Thanks to everyone for reviewing/following/favouriting, you're all amazing.

Once again, written at some stupid hour in the morning. I apologise.

Dear Ts - I'm sorry :P She'll get nicer, honest!

Would you believe it.. I still own absolutely sod all.

Jane, Frost and Korsak sat at their respective desks, all slumped in their seats. This case was driving them insane, every lead they followed up on seemed to be a dead end. They had been working on it for three days and so far, they had very little to go on. No one had spoken in the room for at least twenty minutes, until Korsak decided to break the silence.

'Jane, how's Maura?'

'Fat.'

'That's a lovely way to talk about your best friend. Don't let her catch you saying that.'

'I won't. I called her Tubby the other day, I nearly lost a finger.'

'So she's not in the best mood?'

'Not really. I've never seen her like this before, she's spent most of last couple of weeks on the sofa eating cereal with gravy.'

'That's disgusting.'

'I've learnt not to criticise her cravings. If she wants it, she gets it. I think she's just fed up now, that's all. Once the babies are born, she'll be absolutely fine. But if she goes all weepy on me after the birth, I'm emigrating.'

'It must be hard or her, knowing that she has to give the babies up.'

'Well, she knows they're going to a good home. And she'll still get to see them. Can we get back to the case?'

'Yeah, sure. At least we've ruled out the spouse.'

'So if it wasn't Mrs Emmerson.. Well, somebody else had to have been in the basement with him..'

'Professor Plum with a spanner.'

'Real funny, Korsak. I'd keep that one for here, not for when we talk to his nine year old son.'

Korsak fell silent and Jane made to carry on but the click of heels made her stop.

'Crap, she's coming. Hide!'

'Huh?' Frost frowned.

Maura had been in an awful mood for the past few days. Now that she was 38 weeks, only 2 weeks away from the end, her mood swings had increased dramatically. The last time that Jane had gone down to autopsy, Maura had screamed her out of the room. So she was surprised to see a smile on Maura's face as she approached.

'Hey Jane.'

'Maura, hey. How you doing?'

'I'm good. Well, I've peed seventeen times in the last ten hours, these two have been kicking me like mad all day, I'm hot, sticky, my feet are killing me, and I'm sick of waddling around like a damn penguin but yeah, I'm good.'

'As long as you're okay. You fancy going out for dinner tonight? Ma called, she wants to treat us.'

'That's very nice of her. Do you mind if we stay here for a few minutes? I need to sit down.'

'Yeah, of course. Frost, move your ass.'

Frost opened his mouth to argue but one look into Jane's eyes told him that was a bad idea.

'Of course. Here, Doctor Isles. Have a seat.'

Maura smiled and sat down, leaning on the desk to help her. ''Thank you, Detective Frost.'

'No problem.'

'So, Doc.. You think you're going to miss being pregnant?'

Maura raised her eyebrows and shot Korsak a look that made him shrink into his seat. 'Are you kidding me? I've spent nearly nine months feeling nauseous, randomly bursting into tears, having hot flushes and urinating like I've got Niagara Falls in my bladder. My ankles are about twice the size they normally are, my back, breasts and hips ache and I want to sleep all the time. And worst of all, I've turned into a complete and utter slob. I don't tidy up after myself apart from the cleaning phase I had, I eat like a pig and I can't even be bothered to dry my hair properly after I shower. God, I've turned into Jane..'

Jane glared whilst the two men laughed.

'I wonder if Jane would turn into you if she was pregnant.' Korsak commented, patting Jane on the shoulder.

'God, no. You think I'd turn into an obsessively neat, overly precocious-'

'I don't think you ought to finish that sentence, Jane, not if you want to be alive when Maura gives birth.'

'I'm not sure I want to be there anyway, not if she's going to be this bitchy.'

'Funny.'

'I thought it was.'

Frost grinned. 'As long as Korsak isn't with her. He'd be trying to play Doctor Doolittle. She'd end up having piglets.'

All four of them burst out laughing, even Maura. All the stress they had been under suddenly melted away as they shared the laughter. It was only broken by Maura's mobile ringing.

'Here, I'll get it.' Jane offered, wiping away a tear of laughter as Maura pulled the phone out of her bag. 'You're not making a lot of sense at the moment.'

Maura rolled her eyes but passed the phone over. 'Don't embarrass me.'

'Hello?' Jane said quickly, a cheeky smile still on her face. 'One second, please. Maura, it's for you.'

'Of course it is, it's my phone.' Still giggling, Maura took the mobile. 'Doctor Maura Isles.'

Jane, Frost and Korsak watched as Maura's radiant smiled vanished, replaced by a look of shock and pain. She said nothing more than the occasional 'yeah', or 'okay' until she put the phone back in her pocket. When she turned back to face Jane, there were tears in her eyes.

'Maura.. Oh my God, what's wrong?'

'I.. They.. That was the hospital.. Cassie and James were in a car accident..'

'Oh my.. Well, are they okay?'

Maura shook her head, her voice catching in her throat. 'James died on impact.. They took Cass in but she was really hurt and..' Maura's voice trailed off and a tear fell from her eye. One tear became several, too quickly for her to stop them.

'Oh sweetie.. It's okay, come here..' Jane reached out and pulled Maura into a tight hug. 'I'm so sorry..'

Frost and Korsak fell silent, simply watching the sobbing woman as she clung to Jane like a child. They stayed there for several minutes until Maura pulled away sharply and doubled over in pain.

'No.. No, not yet.. It's too early.'

'Maura, what is it?'

'The.. The baby..' Maura managed to reply, her voice still thick with tears. 'I think it's time..'

'What?!' Jane's voice rose an octave. 'How do you know?'

All four of them looked down as a gush of clear liquid began to stream down Maura's bare legs and onto the floor.

'Crap..'