It took Maura a long moment to rein herself in enough to let go of Jane, and another moment to understand that there was an object being handed to her, a box is about 9x9x4, prettily wrapped, enough that she suspected a professional had done it. Uncomprehending hands clasped the box, held it, and wide eyes lifted towards Jane's face. "Me? You brought me a present, after...?" Another long moment later, she finally let her fingers slip beneath an edge of wrapping paper and gingerly pry open the tape that held it closed.
"Oh, Jane. Jane, it's beautiful." The paper nicely folded by Maura's side on the bed, the lid off the box, revealed that the box held a stuffed bear – very well cared for, but clearly an antique. Again, hazel eyes sought out chocolate ones. "What does this mean to you?"
"A promise," Jane set the bag down on the ground and sat on the edge of the bed beside Maura. "It's been passed down through a few generations, about five I think, in my family on the Rizzoli side. When I was a kid, Nonna gave it to me. Ma would never let me play with it, though. She said it was too old, and I'd break it or something. One day, Nonna came over and she wanted to know why I wasn't playing with my bear, and I told her." Jane smiled warmly at the memory. "She took me upstairs, pulled the bear down from the shelf Ma had it on, and handed it to me. She said that teddy bears were protectors of little girls, and she had given her protector to me because she knew that, even if I didn't want to admit it out loud, I needed a protector. . I told her I was big girl. She said that even big girls are sometimes little girls and who need protecting and that this teddy bear," she gave it a fond pet to the head, "had been doing the job just fine for generations."
A bittersweet smile crept across Jane's face. "Nonna said not to worry if I hurt him because he could be mended. She knew because she had fixed him a lot herself. He was a protector of Rizzoli women, and he would always be there if I needed him, and Ma should know better than to try to keep such a fierce protector away from the ones he's watching out after." She laughed. "Then, she took the bear," Jane took the bear gently from Maura's hands, "Made a little roaring sound," she made the sound for Teddy, "and kissed me on the cheek." She kissed Maura on the cheek.
"I can't always be around when you're scared, but," she laid the bear back in Maura's hands. "He can. It's what he does. He helps with our fears because he's a protector of Rizzoli women."
Wide eyes flicked down towards the toy bear, and then tender, gentle fingers examined its fur, its stitching, the glass eyes, the leather-wrapped button of a nose, replaced several times, no doubt, but always with good quality things rather than plastic substitutes. "Five generations of Rizzoli women," Maura repeated, impressed and touched. "Your little hands held this bear." She reached for one of those hands to kiss it, larger now, but just as dear to her and more than if she had known Jane from the time that that stuffed toy would have looked large to both of them. "This bear must have absorbed so many of your tears." Experimentally, she cuddled the aged toy to her chest. "How about that. It works."
She smiled. "I feel safe."
Jane nodded. "He's good like that." They chuckled. "Listen, Maura, I don't want to push you into something you're not ready for. I care about you too much for that, but, if you're scared, you know I'll be here with you the whole time. We'll go through this together, and," she reached out to give another affectionate pat to the little bear's head, "Teddy will protect us when we don't think we can handle it anymore. He knows we can handle anything. He's got unconditional faith because he knows we're too awesome to let fear keep us from doing what we think is the right thing to do." Giving a wink, Jane leaned over and laid a gentle kiss on Maura's forehead.
Cradling the bear to her, Maura sighed. "I know what the right thing is. I've always been good at that. It's just usually so much easier to do the right thing than it is now." She set Teddy down more gently than she would normally treat an inanimate object, even patting its little round belly, then turned back to re-embrace her lover. "We will do it, though. I promise, love. Maybe we could start by taking your mother to brunch and seeing if I can deal with having her look at us together?"
"I would like that. She's expecting me to call her tonight to let her know how things went with us. Want me to set it up for tomorrow morning?" Jane wrapped a protective arm around the small woman, pulling her in tight to her side. "Whatever you need, Sweetheart."
"Tomorrow morning," Maura agreed a little too easily, then had to take another cleansing breath. This time, it helped. "Tomorrow morning."
