This is a one shot from my longer work in progress, "What Matters Most." This is a look into the future, when Jane and Maura's girls are teens and their family is complete. Some of the characters in this fic have not yet been introduced to What Matters Most, but if you like this and you haven't checked out any of my longer stuff you should! If you're reading What Matters Most and you don't want any spoilers...you should come back and read this after WMM gets to Chapter 24 or 25. Thanks and I hope you enjoy!
Happy reading!
tc
...
Levi's hands drift over the keys of the piano, sometimes pressing down lightly, not hard enough to make a noise. Jane watches him from the door way, trying to decide whether or not to intervene. She looks at his fingers as they slide over the porcelain bars, noting how his fingers are long and thin. Like hers.
"I feel you standing there," he says quietly, and there is a smile in his voice, even if it isn't evident on his face.
Jane smiles too. "Can't decide whether to come bug you or not," she says honestly, and he turns to look at her.
His features are sharp and angular, and his clear blue eyes sweep her quickly. "You don't bug me, Ma," He replies, just as honest.
"No?" Jane moves into the room, coming to sit down next to him on the piano bench. "Even when I talk to you about girls?"
Levi really does smile now, a sudden upturn of the lips that make him look like a little kid instead of the tall skinny teen he really is. "Okay," he concedes. "You rarely bug me."
Jane laughs, but doesn't respond, and they sit in silence for a while.
Maura has taken the rest of the family to the mall. Noah is growing like he's been bewitched and he needs new everything, and Sofia and Isabelle are at the age where the only place they want to be is the mall.
But Levi had declined to accompany them, and Jane and Maura had made eye contact, silently agreeing that the detective should stay behind and see if she could figure out what was bothering their oldest child.
"It could just be hormones," Jane had whispered, watching Sofia hold a baseball cap high above her head.
Maura had shrugged, "Sofia, give Noah his hat back, now, Honestly, can't you two leave each other alone for five seconds."
Maura had kissed Jane on the cheek, "We won't be the morning."
"I love you."
"Double it," Maura had called over her shoulder, and Jane had turned away smiling.
Double it. Just another way Levi and Noah had made their lives better. It was something the brothers had come to them doing. One would say "I love you" and the other would say "double it." A play on the response I love you too. "Noah used to think that our dad was saying I love you two, like the number" Levi had explained once. "It used to make him mad until dad explained it wasn't a competition…but the idea kind of stuck."
Well it has stuck here too, in this family, and the Rizzoli-Isles say I love you in this way, almost exclusively.
"You didn't have to stay with me, you know," Levi says, his deep voice pulling Jane out of her thoughts.
"mm?"
"If you wanted to go to the mall, I mean. You didn't have to stay and babysit me."
Jane smiles, nudging him, "okay, one? You know I hate the mall just as much as you do." Levi smiles, "Two? I'm not babysitting you. If you want me to leave you alone, I have no problem just-"
"No," Levi cuts her off, his hand reaching out to grasp her wrist. "Don't leave me alone."
Jane nods slowly, "okay," she says, and his grip on her wrist loosens slightly.
He looks down at the keys, maybe a little embarrassed, and the detective is about to reassure him, when he speaks again.
"Mom says you used to play the piano."
Jane nods, and then realizes that Levi isn't looking at her. "Yes. I did."
"Do you remember any of the songs you used to play?"
Jane is about to lie and say no, she doesn't remember any of them, but Levi lifts his head and looks at her, and she finds that there is something in his eyes that makes it impossible for her to say no to.
"Scoot down a little."
Levi does as she's asked, and Jane lays her hands over the keys. She pushes everything else from her mind as she begins to play. Brahms Lullaby. She is startled, and then proud at how easily it comes back to her, how her fingers move as though they have done this every day. She closes her eyes and the music still comes. She doesn't have to look.
She does not make one mistake.
When the song comes to an end, she opens her eyes and looks over at her son, almost bashfully, embarrassed that she let herself get so caught up.
Levi is looking at her hands.
She looks down too.
The scars that Hoyt left there will never go away. She's come to understand that and accept it. As her children matured, they all asked her, one way or another, what happened to them, and she fielded their questions vaguely, reassuringly.
Levi has never asked her.
He reaches out now and runs a finger over the dark little scar, and Jane readies herself for the explanation, wondering if she can modify it to satisfy a very smart sixteen year-old.
"If Idda been in that basement with you, I never would have let him do that," Levi says, his voice low, and Jane jolts.
"What?"
Levi looks up at her, "I would have protected you, Ma," he says, his eyes wide.
Jane stares at him… "How-how do you know…"
"I found the article in the paper, at the library. When I was younger."
Jane knows the one he's talking about. She also knows the picture that article has attached to it. She's worked very hard to keep both of those things out of her family's life.
"Oh, Levi," she says quietly, "You should have asked me about it."
Levi shrugs, "I didn't know how," he says simply. He runs his fingers over the keys, "Can you teach me? How to play the piano? Do your hands hurt too much, or-" No one in the family is a stranger to Jane's chronic pain. And as October warns Boston about the harshness of the coming winter, Maura and the children rotate shifts on Jane's hands. Noah even rubbing at them when they're sitting together watching TV.
Jane nods at once, although she's not sure what makes her do so. "Of course. My hands are fine. Of course I will teach you…If you're sure it won't hurt your rep."
Levi chuckles, and Jane is elated. Levi's laugh is rare. "Ma?"
"Yes."
"I don't want to be a police officer."
Jane's eyes widen. Levi has taken to coming to the precinct every day after school. Jane assumed that it was because he wanted to be in law enforcement, but she hadn't brought it up, partly because the thought of her son doing her job makes her insides tighten with fear. "I've never asked you-"
"I don't want be a police officer but I want to be just like you, Mama. I want-" But he clenches his jaw and looks away from him, his light eyes terrible at masking his tears.
And Jane realizes what today is. Realizes what this date means to him, and realizes too, that it has been eight years that Levi has been with them. One year longer than he's been anywhere else.
Jane reaches out and grips the back of his neck tightly. He is usually not one for touching, but this time he does not pull away, or flinch or roll his eyes.
His shoulders relax a little as she rubs the base of his skull.
Levi is tall and skinny, with long arms and fingers. His strides are long and casual, and his hair is dark brown, almost black.
He is fiercely protective of his younger siblings, all of them. And when he is mad or uncomfortable or nervous, he rolls his shoulders back and forth, trying to release some of the tension.
He is just like her. Blood or no.
Jane moves her other hand up to grip his arm.
"Hey," she says quietly, pretending not to see the tear that drips down his face, "Hey. You're my son. You're my son. And I am prouder of you than you know." She gives him a squeeze. "You're my son, Levi. I love you. So much, okay? No matter what. I love you."
Levi sniffs, pulling himself together. He half smiles at his mother,
"Double it."
...
Shopping, it turns out, takes all of the morning and some of the afternoon, and when the front door to the house bursts open, Jane looks at her watch and grimaces. Two thirty. She heads out into the hall where Noah and Isabelle are shedding their jackets and shoes.
"It doesn't matter anyway because I know more about dudes than you do!" Noah says, kicking a shoe off with the swing of a foot.
"You do not!"
"I'm a boy!"
"I'm older!"
They start to head towards the kitchen, still arguing. "Woah!" Jane calls and they stop, turning to look at her, confused.
Jane points at the shoes and coats they have left strewn across the floor. "Seriously?"
With great, heaving sighs, they turn and pick up their things, putting them hastily into their correct spaces in the closet.
"Where's your mother," Jane says following them into the kitchen,
"Comin," Noah says, allowing his mother to kiss his head and ruffle his hair. "We hadda park far, and Iz and I raced. I won."
"You wish," Isabelle snaps back. She slips onto the stool at the breakfast bar, tolerating a kiss from Jane as well.
"You get everything you needed, Noah? Pants that aren't six inches too short?"
Noah nods, "Where's Levi?"
"Piano."
As Noah scoots out of the room, Jane hears the front door open again, and she heads back out into the hall.
Maura and Sofia appear, although at first they look like giant walking shopping bags with legs.
Jane rushes to take some of their things.
"Thank you, Jane," Maura says, and she sounds exhausted. Jane kisses her hello, as she turns to her daughter."Fia you can just drop those there, thank you for helping."
Sofia puts the bags down and smiles up at Jane.
"Hey, Mama."
"Hey, little girl, have a good time?"
"There is a working model of the solar system at the Discovery store. You put it together yourself, and then turn it on and it really spins and everything."
Jane pretends to think hard, "well," she says, pretending to give up, "I can't think of any time that a present would be appropriate. Christmas is months away, and we swore off birthdays when you girls turned ten."
Sofia rolls her eyes, but smiles. "There's only three left, Mom, don't forget," she says.
"Fia?" Isabelle's voice rings out from the kitchen and Sofia looks up at Maura, who nods.
"Go on, Fee, thank you."
Sofia slips away, and Jane looks after her, shaking her head.
"How did that, come from me? Don't you ask yourself every day?"
Maura smiles fondly. "No, I don't. She's exactly like you. Smart, observant, gentle."
Jane pulls Maura to her for a proper kiss, "And devoted to you," Jane finishes for her. "Was it awful?"
"Not as awful as it will be after thanksgiving. We really should shop early this year. How's Levi?"
Jane bends to pick up some of the shopping bags. "Today's the anniversary." She says and Maura's eyes get wide.
"Oh, my God, Jane. I completely forgot."
"Me too." They look at each other.
"I don't think Noah remembers either," Maura says after a moment." He seemed his normal comedic self at the mall. Had girls in stitches in Macy's," she smiles, "We'd better watch out for that one."
"That's for the best though, right? That he doesn't remember?"
Maura bites the inside of her cheek, "Yes…I think so. Unless he remembers later and feels guilty for forgetting."
Something bangs in the living room.
"NOAH!" Sofia and Isabelle's indignant voices ring out in unison, followed by Noah's wild laughter. Maura moves towards the sound, but Jane holds her back.
"No. You've been at the mall all day with two teens and a boy who is perpetually hyped up." She kisses Maura's temple, "Go upstairs. It's my turn."
...
Maura is always in awe of how easily Jane manages to bring the entire family together. She jolts awake from her nap to the sounds of people screaming. She stretches and looks at her watch. Five forty five.
She descends the stairs quickly, rounding the corner to the living room where her entire family is gathered around the coffee table, all of them clutching playing cards. Jane and Isabelle sit on the couch, and Noah is on his knees on the floor, elbows propped on the little table.
Sofia and Levi sit cross legged on the other side, knee to knee.
Jane and Noah are screaming.
"Pants on fire!" Jane yells,
"NO!" Noah yells back, starting to laugh.
"Liar!"
"No!"
"I have each and every ace! There is no way you have any."
Noah rolls to the floor dramatically, moaning, and Isabelle giggles.
"You are a cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater," Jane continues, "Now you pick up those cards like a man!"
Maura laughs and heads turn to her.
"Mom!"
"Mom! Come!"
Maura does, sitting down next to Levi, and smiling up at Jane.
"Mom," Isabelle whines, leaning out of the way of Noah's fake tantrum. "Ma took our phones, said we couldn't have them back til we beat her at Liar."
Maura bites her lip, holding in a laugh, trying to look stumped. "I don't know what to tell you, kiddo. You know no one beats Mama at this game. Not even your uncle Frankie."
"Uncle Tommy says he beat her once, when they were little," Sofia pipes up, "We need him to help us, or we'll never get our phone's back"
Noah sits up, his face flushed from exertion, "you just want them back so you can call Oliver," he says and when all eyes turn to Sofia, she blushes the deepest crimson that Maura has ever seen.
"Oliver?" Jane screeches, "That tiny little boy with the glasses that's your science partner?"
"Jane," Maura says warningly, and Jane looks at her bewildered.
"haha!" Noah guffaws, and Isabelle laughs too. "Fee and Oliver, sitting in a tree!" she starts, and Noah picks up.
"K-I-S-S-S-N….wait…" He stops counting letters on his fingers.
Even Sofia has to laugh at this.
Jane shakes her head, her eyes poking fun but her mouth serious. "No. No boys. You're ten."
"Mamaaa," Isabelle says leaning against her. "We are thirteen. And we're going to be fourteen in a month."
"And I turn eleven four months after that!" Noah says excitedly, never one to be left out.
Jane and Maura look at each other.
"Oh, God." They say together.
"I want a boy girl party!" Sofia says, and Jane goes pale.
"Ew. No." Isabelle says, "Olympic themed!"
The girls look at each other, starting to fight silently already.
"Neither!" Jane says, standing up. "And we're not talking about it now." She looks at her watch and then at Maura.
"okay," she claps her hands together, "Mommy is exhausted from chasing your behinds all over the mall. So for dinner…I can cook, or-"
"Burgers from Joes!" Isabelle and Noah say at the same time.
"Pizza!" Levi puts in, nodding vigorously, standing up and stretching
"Anything where Mama's not cooking!" Sofia adds, shrieking as Levi lifts her to her feet. Jane pretends to look hurt.
"I happen to be an excellent cook."
"Mama," Isabelle giggles, "Bass won't even take strawberries from you…"
Maura laughs taking Jane's offered hand and pulling herself to her feet too.
Their children thunder ahead of them into the kitchen, each one trying to be the first to the drawer where the take out menus are.
Jane slips her arm around Maura's waist, and even after all this time, the contact sends sparks throughout the doctors body.
"What do you want, Maur?" Jane asks, pulling her closer as they follow after their family.
Maura sighs. She couldn't care less.
"Everything I want is already here."