The next day passed relatively uneventfully, most of the Shadowhunters taking the time to sleep in after their extensively late night. Maura and Jane wandered into the kitchen shortly after two to find that everyone was sitting around the kitchen in varying stages of sleepiness. There were a couple of stacks of toast and a platter of bacon resting on the table, as well as a huge bowl full of cut up fruit.
Jane filled hers with a mound of bacon and a couple of pieces of toast, whereas Maura had a single piece of toast and a heap of the fruit.
"You know, Jane, it would be healthier for you to replace some of that bacon with some fruit. It's much better for you, nutritionally speaking. The vitamins and minerals alone-"
Jane stopped as they walked to a table, causing Maura to bump into her. She turned to stare at the doctor incredulously. "Really?"
Maura nodded emphatically and then passed Jane to sit down. "Yes, really, it's a statistically proven fact, and I'm certain you'd feel better after the slight change to your diet. You'd probably be happier over all."
"Okay, Googlemouth, that's good. I'm not changing the way I eat. I'm a warrior; I need meat. I can't just live on rabbit food!"
"Actually," Maura began enthusiastically, "you could live on rabbit food, provided you added legumes in order to give you the necessary amount of protein. It shouldn't be a problem at all."
"Maura," Jane said exasperatedly. "Just eat."
Somewhat taken aback at Jane's response, Maura sat down sadly and ate her food. After a few moments, Jane sighed and reached over to pat her hand. "Sorry, Maur, it's just – it's been a long week. I didn't mean to snap and take it out on you."
Feeling much happier, Maura accepted the answer with a smile.
When they'd finished, Jane suggested heading back upstairs for another nap until dinner. Normally, Maura would have listed all of the reason as to why sleeping more than eight hours in a given day wasn't the smartest decision to regulate and order a person's life, but at Jane's earnest, hopeful look, she found herself agreeing despite her reservations.
They napped for almost another four hours, although Maura spent the majority of that time awake. She'd been sedated in the hospital and didn't really require more sleep than she'd already gotten lately, but Jane had been going at full throttle for the past however long and she deserved the break to rest.
Not to mention the fact that Maura enjoyed watching the brunette sleep; in a completely non-creepy and respectful way of course. It was interesting to watch the eyebrows relax and the stress to slowly leave her straining features.
Of course, there were a few times when Maura was certain Jane was entertaining dreams of the nightmarish variety, but either the Shadowhunter had grown quite adept at hiding the symptoms, or Maura was misinterpreting the small fluctuations to her facial muscles.
They were disturbed abruptly by quick, no nonsense raps at the door. As Jane struggled to wake, Maura slipped from the bed and opened the door, only to come face to face with someone she didn't recognise.
"Who might you be?" She asked, holding the door closed just enough so that the intruder couldn't see past her into the room.
"I'm here to see Jane," the man said, speaking with the slightest British accent to his attractive voice.
Jane was beside Maura in a flash, pushing the doctor behind her and stepping out into the hallway. "Get out of here, Casey," she demanded, her voice menacing in a feral growl Maura'd never witnessed before.
Casey was instantly apologetic. "Hey, no, I told you I was sorry. I'm not here to cause trouble, I swear."
Remaining skeptical, she raised an eyebrow and didn't say a word. Sensing an opportunity, Casey continued, "I just need a favour is all."
Jane scoffed. "Why the hell would I want to do a favour for you after you nearly killed me?"
"I'm sorry! I didn't know that faerie food could kill people! I was a stupid and young vampire, come on, give me a break!" Casey pleaded his case.
"What do you want?" Jane asked monotonously, giving absolutely no indicator of whether or not she'd actually assist him if she could.
"I just need a Shadowhunter escort to a thing in a couple of days. Nothing funny, I promise. It's just a vampire and friends gathering and I kind of maybe told my coven I'd be bringing the hottest piece of ass they'd ever seen in a Shadowhunter and, well, I may have been a little intoxicated at the moment."
Jane's eyes flashed with indignation, but before she could comment and let anger rise to her defence, Casey ploughed on. "It wouldn't mean anything; it'd just be a solid. And then I'd do you a solid in the future at some point. An exchange of services if you like. You just have to show up and not kill anyone. Easy as pie."
"And I get a future favour from you? Something I can cash whenever, wherever, for whatever I want?" Jane clarified and Maura could practically hear the relief coupled with exasperation in his voice.
"Yes, of course."
Jane thought about it for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of the offer. It wouldn't hurt to have a leader of a vampire coven in your back pocket. Although, at the same time he may simply be planning to kill her some other way. Still, she had faith that she could protect herself and the favour was too tempting to pass up. "Alright," she agreed.
"Excellent!" Casey beamed. "I'll have the details given to you before the big day. Probably wouldn't want to wear your gear, but that's alright, I can arrange something far more fetching for you to wear."
He turned to go but then stopped and abruptly spun back to her, "And if you wanted to bring that fine specimen you have in your room with you to the event as well…" Casey let the sentence hang and Jane had to fight the urge to gag at the tone in his voice.
"Don't even." She warned. He threw his hands up in mock surrender before practically skipping away down the hall.
Maura was waiting right behind Jane when the brunette turned back into her room and it almost sent Jane reeling from surprise.
"Holy shit, Maura! Warn a girl when you sneak up behind her like that!"
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Maura apologised, placing her hand on Jane's shoulder to make sure she was alright. Once it seemed as though Jane would be just fine, Maura asked, "So what was that all about?"
"Oh, that?" Jane asked, trying to find a way to evade the question. "Nothing really. An old thing, no big deal."
Maura caught Jane's hands in her own and forced the brunette to look at her. "Jane. Tell me."
"Oh alright, Maura. He was just an old boyfriend. As I said and I'm sure you heard, he once almost killed me by giving me faerie food at a Downworlder party. Thankfully Tessa was still here at the Institute and she can be trusted to keep a secret, or else I probably would've gone the way of the dodo bird."
"Why would she being trustworthy matter?"
"Well, um," Jane flushed slightly and rubbed the back of her neck out of nervous habit. "I wasn't technically allowed to be dating anyone at that point, least of all a Downworlder who could get me into absolute heaps of trouble, but I did anyway. Tessa agreed not to share that particular fact with my parents when she fixed me up and I've been grateful ever since."
"Your parents? You mean your father, too?" The subject had never been broached before and Maura wasn't sure how Jane would react.
"Yeah. He used to be a Shadowhunter and part of the family but he ran out on Ma. We don't really like to talk about it; bad memories and such."
Maura nodded. "I suppose that makes sense. Do you know why he left or would you rather not talk about it?"
"I'd rather not talk about it, but I know the curiousity will eat you alive if I don't offer you some explanation, and frankly, I'd rather you hear it from me than anyone else." Jane rubbed her hands together, massaging her palms.
Maura noticed and took over the act for her.
"He met another woman. A younger woman. We're not really sure who she was or what spell she had him under to uproot from his family, but he did. He gave up his Shadowhunter title, left the Clave, and we haven't heard from him since." She shrugged, trying to act like it didn't still bother her. "It threw my Ma completely, and it's not like Frankie or I were expecting it. Tommy wasn't either, but he'd always looked up to Pa as his best role model. In fact, between you and me, I think that's where Tommy first went when he left us."
Maura was speechless; she didn't know what to say, what response or comment would be appropriate or helpful.
"Anyway, that's that, I guess." She paced around the room for a minute. "Okay, I gotta do something. I'm going to the training room. Are you in or out?"
"In," Maura answered at once, surprising herself a little bit by the speed with which she'd responded. Jane nodded and they left the room quickly, the Shadowhunter practically bouncing off the walls in her quest to rid herself of all the random energy she'd just acquired.
Apparently no one had dealt out assignments about which bars to hit next for the night, because all the younger Shadowhunters were in the room when they arrived. They traded brief greetings before the boys worked on the speed bags in a corner, trying to outdo the others in some sort of a male competition thing.
Jane led Maura over to the mat and gestured for her to get onto it.
"What? Why? Usually I just watch," Maura said, gingerly stepping onto the rubbery floor covering.
"Yeah, usually you do. But we're gonna switch things up today. If you're going to keep hanging out with us, and it seems like that's what you've got your mind set on thus far, you're going to want to learn at least a bit about how to defend yourself, right?" Jane gave her a curious glance. "Or maybe you don't, I just thought-"
"No, you're right. I do. So what are we going to do?" Maura asked, testing out the spongy consistency beneath her feet.
"I figured we'd start with some easy stuff first, how to get out of holds and incapacitate an attacker. I don't know if you've taken any self defence courses before, but it's different when your attacker isn't human; when it's a demon made of smoke or with poisonous spines or any other sort of weird thing." Jane explained, rolling her neck around and stretching her arms a bit.
"You may want to take a minute and stretch out your limbs. This part of the exercise shouldn't prove too strenuous, but afterward we may go over some basic dagger work." Jane chuckled once. "I noticed you didn't really know what to do with the blade when I handed it to you the other day, so we'll see if we can't change that up a bit, make you a bit more confident with those things." Maura did as Jane suggested and quickly loosened her muscles.
"Alright," Maura agreed readily, hypothesising that she was about to get her butt kicked.
"Excellent. I'll demonstrate what you should do first in certain situations, and then I'll be your attacker and you can try 'em out on a real life test subject." She bent her knees and cracked her knuckles. "You ready?"
Well, suffice it to say, Maura had Jane demonstrate whatever move she was supposed to attempt several times before trying it, and it took her quite a few tries to get every single one of them passable. But once she got the hang of it, it seemed to come almost naturally to her, and Jane was impressed by her stubbornness, to hang tight and work through all of her kinks.
Once thoroughly satisfied with Maura's work at the grappling type stuff they'd been doing, they took a mini break and then Jane got out a couple of knives. Not seraph blades, but cold, hard steel, like the kind Maura would be more familiar with.
"Now these aren't sharpened; they're for training, but they could still bruise and hurt if we're not careful. I'm not going to give you a plastic knife and then hand you a real on in the field and expect you to be just as good with it, because you won't be. You train with as close to the real thing as possible so that there are less ways to fuck up out there, cool?"
"Language," Maura corrected, weighing the blade in her hand to try and get a feel for it.
Frost stopped the other boys from their bag competition and nodded at the girls. As a unit they wandered over quietly to watch. Usually, Jane with a knife was like magic, she was so good with them. They wondered how well she'd be able to teach a mundane like Maura her craft.
"Really, Maura? I'm handing you a knife and the only thing you comment on is my use of a four letter word?" Jane rolled her eyes and then hunkered down into set position, her feet shoulder width apart with one slightly in front of the other and knees bent. "Now copy me. This stance should give you the maximum amount of power form your legs. As a woman, that's-"
"-where the majority of my strength will be found, yes, they covered that in medical school." Maura said and then abruptly added, "Sorry. I don't know where that came from."
Jane laughed. "It's okay, Maur, it just means that maybe you've been hanging out with me a bit too much."
"I don't think that's possible, Jane, it's not like we spend every moment together."
"Except we kind of do." Jane shook her head smiling. "Whatever though, are you good to go?"
Maura nodded and they went at it, Jane putting Maura through certain sequences with different moves.
"Do you think they realise?" Giovanni whispered to the guys.
"Nah," Frankie said, "they're too oblivious."
Frost nodded in agreement with Frankie's analysis. "I kind of mentioned it to Jane, but she pretty much just shrugged me off."
Giovanni slapped Frost on the shoulder. "Dude, why would you do that? You're messing with the delicate balance here!"
Frankie and Frost traded a look that asked 'what the fuck is he talking about bro?' then shrugged when they couldn't find an answer.
They turned their attention back to the mat, where Maura was doing surprisingly well for her first time, particularly after having a bit of difficulty with the last exercises.
"Good form, but your elbow is wobbly, tighten it up a bit," Jane instructed as they went, calling out other bits of helpful information along the way.
"Okay, I bet you my Guardian Chogar King action figure that they get together within a month," Frost wagered, drawing the other two guys closer so as not to be overheard.
"You know how much I want that," Frankie glared at him. "Fine, I toss in Celtics tickets."
Giovanni grinned hugely, "I'll put up my contact for getting the hottest babes."
The three traded nods. "Deal."
"Are you three done creeping on us, now, or are you just having some manly time together?" Jane called from the mat, hip cocked and arms crossed. Maura just stared at all of them quizzically.
"We're done. In fact, we're just gonna go shower," Frost said, backing away to the doorway.
"Together? Interesting. Didn't know you guys swung that way." Jane smirked, sensing an easy victory.
Frankie slapped Frost on the back of his head. "Damn it, Frost, you left us wide open for that one!"
Rubbing the back of his head, Frost retorted, "Oh please, we all know anything Giovanni would've said would've been ten times worse."
"Hey!" Gio cried out indignantly as they trooped out the door, continuing to bicker along the way.
"Sorry about them," Jane offered as she took the knife back from Maura. She'd done her level best not to hurt the blonde, and she believed she'd mostly succeeded except for that one little tap she'd given her by accident. She herself had not been so lucky, Maura had gotten in a few hits with more force than Jane had anticipated, but the bruises would be gone within the hour once she got an iratze near them.
"It's not a problem. It's kind of interesting to study you all and how you interact with each other. It's quite fascinating really. Reminds me of all the people watching I use to do when I was younger, trying to figure people out from a respectable distance until I realised it was pretty futile and stuck with the things I could understand. Dead bodies, mainly." Maura said brightly.
Jane raised an eyebrow at her, "And that's your idea of a good time? Dead bodies?"
Maura nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yes, you'd be surprised by how much information one corpse can tell you. It's amazing."
"I'll take your word," Jane promised, tucking the knives away and leading Maura from the training room. "You did good today, Maur."
"Well," Maura corrected without meeting Jane's gaze.
"What?"
"It's 'you did well', as it's an adverb and not an adjective you're looking to use," Maura explained.
Jane just shook her head. "Okay, Maura. Whatever you say." Changing the subject, she said, "Alright, well, I suppose we should shower ourselves and then probably get some sleep. We'll go out on patrol again tomorrow night and see where that gets us."
"Same place?" Maura asked as they reached their rooms.
"Possibly. We may switch it up. I'll figure it out tomorrow when I hit the books again."
"Hit the books? Whatever for? And with what?" Maura asked, thoroughly perplexed at Jane's phrase.
"It's a figure of speech, Maur. It means I'm going to end up doing more research tomorrow to try and figure out what the best plan of action is." Jane explained, a small smile on her face at Maura's lack of social knowledge.
"Oh, I can help you with that if you like, despite that terminology making absolutely no sense." Maura offered as they stood in the hall.
"Sure, if you want. Sure there isn't something else you'd rather be doing, though?" Jane checked, giving her an out.
"I'm content to assist you," Maura affirmed. "Although I have been wondering, why do you end up doing the research and handing out assignments and not the other guys, or the older Shadowhunters like Vince and Sean?"
"Oh, that's easy. I'm the oldest of the younger generation, so that's why I'm kind of in charge of the four of us. As for why I hand out assignments and stuff, I think it's part of their plan to get me ready to take on an Institute of my own when the time is right. Plus, I'm capable and they could probably use the time to do other things. Korsak, for example, probably uses the extra time to dote on his ridiculous animals. Cavanaugh uses it to go over legal matters and financial stuff with my Ma and the Shadowhunters they report to in the Clave."
"Take over your own Institute?"
Jane nodded. "Yeah. Eventually the older ones die or move on to other placements and so we have to step up to replace them and keep order. There aren't a bunch of Shadowhunters left, though, because we keep dying in the heat of battle, so usually anyone they train to do the job dies before they really get a chance to try their hand." She shrugged, "I guess they're hoping they get lucky with me or else everything will go to shambles if one of the boys has to take over."
"I also hope they get lucky. It would be awful if you died." Maura admitted, tone somber.
"I agree. I'd never get another cheeseburger," Jane pouted in mock sadness.
"I was being serious!" Maura protested, though she couldn't help laughing a bit at Jane's antics.
"So was I! Do you not have any idea how much I love my burgers? Those things are life!"
"You really do need to eat healthier," Maura admonished.
"I'll eat better when I'm dead, Maura."
"No you won't, that is a scientific-" the realisation that Jane was mocking her only appeared to Maura because of the pure amusement present in Jane's face at the beginning of what Jane was sure would have been a very in depth lecture about how once one is dead, one doesn't eat anything at all, especially not cheeseburgers.
A little disgruntled, Maura huffed and before Jane could sensor herself, "That's adorable," slipped out from behind her lips.
They stared at each other in mirrored surprise at the comment, both a little shocked that the brunette had voiced such an opinion.
"Right. Bed. See you tomorrow," Jane blurted out, recovering first and disappearing hastily into her bedroom.
Maura wanted to knock at her door and ask her what she meant by that and why she left so suddenly, but decided that Jane probably wanted nothing less than to be left alone at that moment.
Instead, she returned to her own room and grabbed a change of clothes along with her bag of toiletries before she trotted back down the hall to the bathroom to shower.
It was empty. She'd half expected Jane to be there first, with the door securely locked, but it seemed she'd not yet emerged from her room. Maura took advantage of the situation and cleaned herself up before returning to her room and noticing that it didn't seem as though Jane's door had moved at all since they'd parted ways awkwardly earlier.
She slipped into her room and gracefully flopped onto her bed. Her phone blinking on the beside table caught her attention and she removed it from the charger before finding out what had occurred.
One new voice message.
She hit the speed dial for her voice mailbox and went through the steps patiently. Welcome to Verizon wireless voice messaging. Please enter your password. She did and rolled over onto her back. You have one new wireless voice message. First new message.
"Hey, Maura, it's Dennis from last night. It's about eight o'clock. I was wondering if you wanted to get together tomorrow night for drinks? Maybe food? Let me know what you think and call me back at 857-555-5649, please? Thanks. Hope to hear from you soon!"
End of messages. To delete your wireless voice message press '7'. To save it, press '9'.
Maura tapped nine so that she would be able to call him back the next day, after they figured out where they were going to be tomorrow night. There were butterflies fluttering in her gut, as the turn of phrase goes, regardless of the fact that it was just little neural impulses triggering that response in her cortex.
They made her feel warm and fuzzy. She drifted off to sleep like that, visions of the smartly dressed and well-mannered man she met the night before carrying her away on the wings of imagination.
Meanwhile, Jane was pacing her room, wearing down the hardwood of her flooring. She couldn't believe she'd let that slip out. If she'd been smarter about it, she would've just passed it off as a mere friendly observation, but she'd frozen and ran, completely undermining that story of defence if she brought it up the next day. She cursed herself for her stupidity.
She moved her pacing to right in front of the door and listened as Maura walked down the hall. At least that meant she had the next few minutes to not worry about the blonde coming to her door.
Damn Frost for even putting the possibility of the idea in her head. Damn him for not finding anything wrong with it. Does he have any idea how blacklisted their family and Institute would be if anyone even suspected that she'd entertained the notion of liking Maura as more than just a friend and possible colleague? Does he even care?
She groaned, frustration evident in the relatively quiet sound. They would be ruined. Not only did they have one disgraced Shadowhunter and one disgraced son who'd never wanted to be a Shadowhunter, they also had a woman Shadowhunter who was so butch she was into chicks? Shoot me now, Jane pleaded hopelessly.
She flicked her bedroom light off and simply threw herself onto her bed, begging for an easy solution to her little problem. She never heard Maura return to her room.
But later that night, Maura certainly heard Jane from across the hall, calling out in fright. She jumped out of her bed and ran to her friend's room just in time to catch her mid thrash as she tumbled from her bed.
They fell to the floor together, Jane awkwardly landing on top of Maura and flying off almost as quickly, like the contact burned her physically.
"Holy shit, Maura! What are you doing in here?! Are you okay?!" The words were rushed and as Jane turned the light on, it was obvious to Maura that the brunette was experiencing an elevated heart rate, due in part to her skin's flushed appearance.
"You were having a nightmare. I heard and I came over to see if you were alright," Maura explained, getting to her feet to be on the same level as Jane. "Are you alright?"
Visibly shaking, Jane responded, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. It's okay. You can go back to your room."
Maura narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "No, Jane, that was a pretty bad terror from what I witnessed. I would feel better if you were under supervision for the rest of the night, at least to ensure you don't hurt yourself at some point."
Jane's hackles rose immediately at the inference that she couldn't take care of herself. "Now you listen here, Maura Isles, I am-"
Maura walked over and put her hand over Jane's mouth. "Not another word," she warned, glaring at the brunette seriously. "I'm staying here and I'm watching over you, don't even try to talk me out of it."
She could sense Jane was getting fired up enough to fight her tooth and claw for every single millimetre, but simply said, "If you fight me, I will pester you endlessly about that adorable comment you made earlier." The fight just seemed to drop from Jane's shoulders as she hunched over.
"Fine."
Jane stalked back to her bed and discontentedly curled up on her side, arms crossing her chest. Maura went around to the other side and sat down before primly leaning back against the pillows.
"Goodnight," Maura said softly.
"Night," Jane replied curtly.
After a few moments, Maura murmured, "It's okay to say someone's adorable, Jane. It doesn't make you any less of a bad ass."
Jane was quiet for a moment before whispering, "Okay."
CHAPTER NINE
When Jane woke, it was to a softly snoring Maura curled up against her side. She had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from cooing at the sight.
Cooing? I am Jane Rizzoli, I do not fucking coo at anything. Not even a God damn baby seal. And certainly not my closest female friend.
Female friend, Rizzoli, you're going nuts for her and you know it. You've barely gotten to know her and you're already tripping over yourself to fall in love with her you idiot.
HEY! WHOA! Let's not develop split personality here!
But you're being an idiot!
Am not!
Are too!
Am not! She wants that freaky vampire.
If you just gave it a shot-
No. Go away.
Jane drew a circle on top of the covers covering her thigh and breathed a sigh of relief when it wasn't perfect. Maybe she wasn't completely crazy yet.
She slipped out of bed gently, careful not to wake Maura, and opened the door to find a small white envelope on the other side.
Curious, she opened it up and read it standing in the hall.
Jane.
10pm. The Lower Depths.
No Shawdowhunter gear. Please.
C. Jones
Casey was not one to linger on prose, it seemed. He was straight and to the point. If Jane wasn't still extremely cautious and wary about the guy, he might prove to be a useful distraction.
She had a bad feeling about going to the dinner all of a sudden, or maybe that was a completely unrelated gut feeling which had more to do with the blonde rolling out of her bed.
"Jane? You okay?" Maura's sleepy voice was also adorable. And sexy. God, Jane, stop it. Now is not the time.
"Yeah," Jane swallowed loudly. "Fine. Casey was just dropping off instructions for tonight. Looks like our team won't be hitting a place tonight because of my commitment."
Maura looked pleasantly surprised at the brunette. "Really? I could go with Frost, it's only surveillance after all."
Jane didn't even seem to consider it. "No, Maur, it's not your job; it's mine. We'll go tomorrow night."
"I don't mind," Maura insisted, flicking her eyes away from Jane steady gaze.
Spidey senses tingling, Jane asked, "What? What's really going on?"
Sighing, Maura admitted, "Dennis called me last night, said he would love to get together again with me tonight. I thought I could call him with the place we were going to and multitask a bit this evening. But that's alright, I can always just say tomorrow works just as well."