Hey y'all. Happy Halloween for when the time comes. Work over the next 3 weeks is about to get crazy so hopefully I'll be able to do some writing in the middle. Hope you're all enjoying this. Big thanks to all the readers that have stuck with me until the end. After a rocky...what is it 3 years? We've made it to the finish. I'm working on the sequel as we speak and it follows the next stage of the family's life. Big thanks to Sweetkid45, Jkarr, JandandMaura05, Vbbneigbor, Piakat04, Akalittlered2 for their reviews and QueenJ and Vanilla and for all the readers that have remained with this story until the end. See you next month with the sequel!

Lots of love,

LM xxxxxxx

The Surprise That Would Change Everything-Part 70:

Jane and Maura had decided to keep their engagement a secret until they had a ring and it had been a few weeks after Louisa's birthday. They just wanted to do it properly first themselves. They also wanted to buy a ring and, with Cailin and Angela doing the Louisa pick up and occasionally Hope, Jane and Maura took themselves off after work one day to buy the rings. The cold case had finally been solved and there was now a lull in the station but Jane and Maura were spending a lot more time with Louisa but were letting her spend time with everyone else as well.

"Well I'd like a plain ring," Jane said, "I already know that you'll want sparkles."

"Yes but not too many," Maura said, "it has to be sensible for work Jane," she pointed out, "and I won't wear it until we have told everyone."

"I think we should tell Louisa first," Jane said, "well Korsak knows obviously."

"I think tell her at the same time as everyone else. She'll just go and tell Cailin else. We don't have to say it happened weeks ago. We can say it just happened."

"Maura you forgot about your hives."

"That's why you will be doing the lying," Maura said before they walked into the selected jewellery shop.

Louisa was at a session with Donna. It was a Saturday so Hope had taken Louisa to her figure skating session as she'd wanted to see the girl skate. Hope sat in the stands and had been texting Cailin and she couldn't help but smile. She hadn't been entirely honest about how long she'd known Sadie. She had confessed to Jane and Maura and, for now, they had decided to keep it a secret from Louisa until she was a bit older.

Hope smiled as she watched Louisa skating and knew the dress was from Sadie's box that had found its way to Beacon Hill. She watched and could see how happy Louisa was and she moved so she was stood by the barrier as she watched. Donna hadn't been happy about someone new being present but, once Hope had explained herself, Donna was fine with it. She did contact Maura to confirm though and then she finally gave in and let Hope watch. The woman knew that Jane and Maura would be out for a while so had planned to have lunch with the girl and Cailin as the older teenager would be able to join them by that point.

Back at the jewellery store and Jane had selected her ring but Maura was struggling to find one that she liked. She kept looking at one and sighing. She kept complaining that it was a little too sparkly for her liking but she was beginning to fall in love with it and Jane could see that.

"Maura just get it. What are you going to be like choosing the wedding ring?" Jane said, trying not to laugh. Maura sighed before nodding,

"Ok fine. I'll take it," she said smiling at Jane before the rings were placed in boxes and Korsak had paid for the rings as he had gone with the two of them acting as a father. The two thanked Korsak before heading off for a private lunch.

Cailin had finally found Hope and Louisa in a restaurant.

"How was it?" she asked.

"Great thanks," Louisa smiled, "feels like I haven't been off the ice now."

"She is rather good," Hope said.

"Mum she's not good. She's amazing and that is the end of the debate," Cailin said. Hope just smiled seeing Louisa and Cailin interacting.

Over in another restaurant and Jane and Maura were talking about the big announcement and when it would happen. They had planned to hold a relaxing family evening and then tell everyone. The only hard part was trying to figure out which night would be the best one as Constance was heading to Paris the following week and Jane and Maura wanted to tell everyone before that happened or else they'd never hear the end of it. The one thing Maura Isles had learnt was that if Constance Isles didn't find out she would never hear the end of it.

"We need to tell them everything before your mother goes," Jane said, "or else we'll be in trouble." Maura nodded before sighing,

"Then it'll have to be on a school night as I know everyone is free on Monday before my mom goes on Wednesday. We'd better start the plans quickly and get a message out."

Angela, meanwhile, had gathered that something was up with Jane and Maura and was trying to get information out of everyone, including Louisa, but nobody knew anything. All they knew was that it was going to be something big as Louisa had mentioned something about trying to arrange something before Constance departed for Europe once more.

The first anyone heard was when a group message appeared in e-mail inboxes saying that on the Monday they all needed to arrive at 6pm prompt at the Beacon Hill house. Of course all that had done was started the rumour mill going and everyone was trying to guess what was going to happen. The only one that had any idea was Korsak as he'd brought the rings.

Jane and Maura decided to talk to Louisa about the adoption plans before that Monday night and they sat her down.

"We need to talk to you about something," Maura started, knowing the proposal news had to remain a secret until the Monday night.

"Everyone says something bad is going to happen on Monday night because you never ask everyone over at the same time," Louisa said.

"Well we'll tell you that there is good news to be told on Monday but it could be even more good news if this discussion works out," Jane said, smiling slightly as she spoke.

"What does Jane mean?" Louisa questioned, "she's not making any sense at all."

"Well it's more about protecting you and doing what's best for you," Maura said, still thinking how to explain it all, "well currently if anything were to happen to me Jane isn't guaranteed to be able to look after you still but if we were to…say adopt you and become your parents then if anything happened to one of us the one would still be able to look after you and we could name someone if anything happened to us both…"

"But we don't want to take the place of your parents," Jane added quickly, "we just want to make sure that all things and legal problems are covered."

Louisa sat there in silence, clearly thinking about it. She'd never even considered that there could have been problems with her staying with Jane or Maura in the event of something going wrong.

"So if you adopted me then I'd never be taken away again because you're my parents…not my guardians…?" the girl finally asked, still slightly unsure if she was understanding what Jane and Maura were saying to her.

"Yes that's correct," Maura said, "you and I are cousins but that doesn't help Jane if anything were to happen to me. Do you see what I'm saying?" Louisa nodded,

"So you want to adopt me to make sure I can stay with the other if anything happened to either of you? I couldn't be taken away or anything. I'd be able to stay here no matter what happened?" Jane breathed an obvious sigh of relief as Louisa finally seemed to understand the situation. She and Maura had agreed that it was a huge thing to discuss with a 13-year-old but Louisa was old enough to have a say.

"Yes but we don't want to take the place of your parents," Jane said quickly, "making sure Louisa understood that part."

"Can I have a think and let you know by Monday night?" Louisa asked. Maura had wanted an answer but realised how conflicted Louisa was about it all. They let her go and the girl headed to her room.

Louisa never gave an answer on Sunday and mainly kept herself to herself, except when she went to practice but either way Jane and Maura never got an answer. They knew that Louisa was probably researching it all and finding out what she could about it all. She was a smart kid but was still only just 13-years-old and it was a lot for her to get her head around.

Finally Monday morning at breakfast Louisa gave her answer and Jane and Maura were thrilled. Louisa had said yes. The two had been right and Louisa had been looking it all up and in the end saw there were more positives so she had given the go ahead for it to happen, on the condition that they never tried to be like Brian and Sadie. Of course the two had agreed to that and it had been decided that Jane and Maura were going to adopt Louisa. Now just to tell everyone.

The day seemed to pass agonisingly slow but eventually it was time for the gathering and Constance's farewell for now party and everyone was wondering what was going on. Maura had laid on a spread so everyone was mingling, well almost everyone. The two youngest members, Louisa and Cailin, were over in the corner talking away to each other, puzzling everyone on why the two were so close.

"Come on you two!" Angela said, "we all want to know why we're all here. I mean you've been keeping secrets all weekend and it must important as it's happening before Constance departs for Paris."

"Yeah sis," Frankie said, "what's going on?"

Jane looked across and Maura headed over to her. The doctor looked and saw that Cailin and Louisa were stood between Hope and Angela.

"Well Jane and I have some news to share with you all. The first is that we are going to formally adopt Louisa…" Maura said and there were gasps and mummers as everyone digested that news, "Louisa is fine with it," she quickly added, "we gave her the time to make her own choices and it will add security to her life."

Everyone turned and looked at Louisa.

"It's OK with me, just don't make a big deal out of it." Everyone could see the proper time to discuss things would be after Louisa had gone to bed.

"What's the second part?" Hope asked, an arm around Cailin and Louisa. She felt like Sadie would want her to protect Louisa and watch over her.

"Well…" Jane said, "a couple of weeks ago, after Lou's party, and out of nowhere I asked Maura to marry me…and she said yes!"

Again more gasps could be heard and everyone soon rushing towards the happy couple who were soon wearing the rings they'd brought. The one person that hadn't rushed up to them was Louisa but, once everyone had moved away from them, Jane held out her arm and Louisa ran straight into the outstretched arm and the two women brought Louisa into the hug.

"We couldn't tell you in case you said something," Maura said softly, "please don't be mad at us."

"I'm not. Is this really it? A happy ending?" Louisa asked.

"No," Jane said, "it's a happy beginning, for us and this crazy family."

Jane was right because Louisa really was the surprise that changed everything.