A/N: Hello fellow R&I fans! :) So this is my first fanfiction on this site, and I just want to give a big thank you go all of you who added this story, it really means a lot to me! Thank you especially to Swishla, ald2106, AliasSpyCrazy and jaik for your lovely reviews :) I'm trying a different method of writing for this fic by finishing one chapter and starting on the next before I update, and I'm hoping it'll encourage me to write faster. I'm starting college very soon, though, so things may not pick up until mid-September. I hope you'll all stick with me though!

BTW, I don't own R&I.

Well, that's enough chatter. On to chapter 2! :)

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"Jane, quit rubbing your rear end. It's not attractive and it makes you look like you have some kind of problem."

Jane scowled at her mother across the counter. "It's work, Ma. Being attractive doesn't matter here." She glared pointedly at Maura. "And it's not every day that one gets dropped in the elevator."

They were in the coffee shop on the ground floor of headquarters. Stan was on break and not many cops were hanging around, so the two friends were free to converse with Jane's mother.

Angela Rizzoli gawked at Maura. "What were you doing carrying her in the elevator?"

"Oh wait, I can make this real simple for all of us," Jane bit sarcastically before Maura could open her mouth. "Let's see..." She began to tick off her fingers. "Blah blah blah, desk, blah blah blah, talking Google, blah blah blah, headlock-"

"You put her in a headlock?"

"-blah blah blah, lifted up, blah blah blah, dropped." Jane waved her arm. "Now you take Maura's side, I protest no Ma it wasn't my fault, yada yada, your word is God, now tell me who I should bring for this family day thing."

Angela clicked her tongue and pouted a little. "You know, sometimes you're not very nice to me."

Jane sighed. "Come on, Ma, just tell me who to bring!"

"I have no idea," Angela shrugged, busily refilling napkin dispensers. "Tommy wouldn't want to spend a whole day arm-in-arm with the law, and God forbid your father come within a hundred yards of me." She sighed heavily and looked at Maura. "You're bringing the cousin that's coming to stay with us, right, sweetie?"

"Nora, yes."

"And she just got out of high school?"

"She graduated a couple weeks ago."

"There you go, then, Jane," Angela said with a wave of her hand. "Invite your cousin Anne, she just graduated, too. They should get on well with each other."

Maura looked mildly surprised. "I didn't know you had cousins around here, Jane."

"I'm Italian, I have cousins everywhere."

Angela picked up her cell phone and tossed it to her daughter. "Here. Call your Uncle Marius. Ask Anne if she wants to come and stay the rest of the month."

"Aw, Ma..."

"Ask her, Jane," Angela ordered with a glare. "And while you're at it, tell Marius I want my good lasagna pan back, he's had it since Thanksgiving."

Jane rolled her eyes and walked off with the phone to her ear. Maura settled against the counter, smiling at her friend's retreating form. "A little untraditional, having lasagna for Thanksgiving, isn't it?"

"Frank's father insisted it be kept in the family. The Rizzoli's make their own traditions," Angela replied with a wry grin.

"I can see that." Maura leaned back and called across the precinct's coffee shop, "Like physically abusing anybody who speaks for longer than twelve seconds in your presence?"

"I heard that, jerk! No, not you, Uncle Marius..."

Maura laughed and waved when she noticed Frost come through the door. "Traffic okay?"

"Smooth sailing all the way to the corner," Frost replied. He placed one of the four lidded Styrofoam coffee cups in front of Maura. "Thanks for not making me balance this upstairs. Where's Korsak?"

"Talking to Cavanaugh about BYFTW," Maura replied, taking a sip of her tea.

"And Rizzoli?"

Maura gestured toward the window where Jane was still on the phone. "Tracking down a family member who doesn't work here."

"Ah, so you finally talked her into doing it?"

"I didn't give her much of a choice."

Frost's eyebrows furrowed. "And by that you mean...?"

Maura shrugged and lifted the tea to her lips. "I carried her piggyback out of the office and dropped her in the elevator."

Frost whistled. "Man...you've got balls, Doc."

Maura frowned. "No, I don't. It's genetically impossible."

Freezing with his coffee cup to his mouth, Frost shot Angela a helpless look. The elder Rizzoli smiled, amused, and reached over the counter to pat Maura's arm. "He didn't mean it literally, dear."

"Oh..." Maura looked from one to the other curiously. "You meant it to be a parallel of boldness and fearlessness?"

Frost sighed. "Yes."

The ME smiled. "Well, then I suppose I agree with you."

"Uncle Marius wants to talk to you," Jane said, returning to the three of them with the phone in her outstretched hand. "He said she could come as long as you're around."

Angela nodded and took the phone. "How are you, Marius?"

Jane slumped against the counter. "It's not like I'm a homicide detective and can easily protect a teenager from harm, or anything," she grumbled, rubbing her forehead irritatedly.

Maura gave her a mild grin. "According to Frost, I have balls."

Jane froze. Her eyes darted from Maura, innocent as ever, to Frost, who had quite nearly spit out his coffee at the ME's declaration. "What did you do to her?"

The detective shrugged. Jane groaned. "Forget it, just go give Korsak his coffee."

Shaking his head, Frost placed one of the remaining coffees on the counter next to Jane, waved to Angela, and left the dining area. Jane picked up her drink and turned to Maura. "You know, sometimes being with you is like being with a five-year-old who swallowed the Encyclopedia Brittanica," she mused, taking a long swallow of coffee.

Maura thought for a moment. "You do know that it's physically impossible to-"

"Yes, Doctor Isles, I KNOW that it's not possible to swallow a book!" Jane burst out, dropping her head into both hands. "God, I hate slow weeks."

"Be careful what you wish for, Janie," Angela said as she reappeared across from the pair. "Anyways, Marius said he can send Anne on Monday morning and she can stay until the eighth."

"Of next month?" Jane said, surprised. She glanced towards the calendar on the wall. "It's only the fourteenth. Jesus, that's three weeks!"

"Well, if you can't handle Anne for that long, I could easily take her in," Angela remarked somewhat pompously, giving her daughter a look as she wiped down her work area.

"Ma, I'm sure I can handle living with a teenager," Jane replied, pushing her hair back off her face restlessly. "I did it twice, remember? And they were both smelly, obnoxious boys? I'm sure Anne will be a walk in the park compared to Frankie and Tommy."

"Mmhmm. Just remember, taking care of another human being is not like caring for Jo Friday."

"Ma, I'm not stupid. I'll remember to take Anne for a walk more than three times a day."

Maura laughed as Angela snapped a towel at her daughter. "Keep talking like that and when the time comes I'll raise my grandchildren by myself!"

"Yeah, yeah," Jane said with a smirk, rubbing her arm where the towel hit. "At least I have this weekend to prepare."

Maura turned to her, surprised. "You have the weekend off as well?"

"Yeah, for once."

The ME broke into a wide smile. "Nora is arriving tomorrow night. You can come with us to yoga Saturday morning!"

Jane groaned. "Dear Lord..."

"No, look, it'll be fun, Jane! You could spend Saturday and Sunday getting to know her, and then she and I will meet Anne on Monday. It works out perfectly!"

"What, you think I'll need more time to get to know your cousin than you'll need to know mine?"

Maura considered for a moment. "Well, due to my intensive study of the human body and brain, I'm usually able to get a pretty good read on people when I first meet them."

"You would be SUCH a help solving murders, then."

"Don't be mean. Anyways, the age similarities between Nora and Anne make them automatically relatable in more than one sense. For example, they're both going off to college. Their lives are about to change dramatically as they mature into the adults they were meant to be."

"And they both probably hate their parents," said Jane. "Come on, Maura, for all you know, they could be as different as night and day."

Maura smiled and tapped her friend's arm. "You mean like us?"

Jane grumbled incomprehensibly in response. Satisfied, Maura turned to Angela. "I can't WAIT til Monday."

Angela grinned back.

"RIZZOLI!"

The elder Rizzoli winced. "Uh-oh."

Stan, the coffee shop owner, stomped past the conversing women. "I'm not paying you to stand around and socialize! There's a line forming, go take their orders!"

"The warden is back from his break," Angela muttered under her breath, glancing over at the cash register. "Tsk, there's barely a wait at all." With a heavy sigh, she made a shooing motion at her daughter. "You two should skedaddle before Stan takes my head off."

"Yeah, Ma. Thanks for everything," Jane said, a bit sarcastically, as she stood. "I'll let you know how the preparations are going."

As Jane turned away, Angela cocked her head pointedly. "Ahem!"

"Ugh, not in the mood, Ma," the detective called over her shoulder, leaving the cafe without further hesitation.

Angela's face fell. Maura glanced from the door to her best friend's mother and offered a comforting smile. "She has a lot on her mind," Maura said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. "You know, with the slowness of the week, and this family day, and the threat of socializing...and..."

The ME trailed off as the hurt didn't leave Angela's expression. Thinking on her feet, Maura leaned across the counter and kissed her surrogate mother on the cheek. "I'll pass it on," she promised, picking up her tea and turning away with another small grin.

"See that you do," Angela said, sounding marginally happier.

"Rizzoli!"

"I'm coming, for goodness sake!"

Maura sighed and hurried out the door, towards the elevator her friend was boarding. "Jane!"