Distractions:

"So, why did you call me in the first place?" Maura asked as she made herself comfortable on the edge of her bed, hair wrapped in a towel since she didn't want to annoy Jane with the sound of a blow dryer. A few quiet minutes had passed since their shared intimate moment, and even though there were a few pauses, the silences weren't uncomfortable. Neither one of them wanted to hang up. Maura had made the soft confession that Jane was her first phone sex partner, which the detective had been surprisingly pleased to learn.

"Oh, I forgot... you distracted me."

Maura's eyebrows rose several inches and she made a face even though she knew that Jane couldn't see it. "I distracted you?"

"Well," Jane said, "I tried to call you to ask you something important, but you started talking about how you were taking a bath... That made me picture you naked, and -"

"And one thing led to another. I see. Now, what was this important something you wanted to ask?"

Jane paused for a moment to search her memory. "Oh! I remember. I was thinking we should find out which nurse was on duty the night Rose died."

It was as if the detective had flipped a switch in her, and instantly the medical examiner slid back into her usual, deliberate way of thinking. "That's a good idea," she responded. "And shouldn't be too difficult. Aren't you familiar with most of the nurses on that floor by now?"

Jane couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Are you kidding? I feel like I'll owe half of these women a Christmas card next year, I know so much about them." She fumbled the hospital sheets with her fingers, and imagined Maura in her own bed, nestled between her soft, bazillion thread count linens. "I'll talk to Susie tomorrow. I think that's who last saw Mrs. Heissman alive."

"Jane, just be careful." Although in her experience, nurses were much more people-friendly than medical examiners, Maura wasn't sure Susie or whoever she was would take kindly to any accusatory questioning. Of course, she didn't have to reiterate any of this to Jane. The detective clearly knew how to do her job.

"I also think it's worth poking around and seeing exactly who had access to that particular medication," Jane continued, her brain sufficiently back in work mode. "Didn't you say that Raloxifene wasn't listed in her chart?"

Maura stifled a quick yawn and darted a glance over to the clock on her bedside table. If she didn't end this conversation soon, her sleep patterns would be off-kilter. She always liked to allow some time before bed to rid her mind of the day's work, otherwise she would never have a restful sleep. "No, it wasn't. Unless, of course, something is missing from the paperwork. The hospital hasn't converted over to EMR."

"EMR?"

"Electronic medical records."

"So all the records kept here are on paper?"

"Yes."

"Wait, you mean to tell me that despite all the technology that these doctors used to save my life, they record everything with paper and pen?"

"Yes."

Jane was shocked. "I guess that means we'll have to resort to old-fashioned snooping. First, though, I'll start with the nurses. See if I can dig up any useful info from them."

This time, Maura didn't mask her worry. "Jane, I know you're restless over there, but just don't be reckless, okay?" She had no desire to relive the agony that she'd felt when the detective had been injured.

"I'm not being reckless. The more I think about it, the more likely it seems that Rose's death wasn't just an accident. Someone needs to find out what happened to her, and I don't think anyone else will listen. If that means sweet talking a few nurses and maybe sneaking a peek at the medical records, then so be it."

"What about Korsak? I know we were going to keep these theories to ourselves, but maybe it's time to bring him up to speed." Maura couldn't deny that Jane was probably on to something here, but whether or not Rose had been murdered was irrelevant. Her first priority was to keep Jane safe and out of harm's way while she recovered. She hoped that Korsak would be able to talk some sense into his former partner even if she couldn't.

"Okay," Jane agreed, and Maura breathed an inward sigh of relief. Korsak had no room for wild theories or guesswork on the job, even if they turned out to be true. He was a good detective, but not overly imaginative. With any luck, he would be able to talk her out of stealing medical records or whatever other crazy stunts Jane might try and pull. She couldn't resist one last attempt at deterring the detective, however.

"Just don't do anything drastic without me, okay? It's not that I don't think you're capable," Maura hastened to add, "I'm fully aware of your talents and abilities, so you have nothing to prove to me. I'm just... concerned."

Instead of being angry, Jane's voice sounded almost smug over the telephone. "Concerned? The workaholic cyborg Dr. Isles is concerned about little old me?"

From anyone else, the comments would have stung, but Maura knew they weren't coming from a hurtful place. "You of all people should know that I'm far from a cyborg, Jane. I have a fully functional human heart." 'As you've seen more times than I can count,' she added in her thoughts. 'Especially recently...'

Jane's mind seemed to follow along the same track. "I know, Maur. It's sweet that you're worried about me. But I just have to do this... I can't explain."

"I understand." And she did understand. Jane's emotions were illogical, but Maura was so familiar with how the detective's brain worked that she had no trouble grasping why Jane felt the way she did. For perhaps the first time, something that wasn't logical made sense to Maura, and she realized that her connection with Jane must have grown especially strong for that to happen.

"Why I don't I let you get some rest?" Jane asked.

The question was enough to pull Maura out of her worry for a moment. "You're the one that needs to be resting."

"I do nothing but rest, Maur, we've been over this."

Maura leaned back into her pillows, pulling her own sheets over legs and nestled into her bed, curling the phone under her ear. "But you need the kind of sleep that matters. Stages III and IV, also known as delta sleep, due to the production of delta waves inside the brain."

"I though REM was the most important stage?" The talk about sleep tugged a yawn from Jane.

"It's important, too. Like deep sleep, it results in increased production of proteins. It helps stimulate learning." She could hear the creeping drowsiness in the detective's voice, more than likely caused by the pain medications. At least those would help her get some rest, even if her own brain didn't.

"Ah," Jane responded. "Maybe enough REM sleep, and I'll figure this whole thing about Mrs. Heissman out, huh?"

Maura sighed. "That's not exactly what I was hoping you'd do with that information, Jane."

The brunette smiled into the quietness of her hospital room. Sometimes she loved toying with the overly serious medical examiner, just to prove that she could. She moaned out another yawn. "Get some deep sleep, Maura. I promise you I won't do anything drastic." She thought about quipping out a "Not yet," but decided against it, knowing the hell that the younger blonde had gone through after the shooting. "Thanks for the... talk," she said with a smile.

Maura slipped a small smile into the phone, grateful that Jane couldn't see the way her face lit up at the comment. "Anytime. Night, Jane."

"Night, Maur."

Neither hung up right away, but lingered on the line, each appreciating their silent, reassuring connection for a few seconds longer.

. . .

Unfortunately, Jane did not make it much farther than simply drifting off, before she was awakened a pain below her rib cage. She shifted, attempting to find some comfort, and realized that she was covered in a slight sheen of sweat. An accidental moan escaped her lips as she felt another throb shoot through her. Shit, she thought, tapping the nurse call button. She hoped the pain was just a blip on the radar, and that she wouldn't have to explain to a doctor that she'd ripped something open while experiencing an orgasm. Her head rested on the back of her pillow as she took a breath, and then tried sitting up, but the pain seemed to wrench deep in her belly.

"Damn it," she whispered. She did not want any setbacks. The door opened and a familiar nurse popped her head in, not bothering to flip the bright, florescent overhead lights, but instead switching on a smaller bulb over Jane's bed.

"Hey there, Jane, want to tell me what's going on?" the redheaded nurse asked. Jane wondered how nurses always managed to sound so docilely caring. She could certainly never pull it off.

"Hey, Sarah," she said, by now familiar with just about every nurse on the floor. "I just woke up with a little pain, that's all," she said, once again leaning forward.

The woman quickly put out a steadying hand, and pushed Jane gently backwards. "Where's the pain? Do you mind showing me?"

Jane shook her head, pulling up her loose-fitting shirt and displaying her bandaged stomach. She tried to peer over Sarah's hands as they lifted up the gauze, exploring the wound underneath. "Seems to be fine on the surface," she said. "No signs of infection. Can you breathe in and out for me?" Jane followed instructions, and was a little relieved when the pain did not increase. "Did someone come in to see you earlier?" Sarah asked curiously. "We've switched you over to oral dosages for your pain medication, right?"

Jane nodded. "Normally Susie is the one who checks on me, but not in the past few hours." If she had, the detective definitely would have had some questions for her. She knew she was one of the last nurses to see Mrs. Heissman alive.

Sarah cocked her head. "Hmm. Well, I can get you something for the pain." She glanced back over at Jane's injury. "After all, that should be causing you just a little discomfort."

Jane couldn't argue with her there. She glanced over at the Sarah curiously. "Is Susie not working now? This is her normal shift, right?"

The nurse thought about it for a moment. "This is her normal shift, yes, but left early today and requested some time off."

"That's rather sudden," Jane said. And then, just so that her questions wouldn't arouse any suspicions, she added, "you just get used to a routine here. It's strange when something happens to change it."

Sarah gave her patient a slight smile. "I get the feeling you aren't a big fan of boring routines, Detective Rizzoli. Hang tight and I'll get you some more of the good stuff." When the nurse left the room, Jane began examining her own injury, wanting to get a feel for how functional her body was. Although she had managed an orgasm over the phone with Maura easily enough earlier that evening, the effort had exhausted her and she felt soreness buried deep inside of her gut. It wasn't the uncomfortable heat and burn of infection, but a constant ache. Maybe Maura was right and it was too soon to make demands on her body. People didn't shoot themselves through the abdomen and walk it off the next day.

A minute later, Sarah returned with some pills and a small Dixie cup with water. Jane blinked, shaking off a moment of sleepiness, and extended her hands. "Thanks. So, the nurses give all the patients their medication yourselves, right?" When Sarah gave her a confused look, Jane tried to explain herself in a way that wouldn't seem strange. "I mean, the Hospital wouldn't let you leave me a bottle of pills so I could take one if my stomach started to hurt?"

"Nope, sorry. We've got very strict policies. I don't know of any hospitals that let patients handle their own medication. Have you been in a lot of pain?"

"No," Jane said, hastening to reassure the nurse before she got the wrong idea. "I just hate to bother you." Sarah didn't seem totally convinced by the brunette's hasty explanation, but didn't comment on it, either. "I guess you don't want anyone overdosing." When she realized that Sarah was still staring at her, Jane remembered that she was still holding the pills in her hand. Under the nurse's watchful eye, she swallowed them with a shudder. Taking pills had never been her favorite thing to do by any means.

"Those should start to kick in soon," Sarah said once Jane finished taking her medicine. "They might make you tired, but that's probably a good thing. Whoever you were on the phone with kept you up past your bedtime."

For a moment, Jane felt a sharp stab of panic. "Phone? How did you know?" she asked a little too quickly, disappointed by the strain in her voice.

Sarah glanced at the small table beside Jane's hospital bed, where the cell phone rested, and then back at the detective. "Um, because it's right next to you?"

Jane had to stifle a sigh of relief. "Right," she replied quickly, with a not to herself not to press her luck again anytime soon. There would be ample opportunity after her recovery to continue her tryst with Maura, although she knew whatever it was they were doing was becoming way more than a few simple rendezvous at the medical examiner's apartment.

"Get some rest, Detective. I'll be right around the corner if you need me." Sarah gave her a warm smile and quick, comforting pat against the hospital sheets before turning back towards the door, closing it lightly behind her.

She wasn't sure why the nurse who had last seen Mrs. Heissman alive had abruptly requested time off, but she planned on finding out soon enough. 'Or rather,' she thought with sigh as a fading pain still resounded in her gut, 'Maura will find out.'