Work Text:
In the Jeep, three people were lost in their own thoughts. Jane Rizzoli was asleep, snoring. This disturbed the sheriff, who was trying to listen to country and western music on the radio. Meanwhile, gazing out into the desert, Maura Isles wondered how Frost was faring on the helicopter flight to the hospital, accompanying the Sheriff's sister.
The heat of the desert was replaced by intense cold as darkness settled in. Despite the cold, Maura gazed at the lovely sunset colours of the sky. She indulged in one of her favourite hobbies, imagining the past. Due to her current location, she was particularly curious about how people survived in the desert thousands of years ago. How did they endure the scorching heat during the day and the icy winds at night? Maura pondered how hunters and gatherers in the past survived in the desert, trying to find enough water and salt to maintain their electrolyte balances. Through continuous sweating and drinking fresh water, the salt concentration in the body drops, causing severe muscle cramping and headaches. 'Hmm…' Maura thought. She had a bit of a headache, so she made a mental note to herself to take an oral hydration sachet to prevent these symptoms.
She continued to think about desert dwellers; the way they defended themselves against the desert climate, their living spaces, their clothes, and their various cultures. Maura thought about different groups of people in various deserts worldwide, the Mongols in the Gobi Desert, the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, and the Bedouins of the Sahara.
Jane shifted slightly in her sleep as the jeep ran over a pothole. Shania Twain's "Rock This Country" was now playing on the radio. The sheriff, however, barely heard the music as he was thinking about his sister. The jostle caused Maura's thoughts to shift to cultures and survival in general.
'Humans have an incredible survival instinct,' she thought, 'when they are familiar with their surroundings. Take them out of their element, and only the truly skilled can make it.' An example of this was Jane, Frost, and Maura waiting in the scorching heat for the sheriff to drive back. The cold water in Maura's canister became warm in the space of ten minutes, the temperature was 125F after all. Even so, it was still water, and the three of them were grateful to have it, quenching their thirst. 'If we hadn't had water,' Maura realized, 'we wouldn't have survived for long.' The three of them were city people taken out of their element, stranded in the desert. Frost had more practical experience with the desert than the others, even though Maura had more theoretical knowledge.
By this time, it was dark, and the stars twinkled brightly. She enjoyed the night sky as the crescent moon was barely visible. The only illumination available, apart from the stars, was the light from the headlights.
At this point, Maura's headache was starting to bother her. She was glad that the light was gone, replaced by the soothing darkness. The annoying music continued to drone on, pounding in her ears. She didn't recognize the song this time, only that it was a popular boy band. She couldn't keep up with all the popular music. All she knew was that she didn't like it, and the music was making her headache even worse.
"Sir? Could you turn off the radio?" Maura Isles asked the Sheriff. The sheriff didn't hear her. She prodded him in the arm.
He turned his head slightly and grunted, "Eh?"
"Turn off the music, will ya?"
"Oh, sure."
"Thanks." She sat back as she continued to ruminate. Jane Rizzoli's snores were oddly comforting. Like the noise of the sea swishing back and forth. The pounding in her head lessened, Maura was able to drift back into her thoughts of survival.
'Now,' Maura theorized, 'taking people out of their element would separate the survivors from the rest.'
Maura supposed she was taken out of her element several times in her life, metaphorically speaking. When she was taken to school at the age of four, she was frustrated and bored, waiting for her classmates to catch up. Then she changed over to Miss Smith's class. The subject level taught matched her ability, but her social skills were stunted somewhat as she was by far the youngest in the class, the next to her in age a good few years older. Who would want to play with the little kid? She remembered the Debutante ball. She didn't want to go because she feared being teased. People her own age… how could she relate to them? The only thing she liked about school was the library and science lab.
She remembered loving to analyse her classmates and other students at the school, and how being an outsider helped her to be a student of the various sub-cultures she observed at school. This enjoyment of analysis sparked her interest in forensics.
Her parents being very distant with her, she sometimes wondered why they agreed to adopt her. She survived by shutting off her emotions as it was one area she had no control over. Hence, relationships for her were easy. They were just a physical release. No intimacy whatsoever. She supposed that her supervisor at college was overstepping his boundaries by sleeping with her, but she didn't care.
She finally admitted to herself in the jeep that she was perceived as cold and aloof because she was a survivor; cutting off other people was her survival mechanism. She just did not want to be hurt again. It was only with Frost and Jane that she felt emotionally close. She wondered why that was the case. She supposed it was because they were the only non-academic people who were not threatened by her and chivvied her whenever necessary.
It hurt Maura to see Jane upset. It was a dreadful thing for Jane to see her ex-boyfriend's partially decomposed, decapitated head. Normally Jane was the one to support her and help her, but now the situation was reversed. As Maura was so used to being objective and analytic, she was afraid to comfort Jane; she just did not know how to do it without upsetting her.
How to comfort Jane properly was something else she began to think about. Eventually, she decided to tell her what she knows, not what she feels, and she knew that Jane would be ok.
Jane woke up as the jeep neared the village, and turned to Maura. She noticed her staring into space. "Tired?" she asked conversationally.
"No." Maura answered, "I'm just thinking."
"Aren't you always?" Jane gently teased.
"Yes, I suppose I am."
"You think too much."
"I know."
"Really?"
"I think that's why I like to think so much," said Maura.
"It's a way to escape and delve deep into my mind, where I can discover new things and experiences that I wouldn't have otherwise. It's quite freeing."
Jane nodded in agreement. "That makes sense," she said.
"A lot of things do," Maura added, "when you really take the time to think about them."