„Good morning." Jane greeted and glanced up from her coffee cup. She was standing at her favorite spot in the kitchen, leaning against the counter. There was a second cup sitting next to her, ready to be filled for Maura who took the hot beverage gratefully.
"Did you sleep well?" Jane was worried but Maura gave her a smile and said that she had slept excellent.
"Don't you sit down for breakfast?" the blonde asked curiously and the brunette chuckled.
"Never. I sleep until the last minute and then stop by a bakery to get me some breakfast which I eat at the desk. If I ever get so far." Jane could only imagine what Maura was thinking and grinned when her friend managed to bite back her comment about unhealthy food and eating habits.
"Gabriel was usually long gone when I woke up. I took Marcella to my mum after spending as much time as I could with her. Therefore, I had to work most evenings." She didn't know why she spoke in the past tense. Probably because everything had changed with her decision to break up with Gabriel.
A soft smile split her face when she thought of her daughter. Not that she had not wanted to see her the previous night upon coming home. But Angela had assured her that she was already sound asleep. And now that she knew that she would see her this day it mattered less than when she had been so far away in Nairobi over the last weeks.
"Its raining." Maura pointed out with a grin and kind of deflected to a less personal subject. "Haven't you missed that right after the first week?" Or maybe she was trying to show Jane that she had listened to her and not forgotten a single word about what she had said. To show, that she cared and that Jane was important to her like with bringing her a burger the day before.
Jane chuckled. "Yes. Its nice. I like to listen to the rain against the roof on when I get to spend a lazy Sunday in bed or at night." She stated, taking another sip of her cup. She knew how Maura was picky when it came to coffee and gauged the blonde's reaction when she led the cup to her lips.
They took care about each other. And Jane hoped that Maura would like her coffee. Things people hope when they want somebody to like them. As if these little things mattered. She sighed in relieve when Maura gave a humming sound after tasting it.
"Hey, I was thinking that we could carshare when going to the office today." Jane stated casually and received an approving smile. "But don't you want to take a day off?" Maura asked curiously and Jane tilted her head in no. "This case is really bothering me. But I will leave work early this afternoon to see the lawyer and then I want to see Marcella. Have you met her yet?"
"Yes. But only once. Yesterday evening when I picked up the chicken soup. She's really sweet."
"She is, right?" Jane smiled. "So, either you join me, if you can get off from work, or I pick you up later then." Jane offered.
"I would love that. But I have to go home tonight because the handyman will be there early tomorrow morning to work on the plumbing." It occurred to Jane that she hadn't asked where Maura was staying in Boston. And if she hadn't misheard, the blonde possessed a house in this town.
"I don't mean to be curious… well I guess I do… you have a house in Boston?" she asked bluntly while hiding partly behind her cup.
"Oh please, there's nothing wrong if you are curious. I guess it expresses your interest in me. And yes. My family is from Boston. I have even lived here for the first years of my life. I found this nice house a few years ago and placed an offer. I always wanted to move back to Boston." Maura smiled. "Maybe you want to come to dinner one evening and I show you around?"
Jane wanted and so the doc promised to surprise her with some self-cooked dinner the day after tomorrow. "I hope they are finished with fixing the problem by then." Maura said and slightly rolled her eyes.
"If not, you can use my kitchen." Jane offered with a smile, wondering if the doc was a good cook. She had a great taste when it came to food. So, Maura must also be a great cook Jane mused and finished her coffee.
R&I
Angela rushed into the bullet pen even before Jane had been able to sit down. Frost and Korsak giggled when the mother hugged her daughter firmly. "Welcome home, Janie. I.. We all missed you so much."
"Ma, I cant breathe. Help!" she glanced to Maura who laughed softly. "Help!" Jane repeated but everybody just watched the scene. Once releasing Jane, Angela greeted Maura. When turning her back to the blonde she gave a thumb up sign and a wide grin which made Jane roll her eyes. "I like her." Angela whispered to her ear when hugging the brunette again.
"Ma, I have to work!" Jane exclaimed. It was their usual way of interacting. Jane loved her mother and Angela loved her and everybody who knew them didn't think anything of all the protesting. Only Maura stood still shooting Jane one of her glances which meant to say: Jane! How can you do that? This is rude.
"So, I'm going to pick Marcella up after the appointment with the lawyer if its okay for you." Jane told her mother whose eyes were gleaming in joy that she was back in Boston. "Okay. Maybe you can bring Maura so that we can learn more about each other? Oh, you know what. You two stay for dinner. I'll make some Saltin bocca. It's my grandmother's recipe. Its delicious!" she said more to Maura than to her daughter. Then she disappeared with a wink before anybody in the room could say any more word.
R&I
It was still raining when Jane drove to the attorney to get some legal advice. Before leaving she had managed to catch her mother alone to give her a talk about how Maura and she weren't together, because Angela acted as if they already were. Then she tried to convince her not to ask Maura too many questions if it wasn't too late already for that.
"Maura is good girl, Janie. She's funny, she's brilliant, she's beautiful… but most of all she makes you happy. Unlike that .. uhm.. I wont swear but you know who I mean."
"I suppose you're talking about Gabriel. I thought that you liked him?"
"I never liked him to be honest. His best quality was that he was away a lot. I seriously hope for you that he wasn't drunk often during your marriage. At first, I thought that it was the shock. But god, I swear, some men are too soft. He was crying like a baby on my couch complaining about you. Rambling about how unfair you had treated him until I found out that he was the one who had cheated on you. It just slipped out of his mouth one night when he was here to see Marcella. He seriously believed I would let him see her in this drunken state." Angela scrunched up her nose and Jane gave her a hug.
"I'm sorry ma. I should have told you, but I didn't know how without telling you that I was gay."
"I'm just sorry, that I judged you Jane. I can see why you were scared. But believe me, I don't care if you are gay or not. It just doesn't matter as long as you're happy."
"Ah come on. It still took you a few days." Jane teased her grabbing a doughnut from the counter.
"Of course. Didn't it bother you when you found out?" Angela replied and Jane swallowed. "Actually, it took me years to accept it." She admitted.
"See, I was much faster." Angela said in a triumphantly voice. "But that's not the point. The point is that you…"
"are finally dating a doctor." Jane couldn't help but laugh at Angela's indignant face. "No, I wanted to say that you are happy. Stop putting words into my mouth." Jane chuckled at her antics and left after placing a kiss on her mothers' cheek. "I love you." She whispered before walking out of the building to her car.
R&I
Jane waited patiently for Maura to come out of the precinct. The blonde had spent the day at the lab, reading reports and doing some tests. They kissed each other on the cheeks before Jane drove off to her mother's house.
"You know that you don't have to do that right?" Jane said while changing lanes and meant the dinner invitation. Maura hardly knew her family and the brunette was worried that her friend would feel uncomfortable because of her social anxiety.
"No, its fine. I like your mother. But I think that you are a bit harsh to her sometimes to be honest." Maura replied seriously.
Jane chuckled. "We love each other. And we have always talked and behaved like this. I feign to be annoyed; she feigns to ignore it. It works for us. So, why should we change it?" the brunette wondered if she had said something wrong when Maura turned her head to glance out of the window. The doc looked worried.
"Did I say something wrong?" Jane asked, hoping that the answer would be no.
"No, it's just that I don't know about families. I was adopted as a little child, but my parents never had much time for me. I was alone for most of my childhood. I don't know about a normal mother-daughter relationship."
Jane felt for her and her hand reached out for Maura's thigh. She couldn't even imagine growing up like that. Despite thinking that a little bit more freedom would have been nice when she was young. "Well, don't take our mother-daughter relationship for normal." Jane joked and rolled her eyes hoping that she could cheer Maura up. "We are Rizzolis. We are nutballs. Wait until you meet the rest of the clan."
"You mean I will meet them all?" Maura looked weirdly happy. "Yes, because ma will invite us for the traditional Sunday family dinner. And then you will meet my brothers Frankie and Tommy. I think they will like you, but I doubt that you will want anything have to do with us nutballs afterwards." She smirked.
Maura slapped her playfully. "Stop saying these horrible things about your family Jane. Family dinners have always been a dream of mine." She said the second sentence in a sad tone and Janes hand which had been comfortably resting on her thigh squeezed her before rubbing up and down her upper leg.
"Well, be my guest." Jane tried another joke. Silence lingered over them for the rest of the drive as each clung to her thoughts. The brunette thought about her talk to the attorney. It had been a shock to learn that Gabriel had already thrown the house onto the market and even worse he had already found a buyer.
"I don't mind losing the house. I wanted it to be sold anyways. But not so fast. I need time to find a place to stay." Jane mumbled to herself when turning into her mother's driveway. And Maura gasped. "What?" there was hardly time to explain but Jane told her that she had to move until the end of the month which meant moving back in with her mother until she found an apartment within two weeks.
Maura looked incredulous. "Just be glad that you divorce him. I am glad that you do for sure." She stuttered as they walked into the house.
"Hey ma, we're here!" the brunette yelled, and her heart jumped when she heard Marcellas squealing. Angela came down the stairs with the toddler who immediately reached out her little arms towards Jane.
"Hey baby!" she mumbled after taking her out of Angela's hands. "I missed you. God, I missed you so much." She whispered and felt a hand gently touching her shoulder. It was Maura's.
"Ma-ma." The toddler said and Jane felt tears tickling her eyes. "Did you hear that?" she asked her mother who smiled happily. "She kept saying it for days. She missed you too." Angela was also close to crying and placed a gentle kiss on the babies and then on Janes cheek. One could see that she was proud of her family.
"Please tell me that she hasn't started walking yet." Jane said while rocking Marcella in her arms.
"No, but it looks as if she's going to start any minute." The brunette recalled Frankie saying the same thing to her about a week ago. "Any minute huh? Maybe she waited for me?"
After cuddling her for a long time, Jane placed her into her chair to feed the little girl. "Yummy carrots." She said and made the sound of a car while leading the spoon to the tiny mouth. It occurred to her how silent Maura was and she glanced at the blonde who was sitting across from her on the other side of the table which seemed as if she tried to distance herself. Jane wondered if it was her social anxiety or the sadness about not being able to have children which was bothering the doc.
"Do you want to continue feeding her so that I can help ma in the kitchen?" Jane silently asked hoping that it would cheer the blonde up. Helping her mother in the kitchen was not her favorite thing to do, but she wanted to give Maura a bit alone time with the toddler who didn't seem to care when the spoon was handed over to a nervous doc.
"I'm not sure if I can…" the blonde whispered in awe.
"But I'm sure. Have fun you two." Jane gave her a reassuring smile while giving up her chair for Maura. "She'll show you. But I have to warn you. Don't let her charm you into anything." The brunette winked at her and chuckled.
"Ah, now you suddenly want to help." Angela teased Jane, ordering her to man a far bigger spoon than the one she had held earlier to stir a sauce. Both Rizzoli women glanced over the kitchen island at Maura who was doing a great job with feeding Marcella.
"I can really see why you like her so much." Angela said in a low voice.
"We are not a couple." Jane replied automatically.
"Yes. But you look a lot like a couple for being none." Angela joked and Jane knew that her mother was right. "Can I really do this?" she silently asked her mother.
"Of course, you can. You don't need to rush of course. But if you you want this, you can do this."
Jane nodded and kept watching the sweet interactions between the doc and Marcella who seemed to adore the blonde. And Maura seemingly tried to figure out why this little girl suddenly threw her arms around her neck to give her a hug.
Recalling how Maura had told her earlier that she never experienced a normal family life, Jane felt more than happy about how welcome the doc was in her family. Even if it seemed a bit overwhelming from time to time for the blonde.
"When will dinner be ready?" she asked her mother.
R&I
"Come on." Jane said once they were outside of the house. Marcella was kicking her feet in the air as if she wanted to walk like an adult but the brunette kept her firmly in her arms.
"Where are we going?" Maura asked curiously, accepting Janes hand in hers. "I want to show you something." The dark voice said vaguely, and Maura smiled. After a ten minutes' walk they reached a pond. Ducks were immediately swimming towards them, and Jane pulled a bag of breadcrumbs out of her pocket and gave it to Marcella whom she sat down onto the warm grass.
Maura and she sat down next to Marcella. "Duuuuu-x" Marcella tried to repeat Janes words. The brunette pointed out to the animals who were close now and said: "Ducks" again. She shot Maura a happy look. She was glad that the blonde was there with them. And Maura seemed to be happy too.
"You are good with kids. She likes you." Jane whispered to the doc's ear while the toddler was busy feeding the ducks. Both were sitting close to each other. It was one of those warm summer evenings and the sun began to set touching everything with its golden light that slowly turned red.
"I don't know why. I did nothing special." Maura looked puzzled.
"I once read that kids recognize a pure soul. Guess you must have one." Jane winked gently rubbing Maura's back. Maura hummed silently. But then her face suddenly faltered. "What is it?" Jane asked.
"I'm scared." Maura whispered.
"Why?"
"I'm afraid of losing this. Its so nice. But what if I lose you." Her hazel eyes gave the most afraid expression had ever seen in her life.
"Shhh, you are not going to lose us. My mother practically already adopted you." Her soft chuckle filled the evening air. Jane stopped rubbing her back and wrapped her arm around Maura's shoulder instead.
