Apologies if the Italian is wrong I did ask a friend to translate but whether its right I have no clue!

This wasnt intended to be as light hearted as it turned out to be but it think its a nice break for a moment.


As Jane pulled up to the luxurious country club she blinked, momentarily stunned at the scene that unfolded in front of her eyes; the country club was not only even bigger than Garrett's house which Jane would have thought impossible, but it was a hive of activity. She pulled closer looking for somewhere to park in a less than conspicuous spot; her clothing alone would draw enough attention to her she didn't want, let alone her scrapheap of a car. For a moment she thought it might be easy to slip in with the people constantly to-ing and fro-ing until she spotted the heavies on the gates. She sat in her car for a moment longer using her quick eyes to scan the crowd of hustling stressed people and breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't spot Cav's hulk lurking about. Maybe I beat him. As she climbed out of her car and subconsciously pulled on her clothes she silently prayed that Cav's goon wasn't faster or cleverer than she was.

The brunette's heart sank however as she grew closer to the entrance as she saw that everybody in and out of the club had some sort of ID tag around their necks or on their person that the heavies were studying every time in or out. She cursed inwardly, the only muscle in Boston who studiously did their job. Typical. An ID tag wasn't going to be easy to swipe in broad daylight when everyone seemed solely focused on their task in hand. Jane pottered around seemingly aimlessly trying her best not to attract too much attention. She was about to give up hope when she heard a frantic voice yelling from behind a van. She edged closer and heard the panicked voice snapping in Italian.

"Dov'รจ la mia sous-chef? Ti ho detto di mandarmela entro le 9"

Jane listened intently and could hear the woman getting frustrated and telling the person on the end of the phone that she didn't care what kind of morning she had had, she needed her sous chef now. Jane took a split second to think of what she was about to do. She pinched her cheeks roughly to give them a rosy hue and she rounded the catering van huffing as if she were out of breath. "Mi dispiace, Signora, ho avuto un guasto alla macchina." Jane swallowed thickly and winced; her Nona would have given her a smack around the head for her awful accent and pronunciation. The woman simply stared at her wide eyed and Jane looked at her feet whilst blushing furiously. "Mi perdoni, La prego." Jane looked up at the stern woman who was giving her a death stare that was uncanny of Nona; a family trait that both her and her Ma had inherited and often used against her two brothers.

"Silence! Take these!" The angry woman gestured at a huge pile of ingredients.

Jane blinked at her before being laden with the heavy ingredients.

"You understand Inglese? Si?" She didn't give Jane chance to reply before shoving an ID tag in between the brunette's teeth and shooing her away.

Jane stumbled and faltered her way up to the bulky security guards where she flashed as best a smile she could while they glanced at her ID. They stepped aside to grant her entry and it was only then that her current predicament dawned on her. She swallowed thickly I hope to god Ma's cooking lessons are lodged in my brain somewhere!


Jane was about halfway through making what she could only imagine was her millionth semi freddo to go into the blast chiller before being served at the wedding later on, when she heard a familiar voice.

"Hey! Janie!"

Jane felt peculiar at the sound of this voice; not many people in the world got away with calling her Janie and still lived to tell the tale; her Ma, Cavanaugh, Korsak and... a chill ran down her making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up despite the beads of sweat crawling down her forehead from the hours it had felt like she had been whipping and folding ingredients. "Giovanni."

He approached her grinning like a Cheshire cat "Hey Janie, what are you doing here? You look hot!"

Knowing Giovanni, and unfortunately, Jane did, she knew that he wasn't just talking about her body temperature. She scowled at him before returning to her task; she had volunteered to handle dessert, firstly because it was her Ma's speciality and the only thing Jane paid attention to when learning how to cook; she hadn't gotten the nickname Roly Poly Rizzoli for being a lover of spinach, and secondly because she knew she could make as many as she could quickly and then use the 6 hour setting time to sneak off and look for Maura. She sighed heavily as the tall Italian's shadow didn't leave her work bench. "What do you want Giovanni, I'm kinda busy."

Giovanni held up his hands in a mock surrender "Hey the boss told me to come check on the sous chef, gotta admit Janie wasn't expecting to see you!"

"Why not? I can cook! And don't call me Janie!" The brunette had no idea quite why she was so offended at his surprise of seeing her there; after all she wasn't a chef and shouldn't have been there. That shut him up and she continued spooning out the mixture when she stopped abruptly and looked up at him.

Giovanni quickly averted his eyes from her cleavage, just not quickly enough and she could feel her rage beginning to grow. He blushed a shade of red and stammered "S-so a-anyway, looks like you got everything under control here, I'll go see what else I can do." He began to leave the kitchen. "Say hey to your Ma for me; don't see her 'round much no more."

At the mention of her Ma Jane's heart softened and she growled under her breath "Fuck." She cleared her throat "Come back Giovanni. I could use a hand." His wide toothy grin reminded her of when they were little; they had grown up streets apart and her Ma always insisted on making Jane go and call on him despite her protests. He had always wanted to play kiss chase which she stubbornly refused to do until she grew up a little and one day accepted; poor Giovanni thought his lucky day had come but it was more to do with the new girl in their class that Jane wanted to chase. She had always been a tomboy, roughhousing with her brothers and boys at school so no one batted an eyelid. She smiled at the childhood memory but flushed a little as the adolescent feelings came back too. She swallowed hard and pushed those feelings down just as she had for most of her life.

"Big do huh?"

Jane made a non committal noise still lost in her memories until what Giovanni had said sank into her conscious. The wedding. Right. She stopped what she was doing and wiped her hands down her already ruined apron and looked sternly at the tall man opposite her. "I got things to do Giovanni, you got this?"

Giovanni gave her a lopsided smile and shrugged nonchalantly "Hey you know me Janie."

She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him "Yeah I do. Don't screw this up."

He opened his mouth in mock protest and stuck out his bottom lip at her "Ouch Janie."

Jane grabbed a towel and wiped her hands clean before lobbing it onto a counter behind Giovanni's head. "Don't call me Janie." She began to walk away "If anybody asks...I'm out getting an ingredient."

This piqued Giovanni's interest and he stood up "What are you doing Janie?"

Jane turned and looked back at him seriously "Honestly? I'm not even sure myself." She took a deep breath and walked away feeling the weight of the money in her back pocket and feeling unsure of herself.


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