DISCLAIMER: I do not own Rizzoli & Isles nor any of the characters from the show. I am writing this purely for entertainment, not profit. Rizzoli and Isles are property of Tess Gerritsen and TNT.

Please find the full disclaimers in the beginning of Chapter 1.

Chapter 21

"It is good to have you back, sweetheart." Angela added, letting go of Maura and doing a final one over her, as if to make sure she was safe and sound.

Maura looked at Jane as if asking for help, and Jane just nodded discreetly at her.

"Actually, Angela… I just came back to Boston to resign from my job as the Chief Medical Examiner…"

"You… what? But… Why?" Angela stammered.

"I killed a man…" Maura sighed.

"In self-defense… He killed your parents. He attacked you. He was going to rape you and kill Jane."

"Well, yes, but there is no way to prove it. It is just my word."

"Jane saw it, she is your witness…"

"She was technically unconscious when I killed him…"

"Because he was trying to kill her!" Angela argued urgently.

"Yes. But, again, hard to prove. If it ever became public, it could put in question any future case I work on. It might even open a Pandora's box for all the cases I worked on before."

"It is not fair, Maura…"

"I know it is not fair, Angela. But criminals don't fight fair. They will use any bogus excuse to try to disqualify even the most solid evidence against them… I could not possibly risk it. Besides, someone needs to head the Isles Foundation now that my parents are gone. And the Foundation can do more good about war victims than I ever could alone doing justice victim by victim…"

"Your parents would be very proud of you…" Angela cupped Maura's cheek and smiled gently at her.

"I… I am also moving to DC for doing that…"

"Of course. That is where all the diplomats are…"

"That, too." Maura inhaled deeply before looking into Angela's eyes. "And that is also where Jane is."

Jane had to hold back her laughter. If Maura thought Angela would pick up the innuendo, she was in for a ride.

"Yeah, you two always functioned better when you are together. You are joined at the hip."

"Not yet."

"What?" Angela snapped.

Jane would have laughed if it was with someone else. And she decided to interfere before this derailed even further.

She signaled Maura to wait.

"Ma… There is something we need to tell you. Maura and I are going to move in together…"

"Of course you will. With both of you living in DC it makes much more sense… But Jane, you will need to up your game big time to be Maura's roommate…"

Jane rolled her eyes. This was proving harder by the moment.

"It is a good thing then that we are not moving in together as roommates…"

"Aren't you?" Angela asked, puzzled.

"No. We've been together, Ma. As a couple. As in girlfriends." Jane stated slowly, blushing while she observed her mother's reaction.

"Oh…" Angela opened her mouth as if to speak, but closed it again. Then Angela looked at Maura, processing what Maura had told her before Jane interfered. "Oh."

Jane waited, giving time for the news to sink into her mother's mind, unsure of what Angela's reaction would be.

Angela looked intensely at Maura, then at her.

"I came really close to losing both of you this time, didn't I?" Angela asked them, knotting her eyebrows. She had spent the past ten years listening to everyone around them questioning how close Jane and Maura were. Most people were on the prejudiced side. But the ones that really mattered, that cared for them, had many times concluded that the two women were too blind to see what they had right in front of them and would not realize until they were in an extreme situation where they had only each other to count on, and maybe then it would be too late, what would have been a monumental waste... "And please don't lie to me." Angela looked at Maura, the one she knew couldn't lie without breaking up in hives.

"You did." Maura replied truthfully, swallowing hard at the memories.

"How long since you've been girlfriends?"

"Two weeks." Jane replied, still unable to read her mother's body language.

"Are you both happy?" Angela asked, seriously, alternating her eyes between both of them.

The way Jane's and Maura's faces lightened up from within when they smiled was more than enough confirmation to Angela.

"Yes." They replied in unison, not looking at Angela, but at one another.

Angela finally smiled gently at them.

"Then I am very happy for you too. You are both my daughters, that I love dearly, and the only thing I want for you both is that you can be outrageously happy."

Jane knew this was a huge stretch for her ultra-catholic mother. But she also knew her mother's love for her kids was her stronger religion.

"Thank you, Ma." Jane hugged her mother tightly.

"Thank you, Angela." Maura hugged her from the other side.

"But don't you two think that this gets you off the hook of getting married to each other and giving me grandchildren! None of you is getting any younger, neither am I!" Angela boomed, startling both Jane and Maura who looked at each other puzzled before exploding in amused laughter.

"Give us some time, Ma. I promise we will think about it." Jane kissed her mother's cheek.

"I will hold you to that promise, young lady!" Angela told Jane, and kissed them both. "And don't worry about me in the guest house, Maura… Ron has been hinting me to move with him for a while, so I think you leaving for DC gives me the perfect excuse to accept it…" Angela added, before leaving through the back door to the guest house, leaving a surprised Jane and Maura behind.

Maura looked expectantly at Jane.

"Joined at the hips means inseparable, Maura." Jane began, amused. "Like conjoined twins?"

"Oh!" Maura raised her eyebrows, realization dawning on her. "Oh…" she blushed, and covered her face with her two small hands, while Jane first chuckled, then laughed, and then approached Maura and hugged her tightly, kissing the top of her head.

"I am sorry…" Maura mumbled sheepishly.

"Don't be… And don't ever change, Maura… I love you exactly as you are…" Jane tilted Maura's blushing face up to kiss her lovingly on the lips.