Four years old

As her fingertips brushed Jane's cheek, Maura echoed her partner's smile and passed a leg between the brunette's suggestively. She loved these mornings when none of them had to get up and leave for work, when they could take their time in bed to enjoy each other's arms under the warmth of the blanket. In a stifled – soft – laugh, the honey blonde bent over to capture the detective's lips in a kiss. Sliding a hand on Jane's nape, she rolled over and passed on top of her partner whose firm grip on her waist elicited a smile on her lips.

In a fluid movement – the ones that belong to old habits – Maura's knees pushed Jane's legs aside until the contact between their respective bodies satisfied her enough and she began to rub herself in a slow motion against the detective. Focused on their deep – sensual kisses – the scientist slid a hand between their legs and with a sweet authority pressed her partner's core as Jane's caresses reached her buttocks.

"Why are you moaning?"

The high-pitched voice made them jump of surprise. Within a second, Maura let go of Jane and settled in bed next to her partner; staring intently at the four-year-old little girl who was standing next to them by the scientist's bed side table.

"Were you hurting mom?"

Obviously confused before the scene, Aly frowned and looked at Maura in disbelief. As Jane giggled in her back, the honey blonde dug her elbow in her partner's sides to make her stop before smiling warmly at their daughter.

"I wasn't, honey. We were... Cuddling."

Glad to have not pushed away the blanket in their morning activities, Maura approached the edge of the bed and took the little girl in her arms to settle her in bed between Jane and her but the frown on Aly's forehead only highlighted the idea that the medical examiner's answer wasn't satisfying enough.

Looking at Jane – full of incomprehension – the little brunette shook her head; shrugged.

"I don't moan when I cuddle. You're weird."

…

Now

Leaned against the window of the car, Jane looked absentmindedly at the landscape speeding past; the buildings and the streets of Boston she knew by heart. It was a typical Sunday afternoon of November, with a gray – heavy – sky bringing a dark light to the city. The chilly air of winter sliding down one's spine in an icy embrace.

As the car stopped at a red light, the brunette cast a glance at Maura. As usual, the scientist was focused on the road; hands on the steering wheel. But the thin line on her forehead caught the detective's attention immediately. Moving nervously on her seat - frowning - Jane cleared her voice and rolled her eyes.

"Okay... What have I done?"

The question took Maura completely aback. Astounded, she turned her head around and looked at her partner as if she had lost her mind. The car behind theirs honked and mumbling a swearing word against the driver, the honey blonde passed in first gear to drive away.

"Have you been suffering from a sentiment of persecution, lately? I haven't noticed any dysfunction of your reasoning though. But your question was slightly paranoid. You haven't done anything... Why are you asking me such a thing?"

Jane snorted. After all these years, she still had a hard time recognizing that Maura's way to build her sentences charmed her. A lot. Mainly because it was the strangest thing she had ever faced in anybody.

"You haven't said a word since we left Tommy and Lydia's house twenty-five minutes ago. And truth to be told, you look tensed. So if it's not me then what is it?"

The scientist sighed. For once, she wouldn't have minded her phone – or Jane's - to ring and take her to a crime scene that would avoid her such conversation but as she entered the neighborhood of Beacon Hill, not a single ring tone came to disturb the silence reigning over the car.

"Your seventeen-year-old nephew is sexually active. Your daughter will turn sixteen in a few months. Do I really need to add more?"

For long seconds, Jane didn't say a word and stared blankly at an invisible point in front of her; slightly in distress before the mysterious reason why she had asked Maura anything in the first place.

TJ had been dating Melissa for quite a while, now. And if it hadn't bothered her – nor Maura by then – to learn that the young girl had spent the night at Tommy's, the correlation with Aly seemed to spread another kind of feeling on her. A heavy weight of discomfort on her shoulders. The scientist parked the car – stepped out of it – and headed straight to the front door of their house.

"In a year. She will turn sixteen in a year. And... It's a big difference. It has nothing to do at all."

Not buying it the slightest bit, Maura rolled her eyes at the brunette and entered the house. Without a word, she discarded her bag on the floor and stepped out of her stilettos. A pale smile appeared on her lips as Jane wrapped her arms around her waist from behind and planted a kiss on her neck.

"How about I brew some tea?"

The medical examiner nodded at her sweet partner's offer and watched how Jane headed straight to the kitchen to grab two mugs and a couple of organic tea bags.

In silence, she took the stairs up to the first floor then went down the hallway until she reached the door of Aly's bedroom. The teenager was spending the weekend at Lucy's; her best friend since kindergarten. A sweet girl that Maura and Jane had welcomed into their life with pleasure.

What if the girl were not as candid as she seemed?

Sweeping such shameful thought away, Maura entered the room; looked around. There wasn't much left from the nursery she and Jane had prepared once. If Aly had kept all the walls white, the rest had been replaced over the years, little by little: makeup had substituted to dolls, pictures of nights out with friends to Naive drawings.

Just the typical - classic - evolution from childhood to adolescence.

Disarmed and nostalgic, the honey blonde sat on the edge of the bed then sighed loudly. Where had all these years gone to?

"Sneaking around?"

Mugs in hand – a smirk playing on her lips – Jane stepped in and settled next to her partner before her eyes to focus on a few CDs abandoned on the floor: Led Zeppelin and Nirvana. At least, they had not failed completely in the education of their daughter.

"You are the one who spy on her, not me."

The brunette scoffed but preferred to hide herself behind her tea as Maura's amused eyes landed on her and she accepted the mug Jane tended her.

"I don't spy. I only get informed without Aly to necessarily know about it and that's really different."

A laugh slid on the medical examiner's lips. In a gesture of tenderness – looking for comfort – she went and leaned her head against her partner's shoulder; relaxing as soon as she felt Jane's arm on her waist. For a long moment, none of them talked as if lost in their respective thoughts; lost in the softness of a quiet Sunday afternoon spent at home.

"Do you remember when she used to walk in on us, in bed?"

Uncertain of where Maura wanted to really go with such question, Jane nodded slowly as the reminiscence embraced her quietly.

As much as they kept on teaching the notion of privacy to their daughter, Aly never kept such lesson in mind and on several occasions the little girl she was by then had interrupted them rather abruptly.

"Well... You'll see that now the situation will get reversed and we will be the ones walking in on her."

A mock of sheer disgust spread on Jane's face. Swallowing hard, she turned her head around to stare at a quite amused scientist.

"Maura!"