As it happens, their planned vacation turns into a celebration.

Two days after the decision to go away is made, the social worker on Levi and Noah's case calls to tell them that they have passed their last home visit and background checks, and that they can schedule an appointment at the courthouse to make it official.

Maura steps into the entryway of her house, smiling at the shouts of laughter and the music coming from the living room.

All five of her family members are dancing, spread out in a makeshift circle around her tortoise, Jo Friday barking at Jane's heels excitedly.

"Mommy!" Isabelle is the first to spot her, "In pop too dance party!" she cries, grabbing Maura's hand and pulling her into the room.

"Impromptu," Maura laughs, looking at Jane. "What's happening?" Jane comes over and wraps her arms around her. "The boys are ours," she says, laughing when Maura's eyes get wide and excited.

"It's official?" She asks the room at large, but it's Jane again who answers.

"It's official. We can make the appointment anytime."

"We should do it before we go!" Maura pulls back to look at Levi who has stopped dancing and is watching them. She holds out her hands to him and he comes to her immediately. She smiles down at him.

"Are you alright with this, little man?" They've talked about how she and Jane can never replace his biological parents, how they don't want to, and Levi had seemed alright, but this is a big step.

Jane leans down and looks the little boy in the eye. "This is it, sir," she says firmly, and Levi's face goes solemn and a little scared.

"Jane," Maura says, trying to get her wife to ease up, but Jane puts her hand up, her eyes never leaving his, "After this, it's set in stone. You are stuck with Mom and me forever."
Levi nods, and Jane looks at him hard, "There's no going back."

Levi stands a little straighter, looking at her defiantly. "I don't want to go back."

Jane almost smiles. "Your sisters are going to grow up into teenage girls."

"I know."

"They will be hormonal and crazy," Jane shakes her head, "They will blame you for all their problems with boys."

Maura scoffs, chuckling "Jane! For heaven's sake." Isabelle comes up beside the doctor, listening.

"If any boy hurts one of my sisters I will punch him in the face," Levi says earnestly, and Jane tries hard to swallow a laugh as Maura glares at her.

"We do not condone violence," she says, her smirk undermining her words.

Levi considers, "Then I will hold him down until you come and arrest him, Ma."

Even Maura has to laugh at that. Jane straightens a little, "Good man," she says, and Levi beams.

"Have you thought about names?" Maura asks as Levi turns to her. They've told him that he can remain an Owens on his birth certificate if he'd like. They told him he could make the decision for both himself and his brother. Levi nods slowly, his eyes moving between the doctor and the detective. "I thought I might keep my name. Levi Michael…" he looks at his shoes for a moment, "Michael was daddy's name."

Jane puts her hand on his shoulder, and he looks up at her, "But I'd like to be a Rizzoli-Isles. If I can."

Maura feels like her heart might burst. "Of course, darling. And Noah?"

Levi looks to where Sofia is dancing with his baby brother, both of them in fits of giggles. He chews the inside of his cheek. "Well…Owen is a boy's name, you know...I thought maybe that could be his new middle name, and then…" Clear blue eyes look up hopefully at Maura, "He could be a Rizzoli-Isles too?"

Isabelle tugs on Maura's skirt, and the doctor pulls her close. "That would be lovely," she says, because when she looks at Jane, it's clear that she is too emotional to speak.

"He won't remember our other mom. Or dad, will he?"

Maura looks down at Levi sharply, trying to ascertain if his tone is one of sadness or satisfaction.

"No," she says, because not only can she not lie to this little boy, she doesn't want to. "Chances are that anything he remembers is going to be from something you tell him."

"We could pick a day," Levi says suddenly, looking up at his parents, "Where I tell him stories…and we go see them…where they are."

Jane raises her eyebrows at Maura. Levi has never expressed any interest in visiting his parent's graves before today. She leans down to him again. "We can go see your mom and dad any time you want, Lee, you know that, right? You don't have to wait for a day."

Maura nods, and Levi smiles before turning back to his dancing sisters, "Yeah, Ma. I know."

Maura steps up to Jane, "It's official," she says as the brunette puts her head on her wife's shoulder. "No turning back now."

"Scared?" Jane asks, "We've been doing this for almost seven months now."

Maura pulls Jane closer, "Still, feels final." They are silent for a moment, listening to the kids, and Jane runs her hands up Maura's back, and Maura has the idea that Jane is reading her, like braille.

"I love you, Maura," Jane says against her neck and Maura knows that the detective does not want her to return the words. "I love you so much."

"I know you do, Jane." She says quietly, feeling her wife relax and start to move her hips lazily to the music. She sighs, loving the feeling. "I know you do."

…

They all come for the occasion, dressed to the nines. Tommy even brings TJ, in a tiny little onesie fashioned to look like a tuxedo. But he hands the baby to Lydia so that he can pull Levi into a hug. Jane and Maura are close enough to the pair that they can hear what he's saying, though they pretend that they can't.

"Congratulations bud."

"Thanks," Maura knows that Levi idolizes Tommy, and that the arrival of Tommy Jr. has made him sort of sad.

"You're officially my nephew now, and so anything you need. You just let me know, alright?"

Levi sounds a little dejected, "Yeah. Thanks."

"Hey," Maybe it is the fact that he is a new father, but Tommy picks up on Levi's tone, "Lee. Baby, or no baby. You're my nephew and I love you. You need me. I'm there."

And the smile that Levi gives her brother…Jane feels like she could die happy, right there on the steps of the courthouse.

Constance and Angela arrive together, both dressed up, Angela talking a mile minute and already looking close to tears.

Jane rolls her eyes and hugs both women, and when Maura hugs her mother, she seems unwilling to let go, so that they end up arm in arm, Maura flushed with pleasure.

Frost comes with Alissa, and then Frankie, alone.

"Did you ruin things with the reporter already?" Angela is dismayed.

Frankie rolls his eyes, hugging his sister. "No, Ma, but she's not ready to meet the family."

"Yet," Angela grins.
Jane squeezes her brother's good arm. "Maybe you should warn her," she mutters.
"I heard that."

.

It is wonderful.

They are loud and they are laughing and they are love, and when the judge bangs his gavel and announces them a family, Jane feels a sort of fullness in her chest that she hasn't felt before.

She lifts Noah onto her hip, and the rest of her immediate family gathers around her for a photograph.

Maura slips her arm around her at the last minute and Levi, Sofia and Isabelle push back against them.

"Say, family!" Angela calls, lifting the camera to her face.

"family," they call, and Isabelle cries out at the last moment, "I love mine!" and so when they look at the picture on the screen of the digital camera, they are all laughing.

"We can retake it," Angela says.

"No," Maura's voice is constricted, and when Jane looks at her, she knows her wife feels the same fullness too. the feeling of being complete.

"It's perfect."

…

Noah is afraid of the airplane. He starts to whimper in Jane's arms as they walk down the connecting tunnel to their seats.

"It's alright honey pie," Jane says to him, "Sofia, hold Rachel's hand please, thank you."

They'd bickered a little bit, about whether or not to bring one of the sitters. Maura had wanted to and Jane had been against it.

"I like putting them to bed, and taking them places…I don't want someone else doing that."

Maura had nodded, "I like all of those things, too, Jane, and we will do all those things. But the plane is going to be problematic. And when we're on the beach or just out in public…in the pool…I'd like to have an extra set of hands."

She'd paused as Jane looked unconvinced. "You have to admit that my birthday weekend was a rather nice arrangement."

Jane bit her lip, running her eyes along the doctor's frame. "Compromise," she'd said, holding out her hand. "She gets one of the days off, and can do whatever she wants when we go for dinner, until the next morning."

Maura bit her lip, "and there's one night where she's on duty."

They'd shaken on it. "Carla," Jane had said at the exact same time that Maura had said "Rachel."

.

Ultimately, Jane is glad she'd given in and glad that Rachel is there, the twins bags slung over her shoulders, reaching out to grab Isabelle as she tries to run down the narrow pathway.

Noah starts to cry in earnest as they step onto the plane, and Jane bites her lip, bouncing him. They have seven seats in the ten person first class section, and it makes Jane feel an odd mixture of comfort and guilt at she settles her toddler next to her in one of the oversized plush chairs. Maura sits with Levi across from the twins, and Rachel takes up her seat across from Jane.

"Here, I brought these," Rachel says, leaning across to hand Jane a pair of miniature ear plugs and a lollipop. "I learned in my Child Development class that if you put them in before we're in the air, they have a greater effect."

Jane grins, taking the items, and Noah stops crying when he notices the bright green candy.

"lolli, mama?"

"I knew I liked you," Jane says to Rachel, turning to tilt her son's head so she can see better.

Rachel smiles back, "Let me know if you want me to take him, or switch with you or anything like that. I'm more than happy to-"

"Relax, Rachel," Jane chuckles. "You will have plenty of time to prove how thankful you are to be going to Saint Maarten. First class."

Rachel blushes, "I've never flown first class," she says excitedly, "Or been to Saint Maarten…It's so wonderful," she catches herself, "I mean…I know I'm coming as your babysitter and-"

But Jane leans across the aisle, "You're free of us every day at five," she says like she's telling the young woman a secret, "and as long as you meet us for breakfast at nine, we don't need to know what happens while you're out of sight." And she leans back, chuckling at the crimson flush spreading down the sitter's hairline.

The plane starts to taxi down the runway, and Sofia presses herself against the window, looking out.

Jane keeps Noah occupied with an interactive storybook, trying not to show how uncomfortable she still is with airplanes, but she can hear Maura as she leans out across the aisle to talk to her daughters.

"Want me to tell you how planes are able to defy gravity?"

"Yes!" an excited chorus from the girls.

Jane grits her teeth, and redoubles her efforts to focus on the story in front of her, and tune out her wife.

…

They do everything.

They have three rooms in a hotel that overlooks the beach, and Maura has made sure to pack their days full of amazing experiences. The list that each child made is honored to the fullest extent, and Isabelle spends a blissful first day of the vacation swimming with dolphins.

"She's going to be a marine biologist," Maura says, swaying back and forth with Noah, in the shallow part of the water, watching the trainer and her three oldest children as they stroke the dolphin's nose.

"Or at least a trainer at Seaworld," Jane laughs, making a face at Noah, "Let him go, see if he will swim to me."

"Oh, Jane…" Maura redoubles her hold on the toddler.

"He's wearing like, eighteen swimmies, Maura, let him go."

She does, and the look of shock and then determination that wash over his tiny features, as his mother calls him, combined with Jane's squeal of delight as he starts to move doggedly towards her, are two new things the Maura can add to her favorite moments.

.

The second night is spent in three huge tents on the edge of the beach, and Maura congratulates herself for killing off two of her children's wishes with one activity. the next day they will walk the trails along the dunes, but tonight is all about camping, and the stars.

They let the children stay up until they fall asleep, and while Jane teaches Levi and Isabelle how to start a campfire, Maura spreads out a quilt and calls her dark haired daughter over to her.

"Look up, little growl," she says softly, and nothing has ever been so beautiful as looking at the tons of stars reflected in Sofia's wide, dark eyes.

"Do you want to hear some stories?"

Sofia falls backwards onto the quilt beside her mother. "Yes," she breathes, and her face is alive with excitement. "tell me everything."

Maura talks for almost twenty minutes, sometimes taking her daughters hand and tracing the outside of a constellation. It gets darker and darker and so she feels rather than sees her wife and the rest of her children settle down on the blanket too.

"That star there is called Sirius. But lots of people call it "the dog star because it's part of the constellation that looks like a giant dog."

"Canus Major," Sofia whispers to Jane, pointing.

"You are so smart, nug," Jane whispers back.

"Mommy's going to teach me everything," She says, snuggling against Maura.

"Bella too," comes a sleepy voice on her other side.

Jane just smiles and looks back up at the sky.

...

On their night without children, after dinner at a fancy restaurant by the water, they end up in the hotel bar.

Jane is dressed in black pants and a wine red silk top that falls off of one shoulder, revealing the most tempting shoulder blade and collarbone that Maura has ever seen.

The doctor is in a midnight dress, stopping just above her knees, and tight enough that Jane misses her mouth with her fork twice, eyes wandering.

"If you stab yourself with that utensil and we end up in the hospital on our childless night, Jane Rizzoli, I will never let you forget it," Maura had said, leaning forward. Jane's eyes had gone dark. "That dress is…"

Maura had giggled, "Yes?"

Jane crossed her legs, leaning back and rolling her shoulders. "Coming off later," she'd growled.
Maura had found it a little hard to focus after that as well.

But they stop at the bar because Maura wants to grab a night cap, and then Jane gets a call from Tommy, and Maura can hear the baby crying in the background.

"Tommy…no…bro…I can't hear you…ugh, hang on," and shooting an apologetic look at Maura, she slips off the barstool.

Maura orders another Cosmo.

"Let me get that for you," the man appears out of nowhere, and offers his twenty to the bartender before she can answer.

"That's…very nice of you," Maura says, smiling politely.

"You can definitely make it up to me," He responds, shifting to a barstool closer to her.

Her eyebrows shoot up, "That's quite forward," she says, before she can stop herself. He grins at her, and it's lascivious and uncomfortable. She glances over his shoulder for Jane, but the bar is as empty as when they came in. Jane is nowhere in sight.

"If you know what you want…" He leans a little closer, "Why not come up to my room. Give me half a minute and I bet the room next door would call security on us."

Maura leans away from him, watching his eyes drop down to her cleavage. "You're hypothesizing about the level of noise we would make, were you to take me to bed?" She keeps her voice low so it doesn't shake, and his eyes darken. She does not like this man. This time anger keeps her voice steady. "On what do you base that theory, might I ask?"

"Every woman who's had the full Trevor experience," he growls at her, and it is not deep and seductive like Jane's growl, but dark and possessive. She frowns a little bit, watching his eyes move over her again.

"Hm," her disinterested noise makes his eyes snap back up to her face.

"You're not interested?"

She looks at him carefully, "I'm married."

He grins at her, all white pearly teeth, reminding her with a jolt of Denis Rockmond, "That doesn't answer my question." He reaches out towards her, "C'mon, sexy, let me rock your world."

She's not sure where Jane comes from or how long she's been standing there, but she is behind him faster than her brain can process. She twists his arm back behind him and presses it against his back, pushing him roughly up against the lip of the bar. She looks at Maura, and her eyes go directly to the doctor's throat, searching.

Maura's breath catches in her chest. "I-I'm fine," she says, "honey," she can hear how unconvincing she sounds, and Jane's eyes register a hint of panic. She jerks his arm hard. He hiccups in pain.

"Did you touch my wife?" Her voice is low and growly. It shoots right through Maura.

"No!" Maura shakes her head, "He didn't, honey. I'm fine." Jane's face relaxes a fraction, but she does not release him.

"N-n-no man, c'mon," Trevor whines, "we-we-we were just talking, dude" it dawns on Maura that he can't see Jane, with the way she has him pinned, and between the heels she's wearing that add three inches, and her deep, angry voice, Trevor thinks she's a man.

Jane wrenches his arm again, and her eyes flash up at Maura, dark and pissed and…lustful. "I heard what you said to her…I'm pretty sure the only one getting rocked tonight will be you…with actual rocks."

Maura smirks a little as Trevor whimpers. "Be-be cool, man I-I-I didn't mean anything by it."

"Take pity on him, sweetheart," Maura purrs, and Jane's eyes snap up to look at her again. "He can't have had many successful sexual encounters in the past."

"Is that right?" Jane's expression is darkening into desire very quickly.
Maura nods, "mmm, yes. Studies have shown that when engaged in a lackluster sexual act, a man or a woman might talk to themselves, sort of like a pep talk, in order to maintain arousal or to reach a climax," Jane makes a face behind Trevor's back, and Maura just manages not to laugh, "this most often manifests itself as screaming, in women anyway. So poor Trevor here may think he retains magnificent sexual prowess…"

"But he's really more like a high school virgin," Jane finishes satisfied, "What about me, Maur?" Her voice slips even deeper. "Do you scream when you're with me?"

Maura flushes, but not out of embarrassment, "With you, I barely have the breath to moan, Jane."

The detective releases Trevor at her name, coming around quickly to help Maura off her stool, and the doctor has one satisfied moment of watching Trevor's pain and anger, slip quickly into shock and embarrassment.

"You're-you're-you're dykes?!"

Jane spins back to him, hands out, and he recoils, already wincing. But Maura puts her hand on Jane's shoulder. "No," she says firmly, "Save your strength, please." She tugs on Jane's shoulder, and at length, the detective turns around, she looks a Maura her eyes wandering down to her pumps and back up. This time, the look is like foreplay. The doctor smiles.

"Save my strength for what?" Jane licks her lips.

Maura doesn't answer, just pulls her detective out of the bar by her wrist.
It does not cross Jane's mind to ask again.

…

On the last day, they take the entire family out on the ocean. Maura wants to take Levi snorkeling, and Isabelle is so enchanted with the ocean that she can barely sit still. The boat is large, with a little cabin and an observation deck that runs the length of both sides.
Levi pulls on Maura's hand as Jane secures the younger children in life jackets.

"Mom?"

"Yes, darling… Jane…honestly, they don't need to wear those the entire time." Maura thinks it's a little funny that Jane is so wary of the water. Jane throws her a look, and Maura laughs. "It's not the titanic, honey."

"Mom?"
Maura refocuses, "Yes, honey, I'm sorry."

"Are we millionaires?"

The question makes the rest of the family look around. Maura looks at Jane, shocked. Jane clicks the last buckle on Sofia's life vest, and then looks back at her son. "What makes you think that?"

Levi scuffs his feet against the dock. "I dunnah. We came here in the front of the plane. And we brought Rachel, we got three rooms. And there was cars to pick us up everywhere…Are we millionaires?"

Maura looks at Jane, a little panicked. She has never been good at lying to the children, at stretching the truth or fibbing to keep her children happy or innocent, and the fact of the matter is that yes, Maura, and by extension her children and her wife, are millionaires. Her salary and Jane's are just continued icing on the cake.

Jane chuckles, "Are you worried about starving, Lee?" She asks reaching out to help him up the little gangplank to the boat.

He smiles and shakes his head, Jane nudges him with an elbow. "Look, dude, here's what you need to know, okay?" She glances at Maura, "Mommy…and I, have enough money to keep you fed and healthy. We have enough to keep a roof over your head and make sure you get an edumacation."

He giggles, "Maaa, you know it's not said like that."

"It's not?" She looks baffled, "well then it must be working."

Sofia wanders over and Jane lifts her onto her hip. "You are all, very, very lucky," she says, and Isabelle looks around from where she is practically hanging over the railing, looking for fish. "You do not have to worry about being hungry or cold or scared. Alright?"
"Alright, Ma," Noah says from Maura's arms. Jane smiles, "And sometimes, we have enough to go on these trips. Not every day, but sometimes. When we deserve it."

"We deserve it?" Isabelle asks, coming over to sit near Jane.

"Hell yeah!" Jane answers without thinking.

Maura gasps, glaring at Jane, who looks sheepish. Isabelle and Levi laugh. Sofia clicks her tongue.

"Mama, you's such a baddie," she says, but she grins, and leans comfortably against Jane.

"Yeah," Isabelle agrees, "it's great though. Right?"

…

"That man the other night," Jane's voice comes by her ear. They are standing, watching their children down by the water with Rachel, 'saying good-bye to the ocean.'

Maura stiffens, "He reminded me of Denis," she says quietly.

Jane's arms tighten around her waist. "He reminded me of Landon McDermott."

Maura tilts her head to look up at her wife, "who?"

Jane shivers subconsciously, "the twenty one year old drug addict that assaulted you when you were fifteen."

Maura's eyes get wide, "How do you know-"

"I looked up the file. It was the first thing I ever did in the archives, actually. Three hours after graduating from the Academy."

"Do you know where he is now?" Maura asks, even though she already knows the answer.

"Yes," Jane pauses for a moment, "He's in prison for aggravated sexual assault and attempted murder."

Maura looks back out at her children, giggling as the waves run over their bare feet, Rachel chasing after them with Noah in her arms.

"If one of them falls in love at fifteen, will you let them see where it goes?"
"No," Jane growls, "I will sit our child's boyfriend or girlfriend down, and I will explain to them that there are very few reasons that I would ever misuse my firearm…"
"Jane!" Maura laughs and turns to look up at the detective. "You're saying that what happened between us could never happen to one of our children?"

Jane shrugs. "It's rare. To find anything that lasts that young, and regardless of what it brought me, I would never wish a McDermott on any of our children."
Maura nods, "okay, so, rare…but not impossible."

Jane grins, "This conversation is backwards. Aren't I the one who's supposed to be convincing you of miracles, Dr. Isles?"

Maura is taken aback, "It was not a miracle, Jane," She says, but Jane looks down at her sharply.

"It most certainly was."

Maura shakes her head, "Miracles imply that there is a higher power who has the ability to make things happen and who-"

But Jane presses her lips to Maura's mid-sentence, in a kiss that is slow and easy and so completely Jane. "Us," Jane says quietly, spinning the blonde so that they are both looking at five damp and sandy figures trudging up the beach towards them. "All of us, together and happy and right," her lips find the doctor's jaw, "tell me that's not a miracle. Close your eyes and think about how we all came to be here, together, and tell me there was not something working for us. Helping us."

Maura closes her eyes. She thinks about the fountain where she first met Jane. The one that she can see from her living room window. She thinks of the moment she stepped out of the car and how Frankie had whirled to face her and how she'd sat in the attic of her home reading letter after letter after letter.

She thinks of Adam's death and Garrett's incarceration and Jane in her bed, in her home, on her couch. At her side when she was crying and fighting alongside her when she was angry. She thinks of the moment she made her lips move over the one word that saved them both from Charles Hoyt, and the terror and elation and overwhelming affection that enveloped her when she heard a second heartbeat thrumming inside of her stomach.

She thinks of the first time she saw Noah and Levi's picture, and the way the toddler had fallen asleep on her lap the first time she met him. Like he already knew.

She thinks and thinks, and she remembers it all, like a silent movie behind her eyelids. And when she opens her eyes, and looks up at Jane (green into brown, the way she wants it to be forever), she knows that Jane is right.

But then there's the soft thunk of Sofia, throwing her arms around her middle. And then Isabellle. And Levi jumps onto Jane's back from behind…

And the detective can read the answer in her eyes.

Maura doesn't have to say anything at all.

I love you guys so much. You've followed me on this journey and I can't even...begin to tell you how writing this has healed me and helped me and let me get what I needed to say out there.

Here is the epilogue. I hope you like it.

There WILL be a part three. I'm going to take some time off for a while, finish The Moment, put out a little five shot of one shots I've got...and then come back to this. I plan to have the first chapter of part three up on March 10th or so. If you aren't you can follow me as an author so you get an email when it comes.
What I would also love from you, if you are so inclined, is to let me know anything youd like to see in part two. and drams you think I haven't already covered? Levi's first gf? something like that.

if you want to read more of my stuff, you can read The Moment. You can also follow me on tumblr (colormetheworld dot tumblr dot com), for rizzles AND non rizzles stuff. I know I know. shameless promotion. apologies.

I love you guys. SO MUCH. I hope you'll come back for the next round, when it happens, and that you enjoy my other stuff in the meantime and...just. thank you. and i love you and you always have a friend in me.

happy reading

tc