Title: Snapshots
Rating: PG-13 (at most)
Words: 1000 (10 x 100) + titles
Spoilers: none, really
Notes: This is a collection of 10 unrelated Rizzoli & Isles drabbles (perhaps the start of a larger collection?). They were inspired by a challenge in another community. One of the prompts was Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want – Muse and had exactly 10 words (including the artist). Each word acted as an inspiration for one drabble, though none are necessarily related to the song itself.

Snapshots

"Oh, yes, please!"

"No! Three is enough!"

Both Maura and Jane spoke at the same time, then looked at each other. Jane spoke first, "Maura, no. I really think you've had enough."

Maura looked pleadingly at Jane, "Just this one more. I swear it's the last one."

"No," Jane was firm, "I'm cutting you off. It's for your own good, really."

Maura's shoulders slumped, conceding her friend was probably right. She then sadly handed the display shoe back to the sales man and changed her previous answer, "Thank you, but no, I don't need to see this in my size."

"Jane, I'm sorry. But this looks like a straight forward suicide."

Jane looked at the innocent teenaged face lying on the slab then back and Maura, "His parents... Maura, his parents are going to be devastated. Isn't there anything, anything that might indicate this was just an accident?"

Maura shook her head, "I've looked for an alternate explanation and I'm afraid there just isn't one."

"Well, can you look again?" Jane's face was pained, "Please?"

Maura took a deep breath. She knew it wouldn't make a difference, but she'd look. For this kid, for his parents. For Jane. She'd look.

"Ma, please!" Jane was horrified when after Sunday dinner her mother decided it would be fun to show Maura Jane's childhood picture albums. "This is exactly why I never bring friends home for dinner!"

"Oh, hush!"

"At least not the bathtub pictures, Ma! I'm naked in half those pictures!"

"Jane," her mother reasoned, "Maura is a doctor. There's nothing you got that she hasn't seen before, right doc?"

"Actually, you probably wouldn't believe how correct that statement is, Mrs. Rizzoli."

Jane's eyes widened at Maura, who just smiled sweetly back, knowing the comment went right over the elder Rizzoli's head.

"So what's going on now?" Jane looked confusedly at the TV.

"It's a let," Maura explained.

"A what?"

"A let."

"What the hell is a let?"

"They have to do the serve again because the ball touched the net."

"So why not call it a do-over?"

"A what?"

"A do-over. Why don't they call it a do-over?"

"Because it's called a let."

"See," Jane flopped back on the couch, "That's why I don't like tennis. Because it has stupid names for things."

"I thought you didn't like tennis because you think it's a posh country club sport."

"Yeah, that, too."

Jane flashed her badge to the local PD at the yellow tape, "Detective Rizzoli, Boston homicide. This is Dr. Isles, our medical examiner."

The sheriff or deputy or whatever the hell he was leered at Dr. Isles, "Surely a pretty little think like yourself can't be the M.E. I don't believe it."

Rizzoli rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you probably also wouldn't believe how many ways she knows how to kill someone without leaving a trace." Rizzoli patted the guy on the back and walked past him to the crime scene.

"That wasn't necessary." Maura muttered.

"No, but it was fun."

Rizzoli smiled up at the agent, "I appreciate the offer, but I really can't. I'm buried in paperwork. Maybe next time?"

From across the room Korsak shook his head quietly. He really didn't get Rizzoli sometimes. The agent was a good man, and a good looking one, too. He didn't get why she was saying 'no'.

Thirty minutes ticked by when Dr. Isles walked in. Korsak watched keenly as she asked Rizzoli the same question the agent had earlier: "Want to grab a drink?" Only this time Rizzoli's answer was quite different.

Oh. Interesting. So, maybe he did get why.

"What the hell is that?" Jane exclaimed.

Maura reached for her cell just as it emitted a second strain of, "Shaft! Can you dig it?"

"Dr. Isles speaking," Maura answered calmly, "...Okay ...No, I'll tell her. ...Very well. Thank you, Detective Frost."

"Frost?" Jane started to smile, "You chose 'Shaft' for Frost's ringtone?"

"Not exactly," Maura explained. "I asked Detective Frost to program my phone with some fancy ringtones, as you call them. He must have chosen that one for himself."

Jane's smile faded, "You let *him* choose all your ringtones? Oh, good lord, what did he choose for me?"

Jane knew Maura had returned from her vacation late yesterday. Jane also knew she'd see the M.E. Monday morning. Yet, Sunday evening she found herself heading towards Maura's front door and rehearsing her excuse for being there.

i'I was in the neighborhood.'/i No, too cliché.

i'I thought I'd fill you in on last week's cases.'/i Hm. Not bad.

i'I figured you'd be jetlagged and thought some wine would help.'/i Yes. This one.

But when the door opened and Jane saw the surprised but delighted smile on Maura's face, the truth spilled out before she could stop it.

"I missed you."

"What do you want from me?"

"I want you not show up as one of the bodies in my morgue!" Maura didn't often raise her voice, but Jane having two brushes with death in as many weeks was too much.

"Oh, that's helpful," Jane spit back.

Maura tried again, more calmly, "It's just sometimes you take risks. And I worry."

Jane deflated, "I know. But I don't know any other way to do this job. Hell, I don't know any other way to live my life. I know that's not what you want to hear. But that's all I got."

"Actually, autopsies can be very artistic."

Jane looked at Maura skeptically, "Artistic? Really? I shutter to think who your muse is"

"Tim Burton, of course."

Jane's eyebrows flew up, desperately trying to assess whether Maura was being serious or not. Finally she spoke hesitantly, "You... just made a joke, didn't you?"

Maura's eyes lit up, "Yes, I did. Was it funny?"

"No."

"Oh," Maura seemed genuinely disappointed.

Jane laughed, "Okay, fine, it was a little funny!"

"Really?" Maura started smiling, utterly pleased.

Jane laughed more, "Yes, really, but please don't try making jokes too often, okay? You might pull something."