AN: I really appreciate every little review, every message, every opinion and advice, every follow and favourite, THANK YOU ALL, I LOVE YOU! (you can still continue sending me requests and suggestions for this story :))
P.S.: Birthday story is here and yes, the main concept will be copied from the Million Little Lights (I'm telling you myself before somebody says it instead ;)), I changed just a bits, as you will see :) (I hope you don't mind that much that I borrow my own writing from somewhere else, considering I wasn't even going to write this happier fic in the beginning of all :D)
It had been nearly two months since Jane got shot. Everything was getting better and better.
Angela burst into Jane and Maura's bedroom.
"Goodmorning! Where is the honouree? Oh hello, baby, happy birthday!" Angela was radiant. She took Dylan out of the crib and the little girl greeted her with a squeal and babbling.
A loud grunt came out of the king sized bed – Jane snuggled closer to Maura's chest and tried to not get up and strangle her own mother.
Maura opened her eyes, pushed her hair out of her face and checked up the time – it was just past 8am.
Angela turned towards Maura and Jane with Dylan in her arms. "Good morning girls! We need to start preparing everything, the guests will come around two!" Angela encouraged exclaimed with a smile. "Freshen up, I'll take care of Dylan and prepare a breakfast. " She said as she left.
"Do. Not. Move." Jane mumbled into Maura's chest and squeezed her with her arms.
Maura chuckled silently. "We should probably go down, or your mother will come for us again."
"Just throw something at her. Pillow or the lamp."
Maura laughed and Jane rose on her forearms, dedicating one long sleepy gaze to her. "Your chest. Shaking. I can't sleep when your chest shakes."
"Jane, honey, we have to get up. Dylan has birthday!" Maura encouraged Jane and then kissed her goodmorning.
"Rrrrrrright," Jane yawned and sat up. "Wait, where is she?!"
"Angela is taking care of her. And of breakfast. You really are not a morning person." Maura giggled and got out of the bed.
Jane growled into the pillow and after a few minutes she finally pushed herself out of the bed as well.
She walked like a zombie to the bathroom, stepped behind Maura, who was putting on mascara in front of the mirror, and wrapped her arms around her.
"Morning," Jane said and kissed the space between Maura's neck and shoulder.
"Good morning. Are you finally awake?" Maura smiled, looking at Jane in the mirror.
"Lemme take a shower and I will be." Jane smirked and let go of Maura to take a shower.
It took only around 15 minutes for both to get dressed, for Jane to take a shower and for Maura to fix her make-up and hair. They both walked down to the kitchen, side by side, to meet Angela and Dylan already sitting at the table.
"Finally! You took your time. Come on, let's eat! We have to start preparing everything early!" Angela ushered them to the table.
Jane and Maura exchanged a slightly pained looks, but when it came to celebrating parties, nothing and nobody could stop Angela and they both knew that from their own experiences.
So the morning was filled with baking cake and cookies, preparing snacks and drinks and cleaning the whole house.
It took them a long time, but they finished it on time.
The guests were coming early.
The first appeared Frankie. Maura opened the door and greeted him with a smile.
"Wow, you look stunning, Maura." Frankie smiled and placed a kiss on her cheek.
"Thank you." Maura smiled appreciatively and smoothed her light blue dress. Then she walked with Frankie to the living room.
"Hey Ma, hey Jane," he waved towards them, put a box with a bow on a table and walked to Dylan. Jane was so happy to see how much he loved his little niece. He will be a great father one day.
Maura had to open the door in a minute again – another part of the Rizzoli clan came – Tommy, Lydia and TJ.
"Granny!" TJ shouted and immediately ran towards Angela, who was expecting him with her arms wide open.
"Hi, TJ! You are a big boy already!"
Maura smiled widely and looked at his cute outfit – jeans, T-shirt and a little bow tie. "And look at your pretty outfit!"
"He wanted the bow tie as soon as she saw it, and he said he 'needs to wear it today'." Lydia explained with a shrug and chuckled.
"It looks beautiful, TJ." Maura said and when he ran towards her to greet her, she hugged him and let him run towards Jane.
"Auntie!" Jane let him jump into her arms and hugged him tight. They have always loved each other ever since he was born. "Hey TJ! Love the bow tie!"
Tommy walked over to Frankie and started talking with him, Lydia playing with Dylan in Frankie's arms.
Maura was standing there, watching all of them. She thought about how much they had been her family, how much more she felt at home, loved, with them than her own distant family.
Her train of thoughts was interrupted by the bell.
Korsak and Nina were standing behind the door, each one holding a colourful box with a bow on it.
"Look who I ran into!" Korsak laughed and pointed towards Nina, who just smiled and shook her head lightly. "Hello Maura."
"Hello Nina, hello Sgt Korsak," Maura welcomed them and let them in.
"Hey guys!" Jane welcomed them and put TJ down on the ground. "Good to see you again!" She smiled sincerely at them. She seriously missed them.
Angela was preparing last things, putting all kinds of goodies and beverages on the table.
"Tommy, would you please take pictures?" She asked her younger son as she passed him by.
"No prob, Ma." Tommy took the camera sitting on a table and started taking some pictures.
"Can I bring the cake?" Angela asked loudly and she got agreeing hum in answer.
Frankie walked to Jane, handing her Dylan. "Here you go, big mother."
Jane rolled her eyes at him and took her daughter into her embrace.
Angela carried a big beautiful cake to the dining table.
"It looks amazing, Angela, have you baked this?" Vince asked, admiring the chocolate-hazelnut cake with a candle in the middle.
"Thank you, Vince. Maura helped." She smiled in the direction of Maura, who was just quietly watching Jane whispering something to Dylan's ear.
"You're going to be one year old as soon as we blow the candle out, Dylan." Jane whispered and smiled.
"Shall we?" Angela smiled and lit up the candle.
Jane stepped closer and leaned to the cake.
Tommy prepared the camera. "Three, two, one – go!"
Jane blew the little flame out and everybody started clapping and shouting "Happy Birthday Dylan!".
Maura even walked over to Jane and kissed Dylan's forehead. "Happy birthday ladybug."
Everyone gave their gifts to Jane and Maura, who helped Dylan with opening them.
"Awww, look at these bath toys! Who gave her this?" Angela beamed, seeing the gift Jane just unwrapped.
Lydia smiled "I bought them for her. TJ always loved playing while taking a bath, so I thought it might be a good idea."
"Thank you, Lydia." Jane smiled as she watched Dylan playing with a little xylophone from Korsak, pushing a shape sorter from Tommy away. "Aww, these shoes look beautiful!" Maura exclaimed as she took the red hand knitted shoes out of a box.
Angela smiled. "Do you like them? I knitted them myself in the evenings like I used to knit when I had babies…"
"Didn't I use to have pink ones?" Jane knitted her brows together and watched Angela with mocking expression.
"Yes you did!"
Jane laughed and unwrapped a fairy tale book with a title she had never heard of.
"It's personalised child story book. Dylan is the main character there." Maura explained when she saw everybody's confusion. All the women in the room 'awww'-ed at the same time and men smiled.
Then Jane unwrapped another book and sent a questioning look Maura's way.
"No, that's not from me." Maura said and leaned towards the book to check the name. Book of Disney fairy tales.
"Now I see that Disney stories are absolutely unoriginal gift, especially coming after your fairy tale book." Nina said with a half-smile.
"No, it's a nice gift, thank you, Nina." Maura stood up and hugged Nina.
"Thank you for all the gifts, guys." Jane said and caressed Dylan, who was trying to play with all the things at once.
"And the last gift?" Maura asked, pointing to the small box wrapped in red paper and a white bow on it.
"This one is from me, so I probably shouldn't be the one to open it." Jane said and pushed it in Maura's direction.
Maura smiled and took the box delicately in her fingers. She started carefully unwrapping the paper. Then she took out a round silver music box with a few red flowers on it. She opened it and read the words written inside.
"For Dylan
With all of my love
Ma. "
Maura lifted her eyes and met Jane's. Then she turned the key several times and let the music fill the room.
Dylanstopped playing and watched the box with her brown eyes wide. Everybody else was listening, but neither of them felt the same as Jane and Maura and maybe even Dylan.
It was a piano version of the song from Lion King 2. Their lullaby.
And the song was over. Jane would swear Dylan recognized the song. The little girl watched the music box and her mouth was open. Maura was touched. She was smiling with tears in her eyes.
"That was a nice melody." Vince broke the silence.
"Yeah," common agreement resonated through the room.
Dylan reached for the box and Jane put it into her hands, but she kept an eye on her. After a while, she took the music box and went to put it into their bedroom.
When she came back, all the guests were seated on the couch, drinking coffee and eating cake, chattering, and TJ was playing with Dylan on the ground.
"Thanks again," Jane said and sat down on the couch next to Maura, who put her hand on Jane's back and started rubbing soft circles.
Jane has never felt so grateful for everything she had.