Blue
Chapter 9
Disclaimer: Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles do not belong to me. No infringement intended and no profit will be made from their use.
A/N: Thanks to everyone who is reading this story and for the reviews and alerts. I appreciate all feedback. This is more of a Maura-centric chapter.
Maura felt as though a great weight had been lifted. But it was still only a start. She and Jane were talking, sort of. And Maura had survived it. Cutting herself off emotionally from everyone was harder than she thought it would be. She'd done it before, before Jane. But it turns out that people need emotional nourishment just as much as physical nourishment. Perhaps if Maura had religious or a spiritual beliefs to turn to for sustenance she wouldn't have felt the loss of Jane so acutely.
Maura wanted to protect herself from ever going through this experience with anyone else again. Except for Jane. She wanted Jane back. And just as Jane had pushed her way into Maura's life the first time around without Maura even fully realizing that it was happening or that she wanted it to happen, even needed it to happen, Maura would do the same now to Jane because they both needed it.
There was an awkwardness between them but Maura thought that was to be expected. She was, frankly, asking a lot of Jane. To rebuild what they had in the shadow of the shooting and the months of silence afterward was understandably going to be difficult. But Jane was different, too. She was quieter, more reserved. And there was something else that Maura couldn't quite define. Jane had always been less than fastidious about her personal care and appearance. But now Jane looked ragged, and she had slept in her office who knows how many nights recently. Maura thought the raggedness went deeper and she wanted to do something about that, although she had idea how.
Maura leaned in the doorway of Jane's office and watched Jane hunched over the papers on her desk for a moment before saying, "Have you made any progress?"
Jane looked up startled. "Oh, hey." She ran her hands over her face and through her hair. "Um, it looks bad Maura. I can't see a single thing that connects these women, but then the casework was so limited there's hardly any detail. The detectives talked to friends and family to track the last movements of the victims and look for any obvious leads, but when they didn't get anywhere with that info, it looks like they stopped looking."
"Was there any press on the murders?" Maura asked.
"For several of them I found a blurb about the initial discovery of the body, usually with a request for anyone knowing anything to contact the police. But nothing else. No one in the press ever connected the murders. And there's no mention in the press of the "H" marking."
Despite the lack of invitation Maura came into the office and sat down across from Jane. "Does it make sense for that detail to be withheld?"
"It could. You don't want to encourage copycats and it is always good to have some detail that only the real killer could know. But after a string of unsolved cases you may want to release a new detail to encourage people with info to come forward. But these cases were never formally linked anyway. The fact that the "H" never got into the press also means that no one, no police and no one in the medical examiners or forensics offices, leaked anything on these cases either."
"Are you suggesting there was some sort of cover-up?" Maura asked.
"It would have to span decades and involve multiple departments within the police department. That seems impossible. And what were they covering up? And for who?"
"Whom." Maura corrected.
Jane rolled her eyes and then said seriously, "You haven't said anything about this to anyone else, right?"
"Of course not."
"Good. No one else can know anything about this until we know more. At best we're dealing with extreme incompetence. I don't even know what the worst could be. Where the copies of the files I gave you?"
"At my house."
"Good. Keep them there and put them away somewhere so they aren't just sitting out."
"How are you going to investigate without anyone else knowing what you're doing?"
"I have no idea. I'm not even sure where to start," Jane said and went back to shuffling through the papers on her desk.
Maura stood up to leave, "Korsak and Frost ask me how you're doing, you know. Perhaps we could all get a drink after work sometime?"
Jane had re-focused her attention on the files in front of her and was only partly listening, "Um, yeah, okay, if you want to."
"Is tonight okay?" Maura asked happily.
"Yeah sure."
When Maura came to collect Jane at 5pm to head to the Dirty Robber, Jane appeared genuinely surprised about it despite their conversation and Maura's text to Jane to confirm the time. But Jane let herself be led to the bar and to their old regular booth. Jane got a few greetings and slaps on the back on the way to the booth before sitting down next to Maura and across from Korsak and Frost.
They sat and talked, although Jane was largely silent as they talked about recent cases and other happenings in homicide. After awhile, Jane offered to go get another round and went up to the bar to place the order. When Maura realized Jane had been gone longer than necessary she scanned the bar area until she found Jane chatting with another woman. Except they weren't chatting, Maura realized, they were flirting. The other woman touched Jane's elbow and leaned in and said something and Jane smiled and said something in response. Then the other woman took out her phone and it looked like Jane recited her phone number.
Maura looked away feeling embarrassed, like she had seen something she shouldn't have. But that was ridiculous, they were in the middle of a crowded bar. When she looked back up Jane was walking towards the booth with a tray of drinks.
"Took you long enough, did you get lost?" Korsak joked when Jane sat down.
"Yeah, you know it's been awhile since I've been here," Jane joked back.
After their second round of drinks, Korsak and Frost got up to leave. Jane and Maura did the same, but Maura asked Jane if she would walk with her back to her car. Despite the freezing temperature that had settled into Boston that week, Maura intentionally walked slowly to create some distance between them and the guys.
"Who were you talking to at the bar?" Maura asked as innocently as possible.
"No one. Just making conversation."
"It looked like a little more than that," Maura said before she could stop herself.
Jane felt herself blush and hoped it was dark enough that Maura wouldn't notice. "Are you spying on me or something?"
"No, I..." Now it was Maura's turn to blush. Now it seemed silly to have asked Jane about it and she didn't know what else to say so she didn't say anything at all, and Jane was silent for the rest of their walk to Maura's car as well.
When they got to Maura's car Jane said, "Well, goodnight."
"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Maura said, "your mother is hosting a Christmas Eve party at my house. I just wanted to warn you because she obviously expects you to be there. And you are certainly welcome to invite anyone you'd like to invite."
"Ah, jeez, you are entirely too accommodating of my mother. Okay, thanks for the warning. Goodnight then."