Speaking a Dead Language (4/?)
Title: Speaking a Dead Language (4/?)
Rating: R
Pairing(s): Jane Rizzoli/Maura Isles
Summary: 'You and Doctor Isles are jumpy today.'
Disclaimer: We don't own Rizzoli & Isles, this is not a part of the Jai Chronicles. Warning of domestic violence!
She’d been back for almost a month now, and things were no less awkward than before. Sometimes Jane avoided coming down to the morgue, and she likewise avoided the bullpen as much as possible. They didn’t talk about their personal lives anymore, and she always turned down Barry’s offers of getting a drink with them after the work day was over.
Maura had no idea why she had thought coming back would be easier than the other alternatives. Hearing the door open, she brought her head up quickly from the autopsy she was performing. She wouldn’t admit that she was a little disappointed to see Barry Frost instead of Jane Rizzoli.
“Detective,” she greeted lightly, a small smile appearing on her face. It was easy to fall back in with Frost, because he was a nice person and he genuinely cared about them all. The same could be said for Korsak on some level, but so far it was easiest to reconnect with Barry than with anyone else.
Barry didn’t mind being the only one that went down to the Morgue. He was almost over the dead body thing, almost. Jane didn’t come down here anymore because she didn’t know how to deal with the emotions, or how to talk about them. Frankie didn’t know where to stand and simply followed his sister’s lead. And Vince supported Jane with without showing any of his personal opinions on the matter; something strange for Korsak.
“Morning, Doc.” For a long moment Barry looked at the body on the table and, even though his throat convulsed, he overcame the urge to purge. “Anything interesting in there?” he asked, but didn’t have time to hear the answer when something from within the body cavity made a squelching sound. Bile rising in his throat Barry made a quick turn for the nearest sink, knocking over an instrument tray in his haste.
Maura only smiled as she watched Barry turn and run, even after he knocked over the table. Pulling off her gloves and throwing them away, she picked up the metal tray and the table, setting them up correctly before she started to pick up everything else. “Sorry about that. I was trying to get the liver.” she offered up in explanation of the odd sound that he had heard.
Composing himself Frost gave a shaky smile. “I swear I’m getting better at it. That’s the first time in about two months.” Washing evidence of his failure down the sink Barry turned and knelt down to help put to rights the mess that he had made. He tried not to picture these instruments performing an autopsy, or the worse thought of the tools having just been used on the victim on the table. Reaching for a scalpel Barry’s hand brushed Maura’s.
She had been about to say that he was getting better, but the moment his hand touched hers, she froze. Maura pulled back immediately, almost knocking the table over again. She managed to avoid it at the last moment, turning her face down as she finished picking up the rest of the instruments and put them back on the table.
“Thank you for the help. I won’t have any results for about an hour. I’ll bring them up,” she offered, knowing that no one wanted to come down into her domain anymore. Not really.
Rocking back on his heels Barry watched the doctor’s reaction to a simple touch. He made connections and theories but didn’t voice them. Standing up Frost gave no indication that anything was wrong. “Not a problem, see you in a bit then.” Riding up the elevator Frost was distracted, too distracted to notice Jane’s own level of distraction.
Sometimes the desire to drink was almost overwhelming. But she would get over it. After both Maura and Frankie had likened Jane’s behavior to Tommy’s Jane decided it had to end. She never felt the same as the rest of the individuals at AA meetings but that was a big factor that prevented her from getting worse. She’d wanted a drink more than once during the divorce but hadn’t broken the three years of sobriety, now was hardly that desperate and she could over come it. That is what she was thinking when Frost scared her.
“You and Doctor Isles are jumpy today.”
He made his way over to his desk, glancing over at his partner. He kept replaying the way Doctor Isles had almost thrown herself across the room to get away from him, and how quick she tried to hide it.
“I was helpin’ her pick up her tray and when I barely touched her hand she about flew across the room. You women are crazy,” he finished, watching the other detective. He usually knew when something was wrong with the brunette, but right now he was trying to figure out the good doctor.
“And you’ve been hanging around with Korsak after work too much, saying things like ‘you women’?” Jane covered quickly. Her friends and brother knew about her battle with the bottle but Jane couldn’t bring herself to tell them how often she felt that thirst which could only be quenched by a long bull from a tall glass bottleneck. “So don’t touch her. She doesn’t like something, you don’t do it. Simple stuff.”
Frost opened his mouth to say something, but closed it immediately before he let the thought escape. Looking over at Jane, he furrowed his brow, wondering if he had missed something. Obviously, he had, because that look on her face was one he knew well.
“Stop thinking about it. You’re just gonna drive yourself even more crazy than you already are.”
“Get out of my head, Frost,” she grumbled jokingly. Continuing on a more serious note Jane said, “If I wanted my head shrunk I’d go get it done. Our fabulous health care pays for five whole sessions for free.” But even from her seriousness Jane turned it in to sarcasm. As much as Jane wanted to know what was going on with Maura she didn’t have the right.
And that fact made her desire to drink a little stronger. Thinking about Maura made Jane want to drink, as did stress, sadness and tough cases. But there was an even stronger thought that kept her sober: not screwing up her life again by putting her dependency first.
“It’d take a whole lot more than five to figure out why you’re screwy,” he pointed out, teasing her to bring back the light mood that was frequently missing in the bullpen nowadays. It didn’t last though, because his mind was still on the way Doctor Isles had jumped back from such an accidental touch.
“I mean, come on Jane. Doctor Isles was never touchy feely, but she never pulled away either.” Frost knew that his partner was probably going to tell him to shut up and for once he would comply. At least, for now he would anyways.
Laughing with indignation Jane aimed a halfhearted kick at Frost’s desk. “And you think it would go so much better for you? Yeah right.” Jane blamed herself for the atmosphere lately. Ever since Maura came back she hadn’t felt right and didn’t know how to fix it. She knew how she wanted to fix it, but that wasn’t an option.
“Things change, Frost. It’s not your place and it certainly isn’t mine. So just, leave it be, alright? Just leave it.” It wasn’t her right to know anything about Maura now and until they resolved things, a highly unlikely possibility, it might not ever be her place again.