"
"What do you mean whos dog? You refused to board without him when we left Milan" she replied with confusion.
Jane and Maura both looked at each other at the same time.
The consesus seems to be that you guys want me to continue with this and I'm sooo happy! I have so many ideas for this one. I think I love writing rizzles comedy almost as much as I like writing rizzles smut oms ;)
P.S The fact about pilots are true :0, you're welcome
