Calamity Jane Meets Dr Isles, Medicine Woman
and its sequel, Calamity Jane 2: The Doctor and the Deputy, by JoBethMegAmy. my homegirls, is a Western AU of Rizzoli & Isles, relocating the characters and key events to the Wild West in the late 1800s. As Maura Isles comes to the small town of Hollow Creek to be with her fiancé, Garrett Fairfield, she immediately meets the outlaw ‘Jake Wyatt’ but learns in the process that ‘Jake’ is actually Jane Rizzoli. This simple meeting begins a complex friendship that changes the lives of both women, as Maura becomes drawn into Jane’s hunt for the man who murdered her parents while Jane helps Maura learn more about life in Hollow Creek, to the point where Maura breaks off her engagement and orders Garrett to leave the town while she essentially ‘marries’ Jane.
Calamity Jane & Doctor Isles, Medicine Woman contains examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism:
- For a given value of ‘hero’; Garrett Fairfield doesn’t kill anyone in this adaptation, but he does pay a man he doesn’t know to take Jane away from Hollow Creek.
- Dennis Rockmond is not a serial killer, although he does make Maura uncomfortable when he makes certain assumptions.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: The main reason Jake Wyatt attracts so much interest, and part of the reason Hoyt won over at least one of his apprentices.
- Ascended Extra: Adelaide Johns, the town seamstress, and the only female company in the village that Jane could tolerate growing up aside from Angela.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Jane and Maura’s first kiss, in a rainstorm outside Maura’s house, just after Maura has told Jane that she loves her in every way.
- Broken Pedestal:
- Maura was already growing distant from Garrett after spending more time with Jane, but her view of him is ultimately shattered when she learns that he tried to pay someone off to take Jane away from Maura, disgusted that Garrett was both that insecure and that he didn't care enough to try and deal with it himself.
- Tommy’s admiration of Jane is shattered when he finds her about to get into a bath with Maura, unable to accept his sister’s relationship
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Maura, as always; she and Jane spend some time en route to Boston working out how Maura can discuss their ‘marriage’ without anything said being an actual lie, such as referring to Jane as ‘Jake’, an alias Jane already used. Apart from referring to Jane as ‘he’, Maura never tells any real lies about her relationship with Jane when talking to her old friends.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Jane and Maura are not great drinkers, with Jane being potentially more violent while Maura is just generally more talkative to the point of giving away details they would prefer stayed private
- Dark and Troubled Past: Jane saw her parents killed by the same man, ten years apart, when she was five and fifteen; it’s a miracle she didn’t just go out and become a criminal herself
- Death by Adaptation: Tommy Rizzoli dies in a mining cave-in, and Lydia dies giving birth to her and Tommy’s daughter Lily.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: As in canon, Jane is not a fan of her full name.
- Exact Words: Due to Maura’s inability to lie, she is careful about her word choice during her visit to Boston while Jane is posing as her husband, as shown by her response when asked if she and ‘Jake’ have considered having children;"We have discussed children, yes. But going from the intimate knowledge I have of Jake and myself, I've begun handing myself over to the fact that certain factors I'd really rather not discuss will preclude us from ever having children of our own."
- Famed In-Story: Jane has built up a considerable reputation as ‘Jake Wyatt’, with stories including that Jake’s horse has horseshoes made of gold and he accompanied Commodore Perry to Japan to open trade negotiations (even though the first would be ridiculously expensive and Jake isn’t old enough to have done the second).
- Fanservice: Jane and Maura get the equivalent on a few occasions, such as Maura dressing as a saloon girl as part of an attempt to track Hoyt or Jane and Maura each dressing sexily for the other in the bedroom (Maura in the contemporary equivalent of sexy lingerie to Jane donning her own alternative).
- The Fashionista: Maura has more limited resources, but she still enjoys dressing up.
- Friend to All Living Things: Korsak still has this role, even taking in some horses on top of the smaller animals he cared for in canon.
- Gender Bender: Jane has spent years posing as ‘Jake Wyatt’, and Riley Cooper attempts a similar ‘scam’.
- Generation Xerox: Simultaneously invoked and defied; Colin and Lily end up essentially taking after the "parent" they're not directly related to, such as Lily quickly learning French and Colin being tougher while still compassionate.
- Happily Adopted: It’s not official for obvious reasons, but Jane and Maura end up forming a family with Maura’s younger brother Colin and Jane’s niece Lily, after Paddy is shot by Jane and Tommy dies in a mining accident after Lydia gives birth.
- Hates My Secret Identity: Occurs briefly for Tommy Rizzoli, as he idolises Jake Wyatt even as he loses all respect for Jane upon learning of her real relationship with Maura.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Jane and Maura essentially pose as this to avoid questions about their relationship. As they argue, if anyone asks why two attractive women are living together rather than getting married, they will claim that they’ve concluded that no man would be able to understand their desire to continue in their chosen fields even if they got married, so they’ve chosen not to bother about it.
- Historical AU: The characters are plucked from contemporary Boston and placed in the late 1800s Wild West.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Jane prepares to leave Hollow Creek after Hoyt’s death because she thinks Maura will want a life away from the violence Jane’s brought into her world, only for Maura to immediately reject that idea.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Apart from Maura’s mother and biological father, nobody Jane and Maura meet in Boston is aware that Jane is a woman, accepting the story that ‘Jake Rizzoli’ is Maura’s new husband, to the point that the younger sister of one of Maura’s old friends tries to flirt with ‘Jake’.
- Impaled Palm: Jane’s scars are more significant in this time due to the more primitive medical facilities, although she can still use her hands fairly normally.
- Insecure Love Interest: For Jane in particular, as she worries about everything Maura’s giving up to be with her, such as the ability to have her own children, and can’t believe Maura thinks she’s worth all that.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Comes up for Maura on several occasions when reflecting on her past.
- Like Brother and Sister: Jane and Frost never explicitly describe the other as such, but they are an important part of each other's lives.
- Love Revelation Epiphany: Jane and Maura experience subtle awareness of their attraction to each other at first, ‘simply’ acknowledging the other as a good friend, but Maura only explicitly tells Jane that she loves her when Jane is preparing to leave Hollow Creek after Hoyt’s death, which gives Jane the kick to realise the depth of her own feelings for Maura.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Jane and Maura have an unspoken acknowledgement that Jane is the 'man' in their relationship, but as they see some of Maura's female friends in particular have poor relationships with their husbands, they become less inclined to think of their relationship in such terms and just focus on being a couple.
- Metaphorical Marriage: Unable to have an official marriage, Jane and Maura have a private ceremony on their first night together in the rebuilt Rizzoli home, exchanging rings and vows with only Bass and Jo Friday as witnesses.
- Mistaken for Gay: Ironically, this happened to Jane on a couple of occasions while she was posing as Jake Wyatt (although nobody uses the term ‘gay’ for obvious reasons); only the people who knew her well as Jane realise that she actually is attracted to Maura.
- My Beloved Smother: Angela still takes this role despite not being the Rizzolis’ biological mother.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Jane has a moment like this when she all-but-assaults Maura while drunk, although enough characters know who she really is to help her understand that this was an extreme circumstance that they won’t judge her for unless she goes that far again.
- Naked People Are Funny: Played with; Maura is immediately shocked and uncomfortable when Dennis prepares to sculpt her while naked (Maura quickly clarifying that she never had any attention of modelling nude for him in turn), but there is a certain humour in Jane subsequently kicking him out of their house.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Jane, based on a more genuine perception of herself this time around as she can’t read or write much beyond her name(s), but Maura is able to swiftly help Jane improve her literacy, and she often compliments Jane’s greater general knowledge in areas beyond book smarts (as well as Jane being fluent in Italian).
- Papa Wolf: Paddy Doyle tries to be this for Maura, but when he tries to kill Jane for ‘corrupting’ his daughter, Maura has no problem with Jane shooting him.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Once characters get past the masculine clothing, Jane’s ‘Jake Wyatt’ disguise is just a fake moustache and wrappings around her chest, as well as socks down the front of her trousers.
- Parental Substitute: Angela is this for Jane in this adaptation, as Jane’s biological mother died when she was five.
- Politically Correct History: In the sequel fic, Korsak, a sheriff of a small town in the late-1800s, makes Jane and Frost his deputies despite one being a woman and the other being black (the third deputy is Frankie, who is obviously less controversial)
- Posthumous Character: Maura’s father and Jane’s parents all died before the story began (Angela is Jane’s unofficially adopted mother), but they still have a strong influence on their daughters’ lives.
- Race Lift: Not explicitly stated, but considering that everyone comments on how similar Riley Cooper is to the ‘real’ Jake Wyatt, it seems likely that this version has lighter skin than her canon counterpart.
- Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: Jane is highly uncomfortable in any situation where she has to wear a dress, to the point that her equivalent of ‘sexy lingerie’ is basically her usual attire without a shirt or trousers.
- Really Gets Around: Jake Wyatt has a reputation with women, but Jane has managed to create such an impression without actually going further than flirting.
- Secret Identity: Jane’s whole identity as Jake Wyatt is only known to a few key people, such as Korsak, Frost and Maura.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Even before Jane and Maura have told anyone about their new relationship, Adelaide is shown subtly encouraging such an idea, such as observing that it looks natural for the two of them to be in a family-style photograph.
- As their relationship goes on, Constance Isles and Vince Korsak each express their understanding of Jane and Maura’s choice, although Angela has some difficulty accepting it, and Tommy outright rejects Jane when he learns about it.
- Shipping Torpedo: After Garrett tries to make arrangements for Jane to leave Hollow Creek by paying what turns out to be Hoyt, Maura and Korsak tell him that he should leave the town, Maura bluntly stating that she doesn’t want Garrett here any more.
- Shout-Out:
- At one point, a man yells “There’s a snake in my boot!” after Jane and Maura leave a dead snake in a shoe they found during an impromptu archery lesson.
- Maura mentions that one of her mother’s acquaintances “used antlers in all of his decorating”.
- Skewed Priorities: More like foreshadowing their future relationship, but after Maura hears exaggerated tales of Jake Wyatt’s accomplishments, the thing she most focuses on is Jake’s reputation as a ladies’ man.
- Small Name, Big Ego: A man at Constance Isles' latest art exhibition brags about his recent trip to Italy, but when pushed he can only say a short sentence in sloppy Italian, where Jane counters with an elaborate speech in the same language.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Colin Doyle is not killed by Paddy Doyle’s enemies as an adult, but meets Jane and Maura when he’s eight and basically becomes their adopted son.
- Suppressed Mammaries: Justified in-universe as Jane was never significantly endowed, making it easier for her to pose as a man.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: To such an extent with Jane and Maura that they have an unspoken acknowledgement that Jane is the ‘husband’ in their relationship.
- Trauma Conga Line: Jane’s mother died when she was five and she then witnessed her father’s death when she was fifteen while sustaining near-crippling wounds to her hands, starting a quest for her parents’ killer that took up most of her life until she was thirty.
- Unrelated in the Adaptation: Unlike in canon, Angela is just Jane’s unofficial adopted mother rather than her biological mother, Jane’s birth parents having been killed by Hoyt.
