Thank god for Thanksgiving. I've been off for a few days and have had plenty of time to write. I'm off for another two days, so I'm going to try and have another chapter up before I head back to work on Tuesday. No promises though :)
This chapter is a little filler, setting up some events in the next couple chapters. Things should start picking up soon! Thanks for reading.
Maura's first day back at BPD was a complete whirlwind. The day started off rocky from the get-go, with Tessa spitting up on Jane's shirt and with Jack throwing a tantrum because he wanted to stay home with his Nonna instead of going to kindergarten. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, and somehow Jane and Maura managed to make it to work with a few minutes to spare. The rush to get to work had worked in Maura's favor, preventing her from focusing too much on how hard it was to be leaving Tessa for the first time. As they entered the lobby, Jane had given her wife a little pep talk and a quick peck on the lips before heading off for the day. As Maura waited for the elevator, she took a few deep breaths as she mentally prepared herself to tackle whatever was going to come her way over the course of the day. The elevator arrived, and Maura stepped confidently into it, smoothing out her skirt as it traveled down to the basement where the morgue and her office were.
As soon as she stepped off the elevator and got her first look at the familiar territory, Maura immediately felt like she was back where she belonged. Sure, she had immensely enjoyed her maternity leave and being able to spend time with her son and newborn daughter, but her work as a medical examiner was something that challenged her and satisfied her thirst for scientific inquiry. She was glad to be back and to be utilizing her skills once more. Shifting her purse to the crook of her arm, Maura unlocked her office door and turned on the lights in the small room so that she could settle in.
After putting away her personal items, slipping on her lab coat, and organizing a few small stacks of paperwork that had appeared in the interim, Maura headed down the hallway to find Dr. Benton so that she could get up to speed with the current investigations that were underway. Maura paused around the corner from Dr. Benton's office, mentally preparing herself to deal with the crotchety chief medical examiner. She put on her best smile and knocked confidently on Dr. Benton's door.
"Come in." He ordered gruffly.
Maura followed instructions and pushed the door open. Dr. Benton briefly looked up at Maura before re-focusing his attention on the newspaper spread out across his desk.
"Oh…you're back." Dr. Benton muttered. "I trust the three months you took off won't have a negative effect on your skills."
Maura cringed inwardly. She wasn't expecting a warm welcome from the old man, but he clearly saw no difference between her maternity leave and a three month pleasure cruise. Her smile wavered a bit, but she tried to maintain a calm front as she replied.
"Of course not, sir." Dr. Benton looked up at her again, regarding her for a few seconds before giving her a brief nod and looking down at his newspaper again.
Maura cleared her throat before speaking again. "I just wanted to check in and see where I was needed today."
There was an uncomfortable silence for several long seconds before Dr. Benton finally replied, without even looking up.
"There was a double homicide last night. The bodies arrived in the morgue this morning. They will both need full autopsies."
Even though Maura was irritated that Dr. Benton was already pushing off his cases onto her, she was thankful to have something to keep her busy.
"I'll get started right away Dr. Benton." Maura didn't even wait for a response from the old doctor, instead turning on her heel and exiting Dr. Benton's office as quickly as possible. As she headed to her office to change into a clean pair of scrubs, she couldn't help but think that her day was going to be a long one. She hoped that she would have a chance to connect with Jane at some point over the course of the day.
"Okay Yolanda…let's say you make contact with the dealer and he asks you if you're a cop. What do you do?" Jane took a sip of her coffee and leaned towards the young girl sitting at her desk.
Yolanda paused for a few seconds, wringing her hands nervously as she tried to think of her response. She looked up at Jane with apprehension in her eyes.
"I don't know…just tell him no or something…" Yolanda replied, fixing her gaze on the floor once again.
Jane tried not to groan in frustration, instead putting down her nearly empty coffee cup and gently placing her hands on the young woman's shoulders.
"Look…Yolanda, we've gone through this scenario hundreds of times the past couple weeks. You know the drill. You know what you need to do out there." Jane paused for a second to get Yolanda to meet her gaze. "You can't show them one ounce of indecision. The second you let them know you aren't confident, they are going to know something's up."
Jane let her words sink in as Yolanda's shoulders slumped in defeat. As soon as Jane saw it, she took pity on the young woman and squeezed gently on her shoulders.
"Hey…I know it's a lot to take in." Jane started. With another reassuring squeeze on Yolanda's shoulders, Jane got Yolanda to look up at her. She gave Yolanda a smile to reinforce her words. "You are doing great. I just want you to have a realistic idea of how it's going to go down tomorrow." Jane said quietly. "If you feel like we need to, we can always push this whole thing back another week."
Truthfully, Jane didn't want to push everything back anymore, because it would just serve to prove Martinez right. He had voiced his doubts on this since the beginning, but a few heated conversations between Jane and him had brought him around to the idea. But Jane knew that Martinez wasn't one hundred percent behind her idea to use Yolanda in drug buys.
"No…Detective Rizzoli…I can do this." Yolanda took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "You're right…we've been through this, and I know what to do. It just…I'm making it out to be a bigger deal in my head, you know?" Yolanda wiped her sweaty palms on the thighs of her jeans and smiled nervously at Jane. "But I can do this."
Jane slid off her desk and crouched in front of the young woman. "I know you can. I have confidence in you." Jane paused and studied Yolanda for several seconds, searching for any more signs of doubt or indecision on the girl's face. "Let's call it a day. We can go through it a few more times tomorrow before we do it for real tomorrow afternoon." She patted Yolanda's knee and straightened up. "Go home and relax for the rest of the afternoon. Try not to think about any of this, okay?"
Yolanda nodded and picked up her sweatshirt and bag from beside Jane's desk. After she slipped the sweatshirt over her head, she paused, almost looking as though she wanted to say something to Jane. Instead, she gave Jane a small grin and a wave goodbye.
"Bye Detective Rizzoli. See ya tomorrow."
Jane took a seat at her desk, spinning the chair around so that she could wave goodbye. "Bye Yolanda. Call me to let me know you get home safely, alright."
Yolanda nodded. "I will." She made her way through the sea of desks and exited the room.
Jane turned her chair back around. She rubbed a hand down her face and let out a big sigh. She hoped that Yolanda would be able to come through tomorrow. If anything went wrong, Martinez would be up her ass about it for sure. Jane pushed the doubts out of her head and pulled out her phone to text Maura and see how her day was going so far. There were a couple texts from her mother reporting that Tessa was doing well and that Jack had been picked up from kindergarten without any problems. She sent off a quick reply to her mother and decided to go in search of Maura in order to check on her.
The first autopsy of the day had gone smoothly, but had unfortunately lulled Maura into a false sense of security. She had just started the second autopsy, and she had barely cracked the chest open when she already knew the second autopsy was going to be complicated. There were several visible abnormalities in the heart and lungs that didn't seem to be caused by the murder weapon. Maura was elbow deep in the chest cavity when she heard a familiar voice from across the room.
"How's it going in here Doc?"
Maura grinned, brushing a stray hair from her face with the back of her forearm. She pulled her arms out of the chest cavity, holding them up in front of her, and turned around to face Jane.
"Well, things were going well, but I think my day just got a lot more complicated." Maura waved Jane into the room.
Jane frowned as she pulled on a sterile gown. She typically didn't like to enter the autopsy room while there was an autopsy in progress, but she figured she would make an exception for Maura's first day back. The smell was something that she didn't think she would ever get used to.
"That's too bad." Jane replied, taking up residence on the far side of the room by the stainless steel sinks. "I was hoping Dr. Benton would take it easy on you the first day back."
Maura sighed. "Me too." She turned back to the body and resumed her work inside the chest. "You would have thought I would have learned by now that Dr. Benton will always push his work off on me whenever he has the chance."
Jane crossed her arms over her chest. "I can't wait until he retires. He's mean, lazy, and when he actually takes on cases, his work is shoddy. All the guys upstairs think he's the worst."
Maura smiled, loving the fact that Jane loyally took her side. She carefully excised the heart from the chest cavity and held it up to examine it.
"That is so gross." Jane muttered, trying to avert her eyes from the grisly scene.
Maura weighed the heart before setting it down on one of the steel trays set up beside her. Even at a quick glance, she knew that she was going to have to carefully examine the organ, as there were a couple abnormalities with it. She sighed and looked up at Jane.
"I think I'm going to be late getting home, Jane. This heart has some abnormalities and I am going to need to do a thorough exam as well as run some tests."
"That sucks." Jane replied with a shrug. "I was hoping your first day back would be easy. "I can call Ma and see if she can stay a little later with the kids. I'm sure I can find something to keep myself entertained with until you are ready to go."
Maura shook her head. "No. Just go home when you are done and spend some time with Jack and Tessa. I'd rather they have one parent home at least. Especially since your mother is doing so much for us right now."
Jane frowned. "You're okay with getting a cab home after work? Are you sure?"
"I'm sure Jane. Hopefully I can be home by eight or so."
Jane headed towards the door, feeling a little sad that Maura was having to stay late and miss out on time with the kids on her first day back. She peeled off the sterile gown and tossed it in the wastebasket. "So…I guess I'll see you at home then." She pushed open the door and started to leave.
Maura paused, then made a spur-of-the-moment decision. She snapped off her gloves and tossed them into the hazardous waste container. "Jane…wait."
Jane was halfway out the door and turned back. "What's up?"
Maura pulled off her sterile gown and gave Jane a big smile. "I think I have a few minutes. Do you want to grab some coffee and tell me about your day so far?"
"I'd love that Maur." Jane replied with a smile of her own.
It was a little past nine when Maura pulled up in front of their house in a cab. She quickly thanked and paid the cab driver and stepped out into the chilly night air to head inside to her family. Maura made her way down the flagstone pathway to the front door and after fumbling with her keys, unlocked the door and let herself in. She let out a contented sigh as the warmth of the house surrounded her, and slipped off her shoes. Maura could see the flicker of the TV from where she was, and rounded the corner to find Jane on the couch watching a replay of a classic Red Sox game on mute. As Maura got closer, she saw Jack's head resting in Jane's lap, and Tessa sleeping soundly with her face nuzzled into Jane's neck. Maura smiled tiredly and came up behind Jane and, leaning down, pressed a kiss to the top of Jane's head.
Jane turned her head slightly, a smile playing across her lips. She brought her index finger up to make sure Maura knew that both children were asleep. Maura nodded, and moved to join her wife on the couch. She gently shifted Jack so that he was cuddled against her and rested her head on Jane's shoulder.
"Hi." Jane whispered.
"Hi." Maura whispered in reply. "I'm sorry it took me so long to get home."
Jane craned her neck and kissed Maura's forehead. "It's okay. Jack tried to stay awake, but as you can see, he didn't quite make it." She shifted the sleeping baby in her arms so Maura could see her. "And little peanut here never really stood a chance. Fell asleep as soon as she had her bottle."
Maura smiled at her sleeping daughter and brought her hand up to brush back the hair from Jack's face.
"Did you eat? I ordered a pizza for dinner and we saved you a couple slices."
Maura shook her head. "No…I ate a quick dinner in the café a couple hours ago."
Both women sat in contented silence for several minutes, happy to spend some time together as a family, even if both of their children were sound asleep. After a few yawns, Maura realized just how tired she was.
"Jane?" Maura looked over to see that Jane's eyes were also shut.
"Mhmm?"
"I'm exhausted. Let's go to bed."
Jane opened her eyes and grinned sleepily at Maura. She kissed Tessa's cheek and handed her off to Maura before bending to pick up their sleeping son. Once Jack was settled in her arms, she bent again to kiss Maura on the lips.
"Sounds good to me Maur. Let's go to bed."