Chapter 2
Jane was lying in bed with Maura's head resting on her chest, their legs tangled together, Jane's arms securely wrapped around her wife, holding her close as they slept. She faintly heard a soft voice in the back of her mind, but it wasn't loud enough to wake her up. It wasn't until she felt a cold hand pressing against her upper arm that the detective opened her eyes and looked up to see her daughter standing next to their bed, looking dangerously pale while tears streamed down her face.
"Oh God, baby what's wrong?" Jane asked, carefully untangling herself from Maura who was slowly waking up from the movement.
Riley slumped forward, her arms wrapped around her stomach. "It hurts, mama." She whimpered.
Maura shot up next to Jane when she looked at her daughter. In an instant, she climbed over Jane to sit on the edge of the bed, pulling Riley down in between them. "Where does it hurt, baby?" She asked as she put her hand against Riley's forehead. She pulled it back too quickly.
"Everywhere." Riley whispered, her voice laced with tears. "My whole stomach hurts so bad."
Maura guided Riley to lie down on the bed and moved her skilled hands across Riley's stomach, gently examining it while Jane made soft strokes on Riley's forehead, feeling the crazy amount of heat that radiated from her daughter. "What's wrong, Maur?" Jane whispered.
She wasn't an expert but she knew Riley's fever was way too high. She remembered the time when Riley had the flu during Thanksgiving. She hated every minute of it. She hated seeing her daughter in pain, she hated feeling her hot forehead and the clear pain that showed in her eyes. But she knew this was different. She could tell by the look in Maura's eyes that this was bad. This wasn't just the flu.
Maura sighed deeply and gently pulled Riley up next to them as the girl snuggled closely into Jane's side. "Honey, did you vomit?" Maura asked.
Riley nodded against Jane's chest. "Twice." She answered weakly.
Maura sighed deeply and rubbed her forehead. "I'm afraid it's her appendix. I can't determine her exact temperature, but I estimate it's around 107, which is too high. We have to get her to the hospital."
"What?" Jane widened her eyes and felt Riley whimpering against her as she watched Maura standing up to change out of her silk pajamas and into a pair of jeans and a sweater.
She threw Jane a jacket and some pants and grabbed a pair of shoes for herself. "I don't think it's just an infection, it could be ruptured, which could cause all kinds of various problems. She has to be in surgery as soon as possible." Maura was frantically walking around the room, getting ready to get to the hospital, but her voice sounded calm and professional as always.
"Do we need to call an ambulance?" Jane asked.
"I think we can drive ourselves. It's the middle of the night, the streets will be empty."
Jane felt panic burning in her chest as she felt her daughter shivering against her. Riley lifted her head and looked at her mother with shimmering eyes. "Surgery?" She whispered.
"They're gonna make you better, honey." Jane answered sweetly, brushing Riley's hair from her sweaty forehead.
"No," Riley whimpered, "Mom's a doctor! Can't she make me better?"
"No, my baby. We need to get you to the hospital." Maura answered as she grabbed her phone from the nightstand. "Right now, Jane."
Jane noticed the urge in her wife's voice and gently pulled away from her daughter to put on a jacket and a pair of sweatpants. She slipped into her sneakers and didn't bother to tie the shoelaces. She grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her daughter. Jane pulled Riley up from the bed but she saw the girl's knees going weak so she quickly lifted her up, carrying her daughter in her arms as she followed her wife downstairs, feeling Riley clinging tightly to her. Maura grabbed the car keys from the kitchen counter and opened the door to the garage for Jane.
"It's okay, baby, I'm right here." Jane whispered to her shaking daughter as she gently put her down in the backseat. She looked at her wife and saw fear in her shimmering hazel eyes, a look that made her stomach ache. She looked down at Maura's hands and saw her shaking as she held the car keys, which Jane gently took from her fingers. She kissed Maura's lips and tried to manage a reassuring smile, but she failed.
"Mommy, it hurts!" Riley grunted from the backseat, causing Maura to break eye contact with her wife and sit down next to her daughter while Jane ran around the car to drive.
She turned the key in the ignition and looked in the rearview mirror to see Maura pulling Riley in her lap, holding her close in her arms as she rubbed her daughter's back. "It's going to be okay, my baby." Maura whispered.
It was past 3am and the streets were empty, so Jane didn't bother stopping for red lights and she raced towards the hospital, praying that her daughter would be okay. She recognized that tone in her wife's voice, and she knew the look in Maura's eyes. If doctor Maura Isles looked that concerned, it was a terribly bad sign. Jane knew an appendicitis hurt, but she didn't know it was this bad. She didn't know the complications that could occur if it was ruptured, but Maura did and the look in her eyes told Jane she should be worried.
"Jane, hurry." Maura called from the backseat. "She's gone."
"What do you mean she's gone?" Jane nearly screamed in a panicked voice.
"She's lost consciousness." Maura answered, her voice laced with tears. "Hurry!"
She turned the car onto the parking lot and hit the brakes with great force, causing her to slump forward in her seatbelt. She opened her door and ran around the car to lift Riley from Maura's arms, hurrying towards the emergency room.
Maura ran in front of Jane and explained the situation to the nurse at the reception, who immediately sprung into action by beeping a surgeon. Jane was grateful to hear Riley whimpering again, signaling that she had gain consciousness again. She stretched her back and moved the girl in her arms, who was getting quite heavy.
"Hi, my baby." Jane whispered. She kissed Riley's forehead as she felt the girl's weak arms wrapping around her neck. "They're gonna get a doctor for you and you're gonna be okay."
Riley nodded and tears started falling down her cheeks again as she whimpered in pain. "It hurts." She whispered in a hoarse voice
"I know, honey. They're gonna make it better."
A few minutes later, a nurse led them towards a hospital bed where Jane gently put her daughter down so another nurse could dress her in a surgical gown and hook her up to various kinds of medical equipment, ready to be taken into immediate surgery.
"Mommy?" Riley whimpered, looking frantically around the room to find her mothers who were forced to step back to make room for the nurses.
"I'm here, my love." Maura said softly as she quickly stepped towards the bed. She grabbed Riley's hand and stroked her hot forehead. "I'm here."
"What's happening?"
"They are going to get you into surgery. You're gonna go to sleep, and they are going to open up your stomach and remove your appendix and fix the pain." Maura explained, with a loving look in her shimmering eyes.
"Does that hurt?" Riley asked in a weak voice.
"No, baby." Jane answered, stepping towards the other side of the bed. "You won't feel a thing."
Riley nodded and tried to smile, but she whimpered and cried out in pain. Jane saw her wife breaking down in a silent sob as she leaned down to the bed, trying to wrap her arms around her daughter as she pressed her lips against Riley's hot forehead. "I love you so much, my beautiful baby girl." She pulled away to look at her daughter, who was fighting to stay conscious. "I love you so much."
Just as Jane tried to step in and hug her daughter, two nurses started moving the bed. "We have to get her into an OR," said one of the nurses.
Jane nodded and walked along with the moving bed, Maura on the other side. "You're gonna be alright, baby." Jane said, trying to sound reassuring. "I love you so much. Your mom and I love you so much. We'll see you after the surgery, everything will be fine."
Riley looked up at her mothers and Jane saw a kind of fear she'd never seen in those clear blue eyes. She saw a mixture of panic, extreme terror and great pain, which made her heart ache. Too soon, the nurse told Jane and Maura to let go.
"We love you!" Maura yelled after her daughter as they took her through big doors, towards the OR. "I love you." She whimpered softly before she almost fell to her knees, Jane moving just in time to catch her. Maura broke down in heartbreaking sobs, clinging to her wife in a desperate grip.
Jane held her wife close; her arms securely wrapped around the doctor as she cried into Jane's chest and allowed desperate sobs to wreck her body. Jane was surprised to see this reaction coming from her wife. Maura knew exactly how this operation would work, she knew all the possible complications by heart and she knew how to rationalize. But all of that was gone now. There was nothing left of the confident, put-together, skilled medical examiner. Maura was now a desperate mother that could do nothing more that to pray for her child to be okay and this reaction scared Jane. She knew Riley was in serious danger; otherwise Maura wouldn't react like this. If Riley weren't in a life-threatening situation, Maura would rationalize her way out of it, teaching Jane all the facts and procedures, taking comfort in technical facts.
They stayed silent for a long time, Maura sobbing quietly, silent tears trickling down Jane's cheek as they stood in the hallway of a dark and quiet hospital, clinging tightly to each other, wishing and praying that their daughter would be back in their arms soon.
After a long time, Jane quietly broke the silence. "Maur, you said she's gonna be okay." She whispered. "Is she gonna be okay?" Jane noticed a hint of desperation in her own voice and didn't fight the tears that fell down her cheeks. "Tell me she's gonna be okay."
Maura pulled back and looked deeply into Jane's eyes. She cupped Jane's cheek and wiped a tear with her thumb. "I wish I could." She whispered.
Jane widened her eyes and felt panic tickling in her chest. "What?" She fought to keep her voice down, to stop herself from jumping the walls, screaming out in anger and panic. "What does that mean, Maur?" She asked. "Please tell me what's happening Maura, because you're scaring the crap out of me."
Maura closed her eyes and guided Jane to sit down on a bench a few feet away. "Maur, I need you to be doctor Isles right now, okay? I need you to tell me all your medical and scientific mumbo-jumbo and confuse me with your Google-mouth."
Maura looked down and took Jane's hands in her own after she wiped her cheeks and took a deep breath. Jane smiled when she saw her wife slowly trying to put herself back together again. "Please talk to me, babe." Jane whispered.
"I should have known." Maura said quietly. She looked up at Jane and Jane saw tears and immense pain in those beautiful, big hazel eyes. "I should have known the minute that Feminax didn't kick in yesterday. I should have known when she sat curled up in my lap for nearly two hours." Maura took a deep breath as a single tear trickled down her cheek. "I should have known it wasn't just menstrual cramps or constipation."
"You couldn't have known, Maur." Jane answered, trying to comfort her wife.
Maura smiled sadly and Jane knew Maura didn't believe her. "It's most likely a ruptured appendix." Maura started, wiping her cheeks again. "A regular appendicitis is bad, but rupture makes it quite serious. It can cause peritonitis…"
"What's that?"
"An infection in the abdominal wall. There's a membrane that covers the abdominal organs, which can get infected due to a ruptured appendix."
"What's the worst that could happen?" Jane asked softly, afraid to hear the answer.
"We shouldn't think like that, Jane."
"I know, but I know you've gone over the possibilities in your head multiple times and I'd like to be on the same page as you." Jane answered, stroking Maura's knuckles with her thumb.
Maura sighed and smiled at her wife, her tears finally drying on her cheeks. "If it is indeed peritonitis, the infection can spread in her bloodstream and affect her other organs."
"And then…?"
Maura stayed silent for a while before she answered hesitantly. "That doesn't happen. She'll get a large amount of antibiotics."
"What if it does?" Jane pressed on.
"If the infection spreads, she could die."
Jane closed her eyes and leaned forward to bury her head in Maura's shoulder as her wife's soft arms wrapped around her. "God that would kill me."
"That won't happen, Jane." Maura assured her wife, but Jane heard the pain and tears in her voice. "We're not too late, they can still fix it."
Jane nodded and sniffled as hot tears fell down her cheeks. "What if we lose her?" She whispered barely audible.
"We won't." Maura whispered. She cupped Jane's face and wiped her tears with her thumbs as her own tears continued falling. She captured Jane's lips in a desperate and loving kiss. "We won't lose her. The universe isn't that cruel."
Jane nodded and took a deep breath as she relaxed against the back of the uncomfortable bench. She felt her wife snuggling into her side as she wrapped her arm around Maura's shoulders and kissed her temple. "It seems like only yesterday when we first met her…" Jane said with a sentimental smile. "But at the same time it feels like she's been our kid for years."
Maura hummed and rested her head on Jane's shoulder. "I know. It feels like this is the way it's supposed to be, like it's always been this way."
"Everything is so much better with her in our lives." Jane whispered.
Jane rested her cheek against Maura's temple and looked at her wife to see a sweet smile on her face. "I remember when we first met her at the adoption center last fall." Maura said. "She looked so tiny and vulnerable. She's grown so much since she's been with us."
Jane nodded and pulled her wife close into her side. "Who would have thought then that we had just met the girl that would become pretty much the most important person in our lives?"
Maura laughed softly and draped her arm over Jane's stomach. "I certainly didn't." She replied softly. "I knew she'd be important and I knew I would love her right from the start, but I never anticipated it was even possible to feel this amount of love for a child."
Jane kissed the top of Maura's head that rested on her shoulder. "Me neither. I thought I'd reached the love-limit when I fell in love with you, but I was wrong."
"Love-limit?" Maura asked with a hint of amusement. "That doesn't exist, love has no limit."
Jane chuckled. "Yeah, it's not a thing, I know." She smirked. "I mean I thought I never could love someone as much as I love you, because I love you so much, but it turns out I have a whole different kind of love in me, and an endless amount of it."
Maura smiled and lifted her head to slowly kiss Jane's lips. "That still doesn't make sense, but I get what you mean." She brushed Jane's hair back and looked into her eyes with a pained expression before kissing her lips again.
Jane smiled into the kiss and pulled Maura back into her arms as she rested her head on Jane's shoulder again. "Riley's gonna be okay, right?" Jane asked insecurely. "I need her to be okay."
"I wish I could promise that, Jane." Maura said softly, not moving from their loving embrace. "I wish I could, but I can't. Time will tell if she's okay."
Jane sighed and tried to relax with her wife closely in her arms, smiling sadly when Maura occasionally placed loving kisses along her neck and collarbone. They waited for what felt like hours, waiting, praying and hoping the surgery would be successful. Jane felt her back and muscles hurting from the uncomfortable bench, her wife shifting in her arms as they both murmured soft declarations of love, attempting to find comfort in their familiar foundation of infinite love.
Finally, the doors opened and a tall man in blue scrubs walked towards the two women. Maura immediately stood up, quickly followed by Jane.
"Are you the parents of Riley Rizzoli-Isles?"
"Yes, we are. Is she okay?" Maura asked hastily.
"She just got out of a complicated but successful surgery. You can see her now."
