"It's been over three weeks since Ma moved out," Jane sighed as she settled into bed next to Maura. "Frankie and Tommy haven't said more than six words to me, and I miss all the family drama." She frowned as she picked up the lotion on her nightstand and started to apply it to her arms and legs. "What if they weren't acting? What if this was their way of getting me out of their life?"
"I know this has been hard, but I don't believe Angela would abandon you, Jane." Maura turned in the bed to watch the other woman. Hazel eyes followed the smooth motions of the detective's hands as they glided over freshly washed skin. "The timetable they gave us was for a month. We still have another week before they even attempt to gain information from her. We knew this would take time."
"It feels like a freaking eternity." With a sigh, the dark haired brunette stood again to lotion her back and torso. "I can't wait for this to be over so we can be a family again." She grimaced slightly as she arched her spine to run her lotioned hand across her lower back. Rolling her eyes, clearly irritated with the sharp pain she felt, she glanced down her body. "I wish my scars didn't hurt randomly. I think I'm doing fine, and then they decide to hurt, and, before you ask, you know I still do my physical therapy."
"Actually, I'm delighted you've taken to putting on lotion at night after your shower," Maura grinned, eyes dancing in the dim light of the bedroom.
"Well, keeping my skin from drying out does help keep them from hurting. You were right about that, and the lotion you bought me smells nice enough. I would have probably picked up something cheap." Jane flipped the top back on the bottle and walked to the chest to pull out a tank top and boxers.
"I'm not convinced you would have ever bought any on your own." Maura tilted her head as she watched the other woman walk back to the bed, clothes in hand. "Are you certain you applied the lotion completely over your body?"
"Yeah," Jane gave a 'well duh' look. "You just watched me do it. I mean… wait." She grinned, eyes narrowing. "Were you being dirty?"
"If by 'dirty', you are asking me if I was enjoying watching you apply lotion across your very nude and very attractive body, then yes." The doctor's smirk turned into a grin. "I can honestly say it was a highlight of my day."
"I suddenly feel exposed," Jane mumbled as a blush broke out across her body. She quickly pulled on her boxers and top and crawled into bed. "Am I rubbing off on you, or have you always been this pervy around me?"
"Yes," came the quick answer followed by a chuckle as Maura turned over to flick the light off.
"Great. That means I'm going to start spouting off random facts soon. Yay," Jane deadpanned as they settled into their usual spots. She reached out to pull the smaller woman to her, smiling as she inhaled the scent of Maura's shampoo mixed with what was simply Maura.
"Google-light," the doctor retorted, not bothering to hold back another chuckle.
Jane placed a kiss on Maura's neck. "Stop."
"Good night, dear-heart."
"Good night, sweetie."
"Cindy! I'm so glad you could make it." Angela gave her best smile as she stepped aside to let the young woman in followed by Frankie.
"Sorry we're late, Ma. Cindy had to work late." He closed the door behind him and glanced around the small apartment. "Where's Tommy?"
"In the shower. He just got off work, too. Dinner should be ready in just a few minutes." With a nod toward the small table for the two to sit down, she trotted back to the kitchen.
"Can I help, Mrs. Rizzoli?" Cindy watched the older woman tend to a pot on the stove.
"Thank you for offering, but Tommy's kitchen just isn't big enough for two. You just sit down right there and enjoy the break. I know you two work so hard." With a grunt, Angela moved the pot from the stove to the sink to pour out the water. "So, Cindy, how have things been? HR as busy as usual?"
"We've had a few hires this month, but nothing that's been too much. I mean, it's not like we've gotten any more undesirables this year." Cindy shrugged as she looked to Frankie. "It's been sort of a boring month."
"What about that Cruise guy? What's his name?" Frankie looked to his mother. "Ma, you know the one I'm talking about. You said you thought he was hitting on me the other day."
"Oh yeah," Angela nodded as she continued to tend the food, "Carlos Cruise." She frowned as she leaned in to whisper in an almost conspiratorial fashion, "I really think he's that way. When he's down in the café, I keep seeing him watch the other men like he should be watching the other women."
"Oh, really?" Cindy's eyebrow rose in interest.
Angela nodded. "Yeah, and the other day, he tried to get Frankie to go out to a bar with him this Saturday night. What was that place?"
"The Sailor's Retreat," Frankie answered between sips of his drink he'd retrieved from the fridge. "No way you'd catch me in a place like that."
"I really thought we'd managed to sift through all of those," Cindy said, clearly upset.
"Cindy, you're in HR. Aren't you people trying to do something about that?" Angela walked over to the bar to begin setting out the food.
"Well, technically, we can't. I mean EEOC makes it illegal for us to discriminate based on sexual preference, but," she tilted her head, "there might be something I can do."
"I hope you can do something. I hate having to trust those kinds of people to have my back. I mean, who trusts them?" Frankie gave an over exaggerated shrug. "That's exactly why I don't talk to Jane anymore."
"I thought Ma told us not to say her name," Tommy strolled in with wet hair and clean clothes on. "Hey Cindy."
"Hi Tommy," she gave a nod.
"I was just saying you can't trust people like her, and Ma and I think one of our new uniforms is like that." Frankie handed a can of Mt. Dew to his brother. "Cindy said she might be able to do something about it."
"Yeah?" Popping the can open, Tommy took a seat at his table. "Be nice to at least be able to do something about one of them. I can't believe no one's done anything about Ja…" At his mother's grunt of disapproval, the youngest Rizzoli cleared his throat and tried again. "About her and the… uh… other her."
Frankie shrugged. "I'd put in a complaint, but I don't think it'd do any good. Those two are the precinct's golden children. You can't touch them!"
"I'm embarrassed every time I see them in the café," Angela added as she sat down in the only remaining chair at the table. "Tommy, be a good boy, and make us plates, will you?"
"Sure, Ma," he nodded as he stood, motioning for the rest to remain where they were.
"I mean, they just waltz right in there holding hands and making eyes at each other like that's normal. That's not normal," Angela bellowed, clearly distraught. "No child of mine should ever act that way. You hear me, boys?"
"Yes, Ma," they answered in unison as if this wasn't the first time they'd heard this particular rant.
"I'm sorry, Cindy, you probably don't want to hear about our family issues," reaching a hand out, Angela gave the younger woman a pat on the arm. "I know there's nothing anyone can do. It just kills me to have to seem them there every single day when I know they're going to go to Hell, and there's nothing I can do about it."
"It's fine, Mrs. Rizzoli. I understand." Glancing around the room, Cindy seemed to come to a decision. "I may be able to do something."
"I don't want you to get in trouble," Angela countered, voice full of honest concern.
"I won't. I've… uh… I've done it before," she blushed. "When Doctor Isles changed her ICE form, I slipped a copy to Lieutenant Cavanaugh." She cleared her throat as she felt three pairs of eyes fix on her. "Since he knows already and with their habit of causing trouble," she tilted her head, giving a small smirk, "I'm sure HR could find several complaints against them that could culminate in a firing or, at the very least, a suspension."
Clearly shocked, Angela pulled her hand back as she asked, "You could do that?"
"Sure," Cindy shrugged as if what she was saying was nothing important. "I mean, I work in HR, and I'm the one who handles the complaints, mostly. All I have to do is slip a few notes to Cavanaugh about what's going down, talk to a few people on the force who think like we do, and the rest would be easy."
"You don't say?" The eldest Rizzoli's voice was starting to harden.
Frankie quickly jumped in. "Babe, how would you not get caught? I mean, there's a bunch of red tape to get a cop fired, right? And, I mean, the other one is the chief medical examiner. She was selected by the governor. It can't be that easy to get rid of them."
Cindy smiled proudly as she explained. "You just keep it off the books. Don't send emails and don't use the precinct phone lines. They're all recorded. I just made a copy of the ICE form and walked it down to Cavanaugh. There's not much to it, really. If they can organize, so can we."
"That makes sense," Tommy said as he sat down a plate for each of the people waiting to eat. "I bet you go all over the place, right? You're like an HR runner or something."
"I'm an admin, yes, so I have to run errands frequently, and it'd be nothing at all for me to make this happen. It took me less than ten minutes from the time Isles handed over the updated form to when I walked it into Cavanaugh's office." Again, she shrugged as she turned to her plate. "This food looks delicious."
"Thank you," Angela replied as her jaw muscles twitched.
"Nice," Tommy eased into his chair. "Wish I had a cush job like that. Working at the docs sucks, but at least it's a job."
"Hey, enough with this." Frankie gave his mother a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry, Ma. I know how much you hate to hear us talking like this."
"It breaks my heart," came the genuine reply from Angela as she slowly nodded.
He sighed, turning to the younger woman. "So why don't we stop talking about it and eat? Babe, you and me can work out the details later, maybe tomorrow. Good?"
"Okay, Frankie," she beamed. "I can't wait to eat this. It just smells so good!"
"Excuse me," Angela whispered as she stood from the table. "I suddenly don't feel so good. Tommy, I'm going to go lay down in your bed for a little bit, okay? I think I feel a headache coming on."
"Okay, Ma, I got it. Frankie and I'll clean up."
"You're good boys," she muttered as she entered the bedroom and closed the door behind her.
I'm sorry my updates are so slow in coming along.