"Her name is Jane." Maura whispered into the phone.
"Finally a name. I knew there was someone, the way you glowed the first day I seen you. And you never do that." With a sultry chuckle the voice of Mackenzie travelled through the other end of the line.
"She's...wonderful." She continued to whisper into the phone. There was a pause for several minutes as Maura reached for the organic tea she ordered from the waitress a few minutes ago. Maura sat at one of the stools sipping her tea and tapping her fingers along the cup. Mackenzie was, if she was honest, her only friend besides Jane but Jane was a current lover and Kenzie's silence was making her nervous.
After what felt like hours for the scientist Mackenzie finally spoke, "Tell me all about her!"
A grin spread across her face as she began to tell Kenzie all about the times she spent with the CIA agent and the unfamiliar feelings she experienced when they were apart.
"Do you love her?" Questioned Mackenzie.
"I don't know. It feels like I do but I loved Ian and the feelings I have for Jane are different but in a refreshing and pleasant way. With Ian I thought he was the love of my life. I wanted to wake up next to him, cook breakfast with him, do anything he'd ask if he needed it. I wanted to spend all day with him. With Jane I want all that too." The scientist took another sip of her tea. The café was pretty busy for 7:00 am and the air was filled with freshly brewed coffee and shampoo and body wash of men and women. Maura watched as the early risers scrambled about making orders. The waitresses and cooks rushing to take the orders. Maura had come here almost every day for the last six years and she knew almost every face and name. Today there was about two dozen faces she did not recognize. Maybe there was a new internship she thought. "But the only difference is with Ian I really didn't care if we didn't spend every day together, cook together, wake up in each others arms. When I don't get to experience those things with Jane it literally makes my heart hurt. Honestly this revelation terrifies me a little. Maybe even a lot. Because she's barely here, as I've told you earlier, and she already takes up 70% of my daily thoughts."
"This whole time I've sat in my office listening to you and I could already tell the difference in the way your voice when you speak about Jane. But do you want to know the biggest difference I've noticed?" When she heard silence on the other side she knew Maura was listening intently and wanted her to continue. "You loved Ian but you are in love with Jane."
A sigh and a small sniffle ripped its way past Maura's will to hold the tears back. How could she of all people cry? In public. Maura Isles does not cry. How could she, she thought she had cried every last tear and dried her lacrimal glands all out. She wasn't prepared for Kenzie to say the inevitable but when she did it made Maura feel kind of free. And free was what she wanted , no strings attached, no commitment. Jane's free was another type of free though.
"There is nothing to be afraid of. Definitely not of love. I know you've been done wrong in the past and you have this, excuse me if I offend you, outrageous manipulative sex life. But as far as I can see Jane is not what you should be afraid of, what you should be afraid of is losing her to her job or someone else."
The charcoal gray skirt slowly rode up with every nervous movement the scientist took. So she stood up and adjusted her attire. Maura's cup began to empty as the two friends moved along with their conversation. Gulping down the last little bit in the classiest way she knew how Maura moved to throw her cup in the trash and headed out the door.
It was a short walk from her favorite café to her work place so she decided to leave her car at the coffee shop parking lot. "I know. A few months ago she almost told me she loved me. I'm not one to assume, but I believe she stopped short because she thinks I don't love her back." Maura whispered.
"She almost said it!?" The businesswoman proclaimed excitedly over the phone. "What did she say!?"
"Jane was leaving like usual and after we kissed and held each other she began to leave. Before she got out of the door she said 'I love...' and then covered with 'I love what we have.' Part of me felt hurt that she couldn't bring herself to say it, the other felt extremely happy."
"Tell her first."
"What!?" She screamed, coming to an abrupt halt in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Tell. Her. First."
"God no, what if I was mistaken and she doesn't feel the same or worse, I scare her off and she leaves for good. I can't take that chance ."
"Maura I have always been honest with you. You need to tell her. From what I can tell Jane sounds like the perfect girl and if you don't snatch her up, I will." Mackenzie said with a chuckle.
"I would have to kill you first." The light humor eased the tension in Maura and she resumed her walk down the street.
Ten minutes later Maura walked through the doors of her office and sat in her ridiculously expensive burgundy leather chair, pulling out the desk drawer and the folders within. "I'm gonna do it."
"Do what?" Her friend said confused.
"Tell her I love her."
"Good luck, sweetheart."
"Thank you, I don't think I would have had the courage to do this without you Kenz."
"No problem at all. All I've ever wanted to do was see you happy and even if it wasn't with me you know I'd still support you and help you get your knight in shining armor."
"Just like you tried to set me up with 'Mr. Knight In Shining Armor' a year ago?"
"Hahaha sorry. 'Mr. Knight in Shining Armor' was just filth in aluminum foil!"
"Rizzoli we think we know how your name got out and we're working on a way to get to them." Said Cavanaugh from the Director of National Intelligence office.
"Who was it!?" Jane asked through gritted teeth.
"You know I can't tell you that. If I did you'd run straight at them without backup and get yourself killed. You're reckless Rizzoli but you're also one of my finest and I can't let you get hurt."
"I should! That bastard has had me in this shit hole for three months now, not to mention without contact to anyone from the outside. Not even my partner Frost! So Cavanaugh tell me who leaked my name."
He could tell the raven haired woman was livid but he still didn't budge. "No, but I can tell you that you will be out of here in a little less than a month. Until then I can give you two calls. No more than a minute a piece. Use them wisely, Jane." When he was finished he walked to the door of the safe house and slid the heavy titanium to the side and stepped past the four body guards letting them close it behind him.
"What phone am I going to use!" Jane screamed to no one. "Fuck you, Sean." Walking back to the cot she had called a bed for the past few months, she sat down and opened her necklace around her neck revealing a picture of Maura she had snapped of the blonde at 4:00 in the morning as they had an early breakfast before Jane had to leave again.
"God I miss you Maura. If I knew this shit would have happened I probably would have told you the truth." She closed the locket up and slid it back under her shirt and lay down on top of the covers. Sleep started to take over her as she had been restless the night before.
Couple hours later the agent stirred due to a knock on the secure and protected door. When the person behind it got no answer they knocked again harder this time.
"Come in." The groggy woman said.
"Agent Rizzoli, we have been ordered to deliver a cell phone to you. It's designed to time out at sixty seconds. You will receive a warning at ten seconds and another at five before the phone cuts off. There are a hundred and twenty seconds on the phone total so you can make two calls." The handsome shaggy bearded man said as he handed the phone to Jane. He was dressed in standard bodyguard uniform. Black boots, black army pants, black jacket, and black gloves, equipped with an F-2000 Assault Rifle.
"Yeah I know how many seconds are in two minutes. Cavanaugh sent this?"
"Yes ma'am. He ordered me to wait in the room while you made the calls too. I'll just be over here in the corner."
Standing up from the bed Jane invaded the man's space. "Do not call me ma'am and second of all no you won't. You'll wait outside like the rest of the guards." Jane growled. She wasn't always this snappy but being confined to a 20 by 20 feet cube would drive anybody mad.
"Head orders, ma'am, uhm, I mean agent Rizzoli."
Jane let out a long defeated sigh and stalked over to the chair in the opposite corner of the room. "Okay, whatever. Sorry for, you know, snapping at you."
Twiddling the phone in her hand she contemplated who she should call first her ma or Maura. Ma or Maura.
Ma.
Maura.
She opted for the former and dialed the familiar number. After three rings her mother picked up. "Hello?" There was question in the older Rizzoli's voice.
"Hey ma."
"Oh Janie! I was so worried about you! What happened, where are you, have you been eating, are you hurt!?"
The questions flew at Jane like bullets in a war zone. "Whoa, ma slow down. I'm at a safe house. Some asshole found out who I was."
"Language Jane!" Her ma interrupted.
"Really? I tell you I'm at a safe house and you chastise me for my profanity?"
"Sorry, sweetie, please continue." Mama Rizzoli said sincerely.
"To answer the other questions. Yeah I've been eating but the foods terrible! It's organic shit, stuff, sorry, and not anything like your meals ma. And no I'm not hurt, thanks to the little jail cell they have me in. Not even air could get to me." The dark haired woman said dryly.
"My poor baby. I was wondering why I kept getting my food back in the mail instead of your weekly thank you letters and my daily phone calls stopped. At first I thought you were doing some secret assignment but then you would have called at least twice in the time you've been gone. Why can't you be a ballerina like you said you were going to be!?" Her Ma begged in the phone.
"Because I was six when I said that. And yeah, Cavanaugh has me completely clueless about my whereabouts. So I don't have an address for you to send the food too. But good news, he said I'd be out of here in less than a month." The lengthy woman stretched out slumped in the chair and peered over at the man facing the wall trying to be as unnoticeable as possible.
Ten seconds.
"Dammit, this phone is timed at sixty second and I have about seven left. So I love and miss you, Ma."
Five seconds
"I love and miss you too, baby. Be safe and come home in one piece please."
"No promises." Jane laughed then the phone went dead.
Pulling the phone from her ear she dialed the blonde's number and waited for it to ring.
"Hello, Isles." Said Maura.
"Hey baby!"
"Jane!" Her name wasn't a question. She knew that voice anywhere.
"Yeah, I miss you."
"I miss you too, Jane." Maura had been sitting at her desk eating a yogurt she had been saving since this morning. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, cramped but okay. How've you been? No other lovers?" Jane asked jokingly.
"No absolutely not. I know we aren't together really but I wouldn't betray your trust like that"
Hearing the seriousness in the scientist's voice sobered Jane up and she replied, "I wouldn't either. Thank you, Maura, that really means a lot to me. I want you to be mine Maura officially, I do, but I have to get myself situated first. I can't really say I don't wanna rush this because we've been seeing each other for the past fourteen months but I want this to be right, perfect."
"Me too. I wish you were here. I miss your arms around me even if it isn't for that long. I miss your kisses, your loving stare, your touches. Definitely your touches. The way you bring me to ecstasy and back. I miss all of you and everything about you." Maura confessed. It wasn't as hard as she thought it would be. Once she said it she couldn't stop.
"I miss doing all those things to and with you, baby girl. I'll be home in less than a month and then I can be yours." Maura could feel the brunette's smile through the phone.
"I would love that." The scientist smiled.
Ten seconds.
"Ugh, Maura, this phone is timed and I only have a few seconds left. I'll be with you soon alright, remember that and don't give what's mine away to anyone else!"
Five seconds.
Maura chuckled into the phone and said, "If you tell me what's yours I won't."
"You know what's mine, Maur." There was a second's pause.
"See you soon, Jane. I lo-"