Archive of Our Own ^beta

Life wasn’t exactly easy for Jane Rizzoli, but it wasn’t exactly hard for her ether. Growing up middle class there where things she knew she was never going to have, but at the same time she never went hungry. Sure, she never attended college but she was top of her class at the police academy. Over all her life was pretty good, right?

“Breathe… Now what do you smell?” Jane asked, her hand intertwined and resting on the table.

The 20 something year old across form her had his eyes closed and took a deep breath, in though the noise and out through the mouth.

“Soda? Root beer maybe. My…my brother drinks Root beer” he said. His eyes shot opened. “It was my brother! Fucker took my shirt.” He huffed. The Class around them started to laugh.

Jane smiled and stood up. “Remember not every person you interrogate is the enemy sometimes they just need a little help.” She looked down at her watch and sighed. “Okay that’s enough for today. Make sure to finish the report by tomorrow. I hated pop quizzes when I was in school so consider this your warning for tomorrow.”

The class packed up their stuff and headed out one by one. Jane went back to her desk and organized some papers.

“Thanks for your help Professor Rizzoli.” Jack, the student she was interviewing, said. “I need to call my brother, but thank you.”

Jane smiled. “Yeah, no problem, I have two brothers and one still takes my beer.” Jack smiled and nodded as he walked out. She went back to her papers, grading homework was one of the less fun parts of her job.

“Ask her.” A girl said.

“No, you ask her.” Another girl said.

“You ask it your book.” The first one said.

Jane sighed and looked up, it was two of her students Claire and Ashley. “One of you ask me already.” She snapped but she wasn’t angry.

Ashley stepped up to Jane’s desk. “Is it true?” She asked.

Jane smirked.

Ashley nodded; they had just gone over general questions last class. “Is it true you know Dr. Maura Isles?”

Jane couldn’t help but smile she felt her cheeks starting to go red. “Yes, she’s my best friend.”

Claire nudged Ashley. “Ask her.” She whispered.

Ashley held out a hardback book. “Can you ask her to sign this?” she said in one breath.

Jane only had to glance at the book’s cover to know it was one that Maura wrote. She felt a wave of pride rush through her. “Yeah no problem I’m sure she be happy to.” She took the book and put in her bag.

Ashley squealed, yes squealed, as she jumped up and down. “Thank you.”

“You better pass the test tomorrow.”

“Yes Sir.” Ashley said saluting Jane. Jane just smiled and waved off the two girls.

After an hour or so, Jane stretched her arms over her head, and sighed happily. She had finished grading her papers and now she could go home. It was a short drive from base to her home, after all Maura had done days’ worth of research for her to find the right house.

“Honey I’m home!” she called out entering her house. A German shepherd golden lab mix rushed up to her jumping on her hind legs. “Hey, girl how you doing?”

Jane hung her jacket on the coat rack. She walked through the house setting her bag down next to a cluttered desk without a space to work. She took out the book and placed it on a nearby desk that was made of hard mahogany wood, a pen holder in its place, three books neatly stacked to the side and a laptop resting in the center.

She walked to the kitchen and grabbed a beer, blue moon her favorite, and sat down on the couch in the living room.

She looked down at her watch, just then her phone started to ring, she smiled.

“Rizzoli.”

“Korsak.”

“Hey, long time.”

Korsak laughed. “Yeah, a whole week. You need to call your mom.”

“Yeah I’ll call right after you.” Jane laughed. “How’s Josh?”

“Amazing you never guess what school he got into.”

“Harvard?” Jane guessed.

“The police academy.”

“No way. He wants to be a cop?”

Korsak nodded even though he knew Jane couldn’t see him. “He said cop, detective and then sergeant.”

“Just like his old, old, man.”

“One old would have been fine.”

“How’s Kiki?”

“Great, she went back to school to get a degree.”

Jane’s brow furrowed. “I thought she already had a degree.”

“No, now she wants to be a psychologist.”

“Wants to be? Wait you took life advice from someone not certified?”

“Best advice in my life.”

Jane shrugged. “Can’t argue with results.” He laughed, just then her dog jumped on the chair across from her. The dog had a shoe in her mouth, but not just any shoe, a red high heeled shoe. “Shit. Nancy get though out of your mouth.”

“Nancy?” Korsak asked.

“My dog.” Jane said struggling to get the shoe out of the dog’s mouth.

“Nancy Drew?” he asked with a huge smiled.

Jane finally pulled the shoe out. “Oh, yeah because Joe Friday is such a clever name.” she shot back.

“Fair.”

The front door opened, pulling Jane’s attention for both the phone call and the dog. “I. Shit I. Got to go.”

“Call your mother.” Korsak managed to get though before Jane hung up.

“Hey babe.” Jane smiled hiding the shoe behind her back.

Maura raised her eyebrow as she hung her jacket on the coat rack next to Jane’s. “Is there a reason your hiding my shoe behind your back?”

Jane sighed as her shoulders dropped and she pulled to shoe out from behind her. “Nancy got a hold of it.”

Maura walked up and took the shoe to examine it closely. “A bit of saliva but no teeth marks.” She smiled.  

That smile, years of seeing it day in and day out and that smiled still make Jane weak in the knees. She still couldn’t forget just how lucky she was.

Jane fidgeted with the small box in her hand. Today was the day, today had to be the day because tomorrow she and Maura would be on a flight to Paris.

“Jane?” Maura asked walking out of the dirty robber to find Jane. After a celebratory toast Jane had gone outside for a breath of fresh air. “What are you doing out here?”

Jane looked away. “I um needed some air.”

“Do you want to be alone?” Maura asked.

“No.” Jane said a little too quickly.

Maura was taken back but she stepped close to Jane. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know.” She answered without a thought. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. “You know I care about you, right?”

“Of course. I care about you to.” Maura smiled.

“And. And you know I can’t imagine my life without you, right?” she said meeting Maura in the middle so they where inches apart.

Maura looked beyond confused. “Jane where are you going with this?”

“I love you Maura.” Jane said feeling like a weight was lifted off her.

Maura just smiled. “I love you to Jane.”

“And I don’t want to live my life without you.” Jane said holding up the small black box between them.

Maura looked at the box and back at Jane. “Jane?”

“I wanted to ask you out here, because I knew Ma, or god forbid Korsak would make a big deal about it.” Jane was about to drop to one knee, but Maura was faster, she jumped into Jane’s arms, her arms wrapping around her neck pulling her close as their lips connected. It felt like a life time but it was only a few seconds.

“Is that a yes?” Jane asked.

Maura laughed with tears in her eyes and nodded. “Yes. Yes.” She said.

Jane almost dropped the box as she opened it and placed the ring on Maura’s finger. “It was my grandmothers.” Jane smiled.

“Its perfect.” Maura smiled and hugged Jane tighter.

“I do love you Maura.” Jane said not knowing what else to do, no knowing how to truly express her feelings.

“I love you Jane.”

“You okay?” Maura asked, pulling Jane back to the present. “You drifted off there.”

Jane smiled. “Just thinking about how lucky I am.”

Maura’s eyebrows furrowed together. “Our dog just chewed my shoe and your lucky?” she asked.

“They weren’t my shoes.” Jane shrugged.

Maura shook her head and went to pour herself a glass of wine.

Jane suddenly remembered the book. “Oh hey, one of my students is a fan of yours.”

“Oh.” Was all Maura said but Jane could tell Maura was excited to know she had fans.

“She asked if you could sign her copy.” Jane said pulling up a chair and taking a drink of her beer.

“I never signed a book before.” Maura said thinking about it. “Should it be the same as my signature? No that would make it easy to forge. Should I make it cursive or a type of print? I should start practicing and try to figure it out.” She said rushing to the office.

Jane smiled. “So, pizza or Chinese?” she called out after her. Jane smiled, years later after her job as a detective and life was pretty good.

Yeah, pretty good.