The More Things Change, Part 26 of 30

Pairing: Jane/Maura

Spoilers: Through "When the Gun Goes Bang, Bang, Bang," slight spoiler for book!Maura's hometown

Warnings: Nothing that I can think of.

Disclaimer: The only thing that's mine is the plot, such as it is.

Note: I almost didn't include this part, because being in character is very important to me, and we haven't met Maura's mom yet. Still, I had so much fun writing it that I decided to just go with it. (I did decide to use the hometown for Maura's family as it stands in the novels.) Oh, and if you're curious about the painting, it's very clear in the premiere as Jane follows Maura into her guest room.

Maura had been awake for about ten minutes when she felt Jane stir beside her.

The night before, she'd nervously helped Jane up the flight of stairs to the master bedroom; as nerve-wracking as it had been, it had also been more than worth it to see the relief on Jane's face as she'd relaxed in the whirlpool tub in the master bathroom.

The memory brought a soft smile to her face; she'd never shared a bath with anyone before.

It was nice to wake up in her own bed, too. Between her time in the hospital and the nights she'd spent with Jane downstairs in the guest bedroom, it had been close to a month since she'd slept in it.

All in all, life was very, very good.

As she watched, Jane stretched carefully and rolled onto her side with a frown. "I don't wanna go to PT today."

"But, Jane – "

She rolled her eyes. "Just gimme my whiny teenager moment, huh? Didn't say I wouldn't. Said I didn't wanna."

"Rest for a while, then," Maura suggested, squeezing Jane's upper arm. "We've got time."

That was a damn good idea, as far as Jane was concerned. She let her mind drift until she remembered a question she'd meant to ask for a very long time. She'd always been embarrassed to, but given that she and Maura had spent the night cuddled in a tangle of arms and legs, she decided it was pretty much a moot point.

"Hey, Maura?"

"Mmm?"

"Why do you have a painting of a naked woman in your guest room?"

"It was my grandmother's."

Jane's forehead furrowed. "Your grandma liked naked ladies?"

Maura laughed. "No." She paused and tilted her head, then shrugged. "Well, at least, I don't think she did. She was very fond of art, though, and – "

Jane rolled her eyes and allowed her inevitable art history lecture to float past her, watching as she got up and began sorting through her clothes. As the lecture wound down, Maura commented, "Dinner was nice."

Jane, never a morning person to begin with, was still lounging in bed, watching her with a faint smile that turned disbelieving. "Really?"

"Well, it was a little…boisterous." Maura met her eyes, and an understanding passed between them. "And…it was a bit awkward to know that your mother and Frankie knew, and your father didn't. But it was nice."

"Pop surprised me last night," Jane admitted. "Didn't expect him to be okay with it." Jane yawned. "Anyway, you're kinda stuck with them, you know?" She carefully rotated her body and put her feet on the floor. "So…glad you liked it, I guess."

Maura had opened her mouth to reply when her phone began to ring. She felt her eyes widen and an emotion she couldn't quite name grabbed her heart in a vise.

Jane frowned and sank back down from where she'd been struggling to her feet, sensing her upset. "What?"

"That – " She winced at the hoarseness of her voice and tried again, "That's my ringtone for my mother."

Adrenaline propelled her right up from the bed and over to Maura, who was standing by the closet, rooted to the spot. "Hey," she said, putting a hand on Maura's arm, "I'm sure it's – "

Maura turned in her grasp and met her eyes. Her chin was trembling and there was just a bit of a gleam to her eyes that spoke of impending tears. "My father had surgery to repair a blocked artery last year."

There was something…off…in her voice that pinged what Jane jokingly called her detective spider sense. "I don't remember you going to San Francisco."

Maura nodded, just slightly, confirming Jane's suspicions before she even opened her mouth. "My mother called me after he got out of surgery."

Jane began contemplating several ways she could go about making Maura's parents' lives miserable. Maybe Frost could hack into their local police database and void their car registration? Shut off their utilities? Give their email addresses to every known spammer in the world?

"They didn't tell you."

It wasn't a question, but Maura shook her head anyway, glancing at her still-ringing cell phone where it sat in its cradle, charging.

"You gonna answer?"

Maura didn't move, so Jane didn't either. She just stood there, listening to the phone ring, lightly rubbing Maura's arm until it stopped and Maura laid her head on Jane's shoulder.

"Maura – "

The phone began to ring again.

Jane dropped a quick kiss to Maura's temple, then strode determinedly across the room and yanked the phone off its cradle. "Hello," she said, aware of Maura's stunned but grateful look as she belatedly followed Jane across the room. "You've reached Doctor Maura Isles's cell phone."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line – so long, in fact, that Jane began to pull the phone away from her ear to see if the call had been dropped. Then, tentatively, "H-hello?"

"Yes?"

"With whom am I speaking?"

The speaker on the other end of the line had a cultured voice despite its slight hesitance, and the perfect grammar pegged it as certainly Maura's mother.

"Friend of Maura's," Jane said, hoping that she wouldn't wonder why Maura had a friend at her house so early in the morning. "You kinda freaked her out, so I answered the phone for her."

"I…what?"

With a faint grin, Jane handed the phone over, resting her hands on Maura's shoulders with a friendly squeeze.

Maura cleared her throat nervously and took a slight step back until she was within the bubble of Jane's personal space. "Mother? Is everything all right? Is Dad – "

"Maura, is everything all right?"

Maura frowned at the phone. "Well, yes, I suppose. Why?"

"We got the strangest phone call last night." Maura stiffened. "It was an Angela…something or other. Honey? What was her name?"

Maura could just faintly hear her father's voice in the distance. "Rosie?"

She very nearly dropped the phone. Jane circled her to stand in front of her. "What's wrong?"

Maura glanced at the phone, then at Jane, then closed her eyes and whispered, "You – your – your mother…called my parents!"

For a full fifteen seconds, Jane couldn't react at all. It was though her brain had just refused to process anything beyond horrified disbelief. She was vaguely aware of Maura's amused gaze and finally snapped out of it when Maura looked back at her phone.

"Oh, crap," she finally managed to say, taking off as quickly as she could for her own phone, which was charging in the master bathroom.

Maura watched her go, then sighed. "I assume you mean Angela Rizzoli?"

"That might have been it."

Maura fought the completely irrational urge to hang up, throw her phone away, and persuade Jane to enter the Witness Protection Program with her. She forced her voice into something approaching her typical calmness. "She's…you remember the homicide detective I mentioned last time we talked?"

At that, Jane looked up from where she was furiously typing out a text message to her mother with a faint smile. Maura spoke with her parents two or three times a year, and yet she'd managed to mention…?

"Angela is Jane's mother. She's – "

"Ma!" Jane wrote, "What the hell?"

"But why ever would she – ?

Maura sighed. She knew very well why Angela had called. To stall, she asked, "What did Angela say?"

"What, Jane?"

"Maura!" her mother protested, aghast. "We raised you better than that!"

Maura caught herself pinching the bridge of her nose with a sigh. She caught Jane's eye and smiled. "She gave me permission to call her Angela, Mother. In fact, she insisted."

"Wants you to call her Ma," Jane whispered.

Maura covered the speaker. "One thing at a time, Jane. As I said, my father has a weak heart."

Jane shook her head and returned to her phone. "What do you mean 'what'? Why the hell did you call Maura's parents?"

"Well," Maura's mother was saying, "she said we should call you. That something important was going on?"

"I – "

"Really, Maura, I'm disappointed in you. If something important is happening in your life, we shouldn't have to hear about it from strangers."

"Jane, you're the one who told me her parents neglect her."

Maura gulped. "Well, um…have you watched…I mean, of course you – "

"I never said that!"

"Maura? This isn't like you. What are you trying to say?"

Maura took a deep breath to center herself. She hated talking about this. "Did you see a report on the news…." She trailed off and smiled gratefully when she sensed Jane approaching again, though her attention was still focused almost entirely on her phone. "A report on the news about a standoff at the police headquarters here in Boston?"

"You said her parents never talk to her. That they sent her off to boarding school. That they're distant and barely part of her life. Of course I called her, Jane. Someone had to knock some sense into her and make her act like a mother."

"Well, yes, I think I remember reading about that. A detective shot herself." There was a long, long pause. "Maura, are you saying your…friend did something that reckless?"

She ignored the implied criticism. "Yes. Jane. She's – um – she's been staying with me as she recovers."

"Well, my goodness, why?"

"Because her brother was also injured, and her parents were looking after him. And because she couldn't climb steps, even with assistance, until last night, and her apartment isn't on the ground floor of her building."

There was another very long pause, during which Jane typed as quietly as she could. "But, Ma – you know Maura can't lie. One wrong question and she'll…. This isn't something you talk about over the phone!"

"She lives in an apartment? Maura, there was talk after Adam Fairfield's memorial that you brought a completely uncultured police officer with you as your guest, but I didn't think you would really consort with someone so outside your social circle."

Jane must have been able to hear enough of her mother's reply to follow the gist of it, because she tugged Maura to the bed and kissed her shoulder again as she waited for her mother's next volley, which was surprisingly concise.

"Good."

Maura pressed her lips together. "Mother, first of all, it's your social circle. Secondly, how much Jane is or isn't worth is immaterial to me. I've learned to appreciate people for who they are. And she's – she's become…important…to me."

Jane squeezed her waist, then let go and frowned as she typed, "Ma! I had to be hopped up on narcotics before you could even trick me into talking about the whole thing. Narcotics that MAKE ME A BLABBER-MOUTH. What the hell?"

"Angela is something of a – well, a busybody."

"She lives in San Francisco, Jane."

"You're avoiding talking about something, Maura. What would she have to be a busybody about?"

"So what?"

"So I figured she'd be open-minded."

Jane shook her head. "Oh. My. God."

Maura winced. "I imagine she wanted me to tell you that – that – "

She stared at Maura; she was so focused on her that she nearly dropped her phone when it buzzed again.

"What?"

Maura's voice was shaking. "That – "

"That what?"

"You don't even know why you shouldn't have butted in, do you?"

The phone was shaking in Maura's hand. "Well, that I've begun – " Her face began to flush and she backtracked quickly, "No, that's not true. That I've had – "

"I gotta go, Ma. But THIS ISN'T OVER."

"Maura, what are you trying to tell me?"

Jane turned to the side and wrapped her arms around Maura in silent support, then whispered, "You can hang up if you wanna. I'll make Ma come up with some lie to tell her."

Maura's whole body shuddered as she pulled in a breath, then shook her head. "That I – "

"Maura, are you…involved…with this woman?"

"Yes. Well…as involved as we can be until she heals, at least – why are you looking at me like that, Jane?"

"Well, that's…unexpected."

Jane watched as Maura's face froze. There wasn't much she could do, though, other than rub her back comfortingly and whisper, "I'll find something to arrest Ma for, promise."

That jolted Maura out of her haze with a slight smile. With something approaching her usual poise, she said, "It was for both of us as well."

"Well, obviously, we'll defer to your judgment, Maura, but have you considered how this will look to others?"

"Mother," Maura said tightly, "I don't really care. You know that I'm an outsider in that circle anyway."

"And this isn't going to help. Maura – she didn't even know which utensil to use!"

Jane snorted.

"Mother…are you telling me your problem is not Jane's gender – but her socioeconomic status?" Maura asked incredulously.

"You yourself said you're at a disadvantage socially, Maura. If you have any hope of truly belonging in our society, being involved with someone so…."

"So what?"

"Well, with such a different background than yours."

"You don't really know my background, Mother," Maura said tightly.

"Your background became ours when we adopted you."

"I see. So blood doesn't matter?"

"No."

"Then why did Garrett kill Adam?"

Her mother had no response for that.

"I'll tell you why. Because he internalized the same message I did as a child. Blood does matter. It shouldn't, but among that society, it does."

Jane glanced at her; the part of her that was all cop noticed immediately that Maura had not said 'our' society, or even 'your' society – the extent to which she had already distanced herself was obvious.

"Maura…."

Maura sighed. "Mother, I love her."

Jane's head shot up at that.

"She almost died, and…Jane called it a cliché, and maybe it is, but it gave me the impetus I needed to admit – to accept – what I've been feeling for some time. I love her. Social climbing – social considerations – aren't going to change that."

"But – "

"I'm happy where I am. With my job. With my friends – my real friends; the first real friends I believe I've ever had. I don't need more."

Jane was grinning widely. She mouthed, "Love you too."

Maura, distracted, answered aloud, "You do?"

"Yep."

"Maura?"

She didn't react to her mother's voice, instead focusing on Jane. "You mean – ?"

"I think I mean, yeah. I'm kinda on some substances right now, though, so that might be making it hard to tell."

Maura grinned.

"Never been in love before, either, far as I know. But I'm pretty sure – "

Maura jerked when her mother's voice echoed out of the phone that had slowly dropped from her ear. "Maura!"

She glanced at her phone and said vaguely, "Sorry, Mother."

"You're clearly busy. We'll talk more about this later."

She didn't react when she heard her mother slam the phone down. Instead, she shook her head slightly. "You love me?"

Jane smiled. "Maura, I go to yoga for you. I ran a marathon for you. Hell, I let you buy me clothes. Yeah. I love you."