Fake it till you make it (Rizzoli & Isles)

Chapter 4: Cama-cama chameleon

Jane walked up to the tall dark-haired man who had remained silent alongside Perez for their entire conversation. "Detective Jane Rizzoli, Boston Homicide. And you are?". The guy hesitated, looking at Jane intently "James. Just James. PFPA. I'll just be in the background"

He says with a firm shake.

Pentagon Force Protection agency Jane says to herself puzzled. Damn suits "Why would someone from the Pentagon be interested in the training for an undercover operation run by local law enforcement?"

"I report to homeland security, not local law enforcement. Pretend like I'm not here if that makes it easier for you, detective" Oh it's on. Jane thinks. The detective always gets to the bottom of things and James is no exception.

"Ok James. If that's even your real name. Let me make something very clear. I don't like stupid sounding-abbreviated agencies snooping around, while we do all the work. Fare warning, if you interfere with this operation and put my partner or me in danger or compromise this undercover- we are gonna have problems. Got that?"

"Has anyone ever told you that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar?"

Jane turns back, a smile appears on her face "As someone I know once said, you can catch even more flies with manure, what's your point?"

Jane walks back and plumps down in her seat next to Maura. "God, how many colored gel pens do you need? This isn't summer school" Maura frowns looking down at her neatly spread-out pens, ruler, pencils, sticky notes, and notepad.

"This is how I learn Jane, you're not taking notes? You know studies have shown a higher correlation between handwriting and short-term memory than-" "Ok Poindexter, just don't come crying to me when Perez picks on you cause you are kind of asking for it."

"Hmm, your dilator naris and depressor septi are flexing" Jane sighs, dropping her head back "English woman". "They're facial muscles. Why are you angry Jane? Also, can we skip over the part where you pick on me because of how you are feeling? This day is hard enough, agent Perez knows about my mob boss father, all my exes, and probably the watch history on my Hulu account too"

"I'm sorry Maur. It's this James guy, I don't know he's giving me a bad feeling, there's something- wait! Perez knows you sleep in the nude and you're worried she saw your watch history on Hulu? Why? Did you watch the Trailer Trash show more times than you led on?" Jane says in a mocking tone

Perez comes in, walking confidently to the middle of the floor, the two women still bickering away.

"No! I watched that show once, once. It was for ethnographic research."

"Ladies, are you quite done?" Maura shifts in her seat, smiling nervously at the instructor. Jane stretches back in a relaxed posture leaning to the doctor's side subconsciously.

"When you are working undercover, you are not acting but playing a different part of yourself" Perez loathes this part of the lecture, her superiors insist she goes through everything in the prescribed coursebook, 'follow protocol cause all eyes are on this one were their words as she recalls.

It's mind-numbingly boring and the worst part is that it doesn't even scratch the surface of the true fundamentals one needs to understand when working undercover. Until she can start with the hands-on training she lets her mind wander while still delivering the lecture with perfect pitch. Perez has never seen two people more fundamentally opposite. Even looking at their postures right now.

Maura could not appear more bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and teacher's-pet-looking than she already does having already started taking notes, where Jane is lying outstretched on her last vertebra probably trying not to fall asleep. Then again Jane knows everything this course has to teach her already. She's also a natural.