Notes: Ok, I think the next review makes #200, who is it gonna be! There's not alike a prize or anything other than my undying gratitude ;) Ok, New Year's Eve time, and time to meet Maura's Aunt Elizabeth...cue ominous music.
CH 22: All Grief and Sorrow Takes the Flight
Despite everything that was good about Christmas it was almost a relief for both Maura and Jane when it was over. Between the usual holiday stress of coming up with gift ideas, doing the actual shopping, balancing work and family expectations there had been the added component of introducing the two families. That Christmas Eve dinner had gone off without a hitch or loss of blood was perhaps the biggest relief of all.
Jane and Maura gratefully settled into the post-holiday routine, though not to say there weren't major events looming in the near future. Maura's parents' annual New Year's Eve gala and the trial was rapidly approaching.
"So, Korsak and I were talking about New Year's Eve…" Frost said, glancing over at Jane as she hectically guided the Crown Victoria through the dense Boston traffic en route to pick up a material witness for questioning in the case they were working.
"Yeah? You and Korsak sure have been…friendly lately, anything you wanna tell me Frost?" Jane smirked, payback's a bitch.
"I've never hit a woman, but I will bust out my Bruce Lee on you Rizzoli."
Jane laughed, "Nah nah, just giving you a hard time. I think it's good, that you two are getting along I hated having to play the peacekeeping force. So, what about New Year's Eve?"
"Well, Korsak said the group always goes to the Robber, but…we know you and Maura haven't gone there since…you know, so we were thinking of trying somewhere else out for the evening's festivities and thought you might have some suggestions."
Jane looked at her partner with an appreciative smile, "That's really…thoughtful, but I think this year is a no-can-do on New Year's Eve, Maura's parents throw some huge shindig at their place every year so I think we have to go to that. Believe me though, I would much rather be hanging out with you guys and pounding back bar food and beer instead of escargot and champagne…although I will say, good champagne is well…it's really good actually."
"The Doc will make a socialite out of you yet, Rizzoli," Frost replied with more than an air of jest in his voice.
"I may have some nicer suits now, and a couple more dresses and appreciate a fine champagne but I can still kick your ass and don't you forget it."
"Duly noted," Frost laughed.
"Maur!" Jane hollered from the bathroom, "Is it ok if I just wear my hair down? I…I just can't get it to do anything! UGH!"
Maura emerged from her closet clad only in her bra and panties and stood in the door of the bathroom, "Your hair will look lovely down, would you like me to help you?" She eyed the bathroom floor, which looked as if a bomb had gone off in a hairpin factory.
She's nervous, Maura observed, cataloguing the strain on Jane's face, her slightly flushed skin, the pulsing vein in her temple. "Hold on." Maura stepped out and returned with the stepping stool from her closet. "Sit," she instructed.
Jane did as she was told and closed her eyes waiting for her hair to be assaulted with a brush or rollers or a piping hot curling iron but instead Maura's supple hands began massaging her neck and shoulders. "You need to relax," Maura hummed, "It's only a party."
"It's a fancy party, with your parents and all their fancy friends and your Aunt and Uncle who I haven't met…"
"And none of that matters, "Maura interrupted, "because you're going to look beautiful and completely appropriate, and I'm going to be there with you and we're going to have a wonderful, fun New Year's Eve."
The tension in Jane's neck and shoulders began to dissipate as much in response to Maura's vocal reassurance as to the deft manner in which her hands stroked out the knots in her muscles. Maura ran her fingers through the long brunette locks that cascaded well past Jane's shoulders and then gently brushed out the unintentional kinks Jane had caused in her frustrated flurry of hair pinning. She smoothed the slight frizz from around Jane's head with the curling iron, wrapping sections of the locks around the barrel and releasing them to fall in long loose curls. She set the simple, elegant style with a light spray and then combed her fingers through it for no other purpose than to enjoy the sensual tactility of the now silken strands.
"I love your hair down," she whispered in Jane's ear as she leaned down and placed a light kiss on her cheekbone.
They arrived slightly early at Judith and William's in order to situate their overnight bags and make sure all the pre-party preparations were taken care of, a completely unnecessary reason for being early Jane mused as Judith had hired wait staff and a caterer for the evening. Judith Isles' sister Elizabeth was every bit as sharp and angular as her slightly younger sibling but with a much more pronounced demeanor of entitlement and snobbery with a healthy heaping side dish of disdain. Judith was flitting around the house obsessing over the details and left Maura to make the introductions between Jane and Elizabeth and her husband Andrew. Maura approached her aunt to greet her with a hug but was stopped by a bony hand that took hold of her chin and held her back at arm's length as her hollow eyes scrutinized Maura's form.
"Have you gained weight?" Elizabeth asked flat out.
Jane's mouth fell open.
Maura straightened herself and took a half-step back to remove her chin from her aunt's grasp, "I might have overindulged during the holidays but Jane's mother is such a wonderful cook." She stepped further back reaching for Jane's hand and drawing her closer. "Aunt Elizabeth, Uncle Andrew, this is Jane, my…"
"Yes, we're more than aware of who she is," with that Elizabeth and Andrew turned and went to meddle in the party setup.
Jane could feel a slight moisture forming on Maura's palm as her grip tightened. "You know Maur, we should arrange a luncheon between your Aunt and mine; I think they'd get along famously."
Maura laughed, looking at Jane, appreciative of her humor. She nodded, "They very well might."
Guests began arriving and soon the Isles' home was brimming with people. The waiters; though saddled with trays laden with a diverse array of hors d'ouevres, floated seamlessly through the party-goers, evidence of their vast experience in working such affairs. The food was excellent, not nearly as intimidating as Jane had feared and the wine was of course perfect, no doubt all personally selected and paired with the flights of food by Judith herself. Jane made a conscious effort to restrict her wine intake ever mindful of the house full of judgmental eyes that with very little hidden discretion flashed her way throughout the evening accompanied by whispered conversations.
Maura was expected to make rounds with her mother and greet all of the guests and she became acutely aware of the fact that this was causing her to abandon Jane for long swaths of time. She would search through the party crowd every so often to take stock of Jane's location. Several times William Isles had stepped in to fill the void and Maura would be reassured by familiar smiles likely associated with a rousing sports conversation between the two. At one point Maura glimpsed Jane being occupied by Gregory Chesterfield and his date. But as her mother's social rounds grew tedious Maura grew increasingly concerned that she had left Jane alone for an inordinately rude and uncomfortable amount of time.
Jane had retreated to a quiet corner when Aunt Elizabeth approached her.
Oh God.
"You don't seem to be enjoying yourself," Elizabeth stated.
Ok, Maura, where are you? "Uh, no, the party is very nice…"
Elizabeth cut her off, "Perhaps it's that you realize you don't belong here."
Jane stood dumbfounded, she was completely at a loss for what to say or do. Everything they had been through to bring Judith around, she couldn't very well tell Maura's aunt to fuck off, "I belong wherever Maura is."
"No, you're a little greaseball dyke who's playing out of her league trying to get off the doughnut patrol. Where you belong is knee-deep in the finest scum the city has to offer or slinging toilet pipes with your guido father. You're not good enough for her and you never will be and mark my words she'll wake up one morning and come to her senses and wonder why she's been slumming with a beer-swilling, papist pasta-eater like you." Elizabeth turned and walked away.
Having completed her hostess duties Maura looked everywhere in the house for Jane to no avail. Neither of her parents could remember seeing her for quite some time. Maura walked out on the glassed in sun porch and looked out across the yard. The moonlight reflected off the pristine snow just enough to faintly illuminate Jane sitting on a bench across the yard. Paying no mind to the cocktail dress she was wearing or the designer heels Maura stepped into the yard and made her way over to Jane.
"Jesus Christ Maura, you'll freeze to death," Jane popped up off the bench slinging her coat off and draping it around Maura's shoulders.
"Well, now you'll freeze to death, so maybe we should both go inside and you can tell me why you're out here in your dress and four inch heels in the snow and freezing cold."
Maura led Jane back in the house and slipped past the crowd to her father's study. She walked over to the mini-bar and selected two highball glasses pouring some Scotch from a crystal decanter.
"Your hands are freezing," Maura said as they sat down on the leather sofa, she set her glass aside and began rubbing Jane's hand between her own to warm it up. "How long were you out there?"
"Awhile," Jane took a sip of the scotch and passed the glass to Maura as she flipped her heels off to lie down, resting her head in Maura's lap.
"Because I left you alone for so long?"
"No…I mean, not directly, it's just a couple of things weighing on my mind."
Maura rubbed Jane's arm with one hand as the other threaded lightly through her hair, "Tell me, please."
Jane sighed, "I've been thinking about church. I used to go all the time and now I've become one of those high holiday Catholics, and really I just mean Christmas and Easter. When we all walked into church on Christmas Eve it just felt right, and I realized I had missed it."
"Jane," Maura's voice was soft, understanding, "If you want to go to church more regularly, you know I'll go with you…"
"We can't go to my parents' church," Jane replied as she wrapped her hand around Maura's knee, rubbing her thumb back and forth.
"Why not?"
"At midnight mass when I went up to take communion, Father Tuohy refused me…because I'm gay."
"Jane! Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Because everyone was so happy, you were so happy. I didn't want anything to change that."
"But Jane, I always want to know if something's bothering you. If I don't know I can't try to help."
"You did help, just seeing you so full of joy and a part of my family…what Father Tuohy did hurt, but, you're more important to me than that."
"It doesn't have to be either or Jane, we can still go to church. Maybe not the Catholic Church if it's going to be like that, but…what if we tried one of the Episcopal churches? Per my understanding the liturgy is very similar but the church much more liberal when it comes to ministering to the gay community."
Jane rolled over on her back, her head still in Maura's lap, "You'd do that for me, not only go to church with me but…go church shopping with me?"
Maura laughed, "Well, I do like shopping," she said with a wink, "Of course I would, if it's important to you it's important to me." She moved her hand to Jane's cheek, letting her thumb ghost lightly over it. "What else, this isn't just about church."
Jane bit her lip, "I was standing in the corner of the living room, you had been gone for a really long time and…I was just tired of everyone staring at me so I tried to move somewhere I'd be less obvious and your aunt came over…" she paused, wondering if she should continue.
"Jane…" Maura's brow furrowed, "…what did she say, was she harsh to you?"
"You could say that."
"Tell me, tell me what she said."
"I believe her exact words were something to the effect of me being a 'greaseball dyke on the doughnut patrol' who was only using you to better myself and that one day you'd wake up and realize that a 'beer-swilling, papist pasta-eater' such as myself would never be good enough for you and then you'd leave me and I'd be back working the beat or patching toilets with my and I quote 'guido' father."
Maura's face read like an anger barometer as a red tide crept from her chest, up her neck to settle in her face inflaming her cheeks. Her hazel eyes flashed a brilliant green, "Jane, I need you to sit up." Jane did as she was told. "And stay right here, I'll be back momentarily."
Jane retrieved one of the glasses of scotch as she watched Maura walk purposefully from the study.
She picked her way through the crowd of her parents' friends until she found her mother and aunt conversing, "I need to speak to you…both of you…now." They made their way to the sun porch, Judith Isles glancing in confusion between her daughter who was clearly steaming and her sister who looked smugly indifferent to the whole scene.
Maura turned and faced her aunt, "How dare you! Ethnic and religious slurs, not to mention insulting her profession for which she has been decorated with the highest award the department bestows. You also insult her father, a fine gentleman I'll never allow you the honor…yes, the honor of meeting. And once again, all to suggest that she's only interested in me for my money. Let me tell you something, there's not enough money in the world worth putting up with the likes of what she's put up with to be with me. Do you think she wanted to stand in front of a dozen news cameras and announce she was gay to the entire city? Do you think she wanted her family priest to basically excommunicate her? She did it for me. She gives me everything, every part of herself, every part of her life, she gives to me. And she's far richer than I could ever be because she can give the greatest gift; she's given me a family that loves me unconditionally and without judgment."
Maura stormed back through the house, upstairs to her old bedroom where she retrieved her coat and their bags. She marched back into the study dropping the bags to the ground, "Come on; put your coat on."
Jane stood, confused, "Where are we going."
Maura looked at her watch, "It's only 10:45, if we hurry we can still get to the Robber in time to ring in the New Year with Frost and Korsak."
Cheers rang out through the Robber as Jane and Maura walked in.
"Janie! What are you doing here?" Frankie ran up to give his sister a hug, "Maura, looking stunning as always."
"Knew you couldn't resist spending New Year's Eve with us," Korsak joked handing Jane a beer.
Frost trotted up shortly after with a glass of wine for Maura, "Doc, glad you guys came, just wasn't the same without you," he said with a genuine smile.
The affection was contagious, Maura grinned widely as she took the glass, "That's very sweet Barry, we missed your company as well."
As the clock neared midnight the Robber staff passed out tiny plastic flutes of champagne. Maura lifted 2 flutes off a tray as one of the waitresses walked by.
"You know, it won't be as good as what your mom had," Jane observed.
"Maybe not, but it's exactly what I want," Maura said with a smile.
The big screen tv broadcasting the ball drop from Times Square cued everyone to start counting. Arms were thrown around neighbors, swaying ensued and the countdown began. 10…9…8…7…
Maura turned and wrapped one arm around Jane's waist swaying in a dance-like fashion as the rest of the bar counted down to midnight. At the final stroke she smiled, looking Jane in the eyes before capturing her lips in a heated kiss with no attention paid to the crowded bar around them that burst into song as Auld Lang Syne played through the din. As she broke the kiss she pressed their cheeks together joining the bar chorus as she sang a different set of lyrics to the tune softly into Jane's ear.
My heart is ravished with delight
When thee I think upon
All grief and sorrow takes the flight
And speedily is gone
The bright resemblance of thy face
So fills this heart of mine
That force nor fate can me displease
For Old Lang Syne
*There are many versions of "Old Long Syne" or "Auld Lang Syne" The above is a version printed by James Watson in 1711.