With a huff, Jane stepped inside what she had come to think of as her house, closed and locked the door, and hung her keys on the hooks for the purpose. "Maura!" Her voice echoed through the quiet as she walked into the main living room. "Sweetie, I'm sorry I'm late. Don't be mad." Without so much as a glance around, she turned to the hall closet to hang her jacket. "I'm really sorry I didn't call, but Frost found a lead on the Robertson case, and we had to go hunt down a guy at the docks. You know reception out there is crap, but" she closed the closet door and turned around, still talking. "I promise to make it up to you. I know you wanted us to… OH MY GOD MA!"
Angela Rizzoli and the rest of the clan sat quietly in the living room watching the detective while Maura stood in the kitchen, smirking. "Hi Janie," the older woman gave her daughter a broad smile, "I'm glad to see Maura's finally trained you to hang your clothes up."
"It was no small feat, I assure you," Maura offered as she came from the kitchen with a cup of coffee in her hand. "Hello dear-heart, I'm glad you're home," she whispered just before giving the still shell-shocked detective a gentle welcome kiss and the warm mug of properly doctored coffee.
"I… um… hi sweetie?" It was a question. The lanky brunette was clearly confused about the current situation. She took the offered mug and slowly walked over to the leather chair that once had been in her apartment and was now the only available sitting place in the living room. "Ma, Frankie, Tommy," she sat the mug down on a coaster much to her mother's amusement, "what are you three doing here? You're going to blow your cover."
"What? Not even a 'hi Ma' or a 'good to see you, Ma' or even a 'I've missed you, Ma'? All I get is 'why are you here'?" Angela's voice teased, but her eyes showed relief at being able to actually speak with her daughter. "We're here because it worked."
Maura stepped beside the chair Jane occupied and placed a hand on the tense shoulder of her girlfriend. "Jane, they've gotten something on Cynthia, and I believe that, with some help from Frost and Korsak, we may be able to 'nail her', as you like to say."
"Yeah, I think, after this, we should do a TV show or something. We'd win a million awards," Tommy grinned, leaning back on the sofa and placing one arm along the back and behind his mother. "Seriously, Jane, we'd get all the awards."
"Right, because people want to see our ugly mugs up on their TV screens," she snorted and rolled her eyes. "So, anyone going to tell me what happened or what?" The detective was slowly coming back to herself from the surprise of walking in to find her family waiting for her for the first time in all most two months.
"Cindy's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she's got a lot of pull in the HR department. It's kind of scary what she can do," Frankie said as he resettled in the other leather chair. "We had dinner with her at Tommy's place two nights ago, and she told us about the ICE forms. Ma was right, she's the one that leaked it to Cavanaugh, and, you're not going to believe this, but she offered to get you and Maura fired. Honestly, with the way she was talking, I think she could do it, which is just… I don't know, Jane. She's dangerous."
"Maybe I should just shoot her," Jane muttered and then winced as the doctor swatted her shoulder. "Hey, abusive!" An evil gleam in her dark brown eyes, the detective's hand shot out and wrapped around the honey brunette's waist. Giving a quick yank, she pulled the smaller woman off balance, causing her to land none too delicately in the dark haired brunette's lap.
"Jane!" Maura managed to sputter as she fell with a grunt.
"What? You're wearing jeans. Actually," she narrowed her eyes. "Those are my jeans, and that's my BPD shirt. Really, Maura?"
The doctor gave her best playful pout as she adjusted to be more comfortable in Jane's lap. "They're comfortable."
"Get a room," Tommy grumbled.
"I have a room. You're in it," Jane shot back.
"Actually, we have the entire house," Maura smirked, her eyes daring Tommy to say anything else.
"Aw, man, Really? Ew," Frankie said, making a face as he glanced down at the leather chair on which he was currently seated.
"Enough," Angela shouted. "Tommy, stop antagonizing your sister. Jane, stop making us think things none of us want to think. Maura, that goes for you, too. Frankie, stop acting like you've never had sex in your living room before."
"Okay, that's just… oh my god," with the hand not wrapped around Maura, Jane rubbed her forehead. "I missed this?"
Maura chuckled. "Yes, and so did I," she said quietly.
"Ma, I can't believe you just said that," Frankie's face was becoming redder by the second. "You know I wouldn't touch Cindy with a ten foot pole if I didn't have to, and we are not doing… that." He gave a shudder. "Can we just talk about what to do to get her out of HR so I can stop acting like I want to date her, please?"
"We can start by you guys telling me how we're supposed to bring Korsak and Frost into this when we've been keeping them out of it this whole time. They're going to be pissed." Jane signed leaning her forehead against Maura's shoulder and closing her eyes. "I hope they understand why…"
"They know," Frankie interrupted. "I told Frost and Korsak what was going on about two weeks ago. They cornered me in the locker room after work one day, and it was either tell them what was up or they were going beat the crap out of me. I figured it'd work better for everyone if I just told." He shrugged.
"Must all of you be so violent all the time?" Maura gave a disapproving shake of her head. "Why were they going to harm you, Frankie?"
"They…um… they thought I was being a little unreasonable about how I was treating Jane, and then, when they found out I was dating Cindy, they decided I needed some sense beat into me." He shifted in his seat. "They were pretty pissed when I explained everything, but they got it. They told me they'd stay out of it as long as we had everything under control, but, you know," he shrugged. "They have your back, Jane."
"Okay," his sister's word stretched out as she thought about everything she was being told. "So, when I thought they were pissed at me two weeks ago, they really were pissed at me two weeks ago. Good to know." She leaned back, opening her eyes, and pulling her gaze back to her mother. "Start at the beginning?"
"Dinner's ready. It's in the warmer." Angela bounded up from her place on the sofa. "This is going to be a long one, sweetie. You're going to want to eat. Come on! Maura and I have been slaving over a hot stove all afternoon."
"Two hours," Maura whispered before placing a kiss on Jane's cheek and standing, "but I think I'll let her hyperbolize just this once."
"Just this once?" Jane's eyebrow rose in question. "Really?"
Again, the honey brunette chuckled. "Let's go eat with our family, dear-heart."
With a grunt and a mock annoyed look, the detective took the doctor's offered hand, and stood. "Okay… okay…"
"Let me see if I get this straight," Jane said between bites of her favorite dessert. "You get Frost to check the security footage from the precinct to show Cindy walking to Cavanaugh's office with Maura's ICE form, and, you hope, get him to enhance the footage enough to show that's what she's carrying. Before you do that, you get Korsak to actually get the security footage by way of saying he wants it to check up on us and see how we work when he's not around. That covers proving she's the one that leaked the ICE form, but that's assuming the footage isn't too grainy or she held the paper in a way that Frost can get a good image of it." She shook her head. "Short of that, you've got nothing but her word, and that's not going to be enough to do anything about her. So, really, we've got a whole lot of nothing."
"What we have is a lead, Jane," Frankie sipped his coffee. "We've also got bait. Carlos Cruise is a pal of mine, and I trust him. If we brought him in on this, I'm pretty sure he'd be game. He and his boyfriend are the activist type anyway."
"We'd be asking him to risk his job, Frankie." His sister shook her head. "No. I'm not bringing anyone else in the family into this in any way that might hurt any more of us. I'm just not doing it. If we can't nail her on our own, then we're stuck. There's got to be something we're missing that we can use against her that doesn't require us to drag anyone else into this."
"The family?" Angela narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean, 'the family'? Are you saying that your father or I…"
"No, Ma. It's… um… okay, see, the thing is that, while you guys have been ignoring us, Maura and I have been getting involved in the community here, which is nice. I mean, it's good to be around people who get what you're going through because they've gone through it. You know? I guess I'm starting to pick up the slang."
"Yes, you are. I believe we both are." Maura set her water glass down as she explained. "The Family is a term those associated with the LGBT community use when talking about other members of the community." She picked up her dessert fork. "I'm apt to agree with Jane. I don't like the idea of putting anyone else at risk."
"Look, we have to catch her in the act. If we don't, then Jane's right, and we got nothing." Frankie was clearly getting irritated. "I've been dating this chick for nearly two months, and I'm not just going to back out of this now. I've had to act like I agree with all the messed up crap that comes out of her mouth, and, honestly, listening to her on repeat about how evil and jacked gays and lesbians are has pretty much set me straight on how NOT homophobic I am. I can't take much more of this, Jane. I swear to God, if I have to listen to her much longer, I'm going to shoot her myself."
"Okay," Jane held up a hand to stop her brother's rant. "Okay, Frankie. Just chill. Let me think about this for a minute. I don't know Cruise that well, but, if you say we can trust him, then I trust your judgment. But that's still asking him to put his job on the line because, if we mess up, then he will get fired. How do we keep that from happening?"
"Vince." Angela's voice broke into the conversation for the first time since dessert was served. "He knows who above Cavanaugh we can trust. If we bring whoever that is in onboard along with Carlos, then his job wouldn't really be in trouble."
"Angela has a good point." Maura nodded as she finished her dessert.
"You know," Tommy stood, picking up the dishes to take to the sink, "I think Ma's right, too. I mean, she and Korsak have been spending a lot of time together, and, if she says he knows, then…"
"Whoa… hold a minute." Jane turned to her mother. "What does he mean that you and Korsak have been spending a lot of time together?"
"Well, Vince and I have a lot in common, and he's a nice man. We just," her mother rolled her eyes. "You know, Jane, Vince and I are people. We have needs, too, and not just what you're thinking, so you can stop making that face at me. It's nice to be able to talk to someone your own age who isn't your family who understands what's going on. He understands, Jane, and you can't get mad at me for making friends."
Maura set a hand on Jane's arm to keep her from talking. Much to everyone's surprise, it worked. "No, we can't. It's understandable that you would want someone to share the things with you that you can't share with your family, and Korsak is a very good man." She looked to the woman beside her as she gave the arm in her hand a gentle squeeze. "No one can fault someone for wanting to be with a person who understands them."
Jane's head dropped and she gave a little nod. "Point taken," she mumbled before lifting her head again and glancing around the room. "If we do this, we do this right. Let's get Frost and Korsak over here on Friday night, and we can sit and plan. In the meantime, Ma," she took in a deep breath. "When you see Korsak again, will you ask him who he knows in the Brass we can trust? We'll want whoever that is here on Friday, too."
"He's going over to my apartment later tonight. I'll ask him then." Angela stood to help Tommy wash the dishes. "He said he wanted to check on me to see how all of this went, so it'll be a good time to ask him."
"I hope this works," Jane said as she stood to help clean off the table. "If it doesn't, then we're fuc…"
Maura stood, placing her hand over Jane's mouth. "Language." Suddenly, the doctor's face morphed from disapproving to shocked. "Jane! I can't believe you just did that!"
The detective's eyes sparkled and a Rizzoli smirk appeared as Maura quickly pulled her hand away.
Tommy turned to watch the two. "What did she do?"
"She… she licked my hand." Maura turned to walk toward the bathroom. "Oh, that is just so… Jane, really?"
The youngest Rizzoli snorted. "If that's how you act when she licks your hand, then how do you act when she licks your…"
"Hey!" Jane's voice cut the air. "Say anything else, and you're going to have a hard time pulling my boot out of your…"
Maura gave a frustrated grunt. "Jane."
"Fine." The detective rolled her eyes. "Just shut up, Tommy."
A smile on her lips, Maura continued on to the master bath to wash her hands, making a mental note of how, despite the discord caused by the Rizzoli family, she felt better with them there.
How do you guys feel about the progression of the story? What do you think about the plan?