Adventures Of Kate and The Sitter
Chapter Ten – Jane's Surprise for the Children
The next morning at breakfast Kate asked Kelly, "Kelly, can Erica be my girlfriend also?"
Kelly didn't know how to respond to that. Luckily Jane stepped over and picked up Kate and took her into the living room and chatted with her. "Little one, normally a person only has one girlfriend or boyfriend. They can however have multiple friends and even multiple best friends."
"But mama, I want to have a girlfriend. If Kelly has one then I want to have one also. MJ has one and mommy was your girlfriend at one time." Kate stated as Jane thought to herself, 'man, this kid is smart.'
"Maur, can you come over here?" Jane asked as she knew she needed assistance from her wife explaining this to Kate.
"Sure love, I will be right there. Kelly are you okay finishing up the breakfast preparations while I go see what they need?" Maura asked Kelly as she finished up what she was doing and started to head to the living room.
"Yes, Maura." Kelly quickly replied. She had heard the conversation in the living room and knew that Jane needed Maura to help with Kate.
When Maura arrived Jane briefly explained what was going on and then Maura took over the conversation, "Kate darling, why don't you wait a few years before you have a special friend like a girlfriend or boyfriend."
Jane and Maura had decided that they would not attempt to influence their children's sexuality in any manner. They wanted their children to be who they were meant to be and not society's version of who they were expected to be based on their gender.
"Okay, but how long to I have to wait?" Jane and Maura looked at each other and Jane opted to let Maura answer this question.
"It is different for everyone sweetie. Sometimes you find your person at an early age and sometimes it is later in life. Your mama and I were in our thirties when we found each other. She became my friend first and then my girlfriend and later my wife. I have loved her for many years and she makes me very happy. I wasn't sure I was ever going to find my special someone. I kissed my share of frogs along the way."
"Mommy, why would you kiss frogs when you could kiss mama?" Kate asked Maura and they all laughed.
"Little one it is just a figure of speech." Jane told her. "Does that help you understand?"
"I think so. So, Erica cannot be my girlfriend but she can be my best friend just like Kelly?"
"Yes, that is correct." Jane said as she picked her up and carried her into the kitchen so they could have breakfast.
"Lieutenant, do you think it's possible for me to take tomorrow off?" Jane asked after she had knocked on the door and entered the lieutenant's office. She felt as though her lieutenant wouldn't give her too much grief. He knew how hard the recent double murder case had hit her and that something was off with her. Hell, even Jane could tell that something was off with her.
"You don't have an open case right now and I guess the cold case you are working on can wait another day. Yes, you can take tomorrow off. Will Dr. Isles also be taking the day off?"
"No sir, I just screwed something up with the children and I need to take care of it. Maura and I have discussed it and we believe it is best if I deal with this matter on my own." Jane informed him.
"Do you mind if I asked what you did? You have been very good since the children were born and I know how much you love your kids." Lt. Cavanaugh asked. He was now concerned as it was not like Jane to do something wrong with her children. Besides Maura she lived and breathed for her children.
"No sir, I don't mind." Jane stated as Lt. Cavanaugh motioned for her to have a seat. They took a few minutes and Jane explained what had happened at the bowling alley and when she awoke to find Kate in their bed clinging to her, she knew she needed to do something to smooth things over with the children.
"Ah, yes, children are delicate and your children love you very much. I can see where they might be hurting still wondering if you are going to walk away again. Please take the day off and if you find you need another day, please let me know right away." Lt. Cavanaugh said as Jane got up to leave his office.
"Thanks, Sean. I truly appreciate this." With that Jane was out of his office and on her way back to her desk. She had the rest of the day to finalize a plan to present to Maura. She didn't need Maura's approval, however they had decided that Jane would use Maura as a sounding board to make sure her activity with the children would be sufficient. She needed to right her wrong and she didn't want too much time to pass.
Jane checked the website, wrote down all the details and asked about special Saturday timing. She penciled in all the arrangements and the lady said she would hold the space as long as she could but if another paying guest wanted that time, she would have to give it to them. After hanging up from the call, Jane decided that this was important and couldn't wait until she and Maura got home that night to discuss. She went down to Maura's office to see if she could spare about ten minutes for her to explain her plan. If Maura approved, she could call the lady back and lock in the date and time for the activity.
Maura was just reviewing cases and making sure that all the 'I's" were dotted and all the "T's" were crossed, so of course she could spare ten minutes for Jane. Jane pulled out her notes and went over the entire plan with Maura. Maura loved it and asked if she could go also. "Sure babe, of course you can come along."
Maura wasn't surprised at all with the amount of research that Jane had put into this outing. She wanted everything to be perfect. Jane realized that her children were adrenaline junkies just like her, especially Kate. Kate was so much like Jane, it wasn't funny.
The plan was for an all-day event, starting with breakfast and ending with dinner. Jane wanted to make sure that she properly apologized to her wife, children and Kelly. She loved that Maura wanted to go. She knew Maura wasn't much of an adrenaline junky but Jane had convinced her to do some adventurous activities in the past.
Maura called the Governor and told him that she was taking the next two days off. She called Dr. Drake into her office to let him know that he would be in charge for the next two days. With her time off arranged, she called her parents to tell them that they were taking the children out of town tomorrow and that she would come visit them the day after and spend the day with them.
Maura loved spending time with her parents. She had missed out on so much growing up and she was thankful that her parents now wanted to spend time with her. It was rate that that they had time to spend together, just the three of them. She figured she would have plenty of stories to tell them about their adventure and also plenty of pictures to show them. Maura was excited about this adventure that Jane was planning.
Jane made sure the children were all up and dressed at 7 AM the next morning. After checking over that they were all appropriately dressed they sat down and had a nice breakfast. Maura fixed them bunny pancakes.
When Kelly arrived in the kitchen, she offered to help Maura and Maura told Kelly, "You are off today, you are to just enjoy the activity that Jane has planned for the family. So, please go sit down with the children." Kelly had no idea what Jane had planned and she just sat down and ate breakfast with the rest of the family.
Jane explained to the children that she was sorry for her actions at the bowling alley and that this trip was her way of making up for the disappointment she had caused them. The children all hugged her. Jane made sure that Kelly was appropriately dressed and while Jane and Kelly got the children in their jackets Maura quickly rinsed off the dishes. They were out the door by 9 AM.
Jane had scheduled a 10:30 appointment for the family. She had filled out all the required paperwork ahead of time and emailed it back. She didn't want to spend time there completing the paperwork. The children were very much like her, in the fact that they didn't like waiting.
She felt like she was being interrogated on the drive there. All the children were asking her questions. She had already given Kelly a look that said, 'don't ask if you know what is good for you' so Kelly didn't say a word. Maura was just smiling the whole way thinking that Jane had brought this interrogation on herself by keeping everything a secret from the children.
It took just under an hour to arrive at their location. The children were looking around to see if they could figure out where they were. Kate commented, "Mama, that looks like a great big hamster wheel."
"It does, doesn't it?" Jane replied as she helped get all the children out of the car. Kelly was just taking in the sites. She saw the name of the place "SkyVenture" and wondered if this was something like the iFLY places she had seen advertised in Georgia. They walked into the building and Jane told the receptionist at the welcome desk, "Rizzoli-Isles, we have a 10:30 appointment."
"Please, come this way." The receptionist stood and motioned for them to follow. She led them to a room and told them to have a seat and someone would be right with them. The receptionist had barely cleared the door when Sam, the instructor walked in.
"Hello, my name is Sam and I will be one of your instructor's today." Sam didn't get any further than that before Kate raised her hand. Noticing that nobody was speaking Kate didn't wait to be called on she just started speaking.
"What are we going to be doing here?" Kate asked.
"Oh, this is a surprise?" Sam stated and Jane shook her head acknowledging that yes this was a surprise outing.
"Well, young lady you and your family are in for quite a morning. Have you ever wanted to fly through the sky?" Sam asked Kate.
Kate looked at Sam with her thumb and fore finger on her chin and thought for a minute and then said, "Yes, flying would be nice. I don't see any airplanes here though."
"Well, we are not going to fly in a plane. We are going to fly in that area over there." Sam pointed to a see-through room where Kate could see someone floating in the air.
"Sam, that is floating in the air, not flying." Kate said as Jane shrugged her shoulders at Sam.
"Okay." Thinking fast Sam revised her question. "Have you ever wanted to 'float' through the air?"
"It looks like it might be fun." Kate responded immediately. Kelly, MJ, AJ and Lilly all nodded agreeing with Kate.
"Okay, let's go over some basic rules and then we can go 'float' around. How does that sound?"
They all nodded their heads and Sam led them through the basic safety instructions and rules. They weren't happy when Sam told them that they would have to go in one at a time and that they wouldn't be able to 'float' around together until everyone had 'floated' around alone first. Jane had booked enough time so that everyone could 'float' separately and then they could all 'float' around as a group.
They drew numbers to see who would 'float' first. Maura was first up. She was a little nervous and really whished that she could have watched someone else go first. Sam held her hand and helped her do some basic maneuvers and before she knew it her time was up. AJ was up next and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He couldn't wait until they could all 'float' together.
Kate was getting impatient she wanted her turn. Jane could see the frustration building up in Kate. It was her turn next and she opted to let Kate go instead of her. Sam was cool with that as she could also tell that Kate was getting inpatient.
Jane walked up with Kate and when Sam took her hand to lead her into the chamber Kate got scared and turned around to Jane. Jane held her and told her she would be fine, "Look mommy and AJ did it already and they have huge smiles on their faces." Kate turned at looked at her mommy and then AJ.
Maura waved at Kate and blew her a kiss. Kate blew her a kiss back and went into the chamber with Sam. Sam was still holding her hand and Kate was laughing and having a great time. She didn't want to leave the chamber. Kelly walked up and said, "Hey, as soon as we all have our short time in the chamber then we can all go in together. Do you want the family in the chamber with you so we can all have fun?" Kate nodded her head and Kelly led her out of the chamber and MJ went in.
MJ was laughing and having fun spinning around and turning the different ways Sam instructed him to turn. He also didn't want it to be over but he knew that Lilly and Kelly still have to finish their turn before everyone could go in together.
Two more instructors had arrived at the chamber by the time that Lilly and Kelly had finished. It was now time for the whole family to go in. They enjoyed thirty minutes of 'floating' around in the chamber. Sam made sure to take each of the children up to the top of the chamber at least once. With the children she held one of their hands at all times as they rose to the top. Kelly, Jane and Maura could go up on their own as Sam watched them.
The children didn't want to end their time in the chamber. Sam told Jane that they didn't have anyone else scheduled for another hour and if they wanted another fifteen minutes, they could stay in. Jane looked over to Maura and Kelly and they both nodded that it was fine.
One of the other instructors took Maura out of the chamber as she had enough fun and wanted to sit and watch the children, all six of them. Jane and Kelly were just like children when it came to events like this. Maura wasn't questioning her choice in a sitter/nanny as the children loved Kelly and her being able to relate so well with the children was a plus in her book.
The children talked about how much fun this adventure was until they all fell asleep on the way home, even Kelly fell asleep. Kate was curled up to Kelly as best she could in her bumper/car seat. Lilly was curled up to her other side as Kelly had sat in the middle of the girls. The boys were in the far backseat, each with their head on the window with their little pillows. Maura had insisted that they have pillows so that if they hit a bump while the children were sleeping, they wouldn't get any bumps or bruises from slamming into the window.
When they got back to Boston, Jane knew that they children needed to blow off some steam so they took them to Boston Common. Kelly and the children were running around playing. Without Kelly knowing it, Kate took the phone out of Kelly's back pocket. When she was a safe distance away from Kelly, she found Erica's contact information and hit the video chat button to chat with Erica.
Erica was quite surprised to see that it was Kate calling her. Kate was walking around while chatting with Erica. She put the phone down and Erica could see all the other children walking by and playing. Kate was talking to her and then all of a sudden Kate was gone nobody was there after a couple minutes Erica ended the video chat.
Erica got concerned when nobody was talking with her so she ended the video chat and called Jane.
"Rizzoli." Jane answered the unknown number.
"Jane?" Erica questioned.
"Yes, this is Jane Rizzoli. How may I help you?" She was wondering who it was because everyone at work knew that she was on a day off with the children.
"Jane, this is Erica, Kelly's girlfriend." Erica replied with a little more confidence in her voice. She had never called Jane before and she had been a little nervous.
"Hey, what's up Erica?" Jane replied.
"It seems as if Kate had gotten a hold of Kelly's phone. She called me on a video chat and then after a few minutes she walked away from the phone. I'm not sure exactly where Kelly's phone is. Apparently, it is not with Kelly as I tried to call her back several times before calling you.
"Oh man, I'm so sorry let me have Maura call Kelly's phone and I will keep trying to find it." Jane kept Erica on the phone while they tried to find Kelly's phone asking her questions about what she had seen in the background while Kate was walking around with the phone. Erica told her everything she had seen and when Jane ran out of questions regarding the phone's location she asked Erica, "So, are you looking forward to coming here for Thanksgiving?"
"Hell yeah, oh sorry for my language. Yes, I'm really looking forward to meeting all of you in person, and of course seeing my girlfriend. How is Kate responding to the fact that Kelly has a girlfriend?" Erica asked thinking she knew that Kate was alright because she just had a nice short conversation with her.
"Well, after we told her that you couldn't be her girlfriend and explained why, she seemed to be okay. Of course, now she wants a girlfriend for herself." They both laughed at that. "We told her she is a little young for a girlfriend or boyfriend yet and that she needed to wait a few years."
"I am so happy to hear that. We were really worried about how Kate might react. We know how a four-year old can be."
"Yes, and this particular four-year old is not your typical four-year old. You will see when you meet her. I doubt you will get to even spend time with Kelly for the first fifteen minutes or so when you get here."
Erica laughed and said, "I am truly looking forward to meeting her. Kelly is so happy working with your family. Kate keeps her on her toes."
"She keeps all of us on our toes." Jane told Erica as she handed her phone to Kelly.
"Hey, Erica. I heard my phone got lifted from me. That little one is sneaky. I guess she wanted to speak to her other best friend. Did you have a nice chat with her before she put my phone down?"
"Yes, she is quite the little talker. She was telling me about your adventures today. Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun. Wish I was there to have fun with you guys."
"Me too. Thanksgiving isn't that far away and then a few weeks later you will be here for good. I can't wait."
"Me either. Are they getting any closer to finding your phone?"
"They haven't found it yet. I better get back to helping them. Jane just wanted me to be able to spend a few minutes talking to you. Maura is with the children so I can go help Jane."
"Call me from your phone when you fine it. I love and miss you."
"I love and miss you also." Kelly said as she disconnected the call and went to help Jane search the last place that Erica remembered seeing in the background as she talked with Kate. A few minutes later they found the phone and Kelly called Erica to tell her.
When they got back over to the children, Jane had an upset look on her face. Kate was crying and wrapped up in Maura. "Kate." Jane said quietly.
"I'm sorry mama. I just wanted to talk to Erica and tell her how much fun we had today." Kate said in between her sobs.
"I know little one, but you shouldn't have taken Kelly's phone. You need to apologize to her, okay?" Jane asked Kate.
"Yes, mama." Kate said as she tucked herself more into Maura. Maura just held her tighter and let her cry through it. She knew Kate would come out of her crying fit and apologize to Kelly. She was so much like Jane. Jane never wanted anyone to see her crying. She thought it would make her look weak and they figured that Kate was feeling the same way.
About five minutes later, Kate untangled herself from her mommy and went over and sat in Kelly's lap and apologized to her. Kelly hugged her and they just sat there while the rest of the children continued playing. Kate needed a nap. Kelly held her as they walked back to the car to go home. It had been an exciting day for the children and Jane had told them that she was ordering pizza for them for dinner and that they would go downstairs and watch a movie.
Jane didn't mind that Kate wanted to sit with Kelly during the movie. She knew that Kate was trying to right her wrong with Kelly. Everything would be okay but Kate would not be allowed to touch a phone for a few weeks. She could talk with people on the phone but she couldn't hold the phone.
Kelly video chatted with Erica so that Kate could apologize to her as well. Kelly and Erica had set times when they would call each other because of school and Kate needed to understand that she couldn't interfere with Erica and Kelly's relationship.
Kate couldn't wait for Thanksgiving to get here so she could talk to Erica in person. She wanted to know everything about her new friend so she started writing out her questions. Erica had no idea what she was walking into when she arrived in Boston for Thanksgiving.