Author's note: Thank you very much for all the messages and reviews, they are much appreciated.
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"Live your life to the fullest and don't give a damn about what others might think." Angela Rizzoli.
Chapter Nine – Live From Santorini
Maura took a deep breath and stared straight in front of her. The connection hadn't been made yet and the screen was still dark enough to reflect the blue ribbon in her back. She could see the blurry figure of a sailing boat somewhere near the volcano and the sun that seemed to embrace of its golden shades the transparent waters.
"What are you doing? Give me back my mug of coffee."
Maura shook her head at Jane. Her friend had just pressed the button to make the call and the peculiar Skype music had suddenly filled the air, sweeping away the quietness of the afternoon at the hotel.
"I don't steal it from you. I just make sure that they won't see it, Jane. Nobody needs to check what kind of drink you are having."
"Oh, boy... Who do you think you are? Martin Scorcese? It's just a Skype stuff, Maura. Not the next big movie that's gonna bring a revolution to cinema!"
Maura wasn't convinced and she didn't try to hide it the slightest bit. As she had stubbornly planned, she put down Jane's mug on the left side of the laptop. It was not out of reach yet the angle was such that the webcam would not catch it either. She was about to add something when Angela appeared on the screen.
Or better said, Angela and half of the BPD.
"The hell?!" Jane squinted her eyes at the scene.
She hadn't expected to talk to her colleagues apart from Frost and Korsak if they happened to be around. Even Susie was here. The only thing missing was popcorn for what looked like to be the Bostonian event of the week.
"Jane Clementine Rizzoli! Just because you are on the other side of the planet doesn't mean that you have to be so impolite. Watch your language, young lady!"
Of course. Even when she was in Greece, her mother had to find a way to humiliate her in front of her colleagues. The anger in her eyes pushed one third of the crowd to leave. At least she hadn't lost her reflexes and still could scare the crap out of some rookies.
"Good morning, Angela. Sergeant Korsak, Detective Frost... Susie." Maura's smile was such that her facial muscles hurt. "How are you?"
Pointless question. Maura had hoped that it would make her sound casual but the moment the words hit the air, she realized that they betrayed her latent nervousness.
It was nobody's fault but hers. Even if they had had a pleasant lunch in Ammoudi, the blurry incident that had happened earlier in the morning when she had joined Jane in the water was still heavily weighing on her conscience and she didn't want anyone to notice it.
"We're fine. Nice tan, Maura. By the way, Jo Friday and Bass are doing okay. They seem to really like each other, you know. They spend a lot of time together and Bass has been a glutton these past few days."
If the news warmed up Maura's heart, the detail Angela gave about her tortoise slightly bruised her ego. Since when did Bass turn into a glutton while he usually was so picky when she was around to feed him?
She knew that it wasn't the kind of information that she was supposed to take personally but she actually did.
"Ha!" If Maura was taken aback, Jane didn't seem to be touched by such detail at all. She rolled her eyes in a theatrical way and showed her mother a dozen of mosquito bites on her arms. "Well... Here we're surrounded by giant mosquitos, abandoned cats and bath-towel-eater donkeys."
Of course the very end of her statement caused her mother and colleagues to frown with great confusion. Maura, however, simply snorted. Perhaps she just had to do like Jane. Perhaps she just had to go on and put whatever was bothering her in a very tiny corner of her head. Then she would stop thinking about it and life would be easy again.
"If Jane has quickly adapted to the language and the culture, she still faces issues when it comes to animals. I cannot say that she has been very pet friendly since we have arrived to Santorini."
Even a tragedian would have not gasped the way Jane did, not even on her death bed. Falsely offended, Jane squinted her eyes at her friend and grabbed back her mug just to go on her nerves. She took a long sip of her coffee then made sure to leave the drink right by her side where everyone at the BPD would be able to admire it.
"This isn't true at all! Maura's a big liar. Apart from the mosquitos that are like little vampires, I don't wish any bad to any donkey or whatever. And 'pets'? Really, Maura? That's how you call them? I don't know any donkey pet that eats bath towels. Pets, my ass."
"Jane!"
Jane raised her arms in the air to apologize for the second time in a row to her mother. She didn't mean to sound too familiar, it just came up by itself. She didn't even talk this way when she was alone with Maura. Most of the time, she was very polite. Why did it have to happen when she conversed with her mother?
"Long story short... The donkey was big."
Nobody missed the moan of despair that escaped Maura's lips before she buried her face in her hands to stiffle her complete consternation.
Jane's stubbornness would never get old. Absolutely never. It was pushed to the extreme but the truth was that Maura had to admit she actually liked it. It wouldn't be Jane if her friend weren't stubborn. It would not be the Jane she knew, the Jane she loved.
This very last thought caused her heart to beat faster. Eager to get rid of the latent panic that was asking for nothing but to spread on her mind, Maura looked for an escape and stared at her employee.
"Is everything going alright at the office, Susie? Anything I should know about? By the way, have the new incubators been delivered?"
Maura didn't really care but she felt the urge to focus on something a little bit less personal, something that allowed her to take some distance with Jane. She would only win a few seconds thanks to this subterfuge but it was still better than nothing. She politely nodded at her employee yet barely listened to the answer. Her very own trick didn't work.
"Oh, shi-..."
It was really not their day to be polite. The curse passed Maura's lips the second her arm hit Jane's mug and she spilled half of the drink on the table. She immediately stood up – apologized to their interlocutors for her verbal mishap – then hurried inside their studio to grab a kitchen towel.
Susie took advantage of it to excuse herself as well and suddenly Jane found herself in a face-to-face with her mother, the face-to-face she had expected when she and her mother had decided to call each other on Skype.
"You'd love it here, ma'. It's beautiful and people are so nice... There's this mediterranean vibe a bit like in Italy but both countries are completely different and..."
"Jane. What's going on?"
Her mother's voice not only interrupted her but also took her aback. A bit lost, Jane cast a glance around her to make sure that she hadn't missed something her mother would be alluding to then shook her head with confusion. She could hear Maura cursing in the background, opening and closing cabinets looking for a kitchen towel. Apparently, they didn't have any.
"What do you mean?"
The smile that began to play on Angela's lips was not new. Jane had often seen it. Her mother always reacted the same way when she stated something that she saw as being obvious. A sort of 'don't try to fool me' smile.
Except this time, Jane had honestly no idea what she was alluding to. The matriarch didn't look angry nor worried but she carried in her eyes the sparkle of people who know more than what they want to say out loud, than what they do think has to be said out loud.
"I couldn't find any kitchen towel with your habit of not putting things back in their right place so I took these tissues out of your beach bag. I hope you don't mind."
Without knowing it, Maura stormed in and made the most awkward seconds of Jane's life collapse. The silence between her and her mother had not lasted very long but it had been loud, very loud. As a matter of fact, she still could hear its echo in the distance.
She cast a glance at Maura almost wondering what she was doing here. Whatever had happened with her mother – all these untold things that were so loud – had taken her a thousand miles away from Santorini before sending her back to the island without any warning. The lack of transition was confusing.
Jane gave Maura a reassuring smile. Of course, she didn't mind. It was a detail, a very insignificant one. Why did Maura even feel the urge to apologize and explain herself? She hadn't done anything wrong. She did know that she could check into Jane's bag. There was nothing in it that she wasn't supposed to see.
"It's okay."
Angela cleared her voice and put thus an abrupt end to the look between her daughter and her friend. Suddenly looking for a semblance of intimacy, the matriarch bent over to come closer to the computer and lowered her voice. Something had changed in her attitude. Seriousness had slid on her face. She wasn't joking anymore.
"I am glad to see that you're enjoying your vacations in Greece, girls. Now do me a favor... Live your life to the fullest and don't give a damn about what people might think. You both know I love you, right? I love you no matter what... Don't forget that."
A bit disarmed, Jane and Maura nodded at the matriarch. Angela hadn't necessarily been very subtle yet they weren't sure themselves to understand what she really meant; why she suddenly adopted such a philosophical tone.
Jane swallowed hard as a scenario she didn't even want to think about hit her mind. Pushing her fears aside, she locked her eyes with her mother's and let the words come out.
"Are you healthy, ma'? You haven't been diagnosed or... Whatever... Have you? Your speech sounds a bit too 'carpe diem' for me, right now. You're not dying, are you?"
Angela burst out laughing. She rolled her eyes – not hiding her despair the slightest bit – then shook her head at her daughter.
"Of course not! I'm fine, I'm perfectly fine. However, sometimes I wonder how someone like you managed to become a detective. Don't take it bad, Janie, but you can be so blind when you want to."
