„Stop pacing, you are making me nervous Jane!" Maura said and glanced up from the body. She was wearing black scrubs and a white coat and managed to look even sexy in them. She could probably wear a bag and look sexy like hell.
"I can't, I'm angry!" I replied. She sighed and rested the hand with the scalpel on the edge of the steel table next to the body.
"Would you care to elaborate?" she asked to my surprise. No one had ever bothered to ask me. So, most of the time I just blurted it out. This woman was really the death to all of my concepts and comfort zones.
"Because, first someone dies in my fries and then this!" I gestured towards the body in front of her. "He was the only witness we had. And now he is dead because we lost valuable time with stopping a riot."
"I get your point Jane. But he is still a witness. Who knows what we might find? And technically those weren't your fries because they were on a serving plate for everyone." She calmly replied.
Of course, she had a point in everything that she said. But I wanted to be angry now because this whole conference thing had bothered me from the start. My eyes focused on her, and I cursed. It wasn't her fault of course. It occurred to me that I didn't even know her feelings about the conference and the murders.
I stopped pacing and walked over to the steel table. "How do you feel about this all?" I asked silently and she gave me a surprised look. I could only guess that no one had ever asked her about her feelings either before. Yet, it was highly unlikely that she blurted them out like I did.
Her hand was still resting on the table when she cocked her head while thinking.
"I wasn't happy to attend the conference either." She broke the silence. "I hate those people who think that they are so funny. Mostly they get drunk and party as if this was the only reason to be there. I don't think that many people are like you – taking things serious,s if you know what I mean."
I thought of how I was wishing that I sat in the last row to play games and blushed. Maura lifted her hand to continue the Y-incision. At least I didn't want to get drunk I justified to myself.
The autopsy lasted for almost two hours, and I simply watched and listened to the words Maura spoke into a microphone. I remembered how she was a mother and how I had to do everything to protect this precious human being.
R&I
"I want you to sleep with me." I said on our ride back to the hotel. Damn, with this woman I kept saying things before thinking about my words. I glanced into a shocked face.
"Excuse me?!" Maura asked and I wet my suddenly dry lip. Coming to think of it, my whole mouth was suddenly dry as a desert.
"Not what you think. It just feels saver if we stay together." I lifted both hands in defence and hoped that she would see my point. Her silence made me nervous for the first time since meeting her.
"You have a lot from your mother, you know?" she said after a while. "At least the need to protect who you…" her voice trailed off.
"Like?" I offered with a smile although I didn't like to be compared to ma.
Maura blushed but kept her eyes on the traffic. She had been right. The traffic here was horrible. "You like me?" she asked without losing the focus on driving. Her voice was small and doubting so much so that it almost made my heart break for her.
"Yes, I like you." I simply said. "And I want you to be save. I don't have a gun, but I can still protect you. Moreover, as they say: we need safety in numbers."
The blush deepened and I watched the grip tighten on the steering wheel. I could even have sworn to hear a sniff, so I put my hand back on her knee.
"Don't!" she said in a warning tone which made me pull my hand back instantly.
"Why?" I asked taken aback by her reaction. It had been meant as a gesture of reassurance, how could she not want this?
"Because otherwise I'm going to cry." She said. "And I won't stop for a while then, I swear!"
I chuckled softly. "Okay then." I replied and was glad that we pulled back into the garage of the hotel.
"Which story are you on?" she asked suddenly while parking the car.
"15th, room 1503" I answered her question, assuming that she was asking because she wanted to bring her stuff up to my room. A flood of relief crossed my heart because I had expected her to put up a fight.
"Maybe you should move your stuff to my room." She said destroying my inner happy dance.
"What? Why?" I asked. "Which floor are you on?"
"14th." She simply said as if this would explain everything.
"And what makes the difference?" I questioned
"The difference is that I have 3 suitcases and I don't want to pack them all and move them." She nonchalantly said. I burst out laughing. "Okay, I only have one duffle bag, so it's probably more reasonable for me to move to your room." I said once I was able to speak. She hadn't laughed but I had seen the corners of her mouth moving in a very suspicious way.
R&I
The lazy ass I was, I hadn't unpacked my dufflebag. So, I only had to shuffle the few items that were out into the bag to the other stuff and was ready to go after less than five minutes. Five more minutes later I stood in front of Mauras door and knocked.
She opened the door immediately, eying my dufflebag and then me. Maybe she was considering me to be the murderer as well or she wondered how I could live with so few luggage II thought as I walked through the door into the room.
"I hope you don't mind sleeping on the side of the door. I hate sleeping on this side." She said.
"It's perfect. I always sleep on the side of the door." I replied truthfully, keeping to myself that it also had the advantage that any perpetrator would be confronted by me first which made it easier to defend the doc.
I dropped the bag to the floor next to my side of the bed and laid down to test the mattress. Maura rolled her eyes at the sight of my shoes on the bed. I should have known I thought and moved to pull of the shoes.
"And I have to warn you: I always sleep in the nude." She said.
"I don't care if you sleep with a hoodie. This sleeping arrangement is only for the purpose of safety." I managed to keep it cool. My mind though was racing. And now I didn't even have the thought of her being unreachable in a relationship to cool myself down.
"All right. I'm glad that we could settle those things." Maura chuckled. "What's next?" she asked, already reaching for her laptop. "How about I type the report for the two autopsies and you…"
"I will take some notes on my own and call Frost and see if he has got some new information for me." I finished the sentence for her. Satisfied we both started our work.
