I do not own Rizzoli & Isles, most of the characters in this story belong to Tess Gerritsen and TNT.
I would like to thank Ava for beta reading this chapter.
Chapter Eleven
"Hope sweetie, please put the dress on. You won't have to wear it for long just an hour, and then you can take it off." Maura pleaded with her youngest while brushing the knots out of her damp hair.
"I don't wanna!" The toddler shook her little head and threw the pink dress on the floor.
"Hope! I just ironed that!" The doctor huffed and moved from the bed to grab the wrinkled dress. However, her daughter saw that as an opportunity to escape and quickly shuffled off the bed and ran out of the room.
"Hope, come back here this instant!" Maura yelled and watched the little figure run down the hallway with wet blonde hair. Maura hid the small smile that crept onto her face, the little girl just looked so adorable. She was the complete opposite of both Maura and Ian. She was so cheeky and knew how to play you to get her own way. Although she was only four, the little girl was extremely intelligent in other ways. Her pronunciation was as awful as any child of four but she watched everything that happened around her and took it in. She also loved to ask questions about anything and everything. In that respect she was the image of Maura. But her attitude and crankiness, Maura had no idea where that came from.
"I have buzzed your guests onto the grounds Mrs. Faulkner." Miss Rosa, the housekeeper Maura had hired their first week in Boston stood outside her daughter's bedroom with a smile on her lips.
"Oh thank you. Would you mind putting the cookies and cakes on the coffee table and please offer them something to drink?" The doctor asked, pulling up her daughter's white tights to match her pink dress.
"Of course." The older woman gave a small smile at the pout on the toddler's face.
"Come on then darling, let's go and find your brother." Maura tickled her baby's cheek after tightening the buckles on Hope's shoes.
The honey blonde held her daughter's hand as they made their way down the flight of stairs. Charles wasn't in his room so the doctor assumed he was downstairs somewhere. As the blonde passed a window she noticed a car coming up the driveway and had to admit she felt a little nervous, she hadn't relied on anyone to help her with her children since they were born and she wasn't a hundred percent sure how confident she would be letting a stranger into her home but there was no way she could balance work and caring for her children.
"Charles darling where are you?" Maura yelled as she walked into the kitchen only to have her question answered when she saw her son stuffing his face with a hand full of cookies.
"Charles! Those are for our guests!" The blonde placed a hand on her hip and watched her eldest child shove the other cookies in his mouth before giving his mom an open mouthed smile.
"Don't talk with your mouth full honey." Maura gave her son a small smile as he mumbled something.
"But they're good Mama." Charles grinned.
"Well, you won't be having any snacks later." The blonde lifted her chin.
"But Mom!" The boy whined.
"No buts. You know you're not allowed more than two sugary snacks a day." The older woman shook her head.
"Fine." The boy pouted, looking over at his sister reaching up for his juice drink.
"Hey that's mine!" The brown haired boy cried. Maura furrowed her brow and turned to see her daughter on her tiptoes reaching up to the juice box that was sitting on the edge of the table.
"Honey no!" The blonde's warning died on her lips as the toddler's pudgy fingers failed to grasp the juice box properly before it fell from the table and splattered all over the pink dress the girl had reluctantly put on.
"Mama!" The girl cried when she grabbed the box from the floor and sucked on the straw to find there was no juice left.
Maura looked at her daughter and back to Miss Rosa, who had just walked into the kitchen and struggled to hold back a laugh. The toddler was drenched in raspberry juice, which had no doubt stained her clothing and ruined the dress. The blonde shook her head and watched her daughter as her bottom lip began to quiver but before she could release a cry, Maura scooped her up and kissed her forehead just as the doorbell rang out.
"Oh that must be them." Maura whispered.
"Miss Rosa, will you please answer the door and let them in? I'll be down as soon as I change Hope." Maura said not waiting for a reply as she set off up the stairs, the little girl attached to her hip.