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.
For full disclaimers, please refer to the first chapter.
Chapter 2
"Blame her?" Maura interrupted him mid-sentence. "I left a letter explaining to Jane why I was leaving, and it was because I blamed myself. I should… I should have noticed something was wrong, Frankie. But I didn't, and then it was too late… It was all my fault... I never blamed Jane for what happened… Never…" Maura's eyebrows were knotted, her eyes welled in tears, her voice broken.
Frankie sighed. "Ma…" He swallowed hard. "She blamed Jane. And when Jane got home after Ma saw you leaving, she told Jane you had left because you blamed her as well… It was only after Jane was gone and after we got Jane's letter about where she was headed, that I confronted Ma and she confessed you never specifically said that…" Frankie exhaled. "Wait… A letter? Did you say you left a letter for Jane?"
"Of course I did. I would never leave without telling her…" Maura replied, hurt.
Frankie ran his hand through his short hair, where salt was beginning to show in the temples. "She never received the letter, Maura."
"I didn't post it, Frankie. I left it inside her pillowcase, so there was no way she would have missed it…"
He shook his head, finally understanding.
"She never reached your bedroom that day, Maura. After what Ma told her, she crashed on…" he stopped himself midsentence, knowing how much saying her name costed him, and how much it would hurt Maura. "… Mia's bedroom. Next morning, Jane was gone."
To Mia's name, he saw the strangled sob that escaped Maura's mouth, that she covered with her trembling hands, lowering her head.
Thirteen years ago, Maura and Jane had come back from their month in Paris engaged. Jane had abandoned the idea of going to DC, passed the exam to replace Korsak, married Maura, and after two years of their wedding, they adopted Mia, a toddler victim orphaned in one of their cases. Mia had been the center of their lives for the following years, and was what the entire Rizzoli clan had dubbed a little sponge.
(Author's note: this is a standalone story, but if you would like to read that detailed background story of how they got together for the purposes of this one, check out "The Next Chapter" in the fanfiction website. It begins the day after 7x13 "Ocean Frank", and tells how Rizzles finally happens all the way to them adopting Mia. Also, to have a glimpse on their first Mother's Day with Mia, read then "Mother's Day 2023". Since fanfiction does not allow links, google The Next Chapter JCRMDI, and then google Mother Day 2023 JCRMDI, and you should get the link to the fanfiction as one of the top results)
Although not the biological daughter of Jane and Maura, Mia was a genius daredevil who kept Jane and Maura on their toes. They were the prototype of the happy and perfect family.
Until they weren't.
Jane had supported having Mia joining the Girls' Scouts when she was nine – to help with discipline, and leadership, and to burn some of her crazy energy levels. During a Girls' Scouts' Day of sports competition, shortly after Mia had turned ten, Mia simply dropped dead between courses. Autopsy revealed a congenital heart disease that had been undetected until then.
The whole family had been there watching the games.
The whole family had watched the horror developing in front of them.
Mia celebrating her victory in one of the courses, waving at them, blowing kisses to Jane and Maura, turning to move to the next course, and dropping to her feet as if stricken by lightning.
Maura and Jane jumping over fences and barriers to get to their daughter, screaming Mia's name in strangled voices, holding her lifeless body in their arms, and crying in disbelief and desperation.
Maura moving with Kent, incredulous and shell-shocked, to the morgue. Jane left behind to deal with the bureaucracy.
Jane and Maura had not seen each other since. This had happened a little over three years ago.
Maura left before a funeral, barely having stopped home after coming back from the morgue where Kent had diagnosed the undetected congenital heart disease. Angela had been the only one who saw Maura as Maura was leaving, a single travel bag in her hand, and to Angela all that Maura articulated in her devastated state was "I am sorry… I can't… I can't…" among copious tears and sobs, before boarding a cab and disappearing for good.
When Jane finally made it back home, driven by Frankie, Angela had yelled and cried angrily at Jane, blaming her – wasn't Jane the one who had insisted for Mia to join the Girls' Scouts? Angela added, for good measure, that Maura had left, and that Maura had left because she also blamed Jane.
Frankie knew his sister had been completely devastated by what had happened with Mia earlier that day. He had seen Jane in the hours following Mia dropping dead. But the enormity of the blame finished breaking her. He watched as Jane almost crawled the few steps inside the house to crash on Mia's bedroom – the original guest bedroom that had been transformed in Mia's bedroom when she was old enough to move out of the den upstairs. He had held his mother while Angela sobbed and cried loudly, trying to prevent Angela from making an already tragic situation worse.
But when he came back the following morning, Jane was already gone. At first, they thought maybe Jane had left to try to find Maura and bring her back. None of them had taken anything with them, barely their documents and a change of clothes. Then they received Jane's letter explaining her destination a few days later, when they were arriving back from Mia's funeral, a funeral neither Jane nor Maura were present for.
His mother was shell shocked with this development, and Frankie confronted her after he heard from Kent how Maura had left the morgue blaming herself. When Angela finally repeated exactly what Maura had told her when Maura was leaving, Frankie realized the enormity of the impact Angela's blow out had on Jane's decision.
"This is on you, Ma… On you…" Frankie had accused, holding Jane's letter in one hand, crumpling the side of it with the strength of his grip, the other hand with an accusing index pointing at his mother, trembling with anger and hurt, before he left not to say something he also would regret.
But it was too late to do anything. It caused a rift between him and his Ma. Frankie knew she regretted it every day, but certain things could not be fixed by regret alone. He tried writing to the PO Box Jane had provided. He explained his mother's actions and her words. He clarified Maura never had blamed her to Angela. He explained Kent was sure Maura blamed herself alone. He insisted he never believed for one moment anything was Jane's fault. He had tried everything. In the beginning, he wrote every other week. Then once a month. Then once every couple of months. Now he would write once or twice a year. He never received one single word back.
And their tentatives to locate Maura were also not fruitful. Maura's parents had died before Mia did, and they had no idea where to begin, since Maura had disconnected her phone the moment she left Boston behind – their trail ran cold after the maximum Nina managed to get without a warranty and without breaking any law was that Maura had embarked to Paris. Any contact to the Isles foundation was handled by lawyers, that didn't share Maura's whereabouts – if the lawyers even knew about it.
He shook his head, trying to get out of his flashback, to focus on the woman in front of him. Because no matter how much he was hurting, he knew the pain for Maura was thousands of times worse.
"Maura?"
She raised her eyes to him, this time not making any effort to dry or hide her tears.
"Where have you been for the past three years?"