RIZZOLI & ISLES

IOUs

bluepoet

misicka47 noted that we couldn’t just let this tweet go: @MauraIsles Why did I wake up today with a napkin with “IOU one physics lesson,” signed ‘the college girl’?? So….

Title: IOUs

Author: bluepoet

Rating: PG–13?

Pairing: Jane/Maura

Spoilers: none

Summary: A game of darts? An IOU on a napkin? A lipstick kiss?

Disclaimer: Characters aren’t mine. This story, however, is.

IOUs

bluepoet

“Do you know anything about this, Doc?” Jane asked, slapping a white napkin on Maura’s desk. It read: IOU one physics lesson. ––the college girl.

Maura brought her fist to her mouth as she started to chuckle, trying to conceal her laughter with a cough. It didn’t work.

“What?” Jane asked, leaning over Maura’s desk.

Stifling her giggles, trying to regain her professionalism, Maura looked up at Jane. “You don’t remember?”

“Clearly not,” the detective said, sounding a little more frustrated than she wanted to let on.

“Where did you find this?” Maura asked, picking up the napkin.

“Jeans pocket. Woke up on the couch, still dressed from–– Wait! Is that…?” She went to take the napkin from Maura’s hand, and Maura spun around in her chair, turning to stand and put a few feet of distance between her and Jane. “That is, isn’t it? That’s a kiss on the back of that napkin? A bright lipstick kiss!”

“I’d forgotten about that,” Maura said, shoving the napkin into her lab coat pocket, trying to look innocent.

“You’d forgotten about that?! Jesus, Isles! You’re a terrible liar.”

“So, the physics lesson?”

“The physics lesson?!”

“You didn’t come down here for the physics lesson?” Jane just stared at her, dumbfounded. “You really don’t remember, do you? Oh, Jane.” Maura went back to her desk, reclaiming her chair. Again, she chuckled.

“What?”

Maura turned to Jane, “You’re not very good at darts, my friend.”

“We played darts? Oh, hell.” She pulled a second chair over to Maura’s desk, sat down, and leaned into her left hand, her fingers rubbing between her eyebrows.

“You know, a hangover is a physical symptom of dehydration. You really need a good deal of water to counteract the alcohol. I, for example, drank two glasses before bed and another two when I woke up during the night.”

“Thank you, Doctor Goggle. Tell me about the darts.” She rested her arm on the desk, a look of frustration on her face. Maura couldn’t pinpoint what, exactly, was frustrating Jane, other than, perhaps, her ineptitude at darts.

“You lost. Not long after I got there, you and Detective Crowe were wagering shots. Tequila, I think.”

“Oh, god.” Jane felt the blush rising in her cheeks.

Maura rested her hand on Jane’s reassuringly. “Oh, don’t worry. You have nothing to be embarrassed about! No one can be that good at a game like darts after that much liquor. It’s the physics, you see. It’s so much harder to calculate the force and acceleration when you’re intoxicated. Not to mention the angle. The angle of your throw is really important, you know. You need to throw the dart up at a forty–five degree angle for maximum distance.”

“God, Maura,” Jane began, “I’m not embarrassed about the dart playing. I hate thinking Crowe won… and what I might have said…”

“Crowe didn’t win.” Maura’s tone was so matter–of–fact. “I did.”

“You did?” Jane’s face was full of skepticism.

“I told you: it’s all about physics. Detective Crowe is such a poor sport. He left in a huff.” Both women laughed.

Jane’s mood improved almost instantly upon hearing of Crowe’s loss. “Alright, so I understand about the physics lesson, College Girl. But, the kiss on the other side of the napkin?”

“That’s not my color.” Maura said, reaching into her desk and handing Jane a tube of lipstick. “See? Dior’s ‘Pink Fiction’ is my color right now.”

“So, this wasn’t you?” Jane handed back the lipstick and began running down a number of possibilities in her mind of where the kiss could have come from.

“No, it’s yours.” Maura’s grin became a little devilish.

“Wait–– What?!”

“That’s your kiss, Jane. I wrote you the IOU, and you said, ‘Now this is an IOU for a different kind of physics lesson,’ and kissed the napkin.” Jane turned ten shades redder than she’d previously been. “You’re an adorable flirt,” Maura admitted, blushing. Suddenly nervous, she couldn’t look at Jane, opting to look back at the napkin.

Jane didn’t know what to say. She stared at Maura in silence, sure the few seconds that passed were really hours.

Having regained some composure, Maura began, “I told you to keep the napkin until you redeem it for the physics lesson, and I tucked it into your pocket.” She paused. “Honestly, I didn’t think you would believe me without the physical evidence.”

So many different things were swimming in Jane’s brain. She wasn’t sure where to begin. “Maura, I’m… Wow… I’m sorry… I…” Jane watched the friendly smile fade from Maura’s face. “I mean…” By that point, Maura’s face was beginning to look cold.

“Don’t worry about it, Detective,” she said, rising to go fiddle with the tray of instruments nearby. The shift to more formal language wasn’t lost on Jane.

“God, woman. You’re almost as infuriating as my mother.”

“Your mother is a perfectly lovely woman.” Maura’s back was turned to Jane.

“So are you,” Jane said just above a whisper. Startled, Maura dropped one of her tools into the others with a clank; she didn’t move. Jane rose and went to her, resting her right hand on Maura’s shoulder and her left hand on Maura’s left arm. “So are you.” This time it was a whisper. The tiny hairs on Maura’s neck and arms stood on end at the tickle of Jane’s breath on her ear. “Hey,” Jane said softly, turning Maura toward her. Maura looked like she was about to cry.

Sniffling, Maura said, “It felt like high school all over again. No one ever likes the winner of the science fair, especially…”

In an instant, Jane cupped Maura’s face in both of her hands and silenced her with a kiss. Time moved around them as they stood still, savoring the moment of the soft touch of lips. When Jane broke the kiss, she leaned her forehead against Maura’s. Maura’s eyes were closed, and she licked her lips, “That…” she started, “That… was nothing like high school.” Jane chuckled and planted a soft kiss on Maura’s forehead.

Maura opened her eyes and looked up as Jane’s hands began to move from her face. She reached up and grabbed Jane’s hands, holding them in hers, looking down at their fingers and then up at Jane’s face. Jane’s smile was kind and loving, and the longer Maura watched Jane’s face, the more her doubt faded.

“I need to get back. Frost and I have a couple of interviews to do this morning.”

“I have reports to write.” Maura let go of Jane’s hands and fished in her pocket for the napkin. She offered it Jane, but Jane waved it off.

“Hang onto that,” Jane told Maura. “I got my physics lesson this morning, remember? Acceleration? Force? Forty–five degree angles? You’re gonna need that to redeem for your physics lesson.” She gave Maura an evil grin and turned to leave, looking back over her shoulder and smiling as she headed out. The look on Maura’s face reminded Jane of a high school girl, reveling in her first real kiss.

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