With less than two weeks until Baby Rizzoli was due, Jane and Maura were busy preparing for her arrival. Maura was now on maternity leave and spent most of her time at home, but there wasn't much she could do around the house. She couldn't lift and, even if she could, Jane and Hannah wouldn't let her lift a finger out of fear of hurting herself or the baby. Even walking was sometimes difficult for Maura, but Jane thought the sight of her wife waddling from room to room was endearing. Jane knew walking was important for her wife's pregnancy, so she suggested taking walks around their block at least once a day
It had become a routine of theirs—Jane and Maura walking hand-in-hand around their block. Occasionally, their neighbors would stop them and ask questions about the baby and how excited they were about her arrival. Jane was annoyed by their questions at first, but she soon realized that they weren't asking these questions for the sake of making small talk. These people had known Maura for years. They knew her when she was lost and lonely, they knew her when she and Jane had first started their relationship, and now they were seeing her as a pregnant woman who would soon be bringing a baby into the world. Her neighbors genuinely cared about Maura and they had seen the transition not only of her life but of her outlook on life.
When they weren't being asked any questions, Jane and Maura took advantage of what little time they had left to be alone. They were excited about Baby Rizzoli, but they knew her arrival into this world would change nearly everything about their marriage. There'd be no making love to each other or sleeping for weeks. They'd be getting up in the middle of the night to feed Baby Rizzoli or hold her if she cried. As long as their baby wasn't going to sleep through the night, they wouldn't be sleeping through the night. There was also Hannah to worry about. Hannah didn't need constant care like Baby Rizzoli would, but she still needed guidance from her moms and Jane and Maura wanted to be sure they'd be there for both of their girls.
While on one of their daily walks, Jane stopped to pick a flower for Maura. She picked a flower for her just about everyday, but Maura's reaction never changed. She'd always kiss her wife and then smile as she held the flower up to her nose to lightly inhale its scent.
"I'm going to miss this," Jane admitted while Maura looked at her flower.
"What are you going to miss?" Maura asked, taking her eyes off of the flower and meeting Jane's adoring gaze. "My ice cream cravings? My emotional outbursts?"
"Everything," Jane smiled. "You eating all the food in the house and saying it's because Baby Rizzoli wanted it, you waking me up in the middle of the night because you want to make love, and just seeing your body change every week and knowing each change you're going through means we're closer to meeting our daughter." Jane placed her hand on Baby Rizzoli's home. "It's almost time to meet you. Until then, be good to your mom. She loves you already—we all do."
Maura affectionately cupped her wife's face in her hands. "Jane," she said softly. The tears were starting to pool in the corners of her eyes, but Maura was there to wipe them away the moment they ran down Jane's cheeks.
"I'm okay," Jane insisted.
"You can cry," Maura reassured her. "I cried earlier."
"You're pregnant," Jane pointed out. "People expect you to be emotional."
"You're living with a pregnant woman and a teenager," Maura smiled. "Nobody expects you to not cry."
Jane was comforted by her words. Her wife was right; it was okay for her to cry. Maura was the one who was pregnant, but nobody expected Jane to be strong all the time. She was allowed to have her fears and her insecurities. "Let's go home. We left two fifteen-year-olds alone in the house with free reign to decorate for Halloween."
Since Maura wasn't feeling up to decorating and Jane spent most of her time either at work or looking after Maura, Hannah and Emma took it upon themselves to decorate for Halloween. It was Jane and Maura's first Halloween as parents and Maura had suggested hiring a decorator, but Hannah refused because, according to her, it'd take all the fun out of preparing for Halloween.
When Jane and Maura approached their house, their eyes were drawn to the writing on the front door. Abandon hope all ye who enter here, Maura read aloud.
"And it's written in fake blood," Jane pointed out. "Impressive."
"Are you sure letting Hannah decorate was a good idea?" Maura asked. "I want it to be tasteful."
"You gave a teenager a decorating budget and free reign to decorate for Halloween and you expect it to be tasteful," Jane laughed. "I'm surprised there's no chain saw noises playing on a continuous loop." As if on cue, the chain saw noises and screams began to play. "There they are," Jane smiled, but with each second Maura was becoming more displeased. "C'mon, Maur. It's the last day of September and the thirty-one days of Halloween are about to begin. It's going to be our first Halloween with Hannah as our daughter. She's never been able to decorate like this before. Just let her have some fun."
Much to Maura's delight, the inside of the Rizzoli house was a bit more tastefully decorated, but Jane knew it was only because Hannah had began with the outside and hadn't quite gotten to decorating the inside of the house.
"What do you think?" Hannah asked as she was standing on a chair and hanging fake spider webs along the ceiling.
"It isn't very convincing," Emma responded. "This cotton isn't the right texture for a spider's web."
"Would you like me to get real spiders and have them make webs for us?" Hannah sarcastically responded. "Grab the fake blood and go write 'Bloody Mary' on the bathroom mirror."
"With pleasure," Emma smiled. Unlike the fake blood sold at the stores, Hannah and Emma's batch of fake blood was in a mixing bowl rather than a bottle. Emma had made some of her own because she wanted something that would look more authentic and, when she saw what her girlfriend had concocted, Hannah fell even more in love with her.
"Isn't she great?" Hannah asked once Emma had taken the bowl of blood to the bathroom. "Other girls aren't that into Halloween, but my girlfriend knows how to make fake blood."
"You and I know how to pick 'em," Jane said to her daughter. "What else are you going to do?"
"I don't know," Hannah shrugged. The arrangement of spider webs was finally to her liking, so she pulled a couple of plastic spiders from the back pocket of her jeans and added them to the webs. "I was thinking we could turn the guest house into a haunted house. Do you think you could bring some crime scene tape from work?"
"Crime scene tape?" Maura asked, but Jane and Hannah noticed her tone of voice had changed.
"Yeah, crime scene tape," Hannah responded as she stepped down from the chair she was standing on. "Mom, are you okay?"
Without waiting for Maura's response, Jane pulled out a chair and urged her to sit down. "I shouldn't have made you walk so much."
"You didn't," Maura reassured her. "Walking is good for me. Do you mind if I change into my pajamas and turn in early?"
"Do you want me to help you?" Jane asked. She hoped she had come off as helpful, and she did want to help her wife, but Jane was really hoping to squeeze in some alone time with her even if it was just for a few kisses.
Maura smiled at her. "I can manage." When she saw the disappointed look on her wife's face, Maura grabbed her by the hand. "But having help would be nice."
Hannah rolled her eyes. "If you two are gonna do it, can you please keep the noise level to a minimum? Emma and I are trying to create hell on earth here."
"Hannah Grace," Jane began to lecture until she realized she was starting to sound like her own mother.
"Jane," Maura whimpered.
"Mom," Hannah gasped. "Mom, you have pee dripping down your legs!"
Maura looked down at the small puddle that was now forming underneath her. "Jane, my water broke."
"That's not pee," Jane informed Hannah. "Her water broke, which means she's going into labor." Jane turned from her daughter so she could look her wife up and down. It hadn't exactly been nine months, but Jane and Maura had been told by Maura's doctor that Baby Rizzoli had a healthy development and was ready to be brought into the world anytime soon. Jane and Maura just hadn't thought it would be this soon.
"Ma?" Hannah snapped her fingers in front of Jane's face to get her attention. "Ma?"
"What?" Jane asked after Hannah had brought her out of her daze.
"Mom is going into labor. I'm not an expert on childbirth, but shouldn't you be doing something like, I don't know, taking her to the hospital?"
"Maura," Jane gasped. "Maura, I'm sorry."
"I'll go start the car so you could leave right away," Hannah insisted. "Ma, you grab the bag you packed for Mom. Mom, you come with me. I'll call grandma in awhile and tell her Mom's in labor. She could drive Emma home and take me to the hospital. We've got this."
Jane felt as if they just had a team huddle and, for the first time, she wasn't coaching their little team. For a week, they had been preparing themselves for what to do when Maura went into labor. They had packed a bag and rehearsed what everyone would do down to the smallest detail, but when the time finally came all of their preparation had slipped Jane's mind.
Jane, you're a detective, she told herself. You should be used to thinking under pressure.
But this was unlike anything she had ever experienced. Her wife, the woman she loved more than life itself, was going to bring a baby into the world and she needed to be strong for her. She needed to coach her through this and do whatever she possibly could to comfort Maura.
Maura's bag was in plain view from the doorway of their bedroom, so Jane grabbed it as quickly as she could and hurried over to the bathroom where Emma was writing on the walls with the fake blood she had made. Emma usually made herself a part of all Rizzoli family happenings, but Jane noticed that she had her head phones on the whole time and most likely didn't hear anything that had just happened.
Teenagers, Jane smiled. It seemed like just yesterday that she was Hannah and Emma's age and now she was a married woman with a career and a growing family.
Hannah was waiting for her near the car and when she handed Jane the keys, Jane pulled her in for a hug. "Be good," she told her daughter. "I love you."
No more than five minutes had passed from the time Maura's water broke to the time they pulled out of the driveway on the way to the hospital, but Jane had experienced such a wide range of emotions in that short amount of time. They would soon be holding their baby girl and starting a new chapter in their lives, but in the meantime Jane was going to hold Maura's hand and let her know, as best as she could, that they were in this together and they always would be.