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Jane stared at her unexpected visitor and said precisely nothing.
"That's a nice way to greet me Janie." There was an edge to the tone of voice, not quite jovial, not quite filled with anger; an unhappy medium between the two.
Jane's gaze dipped to the floor sweeping past hands on hips and she felt that old familiar nagging in her chest, yet at the same time the famous Rizzoli rage bubbling up in her gut. She didn't need this, she didn't want this. She huffed in hopeless defiance before forcing her eyes up to meet that fixed stare. "Hi Ma, sorry Ma."
It had become the customary way her daughter greeted her nowadays. Hi Ma, sorry I'm late Ma. Hi Ma, sorry I missed dinner Ma. Hi Ma, sorry I didn't tell you what happened Ma. Hi Ma, I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was going back to work Ma. Hi Ma, I'm sorry but I have to do this Ma. The latter would probably haunt Angela for the rest of her life. I should have stopped her. She knew that she wasn't responsible, of course she couldn't know what was going to happen but as she looked at the dark grey circles around Jane's dull eyes Angela felt a stab of guilt for letting her go back so soon, and to go back to what consumed her and almost claimed her life.
Jane sighed as she watched her Ma perform a sweeping gaze of her and saw the older woman's body sag and her eyes well up. She didn't want to bring this upon her family but she couldn't just walk away either. Jane opened her mouth not knowing what to say to make this better but her Ma simply pushed past her and began the maternal clucking that Jane was so used to.
Angela Rizzoli was a pro at what she did; she looked after people. She pushed her own issues to one side, along with the stifling guilt and she cleaned, she tidied, she made a home. She was an expert at clearing around and not taking in the grisly gruesome photographs that often scattered the younger brunette's apartment. What Janie did was her job, it was not her life and Angela often fought until she was blue in the face about that very fact but no matter how much Jane tried to ignore she would not give in and allow her daughter to be taken by all these horrors.
Jane sighed and looked up at the heavens knowing full well that not even a god could help her now. Her Ma was fussing around her sty of an apartment, tutting and muttering to herself in that incomprehensible mother's language as she swept through the place like Mary Poppins. Jane watched with pride as her Ma picked up her files and evidence, cleaned underneath and placed them carefully back as if they had never been disturbed. Jane chuckled to herself, it must have been a skill she acquired when Angela used to let herself in using a spare key that just so happened to end up in her Ma's possession and Jane would come home to find an apartment where absolutely nothing looked as if it had been touched and yet everywhere around things and under things was magically clean. Jane smirked as she remembered 'finding' her spare key in her Ma's bag and the see through flimsy act she tried to give her. Jane took that privilege away as soon as she could; too many unexpected early morning wake up calls when she had been working through the night.
Angela stopped and watched her daughter play back happier memories and smiled sadly herself as a shadow of a former stunning smile ghosted across Jane's face before giving way to that stranger's gaunt and broken face that did not belong to the girl with unruly hair who got into more scuffs at school than both of her brothers put together. She sighed heavily herself and fought against her maternal instinct to rush over and gather her up in a bear hug, knowing full well that Jane would squirm away from the embrace just as she always had.
Jane plonked herself on her couch defeatedly knowing that there was no getting rid of her Ma before the place was spotless and the brunette didn't have the energy to fight a pointless fight.
"Who is that?" Angela peered over her daughter's shoulder at a photograph of an attractive woman with perfectly quaffed honey blonde hair and eyes that seemed to jump out as if someone were looking through cut outs straight at her.
Jane jumped at the sound of the voice so close behind her and startled at what she was doing, she had no recollection of picking the photograph up and had no idea why she was just gazing at her...well she did but again she pushed all thoughts of that as far away as she could and she forced her hand to casually toss the photograph away before briskly getting up and stalking toward the door, her mood now irked by her own subconscious.
Angela watched as Jane stormed off toward the door and held it open as a not so polite request to leave. She turned her back on her daughter and fussed with her bag whilst sneaking the photograph into her bag, she couldn't explain why she did it but before she had a conscious thought about it was already in her bag. As she drove back to her own house her mind raced, this woman had the potential to turn Janie's life around, Angela wasn't sure who she was nor what her relationship with Jane was but her daughter's reaction was enough to tell her she was important and Angela needed help to bring her daughter back from out of the shadows into the living world.
Slightly shorter than I would have liked, sorry, but the next is on its way.
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