It was a bright and sunny Saturday in Boston. Maura walked out of her bedroom and stretched her arms as she walked into the kitchen. She was being drawn there by the smell of the delicious coffee prepared by Angela. It was quite special to wake up to a prepared meal on the weekends. It was something Maura enjoyed about having Angela as a roommate. Angela actually lived in her guest house and only wandered into the main house for meals or tea. Maura enjoyed all of Angela's Rizzoli family stories. It truly warmed her heart to hear about little Jane. Prior to Angela moving in, Maura had spent as much time as possible at work because she really didn't want to be alone anymore. It was strange really since she had practically raised herself throughout childhood. In fact, since meeting the Rizzoli's, her life had changed drastically for the better. She enjoyed all the family time and was always sad to see everyone leave.
"Good morning, Angela. The coffee smells divine!" Maura smiled at Angela.
"Well, good morning Maura. It's a fine morning in Boston." Angela was busy making breakfast as she listened to the sound of the TV news in the background. "You know, the governor has his hands full with all our states problems. We need more fiscally responsible politicians. If I ran my own pocket book like our state representatives run Massachusetts, where would I be then?" Angela was quite passionate about politics and Maura had noted that she had not quite recovered since her favorite politician, Tom MacGregor Jr, had fallen from grace a few months back. Of course, all due to the fine detective work of Jane and BPD. It had devastated Angela for quite some time now.
Angela was busy making some waffles that smelled delightful to Maura. No matter how much Maura told Angela that she preferred lighter fare, Angela wouldn't take no for an answer. She treated Maura like a daughter and while Maura wished she would listen more to her wishes, she appreciated the love which radiated from Angela. She wished another Rizzoli, Jane, to be exact, would exude more love towards her too.
Maura had been slowly coming to the realization that she was completely and utterly in love with her best friend, Jane. She wanted so much to be an official part of the Rizzoli family. She wanted to be Jane's life partner and be together forever, true LLBFF's.
"Maura…Maura!" Angela was now practically shouting. "Honey, is everything ok? You seem awfully distracted this morning."
"I'm sorry, Angela. I just have lots of things on my mind." Maura took a bite of her waffles and smiled at Angela, "These waffles are delicious" Maura exclaimed in hopes that Angela's feelings wouldn't be hurt.
"Well, that's quite alright Maura…you are, of course, the Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts after all. I'm sure you have more important things on your mind than my morning soapbox commentary. Eat up now; you need to keep your strength up."
The comment reminded Maura of the first morning she had met Jane at the coffee shop. Maura had recommended a better food choice to Jane in order to boost her Vitamin D in light of her "night work." As it turned out, Jane was undercover that morning. Jane had been dressed up like a street hooker and Maura had definitely found her act convincing. Maura had always appreciated Jane's amazing detective skills, but she also knew the unspoken talent it took to be a convincing actor for many of the undercover stings that went down by BPD.
"Angela, not to change the subject, but where did Jane get her acting skills? Her masterful personas have been invaluable for all the undercover sting operations arranged by the Boston police department. She must have learned that somewhere." Maura inquired.
Angela was busy grabbing some butter from the fridge. "Who, Jane? Oh honey, she has been acting all her life! I remember when she wanted to get out of one of Sister Winifred's spelling tests. I swear she could convince the Pope himself that her appendix had ruptured to avoid going to school if she needed to." Angela laughed at the memory. "Actually, all joking aside, Jane appeared in a couple of plays in high school. As I recall, she really enjoyed the fine arts. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, it impresses me that she can convincingly play so many roles while undercover." Maura thought back to the undercover role at Merck. She had reveled under Jane's gaze. Jane had been so protective trying to cover up Maura's breasts when she had first walked into the club. Then later, her gaze had lingered longer than appropriate at Maura's impressive cleavage. Maura had hoped it would lead to a deepening of their relationship, perhaps into something romantic. But, Jane was stubborn. Maura knew she had sufficient medical training that she could not be misreading Jane's facial expressions. She hoped that deep down, Jane longed for her too.
Maura looked down at her waffles and had lost her appetite. She turned her attention to the newspaper spread out before her. She liked to read obituaries. They didn't call her "Queen of the Dead' for nothing. As she skimmed the page, it seemed to be an uneventful day for deaths. She continued reading and turned to the Entertainment section. Suddenly, one advertisement caught her attention. It was for acting classes in the theatre district of Boston. Maura smiled to herself as she thought how much fun acting class would be for her. She could learn all the techniques that made Jane so wonderful in her undercover stings. Not to mention, she needed to be able to act as if Jane was nothing more than a best friend, for now anyway. She would need the best acting classes available especially if her love turned out to be unrequited by Jane. Maura frowned as she imagined the pain that awaited her if that happened.
She quickly jotted down the phone number for the class on a sheet of paper and excused herself to Angela.
"I wish I knew what was bothering her" Angela thought to herself. Of course, Jane immediately came to her mind. The women had the most incredible bond that Angela had ever seen. If anyone would know what was bothering Maura, it would be her Jane.