Rizzoli&Isles:: A Light Snack
Title: A Light Snack
Pairing: Jane/Maura
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Tess Gerritsen and TNT and any other affiliates of R&I.
Summary: Jane can't choose between the woman she loves and the safety of the people of Boston.
Rating: R for swearing and semi-graphic yuckyness
Author’s notes: So I blame this on 3 things, Halloween, a certain series of movies and one of you author peoples for mentioning two words in one of your fics. I can't remember who it was, or what fic it was, but you'll know... maybe lol. I shall thank my sorta, kind of not quite beta reader Chris for telling me this was "entertaining" xD Have fun :3
-
Jane Rizzoli scratched her arm with the crumpled paper she had ready to toss into the wastebasket next to Korsak’s desk. At least that was the idea; the ground next to the can however, was another thing. Biting her bottom lip, Jane lined up for her next shot. Moving closer to the edge of her seat she checked to make sure her elbow was not sticking out and finally leaned back slightly as she readied herself for release.
As the paper ball rolled from the base of her palm towards her fingertips, the detective was certain this one was going in. Her ringing phone on the other hand had other ideas. She cursed as she nearly fell out of her chair and the make-shift ball left her hand early and landed a good two feet from the intended target.
“Bet its Dr. Isles.” Frost said from behind his computer, clearly trying not to laugh at the woman.
Jane threw him a questioning look.
“Only the girlfriend interrupts when you’re going for that perfect shot.” Smirking, Frost ducked just in time as a pen soared just over his head.
Earlier in the week Jane had been distracted just enough for Barry Frost to worry. His worry was right when it only took two beers and three shots for Jane to spill about her romantic feelings for her best friend. To his credit, he hadn’t been all that surprised and when saying so to Jane, she started ranting about stereotypes and what others thought in the office. Frost had let her run until she had no more steam left before mentioning that while the stereotype exists, it wasn’t surprising because he had watched their relationship take form.
Jane told him he was full of shit.
Barry told her to suck it up.
Then he agreed that the conversation never happened, but he still had the right to tease her (not that he would mention that part to his partner).
“She’s not my girlfriend.” Jane muttered before picked up the phone. “Rizzoli.”
“Jane-”
“Hey, Doc, what’s up?” Jane stuck her tongue out at Frost when he mouthed ‘See!’
“Jane, could you come down here for a minute?”
The detective chucked another object at Frost while the man continued to tease her. She had been pissed at first, not wanting to think about what she had told him, but realized soon after that it oddly made her feel more comfortable with the situation.
“I have something you may want to look at.” Maura continued when there was no answer.
“I’ll be right there.”
-
As Jane strutted towards the autopsy room, her hands shoved into the pockets of her pants, she gave a curious head tilt at the picture that presented itself through the glass windows.
Maura was leaning against the far counter, farthest from her table, with a perplexed look on her face and her work tools at her side. As Jane walked through the doors, Maura spoke, “Jane, I seem to have come across something that I cannot explain…” Her voice was even, but clipped with worry.
Jane snorted in disbelief, “How Twilight is considered ‘Epic’ in a good way?”
Maura cocked her head, brows scrunched in thought, “You don’t like it? I would suppose twilight could be described with such a word, though. It’s a quite beautiful and breathtaking sight. I prefer nautical twilight myself, more specifically, nautical dusk. It’s a shame Mars isn’t considered livable by our standards, twilight on Mars can last up to two hours! In the mid 1700’s they used twilight-” Jane stared at Maura, slightly open mouthed, as the medical examiner continued in her knowledge of a completely different twilight than the one Jane had meant.
“Thank you, Maura. For once I’m really glad you aren’t up to date on everything…”
“Did I forget to mention the other two types of twilight? Civil-”
“Maura! Did you need something?” Jane interrupted, while a scientific babble from Maura was endearing from time to time, the brunette hadn’t had enough coffee to be coherent for any more of it.
“Oh, yes! Is there some kind of Halloween ruse going around?”
“Pranks? Yeah, mostly just hiding fake spiders in someone’s desk or something. Why? Did someone try to pull one on you?” Jane would not be happy if there was someone who had pulled a prank on Maura. She feared the ME might take it personally and she’d gladly 'talk' to anyone who’d possibly make the woman cry.
“Well, that is what I am trying to figure out.” Maura said, gesturing to her work space. Jane, finally noticing that even through her riveting explanation on the Earth’s daily twilight routine, Maura’s gaze had never wavered towards Jane but had stayed on a fixed point near her autopsy table.
Jane turned her head to find out what had kept Maura’s attention and nearly screeched in surprise, “What the fuck is that!?” Jane jumped, putting herself slightly in front of Maura as her hand reached for the gun that was shockingly absent from her side.
The scene in front of her was straight out of the old horror movies Frankie loved to force Jane to watch (she’d never let him know that she secretly enjoyed them). What should have been a dead body lying on Maura’s table, an immobile dead body, was instead a moving corpse. Not having been dead for more than a few days at most, it seemed pretty intact, except for the bone saw sticking out of its forehead and the gaping hole where half the neck should have been (Jane tried to get Maura to just tell her it was from the shotgun they’d found next to the body but Maura refused to acknowledge it until she’d fully examined everything). Jane was just grateful that it seemed Maura had acted quickly and somehow gotten restraints on it, keeping it on the table.
“I believe it is what most people would consider a reanimated corpus, or the more popular term, zombie. Did you know the origins of zombies started in West Africa? The tenets of Vodou are said to have-”
“I realize it’s a zombie, Maura! But what the fuck is a zombie doing in the morgue? There’s no way anyone in the station would go to that much effort to prank anyone, even you.” Jane cursed quietly to herself; she couldn’t remember why she hadn’t had her gun strapped to her waist. “That and I know for a fact that’s the same guy that we brought in a day ago and he was really, really dead.”
“I was hoping you had a better explanation.”
“Me!? You’re the science geek, here. Shouldn’t you be telling me why there’s a moving dead person on your damn table?”
“Jane, panic will not help this situation.” Maura continued, ignoring the eye roll from Jane, “For once, I am as in the dark as you are. This is scientifically improbable. While many horror films have taken to using medical research for an undead apocalypse, it is in fact not scientifically viable or possible. With the way science has grown over the years, it would have come up if someone were capable of reanimating dead cells in such a way.”
The detective had the sudden urge to grab a stick and poke at the slow moving thing on the table, unsure of whether this really was a prank or she had gone completely insane. She glanced down at the tools next to Maura, knowing they were the ones that were usually sitting on a tray in meticulous order while the medical examiner was working. “So, if you know this isn’t possible, and are quite sure it isn’t a prank, then why do you have some of your tools over here instead of where they normally are?” Jane picked up a strangely shaped hammer and studied it, trying to decide if she was more freaked or grossed out at the sight in front of them.
“I didn’t know until now that this wasn’t a prank, but I am always prepared. I’ve gathered enough information to know that any type of undead can be stopped by a sharp blow or, the more popular way, a bullet to the cranium.”
“Tell me you didn’t look up zombies before you called me.”
Maura kept quiet, knowing Jane hated it when she didn’t warn her about potentially dangerous outcomes before researching them.
“This is not happening.” Jane mumbled; taking a deep breath she set down the hammer and grabbed the lengthy knife, hoping it would keep her far enough away from the thing on the table.
“Jane, I don’t believe the bread knife is suitable for killing a zombie.”
Jane looked at the knife in hand and then back at Maura, “A bread knife? Seriously? You use a bread knife for cutting up dead people?” A sudden thought occurred to her, “Oh God, Maura, please tell me you don’t use this for anything else.”
“Jane!”
The scared tone of Maura’s voice had Jane automatically looking towards their undead friend. “Oh crap.” She mumbled as she watched as the zombie decided its lower extremities were no longer needed and managed to tear his legs apart from his feet, rendering the straps holding it down useless. “Now I really am going to be sick…” The brunette back up a step in disgust and slight horror as the thing fell to the floor, its arm bending in a weird angle. “I think I may be glad he was dead before any of this happened, it would have been a hell of a lot more bloody.”
“Hm…” Maura was staring at the slow moving corpse, lost in thought.
“Don’t do your ‘I’m doing deep thinking because I’m kind of confused’ face right now, Maura.”
“But Jane, it shouldn’t be possible for it to tear its limbs off that easily. The decomposition of the body isn’t that far along for it to just tear off with minimal effort. Reanimated corpses aren’t relatively strong to begin with.”
“Well science and logic seem to be shooting itself in the face right now, so I really think that you should probably give me something to kill this thing with instead of trying to figure it out. Maybe after its dead…again you can poke at it.”
“You don’t have your gun?”
“If I had my gun I would have shot the thing by now!”
Maura only nodded as she looked around the room to find a suitable weapon for Jane, “I’m sure you could make use of the larger items in here. I’m afraid that it would go in the category of ‘quite messy’ though.”
Jane nodded, taking a few steps back as the zombie made jerky movements in her direction, “I could just go get my gun, nice and easy.” Jane looked towards the door then at the zombie and then back to Maura, “Ok, no, then that’d leave you here by yourself. Crap!”
“I can manage on my own for a few minutes, Jane. I was safe down here before I called you. The rigor mortis dissipates within 72 hours, I should be fine.”
Jane narrowed her eyes at Maura, “Just how long did you wait to call me?”
“I-ah…”
“How long, Maura?”
Maura squirmed under Jane’s stare, it didn’t take long before she caved and answered her friend, “Forty-five minutes. I had to make sure-”
“Forty-five minutes!? Forty-five fucking minutes!? What if you hadn’t realized what was going on? What if, while you were tying the damn thing down, it bit you? You could have been infected! Then I would have come down here and I’d have had to- Get the hell off me!” Jane was interrupted when the zombie weakly grasped her ankle. Kicking its arm, she nearly shrieked when it tore apart at the elbow, leaving the hand still gripped to her leg while the rest of the arm twisted out of the socket and lay limp. “What is this shit!? Fuck, Maura, see! I’d have had to-to shoot you! I’d have come down here, and-and-” Jane closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “And I wouldn’t have been able to do it.” She said it quietly while prying the extremity from her ankle with the bread knife.
Maura had been fascinated by Jane’s sudden rage, but the infliction in Jane’s voice as she said the last bit had the doctor confused. Surely Jane would have made sure the infection wouldn’t spread farther than this room to keep others safe, even if it meant harm may come to those she cared for?
As Jane finally pulled the hand off her ankle she chucked it across the room in anger. Just thinking of this thing causing harm to Maura, of infecting the doctor, pissed her off. The mere thought of possibly having to eliminate her best friend just to save other people fueled an unknown rage. Looking at the cause of such thoughts Jane reached for the bone saw, which had fallen out of the zombie’s head when it fell to the floor, and held it tightly between both hands. Letting out an angry yell she lifted the saw and slammed it down, barely flinching as it sliced through the head. “Stay dead, you son of a bitch.”
Maura stared wide-eyed at the heavily breathing detective. She’d never seen someone slice through the skull quite as easily as Jane had. Fascinated, Maura continued to watch Jane while she struggled to take out the deeply imbedded saw, giving it a weak slap when it proved of little use. Maura was now stuck between wishing to know what Jane meant and the new information she was sure to learn by examining the body.
“This is between us; no one needs to know about it.” Jane uttered, fighting off the urge to run to the locker room to scrub her skin. She knew she should probably help Maura with placing it back on the table, but she really didn’t want to touch it right now. Maybe some interns would take care of it; they’re usually too frightened to ask Maura questions.
“But the scientif-” Maura tried to protest, her eagerness in finding out something new and scientific clouding any other reasoning.
“No! Maura, look,” Jane paused, trying to calm herself not wanting to take her anger out on the doctor. “Look,” she repeated, “the second we start claiming there’s a zombie down here the media and the tabloids are going to be all over this, not to mention any higher up government agencies if they truly believe it. We don’t need to be known as the crazy Boston police department. We’ll lose control of the city and no one would take us seriously, no one would take you seriously.” Jane placed a comforting hand on Maura’s arm at the flash of hurt in her eyes, “I don’t want your work to be discredited just because of how outrageous a claim most would find this, so please Maura, please, if you can’t lie then just don’t say anything.” Jane turned to find the interns without waiting for an answer.
“Jane?” Maura spoke softly; all thoughts of anything related to the body on her floor were gone, replaced with worry over Jane’s actions.
“Yeah?” She sounded dejected, helpless.
“What-what did you mean when you said you couldn’t do it? When you wouldn’t be able to shoot me if I’d been infected?”
Neither of them noticed to sluggish movement on the floor. While Jane had certainly shoved the bone saw into its skull, she’d only pierced the brain but not enough to render the monster dead. It crawled slowly towards the pair, the head lying at an odd angle as it was dragged along as well. The arm Jane had broken stuck up in the air.
It wasn’t until it was close enough to graze Maura’s ankle with its teeth did they react.
Maura let out a startled cry whilst Jane snatched the hammer from the counter and tore the zombie away from the doctor, “I thought I told you to stay dead!” The detective yelled while pounding its skull, not caring about the brain matter that started flying.
“Shit” Jane dropped the hammer next to what was left of the zombie’s head and rushed to Maura’s side. Lifting her friend on the red counter-top, Jane squatted down for a few moments to look at the wound.
“I’m fine Jane, it just- it just hurts.” Maura’s voice hitched as a wave of pain flashed through her.
“God damn it, Maura.” Jane spoke softly as tears pooled in her eyes.
“It is possible that I am unable to be infected by a simple flesh wound.”
The detective snorted, “You can’t say stuff like that Maura. It’s in every movie, every damn zombie movie. You get bit, scratched, whatever and you’re screwed.”
“Those motion pictures are false, fiction to entertain the imagination.”
“And yet they all hold a sliver of truth.”
Maura said nothing, her eyes closed and her breathing became labored, “Pyrexia…” She muttered a few minutes later.
“What?”
“F-fever. Jane…” She was unable to finish due to a sudden coughing fit.
“Maura, I can’t, I can’t do it.” Jane closed her eyes and settled her forehead against Maura’s. The tears trailed down her cheeks as she felt the damp skin, the reality of it finally hitting her. “This is so fucked. I finally- and then this shit happens.”
“Finally what?” Maura’s voice wavered as she struggled to keep control of her rolling stomach.
Before Jane could answer she felt herself falling quickly.
-
“Rizzoli!” Korsak yelled in her ear and gave a quick nudge to her body.
“Ug, wha-what!? Christ, don’t yell so close to my ear!” Jane mumbled her body ached and her head felt heavy.
“You look like shit.”
Jane glared, “Thanks. Did you need something?” Rubbing her hands across her face, the brunette sighed. Did she really just dream about that? Zombies, really? Her brain was so cloudy she almost missed Korsak’s next words.
“The doc wants ya, something about peroxide, or pyrexim? Something fancy soundin’.”
“Pyrexia.” Why the word stuck with her, she didn’t know but this was seriously some freaky shit. “Thanks for letting me know.” The detective stood up quickly, her world spinning momentarily, and trotted over to the elevators.
The brunette sighed in relief when she saw her friend sitting at the counter, most likely buying another pair of heels from her personal laptop. Jane hesitantly walked in, part of her wanting to rush over to the doctor and engulf her in a hug, the other a mix of signals of being afraid and wanting to kick herself for the reassurance she didn’t want to need that her dream was really just a dream. “Fucking crazy ass nightmare is more like it.” Just to make sure, Jane checked the table anyway and let out a sigh of relief when she found it empty.
Maura gave a quick glance over her shoulder as she heard the doors swing open, she was about to resume her shoe browsing when she noticed how pale Jane looked, “Jane, are you feeling ok?”
Jane almost laughed, freaky nightmare about zombies and your best friend, who you think you just might be head over heels in love with, gets bitten and you tell her you can’t shoot her? Oh yeah, Jane’s feeling fan-fucking-tastic. “Well, if you’ve ever had dreams about zombies then you’d know how I’m feeling.” She sneezed suddenly and let out a pitiful moan. Her face was starting to hurt. “I think I might be getting a damn cold.” She murmured to herself.
Maura took a moment to close her laptop before giving Jane her full attention, “Overwhelmed by powers beyond your control, under immense stress and you have fears of being helpless and overpowered.”
“”I- what? A little harsh there Maura.” Despite the cutting comment, Jane smiled. Leave it to Maura’s ridiculous knowledge of pretty much everything to make her feel better.
“Oh, maybe you were the reanimated corpus? Then-”
Jane had moved forward, getting in Maura’s personal space, to silence her friend. At least, that was part of the reason. She really just had the need to make sure Maura was really Maura and not going to turn into some flesh eating zombie. Throwing caution to the wind Jane gathered Maura in her arms for a tight hug.
“Oh…” Maura whispered, closing her eyes at the comfortable warmth that surrounded her, “I take it this wasn’t a very pleasant dream?”
Jane broke out into laughter, releasing her hold, but kept her hands on Maura’s waist. “It was a little strange and unbelievable at first but, well then it got to the not so fun part.” She lifted a hand, the back of it running softly down Maura’s cheek. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever had-almost had to do.”
Maura looked perplexed, knowing what scared Jane more than anything was another Hoyt situation, or the man himself; that and something happening to her family. “Did you dream your family was the undead and had to kill them?”
Jane shook her head and grinned ruefully, the fact that they were actually having this kind of conversation was baffling. “No, strangely enough after some serious contemplation and time wasted on thinking about a real zombie apocalypse, I probably could have done that.”
“I don’t understand.”
Sighing, Jane leaned her forehead against Maura’s and closed her eyes for a few seconds before taking a breath and stepping away. She grabbed the file sitting next to Maura’s work computer, figuring it was what the doctor had called her down for, and turned to leave. “You got infected… and I wouldn’t- couldn’t even think about having to shoo- to you know… you mean too much to me, Maura.”
And then she disappeared towards the elevators, leaving Maura with more questions than answers.
Maura nearly jumped when her phone went off.
Dinner @ mine after work?
Maura bites her bottom lip before typing in a reply, Only if you promise to tell me what’s going on in that encephalon of yours.
I’m going to pretend I know what that means, so my answer is yes?
Maura smiled knowing that Jane was shaking her head at the superfluous scientific word. She had also done it knowing that it made the detective smile.
I’ll be there.
-
Jane flopped down on her couch, rolling her eyes at the disgruntled growl coming from Joe Friday whose sleep she disturbed. As much as she’d wanted to tell Maura what she meant and the feelings she was having, saying to her friend down in the morgue didn’t feel right. Not to mention it would have been a little creepy.
After a brief sneezing fit Jane snatched the blanket lying across the back of her couch and snuggled up on the opposite corner of Joe Friday. She had planned to cook for Maura but as her eyes drifted close, she hoped the doctor was in the mood for take-out.
Jane awoke what seemed like minutes later. After struggling to open her heavy eyes, she found herself staring out at the dark evening and she quietly cursed to herself. Her body tensed at the sounds coming from her kitchen, but as a tasty aroma and a familiar voice floated through the living room she relaxed.
After a few failed attempts, Jane finally managed to sit up without her world spinning. Rubbing her face in attempt to awaken while, silently thankful she hadn’t had another dream; Jane ran the earlier one through her head. Her mind was foggy enough that she couldn’t actually remember if the conversation between her and Frost had actually happened. Rolling her aching neck the detective figured she should probably have the conversation with her partner anyway.
A scampering of little feet and a sharp bark broke through her thoughts, “Hey sweetheart!” Jane grinned as Joe leapt onto the couch and started licking her hands.
Maura set down a steaming bowl of soup on the coffee table and handed Jane a mug of hot tea before asking, “How are you feeling?” Maura picked up Joe Friday and sat next to Jane, her body turned towards the detective.
“Like an elephant is stepping on my face.” Jane took a hesitant sip of the tea, she turned her gaze to Maura, when the taste wasn’t as bitter as she was expecting.
“I figured if you enjoyed your coffee with unhealthy amounts of sugar that you’d like some tea with a moderate amount of honey.”
“Thanks.” Jane took another drink, “I didn’t think giving you a key would make you come cook for me. I planned on making you dinner, you know.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.” Maura said with a smile. Jane looked at her with a raised brow, forcing Maura to explain, “I meant that you could have made your cold worse or run the risk of contamination and made us both ill…”
Jane unwound one hand from her coffee mug and placed it on Maura’s knee and squeezed it in reassurance, “I’m just easing you, Maura.”
“Oh, right…” Maura bit her lip and took Jane’s hand into both of hers, cradling it. She was about to reassure Jane that she needn’t cook for her but Jane started to speak.
“Ugh, leave it me to get a cold when I’m better at taking action and not words.” Maura gave her a questioning look, “It would be so much easier to just kiss you than tell you I have…more than friendly feelings for you.”
Maura’s wide eyed look and pinking cheeks made Jane realize her error, “Or I could get sick enough hto just blab it to you, that works.”
“Do you, truly?” Maura’s smile was shy and that made Jane melt on the inside.
“Sure do. Took a night of drinking with Frost, though I have no idea if that was real or not, and a fucked up zombie dream for me to see it, but it’s there.” Jane slowly removed her hand from Maura’s. “You ok with your best friend having feelings for you?” Jane joked.
Maura’s face brightened as she grinned and took Jane’s hand back into her own. Lifting it to her lips, she placed a soft kiss on Jane’s fingertips, “Only if you’re ok with yours having feelings for you, as well.”
“Yeah?”
Maura nodded, squeezing the detective’s hand affectionately.
“Yay.” Jane laughed at herself, but it was cut short from an onslaught of coughing.
“Eat your soup and drink your tea. We’ll see about the kiss if you’re better in the morning.” Maura leaned forward and kissed Jane softly on the cheek.
~*Happy Halloween*~
(Apologies for the craptastic ending)
Pairing: Jane/Maura
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Tess Gerritsen and TNT and any other affiliates of R&I.
Summary: Jane can't choose between the woman she loves and the safety of the people of Boston.
Rating: R for swearing and semi-graphic yuckyness
Author’s notes: So I blame this on 3 things, Halloween, a certain series of movies and one of you author peoples for mentioning two words in one of your fics. I can't remember who it was, or what fic it was, but you'll know... maybe lol. I shall thank my sorta, kind of not quite beta reader Chris for telling me this was "entertaining" xD Have fun :3
-
Jane Rizzoli scratched her arm with the crumpled paper she had ready to toss into the wastebasket next to Korsak’s desk. At least that was the idea; the ground next to the can however, was another thing. Biting her bottom lip, Jane lined up for her next shot. Moving closer to the edge of her seat she checked to make sure her elbow was not sticking out and finally leaned back slightly as she readied herself for release.
As the paper ball rolled from the base of her palm towards her fingertips, the detective was certain this one was going in. Her ringing phone on the other hand had other ideas. She cursed as she nearly fell out of her chair and the make-shift ball left her hand early and landed a good two feet from the intended target.
“Bet its Dr. Isles.” Frost said from behind his computer, clearly trying not to laugh at the woman.
Jane threw him a questioning look.
“Only the girlfriend interrupts when you’re going for that perfect shot.” Smirking, Frost ducked just in time as a pen soared just over his head.
Earlier in the week Jane had been distracted just enough for Barry Frost to worry. His worry was right when it only took two beers and three shots for Jane to spill about her romantic feelings for her best friend. To his credit, he hadn’t been all that surprised and when saying so to Jane, she started ranting about stereotypes and what others thought in the office. Frost had let her run until she had no more steam left before mentioning that while the stereotype exists, it wasn’t surprising because he had watched their relationship take form.
Jane told him he was full of shit.
Barry told her to suck it up.
Then he agreed that the conversation never happened, but he still had the right to tease her (not that he would mention that part to his partner).
“She’s not my girlfriend.” Jane muttered before picked up the phone. “Rizzoli.”
“Jane-”
“Hey, Doc, what’s up?” Jane stuck her tongue out at Frost when he mouthed ‘See!’
“Jane, could you come down here for a minute?”
The detective chucked another object at Frost while the man continued to tease her. She had been pissed at first, not wanting to think about what she had told him, but realized soon after that it oddly made her feel more comfortable with the situation.
“I have something you may want to look at.” Maura continued when there was no answer.
“I’ll be right there.”
-
As Jane strutted towards the autopsy room, her hands shoved into the pockets of her pants, she gave a curious head tilt at the picture that presented itself through the glass windows.
Maura was leaning against the far counter, farthest from her table, with a perplexed look on her face and her work tools at her side. As Jane walked through the doors, Maura spoke, “Jane, I seem to have come across something that I cannot explain…” Her voice was even, but clipped with worry.
Jane snorted in disbelief, “How Twilight is considered ‘Epic’ in a good way?”
Maura cocked her head, brows scrunched in thought, “You don’t like it? I would suppose twilight could be described with such a word, though. It’s a quite beautiful and breathtaking sight. I prefer nautical twilight myself, more specifically, nautical dusk. It’s a shame Mars isn’t considered livable by our standards, twilight on Mars can last up to two hours! In the mid 1700’s they used twilight-” Jane stared at Maura, slightly open mouthed, as the medical examiner continued in her knowledge of a completely different twilight than the one Jane had meant.
“Thank you, Maura. For once I’m really glad you aren’t up to date on everything…”
“Did I forget to mention the other two types of twilight? Civil-”
“Maura! Did you need something?” Jane interrupted, while a scientific babble from Maura was endearing from time to time, the brunette hadn’t had enough coffee to be coherent for any more of it.
“Oh, yes! Is there some kind of Halloween ruse going around?”
“Pranks? Yeah, mostly just hiding fake spiders in someone’s desk or something. Why? Did someone try to pull one on you?” Jane would not be happy if there was someone who had pulled a prank on Maura. She feared the ME might take it personally and she’d gladly 'talk' to anyone who’d possibly make the woman cry.
“Well, that is what I am trying to figure out.” Maura said, gesturing to her work space. Jane, finally noticing that even through her riveting explanation on the Earth’s daily twilight routine, Maura’s gaze had never wavered towards Jane but had stayed on a fixed point near her autopsy table.
Jane turned her head to find out what had kept Maura’s attention and nearly screeched in surprise, “What the fuck is that!?” Jane jumped, putting herself slightly in front of Maura as her hand reached for the gun that was shockingly absent from her side.
The scene in front of her was straight out of the old horror movies Frankie loved to force Jane to watch (she’d never let him know that she secretly enjoyed them). What should have been a dead body lying on Maura’s table, an immobile dead body, was instead a moving corpse. Not having been dead for more than a few days at most, it seemed pretty intact, except for the bone saw sticking out of its forehead and the gaping hole where half the neck should have been (Jane tried to get Maura to just tell her it was from the shotgun they’d found next to the body but Maura refused to acknowledge it until she’d fully examined everything). Jane was just grateful that it seemed Maura had acted quickly and somehow gotten restraints on it, keeping it on the table.
“I believe it is what most people would consider a reanimated corpus, or the more popular term, zombie. Did you know the origins of zombies started in West Africa? The tenets of Vodou are said to have-”
“I realize it’s a zombie, Maura! But what the fuck is a zombie doing in the morgue? There’s no way anyone in the station would go to that much effort to prank anyone, even you.” Jane cursed quietly to herself; she couldn’t remember why she hadn’t had her gun strapped to her waist. “That and I know for a fact that’s the same guy that we brought in a day ago and he was really, really dead.”
“I was hoping you had a better explanation.”
“Me!? You’re the science geek, here. Shouldn’t you be telling me why there’s a moving dead person on your damn table?”
“Jane, panic will not help this situation.” Maura continued, ignoring the eye roll from Jane, “For once, I am as in the dark as you are. This is scientifically improbable. While many horror films have taken to using medical research for an undead apocalypse, it is in fact not scientifically viable or possible. With the way science has grown over the years, it would have come up if someone were capable of reanimating dead cells in such a way.”
The detective had the sudden urge to grab a stick and poke at the slow moving thing on the table, unsure of whether this really was a prank or she had gone completely insane. She glanced down at the tools next to Maura, knowing they were the ones that were usually sitting on a tray in meticulous order while the medical examiner was working. “So, if you know this isn’t possible, and are quite sure it isn’t a prank, then why do you have some of your tools over here instead of where they normally are?” Jane picked up a strangely shaped hammer and studied it, trying to decide if she was more freaked or grossed out at the sight in front of them.
“I didn’t know until now that this wasn’t a prank, but I am always prepared. I’ve gathered enough information to know that any type of undead can be stopped by a sharp blow or, the more popular way, a bullet to the cranium.”
“Tell me you didn’t look up zombies before you called me.”
Maura kept quiet, knowing Jane hated it when she didn’t warn her about potentially dangerous outcomes before researching them.
“This is not happening.” Jane mumbled; taking a deep breath she set down the hammer and grabbed the lengthy knife, hoping it would keep her far enough away from the thing on the table.
“Jane, I don’t believe the bread knife is suitable for killing a zombie.”
Jane looked at the knife in hand and then back at Maura, “A bread knife? Seriously? You use a bread knife for cutting up dead people?” A sudden thought occurred to her, “Oh God, Maura, please tell me you don’t use this for anything else.”
“Jane!”
The scared tone of Maura’s voice had Jane automatically looking towards their undead friend. “Oh crap.” She mumbled as she watched as the zombie decided its lower extremities were no longer needed and managed to tear his legs apart from his feet, rendering the straps holding it down useless. “Now I really am going to be sick…” The brunette back up a step in disgust and slight horror as the thing fell to the floor, its arm bending in a weird angle. “I think I may be glad he was dead before any of this happened, it would have been a hell of a lot more bloody.”
“Hm…” Maura was staring at the slow moving corpse, lost in thought.
“Don’t do your ‘I’m doing deep thinking because I’m kind of confused’ face right now, Maura.”
“But Jane, it shouldn’t be possible for it to tear its limbs off that easily. The decomposition of the body isn’t that far along for it to just tear off with minimal effort. Reanimated corpses aren’t relatively strong to begin with.”
“Well science and logic seem to be shooting itself in the face right now, so I really think that you should probably give me something to kill this thing with instead of trying to figure it out. Maybe after its dead…again you can poke at it.”
“You don’t have your gun?”
“If I had my gun I would have shot the thing by now!”
Maura only nodded as she looked around the room to find a suitable weapon for Jane, “I’m sure you could make use of the larger items in here. I’m afraid that it would go in the category of ‘quite messy’ though.”
Jane nodded, taking a few steps back as the zombie made jerky movements in her direction, “I could just go get my gun, nice and easy.” Jane looked towards the door then at the zombie and then back to Maura, “Ok, no, then that’d leave you here by yourself. Crap!”
“I can manage on my own for a few minutes, Jane. I was safe down here before I called you. The rigor mortis dissipates within 72 hours, I should be fine.”
Jane narrowed her eyes at Maura, “Just how long did you wait to call me?”
“I-ah…”
“How long, Maura?”
Maura squirmed under Jane’s stare, it didn’t take long before she caved and answered her friend, “Forty-five minutes. I had to make sure-”
“Forty-five minutes!? Forty-five fucking minutes!? What if you hadn’t realized what was going on? What if, while you were tying the damn thing down, it bit you? You could have been infected! Then I would have come down here and I’d have had to- Get the hell off me!” Jane was interrupted when the zombie weakly grasped her ankle. Kicking its arm, she nearly shrieked when it tore apart at the elbow, leaving the hand still gripped to her leg while the rest of the arm twisted out of the socket and lay limp. “What is this shit!? Fuck, Maura, see! I’d have had to-to shoot you! I’d have come down here, and-and-” Jane closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “And I wouldn’t have been able to do it.” She said it quietly while prying the extremity from her ankle with the bread knife.
Maura had been fascinated by Jane’s sudden rage, but the infliction in Jane’s voice as she said the last bit had the doctor confused. Surely Jane would have made sure the infection wouldn’t spread farther than this room to keep others safe, even if it meant harm may come to those she cared for?
As Jane finally pulled the hand off her ankle she chucked it across the room in anger. Just thinking of this thing causing harm to Maura, of infecting the doctor, pissed her off. The mere thought of possibly having to eliminate her best friend just to save other people fueled an unknown rage. Looking at the cause of such thoughts Jane reached for the bone saw, which had fallen out of the zombie’s head when it fell to the floor, and held it tightly between both hands. Letting out an angry yell she lifted the saw and slammed it down, barely flinching as it sliced through the head. “Stay dead, you son of a bitch.”
Maura stared wide-eyed at the heavily breathing detective. She’d never seen someone slice through the skull quite as easily as Jane had. Fascinated, Maura continued to watch Jane while she struggled to take out the deeply imbedded saw, giving it a weak slap when it proved of little use. Maura was now stuck between wishing to know what Jane meant and the new information she was sure to learn by examining the body.
“This is between us; no one needs to know about it.” Jane uttered, fighting off the urge to run to the locker room to scrub her skin. She knew she should probably help Maura with placing it back on the table, but she really didn’t want to touch it right now. Maybe some interns would take care of it; they’re usually too frightened to ask Maura questions.
“But the scientif-” Maura tried to protest, her eagerness in finding out something new and scientific clouding any other reasoning.
“No! Maura, look,” Jane paused, trying to calm herself not wanting to take her anger out on the doctor. “Look,” she repeated, “the second we start claiming there’s a zombie down here the media and the tabloids are going to be all over this, not to mention any higher up government agencies if they truly believe it. We don’t need to be known as the crazy Boston police department. We’ll lose control of the city and no one would take us seriously, no one would take you seriously.” Jane placed a comforting hand on Maura’s arm at the flash of hurt in her eyes, “I don’t want your work to be discredited just because of how outrageous a claim most would find this, so please Maura, please, if you can’t lie then just don’t say anything.” Jane turned to find the interns without waiting for an answer.
“Jane?” Maura spoke softly; all thoughts of anything related to the body on her floor were gone, replaced with worry over Jane’s actions.
“Yeah?” She sounded dejected, helpless.
“What-what did you mean when you said you couldn’t do it? When you wouldn’t be able to shoot me if I’d been infected?”
Neither of them noticed to sluggish movement on the floor. While Jane had certainly shoved the bone saw into its skull, she’d only pierced the brain but not enough to render the monster dead. It crawled slowly towards the pair, the head lying at an odd angle as it was dragged along as well. The arm Jane had broken stuck up in the air.
It wasn’t until it was close enough to graze Maura’s ankle with its teeth did they react.
Maura let out a startled cry whilst Jane snatched the hammer from the counter and tore the zombie away from the doctor, “I thought I told you to stay dead!” The detective yelled while pounding its skull, not caring about the brain matter that started flying.
“Shit” Jane dropped the hammer next to what was left of the zombie’s head and rushed to Maura’s side. Lifting her friend on the red counter-top, Jane squatted down for a few moments to look at the wound.
“I’m fine Jane, it just- it just hurts.” Maura’s voice hitched as a wave of pain flashed through her.
“God damn it, Maura.” Jane spoke softly as tears pooled in her eyes.
“It is possible that I am unable to be infected by a simple flesh wound.”
The detective snorted, “You can’t say stuff like that Maura. It’s in every movie, every damn zombie movie. You get bit, scratched, whatever and you’re screwed.”
“Those motion pictures are false, fiction to entertain the imagination.”
“And yet they all hold a sliver of truth.”
Maura said nothing, her eyes closed and her breathing became labored, “Pyrexia…” She muttered a few minutes later.
“What?”
“F-fever. Jane…” She was unable to finish due to a sudden coughing fit.
“Maura, I can’t, I can’t do it.” Jane closed her eyes and settled her forehead against Maura’s. The tears trailed down her cheeks as she felt the damp skin, the reality of it finally hitting her. “This is so fucked. I finally- and then this shit happens.”
“Finally what?” Maura’s voice wavered as she struggled to keep control of her rolling stomach.
Before Jane could answer she felt herself falling quickly.
-
“Rizzoli!” Korsak yelled in her ear and gave a quick nudge to her body.
“Ug, wha-what!? Christ, don’t yell so close to my ear!” Jane mumbled her body ached and her head felt heavy.
“You look like shit.”
Jane glared, “Thanks. Did you need something?” Rubbing her hands across her face, the brunette sighed. Did she really just dream about that? Zombies, really? Her brain was so cloudy she almost missed Korsak’s next words.
“The doc wants ya, something about peroxide, or pyrexim? Something fancy soundin’.”
“Pyrexia.” Why the word stuck with her, she didn’t know but this was seriously some freaky shit. “Thanks for letting me know.” The detective stood up quickly, her world spinning momentarily, and trotted over to the elevators.
The brunette sighed in relief when she saw her friend sitting at the counter, most likely buying another pair of heels from her personal laptop. Jane hesitantly walked in, part of her wanting to rush over to the doctor and engulf her in a hug, the other a mix of signals of being afraid and wanting to kick herself for the reassurance she didn’t want to need that her dream was really just a dream. “Fucking crazy ass nightmare is more like it.” Just to make sure, Jane checked the table anyway and let out a sigh of relief when she found it empty.
Maura gave a quick glance over her shoulder as she heard the doors swing open, she was about to resume her shoe browsing when she noticed how pale Jane looked, “Jane, are you feeling ok?”
Jane almost laughed, freaky nightmare about zombies and your best friend, who you think you just might be head over heels in love with, gets bitten and you tell her you can’t shoot her? Oh yeah, Jane’s feeling fan-fucking-tastic. “Well, if you’ve ever had dreams about zombies then you’d know how I’m feeling.” She sneezed suddenly and let out a pitiful moan. Her face was starting to hurt. “I think I might be getting a damn cold.” She murmured to herself.
Maura took a moment to close her laptop before giving Jane her full attention, “Overwhelmed by powers beyond your control, under immense stress and you have fears of being helpless and overpowered.”
“”I- what? A little harsh there Maura.” Despite the cutting comment, Jane smiled. Leave it to Maura’s ridiculous knowledge of pretty much everything to make her feel better.
“Oh, maybe you were the reanimated corpus? Then-”
Jane had moved forward, getting in Maura’s personal space, to silence her friend. At least, that was part of the reason. She really just had the need to make sure Maura was really Maura and not going to turn into some flesh eating zombie. Throwing caution to the wind Jane gathered Maura in her arms for a tight hug.
“Oh…” Maura whispered, closing her eyes at the comfortable warmth that surrounded her, “I take it this wasn’t a very pleasant dream?”
Jane broke out into laughter, releasing her hold, but kept her hands on Maura’s waist. “It was a little strange and unbelievable at first but, well then it got to the not so fun part.” She lifted a hand, the back of it running softly down Maura’s cheek. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever had-almost had to do.”
Maura looked perplexed, knowing what scared Jane more than anything was another Hoyt situation, or the man himself; that and something happening to her family. “Did you dream your family was the undead and had to kill them?”
Jane shook her head and grinned ruefully, the fact that they were actually having this kind of conversation was baffling. “No, strangely enough after some serious contemplation and time wasted on thinking about a real zombie apocalypse, I probably could have done that.”
“I don’t understand.”
Sighing, Jane leaned her forehead against Maura’s and closed her eyes for a few seconds before taking a breath and stepping away. She grabbed the file sitting next to Maura’s work computer, figuring it was what the doctor had called her down for, and turned to leave. “You got infected… and I wouldn’t- couldn’t even think about having to shoo- to you know… you mean too much to me, Maura.”
And then she disappeared towards the elevators, leaving Maura with more questions than answers.
Maura nearly jumped when her phone went off.
Dinner @ mine after work?
Maura bites her bottom lip before typing in a reply, Only if you promise to tell me what’s going on in that encephalon of yours.
I’m going to pretend I know what that means, so my answer is yes?
Maura smiled knowing that Jane was shaking her head at the superfluous scientific word. She had also done it knowing that it made the detective smile.
I’ll be there.
-
Jane flopped down on her couch, rolling her eyes at the disgruntled growl coming from Joe Friday whose sleep she disturbed. As much as she’d wanted to tell Maura what she meant and the feelings she was having, saying to her friend down in the morgue didn’t feel right. Not to mention it would have been a little creepy.
After a brief sneezing fit Jane snatched the blanket lying across the back of her couch and snuggled up on the opposite corner of Joe Friday. She had planned to cook for Maura but as her eyes drifted close, she hoped the doctor was in the mood for take-out.
Jane awoke what seemed like minutes later. After struggling to open her heavy eyes, she found herself staring out at the dark evening and she quietly cursed to herself. Her body tensed at the sounds coming from her kitchen, but as a tasty aroma and a familiar voice floated through the living room she relaxed.
After a few failed attempts, Jane finally managed to sit up without her world spinning. Rubbing her face in attempt to awaken while, silently thankful she hadn’t had another dream; Jane ran the earlier one through her head. Her mind was foggy enough that she couldn’t actually remember if the conversation between her and Frost had actually happened. Rolling her aching neck the detective figured she should probably have the conversation with her partner anyway.
A scampering of little feet and a sharp bark broke through her thoughts, “Hey sweetheart!” Jane grinned as Joe leapt onto the couch and started licking her hands.
Maura set down a steaming bowl of soup on the coffee table and handed Jane a mug of hot tea before asking, “How are you feeling?” Maura picked up Joe Friday and sat next to Jane, her body turned towards the detective.
“Like an elephant is stepping on my face.” Jane took a hesitant sip of the tea, she turned her gaze to Maura, when the taste wasn’t as bitter as she was expecting.
“I figured if you enjoyed your coffee with unhealthy amounts of sugar that you’d like some tea with a moderate amount of honey.”
“Thanks.” Jane took another drink, “I didn’t think giving you a key would make you come cook for me. I planned on making you dinner, you know.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.” Maura said with a smile. Jane looked at her with a raised brow, forcing Maura to explain, “I meant that you could have made your cold worse or run the risk of contamination and made us both ill…”
Jane unwound one hand from her coffee mug and placed it on Maura’s knee and squeezed it in reassurance, “I’m just easing you, Maura.”
“Oh, right…” Maura bit her lip and took Jane’s hand into both of hers, cradling it. She was about to reassure Jane that she needn’t cook for her but Jane started to speak.
“Ugh, leave it me to get a cold when I’m better at taking action and not words.” Maura gave her a questioning look, “It would be so much easier to just kiss you than tell you I have…more than friendly feelings for you.”
Maura’s wide eyed look and pinking cheeks made Jane realize her error, “Or I could get sick enough hto just blab it to you, that works.”
“Do you, truly?” Maura’s smile was shy and that made Jane melt on the inside.
“Sure do. Took a night of drinking with Frost, though I have no idea if that was real or not, and a fucked up zombie dream for me to see it, but it’s there.” Jane slowly removed her hand from Maura’s. “You ok with your best friend having feelings for you?” Jane joked.
Maura’s face brightened as she grinned and took Jane’s hand back into her own. Lifting it to her lips, she placed a soft kiss on Jane’s fingertips, “Only if you’re ok with yours having feelings for you, as well.”
“Yeah?”
Maura nodded, squeezing the detective’s hand affectionately.
“Yay.” Jane laughed at herself, but it was cut short from an onslaught of coughing.
“Eat your soup and drink your tea. We’ll see about the kiss if you’re better in the morning.” Maura leaned forward and kissed Jane softly on the cheek.
~*Happy Halloween*~
(Apologies for the craptastic ending)