Instead of getting some yummy pizza, as Jane would call it, we found Cavanaugh and Angela standing at the door. It occurred to me that I had never gotten to ask Jane about what Cavanaugh had said earlier that day. It wasn't strange per se to find them together because they had been an item not so long ago.

"Can we come inside?" Cavanaugh asked and I saw Jane opening the door for them to walk inside her apartment with rolling eyes. Bass who had been munching on some salad next to the coffee table retrieved his head into his shell.

In order to feel less nervous or useless I got off the couch to fetch two more glasses and more wine. Jane dragged one of the kitchen chairs to the living room area. We all sat down, the air was tense, and I barely dared to look at Angela who made me still feel angry.

Cavanaugh, who sat in the chair glanced at all of us clearing his throat. "So, I gathered you because you caused quite some trouble at the precinct today." He began with a stern look. "Well, we didn't. We were just minding our own business." Jane retorted already in rage. Cavanaugh raised his hand in a sign to stop.

"I think we all agree that this private problem has no place at work. And I hope that we can clear something now for the sake of all of us." He paused and took another look into the round. I was sitting close to Jane and we were holding hands.

I couldn't help but shoot Angela an angry look, because if it wasn't for her, life would be so much easier and we wouldn't have to sit here like a bunch of kids in front of the principle to get scolded for doing literally nothing but minding our own business just as Jane had said.

Angela wore a pout and looked just stubborn. "We didn't ask Frankie and Tommy to come over yesterday." I said, feeling the need to clear this up to put this out of the world for Angela. The pout changed into a mocking face. "Of course, you didn't." she said accusingly.

"Ma! Look at Maur. You know she can't lie. Do you see any hives?" Jane exclaimed in desperation.

"I thought I knew you both. But I came to realize lately that I don't." the bitterness was seeping through the words and made Jane groan. I could feel how they stung her heart.

"Ma, why is it so hard for you to accept that I'm gay? Why? You always wanted me to find a significant other. I found one. Shouldn't you be happy? Didn't it occur to you that Frankie and Tommy stayed away from dinner yesterday because they are not okay with how you treat my sexuality?" Jane said in frustration while rubbing her head.

"I should have listened to your father. He always said that you were that way. We could have changed things. Maybe father Crowley could have talked some sense into you before it was to late." Angela stubbornly said.

"All right, so now you walk around and tell everybody what a burden I am to you? Does that make it better for you ma? Does it make you happy to make us the target of bullying at our working place?" Jane stood and yelled at her. "Probably yes. Because now you get the attention and people feel sorry for you because you have such a hard life and you are so poor!"

Cavanaugh jumped slightly when he heard Janes tense voice. He regained his composure quickly though and also stood to stand between her and Angela to seemingly defend her. I wondered why, but found it highly ridiculous and unfair.

"She owes us an apology." I told him and padded over to stand next to Jane. I couldn't see Angela, but it didn't keep me from talking to her. "I want you out of my guesthouse. If you can't accept that we are together, I want you out!" now I was raising my voice too. "And if you don't stop talking bad about us, I'm going to sue you for it!" I yelled the last sentence in an unknown rage. Things love make us do I thought bitterly. But I had learned to stand up from Jane.

"Hey, guys. Stop it! Maybe there is another solution to work this out!" Cavanaugh interfered with a red face.

"What other solution?" Jane asked with a mischievous smile. "That we break up just because my mother can't handle that I'm gay? With all due respect boss, if you ask me to do that, I will quit my job." With that she padded to the little safe were she kept her badge and her gun to throw them in front of his feet.

"You know what today felt like?" she spat. "People staring at you and talking behind your back about what a bad daughter and person you are? Or Crowe making constant jokes about you being not good enough to handle a man?" My heart sank with every word she spoke for I hadn't known any of this. "Its humiliating! Its degrading!"

Cavanaugh jumped with every word she said while bitter tears kept flowing over Janes face. "And the biggest joke of it was that I kept hearing how I ashamed my mother! Isn't it a bit ironic under the light that she ashamed me?! And that I forgave her all because I told myself that she did it because she loved me?"

"And then she comes here with you and hides behind your back not even having the balls to say a word so that you have to speak for her?!" I watched her face go cold at the realization of her own words. "I want you to leave my apartment. Now!" she said with a threatening undertone. "Now!" she yelled.

"If you want that our private life stays out of the precinct, then talk to my mother!" she added firmly. "Because we are clearly not the ones who are causing the problems."

"No need to make this escalate Rizzoli." Cavanaugh tried but got an angry glare. We watched him turn to Angela and address her for the first time. "You know that they are right. You can't misuse your position at the café to talk bad about them and turn people againstthem. What they do is their own business. And I think that your kids are grownup enough that they can take their own decisions which you have to accept whether you like them or not as I told you earlier."

Cavanaugh silently picked up the badge and the weapon and handed them back to Jane. "I suggest you take a few days off detective to let things cool down. I'm going to talk to some of the detectives about their attitude towards you and the subject of bullying."

Then he turned his face back to Angela. "If you don't stop talking bad about them, I will have Stanly fire you. Maybe you too should get some time off and think about your attitude towards homosexuality."

With that he nodded a greeting and left, Angela following close behind. We could hear her ranting until Jane slammed the door shut behind them. I shrieked when my phone started to ring a few seconds later.

Seeing that it was my mother I reluctantly picked up, giving Jane some time to cool off. I watched how she locked her gun and badge back into the safe while I listened to my mother how wonderful her travel with my father had been and that it had kept them from calling back.

After some polite exchanges I asked her about our house at Cape Cod. She confirmed to my relieve that they wouldn't use it for the next three months and she sounded delighted that I showed some interest. "Of course, you can spend some time there, darling. Take Jane. Its lobster seasons. You will have a lot of fun." She cheered at me. I accepted her offer and decided to take a leap forward. I thought I might as well tell her the truth about the new light of our relationship as we were already on to it.

It wasn't that much of a surprise that she embraced the turn of events in my life, but what did surprise me was how my mother told me, that this was old news and she had thought that we had been a couple for years. "You know, I like Jane. She's good for you." The last sentence almost made me cry.

"Cape Cod?" she asked after I had hung up. She was slumped into the couch, shoulders hanging and a sad look on her face. "Maybe it would do us some good." I murmured, sitting down next to her. "And apparently we have a week off now."

There was a pause where Jane thought about it. "Yeah, why not." She finally said while taking my hand. "Can we drive now? I definitely need a change of scenery." Jane added.

R&I

"Why didn't you tell me about the bullying?" I silently asked while we were sitting on the beach watching the sunrise. We had packed our stuff and driven straight through to the Cape to arrive early in the morning. Feeling unable to speak or sleep we had taken a long walk along the beach before sitting down close to my parents house.

I saw how tired she was and how much she hurt and pulled her into a hug. "Because i was worried that you would leave me. And then It felt so good to snuggle up on the couch that I didn't want to spoil the good time with bad thoughts." She tiredly replied. "You know, I was really willing to ignore Ma's drama and give her time. But its hard if she keeps shoving it into our faces."

"What did Cavanaugh say when you were in his office?" I silently asked and let her pull out of the hug seeing some lonely tears running down her cheek.

"He told me to get ma under control because this was getting out of hand. – obviously. But I told you already what happened when I went to see her."

In the following silence I thought about how Cavanaugh had suddenly spoken up towards the end of the reunion. I could only muse that he hadn't spoken bad to Angela first because he liked her, and he wanted her to give the chance to make it right. All the while we had had the impression that he was on her side but given the fact that he had mentioned an earlier talk with her we had drawn the false conclusions.

How could one single person cause so much pain and chaos I wondered watching the sun rise. And why? I didn't doubt that she loved Jane but the only logic conclusion I could come to was that she couldn't love Jane for who she was and if I was right it was one of the saddest things I had come across in my life.

I wondered if I should have a bad consciousness because somehow, I felt responsible for the situation too. But Jane waved it off as I mouthed my thoughts. "I would have come out any ways and it would have been the same. If anything, you make it a whole lot better." She said reassuringly with a grateful smile.

Feeling ready for bed, we got to our feet, trying to rid our clothes from the sand and walked hand in hand towards the house.

Jane startled me before hitting the bed by asking: "Maur?"

"Yes?"

"I don't want this day to end in bitterness." I glanced at her curiously. We were standing in the bedroom, undressing ourselves.

I soon felt a warm body against mine, her strong arms wrapped around me while a gentle voice whispered a I love you into my ears.

I love you too. I whispered back, hugging her back. Bass who had survived his second car ride in a short time made some noise in the kitchen area and for some reason we both giggled when hearing the sound. This reminded me of the first night Jane had spent in my house. "I'll go check on him." Jane said and soon I heard her talk with him still wondering about their connection.

"He promised to be a good tortoise and go to sleep." She said when she came back into the bedroom a few minutes later.

"Good. He seems to listen to you." I chuckled. "I would hope so. I bribed him with some fresh strawberries." She giggled.

"Jane?" I spoke up after a while.

"Hmm?"

"I love you."

She slowly rolled to her side to face me. "I love you too, Maur." She whispered while taking my hands into hers.