A/N: This is from a prompt I saw somewhere, probably tumblr, where Maura and Jane are waiting until week twelve to tell people about their baby, so if anyone can tell me who posted it I'll be happy to give credit where credit is due, because it was really fun to write.

"Shit Maura, again?!" Doctor Maura Isles heaved in a shallow wheezing breath, her eyes wide and bright with both indignation and panic as she watched her wife hurriedly toe off her boots, hang up her jacket and make her way over to the couch with slightly less enthusiasm than the previous night. And the night before that. And… Well, you get the picture.

Jane couldn't help the silly little grin that worked its way onto her exhausted, haggard face as she accepted the bottle of lotion Maura handed her with a pained sense of urgency. Even when succumbing to a serious case of hives, Maura Isles never ceased to be adorably endearing and achingly beautiful to the Detective.

"Alright, awwright," The lanky Detective drawled calmly, squeezing a healthy amount of the cool balm onto the pads of her fingers before swiftly drawing her wife's wavy tresses to one side and exposing the bright patches of blotchy red skin on an otherwise unblemished neck. Rizzoli rolled her eyes, just once, as Maura kicked her skin to hurry her movements. The soothing lotion made its way onto a slender neck as Jane's dextrous, powerful fingers made short work of the affected area. It wasn't merely the lotion that soothed the Doctor. She was perfectly capable of applying said lotion herself, but there was something so comforting about having Jane perform what was fast becoming a nightly ritual when they returned home from work.

As the balm settled on Maura's skin, Jane slowed her movements and smoothly brought her other hand to cup her wife's cheek, drawing her into a languid kiss that stilled the Doctor's racing heart before setting it going again at even more frantic pace. "Who was the culprit this time?" Jane smirked, wiping her hand off on her pants, earning a glare. She shrugged amicably and waited for the inevitable reply.

And it came in the form of a very cute whine from the back of Maura's throat, eliciting another toothy grin from the tired Detective, "Your Mother Jane! She brought up the 'forbidden topic'" Maura used her fingers to air quote the term for emphasis, "As you dubbed it, and I had to pacify her with some absolutely preposterous vague insinuation that you and I were 'somewhat in that frame of mind…' How ridiculous does that make me sound Jane? Couple that with the fact I had to claim that Susie had just informed me that the tox reports were in via text and practically run out of the café and…" The harassed Doctor gestured vaguely at her neck, pouting, and sighed, "This is the result."

Jane just smiled. Unable to do or say anything else, she just smiled at her wife for a long time until Maura returned it with her own dimpled version of the same grin. Jane lifted her hand and pressed it flat against her wife's abdomen. She gazed into bottomless hazel orbs and said, "By week twelve, we'll be able to tell everyone that there's a little life growing inside of you. Our baby…" Maura mouthed the words back almost dazedly, eyes twinkling, "And this will all be worth it."

Maura wiped an errant tear and leaned forward, capturing her wife's waiting lips with her own before whispering, "This was always worth it Jane. Always."