Flameout Chapter 22

Nikki

Nikki and Mark walked out to their car after their encounter with Jane. When they reached the car, Nikki turned to face Mark and told him, "I still care about her. I am not sure if I will ever get her out of my heart."

Mark didn't say anything, he simply opened the car door for Nikki and once she was buckled in, he closed the door and walked around the back of the car so that he could enter the driver's side. He paused at the back of the car and reached into his pants pocket. In his hand he felt the velvet box. He spun it around in his hand without removing it from his pocket. He thought to himself, 'What am I going to do now? I had this proposal all planned out. Tonight was the night that I was going to ask Nikki to marry me. I just don't know if she will ever have enough room in her heart for me, maybe I need to forget about her.'

Mark was so devoted to Nikki. He had driven to New York every weekend so that he could visit her at the jail. At her sentencing, Nikki's lawyer had asked that she be able to serve her sentence in Boston but the judge had refused. The judge simply replied, "She committed her crime in New York State and she will serve her sentence in New York State. Motion denied."

Mark now had to decide if he still wanted to ask Nikki to marry him. He knew she still had a thing for Jane but he was hoping after her time served, she would change her mind and forget about Jane. He decided he would give it another few weeks and see how he felt then. Afterall it looked as if Jane had moved on from Nikki.

J & M

Jane and Maura talked with the children and decided on their menu for their Valentine's Day family meal. The children were excited that all of them were planning the meal. They had never sat down and planned a meal as a family. The children might have been asked in the past by Maura or Skye as to what they would like to eat but never did they sit down and plan the meal as a family.

Once the menu was set, Maura called the restaurant and made arrangements for their meal for the next evening. Jane volunteered to pick the meal up as the children had wanted this to be a formal meal. The children wanted time to get dressed. Maura decided that she and Bella would go get a pedicure.

Charlie said he would go with Jane to pick up the meal after they had both dressed. Charlie had laughed when Jane tried and failed to tie her bow tie properly. Charlie then reached into his dresser drawer and pulled out a clip-on bow tie. Jane told him, "Hey, that's cheating."

"No way, Jane! It looks the same and no one will know if you hide the clips correctly." Charlie handed a clip-on bow tie to Jane and they left as soon as they had their bow ties in place. They were both wearing black tuxedos. Maura and Bella were wearing floor length evening gowns.

Charlie helped Jane serve Maura and Bella when they arrived home. They were careful not to spill anything on their tuxedos. Maura and Bella had both decided to wear emerald green dresses. The green dresses brought out the golden hue in their hazel eyes. Bella was the spitting image of her mother. Charlie's eyes were brown like his father's, a few shades lighter than Jane's eye color.

Before Jane sat down, she poured sparkling cider for the children and champagne for herself and Maura. They were celebrating tonight. This was their first Valentine's Day dinner as a family. Maura was amazed at times how easily Jane fit into the family. It was like they had always been a family rather than such a new relationship. At first, Maura had thought they were moving rather quickly with their relationship but as everyday passed she thought less of that and just enjoyed their time together. With the sudden deaths of her parents and then her husband, Maura knew that tomorrow wasn't promised.

During dessert Valentine's Day cards were exchanged. The children had made cards for both Jane and Maura, they refused to make cards for each other. Skye had tried her best to get them to make cards for each other but Charlie insisted, "I am not asking my sister to be my valentine."

Bella had the same reaction, "No way, Charlie is not going to be my valentine, only mama and mommy." Skye just shrugged her shoulders and helped them finish their huge cards. They didn't want to share cards so they each made two cards, one for Jane and one for Maura.

Maura had a tear in her eyes when she looked at the cards that the children had made for her. "These are beautiful, thank you Charlie and Bella." They each hugged their mother and then Jane opened her cards.

"I agree with your mother, these are beautiful, thank you. I also have a surprise for you." The children's eyes lit up.

"What's our surprise, mama?" Bella asked.

"I made arrangements for both of you to fly in the flight simulator on base. You will get to wear flight suits and everything, just like I do when I get ready to fly. I cannot take you up in an F-16 but this summer I will fly you in a private plane from Boston to Syracuse when we come to visit." Jane looked over at Maura and she smiled seeing the smile on the children's faces. Maura was also remembering the dream she had had while Jane was in the hospital.

Charlie asked, "Does mommy get to fly in the flight simulator also?"

"Only if she wants to." Jane replied as all three turned to look at her. Jane had included Maura in all of the arrangements but stipulated that she might not want to participate.

"I am not sure if I would want too yet. I will decide when the time comes." Maura replied. Maura had never thought about doing anything like that. She would seriously think about it.

"I hope you do mommy. I think flying is going to be so much fun, even if it is just a simulator. The Air Force simulators are just like the real thing except you are on the ground not in the air." Charlie informed his mother. Maura loved when the children gave her facts about things just like she did. Jane was impressed with how smart Charlie and Bella were.

The dinner was held at Maura's parents' house. Jane and Maura had talked about what Maura wanted to do with her childhood home and came to the conclusion that the four of them would move into the house and sell the house that Maura had purchased when she had moved back to Boston. They also decided that Jane would hang onto her Boston apartment for now.

They had upsized the condo in Syracuse. Their timing was perfect as a couple with two children had just moved out and a three-bedroom condo had just become available in Jane's same building. They had all the paperwork faxed to Maura's lawyer and within two days they owned the three-bedroom condo in Syracuse. Jane's studio condo went on the market and was picked up the following week. Jane knew that they could have asked for a higher price for the studio condo but she just wanted for it to sell so they agreed to list it at ten percent below the typical asking price.

On February 15th, Maura had without Jane's knowledge set up an appointment with her lawyer to have Jane added to all of her financial dealings. Jane was a little upset when Maura told her. "Maur, I don't need to be added to all of your accounts. I don't want your money, just you." Jane pulled Maura into a hug to let her know that she wasn't really angry, just concerned that she had set up the appointment without discussing it with her.

"Jane, please let me explain my reasoning. I am an only child, Sam was an only child. Charlie and Bella do not have any grandparents, Aunts or Uncles. If something happens to me, I would love for the children to be with you. I need to make provisions for the children. I would like for you to take responsibility for the children. I did not make this decision lightly, just like I did not enter into a relationship with you lightly. I have thought about this and would like to do this."

"Maur, that is a huge ask, one that I will of course agree to. We could have sat down and discussed this before you made the appointment. I know that you are used to doing things on your own but for this relationship to work, we have to be a partnership. We need to talk about things and come to conclusions together as a team."

"Oh Jane, I am so sorry, I am used to doing almost everything on my own. Skye's parents were my original people however since meeting you and being in a relationship with you, I would love to have you be my person. The children absolutely love you. I mean Bella calls you mama, that should tell you how much she cares about you. You know that Charlie loves you. At first, he thought that you would hate him because he was part of the reason that your jet crashed. You took the time to get to know him and help him get over his feelings about the crash. He loves you."

"Maur, you don't have to convince me, I already said that I would do it. I just want to make sure that you talk to me about things like this before you make decisions. I mean we talked about the houses and the condo in Syracuse. We are capable of making decisions together. Well except for the matter of which of your father's cars to take out for a spin first, we still haven't decided on that one." They both laughed and then Jane pulled Maura in for another hug. Maura had years of making decisions on her own and it would take her some time to stop doing that. Jane wasn't mad at her, she was just trying to get her to include her in the decision-making process.

Bright and early Saturday morning Jane was loading the SUV, she couldn't believe how much luggage Maura and the children were bringing for one week. Maura had two large suitcases and each of the children had one large suitcase and then two small suitcases. Bella was so pleased to tell Jane, "Mama, one suitcase is filled with my stuffed animals. I didn't want them to miss out on our first tea party in the new condo. We can have a tea party, can't we?"

"Of course, we can have a tea party." Maura told Bella. Maura had the condo all set up already. She and Jane had sat down and ordered furniture for the new place. Cindy, Ace's wife, had saw to the organization of the condo. She loved it when Maura had called and asked if she could help. Cindy and Maura had become friends after Jane had gone back to Boston after being discharged from the hospital. She could see why Jane had fallen so hard for the doctor. Jane didn't know that Cindy had Ace and some of the guys move everything out of Jane's condo. She would be surprised when she arrived Saturday late afternoon to clean out her condo and find it empty already. Ace had told Cindy not to let Jane know, Maura knew but she would keep the surprise.

Late Saturday morning when they arrived in Syracuse, they unloaded the SUV and the children went to their new rooms. Jane and Maura were walking down the hall to Jane's former condo. When Jane unlocked the door, she had a worried look on her face. "Maur, the condo is empty. Where did all of my stuff go?"

Maura smiled at Jane and told her, "Ace and the guys wanted to surprise you, they moved everything over already. You just need to look the place over and turn in your keys to the real estate agent who will be here in about fifteen minutes." Jane was shocked that they had patched all the holes in the wall from where her large screen TV was mounted. She thought she would have to spend her entire weekend getting her stuff moved and then prepping the condo to be painted.

After meeting with the real estate agent and turning over the keys, they walked back to their new condo. They sat down on the couch and rested for a few minutes. After Bella checked out her new room, she noticed that she didn't have a tea set. She went out into the living room and told her mommy, "Mommy, I can't have a tea party while we are here. I didn't bring my tea set and there isn't one in my room." Bella cuddled into Maura as tears started flowing.

Jane got up and walked into the pantry in the kitchen and after a few minutes walked back to the living room with a box and sat down next to Maura who was holding a sad Bella. "What's up, Bella? Why are you crying?"

Bella moved over so that she was sitting in Jane's lap and told her, "Mama, I don't have a tea set here. I won't be able to have a tea party this week." Jane handed Bella the box and Bella just looked up at her. "Mama, what is this?"

"It is a gift for you for Cindy. She thought you might need this, do you want to open it?"

"Yes mama, can you help me?"

"Yes, I will help you." They put the gift on the couch and then Jane helped Bella unwrapped the gift. As Bella held a new tea bag box, Jane told her, "Cindy said that her mother gave this to her when she was your age. She wanted to pass it down to her future daughter however she only had boys and she figured you could use it and maybe invite her over for a tea party."

"I need to make her a thank you card and invite her to my next tea party." Bella told Jane and Maura. She picked up all the wrapping paper and threw it in the garbage and then ran into her room to get busy making a thank you card. Cindy along with Nina had made sure that Bella had art supplies and a table in one corner of her room. Nina was so happy that she would be able to spend time with her friends her in their new condo. She had missed Maura since she moved to Boston.

Just then Charlie came out of his room with a wrapped package. "Mommy, I found this in my room. It says it is to me from Ace. Can I open it?"

"Of course, sweetie."

Charlie sat down on the floor and preceded to open his gift. He was excited when he found out it was the latest Lego robot. Ace knew how much Charlie loved robots and decided this would be the perfect gift. "Mommy it is the new Lego robot. I can't wait to build it. Ace asked if he could come over and work on it with me. Is that okay, can Ace come over?"

Jane laughed, she knew that Ace loved robotics as well as rockets. Ace's boys weren't into robotics, they only liked the rockets. Jane replied, "Maybe Ace and his family can come over and you and Ace can build the robot, while Cindy and your mom have a tea party. I can entertain their boys. How does that sound?"

"Great, thanks mama." Charlie said as he took his new robot pieces into his room. Jane just sat there in amusement. Charlie had just called her mama for the first time.

Stella

A few phone calls had been received and the guard handed Stella the phone so that she could reply to the calls. Stella had quite a few people helping her out. She couldn't believe how many people she could convince to help her. A little bit of money made all the difference. People could be bought, all she had to do was find their weakness and figure out how much money it would cost her to persuade them to do her dirty work for her.

She wanted Jane and she found Jane's weakness, Doctor Maura Isles. All of her little minions would help her get to the doctor so she could have Jane all to herself. Her plan was taking shape and within a few months, everything would be in place.