Disclaimer: All recognizable Rizzoli & Isles characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners including, but not limited to Janet Tamaro, TNT or Tess Gerritsen. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this fan fiction story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No financial gain is associated with the publishing of this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note: I apologize for the delay. I was waiting until the review glitch was remedied as I hadn't seen any of your reviews from "Sound" (I don't receive the emails, maybe I should). Now that the glitch is fixed, here is the next installment of the Senses series. If you're keeping track, this means one more from here. One more that will likely be 2 chapters if y'all don't mind. -dkc

Sight

The dress hugged Maura's curves in a way that suggested it had been painted on, leaving nothing to the imagination. God, how she envied those brush strokes.

Jane was at a loss for words.

Maura's curves would have made a garbage bag look good if she had ever been forced to wear one. The clothes she chose did not wear her, she wore them. This revelation of red was no different.

Had she seen Maura in this dress before? Jane wondered. Yes, the swooping neckline is familiar. She wore it to work. How did I ever get anything done with her in that dress? My God, she's sexy.

Despite it being just another Sunday night family dinner, the host spent a great deal of time and care on her hair. She had it down in waves. She had been gradually lightening her hair since Jane had known her. It was not only lighter with the ever-present highlights, but less and less auburn. The easily drawn in Jane liked each change as much as the last.

Her eyes wandered the doctor's body from tawny tendrils that had escaped a wave to toned arms, bare except for capped sleeves, on down to the three-inch heels that were making Maura's legs pop. There was nothing that could be said that would do justice to this level of beauty.

It had been nearly impossible since she arrived for dinner to not be in constant physical contact with the doctor. She wanted nothing more than to be able to feel skin on skin. The slight brushing of hands, a subtle touch to the small of Maura's back and the resting of a hand on a red fabric-covered hip was all that Jane felt she could get away with. She wanted so much more and from the look in Maura's eyes when they'd touch, so did Maura.

Disappointingly, they weren't seated side by side at dinner. Jane ended up at the end of the table and Maura was seated next to Frankie, the younger Rizzoli effectively between them. This gave them a somewhat obstructed line of sight. They had glanced at one another as the arrangement permitted, but the sexual tension between them had cooled—perhaps mercifully.

That is until Angela asked a seemingly innocent question.

"Jane, I didn't think to ask you if you went out Friday night or if you and Maura watched movies?" Angela said as she passed the bowl of gnocchi to Frankie.

The clatter of Jane's fork as it dropped from her hand and hit the edge of her plate did not go unnoticed around the table. She attempted to shrug it off by taking a drink of her wine and clenching and unclenching her hand, but it was obvious she was off balance.

"We stayed at the house and watched a documentary I had been wanting to see for some time," Maura interjected, saving Jane from the awkward silence that had developed.

Frankie continued watching his sister, his budding detective instincts kicking in.

"I bet that was nice after as much as the two of you have been working."

As Angela said this, Jane's eyes found Maura's and latched on.

Nice? That's one way to put it, Jane thought to herself.

As Maura felt her cheeks reddening, a slight smile tried to break free. She was never known for having a good poker face.

"What was the documentary?" Angela continued.

It was Frankie who spoke up this time. He had caught on to the embarrassment his sister was trying to hide and for whatever reason wanted to put her out of her misery. Perhaps he was simply being a good brother.

"Ma!" he stopped her. "Just because you didn't do anything with your Friday night doesn't mean you can interrogate us about ours. Now, tell me what's in this sauce."

Jane nodded gratefully toward her brother and then her eyes were drawn back to Maura.

In shiny hazel eyes came both understanding and acceptance that as the ground moved beneath them, they were approaching the point where others might notice the increase in flirting, the longing looks, the gentle and no longer strictly platonic touches.

While she found herself contemplating the complexities of what they were embarking on, she realized that she hadn't given much thought recently to what all of this meant. Angela's voice was rattling on in her ears; she was experiencing some kind of emotional vertigo. For Jane, it felt as if reality was on one shoulder and fantasy on the other.

Maura knew how to read Jane better than anyone. She saw the look on her face and knew Jane must be deliberating over what might happen from here and how it was very likely those around them would find out sooner or later.

The raven-haired woman found her footing in Maura's patient, concerned and calm gaze.

"Janie, you and Maura should try that new Indian restaurant near the precinct," Angela's voice was slowly coming back into tune for Jane though she hated to turn away from Maura to express interest in whatever her mother was saying.

When her phone rang suddenly, Jane bristled.

"Rizzoli," Jane spoke into her handset just as the ring of Maura's phone began.

"Dr. Isles," Maura said, the look on her face one of complete disappointment.

A crime scene beckoned.

…

"Dr. Isles?" the fire chief approached, the crime scene in complete chaos. "We have decontamination showers set up and we need to get you and Detective Rizzoli to them. Detective Frost is finishing now."

"I don't envy the task of having to tell Jane," Maura mumbled as she followed the large and imposing man.

No sooner had the words left her mouth, Jane's voice could be heard arguing with the health department representative.

"We're supposed to shower where?!" she spotted Maura following the fire chief. "Maur, tell me they aren't going to force us into a camp shower!"

"It's a mobile unit, Jane," Maura attempted to calm the detective who now resembled a caged animal. "The city has this large trailer for incidents just like this. We won't be throwing together a tent for you to shower in right in the middle of the parking lot."

This was no consolation to Jane. She remembered the training she and her fellow officers were given on decon. The "facility" was more or less a series of pods, open one to the next where she would have to strip and shower.

Maura climbed the steps to the decon trailer and placed her hand on door. She waited a moment for Jane to catch up before holding the door open for the reluctant detective. Frost was on his way out in a pair of BPD sweats.

Maura smiled at the young cop.

There was one female member of her staff that had begun the process of removing her clothes for incineration, she would likely be finishing showering as they reached the stage of removing their clothes. While it was far from private, there were dividers between each stage of the decontamination. The biggest issue she anticipated for Jane was the windows between pods. The person undressing could see the person showering.

"This is bullshit," Jane whined. "What's the likelihood we were actually exposed to radioactive material? If we were, what difference would a shower make? No, don't answer that. I don't want to have to worry about that, too."

"Take your clothes off, Jane."

The detective looked at the M.E. and had no idea what to say, where to look or how to get on with this necessity. She stepped into the first pod and began slowly undressing, one measly item at a time. She was glad Maura was outside and couldn't see her.

If she hadn't been so dumbstruck by what Maura had said—more precisely the way Maura had said it, with force—she would have realized that by going into the stalls first, she had no control over the fact that Maura would have a full view of Jane as she was showering. She wasn't afraid of Maura looking, but, God, this was awkward. She hoped Maura was otherwise distracted.

The M.E. got into the first pod and listened as Jane got into the shower pod several minutes later. She was in the midst of her third bobbypin retrieval when she heard Jane's water turn on.

It was taking all of Maura's willpower to not turn to get a good look at Jane. She wanted to give Jane as much privacy as possible. But the draw was too powerful.

The part of her profession that carried over into her personal life was the way the naked human body could be of neither interest nor discomfort. She had seen naked bodies of every shape and size, male and female, and had never given the professional side of that much thought. Even in her private life she didn't think too terribly much about the array of sexual partners she had seen in the nude. She was attracted or she wasn't, satisfied or not.

In this moment, in the most unlikely of places, the naked human body took on new importance. She had never found herself as attracted to another human. She had never found herself so taken with the individual muscles that made up the whole.

Jane's shoulders were strong yet thin. Her entire body was like that, a study in paradoxes. Without an ounce of excess on her frame, she had curves in all the right places. Her skin was a perfect light olive tone with an absence of sun damage. It was smooth over vast planes until it met the rough scars like the large one stretching on to her lower back where a bullet once ripped through from front to back.

When her eyes became drawn to the small indentations or sacral dimples, the doctor's heartbeat plunged to be felt a foot lower at a place nearer her pubic bone. She looked at Jane's glutes with appreciation, an appreciation that created distance between what she wanted and where she was. She was seeing this through the condensation on a window separating pods.

She hadn't forgotten where they were entirely as the naked and wet Jane Rizzoli turned off the showerhead and found the doctor's eyes. It would have been easy to ignore their circumstances completely.

Of the two, the woman who had been raised in the Catholic Church was by far the most modest. Even with her own sexual partners, Jane was never comfortable being naked. She, unlike Maura, was not one to sleep without clothes or wander around her house in the nude. But when she turned around, these were not the sole reasons for her modesty.

Her face reddened, even more so than the hot water had caused, her pupils broadened, and though she instinctively attempted to place an arm over as much of her front as she could cover, she seemed to be offering herself by facing Maura rather than turning away and fleeing to the next pod.

Modesty, as it were, came to her mind not in that moment when she realized that Maura was looking at her, she quite liked hazel eyes on her, but when she heard the fire chief's voice somewhere nearby arguing with another familiar voice.

This was neither the time nor the place.

Dammit.

With reticence, Jane moved to the next pod for dressing and left Maura to her own undressing and shower.

What she didn't know was Jane had peeked over her own shoulder once—twice—before shutting the thin door to the dressing pod and reaching for the very poor quality towel she was to use. She took a deep breath before turning to the task of dressing.

God in Heaven, she thought as she bit her lip at the sight of Maura completely naked.

She was unable to move, unable to speak, unable to breathe. The water wasn't hot enough to have caused the flush and glisten of sweat on the doctor's face and chest. She had clearly seen more of Jane than the detective had thought.

Not a single noise got past her lips, despite the battle to do so.

The squeaking of the door that came from the far end of the trailer was followed by a woman's voice informing Detective Rizzoli where she would find a pair of sweats.

Jesus, Jane, she said to herself. You're gone.

Yet despite knowing she was ogling Maura with her eyes, she couldn't pull herself away. It was the soft chuckle of Maura that got her to budge. Their eyes met for a brief second before she quickly dressed and exited the pod.

Jane had a front row seat for Maura's shower, but she couldn't trust her body. Her legs were wobbly as it was and she could feel her heart beat in all kinds of precarious places. If she were to watch, there was no telling what might transpire.

It was going to be a long night.

...

Susie Chang awaited the doctor at the exit of the decon trailer, her worry etched on her face. She asked the M.E. all of her questions, ensured that the doctor was okay and then asked how she could help despite not technically being allowed out in the field for a crime scene like this one. Maura appreciated her protégé's eagerness to do the job.

As she and Susie rounded the trailer, she saw Jane speaking with Korsak, Frost, the fire chief and Cavanaugh, the magnitude of the case evident by Cavanaugh's presence on scene alone.

For a brief moment their eyes locked.

Jane had looked up from the conversation to see the doctor in matching sweats less than a dozen yards away. The realization that the beautiful, figure-hugging red dress Maura had been wearing would have to be destroyed made Jane momentarily sad. Her heart was lifted by the subtle and extremely sexy smile that Maura gave her.

God, this woman was everything she needed.

Offering a slight smirk in return, Jane's attention returned to the planning at hand.

It would be three days of hell before Homeland Security would step in and take lead on the case. It wasn't the waiting for direction that was hell, however. It was waiting to be alone with Maura.

…

Jane could somehow sense the doctor's arrival before she heard the tell-tale click of heels.

When she looked up, she found her pulse quickening at the sight of Maura in tight trousers and a blouse with a barely appropriate amount of plunging neckline. She hadn't even realized the woman was carrying coffee until she stood next to the desk and held it out.

It was the morning after her second straight all-nighter. She was exhausted, but she wasn't dead. Seeing Maura was a rush.

"Anything new?" Maura asked. She had gone home late when it was obvious she could no longer do anything.

"Homeland still isn't here. I guess we'll either break the case wide open or be kicked aside when they manage to show up."

Handing Jane her coffee, the M.E. noticed the physiological signs of sleep deprivation on her friend's face. It seemed a long time since they were called away from Sunday dinner for this case.

"Have you slept at all?" Maura asked.

Shrugging her shoulders, hardly sure if the 2-hour nap she had was before midnight or after, she didn't answer aloud.

"You are welcome to use the couch in my office."

As soon as it had left Maura's mouth, the detective's eyebrow raised, the corner of her mouth twitched and her eyes darkened. Realization of what Jane was thinking caused Maura's cheeks to color. She hadn't meant to imply what Jane was apparently thinking, but now her mind followed suit.

"Good morning, Dr. Isles," Korsak said as he and Frost entered the room and sat at their desks near Jane's.

"Hi, detectives," she managed to respond without sounding rattled.

"Jane," Maura turned back to the woman who looked like she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "Would you accompany me to the elevator?"

Embarrassed, Jane nodded and followed the doctor out. She reached Maura just as the doctor pressed the button for the elevator.

"I'd accompany you if you'd slow down," Jane joked.

"Get in."

With a furrowed brow and an equal amount of fear and curiosity, she did as she was told. She was shocked to have a hand pressing against her chest, backing her up until she couldn't move.

"Maur?" she squeaked. "What are you—"

"Did you think you could give me that look and get away with it?" Maura leaned in.

As the sudden realization of what Maura was talking about hit her, she had thought something far from innocent at the offer of the office couch, she thought it best to remind her of where they were.

"Cameras," she hissed.

At this Maura flattened her hand against the detective's chest and brought her mouth tantalizingly close to an earlobe.

"If you had been reading your email you would know the precinct's security system has been down for a week," she hummed. "If you had been reading me, you'd know that an insinuation of anything but napping on the couch in my office would be met like this."

Jane couldn't speak. The warmth of breath on her ear and cheek battled for the biggest distraction with the palm residing against her chest. There was little to no space between them and she could hardly catch her breath.

Maura casually went about finally hitting the elevator button so the doors wouldn't open to the floor they were departing. They didn't need an audience. Once it was pushed, she lost her ability to think when Jane's hand came to the nape of her neck. She pulled back slightly so they could look at one another.

"Do you know how nice it was to see you walk into Homicide after a long night? Those hips, that smile, coffee..." she grinned at the doctor. "Can you blame me for wanting more than a nap on your couch?"

"No, I guess I can't. However," Maura pressed closer, "don't expect me to be as restrained next time you give me that look."

The elevator came to a stop and the departing passenger put space between them before the doors could open.

"Oh, and Jane?" she said as she exited and began walking away. "Wrap up this case, detective."

When the doors closed, the detective knew that the absence of a look from Maura as she said those words was as powerful as the look that precipitated their elevator encounter.

If this was a game, what a dangerous game.

-finis-