At first, the camera is unsteady, and takes a moment to focus, but when it does, there is Jane, sitting on the end of the bed. She is dressed in only long t-shirt and boxer shorts, and her hair is done up in a bun that is clearly several days old. She is also very, very pregnant.
"I think I've got it now," comes Maura's voice from behind the camera. "The red light is going, and I can see you."
"Great," Jane says grumpily. "Because our hard drive is full enough of videos of your thumb. Or the wall...three and a half hours of the chair cushion."
With an effort that seems Herculean, Jane pushes herself up to standing. From this angle, she looks even more pregnant than she had previously.
"You didn't seem to mind when it recorded several minutes of my cleavage yesterday."
Jane puts a hand to her hair, seemingly to feel whether or not her bun is still in place. It is not, and she must be able to feel that it is not, but she doesn't seem to care. She shrugs, and moves the hand to the small of her back.
"God, My back hurts."
"Jane is thirty weeks pregnant today. She's feeling a bit impatient."
"A bit?" Jane snorts. "I'm going to reach in and forcibly remove these three if they don't get out of there soon."
"She isn't serious," Maura says. She sounds as though she's smiling. "She knows how important it is that our triplets stay in utero as long as possible. Premature births are high among pregnancies where multiples are being carried. The age of the mother is also-"
"Who are you talking to?" Jane grumbles, turning to look at the camera.
"I'm narrating the moment," Maura says. "All the different literature I've been reading says that these last few weeks go by much too quickly, and that we'll want movies and videos to look back on."
"If you peed a little every time you swallowed, you wouldn't think these weeks were flying by, Maura," Jane retorts sourly.
The camera watches her waddle into the bathroom and shut the door, and then swings around to show three bassinets lined up against the wall.
"I put these together myself," Maura's voice says proudly. "That's what I really wanted to document. Jane fell asleep on the couch, and I was able to complete two and a half of them before she woke up. I knew she'd been dreading having to kneel and reach in her current condition, even though she hadn't said anything about it. When she saw that I was almost finished, she burst into tears."
The camera gives a close up of each little crib, one purple, one green, and one orange. "The Doctor says two of you are boys. She says the statistical safe bet is two boys and a girl, because of the sizes. So here, green in the middle, that will be Benjamin, Purple, over here is for you, beautiful girl. And orange down here, that's for our little Franklin."
There is a pause. Maura takes a deep breath.
"Looking at all of this. Seeing all of these things ready and waiting, it makes it feel real. What I mean to say is. I get more excited to see our children every single day."
"I get more excited to see my toes again every single day," says Jane's voice behind the camera.
The picture spins to focus on the detective, leaning against the doorframe, smiling.
"Jane!" Maura's voice says. "You were able to get off of the toilet by yourself this time!"
Jane's smile immediately drops into one of embarrassment and surprise. "Maura!" She says, moving towards the camera as fast as possible.
"Turn it off!"
There is some scrabbling, some laughing, definitely the sound of kissing, and then the screen goes black.
…
…
A woman is standing on her front porch when Maura comes up the walk. She is moving quickly, keen to get home and relieve Jane of solo triplet duty, and so she doesn't notice her mother until she is almost at the bottom of her steps.
She looks up, and almost drops her handbag at the sight of Constance Isles about to ring her door.
"Don't" she cries out before she can stop herself.
Constance whirls around, alarmed. "Maura?" She asks, hand going to her heart. "What on earth?"
"It's almost half past," Maura says, climbing the four steps to her porch hastily. "If Jane managed to get them down, they'll still be napping. Benji and Franklin don't wake up at the sound of the bell, but Isis has the ears of a cat. And if she wakes up, Benji is up too."
Constance stares at her, and it is hard to tell how well she is processing this influx of information.
Finally she speaks. "Franklin after your father?" She asks.
"Ah, yes," Maura answers, caught off guard. "Well, Franklin after father, and also because it works to call him Frankie after Jane's brother."
Constance nods, but doesn't reply, and for a long moment, they just stand there looking at each other.
"What are you doing here, mother?" Maura asks at last. She cannot invite this woman into her house without knowing her motives. Not only because there is most likely a stressed out detective on the other side of the door, but also because she has not seen or heard directly from her mother in over four years.
"I...read your recent interview for the forensic journal out of Boston," Constance says hesitantly. "The one in which you describe the science that helped you and - ah - Detective Rizzoli solve the Platski case. It showed you in a very favorable light."
Maura blinks. "Thank you," she says hesitantly. "Jane did most of the work. I just pointed her in the right direction."
"Yes. You mentioned that in your interview," Constance says. There is a flash of something like distaste, but Maura sees her make an effort to cover it. "You've always downplayed your abilities."
Maura doesn't want to keep standing here, not helping her wife or kissing her children after she's been away from home for forty eight hours, but she doesn't want to trail her mother into the house if she's going to keep looking as though she's smelled something unpleasant.
"So you traveled all the way from Prague to tell me that I should not bother with modesty?" Maura asks. She smiles grimly when her mother looks surprised.
"Yes," she says, answering the unasked question. "I know where you've been. I usually know which country you are in, Mother, or which lecture you've been invited to. You are the one who ended our communication. Not me."
Constance looks both hurt and guilty. "It...came as a shock," she murmurs, looking away as though she knows that this is not an adequate excuse.
"I wrote you," Maura says, feeling her emotions begin to get the best of her. "I wrote you, and called you. I came to your hotel when you were in New York, and had to deal with the humiliation of being told that you would have me removed if I did not leave. I sent you the wedding invitation, and the shower invitation. Jane sent you the birth announcement, which it seems that you didn't even read." Maura shakes her head, not wanting to have this fight. "Is it so odd that I might at least know where my mother is, despite her wish that I not contact her?"
"No," Constance says. She answers the rhetorical question out of habit. "I...No. You're right of course. I was shocked, and then frightened, and I acted in...haste and anger. It was wrong of me."
Maura frowns. "It is too late for reconciliation," she says simply. "Just tell me why you're here so that we can be done, and I can go inside to my family."
Constance flinches at this, but Maura does not feel remorse, only frustration.
"The article I read," Constance says quietly. "It said that you are expecting another child. You. Not your -ah - not the detective. It said that you had just announced your pregnancy."
This is what Maura had feared from the moment she saw her mother standing in front of her door.
She'd called the magazine as soon as she'd read the article herself, and though they'd been kind enough to re-publish the online version, and pull those magazines that had not sold, there was only so much they'd been able to do.
News of her pregnancy had reached Constance.
"Yes," she says now, deciding that there's no reason not to meet this head on. "Jane and I talked about it, and decided to try once. I wanted to carry a child, and she knew that." Maura smiles, despite herself.
"We got lucky."
"You were only going to try that one time?" Constance asks, and Maura remembers suddenly that she is standing on her front porch with a suitcase in her hand, talking to a woman that has wanted nothing to do with her for four years.
"Why are you here?" She asks.
"I...want to meet my grandchildren," she says finally. "All of them. I want to...try to be a part of your life. I realized, when I read that article, that I had been...That I'd allowed the way I was raised to color my opinion of your life."
"You can't just show up here, like this," Maura says.
Constance nods. "I didn't mean to," she says earnestly. "I...meant only to drive by and make sure that the address I'd found was correct. But I saw your," she pauses. "I saw Detective Rizzoli coming up the walk with the children."
"Jane," Maura interrupts. "My wife. Our children."
Constance looks pained. "Yes," she says. "And I...couldn't leave."
"So don't leave then."
Maura spins toward the voice to see that Jane has opened the screen door. She's holding a sleepy eyed Isis on her hip, and never one to leave his sister on her own, Benji is peeking out from behind Jane's pant leg.
"Who's that Isis?" Jane asks, grinning at Maura. "Who's home?"
"Mommy!" Benji says first, leaping over the door jamb and into Maura's arms. "Mommy home!"
He smells like baby powder and soup and corn chips, and she presses her nose into his curly blonde hair, hugging him close.
Behind Jane, down the hall just a bit, is Franklin. "Mommy?" He looks up excitedly from the toy car he'd been pushing along the floor, and when he sees her, he stands up on his spindly toddler legs and runs at her.
Jane gestures Constance across the threshold and into the hall, pulling the door closed before Franklin can make it all the way there.
"Mommy!" Franklin says, hugging her knee. "Oh Mommy! So happy!"
Jane leans forward to kiss her. "Oh Mommy!" She echoes. "So happy!"
Maura laughs.
…
…
Isis won't eat.
Jane leans back in the armchair where she normally feeds the triplets, and presents herself to her daughter's mouth.
Isis merely turns her head to the side, uninterested, looking up at her mother with calm brown eyes.
"C'mon, magic bean," Jane says softly. "I know you gotta be hungry. You were screaming your head off just a minute ago. And your brother is starving. Hear him?"
Isis sighs, as though she understands. She considers Jane's nipple, and then she starts to fuss, pressing her little hands against her mother's breastbone.
In his bassinet. Benji howls. He sounds so enraged, that after another three minutes of trying to get Isis to latch, she gives up, standing and switching out children, settling back with Benji.
He begins to nurse right away, and in their bassinets, both of the other babies are quiet.
Maura glances in on them on her way down the hall, and seeing Jane's frown, steps into the room.
"Are you okay?"
"I thought Isis was hungry," Jane says, still frowning at the two quiet bassinets.
Maura pauses for a moment. "You're nursing Benji," she says finally.
Jane rolls her eyes. "Thank you, Dr. Obvious," she says sarcastically. "But that's what I mean. Isis was yelling for food. I show up, get her all set up, and she doesn't want anything. Then Benji starts in, so I switch out, and now...those two?" Jane points with her free hand. "Nothing."
Maura considers this. "Are you sure it was Isis crying?" She asks.
Jane spares her a deep look of disdain. "I know which child is wailing," she says. "And I know what they're asking for. Isis wanted food. It was her 'feed me' cry."
Maura watches them for a little bit longer, and then she shrugs, as though it doesn't matter.
Benji stops nursing, seemingly finished, and as soon as she has brought the little boy to her shoulder to burp him, Isis begins to cry again.
Maura turns back, looking surprised.
Jane smirks like, "I told you so," and holds Benji to her. "Burp this giant man, hmm?"
Maura takes Benjamin to her shoulder. She watches, perplexed, as the situation that Jane described repeats itself, but this time with Franklin.
Isis cries for food, but seems uninterested in eating. As soon as Jane tries to nurse her, Franklin begins to cry.
Jane swaps again, and settles in with her second little boy. She looks up at Maura, eyebrows raised.
Maura simply shakes her head, just as confused.
Isis doesn't cry again until Franklin is being burped. And this time, when Jane settles into position with her, she nurses hungrily.
Jane and Maura stare at each other, both thinking the same thing, but neither wanting to voice it.
Benji and Franklin have their heads on Maura's shoulders, content.
"Neither one of them cried for food?" Maura asks.
Jane shakes her head. "Just Isis."
Until that moment, Maura has written off the tales of multiples with telepathy, and secret connections into each other's brains.
Now, she is not quite sure.
…
…
The triplets skirt their unexpected visitor with a combination of curiosity and caution. They discuss her among themselves with their unique method of babbling, hand gestures and facial expressions, and Maura watches Constance watching them, amused by the older woman's fascination.
Jane comes to stand next to her in the doorway of the kitchen.
"I told Frost this would happen," she says quietly.
Maura looks at her. "Hmm?"
"Yesterday. I swear," Jane says. "I told him that if anyone got the first printing of that article, it would be your mother, and that she would show up here, looking for the heirs to the Isles throne."
Maura doesn't smile. "She says she wants to get to know them."
"Do you want her to get to know them?" Jane asks, and when Maura turns to look at her, she raises her eyebrows. "What? It's a valid question. If you want her to get to know them, then I say we see how it goes. Only if it's not going to stress you, or anybody in there," she gestures to Maura's stomach.
"She ignored us, and them, for four years, Jane. What I want might be irrelevant."
Jane shrugs. "I don't think so. You know how my mom was when we first started, how she still is sometimes. I'm not saying that she doesn't drive me absolutely batshit insane sometimes, no way! But I also know that without her around, I would miss her. Our kids would miss out on a lot of really great things."
Maura shakes her head, and Jane wraps her arms around her waist, kissing her temple. "You don't have to stop being mad at her, or even forgive her. I just want to know - if it were a possibility to have her be involved and loving and...make amends. Would you want it?"
In the living room, the triplets have come to a decision about their course of action. As Maura watches, Benji walks cautiously towards his Grandmother, lip pulled comically between his teeth.
"Hi," he says, when he's close enough. He is a man of few words, usually letting Isis or Franklin do the talking for him, but when it comes to the protection of his siblings, he takes his job as seriously as Jane does.
"Hello," Constance says, looking down at him with raised eyebrows. "What's - uh - what is your name?"
"Benjamin," Benji says seriously. "I'm three and in days I'm four soon."
"It's nice to meet you, Benjamin," Constance says.
Benji points to his sister and brother, still hanging back, although Franklin has taken a couple of steps forward. "My brudder," he says. "Frankly. And Sitter. Isis."
Jane smiles. "Frankly," she echoes. "It never gets old."
"Isis," Constance is saying. "What a nice name."
"It means magic," Franklin says, taking another step forward. "One time I wa'nt breathing, but then she did."
Constance looks up at Maura, eyes wide.
"Time to decide," Jane says in her ear. "Do I go in there as a daughter-in-law, or as a cop."
Maura has already decided.
"I want her to know them," she murmurs. "I want to see if she'll try."
…
…
They get married ten days after the triplets have turned one. Angela and Frankie spend almost an hour wrangling all three babies into formal wear, and they meet Jane and Maura at city hall, where they are joined by Frost, Korsak Susie and a couple of other friends.
It is quick, and sweet, and when Jane says 'I do,' Maura can tell that what she's really saying is 'trust me.'
Angela cries, and although it is a certain possibility that all of her tears might not be happy ones, she hugs Maura during their reception across the street, and tells her that she couldn't imagine anyone making Jane happier than Maura has.
They feed their triplets wedding cake during the party, and Maura takes Jane's hand as they watch what is now a very common routine.
"Benji's just the cutest little gentleman, isn't he?" Susie says, watching as Benji pushes cake pieces at his two siblings.
He is the oldest by nineteen and one hundred and seventy two minutes respectively, and already he is the taste tester, the muscle, the protector.
Franklin is his body double, and his personality opposite, and Isis, still tiny and delicate, with black hair to her brothers' dark blonde, and brown eyes to her brothers' light blue, is the mastermind. The beloved.
True to his title, Benji tastes his cake first. His eyes go wide and surprised, and then his face cracks into excitement.
His siblings don't need to be told that everything is okay. They dig in, and only when they have all had their first taste of sugar, do their little hands raise into the air in triumph.
Their first sugar high.
Huzzah!
Isis cries and cries, until Maura breaks down and gives them all another little helping of cake.
Both boys wait for Isis to start before they do.
Maura is over her disbelief that her children are connected. Proof piles up every day.
Their sex that night is interrupted four times, each time by Isis, calling first because Franklin is wet, and then again because Franklin is twisted in his sheet.
She calls for Benji, who's stuffed kitten has fallen to the floor, and then for herself, when her pacifier get stuck between mattress and bed bar. They have named her Isis for her near death experience at birth, but now Maura thinks that her daughter is magic in other ways too.
Jane laughs, naked, holding her infant on her shoulder, kissing her dark little head in a gentle rhythm as she fits the pacifier back into her mouth.
"Sleep now, magic bean," she says, laying her back down. "I just got hitched, and I'm trying to get laid. You are seriously crimping my game."
As soon as she is done, Maura pulls Jane back into their bedroom to finish what they started. She doesn't bother telling her new wife that seeing her as a mother is definitely not hurting anything.
…
…
Isis doesn't warm up to Constance until Maura does. Benji and Franklin, having decided that she is okay, bring her many of their toys for her inspection, and after some coaching from Jane, Maura's mother learns to say things like, 'oh how lovely!' And 'That is amazing!' In order to earn a little boy smile and a tiny bit more of their affection.
"So where are you staying, Constance?" Jane asks, as she hands her a cup of coffee.
Constance nods a thank you. "The Liberty in Back Bay," she answers.
"Are you in town for long?"
"Ah," Constance looks like she'd rather have the small talk of dinner back. "How long I stay actually depends on several factors," she says slowly.
Isis climbs into Maura's lap, thumb in her mouth, and Constance watches as Maura kisses the top of her head.
"I do have several events to attend in Boston and Springfield. But I was hoping to…" she pauses again, steeling herself. "I was hoping to stay a bit longer than necessity required in order to spend some time with you and your children."
Constance swallows visibly.
"And you as well, Jane." She says finally.
Jane raises her eyebrows. "Really?" She asks genuinely.
"Yes," Constance says. "I...can understand if that doesn't appeal to you, Detective. I haven't treated you kindly in the past."
Jane puts her arm around Maura's shoulder, giving her a squeeze. "Actually," she says. "You've treated Maura unkindly. You haven't treated me in any way at all."
This doesn't seem to have occurred to Constance, and as the realization washes over her, she looks...sad.
"You're right," she says. "I apologize for that."
Jane squeezes Maura again. "Thanks," she says simply.
Franklin wanders over to his grandmother. "Hey you!" He says to her.
"Um...Mr. Rizzoli-Isles?" Jane interjects quickly.
Franklin turns to her, guiltily. "Well. What is her name?" He asks, exasperated.
Jane hesitates, and Maura knows that Jane is deferring to her.
"That's your grandmother," Maura says, smiling at her. "That's my mother."
Franklin nods, taking the monumental moment in stride. "Kay," he says, turning back to Constance. "Hey!" He says, exuberance returned. "Grandmother!"
"Really, Frankie?" Jane calls, trying not to laugh. "How do you ask for someone's attention."
Benji, who's attention has been caught by the reprimanding tone of Jane's voice, looks at Franklin.
"Ah-scuse" he says, pronouncing the word more like a sneeze, than a polite request.
Maura chuckles. Franklin heaves a sigh.
"Well, ah-scuse me," he says. "Want to come look at the tower? We builded it."
Constance looks at Maura and Jane, and when both nod, she stands. She looks overwhelmingly excited.
"I bet you and your brother built a wonderful tower," she says.
Franklin smiles, reaching for her hand to lead her the ten feet. "Yah," he says. "The best."
.
Later, Maura walks Constance to the door, Isis still on her hip. "It was nice to see you, Mother," she says, pulling the door open.
Constance studies her face. "Was it?" She asks genuinely. "I hope you know I didn't mean to ambush you, Maura. I had a letter in mind. Something...oh, something heartfelt, I hoped."
Maura smiles wryly. "I would not have read it," she says honestly. "This was better, I think. In the long run."
Constance considers this, and then nods, accepting. "I hope you will keep me updated?" She asks hopefully. "About your pregnancy. If there's anything I can do to help with the new baby. I'd...well I'd like to learn how to be of help."
Isis lifts her head, but doesn't say anything. Maura knows what she's thinking.
"Well," she says slowly, and Constance watches her with ill disguised anticipation. "Well, I think, Mother, there's something you should know before you go."
"Yes?" Constance asks nervously.
"My pregnancy...it's...well. It's twins."
Blank shock. Constance stares at her. "What?"
"I'm having twins," Maura says.
"When rains, it pours," Isis says softly. It's Jane's favorite statement about their situation.
For a moment, Constance just looks between them, dumbstruck. And then she starts to laugh. She puts her hand over her heart and laughs fully and loudly.
"Oh," she says, stepping forward to pull Maura and Isis into her arms. "Oh, my dear, congratulations!"
It takes Maura a startled minute to react. "T-thank you," she says. "I...it was a shock for us, but now we're just...we're overjoyed."
Constance pulls back. "As well you should be!" She says. "When do you discover the sex?" She asks.
"Two weeks," Maura says, and then. "Would you like to be there? Angela will be."
"Are you sure?" Constance looks as though she doesn't know what to do with all of the emotions she's experiencing. "I wouldn't want to intrude."
"Well, not into the actual ultrasound room," Maura concedes. "But you'll be the first to see the sonogram pictures, and hear the sexes. If you can manage to out maneuver Angela, of course."
Constance's smile is radiant. "Send me the date," she says, turning away once again, "And I shall practice my footwork diligently until then." She descends the front steps, and Maura sees a black town car parked down the block start its engine.
"Good-bye, Mother," she calls.
"Good-bye, Maura. I'll see you soon."
Isis lifts her head again, and then she waves. "Bye Gramma," she calls.
Constance is never known as anything else.