A/N: This is a little bit of a transition chapter. Also, there is a Maura/Tommy love scene if you're avoiding that type of thing, but it is the last one for like three chapters!
Maura took a moment to sit in her car, letting the twilight pour in through the driver's side window, accepting the calm it gave her. She'd taken her heels off for the drive home, and she sighed when she thought about having to put them on again before her walk to the front door.
Summer in Boston continued to bring out the violence in its citizens: humidity, struggle, and late nights created a murderous elixir, apparently, and it felt as though every body she'd encountered since May had been in an un-air-conditioned apartment building with no elevator, and had been sitting, sometimes for days. She knew it was morbid, but she wished that at least once, someone would get murdered in a country club, or a Costco, or an ice rink… any place set to seventy degrees or less.
She took a deep breath, deciding it was time. She grabbed her shoes from the passenger seat and slipped them on, and then made her way into the courtyard, fishing around in her purse for her keys. The drop of the lock mechanism was satisfying, signalled home, and the waft of cool air and cleaning solution immediately ratcheted down her stress.
"Hey Maura," a masculine, Boston-bred voice called from under the kitchen sink. "Don't freak out, it's just me."
Maura sighed, wondering what had happened between her coffee that morning and this very moment that would necessitate a Rizzoli plumber. "Hi, Tommy," she said, tiredly, but not without affection. With her bag and heels safely deposited in the front hall, she walked over to the kitchen, and knelt next to the body lying face up under the trap of her plumbing. "May I ask what's happened?"
He sat up, legs far out in front of him, torso crunched, arms loose. "Well," he said, gaining back regular breathing, "You can't tell Ma I told you, ok? It'd kill her."
"O...k…" Maura tentatively agreed, afraid of what was coming.
"But she accidentally put potato peels in the garbage disposal. And she called me at like noon to come take care of it, and I meant to, but then I got held up at a job until about an hour ago. I wanted to have it done before you got home, I really did, but things just happened. Don't be mad at her," Tommy asked.
His explanation was simple, and endearing. He was thinking only of his mother, who honestly did things like this often. Maura supposed it was the price she paid for family and some of the best home cooked meals she'd ever had. She'd pay it a thousand times, too, not only for the sense of belonging, but for the handsome man in front of her being very protective of Angela. The way any of the Rizzoli children would have been. "The secret's safe with me," Maura said, consumed with the need to be conspiratorial.
Tommy's wink said she'd succeeded. "Thanks. You know how she gets. Anyway, you've got a fancy-ass disposal system, so I had to take extra care. But… I think it's all done," he said, wiping his hands on his jeans, speckled with dried paint.
It was then that Maura took him in for the first time, from head to foot. There were tiny flecks of white primer in his hair, a smattering of colors on his white t-shirt along with a logo from the painting company that had hired him, and dark, tapered work jeans that led to worn-in, faded boots.
This was the Rizzoli ensemble. Frankie had his uniform, Jane wore her suits, and Tommy often hung around in shorts and a t-shirt no matter the weather, but this was how they actually looked. Saturdays were filled with Italian-American gumption poured into work clothes, especially recently, given that they had been fixing up the old house to sell. Frank senior had spent so much time working on other people's homes that he had neglected his own, and his children had filled in without so much as a seam when he abandoned Angela. Maura had offered several times to pay someone to do all the odd-jobs that needed completion, but pride born of poverty and the inability to depend on anyone else but themselves prevented all three siblings from taking her up on it.
So, they looked like this - dirty and handy and all types of attractive. Maura had established a habit of taking them lunch on the weekends they spent at the family house, just so that she could sneak a peek at Frankie on a ladder, or Tommy's triceps flexing behind a large paint roller, or Jane taking a sledgehammer to the outdated shower in the upstairs bathroom her parents had once shared.
But, this time, she had one of them in her house, alone. She intended to take advantage. "Mmm," she hummed as she leaned forward on her knees to kiss him, "dinner? You can help me like you did last week."
Tommy, to his credit, gawked at her for only the most fleeting of seconds. Then he recovered. "Y-yeah," he said, "sure. Just let me get the water back on and test this out."
Maura nodded, and let him get up. She studied him as he walked toward the back door, hips steady just like his brother's - only Jane had that cocky hitch - and she decided that she would test just how steady they could be.
Tommy grimaced as he thrust quickly. He attempted to follow the cadence of Maura's moaning, but ended up little more than derailed by the visual of her back arched and her head against the mattress. He stood at the edge of the bed, her calves on his chest, her ankles near his shoulders, and tried valiantly to maintain speed, depth, and strength all while she was making all those sexy-ass noises.
"Oh fuck…" she said as soon as she trailed a hand from above her head to between her legs, and touched herself.
He sighed with relief and arousal at once. "There you go," he panted, encouraging her, "get that shit." He was a modern man, not above admitting when he needed help, and not above taking direction when a woman gave it to him. It didn't even bother him when she seemed to ignore him, rubbing tight circles all on her own. His quads burned so intensely, he didn't care - in fact, it was the signal needed to let go and get his own.
As soon as Maura froze, and then writhed through her release slowly, eyes closed off to the entire world around her, he removed himself and finished. "Fuck," he said, walking to the bathroom to trash his protection and then collapsing sideways on the bed next to her.
"I'll say," Maura finally replied, releasing one breathy giggle as she turned her head to look at him.
He smirked back at her. "I should come by and fix things more often," he joked, and Maura placed the back of her hand on his chest in acknowledgment.
"Well, usually Jane takes care of the small things," she said honestly. "But that doesn't mean you can't come over just for this."
"Yeah?" Tommy asked timidly, as if unsure that she'd actually keep wanting to sleep with him.
"Of course," Maura said, now with her head propped up on her palm to look down at him. "We're both single, consenting adults. Why not, until one of those things changes?"
"I like that plan," Tommy said. "It's real logical."
"Of course it is," Maura said, proud of herself. "But I think we need some rules if we're going to keep seeing each other."
Tommy readjusted his neck on the flat mattress and Maura tossed him a pillow from the head of the bed. "Thanks," he said, laying on it. "What kinda rules?"
"Well… We've already established some. For example, I am not going to ask you to stop seeing whomever else it is you're seeing."
"I wouldn't ask you that either," Tommy said seriously.
"Well, I'm not seeing anyone else right now, but I appreciate that. If I do, we agree to not ask about those other arrangements," replied Maura.
"Deal," said Tommy.
"But because we are not exclusive, that means protection is paramount. I've been doing my part by taking an oral contraceptive, but you need to do yours by bringing your own condoms. I haven't minded sharing my stash with you, but I think you should contribute. You can buy a box and leave it here if you want," Maura explained. "I don't want to get pregnant right now, and I also want both of us to stay healthy. And you need to show me you're as committed to that as I am."
Tommy blushed. "That's fair," he adjusted well to being taken to task, even if she were doing it gently. "I'll drop by the store tomorrow."
"Excellent!" Bubbly Maura was back, and then she flopped onto her back again, with her shoulder nudging his. They swung their legs back and forth a bit, enjoying each other's company and their settling heart rates, before Maura spoke again. She was quiet this time. "And I don't think it would be appropriate for you to spend the night. At least not in my bed."
Tommy met her gaze and communicated his severity. "You're right. That's how people catch feelings."
"Exactly, and I'm not interested in that," Maura said, leaving the rest unsaid, that she wasn't interested in that with him.
But, Tommy surprised her. "Yeah, totally, Maura," he started. "I'm just lookin' for a good time. And you and me have a good time, you know?"
"I'm so glad we're on the same page," Maura said, with a wide smile on her face. She ran a fingertip down the length of his left arm, and then patted his hand. "Now, I've got an early morning and I need to shower. See you soon?"
"He said what? And you don't think you deserve better than that?" Jane exclaimed loudly, not caring if any passing lab techs happened to hear her. She sat on the sofa in Maura's office, mouth half-full of leftover dinner that her mother had brought over the night before.
They had been talking about Tommy. Jane tried to listen to Maura recount the story with as much patience as she could muster, and it only took three reminders that she didn't need to hear the sexual particulars. She drew the line at her brother's stupidity.
Maura, however, didn't understand. She sat on the chair just to Jane's right, eating her own salad with a look of confusion. "He said he was just looking to have a good time. And, Jane, that's what I want, too. That's all I want."
Jane sighed and wiped her face with a napkin. She wanted to really fucking think before she spoke, because Maura looked so put together in her floral patterned dress and black heels, and no one that pretty should be sad or upset, especially because of something their best friend said. "I don't mean that you deserve a relationship, per se. I mean you deserve a guy who's gonna be madly in love with you even if you're not madly in love with him. Christ, he somehow finds a way to experience the pleasure of your company… in the bedroom, and he's not climbing all over himself to try and marry you? Maybe he does have a head injury."
Maura's face softened considerably from the beginning of Jane's tirade to the end of it. When Jane finished, she was quiet, smiling indulgently and crossing her legs.
"What?" Jane snapped, still in the throes of her annoyance.
Maura shook her head. "You're very old-fashioned," at that, Jane balked, so Maura revised. "Romantic. It's another thing I like about you." Jane cleared her throat, but said nothing in response, so Maura took her chance to continue. "But I don't know how else to tell you that Tommy and I are pursuing a purely transactional sexual relationship totally separate from our platonic feelings for each other."
"And I'm saying that it doesn't make sense to me," Jane argued. "Well, maybe for you it does. You're affluent and liberated and went to a four-year college. Not to mention you're practically European. But he's not any of those things, and for a guy who's not any of those things to feel nothing after being with you… that doesn't make sense."
"You know, I'm surprised at how much more modern your brother is compared to you, Jane," Maura said sternly, but she contrasted it with the way she pushed her way into the seat next to Jane. "Don't think less of him because he wants something different than you would want."
Jane flushed and crossed her arms. "I'm not saying that it's what I would want, Maura. In fact, I'll have you know I work such crazy hours that I, too, often just want no strings attached stuff. I'm saying you're different, though. If you don't inspire, I dunno, passion in him, who the hell ever will? And why should you waste your time with anyone who doesn't see your worth?"
Maura decided to let the conversation die, yet again, but she walked away from it with more affection in her chest for Jane than she'd had before. "I'm flattered your opinion of me is so high, even if I feel your ire for your brother is misplaced. It's just as viable an arrangement for two adults to know what they want and get it from each other as it is for him to be in love with me."
"Yeah, I know," Jane said. She sucked her teeth and put her hand on Maura's knee, her palm large enough to cover nearly all of it with heat. "I'll get used to it, promise."
Maura laughed softly. "I still like you more; don't ever worry about that, ok? Your friendship is way more valuable to me than what I get from him."
Jane, again assuaged, actually smiled, even though it was small, sheepish. "Ok. I gotta get back upstairs to process these confiscated weapons from the Fischer house. See you later?"
"Sure. Come over? We don't have to talk about him, or sex, or anything else that you don't want to," Maura rose from her seat, holding her hand out for Jane to join her. When Jane stood in front of her, full height and then some in her boots, she smoothed the starched fabric of Jane's button-up shirt, just over the left side of her chest. It was a gesture she'd given Jane a thousand times, starting as a way to calm her most dangerous impulses, now more like a reminder that Maura saw her. Knew her.
"Yeah, sounds good. I'll pick up a pie at Nick's," said Jane, on her way to the door.
"Good luck with your evidence," Maura called after her. She removed her white coat so that when Jane left, she could put on her scrubs.
"Good luck with the dead guy," Jane teased, and then she was gone.
P.S. Jane is so oblivious.