Hi everyone! I'm sorry for taken me so long to update, I hope the chapter worth the wait. This chapter has being difficult to write due to the subject but I hope I did get it right and I hope you like it.
Please let me know you're thought on this chapter and the story!Every suggestion, comment or review is very much welcome!
If there any grammar mistake, please let me know!
Thanks for reading and comment! this means the world to me!
I didn't thought that this story could really like and I'm so, so happy. I'm really thankful for every one of you!
B. M. Adams
Xoxo...
Disclaimer: I do not own any from R&I, just the plot and Original Characters
Jane noticed Claire coming out of the house, she was smiling but been as keen as the detective is, she knew it was a fake façade. Jane was feeling uneasy, her palms were sweaty, her legs were bouncing with nervousness and she knew that her parents were somewhere in the house, she never met them or knew how they looked like, but they did know her and maybe they could recognize her. She also saw a couple following her out of the house, both looked distressed and angry. She swallowed thickly and kept on listen to Richard and Maura's dissertation about the girls. After not much time Richard left the table when Claire asked him to help her bring some drinks for their guests.
"Honey, are you alright? You look uneasy" Maura said, noticing the restlessness in her movements and in how distracted she was during their conversation with Richard in which she barely participated.
"Mmm…I'm just…Mmm…distracted, that's all" she said, trying to waved away Maura's worry upon her unusual behavior.
Maura placed her hand reassuringly on the brunette's hand "Baby, if you want we can go, I don't want you to feel trapped on this situation" being very aware of how painful this topic was for the detective.
"Oh! No way, Maur. Look how much fun the girls are having together. I don't want to ruin the evening and you're having a good time too" She hastened to say, looking at the girls roaming around the yard, playing some game.
Maura smiled at the selflessness in Jane's heart, Maura knew very well that she was getting anxious to get out, being in that house brought so many memories, painful memories to her. "You won't be ruining anything; I don't want you to feel bad and obliged to be here"
"I'm not obliged here, I'm here because I love you two and even though I don't want to admit it, I want to get to know them" she confessed to Maura, this hurt her but It was more hurtful to know that they were at her reach and she did nothing to at least, meet them as a friends, she came to terms and more than to be honest with anyone else, she was being honest to herself on this.
Maura's eyes shimmer at Jane's words "I'm so proud of you, Jane" she said, tightening the grab on her hands. They stood shut for a while, just looking lovingly into each other's eyes, both with a big grin on their faces. Jane felt a hand on her back, she turned and it was Claire, who sat beside her.
"Hey! How are you doing so far?" Claire asked, with a bright smile on her face, Maura not help but think how much that smile was like Jane's.
"Well, so great so far" Jane said, hiding the surprise on her face, Jane was starting to tensing up, feeling Claire's arm still on her upper back.
"I can see the girls are having so much fun together" Claire commented, turning her head to see the girl happily chatting and running.
Maura smiled broadly "yes, they are!" Maura said, looking at the girls once again. She noticed how tense Jane was with Claire's closeness.
"Umm… I'll go to the bathroom for a minute" Jane said, stinging up from the chair. "Sure, It's the first door at the right, passing by the kitchen" Claire indicated her. "Thank you" Jane said, walking towards the house.
Jane entered to the bathroom, she opened the faucet and splattered her face with cold water; she looked at her reflection in the mirror, she as tense and anxious. Dried her face and leant against the wall, rubbing her forehead with her fingers, frustrated to feel so overwhelmed with the situation. She gather some strength and went out of the bathroom and walked to the yard, finding Maura with Kathy on her lap and Claire with Melissa on her lap as well.
She approached to the table and saw the content look on the girls face and both the blonde and the young brunette talking happily. She breathed deeply and continued to walk towards the table. She sat beside Maura and Kathy immediately jumped on her lap, something she gratefully welcomed, some of the warmth and comfort she needed; Maura took her hand under the table as reassurance and support to her girlfriend. They talked for a while and with the light and happy conversation she was more at ease, she didn't speak much but she was looking intently at the woman who looks so much like her. Her expression and features were so similar, the way she moved and spoke was pretty similar as well. She could not believe she was in front of that little premature baby, she could certainly not believe she was able to be part of the creation of that beautiful human being and more unbelievable was the fact she was sitting in front of her daughter and she was holding her granddaughter in her arms.
"You know what? I think it's time for the cake!" Claire said excitedly, making both little girls giggled jumping in excitement.
Claire started to walk into the house, grabbing Richard with her, second after the went out of the house with a big, chocolate cake with five candles burning on top and both of then singing Happy Birthday loudly; in matter of second everyone was around the table and singing the song at the top of their lungs as well. The song ended and the girl happily blew the candles out; both parent hugged her and kissed her cheeks, a few photos were taken with some family members.
"Honey, where are your parents, we need a photo with them" Richard said to Claire who was coming, holding hands with her father, followed closely by her mother. "Here we are!" she said, walking towards them. They were posing for the picture, and the older woman could not help looking at Jane with a hint of nervousness. Jane was distracted with Kathy, who was saying something, making the brunette laugh, but Maura noticed it and knew that woman and the men beside her were Claire's parents.
They took the picture "Hey, Maura, Jane! Come here, we need a picture with you" Claire said, waving them to come to the table and take the picture. Maura grabbed Jane's hand and leaded the three of them where the Ainsworth were. Richard was beside Claire and she was carrying Melissa, Jane was also carrying Kathy and Maura next to her, being side by side nobody could deny that both Jane and Claire looked very much alike and everybody noticed it, this made the young blue-eyed brunette parents resent her decision of never said a thing about the older brunette. They knew both deserve an explanation. But they were really gathering enough strength to talk to their daughter; sooner or later they'll have to, wanted or not.
Everyone ate cake and with this the party ended at 8 or so, most of the guest were gone by now, excepted for Claire parents and the M.E. and the detective, who were ones again, talking about everything and nothing with the hosts.
Both girls came to their parents and sat with them, not much after Melissa was clinging to her father's neck asleep and Kathy wasn't far from the same state. "I think I'll go to put this little monkey to bed" he said, standing up carrying the little girls on her arms.
"We should be going to, this munchkin here it's just about to follow Meli's steps" Jane said, holding Kathy in her arms, the girl snuggling in the crook of her neck. "Yes, it's getting late and you must be exhausted, it's been such a wonderful day, Thank you for inviting us" Maura said politely, showing a warm smile at the young brunette.
"Oh! Please" she said, waving away Maura's words "Has been such a pleasure to have you, really!. By the tiredness on the girls' it's clear that this has been a great day. Meli was so happy you could come, she was so eager to have her best friend over" The young brunette stated with a big grin showing on her face.
Maura and Jane smiled at her words "Kathy was so excited too, she has been asking if it was Sunday since she knew about the party. Well, thanks for inviting us, have a good night" Maura said. Claire gave her a goodbye hug, and then she hugged Jane, once again Maura noticed that the hug lasted a little more than a regular hug and she could see how deep on it Claire was.
The brunette placed the little girl on her arms on her booster seat, being careful to not awake her and went to the driver's sit and looked at Maura sitting on the sit beside hers. "Do you think she knows?" she said with eyes full of concern.
The blonde sighed deeply "I don't know, baby" she said looking apologetic to her girlfriend.
"Did you noticed the… the hug, right? Or am I acting crazy?" she asked, not knowing if her mind was playing tricks on her.
"Yes, I noticed she was…very affective towards you" she answered, not really sure of what had happened, not more than a few seconds ago.
Jane shook her head "But if she knew something, why hasn't she said anything yet... I mean, why she is being so… affective and she hasn't say a thing about it?" Jane asked, getting really confused.
Maura shrugged "I have no idea, baby. Maybe she is scared; she might think that you won't anything to do with her" she said, rubbing her partner's knee "Honey, sooner or later you two need to talk, the moment it's up to you, when you feel the moment it's the indicated. Meanwhile let it flow at its own course, ok" she said reassuringly, trying to soothe Jane's worry
The detective looked at the M.E. with grateful eyes and gave her a chaste kiss on her perfect, soft lips. She turned the engine on and hit the road towards her home.
She closed the door after they left and head directly to the backyard were her parents were, they were about to leave, trying to escape from the inevitable explanation that their daughter deserved.
"You're no leaving, not until you have fully explained to me who that woman is" she said sternly to both elders.
The woman seemed eager to leave "Honey, can we discuss this later, we are tired, it been a long day. Please give my sweet pea a kiss" she said trying to pass by her daughter. Her husband stood there beside her daughter "Honey, I think it's time to explain ourselves, we have waited too long already" the blonde-haired man said. The sparkle on his daughter's eyes said to him wordlessly that he had done the right thing.
Morgan Barclay sighed deeply and turned back reluctantly. The older couple sat on the kitchen stools and the young brunette stood on the other side of the kitchen island, waiting for the explanation "So, who is she? Is she my biological mother?" she asked to her parents.
The man sighed sadly and spoke first, seeing that his wife would not start "Yes, she is" she simply said, looking down at the counter.
Claire looked up to the ceiling, and feel thick tears forming on the corner of her eyes, she felt disappointment and betrayal. She always asked about this topic, about her, but the answer was always the same 'she was just an irresponsible, dumb teenager who was running from her problems'. "Why did you never told me who she was"? she asked, some anger could be heard on her voice.
"You wouldn't have understand, we wouldn't you to get hurt" the woman said with annoyance on her voice.
"Get hurt, by what!?" she said visibly angry. "By the fact that she gave up on you, she chose herself above her you, she was just a stupid teenager that didn't realize what she was doing and then she just ran away from her problems not bothering to look behind" the older woman shouted angrily "Ok, calm down, honey" the man beside her told her, grabbing her arm and pulling down to make her take the sit.
Claire laughed mockingly at the statements "Mom, I'm not a child anymore, you can't convince with hurtful words, because what you just said made me feel like the must unwanted and unlovable human being on earth…" she was interrupted by her father at this point "Claire, that's not what you mother meant" the man hastened to say.
"And then what she meant, huh? Were you afraid of telling me? Did you think that if you told me I would run to her arms and love her more because she gave birth to me? Because if it isn't that I don't get why you never told me this" she sighed. Her mother was about to say something but Claire was faster "I spent my whole life wondering why I didn't look like any of you or anyone of the family and you always disqualified my questions saying that I was being ridiculous and I looked just like you when you were my age" she said pointing a finger at her mother "let me tell you, mother. I do not look any like you. I always knew you were keeping secrets from me" she walked around the counter with both hands on her hair "So I deserve, No! I demand an explanation!" she said, rage burning in her blue eyes.
Both parent stood speechless, not knowing what to say, they were indeed afraid that if they told her she wouldn't have saw them as her parents, they promised that she would never knew who her mother was. But they didn't foresee this situation
"So, you won't say a thing? Fine, that's what you have always done" she said drily, her hands balled up in tight fists, her knuckles almost white from the pressure "You have no idea of how difficult is to grow up knowing that the most important persons on my life had lied to me since I can remember" she laughed softly "You know, when I was around 12 years-old I heard the story of this girl that found her biological family and they loved her from the first time. I used to cry, asking to myself why my biological family gave me up, why they didn't love me…" she stopped at the sound of her mother's voice
"Why did you think that?" her mother said above a whisper, her eyes filling with tears.
"That was what you made my believe with your silence" she said harshly "And the worst part of all was when you used to say that I was being ridiculous for being insecure about my past and for trying to understand who I was" she said, a single, angry tear rolled down her cheek
"The truth is that… that we were afraid that you wouldn't love us anymore" the woman said with a defatted voice
Claire closed strongly her eyelids "But why did you think that? Did I ever make you believe that I could be such an ungrateful bitch? When did I act in that way to made you believe that I was capable of that?" she said, not understanding any of this.
Her mother looked down and remained silence. Cameron raised his head "because we never could feel like you were ours" he confessed embarrassed.
The brunette's eyebrows furrowed questioning "What that supposed to mean?" crossing her arms on her front.
"We love you endlessly, we couldn't have loved you more than we do, but we never thought that you were attached to us" the man said. "We desperately wanted you to be ours, but deep down we knew we couldn't replace your biological family in your heart and we were afraid of never be enough for you, and let me tell you, they loved you" the woman continued, evident sadness on her voice.
Sighing deeply Claire remained silent for a minute, thinking and choosing her words carefully "This could've been much easier ten years ago. I won't say that I'm not furious at you for keeping all this secrets and god knows what else you kept, but I won't resent you, because I know you don't often say the truth and I believe that what you just said it's true and I'm sorry if you felt like that all this years, if I had known, I might could've shown you how much I love you" she said heartfeltly.
Both parents looked at her with shimmering eyes, they couldn't believe how much compassion was in their daughter's heart, they looked gratefully at her and her father placed her hand on top of hers. Both elders went home and Claire stood in the kitchen, burying her face on her hands, keeping her emotions at bay. Richard entered in the kitchen and hugged tightly "I'm so, so proud of you, my love" he said, placing a light kiss atop his wife head.
"How much of that did you hear?" she mumbled in her chest.
"I heard enough to know that I marry the most amazing woman on earth" he said, keeping her in his warm embrace. "So… are you gonna tell her something or…" he asked her, not knowing himself what to do with that information.
"Not a single idea" she said, continuing after a deep breath "I just want to go to bed and forget for a while, tomorrow will see" she said, almost giving in to exhaustion. "Ok, baby, let go to bed" he said, leading her to their room.
