"One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel." -Doctor Who

Chapter 1

"Get your cameras ready. We don't know how fast she's going to tear this thing up," Angela said.

Maura hastily grabbed her DSLR camera as Angela set a round cake on the highchair in front of Charlotte. Jane stepped forward and carefully lit the big candle in the shape of the number one. Angela had made a lovely little round cake, with sky blue icing providing the background for colorful spring flowers. There was a matching sheet cake for the adults, but Angela had insisted that Charlotte had to have her very own cake.

Charlotte reached a chubby little hand towards the flame, but Jane quickly caught it with a firm "No."

"Blow out the candle!" Angela encouraged her as Maura took picture after picture. Charlotte looked so perfect just then. Her hair was a mass of dark, wild curls, her eyes perfectly green, her cheeks rosy. She was wearing her special first birthday outfit, a dress with a ruffled pink skirt and a birthday cake embroidered on the chest, and a matching sweater with differently colored balloons on it. Over that she wore a pink-and-white striped bib with a big glittery 1 on it, and on her head was an elaborate birthday crown that also bore a glittery 1. Her elegant highchair, a baby shower gift from Maura's mother, was decorated with little pennants spelling out the word "one."

Charlotte made several earnest attempts at blowing out her candle, but she hadn't quite mastered the art of blowing yet. Instead she just blew raspberries in the general direction of the flame, getting little drops of spit all over the top of the cake. Finally Jane leaned down and blew the candle out for her before declaring, "You did it!"

"Yaaaay!" Charlotte agreed, clapping her little hands. Then she stuck one of her hands directly into the cake.

"Oh," said Maura. "Charlotte, I have a fork for you." She turned to the counter, looking for the little fork, but Jane stopped her.

"It's her first birthday," said Jane. "Let her make a mess."

Maura looked around and saw it was already too late to stop her. Charlotte now had both hands deeply embedded in the cake, a look of rapture on her small face. She lifted one hand to her mouth and took an enormous bite of chocolate cake, smearing much of it on her face in the process. "Yum yum yum," she chanted, reaching for more. Her crown slid off her head and she reached up to touch the spot where it had been, smearing a line of blue icing through her curls. Maura laughed and cringed at the same time.

"I think it's going to take both of us to her get clean after this," she said to Jane. It often did anyway. Charlotte didn't mind getting in the water for the sake of splashing, but she wasn't a huge fan of actually being washed.

"Yeah," Jane agreed. "But at least she's having fun."

She definitely was. Maura sighed happily as she watched her little girl gleefully attacking the cake. She had been a mother now for an entire year. Where had the time gone? It seemed like she had only just held that tiny, wriggling body in her arms for the very first time. Now Charlotte had tripled in size, was walking and climbing and getting into everything, and she seemed to learn new words each day. She didn't have much time for being held anymore. She already wanted to exert her independence, to spend her time exploring and figuring out how things worked (and how they tasted. Absolutely everything she found went into her mouth). But when she was sleepy, Maura could hold her as long as she wanted, and she felt a sort of peace when Charlotte was in her arms that she'd never experienced before. She didn't think she would ever get enough of it.

By the time Charlotte was done with her cake, it was smeared all over the high chair, her clothes, her face, her hair, and somehow even her feet. As a grand finale, she pushed the platter onto the floor and started struggling in her seat, yelling "Dow! Dow!"

"Hold on, we have to get you cleaned up first!" said Maura, rushing to get a dishrag. Jane, knowing how tricky this part was, grabbed a rag as well, and they both tackled the problem at once. While Maura fought to wipe the cake off the struggling toddler's face and hands, Jane tried to get what she could cleaned off her dress and feet. Finally they had her as clean as she was going to get under the circumstances, so Maura removed her bib, unfastened her from the chair, and lifted her out. "There, you can play now," she said, planting a quick kiss on her daughter's head (she had to sneak affection in wherever she could) before setting her down on the floor. Charlotte immediately ran to her favorite present: a little ride-on car she could push with her feet. She hopped on and took off through the house, people hastily moving out of her way.

"Well, she's definitely having fun," Jane remarked, watching her daughter proudly.

"Yes," agreed Maura. "I think she's going to find a way to get icing all over the house, though."

"That's okay. We're moving out soon anyway," Jane joked. They had, only a few days before, made an offer on a beautiful sprawling Victorian in Jamaica Plain. Maura was sad about leaving her beautiful Beacon Hill home, but she loved the new house, and she thought it would be good to have a house that she and Jane decorated together, one that would be theirs instead of hers. The new house was also a better place for raising children, with a huge yard and several large bedrooms.

"Oh, I actually needed to talk to you about that," said Angela.

"Ma, we told you, there's plenty of room for you in the new house. The basement has an 'au pair' suite that's much nicer than the guest house here. We'll take you by to see it when we have the inspection."

"Actually," said Angela, "what I was going to tell you is that you shouldn't worry about it. Ron has asked me to move in with him." She grinned at them, her eyes shining.

Maura smiled back. "Oh, that's great, Angela! We'll miss having you with us, but I'm sure you'll be happy with Ron."

Jane did not look quite as pleased. "You're just going to live with him out of wedlock?"

"It's the 21st century, Janie. I didn't think that was a big deal anymore."

"I thought it was to you! You always said people were 'living in sin' when they did that."

"I said nothing of the sort when you and Maura lived together before you got married!"

"You probably knew we were going to get married! What's Ron's plan? Is he going to marry you, or is he just 'getting the milk for free,' as you also used to say!"

"That is none of your business!" snapped Angela.

"Jane," Maura said gently, putting a hand on her wife's arm. "Let it go. Your mother is a grown woman. She can make her own decisions."

Jane bit her lip, clearly struggling to contain herself. "Are you going to keep watching Charlotte while we're at work?"

"Of course! But you don't need me to be your live-in nanny anymore," Angela pointed out. "Maura's the only one who has to run off to look at dead bodies now. You can watch Charlotte then, and I'll just come over during your regular work hours to look after her."

"That sounds perfect, Angela," Maura said. "Will we still have Sunday dinner every week?"

"Yes, of course! We could alternate between your new house, and me and Ron's house. Oh, he has a beautiful house. I can't wait for you to see it."

Maura nodded, but her smile was forced. She didn't want to say anything because she knew it was silly, but she wanted Sunday dinner to be at her and Jane's house. It had been at their house every week for the past six years, and Maura loved being right at the center of the big family gathering. But her thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell ringing, and she hurried to answer it.

"Hey," said Frankie, standing next to Nina with a present in his hands. "Sorry we're late. I got called to a crime scene."

"It's quite all right. I assume Kent was there?" Maura had made sure she would not be on call this weekend so she could devote herself entirely to celebrating Charlotte's birthday.

"Yeah. It was kind of gruesome. A woman tied to a tree in the woods, no clothes on. Just about the worst kind of case, except for, you know, kids."

"We can discuss the case when I come Monday to do the autopsy," Maura told him firmly. "We're not talking about murder on my daughter's birthday."

"I absolutely agree," said Nina. "So where is the birthday girl?"

"Um…" Maura looked around and located Charlotte in the living room, where she was "mowing" the rug with a new wooden push toy that resembled a lawn mower. She had abandoned her car, which T.J. was now taking for a spin, even though it was a bit small for him. "There she is. Charlotte, Uncle Frankie and Aunt Nina are here!"

Nina broke into a grin. "I love when you call me Aunt Nina."

Maura smiled back. "I know you aren't officially her aunt yet, but you will be this fall, so we might as well start calling you that now. And I remember how happy I was when they started telling T.J. to call me Aunt Maura."

"It's a good family to marry into, isn't it?"

Maura looked around at Angela organizing the opened presents, Tommy eating cake while chatting with Korsak, T.J. running to greet his Uncle Frankie, and Jane scooping Charlotte up so she could come open her newest gift. "I think it's the best."

XXX

"I was so busy getting ready for the party, I forgot to make sure you took your prenatal vitamins this morning," Maura said to Jane, turning off the water for Charlotte's bath.

"I took them. I don't always need you to remind me." Jane pulled Charlotte's icing-covered outfit off and plunked the wiggly toddler into the tub.

"Good." Maura put Charlotte's toy boat in the water, and Charlotte immediately began pushing it around. "So, just ten days left until we do embryo transfer number one."

"Yeah. I am so ready to carry your baby." Jane gave Maura as a quick kiss as she reached for a washcloth and began scrubbing Charlotte, who had managed to get cake even under her clothing.

"I can't wait to see you pregnant, although I'm also a little nervous. We have our hands full already with just one. What if we can't handle two?"

"We'll manage. If we were five years younger I'd say wait another year, but we're both forty now. We don't have time to wait. And you don't want Charlotte to be an only child, and I want a kid with Maura DNA. So we're going to do this, and we will rise to the challenge, because we've managed so much worse."

"You're right," said Maura, gently pouring warm water over Charlotte's icing-streaked hair. "We should be able to handle anything by now. And you want a little brother or sister, don't you, Charlotte?"

Charlotte looked at her uncertainly. "Bo," she said, holding up her boat.

"Yes, that is a boat," Maura agreed, pleased with how quickly her daughter's vocabulary was expanding.

"I'm not sure what the message is there," Jane chuckled.

"Okay, I need to wash her hair. Are you ready?"

"I've got this." Jane picked up a little bubble kit Charlotte had gotten for her birthday. "Hey, Charlie. Watch this!" She began blowing bubbles in Charlotte's direction.

"Oooo!" exclaimed Charlotte, reaching for the bubbles while Maura hastily squeezed baby shampoo onto her head and began working it through unruly curls.

"You popped it!" said Jane. "Look, here come some more." She blew more bubbles and Charlotte eagerly popped them as Maura made sure she got out every last bit of icing.

"Pop!" Charlotte yelled excitedly.

"Pop! That's right!" Jane encouraged her, blowing more bubbles. "You pick up fast!"

"She's so smart," Maura murmured contentedly, rinsing the shampoo back out of Charlotte's hair. This took as much concentration as making an incision during an autopsy. One false move, on her part or Charlotte's, and there would be shampoo in the baby's eyes. "There," Maura announced triumphantly when all the suds were gone. "We have a clean baby!"

"All right! Good job, Doctor!" Jane high-fived her.

"We still make an excellent team," Maura said, grinning. She grabbed a hooded towel and lifted Charlotte out of the tub.

"Pop!" Charlotte yelled, pointing at the bubble wand in Jane's hand. Jane resumed blowing bubbles while Maura dried Charlotte off.

"I'm sort of dreading going to work Monday and doing the autopsy on that victim Frankie was talking about."

Jane looked up. "Yeah, I heard him. It sounded like a rough one."

Maura nodded, wrestling Charlotte into a clean diaper and pajamas while the toddler continued popping bubbles. "She was found nude, so there's a good chance…" she trailed off, knowing Jane got the point and not wanting to say the words in front of Charlotte. "I always find those cases a bit triggering. I try to look at it professionally, the way I used to, but I can't anymore. It throws me off for the rest of the day."

"You could always have Kent do the autopsy."

"I could, but then I think I'd feel even worse. The thing is, it happens, much too often, and I can't change that by avoiding these cases. I can help put away the people who do it, though."

"That's always the most satisfying part."

"Yes. And I think the feeling I get when I know I've helped prevent the perpetrator from doing the same thing to anyone else outweighs the bad feeling I get from having to do the autopsy."

"That's a good way of looking at it. I think there's a sort of poetic justice to you catching, you know, that kind of bad guy."

"Mommy!" whined Charlotte, her arms up. Maura picked her up and carried her into the nursery, settling into the glider to breastfeed her.

"Do you thinking we did the right thing, bringing her into a world where that sort of thing happens?" Maura asked, cradling Charlotte in her arms.

"Well." Jane perched on the arm of the glider, putting one arm around Maura while running her fingers through Charlotte's damp curls. "We also brought her into a world where this sort of thing happens."