"Maya!"

Kate runs over to lift her daughter away from the kitchen table, where she is smearing chocolate sauce onto the surface with her hands. Her cry of dismay wakes the baby, and Kate balances Maya on the step stool by the sink and tries to breathe.

She'd thought that having a second kid would that child rearing would be exactly twice as hard as it had been before. She'd been confused and then completely bewildered to discover that it was a matter of exponents rather than simple multiplication.

"I have told you and told you, Maya," she says now, reaching to turn the water on at the sink. "You do not go into the fridge without me or Mama. When you are clean, you're getting a timeout, young lady."

Maya's lower lip trembles. "I wanted choco-milk," she says, pouting. "I'mma big girl."

This is what Kate and Jane have been telling her ever since the birth. Zoe's arrival had Maya pin-balls between excitement over being a big sister, and fury at no longer being the baby.

And she is right, they have told her she can have more freedom picking out her outfits, and brushing her teeth. She is no longer allowed to drink from a bottle, or suck on a pacifier.

Kate can see the leap to making herself chocolate milk. It is something she might have done. She reaches for the dish towel and wipes Maya's hands. She notices that there is chocolate in Maya's hair.

"Ugh," she says. "You're filthy."

Maya looks up at her, surprise in her wide hazel eyes.

And like a camera flash that pulls her back through time, Katie sees her own mother, holding a bar of soap and a dish rag. She stands in front of Katie, and her face is full of dismay, and deeper, disgust.

"You're filthy," she says. "It's time to clean you up, filthy girl."

Katie drops the dish towel she is holding as though it has burned her. Maya watches it fall, and so when she looks back up to find her mother eye level with her, she flinches.

The movement makes Kate's stomach heave.

"Maya," she says. "I'm sorry. You're not filthy. You could never be filthy, do you understand?"

Maya nods. "Okay," she says slowly, unsure if this change in tone is a new form of punishment. "I'mma big girl," she says hopefully.

"Yes," Kate agrees. "You are a big girl, and I love you so much."

Maya smiles. This sentence, she knows, is never a punishment. "I love you too, Mommy...can I have some choco milk?"

And Kate laughs, and pulls her sweet smelling, chocolate covered daughter into her arms. In the next room, Zoe wails again.

Kate pulls away to look Maya in the face. "Let's get Zo-Zo and go outside and take some pictures!" She says.

Maya claps her hands excitedly. "Oh yes!" she agrees. "Of what, Mommy?"

Kate lifts her down from the step stool. "Anything you like," she answers.

…

She is still a little wild-eyed and hyper when Jane gets home that evening. She presses the detective back, against the front door, and kisses her hard.

"I've made a new rule," she says, before Jane can ask what's going on.

"Rule number five?" Jane says, interested. "What is it?"

"First," Kate says, "promise me that my parents will never know Maya is mine genetically."

Jane looks at her, shocked. "I thought-"

"No," Kate says. "I was going to, and then I got too afraid. And now I wouldn't for all of the world. So promise. Promise me, Jane."

Jane's face softens around the corners of her eyes. "What's rule number five?" she asks.

"These little girls," Kate continues. "You and me. Chicago. That's the only thing that matters Jane. Promise they'll never get them." The intensity of her earlier epiphany has her talking fast, the elation manifesting itself as a fever.

They'd spent four hours outside, and Kate had shot two full rolls of film. More than since before Zoe was born. Only eight or nine of them would be usable. The rest would go to her girls. A legacy.

"Katie," Jane says. She takes her wifes face between her hands and holds it still. "Tell me your rule, beautiful."

Kate leans forward to kiss Jane again.

"Protect them," she whispers. "Protect them until your very last breath."

…

…...

A young woman falls in love with a man. He tells her that she is the only one for him. He is sweet, and kind, and he promises to take her away from the poverty and pain that is current life, to take care of her forever.

He tells her to drop out of school. She does and they run away together.

He tells her to stop writing home, and she does. He is the only family she needs. Him and the tiny baby growing inside of her.

By the time the boy is two, the fairy tale has been dead for almost a year.

Uneducated, estranged from all those who might love her, the woman runs from her husband on a cold night in January. She runs as far away as she can.

For the next four years, she works three jobs, and doesn't use the internet or buy a cellphone. She lives on the coast and never sees the ocean.

The new man who eventually wins her heart has to try very hard to find the right words. He tells her that she is the only one for him, and she slams the door of the car on his hand, and doesn't return his phone calls.

She decides to marry him when he tells her that he will leave her alone.

She decides to love him when their new house has a bedroom just for her, and bed in the shape of a race car for her son.

Just after the boy's eighth birthday, his father returns. He lurks on the far corner of the block, and seethes, until the rage will not stay buried and he gets out of the car with his handgun determined to make the bitch who left him pay.

She pays with her life.

Her new, illegitimate husband pays with his life too.

But in his rage, he has miscalculated. His son is not home, but at a friend's house for the day, and so the police whisk him away before he can be found and claimed by the murderer. His father.

It is two weeks later when he finally gets his hands on his son; a tall, wide eyed boy who will not call him daddy, who cries all the time to go home, and who runs toward the police woman when she appears in his apartment.

His hand gun is in his waistband, and although he doesn't anticipate this bitch cop to be so quick on her own draw, he manages two shots before she hits him.

He uses his last bit of strength to look for his son.

He is devastated to see the boy kneeling not over his body, but the cops, his small hands pressing at a wound that might, or might not kill her.

He is satisfied.

He is grieving for the son he will never get to know.

He is dead.

…

…

Frost is waiting for them when they arrive in the waiting room at the hospital. Frankie grabs his nieces, holding them back as Maura walks up to her wife's partner, her heart so loud in her ears that it is hard to hear anything else.

"Tell me," she says to Barry, unable to hear her children behind her, struggling against Frankie.

"Tell me, Frost. Tell me."

"She's alive," he answers her, taking her upper arm, telling her the most important thing first. "She was conscious in the bus, Maura. She's going to be okay."

Some of Maura's panic ebbs away. Her free hand comes to his shoulder, to steady herself.

"She took a bullet?"

"Two," he says. "One to the vest, and glanced her neck."

The panic returns, full force. "Her neck?" she asks, hearing her voice break. "Barold, her neck?"

"A graze," he assures her. "Just a graze, Maura. Not even surgery."

Behind them, Zoe and Maya succeed in overpowering their uncle. They rush forward, both shouting the same question in different, high pitched rhythms.

"She's okay," Maura says, taking Zoe into arms. "She's okay. Everything is okay."

"I wanna see her," Maya says, choked up. "I wanna see mama. Where is she?"

Maura reaches out to put her hand on Maya's cheek, and the teenager grasps her wrist with both of her hands. She looks young, and pale, and guilty.

"She's okay, my darling," Maura says again. "We'll see her soon."

She doesn't know if this is true, but as she says it, she wills it to be so. She doesn't have a choice between the truth and lies at this moment. The only thing she can do is be a mother, and that means telling her children exactly what they need to hear.

"Yes," Frost says. He puts his hand on Maura's shoulder. "Very soon, guys, I promise." He hesitates. "I need to talk to your mom for a minute, though, okay? Can you wait with Frankie over-"

"No," Maya says, she pulls away from Maura's hand and crosses her arms over her chest.

"Honey," Maura begins, but Maya shakes her head, and Zoe pulls her tearstained face away from Maura's shoulder and shakes hers too.

"We want to hear what you're going to say."

"They're going to discuss the case," Frankie cuts in, stepping forward. "Your mom's hurt because of the case they've been working on. They need to discuss it, guys, okay?"

He holds out his arms, as if to herd the girls away from Maura.

Zoe looks between them, still on the brink of tears. "Promise you won't see Mama without us," she says to Maura.

Maura crosses her heart.

Frost waits until they are out of earshot to speak again. Maura fights the urge to wring her hands.

"She can't speak," Frost says lowly. "The Thoracic surgeon is with her now, NOT because he wants to operate," Frost cuts off her interjection. "Just because he wants to make sure there's no damage to her epiglottis or vocal chords."

"The Hyoid bone?" Maura asks.

"Intact, the mandible too."

"This is sounding like more than a graze, Detective."

Frost nods, conceding. "She turned her head to shield the kid," he says. "Ducked down, and got the second bullet where the top of her vest would have been."

Maura tries to focus a part of her attention on someone who is not in her immediate family, but it is hard.

"Jamison Burke," she says. "He's unharmed?"

"Yes," Frost says. "He's fine physically, although who knows how he will fare emotionally. His father kills his pregnant mother and stepfather? Kidnaps him from a stable home?"

Maura can't help but glance at Maya, who is watching them both with hawk eyes, waiting to be allowed back over.

"When can we see her?"

Behind Frankie, Maya and Zoe, the door to the waiting room pushes inward, and Angela Rizzoli appears, jacket inside out, her eyes darting all about. She hurries up to Frankie and pulls him, and then the girls into what must be bone crushing hugs.

"The doctor will want to talk to you when he comes out," Frost is saying, "but I don't think it will be long. She's awake, like I said."

When Maura doesn't answer right away, Frost puts his hand on her elbow. "She's okay," he repeats.

She smiles faintly at him. "Will we see the H-word in the papers, Barry?"

Frost grins at her. "Oh yeah," he says. "You'd better get your black out marker ready."

…

…

"What happens if you die?" She doesn't mean to ask it so blatantly, but the anxiety that has been simmering for the last few days is starting to boil over. Jane has been in a lot of close scrapes before, but none have felt as dangerous or as close as this Charles Hoyt business.

Jane looks up from her reading. She has a healing cut above her eyebrow that makes Kate woozy to look at. She hates thinking of Jane injured, no matter how strong she seems to be.

"I'm not going to die, hon," Jane says softly.

"But what if you do? What if this psycho guy just…shows up and kills you?"

"Katie." Jane puts aside the file she'd been studying and opens her arms to her wife. But Kate shakes her head, standing from the couch and moving to look out the window.

"I'm serious. I read some stuff about what this guy's done! It's sick. And now he's after you."

Jane stands too. "It's better that he's after me than another unsuspecting woman or family," she says reasonably. "I'm ready for him. I can handle him."

"Okay," Kate says, still refusing to be comforted. "But what if he comes after me? Or one of the girls? You think Zoe is ready for Charles Hoyt, Jane?"

She watches as surprise and anger lock up Jane's muscles for the smallest of seconds. When they'd first gotten together, this is the action that had thrilled her. She'd purposefully said things and done things to elicit the reaction, to remind herself that her girlfriend was the strongest, the most compassionate.

"I'm not going to let him touch any of you," she growls. Kate shivers at the sound of her voice, though she isn't afraid.

"Hey," Jane says, taking Kate's shoulders and turning her around. "Look at me. Tell me what's wrong."

Kate puts her arms around Jane's waist. "I couldn't live without you," she murmurs into her neck. "I couldn't…take care of them alone."

Jane's hands rub her back gently. "You don't have to," she says. "You'll never have to."

"You don't know that," she says, pushing because she has to hear Jane reassure her again. "You don't know. Tomorrow you could leave our kids without a mother. Or the next day."

Does she believe that? She doesn't think so. But God, the way Jane holds her tighter. The way she inhales against Kate's temple like she's the only thing that Jane lives for.

"I just don't think that you should have goaded him like that in the paper, Jane," she says.

Jane pulls back to look at her. "I didn't goad him, hon, I stated that this was my city and that he couldn't just go around killing girls."

"You said you would find him, and make sure he never hurt another woman again."

Jane's face gets dark and brooding. It is one of Kate's favorite expressions on her wife, even though she knows it usually means she's in for a fight.

"I will," Jane says gruffly. "Did you call Natasha today? How are they adjusting to the Brownstone?"

And Kate sighs and wraps her arms tighter around the skinny waist of her detective. She is almost over her jealousy at Jane's attentiveness to the saved women. She can almost see her way to caring for them herself.

Almost.

"They are fine. They are endlessly grateful," she kisses her wife's shoulder. "You are good, Jane Rizzoli, you know that? You are a good, good, cop."

Jane lifts her up into the air, her long fingers contracting on Kate's waist and making her giggle. Making her hot.

"I'm a detective," she growls playfully. "And a superhero. The paper says so."

But Kate pulls back, her brows knitting together in the serious way she knows Jane hates. "Superhero or not," she says quietly, "you have human children who would miss you terribly if something happened. You have a human wife who would simply cease to carry on." She wraps her legs around Jane's waist and puts her head down on her muscular shoulder. "Promise me you'll be careful, Superjane "

And Jane hugs her hard.

"I promise."

…

…

Maura handles Jane's injuries differently than Kate does. It is something she's known for over a decade. She doesn't know what Kate would have done upon entering the hospital room. Would she have cried and flung herself on the bed? Would she have made a joke, trying to laugh it off? Would she have steered clear of the hospital altogether?

Maura doesn't know, and as she crosses the little room to take her wife's hand in hers, she doesn't care. She kisses Jane's knuckles.

"Hello, love."

"Hi," Jane mouths, she smiles at Maya, who comes up to the bed, holding Katie. "Hi tiny beautifuls."

"Don't speak," Maura and Maya say together.

Zoe is last to enter the room, and when she sees her mother, she starts to cry. She runs forward and sits on the edge of Jane's bed, leaning forward to bury her face in her mother's stomach.

"Mama," she says, her voice muffled.

Jane puts her free hand in her daughter's hair, scratching her scalp gently.

"She's okay, honey," Maura says, speaking for Jane. "She's going to be just fine."

Katie reaches out for Maura, and when she's been transferred, Maya moves to sit on the edge of Jane's bed too, bending her head to Jane's uninjured shoulder.

"I love you," Maya says. "A lot."

Jane grins. "My girls," she says.

"Don't talk," Maura and Maya say.

"I love you too, Mama!" Katie says from Maura's arms. She sighs happily and leans back against Maura's chest. "Yah," she says. "Pretty much."

Zoe chokes a laugh through her tears, and Maya rolls her eyes.

They are all going to be okay.

…

They're all still there when Howard Hodgkin arrives.

He knocks on the open door before crossing the threshold, and Maura jumps to her feet when she sees him, startling the dozing baby in her arms.

"You're not welcome here," she says, not caring if she sounds cold.

Howard freezes. He is holding a worn shoebox in both of his hands, and after a long moment, he holds it up as though it might pay his way into the room.

"How did you know we were here?" Maura asks, suspicious. She is willing to be civil to Katherine's parents only when they do not intrude on her family's recuperation time. She sees Jane looking at her out of the corner of her eye, face pale.

"I called them." It's Maya's voice is small, ashamed and scared. "I...texted," she says, not meeting Maura's eyes. "From the car."

"What?" Zoe looks at her sister as though she doesn't even recognize her. "You what, Maya? Why?"

Maya's eyes are filling slowly with tears, and Maura sees that she doesn't know the answer. She might not ever know. She sees that it is awful to be fourteen, in any situation, and that this one is worse than most.

She loves her daughter more fiercely than ever, in that moment.

"I'm here by myself," Howard shifts on his feet, nervous. "I came alone," he repeats. "And I don't intend to stay. I just, I wanted to..." He shuffles again, trying to find the right words, and Maura thinks he looks small without his wife. Diminished somehow.

"I wanted to give these to Maya," he says. "I think she deserves to have them."

"Can it wait?" Maura asks irritably. She sees Jane smirk. "We've all just gone through a very scary ordeal, and Jane deserves to rest with her children."

And Howard looks up into Maura's face, and she sees that he might be close to tears. It brings her up short, this show of emotion from the man who is usually the stolid, impassive back drop to his wife's emotional outbursts.

"I would say yes," he says quietly. "If I thought that there was any chance this could wait."

On the bed, Jane lifts her hand, asking for attention. When Howard looks at her, she beckons him closer and holds out her hands for the box.

He only hesitates for a nanosecond before handing it over. Jane cracks the lid, throwing Zoe a glare when she tries to peek inside. Maura watches her face as she looks at the contents, at the way her eyes soften while her jawline hardens, and she knows it's something to do with Katherine.

Jane moves her other hand, like she would reach in and touch whatever's inside the box, and then she thinks better of it, and closes the lid.
She looks at Howard, nods, and hands it back.

"Thank you," Howard says softly. He turns to Maya, who moved to stand next to Maura when he entered.

"These are for you, Maya," he says thickly. "I've had them for a long time, and…" He holds the box out to her, smiling faintly when she takes it. "I hope you won't judge us too harshly for keeping it these last few weeks."

Maya cracks the lid of the box, and Maura is finally able to see inside.

The inside is half full of what look like scraps of paper, but Maura soon realizes that there is writing on each one. And among the paper, there are photographs, some of them blurry, some color, some black and white.

Maya tilts the box towards her face, and Maura catches the writing on half of a post-it.

...love you so much, little girl. The sunset was so pretty today and I…

Maya pulls in a breath, and then doesn't let it out. Maura puts her hand on her back, heartened and relieved when Maya leans into her.

"We thought you might be a second chance," Howard says into the silence. "And then...we got to know you and...I realized you are. Just not the way we thought."

And with that, he turns and leaves.

Maya doesn't say good-bye. She is still looking at the contents of the box. Her birth mother, returned to her.

"Mommy," She says, leaning closer to Maura, because she is - after all - the one who has arms to hold her. "Mommy."

"I'm here, little girl," Maura says softly. She smooths Maya's hair, and Katie, seeing the gesture, reaches out and tries to imitate it.

"Me too, My My," she says sweetly. "M'here too."

"Me too," Zoe says from her perch next to Jane. "Forever."

"Me too," Jane whispers.

"Mama!" Maya says, scolding, but Katie beats her to it.

"Don't talk!"