Jane sat on her couch with Frankie and Tommy watching the game, while her mother peddled around the kitchen making dinner. Tonight Maura was going to be going out with her mother to some artsy fartsy thing. So the Rizzoli Clan was going to sit around Jane's apartment watch the game and drink a few beers.
"Oh my God! Jane! What is this?" Angela shouted from the kitchen.
"I don't know Ma, it could be anything." Jane shouted from the couch.
"This is disgusting! When was the last time you cleaned out your frig?" Angela stood, with hands on her hips frowning at the back of her daughter's head.
"I don't know, I've been really busy with work!" Jane shot back.
"Well you have to come home sometime!" Angela growled.
"When I'm off from work I'm usually at Maura's." Jane threw over her shoulders as the Red Sox batter struck out. "Awww man!"
"You spend more time at Maura's these days than your own apartment." Angela continued with dinner preparations.
"Yeah well you remember being pregnant ma?" Jane asked as she grabbed a few empty bottles and tossed them during a commercial break.
"Of course I remember, every agonizing hour." Angela snorted.
"Hey ma!" Tommy whined from the couch, "I thought you said we were your biggest blessings."
"Of course you were! Just not a painless one!" She smiled at her own wit.
"And wouldn't an extra pair of hands help carry the load be useful? Even wanted?" Jane gave her ma two big round eyes.
"Like your father was much help. Though he always did go out and get me whatever I wanted to eat when I was craving." Angela smiled at the memory.
"And what about when he bought that baby bed and put it together?" Jane hugged her ma from behind.
"And remember when at Christmas one year he bought us all a bike to share, and taught us how to ride it?" Frankie grinned as he grabbed three more beers from the frig.
"You three never stopped fighting over that thing." They all shared a laugh together, "He may have turned into a lousy husband and father in the end. But the beginning wasn't so bad."
"I just don't want Maura to go through all of this alone." Jane whispered.
"Of course not, your a good girl Janie. You all are." Angela patted Jane's cheek and kissed the other.
"Well it's only because we have such an amazing and gorgeous ma." Frankie grinned swaggering over to give his ma a kiss.
"Oh! Now you three go back to your game. Get out of this kitchen so I can finish cooking!" Angela swatted them out of the kitchen.
Later that evening after having had at least 10 beers, and a stomach full of lasagna, Jane locked up her apartment, turned off her TV, and went to bed. She Pulled off her shoes and socks, and dropped her pants on the floor, leaving them where they lay. She fell across the bed with a groan. As full and contented as her body was, her mind was full of unrest. Tonight was great, but it felt incomplete. She knew what it was, and if it had been a year ago, she wouldn't have even been able to say it out loud. "Maura." She spoke into the dark. And as if by magic her phone lit up, and Maura's ring tone of "What's this?" from a Nightmare Before Christmas began to play. Jane reached for the phone and smiled at the picture of Maura sitting at her lap top buying shoes. She hit the green button and spoke with her raspy voice, "Hey, why are you still up?"
A soft laugh came from the other side of the line, "I couldn't sleep, Katherine is too restless."
Jane sat up in bed, "Are you okay? Is she okay? What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong, she just moving around, and that is making sleep a fleeting thing." Maura whined.
"Okay well we can't have a tired mommy." Jane grinned as she fell back onto the bed. "Did you try reading her one of your science journals? That usually puts me to sleep."
"Ha Ha Jane! I did try reading to her, even played some Mozart, and she still won't settle down." Maura's pout could be heard through the phone, then she started to sniff and get weepy, "I'm just so tired and my feet hurt from walking around tonight, and I just want to go to sleep!"
"Hey hey now! Don't cry! What can I do?" Jane grabbed a pillow hugging it, as she would have done if Maura was present.
"Well," Maura sniffed, "I was wondering if you could talk to her... tell her a bed time story of something."
"Ummm...okay, how am I going to do that?" Jane fidgeted.
"Here I put you on speaker!" Maura's voice changed as she put the phone on speaker.
"So what? Do I just start telling her a bedtime story?" Jane shrugged, this had become weird.
"Just tell her a story, any story. She likes the sound of your voice." Maura laid the phone down on her belly.
"Hey Half-pint," Jane said into the phone.
"Keep talking." Maura tried to encourage Jane.
Jane took a deep breath, and tried to imagine Maura's face...perhaps that would make it easier. But all that she could bring to mind was a little girl with brown curls and Maura's eyes. "Maura?" Jane asked.
"Yes Jane?" Maura replied.
"What do you think Katherine's eyes will look like?" Jane wondered up at her ceiling.
"I don't know. Brown is a very dominate color. And she would have the gene from both sides of the family." Maura began to calculate in her mind.
"No, Katherine is not an average or ordinary baby. She is smart and beautiful, she is special. I bet they will be Hazel, like yours." Jane's voice had become soft and dream like.
"Do you think so?" Maura whispered, tears forming in her eyes.
"I believe so." Jane smiled.
Tears silently fell down Maura's cheeks. "Do you want me to still tell her a story?" Jane asked.
"Yes please." Maura whispered.
"Okay, Once upon a time, in a far away land there lived a powerful healer, wise and beautiful. She lived within a cottage, deep within a wood, untouched by danger or the ugliness of the world. There at her cottage all sorts of animals, great and small, would come and seek her healing touch, to hear her sing. Fairies and gnomes would come and speak with the wise lady."
"How wise was she?"
"She was as wise as she was fair, and she was very fair. The most beautiful woman to ever have lived."
"Did she live alone?"
"No. With her, in her warm happy cottage was her little girl. Who was as beautiful as her mother. She was a very bright child. So bright that an angelic glow followed her wherever she went. She could play the piano, sing, dance, and speak 10 different languages."
"10 languages? How old is this child?"
"She's 7."
"7 Jane?"
"Yeah! The kid's a protégée! Now one rainy night a warrior fell outside the woman's door."
"What did this woman look like?"
"The Warrior was tall, with dark hair."
"She sounds beautiful."
"I never said it was a woman."
"Is she?"
"Sure, the warrior is a woman. But she was wounded."
"How?"
Jane looked at the scar on her palm, "By an evil warlock. He had speared her through her hands. The warrior had slew him, but became lost in the woods. She had stumbled upon the Wise Lady's cottage."
"Did the Lady heal the warrior?"
"She did, and they became the best of friends. One day the warrior found out that the Lady was the Princess she had been looking for. The one who had been hidden away safely in the woods until the evil warlock could be killed."
"And now that he was dead?"
"The warrior took the Princess back to her kingdom to rule over the land. And everyone rejoiced at the wise and beautiful Princess's return. And they all lived happily ever after."
For a few minutes they both lay in silence, calmed and imagining the Princess, the Warrior, and the small child living in that cottage in the wood. "Jane, what do you think happily ever after looks like?" Maura whispered.
"Growing old, surrounded by your children, and your loved ones. When there is peace within your heart that fills your whole body. When you have the kind of love that fortifies your soul, where none of the horrible things that exist in life touch you. When you feel safe." After another minute of silence, "I guess that is why no one has a happily ever after. From my experience, the more you love someone, the more life can hurt you."
Maura's throat restricted and hurt, "So what do you do?"
Jane smiled, "You find a love that makes it all worth while."
Maura took a breath, "Have you found that yet Jane?"
Yes! Yes I have! Every time I look into your eyes. Every moment we spend together. You are worth every moment of sorrow and pain that I have endured, all the pain I will ever have to over come. "I have my Ma, my brothers, you, and baby Katherine. I think I am pretty lucky. I am content." Lair!
Tears poured down Maura's face, "Me too!" she then put her hand over her mouth to keep Jane from hearing her cry.
"Did that help her go to sleep?" Jane asked.
"Yes I think that did the trick. I think we will both go to sleep now. Thank you Jane."
"Anytime, goodnight." Jane hung up her phone.
"I love you." Maura spoke into her phone.