DISCLAIMER: Rizzoli & Isles and its characters are the property of Tess Gerritsen, Janet Tamaro and TNT television network.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Something brief to read in the R&I universe. Thanks to Pandora007 for her help and for being my all. And thank you, readers, for reading. Where would we, the pickers and pounders of keyboards be without you?
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
The Right Kind Of Medicine
By The Raven
Detective Jane Rizzoli was not having a very good day.
It had started out okay but then it has rapidly devolved unto the unmitigated disaster that it had become. A simple take down and Jane had ended up with a face full of some perp's knuckles and now she had a fat lip, plus she was pretty sure the inside of her mouth was bleeding, or had been until recently anyway.
After grimacing and bearing it until the asshole had been booked and the paperwork was done, Jane was now on her way to the one place where she knew she would get just the right amount of sympathy and attention, without the hysterics of her mother, or the guffaws of the guys.
Pulling up to Doctor Maura Isles' residence, Jane turned off the ignition on her car and leaned back in her seat for a moment. Hopefully Maura was still awake, but she probably was. It is not as if she got lots of rest, the job simply did not allow it. This was something that Jane was intimately familiar with.
With a pained sigh, Jane got out of her car and made her way to Maura's front door and before she could change her mind or think better of it, she pressed the bell briefly and then leaned tiredly against the door frame while she waited.
The door opened in just a few minutes and when Jane turned she found herself looking at her friend and colleague and it made her smile.
"Ouch." Jane exclaimed as her lip split open again at the movement.
"Jane." Maura said by way of greeting, concern evident in her voice.
The woman stepped back and Jane gratefully entered the private sanctuary of her friend. "What happened?" Maura asked as she examined Jane's face in the light.
"Got clocked by a perp." Jane said, mumbling due to the pain in her face and mouth.
Maura did not say anything, rather she brought Jane to sit down at her kitchen table and casually ran a hand through Jane's unruly hair in an unconscious gesture of affection that warmed Jane's heart.
It had been the right thing to come here.
"Let me see inside your mouth." Maura instructed as she rummaged in a drawer and came up with a penlight.
"What?" Jane asked, before she could think better of it.
"I need to check for damaged teeth." Maura said patiently, making Jane feel like a small child.
"Fine." Jane said after a moment and reluctantly and painfully opened her mouth, hoping that she did not have any parsley stuck to her teeth, or breath that could down a man at sixty yards for that matter.
"Hum." Maura said.
"Hum?" Jane asked when Maura pulled away. "Is that your professional opinion?" Jane added a little sarcastically.
"Yes." Maura replied, smiling slightly. "Go to the bathroom and rinse out your mouth, Jane. I can't see anything and the blood is going to make you feel unwell if you're not careful." Maura waved in the direction of the bathroom and for once Jane did not argue and simply got up and made her way to the bathroom.
Her mouth did taste like crap after all.
While she waited for Jane to return, Maura got some things together to tend to her friend's wounds. A wipe and a salve for Jane's lip, the penlight, some ice and some ibuprofen. She'd also write out a referral to a dentist. Not that Jane would use it, but the thought counted in the end and who knows, maybe, just maybe Jane would use it.
Maura hated to see her friends hurt and Jane held a special place in Maura's heart so it wrenched her even more to see the tall brunette injured.
"That was a lot of blood." Jane mumbled as she came up again.
Maura nodded and pointed at the chair that Jane had recently vacated.
"Now, sit down and be good." Maura said by way of response.
Jane smirked slightly at Maura's choice of words, but then she winced again.
"Damn it." The brunette muttered but submitted herself quietly to Maura's ministrations.
"Say ahh." Maura patiently instructed the clearly distracted detective.
She was rewarded with a look of incredulity that almost made her giggle. Peering into Jane's battered mouth, Maura noted that her friend had excellent teeth and oral hygiene and that the side of her cheek was lacerated where the teeth had been jammed against the sensitive tissue.
"All there." Maura said, allowing Jane to close her mouth.
Maura realised that she was leaning over and against Jane and that their faces were very close together. Much nearer than Maura was usually ever with someone, with anyone, unless she was in bed with them.
The thought sent a shiver of awareness through Maura and she noted that even battered, and at the end of the day, Jane looked good and smelled even better and that it was incredibly distracting all of a sudden. Why was she noticing this just now?
How come the column of Jane's throat seemed to beg Maura to caress it, to lean down and kiss it? Maura knew that the skin there would be fragrant and soft and in her mind's eye she knew that Jane would respond beautifully to the caress. The thought made Maura's mind heat up to unprecedented levels considering how sudden and quick this all was.
What on earth? Maura's thoughts scattered as she tried to make some sense of what was happening here.
"Well?" Jane prompted softly after a moment.
Maura blinked, mentally trying to shake herself out of the state she had found herself in. "You don't need stitches and your teeth look fine." Maura said softly, inexplicably not moving away from Jane as she spoke.
Jane did not speak, instead the brunette seemed to be studying Maura with an intensity that matched her own just a few minutes before. Warmth began to spread through Maura's body as a rising awareness began to flood her senses.
With this warmth she was sure that a blush would follow.
Perfect.
Taking a deep breath, Maura tried to focus herself to check Jane's lip and face. "Let's get this looked after." Maura finally said, after what felt like an eternity of being scrutinised by those intense, dark eyes.
Jane merely nodded and did not blink as they leaned together close enough to share the same air. Maura licked her lips nervously, feeling quite unlike her usual self as she brought up some salve to smear on the painful looking split on Jane's lower lip. Of course Jane could apply this herself but by now Maura was totally committed to seeing this through to the end.
Whatever this was.
It helped of course that Jane's lips looked so soft, so very kissable.
Now where did that thought come from?
Maura wanted to sigh in frustration now but the thing was she was not at all sure she was unhappy with the feelings she was experiencing. Maybe a little confused and certainly a little more than just a little aroused, but not unhappy.
Nope, not unhappy at all.
Just what on earth was going on?
Jane Rizzoli really had no idea at all right now to be honest. All she knew was that a very soft, very gentle finger was dubbing some sort of balm onto her sore lip and that her friend was leaning close enough to let Jane look down into a cleavage what was not her own.
And just why was she looking down Maura's shirt anyway?
The thought was blasted out of Jane's head when Maura leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. "All better." The blonde offered as she stepped back and seemed to inspect her handy-work.
What the?
For her own part, Jane could feel her brain begin to leak out of her ears as she considered what had just happened. That and suddenly her jacket seemed hot and tight as it bound her body to the confines of the moment. Blinking away her confusion, Jane made a quick analysis of the situation:
Maura had just kissed her.
She had just been looking down Maura's shirt.
Jane was also smart enough to realise that she was turned on.
What on earth?
This was supposed to be a little TLC but the L part of it was not supposed to be this, was it?
Um.
So now what?
Did she say thank's for everything and leave with her hurting mouth and tingling lips? That hardly seemed fair.
But then again, she could not exactly stay as all she wanted to do suddenly was lean in and give Maura a kiss. A real kiss, with her aching mouth. This was also not such a good idea.
Jane's head began to pound and she leaned forward to rest her eyes on her hands as she considered her options and her hormones.
"Take these." Maura said softly and Jane looked up to realise that her friend had not moved away from the close proximity she had been in all night it seemed.
Automatically Jane opened her hand and accepted the two pills that Maura offered her and reached for the glass of water on the table.
"Thank you." Jane managed to say, feeling the ache in her face begin to intensify.
"You'll be okay, Jane. But, I would like you to go have a dental x-ray and also get your eyes checked. This sort of blow to the face can have all sorts of unintended and unexpected consequences." Maura was saying as she moved around to start to pick up the non-existent mess that had been made.
Jane just nodded. Maybe she would go see other doctors. Maura did know what she was talking about.
Right now however, Jane simply wanted Maura to stop moving.
"Please, it's making me dizzy." Jane said softly as she snagged her friend's hand and stopped her movements.
Maura looked over in concern and reached for her penlight, obviously intent on shinning it into Jane's eyes to check for concussion.
"No, it's not that." Jane hastily explained, gently warding off Maura's attempt.
The blonde looked at her questioningly with an eyebrow raised.
"I should get going." Jane finally said, at a loss to say anything else for the time being anyway.
What else could she say in this situation anyway?
Jane started to get up to leave and Maura was wondering what she should do. Obviously her friend was hurt and tired and might not want to go into the dark night, but then there was the whole thing where she had just kissed the corner of Jane's mouth and the intensity and electricity was thick in the air.
One could almost touch it.
"You don't have to go. I don't have a full evening planned or anything." Maura finally managed to say as Jane made her way to the door.
A dark head, with equally dark eyes turned to look at her and as Maura got closer she could see that there was only the narrowest band of mahogany along the edges of Jane's irises. Maura knew that it was not concussion that had Jane's pupils dilated; it was arousal. It made her speculate that perhaps her own eyes were in a similar state.
But what did they do about this?
"Jo Friday is waiting." Jane said, her speech no longer so slurred.
Clearly the ibuprofen was starting to work.
"You could bring her back here." Maura offered.
Neither of them had to be at work tomorrow unless some case came up and Maura knew that there was no one waiting for Jane back at her apartment.
"Bass would enjoy that, I'm sure." Jane said dryly, looking at the immobile animal in question with a raised eyebrow.
Maura looked over at her pet. It was sleeping peacefully in its usual spot. She doubted the creature would mind Jane's dog, provided Jane's dog did not want to play catch with it or something.
"The offer is open, Jane. You are always welcome here in my home." Maura finally said, biting the inside of her mouth to stop the words, and in my heart from tumbling out as well.
Jane took a step towards Maura and raised an elegant hand to brush the hair from her eyes. Maura instinctively leaned into the touch, inexplicably wanting Jane to caress and touch her. It was a new craving, a new desire.
Or was it?
"I'll think about it." Jane finally said and dropped her hand from Maura's face.
A few moment later she was out the door and when Maura heard the detective's car start she finally let out the breath she had been holding and turned back to Bass.
"Think she'll be back?" Maura asked absently, not really expecting a reply.
The animal did not move, or react in any way to the question.
Maura would just have to wait and see for herself. If Jane came back, what would they do though? There were so many unanswered questions. And those questions would remain even if Jane did not come back tonight.
With a sigh, Maura moved to her kitchen to make some coffee. It was going to be a long night...
The End