Hey y'all, sorry it took me a little longer to update. Hurricane Sandy knocked out the power for a bit there. I wanted to get this one up for you guys quickly so it might be full of mistakes. Whoops. Also, sorry if y'all think it's moving too slowly. I'm big on character development...or at least I like to think I am. Let me know.
"Dr. Pike?" Korsak said, enough surprise in his voice for all three detectives.
"Where's Dr. Isles?" Frost asked, shoot a glance at Jane.
"Dr. Isles," Pike said Maura's title with a particular air of distain which set Jane's teeth on edge, "apparently wasn't feeling up to a body collection today." He scoffed as if his boss was simply too lazy to leave the office. "Besides, I tend to find her work disordered and uncontrolled."
"The doc, unorganized?" Korsak laughed under his breath, lifting the police tape for Jane to duck beneath.
"And pigs fly," Frost muttered.
The white haired medical examiner was bent over the body of another young girl, blonde, with obvious signs of rape. She had been left behind the dumpsters of another alley, seven blocks from where the first girl had been discovered. Pike was muttering into a handheld recorder as he went over the body. Jane strode closer, intent on getting a look for herself. She knew better than to trust Pike's notes on a scene. If anyone was unorganized and incompetent, it was the older doctor.
"Please, Detective," Pike broke off his muttering and held up his hand, "allow me to do my job while you do yours," he looked pointedly around the crime scene.
Jane groaned under her breath and rolled her eyes.
"Examining the body is our job!" Frost snapped. He and the doctor didn't exactly get along.
Pike glared at him.
Jane hastily stepped in to intervene. If they wanted to get anything off this scene, they would need Pike's full cooperation. "Oh Dr. Pike," she practically oozed with honeyed flattery, "I am just a huge fan of your work." Frost and Korsak could only gape at her.
"You ar-" Frost started to ask, but Korsak elbowed him in the ribs. "-eee! Yes, of course. Uh, me too!" Jane glared at him before turning back to the doctor.
"I was hoping that perhaps I might possibly be able to observe you...you know...in action? Do you think there's anyway you might walk me through your procedure? Please," Jane clasped her hands together and forced herself to bat her eyelashes at the shell-shocked man. Any member of Boston PD would have cracked up at the display Rizzoli was putting on, but Pike seemed to eat it up.
"Well, certainly, Detective Rizzoli," the older man purred. He waved Jane forward and she crouched down beside him. "Now you'll see here.." Jane tuned the annoying man out immediately and began to make her own assessment. No obvious wounds on the body, no gunshot wounds or knife or rope marks, the victim's hands were clean, indicating she hadn't fought back or had been unable to. The area around the body was clean. Strange.
Pike finished his examination and stood up, Jane following suit. "Well, Dr. Pike, that was absolutely outstanding!" Jane enthused. "Thank you so much for your excellent work," Pike nodded his head and, was he blushing?
"Of course, Detective. I'll have the body delivered to the morgue and let you know when I begin my autopsy if you'd like to come down and observe..." he trailed off.
"I would. Thank you." Jane turned briskly and walked away. "Anything?" she asked Korsak.
"Frost is checking with the officers handling crowd control. So far, no witnesses. We got the ID off the body and will run it as soon as we get back to the brick. Her name is Lana Phillips. 22."
Jane nodded. "I couldn't see any obvious sign of death. Looks like it might match our other m.o. We might be looking at a dual murder."
Korsak looked grim. "Hopefully we aren't looking at any more."
Jane clapped him on the shoulder, "We're working on it, Korsak."
He nodded. "Let's get Frost and head back. Start figuring out if our victims are connected." The two started heading for the car, waving Frost over as they went. Jane hopped into the driver's seat and turned the car back the way they'd come.
"Well that was strange," Frost broke the silence from the backseat. Korsak nodded in agreement.
"Hmm? What's that?" Jane asked, pulling herself out of her thoughts. She was worrying about Maura. Again.
"Well, just the whole, Dr. Pike being there thing. I really hate that guy."
"You know," Korsak said, "I've never known Dr. Isles to send someone else out to a crime scene if she was in the office."
"Maybe something came up," Frost responded thoughtfully. "Jane?"
"Huh? Oh, I don't know. It's weird, I guess." Jane thought it was more than kind of weird, but she didn't want her partner knowing she was worrying about the ME. "Maybe she's gotten too good to come slumming it around at crime scenes with the likes of us."
Korsak and Frost shared a look in the rearview mirror.
"C'mon, Janie," Korsak said softly.
She glanced at him and back to the road.
"Let's just focus on the case, okay? You guys can worry about Maura later. She'll still be doing the actual autopsy right? So it's fine," and with that the discussion was over.
When they got back to the brick, the three trudged upstairs. Frost popped into the café and grabbed a couple of coffees. Jane pulled out the board and the case files, and Vince took off his suite jacket. This was going to be a long day.
When Dr. Pike called up, Jane headed down to the morgue to oversee the autopsy. She assumed Maura would be there, too, but the ME's office door was closed. Pike noticed her glance, "Dr. Isles has asked that I perform the autopsy. She asked not to be disturbed," he huffed in annoyance.
Jane really hated this man. "Well, let's get to it then," she said, not bothering to offer the man the same flattery she had worked up earlier. Throughout the autopsy, Jane kept looking over at Maura's door, hoping she would appear, but the door stay firmly shut the entire time. When they were finally finished, Jane scooped up the preliminary report, "Well, thanks Pike," she said nonchalantly.
The older gentlemen looked slightly put out at the detective's cavalier attitude after her wonderful performance that morning.
"Let us know if anything else comes up!" Jane had been planning to head straight upstairs, but her curiosity as to what Maura was thinking, letting Pike have free reign in her morgue got the better of her and she turned towards the closed door instead.
"Detective, she said not to be disturbed," Pike called out to her.
Jane merely waved at him. She knocked gently on the door and Maura's voice called out to enter. Jane took a deep breath, preparing herself for whatever sparring match might be awaiting her and pushed the wooden door open.
Maura was sitting straight-backed in her chair, laptop open on her desk and files spread all around. "Oh, Detective Rizzoli, I wasn't expecting you," she seemed surprised but not angry, which Jane took as a good sign. "Can I help you with something?"
Jane rocked on the balls of her feet, "Well, no, I just," Maura was looking at her with an expectant look on her face. They hadn't had any random visits in awhile and she was interested as to the excuse the detective was going to come up with.
Jane was at a loss. How was she supposed to ask after the doctor without sounding interested. Shit. "Well, Frost and Korsak just missed you at the crime scene this morning. They wanted me to find out if everything was...alright," she finished lamely, assuming the doctor would see through her ruse in a moment.
But Maura simply nodded. "That was very thoughtful of them. You may let Barry and Detective Korsak know that I am fine. I simply had an extreme amount of paperwork to catch up on and knowingly Dr. Pike is ... capable," she couldn't lie after all, "I sent him in my stead."
Jane nodded, refusing to look at the ME. "Is there something else?" Maura questioned when the detective looked as if she still had something on her mind.
Jane took a hesitant step further inside the office and then froze. Although Maura's response may have been perfectly satisfactory, the detective knew there was something else. Maura would never elect to send Pike instead of coming herself. It was completely out of character for the type A doctor. "Maura, I," Jane cleared her throat. She looked up shyly. Sure, she was waiting for the blonde to get off of her high horse and apologize and sure she said she wasn't going to care, but Jane cared, a lot. She may have hid it well, but Jane Rizzoli had one of the biggest hearts around, and Maura was still at the top of her list when it came to caring for her family.
Maura was still watching her. In fact, to Jane, it looked as if the ME was about to burst into tears. She was holding herself extremely still, her eyes burning a hole into Jane's. "Maura," she took another step forward, "are you - are you alright?"
If Maura had been less well trained in the art of polite conversation, she might have allowed her mouth the drop open. "I, yes, I'm fine. Thank you for your concern," she hestitated, "Jane. Thank you."
Now it was Jane's turn to stare at Maura. "Because, well, because you look, well I just wanted to check that's all."
Maura softened her gaze. She could apologize now, it would be only too easy, and Jane would forgive her. They could go back to normal. But would it ever actually be normal again? No. Goodness, her head hurt. "I'll be alright, Jane. I assure you."
The brown haired detective nodded. "Because it's okay," she said, not wanting to end the conversation when they were actually managing to be civil, "if you're not. It's okay. I wouldn't...judge you or anything."
Maura sighed. "Thank you, Jane. But I'll be fine."
Jane nodded, knowing that was her dismissal. "I'll be upstairs if you need anything."
"Thank you," Maura said softly again, deflating when she heard the door close behind the other woman.
Jane shut the door and headed for the elevator. Well, although she was certain now that Maura was not okay, at least they were headed in the right direction. At least she hoped so. Now she needed to talk to Angela and see if Maura had confided in her mother. Jane felt a little lighter as she walked into the bullpen. Maybe Maura was beginning to come around. She allowed herself a small bit of hope to peak through her well-constructed wall.
AN2 - Is the ice thawing? Should I continue?