Chapter 37

"I hate calling in sick for school," Anna's voice was barely above a whisper while she crossed her arms and stared at the wall just as Jane put down her phone.

"I know, peanut. But there's no way you can go to school like this."

"I don't have a fever."

"Anna, you're sick. You can only whisper, your throat is killing you and that fever comes and goes. You're not going to school."

Sudden tears appeared in Anna's eyes and she nodded slowly. "I know."

"Hey," Jane took place next to her daughter on the bed. "It's okay, baby. Everyone gets sick sometimes. There's nothing you can do about it."

"I just don't like missing classes."

"You're smart enough to catch up on all of them." Jane sat up against the headboard and wrapped her arm around her daughter's shoulders. "I know being sick sucks."

"Really sucks."

"Really, really sucks." Jane sighed and kissed Anna's temple. "But you have to allow yourself to be sick, peanut. It'll only take longer if you deny it."

"I know." Anna turned on her side and snuggled against her mother. "I feel so bad, Mama," she whispered. "Everything hurts."

Jane swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded. "I know, baby." She wrapped her arms around the girl, resting her chin on top of Anna's head on her chest. "You want to watch a movie? Get your mind off it?"

Anna just shrugged. "Maybe."

"C'mon." Jane gave her daughter a kiss and gently helped her up from the bed. She grabbed the throw blanket and wrapped it around Anna's shoulders over her pajamas. The girl was standing weakly on her legs when she started coughing and Jane held her up to help her downstairs where she settled her on the couch. She kissed the top of her head and stroked her cheek. "You gotta drink something, baby," she said softly. "What do you want?"

"Tea?"

"Coming right up."

"Don't you have work today, Ma?" Anna asked while Jane started boiling water.

"BPD can manage without me for a few hours." She grabbed the honey from a cabinet and a searched for a big mug. "What kind of tea do you want? Your Mom has all those crazy teas…"

"I don't care as long as it's not that panda poop kind."

Jane chuckled. "Noted. There's something green with berries over here."

Anna nodded but another coughing fit interrupted her from replying. Jane sighed. She hated seeing her daughter sick. Her mind kept jumping to worst case scenarios, thinking Anna had more than just the flu and that every cough got worse and worse and that something was terribly wrong with the young girl. But she knew it was her instinct talking. She was being the concerned mother. She poured the hot water on the teabag in a blue mug and walked back to Anna, placing the mug on the coffee table and sitting next to the girl. "Here you go," she whispered, "now come here." She wrapped her arms around the skinny teenager and pulled her close, feeling Anna wiggling to get comfortable on the couch against her mother while she started a movie.

She only finished half the movie before she fell asleep, allowing Jane to stay awake and worry before she carefully managed to grab her laptop and catch up on some work until Maura got home, quietly opening the front door and smiling when she saw them.

"Hi," she whispered. "How is she?"

Jane sighed and looked at Anna who was sleeping against her upper arm. She felt her forehead and shrugged. "Still hot. Tired, miserable."

"Poor baby." Maura leaned down and carefully pressed her lips against Anna's forehead. "Not much better."

"How's the case? Any results?"

Maura nodded. "Yes, DNA results and the test on the metal plate should be back soon. They are waiting for you at the station."

"Great." Jane carefully untangled herself from her sleeping daughter and stood up from the couch, cupping Maura's cheek to kiss her. "She only had tea," she whispered. "She didn't want to eat."

"Hm." Maura kissed her wife again and squeezed her arm. "We'll try some soup when she wakes up."

"Good, I have to go. I love you" After one more kiss, Jane grabbed her keys and left the house to get back to work, leaving Maura in the kitchen, staring at her sick daughter on the couch while the credits of the third movie played on the television screen. She could still feel Jane's lips on her own, her warmth and love still tingling on her skin. They were clearly back in their normal lives. Their lives of busy jobs, four children and demanding family. She shook her head and grabbed her laptop, opening it to start preparing for a trial while she made herself some coffee.

She got a good amount of work done before Anna woke up and she managed to make her eat some chicken soup. She was taking the girl's temperature when Lily bolted through the front door, throwing her backpack somewhere it didn't belong. "Mom!"

"Hi, honey. Clear away that bag, please."

Lily grabbed it and tossed it on top of the kitchen counter. "I wanna show you something."

"What is it?"

"I got an A+!"

"My goodness, really?" Maura gasped and stood up from the couch, carefully lowering Anna.

"Yeah, my first one!"

"What for?"

"English." Lily pushed out her chest and pulled a slightly crumbled piece of paper out of her bag, showing it proudly.

"Wow, sweetheart. I am so proud of you." Maura smiled at the brightly red letters that said 'A+' in the bottom right corner of the paper, a report with the title 'family'. "What is it about? About us?"

"Yeah." Lily nodded and got up on one of the stools at the counter. "We had to write about our family, that was pretty much it. Teach said we had to be creative or something." She shrugged. "I thought it was pretty stupid but then I thought… we have a pretty interesting family, y'know? With Anna being adopted and then me being born from some kind of secret donor-man and then Rachel and Morgan getting adopted, and also I have two moms, which is also pretty cool 'cause I'm the only one in my class except for Luke and Jocelyn but their parents got divorced so that doesn't count," Lily smiled, her dark eyes sparkling while she rambled. "So I guess my family's really that interesting!"

Maura chuckled and quickly read through the report, noticing Lily's somewhat sloppy writing style but the grammar was correct and the words were sincere. This was something that was written from the heart, from the spontaneous and untamed personality that was Lily and Maura definitely agreed with the A+. "This is amazing, Lily. And not just because our family is interesting, but because you wrote it very well."

"Well…" Lily blushed and shrugged again. "I think it wouldn't be so good if my family was boring. I mean, it's not really fun to read about a family with a mom and a dad and two kids and a dog, right? It's much cooler to read about a family with secret donor-guys and adoptions, moms in prison and moms that are cops and the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

Maura chuckled. "I'm impressed you memorized that title."

"Right?!"

Maura laughed and cupped Lily's cheek to press her lips against her forehead. "It's not about our jobs or the way our family originated, baby. You could've written a very good paper if you had a 'boring' family as well."

"Maybe."

"I'm sure of it." Maura brushed her hand through her daughter's curls and caressed her cheek. "You are very creative, you write very well."

"But my history paper was only like, a C or something. I wrote that too." Lily straightened out the paper and put it away.

"That's because history doesn't require that much creativity. And because you don't like it." Maura smiled slightly. "You have a tendency to achieve higher results in subjects you find interesting."

"Yeah, I hate history. Who cares about Napoleon anyway?"

Maura chuckled, noticing the great similarity with her wife in the way Lily voiced her frustration. "I love you, baby girl."

"Right, love you too." She looked around the room and noticed Anna on the couch. "Anna still sick?"

"Yes."

"Where's Morgan? And Mama? Does she have to work 'til late?"

"Morgan is still at school, she'll be home soon. I'm afraid Mama will be late, yes."

Maura was right. Jane was late. The case they were working on was getting more complicated with every result they got and every suspect they talked to. The girls were already sleeping and Maura had just gotten into bed after a hot shower when she heard the front door opening and Jane's slow footsteps walking up the stairs. She was exhausted, Maura heard it in the way she walked.

She turned on her side, expecting Jane to walk into the bedroom but she smiled when she heard another door opening on the other side of the hallway, telling her that Jane was walking into one of the girl's rooms to give them a kiss goodnight. She did all three of them before she finally appeared into their bedroom, eliciting a sweet smile from the blonde in bed. "Hi," she whispered.

"Hi." Jane sighed deeply and shrugged off her jacket. "I'm sorry I'm so late."

"It's okay, we knew it was going to be a long day."

"What about you? Did you finish for the trial?"

"No." Maura sighed and leaned herself up on her elbow. "I have to try and squeeze in some time tomorrow."

Jane reappeared after undressing in the closet, coming back wearing her old BPD T-shirt and a pair of cotton panties, untying her hair from her ponytail. "Back to live, huh," she whispered while pulling her bra out of her sleeve, tossing it on a chair in the corner of the room. "Harsh reality."

"Hm." Maura hummed and watched Jane walking into the bathroom to brush her teeth. "You look tired, babe," she said softly.

Jane sighed. She shrugged her shoulders and continued quickly brushing her teeth, finishing up her bedtime routine by splashing some water in her face and sliding into bed next to her wife. "It's a big transition," she whispered. "From our beautiful trip, doing nothing but stay in bed all day, to our busy lives here."

"I know." Maura scooted towards the brunette and gently touched her shoulder to make her lie down so she should snuggle against her side. "We're back to quick kisses and 'I love you's'."

"No." Jane shook her head.

"It's reality, Jane."

"Yeah, but-…"

"It's not necessarily a bad thing. I know you deserve so much more and trust me-… I'd take any chance to have you in bed all day. But we both love our jobs. And we love taking care of our children. So all of those quick kisses and rushed 'I love you's'… I don't want to take them for granted. I know they are genuine and you mean every bit of it."

"Always." Jane leaned forward and gently rested her forehead against her wife's.

"We'll make up for it at moments like this," Maura whispered. "Because I love you, Jane Rizzoli. I love you more than quick kisses in between taking shifts taking care of the kids."

"I love you too." Jane smiled lovingly, a smile that made Maura's stomach tingle and her heart flutter as she watched those dark eyes so deep, sparkling with love and affection before their lips met in a loving kiss. "I love even the quick kisses."

"All kisses with you are phenomenal," Maura smiled against Jane's lips and pulled herself tighter against the taller woman, tangling their legs together and resting her head on her warm chest, feeling her heartbeat on her cheek as Jane's fingers tangled in her hair and lightly scraped her scalp.

After a short moment of silence, Jane sighed deeply. "Maura."

"Hm?"

"I'm worried about Anna."

Maura sighed. "Me too."

"Are we sure it's the flu? I mean, her fever is so high all the time. And that cough-… It sounds bad."

"Her lungs are clean, I listened this afternoon. And she's only been sick for three days… But yes, I worry too."

"Maybe we have to take more tests," Jane whispered.

Maura lifted herself from her wife's chest and looked into dark eyes that were suddenly filled with concern and unconditional love for the young girl she just kissed goodnight, undoubtedly feeling her hot, feverish skin under her lips. "Let's see how she gets through the night. If she seeps okay, she might feel better tomorrow. It's only been three days; a flu can last up to ten days."

Jane hummed and nodded, agreeing with her love and pulling her back to their original position with Maura's head on her chest and their bodies pressed closely together. "I hate seeing her sick."

"Me too." Maura sighed and gently traced patterns on the brunette's skin under her shirt, feeling her tight abdomen under her fingers. "I hate seeing my little girl in pain."

"Let's just hope she'll feel better tomorrow." Jane gently pulled the blonde closer and kissed the top of her head. "And that we'll get some sleep as well."

"I doubt it."

"You shouldn't worry too much, Maur. We can't make her better."

"Oh, but I want to. So badly."

"I know. But right now-…" a yawn interrupted Jane and she nuzzled her nose into her wife's blond curls, "right now we need some sleep."

"Right." Maura pulled herself against her warm lover. "I love you, Jane."

"I love you too, Maura."