Chapter 16

Jane had been back at work for about 2 months when she got the call from Korsak that Sunday afternoon. She and Frankie had been playing basketball in the driveway when his elbow and her nose made contact. She heard the pop and knew it was broken as Frankie led her into the kitchen and grabbed one of Ma's good kitchen towels to help stop the bleeding. Of course in Ma's eyes it was all my fault, Frankie could do no wrong. Just then her phone rang and her Mother gave her the look, you know the look that says if you take that call you will ruin everything. "Ma I'm on call I have to take this. Don't give me that look." She headed out the door to meet Korsak and Frost at the crime scene. She entered the house and walked around the couch and was greeted with the lovely sight of Maura bent over the victim.

Maura looked up and smiled at Jane as she walked around the couch. "Hairline fracture of the nasal bone above the nasal cartilage. It's not disfiguring. "

"Can you pop this out for me?" Maura reset Jane's nose then went back to work. She loved to watch Jane work a crime scene, she was so single minded when she was looking for evidence. "Well to do couple, man is bound and posed woman is missing." All of the sudden she squatted down and looked under the coffee table then looked up at Korsak. "And a tea cup." Jane has a flashback to the cellar where Hoyt had gotten to her. "Is he out? Is the Surgeon out?"

Korsak at least had the decency to look sheepish. "No he's not."

"Why didn't you warn us, warn Jane at least?" Maura spoke up first. Jane secretly liked it when Maura stood up for her like that but she'd never admit to it to anyone.

"I wanted your unbiased pinion." He said defensively.

"Hoyt's trained an apprentice." Jane started pacing as she did when she got worried and she was unconsciously rubbing the scars on her hands.

They processed the scene as usual. "Hello. Special Agent Gabriel Dean." He said as he showed his credentials.

Jane's defenses immediately went up because she felt he was trying to take over her crime scene. Maura discreetly laid a hand on Jane's arm to calm her down. "Jane I'll be doing the autopsy in the morning." She then turned to Agent Dean. "Come if you like." Then gave Jane a smile over her shoulder as she left the scene.

She didn't want to do it but she knew she had to so she and Frost paid a visit to Hoyt in prison to see if they could get anything out of him. She stared him down from across the table and prayed that he couldn't sense her fear. "See One, Do one, Teach One. That's what they taught you in Medical School, who did you teach Hoyt?" Jane tried to get answers from Hoyt that she knew he would never give up and she made one last desperate attempt as Hoyt got up to leave. "I do dream about you."

But Hoyt's last parting remark hit home. "You're right, Jane I should play fair. My friend is out there, enjoy him, because he'll enjoy you."

Jane jumped when her phone rang and they left the prison and went directly to the spot where they had found Gail Yeager's body.

The next day after the autopsy she searched out Maura at her desk and handed her their favorite snack, tuna and crackers, which Maura accepted with a secret smile. Jane leaned down and gave her a quick kiss before she brought some of her own tuna on a cracker to Maura's lips. Maura smiled and said thank you.

Agent Dean walked up behind them with a strange look on his face. "Are you guys eating cat food?"

Jane offered her can to him. "Yeah you want some?" He shook his head and she turned back to Maura. "Guess it's a chick thing. What's up?" She said without turning back to him.

"You may want to sit down. A few hours ago Charles Hoyt escaped custody."

Jane sat down then turned to Maura. "Oh my god!" Without worrying about what Agent Dean might think Maura stood up and wrapped her arms around Jane. When she felt Jane's arms go around her waist she knew she had done the right thing. Maura knew that Jane was scared but she also knew she was never going to let anyone see it. Especially Agent Dean. Maura turned back to ask Agent Dean if he would give them some space only to see that he had already left the room.

"Jane let's go home. I'll take care of you." Maura turned her head and kissed Jane on the cheek.

Jane lifted her head from where she had been resting it on Maura's shoulder and took a deep breath. "Maura I would like nothing more than to go home with you right now and bury myself in you and let you take away all of my problems like you are always able to do but right now I have to do my job and hunt this son of a bitch down and make sure this doesn't happen again. Right now I want to find out how he escaped. I'll come by your house later if you've already left by the time I am done." She leaned down and gave Maura a quick peck on the lips. "Don't work too late, go home and get some rest."

Jane leered at Maura to let her know why she might need to be well rested and Maura reached up and pulled Jane's head down. "If that's how it's going to be then that quick kiss is not going to be enough to tide me over until then." Their lips met in a searing kiss that left them both breathless. "There, that should give me enough to think about until you get home."

Jane looked down at Maura and smiled for the first time since Dean walked in. "That will definitely give me incentive enough to hurry home." She swatted Maura gently on her well proportioned ass as she turned to leave. "See ya later. I Love you." She was gone before Maura had the chance to respond.

Jane stood with Dean as they viewed the tape of Hoyt's escape from the prison hospital and couldn't believe they fell for his ruse. She turned away in disgust. "What's he doing?" The prison official asked.

Jane watched as Hoyt lifted his hand and showed her as he cut his palm. "It's a message for me." She turned and left the room and didn't stop until she reached her car then drove straight to Maura's house. When Maura opened the door she took Jane's breath away. "Why do you always look like you're going to a photo shoot?" She leaned in and kissed her then walked past her into the house and straight to the kitchen.

Maura poured her a glass of wine and they sat on the couch for a few minutes then headed towards "Jane's room". They stood there for a few minutes when they heard Maura's doorbell ring. Maura looked at Jane with what Jane thought was a guilty look, "Someone's dropping something off." Maura left the room and shut the door behind her and Jane ran to the door and quietly opened it to see who would be dropping something off this time of night. She was surprised when she saw that it was Agent Dean and hurried back to the bed when she saw him leave. Maura knocked softly on Jane's door.

"Go away I'm asleep." Maura opened the door and walked over to the bed and lay down beside Jane. "Are we having another sleepover or is this your way of telling me you're attracted to me." They both laughed at that. "So, Agent Dean huh?"

"He has something that he wants my opinion on."

"Oh really? Like what.?" Jane asked.

"I'm sorry Jane but I can't tell you."

"So how come you're on the "need to know" list but I'm not? Don't answer that."

Maura turned to Jane and took her in her arms. "I don't like keeping things from you but Agent Dean made me swear not to tell anyone until the time was right." She leaned down and kissed Jane, not passionately but reassuringly. Tonight was about comfort not sex and they both seemed to know this. They were so in tune to each other that no words were needed and Maura knew that Jane understood why she couldn't say anything.

Jane turned and wrapped her arms around Maura. "You know I love you right?" Maura nodded into Jane's shoulder where her head was resting. "I think in some way I have since the first day I met you but I just didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to become the person everyone had already labeled me as. I didn't want to be a lesbian, I've fought it my whole life. But I just couldn't fight you. I didn't want to fight you and what I felt for you." Maura kept quiet because it wasn't often that Jane was this open and communicative. "I felt the pull from day one and I knew I was in trouble but I wanted to spend time with you anyway. For the first time in my life I wanted to give into those feelings I had been fighting all my life." Jane laughed under her breath. "But it still took almost 6 years for anything to happen because you gave no indication that you could ever feel the same towards me. You come from money…" Jane put her fingers to Maura's lips when she started to protest. "I know that's not an issue but I didn't know that then. You wore all these designer clothes, I bought off the rack from wherever I find something I like. I don't care if it's Prada or Levi's. You come from White collar I come from Blue collar but somehow I think we can make it work. I think it's cute when you go all Google or Wikipedia on me and I love that when we went to the ballgame you did research in advance so you would know what was going on but I still loved teaching you."

Maura lifted her head off of Jane's shoulder and took a good look at Jane. "And I loved that you were so patient with me that first game. Is everything ok?" She reached up and gave Jane a gentle kiss.

Jane pulled her tight against her again. "I don't think I tell you enough how much you mean to mean and what it means to have someone that lets me be me. You understand me and my job doesn't freak you out. You don't try to control me."

At Maura's snort Jane looked down at her and smiled. "As if anyone could ever do that."

Jane looked into the eyes that she had become addicted to seeing every day. "You can with just one look. The guys call it being whipped which in some situations is true but in other ways you may say something that makes me look at something in a different way and change my tactics. That has never happened before."

"Is that a good or a bad thing?" Maura asked with a worried look on her face.

"At first I thought you were challenging my abilities as a cop but then I realized it was because you cared and your suggestions actually made sense. So I guess it's a good thing. I just want you to know that…" Jane stopped and thought for a minute. "I think what I'm trying to say it that when I'm with you, for the first time in my life, I feel complete." Jane lay there waiting for Maura to say something but when she didn't she pulled back so she could look her in the face and was surprised to see tears rolling quietly down Maura's cheeks. "Ah shit Maura you know I can't take it when you cry. Please tell me those are good tears." Maura could only nod her head. "So I didn't say anything wrong?" Maura shook her head. "So I should just lay here and hold you while you cry?" Once again Maura nodded. Jane smiled and lay back then pulled Maura against her and just held her while she cried.

When Maura finally spoke it was barely above a whisper. "I was so afraid that I was the only one that felt that way and I thought maybe you were only feeling this way because you had been shot. Studies show that people who have had a near death experience tend to reevaluate their lives and I thought that was what you were doing."

"That's exactly what I was doing because I decided I wasn't going to run away from my feelings anymore and it was the best thing I had ever done in my life."

"I love you Jane Rizzoli." Maura leaned up to kiss Jane.

"And I love you Maura Isles." Jane returned the kiss. "Now let's get some sleep, I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be one of those days." Jane wrapped her arms around Maura and lay back against her pillow. This was her favorite time of the day, when the world outside was quiet and she let the peaceful feeling wash over her just before she watched Maura close her eyes and let sleep overtake her. She loved to watch her while the worries of the day would slowly slip away and her features would relax. She looked so at peace and some nights Jane felt guilty because she knew she was the cause of those worries. In her sleep Maura moved closer to Jane and she threw her leg over Jane's leg. All Jane could do was smile as she allowed sleep to take her.