"Jane, who did this?" asked Maura as she walked into her home. Thankfully, she hadn't had a chance to furnish it much beyond the skeleton of the design she had planned. The sofa and chairs were upturned and a few vases broken, but no lasting damage was done, except to the tattered area rugs. Still, a dazed look overtook her features, and her hands were on her hips.
Jane approached her and wrapped one arm around her shoulders. "I dunno, Maura. I don't. But you can bet I'm going to fucking find out."
Maura stiffened, silently breathing out the worst of her anger, lest it provoke her to say something she regretted. It helped that Jane's scent, lavender and spice, acted as a calming agent. "No, the police will find out. Because we are going to call them," she said into her friend's shoulder.
Jane moved her lips to argue, but thought better of it when she saw the storm erupting in green-brown irises. "Alright. Call 'em up. But can I ask you somethin' first?"
Maura nodded as if to affirm.
"Can you please not tell them about Tommy until I have a chance to brief Frankie myself?" Jane pleaded, her face an inch from the other woman's.
"Absolutely not," Maura said despite this, despite the rush from their proximity and Jane's hand slipping from shoulder, to arm, to its own body's side.
"Please. I will tell him tomorrow. You have my word. I'll go down to the station first thing in the mornin'. I just can't let some beat cop bungle this whole thing and it end up bein' my brother's life, or my other brother's job."
Maura, though her lips were pursed in anger, seemed to consider it. "You said, at the first sign of trouble, you would notify the authorities."
"We're about to. And I'm seein' my brother first thing tomorrow. You can even come with me if you want, if you need proof," Jane said, her eyes shining with unshed tears of frustration, fear, and her own anger.
Maura felt herself too overwhelmed to stare back into them for long. She said nothing at first, only looked past her companion's shoulder to the large window that showcased BMC and its surrounding environs. The night sky could not eclipse the fondness she had for its buildings, and when she realized that the main reason she found her time there so pleasing was standing right in front of her, she provided a ghost of a nod. "Alright. We will go together. But for now, I'm calling the police."
"Of course," said Jane, stepping back, hands in her back pockets.
"Hello? Yes, I'd like to report a break-in at my condominium," Maura began her call, and stepped into the kitchen as though it would give her a modicum of privacy. She stated her address to the operator, and then they played the game of waiting. "Did you see the bedroom, too?" she finally asked Jane in an attempt to break the awkward silence.
It worked. The trauma surgeon moved from her spot across the divide of the kitchen island and leaned on the counter right next to her friend. Their thighs touched. "Yeah. Was anything taken?"
"No, at least, nothing valuable, or anything that I would notice," Maura answered. She looked at the site of their union, bit the inside of her lips as her eyes traced Jane's legs from toe to hip. Exquisite long bones. A low slung belt holding cell phone, keys, pager, and hospital ID served to fan the abstract flame flickering in the deep part of her mind, the baser part. All its parts, and some further south, ignited when she looked up to see Jane's face colored with concern. She cared. She hurt. She felt guilt.
"That's good. Believe me when I tell you how sorry I am. How sorry I am that you're caught up in my family mess, and you haven't even met my family," Dr. Rizzoli, in the most vulnerable state Dr. Isles had seen her, lowered her voice to a near whisper.
"It's not your fault, Jane. I just want it to go away. I want it go away so that we-" in the midst of Maura's words, two heavy knocks on the door perforated the moment. She trotted to the door and looked through the peephole to see two uniformed officers at her door.
"That was fast," Jane commented as she stepped up behind Maura and waited for her to turn the knob.
"Hello, are you Dr. Isles?" One man, head completely shaven, asked as he and his partner stepped into the entryway, both clad in all black.
"Yes, hi," Maura said, stepping aside for them. Jane did not do so, and they awkwardly shuffled past her to get to the scene of the crime.
"Hi, I'm Officer Davies, this is Officer Bustos," the bald man replied, his black mustache undulating with the vowel. He pointed to the young, tall man behind him with the buzzcut. "You wanna tell us what happened?"
At that moment, Jane stepped in. "Hi, I'm her friend, Dr. Jane Rizzoli. I actually am the one who found the apartment like this," she said as she held out her hand for them to shake. She wore her fake, professional smile and shook with a firmness the two were not used to seeing in women.
"Great," Officer Davies replied. His partner had said nothing since they walked in, only began a notetaking process as he moved about the living area. "So walk me through that."
"Well, I came up to see if Maura wanted to hang out, get some pizza or something," Jane explained, choosing her words carefully, cautious not to lie. She had contemplated hanging out with the other woman for a brief moment in the elevator ride up.
"And Dr. Isles wasn't at home?" he asked.
"No, I wasn't," Maura interjected, shooting a grave expression Jane's way.
"Can I ask how you got in, Doc? Do you have a key? I saw a callbox downstairs," Officer Davies asked without looking up from his notebook.
Jane nearly scoffed at his indifference. "A guy was walkin' in the building with his key just as I happened to show up. He held the door open for me. Anyway," she growled. Maura almost pinched her. "I came up the elevator, and when I got here, the door was slightly ajar. So, I pushed in, grabbed a walking stick from the hall that Maura always leaves for when the doorbell rings, and saw the place like this. As soon as I called her to make sure she was ok, she headed over here and called you."
"How's it goin', Bustos?" Davies called over his shoulder. He did not look at Jane, and barely glanced at Maura.
"No major damage," Bustos called out as he returned from the bedroom. "Any valuables missing, Dr. Isles?"
"No, none," she called back.
"Anything missing at all?"
"Nothing."
Davies sighed. He cleared his throat as though he had prepared his next statement and rehearsed it many times. "Dr. Isles, we will definitely file the necessary paperwork and keep in touch. There have been a few break-ins in this area in the past few months, so we will let you know if we find anything. Unfortunately, with this type of crime, unless anything specific is taken or anything is left behind, we often do not catch the person who commits them."
"So… that's it, then?" Maura asked, a little incredulous. She suddenly saw a little of why Jane wanted Frankie to be the first to know about Tommy. It didn't assuage her anger, but rather split it into two: at Jane and the situation they were in, and at the seeming indifference of the police.
"Like my partner said, ma'am, we're going to do the best we can. I have some photographs and I've begun the paperwork for an investigation, but it is sadly common that we don't catch those who break and enter," Bustos cut in, clearly having learned that his traditional good looks could diffuse a situation.
Jane glowered at him, and this time, Maura really did put a hand on her wrist.
"Well, thank you for stopping by, I suppose," Maura said, barely halting herself from rolling her eyes. The officers both nodded and Bustos handed her a copy of the complaint with their phone number on it.
"We'll call you if anything comes up, Dr. Isles," he said, and with that, he and Davies left.
Jane shut the door behind them and spun on her heels. "They didn't even take fingerprints."
"Well, it is hard to procure a fingerprint specialist for these low level crimes, especially if nothing was taken," Maura started, "but I will say that their attitude bothered me."
Jane scoffed. "The people who did this, they wanted to scare you, Maura. Not take your things. They wanted to fuck with you."
"Well, I would say it worked," the shorter woman replied as she wrapped her arms around herself.
"Hey," Jane said, walking over to her friend and hugging her again. Maura still went rigid, but this time managed a pat on the back. "I know you're mad."
Maura didn't reply. She just licked her lips and looked to the side.
"You got every right to be mad, and we should talk it out," the brunette continued. "But I have to go see Tommy real quick. You want me to take you somewhere while I do that?"
Maura snapped her gaze back Jane's way. It burned. "Are you going to tip him off so he can get away?"
"What? No! I'm going to go tell him to take care of this problem now, or I'm gonna kick his ass," Jane said, incredulous that Maura would think such a thing of her.
"Al-alright. I'll be fine here, Jane. You go do what you need to do," the ENT answered, still not quite convinced. "I'm just going to start on the clean up."
Jane thought about protesting, but decided against it. "Ok," she said simply as she walked out the door.
"TOMMY!" Jane shouted as she pounded on the apartment door in front of her. She yelled for him partly in anger, partly in fear at the three strange men she had seen on her way up to the third floor.
She never forgot how the North End operated after dark, but even so, this street seemed especially busy on a weeknight at 8:30 PM. Men solicited women, men solicited men, both sold drugs and some shot up entire buildings. She knew this intimately as she was often the last stop between many of them and death. The whole block reeked of chemicals and nicotine, and she hoped that when she walked into her brother's place, that it would be the exception.
Thankfully, it was.
Tommy Rizzoli opened the door for his sister, yanking her inside by the sleeve after sparing a glance outside the door. "Sheesh, you gotta be so loud, Janie?!" He whispered as he went to the kitchen table and motioned for her to sit. She didn't, opting for grabbing him by the shirt collar and shoving him against the nearest wall, and when she noted the revolver sitting on table, as well as the one on the coffee table in the Spartan living room, it fueled her madness.
"Jesus, Tom, yeah. I gotta be loud. You know where I just came from?" She asked through clenched teeth. Too many times she had been in this position, and she nearly laughed at the irony that it was the first time she hadn't smelled alcohol on his breath. She couldn't have imagined anything worse back then, and yet here she was.
"Fuck, ow! Where?!" He shrieked, perturbed and shell-shocked. His ears rang with the force of his head hitting the wall.
"Maura's place. Maura, my coworker, my friend, the surgeon who worked on Flannery with me. It was fucking broken into!" Jane spat, throttling him some more.
He stopped resisting so much at that revelation. "Shit. Really? They take anything? They hurt her?"
"Lucky for you, she was at work when it happened. I saw the place first. I walked in on the mess. Wanna know why that is?" she whispered in a false calm.
He merely waited for the rest.
"It's because I went to go check on her, make sure she was safe. BECAUSE YOUR STUPID ASS GOT HER FOLLOWED AND FUCKING BURGLARIZED!" Jane was sure any neighbor could hear, but she didn't care, and she assumed neither did they. "How are you gonna fix this shit, little brother? How?!"
"Alright, alright! Let me go!" He pleaded, a sad caricature of her previous pleas to Maura.
She did what he asked, remembering her friend's mercy. "I'm gonna tell Frankie, Tommy. I have to. I can't endanger her like this anymore."
His eyes widened, and for a moment, she saw the old Tommy ready to fight or fly the fuck away. To his credit, he did neither. "I… I wish you wouldn't. But I understand. Either way, the Irish are gonna get what's comin' to them for doing that to her."
"You gonna start a mob war with Paddy Doyle?" jane asked with incredulity.
"I ain't. I'll be fightin' a case," Tommy replied with a sad smile. "But the Patriarcas will. If they have to."
"All over an asshole rapist," she commented, shaking her head and leaning it against her brother's. She refused to let tears escape, but they threatened nonetheless.
"Fuck him," Tommy said. "I'm sorry I got you involved in the first place, Sis. And listen, I'm gonna send my guys over to Maura's place, keep her safe for a couple nights."
"What guys?" Jane asked, looking into his crystal blues.
"My detail," he responded with a smug grin. "They're outside my door."
"Those three guys I saw on the way up?"
"Exactly. Look like low-lifes, right? But they're there for my protection. To look out for me until this thing blows over."
"And how exactly is givin' 'em to Maura gonna keep you safe?"
"We're kind of strapped for muscle right now, Janie, so they're the only options I got. Plus, the Irish don't even know I'm the one who sent the kid to take out Flannery. He's been catchin' all the heat. I don't even need a detail, boss just made me take 'em."
Reluctantly, Jane nodded.
"Good," Tommy said. "They'll follow you back to her place. And sis?"
"Yeah?" Jane said behind her shoulder as she headed for the door.
"Go see Ma, will ya? She won't shut up about you."
"Maura," Jane called as she knocked then entered.
"I'm in the living room, Jane," the woman answered. She popped her head up from behind the couch, and all the furniture had been put back in its proper place.
Jane whistled. "You do the bedroom already, too?"
"Yes, it was first. I wanted the place I sleep to be cleared," Maura answered, running a wrist over her damp forehead. She peeled off the rubber gloves she was using for cleaning, and set the can of Lysol down on the end table.
Jane studied her for a few seconds, attracted to the perspiration she had never seen outside of the context of exercise before. She shifted on her feet from her place in the kitchen. "Can you come here for a sec?"
Maura looked dubious, hesitated, but walked over to Jane, who stood behind the island and against the sink under the microwave. The dim lighting cast her in shadow, and her dark clothes seemed almost sinister against the deep colors of the granite countertops. Maura wondered why she trusted the woman so fully when she so often was in the shadows. "Yes?"
"I went to Tommy's," Jane started, and when she felt that Maura was not close enough for her liking, she stepped closer. Maura leaned against the counter where she had just been, and Jane circled to stand in front of her.
"Yes. And?" Maura asked with her arms crossed and her lips closed in a hard line.
"He knows I'm going to Frankie in the mornin'. He… said he understood," Jane said, herself growing a little frustrated with her friend's body language, her friend's tone.
"You don't think he'll run now that you tipped him off?" Maura asked, voice rising.
"He can't. His people will track him down, he's a liability to them," Jane explained. She turned her head at the question, as though she had trouble hearing it. "Why you want my brother caught so bad?"
"I… I don't," Maura attempted to clarify with calm. It barely worked in the face of her anger and Jane's oppressive body heat. "But I want this to be over. I don't feel safe!"
At this, Jane sobered. "I know. But hey, I went over there, and he gave me a few guys to help keep you safe. They're outside the building now, makin' sure nobody is gonna come up here that shouldn't be up here."
"No. absolutely not," Maura nearly shouted. "Ask them to leave."
"What? No!" Jane yelled back. "You said you wanted to be safe! I need you to be safe. Until the morning, this is the best way I know how!"
"I refuse to accept any help from people knowingly operating outside the law, Jane! I refuse to lower myself to associate with those types of people!" Dr. Isles growled, poking her finger into her friend's shoulder.
Jane scoffed, but the hurt had already traveled to her eyes. "Those types of people, huh?"
Maura barely felt regret for her statement, but did clarify. "I didn't mean you. Of course I meant the men outside."
"Just take the help, Maura. Please? Let me keep you safe until the mornin'," Jane begged through and upcurled lip and on a livid breath. It was a breath that passed through the both of them; they were so close.
"No. I'll call the police, tell them I don't feel safe, they'll send someone," Maura shot right back.
"Take the help, Maura!" Jane ordered, her face nearly touching the shorter woman's.
"No!" Maura shrieked. For a moment, both stood in the wake of their fight like petulant children.
"Fine! I'm staying here then! If you're not gonna let them protect you, I'll fucking do it!"
"Good!" They ceased, they froze, Jane too angry to speak anything but regrettable words, Maura in fear that the tears would finally fall.
Everything erupted when the two of them looked down to see the fronts of their bodies touching.
The kiss that Jane then laid on Maura, grasping at her waist and lifting her up onto the counter, was so sinful that she felt heavy between her legs. The frenzy of Maura's returned kiss, their lips slipping and sliding together, missing on cheeks and chins, sent blood rushing down through the both of them. The woman on the counter moaned when hands grasped at her hips, and it resonated against the walls of Jane's mouth. Hearing herself inside of Jane sent her into a tailspin.
"This is… not a good idea," she warned in between kisses, her heart in her lips as they moved against her friend's, but not in her words.
"Fuck you," said Jane, calling her bluff, dragging nails along the pants that covered her thighs.
"Please take me to the bedroom first," Maura said as her final acquiescence.
Jane was more than happy to oblige, and shoved her friend's hips toward her own. Maura took the hint: she wrapped her legs around the narrow waist between them, and her arms around the broad shoulders she so loved to look at hunched over patients. She continued to kiss all over Jane's face, reveling in the unadulterated sexuality of being carried to her bed for this specific purpose.
It was rough, the way they continued to lick and touch – the anger hadn't left them; it just channeled into their connection. Jane threw the both of them onto the bed with a thwump. Maura clawed at Jane's work shirt, ripping the buttons from the fabric in the process and revealing her undershirt. Jane responded in kind, making quick work of Maura's pants. Heels and boots had been kicked off somewhere in the middle of the frenzy, and so those pants fell to the floor with ease and the strength of the trauma surgeon's hand.
They were both clotheless in an instant – and Maura's hands gravitated to Jane's long torso, spread above her as Jane hovered with elbows and knees on the duvet. "I want this… on top of me," the ENT said, her voice running low and gravelly.
Jane lowered her body, so that the both of them touched, and Maura's frustration all but dissipated when she heard the surgeon's heavy sigh in her ear. It was the thing about Jane that had pulled her in from day one: the singular attention, the desire, whether platonic or not, that Jane was unafraid to show her.
They kissed again before Maura felt the brunette slide her tongue down her body. She dragged her nails up Jane's back as it slithered down her, enough to break skin when that tongue swiped through the entire length of the heat between her legs. "Jane…"
The answer was a more insistent drag, up and down. Jane dug into her hips, sped up, then slowed down when she heard Maura getting too close.
Maura shuddered when the reality of the situation hit her. Thinking about Jane's head between her thighs made her writhe in confidence and unashamed pleasure. The lamp light and the cool air hit her naked skin, skin that missed the light sweat on Jane's.
As if she read Maura's mind, Jane climbed back up to lay prostrate on her body, and just as the woman below moved to protest, she filled her with two fingers and Maura cried out. "The change…" the shorter woman managed to breathe out.
"What?" Jane asked through a pant and a kiss to her cheek, nose, mouth.
"Mmm," moaned Maura when she tasted the salty-sweet on the trauma surgeon's tongue. "The change… in… technique… it might take awhile…"
Jane pulled her head back to survey her. "You think I care?"
"I…"
"I don't care… fuck. I don't care. I'm here all night, remember?" Jane struggled to say when her friend's leg found wet purchase in between her own.
"Don't remind me of why before we finish, just keep… oh," Maura said. She threw her head back, and she felt bites across her spread neck.
It was a long time, in a way: thirty salacious, sexual minutes and two orgasms had passed. They lay in tousled sheets and sideways across her bed, the thrust of Jane's fingers having slowed to a grind, when they heard the distinctive double-ring of the surgeon's phone and pager.
Twin sighs permeated the heated air. The otolaryngologist's hands turned soft as they roamed the back above her. "I would tell you not to answer, but I don't want you to lose your job. Why are they calling you?"
"I'm the general on call this week, but I shouldn't. I've got money saved up; I can be fired," Jane said through the distortion of lips on lips.
"You're only saying that because you're inside of me. Answer it," Maura said through a smirk, and pushed Jane's shoulders away. The taller woman grabbed her pants and picked up her phone. She raised a curious brow when they heard Maura's go off as well.
A/N: Thank you all for the kind words about this little AU close to my heart. I really can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Continue to read and review; it fuels me!