A/N: Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter published, you know the saying we all have a life and I am no exception. Having to deal with my other cat having surgery and then the start of the WNBA season. I am committed to seeing this story through. Retirement is an interesting stage in life and Jane and Maura have so much life left to live.
Chapter 5 – Frankie and Frost's Promotion Ceremony and Family Retirement/Promotion Party
Scene: Living Room of the Rizzoli-Isles Beacon Hill Home in Boston, Massachusetts
Date: Afternoon of Friday, July 1, 2039
The car arrived right on time. There was a knock on the door, knowing it would be the driver of the car service, Jane jumped up and ran over to open the door.
"Good, you are dressed and ready to go. I wasn't sure what state of dress I would find you in." Arianna told Jane before she had a chance to say anything in the form of a greeting.
Arianna had wanted to surprise Jane and Maura so she had the car stop and pick up her and Mario first and then go to Jane and Maura's house. Arianna got out of the limo and walked up to the door and knocked. Mario was right on her tail. Jane was quite surprised when she opened the door and saw her.
"Arianna, I didn't expect to see you until we arrived at the ceremony. Hello Mario." Jane stated as she opened the door wider so that they could come in.
"I know, I couldn't wait. I wanted to spend some extra time with my favorite cousin and her wife." Arianna stated as she walked into the house.
Jane replied, "Thank you, Ari."
"Oh Jane, I was talking about Maura. We all know she is everyone's favorite." Arianna hugged Maura as everyone laughed except for Jane.
"Ha, ha, Ari, I didn't think that was funny." Jane said as she swatted Ari on the arm and then chased her around the couch in an effort to tickle her. Maura and Mario just stood there and shook their heads. Thinking these two could be so childish sometimes. Even in their sixties they still acted like children.
Arianna then said, "Also I wanted to make sure you made it to the ceremony on time. I know you and you might be trying to make love to your wife instead of getting ready to go to the promotion ceremony." Jane had caused them to be late to several events over the years because she didn't want to control her urges to make love with her wife. To offset this Maura had always told Jane a different time so that they in fact would not be late. To the best of her knowledge Jane had never caught on to her time alterations.
Jane had almost caught Ari when Maura said, "Jane, love we need to go. You can attack Arianna later. We need to get to Frankie and Barry's promotion ceremony. Jane stopped dead in her tracks as Arianna ran behind Mario for protection.
"Okay, you heard her Ari, I can attack you later." Jane told Arianna as she gave her a smirk. Arianna just shook her head from side to side, like she would let that happen.
With a temporary truce in place, they all hopped into the limo and headed to Frankie and Frost's promotion ceremony.
Maura truly hoped that there wouldn't be any surprises on the slideshow. She didn't know that she and Jane would take so long reviewing the slideshow that morning. They were both enjoying the memories and neither one of them wanted to stop talking about the pictures. They agreed that they would continue viewing and discussing the slideshow when they got home after the party. They still had over a hundred slides to go through.
Scene: The Artist's For Humanity Epicenter in Boston, Massachusetts
Date: Afternoon of Friday, July 1, 2039
When they got out of the car, the first person they saw was Suzie. She gave Jane and Maura a huge hug. She was so happy that she was getting to spend some time with them today as she would be sitting with them during the promotion ceremony and then she and Frost would be sitting at the table with Jane and Maura for the party. Of course, she got to see them yesterday but not for long.
Suzie was still a little nervous about pinning Frost's badge on him. She always got nervous when she had to be up in front of people. Maura was trying to comfort her when Frost strolled up and captured his wife in a hug from behind as she was talking with Jane, Maura, Arianna and Mario. He asked, "So Jane, how does it feel to be retired?"
"Well, this is the first day and I had to get up early. I guess in a few weeks I can answer that question for you. Right now, it just sorta feels like I am on vacation."
"Ya, I can see how you would think that. I will be a few years behind you as will Frankie." Frost told her in response to her answer.
"No rush, BPD needs your leadership. I just needed to spend some time with my wife and I figured after forty years it was time. We have lots of places we want to travel too. You know places to go and people to see." They shared a laugh.
"Ya, Suzie wants to do that also. Maybe we can have another vacation with you guys down the road, our last one was years ago and it was so much fun."
"We would love that. We can have our wives work out the details. I go where the wife tells me as you told me years ago. You do realize we do discuss our plans and that we make the decisions together."
"Ya, I know, I just love teasing you about how whipped you are and have been since you first met her." Frost told her. They smiled at each other as a tone sounded for everyone to take their places. Seats had been set aside for Suzie, Jane, Maura, Arianna and Mario by Chloe as she knew they would be talking with people before taking their seats. They kissed Angela, Constance and Arthur as they took their seats with the rest of the family in the front row.
The promotion ceremony began with the arrival of the honor guard who escorted the American Flag into the room. The Director of Public Relations at BPD, Stacy Jacobson approached the podium and asked for everyone to remain standing and join her in the Pledge of Allegiance. She then introduced the precinct's Chaplain who gave the invocation.
Superintendent-in-Chief Gen Booker approached the podium and welcomed everyone with brief remarks before handing the podium over to the Mayor who gave a short five-minute speech, normally the Mayor's speeches were almost ten minutes so everyone was pleased that he had shorten his speech. Superintendent Booker then handed the podium over to the Police Commissioner, who didn't keep his speech short. He spoke for a solid ten minutes before giving the podium back to Superintendent Booker.
As the Police Commissioner walked back to his seat Gen wiped her hand across her forehead and sighed, everyone started laughing. The Police Commissioner turned towards Gen to see what had happened. Gen just smiled at him as she took a drink of water.
Jane couldn't help herself she was quietly laughing. She had to put her hand over her mouth to stop her laughter from being heard. She and Gen had talked about how long winded the Commissioner could be at times and today was a perfect demonstration of that. Maura had just looked over at Jane and shook her head and thought to herself 'at least she covered her laughter with her hand.'
Stacy Jacobson approached the podium and read the names of the officers that were being promoted. There were six officers total, Frankie and Frost and two uniforms being promoted to detective and two detectives being promoted to Sergeant.
When it was time Susie pinned Frost's badge on him. They went to take the picture and Frost said, "Wait, we are missing someone." Susie glanced at him and he continued, "MJ has been in every one of my promotion pictures and I would like for him to be in this one." MJ ran up to the stage and posed with Frost and Susie. He hugged them and then ran back to his seat when the picture was taken. It's true, MJ had been in every one of Frost's promotion pictures a few times he photobombed the picture. He loved his Uncle Frost and his promotions were just as important to him as his Mama's. Frost was family.
After the ceremony finished and Gen Booker stepped off the stage she walked over to where Jane and Maura were and Jane said, "Man, you got guts lady."
"Why?" Gen asked.
"That movement with your hand after the Commissioner spoke." Jane stated, "That took balls."
"What, I was just wiping some sweat from my brow." Gen tried to tell Jane.
"Ya, right, like I am going to believe that." Jane said as she laughed with Gen. They walked out of the building side-by-side. Maura was on Jane's other side with Jane's hand in hers. Arianna and Mario were right behind them. "You're coming to our retirement party, right?"
"Yes of course, I'm just going to go by my house and pick up Steve. He had a meeting and was not able to attend this ceremony however, he wants to go to your retirement party. He likes you and Maura and he feels bad about missing your retirement ceremony. So, I might be a few minutes late but we will be there. Save us a seat." Gen promised as she parted ways with them so she could go get her husband.
Half an hour later Jane and Maura arrived at home. They quickly changed and made their way to Boston Commons where their party would take place.
Scene: Boston Commons
Date: Late Afternoon of Friday, July 1, 2039
The park looked festive with the tables and chairs all set up. There were tents set up also where the food was. Angela had wanted to cook for the event but it was too much for her, so she and Constance decided to have the event catered. Chloe had recommended the perfect company to cater the event, hers.
All the permits had been arranged and they opted to use the private part of the garden. There was a huge guest list, almost every single Rizzoli family member that was anywhere near Boston was on the list. Jane and Maura hadn't had so many Rizzolis in one place in years. Not since their combined fiftieth birthday party that Angela and Constance had insisted on hosting.
Jane told her mother months ago that this was to be a casual dress event. After she would be changing into her comfy clothes after the promotion ceremony, and she did. Jane was wearing a pair of shorts with an old Boston Red Sox jersey and her favorite pair of Chuck Taylor high tops. She was very comfortable. Maura had changed into a flower print sun dress and sandals.
When they exited their car they walked hand-in-hand to their assigned table, talking to people as they went. Arianna and Mario arrived a few minutes later. The tables were set up for ten people. Sitting at Jane and Maura's table there were be, Ari, Mario, Frost, Susie, Gen, Steve, Korsak and Kiki. Jane didn't know it but Arianna had switched the nameplates so that she would be sitting next to Gen. She really wanted to find out what story Jane didn't want her to hear from Gen.
As everyone sat, Frost went up to the front of the gathering and said, "Today, we are gathered to celebrate the retirement of Jane and Maura and also the promotion of Frankie and myself. I put together a little slideshow for Jane and Maura. I hope you all enjoy it. There is no agenda for today so please enjoy your lunch and fellowship."
For the next two hours that is exactly what happened. You could hear comments as certain slides appeared or music was played. When Jane had gotten up to go speak to someone Arianna took that opportunity to ask Gen about the story she was going to tell yesterday. "So, Gen yesterday, you had wanted to share a story but Jane didn't want you to tell me, care to share now that Jane is not present?"
"I don't know Arianna, Jane might get mad at me, she apparently didn't want me to share the story with you." Gen stated as she looked to Maura for help.
Maura just nodded and told Gen, "you might as well tell her, she is not going to let it go until she finds out."
"Oh, but I don't want Jane to be mad at me, I rather like our friendship." Gen explained. Her husband nodded that she might as well share the story. Jane would get over it and if she didn't share it Arianna would most certainly go after Maura to tell her the story.
"Okay, I will tell the story. So, a few days after Jane had come to work at Vice she had to go undercover as a prostitute. She hadn't met everybody in Vice yet as she was so new to the unit and we had some guys that had been undercover for a while working another case. Jane's first day on her first ever undercover job one of our undercover police officers tried his hardest to proposition her. She could only say 'no' so many ways and she finally gave up only to have him arrest her. He cuffed her and put her into the unmarked car. She tried telling him she was a police officer but he didn't believe her. His partner also didn't know Jane so they took her down to the precinct. When they walked in to book her the desk Sergeant asked them, 'Why do you have Detective Rizzoli in hand cuffs?' The two officers looked at each other and one of them said, 'Wait, she really is a cop? She mentioned that she was but we thought she was trying to pull one over on us.' The desk Sergeant replied, 'Yes this is her first day on her undercover job as a prostitute, she just became a detective and was placed in Vice.' The Sergeant had called me and I arrived shortly before the two officers uncuffed her and apologized profusely."
Arianna couldn't help but laugh. She thought it was so funny. "No wonder Jane didn't want you to tell me that story. Too bad they didn't finish booking her. There would have been perp pictures. Frost could have put those into the slideshow."
Everybody shared a laugh as Jane came back to the table. "What's so funny?" Jane asked as she looked around the table.
Arianna just patted her on the back and said, "I wish they would have taken your booking photos, Frost so could have used those in this slideshow."
"Gen, I asked you not to tell her." Jane said as she looked over at her friend.
"She is very persistent and she wouldn't let me enjoy my lunch if I didn't share. She is so much like you in looks and mannerisms." Gen informed Jane.
"Yes, she is persistent. I just can't believe you caved in and told her. I thought you were my friend."
"I am your friend. You know me. I tried to resist her Rizzoli persuasion tactics, but I have a problem saying no to Rizzolis also."
"Ya, that's true. I never would have gotten away with some of the stuff I did over the years if you didn't fail in your attempts to not be persuaded by me."
They shared a laugh and continued watching and talking about the pictures that were being shared on the big outdoor screen that had been set up. When the slideshow ended Frost put on some music and some of the people started dancing. Jane pulled out her phone and placed a wireless earbud in her ear and asked Maura, "Maur, will you dance with me?"
Maura said 'yes' and Jane handed her an earbud and once they were in the dance area, she pushed play on the phone. Jane didn't much care for the song that Frost was playing so she selected her own and had 'Let's Get It On' by Marvin Gaye play. Maura just smiled and told Jane, "Well we can't very well do that right now but later."
"Oh, I plan on that ma'am. Now let's enjoy the song and dance."
The song was about half way over when Arianna noticed that they weren't dancing to the music that was playing and noticed the ear buds in their ears. She walked up and took the ear bud out of Jane's ear to see what they were listening to. "Really Jane?"
"Hey, give that back. I am dancing with my lady. I didn't like the song that was playing so I selected my own. Maura loves it."
Arianna gave the ear bud back and just hugged the two of them, thinking it was just like her cousin to make up her own situation. She loved Jane and Maura and was so happy that she had them as friends. When Jane had gone in the Air Force instead of joining her and Angelo at BCU she was worried about her cousin. Once she met Maura though Arianna was confident that her cousin would be just fine and live the life she was meant to live. She was looking forward to the vacation that she and Mario would be taking with them in a few days.