RIZZOLI & ISLES

Steps And Strides

asteriski

Title: Steps And Strides

Canon: Rizzoli & Isles

Characters: Jane/Maura

Count: 1,100~

Summary: Maura spends another day with Jane as she recovers from the events in 1.10 When The Gun Goes Bang, Bang, Bang.

A/N: Kinda fluffy. Started off as a small drabble but they took the wheel and I didn’t have the heart to stop them.

Steps And Strides

asteriski

“One…”

Maura was pushed to the left.

“Two.”

Her arm tightened around the back of the woman at her side. There was a pause in the progress.

“Three?” Maura suggested.

“Maura, I barely moved, that doesn’t count.”

“Jane, please…”

“No, Maura, please.” Jane mimicked as she interrupted. She didn’t mean to sound like that. However, it was the pleading in Jane’s eyes which got to Maura instead.

“Ok.” Maura acquiesced, her worry worn all over her face. “But Jane, please be careful.”

Jane took another step. She watched Maura assessing her abdomen, tilting her head in analysis.

“Don’t give me the dead people look.”

Jane sounded offended, but they both laughed. Maura noticed Jane wincing from the pain this caused. She pulled her closer, taking a little more of Jane’s weight. Maura was stronger than Jane had suspected.

“You’ve been holding out on me,” Jane joked when she’d caught her breath.

Maura took it again with a smile.

At that moment, Jane knew she was staring a little too long at Maura. Her hand had strayed to Maura’s arm, playfully prodding at the muscle as Maura’s eyes followed in amusement.

They met Jane’s again. This time, it was Maura who noticed that the duration of their gaze exceeded the appropriate time frame for the situation.

“Maura?”

“What is it, Jane? Do you want to sit back down?”

She didn’t know why she asked, she could feel it. She helped Jane back onto the hospital bed, still at her side. She helped lift Jane’s legs, one after the other; the muscles all along her left side had been severely impaired by that bullet.

That bullet.

Maura’s eyes closed and she shuddered as the events flashed through her mind. Again. That must have been the fifth time today. There were times when her analytical brain was her biggest curse. She’d gone through every possible scenario in her mind, and the images wouldn’t leave her alone.

Jane was sat on the bed now, one arm leaving the area it had warmed around Maura’s shoulders. The other instinctively reached her hand out to Maura’s as she attempted to take Jane’s temperature. They both clasped the thermometer.

Maura was standing in front of her now.

“Hey,” Jane spoke, disrupting the silence in the room. She snatched the thermometer towards her. “Doctor Isles,” she emphasized, “I’m fine. You took my temperature what, 5 minutes ago?”

Maura looked over to the large clock on the green hospital wall.

“Oh, it’s been at least 8 and a half, Jane.” Maura explained. Jane detected the hint of jest in her voice.

“You don’t need to fuss so much, y’know.”

Jane realised how ungrateful she sounded. She softened her tone.

“I mean, your fussing does make for a welcome change from my mother’s fussing…”

Jane rolled her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Jane.”

Maura’s eyes were fixed on the white tiled floor beneath them. Her voice suddenly so somber.

Jane panicked. She could recognise the expression on Maura’s face a mile off; Maura was going to cry.

Maura spoke again before Jane could.

“I blame myself, you know.”

“Y–you what?”

“I blame myself, Jane. When he took you, in the morgue, I shouldn’t have let you go.”

“Then you would have been an idiot, Maura. And you are certainly not an idiot.” Jane fired back instantly. Sincerely. The idea was, to her, ridiculous. Inconceivable.

“And, hello?” Jane continued. A little brash. “Muscle damage. That was the worst of it. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather take that over risking us both getting shot.”

“But Jane, what if he had…,” Maura tried again to argue her point.

“You don’t like sentences that start with ‘what if’”, Jane pointed out with a charming smile, clearly pleased by her chance to remind Maura of that.

Jane realised she could be coming across as a little insensitive.

Maura stopped trying to rephrase her sentence as Jane took another approach.

One hand on Maura’s hip. The other hurriedly dropped the thermometer onto the bed, then claimed a hip of its own. Jane tugged Maura gently toward her, and looked up into her eyes.

“Please don’t go there over this, Maura. You saved Frankie’s life down there. You wanted all the action?”

“I just didn’t want you to get hurt. More than anything.”

Jane listened. Maura pulled the chair close behind her. She didn’t want to move out of Jane’s reach. She sat, and Jane let that straying hand brush across Maura’s cheek. It caught the first tear as it fell.

“I’m so sorry you saw that, Maura. That’s the last thing I wanted.”

“Well, apart from the souvenir bullet…” Jane cracked another inappropriate joke. She promptly apologised.

Only after that, Maura smiled into Jane’s hand.

It was then, a striking blow of clarity, that Jane realised – she had, sat before her, exactly what she had always told herself she didn’t want.

Someone who was going to worry. What case was she working on, does she have back–up… Maura would be calculating all the risks involved.

It’s what Maura had always done.

This time, Jane Rizzoli didn’t resist it.

With Maura, it never felt like something she needed to run from.

Suddenly very aware of the silence, Jane leant forward. It made her wound sting. She replaced the hand on Maura’s face with her cheek and whispered into Maura’s ear.

“You know that sometimes I’m still going to do stupid shit, right?”

Maura pulled back to look into Jane’s eyes.

Jane leant her forehead against Maura’s.

“Oh, Jane, I know.” Maura spoke with a soft laugh.

“Good.”

Jane felt the surge of adrenaline before she felt Maura’s lips.

Then she felt Maura’s lips.

It was a little bold, maybe a little stupid, but Jane had warned her.

Maura smiled into the kiss. By the time they separated, Jane’s face echoed the expression on Maura’s.

“Thank you, Maura.”

“If you’re going to make a habit of doing that, and I do have hope that you are, you don’t have to thank me every time,” Maura teased.

“No, smart–ass.”

They both laughed again.

Maura really does have a beautiful laugh, Jane noted. She’d be sure to evoke it as often as she could.

“I mean, thank you. For today. It was fun. Never had such a good time with a bullet hole in my side…”

“Then you’re going to love tomorrow,” Maura grinned. “Now stop being such a baby and let me check your temperature.”

Maura’s fingers found their place between Jane’s.

Jane knew she was being distracted.

“Your Transversus Abdominis is contracting,” Maura diagnosed with a glance.

Jane looked into Maura’s eyes. They were expectant, as if she was waiting for Jane to amend that. Jane followed Maura’s eyes to her abdomen, and shifted on the bed.

“No, that was your–”

Jane’s hand was clamped over Maura’s mouth.

“Really?” Jane jokingly feigned interest. “My abominable transvestite?”

Jane felt Maura laughing, and freed her to do so.

When they’d stopped, Jane sighed. She knew how lucky she was not to have missed this day. Any of these days she’d be spending with Maura.

~ ~ ~