**DISCLAIMER – I do not own the characters, they belong to TNT and associated bodies. I also don't own the chapter title, which as ever is a song. Westlife do a lovely version.**
A/N: Ch 13 and beyond is where it gets a little more case heavy, not to mention angsty. I hope you like this little lull though, don't forget to review :-)
FLIGHTLESS ANGEL.
Chapter 12 –
You light up my life (and fill my nights with song).
"I threw myself into work, all I wanted to go was get my silver badge and get access to the evidence so I could work the case. So I could figure it out. For both of them. By 1998, I was 24; I was pretty much the level Frankie is now. I couldn't stop myself, I worked day and night, just complete tunnel-vision. I had to get up, so I could get into the case files. The week I passed my exams for my Gold Shield, Jessica's brother got in touch. He'd cracked the case."
Maura raised her eyebrows and ran her index finger around the rim of her tea-cup, not looking at
Jane.
"Jane, did you read my autopsy report this morning?" she asked quietly.
Jane bit the skin around her thumbnail, and half-smiled.
"I saw the body. I saw Matthew. I didn't need to," she mused, looking out of the window at the rain illuminated by the street lights. "We got the wrong guy. I always knew it. I always said it. No-one listened. They were just so happy to have closed it. To make it go away. To see families stop grieving. Girls in parks stop worrying. But I always knew."
Maura looked at her, pointedly. Studying the hardened features. Jane's eyes glistened in the faint light, tiptoeing it's way into the darkened room, just lighting up Jane enough to see the tears making their way down her cheek. She looked tortured, full of secrets Maura would give the world to hear, to unburden her of their weight, if nothing else. This woman was such a closed book that it both troubled and fascinated Maura. Jane was so willing to put her life on the line day in, day out; to experience the darkest nights of days, but she would never share her load. Jane was a solitary creature, much like Maura. But Maura had found her kin in Jane, and revelled in the solace she found within them. The trick now, Maura had established, was finding a way to help Jane do the same. Maura knew there was one sure way of doing this - to solve the riddles enveloping Jane; to free her of their strangle. There was only one sure-fire way to do that, by letting Jane come to her and to use science as a mode of faith.
"Jane, I know tonight has been a lot for you," Maura spoke finally, after ten minutes of studying her companion.
Jane's eyes turned to the blonde, almost in surprise, that she had forgotten she was in company.
"I'm going to head home, your Mother will be worried and we both have an early start. Give me your 'phone." Jane looked at her with a glance of doubt, before handing the device over.
Maura seemed to be transferring something between the 'phones, the ping of Jane's device signalling that the transfer had been successful; Maura pushed the comforter off her gently, and stood before walking over to the door and putting her shoes back on, picking up her purse.
She doubted herself briefly and looked at the screen of Jane's 'phone that she still held, 3.52am. Maura did not know whether her next course of action would be appropriate in any other circumstance, but in a rare display of instinct versus logic, she followed her emotions; walking slowly and quietly to where Jane's eyes watched her silently from, reached out her hand and whispered, "Bed."
Jane followed silently as she allowed herself to be walked to bed, to be helped to lie down, and to be kissed wordlessly on the temple; as Maura turned on the bedside lamp, tapped a few times on the screen of Jane's phone and set it on the table beside the lamp, whispering, "You're the only person I'm interested in dating, Jane. Don't doubt me" She touched Jane's cheek with the tips of her fingers, finding all the apology she needed in the eyes of the broken woman, blinking sleepily.
"The nightmares don't come if I play this before bed," as she kissed Jane once more on the forehead, as 'Paradise Road' filled the room and Maura made her way home.
Maura made her way into the bullpen just before 9am, carrying "Jane's coffee". She regularly stopped off to pick up coffees on the way to work, especially if she knew Jane had been up late the night before. She stopped at an empty desk, eyeing the note, held down with the mouse of Jane's computer.
Maur,
померите миша .
J.
PS – Don't get mad, but by the time you read this, there will be a Rizzoli shaped ass getting very comfy in your seat.
Maura smiled, and shook her head briefly, before sitting in Jane's seat and moving the mouse of the computer, as requested. On-screen, she was startled by the headline that greeted her:
"BCU student found dead in Boston Common: BPD and District Attorney face tough questions about validity of Peter Cranston conviction."
Cranston convicted in 1999 for murder of BPD cadet Melissa Grey.
DNA plant evidence used for first time in Massachusetts conviction.
Convicted of 4 further killings; prosecution case established a pattern of mistakes in the killer's M.O.
Cranston has always maintained innocence.
Maura read the page twice, before closing the tab and grabbing Jane's coffee, heading towards the elevator for the Morgue.
As Maura swung through the doors, she spotted a very sleepy, and very cute; Jane Rizzoli, with her feet on Maura's desk, slumped down in her chair, and just about dosing off to the strains of 'Paradise Road' that filled the room.