Title: Speaking A Dead Language
Author: WtUnite [Chedders/Jess]
Rating: M
Pairing: Jane/Maura
Status: 3/?
Category/Warnings: Violence, Angst, Established Relationship
Spoilers: General TV Series spoilers/finale spoilers.
Summary: There was a revolving door on the position, putting new Medical Examiners in with alarming frequency.
A/N: Sorry that this chapter is epicly short, but you'll have more soon enough. Just remember to leave us lovely reviews.
Nowadays Jane hated the Morgue almost as much as she hated the revolving door on the position, putting new Medical Examiners in with alarming frequency. None of them had stuck after…after Maura left. And Jane had started avoiding the Morgue, as much as possible when she was Lead Detective on more than a few cases. Being there made her miss Maura even more and none of the 'replacements' were good enough, to Jane's eyes at least.
Grumbling, Jane made her way to the Morgue. Frost was busy doing something technical and way over his partner's head. Frankie was out getting coffee, the duty of the low man on the totem pole. And Korsak's knee had been bothering him. Riding down in the elevator Jane couldn't even remember the name of the current ME, if she ever knew it. She'd gotten good at avoiding the Morgue.
"Maura?"
Turning back, her hair was in the bun that she had always wore when working in the Morgue. It was almost like she had never really left. Taking off the gloves, Maura turned fully face Jane, trying to give her a smile that faltered in the end.
"I suppose Barry forgot to tell you," she stated after a moment. Getting back her position had been a lot easier than she would've thought, but it was soothing. Nothing had really changed her and even after giving up her job, she still knew what she was doing after all of the years away.
"Guess it slipped his mind." The problem is that Frost didn't forget things like that. He was notorious for loosing his keys or forgetting to get more coffee when he ran out. He didn't forget to tell people important things like this. "So you're back? Like for good?" Jane asked after a moment of awkward silence.
It was disconcerting how much this brought everything back. How much she missed Maura, how much she had screwed up. But mostly it reminded her of how she found out that Maura had left. Instead of finding Maura in the Morgue it had been some ratty, self-absorbed little man. He introduced himself as the ME. Something else Frost had forgotten to tell her.
"For now," she answered softly after a moment. Maura wasn't going to promise that she was staying around, because there was no guarantee that she would. Leaving last time had been a decision she had told no one about. Only Frost had found her sneaking into the Morgue to get some of her things, and the sad smile he had given her was a reflection of the one on her own face. Now things where different, and she was back.
For now.
Turning back to the body on the table, Maura waited a moment before she spoke up. "There was no foul play with the body, Detective Rizzoli. Suicide is the cause of death."
Resting a hand on one hip Jane didn't know what to say to Maura. She wanted to say that she missed her. She wanted to say that she loved her. She wanted to tell the other woman how glad she was that she came back. She wanted to make amends like step nine told her to, but the same step prevented the apology because it wouldn't help only make things more muddled.
"That's good." It wasn't clear what she meant, but even Jane didn't know what she meant. Instinctively, restless fingers moved from her hip to a spot a little further up. The spot where she got shot, shot herself really. It didn't hurt but it had become a nervous habit.
Maura glanced back at Jane just in time to see the brunette's fingers brush against a spot that she knew well. She still had nightmares of watching her best friend, her girlfriend at the time, bleeding out on the stairs right in front of the precinct. She would never forget that. It was always going to be known as the day she lost Jane, because in all of the aftermath, that had been the end result.
"Jane…"
She wasn't quite sure why she had said the detective's name, but the moment or whatever it was quickly became ruined as her cell phone started ringing. It was the same ring tone as it had been almost a week ago in the bullpen. Maura silenced it quickly, all but throwing the phone back into her purse.
"I should probably get back to work. There are a lot of things that need to be organized."
Jane wanted to know what Maura was going to say. But that damn phone. Twice they might have talked, twice they were interrupted by the phone. This was frustrating. Jane didn't know if she should be mad at Frost for not telling her, at the phone for disrupting a conversation long overdue, or at herself for causing all of this.
"Yeah, definitely. If that's a suicide we'll close the case. Good work, Maura." For another long moment Jane looked across the room at Maura; trying to figure things out, trying to understand everything. "Take care now."
A small smile managed to appear upon her face at the praise, but the three little words that Jane added to the end of it made her pause. Take care now was not something the detective would usually say, but she didn't ask about it. She had lost the right to ask the brunette things after she had left without looking back.
"You do the same," she echoed after a moment. Maura continued to look Jane over for a second longer before she turned back to finish working on the body in front of her.