Jane wakes up horizontally, her neck at an awkward angle. Something heavy is pressing down on her chest, making it hard for her to breathe, and her eyes are stuck shut, something there rendering it impossible for her to lift her eyelids.

She feels her stomach clench and she is about to throw herself upwards in attempt to free herself when something inside her says...wait.

She reaches up, realizing with a swoop of relief that her hands are free, and feels at her face.

A foot.

The hard thing forcing her eyes to stay closed is a tiny little foot, and as her hands graze over it, it curls a little under her fingers.

And the angle of her neck? she tries to shift and cannot. There is a little head in the bend of her shoulder, blonde curls tickling her cheek as she cranes to see.

"Nuggets," she says trying to sit up. Her back screams, stiff. "Ugh."

Sofia, who is asleep on top of her, stretches and her foot disappears for a second before swinging back and catching Jane in the jaw.

"OW! Shit." She says, the swear slipping out of her mouth before she can stop it. She grabs at her face, swallowing back more swear words as she realizes that the kick has caused her to bite her tongue.

"Mama you said a no no." Sofia says swinging her feet back around so that she can sit up. She looks at her mother sternly, the way Maura would if she were there, and Isabelle nods, just as serious.

"Yeah, Fia I did. I'm sorry. You just kicked me in the jaw and it hurt."

"Mommy says swears are for baddies," Isabelle says, rolling into her mother, wrapping her arms around waist. "Don't be a baddie, Mama."

"Hmm," Jane says, finally managing to sit up. She surveys both her children, trying to remember when in the night they made their way into her bed, and how she ended up sideways and used like a human hammock.

"What time is it," she asks, speaking more to herself than the girls. She rubs at her eyes.

"Four one, um...um..." Isabelle gets stuck on the last number.

Jane groans, falling back onto the bed. "It doesn't matter what comes next, thanks Iz."

As soon as she's lying back down, both girls are upon her, squirming into their places against her, and Jane's crankiness melts a little.

"Could we sleep like, one more hour, bubbles? Please?"

She feels them nod against her, but knows that she'll only get another half hour at best. She feels Sofia take her hand and play absently with her fingers, and somehow...

the time of day, and the lack of sleep seem not to matter as much anymore.

"You look like hell," Frost hands her a cup of coffee and sits down at his own desk. Jane rubs her hand across her face.

"Four fifteen," She snarls at him. "I thought you were going to wear them out!"
Frost puts his hands up in defense, "You can't wear Sofia out. She is constantly on, I swear to God. Frankie and I ran her all over that playground. She took it as a challenge, honestly. Her blood is caffeine."

Jane smiles. That sounds like Sofia. "Thank you for watching them," she says, "Maura has this idea that they shouldn't have to see us in the hospital until they're old enough to process it."

"How is the Doc?"

"She's good. Her attending says another 48 hours and then she can come home. They just want to make sure that there's no infection. That her leg is not going septic."

"You really had to cut-" he starts, but Jane holds up her hand. She doesn't want to think about how it had felt to cut her wife's skin open. Or the terror that had gripped her when she'd felt Maura go limp against her.

Frost is looking at her, his expression awed.

"What?"

"I know you thought that having kids would make you weaker," he says, and Jane frowns.

"Do you and my wife just sit around talking about my deepest darkest secrets?" she asks, rolling her shoulders.
Frost laughs, but is not distracted. "I know you though that, Jane. But it hasn't. It's done the exact opposite."

Jane can't help but smile at her partner. She feels it too, when they're on a case or she's faced with something potentially dangerous. She'd thought that she'd only be able to think of her children. That she wouldn't be able to focus or act, or even pull the trigger if the situation necessitated it. That she would get soft.

But two weeks ago she had tackled a murder suspect as he tried to rob a convenience store, cold hard fury in the pit of her stomach as she had slapped the cuffs around his wrists. No pity. Among the victims of his first robbery, there had been a seven year old boy.

"Maternal instinct," Maura had said, when Jane had tried to describe the feeling.

"There weren't any kids around."

"It doesn't matter. It extends."

Jane leans back in her chair, and shoots another grin at Frost. "Look. Just because your gossip buddy is laid up...doesn't mean that I'm gonna sit around and gab with you all day."

Frost feigns hurt, getting up to retrieve a hard drive from the back room. "You pale in comparison in that department anyway," he huffs. Jane laughs.

"But seriously, Jane," She hears him say, "You're a kick ass cop and a kick ass mom."

Jane tries to hide her delighted smile at the compliment.

"Shut it, Frost, Jesus."

"Mama loves me, yes it's true, and my mommy loves me too. Mama and Mommy love each other, aren't I lucky to have to mothers,"

Jane spreads her arms out wide, making her eyes big, smiling despite herself when both girls do the same, singing along. It's the same song they sing every night, and both Isabelle and Sofia have most of the words down. Jane shuts her eyes for a moment, wishing that Maura was next to her, like always, her voice blending with Jane's.

"I may be small but this I know. I'm bathed in love from head to toe..." Isabelle touches her hands to her head while Sofia stretches her legs out, wiggling her feet at Jane, who can't help but chuckle. She reaches out and ruffles Isabelle's curly hair.

"Even now it's clear to me, there are lots of ways! To be a family."

Jane smiles as the song comes to an end and both girls scramble forward to throw their arms around her.

"Bed time," Jane says, kissing each little head. "Bed time, tiny mites."

"Mama, where's Mommy? Why she's not singing us?"

Jane manages a smile, "We talked about where Mommy is, remember Fia? Mommy hurt her leg, and she's getting it all fixed up and then she'll come back home."

"How Mommy hurt her leg?" Isabelle asks, and Jane feels her stomach clench. For a second she seems to hear the sickening sound of metal on metal and shattering glass as the truck had slammed into the cruiser.

"She had a little accident. But she'll be home in two days. And she misses you like crazy."

"How long is two days?" Fia asks, and her dark eyes scan her mother's face, as if trying to catch her in a lie.

"Two more bedtime songs, and then Mommy will be home to sing with you."

"And do morning teeth?" Isabelle asks, and Jane really does smile. It's always been Maura's job to get the girls up and out the door to preschool because she can afford to come in a little later than Jane, and neither girl has been shy about telling Jane that she does the morning routine very differently than her wife.

"Yes," Jane says, picking Isabelle up and settling her in her own bed next to Sofia's, "and do morning teeth." She stands back and puts her hand out. she makes a one. "I," she says and the little girls do the same, their tiny fingers reaching out towards her.

She lifts the rest of her fingers, showing the girls a four, and they mimic her.

"love," she says, lowering a finger to make three.

"you," she whispers. "I love you both. Very very much."

"1 4 3 mama," Sofia says, eyes already closed.

"1 4 3 ma," Isabelle echoes, and Jane moves to the door, flipping on the nightlight as she pulls it shut.

"1 4 3, little snugs. sleep tight."

Once in the hall, Jane leans against the door and rubs at her face, feeling exhausted. She looks towards the kitchen where a stack of case files is waiting for her and sighs.

...

"GO! Maura. Get out of the car! GO!" Shots ring out around them and Jane fires back, one handed, the other hand shoving at Maura.

"Isabelle." Maura's voice is almost non existent.

"GO!"

"Sofia."

"MAURA, GET OUT OF THE CAR."

"Jane!"

"GO!"

...

Jane snaps her eyes open, waving her hand through the air as if it could magically push the memory away.

She takes a couple deep breaths, trying to ground herself, but the moment she shuts her eyes, she can smell the muddy, oily smell of the water as it poured out of the run off pipe.

...

"Jane, you have to cut it open."

"Maura, I'm not going to-"

"I don't want to lose my leg, Jane, Just do it."

"Maur,"

"Jane. Please. Please. I want to chase after our kids on the playground."

"Don't do that, Maura, don't use our..."

"I want to-"

"DON'T."

"Please Jane. Honey. Please."

"... Show me where."

...

The doorbell rings suddenly, pulling Jane back to the present, and she hurries into the front hall, peering out through the peep hole.

"Ma?" she pulls the door open on Angela, overnight bag in hand. "What are you doing here? I'm fine..."

Angela smiles and brushes past her daughter without an invitation. "I know you're fine Janie. I'm here to babysit for you."

Jane follows her mother into the living room, confused. "Um...Ma? Are you getting Alzheimer's? Is that what this is? It's 7:30 at night...The girls are asleep. I don't have you on the calendar until Maura and my next date night which isn't until-"

"Psh, Jane. of course I know when the next time I'm supposed to baby sit is, and I know that both girls are asleep." Angela flops back against the couch, reaching for the remote. Jane stares at her, befuddled.

"So...the Alzheimer's then?" She asks, and Angela makes an impatient noise.

"I'm your mother Jane, I know you haven't been sleeping well. You've got the darkest circles under your eyes that I've seen since the girls were infants..."

She looks up at Jane and rolls her eyes when Jane's look of confusion doesn't change.

"So, go see your wife. Go spend the night in the hospital with her. I know you two have that whole thing about not bringing the girls...keeping them innocent, or what have you...but I also know you need to see her again, so go. Spend the night there."

Jane doesn't move for a moment, and then she comes over to the couch, sitting on the edge of the coffee table and dipping her head to look her mother in the eyes.

"Ma."

Worry flickers across the older woman's face for a moment, as though she thinks maybe she's done the wrong thing. "Jane."

But Jane fixes her with a radiant smile. "Thank you, Ma. Thank you."

Angela laughs, "go!"

Jane jumps up, "If they wake up, they like the jerry giraffe song. You remember it right?"

"The one I sang Frankie? You remember that?" Angela calls after her, and Jane sticks her head back in the living room.

"Yeah. I'll be back before they wake up."

"Whenever. I'm sure I can get them up and to The Center in one piece. You just call and let me know."

"Thank you, Ma." Jane says again, and Angela waves her away.

"Go, Janie, seriously."

Angela smiles as she hears the door shut in the hall. "Jerry giraffe," she chuckles, reaching for her bag.

Maura is sleeping when Jane pushes open the door, and for a moment, Jane just stands a looks at her, listening to the steady beat of the heart monitor and marveling at how even in a hospital bed her wife manages to look so breathtakingly beautiful. She wants to get into bed with Maura and yet does not want to wake her, doesn't want to cause her any pain.

Although the doctors had been impressed at her incision, there had still been a sufficient amount of work left for them to do, and between the antibiotics pumped into her to fight infection, and the draining and sewing up of her leg, Jane knows that Maura is exhausted.

She sits down in a chair next to the bed, wondering - not for the first time - if they'd been crazy to do this. To get married and have kids and...go out every day and risk their lives.

She reaches out and takes Maura's hand, brushing it against her lips. She can't help it. That's the love of her life lying there.

"What are we doing, Maur?" she whispers, kissing the hand again. "What are we doing?"

Jane's eyes are shut, so she doesn't see that Maura's are open, her expression one of sleepy surprise.

"The only thing we know how, sweet girl," She says softly, but Jane still starts, looking up suddenly.

"Hi," She says.

"Hi back! What are you doing here?"

Jane leans forward to kiss Maura's forehead. "Ma took the night shift for me. She said I looked awful."

Maura pushes Jane away to survey her. "You do look pretty awful," she says smiling.

"Thank you, darling," Jane says, but Maura pulls at her, and she happily climbs up into the hospital bed, tucking herself gently against her wife's side. "Does that hurt?" she asks as Maura sighs.

"God, no. It feels heavenly. I've missed you so much." They kiss. soft and sweet and gentle. Jane feels her tension dissolve.

She smiles, putting her lips to Maura's neck before snuggling against her shoulder. "Isabelle wants to know when you are coming home to do morning teeth. Apparently the way I brush them is just not cutting it."

She feels Maura smile into her hair, "I do have a certain flair for it."

"I don't understand why we have to brush them anyway. They're just going to fall out."

"Are you baiting me, Rizzoli?"

"Yes, Doctor."

But Maura tenses and Jane raises her head and looks up at her. "Maur?"

"I'm sorry, Jane. If I hadn't insisted we go, and if I hadn't picked a fight about nothing, you might have seen that truck and-"

Jane waves her away impatiently, "hush. It doesn't matter. We're okay."

"We almost weren't"

"But we are."

They lie there for a while, feeling the others heartbeat.

"Could we stop?" the question is quiet, apologetic. Jane runs her hand over Maura's stomach, feeling it flutter underneath her fingers. She's been asking herself that all day.

"Could you?" she counters, not wanting to be the one to answer first.

Maura sighs. "I don't think so," she says just as apologetically, her voice barely above a whisper. "But it's not because...it's because of them...that I couldn't"

And Jane loves her in that moment. Loves her for losing her words and for her honesty and for her fierce, undying passion for what she does.

"I love you, Maura Isles," she says snuggling closer, and Maura squeezes her shoulder.

"I love you too. So much. Go to sleep."

And Jane obeys almost immediately, feeling at ease in Maura's arms.

Right where she's meant to be.