When Jane first graduated from the police academy Angela began watching cop shows on television. Obsessively. Secretly. She knew that Jane would have rolled her eyes at her if she'd known, but she wanted to understand what it was her baby girl had chosen to do with her life, understand the dangers, even the peculiar language that seemed to go along with it.
She also knew that Jane thought she was disappointed with her for becoming a cop and encouraging Frankie to become one too. The truth of it was she was more than a little bit proud of her and Frankie. And, to be honest, Frankie was probably safer working with Jane that anywhere else. After all, nobody had picked on her boys when they were kids without facing the fury of "Hurricane Jane". Soon enough even the most hardened bully learned to leave Rizzoli's well enough alone.
Somehow, though, whenever she tried to tell her daughter she was proud of her, the fear she felt for them both turned it into criticism. After Jane's first run-in with Hoyt, she hoped they might both see just how dangerous their job was and find something safer. Her fears, and Jane's stubborn defensiveness put a wall between them that kept them on edge around each other for a long time.
The irony was that the siege, Jane and Frankie being shot, and the breakdown of her marriage went a long way towards dismantling that wall. And working in the BPD cafeteria soothed some of her fears. She'd seen first-hand what being a cop really entailed for her children, far removed from the shows she'd watched. She'd seen Jane handle dangerous situations with calm authority, backed up by colleagues, and a network of friends who would risk everything for her like she would for them. She also witnessed a side of her daughter few people ever got to see. She'd watched with just a little awe as her daughter and her best friend had coaxed information from a scared little boy who'd witnessed his sister's abduction. Her gentle compassion had revealed details that he hadn't even realized he'd noticed, and let them find his sister before any serious damage had been done to her. That day she had never been prouder of her daughter.
Now she's seeing a different side of her daughter again. She's having coffee with a "snitch" (Jane would roll her eyes at that term, she knows without doubt), and she doesn't like the man. Angela watches through narrowed eyes as the man leans closer than Jane is comfortable with and leers at her. It's all Angela can do not to cross the room and smack him across the back of the head. So when Vince Korsak calls Jane away, she takes her chance.
He senses her standing behind him and turns warily to look at her. "The next time you talk to my daughter," she begins without preamble, "you call her Detective Rizzoli. You treat her with respect" She fixes him with a glare that's been known to intimidate even her obstinate daughter. "And if I ever catch you looking at her like that again, your ears will be ringing for the next three weeks."
He's on his feet now and backing away, hands wringing together and eyeing her like she's some sort of wild cat. "Ummm, yeah, sure," he mumbles. "I didn't mean nothin' by it, you know." Once he's safely out of arm's reach, he attempts a sly smile. "It's just the way we talk on the streets, you know." With that he turns and flees.
Watching him until he's out the door, she turns and realizes she's drawn a crowd. Most of them try to cover their smirks, but she catches Detective Crowe watching her worriedly. She fixes him with a hard look. "That goes for you, too," she warns him before returning to the counter and the line of people waiting nervously. Jane didn't inherit her volatile, over-protective nature from her father after all.
