A/N: I apologize that this chapter is shorter than the last few. I'll make it up to you all in the next one :) Thanks again for the support.
"Do you think your mother hates me?" Maura questioned as she paced in front of the fire place in her parents library.
Jane watched as the glow of the flames danced across her wife's face. Taken aback, yet again, at her beauty.
The two had just finished dinner with Maura's parents, Constance and Henry, Angela, Frost, Frankie, Tommy, TJ and Korsak. Once again, the Isles graciously offered to host the crew at their Boston home and Angela offered to cook. They were all gathered at the request of Jane and Maura and the promise of an important announcement. Somehow the two had managed to keep the sex of their baby a secret for three weeks, but Maura found herself on the verge of breaking out in hives if Angela asked her one more time.
Somewhere between salad and gnocchi, Jane announced that they were having a baby girl. The men all smiled, patted her back, offered congratulations and continued devouring Angela's cooking. Constance looked at Maura with tears in her eyes and squeezed her daughter's hand across the table. A thought of hope rushing through her mind, oh please let her be better than I was. Love that baby like I should've loved you. But that was a conversation she would save for another day. This moment was to be celebrated, not brought down by regrets of her own parenting skills. No, that was a conversation that could wait.
If only Angela shared Constance's self control.
After squealing her delight, Angela went on a tangent of all the things she was going to do for her future granddaughter. Knit pink blankets and little slippers with bows, buy frilly dresses and dolls and tea sets. She proclaimed her desire to go shopping with Maura to pick out paint colors and to help design the nursery. She went on and on about how she would finally have the chance to have a girly-girl "daughter" that she never had with Jane. A granddaughter to take shopping and to ballet classes and…
Maura felt bile rise in her throat.
"NO PINK!" Maura screamed.
The table fell silent and all eyes were on the medical examiner. Angela was stunned into silence, a look of confusion on her face. Jane's jaw was on the floor. Korsak was trying not laugh.
Ironically, a deep shade of pink quickly flushed Maura's skin as she realized she had said that out loud. She felt Jane's hand grip her thigh under the table.
Maura looked at all the faces staring back at her before returning her gaze to face the Rizzoli matriarch. "I—I'm sorry. I didn't mean to have such an outburst, it's just…" she took a breath, "I don't want any pink. Not a lot, anyway. I don't want our baby to come into this world with such silly gender labels thrust upon her. She'll face enough of that when she starts school. I want her to have options. Blue and pink, dolls and action figures, ballet and football, science and art… I, want her to form her own preferences. And that doesn't mean she won't end up loving pink and fashion and ballet, but I don't want to push it on her—I'm sorry."
Jane Rizzoli fell deeper in love.
"Oh my god, Jane, she does, doesn't she?" Maura said in response to Jane's silence. Her voice in a panic as her pacing quickened.
Pulled from her thoughts, Jane immediately stood up her spot on the couch and made her way over to where Maura was fidgeting. She reached out her hands to steady Maura and stop her from pacing.
"Maura, honey, calm down, okay? Come on," she said as she pulled Maura over to the sofa and gently pushed down on Maura's shoulders to get her to lay back against the armrest. Jane joined her and reached over to grab Maura's legs and rest them on her lap.
"You think she hates you for expressing your opinion on how you want to raise your baby?"
"Our baby," Maura corrected, "And yes! You saw her face, she looked absolutely mortified! It's like I crushed her dreams. I don't want her to hate me, Jane!" Her heart rate began to pick up again. "And oh my god I didn't ask you! I'm such a hypocrite! There I was going on and on about how I want to raise our daughter without even talking to you about how you'd like to raise her!"
"Calm down," Jane moved her hands from Maura's calves to her feet, working her thumbs to massage her swollen feet, "First of all, my mother does not hate you; she absolutely adores you; she loves you. You are the daughter she never had. She can get her girly fix with you, she doesn't need to force it on our baby. I mean, come on Maur, have you met me and my brothers? We've put that women through a lot worse." Jane laughed as she continued to knead Maura's feet, "And secondly, I think the way you described raising our daughter sounds perfect and I agree with you 100%. Although, if our daughter doesn't turn out to be a Red Sox fan, we're going to have a problem."
Maura laughed, amazed at her wife's ability to calm her down and build her up. As someone who always had something to say, she often found herself speechless in these moments when Jane surprised her with compassion and understanding and pure love. She would never tire of this life.
"And besides, I talked to her after dinner. She was just surprised at the outburst; it was very unexpected, but she's not mad at you, so stop worrying about it."
"Jane! Why didn't you just tell me that right away?!"
"Because I know you, you needed to get all that out. It's your way of processing."
"You're too good for me." Maura smiled, closing her eyes as Jane moved to hover over her.
"I could say the same thing about you," Jane whispered as she lowered her head down to kiss Maura on the lips. Maura started laughing.
Sitting back again and pulling Maura up into her lap, Jane asked, "What's so funny?"
"I was just thinking of the last time we were here. In this room, I mean."
"Thanksgiving?"
"Yes. After we told everyone that we were pregnant and you found me in here. And we both questioned how we got so lucky."
"And then we ate pie and I licked whipped cream off of you?" Jane smirked.
"And you ripped my shirt off? And if my memory serves me correctly, you had me in this same position; conveniently straddling you, giving you perfect view of your favorite assets," Maura whispered as she reached behind her to lower the zipper of her dress, slipping it off of her shoulders until it pooled at her waist.
"And if my memory serves me correctly, I did this," Jane growled as she moved her hands to Maura's backside and gave a squeeze while pulling Maura closer to her. And just like on Thanksgiving, Maura gasped at the feeling.
"And this," Jane's left hand found it's way to rest on Maura's upper back, pushing lightly until her breasts were almost touching Jane's lips. Jane blew lightly at the skin and watched goosebumps form on Maura's cleavage before lowering her mouth on a bra-covered nipple, feeling it harden immediately.
Maura's eyes closed and her head fell back. "Mmm."
Jane continued upward, kissing each inch of exposed skin until she reached Maura's mouth and whispered, "And then," she stood up and Maura instinctively wrapped her legs around Jane's waist, which was becoming harder to do now with the belly between them. Maura couldn't believe that Jane could still pick her up without showing any signs of struggle. Jane lead them out of the library and down the hall to Maura's childhood room, "I laid you down on the bed," which she did, "and made love to you all night." Jane slowly pulled the rest of Maura's dress off before stepping out of her own clothes.
Jane was moving painfully slow, much too slow for Maura. She usually enjoyed the slower pace Jane set, wanting to pay attention to every part of Maura's body, but tonight, she wanted something different.
"You better do it hard, fast and rough, Jane," Maura said in a whimper, "We have an early flight to catch."
"Then you better do your best to keep quiet, because once again, your parents are down the hall. And if I remember correctly, last time you had quite a difficult time staying quiet. I don't know if we've ever done hard, fast and rough without screaming and bed creaking." Jane grinned as she settled herself above Maura.
Maura reached blindly to her side until she found a pillow and held it over her face, preparing herself to muffle the sound.
Jane laughed.
So, hard, fast and rough it was.
"Shhhhh."