Fic: 'Electricity' Chapter One - 'The Little Black Dress'
Title: Electricity
Pairing: Jane/Maura
Rating: T
Summary: Maura knows what she wants. The only problem is that Jane won't allow herself to act on her feelings; not yet - anyway...
Disclaimer: These characters are in no way mine, and I do not intend to make profit from this story. All kudos goes to Tess Gerritson for these wonderful characters.
CHAPTER ONE - 'The Little Black Dress'
The sound of the doorbell startled Maura Isles, causing her to jump and drop the carving knife she was holding in her hand. 'Shit', she mumbled to herself as she bent down to pick it up, placing it on the black granite worktop in front of her. She was in the middle of preparing dinner; carving some pancetta before throwing it on top of a leafy salad full of beans, lentils and feta cheese. Turning around, she headed for her apartment door and looked through the spy hole in the centre of the hardwood door. For a split second, she was greeted with a mass of dark, curly hair until Jane turned around to knock again. She had her hair neatly parted and make-up on her face. Unbolting the chain on the back of the door, Maura opened the door for her.
"Jane? What are you doing here?" Maura knew she had been to her parents' house for dinner tonight, and so for Jane to turn up at eight-thirty was a little surprising.
"Can I come in?" Jane ran her hand down the side of her face and sighed slightly as Maura opened the door up for her to step inside the apartment.
"Of course you can. You know you're always welcome here, Jane." Maura shut the door and pulled the chain across the lock and walked back towards the kitchen. "I'm just in the middle of preparing dinner, if you want some?"
"I'd rather have a beer." Jane didn't mean to sound so harsh; her mother always just seemed to find the right buttons to push to wind her up.
Maura looked into the fridge, knowing that there wasn't any beer but to purely placate Jane. "Mmm, no. No beer, but I do have some wine if you'd like?" She turned towards Jane who had now sat on the couch, turning her body halfway round to face Maura.
"Just anything alcoholic will do." She shrugged and rested her chin upon her elbows.
"Cabernet or Sauvignon Blanc?" Maura held up a bottle of each, pointing them towards Jane?
"Whatever, Maura. Just a drink. God, that woman drives me crazy!"
The cabernet wine won that argument and Maura grabbed the corkscrew from the second drawer to her left and pulled the cork from the bottle. She grabbed two suitably oversized glasses from her overhead cabinet and poured some wine into each of them before walking over to Jane on the couch. An extended arm offered her a glass and she sat down besides Jane, who shifted her weight and sat forwards on the cream leather suite. Maura raised her glass to her glossy lips and took a sip. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Jane shook her head as she completely emptied her glass. Placing it on the coffee table in front of her, she sat back and sighed. "She just drives me completely insane, Maura. I got to her house, and found out that there was no family dinner - she was setting me up on another date. I mean, who does that? AND she wouldn't even contemplate me seeing my supposed date before changing into this stupid dress she bought for me. I'm in my mid-thirties and my mother is buying my clothes? It's ridiculous."
Maura tried not to snicker. "Well, that is quintessential Angela for you. But Jane, are you more angry about the dress or the date?"
"Both! I'm a grown woman, if I decide I don't want a man in my life, then that's my decision. Just because she wants grandkids - she assumes that I have to be the one to provide them! What is this, 1930's Boston? Is she forgetting that Frankie has functioning reproductive organs aswell?" Jane couldn't help but laugh at her own statement. She put her hands up to her face and shook her head. "It's just...I feel as though she's treating me as if I'm twelve again. I worked myself up so much I even brought the dress with me. That's probably given her some sense of satisfaction, right there."
That piqued Maura's interest; she always thought that Jane's wardrobe could do with spicing up. She had tried so many times in vain but Jane always went back to her plain and simple slacks and tee-shirts. She raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Can I see the dress?"
Jane stood up and walked towards the kitchen with her glass, pouring herself another drink. She returned to the couch with the rest of the bottle and topped up Maura's glass. She shrugged as she put the bottle down onto the table. "Sure, I'll go and get it."
Jane left the apartment and went back to her car to retrieve the dress bag that was laying across the backseat of her car. Maura stood up and straightened things up, fixing her hair in the mirror before applying another slick layer of lip gloss to her lips. She had barely put the tube down onto the table before Jane reappeared through the door of the apartment, which she had left unchained. Maura chained the apartment door and then sat back down on the couch.
"Well? Let me see it." She picked up her glass and took another sip of wine. Jane unzipped the back and pulled the three-quarter length, low-cut black dress out of its bag and held it up for Maura to see. Placing her glass back down, Maura looked towards Jane. "No, let me see it, properly. Put it on."
"You cannot be serious, Maura. I don't do dresses." Jane draped the dress over the chair next to her and folded her arms across her chest adamantly. Maura picked up Jane's glass and took it over to her.
"Here, take a sip, then just go into the bathroom and get changed. If not for anything, do it for the laugh..." Maura winked at her playfully as she picked up the dress and nudged it towards her. "Go on." She knew she'd get her own way with Jane; she always did.
Jane let out an audible sigh and rolled her eyes. She muttered something that sounded like an alright lowly under her breath and disappeared into the bathroom, not entirely closing the door properly. Maura's eyes followed her into the bathroom and could see Jane beginning to take her clothes off, removing her jacket first and then her top. She felt herself blush and turned away modestly, just in case Jane happened to turn around. Don't let her see you watching, she thought to herself. Sipping the rest of her wine, she got up and went to open another bottle. She uncorked it and went to check on Bass, who appeared to be sleeping happily beneath the work counter island. Maura smiled and stroked him gently and then picked up the bottle and her glass, returning to her sofa.
"Alright," Jane sounded despondent. "Are you ready?"
Maura sat up, "Yes, come out - I wanna see!"
"I swear if you laugh at me, I'll leap on you and break your arm." Jane could almost hear Maura rolling her eyes as she reached for the door. Her heart almost leapt as she noted that she hadn't closed it. Had Maura seen her getting changed? Shit, that would be embarrassing, she thought to herself. Gulping quietly she stepped out of the bathroom and into Maura's line of sight. The dress she was wearing was low-cut at the front with a sloping v-neck line, and under her bust it had three silver lengths of fabric separating the line of her body. Jane stood as though she'd been told Joe Friday had died, shoulders slumped and arms hanging lazily at the sides of her body.
"Well, turn then!" Maura almost leapt out of her seat with excitement and motioned with her hands what she wanted Jane to do. Her eyes drank Jane in, looking her up and down; the dress fit perfectly. Hugging every curve of her slender figure, and as she turned the v-neck also draped down the back, revealing the length of her back to just above her waist. She had to stop her mouth from hanging open, especially before Jane noticed but she couldn't stop the glimmer in her eyes at the vision before her. "Jane... you look...w-well you look amazing!" She sat forward in her seat.
Jane blushed and shook her head. "Shush, Maura - you're supposed to say that. You're my best friend." Her fingers nervously played with the skirt and she bit the corner of her lip anxiously. Maura stood up and made her way towards Jane, resting her hands on Jane's shoulders whilst looking her up and down from a closer distance. The way the dress wrapped itself delicately around Jane's breasts, her hips and then flowed freely across her thighs and legs astounded Maura.
"Maura? Maura..." The sound of Jane's voice caused Maura to look up and catch Jane's eyes. "Are you okay? You spaced out on me... Are you sure I don't look absolutely hideous... I mean, you don't have to lie to me, its okay."
"You look absolutely... perfect, Jane. Really, you do." Maura grinned at Jane, and for a couple of seconds they caught themselves staring into each others' eyes. A smile broke out across Jane's face and Maura snapped her head away, returning to the kitchen. These were feelings she was uncertain about; she'd felt something for Jane a few times but always locked it away deep down in the realms of her stomach - it wasn't right. Jane was her best friend and she wasn't about to compromise their friendship on the whim of a silly crush.
She tossed the salad she had been busy preparing earlier - not because she was hungry, but she was trying to distract herself from what was happening in her own apartment. "D...do you want something to eat, Jane?" Maura asked quickly, changing the subject. Her heart was beating a thousand beats per second, and she was almost certain that Jane would be able to hear it from halfway across the room.
Jane felt almost bereft by Maura's actions, she couldn't make sense of what had just happened. "Maura, are you okay? What's wrong?" She walked up to Maura and ghosted her hand lightly across her back, causing Maura to jolt and stiffen her posture slightly; her skin felt like a thousand volts had just ran through her body.
"Nothing's wrong, don't be silly. I'm fine. Dinner?" Maura plated up the food.
"No, Maura, I don't want food. Are you okay, are you sure?" Jane tried to block her view so Maura had no choice but to look at her.
"I'm fine," Maura replied quietly. "Anyway, what did you tell your mom exactly?" Jane turned away and collected her wine glass, drinking the wine down again. She seemed to be making a habit of this tonight. She hadn't meant for it to happen, she just blurted it out. The whole thing was completely crazy, but Angela had been digging at Jane for months now about having a steady relationship, settling down and giving her and her dad the grandkids they'd always wanted. So when Angela had been ranting on for at least ten minutes, Jane hadn't meant to tell her mom that the reason she wasn't interested was 'because... because I'm dating Maura!', but she couldn't stop herself once she had opened her mouth. And then she had run out of her parents' home, not stopping to find out what Angela's reaction had been, and headed straight over to Maura's. She was not only angry at Angela, but at herself for acting like such a fool. Now she had messed everything up; but somehow couldn't tell Maura what had happened. She wanted to, really, but what if that jeopardised their relationship? It wouldn't be worth losing their friendship over, nothing would be worth that. She couldn't bear to think of life without Maura, it seemed to be a dark, awful thing. Jane was prepared to lie to her best friend rather than lose her.
"I told her I wasn't interested... that I was dating someone else. And then I ran and came here. I'm sorry for ruining your evening, Maura. I'll just get changed and then I'll leave." Jane headed for the bathroom, shutting the door behind her and changing from the dress her mom had bought her into her work clothes.
Maura heard the bathroom door click behind Jane, confused and bewildered by what had happened. Jane didn't like women, no, Jane definitely had a 'type', a penchant for tall, dark men. Her stomach twisted at the thought of her with a man, just as it had every time Jane had told her she was going on a date, or recapping what had happened the night of her dates. It was a crazy kind of jealousy, one Maura hadn't allowed herself to identify, because that would mean admitting how she felt for this woman. She had grown up with her parents teaching her that a 'family' meant a woman, a man, and two children - the typical stereotype. She had already lost one set of parents when she was adopted, and she certainly didn't want to lose a second set; this would disappoint them, break them to the core to realise that their only daughter was in fact, a lesbian.
Maura was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't hear Jane come out of the bathroom. She only heard the clink of the glass as Jane sat it down and then looked towards her.
"I think I'm going to head home, Maura. I'll see you tomorrow? Thanks for being a good friend."
Friend. That was how Jane saw her. Maura felt so confused she didn't know how to react. She smiled bleakly and nodded. "Sure, see you tomorrow, Jane."
So, I posted this over at fanfiction.net and it seemed to get a pretty good response; so I'd be curious to find out what you all think! :) Comments and Criticism's are love! ♥
Pairing: Jane/Maura
Rating: T
Summary: Maura knows what she wants. The only problem is that Jane won't allow herself to act on her feelings; not yet - anyway...
Disclaimer: These characters are in no way mine, and I do not intend to make profit from this story. All kudos goes to Tess Gerritson for these wonderful characters.
CHAPTER ONE - 'The Little Black Dress'
The sound of the doorbell startled Maura Isles, causing her to jump and drop the carving knife she was holding in her hand. 'Shit', she mumbled to herself as she bent down to pick it up, placing it on the black granite worktop in front of her. She was in the middle of preparing dinner; carving some pancetta before throwing it on top of a leafy salad full of beans, lentils and feta cheese. Turning around, she headed for her apartment door and looked through the spy hole in the centre of the hardwood door. For a split second, she was greeted with a mass of dark, curly hair until Jane turned around to knock again. She had her hair neatly parted and make-up on her face. Unbolting the chain on the back of the door, Maura opened the door for her.
"Jane? What are you doing here?" Maura knew she had been to her parents' house for dinner tonight, and so for Jane to turn up at eight-thirty was a little surprising.
"Can I come in?" Jane ran her hand down the side of her face and sighed slightly as Maura opened the door up for her to step inside the apartment.
"Of course you can. You know you're always welcome here, Jane." Maura shut the door and pulled the chain across the lock and walked back towards the kitchen. "I'm just in the middle of preparing dinner, if you want some?"
"I'd rather have a beer." Jane didn't mean to sound so harsh; her mother always just seemed to find the right buttons to push to wind her up.
Maura looked into the fridge, knowing that there wasn't any beer but to purely placate Jane. "Mmm, no. No beer, but I do have some wine if you'd like?" She turned towards Jane who had now sat on the couch, turning her body halfway round to face Maura.
"Just anything alcoholic will do." She shrugged and rested her chin upon her elbows.
"Cabernet or Sauvignon Blanc?" Maura held up a bottle of each, pointing them towards Jane?
"Whatever, Maura. Just a drink. God, that woman drives me crazy!"
The cabernet wine won that argument and Maura grabbed the corkscrew from the second drawer to her left and pulled the cork from the bottle. She grabbed two suitably oversized glasses from her overhead cabinet and poured some wine into each of them before walking over to Jane on the couch. An extended arm offered her a glass and she sat down besides Jane, who shifted her weight and sat forwards on the cream leather suite. Maura raised her glass to her glossy lips and took a sip. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Jane shook her head as she completely emptied her glass. Placing it on the coffee table in front of her, she sat back and sighed. "She just drives me completely insane, Maura. I got to her house, and found out that there was no family dinner - she was setting me up on another date. I mean, who does that? AND she wouldn't even contemplate me seeing my supposed date before changing into this stupid dress she bought for me. I'm in my mid-thirties and my mother is buying my clothes? It's ridiculous."
Maura tried not to snicker. "Well, that is quintessential Angela for you. But Jane, are you more angry about the dress or the date?"
"Both! I'm a grown woman, if I decide I don't want a man in my life, then that's my decision. Just because she wants grandkids - she assumes that I have to be the one to provide them! What is this, 1930's Boston? Is she forgetting that Frankie has functioning reproductive organs aswell?" Jane couldn't help but laugh at her own statement. She put her hands up to her face and shook her head. "It's just...I feel as though she's treating me as if I'm twelve again. I worked myself up so much I even brought the dress with me. That's probably given her some sense of satisfaction, right there."
That piqued Maura's interest; she always thought that Jane's wardrobe could do with spicing up. She had tried so many times in vain but Jane always went back to her plain and simple slacks and tee-shirts. She raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Can I see the dress?"
Jane stood up and walked towards the kitchen with her glass, pouring herself another drink. She returned to the couch with the rest of the bottle and topped up Maura's glass. She shrugged as she put the bottle down onto the table. "Sure, I'll go and get it."
Jane left the apartment and went back to her car to retrieve the dress bag that was laying across the backseat of her car. Maura stood up and straightened things up, fixing her hair in the mirror before applying another slick layer of lip gloss to her lips. She had barely put the tube down onto the table before Jane reappeared through the door of the apartment, which she had left unchained. Maura chained the apartment door and then sat back down on the couch.
"Well? Let me see it." She picked up her glass and took another sip of wine. Jane unzipped the back and pulled the three-quarter length, low-cut black dress out of its bag and held it up for Maura to see. Placing her glass back down, Maura looked towards Jane. "No, let me see it, properly. Put it on."
"You cannot be serious, Maura. I don't do dresses." Jane draped the dress over the chair next to her and folded her arms across her chest adamantly. Maura picked up Jane's glass and took it over to her.
"Here, take a sip, then just go into the bathroom and get changed. If not for anything, do it for the laugh..." Maura winked at her playfully as she picked up the dress and nudged it towards her. "Go on." She knew she'd get her own way with Jane; she always did.
Jane let out an audible sigh and rolled her eyes. She muttered something that sounded like an alright lowly under her breath and disappeared into the bathroom, not entirely closing the door properly. Maura's eyes followed her into the bathroom and could see Jane beginning to take her clothes off, removing her jacket first and then her top. She felt herself blush and turned away modestly, just in case Jane happened to turn around. Don't let her see you watching, she thought to herself. Sipping the rest of her wine, she got up and went to open another bottle. She uncorked it and went to check on Bass, who appeared to be sleeping happily beneath the work counter island. Maura smiled and stroked him gently and then picked up the bottle and her glass, returning to her sofa.
"Alright," Jane sounded despondent. "Are you ready?"
Maura sat up, "Yes, come out - I wanna see!"
"I swear if you laugh at me, I'll leap on you and break your arm." Jane could almost hear Maura rolling her eyes as she reached for the door. Her heart almost leapt as she noted that she hadn't closed it. Had Maura seen her getting changed? Shit, that would be embarrassing, she thought to herself. Gulping quietly she stepped out of the bathroom and into Maura's line of sight. The dress she was wearing was low-cut at the front with a sloping v-neck line, and under her bust it had three silver lengths of fabric separating the line of her body. Jane stood as though she'd been told Joe Friday had died, shoulders slumped and arms hanging lazily at the sides of her body.
"Well, turn then!" Maura almost leapt out of her seat with excitement and motioned with her hands what she wanted Jane to do. Her eyes drank Jane in, looking her up and down; the dress fit perfectly. Hugging every curve of her slender figure, and as she turned the v-neck also draped down the back, revealing the length of her back to just above her waist. She had to stop her mouth from hanging open, especially before Jane noticed but she couldn't stop the glimmer in her eyes at the vision before her. "Jane... you look...w-well you look amazing!" She sat forward in her seat.
Jane blushed and shook her head. "Shush, Maura - you're supposed to say that. You're my best friend." Her fingers nervously played with the skirt and she bit the corner of her lip anxiously. Maura stood up and made her way towards Jane, resting her hands on Jane's shoulders whilst looking her up and down from a closer distance. The way the dress wrapped itself delicately around Jane's breasts, her hips and then flowed freely across her thighs and legs astounded Maura.
"Maura? Maura..." The sound of Jane's voice caused Maura to look up and catch Jane's eyes. "Are you okay? You spaced out on me... Are you sure I don't look absolutely hideous... I mean, you don't have to lie to me, its okay."
"You look absolutely... perfect, Jane. Really, you do." Maura grinned at Jane, and for a couple of seconds they caught themselves staring into each others' eyes. A smile broke out across Jane's face and Maura snapped her head away, returning to the kitchen. These were feelings she was uncertain about; she'd felt something for Jane a few times but always locked it away deep down in the realms of her stomach - it wasn't right. Jane was her best friend and she wasn't about to compromise their friendship on the whim of a silly crush.
She tossed the salad she had been busy preparing earlier - not because she was hungry, but she was trying to distract herself from what was happening in her own apartment. "D...do you want something to eat, Jane?" Maura asked quickly, changing the subject. Her heart was beating a thousand beats per second, and she was almost certain that Jane would be able to hear it from halfway across the room.
Jane felt almost bereft by Maura's actions, she couldn't make sense of what had just happened. "Maura, are you okay? What's wrong?" She walked up to Maura and ghosted her hand lightly across her back, causing Maura to jolt and stiffen her posture slightly; her skin felt like a thousand volts had just ran through her body.
"Nothing's wrong, don't be silly. I'm fine. Dinner?" Maura plated up the food.
"No, Maura, I don't want food. Are you okay, are you sure?" Jane tried to block her view so Maura had no choice but to look at her.
"I'm fine," Maura replied quietly. "Anyway, what did you tell your mom exactly?" Jane turned away and collected her wine glass, drinking the wine down again. She seemed to be making a habit of this tonight. She hadn't meant for it to happen, she just blurted it out. The whole thing was completely crazy, but Angela had been digging at Jane for months now about having a steady relationship, settling down and giving her and her dad the grandkids they'd always wanted. So when Angela had been ranting on for at least ten minutes, Jane hadn't meant to tell her mom that the reason she wasn't interested was 'because... because I'm dating Maura!', but she couldn't stop herself once she had opened her mouth. And then she had run out of her parents' home, not stopping to find out what Angela's reaction had been, and headed straight over to Maura's. She was not only angry at Angela, but at herself for acting like such a fool. Now she had messed everything up; but somehow couldn't tell Maura what had happened. She wanted to, really, but what if that jeopardised their relationship? It wouldn't be worth losing their friendship over, nothing would be worth that. She couldn't bear to think of life without Maura, it seemed to be a dark, awful thing. Jane was prepared to lie to her best friend rather than lose her.
"I told her I wasn't interested... that I was dating someone else. And then I ran and came here. I'm sorry for ruining your evening, Maura. I'll just get changed and then I'll leave." Jane headed for the bathroom, shutting the door behind her and changing from the dress her mom had bought her into her work clothes.
Maura heard the bathroom door click behind Jane, confused and bewildered by what had happened. Jane didn't like women, no, Jane definitely had a 'type', a penchant for tall, dark men. Her stomach twisted at the thought of her with a man, just as it had every time Jane had told her she was going on a date, or recapping what had happened the night of her dates. It was a crazy kind of jealousy, one Maura hadn't allowed herself to identify, because that would mean admitting how she felt for this woman. She had grown up with her parents teaching her that a 'family' meant a woman, a man, and two children - the typical stereotype. She had already lost one set of parents when she was adopted, and she certainly didn't want to lose a second set; this would disappoint them, break them to the core to realise that their only daughter was in fact, a lesbian.
Maura was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't hear Jane come out of the bathroom. She only heard the clink of the glass as Jane sat it down and then looked towards her.
"I think I'm going to head home, Maura. I'll see you tomorrow? Thanks for being a good friend."
Friend. That was how Jane saw her. Maura felt so confused she didn't know how to react. She smiled bleakly and nodded. "Sure, see you tomorrow, Jane."
So, I posted this over at fanfiction.net and it seemed to get a pretty good response; so I'd be curious to find out what you all think! :) Comments and Criticism's are love! ♥