Author's Note: Thank you very much for all the reviews and messages, they are very much appreciated.

Chapter Fourteen

"I have a trial at 4pm, can you go there for me? They have my name and they know I'm supposed to stop by."

Jane gave her colleague a nod. Since she and Frost had had to drop the Marguerite Duras case, their days at the BPD were boring. Mostly paperwork and the tiny hope to be called on a brand new crime scene. At least driving to the Public Library for her colleague would take Jane out for a little while.

"Yeah sure. No problem!" Jane smiled brightly. "That will wake me up a little. I'm getting sleepy here."

Maura had just entered the room. Jane hadn't seen her friend yet but she had heard her steps, the sound of Maura's stilettos on the floor. Just as planned, Maura was picking her up for lunch.

"Great, thanks a lot." Jane's colleague nodded back before laughing lightly. "Getting tired of all this paperwork, hmm?"

Jane was about to answer back when another colleague decided to join the conversation. Sergeant O'Donell, a sixty-two-year-old guy Jane couldn't stand. She found him to be sexist and she didn't like his methods of action at all. They had very little in common and their conversations were tense.

"You're bored, Rizzoli?" O'Donell burst out laughing. "You bet you're bored. Paperwork isn't as entertaining as swinger parties, is it?"

Jane stared at her colleague. She clenched her teeth and tried to ignore the heavy silence that now weighed over the room. Everybody had stopped talking. O'Donell's voice had caught people's attention. Unfortunately.

"What do you mean?"

Jane didn't miss the way O'Donell looked at Maura before answering back. She didn't miss the smirk that curled up his lips either. A smirk of victory and so-called power. A smirk she immediately hated.

"Well, ya know." O'Donell shrugged almost casually. "People say you had fun out there." The sergent looked at Maura anew as if he wanted to make sure that Jane would get his not so implicit message. "I don't blame you though."

Everything went very fast. The room began to spin around and before Jane's fist hit O'Donell's face with a strength that made the man lose his balance and fall down, the only thing Jane heard turned out to be Maura's voice yelling her name.

...

"You know you could get fired for that!"

Jane rolled her eyes. She pressed the ice pack tightly against her left hand and let a heavy sigh pass her lips. Of course, she knew that Lieutenant Cavanaugh was right. She had just hit a sergeant in the face. This wasn't the kind of behavior the BPD expected from the officers.

"He went for me. He totally deserved it!"

Jane held back a smile as she thought about O'Donell and how she had literally knocked him down. It had felt right, and good too. Relieving somewhat. However, she hadn't forgotten what he had said before her fist to hit his face. His allusion and the way he had looked at Maura had made some things clear.

Some things Jane didn't know how to handle. They were even the reason why she had lost her nerves in the first place.

Cavanaugh's fist loudly landed on top of his desk. The sudden gesture caused Jane to jump. Back to reality: her analysis of the situation would have to wait for a while. She had other priorities to face right now.

"That's not what you've been taught at the Academy!" Cavanaugh sat down and pursed his lips. His tone was firm, and cold. "This isn't how we solve issues between colleagues. Or at least not here at the BPD. And if you think otherwise then maybe you should reconsider your career."

Jane swallowed hard. Her blood turned icy in her veins. She knew that she should have never hit O'Donell but she didn't find it fair to be the only one who had to face Cavanaugh's anger. She wasn't the only culprit in this story.

"But..."

"There's no 'but', Rizzoli!" Lieutenant Cavanaugh looked into Jane's eyes. He shook his head angrily. "It's a break, now. A two-week break. That'll give you time to think about what you've done. Take advantage of it to solve your anger issues. We don't need this kind of behavior here."

Jane opened her mouth to reply but the words stayed trapped in her throat. She barely heard the rest of her boss' monologue. The only thing she could think about was how mad her mother was going to be the moment she would learn about all this.

She left the BPD within twenty minutes. Frost and Korsak weren't around. She would have to send them a text message even if she was certain that the rumor would already have spread by the time she would reach her car that was parked on the street.

A bad day. That was what it was: a very bad day.

She could have stopped by the morgue to talk to Maura but Jane knew that her friend was busy with med school students. The conversation she wanted to have would have to wait for a while.

"What now?" Jane clenched her teeth. She tried to ignite the engine of her car for the second time. In vain. The AC wasn't on yet obviously and the temperatures were atrocious in her old Subaru. "Oh for God's sake, this gotta be a joke."

Everything had gone smoothly until she had hit O'Donell in the face. As a matter of fact, everything had gone smoothly for a while. Jane had spent the night over at Maura's. They had shared their breakfast with Lucy before heading to their respective places of work. It had been a sweet morning. Now Jane was temporarily job-less and car-less.

Unable to start her car and too angry to even deal with it right now, Jane took the subway. Jo Friday stared at her in disbelief as she walked in her apartment. Jane shrugged.

"It's vacation time."

Forced vacations, with a bruise left hand. It wasn't how things were supposed to go. Jane hadn't planned on taking any day off this summer. Of course, she had thought about her mother's suggestion to take Maura out of town for a few days but it had remained completely abstract in her head. She didn't want to stop working. She didn't want to pack and leave the city.

She walked to the fridge and picked a bottle of beer out of it.

For the very first time since their so-called double date, Jane thought about Mateo. He had left a couple of messages on her phone but she hadn't called him back yet. She didn't want to, because the situation made her feel bad. It was different for Maura since Finn didn't live in Boston. Mateo was supposed to be a permanent thing. Not a fling.

And then there was O'Donell's remark.

Jane sat on the couch of her living-room rather loudly. She took her shoes off then sipped on her beer. Not a single person from the BPD had attended the swinger party. She knew it for she had got the list of the guests in the afternoon prior to the party. Yet someone had seen her and Maura.

Perhaps O'Donell had lied. Perhaps he had invented it. After all, Jane knew about the rumors that were going on at the BPD. Many people often joked about her and Maura.

She nodded at nobody in particular and came to the conclusion that she was simply going through an odd day that actually matched what her life had become. Since she and Maura had begun to sleep together, everything had looked upside down. Jane liked the shift that had happened in their friendship but sometimes she had a hard time recognizing herself. Maura brought out a side of herself she had ignored until now. It was strange.

Jane went to grab the remote control but her eyes fixed upon the book she had set down on the coffee table a while ago. The Lover. Retrospectively, Jane thought that many things had changed since she had landed this case. Just because she hadn't been able to solve it didn't mean that it had ceased to have importance. It touched her, on a personal level. Just like this novel.

She grabbed the book with a shaking hand and opened it to the first page.

She had time to read it again, after all. It was still early in the afternoon and she didn't have anything else to do. Perhaps Maura would call her later, once she would check her text messages and read the message Jane had sent her. Perhaps they would spend the night together, or at least a part of the evening.

Yet in the meantime, Jane was left with her loneliness and that odd feeling she didn't manage to properly describe.

The image of Maura's face at the swinger party, of her hazel eyes under her mask. And the lights of the immense room embracing her traits bewitchingly.

Jane didn't want to take part in another party of this kind. However, she was dying to see Maura again. To kiss her face. To brush her hips. Her fingertips burned under the sudden urge. She swallowed hard and tried to focus instead on the Marguerite Duras novel.

She needed Maura. She needed to see her again.