Author's Note: Thank you very much for all the reviews. There is one chapter left and an epilogue so the story will come to an end on Thursday.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

It was snowing. All around them. The streets of Boston had disappeared under a thick layer of whiteness that stifled the sound of the traffic. The weather was completely unexpected. They had left a rainy Paris for a winter-ish Massachusetts. The contrast was sharp and it made Jane feel dizzy.

She didn't like it.

The taxi driver stopped in front of Maura's house. Nothing had changed: the old bricks of the façade still looked the same and the neighborhood was quiet as well. Beacon Hill. One of the wealthiest areas of Boston. Home. Somehow. It had felt like home once. Now there was nothing less sure.

Maura went to pay for the ride but Jane insisted to do it. They didn't argue very long. Maura simply ended up giving the driver a generous tip after he took their suitcases out of the truck of his berline and he carried them until the door.

Maura grabbed the keys that she hadn't touched in a month. She opened the door of her townhouse and walked inside.

The house was quiet but clean. Obviously Angela had taken great care of it. Maura would have to thank her. Perhaps a dinner in town would make Jane's mother happy. Since Jane didn't have a house anymore, Maura didn't need to ask her whether she would spend the night with her. At least the situation allowed her to avoid a delicate, slightly embarrassing question.

Of course, Jane would stay with Maura. It was the last night that they would actually spend together before Jane to leave for Quantico. There was no way Jane wouldn't stay home.

"Your mother must be working." Maura had walked till the kitchen. She rested a hand on top of the counter then gave Jane a smile. "She isn't here."

Neither of them dared to talk about it but they both had the same thing in mind: Angela's odd silence. Maura honestly felt concerned. She wondered if something had happened to Jane's mother, something bad. And nobody would have told them because it would have ruined their vacations. She couldn't be at the hospital, could she?

Jane gave Maura a very timid nod. She was tired and she needed to have a shower. She felt a bit shaky, and anxious. As a matter of fact, she dreaded the moment she would face her mother.

"Yeah you must be right."

It didn't fit though. Angela Rizzoli would have taken her day off in order to welcome back home one of her children after such a long separation. She would have even made it to the airport. But Jane had looked at everyone in the terminal of Logan International and she was sure that her mother wasn't in the crowd. Nobody was waiting for them anywhere.

"I'll go have a shower, if you don't mind..." Maura didn't dare to invite Jane to join her. It really didn't seem to be very appropriate. The freedom of space and the intimacy that they had shared in Paris was gone. Boston followed different rules. At least for the moment. "Unless you want to go first...?"

Jane shook her head vehemently. She rushed to the kitchen and took two mugs out of the cabinet. Random move. A desperate one too. She absolutely needed to get her hands busy on something in order to hide how shaking her hands were.

"No. Go first. It's fine. I'll make coffee in the meantime."

Maura had just reached the first floor when the main door opened in Jane's back. The sudden loud intrusion caused her to freeze. She swallowed hard – counted until five – then turned around to look at the person who had walked in.

Her mother had finally showed up.

"When did you arrive? Where's Maura? The grocery store's packed, I lost time there." Angela trotted to the kitchen. She dropped the grocery bags on top of the counter before giving Jane a perplexed look. "Really?"

Jane blinked.

"Really what?!"

Her question betrayed her latent nervousness. Her voice was unexpectedly high-pitched and shaking. She didn't feel fine at all.

"What do you mean by really what?" Angela rolled her eyes. Her exhuberance oddly echoed Jane's deep silence. The scene was very unbalanced. "You're off for a month and you don't hug me when you come back home?!"

"Oh." Jane obliged. As a matter of fact, she would have hugged her mother if the circumstances had been different, if she had known for sure that her mother was fine with her and Maura's relationship. But she wasn't sure at all. Not yet. She didn't know. "Sure. Sorry."

Angela looked genuinely thrilled. At least it was comforting. Yet Jane's heart wouldn't slow down. It kept on beating fast. Too fast. The matriarch turned around in order to look at her surroundings.

"Where's Maura? Where is she?"

"She went to have a shower."

"Good." Angela turned anew. She looked into Jane's eyes with her typical determination. Sometimes she made life sound terribly easy compared to the storm of doubts that invaded Jane on a regular basis. "Where are your boxes? You're moving in, right? You're not going to waste money on a rent. That'd be ridiculous."

Everything was going at light speed and Jane felt left aside. Perhaps it was because she was jet lagged. She honestly felt like she had missed something, the key-element that would allow her to understand her mother's reasoning.

"My boxes?! They're on their way to Quantico because that's where I go... Ouch!"

Jane hadn't seen it come. She hadn't seen her mother's hand come closer to the top of her head in order to slap her.

"What do you mean by Quantico?!" Angela's eyes widened with fear. "Jane Clementine Rizzoli! Don't tell me Washington D.C. is still in the picture while we now have a doctor in the family!"

"So... You're fine with it?" It wasn't easy to look at her mother. Jane had never liked talking about her romantic life with her mother but she knew how paramount it was to make an effort right now. As a matter of fact, she desperately needed it. It would be relieving. "With us?"

"Wasn't my text message clear enough?" Angela scoffed. She grabbed the mugs out of Jane's hands: now that she was back from the grocery store, she was in control of the situation. She walked to the coffee maker and proceeded to prepare some for the three of them. "And by the way, it's not really nice of you to not answer back all my messages, you know... I get you and Maura were busy but still... A bit of politeness wouldn't kill you."

Of all scenarios Jane had imagined, that one hadn't even crossed her mind. She didn't understand anything anymore. That conversation she was currently having with her mother didn't make sense at all. She shook her head and began to stutter.

"B-... But... You didn't send me any text message. I'm still waiting for one, actually!" Jane walked back to her backpack. She opened it and grabbed her cell phone. "Oh!" She had just received three messages from her mother, three messages that had been sent days earlier. "What on earth?! There must have been something wrong 'cause I just got them! I didn't get them in Paris."

It didn't make Angela smile. As a matter of fact, she looked upset. The perfect grin that had lit up her traits until now had vanished and she looked at Jane with sad eyes.

"You honestly thought that I could take it badly? Jane... When did I ever sound... So harsh to you, exactly? How could you come to such conclusion? Maura's family! The two of you have always been together anyway. Just not in an ordinary way. Now you are. It's the least surprising event of the year but it still makes me happy and proud."

"Oh."

Jane didn't know what to say back. As much as it was nothing but a misunderstanding and that she wasn't to blame if she hadn't received the text messages when in France, she actually also felt sorry to see her mother so upset because of the doubts she – Jane – had had. It wasn't fair at all for her mother.

"And why do you still go to Quantico? What was the purpose of that pic if you haven't changed your plans?"

"We'll see each other on weekend. That's a good compromise. Maura'll come to visit me and I'll come back here from time to time. It's perfect... Don't you think so?"

"No. I think it's a waste of time and I think you've already wasted too much time like that." Angela poured coffee in the three mugs that she had set down next to the coffee maker. "It's a waste of life, Jane. A complete waste of life."

The relief over her mother's acceptance vanished right away. The remark hit Jane like a ton of bricks. She grabbed the mug of coffee that her mother held out to her but she didn't take a sip. She stared at her mother instead. Blankly.

"Couldn't you show support, ma'? The situation's enough hard like that..."

Angela scoffed anew.

"And who's to blame for that?! You're the one who's making it hard, Jane. You and Maura, as a matter of fact. Why do you keep on putting obstacles into your life when you can get it more easily?"

Jane frowned. She hated admitting it but her mother was right.

She had hoped that her mother would be supportive no matter what but it was a mistake. Jane should have known better. Angela had her opinions and she wasn't afraid to speak out. If she thought something was wrong then she said it, even if it may hurt. Jane had tried to sound cheerful but her mother's remark had killed her fragile joy over the compromise that she and Maura had chosen. Angela hadn't lied. She hadn't pretended that she thought it was just fine.

Jane's mother was actually the first person telling Jane that she wasn't taking the right decision and it had taken Jane completely aback.