"Go ahead Janie, I'll be right here," she said as she took her seat and picked her magazine back up, opening it to the page where she left off.
...
Jane slowly made her way to a private bathroom to get herself cleaned up. For the first time, she was able to see the damage that her body had taken. She carefully removed her tank top, inhaling sharply when the fabric stuck to some of the dried blood on the large cuts and scrapes all down the right side of her body that made themselves apparent as she looked in the mirror. There was blood still on her cheek, neck and hands. She pulled a towel out of the bag that Angela had packed. It was in moments like this that Jane really appreciated her mother, although she would never tell her that. It was like the older woman knew everything she needed before she even knew she needed it. Jane smiled to herself as she realized just how amazing her mother truly was.
Using the towel to both clean and dry her skin, she was starting to look more 'normal'. She sat down on the toilet and began pulling off her pants one leg at a time, excruciatingly slowly. Being careful not to touch her now stitched wound, she removed her pants and threw them right in the trash in the bathroom. "There's no use saving those," she chuckled to herself. She dug through the bag, looking for the clothes that her mother brought for her. Thankfully, she grabbed a plain gray v-neck, a pair of jeans and her old, worn out converses. She was relieved that it wasn't some frilly sweater or something that her mother would've liked to see her in. "You never know when you might meet someone," she mocked her mother out loud.
After taking entirely too long to put on her jeans, she took one last look at herself in the mirror. Her hair looked wild and still had dried blood in it. She decided to rinse out as much as she could in the sink and throw it up in a ponytail. This would have to do until she could have a proper shower. She smoothed some of the wrinkles out of her shirt, grabbed her crutches and the bag and left the bathroom. She started to wander down the hallways that she was becoming all too familiar with at this point. She passed a Nurse's Station and stopped to ask if she was headed in the right direction.
"Are you Detective Rizzoli?" the receptionist asked.
"Boy news travels fast around here," she chuckled.
"It's not every day we have a hero grace our hallways!"
"Oh, I'm no hero. Just...helping out a friend."
Just then, Nurse Rachel came around the corner and walked behind the receptionist at the Nurse's Station. She put a hand on the receptionist's shoulder.
"Detective Rizzoli here is, in fact, a hero. Don't let her tell you otherwise. Dr. Isles is one lucky girl," Rachel said, sending a smirk in Jane's direction.
"Your girlfriend," Rachel started.
"Friend..." Jane interrupted. "We're just friends."
Both Rachel and the receptionist shared a look. Jane just stood there in disbelief.
Jane was confused. If she didn't know any better, Jane would say Rachel was trying to figure out her sexuality. Was she flirting with her? Was she just curious? Did she think that she and Maura were... Oh crap.
"Well your 'friend' is right down the hall in the third room on the left," the receptionist said, pointing towards Maura's room.
"Thank you," Jane said. She started to walk down the hall when she turned back to face the receptionist, her mouth opening as if she was about to say something.
"Did you need something, Detective?"
Jane stood in thought for a moment before responding. "No, I'm good, thank you."
She smiled and turned back around and continued her journey to Maura's room. "Am I crazy or do they think Maura and I are a couple?" Jane thought to herself before making it to the door.
