Chapter Fourteen

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Hagan sat in a chair across the desk from his boss. "Now he wants a psych evaluation," Hagan was complaining.

"Do you think his lawyer is trying for an insanity defense now?" the DA asked.

"I don't know. Maybe. When we first tried to talk about a deal he told me Hoyt was vehemently against any psych evaluations or the use of an insanity defense. But maybe his lawyer convinced him that it was his last option." Hagan was frustrated. He had thought with Dr. Isles' performance at the prelim he would avoid the need for a trial. His schedule was jammed and a trial was the last thing he wanted. Especially a multiple murder, kidnapping and rape trial. Those never went fast.

"Prepare yourself for the insanity defense. If the judge grants his motion for a psych eval let's make sure we have our guy do an evaluation as well," the DA noted.

"That will delay the start of the trial," Hagan pointed out.

The DA nodded. "A couple of weeks won't make a difference either way. Get up to the State hospital and brief Dr. Anderson. I want his evaluation on record. Let's be ready to fight any insanity defense."

Hagan nodded and murmured under his breath about schedules and calendars as he walked out of the DA's office.

R&I

Jane sat at her desk staring absentmindedly at her computer screen. She wasn't normally one to get lost in thought but after the night she had spent with Maura it seemed inevitable.

Thoughts of the night continued to creep into Jane's subconscious the entire morning. The feel of Maura's lips against hers. The softness of Maura's hands as they explored her body. The intoxicating scent of a woman Jane was absolutely certain she loved. All of Jane's sensory functions seemed to still be in overdrive and she found if she concentrated hard enough she could almost still feel the incredible warmth of Maura's body against hers.

She longed for that contact again. She loved her job but today was one of those rare occasions where she desperately wanted to be somewhere else. Doing something else. Making love with the woman she adored.

Jane was sure she never felt like this before just as she was sure she would never feel this way about anyone other than Maura. The physical dynamic of their relationship had finally begun and she couldn't be happier about that. But it was more than that. There was an indescribable connection between herself and the doctor that she hadn't expected. It was overwhelming but in such a manner that it made Jane appreciate it more than fear it.

She had found her one. Her one and only. She was sure of it. She was certain that she would do anything to make Maura feel loved and wanted every day of her life. It felt right to make that her mission. To make up for all the time lost in aloneness. She would see to it. Maura would never be alone again. They would tackle the world together.

"Rizzoli!" came the shout across the bullpen.

Hearing her name shocked her back into the present. Jane looked up to see Lt. Cavanaugh standing in the doorway of his office looking over at her. "My office please," he added and turned around heading back inside.

Jane got up and went to his doorway. "Yes Sir?" she asked before entering.

"Come in and sit down," Cavanaugh said. Jane complied. "Vince has told me that he's discussed his impending retirement with you."

"Yes Sir, he has," she answered. "The station is losing a good cop and an even better man."

"I would agree with you. And before you ask, I did try to talk him out of retiring but he is set in his ways. He has already submitted the paperwork."

"I know. I tried to talk him out of it too. But he wants this," Jane said. She was still conflicted. She remained happy for him but wasn't looking forward to losing him as a partner.

"Jane, Vince and I talked at length about how to handle replacing him," Cavanaugh started. He couldn't help but notice the immediate change in Jane's body language.

"Considering I'm going to be the one who has to work with someone new don't you think I should have been involved in that conversation?" she asked not hiding her annoyance.

"Keep your shirt on Rizzoli," Cavanaugh said. "I was merely asking Vince's opinion about an idea. Now I'm asking yours." That calmed Jane down a little. "Vince isn't officially done until the end of the year. But to honest with you I'm worried about the transition period for you and a new partner. Jane, you and Vince have the best closure rate in the department. I don't want that disrupted because you are distracted breaking in a new partner."

"And you have an idea on how to avoid that?" Jane asked.

"I think so. I'm thinking about naming your new partner now and letting him start working with you right now."

"No," Jane practically hollered. "I only have a couple of more months with Vince as it is. I'm not going to give those up for some other detective."

"Easy Jane," Cavanaugh tried to calm her down. "Let me finish explaining. My thought was to add your future new partner to your team. He could get trained by both you and Vince. You two could get used to working with each other and that way when Vince is ready to be done you and the new guy already have a feel for each other."

Jane thought about that. It did seem to make sense. Plus, Vince could help give his opinion of a new partner in case the guy turned out to be a real tool. She looked at Cavanaugh. "Vince is ok with this?" She was a little worried that Vince would start to feel unwanted or replaced.

"He thinks it's a good idea. I think he wants to make sure that you end up completely happy with your new partner before he can walk away. He made me promise that he had veto rights for any candidate in case the guy is 'a tool' as he described."

Jane couldn't help but laugh. And she was touched. Her partner was trying to make sure she was going to be ok without him. "Alright, if Vince is ok with this so am I. And for the record I also get veto powers in case the new guy is a tool," she said looking at Cavanaugh.

Truth be told, he would give Jane whatever she wanted. She was the best detective he had and there was no way he was going to have her lose her edge from something as simple as partner chemistry. He'd make sure she had a good partner.

"Alright then. The new guy will start working with you both starting Monday," Cavanaugh stated.

Jane nodded. She figured the Lieutenant already had someone in mind. "Does the new guy have a name?"

"Frost. Barry Frost."

R&I

"You got your time," the lawyer confirmed to Hoyt. "The judge granted the motion for a psych evaluation. You will have to go through sessions with both our psychiatrist and the DA's. But that will buy you three more weeks."

"Three weeks?" Hoyt asked looking for confirmation.

"Three more weeks. I just spoke with the Clerk of the Court and we've been rescheduled on the docket. Charles, there will be no more delays. Your trial starts in exactly a month."

Hoyt smiled. That would be perfect. Just absolutely perfect. The wasted time dealing with two quack shrinks was a small price to pay for the certainty that all his plans now had the time required to come together.

There were times when he was reminded of exactly how brilliant he truly was. Looking back at his clueless lawyer he knew that this was one of those times. He let his smile grow bigger.

R&I

"Maura darling, it's your mother. Your father and I will be traveling through Boston next weekend and we scheduled a layover that would allow us to see you. I'll email you all of the details. Looking forward to seeing you dear."

R&I

"I still can't believe any of this Jane," Frankie said not really knowing what else to do or say in that moment.

Jane sat across in a booth across from both her brothers. They had agreed to start having dinner together more often to talk about what was going with their parents.

It had been two weeks since Frank admitted to Angela that he had been having an affair. It had been two weeks of hell for the entire Rizzoli clan. Frank and Angela got into a huge fight after Frank came clean. Angela threw him out of the house.

Jane couldn't help but think back to her conversation with Frank.

First thing Monday morning Jane walked into Rizzoli Plumbing and headed straight for her father's office. She had given him the night to decide what he was going to do and she hadn't been kidding about that. She didn't even knock when she got to the office. She just entered.

"Jane," Frank said seemingly disappointed to be seeing her.

"You or me Pop?" she asked in a cold, hard tone. She wasn't interested in any pleasantries. She wanted to be anywhere but where she was standing in that moment.

Frank exhaled loudly looking at his daughter. "Janie, please. Can't we talk about this?" he tone was desperate.

"The conversation that is needed here isn't between you and me. It's between you and Ma. So no, we can't talk about this. All I want to know is if you will have that conversation with her or am I going to have to do it?" Jane was absolutely resolved about this. She didn't want to hurt her mother but there was no way she was going to carry Frank's 'secret'.

"Jane, I'll stop seeing Karen," Frank tried to bargain.

That just managed to piss Jane off. "Don't!" she exclaimed in a tone her father had never heard come from her. It took him by surprise. "You don't get to try bartering with your phoosy whore of a girlfriend with me. Now, I'm going to ask you one more time and just once more. Answer the question or I'll consider any non-answer to be your choice. You or me?" Jane gave a hard stare at her father.

Frank dropped his eyes and didn't say anything for a minute. Jane's patience for his silence ran out and she turned to walk out of the office.

"Jane wait," Frank said just before she was all the way out of the office.

Jane turned back to look at him but didn't say anything.

"I'll talk to her tonight," he said admitting defeat.

Jane nodded and again went to leave the office.

"Jane," her father called. "I'm...I'm sorry." he offered up in a quiet tone.

"After thirty four years of marriage I would hope to God you would at least be that," Jane said dismissively as she made the escape from the office she so desperately wanted.

Frank had the decency to not try to ask Jane for a place to stay. But he tried both of the boys. Frankie was so pissed at him he slammed the door in Frank's face. Tommy relented and let Frank sleep on his couch. Neither Jane nor Frankie were upset with Tommy for allowing that but it put Tommy in the middle of the continuing fighting between Frank and Angela.

Jane was worried about the impact of that on Tommy. He had been sober for just over six weeks and she was worried that getting caught up in the midst of their parents drama was the last thing Tommy needed. He was finally turning his life around. No more drinking. He'd held onto the job at the convenience store and there was even talk about him getting a promotion to a key carrier.

"I know Frankie. I know. But it's happening. It's just that there isn't much we can do about it. They have to work out their issues on their own," she tried to be reasonable.

"Pop told me Ma wants them to go to a marriage counsellor," Tommy added.

"If he wants her to take him back that's the very least he can do," Frankie said. Of the three of them, Frankie seemed to take their father's infidelity the hardest. Jane understood. Frankie had once told her that he felt like he learned everything there was to learn about being a man from his father. He used to be proud of that fact. But now he felt betrayed. And angry. He refused to see Frank for any reason. Jane could tell their father's fall from grace was something that was going to be painful for Frankie for quite some time.

"Stay out of that Frankie," Jane cautioned her brother. The three Rizzolis had resolved a few dinners prior to try to stay out of any direct marriage interactions between the two sides. They had all agreed their role in this was to make sure Angela was taken care of as best they could without falling into the trap of being in the middle of the issues with the marriage.

Again, considering Frank was sleeping on Tommy's couch, Tommy was probably having the hardest time staying within those boundaries. Angela, to her credit, had not gotten upset with Tommy for allowing Frank to stay with him. She understood that regardless of the current state of their marriage Frank was still their father and she wasn't mad if and when any of the kids had seen or spoken with Frank. As of that night, the only Rizzoli willing to do that was Tommy.

"I was just thinking out loud Jane," Frankie admitted. "I'm staying out of that actual discussion."

"I know you are little brother," Jane said reassuredly. Wanting to re-focus her brothers attention she shifted subjects. "Ok, so we need to talk the schedule for this week."

Both Rizzoli boys groaned. If Jane hadn't been the one to say it she would have groaned too. The schedule had become a dreaded topic of discussion between the three of them.

Once Angela threw out Frank the kids all decided to rotate turns staying with Angela at night. None of them had wanted her to be alone in the house at night with everything that was going on. So they started dividing up nights each could be with Angela.

"The good news is that I can do the entire weekend," Jane offered. Maura's parents were coming through Boston that weekend and Jane knew she wouldn't be sleeping over at Maura's while her parents were in the guesthouse. Maura and Jane had talked about it and while she would have dinner with Maura's parents one of the nights they were in town she wanted Maura to have time with them alone.

The boys, hearing that the weekend was taken care of, suddenly started volunteering for the weeknights. It had been the weekend nights that had caused the most issues. It was mostly scheduling. Frankie's rookie cop status had still hampered his ability to get any weekends off, Tommy was usually putting in double shifts over the weekend at work and Jane was on-call three out of four weekends a month and always seemed to have a call Friday night going into Saturday morning.

With Jane's claim to the coming weekend, the schedule for Angela was wrapped up before dinner was even brought out to the siblings. None of them were sure how long they could continue to keep Angela company at night but none of them were ready to stop trying to be there for her yet. All three were pretty sure they would be keeping this up until there was a more permanent status in their parent's marriage. Good or bad.

As dinner was served to the trio the topic of conversation was allowed to shift away from their folk's drama.

"So Janie," Frankie said in between bites of food. "The rumor at the station is that you and the Doc are sleeping together."

Tommy dropped his fork and looked over at his sister. Frankie joined Tommy in a similar stare down. Jane simply continued to eat her dinner not responding.

After about a minute of silence she finally looked up. "Did you have something you wanted to ask me Frankie?" she asked. She had heard the rumors. She'd heard them from the minute Maura and her had gone for their first cup of coffee together. But Frankie's comment was just that. A comment. Not a question.

Finally it dawned on him just that fact. "Alright, I guess I'm asking. Are you and Dr. Isles...together?" he asked.

Jane put her fork down and looked at both of her brothers. She was pretty sure what each of their reactions was going to be. Jane had discussed this with Maura about a week ago. They still weren't advertising their relationship but they were answering direct, specific questions if the right people were asking.

"Yes," she said. Plain and simple. She picked up her fork and returned to her dinner.

In a matter of seconds both brothers were smiling at her.

"That's awesome Jane," Tommy was the first one to say anything. "She's lucky to have you in her life."

Jane appreciated that comment. She knew Tommy got along well with Maura once he was able to apologize to her for what happened when they first met each other. Maura had, about a month ago, requested that Jane, Tommy and she all go out for dinner together to clear the air. Tommy had been sober for a couple of weeks and had been a little nervous about seeing Maura again.

Unbeknownst to Jane, Maura had sent a very nice email to Tommy explaining that she didn't have any ill will towards him, that she understood he wasn't himself the night they first met and that it would mean a lot to her to have a chance to get to know him. In the email she said she wanted to be friends because his sister loved him very much and she wanted to have a good relationship with the people in Jane's life. Tommy was so touched by her willingness to forgive him he had printed out the email and carried it around with him in his wallet.

"Thanks Tommy," Jane said. "But the truth is that I'm the lucky one."

Tommy shook his head. "Not from where I'm sitting," was all he said. He understood all of the things Jane, and Frankie, had done for him when he was drunk and the simple fact that she hadn't ever written him off or cut him out of her life when he had given her valid reason to many times over made Tommy's love for his sister endless. "Maura's one lucky lady Jane. Trust me on that one."

Frankie couldn't help but smile at Jane and Tommy's interaction. He wasn't surprised by Jane's answer. And he, too, was happy for her. He had noticed a change in Jane from the day she first mentioned Maura Isles. He had quietly sat back and watched his sister slowly let herself become happier and happier and it didn't take a rocket scientist to piece together that Maura was the root cause of the change with his sister.

Frankie idolized Jane. He always had. She was an excellent big sister. Theirs was a unique relationship. Not too many siblings could say that they had gotten through their whole lives without ever having a fight. But that was Frankie and Jane. Never a fight. Never a cross word spoken in anything more than jest between the two.

She was the reason he was a cop. He watched all she was able to do and give to the community and he wanted that for himself as well. When he joined the force and went through the academy all he heard about was how good his sister was or what things she did that no one else seemed to be able to do. Some people would be upset or threatened by all of that. But not Frankie. He took pride in how people talked about Jane. That was his sister. And if he was going to get compared to anyone on the planet he was more than happy to be compared to his sister. That was just fine with him.

"Wow, my big sister has bagged a doctor," Frankie answered with a grin. He had to duck quickly as a hunk of bread came sailing at him.

"Frankie, have some respect for Maura!" Jane exclaimed.

This just made Frankie laugh. "Man Jane. You've got it bad for her." It warmed his heart that he was right when he said that.

Jane smirked. "Maybe I do," she admitted.

"Does Ma know?" Frankie asked. Jane merely nodded. Frankie smiled. "She finally got her a doctor in the family."