Just like every other morning, Hannah Rizzoli woke up to Jo Friday licking her face. She pretended to be asleep, but the terrier continued to lick Hannah's face until she opened her eyes. "It's too early, girl," Hannah told her beloved dog, but Jo Friday didn't care if it was eight in the morning and Hannah didn't have to go to school. All that mattered to Jo Friday was that she was hungry and her person usually needed her as an alarm clock. After what felt like an eternity for Jo Friday, Hannah finally got out of bed and made her way to the kitchen. She grabbed the bag of dog food from the pantry and poured a generous amount into the dog's dish before pouring a bowl of cereal for herself. In her half-asleep state, Hannah forgot to add milk so she munched on dry cereal as she glanced at the clock. The Rizzoli house was silent except for the sounds of Hannah, Jo Friday, and Bass eating breakfast and Hannah waited patiently for her moms to wake up.
The Rizzoli family had an important day ahead of them and Hannah wanted to be sure she was ready for what was in store. Her moms had a day off and with Maura's due date quickly approaching they were going to convert one of the bedrooms into a nursery. Jane and Hannah had wanted to paint the nursery light blue, but Maura had insisted on pink. Hannah had argued against pink and the how painting her baby sister's room pink was a way of making Sofia perform a female gender identity from birth instead of letting her choose. Jane was proud of her daughter's argument, but Maura hadn't taken gender performance into consideration. She wanted a pink nursery for the baby not because Sofia was a girl but because it matched the nursery she had pictured for the baby the moment she found out she was pregnant.
Another hour had passed and Hannah still hadn't heard her moms, so she decided to walk over to their room and wake them up. Walking into her moms' room always made Hannah feel nervous because she never knew what she'd be walking in on. She had never walked in on them making love, but she had walked in on them making out once before and ever since that moment she had made sure to knock before entering.
"Come in," Jane answered after the third knock.
Hannah hesitated to walk in once she saw that her mom was still fast asleep. "Is Mom okay?" Hannah asked.
"She's just tired," Jane smiled. "Sofia kept her up all night."
Hannah sat at the foot of Jane's side of the bed. "Was she kicking?"
"Like a soccer player," Jane responded. "But I like feeling her kick and I love knowing that she's almost here."
Hearing that Sofia would soon be born reminded Hannah of a question she had wanted to ask her moms. Hannah would be starting the tenth grade soon and, in her eyes, she was practically an adult. As someone who would soon be an adult she felt as if she needed room to grow and a space to call her own, but she wasn't quite sure how to tell her moms that without the two of them thinking she was out of her mind. Although Hannah had planned for days how she was going to approach the subject, nothing ever sounded appropriate, so she decided to ask Jane right then and there.
"Ma?"
"I don't like that look of yours," Jane pointed out. "You're up to something."
Hannah tried her best to become expressionless, but nothing she tried was working. "How did you know I was—is this some kind of cop thing?"
Jane reached over to ruffle Hannah's hair. "No, it's not a cop thing. It's a mother thing."
"Remind me to warn Sofia," Hannah responded in a sarcastic tone that mimicked the one Jane used on her mother when she was a teenager.
"What is it?" Jane asked. "You aren't sixteen yet, so I know this isn't about a car. You already went shopping for school clothes, so it can't be about that. Is everything okay with you and Emma?"
"Emma and I are fine," Hannah told her as she scooted closer to Jane. "This is about my—this is about my independence."
"Independence?" Jane laughed. "You're fifteen. When you're eighteen, we'll start talking about your independence and not on your eighteenth birthday either. When you're eighteen and out of high school."
"I want the guest house," Hannah blurted out.
Maura immediately rose to an upright position. "No."
"No?" Hannah asked.
"No," Jane reiterated. "And Maura, the queen of the castle, has spoken. She is so against it that she woke up just to tell you no."
Hannah turned to Maura. "You're supposed to be the nurturing one, remember? Ma is supposed to be the hard ass."
"Language!" Jane and Maura said in unison
"Sorry," Hannah told them. "But I'm fifteen now and that means I'm three years from being an adult."
"And in three years we'll have this conversation again," Jane argued. "But now is not the time."
"I'll keep it spotless," Hannah promised. "I won't sneak Emma or any of my friends over."
Jane shook her head. "I wasn't even thinking about that, but that's yet another reason why we're saying no."
"We love you," Maura began. "And we want to keep you as close as we possibly can for as long as we can. There's only three years until you start college and those years are going to pass so quickly."
"We want to keep you safe," Jane added. "You might think we're being unfair, but we're not. In a few more months, I'm going to be making my rounds. I'm going to be checking on you, Sofia, and your mom. Do you really want me to brave these cold Boston winters as I go outside to check on you? I'll stand guard by the door if I have to and you'll have even less independence than you have now. I'll monitor everything you do, Hannah, and that's a promise."
"Fine," Hannah groaned. "Now that you put it that way."
"Get ready," Jane insisted. "We'll start painting in an hour."
Hannah had gotten up to leave but she turned around once she reached the doorway. Much to her mothers' surprise, she made her way back to the bed and gave both of her moms a hug.
"And what's this for?" Jane asked as she held her daughter in a tight embrace.
"Just because," Hannah shrugged.
Painting the nursery was an all-day job for Hannah and Jane, mainly because they took a three-hour break to watch the Red Sox game followed by yet another break to order a pizza, which they found themselves having to share half of because Maura had kept an entire half of the pizza for herself—or for Baby Rizzoli she said in defense of her appetite. Hannah and Jane made sure to keep every window open to air out the paint fumes. Maura had argued that the fumes from household paint weren't harmful to her or the baby if she was only exposed to them for short periods of time, but Jane and Hannah weren't willing to take that risk, so instead of letting her help Maura was forced to stay away from the nursery until they unveiled the finished product.
"Thank you," Maura said as the two of them were lying in bed that night.
Jane placed a series of kisses of kisses along Maura's jaw line, taking in the scent of the moisturizer Maura used on a nightly basis. It was a comforting scent for Jane because it meant her wife was right next to her and if her wife was right next to her, that meant their growing family was safe and all was right in Jane's world. "There's no need to thank me," Jane insisted. "I enjoyed painting the nursery. It's just another way of thanking you for bringing her into this world."
Maura placed Jane's hand on Baby Rizzoli's home. "Bringing her into this world is my way of thanking you for being everything I've ever wanted in a woman—in a wife—without even trying. It's who you are, Jane. You're a good woman and it comes naturally to you."
Jane's lips grazed Maura's until neither could handle the teasing any longer. "Sit up," Jane commanded.
"Why?" Maura asked with a confused look on her face.
"Your back was hurting earlier," Jane reminded her wife. "And after everything you just said to me, I think you deserve a massage."
When Maura saw Jane grab the massage oils from the top drawer of their nightstand, she began to wonder what exactly her wife had in mind. "We don't need the small bottle for a back massage," Maura pointed out. "That one is just used to further stimulate my—"
"I know," Jane interrupted. "I'm going to spend the rest of the night caressing every inch of your body."
"Half the night," Maura corrected her. "The other half is your turn."
Jane knew Maura would be too exhausted for her to even have a turn after what Jane had in store for her, but Jane didn't mind one bit. She was going to dedicate as much time to Maura as she'd be allowed and make Maura feel as good physically as Maura was making her feel emotionally.