Work Text:
Jane Rizzoli was terribly bored. She had been quarantined at her mother's house for ten days because of this damn virus. With any luck, things would quickly return to normal and she could return to her own apartment and her studies rather than being roommates with her mother. She loved her, but one thing was certain, they weren't meant to live together in an enclosed space for more than a few hours.
To avoid her mother, Jane had already tried several things: sports, television, video games, ... but after ten days locked in her old bedroom, she was really starting to run out of things to do. She gazed out into the empty streets of Boston, realizing how much she missed the noise and bustle of the city. A few days of peace and confinement had been a much-appreciated break for almost everyone, but now everyone wanted to get their life back, and Jane was no exception. Suddenly she set her sight on the building in front of her mother’s and more specifically on the balcony on the fifth floor. There, among an astronomical quantity of succulents, was the woman of her dreams.
She was slim and slender without being very tall, and she wore a suit that was to be worth five months' rent for Jane. Why was she wearing a suit when, like everyone else, she was quarantined at home?
Jane watched her a little more, thanking Heaven for the exquisite distraction.
The young woman's hair was light brown and cascaded over her shoulders, her skin was rather pale, and she was sure of it, her eyes were bright and luminous. She couldn't see them, but she didn't need to.
What was she doing? Oh! She was reading a book so big that Jane felt dizzy. She hated reading, unless it was the sports newspaper ... The young woman seemed absorbed and passionate about her reading. The complete opposite of Jane, she thought looking at her stained sweatpants and the peanuts bag next to her on her desk. A girl like her didn't live in the same world as her, and yet Jane figured that she and this stranger could be good friends, and maybe even more. Why? She wouldn't have known how to explain it, her instinct maybe …
Without really thinking, because Jane Rizzoli almost always acted on a whim, she grabbed a sheet of paper and scribbled "What are you reading?" before leaning it against her bedroom window, hoping the young woman in the opposite building would notice. It happened faster than she expected. Indeed, the stranger looked up from her reading for a few seconds, thoughtfully, as if she was trying to understand the deeper meaning of it, and her eyes suddenly fixed on Jane's sign.
She could swear, the other girl had smiled at her. She got up from the lounge chair where she was installed and entered her apartment to come out with a stack of paper and a marker. She quickly wrote a response and showed the sheet to Jane: “Bernard Marc's Diagnosis in Victimology. So you know, I'm not a psycho, I'm just a forensic student. ”
Jane smiled. That was unusual… The world was yet a very small place, because if her neighbor wanted to become a coroner, she wanted to become a cop. It gave them a similar interest that they could perhaps discuss.
Hastily, Jane wrote a reply and, a huge smile on her lips, she stuck it on the window as before:
“If you had been a psychopath it could have served me as a distraction… Too bad. I’m Jane. You?"
“Maura. Lock down is getting to your head, isn’t it? " she replied on a new sheet.
“I am about to kill my mother.”
Maura laughed at that last sign and then, pointing to her massive book waiting to be read, she signified to Jane that she had to get back to work.
Jane, over the moon, had had a wonderful day after that.
Rizzles
In the days that followed, the only glimmer of hope for Jane was that little hour every day when she and Maura would chat through the signs. She had learned a lot about her new friend: Maura had a turtle, Bass. Maura was fluent in four languages and could say a few words in Swedish. She was in her last year of studies and dreamed of finally putting on her white coat…
They had discussed about literally everything and, although nothing seemed to destined them to be friends, they had become very close.
Jane dreamed of hearing her voice, and at night she imagined the thousand scents her new friend could wear. Maura Isles was perfect according to Jane. She had fallen head over heels in love with this nerd with quick repartee, funny and very often very intelligent.
It wouldn't have been too hard to meet her for real, even with the lockdown she only had to cross the street and she could finally see her up close and not just from her window. Still, it was quite funny to keep chatting like this, to wait impatiently for the other's response when the writing was taking a little longer than usual, to watch for Maura's arrival on her balcony all the days at the same hour. Okay, OK! ... the truth was that she spent her days staring out the window hoping to see even a strand of brown hair appear behind those damn pearl grey curtains that kept her from seeing the object of her desire most of the time. She cursed those curtains. She could burn them if given the chance.
That afternoon, she had just finished an online class and out of habit she peeked out the window, even though their daily meeting was only an hour away. She almost didn't notice it, but taped to Maura's glass door to the balcony was a note written in her impeccable handwriting.
“Jane, I need help. I do not feel good."
The brunette almost dropped everything in her hands. Without thinking, because she wasn't the type to do it, she left her room, put a mask on her nose, and stormed out of her mother's apartment without even telling her. Not really knowing what was wrong with Maura, she went to buy tissues, aspirin, cough syrup, and ice cream and then she went up to the fifth floor of her building . If she had to, she probably would have knocked on every door to find Maura's apartment, but luckily she immediately recognized her name on the doorbell right in front of the elevator. She didn't waste a second before ringing the bell to let her friend know she was there for her.
Footsteps were heard and finally the door opened.
“Jane ?!”
Maura looked miserable with her eyes reddened and her arms wrapped around her waist as if to protect herself from some invisible evil.
“You needed help, so I came. What is it?” Jane asked, walking straight into Maura's apartment and putting her small groceries on the kitchen counter.
“I… I feel ridiculous. I'm fine, well, my health is good, but I …”
She couldn't finish her sentence and Jane knew she was about to cry. What should she do? After all, she hadn't known Maura for a very long time and wasn't sure she was the person she needed in this situation. But she categorically refused to do nothing to at least make things better. So she handed her friend a tissue and started looking for two spoons for the huge pot of ice cream she had brought. She then joined Maura in her living room, where -she wouldn’t have been able to give an exact number- at least a hundred books were strewn on the floor.
“You want to talk about it?” Jane asked, automatically putting the ice cream in Maura's hands.
The young woman did not answer her question immediately. She seemed to be checking the calorie count in the ice cream. Jane planted the two spoons in the pot and gave her a staring look so that the future medical examiner ended up tasting the dessert without any further hesitation. She ate a few spoonfuls and then, coming out of her silence, she said:
“I have an exam in two days and I'm exhausted.”
From the tone of voice she was picking up, Jane knew it was more than just a little bit of tiredness. Given the state of the living room, Maura must have spent days and nights with her nose in her books and the general atmosphere that reigned with this pandemic wasn’t helping for sure. Jane, at least, had her mother to keep her company, but Maura lived alone. Alone with her anxiety and revisions. Exhausted was perhaps even an understatement.
“Maura… I don't really know you, but if there's one thing I do know, it's that you're brilliant. You’ll pass this exam fingers in the nose and soon you and I will be an elite duo. I can picture us, fighting crime together… just imagine: the policewoman and the medical examiner versus Boston's criminals. They should write a tv show about both of us.”
“I'm not sure I can make it ... I feel like I've forgotten everything and at the same time I can't read another line for the life of me.”
“Well don't study anymore… you've already worked like crazy, I'm sure with your 490 IQ you should get by. Am I wrong?”
“Jane… the highest IQ ever recorded was 210.”
“It's because they don't know you.”
Maura finally laughed and Jane fell a little more under her spell. She had the best laugh she had ever heard in her life, as cliché as it might be. She barely restrained herself from readjusting a lock of brown hair behind Maura's ear, and instead she just said, taking a big spoonful of ice cream from the pot:
“Ok, you know what: if you want to study, very well... but I'll take matters into my own hands.”
Rizzles
The next day - 10 a.m.:
Jane was having breakfast in front of the baseball game when her alarm clock rang like every hour since very early that morning. She stood up hastily and went to her window, pencil and paper in hand. Maura, on her balcony, was already waiting for her.
“Ready for your five questions per hour?” wrote the brunette as she opened a huge forensic atlas Maura had given her to help her study. It was simple, once every hour Jane would ask her five random questions and then Maura was totally forbidden to study anymore. Until now, Maura had been flawless every time Jane had questioned her, as if she had swallowed the book. With this method of study, at least she didn't kill herself with work anymore and Jane was glad she could do something for her.
Maura raised her thumb to signify that she was ready and Jane chose a page at random before writing a question for her friend:
“What are the four criteria for diagnosing brain death?”
"Lack of consciousness and cranial nerve responsiveness, no spontaneous breathing activity, and flat EEG."
Correct. Once again.
“The rate of cooling of the corpse is variable and depends on several factors. Which ones?"
“Room temperature, clothing, fat panicle thickness and cause of death.”
Exact. Obviously.
“A body has been discovered: 176 lbs, 2 layers of clothing, in a lake. Water at 51.8 ° F, body at 82.4 ° F. Time of death? ”
Maura thought for a few moments before showing her answer to her friend:
“Between 7 hours and a half and 13 hours and ten minutes before the discovery of the body."
This woman had to be a robot, it wasn't possible otherwise. Jane didn't even understand how the hell she had come up with this answer in such a short time and with such precision.
"What is the procedure for an internal skull exam?"
“Cutting the cranium, extracting the brain and dura. Brain weighing and dissection. Base of the skull analyzed for fractures. ”
Damn it! Did she really need to study any longer when she answered right every time ?!
"What is atherosclerosis?"
“The walls of the coronary arteries + deposit of fatty substances = loss of elasticity of the vessels + thickening (stenosis) = no more irrigation of the myocardium (thrombosis) = heart rhythm disturbances and / or myocardial infarction and sometimes death of the patient. ”
“Perfect!” Jane exclaimed loud enough for Maura to hear her across the street. Truth be told, the whole neighborhood had probably heard it.
“Thank you!” Maura shouted back with a huge smile painted on her lips.
Jane was tempted to cross the street to kiss the lips that created such a smile, but she held back. Maura had to concentrate on her exam.
Rizzles
A few months later - Rizzoli’s kitchen:
Maura was helping Jane's mother serve glasses of champagne while Jane and her two brothers watched television in the living room. Maura coughed to get Angela's attention and then, still hesitating as to which words to choose to convey the core of her thought, she said:
“Hmm, Mrs. Rizzoli, I… I really wanted to thank you for doing all this for me…”
“My darling, you just graduated from a hell of a year. I certainly wasn't going to sit back and do nothing for my… well… future daughter in law?”
Maura smiled. She really hoped that someday she would marry Jane, but for now they were enjoying the passion of their early days to the fullest without having to worry too much about it.
She had only survived the past few months with the help of Jane and her signs and now that her family had made an entrance in her life, she was happier than ever. The Rizzolis had simply adopted her, and never had she felt more at ease than among them.
Her own mother, upon hearing that she was a graduate, had just asked if she was the best in her class, and her father ... Well, her father had not answered the phone when she had tried to call him to tell him the news.
Angela Rizzoli upon hearing of it, immediately invited the whole family for a meal in honor of the young doctor and kept telling everyone she knew about it. She had given Maura what she had never really had in her whole life: the feeling of being loved and important to someone. Besides, Jane had made her feel that way too. After her exam, she made it her mission to make her think of something else: she had spent most of her time going back and forth between the two apartments to keep her company and to stock up on DVDs, ice cream, and other entertainment. Jane had listened to her without ever judging her, she had made her laugh out loud and without her noticing, Maura had fallen in love with her.
Jane's mother gently squeezed Maura's hand in hers, kissed her temple before going back to the stove. At the same time, Jane walked into the kitchen and wrapping her arm around her girlfriend's waist, she exclaimed:
“I'm so hungry that I would eat Alumni Stadium if I could!”
The medical examiner leaned against her, laughing and thinking that she hadn't been so happy in a very long time. This was all very new to her, but she would never be tired of it. It was crazy to think it happened to her thanks to a global pandemic and a simple paper sign.