A/N: Thank you all for the lovely reviews. Pablo and Vanilla, since you reviewed as guests, I can't reply directly, but know that your kind words mean a lot to me. This chapter is intense. For those who know the movie, this is THAT scene. You have been warned.
The rest of their weekend off proceeded as it started. The couple spent time making love, eating, talking, bathing: rinse and repeat. It allowed them to finally really get to know each other and open up. Jane let Maura in on some of her biggest fears that drove her to some of her more reckless behavior while Maura finally opened up to Jane about her insecurities. Jane had asked Maura why she had run away that first night they 'met' at the bar. Maura explained her awkwardness and social anxiety from her upbringing and it only made Jane fall more in love with this stunning woman.
That first night they had both received texts from their best friends updating them on Frost's condition. The base doctor had confirmed that Frost had sprained his knee but that he would be fine and had cleared him to return to work full duty on Monday. It was good that they had the weekend off so that he could rest. Based on the texts they both received, Maura and Jane weren't sure how much rest he was going to get since Frost was staying at Susie's to recuperate.
"How did we miss this development?" Maura asked while they were lounging, nude, in Maura's bed after their umpteenth round of devouring each other into climax. Jane was distracted from the question as Maura was making slow circles with her finger tips around Jane's rapidly hardening nipple.
"Hmm-OW!" Jane gasped as Maura pinched the nipple she had been toying with hard. Looking down into Maura's adorably pouty face, Jane realized she had missed something and leaned down, capturing Maura's lips in a heated kiss.
"Sorry, Maur, you can be very distracting. And honestly, I think that is how we missed Frost and Susie getting so close. We have been VERY distracted with each other this past week," Jane said adoringly. She knew she should feel guilty about not being there for her best friend but she really couldn't find it in herself to do so when Maura was in her arms, looking at her the way she was.
Maura bent her head down to kiss the nipple she had assaulted, causing Jane to moan loudly. "Case in point," Jane said breathily. Maura just giggled and adjusting herself fully on top of Jane, began kissing her way down Jane's olive skin. "Touche" was mumbled against her stomach as Maura continued her downward trend. Jane had a brief thought of continuing the conversation but soon any thought other than Maura's tongue was quickly forgotten.
x-x-x-x-x-x
Eventually, late Sunday night, Maura had driven Jane to her house she shared with Frost so that she could get some clothes and pick up her bike. Frost had not been there either but his truck was sitting in their driveway. Jane had just smiled and tossed her overnight bag into Maura's car.
Giving Maura a thorough kiss, Jane had stepped back and as she was climbing onto her motorcycle, said cheekily, "Race you home, Ice." Maura had just chuckled and yelled at the crazy pilot who was revving her bike, "Be safe!" Jane had just thrown her a salute as she finished securing her helmet and taken off down the road. Maura was left shaking her head as she climbed into her Prius and couldn't stop grinning ear to ear as Jane's words hit her. Home. Maura liked the sound of that.
x-x-x-x-x-x
Monday came all too soon. The couple was reluctant to extract themselves from the bubble they had created at Maura's but it had to be done. Their jobs were important to both of them and it was time to get back to reality.
The couple had discussed how they would act at work and both agreed that they should keep their relationship to themselves, except for Frost and Susie, although they had been pretty obvious at the beach the week before. They wanted to minimize the teasing from the other pilots but knew it was inevitable in some way. As long as they comported themselves as professionals, they knew that they could weather whatever came at them.
Maura had insisted that they arrive separately and had arrived to the locker room first. Everyone else was already there except Jane and Maura smirked to herself as she saw Barold and Susie throwing knowing looks to each other. Apparently they had not come to the same agreement as she and Jane because there were also casual touches between the two. Maura wished she could do that with Jane but knew that their casual touches escalated to something else much too quickly to be safe for work.
This thought made her smile and that smile only grew as the woman who occupied her mind and body came stomping loudly into the locker room, all strut and sass. God did Maura love the sight. Something about a cocky Jane Rizzoli just got her libido going. Maura quickly turned back to her locker as to not get caught ogling the sexy aviator but was apparently not quick enough as she heard Susie snicker to her right. Casting a look at her best friend, Maura couldn't stop the blush that crept up her neck.
"So smooth Ice," Susie said teasingly. Maura just shot her a glare that said 'zip it' and finished putting on her flight suit. Shutting her locker with a bam, Maura sauntered out of the locker room, not looking at Jane but making sure to put a bit of extra sway to her hips as she left. Judging by the chuckle she heard from Susie and Barold, it had the desired effect.
x-x-x-x-x-x
Jane was trying her best to concentrate all morning during classes but it was very hard as images from the last few days consumed her. It didn't help that the woman who starred in all these images was just a few seats away, seemingly completely unaffected by her presence. Jane knew that Maura could compartmentalize with the best of them but it was still a bit unnerving to see it first hand in relation to their relationship.
At one point while Charlie had been going over a very difficult maneuver, Maura had finally looked over at Jane and mouthed 'pay attention'. This caused Jane to smile goofily at Maura, who just rolled her eyes as she turned back to the front of the class. But, Jane took the hint and focused on what their lesson was for the day.
When they were dismissed, Jane wanted to speak to Maura before their briefing on the day's aerial exercises, but Maura used her sprinter's speed to once again bolt from the room. Jane was frustrated but the comforting hand on her back brought her out of her funk.
"Mav, come on. You know you need to focus on our mission. And you also know that she's so into you. I heard what she did in front of Charlie. That is so epic!" Frost shouted while throwing his hands up over his head in excitement. They weren't quite outside the classroom yet so Charlie had heard his shout and was looking at them when Jane turned to assess the damage.
"Shut up, bigmouth," Jane hissed, slapping Frost hard on the chest. The loud oompf that followed and the shamed face Frost was wearing made Jane let go of her anger. Jane glanced at Charlie again and saw the sadness on the woman's face and felt bad. She never meant to lead her on but what happened was in the past now.
Throwing Charlie a quick smile, Jane turned to leave the classroom and hustle to the briefing room. She did take the time to tease Frost a bit. "So, you and Slider, huh?" Jane asked with a slight nudge of her elbow to Frost's side. She enjoyed watching him blush as he limped along beside her. Jane thought his knee was supposed to be better by now but if he was cleared for duty who was she to bring it up.
"Yeah, well, she's pretty amazing. We started talking because of you two knuckleheads but it was pretty obvious to me that I needed to get to know her. She's so smart, Mav! And caring and sweet and funny..." Frost trailed off, getting lost in his own head while wearing a dopey grin.
Jane felt her heart fill with love for her best friend. She was so glad he had met someone that made him feel so good. It also quashed her guilt for his crush on her for all these years. Maybe they could both finally be happy with women who made them feel this way. The thought made Jane smile her own dopey smile.
They were both brought back down from the clouds as they entered the briefing room and realized they were the last ones and Korsak was giving them the evil eye. The briefing had already started and their entrance had caused a disturbance.
"So glad you could join us, Maverick and Goose. Please take your time. You would think the number two team would have a little more motivation," Korsak said pointedly. Feeling the chastisement and taking it in stride, Jane put on her business face and said, "Sorry sir. Won't happen again."
"Great, as I was saying, you will be pairing up again today as we are moving into the crunch time. We want to test your ability to work with a wingman. Because of previous missions, I think it's time that Iceman and Maverick show me that they can play nice together." Korsak looked sternly from Jane to Maura. Maura seemed to tense up at the gaze but Jane was ecstatic to finally be paired with Maura. She wanted to prove to her lover that she could be there for her, both personally and professionally. This was her chance.
"Alright, you all have your assignments. Dismissed," Korsak bellowed as he and Martinez made their way out to their aircrafts. This was Jane's chance to prove herself to everyone and she was going to take full advantage of it.
x-x-x-x-x-x
Maura was a little apprehensive about the pairing. She knew Jane was an exceptional pilot but Jane's recklessness concerned her. Maura always flew with a plan and could improvise when needed but the plan was important to her. She didn't think that Jane would cooperate. However, with what they had shared over the last few days, Maura was going to be optimistic that Jane would be able to complete this mission successfully.
Almost immediately Maura was proven wrong. Jane seemed intent on proving something to her but especially to Viper and Jester. They both spotted the enemy aircraft at the same time and began their chase after them. Maura tried to get Jane to listen to a plan she had but Jane just kept trying to get ahead of her to get her target lock on Viper. Maura used her aircraft to block Jane from getting the lock in that manner because she knew it would leave them open to Jester attacking them. Jane wouldn't listen and because of that Maura couldn't get the right angle to lock onto Viper.
Maura switched to guns trying to get the best attack on their target and all she could hear was Jane's constant impatience with her to take the shot. Maura was getting frustrated but told Jane to give her twenty seconds to line up the shot. Jane's impatience won out and and she forced Maura to break formation, taking a hard right to give Jane the shot. She was very unhappy and let out a rare curse. "Shit, I'm off Mav!"
Suddenly all the chatter on the radio was Jane detailing a spin. Apparently Jane had been too close and when Maura broke off, Jane and Barold got caught in her jetwash. Jane lost both her engines and was in a flat spin. Immediately Maura started calling for help. "Mayday, Mayday, Maverick is in a flat spin and headed out to sea." She was barely keeping her composure. Even though Maura didn't believe in a god, at this moment she sent all her thoughts and prayers to the universe hoping Jane would be okay.
x-x-x-x-x-x
Jane was freaking out. They were losing altitude quickly. She could hear Frost yelling out as they dropped from 7000, to 6000, then 5000 feet. There was nothing she could do. The stick wouldn't respond without the engines. Their spin was getting tighter and it was getting harder to focus. She reached for the ejection handle but she couldn't reach it. The force of the spin was too great. She cried out to Frost, "Goose, you gotta reach the ejection handle! I can't reach!"
Jane could hear Frost trying but he kept shouting out in pain. It seemed the pain in his knee was keeping him from getting enough traction to be able to pull the ejection handle. They were now at 4000 feet and if they didn't eject soon they were both going to die.
Jane, making a last ditch effort, somehow managed to grab the handle and she pulled with all her might. She shouted at Frost to watch the canopy as they were ejecting but he had gone eerily quiet. Before she could register what was wrong with Frost, they were flung out of the rapidly falling aircraft and luckily both their chutes popped open.
As they drifted to the water, Jane noticed that Frost wasn't moving. His limp body was falling to the ocean below and if it weren't for their flight suit flotation devices, Frost would have sunk into its depths. Jane plopped down in the water shortly after Frost and swam as hard as she could to her best friend. Pulling his chute hand over fist as quickly as she could, she grabbed the unconscious man. She didn't see any blood which was a good sign but he seemed to be barely breathing.
Jane felt her heart beating in her throat and was trying to shout at Frost to wake up. She needed him to be okay. Jane knew she had been flying a bit too close to Maura but she never thought her decision would harm her best friend. What had she done?
She floated aimlessly in the water, gripping Frost tightly, tears streaming down her face as the rescue helicopter approached them. All flight seats were equipped with colored dye that deployed once the pilots hit the water. The rescue team arrived pretty quickly and soon a coast guard diver was swimming to her with the bucket to pull her into the helo.
"Ma'am, you have to let him go. Please, we can only take one up at a time, please let him go." Jane couldn't hold back the sob that over took her as she felt her hands being pried off of Frost's limp body.
Jane's only thought as she was winched up to the helo was, He had to be okay. He had to be okay. Jane kept this mantra up as she saw the body of her best friend floating in the water, the diver keeping him from floating off.
A/N: Things will be intense for the next few chapters but this is Rizzles endgame so please trust in my story telling to get us through this. Much love and appreciation to all who are reading. Your encouragement and enthusiasm for my work warms my heart and fills my soul.