Disclaimer:
I do not own R&I.
A/N: This idea has been in my head for months now, so I though I'd give it a shot and see how you guys will respond. Please feel free to let me know if it should progress or the plot was not as interesting.
In advance, this is not a beta version and was uploaded straight after typing so there might be errors. I apologize.
Happy Reading!
The Rizzoli household was not particularly quiet, but for the last 5 days since Angela and Frank took their newborn baby girl, their home had been buzzing with loud cries of an infant during night and day.
It was no different today.
Angela had been rocking her little Jane back and forth while singing her lullabies hoping that it would put the infant to sleep and allow her to do some of her chores but the wild dark-haired baby was relentless in her crying and Angela was at loss of what else to do. She had checked Jane's nappy but it was as dry as when she had put it on her. She also tried to feed the baby but as it seemed, Jane refused to drink her milk.
The young mother was close to losing her wits, when a gentle knock was heard. When she opened the door, she was grateful to see her heavily pregnant best friend Hope, looking worried but nonetheless smiling.
"Oh, thank god you're here!" Angela exclaimed, "I don't know what else to do to get her to stop crying."
Hope smiled and looked at the baby girl in her friend's arm. She was tiny and already red from crying.
"I could hear it from next door," Hope said as she entered further inside the familiar house. "Why don't you leave her with me and you take a bit of rest, you look exhausted."
Normally, Angela would've refused. Her baby daughter was proving to be a handful and Hope was heavily pregnant herself, she didn't want to tire her friend. However, she also could feel that if she didn't take a break from her crying infant that she would lose it and it won't be beneficial for baby Jane, her husband –when he gets home- and for herself included.
So, just this once, she didn't even try to argue. Once Hope had settled in the couch, Angela had handed her baby daughter to her best friend.
For a brief second when Jane was pass on to Hope's arms, she stopped crying and just looked at the blonde-haired woman with kind eyes. The little infant studied the new face that was now holding her and then started crying again –louder than she did earlier.
Both Angela and Hope jumped a little when little Jane started crying again, as well as it must've startled the baby inside Hope's womb as it started kicking her swollen tummy a bit.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Here, let me get her," Angela offered but Hope shook her head.
"Why are you crying little Janie?" she asked the infant in her arms with her soft voice. "See, you're crying woke my baby," Hope then took one of the baby's little hand and place it above her tummy where she could feel her own baby kicking.
And for some miracle, baby Jane then stopped crying almost immediately. Her eyes wide looking at the woman carrying her, her little baby hand still against said woman's tummy where she could feel a light pressure against the small of her hand.
Amused and amazed at the sudden quietness of the infant, both Angela and Hope shared a smile.
Baby Jane had stopped crying completely.
Two days later, Hope had given birth to a little blonde-haired baby girl that was a spitting image of herself. She named her baby Maura.
She had just arrived at her house after Patrick –the father of her baby- had dropped her off when Angela knocked and came in through the back door; with her was her own baby daughter.
"Hey," Hope greeted her friend as she gently settled baby Maura in her cot.
"Hi," Angela said back smiling and peering at her friend's baby daughter. "She looks just like you," she commented.
Hope thanked her and offer her something to drink which Angela had refused.
"Where's Patrick?" the Italian woman asked delicately.
She and Hope had met in high school. Hope was a transfer from Paris, she went to Angela's public school initially while waiting for the acceptance letter from the private school her parents had enrolled from. She met Angela and they became instant friends regardless of how different their background. In the end, Hope had asked her parents to let her stay and continue her study there.
Both Constance and Arthur Isles were skeptical at first but even though both had come from a wealthy family, they weren't the upper class people who looks down on others. They both went to a private school and they knew what it was like, Hope looked happy at the school she shared with Angela so they let her stay.
Since then, Angela and Hope became best friend.
At around the end of senior school Angela had fallen in love with Frank Rizzoli and was swept with the whirl wind of young love. It was too fast but Angela was stubborn and so against her parent's wishes she had lived with Frank and ended up not continuing to college.
Hope did.
She wanted to become a Doctor and as she got accepted in Boston Cambridge University, she was set to finish her courses and start being a Doctor as soon as possible. However, at the age of 19 she met Patrick Doyle Jr. A mysterious man that was relentless in pursuing her affection. Eventually the mystery surrounding Patrick charmed the young aspiring Doctor -Hope fell in love.
When Hope's parents found out, they were against it. They knew which family Patrick Doyle Jr. belonged to. They were wealthy but rumor has it that their money was dirty money. Although nothing has been proven yet, Hope's parents knew that it wasn't because the rumor wasn't true but more of because anyone who knew were too scared to actually prove it or say anything otherwise.
But Hope was young and in love. And as smart as a woman she was, she wasn't thinking rationally when she fell for Patrick. She was willing to fight for them and therefore she was given an ultimatum.
Leave Patrick or leave the Isle's home.
Needless to say, she left her parent's home.
Blessed Patrick that he didn't abandon Hope. With the money he saved, he was able to buy the house next to Frank and Angela's. It was a blessing. Though the house was far from what Hope had grew up in, she wasn't about to complain. She liked it. Plus, she was close to her best friend.
It was around the time when she left the Isle's mansion that she also found out that just like her best friend, she was also pregnant. And it was also around that time when Patrick became more and more distant. He hardly stayed with her at their house and when he did, it wasn't anything more than 3 days max. He said, it was better that way. He said, he didn't want Hope and their daughter to be involved in anything that was his family.
Hope didn't ask. She wasn't stupid. She knew why. But she loved Patrick and so she kept her questions to herself.
"He left after he dropped us off," Hope answered still looking at her sleeping daughter. "But he said he'll be back tomorrow or the day after," she added nonchalantly.
Angela just looked at her best friend. She knew of what was happening. Of course she does. Hope had told her. They hardly kept any secrets between them and although she was accepting, she still didn't quite understand. She didn't say anything though. As long as Hope was happy. She will be supportive.
It was around that time when the infant in Angela's arms started to stir and then cried as usual. Maybe it was a blessing after the slightly heavy silence that followed Hope's answer.
Little Jane's cry broke the heaviness but it also woke baby Maura. Unlike the Italian baby however, little Maura remained quiet, eyes opened but calm and observant.
The two mothers noticed how different their daughters were and smiled at each other.
"Here, let me put Janie down with Maura so you can pump some milk for her," Hope offered that met no objection from Angela.
And just like the other, as soon as Hope settled Jane in next to Maura, the wild dark-haired baby stopped crying and turned her head slightly to the direction where Maura was.
At this both mother started to laugh charmed by their daughters.
"It seemed like Maura has the power to make my Janie stop crying instantly," Angela commented amused.
Hope nodded in agreement, still smiling, "so it seemed."
It was the very first play date of Jane and Maura.
The first of many more.
-27 Years Later-
The plane from Paris arrived at Logan Airport.
It has been 10 years since the last time Maura had been to Boston.
10 years was a long time. But as Maura stepped out of the airport and once again smelled the city of Boston, she wondered if 10 years was long enough.
But whether a decade was enough or not, she didn't have much choice in the matter. She had been everywhere since she graduated and got her MD and license; from Europe to Africa to Asia. She did volunteer work and Doctors without borders. The Isle's estate was more than enough that she didn't need to actually earn her living. The trust funds under her name and the inheritance she will get from her grandparents will definitely be sufficient enough that even her future kids won't need to work to survive.
However, Maura wanted to establish her own. She didn't want to rely on what was under her name given to her due to her surname. She wanted to build her career and earn her living. She had been an ME for only a couple of years -after she got back from doing her a year stint as a Doctor without borders- and loved it. She decided then that it was the career she wanted to excel in and pursuit more. So when an opportunity opened as Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, she applied –even aware that her post would be in Boston. She didn't exactly expected to get the position but alas she did.
When she found out that she got the job, out of excitement, she had informed her grandparents Constance and Arthur. Both had been very proud and overjoyed that as soon as Hope arrived from the US for her monthly visit to Paris, Maura didn't get the chance to tell her mother herself. Her grandparents had told her mother for her.
"It's about time you return to Boston," Hope had exclaimed then.
At the mention of the city Boston, Maura's smile fell. It wasn't obvious and both Hope and her grandparents didn't notice but she could feel it. She was still a bit hesitant to return, but she had just convinced herself that whatever happened in Boston was a long time ago. She was young then and naïve. It was different now.
She was different now.
So, 3 months later and she now found herself outside of Logan Airport looking for her ride.
"Maura!"
At the sound of her name she turned her head and found her mother waving ecstatically at her. She smiled at the older version of herself, run towards said woman and embraced her with everything she has.
She wasn't particularly big on giving hugs. But she missed her mother and if she had to admit, she was also a little scared. She doesn't know what to expect and she wasn't sure if she was ready to open can of worms that she had buried years ago.
Hope noticed the tightness in her daughter's embrace. She welcomed it. It wasn't every day that Maura offers a hug, but she couldn't help but wonder. She was her mother after all.
"Ready?" she asked instead in which Maura nodded.
An hour of car ride with the expected conversation like 'how was the flight?' 'Are you excited to start your new career?' etc. that by the time the car stopped in front of their house in Beacon Hill, the younger woman couldn't be more grateful. Not that she didn't appreciate talking to her mother. Of course she does, she always does. But she was tired and the added stress she felt about moving back to Boston… she just wanted to lie down and sleep until it was time for her to face the music.
But the situation had been unkind -somewhat.
As soon as she entered their house, she was greeted with a loud "SURPRISE!" from everyone in her past –Angela, Frankie and Tommy.
Well, almost everyone.
They all looked different but at the same time the same.
She couldn't help the smile that formed in her lips despite of the sense of dread she felt. The Rizzolis have always been part of what she considered her family from the time she was born. She was happy to see them and didn't realized how much she had missed them until she was being suffocated by the many arms belonging to the Italian family.
The dread she felt however was due to one particular Rizzoli that she has yet to see again. Maura was a little relieved that 'she' wasn't there.
And as if on cue, the said Rizzoli in Maura's thought entered the back door and stopped dead in her track as soon as familiar brown eyes landed on her.
Maura gasped. She knew this would happen; that she would see her again. She even tried and prepared herself for this time. But all those preparations were useless. The amount of emotion barreling inside her was at such that it felt like she had stopped breathing.
Now she knew that no amount of years would be enough.
"Jane! You're late!" Angela exclaimed. "I told you someone important is coming and you have to be on time, but you're still late!"
The Rizzoli matriarch's admonish her eldest only for it to have fallen to deaf ears.
Jane knew she was late, but she had tried. Her mother was adamant that she come on time and she tried her best just to avoid the nonstop nagging, but her work prevented her to. Now she wished she stayed at the precinct instead. Because if she did, then she wouldn't be standing there and facing the one person she didn't want to see ever again.
It has been a long time.
She didn't bother counting but she knew it was long. It was so long that she believed that she won't see her again.
Oh how wrong she had been.
Because now, standing just a few feet away from her was Maura Isles.
Out of her control and out of mind, Jane turned and went out through the same door she went in. It was a blessing that she walked out the time she did, because it saved her from letting anyone see the tears that had appeared and fell from her eyes.
It has been years.
Yet now it felt like it was only just yesterday.