The Space Between
Chapter Four
The sun had long ago dipped out of sight, and the television's low murmur provided a dull backdrop for the thoughts pulsing through Jane's mind. Maura's legs were draped over her lap, her white bandage a constant, bright white reminder of the danger they had been in the night before. Jane's fingers kept a smooth, calming rhythm over the satin pajama pants, a motion that had already lulled Maura to sleep, leaving her to contemplate their escape alone.
Jane tended to parse things out on her own, preferring solitary introspection over anything remotely resembling emotional sharing. The thought of losing Maura, of both of them drowning in that car, was something that she could process only in the recesseses of her gut. It was a visceral nausea that whirled inside her, overpowering the methodical thinking she took pride in as a cop. As her fingers trailed over the bandage wrapped around Maura's leg, covering the scars that she made, Jane couldn't help but focus on the internal scars created when she fired that shot at Paddy Doyle. She owed Maura more than a simple, weak apology. As she stared toward the television, only half listening, the familiar intro music to the nightly news caught her ear and she wondered how she'd managed to stay awake for it.
"Tonight: a national yoga retreat suspected of fracking in protected wilderness. Police are offering little comment, but Sensei Matta is suspected of harvesting fracking on its protected lands. It's not yet known whether those in charge were aware of the fracking, which is illegal under Massachusetts law. We will have more as the story progresses."
Jane sighed and flicked off the television, aside the remote. Maura's head was turned toward the couch, her breathing deep and even, but she needed to be in the more comfortable setting of her own bed. Jane, of course, had more than her share of couches in the past twenty-four hours, and wanted nothing more than to slump onto one of Maura's expensive, tempurpedic mattresses. "Maura," she said lightly, her hand moving up to the sleeping blonde's hip, who remained still and oblivious. "Come on, Maura, it's time to wake up," she repeated, but this time her words had more than her desired effect; Maura launched upwards at the waist, her eyes suddenly open, wide, and fearful.
Jane put out a hand to steady her. "Whoa," she said, bracing Maura's shoulders and keeping a watchful eye on her leg. "Whoa, you okay?"
Maura's panicked eyes met hers. "That's what you said to me," she said shakily. "In the woods." She put a confused hand to her temple, as if probing her memory. "Was that part of my dream?"
The words suddenly came back to Jane, as did the chill of the night air and the crunch of leaves as they were confronted by Moore and his men. She swallowed back the same lump of fear that had lodged itself in her throat that night and let her arms trail down Maura's with a comforting rub. "Hey, it doesn't matter," she offered. "You're fine now. It was just a dream."
Maura's eyes held uncertainty, even as she nodded. "Dreams can help process traumatic memories," she said.
"I'm not sure I want to process anymore," Jane replied. "I'd rather just forget."
"REM sleep," Maura continued, proving that even amidst a half haze of sleep her capacity for scientific regurgitation was never compromised. "It allows for the increased reception of emotional memory consolidation."
"Well," Jane responded with a pat on her thigh, which was about all that her own depleted brainwaves could offer, "I don't think you're going to get much REM sleep out here."
The comment was meant as a shield against the sudden intensity of Maura's gaze, and it seemed to work as the blonde smiled lightly at her. "Good point. I'm guessing you've had enough sleeping on couches."
"Yeah, I'm ready to move on to guest beds," Jane returned as she extended a hand to help Maura off the couch. She handed over the crutches with a smile. "All right champ, show me what you can do."
Maura glanced suspiciously up at her as she tucked the crutches under arms. "I know you're teasing me," she said, one eye slightly narrowing.
"I would never tease a three-legged race champion."
"Yes, you would," Maura replied. "Out of jealousy." She tossed her hair as she brushed by the taller brunette, but was glad to have her presence behind her as she made her way slowly to the bedroom. Jane helped ease the fear still pulsing in her amygdala, which was slowly parsing itself out through physiological responses: the prickling sensation of goose bumps, the tensing of muscles, the dryness of her throat. She felt Jane's eyes on her as she slunk into the recesses of her bed, cringing slightly as she made herself as comfortable as possible.
Jane stood at the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest, staring appraisingly down at her. "You need anything?" she asked.
Maura shook her head, but patted the space next to her. "Come sit with me awhile?" she asked, the walk to the bedroom awakening some neurons and giving her a small, but anxious second wind.
The invitation was not an unusual one for either of them, but as Jane sank into the sheets next to Maura, she felt slightly dishonest. The secret she harbored, the one that she had been trying to sort out, threatened her enjoyment of even the most casual rituals with her friend. Still, she worked to keep her face natural as she turned on her elbow, facing Maura.
The blonde reached out with a studied, practiced hand, pushing a lock of dark brown hair behind Jane's ear in a surprisingly gentle touch. "You should put some Neosporin on that cut," she said, peering at the gash above her head. "The neomycin really does help with the closure of the wound."
"I will remember that," Jane said. "What are you, a doctor or something?" She gave a sarcastic grin before turning her attention toward some point on the far wall.
Maura sat up slightly, leaning her back against the headboard as she studied the woman beside her. Jane was a creature of distraction at times, pushing her thoughts into the recesses of her subconscious mind. It was only the telltale circling of the scars on her hands, a gesture that Maura had observed many times over, that let her know that internally Jane was struggling just as much as she was. If she could simply wade around in those thoughts for a day she might come to understand Jane better.
"Why do keep looking at me like that?" Jane asked, breaking her out of her short psychological study.
"Like what?" Maura's eyebrows raised innocently, wrinkling her forehead.
"Like I'm some sort of specimen under your microscope."
The blonde bit her lip, blinking away for a brief second before finally offering a response. "Are you okay?" she asked.
Jane touched a finger lightly to the cut above her temple, misunderstanding the question. "Yeah, it's just a scratch. It's my back that's killing me. Thank you, Massachusetts West General Hospital."
Maura shook her head, unsurprised by the dodge. "Jane," she chastised, a tone the brunette was used to hearing, but not with such a serious glint. She stared up at Maura, prompting her to continue, which she finally did after a quick, uncharacteristic fidgeting of her fingers. "I just - I just wonder how you cope so well with things."
Jane smiled despite the halting dread lurching inside her stomach. "Oh, so you're a psychologist now?" she asked.
"Psychiatrist, technically," Maura corrected. "I have the power to prescribe."
"Is that like your power to persuade?" Jane asked with a sideways grin.
"Humor is clearly one of your best coping mechanisms," Maura pointed out needlessly.
"True," Jane echoed, wondering exactly where Maura was going with her sudden psychoanalysis. Probing questions generally meant she was working through her own feelings and trying to make sense of them
with some sort of control for comparison. Clearly, in this short experiment, Jane was the control. "What brings all this up?"
Maura looked over at her, her eyes widening with the slightest tinge of incredulity. "What do you mean, what brings this all up? We almost drowned last night."
"But, we didn't."
"No, I know," Maura replied, never one to abandon rational and logical thinking. Since that night at the firehouse, however, her thoughts had strayed from her usual methodical patterns into a kaleidoscope of emotions. "I'm just having feelings, that's all. There's not much in the way of logic that helps one decipher the meanings of a near-death experience." She wrung her hands, wondering whether to take her confession a step further. "I had the same problem after that night with Hoyt at the hospital."
"Why do you keep bringing up that night?" Jane asked, shifting into a sitting position, her thumbs continuing their steady pattern over the scars at her palms. Her tone wasn't accusing nor suspicious, but it held a small bud of anxiety that threatened to bloom in her chest. She caught Maura's eyes on her fingers and quickly stuffed them into her lap.
"Because we never talked about it," Maura replied lowly, unsure of whether she was crossing some sort of boundary. "Not even that night, after your birthday."
"What is there to discuss?" Jane asked. "We crossed paths with a psychopath, we survived, and he didn't. There's no reason to analyze it." She had done enough of that after her first brush with Hoyt. Granted, it had been department-ordered as a requirement for returning to the field, but she had dissected every word Hoyt had ever said to her, finally fully unraveling the fear that coiled through her at the mere mention of his name. Even with that level of self-awareness, however, it hadn't it occurred to Jane that Maura might need to do the same thing. "I'm sorry I put you in danger, Maura, I truly am. But - "
Maura interrupted her with a confused shake of her head. "You didn't put me in any danger," she said. "You think that's what this is about?"
"He wouldn't have gotten to you if you hadn't been with me that day," Jane responded, her voice cracking with fatigue. "The same with yesterday. If you hadn't been with me - "
"Your mother forced me into the car with you," Maura pointed out, disbelievingly. "Do you want me to go blame her?"
"Why not?" Jane asked, attempting humor as she lay her head back on the pillow, the two of them now side by side. "I blame her for everything."
"Jane, none of this is your fault," Maura assured her, glancing over at her, but the brunette's eyes were glued to a point along the ceiling above them.
"Yeah," Jane sighed noncommittedly. "Look, Maur, it's late, we're exhausted. How about we save this for another time, okay?"
"Why do you keep everyone at such a distance?" Maura questioned softly. Her relationship with Jane was one of the most intimate she'd had, and yet at times she still felt walled off, as if the brunette was hiding one last piece of herself.
"I don't keep you at a distance, Maura, look how close we are," Jane said with a half-grin, motioning at the minute slice of space between them.
Maura grabbed her hand, giving it a deliberate squeeze, and although it caught Jane off guard, she couldn't help but clutch it just as desperately. "I just want you to open up to me," Maura said quietly. "Sometimes it helps me to know you're not just super woman."
Jane ran her thumb lazily over the bumps of Maura's knuckles. "I'm not super woman," she admitted. "I was scared to death in that car." She snuck a glance at the blonde, whose eyes seemed like a reflection of her own: slightly frightened, hazy with weariness. "Want to know why I was afraid?" she asked. "When that water started rushing around us, and you were half out of your mind... I was so afraid that I would never get a chance to tell you how much you mean to me. Or how sorry I am that I hurt you."
Maura squeezed her hand, just slightly, but enough to give Jane some acknowledgment as they let the silence build around them. "You wouldn't have needed to," she said, turning her head toward her. "I already know."
Jane shook her head. "I still should have said it."
"Jane, I don't blame you for what happened that day at the fire station," Maura offered as she followed the brunette's gaze toward the ceiling, the white expanse providing some calmness to their exchange. "I just needed you there at the hospital. And you weren't there. I was confused." She swallowed, remembering the ache that had weighted her chest for the past week. "And I wondered why people had friends at all if they could end up hurting you that much."
"Well, friends do serve a purpose," Jane said. "They motivate you to jog when you don't feel like it. They help you pick out the right dress for the right date..."
Maura smiled over at her. "They perform leg-saving fasciotomy when you need it."
"See, all good reasons," Jane said with a laugh. "Definitely worth the hard parts, right?"
"Jane, I'm sorry, too."
"Now this is an apology," Jane said with an approving smile as she gave Maura's hand a final squeeze. They lay silently for a moment, both staring upwards.
"I won't be able to sleep tonight," Maura said.
"Why, nightmares?" Jane asked.
Maura shook her head. "No, the supine position," she said, pointing to down at her leg. "It's uncomfortable. The best sleeping position is on your side. It facilitates optimal oxygenation of the blood."
"Maur, as long as you're breathing, that's all I care about." Jane lay a moment longer before clearing her throat, dreading her next words before she even uttered them. "I guess I should mozy on over to my awaiting guest throne," she said.
Maura let her hand brush the denim shorts Jane still wore. "You can't sleep in those," she said disapprovingly.
"Why, is denim not good for oxygenation, either?" she asked.
"Theres no official determination, but my own anecdotal research says that it isn't," Maura answered with a grin that demonstrated she knew fully well the brunette was making fun of her. "I have some pajamas in the drawer over there."
Jane padded over to the bureau, opening the drawer and peeking into a cavern of folded silk. "Jesus, Maur, do you have any normal pajamas?" she asked.
"You don't like my pajamas?"
"I like them on you," Jane clarified, raising a gold pair of pants out of the drawer. "Not on me." She cleared her throat, pointing over her shoulder toward the hallway, still attempting to prolong her eventual departure toward the guestroom. "I'm a heavy walker, but a light sleeper," she said. "If you need anything, just call me, okay?"
Maura swallowed, straightening in the bed. "Are you sleeping in the guest room?"
Jane eyed her, toeing a line that was suddenly new to her. "Yeah. After all, you're the only woman I know that puts mattresses made of clouds in every room of her house."
"You would be just as comfortable in the guest bed," Maura agreed with a deliberate nod.
"I thought so," Jane cut in, forcing a smile. If anything, space would probably do her some good, but that did nothing to ease the sudden emptiness in her stomach.
"But I would be more comfortable with you here," Maura said almost shyly, her eyes blinking up at Jane and rendering the brunette's legs almost as useless as her own.
"Yeah?" Jane asked softly, her voice disappearing somewhere in her throat.
Maura answered with a nod, pulling the sheets on the other side of the bed down. "As long as you don't kick," she warned with a raised finger as she pointed toward her leg. "Tonight of all nights."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Jane replied, eyeing the gold satin pants again. She dipped inside Maura's bathroom and pulled them on, tightening the string around her waist. They didn't look half bad, although the gray v-neck she wore didn't do much to jazz them up. But as she glanced down, she grimaced. "Maur?" she called as she stepped out of the bathroom. "Are these petites?"
Maura looked up at her and muffled a laugh with her fist as her eyes gazed down at the hem of the pants, which hovered somewhere above Jane's ankles. "Capris are coming back," she said, feigning seriousness as Jane sashayed over to her and slid into the bed.
"Ugh," Jane said with a frown. "I don't know how you sleep in this material. One false move and I feel like I'll slip out of the bed."
Maura swatted her shoulder. "If you're going to complain all night, then just take them off," she said with a laugh.
"Is this how you seduced all those girls at the slumber parties you went to?" Jane asked, recognizing that her question wasn't as facetious as it sounded.
Maura swallowed, but rolled her eyes, taking a cue from the brunette beside her and distracting herself with a bit of humor. "Good night, Jane," she answered, rolling her eyes.
"Good night, Maura."
The two of them lay awake silently, but only for a few moments, their tired bodies quickly succuming to a long, much-needed uninterrupted sleep. It was only the perky, off-beat chirping of a few morning birds that finally stirred Jane awake, and she awoke abruptly, the sun suddenly too bright against her eyes. Her arm was draped across Maura's stomach, moving easily with the motion of the blonde's breath. She slid quietly off the bed, a move made easier by the slick silk that covered her bottom half.
Making her way to the front door, she poked her head out of it, a subtle unease settling into her stomach as she caught sight of the unmarked car still sitting outside the house. It was a different unmarked, but as she squinted she recognized the two men inside as a couple of of beat cops that she usually ran into only at the precinct cafe. She walked authoritatively toward them, seemingly unbothered by their reticent gazes toward her glossy pants.
"Nice, Rizzoli," one of them said with a nod toward her attire. "I knew you had a feminine side somewhere."
She leaned down to the windowsill. "Fuck off, Bentley," she said. "You boys on morning duty?" she asked.
"Yeah, we're here til noon," he replied. "Was told there wasn't much movement last night."
"Yeah, well listen to me," she said, her eyes suddenly darker. "You see anything that looks remotely suspicious, I don't care if it's the fucking mailman, you check it out with me. Got it?"
Bentley nodded stoically, glancing behind her toward the house. "Yeah, we got it, Rizzoli," he said. He looked back down at her pajama pants. "We're not letting anyone get anywhere near that doctor of yours."
She started to protest, but instead enjoyed the momentary feeling of protection that flitted through her as she straightened and tapped an authoritative hand along the car's windowsill. "Good," she said, confident that her admonishment had at least reminded the two of them that this particular excitement wouldn't just simply be an excuse to litter their squad car with fast food. Despite her skepticism that Moore would try anything, she couldn't help the small nag of doubt at the base of her neck. On her way inside the house, she bent down to pick up the rolled up newspaper at her feet, slipping it out of its plastic sheath as she made her way back into the kitchen, a feeling of domesticity not lost on her.
She eyed Maura's coffee maker, which looked way too complicated for her tastes, but she gave it a try, dumping an inordinate amount into the filter and hoping for the best. A shuffling scuff next to her caused her to jump, but she exhaled at the sight of Bass tottering his way over to her. She glanced around the counter before looking back down at him. "What the hell am I supposed to feed you, buddy?" she asked.
"There are some lotus leaves in the refrigerator," Maura said as she made her way into the kitchen, wearing a green wrap dress more suited for New York fashion week than a humdrum recovery at home.
"Well hello there," Jane said, eyeing the dress she wore. "You look like you're ready for the cover of Handicapped Times Magazine."
"I'm not going to sit around in pajamas all day," Maura replied confidently, wielding her crutches as if they were complementary accessories.
"No, much better to sit around in uncomfortable clothing," Jane returned, although secretly she wasn't complaining. "But either you way, you will be sitting around all day if I have anything to do with it. You want some breakfast?" She peered into Maura's refrigerator, at least not as intimidated by it this time around. "Can I offer you some bread that resembles tree bark? Or perhaps some juice that looks like pureed mud?"
"I'll just grab some yogurt and granola," Maura said confidently, heading toward the fridge. Jane politely turned her away, ushering her towards a chair and pressing her firmly into it. For someone who enjoyed her share of pampering, she had expected Maura to be more obedient.
"Explain to me how you can let someone massage you and cover you in mud, but you won't let me take care of you," Jane asked with a grin.
"Well, I pay for it," Maura explained casually. "It's different."
Jane grinned into the container of yogurt she opened, spooning a healthy amount into a bowl. "So you're saying you enjoy it more when you pay for it?" she asked, unable to allow the joke to pass her by, no matter how juvenile.
"Yes," Maura responded adamantly, as usual, oblivious to the finer workings of her friend's adolescent humor.
Jane laughed as she set the bowl of yogurt and granola in front of Maura. "You know, you're the only person I know who still gets her newspaper delivered," she said, spooning out her own breakfast with a disappointed frown.
"I feel obligated," Maura said. "The institution of journalism is an important one and I don't feel as if I'm doing my civic duty unless I'm accurately compensating the minds behind it."
"Right," Jane said, taking a seat next to Maura and sliding the front page of the paper closer to her. Her eyes scanned the page, stopping on a small article at the bottom. "Sensei Matta got front page coverage," she said with a frustrated sigh as she read through the text. "I wonder if all publicity is good publicity."
Maura leaned over, inspecting the article, which seemed to offer nothing new about the case. She turned her attention to Jane instead, who was chewing her lower lip as she read it, unable to keep her the gears in her mind from manifesting in some physical sign of frustration.
"They don't have any leads on Moore," Jane reported, tossing the paper aside. Her nervous tick was now in the form of her spoon tapping against her bowl. "I don't think he left Massachussetts," she said. "I think he has too many loose ends to tie up."
"Like us?" Maura asked.
Jane shook her head, hoping to offer some reassurance. "No. More like business loose ends. Closing the wells, making sure he can't be connected to anything. Don't you think if he had one fracking site, he could have more?"
"It's possible," Maura said with a nod. "Massachusetts has a ton of protected land. He could have operations on a number of sights in hopes that one of them were more successful than the others. Or places where he disposed of the fracking water itself."
Jane glanced around for her phone, hopping out of her chair and plucking it from the counter. "Korsak and Frost need to start surveying the rest of the retreat's sights," she said, attempting to type in a message, but unable to navigate the cracks across her screen. "This is useless. I need to see about getting us both phones today. Especially you."
Maura smiled at her, letting her eyes trail down the brunette's torso and take in the wholeness of her morning attire. "I know you'd rather be at the precinct working on this," she said knowingly. "Why don't you go? I'm not going to keep you here."
"No," Jane replied adamantly, shaking her head and sitting back down. "No, I can let Korsak and Frost do their jobs," she said. "I'm here with you."
"I'm sure you've already been outside once this morning to rail against those poor police officers. You can't lay off if there's a case to solve, Jane."
Jane's mouth dropped open for a second, and she had a hard time summoning a reply, instead focused on exactly how Maura had come to know her so well in the space of a few years. It had taken Angela Rizzoli a lifetime to perfect that mantra. "No," she said with a shake of her head. "I'm staying right here."
Maura raised her eyebrows at her. "Well, then. There's a documentary series on the dissection of viscous fluid in the pancreas that I've been meaning to watch. You'll like it. The live parts can be quite riveting." She saw Jane cringe, slopping her spoonful of yogurt back into her bowl. "In fact, you have no idea how high the CEA levels are in a pancreatic cyst."
Jane sighed, letting a spoonful of yogurt slop into her bowl and pushed her breakfast away from her. "There are less gross ways to make your point, Maura," she said.
"I'll be fine, Jane," Maura assured her. "I'd feel better if I knew you were out there trying to find Moore than simply spending the day with Bass and me."
Jane looked at her, knowing better than to ask if the blonde was telling the truth. "If you even for a moment need anything," she began. "A glass of water, a pain killer, anything, you call me, okay?"
"Go," Maura said with a grin. "But not before changing out of those clothes."
Jane rose with a smile. "You don't think Korsak owns a pair of these himsef?" she asked, but then grimaced at the image her words invoked. "I won't be longer than a few hours," she said.
"Don't worry," Maura said, focusing her attention back on her yogurt.
"Stay off the leg?" Jane asked, pressing a hand against the blonde's shoulder as she stood.
"Of the leg, on the crutches," Maura promised, tilting her head up with a smile.
Jane leaned over and pressed a kiss atop of Maura's head. It was a natural gesture, a move she hadn't even processed before completing, and she shared a surprised smile with Maura. "I'm going to change," she said, pointing needlessly toward the bedroom, enjoying the sense of fulfilled stability that flooded through her as she glanced over her shoulder at Maura, who bent her head over the paper, reading with a concentration only she could summon at such an early hour.
On the way to the precinct Jane kept her eyes in her rearview, paranoia prickling the hairs on the back of her neck, but she saw only the usual crabby mess of Boston drivers behind her. She walked into the precinct with her usual air of authority, sauntering behind her desk and ignoring the surprised glances of her colleagues.
Frost rolled his eyes as she loomed over him. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be taking a day."
"Nice to see you, too, partner," she said with a grin as she slapped him jovially on the back. "I'm here because I want to find that bastard."
Korsak walked over to her, frustrated, but clearly unsurprised that she had disobeyed his orders. It was an exasperating trait, but he knew that's what made her one of his best detectives. "Don't make this personal, Jane."
"Are you kidding, that's when I do my best work," she teased. "How strong is the case against him once we bring him in?"
"Without you and Maura's testimony? Weak. There's nothing tying him to this business or the well, which is owned by a subsidiary of a seemingly non-existent oil firm. Nothing even placing him there besides the yoga retreat, and no jury's going to convict him because of that." Korsak looked at her. "You two are our case. You put him at the scene, you got his confession."
"So you'll need both of us, plus a little more evidence on the side," she said thoughtfully as she took a seat behind her desk. "Maura said something this morning about disposal site. That would be have to be someplace with at least some sort of infrastructure, right?"
"Yeah, but fracking is illegal here, which means they're not disposing of the fluids at any state-run facility or a conventional treatment center," Frost said. "Trust me, I've learned more about fracking in the last twenty-four hours than I ever thought I would."
"But money has got to be changing hands somewhere," Jane said, putting a fist underneath her chin in thought. "That may be the angle we use to get that last piece of evidence against Moore." She looked over at Korsak. "Let me talk to the two guys in custody."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because if we do catch this guy, I don't want the investigation looking remotely biased. You're not on this case anymore, Jane. You're a witness now, and that's all I need you to be."
Jane rolled her eyes and flipped on her computer in straight defiance of Korsak's words. "Well, then, is it all right if this witness volunteers her time to search through some records on treatment facilities in bordering states?"
Korsak frowned, shaking his head as he took his place behind his own desk. "I'm not authorizing this."
Jane smiled at him. "But you're turning a blind eye."
He nodded, unwilling to argue. "I'm turning a blind eye," he confirmed, choosing to ignore the grin that Jane shared with her partner. "But, I would check out the private facilities, too. Chances are if he's disposing of fracking chemicals, the oil companies own subsidiaries to take care of the mess. He could have any number of options to help him get rid of his waste."
Jane grinned, hunching toward her computer, finally able to exert the anxious energy that had plagued her since the day before. If she kept her head down long enough, she could possibly convince Korsak to let her perform an interview of her own. If she could simply get into a room with the two suspects they caught, she may learn something. Half the time it was what a perp didn't say that told her what she needed to know.
A couple of hours later she had managed to catalog a page-long list of possible sites, which meant a page-long of possible paper trails to Moore. Now, of course, she had to convince Frost and Korsak to allow her to ride along on the site visits, which was more than likely a long shot. Before she could raise the question, however, she bristled at the sound of her mother's voice behind her, which bellowed loud and clear across the precinct.
"Jane Clement - "
Jane turned quickly toward her mother, holding up a finger. "Don't you say it," she warned with a quick glance at Frost and Korsak. "Not here."
Angela stalled, but she crossed her arms over her aproned chest. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at home recovering."
"If you haven't noticed, Ma, I'm fine," Jane said, doing a full on turn for her mother, a move she hadn't done since Angela made her dress up for a Miss Boston pageant at the age of five.
"You're not fine," she replied. "Why don't you ever give yourself a break?"
Jane glanced down at the files she was parsing. "Because there is no break, Ma. Not yet." Until they caught up with Moore, the last thing she would be doing was giving herself a break.
"Aren't you supposed to be taking care of Maura?" Angela asked.
Although Jane felt she was doing more to take care of Maura by looking for the crazy man that had tried to kill the two of them, she kept her mouth shut, instead hoping to assuay her mother with kindness. "I am, Ma," she replied as she caught a glimpse of Frankie wandering into the precinct behind her. "I'm going to take her some lunch in a little while."
"Don't bother," Frankie said."Tommy is on his way to Maura's with lunch."
A territorial feeling coursed through her as she snapped her head toward Tommy. "What?"
Angela cut in. "He was taking the two of you a couple of sandwiches from Willy's. Now that he's not spending his days undertaking anymore, he's got some free time on his hands. And I asked him to move some of my things back into the guest house."
Jane nodded, darting a look at Frost and Korsak, hoping her unease wasn't showing to her colleagues. "Uh huh."
Frankie, however, eyed her, raising an eyebrow. "That get your goat, Jane?"
"No," she said with a shake of her hand. "They can both share their crappy sandwiches together." She paused, but still felt both her mother and brother's eyes on her. She rolled her eyes, not particularly enjoying the idea that she could be read as easily as a children's book. "You guys want to let us get back to work, please?" she asked impatiently, fingering a random folder on her desk. She wondered how exactly Tommy would stay for lunch. Her finger nipped impatiently at the edge of the page.
Korsak glanced over at Frost, who shook his hands and raised his hands, unwilling to be the one to notify Jane that her services were much better spent away from the case than on it. Jane tapped her fingers along the top of her desk, biting her lower lip. The last thing she wanted was Maura feeling vulnerable around Tommy. Or falling asleep with her legs draped across his lap. She stood, abruptly, pushing her chair away from her desk. "You know what?" she said, glancing at Korsak and Frost. "I'll be back in an hour."
Korsak looked up at her, masking his amusement. "Oh?"
"I'm just going to run out and grab a bite to eat," Jane explained. "And see about a new phone. So that you losers can keep me updated about the case you're taking me off of."
She had every intention of picking up lunch. What she didn't say, however, was that she had every intention of taking it back to Maura's in hopes of interrupting whatever lunch date her brother was attempting to create.
If you like, please be kind and leave a review. If you don't like, please be kind and leave a rant ;) You have no idea how much I appreciate both!
Ren, thanks for the read-through!
