Snapshots 4.0

Chapter 3 – The Retirement Ceremony After Party

Scene: The Artist's For Humanity Epicenter in Boston, Massachusetts

Date: Afternoon of Thursday, June 30, 2039

As Jane and Maura entered the center Frost walked up and handed Maura two thumb drives. He told them he had made two slideshows for their retirement. One was being displayed right now and would also be shown at their Retirement After Party that immediately followed their combined retirement ceremony and contained mostly work pictures. The second slideshow was mainly family and friends with a few work pictures thrown in.

Frost had told them that the order of the pictures for the second slideshow was random and unorganized and that he had done that deliberately. Each picture would say up for thirty seconds. They had so much order in their lives that he thought it would be better to have this be more spontaneous and random.

A few months back when Frost had been requesting photographs of Jane and Maura from their family and friends, Jane found out about it. Jane wanted to give him some of her military pictures. She knew nobody in the family had any as she had them tucked away and hadn't share them with anyone except for Maura. Frost was quite surprised when Jane gave him a flash drive with some pictures of her military pictures on it and told him, "Please, look these over and see if you can squeeze any of these pictures into the slideshow you are working on."

"Oh man Jane, you are not supposed to know about that. I was doing that as a surprise." Frost told her. She smiled at him and just patted him on the shoulder.

"What can I say Frost, I'm a detective. I noticed my family looking through their pictures and figured out what was going on when they quickly tried to hide the pictures from my view." Jane said as she smiled brightly at him.

"Man, I knew this was going to be hard to keep it a secret from you. Does Maura know also?" Frost asked, wanting to see if he could still surprise one of them.

"No, I haven't said anything to her, so I think she will still be surprised." Jane informed him.

"Great, at least I can surprise her then." Frost said as Jane walked over and gave him a quick hug and said, "Thanks, Frost for doing this. I am sure she will tear up."

He also told them that the slideshow would be shown at the family gathering tomorrow so if they wanted to see it before everybody else, they would have to watch it Friday morning before the promotion ceremony because right after the promotion ceremony they were meeting their family and friends at three in the afternoon for a family retirement and promotion celebration party. Jane and Maura knew that this would be a crazy time as all the Rizzoli family members would be gathered and anytime you have that many Italians in one place, loud crazy times would follow.

A car would be picking them up at noon. Frost told them there were over two hundred pictures and they should probably spend a few hours watching the slideshow ahead of time. They decided to get up and get dressed at 7:30 AM. Jane frowned when Maura told her the time. "Come on Maur, it is our first day of retirement and we have to get up early!"

"Jane, if you want to see the slideshow before everyone else then we need time, you heard Barry. There are over 200 pictures in the slideshow. I don't want to be surprised in front of everybody. I would like to see the slideshow before everyone else does. You know me, I get emotional sometimes and I would rather just be emotional with you and not the entire Rizzoli clan."

"Okay, Maur, I will get up at 7:30 AM with you. But I would like for us to sleep in all the rest of the days."

"Yes, Jane we can sleep in all the other days. Tomorrow though we need to be up and dressed before we start the slideshow."

"Can we have breakfast delivered and eat breakfast while we watch the slideshow?"

Maura smiled and said, "You are always thinking about food, aren't you?"

Jane smiled back and replied, "What can I say, I love food. In case you were wondering, I love you more."

"Thank you for clarifying that for me, Jane." Maura told Jane as she smiled and hugged her.

They sat down at a table after walking around and speaking to everybody. There was no set agenda for this after party. There was an open mic where people could walk up and speak about Jane and Maura and so many people did that. Many offered toasts to them. Jane and Maura had such huge smiles on their faces. They had worked with many of these people for years. Some people told quick stories and Jane and Maura laughed with them.

Ari was enjoying the stories. She hadn't heard some of them. She and Mario were sitting with Jane and Maura. When Gen Booker walked up to the mic, Jane was scared. Gen had lots of embarrassing stories she could tell about when Jane worked in Vice.

When Gen said, "Remember that time one of undercovers propositioned you when you first went undercover?" Jane quickly tried to cover Ari's ears. Maura had heard the story before and quite often teases Jane about it but Ari had never heard it and she didn't want her cousin hearing it now because Ari would tease her for sure. Gen noticed Jane trying to covered Ari's ears. "What's the matter Jane is that story a little too embarrassing for you?"

"Yes Gen, that is enough you can stop right there, no need to share that story with my cousin and her husband here. Please tell a different story if you must tell a story. Tell a Riley story or something that everyone can get a laugh from?" Jane pleaded with Gen to tell something else, anything else but that story.

Gen took pity on her and stepped away from the mic. Jane breathed a sigh of relief. Maura just shook her head she was hoping Gen would tell the story because she knew Ari would keep asking until someone told her the story.

After about an hour when the story telling and toasts died down Jane and Maura left the party hand in hand. Frankie sent Jane a text about half an hour later stating that the party had wrapped up and everybody went home. When Jane and Maura left the party they went over to Constance and Arthur's house to spend some more time with family and have dinner.

Before 10 PM they were back at their house getting ready for bed. Arianna was still trying to get Jane to tell her the story that Gen was going to tell at the after party earlier. Jane wasn't having any part of it. She would take that story to the grave with her. It had been a wonderful ceremony and after party but they were emotionally exhausted.

Scene: Living room of the Rizzoli-Isles Beacon Hill Home in Boston, Massachusetts

Date: Morning of July 1, 2039, day after Jane and Maura Rizzoli-Isles retirement.

The alarm sounded at exactly 7:25 AM. Maura kissed Jane on the cheek and said, "Love, it is time to get up." Jane mumbled and covered her eyes.

"Five more minutes, Maur." Jane said as she then covered her head with Maura's pillow and pulled up the blankets around her neck. Maura had anticipated Jane's five more minutes request which is why she set her alarm for 7:25 instead of 7:30.

Maura laughed, "Jane, no love, it is time to get up, you promised. I will order bacon with our breakfast."

"Real bacon Maur?" Jane peeked out from under the pillow.

"Yes Jane, if you get up and get in the shower right now. I will order real bacon for you."

Jane threw the covers off of her and ran to the shower. The water turned on before Maura even had a chance to get out of the bed. She hadn't seen Jane run so fast in quite a while.

Maura grabbed her phone and dialed her sister-in-law, Chloe, "Good morning, can we add some real bacon to the breakfast order for Jane?"

"Of course, that will not be a problem. I was cooking some for Tommy and TJ so I will just slide some of theirs over to your order. The driver will be here any minute to pick up your food and bring it over. So, it should be there in about fifteen minutes."

"Thank you, Chloe! I appreciate you doing this special breakfast for us. I will see you this afternoon at the family party."

"Yes, we will see you then, enjoy your breakfast and the slideshow Barry made for you."

"We will, I am glad he is letting us see it before the whole family sees it. Thank you again." Maura hung up with Chloe and then dressed and went downstairs.

Jane came downstairs and shortly afterwards breakfast was delivered. Jane was in heaven she could smell the bacon. She tipped the delivery man and took the food into the kitchen so she could open all the containers and plate breakfast for them. They agreed they would watch the slideshow while they ate.

After getting their plates ready, they took them out to the coffee table and then returned for their beverages. Once seated Maura started the slide show. As the first picture showed on the screen the song 'Hall of Fame' by The Script started playing.

Picture: Jane and Maura standing in front of their Beacon Hill house, circa 2010

Description: An old picture of Jane and Maura shortly after they became friends, taken outside their house.

Jane and Maura still maintained the same home in Beacon Hill that they had when the kids were born. They had made improvements to it over the years but decided it was perfect and would keep it. Now that they are retiring, they will have time in between their trips to enjoy it more.

Jane, of course had added more games to the media room and had a sound system installed. Maura had to tell Jane on numerous occasions to turn the volume down because she could hear it upstairs. Jane loved to watch her action movies with the sound system on loud. She always told Maura, "The sounds of the bombs erupting and the car crashes are so realistic that way." Maura just shook her head when Jane said that.

Jane hit pause on the slideshow and asked Maura, "Maur, do you think we will ever sell this house or are we going to stay in it like your parents are doing with their house?"

Maura replied, "I haven't really thought about it, love. I guess I just figure we would stay here until we wanted to live somewhere else. We have so many memories in this house though. I rather like that. I walk down the hall and see the children's rooms and I am flooded with memories of events that took place. If we sell the house and move, I won't have that."

"I do the same thing. I love this house. Let's stay here forever." Jane said.

"Sounds like a plan love, except we will have to leave to do our traveling." Maura replied.

"Duh, you know what I meant, let's continue to live here." Jane said as she rolled her eyes, Maura was still so literal sometimes.

"I know, I was just funning with you, as you would say." Maura said as she laughed and leaned in to kiss Jane. Jane made sure to spread some syrup on Maura's lips so she could kiss it away. Maura just shook her head. Jane loved doing things like that to her. She loved it though. She loved all the little things Jane did like that.

Constance and Arthur had a full-time live in health care worker as they were getting up in age and with Arthur's heart condition Constance felt better having a health care worker on the premises. He had had several scares over the past decade and they thought they had lost him on at least two occasions, but he was still hanging in there. He wasn't able to walk on his own so he was in a wheelchair.

Constance was walking with a cane because her bones were frail and she was not able to stand for long periods of time. She hated that but understood that at almost ninety years old her body was giving out on her.

They were looking forward to Arianna, Mario and the kids being there with them. Nicky and Giana were like grandchildren to them and they knew that and treated them like grandparents. Jane un-paused the slideshow and the next picture appeared.

Four more pictures of their house appeared from different angles and different times of year. Jane laughed when a pictured appeared of her and MJ making a snowman, when he was about two. She remembered making the snowman with him and him complaining about how cold the snow was.

Picture: Susie in a lab coat that clearly read 'Dr. Susie Frost, Pediatrician' standing with Jane and Maura at the hospital.

Description: Susie had on a beautiful blue knee length dress under her white lab coat, her stethoscope was hanging around her neck. She was standing with Jane and Maura and they all had huge smiles on their faces. Jane was dressed in a dark blue work suit and Maura was dressed in a Kelly-green dress that was several inches above her knees. Jane loved the dress because it brought out the green in her hazel eyes and Jane could swear that she saw gold sparkles in Maura's eyes whenever she wore that shade of green.

It was Maura's turn to pause the slideshow, "You know I think it is so great that Susie will be head of Pediatrics soon. I never imagined Susie leaving BPD and becoming a doctor but she did. She loved working with me at BPD, but had always said that being a doctor was a dream of hers. After she dated that one lab tech that was going to med school while working for me, I guess she thought if he could do it, she could accomplish it." Maura explained to Jane.

"And she married my partner and gave birth to two children, a boy and a girl, Frost is so happy. When she gets that promotion to Chief of Pediatrics, she will be Chrissy's boss and if Giana gets hired at that hospital, she will be her boss also."

Maura un-paused the slideshow and another work picture of Maura, Susie with Chrissy appeared. Susie and Chrissy both had huge smiles on their faces and were dressed in their lab coats, they were happy that Maura was visiting with them. This picture was also taken at the Pediatrics nurse's station. A few more pictures with Jane and Maura with Susie and Frost appeared.

The music changed and 'God Damn You're Beautiful' by Chester See started playing. Jane turned to Maura and kissed her on the cheek and whispered, "I agree, God damn you're beautiful," into her ear. Maura smiled at her and kissed her back.

Picture: Jane and Maura's Wedding in Santorini

Description: Picture of Jane and Maura standing by the volcano facing each other and holding hands and looking lovingly at each other. The picture was taken from higher up so you could see the caldera in the background.

Maura paused the slideshow and said, "Jane, this was our best wedding and far exceeded my expectations for my dream wedding. You helped me to make sure all of my dream wedding scenario came to life. I love you so much." She leaned in and kissed Jane. "Don't get me wrong I loved our court house wedding but Santorini was just so beautiful."

Jane and Maura both thought about their court house wedding and how happy they were that they had the court house wedding.

Jane replied, "You know if we keep pausing the slideshow, we are never going to get through all 200 photos." They both laughed and Jane un-paused the slideshow.