Jane raised her head when she heard the laughter and watched Frost entering the bullpen, talking to another cop; slightly amused by something.
"What were you guys laughing about?" Jane wanted to know when Frost sat down in his chair.
"I wouldn't call it laughing..." he told his partner. "Just appreciating."
Jane raised an eyebrow at him, she still had no idea what was going on; it certainly was something she had missed out on.
"Care to tell me what exactly you were 'appreciating'? Not the first time I heard something going on today!"
"You didn't meet the new Medical Examiner yet?" he asked and leaned back in his chair.
"There's a new one already?" so she had been missing something. "How is he?"
"She is smokin," Frost said with a smile.
"She?" Jane asked and looked at him; that explained all the fuzz the guys were making.
"Yep, our new Medical Examiner is a woman. Came straight from California," he told her. "So I heard."
"How is she?"
"Mystery," Frost said and shrugged. "Didn't get to talk to her," he said.
"You wanna ask her out on a date or what?" she said and laughed.
"Who knows," he told Jane and she reminded him that there's an autopsy scheduled in about an hour and she also knew how much Frost hated autopsies.
"Does that mean you'll change your attitude when it comes to dead bodies?" she asked with a little mocking in her voice.
"I'm not so sure about that," he said. "But she'll be a great distraction."
Jane shook her head without another word and closed the file on her desk. The autopsy they'd attend was the one of the twenty-three year old girl they had found in an alley two days ago. There were hardly any leads to follow since there were no witnesses so far and the autopsy was their last hope to get some evidence. As a detective Jane had already attended quite lot of autopsies and she got used to most of it, she just tried to ignore the unpleasant parts and push the pictures out of her mind until the next case kept her so busy that she didn't have time to think about the last one any longer.
She got up from her desk to get another cup of coffee and felt a slight hint of dismay spreading inside of her. Something bothered her and she couldn't tell what it was, not for now. When she poured herself a cup of coffee, she thought about Frosts words again and as much as she hated it she knew that the source of her dismay was the fact that their new Medical Examiner was a woman. For a very long time she'd been the first and only woman on the squad and for God's sake it hadn't been easy to get their respect, she still had to face daily challenges because some of the guys thought that she wasn't good enough and they made her proof herself again and again. Jane knew she was good and she got used to it with the time but for some reason it suddenly bothered her that there was another woman.
A part of Jane knew that it was ridiculous but she didn't remember that no one ever called her 'smokin' when she first started. For a second she thought that she wasn't actually surprised but it still irritated her. Was she really jealous of a woman she had never met? Or did she just feel threatened in some way? She didn't know her but suddenly she couldn't wait for the autopsy to start because she wanted to meet this woman and she wanted to know who she was and what she was like but going to the morgue for no apparent reason just to check up on the new girl was lame and certainly something she wouldn't do.
"Why are you so excited?" Frost asked with the hint of a smile on his face when they took the elevator to get down to the morgue.
"Just can't wait to get some new leads on the case," she said and bit her lip.
"Mhm," Frost said without looking at his partner.
"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked and turned to look at him.
"You're curious about her, don't you?"
"Well, I haven't been... how did you put it? 'Appreciating' her with my colleagues," Jane reminded him."I just wanna see what she's like..."
"Do you feel threatened?" he asked and tried very hard not to laugh.
"Oh shut up," she said when they exited the elevator and walked into the morgue.
"Time to meet the new girl," Frost said and Jane followed him to get scrubbed in. Through the glass she caught a look at the Medical Examiner who was standing with the back to her and all Jane saw was black scrubs and blonde hair falling to her shoulders while the rest was hidden beneath a light blue surgical cap. She was obviously arranging the equipment and the first thing Jane noticed was how neat and organized the autopsy suite suddenly appeared to be. She kept looking at the woman out there and tried to figure out what kind of person she was but she didn't turn around.
"You coming or what?" Frost asked and waited by the door though he didn't look as enthusiastic as he had upstairs. She didn't even realize that she was totally lost in thoughts when Frost called her but he was kind enough not to mention it yet.
"I should be the one asking that question," Jane told him and followed her partner; Korsak had just arrived with a Donut in his hand, looking slightly amused because he knew how much Frost hated attending autopsies; everyone knew. It'd been a running-gag in the bullpen just recently.
"Ya havin' fun already?" he asked but before Frost had any chance to answer, the Medical Examiner turned around.
"Good morning detectives," she said firm but smoothly at the same time. She didn't want them to think that she was unsure about anything although she had just started the job a few days ago. Something told her that the older detective with the donut in his hand had attended his fair share of autopsies during his career and he certainly wouldn't be fooled but she didn't let that impress her in any way because she was the ME after all and they wanted information from her, not vice versa.
"I know we haven't met each other but I guess you need anything you can get to keep working on the case so we'll save the formalities for later," she said and uncovered the corpse of Alayna Emmilee Thaker who looked just as pale she she had when they found her body only forty-eight hours ago. "So, Dr. Isles will have to do for now and I'd appreciate if you do not eat in here, Detective Korsak. This is not a theater," she said in the same sentence. She spoke determined and looked at him when she addressed him personally.
He obviously felt caught and surprised by the fact that she knew exactly who he was and judging by his reaction he'd never been told that what he was doing right now was actually rather inappropriate and even though this might be his way of dealing with it all by making fun of it, this was still her autopsy suite from now on and she wanted them to obey her rules whenever they came down here. The look on Korsak's face made Jane and Frost chuckle and Jane looked at her feet, half of her face hidden behind a surgical mask. She knew that the mask wasn't really necessary and she kept a fair distance between herself and the body for now but it was always helpful and it did help at least a little with the odors.
"Shall we begin?" she said and all three of them knew that this wasn't a question.
"Ready when you are," Jane spoke for the first time since she'd entered.
"You must be detective Rizzoli," Dr. Isles said without looking up.
"That'd be me," Jane answered and then the Doctor did look up and looked her way and Jane thought she saw the slightest hint of a smile behind that mask. Without another word, the doctor turned her attention back to the corpse and they all watched silently as she started the examinations on the body; simply asking questions when it appeared absolutely necessary.
"There was nothing when you found her?" Dr. Isles asked; she hadn't seen the crime scene and the information that the former Medical Examiner had left her didn't seem to be quite helpful, she just wanted to make sure that he hadn't left out anything that might be of importance to any of them.
"The vic was found in an empty alley," Frost explained. "She was found by pedestrians but no one knew a thing and no one heard anything," he said.
"How did you manage to identify the victim, Detective Frost?" she asked him and noticed that he wasn't to eager when it came to looking at the body in front of her. No one missed the way she stressed the word 'victim' and it was clear to them that she would not tolerate any nicknames or making fun of anyone on her table. If that's what they had to do, they had to do it elsewhere.
"She still had her ID," he said and cleared his throat. By the time Dr. Isles started to cut open the body and examine the organs, Frost had gone awfully quiet and Jane herself didn't have much to say either. To her surprise she paid more attention to the ME then to the autopsy itself. The woman was everything she hadn't expected and Jane was very interested in getting to know her better. Jane was fascinated by how confident she appeared and although her work was rather unusual, even disgusting to most of the people she knew, the doctor moved almost gracefully while she performed every necessary task. She spoke softly and calm and Jane liked the way she respected their victims privacy and dignity even post-mortem but all the time Jane couldn't help but ask herself what a woman like Dr. Isles was doing in a morgue, since her appearance just didn't fit the setting and a part of Jane thought that she didn't really belong there although the doctor herself seemed pretty much at ease. She dropped that thought when a voice in the back of her head reminded her of the fact that she was judging the woman by her mere appearance which was something she'd hated with all her heart when she started working as a cop.
Something told Jane that this wasn't her first job where she was mostly surrounded by men and she knew pretty well how to handle the situation. Jane liked it but the one thing she couldn't deal with was the intelligence and the facts that the doctor kept relying on, somehow Jane felt that she couldn't live up to it and while she left the room to get out of the scrubs, she asked herself if that was really necessary.
"What do you think?" Frost asked when the autopsy was finished. She knew he certainly wasn't talking about the victim or any other thing they had just found out about the young girl.
"What do you wanna hear?" she asked and dried her hands with a paper towel. "Honestly," Jane said. "I have no idea," she admitted. "I'll meet you upstairs," she told Frost and waited for a minute until the assistant took the body, or what was left of it, out of the room. Jane waited by the door and watched the doctor taking of her gloves.
"Is everything alright, detective?" she asked more friendly now and took her mask of so Jane really saw her for the very first time and she immediately thought that Frost was right. She was remarkably beautiful, even as a woman, Jane had to admit that. He might not have been too wrong about California either, according to her tan.
"Yes," Jane said and re-entered the autopsy suite. "Hi, I'm Jane Rizzoli," she said and held out her hand. Dr. Isles approached and a smile spread on her face.
"I'm Maura Isles," she said and took Jane's hand. Much to the detectives surprise her hands were incredibly soft, considering that she was forced to use disinfectant all day.
"So, how you doing during your first week?" Jane asked and Maura put her hands on the edge of the cold steel of the clean autopsy table.
"I can't complain," she said and looked at the detective. "It's different but thank God, human beings are so adaptable," Maura said and smiled.
"I see you've got the guys perfectly under control," Jane said and bit her lip.
"Oh, I hope that didn't appear to be to rude," she said and Jane realized that she suddenly seemed worried.
"Oh no," Jane re-assured her. "I think that's just what they need. Believe me, I've been there."
"I didn't plan on ruining the first impression..."
"I think you did a very impressionable job," Jane said and felt somewhat nervous.
"Thank you," Maura said and took a deep breath. A couple of seconds passed in silence and Jane didn't now what to make of it. She didn't seem to be as bad as Jane had assumed at first and she had to admit that it felt nice to talk to another woman at work and about her work.
"How come you left California to work here?" Jane asked and Maura laughed at that question. She looked down at her hands; waiting unobtrusively. She seemed so content and free and something told Jane that the laughter came from deep within because this was exactly where she wanted to be and it appeared to be perfect for her, for reasons Jane couldn't even imagine.
"It's funny how that's always the first thing people ask me."
"Well, it is quite obvious, isn't it?"
"Believe it or not," Maura said. "You actually get tired of the sun after a while."
"Oh I have a hard time believing that," Jane said and the ME smiled at her.
"Thank you for asking," she said softly and their eyes locked for an instant. The warmth Jane found in these brown eyes was something she hadn't seen in someone for a very long time.
Maybe, she thought and took a deep breath, feeling a little nervous again.
"I guess I'll see you around then, doctor."
"Have a nice day," she said and Jane left. Maura stared down at her hands and thought about the little encounter. She was working with the Boston Police Department for four days now and she'd already heard lots of things about detective Jane Rizzoli and now that she finally met her in person, she wasn't sure if even half of the things she heard were actually true. She was the very first person who'd talked to her about something that didn't regard her job. She didn't just ask her because she needed something. She took another deep breath and started to feel that this may have been the right thing after all. Who knew what it was worth for.
"How are you even awake again?" Maura asked quietly, her voice was still heavy with sleep and she didn't open her eyes. She snuggled up to Jane, enjoying the soothing warmth of body next to her and the steady rhythm of her calm breath, that helped her fall asleep only a few hours before. She turned her head a little; her cheek brushing Jane's shoulder. She felt the weight of her left arm draped across her stomach, keeping her close.
Jane looked at Maura, her eyes had long adjusted to the darkness of the night and she tried not to move so she wouldn't wake her. Before she answered Maura's question, she wondered if she'd fallen asleep again. She reached out and gently touched her girlfriend's cheek, waiting for a reaction, it only took an instant for Maura to smile sleepily.
"I was thinking..." Jane said and laid her head down next to Maura's shoulder.
"What were you thinking about?" Maura asked.
"Talking to my mother," Jane said and Maura remembered that she had never asked her how it went earlier.
"How did it go?" Maura asked turned to her site a little and laid her head on her arm, watching Jane.
"First of all," Jane said quietly. "She wanted to know how you were doing and why I went to Washington..." Jane said and left it at that for a moment while Maura waited, she couldn't imagine that Jane had told her everything so she simply nodded.
"She'd heard lots of things from the cops, of course," Jane said and took a deep breath. "But all I told her was that you almost had been..." She struggled for an instant and it seemed very hard to say it but she didn't have to. Maura understood and snuggled up a little closer. "I told her that you were okay and just needed to get away for a few days and that... I just couldn't leave you all alone with that, so I followed you," Jane explained.
"Thank you," Maura said and looked up at Jane.
"I think that's all she needs to know," Jane said.
"What about Frost, Korsak and Frankie?" Maura asked. "They've been there..."
"They certainly won't be fooled. Frost's dying to ask you some questions," Jane said and Maura smiled.
"I think it's okay to tell them," Maura agreed. "Maybe not every little detail though..." Maura said and leaned in a little closer to put a feather-light kiss on Jane's lips.
"That sounds just right," Jane said and put her right hand on Maura's cheek, gently stroking her soft skin. "But... what about the other officers? There were a few more around."
"They were just... rookies. We'll deny everything they say," Maura said and bit her lip when Jane laughed at this.
"Cheeky," Jane said took Maura's wrist and turned her on the back with her weight and kissed her before she had a chance to protest.
Later that day, they all sat down at a table at the Dirty Robber since there wasn't enough space at their usual booth for all six of them. Maura sat down next to Jane and leaned back in her chair, she wasn't nervous or anything since there wasn't much more to hide but she also couldn't wait for it to be over. For a moment it felt like being questioned but she knew very well how to handle that, she'd been through this many times before.
"So," Frost said and looked at her. "Tell, me how does an NCIS agent end up as a Medical Medical Examiner? Don't get me wrong, you're doing a great job, I'm just trying to understand."
"Let's just say I messed with the wrong people," Maura explained and they all waited for more. She wouldn't go into any unnecessary detail unless she was asked to do so because it felt like she'd told this story far to many times by now and she just didn't want to go there anymore. "When things got worse, I was offered protection which meant a new identity and a new life," she said and sipped her wine. "I couldn't go back to my old job so I needed something else."
"So you just decided to study medicine?" Korsak asked.
"I started studying Medicine years ago but I was bored after a while so I changed my plans and ended up working for the NCIS," she told them and Jane simply listened for now.
"So, how come you ended up with the dead ones?" Frankie wanted to know. "I guess you could've chosen any field you liked."
"True, but don't forget that I was lying all the time," she said and Jane took her hand under the table, holding it empathetically. "I couldn't afford to be in focus or to be surrounded by too many people who would ask too many questions so I figured that working with the dead ones would be the best solution."
"They certainly won't ask questions," Frankie said and Frost laughed.
"That was the point," Maura agreed. "And people tended to leave me alone since they all thought I was a little weird for choosing to work on dead people," she said and she knew exactly that this was what they'd been thinking when they first met her. She could read it in their faces and the way they behaved and innocently smirked at each other just this instant when they thought she wasn't paying attention.
"Oh don't you think I didn't notice that?" she asked the guys. "I know this is what you kept thinking about me when I was the new one around. First of all, I hear people talking," she said and no one said anything while they tried to put on neutral faces. "Second thing is, " she said and raised a finger at them. "I know pretty well what you said and thought about me when I first started!"
She was amused by the expression on their faces because they felt caught but she wasn't mad at them.
"Always knows how to read our expressions," Korsak said and laughed.
"That was part of my training," Maura told them. "I used to be... a high class profiler for the NCIS," she said which certainly impressed the boys but something told Jane that there was more but she didn't want to ask for it now since Maura might've a reason for not giving away this kind of information. "Too bad I can't make use of it during the autopsies," she said and they all laughed. "They won't give too much away..."
"You're welcome to observe our interrogations," Jane said and suddenly it made Maura a little sad that she'd never be able to do it again. Sit down in front of a suspect and do the work she was trained to do; figure out the truth, get them to talk. She was good at it, she knew how to crack them all. She loved the feeling of being in charge, of possessing the power to make them confess in the end. Jane gave her a look from the site, registering that something must've changed but Maura pushed the thought away as quickly as it appeared.
"Thanks," she said and emptied her glass.
"Does anyone want another drink?" Frankie asked and got up.
"I'll take another beer," Jane said.
"Maura?"
"Me too," she said with a smile.
"When did that happen?" Jane asked and looked at her girlfriend. With one single look, Maura reminded Jane that there were many things she still didn't know about her and kept holding her hand out of sight for everyone else.
"I bet Abby's got a lot of interesting thing's to say..." Jane threw in and Maura chuckled.
"You have no idea..." Maura answered quietly without looking at Jane.
"Who's Abby?" Frost.
"She's the NCIS Forensic I worked with," Maura told them. "She wanted to visit me soon, I'm sure you'd like her."
"Can't wait," Jane said. "I bet there are a lot of interesting things to find out..."
"You don't even want to know," Maura said with a smile and quickly tried to think of all the embarrassing things that Abby might know about her. "Oh, one more thing," Maura said when Frankie was back with the drinks. "I'd appreciate if you keep this between us," Maura said. "I don't want everyone to know every little detail."
"Everyone's talking about it," Korsak threw.
"I know, but just because they're talking about it, doesn't mean it's real," she reminded him. "It's fine to let them know what happened at the crime scene, that someone tried to shoot me but I think that's enough."
"But we weren't the only ones at the crime scene..." Frost said and Maura and Jane exchanged a glance, both smiling because they'd discussed that little detail before.
"Just rookies," Jane said. "No offense, Frankie," she added with a look at her baby brother. "We'll just deny everything else..."
All three of them nodded in agreement.
"And I'm still hoping," Maura said. "That they'll lose interest in it as soon as the next rumors come in."
"True," Jane said.
"Can I trust you on that?" she asked and they all knew that they didn't have much of a choice and despite that, no one would dare to mess with Jane and now Maura was one of them and they'd have her back whenever it was needed.
"I'm tired," Jane said when Maura kicked off her heels as soon as she stepped through her front door about two hours later.
"Tell me about it," Maura said and walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. "You want some?"
"No, thanks," Jane said. "I'll go and change, I need to get out of these clothes." When Jane disappeared into the bathroom, Maura walked into the living and found the box with her belongings on one of the chairs.
She put her glass aside and put the box on a table. She wasn't sure what to do with that stuff and she didn't have much time to think about it since she was back to Boston. After a moment of hesitation, she took the lid of the box and stared at the memories of her old life. She put the photos aside and found what she was looking for. She didn't know why she didn't want to know about her time with the Secret Service, not even Jane knew, but somehow she felt that it was about time. She held the Presidential Medal of Freedom in her hands and got lost in the old memories.
God, I was so young, she thought with a trace of sadness when she remembered how she first started. She'd protected the President of the United States among other things and along with the sadness came the pride. For the things she had done and achieved and she couldn't say that she was particularly sad about leaving the Secret Service, it'd been her choice after all.
"Hey," she heard Jane saying softly. She didn't hear her returning; she wrapped her arms around Maura's stomach and laid her head on her shoulder.
"What've you got there?" Jane asked and looked down at the Medal in Maura's hands. She knew she had seen it before but she hadn't paid too much attention to that in Washington. She took the Medal from Maura and looked at it, amazed.
"Wow," she said quietly. She didn't ask Maura what it'd been for but it certainly must've been something great. Even she knew that this was something you didn't get just like that.
"I was trying to figure out what to do with it," Maura said and leaned back a little at Jane's body.
"Can we figure that out tomorrow?" Jane asked and Maura nodded.
"I'll be right back," Maura said and Jane walked into the bedroom, laying down on the right side of the bed just like she had the last two nights and it felt like she'd never done anything else before; like it'd always been like that.
She was secretly in awe of things that the woman she loved had done; a huge part of Maura's life was still a mystery to her and she couldn't wait to find out more although she'd be fine to leave it just like that. She loved Maura the way she was and she couldn't imagine that anything would change that.
"How did you get that?" Jane asked when Maura entered the bedroom and sat down at the edge of the bed.
"I didn't go to NCIS right after quitting Med school," Maura said and Jane approached a little. Maura turned her head and looked at Jane behind her. "I was a Secret Service Agent," she said and laughed out look when she saw the look on Jane's face.
"You kidding me, are you?" she asked and Maura shook her head, then she leaned back and her head rested against Jane's hip.
"I was assigned to the safety of President Bush," she told Jane.
"That, I certainly haven't expected," Jane admitted. "I'm impressed."
"It was pretty dangerous sometimes, but that was part of the job and I did have a nice time."
"What made you quit?"
"I had an affair with a colleague which was considered very inappropriate so I quit before they fired me for disobeying the rules."
"Look at you," Jane said with a laugh. "Seems like there's a lot I don't know... Did anyone find out?"
"No," Maura said and turned on her side to look at Jane. "Truth came out during a case, which also explained how I ended up working for the NCIS."
"Tell me," Jane said and waited.
"It happened at an Air Force One flight with the President, on our way to a conference when a Navy commander died after dining with him," she explained and closed her eyes to remember what had happened back then. "We had an emergency landing to make sure everyone was fine and that the President was safe and suddenly I had the NCIS stepping in, wanting to take over the case," she said and took a deep breath. "I wasn't too happy with it since I was the one who was responsible for the safety and it was my case," Maura said. "I had it all under control."
"I bet you did."
"That's when I first met Gibbs, and let me tell you... It wasn't like we hit it off from the moment we met."
"What happened then?"
"We flew back to Washington and they started the investigation," she said. "God, it's so long ago I hardly remember it all."
"The problem was, that they found out that I had an affair with the dead navy commander."
"That made you a suspect," Jane said.
"Exactly," Maura agreed. "That's why I had to co-operate."
"How did you get out of it?"
"Turned out that the commander was poisoned to force the President to change to another plane with different safety arrangements," Maura told Jane. "That's what we did and there was a killer disguised as a reporter, he tried to kill the President with the armaments but Gibbs was quicker."
"I can't believe this," Jane said with a smile.
"Well, I resigned when this was over and then Gibbs offered me the job and I took it."
"Just like that?"
"Yes, I mean, what else was I going to do?"
"True," Jane said and yawned. "I think this is as much information as I can take for tonight," she said and waited for Maura to switch off the lights and get back to bed.