A/N: I tried...let's just make that clear.
A heavy rain beats down cruelly on the streets of Boston and those unfortunate enough not to be protected by shelter. The startling downfall turns the snow outside into slush making it dangerous for the aforementioned unfortunate.
Maura watches from the sheltering comfort of her home, incognito behind the curtain of her living room's window as she takes in the sight of her street.
Mostly she can only see the path that separates her home from the guesthouse and her driveway. But she can also see three homes across the street from hers with children still playing in the snow and their concerned parents shadowing them, ready to catch them should they fall the wrong way.
She watches as Detective Rizzoli, the woman she supposedly married, pulls into her driveway, right behind her Mercedes and exits the all-black cruiser tiredly with a bandaged right hand.
The woman is soaked and muddy in a pair of jeans and an unbuttoned checkered blue and black pea coat as she slams her cruiser door and makes her way to the guesthouse across the way.
Jane, Maura remembers her name, rubs fervently – though uselessly – at the stains rapidly smearing her white crisp shirt; her frustration manifesting into quick visible huffs of breath vaporizing around her.
The woman walks wearily, not bothering to hurry out of the rain and injurious mush on the ground, with her head down and her shoulders slumped. Maura does remember her few human behavior courses from college that she took simply to find an excuse not to visit her parents when they moved to Boston.
And the information, unfortunately, feels fresher in her mind than it most likely had two months ago.
Something about the way Detective Rizzoli walks sullenly suggests she's more than just tired. She's haggard. Worn down. And by the way she lets out a long sigh when she slides her cellphone back into her pocket; she doesn't believe it's going to get any better.
At the letterbox adhered on Maura's home, the brunette goes through their mail. She keeps the letters intended for her tucked between her right arm and side but puts the others back. As she's going through the envelopes, her eyes flicker almost habitually to the window Maura is watching through.
The recently injured woman quickly draws the curtain back to its original place and steps out of sight of the window.
She breathes for a moment, heart pounding at almost being seen, before peeking once more. Detective Rizzoli stands with a small smile on her face and waves awkwardly at her.
"Hi Maura." Her words are perfectly sound even with five feet and a glass window between them.
"Good evening, Detective Rizzoli." She greets formally with a rigid nod. "I see you've injured your hand."
Jane glances at her bandaged hand and looks sheepish. "Yeah but it's just a sprain."
Maura draws the curtain back as she goes to open the door. She invites the Detective in by holding the door for her and motioning for her to come in.
Jane looks confused and hesitant but her recently surly demeanor improves remarkably as she passes the threshold of what used to be her home too. Immediately she's hit with the completely enveloping warmth of her wife's home.
"How did it happen?" curiosity and something else Maura can't quite begin to understand though it feels disturbingly analogous to concern as it swells within her.
She closes the door before she takes the other woman's injured hand between her own with a delicate hold that doesn't supply a painful amount of pressure.
Jane's hand is warm between her own. It feels…well it feels truly puzzling. The feeling she gets as she holds this woman's hand forms a headache between her eyes.
She understands that they were married; she's been told a nauseating amount of times but that doesn't change the fact that she doesn't remember this woman. She doesn't remember meeting her, or having their wedding, and most of all she doesn't remember being in love with her.
But by the obnoxious quantity of photos of them decorating her home, she knows she must have loved Jane because she's never seen herself look so happy.
And loved in return.
"I was taking down a perp." Jane explains, gesturing to her muddy and soaked clothes that has her standing unpleasantly in the foyer between the kitchen and the living room. "Went to question him as a witness and he slammed the door on my hand. My partner and I chased him."
Just a minor fracture, Maura suspects.
"Did you catch him?" she asks, piercing green eyes boring inquisitively into eyes the same color as coffee beans.
Jane swallows thickly at the feeling of Maura's hands around her own; consuming her and intoxicating her in ways she hasn't felt since long before the accident. Back when they were just happily dating and life couldn't get any better. "Who?" she asks dumbly.
"The perpetrator." Maura smiles blushingly, becoming uncomfortably aware of her effect on the other woman. She notices, as she looks down between them with bright red cheeks, that her thumb has been inattentively rubbing the back of Jane's hand soothingly.
She stops it instantly and Detective Rizzoli takes her hand away.
"Sorry." Maura gives her a sincerely apologetic look.
Jane simply shrugs. "We got the guy." She answers her soon-to-be ex-wife's earlier question.
Maura nods once and smiles partially proud but mostly still embarrassed. "I'm glad." She crosses her arms over her chest.
"While I'm here," Jane's eyes glance around the foyer for a moment before going back to Maura's eyes where she gets lost for a moment in the angry sea of green; Maura's green orbs capture her and drown her and it takes a few seconds before she finds her way to air and breathes again.
"I heard you were coming back to work tomorrow." She shakes her head to clear the memory of Maura's intoxicating touch from her mind.
"I am," the Medical Examiner responds professionally. "I would like to return to work. Your mother and I have-,"
"You've been hanging out with my Ma?"
"Well she's a very persistent woman. She wanted me to remember so she took me to the library and we went through the newspaper archives."
Jane motions for her to continue.
"I've done quite well as the Chief Medical Examiner and I'd like to continue my work as soon as possible. It's excruciating being left at home almost completely healed. I've accepted my memory may never be restored but I must return to work.
I've been cleared medically. I'll only be able to examine bodies for a certain period of time in the autopsy. However I've been told they hired another Medical Examiner to temporarily replace me-,"
"Dr. Pike. He fucking sucks." Jane suddenly realizes her slip of the tongue and slaps her hand over her mouth. "Shit sorry. Crap. Sorry."
It's almost endearing the way Jane looks severely disappointed in herself. "It's okay."
Maura's looks down at the swirling liquid in her coffee mug for a moment. Either gathering herself or taking a longer look at something that isn't Jane. Even she isn't quite sure.
She knows why she's drawn to this woman but it still confuses her to no end.
"I've asked for him to stay and help me for a while. Alone he may not be the best replacement which is precisely why I'm inducing my return." She finishes with an awkward silence.
"Well…" Jane doesn't think she's ready but that's not her decision and she doesn't have a right to an opinion anymore. So with a completely fake look of support she smiles at her wife.
Getting ready to go leave, Jane walks around Maura as she asks: "If you need a ride tomorrow, I'm available. You know if you can't drive yet or anything."
Maura looks grateful. But she still says, "I can."
Jane frowns. She hides her disappointment and rejection well. She's at the door now and it's open, letting in a very cold draft. "Okay. So I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow." She's promised.