Flameout – Chapter 14

Six Months Later

It had been six months since Jane's accident. It was about fifteen minutes before 1 PM on Friday afternoon when Maura arrived at BPD, she had a 1 PM meeting with Gen. As she walked into BPD headquarters, she approached the front desk and announced herself stating that she had an appointment with Gen Booker. She accepted her visitor's pass and made her way to the elevator, she looked down to place the visitor sticker on her jacket and bumped into someone outside the Division One café.

"I'm sorry …" she began to say as she looked up and met the face of Captain Jane Rizzoli. "Jane!" Maura said in surprise. She knew she might see Jane at the precinct. Actually, she was hoping she would see her. She wanted to see her. She smiled at Jane as Jane began to speak. This is the first time that Maura had seen Jane standing up. She knew that Jane was tall. She looked down and then up Jane's body. Taking in the beautiful sight in front of her.

"Doctor Isles, wait, what, why?" Jane stuttered, and then continued, "Doc, what brings you to BPD?" Jane was confused, she didn't expect to see Maura at BPD. She remembered that Maura's daughter, Bella, said that they might move to Boston in the future.

Maura reached out and held Jane's forearm to calm her. She could tell how startled Jane was. She hadn't told Jane that she was coming, she wanted to surprise her. She smiled as she said, "Hello Jane, I have an appointment with Gen today. Remember you can call me Maura, I am no longer your doctor."

"Okay, Maura, would you like me to escort you to her office?" Jane was really surprised to see Maura. They had sent text messages to each other about once a week, however Maura had never mentioned that she was coming to Boston.

Maura smiled, she would like that very much. "Yes, that would be great." Jane smiled as she took Maura's arm in hers and escorted her to Gen's office. Jane hadn't thought anything about taking Maura's arm like that, she just did it without thinking about it. She was comfortable with Maura. Maura looked down at their arms and just smiled. She was drawn to Jane, like she had never been drawn to anyone before.

Maura had spent the last six months talking with her therapist, Jennifer, about her feelings for Jane. She had never been attracted to a woman before so it was a new experience for her. One she decided she wanted to pursue, that is once she got herself together and moved back to Boston. She was very smitten with Jane and wanted to get to know her better. She had enjoyed their brief text messages over the last six months, however, it was no longer enough for her. She wanted more, she needed more. She needed Jane.

They chatted as the elevator went up to Gen's floor. "I would love to catch up with you, would you like to grab a drink with me at the Dirty Robber after I get off of work tonight?" Jane shyly asked. "Oh, wait, the children, we could all go, I could suggest somewhere else, someplace more family orientated."

"I would love that, Jane. The children are not home for the next few days. Although you must tell me where the Dirty Robber is located."

"How about I pick you up at 6 PM?" Jane asked as she raised her eyebrows with the hope that Maura would say yes.

"That would be great, thank you, Jane. I will text you my address."

"Sounds like a plan." Jane said as they reached Gen's office.

Gen heard them talking and came out of her office to greet Maura. "Hello, Maura, glad to see you found your way to my office, and with a personal escort to boot." Gen winked at Jane.

"Yes, I must admit I rather liked the personal escort provided. I am so happy to see her up and around. I had hoped that she wouldn't have lasting effects from the accident."

They all smiled as Jane said, "I guess I will get back to my office, I don't want my boss to get after me." Jane smiled at Gen and then said, "I will see both of you later. Don't forget to text me your address, Maura."

"I won't." Maura said as she and Gen walked into Gen's office and Gen shut the door behind them after Jane had walked off to go to her office.

"So, Jane is asking for your address already, does she know that you are going to be working here?"

"No, I didn't say anything to her. I wanted to wait until I talked with you and everything was finalized."

"Oh Maura, please, it was finalized once you said yes, last month. You meeting with me is just a formality, I know as well as you do that you work for the Governor, not me. We, the police department that is, not me personally, merely work with you as part of a team. I just like knowing who is working in the building. I have met all of your staff."

Later that Evening

Jane arrived precisely at 6 PM to pick Maura up. She was surprised to see that it was a house and not a hotel that she was picking her up at, but then she thought, it might be an Airbnb or something like that.

Jane opened the car door for Maura and waited until she was buckled up before closing the passenger door and scooting quickly around the cruiser to the driver's side. Once she got in and buckled her seatbelt, Jane started the car and announced, "Where to ma'am?"

Maura laughed and said, "The Dirty Robber please, James." Jane laughed at the line Maura just used. Maura had always said that she didn't understand all of the idioms that Jane had used in their text messages. She was happy to see that apparently Maura had been studying pop culture references. She knew the line was 'Home, James,' but it was a great start.

Jane opened the car door for Maura when they arrived at the Dirty Robber. She also opened the door to the bar. Jane let Maura select the booth and they sat. Jane had been happy that she bumped into Maura at the precinct earlier. She hadn't hesitated to ask Maura to join her for a drink at the robber so they could catch up.

The waiter came over and took their drink order. Jane also ordered some fries, as she was a little bit hungry. Jane was nervous but she needed to know something so she asked, "So, how long are you in town for?"

"Well, funny you should ask me that. Monday, I start work as the Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I plan to be here for quite some time. "

Jane smiled this was great news. "You didn't tell me that you were moving back to Boston. I mean Bella said that you were talking about it."

"Yes, well we had to finish all of Charlie's community service hours and I wanted the children to finish the school semester. I know winter is a terrible time to move and the children won't know anyone at their new school but they said it would be okay."

"Well, I am okay with the move. I know we only spent a few days together in Syracuse but I felt an instant connection with you." Jane said and gave Maura a dimpled smile.

"I know, I felt it. I have never felt a connection like this with anyone, let alone a woman. I have never been attracted to a woman until I met you." They both smiled at each other. "I would like to be friends with you Jane. We will both be working at headquarters and I know are paths will cross. I am not saying we will only ever be friends, however I would like to start out being friends and just see how things go, if that is okay with you."

"Okay with me?" Jane questioned, "it is perfect. I would love to be your friend and spend time with you and Charlie and Bella. You must tell me all about the last six months. I mean what you haven't told me in our short text conversations."

"I know that our text conversations weren't long, but I couldn't say too much over text messages. I wanted to see you face to face and I needed to think about what I wanted and needed. I needed to think about Charlie and Bella also. I needed to think about what would be good for them."

"I know. Let's just start as friends and see what happens." Jane reached for Maura's hand and said, "Hi, I am Jane Rizzoli. I am a police officer with the Boston Police Department."

"Don't be silly Jane, I know that already. Don't forget you are also a fighter pilot, I mean that is how we met if we are being truthful."

"Yes, I am also a fighter pilot. In a roundabout way, that is how we met, but not the way I would have liked to have met you. I know you already know about my jobs, but I want to start from the beginning, a fresh start so to speak. Meet as if we had never met before. Almost like a blind date, except we have seen each other already. You know what I am going to let you talk now." Jane continued to be nervous and it was frustrating to her. She had met Maura already, she shouldn't be so nervous.

"Okay, Jane, you don't have to be so nervous around me." Maura smiled as she reached over and took Jane's hand, which was sitting on top of the table.

"I know, I am though, I don't understand why, so let's just get on with it. Tell me who you are, please."

"Okay, I will comply being as you said please." Maura squeezed Jane's had and then continued, "I am Maura Isles. I am the Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I used to be a trauma surgeon, however I wanted to speak for the dead, so I changed to my first love, that of forensic science. I am the mother of two beautiful children, Charlie and Bella."

They went back and forth talking for hours. Jane told Maura about her physical therapist, Wyatt. Jane laughed the whole time she talked about her physical therapy appointments. Wyatt liked to have fun and keep their appointments humorous. After a few weeks of working with Wyatt, Jane understood why he wanted the sessions to be humorous.

The work was hard and some patients found it depressing. Wyatt decided early on in his career that he would not let his patients give up. He wanted them to look forward to their PT time. Jane and Wyatt got along great and she enjoyed going to PT even though she was always exhausted afterwards.

They worked together three days a week for six weeks and then twice a week for another six weeks. From there they met once a week until Jane felt that she no longer needed to attend her PT sessions, which was four weeks later. Jane had progressed quickly. She was determined to walk again and to be able to shoot her service weapon.

Maura asked Jane about her doctor, "What was your doctor like, anything like me?"

"Maur, no one is like you. My doctor, Dr. Yates, is nothing to write home about. We agreed at the first meeting that he will follow my PT and order tests when he thought they were necessary and that I would see him once a month while I am in PT. That was fine with me, I didn't like the man. Maybe I would have been better with a woman." Maura laughed. She thought Jane was being funny.

"I'm serious Maur, I only had to see the man once a month. He ordered x-rays every now and then and communicated with Wyatt via email. Wyatt had met him once when he first started at the hospital and didn't much care for the man. He said he would tell me anything I wanted to know about my status and I was happy with that. I figured if I didn't understand anything after Wyatt explained it, I would just ask you."

"I would have answered your questions to the best of my ability if you had asked but you didn't ask."

"I didn't need to, Wyatt is a med student, he wants to be a doctor someday."

The nanny had Charlie and Bella with her at her parent's house for the weekend, giving Maura a chance to set up the house and get herself ready for her new job that was starting on Monday morning.

Jane felt strange asking Maura but she had to know if Maura followed what happened to Stella. "Maur, did you follow what happened to Stella?" Maura smiled at the nickname, no one had ever given her a nickname like that. She had been teased and called 'Maura the bora' and things like that. She liked the nickname, Maur. She especially liked how it rolled out of Jane's mouth.

"I did, because I know the two EMTs that she assaulted and I was curious to see how much jail time the State of New York would give her and to see if the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would also submit charges against her. I have the complete list of charges on my phone, which also included not compiling with the restraining orders from New York and Massachusetts."

"Oh wow, I hadn't even thought about Massachusetts charging her. Wait, Massachusetts also issued a restraining order."

"Yes, Gen had the restraining order issued when she got back to the precinct Monday morning. She wanted to make sure that there was a restraining order in place when you arrived back in Boston. She had one issued against Nikki as well, just to be on the safe side. As far as the Massachusetts charges, she did attempt to kidnap you and she assaulted Frost, attempting to kill him with her knife."

Maura paused as the waiter brought over new drinks for them and then continued, "The New York and Boston prosecutors agreed to let the charges be combined and tried in New York rather than having the trial in New York and then bringing her to Massachusetts for a trial."

"Frost didn't say a word to me about it." Jane said a little puzzled, she felt that Frost should have shared this with her.

"We talked about it and he agreed not to bring Stella to Boston. He didn't want her anywhere near you and he didn't want to talk to you about it because he needed you to heal and not be burdened with everything that was going on with her."

"That must have been a lot for you to deal with?" Jane asked concerned that too much had been put on Maura's shoulders.

"It was, however Frost needed someone to talk to about it. Jennifer, my therapist, said I could handle it. She said it would help me out as well, because I needed to deal with everything also. She knew that I was concerned about you and Frost. I knew about the situation with Nikki and Stella and I knew how Frost was trying to look out for you. We talked quite a bit while you were in Syracuse. I actually think that I talked more with him then I did with you. Stella will be in jail for quite a few years."

"Let's change the subject, so how did everything fair with Charlie and his community service hours? I know you stated that he enjoyed the online courses and wants to continue taking other courses with the program."

"Charlie, Bella and I sat down and looked over all of the options he had available to complete his hours and we selected a program that the three of us could do together. At times our nanny would join us as well. We set up a schedule and Charlie figured he should complete the most hours. We agreed that he would complete 150 hours and our nanny would complete 50 hours and Bella and I would each complete 100 hours, so that would complete his 400 hours of community service. Charlie wanted to work with the Boys Club of Syracuse and they agreed to let him work with one of their adults who was working with a young man who wanted to learn about robotics and rockets. So that was a perfect fit for Charlie."

"Wow, Charlie must have loved that."

"He did, he wants to find out if he can work with the Boys Club of Boston now that we are here. He knows he has completed his court mandated community service hours requirement but he thinks it is a good thing to be active with his community."

"He is such a nice young man. Are you still okay with your decision to no longer be a trauma surgeon?"

"Very much, I love being a medical examiner and it looks like I will be working with your homicide detectives."

"Yes, you will, I might have to observe some of your autopsies and check out your work."

"As long as you are checking out my autopsy and not my body during working hours, Captain."

"Why doctor, are you flirting with me?"

"Maybe."

"It has been nice catching up with you. Would you like to go on a formal date with me tomorrow night?"

"I would love that, Jane."

"Cool, I will pick you up at 4 PM if that is not too early."

"4 PM is fine, how should I dress? Will this be a dinner date?"

"Yes, it will be a dinner date and dress nicely, a dress is fine. I know you love to wear dresses. I will tell you right now, I will not be in a dress. I will be in a nice pantsuit. Nicer than what I am wearing right now." Jane looked at what she was wearing, her standard everyday work outfit.

It was 11 PM before they left the Dirty Robber. Jane didn't want the evening to end however she knew it needed to. When they arrived at Maura's house, Jane walked Maura up to the door. They talked for a few minutes before Maura said, "Would you like to come in?"

Jane hesitated, she wanted to go in. She wanted to ravish Maura and have her way with her but she said, "Not tonight, Maur. I want this, us, to turn into something wonderful. I don't want to rush things. I know you have never been with a woman and I want you to be comfortable with me."

"I understand, just so you know, I am comfortable with you or I wouldn't have gone out with you tonight. I would like you to do one thing before you leave."

"What might that be, Doctor Isles?"

"I would like for you to kiss me. Kiss me like you are never going to see me again, even though you know that you will see me tomorrow."

"I can definitely do that." Jane leaned in and kissed Maura passionately. Jane didn't pull away until she needed air. Then she rested her forehead on Maura's and said, "How was that?"

Maura had to gain her composure before she could reply. She had never been kissed like that. "That was so marvelous. You take my breath away, Captain Jane Rizzoli. I think I must go inside and take a cold shower now."

They smiled at each other and then Jane took a step back and reached for Maura's hand and held it. "Thank you for tonight, Maura. I will see you at 4 PM tomorrow." She gave her a quick kiss and then turn to walk back to her car. She knew she would definitely be taking a cold shower when she arrived back at her apartment. Maura unlocked her door and walked inside. Jane waited until Maura shut the front door before she hopped into her cruiser and drove away. She couldn't wait until she could kiss Maura again.