Hello everyone, once again thank you for the follows, reviews, and favorites. I know I say this every time but you are all wonderful. Here is chapter 11, I think it's a little longer (for me anyway) and a lot happens. I hope you enjoy. I really tried on the grammar, all mistakes are mine and I apologize in advance.

January 15th to 16th 1983

Gia parked in the lot in front of the bowling alley and the four of them got out of the car. Maura was hesitant, she looked at the deep puddles from the rain the previous night.

"What's the matter, Peanunt?" Gia asked.

Maura looked down at her boots. "These are suede, I can't get them wet they'll be ruined."

Jane ran over to Maura's side of the car. "I can give you a piggy back ride." Jane turned around and moved her ponytail to the front so it wouldn't pull when carrying the six year old on her back. Maura wrapped her arms around Jane's neck and her legs around her waist. Once Maura was on her back, Jane ran through the parking lot trying to avoid as many puddles as possible, so Maura wouldn't be splashed.

"Be careful." Gia called out nervously. "Thanks for bringing her Val, Maura doesn't get to hang out with any nice girls around her age."

"Jane's happy to be here, she usually hangs with her brothers and the neighborhood boys all of the time, my aunt Ang says most of the girls are afraid of her."

Gia grabbed her friends arm and smiled as they both walked to catch up with the girls, who were jumping up and down and dancing at the entrance.

When they walked into the bowling alley, they approached the counter to get their bowling shoes.

Maura looked down at her feet and made a face of disgust. "These are so hideous."

Gia laughed. "We need them Peanut, if not you'll be slipping all over the place."

Next the four went to pick out their bowling balls. Gia, Val, and Jane made rather quick choices, while Maura took her time.

"Oh, this one is purple." She grabbed the ball unaware of the weight and fell over after she picked it up. The three rushed over to help her up. Val picked up a much lighter ball and handed it to the six year old. "I think this may be better for you." She said, as she handed the ball to Maura.

They then made their way to the designated alleys. Jane sat at the computer to enter the names. "Kids versus adults right?" She entered in Gia and Val's names at the first alley and then switched to the second one where she entered "Pea" for Maura and "Riz" for herself.

The two teams started to play. Valerie was rusty and it took her a while to get back into the grove of bowling again, while Gia was rather good but slightly handicapped due to the minimal use in her left arm. Jane was very good, she was used to bowling, because she went with her dad every Monday night after school. Maura was trying her best but seemed to be consistently throwing gutter balls.

Gia could see that Maura was frustrated and upset that she couldn't knock down any pins. She started to walk over to comfort her when she was stopped by Jane.

"Easy, Mama Bear, I got this one. Plus, she's my teammate."

Jane walked over to Maura.

Maura looked at Jane and frowned. "Are you upset that you picked me for your team?"

"What? No, of course not. But you seem to be upset."

"I just don't get it, I mean I'm calculating the physics each time I throw the ball. I'm considering the fiction, gravity and momentum. I should have hit something by now." She said in a disappointing tone.

Jane started to laugh.

"It's not funny." Maura stated defensively.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I've just never heard of anyone talking about math during bowling."

"Physics."

"Whatever. You're over thinking this kid, it's something that you have to feel. Here, let me help you." Jane grabbed Maura's ball from the return rack and approached her. She handed her the ball and got behind her doing a hand-over-hand technique to help her with the throw.

With Jane's help Maura was able to throw the ball straight down the alley knocking over nine pins. Maura jumped up and down and hugged Jane.

"Okay, kid, you've got one pin left. Remember don't think about it, just feel it."

Maura picked up her ball from the return track and approached the alley again, she followed Jane's advice and threw the ball like Jane had showed her. The other three were on the edge of their seats as Maura's ball made it's way down the alley. When it knocked down the left over pin, Jane picked her teammate up while Gia and Val clapped and cheered.

"You picked up the spare." Jane shouted.

Gia was happy to see Maura so happy and getting along with a girl her own age. She thought of the girls at Maura's school and ballet class and how mean they were to her. She didn't understand it. Maura was great and it was nice to see that a peer of Maura's could see that too.

They played for two hours, before Gia admitted that her shoulder was sore. Maura was surprised that Gia even admitted to this and was relieved that she was finally taking care of herself, even though Maura insisted on helping her back into the arm sling which she had taken the liberty of carrying in her bag, just in case Gia needed it. Out of the three games played, the adults managed to win two of them and the kids one.

"Anyone hungry?" Gia asked.

"I'm starving." Jane said holding her stomach.

"You ate three hot dogs." Maura said with confusion.

"She's a bottomless pit." Valerie joked.

Gia handed Valerie the keys. "You have to drive, because my arm is in this thing." The four got into the car and Gia directed Valerie to a diner.

When they got to the diner, it was busy, there wasn't any parking. Gia looked at the crowded diner and didn't feel like dealing with it. "Hey girls, if it's okay with you, I'd think I'd rather go back to the apartment and just have some pizza."

"It's your birthday G, so it's whatever you want." Val said smiling at her friend.

When they got back to the house, Gia ordered the pizza, while the girls settled in putting on their pajamas.

While waiting for the pizza, the girls watched television.

Gia went to the bathroom right as the delivery guy knocked on the door. Just then Maura remembered that they hadn't yet sang to Gia for her birthday, they didn't even have a cake, she felt bad, but had an idea. She began looking through all of Gia's drawers in her kitchen until she found a pack of candles. When Val put the pizza on the counter she saw that Maura had candles in her hands and knew what she was planning.

"I can't believe, I forgot about the cake, what a great idea!" Valerie said to the little girl.

"Pizza is way better than cake anyway." Jane said as she joined the other two in the kitchen.

The three worked quickly putting the candles in the pizza, lighting them, and turning the lights off, which they managed to do just in time as Gia exited the bathroom.

The three began singing "Happy Birthday."

Gia put her hand up to her heart, she was truly touched by this gesture. As she went to blow out the candles, she noticed that there were twenty-four instead of twenty-three.

Maura noticed this, almost as if she could read Gia's mind, she whispered in her ear. "The extra candle is for Allie." Gia's eyes began to water and words could not even express how much more she loved Maura in this moment. Gia blew out the candles and extended her right arm managing to bring all three girls in one big group hug. "Thank you so much."

When all of the pizza was gone, the two older girls decided that it was bed time for the two younger girls, even though the younger ones claimed that they were not tired. Gia and Valerie needed some time to catch up, just the two of them, so they put the girls to bed in Gia's room.

/

Jane and Maura remained awake lying in Gia's bed. Maura looked at the picture on the bedside table which featured five kids sitting concrete steps in front of a house. The one who appeared to be oldest was sitting on the top step with each child being younger as the steps went down. Maura immediately recognized Gia at the top step. She picked up the picture and showed it to Jane.

Jane looked at the picture. "How old do you think Gia is here?"

Maura looked at the picture and pointed to the child on the bottom step. "I think this is Allie, she looks about one year old, which would make Gia eight.

"I just turned eight in October." Jane responded.

Maura kept looking at the picture, she pointed to the girl just below Gia. "This must be Jess, she looks about my age."

Jane pointed at the boy and girl between Jess and Allie. "Then they must be Corey and Heather."

Maura looked at Jane "Gia's never mentioned them to me before, did you know them?"

"No." Jane responded and then turned on her side.

Maura returned the picture to the bedside table, and the two lay in silence for a few moments before Jane continued.

"I couldn't imagine what it must have been like for her, or what it's even like for her now, losing your whole family like that."

Maura poked Jane who turned around to face her. Then she asked the question she was too afraid to ask Gia. "Do you know how it happened?"

Jane sighed and looked at the younger girl. "You really don't want to know kid, I really wish I didn't."

"Did Gia tell you?" Maura asked.

"No I over heard my mom and Val talking about it at Thanksgiving this year. I knew that her family had died, I just didn't know how." Jane responded.

"It was a car accident." Maura stated.

Jane looked at Maura with watery eyes. "It was a tractor trailer, the man driving it was drunk, Jess, Allie and her parents died on impact. Corey and Heather were still alive when the ambulance arrived, but severely injured. Corey died moments before Gia got to the hospital, she held Heather's hand while she died."

Maura started to cry when she heard this, Jane was right, she wished she didn't know. She imagined how hard it must have been for Gia to watch Heather die.

Seeing the little girl next to her upset, Jane pulled Maura close and held her, they fell asleep this way.

/

Valerie and Gia sat on the couch after putting the two girls to bed.

"Maura is great isn't she? I really liked how she got along with Jane today. She was so nervous, but your cousin is really sweet."

Valerie smiled and looked at her friend and sighed. "I'm worried about you, G."

"Why?"

Valerie took in a deep breath and then exhaled. "I don't want this to be a repeat of Rhode Island."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gia responded defensively.

"You're getting too attached." Valerie responded sympathetically.

Gia started to get upset at her friend. "Well what do you expect, I'm all she has."

"That's not true, she has parents, but I'm beginning to think that you see her as all you have, like you did with the children you nannied for in Rhode Island. You can't keep doing this to yourself, what's going to happen when you stop working with her? When the family from before moved to Texas you cried in your bed for nearly two months, you barely attended class and your grades slipped." Valerie explained.

"This time is different." Gia responded.

"I know, it's worse."

Gia started to get mad. "You don't get to do this Valerie, you don't get to come here and tell me how to live my life. You left me and changed schools freshman year when I needed you most."

"You're the one that moved to Boston after graduation, we were finally going to get an apartment together, then you decided that you needed to go." Valerie snapped back.

"I couldn't handle it, you had just been accepted to grad school, and I... I was rejected from six grad school programs and I had lost my job." Gia started crying.

Valerie approached her friend and did something she had wanted to do for a while, she kissed her. Gia was caught off guard but didn't back away. When the kiss broke, Gia wasn't crying anymore but there was a look of shock on her face. Valerie took Gia's look face and assumed that Gia was upset by her actions. She kept repeating "I'm sorry" several times with no response from Gia who was speechless. Valerie's discomfort grew rapidly and she left Gia's apartment. It wasn't until Valerie was halfway down the hallway of her apartment complex that Gia started calling her name. Valerie felt rejected and was too embarrassed to go back.

Gia lay on her floor of her apartment staring at the ceiling and thinking about the kiss. It didn't feel weird or wrong, but she was confused, she had never thought of Valerie in that way before. Her musings were interrupted when she heard a knock at the door. Figuring it was Valerie she sprang up, and ran to the door, when she opened it she was surprised to see Hope standing there.

"Hello Gianna, happy birthday!" Hope said as she approached her friends right side greeting her with a hug.

"Thank you, Hope, I didn't know you knew it was my birthday."

"I remembered it from reading your chart, and I thought I'd surprise you." Hope was holding a small white bakery box in one hand and some wine in the other. "Sorry, I'm here so late, but I just got done a double, I figured you'd be up anyway seeing as how you never sleep." She handed Gia the bakery box. "The cupcake is for you, the wine is for me."

"Hey, I'd like some wine too." Gia said with a slight whine.

"Did you take any pain medication today?"

"No."

Hope walked over to Gia and flicked her left clavicle.

"Ouch, why does everyone think that this an okay thing to do?"

Hope smiled. "I wanted to make sure you weren't lying." She poured two glasses of wine. Then the two sat on the couch.

"How has your birthday been so far?"

"Well, it was going great until about an hour ago."

"Oh really, what happened?"

Gia was nervous about telling Hope what happened between her and Valerie, but she was so overwhelmed by what had happened that she had to tell someone.

Hope's reaction was more accepting than Gia had anticipated, since her brother was gay Hope wasn't weirded out by same sex relationships. "So, how do you feel about it?"

"I don't know, I mean, I love Valerie, and the kiss wasn't weird it was kind of nice, I'm just surprised is all."

"It's okay to feel the way you feel, I'm here for you Gia." Hope smiled at her friend.

The two continued talking for an hour until Hope saw that Gia kept yawning, she too was also tired, having worked a double shift. Gia asked her to stay and have breakfast with everyone in the morning which Hope would have accepted if she didn't have work so early. Shortly after they said their good byes Gia fell asleep on the floor leaving the couch open for Valerie when she returned.

/

Two hours later as dawn approached Valerie quietly walked back and entered Gia's apartment still having Gia's car keys in her pocket from earlier. She went into Gia's room and woke Jane.

She whispered. "We have to leave."

Jane sat up rubbed her eyes and looked at her cousin. "Why?"

"Shhhh, you'll wake Maura." Valerie said putting her finger to her lips. "Please just grab your stuff we've got to go."

Jane did as instructed and the two made a quiet exit.

/

An hour later Maura woke up and realized that Jane was missing. She ran out to wake up Gia.

"She's gone, she's gone." Maura said shaking Gia.

Gia looked around and noticed that the overnight bags were missing and assumed that they had left. Gia tried to cover up for their disappearance without worrying Maura. "Oh I guess they had leave early, maybe Jane had a hockey game or something." She put her hand on the girls shoulder. "Let's go get some breakfast."

The two got dressed and left the house in search of Belgian waffles.

I hope you liked it. Reviews are certainly welcome, I'd like to know your reactions to this chapter, but no pressure. Thank you for reading. Be well and have a splendid day.