*Okay as always I own nothing of Criminal Minds or Rizzoli & Isles just enjoying using the characters.
t
(Chapter Nine)
Jane woke up and didn't recognize the bed she was in until she sat up and it all flooded back. The memory of being hand cuffed at BPD then being transported to some holding cell at a federal building. She rubbed her hands through her hair as she thought about how messed up yesterday had been. One moment she thought she was being a great friend then everything went to hell in a hand basket. She knew Emily was angry with her but to go so far as to have a signed order that placed her in that cell over night was a bit much she thought.
She remembered riding to BPD with JJ after leaving Maura to take care of Emily's busted hand. She wondered if her best friend had actually gotten the woman to go to the hospital to get it looked at or not. She looked at her watch and it said 5:55 am and knew she wasn't getting out before 10 am if that soon with all the paperwork and politics. She was thankful to JJ who had followed and made sure that she had a cell to herself and bathroom privileges so she didn't have to use the one provided in the open cell.
A male guard came by for roll call and she asked if she could go to the rest room. A few moments later a woman came and escorted her to the facilities. When she arrived back Hotch was waiting in her cell. He stood when the guard opened the door and Jane went back in.
"Good morning Jane."
"No offense Hotch what's so good about it?" She said as she looked around her cell.
"Point taken... I brought you some coffee." He said as he handed her a tall cup of the hot liquid.
"Well now it's getting better." She said and smiled at the man as she took her first sip of morning coffee. "What brings you here at the crack of dawn?" She asked looking at him skeptically.
"A proposition."
XXXXX
Emily walked up to the crib to a fussy little girl who needed changing. "buongiorno piccolo mio" (Good morning my little one.) "You will have to excuse your madre this morning if it takes her longer in our routine. See she kind of had some issues yesterday and did some things that she would never want you to do." The little girl smiled and kicked her feet at Emily. It took her double time but she managed to change Bella and take her to the rocker so she could feed the little girl.
Emily loved the sounds of the little one drinking her milk. It made her feel so right in the world if only for that moment. She started humming to the little girl as she got lost in her thoughts about Maura and what happened after Jane left.
"Emily can I come in and look at your hand love. I promise not to talk just look."
"Yes..." was said just above the running water that she was trying to stop the bleeding with. Maura opened the door and even from where she stood she knew Emily needed to go to the hospital but she knew she would have to approach the subject lightly.
"Habibiy..."
"I know love. Have Pen call Morgan to come and look at the wall and drive us to the hospital. I have slowed the bleeding but can't get it to totally stop but I do not want to ride in an ambulance."
"Have you cut an artery love?" She asked wanting to know how serious the situation was.
"No... it's not pulsating."
"Okay... I'm going to see if Dr. Kate is on rotation but she might not be."
"I understand."
She looked at the small cast on her right hand and shook her head as she thought, "fourteen stitches and two hair line fractures." She laughed at remembering Dr. Kate's words to her. "My friend remember rage is for destruction never creating. I'm tired of seeing your destruction even though it has made it possible for my Caddy. But I would appreciate it on the installment plan instead of all in a lump sum that you seem so fond of."
Bella gurgled and she looked at her, "I'll tell you a secret if you promise not to tell anyone." The little girl just cooed and gurgled back at her. "I do like Dr. Kate a bit but that's just our secret." She said not realize that Maura was standing in the shadows watching her girls and soaking up all the tenderness of the moment or she would have never made that confession.
XXXXX
Jane looked at the man, "What kind of proposition?"
"One that I hope will help you start to understand the concept of team and bigger picture."
"No thank you. I never played well with others..." She said taking another sip of coffee. "... just ask my mother about all the black eyes and bruises."
"You are so competitive... I just can't seem to pin point whose attention your are competing for right now... Maura's or Emily's."
Jane looked up at him quickly, "What the hell are you talking about? Look... I took your advice the last time and this is where it landed me." She said rolling her eyes trying not to get irritated.
"No... you are in jail because you went rogue and decided you knew what was better in an investigation that would have jeopardized a bigger operation." Jane looked up at him totally puzzled. "Emily knew you would try and talk with Ian but she didn't need that to happen so she had the paperwork drawn up and ready for your predictable actions."
"Wait Jaclyn and Raphy went rogue but she didn't have them arrested."
"That's correct but trust me they have felt her wrath and they weren't going to blow an operation like you were."
"They were going to kill him. I was just going to talk to him..." She was saying but he interrupted her.
"If he was dead he couldn't talk...end of story. But if you gave away information then you could have gotten other people killed possibly by what he could relay."
"Why didn't she tell me this instead of sending me to the station into her trap?"
"She needed you out of her face for your own safety at the moment. From what I hear you blatantly disregarded her emotions and pushed her past her rage point which is a scary thing to even think about. Since I have known her I personally have never witnessed her rage but I imagine with all that pint up controlled emotion it can be fierce when it is freed."
"Yeah... tell me about it." Jane said remembering a bloody Emily punching the bag with the drums and JJ hanging around her waist.
"Now I could give you the profile on yourself or you can try and grow by understanding your own self with the proposition I have in this letter from Emily. She had to type it since she has a cast on her writing hand and couldn't hand write it like she wanted to."
"I was wondering about her hand. How bad is it?"
"Well she has two hair line fractures and fourteen stitches in the right one and five stitches in the left one."
"Ouch!"
"Yeah and Tylenol is all she can take for pain because she is breastfeeding." He added letting her know that it took effort on Emily's part to even type the letter. "Now I'm going to leave this here for you to read while I get you released. When I return I'm going to take you to breakfast then afterwards I want an answer."
She took the letter from him as he called for the guard to let him out. "Hotch..." She said trying to get his attention. He turned and looked at her as the cell door closed, "Thank you." He gave her a Hotch smile and turned to handle the business of getting her released.
XXXXX
Emily looked down at the little girl who had clutched her finger after being burped, "cio' che e' amore (What is it love?) cosa mi vuoi dire (What do you want to tell me?)"
"Lei sta cercando di dirvi che l'altra madre ti ama teneramente (She is trying to tell you that her other mother loves you dearly.)"
ll mio il tuo italiano e' impressionante Bella. (My your Italian is impressive Bella.)" Emily said smiling at the brown eyed girl.
"Maybe not yet but soon habibiy. We will teach her."Maura said while walking up to the side of the rocker.
"Correction... Chessie will teach her." Emily said as they both laughed knowing that the feisty five year old would make it her mission to teach Bella everything she knew. "What are you doing up so early?"
"Well my girls are up having a party so I just thought I would join in." She said as she leaned in and kissed the woman's forehead. "If that's okay with you two?"
"It's more than okay... but you are already cut off since you seem to not be able to find my lips." Emily said looking up at the woman smiling.
"Non potrei mai mancare quelle labbra incredibili... incantatore." (I could never miss those amazing lips... charmer.)" She said kissing the woman properly. Then she looked at the little girl who had drifted off to sleep with her belly full. "Well...I was going to tell our daughter that you were a handful and not to be like you but she has decided her dreams were better than our conversation it seems."
Smiling... Emily rose up and took the little girl and laid her down in her crib. "A handful hum?" She asked wrapping her arm around Maura.
"Yes..." She said and kissed the woman she loved with all her heart. "...but you are my handful."
"Always have been." She said as they started swaying to the invisible music that always seemed to be playing from their hearts for each other. Maura laid her head on Emily's shoulder and absorbed the few moments of the peace knowing that they needed to talk at some point. "Habibiy... I know we need to talk but I need a little more time and I want us to go somewhere this weekend... just us and of course Bella since I am here food source right now."
"Are you reading my thoughts again love."
"It's not hard when it's what needs to happen."
"My parents still have the house at the Cape. We could go up there if you like?"
"That sounds amazing."
"It still has the cottage house in the back if you want Charlotte to come with us to help with Bella."
"That would be an excellent idea." She said as she pulled back to look her lover in the eyes. She took the woman's hand and placed it over her heart, "I love you Maura Isles Prentiss and I gave you my heart years ago and I've never wanted it back..." She didn't get to finish because Maura caught her lips in a kiss of endearment. It started slowly and grew. She wanted to feel the woman's warmth and breath all around her and in her.
Emily walked them back to their bed with the full intention of showing the woman how much she loved her. "Your hands love..." Maura started to say but Emily put her finger up to the woman's lips. "Love knows many ways to manifest itself." She whispered into the woman's ear causing a shiver down Maura's spine starting a fire that only Emily's touch could satisfy.
XXXXX
Jane took in a deep breath and opened the envelope. Part of her wanted to read it like an impatient little kid but another part wanted to throw it away knowing that more than likely it would be filled with more words like Hotch had used. She looked at the ceiling, "Here goes nothing." She said out loud as she unfolded the letter.
My Dear Friend,
Jane dropped the letter in the floor from shock. "What the hell?" She thought to herself expecting, "What's your problem," more than "My dear friend." She shook the thoughts off by shaking her head from side to side, "Get it together Rizzoli it's just paper." She told herself as she picked it back up. "It's not going to bite you." She said feeling silly.
My Dear Friend,
Please forgive my display of anger. I will not apologize for being angry and I think you can appreciate the honesty in that. But not being able to control it is inexcusable and for that I apologize. I realize you probably do not get why I wasn't thrilled that Ian Faulkner was in custody or why you are sitting in a jail cell. I can not explain either one to you at this point and I know that it makes you angry at me or at the very least confused about things and where you fit in with everything.
This thought leaves me sad especially since I so want you to feel apart of this amazing team but you do not feel apart even though you are. Then I realized a plan to maybe help you get a better understanding of everything when I came into the waiting room of the hospital from getting a cast put on my hand. Everyone from the BAU team was there waiting on me. When I was a spy I was like you and had to only trust my skills to get through and hope my handler was there for back up but when I joined the BAU I learned my team always had my back. I learned to trust and how to be trusted.
I have asked Hotch to take you on with the BAU for a couple of weeks as a consultant but you will be there to learn from the team not consult. I know you have a job and do not want one with them. But you are part of my team by being a federal cop protecting Maura so I need you to understand the world more than being an excellent cop and depending on your guts to get the job done.
Your plan for catching Ian was luck at best. Will or someone else could have been killed taking the man in because your plan didn't have a back up plan. It would have been a great one if set up properly for a police matter but this has more parts than a simple take down. Which you would have known if you had told someone or even asked someone about it. Instead you took matters in your own hands even though the motive was golden the out come could have been disastrous because you only had parts of information.
Now I want you to know that I do see the thought behind the "why" you did what you did and I am moved just as I was moved at Raphy and Jaclyn's plan to kill the man. But I could have already had him in custody or killed a long time ago but there are reasons other than the ones that you heard me telling Jennifer, (We will need to address that issue as well but I'm still too angry to approach it in this letter.) that he hasn't been.
Anyway... the team will show you why "team" is important in dealing with the criminals that we deal with. We have to trust and depend on each other for our sake as well as our families. I know you understand how important that is deep down.
Your time with the team will consist of backing up Jennifer and Hotch if on a case and of reading past files that I am having Pen pull for you so you can get a feel of the people you will be working with when you are not on a case. You do not have to be a lone ranger anymore Jane. You have a family that does understand you but remember... trust is earned. I hope this time will give you the understanding and will gain you the trust you have been wanting from us.
Please accept this opportunity... Emily
She didn't know about all of this. On one hand it did sound like Emily was reaching out with everything in her heart but on the other hand it felt like she was being chastised as well. Hotch came to the door with the guard to release her as she placed the letter back into the envelope. She looked at him, "Let's go to breakfast and I will listen to what you have in mind. That's the best I can say at the moment."
"It's a start." He said as she left her cell in front of him.
Well I was going to ask if you wanted me to tidy this up and go into the wedding but I realize that it would cut Jane's journey short and would lessen something later. So as always the characters will dictate the story. One more chapter on Jane's journey and the couples journey then the wedding.