A/N-I'm sorry that I was a bad updater this week and missed my self-imposed Saturday night update deadline (I blame what turned into a six day work week). I do plan on making it up to ya'll though :) Here's the first of two chapters with Mama R. It was only suppose to be one, but she just wouldn't leave...
Jane hadn't really thought through what she hoped to accomplish by approaching her mother. She just knew that she was feeling pretty buzzed and hella turned on, and then Angela showed up to ruin it. Jane realized later that the smarter move would have been to pull the curtain shut and hope Angela wandered back out of the club as suddenly as she'd wandered into it. But it would've bugged Jane the rest of the night and ruined her mood for whatever sexy things Maura had planned back in the room.
So there Jane was, pushing through the crowd towards Angela, who definitely looked like a fish out of water in this place.
"Ma!" Jane shouted as she came up behind the woman. She tapped her mother on the shoulder when she got no response. "Ma!"
"Oh, hi, Janie," Angela shouted. "I didn't know you were coming here tonight."
"Yeah, me neither," Jane said. "What are you doing here?"
"I couldn't sleep and I wanted to see what this place was all about. Not every day I can get into a fancy joint like this," Angela said. As she finished, she narrowed her eyes at Jane, the kind of look that came right before the kind of questions Jane hated to hear out of her mother. "What are you doing here?"
"Saying the rosary," Jane deadpanned.
"Jane! Don't say things like that!"
"Well, what do you think I'm doing?" Jane snapped, using the loud music as an excuse to raise her voice above what would have normally been appropriate. "I'm having a few drinks. Socializing, enjoying the atmosphere. You know, doing vacation things."
"With who?" Angela asked as she raised her eyebrows. "Is it this mystery friend you've been hanging out with? Jane, if you're seeing a man, I don't know why you won't just tell me."
"Because I am not seeing a man!" Jane snapped as she threw her hands in the air. "And, yes, I am here with my mystery friend."
"Where is she then?"
"We have a room," Jane said turning around to wave to Maura so that her mother could see that her frined was in fact female, and not some secret, future husband Jane was trying to hide. Then she realized that the window she was waving to was almost opaque. The glass must have been similar to the stuff they used in two way mirrors. Maura could probably see her, but Jane and Angela could only see a very shadowy outline of a person standing by the window.
"She's up there, I swear," Jane said. She waved once more before realizing that was no good.
"Jane, if you want me to butt out, you just have to say so. There's no need to make up these stories," Angela said.
Jane rolled her eyes. That was the biggest load of bullshit she'd heard all week; Angela would never, ever, butt out when politely asked.
Now Jane had a choice. Have her mother continually dropping hints about her vacation boyfriend conspiracy theory or expose the most honest to a fault person Jane had ever met to three degrees of Angela Rizzoli.
Well, maybe Maura would be able to tell a few little lies and everything would settle back down.
Jane sighed and gestured for Maura to come out onto the floor. Maura's shadow didn't respond, so Jane 's gestures grew larger and more obvious until she saw Gerald step aside as Maura opened the door and started walking towards Jane. Jane hurried to meet her after making sure her mother would stay put.
"I'm sorry," Jane said as she leaned close to Maura's ear to avoid yelling too loud. "I tried to save you. Just, be yourself. Only don't tell the whole truth, ok?"
Maura nodded and smiled nervously. Jane didn't know a ton about Maura, but she did know that the woman had a very difficult time lying. She hated that she was putting the other woman it such a bizarre, uncomfortable situation, but it was the only option at the moment.
"Here she is, Ma," Jane said, leading Maura by the arm, situating Maura directly in from of Angela.
"Hello," Maura said. "I'm Maura. It's lovely to meet you."
Angela shook Maura's hand and glanced over at Jane.
"Angela, nice to meet you," Angela yelled back over the music. "I wasn't sure you actually existed. Jane, here has a habit of lying to her mother when it comes to her love life."
"Really? That's...interesting," Maura said, her eyes flicking to Jane's as she flashed a quick smile that made Jane feel marginally less homicidal towards her mother.
"So, tell me. What have you and Janie been doing all these nights?" Angela asked. "Because whatever you're doing, sign me up. It's doing wonders for her attitude problem."
Maura looked positively speechless at the question, probably because she'd have to lie, and wasn't sure she could do it convincingly enough. Or the speechlessness could have come from the fact that she'd been accidentally propositioned by the mother of the woman she was having sex with. Whichever it was, Maura's hesitation was threatening to enter awkward moment territory which would be as good as telling Angela what they'd been up to.
"Oh, I see," Angela said, narrowing her eyes at Jane. Jane wondered how it was that she had she taken down some of the meanest, toughest pimps, drug dealer and murderers without flinching, while her own mother and said mother's disapproval had a way of making Jane feel like she was the eight year old who accidentally kicked in the cafeteria window.
"You are seeing someone, and you asked this poor woman to cover for you," Angela said.
"What?" Jane yelled. Somehow simultaneously super pissed off and ultra relieved.
"You're seeing someone else," Angela repeat slowly, yelling way louder than necessary, given her naturally loud voice. "And you asked this woman-
"I heard you, ma! I just can't believe you won't believe when I tell you I made a friend. I can make friends, you know," Jane snapped.
"We slept together," Maura blurted out. Both Jane and Angela turned to face Maura. Maura looked directly at Jane then Angela and back. Whatever was coming next from the doctor had to be a damn good save, because the vibes Jane was getting from her mother were not pleasant ones, and Jane so didn't need her vacation to turn into Days of Our Vacation Sex Lives.
"Excuse me?" Angela asked as she looked directly at Jane.
"What I mean to say is that we sleep in the same bed. And Jane likes it. Sleeping in the same bed. Cuddling too. Sometimes she cuddles," Maura finished. "Studies do show that having a sleeping companion can lead to better quality sleep. So it helps with the insomnia issue Jane has mentioned."
Although Jane didn't care for the fact that Maura had used that one instance of unconscious cuddling against her, she couldn't help being a little impressed at the way that Maura had managed to answer the question without lying or outing them to Angela, all while moving things away from dangerous territory. It was something to behold.
"Oh, I see," Angela said after a moment's hesitation to absorb all that information. Then she smiled at Maura, and, to Jane's surprise, it was a sincere smile. "It's very nice of you to do that for Jane."
"It's nice to have the companionship," Maura said. "It's been beneficial to me as well."
Jane could tell that wasn't meant to be a double entendre, that Maura really did appreciate having someone to hang with, which was weird, because they mostly just slept and had sex before sleeping and having more sex with a little bit of talking in between. Was this, this arrangement, the closest Maura ever came to companionship? Little moments like that kind of got Jane wondering.
"Well, I'm just happy that Jane seems to be enjoying her vacation so much," Angela said. "I suppose it helps that I hear you have a nice suite up there."
God, Jane really wished her mother would shut up. She definitely did not need Maura thinking that she was being some kind of hypersexual leech just because she couldn't afford the room with the comfy bed.
"A gift from my parents," Maura said as she smiled graciously. "And I suppose I splurged a bit on the private room tonight."
"It's a private room? You mean just the two of you?" Angela asked.
"Well, it's for whomever I put on the list," Maura said. "I only have myself and Jane down right now, though I have complete control of the guest list for the evening."
"Oh, that's wonderful, very glamourous, isn't it Jane?" Angela said.
Jane seriously wondered if her mother could be any more obvious in her attempts to get an invite.
"Would you like to see it?" Maura offered, clearly doing it out of a sense that she really had no other option, because Jane knew that her mother was the expert of creating that feeling in almost anyone she talked to. Even Jane, with all her years of experience, was not immune to it.
"I wouldn't want to intrude on your good times, an old lady like me," Angela said.
Oh, that woman was good, and it pissed Jane off to no end.
"Please, I insist," Maura said as she gestured to the door. "It's really no trouble at all."
Maura walked ahead of them while Jane and Angela walked a few steps behind her.
"I like her," Angela said into Jane's ear.
"Yeah, me too," Jane said.
"Very classy and elegant. And did you see that dress?"
"Yes, ma."
"I wish you would wear a dress like that once in awhile. You have such a nice figure for it."
"God, ma! Can you-
"Here we are," Maura said as they walked by Gerald and through the door with just a nod from Maura. "The Pearl Suite."
If Maura were to gauge how well her evening with Jane was going, she'd have said it was going fairly well given the variables that had entered into the equation. Really, it had been one variable in particular, the appearance of Jane's mother, that had created most of the tension and stress.
She got the worst out of the way after blurting out the truth about her and Jane's relationship without outing Jane. She just hated arguments, and she wanted a way to get Jane's mother to drop the subject. Maura found her double meaning worked quite well in effectively derailing Angela, and her research had been even more effective in keeping Jane's mother off track.
It was a formula that Maura had refined starting in her high school years to navigate in social situations where she was expected to lie. She would simply make a misleading statement that is technically true, and, if possible, follow that statement up with tangentially relevant research.
Maura didn't enjoy deceiving people, but, on occasions like the one she found herself in with Jane, it was necessary.
Another thing she found necessary: situating Angela between herself and Jane. Jane's body language seemed to indicate that she wanted to sit next to Maura, but Maura knew that wasn't wise if Jane was desperate as she appeared to be to keep her sapphic leanings from her mother.
Maura suspected that they'd end up doing all manner of subconscious touching that would clue the older woman in, especially given their alcohol intake.
So, despite the radical change in plans, they were enjoying their time together, as odd as the combination of guests was. Angela was the type where you didn't have to worry about a lull in the conversation. There was always something to talk about with Angela, and, though they bickered, there was a warmth a warmth in Jane and Angela's relationship that was decidedly lacking in Maura's relationship with her mother. Maura found it interesting, even endearing.
It was a lovely, comfortable evening of moderate drinking for a good hour and a half or two hours. Then Jane started to get antsy and increasingly snippy with her mother. Maura wished she could do something to calm the anxiety that Jane was obviously feel. Yet she theorized that the stress stemmed from the fact that Jane's mother had, for an extended period of time, been preventing relief of Jane's mounting sexual tension. Maura could do very little to fix that with Angela in the room, so she settled into pleasant conversation with Angela while Jane just barely concealed her frustration with the situation.
"So...Laura, is it? Laura, tell me. Have you met any men on the cruise, because we know Jane hasn't," Angela said. She put her glass down after finishing what was probably her fourth drink in fairly quick succession.
Maura didn't bother correcting Angela regarding her name. After all, it didn't make much of a difference since she wasn't going to be spending all that much time with Angela beyond their evening together. Instead she placed her own glass down next to Angela's.
"Well, I'm not actively looking to find a man at the moment," Maura said. Easy enough. Didn't even require her special procedure.
"So niether of you two pretty ladies have gotten any action in the entire week we've been out here?" Angela asked.
It'd been a casual question, the kind of question that was probably Angela's drunken way of having girl talk. It was also the kind of question that Maura dreaded, the rare question that offered little interpretive wiggle room.
"Ma, c'mon. She's not going to want to talk about her sex life with someone she just met a few hours ago," Jane said. Maura hoped for Jane's sake that Angela wouldn't see the blush creeping up Jane's neck as Jane likely realized she'd become a part of Maura's sex life a few hours after their meeting.
"I'm just trying to make conversation, you know, girl talk," Angela said. "Isn't that what girls do? Gossip about their sex lives?"
"Not when two of the three people involved are mother and daughter," Jane said. "Ma, it's just, no."
"Actually, it's been proven that females do bond over discussion of intimate encounter. Even mothers and daughters have been shown to do so, though with far less graphic, sexual content to their conversation," Maura said.
"See, the smart lady said so," Angela said as she emptied the rest of the wine bottle into her glass. "Besides, you're not even involved in the conversation. I mean, it's just me asking if another woman I met at a club if she's getting any. Right?"
"I suppose so," Maura said.
"So have you?"
"Have I what?" Maura asked.
She sincerely disliked the direction of the conversation and wished she'd have just shut up and let Jane do the talking. Nope, instead she'd thrown one too many facts at the problem and it was coming back to haunt her.
"Sex. Have you had it while sailing on this fine ship?" Angela asked, raising her glass as if to toast the greatness of the ship. Or Maura's imagined sexual conquest, though Maura hoped it was the former.
"Yes," Maura said. She gulped down the rest of her champagne and refilled her glass.
"But, I don't understand," Angela said, her squinting her eyes as she appeared to be working through Maura's crytpic, evasive answers. "You said you weren't interested in finding a man?"
"That is correct. At the moment I am not looking to have sex with a man," Maura said. She took another sip and noticed Jane down half her glass, avioding eye contact with both Angela and Maura. It was like she knew what was about to happen and could hardly stand to be in the same room.
"So you've had sex with a woman," Angela said after a few painstaking moments of what appeared to be deep thought.
"Yes," Maura repiled.
Another long, thoughtful pause.
"How was it?" Angela asked.
Jane, who had chosen that moment to take another sip, coughed loudly, nearly choking on her drink.
"Ma! My god, are you serious right now?"
"What? I'm just curious. And we're all a little drunk, so it's all in good fun, right, girlfriend?" Angela said as she put an arm around Maura.
Maura thought that, while ' a little drunk' might have been an accurate way to describe herself and Jane, it was quite an understatement for Angela. Based on Angela's mannerisms and speech, it was becoming increasingly clear that the woman wasn't use to drinking substantial amounts of alcohol so quickly.
"Well, I, um, I suppose," Maura said. She shifted uncomfortably and wished it were physically possible to alter the space-time contimuum so that she could go back in time and reroute this conversation. But it wasn't, so she was sitting on a sofa in a night club with her casual sex partner and that partner's mother being asked how the sex was. Even for Maura, who was rather open about sex, it felt strange and uncomfortable. For Jane, it appeared unbearable; she'd given up looking angry and instead rested her head in her hands and muttered something that sounded like 'oh, my god."
"So?"
"It was great," Maura said. "Probably some of the best."
Jane rested her head against the back of the couch and rested a hand across her eyes, as if obstructing her vision might somehow make the whole thing more bareable. Though she did see a little grin flit across Jane's lips at Maura's superlative.
"That's it?"
"Seriously, ma. You're achieving extra levels of obnoxiously nosy right now, and she clearly doesn't want to talk about it," Jane said.
"Is that true, hon? Am I bothering you, because I never meant it. I only wanted to have some girl talk. You know, I married young, so I never got to do much of that," Angela said. "Sometimes I can be a bit much, I guess."
Jane offered an eyeroll in response, though Maura couldn't help feeling a little bad for Angela. She sensed some truth in what Angela had said. So her response came as an attempt to comfort the other woman and without much thought to the consequences.
"It's alright," Maura said.
"No, it's not. I was rude and nosy," Angela said.
"No you weren't. You were just curious. It's a nautral human impulse to wonder about these things," Maura said.
Even as she said it, Maura wondered why she hadn't allowed Jane's interruption to effectively end the conversation. Sometimes she just could not help herself.
"You're so sweet," Angela said as she pulled Maura into a big hug before Maura could explain that she only liked hugs from a select few people. "Just one more question though. I'm sure my prudish daughter won't object to this one."
"That sounds relatively safe," Maura said pleasantly, relieved that it sounded as though Angela was moving away from dangerous conversation. She even smiled at Angela's wildly inaccurate characterization of her daughter as a prude.
"What was her name?"
"What?" Maura asked, her glass nearly slipping out of her hand. She gulped. "Why do you ask?"
Angela shrugged.
"I like to know names of things, people, you know, stuff. Thought since Jane won't let me ask any other stuff that'd be safe enough, so we can bond and stuff, like you said," Angela said. She smiled vaguely as she examined her half empty glass. "What's her name?"
"Ma-
"I'll tell her," Maura blurted out without understanding why she'd ever let the words come out of her mouth.
Well. With those words, Maura realized that she had officially managed to turn the evening into one of the more supremely uncomfortable encounters of her entire, socially awkward life.
A/N-Yeah, not my favorite chapter so far. I don't know, just feels like something is missing and I don't know how to fix it. It's as though parts of it are forced or stilted or, yeah...I don't know...Maybe it's just that I hate awkwardness and this chapter is super awkward? Thoughts?
Also, any ideas on how Maura's going to deal with this mess she's gotten herself into?
Last night's episode makes me happy, almost as happy as reviews make me. So, please, add even more Rizzles related joy to my life!