"Francesco Rizzoli Junior, what the bloody hell-" she stopped short at the sight of five people in the doorway instead of four. "And who is this?"
The Rizzoli children traded a look, silently arguing about who would be introducing their Sight-ridden new acquaintance.
Maura saved them both the trouble by stepping forward lightly and holding out a hand to the matriarch. "Doctor Maura Isles, Mrs. Rizzoli, at your service," she introduced herself, smiling softly.
"Angela, please," she insisted, returning the handshake. Turning to her children, she mouthed the word, "Doctor?"
Jane nodded and shrugged. "Long story."
Despite looking a little disgruntled, Angela allowed this explanation to suffice for the moment. "Well, I'm sure you've all worked up an appetite, so come in, let's eat, and you can tell me all about it." She shooed them through the large glass doors to the right of the grand winding staircase. "Frankie, go set another place for our guest, will you?
"Yeah, Ma," he answered and wandered off to find another plate and some cutlery.
"Sean!" Angela hollered, "Kids are back, time to eat!" And then, almost as an after thought, "They brought a friend back with them!"
"Coming, Ange," came the response from somewhere else in the grand church.
When he entered, it was easy to see that the two of them were together. Sean Cavanaugh was a slightly portly, but well groomed man, and his salt and pepper hair contrasted nicely with Angela's long dark blonde hair. It was difficult to see at first, the relation between Mrs. Rizzoli and her two kids, but if you looked closely enough about the facial features, Maura could just make out similarities usually defined by blood relatives.
"Hey, Ma, where's Korsak?" Jane asked as her brother finished setting Maura's place.
"He's up there surrounded by his books. Said he probably wouldn't be joining us tonight, although I'm certain he'll hate having missed Maura's presence." Angela replied. "Now everybody sit, I made lasagna, cannoli, eggplant parmesan, and some other things. Dig in, guys."
Maura sat next to Jane, and simply watched in amazement as the group attacked the food in a chaotic fashion, calling for things to be passed, and the older adults asking the warriors about their eventful evening.
Jane's elbow hit her in her ribs. "If you want any chance of getting some food, I'd get in there before Frost and Giovanni eat it all." Maura smiled her thanks, which Jane shrugged off, and joined the fray, albeit much more conserved than her dining associates.
"So?" Angela asked, directing the question toward her daughter.
Jane swallowed her mouthful of lasagna and hastily explained, "I got scratched by the Ravener, and then we rescued this mundane from a vamp, but then I'm fairly certain I passed out. I can only assume that the guys encountered Maura on the street, and she could see us which only served to pique our curiousity. I woke up in her apartment after she'd apparently patched me up and she insisted that since we had no medical professionals here, she should accompany us while she's on a sabbatical from her real job." She quickly inhaled another bite and looked between Frankie and Maura. "I think that covers it, yeah?"
The other two nodded, but all three were staring at Angela, who had failed to resume eating. "You passed out from an injury and you didn't think that was important enough to LEAD WITH?"
"Hey, hey, Ma, I'm fine. It was just a scratch, and the Doc here sewed me up pretty nicely. A couple of iratzes and I'll be fine in a day or two. Not a problem, nothing worth getting worked up over." Jane defended before following her brother's lead and shutting up and shoveling food into her mouth.
"I'll inspect your wound again later. And then you really must explain what these 'iratzes' are and why you seem to believe they'll accelerate your healing to unprecedented degrees," Maura contributed softly.
Jane smirked smugly as Angela focused her attention on the new addition.
The remainder of the meal was spent listening to Angela and Maura discuss various aspects of the doctor's life, heavily interspersed with Angela's "You're too skinny, dear, eat more" comments.
"Jane, why don't you show Maura up to the guest room beside yours, an make sure she has everything she needs while she's here," Angela instructed, and then with her eyes she communicated to her daughter the fact that they would be having a discussion as soon as that was complete.
"Sure, Ma," Jane replied, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "This way, Maura," Jane offered, getting up from the table.
"Oh, shouldn't I take my plate someplace?"
Jane chuckled. "Nah, Frankie'll take care of it. He and Giovanni are on dish duty tonight." And she hauled the doctor away before anything else could happen.
They went through a mini-tour of the building, Jane pointing out any things she ought to know, such as to stay away from the boys rooms, and the locations of the bathrooms.
"Well, have a good night," Jane muttered as she opened the door to Maura's room.
"Oh, no, wait please. Come in, let me take a look at your sutures, at least."
Jane just yanked her shirt up in the hallway to show her stitches. "They're fine, and by tomorrow or the day after, it'll be completely fine. No worries, Doc." And then she gave a short wave over her shoulder as she meandered down the hall, tugging her shirt back over the wound.
Maura stared after her until she vanished from sight, and then she turned in for the night with a quiet sigh.
Jane paced a couple of lengths outside of the office before finally gathering the courage to go in. She was dead-sure that her mother would have several earfuls for her.
"Alright, young lady, out with the whole story about this Maura person. What is she?" Sean asked, much to Jane's surprise. Her mother was being uncharacteristically quiet in a corner, which most likely, would only lead to a future explosion sometime very soon. Jane swallowed loudly.
"As far as I can tell, she's a mundane. She has no Downworlder marks, hasn't even heard of our side of life. She just has the Sight, as rare as that is." Jane theorized, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
"Does she know yet?" Sean asked, leaning against a large oak desk.
Jane flicked her eyes over to her mother. "No. I haven't told her everything. And I haven't made the offer. You know what happens when the offer is made. It isn't fair to her to even broach that topic before she's had a taste."
"You know that isn't your decision to make?" Sean stared at her until she nodded.
"She deserves a chance. Come on, you know as well as I do that everyone who gets the offer, takes it before they know what exactly they're getting into because it's something new, it's exciting. And then they get into it with us and they see the despair and the suffering and they want out, but they can't get out because of that goddamn oath, Sean." Jane shook her head distastefully. "We're supposed to be better than that, especially to anyone who would willingly be able to choose to stay with us, be our friends."
"I don't disagree with you, Jane, but you know that we are under orders from the Clave, and this particular rule has been a part of our heritage since before any of us were born. It's not something that will change overnight." Sean sighed, "I don't, however, see anything the matter with waiting a little while until we give her the choice. After all, there has been an influx of mysterious happenings around here which we haven't been able to solve. I should think that even the Clave would be in agreement that particular dispersion of priorities."
Sean winked at Jane. "Now, I'm pretty sure your mother wishes to tear you a new one for both getting injured and being late, so I'll just leave you two ladies to it," he said, and took his leave of the room.
Jane winced in preparation.
"You know, everyone seems to be under the impression that you're about to get your ass kicked for things that are not within your control. Do I really come across like that?" Angela pondered aloud rhetorically. "Look, you're a brilliant fighter, Jane, so I know it's not as though you were simply being lazy and got hurt. But when you get hurt it just makes me so upset that you can't see it as being a problem. If all of my children got hurt as much as you did, they'd probably have to commit me to a psych ward simply because I'd be a worrying, fretful mess every time any of you left the house."
Angela sat down heavily behind the desk in the plush leather desk chair.
"Just, take better care of yourself, Janie. You're the only daughter I have, the first child, you have a special place in my heart. Please don't make me join the many ranks of parents who have lost their children prematurely. You're not invincible. And if you need someone's help, just ask for it. No one will think any less of you. We're Shadowhunters, Janie, we band together and we are here for one another, no matter what." Angela paused to gather her breath. "Just – try to remember that you mean something to all of us, okay? Please stop all the recklessness and masochistic, martyr-like tendencies."
Jane opened her mouth to retort, but found she had nothing to say. She simply took Angela's hand wave of dismissal to heart and exited the office, heading straight to her own room.