A/N: Just some Friday Night Fluff for you all. I hope you enjoy it. I won't be held responsible for your dental bills if the sweetness in this story rots your teeth though. ;)
I didn't think this needed to be said, but now I'm forced to add this to all of my stories:
This work of fiction belongs to me, sociallyawkwrdpenguin. The Rizzoli and Isles characters belong to TNT. However this story, and all original characters, belong to me. Absolutely no reposting of this story is permitted (including translations of this story) without my express written permission. If you see this story posted in any other forum besides Archive of our Own or FanFiction, please notify me via private message immediately.
"Tell us the story of how you got married," Gracie begs, settling in close to her mother on the couch. "Please?"
Jane rolls her eyes, giving Gracie her best fake grimace. In reality, she loves telling this story. Even if it's only to her own two children.
"Yeah Ma! Tell us the 'gagement story!" Annie pipes in, squeezing herself into Jane's lap and looking up at her with eager green eyes.
"It's bedtime," Jane says, putting her daughters off. She has no intention of putting them to bed, but she loves their attention and she wants to draw this out for a bit.
"Oh please Ma? Please?" Gracie begs again.
"I don't knoooowww…" Jane says, drawing out the word so that Maura will know she's not really tormenting their children.
"Yes Jane, why don't you tell them the story of our engagement?" Maura asks, sitting down next to Gracie on the couch and pulling her into her own lap before she scoots closer to Jane.
Jane wraps her free arm around Maura and shoots her a smile as both girls cheer.
"All right, all right. I'll tell you. But then it's straight to bed! No arguments," Jane says, doing her best to make a stern face. Both of her children see right through it though. In reality, tiny four year old Annie and her more rambunctious six year old sister Gracie have Jane wrapped around their little fingers, and Jane wouldn't have it any other way.
"It was going to be our first Christmas together as a couple," Jane says, starting the story. "And your Mommy dragged me out to the stores on Black Friday so she could do all of her shopping."
"If I remember correctly, you needed to do your shopping too," Maura chimes in.
"I just didn't want to do it on Black Friday," Jane reminds her.
"Are you two gonna tell us the story, or are you gonna fight?" Gracie asks, watching her mothers with the same face Jane usually uses to pull her daughters into line.
"Right, well," Jane continues. "We were at the mall, and it wasn't even eight in the morning yet, but we'd been to about ten stores. And your Mommy just kept buying and buying!"
"Who were all the presents for?" Annie interrupted. "Were they for us?"
"No bug, they weren't for you. You weren't born yet. And neither was your sister," Maura explains. "The presents were for your Mama and for Grandma Angela and your uncles."
"And Jo Friday?" Annie asks, smiling down at the dog now resting at their feet.
"Yes, and Jo Friday and Bass too," Jane answers.
"Anyway, your Mommy kept asking me to carry packages out to the car, because they were getting to be too much to carry. And I was so tired! Just the night before I had spent hours trying to get a suspect to confess. And just when I thought I could come home and finally get some sleep, your Mommy said it was time to go to the mall for the midnight opening of the stores!"
"Wow, you got to stay up past bedtime to go shopping?" Gracie's brown eyes are round and full of mischief.
"I'm a detective, bug. I can stay up past my bedtime whenever I need to," Jane explains, squeezing her daughter in a hug. "Anyway, your Mommy kept buying and buying and buying. And every time she had another big bag, she'd send me out to the car to put it in the trunk. And the mall was packed! People were trying to park and they kept thinking I was leaving each time I went out there to put the bags in the trunk. I had to wave them away, because they couldn't have my parking spot. More than once I got yelled at."
"Aww, poor baby," Maura says, grinning.
"Do you see the things I do for your Mommy?" Jane asks, reaching out to pinch Maura's side.
"If I was there, I would have yelled right back!" Gracie announces.
"I know," Jane says. "But you have to be careful with things like that. Just because someone is yelling at you, doesn't always make it okay to yell back at them."
"I know," Gracie says. "But I always stick up for my Mama!"
"Thank you," Jane says. "So after the fourth or fifth time of dragging all the shopping bags out to the car and getting yelled at for not leaving and giving someone else my parking spot, I come back in to the mall, and I pass the jewelry store. And I don't know, I just decided to go in there and see what they had. I hadn't bought anything at all that day, and I really did need to get presents, so I went in to see if there was something I could find for Mommy."
Jane shifts on the couch, trying to find a comfortable position. That's getting harder and harder lately, with the birth of their third child coming up sometime in the next month and a half. Annie shifts in her lap, or what's left of it, and grins up at her mother. "Ma, I felt the baby kick! Hello in there!"
Gracie reaches out and places a hand on Jane's belly, carefully and gently like they taught her. "I feel it too!"
"He's been busy in there today," Jane says quietly.
"Do you think it's a boy?" Gracie asks.
"I do," Jane responds.
"But do you know?" Annie asks, ever her mother's daughter.
"No, I don't. I just have a feeling," Jane answers.
"Do you know, Mommy?" Annie asks. If anyone would know, it would be Maura.
"No, I don't know either. We chose not to find out. We want to be surprised when the baby comes," Maura explains.
"So, the story," Gracie prompts.
"Right. So, I walk into the jewelry store, and the first place I end up is at the engagement rings. And I wasn't even looking for one. Your Mommy and I hadn't been together all that long yet, and we hadn't even talked about getting married. But there I was, looking at the engagement rings. And there was this ring there, it was as beautiful as your Mommy."
Gracie leans over and takes Maura's hand to examine the two rings she wears. "So pretty," Annie murmurs from Jane's lap.
"So did you buy it?" Gracie asks, already knowing the answer.
"No, I thought it was too soon to get engaged to your Mommy. But I really liked it, and it was actually affordable, so I kept it in mind and went back to find your Mommy. She wasn't even tired yet!"
"But hadn't you already been together foreverrr?" Gracie asked, drawing out 'forever' to make her point.
"We had been friends for a long time," Jane explains. "But we had only started dating about five months prior to that."
"We both dated men before we dated each other," Maura explains, and Jane grimaces at her, knowing this would open up a whole new line of questions from their children.
"Ewwww, boys are so gross!" Gracie yells, making a fake gagging sound for emphasis. "I'm never marrying a boy!"
"But you don't know that now," Annie says, wise beyond her years. She looks up at Jane. "I don't think boys are that icky."
"You can date whoever you want to date-" Jane starts, but Maura interrupts her.
"Whomever-"
"'Kay, Poindexter," Jane retorts, and Maura pokes her in the side as Jane tries to continue. "You can date whomever you want, as long as you don't start dating until you're thirty-five."
"WHAT?" Gracie squeals beside her. "THAT'S ANCIENT!"
"Maybe twenty-five," Maura says, getting in on the fun.
"Oh my god," Gracie says, rolling her eyes just like her mother. "I'm never going to get married."
Maura shoots Jane a look over both of their children's heads, and they stifle their laughter. It doesn't matter to either one of them if Annie or Gracie want to date a woman. They'd each fought themselves over that same choice for so long that they would never cause their own children that same grief.
"Anyway," Jane says, trying to bring the story back on track. "I found your Mommy in the department store, and she had another three bags for me to carry out to the car. I didn't know what we were going to do, because soon there wasn't going to be any room for the two of us to drive home!"
"What did you do?" Annie asks.
"I took the bags from her and told her I was going to wait out in the mall for her. I was so tired, and I just didn't feel like walking all the way back to the car. I found a bench and sat down with all the bags, and I looked up, and there was that jewelry store again."
"Then did you buy the ring?" Annie asks, bouncing up and down on her mother's lap.
Jane hugs Annie to herself, more to keep Annie from knocking into the baby than anything else, but Annie is always happy to be hugged and it calms her instantly.
"Not yet. I sat there for a little while and I thought about your Mommy. I thought that it would be nice to marry her. And I thought that even though we hadn't been together a long time, I could always get the ring and hold onto it. That ring just seemed so perfect for her, and my gut kept telling me to not let it go."
"Then what happened?" Maura prompts, knowing full well what happened.
"I went back into the jewelry store, and I picked out a gorgeous pair of earrings for your Mommy as her Christmas present. And then I went back over to that display case with the engagement rings and I looked and I looked. And finally I listened to my gut. It told me to get that ring, so I did. And the jewelry store wrapped the earrings and the engagement ring in identical boxes. I put them in the bags I was carrying, and made my way back over to the store to find your Mommy. I felt like I needed to go home after that, because I was so tired and I had just spent a lot of money."
"So your Ma meets up with me in the department store, and she's all flustered," Maura adds.
"But I couldn't tell her why, so I just said I was tired from working all night, and I needed to go home to sleep," Jane replies.
"You say never lie!" Gracie accuses.
"I didn't though," Jane says, proud of her daughter for remembering the golden rule in their house. "I was really tired, and I had been up all night the night before."
"Uh huh," Gracie says, not entirely convinced her mother hadn't lied.
"So anyway," Jane continues. "We went home and I put the engagement ring in a safe spot where Mommy would never look, and I wrapped up her earrings and put them under the Christmas tree for her. And I didn't really think too much about the ring at all, because Christmas was coming and I did have lots of other presents to buy."
"Where did you hide it?" Annie asks.
"Huh?" Jane asks, already too far along in her story to understand what Annie wants to know.
"The ring. You said you hided it in a spot Mommy would never look."
"Hid it," Maura corrects gently. "And yes, she had the perfect hiding spot. She hid it in a pair of my Spring collection Manolos, knowing full well I wouldn't even look at them for months!"
"That's smart!" Annie says proudly.
"So Christmas day comes, and I finally had all my presents to give everyone. We decided to open our presents after dinner, while everyone was there. Mommy, me, Uncle Tommy, TJ, Uncle Frankie, Uncle Barry and Uncle Vince, Grandma Angela and even Grandma Constance was there for that Christmas."
"This is the best part!" Gracie squeals, and Maura nods her head in silent agreement.
"We sit down and we hand out all the presents, and your Mommy decides to save my present to her for last. So everyone is pretty much done with unwrapping their gifts, and your Mommy unwraps her earrings."
"'Cept they weren't earrings, were they?" Annie prompts.
"No, they weren't! I mixed up the boxes with the earrings and the engagement ring, and your Mommy opened her engagement ring on Christmas day!"
"Were you embarrassed?" Maura asks, always having wondered that.
"Yes," Jane says quickly. "We were making plans to celebrate our six month anniversary and I hadn't even thought about giving you the ring at that point. I thought it was much too soon, and I was terrified of what you, and everyone else would think of me for proposing so soon."
"But you didn't propose, Mama," Gracie points out.
"No, I didn't. But your Mommy just stopped and stared at the ring and it got completely quiet in the room as everyone realized what your Mommy was looking at. And I was getting ready to explain the mixup, and was going to get up and go get the earrings instead, when your Mommy just turned around to me and said "Yes".
Three sets of eyes stay glued on Jane as she tells the rest of the story.
"'Yes?' I squeaked out, amazed that she didn't think it was too soon. 'You- you want to marry me?' I asked her, and she said it again."
"Yes," Maura adds emphatically. "I hadn't even realized there was a mixup. I thought it was super romantic of Jane to propose that way, a surprise in front of our family like that. And I thought she was just nervous because she was afraid I'd tell her no. It wasn't until much later that night, after everyone had left, that your Mama had brought me the earrings she had originally planned to give me, and told me the whole story."
"Did you tell her it was too soon?" Gracie asks Jane.
"No, I told her I was so happy she wanted to marry me. I told her it didn't happen the way I had planned it to, but then again nothing in my life ever happened the way I planned it to, and I was so happy that she had said yes."
"How romantic!" Gracie says, putting both hands over her heart and pretending to swoon into Maura's chest.
"So then you got married and I was born!" Annie says proudly.
"Well, we got married, and then two years later Angela Grace was born," Maura says, rubbing Gracie's shoulders. "Then two years after that, you were born, Constance Anne."
Jane gives Annie a squeeze and smiles down at her. "And soon you'll have another sister or brother too," she says quietly.
"I hope it's a boy," Annie says, rubbing her Mama's tummy. "It's fun to have a brother."
"I think it's a boy," Jane says, smiling. "But we'll love the baby whether it's a boy or a girl."
"Mama," Gracie asks, looking at Jane. "Where do babies come from?"
Jane looks to Maura, panic written all over her face. She prays Maura won't go into an age-inappropriate lecture before Jane can change the subject.
"Time for bed!" Jane announces, scooping Annie up into her arms and grinning as Annie squeals in delight.
"But-" Gracie says, frustrated as Maura picks her up and carries her toward her bedroom. "Mama, I asked-"
"Time for bed, bug. I told you it was bedtime as soon as the story was over," Jane says gently.
"But I asked-" Gracie tries again.
"That's a story for another time," Maura says, opening the dresser drawer and looking for a pair of comfortable pajamas for her daughter. "Now get dressed for bed, and let's get you tucked in."
Gracie sighs, but listens to her mother.
"I know where babies come from!" Annie announces just as Jane pulls her pajama shirt over her head.
"You do?" Jane asks, worried.
"Yeah," Annie says, as if she's about to reveal something utterly obvious to everyone. She gestures toward Jane. "They come from Mama's belly. Duuuh!"
Jane and Maura both rumble with laughter while Jane tucks Annie into her bed, and Maura tucks Gracie into hers, kissing both their foreheads and making sure they both have their teddy bears close by.
"'Cept you, Annie. You came outta Mommy's belly," Gracie reminds her sister as she settles into her bed.
"That's right," Jane says, switching places with Maura and smiling with relief at the bullet they had just dodged. "Smart girl," Jane says, leaning over Gracie's bed to kiss her forehead goodnight.
"Good night, bug. Sweet dreams."
"Night Mama," Gracie says tiredly.
"Mommy?" Annie whispers, already tired enough to fall asleep.
"Yes darling?" Maura responds.
"I know babies come out of yours and Mama's bellies."
"Yes," Maura says. "That's right."
"But how do they get in there?"
"Good night my babies," Jane says, pulling Maura out of the room. "Sweet dreams."
"But Mama-"
"Tomorrow's another day, Annie. Go to sleep. Good night! I love you both," Jane says, and pulls the door shut quietly behind her.
A/N: This is a friendly reminder that voting is now open for round four of the Rizzles Fan Awards. I've had s couple of my stories nominated, and I'd love it if you'd go vote. While the honor of your vote for one of my stories would be very appreciated, there are a lot of fantastic authors and artists in the running, and I encourage you to look over their work and vote for who you think is the best. You can vote at rizzlesfanawards.wordpress.com and click on the voting link at the top of the page. Thank you for your consideration!