Flashback

Jane Rizzoli arrived at her parents house after a long day at the office. She was tired and just wanted to take her daughter home and go to sleep. She heard her daughters cries when she unlocked the front door.

Angela Rizzoli was trying to soothe the crying four-year-old sitting on top of the kitchen counter. "Look Mommy is here," Angela said.

Jane rushed to her daughter who looked like she'd been crying for some time now. "Baby what happened?"

"She fell off her bike in the backyard," Angela explained softly.

"Owie," Amanda said through her tears.

"You got an owie?" Jane asked, her motherly instincts were in full bloom.

Amanda nodded and continued to cry. A golf ball sized scrape on both her knees and one on her left elbow. When Angela left to get some bandaids, Jane ran a paper towel under the tap water. "Okay, it's okay sweetie. It's just a few scrapes."

Jane gently cleaned the blood around her scrapes and Amanda eventually calmed down. "See? You're okay," Jane said soothingly. She used her thumbs to wipe the tears off Amanda's little cheeks and used a kleenex to wipe her nose and everything was okay again.

Amanda didn't even flinch when her mothers best friend poked at her bruise. "You took quite a punch Amanda," she observed.

Jane stood nearby thinking about the days events. The two women in the main office of the middle school where the mothers of the girls Amanda got into a fight with. They were angry as hell but didn't even seem to notice Amanda was the one who went home with the biggest bruise. Amanda barely spoke a word since.

"Just keep some ice on it for the next twenty-four hours to keep the swelling down."

Maura went to the freezer to grab a fresh ice pack while Jane kept an eye on her daughter. Amanda kept her gaze anywhere but at Jane and she could only wonder what was going on in that girls head.

Just then Jane's work phone rang. "Rizzoli . . . . Okay, I'll be right there," she said then she turned to Maura. "New lead in the case."

Amanda jumped out of her chair. "Do you have to go?"

Both Jane and Maura seemed surprised to hear Amanda's voice. "Maura's here kid, and Grandma is out in the guest house," she reassured her.

Amanda felt all her emotions build up in her chest but she swallowed it all back. Her mom was so tuff and she didn't like to weak in front of her. "I want to go home. With you," she added.

Jane watched her daughter's built up walls slowly start to crumble but not all the way yet. Her job meant everything to her but Amanda came first, always. "Okay, Maura can you call Cavanaugh and tell him I can't make it in tonight?"

"Yeah Jane, I can do that."

Amanda was silent the entire ride home and through most of dinner. She stood in the kitchen near Jane at all times keeping the ice pack on her eye. She moved where Jane moved. Amanda was independent like both of her parents and Jane really started to worry. "Do you want some ice cream?"

Amanda thought it over for a minute. "Are you gonna have some?"

"Yeah, I'll have some."

Jane took out two bowls and scooped some vanilla ice cream in both, she topped them with some chocolate sauce with no sprinkles. Just how they both like it. The two of them sat on the couch with Joe Friday at their feet and ate their ice cream.

Soon it was bedtime and jane went into her bedroom to get ready for bed. She showered, got dressed, brushed her teeth and all the while thinking about her daughter. It was killing her not knowing what was going on with her.

"Mom!"

Jane literally sprinted to Amanda's bathroom. "Kid, what happened?"

Amanda had her hands cupped under her chin to keep the blood pouring out of her nose from dripping to the floor. "My nose is bleeding," she panicked.

Jane breathed a sigh of relief. "It won't stop," Amanda was starting to breathe heavily.

"Okay, okay," Jane said bringing her daughter over to the sink. She first helped her wash the blood off her hands and then held a wet washcloth under her nostrils until the bleeding stopped. "Are you okay now?" Jane asked once the blood flow stopped and Amanda was all cleaned up.

She nodded and stared down at her feet. Jane watched her daughter start to build up her protective walls again and she felt helpless. "I . . . I wanna sleep you with tonight," she said so quietly that Jane almost didn't hear her.

"Okay, yeah that's fine," Jane reassured her and reached out for her hand.

Amanda took it and gripped it tightly as they made their way to her mother's bedroom. Jane crawled into bed with her little girl and wrapped a protective arm around her. Amanda fell asleep quickly but it was killing Jane that she didn't know what was going on with Amanda.