Oops, I Did It Again – Chapter 5
It had been almost two weeks since the incident with Crowe and Jane noticed that she hadn't seen Crowe in a few days. "Frost, where the hell is Crowe? I mean don't get me wrong, I'm happy I haven't bumped into him lately. I would be happy if I never saw him again."
"Oh, I guess you haven't heard, he has been suspended without pay for two weeks while HR works on the complaint that was filed on your behalf by Korsak. Cavanaugh and Korsak worked with HR to file all the appropriate paperwork. Sexual harassment charges have been filed. They are reviewing all statements to see if a hate crime charge might be filed as well. He talked himself into a serious situation." Frost explained.
"What, how come nobody told me?" Jane asked a little furious. She was taking deep breaths trying to keep herself calm. She pulled out her worksheet that Maura had given her and started writing on it. This situation definitely qualified as an entry on the worksheet.
"We are not supposed to talk about it. I shouldn't even be telling you. I could get in trouble from Cavanaugh. We all had to sign statements saying we would not discuss it so you cannot tell anybody that I told you. You are my partner and I feel strongly that you have a right to know. Please don't tell anyone though. I have your back and I am praying that you will have mine. If you have to tell anyone your therapist would be the one person that I would recommend you talk to about this."
"Frost, I will always have your back, we're partners and that is what good partners do. Thank you for confiding in me." Jane told Frost. She was proud that her partner thought enough of her to share even though he wasn't supposed to.
Frost went on to explain that several women had heard about the incident between Jane and Crowe and came forward that they had similar experiences with Crowe. These ladies went to HR after speaking with their supervisors. The situation was far worse than HR had initially thought.
"Always partner, now we need to start working on the next cold case. Korsak said we can select one of my cases as we just did one from his and yours."
"Oh, hey I am fine with that, what ya got?"
They spent the next few hours reviewing the case and filling out the murder board. They listened to interviews and watched all the videos. They didn't come up with any new leads, so they went over all the leads that they detectives had worked. They had a quick lunch at the District One Café and went right back at the case. At 6 PM they decided to call it a night. They would pick the case back up in the morning if they didn't catch a new case.
They spent the next two days working on this case and didn't come up with anything new. Jane was getting frustrated, she didn't like when they couldn't solve a case. She needed a break from the case. It was Wednesday and she had her appointment with Maura. She left work at 2 PM and went home and changed into comfortable clothes and picked up Jo Friday.
She took Jo Friday to her session. Jo took to Maura right away. Their bench was near the dog park so Jane let Jo play in the dog park for a brief time while they talked. Jane told Maura all about the sexual harassment case that was filed against Crowe on her behalf by her supervisor. Maura could hear the relief in Jane's voice that Crowe was facing some sort of punishment for his behavior. She knew that Jane was upset by the fact that it seemed like Crowe hadn't received any type of punishment for his behavior and she was suspended for hers. Jane didn't like that things didn't seem fair.
Jane shared the worksheet with Maura so she could see that Jane was participating in the activity, her homework as Jane called it. Maura was pleased that Jane had been using the worksheet. She brought her laptop so they could view a PowerPoint presentation about anger warning signs. They reviewed all the warning signs. They discussed the physical, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive signs.
Jane shared with Maura how she paces when she is thinking or angry, sometimes both. She was recognizing the warning signs in her actions. Now that she understood the warning signs, she had ways to deal with that anger and could avoid further altercations.
Jo Friday wanted to come back over to them so she was standing at the gate giving a little bark. Jane walked over to the dog park and retrieved Jo and then came back over to finish her session with Maura.
Jane was finding she never wanted her time with Maura to end, she was enjoying talking with her. What Maura said really did help keep her calm. Jane's not sure that she would have followed the advice if someone else would have given it to her. Jane sat back down with Jo at her feet and looked at Maura and asked, "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"
Maura hesitated for a few seconds and then replied, "No." She was a little apprehensive wondering what Jane was going to ask.
"Being a detective, I tend to notice things. Last week you had a wedding ring on and this week you don't seem to be wearing it. Are you married? I know you don't have to answer, I am just curious because you never mentioned anything about a spouse or children when we were discussing ourselves."
"I am a widower. My wife died in an automobile accident in San Francisco. That was a huge factor for me moving back to Boston. So many things reminded me of Melody. The restaurants we ate at, the shops, parks and clubs we went to, just everything. I decided a few weeks ago that it was time to take the ring off and found it hard to do. This morning when I woke up, I took the ring off and placed the ring with Mel's in my jewelry box on my dresser and came to work, so today is the first day that I have not worn it since she died."
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." Jane said as she lowered her head. She didn't know what to say.
"No, Jane, I am fine, it is a process. Even though it has been a while it is still an adjustment. When you get married, you think you have your whole life in front of you and then something like a car accident changes everything." Maura told Jane.
"I know our time is up, I didn't want our time to end on such a sad note." Jane said, she was struggling to find something to say.
"It's fine Jane, you had no way of knowing. This just came out at the end of our time, please don't feel bad. Talking about it is also part of the process and I am glad that I was able to share this part of me with someone. I know I am supposed to be counseling you, but maybe it just worked that you were able to provide some comfort to me." Maura said as she stood up and knelt down to say goodbye to Jo. Jo's tail was wagging like crazy, she liked Maura. Maura was just scratching her head and Jo was eating up the attention. Jane smiled as she held onto Jo's leash. Maura rose up and smiled at Jane. "Goodbye Jane. I will see you next Wednesday."
"Bye Maura." Jane said as Maura turned and walked back towards her office. Jane started to walk with Jo and Jo quickly went after Maura. "No Jo, we are going home. Maura has to go back to work." Maura turned to see Jo trying to run towards her. She walked back towards Jane and Jo. "Sorry, I guess Jo felt like going with you."
"No problem, Jane." Maura said as she reached down to scratch Jo's chin. "Oh, you like being scratched right there, don't you?" Jo barked and Maura smiled. "You are such a special girl, aren't you?" Maura said in a soft voice as if she was talking to a child.
"I think she likes you." Jane said as she tried to reign Jo in and get her to come to her. Jo wasn't having anything to do with Jane she wanted to be with Maura.
"Jo, Maura needs to go back to work." Jo just looked at Jane and made a little whimper and walked back over to Jane. When Maura started to walk away again Jane walked the other way with Jo so she could have a little bit of a walk before they hopped into the car for the drive home.
