A/N: Second (Well.. First-and-a-half) Chapter, as promised! I told you it would be longer ;], which is why it took so long to write it. I don't have a Beta, so I read and re-read, and re-read until I'm content with what I have. Thanks for the reviews on the first part, I was happily surprised at the interest! This definitely ended up a little bit differently than I expected.. So I hope everyone is okay with it. Like I said, I haven't written in awhile. There is more to come!
By the time Jane Rizzoli arrived, the area around Dr. Maura Isle's home had blown up into a chaotic mess. Only a few minutes and several traffic violations brought Jane to the scene, and if her boot smashing the pedal down to the floor on the way over hadn't plunged her heart straight down into her stomach, the blue and red flashing lights that greeted her, had. Blue and red pierced through the dark sky, dancing across the brick house, a place Jane sought solace, but now felt ominous in the night. Jane Rizzoli was a weathered Homicide Detective, well-worn by her work on countless homicide cases and multiple near-death experiences. But nothing in her line of work prepared her for this. Nothing prepared a detective for when it became personal."Jane." Maura's words played through her mind on an endless loop while navigating her vehicle past skyscrapers, now a miserable taunt to what she arrived to. Squad cars littered the streets, pulled up on the driveway where Jane herself had parked countless times. Detective Rizzoli wasn't allowed to feel fear and yet it took hold of her, squeezed, and didn't let go... Because all she could do, was hear Maura's voice.
Phone call, in the middle of the night. Maura, reaching out for help. Why couldn't she have stopped to ask Maura what had happened? How could she have possibly known? Seeing cops swarm the grounds underneath the swirl of lights.. Jane gritted her teeth in frustration at herself, but mostly to keep the pinpricks of new tears at bay. Her thoughts automatically traveled to the darkest corners of her mind, her job conditioned her to assume the worse. But she couldn't believe.. Not with the white boxed Coroner's van, waiting ever so patiently.. that The Queen of the Dead could be dead herself, there had to be some other explanation. There wasn't much that could draw Boston Police and Medical Examiners to the same place, in the dead of night. Jane didn't waste any time. Not a care in the world went to her car, parked haphazardly in the middle of the street– Not a single second thought wasted on something that could be replaced if need be, as billowing dark locks and flat boots clicked fiercely up the cobblestone walk. Coming up the side didn't offer any reassurance, because Jane was unable to see much of anything. Police personnel scattered across the lawn in clusters. Forensics, with their titles displayed proudly on the back of dark jackets, scoured the grounds for trace evidence. How ironic this all was now, that Jane's being had once thrived on scenes like these. There were several faces, too many of them familiar, but not a single one belonging to the face she was looking for. Her eyes frantically flickered from forlorn face to forlorn face, searching. Searching for the serious eyes, a wisp of blonde hair. Any shred of proof that Maura Isles was not about to become a memory. No, she wouldn't let that happen. The heart weighing down Jane's stomach was the only thing keeping her from losing dinner, dessert, and the previous nights' beers as she felt the bile churn.
"Ma'am, this is a secured area." Rizzoli hadn't even payed the rookie cop a second glance on her initial scan, but the looming man appeared in her path, inflating his shoulders as if to assert his dominance over the no-nonsense Italian. Hurricane Rizzoli, on the other hand, had a much different idea. "Detective Rizzoli!" Jane barked, not losing speed as she navigated around the cop, up around the side of the house and merging on to Maura's main walk.
Flash an empty beer bottle, a child-like smile. Maura's first beer. Flash Medical room, bottle of red wine, dead fridge cheese. Flash ".. I have your back, Jane."
The front door loomed into view, the house numbers lit up on the side and ironically inviting. It seemed every light was on inside of the massive home, the yellow squares of the windows teasing her as shadows passed in the living room, mocking the shadows in her brain. Drawing up the path, the epicenter of the madness revealed itself. On the front stoop, lay death, as only Jane could guess. A wall of men impeded her view, but it had all the signs of death. All with their backs to her, heads hunkered down, seemingly staring at their feet. Jane knew better. What they were staring at could be feet, but feet that belonged to a corpse. The wind carried Rizzoli up the walk but she didn't feel the chill, didn't realize either when her even footfalls broke into an erratic sprint to close the gap between herself and the people. Herself and the body. One of the men broke off from the group, skin dark as night, his arm thrown across his lips as if to stifle something, turning his back on the body. Jane blinked, individually the features registering as she skidded to a halt in front of him. Frost. And knowing him, that thing he was stifling.. Was stomach bile. Jane felt herself wanting to puke, too, as a new wave of tears pricked her eyes. She couldn't be too late.
"Frost, where's Maura!" The shrill fear in her own voice knocked Jane off-guard, but her wild gaze locked on Frost never faltered. The sight of the man brought a fresh whirlwind of questions to her mind: He had been formally called to the scene, but the only call Rizzoli had received.. Was from Maura. "And why wasn't I called to the scene?" Unfortunately for Frost, he was the first one to be swept up into Hurricane Jane, burdened with baring the first brute force of the winds. Would they have called Jane to the scene if Maura were dead, knowing their background? Jane couldn't believe.. Couldn't believe...
Frost blinked, as if recognizing her for the first time. If he was startled by her outburst, he didn't say, only dropped his arm away from his face, the image of the corpse chased away by Jane's apparent fear. "Rizzoli. Dr. Isles. Is. Fine. She told us she called you."
Relief. It flooded her from all sides of her body, radiated through every single tendon in her body. Fine. She'd take it over dead any day. Jane could tell by the way Frost's eyes took a dip down to his dress shoes and shuffled them uncomfortably, that there was more to the story than that. As more people filed past her, she realized she didn't really care what he was hiding. Jane felt light with the news, lighter knowing that Dr. Isles, as he put it was in fact, fine. But if she was so fine, it begged the question: What was all of this?
The news visibly deflated the tension within Rizzoli. Two pink lips pursed together to keep the heat from rising to her face, embarrassment replacing the nerves in a flood. She hadn't taken the driveway and the cobblestone path as Detective Jane Rizzoli, but as someone else. Someone scared, someone frightened, and someone that she wouldn't have let within twenty feet of a crime scene on a regular night. "You've gotta see this, though. And Rizzoli? You're not going to like it." Something passed in the air between them, a silent 'I won't tell if you don't'- Her about the puking, and him about a display of emotion that would only give the men she worked with a reason to tease her. Her tresses shook in a nod, as Frost nodded to the men standing around what she needed to see. The wall caved as the men parted, offering some visibility. Jane ascended the few stone steps outside of Maura's front door, and gasped.
Wavy dark hair fanned the pavement in a curtain, strands whipping in the cool night air. Olive skin hid beneath a black pantsuit, facial features placidly frozen in death. Maura's frightened voice on the other end suddenly made sense. Jane Rizzoli was staring down at her body double, an image of herself sprawled across the pavement. "She... She looks like me." Of course there were differences, but they weren't startling enough to stop Jane from staring transfixed at the dead woman. Only the sound of Frost's voice was able to bring her head above water.
"Creepy, huh? The Medical Examiner thinks that the body was dressed after the murder, and dumped here. We think it was intentional." Barry didn't dare to look at the body again, keeping his posture level and his eyes on Jane. You really couldn't risk throwing up on an unexamined corpse.
There were a lot of questions Jane should be asking. Like the cause of death, like what he meant by intentional. With Jane's emotions having been run so high, her mind seemed to be running on a single track to match. "By Medical Examiner, you don't mean Maura, do you?" Jane asked, but something told her in the way he said it that she already knew the answer. Frost shook his head, confirming her suspicions. "Korsak thought it was in the best interests of the case to get someone else from her staff to do the scene as well as the autopsy." Jane shot a completely baffled look over at him, and he shrugged his shoulders, what little information he had, exhausted. A body was dumped on the greatest Forensic Pathologist in the city, arguably the rest of the country, and she hadn't even examined it? Maura examined bar food. "Hey, I mean, I would be a little freaked out too if someone that looked like my best friend was dead on my doorstep."
"What do we have so far?" Of course Maura was freaked. Jane was freaked at the resemblance, and she was rather certain that she was still alive. 'Freaked out' was noted, tucked away for Jane to ask about later. Maura never freaked, not like Jane. Almost as if on cue, one of the men that had moved to let her get a look, moved into the home. Soft indoor light trickled out over the body, and the sound of Maura's voice filtered out with it, probably discussing something with one of her M.E's. For one of the first times in her career, Jane felt a pull, more like a sharp tug that made her want to actually take a few moments to step away from the scene of the crime..
"Like I said.. Dressed before she was brought to the scene. C.O.D we won't know until we strip her... But Rizzoli? Between you and I, we're thinking Dr. Isles has a little bit of an admirer." Jane lowered her gaze to the body again, the cool breeze suddenly chilling her bones. Clad in her work pants and only the black tank top she had worn underneath the blazer from earlier, the goose bumps that rose in her arms didn't look out of place. Only she knew that their roots ran a little bit deeper. She watched the hair that seemed to mirror her own ruffle the breeze, the hair moving over the gray stone and a splash of red, striking against the backdrop.. Red?
"What's that?" Jane said, zeroing in on the red spot behind her ear. Frost tried to look down, his efforts ditched as he raised his eyes to the stars. Wordlessly, he fished in his pocket and withdrew a single glove and a plastic bag, each of which Jane swiped. In the essence of a true blood hound, Jane squatted for a closer look. Hidden by the hair, the red was barely visible, but tangible, not liquid. Jane worked her hand into the blue glove, and ever so lightly, brushed the strands away. By what remained of the cut off stem, Jane plucked a single, red flower from the strands. "A rose.." Skeptically, Jane mulled over the perfectly blood red flower. Maura didn't grow roses, at least none that Jane was aware of. "You think this is some sort of..." Jane trailed off, unable to say the last word: gift. Instead, she carefully placed the rose in the baggie and stood, turning to Frost for answers. Unfortunately, Frost wasn't the only one Jane found.
"I'll be taking that, thank you." The rose was plucked from her fingers before Jane could protest, straight into the grips of Korsak. Jane opened her mouth to complain, but the older man silenced her with a hard look, and a palm raised in her direction that beckoned her silence. "Listen, Jane. I don't want you workin' this case. It's a little to personal for you 'n Dr. Isles to be involved. Now, we don't think you're in danger or anything like that.. The girl looks like you, but she's not you.. Which we think means this isn't about you. We don't know much of anything until we see the Forensic Psychiatrist, but we're thinkin' this was all done for Dr. Isles.. And we can't have you two gettin' involved."
To hell with that idea. "Oh no. No-no-no... Oh come on." Jane stamped her foot in frustration. "I wanna find this guy, and you're telling me that I'm off the case? This is my case!" So, maybe it wasn't her case formally, but how could she let this go? Whatever this was.. It had already screwed with Maura. Screwed with Jane. As far as Jane was concerned, this was personal, a red flag screaming at her to take the bait.
"Rizzoli, I think you and I can both agree that this case is a little bit weird. The vic looks like you, so I'm willin' to bet the guy knows you.. And he obviously knows Maura. All I'm sayin', it's best that the two of you lay low for awhile. Don't get involved– That's an order." There was a sense of finality in his voice, and Jane watched in fury as he raised the rose up into the night sky, squinting as if the moonlight would give him a better view of a freaking flower.
"Like you said before, he doesn't have an interest in murdering me, otherwise, he would've already tried it!" Jane could see the logic behind it, she could even understand. Didn't mean she had to like it, and it didn't mean she wouldn't go down fighting this.
Korsak dropped his hand from the sky, his annoyance twitching in a sway of his body. "Look, you've gotta friend in there that needs a friend. Let us take care of this one, Rizzoli."
It was pretty damned infuriating that he knew exactly what to say to shut her up. It was even more infuriating, that it actually worked. Jane backed off her fighting stance and sighed, but still held a firm gaze. "Okay, okay. But– You find this guy."
With that, Jane spun on her heels as she clutched the door knob, wheeling into the home for the first time that night. The foyer was deserted, but well lit with the amount of people walking through, and everything seemed to be in place. Like everything related to Maura, her home was grand and impeccable, but Jane knew that it was modest in her friend's book. The foyer, brightly lit with a hanging chandelier, was perfectly designed to fit the 'mood' of the room, just like every room in the home. Jane knew Maura's place like the back of her hand, having hid out in a room she'd dubbed her own after running from a few of her own demons on numerous occasions.
"...I'll be waiting for the results of the autopsy.." Maura. Jane heard the voice, propelling her feet into motion as she automatically followed it. She could tell exactly where it had come from, the kitchen, as she crossed the foyer and traveled down a short hallway. Jane emerged in the doorway, unexpected as to what she would find. More cops, scouring the house? Her friend, all alone? But finally, Jane could really see. Like oil, she felt the rest of the tension she hadn't realized she had been harboring, slip off of her shoulders. Jane hesitated in the doorway to soak in the sight, as it embarrassingly hit her now, how worried she had been that she would never see the sight again. The sight of the blonde, standing next to the counter chatting– No, chatting was too light for what she and another older man that Jane recognized to be one of her co-workers were talking about.. Regardless, talking.. For a brief moment, Jane had thought that all of this could have disappeared. Jane was only semi-aware of the two cops in the living room, checking windows and doors for signs of forced-entry, and her hesitation was only momentary. Inconsiderate to whatever conversation she was interrupting, Jane stepped into the kitchen without invitation, and joined Maura at the other side of the counter. The sudden movement had made Maura look up, and Jane caught the look of the tightness in Maura's face sink away.. As if she had been waiting to see her, too.
Instinctively, Maura turned towards her as she approached, and Jane found her hands gripping the soft skin of Maura's forearms, her eyes doing a once-over. The room, the surrounding area, Jane felt everything else fade away as she studied Maura as if for the first time. Hair perfectly curled, check. Designer labels in place, check. Heels high enough to legally be considered stilts? Check. Not a single swatch of purple or red decorated the flawless peachy skin, no unfamiliar bump or bruise to be seen. Nothing physical. Jane.. Jane wasn't the most sensitive to emotion all of the time. But even she could see the softness that had taken over Maura's face, the way her perfectly pink lips pursed as if to bite back tears. Tears Jane's eyes had been threatening to spill earlier herself. "You're alive. You're okay?" Jane's clasp around her friend's forearm never slackened, her gaze firmly staring into a pair of eyes that attempted to hide fright.
The pursed lips parted quickly. "I.. I thought it was you." Maura's look didn't waver, as she seemed to photograph Jane with her eyes, as if she had to be sure it was really Jane this time, and not some look-alike for the second time. In a twisted way, it occurred to Jane that they both had been through the same thing that night, both fearing for each other's lives.
"Yeah? Well, I wasn't exactly expecting to find the entire Boston Police Department here when I arrived! I thought someone had gotten to you!" Jane could hear how brash her voice had gotten, fueled by the fear that had earlier engulfed her.
As always, Maura regained her bearings a little more quickly than Rizzoli. Seeing Jane again was enough, it seemed, and she didn't have to revel in it. The woman straightened, forcing Jane to drop her hands to the side. "Jane, I told you that I was physically well. You really shouldn't jump to conclusions." Maura chided, her look saying: tsk, tsk.
"Mau-ra, I was asleep in my apartment. You shouldn't jump to conclusions." As she mocked her, some of the seriousness eased in Jane's stomach, enough to allow her to raise a lips, but without the sparkle in her eyes, the unbreakable confidence.. It just appeared grim.
Jane expected some sort of witty banter, possibly even a mock-snide look. She hadn't expected to see a troubled look pass over Maura, as the woman turned to the side, suddenly aware of the Medical Examiner still standing opposite of them. Jane got the distinct feeling that she was being brushed off. "So, you'll call as soon as you determine a Cause of Death?" The words passed through Maura's lips too quickly, and she looked too interested in his answer for Jane to think this was normal. The graying man, having watched the exchange, his beady eyes shifted from Maura to Jane and back to Maura. "Of course. You'll be the first to know, Dr. Isles. In the mean time, get some rest. I'll call you when I know something."
"Thank you, Dr. Greyson." Maura's smile was warm as she reached across the counter to shake his hand, his lips mirroring her's. With a nod, he regarded Rizzoli before ailing limbs carried him slowly out of the white kitchen.
The air around them was thick, it's heaviness notable to Jane. Silence. Silence was always heavy, especially with the weight of the words Jane wanted to say hung in the air between them. She wanted to comfort Maura, question Maura (or badger her, as Maura had once put it), but the perfectly hazel eyes were fixed on the counter. It was almost as if Jane could see the dials in her mind spinning, the coils working quickly. If Jane didn't say something now, she wasn't sure how long the silence would last. But now was not the time.
"Come on." Jane commanded, stepping away from the counter. She almost laughed at the way Maura's brow furrowed, and would have if the circumstances surrounding all of this were weighing so heavily around them. "Where is it that we are going?" Maura questioned, drumming perfectly manicured nails against the counter top.
"You're staying with me." Jane smiled as the look of confusion abandoned Maura, to be replaced with a look of content, something Jane hadn't seen that night. If Maura thought that Jane would let her stay here after all of this, then she needed to re-educate her on the type of friend Jane was.
"Fine, but I think I need a beer."
"Welcome to Bar-a-la Rizzoli." With the neck of two ice, cold, delicious beers held firmly in her hands, Jane mock-bowed, and set the beer down on the counter with a 'clank'.
Leaving the scene hadn't been a difficult process with Korsak practically pushing the two women out of Maura's own house, not without a Louis Vuitton bag filled with clothes and other necessities for a few days, her bag armed with items that likely cost more than Jane's rent. Sitting through Maura coordinating a few outfits– "Just for a few days Jane, I promise," hadn't been nearly as much of a pain in the ass as finding an open bar was.
Look, Jane understood the fact that by the time they left Maura's, it was nearly five in the morning. The blue of the sky was becoming a lighter hue, and the stars begun disappearing each minute they drove, in search of the bar. But Jane also understood and fully appreciated the importance of emergency beer, a concept that clearly the city of Boston was unaware of. She was debating preparing a fully typed, spell-checked memo to the Mayor, even though Maura was better than that stuff than she was, when Maura had a rather brilliant idea: "I assure you there is nothing open at this hour, can we just go back to your place?"
It was hard to believe in Boston of all places, that there wasn't at least one bar open, but getting home after what the two had been through never sounded so.. Delicious. And it definitely was five o'clock.. It just happened to be a different five o'clock.
Jane slid into the counter stool across from her blond friend, who smiled in thanks. Jane watched as the mouth of the bottle rolled between two precise fingers, meanwhile having her own placed up to lips, gulping the fresh taste like water. After what they had been through, the beer slid down her throat easily, but Maura's bottle remained on the counter top, her lips pursed in a look of thought. Maura hadn't said much between her home and returning to Jane's, uncharacteristically. The only time Maura didn't speak, was when she had something to say, her eyes anywhere except where Jane wanted them to be– On her own. If only she could see the demons plaguing Maura, she could chase them off.
"So.. Why didn't you just look at the body? You can't tell me that the Dr. Isles couldn't have figured out pretty quickly that it was some other poor woman lying there." Jane had meant for it to be light, a joke that sought answers. It was clear to her that she'd hit the bulls-eye on what Maura was feeling, when the woman turned her head pointedly away from Jane, to stare at a wall with wasn't as visually appealing as a wall in Maura's home.
Troubled. Maura welcomed a troubled expression on her face for.. Far too many times than Jane liked that night. She rested her chin on her free palm, letting her elbow support her, hesitantly turning her attention back on Jane. "Jane, this is really embarrassing for me. As a Forensic Pathologist, I should have. I should have been able to look at the body and figure out that the curve of her muscles weren't as defined as your's, or that her palms were free of your scars. Despite the similarities, her face wasn't your's. But I couldn't even look at her again until I called you."
Jane mentally blanked. Why couldn't she look at the body? She cut them open for a living, and sometimes preferred the company of the dead to the living. There wasn't a body Maura couldn't place her scalpel in, nevertheless look at. Jane blinked, confusion evident in her vacant stare, until it clicked. Jane was used to the Maura she had known all of this time– Dr. Isles, Queen of the Dead, logical, precise, together Maura– Jane wasn't used to Maura being incapable of anything except understanding the living. She couldn't look because it scared her, frightened her that Jane could possibly end up on her table for real. "Awh, don't beat yourself up over that. It's all part of being human. We don't expect to ever find our friends or our loved ones like that." To show her understanding, Jane's free hand went to support Maura as well. She snaked it across the table, running her fingers over the blue silk of Maura's pajama sleeve, feeling the muscle tense before it relaxed underneath her fingers.
It made more than enough sense to Jane, but the weakness clearly bothered Maura. She could understand, Maura operated her life on efficiency. She could see how one thing, even something as traumatizing as discovering her friend dead, would upset Maura for more reasons than one. Through the pink lips across from her a sigh emitted, causing Jane to lift up her beer bottle, and nudge the bottom of it against the one secured between Maura's fingers. "Hey, at least I can't call you a cyborg anymore." Jane wiggled her eyebrows, anything to ease everything off of Maura's mind even if it was only for a few seconds.
The fact that Jane probably looked ridiculous was key to the initial crinkle in her friend's eyes. She could see the walls of pressure slowly receding, a smile slowly but surely inching up into a small chuckle. "Guess you're right," Maura paused, seeming to size Jane up before she opened her mouth, "Thank you for–"
A shrill noise broke through the quiet kitchen, jolting an automatic leap through both women. The sound radiated from Maura's pocket– Of course, when Jane thought she was about to get a conversation out of her friend, some twist of fate had to ruin her attempts. ".. Well, that was quick." Maura exclaimed, eying the ID on her phone before flipping it open and pressing it to her ear.
"Isles." Work. It was a topic Jane both wanted to ignore, and address. With a naturally inquisitive nature, it was hard for Jane to sit this one out. It was hard for Jane to take the backseat knowing that this case was so close to home. Taking Maura in.. It wasn't enough. Jane wanted to be the one out there seeking vengeance, despite strict orders to lay off. There, staring at Maura from across the counter, something clicked within Jane. It resonated deep within her, a silent vow: What ever it would take, she would keep Maura safe.. Even if it meant going against her work's orders. It wasn't in Jane's nature to hide the fact that she was hanging on every single word that Maura spoke through the phone. She wasn't above requesting for the phone to be placed on speaker, either. "..Excellent, what do we have?" Impatience fed fire to Jane's ankle, bobbing up and down on the medal bar of the stool, her eyes and ears glued to Maura. She wished she could take being off the case more eloquently, and had been doing just fine until the inciting smell of information seeped through the line.
"Oh.. Oh my," Maura paused to clear her throat, ".. Thank– Uh, thank you, for letting me know. Yes, I'm fine. Yes– I still want to be updated. I understand, thank you."
Maura clicked the phone off with a sense of finality, all-too-aware of the eyes on her, desperately begging for a lick of the information she had. Storm clouds passed over top of the deep eyes that had seen too much, and heard too much from the day.
"It's pretty much confirmed due to... Overwhelming evidence," Maura swallowed as Jane watched the color drain from her face,
"...I have a stalker."