A/N: Hi, so as you can see, I finished chapter three. I feel like you guys suffer enough without me posting, like, once a year. After all, there are other writers on this site to torture you like that, aren't there? I'll have you know, I haven't even started on chapter four yet, so that might be a problem. Then again, it might not. Sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes, like always. My LLBFF didn't get a chance to read this when I posted, so that would account for some of it. Speaking of which, sorry allthecompanions. Forgive me? :P So without further ado... chapter three.
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Never Have I Ever
Jane never refuses Maura, and of course she knows it. But she doesn't care. So of course she found herself in Maura's car's passenger seat and at Maura's front door and on Maura's couch with a bottle of water, trying to sober herself up a little. She hadn't drunk much, but she still felt a little tipsy. Maura had just had a single glass of wine and was completely sober. Maura handed Jane some pajamas she had left over, and then the pair went about their nightly rituals. Teeth and hair were brushed, clothes were shed, and pajamas were put on, and then Jane and Maura were situated on Maura's living room couch, snuggled together for warmth, watching Maura's favorite movie: The Princess Bride.
When the movie came to its close, Maura wiped a small tear of happiness from her cheek and Jane decided to break the comfortable silence that had possessed the townhouse in the morning's wee hours. "I see why you love the movie so much." Maura practically jumped off the couch at the noise, completely forgetting that conversation was normal between people after a movie; also forgetting that there had been a body leaning against her own. At the sudden movement, Jane did not have time to right herself, and ended up lying on the couch, cheek on the pillow and facing the couch's back cushions. She looked a little startled at Maura's jump, but laughed nonetheless; the situation was quite humorous. She turned her head to the other side to face her best friend. Jane raised her eyebrow and gave the doctor an 'explain yourself' type of look.
"You, uh…You scared me. I wasn't expecting the noise. It was…startling." Maura was breathing hard and slow and deep, trying to return her heartbeat to normal. She leaned forward to help Jane back into a sitting position, and then up to a standing one. Then something unexpected happened: Maura engulfed Jane in a tight embrace, shocking all the air out of the detective's lungs. "Don't ever go mostly dead on me." She loosened her grip on Jane so that breathing would be possible, and then pushed her back a little. "Again, I mean."
Jane understood what Maura counted the first time, and smiled. "I always come back, though, don't I?" Maura gave her a pointed look, and Jane quickly revised her statement. "Never again; I promise." She wrapped the doctor in her arms and after a moment released her. "Let's go to bed, huh?" She took Maura's hand and led her up the stairs to the master bedroom. After Maura was settled in bed, Jane turned to head across the hall to the guest bedroom. But Maura called out to stop her as soon as she reached the threshold of Maura's door. "You need something, Maur?" Jane turned in her spot with a look of concern in her eyes.
"Oh, I just wanted to talk. About anything, really. You know, jokes and company and things like that. I don't know why, but I feel like talking a little now." Maura leaned back on her elbows and motioned to Jane with her head to come over and sit down. "Or perhaps I just want some company, I guess. But you don't have to stay if you don't want to." She glanced down at the sheets, suddenly a little unsure of herself. Maura lifted her head after a moment and then smiled a sheepish smile at Jane. She then made a motion to get herself back fully under the covers to go to sleep, but it was stopped at the last second when a certain lanky detective climbed in and pulled the pair of them up into a sitting position, each woman facing the other. There was a smile on Jane's face.
"Don't be ridiculous, Maur. Of course I'll stay and talk with you. And we both know I'm pretty good with the jokes. Okay, no, wait. So how about this? I challenge you. Pick one thing you really want to do right now and we'll do it. It's not really talking, I guess, but it could get us talking or whatever and it could be funny. So, yeah. Pick the craziest thing you want me or us to do right now and I won't back down. You know I always make good on all my bets and all my dar-mmmpppphhhh."
Surgically skilled fingers found the detective's lips, effectively silencing her monologue. Maura giggled a little, her interest in staying awake having been peaked. "Okay, Jane. I get it. We can do anything I want. You were just going a little long on the speech there." The doctor thought she saw a devilish glint in Jane's eyes and it was confirmed a moment later when she felt a warm wet swipe across her fingertips. She yelped girlishly, "Jane!" The brunette just smirked and shrugged, and the honey blonde wiped her fingers across Jane's pajama shorts, and then folded said fingers and hands in her lap. "I already know what game I want to play anyways. And you can't back down." Jane faked offense as this statement, countering that she already said she would do anything. Maura continued, "I want to play 'Never Have I Ever'; which, ironically, is a game I have never played before. But we'll be using wine for the game, because I don't have the energy to get up and go downstairs to go get any different liquor."
"And wine would somehow be the exception to going downstairs?" Jane asked of her best friend, skeptical that the nice and proper doctor would have alcohol so close in the vicinity of her bed.
Maura laughed again. "Patience, Detective." She lifted the Egyptian cotton covers enough so that she could slip her body out of the bed, and kneeled down by the bedside table. She opened a small door and pulled out two wine glasses and a Merlot wine bottle. She then pulled out a small tray to make sure everything would be stable on her bed. Maura turned back to get back onto the bed and couldn't help the school-girly giggle that escaped her lips. It seemed she was laughing a lot tonight. Jane was looking at her, completely dumbstruck by the doctor's recent actions.
Jane blinked and remembered that she should speak. "Hey, Maur. Why do you have wine just sitting there in the table by your bed?" Maura started to answer, but Jane could somehow tell what was going to come out, and interrupted the doctor in order to clarify her statement. "No. Why two glasses, Maura?" Her tone indicated a somewhat lopsided combination of genuine curiosity and teasing accusation. A classic Rizzoli smirk accompanied the words, but it was obvious that Jane still expected an answer.
"It's usually there for when I expect company. And before you ask, no, I wasn't expecting any company for tonight. I guess I just kept it there. And besides, it's a good thing I did, now. Otherwise, you'd have to go downstairs, and I know you wouldn't want that." Maura retorted with a teasing tone of her own and batted her eyes in an innocently flirtatious manner, the way she usually did to Jane when she knew she had won an argument.
The detective ceased her interrogation, recognizing that Maura had won. She wouldn't admit it to Maura, though, so she changed the subject with a grin. "Alright, fine. Let's get to playing then." She opened the wine bottle with ease and poured just a little amount of wine in each glass; enough for a shot. "Who goes first?" Maura nodded her head at Jane to get the game started and Jane acquiesced. She always did, of course. "Alright." She paused, remembering something. "Wait. You said you've never played before. You do know the rules, though, right?" The blonde nodded again, and Jane continued. "Never have I ever…gone skinny dipping." She finished with a smirk and raised an eyebrow at her best friend, as if challenged her to shoot her wine. She did, with a little smirk of her own, and raised her own eyebrow just a little suggestively. Jane laughed, her hair bouncing a little, and then refilled the glass. "Really, Maur? You've actually gone skinny dipping before?" she questioned again, still somewhat doubtful. That was neither here nor there, though, because she knew that Maura couldn't lie.
The Medical Examiner smirked again. "More than once." At this, Jane's eyes went wide and her brow shot up to meet her hairline once again. "It was during college and med school," she explained. "But now it's my turn to question you. Never have I ever," Maura paused, trying to think of something to say. "Never have I ever smoked a cigarette." Jane left her wine untouched and grinned, so Maura took it upon herself to continue. "Never have I ever had-".
Jane interrupted her. "Maur, it's my turn. You just went."
"Hmm. The way I learned it, if no one takes a shot, the speaker takes another go."
"Oh. Alright then, continue. I dare you to get me to drink. I've never done anything wrong," Jane said with an air of sarcastic daring arrogance. She gestured at the doctor, signaling her to continue.
"I'll take you up on that challenge, Detective." She cast a knowing smirk against Jane. "Never have ever had sex on an office desk." Maura leaned back on her hands, confident that she would catch Jane this time. She didn't know why, but she had this feeling and decided to listen to her intestines. It paid off, and Jane picked up her glass of Merlot and shot it into her mouth. Maura was smiling, thinking she had caught the brunette off guard and in a moment of embarrassment. So when Jane looked at Maura again with a signature 'beat that' Rizzoli smirk, Maura's smile faltered a little. "What are you smiling at?" Maura found herself too curious to refrain herself from questioning the Italian one more time.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just the one time that I had sex on an office desk. And hopefully, the couple more times it'll happen in the future. To say the least, I would do it again. And again. And again. With the same person, too. Let's just say it as a kind of out-of-body experience," Jane smirked. She was obviously a little proud of herself. Maura gave her a slightly appalled look. She had never known Jane to openly and voluntarily talk about sex, let alone recount one of her own experiences. But Jane simply shot Maura a suggestive wink and refilled her glass to shot height. "Okay, my turn. Never have I ever been kissed by a girl or kissed a girl on the lips." Jane had chosen this question with a really good feeling she would get what she wanted. She knew Maura had grown up in an all-girl French boarding school, for one. For another, Maura had gone to college at a really young age, so some of the youth and impressionability had probably made itself known over the many years of university and medical school. Surely at least one girl had come on to Maura.
And Jane's suspicions were confirmed when Maura took her wine glass and tipped it back into her mouth quickly. Another smirk followed. Many of those seemed to be floating around tonight; or rather this morning. "More than once, again." Jane raised another eyebrow at this. Apparently it was a favorite pastime of hers- raising eyebrows. "You did say 'been kissed' as well as 'kissed', Jane. And you were obviously thinking it yourself: I am quite the catch. Thank you." The doctor smiled, somewhat grateful for the self-imposed compliment, and the flirtatious banter resumed. After five more rounds each of 'Never have I ever', both women had learned a whole lot about each other. Neither woman had ever had a threesome. Not that that fact was crucial to any kind of human function besides humor. Jane had once cheated on a French test in order to keep her grade high enough to stay on her high school softball team. Maura had almost lost her virginity in a swimming pool. But only almost.
Time passed quickly between the detective and the M.E. All of a sudden, Maura's alarm clock went off, signaling that it was seven in the morning and neither of them had slept. Thank god it was now Saturday and neither of them had to automatically head to the station. Jane was a little bit startled at the sudden blaring noise, but Maura had catapulted herself off of the bed. Again. Jane chuckled to herself, remembering Maura's actions earlier that night, and then leaned forward and reached her hand out to her best friend. "C'mere, Maur. Just relax a little bit, yeah? It's late, or early, or whatever it is, and we haven't slept in like 24 hours. And we have a little bit of alcohol in our blood. Just come back here and we'll get under these fancy blankets of yours and we'll knock back some hours of slum-bah. Okay?" Jane placed the wine and glasses on the ground the bed, then pulled at Maura's hand and guided the two of them into the bed and flopped her mane of hair onto the pillow beneath her. With one hand tucked under her head and the other gently stroking Maura's hair, the two fell asleep within minutes.
It was around two thirty in the afternoon that day when the detective and the doctor were awoken. Unfortunately for the pair of them their slumber was ended unnaturally; and at the hands of one Angela Rizzoli, no less. Apparently the woman had come into the house to ask Maura to help with dinner, and when the blond wasn't found in the kitchen or anywhere else downstairs, the nosy woman kept searching until Maura was located. It was obvious that Angela held no regard to closed doors or knocking, so when the older woman flung open the master bedroom door and started calling out for Maura, both Jane and Maura were surprised, to say the least. Maura yelped, sitting up in bed and stealing glanced between each of the Rizzoli girls. Jane looked both completely exasperated at her mother's disturbance, and amused at Maura's high pitch. The doctor glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table and registered the time. "Uh, do you need anything, Angela? Is everything alright?"
Angela looked between her daughter, the woman who she considered a daughter, and the bed they were both currently laying in. And then the eyes landed on a hand placed on Maura's upper thigh. Apparently, the Italian hand that had been stroking Maura's hair in their sleep had made its way down to the doctor's stomach, in turn flopping down lower when Maura had abruptly sat up. But of course, the older Rizzoli didn't know that. All she knew was that there was a hand on a thigh. To say that Angela was surprised would have been an understatement. It was clear in her voice. "I…uh…I came to ask you for help with dinner….I'm sorry to burst in on you girls…Hi, Janie…I'll just…get going…" The awkward glances continued as Angela backed away and left the room. Once they were alone, Maura looked to Jane, obviously confused. Reading her best friend very well, the detective offered Maura a moment of clarity.
"She thinks we were sleeping together, Maura." Jane said this with a little chuckle, but it was evident she was a bi fazed by the current events.
"Well, we were, Jane."
Jane was not surprised with her friend's words. Of course Maura would take her phrase to mean exactly what it sounded like, literally. "Yes, we were sleeping. But my mother thought we were sleeping after sex. Which, she probably thinks, is why we were in bed so late in the day," she said, finally catching a glimpse of the alarm clock. She flopped back down onto her pillow, turning her body over and shoving her cheek into the cool cushion. It was evident that the brunette wanted to sleep a little more.
"Hmm." Maura contemplated the situation. From Angela's angle, the image could have been construed to mean something conspicuous. She lifted her side of the covers, and then Jane's, trying to get the both of them out of bed. "We should go set her straight. She did look rather shocked."
Jane flipped over again, scrambling for some kind of heat from the blankets. Her shorts weren't doing much to keep her warm. Once that no longer seemed a viable option, Jane turned her attention to Maura, who was already on her feet. "Hey, Doc, you shouldn't even bother. Nothing you can say is going to change what she thinks now. Been through this already with Casey, remember?" She did sit up, though, as the detective became aware of the light layer of sweat on her body. It had accumulated in sleep; without a doubt a side effect of the alcohol consumption and the hot confines of the blankets. "I do need a shower, though. Can I take one here?" The honey blonde nodded her consent, and Jane proceeded to grab a towel and some clean clothes before heading into the bathroom. She wasn't positive on whether or not the clothes were hers or Maura's, but she was sure that Maura wouldn't mind too much if the garments did end up belonging to her.
By the time Jane and Maura each finished their showers and were changed, the time had passed to around four. The pair of women lounged around the house, watching another Rob Reiner movie and then a game or two of chess. A round went to each woman, each teasing the other with the game and the win. Around eight, Angela strode into the kitchen, deciding that dinner couldn't be put off any longer, no matter what the girls were doing. Jane and Maura wisely complied with all of the mother's requests. She did, after all, deserve it after the pseudo- shock she had been on the receiving end of, that afternoon.
Dinner was made and eaten without much drama. Angela was clearly still in some state of shock; she didn't even want to talk about what she had seen with the girls, which was against her character as an overbearing Italian mother. Jane and Maura chose not to bring it up, seeing how the inevitable rumor-to-be wasn't even true. All they could do was hope that Angela either came to her senses and realized her mistake, or chose to keep it to herself. However, neither option seemed likely, her being an overbearing Italian mother and all.
The rest of the evening went by and, with Maura's consent, Jane decided to stay the night once more, looking forward to the Sunday dinner conversation with her family to come. It would definitely be somewhat interesting. Angela retreated back to the guest house, and the doctor and detective were left alone again. Jane went up to Maura's bedroom to collect the wine glasses and bottle, with Maura in tow. At Maura's subtle and somewhat subliminal request that Jane sleep in her bed again tonight, Jane returned from the kitchen without wine, hoping that tonight they would get some more sleep. She went around, turning out all the lights, and then crawled into 'her' side of the bed on the left. Maura was already looking pretty drowsy. 'Goodnights' were exchanged, and table lamps were turned off. Jane once again reached her hand up to her best friend's head, knowing it would soothe the doctor into slumber. This time around, sleep came at a more decent hour: midnight, and not seven a.m.
Sunday morning came way too soon. It was around five in the morning that Maura's phone rang, quickly followed by Jane's.
"Rizzoli."
"Isles."
Murder was calling. But then again, so was the pinball game.
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A/N: This one was just supposed to be a filler chapter, I guess. But it got away from me. Hope you guys liked it. REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW.