5 Weeks Ago
Lieutenant Cavanaugh is sitting at his desk looking over reports. He runs across a report from Human Resources and looks at one line regarding personal leave. The line states simply that personnel are encouraged to use their personnel leave as a stress reliever. He thinks back to how many times he had requested that his personnel take leave. They had talked about how stressful their jobs are and how although it is not mandatory to take their vacation time, they should take a leave of absence from the job once in a while and just enjoy themselves and to prevent job burnout.
The lieutenant went to the Homicide bullpen and told everyone that they need to see him one-on- one sometime today. Jane and Korsak look at each other wondering what the heck the lieutenant was doing. Jane was just working on a cold case so she went to see Cavanaugh because to be truthful she was curious.
She knocked on the lieutenant's door and he told her to come in. Jane said, "lieutenant, you wanted to see each of us one-on-one. I thought I would go ahead and be the first to see you. What can I do for you?"
Cavanaugh looked shocked Rizzoli never volunteers to be the first to do something. He said, "I wanted to encourage you to take a vacation in the next few months. I know we have talked about it in the last few months but after reviewing the burnout rates of detectives, I am trying to be proactive and prevent that. You have been under a great deal of stress and you are by far one of the best detectives I have ever worked with. Would you consider taking a few weeks off?"
Jane thought for a moment and then said, "Yes, I think I would like to take a vacation, but if I go then Dr. Isles is going also, would you be okay with both of us being gone for two weeks at the same time?"
Cavanaugh had a concerned look on his face and replied, "I guess I would have to put up with a temporary ME at some point as Dr. Isles needs to take a stress vacation also. Her job is just as stressful as ours. I would be fine, well I mean I would survive, at least it will not be Dr. Pike filling in for her."
They both laughed and Jane continued, "I will talk with Maura tonight and see what she says and let you know tomorrow."
"Thanks Rizzoli, can you see if Vince is able to talk with me now? I really need to get these individual meetings over with as fast as possible." He said as they both stood up and headed towards the door.
Jane went back to the bullpen and told Korsak that the lieutenant would like to speak with him now. Korsak went to the lieutenant's office and Jane called Maura to fill her in on her conversation with her boss.
That night while eating dinner Maura asked Jane, "do you know what you want to get your mother for Mother's Day this year?"
Jane looked down at her plate of food and played with her fork while she thought about it. "I have not really thought about that yet. My mind is so full of vacation ideas, have you thought about it?"
Maura reached over and held Jane's hand that was playing with her food and smiled as she said, "not really, they are hard to shop for. Oh, we could take them on a vacation, like a cruise or something, they need to take time off as well. I know my mother travels quite a bit, but that is not vacation travel that is business. Very rarely does she spend time visiting the places she travels especially when she travels by herself. I know Hope has been so busy with her clinics and Cailin says that she really needs to just chill a little. So maybe the six of us can take a vacation together, what do you think?"
Jane tilts her head to the side as she seriously considers the idea. "That would make a nice gift and take care of our vacation as well. I can't remember when I last went on vacation with my mother and I have never been on vacation with you and your mothers. Let's finish dinner and do some Internet research and see what is available, okay?"
"That sounds like a great plan!" Maura exclaimed as she released Jane's hand so she can finish her dinner.
Twenty minutes later after they placed the last plate in the dishwasher and push the button to run it, they grabbed a beverage and retreated to the office. Maura opened up the Internet and typed in vacation places with your mother. A wide variety of activities appeared and after a couple of minutes of the two of them pondering the different activities, Jane said, "a cruise."
Maura looked at Jane and thought about it and said, "I have never been on a cruise but from what I have seen they have all these activities on the ship, I think that is a great idea. Where would you want to cruise to?" Jane pushed a few buttons on the computer and said with a huge smile, "Hawaii, there is a 2-week cruise, well 15 days, that would give us quite a bit of time for activities on the ship as well as visit another state for me, I still want to travel to all 50 states before I croak."
"Oh, and we have a choice of departure cities, we can choose Los Angeles, San Francisco or Vancouver, any of those would be fun. I like this idea. They have a stop in Mexico so we will need to make sure everyone has current passports. I know Mother, Angela, you, and I all have valid passports I would just need to check about Hope and Cailin. They should be valid being as there were traveling overseas but they have been in Boston for a few years and they might have let them lapse if they were not planning on traveling anytime soon. I will find a way to figure that out. Can we agree on this trip so we can make a list of things to do?" Maura said rather quickly overwhelming Jane a little.
"Sure Maur, make a to-do list and we can get it all planned out. I like this idea I think it would be fun. With six of us, we can have two in each room. Do you think Constance and my mother would be able to room together? We can get suites to give them a little more cabin space. Of course, I would be rooming with you." Jane grabbed Maura and positioned her so she is now sitting in her lap and gave her a kiss on the lips as she smirked. "Jane of course you would room with me, and I think our mothers would be fine rooming with each other. Looking at the room selections I think the mini-suites would be fine. Have you been on a cruise ship before?"
"I have not taken a cruise before Maur, but it looks like it would be fun. There are so many different activities to do onboard. Do you think Cailin would be okay cruising with us 'old folks' as she calls us?" Jane says as she laughs into Maura's neck while placing small kisses all over her neck. "Jane as much as love you kissing me, I really do, we need to work on making the to-do list.
This will take some planning to get this done."
"Alright, alright, I will give you a few minutes to work on making the to-do list but then I am taking you to the bedroom and completing a few things from my 'to-do' list." Jane laughs as she pulled Maura up so she can move out of the chair to let Maura work on the computer. "I will give you half an hour and no more, then you are all mine." Jane says with a small growl as she leaves the room. Maura just smiled and started working on making the to-do list.
Cruise To-Do List:
1. Make sure everyone has a valid passport, retrieve the passport information as it will be needed to complete the profiles for the cruise.
a. _ Mother
b. _ Angela
c. _ Hope
d. _ Cailin
e. _ Jane
f. _ Myself
2. Make sure everyone could get the time off, complete appropriate paperwork, if needed to make sure leave is approved.
a. _ Mother
b. _ Angela
c. _ Hope
d. _ Cailin
e. _ Jane
f. _ Myself
3. Choose destination departure city.
_ LosAngeles
_ SanFrancisco
_ Vancouver
4. Book the cruise.
a. _ Setup profiles on cruise site for each person
b. _ 3 Mini-Suites
Mother/Angela
Hope/Cailin
Jane/Myself
5. _ Book the flights (make sure Mother is in Boston so we can all fly together)
6. Plan the excursions for each port.
a. _ Ensenada
b. _ Hilo
c. _ Honolulu
d. _ Kauai
e. _ Maui
f. _ SanFrancisco
Right on time Maura and just finished typing the word San Francisco and hit save when Jane appeared and grabbed her hands and pulled her up out of the chair and escorted her to their bedroom. Jane was on a mission and she would not be deterred from her 'to-do' list. Maura did not object one bit, she smiled as she was led down the hall. Jane's 'to-do' list could take all night and of course would be fun for both of them.
The next morning Maura printed out the 'to-do' list she had typed up and then cooked breakfast for her and Jane. She began to work on her list after they got to work. She fired off an email to her Mother's assistant in Paris to check her Mother's availability. If needed she would have her Mother's assistant make up a meeting in Boston so that Constance would be in Boston. Sometimes what Constance did not know would not hurt her. She typed up and printed out leave forms for her and Jane and had Cavanaugh sign them. She emailed the Governor to let him know that she would be on vacation and that a ME would be needed while she was gone.
Jane was taking care of making sure Angela would have the time off. Once she had completed that task, she sent a text message to Maura letting her know that Angela had the time off. Maura could just imagine how that conversation went between Jane and Stanley. She would have loved to have been a 'fly on the wall' as they spoke. They both are very sarcastic.
Now she was trying to think of how to go about scheduling leave for Hope and Cailin. After a few minutes of thinking about it she concluded that she would have to bring Cailin into the plan. She sent a text to Cailin seeing if they could meet for lunch later in the day. Cailin replied a few minutes later saying she would love to. They had a pretty strong bond since Maura gave Cailin her kidney and Maura enjoyed having a little sister. She missed having siblings growing up so this was a new experience for her. The fact that Cailin was majoring in pre-med and wanted to be a doctor just added to their bond. Cailin was just as sarcastic as Jane so they got along well also and often teased each other. Jane did not have a little sister so Cailin served as a little sister for her also.
Maura met Cailin at a little café close to the campus and explained what her and Jane wanted to do for Mother's Day for their mothers. Cailin was surprised and of course wanted to assist and was happy to be included. She really like Jane and Angela and felt the trip would give her the opportunity to get to know Constance better. She has only met Constance once and was not impressed with her. That was during a time when Constance seemed all stuffy and a bit standoffish. Until someone got to know Constance, they always assumed she was just an uptight woman. Cailin said she would make sure that Hope had the time off of work and she would let her instructors know that she would be out of town for those two weeks and would see about working ahead. Maura agreed to assist her with anything she needed to make sure she would be able to attend.
Cailin called Maura later that night to let her know the passport information and that Hope's scheduled had been cleared. She still needed to discuss a few things with her instructors but she would make sure that was done in the next few days.
Jane had stopped by to see her Ma and asked to see the stamps in her passport. Jane said something about her and Maura having a discussion about them and saying that Angela's stamp of Paris was different then Maura's and Jane wanted to see for herself. Angela retrieved her passport for Jane and then went back to cooking. Jane snapped photos of the pages Maura had requested and then talked with her mother for a few more minutes before saying she had to get going. Angela just gave a raised eyebrow wondering what was up with her daughter and went back to cooking dinner for her and Ron as Ron would be over in less than an hour.
In one day, they had accomplished quite a bit. Maura now had the information she needed to book the cruise and that is exactly what she did after she and Jane had dinner. Tomorrow she would book the flight and start looking at the excursions. Cailin said she wanted to help with the excursions so Cailin was coming over for dinner tomorrow night. Some sister bonding time would be great and Maura would get to learn more about her sister's likes and dislikes when selecting the excursions.