Jane receives a call from Operations as she's asleep. She fumbles for her phone before violently pressing on the screen.
"Rizzoli." which is just shy of an impatient "what?"
"There's a victim at the Tenean Beach. Detective Frost and Sergeant Korsak have already arrived on scene."
"Yeah, okay." She hangs up. She takes a moment before restlessly pulling herself out of bed. Jane stumbles to her bathroom, but she doesn't have time for a shower so she brushes her teeth as quickly as possible and skips out on coffee.
She's not even properly dressed before she's out of her apartment.
When she arrives on scene, her hair is still tangled — which she brushes just before she gets out of her cruiser — and she sees that even Frost looks a little worse for the wear.
She's tucking her shirt in when her partner comes to greet her with a coffee and information on his iPad. "No ID, yet." He states.
Jane takes the coffee and gives him a grateful look. "We got a cause of death then?"
He shakes his head no and follows her. "But, Maura found a tattoo behind the victim's left ear. It looks like it could be a gang tat. Frankie's running recognition."
Her mouth twitches at the mention of her brother. She's still a little pissed at him but she doesn't dwell on it. "What about time of death?"
Frost shakes his head again. "No, but-"
"Forget it, I'll talk to Maur about it."
When she reaches the beach, there's a crowd of officers surrounding Maura around the body. She fights her way through to find Maura crouched down in a black pencil skirt. She stops short when she sees her best friend has on red gumboots to match her red blouse.
Maura glances up at Jane tiredly but smiles immediately. "I thought you'd never show."
Jane grunts in acknowledgment. "Believe me I thought about not coming." She crouches down across from Maura and looks down at a young victim. He looks as old as Korsak's son. Even looks like a skateboarder too.
"Got anything useful?"
"I think we have two very different definitions of that word," Maura contemplates aloud. "I find all forensic information useful."
"Yeah well learning the last time he had a bowel movement wouldn't be useful, now would it?"
Maura smirks. "You never know."
Jane rolls her eyes. "So what do you have?"
"Well," the Medical Examiner adjusts her position so that she's leaning over the body and quite frankly way too close to Jane's face — she sniffs and smells that Maura used a new shampoo, it smells like vanilla and lavender — she points to a head wound just above the victim's left ear that's covered by matted hair. "I almost missed it."
"Was it our cause of death?"
"I'm not sure."
"If you had to guess," Jane says with exaggerated mock patience. "Would you say that it is?"
"I don't guess."
The Detective scrubs her face roughly and lets out a groan.
"Are you feeling okay?" Maura asks. She moves back to her side of the body. Jane misses the close proximity immediately. "You seem a little more impatient than usual."
"Well," Jane gestures dramatically to the body. "We've got a dead teenage kid on our hands. I've got about five other freaking cases going cold and Cavanaugh is up my ass about helping out other units. I got a full plate, so unfortunately I don't have time for thorough. I need something to go off so I can close this case and get back to my life."
Maura looks at her thoughtfully. Then her demeanor drops precipitously. "I'm sorry, Detective. I can have someone else assigned to the case."
Jane's confused.
The officers around them suddenly find the sand so freaking interesting.
Jane sighs. "No, that's-no Maur I'm not...I'm just tired, alright? I'm being a bitch. I think I'm getting my period or something or maybe Korsak was right about my estrogen."
Maura only looks intriguingly confused but doesn't say anything.
"I'm sorry. Don't mind me. Once I've had enough coffee and some food in me I'll be back to my regular self."
"But you haven't."
"What?"
"You haven't been back to your regular self." Maura looks at her. Her green eyes pierce her with a heartbroken sincerity that hurts Jane to her core because they're finally broaching the subject of all their arguments recently. Jane isn't ready for it. "You've been very distant lately and I don't understand why. I try to be there for you and you call me clingy. I try to give you distance and you yell at me. I don't understand what to do, Jane."
"I know." She gives a small smile. "You're great that way. Always trying to figure me out to help me. Look, I don't get what's going on either, Maur. But I think that's something we can talk about later. Not here, not now. Okay?"
Maura smiles, despite feeling a little rejected. "Okay."
There's a pregnant pause, then Maura stands. "There's not much more I can figure out here. I'll need to finish this in my autopsy."
"Okay." Jane stays crouched down. She wants to say something only so she feels like their relationship isn't ruined or anything. But, Maura looks like she's about to cry and she doesn't want to risk becoming the asshole at the precinct that made sweet ol' Dr. Isles cry. "See you back at BPD?"
Maura only nods but then walks off, with the escort of an officer, back to her car.
"Wow," Frost whistles loudly as he reappears next to her faithfully like a German shepherd. "That was painful."
"Don't say shit about it, Frost." She rolls her eyes and stands, with much protests from her bones.
Jane brisks into the already busy cafe with Frost. She sees her brother and Ma having a quiet but heated discussion behind the counter.
"Can I get some damn service!" A cop slams his hand down repeatedly over the bell.
"Hey, buddy calm it down, alright?" Jane warns. "You'll get your damn jelly donut soon enough."
"Janie," Tommy comes from around the counter to meet her. "I'm so glad you're here. Listen, I got a painting job I need to do in thirty minutes. Think you can watch TJ for a bit?"
Her eyes go wide. "What the hell? Do you see this place swarming with cops, Tommy? It's a busy goddamn day, I ain't got time for babysitting."
"Please, Janie I can't miss this job. It'll look bad on my record."
"And what? Multiple burglaries and running over a priest won't?"
He rolls his eyes. "Janie, c'mon. I know there's a daycare here. Just get TJ in it. I really need this job. They're offering to pay enough to cover my child support for the next three months."
She takes TJ from him. "And what exactly are you painting?"
"A house." He shrugs like it's obvious.
"Oh and does this house belong to the mob?"
"No. It's just a big house. Don't worry about it. Thanks, though." He pats her shoulder and leaves before she can protest.
She looks at Frost.
"Go, go. I'll get us some coffee. Meet you in Brig?"
"Thanks, Frost." She sends him an appreciative look then reminds herself to get him a good present for his birthday.
Maura's weighing the victim's heart when Jane and Frost walk in. He's eating a donut that he no longer thinks he wants. He looks between the maple bar and the body on the slab and tries to decide if he should throw it away or get the hell out of there.
Maura glances over her shoulder at their entrance. "I was just about to call you." She says matter-of-factly. "I found something interesting."
"Great," Jane waits by the slab. "What'd you find?"
"Your victim was born a woman."
"What?!"
Maura nods and turns, carrying the heart with her, back to the slab. "I noticed it before but I didn't want to assume."
"Don't you freaking think that was something to tell me? We could have identified her a lot sooner."
"Him."
"What?"
"The victim is a man."
"But you just said-"
"I know what I just said." She leans over the body, giving Jane a stern look. "This is a man. He went through a lot of medical, surgical, and psychological procedures to be considered a man. He is a man."
"Jeez, I didn't mean to offend you, Maur."
"You didn't. However, if our victim were alive today he would be greatly offended."
"Well he's dead." She exaggerates. "And you neglected to tell me-"
Maura reels back, a little miffed "I neglected?"
"Yes you neglected."
"I had a hunch. I couldn't be sure and I wasn't going to very well stick my hands down his pants in public to be sure. Besides, when news like this is given out cops begin to treat this as a hate crime. I trusted that you would treat this young man as you would any other victim. And look for his killer not by his life decisions but by forensic evidence."
"But we may be looking at a hate crime."
"Or we may not be."
"You are ridiculous, you know that, right?"
Frost coughs. "I think-I'll just go see what Korsak's got. Give him the news." He turns on his heel, but only gets as far as a foot away from the bickering women before they stop him.
"No," both women say.
"I would like you to be here, Frost. You are every bit of a Detective as Jane."
Jane scowls. "Go." She barks.
He looks a little offended but leaves anyway. Glad he doesn't have to hear mommy and mommy argue, and glad he gets to keep his donut. He bites into it on his way out.
Jane folds her arms across her chest. Maura mimics the action with a glare. "I can't believe you."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You withheld vital information, Maura."
"Why does it matter that he was born a woman?"
"Because there aren't many freaking transgender teenagers in Boston. It would have limited our search."
"I wasn't even sure." She drops her hands, as well as her scowl to Jane. Because she knows Jane is right, but she feels like she's being accused of obstructing justice. She truly couldn't be sure. "I wanted to make sure. Here."
Jane drops her arms with a defeated sigh. "What the hell is going on with us?"
Maura looks at the young victim's face. "I don't know."
"Okay, so our victim was born a woman. There's not a lot of doctors in Boston that perform those kind of procedures. We can start looking there."
Maura doesn't know what to say. She finds it hard to keep up with Jane's thought process.
"I'll go see what Frost can dig up. You got an age?"
"I'm only estimating here but between sixteen and nineteen."
"Okay." She waits a beat. "You wanna get dinner later?"
Maura looks at her with an obviously confused look. She tilts her head slightly and blinks. "Dinner?"
"Yeah?" Jane grins. "I'll be hungry, you'll probably be hungry. We can get take-out and head back to your place or something. And we can...talk. If you want." She shrugs.
"I'd like that." Maura beams.
It puts Jane's smile to shame. "Great, I'll call you when I go home."
"Don't bother. I'll bring dinner to your apartment." She continues off Jane's confused look. "Your mother is having a sleepover with Cavanaugh."
The brunette gives a grateful smile. "Shit, thanks. I really don't wanna hear that. Great, I'll text you." She leaves hurriedly before they start an argument over who pays for the take-out.
A/N: The pace might be weird like the fact that you guys haven't experienced the recent arguments but really they're not important. What's important is that as of right now Jane and Maura are going through a rough patch in their friendship and they don't know why.
As always, your reviews and messages on tumblr are all the encouragement I need. Also if you like the story or my other stories, tell your friends about it.