Disclaimer: I do not own these characters and make no profit from their use. Trust me on that one.

BOSTON STRONG.

Chapter 72

Maura smiled to herself when she heard the elevator doors open and Jane's distinctive footsteps walk into the morgue. She looked up as Jane walked over to her and planted a quick kiss on her lips.

"That all you have, Chief?" Maura flirted. Jane laughed.

"I'm busy today, Maura, you'll have to wait until later."

"Later, when all of the family is crowding around the dinner table, or later when everyone is asleep?" Maura pulled off her gloves and grabbed Jane's jacket. She grinned when Jane blushed.

"Menopause certainly hasn't slowed you down," Jane remarked, putting her arms around Maura and holding her close for a minute.

"Why should it? Studies have shown that mature couples enjoy sex with a greater intimacy. Why shouldn't we enjoy ourselves?"

Jane regretfully pulled away from her wife. "You'll have to wait until later. The podium is set up for all of the speeches. I'm going to the cleaners to pick up my dress blues."

"Sexy," Maura whispered in Jane's ear. She felt Jane shudder a little. After being married for twenty-two years their hunger for each other was unmatched.

"What are you going to do on Monday when you have to come to work and I don't?" Jane asked.

"You'll just have to wait until I come home to ravish me."

"I'm glad you have this all figured out, Maura. I thought when I retired you would, too."

"I will when the Raditch case is over. The trial starts day after tomorrow. I put my paperwork in with the city last week."

"Good. We can spend the first week of our joint retirement in bed all day." Jane kissed Maura with a little more passion then released her wife.

"Gotta go babe. See you later."

"I sound like your flavor of the week," Maura complained, pouting.

"And the flavor of the month, and the year, and the decade," Jane called behind her. Maura watched Jane leave the morgue then returned to her autopsy.

"I should have told her I'd make her beg," Maura remarked to the body on the table.

"I don't think I should be hearing this," a voice said and Maura screamed. She whirled around. Barry Frost stood behind her.

"Where did the Chief go?" he asked.

"Barry you scared me. She had to go to the cleaners to pick up her dress blues."

Barry grinned. "Sorry for the scare, doc but you have to admit when the governor told Jane she had to wear her dress blues for her retirement ceremony today he put a crimp in her plans."

"Yes, I can imagine. She wanted to wear her black pantsuit," Maura remarked dryly. "I told Jane she'd have to kill me first before I'd let her be photographed in that awful suit."

"You have to admit it's her trademark. Everyone knows Detective Jane Rizzoli by her pantsuits."

"She's been Chief of Police Rizzoli for the past ten years, Barry. Her dress blues are a better idea."

"The governor phoned, he wants to talk to Jane before the ceremony this afternoon," Frost remarked.

"Did he say why he wanted to speak to Jane?" Maura asked.

"Not really. He said he had a new job for her, that's all."

"Maybe a commission on one of his boards."

"Yeah, well, she'll find out soon enough. He'll be here in half an hour. Will all the kids be here doc?"

"Yes and it's a surprise. Angelo managed to get leave and he's coming in from Afghanistan. The other three are here of course."

"She'll be surprised." Frost remarked, thinking about Angelo. He was stationed in Afghanistan as a military policeman, training Afghanis to police their country. Angelo wasn't slated to return home for another four months. Korsak notified the governor and got a few strings pulled and Angelo was en route to his mother's retirement ceremony.

"I heard you're retiring soon."

"News travels fast around here. I just told Jane, how did you find out?"

"Cavanaugh remarked on it when he called to finalize the order of ceremonies today. Said he couldn't imagine losing the best chief of police he's had as well as a top notch medical examiner."

"That was nice of him to say, I'll have to thank Commissioner Cavanaugh when I see him today."

"I'd better get back up there. Korsak will be sounding the drum soon if I don't."

"Vince got back from his latest fishing trip in time I see."

Frost laughed. "He said he wouldn't miss the old girl's retirement ceremony for anything in the world, not even the largest fish in the ocean."

"I hope Jane doesn't hear that remark. By the way, Barry, where are your dress blues? It seems to me the incoming chief of police should be in uniform today also."

"Upstairs. I was about to change when Korsak walked in so we chatted for a moment. I came looking for Jane when the governor called."

"I'll see you later, doc." Frost went upstairs and Maura returned to the body.

"I'm glad that wasn't you speaking," she told the body. "I'd have to have my hearing checked and call paramedics if it was you." Maura put on fresh gloves and completed the autopsy. Jane's retirement ceremony was less than two hours away and she wanted everything completed before then.

The bunting was draped, the chairs placed on the dais for the honored guests and speakers. Jane stood in the back watching the finishing touches being made. She heard voices coming closer and knew her family was gathering to enter the roped off area. Standing in her dress blues with her cap tucked under her arm she thought back over the years. First a beat cop then a detective in vice, then narcotics and finally her prize dream, homicide. She had been fortunate to work with detectives of such caliber as Vince Korsak and Barry Frost. Jane grinned when she thought of Frost. The city had made great strides in its racial battles, recognizing what a great chief of police Barry Frost was going to make.

Then Maura joined BPD as chief medical examiner and Jane's happiness raised a notch. After everything else they raised four great kids, three of them in attendance today. Too bad Angelo couldn't be there but Jane knew he was doing important work in Afghanistan and he'd be home in four months.

"There's my sis," she heard Frankie say and she turned around to hug him hello. Frankie looked the same to her, dressed in his suit and tie as a detective in Cambridge. The only difference she could see was a few more streaks of gray in his hair and laugh lines around his eyes. Otherwise he was the same old Frankie.

"Where's Ma?" Jane asked.

"Over there, trying to find out what kind of fish Korsak caught on this last trip."

"Why don't those two get together? Frankie, do something so they can be together."

"I hate to say it Jane, but you're beginning to sound like Ma." Jane slapped Frankie's arm.

"I am not, you take that back!" they laughed together.

"Sounds like my two oldest children, don't things ever change between you two?" Angela walked up behind Frankie.

"Hi, Ma, he was teasing me," Jane explained. She looked at her mother. Angela looked good for seventy-five. Jane hoped her mother would be around for a long number of years.

"You two," Angela complained good-naturedly and hugged Jane. "Where do we sit?"

"Right up in front, Angela," Maura said, slipping in behind her. She smiled at Jane.

"You look wonderful," Maura said. "Come on Angela we'll grab our seats right now. We'll make Frankie walk behind us." Frankie rolled his eyes at his sister and followed.

"Let's go, Chief," Frost said and Jane followed him up to their seats on the dais. Quickly everyone was seated and the ceremony began. Jane found her family sitting in the front row and watched them all.

As the ceremony started Maura kept her eye on Jane. Although she'd never admit it Maura knew how emotional Jane really was today. This was the day she passed the torch to someone else and the well-being of Boston's citizens passed to another. After today Jane became an ordinary citizen of Boston, something she hadn't been since she was in high school. Maura worried Jane's identity would change and she'd have difficulty adjusting to retirement. Maura pushed her own retirement date up as close to the end of the Raditch trial as she could, so Jane didn't have to occupy herself for too many weeks before they could enjoy each other's company. Maura already planned a couple of trips to Europe and Australia. She would have passed on testifying allowing her deposition to stand in for her at trial but the woman being prosecuted for the murder of her three children was facing only circumstantial evidence without Maura's testimony. Given what Maura found during their autopsies she wanted Mamie Raditch convicted of murder one and planned to see she got it.

She watched Jane's eyes flickering over the kids. She smiled as she saw Jane's eyes narrow when she mentally counted three kids, not knowing Angelo was in the back of the crowd at this very moment. Maura herself took mental stock of the children. Angelo's discharge became effective in four months and he had a position at Boston PD waiting for him. Barry Frost was practically salivating at learning the new criminal technologies Angelo could teach him.

Andrew and Michaela were still in college, Andrew playing baseball for Boston College and fighting off major league scouts. Maura asked him to graduate with a degree, if not now, then when his playing days were over. Andrew promised then informed his mother he filed papers to go through the baseball draft in April. Maura congratulated him at being proficient enough to throw a touchdown. Andrew gently corrected his mother and reminded her that touchdowns were in football, he was a starting pitcher with a wicked curveball. Of course he saw himself wearing a Red Sox uniform.

Michaela was the most like her mother. Jane called her Maura's mini-me and it was a most appropriate nickname. Michaela reminded Jane of Maura in her younger days, only without the social awkwardness that haunted Maura before her marriage to Jane. She was in pre-med at Harvard. Jane remembered how many evenings her appetite for dinner was ruined when Maura and Michaela talked shop. She knew Michaela learned as much from Maura as she did from textbooks and labs. Maura was an excellent teacher and loved being a medical examiner. She didn't push Michaela in any direction and suspected Michaela wanted a traditional practice with live patients.

Caitlyn was the one who surprised them all. After college she joined the peace corps and traveled overseas, teaching English to small children and helping to dig fresh water wells. Jane looked at her older daughter married to the doctor she met in Africa. Caitlyn looked like she swallowed a watermelon, she was that pregnant. Jane had been afraid to have Caitlyn attend the ceremony, thinking she might go in to labor from all the emotions of Jane's retirement ceremony. Maura reminded Jane gently that women had children for many years now and no one had a problem at her mother's retirement ceremony. Jane tucked her concern in the back of her mind.

Angela looked like the proudest mother of all. Her grandchildren turned out all right and she was going to be a great-grandmother any day now. Her life felt complete. She was sorry Frank Sr. hadn't stayed around to see all of this but she knew Jane was in contact with her father in Florida.

Jane heard the ceremony about to end. She approached the podium for her closing words as she passed the title of Chief of Police of Boston to Barry Frost. Jane looked out over the crowd as she began speaking.

"I've had the privilege to serve the great citizens of Boston for over thirty years now. There was never a day I didn't want to come to work and put my best foot forward for everyone. I've served with the best and today we see one of those best detectives succeed me as Chief of Police. I know everyone will give their all to continue the traditions of Boston's Finest."

Barry stepped up to the podium and shook Jane's hand. The ceremony concluded, the Chief's badge firmly pinned to Barry's uniform shirt by his wife and son, Jane stepped off the dais to greet her family. She felt numb, realizing that tomorrow morning she'd be at home.

Maura met Jane at the podium and smiled up at her wife. "There's someone else here to see you," she said gently and turned. Angelo stood behind his mothers and saluted.

"To the best of Boston's Finest," he said and hugged Jane and Maura.

The End

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