A/N-So, yeah, I officially suck at updates. I'm just losing my motivation on this one, and sucky Life Issues haven't helped matters. But I never leave a fic unfinished, so there's no need to worry about that. In better news, I made this chapter extra long because of the extra long wait. Happy reading!
Don't own 'em, but you know that already, dontcha?
Maura was nearly finished her second autopsy of the day when she was interrupted by a tentative knock on the door. She looked up, surprised to see a man, one of the beat cops she'd seen around once in awhile. Maura smiled and gesture for him to come in, though she was very confused about why a patrol officer would be visiting the morgue on a Saturday. She'd never had a conversation with the man and couldn't even recall his name at the moment.
"Hello, officer," Maura said as she put aside her scalpel and removed her gloves. Even if she didn't know the man's name, Maura liked to use titles as a sign of respect. Even if the fact that she trailed off made it obvious that she couldn't remember his name. "Can I help you with something?"
"Officer Reynolds. You can call me Chuck though," he said as he shook her hand. He had a firm grasp, strong hands that probably bore a direct correlation to the strength in the well-developed musculature of his upper arms and shoulders.
In the two seconds of silence, Chuck looked around nervously, then shifted position so that he could see the door. When he realized that Maura was waiting for him to continue, he spoke again.
"Yeah, um, just had a quick question about, you know, what you do," the officer said. "So you cut bodies open, huh?"
"Yes, that is the basic definition of an autopsy, although it is more involved, and I can't simply cut into people with abandon. Even if the person is dead. There's a technique to it," Maura said. "Why do you ask?"
"Um, I dunno, just curious, thinking about trying to work my way up to homicide," Chuck said, moving suddenly to bend over the body that Maura had just started closing up. "What's that cut called again? Some kind of letter, right?"
Though the officer's interest in Maura's work was...nice, the way he expressed it was a bit odd. Like he had ulterior motives, and was just asking questions to keep Maura talking. Usually Maura would have bought the feigned interest and gone on for a good ten minutes about the nuances of a successful autopsy, but Chuck was so obviously anxious and distracted that even Maura could easily see it.
"Yes, it is. It's called a y-incision," Maura said. "Although I sense you're here for other reasons?"
Chuck froze, didn't speak for a second. He opened his mouth twice before closing it again.
"Chuck? What is it?" Maura asked.
"I just, I," Chuck stammered, before blurting out. "I think you're hot."
Maura smiled a smile that almost turned into a laugh. She stifled it to keep from bruising the man's ego more than necessary.
"That's very kind of you to say," Maura said. "And you seem like a kind person. But you're just not exactly my type. I can assure it has nothing to do with you."
"You mean that you like girls?" Chuck asked. "Cuz, I mean, you hear stuff, not that I gossip, just that you can't help but hear stuff."
Though Maura didn't care who knew about her sexual orientation, she was amazed that word had managed to filter down to a patrol officer Maura had little to no contact with, particularly when Maura was not even technically a part of the police force. Given the largely male population of the police force and the way that the news had spread to the far reaches of the sizable BPD, Maura suspected the scholarship on gossip as a feminine discourse needed some serious revision.
Maura smiled calmly, hoping to ease some of the anxiety that the officer was clearly experiencing. It seemed to do the exact opposite, as Chuck carried on with his rambling.
"Sorry, I mean, not my business, I know. I, just, you said not exactly your type, so I figured that meant I wasn't a girl. Which, you know, that's cool. Totally fine by me. Just thought I'd let you know that, you know, you're hot," Chuck said, his eyes darting around until they landed on a spot just to the right of Maura's head.
"Thank you," Maura replied, though her unintentional upward inflection made it should almost like a question. The conversation had been one of the more bizarre ones she'd had in awhile. "That is, um, thoughtful of you."
Maura nodded politely as she spoke and continued to smile calmly, hoping her total confusion was not too evident. Because she had to be missing something, some obvious social cue for the conversation to feel so strangely disjointed.
"Yeah, just thought you should know. No hard feelings or anything," Chuck said, taking a step back, looking almost relieved to find a way out of the conversation. "You, uh, enjoy your autopsy then."
Chuck was already moving towards the door by the time Maura responded.
"And enjoy your patrol too," she said.
He smiled and gave her a quick wave before leaving as suddenly as he'd arrived.
Maura stood in the same spot for a few seconds and just looked around the room, some kind of 'did anyone else think that was strange' instinct, even though she knew the closest person to her was a lab tech a few rooms away.
Maura gave up on trying to make sense of Chuck's visit after brief reflection that yielded no new insights. She'd have to ask Jane for some help decoding this particularly difficult conversation.
For now though, Maura had at least one more autopsy to complete.
Maura had just completed her third autopsy and was about to head to her office to finish paperwork when her phone rang. Maura picked up her cell and answered without even checking the caller ID because she was busy arranging her notes in order to more efficiently write her reports.
"Dr. Isles," she said as she moved a paper from the Goldman autopsy that had somehow gotten mixed in with the Olin autopsy.
"Hey there," Jane said. "This is Detective Rizzoli speaking."
"Hi, Jane," Maura said, smiling to herself as she stacked all her papers neatly on the table and stood leaning against the table, facing the morgue. "No murder, I hope?"
"None that I'll be investigating. I got Korsak to cover my on call later tonight," Jane said, then added in a way that Maura could read as flirty even without the visual cues. "I don't want anything to get in the way of our date."
Maura blushed and bit her lip. She glanced in the direction of the tech's office, then turned around to gather her files and move towards the privacy of her office. Though she was willing to be open about her relationship with Jane, Maura didn't think it would be appropriate to be caught openly flirting in the morgue by one of her assistants.
Jane took Maura's half second of silence as hesitation.
"I mean, that's what I'm calling it," Jane said. "A date. Is that ok?"
"A date? Why, detective, that is awfully presumptuous," Maura teased. "I had no idea. After our activities last night I am positively blindsided by this development."
"Is that sarcasm?" Jane replied. Maura could hear the smile in her voice.
"Well, technically it's irony. I was not using irony it to convey contempt, as would be the case if I were using sarcasm," Maura said. "But in that way that you use the term sarcasm, yes, it was."
"Well, irony sounds good on you," Jane said. "Speaking of which, I was just calling to see what you're wearing."
"Jane," Maura said in a voice she hoped sounded more serious than the amused grin would indicate. "I am at work. I know that our relationship has...evolved recently, but I cannot talk dirty to you while I am at work."
There was a short laugh on the other end.
"Now who's being presumptuous?" Jane replied, and Maura could image her eyebrows shooting up in that expression of mock surprised that Jane so often relied upon. "I was thinking nothing of the sort. I wanted to know what you're wearing to dinner tonight."
"Oh, I, um, why do you ask?" Maura replied, resorting to the question both out of sincere curiosity and as a way of drawing attention away from her embarrassing misunderstanding.
"I don't know. I guess I want to match up the colors," Jane said.
"Jane, you're speaking to the person who had to convince you that one blue sock and one black sock would pass for matching," Maura said. "Let's be serious."
"I'm a curious person, what can I say?" Jane replied defensively. "Besides, that was more like navy blue, totally could have pulled it off."
Maura would have quibbled with that description of the sock color if not for the fact that Jane's question reminded her of a far more troubling development.
"I don't actually have anything suitable to wear," Maura said. "I don't have the time to go home and choose an outfit."
"Check your scrubs closet," Jane said, like it was the simplest thing in the world, as if she did not realize that she called it her scrub closet for a reason. Maura never had any date clothes in her scrubs closet. She almost always wore suitable clothing for a date to work, and if she didn't, Maura would hang the dressier outfit elsewhere. Never in her scrubs closet.
"I used my last pair of spare scrubs today," Maura said. "And I wouldn't wear scrubs on a date even if I had a closet full of them. Aside from the formlessness and flimsiness of the fabric, the lingering scent of decomposition in the clothe would dampen my sex appeal."
"Well, I think the smell of deco is sexy," Jane said, a playful lilt to her voice that was a hint that she might not be totally sincere. Maura could not tell with 100% certainty though.
"Really?"
"No, not really," Jane said. She sighed before continuing to speak. "Just maybe, just check and see of you have anything."
"But Jane, I know that I have nothing, absolutely nothing, and the black dress has a noticeable wrinkle across the back," Maura said. She could not understand why Jane, normally quite logical, would insist on something that so obviously had a low chance of success. It was frustrating in that amusing way Jane had of pestering Maura. "I sincerely doubt that a dress has materialized in the hours since I last looked."
"Just humor me please," Jane said. "Promise me you'll look before you go crazy and rush out to buy a $1000 dress, ok?"
"I promise, but-
"No but. Remember that you promised. Now go check, and I'm going to start getting ready," Jane said.
After putting her phone down on the desk, Maura paused a moment to decide her next course of action. Jane must be up to something, that she would be so insistent that Maura follow through on such an odd request. And Jane knew that Maura regarded a broken promise much in the same way that she regarded a lie, so Maura would have to check the closet.
Maura walked to the opposite side of her office, where she had two small closets, one for scrubs and the other for her jacket and other miscellaneous items. She opened the door, and there it was, a new dress, just as Jane had guessed. It made sense, and Maura realized when she saw the dress that she'd been expecting Jane would be up to something of this nature. That Jane must have put the dress there herself for the detective to be so certain.
Even if Maura had expected something, it was not this kind of something. Not a brand new designer dress that probably cost nearly as much as the black dress on the hanger in the next closet over. Maura ran her fingers over the exquisite organza detailing along the neckline as she marveled at the beautiful, deep purple. She had one other dress that was a similar color, the same one that she'd worn on the cruise for their night out. Maura wondered if Jane remember the dress. She probably did; Jane had an excellent eye for detail and an impressive memory that she never gave herself enough credit for.
More importantly, Maura wondered, how on earth could Jane afford such a dress? Maura found the price tag hanging inside the dress; it cost just as much as Maura suspected, but she noticed a note in cramped, very familiar handwriting just under the price.
But Jane Rizzoli never pays full price.
Maura smiled to herself and pulled the dress off the rack to examine it more closely, to see if it was the designer that she suspected when she saw another note. It was on a piece of paper, a little bit bigger a business card and hung from a piece of ribbon tied tightly around the hanger.
Wear this tonight and meet me in lobby of the station at 5. Can't wait...-Jane
Maura smiled and bit her lower lip as she read the note over again. Jane was going out of her way to make this evening special, albeit in her own bossy, cryptic way. Rarely had anyone ever gone out of their way to make Maura feel so special and wanted. Maura wanted to make Jane feel that same thing tonight.
She stood looking at the dress for a moment, deep in thought. Then she looked at the clock. It was 3:00. Maura had just enough time to finish off paperwork that couldn't wait before getting dress and making one more additional arrangement for the evening.
Jane arrived at the station at five minutes before five o'clock, fully aware that Maura had a habit of arriving early for virtually everything. Fortunately, Maura was nowhere in sight when Jane entered the lobby. She passed the few minutes by pacing slowly, then leaning against the desk of the cop assigned to sign visitors in. Which naturally led to some of the usual small talk.
"Hey, Rizzoli," the man, Officer Quindlen, said as Jane settled into her spot against the desk facing the elevator Jane knew Maura would use to get to the lobby. "Thought you were off today."
"I am," Jane said distractedly. She swallowed, hesitating a second. What she was going to say next was not the easiest thing she'd ever do, but it was part of her master plan for the evening, so Jane Rizzoli would damn well follow through with it. "Just picking up my date for tonight."
Jane was notoriously tight-lipped about her private life around the precinct; not even Frost or Korsak knew if she was seeing someone unless it got serious, which it almost never did. So the fact that Detective Rizzoli would volunteer such information to an officer she only knew in passing came as a surprise to the man.
"Well, then," he said. "Who's the lucky guy?"
"You'll know soon enough, won't you, Quindlen?" Jane replied with her trademark self-satisfied smirk.
"I, um, I guess so," he said.
Jane didn't know the extent of it, but she tended to make a lot of the younger officers very nervous, as was the case with Quindlen. Jane knew that her attitude, what some called her swagger, intimidated the rookies sometimes, but she was not aware that her natural good looks alone were enough to make the men nervous. Combined with that swagger, she rendered many of them incapable of even approaching her to borrow a pen.
"So, what time you on til today?" Jane asked to break the silence, keeping her eyes on the elevator.
"Pulling a double tonight," the officer said. "Working until early morning."
"Ah that's rough," Jane said as she took a step away from the desk. It was exactly 5pm and the elevator doors had just opened to reveal Maura.
Jane just watched as Maura stepped out of the elevator and walked slowly towards the desk. The lobby wasn't exactly packed at this hour, but Maura caught the attention of pretty much everyone that was milling around. She had a way of doing that with an unconscious effortlessness that made her presence all the more magnetic.
It also helped that she managed to look positively edible in the dress, which was cut just above the knee to show off Maura's legs. Then the neckline, though tasteful, was just revealing enough to stimulate the imagination. Not to mention her hair. After a day of autopsy, she'd apparently managed to shower and style her hair so that it fell in loose, shiny curls on her shoulders.
What topped it off though, what really did it for Jane was the fact that Maura had eyes for no one else, that she looked right at Jane and smiled broadly.
"You look great," Jane managed as she gave Maura an up and down that could not possibly have been helped.
"Well, my date chose my outfit very wisely," Maura said with a playful, flirtatious lilt that she seemed to have perfected under Jane's expert guidance. Maura looked Jane up and down, taking note of the tailored black pants and fitted white button up shirt under a tailored blazer, all items Maura had suggested Jane buy."And you look great too. The outfit is very, well, it's very Jane."
"That's the point," Jane said as she took Maura's hand. "This will be a very Jane evening. And I can't take all the credit for the dress. Millie might have saved my ass on that."
Maura smiled and took Jane's hand.
"You're going to have to tell me all about that," Maura said. "But first let's get this date started, shall we?"
Jane smirked and glanced over at the beat cop she'd just been talking to, who looked puzzled by the conversation. At least until Maura took Jane's hand. Jane only confirmed his suspicions by winking and nodding in answer to the question clearly running through his head as she and Maura walked towards the door.
It was not subtle. As a matter of fact it was so obvious that Maura caught on quickly.
"What was that look about?" she asked as the walked down the front stairs.
"Just making sure everyone in BPD knows you're taken," Jane said, stopping at the bottom of the stairs to give Maura a lingering peck on the lips, timing it just as two officers walked. "That kiss was just a precaution. Making extra sure there's no confusion."
"Yes, of course. We wouldn't want that," Maura said.
"And now," Jane said as she linked arms with Maura and walked her towards her car a few spaces away. "Everyone in that building will know how very lucky I am by the beginning of my next shift."
The place that Jane took Maura to was certainly 'very Jane.' It was in one of the nicer areas of the North End on a street full of family run Italian restaurants. The one that Jane had chosen was a small, well-lit place with some framed paintings of the Italian coast decorating the walls and simple white table clothes with a candle on each table. The simplicity of the décor actually gave a sense warmth to the atmosphere.
The food was excellent as well. The waiter, a man about their age who apparently knew Jane from childhood, had plenty of suggestions for what Maura might like, and even offered advice on what wine paired best with each dish.
The meal itself passed quickly with their characteristic easy conversation flirty banter. And Maura loved that it did. Jane might take that ease for granted, but Maura never did. She had something with Jane that she rarely ever achieved with anyone. She was comfortable, felt so comfortable and protected and understood. And Maura would never ever take that for granted.
"So," Maura said as she finished off her glass of wine. "You know you're going to have to tell me at some point how you managed to arrange all this, right?"
"Am I?" Jane replied.
"I do have ways of being very persuasive, you know," Maura said, as she slipped her foot out of the low heel she had on and rubbed her foot against Jane's leg and just under the bottom of her pant leg. "And I am not above using them in public."
"Ok, ok, no need to play dirty, doc," Jane said, though not before Maura notice an involuntary, almost imperceptible little shiver. "Wasn't too hard. I know some guys in these parts, so getting a seat in here was no big deal really."
"And the dress?"
Jane shrugged.
"Like I said, I had some help from Millie," Jane said cryptically. "And she got me a pretty steep discount."
"How steep?" Maura persisted. Usually she wouldn't pry into the cost of the gift, but she did not want Jane throwing around that kind of money just because she thought that was what Maura wanted or needed out of a partner.
"A hundred bucks," Jane said. "Some employee discount on top of an employee perk. It wasn't really any trouble."
"That's a 95% discount," Maura said skeptically. "How in the world did you manage that at store that only ever offers discounts of about 15% once a year to frequent customers."
"Sexual favors," Jane said as she smiled in a way that made it absolutely clear that she was joking. "Lots and lots of sexual favors."
"Much as Millie admires your beauty from an aesthetic perspective, I very much doubt she would give such discounts for sexual favors," Maura said. "Particularly when I led her to believe that we were an established couple to get our last discount."
Jane shrugged again.
"Long boring story is long and boring," Jane said as the waiter returned to give Maura the credit card she'd insisted on using to pay, while Jane pulled out her wallet to pay the tip. "But, no lie, Millie worked something out that was only sort of against company policy. She's a cool person, you know."
"She has always treated me well," Maura said. Still, for all the discussion of purchasing the dress, Maura didn't know how it managed to find it's way into her office. "But I presume she didn't help you in getting the dress into my closet?"
"And you would presume right," Jane said. "You remember that charmer Chuck who paid you a visit earlier today?"
"You sent him?" Maura replied. It all made sense. His nervous energy, that habit of continually glancing at the wall behind her, his erratic movements to keep her back to the office. It'd all been part of Jane's plan for getting the dress to Maura's closet.
Jane nodded.
"Promised him a coffee and five bucks to distract you, but he only got four bucks for doing a shitty job," Jane said. "Wanted it to be special, and I figured it'd be more special if it was, you know, a surprise."
"So you spent most of your day off planning a date and getting a dress. All for me?"
"Don't sound so shocked," Jane said as she tossed a few bills on the table and stood. "Not sure who told you otherwise, but you're totally worth it. Now, let's get going. I wanna show you around the old neighborhood before it gets dark."
Maura just smiled as she stood from the table. She knew the change of subject was Jane's way of deflecting attention from herself, of downplaying her thoughtfulness for fear that it might seem too sentimental, an instinct Jane seemed to have developed in her years working on the police force.
"So, you ready to go?" Jane asked as she held out her hand to Maura. She grinned broadly as she added. "'Cuz I can't wait to see the look on Sammy and Giovanni's faces when they sees me with such a sexy woman on my arm."
Maura smiled and laughed softly as she took Jane's hand and they exited the restaurant on to the street.
A/N-Probably one more chapter left of this thing. I love you all for sticking around long enough to read through this chapter, because it definitely kept me from giving up on fic writing altogether a few times. So, a big hug to all of you lovely people. Also, I think reviews are pretty cool too :)
Any idea what Maura has planned for Jane?