Back from walking Jo Friday, Jane entered the kitchen to find Maura crouched down and digging through the cupboards underneath the counters. The previous evening's activities had resulted in Maura's clothes being left to wrinkle on the floor and so the doctor looked more than a little unlike herself, dressed in what she claimed were Jane's only acceptable pair of yoga pants and a crewneck BPD sweatshirt that Jane had somehow misplaced for long enough that it still looked relatively new.
Jane leaned her shoulder against the fridge, arms folded across her chest, and watched Maura root around in the chaos of her kitchen storage. Evidently unsuccessful in whatever mission she was on, Maura sighed and stood up, her back to Jane and her hands on her hips. "How do you not have a single reusable bag?"
Jane opened a drawer and pulled out a bag. "I have this bag, which I will be reusing."
Maura turned around and gasped when she saw what was held in Jane's hand.
"We can't go to the farmer's market with a plastic bag." Maura emphasized 'plastic bag' like Jane had suggested using the hollowed out husk of a human skull to carry their groceries. Jane rolled her eyes as dramatically as she was able.
"It's a bag that's getting used more than once. What's the difference?"
"Jane, I am already wearing several articles of your clothing because we had sex instead of leaving with enough time to stop at my house, and now we have forty-five minutes until the market is over. I cannot possibly be seen putting heirloom beets into a re-used Target bag."
"I have an easy solution for that: don't buy heirloom beets." Jane made a face.
"I don't know how many indignities you expect me to suffer today, Jane Rizzoli." Maura lifted her face up to Jane's and jutted her chin out, her eyes capturing Jane's in challenge. Jane accepted, advancing on Maura and cornering her where her two counters met.
"Is that what you were doing this morning?" Jane murmured. "Suffering indignities? Sounded like you suffered three of them." She moved on Maura until she was nearly on top of her and pressed her thigh between Maura's legs. Maura resisted for a moment but Jane smiled with satisfaction as she felt hips opening up and breathing turn ragged.
Truth be told, Jane didn't have any interest in going to the farmer's market. She slipped her hand under the hem of Maura's crewneck and began to run her hand up her abdomen, pushing the material of the sweatshirt up with it. She leaned in close.
"You know, I'm seen wearing those clothes and using these bags all the time, so what exactly are you saying about me?" Jane dropped her voice menacingly as she spoke, though the only thing she was threatening Maura with was a good time. Maura shivered and looked up at Jane from under her eyelashes.
Jane's phone rumbled on the nearby counter before Maura could respond, Frost's name appearing across the display. Jane exhaled noisily as she reached for it. With the detective temporarily distracted, Maura took it as an opportunity to wriggle past the barrier Jane had created with her body, evidently still committed to making it to the farmer's market. Jane tried not to be offended by the fact she was losing a fight to a root vegetable.
"Frost, what's up?"
"Jane, I just got a tip from Amanda in Missing Persons."
"You got the tip from Amanda? I would have thought it would be the other way around, I didn't know you were so evolved."
Jane heard Maura suck her teeth disapprovingly. She didn't look over, but In her peripheral vision, she could see Maura standing with her arms crossed and it didn't take much to imagine the look on her face. Jane grinned.
"Hilarious, Jane," Frost deadpanned. "You want to go down that road? Because maybe I did, maybe I need some pointers, do you know anyone I could ask?"
Jane flicked a glance over to Maura. She found herself very glad this was a phone conversation. "...Right. So you were talking to Amanda from Missing Persons."
"She said a report has been filed for a hematologist at Mass General, name's Doctor Gregory Pearson. He was last seen on Wednesday. Family hasn't heard from him at all, his car has been in the parking garage at the hospital since that day."
"A hematologist? That's a blood doctor right?" Maura perked up, moving until she was in Jane's line of sight and nodding confirmation. Jane acknowledged her with a tilt of her head in return. "So is he our victim? Some sicko killed him via his own specialty?"
"Nah," Frost responded. "He's too young, just 44. Could just be a total coincidence but I'm going a little stir crazy already without a single lead. I know it's a long shot but I'm wondering if maybe he's the perp. Maybe killed our vic and then disappeared?"
Jane made a skeptical noise. "Yeah, that seems like a bit of a reach. There wasn't a shred of evidence on the body, whoever did this was careful and I don't think they'd feel the need to go into hiding. Realistically, missing three days…He's not our victim but he's probably someone's victim by now." Jane heard Frost heave a sigh on the other end of the line and relented a bit. She knew what it was like to scrape the bottom of the barrel during an investigation. "Listen, I'm not gonna stop you if you've got nothing better to do, but be careful if you're sniffing around. You don't want to be the guy to ask some grieving family or workplace if they think their missing loved one or colleague is a killer."
"I'll be careful, Jane." Frost's voice was energized again. "He sounds like he was a pretty big deal in his field. I'm gonna let you go, but can you ask Doctor Isles if she knows the guy at all? Text me if you get anything interesting."
"Back at you, partner," Jane said and ended the call. She turned to Maura. "You ever heard of a Doctor Gregory Pearson?"
Maura's eyes widened. "I have. I don't really know him personally, although I've crossed paths with him at a few events. He's a leading researcher at Mass General, working on a potentially groundbreaking approach to treating blood disorders like beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease. Current treatments involve serious measures like blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants, and in the case of beta thalassemia, spleen and gallbladder removal. Doctor Pearson's team is trying to find less invasive methods."
Maura continued with her blood disease lecture and Jane could feel her eyes glazing over but she had resolved to be a little less of a jerk about Maura going off on overly informative explanations. "Well, he's been missing since Wednesday," Jane cut in gently. "That's who Frost and I were talking about on the phone."
"Oh my god." Maura covered her mouth with her hand in shock, and then her features shifted into an expression of incredulity. "And Frost wonders if he could be the killer?"
Jane also thought it was a crazy leap, but became immediately defensive of her partner. "He's just trying to come up with anything, since all we've got right now is nothing." She shrugged. "He won't cross any lines, he's just going to ask a few questions. What kind of a guy is this Pearson, though? The type to have enemies?"
Maura made that face she reserved for the many occasions when Jane harassed her into stepping out of her comfort zone. "I really didn't know him, Jane."
"Come on, Maura. Anything at all." Jane was moving into Maura's personal space again, wrapping her arms around Maura and feeling her become supple against her. Jane carefully suppressed her self-satisfaction. There would be no heirloom beets today.
"Ugh," Maura relented and rested her head against Jane's shoulder. "Well, my impression is that he's a bit of a careerist. Not that I doubt he cares about the good his work could accomplish, but I think he's very much trying to become someone important and he comes across quite arrogant. I think if he has any enemies, it would be people who don't like him, not the other way around. He doesn't seem like the type to worry about anyone else and I'm sure he's bruised a few egos along his way."
"Hmm," Jane murmured into the top of Maura's head. "So he's a man in a profession, is what you're telling me."
Maura laughed softly as the two women settled into a comfortable embrace. Jane dropped her head to press her lips just below Maura's ear. Maura made a quiet, almost disapproving noise, but leaned her head to one side, opening up her neck to Jane. Jane began a reconnaissance mission of kisses to deduce which half of that mixed message she should acknowledge, and slipped one hand down to Maura's waist to once again push up at the hem of her top.
"Jane, we're never going to get anything done anymore," Maura sighed, but made no effort to stop her.
"Maybe I just want my sweatshirt back," Jane murmured against her skin.
Jane's phone rang again and she groaned dramatically when she saw the caller ID. She removed one arm from around Maura to reach for the offending device.
"Dispatch?" Maura pouted in dismay before looking around for her own phone.
"Worse," Jane said as she hit accept. She brought her phone up to her ear and took a deep breath.
"Hey, Ma."
Sunday evening found Jane standing outside the main house at Maura's address in Beacon Hill taking deep, anticipatory breaths. She rolled her neck back and forth, bounced lightly on the balls of her feet, and exhaled slowly. A bit melodramatic perhaps, but she was very aware she was about to step into the ring with Angela Rizzoli.
It was the first family dinner back in Maura's house since Jane shot Paddy, and it was the first family dinner since Maura and Jane became an item. She'd all but avoided Angela entirely since last Sunday's contentious dinner and she knew that her mother would be keen to make up for lost time. Over the phone earlier, Jane had checked the call time when Angela had finally finished her opening salvo to find that her mother had spoken for seven and a half uninterrupted minutes before finally demanding an explanation from her daughter.
Jane apologized for dodging her mother at the precinct, and for avoiding her texts. She insisted she hadn't known she was lying when she said she didn't have feelings for Maura, at least not the first few times anyway. She promised to never do it again, to be good to Maura, to attend every Rizzoli family dinner for at least the rest of the year. Angela had sobbed openly into the phone about her girls finally being together and Jane couldn't have felt better about her decision to not let that initial conversation happen in person.
This was an unavoidable part of being with Maura, and it was worth it, but it was definitely Jane's least favourite aspect of the whole thing. Growing up in a small house with four family members, one of whom was an overbearing Italian mother and two of whom were nosy little brothers, there was little that Jane valued like her privacy. She was close with her family but she'd generally kept her romantic relationships (minimal as they were) at arm's length from them. Maura, who'd hungered for the suffocating embrace of an over-involved family her whole life, indulged Angela's meddlesome ways all too often, and now Jane's mother would be right in their business.
She heaved a sigh.
Jane knew she was stalling. She spared a thought for Maura, who had already been alone with Angela for at least an hour because Jane had been sent to the bakery for dessert, and opened the door.
Both women whirled around to face Jane as soon as she stepped through the threshold, Angela radiating exuberance and Maura awash in relief. Jane quickly crouched down to unclip Jo Friday's leash from her collar before standing back up and making her way to the kitchen. Angela very nearly hip-checked Maura out of the way in order to ensure that the elder Rizzoli could get to her daughter first, and her mother pulled Jane into a bracing hug, smacking each of Jane's cheeks with a loud kiss.
"Hey, Ma." Jane's smile was a little forced, but Angela either didn't notice or didn't care.
"Oh, my baby, my first and only daughter." She gripped Jane by the arms, taking her in like they hadn't seen each other in months. "Let me look at you. I'm so happy for you both. So happy we're all a family again." There was an unusual weighty emphasis on 'family', and Jane narrowed her eyes slightly, looking past her mother and to Maura, who smiled weakly.
"Your mother has been telling me about all the celebrities who have had children later in life. Did you know Susan Sarandon gave birth at ages thirty-nine, forty-three and forty-five? Because I do, Jane. I know all about it now." Maura's eyes flashed with desperation.
"And Geena Davis did it at age forty-six," Angela added excitedly as she made her way over to the refrigerator.
"Huh, neat," Jane said absently as she peered into one of the pots on the stove. "I love Thelma & Louise ."
"Jane." Maura was begging to be saved. Jane snapped back into the moment. She remembered the parking garage on Friday and Maura's anxious and rambling confession that included how didn't want children and her fear that Angela would be angry with her. Jane set down the box of zeppole she'd been tasked with bringing to dinner and wrapped what was hopefully a very reassuring arm around Maura's waist.
"Ma, I'm pretty sure I've already told you this more than once: I'm not having kids," Jane said. She kissed Maura on the cheek before giving her a wink. "I can't speak for Maura, but she'll have to find someone else if she wants to go all Susan Sarandon on me."
"Janie," Angela said with great dismay, clutching a hand to her chest, but Jane ignored her to look at Maura. Maura looked back appreciatively before her expression turned thoughtful.
"I'd be Susan Sarandon?" "Yeah, of course, "Jane said. "I have to be Geena Davis, she's the tall one. She almost made it to the Olympics. That's obviously me." She deposited another kiss and turned away from Maura to find Angela Rizzoli directly in her face, eyes wide and tearful. Jane jumped back. "Jesus Christ, Ma! Some space?"
"Jane Clementine Rizzoli, how could you say you don't want kids!"
"What?" Maura stared at Jane. "Your middle name is Clementine?"
Jane unleashed a furious glare in her mother's direction. "Thank you. Thank you very much."
"I thought it was pretty," Angela mumbled as she shrugged, then turned tearfully to Maura. "Maura, sweetheart, you must want children, don't let her drag you down. You can convince her!"
Jane gaped at her mother's audacity and watched Maura's eyes widen as the doctor found herself directly in Angela's crosshairs again.
"Oh. Well." Maura was struggling. "I've just never really felt very maternal and…we both work such long hours. And this relationship is so young and by the time it isn't…" She was grasping at straws. "I'm not very good with children. Jane could die."
"Maura!" Jane exclaimed loudly while Angela gasped and clutched both hands over her heart. Maura turned apologetically to Jane.
"Sorry. Sorry! What I mean is it's dangerous work. And I just don't think children fit with our lifestyle. I'm sorry, Angela."
Maura looked helplessly between the two women and Jane immediately softened. Her poor waspy girlfriend, perhaps the very picture of a grown up indoor kid, was powerless against this kind of unbridled mediterranean interference. Jane could see her mother getting ready to unleash a return volley and she cut in before Angela could start.
"No," Jane said firmly. "It's not actually any of those reasons, so don't tell us to change our careers, or that you'll babysit, or that it's not too early to think about kids. We just don't want them." Jane looked to Maura and slipped her hand into hers and gave it a squeeze. "It's okay not to want them."
Maura smiled gratefully and her whole body relaxed slightly as she returned the squeeze. Jane looked sternly back to her mother.
"And you. You leave her alone about this, she's too nice to you and she'll listen to all your bullshit because she has manners or whatever. Stop wasting your time and ours and start bugging Frankie about this instead."
"Bug Frankie about what instead?"
All three women turned to find the middle Rizzoli sibling standing in the doorway, eyeing them warily.
"Francesco!" Angela threw her arms open. "My eldest son, my pride and joy." She stalked forward, descending on her next victim. Maura exhaled slowly as Jane pulled her into a gentle embrace.
Jane lay sprawled out on the king size mattress in the master suite, long limbs stretched in every direction, and observed as Maura moved around her bedroom in preparation for bed. It wasn't the first time that Jane had been a spectator to Maura's nightly routine, but she took it in with new appreciation this time around. Clothes were hung carefully, hair was put up in a loose bun, and so many little jars and tubes were opened, all of them labeled in French, and all applied so delicately to Maura's skin. Jane wondered about her own skincare regimen, if she could even call it that. She was well aware she'd won the genetic lottery when it came to her own complexion, but it occurred to her that it might be time to throw more than ten dollars of drug store moisturizer at it, even if just to keep up with Maura.
Jane reflected back on that evening's dinner, which had been quite pleasant after her mother had stopped trying to force Maura to have Jane's children. Frankie had insisted that he planned to have several, but pointed out that his mother ought to be a little less clingy if she'd like him to find a girlfriend. Tommy had shown up again, and although Jane couldn't help but be wary that he was just going to end up in trouble again, the fact that he was arriving to Sunday dinner every week, sober and occasionally employed, was starting to feel real. Maura had been gracious and hospitable and wonderful as always, and the chicken parmigiana had been at least a nine out ten.
It was as good a night as any to get real for a moment.
"Can I ask you a question that might make things uncomfortable?" Jane asked.
"Well that's inauspicious." Maura looked over at Jane, raising one brow. "But yes, you may."
Jane sat up on the bed, leaning back against a pillow.
"We never talked about Paddy. Not what happened in the warehouse, but after. In the hospital. Did you two talk much after, before he went to Walpole? Have you spoken since? Did he tell you who your birth mother was?"
Nearly as soon as Jane broached the topic, Maura turned back to her vanity, but Jane could see her reflection in the mirror and she looked both surprised and uncomfortable at the question. Maura finished dabbing on her under eye cream and wiped her fingers off on a small towel. "He didn't. I think he'd tried to tell me when he thought he was dying, but when it was clear that he wouldn't, he became evasive again. He claims he'll tell me someday but that she deserves to live her life. I haven't gone to visit him and I don't think I will."
Jane frowned. She wasn't sure what had happened between Maura feeling close enough to Paddy that she blew up at Jane for protecting herself and Frost and Maura saying she didn't intend to talk to him again. She wasn't around for any of the aftermath so she couldn't be sure, but it felt like there must have been some kind of fallout.
"So he tried to say something to you in the warehouse about her?"
"Jane, I'm sorry. I don't really want to talk about this." Maura's voice was tinged with frustration. "It's honestly bad enough that he's in my life at all—calling himself my father, dangling her in front of me like a carrot, making all of us tabloid bait. I'm furious at myself that I let him matter enough to me that it caused such a rift between us and I can't spend anymore time thinking about what he won't give me."
Jane found herself a little surprised at the vehemence of Maura's response. She flipped and rotated it in her brain like a puzzle piece but couldn't get it to lock in smoothly no matter the angle. It was compounded by the way Maura remained seated at her vanity, back to Jane, even though she was finished with her preparations for bed.
"Maura…"
"I'll tell you, Jane," Maura cut in before Jane could get any further. "I will. But not tonight. I promise it's not because of what happened in the warehouse or anything between us." She stood up from the vanity and made her way to the bed. "Would you leave it alone for now?"
Jane watched as she approached, very deliberately coming around to Jane's side of the bed instead of her own. Maura dropped her hand to the knot of her robe and pulled it loose but kept her hand against her stomach, holding the two edges of the robe together.
"I would do anything for you," Jane admitted softly.
Maura took her hand away. The robe parted and Jane took a deep breath as her suspicions were confirmed—Maura was naked beneath it. Jane's eyes were drawn first to the swell of Maura's breasts, nipples still covered by thin silk but visibly hardening under Jane's watch, before travelling down to the dip of her stomach, mouth watering as she thought about sinking her teeth into the soft flesh of her abdomen. Her eyes finally settled on the small thatch of soft curls at the apex of Maura's legs.
"Anything?" Maura stopped just within arm's reach at Jane's bedside. Jane continued to stare as she reached out to brush her fingertips between Maura's legs, groaning quietly when she found her already wet. She looked up to find Maura watching her with a knowing smile. Jane wondered if Maura ever thought about the phone call, when Maura had been kidnapped and Jane answered her cell with that desperate guarantee.
Whatever you want, I can get it.
She'd meant it. Jane would have moved heaven and earth to get Maura back. Broken any law, crossed any line. She wondered what it had been like for Maura to hear those words. She marveled at how she could have ever mistaken her feelings for something platonic.
Jane pressed her fingers more firmly against Maura and ran them the length of her. Maura immediately leaned her hips forward, reaching one arm out to brace herself against the headboard. Her lips parted as her breathing became shaky and Jane watched her face, transfixed, as she continued to stroke her fingers through Maura's center.
The first time a woman touched Jane was definitely life changing, but Jane still hadn't been entirely convinced she was gay. It wasn't until she touched a woman herself that she knew with certainty that she was. Jane had been awestruck, immediately enamoured. The sounds that could be coaxed out of a woman brought Jane to her knees, often literally. It was all compounded being with Maura.
"Promise me that not wanting to talk has nothing to do with us?" Jane said, lightening her touch, watching as Maura's eyelids fluttered open. She trusted Maura, but she found herself feeling a little too vulnerable and needed assurance that her very obvious weakness for this wasn't being used against her.
"I promise."
Maura allowed her robe to fall to the floor. Jane's eyes swept over the smooth expanse of pale skin on offer, free of a single blemish, and she knew Maura was telling the truth.
"Then yeah. Anything."
Maura wrapped her fingers around Jane's wrist and shushed Jane as she began to protest. She kept her grip as she smoothly climbed on top of Jane and pressed a kiss to glistening fingertips before firmly pressing Jane's hand into the pillow beside her head. Jane understood it was meant to stay there.
Maura was on her knees, one on either side of Jane's hips.
"Will you let me make you feel good?" Maura asked, looking down with a magnetic smile. Jane sucked in a breath.
"Yes."
Jane was dressed still, in her worn grey sweatpants and white tank top. She wasn't sure why, but something about being clothed while Maura was completely naked really did it for her. Somehow it made her feel powerful, even if she wasn't actually in charge, and somehow Maura could tell. Rather than pulling her clothes off, she rubbed Jane's breast over her clothes, grinding her palm against one of Jane's nipples while she lowered her head to nip at the other with her teeth, closing her lips over the fabric-covered tip until she created a wet spot. Jane moaned and so did Maura, and she moved off of Jane and settled in beside her, Jane on her back and Maura on her side, her body pressed up against Jane's. Maura slipped her right hand beneath the waistband of Jane's pants and underwear, scratching her nails down Jane's abdomen.
"Will you let me fuck you?"
Jane made an artless noise. She was stupidly turned on every time Maura swore.
"Yes."
Maura dipped her fingers into Jane's slick wet heat. She hummed in approval as she encountered the substantial evidence of Jane's arousal and began to touch her with long strokes of her fingertips. Jane stared down at where Maura worked away beneath her sweatpants and somehow the movement of Maura's hand beneath the material was more erotic than if Jane could actually see what was happening. Her head fell back against the pillow and she made quiet, desperate noises at the ceiling. Maura kissed Jane's shoulder and leaned in closer.
"Will you let me take you shopping?"
"Ye—wait, what?" Jane's eyes flew open and she attempted to sit up. She was being manipulated, just not how she'd thought. Maura's fingers quickened their pace right against her clit and Jane's dissent was quickly transformed into a strangled cry as she fell back against the pillows. She had never better understood the expression 'with surgical precision' than in that moment.
"Maura, this is dirty pool," Jane groaned.
"I don't have a pool. Let me dress you, Jane. Please. Just once. You'll like it, I promise." Maura was speaking right into Jane's ear in this breathy little voice that both infuriated and dismantled Jane. Maura moved on from Jane's clit to push two fingers smoothly inside Jane and pumped them in and out slowly, repeatedly. Even muffled by the material of her sweatpants, Jane could hear how slippery it was. She really was astonishingly wet. Maura continued against her ear.
"I have a lot of functions to attend, and you're going to have to go with me."
"I already had to go with you," Jane said with some irritation, but she couldn't help but buck her hips up against Maura's hand. Maura curled her fingers up inside Jane, pressing hard right where Jane was most sensitive. It was a heady sort of agony and Jane hissed in mild dismay at how easily she was being played. She could stop it if she wanted to, of course, but…
"As my colleague and friend, Jane," Maura said matter-of-factly before running the tip of her tongue along the shell of Jane's ear. "Now it'll be as my date. Don't you want to see what dresses I save for my dates?"
Ugh, she did.
"Yes," Jane gasped out, Maura's hand still working away, settling into a pace and pressure clearly designed to make Jane pliant and keep her climax just out of reach.
"Me too, Jane," Maura sighed. "I can't wait for you to see how I'm going to dress for you."
Jane spasmed around Maura's fingers and Maura murmured in delight. She leaned in and kissed Jane, open-mouthed and hungry, and pressed her thumb against Jane's clit. Jane's pelvis jerked off the bed, desperate for Maura to finish her off, but Maura kept her thumb still, both a promise and a threat.
"You know, Jane, I don't think you realize what it would do to me to see you in a beautiful suit." She spoke low and sultry, directly against Jane's mouth, briefly sinking her teeth into Jane's lower lip before continuing. "Don't you want to find out?"
Jane realized that she was absolutely going to lose the battle but it did sound like she might win the war. She pressed herself up into Maura's hand. "I do."
"Me too," Maura whispered. Clearly having gotten what she came for, Maura slipped out of Jane and pressed four fingers over her clit. She began making hard and fast circles against her, offering Jane the release she desperately craved. Jane cried out, back arching off the bed as she was immediately brought to the brink. It felt like Maura's hand was everywhere, all over every part of her, and her orgasm engulfed her, exploding out into her limbs, a fuzzy heat filling her head. Jane collapsed back against the bed.
Maura brought her down carefully, her palm now pressed against Jane and slowly, tenderly coaxing her through the aftershocks. Jane was breathing heavy as Maura pressed a sweet little kiss against the corner of her mouth.
"I'll make us some appointments in the morning," Maura said cheerily as she slipped her hand out from under Jane's waistbands.
Jane huffed quietly, but was resigned to her fate. There were worse things, she supposed.