Oops, I Did It Again – Chapter 26
They left Jane's parent's house and walked hand in hand to the car. Each of them had a huge smile on their face. They felt as though the dinner had gone well. When they got to the car Jane opened Maura's door for her. As Maura went to get into the car Jane stopped her. She spun her around and pushed her up against the car and kissed her. She had been dying to kiss her all evening. She couldn't wait any longer.
Maura was stunned at first but she enjoyed the kiss. Although she would rather be inside the car instead of pushed up against it. When Jane broke the kiss so she could breathe, she helped Maura get inside the car and then closed the door. Jane ran over to the other side of the car and got in. "I'm sorry, Maura, I just couldn't wait any longer to kiss you."
"It's fine Jane. I had missed kissing you all evening. I'm not use to having to hold back my emotions, especially from you." Jane leaned over and kissed her again. She could spend every waking moment kissing Maura and not get bored. She loved kissing her. They continued to kiss until the need for air stopped them again. "I think we should leave your parent's street though and maybe go home." Maura offered.
"Yeah, I think that is a great idea. At home I can kiss you all I want in private. Might even do a few other things to you in private." A huge smirk appeared on Jane's face and Maura smiled at the thought of what Jane could do to her and with her.
"Why don't you take me home and show me what you could do to me and with me in private." Maura said as she reached over and took Jane's right hand in hers and placed their hands in her lap.
Jane started the car and after making sure if was safe she pulled out and headed home. She didn't need to be told twice. Jane just smiled as she squeezed Maura's hand. Maura brought their joined hands up to her chest and cupped them with her other hand before moving their joined hands up so she could kiss Jane's hand. Jane just smiled. She wanted to look over at Maura but she was driving so she just squeezed her hand again.
Maura could tell that Jane was pleased that her father didn't act up. Jane had been worried and it was causing Jane to be anxious. Anxiety was not good for Jane. She had a high-pressure job and with the high-profile case they were working on Jane didn't need any added stress.
As a trained therapist Maura used all of her training and anything she could think of to help Jane keep her stress level down. Jane's love for her father ran deep. Maura could only keep reassuring her that her father needed time. As long as he kept taking baby steps there was a possibility that their relationship would be alright. Her father might see his way through his believing that her relationship with Maura was a sin. Jane was trying to not let it stress her but it was on her mind. She couldn't help it, her relationship with her father was one of the longest relationships in her life and she looked up to her father.
Monday morning Jane's forensic genealogist friend called to let her know that he had discovered some information. He was not finished researching but he wanted to update her and provide what he has found so far, knowing that any information might help them. He discovered that she had a twin brother that was pronounced dead at birth but hadn't died.
Hospital records were sketchy but he was trying to find out everything he could about what happened to this twin after he was born. He provided her with a list of her known relatives and how much of a genetic match they were to her based on their DNA. None of the people on the list had the correct amount of genetic markers they were looking for. He didn't want to guess but he was leaning to the fact that the missing twin brother might be the person with the correct number of genetic markers that they were looking for.
Jane thanked him and said that she was looking forward to what he would turn up and that if he needed any help to please let her know. She disconnected the call once she verified that she had received his email detailing everything they had just discussed. Jane forwarded the email to Maura and went downstairs to talk to her.
"Hey Maur." Jane said when she arrived at Maura's office. Maura looked up at her and motioned for her to come in. She was on the phone with one of her lab techs. After another minute the call ended and she turned her attention to Jane.
"Hello Jane. I see I have an email from you is that what you came down to discuss?" Maura asked as she smiled at her.
"Yes, Maur. Plus, I wanted to see my beautiful girlfriend." Maura smiled at her as Jane moved behind Maura's desk so she could look at the email with her. She gave Maura a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek as Maura clicked on the button to open the email.
"Oh, interesting." Maura replied and then continued, "So, he doesn't have any DNA on the missing twin brother?"
"No, but you can see that none of the other family members genetic markers line up like the sample we have. His theory is that the missing twin brother is our suspect."
"This is not how I envisioned this case turning out. I have read studies about hospitals taking a twin after telling the parents that the baby had died and then they sell the baby on the black market. It seems as though this twin found his missing sibling somehow and killed her."
"Yes, he is still researching and will keep in touch with me. So, I guess there is nothing else we can do right now."
"Well not about him, but we still need to figure out how the other victims fit in?"
"Of course, we are still running through all of the victim's daily lives, financials, etc, to find a link between them. So far, we have not been able to find any link between the victims. Frost has a computer program looking for similarities. It is an interesting computer program. He is really smart when it comes to that side of our investigations."
"He is. You each have your strengths that you bring to your team that makes your team stronger." Maura added.
"Yes, we do. I think that is why we have such high closure rates. Korsak, Frost and I with your assistance will only increase our closure rates." Jane commented.
"Thank you, Jane. I appreciate the vote of confidence." Maura said as she continued to smile at Jane.
"Maur, I have seen your work. If we would have had you all this time, we probably would have had an even high closure rate. When we get a chance, I'm sure you might be able to help us close some of our cold cases. Especially once your new fancy equipment arrives. I know way more about forensic lab equipment then I ever thought I would know in my lifetime." Jane informed Maura who just smiled and tilted her head to the side and raise her shoulders in a 'sorry' motion.
Jane loved how knowledgeable Maura was about almost everything. She made it her mission to find something that Maura didn't know. It would happen at some point during their lifetime, Jane was sure about that.
"Yes, the new equipment will help speed up the process and we will be able to close cases faster. I am looking forward to the arrival of the new state of the art equipment. I just can't believe the state is spending that kind of money on the equipment." Maura replied and pondered why they were spending that amount of money on her lab.
"They have faith in you and know that it will be well worth any amount of money they spend. Plus, you are the Chief, Medical Examiner and that does have some perks, right?"
"Yes, Jane there are some perks that go with the office and I guess new equipment is one of them. That was a very nice comment about the Governor having faith in me Jane. It is after 11, do you want to grab some lunch?"
"Yes, I would love to grab lunch, let me go tell the guys. Meet you at the car in 10 minutes?" Jane replied as her stomach started to grumble a little. Maura heard her stomach and smiled at Jane. She had learned early on that Jane is always hungry and her stomach let her know when she really needed to eat. Maura had never met anyone whose stomach talked so much.
"That sounds great, Jane, why don't you invite Vince and Barry. I still want to get to know them a little better and I should be taking every opportunity available to build my working relationship with them." Maura told a retreating Jane.
Jane turned and said, "Okay, I will see if they want to go with us." Jane then left to go check with the guys and let them know she was going to lunch.
When Jane arrived in the bullpen she told the guys, "Hey, Maura and I were thinking about going to the café down the street or the Dirty Robber to get some lunch. Would you two like to join us?"
They both looked at each other and said, "Sure." With that they got up and all went to the car downstairs to meet Maura. They opted to go to the Dirty Robber as they all liked their cheeseburgers. Maura thought that Jane ate too many of the greasy burgers but she was not going to correct her eating habits in front of her coworkers. Jane appreciated that. She knew Maura would probably make her eat a salad for dinner. She thought salads were rabbit food and she despised eating them, but she would if Maura asked her.
At lunch Maura told the team about an email she had sent Jane's forensic genealogist friend. She had asked if he could take pictures of the victim and her parents along with the birth information of the twins and project what the male twin might look like. Maura had read about that in one of her science magazines and thought it was worth a try. She was waiting to hear back from him.
"Now, see Dr. Pike, never would have done anything like that for us. It seemed as though he did the bare minimum. He left promptly at 5 PM each day unless he was in the middle of an autopsy. But if a body came in right before 5 PM, he had it put in the fridge and would do the autopsy in the morning." Korsak commented.
Maura had heard tons of negative stories about Dr. Pike and another medical examiner named Dr. Popov. She would have to check on their credentials and see if they needed to be retrained or removed from the program. She had some promising new students in her current class that she hoped would continue their studies and become medical examiners. She could already tell that she was going to need to hire about four more full-time medical examiners.
Over the next three months she was slated to visit each of the satellite medical examiner offices and inventory equipment and evaluate the staff. She was not looking forward to the evaluation process but it needed to be done. It was one of her recommendations to the Governor that she would be discussing in greater detail with him. She was taking her job very seriously and wanted to excel in her new job.
She already had one of her office assistants busy on cataloging all of the current and past cases that had come through her office. The assistant was also identifying which cold cases had evidence that might be able to be reran once the new equipment had arrived. It was a huge tasking and the office assistant assured Maura that she was up for the job and would complete the tasking as quickly as possible.
Maura had authorized the use of two temporary employees for one month to assist with the tasking. The temporary employees must complete a thorough background check before beginning work. All HIPPA guidelines still needed to be followed even though the clients were dead.
Jane, Frost and Korsak were all impressed when Maura told them about what was going on in her division. They were all so happy that the Governor had offered Maura the position. Maybe they would get lucky and have some of their cold cases solved because of this new fancy equipment Maura would be receiving.
After lunch they went back to the precinct and continued working. They needed to find leads in this case. This case was overwhelming and they needed to think way outside the box to solve this case. Lt. Cavanaugh thought if any team could do it, it was this team and that is what he was counting on. This was his 'A Team' and with the addition of Maura, they were now his 'A+ Team.' BPD needed this case to be solved and not become a cold case.
They ended their workday around 9 PM. The whole team was tired and Korsak said to call it a day and be back fresh and ready to work at 8 AM. Jane sent a text to Maura to see if she was ready to go home. Her reply was instant, 'yes.' Jane went downstairs and escorted Maura to her cruiser and they went home.
They had leftovers for dinner and then after going through their nighttime routine they joined each other in bed. Jane was asleep within five minutes of snuggling up to Maura. Maura listened to her light snore and a few minutes later the rhythm of Jane's snore put Maura to sleep.
