Okay, that's possibly the longest anybody ever had between chapters, but I never meant this to be any more than a one-shot until I read it again this afternoon, and suddenly I knew what happened next!
The following morning at work Angela came to find Jane at her desk,
"Ah, honey, I was, um, darling..."
"What is it, Ma? I'm working. And you're not supposed to be in here," Jane hissed, under her breath.
"I... um Jane. I've been talking to Theresa – "
"No, Ma. No. Not again. Don't lend her anything. Don't give her anything. Don't let in her into your house, Ma."
"It's nothing like that. We were talking and now I've been doing some thinking. And I might have been a bit weird last night, but I've been thinking and – "
"Ma. You're being weird now. What is it? Come on, I'm meant to be working."
"Can I use your computer for a few minutes?"
"What? No! Of course not. You're not even meant to be up here, Ma. Now go, before the others see you."
"Hello, Mrs Rizzoli," called Korsak from the other side of the room, standing up to come over, while Jane mouthed, "too late," and lent back in her chair.
"How nice to see you up here. How can we help?"
"Well, Sergeant Korsak, I was just trying to explain to Jane here that my computer at home has been playing up and I wondered if, maybe if you all went out somewhere this afternoon I might be able to look something up on the internet here."
"Ma! Korsak, I was explaining that – "
"It's not strictly allowed, Mrs Rizzoli, but just this once. Jane and I will heading out with Frost to do some interviews about 2pm. How does that suit you?"
"Oh, that would be just perfect, Sergeant."
"Call me Vince. Please."
"Urgh." Jane made fake vomiting sounds under her breath. "I hate to interrupt, but I'm going to see Maura," she said, sliding out from behind her desk, leaving her mother and Korsak deep in conversation. As she left both the sergeant and her mother watched her. As soon as the door shut behind her Angela began to whisper, "Do you think that that's healthy behaviour, Sergeant? I mean is it 'sweet' or is it 'dependant'. I don't imagine Janey as the dependant type, but then until last night I didn't imagine, um..."
"Sorry, Angela. What are talking about?" Korsak turned to where Jane had just left, but saw nothing to help explain Angela's speech.
"About Jane and Maura, being, you know, too couple-y."
"I don't think either Jane or Maura need you to spend as much time worrying about them as you do. I think they're both pretty capable women, Mrs Rizzoli."
"I'm glad you think so, Sergeant - Vince. But, do you mean, that you know? Am I the only one who didn't? Does she really not trust me that much? Oh my goodness – am I that much of a bad mother that my children would really keep something like that from me?"
"Know what?" Korsak looked puzzled. Just then his mobile rang, as did several other phones on desks throughout the office. He ushered Angela to a desk, typed a password into the computer there for her, and then grabbed his coat before he and Frost disappeared out the door.
Downstairs Jane was talking to Maura. She was just explaining how she was concerned that Theresa was getting 'her claws into my family again,' and that she was definitely about to ask Angela for something, and probably something big, like a trailer to tow behind that camry, when her own phone rang and she was off for the rest of the day.
The case began as missing person, with Jane interviewing a distraught mother and Korsak and Frost organising uniforms into a door-to-door, but quickly deteriorated into a murder with the discovery of a body in a nearby playground. Maura was called in and there was no time for further family gossip.
The sun was beginning to set, and the hum of traffic on a nearby freeway had dulled. Frost had taken the suspect – the child's father – back to the station. Maura had completed the autopsy and was back at the playground helping Jane, Korsak and the crime scene techs to finish processing the scene before nightfall. Despite the tragedy of the situation, they had a result and were on the downhill run now and the mood was lighter and less frantic.
"So, Korsak, my mother didn't happen to mention why she was so keen to use a computer today?" Jane asked.
"No. And I didn't pry, Rizzoli."
"Korsak, you're a detective; you're meant to want to find out what's going on. Especially when someone is acting as oddly as my mother was this morning."
"Oh, what happened with you mother?" asked Maura as she walked toward the detectives from where she had been briefing the uniforms who were to keep an eye on the site overnight.
"I already told you Maur, in the lab – something to do with Theresa and needing a computer. Do you actually listen when I talk or do you just hear blah blah Maura blah blah blah?"
"Jane. That was uncalled for. Of course I listen." Maura looked at Jane beseechingly, with her lower lip in a pout.
"Could've fooled me," said Jane.
Korsak interrupted them by laughing: "your mother's certainly right about you two acting like a married couple, Jane."
"We do not!" said Jane and Maura in unison. But Korsak just kept laughing as he walked away.
"PFLAG!" Jane shouted as she barged into Maura's house later that night. "Where is my mother? Is she here?"
"No. She was out when I came in about twenty minutes ago. Are you alright, Jane?" Maura handed her friend a beer and steered her towards the couch where they both sat.
"Can you guess what my mother looked up on my computer this morning?" Without leaving a pause for an answer she continued, "Boston PFLAG."
Maura obviously didn't respond the way Jane had intended, because she said it again; "Boston PFLAG, Maura. Do you even know what that is?"
"I believe it stands for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, it - "
"It means that my mother thinks I'm gay."
"Well more likely you than Frankie or Tommy considering things Tommy has said to me, and we have Lilly as evidence of Frankie's heterosexuality."
"This isn't a joke, Maura!"
"I'm sorry, Jane. I didn't realise I'd made a joke."
Jane, seemingly revved up and capable of ranting for much, much longer instead, took in a breath and paused. She turned her head so that she was looking directly into Maura's eyes. "It was a joke, Maur. It was kinda funny. It was really funny actually." And as if to prove her point she burst out laughing. "Okay, so Frankie's not gay, based on Lilly as evidence. But I don't buy Tommy's attraction to you as evidence of his being straight; you're very attractive, Maur. I think him being attracted to you would be more likely seen as evidence of him having eyes."
This time Maura laughed, and reached out one hand to sit it on Jane's knee.
"If you're annoyed, then when Angela comes home, tell her," was Maura advice. "For now, let's eat so that we can get some sleep. We have an early start tomorrow. As soon as I knew it was going to be a late one at work I ordered something. And I thought that either you or Angela might be around and wish to join me so I have enough to share."
Just at that moment there was a rattle of keys in the lock and Angela Rizzoli came in.
"Oh my, oh, I'm sorry! Maura! Janey!"
"It's okay, Angela. Come in. Jane and I weren't doing anything; we were just getting dinner." Maura stood up off the couch and began to fuss with plates in the kitchen.
"What else would we doing?" asked Jane, looking from her mother to Maura and then back again, as if daring her to answer.
Angela ignored that question and focused on the doctor's offer of food, "No thank you, Maura. I've eaten. It's very late, how come you two haven't? Was it that case that Vince had to rush off to? Oh, girls, it's too late to begin to cook now."
"Ma, ma! It's okay. Maura was explaining, when you came in, that she's ordered takeout for us, but, wait, hang on, Vince. You're on first name terms with Sergeant Korsak? When did this happen?"
"Plenty of time to talk about that later, Jane. If Maura was expecting you and she's organised food for the two of you, I'll be off to the guesthouse to, um, get out of your way and, um, to get some sleep. Good night."
They ate dinner in companionable silence. Maura with a glass of wine and Jane with another beer.
Afterwards Jane stood up to being washing the dishes. She clunked the china plates against the sink and Maura stood up to and came into the kitchen behind her,
"You're still thinking about Angela thinking you're gay, aren't you?"
"I can't help it, Maura." Jane let go of the plate and cloth and turned he head towards her friend. "It sounds okay to say, 'laugh about it and forget it,' but it's going to be embarrassing. It's going to be really embarrassing to have Ma going around telling people that she thinks that I'm gay. I've spent thirty years telling people that I'm not gay. I kind of need my friends and parents on my side with this one. I hate having people looking at me like I've been lying to them, or like there's something I should be telling them, or whatever it is that people who think I'm gay think when they see me."
"You don't want to have to argue with your mother and tell people that you're not gay?" Maura asked, putting her glass of wine down on the bench beside her, "Would it be easier then, to just prove her right?" She put her hands on Jane's hips and turned her away from the sink, so that they were facing one another. She titled her head to one side and looked into Jane's eyes, down to her lips and then back up again.
"Are you suggesting, Dr Isles, that we kiss in order to prove my mother right?"
"I imagine it would be a lot more pleasant than arguing with her," replied Maura.
Jane's response was a hearty, "really?" But neither of them pulled away from the other, or broke their gaze.
At last Jane said, "If I kiss you, that doesn't make my mother right."
"If you kissed me," said Maura, "I would hope that it hadn't athing at all to do with your mother."
And then they did; they kissed, in Maura's kitchen for a very long time.