"I think it looks pretty good so far," Jane said, surveying the nursery from the doorway. It had taken a few weeks, but they finally had the room furnished and more or less decorated. They had settled on a Beatrix Potter theme, as it was something Jane and Maura could both remember liking when they were small, and it was gender-neutral and therefore reusable regardless of who the next kid ended up being. They didn't have the small stuff yet, like clothes and blankets and toys, but they had solid wood furniture with hand-painted Peter Cottontail and friends cavorting around on it. There was an empty bookcase, a wardrobe to put the baby's clothes in since the former yoga room's closet was still full of Maura's clothes (a problem, but not one they were likely to fix without moving), a French changer, a hamper, and a child-sized rocker and play table with four little chairs. It would be a while before the kid could use those last things, but they were part of the set, so they went ahead and got them. And in the middle of it all was the piece that truly drove home how real this was: the crib.

"I think it looks perfect," Maura sighed happily, leaning her head on Jane's shoulder. Jane pulled her closer. Several weeks had passed in relative peace since her kidnapping. The stalker had yet to be identified, which Jane was very anxious about, but at least he hadn't made any more moves. Maura was starting to sleep a little better, with fewer nightmares, and Jane was trying to actually stay in bed at night instead of getting up to make sure the world was safe for her family.

Maura had reached a point in the pregnancy where she seemed a little bigger every day, and Jane thought she was only getting more beautiful. She was still quite horny, insisting that orgasms were good for her uterus, and she had gotten obsessed with getting the house ready for the baby. And, just last week, Jane had felt the baby kick for the first time. Now Maura would tell her when she felt the baby kicking so Jane could run over and try to feel it too, and for just a few minutes, Jane would forget about the ongoing threat. This was her favorite part of the pregnancy so far. Maura looked amazing and felt good, they had lots of sex, and Jane could enjoy the baby now too. She almost wanted to pause life right here.

"We should do something nice for your mother, to thank her for helping us with all this," Maura suggested.

"Are you kidding? She should be thanking us! We're giving her exactly what she wants more than anything in the world: another grandchild to dote on."

Maura smiled. "Our baby is lucky to have such a loving, involved grandmother."

"Yeah, she is," Jane admitted.

"Speaking of grandparents," Maura asked hesitantly, "when was the last time you talked to your father?"

"Not since before you got pregnant," Jane admitted. Her father only seemed to call when he needed something, and as much as she missed him, she dreaded calling him. She had first told him about Maura when he made a surprise visit to Boston upon learning he had cancer, after going nearly a year without contacting his family. In that time, Maura had upgraded from best friend to girlfriend and then fiancée. There had been a very awkward family dinner, at which Frank Sr. had ruthlessly criticized his two sons, and Jane had taken the heat off of them by announcing to her father that she was engaged—to Maura. He reacted very badly, somehow finding a way to blame Angela for their daughter's wayward behavior, and a very loud fight had ensued. He later apologized and agreed to come to the wedding, but it felt more like an effort to prove Angela wasn't the better parent than actual support.

"He would probably like to know he's going to have a granddaughter," Maura suggested gently.

"Maybe. The last time I talked to him, he called you my friend." She cringed at the memory.

She's my wife, Pop.

That's actually what you call her?

You were there when I married her. I took her as my "lawfully wedded wife."

So what does that make you? Are you supposed to be the man?

No, Pop. I'm her wife. There isn't a man. That's the point.

The point is that you hate men now?

No, I'm just attracted to women. To Maura. That doesn't change the fact that I am a woman.

He had suggested that his leaving the family had turned her against men, and she had been very reluctant to call him since that conversation.

"I know he still doesn't approve of me, and he probably won't like that you're having a baby with me," admitted Maura. "But it'll come out sooner or later. He might take it better if you told him yourself."

"I don't know if I want him that involved anyway."

"Why not?"

"He'll accept her as his grandchild because she's his flesh and blood. But what about the next one? If it's not blood-related to him, he won't acknowledge it. Just the older one. That's not fair to the younger child."

"That's true," Maura agreed. "When my grandparents were alive, they made it clear that they did not consider me to be related to them. At Christmas they would give lovely presents to my cousins and just little trinkets to me. I felt very left out. We stopped spending Christmas with them."

Jane wished Maura's grandparents were still alive so she could have words with them, just as she'd had words in the past with Constance. And Arthur. And Hope. And Paddy. And Patrick Sr. Sometimes she felt like she was on a mission to create the world Maura deserved, since it wasn't already there.

"I don't even think it's healthy for this one to spend too much time around a man who doesn't understand why her mommies are married," Jane said, affectionately stroking Maura's belly. "I'll still tell him about the pregnancy, though. It would be awkward if he found out from someone else."

Maura gave Jane a reassuring kiss. "I left my Tums downstairs."

Jane laughed. Maura had been having terrible heartburn lately, and she had taken to carrying a bottle of Tums around with her. She even brought them to bed with her at night, so Jane was getting used to hearing crunching around the clock. She took one last look at the nursery before turning the light off and following Maura downstairs.

After Maura had crunched down some more Tums, she got a slice of pumpkin bread (Angela was baking like crazy to make sure her pregnant daughter-in-law didn't go hungry) and stretched out on the couch. Jane thought she looked absolutely perfect, reclining there with her now-obvious belly, eating her pumpkin bread with a fork because she was that refined. It was late fall, the kind of weather that made you want to just cuddle up in front of a fire with the love of your life.

"I'm going to build a fire," Jane said decisively.

"Good idea!" said Maura. "Could you light the candles too?"

"You and your mood lighting," Jane chuckled. She got a fire going in the hearth, lit the candles Maura kept scattered about the living room, turned out the lights, and got her own piece of pumpkin bread. Then she parked herself on the couch and let Maura put her feet in her lap.

"The baby's awake," Maura noted, setting aside her empty plate. "She's kicking like crazy."

"Let me feel." Jane crammed the rest of her bread into her mouth and put both hands on Maura's stomach. Maura moved her hand to the right spot and Jane was able to feel a few light taps before it stopped.

"It's like she quits when she finds out I'm here," Jane complained, although she was smiling.

"Maybe she's listening," Maura suggested. "She should be able to hear outside sounds now. You should start talking to her so she can learn to recognize your voice."

"I can do that." Jane curled onto her side, putting her face level with Maura's belly. "Hey baby girl," she said. "This is your other mommy. There's actually two of us, and we both love you like crazy, so you're a very lucky little girl." Maura smiled. "Since you need to hear my voice, I'm going to tell you a story. A very important story. "This is the story—" she paused, grinning up at Maura— "of how I met your mother."

Maura giggled. "This should be good."

"The first time I met your mother, I didn't know who she was. I was working undercover as a prostitute, which is a word you hopefully won't know the meaning of for a very long time. Your mommy in those days took absolutely everything literally, so she thought I was really a hooker. Naturally, she tried to pick me up."

"I did not!"

"Yeah you did. You tried to pay for my breakfast. You were totally hitting on me."

"I was just trying to be nice."

"Really? How many strangers have you purchased breakfast for?"

"None, since you wouldn't take my money."

Jane grinned. "You thought I was hot."

Maura blushed. "You did have on a mini skirt, and you have such long legs…"

"I knew it!" Jane turned back to the baby. "Your mommy tried to be nice to me, but I was rude to her, because I was a little bit of a grouch back then. I didn't realize I had just made the most important connection of my whole life. I didn't see her again until a year or so later, when I became a homicide detective. I know you shouldn't be happy when someone gets murdered, but I was so excited about my first case. I decided to go watch the autopsy, see how that worked. I went down to introduce myself to the new chief medical examiner, and there was your mommy doing her favorite thing in the whole world: cutting up a dead body."

Maura laughed. "Please don't tell her that when she's old enough to understand."

"Nah, I'll let you explain your career. Is she kicking?"

"She kicks when you stop talking. I think she's listening to you."

"Aww, she likes the story." Jane planted a kiss on Maura's belly. "Anyway, when I saw your mommy I thought she was very pretty, and I knew I'd seen her before, but I couldn't think of when. She, on the other hand, immediately recognized me as the sexy hooker she tried to pick up once, and she was very embarrassed because she could see that I was a cop. So she turned all red and started apologizing, saying she should have realized I was undercover, and then I knew when I'd seen her before. So I started laughing, and then she laughed too, and I apologized for being rude before, and then I knew we were going to be friends."

"You were so interested in my autopsy," Maura remembered. "I was quite impressed, because most cops only care about the results."

"I found the process interesting. But the chief medical examiner was downright fascinating."

Maura grinned.

"I wasn't planning on watching all of the autopsies at first, but I ended up going down there whenever I could because I just couldn't get enough of your mommy. She was so smart and so nice and so weird, but in a good way. And it didn't hurt that she was stunning, but I kept telling myself that had nothing to do with it.

"I spent a lot of time with your mommy at work, and I started inviting her to the Dirty Robber with me and the other cops after work. Soon we became best friends, but we didn't really do anything outside of work until one night when something scary happened, and I went to spend the night at Mommy's apartment so I could feel safe. Then she hit on me again."

"I didn't!"

"She says she didn't, but as I remember it, she just kind of snuggled right up to me in bed. I think she wanted me. So after that night, we started doing stuff together, like going out to eat, going to movies, and whatever your mommy felt like doing because I was really just putty in her hands. She even got me to run a marathon with her, and then I knew it was love, because I hate running. But training for a marathon meant spending lots of time with your mommy, and that was all I cared about.

"I didn't think your mommy would ever love me back, though. So I tried to find someone else, to keep from ruining our friendship by feeling things I wasn't supposed to feel, but it never worked. No matter who I dated, your mommy was still the one I loved. I loved her so much I would have died for her if I had to, and the day did come when I had to kill for her. One night, your mommy was sad because she felt like no one loved her, and for the first time, I wondered if it might actually make her happy to know I was in love with her. So I told her, and I kissed her, and it did make her happy. And ever since then we've been together, and she even agreed to marry me. And then we decided to have you." She looked up at Maura and saw tears on her face. "What's wrong?"

"Did you really come to the autopsies mainly to see me?"

"Well, yeah. Dead bodies are interesting, but they're not that interesting."

"And you ran the marathon just to spend time with me?"

"I honestly didn't have any other motivation. I even ran with the word "P.U.K.E." on my chest, just because you're so damn cute."

"I never knew."

"I didn't want you to know, at the time. I thought you'd be upset." She climbed up next to Maura, wedging herself in the narrow space between the pregnant woman and the back of the couch. "You don't need to cry about it. I told you before I've loved you just about as long as I've known you, and I will love you for the rest of my life, because you're just that amazing."

"For the longest time I thought you'd get sick of me, but you never did."

"I never will." Jane kissed Maura slowly, tenderly. "The more I get of you, beautiful lady, the more I want." She gently wiped Maura's tears away.

"I will admit I'm a little disappointed you didn't actually care about the science, though."

"I did. You made me care."

Maura's eyes met Jane's. "I spent most of my life feeling like no one would ever love me for being who I am. Thank you for changing that."

Jane put a protective arm around Maura, trying to control her outrage at the injustice of the situation. How had Maura ever been allowed to feel like that? Why was it so hard for most people to see how incredible she was? "I'll never let you feel like that again, sweet girl," she said quietly. "That much I can promise."