They approached the closed door quietly, straining their ears to hear what was going on.
A voice Maura hadn't heard before was calm and methodical, speaking quickly but lowly to Korsak. "You know this isn't my strong suit, Vincent, but Magnus gave me some tips over the phone on my way here," sounds of rummaging petered through the door. "How did this happen anyway?"
"Whole nest of them against four Shadowhunters. Should be thankful we only came back with a single injury, one you can heal." Korsak's voice was muffled. Jane paced furiously in agitation.
For a few moments there was silence.
"Okay, that should do it. He'll be unconscious for the next day or so as the poison works its way out of his system. I can stay until his recovery is ensured, if that would make you feel better."
"It would, actually. And you know how much you love Angela's gnocchi." He chuckled thickly.
"Yeah," she said softly. "There's that, too."
The two of them emerged from the room, stopping Jane's frenzied movements in their wake.
Tessa was a rather slim woman with brown hair and piercing grey eyes, but her smile was kind when her gaze met Maura's.
"I haven't see you before," she stated, giving her the once-over most Shadowhunters seemed fond of. "Tessa Herondale," she introduced, offering her hand.
"Maura Isles," the doctor responded, grasping tightly and then releasing it.
Angela burst onto the scene just then, and everyone quickly moved to the sides of the hallway to allow the rushing woman through. She stormed right up to Korsak and glared him in the eye.
"Drevak sting," he explained. "I already got Tessa to look at it. He'll be fine tomorrow."
She narrowed her eyes at him, but he didn't even flinch. She turned to Tessa, her face softening slightly. "Hello dear, thank you so much for helping my poor boy."
Tessa closed her eyes and inclined her head. "Not a problem, Ms. Rizzoli," she replied, shoving her hands in her pockets.
Angela's gaze did a full three-sixty of the witnesses, lingering only slightly longer on Maura than anyone else. She huffed. "Well alright then, you lot, go wash up. Dinner will be in ten." And with that, she went back down the stairs.
"Does your mom cook like this all the time?" Maura asked after tapping Jane once on the shoulder. The Shadowhunter nodded stiffly.
"She's Italian. She cooks when she's worried, and well, with our occupations, she's pretty much always worried. Works for us, though, most of the time. She's really good at it," Jane shrugged. She peeked in through the doors to take a look at Frankie and when she was satisfied, she and Frost set off for the armoury. Not knowing what else to do, Maura followed quietly.
They were quick about stripping off their weapons, wiping them down, and placing them back where they'd gotten them. Jane nudged shoulders with Frost when he'd finished, "I'll meet you down there," she said and he nodded, giving Maura a smile as he left. Jane wandered over to Maura and held her hand out.
Maura looked at it quizzically before remembering the dagger she'd tucked away earlier. "Sorry," Maura apologised, placing the weapon back in Jane's hand.
Jane shook it off, "It's not a problem. You forget you're wearing them but then Ma spots it at the dinner table and you get your hide chewed off for it. Just not worth it, frankly."
Maura smiled at the thought of any of the Shadowhunters being reprimanded for bringing weapons to the table. It was… disturbingly normal of them, to be called out during a meal. Sure, for most people it was simply for being late or using their cell phone and not because of angelic blades being on display, but it was still intriguing.
They slowly meandered from the vault and down the hallway toward Jane's room. Suddenly Maura recalled something she'd meant to ask earlier. "What's a parabatai? Korsak said something about it, but I didn't really understand the term."
"Yeah, you wouldn't," Jane said. She lifted the lapel of her fighting jacket to reveal a particularly black rune, close to her heart. "A parabatai is your fighting partner, your brother. You only ever get one in a lifetime. Giovanni is Frankie's, and Frost is mine. You don the matching runes, and you live and die by each other's side according to the oath you speak at the ceremony. It is one of the oldest traditions of our race, one of the most sacred. The runes create a bond between the two of you, and you can usually tell when the other is grievously injured, dying, or dead, unless you specifically channel your energy to block the information flow." Jane explained.
They stopped outside her door. "Erm, one moment," Jane said as she slipped into her room.
Maura took the minute to work through Jane's response and when she reappeared they resumed their trek downstairs. They were amongst the first to arrive at the table, so at Maura's insistence, they set the table and sat down together on one side, heads unconsciously leaning toward each other as Maura asked quiet questions about the demons they'd just dealt with and Jane answered thoroughly yet succinctly.
Angela emerged from the kitchen with a bowl of salad and almost stopped short at the sight of her daughter, her stand-alone, only plays nicely with boys and tomboys, daughter conversing with a girl. Truly conversing, and she swore that right there, right there her daughter let out a surprised giggle.
"Maur, the pen isn't mightier than the sword, you're correct, except that it's a figure of speech. It means words do more than fighting ever will or can. Fighting solve the immediate problem, but words can change society's whole perception to cure things for the long-run." Jane chuckled, this time sounding far more like the daughter Angela had always known. She never heard her call someone by such a nickname, never seen her get this attached and open so off the bat.
She doesn't know how to take it. Angela tried to think of something to say as reached the table to put the salad down, but right on time, Giovanni, Frost, and Korsak came through the door.
"Sean will be down in a moment, he and Tessa are just finishing up," Korsak offered before pulling out a chair. Gio and Frost went straight to the kitchen and started taxiing plates and bowls full of food to the table.
The final two waltzed in a mere minute later, apologising quickly before taking their seats.
This meal was different than the previous day's repast. Last night had been all chaotic, but tonight was sombre and ponderous with one of their own confined to a sickbed.
They were halfway through when someone knocked on their front door. Sean and Tessa traded meaningful looks before Sean excused himself to answer, Tessa following closely behind. Everyone else turned to stare at Angela, except Maura, whose gaze darted around to everyone. Finally, Angela gave in. "Oh, alright then you nosy things. Go!" Angela sighed as she admitted defeat. Everyone jumped up from the table and sprinted out of the door to see who the visitor was, Jane dragging Maura along by the wrist.
A man with silver-streaked dark hair with matching eyes stood just inside the threshold, holding a cane under one arm. He released Tessa from a hug as he shook Sean's hand. Judging from the angles to his facial features, Maura hypothesised that he was partially Asian; a theory which was confirmed when he greeted Jane in Cantonese, "Nei ho ma."
Jane walked forward with a bright smile, "Hello to you, too, Jem," she said, giving him a fierce and brief hug. The others took their turn greeting the mysterious 'Jem' and it seemed like he was both popular and well-liked.
"And you must be Maura," he stated with a polite smile. They shook hands. "Not to worry, Tessa told me you're new around here. I'm Jem."
"Nice to meet you, Jem."
"Right, Jem, Tessa, and I have some stuff to discuss. Jane and Frost, you two are on kitchen clean up. Have fun," Sean instructed as he walked away, Tessa and Jem following, their hands entwined.
"Something's totally up," Frost said as soon as they were out of earshot.
"Understatement of the year," Jane snorted, punching him lightly on the arm. The two walked off toward the kitchen, bantering lightly back and forth.
Giovanni hesitated on the bottom step. "I dunno if you want to go watch them do dishes or something, but I'm gonna head up to the training room if you want to come with," he offered, back slightly turned from Maura.
Maura thought for a moment, but honestly she'd like to know more about Giovanni and the training room sounded strangely enticing. "That sounds great, Giovanni, thanks."
He grinned at her then, "No problem, Maura, any time!" They walked up the stairs together, Giovanni happily rambling on about something Maura couldn't follow. She tried, honest to God, she did, but after the fourth 'hot' within the time span of sixty seconds, Maura was done.
She waited outside of his door as he changed into more suitable attire, his voice coming through the thick wood muffled, but enthusiastic and unrelenting as ever. By the time they reached the training room, Maura was at a complete loss as to what she and Giovanni were apparently discussing.
He walked straight over to a punching bag set-up and plucked some wraps from a convenient shelf to tape his hands up.
She was fairly certain he'd moved on to talking about one summer where the four of them tracked an Oni demon all the way to Western Massachusetts, but she couldn't be sure as she had no idea if Oni demons really existed or if she'd simply misheard.
She felt awful about it, but in all truth, she started to simply let his words wash over her instead of trying to catch them all and hold his train of thought. He stepped up to a large hanging bag and started throwing punches, the constant roll of speech from his tongue coming to a cessation as he concentrated.
It was actually quite soothing for Maura to watch him methodically work the bag, exercising different muscles as he moved with it. And that was where Jane and Frost found the two of them once they'd finished cleaning up. They'd donned their own workout gear, but instead of crossing to join Giovanni at the heavy bag or the speed bag, they moved to an open mat near the centre of the room and faced each other.
Jane and Frost sparring was the most interesting thing Maura'd ever seen. If she thought watching Giovanni was calming, watching those two go at each other was exhilarating. Her heart jumped and cowered as they exchanged light blows and grappled each other to the mat below. She found herself holding her breath on more than one occasion, completely caught up in the intensity of the battle.
After a while, Giovanni joined her in spectating, but before long he was motioned to go forward and join the match. First, the two boys ganged up on Jane, and slowly they worked it around the triangle, everybody getting the two-on-one experience.
"Little game of cutthroat?" Frost asked after Giovanni had completed his turn at staving off the parabatai. Jane shrugged, but Giovanni nodded energetically.
They each backed away to an edge of the mat and paused for a moment to catch their breath. Gi called. "One,", then Frost called "Two," and finally, with a smirk, Jane declared, "Three."
All hell broke loose, there was no organisation between them this time, it was every man or woman for themselves.
Maura thought she might suffer a heart attack from all the constant changes of opponents. Frost was grappling Gi, but then Jane came along and tripped him. While he fell to the floor, Giovanni flipped Jane, but then Barry lunged at him and they just kept going on like that, constantly in motion, never taking a backseat approach.
It was as beautiful as it was deadly, but more than anything it was absolutely captivating.
At the end, Jane was declared the victor only because she was still on her feet. They were all panting, but the boys were lying down like sorry messes, completely spent. Jane flopped to the floor beside them and breathed deeply, soaking up the respite.
"That was spectacular," Maura stated, awed at the prowess and skill displayed mere moments ago.
"Thanks, Doc," Frost grinned.
Korsak appeared at the door. "New info," he said but then stopped. "We were going to meet in five, but given your states you have half an hour to get cleaned up and join us in the board room." He walked away without waiting for a response.
The three groaned, but then reluctantly got up from their comfortable positions. "You heard the man," Jane huffed. "Let's go."
The boys headed off to their rooms, and Maura followed Jane to hers. "We don't often have visitors, so I'm not sure if you're supposed to come with us. I'm not certain though, so don't be offended if they ask you to entertain yourself for a while when we get there, okay?" Jane flung the door to her room open and grabbed a pile of clothes off the bed.
"Sure, no problem," Maura said, eyes darting around the newly exposed area, trying to take in anything that could tell her about the enigma that was Jane Rizzoli.
"I'll be back in fifteen if you wanna just chill in your room or something," Jane promised as she stalked off down the hall to the bathroom.
Maura watched her leave and then retired to her room. She sat perched on the edge of the bed. "Maura, what have you gotten yourself into? You're being highly spontaneous and that is not like you at all." She leaned back across the mattress. She ran a hand through her hair.
"If you wake up and this is all just some really twisted dream, I highly recommend the therapist," she murmured to herself. Not having anything else to do, she stared at the cavernous ceiling until someone knocked on her door.
"Ready to go?" Jane asked, peering in.
"Yes." Maura got up and joined her.
Jane led her to the board room, but didn't go inside. Instead she pulled Korsak aside and they chatted for a quick moment. She came back to Maura's side, "Looks like you're allowed in," she said, and the two of them entered.