When they pulled up to the address of the crime scene, Korsak and Frankie were waiting outside the house. Jane and Maura went to join them, Jane holding on to Maura's arm in case her impractical heels were to sink in the muddy yard. Jane noticed Frankie and Korsak looking at her funny when they were still a few feet away.
"What?" she yelled to them. "She's wearing stupid shoes again."
"They aren't stupid, Jane. They're Jimmy Choos." As if that explained why she'd wear them to a crime scene.
"Next time, leave your Jimmy Shoes at home." Jane knew full well what they were called, but she was going to take every opportunity to irritate Maura after not getting to finish what they'd started on the kitchen counter. Anything to distract her from wanting to rip Maura's designer clothes off in front of everyone. She released Maura from her grip and met Korsak's concerned eyes. "What is it, Vince?"
Korsak ignored Jane's questioning and turned to Maura. "Let's get you inside, Doc."
Maura exchanged a confused glance with Jane and followed Korsak to the house. Jane turned to her brother. "Tell me what's going on. Now."
"We wanted to prepare you," Frankie said, looking everywhere but at Jane.
"Prepare me for what? Who the hell is in there?" Jane started toward the house, but Frankie grabbed her arm.
"It's not who, Jane. It's what." Frankie took a deep breath. "It looks like we may have another Hoyt copycat."
Jane felt ice filling her veins, but she shook it off. Charles Hoyt was dead. He couldn't torture her anymore. And more importantly, he could never touch Maura again. She didn't have time to panic over a cheap knockoff of The Surgeon.
"You okay?" Frankie asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.
She shrugged him off. "Yup. Let's go."
Jane took off for the house again and Frankie followed. "Hey, you got something…" Frankie trailed off as he caught something black falling out of the front pocket of her pants. He immediately dropped it when he realized what it was. "Ahhh," he shrieked. "What the hell, Janie?"
Jane stared at Maura's lacy underwear, now lying in the grass. She was going to kill Maura. Her face burned hot as she snatched them up and shoved them back in her pocket. "Must've happened in the laundry," she said.
She could tell Frankie didn't believe her, but she didn't want to know what he thought the truth was. On the bright side, she'd forgotten about Charles Hoyt for a whole minute.
—-
Maura saw Jane enter the living room and hurried to intercept her. Jane was wringing her hands as she walked, pressing her fingertips back and forth to her opposite palms, pressing into the scars put there by The Surgeon. Maura reached her before she could see the bodies or the teacup on the floor. She grabbed Jane's wrists and kept a loose hold as she willed Jane to look at her. Jane's dark brown eyes were filled with anger and fear, with a bit of panic creeping in. After a few seconds of looking into Maura's, the dark feelings began to subside.
"He's dead, Jane," Maura whispered, never breaking eye contact. "There is nothing else he can do to hurt you."
Jane took a deep breath. "Is this– Is it just a copycat?"
Maura couldn't lie to her. "I don't know yet."
"So it could be another apprentice. It could be someone Hoyt sent to mess with us, his way of maintaining control over me beyond the grave, his way of–"
"Jane–"
"Of making sure I'm never rid of him, of keeping me afraid–"
"Jane! Am I going to have to kiss you in front of everyone to make you stop?" Maura stepped closer to her and knew there had to be several cops and lab techs watching them.
Jane smirked. "I don't know, am I going to have to show everyone your underwear?"
Maura bit her lip, hoping no one heard that. "You found them more quickly than expected."
"Actually." Jane leaned forward to speak directly into Maura's ear. "Frankie found them."
Maura felt herself redden, from her cheeks to her chest. That hadn't exactly gone as planned. She'd hoped Jane would find them later in the squad room and come down to the morgue all fired up. "I'm sorry. Are you mad?"
"I'm feeling so many things right now, but mad at you for being sexy as hell isn't one of them." Jane took note of all the onlookers staring at them and tried to imagine what it looked like, Maura holding her wrists and Jane whispering in Maura's ear. "I'm okay," she said softly, then she stepped away and removed herself from Maura's grasp. "Will you walk me through your findings, please, Dr. Isles?"
Maura stepped over to the body propped up on the couch. White male, mid-thirties. He was dressed like he was about to go for a run, or had just gotten back from one when he was attacked. Maura indicated behind his ear. "Two cutaneous current marks three inches apart."
"Taser," Jane said. She pointed to the man's bound wrists. "Duct tape." She looked down at the floor. "Teacup. It's all here."
"There is one major distinction." Maura nodded her head toward the other side of the living room.
Jane turned to see a bar, dividing the living room from the kitchen. Bare legs could be seen on the floor past the bar. Jane walked closer until the woman's full body came into view. She was naked and the side of her neck Jane could see had a small bright red slit. Not enough to be fatal. Just enough to remind Jane of what Hoyt had done to Maura in front of her. Jane felt like the floor was waving beneath her. Maura was there quickly, an arm around her to steady her. "You're okay, Jane," she said, low enough for only Jane to hear.
"Maur, her 's just like at the prison, when–"
"I'm okay too," Maura interrupted. "We are safe. And we are going to find out who did this to her."
Jane found her footing again, but Maura didn't let go. She didn't know how Maura was maintaining such compartmentalization. Whether or not these murders were intended to be personal, they sure felt personal for Jane. Hoyt had always taken the women and left them dead in a secondary location. So whether this was a copycat or a scheme concocted by Hoyt before his death, the change meant something. Jane had to figure out what it was. "What's her cause of death?"
Maura squeezed Jane's side and released her, kneeling by the victim. She slowly moved the woman's head so Jane could see the other side of her neck, revealing multiple puncture wounds caked in blood. "The wounds appear to be four to five inches deep. I'll know for sure when I do the autopsy." She wasn't guessing, but she was giving more than she normally would due to the nature of the situation.
"What made those wounds?" Jane looked around the kitchen like she was expecting a bloody weapon to be lying around.
"Something with a sharp end, probably metal. Half an inch in diameter." Maura knew what the weapon was. She knew Jane would too.
"An ice pick? Really?"
"I didn't say–"
"You didn't have to." Jane held out a hand to Maura to help her up and was reluctant to let go. Charles Hoyt or Paddy Doyle or someone completely unrelated trying some overused tricks, whoever was behind this had done it to get Jane's attention. And Maura's.
"No ice pick has been found in the house or the yard," Korsak told them.
"It doesn't have anything to do with him," Maura said, meaning her biological father. She squeezed Jane's hand.
"I know." Jane squeezed back. "But someone wants us to think it does."
—-
Jane drove Maura's car to the precinct, unwilling to let Maura out of her sight until they were inside the secure building. Not that BPD headquarters had been all that safe for Maura in the past. She'd been taken and attacked in and around the building way more times than Jane liked to think about. They held hands on the drive, but were mostly silent. Jane was lost in her own head, running through all the possible scenarios, all of them terrifying.
"Do you think he knew they were mine?" Maura asked finally, wanting to distract Jane from her dark thoughts.
"Hmm?" Jane wondered if she'd missed the first part of the conversation.
"Frankie. When he found my–" Maura reached over and pulled her black underwear from Jane's pocket. She shoved them between the passenger seat and the center console, making a mental note to take them in the house when she got home later.
Jane chuckled, glad for the distraction. "I honestly don't know. I gave him some excuse about it happening in the laundry, but I know he didn't believe that. He had them in his hand, Maura."
Maura shuddered. "I don't like that."
"How do you think I feel?" Jane exclaimed. "I don't want anyone else anywhere near your underwear, especially not my little brother."
Maura had never been more glad she and Frankie had chosen to take their awkward kiss a few years back with them to the grave. She smiled remembering how jealous Jane had been when Tommy had kissed her. Third Rizzoli's a charm, but she regretted Jane not being her first. And not just her first Rizzoli. She wished Jane had been her first and last everything because that's how strongly she felt for the incredible woman holding her hand. "What do you think would happen? If he knew they were mine?"
"Well, he's a disgusting perv, so who knows what he would have done with them." Jane wanted to puke thinking about her brother and Maura and Maura's sexy underwear. These were all things she should not be thinking in the same thought.
"I meant if he knew about you and me. That we are– What are we?"
"In love," Jane said. "Trying very hard to be in love with benefits, if only we didn't keep getting interrupted."
"In love with benefits." Maura laughed. "I like the way that sounds."
"I don't think we need to try to put a label on it, Maura." Jane caught Maura's eye and noticed the disappointment. "Not because it isn't big enough to define," she assured her, "but because it's too big. It doesn't feel right to call you my girlfriend. It seems like we should be way past that."
"We were stubborn," Maura agreed. "You're right. Girlfriend sounds sweet, but it doesn't fit what we are."
"I feel like you're my wife." The words spilled out before Jane could stop them. "I hope that doesn't freak you out. I know it's probably way too early to use a word like that, even though it kind of feels like we've been together for years and just didn't know it, and of course I would want to do everything right before we used the word anyway, and we haven't even had sex yet, but damnit, Maur. I'm sorry. I'm rambling."
"You want to marry me?" Maura was breathless.
"Forget I said that," Jane said quickly.
"Okay," Maura's voice lowered significantly. "I'll just forget it."
Jane pulled into a parking spot, took off her seatbelt, and turned to face Maura. She took both her hands in her own. "Hey. Look at me."
Maura met her eyes and felt a little better at the enduring love she saw there.
"I said to forget it because I want it to be a little bit of a surprise when I ask you one day." Jane was shocked by the emotion in her own voice.
Maura smiled. "But what if I want to be the one to ask you?"
"We can ask each other," Jane promised.
"That sounds nice. Soon?"
"I guess we will see what happens. I'm not very good at waiting." Jane leaned over and kissed Maura, a deep and passionate kiss. One that anyone walking by could have seen.
Maura returned the kiss and pulled away slowly, allowing her teeth to scrape against Jane's lower lip. "So you're alright with people knowing about us?"
Jane considered for a moment, trying to keep her hormones at bay enough to give a real answer. "I'm okay with it. More than okay. But you know I'm not great at the big awkward life announcement thing."
"That's okay," Maura said. "We can let it happen naturally. It might be kind of fun, actually. To sneak around for a while and see who catches on and what we can get away with."
"I really like the sound of that. Speaking of, can you bite my lip again?"
Maura did, harder than the first time. Then she grabbed a fist full of Jane's hair and pulled it to the side so she could kiss down her neck. Jane moaned and Maura considered climbing on to her lap right then and there, but that would have provided a little too much free entertainment for everyone passing by. Besides, she had two autopsies to perform. The sooner she finished, the sooner she could help solve the case and give Jane back her peace of mind.
