Adaptations
Chapter 11
Pairing: Jane/Maura
Rating: T
Disclaimer: The characters do not belong to me.
Warning: Spoilers for Episode 3.10. See chapter 1 for full summary.
A/N: Jumping ahead several months again. This chapter wraps up this story. Thanks for reading.
Jane knocked on Constance's door and waited for her to answer it.
It was a moment before Constance answered the door, looking a little flustered, and said, "Jane, I wasn't expecting you. Maura always picks up Theodore."
"Theodore? You know you're the only one who calls him that, right? He probably doesn't know you're even talking to him. Something came up at work and Maura had to stay a little late. And I happened to be free early. How did it go today?"
"It went very well. He can really get around now though. I think I spent the whole afternoon chasing him."
"Yup, sounds about right. He's only got one speed." They walked into the living room of Constance's apartment and Ted ran over to Jane and grabbed onto her leg and Jane picked him up. "Hey little buddy. Were you good for Mamie?" Jane said, kissing his cheeks until he started giggling. "Well, I'll get him out of your hair."
"Why don't you stay for a little bit, Jane? Have a cup of coffee with me."
"I should really go. He's gonna be ready for dinner soon."
"Just five minutes then? I would really like to talk to you."
Jane couldn't' think of a reason not to so she said, "Uh, yeah, okay."
"Let's go to the living room," Constance said.
Jane followed and put Teddy back down on the rug among the toys Constance had here for him and then sat down on the couch where she could watch him.
Constance perched on the edge of the couch. "I have to admit, I never imagined this, giving over part of my living room to serve as a play area." Jane only smiled politely and Constance continued. "When Maura was a child, of course she had a nursery and her own room for toys."
"Of course," Jane said, not even trying to hide the sarcasm from her voice.
"I didn't know any better. That's how I was raised and how my friends raised their kids. I'm learning. I find I'm learning a lot of things now from my beautiful grandson and my wonderful daughter."
"Now that you're paying attention."
Constance didn't even flinch. "I suppose I deserve that. I wanted to talk to you because I believe I owe you an apology. I'm sorry for not trusting you. I don't want this animosity between us to continue or linger. I think that you and I should be friends."
"Does this mean that you trust me now?"
"Maura is my daughter. We both know that she can be too trusting sometimes, perhaps a little naive about people's intentions. I was only trying to look out for her."
Jane kept her expression blank. "You didn't answer my question."
"I think I may be beginning to understand why you are so good at your job. I do trust that you intend to do right by Maura and Ted. But I don't completely trust you yet."
"Well, I wouldn't want you going completely soft on me," Jane said with a genuine smile. "We should go."
"Of course."
Jane stood and said "Teddy, come say goodbye to Mamie, buddy."
Ted came running over and climbed the couch so he could climb onto Constance's lap and give her a hug. "À bientôt, sweet boy," Constance said.
Jane picked Ted off of Constance's lap. "Teddy, can you say goodbye?"
"Bye," Teddy said happily, waving at Constance.
"You're coming over for dinner on Sunday, right?" Jane asked.
"Yes, I am."
"Good, we'll see you then."
Jane brought Ted home, gave him dinner, and put him to bed. She had expected Maura to be home by this time but she wasn't so Jane lay down on the couch and promptly fell asleep.
She woke up to Maura sitting down next to her. "Hey," Jane said sleepily. "Were you at your meeting this whole time?"
"Yes, it took a lot longer than I anticipated. There was lots of paperwork and personnel and budget decisions that needed to be finalized. Plus call schedules had to be determined."
Jane sat up and stretched "But it's done?"
"Yes, it's done."
"Well come here," Jane said, pulling Maura against her and into a kiss. "Congratulations." Jane threaded her fingers in Maura's hair, holding her close. "You're back where you belong."
"Don't you think that's a bit of an exaggeration?" Maura asked against Jane's lips.
"Not at all," Jane said, her voice low. "You shouldn't spend all of your time pushing papers around. You belong with us in the trenches and solving murders."
"Thank you," Maura said then kissed Jane again.
"Saturday we're going out to celebrate. I've already got Ma lined up to watch Ted," Jane said.
"Okay, but right now, I'm hungry. Have you had dinner?"
"No, I was waiting for you, then I fell asleep. How about I make us grilled cheese sandwiches? I'll even put tomatoes on yours," Jane said, already on her way to the kitchen.
"Fine, but I'm making a salad for both of us too," Maura called after her.
Once they sat down to eat, Jane said, "I had a nice chat with your mother today."
"Does that mean you're going to start being civil to each other?" Maura asked.
"She started it," Jane answered with feigned petulance.
"Jane, it's been months since the two of you have had a proper conversation."
"True, but we've always been civil to each other. We just haven't been particularly friendly. But yes, I think that will improve now."
"Is that all you're going to tell me about the conversation?"
"She was just letting me know that she's softened her position on me a little bit. That's all."
"She'll come around."
"Yeah, we'll see."
Saturday evening Jane drove them towards the waterfront. When she turned onto Seaport Boulevard, Maura said, "Ooh, are we going to the Institute of Contemporary Art?"
"No. As much as I'm sure you would like that, I hope you'll like what I've actually planned better. Also, I'm planning on enjoying the evening."
"You should be more open minded about different forms of artistic expression."
"I just don't think it should count as art if I could do it myself." Jane said as she pulled into the Seaport Hotel parking garage.
"I think you're missing the point," Maura countered.
"Probably," Jane agreed. "Come on, we don't want to be late."
Jane took Maura's hand and led them across the street. "I think I know where we're going," Maura finally said.
They'd reached the ramp to one of the harbor cruise ships. Jane paused to allow Maura to go first across the ramp. "Good detective work, babe."
One of the ship's staff greeted them and Jane had a brief conversation with him. Then she led Maura to the upper deck where a single table with two chairs was set up for dinner.
Maura leaned against the railing along the side of the boat and Jane joined her. "Jane?" she questioned. "Why is there no one else here? Are we the only ones taking the cruise tonight?"
The boat was already pulling away from the dock when Jane answered. "Yes we are. We've got the whole ship to ourselves."
"How? I mean, how did you arrange this?"
Jane slid closer, pulling Maura against her with a hand on her hip. "Every once in a while I can pull off an awesome surprise. And occasionally being a cop has its perks. I knew someone from a previous case and was able to pull a few strings to get the ship to ourselves. I wanted to do something special for you and we haven't had a chance to get out and do something fun for a while so I wanted to make sure it was perfect."
"Thank you," Maura said, tilting her face up to Jane with a smile.
Jane leaned down and kissed Maura. "I thought we'd eat now while we head out into the harbor, then we can enjoy the rest of the ride and the sunset."
"That sounds lovely," Maura agreed. They moved to the table and Jane pulled out a chair for her and she sat down murmuring, "Thank you."
As soon as Jane sat down a waiter appeared with a bucket of ice and a bottle of champagne.
"I'm very impressed that you set all of this up," Maura said. "But I, um...everything is alright though, right?"
Jane poured them each a glass of champagne. "What do you mean?"
"You aren't doing all of this to tell me something bad are you?" Maura asked seriously.
"Of course not. Who would do that?"
Maura's face fell.
"Oh."
Maura shook her head. "No, don't feel bad for me. I shouldn't have even had that thought right now. When I was child, over the top gifts meant that my parents were going away for a long time or we were moving or something else that they thought might be upsetting to a child. It was never anything terrible but at some point I realized the big gifts were meant as something like bribes for future good behavior."
"Well, that's definitely not what this is."
"I know you would never do that."
Jane raised her glass and said, "We're celebrating your return to full time Chief Medical Examiner duties and belatedly celebrating moving in together."
Maura raised her glass and touched it to Jane's.
Food arrived and they ate largely in silence, enjoying the view as they moved past Castle Island into Boston Harbor. When they finished, Jane took Maura's hand and led her to the bow of the ship where two chairs were set up.
The boat made a large circle among the Harbor Islands and turned back towards the Boston skyline.
Jane took hold of Maura's hand, interlocking their fingers, and said, "I just want to make sure you know that I'm really happy. You know that I was skeptical, to say the least, about whether...well, about whether I could be everything you wanted me to be. I wasn't sure I could be the person you deserved to have in your life. I didn't know if I could be a parent. I didn't know if I wanted to be and I didn't really think I could be a parent. I love waking up with you everyday and going to sleep next to you every night. And I love raising Teddy with you."
Jane slid off the chair and onto the floor onto one knee.
Maura gasped. "Are you doing what I think you're doing?"
"I thought you didn't guess."
"Don't tease me right now," Maura said but she was smiling.
"I never thought I would be doing this. I mean, I really never thought I be on either side of this situation. But I want to make our odd little family official." Jane put her hand in her pocket and pulled out a ring which she held up between her thumb and forefinger. "I love you and I will always love you and take care of you and Ted. Maura, will you marry me?"
"Of course I'll marry you." Maura moved off of her chair to kneel with Jane and threw her arms around Jane's neck and kissed her hard. She replaced her lips with her thumb and brushed her fingers across Jane's cheek. "I'm sorry if I start crying but I can't believe you did all of this and I love you so much," she said, struggling to hold back the tears.
Jane leaned back and grabbed Maura's left hand. "Can I put this on?"
"Yes."
Jane slid the ring onto Maura's ring finger. The ring was a gold band with two small diamonds set on either side of a dark green stone. "Peridot," Maura said. "My birthstone."
"It matches the green in your eyes. Actually the band with the diamonds was my grandmother's ring. Ma gave it to me when I told her I was planning to propose to you. I had it re-set with the peridot. If you don't like it we can get you whatever you want."
"I love it. It's perfect. You're perfect."
Jane stood and pulled Maura to her feet too, holding her close. "I love you and I'm so lucky that you want to spend the rest of your life with me."
Maura leaned her cheek against Jane's shoulder. "Is your mother going try to plan the wedding?"
"Yes, definitely. She's also probably going to start asking when there will be more grandchildren too."
"That's okay.
"It is?" Jane said surprised.
"Well, it's not like we can accidentally get pregnant. There's really nothing she can do about that. But given Ted's age, it's probably time to start thinking about when we want to have our next child."
"It is?" Jane said, the panic evident in her voice.
"I'm joking, Jane."
"You are?"
"Kind of."
The End. Thanks for reading.
