Destiny Rules
Chapter 7
Pairing: Jane/Maura
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles do not belong to me.
Warning: Spoilers for Season 3.
Maura woke up the following morning to the sound and smell of coffee being made in her kitchen. She smiled at the thought of Angela making breakfast downstairs. It was one of things she missed while she was away, the way Angela made her house feel like a home.
Maura got out of bed and put on her robe to go downstairs and say hello. "Good morning," she said as she entered the kitchen and Angela immediately wrapped her in a hug.
"Welcome home sweetheart. I didn't want to bother you last night after your flight, but I figured the least I could do was make you breakfast. How are you? How was your trip?"
"I'm good," Maura answered once Angela released her. "I had a nice trip but I'm happy to be home. And I'm happy to see you. Did you receive the package I sent?"
Angela handed Maura a cup of coffee. "Yes. My goodness, so many different mustards. I can't wait to try them all. Thank you."
"It's one of the best things you can find in France. And you're one of the few people I know who I was sure would appreciate them."
"So, I hope you don't mind, but I asked Jane to bring over some food because you didn't have anything here and I didn't have enough to make you a real welcome home breakfast. But I didn't know if you had told her you were home yet."
"I saw her last night. We had dinner."
"Good." Angela hesitated a moment but continued, saying, "I feel as though I should tell you that Jane told me how you feel, or at least how you felt, about her."
"She did?" Maura asked, obviously surprised that Jane would talk about it with her mother.
"Well, she told me that you said you were going away to get over her."
"That's true. I did tell her that. Does it bother you?" Maura asked.
"That you have feelings for my daughter?" Angela asked.
Maura nodded.
"I've had a lot of time to think about it. When you are a mother, or any parent I assume, you imagine your children's futures and one of the main things that you hope for is that they will find someone to share their life with." Angela paused for a moment to take a drink of her coffee before continuing, "Jane has always been unconventional, I suppose. Did she ever tell you that when she was a kid she wanted to get married at Fenway?"
Maura laughed and said, "Yes, she did."
"She probably still wants that, although I'm sure she'd never admit it. When she was a teenager she started talking about being a cop and there wasn't anything anyone could say to dissuade her. So I always knew Jane would do things her own way. But I didn't stop hoping that she would find someone who makes her happy to share her life with. I love you like another daughter, Maura. I want the same thing for you and if it's Jane that makes you happy then I can only hope that you make her happy too. I don't know how she feels, but if she has feelings for you too, even if it's not exactly what I always pictured for her, I'm not opposed to it."
Maura wiped her eyes as she said, "I'm sorry. I don't mean to cry."
"It's okay, sweetie. So I'm guessing that going away didn't change your feelings."
Maura chuckled as she continued to wipe the tears from her eyes. "No, it didn't. But I think going away was still good for me. I needed to get some perspective on everything."
The front door opened and closed and Jane walked into the kitchen. "Hey. Ma called and asked me to bring bagels and eggs so she could make you a welcome home breakfast. I wasn't sure if you'd be awake yet after traveling yesterday. Are you okay?" Jane added when she saw that Maura's eyes were red and bright with tears.
Maura wiped her eyes again. "I'm good. Your mother and I were just catching up." When Jane looked skeptical, Maura added, "I'm good. Really. If you both don't mind I would like to take a quick shower and get dressed."
"Go ahead," Angela answered. "We'll make breakfast."
When Maura was out of the room, Jane turned on her mother and said, "What did you do to make her cry?"
"I didn't do anything. We were just talking about you."
"What? Why was she crying then?" Jane asked, more alarmed than before.
"Don't worry about it. But Jane, don't string Maura along. If you need time to figure out how you feel, that's fine, but don't take too long and don't keep her waiting. If you don't have romantic feelings for Maura, give her the opportunity to move on."
Jane's mouth hung open at her mother's bluntness. She was mostly surprised that her mother was voicing any opinion about it. The one time they had previously talked about Maura like this, her mother had been guarded about her own opinions. But when Jane tried to formulate a reply, she realized she really couldn't argue with what her mother had said. "I, um, I will. I would never hurt Maura intentionally."
"I know, honey. But I don't want you to unintentionally hurt her either."
The three women ate breakfast together and then, after Jane promised to clean up, Angela excused herself to give them some privacy.
When they were alone, Jane said, "I wanted to ask you how you're doing in general. Are you healed from your surgery?"
"Yes. It took a few weeks, but I feel like I'm fully healed now."
"What about long term?" Jane asked.
"There shouldn't be any complications. I'll just make sure to go to my doctor regularly and get checked out if I think I need to."
"Have you talked to Hope? Do you know how Cailin is doing?"
Maura nodded and said, "We haven't talked but Hope sent me a few emails to update me on Cailin's progress post-surgery. She's recovering well so far."
"Are you going to see her or anything." Jane asked.
Maura shook her head. "Cailin doesn't know the kidney came from me. Maybe she has guessed, but it doesn't matter right now. They should both be focused on Cailin's recovery. There are still plenty of complications she could encounter."
"So you're leaving it up to Hope to decide what your relationship is going to be with her?"
"For now, yes. Does that bother you?"
"You did give her daughter, your half-sister, a part of your body. I thought she might be more, I don't know, friendly after that."
"It hasn't been that long. I'm willing to give her more time. Don't be upset."
"I'm not upset. I'm just trying to look out for you," Jane said.
"Thank you, but I'm fine."
"So, um, did you have plans for today? Did you want to rest? I know Ma kinda sprung breakfast on you. Should I give you some time alone?"
"Jane, I've been away for six weeks, I don't want time alone."
"So, what do you want to do?"
"I have an idea," Maura said.
An hour later they were sitting in a booth in the Dirty Robber with Frost and Korsak. Jane brought beers to the table for everyone and Korsak raised his and said, "Welcome back, Doc."
After they all clinked glasses, Frost added, "It's good to have you back, Maura. It was rough without you."
"Oh no, was my replacement unsuitable? Maura asked.
Frost shook his head. "No, she was fine. But Jane was a disaster."
"Hey," Jane protested.
"It's true," Frost said. "You were agitated all the time."
Jane raised her eyebrows at Korsak for his input.
"That's pretty accurate, Jane," Korsak said with a shrug. "But I'm glad to have you back, Doc, because I missed you. It has nothing to do with Jane. Are you coming back to work soon?"
"Thank you, Vince. Yes, I have to make the arrangements but I plan on coming back to work as soon as possible. Hopefully next week."
"Anyway," Jane interjected, "Can you guys believe that her first day back from Paris, Dr. Maura Isles wanted to come here of all places?"
"What?" Maura shrugged. "It's simply not possible to get a good hamburger in France."
That led to Korsak and Frost asking lots of questions about Maura's trip and the four of them spend the rest of the afternoon talking, with Jane largely letting the other three catch up as she had done with Maura the previous night.
When they were done at the Robber, Jane drove Maura home and parked on the street in front of Maura's house.
Maura didn't make any move to get out of the car. Instead she said, "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course," Jane answered and turned the car off.
"Were you really agitated while I was gone?" Maura asked in a tone that was serious, not teasing.
Jane frowned at the question. "Sometimes. I mean, I did miss you. But there was a lot of stuff going on though, you know."
Maura's next question was, "Is it really over between you and Casey?"
"Why would you ask that?"
Maura sighed as she considered how to answer. "There were times in the past when from my perspective it should have been over between you and Casey and it wasn't. I don't want to get my hopes up about what could happen with us if there is a chance that it really isn't over with him."
"It's completely over between me and Casey."
"What if I hadn't told you how I felt? Would you still be with Casey?" Maura asked.
"Right now? I don't know, maybe. But in the long term I don't think so. I was just going through the motions with him. I thought he was what I was supposed to want. I would like to think at some point I would have realized what I was missing on my own."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you remember the email you sent me where you said you were only thinking about how you would treat me if you had the chance? When I read that, something just clicked for me. I could imagine how you would treat me because of how you already treat me and thinking about being with you made sense. That's what I mean about realizing what I was missing."
"You really had no idea I had feelings for you?"
"No, I swear. I didn't know. And you weren't planning on ever telling me?"
"No. I didn't want to make you uncomfortable. It would be worse to lose our friendship because you didn't feel the same way than to not tell you at all and just deal with it on my own. And every time I thought about telling you, Casey showed up again."
"But we're in a good place now, right? And like you said, we'll take things slow."
"Slowly," Maura corrected.
Jane rolled her eyes, but smiled at Maura. "Fine, slowly. We didn't talk about what that means. What do we do? Go out on a date?"
Maura tilted her head to the side and grinned. "That might be nice."
Jane chuckled. "Yeah, it might be."
Maura reached across the car and took hold of Jane's hand. "Jane, may I take you out on a date tomorrow night?"
Jane squeezed Maura's hand and said, "Yes."
