Disclaimer: I don't own Rizzoli and Isles.
xxx
"Home is with you, Maur."
The phrase replayed over and over again in Maura's head since it escaped Jane's lips the previous afternoon. After the left the precinct, they made their way back to Maura's house where they spent the evening cuddling on the couch and making love in Maura's bedroom. Maura didn't know that it was possible to feel such a deep connection to another person. Her whole life was basically a pattern of loneliness interrupted occasionally by various love interests. But with Jane...it was much different. With Jane she never felt alone, even when they were apart. Jane made her feel like she was the only thing that mattered, which was something not even her parents did when she was child. She couldn't imagine how Alex would have willingly thrown away a life with Jane, but she was grateful that had been the case.
The sun was beginning to peek through the curtains of her bedroom, and she studied Jane's peaceful features as the brunette continued to sleep. As she thought about how lucky she was to have a love like this, a tear fell down her cheek. She shifted on the bed to wipe the tear away from her cheek, but her stirring caused Jane to instinctively wake up.
As soon as Jane opened her eyes and looked toward her girlfriend, she saw that something was wrong. "Maur, are you okay? Why are you crying?" She sat up in the bed and pulled Maura into her arms protectively, as if to absorb whatever pain she might have been feeling.
Maura fell into Jane's embrace, but waved her hand dismissively. "Nothing's wrong, Jane. I just...nothing. Never mind. It's stupid."
Jane pulled away to give Maura a look that told her she knew it couldn't be nothing.
Before explaining, Maura sighed. "I was just thinking of how lucky I am to have you in my life. To have you as my girlfriend. You make me feel like I'm the only thing that matters to you in life. No one has ever done that before. Words can't express how happy I am that you and I found our way to each other."
Jane herself had never been with anyone that made her feel as wanted as Maura. She felt tears pooling in her dark brown eyes as Maura spoke. "Maur," she started to speak, but her voice was choked. She struggled to find the words to voice her own feelings, and the tears began to fall as she searched for them. Quickly wiping them away with the back of her hand, she felt a rush of determination to verbalize her thoughts. She met Maura's gaze before continuing. "You deserve the absolute best that anyone can offer you, Maura. I don't know how the hell I could have ever disliked you in the first place. Honestly, I think that makes me a little undeserving of your company let alone for you to be my girlfriend. I care more about you than I have ever cared about anyone. And I'll never be able to thank you enough for showing me what love really looks like."
Maura only became more emotional as Jane explained, and Jane closed the distance between them by placing soft kisses where her tears had fallen. Her hands came up to gently push Maura's hair behind her ears as she whispered, "I hope this is the only time I ever make you cry, Maur."
Maura turned her head slightly left to press her lips against Jane's in a tender and passionate kiss. As they broke the kiss, Maura whispered "I love you," on Jane's lips.
Jane smiled warmly at her girlfriend before placing one more kiss on her cheek. "I love you too, babe."
Jane's phone began to buzz on the nightstand, startling them both. Jane let her head crash into Maura's chest as she groaned. Maura encouraged her to answer it, suggesting it may be a break in Alex's case. Jane obeyed her girlfriend's reasonable suggestion, but remained reluctant to break contact with her.
"Rizzoli."
"Hey, Jane. Sorry if I woke you."
"Nah, Frost, it's fine. I was already up."
"Well...sorry if I interrupted you and Maura."
"No, we're just lying in bed."
"What! So there is something going on between you two!" Jane immediately felt redness rush to her face, and was thankful she was only having this conversation over the phone. It hadn't even occurred to her to tell Frost about her relationship with Maura in the midst of everything going on with Alex.
"Yes.. there is. Now are you gonna tell me why you're calling me this early?"
"Yes! You just made me $50 richer, Jane! And the reason I'm calling is to tell you I found an interesting pattern among Alex and the other feds she was supposedly working this case with."
"I cannot believe you and Korsak are still taking bets on my love life. And what do you mean by 'supposedly?'"
"It's a long story, and I'm not exactly sure what it means, but they were all somehow connected to The Dealer. It could be that they're taking justice into their own hands. It turns out the victim was a guy who worked for The Dealer at the time of Alex's shooting three years ago. That would make sense for her motive, but I can't figure out a logical explanation as to why the other three feds involved would go along with her."
Maura watched as Jane's facial expression revealed she had gone into 'detective mode.'
"Alright, Frost. Keep digging, and let me know if you find anything else. I'm gonna head home to change and I should be there within the next hour."
"Already on it, Jane. And for what it's worth, I'm glad you and Maura finally saw what everyone else did. You guys were made for each other."
Maura met Jane's gaze as dark brown eyes looked at her lovingly. "Thanks Frost, I'm starting to see that too." She gave Maura a big smile.
When Jane ended the call with Frost, she and Maura headed downstairs to make breakfast together before heading back to Jane's apartment so she could change clothes.
When they reached her apartment, Maura stayed in Jane's living room giving Jo Friday some much needed attention. Jane headed to her bedroom to search her closet (and floor) for a clean shirt and slacks. She found a purple shirt that passed the sniff test and wasn't too wrinkled, so she decided to throw it on. The search for pants proved more difficult as most of them were wrinkled beyond repair from her usual three-shakes method of ironing. She shuffled through the pile of clothes before finally finding a black pair that were in decent enough shape.
As she pulled the leg free from the bottom of the pile, she noticed a pair of Alex pants were also enveloped in the mess. She knelt down to free the pair of jeans, and as she did she noticed something fall from the pocket. Her left hand reached down to pick up a baggie with a diamond logo printed on it, identical to the ones that had been scattered at the crime scene.
"What the fuck," Jane muttered. She quickly threw on her pants and shoes before exiting the bedroom. She held up the baggie to show Maura what she discovered.
"Jane! Is that-" Jane nodded. "Don't set it down! Hold on." Maura searched Jane's kitchen drawers for a larger zip-lock bag to use as a makeshift evidence bag as Jane explained where she found it.
"You need to bag her jeans as well. I like to be thorough."
Jane face relaxed into a smug grin. "Oh, you're thorough alright." She winked at Maura before returning to the bedroom to collect Alex's jeans.
"Well of course I am, Jane. It's my job. Oh.. wait. That's not what you meant. But yes. I am also thorough in other aspects of life, but I don't see you complaining." Jane returned to the kitchen to find Maura gazing at her with a seductive smile.
"Didn't say I was! We gotta get these to the lab and let Frost know. You can be as thorough as you want later." She stepped closer to her girlfriend and placed a hot kiss on her neck, eliciting a soft moan from Maura's lips before turning to walk towards the door.
"Oh, I plan to be." Her eyes narrowed at Jane as she walked out of the apartment.
xxx
By noon that day, Jane still hadn't visited the morgue. Maura knew she must have been busy poring over the latest breakthroughs in the case with Frost. Still, she was a little hungry so she thought she would head up to the homicide unit to find Jane so they could grab lunch. When she arrived, she found Jane sitting at her desk with her head resting in her hands as her fingers wound through her black messy curls. Maura knew this meant Jane was in deep thought. Frost was the first to glance in her direction, and said hello as Maura approached them. Finally, Jane recognized the clicking of Maura's high heels as they made their way closer to her. She spun around in her chair to face her girlfriend before standing up to give her a peck on the cheek.
"Would you get a room already?" Jane glared at Frost and he held his hands up to show he regretted even saying anything. She turned her attention back to Maura.
"Find anything new?"
"There isn't much new to find, Jane." She gave her girlfriend a disappointed look. "I'm actually here to see if you'd like to get lunch."
Jane's eyes shot down to her watch. "Holy shit, it's already noon. Yeah, Maur. Just let me grab my jacket."
"Barry, would you like to join us? We're just going to the cafe, but it would do you some good to get out of the precinct for a bit."
"Yeah, sure! If that's okay with you, Jane..."
"After everything you've done to help me today... yeah. I'll even buy your lunch." Maura noticed that despite the fact that they seemed to have cracked the case, Jane and Frost didn't seem very happy about what they had found. She made a mental note to ask them about it at lunch.
As they entered the cafe, Angela's booming voice pierced the otherwise quiet air. "There are three of my favorite people!" She exited her usual place behind the register to meet them at their table and collect their orders. "How are you guys today? Janie you don't look like you got a lot of sleep last night. Have you been eating? And I mean really eating - cereal for every meal doesn't count."
Jane scowled at her mother. "Actually Angela, Jane had a very healthy breakfast this morning despite how much coffee she drank." Maura smiled.
"Oh yeah? Well look at you being a good influence on my Janie! Thank you!" She leaned in closer to Maura and lowered her voice as if no one else could hear her. "You know, it's so difficult to get this one to eat right, even though I keep telling her 'Janie, you're not gonna be that skinny forever!'" Maura giggled and Jane's eyes widened.
"Ma! Hello! I am right here." Maura and Frost laughed at their exchange.
"What? I'm only saying I'm glad Maura's in your life now. Maybe she can do something with your bad habits. Goodness knows I was never able to!" Angela threw her arms up and let them fall to her sides to signal her frustration.
Before Jane could speak, Maura asked, "Oh, so Jane has told you we're together?"
Jane and Angela turned simultaneously to Maura. After a moment, Angela began to look back and forth between her daughter and the doctor. Frost just sat back in his chair, enjoying the entertainment and fully believed it was better than any movie he had seen recently.
Angela slapped Jane on the arm, and Jane's hand immediately shot up to massage the point of contact.
"Ma! What the-"
"Jane Clementine Rizzoli! When were you planning on telling your mother about you dating Maura?" She then turned back to Maura. "Honey, I'm sorry you had to be the one to tell me this, but I am so happy for you two!" Her arms stretched out to reach around both women, bringing them into one giant hug. Jane's face displayed the embarrassment and resistance she felt towards her mother, but Maura embraced the moment and wrapped her arms around Jane and Angela. Frost laughed at Jane's agony, and started to pull his phone out to take a picture.
"Oh no, don't you dare!" Jane's hand shot out to grab the phone before Frost could take the picture.
After another moment of banter, Angela returned behind the counter to put in the three orders. Maura decided that was her opportunity to ask about the detectives' findings.
"It's starting to look worse for Alex," Frost began. "You proved that there were only one set of prints other than Jane's on that baggie you guys found this morning. That in itself looks a little suspicious. Not to mention everything we turned up about her colleagues."
"What do you mean?"
Jane sighed. "Well we know one of them isn't even working with the feds. We did some asking around and he was forced to resign from NYPD's Rico unit about five years ago. Turns out he was as dirty as they come. He had been pocketing money and drugs from busts and putting it back into the drug rings. Best we can tell, he's definitely more connected to his personal interests in pushing drugs than he is to the law in this case."
"So how was he able to pose as a federal agent?" Maura was perplexed.
Jane was shoveling a panini into her mouth, so Frost took that as his cue to speak. "That's where we think the other two come in. If they're just as dirty, they could have created another identity for him like they did with Alex when she was placed in witness protection for a month." Maura nodded.
She was almost afraid to ask the question that was nagging her, but she wanted to know. "Do you two think Alex was working for the drug dealers as well?"
Jane put down the panini and began to massage her hands. "We think she might have been. I've gone over her 'death' a thousand times since it happened. After I found out she was alive, I never understood why The Dealer's guys weren't able to kill her because she was closer to them than the other two officers that were shot and killed. One was hit in the chest and died later at the hospital. One was shot in the throat and bled out before the chaos died down. If they were able to shoot the other two officers with that level of accuracy, I can't understand why they didn't even graze Alex with a bullet. But the more we uncover about this case, the clearer it becomes."
"Jane, you don't think she was working with The Dealer, do you?"
Jane's eyes remained on her hands. "I don't know, Maura. If you had asked me two days ago, I would have bet my life that she wasn't. But now... I mean, I've wracked my brain thinking of how much I really didn't know about her. I didn't know where she was when I was working every day. Who knows what she's been doing over the past three years. And even before she went away, we didn't really see each other unless we were at home together because we were never assigned the same case in the drug unit. I was usually working undercover gigs. But the funny thing is, she was always keeping tabs on me. Making sure she knew where I was when I had no idea where she was."
Silence began to envelop the three of them, but Maura's mind was still formulating questions.
"Jane - you mentioned a bullet didn't even graze her. Are you sure there were no scars?"
"I'm positive, Maur. After she made such a big deal about the scars on my hands, it didn't make sense to me that she would behave that way when she had been shot. But I checked. Nothing." Maura's hand reached over to hold Jane's while her thumb massaged her scar as the detective continued speaking. "I just assumed she got too close and was able to identify the guys who were working for The Dealer and that's why she was put into witness protection."
"Jane!" Frost was suddenly full of enthusiasm. "That's it!"
"What's it?" Both Maura and Jane looked at him with confused expressions.
"If she was close enough to see them and make an I.D., they were close enough to see her. That means they were definitely close enough to kill her, and if they didn't, it means they had to know each other."