Rizzles family, it's been too long! I've been meaning to write this one-shot, but other bunnies have been a bully to this poor thing. …no pun intended.
Still hoping for a fic where I tie in this 'verse to canon, but… the summer finale sorta stopped me in my tracks. I think I've got an idea of how to do it, but I've gotta finish another one of my multi-chapters before starting up another.
In the meantime, here's a new fic in The Rizzoli Family Christmas 'verse. I own nothing. Spoilers up to the summer finale of season three, which occurred about five years before TRFC took place.
Bully
Maura and Jane Rizzoli had had their doubts about sending their daughter to public school. The other kids would bully her about having two mothers, and that was something that neither woman wanted to subject little Kimberly to. She was a ray of sunshine; everyone had gotten along with her before she started school, no matter what. But the mothers knew that she would be bulled in school. During times like these, it made Jane and Maura wish that they never adopted her in the first place. That way, she wouldn't have had to deal with this.
The first day that the five-year-old came home sobbing her little heart out, it just about broke both women's hearts. What made it worse was that she didn't even want to talk about it at first. She just clung to Maura's neck and buried her face in her chest. The three of them were on the couch in the Rizzoli's living room.
Jane swallowed a lump in her throat as she watched her daughter break down. She didn't even have to ask what was wrong. The detective knew that the bullying had started.
"Kim, baby girl, can you tell ma what happened at school today?" she asked, her voice thick with distress.
The five-year-old shook her head vigorously, refusing to look at Jane. "Don't wanna talk 'bout it."
"But maybe it'll help you feel better, sweetie. Studies show that bottling things up only cause more distress," Maura told their daughter, hoping that her Google speak would help some.
Kimberly shook her head, her dark curls bouncing along with it. "I don't wanna go back to school tomorrow," she finally cried out, "can I go to work with you mama?"
"Sweetheart, you need to go to school. Don't you want to learn?" the medical examiner asked, her forehead crinkling in concern as she stared down at the littlest Rizzoli.
"Can't you teach me everything? You're the smartest person I know!" the five-year-old hugged her mother tighter.
"Well… I don't know everything, Kimberly," Maura blinked as her wife gave her a look. "Your ma and just rather you go to a real school. It's better for your communication skills than if you were homeschooled."
Tired of being silent anymore, Jane finally spoke up again, her voice raspy as ever, "What did the kids say to you?" When her daughter looked over at her, the detective just started rubbing her back soothingly.
"They were making funna me 'cause I has two mommies," Kimberly mumbled, tears steadily streaming down her slightly puffy cheeks.
Jane scoffed and swore under her breath, "asshole kids," which got her a swift tap on the ankle from Maura. Their eyes met, and the older woman let out a heavy sigh. "Kimmy, do you know what you say to those kids?" She was looking back down at her daughter now.
"What?" the littlest Rizzoli asked, her eyes becoming slightly brighter.
Jane took Kimberly into her own arms and settled her against her chest. "You tell them, so what you've got two mothers? At least you know that you are loved and cared for. Plus, you don't have to worry about your parents splitting up. I love your mom unconditionally, and I can surely say that she loves me back."
And you beat the hell out of 'em, but that I'll teach you when you're older, Jane's subconscious sneered.
Her five-year-old just looked between her mothers, tears pooling in her eyes even more than before. "But I can't do it! The kids are bigger'n me. And they call me names and take my lunch from me…"
The detective's blood began to boil at that. Okay, so being all sweet and fluffy just wasn't doing it for Mama Rizzoli anymore. It was never too early to teach your kid how to beat a bully down, as far as Jane was concerned. "In that case, you give them a piece of their own medicine, only ten times as worse. You're a Rizzoli, and Rizzolis don't get beaten down that easily, ya hear me?"
"Jane!" Maura reprimanded her wife; the last thing that they needed to do was make the situation any worse than it already was.
"No Maur. I'm not gonna dance around this subject like other parents do. So what if she gets in trouble? At least she's showing those guys that they can't pick on her," the detective told the honey blonde, not taking her eyes off of her for a second.
"She can always tell her teachers," the medical examiner began quietly, which earned a scoff from the dark-haired mother.
"Yeah, right. 'Cause they're better than those kids that're picking on our daughter. Remember that guy at the pool? We only got him because we're a cop and a medical examiner. Kimmy won't be that lucky, Maur. You saw how the teachers acted after she referred to us as her mothers," Jane rubbed her temples wearily, groaning inwardly.
"There's just got to be a more civilized way to teach our child," Maura squeezed her wife's knee and scooted that much closer to her two favorite girls.
"Did you and mama ever get made fun of in school?" Kimberly piped up, bringing both mothers back down to reality.
"Of course, kiddo. Kids were just as cruel back when I was still in school. I—" Jane let out a light chuckle, "I wasn't the world's fittest kid; the kids used to call me 'Rollie Pollie Rizzoli'," she looked down at her daughter, "and that's when I started beating the crap outta my classmates. I got smacked a couple of times myself by Nana Rizzoli, but it was sure worth it."
"Well… I wasn't as violent as your ma was, but I was called 'Maura-The-Bore-A' growing up," Maura began; an odd smile was on her face. "I just chose to ignore them by engrossing myself in my books and such."
"And then we wonder how your mama got that name, huh?" Jane whispered to the five-year-old, winking at the medical examiner's expense.
Kimberly giggled at that, wiping her eyes clean from tears. She seemed to have stopped crying, which was enough for both women. At least for now.
"So, how about we go see Nana? I think Uncle Tommy brought Ethan over for a visit. Maybe you can use your cousin as a punching bag?" the detective smiled over at her wife as their child jumped off of her lap and made a run for the door.
Maura leant forward and kissed Jane gently on the lips. It was eagerly reciprocated, despite the gagging coming from the five-year-old waiting at the door.
"What was that for?" the detective began grinning like a fool as she tried to come back down to earth.
"For being a good mother, of course," the doctor whispered, her green eyes shimmering back at her companion.
"Really? I thought it was just because you loved me?" Jane teased, getting another kiss, this one sound from the very beginning.
"Well I thought that that was already clear a long time ago," Maura reminded her wife of the chemistry that had been present for…quite some time now.
"Remind me later?" the dark-haired mother asked, breaking off into a chuckle when she heard Kimberly start tapping her little foot, "when we don't have an audience."
All questions about the summer finale will be answered in my multi-chaptered fic, tentatively titled "One In This World".
Now, what did you think? Good, bad? Will Kimberly start beating people up at school like she learned from her Mama Rizzoli?