Maura had left early in the morning after drinking one last coffee with Jane. The brunette took a deep sigh after waving goodbye to the doc. Then she started breakfast for her and Marcella. She silently wondered what the toddler was thinking with all these people suddenly appearing and disappearing from her life.

Apparently, she didn't like that Maura was gone because she started a drama when realizing that Mommy was not around to make wrom wrom noises while feeding and playing with her. She wouldn't stop screaming and crying for hours and it almost broke Janes heart to the point that she called Angela to ask for advice. Her mother of course felt flattered that Jane asked her and rushed to Maura's guest house to take care of the matter.

"I could have done it alone, you know? I just wanted advice." Jane muttered while following Angela into the living room. "I know. But I'm glad to help whenever I can. You have it so perfectly under control that I hardly get to teach you something." The elder Rizzoli informed her while scooping up a red-faced Marcella who was kicking with her little feet.

Jane stopped in the doorway and watched the scene with arms crossed in front of her chest. To her surprise Marcellas squealing ceased and she ended up falling asleep on her mother's shoulder with her thumb in her mouth. "See. Sometimes it's okay to ask for help." Her mother said triumphantly, and Jane rolled her eyes.

"Okay, I get it. Can I offer you some coffee?" Jane made a gesture of surrender with her hands and laughed.

Ten minutes later she handed Angela a steaming cup of coffee and sat down next to her to tell her about Marcella calling Maura Mommy and about how they were trying to figure things out. Her mother listened and her eyes got a gleam. "She loves you, but she doesn't know yet."

"Sounds more as if she has a hard time of committing in addition." Jane commented with a soft and understanding smile. She missed Maura and felt like needing a hug which her mother promptly gave her.

R&I

Once Angela was gone, Jane played with Marcella for a while. "So, you miss Mommy huh?" she said to the toddler who shook her head at Janes wrom wrom noises. "I'm not doing as good of a job as she does, I assume." She smiled. Marcella looked up at her and then stood up to wrap her tiny arms around Janes neck. "Mama" she said, and Jane smiled. She inhaled the scent deeply and her hand rubbed over the kids' small back.

"I tell you a secret. Mama misses Maura too." She stated while holding Marcella in her arm. "But Mommy will come back in a few weeks and then she will play a lot with you because she likes you. What do you say if we go see the ducks in the meantime?"

"Duuuuux!" Marcellas face lit up instantly which made Jane laugh. "Okay then. Let's get everything ready and go."

"Duuuuux!" the kid exclaimed again in excitement and Jane giggled at her antics. "Okay. Were already on our way!"

It was another peaceful afternoon at the pond and Jane enjoyed the sun while Marcella fed the ducks. They ate snacks and the girl took a few steps with Janes help with the brunette scooping her up every time she was successful. The brunette enjoyed their time immensely and cooked dinner for them upon arriving home.

She calculated when Maura's plane would touch down in San Francisco and somehow found herself waiting close to the phone for a I'm home message or a call. But she wasn't sure if it would come because the doc still seemed a bit rattled by the whole story between them and their feelings. Maybe Maura wouldn't call she thought when she hadn't gotten any news four hours after the scheduled time of arrival of the plane. She wondered if she should worry.

Jane opened some online papers to look out for a plane crash feeling ridiculous. Maura had probably gone to bed because of the exhaustion from the long travel she scolded herself. And it wasn't as if they had slept that much during her visit. Jane was beginning to feel sore too and just typed out a message to let the doc know, that she was hitting the hay and thanking her for the visit which had been just great.

It was no secret that Jane wasn't exactly a morning person. But the thought of Maura possibly sending her a message made her skip hitting the snooze button 3 times like she usually did and sit up to reach for her phone. A grin split her face when she found two messages. One from 1 am and one from 4 am.

It was my pleasure. I already miss you two.

Good morning Jane (I guess you will only get this message in the morning), the flight was good and I arrived safely in San Francisco. I wish you a good start into the day and I already miss having breakfast with you and Marcella. The weekend was indeed great, and I hope we can repeat it more often once I live in Boston.

Huh? This was almost half a novel for a text Jane thought and smiled while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes before rereading Maura's words. She liked the last sentence best she decided before starting into their daily routine with checking on Marcella, making breakfast and playing with her. Maura had a huge yard and she thought that she and the girl could go outside to play as another sunny day lay ahead of them.

The rest of the week passed quickly as did the following week. With Angela working the afternoon shift at the one division café, Marcella could stay with her until midday. Then the babysitter took over. Jane had already hired her when still being married to Gabriel. The girl was a 20-year old student from BCU who studied to become an attorney. Most of her courses were scheduled for the noon which left her enough time to babysit and earn a bit of extra money.

Jane had talked to Cavanaugh about leaving work at 5pm at the latest because of Marcella and he had agreed which meant that everything was going well and that she took over around 5:30 pm. Then she usually fed the toddler, played with her for an hour before it was time for a bath. And after the bath she usually read Marcella a goodnight story.

Once the toddler was asleep Jane read or watched TV. Sometimes when Maura wasn't too busy, they talked on the phone but sometimes days passed until they heard from each other. When they talked it was about their lives and things that had happened. They laughed a lot together and Jane was happy with her life.

R&I

For the first time in her life, Jane was excited about flying. The reason was a certain doc who wasn't expecting her visit over the weekend. Unfortunately, it was related to the case that had brought them together in the first place. Therefore, this wasn't going to be about spending lazy days in front of the TV or relaxing walks.

After a long debate with the ME and a judge from the state in which the third murdered couple that seemed to be similar to their case was found, they had done an exhumation and performed an autopsy. After being told to look for a tiny bullet in the abdomen the Coroner had called Jane in excitement to inform her that he had indeed found it in both corpses.

Maura had already found them in the victims from Boston while being there after Nairobi. And no one had really been surprised when they found the same bullets in the victims from San Francisco which permitted them to link all three cases together.

Now Jane was waiting patiently at the gate for boarding the 747 with a jumping heart in her chest. She hadn't seen Maura in two weeks and wondered if the blonde had pondered the question about her feelings for her.

The brunette knew of course from their calls and texts, that Maura had been busy cleaning up the mess from her absence. So, probably she hadn't gotten to really think about the question. Jane assumed though that she would like the surprise.

It had taken quite some effort to explain to everybody including the SFPD though why Maura couldn't know. But after saying that she wanted to surprise her because she wanted to prank her, everything had been fine.

Jane rubbed her sweaty palms against her Jeans in nervousness while glancing at the Plane. It was raining. When buying herself a coffee she had overheard two pilots talking about a possible shut down of the airport due to heavy winds. The exact winds were throwing huge drops of rain against the plane.