Hey, guys. Thank you all for reading and following, and reviewing. It means much to me.
I got rid of Hanley because I got sick of him myself and making him a bad guy was the logical consequence.
Anyway, I hope you'll like this update as well.
Enjoy.
T73.
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Adam is cracking an eye open as he feels that someone is staring unashamed at him and smiles as he is greeted by brown eyes. "Morning." He says with a sleepy voice and stretches his arms over his head.
"Morning." Liz replies and runs an hand over his chest.
"Why am I always waking up in your bed?" He asks and rubs his face.
"Because you seem to prefer it."
"It is much more comfortable then mine. I admit it."
Liz chuckles and sighs heavily. "You have to go."
Adam freezes and drops the hands to the mattress. "Why?"
She chuckles and takes a deep breath. "Because you and I have to go to work."
He makes a confused face and props himself up to take a look at her alarm. "Now?"
"No, not now." Liz laughs amused and runs her finger through his hair. "But I have to take a shower and you have to get ready too."
He doesn't much to hover over her and looks down at the woman who is laughing the way he never has seen her laughing. He is frowning a little as she smiles like a idiot at him. "Why are you smiling at me like that?"
She takes a deep breath and let her hands wander over his shoulders. "Because I'm happy."
Adam finally smiles back at her and nods. "Yeah, I me too."
Liz is holding his gaze and pulls his head down. She smiles broadly when she doesn't feel the slightest resistance and hums approvingly before she starts to push Adam away again. "I really have to get ready, Adam."
Adam buries his face in her pillow and groans loudly in disapproval. "You know, you're gonna be the death me." He states and turns his head, his eyes are nowhere but on the brunette's face.
"People called me a lot of things, but none of them called me deadly." She says and arches an brow. "I think I am insulted."
He chuckles and turns back on his back, tucking his arm behind his head. "Deadly in a good way."
Liz scoffs and thrusts her chin at her door. "Get out of my bed, now."
Adam props himself up on his elbows and chuckles. "All right, I am gone when you come out of your bathroom, you're gonna miss me."
Liz gives him another peck and smirks. "I sure will. See you at headquarters."
He chuckles and gets out of the bed too.
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Liz is standing in front of a door and knocks all over again, announcing who she and the young man next to her are.
He is in twenty, has a pale complexion, curly light blond hair cut short, and green eyes. He is short, quite muscular, and is also wearing his uniform. It is very obvious that he just gratitude from the Academy and she asks herself if she had the same expression on her first days in this uniform.
She nods at a window and smiles a little. "McKinnon, go and check if there is a fire escape."
"Why," Gabe McKinnon asks with a high voice and walks towards the window.
Liz is blinking at him and frowns. "So you or I can get on the escape and check if everything in there is okay and go back to whatever is waiting for us."
He nods slowly and does as he was told, trying to open the window without any success. "There is a fire escape, but I can't open it."
"Painted shut?" She asks and keeps on knocking on the door.
"Nah, I think it's busted." He simply answers and shrugs.
Liz drops her hand and the smile falls. "All right, let's see if we find another way to get inside there."
"And you are really Sergeant Jane Rizzoli's daughter?" McKinnon asks as he follows her towards the stairway.
Liz licks her lips and nods with perked eyebrows. "Yes, just like Dr. Isles'"
"Right," he laughs nervously. "Did you always want to be a cop?"
Liz stops abruptly as she hears a familiar clicking of a lock, holding a hand up.
"I am sorry if it was a too perso -" He starts to excuse with a blush.
"Sssh," she hisses before she turns around see that the apartment door gets opened. She smiles broadly as a boy with brown hair sticks his head out and makes her way back to the door. "Hey, there. What's your name?"
The boy in the age of seven looks with uncertain eyes up at her. "Marvin."
She crouches down and places an hand on her chest. "Hi, Marvin. I am Elizabeth, but you can call me Liz. And that's my friend Gabe. Did you call the police?"
Marvin makes a pouty face and nods. "My mom's head is bleeding and she doesn't wake up. She told me to never open the door if she is sleeping."
Liz frowns a little and looks him in the eye. " Good job, buddy. Can I go in there and see if I can help your mom?"
He only nods.
"Are you living with your mom and dad here?"
The boy shakes his head.
"Is there someone else in there?"
Marvin shakes his head again.
Liz gets back up to her feet and looks directly at McKinnon. "You stay with Marvin in the hallway and call me when someone wants to get in here. I'll go and check on his mother."
McKinnon nods and takes the boy to the side. "Come on, Marvin."
Liz takes a deep breath and somehow already knows what she is going to find. She places her hand on the handle of her gun and enters carefully the apartment. She instantly can see that someone has been searching through the drawers and cupboards.
Liz is frowning while she makes sure that really no one else is in here and enters the bedroom. She doesn't need to be a doctor to say that the woman on the bloody bed is everything but alive.
She sighs heavily and turns to leave, calling it in before she checks on the little boy.
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Jane arrives with Maura and Adam at the new crime scene and looks at the young man. "What exactly did operations say?"
"Not much." He answers and looks as annoyed as Jane, shrugging. "Just that there is a dead woman laying in her bed. A Iris Fisher."
Jane heaves a sigh and furls her eyebrows when she spots her daughter's serious face and a boy with an EMT. "Uh-oh, that face doesn't say anything good."
Maura groans and takes a deep breath. "No, it doesn't."
Liz is seeing her parents in the corner of her eye and excuses herself for a second. "Hey, there."
"You found the victim?" Jane asks unceremoniously and furrows her eyebrows.
"Yeah, we got called here." Liz states and rolls her eyes as the others look confused at her. "And with we I mean Officer Gabe McKinnon and I. He's new."
The older Rizzoli looks with a smirk at the others and laughs, "Well, lucky you."
Maura is only rolling her eyes.
Adam thrusts his chin at Marvin. "And who is the boy?"
Liz is briefly looking over her shoulder and sighs. "Uh, this is Marvin Fisher, the victim's six-years old son. He was the one who called 911 and let us in the apartment."
"He was in the apartment when his mother got killed?" Jane asks and frowns deeply.
"Probably."
"Damn it." Adam whispers under his breath.
Maura looks long at her daughter. "Are there any signs that he got assaulted too?"
Liz starts to shake her head slowly and presses her lips together. "No. No, he is in shock, but physically perfectly fine. He told me that his mother sent him into his room and that he should not open the door, no matter what he hears. That's probably the reason why he didn't get hurt."
"Thank God." Jane states and frowns. "Can you take care of him?"
"You are kidding, right?" Liz laughs and sobers as soon as she sees three serious faces. "I am a cop and not a nanny."
Jane huffs and lowers her eyebrows. "Only until social services comes in and picks Michel up."
"Marvin." Liz corrects her Ma and wants to slap herself.
"He created a relationship with you, Liz." Maura says with furrowed brows. "Maybe he is going to tell you more when you spend more time with him. And it could traumatize him even more when he gets passed from one officer to the next."
Liz is staring at all of them and begs Adam silently for a little help, but he just shrugs. Her body language changes and she exhales through her nose. "Fine, until social services comes to pick him up.
Jane smirks and calls after her, "See it as practice." She think about her own words and frowns. Now, I really turned into Ma. She can see the blank face of Adam and her frown deepens. "She isn't … She hasn't told us … Never mind."
Maura starts to laugh and follows them.
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Liz comes with two paper cups in her hand in the conference room on the third floor and places one of them in front of Marvin. "There you go. A triple latté for you and one for me." She is smiling as she sees the confused look of the boy and sits down next to him. "Don't worry, it's chocolate milk."
Marvin face is lighting up and he wraps his hands around the cup.
She clicks their cups and smiles. "Cheers."
He smiles broadly and eyes her as he takes a sip of his chocolate milk. "I become a cop too, and then we are partners."
Liz almost chokes on her coffee and she licks her lips with a nod. "That sounds like a plan, buddy. I am looking for a good partner for a while."
"Do you hurt people?"
"If I have no other choice I have to hurt them."
"And what happened then."
"Well, most of them I put them away so they can't hurt other people."
"And what happens with the others."
"Since when do you wanna become a cop Marvin?" She asks back to dodge the question.
He takes a swig of his drink. "Since forever."
That really makes Liz laugh and she leans a little forward. "That sounds awful long."
"I am six." Marvin says proudly and raises his chin a little.
Liz laughs heartily and furrows her brows. "I know." She says and becomes serious again. "I have to ask you some things, buddy." She takes a moment as he nods. "Can you tell me what happened before your mom sent you to your bedroom?"
Marvin glances at his hands and shrugs. "Mom was about to make me my favorite breakfast and someone knocked like crazy."
Liz takes one of his hands in her own and runs her thumb over his knuckles, slightly frowning . "That's why you didn't open the door when I knocked."
He nods without looking at her. "I was scared that the man is coming back."
"How do you know that it was a man?"
"He yelled at her that he want the bugs. But we don't have bugs, Mom doesn't like them."
Liz is frowning deeply. Bucks, not bugs. It was about money. "Can you tell me how the man, who yelled at your mom, look like." She sighs as he shakes his head again. "Okay, do you wanna tell me what happened then?"
Marvin looks up at her and sighs. "I heard the door again and I went to her bedroom. I told Mom to get out of bed, but she was sleeping again. And I called you because I the blood."
"You did good." Liz says and frowns deeply. Now she knows why Jane has told her to take care of the boy. For every cop it is getting more difficult when a child is involved in a case, but it gets more difficult when the child has nowhere to go, is left alone in a world like this. She swallows hard and frowns. "You did really good, Marvin. Do you wanna ask me some questions now?"
He shifts in his seat and he looms back at her. "When did you want to be a cop."
Liz leans back into her chair and rubs her temples with her fingertips, pretending to think hard. "Oh, my. That has to be hundred years ago." She says and he giggles. She smiles broadly and furrows her eyebrows. "I decided to become a cop when I was in your age."
"Why?"
"Because my Ma and my uncle are cops too, and they are my heroes." She answers truthfully and nods as his eyes went huge.
"Do you have a dad?" He wanna know next.
Liz shakes her head and smiles. "No, but I do have two moms who love me very much, like your mom love …" She trails off for a second. "Like your mom loves you."
"Is she a cop too."
"No, she is a doctor. She helps us to catch bad guys."
"Cool."
"Right?"
Marvin nods and frowns. "Do you know some cool games?"
Liz frowns and leans forward. "I know a game that I always loved to play with my Ma, we still play it sometimes. Do you know how Thumb Wrestling goes?"
He starts to smirk and she smiles wryly.
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Jane is on her way to the conference room to tell Liz that the woman from social services finally has arrived. She always hates this part of the job, when a child gets a victim of the system.
She had asked her daughter on purpose to take care of the little boy, because she wanted to taught her how gruesome the life as a detective can be. And to see how she can handle it when she sees her only daughter being with a child.
The sergeant slows her steps as soon as she hear a simultaneous 1-2-3-4, I declare a thumb war coming out loud from the room.
She looks through the window and has to smirk as she sees how they start to wrestle with their thumbs, Liz' tongue sticking out of her mouth while she is smirking. Like when she was in his age, she thinks and something deep down in of her is breaking, but it is replaced by something else that is much warmer. Realization that her daughter really is a grown up is setting in and she embrace it. She turns her head and glance at Adam, who is discussing their next steps with her brother and takes a deep breath. Know she knows how her own mother must have felt like when she was in Liz' age. She smiles broadly as her daughter looks scandalized at the boy who is raising is hands up high, and she knows that her daughter lost on purpose like she always did.
Liz turns her head as the French door gets open and her smile drops a little as she looks into her mother face.
Jane frowns deeply and sighs. "Babar Driscoll is here now."
Liz is frowning as well and nods. Jane doesn't have to say more, she has heard the name well too often in the time she works for BPD. And she knows that Babar Driscoll is one of the good ones who actually care about her cases. But that doesn't make it any easier, she already had to deal with children who were neglected, but never with those who has to spend their lives in foster care because of their parents got killed.
She takes a deep breath and looks at the boy with brown hair and observant brown eyes. "All right, bud. It's time to say bye."
Marvin frowns and tilts his head to the side. "Can't I stay with you?"
Jane presses her lips together and shakes her head.
Liz sighs heavily and writes down her phone number down on a piece of paper. "I'm afraid no, but you can call me any time you feel like you have to, no matter if day or night." She says and presses the note into his hand. "But … can I get a hug?"
Marvin nods vehemently and throws himself into her arms.
Jane has to chuckle and gives the two this moment.
The smile on Liz' lips is almost splitting her face into two and she holds him tight, rubbing his back. "We stay in touch, all right?"
He nods and looks at the woman in Liz' age, taking her hand.
Liz gets up from her chair and puff out her cheeks. "Well, that was difficult." She laughs.
Jane is frowning deeply and rubs Liz' back as she sees the hurt in her daughter's eyes. "You're gonna be a greet mom one day."
Liz sighs loudly and her heart is swelling as she hears the words from her Ma. " Thank you. I learned from the best."
Jane can't help the smile and sighs.
Liz is chuckling and leans against her Ma. "Some day, Ma. Not exactly tomorrow."
Jane smiles and nods, heaving a sigh of relief. "Thank God." She chuckles as her daughter starts to laugh amused and furrows her brows. "What? You know that this old heart of mine can only bear a narrowed number of changes. Excepting the fact that you are indeed a grown up is a big step for me."
Liz starts to gather her belongings and smiles broadly. "I know, Ma."
Jane nods with a small smile but sobers immediately. "Could Marvin tell you something that is important?"
The younger woman runs her hand over her front and furrows her brows. "Yeah, I think that Iris Fisher got killed because of money. He told me that the a man came in and yelled at Iris that he want the bucks."
The sergeant nods slowly and opens the door. "Yeah, that would make sense. Frankie made a thoroughly background check of Iris and found out that she is a former . She bailed out when she became pregnant. Her pimp, Christian Ferguson, is known for his propensity to violence. He probably also is Marvin's biological father."
Liz is frowning deeply and glance long at the older woman. "Iris Fisher got beaten to death because she embezzled money seven years ago?"
"Pimps can be resentfully." Jane states and follows her daughter out of the conference room.
"You don't say." Liz counter and sighs loudly.
"We are about to make the arrest. Do you wanna join us?"
"Can't you take Leslie or Mark?"
The Italian scrutinizes the younger Rizzoli thoroughly and nods as she starts to understand. She also had a lot operation that really got to her. "Sure."
Liz nods and starts to walk again. "Okay."
Jane is looking after her daughter and takes a deep breath. She realizes that Maura isn't so wrong, she and Liz really do have much in common. She still can remember how she felt like the day as she had the first operation that got to her, she wanted to hide somewhere and cry the rest of the day. And her daughter had the same expression two minutes ago.
Adam joins her and looks in the same direction, not really being sure what he is looking at. "You okay?"
She jumps and glares at me. "Jesus, don't sneak up on me."
"Sorry," he says and is grinning as she rolls her eyes.
Frankie is about to put his jacket on as he rounds the corner and looks at his sister. "Jane, you're ready to go?"
Jane is taking a deep breath and clenches her teeth. "Yeah, let's put this son of a bitch behind bars."
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Liz is standing in Adam's kitchen and is staring out of the window, replaying the day in her head. She hadn't had planned to spend the night with him again, but she wasn't in the mood of being alone after her shift.
She spots his reflex in the window and smirks. "You really have to learn how to wear a shirt."
He scoffs and wraps his arms around her middle. "Says the woman who is standing in my kitchen only in sports bra and sweats." He replies and she chuckles. "Jane mentioned that you have been great with Marvin."
She turns the corners of her mouth downward and shrugs. "I was just doing my job."
"Uh-huh."
"I am asking myself if mankind always was that gruesome."
"It was."
"Can you once disagrees with me?"
He frowns a little and blinks a couple of times. "I can't if you are right."
She leans her head back so she can look up at him. "Can you at least try to be less perfect?"
Adam is grunting amused and kisses her forehead. "I am hardly perfect. I do have my flaws."
"Oh, yeah? What flaws? I can't see any. You are handsome, smart, kind, funny. I see no flaws."
"Thank you, thank you and thank you. Um, as child I was a loner because I was porky."
Liz is snorting in disbelief. "Yeah, sure. Like I do believe that."
Adam steps back and makes his way to his laptop and walks with it back to the island. "See it yourself if you don't believe me." He says and looks at the brunette.
She rolls her eyes and rounds the island and looks at the screen. Her eyes grows huge as she looks at a picture of a very chunky boy with the same blue eyes of Adam. "That's you?"
"Yap."
"Wow."
He furls his eyebrows and stares over her head. "I don't take that as a compliment."
Liz finally turns around to look directly at Adam. "I am sure that I would have liked you."
Adam furls his eyebrows and smirks. "We wouldn't have been friends because I also was very, very shy."
"Good think that we got to know as adults then." She states and smirks.
He perks his eyebrows and nods approvingly, but then he is glancing long at her and takes a deep breath.
Liz tilts questioningly her head to the side and holds his gaze. "What?"
Adam shakes his head and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "I …" He presses his lips together and sighs again. "I like you very, very much."
Liz' heart is skipping a beat and she can tell that her eyes are giving her away. She is more than glad that he doesn't throw those three little words out like a daily Hello and that he doesn't seem to expect her saying them right now. Not like her ex after she had told him that she was falling for him. She suppress the urge to roll her eyes and thinks, Yeah, that is the right moment to think about your ex who turned out to be murderous lunatic, Liz.
They had admitted that they are in love with each other, but it appears that none of them is willed to say that out loud yet, and it doesn't bother her at all. One step at a time.
She traces his jaw with her hand and frowns a little. "I like you very much too, Adam."
He smiles a little relieved and turns serious again as she pulls his head down.